#also i had to do a quick google to get a comparative stat and what i wrote is literally just Wrong but oh well | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sadiewayne · 4 months

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are you more or less likely to like the percy jackson show if you have adhd?

TL;DR at the bottom

this whole idea came about because i was seeing people complain about the pacing of the show and i was so confused because i thought the pacing was perfect and then i thought maybe it's because i have adhd and so of course i would think the pacing was great and so i ran a poll to look at the results and here are those results

important things to note

a) i have adhd (diagnosed)

b) i study a stem degree

ok here we go

short answer

statistically no, but i disagree (i'll get to it)

longer answer

i did a poll comparing if you have adhd and if you like the show, these were the results (and here so you can see how i wanted people to answer)

(yes i voted, my opinion also counts)(and yes, there are flaws in the design but i only had 12 options and this was mainly about adhd)

and idk about you but looking at those numbers i can see a few things

number 1: most people like the show, 87.8% in fact

and if you take out the people that didn't care, it's 92.9% of people who did care aka a lot

quick stats rundown

for everyone with adhd (thats the first 6 options) 3% didn't like the show

for those with other neurodiversities and not adhd, it was 12%

yeah, thats 4 times higher (it works out at a whole 2 people but again, limits of the poll)

ANYWAY, i ran some statistical tests (don't stress, i don't understand them either, i will not be focussing on them)

first, chi squared (compares expected values for each option with the actual values i got)

yeah that number is small, like very small, like 2.8 quintillionths

but i ran it in R and got a very different number

and oh lookie here that's a p-value about 0.05 and so we must accept the null hypothesis (basically that yeah, that's expected)

which makes NO SENSE but whatever, the computer tells me it's that

enough of chi-squared, i also ran a z-test (i googled what to do and apparently this was the right test, idk what it does ngl)

i didn't run this one in R bc i have no idea how to do that

but the p-value is again, about 0.05 and so accept that there is no significant difference

BUT I DISAGREE

ok i don't disagree with the stats but i disagree that there isn't a difference

it doesn't take a genius to see the difference

3% of people with adhd didn't like the show but 12% of other nd's did like-

come on that has to mean something

so i ran a chi squared test on just the adhd data and...

1.9 octillionths

wha-

so did it in R and got a warning saying it probably wasn't accurate (it's probably the 0) so i ran fishers exact test (idk man thats what i was told to run by the internet) and got this...

so errrrrr yeah

apparently the same goes for the adhd data to which i can kind of get but also dont when

0.6% of people didn't like the show and were diagnosed as an adult but 1.2% didn't like the show and were self-diagnosed, with almost the same number of votes (it works out as a 1 person difference)

and no one who was diagnosed as a child disliked it like WHAT?!?!?!

also no neurotypicals disliked it, love y'all for that /gen

idk, i think the sample size is too small to run accurate tests, that or im doing it wrong which is a very high probability

so whilst statistically, the answer is no, i'm seeing a pattern emerge

but i am a scientist so i cannot say yes or no which SUCKS bc i see a pattern and i want to know MORE but tumblr doesn't have a great mechanism for polls so i can't ask all the questions i want to

TL;DR

the stats say there's no significant difference and so i must concur even if i don't want to

the show was amazing and i'm very excited for season 2 for reasons i don't want to spoil for people who haven't read the book (but go read the books they are just as good)

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absolutebl · 2 years

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Taking my BL hat off for this question and putting my corporate one on. Please indulge me for a moment! I know it’s a niche question.

Before I ask, this is not a complaint about Viki- I’m not privy to their strategy, so can’t really comment. But… I’ve noticed they have at least three different translation models on at the moment. Semantic Error is coming out later in the day, but at 100%, You’re My Sky is getting close to 100% quickly, while others are taking days and days (I see you First Love, again). Now it could be different priorities and different sub teams, but the optimistic part of me hopes that it’s A/B testing and they are modelling the impact of different ways. It appears to really impact the buzz around each show. I promise there is a question here- this has got me thinking about the different distribution models- not just Viki but across the different production and distribution companies. What kind of an impact do you think the different kinds of distribution has in the success of a series (and how do they even define that) and why do they distribute a series knowing their model has a direct impact on less viewers? Why do they take so long to release subs (and not at all internationally for some series) knowing that a series without quick subs will be either ignored or people will turn to grey and illegal sites? Surely maximising their customer base would be a goal.

Viki’s Strategy on Subbing

Honestly, I don’t think there is one.

Your speculation is interesting, and it's kinda sweet that you think they are that organized and intentional, but I get the impression it’s a chaotic mess over there. Crowd sourcing will do that to a platform.

Someone commented on one of my older posts about how Viki sub teams worked. I don't know if they are still around and following me but *waves* perhaps they will weigh in again?

Thai dramas often get early subs because they are acquired with subs in place. Or, the Thai teams at Viki are very fast and efficient. Or they just have less to do (Viki doesn't actually have much Thai stuff compared to other languages.)

Sub-Team efficiency depends on the usual: how good is the top down coordination + how enthusiastic are the volunteers + when did they get the original assets. Also flow throttle, is there a bottleneck at some stage in the process because it requires one specific member? (Like final stage uploading.)

There’s certainly no split testing. Can you imagine them being that good? Oh what a glorious world...

I don't think Rakuten even knows the meaning of the term. I've never seen them roll out an AB on any of their platforms, even the really massive ones.

Viki is pretty small for them. Not as tiny as Kobo. But nothing on their mobile, banking, or e-commerce subsids. I've actually been to one of those massive Rakuten corporate events and I think Viki had 3 reps there? Tiny.

Okay, maybe Rakutan Insight has done some split testing, but they mostly operates in survey data, and not the roll out testing sphere.

Frankly every direct sale business should have a bucket testing strategy, but I've yet to onboard with a company to find one in place. (I think the exceptions to this would be Amazon, Google, and TikTok. And I think they are running them on us constantly. To great effect.)

Honestly, one of the blessings of my job is realizing how much more manipulative big corps could be with stats and data but just aren't because of a basic failure to understand how these things work to their advantage. Plus (of course) a profound unwillingness to implement a strategy that requires more work now for less work later.

(This is the primary basic requirement of AB testing - produce 2 of something to decide which one is better in the future. Keep doing this until you understand the pattern and have enough data to aggregate. Then use that data to stop producing everything comparable that does not have draw.)

It's my job, so I tell them to do this all the time.

But I promise: they pay me well to then completely ignore me.

This should come as a great comfort.

#rakutan #viki #rakutan viki #statistics #data analysis #big data

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mayorofcattown · 3 years

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After not touching it for like. 2 months. I finally got around to actually setting up the interface of the VN I’ve been working on, and did it entirely in the span of like a week. The post got a bit long so I’ll put it under a read more, but if ya wanna read abt the general back end stuff it’s there. And of course ignore all the placeholder text in the screenshots lol

I’ll probably end up changing/further detailing some of it, this is more just to nail down the general aesthetic and layout. The text box in particular still needs some fine tuning, the names and quick menu look a bit awkward, but it’s good enough for now at least. I’ll probably also add some proper art to the stats screen to make it more than just random bars lol. and I still need to make an actual proper vector of the main logo... the png I used isn’t even actually transparent lmaoo

I also still haven’t put a click to continue button in the text box because I couldn’t figure out how to make the icon a piece of text instead of an image...which is funny since I was able to get the back button working fine (you can see it in the pics)?? I tried googling it, and I found one other guy on reddit trying to do the same thing, but all the replies were just other people saying they had no idea how to do it..........u_u

Either way it doesn’t really matter, it’s just a lil icon that doesn’t even do anything, and I can always just use an image if I have to, it’ll just be more annoying getting them to match than if I could just type a ‘>’ into the code. I mostly just find it funny that This was the thing that gave me trouble...

Honestly my entire experience with coding (even as basic as renpy’s is) is just ‘the thing you think is gonna be really hard to program takes like 10 minutes, and the thing you think is gonna be real simple takes you like 3 days’. Like I was able to program the affection bars/bios on the stats page to not show up until that character has been introduced in the game First Try with no issues, but still can’t get the Little Blinky Icon in the textbox to be a piece of text after like. a week. it’s like that buff doge vs weak doge meme. but they’re both me trying the code

But nit picks aside, it’s p interesting seeing how different it looks compared to the previous screenshots I posted. Honestly even just changing the fonts alone made it look way fancier. Like look at this, it’s wild how different they are:

Anyway, now that this is done enough for now I just have to. actually write things. which is probably the most daunting and time consuming part. and not as easy to post cool pics of on social media.....it’ll probably be a while before I do any Actual Art, but I might make some basic sketches of the sprites as placeholders at some point, as looking at just One sprite per character when you’re putting in dialogue gets really jarring lol

Either way I’ll update on this when I update on this, I mean half the reason I even decided to make a vn was so I could take things at a way slower pace, so that’s what I’m gonna do

#this weirdly ended up being easier to code than the last vn I did #partly because I'm getting better #but mostly because I learned Not to make everything split between dark/light backgrounds because it's a pain the ass to code lol #just make all the backgrounds dark and all the text light its so much less effort #vns #original art #art #I guess??#UI design is art its fine

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halfwall · 3 years

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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀❪ ⠀ * ⠀ ─ hello! i’m so excited for this genuinely, it is so seksi and socks + soda did such an amazing job with it. eunjung is my newest muse and the best way i can describe her is if you took a garden snake and aged it up manually in the sims and then took it into the spore game and gave it lips and made it a predator. in other words, my very own looks like a cinnamon roll could k-word you ( kiss? kill? your choice <3 ). this intro is a condensed version of my goog dooc and it’s still long <3 pls love n plot w me anyway. love u guys.

