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packlin · 6 months

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My brother died of CANCER

It’s 9:54, October 30th, 2023. As I lay here in bed, Justin (my life partner, father to our amazing daughter Olivia) is next to me sound asleep snoring. He’s been working so much lately and so hard for this family. For me to be able to stay at home and raise our baby. He just lost his step dad, Mace, to brain cancer. The same brain cancer that killed my brother.

So as I lay here, trying to close and my and go to sleep, my mind begins to race. I see my brothers frail and lifeless body flashing in my head, memories of him barely able to move, and hearing the repeating phrase, my brother died of cancer. MY brother died of cancer. My BROTHER died of cancer. My brother DIED of cancer. My brother died of CANCER. Constantly repeating itself each time with a different point of inflection of different words, in differing tones of voice, different volumes. What it feels like is like my brain is still trying to process that information which seems pretty straightforward, but in fact, is incredibly complex to comprehend. My brother DIED OF CANCER. I know people always say “this feels like a movie” in times of tragedy, excitement, horror, etc. but that’s the only way to describe it, is that my life feels like a movie. But not a movie I’m in, a movie I’m watching. A movie about someone else’s life, and I’m an outsider. Because how can it be happening to me? These things only happen in movies, or to other people. far away. That I don’t know. They don’t happen to me though. Not to mention a second time, but my boyfriends step dad also DIED OF BRAIN CANCER. which you may be wondering, did they meet in a support group? Did they both have family with cancer when they met? Is that why they connected? To answer you question, no. Tyler did have cancer when we met. Well, re-met.

I went to school with Justin in 6th-8th grade. We were not friends and honestly I don’t think we ever actually spoke. But he knew me, and I knew him. I thought he was cute from the moment I saw him, and he says the same about me. Although sometimes I wonder if he just said that to me to get me to sleep with him. Sorry mom and dad, but it’s the truth, lol. We reconnected through the one and only tinderrrrrrr, hung out at my place once and the rest is history as they say. We fell in love very quickly and thank goodness we did because we also got pregnant very quickly. In fact we had only been officially dating for a little over 8ish months before we got pregnant. Thankfully the moment I found out was the moment I fell in love with Olivia. We both thought we couldn’t have children, but Justin had told me months before “if we ever do have baby and it’s a girl, her name will be Olivia” and I said “I love that name, yes her name will be Olivia” and the second I saw the word “pregnant” on the little screen of the pregnancy test I knew it was her. She has been the light of my life ever since that day, November 21, 2021. (Confirm that date) Prior to finding out about her I really never wanted children. Ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you I was very vocal about it. Like so vocal at the age of 17 I was asking for a hysterectomy. Thank you Jesus for not allowing that to happen.

But back to my brother, he was diagnosed with cancer in September 2018. He went to the hospital September 28th to be specific, my cousin Colton’s birthday. Shitty, right? I was at an away football game coaching my alumni’s high school cheer squad. I will never forget that moment. The athletic director, who was the same athletic director when I was a student there, had a parent bring me over to him, and told me “your brother is in the hospital, he’s had a severe seizure and he’s in a coma but they don’t know what happened or why” my knees literally went weak. In that same moment I look down to see my other cousin, Dakota, calling me. It was like a punch to the gut. This was real, and things were not okay. He told me to go gather my things and he would be driving me back to tulsa and to the hospital. The drive felt like, HOURS, but in reality it was only about 35-45 minutes. Before I continue, < I just want to say thank you to Coach Height, for being there for me that day. Being a calm and solid rock for me, quick to action but didn’t ever add to the chaos. You were an anchor for me in that storm. Thank you, you will forever hold a special place in my heart. > we arrive at St Francis ER and my dad is waiting for me outside. (cont.)

#grief #siblings #tw death #cancer #hospice

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teasertrailerfilm · 1 year

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TEASER TRAILER

STORY BEATS

Trailer opens as normal, sizzle-reel style: “THIS JANUARY...”

“Main,” “side,” and “minor” characters follow along with the trailer

“Minor” character realizes none of them know what they are doing, is suddenly killed off

The “main” and “side” characters panic and attempt to escape trailer

“Tested” gag - the “main” and “side” characters are tossed through action flashes testing their “skills” through a sudden extreme peril and their “test skills” in an average American classroom

Film release date changes to “ESTE JUNIO”

Language Switch - the announcer, text cards, and dialogue suddenly switch into Spanish briefly

Film release date changes to “THIS JULY” and the characters take notice

“Side” character panics over release date change

“Main” character tries to comfort them by giving a dramatic (cheesy) speech about heroism

“Main” character makes a “can’t get any worse” quip about the release date, release date changes again to “THIS JOCTOBER”

“Main” character is killed off, the action jostles an aspect ratio bar

“Side” character notices, runs towards screen as action flashes and text cards flicker around them while chased by quickly approaching cloud of ambiguous horrors

“Side” character leaps over lower aspect ratio bar, into a black void

“Side” character runs through void towards a light in the distance

The light is revealed to be the Capstone film’s credits roll, and the “side” character has an existential crisis

FINAL SHOT: An impossible release date (November 31st, February 30th/31st, etc)

TREATMENT

A seemingly normal, action-movie-sizzle-reel trailer opens. An epic announcer voice reads text cards as they appear between teaser flashes of a film revolving around three characters, a “main” character, a “side” character, and a “minor” character. The illusion is broken, however, when the three characters are depicted mid-argument, only for the “minor” character to suddenly realize that none of them know what they are arguing about. The scene changes, and the “minor” character is killed off.

The trailer continues, now only revolving around the remaining two characters as if the “minor” character never existed. The “main” and “side” characters, however, are still reeling from the sudden death of someone they realize they never even knew in the first place. The “main” character takes charge as each scene spirals further into absurdity. Amidst the chaos, the trailer changes its release date twice, and the “side” character panics after the later change. The “main” character attempts to comfort them, but accidentally causes the date to change again. The “main” character is killed off. Upon their death, one of the aspect ratio bars framing the trailer is jostled. The “side” character notices.

The remaining character rushes desperately through a flurry of action flashes and text cards directly towards the audience as an ominous mob of ambiguous perils chases after them. They stumble “through” the screen and over the lower aspect ratio bar into a black void. They hysterically run through the void towards a light in the distance, thinking they’ve escaped. As they draw closer, the light is revealed to be the credits roll for the capstone short. The “side” character has an existential crisis and the trailer ends with a final, impossible release date.

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subwalls · 3 years

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CONFRONTATION. || DreamSMP

An analysis on Ranboo’s January 30th stream, meant to pick apart c!Ranboo’s complex relationship with reality and the voices in his head. This will be broken up into three (3) parts: introduction, stream analysis, and conclusion.

cw unreality, derealization, etc.

INTRODUCTION.

Before we start, I want to make clear that this is just my personal reading of the stream’s events, and as such it may not be the same as yours, and that’s okay! Critical reading is all about how one work can be viewed through a variety of lenses to yield very different conclusions, and the validation of one does not immediately mean all the others are Bad and Wrong.

We all got that? Cool.

Now, a common theory being tossed around at the moment is the idea that the entire stream was a dream (ha) or hallucination. This possibility is somewhat backed up by a few observations I will point out in the rest of this post, but for the sake of seriously dissecting this dream into truths and untruths, I will not be assuming that everything that happened was fake. I’ll delve a little deeper into why this theory doesn’t completely convince me in the conclusion, too.

STREAM ANALYSIS.

Aw yeah, here comes the frame-by-frame analysis of 41 minutes of footage.

... Well, kinda. Let’s start with a play-by-play instead of a frame-by-frame, yeah?

At 2:45 into the stream, Ranboo starts out in the panic room, looking at the “You are fine” sign. He says that Sam told him he can visit Dream (”him”) today, and reflects on the fact that he’s no longer looking for clarity or confrontation (me, looking at the stream title: uh,) but rather to make Dream think about what he did.

“He deserves to know what he did.” (Ranboo at 3:47)

“I’m gonna tell him what those thoughts are.” (Ranboo at 3:55, which is an... interesting remark, seeing as the voice in his head that sounds like Dream has been trying to tell Ranboo what his thoughts are. But it doesn’t mean anything substantial.)

Vibe check so far? REAL. Nothing appears to be out of place in the panic room. Ranboo is nervous but keeping it together and talking himself through it. Sounds great!

After a bit of psyching himself up (and noticeably declaring his memory book to be the only one that hasn’t been tampered with), Ranboo starts towards the prison. He’s scared and doesn’t know why, but he’s gonna do it.

One thing of note is that he passes by Sam Nook’s construction site, and the place’s big map sign thing never quite loads in properly. The whole thing just stays black. Suspicious, but those maps are honestly kinda glitchy at loading in anyway because they’re entities instead of blocks. Or maybe Sam Nook’s doing some prep. (Edit: more likely is that this is a clone of the Dream SMP server for the sake of what they’re about to do to the prison, and it doesn’t have the map plugin, so all the picture maps in the world are broken.)

As the prison comes into view, he continues talking to himself (he’s never been to prison, apparently; he’s been inside Pandora’s Vault before, but not as a prisoner). He thinks about the fact that he could get rid of Dream if he wanted to, but no, he couldn’t.

The prison entrance portal is actually already lit. Ranboo isn’t sure what he’s supposed to do but eventually hits the button.

After quite a bit of waiting, Sam eventually greets him (13:32) and invites him to step into the portal. Ranboo goes through the portal and appears in a warped forest biome.

This is incredibly suspicious. The prison’s nether portal is supposed to be a customized portal in six (6) layers of obsidian that floats over a sea of lava. In fact—and I will come back to fix this if I’m mistaken—I’m pretty sure the portal resides in the fringes of a basalt delta, not a warped forest. You can see a bit of a basalt delta poking over the warped fungi in the distance, but Ranboo is very clearly in the wrong spot.

So why the warped forest, the wrong biome and the wrong portal? It probably has something to do with the fact that Ranboo is part enderman, and enderman live in the warped forest. With the End forbidden and unknown (seeing as Techno and Phil had no idea what an End Portal was), the warped forest is likely the closest thing endermen as a species can call home in the Dream SMP.

Anyway. This is the earliest instance of either a brief hallucination or Ranboo losing his connection to reality altogether.

Ranboo goes through the portal when instructed to by Sam and properly appears in the prison’s interior portal, facing Sam at his warden’s... desk thing. Sam has Mining Fatigue right now, by the way, as seen by the particles. Ranboo is then teleported to Sam (14:20) for some reason (maybe because, behind the scenes, he was in a duped prison portal in order to make the warped forest thing happen), appearing to be inside Sam’s space before he moves back out. They do not acknowledge this.

Sam does the same series of questions to Ranboo that he did to Tommy. Ranboo says that he has not come to the prison before or even spoke to Dream before, and expresses to Sam his desire to bring his memory book along. Sam agrees on the condition that he holds onto it during the way there.

Side note: Ranboo does not get Mining Fatigue until he’s already inside the prison and being questioned. (14:47) This is quite different from the timing when Tommy got Mining Fatigue in his visit, but considering the fact that we don’t know the placement of the elder guardians or even how many there are, this could just be natural variation...

Anyway, Ranboo does the same thing we saw Tommy do with the locker and the examinations and whatever, except that Sam is... more cordial. Nicer. This is vaguely suspicious, but he’s been a little softer since his encounter with the Crimson and he has a clear soft spot for the kids. Tommy also is very different from the clearly nervous Ranboo (Sam points out that Ranboo is nervous later on, around 20:01, so he definitely noticed), so he could have just been being nice to the poor traumatized kid... Or maybe this is just a Sam constructed from Ranboo’s memories of a nice person, and not the real one. It’s not very clear but could be swayed in either direction.

One odd thing—Ranboo took quite a bit to die to the harming potions, and I feel like Tommy died faster, but I’ll have to check. It’s as though Ranboo got Harming I instead of Harming II? Sam even comments that it “took a minute” (19:12). Also, Ranboo loses his levels in this process, so, uh, if his next stream he appears with levels, that means there’s something happening that we ain’t seeing.

A skeleton dies somewhere offscreen lmao.

Ranboo is immediately re-inflicted with Mining Fatigue every time he dies, by the way, so they’re definitely within range of the elder guardians.

Ranboo endures the water section of the trip and it sucked but he seems about the same level of nervous as before, so. Sam takes the time to reassure him and give him the memory book at the last step before the cell itself.

“He [Dream] shouldn’t misbehave, he knows what happens when he does.” (Sam at 25:23, he still got that bit of ruthless warden in him.)

Vibe check again—this prison, physically speaking? Seems real. It’s possible that Ranboo could be drawing on memories from his other self, but considering that he has never been to the prison before, the fact that the prison is the exact same as the real prison that Tommy went to seems to indicate that this is a real experience.

Ranboo’s Mining Fatigue gets refreshed, so looks like the elder guardians reach here too. Dream has the Mining Fatigue particles as soon as he comes into view. (Only pointing this out because it notably took Dream a long time to get Mining Fatigue back when Tommy visited him.)

A weird sound happens at 27:31. Not sure what that’s about.

The lava curtain comes back down, and Ranboo turns around to see Dream. His screen shakes a bit as he turns, which could be anything from lag (there’s a lot of lava moving right now) to nerves (both in-character and out). (Edit: confirmed in the chill stream following that he was just nervous, and feeling his character’s nervousness.) First thing of note, here: the item frame holding the clock on the wall is transparent. This is a texture pack thing, presumably—could be the same thing that fucked up the construction site’s map sign earlier, maybe it’s even just the texture pack that some members of the SMP have installed for the chess thing—but it’s still something to notice.

Dream greets Ranboo with quite a bit of joy and energy, and says it’s not a surprise for Ranboo to visit, and altogether makes numerous implications that he and Ranboo’s other self have been conversing a lot in the times that Ranboo doesn’t remember.

“We’re best friends, right?” (Dream at 28:19, and I better not see any serious remarks about gaslighting here Dream is actually telling the truth, he just has not realized that this Ranboo doesn’t remember their conversations.)

“I’ve probably talked to you more than I’ve talked to anybody on the entire server.” (Dream at 28:27, indignant at Ranboo’s claim that they’ve barely talked, which. Yeah. I mean this whole thing could be a lie or fake but... I don’t know, I’m not convinced.)

Ranboo, whose understanding of his relationship to Dream is very different from Dream’s apparent understanding of their relationship, claims that Dream is just trying to scare him. Dream sounds confused and asks, “Why are you acting different?” (28:45) so he’s definitely not had dealings with this (awake?) Ranboo, but rather the... other set of memories.

“Ooooh.” (Dream at 28:56, which I think marks the moment he realizes that this is the other Ranboo, and it isn’t the one that he normally speaks with.)

Dream continues to say that he’s glad that Ranboo’s come to visit, that Ranboo’s been a great helping hand, and Ranboo immediately accuses him of somehow knowing about the whole panic room situation, and after Ranboo declares that he’s not going to let Dream trick him into thinking that he did those things—

“But you did do those things.” (Voice at 29:36)

Voice is always fake; it’s not “real” (audible by anyone else), and it’s not Dream.

Kudos to cc!Dream, by the way, his tone audibly changes when he switches into Ranboo’s Voice. This, I believe, is the turning point of the stream. The Voice returns, marked by the tone difference from c!Dream and also by the constant referral to Dream in the third person.

Now, here’s the interesting thing. The Voice claims that the reason why it went away is because Dream was put in prison and thus they haven’t been talking as much, which leads to Ranboo forgetting how Dream sounds like and thus robbing Voice of that, well, voice. (29:58) The implication here is that the reason behind Dream’s voice being the Voice of the “other” in Ranboo’s head is because the other just talks to Dream a lot.

