#very glad there was a mini update for in game photos

[beaker1636]

G is for 'Guy'brator - Ryan

A/N: This one is a dosey, but I personally found it to be hot. It is not very often that you see sub Ryan in a smut fic so that is kind of the route that I took and I won't lie, I found it incredibly sexy. This is freshly typed and unedited like always but enjoy the next segment of The Alphabet Game!

P.S. let me know if you want in a tag list for this fic and I will add you to it so you get notified when I post updates!

“Vin asked that we all leave him and Carlotta alone for a few days, but he told me what your letter is Ryan,” Rick sends through the group chat, knowing that Vinny has already muted it so that he won't receive any messages until he is ready.

“What’s up with them, everything is okay hopefully,” Justin responds back rather quickly, despite not being as close with Vinny he is worried about him.

“She had a bit of a breakdown last night about everything.  Her stress from work, the comments on the photos of her yesterday, family shit… anyways he decided to make her take a couple sick days and they’re going on a mini getaway trip to help her reset.  Which I agree is probably a good idea.  Anyways, Ryan your letter G is for ‘guy’brator, he said they dropped the device off to Ari already so….” Rick responds, not sure what else he should say.

“I am glad he is helping her with everything, he seemed really worried about her yesterday when I talked to him.  Let him know if they need anything I will help with whatever,” Chris responds back, wanting the message to be given to Vin.

“Same from me Rick, anything they need at all.  And thanks for my letter I guess?” Ryan responds back with, not sure what else to say.

“I will let Vin know you guys said that, he did mention she finally agreed to move in with him last night so I am sure that they will need help with that soon.  He felt it would help her a little bit if they were together and shit, and I agree.” Rick responded back, nobody else sent a message unsure what they should say next.

Later

“Hey baby, how was work today?” Ryan kisses your forehead quick when you step towards him in the kitchen before turning back towards the stove where he is working on dinner for you both.

“Hmm, not great, not awful.  The meeting did not go how I wanted to at all, but it could have been much worse too,” you answer, wrapping your arms around his back in a hug as you press your face against his back.  You are craving the closeness of being near him, wanting that touch and comfort after a long day of work.

You both continue to talk as he finishes cooking, and as you both eat your dinner on the couch, not being bothered to sit at the table tonight.  

Your plates are both on the coffee table in front of you and you find yourself on his lap sideways, your face pressed in his neck as you just curl up with him, finding comfort in his gentle touches and you leaving a couple soft kisses on his neck.

“I’m not sure what is making you so clingy tonight but this is honestly kind of nice,” Ryan murmurs in your ear softly, a hand resting on your thigh while his other arm is wrapped around your waist, holding you on his lap closely.

“I don’t know, I just want to be close to you tonight.  If it becomes too much just let me know,” you answer softly, moving to look at him, catching his eyes with your own.

Something changes and you find yourself moving to straddle his lap, looking at him in the dim lighting of the lamp in the room, before deciding you want to kiss him.  The kiss is soft, gentle, neither of you rushing it because in this moment it just feels right to enjoy this quiet moment without the normal urgency that is between the two of you.

His lips lightly part, along with your own as it becomes slightly needier but still gentle, his tongue slowly meeting yours, in no hurry to move things forward.  The two of you continue like this for several minutes, like the first time the two of you did something and were scared to move things too quickly.

His arms moves, resting on your lower back to hold you in his lap while the other threads in your hair to hold you in place as you kiss, not wanting you to break the kiss.  It starts to get more heated and you find yourself rolling your hips against his, both of you gasping at the friction that it creates between the both of you.  You continue to slowly move against him, building until his hands find your ass under your skirt, helping you continue your movements against him along and quicker, both of you much needier.  

“Why don’t you go to the room, we will lose our clothing,” you suggest, pulling away from him. “Lay down on your back and close your eyes for me, I’ll bring our new toy in for us in a second.”

You move to slide off his lap, letting him get up as he eyes you slightly suspiciously for a moment before you turn your back.  You feel the shark sting of his hand on your ass making you jump, and then hear that he is stepping away down the hallway towards your bedroom.

You know that he more than likely is going to fight you big time on what you are planning to do but you hope that it will be worth it for him when you do it.  Grabbing the toy out of your bag you give him a few moments before you make your way down the hallway.

When you step inside your bedroom you are happy to find that he has the lamp on rather than the harsh overhead light. He also has done as you asked and was laid down naked, his eyes closed on the mattress.

Reaching into the night stand where you two keep your toys you pull out the metal handcuffs smiling to yourself, knowing that he is going to be pissed at you the second he realizes that you are putting them on him.  You gently grab one of his hands, putting the metal around it and closing it.  His eyes fly open when he realizes what is going on, fighting you as you put the other one around his other wrist.

“What the fuck are you doing? This is not what we use them for,” he exclaims, fighting you but giving up once the second one is on, glaring at you.

“Lay still, I have decided I am going to be in charge for once.  The ‘guy’brator they gave me was a vibrating cock ring and I would enjoy getting to mess with you for once.  Let me blow your mind tonight Ry,” you say softly as you step away from him, showing the little piece of silicone that is in your hand. 

“You are so in for it when you let me out, I hope you know that,” he spits at you.  His annoyance is showing, he isn’t overly dominant with you but he still likes calling the shots, being in charge of the scene so giving that to you is really annoying him.

He watches you closely as you begin to strip yourself of your shirt, slowly sliding it up over your head as you keep your eyes on him, watching his reactions.  When you are satisfied that he is enjoying the show you slip your skirt off, making sure that you bend down with your back towards him, giving him a good view of your ass in your panties as you do so.  

“Come on baby, take the rest off for me,” Ryan whines, enjoying your show but ready to see all of you.

You slip your bra off, moving your hands to cup your breasts, moving to play with your own nipples as he was forced to watch you enjoy yourself while he can’t touch you.

“You’re fucking cruel, you know that?” He asks, watching your movements closely.  Wanting you to touch yourself and growing frustrated that you aren’t.

“You talk like that and I’ll leave you handcuffed and just fuck myself with the dildo, not touching you at all,” you fire back, hoping that he will lose the attitude. “But good, you are hard, why don’t we put the ring on and see what you think.” You ask teasingly, moving to sit on the bed in only your panties.

You give him a couple soft, slow, teasing strokes with your hand taking full advantage of being in the position to bother him before you slip the ring on his base, giving him time to adjust to the foreign feeling.

“It doesn’t hurt does it?” you ask him softly as you start to stroke his cock again, still on the slow side while you wait for an answer.

“It’s tight but no, it’s different,” he answers, eyes on you as you pick up your pace.  Grabbing some lube from the drawer that the handcuffs came from you spread it on him, allowing you to work your hand better on him as you bring him close to the edge, stopping when he is close. 

You stop, moving to slip a hand in your panties between your folds as you give him time to calm back down, knowing that the show is going to drive him nuts.  

“Fuck Ryan, it’s too bad that you can’t feel how wet it is making me to watch you helplessly lay there, knowing that the ring is making you harder and more sensitive than you have been before,” you say, making eye contact as you slip the damp article of clothing down your legs.  Spreading them to give him a good view of the wetness of your folds as your run your fingers along your clit.

“Should I turn the vibrations on, see what you think of that?” You ask as you lean forward to do just that, smirking when you see his head roll back for a second at the sudden new sensation on him.  You move to start stroking him again, while continuing to tease yourself with your own hand until you can tell that he is close yet again.  You shut off the vibrations and stop moving your hand yet again, him groaning and cursing you out when the feeling goes away yet again.

“Baby, this is the hardest I have been in my life.  Please, I need to be inside you, I need to cum, please,” he begs you as he watches you start to finger yourself, giving himself a show as you thrust your own fingers inside yourself, getting off on knowing that he is watching you so close right now.

“I don’t know, you we’re getting pretty mouthy with me, maybe I need to teach you what happens when you are mouthy,” you say back, making eye contact as you let out a breathy moan, getting close yourself as you continue to work your fingers inside yourself.

“Fuck, I’ll be a good boy just fuck, please ride me,” he whines, looking at you closely hoping that it will be enough to get you to agree.

His words leave you speechless for a moment, he has never spoken to you like that, in fact he usually makes you beg for it, calls you a good girl.  It takes you a few seconds to process his words, and you decide that rather than answer to just climb on top of him.  You line him up with yourself before you sink down on him slowly. 

Both of you let out moans, you because he feels even bigger than he has ever felt inside of you and him because you feel so tight and wet, he is so needy that you feel better than he remembers.  Starting to rock your hips on his you both let out gasps, both of you giving up as you start to really work yourself on top of his cock.

“Fuck baby, let my hands go please.  Let me play with your clit, get you to cum all over my dick as you ride me,” He breathes out, hoping that you will agree.

Without thinking you do, reaching down you take them off of his wrists.  That was a mistake, the second you have them off of him he grabs your hips and flips the two of you over.  One of his hands settles around your throat, applying pressure while you watch him shocked. 

“And you thought that you we’re in charge, baby.  Maybe I should edge you now, let you get close but not close enough as I toy with your pretty pussy, make you beg for it,” he grunts out, feeling you get wetter at the suggestion. He knows that you can’t answer him and he enjoys that, wanting to see you struggle a little just like he did.

He lets go and you take a few rapid breaths, but quickly throw your head back as he himself reaches down to turn the vibrations back on knowing that if he does it just right that it’ll hit your clit and push you over the edge.  Within a couple thrusts it does, you cum hard with a moan that he is pretty sure the neighbors could hear.  

He pulls out of you, ripping the aggravating piece of silicone off of you before he plunges back inside of you, this time a lot harder than before and without giving you time to come down from your orgasm before he plunges you back into another one, you tightening around him as it hits.  You throw your head back, unable to think properly as he finally cums inside of you with a loud groan of his own, your body milking him for what he has.

The two of you stay there speechless, unsure what to say and coming down from what may have been the strongest climax that either of you have experienced in your life.  He slowly pulls himself out of you, moving so you are laying on your backs next to each other while catching your breath.

He gives you a soft kiss as he brushes your now damp hair out of your face.

“I have no clue what came over you but that was fucking hot, you can gladly restrain me again,” he teases, knowing that now that you are out of the moment that it will make you shy.

You blush and hide your hands in your face. “I think that I will leave you in charge, I enjoyed it but I enjoy it more when you lead me.  How did the ring feel?”

“That was easily the strongest it has ever felt for me before, we may have to use it again,” he says chuckling, standing up to grab a stray towel to help you clean up the mess of your thighs before moving to sit by you again.

“Can we go back to cuddling though, I really was enjoying it earlier and I could still use it today,” you say softly, glancing at him.

“That sounds nice,” he responds, handing you your pajamas, both of you getting dressed before curling up together in bed, a movie on the tv as your head lays on his chest and he plays with your hair. 

[thescrapbookingscientist]

Biweekly Media Roundup

- Wednesday (TV) - I’m enjoying this so far. I’m pretty much always down for any premise revolving around a monster school, the mystery is pretty interesting, I like the overall aesthetics and costume design, and I do think the writers did a pretty good job with most of the central cast’s characterization. I have some complaints on the overall monster design and on Wednesday herself, who I think is fine as far as entertaining characters go but is callous to the point where I genuinely don’t understand why any of her peers would ever want to spend time with her, but as far as first seasons go it was solid, and there's always room for improvement later. It definitely stands on its own as a little murder mystery drama mini-series, though I do desperately want to watch the movies again now.

- Defunctland (Youtube Channel) - I don’t normally include Youtube videos here as I watch too many to count but Defunctlands latest documentary on the Disney Channel theme somehow made my cold heart feel things so here it is. 

- Chainsaw Man (Anime) - Finally caught up with the anime and uh. Holy shit. Makima was already a stand-out in a great cast of likable weirdos with her soft spoken voice and androgynous drip but seeing her full abilities in action was really something. Horrifying, well executed, adds so much mystery and intrigue to the show, an excellent addition all around. I am seeing why this series was so hyped up, as while it wasn’t quite what I was expecting it to be I’m definitely having a lot of fun with it. Excellent animation, a little bit of introspection, and some very cool monster concepts, I can definitely see this becoming one of my faves in the future, though it’s raunchy/occasionally gory nature makes it a show I wouldn’t recommend to everyone withought knowing their tolerance for those things first.

- Spy X Family (Anime) - Glad the tennis arc is over, I don’t hate this new love rival character but her and her schemes are far less interesting than Anya’s school issues and everything Yors got going on so I’m excited to get back to that.

- Mob Psycho 100 (Anime) - Not much Mob left, gotta savor it while I can.

- Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-Kun (Anime) - While I adore these characters, I’m not really liking this season as much as the last ones, I hope we get to a new arc soon and maybe get more background on the adult cast or get to see the kids just hanging out more. For this series I want more wholesome comedy not prolonged action tactics- there's nothing wrong with the latter but it’s just so much better at the former.

- The S Classes That I Raised (Webcomic) - Too bad this has such a small Western fandom, as I’ve been thinking about these little guys quite a lot this week. Han Yoojin’s mom energy is just incredibly endearing and the webcomic designs of Moon and Riette are very ...woman yes good musclular  strong arm woman I love mhhmm. I think I’ll make a compilation of Peace photos to put over on my monster blog as the artist really captures the adorable + chaotic little gremlin energy well with the little flareon-thing. This series has now joined my ‘constantly checking for updates’ list for the near future.

- Pokemon Scarlet and Violet (Video Game) - I haven't played this game, but I have been enjoying the character designs. Rika in particular has great casual butch energy. 

- Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint (Webnovel) - This has been here for a good chunk of the year but thanks to an audionovel version I’ve been catching up on it a lot. Just got a bit past the “Incarnation Kim Dokja will be killed by the one he loves the most” arc which sure made me feel things oh boy. I plan to binge read the whole novel over the holidays and let it break me like I know it will.

Listening to: Red Flags by Tom Cardy, Tot Musica by Ado, Shout Out to My Ex by Little Mix, Stay by Reinaeiry, People Watching by Conan Gray, Happy by P!nk, Comatose by Skillet, Fallout by Marinas Trench, All the Boys by Panic! at the Disco, Lent by Autoheart, A Good Song Never Dies by Saint Motel

[simp-ly-in-love]

someone has to say it…

Micah Yujin has “fuck me” eyes

[garlicillo]

animal crossing direct thoughts

I should have posted my wish list for the direct -_- but I was pleasantly surprised that they finished adding the basics 2 years later before they added dlc ...

but then again, I’m very easy to please and don't really think about things until I see someone with big brain energy thinking...

also my serious thoughts are at the very bottom

Brewster

Glad he’s back, after almost 2 years...