❪ kang mina, cis woman, she / her, twenty one. ❫ i can feel red energy, that must be yun eunjung. the third year print journalism & international relations major works as a bookkeeper at the house of the lucky gander, and is known around the manor as the yellow wallpaper. i’ve heard whispers about how they’re critical and pedantic, but everyone says they’re persevering and formidable. i don’t know what to believe... but with cc pulling the strings...

links: google doc, pinterest, stats, wanted connections.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀𝐚𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭

full name : yun eunjung

nickname(s) / alias(es) : emma yoon ( english name, not used ), tbd

age / dob : twenty one / apr 18 ‘99

hometown : tbd , oregon

current location : fortuna , maine

ethnicity : korean

nationality : english

gender : cis woman

pronouns : she / her

orientation : bisexual

religion : agnostic.

family : yun hajun ( father, alive ), han minji ( mother, alive ), yun eunsang ( twin brother, status unknown ), yun sangjung ( younger brother, deceased ).

face claim : kang mina

language(s) spoken : korean ( first language ), english

speech : sharp tongued. she’s a lot of opinions and a lot of things to say, therefore has never learned how to phrase things in a way that would deem her polite. often blunt, she’ll be quick to rip off the bandaid and just say what needs to be said. she doesn’t speak with much class or extravagancies, rather falls toward crassness and crudeness due to her upbringing.

hair : quite dark, a nice chocolate in the sun and a cool onyx in the dark. often tied back, though eunjung is only ever seen with her hair in two distinct styles: tied back messily or let down naturally. her hair falls straight as if it’s been flat ironed.

eyes : big, round, and doe eyed, a dark brown in color. quite the weapon to use when she’s in trouble or when she needs to talk her way out of something ( to proclaim innocence ).

height : five feet , seven inches.

build : lithe. as a former volleyball player, she has kept her shape up with rigorous conditioning ( mainly because if she’s to admit it, if she doesn’t she kind of gets lost in the walls ).

tattoos : none .

piercings : only earlobes .

scars : multiple from surgeries at sixteen.

clothing style : preppy, thanks to her settlement money and her own personal taste. never a hair out of place due to her perfectionistic personality and nature, though if you catch her on any given night, you’ll see her true colors shine through with old ( very old ) sweatpants and a hoodie that has someone else’s name written on the tag in hangul.

usual expression : sour, bitter – life has handed her a poor hand and she’ll make it everyone’s problem. she has one usual expression and it’s resting mean face; not the kind of person to wear her heart on her sleeve, she looks the exact same when she looks happy as she does sad, though – she’s great at acting and lying and you’ve never lived until you’ve watched her go from :| to :) in two seconds.

distinguishing characteristics : doe eyes that scream tragedy – reflecting the stars in the night sky if caught just right, the tilt of her lips when she clearly wants something to work in her favor.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬

❪ almost directly copied from my google doc i’m sorry ❫

mbti: istj-a, the logistician / most who know her would assume her to be extroverted. not the most reserved in a room and always quick to speak up when she deems it necessary. but, like most logisticians – she’s always had a sharp, fact-based mind. she has always been self sufficient and hates relying on others, often seeing it as a weakness. she is sharp, dedicated and ambitious enough to accomplish whatever she wants to accomplish.

enneagram: 6w5, the guardian / like most of this type, her biggest fear is losing her guidance and stability, which translates into her skepticism of the world. therefore, it often leads to eunjung protecting those she is loyal to, but most importantly: herself. she will often think logically and analytically, solving problems practically and efficiently but she will often be selfish and can come off as cold as a result for her actions.

moral alignment: chaotic evil / eunjung has never been the most – angelic person, though she likes to pretend she is. at the end of the day, after everything she has been through, she has grown to be selfish – prioritizing her own personal gain and pleasure above all good and evil, right and wrong. it could be argued that she belongs in chaotic neutral, but she has no care for law and order, nor a real feeling of her morality anymore.

hogwarts house: slytherin / another reminder of her selfishness and how much she cares about her own well being. all her life as well, she has been told that she is shrewd and too ambitious for her own good which has only given her an incessant drive to prove them all wrong. when it comes down to it, like most slytherins, she will try to view every possible outcome until she finds the outcome that will benefit her the most.

comparable characters: juliet capulet ( romeo & juliet ), jennifer check ( jennifer’s body ), rosalie hale ( twilight ), blair waldorf ( gossip girl ), sansa stark ( game of thrones ).

the rundown: as smart as she is selfish, life has just twisted her to be a bit cold. she isn’t cruel by any means, nor does she necessarily wish hurt and evil upon those around her, but eunjung’s huge main character complex often leads to her priorities being: 1. eunjung 2. yun eunjung 3. eunjung yun. her biggest trait will always be selfishness, followed closely by her rash belief that she is the best in the room at all times.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀𝐜𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐥𝐞

trigger warnings: alcoholism + death

this is a rundown on the biography / death / back room / glass person in the google doc, also better written / explained because it’s not prosey <3

hajun is not a good father, he never has been. from a very young age, all eunjung has heard from him are his drunken spirals about how great they used to be. his surname was once held in a high regard, the name of an empress and he has always dwindled about to the three yun children that because of the greatness he has passed onto them, they must be great too.

eunjung has only ever viewed his spiels as hypocritical though. she has only ever known her dad as a mean drunk who lives in the dirtiest, most run down house in town with his poor three kids. her twin brother, eunsang, her younger brother, sangjung, and her spend their childhoods taking care of each other because nobody else will. their mother does something, they never know what because she only arrives with enough money for groceries and bills and then she leaves.

it’s that way for most of her childhood and most of her life. it’s a continuous cycle of eunjung + eunsang taking care of sangjung ( who starts going my samuel when he’s ten and the twins are twelve. the twins have english names, too, but eunjung has too much pride – like her father – and eunsang is the eldest and will do whatever his twin does out of love ) and eunjung is just – quite the difficult child. she speaks her mind and all of her opinions, as well as letting the festering anger within her too grow because she doesn’t know what else to do with it.

death tw. anyway, by sixteen, she’s just this bitter girl that the boys hook up with because she’s the poor girl from the dirty house on the rundown street. she’s got a reputation as a shrew around town, but she’s fine with being a shrew if she still gets her way. samuel is much more popular than either of the twins ( who are epitome of bad boy / bad girl from the wrong side of the tracks ) and is invited to a party at fourteen. it’s tradition to party in this abandoned mansion out in the woods and basically, an accident happens and samuel is pushed from the second story balcony into the foyer and d-words.

he’d called eunjung before dying though, asking for a ride so the twins had went to go get him but instead found him dead. while trying to figure out what had happened, she spots some kid that doesn’t like her still lingering around so she tries to chase him and he.... like.... pushes her off too and she d-words. end tw.

her back room is just this little room and she still to this day doesn’t know how much time she spent in there because it was just so confusing, all she remembers is that she ( or someone ) was trying to convince herself that she was home and that everything was fine. but, she’s a bitch and was like “uh, actually, i’ve never had a home <3″ and broke out of whatever spell.

her glass person is just her. identical, but trapped in the walls underneath the ugly yellow wallpaper in the room she was in. same as her, just more lifeless and it is really the only thing that still scares her – and it tried to escape the walls, but it couldn’t. the lasting effect is that if she’s alone in a room for more than an hour she swears the walls start stretching like someone’s behind it and just always feeling like she’s being watched. she also doesn’t like looking at her own reflection that much anymore because it just reminds her of her glass person.

anyway, she survives miraculously and after testifying and blah blah blah ( i did research on settlements and i still didn’t understand so ), the family of the kid who pushed her off – and probably samuel – gives the yun family a huge sum of money for their troubles and calls it a settlement. it comes with the condition that eunjung doesn’t sue or bring them up ever again and she’s like fine that’s cool, whatever, i’m rich now.

but her parents still aren’t happy and before samuel’s funeral, eunsang runs away from home, leaving them with only the daughter that neither of them really wanted. she still pushes forward though and ends school as valedictorian, prom queen, etc. and heads to fortuna because she really doesn’t think she can go anywhere and also her counselors are ass <3

she’s studying international relations + print journalism, her hopes are diplomacy or something, but she just chose the majors that she tested highest on on that career test i can’t choose. yeah.

please plot w me i have my wc linked up there or at /w. i love u all i’m sorry this was long.

#coreintro

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mildredisabella · 3 years

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Assignment 3: Information Design

In this last assignment, I was tasked with creating an infographic based on a certain set of data. If I am being honest, I chose to do an infographic on Netflix because it was a mature company and because I was watching Stranger Things prior to this assignment which really gave me the inspiration. Conceptualisation

Before planning out what I wanted to include in my infographic, I went to Pinterest to do some quick searches for design inspiration and what I could potentially include in this infographic. Something that caught my eye was this infographic that I found had a mixture of words and pictures with Netflix’s signature colour, emblem and stats which gave me things to work with and potentially expand on that (Fig.1):

Fig.1: Netflix old stats: http://www.tommiemedia.com/diversions/netflix-by-the-numbers/

As the stats were a little outdated, I decided to make something similar and update it with the current stats.

Sketch

After getting the rough information down, I made a quick sketch on what I wanted to include in the infographic as shown below (Fig.2)

Fig.2: Sketch of Netflix Infographic

Firstly, I knew that I wanted to arrange my infographic in a top down, left to right manner which is why I had the big label of Netflix heading the infographic to give audiences an idea of what they’re looking at.

Next, I knew that I wanted to incorporate the Netflix logo and give some background information on the company. To show this list, I mainly did it in a diagram form so it is easier to absorb. To the right of it, I wanted to present the stats of the number of people (in millions) who are making use of the service in the different regions. To best represent this information, I decided to do it in a bar chart form.

Finally, from the 2/3 of the page down, I wanted to include some statistics on Netflix’s revenue, most streamed acquired series, most viewed original film, Popular Netflix Original series Viewership, most viewed Netflix movies in the US in 2020 and it’s competitors. These stats as a whole aim to tell the readers how well the company is doing financially, how they are doing against their competitors and what kind of content do people want to watch as well as how much they are averaging for the most popular original content that they have put out. This is so as to continue knowing their audiences and making content for them to enjoy which ultimately results in revenue for the company as well. Inspiration and Tracing

In my infographic, I was initially thinking about what I can use to symbolise the different aspects that I wanted and therefore, I decided to use a dollar sign for revenue, clapperboards for films, TV sets for television shows and for the competitors I decided to use versus (V/S) in the same colour as Netflix’s branding colours. After having the rough idea of what I wanted to portray in my infographic, I decided to use the trusty search engine google to look for images that I could trace and edit. Below are some of the inspiration pictures and samples that I have from google (Fig.3).

Fig.3: Images from Google

After acquiring these images, I traced them out on Adobe Illustrator and these are some of the drawings that I obtained (Fig.4).

Fig.4: Final traced images exported in PNG from AI

From Tracing to Colouring

After getting the drawings out, I wanted to colour them in to make it look more realistic and stand out from the background.

Fig.5: TV in AI

After tracing the TV using the pen and curvature tools, I selected the layer I wanted to colour in by tampering around with the fill and stroke icons. Afterwards I just repeated that for all the different layers and before I knew it, I had a TV straight out WandaVision in the first 2 episodes (Disney did it better though but I’m pretty content with the fact that I could actually draw). This similar process was repeated for all the visual elements that I had (Fig.6,7,8 and 9).

Fig.6: Dollar sign to symbolise revenue on AI.

For this sign, the original image was in greyscale and as I wanted my image to represent wealth. Hence, I went with the colour green as it is universally associated with money and coupled with the dollar sign, it instantly signals to the viewers that I will be dealing with numbers in the section below as well.

Fig.7 Clapperboard on AI

For this clapperboard, I purposely chose to leave the space there blank as I knew I was going to be dealing with 2 movie titles, The Secret Life of Pets and Extraction and therefore, I wanted to keep the space there so I can use typography (for the movie titles) to fill in the blanks. This was the same for the TV graphic that I had drawn as I was going to fill it in with the popular TV shows when I have laid it all out in the graphic.

