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cloverthirteen · 3 years

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Was Ace Attorney made as a satire on Japan’s legal system? -- An analysis

I wouldn’t really call myself an Ace Attorney fan--I’ve never played any of the games, the closest I’ve come being watching other people’s let’s plays. I do like reading about the series on wikis and interacting with fan content for it, though, so I do know a fair amount about it.

One thing I see being said pretty often by fans is that the series was intended as a satire/parody of the Japanese legal system, which is why the courts are ridiculously biased towards the prosecution, prosecutors often care more about perfect win records more than putting actual guilty people behind bars, etc. If you’re familiar with this, you’ve probably heard of Japan’s 99% conviction rate. This interpretation of the games and the way they work definitely makes sense.

But after hearing this many times I eventually noticed something. There isn’t a single actual source (creator statement, interview, etc.) that backs up this claim. Every time I see someone online say “the series creator made Ace Attorney to parody Japan’s actual legal system” there is never a link to an interview or anything that proves their statement correct. If someone has an actual, verified source from Shu Takumi or someone else who had significant involvement with the series, please prove me wrong and show it to me. But according to all of the creator’s statement’s I’ve read, there’s no evidence of the series being an intentional parody.

So, what do we know about the creation of the Ace Attorney series? Well, it was created by Shu Takumi, who wrote and directed the first three games. After working on the dinosaur survival horror game Dino Crisis for Capcom, he was given the opportunity to make any kind of game he wanted. He really wanted to make mystery and adventure games, and from that came Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.

MC: Before developing Ace Attorney you worked on Dino Crisis. How does one go from dinosaur survival horror to virtual courtrooms?

ST: Dino Crisis was the brainchild of my then boss, Resident Evil creator, Shinji Mikami. Working on his projects taught me not only how to make games, but also how to think about them. After Dino Crisis 2 wrapped, Mr Mikami gave me six months in which to create any kind of game I wanted.

I was still pretty wet behind the ears, but as I'd originally joined Capcom with a desire to create mystery and adventure games, this was a huge chance for me to make my mark as a creator. In the end it took a team of seven 10 months to produce the first GBA Ace Attorney title. Having the freedom to create exactly the kind of game I wanted was amazing and it was a real pleasure to work on that project.

MC: Can you remember when the idea of Ace Attorney first came to you? How did your bosses respond to the idea of a lawyer-based adventure game when you first described it to them?

ST: It was in 2000 when Mr Mikami said I could make my own game and my original idea was a fairly typical adventure with a detective as the main character. Most mystery adventures have the player choose from a number of different dialogue options for their character in order to progress the story, but I wanted a new gameplay style that enabled players to deduce for themselves what was happening, rather than just selecting canned responses. I developed this into the concept of facing off against the suspect in a crime and exposing the contradictions in their statements.

I was sure my new idea would be a fun and original take on the genre, so I started to revise the main character, since a detective would be too traditional for such an original concept. I asked myself, "What kind of professional would face off against a suspect and expose their contradictory statements?" The answer, of course, was a lawyer and so the Ace Attorney concept was born.

(source, from an interview on the making of the series)

Takumi’s original concept for the game involved Phoenix as not a defense lawyer, but as a detective. The gameplay was to consist of “facing off against the suspect of a crime and finding the contradictions in their statements.” However, Takumi eventually realized that taking apart contradictions wasn’t really a detective’s job, and decided to change the protagonist to a lawyer and the setting to a courtroom instead. And thus, the game’s concept was finalized.

Janet: As you know, “Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy” is coming out world-wide this winter, and as I was brainstorming what to write about for this week’s blog, I remembered your tweets from 2010.

Takumi: Tweets from 2010?

Janet: …Well, it was a long time ago…

Takumi: ???

Janet: I-It’s OK if you don’t remember…

Takumi: …Oh, THOSE! Yes!

Janet: I remember reading them and being shocked by how different the original draft of the game’s story was – how Phoenix wasn’t even a lawyer, but a private eye!

Takumi: Yes, AA was originally supposed to be a detective game, so naturally, Phoenix was to be a private eye. But then, one day, I made a startling realization: the gameplay concept I was going for was for players to enjoy finding and taking contradictions apart, but that was hardly related to investigating or detective work at all. In that moment, I had it – I realized that the main setting for the game should be the courtroom.

Janet: That’s quite the jump, but you know, I can’t imagine this series being anything else at this point.

(source, from an interview by Janet Hsu about the game’s early development)

During the development for the game, Takumi actually knew very little about the intricacies of the legal system--and in fact, he’s been very transparent about that fact in interviews. There’s even a story he talks about in a blog post where he was asked “shouldn’t we do some research on law before we make this game?” and agonized over it for a bit before deciding that being accurate about courtroom processes wasn’t important--what was important was that the game made the trials exciting and fun.

November, 2000. The characters were coming together, and I was working desperately on my first scenario (the current Turnabout Sisters). One day, I was asked about the one thing I didn’t want to be asked about.

“Mr. Takumi. Don’t we need to do some research on law?”

The knowledge I have about the law, pretty amounts to the one fact that in Japan we have the Roppō Zensho ('Complete Book of The Six Major Legal Codes').

“Don’t bother with that. This is a detective game. “

It should have been over with this one line, but…

“But this isn’t a detective game, it’s a lawyer game!”

“If it’s not going to be realistic, I don’t see why this should be about trials.”

“People who play this might get wrong knowledge from the game!”

“We might get sued by the Bar Association!”

“They’ll start complaining!”

…Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney GBA) is simply a “mystery game.”　“Being realistic” is not what is important. What’s important is emphasizing, and recreating the unique “atmosphere” and “tension” of the courtroom. That is why the judge uses a gavel, even though no judge uses that, and why Naruhodō shouts "Objection!" even though nobody does that either.　This game does not need a “realistic courtroom”!

Chasing the true murderer down to the end, and then getting applauded for that in the courtroom. That feeling of thrill and excitement. It was only by February of the following year when we finally manage to recreate that in the game. The couple of months after this had happened, we looked around, got lost and troubled our minds in search for the answer of the big question of “How do we make a trial into a game?”. Fall was passing by, and the cold winter was close upon us.

(source, from an archived blog post by Takumi)

So, realism and knowledge of law wasn’t important to Takumi during the development of the series. But there’s also the fact that Takumi has actually personally denied that the Ace Attorney series was an intentional satire or criticism of the court system at any point. In fact, according to a blog post (done as if Phoenix and Maya were reading the column and commenting on it), he actually dislikes people seeing his work this way, as he never intended the games to have any big political statements.

A major prerequisite for Gyakuten Saiban is it’s so simple “even my mother could play it”. So there is only one point at the core of the game: “Seeing through lies”.

Naruhodō: It wasn’t even supposed to be a game about the trials at first. Mayoi: Eh! Really?! Naruhodō: “Simple” is basically all this game is about, according to TakuShū. Mayoi: What do you mean? Naruhodō: He didn’t want to add all kinds of elements for the player to think about, like alibis, tricks or about the culprit. It’d just confuse them. Mayoi: Really. Naruhodō: Basically, you can proceed in the game if you just think about where the contradiction is. He figured that with that, the controls of the game could also stay simple. Mayoi: But, but, why the trials then? Naruhodō: “A story about a detective seeing through lies” wouldn’t be any different from the other games out there. So that’s why he decided to have someone whose job is seeing through lies as the protagonist. Mayoi: So a defense attorney. Naruhodō: Occasionally TakuShū sees magazines introducing the game as “a work that dared to take on the theme of trials”, and that actually hurts him. Mayoi: He never meant to be something as big as that….

(source, from the mentioned blog post)

Ultimately I see how easy it is, if you know a good amount about both Ace Attorney and Japan’s legal system, to come to the conclusion that the games were made as a dig against the latter. However, somewhere along the line, people apparently stopped seeing this as merely a theory and instead as a definite fact. Now, that doesn’t mean that the theory is entirely unfounded--given that Takumi focused only on making trials interesting and fun in the games, you could say that the games work as an light, comedic parody, not meant to make any political statements. And hey, maybe there’s something I missed--maybe there were other people working on the series who did have significant knowledge of law and wrote some parts of the games as intentional satire of the system. Again, if anyone has evidence of this, don’t hesitate to provide it. But with what I know, I don’t think going “well actually” to people who point out the ridiculousness and unfairness of Ace Attorney’s court system is necessary. It’s simply that way to make the games more fun.

#ace attorney #phoenix wright #this was actually kind of fun to research and write!#kinda felt like i was making a statement in a courtroom...

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unbelievableholland · 4 years

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Hey, can i request a harry x reader, where the reader is tom personal assistant, meaning she was with tom in America, while the twins were in London celebrating their birthday. And her and harry have been together for a long time so she's really sad she cant make it and so is tom. And it doesn't help that leading up to the interview the bday was the only thing talked about in the family gc. So they both just decide to still fly to the UK and surprise them all. Thank youu😊

Surprise!

Pairing: Harry Holland x Reader

Warnings: nothing. Just flufffff.

Words: 2,610

Summary: You’re Tom’s PA, but also Harry’s girlfriend. What happens when Tom’s interview is rescheduled to the day of the twins’ birthday, and you’re thousands of miles away from London?

A/N: Again, sorry this took so long! And this also might be the fluffiest fic I’ve ever written. I hope you like it!

——————————————————————

“Tom! Your interview with GQ got rescheduled to Friday!”

It’s a Monday afternoon, and Tom surprisingly had nothing to do today. Being his P.A meant knowing his schedule, and also managing your own life. Part of that is clearing his schedule for Friday so you could go back to London in time for the 21st birthday of your 5-year boyfriend, Harry. Tom’s brother, of course.

Hearing frantic footsteps running down the stairs is not what Tom expected to hear today. He thought this is a chill day for the both of you.

Tom stands up from the couch, eyes wide and panicking. Quickly swallowing the tea he has in his mouth, he speaks.

“What?! I thought Friday was all clear???”

“Yeah I thought so as well! But I just got an email from GQ that it’s going to be moved!”

Tom has his hand running through his hair and he’s pacing around the room.

“Can’t you cancel it?”

You look at him with sad eyes. “You know it’s not that easy”

Tom just ends up sitting down in defeat. You and Tom had been looking forward to going home and attending the twins’ party. You have plane tickets and everything, and all you’ve talked about in the Holland group chat is the party.

Since it’s already their 21st birthday, they have a big party planned.

“Fine. I’m just going to tell them we can’t go.”

Tom doesn’t want to, obviously, but it’s not like he has a choice.

You don’t answer. You only go back to your room upstairs. Although it does seem hopeless, you’re determined to make this work.

You sit on your bed, right as you get a call from Harry.

“So, you’re really not going to attend?”

Your heart sinks a little. You don’t like hearing his voice so sad. You promised you’d go home in time for the party, and all of you were looking forward to it.

You sigh. “I’ll make it work. I’ll find a way around it and we’ll make it there in time. I just have to—”

“Y/N, it’s ok. Don’t stress yourself out too much. After the interview, you can go back here and we’ll do another celebration. We’ll invite a few friends and it’ll be fine.”

His voice sounds enthusiastic now, because he just accepted that it comes with your job. He offered it to you in the first place when Harrison had to quit due to his own career.

“I know you’re pouting right now, Y/N. Stop pouting. If you try to reschedule Tom’s interview, you’ll only stress yourself out more.”

“Ok, fine. Promise we’ll celebrate after?”

“Promise. I have to go, we have some party planning to do. Love youuu”

“Love you too, babe.”

With another sigh, you hang up. Yes, you told him you wouldn’t reschedule, but you’re already determined to make it work.

And so far, Tom’s interview is canceled because the studio they were originally going to shoot in is closed because of technical problems. At least, that’s what they told you.

The party on the other hand, starts at 7:00 pm on Friday, February 14th. Your flight is scheduled on 5:00 pm on Thursday.

Now, you have to figure out a compromise for GQ. You could have the interview moved to Wednesday, because it gives them time to figure out the technical problems they have and you can make the party on time.

You pull up your laptop and you start writing them an email. For hours that night you’re just sending emails back and forth with GQ.

Technically, you could just tell them you aren’t going to attend. The interview being cancelled isn’t Tom’s fault. The only reason any of you don’t want to cancel the interview is because it was already announced to the fans and all of them are excited.

But at the end of the day, after a lot of convincing and reasoning, they rescheduled the interview to two weeks from now.

You stand up, quietly jumping and celebrating since now, you’re actually going to make it to Harry’s birthday. You’re too excited that you can’t even sleep.

You keep weighing your options though. You can tell them, or you can surprise them. As you pace around your room, trying to be as quiet as possible so you don’t bother Tom, you ultimately decide to not tell anyone.

Not even Tom.

In the morning, you tell him that you had already cancelled the flight, which, obviously you haven’t. You just need to make sure he doesn’t actually cancel it for real himself.

Ever since Monday, Tom has been a little gloomy. You feel bad, but at the same time, you wanted to keep the surprise. So as much as you could, you tried to cheer him up until Thursday.

You know he’s tired, so you cleared his schedule for the week, except for the GQ interview. At least, that’s what Tom thinks. Clearing the rest of his schedule is something you didn’t think was possible, but you still did it. His mood lifted a bit, but it didn’t help that the Holland GC is filled with details about the party.

You were looking forward to it, but not as much as Tom. He gets homesick and he just wants to go home. For once he just wants to let loose.

But, tomorrow is already Thursday. So, you just have to wait a few more hours and you could finally tell him in the morning. Later in the night, you face time the Hollands to wish the twins an advanced happy birthday.

God, you really did miss them so much.

Once the call ends both you and Tom go to your designated bedrooms, you set your alarm and you go to bed.

Usually, waking up at 6 in the morning when you have nothing to do isn’t the best start to your day. No though, you practically jump out of bed and run to the kitchen to prepare some breakfast.

Tom would be waking up in about an hour or so, and once he does, he immediately smells eggs and bacon. Which is rare, because you usually just order something for breakfast because both of you aren’t really the best at cooking.

“Uhm, are you cooking? I thought you didn’t know how to cook?”

You shrug. “I’ve been taking lessons from Sam.”

You present him two plates. Both have bacon, eggs, and garnished with toast and parsley. It looks good, and Tom’s surprised. He’d never seen you cook something that looks this appetizing.

When he takes a bite, he absolutely loves it. For once, you didn’t burn the bacon…or the eggs…or the toast.

“What’s got you in a good mood today?”

“Well, maybe because of these.”

You get the plane tickets from your pocket and you show it to him.

“I didn’t cancel the flight. I told them to reschedule, and they did. The interview is two weeks from now and I cleared your schedule for next week, so we can spend the next week in London.”

His whole face beams, his eyes wide and fills with happy tears as he engulfs you in a hug and spins you twice than puts you down.

“You, Y/N L/N are the best PA ever. Don’t tell Harrison that though.”

“Hmm, I’ll think about it.” you teased. You laugh for a bit, both of you happy that you’ll be able to get home in time for the party.

“I’ll go pack my bags then.”

“Tom, I already packed it for you earlier when you were sleeping. Just take a shower and all that then we’ll go to the airport.”

“You…really are the best you know.”

“I try.” you shrug.

“Don’t tell anyone though. I was thinking of surprising them.”

With a nod of his head, he goes to his room and prepares himself for the long flight you have ahead.

You on the other hand, is already prepared. So, all you have to do is wait.

Hours later, during the flight, Tom’s asleep beside you. You’re always the type to get bored on plane rides, so you preferred the window seat. Unfortunately, even after continuously trying to convince Tom to switch seats with you, he didn’t budge.

So, you ended up doing nothing on the plane. You couldn’t find any good movies to watch, and you’re way too excited to fall asleep anytime soon.

You look at your phone, and with an exasperated sigh, you tilt your head back to stare at the ceiling for a few minutes.

You still have 7 more hours to go.

“Tom. Tom, wake up. We’re here.”

“Hmph. 5 more minutes”

You roll your eyes. You slowly grab the pillow from under his head and yank it out from under him. Since he’s leaning towards the wall, he hits his head.

“Ow!”

“I said, we’re here. You already stole the window seat, the least you can do is get up.”

“Fine, fine.”

As he got up, he grabbed his bags from the overhead compartment then grabbed yours and handed them to you. Once you had your bags, you immediately ran out. Since everyone already got out before you, the plane is relatively spacious and you have more than enough space to run out.

“Y/N! Wait for me!

“You already took too long, you div! I want to see my boyfriend!” You shout from across the plane and Tom chuckles at your childishness.

“You don’t think I do too?”

“You’re telling me Tommy has a boyfriend?” You tease, but you laugh at the face Tom makes. He tilts his head back and groans.

“You know what I mean!”

“Hmm, do I?”

He rolls his eyes and chases after you when he sees that you start running.

When the cab arrives in front of the Holland household, you excitedly get out, but you immediately stop.

“Wait, Tom, should we surprise them at the actual party?”

“We can, but where do we stay?”

“We can stay at my place.”

“Aren’t your parents home?”

“I meant my house.”

“You have a house?!”

“Well technically, I share it with someone else.” you wink and run to the direction of your house, while Tom is busy thinking about what you had implied.

“You and who’s house?” You continue to run though, and he starts to shout.

“Y/N— you and who’s house!?”

He only groans when you don’t even look back and runs after you. He catches up quick since you’re carrying bags. So is he, but he’s more active than you.

Once you got to your house, only a few blocks away from the Hollands, you get the keys in your back pack and open it.

Tom’s eyes go wide when he sees pictures of you and Harry together. Some of Harry’s things that Tom could recognize is also there.

The house looks clean. It’s very organized and it’s very artsy. When he explored more of the house, he even saw a studio and a room with gym equipment. Your voice from the kitchen snaps him out of his shock.

“Harry told me earlier that he’ll be staying at your place today. He said he already left food and water for Holly, so he won’t be back here until tomorrow.”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait. Who’s Holly?” and as if on cue, you hear the pitter patter of paws going down the stairs. A little mocha colored pug greeting you.

“What?! You’re telling me, you and Harry have a house a few blocks away from ours, and you have a dog?!”

“Yup!”

“How did we not know??”

