#this was fine until I had to use microsoft teams
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reaj3asa · 2 years ago
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going incognito until I assure myself that the throwaway email account I use for my tumblr, which turns out to be somehow linked to the microsoft account associated with a skype account I actually use, is not actually appearing on anything from real life -_____-
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physalian · 8 months ago
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You don’t have to pay for that fancy worldbuilding program
As mentioned in this post about writing with executive dysfunction, if one of your reasons to keep procrastinating on starting your book is not being able to afford something like World Anvil or Campfire, I’m here to tell you those programs are a luxury, not a necessity: Enter Google Suite (not sponsored but gosh I wish).
MS Office offers more processing power and more fine-tuning, but Office is expensive and only autosaves to OneDrive, and I have a perfectly healthy grudge against OneDrive for failing to sync and losing 19k words of a WIP that I never got back.
Google’s sync has never failed me, and the Google apps (at least for iPhone) aren’t nearly as buggy and clunky as Microsoft’s. So today I’m outlining the system I used for my upcoming fantasy novel with all the helpful pictures and diagrams. Maybe this won’t work for you, maybe you have something else, and that’s okay! I refuse to pay for what I can get legally for free and sometimes Google’s simplicity is to its benefit.
The biggest downside is that you have to manually input and update your data, but as someone who loves organizing and made all these willingly and for fun, I don’t mind.
So. Let’s start with Google Sheets.
The Character Cheat Sheet:
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I organized it this way for several reasons:
I can easily see which characters belong to which factions and how many I have named and have to keep up with for each faction
All names are in alphabetical order so when I have to come up with a new name, I can look at my list and pick a letter or a string of sounds I haven’t used as often (and then ignore it and start 8 names with A).
The strikethrough feature lets me keep track of which characters I kill off (yes, I changed it, so this remains spoiler-free)
It’s an easy place to go instead of scrolling up and down an entire manuscript for names I’ve forgotten, with every named character, however minor their role, all in one spot
Also on this page are spare names I’ll see randomly in other media (commercials, movie end credits, etc) and can add easily from my phone before I forget
Also on this page are my summary, my elevator pitch, and important character beats I could otherwise easily mess up, it helps stay consistent
*I also have on here not pictured an age timeline for all my vampires so I keep track of who’s older than who and how well I’ve staggered their ages relative to important events, but it’s made in Photoshop and too much of a pain to censor and add here
On other tabs, I keep track of location names, deities, made-up vocabulary and definitions, and my chapter word count.
The Word Count Guide:
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*3/30 Edit to update this chart to its full glory. Column 3 is a cumulative count. Most of what I write breaks 100k and it's fun watching the word count rise until it boils over.
This is the most frustrating to update manually, especially if you don’t have separate docs for each chapter, but it really helps me stay consistent with chapter lengths and the formula for calculating the average and rising totals is super basic.
Not that all your chapters have to be uniform, but if you care about that, this little chart is a fantastic visualizer.
If you have multiple narrators, and this book does, you can also keep track of how many POVs each narrator has, and how spread out they are. I didn’t do that for this book since it’s not an ensemble team and matters less, but I did for my sci-fi WIP, pictured below.
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As I was writing that one, I had “scripted” the chapters before going back and writing out all the glorious narrative, and updated the symbols from “scripted” to “finished” accordingly.
I also have a pie chart that I had to make manually on a convoluted iPhone app to color coordinate specifically the way I wanted to easily tell who narrates the most out of the cast, and who needs more representation.
Google Docs
Can’t show you much here unfortunately but I’d like to take an aside to talk about my “scene bits” docs.
It’s what it says on the tin, an entire doc all labeled with different heading styles with blurbs for each scene I want to include at some point in the book so I can hop around easily. Whether they make it into the manuscript or not, all practice is good practice and I like to keep old ideas because they might be useful in unsuspecting ways later.
Separate from that, I keep most of my deleted scenes and scene chunks for, again, possible use later in a “deleted scenes” doc, all labeled accordingly.
When I designed my alien language for the sci-fi series, I created a Word doc dictionary and my own "translation" matrix, for easy look-up or word generation whenever I needed it (do y'all want a breakdown for creating foreign languages? It's so fun).
Normally, as with my sci-fi series, I have an entire doc filled with character sheets and important details, I just… didn’t do that for this book. But the point is—you can still make those for free on any word processing software, you don’t need fancy gadgets.
I hope this helps anyone struggling! It doesn’t have to be fancy. It doesn’t have to be expensive. Everything I made here, minus the aforementioned timeline and pie chart, was done with basic excel skills and the paint bucket tool. I imagine this can be applicable to games, comics, what have you, it knows no bounds!
Now you have one less excuse to sit down and start writing.
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bakedbakermom · 7 months ago
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Wattpad's New AI-Review System and "The Purge"
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What's Happening?
The past week or so, there have been reports of user's stories getting shadow-banned (delisted from rankings) and sometimes even removed. This is due to Wattpad's recent deployment of an AI-powered tool used by their support team. (Source) The tool is designed to aid Wattpad in flagging guideline-breaking content with manual reviews of the stories flagged. When a story gets flagged, it is "shadow-banned" (i.e. removed from rankings and searches) until it's been reviewed by staff.
If your story has been removed, you can contact Wattpad Support to appeal the decision.
Also important: Wattpad's "age of consent" rule has been updated. Previously, it followed the Canadian federal law of sixteen (16) years or older. On April 15th, 2024, the guidelines will be updated to reflect the new age of consent requirements of 18+.
That means for content including sexual acts between characters, both characters must be eighteen (18) or older. More tame acts (i.e. kissing, holding hands) between underage (16+ years old) characters is still fine and sex can be alluded to, but may not be described. Please review the News and Updates channel for the full text.
What Is The "Wattpad Purge"?
The "Wattpad Purge" is one of the terms given to Wattpad's recent surge in removing stories.
As mentioned above, the AI tool flags the content for manual review by a human. This simply means that it's the same process as before, just faster. Most likely, users will continue to encounter the same roadblocks they have before - little to no information about why their story was removed, no notification of removal, etc.
If what they said is true, the AI has no connection to the removal of content beyond flagging it.
Is this only targeting LGBT+-related content?
At the moment, this is only a rumor. There are a few reports of non-LGBT+ stories being shadow-banned. However, plenty of authors have reported their LGBT+ stories have been affected. I, personally, have had my LGBT+-related content shadow-banned, though I've noticed my favorite author's are not (albeit, they are popular stories).
What can I do?
Realistically? Not much. Wattpad's support team are notoriously slow and often times actually unhelpful. You can contact Wattpad Support and ask about your works being shadow-banned, but nothing is guaranteed.
But, what you can do - and this is unanimously recommended by old-timers like me - is, please for the love of God, BACK UP YOUR STORIES! It is the most important thing for you to do for any kind of projects, not just writing. Back it up! Save it on a flash drive, the cloud, on an external hard drive, CD, tape, whatever you have! Heck, write it down in a notebook if you have to!
Write it off Wattpad, copy and paste it to there later. (Related: u/Anna__V's "PSA: Don't Write on Wattpad") There are a variety of programs you can use! Microsoft Office (Word online is free), Google Docs, Apple's Pages app, LibreOffice, etc. Someone was even advertising a program they were working on (Sonovel), and it cloud saves! For more recommendations, please check the Writing Resources document.
Forget it, I'm leaving Wattpad!
Looking for alternatives? (Related: Popular platforms that arent as bad as Wattpad) Here's a small list:
RoyalRoad
Inkitt
Tablo
Writer's Cafe
Penana
Archive of Our Own
Important to note: Users will be able to download a copy of your works.
For those looking to move to AO3, please see these related posts: [AO3 Etiquette] | [1] | [2]
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princess-of-the-corner · 4 months ago
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Toontown Rewritten Recap: January 2003 (Word of the Day)
Okay so, before I forget, I figured I’d mention this: With the exception of the post announcing the start of the Knock-Knock Joke contest, every single news blog post up to this point has been posted at 2:00 PM. Regardless, as 2014 began in the real world, Toontown Rewritten’s calendar was still in 2003.
January 1, 2003
Sir Max woke up to find that there was no update, as everyone had slept in too late.
He also noticed that the past three blog posts had all had “New Year” in the title, and thus got a word of the day calendar to try and avoid a repeat of that.
The word of the day was “Batrachomyomachy” (to make a mountain out of a mole hill). He hoped that the Toons wouldn’t have batrachomyomachy over the lack of an update, and then continued to try and work the word into as many sentences as possible for the rest of the blog post.
Sir Max is excited, however. As they’ve gotten more done in the past year than they have in the past five years of construction, he’s certain that everything will work out fine. ESPECIALLY with his word of the day calendar to keep things interesting!
The Toon Council President Election was coming, after all, AND they were planning on opening Toontown to the public that year as well!
Things were looking bright!
January 2, 2003
The word of the day was “floccinaucinihilipilification” (the action or habit of estimating something as worthless). Sir Max declared that no one would ever floccinaucinihilipilificate his posts ever again! (Also, that’s ACTUALLY part of Microsoft Word’s whitelist, unlike January 1st’s word of the day).
Also, Tammy the Tailor, a cream-colored rabbit, had decided to start selling clothing. As did the clothing shops in all of the other Playgrounds around town. As all of the Toons around town were stuck wearing the same clothes every day, this was met with much rejoicing.
Sir Max boasted that the Toons can drop by those shops for new habiliment, and then added that habiliment wasn’t even in the word of the day calendar.
The original plan for the clothing shops was for toons to have to complete Toon Tasks to get clothing tickets that they could redeem for new outfits, but one of the scientists at Loony Labs pointed out that toons would probably prefer to have the option of spending their own jellybeans. As such, clothing tickets will function more like coupons, while new outfits will instead cost 150 jellybeans.
And there was much rejoicing!
(Seriously, I don’t think anyone liked Toontown Online’s Clothing Ticket system. I think just about every server has made it possible to just buy clothes with jellybeans.)
January 3, 2003
It was Fat McStink’s birthday! Ever since the previous Wednesday, he’d been peeling apples and cutting apples for all of the apple pies he needed for his birthday.
If you’ll remember, however, Toontown had been trapped in a magically-enhanced winter, so the apples he had spent so much time preparing just turned sour. So all of his guests would have to share a single apple pie.
Thankfully, that wasn’t an issue, because nobody showed up to his birthday party!
Once he was done crying into his pie, he was able to finish it, but now he has a bunch of pies. He lacked both friends to share them with and enemies to throw them at.
So, he sadly wandered the streets of Toontown alone, until he bumped into Muddy Paws: someone whom had just recently joined the TTR Team. The two hit it off, and Muddy Paws was able to find a use for all the apple pies: building an Apple Launcher that alpha testers can download on the “Play” page of the website.
Don’t think about it too hard.
January 4, 2003
Sir Max announced that the TTR Team would be going for a soothing nature walk.
Hawkheart had gone up to the North Pole for Christmas, Too Many Secrets ate too much and had been in a food coma since New Years, and Shockley was busy assembling some kind of machine out of his Christmas gifts.
Point is, work was piling up, development was behind schedule, and they’d all hit a brick wall.
Thus, Sir Max decided the best thing they could do was to take a brief hiatus to go on a soothing, mind-clearing nature walk.
It might not have been the big Saturday update Toons were expecting, but even obsessive hobbyists need to take breaks every now and again.
January 11, 2003
Sir Max and friends just BARELY made it back to Toontown in one piece. They all had fun, by which Sir Max means they all nearly died several times, and his entire worldview has been forever altered by the things he has witnessed.
Basically, things were going well at first: Shockley only threatened to throw Too Many Secrets off a cliff twice, some nice, masked people took all their supplies, and then Sir Max fished up a Jellybean while trying to catch food.
Unfortunately, the Jellybean was actually a malevolent artifact forged by an eldritch evil, forcing  Sir Max and friends to go on a perilous journey to throw it into a volcano down the corridor from where they started. In order to ensure the Jellybean’s destruction, they needed to forge a Fellowship, or Friendship, of the Bean.
Goshi used the power of friendship and convenience store cosplay to become the Gandalf of the team.
Plus, the Toon TAGS that Loony Labs developed worked in conjunction with the portable hole system to allow them to teleport to each other. In Sir Max’s own words: “So yeah, the Jellybean might have been evil and driven us all against each other with greed and power, but we were driven against each other together. If that isn’t friendship, I don’t know what is.”
In the end, Sir Max and McQuack were able to destroy the Jellybean forever (after fighting their way past all the monsters guarding the volcano), and Goshi came in with a firehose to put out all the lava and let the duo escape safely.
They weren’t able to build anything while fighting for their lives against the forces of darkness, but they did bring back “tidings of Friendship”, which Loony Labs were MORE than happy to implement into the Toon TAGS system, allowing Toons to send friend requests to each other, in order to fill out their new Friends Lists!
Additionally, Toons could now teleport and whisper to their friends, regardless of location*. (Note: you can only teleport to a friend when they are in a location you have previously been to.) Additionally, you’ll receive whispers when friends are coming online or logging off.
Whispering was still SpeedChat only, though.
Additionally, the 50 friend cap from the Toontown Online days was removed, with the caveat being that a NEW limit would be placed upon the game entering beta.
January 12, 2003
Shockley had been gone for a while, and came back just in time for the nature walk, only to get separated from everyone before they encountered the Jellybean, so he had NO IDEA why everyone was just staring off into space (or what Sir Max’s Bean-related mumbling was all about).
Anyway, he explained that he was the city planner at the Toon Council meetings. He designed all the buildings and attractions in the town, based off of feedback from the toons, of course. He alluded to one Scientoon from Loony Labs having some PARTICULARLY good ideas, including one that’d be implemented in the then-near future.
