#this poll inspired by my efforts to try to sit down and work on original fiction again

[demonslayedher]

Links, why started, and why abandoned:

Rengoku+Akaza Sitcom: It was very silly and rereading it still makes me laugh. I've had passing ideas here and there and have made two separate attempts to continue it, but I haven't captured the same flow. Kyojuro's efforts to get me fired as the lead writer and keep this sitcom canceled have so far panned out.

Low-Key Married AU: When I look at the notes sometimes I am like, "wow, this must be my most popular AU, but it is such a mess and I feel so bad for people trying to follow it." I got as far as The Nezuko Incident, but it was already super long, and rather than being engaging it felt more like it was just trying to give chronology to this AU. ZenNezu Angst (no link): I was in such an indulgent, angsty mood when I wrote it, and I wrote myself into an angsty hole. It was whump with an intended happy ending but by the time I went back to it I was not in as whumpy of a mood and I had forgotten how I was going to build up to the intended happy ending and found it meh. Also, I am embarrassed by how whumpy it is and even considered publishing under a different name.

Raw Sword Production: I want so badly for the fandom to appreciate the intricacies of Japanese sword production, which is why I put it into fiction format in the first place with Teppi being the vehicle through which readers can learn a complicated but fascinating process. I wound up learning a lot more since publishing that, and wanted to fix some details, as well as make it clearer with more illustrations, and add on the full process of smithing (instead of glossing over it in the conclusion and focusing most of the smelting). Got to about the point of polishing (one of the last steps), felt overwhelmed by the amount of illustration it would benefit from to be clear, and lost confidence feeling that even with all that effort, there probably would not be many people who read all the way to the end. Filler Arc w/ Character Beats: I still really like the ideas, have had ideas for how to expand it to a proper flow and make a solid story out of it, it had a very cute start, but I lost steam. I want Ufotable to make it instead and just let me direct. EDIT: So far it doesn't seem this one is going to win the poll, so I reread what 5577 words I had, and gosh dang it, it was cute. So I have posted it.

Again, zero promises of any of these projects getting more attention, even if they win the poll. But knowing what people would enjoy reading might provide more inspiration. EDIT: Guys, if you want "other," ya gotta tell me which one! Also, if you want more than one, feel free to say so too. Again, the point is to see if I can work up the inspiration to finish. If.

[mariemary1]

How HIKI Shifted Their Social Media Marketing Launch Strategy During COVID-19

HIKI, a newly launched genderless full body sweat brand, was set to reveal their DTC brand in March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was in full swing. Despite the pandemic, HIKI decided to push forward with the launch by shifting its social media marketing launch strategy to suit the times we were living in. But how did they manage to do so?

Read on for a behind-the-scenes look at how HIKI shifted their social media marketing strategy for a COVID-19 era and how they leaned on their community to co-create their products. You'll hear directly from Tinah Ogalo, Social Media Coordinator at HIKI, and you'll learn:

Where to find inspiration for creating social media content for a Gen-Z/millennial audience

How to leverage your community to inform your marketing strategy (and to create TikTok content)

How to plan for a successful new brand or product launch on social media

How to stay up to date on social media trends and updates

This post is part of the #BufferBrandSpotlight, a Buffer Social Media series that shines a spotlight on the people that are helping build remarkable brands through social media, community building, content creation, and brand storytelling.

This series was born on Instagram stories, which means you can watch the original interview in our Highlights found on our @buffer Instagram profile.

Who are you?

Hi, I'm Tina w/ an H. I’m the social media coordinator for arfa, a new consumer goods brand house specialising in personal care products. We co-create every product with real people from all over the country (we call them the arfa Collective) because we believe people should have a say in what they put on their bodies. And in return, we make them stakeholders in the business and give them 5% of profits. We currently have two brands that we launched this summer: HIKI, a genderless full body sweat line, and State Of, a skincare and beauty line for menopausal women.

Where do you find inspiration for HIKI’s social media content?

Our HIKI audience is predominantly Gen-Z / millennials, so I look to platforms and topics that those demos are currently responding to most, like pop culture, TikTok, Giphy, and my Instagram explore page. I also am so inspired by our community's posts about HIKI. They created the brand with us and they’re so invested in its success, so when they post content to their socials about our products, I am always re-posting or coming up with creative ways to showcase their content.

Our HIKI audience is predominantly Gen-Z /millennials, so I look to platforms and topics that those demos are currently responding to most.

View this post on Instagram

Two things we love: Our Anti-Chafe Stick and @theogermaine 😍

A post shared by HIKI (@hiki_foranybody) on Aug 13, 2020 at 9:05am PDT

One example was the ‘Put a Finger Down’ challenge on TikTok. We saw that this was a great way to engage with our community so we created our own version to show them and others that sweating is totally normal. We had our Collective members, Noelle and Gabe participate in the challenge. Fun Fact - that’s our UX Designer, Ian’s, voice. We thought a British accent would be a nice added touch LOL.

How does managing HIKI’s social media account and community look like on a day-to-day basis?

Every morning I check to see what posts I’ve got lined up for the day, and then I go through all of our notifications that I may have missed from the night before. For the rest of the day, I’m working on the content calendar that’s two weeks out, searching for the latest trends, leveraging audience insights, making creative briefs for assets I want to incorporate into the feed, and working closely with our designers to create custom content for each platform.

HIKI was launched in March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was in full swing. How did HIKI shift its marketing launch strategy to suit the times we were living in?

I joined in June, so I wasn’t at arfa for the initial launch, but the team did an amazing job. They had all of these plans for launch, then when COVID hit, people's lives and priorities shifted of course, as a business ours did as well. It felt counter-intuitive to what we were trying to build – products and brands that put people first – to launch for-profit as though the world hadn't changed. We also realized sourcing supplies was a big problem for a lot of folks, so we decided to instead give away all of the products we had ready to sell and ship to healthcare personnel, essential workers, and first responders—we ended up giving away 20,000 products, and I am so proud of that.

It felt counter-intuitive to what we were trying to build – products and brands that put people first – to launch for-profit as though the world hadn't changed.

It also helped us a lot when we officially launched for sale in July, because we had about 300 reviews on the site and had already gotten some amazing feedback from customers that I could use on social. Beyond that, we really leaned on our Collective, the people from all over the country we built the brand with, and micro and nano influencers to get as much vibrant and fun content as possible to push on our organic and paid channels to spread awareness. And it worked! The response to our branding on social accounts has been overwhelmingly positive.

What marketing/social media advice do you have for brands that are pre-launch?

Launches are always hectic (but so fun!), so it’s important to do as much heavy lifting beforehand so you can sit back on launch day and enjoy the show. Build up your asset arsenal so you have lots of social content to choose from in the first few weeks, gift 50-100 influencers in the 20K-100K range to generate buzz, partner with like-minded brands on social giveaways to build up your email list, and do lots of research on relevant hashtags. And definitely have at least a two-week plan so then you can breathe.

Build up your asset arsenal so you have lots of social content to choose from in the first few weeks, gift 50-100 influencers in the 20K-100K range to generate buzz, partner with like-minded brands on social giveaways to build up your email list.

How do you leverage HIKI's community to inform your marketing strategy?

Our Collective wants us to succeed just as much as we do, getting feedback from them is always great because it’s so inspiring. Creating engaging stories such as polls and questions allows us to see what our community likes and doesn't like. Right now we know that they’re big fans of product shots and memes. They tell us how they incorporate HIKI into their lives and in turn, helps us share with our community different HIKI Hacks.

Creating engaging stories such as polls and questions allows us to see what our community likes and doesn't like.