Fig.8: Netflix logo on AI

Fig.9: Netflix full logo on AI

In the colouring for the Netflix logos, I decided to use the eyedropper tool to select the shade of red on the original Netflix logo as shown in Fig.3 and that was the colour I used to fill in the letters to complete the drawing.

From AI to InDesign

After getting all the visual elements that I needed for the infographic, I decided to open up InDesign to lay them out better for me to see and this was the final product that I came up with (Fig.10)

Fig.10: Infographic layout on InDesign

Fig.11: Infographic in PNG form.

In this layout, I have used a white background but adjusted the shade I have made some changes to the placement of the graphics (i.e. Competitors and Popular Netflix Original Series Viewership) and text as I lacked space if I stuck to my original plan and I felt that this layout worked the best. I kept the header the same and added a white rectangle with black text titled the Key Stats at the side and angled it up. The purpose for doing that was to allow the readers to know what they can expect from the infographic. I used a san-serif font (Helvetica Neue) and (condensed) bolded the letters in 24pt. This was to allow the readers to easily read the header and move on as I don’t want them to dwell too long on it. On the top left, I made use of the Netflix logo that I traced previously and added a white background and using the same san-serif font (Helvetica Neue) in 12pt so that I have more space at the bottom in the later sections. On the top right, I created a bar chart using the lines and shapes function on InDesign and purposefully chose the colour red and white to show a clearer distinction between the graphics. As red is the main colour of the Netflix logo and a colour that demands for attention, I decided to incorporate it into the graph so that viewers would give it equal attention like they do for the traced Netflix logo.

In the bottom 2/3 of the graphic, a 16pt serif (Garamond) font was used for the headers and for the other information (body text), I kept the san-serif Helvetica Neue text in 11pt. This is mainly because I wanted the body text to be easily read and it has thicker strokes which is easier on the eyes. The second reason was so as to save space as I had a lot of information to try to fit in as well as wanting to give the text more “breathing space”. I chose to use a white (#FFFFF) rectangle border around my texts so that they would stand out from the shaded white background. I kept the text in black because I thought it was elegant and classy as well as overall easy to read. Even though centre-aligned, as taught in the lecture, was a weak way to get readers to read the text, I still went ahead to centralise my header texts in the boxes as well as the columns of content in the centre using the align tool in InDesign as the left-aligned text made it look aesthetically unpleasing. When I had a solo text in the last line, I was also careful to not leave it hanging at the bottom as it was not supposed to be orphaned according to a rule in design.

Moreover, I also made the careful decision to put the icons in the middle of the texts (i.e. header, icon, description) so as to break them up so it didn’t look too chunky so that it was easier for the reader to absorb. For the V/S icon, I did it a little differently compared to the rest of the icons as the rest were traced on AI but this was solely using the Garamond font in Semibold Italic at 57pt. Initially the kerning looked a little too close to one another and a little uneven. Hence, I made the decision to give the V and S more breathing space by going to the VA settings on the right and adjusted that to 50.

Furthermore, to represent the part on Netflix users VS other streaming services (global), I decided to represent that in a table form as it was easier to understand and people could instantly see the figures which is the important part of that section.

Lastly, in the bottom left part of the infographic, I included the link to my sources in San Serif Helvetica Neue 4pt as it was not as much of importance but it was more for the reason that I did not want to be thrown out for plagiarism.

Challenges

Throughout this entire infographic process from conceptualisation to design to the final product, I realised my biggest mistake was not organising my layers as I was dealign with so many especially when it came to text because everything will go out of alignment if I accidentally selected something else by mistake which I will take on board with me for my future design assignment.

Apart from that, I also realised that the part addressing the key people in the company actually needed a lot of space which might have played in to the factor where I had limited space for the bottom 2/3 of the infographic and it may not be as neatly aligned. Therefore, I had to go through several adjustments and scaling options by expanding the width of the white text box and make the text fit before finally settling on the best option.

Critique

During the critique session, I received really helpful feedback such as:

Bolding the stats (i.e. 74 million) so that it stands out more from the background because these are important figures.

Improving on my visual hierarchy as the white background that helps the text stand out was pretty unevenly drawn. (alignment issue)

By putting all my texts in white boxes, it gives all the information that I have provided similar intensity and symbolises the fact that they have similar importance.

Post-Critique

Fig.12: Updated Infographic in InDesign

Fig.13: Infographic in PNG format.

To rectify the issues that were being brought up during the critique, I decided to bold the numbers at the side of my graph so that it stands out as I wanted to highlight the important statistics.

With regards to the alignment issues, I have tried to align or draw my white text box so that they will be the same width. This also includes the table as I have attempted to do the same by scaling it up so that it aligns with the width of the white text box. Afterwards, I centre-aligned it again so that it flows better.

Moreover, to address the critique on my information having a similar intensity, I decided to go ahead and play around with the colour by changing it to the Netflix red, E3051A. I have also increased the font size to 13pt and bolded the stats. Hence, all these elements work together to aid the important statistic stand out in the body text.

Other amendments

I realised that for the bar chart I was missing an axis titled region so I decided to add that in and shifted the graph down. At the same time, I decided to change the rectangle graph color from white to black as white was already used a header background option and i didn’t want to confuse the audience even more which was why I made the switch.

#nm3217

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gunnerpalace · 4 years

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I do want to be clear that when I said “Bleach Meta is Cancelled,” I am referring very specifically to Bleach’s meta. I will still happily spend paragraphs talking about my Bleach-associated writing in whatever capacity.

I am also still willing to talk about characters in a way that isn’t primarily related to their plot role or actions, provided it’s directed in some way and not just a what-are-your-thoughts-on-so-and-so type question, and provided I care about the character to some capacity.

What I’m really not interested in doing anymore is the free labor of If Google Was A Guy but for this series, or allowing myself to use this platform as a distraction.

And, you know, I think it is very much that: a distraction.

About three weeks ago, an episode of Jim Sterling’s show came out entitled Mister Negative. In it, he talks about how and why he makes videos the way he does, and specifically rebukes criticism about being negative by noting that negative videos do twice as well as positive ones. And you know? I think that’s true of posting on here (or anywhere really) too.

A decent piece of meta gets about 100 notes. A good piece gets maybe 250. A great piece gets over 1000. My most successful post, by far, was “Bleach Had No Ending” which, as I write this, has 1196 notes. My most successful fic post (by a mile; it’s not even remotely close) was Hollow Point with 411 notes, and it only has that many because of Juujishou’s excellent art. (I know that because the stats on FF.net and AO3 were fairly abysmal; click-through is always bad and you can reckon on between 1% to 10%.) A good fic tops out at maybe 100 notes and usually far less. I know that because I saw it happen for IRM 2017, although I deleted the post I made at the time to avoid drama. Your average fic is getting around 35 notes:

Now, I’m not here to complain about readership culture and etiquette or to exhort you to engage with fic more. It’d be nice if you did (and I’m no saint either) but that is not the point I’m trying to make here.

The point I’m trying to make is that meta is a cheap and easy way to drive engagement compared to content creation.

And seeking engagement after a disheartening response to the process of writing is pretty natural. You put all this effort into a piece of fiction and it gets a lackluster reception, but you crank out a piece of meta and people eat it up. Let me tell you: the meta is a lot easier to write. It’s an easy trap to fall into when you’re craving a human connection. Trouble is, it’s empty calories.

I think, as a society, we have had a disservice done to us by the companies that implemented features like emojis and notes and likes and kudos and all the reaction options we have on social media. They have not only made it easy to commodify and quantize feedback, but they have made feedback cheap. And even when it’s available, it is usually at best 10% of the actual views of the thing in question. At best 10% of an audience will react to something that is posted, even if reacting is as simple as clicking your mouse or tapping your screen one time.

That’s sad, sure, but much more profoundly than that, it’s isolating. It is intensely lonely. And for most people, even if they’re introverted or whatever else, that sucks. I think that the culture around meta and salt is in many ways a response to that. It is a quick and easy way to engage with a community over a shared topic (mostly anger or disappointment). It’s instant gratification. Because convincing people to invest time and try something is difficult.

My problem with it, as I can only speak for myself, is that it’s not satisfying or fulfilling in the slightest. It’s never enough. It doesn’t scratch the same itch in terms of creating something new, because all you are doing is analyzing something old. And while it’s useful for meeting new people, bonding over something you’re dissatisfied with is a poor substitute for connecting over something you enjoy. For me, at least it was an ugly, Catch-22 kind of trap. So it was time to cut it out of my life. Unfortunately, doing so does not solve the underlying issue of wanting human connection and engagement, but getting away from a cheap substitute for it is at least a first step.

In terms of takeaway lessons, there are some that could be made from this, but I’m not here (today anyway) to lecture, just trying to articulate my feelings further. And personally, I have come to feel that it’s more valuable and psychologically sustainable to make fewer (but more meaningful) positive connections through content creation than it is to make more (but less meaningful) negative connections through content critique.

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justanotherghostwriter · 5 years

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NaNo 2019 analysis: the good, the bad, the ugly

I’ll pop this under a cut, because I know many won’t care, but I’m a sucker for reviewing, comparing and tallying things like this up so perhaps somebody else would find this interesting, too.

A quick review of what this was:

I decided to write 50k for NaNo this year by taking multiple Whumptober prompts and writing fic for them over November. I set myself some other rules, and said rules plus all the fic can be found on A03.

WHAT DID NOT GO ACCORDING TO PLAN

Murphy obviously follows me on Tumblr, because he found out I was trying to do NaNo and made the most ridiculous things come up to fill my time this month. Some of them were good, some bad and some neutral but I cannot believe the sudden and inexplicable events that occurred this month in quick succession.

This busyness meant that I had to break one of my self-created rules; namely, to post the fic on its prompt day. I won’t lie: I’m incredibly sad that I had to break this rule, for some odd reason that probably has to do with my love of getting things done before deadline. I was doing so well, but those last two fic just couldn’t be anything except late.

I also broke the intention to write ten fic for the same reason of being unexpectedly and insanely busy. I ended up writing only eight.

Many fic didn’t turn out like I had them in my head. This happens every time I write, though, so it’s not a new disappointment by any means, but it is a bit of a bummer.

That last fic was literally 80% written on an ancient smartphone too old to download Google Docs or any keyboard except the default one, with no connection to the internet at all, with a screen the size of a Monopoly Chance card. 1/10 do not recommend writing your fic this way, especially if you (like me) had no time to really go back and read over your work to find the unhelpful autocorrect additions that you may have missed. It was an especially harrowing experience because I had to use my phone because I found myself very suddenly with friends and family and didn’t take my laptop, which also meant I could only find time to write when they finally all went to bed and I could stop being social. When it’s 3am on November 30th and your phone battery is dying and autocorrect is being more of a pain than usual... Yeah. That last fic was an experience to write.

For some unknown reason, A03 hates the word processor I use and kept adding weird spaces between letters and paragraphs? So I had to go back and manually fix those once the fic was done. I learned pasting it into Gdocs and then copying from the Gdocs into A03 mostly prevented this from hapening.