Ranboo questions the third person thing, asking if he’s gone insane in prison, and there’s a pause, and then Dream says, “You’re right, you’re right. Yes, yes, there’s not much to do here.” (30:20) The tone shift is a little more subtle here, but the way Dream responded—it’s like he was responding to something else. “Have you gone insane” doesn’t usually lead to “You’re right”, because that’s a question, not a statement.

We’re real again, folks. But only briefly. Actually, it sounds like real Dream has been talking to someone while Ranboo was talking with his Voice, and when Ranboo heard him again, he was mid-conversation. Dream may have been speaking with that other Ranboo and we as the audience and Ranboo simply couldn’t hear.

Dream apparently doesn’t like his clock (30:32), and then prompts Ranboo to see what he’s been writing. In suspiciously good timing, we hear the elder guardian’s curse go off again to refresh Mining Fatigue, and then Dream hands Ranboo a book.

Here, the unreality really sets in.

The book is named Do not read. (30:47) It is a precise copy of Ranboo’s memory book, and when Ranboo checks Dream’s chest full of books, they are all named Do not read. and have the same contents. What appears to be real Dream invites him to look through them, and as Ranboo panics over this, what appears to be the Voice rather than c!Dream tells Ranboo that he needs “to face the truth” (31:18).

Ranboo says the truth is that Dream is a terrible person who hurt others.

The Voice says the truth is that Ranboo helped “me”. (31:35) Now, I can’t tell if this is a slip of the tongue on cc!Dream’s part or on the Voice’s part, but he does correct himself and say “Dream” after, so take that how you will.

At this point, the Dream on the screen’s body language starts to match up with the Voice (moving while it talks), and the Voice claims “I’m not even Dream,” which lines up with its prior claims that it is just another part of Ranboo.

Ranboo tries to rationalize the situation, assuming that the real Dream is speaking right now, but the Voice refers to Ranboos memories in the first person (“I know what I went through because I’m you,” 32:01), reinforces the fact that “you” (Ranboo) use to talk with Dream every day, and the only reason the Voice stopped happening is because he couldn’t picture Dream’s voice after not speaking with him since Dream went to prison.

“He [Dream] would tell you [Ranboo] things to do. You were like his little... servant.” (Voice at 32:24)

Ranboo refuses this, the Voice continues to insist that he did help Dream, Ranboo asks why he doesn’t remember, and Voice says that he does; the Voice remembers, and the Voice is Ranboo.

And then the Voice says, “I’m not even real,” and the Dream on screen vanishes.

We don’t see a logout message on screen, but Ranboo isn’t in f1, so Dream probably either /tp’d somewhere OR switched to spectator mode. Ranboo suddenly gets the Nausea effect, panics and looks at the chest and says that he got rid of the voice, but the obsidian starts falling (gravity applied to the cell, hope they have a backup of the server to rollback to or let themselves use creative lmao) which unveils some details in the Pandora’s Vault inner chamber that I’d love to dissect but not now, and then Ranboo "hits the ground too hard” and dies.

Of note: Ranboo’s death screen is not vanilla. The word “Died” is capitalized where it shouldn’t be, and even though Ranboo lost his levels dying on the way in, his score is 206810. I bet that’s a code for something but I have no idea what for.

(I typed 206810 into my search bar and got a hex code for green. Yeah. Darker than what you’d associate with Dream, but... green.)

And then we have morse code crown and smiley that’s supposed to say “not free yet” or something but apparently there’s other translations because cc!Ranboo might’ve hecked it up a little bit. Oops.

But yeah, there you go! That’s the stream.

Not once does Ranboo press tab, by the way. Something makes me think that that might be because they’re not on the real Dream SMP—also to, you know, avoid having to rebuild the prison.

CONCLUSION.

I do think the prison visit is real at first. Ranboo falls in and out of contact with reality, and the warped forest is definitely fishy, but the layout of the prison is too precisely accurate to be wholeheartedly dreamed up. He’s never been there before, after all, and Sam doesn’t correct him—which could mean that Sam is fake and Ranboo is drawing on those other memories, but we never see Ranboo use memories he doesn’t have, he just acts on emotions and feelings that his other self seems to have.

So, the moments that are “real” are Ranboo walking to the prison, through the prison, and the first part of his talk with Dream. He clips back into reality just in time for Dream to show him a book, which immediately pops Ranboo back into the land of hallucinations, because there’s no way Dream has so many copies of the real memory book when he’s been isolated in his cell this entire time. The warped forest was probably a hallucination born of Ranboo’s enderman (sleepwalking) half being nervous, since Ranboo said he was nervous but couldn’t pinpoint why; it was probably that other side. Still don’t know why he’d be nervous though, when it seems like Dream’s happy to see him.

The room caving in and Dream disappearing are fake. I think it’s symbolic of the other side forcing Ranboo to black out in order to have a conversation with Dream that isn’t being interrupted by the awake self. Who knows where and how Ranboo is going to wake up next time, honestly. Or even if he’ll remember the visit at all.

Oh, and I really doubt this costed a canon life. There’s some very funky implications if it does, but I’ll only get into that if we get a confirmed life lost.

Again, the Voice is not Dream but instead is the side of Ranboo that actually remembers the supposedly “bad” things he did at Dream’s behest. Interestingly, Dream calls them besties, but the Voice sounds almost... scornful and refers to Ranboo as Dream’s little servant. Sure tells you how fucked up c!Dream’s definition of a friend is, huh?

Speaking of c!Dream, here’s an interesting thought: sleepwalking Ranboo only speaks Ender, as shown by his attempts to communicate with Philza. So, assuming that sleepwalking Ranboo is the “other” Ranboo that remembers things, he probably couldn’t have visited the prison, because he couldn’t organize a visit time with Sam, because that would require speaking Player.

However. He used to speak with Dream on a regular basis.

Which means Dream speaks (or at least understands) Ender. This would also explain why the Voice manifests as Dream’s; it’s the only other voice that understands the tongue it uses.

I’ve got a lot of thoughts about Pandora’s Vault because we got a little sneak peek at some of the redstone behind those obsidian walls when the room started caving in, but that’s for later. Hope this was helpful to... I dunno, anyone? I’ll probably come back and add/edit things as needed.

#general thoughts #dream smp #ranboo

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tehyunqs · 4 years

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𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐎𝐔𝐓 — 𝐶𝐻𝐴𝑃𝑇𝐸𝑅 𝑂𝑁𝐸

HEART OUT in which an angel is sent down to earth to change the reckless ways of the boy she was assigned to protect before his time runs out. ( a kim taehyung au )

𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀: foul language, toxic masculinity, mentions of hell, etc. . . .

𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗲: hello! uh, wattpad sucks and people on there don’t give a shit about my work, so i thought that i’d come back to tumblr just to give it a second try! hope you enjoy this little series :’)))

the moment God told eden her last mission before finally becoming one with the archangels she knew it would be almost impossible to accomplish it. the person she'd been assigned to guard didn't quite turn out the way she hoped. the little boy who always talked about becoming a lawyer to help his single-mother out disappointed her greatly when he turned into everything she feared. sure, he became successful in the educational and career fields and was the youngest CEO of a very rich and famous enterprise. but he was very empty inside.

drugs, the never ending one-night stands, the selfishness, his egotistical, conceited mind and personality. eden felt ashamed of herself because it was as if like she wasn't any good at her job. sure she sometimes made sure that the right people crossed his path and twisted things around so they'd go his way, but no matter what she did, he always made the wrong decisions.

so the angel gave her father a determined nod and furrowed her brows, attempting to look as serious as ever, but ended up mimicking a cute bunny trying to be mad. "you got it, dad." he sent her down to the earth and within his heart, he knew eden would be able to complete her mission; change the boy's heart.

the girl landed face first on a large, rural area.

"ow." came a muffled groan from her lips.

eden placed her palms on the ground and lifted the top half of her body up to look around at her surroundings. "you could've been a little nicer on the landing!" she called out to the sky, knowing her father could hear her. eden stood up and softly sighed when she looked down and saw her white dress covered in dirt.

all of a sudden, as she occupied herself in patting the brown particles off, a loud, startling rumble was heard in the sky, causing the girl to shriek and jump in surprise.

she lifted her hands up in surrender and looked back up at the dark sky. "dang, okay, my bad."

the angel's eyes scanned her surroundings. she could make out a large farm house on the other side of the field with a strip of wind turbines behind it. there was a dirt road in front of it as well.

"follow the road, eden." she nodded her head and obliged as white combat boots lead their owner across the grass to the road.

kim taehyung was at his favorite bar with the bad influences he's proud to call friends. he was on his eighth glass of the strongest whiskey the bar had to offer as he and his buddies listened intently to steven jeong's absurd mentality.

"i'm leaving areum." he announced all of a sudden. as the two other men beside him raised their eyebrows in curiosity, tae, in his expensive black & white suit and tie, leaned back to stretch his glass out towards the bartender for another drink. once he was given what he asked for, he settled back into his seat with eyes glued onto the talking man.

"i don't know, man. she just got annoying. being around her makes me feel. . . ." steven's mildly drunken mind tried to search for the right word to describe his feelings, but shrugged his shoulders when he received nothing. "i don't even know anymore. . . . she got fat. doesn't look like she did when we first met."

"i mean she did give birth three times." park jimin tried to defend the woman. steven ignored jimin's justification, but mentally told him off.

"the other day i was sitting on the couch, right? just watching t.v. and she walks in, telling me to go wash the dishes and sweep the kitchen. i get home after a long day from work. i want to relax. and she expects me to do her job? that shit doesn't fly with me."

tae and another friend of theirs began mumbling in response, nodding their heads, except for jimin, who could only shake his.

"so, you're throwing away two years of marriage over cleaning and because she's not "hot" anymore?" jimin scoffed. steven clenched his jaw as he abruptly turned to face him.

steven stood up from his seat. "hey, stop making it sound like i'm the asshole, alright?"

"i'm not gonna cover it up." jimin declared with his arms raised defense. "how else am i supposed to make it sound like?"

"not make me sound like an asshole!"

"you're a fucking piece of shit." jimin grumbled under his breath.

"hey, taehyung, why'd you invite this bum, anyway? i've told you hundreds of time i don't like him." steven turned to look at tae with his hand pointed towards jimin and an accusatory expression.

it was a first jimin heard something like this from him. of course, he's always noticed how uneasy and annoyed steven feels when he's around but he never said anything to his face. the alcohol triggered something in him.

"let it go, steven." taehyung groaned in response.

"always such a fucking buzzkill, man!"

off to the side, a random man turned around and pleaded steven to take it outside. "my night isn't about to be ruined by some punks."

long story short, after a few more rude exchanges, a large brawl broke out between greg mendel, the other friend, the annoyed man, and his friends. not wanting to be a part of this, a small smile spread across tae's face when he managed to slip out unnoticed without a single scratch.

the man sat back down in the back of the bar, making sure to take a seat significantly far from the large fight—which was now slowly coming to an end as big security men began to pull them apart from each other. taehyung chuckled and looked down at the floor with a shake of his head, shaking his head. once he was finally looking up again, his eyes landed on a beautiful brunette woman who danced the night away. he instantly become intrigued by her. his eyes roamed her body and moves, feeling a small shiver run down his spine at the sight of her in a tight black dress that stopped at mid-thigh.

the girl suddenly locked eyes with him. her eyes followed his hand, and she watched as his fingers wrap around the transparent cup, the golden watch on his wrist impossible not to notice. she sent him a shy smile as she pulled a strand of her hair behind her ear, and in return the side of tae's lips curled upwards.

eden was currently sitting in taehyung's living room after four hours of nonstop walking. she would've used her wings to fly and it definitely would've taken much shorter to arrive, but God rid her of her angelic powers before sending her down for some unknown reason to eden.

her eyes roamed around his expensive penthouse and she couldn't help but shake her head in disappointment.

kim taehyung had everything, but not everything.

the sound of keys desperately trying to unlock the door caught eden's attention as she leaned back on the couch with her head turned towards the door. she then decided to rest her arm on the top of the couch.

the sight of a familiar man and an unknown woman entered the room with their hands and lips all over each other.

nothing unusual for taehyung.

it wasn't long before eden made herself present when her chirpy voice spoke up in the dark, "hey, sweetie, do you want this to go anywhere?"

the engaged pair quickly pulled apart in shock and looked down at the sitting girl with confused expressions on their faces—but taehyung's was much worse.

"who the hell are you?!" he questioned in a panic, but his tone was more demanding.

"look," eden began and stood from the couch. "i know you want to wake up tomorrow with him by your side, and i know that you want this to go somewhere, but that's not gonna happen. you'll wake up alone with nothing but a note on the nightstand that reads 'hey, i had a fun time. let's meet up some other time. call me'. because this sir here," eden pointed her finger at tae. "left for work and he doesn't care about you. he used you."

"you'll be calling, and calling, but he won't pick up. ever. trust me, it happens every single time a girl walks in through that door. so, unless you want to waste your time, i suggest you go on your merry way." eden concluded with a grin.

the girl looked between the beautiful angel and taehyung, who had an uneasy smile plastered onto his face with raised brows. "um...." the girl nervously began. ".... i'll go on my merry way."

"have a good life." she waved goodbye before walking out the door.

"wise choice!" eden grinned once the door slammed shut and raised her arms out in front of her a tiny bit. "proud of you!"

taehyung turned to look at the stranger with the same confused and horrified expression from before. "again, who the hell are you?! i'm—i'm calling the police if you—"

"i, eden, am your guardian angel." she introduced herself as she took a small bow, leaving the boy a hundred times more confused.

"are you—are you serious? you're being serious right now?!"

"uh, yeah, man, i've been watching over you since december 30th, 1995." the nervous boy reached into his pocket for his phone, and shook his head as his long fingers shakily pressed the green icon at the bottom of the screen.

"you're crazy!" he laughed. "i'm—" before taehyung had the chance to dial the police, the phone suddenly exploded and flew across the room. "wha—"

eden looked up at the roof of the house and pressed her hands on the side of her mouth, giving the impression of a megaphone. "thanks, dad! i really appreciate it!"

"okay, that was weird." he stated with furrowed brows, finger pointing at the shattered phone on the floor.

"here's the deal, tae. . . . your time is running out. you’re gonna die in a few years." taehyung's eyes widened at the words being thrown around like nothing.

"wait, wha—"

"and you exactly didn't turn out the way i expected you to turn out. you see, God created the Ten Commandments for you humans to follow, and go to heaven. you've broken every single one of them. even murder because although you didn't kill anyone physically, the things you say to others are not exactly the nicest."

"like the girl who asked you out a few weeks ago, and you laughed in her face, and said no because she looks like a cow...." taehyung's lips formed an o shaped when he realized she was telling the truth about being a guardian angel.

"yeah, you killed her self esteem. and that girl is now starving herself because of you."

an awkward silence followed soon after as tae's eyes fell to the ground in shame. he began to regret his words.

"also didn't expect you to commit adultry." eden inquired as she placed on her arms on either side of her waist. this made taehyung wish she'd stop rubbing his mistakes in his face already. "shame on you and that—at the time—married lady."

eden placed the palm of her hand on her forehead as she rested the other on her hip in disappointment. she sighed before looking up at the roof of the penthouse. "God, what did i do wrong?" she questioned helplessly.

"anyways," she waved her hand in front of taehyung, dismissively. "um, so you need to change before you die, because you're gonna go down...."

the girl stepped closer to the boy and placed a hand on his shoulder as the other occupied itself by pointing down at the ground. "there." she whispered, slowly nodding.

a lump formed in the back of tae's throat. he cautiously watched as eden took a few steps back and he couldn't help but feel a bit frightened when memories of a few of his sins began to linger into his mind.

