#tsw weekly updates

[bhashashikhi]

Week#2 Update

Henlo! Hope your week went well. I have been mostly doing passive listening to both French and Mandarin content this week. The A level panic is finally somewhat settling in. I have watched some Peppa Pig in Mandarin as well to see if I can pick up some words, however I did not note new words down or make any further attempt to understand/learn them. The next few weeks are going to be similar. I might throw in some active learning too, let’s see how everything goes. Wish me luck for my exams and especially me prep. Have a great week ahead!

Lots of love,

Tsw

[shelleymarietalks]

It's been a while... Again!

My last blog was at the start of 2023 and things weren't too bad where my skin was concerned and I have realised it has been nearly 8 months since I last blogged which is good, as I only ever really blog documenting the bad days. I know people don't read these and I am probably waffling onto myself but I thought I may as well blog even if it's just to document this for myself to read back on when days aren't as glorious because my skins behaving for once and I am happy with that!

So... How is my skin? I did take a bit of a dip after New Year having flares a little regular yet shorter and allowing it to really chew away at my mental health to the point I went back into the pattern of freaking out and trying to search for a cure and trying other creams and supplements to help until I finally gave up searching and calmed the hell down about it. My skin settled shortly after (I do ride these rollercoasters of sudden flares and then settle within days with no explination) and it wasn't until I had an issue at work causing me to have a weekend of stress and emotional upset that I knew 100000% that stress was definately my main trigger. Again, once this was resolved my skin calmed down.

I am still using Cerave Moisturising Cream and after ditching probiotics, Apple Cider Vinegar and Raspberry Ketone capsules that I was trialling, non of which really worked and gave my body a rest for a couple months I started taking Evening Oil of Primrose capsules. My Mom gave me these when I was a child growing up suffering with chronic eczema so it was worth a go again right? Well it's either a coinsidence or a massive help but my skin has been at it's best for a while and alongside this I have been having a weekly session on the sunbeds.

Sunbeds... There are lots of theories on wether these help and support skin conditions and wether or not they cause skin cancer. Some find even the word Sunbed scary and my Dermatologist hates the word, despite prescribing "Phototherapy" claiming this is not a sunbed and you do not tan. Phototherapy did not help my skin, in fact made it worst and I did in fact tan! I have 6-9mins per week on the sunbed and this has purely been due to going to Italy in 8 days for a family holiday/my cousins wedding and not wanting to burn in their heatwave. I have noticed the sunbed has really helped with the elasticity of my skin, has decreased the dryness and given me a lovely glow which I usually struggle to maintain with Eczema and TSW skin. Just to have that bit of a glow has made me look and feel so much better, making those shitty skin days more bareable so it is worth that bit of UV fear.

My Dermatologist. He's Marmite. You love him or hate him. I used to love him. The immunosuppressants that helped and I reccomend them to anyone suffering the worst of TSW as they give you just that bit of life back to help you cope, but even now when I go to my appointments at nearly 4 years steroid free and 3 and a half years immunosuppressant free and am still questioned why my skins still improving yet I'm not using the things hes prescribing me and am still refusing topical steroids, immunosuppressants and now jackinhibators which is some new thing! I could easily allow him to discharge me but with having an auto immune condition, history of severe eczema, topical steroid withdrawal and still picking up colds, sickness and infections easily I think to mysef it is just 20 minutes every 12 weeks and he has been learnt to presribe these. I sound like I am against steroids and immunosuppressants and if you'd of asked me last year then yes I would of said "of course I am" but I have slowly let go of some of my anger towards it all and have learnt that everyone is different, medication affects people in different ways and unlike me it may be the cure for some but just not for others and you know what... That is ok!

This was only meant to be a little skin update, a short blog and here I am an hour later.

Anyway, I will link the Cerave Moisturising Cream and Evening Oil of Primrose capsules that I continue to use and take in the hope these may help others too, just like I hope my blogs do, even if it's just 1 other person searching for some support and help.