Hopefully Celeste gets her observatory to make the museum symmetrical but after this being the “Last Major Free Update,“ I don’t see that happening

No cafe job shown but I hope we do get one 

Hopefully NPCs that show up are on a constant schedule for when they show up at the cafe (not daily but like weekly or even bi-weekly)

Glad you can invite friends and amiibo but i don't have any :(

Kapp’n

No Kapp’n family in sight

1000 nook miles!!!!!????? (that kind of expensive...)

Vines are interesting !! and pretty.

Glad for new fauna.

Different times and seasons for the new mystery islands are exciting but I hope they’re going to be mini games!

Harv

Hariiiiiiiettttt

Reese and Cyrus are back !!!!

Katrina !!!!

Tortimer!!!!

I wish you can only get these new hair styles from Harriett

Happy to see some sort of main street come back to animal crossing

We got exercising back from Population Growing!!

Motions controls too!! it sound fun!!!!!

Ordinances - i wasn't really missing them but i’m glad they're back for those who wanted them

More customization and expansion always welcomed

Cooking DIYs/Veggies

Cooking finally being implemented into the game 

Love the new crops tho

But nowhere to put them, i need to terraform again :(

Woah the foods!! And you can make flour and sugar

I’m glad that this is going to be before Harvest festival

Design and Customization

Accent walls, oooohhh

Glad to see things from HHD being implemented, nice

Custom fencing -- white fencing that everyone wanted

Everyone can make there white fence suburbia now!

New reactions !! hopefully Shrunk Funk Shuffle is in there.

Camera Updates: Reactions from characters that are in the photo are cute!

Custom designs we can wear, i feel like we should have been there this whole time?

It seems like in other games the ability to wear/decorate with custom designs was always there

Again, there should have been hairstyles exclusive to harriet just so we have something to go back to her for

New fencing! they look sooo cool! and more bridges and ramps!

External storage shed, glad it’s there now

Should have been implemented with the first storage expansion.. but super convenient

ADB - Super convenient

New K.K. singles dropped and cute music box(es)

The ladder set up kit is really neat!!

I hope there’s no limit to how many ladders you can have

I love that it’s less bulky than the staircases/ramps

Squeezing into tight spaces is sick - Didn’t HHD have this feature?

House visits  - They’re back!!

Finally!

and new villagers! woahh

Gyroids

Watering fragments is super cool

Gyroids, my beloved

The new designs are super cute

Love that you can customize

Hopefully Brewster can store them this time

What I wanted but didn’t see

No Nook Shop updates

No Celeste observatory

No bananas in sight or the other tropical fruit

No returning furniture sets

Last free update *distress emote*

But we take away everything that was already set up in previous games what exactly is new to ACNH?

All this to say Nintendo added what should have been there from day a year and a half later. I really don't want to hear people say “Oh they finally listen to us!!” because  they started working on ACNH close after the release of New Leaf so they pretty much had this all planned out but for what? Why release (what is now considered) base game updates almost 2 years later? 

also i change my mind about being happy about HHP being 25, it should have been like the welcome amiibo update because these “free updates“ should have been in the game since day 1

[your-dietician]

Best extended 4th of July tech sales 2021

New Post has been published on https://tattlepress.com/lifestyle/best-extended-4th-of-july-tech-sales-2021/

Best extended 4th of July tech sales 2021

Yahoo Life has received compensation to create this article, and receives commission from purchases made via links on this page. Pricing and availability are subject to change.

Grab yourself a tech toy; these extended 4th of July tech sales are popping! (Photo: Yahoo Life)

The 4th of July weekend might be over, but its tech sales still remain. That’s right! It’s time to save big on all manner of electronics. Thanks to mid-year release cycles and post-Prime Day overstock, post-July 4th is one of the best moments to shop for all things tech and the sales are still deep.

Whether you’ve had your eye on a new big-screen TV, a cushy pair of premium headphones or a starter set of smart home devices, this post-holiday weekend represents a window of opportunity. The price drops are epic! 

To save you time, we’ve gathered the very best still-alive 4th of July tech deals from Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, Lowe’s and more. You’ll find products ranging from small (hello, AirPods) to large (70-inch 4K Samsung TV, anyone?) at amazing discounts.

Snap up the best extended 4th of July tech sales below:

Best 4K-TV sales

A massive Samsung 70-inch 4K TV for just $680? Yes, please! (Photo: Best Buy)

Still on sale for $700 (was $750), this Samsung 70-inch Class 7 Series LED 4K Ultra HD Smart TV has a massive 70-inch display with full 4K Ultra HD resolution; vivid, bright colors and deep, dark black levels. That exceptional picture quality supports HDR (High Dynamic Range) movies and TV shows for the best 4K viewing experience around. And shoppers say this 4K TV is great for families.

“…The whole family loves it, especially my husband,” raved a delighted five-star Best Buy reviewer. “He is so glad we got this! Both him and our son love gaming on this nice sized TV. My daughter and I enjoy watching our shows. We are all pleased to say the least!…”

It’s also Wi-Fi-enabled with smart home support for Alexa, Google Assistant and Samsung’s Bixby. Video-streaming capability is also baked into this cake. Translation: You won’t have to buy a separate device to watch Netflix, YouTube, HBO Max, Apple TV+, Hulu, Peacock, Paramount+, Disney+ and much, much more. You’re ready to start binge-watching as soon as you turn it on.

Story continues

Check out more 4th of July 4K-TV sales below:

Toshiba 43-inch 43C350KU C350 Series LED 4K Ultra HD Smart Fire TV, $320 (was $370), amazon.com

Insignia 55-inch NS-55F301NA22 F30 Series LED 4K Ultra HD Smart Fire TV, $400 (was $500), amazon.com

Sony 55-inch Class X80J Series LED 4K Ultra HD Smart Google TV, $750 (was $950), bestbuy.com

LG 65-inch Class 4K Ultra HD NanoCell Smart TV, $997 (was $1,200), walmart.com

LG 65-inch Class CX Series OLED 4K Ultra HD Smart webOS TV, $1,900 (was $2,200), bestbuy.com

Sony 65-inch Class X80J Series LED 4K Ultra HD Smart Google TV, $900 (was $1,150), bestbuy.com

Best home audio sales

Get these Beats beauties for half price right now! (Photo: Walmart)

On sale for $149 (was $300) for post-4th of July, the Beats Solo Pro Headphones sync to just about any smartphone or laptop via Bluetooth, delivering rich audio and heart-thumping bass. Super sleek, the pro-level headphones come in Gray and Ivory. They’re noise-canceling, so you can block out just about all background and ambient noise to enjoy your favorite music and podcasts.

“These beats are so pretty. They sound amazing and definitely block out background noise,” raved a savvy Walmart shopper. “They charge and are compatible with iPhones….” 

The Beats have up to 40 hours of battery life per charge, so you don’t have to be tethered to an outlet all day long. They pump out a solid stream of music with top-notch audio for nearly two days — impressive, considering that most wireless headphones tap out after about 30 hours.

Check out more home audio sales below:

Bietrun Wireless Bluetooth Earbuds, $26 (was $130), walmart.com

Beats Flex Wireless Earbuds, $39 (was $50), amazon.com

Apple AirPods (wireless charging case), $160 (was $199), amazon.com

Apple AirPods Max, $490 (was $549), amazon.com

Philips Wireless In-Ear Headphones, $30 (was $60), walmart.com

Beats Solo3 Wireless On-Ear Headphones, $120 (was $200), amazon.com

Samsung Galaxy Buds+, $100 (was $150), bestbuy.com

Meidong Bluetooth Noise-Canceling Over-Ear Headphones, $35 (was $70), walmart.com

Best smartphone and tablet sales

An iPad with 40,000+ five star reviews, for less than $300? Is this for real? (Photo: Amazon)

On sale for $299 (was $329), the latest entry-level iPad model (32GB/Wi-Fi model) has the same impressive 10.2-inch display, quick Touch ID fingerprint sensor and 3GB of memory as the last version, but it features a speedier processor. You’ll notice — and appreciate — the speed with any videos, web sites or games. (For the tech savvy, the speed comes from Apple’s A12 Bionic chip). To say this thing is popular is an understatement: It has a ridiculous 40,000+ five-star reviews!

“I love it! It’s fast and easy to use plus it’s super affordable compared to the other models,” wrote a satisfied Amazon shopper. “The display is beautiful and picture quality is great…It’s like I have a mini laptop everywhere I go. Perfect for students, the screen quality is amazing and the battery lasts all day long.”

Check out more smartphone and tablet sales below:

Apple iPad Air (10.9-inch, Wi-Fi, 256GB), $699 (was $749), amazon.com

Core Innovations 7-inch, $54 (was $70), bhphotovideo.com

onn. 8-inch Tablet Pro, $79 (was $99), walmart.com

Samsung Galaxy A11 (Net10), $99 (was $149), walmart.com

Lenovo Tab M10 Plus, $160 (was $200), bestbuy.com

Best video game sales

Save 60 percent on super-popular games. (Photo: Amazon)

On sale for $20 (down from $50), BioShock: The Collection features all three games in the popular franchise: Bioshock Remastered, Bioshock 2 and Bioshock Infinite. These fun-tastic games explore futuristic science fiction worlds underwater and above the clouds.

“One of the best video game trilogies of modern gaming,” raved a delighted gamer. “All three games play and look fantastic, and 2k has done a great job with the attention to detail with all of them. I’ve had zero performance issues.”

Check out more video game sales below:

Luna Gaming Controller, $56 (was $70), amazon.com

NBA 2K21 (Xbox Series X), $20 (was $70), amazon.com

Mafia: Definitive Edition (PS4), $20 (was $40), amazon.com

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (PS4), $15 (was $40), amazon.com

The Sims 4 (Xbox One), $5 (was $50), cdkeys.com

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege (Xbox One), $13 (was $35), cdkeys.com

Minecraft (Xbox One), $10 (was $30), cdkeys.com

Outriders: Day One Edition (PS4), $40 (was $60), walmart.com

Microsoft Xbox Series S 512GB with Xbox Game Pass and Accessories, $636 (was $700), qvc.com

Grand Theft Auto V: Premium Edition (PS4), $20 (was $60), walmart.com

Madden NFL 21 (Xbox One), $20 (was $60), walmart.com

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (Xbox One), $30 (was $60), walmart.com

The Pillars of The Earth (PS4), $29 (was $45), walmart.com

Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled (PS4), $34 (was $40), walmart.com

PlayStation Plus Membership (12 months), $39 (was $60), cdkeys.com

Playstation Plus Membership (three months), $20 (was $25), cdkeys.com

Best smart-home sales

Start building the smart home of your dreams today, with this discounted bundle. (Photo: Lowe’s)

For this extended 4th of July sale, Lowe’s is giving you a chance to score the Google Nest Mini (second generation) and GE Smart Plug for just $40 (was $60).

The next-gen Nest Mini packs the Google Assistant into a sleek design with really great sound. Enjoy crisp vocals and balanced bass while you stream songs from Spotify, YouTube Music, SiriusXM, Pandora, Apple Music and more. Want a smart home? Now’s the time! If you have a phone in your pocket and a Wi-Fi network at home, you’re well on your way to building a smart home.

Plus, the bundle includes the GE Smart Plug (a $15 value), which can easily pair with the Google Nest Mini. Simply plug into a wall outlet, then plug in anything — a lamp, a TV or even a coffeemaker.

Then connect the plug to your Wi-Fi network and use your phone to sync to the Google Home app (for Android smartphones and Apple iPhones). That’s it! Now you can control just about anything in your home with your phone or just the sound of your voice via the Google Assistant. Fun!

“I am amazed at how much sound can come out of this little bitty device,” raved a delighted five-star Lowe’s reviewer. “The ease of setting this little unit up via Wi-Fi was a breeze. All I have done so far was talk to the device and it does what I ask with the weather even popping up on occasion which is what I was looking at. I like the fact that it sync to my devices with the calendar update with the busy schedule I have…I would recommend this little device for not only sound, but also ease of use. It can make your life simple and up-to-date if you carry a busy workload. Set a reminder and it will remind you even with a little music.”

Check out more smart-home sales below:

TP-Link N300 WiFi Extender (TL-WA855RE), $17 (was $30), amazon.com

Google Nest Mini, $35 (was $49), lowes.com

Google Nest Learning Smart Thermostat, $199 (was $249), lowes.com

Google Nest Hello, $149 (was $229), lowes.com

Lenovo Smart Clock Essential, $30 (was $50), lowes.com

Brookstone PhotoShare Digital Picture Frame, $110 (was $130), lowes.com

Moen 7594BL Arbor One-Handle Pulldown Kitchen Faucet, $289 (was $500), amazon.com

Honeywell RLV4300A1005 5-2 Day Programmable Thermostat (renewed), $10 (was $35), eBay.com

Google Nest Cam Indoor Security Camera, $130 (was $200), walmart.com

Defender Ultra HD 4K Wired Outdoor Security System (1TB), $260 (was $450), walmart.com

Monoprice Wireless Smart Outdoor Dual Socket, $25 (was $38), target.com

XODO Smart Wi-Fi HD Video Doorbell, $90 (was $150), walmart.com

DHcamera Wired Spotlight Cam HD Security Camera, $150 (was $230), walmart.com

Garmin Vivosport Fitness Tracker (renewed), $70 (was $200), eBay.com

Kamep Wireless Wi-Fi Video Doorbell Camera, $75 with on-page coupon (was $90), amazon.com

Best home-office sales

Sleek, thin, and convertible (lapop to tablet), this Samsung Chromebook Plus V2 is $180 off. (Photo: Amazon)

For extended 4th of July sales, the slick Samsung Chromebook Plus V2 convertible laptop is just $370 — that’s 33 percent off.

Incredibly thin, the Samsung Chromebook is actually more than just a laptop. It has a brilliant 12.2-inch HD touchscreen display (at 1900×1200 resolution) and flexible 360-degree hinge, so it can rotate to any angle for use as a tablet.