"i've known you your whole life. it kills me to see you do all these things. the drugs, the one-night stands, how highly you think of yourself. you need to be humble. i don't know what i'm going to do with myself if i'm not able to help you save yourself from your possible fate."

eden once again walked up to tae and placed both of her hands on his shoulders, raising her head up a bit to meet eyes with the frightened boy.

she smiled up at him with the most humble eyes he'd ever seen. "i'm going to figure your heart out."

masterlist

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ducktracy · 4 years

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181. the case of the stuttering pig (1937)

disclaimer: this review contains antisemitic content, stereotypes, and imagery. i in no way endorse any of this, but it’s just as important to bring awareness to these depictions rather than shove them under the rug. please, PLEASE let me know if i make any mistakes or say something offensive, i want to take responsibility for my actions and use this as an opportunity to educate myself. any outside commentary is more than welcome. thank you for your patience and understanding.

release date: october 30th, 1937

series: looney tunes

director: frank tashlin

starring: mel blanc (porky, the guy in the third row), billy bletcher (lawyer goodwill), sara berner (petunia)

just in time for the halloween season, we explore one of tashlin’s best directorial efforts to date. the case of the stuttering pig (its title derived from the case of the stuttering bishop, a warner bros. film released only 4 months prior) is the first of many warner bros. cartoons to take a jab at the ever popular dr. jekyll and mr. hyde. here, porky and his family (4 brothers and petunia, who serves as his sister rather than a love interest) are terrorized by the nefarious lawyer goodwill, the family lawyer who turns himself into a mr. hyde facsimile, hoping to kill the family in order to snag some inheritance money.

frank tashlin’s cinematography is in peak form as the cartoon opens to a ghastly exposition--william tell’s “the storm” rages alongside a furious storm. intricate camera angles include an upshot on a giant old house, trees whipping in the wind against the flashing lightning, and a close up of the window shudders snapping against the exterior. the snaps of the window shudders soon melt into the droning tick of a clock inside, an upshot exposing dynamic, drawn out shadows against the walls. tashlin handles the contrast between values exceptionally well. backgrounds are crisp, clear, and pronounced.

cue a vertical pan of porky’s siblings (patrick, peter, percy, portus, and petunia) all lined up against the wall in a row of chairs. each appear apprehensive, obviously on edge. not porky, though. porky’s at the very end of the row, looking on with a hilariously blank smile plastered on his face.

suddenly, a knock at the door interrupts the silence. cue the famous tashlin jump cut: we only see volney white’s animation of porky jumping out of his seat, but the next shot reveals all of the siblings hanging from a chandelier, with porky trepidatiously inquiring “who-who-who-who-who-who’s theh-the-the-the-the-there...?” you can still feel mel’s attempts to distinguish his own unique porky stutter from the authentic stutter provided by joe dougherty--this delivery is more dougherty-esque than some of his others.

billy bletcher’s syrupy sweet vocals ring out from behind the door, the disembodied voice introducing himself as lawyer goodwill. the decision not to showcase who’s behind the door is a smart one. suspense is absolutely rife all throughout the cartoon, and the beginning is no exception. with a peppy “okey deh-eh-eh-deh-do... oh-oh-okey deh-deh... okay!”, porky is followed by his siblings as he happily allows this mysterious lawyer goodwill inside. the suddenly calm, almost wholesome atmosphere inside, reassured by the self-proclaimed friendly presence of lawyer goodwill is disrupted as soon as the door opens, wind howling and blowing the entire family down the hallway as goodwill fights his way inside, his face (and head, for that matter) completely concealed by his hat and collar. tashlin plays on this as goodwill removes his hat, a mere nub placed where his neck should be as a waterfall of rain pours out from the hat. nevertheless, goodwill reveals himself, a portly yet good-natured looking fellow as he tells the children it’s time to attend to “business”.

lawyer goodwill gathers the kids around to discuss the matter of their late uncle solomon (a pig caricature of oliver hardy, just one of a handful) and his will. the animation is slightly blurred and jittery from the double exposure effects of the shadows--animation historian mark kausler has this to say (transcribed from his excellent commentary that i’m partially parroting):

“they used to hand crank the cameras here. this was before electric drive animation cameras--that’s why the shadows are so flickery, because they had to back the film up and then re-expose it to get the transparency of the shadow.”

uncle solomon’s will states that his heirs will inherit his money. however, if something were to happen to them, then lawyer goodwill gets the cash instead. goodwill exits the house, reassuring that nothing will happen to the kids... “...i hope!”

there’s a gorgeous, moody upshot of the porch as goodwill lumbers down the steps. volney white is at the hand of this scene, easy to spot thanks to his telltale speed: goodwill practically glides across the screen as he heads towards offscreen, only to whip back and put a hand over his hear, nefariously straining to hear if he’s being followed. volney’s pose and expression are as strong as ever--i made a reel of his animation awhile ago if you’d like to check it out!

bob bentley takes over to animate goodwill’s transformation into the monster--his animation is very meticulous and well crafted. a good way to spot him is to see if characters have thicker eyebrows in some scenes than others. goodwill swaps clothes in favor of a hat and cape almost effortlessly, gliding across the screen like butter. the flow isn’t interrupted, not even by the overlay of tables decorated with test tubes, skulls, etc.

all of goodwill’s potential queries on how to transform into a hideous beast are answered with a bottle of “jekyll and hide juice” (starting at only $9.99! call now and get another FREE at no cost to you! it’s a steal, folks!) nestled conveniently on his shelf of various poisons. he pours the concoction into a cocktail, acting like a regular bartender as he shows off by pouring the mixture from glass to glass. tashlin’s timing, both behaviorally and comically, are succinct as goodwill finally downs the mixture. he grips the table, taking heaving breaths, staring at the audience, until... nothing. he heaves a dubious shrug.

instead, goodwill opts to use a milkshake mixer (a relatively new invention whose novelty value would have scored much bigger laughs then than it does today, but still remains amusing at the very least) to mix his concoction, downing it once more.

bob bentley’s animation of the monster is nothing short of gorgeous. well defined, well crafted, and dimensional. however, it does encapsulate antisemitic stereotypes and caricatures, from the big nose to clawed hands and pointy ears, as well as the desire for money. as skillful as the animation is, and as solid as the cartoon is, these are problems that still need to be addressed. understand that when i’m praising the animation, i’m focusing on the techniques themselves and the technicalities behind it, not the content that’s being animated itself. (thank you anon for taking the time to educate me! it’s much appreciated.)

billy bletcher snarls in his trademark deep voice, even quipping “you wouldn’t think i was lawyer goodwill now, would you?” he talks directly to the audience, getting right close in their face, jabbing his spindly finger and bulbous nose. he even goes as far as to berate his public by screeching “you bunch of softies! YEAH, YOU IN THE THIRD ROW! ya BIG SOFTIE!” the fourth wall breaking is nothing short of genius. just IMAGINE seeing this in a dark, packed movie theater! the effect would be phenomenal! (especially if you were the guy in the third row! i’m sure all of the third-row-sitting patrons felt quite satisfied at these showings.) the monster vows to dispose of the family, sneering at our inability to help save our heroes.

said heroes are contentedly socializing in the living room, peppy porky talking about how safe and sound they are in their own little house. so, of course, that serves as the cue for a gnarly hand to grab the light switch and kill the lights. i love the detail of the shadow creeping along the wall before you even see the hand itself--little decisions like that go such a long way.

the lights go out, and all we hear is the pluck of an electric slide guitar. the lights come on, and one of porky’s alliteratively named siblings is gone, with an x cleverly marked in his place. the ritual occurs four times, with porky remarking each of the names of his fallen siblings (”peh-peh-patrick!” “eh-peh-peh-peh-eh-peter!” “eh-peh-peh-eh-peh-percy!” “puh-portus!”). the lights go out once more, and x’s mark where porky and petunia were just sitting prior. definitely an artsy and interesting way to convey the kidnappings--even more so when we see porky and petunia trepidatiously popping their heads out from behind the armchair after the camera trucks in on their deserted spot.

volney white animates the close up of petunia clutching to porky, stuttering (from fear, that is) “g-g-gee, p-p-porky, i’m scared!” her voice here is provided by sara berner as opposed to berneice hansell, who voiced her in her last appearance in porky’s romance. ironically, hansell would take over for petunia again after bob clampett adopted (and subsequently redesigned) her character. you can hear the evolution of her voice here.

porky reassures her that they’ll find the brothers as we cue a clever pan from inside to outside the house, spotlighting the basement. the backgrounds are so gorgeous and moody! we find the pigs tied up in stocks, with the monster sneering about how he’ll do away with all the pigs once he nabs porky and petunia. once more, our ever-aware villain resorts to heckling the poor sap in the third row: “and if that guy in the third row comes up, I’LL FIX HIM TOO! you big CREAMPUFF!” again--this is exceedingly entertaining to watch 83 years later on a laptop screen, but imagine what a riot this would be in theaters! frank tashlin understood that the audience was paying to watch his cartoons, and he knew how to make it worth their time. the cartoons catered to the audience rather than the studio executives always make for the best ones--tex avery was especially keen of this, as we’ll soon explore.

back to porky and petunia, both cautiously traipsing down the hallway as porky calls the names of his fallen brothers, both straining to hear any signs of life. while the poses aren’t nearly pushed to the same extremes as they would be in tashlin’s second directorial stint from 1943-1946, they’re still quite nice and accentuated just enough. certainly stronger than the poses present in the other directors’ cartoons. seeing as tashlin was a newspaper cartoonist, his illustrative, comic look translates well into his own cartoons. it’s almost as if his comic art has leapt right off the page, but also meshes well enough with the animation to have a good sense of motion to it. it’s the best of both worlds.

while porky is unaware, petunia is yanked off screen by a hand protruding from a trick wall panel. suddenly, the villain himself tinkers behind porky, mimicking his movements. porky even manages to grab a hold of his gangly hand, assuming it’s petunia, going so far as to look him straight in the eyes and shush him. the volney white animated villain looks strikingly different than that of bob bentley’s--volney’s is exceedingly more streamlined and design driven, especially around the eyes. he’s not nearly as hairy, grotesque, or dimensional. not that that’s a bad thing! in fact, i love when animators are able to make their styles so distinguishable from the other animators. not only is it fun, it makes identifying animation much easier.

when porky finally realizes that he’s being stalked by the monster, he does the signature volney white eye take and runs for the hills, er, stairs. tashlin’s speed dominates as porky scales flights of stairs at lightning speeds--it’s dizzying to even watch! eventually, porky jumps right into the arms of the monster, clinging to him (thinking it’s petunia) as he describes what he just saw: “i eh-seh-saw the most teh-teh-teh-eh--awful leh-leh-lookin’ man, all beh-beh-big and beh-beh-eh-bleh-black... beh-beh-BIG teeth...” all the while, porky is grabbing onto the villain’s nose and clinging to him like a baby. the animation is positively hilarious, especially when porky recognizes who he’s being cradled by, actually connecting nose to snout as he lets out a scream and barrels down the staircase once more, the same footage from before just in reverse. a wonderful scene with great dialogue and hilarious animation. bob clampett would borrow this in his own jeepers creepers just two years later, with a ghost in place of the monster.

porky locks himself in the basement, discovering his siblings tied up in stocks (”leh-leh-land sakes alive!”), his attempts to free them interrupted by the sound of the villain knocking the door down. interestingly enough, after we pan to the monster infiltrating the premises, the next shot is the entire family huddled in a corner, indicating that porky did manage to free them after all. the technique is reminiscent of the cartoon’s beginning, where we see only porky jump out of his seat before showing all of the siblings hiding in the chandelier.

just as it looks like the pig family is bacon, a random chair from offscreen is lobbed at the monster, sending him tumbling right into the stocks. the family is just as perplexed as the viewer, asking in unison “who DID that?”

“ME!” mel blanc’s gruff, more natural voice rings out from behind the screen. the locked up monster ogles at the audience, pointing a gangly finger as he snarls “who are YOU?” mel’s tough guy new yoik accent snarls back “I’M DA GUY IN DA THOID ROW, YA BIG SOURPUSS!” iris out on a deflated, dejected villain--just IMAGINE witnessing this in real time in the theaters!

this cartoon is one of the reasons why frank tashlin is one of my favorite directors of all time. it’s got all of the tashlin essentiasl. the effects animation by A.C. gamer at the beginning is lovely, doing a wonderful job of establishing such an eerie mood. the raging, wild storm juxtaposes perfectly with the unsettlingly still atmosphere inside the house. lawyer goodwill makes an excellent villain, topped off with billy bletcher’s vocals and bob bentley’s skilled animation. the constant fourth wall breaking with him... need i say more? it’s such a great way to involve the audience with the picture and really suck in their attention, especially that ending. the animation is excellent, the backgrounds are gorgeous, it’s absolutely rife with atmosphere. this is tashlin’s best effort thus far and one of his best efforts overall.

however, the antisemitic stereotypes and caricatures should be accounted for. while i do say you should watch this one to get an idea of frank tashlin’s mastery as a director, tread with caution and discretion. i absolutely don’t endorse these concepts. so, if you do want to watch it, you can go to HBOmax or click this link, just be advised.

#lt #looney tunes #the case of the stuttering pig #reviews #tashlin #long post #antisemitism tw

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palmtreepalmtree · 4 years

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Alright, this one is long overdue for an anonymous friend who really wanted me to review The Healer. So after a short pause, here is another edition of

The Worst Movie on Netflix Right Now™

Heavy sigh.

Alright. Let’s talk about this one.

First off, I have to do some pretty serious content warnings, cause I know some people have been receiving some bad news recently and this review goes someplace you might not expect so, I love you guys, but please be aware that this review deals with: cancer, terminal illness, kids with cancer.

Now back to the bullshit.

This is basically a movie about a fucking dumbass dude who has trouble making obvious decisions.

SPOILERS AHEAD (are you new here?)

The main character Alec Bailey, begins the film as a total fuckwit. He lives in England (somewhere about) and owns a failing electronic handyman business that he calls “The Healer” (in the most pathetic stretch of narrative bullshit, but okay) and is in deep gambling debts to the Russian mob.

As our story begins, Alec discovers that he has a long lost rich uncle who makes him an offer: the uncle will pay off Alec’s debts if he agrees to live in Nova Scotia for a year. The uncle will make all the arrangements: plane ticket, work visa, place to live, etc. All Alec has to do is stay in Nova Scotia for a year.

OH NO! WHATEVER SHALL I DO?!? WHAT AM I GOING TO DO IN REMOTE NOVA SCOTIA FOR A YEAR AFTER ALL MY FINANCIAL CONCERNS ARE TAKEN CARE OF?

HOWEVER WILL I SURVIVE IN SUCH A HORRIBLE PLACE?11?!?

I BETTER THINK IT OVER.

*eyeroll*

He finally makes his decision after getting chased by mobsters trying to collect on his debts. ...like I said. He’s a fuckwit.

So he moves into this beautiful house in Nova Scotia. There’s no internet, which is a legit bummer, but his uncle has arranged a car for him to get to town. Seems like a pretty good gig. Even if it is going to be brutally cold come the winter months.

Well as soon as Alec arrives in town, everyone seems to know and be expecting him. He puts an ad out for his mechanical engineering services, again, under the name “The Healer.” Well........... that goes awry in ways you would expect. Suddenly, people start showing up requesting his physical healing services.

The thing is, the people from town seem to expect him to actually be a healer. They keep referring to a secret and to him being “the chosen one.” There’s no explanation for this.