Before I Leave I cannot forget the incredible TCM accupuncture with Omie that I have been having to help support my skin, hormones, emotions and stress and I cannot recommend it enough but feel this deserves it's own blog which I will do this weekend with some supporting information from Omie (if she kindly agrees).

Until then, lots of love xxx

[malaloba]

Tips for Newbees 2.0

Reposting with updated info since we’ve learned a lot since the initial relaunch. 

If you haven’t installed the game yet, go with the minimal install. Trust me, it's worth it. You’ll just get some slightly longer load screens the first time you enter a new area.

Play with the settings! There’s lots of useful ones like autoloot, different reticules and the lock icon in the upper right corner lets you move everything around

Watch the cutscenes. Not only is the story great but sometimes there’s hints on how to proceed

If you’re of the appropriate level and have a bit of self healing, you’re set for normal dungeons. The first level of elites is meant for people with all blues in their chosen role.

Missions you’ve never completed will have blue and white icons on the map. NPCs often get new missions as you level so check your map

9 times out of 10 /reloadui will fix your problem

If you see an orange skull on the mini map, go kill it! If you can’t kill it alone ask for help. 

Useful chat channels (type ‘/join chat [channel name]’ to join): #Sanctuary - general help and discussion, #tumblrmeetup - hang out with fellow Tumblbees, #event - discussion and coordination during events

If you’re not interested in dungeons or other such content, blue/purple gear should be enough to get you through all the story content

Weapons and Abilities

All weapons are viable for DPS but they all have a secondary purpose as well

Hammer/Chaos/Shotgun - tanking

Fists - heals over time

Blood - healing and barriers

Assault Rifle - leech healing

Blade - survivability and exposed (increases damage dealt)

Elementalism - purging and debilitate (decreases damage taken)

Pistols - cleansing and exposed and debilitate

If you’re using Assault Rifle ALWAYS have either a grenade consumer or the Explosive Expert passive

Gear and Builds

If you get a better drop, save your old leveled gear. You won’t get any bonus for using it for empowerment and you’ll want it later for fusion

The dots on gear indicate how powerful it is. This is inherent to the gear piece and can’t be leveled except with a lot of aurum (the paid currency). Ideally you want to focus on leveling 3 dot pieces (or 2 dots until you can get 3 dots). 3 dot pieces from dungeons are currently the best you can get. 

You get a bonus for fusing talismans/weapons of the same type (ie. attack head with attack head will give bonus xp, but not an attack neck or health head). Use that bonus. When you hit blues and purples, fusing gear not of the same type starts being not worth the cost

You can sell gear pieces to vendors, put them on the auction house for MoFs or go into the Trade chat channel in Agartha and trade with people for pieces that’ll give you the xp bonus

You’re meant to sell some Agarthan Caches to vendors for Anima Shards. 1 dot gear pieces and gadgets are also good to sell for shards if you need them

When you can make glyphs, give yourself at least one hit glyph, maybe two if your only unlocked weapons are fist, blood and rifle.

Don’t put hit on your weapons. It only benefits attacks done with that weapon

If you want to start gearing for dungeons, DPS use only attack gear, tanks use only health gear (with maybe an attack minor) and healers use only heal gear.

Don’t use green gear to level once your gear is purple and higher. Stick to distillates (found in dungeons) or you’ll run out of shards and be constantly broke. 

Have some form of self healing in your build. Something like a passive heal and an active “oh shit button” will be fine for most things but you might find that you need more in some places.

Useful Links 

Official 

r/SecretWorldLegends - one of the main discussion and feedback places. There’s a weekly post that sums up all patches, news, things being worked on ect

Discord - the official Discord

Steam Community Hub

Game Twitter

Fan Resources (note that all of these are still updating from TSW. pardon their dust!)

TSWDB - guides, mission solutions, lore locations and more! still updating but much of the info on the legacy site is still good

CryGaia - the wiki run by @rkylo. the best place to find info on the prelaunch events and story!