“I wanted both a tablet and a computer. I love that you can download apps and use them for both the computer and the tablet form,” reported a five-star fan. “The stylus makes using Lightroom and other creative apps a breeze. Being able to use the cloud is a must because the storage would fill up pretty quickly…The large screen is also good for editing photos, drawing, and taking notes. Startup, web browsing, and apps are quick. The battery life is really great for everyday use…”

Check out more home-office sales below:

Cloud Massage Shiatsu Foot Massager Machine, $250 with on-page coupon (was $350), amazon.com

Renpho Neck Shoulder Massager, $30 with on-page coupon (was $50), amazon.com

Vybe Percussion Massage Gun, $150 with on-page coupon (was $200), amazon.com

DamKee Massage Gun, $56 with on-page coupon (was $110), amazon.com

WorkEZ Rise Aluminum Laptop Stand, $30 (was $33), qvc.com

Samsung 27-inch Smart Monitor, $300 (was $329), qvc.com

HP OfficeJet Pro 8035e All-in-One Printer, $220 (was $249), qvc.com

Asus Chromebook C223, $265 (was $340), hsn.com

Bell & Howell Adjustable Laptop Desk, $32 (was $50), hsn.com

Embassy NanoShred 8-Sheet Paper Shredder, $100 (was $124), hsn.com

OttLite Wireless Charging Desk Lamp, $35 (was $61), hsn.com

Apple MacBook Pro (mid-2020), $1,099 (was $1,299), bhphotovideo.com

Microsoft Surface Pro 5 (renewed), $540 (was $800), eBay.com

Ousgar 47-inch White Desk, $100 (was $266), walmart.com

Hemu Fashion Bamboo Laptop Lap Tray, $38 (was $80), walmart.com

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[gayasianminimalist]

Dear Future Deanna,

You are about to go off to college, and afterwards starting your great big life. Therefore you may never see this message future Deanna. But I won’t lose hope because maybe you’ll have this with you without knowing it. Anyways, good luck in college, hope you make the most of it because you only get once chance in college. Make good choices, but at the same time take some risks or else you will forever regret not being bold. It’s okay if you make any mistakes because I’m sure you’ll learn from them and become better. And another thing future Deanna, live in the moment and don’t think too far ahead.

-Deanna Wong   June 1, 2015

Dear past Deanna,

Well 2 years later I managed to find this mini notebook and see what I wrote to myself awhile back. Past Deanna, I have certainly made some mistakes and done things I couldn’t imagine myself doing 2 years ago! I have met some of the most important people in my life these past couple years, especially this past school year. I hit the gym pretty often which is a very necessary thing in my life but I don’t exactly have access to a gym at the moment. I’ll make do this summer with @ home exercises and probably running in the mornings hopefully starting tomorrow. I  kind of hit a big wall at the end of my 1st year at UCSD, I failed 2 classes and passed with a B and I’m waiting to take the other class still. My gpa definitely tanked but now I have above a 3.0 again which is my goal gpa to maintain for the rest of my years here. I see my handwriting hasn’t changed too much so I’ve reached my max as far as writing legibility. I’m cleaning out my desk right now and there are definitely a lot of old Deanna history hidden in these drawings. Hmm so I’ve left my college journal at school, but I only wrote in it probably twice this whole school year. Way to keep record of what’s happening. So something that has definitely changed my life was starting my rave life. EDM really has had an impact on me and I decided to give ecstasy a go. It is quite the euphoria, but in great moderation. Gave me the happiest feeling in the world. I’m so glad my friends have been gracious enough to let me have this experience. So I’m not saying drugs are good, but they’re sure really fun. This past spring quarter I tried shrooms and that trip definitely gave me one of the weirdest days of my life. Everything just felt sort of off, but I saw everything a bit differently visually. And then more often than not I had those nights of being drunk, stoned, or crossed af. Like I knocked out pretty hard on some nights. Next year I definitely need some self control over these type of nights. IDK if my body can handle such tough treatment anymore. Anyways I joined a frat, and now I have 2 littles in my frat. They’re super cool but I need to find a way to connect all of us next year because they’re kinda polar opposites. I don’t wanna think about this too hard though so I’ll just continue on this much needed spheal. Also an update on my love life: non-existent. I’ve been single for a solid 20 years since I’ve been alive. Also I’m 20 what... how dis happen. Going off on a tangent, I think I have found that photos are very important to me. All the memories I have captured, I can’t even begin with how blessed I feel forever with such great memories. I would say my second year of college was definitely better than my first year. I wanna stop here past Deanna since I’ve given you the gist of my college thus far. Now to write to future Deanna again.

-Deanna Wong    July 12, 2017

Dear Future Deanna, 

So what past Deanna said, keep living in the moment, take lots of pictures, and make more new friends, but remember to keep your old ones. Maybe try dating someone before the end of college, or not but you need a person in your life I think, or maybe I’m wrong and it’s better that you’re independent all through college. Whatever happens, happens. Also keep living your healthy life, go gym, hike, eat right, and so on. And don’t feel so bad on not so good days, stress eating gets to everyone. Try to say no to people, you can’t be influenced all the time. Otherwise you’ll never learn to have things your way. You can be helpful to people too, but sometimes you should make sure you get your own shit together first. I think you have all the tools needed to succeed in the rest of college and life, so make your choices wisely.

-Deanna Wong   July 13, 2017

Dear past Deanna, 

I think I’ve gotten college life down, better than my first 2 years for sure. I still am making mistakes though, kind of had some bad incidents as far as my behavior record with UCSD, but on my way to fixing that. Nothing that’ll put me on hold for graduating, I just have to deal with business and this should all be over next quarter. Long story short I passed out at an on campus event and I have some consequences to deal with but it’s all on me, I have to fix things. On the bright side, everything in my academics are right again. Above a 3.0 and I am on track to graduate by next spring. It’s really hard to write into this tiny notebook. I’m writing very intensely I’m sweating a little. It’s also not the coolest temperature. Sacramento brings the heat. In terms of my social/party life, this past year of college, and within the last quarter, has exceeded my first 2 years. Well part of the reason has been because I turned 21 this year. Legal drinking is a whole new game. You would think I can control myself at this point, but I still can’t some nights. I’ve definitely opted out of drinking a lot more this year. Self-control is getting better. A lot of seniors I grew close to this year are graduated now. It makes me really sad but I need to learn to get through this year without them. They are all going on their own paths for the future, and I wish them all the best and to visit me next year! My love life got a little bit spicier this year, but nothing drastic happened where I need to announce it. Still no girlfriend and I really want to have one more and more. Still actively using dating apps. Well just more recently since its summer now and I don’t have much else to do. Just trying to recharge myself mentally. I think a lot of things that happened this year has given me a bit of a mental drain. I think i actually like attention but I may have gotten more than I need for a year. My 21st birthday is the most extra day I’ve had in my life. Everything was funny, everyone was dressed up, and there were a lot of gifts. The best thing was all my friends being there just to celebrate my friend Nat and I turning on year older. Like it shouldn’t be that huge of a deal, but it became a big deal just because we wanted it to be. This really should be more of advice for future me like the 2 past me’s, so I’m gonna do that instead of blabbing about my life. i’m supposed to do that somewhere else. Alright it’s there, peace past me.

-Deanna Wong   July 5, 2018

Dear Future Deanna,

Not sure what to say. Well if past Deanna has been able to accomplish all she has up to now, future Deanna can keep up this level of excelling life plus more. You’re literally about to enter the actual adult world after this year. You need to figure out your plan even if you don’t want to. You gotta make moves to get where you want. Such as staying home or moving out as soon as possible. Get a woman, it’s time to be more proactive about your love life because if you don’t make moves, no one’s gonna do it for you. Maybe tell people how you actually feel if you feel for them. Still have to take risks. I don’t think past Deanna has taken any REAL risks. Like a risk that makes you sweat and super anxious beforehand but could be very worth it. But you’ve always had a logical side, so maybe listen to it if it’ll make your life better in the long run. I’ll continue later but I have to eat first. You are your own grown ass adult now, speak up for what you want. You can’t let other people dictate your outcome of situations. Take control of you situation. Take control of your situation. Be a good friend. You’ve gotten better at it by leaps and bounds, but there’s always room for self-improvement. Be appreciative of how far you’ve come. Don’t beat yourself too much, you still tend to do this from time to time. Take your own advices? I don’t think you’ve had to apply this yet, but you could try giving yourself a few pointers. Keep yourself tidy. Clean your room more often when you’re at school. Things pile up, and a cleaner space tends to give you a clearer mind. Keep in touch with those you don’t see as often. You tend to spend all your time with one group of people instead of reaching out more. This is why you don’t see some people enough. Develop this skill now and it’ll translate in the future. I think I’ll keep it to this for now, you’ll gain more wisdom as you endeavor into your final months at UCSD. Stay lit, stay safe, and be you. :)

-Deanna Wong   7/30/18

This is just some back and forth between myself that I had for the first 3 years of my college life. I’ll save my last year for another post. I feel like between each year I had some improvements, but a lot of the stupid stuff I did more or less are from all my non-sober nights in college. It’s kind of the same thing over and over but just with different people and different circumstances. Looking back at everything now, I’ve really become a lot more of a stable person. I don’t regret a single moment of undergrad. Although I find it really strange I felt like I needed to have a girlfriend at some point. I honestly with so occupied with my own life that I really did not need to add someone else to the equation. And even now I’m still kind of ok with my independence, maybe a bit too ok with my independence. I think honestly the right person will just come at the right time. I really think I need to give the meeting someone in the real world a shot. Well not now since California is in a lockdown but after this pans over I’ll try to go out there and find the love of my life. 

Stay safe out there y’all and don’t go spreading too many germs. I’m out gonna be raving in my house haha.

[oumiyuki]

Teachers don’t date teachers (but You-sensei and Riko-sensei definitely are) Ch4

Summary: The whole student body and teachers teases the gym teacher, Watanabe You, with the new art teacher, Sakurauchi Riko, that they make a cute couple. How long can You deny this when Riko isn’t helping to reduce the rumours?

Pairing: YouRiko

Genre: Romance, Fluff, Slice of Teacher Life ;D

Words: 2380

Author Notes

Tumbling through life and through the cuts and bruises I present you with a YouRiko-sensei update.

May you enjoy~ :/D

Tease04 – You-sensei and Riko-sensei Love-Love Photo Album

 If the saying “it’s a small world” is true and so often used for people who happen onto each other in various shopping centres, parks or even across countries. That saying is even truer when it comes to You bumping into Riko throughout the school and having more than a few occasions to interact with the new art teacher.

You certainly doesn’t mind. And the school is even more excited about this fact.

Riko takes hurried steps towards the teacher’s office. Her heels click-clacking against the floors of the school as she worries about not making it to her desk before the clock hits 7.30am.

Rounding a bend, the auburn-haired art teacher slips and lets out a short scream, her heart leapt up to her throat and she was expecting the pain of falling on her butt and worse-case scenario of spraining her ankle. But after keeping her eyes closed for about five seconds and nothing came, she slowly opened them.

Her knight in shining armour smiles down at her. Riko pushes her brain’s maiden-like thoughts away with a slight blush. The kind and fit gym teacher who also happened to be in-charged of her well-being in school has caught Riko’s outstretched hand before Riko could slip any further closer to the ground.

You gives Riko a warm smile, perfect for making mornings 200% better. Riko smiles nervously. “T-Thank you, You-sensei… I would be sitting on the floor if not for you.”

You chuckles and shakes her head. “Glad to be of help. I believe your chair inside prefers your butt to be sitting on them than on the floor.”

Riko stares at You with a tint of pink covering her cheeks. “My butt…huh.” Riko tilts her head to the side in a considering manner.

You pulls Riko upright without warning and her free hands lifts to cover her embarrassed face. “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say butt. I mean I did. But..I didn’t mean to seem so crude…In front of you…Er…”

Gods, why do I always mess up in front of Riko-sensei?

Riko giggles softly into her free hand as she left the hand that You caught to still be in hers; it felt so warm there after all. “I like your straightforwardness, You-sensei. So don’t worry about it.”

You looks at Riko before lowering her head.

Riko-sensei is too kind...

One of the early to school newspaper club student snaps shots of You catching Riko and still holding onto Riko’s hand after. She checks the saved image in her camera with a grin and only left when Riko and You went on their way.

 “And…finishing dunk.” The sparkling with sweat and equipped with a shining smile gym teacher kicks off the ground and easily plunges the basketball into the hoop before landing back down with a twist.

Nailed it!

Her students cheered loudly while the other half of the class that had to go up against her booed in a slightly dejected manner.

“You-sensei, that’s amazing!”

“Ahh, there’s no way we can win You-sensei…”

You laughs loudly as she ruffles the head of her surrounding students; not minding the sweat and even accepting some of their elbow jabs. “Hey, hey. You girls are getting better. And I did take some of the basketball girls on my team.”

Totally unplanned when I jacked the game, but it’s the truth.

You winks and the other team groans again.

“How did you do that dunk? It was so cool!” A student asked with starry eyes and hands in a prayer manner.

The gym teacher looks to her student who wasn’t very tall for dunking and back to the hoop; her smile never wavering. “With practice and believe.”

As every main character will tell you.

You raises her right hand which catches the basketball a student throws to her immediately when they noticed the flow of conversation. You nods to her student to watch her closely and she begins dribbling the basketball towards the hoop, and when she feels the momentum is right – a jump and smoothly dunks once again.

The student claps vigorously. “…But I still don’t get it?”

“What did I just do?” You prompts and points to her slow dribbling.

“Dribble the ball.” The student answers.

“What am I doing now?” You begins a half jog.

“Um…Running with the ball.”

You smiles and nods. “Find your pace and let your palm feel the ball.” You holds the ball in both hands. “Now what am I doing?”

“…Holding…the ball?” The student asks.

“Essentially. And gauging how firmly I am holding the ball. Before I stare down the hoop. And~” You throws the ball at the angle she felt just right, and in the next two seconds, the beautiful sound of the basketball swooping through the hoop and net was heard. Every student stood in awe.

Oh man…This attention…

“It’s all about practice.” You chuckles abashedly at the silent attention. She liked being a gym teacher because of the always on the move and energy, so this much attention made her nervous.

The student who asked about how to dunk nods enthusiastically. “I will!”

Ah, I love earnest to learn kids~

You gives her a thumbs up and a wide smile. “Great. Now I think we’ve got enough time for another mini-game-”

“You-sensei~!” You turns to see the Head of Art jogging towards her; which is really a feat as the tall blonde always wore a striking black office skirt that hugged her black stockings covered thighs tightly, coupled with those 2inch black stiletto heels to further add to her height and sexy aura.

How is she even walking in those?

You walks towards the Head of Art so that the blonde teacher does not have to risk tripping with every step she takes. All while keeping an eye on those heels. You has never worn heels in her life. Or at least she did twice and never wanted to do so on a daily basis like some of the other teachers do.