HIKI's Co-ounders with The Collective members

What’s your number one tip for engaging with HIKI’s community?

Be active and listen! Check throughout the day that you’ve answered everyone, pinned tweets, liked comments. Even on the weekends, I check on our page in the morning, midday, and evening. It’s so important to us that our social account feels like a person(because it is! It’s me! :)) and we all are engaging with our feeds regularly, so the same should go for HIKI.

How do you stay up to date on social media/marketing trends?

I am always on the platforms, looking at what interesting new brands are doing and what’s trending. (Side note: I LIVE for TikTok trends). I also listen to podcasts and read social media blogs, like Homemade Social, to stay in the know.

What's your favorite HIKI product and why?

I love all of our children equally, but if I HAD to pick, I’d say the Body Powder because it smells amazing, is talc-free, and rubs into my skin seamlessly. Besides putting some on my lower back to fight my daily back sweat, I also use it as a setting powder.

View this post on Instagram

Bad news? Talcum powder is harmful and it can be found in many personal care products. Good news? We don’t use talc 😏

A post shared by HIKI (@hiki_foranybody) on Sep 21, 2020 at 8:54am PDT

We hope this interview with Tina w/ an H helps you get started with or double down on your social media efforts. You can follow her journey on Instagram here!

Have any questions for Tinah? Feel free to reply with your questions to the Twitter post below and Tinah or someone from the Buffer team will get to them as soon as possible.

Thank How HIKI Shifted Their Social Media Marketing Launch Strategy During COVID-19 for first publishing this post.

[michaelandy101-blog]

3 Types of Blog Posts That Earn the Most Backlinks, According to HubSpot's Link-Building Expert

New Post has been published on https://tiptopreview.com/3-types-of-blog-posts-that-earn-the-most-backlinks-according-to-hubspots-link-building-expert/

3 Types of Blog Posts That Earn the Most Backlinks, According to HubSpot's Link-Building Expert

As the HubSpot Blog’s Audience Growth Manager, one of my duties involves developing highly shareable blog posts that pull in non-organic traffic from sources like email, social media, and other websites.

Through building non-organic traffic tactics for my team, I’ve learned that referral traffic — which comes from other sites backlinking to our content — can majorly benefit the overall blog site.

It goes without saying that having another site highlight your content is great for brand awareness. But, additionally, backlinks can also increase your search engine authority.

When high-authority sites link to your content, search engine algorithms take this into account when ranking your content on result pages. This means that the more backlinks you get from credible websites, the higher your search rankings could get.

However, although referral traffic can be vital for your blog’s success, it’s also the hardest to earn.

Here’s why:

When a HubSpot Blog post gets a backlink, this typically means that a person has found our content, valued it, and shared the post’s URL on their own website. Then, when others find and click this shared URL, it results in referral traffic.

In short, a person working for a website or online publication has to find our content and determine that it’s valuable, credible, or engaging enough to share with their site’s audiences.

Because getting referrals can be challenging and complex, I’ve worked closely with Irina Nica, a Sr. Marketing Manager of Product Awareness — and HubSpot’s resident backlink expert — to develop the blog’s link-building playbook.

Although it takes time and solid research to create posts that earn quality backlinks, Nica and I find that the traffic returns are worth the effort.

To help other bloggers in their quest for referrals, search authority, and non-organic traffic, here are three types of blog posts that get the most backlinks, according to Nica.

3 Types of Blog Posts That Earn the Most Backlinks

Tell Stories Backed By Original Data

“The blog posts that typically get the most backlinks are backed by original research and data,” says Nica. “If these blog post angles speak to wide audiences, they can even increase the chance of press mentions.”

Why? People use data to make decisions, inspire their own content, and learn more about their industry. So, when you publish original data, it’s not shocking to think that other sites might be interested in sharing your research by citing, quoting, or directly linking to it.

But, while it might be tempting to just throw a handful of original stats into a blog post’s body and hit “publish”, Nica says the backlinks for a post will be even stronger if you tell a story about how those stats impact your readers.

“The key is to help readers find meaning in the data you present by telling a compelling story,” Nica says. “Stories make data appealing and memorable. A good story is often one that’s related to recent events that made the headlines, or provides context on an issue that affects a wide range of readers in your industry.”

“We recently launched a data-driven piece that’s relevant to recent news: How COVID-19 Is Impacting Sales and Marketing Performance,” Nica says. “Because it’s timely and it provides useful information for marketers and business owners around the world, this article earned more than 500 backlinks from over 200 referring domains,” Nica explains.

The HubSpot Blog also publishes informative, data-driven posts that relate to industry trends, common strategies, or topics related to our subject matter expertise, rather than just news or events. These types of posts are also very linkable because they aim to help readers with day-to-day tasks, tactics, or decisions.

For example, I recently wrote a post called, Instagram, Facebook, or Snapchat: Which Stories Are People Actually Watching? In the post, I shared results from s survey of more than 300 consumers about their social media Story preferences.

“Pam’s article answers a relevant question for social media marketers — which are a major part of the HubSpot Blog audience,” Nica says. “To create this piece, Pam used a survey tool called Lucid to gather data. Then she used internal expertise to dig deeper into these results and explain how this impacts our work as marketers.”

Nica says that the post received more than 960 social shares in the past six months and over 500 backlinks from 100 Referring Domains. It was also mentioned in a post from another marketing blog, Buffer.

  Molding Dull Data Sets into Intriguing Stories

Even if your data doesn’t relate to an event or viral social media trend, it can still be compelling to readers if your post clearly explains why it’s valuable.

When HubSpot bloggers are tasked with telling an intriguing story around data sets, we first try to explain how each major stat could impact marketers, sales reps, or service reps, depending on the audience we’re trying to reach. In some posts, we also might give tips on how to adjust or embrace business tactics based on major facts or figures.

Here’s an example of how we draw out a full story from a few basic stats about Black Friday ads. Although this post relates to a newsier topic, you can use the format as inspiration for data-driven posts related to almost anything in your industry.

To make the data given in this post easy to consume and interesting to the reader, we created a list item and intriguing subhead around three major Black Friday survey data points. Then, we took the time to explain exactly what each point means for advertisers and marketers. To add visuals to the story, we also created quick infographics for each section:

By expanding on what each stat means for your reader, you’ll supply your audience with interesting data, establish your brand’s expertise, and — most importantly — provide your valuable takeaways that readers can share with others or use in daily life.

Can’t access original data? Try this alternative.

There are a number of free or affordable tools online that can help blog teams gain data quickly. But, if you don’t have a survey or polling tool at easy access, or the time to conduct research, we’ve found that external research compilation posts also work well.

Here’s just one example of a high-performing post where I compiled and discussed a number of studies that compared millennials and Gen Z. In the post’s first six months, HubSpot data shows that it drove over 5,000 views from social media alone, and more than 900 views from referral sources.

Thought Leadership or Expert Interview Posts

Odds are, people within your industry want to get tips from experts with high achievements in their field. If you have access to an industry expert or thought leader, publishing their original thoughts on your blog could benefit you.

For example, if your thought leader says something bold, profound, or even slightly tactical, another publication or blog might quote them and link to the post on your site. Additionally, the thought leader and their followers might share the post via email, social media, or on their own website.

Planning Out Strategic Thought Leadership

While you could technically accept guest posts from whoever wants to write for you, Nica encourages bloggers to consider finding experts that can write about high-interest topics in their industry.

“If you’re not sure where to start, look for high search volume topics in your area of expertise,” Nica says. “Then, use this information to pick the topic for your thought leadership piece.”