“Well, about one or two years ago, we wanted our own private place, and the previous owners of this house just moved out. We got a little lonely sometimes, so we got a dog. Oh, and whenever Harry randomly disappeared or whenever he says some dumb excuse to leave the house, this is usually where he goes. We didn’t usually stay here though, this is kind of just our…safe space, you know?”

Yes, Tom does get it, and seeing you there, sitting on the couch playing with the pug you and Harry have, he knows that Harry’s in good hands. That he’s happy. Tom has always been protective over his brothers, and that included being skeptical of you at times. Even though he knows you’re a good person.

It just kind of hit him now that, you’re it for Harry. Even if you and Harry have been together for years.

“You can stay in the guest bedroom for now, since it’s 3 am and the party isn’t until hours later.”

“Uh yeah, sure. Where is it?”

“Upstairs, first room to your right. Bathroom’s the last door in the hallway to your left.”

“Oh, ok. Thanks.”

“Uh, Tom? I’m sorry if this is all so sudden. Harry and I really just wanted our own place and—”

“It’s fine. I’m not mad. Shocked, yes, but I’m happy if the both of you are happy.”

“Thanks.” you say with a very grateful smile. You know how much Tom loves his brothers, so him saying those words means a lot to you. You’ve always been like his little sister, but this just feels like you’re officially a part of their family. To some degree, at least. You still need to tell Dom and Nikki.

Just before he disappeared from your line of vision, you yell.

“Oh, and Sam knows!”

“WHAT?!”

When Tom wakes up, he sees that you’re buzzing with excitement. You look really excited to be home, and so is he. Of course, he waits a few more hours since the party’s at 7. He takes a nap, and once he wakes up, you’re already dressed.

“Tom, come on! Get readyyyy!”

You’re running around the house, trying to find your boots and getting your gift for Harry.

When Tom came out of his room, prepared and well dressed, he sees the box your holding.

“Took you long enough, ya div.”

As you both walked along the sidewalk, he points to the box.

“So, what’s in the box?”

“Remember the Nikon camera he’s always wanted?”

“No. No way.”

“Yes. Yes way. I’ve been saving up for it.” You say with a proud smile on your face.

“That’s like, 2,000 dollars!”

“yeah, I know.”

“I don’t think I’ve told you before, but you’re good for him. Thank you.”

He says this as you arrive at the front door of the Holland household, and just before you open the door, you hug him.

“Thanks Tom, I appreciate it. Really.”

You pull away gently, and he beams at you.

“Don’t let it get to your head, L/N.”

“Hmm, I’ll try. You ready?”

“Go ahead.”

You open the door. The party hasn’t started yet, and no one has arrived yet.

When Sam hears the door open, his head turns towards you. The moment he realizes what’s happening, he slaps Harry’s shoulder excitedly and points towards you.

You look at both of them with a large smile and set the gift down on the shelf near the door.

“Happy birthday boys!”

Harry runs to you immediately. Passed Tom and hugs you. You jump up so your legs are around his waist as he spins you.

“God— I missed you, darling!”

He puts you down and kisses you. It’s the giggly kind and you both smile into the kiss and he pulls back to look at you.

“Best birthday ever.” He kisses your head and pulls you to his chest, your arms wrapped around him.

“Hey! What about me?” Tom says as he fakes a pout.

“Stop ruining the moment, dickhead.” You and Harry say in unison.

——————————————————————

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quarterfromcanon · 5 years

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How Long Do You Plan to Keep Me at the Back of Your Mind?

Heather & Valencia - Femslash February - Day 21 - Basic [2,442 words]

“Hello, ladies, and welcome to the trial run of Hallmark & Hummus.” Rebecca splayed her fingers. She waggled them as if the name were appearing in lights. “On this very special evening, we will be enjoying some unarguably bland dip only made interesting with other foods. Whatever film is selected by our vote will be much the same: devoid of flavor until the added ingredients -- us, in this case, the added ingredients are us -- come along to spice things up.”

Valencia offered a strained but well-intentioned smile. She turned to the right and consulted with Heather. “Translation, please?”

Heather’s beleaguered sigh preceded the reply. “She wants to watch sappy made-for-TV movies and eat tortilla chips while we talk about them.”

“Ohhhhh,” the rest of the group chorused.

“I wanna take this opportunity to just apologize to everyone,” Heather told them, ignoring Rebecca’s background indignation. “The theme tonight is my fault and I am already so sorry.”

“How’d that happen?” Paula draped her arms over the sides of her chair.

“We were kicking around viewing options for Girls’ Night earlier this week and everything totally snowballed outta control. I was trying to steer her away from them by pointing out that they’re usually a little boring and unoriginal... which, like, ‘a little’ was being generous, honestly... and she just really latched onto the metaphor.” Heather folded her arms and shot Rebecca a ‘Why are you like this?’ look.

Rebecca tried to mirror the stance but ultimately just stuck out her tongue. “I still think we can make it fun. Plus, your cleverness sparked the creative spin! You should be owning this with pride! You were my muse.”

Heather wrinkled her nose. “I accept full responsibility for the apt comparison but not its application.”

“Compromise met.” Rebecca clapped her hands into a clasp. “Now, before we get into any of that, the first order of business is to greet our special guest. Thank you for joining us tonight, Beth. Welcome.”

Beth was clearly not expecting an individual shout-out like that. Still, she leaned forward to acknowledge them all with a salutatory wave before settling back against the couch. “Thanks for inviting me.”

Heather readjusted on her respective cushion. She pulled one leg up to her chest and locked both arms around the kneecap.

“Okay, so, drinks are in the fridge,” Rebecca continued the hostess explanations. “There’s wine, juice, water, beer, et cetera. I originally floated the idea that we take shots of Hennessy for every glaring instance of sexism to keep going with our letter ‘H,’ but Heather did actually talk me out of that one because we would all die of alcohol poisoning.”

She gathered a tall stack of borrowed cases in her arms, each labeled with a barcode from the local library. “I grabbed all the ones I could find. Their collection was unexpectedly extensive, so let’s see if we can start the process of elimination.”

“Nothing with a cover that looks like pretty white characters are gonna fall in love or die at Christmastime,” Heather declared.

Rebecca pouted and removed six boxes from the tower. “That’s practically their entire yuletide catalog - heh, yule log, that was unintentional - but fair enough. It does whittle the options down by a significant margin.”

“No movies with sequels,” Valencia suggested. “The last thing we need is to get stuck with these people for more than one.”

“And none with punny titles,” Paula added.

“Why not?” Rebecca countered.

“Check how many that eliminates and you’ll see.” Paula assembled a plate while she waited.

“Oh wow, you guys are going after their whole brand,” Rebecca muttered as she continued to weed out entertainment that matched the criteria. “Hallmark came out to have a good time and is honestly feeling so attacked right now.”

“What does that leave?” Beth peered at the titles one by one when they passed through her acquaintance’s hands.

Rebecca held up a single DVD. “Something called The Love Letter.”

“Hang on a sec.” Valencia’s brow furrowed. “Can I see that?”

Rebecca passed her the box. Valencia tapped the name in the bottom corner. “I knew it! That’s Jennifer Jason Leigh.”

Beth chuckled. She rubbed her palm along her girlfriend’s spine.

Valencia peeked to the left self-consciously. “What?”

“Nothing. I just think it’s cute you followed the career of an actress with a big gay fan following before you even figured things out.” Beth kissed Valencia on the cheek.

Rebecca joined in the affectionate laughter. “Adorably oblivious.”

Heather popped the lid off her beer and drank.

Paula tucked a diced piece of pepper into the side of her mouth and lifted her own bottle. “Let’s get this party started.”

She tapped the alcohol against her friend’s serving. Just for a moment, Heather thought she saw a flicker of sympathy in Paula’s eyes.

They all settled more comfortably while Rebecca turned out a couple of the lights and readied the selection. Rebecca stretched across the chaise lounge. She pointed the remote control toward the censor. “Drum roll... play!”

Within the first sixty seconds, a store owner made a comment about women dragging their boyfriends into the building to look at a white dress in the window. Valencia and Rebecca automatically flipped their middle fingers at the screen.

“Damn,” Valencia commented just shy of the seven minute mark. “She likes some imaginary pen pal better than the guy who just proposed to her. Are we sure she’s not a closeted lesbian in this, too? Fixating on an unrealistic man-of-her-dreams seems like a handy excuse.”

“You would know,” Paula teased with a smirk. She sipped more of her drink.

Valencia arched an eyebrow but inclined her head. “Touché.”

“Ooo, it’s near Salem!” Rebecca enthused. “Witches?” She waggled her eyebrows.

“Dude, again, late ’90s Hallmark,” Heather reminded her. “They aren’t gonna throw us a lot of surprises. Also, wrong time period.”

“If Hocus Pocus taught us nothing else, it’s that they don’t have to be bound to their own era. Spooky shit happens,” Rebecca reasoned.

Heather shook her head and laughed quietly.

The female lead was finally introduced. Valencia and Beth exchanged knowing glances when her first onscreen act was writing a poem for a flower consistently referred to with “she” and “her” pronouns. ‘Gay,’ they both mouthed.

Half an hour into the run time, Beth whispered, “So, is this basically The Lake House with a more cockblocking year gap?”

“Kinda, yeah,” Heather confirmed. “This one’s just eight years older.”

“Good to know.” Beth smiled with genuine appreciation for the trivia.

Heather felt a twist of guilt that her first internal response was ‘ugh.’ Then the story randomly included a scene involving kitchen spices and she choked on a scoop of hummus.

“Are you okay?” Valencia murmured.

“Yeah, just went down the wrong way,” Heather managed to reply.

A strange reaction crossed Valencia’s features but she periodically hovered a concerned hand over her friend’s back until ten minutes later.

“It must be true love if you get turned on by air touches, amirite?” Rebecca joked. Heather and Valencia froze before they realized she spoke in reference to the film. They scooted to opposite ends of their couch space.

Beth’s fingers interwove with Valencia’s when the movie’s ill-treated fiancée got to confront her betrothed’s emotional infidelity. Heather’s eyes found the ceiling as she tried not to notice.

The end credits rolled. Rebecca wiped away a few tears. She tucked both legs beneath her body as she faced the other women in the room. “So, what did you guys think?”

“I really liked that checkered dress. Oh, and the giant cloak when she left for Gettysburg!” Paula stayed seated but pantomimed donning the aforementioned clothing while sweeping away in a hurry. “I mean, c’mon, can you really call it a dramatic exit without some kind of cape to swish behind you? It’s the only way to go.”

“Right? So pretty. So stylish. And when they got into the rowboat and she read her poetry to him?” Rebecca pouted and held her hands over her heart. “I loved that.”

“He was kind of an asshole, though,” Valencia concluded. “Waffling between them both like they were equally viable options. Pick a path and stick to it. And for the love of God, invest in wax or a razor.”

“That’s a justifiable point,” Rebecca acknowledged. “I’m a big advocate of a person having as much or as little body hair as they see fit so, you know, more power to him. But, practically speaking, that stuff is gonna scratch your tits to hell when you’re pounding it out together. R.I.P. reincarnated lady’s boobs.”

Heather and Paula concurred with empathetic nods.

“I’m not super into the reincarnation angle itself, though,” Heather decided. “They had a few set traits because of the whole same-internal-essence thing, but Caleb and Scotty were still different guys living different lives, y’know?”

“They did each have their own vibe,” Paula concurred. “The two were very similar but not identical. Close, but no cigar.”

“Exactly! And I think they knew people weren’t gonna be as into modern JJL after ninety minutes with Civil War her. That’s why her name went from Elizabeth to Beth so it’s like, ‘Oh, don’t worry. It’s cool for us to just end the movie now because she’s literally the same,’ but she’s not. She wasn’t there for any of it. Beth doesn’t share all the history and she doesn’t know everything that happened before she came into the picture. It’s like, dude, she’s a separate person and eventually you’re gonna have to explain everything. I guess go ahead and get attached to someone who’s superficially a match, but it doesn’t make her your soulmate.”

Heather finished her rant and stared down at the empty bottle in her hands. She could feel Valencia tense beside her but neither risked eye contact.

Heavy fabric pelted against the top of Heather’s head and fell to the floor.

“What the...”

She looked up to realize Rebecca had chucked a throw pillow at her.

“Start believing in romance, you cynic! Stop deflating love bubbles with your logic!” Rebecca reached for another to lob, but Heather held her hands aloft.

“Yeah, there’s an open container of salsa literally two feet away from me, so I’m thinking we should call for an armistice.” Heather forced her expression into a semblance of contrition. “No more mood-killing. But also no more furniture attacks. Deal?”

“I can agree to those terms.” Rebecca let the second pillow fall from her grip.

“Cool. I’m gonna go use the bathroom before we start whatever’s next.”

Heather departed for that location and locked the door. She splashed water on her face and met her own gaze in the mirror’s reflection. “You are acting like such a jealous douche,” Heather reprimanded herself in a low voice. “That may be the literal brand you represent, but it’s not who you are as a person. Cut the crap.”

She towel-dried her skin and sighed. Somehow, she had to come to terms with the chasm between where she used to think her life would be at this point and where things were actually headed. It wasn’t fair to Valencia to keep letting an undercurrent of bitterness guide the course of their interactions. Then there was Beth, genial and charming, who had done absolutely nothing to earn a cold shoulder. Heather frequently hashed and rehashed it all out in her mind, and she knew Beth had proven herself to be an exemplary first girlfriend. Whether the process of doing so was easy or not, she had to step aside. After all, Valencia wasn’t the only one in a new relationship. Heather had someone, too. Hector... No, she couldn’t tackle her feelings about him right now. The main thing to focus on was turning over a new leaf, and she intended to do so once she rejoined the others.

Heather left the bathroom, pivoted out of habit toward the living room, and almost ran right into Beth. She pulled to an abrupt stop. “Sorry. All yours.”

Beth hooked her thumbs in her belt loops. “Thanks. Hey, I don’t now if it’s a breach of that treaty you and Rebecca have going to tell you this, but you made a pretty solid point earlier.” She cast a covert glance at the rest of the group, playfully following along with the faux tension as well as the subsequent peace. “What makes a person isn’t just what they’re starting with, but how they’re affected by things, and what they do in response to that. Like you said, it’s from their ’90s collection, and I don’t know if they were really encouraging us to look that deep, but still.” She shrugged. “V told me you’re good at reading people, and she was right.”

“Glad we’re on the same page.” Heather nearly crossed her arms, but instead she slipped her palms into the pockets of her vest. “I may need to call on you for backup in the event of another pro-tearjerker uprising, so, be ready with a strong argument. Rebecca loves a debate.”

Beth laughed. “You got it.”

They parted ways and Heather turned around again. Valencia was watching. She twitched her lips upward timidly. Heather flushed with remorse that things had become so difficult between them. She returned the greeting with a sincere smile. Valencia beamed and approached to talk.

“How’s movie vote number two going?” Heather asked.

Valencia looked back at their companions with loving exasperation. “We’re officially in Eeny Meeny Miny Mo territory, but Rebecca and Paula got into a discussion about whether it should be the full rhyme or just those four words. I feel like I don’t need to tell you which friend was in favor of which option.”

“It’ll be all right. Paula will wrap things up one way or another,” Heather said confidently. “My money’s on her grabbing something out of the pile and shouting ‘This is it!’ just to cut the rounds short.”

Paula’s voice suddenly projected over Rebecca’s. “Oh, look! It’s the brunette from Down with Love. A Christmas Wedding -- we have a winner!” She held the box aloft and then carried the disc to the player.

Rebecca was miffed by the interruption for only a few seconds before her shoulders rose and fell. “Works for me.”

“You called it.” Valencia nudged Heather. “You know us all too well.”

“I feel like you could probably make an educated guess what I’m thinking sometimes, too.”

“Like right now?”

“Sure, if you want.”

Valencia considered Heather with exaggerated scrutiny. “Switching from beer to wine before we start another cringey movie?”

Heather elbowed her and they both smiled. “Bingo.”

#H+V FF #CEG Writing by Me #Helencia #Heather x Valencia #Heather's really sharing my friend's 'Oh poo. Beth's here.' reaction in this one.#I put all three women on the same couch and H+V were hashtag not happy about it. Justifiably so.#IT'S TEMPORARY ANGST #please forgiveee meeeeee

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stone-man-warrior · 3 years

Text

January 1, New Years Day, 2021: 4:31 pm:

Someone stole my Yule Log, while it was burning.

A man driving a large garden cart was seen exiting a horse stable at the County Courts terror cell at Chapman‘s on Russell, going north, moments ago.

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youtube

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Here we go!

There was a time when someone decided that January 1 is the day that starts a new year, and December 31 ends the previous one.

♥ “What’s the count Ump?”

♦ “Two-Thousand-Twenty-One”

♥ “Huh?... no... I didn‘t, I still have all of my teeth”

So, another trip around the Sun started today, relative to that day when someone decided it all starts over today, January 1, but it wasn‘t always like that, the years used to start on March 1, then, someone changed the whole year, added two more months to it, January and February, and stuck those at the beginning to start with, instead of the end to end with, with additional months.

There was a time, before there was a time keeper, when no one kept score, but no one is really interested in the time when the Game started, instead we are obsessed with the birth and death of this one guy, Jesus, and that is when the Game started. The truth is, the Game was well underway, when Jesus showed up, then some asshole, Markus, told a lot of lies about Jesus, so, they made Jesus join the Carpenter’s Union, so he could nail together that cross without the Department of Labor tossing a Red Flag on the play. Jesus built a cross, under direction of the Romans, so he could be nailed to it, for stuff he didn‘t do, because everyone believed Markus who just wanted to sleep with Jesus’ Ol’ Lady on New Years Eve.

They didn’t have Christianity yet when all of that happened, so, “Wives” had not been invented yet, so, it was all about Jesus’ Ol’ Lady.

They covered up Markus’ lies, by tacking two month’s onto the beginning of the calendar of events, not the end, because if the Roman‘s had put the two-month cover operation onto the end of the year, that’s evidence that Markus lied to sleep with Jesus’ Ol’ Lady, and would have demonstrated what Markus’ true motives were had their been no cover operation.