“Ohara-sensei. What’s up? And do be careful in those killer shoes.” The ash-brunette dodged a swipe at her with a cheeky smile.

“They are only killer if you’re referring to how they make me the sexiest teacher in Uranohoshi, You-sensei~” The Head of Art winks.

“I’m always amazed that you can walk in those for eight hours. And even jog.” You shakes her head.

The angle totally makes your ankle hurt. Sneakers are best.

Ohara-sensei grins. “But you do find them sexy, don’t you~?”

You rolls her eyes at the Head of Art stretching out her legs to pose for You. You clears her throat and turns back to her class. “No ogling. And start another game on your own!”

The class hurriedly grab some basketballs and talked to themselves for being caught staring. Everyone loves Watanabe-sensei for being the easiest to talk to and share their fun and worries with. But everyone loves Ohara-sensei for her humour and sexiness, that’s for certain.

“Aww~ How sweet of you, You-sensei~ Do you do that for Riko-sensei too?” The Head of Art winks at You again.

Sweet- What?

You finds heat creeping at her cheeks at the image of her being protective for Riko. “N-No? She doesn’t dress like you do, Ma- Ohara-sensei.” You squints with a pout.

The Head of Art laughs unabashedly. “That’s what you think, dearie. I would tease you more, but we don’t have a good enough audience.”

“Mari- Ohara-sensei!” You protests.

Why does Mari-sensei like to tease me so much!?

Mari places a hand on You’s shoulder while grinning at the shorter teacher’s red face - adorable. “I need you to do me a favour.”

“Well..that’s why you’re here, no?” You grumbles childishly.

Mari nods. “I’ve got a meeting to go to right now. So if you could, I’d love if you help tell Riko that she classes are cancelled on Tuesday. She’ll have other things instructed to do for that day.”

You nods. “Sure. Sounds simple.”

Mari chuckles. “Well, it’s not like I asked you to pick flowers fitting for the teacher you’re crushing on – so yes, it’s simple.”

“Crush- What are you even saying now, Mari-sensei! I don’t have a crush on Riko-sensei.” You turns away from Mari with an indignant pout.

Mari waggles her eyebrows at You. “I didn’t mention anything about Riko, did I~?”

Eh? Mari-sensei didn’t..?

You’s ears turned red too as she realized Mari really did not mention Riko as the teacher You may have a crush on yet the gym teacher jumped to conclusions. “But you insinuated-”

“Mm~” Mari wore a cat-like grin so high You couldn’t do anything.

“Ugh, just go to your meeting, Ohara-sensei. I’ll let Riko-sensei know about cancelled classes.”

Mari laughs. “Remember it’s Tuesday~” And with that, the blonde that arrived like a hurricane goes on her way like a hurricane too.

You returns to her class and instructs two students to take charge on packing and putting back the basketballs in the storage room, and to head back to class properly when done.

The gym teacher takes large strides over to Riko’s class so that she can catch the art teacher before she leaves the art room. Upon reaching, You leans her left shoulder coolly against the door to the art room and puts a finger to her mouth so the students won’t start making noises.

So this is how Riko-sensei teaches huh… It’s not that much different from any other teacher I guess.

You chuckles in her mind at thinking that Riko might have the class turn into a serene garden for art class or something otherworldly for art inspirations. You chucked it up to her sports filled mind’s misconception and knocks on the door twice to catch the art teacher’s attention.

Riko jumps very slightly but You notices so she grins and waves when Riko looks over surprised. “You-sensei?”

“Good morning again, Riko-sensei~”

She sure had her focus on the canvas to be surprised by a light knock on the door. She must really love art.

“Good morning…again. You-sensei.” Riko smiles and walks over. “What brings you here?”

You moves to stand up straight and wipe a stray sweat trickling down the side of her cheek. “Ohara-sensei sent me to pass you a message.”

“Oh. It must be very important for you to come running here then.” Riko reaches in her pocket and offers her handkerchief so that the gym teacher can wipe her sweat.

“Ah, er. It’s okay. I just ended a gym class where we played basketball. Thus the sweat. I don’t want to dirty your handkerchief, don’t worry about it, Riko-sensei.” You rambles on with her hands up to reject gratefully.

Riko nods and keeps her handkerchief slowly back into her pocket. You’s blue eyes watched it go with a hint of regret.

Riko-sensei’s pink floral patterned handkerchief…fits her image and is probably soft like Riko-sensei’s hands… Wai- what am I thinking!

You lifts her head to look away from Riko’s pocket and make proper eye contact. Seeing Riko waiting patiently made her feel relieved. “So.”

Riko nods. “Mm-hm?”

“Ohara-sensei wants me to tell you that Tuesday’s classes will be cancelled… Just to let you know.” You smiles and gives herself a pat on the back internally for completing her mission.

Riko nods again, walks back to take her phone and back to You. “Thank you for all the time, You-sensei.”

Murmurs within the class starts to occur at the information the art teacher just shared. Students turned to talk about how Riko-sensei is always helped by You-sensei and how cute their relationship is.

You peeks at Riko’s phone screen, noticing that Riko has a really neat planner opened and have written in notes that classes are cancelled on the coming Tuesday.

Riko-sensei is so organized…Such a contrast with me…

You places a hand on the back of her neck. “No problem. I’m your official caretaker in the school after all!” You chuckles at the title.

Riko giggles at the title too. “I’m glad to have you as my caretaker.”

You smiles widely, and she feels her spirits more light and jolly just from Riko saying she’s glad to have her.

Riko-sensei is really such a sweet person.

While You and Riko are conversing, some students have taken out their handphones or cameras to take pictures of their two favourite teacher couple. Whispering to one another that You-sensei and Riko-sensei are literally the cutest couple in school and this scene in front of them is proof of that.

At the end of the school day, in the newspaper club room, students of the club and various students through the school were inside sharing snapshots they captured throughout the day to share in the “Love-Love Photo Album”. Meaning to say, they choose selected ones to be blown up and kept as a hardcopy version, a promotional picture on the school’s notice board, and the others into the softcopy album.

“Ahh, every time You-sensei holds Riko-sensei’s hand I feel like I’m going to melt!” A student gushes as she looks through the collection.

“You’re not the only one! Looks at how their hands fit so well in each other’s!”

“C’mon, girls~ It’s not just the hands you should be looking at.” A confident voice sounds at the door before it closes.

“Ohara-sensei!” The students greets.

The Head of Art wears a Cheshire grin and waves to her students before approaching the table and pointing at You-sensei’s face. “You-sensei’s blush is our one hundred and one percent definite proof of their love~”

Students nod eagerly and squealed at the focus on their charming gym teacher’s blushing expression.

“And Riko-sensei’s own set of blush! She’s hiding her affections but it’s so clear to us! Am I right or am I right, girls~?” Ohara-sensei stands up straight and the loud clack of her stiletto heel commanded attention.

The students cheered and clapped. “Yes~! Riko-sensei is in love with You-sensei!”

The Head of Art laughs happily that she’s opening the eyes of the students to notice the little details of the budding love between You and Riko. She’s going home to squeal at each image in the YouRiko Love-Love Photo Album later while she concocts a new plan for teasing You and Riko.

Author Notes

Look at that. I included another Aqours member~;D (Mari, the Head of Art is the ultimate YouRiko shipper and wingwoman. Foreshadowed since chapter 1. Hahas. XD)

I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter~ (´∀`)

You and Riko’s actions will always be stalked! And added into that ever-growing album! (*≧∀≦*)

Leave me comments to let me know what y’all think of this chapter~ How’s our Ohara-sensei’s official introduction? Hehe~

[sunshinechii-scenarios]

Day with Suga

There’s a snow storm here and my lights keep flickering. I’d like to thank mother nature for inspiring this part of the series. FHDSJK I hate snow ಥ╭╮ಥ what can I do tho.You can find the other parts on the always updating masterlist!

✿  BTS Suga x Gender Neutral Reader ✿  Fluff ✿  1.6K words ✿  Not Requested ✿ Written by Chii ✿

I made the following divider so please don’t take it or use in your own posts, thank you .- Chii

         You were patiently waiting in your home, waiting for Yoongi, to be exact. It had been really long since you two had time to yourselves and the sparse phone calls barely sufficed. So, when Yoongi texted you that he had a free day, the two of you immediately made plans to hang out. Going out wasn’t an option since it was risky and the weather wasn’t so pleasant today. The sky looked anything but clear and blue but the weather wasn’t going to stop you two from seeing each other. You texted Yoongi while you took a break from eating the breakfast you made after waking up around half an hour ago. You stared out the window and observed the weather. Your phone buzzed and you read the message he sent:

The weather is absolute shit, I don’t want to go outside to hangout.

Your fingers danced across the screen to respond to him.

Makes the two of us.

You paused to do a quick scan of your home before starting to type another message. You had a few clothing items sprawled on your couch and your floors probably required minimal attention from the broom. You started to type again.

Do you want to come over?

Right after, Yoongi replied as fast as he could before rushing out of his bed to change.

Yes. I’ll be over in an hour and a half, PD just called us in for a monthly report. I’ll see you then.

You started to finish up breakfast and attempted in cleaning up your home. You put the clothes in the laundry basket and tidied up the living room before cleaning the dishes. Once you dried off the dishes you checked the clock, only 15 minutes passed. You sat on your now clean couch and scrolled through social media, seeing Yoongi and his band mates all over. You noticed he didn’t look exactly happy in the photos, he always looked tired and forced an expression on his face.

         More than two hours had passed since Yoongi’s text, you were about to call him until you heard a knock on the door and got up to open it. Once you did, Yoongi stepped through the door and quickly pulled you into a hug. You felt his arm around your waist and his hand behind your head, holding you into his chest.

“Fuck, I missed you.” You heard his voice by your ear, still as clear as ever. You heard him say, a little surprised at his sudden vulgar words but you knew he meant it out of care. You smile and hug him back, pushing into his chest a little bit more. Yoongi held on for such a long time that you had to pry him off so you could close the door behind him.

“How have you been?” He said as he took off his cap, revealing his new hair color.

You started to feel his hair, the strands felt dry against your fingers.

“I’ve been bored and lonely, I have so much work piled up from everything.” You took your hand out of his hair.

“I’ve been the same, it’s been hard getting sleep recently.” He ran his hand through his hair, letting the strands fall where they did. 

“Yoongi!” You shouted, surprising him a bit as you saw his shoulder raise in the slightest.

“Mh?” He answered rather calmly.

“I should have assumed but why didn’t you tell me that you weren’t getting sleep?!” You hit his arm lightly while you spoke.

“Because you’ll freak out like you are right now and would have rejected my proposal to hang out.” He sat on the couch. You went to throw a pillow at him but a small line of beeps rang in your ears. You turned around to see what could be making the noise.

“Did you hear that?” You turned to the window and right at that moment a flash of lightning followed by the sound of thunder clapped. You heard a loud beep and suddenly the lights went out.

“Oh, perfect. The power went out.” You said dryly, you looked over to the window. The sliver of orange sun outside the window was being taken over by a gray and dull cloud. You didn’t realize the sun was setting already while you were waiting. A few seconds later you hear the sound of raindrops hitting your window. Yoongi turned his phone’s back light on as you went to search for a flashlight. Once you found it, you opted to look for some candles to brighten up the place in a less artificial light

“I would say do you want to go home but,” you paused to let him hear the heavy rain outside, “I don’t know if that’s an option.”

“It’s fine, I’d rather be here with you anyway.” He said while sitting on the couch, he texted his manager about his situation. Yoongi saw you on the opposite side of the couch, a little too far from him.

“What are you doing so far from me?” You looked over to see his bottom lip jutting out in the slightest with the candle light on the table. You rolled your eyes and scooted closer to Yoongi. The candle light flickered, you saw a battered up orange and black box.

“Do you wanna play Jenga to pass time?” You asked as you pointed to the box in the corner of your living room. Sadly, there wasn’t much to do in a black out.

“Didn’t you have Monopoly?” He asked while shifting in his seat.

“I bought it to the dorms over a year ago and I still haven’t gotten it back.” You recalled when they got their first win and wanted you to come over. You bought over all your board and card games but one in particular never made it back to your house.

“Jenga it is.” Yoongi said, he made a mental reminder to look for the game when he got back to the dorms.

“Set it up, I might have some snacks in the fridge.” You got up and walked to the kitchen with your phone flashlight on. Opening the cabinets, you saw half full bags of chips and a few bags of mini candy bars and grabbed them. You walked back to the living room and put the snacks on the table while Yoongi put the box on the floor. He sat down and turned his head up to you.

“What are we playing for?” He asked.

“Do you want to play for pizza? Loser pays” You said. You saw Yoongi pick up the flashlight and look over into your kitchen, staring at the countless takeout boxes in the trash.

“Despite what you’re thinking right now,“ you looked over at the trash,“I swear I am completely capable of taking care of myself.”

“I’m sure you are,” he ruffled your hair, messing it up and smiling at his job well done.

“I’ll order it.” He pulled out his phone and started to walk off to find a quiet place to call.

“It’s nice to see you smile again by the way.” You said. He turned around with his phone on his ear, he shot you a smile before walking again to order. He came back into the dark living room area, his phone lighting up his face with a blue light as opposed to the orange lights in the room.

“It’ll be here in 45 minutes, we have time for you to lose this game.” He gave a sly smile towards you.

“Uh, Min Yoongi. Is this a challenge?” You crossed your arms towards him.

“Yes, yes it is.” He smiled back at you as he readied himself for rock-paper-scissors to see who would go first.

“Rock, paper, scissors. Shoot!” The two of you said in unison. You let out a rock while he let out scissors. “I win!” You shouted, although you didn’t know if that was good or bad for games based on luck.

“Alright, alright winner. Pick your block.” He said as he let his back hit the bottom of the couch. One round and then two, you both played best four out of five. One after another the blocks were stacked on top of each other until there was a single one left on the bottom. No other blocks were loose and you knew that you’d be the loser.

“Go for it.” He said, his voice full of confidence that you would lose. You glared at him as you nervously poked at it with your nail. You nervously gulped before sliding your hand under the blocks as quick as you could blink. The block flew somewhere in the room and the pile fell as it was. A few blocks moved out of place but none fell down.

“No way.” He was in shock, you were in shock. You looked at him with a wide grin on your face.

“Ahhh! I did it.” Your arms went up and happily flailed around.