Shockley recommended that everyone start filling out their friends lists, because they had quite the surprise planned…
January 13, 2003
Muddy Paws had fixed up the Apple Launcher so it could launch apples better. He used some new glue from Sticky Lou’s shop, plus sprayed it down thoroughly with bug spray from Fat McStink (apparently, the wood for the Apple Launcher came from the same woods where the Catching Game is played) in order to try and get all the bugs out of the launcher.
The Apple Launcher still couldn’t launch through Windows, but apparently they were experimenting with that.
January 14, 2003
Sir Max realized that he’d “lollygagged” (To move slowly, fall behind) on his word of the day calendar for the past 10 days, and thus has to make up for lost time.
In addition to the above word, he had to work in the words “Troglodyte”, “Anencephalous”, “Discombobulate”, Gobbledygook”, “Flibbertigibbet”, “Hemidemisemiquaver”, “Slangwhanger”, and “Pettifogger” (not to be confused with the Cog from Toontown: Corporate Clash. This predates THAT by roughly half a decade).
He also decides to burn the word of the day calendar, considering it more trouble than it’s worth (possibly due to the writer getting sick of the joke).
To see how he worked all those words into the blog post, click here.
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THE FRIENDSHIP OF THE BEAN
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himmelheim · 3 years ago
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Grab a cup and get comfortable cuz I have THOUGHTS:
Things I liked about Halo (TV) (Keep in mind we only have 1 episode. It's way too early for me to form a full opinion):
Sound effects from the game.
WORT WORT WORT
Natural Formation
Chief behind the wall waiting for his shields to recharge. Like, that's The Halo Experience.
That Pablo didn't imitate Steve. It may sound a bit too Mandalorian-y, but this is a different universe Chief so I'm ok with it. (Like, I have TWO Chiefs now. Life's good mate).
Action sequence at the start.
The fact that this is a separate timeline. I don't have to worry about writers ruining other mediums now (IF it goes wrong) so without that worry it's much easier to have fun. Smart move from Paramount after the SW Sequel fiasco.
Keyes/Halsey drama. Sign me up.
Silver Team. Sure, they're not Blue Team, but I like them already. Besides, Vannak gives me Sev/Paz vibes, so that's a plus.
Mjolnir Armor. You need to modify it irl because of stunt scenes and there's no way around that, so taking that into account; It was perfect imo. Also can't believe ppl are complaining about his footstep sound - it sounds fine, dude. At this point you're just nitpicking.
Pablo's acting. He's doing great considering the material he's been given.
Halsey. She's different, but in-timeline context I like this take on her SO FAR.
Things that could've been better/I'm not sure about:
Helmet scene. I don't mind a helmet scene at all because it's not like Spartans are (Children of the Watch) Mandos; but I think it was waaay to soon. Wait until ep 3 at least.
Miranda Keyes. It's way too soon to see where they'll take her, but she is a really different character.
Chief's humor. Sure, he is not main timeline Chief, and we got a glimpse with the bolts-microchips line, but I need the game sarcasm back, it's just too Chief. Hope they put it in the upcoming episodes. I mean, remember the crash scene with Cortana? He definitely had the BIGGEST shit eating grin under the helmet. You know John is a prankster at heart.
The weapons sounds. Should have been the same from the games - they would fit well and they are already using the game sfx for everything else, so...
The Covenant girl. I suppose the covenant keep her as nothing more than a forerunner relic opener, but...eeeeeh. Too soon to judge, but I don't vibe with this.
Captain Keyes. I don't mind the actor being black at all (Jesus, people). My only criticism is that he was, uhm pretty different from the games in terms of personality. That may not be a bad thing (?) but we'll see where this goes. Acting was great, however.
Timeline's pretty wonky, since this is before the Fall of the Reach but with elements from after that event. It's quite weird. But, considering that, I don't mind Chief's face being young and not-scarred. It's just fine.
Could use more game music. I get there are some disagreements with the composer (I think?) but ffs Microsoft just pay they guy or whatever and get back in route.
Cortana thing...it's way too early to judge for me, but it gives out weird vibes. Idk. Also, Halsey's relationship with the Spartans. Not... bad, per se, but weird.
Things I Did Not Like:
Kwan. Christ I'm trying to be empathetic but God she's annoying, and, much worse, pretty stupid. "Independence for Madrigal" where everyone is dead and am pretty sure nobody's visiting. "I can tell the other colonists the Spartans did it" ahahaha yeah you do that; the Covenant wipes out the entirety of humanity, then what? Hope you enjoy being the sole survivor a g a i n.
Good on the actress for working with that script tho.
Episode 1 with Chief running away with her is too much like Mando running away with Grogu, and even tho media was inevitably going to compare Halo TV to Mando, I really hope they aren't going down that route, it's just not going to work when Mando did it better. Also, Grogu is at least a cute little alien, Kwan's hair is a crime against humanity, poor girl.
Gun doesn't work for the insurrectionists but the moment Chief picks it takes down 3 aliens per second. He pulls the trigger harder, I suppose.
The UNSC being written like ONI. Like UNSC is authoritarian and shady, but no as much as ONI. Also, neither is stupid, which is literally what Parangosky was when she turned killing Kwan into this Super Important thing. Real Parangosky would just put her in a cell if she doesn't wanna collab until she cools down or smthing like that. Also, contemplating attacking Chief, omg.
Even UNSC in games was pissed whenever Chief said no, but they wouldn't dream of antagonising their best soldier. It get this is related to TV UNSC being much more controlling over Spartans than Game UNSC, (something I also didn't like, Spartans need a long leash to be creative like supersoldiers should be, game UNSC got that). At least she was smart enough to realize stopping him would take everything she's got.
I get it's a TV show limitation, but I'm just too used to Chief towering over everyone like, even more. This is more me talking minor stuff than a real critique, but I had to say it.
All in all, I'm liking the show a lot so far.
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naturedust · 4 years ago
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The Arcana characters during the Covid-19 pandemic: Part 1 (Asra, Julian, Valerius)
hi everyone! i felt really happy whilst writing this. in each set of headcanons, the apprentice lives with that character! i don’t specify if there’s anything romantic or sexual going on between them though. this is VERY detailed, i’m still writing out muriel, nadia, portia, and lucio’s headcanons so they’ll come in part 2 <3 i hope you enjoy!! AO3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27529276/chapters/67324228
Asra
asra hosts weekly magic workshops (covering very very basic magic) with the apprentice over microsoft teams 💻 each workshop has a small fee, with all proceeds going to local vesuvian charities like mask suppliers, and food banks (who he tries to donate extra food to every week) supporting the poorest amongst their population. it was the apprentice who first suggested he do this, on a day he was feeling really afraid in the face of the pandemic.
i think he has days when he feels really helpless and trapped – and it runs a little deeper than cabin fever and restlessness. other than the pain he’d experience if he lost the apprentice again, being unable to do things freely is the worst situation he can think of... as much as asra prioritises the apprentice’s mental health, he doesn’t practice emotional expression a lot. he truly strives to be there for the apprentice and even when he remembers how they suffered after coming back...asra only cries silently at night when they are asleep – when he knows they can’t hear him. 
that’s part of the reason why he’s always seemed so mysterious in the game — growing up without his parents meant that he learnt to push down his fear and put on a brave face... and one of the reasons why he goes on trips without much explanation is to escape reality for a bit. he lets his vulnerability show only on the worst of days (like the day the apprentice died). on days where asra feels really afraid of the world and defeated, the apprentice takes over his shop duties and brews much more lapsang souchong than usual to comfort him. so much that even passerbys outside the shop are caught in the smokiness of it! unlike the red plague, every community in the world is affected, and there is nowhere for asra to escape to. this includes nopal. after vesuvia’s Covid-19 situation gets better though, he and the apprentice stay there sometimes as a mini vacation of sorts and it brings him peace 🏜
asra’s leading an effort to make high quality masks more accessible to vesuvians. in fact, that local mask provider i mentioned earlier is his initiative. he set it up after seeing people buy all the beaked plague doctor masks (the PPE of vesuvia) that actual working doctors need access to. he would never admit it but, when asra thinks about the doctors, julian is the first who comes to mind. anyways, the masks asra designs are stunning. he spends tireless nights testing their 3-ply efficacy, and they aren’t just plain blue or white – there are intricate details imprinted on them through his magic 🔮 
i think asra would also be really into coming up with new herbal concoctions for customers, after he notices how tired people look from being indoors all day – for example, he’s developed an immune system-boosting drink that’s a gorgeous swirly purple colour 🍶 it’s similar to traditional chinese medicine. also he only uses ethically sourced, 100% local herbs (by local, i mean from nopal and the tarske forest, where muriel helps him collect wildflowers and herbs!!)  🌿 he uses spells to counter the toxicity of his favourite belladonna flower and it becomes a superfood staple of his concoctions
he goes out every couple of days just to gather herbs and ingredients for aforementioned concoctions, always prioritising the ones he makes for the apprentice and always making those sweeter, taking more time to create colourful depths in them that resemble galaxies. asra also makes particular effort to bring back a wide range of fruits from his local trips as it always cheers the apprentice up 🍈
asra invents the most effective, affordable, environmentally-friendly, non-toxic and skin-friendly hand sanitiser and because this magician is the sweetest person ever and cares much more about people’s lives than making a profit during the pandemic, he shares the recipe online for free & magicians all around the world recreate the hand sanitiser for their local neighbourhoods. he’s since been featured in a couple of “Top 10 People You Should Follow” lists in business magazines and there’s an online petition with over 200k signatures calling for his nobel prize nomination lol. asra insists he doesn’t care about fame but when the apprentice laughs about these recognitions, they always notice asra’s eyes crinkling
asra would also become a lot more active on his youtube channel. that’s right, he’s always had a youtube channel, he’s just had a million hiatuses because of all his adventures. he has around 20,000 subscribers (and a similar amount on instagram...his feed is colourful and full of pictures depicting his travels, the shop, and above all, the apprentice). since he’s decided to stay at the shop with the apprentice – who is actually a little more vulnerable than others to viruses, because of their “reborn” form – he has the time to post weekly videos again. i think asra wouldn’t want to show his face in any of the videos, and not on his instagram either... and it’s got nothing to do with his self-esteem – he just wants the focus to be on what he’s doing rather than how he looks. the videos vary from very domestic vlogs with titles like “what two magicians do in a day” to packed af guides like “🐍 SPELLS TO REFINE AT HOME 🐍” & “crystals that can calm you during these times” and his wildly popular “carving crystals i mined: in real time” ⏳ the apprentice is a permanent fixture in all of them <3 viewers always assume they’re together and whether they are or not...that’s for you to think about ;)
asra is big on healing crystals and gemstones. like really, really big on them. he always makes sure to inform his customers and audiences that they are alternatives and not substitutes, and that sicknesses need real medicine & they can’t just wear a crystal in place of a mask (bc that’s happened before and he felt so guilty for carving and selling the crystal in question) what’s strange is, even though he usually sources his crystals from other countries during his travels, there seem to more than ever all around the shop and the apartment upstairs..
when the apprentice asks about it, it turns out that asra goes mining alone in nopal! he doesn’t really like to mine the actual desert as he’s only ever dug up gold and silver there. one time, he accidentally stumbled upon a cave at the edge of nopal and – ever the curious wandering magician – he ventured deep within it and found amazing crystals and gemstones everywhere 💎 he never mentioned it to the apprentice because he always thought it was too dangerous for them to go, until they remind him it’s dangerous for him too. from that day onwards they go looking for crystals every weekend together :’)
if asra was living alone, he would be fine with just wearing a mask to go outside. but since he lives with the apprentice – and especially after what happened during the red plague – he’s not risking ANYTHING. he wears aviator goggles and eco-vinyl gloves when he’s in the market, just to be extra safe, though when he’s out foraging he takes off his mask because there’s usually no one else there & it’s way too humid. the apprentice likes to make fun of how steampunk he looks & the way the big goggles make his hair extra poofy  🤍 
Julian
julian is on the frontlines of the vesuvian pandemic response. with his experience as a doctor – specifically, a frontline doctor during the red plague who discovered the cure (!!!) – he is revered by new doctors and nurses, most of whom are volunteers. when the pandemic first begins, there aren’t formal hospitals or medical schools set up in vesuvia, so he has to make do by reopening his clinic in the centre city, as an alternative to valdemar’s one in the palace – which, quite frankly is the stuff of nightmares for most of the population
as you know, julian is universally loved by the vesuvian people... so the waiting list of the hospital branch he works at is ALWAYS full. patients always report how gentle and attentive he is and how comforted they feel in his presence. even though he has to wear a hazmat suit and the plague doctor beak mask, he is known for visiting the most severely affect Covid-19 patients and holding their hands in their last moments.