So, it’s 2021 AD now, not BC. Had Markus told the truth, no one would have to know about AD or BC, and there would probably be a lot more Mormons now than there are, had Markus and Jesus just decided to “Share, and Share Alike”, but by deduction, it’s not difficult to see that jealousy is what was driving Markus to lie about Jesus. (that’s “Jello See” for those keeping score. Green Jello is made of Old English 800 Terror ways)

It’s the ABC’s of the D-day of Jesus Christ, and has been all out of order ever since. That means his B-Day was on another day, not the day they say, but we can never know what day is really Jesus’ B-Day, because we don’t know how many days were in each month on the older Ten-Month Calendar. Considering that the word “Month” is based on a menstrual bleeding cycle, those two extra months are significant additions, to “change the bloody sheets”, spoken with a British accent, a “top, and bottom sheet”.

Go figure!

Happy New Year!

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Markus picks up a signal from Jesus’ Ol’ Lady:

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Markus comes up with some of the most potent pick-up lines, starts sending signals towards Jesus’ Ol’ Lady:

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She responds to Marcus’ advances:

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The rest, is Written.

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8:23 pm:

The Crusades began at that time, Pirates stealing everything that was not nailed down, and then they nailed everything they stole, to and in, their houses and boats.

It turns out, that one of the very first things the bastards stole, was Time, when they changed out the calendar to cover for Markus, and that Russian Whore, Jesus’ Ol’ Lady.

That is the day when the two started making time together. began to March, and time Marches on ever since, with two bloody sheets in tow on the way to the One Hour Martinizing to have them cleaned. Two, take the blood out.

This kind of truth sheds all new light on why they put five-minutes on the clock when there is a penalty at the Football Game. It’s the reason why a professional Basketball game score will be the same result if the game is only played for five minutes, and each team is given one-hundred points to start with.

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8:37 pm:

My research on the matter includes that Jesus’ Ol’ Lady had a prosthetic leg, or foot, or she wore special shoes, had a limp. So, part of the cover story is a lot like the Russian Mother of all Hoaxes... the bastards invented all of what we are told is Greek Gods Mythology, and in that way, the bastards secretly hijacked the entire night sky, connected some dots of stars so they could remember why that was done, to keep others from doing too many dot-to-dot artworks. They cannot survive people who connect dots, and that is what the Constellations are for, all derived of Greek Mythology, and to keep people stupid all of the time.

So, that gal that Marcus teamed up with to frame Jesus, had a limp, and they needed to cover that with some Russian Lies... Olympus became Jesus’ Ol’ Lady’s street name. Marcus came up with the name for the top-level Greek God, Zeus who lives on Mount Olympus, so the story is told. That, of course was a “Insult to Injury”, pirate style, towards Jesus who was still dangling from that crucifix they made him build, so that the two could have sex right there in front of him, to do the very first ever “Christening” right there at the bottom of that cross, as Jesus’ Ol’ Lady shouted out a climactic “Hey Zeus!”, about every two-hours for the next three days when Marcus and Jesus’ Ol’ Lady were having sex right there in the mud in front of him. Those “two-hours” is why the two months were added to the end of the year, as a cover for the Russian Mother of all Hoaxes.

All of that is repeated over, and over again throughout history associated with the Crusades since then. Think about what has been really going on while everyone has been watching television for the past... how long? Since TV was invented. It’s the same as being nailed to a cross and looking at stars while others have been raping the baby.

I think it’s fair to assume that in some select circles, that Russian Whore is called: “Jesus’ Ol’ AD“.

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9:25 pm:

Further research tells of a frightening truth, one that includes what happens when a person begins to attend church. There are those at the churches who know all about the pirating, they have been taught through the ages, information passed down to them as they participate in the ongoing crusade pirating. Others, who are not aware and begin to attend church are slowly educated, prepared to accept a truth that is overwhelming for naive church goers. They are prepared to accept “The Fear of God”. Eventually over time, those who continue to attend church figure out on their own about the pirating, and mass murders. The preparation they are given, is the form of guidance, and a well honed teaching method that is far too complex to explain here, but what happens is like that “Giant Fog Horn In The Sky” that I mention sometimes that sort pushes, pulls, guides people into a desired position or place, it’s all done by those who have already graduated from Pirate School at the church. Those who learn the “Fog Horn” way, are not actually ever told out-load that the church members have been raping and pillaging, and murdering and enslaving other non-church people for the past two-thousand years, instead the learning method creates a way that makes the naive ones just sort of “wake-up” one day, and they know the truth suddenly. That is when they might run away. The church people are not going to allow anyone to run away. The new graduates are given some time to decide what they wish to do, the choices are, to become a Christian Pirate, and start to go out on kill missions for the Crusades, or, don‘t participate, and become a slave, captive with a short leash. The other option is to start to say what has been learned, to others, to seek help by explaining the dark secrets of the Church. That is when the church draws the line, and kills the new pirate graduates.

I am trapped in the “Captive with Short Leash” area, while the assassins sent from high places come to try to kill me everyday, sometimes more than once per day I must fight with weapons to protect my life because of what is written on this account, and no one will send any help. I am subject to many different varieties of poisons wielded by the terror church, and suffer a number of symptoms resultant of the poisons, with no medical services available to treat the problems. All of the medical services have been completely hijacked and have been controlled by the terror army for many years, my cries for help fall on deaf ears, and blind eyes.

“So, my research shows that there are select people who are allowed to live as long as they participate in the pirating the way they are told to do and by virtue of what skills they posses. There are some groups of people who simply are not tolerated at all by the Christian church, those seem to include black people, Mexican people and those from South America who are all entered into one kind of slavery or another as long as they stay quiet and don‘t learn about the pirating. Asians are also among that group, and are targeted for take-out mostly, the way it looks to me, not many are given the slave roles. It turns out that slavery can happen even if you don‘t necessarily feel enslaved, depending on the education level and life experience of an individual to know the difference between ultimate freedom, and pseudo-freedom.

So, it turns out that I keep learning more with each passing day, and today I know more about the terrorism than I did yesterday, so I shared some of that to seek help to possibly gain my freedom with your help.

=======================

9:58 pm:

(Terror hijacked my account)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmPgMc3R8zg&list=RDUmPgMc3R8zg&start_radio=1

I am trying to show that video where Stevie Nicks “assumes the position” after raising her arm in phallic gesture at the 3:15 mark in the song Edge of Seventeen. There, she becomes “Jesus’ Ol’ Lady”, to show you and me that she is either one of the leading pirates, or, is a slave to the pirates. I don‘t know, but I am convinced that she is making a statement about the Christian Church there at that point in the video. It’s notable that other band members rarely, if ever, get anywhere near Stevie Nicks while performing onstage at any of their performances. The band members seem to stay in their own prescribed places, and the band seems to bring along with them a very large black & white elaborately painted stage floor that is on flat on the stage where the audience cannot see it, seems to have designated markings where the band members are to stay within while performing. Go watch Fleetwood Mac and you will see that floor and markings stage confinement boundaries art travels with them from place to place.

I cannot post the video now because the bastards have disabled the “Post Video Button” here on Tumblr and they did that through the Symantec Norton Security Software I use, two pop-up window happened, one was Symantec, the other said “Adobe Flash is no longer supported” and contained some text details about why in small print. They were not Firefox browser pop-ups, they were separated 5 x 7 or so windows.

She is telling more than song details here.

Her arm raised is representative of a mast, where Jesus is nailed to, as a sail on a pirate ship where he is used as a motor to propel the pirate ship on it’s way, with wind in the sail. Her arm raised is also symbolic of the crucifix where Jesus is nailed behind her as Markus is having his way... sort of.

Tumblr won’t allow me to post another video after what I already explained today, so you have to do that on your own, but when you do the Google search at YouTube, they will be waiting to get your IP Address to send assassins to your house because you read what I wrote, and are now enlightened with truth about the nature of the Christian Church. They are pirates, always have been... rape, pillage, murder, enslave, is their job description. Be prepared to fight with weapons if you choose to find and watch that video. Google will hunt you down, and that is why they are disabling the “Post Video Button“ here, so that Google can find anyone who reads this account easier.

You should consider that she is “backing up to the Vatican Choir” here in that video, to say something about what is happening, to others. She may have been enlightened sometime around when that performance took place, had to make a choice, maybe.

It’s also notable that the lyrics for the live presentations for “Edge of Seventeen“ were changed after that performance. In later versions of the song, the phrase “...somethin‘ was in him” has been changed, Stevie sings “... there’s somethin‘ within him” in later performances done live. The change is significant when combined with what I am explaining here, and throughout this account.

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1-2-2021: 12:08 am:

Local Update:

I took a number of short walks outside today, and even lingered out there for a little while, but felt far from safe doing it. I noticed my Yule Log had been stolen while it was smouldering, that could only have been done to fool others, and must have been done by the man at 3701 Russell road who I saw pushing that garden cart. I also saw someone at Monroe’s wearing a pointy blue hoodie who obviously had been triggered into action simply as a result of me stepping outside, it was raining at the time, not really a good time for doing yard work at either the Chapman County Courts terror cell, or their extension service at Monroe’s.

I heard a lot of gunfire and explosions very close by in all directions last night on new years eve, which also were triggered by the notion the I had stepped outside, as I wrote about with an entertaining story about a convention at the US Department of Labor. Those gunshots and explosions were within one mile radius, many were much closer, including one very loud explosion that shook the house, rattled the decorations, and knocked over at least one object here at my house. That explosion seemed to have been detonated on my bedroom roof, though I have found no evidence of what it may have been.

Today there was a similar explosion that I heard clearly as it sounded from the John & Serena Makepeace cannibal SDA terror residence on Russell just south of Jess Way on the west side of Russell road. Very loud explosion, tight, compact, dense... not a “booom”, more like a “Snap” but a “Bass Snap” if such a thing can happen. The quality of that report had a uniquely tight, hard packed, sort of quality that is difficult to convey with words.

I don‘t recall hearing any vehicles at all today, and I did not see any vehicles in motion at all today.

A notable addition at the Monroe pond, is there is an arrangement of items that when looked at with particular knowledge, is clearly arranged as a “Surrey” or other horse drawn cart, but without any cart of any kind actually being there, there is a handle arranged for a brake. The message I get, is that the handle operates a brake when that leads to a OxCart if I walk passed that pond where the newly cleared out “Cam Site” is at where the Yard Waste Fire has been continued for quite awhile now.

There is a “swept” vibe going on there as well, as if a broom was used to sweep the dirt around the pond, so, “Thomson Subs” is spoken at “Monroe’s, Chapman/Courts extension service there”. That big explosion was triggered after short delay of a few minutes after I walked passed that “Cam Site” at Monroe’s pond.

There are no signs of helpful people. no one has come to help.

Please send help.

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1-2-2021: 12:44 am:

The Centurylink/Google terror operatives continue to change some of the text I write, and continuesley are turning off the keyboard number pad, I have to hit the “numLk” button whenever I want to use numerals. When I push a number when the key pad is turned off, the page goes flying to a random place on the page I am writing, making it more difficult and time consuming to write life saving information. I have scroll back to the place I was writing. When the entry is a lengthy one, that takes some effort just to go find the cursor. When the text changes live as I type, that happens mostly in an area that is just above the viewable area on my screen. I write, the page progresses down, I scroll back up to have a look, and the things that are at the very top and had gone off-screen above, have been changed. I wind up in a typing contest with some terrorist asshole on the other side of the glass computer screen who changes one thing remotely as I repair another, live.

I saw one aircraft tonight, a twin prop plane going south at about 20,000 feet, was a substantial airplane, had only white blinking lights, there were no red lights on that one. I’ve forgotten what time that was, but was well after dark.

Lighting conditions at the terror neighbors are notable:

Chartrand is still running the icicles w/red conventional holiday lights on the front house.

Monroe turned their holiday lighting off while I was outside. It’s notable that Monroe goes through a lot of effort to put holiday lighting that can only be seen from my house, on their backyard upstairs roof line, where it does not look easy to put them, way up high, facing the back.

Chapman‘s turned off their holiday lighting, there is one additional larger white bulb in a place where I don‘t recall seeing lights before.

Myers lighting is reduced to the strand of lights surrounding the front entry there, I don’t see other lights from the road.

There are still some orange lights at a unknown building at 520 or at 560 in a odd place.

Bell’s at 445 is still quiet, all the cars are gone, have not been there, is dark, has no activity at 445 since the sword fight w/fishing net a number of days ago.

And Freeberg is most notable as all of the lights, many strings there at 535, are all white now, with exception of the garage over there, where there are colored lights making a gable shape. There is one green light-bulb out at the road edge there among what is otherwise all white ones, to the best of my ability to view from the corner of Jackpine & Jackpine at the fork.

There is one trash can at the corner, has the lid tipped back, is Dietrick’s can. It’s unusual that the lid is tipped back, otherwise that is per usual to see on a Friday. Deitricks seems absent from the neighborhood, but, I have only been outside a total of about maybe one hour combined in the past thirty days, so, I cannot make neighborhood assessments due to the sheer danger of stepping out of my front door.

520 is missing one small light from the gate there that is usually there. It’s not there, other similar small light is there, in a weird spot on the ground in the yard. I don‘t go too close to 520, far too dangerous to go near that gate to know if things are normal or abnormal.

Strongs on Russell road was quiet and mostly dark, the TV is still on, I can see that from 800 feet away through the woods. That same TV has been on constant for more than ten years.

0 notes

stephenjaymorrisblog · 4 years

Photo

Disclaimer: All names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Larceny Incorporated

February 15, 2020

By Stephen Jay Morris c/w Pamela Amodeo-Morris

©Scientific Morality

Moving is a nightmare, as many of you know. Try moving across the country. You do what you can to cut corners and save money. However, the axiom rings true: you get what you pay for. In this conservative era of laissez-faire idiocy, there are dishonest hucksters hiding in the back offices of hundreds of warehouses. Pamela and I were victims of one.

When we walked away from our home in Oregon, we ended up living in mobile homes in the Southern California desert for six and a half years. Living in a mobile home is a heartbeat from homelessness. Many mobile home parks are ghettos for poor white people. I pity the poor, but some of them are damaged people who get on my nerves.

Our first home was not in a park, per se, but was on a residential street of a small city. The coach, as park managers and owners reference these homes, was situated on a large, privately owned, corner lot. Its street was near a major intersection, where police and emergency vehicles’ sirens screamed day and night. Druggies and drunks would walk past our walled yard all hours of the night, shouting threats at each other, and dark figures in old cars would frequently park just outside our bedroom window late at night, engine idling and gangsta rap blasting from their sound systems. Unlike most mobile homes in the desert, which are primarily landscaped with small rocks and concrete, this one was heavily planted with fruit trees, rose bushes, shrubs and plants. The landlord, who was an elderly man, was a great collector of native and non-native plants and trees. He paid a neighbor to come and water the property twice weekly, and more during the intense summers. It usually took the guy about three hours to complete the task. We finally moved from there when the landlord wanted to reoccupy his property.

Since 2012, our primary goal had been to move to New York. We wanted to be near Pamela’s family and within driving distance of New York City. But, with tight finances again dictating our fate, we rented a second mobile home in the same town. (Just before this move, we got sidetracked a bit and almost moved to Texas, to be near Pamie’s sister. In hindsight, though, everything worked out for the better.)

Unlike the first rental, this mobile home was situated in a large, beautiful, well-managed park, tailored for the 50+ community. It was a great improvement over the latter: spacious, insulated from the downsides of city-life, and owned by a responsive, absentee landlady. However, the homes here were situated very close to one another on small, leased lots. With our focus steadfastly fixed on New York, we unpacked only our basic living necessities. The vast majority of our belongings remained boxed and stored inside the home, in a large, unused area apparently intended as a recreation room. As such, it resembled a warehouse.

The neighbor to the right of us was a loud mouth, Trump supporter. Every morning, he sat on his front porch, cell phone to his mouth, loudly berating the ills and failures of the Obama Administration and the country’s “nanny state.” He initially tried to hustle me in his efforts to find customers for his “car repair business.” He soon got the message that I was not interested in his business or his company. Lord, have mercy!

This move was supposed to be temporary, but we ended up living there for three and a half years. I had my heart attack in the small backyard at the end of our second year there. My beloved Golden Retriever passed away there 14 months later.

All the while, Pamela searched relentlessly for a New York home. She worked with several realtors and finance brokers via phone and email. She even flew east twice to look at potential houses. Finally, when a move looked imminent, Pamela searched found a long-distance moving company that quoted us a price at about 50% below the competition! I’ll call them “L.A. Bowel Movers.” The salesman, or “move coordinator,” called himself Jeremiah. I immediately thought that Mormons owned the company. Like Howard Hughes, I trusted Mormons. Well, I later came to learn that this was no Mormon outfit. We trusted Jeremiah. We sent him a deposit and booked a move.

However, as time went on, potential new home deals fell through. We spent loads of money on required house inspections. But one house after another, something would go awry. We canceled and rebooked our move with Jeremiah at least five times, and each time, he promptly and without incident, inked a new date for us. Jeremiah was a charming guy, affable and easy-going. Usually, that would be a red flag for me. However, anxious to buy our very own home in New York, I was suckered in.

Switch and bait: One thing I found odd was that this company hadn’t sent anyone to give us an on site estimate. Jeremiah had provided it by phone and email, based on details Pamela gave of our current home’s size and the gross weight of our belongings recorded in past moves. That was yet another red flag we ignored.

Cut to moving day. We were aware of the company’s policy: No goods loaded until 50% of the total move balance was handed over. Payment could only be made by cash, cashier’s check, or postal money order. Another red flag we overlooked. Pamela had already obtained a cashier’s check in the required amount.