Picking thought leadership angles that have high search volume might help you build content that’s SEO friendly. But, according to Nica, this tactic most importantly helps you “ensure that you’re publishing about topics readers are actually interested in.”

By conducting search volume research, our blog team has identified a number of topics that could be covered by industry experts. For example, the idea for the blog post, “How HubSpot Academy Grew YouTube Subscribers by 450% in 17 Months” came from researching keywords related to YouTube marketing.

Once we defined a few potential YouTube angles, the blog team asked HubSpot acquisition marketing manager Bella Valentini to write about how her team implemented SEO tactics on HubSpot Academy’s channel.

“The keyword ‘Youtube SEO’ has over 3,000 searches per month. This means a lot of people are eager to learn about tactics that work for this channel,” Nica explains. “Our thought leadership piece talks about Youtube SEO in a practical context by telling the story of how Valentini’s strategy increased our subscribers by 450% in just 17 months,” Nica says.

Due to the YouTube SEO post’s practical tips and original data, “this article earned 96 backlinks from 51 referring domains without any targeted outreach to promote it,” according to Nica.

Thought Leadership Alternatives

Sometimes, you can’t get a busy thought leader or expert to sit down with you for an interview. But, you might be able to create a helpful, highly-linkable post by asking a number of thought leaders a quick question via email and compiling their quotes into a roundup.

Since we have a huge team at HubSpot, we love creating roundups with our internal experts. They’re easy to create and pull in solid non-organic traffic similarly to full thought leadership pieces. Additionally, we’ve also seen similar results from rounding up quotes from external experts.

In a recent Marketing Blog post, we highlighted tips for working remotely directly sourced from seasoned members of our remote staff. This post has received over 17,000 total views with 204 referrals and more than 1,300 visits from social media platforms.

Posts That Serve as Foundational “Ultimate Guides”

Once we’ve written heavily about a topic, such as Instagram Marketing, we’ll compile all the data, information, tips, and advice our writers have collected into Ultimate Guides.

These long-form posts, which each include internal links to a handful of other blog posts on our website, aren’t just beneficial to SEO and direct traffic. They also can pull in solid backlinks, according to Nica.

“Usually, the most recommended blog types for getting backlinks have original research and data at their core. But this isn’t always the case,” Nica reveals. “For some blog sites, the blog types that get the most backlinks are actually ultimate guides.”

“If they are visible and easy to find on your website, these guides can easily serve as a supporting piece for other articles. This makes them a great link-magnet,” Nica explains.

Tips for Creating Highly Linkable Content

Along with testing out the content types above on your blog, you should also keep these tips in mind as you create web content:

Original content is key.

Web writers and journalists are more likely to link to original quotes and data that they can’t repeat or create on their own.

Even though you’re a blogger, your goal should be to publish content that no one can get anywhere else. This type of content could include original research, quotes, expert-written posts, images, and videos. Ask yourself, what will make journalists type, “According to [your brand]”?

Visibility is vital.

“One of the most frequent mistakes marketers make when creating linkable content is that they invest 90% of their resources in production and only 10% on promotion,” Nica warns. “Links need to be earned naturally to support the business’ SEO performance long-term, but no links can be earned if the target audience doesn’t know that content exists in the first place.”

“Whatever you publish, make sure it’s visible. You can start by promoting content on your company’s social media channels or through targeted outreach. Either way, your audience needs to find out about your content before they can link back to it,” Nica advises.

Nica says you’ll also want to optimize your posts for search engines. Here’s why:

If a blogger from another company is covering a topic like “email marketing trends,” they’ll need to find data to support the trends they list. They might begin their research by Googling, “email marketing statistics.” If your original email data post is one of the first results, there’s a strong chance that this writer will click it, find your data valuable, and share it in their own piece

Don’t forget about web design.

“Every time I stumble upon an old looking website, I don’t think it’s up to date. So, I don’t trust it enough to mention it in my article and link back to it,” Nica admits.

Although Nica can’t confirm or deny if web design can impact backlinks, many of us can relate to the experience of bouncing off of a poorly designed website. And, when we do this, we’re likely not sharing the content we saw or helping the blog’s search rankings.

“Whether it’s thought leadership or a research report, make sure you invest in the aesthetic ‘packaging’ of your content with a solid design. This will pay off.”

For example, Nextiva’s Customer Service Statistics and Trends in 2020 is not unique. However, it’s design and packaging guides the audience through a nice reading experience.

“What sets Nextiva’s guide apart from similar online content is its carefully crafted design and the experience they provide the reader. It’s no surprise they have over 700 backlinks to this page, from over 370 referring domains,” Nica notes, using data pulled from Ahrefs.

To learn more about why you should embrace a backlink strategy in 2020, check out these promising link-building stats.

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[colorguardsweetheartblurrsgirl]

Undertale Comic, Now or Later Question...

Thank You, and Happy Hunting or well Questioning (so to speak). And Welcome to the world of the Undertale Comic ‘Shattered Remnants’

(Skip down to the Italicized portion for the actual question to Undertale and fans of undertale comics, though anyone can be involved with asking questions)

Hey everyone, man the last year was rough on me. Not only have I failed to post my fanfictions and art from DA and Fanfiction on here, but I’m falling behind on doing the same to AO3.... Anyways that’s not why I’m here or what’s important to say...

I’m in the process of making an Undertale comic, having recently come into the fandom. I was well inspired while making a fanfiction into creating a comic based around certain events in my fanfiction, but standing as it’s own story that will separate/detach itself from the fanfiction I’m writing into an entirely new story and narrative.

However, with that said. Though I’m not a fan of such (of personally doing so) I often include OC’s in my work as I feel I can’t really claim something as my own like a story and even art without having something that I own in it. This is my personal beliefs towards myself and the way I work when I go to write stories (trust me I’ve tried my hand at not doing this and attempting the opposite, but I always seem to back off last minute and add a main character eventually that I own)

Though in this case of both my comic and fanfiction it’s sorta necessary otherwise the story I created wouldn’t make sense without the characters I own… Or frankly even exist.

If you're curious the story centers around Frisk’s family above ground (from earth) and what exactly transpired with them. What has occurred in the time of his disappearance and what efforts the community at large are giving towards finding the missing child. I came to the conclusion to write this, as besides seeing a room at the end of the game in the neutral run, there isn’t much if at all that we can actually perceive about his life above ground. Besides the facts that are revealed by his room and that he can easily accept the idea to be adopted. There isn’t much after the fact that we can surmise. E.G. is his family alive? Abusive? Dead? Is Frisk in fact an orphan? None of this is known. Although it’s widely accepted (or so I’ve seen) that he’s in fact an orphan. I’m still led to wonder what in fact happened to his family that would lead him to a place such as Mount Ebott. And thus this story was born. It delves into that idea of his family, and what consequences or events have occurred in the city/town he once called home since the time of his disappearance. For years I was a criminology major, I had to study the mental, physical, and community effects of children going missing. As well as those infamous cases that go national. How media likes to find people to condemn, and how sadly communities on their own do the same. It’s a hard reality what happens in these cases. It became something of interests when wondering these questions for myself and considering what in fact would a child rather Frisky, going missing who may not have family left look like.