the apprentice brings different flowers to put inside his beak mask every day (this is a headcanon that i’m pretty sure originated from the writer telanaris on AO3!!) to give julian some small comfort amongst all the death and suffering he’s witness to every day. they go out to the tarske forest or even to nopal with asra, or sometimes alone. because julian mentioned wolfsbane was his favourite flower once, the apprentice picked some without knowing that they’re poisonous. long story short, they blacked out and woke up in his clinic with an extremely worried julian nearly in tears launching into a self-blame monologue, about to black out himself from staying by their side the whole night
i also think julian would be featured in the news a lot and sometimes pretty randomly. he gives official weekly Covid-19 updates on the main vesuvian tv news channel – though the apprentice stands in for him after the first two weeks (he tries very hard to refuse their help because he doesn’t want to burden them, even though they assure him they actually want to relieve him of at least one of his burdens since he’s a full-time pandemic doctor – and because he almost fainted from exhaustion the second time. the apprentice kindly, but sternly asks him to take care of himself too, as he does everyone else)
he would just be on the news in general too...his random acts of kindness would go viral on social media – “Vesuvian Doctor Helps Elderly In Race for Toilet Paper.” ❤️ “Local Doctor Delivers Groceries for Struggling Families.” and his “grandmothers” in nevivon always get excited when they see him on the news and send letters to congratulate him (much to his embarrassment). julian would also go viral on twitter. one photo of him has 100k retweets: “oh my fcking god i just rounded the corner and there’s this really fucking t a l l man handing out free bottles of sanitiser. i don’t need to see him under his plague beak to know he’s hot af HELP” and the apprentice would retweet it saying “so proud of my bf” and the internet would go wild over this comment. it’s up to you to decide if they’re actually together or not hehe bc who knows the apprentice might’ve meant best friend 🤷🏻‍♀️
he sets up a youtube channel with no profile picture or description to upload a single video... “How to PROPERLY use hand sanitiser!” and all the comments are just about his looks and voice 😚 it reaches cities outside of vesuvia and because the hand sanitiser in the video is locally made (by asra!) it quickly becomes sold out by either those who don’t know how to do magic or people without access to the products being replicated by other magicians... because a lot of them actually marked up the price :(  + even communities that are afraid of magic buy it because asra’s detailed method and julian’s instructive marketing combined are that effective. a power couple... in another life, perhaps 💫
julian would then be invited to do a city-sponsored video guide on how to wash your hands (the idea is helmed by nadia, of course, who recognises the usefulness of his newfound fame). not only would he be extremely exhausted from full-day shifts, he’d also be overthinking to the point of hyperventilation before filming starts – but he surprises the apprentice with how professional and clear he is in the videos. a true thespian at heart, instead of happy birthday, he improvises on set and sings an old tune from nevivon instead as he washes his hands for 20 seconds 🌊 lemme just say...his hands also go viral lol. also, julian could be a tik tok star if he wanted to. he’s certainly got the moves for it, and can easily achieve the e-boy vibe – plus, he’s gone viral on there several times already!
even though julian doesn’t seem to care when he’s in danger, he’s very meticulous when it comes to the apprentice’s safety. living through his second pandemic and working with patients first hand means that he is very aware of how severe the situation is. every morning he prepares a 99:1 water:bleach ratio spray to spray his shoes when he comes home. he refuses to even touch the apprentice (for fear of passing on anything from the clinic) before he’s taken off his mask, thrown it away safely – then showering and washing his hair thoroughly.
having grown up in nevivon, i like to think that julian is really environmentally conscious, especially with regards to the sea. he used to go diving in the sea to retrieve trash, and as a young man he made a habit of going to the docks every weekend to remove plastic containers and wires from around the necks of salt seals 🌫. so, no matter how tired he is, when he comes home to the apprentice, julian never forgets to snip the ear loops of his surgical masks in half, as he knows sea creatures can get caught up in them. i’m sure he makes a second youtube video at some point to talk about this issue. tldr julian is an environmental activist <3
Valerius
so it’s been a long while since valerius was freed from you-know-who. his personality has definitely changed a lot since then... he’s back to his old and real self (which we never really saw in the game) 🌄 he works side by side with nadia now, not only as colleagues but also genuine friends, and he oversees the health department. he sets up dozens of hospitals and more general clinics in and out of vesuvia, consulting experienced doctors in vesuvia like julian as well as officials from neighbouring countries and states. as a side note, valerius is actually a very humble person and the most attentive listener you will ever meet. people from neighbouring governments & royal households admire him immensely as a result <3
out of everyone, i think valerius would be the most careful during the pandemic. during the red plague he witnessed lucio’s illness up close and it’s had a profound impact on him. he worries about the apprentice, a lot. more than anyone who knows him expects him to. he’s always the first to notice and remind them if their mask is falling down their nose, or if they’re about to rub their eyes with unwashed hands. you will never catch him forgetting to wear a mask or touching his face at all when he’s outside. he takes the time to use disinfectant wipes to clean everything he brings back home one by one, and though valerius is adamant it’s not the apprentice’s responsibility (because most of the things are usually files from the palace he has to go through before the next morning or things he brings back from the market) the apprentice always insists they want to help out :’) so it becomes a nice daily evening ritual, sitting together on the floor after returning from the palace, cleaning their things in silence together 💜
speaking of things he buys, valerius loves the marketplace. he discovers it one day by accident when looking for a bouquet of 🌹 red roses 🌹 to bring back for the apprentice, who was particularly upset that day after helping valerius out at the new hospitals and not being able to help any of the patients as much as they would have liked with their magic. when valerius stumbles across the marketplace, he is absolutely amazed by the colours and smells that surround him. he spends a lot of his free time and lunch hours looking through jewellery stalls – especially hairpins and hair sticks. 
anyone looking at him would be able to see how much care valerius puts into maintaining his hair. because he washes his hair every day (to avoid bringing any Covid-19 related germs into bed), and because being free from you-know-who has made him a lot more open to magic... not to mention because he actually lives with the apprentice now 💜 i think valerius would also consult asra about magical hair masks and conditioners, to keep his very long and thick hair healthy and soft, despite washing it every day.
he knows from accidentally overhearing asra a long time ago that the apprentice loves pumpkin bread, so he asks around for hours until he finally finds the baker’s stall 🍞 it takes hours because valerius is really bad with directions and gets lost a few times... it doesn’t help that he’s distracted by all the different foods and jewellery that he’s never seen before (he picks up a nice ring for the apprentice, and yes he’s so attentive and familiar with jewellery that he guesses their ring band size correctly). from that day onwards, once or twice a week, he wakes up a little earlier than usual to sneak out of his estate and buy the bread, so that the apprentice can enjoy it – freshly made, warm, and their favourite – for breakfast 🥣
yes, he has an estate (this mr. darcy-like headcanon is from jane_ways on AO3!!) and he treats his household employees very well, offering paid leave for all of them so that they can stay with their own families. in their absence, he proves to be an incredible cook, albeit a little rusty because he hasn’t cooked anything substantial since being under you-know-who’s influence and because he’s been too busy at the palace to eat anything that isn’t catered. 
due to social distancing, the apprentice and him eat in a lot more – valerius is very ambitious and soon moves past making homemade dishes... he cooks blown out, elaborate dinners and prepares creative and (visually) beautiful packed lunches to bring to work 🍴 whenever the apprentice has to work late he brings them dinners inspired by the colours of the shop that day – he is hesitant to admit it, at first, but he’s always admired the crystals there, and he is often inspired by them in his food presentations. asra is ever perceptive and gifts him a few (polished amethyst because he used to be an insomniac, black tourmaline and selenite to keep you-know-who at bay 💎) soon after the apprentice frees him from the curse
i really see valerius as someone who against all expectations is really into hands-on work like welding and carving – things that can get messy. he’s slowly trying to get rid of it, but since he first started working at the palace he’s maintained a very prim and posh appearance. he really loves to weld jewellery like rings and earrings. before the pandemic began, he took a few classes in the marketplace – classes which are on hiatus now, of course. he's set up a little studio in his estate and wears a blacksmith’s apron and goggles and everything. it’s honestly quite the sight. whenever the apprentice is working longer hours at the shop making potions with asra, he goes into the studio to continue his projects. some of the ones he’s proudest of are: the pure-silver wine rack, the gold headbands and rings he makes for himself – and then for the apprentice too when they keep “borrowing” his – and his favourite of all is his first ever project: the cast iron skillet that took him over a week to weld. he hand engraved the apprentice and his initials onto its handle <3  you don't need to read any of this as a romantic gesture, because friends can definitely do the same!
i like to think that prakra managed the pandemic especially well, and that valerius sits down to have zoom calls with queen nasrin to discuss ways the two places can collaborate and help each other 👑 she becomes his mentor of sorts, as he’s still relatively young and inexperienced when it comes to governing a city-state like vesuvia. when nasrin visited nadia before at the palace, she was not a fan of valerius at all and was just as wary of him as nadia was. however she becomes very fond of him as a result of their collaboration, and even starts to see him as a son ❕ other than the apprentice, nasrin would be the second person valerius talks the most freely with. initially he is very reluctant to share anything about his life, let alone his past before landing the consul job – but he eventually opens up and nasrin plays a role in helping him move past his failures (his eyes are opened after the apprentice frees him, and he feels immense shame from how he didn’t lead vesuvia very successfully in nadia’s absence)
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o-wyrmlight · 3 years ago
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1, 2, 5, 7, 11, 21, 22, 30
Feel free to take some off if I'm doing too many at once
1. Which of your fics would you keep the basic plot of but rewrite completely?
Honestly, I almost did re-write an old Kirby fanfic of mine from scratch. It's not on my AO3 at all--I initially wrote it on Fanfiction-dot-net when I was in Middle School and High School--but I didn't really have a solid framework for how the plot for it would develop. I got some ideas a year or two ago and was working on plotting out a whole re-write for it (the basic premise being 'Meta Knight crashes in Dreamland instead of Kirby), but it never really got horribly far. (And yes. It was very strongly inspired by another fanfic called Warrior of the Stars. It was a very good read, until I stopped reading it. It was fantastic.)
2. Anything that you'd like to write but feel like you're unable to?
I want to write absolute and pure softness. Fluff, cuddles, warmth, hot chocolate--but I'm just not good at it. It doesn't settle right with me, writing soft things. I'm a lot more comfortable with writing angst. And it honestly does make me kind of sad.
5. What's a tag you never want to use for your works even when it applies?
I don't??? Know??? Tagging is very important for other people to know what stories that they'd want to avoid or what to expect. I can't think of anything that I wouldn't want to tag even if it did apply for that reason. If anything, I probably over-tag. And a reason why some of my stories might not have some tags is because I don't know if it's pertinent enough for the tags to apply, you know?
7. Your favourite ao3 tag.
I don't know, dude--I just Vibe in AO3 for the most part. I don't really filter by tags, unless I'm just looking for stories by characters or pairings.
I do think that the 'No beta--we die like [insert fandom-related joke here]' tag is funny, though!
11. Three tropes that are fine but overrated
Answered!
21. Can you accurately predict how long your fics are going to be? If you can, what's your secret?
HAHAHA. No, sweet summer child. My first Cookie Run fanfic that I made was meant to be a drabble. A drabble! Yet now it stands at 4.77k words! My Hollow Knight fanfic Mellow in Softness? I meant for that dumb Wyrm to leave the fucking Abyss in chapter 2 or 3, but no, he just had to be a sad, mopey little shit. My old Kirby fanfic? Don't remember the specifics, but it was on average 17 Microsoft Word pages. Sometimes 27. I was a writing maniac when I was in Middle School.
22. What is it about watching the same two idiots falling in love over and over again?
It's the longing. It's the pining. It's the dynamics between the two characters shifting just so in each alternate universe or story and watching as it develops in its own colorful, floral ways. It's reading them and watching their chemistry together unfold. It's the inevitable knowledge that--whatever may happen to these stupid, precious, lovable idiots--they'll at the very least experience those happenings together.
It's just nice.
30. Describe a fic that almost happened, but then it didn't.
A plot summary of yet another Team Fortress 2 fanfic that I wanted to work on but ended up never doing (Note: Mention of abuse and cyborgfication):
'Dell came from an abusive home with an abusive father who was obsessed with the idea of becoming and making his son a cyborg. When Dell gets word that his dad was released from prison on good behavior, he grows paranoid and frightened that he'll find his way to the base and finish the job that he started years and years ago. Title: The House of Violence'
It was meant to sort of explore PTSD and also the stress of being put suddenly in a dangerous situation that you didn't know what exactly to expect from. I guess that sort of goes without saying. I sort of mulled over the story for a bit but pretty much all of the details are pretty much forgotten.
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askagamedev · 4 years ago
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Some time ago you talked about why a game might get cancelled. Can I ask what might happen to them afterwards? Do they get locked up forever or gutted so what worked can be used later? Can a cancelled game ever come back up for reconsideration?
The answer to your questions is all “yes”. Each cancelled game is its own situation. Many factors are involved with what happens to a cancelled project, such as how far into development was the game when it was cancelled and the publisher’s overall development strategy for the development studio. This often boils down to how the company’s decisionmakers feel about the major parts of the project. If there are influential people at the company pulling for it, it will likely survive. If the movers and shakers dislike a project, it is likely doomed.
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Most cancelled games fall into the doomed category and are simply archived and never considered again, often eventually being lost to time when the hardware fails or the archives are deleted to free up resources for a new project. The vast majority of these never even get to the prototype stage, being cancelled very early during ideation and prototyping before the costs ramp up too high. These rarely get rescued from the wasteland, but the concepts may be resurrected later if one of the team leaders gets an opportunity later. I know I have a few of these ideas in my back pocket in case I ever get an opportunity to pitch them.
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Some cancelled projects have parts reworked and used for other games. One of the most famous examples of this is probably Titan, Blizzard’s cancelled MMORPG. Titan was quietly cancelled after a few years in development, but some of the concept art, world building, and characters were adapted and rebuilt to create what would eventually become Overwatch. Obviously, a match-based hero shooter is a very different beast than a MMORPG, but Overwatch definitely proves the point that (parts of) a cancelled game can still be used for a game that can make it to the public.
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In rare conditions, a game built by an indie studio is cancelled by its publisher and the studio decides to keep running with it. One of the more famous examples of this was Psychonauts, an offbeat platformer developed by Double Fine. Psychonauts’ original publisher was supposed to be Majesco, but Majesco ran into financial difficulties and had to pull the plug. Rather than drop the project, Double Fine’s leadership and the remaining dev team ran on fumes (even to the point of the company issuing IOUs to their workers in lieu of pay) until they managed to secure Microsoft as their new publisher and eventually release the game to critical acclaim and disappointing sales.
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It isn’t uncommon to see elements of cancelled games get resurrected in small ways here and there, but it is a fairly rare occurrence to see a cancelled game fully resurrected - games are most often cancelled for a good reason, and those reasons don’t often change. Most big games take years to build, while the overall gaming landscape changes quickly both in terms of technology and what the public likes. Cancelled games are certainly interesting snapshots in time but an interesting snapshot from years ago may no longer be a viable product today.