The movers showed up 30 minutes late. The truck they brought was 26 feet long, much smaller than we’d expected. We soon learned that it was intended only to accommodate the total cubic footage and weight on which the original phone estimate was based, with room to spare. Our entire load would later be transferred onto a contracted mover’s semi-truck. Well, the moving team’s lead man, Jose, surveyed our entire household’s possessions. He then informed us that more space would be required on the truck to accommodate everything; approximately 546 more cubic feet. This, of course, translated to additional costs of over $3,100. We panicked; we didn’t have the extra funds! They had us over a barrel! After several phone calls were made between Jose, his boss, Jeremiah and us, Pamela and I discussed our dilemma in private. We were stuck. We had no choice but to pay up and get the truck loaded. Our new home was scheduled to close in six days, we had a plane to catch, our lease was up, and we had a team of people depending on us! After some protests, we obtained an option to request a discount. The lead man’s boss accepted it, we agreed for the move to proceed, and we handed the cashier’s check to Jose. During this entire ordeal, five workers sat in front of the house, waiting for their orders. It seemed as though they’d been through this before. Funny, the movers ultimately managed to load all of our stuff onto every cubic inch of the small truck. Go wonder.

Cash only: Fast forward: we successfully arrived in New York and, after several hotel stays, we were invited to be guests at our realtor’s home while awaiting the closing of our new home and arrival of the moving truck. This home’s very remote location left us with no cell service, which was the sole means by which the mover (driver), Don, could reach us. Fortunately, there was a land line we could use while there. We phoned the mover and, with great difficulty, we provided that phone number to him. Immediately, a communication problem with the mover became evident, as he spoke with a heavy mid-Eastern accent in very broken English; his comprehension was even less. He informed us he would be arriving in five days.

Two nights before the expected arrival date, Don phoned to inform us that he would be arriving the next morning, between 7 and 10 a.m. This meant we had to hustle, get to bed early, and arrive at the house in time to meet him. Well, we arrived at 7:15 a.m. and waited. After almost two and a half hours, we decided to leave, figuring he wasn’t going to show up. Just before we got into our rental vehicle, we saw this semi-truck coming up the road. They arrived at 10:30.

To our astonishment, there were only two guys to complete the delivery: Don and his partner. Just the two were going to move our voluminous amount of stuff from the truck and into our new home! Don, the leader, was an unctuous dude who was short in stature with the biggest Napoleonic complex I had ever witnessed! As we came to soon find out, he also had a persecution complex and argued with us several times in his broken English. Pamela would instruct him how to set up furnishings and he would either ignore her or angrily dispute it. It was below 30 degrees out, but he insisted that we turn off the heat and leave all of the doors open the entire time!

The other major hurdle was the requirement for the means of payment. Total due was over $5,200. We had been instructed, only after we’d left our former home and place of banking, that the driver would only accept cash or postal money order. We had neither, and had no easy access to our funds. We were limited by our credit union to withdraw no more than $2500 a day. We’d already obtained that amount the previous Friday, after great effort and a long drive in the snow and rain, from and to our remote guest house. But, now, while the move delivery was in progress, we had to leave the movers alone at the house to travel again to areas unfamiliar to us. Finally, we were finally successful in purchasing the remaining funds at a post office in the form of postal money orders. We returned and paid the funds to the mover, obtained his receipts, and painfully endured the project through its finish at 9:30 p.m. We were so frustrated, defeated, and exhausted that we told the movers to simply leave us to finish assembling the furnishings that were still lying in pieces on the floor.

When it was all over, I was pissed off and Pamela was exhausted. As time went on, we found damage to some of our furnishings. We opened boxes and found more damaged goods. When it finally came time to use our clothes washer, it made a terrible banging sound. We ended up going to the laundromat twice. A repairman later found it had been damaged during the move.

Not only did the movers fuck us over, but our vehicle transport company also ripped us off. I won’t get into that right now. If you are telling me that capitalism is superior to socialism, I will reply that that is similar to comparing Scarlet Fever to cancer. Both diseases should be cured.

Unless I become a millionaire, I will never move again.

#moving #consumer rip off #autobiography #poets of tumblr #Stephenjaymorris

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tamboradventure · 4 years

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How to Find a Job Teaching in Spain

Posted: 2/22/2020 | February 22nd, 2020

Teaching overseas is one of a great way to earn money while you travel, stay in one place longer, and get to deeply experience another culture. I spent years teaching in Thailand and Taiwan and they were some of the most impactful experiences of my traveling. Living in a foreign culture, trying to get by day to day, and learning to create a life for yourself is a surefire way to become a more confident you and give you a deeper understanding of yourself.

I get a lot of emails from people about teaching overseas and one of the most asked about destinations is Spain! While we’ve written about the destination before, I wanted to add in another perspective from someone who just did it last year.

Natasha is a local Austinite who graduated from school and moved to Spain for a year. Here she is explaining how she did it and how you can too!

Tell us about yourself! Natasha: I was born in Atlanta, Georgia, but my family moved to India when I was two months old. After a year, we moved to Australia, where I grew up until I was 9. Then we moved to Vancouver where I stayed until I was 15.

I consider myself to be from Australia, Canada, and the US in almost equal parts, and ethnically I am Indian and Pakistani. I double-majored in international relations and Latin American studies at UT-Austin.

In my free time, I make YouTube videos about travel and I am devoted to health and fitness. I also cook and practice yoga.

You recently spent some time teaching in Spain. Tell us how you got started doing that. Was it easy to figure out the process and find a job? I studied abroad in Madrid in college. While I was there, I met some people who were English-language assistants and kept in touch with them after I returned home. I knew I wanted to take a gap year and travel after graduation, so I reached out to them and they told me about different programs I could apply for.

I looked into a few, but the government program “Auxiliares de Conversación” was free and had good reviews, so I chose to apply to that one. It allows foreigners to visit and work as teaching assistants. You’ll be paired with a teacher and help the students learn English.

The application is quite daunting. It required an essay, two letters of recommendation, a lot of legal paperwork, and other forms. The essay I wrote was about a page long, essentially a letter of intent explaining why I was interested in the program and the qualities that make me fit for the position.

The program also requires an official college transcript as well, but it accepts applicants from diverse educational backgrounds. so as long as you show keen interest, have good letters of recommendation, and have decent grades you should be fine!

I didn’t decide to join this program until the beginning of March, but I would suggest starting the process as soon as it is available in January. That will give you more time to jump through all the bureaucratic hoops. After receiving your acceptance, I suggest booking your visa appointment immediately, as these fill up fast!

Did you have any prior teaching experience? Is experience necessary? I didn’t have any teaching experience, and the Auxiliar de Conversación program doesn’t require you to. As long as you have (or are completing) your bachelor’s degree and are a native English speaker, you are eligible.

What was an average day like? You are only required to work 12-16 hours a week with this program, so a workday is typically about four hours. Since we’re English-language assistants, we are paired with an English teacher and don’t have to create a curriculum for the whole class.

On an average day as an auxiliar, the teacher I worked with would mostly have me walk around and assist students with the activities she had assigned them to do. Since I was an assistant and not the main teacher, my job mostly consisted of providing help like that.

The teacher for the younger grades would have me work one-on-one with students that were falling behind or had special needs, to give them more attention, but we usually worked on the same activities as the other students. For about 10-15 minutes of the class, I would sometimes give a presentation or play vocabulary games, such as Bingo or Hangman.

I was never required to teach an entire lesson, but I would occasionally have to manage small groups of students. This allowed them to participate more since they would not be as shy to speak English (and it’s easier to control a few students than a whole class).

Regarding the actual teaching, it was the easiest and smoothest part of my time in Spain. As long as you can keep the students interested and engaged you won’t have any issues.

Did you have any unexpected challenges? Many! I lived about an hour’s walk from my school, which was inconvenient and isolating. It took me a while to figure out the bus system, so adapting to my location was the first challenge.

However, the biggest challenge I faced was having to come back to the US for a month, because I didn’t have a visa. I was informed that I didn’t need a visa prior to entering Spain, but upon arrival, I would need to get my NIE (Número de Identidad de Extranjero) and I would be set.

Well, when I arrived, I was the only applicant without a visa. I went to eight different foreign consulates, and no one knew if I had to leave Spain to get a visa. Ultimately I had to fly back to the US, score an almost-impossible-to-get appointment with the Spanish consulate, and get my visa. The bureaucratic system is slow and very tedious, so try to talk to former auxiliares if you can (there are lots of Facebook groups for this).

What is one thing you wish you knew before you started teaching? I wish I knew that one person’s experience could be very different from the next. I had an amazing overall experience; however, parts of my life didn’t go as I expected.

I went in expecting to make great connections with my colleagues more than anyone else, but the environment at the school I worked at wasn’t very welcoming. A lot of teachers at my school didn’t live in the community (they commuted from pueblos as far as an hour away). This made it hard to form close friendships. Moreover, my school was comprised of teachers who were still completing their exams, so every year the teachers changed schools. That meant that the sense of community was not very strong.

Fortunately, I became friends with other auxiliares in my area and was welcomed warmly into their community. I became friends with teachers at other schools, took trips with them, and received lots of help with life in general in Spain.

What kind of salary can auxiliares expect? Auxiliares earn a “scholarship” rather than a salary. I was paid 1,000 EUR/month ($1,100 USD) during my contract. I would say that one should expect around 700-1,000 EUR per month ($770-1,100 USD) (or about 15 EUR/hour ($16.50 USD). Auxiliares in Madrid received the same “scholarship” as I did, but the cost of living in that region is much higher.

If you are paid 700 EUR, you usually work 12 hours a week instead of 16, and you can definitely try and teach private English lessons to earn more.

What are your top three tips for someone interested in teaching in Spain? 1. Arrive with at enough to live off of for at least three months. I was fortunate to live in a city with decent prices for accommodation. I had two roommates and spent around 250 EUR/month ($275 USD) on rent. Groceries, rent, and transportation were my main expenses, around 650 EUR ($715 USD) for all of those (plus some miscellaneous things). This left me with just a bit of money to use for travel.

In the Valencia region, the government was three months late to start paying us and always late by at least a few days to a week after the first paycheck. Since it’s not a lot of money, you’ll want to have a lot of savings. That way, if you’re paid late, you will have enough money to get by.

2. Research where you want to work. I chose Madrid as my first choice and Andalucía as my second. I would have also liked to live in Barcelona, but that wasn’t an option. I applied late to the program and existing auxiliares have priority for where they are stationed. As a new applicant (and a late one), I was sent to Valencia.

When choosing regions, be aware that a region does not necessarily mean you will end up in the city it’s named for. By that I mean, the “Madrid” region does not only mean the city of Madrid but rather the entire region around the city. Regions are like states, and so you could end up living two hours (or more) from the capital of the region.

You should also take into account the language spoken in the region. Where I lived, people spoke Valenciano just as much (if not more) than Spanish, and school was conducted in valenciano (a dialect of Catalan). Luckily, Valenciano has similarities to Spanish.

However, if you’re placed in the Basque Country (northern Spain), they speak Euskara, which has no similarities to Spanish. So if your goal is to practice or learn Spanish, make sure you choose to live in a region that speaks it.

Weather is another aspect to consider. While in the summer it is warm almost everywhere, winters can be quite cold (more so in the north). If you’re not a fan of cold weather, consider living closer to the south and the sea.

There are auxiliar Facebook groups and blogs that have plenty of information and anecdotes about different regions, which can help you make your decision.

3. Learn some Spanish. Understand that you could be placed in a pueblo very far from a big city, so brush up on your Spanish a little. It isn’t mandatory to teach English, but it will really come in handy if you’re in a smaller location and want to connect more with the locals (and your colleagues).

Want to Learn More About Teaching Abroad?

Here are some helpful posts about teaching English overseas to help you learn more:

The 9 Best Places to Teach English Overseas

Can You Teach English Without a TEFL?

How Emily Taught English to Fund her RTW Adventure

How Oneika Gets Teaching Jobs Around the World

For more teaching tips and advice you can follow Natasha on Instagram and YouTube.

P.S. – Want to meet other travelers in real life? This year we launched The Nomadic Network, a platform created to help travelers connect, learn, and get inspired in real life! Here are our upcoming events if you want to take part: Seattle (2/17), Austin (2/18), Fort Lauderdale (2/19), Portland (2/19), San Francisco (2/20), Los Angeles (2/23), Detroit (2/24), Boston (2/24), Dublin (2/24), San Diego (2/24), London (2/25), Chicago (2/25), and NYC (3/10).

Ready to Teach Overseas? Get My Comprehensive Guide

This digital guide will put you ahead of your competition, help you land a high-paying job with a reputable company, and give you first-hand knowledge from real teachers! Get started today with this downloadable PDF (for your computer, e-reader, or mobile device) with the book PLUS 12 interviews about life as a teacher, plus job advice from one of the industry’s top recruiters!

Book Your Trip to Spain: Logistical Tips and Tricks

Book Your Flight Find a cheap flight by using Skyscanner or Momondo. They are my two favorite search engines, because they search websites and airlines around the globe so you always know no stone is being left unturned.

Book Your Accommodation You can book your hostel with Hostelworld as they have the largest inventory. If you want to stay somewher eother than a hotel, use Booking.com, as they consistently return the cheapest rates for guesthouses and cheap hotels. My favorite hostels in Spain are:

Sungate One (Madrid) – Super clean, in a great location, and very social. They organize pub crawls, communal meals, and walking tours too!

Kabul (Barcelona) – This is the best party hostel in the city. It’s fun, social, and really easy to have fun and meet people.

La Banda (Seville) – Another fun and social hostel. They have an on-site bar and host huge communal dinners too. It’s lively and agreat place to meet people and party.

Don’t Forget Travel Insurance Travel insurance will protect you against illness, injury, theft, and cancellations. It’s comprehensive protection in case anything goes wrong. I never go on a trip without it, as I’ve had to use it many times in the past. I’ve been using World Nomads for ten years. My favorite companies that offer the best service and value are:

World Nomads (for everyone below 70)

Insure My Trip (for those over 70)

Looking for the best companies to save money with? Check out my resource page for the best companies to use when you travel! I list all the ones I use to save money when I travel — and I think they will help you too!

Looking for more information on visiting Spain? Check out my in-depth destination guide to SPain with more tips on what to see and do, costs, ways to save, and much, much more!

The post How to Find a Job Teaching in Spain appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

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#IFTTT #Nomadic Matt's Travel Site

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komyou · 7 years

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Part 1: The History – A Timeline

This is part of a series describing the history, context, and technical details of the modding we've been doing resulting in this big En Masse / NA TERA commotion:

Introduction. What's all this about?

Part 1: The History – A Timeline ⬅ You're here!

Part 2: Techno Mumbo Jumbo. The technical details of how and why these mods work.

Part 3: What Can Be Done?. What do we know, and how should we address it?

Conclusion (not yet published). Obligatory closing thoughts.

Feel free to skip around to the parts that interest you.

The Setup

First, let's get our bearings. NA and EU TERA were officially released in May 2012. The level cap was 60 and you needed to purchase a subscription to play.

It wasn't long for people to start thinking about stuff like DPS meters. In July 2012, just two months later, we started seeing a rudimentary meter (forum post, YouTube link). Back then, it just looked at your screen and tried to read numbers from your combat log. Its main issue was that it needed pixel perfect samples for each digit, otherwise it would silently skip it. Suddenly, a 1 mil crit became 100k and you had no good way to see when this was happening.

Just for reference, NA TERA went F2P in February 2013.

May 2013, a full year after TERA's release, someone put up a GitHub repository for a TERA server emulator. There was a whole lot going on with reverse engineering and emulating TERA servers, but I wasn't a part of any of the communities doing that at the time, so I have no reference points aside from this repository going up.

This was pretty big, in my opinion, for a number of reasons. First, it's a public repository on GitHub. That means it's easy to find and open source. Anyone can see that code if they go looking for it. Second, it's written in a language which I find to be fairly accessible, and the author did a pretty good job of separating things nicely.

I mention the meter and the server emulator because these became the foundation for my own project. I was unhappy with that one meter. I thought we could do better. I started trying to read the combat log off the screen, but quickly decided that I wanted something much more accurate and reliable. That led me to two options: reading TERA memory, or reading TERA's network data.

Well, I've never done anything with memory reading, but we just so happen to have this open source server emulator. If we can emulate a TERA server, surely that means we know how to read what a TERA client is sending. And if we know how the server is making whatever it's sending back, we should be able to figure out how to read it too. Hmm...

Meishu Enters the Scene

Next thing you know, by January 2014 during the Wonderholme patch, I had written a TERA packet sniffer and made my own take on a DPS parser. Granted, this one was mostly just for show, but I did post about it on the forums. Not a release, just a showcase. It got plenty of praise before being hidden from the public by moderators—simply because I discussed my methods (i.e., packet sniffing).

In February 2014, I published the framework. I didn't post about it anywhere, and it's not the DPS parser itself; it's only the thing that made the DPS parser work. As mentioned, it was just a packet sniffer (the technical details are in the next section, part 2). However, I purposely omitted one major component from my repository: the cryptography code... which just so conveniently happened to exist in another project using the same programming language I was using.

A few days later, I wrote another forum post, this time analyzing character sliders. Luckily, this thread got to stay—but you can probably tell by now just how long I'd been working with this sort of stuff.

If I recall, I didn't end up doing a whole lot with the framework itself. I used that programming language since that's what the server emulator used and I could straight up copy the cryptography code, but that language wasn't my forte. Ultimately, I was mostly just having it log the decrypted packets so I could have another program analyze it.

So I thought, what the heck, this packet sniffer code is taking a lot of effort to maintain when I could just skip the middleman and do it way simpler in the language I'm very familiar with. And maybe, just maybe, instead of being stuck with only reading stuff, we might be able to modify it too. Hmmmm...

It didn't take me long. I stopped updating that GitHub project the next month, and in April 2014 I had stated that I was working on a better version.

By the end of April I was already playing with "headless clients"—bots. For instance, a priest on MT had a macro to cycle buffs while AFK in one of the alliance halls, but then got a 3-day suspension. My response? What if it only buffed when you waved?

Besides that, the only other thing I did with it was make a chat bot that would relay everything between guild chat and IRC, which was just amazing at bringing together my guild. And what with being on the roleplay server, friends and I had this thing we'd sometimes do where we'd sit around the Velika tavern and watch the RP while idling. We called it "tavern scumming". I was already having fun playing with this guild/IRC bot and figuring out this chat stuff, so I thought, why not see if we can watch tavern RP at any time? What if the bot relayed RP to a website? And so I launched tavern-scumming.

