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aelaer · 4 years ago

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Inspired by the X men ask: instead of Donna, what if Stephen's mutant powers manifest after she drowns? It's definitely writable with movie-only knowledge! (I think Stephen would have some scary strong powers).

This prompt is nearing a year and a half old and is my second to last prompt from 2019 so I wanted to try to get it out of the way as I attempt to do at least one prompt fic a month to clear my inbox of those remaining.

After being stuck on trying to figure this out for so long, I decided to approach it quite differently than I thought I would, and this is my first fic writing from this character’s POV. I made Stephen's age the same as Ben's for ease. I also prove, yet again, that my ability to write short things is very much lacking.

My interest in geography 100% leaks through, and I'm not sorry.

My thanks to nemmy for helping me decide the direction of this story.

Fate Won’t Compromise Fandom: Doctor Strange, MCU Genre: Gen, canon divergence Chars: The Ancient One, Stephen Strange, Donna Strange Word count: 5k Warnings: Minor canonical character death, near drowning

In the summer of 1995, The Ancient One felt a ripple in the fabric of reality.

Such ripples, while uncommon, were not unknown to her in her many centuries serving as Sorcerer Supreme. They happened as major events within their reality shifted from the threads found in similar realities across the multiverse. While change was inevitable between realities, commonalities often brought them back to follow the same paths, to hit the same major events, to survive the same catastrophes. Reality and time were excellent in creating situations that balanced the flow again and brought them back to their natural parallels across the majority of universes.

But sometimes, sometimes the fabric of reality and time was disturbed. It happened with a change, unexpected in its improbability and big enough that it diverted the parallel lines the majority of the multiverse followed to create a timeline that diverged, crooked and uncertain. If the ripple was small enough, the powers surrounding reality often fixed itself with countermeasures—new actors, new probabilities that helped bring time back to its parallel path. But some ripples, some ripples required intervention.

And this one? Well, this one absolutely shattered reality with its ripple effect.

Hmm. It was time to consult the Eye of Agamotto and see what changed.

— — — — —

Her time with the Eye was long in her search. With such a significant ripple, The Ancient One first looked at the immediate months coming, searching for change in the most important of events for the remainder of the year.

There was nothing different. Interesting. Then this was likely an event that changed the course of the life of an individual, an individual who was very important sometime in the future. She scanned the years following more broadly after that, coming upon the events of the new millennium, both mundane and arcane, that would change the course of Earth's future forever. They all came as expected, one after the other.

It wasn't until her search took her to 2016, the year before her own inevitable passing, that she finally came across the anomaly: Stephen Strange never made it to Kamar-Taj.

The Ancient One pursed her lips; this was not meant to happen. While her sight beyond 2017 remained veiled, her experience and intuition as well as glimpses across the multiverse gave her an insight into the likely path of Stephen Strange. And from what she had seen, he was meant to be the best of them all.

So what had diverted him from the path that was written in the course of time, so much so that its lack of manifestation caused such a ripple in reality? Surely it didn't change her death; she had accepted the inevitably of that decades ago.

(She first discovered her death after the chaos of WWII, where the Masters of the Mystic Arts fought their own war against demonic invasions looking to take advantage of the chaotic time. She looked to prevent such a thing ever occurring again, then found her death. At first she wasn't concerned, and made plans to avoid it, just as she had several times before.

But it was different this time. With the Eye of Agamotto in the past, she was always able to find a route that allowed her to survive and the world to remain intact within a dozen attempts of altering her actions. It took her over a thousand attempts over the next year to realize that, no, no matter what, she was going to die before the fourth month of 2017. She never lived further than that.

And in the course that seemed most sound to her, the most consistent, she was always by the side of the unsure, amateur, but potentially great Stephen Strange.)

The Eye confirmed for her that, yes, she still died in early 2017. However, the manner of death was completely unacceptable, as it led to Dormammu eating their reality. She had not seen that possibility since she stopped trying to find a solution to her death several decades ago.

(She wondered how Stephen Strange managed to defeat him. She did not sense the end of reality after her death, so it was with confidence that she knew he found a solution. What the solution was, however, remained unknown to her. It was most intriguing. He had such potential.)

The Ancient One finally withdrew from the encompassing powers of the Eye and allowed herself a frown. She hoped Stephen Strange was not dead. It would mean finding another like him, and quite soon so she may prevent the terrible future she just saw.

Still, the ripple she felt did but not necessarily mean death; it meant change, for good or ill.

The first thing to do was to check on what was, and what would hopefully remain, her future pupil. She directed the Eye to review the timeline of Stephen Strange, going to the moment just before the ripple in reality occurred.

As she searched for that moment, flashes of memories not belonging to her flipped through her mind's eye: the first was a pair of hands on the wheel of a car, left side, as it turned off the paved road to a bumpy gravel-filled spot of driving, then quickly smoothed out to a road less rough. A large brown sign with yellow, capital letters read "Lewis and Clark State Recreation Area", with a smaller "Nebraska State and Park Commission" underneath. "Weigand - Burbach" was spelt on a separate plank just below the main sign with the same dark brown backdrop and bright yellow lettering. In the backseats was excited chatter from two others, women. Surrounding the road were tall trees of various species, all different colors of green.

Another flash, and she was now watching a small motorboat being backed up into the water from its trailer by a young man—barely a man—into a wide lake. Beyond the water the distant shore was all but flat, with only a small ridge of hills giving the horizon any distinct shape. A shrill voice shouted behind her, "Don't crash it!" and the man in the boat shouted back, "Shut up, Melissa!" Giggles followed, and then a voice came from the soul she watched, a deep baritone that said, "But seriously, if you crash it, my dad will kill you." The young man in the boat retorted, "Fuck you, Stephen!" in return, and Stephen's body shook with soft laughter. The man successfully maneuvered the boat into the water, and a short cheer sounded behind her.

Then another memory, and she was now on the motorboat, far out on the water which shone as bright a blue as the sky above. A young woman—a teenager, as they said in English in the 20th century, now—was doing some sort of sport she was unfamiliar with, letting the motorboat drag her along as she hung on by a rope with a handle at the end. Perhaps this was surfing. The teenager completed a short jump on the waves, and from her point of view, the memory's host shouted, "Nice, Donna!"

Another flash, and she was the one at the end of the rope. She quickly passed through it to the next memory.

Time had passed; it was late afternoon, perhaps an hour or so before sunset. Her host was looking at the boat's controls. A female voice—Melissa—behind them said, "Okay, Aaron's ready to go. Start it up." As the boat motor roared to life, another voice—Donna—said over the noise, "We should get out of the water after this. It'll be dark soon." The soul behind the memories, Stephen, shouted back, "That's why we have navigation lights on this thing!"

The memory shifted again, and all four were on the boat now. The sun was set behind the horizon and the sky was painted a soft yellow before it melted into blue, then black. Stars were already appearing in the sky. Surrounding her were the other three, Aaron and Melissa and Donna, and there was a strong feeling of content within the memory. "We should get back to camp," Donna said, and she heard Stephen sigh and say, "Yeah," in reply. "Your turn, Aaron," he added. Aaron said, "Dude, I'm wiped out. You do it." Stephen retorted in return, "No, you."

Then it shifted again, and she was looking up at the darkening sky when Melissa said, "That boat's going fast." Her point of view changed as Stephen straightened himself, and she saw another motorboat running straight towards them. "Stop!" Stephen shouted as he got to his feet, and a second later, Aaron called out, "Jump!" and Stephen did, hitting the water and diving just as their motorboat was hit and destroyed. He was facing down into the murky, black depths of the lake as suddenly something hit his back, and at that moment some sort of rope or netting caught his leg and its weight started dragging him down. She could feel the alarm running through the young man's head and the Ancient One wondered if she was going to be seeing his death, now. A strange pang of regret went through her at the thought.

But then a sudden glow encompassed Stephen's body, subtle but in the blackness of the water, quite, quite clear. Confusion joined his panic but before any other thoughts came to his head, he was suddenly out of the water and on the shore of the lake. He collapsed the moment he went from liquid to air, falling on his back before turning to his side to cough up water from the lake.

The Ancient One stepped back from Stephen Strange's memories and blinked again back in the normal passage of time. As the green glow of the Time Stone's powers faded from her body, she considered the last memory.

She knew, from all her viewings of the future, that it was about this time that the mutation that came to be known as the X-Gene started popping up in the population. It would eventually have an impact on the future of Earth. But Stephen Strange was not meant to have it—or perhaps, rather, it was never meant to activate. Not if the flow of reality and time considered this an anomaly in the general course of the multiverse.

His appearance within the order of the Masters of the Mystic Arts seemed to lead to the event that prevented Dormammu's entrance into their reality, so he—or someone of his caliber—was necessary to have under her tutelage. And as he was not dead, she needed to see what had to happen to work him again onto a path that was the best for the universe's survival, regardless of this unexpected development in his life.

It was time to consult the Eye once more to determine the right path.

—————

Using the Eye worked outside the flow of time, and so all the Ancient One's endeavours, though seeming to her to take several hours, in reality only took her about twenty minutes since she first felt the ripple. She had passed through various scenarios and glimpsed at various extensions of those scenarios as needed until she had an outcome that had her satisfied with her decisions and, more importantly, made it very, very unlikely that the universe would end to Dormammu in 2017.