“Oh my-. How did you?!” He looked at the blocks, there was none left to choose from what wouldn’t end up in him losing.

“I’ll just claim my victory now, thank you very much.” Just then the loud beep sounded through your home and you heard your T.V beep, signaling that the cable box was up again.

“Power!” Just then the bell rung. Yoongi got up and looked through his jacket for his wallet. While Yoongi closed the door after thanking the delivery guy and tipping him, you put the game back into its box and cleared off the coffee table. You went to blow out the candles as he walked back to the couch area. Instead of placing the box on the table and using plates, he opened the box on his lap. He started to eat while flipping through the TV channels. You frowned at the bits falling from it.

“You’re getting crumbs all over my couch.” You said as you started to brush them off.

“I invite you over again and you make a mess on my couch, what kind of friend?” You saw him roll his eyes and picked up another slice.

“I’m sure there’s still popcorn from the last time you watched Netflix, shush and eat.” He held the slice in front of you, you bit into it before taking it from his hands and into your own. You guessed that there would be less dishes needed to be done.

“So, how did you like today?” You asked before you took a bite of the pizza.

“Honestly, it was the worst. We played 5 rounds of Jenga in the dark and I paid for pizza,” he said in an annoyed tone that made you worried that he didn’t enjoy his day off, “but,” he paused.

“I’m glad it was with you.” He looked over to you and smiled for the uncountable time today. You made a face and laughed.

“You’re getting mushy on me, eat your pizza.” You pointed to the half eaten piece in his hands.

“Will do, winner.”

Boi I wrote this while my power went out this week LOL. It rained badly and now we have this snow storm here. I walked home with wet hair bc of the snowflakes and IT FROZE OVER. Bless my friend Tata and her dad for driving me home tho. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this! Until next time! 

Please don’t claim this as your own and please don’t do anything with it without my permission. If you don’t want it happening to you, don’t do it to others.

[droneseco]

The Red Magic 5S Is a Gaming Phone You’ll Actually Want to Use

Red Magic 5S

8.00 / 10

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The Red Magic 5S is a powerful Android phone with gaming features like a 144 Hz display and shoulder triggers. It's not for everybody, but that's by design. If you're looking for a phone that can handle any game you throw at it with ease, this will be one of the first options you consider.

Specifications

Brand: Nubia

Storage: 128 GB

CPU: Snapdragon 865

Memory: 8GB

Operating System: Android 10

Battery: 4500 mAh

Ports: USB-C

Camera (Rear, Front): 64MP, 8MP

Display (Size, Resolution): 6.65-inch, 1080x2340

Pros

Buttery smooth display

Shoulder triggers are great in some games

Games run extremely well

Cons

Camera isn't fantastic

Buy This Product

Red Magic 5S amazon

Shop

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Phones have gone from something you use for calls, texts, and managing appointments to do-it-all computing devices. Because for many people, phones are quickly replacing PCs, it only makes sense that we'd see the same sort of variety: casual phones, business phones, and yes, gaming phones.

While you can play games on any phone, the Nubia Red Magic 5S is built for it, with a powerful chipset, a butter-smooth 144Hz display, and even a built-in cooling fan. The phone looks great on paper, but does it focus too much on gaming-specific features or is it well-rounded enough to be your daily driver?

Specifications

OS Version: Red Magic OS 3.5 (Android 10)

CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 865

RAM: 8GB

Storage: 128 GB

Battery: 4,500mAh

Display: 6.65-inch AMOLED 144 Hz, 240 Hz poll rate

Dimensions: 6.63 x 3.07 x 0.38 inches

Front Camera: 8MP, f/2.0

Rear Camera: 64MP Sony IMX686, f/1.8, PDAF

Connectivity: 5G, Bluetooth 5, Wi-Fi 6

Features: ICE 4.0 Active Liquid-Cooling with Turbo Fan, 320Hz Shoulder Triggers, In-Display Fingerprint Reader

Design & Build Quality

There are two versions of the Red Magic 5S, each with different specs and a different finish. We're looking at the lower-specced version, which features 8GB RAM and 128GB internal storage and comes in the Sonic Silver finish. The higher-spec version comes with 12GB RAM and 256GB internal storage, and a flashier if somewhat gaudy two-tone finish called Pulse.

While I'm curious how the even higher-spec phone would perform, I'm glad I received the review unit I did, because I prefer the look of it by a wide margin. Though it's called Sonic Silver, there is a slight blue tint to the finish that helps it stand out in a sea of drab-looking Android phones.

Partly due to the metal used in the build and partly due to the non-standard components like cooling fans, this is heavier than your average phone. I didn't mind this and while it's certainly a good deal heavier than the iPhone 12 Mini I use on a daily basis, I didn't find the weight annoying even after marathon gaming sessions on the 5S.

Speaking of cooling fans, these necessitate vents on the side of the Red Magic 5S. These are unusual to see on a phone, as you'd imagine, but I like the effect on the aesthetics. They give it the appearance of a powerful phone which, as it turns out, is very much the case.

Display

Somewhat bucking recent trends, there is no slight notch in the display, nor is there a camera placed smack dab in the middle of the upper part of the screen. Instead, you get good old-fashioned bezels. I know these are often frowned on now, but I find the half-centimeter bezels at the top and bottom of the phone lend a nice sense of symmetry.

These bezels also have a practical nature since this is a phone you'll often use in landscape orientation. They give you a spot to actually hold on to the phone without your fingers obscuring part of the screen, which comes in handy in games with significant HUD elements on the sides of the screen.

The display is a 6.65-inch AMOLED panel, which brings some impressive color and brightness to the table. Even more impressive are the supported refresh rates. While you can use the standard 60Hz refresh rate to improve battery life, you also have options for 90Hz and 144Hz.

At 144Hz, the phone uses more battery but feels significantly smoother. This refresh rate is mainly meant for games, but I liked its overall effect on the feel of the phone so much that I left it on this setting at nearly all times.

Gaming Features

One of the first things you'll notice looking over the Red Magic 5S is the bright red slighter on the upper-left side of the phone. Slide this up and the phone enters Compete Mode.

This is a dedicated gaming space that serves as an alternate launcher with several gaming-specific features. Here you can launch games, but also toggle on various options like the 144 Hz refresh rate and block calls and messages to keep you in the zone.

One of these options is the internal fan, which helps keep the phone from heating up during intense gaming. It's strange to hear the slight whir of a fan coming out of a phone, but with this on I never noticed the phone heating up significantly, even in the most demanding games.

My review unit of the Red Magic 5S also came with the company's Ice Dock. This is an optional add-on that brings an external fan to help keep the Red Magic 5S even cooler. Just slide it on, plug the built-in USB-C cable into the port on the bottom of the phone, and you've got even more cooling power.

This isn't where the gaming features end. The Red Magic 5S features dual Shoulder Triggers, touch-sensitive areas on the right side of the phone that becomes the top when you turn it on its side for landscape-oriented games.

You configure the left and right shoulder triggers to virtually tap any area of the screen when you tap them. This means that they're compatible with any game without games needing to specifically support them. These lended such an advantage in games like Call of Duty that it almost felt like cheating.

The 4D Shock feature is nice, but isn't as impressive. This is only available in certain games like Asphalt 9, and adds a "rumble" effect that feels similar to the HD Rumble in the Nintendo Switch. If it was available in more games, the feature would be more impressive. Maybe someday.

Software

The Red Magic 5S arrived running Android 10 and, as of the writing of this review, hasn't seen an update to Android 11. I've seen one major update during that time, but no sign that the phone will see an update to Android 11 anytime soon.

On top of Android, you get the Red Magic OS, which is essentially a pair of launchers and some various software. We've already gone over most of the significant elements here in talking about Compete Mode, but the look and feel of the phone isn't something you'd see on a Google Pixel device.

I only encountered one bug while using the phone, but it was a major one. After launching the Calendar app, the phone hard crashed to the point that the first thing I saw after the screen went black was the boot-up animation. This only happened once.

Performance

The Red Magic 5S features a powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 with support for 5G, assuming you can get it wherever you're located. While it isn't quite as powerful as the Plus version of the same chipset, it's still among the fastest chipsets available in an Android phone right now.

This, combined with the 144Hz refresh rate, results in a phone that feels smooth no matter what you're doing. The 8GB RAM is plenty, though the bump up to 12GB is the top-spec version likely has app switching feeling even more responsive.

For benchmarks, we turned to Geekbench 5. Scores averaged 900 for single-core performance and 3,200 for multi-core. For the Compute benchmark, the Red Magic 5S averaged around 3,200 for the OpenCL score.

For gaming, I tested using a handful of the most popular games right now, including Call of Duty Mobile, Asphalt 9, Madden NFL 21, and PUBG. Even with plenty of complaints about Madden NFL 21 in the Play Store reviews, I didn't find the game to struggle even a bit on the Red Magic 5S, even at max settings.

The games I spent the most time with were Call of Duty Mobile and Asphalt 9, the former thanks to the shoulder buttons and the latter because of the support for the 4D shock feature. Even after long sessions, neither game ever lagged, and with the internal fan turned on (I never found the Ice Dock to be necessary) the phone stayed plenty cool.

Cameras

The Red Magic features a 64MP rear-facing lens with a Sony IMX686 sensor, but the camera isn't very impressive. It's not bad in most cases, taking serviceable shots, but it's not going to take pictures that make you gasp when you view the results.

The front-facing camera is more of the same, but limited to 8MP. If you need to take a quick selfie, it will do the job, but again, this isn't a phone you'd buy just for the camera. It's possible future software updates may improve the photos that come out of the Red Magic 5S, but I wouldn't count on it.

Battery

The battery has a capacity of 4,500 mAh, which is nice since gaming on a phone is relatively battery intensive. When it comes time to charge, the phone doesn't feature support for wireless charging, but it does feature Quick Charge up to 55W to help get the battery back up to max quickly.

Even with the capacity, I was surprised at how long the battery lasted. Maybe it's the optimizations you get from Compete Mode / Game Space, but even with the display in 144Hz mode, a near-full day of gaming, benchmarks, and other tests didn't drain the battery.

If you were to use this as you would use a "normal" phone, you could easily go a few days without charging. I can't imagine a situation where you'd need to plug this in during the day after an overnight charge.

Should You Buy The Red Magic 5S?

If you spend the vast majority of the time you're on your phone gaming, you're the exact person the Red Magic 5S is built for. While you can also harness that power for editing videos or similar power-user activities on the 5S, it's clear that this isn't what it was built for. Still, the latest update to the Red Magic 5S has ironed out enough of the bugs that it's a phone you can use for anything.

One of my personal problems with gaming phones has always been that they looked like the phone equivalents of Alienware PCs, over-designed and largely goofy. While the more powerful version of the phone in the Pulse finish suffers from this, the Sonic Silver version I had for this review doesn't have the same problem. You could carry this into a business meeting and nobody would bat an eyelash.

The Red Magic 5S isn't for everybody, but that is by design. If you're looking for a phone that can handle any game you throw at it with ease, this will be one of the first options you consider.

The Red Magic 5S Is a Gaming Phone You’ll Actually Want to Use published first on http://droneseco.tumblr.com/

[emo-boy-oliver-blog]

Life Update #51

Heyyy yall! It’s the 11th of December and I’ve been on holidays and it has been great! A lot has happened as I haven’t updated for almost a month but I’ll just list the biggest stuff that happened :)).

So after a little while of being on holidays my mum and I drove down to Melbourne, we also brought the dogs (which is why we drove down). It was a whole day of driving which was a t r e k but it was cool when we got there. Once I arrived in Melbourne all was pretty cool, we stayed at my nan and pops house which meant deadname central but apart from that it was cool. We went over to my aunts house with my cousins n shit and turns out they all saw a video on my YouTube about being trans so they were all calling me Oli but with she/her pronouns but it’s a start. My step dad caught a plane down there a while in and stayed at my grandparents as well. A couple days into my trip I was at my aunts house and my uncle was saying a heap of homophobic shit even though he knows I’m trans so I ran off and wrapped presents with my accepting cousin, he doesn’t quite understand what being trans is but I explained it to him and he’s starting to get it, he’s in his mid twenties, anyways that night shit got really intense and dark and I can’t say everything that happened online but basically my mum and I had a really intense discussion with my uncle and he said he didn’t get it but he will accept me. On the day before Christmas we went to my Step Dads family for their families Christmas. It was really cool, my step dads family is very accepting especially because his sister is a lesbian and his nephew is gay so everyone was calling me the right name and pronouns. I spent most of the day chatting to my step brothers girlfriend because neither of us knew everybody since we aren’t like I N the family, she was really cool and she is a uni student. I also talked with my step brother and sister and my step sisters boyfriend a bit. I got some gifts from my step dads family which I was not expecting!! I got a cool t shirt and a rebel sports voucher and an itunes voucher and a jar filled with gingerbread, non-alcoholic rum balls and candy canes. That night we went to carols by candelight with some of my mums friends from the UK. They were visiting Australia so we met up with them in the city and had dinner and then saw the carols. It was my mums friend and her husband and son and daughter. The son  was twenty something and was also called Oliver and Oli as a nickname!! We went back to their apartment in the city to hang out and then we stayed in a hotel ourselves. On Christmas morning we drove back to my nan and pops and I got presents!! I got pop vinyls and a P!ATD record and mini guitar figurines and lush bath bombs and a calligraphy set and lights that said ‘OLI’ and cards against humanity and just lots of cool stuff! We then went to my aunts house and the whole family was there, we ate heaps of food and I played with my cousins daughter who is 3 years old and adorable. She played hide and seek with me but would always hide in the same spot and I’d pretend I had no idea where she was for a while. I also buried ‘treasure’ in the garden for her to dig up. The older family members played cards against humanity with me and it was super funny and entertaining.

On boxing day I flew down from Melbourne to Tassie and met my dad and step mum there and we stayed at our house down there, it was a really nice time. For the first day my uncle was there as he had been there for Christmas and he gave me a really nice wallet for Christmas. Also on that trip we went on a really long road trip and went to a national park where we went on a bushwalk and saw a platypus!! On that roadtrip we also went to a really pretty spot for a picnic, it was in front of this beautiful blue water surrounded by mountains on squishy green grass. We ate rolls and I read ‘Elites of Eden’ and we played this cool outdoor came called ‘Finska’. We also went and saw the boats finish the race of ‘Sydney to Hobart’ and the boat I had bet on won so I got $50. Mine didn’t even win first to the finish line though, the first place got an hour taken off for cheating so mine won!!! On New Years Eve we walked down to the harbour and saw some really nice fireworks to celebrate 2018. While in Tassie I went and saw the new Star Wars with my dad which I didn’t really like BUT THEN we all went to see ‘the Greatest Showman’ which OH MY GOD MY NEW RELIGION! The music is iMPECABLE the story made me cry it was honestly my favourite thing ever, in fact I’m listening to the soundtrack right now, I also fell in LOVE with Zendaya who is in it, she is my actual wife I am IN LOVE. Also while in Tassie I got a basketball because in Melbourne I discovered a passion for shooting hoops.