It didn't last long. People caught wind, reported the bot and site for harrassment, and had En Masse look into it. The bot account, as well as all of my accounts, got slapped with a permaban.

I appealed. I appealed it so hard. Look—I'm a very loyal player. I have the Mark I titles for MC and KNXX. I love this game and I just want to make cool stuff. If I wanted to make anything actually malicious, I would have done it long ago. My forum and tumblr posts show the opposite of ill will.

They unbanned me, but not without warnings to be careful. Actually, the only issue was with the RP chat relay, because the GM said, verbatim, "[t]he IRC transcription function is not technically against the Terms of Service, but you are responsible for the transcribed chat".

Wow, how times have changed.

After the Ban

I went somewhat quiet for a while. The new project was gamechanging. I was thinking of all sorts of stuff and seeing what I could do with it, but I also didn't want to land myself in another sticky situation like that.

A couple of months later, on June 2014, this tumblr was made along with its first post. The stuff I was showing wasn't as practical anymore, but it was still kind of neat to see.

And by September 2014 I was just fooling around at that point. Besides, that was during the Rift's Edge patch anyway, so fooling around was about all there was to do anyway.

In October 2014 I started showing off Arborean Apparel. This was super neat to make and super neat to show... but did I really want to release it? tera-proxy is ridiculously powerful on its own, and then we want to let people play dressup for free? Well, I mostly rushed to make it look pretty to show off, but I really wasn't happy with the actual code and how I was building the data, so I figured I had time to think it over.

A few days later, tera-proxy was quietly published. Again, nothing else was there. No scripts or modules or anything like that to do anything. It was just a framework—with cryptography included this time. If you ran that code on its own, nothing in your game would've changed.

Nobody really noticed, and that was perfectly fine with me.

A lot of time passed in more or less silence. I was occasionally posting neat stuff on this blog and doing a few changes here and there with tera-proxy, while only few people noticed me (who were already from the server emulation community, like the person who wrote the emulator that got me started). Most importantly, I was just having fun playing the game.

One year passed. We saw Fate of Arun, Crusades, Sky Castles, Dreadspire, Gunner, Timescape, and Stepstone Isle.

On October 2015, Gothos published their attempt at a packet sniffing DPS meter—which, by the way, just so happens to use the same encryption code that I used. And from there, both ShinraMeter and CasualMeter showed up on GitHub.

Soon after, I remade my guild chat bot, except now the hot thing was Discord. So the Discord relay got published in November 2015.

Several months later, in May 2016, we saw TeraDPS.io. Then, I believe sometime in September 2016, Moongourd took its place.

On October 2016, just before the sorc revamp, I wrote fast-fire at the request of overseas friends who play archer, ninja, and gunner.

It went from friend to friend to very competitive friend, and with DPS leaderboards now being posted online, that was starting to mean a whole lot.

Some people didn't understand what it was doing. Some people got jealous or upset.

So in December 2016, it exploded. Big time.

After It Hit the Fan

Well, I figured, since everyone either knows about or has it now, I might as well start properly supporting it.

Lots of people noticed. Lots of people wanted to not be gimped by ping. Healers and archers hailing from Europe were sending thanks—and even people here at home, where California gets the same ping as the UK.

And people wanted more. No less than four people were trying to extend fast-fire to work with pretty much all skills in general. More quality of life mods popped up too. Work on the proxy spiked in the months following the drama thanks to a number of very helpful people contributing data and suggestions.

Unfortunately, with enough time came the exploits too. And that brings us to today. April 2017.

To my knowledge, someone found a way to buy items in the emporium from a higher tier than is accessible, and also posted a screenshot of having a metric ton of credits (although it was only the clientsided display; these were not valid, spendable credits). In response, EME took down the rewards system in order to fix it.

At the same time, it was announced that the triple drop weekend would not be including Ruinous Manor due to exploits. A lot of people thought this was linked with the rewards shop exploit, but as far as I'm aware, you didn't even need the proxy to exploit RM. You could easily do it with the vanilla game. But as soon as one person mentioned "the injector", all hell broke loose.

Then the bans started happening, alongside a public statement from En Masse with a hard stance against any and all third party tools and modifications. And lots of people are not happy.

The forums are a mess, the TERA stream chat was a mess, meme images and videos on recent events are everywhere, petitions and boycott plans are being made, and the community is divided.

That's what's made me so hesitant to release things all these years. That's why I've been so quiet on this blog and never been able to deliver on release promises. I knew that if this became a big thing, it would also become a big problem.

To know exactly why the proxy can wield so much power, I'll be explaining everything going on behind the scenes in part 2: Techno Mumbo Jumbo.

Corrections:

April 29, 7:28 pm Pacific: Fixed patch eras. Made MC parse run during WH patch, not MC patch. The fooling around / FABULOUS video was from Rift's Edge patch, not WH patch.

7:33 pm: "November 2016" for the Discord relay corrected to "November 2015".

7:35 pm: Clarified the rewards system was taken down for fixes, and added a link to the triple drop news announcement.

#tera #tera-proxy #en masse

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weekendwarriorblog · 4 years

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Maybe Movie Theaters Aren’t as “Lethal” as “Experts” Are Telling You?

I was going to write this piece “30-Minute Experiment” style* but then decided to write it offline in case I want to make changes before posting, although this is still mostly being written freeform. I’ve been dwelling on this stuff for months now, and I’m shocked that others who work in the movie business haven’t made even half the effort I’ve made to try and figure this stuff out. Instead, people seem more interested in making stupid jokes or spout the type of doom and gloom fearmongering to purvey the myth that reopening movie theaters will extensively kill people. Not only is this not true but none of these conversations have been even remotely constructive.

I’m here to say that a lot of what is being said is absolute fucking horseshit.

Besides spending more time in movie theaters than many if not most “experts,” including most of New York’s vast film critic base, I also made the time to take the Johns Hopkins course in contact tracing, mainly so that I could learn more about the spread of COVID and how to prevent or stop it from spreading. Sure, this is a constantly evolving pandemic where we’re getting new and conflicting information on a weekly and even daily basis, but there are simple premises in place that has made it possible for places like New York to beat it. Frankly, I have no idea why movie theaters have suddenly been deemed the most dangerous place on earth … compared to airplanes, churches, supermarkets, restaurants, etc. etc.

I can understand why reopening movie theaters has not been considered a priority by lawmakers since moviegoing might not seem essential, but right now, we need movies more than ever. If you look at all the craziness in the world right now, and especially in the United States, it’s pretty obvious that people staying at home in quarantine is like shaking a closed bottle of soda pop. Nothing is going to happen at first but eventually you have to open that cap and soda is going to spray everywhere. In this case, the effects have led to a lot of angry people but also a lot of bad behavior. I won’t go into details but you can see the uptick in violence across the country and wonder if maybe people had the outlet of going to movies.

Before I proceed, I just want to remind anyone reading this that NO ONE IS FORCING YOU TO GO TO MOVIE THEATERS!! If you don’t feel safe, don’t go. If you’re a film critic and don’t feel safe enough to go to a press screening of Tenet, don’t worry. There will be plenty of other writers out there who will gladly go and see the movie and write a review and ultimately replace you. There’s plenty of other jobs out there that are far more essential than being a film critic, and most of the film critics I know are so fucking lazy already, that they just want any excuse to sit at home in their bathrobe and slippers watching movies on their giant-screen TV sets. As someone who has reviewed 70 movies since April – you read that right – I’m already sick of watching movies in this less than optimum way and not being able to fully appraise the hard work by filmmakers at their craft. So yeah, I’m partially wanting movie theaters to reopen out of selfishness, but I also think that it can be done safely and in a way that people who need that outlet of escape can have somewhere to go and something to do, as opposed to what we have now…. NOTHING.

Not Everyone You Encounter Has COVID!

This is important, because there seems to be this underlying myth right now that everyone out on the streets, including those who aren’t wearing masks, are COVID carriers and potential spreaders. This could not be further from the truth, particularly in places like New York and New England where COVID has mostly been kept under control. When testing in New York is showing that around 1% of those tested are positive, that’s basically saying that 1 in 100 people currently has or had COVID, and most of them will have recovered and no longer be infectious in roughly two weeks. I don’t think I’ve been around more than 10 different people TOTAL in the last four months, and before that, I can’t remember the last time I was at a screening with more than 100 people (probably Birds of Prey, which was this big premiere/party fiasco in Times Square – I will not miss these).

If someone gets COVID, they may be carriers but they’re only infectious TWO DAYS before their symptoms show up. This is fact, straight from Johns Hopkins. If someone is in contact with someone with COVID on Thursday, but they don’t have symptoms until the following Thursday, they’re not infectious until Tuesday. But that also makes them pre-symptomatic since neither you nor they will know that they’re carriers. That is one of the biggest issues with COVID and why everyone needs to wear a mask… but hey, if you get tested today and you test negative for COVID, I’m gonna assume you’re okay, as long as you haven’t been doing stupid shit like going to COVID parties or hanging outside bars jabbering with other people you don’t know. This is how COVID spreads. Not sitting in a movie theater quietly watching a movie and not necessarily interacting with others you don’t know. I mean, who does that anyway?

Social Distancing

One of the key points to fighting the Corona virus has been for people to stay six feet apart from other people and generally isolating themselves from others. A lot of people have readily complied, because frankly they’re scared shitless of getting the virus themselves. Sure, they’ll say that their concerns are about spreading it to others, but it’s just not the greatest thing for everyone to stay isolated and away from other people. I’ll admit it that I’m getting pretty lonely, because I don’t have any friends who live in my general neighborhood, so I’ve not seen any single one of them in person in four months. It really sucks. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to socially distance in a movie theater. In fact, it’s much easier now more than ever since there are reserved seats, and in some theaters, they have the reclining seats which means they’re spaced further apart back-to-front. There are some issues with doing any sort of barrier or taped-off-seating thing because you have to expect that families or groups of two, three, four or more might all want to sit together, but you’ll still need to space out patrons/groups by two or three seats. On top of that, moviegoers tend to want to sit where they like to sit, so this could end up being somewhat limiting but I have to assume that most theaters won’t be able to be full beyond 25-30% capacity on reopening anyway so there will probably be plenty of space and options. That actually makes me happy, because like most people, I don’t necessarily want to be seated right on top of some person I don’t know… unless they’re very cute.

Mask Wearing

As we now know, wearing a mask is the most important part of preventing the spread of COVID-19, and except for a few people, that hasn’t been a big issue. More importantly, it really isn’t that big an issue inside movie theaters. While you’re in shared areas like bathrooms and lobbies, masks will have to be mandatory. There’s no reason not to wear a mask there, and it’s not hard to purchase and pick up tickets without having that much contact between employees, who also shouldn’t have a problem wearing masks when dealing with customers. (In fact, there’s far less contact between patrons and employees in movie theaters than restaurants where servers need to keep going back to tables and talk to people eating without masks.)

But honestly, once someone is seated, presuming that they’re more than six feet apart from others, they should be able to take off their masks, drink soda, eat popcorn whatever. It’s not like people are jabbering away while watching movies (at least they shouldn’t be, even without COVID), so I don’t think wearing a mask will be that big of an issue once everyone is settled.

Speaking of which, some of you may realize that I had leukemia back in 2013, and some might realize I got a stem cell transplant in October 2013, which basically reset my immune system to zero. I literally did not have an immune system, and I could have gotten measles or mumps or anything that people are normally vaccinated for as toddlers. I was told that if I got a fever or anything, I would be back in the hospital, so I basically was wearing an N95 mask whenever I was out and around anyone besides my mother (who I was living with at the time). That said, less than 30 days after my transplant, I was back in a VERY crowded theater to see Thor: The Dark World, and I continued to see movies. I’d wear my N95 mask when I went into the theater and once I was seated (usually on an aisle next to someone who I knew wasn’t sick) and I felt comfortable, I would take my mask off to watch the movie. When I returned to New York City in February, I rode the subway everywhere, and I continued going to movies including crowded all-medias, always wearing a mask but taking it off once the movie started. Sure, my situation was very different from how COVID spreads, but it’s a similar concept where anyone can contact COVID since there’s no vaccine. One also has to think that the safety measures being taken (as mentioned above) is helping to quell the infection when the rules are followed, and I see no reason why being in a movie theater, socially distanced from others, is any different than riding the bus or being in a store or anywhere else.

Cleanliness

I’ve seen a few comments online about how “theaters won’t be cleaned properly” because according to them, theaters employee underpaid teenagers who aren’t going to take the proper time and care to clean theaters and other spaces to the standards needed for preventing spread. Again, bearing in mind that not everyone who goes to theater is a carrier and just in general, people don’t walk around movie theaters spitting and spraying everywhere under normal circumstances, this is probably the dumbest reasoning I’ve heard. Experts have also said that more people have gotten COVID from it being airborne than it being on surfaces they touch and then proceed to touch their faces. Surfaces will generally have to be cleaned but I don’t think defaming young people is the stance to take on this matter.

Air Condition vs. Ventilation

This is the biggest question in my mind, and so far, I don’t think any of the “experts” have fully agreed. To be honest, a lot of what has been said is completely contradictory. At first, the reason movie theaters were being considered so dangerous was “because the air conditioning can blow the COVID all around the theater” but then, more recently, it was said that the reason why indoor locations aren’t good is due to the “lack of ventilation.” Those things seem to be polarly opposite to me. Either the air conditioning is blowing the COVID or there is a lack of ventilation and therefore nothing blowing around. There has also been talk about the AC systems needing a certain type of filter that can keep the COVID particles from travelling around or that the AC system needs to draw in fresh air from outside vs. recycling the air from inside, which makes sense if there is anyone positive with COVID inside. (And again, that’s a BIG “If.”)

Listen, I have been in a lot of movie theaters, both commercial and smaller screening rooms, and I prefer to have some sort of air or ventilation for it to be comfortable. I would rather have air blowing on me and keeping me awake than stale or “dead air” or worse, a warm and unventilated theater. But I also have never been in a theater where the air conditioning is blowing so hard that it might blow any molecules from out of my mouth into someone else’s mouth or vice versa. I mean, seriously… that’s gross.

I question this entire line of thinking, because I just don’t think there’s anything in the air in a movie theater that’s any worse than the air in a supermarket, a post office, a subway train, a bus or even a hospital. If you think about it, most ER waiting rooms in hospitals are so bad that if someone comes in with COVID symptoms, and for some reason, they’re not wearing a mask, they could literally infect every single person in there, going by the theories on why movie theaters are so bad.

The “2 Hour” Rule

This is something that’s come up most recently with China reopening its theaters but only for movies under 2 hours. So apparently, sitting in movie theater for less than 2 hours is MUCH safer than sitting there for 2 hours and one minute or anything longer? This makes little sense since you’re generally sitting in the same place, and the only way that being there less time may be safer is because, sure, there’s less time for you or someone around you to do something stupid. But that whole time, most of you will just be sitting there watching a movie. It’s not like you’re wrestling or singing hymns or doing anything that forces you to come closer into conduct with someone over the course of two hours or longer.

But there’s a really simple way to avoid people sitting in movie theaters too long… just kill the 20 minutes of ads and trailers in front of every movie. I mean, I prefer seeing trailers this way, and I always get to the movie theater earlier to see them, but it’s not really necessary, and it helps to get people in and out faster, if that is such a big concern.

Easy Tracking and Tracing

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, and I’ll keep saying it until I’m blue in the face because PEOPLE DO NOT LISTEN. The key to quelling an outbreak like COVID is through testing, tracking and tracing… plus social distancing, mask-wearing of course… but when someone tests positive for COVID, people need to know immediately who they came into contact with to make sure that they quarantine themselves and don’t spread it further. If someone quarantines for two weeks without symptoms, it’s pretty safe to say they didn’t contract COVID but if they immediately went out and get tested, at least they can quarantine while waiting for the results.

This is the key to why movie theaters are far safer than anyone seems to understand, because it’s far easier to track/trace who went to see a movie in which theater at what time. The person who tests positive for COVID would have to tell the tracer where/when they saw the movie, and then through online and onsite ticket sales, one could figure out who else was in that theater, call them up, see if they have symptoms, make sure they get tested/quarantined, etc. In fact, with reserved seating, you can determine who was sitting anywhere near the COVID case and you can contact them to see if they have shown any symptoms. One major problem right now is how slowly tests are coming back. These results need to be known within two or three days tops for contact tracing to make a difference, but the point is that movie theaters have so many ways to help in the contact tracing process by knowing more about their patrons (even if that information just sits in a database for two weeks in case it’s needed).

The COVID pandemic has been pretty awful, but getting COVID has not necessarily been a death sentence for roughly 95% of the people who have contracted it, and in some areas (like New York), the infection rate is so low you probably spend more time around people who don’t have COVID and maybe never had COVID then you do those who have contracted the disease. But if you get it, and you’re not over a certain age or have conditions that make it harder to beat, then you’ll just have to deal with it.

I find it more than a little funny and ironic that film critics -- one of the least essential jobs out there -- can't seem to drum up the courage to do their jobs, while nurses, doctors, delivery people, supermarket clerks and millions of other essential workers get up, go out and face the unknown every single day. Seeing movies in a movie theater may not seem essential to some people (including film critics, oddly) but movies have brought joy and escapism to millions of people across the world for over a hundred years. To some, watching movies in theaters offers a lot more to them, even if it’s just getting out of the house or getting some air conditioning for a few hours.

If you want to go to see movies in theaters, that’s just the risk you’ll have to take, and if you have diabetes or other conditions that might make it more dangerous for you to get COVID, then it’s up to you if you’re willing to take that risk… but I have a feeling that if you’re at risk, you will be a LOT more careful while interacting with people you don’t know when you go to the movies. You’ll wear a mask, and you won’t get up and up close to people you don’t know who are not wearing a mask. Really, it’s not that hard to figure this out.

(*Incidentally, I did write a 30 Minute Experiment on how to reopen movie theaters literally THREE MONTHS AGO!!)