(Her own future, strangely enough, grew blurry and uncertain the closer she got to that year, which she found quite intriguing. She would pursue the matter at a later date.)

For now, though, she had a job to do. And so she created a portal that led her to the north shore of the lake, at the beach where the small hills lay. At this point of time it was nearly dark, and so she conjured a lantern—one of the elegant ones that they used to craft in Japan, the ones she preferred—and placed a small, magical light within the illusion. It would reveal its true nature soon enough. Despite the rockiness of this part of the shoreline, her footing was sure as she made her way along the edge of the lake.

In a couple minutes, a voice, expected and now familiar, called out to her. "Hello? Is someone there? I need help!"

In all her experience of using the Eye of Agamotto, the Ancient One had gotten very good at differentiating all the viewed possibilities to the experienced reality. Reality was sharper in every way, and the auras of people's spirits shone brighter without the power of the Time Stone to stifle them. And in the night surrounding them, Stephen Strange's aura shone very, very bright.

Interesting.

When she came close enough for him to see her clearly, his eyes widened as he took her in. She knew her resemblance was considered odd by late twentieth-century standards, but the memory of centuries of lice infestations made hair still undesirable and robes were infinitely more comfortable than jeans. But she was aware of its oddness, and as he stared, the Ancient One took the time to also observe him beyond the fuzziness of the Eye of Agamotto.

The gangly boy sitting in the sand in front of her hardly resembled the arrogant, talented man she had come to know through her past use of the Eye. Just breaking the cusp of manhood, his hair was still fully dark brown, and he wore a sleeveless blue shirt with long swim shorts, all still wet despite the time out of the water. His cheeks were fuller with the last remnant of youth still remaining, and the look in his eyes was wild and unguarded. Filled with fear.

Quite different from what she was used to.

"Who are you?" Stephen Strange whispered.

"A friend," she answered. She placed the lantern on a rock before settling down in the dark sand near him, about five feet away. "I mean you no harm."

He continued to stare at her, then looked at his leg. It was bleeding sluggishly and would need stitches. "Can you please help me? I—I'm not sure how I got here, but there was a boating accident and I—I need to find my friends and my sister. It's on the lake, I swear, I don't know why we can't see it from here but the accident just happened and it can't be that far."

She let him finish before she broke the news. "You are about seven kilometers west from the site of your accident, on the north shore of the lake. I believe you call this part of your country 'South Dakota'."

Stephen's eyes somehow widened even further, then he quickly shook his head. "No, that—that's impossible. That's completely impossible."

"Just as impossible as finding yourself drowning at the bottom of a lake one moment and being on dry land in the next," she said agreeably.

The wide-eyed look seemed it would remain a permanent fixture on his face. "Wha—how—how do you know about that?"

"It is my job to know of such things," said the Ancient One. "It is also how I know that, if you are found so far from the site of the accident, you will draw unwanted attention upon yourself."

Stephen visibly swallowed and looked around them, as if the unwanted attention was already watching. "What—what do you mean?"

The Ancient One offered him a benign smile. "You are not the first to perform the impossible. When figures of authority learn such things exist, they pursue them. And your story would draw their attention. Historically, your country has been known to use extraordinary people as assets when needed. Many kingdoms and governments throughout time have."

A soft wind blew in from the south, causing Stephen to shiver in the oncoming chill of the night. Regardless of his discomfort, his wide eyes narrowed into something more calculating and thoughtful. "Why are you telling me this? What do you get out of it?"

"A future ally, hopefully," she answered truthfully. "I have no interest in taking you from your studies, Stephen Strange—yes, I know who you are," she said, the benign smile coming again as he startled. "Your name is the least I know about you."

He stared at her once more, mouth hanging partially open. As the wind blew through again, he snapped his mouth shut and rubbed his shivering arms. "And why—why should I believe you aren't part of these secret government groups, or part of something that wants to use me? Why should I trust you?"

She kept that slight smile on her face as she answered, "Because I offer my assistance and ask nothing in return. I will guide you to the shoreline just north of the accident, and show you where you may find help. I recommend a forgetful memory between the crash and you reaching shore, which is quite common in times of traumatic events. No one will suspect anything different about you, Mr Strange."

The boy fidgeted at the name, as if not used to it. He really was a young thing, wasn't he? "You can get me there? Do you have a car nearby?"

The Ancient One smiled and lifted her lantern. "Remember what I said, Mr Strange." She let the lantern disintegrate, leaving only the glowing ball of light. Stephen's mouth dropped. "You are not the only person who can do the supposedly impossible. Can you walk unaided?"

Stephen snapped his jaw shut at the question and looked down at his leg. He pressed his lips together, and then with a grunt, he slowly shifted his weight under his legs, most of it on his good leg, before he pushed himself up into a standing position.

She offered another slight smile and held her hand forward to create a portal further east along the lake. "Follow me." The Ancient One did not bother to look at his reaction to the gateway, but had the ball of light follow her through. When she turned, Stephen was limping just through the portal, and after he got through she allowed it to close.

They were on the shore again; to the south in the water, a mile or so away, she could see the distant pinpricks of shiplights at the scene of the accident. Stephen, too, stared in that direction. But she forced his focus elsewhere when she pointed to the northeast, to the pinpricks of light beyond the trees. "Do you believe you can make it to those lit buildings? It is perhaps two hundred meters away. They should have a phone."

He offered a nod. "Yeah. My leg's not so bad."

"Good," she said. "Then I recommend you go that way; it may be some hours before authorities search the shore for you." She looked back at him. "I would not tell anyone of what truly occurred to you; such tales have an unfortunate habit of getting out, no matter how private the story is meant to be."

Stephen frowned at her, and she offered him another one of her benign smiles. "I will come to see you again, after you have had some time to recover. Good luck, Mr Strange." With that, she let the glowing ball beside her fade out, and created a portal into one of the darker rooms of Kamar-Taj and left the young Stephen Strange on the shore of the lake.

——————

Two weeks later, the Ancient One created another portal to the midwestern United States, landing underneath a narrow strip of trees that bordered a small creek that made its way through wide fields of agriculture. The nearest field beside her was corn, and just beyond it was a half-harvested wheat field. The trees bordering the water were a mix of oak and pine, specific species she was not familiar with but that she could broadly identify due to the commonalities found within their relatives in the Eastern Hemisphere. It was just after midday in this place known as Nebraska, and the summer sun was pleasant in this corner of the world, with a soft breeze taking off the edge of the dry heat.

She saw no one at first, but if the sling ring brought her here, that meant Stephen Strange was also nearby. A faint trail followed the bend of the creek and she paused in consideration before her instincts led her to go southwest.

In a few minutes, she came upon him. While her step was soft, the silence of the trail around them should have alerted Stephen to her arrival. But his back remained turned to her as he sat beyond the narrow trail and on the slope that led into the creek bed. His chin was propped on his knees and, since he had not heard her approaching, the Ancient One knew his mind was quite far away.

"Mr Strange," she said in greeting.

The young man violently started out of his daze and nearly lost his seating as he twisted around to stare at her. It seemed to her that he had aged some years in the last two weeks; his eyes were dark and sunken with lack of sleep, and his entire expression appeared drawn and pinched. His lips tightened for a moment, then he said, "It's you again."

"I did say I was going to return," she reminded him. She approached the sloping hill beside the creek and sat down beside him.

From the corner of her eye, she saw his expression tighten again. She remained quiet as he gathered his words. "Did you know?" Stephen asked after several passing seconds of heavy silence.

The Ancient One kept her gaze on the small creek. She knew what he was asking, and she would not play any games pretending otherwise; it wouldn't serve her purpose. "I knew that, by the time I came to you, your sister had died."

The tenseness beside her did not lift; if anything, it grew heavier. "Did you know Donna was going to die?"

An interesting question. She considered her answer; a multitude of answers would lead to an acceptable outcome, but this was reality. "We don't get to choose our time," she started. "In some probabilities, the question of death is split between a thin line that sways from one option to the other depending on the reality. In other instances, death is all but certain." She spared a glance at him; Stephen's grief was now layered with confusion. "I am sorry to say that, in the wide expansion of possibilities, your sister's death was largely unavoidable. All points led to it."

The young man's face contorted in anger. "I don't believe in fate or whatever the hell you're talking about."

"Some may call it fate," she answered, and looked back to the creek. "I call it probability. You may have been told, at some point in your life, that there are random events in life that are unpredictable. This is untrue, at least on a larger scale. Each event of consequence has a set probability in occurring, with the powers balancing reality and time ever trying to keep them as consistent as possible in the grand scheme of the multiverse. Certain people are always born. Certain events always occur. Certain items are always invented. Around people of consequence, events play out so that they may help play the part that they are meant to play."

In the corner of her eye, she saw Stephen run a hand over his face. "Look, lady, like I told you: I don't believe in that bullshit. And if you're trying to tell me that my sister was meant to—" He cut himself off and turned his head away. She saw his knuckles tighten to the point of turning white with the strain.

She slowly exhaled and closed her eyes. She had not spoken with youth who did not know her for who she was in some many years; she could not remember the last time a young person had spoken to her with such disrespect. But she had to keep in mind that Stephen was grieving, and that he was absolutely clueless.

Perhaps if he saw a small glimpse of what she saw, he would understand.

"I would like to show you something, if you would allow it," said the Ancient One as she opened her eyes and looked at Stephen.