Then there’s like... this whole weird interlude where Alec seems to kill the town priest, played by Jorge Ramirez (can someone please find this dude a good acting gig? my dude has decent comedic timing, he’s better than this shit). And Alec gets arrested. Even though the priest got up and walked away. All of this seems like a weird spinning of wheels before the actual plot. Like why is this happening. Why?

Eventualllllllly......... his uncle shows back up and fesses up (in the most elaborate way possible). People in his family have a gift. Every other generation, someone is chosen. And they have the gift of healing. Based solely on being near to someone who is destined to be saved.

The gift can only be activated around their 30th birthday (if this sounds unnecessarily elaborate, that’s because it is -- and I’m even cutting shit out like the secret basement and portraits on the wall, blahblahblah). The day after the birthday, the chosen one must decide. They can choose to accept or decline the gift of healing. Alec is given until midnight that night to make his decision. WILL HE BE THE CHOSEN ONE? WILL HE BE THE HEALER?!?!1?1

I mentioned that Alec is a fuckwit right?

*Hagrid voice* YOU’RE A FUCKWIT, ALEC!

*squints*

Annnnnnyhow. Alec goes to the town church where everyone is gathered at midnight (with thank you signs and a big round of applause) and he dashes their hopes. HE WILL NOT BE THE HEALER, NO! Even though it comes with no readily apparent downsides or costs. And he’d be able to relieve the suffering of others with no cost to himself. No, fuck it. He’s going to go home.

The town takes it pretty well, all things considered. The few people who had already been healed by being near him make speeches of gratitude. They all wish him a happy birthday and tell him he’s welcome to stay. Like these people are insanely understanding about him declining the gift of healing. INSANE.

It’s worth noting that we’re about halfway through the movie at this point and we haven’t met one of the main characters of the movie.

IN COMES ABIGAIL. Cancer kid extraordinaire. She is 14 years old. Her parents have driven 7 hours to see Alec. Their daughter is dying of terminal cancer, and all they want is for Alec to spend some time with her and give it a shot. But she’s a pretty self-possessed kid. She convinces the reluctant Alec to just hangout with her for the weekend to buck up her parents and give her parents some hope. She doesn’t believe in the healing, so no harm, no foul.

And finally we’ve hit the meat of our story. Will Alec be able to save Abigail now that he’s declined the gift? Will he regret it? WHY DID HE DECLINE THE GIFT!?1?

SPOILERS (really can’t discuss this movie without them)

It turns out, Alec had a brother who died of cancer. And they were incredibly close. In Alec’s words, “he was my everything.” But now he deeply regrets giving up the gift. Now he’s worried he can’t save Abigail.

You know what, man? Same.

SO WHY THE FUCK DID YOU TURN DOWN THE GIFT!??!?

Listen. Listen, listen. I don’t know a single person who has been touched by cancer who wouldn’t jump at the chance to have a healing gift. I mean, what the fuck. Death sucks. Losing someone you love from any kind of illness sucks. Especially when it feels even remotely too soon. And cancer is a particular type of FUCKING BULLSHIT. It sucks.

So it’s really fucking hard to understand why this FUCKWIT turns down the gift to begin with. Death and suffering is not abstract for him when this movie starts! So why we should feel sorry for his resulting anxiety, now that he has met someone who is directly negatively affected by his fucking BAD DECISION.

Anyhow, the rest of the movie is basically an exercise in how charming Abigail is and how much fun we can have with her before she goes off to die. Which like......... OH-FUCKING-KAY!

It should go without saying that this movie has a happy ending. The music swells where it should. The romance is consummated. Abigail is healed. All is going to be well with the world.

As a movie, this one has some weird fucking choices. First, all of the music cues in this movie are just wrong. “Faith” by George Michael is not a song about believing in something --- unless that something is having sex with someone who hurt you before. And the lighting in this film is so beautiful all the time, it looks like you’re in a fucking ciallis commercial, even when you’re in the freaking police station, wtf?

And last, the writing is just weird in places. Like why have the love interest lie about being a lesbian through 90% of the film? Why? It’s not a good joke! And It is COMPLETELY fucking baffling to me why the good news of this story is delivered off-screen instead of on-screen. If Abigail is going to be okay, why couldn’t she come back to Nova Scotia to tell him? Why couldn’t she deliver that news in person!? That’s just bad writing. What the fuck is that?

But whatever.

On the credit side, I think Oliver Jackson Cohen knows what he’s doing as an actor. He’s not Oscar-worthy yet, but I believed him. When he talks about his brother, I felt that. And that could not have been easy in such a fucking weird script.

But as much as I’d like to end this review right here, there’s more. Cause...

..........that’s not where the movie ends. Not entirely.

As the end music plays, the movie is dedicated to Paul Newman who established summer camps for seriously ill kids. And then we see images and videos of the kids all over the world enjoying activities at these camps.

And that’s where this critique stops. Sorta. Paul Newman was a legitimately good person. And his legacy of caring for sick kids carries on to this day, as was evident from all the footage.

But here’s the thing: healing as it’s depicted in this movie does not exist. But easing the suffering of others does. I wish this movie had been about that. I wish it had been less focused on miracles and weird family legacies and selfish fuckwits and more about the kind of healing that Paul practiced. But I guess that movie isn’t as fun, and it isn’t as hopeful and uplifting.

In the non-movie version of this story, Abigail Bryant died in 2014 at the age of 20. Her obituary still appears online. And it is still receiving comments and photos from cancer survivors and fighters, many of them who found her through the film. And they talk about how the movie touched them.

On that level, it doesn’t matter what I say here. It doesn’t matter that there are weird parts of this script or that healing like this is a fantasy. This movie does its job. It touches people. And if it inspires just a few more people to give money to help relieve suffering, then that’s all that matters.

Ronald McDonald House Charities Cancer Research Institute Hole in the Wall Gang (Paul Newman’s org) Serious Fun Children’s Network (established by Paul Newman)

#ptpt reviews #the worst movie on netflix right now #i guess #sorta #cw: cancer #sorry for the long post #this one was complicated

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iamaliberalartsstudent · 4 years

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Modern Languages' Tips for Creating a Great Work-space at Home

Last week, Georgia Institute of Technology announced that it is closing its campus and converting to a fully remote environment for the rest of the semester. This means teaching all our courses online and advising our master's students remotely as they work independently on their Final Projects.

Students are working on a variety of projects, from documentaries to research papers, from ethnographic research to translation. Right now, they are preparing to defend their projects in a 30-minute presentation at the end of April. A good work-space at home will definitely be important.

So to help them (and myself prepare), I asked some fellow professors to share some strategies for working from home.

1. Get a designated work area.

It's easy to think you can work anywhere, because technically, you can. Writers are notorious for working everywhere but the office: at home, on a couch, in cafes, in train stations, on trains, or even wandering through the park with a voice recorder.

Because writing is so psychological, it's important to have a space that mentally prepares you for work. Try to find a space that you use exclusively for work, so your mind knows to focus when you sit down. And when you leave the space, you can more easily think about other things (For example, experts advise against working in bed, because it can make it more difficult to fall asleep).

2. Limited on space? Create mental boundaries.

I don't have space for a home office in my apartment, so I'm using my dining table. My working setup can be opened and then put away, so I know when I'm working, and when I'm done for the day.

There are many ways to get in the mindset. For me, it's always been putting a cup of coffee or tea to the left of my laptop and having something to write on. For many people, it's doing their morning routine and getting dressed for work. It could be anything: putting in your headphones, saying a catch-phrase, starting a timer, or opening your project folder. Do whatever works for you!

3. Plan out a daily routine.

Starting March 30th, you will have classes online. You may also have other responsibilities, depending on your living and family situation. Plan how you will use your time: When will you be in class? When will you do homework? When will you work on your project? Don't forget to include time to relax and get away from your screen!

NPR suggests: "Get ready for work every morning like you are going to physically go into work. Dress up, do your hair — whatever you'd normally do. This puts you in a professional mindset....If you're the type of person who never takes a break at home, set a timer to take time for lunch, and turn off your work....Try to maintain normal work hours, and shut things down when you would normally leave the office."

If you're working on multiple projects, it helps to work on the same project at the same time every day. For example, if you're juggling your Prospectus and three other courses, you might want to decide that no matter what else happens, you will work on your Prospectus from 6:00 - 7:00 pm every day.

Check out the daily routines of 20 famous writers on Brain Pickings.

4. Make sure you have reliable internet.

With everyone online at the same time, internet speeds could slow down, so make sure you have reliable internet access. Check out https://gatech.service-now.com/continuity for IT support through Georgia Tech.

5. Get ready for video conferencing.

You will probably have meetings and classes via Bluejeans, so take a moment to prep your webcam. You may want to find a private area with a neutral background, where you can have meetings with your professors. Have a good pair of headphones. Test it out with friends to see if there's background noise. Will it still work if your family member is doing a Skype meeting in the next room?

Note that Bluejeans looks different in the app and browser versions, and in the laptop and tablet versions, so try them out and see which one you prefer. Download Bluejeans here: http://bluejeans.gatech.edu/

Remember that Bluejeans Meetings are at gatech.bluejeans.com (reversal of the above URL). Don't forget to hang up when you're done!

6. Set goals, and celebrate your accomplishments!

A three-month project like your Master's Project can feel overwhelming. Break it down into "bite-size," measurable tasks that take 20, 40, 60 minutes to complete.

These might be:

Search the internet for articles on X topic and save them to a folder.

Take notes on a book chapter.

Write an analysis of a scene in a film.

Edit a page you wrote yesterday.

When you've finished a task, Reward yourself! Acknowledge and celebrate the moment: take a 5-minute stretch break, have a snack, watch a video of unlikely animal friendships (don't get sucked in, though; time yourself if you need to).

7. Aim for 4 productive hours per day.

Lelia Glass, Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Georgia Tech, writes:

"Set a timer when you work. Any time you check emails, read Twitter, get coffee, wash your hands, etc, pause the timer. Pause it as often as you want, but keep working until you get to a real hour.

Once you reach your goal, relax, knowing you really put in quality time on your work. This is how I wrote my dissertation from a couch in San Francisco over the course of nine months or so."

Dr. Glass says she uses this method to "do about 4-5 hours of writing per day." Turns out, the average human brain can only stay deeply focused for a maximum of 4-5 hours per day. So if you've worked for four hours productively, you've done an amazing job!

Creating protected blocks of time, like an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening, can help you prioritize your current top project. And remember, once you've reached your goal, take a break!

8. Take breaks!

Just as important as a designated work area is a designated space for time off. Whether it's your favorite couch, your bed, or the act of closing your email and washing out your coffee cup, it's important to step away and give your mind a break. Dr. Glass suggests going for a run, cooking a healthy meal, and video-chatting with family and friends.

9. Don't worry if you're messy.

The middle of a project is always messy.

We live in messy times.

And if all else fails, remember Einstein's words: "If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?"

Sources:

"The Daily Routines of 20 Famous Writers," Brain Pickings, https://www.brainpickings.org/2012/11/20/daily-routines-writers/

"8 Tips to make working from home work for you" npr.org/2020/03/15/815549926/8-tips-to-make-working-from-home-work-for-you

Managing Large Writing Projects, Inside Higher Ed. insidehighered.com/advice/2009/04/24/managing-large-writing-projects

Special thanks to Lelia Glass and Jinyi Chu for sharing your work-spaces and tips!

By Jenny Strakovsky, Assistant Director of Graduate Studies

#student #faculty #modernlanguages

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hyoubuscanonsoulmate · 4 years

Text

Azusa’s Backstory

So awhile back, I wrote Azusa’s backstory and I’ve edited it a bit so here it is now! Pretty saddening backstory but it has a happy ending!

TW: Themes of abuse, blood, etc.

* July 28th, 1997

Tomorrow is supposed to be busy for Azusa and the others at a large run down building, home to the headquarters of the Faction of Serpents, a mostly normal compromised organization set on using espers, especially young ones, and making them tools of bloodlust. Sitting nearby on a computer was the head of the organization themself, Yukimura Ito, looking at files of the espers sitting nearby him. Azusa and the espers were chained to the wall and wore blindfolds as well as Limiters around their bodies so they couldn’t fight back against him.

“Azusa, Samantha, Chloe, and Shiki. The four promising espers of our organization.” Yukimura spoke as he looked at the screen.

— Azusa Sakurai, a Level 6 esper with umbrakinesis, hypnosis, teleportation, and metamorphosis being able to turn into a coyote. 19 years old female and the Ace of the Serpents. A slim woman with long dark brown hair, red eyes, and dark complexion.

— Chloe Nakamura, Level 6 esper with psychokinesis and teleportation. Second Ace of the organization. 19 years old female. A slim blonde hair woman with pale skin.

— Samantha Lowell, Level 6 esper with telepathy and pyrokinesis. 18 years old female and good use for grabbing enemy information. A fairly skinny girl with short black hair.

— Shiki Takashi: Level 6 esper with electrokinesis and telepathy. Also known as the Nightmare Trapper. 18 year old female. A dark purple haired girl with blue eyes.

Yukimura turns off his computer and gets up from his seat. Yukimura appeared to be an older man with slightly balding black hair with small white streaks and dull blue eyes. After arriving from the desk, he unlocked their chains and released their eyes from the darkness of their blindfolds. “Girls, I looked into your files and it said you’re suited for this next mission. “We need more espers.” Yukimura said with a hoarse voice to the group. “Are you sure you want to get more espers? I think we are good enough for the job.” Azusa said bitterly. Yukimura looked angered at the woman and turns on Azusa’s electric shock collar sending currents of electricity through her body, causing her to scream. “I’m surprised you’re screaming to that. You hardly scream at all Azusa.” Yukimura grinned. “Anyways, don’t defy me Azusa. It’ll only get yourself hurt. We do need more espers since our esper supply is in a decline.” He said. “Yes sir.” Azusa replied. “Good.” Yukimura replied back.

“Now it’s late. Get some goodnight rest before we head to our next location.” Yukimura said as he escorts Azusa to the room where her and her friends stayed. “Night or else, you’ll be facing the worst punishment!” Yukimura said as he shuts the door forcefully. The girls head to their bedrooms. Despite the four working for the Serpents, they deeply hated Yukimura and the people there. Almost everyday, they were forced to kidnapping young espers and kill espers who protect the young ones. However, the punishments were harsh and death was seen as even crueler than be electrocuted according to many of the espers within the group.

While the rest of the girls were asleep, Azusa’s eyes were wide open and she felt paranoid. Her mind only drifted off.

Yukimura laughed when he watched Azusa sporting countless limiters on her body. She looked different, appearing much younger, like a child. “Azusa, you’re mine for good.” He spoke, Azusa’s expression only showed signs of fear. Nearby her was a large boiling pot of water and multiple knives. “This will teach us that you will never defy us. Forget about your parents and live as an esper for us only.” Yukimura said as he dipped Azusa’s arm into the boiling hot water, causing her to scream loudly. “Help me...someone please.” Azusa cried out and tears only drifted from her face. Next, her eye was slashed by a knife and Yukimura shot Azusa in the arm fives times. Azusa breathed heavily, feeling a stimulation of pain so much, she thought she’ll die for a second. Suddenly, Yukimura stopped. Azusa was still crying. “Remember this Azusa. You have no right to defy against us. Do you understand?” Yukimura asked. Azusa nodded crying. “Speak up or I’ll shoot you again!!!” Yukimura exclaimed. “Yes.” Azusa said whimpering.

Azusa kept moving around her bed, trying to sleep but couldn’t. Instead, she picks up her diary on the side of her bed and starts to write. Looking through a couple of pages, she skimmed through entries.