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emy-loves-you · 4 years ago
Text
Wrong Numbers and Useless Gays Chapter 6
Who the F*ck’s Rebecca? OR How the 3 Gays got Together
Virgil learns about Roman’s childhood, specifically his sister and how he ended up dating Patton and Logan.
Warning: Misgendering of a character (but no one knows that the character is trans)
Yes, Roman and Remus are brothers. Explanations are listed at the bottom
Chapter 5 | Masterlist | Chapter 7
V- (2:07 PM) Let it Go was the best song in Frozen and you cannot convince me otherwise
R- (2:07 PM) I respect your opinion, but hear me out: Love is an Open Door
V- (2:08 PM) No
R- (2:08 PM) What about Fixer Upper?
V- (2:09 PM) Still no.
P- (2:09 PM) I really liked Olaf’s song about Summer!
L- (2:10 PM) I personally enjoyed the reprise of First Time in Forever.
R- (2:10 PM) You like almost any song with a reprise
L- (2:10 PM)I will not argue that, as successfully executed reprises are “lit.”
R- (2:11 PM) Ah, and who among us could forget the absolute BOP that is… that weird ice-cutting song.
P- (2:11 PM) I don’t know, Roman. I think that song is, pretty COOL
R- (2:11 PM) Oh, lookout
V- (2:12 PM) What? He’s just saying it’s a CHILLED out groove.
R- (2:12 PM) Ugh
L- (2:12 PM) We might need you two to leave this chat if you don’t stop.
Virgil laughed, throwing his phone on the bed and stripping out of his clothes. He just finished jogging home from Janus’ (he didn’t own a car right now, preferring to walk or have Janus pick him up). It was a lazy afternoon in late September, and all Virgil wanted to do was get out of these sweaty clothes and maybe take a nap. He heard his phone go off multiple times as he got dressed, probably Patton and Logan arguing about the purpose of puns. He flopped down onto his bed and grabbed his phone, checking the new messages.
P- (2:14 PM) Lo, the Princes are calling.
L- (2:14 PM) Tell Roman not to answer, Patton. We’ve been over this.
P- (2:14 PM) They’re asking about us, Lo.
L- (2:14 PM) Tell Roman to hang up. They’re not worth it.
P- (2:15 PM) They’re yelling now, L. They brought up Rebecca. What do I do?
L- (2:15 PM) Just walk into another room, Patton. Ignore them. Do you want me to call you?
P- (2:15 PM) No, I’m good. Just keep texting me. I need a distraction.
Now, Virgil had no idea about what the fuck was going on. But he knew how to distract someone. He’d just have to trust them to tell him later.
V- (2:16 PM) Did you know that octopi have 3 hearts?
L- (2:16 PM) What
P- (2:16 PM) That just means they have more love to give!
V- (2:17 PM) The longest recorded flight of a chicken is 13 seconds
P- (2:17 PM) Such a good bird!
V- (2:17 PM) Babies do not regularly produce tears until they are 1-3 months old
L- (2:18 PM) Ah, I think I understand now
V- (2:18 PM) A ‘jiffy’ is an actual unit of time. It stands for 1/1000th of a second
L- (2:18 PM) Falsehood. A jiffy is 1/100th of a second
V- (2:19 PM) Sorry, my hand must’ve slipped.
L- (2:19 PM) You would be unable to walk on Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus or Neptune because they have no solid surface.
L- (2:20 PM) An asteroid about the size of a car enters Earth’s atmosphere roughly once a year. However, it burns up before it can reach us.
L- (2:20 PM) The highest mountain known to man is on an asteroid called Vesta. It is approximately three times the height of Mount Everest.
P- (2:21 PM) I think they hung up. Thanks for keeping me company, Kiddos!
L- (2:21 PM) It was not an issue, Patton.
V- (2:21 PM) Yeah, no problem Pat. Now can someone explain what just happened?
L- (2:23 PM) As you can probably tell, I am not home at the moment. Apparently, Roman’s parents decided to call him and an argument broke out. The rest is not my place to say.
Virgil bit his lip, refusing to look at his phone screen. Did Virgil have the right to ask about that. It was obviously a very sensitive topic, and Virgil had only known Roman for about 3 months now. Virgil felt like he knew a lot about his 3 crushes (their quirks, their favorite sweets, their goals in life), but he knew very little about their lives before Virgil had met them. Which was fine; they knew very little about Virgil’s life, too. But he desperately wanted to help Roman; to make him feel happy and safe and loved. Virgil sighed, setting his phone on his nightstand. If Princey wants to tell me what’s going on, I’ll listen. If not, I’ll just have to deal with it.
Virgil woke up from his nap to the sound of his phone going off. He blindly felt around for it, his face still firmly planted in his pillow. He finally found it, turning it on before he lifted his head to read the text. It was a private message from Princey.
R- (3:02 PM) You’re probably wondering what happened today.
V- (3:02 PM) I am, but you don’t have to tell me if you’re not comfortable. I’ll respect your privacy.
R- (3:02 PM) As much as I appreciate that, you still deserve to know.
R- (3:03 PM) Do you mind if I call you? This doesn’t feel like a conversation to have over text.
Virgil thought about it for a moment. He originally never wanted to call Roman, simply because he might recognize Virgil’s voice as Anxiety’s. However, not only was Virgil 99% confident that Roman had never even heard of The Dark Sides, Virgil’s head was still foggy after his nap. Before he knew it, he was already calling Princey’s phone.
“Virgil?” Roman didn’t sound as… grand as Virgil expected. His voice was subdued and slightly hoarse, probably from the screaming match with his parents.
“Heya, Princey.” Virgil cringed at how gravelly his voice sounded. He’ll need to get some water after this conversation is over.
“You sound so tired. Oh my stars, did I wake you up? I’m so sorry. I’ll let you get back to sleep-”
“Princey, it’s okay. Just finished my nap. Might not talk much, but ‘m all ears.”
“Alright. Where do I even begin?”
“Take your time. ‘m not pressurin’ you or anythin’.”
“(sigh) You’re right. I guess I should start at the beginning. I grew up in a very... conservative household. My parents expected me and my sister, Rebecca, to be perfect. ReeRee was my partner in crime. We did everything together up until highschool. My parents expected me to get a football scholarship and date the hottest girl in school. I did those things, not because I wanted to, but because they wanted me to. ReeRee was a different story. When my parents signed her up for cheerleading, she tried to join the football team instead. When they told her she should wear her hair in a ponytail, she cut it off to match mine. I didn’t understand, and it made me angry. It was like looking in a funhouse mirror; she was starting to look more and more like me, and yet each change made my parents angrier. Why was looking and acting like me a problem? I thought they liked this version of me! One night in the summer before junior year I was really frustrated and I took it out on her. I told her to stop acting like me. I knew she didn’t deserve my anger, so I went to Patton’s place to cool down. By the time I came home, my parents refused to acknowledge that I even had a sister. I pushed her away, and now I’ll never get her back.
After that, things changed. I was so angry, and everything I saw reminded me of her. I quit the football team, because every time I went down to the field I expected to see her. I dyed my hair, because every time I looked in the mirror I saw her staring back. I stopped caring about what my parents thought, ‘cause it was their opinions that dragged me into this mess!
I had already been friends with Patton since Freshman year, but me and Logan had been at each other’s throats . We were always bickering about something, and sometimes I used our arguments to vent out my anger at whatever was wrong at the time. I didn’t even realize how much I had cared about Patton and Logan until I learned about the LGBTQ+ community. My parents were super strict, and Patton and Logan didn’t exactly flaunt their relationship. I had no idea that liking guys was even an option . Once I learned about it, my parents quickly tried to shut it down. Everyday, they’d start their day telling me that ‘homosexuality is a sin’ and ‘God made you to be the gender you were born with!’ If they had told me that before ReeRee left, I might’ve believed them. But by this point, I didn’t care about a single thing they told me.
So one day, I’m arguing with Logan about who knows what, and suddenly we’re inches apart, and I remember pa saying ‘ a boy should never kiss another boy.’ And just think, ‘Fuck it.’ And now me and Pocket Protector are suddenly making out behind the school building. Microsoft Nerd asks why the hell I decided to make out with him of all people, and I break down right there. He agreed to keep it a secret, but he refused to do anything more than a simple make-out session until he had Padre’s consent to do so. Which I understood, consent is important, cheating is bad.
Now we’re having these ‘sessions’ at least once a week for almost 4 months. Patton eventually walked in on us and he was understandably upset. I explained what had happened and that I’ve had a crush on both of them for a while. And they’re like ‘cool, we’re polyam.’ And now I’m starting senior year dating two men, which mom and pa were not okay with. I told ‘em to fuck off and we moved away as soon as we graduated. They still call occasionally, asking when I’m gonna get my life together and get over losing ReeRee. I haven’t blocked ‘em yet in case they find her or change their minds.”
Roman finally took a deep breath. “Sorry about the rant. Didn’t realise how badly I needed to get that off my chest.”
Virgil snorted. “Don’t worry ‘bout it. Told ya I’d be a good ear. And Princey?”
“Yeah?”
“You don’t gotta do anything to impress someone else. You bein’ you is good enough. And if Rebecca could see you, I’m sure she’d be proud as hell. And don’t be ‘fraid to hit me up if you need someone other than your SOs to rant to; I’ll always be here for ya, Princey.”
“... Thank you, Virgil. I didn’t realize how much I needed to hear that until you said it.” He sighed, and Virgil could hear the sound of running water. “I’m gonna go drink some water. My throat burns like a bitch right now.”
“Same. Catch you later?”
He could hear Roman chuckle to himself. “I guess you shall. Farewell, Storm Cloud. And pleasant dreams!”
Virgil blushed. The way Roman said his nickname… it made Virgil’s gay heart nearly explode. He quickly hung up and buried his face back into his pillow. I’ll get water later. AFTER my heart stops racing.
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Now, for those of you wondering about why Virgil doesn't realize that Roman and Remus are brothers, I'm gonna put a quick explanation here, 'cause I don't know how to casually fit this into the story. 1.) Remus has never told Virgil his deadname or his last name. He's probably told Janus (since their pretty close) but Virgil doesn't know. 2.) Remus has never told Virgil that his brother's name is Roman. Additionally, when Virgil is talking about the 3 gays, he only calls them "Pat, Lo and Princey." 3.) Roman's parents didn't tell him that Remus transitioned, so he doesn't know that Rebecca now goes by Remus. Also, none of the characters have actually sent pictures of their faces, so none of them have any idea what the other looks like. 4.) It is a total coincidence that both twins moved to the same town. Remus believes that Roman still lives in their hometown, and Remus could be dead for all that Roman knows. There is no logical reason for them to think "maybe Virgil's friends with my long-lost sibling" 5.) Virgil would NEVER out his friends like that. He tells Janus and Remus everything, but he would NEVER betray Roman's trust like that. Same thing for telling Roman about Remus. Roman might know that Remus is trans, but he doesn't know about Remus' background. ONE LAST THING: Roman and Virgil will eventually see each other face-to-face but WON'T recognize each other's voices. This is because during the phone call Virgil is still groggy from waking up and Roman is still hoarse from screaming.
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Taglist: @bisexualdisaster106 @self-taught-mess @itawalrus @arodynamic-enby @sanderssides-angst
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alicestonesblog · 4 years ago
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Day 1 at the Oriental Museum
The first day at the Oriental Museum gripped me and helped me to look forward to the rest of the Placement eagerly. Having left, I couldn’t wait until I went back to the Museum. Meeting Jo, Ross and John filled me with enthusiasm as theirs was so infectious. The day began with a meeting with Ross wherein he showed me around the Oriental Museum, leaving me to do my own snooping. I had free reign over the Galleries which at this point were closed to the public due to Covid restrictions. I particularly enjoyed the China section because of its range of artifacts, beautiful in their ornament and fine details. 
The second part of the day involved watching a lesson about Diwali for a local year 4 class. It was an online lesson in which Ross was live- streamed using Microsoft Teams, the Learning and Engagement Team’s preferred mode because of its usual reliability. Jo, Ross and John had been preparing for the lesson in the morning which they had to be flexible about. The location had changed at the last minute, because the booked space clashed with Charlotte’s Diwali filming in the main part of the museum. The team made the classroom look surprisingly beautiful, draping orange and red material over the old wooden  walls and windows, with printed pictures and ‘Diwali’ bunting. The smaller room felt intimate and as Ross was teaching all attention was on him, especially when two minutes before the lesson was due to begin, the computer crashed and the charger proceeded to fail. With all eyes on him, Ross maintained calm and confidence. The whole team smiled consistently, but it was stressful. The lesson was in the waiting room for the online lesson. It was impressive how quickly John in particular rushed into action and found the necessary components to avoid any more technological mishaps. 
It was joyful to listen and watch the children, even though they were not present in the classroom. They were engaged throughout the lesson. Clearly they were used to online learning by November in the Covid ridden year. They were curious and questioning. Ross dealt with their sometimes misinterpreted instructions, at times lost in communication from the teacher’s guidance. 
Jo shared with me enthusiastically the Learning and Engagement team’s intentions to continue to reach more schools, further afield. Online learning, she explained, helped them to do this efficiently. The team were infectiously positive about the benefits that had arisen even as the nature of their cultural and heritage work had changed almost entirely. They were grateful that, being in association with Durham University’s outreach program, technology was provided to them so that the transition to online teaching and communication was not as challenging as it may well have been without this support. 
The team’s key aim is diversity which they promoted through diversifying the artifacts they presented and curated, especially, as Charlotte showed me, with their Silk Roads Gallery opening in 2021. 