His eyes darted to look at her with a side glance, though he did not look at her fully. "Show me what?"

"What my powers allow me to see," she said. His eyes narrowed. "It won't hurt or leave any lasting effects."

She saw the internal struggle, but one thing she knew well of Stephen Strange: his curiosity always got the better of him. And as she expected, he relented and said, "Okay, fine. How do you do that?"

A slight smile appeared on her lips. "Like this," said the Ancient One, and she placed her thumb upon his forehead and connected her third eye to his unused, undeveloped one. She picked from her memory a set of images gained by using the Eye of Agamotto in conjunction with the Cauldron of the Cosmos to explore the realities across the multiverse, the images she picked up some years ago as she looked into the man known as Stephen Strange and what he became in other realities.

And the images she chose were specifically referring to his sister's death. As she let him see various versions of himself (some with slightly different physical features, and a couple further in the past, but so very much Stephen Strange), she said, "The multiverse is a strange thing in its consistency. Donna Strange was not born only to perish at such a young age in every reality, but the probability was stacked against her. And many named Stephen Strange have experienced the grief you feel now. It is not your fault that the universe stacked probability against her survival."

She removed her thumb from his forehead and Stephen collapsed, rolling down a couple feet down the slope before catching himself. Laying on the ground now he panted heavily, trying to gain his breath.

When he finally raised his head, tears were streaming down his face. "It should've been me," he choked out. "She didn't deserve to die! None of those—" He cut himself off and shook his head, then angrily wiped at his face. "I—I don't know what the fuck you were doing—"

"I was using my powers to show you what I have seen," she interrupted, cutting him off for the first time. "After what you managed to achieve at the lake, are my abilities really so hard to come to terms with?"

Stephen shook his head again and pushed himself off the ground so he was standing. The Ancient One remained sitting and kept her expression neutral. "Okay, fine, so you have some crazy-ass powers that—that make no sense. I get it, you did physics-breaking things at the lake, too. What the hell does that have to do with me?"

She offered a benign smile. "Surely you haven't forgotten your unusual journey from the lake to the shore. Or have you been telling yourself that it was all a hallucination?"

By the look on his face, it appeared that that was exactly what he was trying to do. That would do no good.

"Unfortunately for you, your powers aren't just going to go away," the Ancient One said. "Whether they will manifest under physical or emotional stress I do not yet know, but they will return if you do not know how to control them."

"And what, you can teach me how to control them?" Stephen asked, narrowing his eyes at her.

"Yes," was her simple answer.

Stephen's eyes remained narrow, then he cut off his stare to run a hand through his hair and shake his head. "And what would you want out of me in return?"

"Nothing you are unwilling to give," said the Ancient One. "You can continue your studies as you wish. Go on to become a doctor."

"How did you know—" He paused, cutting himself off, then shook his head. "You know what, never mind. Go on."

She offered her smile again. "All it would require is some of your time to discover the extent of your powers and to learn ways in which you can best control them. Consider it an extracurricular activity, if you would like."

"And what do you get out of it?" he asked.

"The knowledge that those with unusual powers remain hidden from those who would exploit them," is what she answers, but in truth, it was so much more. Still, it was not yet time to tell him that; he was too young. Too green.

Stephen looked down and crossed his arms as he considered her words. His expression was stone, but she knew what he was going to answer. If there was one thing predictable about Stephen Strange, it was his curiosity and his hunger for knowledge. It was his ambition to be the best at whatever he set his mind to, and a new ability suddenly within his hands was one meant to be conquered for him.

He then nodded jerkily, just once. "Okay. Sure. When do we start?"

The Ancient One smiled and stood. "How about now?" She opened a portal to one of her private rooms in Kamar-Taj, where she was rarely disturbed. It would not do to show him everything of the compound immediately, but it would come in due time.

He hesitated. "I need to be home for dinner at six."

"That is quite doable," she answered, and waited.

A couple seconds of hesitation passed, and then Stephen Strange lifted his chin and walked directly into the portal to Kamar-Taj, over two decades earlier than expected. The Ancient One followed him and closed the gateway behind her, leaving behind the quiet creek to flow under the bright green leaves on a sunny Nebraskan summer day.

— — — — —

The big happy moment for me in writing this fic was that the town I chose for Stephen to grow up in and alluded to in another story is pretty close to this lake, so that worked out great. The most disappointing discovery, on the other hand, was that the Google Maps car only got like, the major roads in Nebraska. That does not include annnyyyyy of the roads near the Lewis and Clark State Recreation Area. And their promotional video didn't help in determining the details I wanted.

But then *the best thing* happened and on the camp's location on Google Maps, some beautiful, beautiful person took a photo of the entrance of the campgrounds, which was the exact detail I needed. So I dedicate this fic to Denis F. and their photo. (We're gonna pretend that the road and sign's 100% been like that since at least 1995). As much as I'd like to make an excuse to go to a lakeside attraction for boating fun, I'm sadly not a millionaire and cannot throw away thousands for the sake of fic accuracy. Alas. Once I win the lottery, though, 100% will commit to this. (Also, it's January and freaking freezing in Nebraska right now.)

FYI, Donna was not surfing, but wakeboarding. I just doubt that the Ancient One has bothered to learn all the new sports that popped up in the latter half of the 20th century - especially as one as young as wakeboarding was in 1995.

Hopefully the emotional roller coaster in the last bit worked. I've had conversations that just went all over the place like that before—crazy emotional subject to another crazy subject that just shook you to the point that the emotional subject was put on the back burner for processing—so hopefully people can relate.

#anonymous #stephen strange #the ancient one #doctor strange fanfiction #avengers fanfiction #donna strange #prompt fill #ask #answered #my writing #my fanfiction

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bethkerring · 6 years ago

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11/11/11 Tag Game!

Thank you for the tag, @bookenders!! These are always a ton of fun - it just took a while to finish because your questions are very thought-provoking and I wanted to take some time to think of the best answers.

My Questions

1. What is your favorite and least favorite quality about your MC?

2. What is the worst possible thing that could happen to your characters?

3. What is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to your MC?

4. Your characters have all been turned into household objects (a la Beauty and the Beast). What objects are they?

5. What does your character’s search history look like (imaginary search history if you’re writing historical fiction or a character with no computer)?

6. Is there a price someone could pay your MC to do something truly horrendous, something completely against their moral views? What’s the price (can be money, fame, saving a loved one from a deadly illness, etc.), and what does your MC have to do?

7. What is your character most likely to splurge on, financially? Technology? Food? Experiences? Antiques? Collectable trading cards?

8. Your MC is informed that they have an incurable illness. It won’t kill them, but it will make the rest of their life very painful and challenging. How do they react, both initially and long-term?

9. If your MC was put in a situation like The Purge (all crime is legal for a short time period), what would they do? Hide? Steal? Kill someone? Fight to protect strangers?

10. Someone starts a conversation with your MC about a highly controversial topic, and it’s clear they hold the opposite view to your MC. How does your MC react?

11. What Starbucks beverage is most like each of your characters?

Tagging

@blueinkblot @leave-her-a-tome @tayluin @undinisms @writingwordsanddrawingpictures @mouwwie @emmathenovelist @toboldlywrite @bethanywritesbooks @teaandcakesattwo @marniebalboa

What would your WIP be called if it were a breakfast cereal? What does it taste like?

"First Moons.�� Not because my WIP has anything to do with the moon, but because the moon is a familiar and comforting light in the darkness. It has hints of all the most common childhood favorites (including little marshmallow moons), the sort that make you feel warm and fuzzy on the first bite, but with a bitter aftertaste you don’t notice until you’re done with the bowl. You might even be able to tell yourself it wasn’t the cereal. It couldn’t be the cereal, right? The cereal is good, and you enjoyed it a lot, and you’re going to eat it tomorrow, and the aftertaste definitely won’t come back.

If your OCs were to be sponsored by any sort of product or item, what would it be?

Amy would be sponsored by an app that allows players to create very realistic digital companions. They come complete with extremely advanced AI which allows them to respond to you just like a real person would. If you happen to not have many real people to talk to, this app would be a good pastime - though it just might keep you from making real friends in the future.

Kayla would be sponsored by an app to match with people and find new friends. It allows people to insert rather obscure interests into their profiles and therefore find people who share those interests, who they might not be able to find with typical matching services.

Bibi would be sponsored by an app to keep track of someone you care about at all hours of the day (not with sexual intentions, but still just as creepy).

How do you take an idea from a concept to a story? What about an idea makes it story-worthy for you?

It tends to differ depending on the story, but often I start with a single idea - which might be a character, a relationship, a plot concept, etc. - and drop in other ideas that either stem from the first idea or just occur to me randomly and feel related. Eventually, I’ve got enough ideas to start sorting them into something coherent, and figuring out what I need to do to fill in the gaps.

More recently, I’ve started using the Three-Act Structure to sort my ideas. I’m not strict about it, but it’s a useful tool and helps me make sure that my ideas are an actual plot and not just slices in someone’s life.

As for judging whether an idea is story-worthy, for me, it’s a combination of writability and longevity. If I have a great beginning but have no idea how to find a satisfying ending, the story either isn’t good enough or just isn’t ready to write. Since both writing and editing a book take a while, I also have to have enough passion for the idea to want to stick with it over time, even if I take breaks. (For instance, I’ve been working on my current WIP on and off for more than three years, and I still love it.)