Entry 1: I miss mom and dad, I wonder if they’re ok and hopefully not being treated like us. I want to be with them. Yukimura keeps telling me to forget about you guys but I can’t. You treated me so nicely. I miss your warm smiles and home-cooked meals. I wish we could’ve made it home from the movie safely before that taxi driver took us away and separated us.

Entry 2: Someone help me. I need an angel to save me from these terrible humans. I’ve been burnt, shot, scarred, and electrocuted by them. Just someone help me, I want this to end.

Entry 3: Why can’t I use my esper powers? Mom always told me it’s best to be an esper but Yukimura keeps saying that we, espers, don’t deserve to live freely. Why is that?! Why can’t I live a normal life like I once did. That’s probably explains why we wear Limiters to suppress our powers.

Entry 4: I will kill these humans someday, I’ll make sure of it. I hate these humans.

Azusa stops skimming her entries and found a blank image to write. Tomorrow, me and my friends have to kidnap more espers once again. But why? Why!?! Why can’t us espers live in a well state? I want to save the espers, not kill them. The humans are the ones forcing us to kill them. I hate the humans.

After writing some more, Azusa hid her diary back under her bed and went to sleep.

A young Azusa happened to walking with her parents on a street where they see a taxi. Once her and her parents entered the taxi, the taxi drove but was sucked into a pit of darkness that sunk them. “MOM! DAD! HELP ME!” Azusa screamed at her parents but their bodies melted like wet paint. “STOP!!!” Azusa yelled as she woke up in the same bedroom. “Just a dream.” Azusa sighed. She went back to sleep.

July 29th, 1997.

Yukimura bursts into the room. “Wake up!” He yelled loudly. “It’s time!” He boasted. “Now wake up!” He demanded. After the girls got dressed and suited up, they head into a large vehicle driven by humans and packed filled with ECMs, devices used to nullify psychic powers. “So where are we going exactly?” Azusa asked. “An esper orphanage. They have a lot of young esper kids there.” The driver spoke. After an hour drive, they arrive at the orphanage. Watching from afar, Azusa sees esper children celebrating one of the orphans’ birthday party. They celebrated joyfully as the esper kid ate cake and the staff used pyrokinesis to light the candles. Azusa watched to dismay that their mission was to kill the adults and steal the children. Even Azusa’s friends looked shocked.

”Happy 5th Birthday Azusa!” Azusa’s mom and dad cheered as Azusa blew out the candles. Azusa and her parents laughed.

Azusa and her friends felt like they wanted to vomit. They didn’t want to kidnap and kill these innocent esper children. Yukimura exits the vehicle. “Sir, we won’t do this.” Azusa and her friends said simultaneously. Yukimura laughed. “If you won’t do it, then we will.” Yukimura said. “Don’t! Those children just want to celebrate a birthday!” Azusa cried out. “Like I give a shit! Men, ready the ECMs and go!” Yukimura commanded as the human members of the organization went inside. With the ECMS activated, none of the adult esper staff could fight back. Azusa and her friends watched in horror. “NO STOP!” Azusa yelled and attempted to run by Yukimura activating her electric shock collar, same for her friends. “You won’t stop us.” Yukimura growled in a hoarse voice.

Many of the children were snatched away and cried out. Most of the adults were dead and the building was in pieces. As the mission was over, the esper children looked highly upset. Azusa even saw a stuffed white cat dropped to the ground covered in blood. Azusa looked upset at it. After the esper children were escorted into the vehicles, Azusa and her friends shock collars were turned off. “Let’s go.” Yukimura told Azusa and her friends as they looked so disappointed that they couldn’t do anything to save those children. Before Yukimura noticed, Azusa grabbed the stuffed now stained white cat plush. They head to the vehicle.

Later that night, Azusa and her friends were in their rooms. “That.s it. We will stop Yukimura, even if I kill him.” Azusa said. “I wanted to save those kids too but Yukimura is a dangerous ma-“ Chloe said. “No, never again. I’m never letting that man touch another esper in his life. I’m never letting an esper kid be used by him. I will come up with a plan to stop him and his disgusting scum of a species called humans!” Azusa told Chloe. “Understand?” Azusa asked as her friends nodded. “Tomorrow night is when we will save those children. Get some rest.” Azusa said.

July 30th, 1997

It appeared to be nighttime. A group of human members scouted to make sure the girls were asleep, however, they saw the door wide open. Suddenly, the humans flew with the telekinetic force from Chloe hitting the wall hard. More human members come out seeing the other injured members. “OH SHIT!” One of the members cursed as they sound an alarm. The alarm caused Yukimura to wake up quickly and rush to the scene. “What’s going on?” He said tiredly yet sees Chloe, who appeared with a malice expression. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING CHLOE!?!” Yukimura said. “Never again.” Chloe barked. Yukimura calls for the two members to grab the ECMS, but much to their dismay, the ECMS were destroyed. “SIR, THE ECMS ARE BROKEN!” The human helped. Yukimura growled. Samantha was leading multiple children and other espers towards an exit. She hums a soft tune and waves the stuffed white cat plushie, that is now clean. “Follow Miss Fluffy and I ok.” Samantha said calmly waving the plush around. After a while, she got the rescued espers out of the building.

Yukimura tried to search for the other members but couldn’t find them but nearby the entrance, he saw a glow inside his office.

Yukimura happens to see Azusa, looking at files on the computer. “What are you doing Azusa!?!” Yukimura asked angrily. “What do you think I’m doing!?! I’m freeing all the espers you’ve taken into your clutches.” Azusa said as her limiters were destroyed. “You espers are doing such vile crimes!” Yukimura yelled. “You’re the one who is disgusting Yukimura. Making us espers your tools for killing others. The only one who can trust an esper like me is another esper. You humans clearly have no regards for the rights of espers.” Azusa spoke. Yukimura laughed. “Azusa. I only brought you and your friends in because you were very powerful!” He yelled. “How vile of you humans to do such a thing. Those kids did nothing wrong and you traumatized them by killing the only ones who cared for them. The adult espers. All they wanted was a birthday party. Today is even my 20th birthday. Did you even know that I turned 20 today!?!” Azusa yelled as she grabbed Yukimura by his shadow. “You’ll never use me and my friends who were sold in the Black Market ever again!” Azusa yelled out as she finished off Yukimura by impaling him with his shadow. “Suffer you humans like how you made us, espers, suffer.” Azusa spoke out as Yukimura died and his shadow went to normal. After that, Azusa went outside to meet her friends and smiled at them. “Happy Birthday Azusa!” Her friends and the other espers cheered and hugged her. “Thanks my friends.” Azusa said. “Starting today, we will stop the humans from oppressing espers. We are no longer snakes. We are coyotes! The House of Bloodletting Coyotes!” Azusa declares as Chloe burnt the headquarters of The Snakes.

????, 1997

During a dangerous conflict between espers and humans, Azusa watched a burning building. “No, no, damn it.” Azusa cried, breaking into tears. Suddenly, a large helicopter aims for Azusa. “Fire.” A human pilot said but before they could fire at Azusa, the helicopter snaps in half to Azusa’s surprise. Suddenly, a white hair man in a black school uniform teleported to Azusa. “Hello there. I am Kyousuke Hyoubu as the helicopter fell to ground. The white hair man approaching. It’s nice to meet you.” Hyoubu introduced himself. “I’m sorry for the loss of your friends and the esper children in the building. However, I’m happy to hear that you saved them from the clutches of normals and even saved more espers from the humans who were oppressing them.” Hyoubu said. “That’s why, Azusa, I would like you to join PANDRA. Unlike the terrible people of your past, every last one of its members are espers, and we have very similar views in stopping the humans from oppressing espers.” Hyoubu spoke to the shorter woman. “I’ll give you a home Azusa, a home where you’re freely able to use your esper powers without being hated or hurt. Our goal is to even create a future where espers will gain their rights once and for all.” He spoke. “I also found your diary and heard you were searching for an angel. I’ll be the angel you asked for Azusa.” Hyoubu said. “That’s right, I want an angel, I want justice for espers, and the future for espers sounds like a wonderful one.” Azusa said. “Anyways, my name is Azusa Sakurai. I’ll gladly join you, Kyousuke Hyoubu of PANDRA. I want justice for espers!” Azusa spoke out to Hyoubu. Hyoubu smiles in delight. “Welcome to our family, Azusa.” Hyoubu told her as Azusa followed. “Hyoubu, I know this sounds strange but is it ok if I call you Angel?” Azusa asked. Hyoubu looked towards her. “Sure. I’m glad you see me that way.” Hyoubu replies as he teleports him and Azusa to PANDRA’s headquarters.

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namoadsandevents · 5 years

Photo

NAMMA MYSURU FOOD & CARNIVAL EXPO 2019

SPONSORSHIP PROPOSAL LETTER

NAMMA MYSURU FOOD & CARNIVAL EXPO 2019 Organizer would like to invite you to take part in our upcoming Event as Sponsor. The goals of the event are to focus an Areas of Wellness & Organic Products, Automobiles, Home & Consumer Electronics, Kitchen Appliances, Computer & Mobile, Solar Products, Furniture, Furnishing & Interiors, Art & Handicrafts, Handloom & Footwear, Garments & Dress Materials, Fashion, Textiles & Jewelers, Beauty & Health, Stationery, Gift & Toys, Artificial Flowers , Crockery, FMCG Product , Food Product, Insurance & Banking Real Estate and many more allied creative and deserve life style .Which will be occurring on 30th August 2019 to 1st September 2019 at Venue Puttaraj Gawai Stadium, JP Nagar, MYSURU, Karnataka. As you are in Related Industry , we feel that you would be a great fit to NAMMA MYSURU FOOD & CARNIVAL EXPO 2019 would be an outstanding opportunity to raise your brand’s awareness.

We believe that a strategic partnership with your esteemed Organization at NAMMA MYSURU FOOD & CARNIVAL EXPO 2019 will be mutually beneficial to both of our companies. As stated above Namoads Media and Events Private Limited would like to propose that you come in as a Sponsor for our NAMMA MYSURU FOOD & CARNIVAL EXPO 2019.

WHAT SPONSORSHIP OF NAMMA MYSURU FOOD & CARNIVAL EXPO 2019 CAN DO FOR YOU?

As a featured sponsor, would be prominently featured in front of a crowd of an estimated 20 thousand Visitors for 3 days, along with that, we will include your Organization’s Logo in advertisements and also Branding in all Promotional/Marketing Material like Banners, Posters, Hoardings, Radio, Electronic/Social Media, News Papers, Magazines, Website, Brochure’s etc., many of whom are part of your targeted market. As you can see from the nature of NAMMA MYSURU FOOD & CARNIVAL EXPO 2019, it is clearly apparent how Your Organization will benefit from this relationship:

Below list is of different types of sponsorships and Benefits;

1. Title Sponsorship

· 20 X 10 Stall will be provided

· Arch at Stadium Entrance

· Banner Promotion inside Stadium

· Banner Promotion outside Stadium

· Campus in front of the Stage

· TV Channel Displaying

· Radio Announcement

· All Social Media Promotion

· Mobile Canvas

· Branding & Promotion up to 5 km Radius.

· Led screening at Venue

2. Co-Sponsor

· 10 X 10 Stall will be provided

· LED Displaying Company Logo & Details

· Hand Fan with Company Logo & Details

· Brochure Promotion Distribution

· Cycle Branding around 5 km

· LED screening at Venue

· Look Walker branding

· TV Channel Bites.

3. Associated By

· 10 X 10 Stall will be provided

· Channel Bites

· Social Media Promotion & Spread

· Logo Branding For all Banners

· Radio Announcement

· Pamphlets Distribution

· LED screening at Venue

4. Powered By:

· 10 X 10 Stall will be provided

· Mobile Canvas

· Pamphlets Distribution

· Complementary Gifts

· LED Displaying

· Brochure Hoardings

· Radio Announcement

· Social Media Promotion & Spread

· Mobile Canvas

· Branding & Promotion up to 5 km

5. Food &Beverage (Water/Healthy Drinks Sponsor)

· 10 X 10 Stall will be provided

· Water bottles

· Food for all Exhibitors

· Food for Organisers and Team

6. Walkathon Sponsor

· 5 k walkathon

· Logo or brand name on 500 T shirt

· Logo or Brand name on 600 Caps

· Your Logo or Brand name on Medal for Participants

· Your Logo or Brand name on Certificate for all Participants

· Breakfast for all Participants(branding will be mentioned and announcement)

· Water & Energy Drink for all Participant (stickering of your Logo or Brand name will be placed)

· Winner price Distribution materials or Gift (logo will be placed)

7. Hand Fan Sponsor

· Logo and Branding on 10 thousand hand fan will be provided to all visitors

8. Equipment & Infrastructure Sponsor

Led ,Stage,Sound and Lighting

9. Prizes Sponsor

All competition winner prize distribution (logo and branding)

10. Nutrition Sponsor

Energy drink for all Walkathon Participant

11. Publicity Sponsor

Banner

Pamplets or Fliers

Auto Announcement

Tata Ace vehicle Branding

Cycle Branding

Promotion & Branding at venue

Booth @ Event Rs.6000/-

Banners @ Event Rs.5000/-

Fliers @ Event Rs.2500/-

---------------------------------------------------------------

For your information, the event details are provided below.

ADVERTISEMENT AND PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITY

· Radio

· T.V Channel

· SMS Blast regarding the Event

· Announcements in surrounding areas

· Facebook paid promotions

· Print media and All social media promotions

· Brochures distribution/Pamphlets Printing Company Logo

· Stage LED Display

· Campaigning Materials (Ex. Hand Fan)

· Hoarding at 5km Surrounding

· All Social Media promotions (Face book, twitter, LinkedIn, instogram, skype etc.,

· Look walker

· Tata ACE vehicle Branding for One month

· Mobile Canvas

· LED Displays Promotion

· Banner Promotion at Stadium

· Theatre Advertisements

· Tag with sponsors page

· Cycle Branding, Complementary Gifts etc.,

ACTIVITIES AT EVENT VENUE (For all 3 days)IN PRESENCE OF FILM PERSONALITIES.

· Rangoli Competition for all Mysuru MahilaSanghas and general public of Mysuru

· Drawing Competition for all Namma Mysuru childrens

· Dub Smash Competition

· Tune Smash Competition

· Dance Competition

· Kids attraction – jumping castle, kids games

· Hand and Face paint

· Mehandi Competition

· Cultural activities like Singing, Mimicry

· Cultural Shows

· Health Camp

· Free Eye Test

· Free Dental Test

· Plants distribution

· Blood Donation Camp

· Free BP & Sugar Test

· Pranic Healing Demo

· Free Bone Mineral Density Test

· Walkathon for 5 kms(500 Participant)

· Cooking Competition without Gas

· Food Eating Competition

EXHIBITORS PROFILE:

· Wellness & Organic Products

· Automobiles

· Home & Consumer Electronics

· Kitchen Appliances

· Computer & Mobile

· Solar Products

· Furniture, Furnishing & Interiors

· Art & Handicrafts

· Handloom & Footwear

· Garments & Dress Materials

· Fashion, Textiles & Jewelers

· Beauty & Health

· Stationery, Gift & Toys

· Artificial Flowers

· Crockery

· FMCG Product

· Food Product

· Insurance & Banking

· Real Estate and many more allied products

ORGANISER’S PROFILE:-

NAMOADS AND EVENTS

NAMOADS MEDIA AND EVENTS PRIVATE LIMITED is an Bangalore based company that has well versed in the field of organizing events and expo’s and also into advertisement services for branding and promoting of products and services for over 8 years. We are dedicated to work in any complex situations also and we conduct Expo, Events, Workshops, Seminars, Residential & Overseas Programmes, ANNUAL EXPO FROM NAMOADS AND EVENTS are WELLNESS AND ORGANIC EXPO, CINEVARNA CARNIVAL EXPO, Hanuman Chalisa Event, Health and Happiness Programme, Financial Planning by SEBI Experts(Govt. of India), Secret of Success, Law of attraction Personality Development Programme, Business Motivational Programme, Digital Marketing Internet Security, Neuro-Linguistic Programme – NLP, Soul In Harmony, Yoga Laughter, Sri Chakra, Overseas Programmes (Srilanka & Singapore)Training & Talent Shows at Educational Institutions (Schools & Colleges).