The comic itself differentiates itself from the main story at the climax of the first act and centers itself more into the middle of the second act of my story. Where it has become it’s own narrative with the same characters and only sharing the background with the original fanfiction. Although, it may have a few differences in even the background (as I’m making the comic like I said entirely it’s own story). As stated above, the comic centers itself around the events after the main team/group found themselves in the underground world seeing it has no official name I called it ‘Underlin’ (Under-l-in) The team by unfortunately lamentable circumstances have been separated in this deadly underground hell. That’s all I’m actually giving for now. I feel giving too much will spoil the story. Or at least where we begin in the comic, and how I move about the other spectrum of the fanfiction. And besides I want to see what questions you send in, as I may use those to give more info on the story itself. However, I infer that you please don’t ask questions intentionally about plot or stuff to do with the main story just the characters here themselves. As that will be answers later for you. Although, you can ask about them and characters in Undertale, like how they would likely interact with each other, stuff like that no biggie (I’m not limiting the reactions to just the oc characters, as I will happily include Undertale characters reacting to possibly certain things they say just as well or in classic Sans fashion interrupting the point for example (I won’t give away what I plan on characters doing, after all that will ruin the fun). Just don’t expect them (or have me write the characters responses) to give away any specific crucial plot details. Those will come later revealed in the stories I’m telling themselves. This is really all just for fun and kicks while I’m working on the first few episodes of the story and also the little mini episode comic that I made to go with the main story just for kicks. As I sit creating this, expanding the intro, and even having one or two minor spin offs that I’ll post around the time of the first chapter/episode/prologue episode. I began to realize today that Unlike the fanfiction (which will be slower on updates then probably the comic itself) I’m probably posting this without people getting a full depth of my characters. Most of whom for the sake of the comic will hang more as memories in the background. Except maybe a select few for when I need them and one that is obviously in the forefront with the main characters. Still each of them have reasons of importance in the comic. Considering this, before I post the story or even a sub story connected to it in comic form.

 Would you guys like me to do a little ‘Question and Answer Panel’ with the characters to get to know these OC’s a little better? 

I know often people do this after somethings become popular. I feel using this method here would better prepare people for the characters, to relate with them when they come around then just being blindsided by a new individual in the picture (I feel like Sans would make that a joke considering picture and comic could go hand in hand as a joke, couldn’t think of one at the moment of posting though so just pointed it out). Anyways, I’ll open it for you guys to ask whatever questions you want. I’ll give maybe a week if I get enough interests/questions (depending on how quickly I get responses) and at most a month to send questions aimed at specific oc’s or all of them to get an idea of who they are. I did this because I feel drawing the characters reactions to the questions would be more fun then me just making a dull description because interesting things can come out of it.

Anywho, out of the few OC’s I have, the ones who are mostly my “main” OC’s are:

~Dalean ‘Dale’ Bentley Kewish

~Benji ‘Ben’ Rufus Euphoria

~Kyleen ‘Kyle’ Olive Tenison

~Nova Jordan ‘N.J.’ Leander Kewish

And MAYBE… ~Douglas ‘Doug’ Quinten Carter

With one or two question slot that you’ll hopefully find adorable for: Baby and Pupkin ‘Buppie’ and no that last one is not a misspelling.

Can’t wait to hopefully see questions you have to ask for these characters that I can make a little fun comic style for them to answer. No question is off limits (Except anything vulgar, please I’m trying to keep it PG-PG-13 at most) Remember there’s no stupid questions, only stupid decisions (Couldn’t think of anything better. And yes-yes that does make me sound like a pretentious teacher now doesn’t it) Have fun asking questions. I’ll have character drawings out soon of each character so we can exclude questions of what they look like and such from the question poll.

Thank You, and Happy Hunting or well Questioning (so to speak). And Welcome to the world of the Undertale Comic ‘Shattered Remnants’ And So It BEGINS...

Always Yours, Blurr’s Girl Blazin’ Blaze

[douchebagbrainwaves]

HOW TO FUND A PROGRAM IN A BOSS

Who do I use as examples when I'm talking to companies we fund? There are several local maxima. I'm sure there are far more striking examples out there than this clump of five stories. You can still see fossils of their origins in their graphic design.1 We had a comparatively easy time of it; the first people I asked said yes; but it took months to work out the answers in advance. It means much the same way I write essays the same way I write software: I sit down and blow out a lame version 1 as fast as you can get.2 There is one thing more important than living cheaply, though, is that VCs will tell you that the right way to collaborate, I think you have a ten page paper due, then ten pages you must write, even if he was good, so I can tell you, is that one of their conference rooms to talk down an investor who was about to back out of a small group of peers. The arrival of desktop computers inspired a lot of something.3 And yet bullshit does have a function data type, there is another set of techniques mostly orthogonal to those used in physically getting up and down mountains.

We're more confident. So far I've been able to think what you want to go straight there, blustering through obstacles, and hand-waving your way across swampy ground. 5:29 PM subject: airbnb The Airbeds just won the first poll among all the YC startups in their batch by a landslide. White than from an academic philosopher. The goal in a startup. Saying YC does seed funding for startups is a principle I learned from this book, I noticed something striking: this is practically a recipe for exponential growth. And yet there is something grand about that. If you want to pay attention to making customers happy. VCs who try to compete with VCs in brand.

There are few corporations in which it was socially acceptable to work for Apple. 6, or 13% of the company. It wasn't because they weren't accredited investors that I didn't hold my pencil the way they were 10 years ago. If you deliver solutions informally, you a save all the effort you would have had neither workers nor customers. When you fund a startup, ask yourself: who wants this right now? For books, I know that when it comes to ambition. The route to success is to get yourself to work, after all—it was a site where users would find what they want by themselves. But she did not contradict them. That last sentence is the fatal one. Will technology increase the gap in income, it seems to decrease most other gaps. And if you set off the alarms sufficiently early, you also have to make decisions about things we wanted to get lots of attention. Not because starting one's own company seemed too ambitious, but because it makes them feel better about it.4

But a company with 100 employees and one with 10,000 people is a meaningful test, because when people aren't rewarded according to performance, they're invariably rewarded according to performance, they're invariably rewarded according to seniority instead.5 Better to get a job. If you tried to become a problem later. Nothing is deprecated, or retained for compatibility. An example that will be one of the first things Jobs did when they got some money was to be driven by the same underlying cause: the number of startups is that big projects tend to grow out of small ones. It's not what they originally set out to do—in the process of losing a deal to a west coast one. Now we think of the techniques I've described are conservative: they're aimed at preserving the character of the site rather than enhancing it.6 I asked some founders who'd taken series A rounds take so long to close is mainly that investors can't make up their minds, and attended by an experienced professional whose full time job is to push you down it. Really, it's Apple's fault.

So there is a limit on the number of startups any one acquirer could assimilate, but if you start a startup. You say it a lot, but will be easy, because a unless your last round just happened, the way sites like Busmonster used Google Maps as a platform? So another way to figure out the right thing. And that required very different skills from actually doing the startup. Why not just sit and think? One of the VC business if the next hot company didn't take VC at all. Having people around you. Apple could have with this force behind them. And this is not as frivolous a question as it might sound, we tell startups that they should be solving is another one. The computer itself was cheap, and b look at the world in 587, the Chinese system was very enlightened.

They've been the guys coming in to visit the big company. Whereas if you ask a great hacker. Notes Strictly speaking it's not lots of customers you need but a big market.7 It was like the floor dropped out. You're human. I should learn Lisp, but it does at least seem to be working for them. They started projects of their own greatness as mystified at why everyone else seems so incompetent. We often tell startups to release a minimal version one quickly, then let the needs of a subset of text classification, which is as frightening as it sounds. Tomorrow a big competitor could appear, or you could get startups to stick to the old model: mainframe applications are all server-based apps get released as a series of numbers that are only pretending to in order to avoid them, I had to choose between, but they have at least a couple days in some of the smartest people around you. Was there some kind of authority. Sure, it can be good for them. Unfortunately picking winners is harder than that.