What’s the name of your OCs’ band? What kind of music do they play? Who plays what? Who’s the manager? What venues do they play? Are they any good?

Oh, geez, it would take so much pressuring - by someone she really respected - for Amy to agree to play in a band. She doesn’t hate music, by any means, but spending all that time on an instrument? Playing in front of people? No thank you.

But if she had to, she would start a rock-classical fusion band, probably named Striped Socks or something else random (she wouldn’t be particular about the name). She would probably play electric violin: she always liked the sound of it, even though she’s never learned. She would refuse to play in any large venues, and despite her lack of enthusiasm at first, her natural passion would probably catch on quick, and she would make sure every performance was stunning.

As for the other members ... she has no idea. She doesn’t really have any friends except for Bibi. Maybe Bibi could learn to play the piano and everyone who can’t see her would think it’s pre-programmed to play?

What would your WIP look like as a romantic comedy (with the same characters, of course)?

... It would take a ton of twisting and imagination to turn this story into a romantic comedy, especially considering there are no romantic subplots, and it would definitely be a dark comedy. I presume that Amy and Kayla would be the main couple, and their friendship could conceivably work as a romance with the right twists. Things would never get too serious between them, though, both because they’re quite young and new to dating and because of Amy’s reluctance to open herself up to anyone who isn’t Bibi. Actually, come to think of it, if you don’t mind a lot of serious parts, Amy’s snark would fit quite well in a romantic comedy.

What about your writing are you most proud of?

Hmm ... probably the times when my readers have screamed at me in fury and grief when I do something cruel to my characters, or seeing them cheer when the characters finally got what they needed/wanted after a long, long period of being deprived of it. Deeply emotional scenes and subplots are my favorite to write, and when I manage to pull them off, it means the world to see people’s reactions.

What, in your opinion, is the coolest thing about your WIP?

The whole thing that inspired my WIP was my love of relationships between so-called ordinary people, especially children and teens, who could interact with someone no one else could see. Someone who was dedicated to protecting them, kind of like a guardian angel, only ... not as nice. Even three years after this story’s conception, I still adore writing Amy and Bibi’s relationship, and I swear it gets more complicated (and with greyer morality) with each draft. I also adore exploring morally grey issues, which I get to do often thanks to Bibi’s rather over-enthusiastic protective nature toward Amy.

What excites you about writing?

Feeling a person that was once just a vague idea in my head become real, not just to me, but hopefully to everyone who reads my work.

Characters with brown hair gain the ability to pull chocolate bars out of their pockets at will. How does this change your WIP?

If very dark, almost black hair is included, then both Amy and Kayla would have this ability. It probably wouldn’t change the plot much, but Amy would probably use it as an excuse to occasionally skip lunch in the cafeteria and just eat chocolate bars in a bathroom stall, which could potentially keep her from meeting Kayla in the first place. Let’s just say a lot of the story wouldn’t progress in that case.

Kayla would use the chocolate bars as a peace/friendship offering to people she wanted to meet, including Amy, if she gets the chance to meet her. Honestly, everyone she considers a friend - or who she wants to befriend - would probably find a chocolate bar tied to their locker door every day.

How do you like to end your stories?

Often bittersweet, tipping slightly more toward sweet - though this greatly varies depending on the story. By the end of the story, my characters have often lost something very precious to them, and there’s a good chance they’ll never get it back, and have to deal with that tremendous grief - but they’ve also gained something new which they might find makes their lives better in the long run. But like I said, this depends - I grew up reading some stories with downright depressing endings, and I’m constantly tempted to do the same myself ...

What’s your favorite word? What’s your least favorite word?

This one was really tough, and I’ll probably change my answers tomorrow, but for now ... “lily” sounds beautiful (though I admit I’m tempted to say “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”). And assuming we’re discounting words that shouldn’t be repeated in polite company, I honestly can’t think of a word I especially dislike. I find most words can sound good, at least in some way, if used in the right context.

#writing #tag game

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mal-likes-biscuits · 6 years ago

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So, what first attracted you to the Diablo universe, and what inspired you to write within it?

There’s a fun story behind this, and I’m glad someone asked me. It’s a story I will casually mention, but I didn’t want to go into the whole thing needlessly because it felt a bit self-serving. Also, this is LONG. But it’s a long story to tell.

Diablo Universe

I tried to play Diablo years ago when I was in a really stressed out, bad head-space, and I didn’t like it. I’d also just finished playing Torchlight, which is a much more vibrant, happy game design. I got partway through the Tristram Cathedral and just couldn’t do the gothic horror.

Then, a couple years ago, I was stuck at home on bed rest while pregnant. All I could do was lie on the couch and play video games. Which probably seems great, and it was, until weeks went by, and I ran. out. of. games. I mean, I played through ME: Andromeda to 100% completion, I put like 100+hours into Darkest Dungeon, you get the idea. This was conveniently about the time I actually had my kid, because (spoilers!) they are extremely time-consuming.

Anyway, we were too busy parenting to play video games, as we usually did, until a couple months after she was born. And at that point, she also spontaneously developed colic. Badly. If you haven’t had the experience of having a colicky child – I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. The doctor gives you a handout that essentially says “your child is fine, they will scream, we recommend seeking psychological support”.

At this point, I was already in a pretty bad mental head space from post-partum depression and the non-stop baby screaming. BUT. We discovered that if we swaddle wrapped our kid tightly, and held her, she would calm down. Less screaming: good. Having to constantly, physically hold your baby from 3 PM until 10 PM: boring.

Enter Diablo. My husband suggested we try it again, because it wasn’t hard to play, and we could play it together while one of us held our kid. Did you know you can play Diablo 3 with one hand by key binding your mouse and only using some of the abilities? Yes you can! And thankfully, I was kind of immune to the gothic-horror-motif that had irrationally bugged me the first time I tried.

(Nor did playing it make my depression worse. For anyone wanting the conclusion for that part of the story, I saw a good psychiatrist specializing in PPD. That helped a lot. If you know anyone who is depressed while pregnant/after pregnancy, or you are that yourself, seek help. It is the hardest thing to do, and will be the best thing you do. Depression is not rational. //soapbox)

Anyway, we played through all of Diablo 3 while holding a happily snoozing, colicky baby. And because we wanted to make the game last as long as possible, we were absolute LORE FIENDS. I had to find all the books, all the journals, etc. In this slightly superficial looking game, holy crap, there was backstory! You just had to go digging for it.

The lore that really grabbed me was a set of tomes from Act 5, called The Path of Wisdom. They were buggerishly hard to find because they were buried around Pandemonium fortress.

And so ….

Writing Diablo

I’ve always been a writer. I write for my day job. I write and publish short-fiction (genre, usually SF) on the side. And I’ve written fanfic for years. Only, I hadn’t touched fanfic for awhile because I was working on original work. And then when I became pregnant, I completely lost my ability to write, because hormones are stupid, and mom-brain is worse.

Writing droughts aren’t unusual for me. But I hadn’t written anything for almost two years. There was a call out for a fantasy anthology that I really wanted to do something for, and I managed to turn that out (I’m still pleased with the story, and still trying to place it). I don’t usually write fantasy, nor do I usually read it. I’m a SF gal through and through.

Except, this fantasy story I’d written really got me in the mood for writing MORE. It was a one-shot story, nothing I could build on. That was a problem.

At the same time, hubby and I were doing what we usually did after finishing a game, which was having “long talks at the pub” (which, after kid, were more “let’s have tea while she’s passed out and talk”) about all the nerdy, intellectual parts of the game. Diablo 3 doesn’t have the strong Act 1-4 story. But I LOVED Act 5. It had a great villain who was intense and engaging, Westmarch was honestly terrifying, and then. THEN. THERE WERE THOSE BOOKS.

Buried in this superficial hack and slash game were lore books that explained the Angel of Death wasn’t just the Angel of Death. That he had been the Angel of Wisdom, once. And there were all these reasons for what he had done, and they made a horrible, logical SENSE.

Whoa, my brain said. Wait a moment. That isn’t the sort of transformation that happens by accident. I found the Diablo wikia at that point and read all the rest of the lore I could get my hands on. I learned about the Worldstone, and Chald’ar, and the madness that took hold of Malthael.

And the first words out of my mouth to my husband after all of this were “WHY DID THEY WASTE SUCH A GREAT VILLAIN IN A SINGLE ACT 5.” Unless something changes in D4, Malthael is very dead. And that bothered me. Because the whole theme, at least I feel, of Diablo is that Light triumphs, and the path of Balance (or mortality) is the right way to go. You see this with Tyrael.

And I honestly felt they should have done something similar at the end with Malthael. Because he does terrible things and makes terrible decisions, but where he starts isn’t as a bad person. He falls incredibly far because the angels in Diablo are not built to withstand that kind of change to their life or their function. To me, it seemed so much more legit and in line with the theme to bring him back, have him account for what he’s done, and then throw in with the winning team.

This all stewed around in my brain for several weeks, until an idea came to me. Usually writing ideas pop out of nowhere. It’s a bit annoying, because I have no ability to intentionally come up with stuff. I’m at the mercy of my subconscious.

My subconscious dreamed the chapter from “In All Things Light & Dark” where Malthael, now mortal, fights the shade of his former self in the forest. Complete with the “Sound of Silence” soundtrack. Dreaming something coherent, let alone writable, is really unusual for me. But it was a profoundly vivid image.