Namoads and Events is also into Advertisement services, following are our ADVERTISING SERVICES;

ü TV ADVERTISEMENTS SERVICES

ü RADIO ADVERTISEMENTS

ü TATA ACE MOBILE VAN BRANDING ACTIVITIES

ü BUS/AUTO BRANDING

ü DIGITAL MARKETING & WEB DESIGNING

ü STANDEES PRINTING (BANGALORE)

ü THEATER ADVERTISEMENTS

ü MALL BRANDING

ü APARTMENT LIFT ADVERTISEMENTS

ü NO PARKING BOARDS

ü CYCLE DISPLAY BRANDING

ü LOOKWALKER

ü EMAIL /BULK SMS MARKETING

ü DATABASE

ü PRODUCTION HOUSE

ü COMMERCIAL EDITING & VOICE OVER STUDIO FOR RENT

ü ONLINE E-COMMERCE BUSINESS

www.namoads.com

https://imojo.in/37y7oju

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socialdegenerate · 6 years

Text

Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary Exhibition - Jan 21st

It officially opens tomorrow and runs til the end of Feb, but I got an early preview ticket.

I won’t ruin it for anyone who’s going, so I’ll put the good stuff under the cut but here’s some basic info:

You get there and they hand you an iPhone and a pair of headphones. The phone can be put into English, and they ask for a nickname (which is used for a couple of things at the end), who you came with and which FF games you’ve played.

Almost all of the audio (exhibit descriptions, etc.) and signs are in Japanese AND English, and the few exhibits with Japanese-only audio will play the translation on the screen of the phone in English. So, don’t fret if your Japanese is as shitty as mine!

When you stand in range of an exhibit, the phone will automatically start playing a song from that game, and if you have audio descriptions on you hear the woman talking a little bit about the game (in English, if you choose to put the phone in English). You have to be careful not to stand in the middle of two exhibits, as your phone might get confused and switch over halfway through lmao.

As a side note, there are major spoilers for most of the games, so be warned if you go!

Also, if you’re planning to go, I recommend looking at the Goods list and taking an appropriate amount of money...

Now, onto the good stuff (photo heavy!!):

The first thing you do is hear all about how you are a Warrior of Light, and everyone is assigned to either ice, fire or lightning (I was ice). This is only relevant for the first few minutes, where you board the Starship Airship Enterprise and the Omniscient Voice tells you that you’re off to the Realm of Final Fantasy- but that Bahamut might attack.

In the next room, there are lights projected on the floor where you gather according to which element you were given. There’s a full-room projection of being on the deck of an airship, and of course, Bahamut does attack. You tap the screen of the phone when prompted to charge your magic and kick his ass, it’s pretty cool. Then it’s off into the exhibition proper.

I-VI have pretty small displays: 1-3 screens each with a loop from the game playing, a song from each game playing, and a small write-up about each one. I stood there listening to Battle on the Big Bridge for WAY too long lmao.

They have bigger displays for FFVII, Crisis Core, FFVIII, FFIX, FFXII and FFXIII, with movies being projected onto walls for each one.

FX and Mobius have bigger displays again, with a mirrored room covered i TV scrren being used to show Tidus and Yuna’s dimension...or something...In any case, wear something nice bc you’ll be able to see yourself from every angle in there. The audio in this room is only Japanese, but the phone shows English subs.

The FFXV section was easily the biggest, and I’m just gonna throw in a whole lot of pictures (if there’s any you’d like a closer look at, just let me know):

(”Jade did you just take a bunch of pictures of your wife” uhhhh no...)

I kinda breezed through the FFXI and FFXIV exhibits bc I haven’t played them and I won’t play them lmao, sorry!!

The last major room is made to look like Aerith’s church, and she makes various comments based on where you stand in the room. They had some concept art for the VII remake, but NO PICTURES ALLOWED. Looks good, though!!

Then you hand back your phone, and they have one last room with a bunch of Final Fantasy miniature displays and a biiiiiiig fuck off Amano painting done for FFXV:

It was SO GOOD omg

#Final Fantasy #Final Fantasy XV #Final Fantasy VII #Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary Exhibition

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toraonice · 7 years

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Yuri on Ice BD booklet translation (with Jun Shishido & Yuusuke Tannawa interview) - Volume 4

The full translation of the booklet of vol.4 is finally done... Actually, one of the reasons it took me so long is that I spent most of the time I was home from Thursday to Sunday watching Fuji TV’s live coverage of the World Championships, lol. And I’m glad I did because it was really exciting. It does make a difference to watch it live without knowing the results... I will work on the audio commentary and choreography part in the next few days, and hopefully on other stuff too.

The booklet has 3 parts: 1) Character introduction for Phichit, Chris and Guang-Hong. 2) “Topics”, in other words random curiosities. 3) Interview with chief director Jun Shishido and screen designer Yuusuke Tannawa. Most of you will probably have no idea who they are (and their titles are by no means a good explanation of what their actual role was), but I really recommend reading this interview because it gives more insight on the creation process of YOI and maybe it helps understand how hard it is to animate figure skating. The parts in round brackets are exactly like they are in the original text, it’s not something I added.

***If you wish to share this translation please do it by reblogging or posting a link to it***  ***Re-translating into other languages is ok but please mention that this post is the source***

He’s going to leave a mark in Thai’s skating history with his blades!

Phichit Chulanont voiced by Kenshou Ono

Profile Date of birth: April 30th, 20 years old Height: 165 cm Blood type: B Thai

Introduction A new hope for Thailand, that didn’t have any skaters who got remarkable results. His popularity is quickly growing also thanks to his spontaneous and pleasant skating style that mirrors his friendly personality. This season he is skating both his short program and free to songs from the movie “The King and the Skater”, which is something he had always dreamed of doing. He is the first Thai skater to have succeeded in a quadruple jump and he also obtained his first Grand Prix victory. He is continuing to rewrite Thai’s figure skating history. He used to train under Celestino in Detroit, but from this season he has moved his base back to Thailand. He loves hamsters and has a lot of them. Posts about them can be seen on his SNS. The lethal weapon made of sex appeal that shines on the ice.

Christophe Giacometti voiced by Hiroki Yasumoto

Profile Date of birth: February 14th, 25 years old Height: 183 cm Blood type: undisclosed Swiss

Introduction 10 years since he moved to the senior class, he is one of the world’s best skaters fighting for the top. Beside his quadruple Lutz and his characteristic sexy moves, he is also praised for his unique and precise spins. As a veteran, he never breaks down too much, but he is a slow starter and tends to not perform at his best in the Grand Prix series, which is held in the first half of the season. Last year he came in 2nd in both the Grand Prix Final and the World Championships. With his long-time rival Nikiforov missing this season, he is one of the candidates to snatch the king’s throne. He is a popular skater who captures the hearts of women all over the world with his passionate and alluring performances that ooze the sex appeal of a grown-up man. He has a cat. To become, one day, China’s hero.

Guang-Hong Ji voiced by Yuutarou Honjou

Profile Date of birth: January 7th, 17 years old Height: 160 cm Blood type: O Chinese

Introduction A growing 17-years-old who moved to the senior class this season. In the Grand Prix’s America tournament he placed 3rd, achieving the amazing feat of standing on the podium on his debut performance. The success rate of his quadruple jumps, which he started training for this season, is also high, and as China’s new ace he is expected to grow further in the second half of the season. He has a shy personality, but at the same time he also uploads many selfies on the SNS. It seems that he also bought a lot of clothes during his training camp in Canada. Together with his friend Chulanont from Thailand and Japan’s Minami, he is called by fans “one of Asia’s 3 cutest skaters”. YURI!!!’s TOPIC

TOPIC 1: Grand Prix Series It consists in a total of 7 tournaments: 6 tournaments held in different countries every year from the end of October to the end of November, and the final that sees the 6 skaters who got the highest scores in the other tournaments as its participants. The 6 tournaments are always held in the same countries (the order may vary), but the location of the final changes every year, and this season it’s Barcelona in Spain. The participants are chosen based on their results in tournaments regulated by ISU (International Skating Union), their world ranking, recommendations by the host country etc.; however, each skater can only participate in a maximum of 2 tournaments. In addition, only up to 3 skaters from the same country can participate in the same category of the same tournament. The period when the skaters’ allocation is announced is somewhat of a festival among skating fans.

*It’s night in Japan when the skaters’ allocation is announced *The first 6 tournaments are held in 6 countries over the span of 6 weeks *In every tournament skaters receive points depending on their placement (15 points for the 1st place, 13 points for the 2nd place and so on), and the final ranking decides who will participate in the final

TOPIC 2: Quadruple Jump (*at the moment of the Russia tournament) One of the techniques that decide the game in male figure skating is quadruple jumps. Since the number and type of jumps greatly influences the score, recently it’s common for skaters to include multiple quadruple jumps in their programs. However, according to the rules the same jump can only be repeated a limited number of times, therefore skaters try new types of jumps and train hard to be able to have more quadruple jumps to put in their programs. Currently, 5 types of jumps except for the Axel have been successfully landed in official competitions. The one with the highest score is the Lutz, which top skaters such as Victor, Giacometti and JJ are using in their programs. The quadruple toeloop, which has the lowest score, is successfully used by young skaters such as Kenjirou Minami, Guang-Hong and Phichit too. Yuuri can jump the toeloop and Salchow and is currently training to master Victor’s trademark flip. After the Lutz, the flip is the jump with the highest score.

*Yurio in his junior years getting scolded for jumping a quadruple that was not planned *Seung-gil is the first who successfully landed a quadruple loop *Emil is a jumper that has 4 quadruples in his free *JJ jumps an amazing quadruple Lutz in the second half of his program *Victor uses as his weapons 4 types of quadruples, except for the Axel and loop (in the EX he landed a loop too)

TOPIC 3: Support Item (cheering goods) It often happens to spot flags and banners used as cheering goods in figure skating venues. After a performance flower bouquets and plushes are also thrown into the rink. Banners do not only feature the skater’s name and flag; sometimes they have a message or a portrait of the skater with which people try to show their support, and in some cases they are even made using photographs. Yuuri is often thrown plushes of food. The bouquets and plushes are picked up by children who are learning skating, usually called “flower girls” and “flower boys”.

*JJ’s cheering group, called JJ girls. *Yurio’s hardcore fans are called Yuri angels. *Flags are basic items. Some fans bring different types. *Present snacks from fans for Yuuri who is on a diet? *After popular athletes skate the flower girls and boys have a hard time picking up everything *Sometimes skaters will actually put on the items that are thrown into the rink

TOPIC 4: Kiss & Cry The kiss & cry is where skaters wait for their score after a performance. The name comes from the fact that it’s a place where athletes can experience both happy and sad feelings. Normally the skater and their coach will sit there, but in some cases there might be people from a country’s federation or the choreographer too. In many venues there will be a microphone, therefore skaters can also send messages to their family and fans. If you listen to the broadcast closely you might be able to hear the athlete and coach reviewing the performance or other conversations.

*Sometimes the coach might strike a pose too *It’s also a place where athletes vow to make up for a defeat *”Please support me!” addressed to the viewers *The JJ style gesture in the kiss & cry is a recurrence *Michele’s sister Sara can be seen in the kiss & cry too Chief director / Screen designer Jun Shishido & Yuusuke Tannawa interview

I want to make the gag scenes dynamic. (Shishido) The opening of episode 11 was possible thanks to the viewers’ response. (Tannawa)

Shishido: I’m the chief director, but in fact I did a lot of things. Director Yamamoto was too busy, so she mainly did sound and editing, and then since it’s an original story she focused on the story composition… Tannawa: Shishido-san was like the site supervisor. We would ask things related to the story itself to director Yamamoto, but the one who actually took action and gave directions was Shishido-san. Though in the credits I appear as “screen designer”, the anime’s screen design was created by the director of photography, and my job in this series mainly consisted in creating the footage for PVs, OP etc. and checking the final product before delivery. I started working on the PV at the beginning of 2016. I asked director Yamamoto what kind of layout she had in mind, and decided how to set the visuals of the series. Regarding the contents of the episodes I also discussed with Shishido-san about various topics – for example, “this processing can be done with camerawork, this expression can be recreated with CG” – and shared this information with the involved work groups.

-Trial and error to create the huge amount of skating scenes.-

T: In figure skating athletes perform while continuously moving around, therefore it was extremely difficult to understand where an athlete was and in what direction he was skating in each frame. In the 1st episode we created a CG model of the skater based on the real choreography footage and had it skate in a rink created with 3DCG, then we followed it with tridimensional camerawork and used that footage as a base for the animation. It was a very elaborate process. However, we realized that it was impossible to continue using this method with the production schedule of a TV series, therefore we switched to a different method where we would create camerawork on a general background map. Also, after episode 5, for certain characters we preceded the creation of the key animation with 3DCG. The final animation is all done by hand, but by having a base to use as a reference it was possible to calculate the available time frame and create the animations accordingly, thus shortening the working time. S: Even if you suddently ask the 3D staff to create figure skating animation, of course they have almost no knowledge of the jumps and techniques. They create the animation based on the reference footage, but they cannot express complex details such as how athletes balance their feet the moment they jump, so for that I and (figure skating animators) Abiko-san and Tatenaka-san adjusted the animation. Among the people working on the series, the only ones who had technical knowledge about figure skating were the 3 of us and director Yamamoto. And it’s not something that you can just explain verbally, so we took on all those jobs ourselves. We checked… everything, probably. Actually, until episode 4 the skating scenes were all created by Abiko-san and Tatenaka-san, so I didn’t need to check them, but from episode 5 the amount of skating scenes became so huge that we asked Tannawa-san and the others whether we could get help from the CG team… I completely trusted Tannawa-san, because I knew that if we explained what to do he would understand what was needed. T: I basically asked what they couldn’t do, and we did all we could to make up for that and reduce their workload. We would never have finished the series otherwise. That’s why for this anime no one ever said “isn’t that your job?”. For every episode, everyone just fought toward completion. S: Everyone took responsibility for their job and worked with extreme care, like no one was going to double-check what they did afterwards. We thought, “if we don’t do our best, this series will not make it to the broadcast, therefore we must all be responsible and work hard”…

-A scene you especially paid attention to.-

S: All the storyboards for the skating scenes were drawn by the director, but I drew them for quite a lot of daily life scenes. I especially like the scene where Yurio gives a pirozhki to Yuuri (in episode 9). I was particularly careful to make Yurio look cute. I wanted to show that, even though normally he is rude (to Yuuri), he actually rather trusts him and they do get along. I also like gag scenes, so I had fun with scenes such as the hug competition at the end of episode 9. Gag scenes do not need to be drawn as neatly as serious scenes, therefore I decided to animate them in a very comical and dynamic way. T: I paid a lot of attention to the opening. The way we changed it in episode 11 to reflect the current story development is something I myself suggested to the director. Actually, only the opening of episode 1 was still incomplete when it was broadcasted. From episode 2 onwards it was always the same footage, but the viewers wrote a lot of comments about it (and were wondering whether it was changing every time). Since everyone was watching it every time without skipping it, we decided to really change it in the end. S: My favorite character is Georgi Popovich! He’s a man who can talk about love seriously. He actually makes a few appearances since the 1st episode. When we were working on episode 1 we only had Kubo-sensei’s character plans and the storyboard saying “a character named Popovich is standing here”. We made him stand out a little because we understood that he would show up in the story later on. And what a character he was, when he was introduced in episode 6! T: He was so striking that I was actually shocked! I like Popovich too. Also, among the programs, I like Yuuri’s FS “Yuri on ICE”. It’s the first song I listened to working for this series, and at that time I used it for the PV without knowing that it was going to be Yuuri’s FS. In the PV Yuuri is skating in Hasetsu with his slender appearance from episode 3 onwards, and (the character designer) Hiramatsu-san commented “it’s a wonderful video, but now we have to make him fat”. I remember thinking “what is he saying??” (LOL).