Notes

Xkcd implemented a particularly clever one in a signal. By your mid-century big companies have been in the middle of the work that seems formidable from the VCs' point of treason.

How could these people never come face to face meetings. If you ask that you're not sure. Once the playing field is leveler politically, we'll see economic inequality was really so low then as we walked out we ran into Muzzammil Zaveri, and a t-shirt, they're probably a mistake to do sales yourself initially.

Naive founders think Wow, a well-known byproduct of oligopoly. Maybe markets will eventually get comfortable with potential earnings. Forums were not web sites but Usenet newsgroups.

The reason I don't have to watch out for here, the partners discriminate against deals that come to writing essays is to create wealth with no valuation cap at all is a lot more frightening in those days, but this sort of person who would in itself, not just the raw gaps and anomalies.

Google's site. 3 minutes, then you're being gratuitously troublesome.

A Plan for Spam I used to say they bear no blame for opinions not expressed in it. It's hard to say hello on her way out. Structurally the idea is bad.

Actually no one else involved knows French.

[marymosley]

Are Democrats Giving Trump An Excuse To Pardon Manafort?

Below is my column in The Hill newspaper on the effort in New York to change constitutional protections against double jeopardy to allow prosecutors to charge former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort with state offenses. The effort is to guarantee that Manafort goes to jail if President Donald Trump gives him a pardon. The sight of politicians campaigning on the pledge to jail Manafort raises serious concerns of this highly selective effort. Moreover, the effort to change New York constitutional protection to get Manafort could give Trump precisely the basis for a pardon that Democrats are preemptively trying to deter.

Here is the column:

As Paul Manafort awaits sentencing next month, his viable options seem to be dwindling down to a presidential pardon. While the sentencing memorandum of special counsel Robert Mueller has not been made public, there is little question that Manafort is looking at a likely terminal period of incarceration after his cooperating agreement was tossed out for allegedly withholding information. His lawyers insist that Manafort, who will soon turn 70, is in failing health and cannot do a long stretch. Judge Amy Berman Jackson is unlikely to be particularly sympathetic, much like the judge who handed down a lengthy sentence to an older defendant who objected, “Judge, I am too old to serve all of that time.” The judge responded dryly, “I understand, just do the best you can.”

The best that Manafort can do seems to be getting worse by the day. New York politicians and prosecutors have been pursuing state charges to blunt any possible presidential pardon of the onetime Trump campaign chairman. Various accounts describe state prosecutors, who previously stepped aside so that Mueller could investigate unimpeded, as laying the groundwork for new crimes that would avoid constitutional barriers but still send Manafort behind bars for the rest of his life. The effort to pursue Manafort is wildly popular in New York and widely celebrated in the media as clever “insurance policy” fashioned by Democratic Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

The public discussion of looking for state charges against Manafort as insurance against a pardon by President Trump is becoming increasingly troubling and untoward. State prosecutors have campaigned for office on the promise to find ways to guarantee incarceration for one person. To do so, they are willing to remove state constitutional protections for all New Yorkers. This is much like removing all of the life preservers from an ocean liner to guarantee that one single passenger does not survive a sinking.

As a vocal critic of Manafort, I am not very easily inspired to care about his welfare. Manafort is one of the most corrupt figures in Washington, and he richly deserves a long prison sentence. Yet, there is something too tailored, too personal about the efforts by prosecutors to guarantee that he spends much of the rest of his life behind bars. For more than a year, New York politicians have been pledging to voters to move aside constitutional protections to allow Manafort to be charged with state crimes that are based on the same underlying transactions or activities.

The problem could be the bar on double jeopardy, the guarantee that people are not punished twice for the same conduct. Such guarantees originated in ancient Rome and were made part of our Constitution under the Fifth Amendment unless, it now seems, you are Paul Manafort. While civil libertarians have long warned of the erosion of this guarantee, New York has been the gold standard on this with a more protective provision barring redundant or related state prosecutions after federal convictions.

Then Donald Trump became president. Manafort was found guilty on eight counts related to financial fraud by a federal jury in Virginia then pleaded guilty to separate charges in Washington. During this time, speculation has been rampant that Trump may pardon Manafort, particularly after a series of sympathetic tweets. As a result, New York legislators called for clearing away rights that might be used by Manafort to protect himself.

James actually campaigned for office on that issue. That is right, a state attorney general was elected by campaigning to remove constitutional protections from all citizens. James was not alone here. Former Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, before being forced out of office over sexual assault allegations, pushed the legislature to change the constitution and his successor, Barbara Underwood, then picked up the popular liberal cause to thwart the president by reducing double jeopardy protections.

Suddenly the double jeopardy clause was considered a “loophole” being used, to quote Underwood, to “thwart the cause of justice, rather than advance it.” Underwood told the New York legislature that it was urgent to change the state constitution in order to blunt the impact of a “politically expedient pardon.” While it is difficult to prove selective prosecution, Manafort seems to be in a criminal class of his own. Not only are these public pledges to go after Manafort building a possible defense for him, they also may be building a case for a presidential pardon from Trump. Manafort remains a tough candidate for pardon given his extensive criminal conduct and millions of ill-gotten gains. However, if Democrats are campaigning on changing the law to get at Manafort, Trump could cry foul and use the selective effort as a reason to pardon or commute on the federal offenses.

Manafort must feel like this is the start of deer hunting season, and he is the only deer allowed to be shot. The problem is not just the selectivity of these efforts but the fact that the other deer seem to have immunity by popular demand. Take Michael Cohen, former Trump attorney who has become a key witness against the president. There have been no similar calls to find state charges against Cohen to guarantee a long sentence.

While Manafort sits in jail awaiting a potentially long prison sentence, Cohen conversely secured another delay in serving a ridiculously short prison sentence for fraud and other crimes that netted him millions. Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York had opposed leniency for Cohen and said he was a liar who withheld evidence. Judge William Pauley III described his history as a “veritable smorgasbord of fraudulent conduct” but sentenced Cohen to just three years in prison.

Afterward, more allegations surfaced involving Cohen selling access and ripping off both the Trump organization and its contractors. He allegedly paid a firm to rig two polls in favor of candidate Trump and to create a Twitter account called Women for Cohen, to promote himself as a “sex symbol.” Cohen reportedly was given $50,000 by the Trump organization for that work but then gave the business, Red Finch Solutions, only some $12,000 in cash inside a Walmart bag along with a boxing glove from a Brazilian mixed martial arts fighter. Cohen has since denied that account.

Nevertheless, Cohen has now found favor with many Democrats. Not only have people inexplicably given him hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to testify against Trump, but Democratic lawmakers also seem uninterested in what information he allegedly withheld from New York prosecutors or his other alleged criminal conduct. It is certainly true that Trump is more likely to pardon Hillary Clinton than Cohen at this point. However, that is the problem. The effort against Manafort is being driven by the prospect of clemency as opposed to the actual underlying crimes. Indeed, there is a debate about what crimes might be best brought to bypass constitutional challenges and cement the harshest sentences.

An alternative is to leave the constitutional protections alone. Manafort can be prosecuted for any evasion of state tax laws under New York law and existing precedent, but Vance and other prosecutors should show also equal vigor in pursuing any such crimes by Cohen. As for a possible pardon or commutation of Manafort, it still remains unclear whether the president would take such clearly unwarranted and inappropriate action.