#TheWeekendWarrior ReopenMovieTheaters

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bountyofbeads · 4 years

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Republicans are doing the same thing in North Carolina as well. #VoteCalCunninghamforSenate to replace Thom Tillis.

THE PARTY RAIDERS OF SOUTH CAROLINA

Before the state’s Democratic primary, on February 29th, a number of Republicans are trying to settle on the least electable candidate.

Twelve years ago, Rush Limbaugh, who had not yet received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, urged the listeners of his enormously popular and very conservative talk-radio show to vote for Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries. In the patchwork process that is employed to nominate Presidential candidates, more than a dozen states have open primaries, which allow registered voters to participate in either contest. Limbaugh wanted Clinton’s close but seemingly losing fight with Barack Obama to go on for as long as possible, on the theory that a protracted battle would weaken the eventual nominee. He called the plan Operation Chaos. Limbaugh didn’t think that Clinton was necessarily the weaker of the two candidates—in fact, he ultimately concluded that Obama was; by May, 2008, he was pushing his fans to vote for the senator from Illinois. “Barack Obama has shown he cannot get the votes Democrats need to win—blue-collar, working-class people,” Limbaugh said. “He can get effete snobs, he can get wealthy academics, he can get the young, and he can get the black vote, but Democrats do not win with that.”

Karen Martin, a freelance editor and pet-sitter who lives in Spartanburg, South Carolina, believes that her plan is more strategic than chaotic. Martin is the creator of Trump 2-29, which is encouraging Republicans to vote for Bernie Sanders in the state’s upcoming Democratic primary, on February 29th. “We’re really mad,” Martin told me recently, referring to her fellow-conservatives. “Mad at how our President has been treated for the past several years and wanting to do something now.” Voting for Trump isn’t an option: South Carolina’s Republican primary was cancelled in October, out of deference to the President. (“With no legitimate primary challenger and President Trump’s record of results, the decision was made to save South Carolina taxpayers over $1.2 million and forgo an unnecessary primary,” South Carolina’s G.O.P. chairman, Drew McKissick, announced in a statement at the time. A former Republican state representative sued to block the cancellation but lost in court.) Obama’s former Vice-President, Joe Biden, was expected to perform well in South Carolina; Martin wanted to vote for someone who could ruin it for him. As Iowa neared, she said, “We decided it’ll be Bernie.” Martin doubts that Sanders will ultimately be the Democrats’ nominee—though, if that happens, “It would be a great lesson in American Civics 101,” she said, adding, “To have those final debates be between an avowed socialist and a capitalist with the economic record that President Trump does, that would be really a contrast to see. Bernie makes it poetic.”

The South Carolina Republican Party has no official involvement in Martin’s efforts, but it hasn’t discouraged them, either. The executive director of the South Carolina G.O.P., Hope Walker, issued a statement acknowledging the existence of “activists that may decide to participate in the open Democratic Presidential Preference Primary” and explaining that the Party “has taken no official stand on this matter.” Meanwhile, Nathan Leupp, the chairman of the Greenville County Republican Party, told the Charleston Post and Courier, “I think we can easily affect the outcome. This is going to catch on like wildfire.” Leupp told me that he had talked not only to local activists but to the five other upstate-county G.O.P. chairmen about the plan; they concluded that it would be best for “the grassroots activists to make this push,” he said. (The Post and Courier story mentioned a planned press conference; after the story ran, Leupp said, the effort got so much attention that “we didn’t need a conference at that point.”)

Independently from Martin, a political and public-relations consultant from Greenville named Christopher Sullivan has launched a campaign that nods more explicitly to Limbaugh’s influence: Operation Chaos 2020. “We’ve put up a Web site, and we’re doing some digital work and communicating with our members and supporters,” he told me. Operation Chaos 2020 flyers were handed out at a Party meeting and garnered some attention on Twitter—there are plans for radio advertising, too, Sullivan said. Both the flyers and the Web site note that the effort is a project of the Conservative Defense Fund, the name of which may suggest a large organization; Sullivan is the chair of the group and, he said, its only full-time employee. (Karen Martin told me, of her own campaign, “The other day somebody asked, ‘So how much money is behind this effort?’ And I had to laugh. It’s when I can, in between dog-walking.”) But Sullivan is optimistic that even a modestly funded campaign could have real effects. He noted that, in South Carolina primaries, Republicans typically turn out at twice the numbers of Democrats—so even a small percentage of Republican crossover voters could be decisive in a reasonably close race.

Unlike Martin, Sullivan is not pushing any particular candidate. “One of the things is that the Democratic primary is in such disarray of their own making that it’s kind of hard, even at this late date, to know exactly which candidate is gonna be the best one to choose,” he said. “Six weeks ago, Joe Biden was the front-runner, and everybody was saying he was assured of the nomination. And now he’s dropping like a rock. It might be the best vote would be to prop up Joe Biden.” Sullivan set up a poll on the Operation Chaos 2020 Web site asking “which crazy Democrat candidate” participants in the operation should vote for. Late last week, Sanders was winning in a landslide, but, over the weekend, thousands of new votes came in for Elizabeth Warren. “I think her socialist policies would be a big loser in the general election, so I can see why Republicans would want her to be at the top of the ticket,” Sullivan told me. It may be that deciding which candidate is the least likely to beat Trump is no easier than deciding which is most likely to do so.

The kind of voting that Martin and Sullivan are pushing for is often called party raiding, and it has been around for a long time. Measuring its effect is difficult, but it is usually thought to be very small. (In 2008, when Limbaugh was pushing Clinton, some Obama supporters were convinced that bad-faith Republican voters had won the Indiana primary for her, but this was disputed.) That said, South Carolina in 2020 is a “perfect storm of crossover voting incentives,” according to Josh Putnam, a political scientist based in Wilmington, North Carolina, who runs the election-consulting firm FHQ Strategies. Putnam pointed to the earliness of the primary and the absence of a G.O.P. contest in the state and noted that, in South Carolina, unlike in many other states, primary participants don’t have to publicly proclaim that they belong to the party whose primary they are voting in. It may not hurt that President Trump has openly encouraged party raiding: at a rally in Manchester the night before the New Hampshire primary, Trump said, “So I hear a lot of Republicans tomorrow will vote for the weakest candidate possible of the Democrats. Does that make sense? You people wouldn’t do that!” (New Hampshire has a semi-open primary: those who are not registered as a member of a party can vote in either race.) Trump added, “My only problem is I’m trying to figure who is their weakest candidate—I think they’re all weak!” The South Carolina effort “has the potential to not only affect the race but how the field of candidates continues to winnow,” Putnam said. “The final remaining variable is promotion.”

Martin has been trying to spread the word on Facebook, where, on the official Trump 2-29 page, you can see debates about the plan unfold in real time. “Bernie is leading in the polls,” a Charleston resident named Sheri Irwin wrote. “Why on earth would we vote for him?” A man named Paul Fallavollita responded by highlighting South Carolina’s importance to Biden, adding, “A lot of corporations and banks have said they’ll pull their donations away from the Democratic Party if Bernie is the nominee. Here’s an opportunity to starve them of funds. Plus, if Bernie wins most of the primaries and the DNC cheats him, his voters will stay home in November.” Irwin wasn’t convinced. “This is how we got the usurper Obama,” she wrote. Then another South Carolina voter, Clark Mccauley, chimed in. “Democrat party don’t want Bernie that’s why we need to vote for him,” he wrote. “He is the craziest.” Lisa S. Marie wasn’t sold. “Good to know that the Tea Party is now pro abortion and for socialism,” she commented. “Good luck selling that!”

Marie is not the only South Carolina conservative who simply can’t stomach voting for someone whose views diverge so sharply from her own, regardless of the potential payoff. Hal Roach, a fifty-eight-year-old lawyer in Greenville, told me that he had friends who were originally “on board to vote for Bernie, but, after looking at some of these debates, they’re saying, ‘They’re all crazy, and there’s no way I can possibly and in good conscience ever vote for anybody up there,’ ” even to help Trump. Still, most Republicans, he believes, are less conflicted about crossing over than they are about who to choose. “Do you pick the most sane—the least crazy, as I view it—Democratic nominee?” he said. “For me, that would be Amy Klobuchar. Or do you pick the biggest whack job—that’s one of my favorite words—who I believe to be Bernie.” Roach has settled on Sanders.

Gaye Holt, a “very conservative, Christian-based Republican” who works for a family-owned screen-printing business in Greer, first heard about the Trump 2-29 effort on Facebook and has been fully convinced by the case for Sanders. “I think he’s a Communist, a Marxist,” she told me. “He wants to give everything for free and have no capitalism in America, even though he flies around on his private jets and town cars.” Holt also told me that she had seen the Democrats doing their own party raiding during a previous election. In the 2012 Republican primary, she was a poll worker, she said, and one of her jobs was to ask those who showed up which primary they had arrived to vote in. “A number of people said they wanted to vote in the Democratic primary,” she recalled. “And I would explain, ‘Well, there’s no Democratic primary today, there’s only a Republican’ ”—that year, the two contests were scheduled a week apart—“and their response, every single time, was ‘Oh, I want to vote for Rick Santorum,’ ” the former Republican senator from Pennsylvania. She added, “Not to judge anyone, but I knew these people were not Republicans.” Holt is convinced that these people had been “guided by someone” to vote for Santorum, “because he would be the easiest for Obama to beat.” If this reflected a concerted effort, it was not a successful one: in 2012, Newt Gingrich won the state’s Republican primary. Santorum finished third.

Among the reasons that party raiding is unlikely to have a tremendous effect on the Democratic nomination is that, in most states, including South Carolina, the Party awards delegates proportionally, according to the percentage of the vote received. (The Republican race, on the other hand, features many winner-take-all states.) When Clinton eked out a win over Obama in Indiana, in 2008, Obama still received thirty-four of the state’s seventy-two pledged delegates.

But Martin emphasized that upending the Democrats’ nominating process is, for her, a secondary goal. Martin is an organizer for the Spartanburg Tea Party and a former member of the South Carolina Republican Platform Committee, and she has been advocating for closed primaries for more than a decade. “Anytime a Democrat comes and votes in a primary that I’m also voting in, my vote is diluted,” she told me. “So it’s a very personal thing. It impacts who represents me.” Sullivan, the consultant, is also in favor of closed primaries, as is Leupp, the Greenville G.O.P. chair. “I go to a Baptist church,” Leupp told me. “When we go to pick a new minister, my Methodist, Lutheran, Catholic, and Mormon friends shouldn’t have a say.” He went on, “This Democratic primary has brought attention to something we feel needs to be changed. If it also disrupts the Democrats, so be it.”

In this respect, at least, the campaigns led by Martin and Sullivan have already made some headway. The state senator Marlon Kimpson, a Democrat who represents Charleston, has introduced a bill to end open primaries in South Carolina, and he cited Republican efforts to vote in the 2020 Democratic primary in his argument for the legislation. Martin posted a video of Kimpson’s remarks on Facebook, writing, “LOOK! Listen! this is what our Trump 2-29 Campaign activists have accomplished in just the first few days . . . Welcome to the team Senator Marlon Kimpson!”

“This is not targeted at the dissatisfied Republicans who are in good faith voting in our primary this time,” Kimpson told me. “It’s designed to send a message to the people who want to unfairly influence our process by voting for the weaker candidate.” Kimpson agrees with Martin about who that is. “The Party is searching for a moderate candidate, and Bernie has seized on the division in the Party. But, by every indication, a democratic socialist is problematic. I think the national data bears that out.” In a recent Gallup poll, a majority of Americans said that they wouldn’t vote for a socialist—but Sanders comes out ahead of Trump in an average of head-to-head national polls and has performed better in such polls than most of his Democratic competitors. (Sanders, who is running as a Democrat for the Presidency but is still an Independent in the Senate, has also expressed support, in the past, for open primaries, in which he has often done well.) It’s possible that conservative party raiders, like Limbaugh twelve years ago, have too much confidence in their political forecasting. As for the likelihood of his bill passing, Kimpson said, “I’ve asked for an expedited hearing. I don’t know that the judiciary chairman will give it to me. We’ll be talking this week.” He doubts that it will be addressed before February 29th.

*********

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justfollowmyhansel · 5 years

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Pre-Australia

When I was sitting on the bus coming back from Osaka to Tokyo, I asked myself whether I would do this again if I had the chance. Clearly coming to Japan to see John as Hedwig would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Even if he played Japan again, seeing the show under the extraordinary circumstances that I did would be a once-in-a-lifetime event. And I didn’t regret coming for a single moment.

But I asked myself between attempting to sketch on a moving bus, reading a little more on the book I’d brought, and generally reflecting on what had gone down if I would basically pick up everything and run to see John as Hedwig again. Just seeing him perform as her was everything I had hoped it would be for over two years and more. Hearing him speak her words and sing her songs even within a framework where he didn’t speak the majority of the dialogue was absolutely entrancing. I’d follow him as her anywhere. But would I do the same for him? Out of drag, performing his own songs?

That one I had to sit and think a little bit more on. Despite wanting to see him perform pretty much anything for so long, I found myself questioning whether or not I’d travel any great distance to Korea or Argentina to go see him perform if he wasn’t as Her. Ultimately I compromised with ‘it depends on the place.’

When the shows were announced in February, I found the speed at which I was immediately on board and wanting to go to Australia surprised me. Not anyone in my immediate circle, who once concerns that I could afford it were dismissed, knew even quicker than I had that I would be packing my bags and going to Australia. After all, wasn’t that the entire point of switching from two jobs to one higher paying one? Wasn’t that the point of buying a matching luggage set so that when an opportunity like this arose again I could pack up a small amount of belongings , hop on a plane, and see my favourite performer?

Later that first day, as I stood behind the checkout counter at work, I used on of the little yellow legal pads I had bought to aid in my roleplaying to work out my potential expenses. Much like when I went to Japan, I budgeted the hotel rooms at around a hundred dollars a night, the food at around 200 a week, the plane ticket at two thousand…. I worked out a very high, but surprisingly makeable budget that would allow me to get there and stay, by my estimates for three weeks.

On my lunch break, I corrected/firmed up/adjusted the budget taking the flight cost from Kansas City to Sydney, booking six weeks out and adding $200 for price increases or seasonal changes. I then took a quick survey of hotels generally in Sydney, assessed that a room would cost me about the same per night as it had in Japan – or possibly less depending on where I stayed. I blocked out a potential three weeks of costs, figuring that it’d cost me at least $100 per day to eat, about $20 to do two loads of laundry, and about how much I estimated it would cost to take public transport for that amount of days. Then, after planning out the minutiae of the budget I was expecting, including an eBay budget based on my general spending habits the last few months, I looked at my expected payroll. It would be tight, but it would still be workable. And if I was smart, I could even come home and have some cash left over, like I had from Japan.

The biggest monkey wrench to the trip at that time was staying at the same job. Between starting to plan the Australia trip and my first sojourn to New York, I found myself facing sudden hour reductions which affected all non-managerial positions across the board and a newly intolerable middle manager because of whom I almost quit less than a week after the trip was announced. Seeing John was one thing, but having to be miserable the next four months to be able to do so? Probably not worth it.

Of course, I stayed at the job; the hours reduction was solved by a few members of staff choosing that time to leave for better options, the middle manager problem was solved by being scheduled almost exclusively with my favourite middle manager since I was one of her favourite people to work with too, and any potential money problem were solved by full heartedly jumping on any and all overtime possibilities such as staying late, coming in early, covering shifts, and missing as little time out that I was allowed to be working as possible. Instead of having to get a part time second job like I had considered, I found myself with enough surplus to take the second trip to New York, allowing me to see the David Bowie Is museum a second and final time.

Shortly after the trip itself was announced in an early afternoon Instagram post, the first show location and ticketing info was released to the public. I had signed up for the early sale alert fan page that John had linked to shortly after announcing the shows. I bought tickets for the best seats available at the time, second row, and then began reconfiguring my trip for going to Brisbane.

Starting and ending in Brisbane was going to be six or seven hundred dollars more expensive than starting in Sydney no matter how it was budgeted. Brisbane wasn’t an international hub with the US and regardless of how I wanted it to be plotted either way, I’d be going through Sydney. The added expense had me second guessing my budget, but not my resolve.

But for only one show, the neither price list seemed worth it. I mentally went back and forth as to whether or not I wanted to spend that much and be on a plane for so long for one show. The last time I had thought about going to Australia was when I was in high school and deep in the depths of my Hugo Weaving obsession. I had wanted to see him in a stage adaption of what ended up being one of my favourite all time books, Les liaisons dangeouse. But I wasn’t in high school and this wasn’t going to be a case of “this is the only place I’ll ever be able to see this man.” Worst came to worst, I started to prepare myself to give up the Brisbane ticket. No matter how painful not being in that room might be, the amount of money I’d spend on a single ticket and expenses down for Brisbane could get me four or five trips to New York to see him doing something else. And if he was doing a concert series abroad, a concert series at home certainly wasn’t out of the question.

Clearly, there had to be more shows announced, but this one…wasn’t selling well. I thought for sure that the whole thing would end up being cancelled and refunded as I continued to make minor adjustments to my budget and make early morning notes at the gas station across the street from my job to where in Brisbane I wanted to go just in case I was actually able to make it.

A little while later, the next show was announced for the end of June at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival. I secured my tickets to that after having emailed the directors to find out when the tickets were due to go on sale to the public. Whoever was in charge of answering emails that day gave me the link to the presale and I got a front row seat. So far, that location one was winning out over Brisbane, if for no other reason than proximity to the performer. I’d seen John from the second row in Japan in a very fortuitous stroke of luck, but I’d never seen him from the front row before…. Still, with more shows promised I was reluctant to make a commitment to one show or the other, and as such, couldn’t buy the plane ticket.

At the end of March, I took my first domestic trip to see Mason Alexander Park, David Bowie Is, and my best friend. While I was waylaid getting back to Kansas City by airport construction and weather events, two more show dates were announced – Sydney on my mother’s birthday and Melbourne four days later on July 10th. As disappointed as I was to be missing my mom’s birthday, I was pleased that I would have a chance to see the Sydney Opera House. If John hadn’t announced a show in Sydney or had it not been at the Opera House, I would have had to have structured a separate time into my schedule to go see it specifically as it was the one thing in Australia I was most looking forward to seeing. Outside of John, of course.