Over the holidays I became close with my old unrequited crush of four years and wOW fell for her again, I told her again and nEWSFLASH she’s still not interested, she was super sweet about it but ahh it hurt my heart a little lot bit. I’m glad we are close again though because she was once my best friend and i missed her.

Once I arrived back home a heap of lgbt+ clothing arrived that I got for Christmas and also a card from one of my internet friends!! Also when I got back I did a lot of catching up with friends. Pretty soon after I got back I caught up with my best bro, we went to the shops and went to an arcade and played a couple of games and saw the greatest showman (yes again its amazing) and then he slept over at my house which was lots of fun. We swum in the pool and had water fights with my water guns. Then a little bit later I caught up with the same bro and a girl from my old school, we went ice skating together and then went to the arcade and it was sUPER FUN. I’ve also been taking photos in the photobooth every time I go to the arcade so I have a collection on my pinboard. Then a day or two after that I went over to a friends house and 5 of us from my theatre place caught up. We played a card game called ‘What do You Meme’ and listened to Hamilton and watched Pitch Perfect. I felt really happy because 3 of them were cis dudes and they were treating me exactly like they treated each other apart from a couple pronoun slip ups and it felt nice to be treated like a boy.

Yesterday my best pal and I went to a trans support group!! It was amazing!! Basically we walked into this room and there were a heap of teens sitting on couches and chairs and we sat on some chairs and I was super awkward and nervous at first but everyone was so sweet and we all put nametags on saying our names and pronouns. For the first hour-ish a trans woman gave us a talk and we asked questions and stuff like that just about legal rights and working while trans and all that stuff. For the next hour we all chatted and I stopped being awkward and I made a heap of pals which is so exciting! I’m so excited about next months meet up now.

Well that’s all for this long ass update, today my mum and I went and looked at a house we might rent and tomorow I’m going to the shops with a friend

Update soon woot

Oliver

[bronzestring91-blog]

Kraken CEO Jesse Powell dumps $11.5 million cash on a Mandeville Canyon architectural

Last month, cryptocurrency tycoon (and SF resident) Jesse Powell tweeted a mini-rant about San Francisco, its “crack-zombies,” and how “you can pay $3k/sqft for a condo but can’t stop people from literally shitting on your door.“

When BREAKER magazine caught up with Mr. Powell for an elaboration on his tweet, Mr. Powell doubled down on his disgust, saying “some people are too far gone“. And when asked whether he would ever leave the Bay Area, Mr. Powell answered in the affirmative — “For sure. I’m considering leaving the city.“

Well, according to Yolanda’s research, it turns out Mr. Powell wasn’t just whistlin’ Dixie. In fact, he’s more than considered a zip code change — he’s already done sealed the deal by purchasing an impressive mansion in one of LA’s priciest neighborhoods. Records show that our boy used a mysteriously-named corporate entity to stealthily shell out $11,500,000 — all of it in cash. USD, that is. No bitcoin here.

The house in question is one of the most private properties in Brentwood’s star-studded Mandeville Canyon area. Though originally built in 1971, the property was radically renovated and expanded over the last three years by the fine folks at ANR Signature Collection. It’s basically like a brand-new mansion.

If the ANR name sounds vaguely familiar, it’s probably because these are the same design peeps responsible for the $12 million Hollywood Hills mansion just sold to Drew Taggart and the $13.5 million Beverly Hills (Post Office) estate recently purchased by Little Miss Kylie Jenner.

But we digress — before we start dissectin’ the residence, here’s some background on our boy.

Crypto king

For those of y’all uninformed, Mr. Powell is a very big deal in the crazy cryptocurrency world. As the CEO and co-founder of Kraken, he presides over one of the world’s most well-known bitcoin exchanges. Founded in 2011, Kraken has grown to become “the largest Bitcoin exchange in euro volume and liquidity and also trading Canadian dollars, US dollars, British pounds and Japanese yen,” per their website.

Kraken now employs more than 800 humans and is currently headquartered in the heart of SF, though Mr. Powell has publicly stated he will soon open a SoCal office in or around LA’s Silicon Beach nabe.

Now in his late 30s, shaggy-haired Mr. Powell also keeps a (infrequently updated) personal blog where he mostly posts about bitcoin and his love for video games. The blog’s headline, hilariously enough, reads “this blog has been intentionally left janky.” So there y’all have it.

Mr. Powell is a college dropout from Cal State Sacramento and founded Verge Center for the Arts — which is now Sacramento’s largest commercial fine art gallery — at the tender age of 27. He was also the founder of Lewt, Inc., which made money primarily by buying and selling items related to the video game franchise Diablo. Or so we gather. It’s also been described as “an equivalent of Amazon.com” for some video/computer games.

To be perfectly honest, Yolanda knows next to nothing about our boy’s background or family. We don’t know where he grew up, whether he’s married, if he has kids or not. That bugs our OCD-addled brain, but oh well. Maybe we’re off our game, or maybe Mr. Powell keeps that stuff on the DL. We hope it’s the latter.

Mr. Powell in Japan (photo: japansubculture.com)

Perhaps somebody who knows this dude will write in and inform Yolanda about his personal details. Until then, y’all will have to content yourselves with perusin’ pics of his fancy new Westside digs.

Oh — by the way, in addition to his dislike for San Francisco, Mr. Powell is also no fan of New York. Back in September (2018), he blasted the entire state, saying (in part), “NY is that abusive, controlling ex you broke up with 3 years ago but they keep stalking you, throwing shade on your new relationships, unable to accept that you have happily moved on and are better off without them. #getoverit.”

Good gracious! Yolanda hope Mr. Powell finds LA more agreeable, else he’ll soon run outta places to live.

Although Mr. Powell’s new mini-estate has a Mandeville Canyon Road address, the house is actually located well off the main drag and set on a wee cul-de-sac. At the end of the street, a steep private drive shared with three other properties transports you to the residence.

The privately-situated house features a gated motorcourt, a security system, and garage parking for up to five vehicles. This is also a “smart home” with a (very expensive) automation system by Savant. Our Mr. Powell can control everything — pretty much — remotely, from the touchpad on his iPhone.

Anyway, the house features airy interiors done up in ANR’s trademark sophisticated, contemporary style. Walls of disappearing glass (they’re actually Fleetwood pocket doors) flood the living areas with California sunshine and blur the line between indoors and outdoors.

The main house features 6 beds and 7 baths. Two of the bedrooms are located on the main level, one of them suitable as a guest/spare room and the other as maid’s quarters. Also on the main floor is a enormous kitchen that features two center islands amid acres of blondish hardwood, and elsewhere is a family room with canyon views. Somewhere tucked away is a large movie theater.

Upstairs are four en-suite bedrooms, including the elephantine master suite with its vaulted ceiling and dramatic, pentagonal wall of glass that provides a distant city lights view.

Check out that shower in the master bath! Well, hot damn. That’s big enough for half of Kraken’s workforce to shower together! Take team bonding to the next level, Mr. Powell.

Also, that bathroom floor looks slippery. Watch your step. Nude dancing (or dancing of any kind, really) should be undertaken only with extreme caution.

Other amenities include an office (outfitted with two iconic Egg™ Chairs by Arne Jacobsen), an upstairs gym, attached guesthouse with another full bedroom and bathroom. The self-contained compound weighs in with a mansion-sized 9,393-square-feet of living space.

Out back, the .69-acre property features dual staircases leading down to a sprawling deck, plenty of space for al fresco dining, and a black-bottomed, irregularly-shaped swimming pool with inset spa.

Yolanda believes Mr. Powell also owns a residence in San Francisco — we doubt he rents — but can’t find any trace of it in property records, and not for lack of lookin’. Sorry, kids. Don’t mouth off to your gurl. It’s Christmas so just be glad you’re getting this story rather than a box of coal.

Listing agent: Santiago Arana, The Agency Jesse Powell’s agent: Aaron Kirman, Compass

Source: https://www.yolandaslittleblackbook.com/blog/2018/12/24/jesse-powell-house-los-angeles-kraken/

[xhaikyuu-trash]

[Part 1 - Sheep Anon] Hello - may I have a matchup please? You can call me the sheep anon. I'm pretty short, and I'm an INFJ. I have medium length straight, black hair, parted and held using hairpins. My eyes are large and dark brown. I am often told that I look kawaii, haha. My dressing style is casual and comfortable (t-shirts, jeans, sweaters, etc.). I really love to draw and I put lots of time and effort into my artwork. I'm constantly seeking improvement. I also like manga and anime.

[Part 2 - Sheep Anon]I’m polite, and I smile a lot. I’m not very social, and I’m more of an indoorsperson. Around strangers, I’m very quiet, shy, and also a little timid.However, when I get to know someone better, I’m more talkative and I like tojoke around as well. I’m quite shy with PDA, but I like to be around mypartner, just hanging out and enjoying their company. Small gestures from timeto time are cute too, like an occasional hug or just holding hands. I hope thiswasn’t too long! >

How it happened:

Throughout the whole day, you were reading and watchinganime comfortably on your bed. No one disturbed you and you didn’t disturbanybody. While you were searching for something new to read or watch, you werealso on your facebook to check family and friends’ updates. As you scroll toyour facebook news feed, an anime fan page you liked had advertise an anime communitycafé (like club penguin). Out of curiosity, you click on it. As you roamaround, seeing what the website offered, you thought it was cool. You can makean avatar to be as your profile picture, you can build your own home, playvarious mini games to earn coins, make friends, post photos, join groups andengage yourself in discussions about anime and manga.

Since you like the idea, you went on ahead and signed up. Asyou put all the requirements and went to your email for the confirmation, youraccount was set.

The first thing you did was set your avatar. You put all thepreferences that you wanted in your avatar. Once you completed that, you wentto edit your about me section. Afterwards, you went straight to the discussionto read peoples’ remark and opinions. When you read enough comments, you wentto play the mini games to earn coins to buy accessories and clothes for youravatar and furniture’s for your home.

For about an hour or so of earning coins, you received anotification that someone messaged you. You click on it. A person name SatoriTendo had messaged you.

The message said, “Hi, I just log on to see that you’re anew addition to the group of “Shounen Jump Fandom”. I rarely do thisintroductory because it is stupid. But I just wanted to say welcome.”

With politeness, you reply with a “thank you.”

Then he messaged you about anime and manga. “What type ofmanga do you like reading?” he asks.

You liked a lot of manga, so, instead of giving him a ton oflist, you narrow it down. When you hit the enter button to send your message,you were curious about his profile. From the information, he was a male, he’s twoyears older than you, he has a lot of common interest and he was one of theadministrative of the group.

While continuing to stalk his profile; via photo album, youreceived a reply. Satori literally gave you a review of the manga he likes. Notonly that but he also gave you some suggestion and even asked you to givefeedbacks.

You told him, “okay and thanks for sharing.” Because youdidn’t know what else to say. Your social skills were limited due to beingtimid and quiet in real life.

When two weeks passed, Satori messaged you. He asked if youever got the chance on reading his suggested list. You said that you only readfour out of ten of them. Two you already read them and the other two, you justrecently finished. Then he asked you what were your feedbacks and states thatyou cannot say, “I like it” or anywhere along the lines. For a moment, you hadto think.

The ones you already read, you gave him a nice lengthy one, explainingto him your favorite character, something you hate about it, and one of the episodesyou liked. The ones you recently read, you just gave him a paragraph of whatyou liked. After yours, Satori shared his thoughts.

Days passed and all you two talked about was anime and mangato which it got boring talking about it all the time, every single day. Tospice things up, Satori once again hit you up. Instead of the usual offangirling/fanboying about anime and manga, he wanted to get to know you.

He asked what hometown you lived, other hobbies, any sportsyou play, favorite food, favorite color, favorite actors and actresses, whattypes of music do you like and so forth.

When he learned that you lived in the same hometown, hewished to meet you. At first, you gave him a big fat no because for one thing,he looks kind of creepy and you weren’t sure you want to meet him. It was toosoon and it was your first time meeting an online person.

Satori reveal how upset he was, but completely understand.Maybe it was too soon to meet up.

Exactly 4months of talking to Satori, you felt comfortable.You reveal your personality such as being a teaser and being a talkativeperson. You even shared your artwork to which Satori would always give infeedbacks. Honest feedbacks with encouragements.

A year passed and you were off and on with the anime café.You only went on when Satori messaged you. Other than that, you would log off. Sinceyou two know each other pretty well, Satori bought up the courage to ask youagain if you two could met up. This time he mentions that you two can meetsomewhere where it is a big crowd. You thought about it and gave him the chance.You two met at a park.

When you two met, it was awkward and very astonishing. Itwas like, “Hey. This is me. The person that you’ve been talking to online.”

Satori being the man, started the conversation. From thereon, you two talked for a whole two hours. Afterwards, you two exchanged numbersand any social media.

A month later, Satori asked you to come out to the veryfirst spot you two officially met. From there, he confessed.

After being in a relationshipfor a long time (3months+)

Ever since he got your number, he had been calling you orfacetime/webcam every chance he can get. He gets extremely excited when heshares his love for shounen jump. He never ever had anybody talk about Shounenjump, other than trying to get Ushijima join. He is super duper glad that he finallyhas someone to share the moment. Also, you better expect “anime/manga and chill”moments. (like Netflix and chill, but without the nasties). ALSO YOU BEST BELIEVE THAT YOU TWOWOULD DEFINITELY GO TO EVERY ANIME-CON there is. Satori is literally paying forthe tickets.

Every time he sees you, especially locking with your kawaiieyes, he thinks you are the cutest thing ever. Your kawaii eyes and your shortheight, he thinks you’re a real life chibi!

He once asked for you if you have the desire to become a comicdrawer or a manga drawer. If you do, he asks of you to let him be the storywriter. He kind of got a thing for writing. If you don’t because your skillsare not up to it, you will wait until you are ready. And if you really don’thave the desire to become one of those jobs, then he is completely fine.