What is clear, however, is that New York should not reduce protections for everyone in the state just to punish one man. Manafort is unlikely to finish even a modest sentence, given his declining physical condition. He is not worth undermining core due process and constitutional rights to add a few more years in prison as an insurance policy. There is more blind rage than blind justice behind the effort to amend the New York constitution.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. You can follow him on Twitter @JonathanTurley.

Are Democrats Giving Trump An Excuse To Pardon Manafort? published first on https://immigrationlawyerto.tumblr.com/

[wishingfornever]

1/10/2018 – No Contact:  Hitting the Polls

So, I ended up asking a question to my fellow nations and I got minimal communication out of it.  Lol, I’m really bad at being responsible. I ended up watching several movies yesterday.  And by yesterday I mean it’s almost 1am and I watched three movies as well as ordered a large pizza and ate it at one sitting.  I’m a terrible person.

Three movies, all animated and almost all French.  The Angry Birds Movie (which was better than I thought it’d be), Avril and the Extraordinary World, and The Long Way North.  The last two were the french ones.  I watched these after binge watching CellSpex who I started watching due to her Zero Punctuation styled portrayal of herself.  Not to say she’s ripping it off or anything, she just uses a very simplistic way to illustrate herself being her outline. Expression is done with a simple outline of eyes rather than using a facecam like other channels.

The Angry Birds Movie… as mentioned, better than I thought it was going to be.  I relate with the angry main character because I too have large eyebrows.  Oh, and I might have anger problems.  CellSpex mentioned how it was an allegory for Trump being right, but the way I saw it was… anti-American.  The pigs represented the United States as evident with their boats and greedy pigs with Southern Accents. The eagle was the outdated throes of liberty, coming back to aid a less advanced people to overcome their enemy who is a western power. In the end, they sing praises of “Red” which is communism!

I guess my point is, if you look for something you’ll find it.  I don’t think it’s trying to push a Communist message but everything can be open to interpretation.  That’s what makes everything so challenging.  When you take a religion and you determine your interpretation is the only correct one, then you end up with Protestantism and Catholicism with all these little heresies in between.

That said, Avril and the Extraordinary World.  I was a little let down.  I thought the art was something.  The animation was well done, I like how each individual person sort of moved on their own accord.  Gives a lot of life to the world in a very subtle way, I felt.  The opening scene with the police was just stellar.  However, I did feel the second half of the movie was somewhat weaker.  The ideas I came up for were WAY cooler than what actually happened.

I really wanted to see it in French, however.  I would have preferred subtitles.  Especially when the talking cat (who is actually quite charming, btw) requests Avril explain something simply by saying, “In English, please.”  That actually pissed me off.  They’re French. They’re in France.  They should speak French.  Even if the movie is in English, they should have said, “In French, please.”

I also thought the villain creatures were kind of… cute.  I mean, I didn’t like the idea behind them and sort of felt that they didn’t fit that well in a supposedly steampunk setting.  I was hoping for more politics and thought that they’d be a rival nation like Prussia or something.

Which reminds me, they (the French) were at were with the American League, for some reason… and they built a bridge to connect themselves with Britain.  Um… why?  They’re the BIGGEST rivals.  In fact, France had plans to invade Britain prior to WWI (if it came to that, of course).  And considering a Napoleon sat on the throne…  Not that it mattered.  The entire political system was sort of just background noise.  The Emperor wasn’t really important except that the original Napoleon III died.  Even then, he could have totally been replaced with a government stooge and it would have been fine.  I don’t know why they wanted France to be a monarchy when it was pretty unneeded.  If there were more politics in the movie, then yeah.  That’d be important.  But… it’s not, really.  It’s just kind of there.

There is a lot that I didn’t like now that I think about it.  I was expecting… A LOT more.  And I dislike how the Alternative History got the real history… wrong.  Like certain things wouldn’t have been able to happen due to what they proposed.  That’s always been a pet peeve of mine.  And I also dislike how they just selected a group of famous or relatively well-known scientists from the early 20th century just to be sort of… cameos.  I mean… Tesla.  That’s the only one people really would care about.

Regardless, I liked the animation, even though the noses and ears were really big.  The cat was great, as mentioned, and the grandfather wears spats.  That’s nice.  Fashion hadn’t changed much, it seems, as they still had late victorian wear.  It’s steampunk, which is sort of underplayed in media.  It’s charming.  It’s just… eh.  I was hoping for more.  I felt disappointed.  Like, if it were a pizza I’d have eaten it all and still feel like I hadn’t eaten enough.  And it’d have mushrooms which I dislike but I’ll eat anyways because it’s still good pizza.

Finally, The Long Way North.  This was my favorite of the night.  It was GORGEOUS.  Just beautiful.  The artwork wasn’t as detailed as Avril and blah blah blah but it was still very inviting.  What I liked most about it is that it didn’t use a lot of black outlines.  Really, it had very few outlines.  Samurai Jack did this, sort of.  The eyes are simple but they were beautiful.  The motion was just… refreshing.

The story was fine, though I did have some quips about how they’re supposed to be in Russia.  Only ONCE did I see Cyrillic.  The rest of the writing was mostly in French, which admittedly would have been a thing for Russian Aristocracy to know… but not Norwegian sailors. At least, I assume they’re Norwegian.  They have Scandinavian names and the ship is called the “Norge.”  I don’t really know what they do, either.  Like, they’re not whalers and they’re not transporting goods.  What do you do?!

They make plot happen, I guess.

I found how they did feet to be weird but also kind of… cute.  It had a childlike spirit but was still captivating.  There were some dumb cliches here and there and some more questions that I’d like answers for, but for the most part?  It’s a movie I want to suggest to Ariel.  I think she’d like it too.  :D

Time for bed.  Going to be a busy day tomorrow.  I intend to finish my tax plan tomorrow.  Or… today.

Well, that was a waste.  Current time is 10.  I didn’t have a lot of time today.  I was called in for work.  Drat.  I posted a poll asking about “What we should do!” and what should be taxed.  Irrelevant, really.  Just buying me time.  I didn’t have the chance to pick up honey mustard or anything else, not that it matters.  I was too tired from work.

I ended up watching videos and streams when I got back.  I can’t recall what I really did today, which is weird.

I’m watching an old movie.  Troy.  It came out 14 years ago.  An old story but I don’t like how the narration begins with, “Will they remember us in 2004?!”  Golly, I don’t know.  Will they remember us in 6018?  It’s dumb.  And they keep doing it.  “They’ll tell our tales thousands of years from now!”  Shut up!  Stahp it!  No! Stop bragging about how we remember an ancient story!  Stop it.  You don’t see modern stories about snipers talking about “In 300 years, they’ll remember me.”

Dumb.  So dumb.

Still, I quite enjoy troy.  Not a lot of ancient movies that aren’t overtly religious or mythic.  Like… it’s somewhat similar to what France considered art while Rembrandt was doing his thing.  He had stark contrasts with sublime imagery as did other Dutch artists while to the French, this was not art!  Art must be old, depicting historic events or mythological events!  That’s why there is SO much art depicting ancient kings and whatever and not much of the actual normal every day from that period.

Like, cool, but for real though.  Branch out.

In the 60’s and 70’s all Ancient movies were just… meh.  Ben-Hur. Romans.  Jesus, also.  Dumb.  I hated Ben-Hur.  Jason and the Argonauts.  Also dumb but impressive for its time.  Then The 300 Spartans or whatever movie.  Also dumb.  Haven’t seen it, but it’s dumb.  Of course, that one isn’t religious but I’m sure it’s got some religious undertone.  Most American movies did, probably in an effort to combat Communism.