The day was heavily informative. The team shared their aims and dreams with me openly and enthusiastically. It was a team I was pleased to be welcomed into for this placement period and I couldn’t wait to go back and watch another lesson, to keep learning. 
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amairauthor · 4 years ago
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Storytelling for Sales Engineers
In 2020, I did something I have been dreaming about for some time.  I published my first book.
It is a goal that I have been keeping to myself for many years.  I knew I had talent as a storyteller but lacked the technical writing skills to complete the task. I told myself a story, a story that I believed.  The story told me I would never be a writer.
In June of 2019, I sat across the table from a colleague who had a different story to tell. It was based on the same character arc as the story I told myself, but his story had a different outcome.  His story was all about the journey of setting a goal, obtaining the skills, and completing that goal.  His story told me that I was not a writer yet, but there was a path in which I could be. Fortunately, I also believed in his story. A little over a year later, I published my first book.
Storytelling is the process of using words and actions to communicate basic facts and context to another person to relate to those facts.
Everything is a story, and everyone is a storyteller. The history of storytelling is the history of how humans learn and communicate. Whether we use oral, written, or visual storytelling, we have been telling each other stories since before the beginning of our recorded history.  The mediums change, but the process of storytelling remains.
There are many reasons why stories are such an effective method to transfer information. Stories give an audience the basic facts; they help give context to a problem; they help the listener identify with a problem.
For engineers, these features of storytelling are critical. Your audiences may not be engineers, and they may have a wide range of responsibilities; they may only be interested in the bottom line or have some other problem they need to be solved by technology.  An engineer, especially a Sales Engineer, would do well to incorporate effective and compelling storytelling into their communication.
Storytelling consists of at least the following concepts. First, to prepare a narrative, you must identify and understand your audience. Second, determine what story you are telling. And finally, tell the story with context.
If you don’t know who your audience is or what they may care about, you may end up talking to the metaphorical wall.  As engineers, we spend a lot of time understanding all the many aspects of the devices we sell or utilize.  Our technical curiosity and knowledge may overwhelm someone if one feature after another is described, demonstrated, or presented to them. And if that someone is a customer, your impressive knowledge may only intimidate and confuse them instead of them purchasing your solution.
 “Engineers love features; everyone else loves benefits.” – Andy Callan
 But if you allow your engineer mind to kick in, you can understand how to help someone see the prescribing solution's benefit.  Like when you are assessing any problem, you need to understand all the variables.  
You do this by asking questions. It would help if you asked about their role and their business, and the desired outcome. You need to ask about the budget and bottom line.  You should find out what the state was before they identified the problem and any known causes.  Ask yourself the question, why do they care?
Understanding what may or may not be important is critical to crafting an effective and compelling story. Knowing the product's speeds and feeds is only crucial if the customer can relate to and understand its benefits—the what and how may not be as crucial until your audience understands the why.
Asking detailed questions is essential but listening to those answers is far more critical. Listening is not only hearing the words someone says but understanding the entire story they are telling.  People do not only use words to talk; much of what they say is non-verbal.  
This type of listening is called Active Listening. Instead of just hearing what someone says to respond immediately, the active listener engages and endeavors to understand the complete story behind what they are hearing.  This type of listening takes practice.
Once you have gathered information by asking questions and doing whatever you can to understand your audience, you begin to craft your narrative. Crafting the narrative may be prescribing a solution, or it might mean making some other recommendation.
Ask yourself who your characters are they may be end-users, technical teams, power users, customers, guests, etc.  Decide what products, services, technology, or other recommendations you believe will solve their problem.  The last thing to remember is to keep it simple.
Once you have the solution designed, you will want to present that solution to your audience. Now is the time to tell your story, making sure to include appropriate context.  
When writing fiction, an author describes the setting and background for the story.  They place their characters into that setting and help the readers immerse themselves by describing the story's sights, sounds, smells, and emotions. You want your audience to imagine themselves in your story.  
One way to do this is to understand some essential storytelling elements.  Let’s use Bilbo Baggins's story, The Hobbit, from the famous tale by JRR Tolkien. The tale begins, “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” But I am going to use a universal opening, “Once upon a time…”
 Once upon a time, Bilbo Baggins lived in the shire. And every day, Bilbo would drink ale, smoke his pipe, and enjoy good food and the beauty of his surroundings. Until one day Gandalf, the wizard, recruited him for an adventure. And because of this, he joined a company of dwarves. And because of this, he journeyed to the lonely mountain where a dragon guarded a vast treasure. And because of this, he found a ring that made him turn invisible. Until finally, he was able to help the dwarves defeat the dragon and retake their home, and the treasure then returned home. And ever since that day, he knew there was more to him than just a regular old Hobbit who enjoyed good food, good drink, and pipe-weed.
 There, the basic elements of a story using Mr. Bilbo as an example.  I will admit, it does not do Tolkien’s masterpiece justice but lays out the essential story pieces. The idea is to tell the story with context.
 Once upon a time… Or in other words, provide context.  Of course, you do not need to use these words; that may be strange. This is a reminder to provide a setting or other context for your story.
And every day… Describe the desired outcome, the ideal state. This is a state where everything is working fine.  Or it can be a state where everything could work better.  If a business was working one way in 2019 and felt good about their growth and processes, chances are they had that state affected by the global pandemic of 2020, leading us to our next step.
Until one day… Describe the problem(s).  “We built our unified communications systems around Skype for Business, and everything was working well until Microsoft forced us to migrate to Teams.” This is when the state is altered from the perfect or ideal, for whatever reason.
And because of this… Describe the results and what has been done to solve the problem.  Repeat this for each problem.  Problems may exist one after another (we solved problem X, which led to problem Y) or, problems may exist concurrently.  Describe these problems and what has already been done to solve them.
Until finally… Present the solution. Here is where you present a full solution to the problems identified.  Whether through your products, services, or other means, discuss how the prescribed solution will solve each of the identified problems. Describe the benefits and set appropriate expectations.  
Now is a good time to mention, if your solution does not solve their problem, tell them honestly, and if possible, refer them to someone you know who may solve their problem.  Good storytelling techniques only work with a good story. Make sure you only tell good stories.
And ever since that day…  Don’t forget to describe the results. What was the outcome? Or what will likely be the outcome if the prescribed solution is implemented. “Our meetings are simpler to join,” “We have a much better user experience” Help them understand that your solutions will either return them to an ideal state or, if possible, enhance their ideal state.  
You should also describe any unsolved problems or new problems identified. “The far side of our calls receive a much better experience, but now that more people are using our systems, the in-room experience could be better.” This is the perfect opportunity to continue your partnership.  This is why it is so important only to tell good stories.  Provide only solutions that solve their problems and not shoehorn in something less than ideal.
 Now here is something to consider; storytelling does not need to be this formal.  Storytelling techniques can be used in simple text messages or emails, or any form of communication.
To help those you communicate with imagine themselves in your story, remember the basic concepts:
1.       Identify and understand your audience
2.       Determine what story you are telling
3.       Tell the story with context.  
 Why storytelling and why does it matter? Because everything is a story, and everyone is a storyteller. Stories give an audience the basic facts, help give context to a problem, and help them identify with that problem. Paul J. Zak, the director for Neuroeconomics Studies at Claremont Graduate University, said,
 “Stories result in better understanding of key points, increased voluntary compliance, and improved memory.” -Paul J. Zak
 If you want your audience to understand, remember and act on your solution, tell a story.
 Sources:
•       https://medium.com/@Brian_G_Peters/6-rules-of-great-storytelling-as-told-by-pixar-fcc6ae225f50
•       https://www.aerogrammestudio.com/2013/06/05/back-to-the-story-spine/
•       https://www.watershedlrs.com/blog/business-and-data-alignment/data-storytelling-knowing-your-audience/
•       https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319396522_Storytelling_as_a_Key_Enabler_for_Systems_Engineering
https://www.meetcortex.com/blog/the-history-of-storytelling-in-10-minutes
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kissmyshnymetalass · 4 years ago
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Military Transition Information
Sections:
-          Actual GOMOR
-          REFRAD
-          SFL-TAP
-          Resources
-          General Separation Tips
-          Job Hunting and Resume
-          LinkedIn
-          Other Job Hunting Sites (ZipRecruiter/Clearance Jobs/etc)
-          Certifications
ACTUAL GOMOR Nothing to say about this really. It is what it is. You can’t fight it. My parents hired some hot shot civilian lawyer who was horribly expensive but there wasn’t anything he could do about it. Ultimately it all comes down to the fact that it isn’t LAW. It is UCMJ and there’s nothing to fight. Your command team has that power. They just do. It is pure bullshit. It drives me crazy. You could try writing your congress person or the army times to put the spotlight on unfair, maddening, preposterous nonsense judgmental decisions but…otherwise you’re boned. My recommendation is to keep your head down and try not to freak out. When my battalion commander told me it would be permanently filed I had a total rage glitch and yelled at him. Did not improve my position, ha. See if you can get moved to another battalion or brigade. That’s a big ask because you’re now branded. But if anyone is still in your corner (a Battalion XO or S3 or even a S1 who is respected and will advocate for you. Maybe the Brigade FSO if you have a good reputation) it can give you breathing room to no longer be in that environment. I had pull with division and was able to get onto staff up there after my flag was lifted. They knew I was only there to transition and were really cool about it- your mileage may vary. REFRAD
The first step is to get a copy of the REFRAD packet. It is mainly memos. Your S1 should have a copy. Then clarify what gates it has to hit (Battalion to Brigade to Division to Installation to HRC I’m pretty sure) and who the people are. You can do this while you’re flagged (if you’re flagged which I assume you are). You can’t submit until you’re unflagged but you can do drafts and send them to the S1 to get corrections. I’d let your command know of your intent to separate if you have any kind of ability to talk to them and let them know you’d appreciate if they could sign this stuff right away. I made it overwhelmingly clear that I disagreed with their handling of the situation and would like to just get out of there as fast as possible. They obliged by signing everything without the “required” counseling sessions.
I submitted mine on like July 6th or 7th and received my approval from HRC O/A 20 August but had to hand walk it. Basically had to call the S1 shop at Battalion every day until they routed to Brigade. Then the same thing with Brigade. Then with Installation. Etc. It is just best to be a pain in the ass about it because otherwise it can get stuck at a gate and require corrections and you’ll just never know about it because S1 sucks, ha. After you get your approval from HRC you still have to wait to get clearing papers and orders. That can take a while. I’m pretty sure I had my orders 9-10 days after getting approval and was given clearing papers six working days before my final out (which was around 16 October). SFL-TAP SFL-TAP was stupid but you may see benefits. There were a couple of contractors hunting for separating Soldiers so you maybe you’ll meet someone like that. Otherwise SFL-TAP went over pretty basic stuff like “consider benefits in addition to salary when job hunting” or “here’s what to wear.” It was FINE. But I wouldn’t say that officers are really the target audience. They will expose you to a few transition assistance programs which could be helpful though. Like I think there is a Microsoft administrator course that is 3-4 months you can do that SFL-TAP can give you info about. Other things like credentialing programs, certification courses, job fairs, etc. I did not use any of these services but I have heard they can be helpful. RESOURCES YOU WILL HEAR ABOUT, YMMV ACP Partnerships. American Corporate Partners. Basically you can apply on their website and they can hook you up with a mentor in your preferred field. I did this and it was fine. I received a mentor but she wasn’t super helpful. I think your experience really depends on your mentor. I’ve heard from others that their mentors are awesome. The nice thing about this is that they assign you a mentorship manager and that person will be very aggressive about providing you with resources (interview prep, resume reviewer, etc)
Corporate Fellowship Program. You can visit hiringourheroes.org. They can basically set you up with a corporate internship. Usually reserved for service members who are going to stay geographically close to their installation. Once again, I did not use this service but I have heard GREAT things and have a close friend who participated and she raves about it. Cameron Brooks/other junior officer recruitment companies. I did Cameron Brooks for a few months. I did not tell them about the GOMOR, ha. Didn’t mention the flag at all. They won’t call your command or anything so I just viewed it as keeping non-essential information to myself. It was also fine. It is free. They will give you books to read and counsel you and do interview prep and everything. It is a nice service. They told me they only “accept the best” as clients. Probably not true so don’t let them convince you they are some secret sauce. They just have a very codified approach. I have heard from others that they can land you in a good job but most are in less desirable locations (like the mid-west. Or Kansas). If you are afraid of transitioning this is kind of nice. Like having a bossy older brother who “knows a guy.” Other Useful “Leaving the Army” Tips Make sure you have a log in to mypay set up. Once you final out your CAC won’t work anywhere. Forward yourself anything in your military email that you may need or want. Download your medical records. Set up a DS login. Stuff like that. I lost a lot because I never did it. Oh well. But learn from my experience, ha. Print off your clothing record and do CIF prep now. At my last installation they wouldn’t make me a CIF appointment until the last six workdays I was in the Army and I had to go back three or four times and it was stressful. Do your homework and equipment cleaning now. All in all it wasn’t too bad. Military surplus stores will work with you. The one near me let me take what I needed from them for free (like a sleeping mat, grenade pouch and ACU print assault pack) with the agreement that once I was cleared I would give them all remaining equipment I had. They made out big in that deal because after a decade I had a ton of shit. Do all the basics. Clean your stuff, get rid of tape residue, etc. Job Hunting and Resumes Oh job hunting. You son of a bitch. First things first, get LinkedIn. Get Premium. I’m pretty sure you can do this for free as a service member but I’m not sure how. I will go into way more LinkedIn detail in a moment. I started job hunting in August. It took three months to find a job. It was NOT easy. You need to write a resume. There are countless agencies who will review it for you for free. There is certainly someone in your SFL-TAP staff who will review your resume. Don’t worry- they will broadcast who they are. I’m sure if you reached out now they could send you examples and review your stuff. Get a lot of eyes on it. Friends, parents, those who have transitioned. If you have any friends in HR have them look at it. De-militarize it. You need to be submitting applications every day. I had a goal to apply to at least one job every day and generally applied to 3 or 5 each day. I applied to 200-300 jobs easily. I received rejections from around 100. The others didn’t even bother letting me know. Of those applications I had the most luck if I went to their LinkedIn page and found someone in HR and introduced myself and offered to provide any additional information. I scheduled around 12 interviews and made it to the second round for 4. Was ultimately offered two jobs in the same week at my price point but it took work.