SWLRP - your hub for everything roleplaying in SWL 

Radio Free Gaia - an in character radio station! does shows and in-game events.

Tumblr

fuckyeahtsw and councilofvenice - the main blogs for everything SWL

theboilingmeme - submit your quality SWL memes

Tumblbee Hive - add yourself and find other Tumblr SWL players!

the tags #swl and #secret world legends

or just whisper into the void, we’ll find you

[thessalian]

Thess vs Her 40s

Right. Birthday update. Basically, milestone birthdays are ... well, you always end up hoping they’re going to live up to the hype. This one did.

So the Savoy. This is probably the classiest, most opulent place I have ever been. Even the bathrooms were plush as hell, with actual facecloths instead of paper towels or those little electric hand dryers. (My mother stole me one as a souvenir. I did not ask her to.) Live music in, like, two separate bars and valets and bellhops in the sort of uniform that epitomises why I refer to TSW’s Templars as looking like militant bellhops (except with top hats).

The Savoy Grill itself, as you might notice from the picture I posted awhile ago, is laid out really nicely, with only larger tables having all chairs around them; the tables for two were intimate little C-shaped booths arranged so you could fit four to a relatively small corner and it was easier to talk to folks. Our waiter was this charming Italian guy from Rome and, as previously stated, our sommelier was Irish. Mum spent a fair bit of time talking to him about ... either the football or the rugby, I’m not sure which.

Gifts happened - Mum went a little last-minute, but only because she really wanted to put the effort in. Eventually, she tracked me down £50 worth of Steam card, £20 worth of gift vouchers from Orbital (one of my favourite comic book shops here in London, which I’m amazed she even remembered), and four books - hardcover copies of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, a book called “Shakespeare and Democracy - the Self-Renewing Politics of a Global Playwright” and a really lovely coffee-table sort of book about Van Gogh and how he was influenced by various bits of Japanese art. The books, I think, my mother was proudest of, and she’s right to be. She and I don’t always see eye-to-eye on a lot of things, but she does at least know and respect my various interests.

And then dinner happened:

Mum had a pork chop, which she said was lovely but not as nice as mine:

I had ribeye steak, flame-grilled and perfectly medium-rare, with sauteed spinach and some of the best mashed potatoes I’ve ever had. (Some. I think mine are a tiny bit better, but only because I like the garlic puree and sour cream I add to mine.)

And then for dessert there was effectively crepes Suzette, which were done en flambee at the table. I have video but I won’t post it to this post since it is long enough as is. Suffice to say it was glorious.

They also gave me this:

So essentially last night was brilliant. My mother confirmed that she does know about my interests and cares enough to hunt that hard for things that fit those interests. I had what has got to be one of the best dinners I have ever had ... and a £50 glass of champagne. (I did not know it cost that much or I would probably not have had it, but Mum’s glad I didn’t know because she was determined that I not worry about the price at all because I only turn 40 once.) It was the kind of birthday you sort of give up on having when you get to a certain point; you know how when you’re a kid, all birthdays are special and glorious and then life starts getting to where there’s all these responsibilities and somehow birthdays feel like just another day? Well, yesterday was not ‘just another day’. It really was a special day again.

And was made more or less perfect when I got home and ended up hanging out on TSW with @true0neutral and @fauxfire76, picking up the rakshasa lore you only get from doing all three hell-dungeons in quick succession, and doing the Elite Gold scenario because weekly.

Also I did not buy Civ 6 with my Steam wallet money because it didn’t seem to have that much that Civ 5 doesn’t, and there have been recent bug reports. I’ll maybe buy it when there’s more DLC and it’s on a better sale; if I want to LAY SIEGE TO GERMANY, I can play Civ 5. Instead I got Stardew Valley, a theme park creation simulator and three point-n-click hidden object puzzle games.

[talkstarwars]

40 Years Of Greatness

40 years ago today the first lucky cinema goers got to see Star Wars, a new science fiction space opera on the big screen, and everything changed. I was five, and this film became my world. Today Star Wars is a huge part of my daily life, and I couldn't be happier...