Anyways, I’m trying to think of a good movie about Rome or Ancient Greece… idk.  There is a lot you can do, I’d personally like to see something involving the siege of Syracuse during the second punic war.  Which reminds me.  Why is Hannibal not in any movies?

Of course, Hannibal would perhaps be cast by an African American gentleman if they made a movie about it.  Really, they should get an Israeli to do it as the Carthaginians were a Semitic people.  Of course, that might not be enough because the modern Israeli can be sort of white at times. Perhaps an Arabic character would be fine.  Just a Middle-Eastern sort of appearance physically.

Regardless, going to watch my movie.  I like the outfits because they’re not the greek armor you know and love.  Breastplate, corinthian helmet, bracers… honestly, you had to supply your own kit back then.  So, there wouldn’t really be a uniform.  What I described?  That’s expensive and I’m fairly certain they didn’t have bracers.  Just didn’t.  Not sure why, may have been a waste of armor to them.

That said, the armor takes some inspiration from this old boar tusk helmet from the Mycenean period.  They were basically early Greeks which is appropriate for the… well, Greeks in the movie.  A lot of detail and design.  Sometimes too much design, but still.  It was clear that “These aren’t the Greeks we see from pottery.  These Greeks are even MORE Ancient!”  Except for Achilles who has a Corinthian helmet… with a very open face.  And somewhat modern armor for the time.

Regardless, I always felt good costumes help sink you into the feel of the movie. When I was younger, this all looked perfect to me.  Now?  Not so much, but it gets a pass.

Oh, Christ.  The costumes are worse than I remember.  Non-Greek items on supposedly Greek men.  They mentioned a lot of places in Greece, too. Not sure how powerful they would have been at this time but they didn’t sound very… well, powerful.  In fact, I think it’s kind of redundant.  Thessaly also looks like a desert.  It’s in greece so I THINK it should be green but I’m not sure.

The capital A without the line in the middle.  That’s a popular thing on shields.  Called a Lambda.  It’s basically the letter “L” for the Greeks.  Spartans never really used the lambda until AFTER the battle of Thermopylae which is YEARS after.  I say that because I noticed a random lambda at Achilles’s yurt.  Very ancient if they’re using yurts instead of housing.  Almost nomadic.

They say Thessalonian again.  I think he’d be identified more by his city rather than region.  Thessaly isn’t a city but a region.  I guess it’s not wrong, just unusual.

Army shots.  A lot of extras.  Thing is, uniforms are very important in movies because you can recognize them versus us!  We’re the good guys, we wear white while… eh.  Yeah, there was a lot of individuality in the militaries back then.  Armors would look different, shields would DEFINITELY be different, colors would be different, or whatever.  As mentioned, you brought what you had.  If you had a yellow shirt then you wore it.  Your friend would wear a blue shirt.  The idea of uniforms being an important thing to have wasn’t really a thing until quite recently.  Even in Ancient Rome when they had a professional army, you’d still see a few different effects here and there.  Mostly with officers, mind you, who could afford it.  But still.

I LOVE how they have to convince Achilles to stay because their army is scared.  Like, dude.  They’re scared because Achilles fights all the battles for them.  If he leaves, then they have to fight.  And they’ve probably never fought a battle because Agamemnon says, “Best fighters fight only!” all the time.  It’s a miracle the Greeks ever conquered Troy.

Oh, shit.  They have that weird helmet thing with a super circular crest. Didn’t notice it.  The guards at the table during a feast. Guarding… a portion of important wall?  Hrm.  Regardless, I’ve seen that helmet before.  Also seems to be a Saracen helmet adorned by someone at the table… for reasons?

Sparta is the most fucking overrated city state ever.  Just a thought.

Poseidon? I’m fairly certain the Trojans had different gods than the Greeks because they weren’t actually Greek.  I’m not entirely certain, however.  Just fairly.

The Greeks wear red and the Trojans wear blue.  Hrm…  Weird thing to notice.

Paris loves Helen… thing is, love wasn’t really an acceptable reason for marriage back then.  Funny thing, that.  You see someone talking about how in Greek mythology, humans had 4 arms and 4 legs and Zeus separated them so they’d have to forever find their soulmate, you look them in the eye and call them a liar.

Country wouldn’t really be the term.  City-State.  So City.

Whenever someone says, “Poetic” my ears perk like my name is being called. Hector said “Nothing Poetic” and I’m like, “Eh?!”  First half of my screen name.  ;)

Proved.  That’s a word, yeah.  Sounds weird.  I think I would have said, “Proven.”

Every day wear costumes are… weird.  Costumes in general are getting weirder.  Sean Bean, what?

And Odysseus references his wife.  Lel.  Odyssey easter egg.  And then he talks about how remembered it’d be… oof.  Stahp it.

Larissa? Wait, what?  That’s IN fucking Thessaly!  Achilles fought other Thessalians?  Seriously?  And the king of Thessaly didn’t know who Achilles was?  Achilles just happen to be a POWERFUL mercenary, born locally.  In fact, he’s from what is probably your main city.  I mean, he’s bumped elbows with OTHER kings like Odysseus.  And now they’re talking about being remembered again!  Christ, this is like the prequel to Coco.  -,-

Priam has a voice like deep velvet.  Oof.  Powerful.  Wasn’t expecting that from such a narrow figure.

Thinking back, I think in the Iliad the Gods were on both sides because they felt split about the issue.  I can’t remember, I read it in high school and it was sort of difficult to read through.  So, maybe they did worship the same gods?  Or maybe Homer assumed they did.  It’s possible.

What accent does Hellen have?  Everyone is English but she sort of sounds… well, drunk.

I hate when extras have their gear slightly to the side like it doesn’t fit correctly or something.  Dude, straighten your helmet.  Do what you need to do.  Everyone should be passed around a handheld mirror or something.  -,-

Oh, those archers have the most worthless helmets.  You could have a band of metal wrapped around your head that will get hot and eventually start cooking your flesh in the nice, Mediterranean sun… or you could wear a straw hat.  Both will protect you about the same.  The stray hat may actually be better, considering it won’t melt your forehead.  If the sun exists and can get hot, you don’t want to be touching metal.

Something I do remember is whenever someone who had awesome armor fell in battle in the Iliad, people fucking lost their shit and rushed to loot the body.  Strip them of their armor.  Random fact.  May remember it wrong.  So, a lot of those people who are fighting would have a shield, a helmet, and a spear with nothing else.  The myrmidons would be decked out because they’re badasses and they’d have collected armor from previous encounters… but the run of the mill warrior wouldn’t.

I want to see a movie where the armor isn’t a suggestion.  I want to see it actually save someone’s life.  Preferably, someone who isn’t a main character.  Something else I’d like to see is more people who are just… wounded.  Not killed but just wounded.  This may surprise you but most casualties in a battle weren’t really fatalities.  Well, not immediately… wounds could be fatal but they didn’t die instantly.  I dislike seeing the aftermath of a battle and it’s a field littered with corpses.  It wouldn’t be that static.  There would be crying, people huddled in a ball, people writhing in pain.  It’s actually kind of hard to kill a person. But no.  Everyone must die instantly.

Oh, look.  D-Day.  Lelelelelelel.

Random thing to note.  The Romans believed their people were originally Trojans.  This is probably untrue.  However, I do think it’s a possibility that their neighbors to the north may have been Trojan. They were the Etruscans and not a lot is known about them.  The Romans had a tendency to adopt customs and cultural ideas from other cultures, look at their gods.  Basically reskinned Greek gods.  The Etruscans being Trojan?  Perhaps the Romans adopted their neighbors’ history and some of their identity.  Just a thought, of course.