WHAT WENT ACCORDING TO PLAN

I hit over 50k! As disappointed as I am that I had to break some of my own rules, I’m very relieved and very, very happy that I managed to complete NaNo.

My family was sweet when I asked them for Saturday morning off to finish NaNo, because I was 2k out and I was not going to fail this thing by only 2k. One of them even went to fetch their work laptop and external WiFi for me to use. I love my family.

I managed to show my Bad Things Happen Bingo card some love. Still no bingo, though.

Wrote for the Six of Crows, Avatar the Last Airbender and Stranger Things fandoms for the first time. It was terrifying to break into new characters I hadn’t written for yet under a time-pressure fic, but I enjoyed dabbling in their sandboxes a lot.

I got kudos and comments! Even on the things I wasn’t sure would tickle anybody’s fancy. None of them were rude, and having a month of love thrown my way (I even got a rec! Somebody recced me!) was so rewarding and made me so happy that things in my head were enjoyable to others.

On that note, here are some stats: (Last updated December 1)

Fic with the most kudos: The canon divergent post-war ATLA fic, with 123 kudos. (Damn. I’d forgotten what writing for a big fandom feels like.) Second place goes to my FMA bodyswap fic, which has 49 kudos.

Fic with the most hits: Post-war ATLA fic takes it again with 762 hits. Second place was, again, the Bodyswap AU, which had 289 hits.

Fic with the most comments: (multiple comments by the same person were not counted) My Peeta Sees Ghosts AU for the Hunger Games fandom. It has 6 comments.

Author’s fave fic to write: The Peeta Sees Ghosts AU. I love ghost stories, both scary and not, and this one just flowed so easily I didn’t so much write it as et it be written. It was also mercifully closeish to what it sounded like in my head. I wish there was more oomph to it; more reason to read it other than a quick ‘oh, that’s a nice concept’ feeling of getting your Oreo in a different packaging while the flavour is still the same, if you know what I mean. But that’s just... all my writing, so I’m used to wishing I could offer more.

Author’s least favourite fic to write: My Agent Carter fic. It just wasn’t working and had to be cut from the original premise quite a bit. And once I was way late with it, my motivation decreased a lot. I don’t feel I did it, or the fandom or the characters, as much justice as I possibly could have. Special mention to the final fic for similar reasons: having to cut a few things because I was running out of time. And so sick of typing on a phone.

How many are getting second chapters/followups at a later stage: The last FMA fic is definitely getting the second part that was supposed to be written for NaNo but never came. And the same can be said for the Stranger Things fic. I’m still on the fence about wriing a small second part to the ATLA fic. And not just because getting so much attention makes me preen internally, I swear.

#NaNo 2019 #About Me #Writing Life

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is6621 · 5 years

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Mall the Small Things -Kelsey Sullivan

In a span of just a few weeks, a number of retailers have announced store closings. In a CNBC article, as of March 1, more than 4,309 store closures have been announced by retailers so far this year. Victoria’s Secret, Gap, JC Penney and Tesla all announced store closures within the past 2 weeks - leaving hundreds of storefronts empty and hundreds of shoppers questioning.

Victoria’s Secret plans to shut down 50 locations in 2019 - 4x more than their average twelve per year. Gap - 230 closures over the next two years and spinning off Old Navy, and JC Penney, between department stores and home and furniture locations, 27. And what’s a blog post without mention of our favorite social media guru, Elon Musk and Tesla - announcing they will move all sales online and close showrooms. But, don’t worry, you can buy a Tesla in the matter of a minute on your phone. eMarketer predicts Amazon will control nearly 54% of all retail ecommerce by 2019.

Since the rise of online stores, like that of Amazon, many large retailers (as mentioned above) are left feeling bruised and broken. Sure, online shopping is all about convenience. Heck, as I sit here writing this blog, I have googled hairspray, cleaning spray, and a few other items I need but am too lazy to go out and pick up (move the car, lose the parking spot, fight the crowds, change out of my Sunday lazy attire, i can make up a number of excuses) to see if I can purchase online, cheaper, with the instant gratification of having by tomorrow. I stopped when my travel hairspray delivery date was Friday and came to my senses that i can just get tomorrow while at work with a quick trip to CVS. But, therein lies my point. Convenience is there, yes. but convenience still lies within the brick and mortar stores too. Convenience, the key here, and highly valued but not the holy grail.

PRO: In Store shopping - Personalized. Experience

In a nutshell, online shopping is a glorified google search. You are searching, scrolling, clicking thru and for results. Chat bots are there for you, but are they real? Can they tell if those jeans make your butt look nice, or if the shoulders on the blouse make you look boxy? Nope. They may provide customer service, but nothing like that you would get in store. Forget clothes for a second. What about big purchases? TVs, cameras, computers, appliances - are you going to trust a bot to help you find what’s best for YOU? No. Again, a better experience to be had in store, checking out the products, asking the pros, who are real-time and subject matter experts. Online, things like customer reviews and photos have helped bridge that gap, but having someone walk through your large purchase, with you in mind, now that is personalized. That is an experience. And back to my hairspray example, one of the main reasons people still believe in buying something in-store is more satisfying than online is because you’re able to get that item immediately. A Fluent survey found that the reason most likely to be cited for shopping in-store is the ability to see or try on items in person. According to a study by Autotrader, 88% of shoppers prefer to purchase a car in person. Maybe that’s for the test drive before, be as it may - buyers want to have that experience before the drop their hard earned dollars.

As e-commerce continues to change the way retailers think about brick-and-mortar locations, it’s clear there are just too many of them.

PRO: Online shopping. Convenience.

There is no argument that online shopping is much more convenient. You can do in your robe, in between loads of laundry, dishes, or as your about to run out of paper towels. Outside of black Friday, the Internet is the only shopping experience that is there for you 24/7. You are not at the mercy of store hours, South Boston parking, Massachusetts pike traffic, or mother nature. Save time, save effort. Buying a gift? Even better - skip the step of wrapping, packing, and sending.

CON: In store shopping: Price comparisons. Shopping the deals.

For multichannel retailers - those who sell both in physical stores and online - pricing becomes tricky. Retailers all have different price matching strategies - some brick-and-mortars (Best Buy, Target, Staples) will match online prices in store upon customer request, while others (Home Depot, Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s) stand ground on a hard no. Self-matching would seem smart to most, appeasing customers and maintaining fairness - a strategy to earn higher profits according to Harvard Business School professor Elie Ofek. who found that price matching is not just a necessary evil; it can be a competitive tool and boost a company’s bottom line.”

Shopping online gives us the opportunity to compare prices, vs. in store, we do not have as easy of access to. You forget the prices you’ve seen in the previous shops, so you can’t compare them. One of the biggest questions faced by brick-and-mortar retailers today is whether prices should be the same online and in stores. Macy’s reported a decline in store sales, resulting in a 10% stock price drop. But it’s these stores that have to continue to find ways to face and defeat disruption - ramping up web operations, but more importantly creating new reasons and values for customers to patronize stores. Price strategies are what can keep all retailers afloat and results in an immediate effect. Prices can be changed tonight and profits can start rolling in tomorrow morning.

CON: Online Shopping. Scams, Fraud, Identity Theft, Phishing, Abuse. (all the things that scare you)

The Internet knows more about us that we do. Think about how many times a day you are entering personal information via your phone, your computer, your tablet. We are entering our credit card number like its our name in a drawing and simultaneously running the risk of our lives being hacked. Online shopping fraud was up 30% in 2017, while every year since seems to break records. As e-commerce grows, e-commerce fraud grows even faster. This is not to say do not shop online as it is not safe, but it is a caution so shop smart. Most online retailers have secure sites and have every security measure needed, but we just need to be more...aware. Not purchasing from shady sellers (mom and pop sites vs. Target.com). We have to question safety, quality, and lots of inconvenience spent dealing with the repercussions.

There is data to support that physical stores are still important to consumers. We are not ready to forego altogether. Stats from 2018 support the importance of physical retail environments include:

- According to google, 61% of customers would rather shop with brands that have a physical location than with brands that are online only. Also, nearly 80% of shoppers go in-store when there is an item they need or want immediately.

- 57% of cusomers say that the closing of many department stores has negatively impacted their perception of ecommerce (Avionos)

- And then there’s Amazon, now with brick and mortar Amazon Go stores in three cities across the U.S.

The in store experience allows customers to engage with the brand. At the end of the day, both in store and online shopping are important and relevant to consumers and therefore cannot be forgotten. The retail space is going thru an evolution of which is fueled by consumer behavior and expectations. To be successful, brands need to take steps to account for shopping wherever and whenever it happens.

1. Be ready to capture at any stage of the journey

2. Create a seamless experience between both experiences

3. Use data to fuel and customize both experiences.

To succeed in the modern world of retail, whether brick and mortar or internet, retailers need to embrace web AND in-store operations as unique operations and remember that at the end of the day, it’s all about what the customer wants. Adhere to my needs and price sensitives, and I will support you whether in store or online.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/01/gap-victorias-secret-tesla-store-closures-hit-malls-in-the-middle.html

https://www.emarketer.com/content/the-pros-and-cons-of-in-store-and-digital-shopping-experiences

https://b2b.autotrader.com/oem/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Car-Buyer-of-the-Future_NAS-Client-Presentation.pdf

https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2018/04/24/e-commerce-fraud-rose-nearly-twice-as-fast-as-e-commerce-sales/

https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/mksc.2017.1035

https://binaryic.com/knowledge-center/how-customers-prefer-to-shop-online-vs-in-store/

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sunlit-helix · 5 years

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learning how computers work again. Very long post about CPU research for a workstation.

since im rambling about computers im typing out my thought process and maybe ill link it to a few nerds to see if my conclusions make sense or not.

Purposes for building my computer as a workstation:

Primary Goals: Efficiency at 3D rendering. Primarily using C4D, but in the long run, probably Blender. 4K footage processing.

Secondary Goals: Efficient in Adobe suite. Primarily After effects, Premiere, Media encoder.

Tertiary goals: Gaming.

My first question was: Should I render using my CPU or my GPU? Several quick google searches told me the choice did not matter much, it was mostly project dependent. Well I already have a decent GPU in my gtx 970, so let’s put off buying a new video card for now, and get a really good processor

Second question is:Single-Core or Multi-Core focus?

I read two articles. this one and this one

They both give CPU recommendations based on different factors. I learned something important, some processors are better at editing and gaming, and others are better at rendering and exporting. Basically, some processors are better at doing one thing really well(single-core speed), while others are better at doing lots of things somewhat well (multi-core speed).

I compared CPU’s by cinebench score. I use Cinema 4D for most of my rendering, so using a benchmark for telling me how fast something is in the program I use? pretty good. These are the charts I stared at for 27 years.

The articles I read suggested getting processors that are high end in both single core and multicore, so they’re just generally good at both things. Well, trouble is, those are really expensive. Processors that prioritize just one or the other are a bit cheaper, funny enough.