Back in Kansas with an absurd amount of new Bowie merchandise, I reconfigured the trip some more. Adelaide would end up being the earliest date out on June 22nd and Brisbane the last one on July 17th. I had originally budgeted for three full weeks/21 days of being away from home. Extending it to nearly five weeks took me not only to the very edges of my monetary budget, but far beyond the amount of time I had ever spent by myself. The previous record, the now six months prior weeklong trip to Japan where I had the distinct advantage of knowing someone. And as much as I loved the experience, by the end of the week I was definitely ready to spend some time at home.

With the dates I had, there was no way to group it where I’d be spending less than three weeks in Australia to see the shows, but did I want the first three or the last? Based on John’s prior performances on Broadway and during the Japanese tour, I firmly decided that the last three shows would be the better performances to be at, especially for a show that wasn’t Hedwig where he’d have more time to find his rhythm and comfort zones within the material. I still wished I could go to the Adelaide performance ….

Late-April, I booked the flight to Australia now having committed to leaving MCI on the 3rd, arriving in Australia on the 4th and staying until the 19th, two days past when the last show was supposed to go on. I added an extra day past the last show in case something was added last minute to this trip like it had been in Japan. Booking the trip took longer than it should have since I kept typing my credit card number in wrong on United’s website, but I got it booked and somehow still made it to work on time.

Late-May when I was due to go out to see Risa and the Bowie museum again, the final show date was announced for John’s show — July 4th. Canberra. Tickets already on sale.

I nearly threw up getting tickets, it was so stressful. Neither my laptop nor my phone would let me pay for the seats once I had them selected. They both gave me the error message that since I was coming from overseas, I couldn’t use a credit card, but gave me no other options to pay with. Finally trying my mother’s computer, I was able to get the PayPal screen to pop up. Now the question became how to work Canberra into a schedule that for nearly three months had not included it.

Adjusting the plane ticket would have been the easiest solution. Going through United’s site, it would have cost me somewhere between twice and three times the amount of money I had paid just to get to Sydney to adjust the ticket to now fly into Canberra. Backing out of that reservation completely, it would cost me almost four times as much and with worse air accommodations to book a completely new ticket as so much of my other travel was tied into that reservation. And getting a separate flight just to Canberra from Sydney would be almost a third of the ticket down. Just how important was Canberra in the scheme of the shows? Some thing was telling me it was very important to make it to Canberra.

I took a mental step back and put that as something to worry about once I got back to Kansas from visiting Risa. Hopefully, no other show dates would be announced after Canberra. Or if they were, hopefully they would slot into the times I’d at least already be in Australia.

Getting back to the matter at hand, I ruled that taking public transport was right out as it would take almost ten hours and cost nearly as much as the plane ticket. Plus since I couldn’t reasonably expect to get out of the airport before eight because of customs and baggage, I couldn’t guarantee that I could make it to the theatre in time. In a moment of inspiration, I remembered what Miya had recommended when I went from Tokyo to Osaka. Maybe there was a coach bus that could take me there….

And for $80AUS both ways, there was. Overall, it was the cheapest solution and by far the easiest given the options. They even had a stop at the airport that I could take that would go directly from there to Canberra. But now I had the problem of intending to bring two pieces of luggage that would have to be checked for the bus and another fee. Or I could book the Sydney hotel room, pay no fee, rid myself of my literal baggage for a day while I went to Canberra, but…. I’d have to worry about my stuff being in a completely different city for a night as well as the hotel expense for an additional night that would be about the same both ways to bring the luggage along.

Eventually, a much simpler solution presented itself – just nest the fucking luggage since the large one was going to be mostly empty by that point anyway!

By the time, I had already started to have the dreams. I’d never been away from home this long and I knew no one in Australia. If something happened that I needed help with, the majority of my support system was half a world away and the sole person in the general time zone I could contact would be potentially unreachable as I wouldn’t reasonably be able to give her the heads up for three weeks straight. What if my debit card never worked in Australia like it never worked in Japan and this time we couldn’t get it worked around? I should have signed up for a second credit card through a different provider….. I should take out more in cash-cash than relying on my cards…. What if I took out enough cash, but my money belt was stolen or accidentally left on a bus somewhere? What if my phone was stolen or dropped? What if I got lost somewhere overnight and nothing was open? Like nearly happened my last night in Tokyo because of an unforeseen curfew at the hotel. I had dreams of wandering a deserted, but otherwise oddly accurate dream depiction of Australia without one or more resources.

I had dreams of walking the Michaels stockroom talking to my former store manager Tina while she was on her way to a meeting and suddenly I was also in the meeting but our store was now an hour away in Independence and it wasn’t laid out like a Michaels, it was laid out like a warehouse version of Toys R Us where she had worked before Michaels and we were attending a seminar that was being held in an area of the store that was at once a cross between a Greek open air oratorium and a modern theatre like the one at NHK Broadcasting in Osaka all the while talking to her regional boss about whatever the upcoming meeting was going to be about.

The most interesting of these dreams was that I was back in Japan, about to ride the train system with Miya. We had gone to Mos Burger, like on my real first night in Tokyo, and now were getting ready to go see a performance of the original cast of If/Then, which was likely inspired by Miya’s If/Then t-shirt that she was wearing when we first met. In the dream, we got on the train at Tabata, which was looking more like a blend of a bunch of stations that were decidedly Not Tabata, but other parts of Tokyo or Osaka. Almost immediately in the nearly empty car, we spot Anthony Rapp.

I went over to talk to Anthony since I’d already met him when If/Then came to KC on its tour (in reality, I was too nervous to say anything beyond hi.) He greeted me with a friendly surprise at seeing me so far away from home and asked why I had come over and what my friend and I were doing that evening. I said something about having come over to see John performing as Hedwig and that it had been a lovely coincidence that he was going to be playing in If/Then in Japan since I had enjoyed seeing him a couple of years previous and Miya was a big fan and…. He stopped me there and asked if he had heard correctly that we were seeing JCM. I confirmed and he offered to introduce both of us as he and John were friends from way back. I was so excited I woke myself up, unable to recapture the dream when I lay back down to see what happened next.

Around June the dreams calmed down and I stopped waking up panicked and worrying that I was making the right choice in spending so much time and energy doing this. What was done was done.

I booked the rest of the hotels and the coach buses and the cross country train. I added a trip to the Australia Zoo where I would have the chance to meet three different types of animals up close. I fully finished one of the three cosplays I had started with the intention of dressing up at the shows, gave up on the custom Hedwig Funko figure for the time being, and packed my bags for the trip of a lifetime.

#travel diary #Australia Travel Diary #pre australia #context australia

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atrocitycl · 7 years

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Critical Discussion: “Phone Equalizers: AtrocityCL’s Personal Guide to Bass Boosting”

“Phone Equalizers: AtrocityCL’s Personal Guide to Bass Boosting”

Posted on February 28, 2017

There should be a peculiar detail noticed: unlike what many oftentimes do, I ironically am not bass boosting as much as I am treble reducing. This appears completely contradicting: is the point of bass boosting not to increase the bass frequencies’ volume? Contrary to the thinking of many—and perhaps even common sense—this actually should not be done if one is attempting to produce the clearest possible sound quality.

Personal Message: Unfortunately, the request I am working on—BTS’ “Spring Day” (which is full of many praises to somewhat leak the review)—will not be finished in time for February. As a result, I have decided to instead switch posts and will instead be ending this shorter month with a bonus post that addresses music in a technical sense. That said, I openly admit this: I have minimal knowledge with the technicalities of music beyond, such as in this post, very basic principles. As a result, this post is not meant to be an expertise-level resource; this post, then, is here only to begin a discussion on “bass boosting” and “bass” in songs in general, and ultimately I hope it at least provides some help to readers who desire to figure out a “proper”—again, a very loose sense of that word—method to manually bass boost songs on their phones within an equalizer.

For other news, I have somewhat updated my “About” page on the blog after many months. In short, I merely added some clarifications on the purposes of reviews and equally have clarified and even apologized for older posts when it came to discussing social topics as, indeed, I had done a horrible job of conducting those discussions in the past. Ultimately my stances are still ones I very much hold true—for example, that all human beings are ethically responsible to treat sexual minorities with dignity and respect as they would with heterosexuals. What, then, I apologize for are not my stances; rather, I apologize for the way I discussed those topics—or the lack thereof as, for example, I would passive-aggressively bash males when discussing sexism when that is rather counter-intuitive and not addressing the matter at hand. Overall, social discussions that occur on this blog—which, again, only occur if they relate to K-Pop as it is important to care for K-Pop beyond entertainment and music—are now focused on attempting to find an answer to how humans can peacefully, maturely, intellectually, and respectfully discuss and be open to various views.

So, for an actual example of what discussions look like nowadays, Fiestar’s “Apple Pie” had a discussion about feminism but I attempted to do so in a balanced manner. Specifically, the tension here was whether Cao Lu’s remark on a certain show was inappropriate or not, and rather than merely siding with the main feminist take that it was highly inappropriate (refer to the link for context), I took another perspective that, though quite different, was ultimately still a feminist perspective that posed a genuine challenge to many people’s thinking. Instead of attempting to persuade readers to automatically bash Cao Lu as being sexist and so forth, I wanted readers to be more critical especially since many were throwing very serious terms around. Was Cao Lu’s remark sexist or not? That does not matter as much as discussing the core tension at play that her remark secretly brought up: What does feminism look like? It is this type of balanced, mature tone and deeper, critical thinking that I now implement in social discussions, and this is what I hope the new “About” page clarifies. (And I do hope readers take interest in the linked post and social discussion. Many readers would be surprised to find how convoluted feminism actually is—though indeed, feminism is here to stay and allows both men and women to really dive into the topic of gender.)

But serious topics aside, let us now focus on the current post. I have chosen the medium of cell phones as I do wish to make this “applicable” to all readers. (And if somehow I have readers who are not a part of this blog’s usual audience and are not fans of K-Pop or even know of K-Pop’s existence, I hope this post will still equally be applicable and helpful.) Especially with how many listen to their songs via cell phones, this medium definitely serves as the most relevant to readers. Furthermore, I hope to also discuss later in the guide the misconception that “the more bass, the better” as that is incredibly false if one is speaking in an objective sense versus a joking, casual manner. Again, we will discuss this in more depth later. Overall, the main goal of this post is to not just provide a simple equalizer guide to bass boosting on cell phones, but I also hope to explain the critical question: why? This is where we get to dive into simpler musical technicalities, and since readers sometimes wonder about the technical aspect of music versus just the abstract, theoretical discussions that take place in reviews, I hope this will satisfy those who are curious.

(Lastly to note, this bass boosting guide is assuming one is using earbuds or headphones. Bass boosting for cell phones’ speakers might require different settings—and ultimately does not even matter as unless if once has actual speakers, phones’ speakers are worthless in lower frequencies. Also to note, one’s listening apparatus will very much influence the outputted lower frequencies heard; bass boosting in an equalizer is not the only variable involved to hearing more bass sounds. Some earbuds are awful with outputting lower sounds, but nevertheless changes in equalizer settings should help but this should be noted.)

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Guide: First of all, before the guide itself begins, we must address the fundamental question: What is an equalizer? How can I access my phone’s equalizer? To answer the first part, without getting utterly technical and accurate, an equalizer is a place where one can modify certain frequencies’ volumes—and yes, I am referring to specific ranges of frequencies. As some may know, songs we hear are in a very rough sense made up of different numerical frequencies, and to change those frequencies’ corresponding volume, an equalizer is needed. We will get into actual directions and so forth later, but this conceptual idea is why bass boosting works: one literally boosts the volume of lower frequencies so that the bass is heard more prevalently. (And this applies to all other frequencies; so if one wants to treble boost—the opposite of bass boost—that is possible as well.) That is all there is to it. Regarding how one accesses their phone’s equalizer, it is oftentimes within their music player app’s settings. This obviously varies per app, but indeed is it within the app itself or perhaps even in a phone’s general sound settings. That said, oftentimes music players do come with built-in custom settings so perhaps one may find that there is already a default “bass boost.” This guide is still relevant, however, as perhaps some may find that their default bass boost is too strong or weak and thus, the guide here might help as one could merely increase the dB (decibel) changes to higher levels.

The following is my personal bass boosting guide and some justifications for such—this latter being most important as it is seldom shared or explained. Also, my phone’s modifiable frequencies are these (in hertz): 60; 150; 400; 1000; 3000; 8000; and 16000. Readers’ phones might vary drastically or end up being similar; should there be differences, I hope at least a general understanding occurs and that one is able to improvise if necessary.

Here are the dB changes I have applied for each frequency:

60 Hz: +2 dB

150 Hz: +2 dB

400 Hz: +0 dB (0 dB is unchanged)

1000 Hz: +0 dB

3000 Hz: -1 dB

8000 Hz: +0 dB

16000 Hz: -6 dB

To explain my reasoning behind such, first let us think in a general sense. There should be a peculiar detail noticed: unlike what many oftentimes do, I ironically am not bass boosting as much as I am treble reducing. This appears completely contradicting: is the point of bass boosting not to increase the bass frequencies’ volume? Contrary to the thinking of many—and perhaps even common sense—this actually should not be done if one is attempting to produce the clearest possible sound quality while still upping the bass volume.

For why this is the case, we have to understand the issue of distortion (basically when a sound starts losing its clarity and crispness). When it comes to boosting a frequency, the highest dB change that I personally find to still be effective with minimal to no distortion is only +3. Anything higher and distortion starts occurring and becomes quite audible. Thus, when one looks at the actual bass ranges I am modifying—60 Hz and 150 Hz (bass range is 60 Hz to 250 Hz if correct)—I have only done +2. This ensures there are no distortions (or at least are far from audible) and still boosts the range we are intending to hear more in volume. Nonetheless, this alone is not sufficient at all and that is where we need to look at other options. The solution: if we cannot go higher than +3 dB, we can reduce the volume of higher frequencies.

With 16000 Hz, I have given it a very significant decrease: -6 dB which does a lot of minimizing of volume for this frequency. Now readers may be wondering, “Why am I able to go -6 dB if +3 is the max without distortion?” This is where we need to understand that unlike boosting, reducing is far easier and has no distortion whatsoever. Why this is the case in a physical, scientific sense? I honestly have no idea; my excuse is that I am an English and secondary education double major and thus cannot give an answer. I suggest readers researching the answer as it fundamental concept to understand if one wishes to truly know the technicalities involved. But, indeed, we know the results: reducing the treble frequencies is our solution.

So, how exactly does this significant reduction that occurs towards 16000 Hz help with bass boosting? The result from doing such is that the proportion of our frequencies are now in a certain ratio so that in order to still hear a standard volume of 16000 Hz sounds, one would need to increase the overall volume by a lot and doing so also makes the bass sound louder as well in respect to the overall volume. This is all far too confusing in words, so let me simplify this with a few diagrams and actual examples.

At default settings (+0 dB for all frequencies), we will assume that at Volume 10 MAMAMOO’s “Decalcomanie” is appropriately loud. However, the listener desires more bass to be heard and so she applies the bass boost settings.

Now with bass boost settings, we find that at Volume 10, “Decalcomanie” is actually too quiet. This is because the reduction at 16000 Hz reduces a lot of the sounds our listener hears, and also her boosts towards 60 Hz and 150 Hz also somewhat drowns out the lighter frequencies that she would normally hear if she were running a default equalizer setting. So, in order to hear at a normal, listening volume, she goes all the way up to Volume 15. This, though, is not “louder” than if “Decalcomanie” was playing at Volume 10 with default settings; instead, the song overall sounds the same before but it now has more bass involved. This might still be confusing so we will now go to diagrams explaining. (And by diagrams, I mean a slightly more visual version than just reading text.)

DEFAULT EQUALIZER: (Percentage shows how much is “heard”; numbers are made up but the general idea should be there)

Overall Volume: 10

60 Hz: 100%

150 Hz: 100%

400 Hz: 100%

1000 Hz: 100%

3000 Hz: 100%

8000 Hz: 100%

16000 Hz: 100%

BASS BOOST EQUALIZER:

Overall Volume: 10

60 Hz: 120%

150 Hz: 120%

400 Hz: 100%

1000 Hz: 100%

3000 Hz: 90%

8000 Hz: 100%

16000 Hz: 50%

Here we notice what I am attempting to get at. At Volume 10, our listener finds that she is lacking her usual 16000 Hz sounds—this being physically heard by the fact that the song is actually slightly quieter in general. (For those with pre-made bass boost settings, try this experiment: switch from that to the default and then back to it and readers should notice that with bass boost active, the volume to their songs seems reduced. This is a rough explanation at why this is the case.) In order to fix this, our listener simply turns up the volume. Now look at the results:

BASS BOOST EQUALIZER:

Overall Volume: 15

60 Hz: 160%

150 Hz: 160%

400 Hz: 100%

1000 Hz: 100%

3000 Hz: 100%

8000 Hz: 100%

16000 Hz: 100%

Again, this is far from an actual portrayal of what occurs especially as the other Hz are not bothered with, but my point is this: bass boosting and treble reducing literally reduce a song’s overall volume because it reduces certain sounds, but once the overall volume is increased again so that it sounds as it is with default settings, we notice that the bass is much stronger because in order to hear the same usual higher frequencies, the bass frequencies—which are partially boosted—seem louder in proportion to the other frequencies. Once again, the numbers I am using are not accurate and do not matter per se; these diagrams are just to showcase the idea of the sounds being in proportion and hence why equalizers work the way they work. As said earlier, one could see this at work if their music playing app features its own pre-made bass boost setting: the bass is never actually boosted in of itself per se, but rather everything else but the bass is quieter so that when the volume is increased, the bass seems louder because everything else but the bass was already reduced in sound. This, in short, is what I am getting at.