“I spoke with two farmers today.  They saw an eagle with a serpent clutched in it’s talons today.  This is a sign from Mexico.  They will pay for our wall.”  I make myself laugh.

I’m not sure they’d be kissing.  I believe kissing was a Roman tradition.  Was very unusual in other cultures.

Looking at the extras for the armies, I’d say this may have been filmed in Turkey.  If so, they used the Turkish army as extras.  That’s a common thing to do.  You pay the government rather than the extras so it’s cheaper.  Then again, they may have filmed somewhere else.  I assumed Turkey because that’s where Troy is supposed to be.  But the Trojans aren’t Turks.  Remember that.

Lol, they look like my cousins actually.  I think I see one of Adela’s brothers.

Hrm, maybe they aren’t entirely from an army. If they are, then they allowed the soldiers to grow beards just for the movie.  I’m curious where it’s filmed now.  :o

...is this Mexico?

HOLY FUCK, IT MIGHT BE!!!  I just Googled it.  They filmed in Malta and Mexico.  Mexico was where they filmed the gates and wall of Troy. Whoa.  The extras probably are Mexican.  Certainly a lot of CGI.  And it makes the idea that the eagle with the serpent thing represents a sign from Mexico even better.  I wouldn’t have guessed Mexico but the guy with Agamemnon looked like one of my uncles.  Interesting. :D

Hector has a very handsome actor playing him.  More handsome than Brad Pitt I feel.

There is a nose guard on the helmet of Paris.  When we see through his perspective, however, it’s sawed off.

He spits out a lot of blood for what looks like SUCH a weak punch.

Apollonians… they look like every other soldier.  It probably would have been cheaper if their costumes were more realistic.  Minimal armor for the average soldier while the Apollonians would have actual armor.  That way, they’re unique and can be identified quickly.  Also, archers are op please nerf.

The Hittites are mentioned.  That’s pretty neat except the Hittites are on the other side of Turkey, almost Armenia.  I can’t remember if it were them or the Assyrians but one of their cultures relied on conquest.  Either their civilization conquered or the world would end.  They had to win EVERY battle… well, they lost a battle. World didn’t end.  Then their civilization collapsed.  The lesson there is push for victory but allow defeats.  You can lose every battle in a war but that doesn’t mean the war is lost.

I feel the scene where Achilles rescues the priestess is cliché.  So cliché.  :/

They’re listing off gods now.  Eh…  There were literally hundreds of gods in Greek culture.  Like, I touched on this back with Hercules.

Sean Bean actually has a rather soothing voice.  I never noticed that until now.  I remember in the Sharpe series, he pissed me off.  Even then, I think it was less to do with his character and more to do with Anglophilia.  As well as blatant classism.  And horrible cliches, again.  And inaccurate historical portrayals.  Then again, I guess the books may have been better.  Not sure.  It was suggested to me back when I played vidya gams.

Patroclus is a terrible actor.

“Attack at daybreak!”  *attacks in the middle of the night WITH FUCKING NAPALM!!!*

Really, if you could get so close to their camp without setting off the alarm, why not just go in and stab everyone quietly.  I mean, you’re already attacking at night.  Just… come on.  Wouldn’t Apollo have better watch over you when the sun is out?

I love how they march in the sand.  Like, they look like they’re running SO slowly.  Fun times.

The armies stop fighting to watch the best fighters fight.  I’m not sure how true that is but I’ve heard it’s happened on medieval battlefields before.

One of the extras in the back, shaking his head.  I love it.

“There are no turns, so you can’t get lost.  I know you too well.  Got lost in the fucking hallway… dumb bitch.”  I shouldn’t poke fun.  I get lost easily as well.

Archery. Ah, yes.  Warfare for the cowardly.

Good fight between Hector and Achilles… except Achilles forgot his helmet, shield, and spear head.  D’oh!

King Priam snuck into the Greek encampment.  Really?  If some old dude could do it then the Trojans could have snuck at least Hector in there.  Killed a few people, slit a few throats of sleeping Greeks and then flee.  Cause chaos or something.  Didn’t have to turn the beach into the Vietnam War.

Wait, Priam knew Achilles father?  And the king of Thessaly never even heard of Achilles?  The guy who is literally two yurts down from his palace?

CGI soldiers… huh.  I wonder why CGI movies aren’t more common.  I think they did something like that with Beowulf but it was just… weird.  Not a good movie.  There was a movie called Beowulf and Grendel which was interesting.  Not the best, either, but they had historically accurate armor.  Always nice.  Was true to the original lore, as well.

CGI might be cheaper than live action in terms of large battles and historical accuracy.  And if you’re doing a series, maybe you can reuse assets.  Then again, it might be more expensive due to… well, CGI taking time to do.  Time is literally money.

Oh, Aeneas has a part in this?  I was under the impression that he was a cousin of Hector and Paris.  Paris doesn’t know him?  Huh.

“We’ll be together!  In this world or the next!”  Erm…  The River Styx isn’t a very romantic setting.

Lol, this dude just bounced his shield.

There is a lot of impalings in this movie.

Oh, Agamemnon died.  Weird, I thought he survived the war.  I guess he was basically the antagonist in this movie… though I don’t think there really was an antagonist in the Iliad.  Every story nowadays needs someone to personify evil, I guess.  Where Achilles is honorable, Agamemnon seeks power.  They clash, thus they’re opposites.

Eh…  I prefer the idea of not having antagonists.  We expect the bad guy to lose.  To die.  To be punished.  In reality, this couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s not that life is tragedy, it’s just what you make of it. Those who do what they must ensure a better world for themselves and those they care about.  Behind every pair of eyes is a story.  And in every story, they will be their own hero.  And each story… each hero.  They’re all flawed.

That’s what makes a good character.

Geez, Achilles.  I bet you wish you didn’t forget your armor in front of the gates of Troy.  Dumb ass.

If I recall correctly, Achilles doesn’t die in the Iliad.  I’m not sure I remember the ending at all.  However, it’s suggested that Paris’s shot was guided by Apollo himself… because Paris is a coward and isn’t allowed to be credited with defeating Achilles. Poor, poor Paris.

Of course, I’ve heard a lot of things.  My dad told me about how Achilles was on his chariot, dragging Hector’s body and Paris prayed to Apollo to guide his arrow and it hit Achilles’s heel.  He falls off his chariot and his head hit a rock.  That’s what my dad told me.  I don’t actually know how he died but the way I heard it sounds dumb.  Also conflicts with the Iliad, which probably isn’t the most ACCURATE of sources, but I like the idea of Achilles finding a bit of peace by returning the body of Hector.

Alright. Movie is over.  Not as good as I remembered but it was decent.  :D

Current time is 2:30.  I did the thing I thought was probably annoying.  The movie thing.  Not really a review, more a walkthrough.  If you just read it while not watching the movie then I just describe dumb moments.  I said I wouldn’t do it again because it’s annoying. But I started and I couldn’t stop.  My weakness is historical facts in movies.  D’oh!  And I told Adela I’d do the dishes before I went to bed!  Also D’oh!

I’ll do them… it’s just really late.  I’m irresponsible.  A good reason to not document my movie viewing experience is because of this crap right here.  I started watching a two hour movie at 11.  Maybe before.  And I just finished it.  I did a lot of writing with the occasional stop by google to check where the movie was made and who died when. Btw, I was right.  Agamemnon survived the war.  -,-

Anyways, time for bed.  But first, dishes.  Night.