Find recruiters on LinkedIn. Basically you can search for recruiters in your preferred area. Just add them. Add whoever. And send them an email. I did this and probably met with 10-15 recruiters. None of them were able to place me but talking to them was good. They can help you figure out how to present your skill sets and will send you resumes to review/copy and will sometimes review your resume for you. They WANT to place you because that’s what makes them money so don’t feel weird about reaching out to them. Talking to them is also good general interview prep because they ask most of the same questions an interviewing company would ask.
When applying for a specific job read the posting and then incorporate as many of the words they use IN THE FORMAT THEY USE THEM into your resume. They will almost certainly filter your application through a software designed to separate those totally unqualified. For instance, if you hold a project management certification and on your resume you write PMP Certified but in the job description they say “Project management professional certification preferred” then go back to your resume and change PMP to Project Management Professional.
Biggest piece of advice here is Don’t Give Up. It is soul crushing. You will feel panicked and shitty and underqualified. That’s normal from what I hear. Don’t marry yourself to the first job. I’ve heard from professional recruiters that companies are more likely to hire a veteran after he/she has successfully held a civilian job for one year after separation. My advice would be to accept a job that pays you fairly for the security and reassess after a year. There’s absolutely no problem with changing jobs later. LinkedIn Fuck you, LinkedIn. LinkedIn is such bullshit. But civilians are rock fucking hard for it. So get a LinkedIn. Make sure everything is up to date. Have a picture- NOT a military picture. The same boring one everyone has on LinkedIn. You’re wearing a tie. You’re smiling like a goober. Write all the bullshit nonsense about how you’re a trendsetter and a problem solver and an out of the box thinker. Really sell yourself. Make connections. Make as many connections as you can. For some reason you seem more hireable when you have a ton of connections. Find recruiters and add them. Find people who are doing the thing you want to do in the city you want to do it in and add them. Interact with people. It is all a show but just do it because that’s the game and the prize for winning the game is a nice salary and a successful transition. Find all of the companies who typically hire vets if you’re interested in that. Deloitte, Raytheon, Leidos, Lockheed Martin, etc. Most recruiters associated with these organizations put out content regularly that’s aimed at transitioning service members. They will host classes and online information sessions. Attend them. Follow the advice of the recruiters. All advise basically boils down to market yourself, make connections, expand your network, tailor your resume, follow up in a personal way to applications (contacting HR people or recruiters within the company), send out resumes daily, interview well, repeat, repeat, repeat.
Get premium so you can see who looks at your profile. Other Job Hunting Sites/Resources I actually got my job using ZipRecruiter, not LinkedIn. So I would definitely use ZipRecruiter. You can use ClearanceJobs if you have a clearance. You should go to whichever state you want to work in’s website as well because they’ll post local jobs (like working as a project manager for the department of transportation in Kentucky or whatever). I received a few interviews (well, 2) doing this. I think because it is kind of a pain in the ass to apply that way. Look at universities and hospitals in your preferred area. Often the jobs they post don’t make it onto other sites. Follow companies you’d like to work for on LinkedIn. Sometimes organizations will advertise openings that don’t make it to the LinkedIn job search function for some reason. Instead they’ll make a post about an opening and the link will take you directly to their website. Certifications Probably didn’t need this whole section but…get certs. They both matter and they don’t matter. I don’t think my certs really helped me get my job but they certainly didn’t hurt. PMP (as aforementioned) is a big one.
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tjkiahgb · 5 years ago
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Episode Recap: 3.15, “Unloading Zone”
Two recaps in two days? The things I do for meaningless internet points.
Bex, Bowie, and Andi sit around the apartment looking at their phones when Bowie suddenly declares it movie night. Everyone’s like, kinda excited about movie night, but not enough to move or do anything about it.
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That’s the way we like to movie night.
Bowie says it’s a family night, where they all stare at the same screen. They debate what to see and where to see it but basically realize everything is bad.
Backed into a corner, they realize their only recourse is to take to their phones and the internet to try and find something to watch.
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Andi shoots that idea down with a sarcastic “Sounds riveting.”
I take it she’s never seen footage of a swarm of monarch butterflies tearing a cow to shreds in a matter of seconds. I’m talking down to the bone!
They all go back to their phones with the sort of silent resignation that they aren’t going to watch a movie that night and also that they, and frankly all of us, will never stop staring at our phone screens from now until the moment we die. We are prisoners to technology. It is a cage we constructed by mistake and trapped ourselves in permanently by reforming our society around it. It is a karmic form of punishment for our hubris and it will one day be our destruction.
Anyway, please follow me on tumblr dot com, and don’t forget to give my posts likes and reblogs as my self-esteem is built almost entirely upon this.
Speaking of self-esteem: Cyrus.
He and Buffy watch TJ and Kira from afar at the park, where Kira attempts to blind TJ.
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Buffy’s trying to figure out if they’re together now, but Cyrus doesn’t know, as they haven’t been hanging out lately. Kira’s been around him almost non-stop and Cyrus is not interested in being around her.
Kira jumps on TJ’s back, providing another stunning metaphor.
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My God, she’s got him in a chokehold. She’s attacking him in public! Won’t someone do something?! Basketball boys in the background! Help!
Buffy reassures Cyrus that this won’t last. Kira’s not a nice person, she says, and TJ will figure that out eventually.
At Cloud 10, Andi checks to see if Bex and Celia have made up. Bex doesn’t know, so she checks with Celia to see if they made up.
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No.
Bex tells Andi to stop using all the non-sample makeup. Andi’s like, ok, I’ll just take the ones I used. Bex wants to charge her.
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Andi, look around! Once again, there are no costumers in the store, just employees and family members. The business cannot afford to bleed money like this!
Andi implores Bex to go talk to Celia, partly because she wants the two to mend their relationship and partly because she probably wants to sneak some more makeup out.
Bex tries to talk to Celia but Celia is cold as ice. Andi makes a joke about it.
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That, surprisingly, doesn’t help the situation, so Andi sees herself out.
Bex tells Celia that she knows she’s furious with her for cancelling the wedding, but she would like this whole thing to be over. Celia says it is over. Bex asks her to say something nice to her to prove it.
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I dunno, something like, “You are my only daughter and I love you no matter what. I’ve had at least a day to think about it and realized that barn weddings surrounded by alpacas aren’t the most important thing in the world, your happiness is. I would never want to force you into a marriage you weren’t ready for. You have to do what feels right to you. It’s your life, not mine.” I mean, you know, whatever. That’s just a rough draft. I’m open to notes.
But Celia instead sighs and says she’s got nothing.
At the park, TJ sneaks away from Kira long enough to talk to Cyrus alone.
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TJ feels like Cyrus has been avoiding him but Cyrus says he hasn’t, TJ’s just been so preoccupied with Kira. TJ’s like, I’ve just been spending some time with her, but Cyrus says it’s the bulk of time. He thinks the two are hitting it off and he’s happy for them.
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Don’t put that on me! TJ’s like, we just talk about basketball, the least romantic of the sports! Cyrus asks about the piggyback ride, but TJ says that was because Kira bet him he couldn’t do it and he was like screw you, I have a strong back. I can lift things!
TJ proposes Cyrus hang out with the two of them, but Cyrus isn’t so sure, and to reinforce that point, Kira tracks down TJ using the GPS chip she hid in his pocket and gets real cold, real fast with Cyrus.
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TJ’s like, Cyrus should hang out with us, right?
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Wouldn’t that be fun if all three of us hung out?
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Kira says yes through gritted teeth and TJ’s like, boom! Great! Cool! We can all hang out.
But Cyrus gets the message and decides to scoot.
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Do’s to thing.
TJ is sad to see Cyrus go, which Kira notices. She tries to cheer him up by reminding him that she’s still around.
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To which TJ is like...
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...oh. Yes. Yes, you are.
Later, at The Spoon, Andi comes bursting in and tells her friends to take a look at this!
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And they’re like, that’s a phone! And Andi’s like, oh.
The point is not the phone, it’s what was once on the phone: words. And those words tell the story of a clothing store called Mint Chip which burns all the clothes they don’t sell.
The gang enter into a long discussion about capitalism and branding which I don’t understand because I got a C- in my Econ 101 class.
Then Buffy says Mint Chip burned $35 million worth of clothes last year and everyone gets outraged.
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Can I just play devil’s advocate here? Maybe they were burning it for warmth?
Buffy says there’s a way to settle this, and they all head to the Rage Cage to smash junk.
No, wait, I mean, they head to a junk cage to... rage smash? Shoot, I feel like I almost had something there.
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Point is, the kids get in the dumpster. Buffy tries to but her foot betrays her. Wonder if this has to do with trying to run a marathon on nothing more than moxie.
She plays it off like not a big deal. She says she’s fine but I’m not so sure a-boot that.
Cyrus, now in the dumpster, finally asks if they’re allowed to be doing this.
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Ignoring the trespassing charge? The crime is called garbage theft. It’s real. I know that because I got an A- in my Criminology 101 course. Feels like someone should’ve done a quick Google search to make sure they weren’t doing something illegal.
But I guess the time for Googling was before everyone got into the dumpster, because everyone just laughs off Cyrus’s suggestion that maybe they could get in trouble for this.
They find bags and bags of new clothes and wonder what to do with them. They all stare at Andi.
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Because this was your thing! You made us care! You’re the reason we’re in the dumpster!
Andi says they all need to figure this out. It’s a group project. Then everyone gets real quiet and stares at one another and a few seconds later, Andi comes up with an entire plan by herself. Go team!
They return that night and steal all the clothes out of the dumpster and ride away with their treasures.
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I like how they each got their own special vehicle for the job. Jonah’s got his skateboard. Andi has her quirky wagon. Buffy has a practical cart. Cyrus has an awkward wheelbarrow. Perfect.
Well, okay guys, you’ve committed a crime. A couple, actually. Trespassing and garbage theft, but I think you can still get away with this if you play it cool. I assume the next part of the plan is something low-key. Go around town making anonymous donations to thrift stores and shelters probably. Gets the clothes to people who need it, gives them a new home. Mission accomplished, right?
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Oh, no? Not that? Put up a huge, extravagant public display in the middle of the sidewalk on the main street of town instead? Big ol’ gaudy signs saying where you took the clothes from? Large, colorful signs that scream “FREE TO TAKE”? Great idea! Nothing gathers more attention or raises more suspicion than big signs with the word FREE on it.
By the way, where is Mint Chip? Is it nearby? Within walking distance? Within seeing distance?
This is like newlywed bank robbers robbing a bank and their getaway vehicle is their wedding car with all the cans dangling off of it and big writing on the back window that says “JUST MARRIED! DAN AND TIFFANY JOHNSON”
This is like a guy throwing a brick through a department store window but wrapping his photo résumé around the brick. And when you unwrap the résumé it has his name and phone number and email address, and underneath “Special Skills” it says “Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Doing Crimes”
This is like a kidnapper mailing the finger of the person he kidnapped to the police and putting his home address on the package in the return space.
I assume this is all to prove a point to Mint Chip but the way it’s executed, it just feels like they want to get arrested for doing crime.
This lady comes by and rubs her two brain cells together.
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Very good question, lady! Why are these children giving away clothes free to whoever walks by? Why do all these pieces of clothing still have their tags on them, as if they were stolen? Why--
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IS THAT A WINTER COAT?! NO MORE QUESTIONS!
Andi assures her she can have the coat and that’s good enough for her.
Andi meets back up with Cyrus and Buffy and they all delight in how nice it is to give people stuff that isn’t yours.
We get a fun montage here of the gang committing crime with smiles on their faces.
Jonah gives answers to three telepaths, who wordlessly asked him questions about the clothing.
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Look at these criminals.
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Laughing at what they’ve done. Thinking they’ve gotten away with it. Makes me sick.
Bex, meanwhile, arrives home to find Bowie and a package. It’s addressed to both of them and Bex realizes it’s a wedding present. Bowie jumps back like Bex just said the box was full of spiders.
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They’re going to have to get one of those bomb disposal robots to come take care of this.
They decide to open it. They’ll return it but have to know who sent it first.
Bowie sees it’s from Celia. She sent it with a beautiful note. They open the box and pull out--
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JESUS CHRIST!
An exact recreation of the proposal?! Down to the clothing, hair, and camera angle? How in the world?! I mean, really? Even if they described the scenario to her, HOW?! She even placed the pillows on the couch exactly as they were on the night!
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The level of detail on this is haunting.
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She even put in the Cat!
This was a really cute idea that’s just unsettling in its execution. This is a supernatural occurrence. This is the kind of thing someone stumbles upon in the attic of spooky house and realizes it contains the trapped the souls of these people inside of it. If you hold your ear to it, you can hear them faintly shouting “Help! Get us out of here!”
Bex and Bowie are far more taken by this display than I am though. Bex gets emotional. She goes to get the Thank You note stationary Celia gave her. Bowie gives her some space to write a message.
Back at the pop-up crime scene, Cyrus approaches Buffy with a shirt. He wants to give it to TJ.
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He texts TJ a picture of it. Cyrus hopes TJ will like him it. Buffy asks why not just give it to him, but Cyrus says he’s not sure how much he’d want him it. Buffy’s like, he wouldn’t want a free shirt? Cyrus is like, I don’t know if he’s gay he’d like me giving him a free shirt.