In 1977 an ambitious filmmaker released a film that would change everything. Star Wars, a film that beat the odds in getting made, would, over the years, go on to change the way films were made, promoted and distributed. Special effects company ILM would go from miniatures and puppets to computer generated special effects and characters and back again. Director George Lucas would develop non-linear editing, make digital cinematography an industry standard and build his own empire with the proceeds of tiny plastic action figures and eventually sell it all to Disney for multiple billions of dollars. 

But Star Wars is so much more that these bookmarks in cinema history.

As a five year boy my dad would take me to see Star Wars, because he had an interest in the special effects and model making involved, and he knew I'd love it too. For me, the experience was earth shattering. My mum reminded me over the years how the five year old version of me came home and attempted to recount the entire movie in half finished sentences and improvised sound effects. This movie was quite simply joy to a five year old boy. 

That joy would be played out daily with my 3 3/4 inch plastic action figures from Kenner and Palitoy. A collection that would be updated weekly with a new addition. This was George's attempt to; A, keep the movie alive in the minds of his target audience and B, finance his independence as a filmmaker. Both gambits worked with the 1980 sequel being largely independent and Skywalker Ranch, and filmmaker Mecca, breaking ground not long after. All financed through the passion of small boys like me, and the generosity of their loving parents.

Graffiti 

Star Wars would be a gateway movie for me. The sequels, of course became a huge part of my life, as would the earlier efforts of George Lucas. I remember one day my mum saying, "I recorded something for you. It's called American Graffiti. The man who made Star Wars made it." For the younger readers, recording would be done on tape in those days. I know right? This was thirteen year old me by this time and the movie in question was the same age, almost to the day., and I loved it. I'll admit, I hadn't given much thought to the making of films and the fact that George Lucas, a name I had seen onscreen numerous times, had other work was a revelation for me. 

Graffiti would lead to THX1138, which would teach me about Francis Ford Copolla and American Zoetrope, which would lead to The Godfather, Indiana Jones, Jaws, Close Encounters and on and on and on...

Star Wars opened up a world of film to me and before you knew it I was hooked. Star Wars was a staple for me as a film lover, and when home video became a thing in the mid to late 80s (we were late to the party as a family) the Star Wars movies would be my first purchases. it started with Star Wars (1977) in a CBS Fox All Time Greats edition, but would lead to pilgrimages into town on the bus, on my own, with my grubby pound notes in hand, to purchase the sequels. 

Empire and Jedi came out on VHS sometime after Star Wars, and as a kid, with limited finances, I would spend far too long weighing up which of the two movies I should buy first. My inner completest eventually decided to buy Empire and suddenly my video library was up and running. Over the years I would buy Star Wars on every platform, in multiple versions, Widescreen, THX remastered, DVD and BluRay and now iTunes digital. I simply can't seem to get enough.

Watching Solo

I think its fair to say that at certain points in my life Star Wars has moved to the background. I remember it still being a large part of my life in the early 1990s, but it would become background noise until Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace  hit theatres at the end of that decade. When the prequels hit I had to go to extraordinary lengths to keep up with the news. I purchased an unreasonable amount of print media to follow the production of Episode I and had to beg and plead to watch the trailer on the PCs of those lucky enough to have access to the still nascent internet. 

By the time of Star Wars Episode II Attack Of The Clones I had access to the 'net via a games console and would spend hours waiting for low res images from behind the scenes to load up followed by my oops and ahhhhhs. This would be the first opening day trip to a Star Wars movie for me, with tickets booked well in advance, along with the requisite time off of work. I booked two shows, back to back. Star Wars was back, and I was in deep.