Okay. Okay. As far as PDA, Satori is also the worst. When hekisses, it’s more like a peck on the lips, cheeks or forehead. He doesn’t likesmooching up on you because, I don’t know. He finds it weird. Holding hands orhugging is an ideal skinship for him.

[wolfprintsinthesnow]

This was my first time attending Anime North and was completely spur of the moment with only a few weeks notice.  A friend who has been attending for years had her usual con roommate bail for personal reasons, leaving her without a roommate and a paid for, unused ticket.  So, the offer was made to me, and since I cannot do the European trip I was hoping to do this year in order to pay off my surgery, I thought, why not?

I was not disappointed.

I managed to pull off almost two cosplays in just a few weeks.  I usually make most things from scratch, but due to the nature of the cosplays and lack of proper dark green fabrics at this time of year, store bought and Rit dye were utilized, with dyeing fabric being a new experience albeit a fairly successful one.  I have not learned anything regarding procrastination and cosplay after all these years.  I think Murphy's law will always have something to say about it.  I did have issues with styling Oobleck's wig, so unfortunately, this resulted in a single cosplay, but I think it has turned into my favorite cosplay I have done.  I'll tackle Oobleck's wig in June.  Team caffeine!

I'm used to larger conventions (this didn't seem as large as Anime Boston and certainly smaller than NYCC, which is more trade show anyways) and this one seemed a bit smaller.  I am usually involved in events and have attended few panels in the past, usually due to time or disinterest in what has been offered.  This one had a much nicer selection of panels.  The convention also has several mini-conventions within it, such as Doll North, and a Yaoi con, and is spread between multiple hotels and the TCC.  I was glad to see not all of the 18+ events after 10pm (this was probably also logistically impossible due to the number of them).  Considering the little sleep I've been managing lately or a few conflicts with photoshoots, I was able to assist my friend and someone standing in line behind us with getting signatures from a voice actor and attended a few panels/game shows.  My friend I found was very big into yaoi and, since I have trouble finding stuff I can actually read that I like, gladly agreed to hook me up with stuff when I got home (she has already sent me me several emails with attachments... whee!).  There was an asexuality panel as well and it was fairly well run (Q&A style discussion).  It was the first time I've actually seen a panel for the topic, and the first time it was put on.  I'm glad someone finally decided to fill that gap and I thanked the panelists for hosting it as I left.

I spent surprisingly little money on swag (a few Yuri on Ice prints), but I did decide to get some photos taken.  The favorable currency exchange rate was a bonus.  I had a wait for one booth and while waiting for an opening, someone at a neighboring booth pointed at me as I was walking down the aisle toward them and was like "You're Ozpin!  You're one of the few characters I actually recognize here!"  This proceeded into a conversation and if I wanted to have photos taken.  It was a very enjoyable experience for a first photoshoot and having someone know the character certainly helped.  I am very happy with the results.  It was at the end of the evening and was unplanned, so I came back the next day for a few more shots to round out the full shoot.  I couldn't have been happier and I'm still a bit giddy over how well they turned out.  I’ll have to post them up later.

The RWBY photoshoots were a lot of fun.  The fandom and people in attendance were very welcoming and I was surprised that there were so few other Ozpin cosplayers.  I did have a lot of fun though, made a few new cosplay acquaintances and hopefully friends.  There were also Ozpin's adventures in coffee that occurred.  That deserves its own post. Ahem.

I actually had an overwhelming number of compliments on my Ozpin, whether in person or hearing people as I walked by.  Having your cosplay recognized or complimented is always a great feeling to any cosplayer, but the reception I got to my Ozpin blew me away.  It's easily one of the most comfortable cosplays I've ever worn as well and the temperatures were a bit cooler than normal for the end of May, which helped (who doesn't like a good blazer and vest, though I think I should update what I currently own, but I digress).  It was also amusing looking for crow/Qrow references on the trip.  My cane, which I swear is cursed by Salem, did require the finger guard be repaired each night, but held up fairly well.  Have wood glue and duct tape will travel.  I'll have to try remaking the finger guard with some metal stock.  I have a feeling Oz will be around for a while. <3

It was great having someone to hang out with at con and walk around with, something I don't normally get to enjoy, and she was more than happy to indulge with cosplay enjoyment and supply me in yaoi (I swear I had no idea she had quite the extensive collection and knowledge of, probably the only other friend I know of into yaoi as well).  Judging by my inbox the morning after I returned home, I'm going to have a good supply of reading material for boring work moments for some time.

I was also able to finally meet with some local friends in person who I have chatted with for years online.  We had a great time chatting over dinner before a photoshoot and I am glad we were able to finally connect in person after all this time!

It was a very sorely needed weekend of positivity, fun, and for once in a very long time, I didn't feel as guarded and just at ease, at least as much as I am probably capable.  It was nice to just be and have fun at the same time without any pretenses from others about anything.  I NEEDED this and the last 30 minutes of the drive as I got closer to home were very hard minutes indeed.

I may very well return to Anime North in the future.  

[dillshake45-blog]

Kraken CEO Jesse Powell spends $11.5 million cash on a Mandeville Canyon architectural

(NOTE: Scads of photos of Mr. Powell’s new home can be seen here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.)

Last month, cryptocurrency tycoon (and SF resident) Jesse Powell tweeted a mini-rant about San Francisco, its “crack-zombies,” and how “you can pay $3k/sqft for a condo but can’t stop people from literally shitting on your door.“

When BREAKER magazine caught up with Mr. Powell for an elaboration on his tweet, Mr. Powell doubled down on his disgust, saying “some people are too far gone“. And when asked whether he would ever leave the Bay Area, Mr. Powell answered in the affirmative — “For sure. I’m considering leaving the city.“

Well, according to Yolanda’s research, it turns out Mr. Powell wasn’t just whistlin’ Dixie. In fact, he’s more than considered a zip code change — he’s already done sealed the deal by purchasing an impressive mansion in one of LA’s priciest neighborhoods. Records show that our boy used a corporate entity called “Silver Nile LLC” to stealthily shell out $11,500,000 — all of it in cash. USD, that is. No bitcoin here.

The house in question is one of the most private properties in Brentwood’s star-studded Mandeville Canyon area. Though originally built in 1971, the property was radically renovated and expanded over the last three years by the fine folks at ANR Signature Collection. It’s basically like a brand-new mansion.

If the ANR name sounds vaguely familiar, it’s probably because these are the same design peeps responsible for the $12 million Hollywood Hills mansion just sold to Drew Taggart andthe $13.5 million Beverly Hills (Post Office) estate recently purchased by Little Miss Kylie Jenner.

But we digress — before we start dissectin’ the residence, here’s some background on our boy.

For those of y’all uninformed, Mr. Powell is a very big deal in the crazy cryptocurrency world. As the CEO and co-founder of Kraken, he presides over one of the world’s most well-known bitcoin exchanges. Founded in 2011, Kraken has grown to become “the largest Bitcoin exchange in euro volume and liquidity and also trading Canadian dollars, US dollars, British pounds and Japanese yen,” per their website.

Kraken now employs more than 800 humans and is currently headquartered in the heart of SF, though Mr. Powell has publicly stated he will soon open a SoCal office in or around LA’s Silicon Beach nabe.

Now in his late 30s, shaggy-haired Mr. Powell also keeps a (infrequently updated) personal blog where he mostly posts about bitcoin and his love for video games. The blog’s headline, hilariously enough, reads “this blog has been intentionally left janky.” So there y’all have it.

Mr. Powell is a college dropout from Cal State Sacramento and founded Verge Center for the Arts — which is now Sacramento’s largest commercial fine art gallery — at the tender age of 27. He was also the founder of Lewt, Inc., which made money primarily by buying and selling items related to the video game franchise Diablo. Or so we gather. It’s also been described as “an equivalent of Amazon.com” for some video/computer games.

To be perfectly honest, Yolanda knows next to nothing about our boy’s background or family. We don’t know where he grew up, whether he’s married, if he has kids or not. That bugs our OCD-addled brain, but oh well. Maybe we’re off our game, or maybe Mr. Powell keeps that stuff on the DL. We hope it’s the latter.

Perhaps somebody who knows this dude will write in and inform Yolanda about his personal details. Until then, y’all will have to content yourselves with perusin’ pics of his fancy new Westside digs.

Oh — by the way, in addition to his dislike for San Francisco, Mr. Powell is also no fan of New York. Back in September (2018), he blasted the entire state, saying (in part), “NY is that abusive, controlling ex you broke up with 3 years ago but they keep stalking you, throwing shade on your new relationships, unable to accept that you have happily moved on and are better off without them. #getoverit.”

Although Mr. Powell’s new mini-estate has a Mandeville Canyon Road address, the house is actually located well off the main drag and set on a wee cul-de-sac. At the end of the street, a steep private drive shared with three other properties transports you to the residence.

The privately-situated house features a gated motorcourt, a security system, and garage parking for up to five vehicles. This is also a “smart home” with a (very expensive) automation system by Savant. Our Mr. Powell can control everything — pretty much — remotely, from the touchpad on his iPhone.

Anyway, the house features airy interiors done up in ANR’s trademark sophisticated, contemporary style. Walls of disappearing glass (they’re actually Fleetwood pocket doors) flood the living areas with California sunshine and blur the line between indoors and outdoors.

The main house features 6 beds and 7 baths. Two of the bedrooms are located on the main level, one of them suitable as a guest/spare room and the other as maid’s quarters. Also on the main floor is a enormous kitchen that features two center islands amid acres of blondish hardwood, and elsewhere is a family room with canyon views. Somewhere tucked away is a large movie theater.

Upstairs are four en-suite bedrooms, including the elephantine master suite with its vaulted ceiling and dramatic, pentagonal wall of glass that provides a distant city lights view.

Check out that shower in the master bath! Well, hot damn. That’s big enough for half of Kraken’s workforce to shower together! Take team bonding to the next level, Mr. Powell.

Also, that bathroom floor looks slippery. Watch your step. Nude dancing (or dancing of any kind, really) should be undertaken only with extreme caution.

Other amenities include an office (outfitted with two iconic Egg™ Chairs by Arne Jacobsen), an upstairs gym, attached guesthouse with another full bedroom and bathroom. The self-contained compound weighs in with a mansion-sized 9,393-square-feet of living space.

Out back, the .69-acre property features dual staircases leading down to a sprawling deck, plenty of space for al fresco dining, and a black-bottomed, irregularly-shaped swimming pool with inset spa.

Yolanda believes Mr. Powell also owns a residence in San Francisco — we doubt he rents — but can’t find any trace of it in property records, and not for lack of lookin’. Sorry, kids. Don’t mouth off to your gurl. It’s Christmas so just be glad you’re getting this story rather than a box of coal.

Listing agent: Santiago Arana, The Agency Jesse Powell’s agent: Aaron Kirman, Compass

Source: https://www.yolandaslittleblackbook.com/moguls/2019/04/08/kraken-ceo-jesse-powell-spends-11-5-million-cash-on-a-mandeville-canyon-architectural/

[toptecharena]

The Lenovo Legion Y530 is the slightly smaller, slightly less powerful gaming laptop when compared to the rest of the Lenovo Legion lineup. The Y520 line is larger and starts at a lower price point, and uses that extra space for beefier components. The Y720 is more expensive, and follows the Y520’s approach of cramming faster components into the housing.

Not to mention, the new Y530 looks unlike either model. It ditches the mundane black and red housing found on the rest of the Legion line, opting instead for a black and white look. Then there’s a unique hinge that doesn’t line up with the back of the Y530’s housing, thus allowing for an even slimmer design.

With configurations starting at $749 (about £589, AU$1,035), the Y530 is an affordable entry level gaming laptop that competes with the likes of Acer’s Nitro 5 and Dell’s G3 15 – only with, perhaps, a little bit more style.

Price and availability

Again, the base model Y530 starts at $749 (about £589, AU$1,035). For the purposes of this review, we were sent a slightly more expensive configuration, currently priced at $899 (about £707, AU$1,244).

The difference between the two configurations is limited to a single storage drive (1TB hard drive) and a standard GeForce GTX 1050, compared to the model we are testing with an additional 128GB SSD boot drive and a GTX 1050 Ti. 

In the US, Lenovo offers configurations that include an Intel Core i7-8750H,16GB of memory, up to 2TB hard drive and 256GB SSD for around $1,300 (about £1,022, AU$1,799).

In the UK, Lenovo doesn’t offer any customization options, with the Y530 priced at £899. For that price, you get the same configuration we tested, save for a GTX 1050 (not a 1050 Ti) and a 300 nit display, as opposed to a 250 nit. 

For those in Australia, you’re given more customization options. The base configuration starts at AU$1,452 for the same model we are testing, and maxes out at AU$1,743 with an Intel Core i7-8750H, 16GB of memory, and a 300 nit display. 

All in all, those prices compare favorable with the Nitro 5, with a starting price of $749 (£899, about AU$1009), and the Dell G3 15, with the same starting price. The most notable differences in the starting point between the three different models is the G3 15 comes with a 128GB SSD in addition to a 1TB hard drive, whereas the Nitro 5 and Legion Y530 only have the 1TB drive.

Design

The first thing you see after unboxing the Legion is that the hinge doesn’t quite look normal. Instead of lining up with the back of the screen lid, as most laptops do, there’s roughly 1-inch of space between where the hinge is found, and where the back of the Legion is found. 

Looking at the Y530 from the front with the lid open, it looks just like any other laptop. There’s a full-sized keyboard with number pad – a growing rarity in 15-inch laptops – a trackpad, and a 15.6-inch display that has very scarce bezels surrounding it.

The keyboard is backlit with white lights, and isn’t customizable. The keys are soft, and respond accurately to rapid presses while typing or gaming. The trackpad is smooth and handles interaction without any hiccups, but we suggest finding a nice gaming mouse and using it for everyday desktop tasks along with intense gaming sessions. 

As for portability, the Y530 is a respectable 5.1 pounds (2.3kg), and measures 14.37 x 10.24 x 0.95 inches (365 x 260 x 24.2mm). Despite being over the 5 pound mark, the Y530 is deceivingly lightweight and comfortable to carry around. 

On either side of the housing you’ll find a USB 3.1 port, with a 3.5mm combo audio jack found on the left side. Where are the rest of the ports? That’s where the back of the laptop comes in.

An intriguing hinge

The rear of the Legion Y530 is home to two cooling vents and a myriad of ports. From left-to-right, you’ll find a USB-C port, mini DisplayPort, USB 3.0, HDMI, Ethernet and a charging port. 

