If you’re experiencing a constant fear of not being useful, you might suffer from a Post-Capitalism Stress Disorder.

Casual reminders:

Porn is a billion dollar industry that takes advantage of your novelty processes and your moralities ("oh, its so naughty/taboo so I'm turned on") while abusing and raping children, women, and men on screen.

Trafficking only gets worse when you legalize prostitution. The women and men who "lllOOvvEE" selling themselves behind a webcam represents less than 1% of all sex-based commerce and therefore is an outlier and not the standard. (The only reason anyone listens to them anyway is because that's just what people want to hear.) The average entry age of sex trafficking is 12 years old.

We're not clownfish, birds, turtles, mycelium, or any of other scapegoats that people want to use to deny that our biological differences as great apes, and our sexually dimorphism as a species. It's offensive, ignorant, and escapism. We can statistically tell what the sex of another individual is by over 1000 feet away due to our biological evolution.

Very importantly, same sex relationships and mixed families have been recorded in humans throughout time, it is more natural to our sensibilities than gender as a construct (relationships and family units are constructs as well). To deny same sex attraction is to deny that attraction exists entirely. We all know this to not be true, both philosophically and scientifically.

When you have developed certain beliefs, it's always important to ask how and why. I once argued against every single one of these points from my late teens until my mid twenties because I believed these values were taught to me in good faith, when in reality it was just to uphold a status quo of division and the continuation of selling flesh/sexual slavery. Gender has been developed into something that is innate, that only the individual should question within themselves and not something that societies have developed in order to place men and women into roles in order to both control and profit from. Who benefits from cosmetic surgery? Who's wealth increases with the sell of medication and treatments? Not the people who feel like they're not themselves and disconnected from their 'gender' or 'sex'. Why do you feel like you're not a man? Why do you feel like you're not a woman? Discomfort in your skin is almost surgically put there from birth by the perpetuation of stereotypes in order to make you a patient, client, product, resource. Note that none of these words are "human being".

Men can absolutely wear dresses, skirts, heels, etc. They suck, but by all means, go for it.

Women can absolutely have short hair, wear jeans, be in STEM, not have children. These are all cool and have nothing with being male or female.

Please, ask yourself why? What kind of pornography are you consuming and how may this be affecting how you consider the world? What are your inner circles like, and what language and ways of thinking may they be perpetuating and why? How diverse is your mindset and our world views and why? Why do you feel like you shouldn't identify with the very body you were born in, that loves you and is a part of you and why do you feel more comfortable going into debt to go through medical procedures to fix an otherwise healthy body?

Ok, it's been hours, I've done a bunch of things, and I'm looping back to the Izzy Hands topic of the day because it turns out I do have something to say. So.

For anyone with a robust blocklist - short version: the "Izzy hates Stede for being a girly gay" vs "Izzy hates Stede for rich fuck crimes" is back. I will not be addressing this directly, because that's not what I care about today (and my stance is obvious lol). Instead, I want to elaborate on this short post since this particular debate is actually a really phenomenal example of what I'm trying to get at.

Because how do you insult a rich man?

I'm talking about a super straightforward, "I'm somehow in an elevator with Musk and I have one floor to say something mean to him" kind of insult? Or, to frame this correctly, how would you convey in a story someone insulting a rich man, so your audience can recognize quickly that A has a problem with B? Based on viral posts about Musk himself, some popular options are small dick, bastard, stupid, pig, rat, crybaby, toddler, unlikable, fragile ego, loser, etc. etc.

But like... What are those insults about?

See, insults are not neutral language (shocker). They're weighted with what our society sees as "bad", and rarely touch on what our society sees as "good". There's a million ways to call someone ugly (vs attractive), or weak and womanly (vs manly and respectable), or fat (vs strong and healthy), or unlikeable (vs socially accepted), or stupid and lazy (vs productive member of society)... I can go on for a while.

Being rich is one of those "good" things, so we straight up do not really have insults to say "you are bad for being rich and successful" (though we have plenty for "poor".). "Billionaire" might deserve to be a dirty word, but it's not. That's not how language works 🤷‍♀️ The closest is maybe "greedy" but that tends to quickly overlap with fat / lazy or comparing them to animals (i.e. subhuman). Or using wealth to imply a different failing - if he has to buy his friends it's because he's not charismatic, and that's the insult. Maybe in recent years bigotry has gone out of style enough that it can be a somewhat effective target, but even that's still context specific.

Insults are - at their core - about holding up some valued aspect of society and saying "you aren't doing this right". And a lot of those aspects are discriminatory on their face.

Pointing to a character insulting another character and saying you've found implicit internalized bigotry is some "fork spotted in kitchen" shit, especially about emasculating language. Men have spent all of human history coming up with ways to say they are better at being men than their rivals. From an audience perspective, the mere presence of a bias-informed insult (or a bunch of them) is realistically not going to convince everyone this character has an explicit bias being written into them, because they've gotten used to that going nowhere as a character trait.

Often, the asshole character is just being written as an asshole.

And to be clear, writers deal with this linguistic struggle. Sometimes they make up nonsense insults to try and create a culture that doesn't have our biases. They can use more direct examples and obvious slurs to denote the intended bigots, and conversely use more softened or otherwise defanged insults for the generic dicks. Insults like "bastard" are common as their moralizing is archaic. The insulted party & allies' reactions can cue you into how serious an insult is. And yeah, no shit it's all pretty subjective and individuals will disagree on reads, but it's still worth considering because while "being mean" is usually a character flaw, it's approached entirely differently than "being bigoted". Both of which are again different from "this work is reflecting the creators' bigotry." It's the same reason we need to be able to tell the difference between "justified killing" and "unjustified murder" in a story - it matters a lot in the storytelling.

Plus, fans who don't think about this are more likely to apply it by deciding the characters they like are lovable bastards 🥰 and the ones they don't like are undeniably bigots 🤬 and this is obviously, objectively true because don't you know "ponce" is a homophobic slur for men who aren't masculine enough?!? Clearly this is not about him being British upper class!

‘How Do You Live’

The 96th Academy Awards saw Hayao Miyazaki's new film "What Kind of Life Do You Want to Live?" win the award for Best Animated Feature Film. This is the second time Miyazaki has won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film, after winning in 2003 for A Thousand and One. I'm honestly looking forward to it, so I thought I'd share the news. Although everyone probably already knows about it. hh

Launched in 2017, the film is based on the 1937 novel of the same name by Genzaburo Yoshino. The book tells the story of a 15-year-old boy, "Copernicus Jr.", inspired and guided by his uncle, a university graduate, explores topics such as friendship, wealth, poverty, discrimination, bullying, people and society, and courage, to clarify "the value of what makes us human".

Still hand-painted, this production of What Kind of Life Do You Want to Live is Ghibli's largest production to date, with 60 painters working simultaneously.

I would like to share an artist who has held the position of background artist in many of Ghibli's works, Kazuo Oka, who is known to be the royal scene painter of Hayao Miyazaki's old grandpa. Since the film hasn't been released yet, I can't find any proof that he was involved in the production of the film What Kind of Life Do You Want to Live? It's said that you can only come up with one minute of film a month so this film is really precious.

Especially in the stage of rapid development of AI drawing now, the existence of old grandpa Hayao Miyazaki and his works seems to be a constant wake-up call for me not to forget the most basic and primitive way of expression. About male deer, Kazuo is a painter I have always liked very much and participated in "Totoro", "magical girl otaku rush", "the fairy tale of the Years", "a thousand and a Thousand Searches" and so on background paintings. Hayao Miyazaki once commented, "His work looks careful and serious, but when you look close, it's rough. He uses only one light stroke, and I think that's what makes his work so marvellous."

There is a Chinese saying that means that when you see a person's writing, you can learn about that person's character or can imagine their temperament. I think this saying is also very suitable to apply to paintings. hh

I guess the male deer and male must be a very quiet person, carefully observing the subtle changes around here. Perhaps he had very few words, perhaps he loved to laugh. It is as if there is a soul in each of his paintings they are either clear or silent. The paintings are all landscapes, just landscapes without a single distraction. So a pure idea is so clean. I can't find beautiful and touching words to describe his works. It's like taking a sip of sweet tea.

He has a unique way of filtering light, even the white snowy landscape seems like a warm afternoon, and the use of warm colours is also something that fascinates me. What is his understanding of colour?

There has been a constant topic of discussion about whether AI painting can replace the original artist. Every time I think about it, after seeing his work, my answer is no way. Maybe they have similar styles and colour relationships, but the feeling of handwork and painting is not there. A sensible design, a sense of realism in the conception, the colours about your mood. These are things that a machine doesn't have, and a machine is like a baby that needs to be fed and nourished by you. So don't worry too much. Use AI as a tool to increase our productivity, in more intensive hand drawing practice. Produce great work.

References：

(Longport App). [Online] Available at: https://longportapp.com/en/news/109912123 (Accessed: 23 March 2024).

Quality Culture. (2022年8月27日). [Video]. [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG6XzB_J3IA (Accessed: 23 March 2024).

Variety. (2022). Studio Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki Teases His Final Film, ‘How Do You Live?’. [Online] Available at: https://variety.com/2022/film/news/studio-ghibli-hayao-miyazaki-how-do-you-live-new-film-1235459163/ (Accessed: 23 March 2024).