Buffy figures it out. She’s like, you know how you can find out if he’s into you he wants a free shirt? Go for it Give him the shirt. Maybe it’ll mean something to him, or maybe it won’t, but either way it’s a nice thing to do. Cyrus agrees.
TJ texts back at that moment.
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No, he gives the shirt a thumbs up. Cyrus invites him to the crime show he and his friends are putting on, but TJ tells him he’s at the park.
Cyrus wonders what that means. Buffy tells him it’s that he wants to meet him. Cyrus waffles on whether to bring the shirt.
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Yeah, I mean, the shirt’s a thing now, you gotta bring the shirt.
At the park, Kira wants to know who TJ’s texting with. He tells her no one and suggests they go feed the ducks. Kira suggests they go on the swings first. TJ’s like, are you sure I can’t interest you in some ducks? But she wants to swing.
TJ resists but Kira persists. She taunts him that he can’t swing as high as she can. That works, somehow.
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Guess his competitive spirit is such that all you have to do to get him to do something is say he can’t.
“I don’t want to give you a piggyback.”
“Why, ‘cause you can’t?”
“Get on my back! But I swear I’m not getting on the swings.”
“Because you don’t know how to swing?”
“Get out of my way, I’m getting on them swings!”
Boy, if either Reed or Lester had figured out this weak spot, they could’ve just said “Bet you can’t not say anything to the police about this gun, chicken!” and they’d be running free somewhere right now instead of locked up in supermax.
So TJ gets on the swings, just in time for Cyrus to come walking by and see.
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Heartbroken at seeing his crush being heterosexual in public, Cyrus takes his shirt and does a sad Charlie Brown walk away.
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He looks back first though.
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Which, as we know, indicates he likes TJ, though it feels kinda superfluous because it’s following an episode where he was watching TJ from afar, being jealous that TJ was hanging out with someone else, and getting TJ a gift for no reason other than he thought it would look good with his eyes. Yeah, man, we get it. You like TJ.
Cyrus returns to the theft shop. Buffy asks him what happened and he tells her he found TJ with Kira.
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Buffy promises him it won’t last, but Cyrus is like even if it does... he’s still straight, though.
Buffy asks him what he’s going to do with the shirt. Cyrus decides to give it to the last straight boy he crushed over. He asks Jonah if he wants it.
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I know that this is more to complete a metaphor of sorts, but Jonah has to know that’s one of the shirts they pulled out of the dumpster, right? He’s like, oh, this is awesome, where’d you get it? The trashcan, Jonah. With you. Last night. We’ve been giving them away all day. There’s eight more over there on the rack.
Andi shows up and is like, it’s weird no one got mad at us for this whole thing, right? And Jonah’s like, oh yeah, someone came by and asked a lot of questions about it and I told her everything!
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They’re like, no, you shouldn’t have done that. Which, I mean, yeah. He needs to keep his mouth shut. That’s the first rule of crime doing. But in fairness to him, what was this plan anyway? If someone came around asking, what answers were they planning on giving that wouldn’t implicate them in wrongdoing?
They don’t have time to think about that because a cop shows up. Andi tells everyone to stay calm, because they didn’t do anything wrong, but Buffy’s like, we might have. Bet we feel foolish we didn’t stop for a quick Google before all this, huh?
Officer Penn, a.k.a. Budget Clint Eastwood, wants to see their permit, but they say they’re not selling anything, so no permit necessary. Budget Clint Eastwood then tears through their legal arguments fairly quickly.
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They say Mint Chip is a store that destroys the clothes they don’t sell and if you really think about it, isn’t that the real crime?
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No. No, it’s not. Garbage theft is the real crime. Garbage theft. Officer Penn hauls four children off to jail.
Vivian the Winter Coat Lady, meanwhile, walks into Cloud 10 to look around. Celia compliments her winter coat. Vivian thanks her, saying she just got it under mysterious circumstances, but didn’t bother asking any questions.
In fact, all she really wants to do is go back and get more clothes under mysterious circumstances.
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Bex pulls Celia over and tells her she loved the wedding present. She gives her an envelope full of thank you notes she started and stopped because she couldn’t put into words all her feelings.
But Celia is still pretty cold about all this. Bex wants to know how long it’ll take to be forgiven.
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Can I knock it down to two if I run some errands for you? Take you to the airport or something?
Bex’s phone buzzes. It’s someone calling from jail, telling her they have her daughter. Bex panics. Celia steps up.
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Looks like Andi’s going to have to bring them back together once again. They head off for jail.
The episode ends and then we get a sneak peek at the main title sequence of the spinoff show featuring the Good Hair Crew and Jonah in prison.
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Andi Mack: Lockup, coming this fall.
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dysphoric-affect · 5 years ago
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Actually, The Sequel Was Better
          Often times, not just in gaming but with entertainment in any medium, there can be a tendency to look upon the first in a series as the definitive, superior entry, with all others to follow damned to never be able to measure up. The original titles gain an almost religious reverence and deference shown to them, with them continuing to be pointed to as the standard bearer for later titles to attempt to measure up to. Sometimes the original may indeed be the superior entry, but often it seems to me this consideration being shown to it truly stems from its place chronologically in the series rather than any objective consideration of its merits compared to the sequels, with the reasons for why being manufactured after the opinion is formed, rather than serving as the basis for it.
          I dispute this whole notion. The original games in a series tend to excite because it is our first time being exposed to its various elements: the characters, big picture story of those characters’ world, the core gameplay mechanics, the set of weapons and abilities available, and so on. However, while these elements may be good, often the excitement that’s felt for them has more to do with the sensation of freshness from not having seen these things before compounding on their solid quality, rather than being as purely based on their quality as such “original is the best” devotees would lead you to believe. Essentially, when an original game in a series is good, we all will tend to enjoy a sort of “honeymoon” phase with it where we’re caught up by all its good qualities. Some simply remain in that phase, hence the loyalty to the original.
          The problem with such unquestioning loyalty to the originals is that it misses the shortcomings they can and do often have, encouraging a stagnation that never fixes them. The thing about the first iteration of game series is that the ideas are just being tested out for the first time in the wild as it were, and things that overly complicate and slow down character progression, make the pacing of the narrative feel off, don’t satisfy in their depth on customization and so on can be missed during a studios internal testing and never discovered until the trial by fire that is being opened up to gamers to explore. Some of these mistakes could go to misjudgments arising from the studio, whether general bad calls or simply learning the nature of their new IP and what does and doesn’t work in how they should handle it. Other things aren’t mistakes at all in the short term necessarily, but with time giving greater perspective, namely from sequels coming around and improving on the formula, come to feel like mistakes, or it at least feeling like certain elements feel dated because of the various quality-of-life improvements and greater refinement those elements have been able to be shown with time.
          On this other end, besides sequels being able to cut those bad or unnecessary elements and refine those solid but imperfect elements, they are also able to benefit from hindsight in having what new elements are introduced to excite players being based off that understanding and more likely to be more consistently well-executed, satisfying and exciting than the new elements in the original, which are inescapably a mix.
          Undoubtedly some examples would make this whole case better than exposition, so let’s get into it.
          Rock Band 2 is one of the simpler examples of the case I’ve been making. The original felt perfectly fine for its time, but RB2 expanded the base song list in the game natively as well as providing much greater support for expanding on that content with regular new DLC song packs to download, smartly making these available to buy in smaller doses rather than forcing you to buy an entire album or album’s worth of material, undoubtedly making them greater sales from fans more willing to part with a little spare cash for a song they love regularly while also satisfying fans with that formatting so they never felt obligated to have to spend money on unwanted content. This was a clever encouragement for replay value as well: checking back to see what new songs were added, seeing a handful you really enjoyed and getting excited about whacking out the drumbeats of one of these new options or watching your friend and “bandmate” attempt to do its vocals knowing he’d fail hilariously got you excited to play all over again. Speaking of your bandmates, the greatly improved customization system for the look of your characters and your instruments while performing and being able to use that in collaboration with your friends to come up with a look and feel for the in-game band you created together that you all loved was a really simply but greatly satisfying improvement.
          Now, Rock Band isn’t a series that I do see the original being revered over the sequels with, but I wanted to bring it up to illustrate the point I was making more clearly about how sequels can benefit from the understanding of how the basics of a game concept have been received.
          Now we can turn to a couple case that do more fully deal with the issue I’m talking about. One would be Pokémon. The Red and Blue Versions and the first generation roster of Pokémon are often held up as highlights of the series, not just by fans, but even in practice by those making the newer games, with new pre-evolutions or evolutions or forms for that generation’s Pokémon being implemented in the sequels that have occurred since in far greater numbers and with far greater regularity than any other generation. Yet...those games and that roster actually represent some of the weakest the series has had to offer. With the games more generally, the region design wasn’t particularly interesting in retrospect, there wasn’t much of a story to speak of, the battle mechanics - while not bad for their time - have been greatly outclassed by the later changes made to it, the representation of types was poorly handled in some cases - the one Ghost type line seeming weak to the Psychic types they were on paper supposed to be strong against or Dragon types seeming weaker to Ice than they were because of their only lines final form being extra weak to it, for example, and an extremely limited post-game involving one small new area to explore and one new Legendary Pokémon to catch. The biggest problem with that roster I already mentioned in the mishandling of the type distribution across the different lines in the games, but beyond that is just the simpler facts that subsequent generations have had more interesting designs, better typings and more interesting evolutions methods to attain them.
          With almost every single specific element of those original games, putting aside the new features not introduced until later, we can find a sequel generation in that series which did it better: every generation except the fourth has had better region design, third and fifth had excellent world stories while the new eighth generation tells an excellent Gym Challenge-related story, second through fourth - with arguments to be made for others - made needed improvements on the core battle mechanics, basically every subsequent generation has had better type distributions across the new roster, and the second and third generations especially had excellent postgame content with revisiting Kanto for the former and the Battle Frontier for the latter greatly expanding the time you wanted to play beyond the Championship.
          All of this, understand, isn’t to say the first generation of games or their roster of new Pokémon were bad, just that in comparison to what has come since, they are far from the pinnacle of what the series stands to offer you and certainly not deserving the infallible status some ascribe to them.
          Now, let’s turn from Nintendo’s flagship franchise to Microsoft’s. With Halo it is considered considerably more contentious than with Pokémon to challenge the original’s superiority. To be fair, Combat Evolved stands the test of time better than Red and Blue versions do for Pokémon. The story’s tone of desperation juxtaposed with Master Chief’s badass capabilities and heroism is a great dynamic, which along with the sense of awe looking around the environments and the sense of exploration and decision on which objectives to approach and how all serve to be strong benchmarks for the series to make it a point to reach, either directly or in some equivalent sense. However, the reuse of multiple levels along with the general monotony of the Library level’s design, overly frail allies with questionable decision making hurting their survivability, often confused multiplayer map design that can complicate efforts to strategize with a team, and the overly centralizing Pistol and Scorpion making use of most other weapons and vehicles moot are all rough points to it.
          Much was made of Halo 2′s more linear level design and cliffhanger ending, and to some extent not having more time to play as the Chief (though this has died for the most part over time) and it has some of its own unique problems, but what we do have makes it my overall favorite in the series: characters in general are more developed, new characters are interesting, the development of the backstory to your enemies is fantastic and remains relatively unique among all games I’ve played, the level variety is great and your objectives often feel more epic and important. The music within the Campaign is some of the best in the series, arguably its overall best, which does matter given its ties for setting the tone to accompany the narrative. With gameplay, the change to destructible vehicles and the ability to board them both looks cool and provides needed balance to their power while boost added onto Covenant vehicles helps differentiate the feel of them from the human vehicles better. Of course, there was also the addition of dual-wielding to note as well. As I’m a more competitive player, this isn’t something I made much use of personally, but it was aesthetically a really cool thing to be able to do and for my less competitive friends who enjoy the series is something they really loved and have missed since it was cut as a staple element from the series’ gameplay, so it certainly secured its place as a beloved element, too. Last, but certainly not least, is easily the best multiplayer map design the series has ever had. Taken together, this made for Halo 2 to be more satisfying overall - and certainly more satisfying long-term - than its predecessor. Other games in the series have also done various elements better than it, or even better than Halo 2 in some cases as well.
          Ditto again on this kind of case when it comes to Sony’s flagship franchise in God of War as well, which notably goes out of its way more than any of the other series I’ve mentioned to not be beholden to the original as anything sacred and a baseline off which to model itself. The results here are telling: with greater character development and a more emotionally-driven story than anyone ever would have expected, a simultaneously more complex and more refined combat system, a satisfying upgrade system, revamped mission structure and much more, it has all the perfect ingredients to not just make it an excellent entry in that series, but the best yet, in spite of being the fifth. If a mentality of “the original is the best” had been held and it had been developed from that perspective, fans of the series and those the newest just drew in all would be devoid of this gem as it is, however.
          There are of course other series - many more - to which illustrate my case, but I’ll consider these flagship franchises by the Big Three sufficient to make my case as is. Undoubtedly, you can think of other examples yourself. What all of these go to show is in actuality a relatively simple truth: sequels are often, if we are objective about their qualities, better than the originals and deserve to be respected as such. Being the first doesn’t inherently make something the best; that is only a status we’ve arbitrarily applied to how we approach thinking of games, or perhaps entertainment more broadly. Failing to take an honest look at how well sequels do on these different elements and the impact that has on their overall quality not only negatively impacts the individual gamer, who is preventing themselves from enjoying their games more, but also negatively impacts gaming culture, as it sends the message to developers that stagnation in the further work they do is not only acceptable, but to be encouraged.