And I thought … what the hell. Let’s do it. I write. I’ve written fanfic before. I haven’t written barely anything in a couple years, but let’s give it a try. If Blizzard isn’t going to give me this story and do right by the character, then I will.

110,000+ words later, I can say: writing Diablo fanfic was the best thing I could have done for my writing muse. It’s back in shape. It knocked all the mom-brain cobwebs out. And it’s been helllllishly fun to do. :)

Side-note addendum: my kid is totally fine after sleeping to the (quiet) sounds of demon slaying for several months. She is, however, also completely fearless, and thinks Malthael’s voice acting is absolutely hilarious. For what it’s worth – she laughs in the face of Death.

#my writing #my asks #fanfiction #why i write diablo #colic sucks but kids are awesome

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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What Are NFTs and Why Are Comics Companies Selling Them?

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With an announcement from collectible maker VeVe, the world was introduced to the first officially licensed DC NFTs. “What is VeVe?” you might ask. Or possibly “What is an NFT?”

Excellent questions, friends! We will do our absolute best to explain them in clear, concise terms to you right now.

Here are simple answers to complicated questions: NFTs are ecologically devastating vaporware created to part very dumb, very wealthy collectors from their money, made by stoned libertarian math nerds trying to prove a point they think is profound but is actually just very banal. Veve is no different than any other secondary huckster that springs up around a particularly successful snake oil economy.

As for why DC is getting in bed with them, it’s hard to know if the company is trying to just be cutting edge or if it’s because AT&T took on a shitload of debt buying Warner, and like anybody with creditors breathing down their neck, they need to make several quick bucks or else.

THE NEXT EVOLUTION IN COMICS HUCKSTERISM

Two full decades after Metallica teamed up with record labels to make sure we didn’t own anything we purchased digitally, a group of rejected Captain Planet villains came up with a workaround: NFTs.

NFTs use blockchain, a distributed AI accountant that requires ENORMOUS amounts of processing power to work properly, to assign certificates of ownership and record transactions. Accepting the pitch behind blockchain technology requires one to step back to an absurdly abstract level, then a zoom back into the extremely micro.

Every transaction between two people is built around trust: I trust that you are giving me the thing I’m paying for, while we both trust that the currency I’m handing you has a (relatively) absolute value which will allow it to be traded for other things. Blockchain purports to eliminate that trust: it uses a distributed ledger that anyone can see and confirm to record our transaction; it uses an algorithm to make sure every copy of the ledger is the same; and it assigns tokens to each transaction that can be given a value.

NFTs add in an absurd additional abstraction: ownership of digital media. I have always had the ability to, for example, produce an animated reaction gif from a television show and sell that animated reaction gif to you for a fixed sum of money. You would be an idiot for purchasing that reaction gif for several reasons: anyone else could make the exact same gif and you could find it in iMessage’s search engine, for one. But nothing in the past has ever prevented this transaction from occurring.

The “innovation” around NFTs is that it uses blockchain technology to “prove” “ownership” and “authenticity,” a sentence that is so heavily caveated that to express it correctly in writing makes the writer look like a conspiracy theorist. The NFT assigns a ledger value to the piece of digital artwork, and then that ledger value is what is sold between parties. It is a non-fungible token – unlike Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency, the idea is these art pieces’ tokens’ inherent value doesn’t change (hence the non-fungible), while cryptocurrency is a token whose value is relative to other less imaginary currency.

This has led to some frankly embarrassing sales online. Jack Dorsey, the vacuous and bizarre founder of Twitter, is auctioning off his first tweet, something that already happened, that you can find with one simple Google search, for millions of dollars. Beeple, an artist the internet assures me is real, auctioned off a digital JPEG collage of all their previous works for $69 million. Jose Delgo, a comics artist from the ‘70s that very few people remembered until this happened, has made almost $2 million selling NFTs of his own artwork, spurring DC to email freelancers to remind them that they should not be using DC characters to try and skate atop this obvious bubble. Not because of the catastrophic environmental impacts caused by the blockchain algorithm, mind you. No, it was because AT&T needed to get some of that sweet, sweet tulip money.

THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS MOSTLY POOR PEOPLE

Joanie Lemercier, a French artist and climate activist, has sold six NFT pieces so far. The act of accounting for those sales – assigning a token, then transferring ownership of that token from Lemercier to the purchaser – was 8.7 megawatt hours of energy. That’s roughly equivalent to the entire energy consumption of his studio for two entire years.

The algorithm used for NFTs, like the one used for Bitcoin, other cryptocurrency, and all blockchain transactions, requires computers perform a certain volume of complex activity to access the ledger. That’s how it prevents fraudulent transactions – by making the barrier to writable access so high that it’s functionally impossible.

Of course, as demand for these transactions increases, so too does the computing power needed to record them. Hence the massive power consumption from Lemercier’s sale. Bitcoin transactions, especially since Elon Musk invested heavily in them to drive up their price (presumably the “pump” part of “pump and dump”), now use more energy annually than the entire country of Argentina.

Here’s the catch: in a perfectly green, zero emission energy environment, this wouldn’t be a huge problem. Unfortunately, as anyone who has gone outside in the past 18 months has noticed, we’re not quite there yet. And while adding another Argentina to global power load isn’t the same as adding another China, it is still a significant drain on existing grids, and if it’s not timed and sited right, it’s using very dirty power (it’s fairly complicated, but the short version is electricity generation generally gets dirtier as demand increases).

So when Grimes auctions off a certificate of creation for her digital artwork, she’s triggering a set of computer actions that put a massive stress on the power grid that churns out oodles of negative environmental consequences, which according to study after study fall disproportionately on poor people and people of color.

Or! Instead of auctioning off something that clearly doesn’t exist, maybe she’s just using fracked natural gas as laundry detergent for mafia cash.

DIGITAL MONEY LAUNDROMAT

Let’s say I was a certain very sadistic, very fictional, black mask wearing crime lord of an American city and I have $1 million in cash lying around that I made from my operation’s drug business. If I suddenly bought a house with that million dollars, the authorities would notice that large transaction (probably through transaction reporting from the bank handling the sale, or the property exchange paperwork that runs through City Hall) and start sniffing around to find out where that money came from.

The same goes if I were to purchase IRL fine art through an auction house. The auction house would ask questions about where that money came from, and if it didn’t like what it found, it would report it to the authorities. Same for buying cars, or businesses, or lots of other real life transactions.

Now replace bank, city hall, and auction house with “a bunch of computers playing tic tac toe against each other on a 1025 square board” and try and guess where the reporting comes in. We don’t have to wait for an answer, that reporting doesn’t exist.

NFT transactions are the perfect confluence of the shadiness of art dealing with the shadiness of off-book dark web money-moving. They’re not all money laundering, but they are easy enough to use as money laundering that the authorities are getting concerned.

PRECARITY, PANDEMICS, AND COMICS ART

So why are comics people doing this? To start with, we mean actual people, and not people in the legal sense of the word (corporations).

It’s not hard to see the eye popping amounts of money changing hands and understand why at least some of them are getting involved. But it’s equally easy to look at the economics of the pandemic era of comics creation and at least sympathize with the pull. Comic page rates have been largely stagnant since the 1980s – penciler page rates in recent years are actually lower than the modest demands made by creators during the abortive effort to unionize in the 1970s.

With that money being so limited, most artists relied on the sale of original art, sketches, and sales at conventions to help make ends meet. So the last year has been exceptionally tough on them. Add to that the trend towards digital art, where there’s no actual physical page produced for the comic, and it’s not hard to imagine a hard up artist, one year into not seeing another living soul except for when the grocery clerk brings a bag of food out to their car, seeing someone coming along waving a conservative five figures at them and not explaining the extremely convoluted yet catastrophic environmental impact of the proces, saying yes to the quick cash.

To their credit, many comics creators are repulsed by the idea. Several have expressed serious concerns with NFTs on Twitter, with Doomsday Clock artist Gary Frank expressing “bewilderment” at the idea of his art being used to sell one of these things, and Marsha Cooke, widow of New Frontier great Darwyn Cooke and manager of his estate, going so far as to ask DC to stop using his art in them.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Hopefully the companies involved (or thinking of getting involved) with NFTs listen to their creatives. Nothing more honors the spirit of Batman than using his image to help give a pallet of Bratva money a quick scrub.

The post What Are NFTs and Why Are Comics Companies Selling Them? appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2P393DK

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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merchantdevi-blog · 5 years ago

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Office Interior Designing Tips

Interior Designing

Interior designing is one of the remarkable and utmost demanding services across the globe. Be it home, office, multiplexes, malls, or any other places where there are human interactions.

Interior designing has become extremely desirable.

Thanks to the prestigious institutes like INIFD Pune, where students are imparted with finest of office interior designing tips and courses.

Under the mentorship of Twinkle Khanna, a very decorated interior designer of the country. Along with an Indian author, newspaper columnist, film producer, former film actress.

She signifies the perfect blend of glamour and interiors. She is also an award-winning interior designer. Her interior design venture ‘The White Window’ reflects her individualism and vision towards designing.

The aspiring students of INIFD Pimpri enjoy an opportunity to learn and develop under the guidance of this iconic designer. Which elevates their understanding and vision towards designing to the next level.

Interior designing is the marriage between art and science. Thereby enhancing the interior of a building to create a healthier and aesthetically pleasing vibe for the people using the space.