"The Boy and the Heron". In Wikipedia. [Online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boy_and_the_Heron (Accessed: 23 March 2024).

Oscars. (2024.3.11). Best Animated Feature Film | 'The Boy and the Heron' | Oscars 2024 Press Room Speech. [Video]. [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvAe9rWaSpY (Accessed: 23 March 2024).

Wikipedia contributors. Kazuo Oga. In Wikipedia. [Online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazuo_Oga (Accessed: 23 March 2024).

Mirror Marketing: The Power of Self-Referential Strategies for Customer Engagement and Brand Loyalty

Few things are more appealing to individuals than their own personas. Folks spend an immense amount of time on social media platforms, expressing and referencing themselves more than any other subject. This aligns with neuroscience findings demonstrating how our brains uniquely process self-focused information. This is the fundamental idea behind self-referential marketing.

Through the utilization of self-referral strategies, businesses can sway consumers to form deeper, more emotional bonds with their offers. This paves the way for: 

effective customer interaction; 

customer acquisition; 

increased return on investment; 

the development of a loyal customer base.

Personalization as the key to customer engagement

In recent years, customized targeting has gained considerable traction among marketing departments across the board — consumers display better engagement with ads and promotional material that are tailored to their specific interests, experiences, or even physical attributes. 

Establishing a direct connection between big businesses and the intricate everyday lives of consumers has emerged as a winning strategy that fits well with society’s increased craving for personalized content. Businesses that leverage this ingrained human tendency towards self-interest have observed a substantial surge in: 

return on investment; 

customer interaction; 

healthier consumer relations; 

customer loyalty in the long run. 

The self-reference effect articulates that an individual’s memory retention is improved when the information pertains to them.

Harnessing customer self-referential cues 

Customer self-referential cues in marketing involve the customers’ personal connection, engagement, or association with the brand or product. The idea is to make customers see themselves in the product or services provided. Here are a few ways that you can capitalize on this concept:

Personalization. Providing a personalized experience for each customer can make them feel special and valued. This could be in the form of personalized recommendations based on previous purchases, personal greetings in emails, offering customizable products, etc.

User-generated content (UGC). Encourage customers to create content related to your brand. This could be as simple as encouraging customers to share photos of your products on social media, tagging your brand, or writing reviews. Self-identifying with the brand, they become part of the brand story.

Community building. Forming a community around a brand or product helps customers to identify with the brand on a deeper level. This could involve hosting forums, social media groups, or in-person meet-ups where customers can share experiences and build relationships.

Interactive marketing. Create interactive quizzes, videos, and media that allow customers to engage with your product or brand their personal way. This not only entertains customers but also allows them to interact in a way that is unique to them.

Brands as personal identifiers. Tune your marketing strategy to highlight how your brand or product aligns with customers’ personal identity. Show them how using your products or services helps portray their own values, lifestyle, and personal tastes to the world.

Influencer partnerships. Collaborate with influencers who embody the values and lifestyle your brand represents. They can help spread the word about your brand to their audience, who likely share similar values and will identify with your brand.

In all of these methods, authenticity is key. Consumers can tell when a brand isn’t being genuine, so be sure to always maintain your brand’s integrity throughout your marketing campaigns.

If you want to reach new GEOs and audiences, maybe it is all waiting for you on Telegram? We’ve prepared some material about Telegram audiences. What are the messenger’s users like this year? How old they are, what they do, and what they are interested in!

Two cases and go

Let’s see how companies can utilize personalization and continual adaptation to retain and increase user engagement over time.

Snapchat

In 2016, Snapchat introduced an innovative feature called Bitmoji, an application that enables users to design personalized cartoon-based avatars reflecting their real-life appearance or their desired look. These animated characters could be used as profile images or indicate user locations on the Snap Map.

The company further amplified the Bitmoji experience by launching Bitmoji Stories, a novel application where users’ avatars could interact in amusing or sentimental stories that mirrored their distinct lives and experiences.

The fact that Snapchat users continue to embrace Bitmoji is indeed a testament to the skillful efforts of the Snapchat marketing team.

Spotify

Spotify has garnered numerous accolades for its insightful tailored playlists and its End-of-Year Wrapped feature. The music platform employs sophisticated algorithms that adjust to the user’s continuously evolving preferences, providing recommendations attuned to what the user finds personally meaningful.

One standout feature on Spotify is Discover Weekly, supplying users with weekly playlists curated based on their individual “taste profile,” accrued over time by the algorithms. This feature introduces songs congruent with users’ listening habits, yet undiscovered by them.

The weekly provision enables users to cultivate a dynamic musical persona, which develops alongside them. This nurtures their individuality while also enriching their overall interaction with the app.

In essence, both companies demonstrate the power of personalization in technology. By fostering a sense of self and individuality within their platforms, they can maintain their relevance and appeal to their respective user bases.

Final thoughts

While self-referential marketing can yield significant results, it’s crucial to respect customers’ personal space and not overstep their comfort zone. Contemplate your own limits as a consumer to strike a balance between engaging personalization and an intrusive feeling. Stay mindful of evolving trends to avoid upsetting, offending, or seeming insensitive to your clientele.

The primary goal is to demonstrate that you genuinely value your customers’ needs and that their feedback truly matters in shaping your offerings.

Interesting headings:

Affiliate marketing case studies

Bonuses

Reviews

*Rhetoric of Coach Carter's Mentorship*

In this entry, I will examine the questions: What central narrative(s) does this artifact tell through its rhetorical elements? In doing so, what values does it promote and ignore (who does it include and exclude)? In which ways is this narrative (ethically) productive for society, in which ways is it limiting, and is it more productive or limiting?

To examine these questions I analyzed a clip from the movie Coach Carter. Within this movie clip, there are powerful narrative elements of cause and effect and use of statistics to promote the ideology of education and its importance to the success of underserved youth. It is productive in the way it emphasizes personal responsibility and the transformative power of mentorship. 

In this movie there is a new head coach, Coach Carter who takes over a basketball team in Richmond, California. This area has been known for high crime activity within their schools and low academic performance. When he took over he coached the kids not to be good at basketball but set standards to help them become better young men in society. In the movie clip he hits them with harsh realities that are ongoing in their town and offers them a way out. This whole movie is about the transition of this basketball team from focusing on sports to wanting a better life for them and their family. 

After reading about narratives and the contents of them there are a few things to look for when analyzing them. In Palczewski et al’s writing there are many different factors that can play into narratives. One of them being implying causation. In the article they state, “because a narrative relies on chronological telling of events, the event that happened first is seen to be the cause of later events.” (Palczewski 2012) Developing reasoning behind certain events in a story is critical for the audience to comprehend and develop the causation. This can help determine the background for the realities faced in narratives. Feeding into the idea of cause and effect is the social truths that may play a factor in narratives. In Palczewski et al, they claim “the complexity of narratives lies in the different types of truth claims that they can advance.” (Palczewski et al 2012) In many ways, narratives can be based on the truth they are trying to convey to the audience. This can be based also on the message or social situation they are attempting to set up throughout the story. This should stay consistent throughout a respective narrative. In an article by Foss, there is mention of how narratives can provide useful ideas for life. In this section he states “stories can give us ideas for living our own lives, and we can use them to discover a course of action.” (Foss 2004) Within narratives there are lessons and ideas to take with us as an audience and put forth in our lives. Many of which may never apply directly to us but in some facet can be used later on down the line. 

The film "Coach Carter" effectively employs the narrative element of cause and effect, demonstrating how events on a timeline can directly influence and shape the outcomes in the lives of the characters, highlighting the powerful role of choices and actions in determining their futures. Palczewski et al, discuss the importance of using causation in narratives, “all good narratives possess the elements of causality, or at least contingency.” (Palczewski et al) In this movie clip, Coach Carter says “growing up here in Richmond (you are) 80% more likely to go to prison than college.” In the movie there is no reference to the actions that caused this school to become a place where crime and lack of education were expected, but there is a cause to encourage these realities. Lack of money, increased gang activity within the youth, and the expectation that minorities from low income will not amount to anything hinder the schools performance. These preconceived realities of the school led Coach Carter to desire change and a better future for the kids at Richmond High School. When he decided to emphasize academics and hold the young men to a higher standard, he produced a cause for what change would soon follow. Palczewski et al reference the possibility that the cause does not have to be directly stated, “even when a narrative does not explicitly offer casual reasoning, the audience members will supply it as they listen to the story” (Palczewski et al) In this movie, Coach Carter provided the cause of why he is hard stuck on change to their school. He emphasizes the dire reality and consequences of those who choose to stay on the same path that has already been created. He rather motivates the young men to put into effect his ideals and change the narrative behind their community. Without the causation implied by Coach Carter in his many passionate speeches, the players would be left with no outcome in mind. There would ultimately have been no effect from Coach Carter's words. 