So for options under $1,000 I was deciding between the i9-9900k and the Threadripper 2950x, along with the other threadrippers. This took a long time to decide. the i9 is about $500 while the threadripper is $800. on paper the cinebench score is about 1,000 points higher, which about 38% higher. It took me some research to find out if that actually means it’s 38% faster at rendering and it turns out that’s true. But the ‘proof’ is a little shaky, I watched this video (x) with very few views, but actually watching the benchmark as it’s happening is convincing enough. If I’m going to be rendering videos in 4K I like, 40% is big. that’s the difference between a project taking 10 hours and 14 hours. 20 hours and 28 hours.

Here’s where things get a little more subjective.

The stats didn’t totally convince me. I mean, i can render 3D images out as PNG sequences, meaning that I can render a bunch of images overnight, and if it’s not done, I can use the computer during the day, and start rendering where I left off the night before. Having a computer that’s fast at rendering isn’t *Super* important for just rendering.

Likewise, Having a desktop that’s super good at single core either isn’t the most important thing ever. every 3d modelling program has ‘subdivision surfaces’ meaning that you can preview and edit models at lower resolution and render them at higher ones than the ones you’re editing. I could see having a good single core processing being good at sculpting and certain simulations, but... I hate sculpting. I hate character design in 3D in general. rotopology fucking sucks.

But one thing I remembered is that you are constantly rendering things as you’re editing them, while adjusting lighting and shaders. Having a better processor for rendering is going to massively speed up the workflow, not just the exporting and rendering process.

Also, I’ve been... pretty content with the speed of editing -not rendering- in general with my 3D programs. Sometimes my scenes get too complicated but I can usually tell you why and adjust my viewport, and hide objects to compensate. So let me think, if I’m pretty content with the speed already, what’s the point of getting something spectacularly good?

Let’s compare single core Speed, AKA speed of editing, not rendering, using Cinebench scores.

The average score of the processor I’m currently using for editing, the i5-6300HQ, is 131

The speed of the threadripper 179

The score of the I9 is 218

So whatever I pick, It’s going to be faster. And not constrained to a shitty laptop.

Meanwhile, Let’s compare the scores for multi-core processing.

the i5, my laptop, is about 466

the i9 is about 2,000

the threadripper 2950x is about 3,200.

no matter what I get it’s a HUGE leap, but the threadripper is an even bigger leap over the i9. So if my issue is rendering, then this solves that issue. Still funny though, the I9 is far from a bad choice, it is after all, 4x faster than my current renderer. But it’s also not 6x faster. It is $300 cheaper though.

And for single core rendering, the difference between 179 and 218 isn’t huge. It’s not minor either, but it’s not nearly as big as the difference in rendering.

So I go back to my original goals. I want a computer to render out 4K footage so I don’t have to rent a render farm, or at least don’t have to do it that much. I don’t want to skimp out on computer parts, but I want things to be within a decent budget to. Waiting till I have the money to get the thread ripper makes the most sense.

BUT WAIT, I JUST SAW A REDDIT COMMENT. it says that it makes more sense to get a good video card than a processor. Well, I thought I solved that problem but I couldn’t find a good benchmark, so let’s research it again. I searched around a bit and finally found a benchmark that can compare CPU’s to GPU’s for rendering. Let’s figure this out once and for all. (article here)

VRAY PROCESSOR SCORES

Vray Video card scores.

I wish that these had prices listed next to them but basically heres my interpretation.

The threadripper 2950x is $800, and renders the benchmark in 40 seconds

the the cards that come close are the 2080TI and the TITAN XP which are both well over $1000.

The cards that beat it are 2 1080 TI’s which together will be over $1,500 and the titan V which is like over $2,000.

So my conclusion is, then, this processor about as good as all these cards but at a significantly cheaper price. This allows me to skip buying a good video card, and instead I’ll just put the 970 thats in my current laptop into my new computer. And in terms of gaming? This thing has been bottle necked by my decade-old processor the AMD phenom 2 x4 black edition that’s even worse than my laptop processor. I’m going to get a performance boost just by having my GPU free from a shitty processor.

Also while researching I just found out there is a benchmark site for blender, and it lists two gtx 970′s as having a time of 39 seconds which is really close to the thread ripper. So I suppose, then, an option would be to get a worse processor and another 970, but running two GPU’s has it’s own problems isn’t significantly cheaper than just getting one processor to handle the problems. Most games don’t take advantage of two video cards, many rendering programs only use the CPU and not the GPU. I haven’t done much research but I’m fairly sure having two video cards wouldn’t help render anything in media encoder/after effects any better. Having a better processor has more versatility than having two video cards, if they have the same speed. At least, that’s my conclusion for now, I haven’t found anything to prove otherwise.

Lastly, I’ve some research told me that adobe doesn’t support AMD processors as well as intel. this could be an issue since I’ll be putting everything through after effects and then exporting in media encoder, and maybe using premiere. So I looked up some benchmarks on that.

Seems fine to me.

Perhaps this amount of research has been overkill but It’s what I need to do to justify spending this much money on something. It’s worth researching because your individual needs might not be the same as everyone elses. I think the 2950x is my best option for rendering right now while still being good at single core stuff even if it’s not the “best” it’s still good.

It does mean the build will be more expensive though, so I’m still expecting to wait at least 4 more months savings before I build this machine.

I still have to research motherboards, Psu’s, ram, those PCI storage cards that are apparently faster than SSD’s and cheaper. I have a case picked out but since those are largely subjective I don’t like, have to decide on one yet either.

If you bothered to read this, thanks for reading and let me know if my reasoning is alright or bad!

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fatgirlsguidetodating · 5 years

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Blog: why women are under more pressure to lose weight than men.

Think about it- women have always been under more pressure to lose weight than men. And men are less likely to seek help for it. But why should that be the case? After all the health complications that come with being overweight (risks of heart disease and stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, some cancers, gallbladder disease and gallstones, gout, osteoarthritis, breathing problems like sleep apnoea and asthma) apply to both sexes. Stats from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare show that 70.8 per cent of men are considered overweight or obese compared to 56.3% of women. (1)

Yet if you google weight loss and have a look at the articles and images that pop up most are about females. Have a look at products for weight loss and almost all feature women or are focussed on women. Jump online social media and see how important looks are to women and what an impact this has on younger women. Look at the most popular actresses and see that most of them are slim. And the fact is that, historically, conversation about weight has been perceived as more of a feminine than masculine thing. But the times they are a changin’ (slowly) and body-image anxiety is becoming equal opportunity.

Professor Dixon, head of clinical research at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, has an opinion on why men are less likely to attend weight loss programs or buy weight loss products or visit dieticians compared to women. The fact that weight loss programs are more focussed on women than on men means men can be reluctant to attend. Women are most likely to say they are attending because of body image, embarrassment over their body or social stigmatisation. Men are more likely to say that they are there because they’ve been diagnosed with heart disease or diabetes or are worried about their fitness rather than say anything about body image or being unhappy with the way they look when they look in the mirror. (2)

Another reason starts from early on where men grow up wanting to not be the wimpy, weedy guy, but rather the big, strong, bulky (but not fat) guy. We assume men aren’t fazed by body image because it’s usually women we see who freak out about their looks and weight but that’s not true. Research has shown that 11% of men in Australia over 15 years have dieted to lose weight in the last year. (3) Furthermore there are increasing numbers of teenage boys and men engaged in muscle building to achieve the male muscular ideal through body-building and/or the use of protein supplements and, worse, steroids. In recent years men have worried less about going bald than getting “man boobs” or “beer bellies” (aka dad bods which I personally prefer over muscly men). In fact a study in The Guardian a couple of years ago said that 38% of men would sacrifice a year of their life to have a better body. (4) [NB: If that was actually a thing you could do I would sacrifice 5 years for a great body.]

Alan White, a professor of men's health at Leeds Metropolitan University, said: "These findings are worrying but not surprising. There's been a big increase in the numbers of British men having cosmetic procedures such as a nose job or removal of breast tissue; that's gone from almost nothing to quite a significant industry over the last 10 years. All this fuels the idea of the body beautiful and encourages a quick fix rather than appropriate diet and physical fitness levels." (4)

Dr. Phillips Diedrichs, from the centre of appearance research at the University of the West of England completed a study of 394 men which was commissioned by the Central YMCA and Succeed Foundation- an eating disorders charity. And she reported some very interesting findings around men, body image and dieting. Such as 80.7% talked about their own or others' appearance in ways that draw attention to weight, lack of hair or slim frame. And 63% thought their arms or chests were not muscular enough. Whilst 29% thought about their appearance at least five times a day. And 18% were on a high-protein diet to increase muscle mass, and 16% on a calorie-controlled diet to slim down. (4)

The major difference in the way women and men see their body-image is that women are more about being thin and toned and men, as I mentioned earlier, have been conditioned from a younger age to want to be muscular and strong. An American study published in the Jan issue of JAMA Pediatrics, revels that nearly 18% of boys (I.e under 18) are very concerned about their weight and physique. (5) Dr Alison Field, an associate professor of pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital and the lead of the study says this trend among [younger] boys towards weight obsession is a major cause for worry. She explained that these boys were more likely to be depressed and more likely to engage in high-risk behaviors such as binge drinking and drug use.

Dr. Raymond Lemberg, a clinical psychologist and expert on male eating disorders says in terms of media portrayals we used to really discriminate—and we still do—against women. Dr Raymond Lemberg, a Prescott, Arizona-based clinical psychologist and an expert on male eating disorders says, “If you look at the Miss America pageant winners or the Playboy centerfolds or the runway models over the years, there’s been more and more focus on thinness.” (4)

A disturbing study by the Girl Guides has found that girls as young as seven want to lose weight. The Girls’ Attitudes Survey, completed by 1288 women aged seven to 21, found 87 per cent of girls between 11 and 21 thought women were judged more on their appearance than their ability – and one in five girls between seven and 11 said they had been on a diet. (6)

Nonetheless at the end of the day women are the ones most pressured to lose weight and judged more harshly than overweight men. And the majority of those ideals come from social media, and magazines or advertising. Social media is an important part of the lives of young people around the world. In Australia, approximately 72% of people actively use social media (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2014). The most popular social media platforms for young people are Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Youtube (ACMA, 2013, Pew Research, 2015; Sensis, 2016), and these platforms are predominantly or entirely imaged-based. (7) Research undertaken by Jennifer Mills, an associate professor in the Department I’d Psychology at York University Toronto and Jacqueline Hogue, a Ph.D student in the departments clinical program, about the effects of social media on the self-perceived body image of young woman was published in the journal Body Image. The study found that “[the participants] felt worse about their own appearance after looking at social media...of someone that they perceived to be more attractive.” (8) This went for both those with poor self-perception of their body image as well as those with a healthy one.