Star Wars Episode III Revenge Of The Sith came to theatres when I was working as a 35mm projectionist. It couldn't have been better. My passion for film, which had started with Star Wars, had lead me to a job where I got to see every trailer onscreen, first. Sometimes I would splice all the trailers together and we would go sit in a theatre and watch them through, one after the other, This would be followed by intense discussion about what we had just seen. I still have some of those 35mm trailers somewhere. When the film was finally released, I was lucky enough to "build" a print. This meant I had to splice each reel together, taking care to "bloop" the reel joins and remove any "lab splices" to ensure the ultimate experience for those watching my print. Print number 001. 

I watched Star Wars Episode III Revenge Of The Sith ahead of its release, on a huge screen, with incredible sound. Completely. And utterly. Alone. The five year old boy, the kid who bused into town to buy films on VHS, had managed to find a way to enjoy the final Star Wars movie, in the most incredible way. What a way to say goodbye to Star Wars. Forever...

Acquisition 

I remember where I was when I heard that Star Wars had been acquired by Disney along with Lucasfilm and the Indiana Jones IP. I was standing next to the office manager's desk and the news buzzed through the office. I went straight to the internet, now in my pocket, and had it confirmed, Star Wars was back, with Disney promising more movies, probably a lot more. And we were off...

I had allowed Star Wars to retreat into the background once more, after Star Wars Episode III Revenge Of The Sith. I had built a modest home theatre in my basement at home, years earlier and it had some Star Wars memorabilia dotted around, and I had viewings of the movies from time to time, but my attention had shifted somewhat. A few years before the Disney news, I had started to enjoy podcasts and I had a Star Wars show in my weekly rotation. But I hadn't really been following the Clone Wars very closely. I was moving on until the Disney news hit. Then I was pulled back in. 

As news of the new Star Wars movies started to pick up, I started to contribute to the cacophony surrounding the new films. It started with a Tumblr blog, then a Flipboard magazine, a website with friends and a podcast. Eventually, after a couple of false starts I would double down and launch Talk Star Wars, just in time to cover The Force Awakens as it hit theatres. Now with numerous contributors, podcasts and a stunning community of Star Wars fans, I feel like I'm just getting started in celebrating this franchise. A franchise that's been a part of my life for four decades. Every day is Star Wars focused for me now. I start each day by reviewing a tidal wave of Google Alerts and then recording an episode of my daily podcast, the TSW Kessel Run, and finding things to talk about is rarely and issue. Every week I get to record a weekly podcast with some of my favourite people in world, people who also love this franchise and wax lyrical about it in a way that enhances my experience exponentially. I and fortunate enough to have friends all over the world who share their thoughts and feelings about Star Wars past, present and future with me daily. All because one guy took a chance forty odd years ago and made the thing he felt passionately about.

Star Wars made me the guy I am today. Gave me something that now defines my life. It is a consuming passion, 40 years of greatness that is still a huge part of my life today, and I couldn't be happier. 

George Lucas, thank you for giving that five year old by the best gift in the galaxy, the gift that keeps on giving. 

Thank you for reading,

Marc 

[bhashashikhi]

Week#1 update

This was Eid week so I couldn’t get much done. I only finished a part of Chapter: 0 of my French DELF book. I still have a couple exercises left from there. So I decided to sit down and write a few lines in French which is something I haven’t done in forever. However, I don’t feel bad about my progress as I spent my Eid well and I’m grateful for that. Plus I have not been doing well mentally at all. 

For Mandarin, I looked into some Chinese learning resources and downloaded bianca.learns’s Anki deck from their Youtube video. I hope to use that. I also plan on starting to listen to the podcast: 声东击西. I had to call some people in China and even though they picked and greeted me in Mandarin, my brain panicked and immediately asked if they spoke English instead of first explaining that I’m a mere beginner in Mandarin. Hope your week went well, even if not hope the upcoming one goes better. 

Lots of love,

Tsw

[bhashashikhi]

Week#3 Update

Should take an intentional break at this point. Studied the first chapter of the HSK 1 official textbook a little. Mostly forgot to passive listen, got frustrated by too much French on my laptop so changed its language back to anglais. Life is moving at 798 mm/s. Going to start studying regularly from 6 six weeks later. Have a good month and more! Lots of love, Tsw