"Coach Carter" skillfully utilizes the narrative component of statistics as a means of conveying cultural values, this promotes the importance of employing various communication methods to effectively convey messages and underscore the significance of data-driven insights in influencing decisions and actions. In the clip Coach Carter relates to his team in a more basketball friendly way by using statistics. He says “Richmond High only graduates 50% of its students, and of those that do graduate only 6% go to college.” After this statement he provides even more statistics to back up his thinking and message, “in this county 33% of black males between 18-24 get arrested.” Within this use of statistics, Coach Carter is pushing the harsh narrative of what the school and county are known for. It demonstrates that statistics can serve as powerful tools to illustrate the challenges and opportunities faced by the players, emphasizing the need for education and discipline in their lives. Moreover, it reflects how data-driven insights can influence decisions and actions, reinforcing the idea that informed choices are essential for personal growth and success. Employing a fear of reality into his team, in hope that it provokes the desire to change the narrative their school has gained from the community and past numbers. Coach Carter wants his team to share the same passion towards academics and towards a better community outlook. He wants these young men to live lives that previous young black men could not. The only way he sought fit was to display this message through using statistics he knew the team could understand and relate too. 

Paragraph of opposing view (productive or unproductive) 

"Coach Carter" could be limiting and ethically unproductive because it simplifies complex issues and presents Coach Carter as a singular hero capable of miraculous transformation. However, there is a lot within the movie that is productive for the audience. It effectively promotes the values of education, discipline, and personal accountability, encouraging viewers to consider their potential for positive change. By showcasing the transformative power of mentorship and personal responsibility, the movie provides a motivational message that can inspire individuals to strive for academic excellence and personal growth. Within a target audience of teenagers to maybe younger some of the underlying issues were not covered in the movie for several reasons. The main messages were conveyed to provide hope in the audience who may be battling similar issues themselves. This movie also shows there are people in your life that do care about your success and what you do in life. It may not always be easy to find them, but they are there. One main reason for the usage of a strong mentor in this movie is to push the persuasion factor. In a reading James A. Herrick, there is mention that “many professions, in fact, require a certain understanding of and a capacity to persuade.” (Herrick 2017) In this movie Coach Carter is the main character who supplies the persuasion within the narrative. The main purpose of this is to push his ideas to his students about the world they can leave behind and the opportunities ahead of them. This plays into the productive part of his rhetoric in being inspiring for those watching this move and lighting a flame of hope. Another quote from Herrick’s book states, “it is to begin to appreciate the centrality of this activity to much of life, and to recognize human beings are rhetorical beings.” (Herrick 2017) Herrick’s writing helps relate this glorified coach into one of us, a rhetorical human being. There is clear purpose with what he does with his students and in my perspective he does it in a productive manner. 

In conclusion there is a clear purpose for the rhetorical elements used in the movie Coach Carter. He uses statistics and causality to employ the ideology of importance in education and discipline. In his words he provides the spark for the kids to desire a better life for themselves. This takes a mostly productive outlook in the real world in accordance with the audience. It shows there is a way out from preconceived conditions you might be in. It is important to stay educated, stay disciplined, and find those around you that care. 

Works Cited:

Palczewski, C. H., Ice, R., Fritch, J. "Narratives." Rhetoric in Civic Life, Strata Publishing, Inc., 2012, pp. 117-146.

Foss, Sonja K. Rhetorical Criticism: Exploration and Practice, Waveland Press, Inc., 2018.

Herrick, A. James. The History and Theory of Rhetoric, Routledge Publishing, 2017

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WC- 17th April

Today we all presented our individual pitches in front of the group

I made my individual pitch over the easter holiday responding to the brief and client, I completed a lot of research which I am going to present here in order to complete my 2-minute pitch.

The first thing I researched where the clients;

Birmingham City Council;

BCC explain that there is no place for being timid or afraid, they allow public art to challenge and contribute to debates, and act as a catalyst for collective thinking about what we want from society.

I found out about Birmingham City Council's- Six strategy objectives. This is important as its what they look for within public art/events.

Strengthen Birmingham communities and place

Bring communities together.

Voluntary arts support and encourages creative and cultural activity.

Increases activity within the area

Enable Birmingham Residents (including young people)

To experience creativity and have the opportunity to develop as creators, participants, audiences and leaders in the cultural field.

Improve Birmingham's reputation as a desirable location

Digbeth, up and coming how does it improve?

Where people and businesses want to be

Why is Digbeth desirable? history? arts?

Enhance Birmingham's cultural offer

Will it bring new people into the city?

Is it inclusive?

For residents and visitors?

Enhance the quality of the public realm

Does it fit in with the upcoming Digbeth area

Parks, streets, public spaces

Recognise and create key events

Personalities and moments in history.

Oval- Digbeth regeneration

Oval owns a 16-acre regeneration site made up of 40 buildings, including a custard factory, fazely studios etc

They house over 400 creative businesses from graphic designers, dance academies and post-production agencies

New HS2 terminal means London will be 50 minutes away.

My original idea was to base my pitch around the history of digbeth, I completed research from medieval Digbeth to modern day Digbeth, shown beneath. However, when researching this I realised how important creativity is to Digbeth, today being known as the creative quarter of Birmingham. This led me to research more about the art within.

When researching around the arts in Digbeth I found out that Birmingham is the premier location for street art, particular around the custard factory. A lot of it stems from the 2014 City of colours festival, which brought artists from all over to paint in and around the custard factory.

Another thing which inspired me to base my idea around the art within Floodgate was the photos I had taken when we went to the site, I loved how you could make the art stand out.

From this, I researched artists who are shown within Digbeth including Justin Sola, Annatomix, 0707, Jy Sharpes, and Dan Kitchener. This is shown in my video.

When coming up with my new idea I decided to design a mind map answering the brief and Birmingham City's six strategies; exploring why the site is unique and interesting...

The mindmap is shown below-

This mindmap helped me put all my ideas into perspective in order to answer the brief. However beyond this I wanted a reason for celebrating the arts therefore I completed more research about hy the arts are underrated and why we should celebrate them. The research including...

Why are the arts underrated?

Humans always find a way to express themselves through art, whether that's music, dance, drama, writing, painting etc.

Art is often overlooked in schools, and one of the main reasons for this is sciences, people who have a greater aptitude for sciences are considered smarter within the school, which is further from the truth- I wanted to portray this throughout my pitch. This research was from the Ted talk spoke about in a previous presentation within the performance lab.

Why should we celebrate art?

Mirror- Arts force us to see ourselves and society. Art makes us better.

Culture- Art has a sneaky way of telling us what to value, and what's important, from our language to apparel. The arts inform our identity as individuals and society.

Worldwide- Arts help us see the world through others' eyes, the world isn't one-dimensional or monochrome. the arts are underrated when people think science can explain everything but it's much more complex.

Internal- words can always express how someone feels, art gives people expression where they can't find joy.

Unify- Art brings people together, and builds bridges, whether pieces of music give us shared experiences that bring us together.

This research led me to finalise my 2-minute pitch, I did enjoy making this however I did find it quite difficult as I've never made a video before. I used the platform Vimeo to make the video by completing a 7-day trial, this was quite difficult including getting the timing right for each scene in order to allow them to be slow enough for people to read. Another thing I would've improved about my pitch is to have an actual plan, maybe diagrams of what I wanted to achieve as my pitch was mainly the research and meaning of what I wanted to achieve.

After this we were put into our groups for the module and started to discuss what our plans are.

Wednesday 19th April

Today was the first online SA talk which was an introduction to academic writing skills- structuring, planning and finding sources.

The first thing we went through was how to critically reflect:

Critical- 'Examining and judging analytically and without bias'- looking at other people's opinions to make judgements of your own.

There are three parts to a critical reflection piece; The What?, So what?, What now?

The What?- A description of the experience. For example, a description of who, what, why, when, and where.

So what? This is the sense-making section that asks you to surface general meaning, significance, and your position/viewpoint to what you're doing.

What now?- This makes connections from the incident/experience to further actions. What would you do differently/the same next time? What are the lessons learnt?

This session was very helpful going through different sources as inspiration which could help us throughout the module which I will look through and use as inspiration for the pitch.

The task today was to go through the essay worksheet plan, drafting and coming up with an individual proposal. For this, I completed a mind map for my introductory paragraph.

Introductory plan-

This paragraph has to be approximately 150 words long. Where I will lay out the aim of the essay and the exploration being made throughout the module.

To help me gain ideas for this part of the SA I completed a mind map shown beneath.

Within this mind, I went through questions such as;

What is speculative design?

Why is speculative design important?

Who is the client?

what exploration is being made?

How will you show you've developed from year one?

This mind map helped me understand the introductory part of the Sa plan, which is a layout of the aim of the module, I feel like having it all on one page will help me when I come to write the SA as this is how I work best. I also used the layout of the worksheet to help me with this as this was a helpful structure. However, I find I work better when I write it all out in front of me.

This first session was very helpful as a starting point, I do struggle when starting to write an essay at this volume however this gave me valuable information to get a good head start on it.

EDIT

INDIVIDUAL PROPOSAL

GROUP PROPOSAL

THE CLIENT

THE CONTEXT

PERSONAL SELF

Thursday 20th April

Today was our first workshop with Tony in the computer room, today we set up our Adobe accounts which we can use for the next three years throughout projects which will be really helpful.