An ideal interior designer is someone who can empathize with the needs of the space. And accordingly plan, coordinate and manage such projects – this enables them to bring in a fresh look and feel of the place.

Recent inclination towards Office interiors - Interior designers in Pune

Pune is the hub of fashion and design, is considered to be very highly prospective for interior design. The best office interior designer in Pune states, with the emerging real estate and commercial centers in the city, the demand for interior designers is increasing steadily.

INIFD Pune strongly associates with the prominent interior designers in Pune which helps the students to get industry exposure.

With increasing global interactions and industrialization at various levels, the need for modern and attractive infrastructure has become very essential.

Additionally, with increased income level and global connectivity, the demand for luxury, comfort, and aesthetics in the interior has grown tremendously.

And therefore, the demand for good interior designers has also shot up.

Considering the recent trend, joining interior design courses in Pune has become a hype in the educational sector. To start a career in interior design, two types of qualifications are required. is natural and acquired.

Natural is the skill set would comprise of a decent aesthetic sense, color expertise, good taste and sense of trends and fashion. An eye for detail, knowledge on space management is a big plus for those serious about a career in interior design.

Acquired skills would be a qualification from a decent, recognized fashion Institute. You can enroll for either a full-time interior designing course in Pune or a part-time certificate course in Pune.

Students usually take these up after their 10+2 level. Not that the courses are not available for graduates or people with higher qualifications. There are several short-term certificate courses. Offered by the same fashion institutes for super specialization, on a part-time basis. These courses equip you with technical and creative thinking skills.

INIFD Pimpri understands the need of the market and grooms the interior designing students accordingly which results in curating some of the best office interior designers in Pune, who are well appreciated in various forums.

Office interior designing tips

Office interior designing is a very important area to elevate the morale of the employees and increase productivity. The office is the place where employees spend the maximum number of hours. Hence, it is important to make up the place beautifully.

Employees should primarily feel like coming back to place only then, they will tend to give their 100% productivity. Office interior designing should ensure to maximize the lighting in the room with some minimal themed work desks. Add on some modern chick furniture, place some greens to space and make sure to keep lounging space.

We all know that most of the business thrive on collaborative opportunities. Which involves multiple rounds of meetings and very long working hours. A lively office interior designing makes that possible by creating intentional zones where small or large groups can assemble.

Writable walls, round meeting tables, and corkboard panels to pin ideas. Are some ideas which an office interior designer should never miss out on.

Color psychology is something the designers should take. As an office interior designing tips since it evokes energy, conversation, and happiness.

Selecting a cool blue or green for a lounge area encourages relaxation. While a space that has red or yellow is best for meeting rooms where ideas are being generated.

Other custom arts and inspirational quotes are other ways to maintain good morale and in turn, happy employees. Finally, the last office interior designing tip would be to add some movable furniture.

For example, small tables that can be combined to one large table. A hanging chair, pieces that will make you excited to gather with your fellow employees and collaborate together.

When we’re stagnant, so are our brains, so design beautifully and evolve!

Read More: https://inifdpimpri.com/

#officeinterior #interior design #interior design career #interior design pune #careers in interior design #interior design courses in pune #officeinteriortips

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joie-university-rp · 5 years ago

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Dear KARA MENKINS,

It is with great pleasure we invite you admission to Joie University! Welcome to the Thunderclap family!

Congratulations, KRISTINA! Please be sure to check the New Members’ Checklist and send in your character’s account within 24 hours from now. We cannot wait to see all that you will bring to this roleplay! We love you already!

OOC INFORMATION:

Name/Alias; preferred pronouns: Kristina, she/her

Age, Timezone: 29, CST

Activity, short explanation: I am usually on if I am not a work or those rare ocassions that I have a life

Ships: Chemistry

Anti-Ships: No chemistry, forced

Triggers: RFP

Preferred photo for Character’s ID (please give a link):

Anything else:

IC INFORMATION:

Full Name (First, Middle, Last): Kara Hazel Menkins

FC: Katie Stevens

Age/Year at University: 22/Senior

Birth date: October 1

Hometown (please be sure to check the hometowns listed for characters your muse is related to!): Dallas, TX

Gender/Pronouns: Female, she/her

Sexuality: Bisexual

Major(s): Journalism

Minor(s) [optional]: Songwriting

Housing request (remember, only the president of a Greek Organization is required to live at a Greek House to be in it!): Sylvester Apartment 243

Extracurriculars (Click here for the list. Be sure to specify any executive board positions [i.e. president, secretary, etc.] If something isn’t listed, please put it here and we will add it to the masterlist!): LGBT+ Association(Vice-president), Glee Club, Joie Newspaper(Editor-in-chief), Yearbook committee, I’m All Ears, Peer Listening Group

Greek Life Affiliation [optional] (Please be sure to specify any executive board positions [i.e. president, pledge educator, etc.] or if your character is not yet a member, but plans to rush):

CHARACTER PROFILE:

Kara spent the first few years of her life barely seeing her dad. She was never one to shy away from questioning her mom why her dad was never around, even if the answer was always the same ‘he was away being a big time recruiter’. When he did return when she was five and of course, asked him. He said the same thing their mom did, and being the small child she was and just wanting to believe it wasn’t anything more, she believed him. After that she became a total daddy’s girl and always wanted to spend time with him to make up for the lost 5 years. At least up until when she was 13 when she began to question things even more. She put some distance between them and lost her trust in her dad, just from the gut feeling her dad had been lying to her and Cole their whole lives. She won’t say her dad treated her and her brother badly, she just can’t trust someone absent for such a long period of time and use an excuse that sounds flimsy but she felt it was useless asking again because she was sure the same lie would be told every time.

Like her brother, Kara was a bit of an overachiever. She joined as many clubs as she could in school and would cry if she made less than an A on anything in school. She was never athletic so while she wanted to play a sport to impress their famous recruiter dad, it was just never something she could do so she gave up on that. She got into writing instead, realizing that was her real gift.

Kara was a little bit of an attention hog, at least as a small child(although that didn’t fully go away as she got older). Rumor has it, or as her mom told her, she threw a fit when Cole was born just a few days after her second birthday because she didn’t want to share her birthday season or attention with him. She ended up growing close to him, but even then she was happier when the attention was on her. Even when they did little musical performances for the family, she tried to make sure the spotlight was on her. Didn’t always succeed considering her brother was more talented than her but that didn’t stop her from trying.

STUDENT CENSUS SURVEY:

(Please answer the following questions IN CHARACTER. Responses can be as long or short as you see fit!)

What made you want to attend Joie University?It seemed like a great school with a great writing program and lots of extra curricular activities.

What are at least 3 positive or neutral and at least 3 negative traits that you believe you possess? Positive: Hardworking, kind, logical Negative: Stubborn, Envious, Hesitant

Which of your traits do you value most? I value the fact that I am logical and hardworking, and even if it is a negative trait, I value the fact that I am hesitant, it keeps me from being disappointed and hurt by other people.

How can that trait benefit the University (or its student body) as a whole?I don’t know how it would value the student body but I believe me being hardworking and kind could possibly bring good things to the school if I try hard enough.

What do you hope to gain from your experience at JU? I hope to gain even more knowledge of my writing abilities to help me become the best journalist I could be after I graduate.

What is a quote or song lyric that describes you? ““And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”

#Accepted

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ryliweb · 5 years ago

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PS4 DVD | The Information Guide

PS4 supports different formats of digital discs, including DVD and Blu-ray Disc (BD). It might be a disadvantage, though, to some users that PS4, on the other hand, does NOT support playing CDs. But, since CDs are nowadays obsolete and “dying out”, not many would care about that. So, how can you play a DVD on PlayStation 4? What type of DVD does PS4 support? And finally, is it possible to write data on DVDs using PS4 or not? In this comprehensive guide you’ll find a sufficient answer to all these questions and more. This is worth to be your only PS4 DVD guide.

What is DVD

Before going deep into discussing DVDs on PS4, let’s have a quick general knowledge on DVDs first.

Stands for “Digital Versatile Disc.” A DVD is a type of optical media used for storing digital data. It is the same size as a CD, but has a larger storage capacity. Some DVDs are formatted specifically for video playback, while others may contain different types of data, including images, documents, and other computer files.

The PS4 DVD is an optical disc technology with a 4.7 gigabyte storage capacity on a single-sided, one-layered disk. That amount of capacity is enough for the PS4 to play 133-minute movie. DVDs that PS4 supports come either single- or double-sided, and can have two layers on each side. A double-sided, two-layered DVD will hold up to 17 gigabytes of video, audio, or other information. This compares to 650 megabytes (.65 gigabyte) of storage for a CD-ROM disk.

DVDs usually have a large capacity, starting at 4.7 GB. They are written at a speed of 18-20x and have a video compression ratio of 40:1. That’s possible with the help of MPEG-2 compression. The materials and manufacturing techniques used in the case of a DVD are same as that of CDs. The layers in the DVD are made by polycarbonate plastic. This makes no problem at all for PS4 to read them properly and process their data.

DVD Formats

DVD uses the MPEG-2 file and compression standard. MPEG-2 images have four times the resolution of MPEG-1 images. It can be delivered at 60 interlaced fields per second where two fields constitute one image frame. (MPEG-1 can deliver 30 noninterlaced frames per second.) Audio quality on DVD is comparable to that of current audio compact discs. In fact, the PS4 CPU is powerful enough to play DVD discs flawlessly. Even the graphics card of PS4 is originally compatible with that functionality. Considering the DVD types PS4 can play, they are only two in fact. So, let’s have a look at the DVD formats that PS4 may play and have no issue with playing.