Magazines and advertising also have a huge impact on how one views their body image. Consider the fact that magazines are almost always photoshopped and almost always use exclusively thin models regardless of the products they are selling. The same images are on buses, billboards, and in shopping centres so there is no real escape. There has been a progression towards thinner and thinner models in ads and magazines: twenty years ago, the average model weighed 8 per cent less than the average woman – but today’s models weigh 23 per cent less. Even models who are considered underweight or dangerously underweight by the medical profession are still heavily photoshopped. Furthermore the advertising I diary is so strongly associated with creating insecurities that when women are shown images of products like shoes, perfume or deodorant in the context of these ads they are more likely to answer questions such as how satisfied are you with your body or how attractive do you consider yourself more negatively than if they had, for instance, seen the same photos in a neutral context. (9)

The Girl Guides study mentioned earlier found that one in five 7-11 year old girls had been on a diet. (6) Susan Jack from Glasgow Women’s Aid pointed out that young women are very critical of each other and oftentimes much harder on each other than boys are. As a result if you feel you don’t look like you should it can negatively effect your confidence leading to an impact elsewhere in your life such as “You might not do as well at work or not stand up for yourself. In an abusive relationship, that lack of self-confidence can be used to keep women down.” (6)

So why is it that women are judged more harshly for being overweight than men? One such reason is that while there is a socio-economic divide between women’s weights there is not such an issue for men. In fact while the more wealthy and educated a woman is the more the social pressure on them increases compared to men who are likely to be accepting of having a few extra kilos on them regardless of whether they are wealthy or not. (2) Another possible reason could be that women care more about their appearance because looks are more consequential for them. I’m not going so far as to suggest this is a reflection of the continuing power imbalances favouring men in our society though. These worried about body image are not because of a general lack of confidence as a 2011 study from the University of Basel based on over 7,000 respondents of both sexes young woman now had as much self esteem as young men but rather this disconnect in how women view their appearance can be attributed, in part, to concerns over body image. The evolutionary process of sexual selection- whereby we are changed so as to attract mates- is also a factor. As is the depiction of women with hour glass figures over the centuries. (10)

Sources:

1.) http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/diet/overweight-men-are-judged-less-harshly-than-women/news-story/f1e67f057968257a428ce3b438d2c3a2

2.) http://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2017-01-26/men-losing-the-battle-of-the-bulge/8213070

3.) https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/body-image-and-diets

4.) https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/06/body-image-concerns-men-more-than-women

5.) https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/283897/

6.) https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/www.dailyrecord.co.uk/lifestyle/local-lifestyle/young-women-girls-under-more-3209721.amp

7.) https://nedc.com.au/research-and-resources/show/issue-46-social-media-and-body-image

8.) https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/amp/323725

9.) http://mediasmarts.ca/body-image/body-image-advertising-and-magazines

10.) https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-human-beast/201305/why-women-feel-bad-about-their-appearance%3famp

#fatgirl #fatgirlproblems #overweight #weight #body #bodyimage #socialmedia #advertising #magazines #whywomenareundermorepressuretoloseweightthabmen #losingweight

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noithatotoaz · 3 years

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8 Experts Weigh in on the Past, Present, and Future Evolution of Link Building

For over 20 years, SEOs and content marketers have built links across the web to get their content in front of their target audience.

As Google grows smarter, so do these link-building SEOs – gone are the days of spammy link schemes and black hat SEO. Enter modern link builders who are focused on placing high quality, relevant links on sites guaranteed to drive the most important metrics: conversions and revenue.

But how far have we really come, and are there any lessons we can take from the past to inform where we go from here? We asked eight link building experts their thoughts on this very question, as well as what our readers can do to stay ahead of the link building curve!

For more link building tips, be sure to check out our recent update to The Beginner’s Guide to Link Building:

Read the Guide!

How important are links, really?

Historically, links have been a sure-fire way to build authority and visibility for your business. However, as Google begins to focus on other tactics such as user experience, will that change how links factor into search visibility?

Russ Jones, Search Consultant at Moz, says that the value of a well-placed link isn’t going anywhere: “Google will find more and more ways to extract value from the link graph and click stream data. The link remains king.”

Britney Muller adds that “If Google disappeared tomorrow, would you still get qualified traffic to your website (via your link profile)? That’s exactly how I believe we should be thinking about link building today.”

Backlinko founder, Brian Dean, has a different perspective:

“I think links will be less important as time goes on,” he says, but agrees that they'll always be a major part of the algorithm. “Links are actually a really good signal! Especially today with Google more focused on E-A-T, links are a great way to size up whether a site is credible or not. Without links, they'd have no real way of knowing if the content on a page is legit.”

Has the definition of a “high quality link” changed?

The short answer is yes, and (surprise!) it depends on your goals.

In the early days, SEOs tested Google with sketchy link schemes. These low quality links offered a quick fix of link juice, and a boost in rankings. Today, link builders have ditched the black hat tactics in favor of a more relevant and consumer-focused approach, and quality over quantity.

Carrie Rose, CEO at Rise at Seven, has this to say: “The definition of a high-quality link has massively changed over the years. Relevancy is a huge topic online right now — but what does a relevant link actually mean? Ultimately, we track that based on is it a link that is driving traffic to your website, of whom are your audience? Too many link building strategies focus too much on ‘link juice’ and SEO metrics such as DA — but care less about link engagement metrics. SEOs, link builders, and digital PRs should care more about understanding where their audience is, high traffic websites, and gaining links from there instead.”

Russ Jones agrees: “I believe that Google has dramatically increased the degree to which the relevancy of a link matters,” he says, adding, “Google has placed greater influence on links that come from topical authorities as they combat issues like fake news and link spam. If this is the case, it means that link builders need to narrow their focus and fight for links from industry peers.”

As relevancy becomes more important, our experts encourage other link builders to focus on the audience rather than the outlet.

Tamara Sykes, Public Relations Specialist at Postali, believes that “It’s obviously great to get a backlink in a recognizable outlet like the Wall Street Journal. However, if your audience isn’t there, it only serves half of its purpose. You’ll get a ‘vote’ from a high DA site to prove that yours is more trustworthy, but it may generate little to no traffic because the audience isn’t as invested in what content you have to offer.”

Domenica D'Ottavio, Marketing Manager at Fractl, prefers to diversify her link portfolios, noting that high quality links can mean different things in different campaigns.

“The definition of a high-quality link can change depending on your goals,” she says. “Not all links are created equally for every business. In my opinion, the ideal portfolio has a 1) high volume of 2) relevant and 3) high-quality backlinks. If you're a business in the personal finance space, for example, you might want a mix of links from sites like The Motley Fool, CNN Money, and smaller finance blogs like The Penny Hoarder, Budgets are Sexy, or I Will Teach You To Be Rich.”

Lastly, as with most things in marketing and SEO, Andy Crestodina of OrbitMedia reminds us that there are also a half dozen other factors to consider including DA, follow vs. nofollow, outgoing links and much more! So be sure to take these factors into consideration as you develop your link building strategy.

Image Source

The role of link building in SEO is stronger than ever

Developing high quality content and distributing that content to respected sites in your target market can be an extremely scalable and cost-effective way to build and maintain authority in your niche. So, it’s not surprising that link building and digital PR is rapidly becoming a core strategy for many brands.

Carrie Rose highlights the fact that link building and digital PR industries have grown rapidly:

“The responsibility to create good quality content and improve trust to a site no longer purely sits within SEO. Having a good link building strategy which is performing well can improve trust, authority, and therefore rankings for a site. High quality links and high traffic can also increase traffic in the masses… It also has a huge impact on branded search (the holy grail).”

Brian Dean agrees, saying “Content and links have always had significant overlap (after all, people generally link to a page based on the content on that page). But the tie between the two is stronger than ever. That's because many other tried-and-true link building strategies (like large-scale guest posting) no longer work. Which means your link building efforts largely rely on the content that you're putting out.”

Surena Chande believes that, overall, the quality of link building campaigns has improved since Google’s E-A-T update: “We’re producing more topic-relevant campaigns for our clients rather than thinking solely about ideas that would land coverage,” she says, adding that SEOs and link builders are now working together to “reevaluate their concepts and ensure they are true to a brand.”

Getting buy-in is easier — if you focus on the metrics that matter

Because of the extra visibility in recent years, our experts agree that it’s easier than ever to get the buy-in from higher-ups. “I don't need to tell an executive that a link is like a vote. They know that now,” says Russ Jones. “I don't have to say ‘80% of purchases online begin with a search’. They know that now, too.”

“Link building has a way of showing direct results for executives and stakeholders and therefore becomes easier to get the buy-in,” Carrie Rose says. “Traditional PR, creative, or offline marketing strategies are receiving less and less budget and attention because of its inability to prove ROI and we see that budget reallocated to link building and digital PR efforts.”

Andy Crestodina agrees: “Just show an executive the Moz Link Explorer ‘Compare Link Profiles’ report and they’ll get excited ...or upset. Once a stakeholder sees the data, they usually want to take action. The key is to guide the ideas away from the spammy actions and toward high-quality content marketing and influencer outreach.”

With less internal education and campaigning at the executive level, marketers are now faced with tougher questions around how their specific strategies impact ROI. To do so, our experts recommend keeping things simple and taking it slow. “It’s important to explain that Domain Authority moves very slowly. It takes patience,” Andy says, adding, “it’s a proxy metric for PageRank. It’s not Google. Focus on the actions, not the reports.”

If you need some help breaking down metrics, check out Andy’s Whiteboard Friday:

Russ Jones breaks things down even further: “Report simple campaign statistics such as: ‘referring domains and referring traffic are increasing’. Coupled with a generic metric like DA or PA, this gives stakeholders the most important answers about the quality of the link building campaign. Second, we report the increased traffic and rankings relative to competitors based on the work. It is important, though, to provide context wherever possible. If a competitor has been out-spending you and acquiring more links because of it, we shouldn't let that go unreported.”

Tamara Sykes finds that it’s helpful to provide some background on sites that link to her content. “I go as far as to share what that website’s purpose is, who its audience is and the website’s SEO stats,” she says. “This helps me paint a picture of why this link is relevant to a brand, rather than sharing a number that only shows ‘Hey, we got 12 backlinks’.”

Where should link builders focus?

Google is getting better and better at recognizing high quality, relevant links. “They're super good at identifying links that don't fit with a natural pattern. And it's not just obvious black hat spam,” Brian Dean says. “Google can also filter out many grey hat approaches (like mass guest posting), which basically only leaves a handful of link building approaches: digital PR, targeted outreach, and content designed to get links.” So when it comes to link building strategy, where should link builders and digital PRs focus their efforts?

Get creative

Test out new content mediums to stand out from the pack!

Carrie Rose notes that, even though we’re seeing more automation in marketing, “Robots can’t manufacture creativity. That's where the best links come from — where content is more creative than their competitors and brands are getting links others can't replicate.”