Today was an introduction to the software sketch up which is a 3D software which will allow you to build anything from skyscrapers to mock-up designs. Today was all about experimenting with this software using tools such as line, and push-pull. grab etc to create anything. This was really helpful as I am not very good when using this software however after this session I used it a bit at home, it will get some getting use to but attending these sessions weekly will be really beneficial.

Friday 21st April

Today we sat down as a group and spoke about the chosen idea which was, Niamhs was a steampunk-inspired social area. We discussed initial ideas and what we liked about each other, expanding on this original idea.

We wanted to incorporate some of our ideas within this pitch but still stick with the original idea. This included adding greenery to the area, keeping the steampunk theme, and including local graffiti artists to create art in a specific place, I think this is important as it keeps the idea of Digbeth being the 'creative quarter' of Birmingham which would be a shame to loose as the amount of creativity within this site is amazing.

From this idea, we kept the original idea of it being a social space for anyone to use, especially students it can be a new place for them to socialize, study and chill for children and family as we have the idea of incorporating some social games within. Also, we like the idea of having a cafe within the space which would be cheap, the idea of being too good to go or using the app Olio came from this. These were all ideas quickly generated through a mind map which will be developed later on.

Our list of what we wanted on within contained;

Physical appearance

Pods

Changing floor

Graffiti

Plants

Steam Punk theme

Winter- will they change?

Facilities

Food/drinks

Art/Music

Power sources

Heaters

Games

Funding

Sponsors

Donations

Government

Below is the mindmap we created which sums up our whole idea.

To develop from this we decided to get a Pinterest board up and running to explore the steampunk theme.

This was very helpful as it allowed me to understand what steam punk is, I think this is a really interesting concept for the pitch.

When exploring this we decided that we needed to design furniture for the space therefore we each decided to each take on a job, I decided to design som furniture, Niamh decided to design a stage which would be used for live performances, Muki was designing lamps/themes which we then send to Hemza who will 3D modify them into the floodgate space.

For my design, I used inspiration from Pinterest to research the style of chairs and steampunk patterns to combine into one chair. I used Procreate to design which was really easy and I did really enjoy this as I don't usually do digital art, however, it was quite time-consuming but I think the outcome was worth it.

My first design is shown below;

Government spending and why it will always be wastefully corrupt.

Time and time again you might hear people say, the system is broken and the Government doesn’t work or is inefficient. I would like to make the case that this premise is incorrect, the Government is in fact very effective, once you realize that it is not meant to work for you. It is the other way round.

There is no benefit to society in giving people free money and then telling them they are equal to people that work. Let me speak for myself. I do not believe in equality, it is a LIE. It is not based in reality. That is like saying, I am equal to these fake journalists, I reject that. Remember they are after your reality, once they get that, it is easier to steal your money.  

What is even more infuriating is that if you ever bring it up, you are labeled, insulted or attacked. be careful you might be called Privileged… Yet you work for a living, enough is enough. …

The biggest poison in our society is the grant system. … Someone has to say it, it is time for some political incorrectness, how else are you going to fix the problem. To give people free money is a direct attack on the family and I, for one, do not want to participate in it anymore. My answer is NO. I do not CONSENT. 

In case you think I am being hateful, please consider educating yourself about the law of the land. 

(This speech is protected by our constitution, it's called freedom of expression, you should go take a look at that. …) 

I think that there is a better way, surely. … If you manage to digest what I am saying without being triggered or think that I am hateful towards the poor or whatever word you think might hurt me, you should know that I have no capacity to care about your opinion, I am stating my opinion. Expert or not, degree, honors or not, I could care less. … 

I speak for myself and hardworking people like me, I don’t not care where they are, what colour their skin is, or where they come from. … And if it moves the conversation forward, I’ll be the monster. We are robbing young people of the pride and satisfaction to work and earn for self. 

The solution is to CUT taxes. 

YES, if our Government really cared about people, as we do, and by we I mean the productive population of society, they would cut taxes for businesses. And let us solve the mess we have put us in. … 

There are plenty of case studies you can find to support my argument. It is also common sense that productive people will reinvest most of the money they make back into their businesses always always always. I know it might seem strange to you, but if it does, then I am sorry you don’t belong in that league. … And we do this because we want to increase production, this normally means more jobs, and more money. Everyone is happy. .. I know that they teach something different at our universities, I know..

Government is happy since the tax pool is bigger, people are happy they are working and spending on themselves. It is important, people are working. Pride in self restored. 

The Late Milton Fredman spoke eloquently about government's spending and the reason that it will always be wastefully corrupt, and why it is the way it is. 

The question you need to ask or consider  is “who is spending who’s money?”.  There are 4 sets of scenarios whenever you spend money …

So when you spend money,  you can

spend your money on yourself

When you spend YOUR OWN money on YOURSELF, you are very careful how much you spend and you are very careful to make sure that you get the best quality for the money you spend. You worked for it after all, very important. _ VALUE FOR MONEY

spend your money on someone else

When you spend YOUR OWN money on SOMEONE ELSE, you are careful how much you spend, and you are not too concerned about the quality, like you would in first scenario AFFORDABLE QUALITY

spend SOMEONE ELSE'S money on YOURSELF, you don’t care how much money you spend and you also make sure you get the best quality for the money you are spending. EXPENSE QUALITY

spend someone else's money on someone else, you don’t care about the price and you couldn’t care less about the quality __ CHEAP CHEAP

And the 4th scenario is the definition of Government Spending. … There is this misconception that the Government creates jobs, that is not true. And it is not the responsibility of the Government to create jobs, all the government can do is spend the money it takes from the productive members of society and give it away. 

If you take money from Tebogo and give it to Thabo, you can always rely on Thabo’s support. .. 

Well now Tebogo is now GATVOEL and wants to keep his money. … 

In conclusion, the cause is the cure and the cure is the cause. … You are able to solve the problem with the cause of the problem. And you manage to do this without a tax revolt.

WIN - WIN FOR ALL. …

Is that too simplistic? Has that been tried in our country before?

The solutions are with the productive members of society, the working class and maybe it is time they were asked? Clearly the Experts in this scenario are experts at failure, step aside. 

CommAnalyst.

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Is Extra Data At All Times Higher For Constructing Analytics Models?

Analytics Insight® is an influential platform devoted to insights, tendencies, and opinion from the world of data-driven technologies. It displays developments, recognition, and achievements made by Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Analytics corporations throughout the globe. Analytics Insight is an influential platform dedicated to insights, trends, and opinions from the world of data-driven technologies. The data generated by folks while browsing the internet can be utilized to predict the curiosity of the customers. The BestBuy consumer electronics firm has provided the information of millions of searches from customers and will enable the participants to predict the Xbox game that  a person might be most involved to buy.

If the word does not exist, the tool identifies essentially the most comparable phrases from the smartphone’s history. Description With rise in know-how and use of ICT infrastructure and other digital utilizes problem of managing e waste is now a major challenge throughout the globe. India is among the many third nation which generates highest e-waste after China and US.

Software SH Agriculture, FoodTech & Rural Development 326 Ministry of Rural Development "Algorithm/Mechanism for analyzing and estimating % match level for related data column/s values (e.g. Consolidation of a quantity of Govt. programs implies an individual be uniquely recognized in all DBs. To uniquely determine, a location handle is offered (e.g. a village name) and then other particulars similar to name, DOB, Mother’s, Father’s name and so on." Description "Regulatory authorities like AICTE and UGC are serving large number of students/stakeholders by way of HEIs. There may be chatRobot which may be developed to reply some frequent queries/FAQs.The main focus of this downside statement is to 1. Develop an AI primarily based chatbot for answering the queries with a immediate response and accurate answer 2. Chatbot have to be given provision for regional language understanding additionally To develop a chatbot , which can reply promptly with 99% accuracy atleast." Description We search a solution the place utilizing minimal and very low power electronic component the controller could be programmed wirelessly as many times the person desires.NIOT is growing Autonomous Underwater Observatory methods, for which we use microcontrollers to execute the duties which are preprogrammed in it.

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Due to small Radar Cross Section, it's not simple to detect them through conventional Radars. An financial resolution similar to detection of Drones by way of CCTV feeds in actual time may be very helpful to protect our establishments and sensitive areas. The solution must be sensible sufficient to tell apart between birds, kites, and so forth from Drones and detect them from distant and point out whether they're approaching or receding. The solution/algorithms must be optimized accomplish that in actual time and alert the authorities on detected Drones.

On the contrary, e waste also contains valuable metals like gold and silver which have to  be extracted correctly. Build a solution for effective administration of e-waste which is technologically environment friendly and eco-friendly on the same time. Description "Recharging floor water degree has all the time been a challenge. Rain water harvesting has a peak throughout monsoon and most of the time, in many of the areas it’s not so efficient. Kitchen waste water has comparatively much less impurities and contaminations and if harvested individually, can lead to a extra sustainable method to recharge floor water levels. Societies and large homes can be required to separate kitchen and bathroom waste water. With number of proper bio-reactors, algae, biochemicals, some useful by-products can be made like some helpful gases, gas and so on." Description Most tourism-related actions require vitality directly in the form of fossil fuels or indirectly within the type of electricity usually generated from petroleum, coal or fuel.