With nearly all ports on the back of the housing, the end result is a cleaner look when you have multiple devices plugged into the Y530. Instead of cables coming out of each side, everything can be organized neatly behind the display. Then again, we can see this arrangement being problematic for those who work on a small desk where more ports on the side would be beneficial. 

Furthermore, the hinge allows for the display on the Y530 to open and bend back to 180 degrees. Keep in mind, the Y530’s display isn’t a touchscreen, and this orientation fails to trigger any sort screen rotation in Windows 10. We can’t think of any real reason why the screen can lay flat like this, other than ‘because it can.’

Display

It’s not often we see a laptop manufacturer list a display’s brightness, measured in nits, on the specification sheet. Yet with the Legion line, Lenovo lists the nits for every model we looked at.

The Y530 we reviewed has a 250 nit display, according to the spec sheet. Eventually, Lenovo will release a 144Hz panel with 300 nits, but as of this review that model is not yet available. 

Why is this important? Glad you asked. We find the display on the Y530 to lack in overall brightness and color quality. Even with brightness turned all the way up, colors look overly muted and leave us wanting more. Perhaps you’ll want to hold out for the 144Hz version of this laptop on account of this.

With any entry-level gaming laptop, expectations of low to modest performance should be set accordingly. You can’t go into a gaming session of Far Cry 5 at Ulta settings and expect an incredibly smooth experience at 120 frames per second (fps). Instead, you’re more likely to find a decent experience of 30 fps at Ultra.

In the case of Fortnite on the Y530, we let the game select the best performance settings on its own. That resulted in a Low setting with the frames per second capped at 60. At those settings, gameplay was smooth enough to get around the island. If we were any better at playing on a PC, rather than a Nintendo Switch, we have no doubt we could battle our way to a victory royale on the Y530. 

After a couple matches with the frame rate capped at 60, we bumped up the limit to 120 just to see how far the Y530 could push low settings. For the next few matches, we kept an eye on the fps counter and saw it consistently stay between 70 and 80 fps. 

With the game’s graphic settings to set to high, the frame rate stayed between 28 and 30. This is not the best experience, but it’s playable. 

Performance outside of gaming on the Y530 is impressive. Apps launch fast, and there’s no lag or stuttering when quickly switching between common tasks. The Y530 offers more than enough performance for any task, including gaming, It’s just more impressive when it comes to getting work done.

The Y530’s performance throughout all benchmarks shows a laptop that’s powerful enough for work and school, along with heavy video or photo editing, but can’t quite keep up with AAA games at higher settings. The Y530’s test results are slightly below the Nitro 5 and G3 15, despite the Nitro 5 using a standard GTX 1050.

Speakers

There are two speakers on the Y530, both of which are located at the front face down. The volume level is OK, with the sound somewhat muffled due to their placement.

We find it hard to discern the direction of nearby building or footsteps in Fortnite when using the speakers. 

In other words, you’re going to need a pair of headphones to do any serious gaming on this machine. 

Battery life

Gaming laptops rarely set any records when it comes to battery life, and the Y530 is no different. Our tests came back with 2 hour and 54 minutes in the PCMark 8 battery life test, and 3 hours and 38 minutes in our movie test. 

Neither result, backed up by our own experience, is terrible. Comparatively, the Nitro 5 registered 2 hours and 32 minutes and 3 hours and 20 minutes in the same tests, respectively. As for the Dell G3 15, it outperformed both laptops with 4 hours and 0 minutes, and 4 hours and 21 minutes. 

Software

While setting up the Legion Y530, we looked for the Nvidia GeForce Experience app, so we could make sure the graphic drivers were up to date. Only, we couldn’t find it. Keeping the GTX 1050 Ti’s drivers up to date on a gaming laptop is something every gamer will want to do, and the main tool used to update said drivers was missing on first boot. 

Instead, we were left to deal with the obnoxious reminders from McAfee to sign up for a subscription and to scan for viruses. Annoying is the only word that comes to mind. 

As far as customizing performance or adjusting settings for gaming performance, the only pre-installed app found is the Lenovo Vantage. Using the app, you can check your system resources, enable cooling boost and view your device info. It’s one of the most basic gaming performance programs we’ve seen, and overall it’s a letdown.

Final verdict

The Lenovo Legion Y530 is a laptop that’s designed with gamers in mind, but not for hardcore gamers. Whether you go with the base model, or a personal configuration, you’re still locked into a GTX 1050 or 1050 Ti.

Neither graphics option is bad, but they’re not going to push the limits of any AAA games. That’s OK, so long as you know what to expect the first time you launch your favorite game. 

Go to Source Author: Lenovo Legion Y530 The Lenovo Legion Y530 is the slightly smaller, slightly less powerful gaming laptop when compared to the rest of the Lenovo Legion lineup.

[gta-5-cheats]

Samsung Galaxy A6+ Review

New Post has been published on http://secondcovers.com/samsung-galaxy-a6-review/

Samsung Galaxy A6+ Review

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Samsung’s Infinity Display screens, which were introduced with the Galaxy S8 (Review) and Galaxy S8+ (Review), have been slowly percolating down to lower-priced models, and now the company has brought them to its budget-oriented A and J-series. The Galaxy A6+ is one of four new smartphones launched by the South Korean giant in India, alongside the Galaxy A6, Galaxy J6, and Galaxy J8.

Key features of the Galaxy A6+ include the aforementioned Infinity Display with its 18.5:9 aspect ratio, dual rear cameras, face recognition, and a metal unibody. Priced at Rs. 25,999, this smartphone aims to compete with likes of the Nokia 7 Plus (Review), a solid overall performer, the modular Moto Z2 Play (Review), and the Honor 8 Pro (Review), which has one of the best cameras in this segment.

Is the new Samsung Galaxy A6+ worth its sticker price? Let’s find out in our full review.

  Samsung Galaxy A6+ design

The Galaxy A6+ is made predominantly out of metal, and a result, feels quite premium. The Infinity Display dominates the front fascia but is not exactly borderless. The phone feels very solid in the hand and survived several drops during our review period.

The Galaxy A6+ is available in Black, Blue, and Gold. The front face is black for all three options. While this smartphone looks premium and the build quality is top-notch, it is quite heavy (191g) and wide, which makes one-handed use very difficult. At 7.9mm, the phone is also not the slimmest out there, which exacerbates the issue.

  Thanks to the conspicuous antenna lines and prominent regulatory information, the back panel looks quite busy and cluttered. The fingerprint sensor is located right below the rear dual camera setup, and a Samsung logo is emblazoned below that. Not only is the sensor narrow and rather sluggish, but the location is also quite unergonomic. We found our fingers constantly hitting the rear cameras instead of the sensor.

The chunky power button and loudspeaker are found on the right of the smartphone. The single speaker is loud but shrill, and its location is quite awkward. It is easy to cover the speaker with your hand while watching videos or playing games in landscape. On the right there’s the volume rocker, a tray for Nano-SIM 1, and a separate tray for Nano-SIM 2 and a microSD card.

The Galaxy A6+ ships with a Samsung-branded charger in the box along with a basic pair of earphones and an extremely short Micro-USB cable. The bundled earbuds are strictly average and feel as if they belong with a cheaper smartphone.

Samsung Galaxy A6+ specifications and display

The dual-SIM Galaxy A6+ is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 processor clocked at 1.8GHz paired with 4GB of RAM. This 14nm processor uses eight ARM Cortex-A53 CPU cores and the same GPU (Adreno 506) found on the Snapdragon 625. There’s also a non-removable 3,500mAh battery and 64GB of storage, which can be expanded via a microSD card (up to 256GB).

Connectivity options include Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, GLONASS, 4G VoLTE, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The smartphone also has an accelerometer, gyroscope, hall sensor, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, and geomagnetic sensor. The lack of NFC and the presence of the old-fashioned Micro-USB port for charging and data transfers are both disappointing. The Galaxy A6+ supports dual SIMs but only one can run at 4G speed at a time, while the second is limited to 3G.

  The Galaxy A6+ has a 6-inch full-HD+ (1080×2220-pixel) Super AMOLED display with an aspect ratio of 18.5:9. Samsung usually equips its phones with stellar displays and the one on the A6+ is no exception. With great viewing angles, punchy colours and deep blacks, the AMOLED panel is the highlight of this smartphone. We are glad to see that there’s no notch, which is now a highly polarising feature.

The 18.5:9 aspect ratio lends itself well to gaming and multimedia consumption and makes content look immersive. The screen also has an always-on mode that shows the time, date, battery level, and notifications for missed calls and alarms without waking the phone from sleep.

Samsung Galaxy A6+ performance, software, and battery life

The Galaxy A6+ handles day-to-day use like casual Web browsing, using social media apps like WhatsApp and Twitter, and taking the occasional picture quite well. Push the phone however, and slowdowns and stutter become noticeable.

We put the Galaxy A6+ through our tests where it managed a score of 70,649 in AnTuTu, 20fps in GFXbench T-Rex, 5.7fps in GFX Bench Manhattan 3.1, and 753 and 4040 in Geekbench’s single- and multi-core tests respectively. The Nokia 7 Plus in comparison posted higher scores and handled intensive workloads better.

A certain part of the blame can be apportioned to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 processor, which is now usually found in the likes of sub-Rs. 10,000 smartphone such as the Redmi 5 (Review) and Oppo A71 (2018), which cost a fair bit less than the Galaxy A6+. Additionally, the Samsung Experience UI’s drawn-out animations make the Galaxy A6+ feel even more sluggish.

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  On a positive note, the Galaxy A6+ does not get warm when pushed and has rock-solid 4G connectivity. Thanks to the Adreno 506 GPU, gaming is also relatively smooth. The on-board ‘Game Explorer’ application allows you to switch between normal, battery saving, and high-performance modes before playing a game. While heavy games such as Asphalt 8 exhibit a few stutters in normal mode, the high-performance mode smoothens out gameplay considerably.

As with most smartphones these days, the Galaxy A6+ also has face recognition built-in. In our experience, the feature only worked well when we were facing the front camera head-on, and that too in favourable lighting. Thanks to the iffy facial recognition and slow fingerprint sensor, we found it faster to just use a passcode to unlock the smartphone.

The Galaxy A6+ runs Android 8.0 Oreo with Samsung’s Experience 9.0 custom skin on top. With a host of Samsung applications competing with Google’s own, as well a suite of Microsoft apps that cannot be uninstalled, Samsung Experience is fast becoming as bloated as TouchWiz.

Samsung’s own applications are optimised well for the 18.5:9 aspect ratio and are well laid out and easy to use. Samsung has also added a host of nifty features such as ultra data saving mode, an anti-virus app powered by McAfee, theme support, and a one-handed mode. For storage management you can move data to a memory card, delete duplicate images, compress unused apps, and delete saved APK files.

A new feature called ‘Chat over Video’ allows users to chat on WhatsApp and the default messaging app whilst watching videos. The feature, which Samsung claims has been developed by its Indian R&D team, overlays a translucent chat window and keyboard over the active video. The feature is quite useful and worked well during our use.

  Samsung’s proprietary applications also add some functionality. Samsung Pay Mini enables mobile payments, and Samsung Mall allows users to search for products across four e-commerce platforms using image recognition. S Bike mode was also designed in India, to promote two-wheeler safety. There is no official word on when an Android P update might arrive, though Samsung’s track record in terms of shipping updates to mid-range devices has been spotty at best.

Battery life was quite good. In our HD video loop battery test, the Galaxy A6+ lasted 12 hours and 30 minutes. In terms of real-world performance, the phone easily lasted us the whole day with medium to intensive use, with some juice left in the tank. Charging was quite slow though. The bundled charger took more than three hours to charge the Galaxy A6+ fully, and it took 1.5 hours to get to 50 percent.

Samsung Galaxy A6+ cameras

The Galaxy A6+ features a dual-camera setup at the rear comprised of a 16-megapixel primary sensor with an aperture of f/1.7, and a 5-megapixel secondary sensor with an aperture of f/1.9 for capturing depth data. At the front, the smartphone has a 24-megapixel snapper with an aperture of f/1.9. Both front and rear cameras have single-LED flashes.

The camera app is easy to use and offers multiple modes such as Night, Sports, and Panorama. There is a Pro mode as well that allows you to alter the metering, exposure, ISO and white balance. AR stickers work well and can be used with both the front and the rear cameras. There are more than 30 stickers and 50 stamps, and more can be downloaded from Samsung’s ‘Galaxy Apps’ application.

The rear camera struggles to lock focus at times, but images showed good dynamic range. In our experience, photos taken in favourable light were above average, with accurate colours and a good amount of detail. Images taken in low light though were dark and murky, and had a considerable amount of noise. The front-facing 24-megapixel sensor captures a decent amount of detail in favourable light but also disappoints in low light, with nosy and grainy shots. The front-facing LED illuminator-type flash helps to a degree.

Tap to see full-sized Samsung Galaxy A6+ camera samples

  The Galaxy A6+ is also capable of capturing bokeh shots with both front and rear cameras. A nifty feature called Live Focus allows users to preview the intensity of the depth-of-field effect before taking photos, but only with the rear camera. The resulting shots are impressive, with good edge detection even at the highest level of blur. For blurring the background in selfies, the camera app uses software algorithms. Bokeh selfies lack detail and have inaccurate edges.

Video recording maxes out at 1080p for both the front as well as the rear cameras. There is an option to record in the phone’s default 18.5:9 aspect ratio as well. Videos have a good amount of detail but suffer from focus shifting. The lack of OIS is evident, but this can be excused given the price of the Galaxy A6+.

Samsung Galaxy A6+ in pictures

Verdict The Samsung Galaxy A6+ has a stellar display with deep blacks, punchy colours, and great viewing angles. The battery life is good and so is the build quality. Unlike many smartphones in this price range, the A6+ can be bought from e-commerce sites as well as at offline retail stores.

However, at Rs. 25,990 – it is hard to look past the heavy and bulky body, unreliable face recognition, and performance issues. The camera produces good shots in favourable light but struggles in low light. Similarly priced smartphones such as the Nokia 7 Plus (Review) and Honor 8 Pro (Review) are not only more powerful, but are also more well-rounded on the whole, with stronger feature sets.

The Redmi Note 5 Pro (Review) and Nokia 6 (2018) (Review) are also great choices that cost less and offer terrific value for money. Samsung loyalists can consider the Galaxy A6+ but others should take a good look at the competition before parting with their hard-earned money.

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