DVD-Video is the format designed for full-length movies that work with your television set. This is what most PS4 players wants from using a DVD on their console.

DVD-ROM is the type of drive and disc for use on computers. The PS4 optical Disc Drive will not play regular CD-ROM discs but does play a DVD-Video disks.

DVD-RAM is the writable version of DVD, that’s what PS4 supports as well.

DVD-Audio is a CD-replacement format. PS4 has no issue at all playing this type also.

There are a number of recordable DVD formats, including DVD-R for General, DVD-R for Authoring, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and DVD+R. Just note that the official PS4 support page stated that it only supports DVD-R and DVD-RW. There’s no mention of DVD+R and DVD+RW. So be careful.

Superficially, DVD+R and DVD-R discs look identical. We cannot confirm whether PS4 will accept these types of not. They’re both 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm in thickness, comprising two polycarbonate substrates, 0.6 mm each. However, a DVD+R will, of course, have DVD+R written on the disc, while a DVD-R disc will have its respective wording.

Types of DVD that PS4 Supports

PS4 supports playing only twotypes of DVDs, that are:

DVD-ROM. It’s new type of read-only compact disc that can hold a minimum of 4.7GB (gigabytes), enough for a full-length movie. The DVD-ROM specification supports disks with capacities of from 4.7GB to 17GB and access rates of 600 KBps to 1.3 MBps.

DVD-R/RW

These types are widely common DVD types. In fact, don’t expect to work professionally on PS4 DVD like you do on a computer. That’s because PS4 is originally a game console that you have to use for gaming purposes.

How much data can a DVD hold?

A standard video DVD that PS4 plays can store 4.7 GB of data. That amount of data is enough to hold over 2 hours of video in 720p resolution, using MPEG-2 compression. Just note that when playing DVD on PS4, connect the cables to a VGA monitor to view the images properly. But variations of the original DVD format have greater capacities. When considering the PS4 DVD situation, this information is not what many need. For example, a dual-layer DVD (which has two layers of data on a single side of the disc) can store 8.5 GB of data. A dual-sided DVD can store 9.4 GB of data (4.7 x 2). So, what has this to do with PS4 and its capabilities of running a DVD disc? A dual-layer, dual-sided DVD can store 17.1 GB of data. The larger capacity formats are not supported by most standalone DVD players, but they can be used with many computer-based DVD drives.

Advantages of Using PS4 DVD

There are many advantages associated with the DVD format. For this reason we can say that it’s a very good point that PS4 is able to play DVDs seamlessly. Compared to a CD, the audio quality is superior thanks to DTS or Dolby Digital technology. The picture quality is also superior to CD and the DVD player is capable of taking one to a specific moment in the video or audio, unlike a CD player. Based on the user needs, the formats of the digital versatile disc can be altered.

So, thinking about it might take us to the result that PS4 DVD is where a gamer must look at. Again, digital versatile discs are capable of storing more data compared to CD. This is due to smaller size of the pits and bumps and high density of the tracks in the DVDs. A large amount of space is wasted in codes, to avoid errors in information in the case of CDs. That’s different from DVDs that a player wants to use on their game console. Digital versatile discs are backward compatible as well.

DVD+R and DVD-R: Standards Differences

Ok, so we know what types of DVD PS4 supports. We know as well that PS4 won’t support all types, just two of them. But the problem here is with the existence of DVD+R and DVD+RW. Does PS4 support these types of DVDs or not? This is something we can’t verify as we never tried before. In fact, the DVD Forum standards group didn’t approve the DVD+R and +RW formats but instead, by the DVD+RW Alliance supports them. Sony supports this alliance, as well as Yamaha, Philips, Dell, and JP. Therefore, it also has tremendous industry support for its technical standards.

Before going into the mechanics of how a DVD works on PS4, it might be best to explain the why. In other words, why is the industry replacing previous storage-unit standards, including the CD (short for compact disc)? Quite simply, The DVD’s storage capacity is much greater. Thus, the DVD makes sense for video and other industries on PS4 platform in a way that the CD never could. A high-quality digital video could simply never fit onto a CD. That means, the DVD can run for a much longer time on PS4 than a CD can do. It can’t even fit comfortably on a PS4 hard drive.

Types of DVDs to Try on PS4

There are two main components inside the PS4 Disc player that help read a DVD: a tiny laser beam (known as a semiconductor diode laser) and an electronic light detector (basically, a tiny photoelectric cell). When you switch on the PS4 Disc player, an electric motor inside the player makes the DVD rotate at a very high speed. This helps immensely PS4 system to display the content of DVDs and stream videos.

DVD-Video – SD Movies

DVD-Video is the movie format, which uses MPEG-2 compression to provide approximately two hours of video per side at 480i resolution. Blu-ray players also play DVD movies. See DVD-Video, DTV and Blu-ray.

DVD-RW/DVD+RW – Rewritable

DVD-RW and DVD+RW are competing formats that can be rewritten 1,000 times. Aimed at the consumer, 1,000 rewrites are considered adequate. See DVD-RW and DVD+RW.

DVD-ROM – Read-Only Data

DVD-ROMs hold data permanently, and like CD-ROMs, they are pressed at the factory. See DVD-ROM.

DVD-R/DVD+R – Recordable (burnable)

DVD-R and DVD+R are competing write-once formats for burning movies or data. PS4 supports DVD-R but there’s no knowledge about supporting the latter. They function like high-capacity CD-R discs. DVD-R DL and DVD+R DL are dual layer discs with twice the capacity.

The DVD specification supports disks with capacities of from 4.7GB to 17GB and access rates of 600KBps to 1.3 MBps. That makes PS4 play DVDs for long continuous hours. One of the best features of DVD drives is that they are backward-compatible with CD-ROMs, meaning they can play old CD-ROMs, CD-I disks, and video CDs, as well as new DVD-ROMs. Newer DVD players can also read CD-R disks.

Indeed, a high-quality digital video requires up to 100 megabytes (MB) of data space each minute, depending on the amount of compression used. Considering PS4 DVD player, these types can easily fit into that game console. MPEG2, a format commonly used for playing video via computer, compresses one minute of visual data into about 30 MB. So a two-minute video requires 60 MB, and a two-hour movie requires 3,600 MB. Compare that to the maximum storage space of a CD which is about 640 MB.

DVD-R and DVD-RW

The DVD manufacturers use Aluminum behind the inner layers of DVDs, but they use a semi-reflective gold layer for the outer layers. That helps allowing the laser to focus through the outer and onto the inner layers. If you need to play a DVD video on PS4, you have first to active the playback feature on the internet. After they finish making all of the DVD layers, they coat each one with lacquer, and squeeze the layers together and cure them under infrared light. As for single-sided discs, the label is silk-screened onto the nonreadable side. Manufactures print double-sided discs only on the nonreadable area near the hole in the middle. Cross sections of the various types of completed DVDs (not to scale) look like this:

DVD-R was the first DVD recording format released that was compatible with standalone DVD Players. Sony already verified that PS4 can play that type of DVD.

DVD-R is a non-rewriteable format and it is compatible with about 93% of all DVD Players and most DVD-ROMs. This type also you can use on PS4 with no issues.

DVD-RW is a rewriteable format and it is compatible with about 80% of all DVD Players and most DVD-ROMs. Here, make sure the DVD will play well enough on PS4 without any error.

DVD-R and DVD-RW supports single side 4.37 GiB* DVDs(called DVD-5) and double sided 8.75 GiB* DVDs(called DVD-10).

Each writable layer of a DVD has a spiral track of data. On single-layer DVDs, the track always circles from the inside of the disc to the outside. That the spiral track starts at the center means that a single-layer DVD can be smaller than 12 centimeters if desired.

How to Play DVD PS4

So now when you know that your PS4 can play DVD, the next question is how to watch DVD on PS4. The most obvious method is to insert your disc into the console and play them directly. Mostly as you insert your DVD or Blu-ray disc into your PS4 device, the video starts playing automatically. But if due to any reasons it does not play, you need to select the movie title from the video section.

If you have a PlayStation 4, you will learn that the manual book said PS4 supports DVD and Blu-ray disc. However, many users reported problems about DVD playback. Actually, PS4 is popular among gamers around the world. And if you already have PS4, it is not necessary to buy a DVD player at all. There are multiple ways to watch DVD movies on PS4. And today, you can learn all necessary knowledge about view DVD on PS4, including the operation and useful software. Just spend a few minutes to read this tutorial; you can get all you should know about play DVD on PS4.

Easy Method

Here is an easy method that helps you play DVDs on PS4 without any problem. Just make sure to activate the playback feature on the internet before trying this method. Your PS4

system must enable the disc playback feature over the Internet, one time only, before you can play any BDs or DVDs. After you enable this feature, your PS4 system doesn’t have to connect to the Internet to play BDs or DVDs.

Start your PS4 gaming console and log-in if you need it.

Insert the DVD disc that you want to watch in your PS4 console.

The movie will generally start playing automatically after you insert the disc. In case if does not play, go to Video Section in the XMB Menu and hit X button on the movie title. The video will start playing.