It may also establish and flag content which has the likelihood to disturb public order and flag it on an emergency basis. The answer may identify such content material with affordable accuracy, which may then be reviewed by the Ministry for taking applicable motion beneath the Rules. Description Road are continuously constructed throughout various locations all around the nation. The present system of monitoring the construction course of and well being is manually and thus becomes tedious and bodily inconceivable many a time. Roads thus turn out to be due for repairs / maintenance prematurely as a result of various reasons. There is a requirement to plan a wise process may be through the use of good expertise to watch the process on the time of building, embedding sensors throughout highway building, use of smart imaging technology to assess situation utilizing drones, smart gadgets put in on distant operated / autonomous autos for overseeing during construction, etc.

There thus a requirement to plan appropriate know-how options for realtime evaluation of condition. Further good solution for cable fault tracing in inhospitable terrains would help decreasing downtime as a outcome of outages. Description "Any group will have approved listing of IP’s assigned to official PC’s, Workstations & Servers. However, at occasions, users attempt assigning an IP on units (eg. BYOD) and can attempt to hook up with the network. Develop an actual time tracking software to compare and observe IP’s other than the permitted record that are getting related to the network together with their username/hostname & MAC ID’s and ship a mail notification to sysadmin together with the port and swap particulars. Software to trace any new IP assigned and joins the community aside from the approved list of IP’s." Description It is significant to judge the catastrophe struck areas, understand the requirements at the floor level to channelize and optimize the resources. During critical times of disaster, The NDRF needed to quickly identify the areas of excessive influence, variety of affected folks and  what assist they need?

Innovation is the key and it must stimulate more strategies of increasing recycling and the recyclability of plastic-containing merchandise that additional enhance product design. There is nice potential for financial acquire however for this to happen we'd like multiple players across businesses and research communities to come together, to reconceive key materials flows and manufacturing processes. All this must be supported by the right policies and by sufficient investment.There is a requirement of reshaping the economics of plastic which may assist the setting and in addition the worldwide economy.

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Ah, yes, so: Christmas is over, New Years is on its way. A word about New Year’s resolutions. People have different parts to them — I don’t mean in a systems way, where every part is its own full identity, but in a squishier more metaphorical way. One part people have is an inner representation of other people’s expectations. The inner parent, or inner babysitter, or inner cop. The part of you that tells you what being good and bad is according to your parents and friend group and teachers and bosses and landlords and the neighborhood busybody, whoever you don’t want to piss off.

This aspect of the self is important and valuable, but is most useful as an advisor, not a decision-maker.

Problem is, people tend to make resolutions from the point of view of their inner cop.

I should lose weight I should go to bed earlier I should exercise more I should meditate I should practice gratitude, etc.

and with the exception of losing weight (if you are thinking about weight loss as a new year’s resolution, may I recommend you read health and every size instead and go with a science based weight neutral approach to improving your health? Or if health isn’t your main motivation, well, there are ways to work on “looking attractive” and “feeling good about yourself” etc that do not hinge on the number on your bathroom scale.) those are all potentially good things to do, but for most of us our inner cop doesn’t listen to our inner child/inner anarchist/whatever you want to call the part of yourself that’s in touch with your feelings and intrinsic motivation, so when we make inner-cop goals and then later our inner child is taking the lead, we…don’t follow through. Because people’s inner child tends to fucking hate being told what to do.

(and actually there’s an entirely different set of problems for people who are good at making their inner child toe the line.)

In the long run the way to handle this is to work on integrating the self better (again, apologies for the language gap, this is not about being a system) so that when you’re making goals you actually get the buy-in of your inner child and when it’s half an hour to bed time and you don’t want to get ready for bed you’re listening to the part of you that thinks it’s a good idea to go to bed, so you can do a sort of internal consensus decision making process, but in the short term one thing you can do is do a check on what your real values are and whether your goals are coming from that place, or just a place of “I should.”

and another thing you can do is to reject the capitalist nonsense of focusing on productivity — what you do — and instead focus your goals on what kind of person you want to be — kind or honest or courageous or whatever — even if that means it’s harder to track whether you’re succeeding or not. Because the obsession on being able to quantify progress is also capitalist nonsense. or on what you think will make your life happier, whether it is in any way virtuous or comprehensible to your mom, your therapist, or your partner.

Anyways, for a lot of people not setting resolutions at all is going to be a solid approach, but for people like me who really like the idea of self improvement, it is worth considering where your idea of self improvement is coming from and how much you actually buy into that. Just because the stereotypical New Year’s resolutions are about health and money and self-discipline and stuff doesn’t mean yours have to be. You can resolve to never walk past a street homeless person without at least mentally wishing them well, you can resolve to do more of whatever thing you really love that you keep not doing because you’re in a rut, you can resolve to taste enough wine to finally figure out what those weird flavor descriptions actually mean, etc. Your life is yours, not anyone else’s, and your acts of intentionality and will do not have to be focused at conforming yourself to what society says is good for you. The thing I am most glad I did around a decade ago was to go down to the ocean frequently and walk barefoot on the sand and into the waves.

Attire The Studio: The Importance Of Transparency In A Time Of Fast Fashion

In a time of fast fashion and the ever changing fashion industry, transparency is as important as ever. Brands are becoming, or are claiming, to be more sustainable. But are they really telling the truth? How do we know what is happening behind the scenes without the brands actually telling us? Can we really believe them when in the end, it is all about profit and capitalism? I had a closer look at a sustainable, monochrome brand founded by a German influencer. Xenia Adonts is the founder and creative director of her own sustainable fashion brand Attire The Studio. Head of design and Production of Attire is Carmela who designed for Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren before. The founder says that the idea behind Attire is: “My number one belief is transparency. I think honesty, authenticity and being true to yourself are some of the most important values in today’s society. With that in mind, I will disclose the factories I use and why I use them. I’m working with small factories, most of which are family owned, and I have been inside each of them watching our pieces being produced. I have talked to the owners who have a proud history of production, sometimes stretching back multiple generations. I have seen the workers, the people who work hard so that we can have a new piece of clothing. It is touching and it means so much to me. There is a cost to clothing, so it shouldn’t be something we wear once and throw away. I will be 100% transparent about pricing. You will know what you’re paying for: the material cost, the labor cost, the transportation cost. You will see the margin that we get.” Miss Adonts is based in Paris and her clothes are produced in Barcelona. So far she released two collections entailing simple, monochrome sweaters, coats, blazer, silk tops, blouses and cardigans. Her colours are kept neutral - navy, white, grey, black and white. Only for the second collection she went for bolder colours like yellow, green, purple and blue and brown. She created clothes for every taste and also pretty much for every body. Compared to high end designers her prices are affordable. One of her most popular items is a dark navy blazer that can be worn with literally anything. It retails for about 380 Euros what equals to about 342 Pounds. Very affordable compared to brands like Gucci or Celine. Xenia she once said on her Instagram story that she wanted to achieve a collection that is similar to the old Celine era of Phoebe Philo. Clean, minimalistic cuts and designs and neutral colours. I admit that she achieved this aesthetic. Xenia is very transparent of the process of the production of her clothes and always mentions the true costs of the item. For example about a blazer of her first collection that she calls “the everyday blazer” she said: “We have been looking for the perfect double-breasted blazer in the perfect quality. One with a rising collar, exaggerated lapel and exposed darts. The one with a strong and powerful silhouette that you can throw over ANY outfit. The one you would steal from your boyfriend because the fit is just so good. Here you go. We made it for you.” The material consists of the following: The shell is 100% Wool and the lining is 100% Organic Cotton. According to Xenia: “The wool was carefully sheared, spun, dyed and woven in the mountains of Portugal and Uruguay. Mulesing is not a practice in these countries and the sheep’s welfare is guaranteed throughout the process. The blazer is made with a 100% organic cotton lining, certified with the STANDARD 100 by OEKO-TEX. This ensures that the lining does not contain or release harmful substances to your health.” She claims that the true cost of her blazer is 119,35 Euros entailing 34,66 Euros for the fabric, 3,75 Euros for the hardware, 79,14 Euros for the labor and 1,80 Euros for the transport. The retail price is 380 Euros and the traditional retail price is 710 Euros. You do not see an honest transparency like this often, especially in fast fashion. It is refreshing to see a brand that is focused on slow fashion and sustainable fabrics. One is able to shop without a bad conscience. Xenia also gives an insight into the materials of her clothing: “Did you know that almost no brand discloses the origin of the yarn? We use wool suppliers from Italy and Portugal, but that doesn’t mean that the wool is from these countries, it only means that’s where the mill is. We go the extra mile and disclose the origin of the yarn, and each farm is certified to ensure that no sheep was harmed in production. It is a shame that the word ‘Sustainable’ is thrown around so loosely as a buzzword. Brands use it as a marketing tool. In fact, many brands invest more money in marketing the perception of sustainability than in actually making efforts to be sustainable. Scary, right? The problem is there is no real definition of sustainability. Financially, a brand is sustainable if it makes enough money to survive the business year. For some, sustainability means using recycled materials. For others sustainability means being CO2-neutral. Here is my personal definition of sustainability, defined by doing a lot of research and deciding what aligns most with my values and what’s most important to me.” Unfortunately a popular, emerging brand attracts a lot of replicas. Fast fashion chains like Zara, copied the design and colours of a cut out sweater with a bow on the back and of a sweater that is cut out at the shoulders. Both retailed for about 25,99 Pounds. Of course, one can be seduced and think to themselves: “Should I go for the cheaper version that looks the exact same?” Most of the people would say yes, but at what price? It is common knowledge that fast fashion brands care mostly about profit, barely thinking about the wellbeing of their workers and exploiting them instead of paying them fairly and supporting them.’ People who are not able to afford high end clothes are more likely to buy fast fashion and it is acceptable because when it comes to a better, more sustainable future, one does not have to change their buying habits in a heartbeat, they are allowed to change them slowly but surely. A little effort goes a long way. With someone creating a brand like this, one question emerges after all. Praising and portraying sustainability, is she obligated to add that mindset to her public life as an influencer and entrepreneur? A Tik Toker who shares sustainable brands stated, when asked, that Xenia should be fully sustainable and transparent when it comes to advertising clothes outside of Attire The Studio. This is a controversial opinion, and also a hard thing to do as an influencer whose job is it to share the newest trends and collections from high end designers who might not always be sustainable. On a further note, Xenia announced on a post via instagram that she introduces a sustainable alternative to hangtags. She said: “Working in fashion & receiving clothing really made me realise how wasteful hangtags are - but what is a good alternative? We looked at so many options but nothing seemed like suitable solution. Eating my Kayser baguette and looking at the paper made me come up with an idea of putting a barcode in our care labels. This way we save paper and yet manage to give you all information about the special attributes about our fabrics. One step closer to creating a change. Xenia and her team are definitely is on a good way of changing the fashion world and creating a more transparent and sustainable environment and is setting a good example for fashion brands. She is very inspiring to me personally and what makes her so relatable is her not sugarcoating anything, She presents herself the way she actually is, she doesn’t pretend. She has a hunger for life and you can tell. She reads a lot of books and shares them with their followers. A person who is so motivated to change the world for the better, can only be motivating others to do the same. What is truly remarkable, is that she will be remembered in-between a lot of people who work in fashion as someone who stands up for what she believes in and who doesn’t only put on a show to get views or to be liked. It takes a lot of courage and determination to create your own brand and be so transparent about the process - a lot of people can and should learn from her. We at Reverie will definitely buy clothes from Attire The Studio - especially anything in neutral colours.