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Conclusion: For the most part, if readers are merely looking for a guide for an equalizer setting that is bass boosting, the one I listed above should be reliable. Admittedly my explanation regarding why those settings work in the first place might be unclear, but this might be one of those cases where readers might just have to nod their hands and smile and wave. Of course, though, these settings are not perfect and are indeed modifiable so that readers can increase or reduce the amount of bass boosting that occurs, but the most important takeaway is for one to understand that bass boosting is not literally bass boosting. This is one that many in general are confused about—and I do not blame people; it is highly counterintuitive that bass boosting consists of treble reducing as well.

And on that note, another misconception is that the more bass the better in an objective sense. If a listener finds that he loves his music to be blasting with bass frequencies, then by all means he should be allowed to do so. But, should a listener go around spreading her false information that more bass is objectively better, that is quite problematic. Excessive bass runs the risk of muddling out too many sounds, and especially if one is being an active listener and is critically thinking about songs’ compositions and production, excessive bass is questionable. But, of course, general bass boosting is fine—and indeed, I personally do review songs with a bass boost equalizer in place and I find that this is beneficial as default settings fail to capture the bass involved with songs.

All in all, I hope this post proves helpful for those wondering how to work their equalizer or for those who have always been curious as to how their equalizer worked in the first place to bring them more bass, treble, and so forth. Again, I am by no means an expert at all with sound in a technical sense and admittedly I care more for songs’ theoretical discussion within an amateur lens, but I think it is important to bear an open mind for even the technical aspect of music. As always, readers who would like to send in corrections are always welcomed by sending it via a question. (But, I will not accept corrections on my diagrams’ numbers as, obviously, the point there is not on the numbers themselves but rather the proportions that occur—even if mathematically that is false as well.)

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With February ending and March beginning, let us look forward to a more productive month. February was much weaker than I intended it to be, but March will be started off with many wonderful songs. In particular I am dying to review TWICE’s “Knock Knock” as I have much praising towards the composers because of how efficient and accommodating the song is for TWICE’s members, but we will save that discussion for after a request on BTS’ “Spring Day”—another song that is well composed and has an incredibly interesting idea with its instrumental that works out very well despite it being a riskier one.

Thank you to all for reading this, and for those curious on the next “technical” post in the far future, I finally wish to directly address the misconception involved with “MR Removed” videos and lip-syncing and whether live singing is a true, reliable testament to an idol’s vocal capabilities. A very touchy subject and one that needed to be addressed long ago when MR Removed was a trending idea, so if nothing else comes from this future post then I hope at least my discussion on it will keep the topic dormant. (Indeed, readers can tell my position regarding them: I find them highly unreliable, and even in the case of them being accurate, MR Removed completely disregards composers and producers and what it means to actually actively listen to music. MR Removed, in my opinion, encourages a “hunting” game that not only gives minimal respect, but it goes to the point of being disrespectful to idols, composers, producers, and so forth.)

#AtrocityCL #Critical Discussion #Phone Equalizers #Bass Boosting Guide

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gashaponma · 7 years

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Aloha!

February is here.

Hopefully we’ll all have something to cheer. May you be surrounded by those you hold dear. May your troubles melt away along with your fears.

If your sun sign’s tarotscope is not clear, look to your rising sign, which you can determine here: http://www.astrologycafe.com/compatibility-ascendant-birth-chart-tools/

These are general readings so they won’t always be exact my dear. But if you like I could do one just for you, and it’ll hit bull’s eye like a spear.

ARIES

Love brings difficult choices. Love also brings some soul searching. As a sign that is more inclined than most to take a devil-may-care attitude, this month you’re being urged to think of the impact of your actions on your near and dear ones. The result? A fresh start, perhaps in just a change of attitude, that makes you feel lighter and more motivated about everything in general. For some, this marks a time of reckoning, especially in romantic relationships — should you say ‘I do’ or go? Follow your higher needs and not just physical/material concerns. For some, this is also a time of exploration or education and again, you are confronted with the challenge to establish a working harmony between reality and fantasy. Enjoy the mental exercise!

TAURUS

No matter how hard you try to get along with others and just do a good job at the end of the day, it’s never enough is it? This month could see you feeling cheated like this or in some other way. Or you might decide to speak up for some reason and that could result in a battle that will see no winners. Some of you could find you’ve been overlooked for praise or a promotion despite having done your fair share at work.Those of you getting their houses renovated may get the bad end of the bargain from renovators…steel yourself, keep a sharp eye out. In better news, if you’re competing against others for work or elsewhere this could be your moment to slay ’em. General advice for the month? Pick your battles as well as your words wisely.

GEMINI

Where do you go from here? It’s possible you moved into a new place recently, or got newly married, or perhaps left home for new shores. And now come the difficult decisions. Perhaps you’re having second thoughts or buyer’s remorse about where you are now? A lot of you though should be enjoying peace and stability. Some of you will be enjoying a free run of choices in your new setting — each one better than the other. For some of you a passionate encounter leads to moral conundrums over short-term gains versus long-term goals. This is definitely a ‘charged’ time, but it’s also a period where you can pave the path to inner peace should you follow a higher calling.

CANCER

Signing on dotted lines could be a big part of your month. As could be the formalisation of a relationship. If you’re caught between choices then the conventional option might be the better bet. Some of you will attract a partner who is a leader of an organisation or social group. For some of you, the advice is that if romance comes calling it will be a good idea to maintain a slightly reserved stance and not rush in as fools are wont to do. Following the form of formal courtship will help you maintain enough objectivity and distance to make the right moves. If you’re looking for a partner then joining a meet-up or website could help. If you feel like your health has seen better days, then now is the time to seek professional help from doctors/dieticians/holistic healers who will help you with fixing on a regimen. If you’re confused about a partner and it’s still early days, then ask to meet their friends or family

LEO

You’ve made a move, now you await the results. Did you recently make some bold decisions or life shifts that are failing to bear the kind of fruit you hoped they would? Don’t worry, be patient. New developments are gestating yet so you can’t exactly see them. For some of you it may seem like you’ve been making far too many compromises of late and that somewhere in the midst you’ve lost a grip on your own hopes and dreams. If there is some kind of ennui sinking in, plan and a mini adventure just for yourself! For some of you, this ennui could do with a relationship you’ve been trying to put a happy face on. Again, take some time out for yourself. Are you thinking of a career change or financial growth? Think bold but don’t go betting on horses!

VIRGO

This month you have the clarity of thought and consequently, the energy to dispel your fantastic notions to replace them with healthier dreams. Some new facts or someone’s true colours coming to light could help you see things clearer. It may not feel great but you’ll be happy for at least being able to work with the truth rather than misleading assumptions. For some of you this is a time to leave a drug or alcohol problem behind. There is a positive shift in perception many of you will experience. A special word of advice for you though, is to ride out the lows with patience and hope. Indeed, there will be moments when you’ll feel like detoxing is not really worth it, or that perhaps you should return to that unhealthy (co-dependent?) relationship after all….but stay strong. This month marks the lull before good things start flowing your way!

Jumper card with a special message

LIBRA

A long-distance relationship is on your mind! This relationship involves one person who is more concerned about the penny-and-pound realities of life and another who is more idealistic or romantic. Both parties are aware of this mismatch at one level and feel like it won’t work out, yet, both are thinking of each other as one goes about their daily business and the other waits for a phone call! Will the twain meet? The Star says that there is a bit of divine guidance navigating this situation. You never know! For those to whom this relationship situation does not apply, this month is a time to take a break from your worldly concerns and tune into your inner yearnings. What do you REALLY want from life? Surely not the same old grind! Perhaps a relaxing retreat will help you come up with some answers!

SCORPIO

Money or health concerns are on your mind! Something a boss or doctor said to you has you slightly worried that you might lose your hold on a stable situation. (Feels more like a money problem FYI). Perhaps you’re trying to still hold onto a job that has you feeling short-changed in some way. Is there a new organisational diktat that has you worried? The question is, should you stay or should you go? The answer: Choose the path of least stagnation! For some of you it’s possible that as a part of extended family, friends’ group or community you’re being asked to shell out some money and you’re not feeling too happy about that! How much do you stand to lose? How much love and respect do you stand to gain in its stead?

SAGITTARIUS

A new love comes in, prompting you to break things off with your current partner — be gentle. A new love enters your life and turns out to have been a Judas of some sort — be brave. An announcement of a pregnancy or marriage starts to cause squabbles between a happy couple. These are some of the scenarios that could play out in your life. But hey! Being inherently learning oriented you know loss teaches far more than it takes! So don’t dwell on the unpleasant exchanges (regardless of if you initiated them or received them), take away fresh insight from them. Watch your words this month and make it your mission to learn the art of fighting gracefully so no one gets permanently hurt. Whatever fight you lose this month, however you are disarmed, will ultimately lead to a new way of thinking and communicating for you. Some of you may also find some solace in a new no-strings-attached breezy affair.

CAPRICORN

It’s a mixed kind of month for you — bittersweet in its offerings. On the one hand it’s a highly social time, it may also bring a happy reunion or a string of parties but at the same time this will cause you to struggle with keeping up with chores and perhaps, even add to your already long list! If you’re in the midst of planning a big social event (a wedding?) then you’ll feel beset by endless obstacles and the cards want you to remain strong! Some of you might also find yourself needing to fend off many admirers when you make your public appearances….ooooh! In general, this is a month where you’ll be pressed to think creatively and in fact even be inspired to! Enjoy!

AQUARIUS

You’ve been toiling away or studying hard behind the scenes and now it’s time to show the world what you’ve got! Many of you might be getting ready for an exhibition or presentation of personal work at this time. And you’ll be feeling quite good about it all! For some of you this month signals a time to take a break from work and make the time for some romance….FYI, a suitor could come calling! ;-) Those of you who’ve been working on their bodies, this month you’ll feel ready to flaunt what you’ve got! Woo hoo! All in all, it’s a pleasant, inspiring and a tad dreamy month. Your work will be appreciated…and so will you!

PISCES

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This month an authority or father figure, someone who has passed on, or a senior mentor of yours plays an important role. With regard to this person, where you were once feeling at a loss, you’re now becoming more comfortable. Those who’ve been grieving the passing away of such a figure will now start to feel OK again. Some of you are at a stage in life where you are taking big, concrete steps to build a better life — this month your efforts will start to bear fruit as losses start turning into wins. Health-wise, you still might suffer minor symptoms but largely you’ll find your condition steadily improving. For some of you, there is a transition from working to early retirement! For some of you this is a month where you leave ‘the hard life’ or a ‘killer instinct’ behind to adopt a more genteel and gentle approach. I almost feel as if there are some of you who are leaving some kind of a criminal career behind and choosing to go clean! Peace!

Until next month! :-)

Feb-don’t-rue-ary February 2017 Tarotscopes are here! Aloha! February is here. Hopefully we'll all have something to cheer. May you be surrounded by those you hold dear.

#2017 #aquarius #aries #cancer #capricorn #february #gemini #leo #libra #pisces #sagittarius #scorpio #tarot #tarotscopes #taurus #virgo

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pelztells-blog · 7 years

Text

Dallas Anne

Dallas Dog Toaz it read on her bottle of Prozac. Twenty milligrams a day, the same as her mom, which is why it is distinguished with ‘Dog’ on her bottle. Sometimes when her supply ran out, I interchanged them with my extra pills, and vice versa. Like mother, like daughter right? And when it was time, we both came off Prozac at the same time, too. We’re a special team, Dallas and I.

Dallas’ story is one I love, not unnecessarily because I get to play the role of heroine in it, but also because I think it’s a story of fate and one of when my life was made better because her insubordinate little self came into it. She’s a dog of many names: Dallas, Dallas Anne, Dallas SugarAnne, Dallybear, Dal, Damn It Dallas (I swear she used to come by this name). And a dog of many personalities, something I saw in her on that very first day, when my heart was broken and I didn’t know how to mend it.

Dallas is named after the dog who came before her, Houston. I have no affiliation with Texas and in fact have never been there. It just happens I’ve had 2 dogs named after cities in that state. I adopted Houston from the Humane Society when he was a year and a half old. I had wanted to name a dog something Irish, like Morrison, or Guinness, but I found I liked Houston. It was original, so I kept it. Houston was a terror. I’d never been much for dogs, but my sister had gotten it in my head that a cute little puppy was something we both really needed. This roughly translated to, a cute little puppy was something I needed and she wanted to play with it on occasion. I’m not sure it was my most well thought out idea, but regardless, that fall day in 2011, I brought him home. Houston ran away at every chance he had, which ended up being his demise. When he was killed by a car a few months after adopting him, I was devastated and blamed myself for not taking better care to ensure he couldn’t escape. I struggled to accept his death and move on. Most weekends, I would return to the Human Society and look at dogs, take some for walks, frantically searching for a replacement, but nothing felt right.

Then one day, I stayed home from work to move into a new bedroom in our house. I was feeling sad that day, and decided to take a break by driving over to the society. I made my usual rounds, and was heading back towards where the older dogs were kept, the ones not on display as easily. There in the first cage as you walked through the doors was the most pathetic looking little dog I’d ever seen. She was laying on the floor, head on her paws, staring ahead, the saddest look in her dark brown eyes. Her name was Sugar and I decided she was the perfect candidate for a walk. She bounded ahead once we got outside, running down the path, me trailing behind, until her energy wore out and we sat together on a bench. When we returned inside, I took her into one of the rooms you can bring dogs in to play with in your own space. She immediately curled up in my lap and fell asleep. I sat on the floor with her and cried.

The next day, my roommates wanted to go look at puppies at the Humane Society, and I was only to happy to oblige in the hopes I could spend some time with Sugar again. When we arrived, I darted back towards her cage while my roommates went towards the puppies. She wasn’t there when I looked, so I searched through all the other rooms and cages, but couldn’t find her anywhere. I tried asking an employee, but was brushed off. So I asked another employee, who still couldn’t tell me anything. So I kept asking people while searching for her, until finally, one exasperated employee told me Sugar was in the back where she was scheduled to be put down in a few days. She had ringworm and they couldn’t risk it spreading around to the other dogs. They liked her so much though that they were holding off on putting her down until Tuesday.

The news broke my heart, and I asked if I could see her anyways. The lady agreed to bring her outside. As soon as Dallas got out, she started crying, her little whines destroying me further. I knew I couldn’t let another dog die on my watch, let alone a 16 week old one. I didn’t want to keep her, but I figured I could take her long enough to clear up her ringworm and then adopt her out. I told the lady that I would take her home, if that was an option. As long as I took her by Tuesday, she was all mine. On Tuesday afternoon, the kids I nannied after school and I made the trip to pick her up. As soon as she was brought out of her cage into the main room, she peed everywhere. Twice. That was my dog.

I renamed her Dallas immediately and should have realized at that point that she would never be going anywhere. Dallas (Sugar) Anne Toaz was home. It was a long road that we were to travel from that point on. Her ringworm ended up being a secondary condition, to demodectic mange. By the time we figured that out, hundreds of dollars in vet appointments and medications had already been spent. She’d also been in quarantine for over a month at this point, as there was another puppy in the house and she was contagious. I ran laundry just for her twice a day, disinfecting her doggy beds and towels. Cleaning her cage was a multiple time a day feat as she wasn’t potty trained. She is terrified of crates to this day. Once the mange was diagnosed, she had to get twice a month ‘dips’, which were also insanely expensive and required her to spend full days at the vet (consequently, she also is terrified of and hates the vet). I adopted her in early February and she wasn’t cleared with a clean bill of health until around June. She was a hot mess. She is a hot mess (but she’s now a hot mess with insurance, as that was an expensive mistake I don’t make anymore).

Over the years, Dallas had driven me insane more times than I can count. I’ve threatened to give her away multiple times, twice seriously, when she was a puppy because she was so ill behaved. Dallas is her own dog. Rules don’t apply and she can’t be bothered with consequences. She will shit in the house when she’s mad (mainly at my parents house, unfortunately). She pouts in corners when she isn’t getting enough attention. We went through an underwear eating phase that infuriated me to no end (and resulted in me being a regular at Victoria’s Secret). That being said, she also has one of the funniest personalities of any dog. She’s weird. She loves carrots and will sneak them if she sees them left out. She likes to hump pillows when she is happy, but stops when you walk in the room. She hates baths and tries to hide if she even suspects one (she’s mastered dead weighting). She requires her own full size bed if she can’t sleep in bed with you, and prefers to be tucked in. She likes to lay in the grass when it’s sunny like a lion. She is scared of wind, and won’t go outside if she senses it coming. Same goes for rain. She paws at you if you’re on a computer (and apparently, with my dad, on the piano) so that you’ll only pay attention to her. She perches on people and the edges of couches and stares intently at nothing. She loves to cuddle if she likes you. And if she doesn’t, then she tries to eat you, which can be rather difficult to manage at times.

This post has nothing to do with us moving abroad really, but when we moved, she didn’t come with us. She’s in Cleveland with my parents and brother. We worried that, as she’s always had a yard of her own, moving into an apartment would be difficult for her. I was also really stressed about flying her beneath the plane, in a crate, and the effects that would have on her. Ultimately, we felt for now, that she would have a better quality of life in Cleveland. I knew my brother and dad would adore her (I knew my mom would not adore her) and that she would have lots of room to run and lots of people she could cuddle with. But as she has been with me for 5 years, I find myself at days missing her quite a bit. I wonder if she will forget about me, or be angry at me, or if I’ll stop being her favorite. Then I watch a video of her and giggle, or talk to her on Skype where she largely ignores me, and know I’ll see her before I know it. And she will probably shit in my room to let me know how she’s felt about the nine months we’ll have been gone, and all will be right.

Perched on Jason

This is her pouting, but Jason called her name to get the picture of her. You can see the pathetic-ness exuding from her.

She loves to sleep on couches, so we compromised and she was only allowed to get on it if there was a blanket down.

Sometimes I dress her in my clothes. She loves it.

Putting herself in the corner.

She was angry at me for being away when I picked her up, and showed it by doing this the entire car ride home.

Best cuddle buds.

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My mom watching a video of Dallas humping a pillow. She wasn’t too pleased. They still aren’t good friends yet.

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Just an average day.

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#dallas #cleveland #dallasdoescleveland #nashville #DallasAnne

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