Andy Crestodina recommends creating new tools and original research that features bite-size, shareable nuggets such as stats, graphs, and infographics. “These are 100-times more link-worthy than anything else on your domain,” he says.

Build relationships

As the market becomes more saturated, it will be especially important for link builders and digital PRs to deepen relationships with respected publishers and authors in their industry. But you don’t need to overthink it.

Andy believes that a little personalization goes a long way: “Link building has a bad reputation for a good reason: spam. Spammers send cold emails to website owners, clogging our inboxes with the same messages.” But how do you build those connections in the first place?

Warm up the conversation by engaging with that author or editor on social media! Domenica D’Ottavia uses Twitter to connect. “Twitter is an excellent tool for building those relationships with journalists,” she says. "Reach out to them, like their stuff, respond and retweet, show them you're a real person… When you finally outreach them with your link building project, they'll recognize your name from your interactions on Twitter and will be much more likely to respond positively to your PR pitch.”

Others agree that the ROI of mass outreach continues to decline, remembering the days of in-person link building. “Believe it or not, I used to CALL people, introduce myself, explain how interesting I thought their ‘X’ business was,” says Britney Muller. “I’d ask some questions and then weave in a thoughtful proposition of us linking to each other's websites.”

“People are becoming numb to any non-targeted outreach,” Brian Dean adds. “If you are good at personalization, there could still be a chance of securing links but the bar of what qualifies as ‘personalized’ is higher than ever. Now you almost need to mention their dog's name to get a response.” (Note to all the link builders out there: my dog's name is Ginger.)

Learn more about great outreach from Britney's Whiteboard Friday on the subject!

Tap into influencer networks

Influencer marketing is a growing field and, no, it isn’t just for consumer brands and Instagram. Leveraging experts to elevate your content can capture the attention of your target publishers and audience.

Surena Chande says that “utilizing expert commentary is one of the strongest and most overlooked techniques in link building. If you have clients who are experts in their field or have access to the CEO, you can utilize them to build links with minimal effort for both you and your client.”

“Link building is influencer marketing,” says Andy Crestodina. “You’re pitching an influencer (usually blogger or editor) with a request, usually some kind of collaboration. When you combine influencer marketing with original research, you have the ingredients in place. Your content supports their content. Links begin to appear spontaneously. You’re attracting them. Do it right and high DA sites will link to you every few days. Magic.”

Image Source

Capitalize on trending topics

In a news cycle that is constantly changing, hot topics can rise and fall in the blink of an eye. But if you have your timing right, you can ride the trend wave to secure extra eyeballs from editors and readers.

“I believe that the pandemic, particularly the early stages in 2020, taught the industry a very harsh lesson in the form of reactive outreach and campaigns forming one of the best methods of outreach,” Surena Chande says. “I was so used to conceiving campaign ideas for large-scale interactive pieces, and the unpredictability of the situation taught us that we had to quickly change our approach to link building.”

“Jumping on a trending topic and creating a project or link building campaign around something that's already earned the attention of journalists” says Domenica D’Ottavio, but notes to proceed with caution. “While newsjacking is a clever way to earn a ton of links very fast, it's also pretty risky. You have to work around the clock to get your idea created before the topic has lost relevance, and it might flop if you're too late to respond, wasting your investment.”

Our experts also advise to stay on top of the news across the web, read articles from a variety of publications weekly, study what journalists are asking for when they put out #journorequests, and analyze what angles they take on topics as they go viral. This will ensure that you are well positioned when it comes time to pitch your content.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, link building has undergone some major changes in the last 15 years (likely for the better!), but what’s old is new, and many of the same rules continue to apply:

Relevant content will always perform so long as you target the right audience

Links remain a major part of how Google determined the expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness of a site.

Creativity and timeliness in link building will be rewarded

Big thank you to our expert contributors:

Andy Crestodina

Britney Muller

Brian Dean

Carrie Rose

Domenica D'Ottavio

Russ Jones

Surena Chande

Tamara Sykes

0 notes

bfxenon · 3 years

Text

8 Experts Weigh in on the Past, Present, and Future Evolution of Link Building

For over 20 years, SEOs and content marketers have built links across the web to get their content in front of their target audience.

For more link building tips, be sure to check out our recent update to The Beginner’s Guide to Link Building:

Read the Guide!

How important are links, really?

Backlinko founder, Brian Dean, has a different perspective:

Has the definition of a “high quality link” changed?

The short answer is yes, and (surprise!) it depends on your goals.

As relevancy becomes more important, our experts encourage other link builders to focus on the audience rather than the outlet.

Domenica D'Ottavio, Marketing Manager at Fractl, prefers to diversify her link portfolios, noting that high quality links can mean different things in different campaigns.

Image Source

The role of link building in SEO is stronger than ever

Carrie Rose highlights the fact that link building and digital PR industries have grown rapidly:

Getting buy-in is easier — if you focus on the metrics that matter

If you need some help breaking down metrics, check out Andy’s Whiteboard Friday:

Where should link builders focus?

Get creative

Test out new content mediums to stand out from the pack!

Build relationships

Learn more about great outreach from Britney's Whiteboard Friday on the subject!

Tap into influencer networks

Image Source

Capitalize on trending topics

Conclusion

At the end of the day, link building has undergone some major changes in the last 15 years (likely for the better!), but what’s old is new, and many of the same rules continue to apply:

Relevant content will always perform so long as you target the right audience

Links remain a major part of how Google determined the expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness of a site.

Creativity and timeliness in link building will be rewarded

Big thank you to our expert contributors:

Andy Crestodina

Britney Muller

Brian Dean

Carrie Rose

Domenica D'Ottavio

Russ Jones

Surena Chande

Tamara Sykes

0 notes

nutrifami · 3 years

Text

8 Experts Weigh in on the Past, Present, and Future Evolution of Link Building

For over 20 years, SEOs and content marketers have built links across the web to get their content in front of their target audience.

For more link building tips, be sure to check out our recent update to The Beginner’s Guide to Link Building:

Read the Guide!

How important are links, really?

Backlinko founder, Brian Dean, has a different perspective:

Has the definition of a “high quality link” changed?

The short answer is yes, and (surprise!) it depends on your goals.

As relevancy becomes more important, our experts encourage other link builders to focus on the audience rather than the outlet.

Domenica D'Ottavio, Marketing Manager at Fractl, prefers to diversify her link portfolios, noting that high quality links can mean different things in different campaigns.

Image Source

The role of link building in SEO is stronger than ever

Carrie Rose highlights the fact that link building and digital PR industries have grown rapidly:

Getting buy-in is easier — if you focus on the metrics that matter

If you need some help breaking down metrics, check out Andy’s Whiteboard Friday:

Where should link builders focus?

Get creative

Test out new content mediums to stand out from the pack!

Build relationships

Learn more about great outreach from Britney's Whiteboard Friday on the subject!

Tap into influencer networks

Image Source

Capitalize on trending topics

Conclusion

At the end of the day, link building has undergone some major changes in the last 15 years (likely for the better!), but what’s old is new, and many of the same rules continue to apply:

Relevant content will always perform so long as you target the right audience

Links remain a major part of how Google determined the expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness of a site.

Creativity and timeliness in link building will be rewarded

Big thank you to our expert contributors:

Andy Crestodina

Britney Muller

Brian Dean

Carrie Rose

Domenica D'Ottavio

Russ Jones

Surena Chande

Tamara Sykes

0 notes

thepondsfell · 6 years

Text

This is going to get real...

So you know how when you’re going through something tough and you want to share with people you care about but after like 2 people it becomes exhausting to explain? Well, I like writing so here I am.

This is going to get real and rough and intimate so bear with me as we move on.

So January 26th was my last day at my previous job. I quit without having another job lined up so I knew I would have some time off. In my last week there I was dealing with the worst period I have experienced to date. I was miserable, curled up on the couch, waking up in terrible pain in the middle of the night, the whole nine yards. I was baffled. This was never normal for me, why did my body suddenly hate me. I keep track of everything and looked back and realized how irregular I was and so being smart... I googled it.

The first thing that popped up was PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome). I was like well I don’t have that because I knew someone that did and their symptoms were like 10x worse than mine were. But as I read on I learned that symptoms are different for everyone. I also saw a list of more known symptoms and I had every. single. one.

I panicked. PCOS is the leading cause of infertility in women and it wasn’t fair. I’ve always wanted to be a mom. This can’t be what’s going on with me.

So I made a doctor’s appointment for the following Tuesday with a new doctor to get to the bottom of this. To find out if this is really what I have been dealing with since I was 20 without realizing it. The days that led up to that appointment were agonizing. I was running through every scenario in my head. You’re rationale when you’re processing something like this isn’t always at its peak.

Tuesday came and I headed into my appointment. This new doctor was nice but I felt rushed in and out. Without much discussion she told me she wanted me to start on this birth control the following week. I just said okay and we moved forward. She ordered an ultrasound and blood work to confirm what she agreed sounded like PCOS. I went home and began processing it all. I didn’t want to go on birth control at all. I’ve never used any artificial hormones and I didn’t want to start now. They can be just as bad for your fertility as PCOS and I was not ready to start something so invasive on my body so blindly. I researched the specific birth control she was prescribing and over 2,000 women have straight up DIED on it. DIED. Wow. That didn’t sound like a risk I was willing to take.

I went in the next day for my ultrasound. She was quick and proficient and was the nicest medical professional I had encountered thus far. I told her why I was in there and she did tell me it looked like mild PCOS. She asked if I had another appointment set up. I said yes, 3 months for birth control. I told her how hesitant I was and the stats I was finding. She told me how those are legitimate concerns and I shouldn’t take such a decision lightly. So that was it, there was no way I was going to put my body through such a change. I had blood work the next day on Thursday and waited for results.

I finally got a call Friday night from the doctor’s medical assistant. She told me I did indeed have PCOS and they wanted MORE blood work to confirm that the one hormone that was elevated was really elevated. So I asked HOW elevated it was. Well.. just slightly. Okay. That doesn’t sound bad. Your normal prolactin levels cap at 32 and I was at a 35. Not bad, but she made it seem TERRIBLE. So I questioned her more and said how the ultrasound tech said it looked mild, is that true? Well... yeah. Perfect. Thanks. (Still haven’t gotten the more unnecessary blood work).

So that was it. I have PCOS but mild seems good. I think.

Everything was good. Then I had 3 friends in the matter of a week announce their pregnancies on facebook and that’s when I realized how much all this still hurt. I wasn’t even happy for them. I was just mad and jealous that it wasn’t me. Mad that my body might not be able to give us kids very easily and how challenging it will probably be for us to conceive when we’re ready. Then I felt like a terrible person for not being happy for these people and laid on the couch and cried for awhile until Branson walked in the room and realized I was upset.

You know what the worst thing to do is: compare yourself to other people. I’ve heard this phrase time and time again, “Comparison is the thief of all joy.” It’s true. That’s what I was doing. I was sitting there looking at someone else’s life WISHING it was mine. Take it from me... don’t do that. You’ll regret it a lot because it will steal your joy.