Top 3 Hotel Chain Brands in India 2022

Hotels are seen as both a city's pride and a country's history. Even if you're going on vacation, business, or another type of trip, you may need to travel across the country or even around the world. When things like this happen, you go to the lodge! Lodges are classified and rated based on the number of stars they have. You can also select the type of lodge and room that best meets your needs and budget. You can tell how healthy a country is by looking at the state of its hotel rooms.

Prior to Covid-19, India's hospitality industry was thriving. The Coronavirus did not only affect India, but it also affected other countries. As a result, it had a significant impact on the hospitality industry. In any case, the world is slowly returning to normalcy, and hotels are reopening to accommodate visitors.

The Lodge, restaurant, bar, and transportation are all examples of hospitality. Hotels and hospitality brands of all types can be found in India, and they are at the heart of the tourism industry. Many companies in these industries provide high-quality services and luxurious amenities. The numerous lodge brands also contribute to the preservation of India's treasures. 

Let’s look at some of the top hotel companies in India.

The EIH Ltd.

EIH Ltd is the name of the company. EIH Ltd is owned and operated by the Oberoi family. The company also sells management contracts for businesses and trips for individuals. This company also manages restaurants and caters to planes, offers travel and tour services, airport bars, car rentals, and so on. EIH Ltd, India's largest hospitality company, has a market value of approximately 7,123 crores.

This hotel chain is perhaps the most well-known. This group's lodges in India only have 31 luxury properties. There are some under the Trident brand as well. Despite the fact that there aren't many of them, this is one of the best hotel lodges in India. It owns two hotel brands: Oberoi and Trident. Trident is a five-star Lodge brand, and Oberoi is a high-end Lodge brand.

Mahindra Holidays and Resorts India Private Limited

Mahindra Holidays and Resorts Ltd. of India Mahindra Hotels & Resort India Ltd is also known as Club Mahindra Holidays, which is the name of an Indian club. Mahindra Holidays is a well-known name in the hospitality industry. On September 20, 1996, it was created. The Mahindra Group runs it, and it has over 2.43 million members. In its field, the company is the market leader. They operate 94 resorts across Asia and Europe.

People can purchase vacation homes from Mahindra Holidays, the largest company selling them outside of the United States. The company also offers holiday activities, dining, spa, and wellness services, among other things. MHRIL is one of India's top ten hospitality and lodge companies. 

Royals Club International 

Royals Club International (A Unit of Royals Timeshare India Limited) places a premium on customer service and instils a sophisticated service culture based on quality sciences at all levels of the organisation. This allows us to consistently meet business objectives, increase profitability, and strengthen our positive long-term relationships with travellers, guests, and employees.

Royals Club International is a multi-destination vacation concept that was founded with one vision in mind: to create a one-of-a-kind travel and lifestyle company that provides the highest quality benefits and services to its Members.

The company owns, operates, and manages hotels and resorts while also offering club and vacation ownership services. It is recognised as a 'full service provider' in the hospitality and leisure space, offering products and services to a cross section of society, ranging from the middle to upper classes, as well as corporate customers and frequent individual travellers (FIT). With properties in or near key business and leisure destinations, they are now an emerging player in the hospitality and leisure business.

Royals Club International has invested in developing a true travel and lifestyle platform where members can enjoy exceptional value and service, as well as a sense of community and a true "membership" feeling.

Research report

Introduction

 “We must each adopt as much responsibility as possible for individual life, society and the world. We must each tell the truth and repair what is in disrepair and break down and recreate what is old and outdated. It is in this manner that we can and must reduce the suffering that poisons the world. It’s asking a lot. It’s asking for everything.”

 ― Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos 

 What is our goal in life? 

 In 2022, a lot of people, including myself, spending their time staring at screens for a significant part of the day, creating and consuming content that essentially only exists out of zeros and ones. For nerds like me, our entire life exists on these devices. We work, learn and relax by the grace of these devices. But is this really what life is about?

 Last year, a dear friend and fellow AMFI student passed away unexpectedly. After the grieving stage, it made me re-evaluate my existences and goals while I am still blessed to spend time on earth. Who do I really want to be? 

 This event has had a big impact on my life and changed the way I value time and my opinion on digitalisation. It has given me new dreams and goals, of starting a community and living a life surrounding manual labour. Living outside of society, where people are self-sufficient, responsible for their surroundings and their peers. A place where people can live traditional life’s, with traditional values without being judged by the politically correct society that we currently live in. 

  A counter to the metaverse. How ironic that I am creating this using my digital tools.

 It has also brought me closer to God, so I decided I want to focus my product on honouring the most high. By creating a product that can be given back to its creator. Not only for Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists or any other religion or lifestyle. A product for everyone, with any religion or belief. Whether you believe God has created this earth, Allah, Yahweh or we exist out of pure coincidence as a consequence of the big bang, we should all be grateful for what earth has given us. And give back.

  In this document, I will explain my concept and refer to the inspirations that have led towards it.

             2.       Theoretical framework

 My research is focused on working on land and taking care of your own community. Inspired by libertarianism, religion and moving out of the city lifestyle by the so-called back-to-the-land movement.

 My first inspiration is Musashi, a character from the manga Vagabond, based on a samurai that actually roamed Japan around the year 1600.. He is a samurai who had a tough life full of bloodshed and violence. Towards the end of his life, he sees that the way he has been living is not a fulfilling experience. So he decides to take care of an orphan and start a new life built around agriculture and self-sufficiency, later in the story, other people join him and he changes his life successfully by leaving the violence behind. 

 My second source of inspiration is Jordan Peterson. Through his lectures, I have learned a lot about politics and religion. He has ten lectures (+- 3 hours each) where he dissects the bible’s messages. He is also very fond of libertarian ideas (government should be as small as possible, freedom should be protected and the most important element in society, just to name a few examples. Because of my returned interest in Christianity due to some personal events in my life, I want to create a product that can be given back to its creator. I do not want to make a product for Christians only, but a product that can appeal to every believer of any religion.

 A returning sentence in Jamaican music is “All praise the most high”. This sentence perfectly describes what I am trying to create, garments that praise the most high and are able to be given back to the creator. Whether you are Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, atheist or anything within or outside of the frame of Abrahamic religions, I think that everyone can relate to that sentence as we should be thankful for earth and all the resources it gives us to live and create. 

 Kanye West is also a factor and deserves to be mentioned. His move to Wyoming together with the Yeezy company, is something that I very much admire, as he also creates his own community by making houses, starting his “Donda”  summer schools and sport teams. In a way, he has the same mentality as Musashi, although without the bloodshed, he turned towards God and created a community of creatives where the members inspire each other to create.

 In this report, I want to research how I can create a fully biodegradable product that is able to be given back to its creator by leaving it in nature. The inspirations mentioned before in this document is my starting point for the philosophy used when making design decisions.