          When they aren’t encouraged to try bold new ideas they think could improve the formula for what a series stands to offer and instead play it safe, we are denied who knows how many exciting gaming moments we could have otherwise enjoyed, instead left with something akin to the original, but feeling more like a cheap imitation than a true sequel. In this way, that “original is best’ mentality becomes self-fulfilling prophesy, as we inadvertently encourage the very kind of lackluster experiences with sequels that can make the original seem like the best an IP can give us. I think we have a duty as gamers to take a step back more and instead of just being critical of games, also consider being critical of our thought process for how we approach looking at them for this kind of behavior and to rectify that when we find it within ourselves, for the sake of our own happiness and that of the gaming community.
          So, the next time you find yourself thinking “the original is best,” look deeper. Maybe it really is. But maybe, just maybe, you’ll be surprised what you find.
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          Thanks for reading! If you enjoy my content, please consider liking, commenting, following and especially reblogging so it can reach more people. Any support you show is greatly appreciated.
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violetsystems · 4 years ago
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#personal
I ended the week in a very different financial state than what I’ve been used to.  To talk about stocks anymore on this blog would further pivot my move from musician to late night financial pundit.  I’m more of an amateur economist myself.  I’ve used the auction house in World of Warcraft enough to be dangerous.   But really there’s much more to the story than investing or job hunting.  More so my ambivalence to feeling completely invisible in the process.  Of course there are tons of jobs out there.  I found a Department of Defense job in Information Security.  The fine print being that males had to be registered for selective service.  I often like to remind myself and the government that I’m a registered Conscientious Objector.  My parents were tired of military recruiters hounding me in high school as was I.  I wrote a statement and filed it with a local church at the time in the presence of pastor.  I’m not extremely a fan of organized religion at all.  But this specific instance was about peace above all else.  One of my only contacts on LinkedIn was someone I managed years ago as a student worker.  They just so happen to work for such a job.  It is ironic as it is disheartening.  And as I scan and participate on LinkedIn as more of a social media platform than a headhunting site it becomes painfully apparent.  There are a lot of jobs out there but not a lot that respect my value as a human being outside of human capital.  The most important thing about the platform has been knowing what I’m worth.  The salary estimates are on point for the times.  I was undervalued at my old place of employment.  As of last week, the years of debt accrued trying to network overseas was finally paid off.  I tried everything to get away from this situation.  I played shows in Tokyo.  I travelled alone to Korea and China.  I connected with my extended family in Hong Kong.   And nothing else in terms of opportunities materialized.  Years later as I send the final payments to zero out the balances, it seems like it never happened.  You would think a person like myself would have a place to go from here.  And largely I do right now.  Sitting at my new laptop writing these as always.  Wrapping my brain around the tax law unique to my particular situation.  Listening to the news and realizing nobody really cares about me or my predicament.  Awaiting the final puzzle piece to my old life come September.  Wondering what really happened to all the shit in my old office.  Wondering if I really care at all about any of it anymore as the voice over my headphones announces the horrible truth.  That we’re about to get pummeled violently by a well known streamer and the developer of the game we are playing.  For a company that was at my doorstep a day ago inquiring about an uptick in package theft.  If I really needed a job right now I’d just ask if they were hiring.
The grand spoiler alert of my life at the moment is that I do not need a job right now.  My life is a work in progress.  One that I haven’t really lived or been allowed to live without constant critique.  Truth be told I have never had the opportunity to be back at zero.  There are things that are stable in my life that don’t really have a numerical value on the time investment.  I’m not on any social media here to look for a job.  But stranger things have happened.  I am out there and searchable.  Just not on anything like Facebook.  My bandcamp lately has been generating sales out of nowhere.  Nothing substantial.  But if people really wanted to find me they could.  The internet is a special place if you stay accountable.  The real world is far from that.  And I’ve spent a considerable amount of time lately in the real world navigating the change in my life.  There is a lot of cognitive dissonance when I think about my own value.  The way everything blinked out and disappeared is still puzzling.  I had no warning.  Or I was so antisocial that people were afraid to drop hints.  People drop hints all the time that I’m expected to read into.  Those are far easier to read now that it’s just me.  Part of being employable is that you are a valuable addition to an organization.  When you spend twenty years of your life growing to be just that it is a little jarring to realize you weren’t.  These days I’m very fearful of just being looked at as another productive body to slide into place.  Much of what I understand of salaried employment now is horrifying especially when it comes to working for a non profit.  You do get stability.  And some of the grandfathered benefits I reaped upon exit are unheard of in modern times.  A pension being one of them.  How someone like me deals with these unique circumstances is unprecedented.  Nobody has any advice for me.  Nobody even acknowledges I have a situation.  I always feel like people are just assuming I’d be ok without even knowing what I’ve done.  That’s a lot of mental baggage to sort through even beyond the finances.  The good news is I don’t really get depressed about it.  I feel free.  Free enough to start planning things out comfortably.  Free enough to wait for the job opportunity that values me instead of freaking out and taking the first thing.  Free enough to evaluate how much money I need to make versus how much money the job hunting site tells me I should be making.  Free enough to just sit here and opt out.  Pay my health insurance premiums and keep the future open for awhile.  Play games and enjoy them.  Ride my bike and lower my blood pressure.  Spend less money without thinking.  Plan where and when money is available in the future.  Be an adult and enjoy it for once without having to defend myself.  At the same time being just as vigilant and unstoppable as I always am effortlessly.  Because I no longer really worry about what my job, the community, society, or the internet thinks.  And I see the value of myself and my money beyond the American dream of freedom it seems that I’ve been exiled from.
It is a mindfuck for sure.  Like maybe the last three years over the course of time were too.  But what I still have is worth more to me than any history or resolution.  I just cut loose.  Five weeks later I’m sitting in a very different state of mind on paper.  My credit score went up.  I can lucidly explain my financial liquidity and plans for the next six months to a year if worst comes to worse.  But really the thing I can’t answer is this.  Why after all of this time am I so invisible outside of these small pockets of hope on the internet?  Why am I even bothering taking a conventional approach to my future other than my own logic?  One week I’m down.  The next week I’m up.  The next a little higher.  I start to think to myself when I look in the mirror.  I feel better about myself.  I feel sexier without having to project it.  I can imagine things outside of the box I was trapped in.  And there’s no real judgement as to why I stayed so long.  The end result was that twenty years was time to move on.  And while no one had the answers for me it all worked out.  The time spent with a financial advisor worth much more than sitting down with a therapist.  But what does it really mean for me?  When will I have my revenge!  When will I have my justice?  I mean I thought I already had it.  I never lost the things I cared about.  They just got amplified.  Nobody needs to know how deep it goes.  But everyone knows what motivates me deep inside my heart without me even having to say it.  I feel comfortable around people.  I’m open to talk and be present.  I’m not locked in a defensive posture fearing the inevitable.  I lost my job.  It will never be replaced.  The position is gone completely.  Nobody really remembers me or the position it seems at all.  And this isn’t something we should revisit five weeks later after my suffering in complete isolation outside of video games, tumblr and my secret desires.  Honestly I’m far more happy to be where I am now.  I can actually see a clear path to where I need to be.  And all I ever wanted to be was connected to people like myself.  We all desire that to varying degrees.  And after years of typing it out here I believe people understand me.  And it has become far more than that.  It’s special enough that it follows me wherever I go in my heart and out in the streets.  And it’s still a delicate balance that requires me to think for myself and maintain my identity above all.  That’s the freedom I have for myself.  The freedom I want to share with another person I love someday.  And that’s the freedom I’ve built up around me that isn’t beholden to anyone but me now.  Until I get hired by either TikTok, Microsoft, or Amazon.  Self employed taxes are the only nightmare I’m subjecting myself to for the rest of this year.  That and being on the wrong team in Closed Beta.  I’m on the right team in terms of keeping a secret.  It’s not a secret I care very much about all of you.  You particularly as always.  And I’d be more worried if I somehow jeopardized that future.  Which is still bright ass pink as far as the eye can see.  So I’ll be ok.  <3 Tim
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gizmotron · 5 years ago
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#GitChallenge - Github vs Gitlab comprehensive comparison
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Recenty, Github announced that they were slashing prices for their premium plans and making a number of other features free due to the current Coronavirus pandemic. Gitlab have also made a similar announcement  and, as I’ve used both Github & Gitlab in the past, I’d like to talk about the differences between the two powerhouses when it comes to version control. 
What I currently use
Right now, I have accounts (as well as organisations for AC0/RD Software) with both Github & Gitlab, however I primarily use Github today. 
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(My Github dashboard)
I use Github, because while Gitlab has more features, right now I don’t currently need to use CI/CD pipelines, and I get by fine with Github. Also, while Gitlab has made some great leaps and bounds with its UI over the past few years, for me Github is still better looking and that is the main reason that I use Github right now. 
I only started using Github properly in 2019, but one of the old arguments against Gitlab was that no-one used it. After Microsoft shelled out $7.5 BILLION in 2018 for Github, developers jumped ship to Gitlab amid fears that Microsoft would “kill” the open-source community - however, both Github & Gitlab are thriving today. 
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(My Gitlab dashboard)
Right now, I use Github for
Hosting my personal website through Github pages
Hosting the AC0/RD Software network
Learning & logging my progress with coding languages like C++, Java, and Lua
Sharing my simple Python & Unity projects
Occasionally using pipelines for my projects
I almost never need to use pipelines (Gitlab) or packages (Github), and while I’d like to in the future (in fact, once AC0/RD launches my usage of Git services will definitely be shifting to more “dev-oriented” usage), right now I have no need to. I still use Gitlab to host some repositories, but sparingly - usually for either a backup, or when I do need to use CI/CD tools. 
Some simple differences
Now that we’ve got my reasons for using Github out of the way, let’s look at the differences between Gitlab & Github. There’s a few simple ones that confused me at first when I started using Gitlab after a few months on Github, but after a few days they confused me no more.
Repositories (on Github) are called Projects on Gitlab
Organisations are called Groups on Gitlab (and you can have subgroups, something I’ll talk about later)
Pull requests are called Merge requests on Gitlab
Comments on issues are counted as commits on Gitlab, but not on Github
Early history of the Fox & the Cat
After being founded in 2008 by  Chris Wanstrath, P. J. Hyett, Tom Preston-Werner, and Scott Chacon, grew fast - reaching over 100,000 users in 2009 and a valuation of $750 billion in 2012.
Gitlab was founded 3 years after Github, in 2011, however the domain name had first been registered in 2004, and in 2010 the domain name was registered again and parked by GoDaddy. Unlike Github, from the start Gitlab understood the importance of CI/CD tools, and from the start it had a CI/CD applet - Github wouldn’t get one until 2019.
300 people signed up for the first beta of Gitlab, in 2012, and by 2016 it had over 100,000 organisations, or groups, and many millions of users - the fox was starting to gain on the cat’s momentum. 
Repository membership
It wasn’t until April 14 this year that Github allowed teams, or organisations, to create unlimited private repostories. Gitlab had offered this to organisations from the start. While users on Github could host private repositories for free, Gitlab’s more versatile starter plan paved the way for less restrictions when it came to privacy. 
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The repository for AC0/RD’s website
The layout across the Github website is horizontal, while Gitlab moved from that traditional layout (which I preferred) to a vertical sidebar:
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CI/CD Frameworks
This was one of the main reasons that developers jumped ship from Github to Gitlab, even before Microsoft’s big (and controversial) purchase of the Cat. Companies like CircleCI, Shippable & Jenkins are all examples of companies that grew big by accomodating the users who still used Github who required continuous integration. While last year Github introduced CI/CD for the first time, many people still use those services, for the main reason that since the Github team dragged their feet for so long, companies like Gitlab & CircleCI had made their platforms really, really good - so even a behemoth like Microsoft couldn’t recuperate all those customers from the start (give it time, however, and I believe that Github users will start to trust in the platform more, which in turn will give Github - and Microsoft - an incentive to improve the system). 
Development & DevOps
One of the key problems with Github is that there is no webIDE - unlike on Gitlab (however, Gitlab does have its own problems with online usage - like only being able to upload a single file on the website at a time, but if you use a git client like GitKraken there’s no problem). 
Here’s a comparison of DevOps between Github and Gitlab, from Gitlab’s website:
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However, while Gitlab does release frequent updates each month, it’s not uncommon for users to complain about the new features that are added being rushed and only half-completed. Similarly, the common consensus around the UI/UX of the two platforms is that Github “features a super-simple interface and infrastructure.”
Community & Education
It’s a common argument amongst Github fans (and I’m one of them) that Github is a better platform because of its larger userbase, and that is true. Github has over 40 million users, making it the world’s largest website for open-source developers. While Gitlab certainly has a large number of developers & enthusiasts, too, it lacks the sheer number of well-built, official integrations that Github posesses - Trello, Slack & Monday.com are good examples of this.
But this is not to say that there are no external tools/integrations that work with Gitlab. Integromat & Zapier both support Gitlab, and there are slack & trello apps both available as well. If there’s an app that isn’t available on Gitlab, you can either build it yourself or get someone else to build it for you - chances are, there’s more people that feel the same way.
Or you can do what I did, and use both Github & Gitlab, but use something called “repository mirroring”. What this does is it allows you to connect a Github & Gitlab repository together, so if you need a specific feature from Github tbut your main repo is on Gitlab, it’s all good. The commits, pull/merge requests & issues can all be synced as well, either through the official interface of through third-party tools like Integromat.
The biggest downside for me with Gitlab is the lack of an education plan. While Gitlab does offer free premium plans to students, a school itself has to apply for one, and where I live - Australia - very few governments or schools see the importance or value in teaching coding or computer science, and they’re unlikely to put much time into investing in improving the experience of the few students who take computer science (which is still not yet a compulsory course!).
On the other hand, with Github I just input my education email addres and not only did I get access to Github premium, I also got access to premium plans for dozens of other websites and apps, like Canva & Name.com. 
Choose what works best for you. Both solutions are great.
Liam
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