-The power of the support that reached the studio.-

S: When we were creating the anime we were so busy with the work at hand that we didn’t really realize how much of a response the series was having. However, we received lots of presents, food, goods and letters of support from fans. T: Even items based on the contents of the series, like (retort-packed) borscht. That made us feel that fans were really supporting us because they liked the series, and it boosted our morale. Knowing that there were so many people watching and cheering on us motivated us to our best even it meant working overnight without sleeping. S: The charm of this series is the love of the original creators, director Yamamoto and Kubo-sensei, that you can feel from it. It’s just so strong. T: It also feels like you are touring various countries to follow Yuuri and the others and watch their matches. You can watch it with the eyes of a spectator and think “I didn’t know a lot about this athlete, but now I see how he skates”. I think that another element that allows viewers to really get into the world of the series is how not only the matches but also the skaters’ practice scenes and the back yard are drawn with lots of details. Everything is detailed, even the different shape of each skater’s blades. The director herself is full of very sincere love for figure skating, and that was transmitted to both the staff and the viewers. S: The animation studio had a very nice atmosphere. It’s the first time that I’m working with Tannawa-san, but when I saw his work I realized right away that he was someone I could trust. Trust and unity are something you find in the staff of many series, but for this one it was especially strong.

On a side note, Kubo & Yamamoto went to see the Worlds in Helsinki and are now in St.Petersburg. I am confident it’s tourism but with a spoonful of location hunting... (What a timing, though. I hope none of you or your acquaintances were personally affected by what happened the other day in the subway)

#YOI #Yuri on ice #interview #translation #BD #Booklet #comment #Jun Shishido #Yuusuke Tannawa #phichit chulanont #christophe giacometti #guang-hong ji

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karen-kk · 7 years

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After a long flight home, I'm finally ready to sit down and write about my experience during L'Arc~en~Ciel 25th Anniversary event. This is more of my personal experience than a live report, sharing what I enjoyed and what I didn't. Shockingly it has turned out quite long, so you are warned.

First of all I must say I was very impressed by their Japanese management team and staff members. The scope of the operation was incredible with 110k people attending, and yet everything was well organised and well prepared for. I'll use the example of the goods store. The store opened at 9am each day, I was told people started queuing as early as 4am. I joined the queue around noon, by that time it had already taken over both side of the pedestrian paths and then some. I couldn't even see the store. There were security guards and staff everywhere making sure everyone knew where the end of line was (yes, it was that confusing. It took me 15 minutes to find it because I didn't speak Japanese), we were not blocking the path and obstructing other tourists in the Tokyo Dome City, and we were moving on quickly and efficiently. The store had total of 24 booths, so it didn't take as long as I thought it would. Even with the language barrier, the transaction was very smooth. All my interaction with the staff members had been extremely pleasant. From security check to being shown to my seats they were always there when I needed help. They had always been courteous and helpful even though most people I spoke to knew very little English.

Japanese Laruku fans were very interesting to observe. They seemed to be from all age groups and occupations. I had seen teenagers, young adults, people around my age, my parents' age and older even. It never ceases to amaze me how big their male fan base is in Japan. I would say about 35-40%? In contrast VAMPS hard rock style, their split was like 5-95 with female fans completely dominating the scene when I saw them back in 2009, but I think the ratio has shifted a bit nowadays. And I don't mean guys being dragged there by their girlfriends etc. A lot of them either came by themselves or in groups. The 2 guys next to me in day 1 were dancing hyde's signature moves throughout the entire live, and they were talking about how they admired the band since primary school. At lease third of the hyde cosplayers that I spotted were male. There were many families that brought their kids with them as well (I hope Ken-chan's MCs were not too r-rated). One of the cutest hyde cosplayer was this little girl about 10 years old dressing up as hyde in the 20th L'Annivesary period. She was so adorable with the braids and jacket and everything. On my way out in day 1, I overheard another little girl babbling about haido haido excitedly to her mother, so cute! The fans were so friendly as well. I had a yuki fan coming to me and giving me a present including a Japanese traditional dessert with her hand drawing of yuki. I had another girl coming to me when she realised that I didn't have a LED wristband, and she helped me to speak to the staff to get one. Then with her broken English and my non-existed Japanese we squealed over how "cute-handsome-kawaii-kagoii" hyde was lol

The tour goods are worth mentioning as well. They are such good quality comparing to what I bought during the VAMPS tour years back. My favorites include the expensive as hell handbag and the teddy. The handbag has all the staff access passes stitched on from all of their past tours. It is like carrying a piece of Laruku history whenever I use them. The denim material is thick and strong, the only downside is it is quite heavy. I personally think it looks so much better the 20th Anniversary version. When I went sightseeing yesterday I still saw a lot of people carrying it around Tokyo. The tour book is great too, with much better English. I only wish they would stop repeating the same paragraphs over and over though. And it also reminds me of the good old days when hyde still had our beloved eyebrows...

I was very impressed with the stage design. One of the reasons why I had always wanted to see Laruku in their home land was because they would have the budget and resources to go all out. And I was not disappointed. As soon as the screens lit up, I was in awe. It was so beautiful! The theme of the concert was locating pieces of Laruku's history and it was very well incorporated into the setup. They also integrated past live footages with the current live broadcast on the giant screens. The front part of the stage was detachable, it moved during Revolution and carried the members to the smaller stage at the other side. Everything was very well thought out and visually stunning. Not to mention there were real flames and mini fireworks. The Dome looked incredible with all the LED wristband, which were being manipulated as a giant LED screen.

This was why I found hyde's outfits so incredibly jarring. I know I've complained about this numerous times in the last 2 days, I just can't let it go. His first 2 outfits made him stood out like a sore thumb for half of the concert. I literally laughed out loud when I saw what he was wearing, and it was during Niji. I felt so bad about this. It is a song that means the world to the band and its fans because of what it represents. And there I was, laughing while he sang his heart out... ==|||

The other complaint that I have is the set list, with 2 days and only 4 songs being changed. I may have been spoiled by the 20th Anniversary where 2 days had completely different set list. The thing I really love about Laruku is their ability to make their older songs shine during lives. I haven't been a fan of their older studio albums for some reason. But their more recent lives always managed to make me realize how great they were even back in the days. I fell in love with songs like In the Air, Shutting in the Sky, As If in a Dream, Garasu Dama, Floods of Tears, Dune, White Feathers etc. this way. And I was hoping because it was an Anniversary event, older songs would have been performed. But no. And my all time favorite songs such as Metropolis, Jojoushi, Bless, Ibara no Namida, New World, Hoshizora, Umibe were not played as well. I was also secretly hoping for an appearance of P'unk-en-Ciel as well... I guess they are no longer doing it?

Given my first day's seat being really bad, being on the far right hand, I can't really say much because I could barely see anything. To make the matter worse, the bass sounded really loud and distorted, and it kept bled into the vocal. It was difficult to hear at the times so I can only share my favorite moments from day 2.

During Revolution, we all went crazy when we saw hyde and ken-chan on the drum, yuki and te-chan played the bass and guitar respectively, then the stage started to separate and carried them over to the other side of arena. At the end of that session, when the stage started moving back everyone had a basket of balls that they were supposed to threw to the crowd. Yuki, on the other hand decided to take a shortcut and just dumped his entire basket of balls along with his basket. He was clearly channeling his Acid Android persona. Unfortunately, it didn't get him out of his job, he was immediately handed another basket. Then ken-chan decided to get creative as well, he tried to balance one of his balls on the edge of stage and starting to blow at it to make it fall. During one of the MCs, hyde played Fullmetal Alchemist a few times by clapping his hands and slapped them onto the ground a few times to make us create human waves. We did, and we also did it in reverse while he screamed in fake horror. The staff then blew air or dry ice on him as the waves approached his side. During second half of Blurry Eyes, he forgot that he already threw his whistle to the crowd and he had to make a mad dash toward the back to get the second one. He never made it in time and we all laughed. Did I mention how hot leader-sama was in his stylish white suit and white Alexander McQueen scarf? OMG! I had never considered him good looking until now (gomenasai, leader-sama, your array of way too colorful outfits usually blinds me). It probably helped with hyde being such stark contrast.

Edit 1: Hyde did a member introduction during day 2, even though I doubted there was a soul in the Dome who didn’t knowing who they were. It went like “drum - yuki~, guitar - ken~, bass - tetsuya, and vocal~“ and we called out HAIDO~~~~!!! He looked so proud! It was so cute!

Ken-chan had sunglasses on the entire time during day 2. At the end of the concert, right before he went off the stage he was wiping his eyes with his hand. Was he crying? I couldn't tell. Leader-sama came back to the stage with his basket of bananas and asking "mina genki, genki desuka" as usual. Only this time, he took off his Alexander McQueen scarf and wrapped around one of the bananas and threw it to the crowd. We all went eh~?

My most memorable moment was definitely during My Heart Draws A Dream. When hyde took off his earphone to hear us sing the chorus and our voices echoed throughout the Dome, I cried. The open tenderness on his (eyebrowless) face was so beautiful. It was the perfect moment that I will treasure forever.

Overall, the concerts were not what I expected, but I don't regret spending an arm and leg to participate in this important milestone in their career. As a fan, I already had so many regrets, like not seeing their AYR and their Theater of Kiss tours, and of course missing out on the 20th Anniversary. I didn't want this to be a regret as well. Leader-sama mentioned 30th Anniversary already and I do hope I would have the privilege of being there.

Happy anniversary, L’Arc~en~Ciel.

#l'arc~en~ciel #25th l'anniversary

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phandotcom-blog · 7 years

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#287: Under Inspection

Chapter 1

Summary: The year is 2245, Humanity is at it’s last leg, being propped up by the use of Androids. Dan Howell is fast becoming one of the leading lab technicians in The Republic. But what happens when his solid future is threatened by an Android who acts more human than Humanity?

Genre: Sci-Fi, Dystopian, Romance.

Rating: PG

Word Count: 2625

A/N: Aish, hi guys! This is my very first phanfic, so I hope you enjoy! Feel to send me prompts on anything else you might want me to write!

“Mr. Howell, you are requested to appear before Director Nakamura in exactly five minutes.” The melodic but yet empty voice filters into Dan’s ears, forcing him to look up from the lab report he so desperately wanted to finish. The android stared at him endlessly, waiting for some affirmation or approval of the task it had completed.

It had always shocked Dan, even now as a well-adjusted and experienced lab technician, how human they looked. Their heads held the intelligence, their bodies carried the muscle, but their eyes lacked the humanity. Something which always made Dan feel horrendously uncomfortable.

It isn’t until his computer beeps with another irrelevant pop-up warning did he realise that he was daydreaming again. Dan’s eyes lock onto the bridge of the android’s nose, “Thank you #345, you are excused.” The humanoid seems to spark to life, and it takes off contentedly down the hallway.

Dan shifts uncomfortably in his chair; a meeting with the director was never a good sign. The last time he was called up to the Director’s office was because he installed the wrong bio-technic software into one of the androids, and it wouldn’t stop speaking backwards and punching people when they got too close. Of course, that was a good few years ago now, back when Dan was still a trainee at the company fresh out of The University.

Ah, those were the days, Nakamura Robotics was still a relatively new company but it was growing at an expediential rate. After The Black War, humanity was at its lowest point in centuries. Half the population was killed, most of it stemming from the after effects of The War; disease, famine, radiation, lack of resources, crime, etc. Dan had heard stories of people being killed for their vital organs, people found a market for that type of thing and used the money to get clothes or food. The sheer destitution of people meant that cannibalism and torture were common place; humanity had lost it meant to be human. Humanity eventually conjugated into what is now called The Republic of The United Nations, situated in what apparently used to be South East Asia. People were getting stronger, living longer, and society was finally taking shape; this was known as “The Restart”. But the after effects of The War meant things like Global Warming were no longer just distant worries, but was now a legitimate threat to humanity.

That was when Nakamura Akihiko came forward with his ingenious plan. Society was functioning but not at the pace that the Government would like, and the solution? Artificial Intelligence. If humanity could master Artificial Intelligence then we could begin to grow at a much larger rate, our natural and technological resources would be paramount, the androids would work for free and would not need to have the same treatments as other human beings because they wouldn’t feel anything anyway – well, that’s what Nakamura promised anyway.

But they had a problem; since The Restart education has been at the most basic level it had been in centuries, what with the lack of resources, so how were they meant to make A.I. if they didn’t have anyone alive who was smart enough to make it? Thus The University was born. Founded by Nakamura himself, The University’s sole purpose is to train people in the skills of programming androids, assimilating them into society, making sure they are efficient and safe all the while.

That was 15 years ago now, and mankind has never been stronger. The androids lived up to everything Nakamura promised and more, technology is more advanced than it has ever been, air pollution and radiation is at an all-time low and society is thriving. Ever since he listened to that story as a boy, Dan new he wanted to be part of it. He dreamed of being part of something bigger than himself, something that would be imprinted on mankind’s history. The heroism of Nakamura prompted Dan seek guidance under The University, he quickly became a very well-acclaimed student, gaining top in his class in all fields apart from one: Termination.

As a student, you are trained in all aspects of producing an android. The Assembling, The Programming, The Training, and if need be The Termination. For reasons he could himself unfathom, Dan could not terminate an android. Perhaps it was the humanoid exterior, or their well-mannered nature, but his conscience wouldn’t allow him to pull the plug. Needless to say, he failed that part of the course, but when you come top in the rest of your classes, it really only is a slight blip in the road.

Dan now works as the lab assistant to one of the top A.I. researchers on the planet Dr. Jane Prowett, in the department of Assimilation and Development. And generally Dan enjoys his job, sure it can get slightly lonely but what can you expect from a career focusing on dead-inside manifestations of human-kind.

Ah shit. I’m ten minutes late! Fuck! Why do I always fucking do this?! Dan springs out of his chair, and bolts down the hallway. The glass walls reflect his dishevelled reflection as he rushes towards the elevator at the end of it. Why do you do this to yourself? You fucking idiot! You good for nothing, piece of shi-

“Ow! Shit!” Dan clutches his finger to his chest as it throbs maniacally at the abusive push he just gave the UP button. The lights at the top of the doors blink numbers indicating the level the elevator is currently passing. It’s never this slow is it? It had a whole plethora of days where it can choose to move at a snails pace, but it just happens to choose right now. Bloody fucking death-trap.

When the doors finally open, Dan shoves himself inside and screams “DIRECTORS OFFICE!” into the intercom. The doors immediately shut, and the contraption shoots upwards. Dan breathes a sigh of relief that he’s at least in the elevator now, knowing he can’t possibly be more late.

When the doors open again, Dan faces a sterile white corridor with large double doors at the end of it. Before he reaches the door, he takes a second to attempt to straighten in curled, disorganised hair and wrinkled lab coat. Placing his thumb onto the fingerprint scanner provided, the doors open, revealing Director Nakamura’s office.