        3.    Research design

 As I am currently doing a internship at G-Star, I have access to the archive of the company. The designers draw inspiration from the vintage pieces that are stored there. As my design has to be as timeless as possible, I have inspired my design on mostly on vintage workwear, as those designs are still relevant in current day. Besides the vintage workwear, I have taken a close look at modern brands that create elevated workwear and physical hobby gear, brands like Engineered Garments and South2West8 manufacture modern iterations. With an eye on the past and future, and responsible fabric choices, I hope to have created garments that will withstand the test of time. In the attachments, I have submitted my final mood board that has been used as a pillar in the design process. The final design has also been added as an attachement.

  4.    Conclusion

    5.    Attachments

   Jordan Peterson, 12 Rules For Life: An Antidote To Chaos, 2018

 Takehike Inoue, Vagabond, 1998

 Jordan Peterson, Biblical Series, 2017

 Kanye West GQ Interview, https://www.gq.com/story/inside-kanye-west-vision-for-the-future-cover-may-2020, 2020

 Engineered Garments lookbook, fall/winter 2011

 South2West8 lookbook, spring/summer 2016

Edelgard and “meritocracy” - an essay

In this essay I wish to adress the common argument that “meritocracy bad, therefore edelgard bad” & the logical leaps therein.

Before we begin, I’d like to stress that she doesn’t even use the word “meritocracy” & they’re not even looking at it’s modern definition but reacting to the way it has been used as a fighting word to denigrate the poor specificically in the post reagan modern USA & then assuming Edelgard means the exact same thing by that without bothering to examine what she actually says & in what context.

Modern capitalism & the way it uses rhetoric of merit as an excuse is bad & with its reduction of human value to their moneymaking ability, definitely inherently ableist, I agree totally.

But 3H does NOT take place in the modern world. Progress is always relative to what came before. It*s progress away from entrenched problems.

It’s a total failure to even imagine a world different from the sucky one we live in - that’s exactly what tolkien meant  by that saying that if we’re prisoners we have a duty to escape.

Edelgard doesn’t live in a capitalist society nor is she bringing about capitalism (if anything Claude’s the one talking of free trade & giving the merchants what they want, though he is almost certainly playing them much like the church)

And the main component of capitalism - factory owners, rich elites who owns large swathes of companies or real estate - is nowhere to be found.

In our world that cropped up because industrialization made owning factories, offices, trade etc. more lucrative that just owning the land, so factory owners replaced landed lords, essentially promising the peasants freedom if they helped them overthrow the kings but granting them only in a limited manner - the flawed inequal democracies that resulted were a compromise between peasants and factory owners.

But by and large the nobles are very much in the same niche as the factory owners today - they own the land and get special trade privileges (the means of production), they often abuse the populace with impunity, the peasants are very poor.

Edelgard cracks down on corruption & special trade privileges even during the timeskip.

And like the rich of our world, they have a self-mythology propaganda justification based on merit. Yes, there is the “by the grace of god” argument, too, but crests give you extra fighting power, and if you look at the Ferdinand support for example you do see that Fodlan’s nobles - especially the adrestian ones - see themselves as a honed elite that is trained from birth & therefore better at ruling.

Not quite the same argument a modern billionaire uses - who is very invested in convincing you that they didn’t get their power and wealth by their birth - but a myth nonetheless.

Edelgard’s not bringing “meritocracy” as in brutal competition opposed to caring social safety nets, but as opposed to unearned privilege.

If you wanted to compare that to any kind of sociohistorical context, you might look at Napoleon’s peasant liberation or the implementation of civil service examinations in ancient China.

That wasn’t an all good thing - In the same way that Europe is very impacted by the legacy of rome both good & bad (there are persisting bad attitudes toward war, authority and agriculture for example), east asia still has a lot of education obsession causing pressure & unhealthy work habits to this day.

But if you compared ancient china before the reforms to ancient China after it definitely got better, by ancient china standards.

We couldn’t expect the people back then to come up with all advances up to our exact modern values at once (not can we be sure how much of our values will stand the test of time)

Considering that Fodlan’s ideal of merit is basically what Lorenz, Ingrid and Ferdinand are embodying for their respective countries, and that she stocks her inner circle with very different leaders, it is no stretch to say that she wants to shake up the social ideas of what even counts as merit, to make ppl value other things that crest power or elite upbringing, the same way we might say today that hey, cleaners are valuable actually.

Edelgard is basically doing her world’s equivalent of taxing the billionaires - reducing the power of what the overprivilieged class happens to be, & it’s obvious from her talk of how she despises inequality that she would hardly be for rule of factory owners.

When Edelgard says that she wants to make Fodlan more merit-based, that has to be taken in the context that she lives in a world where your birth determines everything, incompetent nobles can be as lazy as they want, and no one cares how competent you are if you lack a crest, title or both.

If she looked at our world, she would quickly see through the propaganda that it is supposedly “merit based” and object to how wealth and national origin obviously dictate wealth & opportunity while talented people go to waste in sweatshops.

Now of course there have been arguments even against “perfect” meritocracy - one is the devaluation of working class jobs.

To this one could answer that this is more a flaw in how merit is conceived. Historically there have been societies that exahlted blue collar work, artisans or farming.

The second argument, however, is not so easy to get rid of: That is devalues people who can’t just go & produce like machines, especially the unemployed, the sick, the mentally ill, the disabled…

But at this point we’ve got to lean back & get our definitions straight, & make it clear what we even mean by “meritocracy” -

Because if we’re just talking about the basic idea that competency should be rewarded, I don’t think too many people disagree with that. We might see a problem with valueing the competency of a doctor or lawyers dispropottionally over the competency of a cleaner or a bricklayer, but we all, by and large, want the people who prepare our goods and services to be competent. Maybe we wouldn’t exalt it over all over qualities, but most of us admire skill.

Of course the problem with the political rhetoric of “meritocracy” is that it goes beyond just rewarding skill, first with the afore mentioned rewarding of only some skills, but mostly with the reversion or overemphasis of the above: Saying that skill is the only thing that matters (to the exclusion of any inheent human value) & that those who don’t have it are worthless.

First I want to throw out the thought that this is a product of the production/profit orientation of capitalism, but one could of course imagine, as many sci fi authors have done, a non-capitalistic society that is still obsessed with merit at the exclusion of those who are not oriented towards productivity & care more about fun & relationships than producing, or those who can’t produce because they are sick or disabled.

So now we must ask ourselves the question: Which of those views does Edelgard actually hold?

Cause I want you to notice that they’re not the same. “Skill should be rewarded & jobs should be done by competent people”  is not the same position as “Skill is the ONLY thing that matters and if you don’t have it you are worthless”

In one position, skill is a good quality, in the other, it's a prerequisite to worth.

Most of us here probably agree that skill is admirable (we like and reblog pretty fanarts), but not that the unskilled are worthless.

Looking at her superficially I could perhaps see how someone might suspect her of the latter -  She gravitates to & surrounds herself with skilled intelligent people and she’s obscenely superpowered.

It’s an misunderstanding that Dimitri makes in-universe, he accuses her of “only benefitting the strong”

But note that her answer to that is that she wants to empower the weak to no longer be weak & decide their own lives, instead of accepting charity. (Contrast with how Dimitri romanticizes abyss, for example, even as Claude points out that locking the poor underground is hardly help.)

Of course she can say many things, as rulers often give florid speeches.

But let’s have a look at what she actually thinks. How does edelgard actually act towards people who struggle or aren’t productivity oriented?

This is one of her lecture questions from part I:

“When one professor lectures many students, some will inevitably have trouble keeping up, while others will get too far ahead in their studies. I wonder how this problem might be solved…”

Her favorite answer is “lectures should be optional”.

Which part of that sounds like a bell curve type eugenicist “only skill & intelligence counts” kind of person? She wants the struggling students to be taken proper care of, not just the good ones.

Look at the speeches she gives to Petra & Lysithea about not giving up on themselves & wanting them to move forward from an empowered mindset. Look at how she tells Lysithea to take it easy & not overtax her body. (Not "don't whine & keep working")

Look at Bernadetta - very much an ‘unproductive’ individual with great struggles & limitation. Does Edelgard dismiss her as a weakling? Not at all. Not even in the C support. She makes sure to stress her good qualities when introducing  her, makes an effort to be more patient so as not to scare her, & they become good friends.

Look at the Linhardt support - at first she mistakes his behavior for youthful lazyness (He’s 16 after all) & wants to get him to apply himself, but when she realizes that he just has different priorities, she respects that, & works to get him the exact sort of position that he wants. No “suck it up!” or dismissing such a different lifestyle. Nor does she chide him for hating fighting at any point.

Edelgard does everything in her power to accomodate people so they can do their best. She sees the value even in strange unsocial people that society would dismiss. She found a job for someone like Jeritza & helped him, she doesn’t hesitate to make Dorothea a general or Manuela the prime minister no matter what people say or if they don’t act like typical politicians.

Also, when she talks about choosing her sucessor, she wants them to be brilliant/competent yes, but also kind and 'an outsider' (ie, impartial) - hardly a PoV of "if you are skilled you can do whatever you want and if you aren't no other quality matters". She's prizing kindness & objectivity just as highly, something which is absolutely reflected throughout all her actions & behaviors towards others.

She doesn't devalue living quietly & low key without making waves - in fact, that is her dream life, which she deems superior to achievement and ambition, which are to her just tools to archieve good aims.