Right now we are in our second year of marriage and I was just laying on the couch wishing our life was going a different direction. Jealous of other people’s new flourishing families and how I was even mad at my husband for not being ready to start trying to have kids. We talked for a long time and then finally just went to sleep, because sometimes you just need to sleep.

I woke up with a fresh mind and realized how selfish and ridiculous I was being the day before. I have the sweetest more reassuring husband out there who continuously told me that no matter what happens, whether we barely have to try to have kids or it takes us years, we will make it through. God’s plan is always greater than our own. He knows what he has in store for us so if I just let myself wallow in self pity that would not get me anywhere today.

So I made a decision. I reminded myself to let God lead me each day in HIS joy that he has laid out for me. To know that our life is not the same as everyone else’s and I shouldn’t try to follow everyone else’s track but the one He has for us.

So give us a few years. We’re praying that when we’re both ready to expand our family that we can have patience. Good things come in time.

As I was falling asleep that night God showed me a name out of all of this. Who knows if we’ll be able to use it or not but I am thankful for that Word from Him. No matter what He intends comes from it.

April Joy.

#pcos #polycystic ovarian syndrome #trust #faithful #joy

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josephlrushing · 4 years

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Complete with the World’s first dual-curved display, the OPPO Watch is a Google user’s answer to the Apple Watch. I’ve been trying it out for the last few months and have been absolutely amazed by its style and functionality. But is that because I’m so used to the form and functionality of the Apple Watch?

Available in 41 or 46mm, the OPPO Watch is designed for life; if it weren’t for its curves, you’d absolutely be forgiven for thinking that the Apple Watch heavily inspired it. The 41mm Wi-Fi-only version is available in Black, Pink Gold, or a Silver Mist color, while the 46mm comes in Black or Glossy Gold with a choice of a WiFi-only version or an LTE option. As someone familiar with black smartwatches, I opted for the Black, but it’s all about your personal preference. Not to be confused with the Apple Watch, I was actually confused about why the company, even with the name. OPPO decided to call their watch the OPPO Watch instead of opting for a unique name that doesn’t seem like the company is just copying and playing off of Apple. Outside of the US, OPPO is a huge smartphone brand, and I get that. However, maybe naming it something different, say “the Op Watch,” wouldn’t come off as someone who’s newly discovering the brand as “oh that just sounds like a knock off Apple Watch” just looking at the packaging.

I received the 46 mm, LTE model for review.

Aside from the obvious style and name comparisons, the OPPO Watch holds its own as an everyday, all-terrain smartwatch that looks great whether you are dressing for business or casual. One thing I immediately noticed in my first two weeks with the OPPO was its battery life.

If you are an Android user, battery life is something you’ll truly appreciate in the OPPO as it will keep up with your lifestyle. I’ve been able to use the OPPO Watch for roughly a day and a half on a single charge, completing over 18K steps, two workouts, and overnight wear — all without turning it off or changing any settings. Your mileage may vary, but for a watch that boasts an always-on display and Tilt-to-Wake functionality, I was surprised that my constant tossing and turning in the middle of the night, as well as getting up periodically to change my baby daughter’s diapers, allowed enough battery for me to not only to wear it overnight but for the watch to survive without a charge until roughly 2:15 pm the following day.

The 430 mAh battery allows for a quick charge, so if you have a low battery and need to top it off before heading out somewhere, that option is available. According to OPPO, you can get 16 hours of power with a 15-minute charge. While I’ll say that it does fast charge if you have every setting such as Always-On Display, GPS, Bluetooth, 4G, and Wi-Fi connected, the chances are that you might not get that 16 hours. If you also factor in alerts and notifications (which I don’t receive many of on my Pixel), this could also drain the battery.

I was surprised by the aluminum alloy build in terms of design, complete with the ceramic back. It’s wider than I’m used to, and for some reason, it reminded me a bit of the Casio Calculator watch of the ’90s, minus the buttons and dreadful wristband. I expected the watch to be heavy on the wrist, but I am delighted that it is comfortable to wear and doesn’t feel heavy after a long day at work or the gym. It has a 1.91″ long rectangular 3D flexible AMOLED screen with 402 x 476 pixels at 326 ppi. At about 1.6″ wide, it’s a bit wider than the Apple Watch, which I wasn’t too keen on because I don’t typically spend too much time looking at the information on my wrist, so the need for a large display while a good idea, reminded me a bit of a Dick Tracy-esque watch that sat too wide on my wrist.

My biggest complaint regarding the OPPO Watch isn’t about its design, but it’s connectivity. I connected the watch to my Verizon Wireless service, paired as a smartwatch for $10 a month with my Google Pixel 4XL. This not only allowed me to take calls-on-the-go but if I left my Pixel in the house while going on a run to the store, I could still be reached by my wife. While the 4G connectivity was comparable to that of the Apple Watch, the Bluetooth and GPS, unfortunately, were not.

Paired with the Jabra Elite 75ts, I would take my OPPO Watch on the go for runs; for some unknown reason, the Bluetooth would randomly drop. I wear my watch on my left wrist, and when running along the beach or even just taking a walk around the block, the audio in my headphones would cut in and out. I thought the issue might have been with the headphones first, so I swapped them out with a pair of Shure AONIC 4 Bluetooth earbuds, but I encountered the same issues. As of now, I still haven’t truly found a remedy for this other than simply bringing my phone with me on runs and allowing the audio to play directly from the Pixel. This is a huge problem that I hope that OPPO fixes it —hopefully soon, in an OTA update.

Despite this, the OPPO Watch is tailored for the active lifestyle. The company prides itself on the smartwatches five exercise sensors, including the GPS + GLONASS. Allowing you to track your heart rate and other physical stats accurately, you can get five-minute workouts with a tap of the screen, which is great on a busy day. This is something I’ve wanted Apple to include for years, so the fact the OPPO Watch has this built-in not only is great but has the potential to make Google’s Fit program even more robust to compete with Apple’s Fitness+ program that will come out later this year.

Another health highlight is the improved sleep tracking that gives you a detailed report about your sleep state if you’re into that. I didn’t realize that I wasn’t getting a consistent 7-8 hours of sleep without interruption until I tried this function on the OPPO. Compared to the Apple Watch’s sleep “apps,” which seem to be more miss-than-hit than the OPPO. I know that Apple has also included sleep tracking in their new OS. However, I haven’t yet fully tested that in comparison to OPPO’s built-in function.

As you can tell from my review, most of my likes and dislikes come from comparing the OPPO Watch to the Apple Watch. The OPPO Watch’s design looks better than Apple’s to me because of the curved display; however, where the watch falls behind is the internal OS. Wear OS, in my personal experience, tries too hard to be a mini-Android phone on your wrist, rather than being a smartwatch that complements your smartphone. Others have shared this sentiment about other Android watches, and the OPPO Watch falls into this trap as well — it felt like it was trying to take everything people love from Apple, including a play on its name, without focusing on the OS. The OS isn’t OPPO’s fault; it’s Google’s. Google seems to be sabotaging its smartwatch line with a lack of proper OS updates and a complete disregard for making the watch a watch first and a smartphone tool second.

In terms of Wear OS, my main gripe is that it feels like not much has changed about the software throughout the years. Compared to the likes of Samsung, Wear OS this year received its first true update since 2018, and even in the update, I’ve discovered constant freezing in the OPPO Watch when doing things like setting timers when cooking or even delayed ringing between answering a call from my phone on the OPPO Watch. At first, I believed this was isolated to the OPPO Watch, but after reading about other people’s problems with Wear OS, I discovered it wasn’t the smartwatch but the software. While I haven’t experienced this on a workout, it would be a huge deterrent if I’ve logged in many steps or miles and received inaccurate readings because the watch stutters to log appropriately.

The upside to Wear OS, though, is that it is more useful than Apple’s Siri. With a quick “Hey Google,” I’m able to ask virtually anything I’d ask Google’s app on my phone and get similar results. No stutter or “I can’t find that” like the Apple Watch, and honestly, I fell in LOVE with that. Also, with Wear OS, I love the ability to see notifications CRYSTAL clear thanks to notifications being color-coordinated; this saves me a bunch of time knowing a glance at my watch that the Facebook notification that I received could wait to see what my Grandmother posted.

So, it is the OPPO Watch one of the best Wear OS watches available? Yes. Is it better than the Apple Watch? Absolutely not, but again I’m attempting not to be biased. I enjoy the color coordination of notifications and the ability to turn off the Always On Display (the 2.19 update patched a bug that fixed the display showing up grey, causing more battery drain, which has resulted in steady battery life for me. For reference, my battery life on my Series 5 watch seems to have worsened with WatchOS 7, which is right on time for them to release series 6, which I will not be purchasing.) Is there room for improvement? For sure. In terms of improvement, I think the 41mm model should’ve had the same curved edge display as the 46mm. Feels like OPPO decided this would be more “premiere” for the 46mm version; however, not everyone likes large square watch faces. The 41mm looks like a sweet spot for both women and men alike and would look a bit more elegant with the curved display.

I have grown to love the two buttons on the right of the OPPO Watch. Both buttons are used to navigate the OPPO Watch; they can be readily identified, have enough raise that allows you to know when they are pressed — and do not snag on fabrics like the Apple Watch’s turn wheel. The watch is also water-resistant for up to 50 meters, which seems to be the industry standard these days; if only I lived in a warm enough climate to have enjoyed a day at the pool wearing this. So let me end the review by saying this: If I were ever completely to leave Apple, I’d have to leave the Apple Watch with it. And aside from Wear OS having its quirks, the OPPO Watch might be the only watch I’d consider for my Android device. The curved screen is obviously the highlight feature, but aside from that, the familiarity with the form factor means I can go out wearing it. Nobody would be able to tell the difference until a colorized notification popped up. I just really, really wish that Wear OS would fix the constant freezing in an update.

If you’re interested in getting your hands on the OPPO Watch, I would say to get the LTE model so you can truly enjoy the ability to use cellular service on your carrier. I wish that OPPO would’ve included this in their 41MM version (it’s Wi-Fi only). You can learn more about the OPPO Watch by clicking here.

The OPPO Watch sells for $480 for the 46mm model and $299 for the 41mm model. Oppo is in the process of launching this watch globally; it will be coming to the US soon, and we will update with a link on where to buy once it does.

Source: Manufacturer supplied review unit

What I Like: Innovative design & Curved Display; Ability to use with LTE data for $10 on Verizon; Colorized Notifications

What Needs Improvement: Wear OS has issues which are present in the OPPO Watch

The post Powered by Wear OS, the OPPO Watch Is an Android User's Answer to Smart Wrist-Wear first appeared on GearDiary.

from Joseph Rushing https://geardiary.com/2020/11/12/powered-by-wear-os-the-oppo-watch-is-an-android-users-answer-to-smart-wrist-wear/

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