That’s it all. Now you can enjoy playing DVDs on PS4 without any hassle. If DVD doesn’t work on PS4, there must be a problem within the system itself that prevents this from happening.

Conclusion

It’s not difficult at all to learn about PS4 DVDs and how to use them the right way. In fact, this knowledge is essential to every player that wants to unleash the hidden powers of PS4 game console. Once you fully understand the various aspects of DVDs on PS4, you’ll enjoy the use of them properly without asking any other for help.

The post PS4 DVD | The Information Guide appeared first on RyLi Gaming Solutions.

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santtechgq-blog · 8 years ago

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Our top pick "overlooked tech"— from BeOS to Zip Drives Our ride-or-pass on devices of yesteryear didn't all accomplish showcase success.

We all think about the devices that get showered with steady acclaim—the symbols, the fragment pioneers, and the distinct advantages. Tech history will always remember the Altair 8800, the Walkman, the BlackBerry, and the iPhone.

Yet, individuals do overlook—and rapidly—about the gadgets that neglected to change the world: the immense thoughts destined by average execution, the devices that touched base before the market was truly prepared, or the advancements that discovered their walk similarly as the world was rotating to something else.

In our keep going piece on contraption history, we profiled the most noticeably awful items the Ars staff had ever utilized. Here, we praise the best items that are sliding gradually into the memory opening. Be that as it may, when they initially showed up, we adored them.

PC equipment

The Iomega Zip Drive

Before all else was the floppy plate. It was eight creeps over, and it was... floppy. After some time, the floppy shrank to 5-1/4", then down to 3-1/2" (picking up a plastic external shell all the while). It in the long run offered 1.44MB of versatile stockpiling. What's more, PC nerds saw that it was great.

Be that as it may, then the hard circle started to develop. Moving down vital records turned out to be all the more a bother as hard circles passed the 200MB stamp. After I purchased my first Mac desktop (a clone, really), I found that exchanging my records from an old PowerBook 145 to my new Umax SuperMac J700 was a bother, as was guaranteeing that the greater part of my imperative archives were moved down. Enter the Zip Drive. Greater and thicker than the 3-1/2" floppy drive, Zip circles held an incredible 100MB of information (they would later come in 250MB and 750MB sizes).

The Zip Drive was presented in 1994, and I acquired an outside SCSI model (and I ended my SCSI chain appropriately, hell!) inside two or three years of its landing available. Zip plates weren't horribly modest at $20 each, however I inevitably amassed a sizable gathering and moved down to them (semi) routinely.

By the last 50% of the 1990s, OEMs like Apple and Dell offered Zip Drives as alternatives on their machines, and I quickly possessed a PowerBook 1400c with a Zip Drive module. In any case, the Zip's rule as the versatile mass stockpiling of decision did not last. Before the finish of the 1990s, CD-R and CD-RW drives were progressively accessible; after I utilized Zip drives to move documents from a PowerMac G3/266 to my new PowerMac G4/400, the Zip circles were put away in a drawer. There they stayed until I moved a couple of years back, when they were placed out in the rear way alongside the other electronic waste I had aggregated over the nine years I lived in that house.

These days, I can stuff a 32GB USB thumb drive in my pocket, making the massive 100MB Zip circles appear to be considerably more old-fashioned. Yet, for a couple short years, the Zip Drive hit a sweet spot in the market, which is the reason despite everything I have affectionate recollections of it. (Eric Bangeman)

Magneto-optical drives

The quantity of cases where my tastes covered with those of the late Steve Jobs are entirely restricted, however we shared one conviction: we both thought magneto-optical drives were a better than average thought. Employments really made them the default removable capacity media for some early models of NeXT PCs, an inheritance that lives on just through the turning beachball-of-death that holds on in OS X. For me, they were the response to a somewhat darken issue: how would you keep a regularly growing accumulation of magnifying instrument pictures sorted out and documented?

Back in my examination days, I could create many high-determination pictures in a matter of hours—then do a similar thing the following day. In the mid-'90s, this made a wide range of issues. Desktop hard drives hadn't achieved the point where you could simply leave each picture you at any point went up against a solitary machine. Hard drives flopped, so I required a reinforcement framework. Not each machine would have all the product you'd have to work with the pictures, so you frequently expected to rearrange several megabytes between desktops.

Writable CDs hit the market around this time, however the copying programming not precisely easy to use, and the circles made a hierarchical bad dream. A given day's worth of effort may include envisioning three distinct examinations. You were probably going to rehash every one of them at various focuses throughout the following couple of months. In the event that you were great about filing to CD, you'd wind up with many plate with odds and ends of various investigations scattered on every one. Really finding the bit you needed later was very little fun.

MO plates appeared to offer an answer for these issues. The 5 1/4" forms had multi-gigabyte limits yet were removable, which means you could move the information to any machine with a drive snared to it. They were additionally re-writable, implying that at whatever point you got more material from a given venture, you could simply drop that into a similar organizer that contained whatever is left of that work. Furthermore, they were recorded quality, ensured to hold information for a considerable length of time.

In addition, every one of the choices were a whole lot more regrettable. Iomega was the ruler of versatile media at the time, yet individuals in my building were losing information left and ideal to the "snap of death."

About the main thing clearly amiss with them was that MO drives were moderate—yet more subtle things incurred significant injury. The tech never went standard, so both the drives and media wound up stuck at the high costs run of the mill for a specialty item. Fresher, higher limit drives were frequently guaranteed yet wound up severely deferred. The equipment that made it to market was frequently inadequately bolstered and experienced flaky drivers.

With today's shabby, gigantic hard drives and modest, quick systems administration, I don't know MO drives would be an incredible alternative now regardless of the possibility that they had gotten on at the time. Be that as it may, their periphery status is likely a more awful destiny than the innovation merited. Still, I hear that, similar to Spinal Tap, they're enormous in Japan. (John Timmer)

Vadem Clio C-1050

Windows CE gets no regard. In any case, in 1998, the Vadem Clio resembled the future—and from numerous points of view, regardless it does. The MIPS-based compact PC measured 3 pounds, had a battery life of as much as 12 hours, and was the principal truly fruitful convertible tablet/note pad, at any rate from an outline stance. Its approval and revile was that it was worked for Windows CE.

Microsoft vigorously advanced a class of gadgets based on the Windows CE 3.0 H/PC stage called "PC buddies." The attract of Windows CE to gadget makers was, in addition to other things, its measured quality; it enabled them to dart on usefulness particular to their equipment and in addition other programming. For Vadem's situation, that included CalliGrapher, penmanship acknowledgment programming from Vadem's ParaGraph backup, that made it the best pen tablet of now is the ideal time. It permitted pen input straightforwardly into the Windows CE form of Microsoft Word, and was adequate that I could take cursive or print notes on the screen with such a low blunder rate, to the point that I sometimes expected to right them.

The outline of the Clio, made by frogdesign in light of thoughts from Vadem's building executive Edmond Ku, was development in itself. It was intended to be conveyed, with a practically natural shape that made it simple to hold with one hand and compose on in its tablet frame. Not at all like the other scratch pad style gadgets that were its peers, it had a screen mounted on two arms that could pivot 180 degrees on a couple of carbon-fiber strengthened arms, enabling it to flip around and lay level, tablet-style, while disguising its console, or to be turned into any position while open for use with its implicit console. That made it perfect for punching out a breaking story on a long plane flight sitting behind somebody with a leaned back seat, or documenting a story by email from a telephone corner that had a RJ-11 attachment to jack its 56kbps modem into.

Considering that my "genuine" scratch pad PC was an Apple PowerBook Duo (see our "Most exceedingly awful Gadgets" story), the Clio spared the day for me all the time.

Windows CE lives on in many structures, Vadem still claims ParaGraph. Be that as it may, the Clio outline and other protected innovation related with the gadget were obtained by The Pinax Group, which endeavored to permit out the "swing arm" plan to different producers before slipping off into lack of clarity. (Sean Gallagher)

Apple PowerBook 1400

A while ago when I was school, from 2000-2004, it's difficult to trust that tablets were still moderately extraordinary for classroom notetaking, even at a huge school like UC Berkeley. WiFi was recently turning out, and certain classes instructed in certain address lobbies could be viewed on the web. I had a trusty tablet that was even truly old by 2000, the PowerBook 1400.

Past being a conventional portable workstation for its time, the 1400 had two elements that were really flawless, and I've been amazed that they never fully gotten on. The first was utilitarian: expandable drive narrows. On the base of the tablet, two secluded openings took into consideration an additional battery, a plate drive, a CD drive, or even a Zip drive, which was amazing in that pre-USB stick period. Both spaces were hot-swappable when the PC was sleeping, obviously.

The second, which was more ostentatious, was the BookCover highlight, a removeable bit of clear plastic on the highest point of the portable PC that let clients put in various examples, workmanship, stickers, or generally customize their own particular PC. While I didn't have any acquaintance with it at the time, ClarisWorks had an element that let clients make and print their own, in light of an included layout that was packaged with the product as an "additional." (Cyrus Farivar)

Devices

Best stacking NES-101

By the fall of 1993, most everybody who needed a Nintendo Entertainment System had as of now got one and most genuine gamers had proceeded onward to the more propelled Super NES or Sega Genesis. In any case, those super-late adopters who chosen to tend to the NES were at last remunerated with a substantially more sharp and solid rendition of the framework that characterized an entire era of gamers.

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