She couldn’t be further from having a narrow definition of what a “valuable” person is, she is all ABOUT empowering people to take control of their own lives, no pity-driven charity, no paternalism, none of that. This is one of my favorite traits about her, so I can’t help but get mad when people accuse her of being the exact opposite.

But maybe the biggest argument is abyss. This is where the genuine underclass lives, poor, struggling, traumatized, refugees etc.

Edelgard isn’t as vocal during Cindered Shadows as Claude - she can’t blow her cover & just isn’t as expressive personality wise. But she’s the one who makes everybody swear to take care of Abyss no matter who wins.

And her route is the one where, instead of telling you that they lost people, Hapi tells you that they’ve all been pretty much fine over the timeskip.

If you want to help the struggling & the poor and those who don't have "conventional" skills, you should back edelgard.

My Experience with Jane Austen Part 2: Reading the Books

In part one I laid out which books I read, which ones were my favorites and least favorites, and the adaptations I've seen. Now I'd like to talk about my reading experience.

Disclaimer: I’m not an expert, just a casual reader sharing some observations, feel free to correct me if I get some details wrong. Out of the books I’ve read I’m most familiar with Pride and Prejudice.

Let's face it. Reading Austen can be challenging and I understand why some people dislike Austen.

It's easy to perceive her novels as "boring" because on a surface level, not much happens. The characters are well-off people (in the upper half of society) who spend their time at home or traveling between social calls and it's easy to dismiss their conflicts as "first world issues." Settings are often indoors, reflecting how "confined and unvarying" the lives of the rich (especially women) were. The plots often move forward through dialogue or conversations rather than big dramatic events. The focus on marriage can also make the stories feel like antiquated relics of the past and can be hard to relate to.

The writing style is also different. There isn't much dialogue at times because Austen slips in lots of very subtle commentary or prefers to describe a character's external appearance or characteristics. Often big events like proposals are described briefly after they happen rather than during, which can make the story feel rather "dry." The books are narrated in third person and sometimes there is unreliable narration (Pride and Prejudice) where we get characters' multiple points of view, but all narrated in the third person as to give each one credibility and prove that it's hard to trust others. Austen's writing style means that readers have to fill in the blanks with their imagination. For example, she doesn't give exact physical descriptions of her characters, often relying on general characteristics like "tall," "handsome," or "amiable." In my previous reviews of Pride and Prejudice adaptations, I explored that intentional ambiguity as a big reason why the character of Mr. Darcy is alluring--because the reader forms a personal connection with the character by sketching his portrait alongside Elizabeth. The characters (their physical appearance and some of their motivations) are purposely mysterious and while it gives the reader lots of opportunities for engaging with the text, without historical/literary context for "filling in the blanks" it's easy to see the characters as stiff mannequins in strange clothing rather than human beings.

Austen as a romance writer: Her romances don't always match up with our perception of what a romance should be. Some people start Austen expecting intense emotions and outbursts of passion but become disappointed when presented with formal courting and stately dances instead. Emotions are often veiled behind dialogue and for a first-time reader it can be challenging to see a romance developing. Most of the time readers have to rely on the clues given by Austen (descriptions of characters "blushing," looking "pale," or losing their composure) to detect the stirrings of love, but on a first reading it's difficult to do so when one's trying to figure out the plot and the characters. Finally, the dialogue can't always be taken literally; lots of people, including me, were disturbed when Mr. Knightley said he loved Emma since she was 13, but it was actually a joke made in response to something she said.

Her books are products of their time, and I sure am not an expert in Regency era economics or social norms. Sometimes the implications of certain actions can be lost on a reader if they don't know about the social norms of the time (I had no idea that Darcy following Elizabeth around, alone, on her favorite walk at Rosings was a sign of his love for her). Differences in social class are also very subtle and while one can generalize the characters as all "well-off" people, they are separated by many levels of hierarchy and their ideas about social position and status affect how they interact with others outside of their station. Darcy looks down upon those whom he perceives to be below him, and while Emma wants to make an advantageous match for Harriet, Harriet's lower social position means that Emma's schemes are not likely to work.

Because of the unique quirks within the novels, the reader is required to go beyond the surface level of plot and appearance and read between the lines to understand character motivations and actions. Without historical context (Regency era society having little social mobility, women having few legal rights and needing to make good marriages to secure material comfort) or literary context (the Enlightenment, 18th century Gothic novels referred to in Northanger Abbey, the birth of the novel, early Romantic writers just to name a bit) reading between the lines is nearly impossible.

So why do we read Austen? Below are my personal reasons.

The novels feature female heroines that have dignity and self-respect. It's significant that the stories focus on women who are trying to live according to their own values and speaking their own minds rather than acquiescing to societal dictates. Elizabeth Bennet is revolutionary in part because she wants a marriage based on mutual admiration and respect between two partners who know each other well, rather than an economic arrangement for a home. One could go on forever about how Austen is a feminist, but, the characters don't act like modern day feminists--they are still people of their time. However, it's easy to assume "feminist" heroines have to have "aggressive" characteristics (rebelling, fighting, defiance) in order to be labeled as "feminist." Importantly, Austen's women are allowed to be vulnerable (they cry or struggle with their emotions) without that being a shameful thing. We also see different types of personalities celebrated: Jane Bennet, who is kind to everyone, is seen in a positive light rather than shamed for seeing good in everyone. Anne Elliot, who is regarded as "old," becomes more beautiful as she gets older and has a second chance of love. Emma Woodhouse is spoiled yet confident and assertive and "not likely to be well-loved" (paraphrase of Austen's commentary on Emma). Fanny Price is a shy person but still achieves her happy ending. Her heroines are real people who have flaws and get opportunities to learn and grow so that they can make their aspirations reality.

A unique take on the universal conflict of humans versus society: Austen's characters are bound by social norms of etiquette as well as a value system that idolizes wealth and connections above all else. Persuasion is a great story in part because it focuses on how Anne Elliot learns to follow her heart and avoid being "persuaded" by others (and by society) to follow a path that will not make her happy. She's had to live with the regret of following the well-intentioned but harmful advice of others (Austen notes that Lady Russell values social connections too highly) over her own feelings and judgment, nearly losing her chance to be with Wentworth. The romances are significant in that they reinforce the dignity and self-respect of the female heroines. To a certain extent, Austen's stories are realistic in that marriage is necessary for material well-being in a patriarchal society that provides few ways for women to provide for themselves. But most importantly, she also sees marriage as a means of affirming self-respect and dignity of the women. It's one of the few parts of their lives over which they have any control because they get to choose whom they marry (for the most part, unless the marriage is arranged). Their wish to marry for love is revolutionary because they dare to aspire for something more than wealth. They want their future partners to be their equals, someone who they can love and respect (or be totally honest with them) and who will provide the same in return. This line from Emma (the 2020 movie adaptation) sums it up: "I have none of the usual inducements of women to marry. Fame I do not want. Fortune I do not want. Consequence I do not want."

The difference between outward appearances and inner character is a fascinating theme that appears in several Austen novels, most notably Pride and Prejudice, where Wickham and Darcy are foils of each other ("one has got all the goodness, the other all the appearance of it"). A lot of the villains in Austen's novels are those who deceive others about their motivations or lie for their own advantage. A common trait these villains all have is that they have a charming outward appearance that masks their true natures; they don't look ugly nor are they unpleasant (ex. Wickham having great social skills, Willoughby following the trope of the knight rescuing Marianne as the damsel in distress but leaving behind many broken hearts, Mr. Elliott being charming and knowing exactly what to say and how to act but actually a swindler). In contrast, the "good" characters are honest, even at the cost of social displeasure, use manners/etiquette to show respect rather than deceive people, and act selflessly to prove their worth (actions speak louder than words). It can be summed up this way: "don't judge a book by its cover."

Psychology: Austen very effectively described hindsight bias when sarcastically commenting on how the village of Meryton turned on Wickham after the elopement with Lydia, when previously they regarded him as an "angel of light." She also understands how easy it is to manipulate peoples' minds through confirmation bias (Wickham telling Elizabeth all the dirt about Darcy, which she eagerly takes because she hates Darcy so much). She also knows that emotions can override people's judgment: "angry people are not always wise." It's fun seeing how her people are social animals who make flawed judgments based on first impressions/emotions.

The secondary characters: Mr. Collins the clergyman is the most famous and he's so funny because of his arrogance in spite of his low social position (he keeps worshiping Lady Catherine instead of respecting God). Another great one is Sir Walter Elliott, a nobleman who is vain and constantly checks himself in the mirror (the most obvious social criticism). Also Austen understood how women insult each other: through passive aggression (ex. Caroline Bingley and Louisa Hurst talking negatively about Elizabeth behind her back). Austen's female bullies use their talent and "good breeding" to intimidate or shame others.

The romance (no explanation needed): "You pierce my soul. I am half-agony, half-hope. I have loved none but you." I love how the couples learn about each other through many spirited conversations and become slowly fascinated with each other until they realize they are in love and then have a conflict between formality and their growing passion...or they fall back in love with each other...or they are friends who slowly realize that they are more than friends...okay I'll stop talking nonsense I've been trying so hard to be semi-scholarly

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