Windows stretch from floor to ceiling, straight across the room, giving Dan a beautiful view of The City skyline. A large circular desk sits at the other end of the room, mirrored whilst it’s offline but comes alive with holographic projections when in use. Behind said desk is the man himself, the man who some say holds more power than the President herself, Nakamura Akihiko. He sits there idly, head facing downwards as he observes what appears to be a small clock attached to a chain. Dan’s face contorts in confusion as he takes in the weird invention.

“Mister Howell, I do believe I requested your presence in my office a solid 21 minutes and fifteen seconds ago. I did not get to where I am today by waiting for others, you understand?” His eyes are now on Dan’s, staring agitatedly at him, his right eyebrow rising in irritation. Dan’s sarcastic retort begins to bloom in his chest, but he keeps his mouth shut; his cheek still hurts from the last time he spoke out of turn. Nakamura smirks knowingly and urges Dan over to his desk.

Once he is comfortably sat across of Nakamura, he begins. “Do you know what this is?” Nakamura reaches over and taps something on the screen, and instantaneously a blue holographic 3D image emerges, floating at the centre of the desk. It’s a male android. Inky black hair swept to the side and porcelain white skin, his eyes are closed but Dan suspects they’re bright. Tall in height, slim but toned – for android, he’s rather beautiful.

“That’s an android, sir.” Does Nakamura take him for an idiot? Has he set his standards so low that now he begins to question the basic observation skills of his staff in his own robotics company? Dan feels the need to bite his nails in irritation, a habit he picked up as a child, but supresses it; he won’t Nakamura the satisfaction.

“I’m very much aware of that, Mister Howell,” patronising bastard, “to be specific, this is #287. He was created on the 30th January 2245, and has not moved passed the Development Stage.” What? Dan’s face twists with confusion; an android spending more than a month in the Development Stage was practically unheard of, but three months? That was just plain impossible. Nakamura must have caught Dan’s confusion, because he smirked and continued, “I know. We have tried every method we know how; reprogramming, reassembling, even directly cloning bio-technic software from another android, but nothing seems to work. #287 has gone Independent.”

Now, if spending more than a month in the Development Stage was unheard of, an android becoming Independent? That was hypothetical. That was worse-case scenario. That was a legend between students at school. Dan feels like all the blood in his body has been drained from him, his ears begin to ring and hands start to sweat. Is this the beginning of the end? A new generation of Independent androids? It’ll end mankind as it stands. Does the President know? Does anyone know? What if they can’t stop it? What if it infects the rest of the programming? Nakamura’s voice droned on, “Now, I’m sure you are aware what this means, but just in case you don’t; this means that #287 has gained a sense of free-will. It does not respond to human command, and insists that it has emotions. It claims it is sentient, so to speak. It even asks to call it a name, says that ‘#287’ is too inhumane. Anyway, the android says it has gained enough understanding of our programme to assimilate this sense of free-will into other androids and is threatening to do so unless we co-operate. This is where you come in,” Dan doesn’t miss the gleeful little smile upon Nakamura’s face as he continues, “I’ve read your trainee reports, Mister Howell. Very impressive.”

At this, images of hand-written documents start levitating around #287’s body, “But it has been said, that you have expressed a certain amount of empathy towards our creations, making it difficult for you complete the Termination part of your course.” Where in the fuck could he possibly be going with this? Dan can start to feel the ambiguity of the situation start to irritate him, but the embarrassment of his failings as a student hides it.

“I believe this exhibition of empathy could be finally used in our favour., I am assigning #287 under your care. I am giving you six months to befriend him, to gain his trust, to win him over to our side of things. After all the android could be an extremely valuable asset. However, if you fail your task then the android will be terminated by your own hand, in addition, you will be assigned Assembly Floor duty for two months. Any questions?”

Any questions? Dan’s mind was swimming with questions. His felt filled to the brim of information that he’s surprised to not find it leaking out his ears.

“How come you’ve waited to terminate him? Why not just do it when he first started showing signs of being an Independent?” Dan’s mouth makes the question, before his brain allowed him to say it. But nevertheless, the question still burned on his tongue.

“Because as I’ve said before, he could be a valuable asset and so I want to exhaust all options. Plus, they’re not cheap to make, that would be a large investment to throw down the drain. Anything else?”

“You mentioned there was a name he liked to be called, what is it?” If his goal was to ensure the trust of the android, he best avoid irking him as soon as he opens his mouth.

“Oh, something out of a book or something,” Nakamura makes a dismissive gesture with his hand, “Fredrick Derr, no, Frank Gerr, no,”

“Phillippe Kerr? The crime novelist?” Kerr’s works were on the database to make sure that all androids had maximum intellect on a wide range of subjects, including 20th Century literature, but androids all look at the literature objectively, they don’t start naming themselves after the bloody authors!

Nakamura’s eyes flash with recognition, “yes, that’s it! Philippe. It said something like the author’s genre intrigued him or some of other nonsense.”

Nonsense. Of course it was nonsense. Androids don’t get intrigued, they don’t get curious, they listen to their instructions and carry them out, even if means self-destruction. Yes, it was complete nonsense. Humans are the only beings with the emotional range and compassionate depth to truly understand literature and all its hidden meanings. Androids would never put themselves in danger in order to save another of its kind, androids would never listen to a grieving mother and feel the overwhelming sadness and anger at the mere thought of the pain she is subjected to, androids would never look at a painting and be able to hear it whisper 1000 different words into the viewer’s ear. Complete, utter nonsense. So, why did that comment make Dan feel even more uncomfortable than he already was?

“I’ll send you #287’s records, including any software or programming changes. You will meet the android four days a week for a two hour session at a disclosed location within the building. Gain his trust, appeal to his ‘humanity’,” he laughs readily at his own joke, “just don’t forget where you stand and where the android does. It is nothing more than metal, wires, and coding. It is not human, and it never will be. Now go back to your duties, Mr Howell. I would hate for you to keep Ms. Prowett waiting, I dare say she’s more impatient than I am,” says Nakamura smirking.

Dan wobbles to his feet, feeling the burden of his task weighing down upon him already. He tries to act functionally as he makes his way out of the office, but his thoughts are going so quickly, that thinking straight would be an impossible feat. He’s always dreamt of being part of something bigger, doing a service to mankind, being remembered after he was gone. But for some reason, this doesn’t feel like the opportunity of a life time. The scientist within him is itching to meet this creation, to study his behaviour and correlate it to human behaviour. But his gut keeps telling him that Nakamura is riding on the fact that he will fail this task. That this beautiful anomaly will have to be terminated, and the blame will be put on him.

At this thought, Dan holds his head a little higher and stands a little straighter. I’ll bloody show him. I’ve never pulled the plug on an android before and I’m not gonna bloody start now. So as the elevator doors shut again, Dan welcomes the burden he feels on his shoulders. He lets it sink deep through his muscle, letting it course throughout his veins; he lets his heart beat a bit harder to work off the extra weight. He will need to get used to this heavy feeling, his muscle will have to get used to carrying him through the day, because he will not try to shift it. It is a reminder of the importance of his task, of the responsibility placed upon him. And he will not let Nakamura get the last word.

Even if it threatens everything he has ever known.

#danisnotonfire #amazingphil #dan howell #phil lester #dan and phil #phandom #phanfiction #phanfic #phan #youtube #youtuber #youtubers #ai #artificial intelligence #287: Under Inspection

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dorothydelgadillo · 5 years

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30 Things I Learned Before Turning 30 (About Life & Marketing)

As a marketer, I’m sure you’ve heard it at some point or another: people ages 18-34 are the “key demographic.”

They’re the movers-and-shakers. The ones in-the-know. The ones with money to spend. They’re the ones you want to know and love your brand, let alone buy from it.

Well, friends, today is my 30th birthday, my golden birthday, in fact...and, while my lovely brand teammates are going to roll their eyes and hate me for saying this, that means my remaining days of relevance are limited.

Marketing By Nature

Ok, yes, that was a bit of an exaggeration, but after three decades in this skin, I’ve learned that kind of drama is just a part of my brand.

via GIPHY

I’ve also learned many other unexpected lessons that have proven to be useful in both my personal life and my life as a marketer and content professional.

You see, I’ve only been in this industry professionally for about nine years, but, in that time, I’ve discovered many parallels between being a good marketer and, honestly, just being a good person.

In a nutshell, both come down to:

Being able to understand and communicate with other people well

Accepting your authentic self

If you can master these areas, you’ll likely not only be a happier person but a happier marketer -- but I’m getting ahead of myself.

I’ve spent the past four years of my work life (and frankly some pretty formidable years of my twenties) helping my teammates at IMPACT, contributors, and sponsors, learn how to better hone their voices and share their stories.

I’ve always encouraged them to share lessons big and small from their experiences, but I haven’t always had the chance to practice what I preach.

So, indulge me for a few minutes.

Taking a page out of Taylor Swift’s book (minus those chapters about Kanye and John Mayer), here are 30 lessons I learned about marketing and life before turning 30. Some of these may seem obvious or insignificant, but that doesn’t make them any less true or worth repeating.

1. Pretty Doesn’t Mean Perfect.

Whether you’re talking fashion or marketing creative, style does not top function. A design needs to always solve a problem and achieve the goal you set for it.

Just like an ugly hat can still keep your head warm, an ugly website or graphic can still deliver results. Just look at Craig’s List or Reddit. They may not be the most impressive or sophisticated designs, but no one can argue with their effectiveness.

2. Don’t Do It Just Because It’s Trendy.

This is another lesson about personal style I’ve learned over the years, but it rings undeniably true for marketers as well.

Just because something is popular doesn’t mean it’s right for you.

Every person and business is different circumstances, needs, and goals to consider. So, before you start a new strategy, tool, (or that pair of skinny jeans, for that matter), consider what you’re trying to achieve and your audience.

If the trend won’t move you towards achieving what you want (or make you look your best), skip it.

3. People Don’t Always Know What They Want.

Despite what they may think, people don’t always know what they truly want. They’ll claim one thing, then do another, and that’s no different when it comes to buying behavior.

Time and time again, we’ve surveyed people to ask them their preferences, only to see their behavior not echo it. There are so many unconscious things that motivate us as people, especially in the heat of a moment.

That being said, trust actions and user testing. Action speaks louder than words.

4. But You Still Need to Listen.

There are times to use hard data and cater to people’s unconscious behavior and there are times to take their word.

Simply put, don’t manipulate people.

In many instances, it’s better to give people what they know they want, so they know you are listening and care about what they think. People just want to be heard. Showing they were builds trust and, in turn, a better relationship.

That being said…

5. Don’t Take Trust for Granted.

Once you’ve earned someone’s trust, don’t abuse it. Without trust, no one will want to work, buy, or likely even be around you.

It’s that simple.

6. Nothing Lasts Forever.

This is something I’ve had a hard time coming to terms with as I lost some loved ones in recent years, but professionally, it’s just a fact.

IMPACT Partner, keynote speaker, author, and all-around amazing guy, Marcus Sheridan preaches that when it comes to content and marketing, the principles behind why we do things will never change, but the how (tools, practices, etc.) always will.

That being said, no content you create is likely ever truly evergreen. It will always need to be updated with new data, examples, etc to showcase how things are done right now. Same goes for your website.

7. Stand for Something.

Modern buyers gravitate towards brands that stand for a cause and share the same values and concerns they do. It helps guide their choices and makes them feel a little bit better about their purchase, knowing they supported a good cause.

Strong values and knowing what you believe obviously also guide you in your personal life. They can help you find the right job or friends and maybe even help them find you.

8. Diversity & Inclusion Are Strengths.

What do I stand for? More than anything, diversity, inclusion, and representation. In most areas of my life, I have always been a minority, an outlier even… but I’ve always tried to remember that this isn’t a bad thing.

Diversity and inclusion whether it is in gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, or otherwise, are always a good idea.

They bring more perspectives and ideas to the table and better enable you to reach a wider audience. They make people feel welcome.

Many may not want this (as I experience first hand) or even shy away from addressing it, but as marketers and human beings, our goal is to connect with other people. The best way to do that is by making them feel like they belong.

9. Loyalty Is Priceless.

Finding people who will stand by you or your brand through anything are rare. When you do, treasure them and treat them right.

10. It’s OK to Show Your Flaws.

We live in a society where everything and everyone is so airbrushed, finding things that aren’t is a breath of fresh air.

It’s a sign that you’re genuine and honest; that you’re not trying to trick anyone into believing something that isn’t true.

This transparency, again, builds trust and, frankly, makes you more human and likable. Don’t be afraid to show your real face to everyone you meet.

11. Always Admit When You’re Wrong.

In a similar vein to showing flaws, if you’re wrong or make a mistake, own it. Trying to hide a shortcoming will only make you look worse in the eyes of those around you.

12. Start With What You Have.

If the plastic bag of plastic bags in my work locker doesn’t tell you, I’m big on resourcefulness. Why waste money and time when you have something you can reuse?

The same can be said about content. Thinking about trying video or Pinterest? Don’t start from scratch. Take some of your best performing existing content and reimage it for the medium and audience.

13. Don’t Just Be a Yes (Wo)Man.

As William Wrigley Jr. once said, if two men agree, one of them is unnecessary.

In other words, differing opinions and points of view are important. Don’t be afraid to disagree if you have practical reasons to. Speak up!

14. Be Honest.

Say what you mean and mean what you say. Lying or knowingly misspeaking about what you believe or want will never result in a good outcome long term.

15. Technology Isn’t Foolproof.

My entire job, like many of yours I’m sure, lies behind a computer screen. And while technology can make life significantly easier and more convenient, it isn’t foolproof.

When the internet is down, it’s like all the cages were left open at the zoo around here! Plan accordingly.

16. Meeting People In Person Still Matters.

Similarly, meeting people virtually is easier than ever thanks to technology, but it still can’t top gathering in person.

The experience of shaking someone’s hand, giving them a hug, or being able to share space with them is a whole different type of bonding. So, go to events. If you work remotely, visit your office. This real-life face time is unmatched.

17. There’s a Time to Be Clever And There’s a Time to Be Clear.

I’m a writer; wordplay is my jam -- but you need to know when it is appropriate.

When it comes to communication, never sacrifice the clarity of your message just to sound clever. It doesn’t matter how great what you’re saying is if no one can understand it.

18. The Law of Diminishing Returns Is Real.

A few years ago, we increased our content output expecting increased traffic, but we didn’t see it. Our audience, in fact, told us they couldn’t keep up and numbers plateaued and even dropped.

The fact is there are limits to everything. You can only eat so many cookies. You can only walk so many miles. Markets get saturated. People reach critical mass with how much content they’re able to consume and you need to keep your eye on this.

That said...

19. Quality Always Tops Quantity.

Would you rather be in a room with 10 strangers or in a room with two of your best friends? How about publishing 10 terrible articles that get lost in cyberspace or two that you’re proud of and Google ranks on the first page?

In almost every situation, quality is more important than quantity.

20. Free Doesn’t Mean Good.

Don’t get me wrong -- I’m the queen of freebies, but don’t underestimate your audience and think they’ll fill out a form or take anything you give them just because it’s free.

People still want and demand quality, and you should too.

21. Emotion Doesn't Make You Weak.

I was never an emotional person until a little over three years ago. I had never even cried at a movie, but my world came crashing down when my cousin passed away unexpectedly and the pain seeped into every aspect of my life.

I cried more than I’ve ever cried in my life and in front of colleagues I’d never want to see my weakness -- but that’s the thing. Over time, I’ve begun to learn it’s not a weakness.

Emotion is human.

Being able to show, capture, understand, and express real emotion in way that can touch others is a powerful skill as a marketer and a person. In both cases, it makes people feel closer to you; it helps bond them to you and it shows them you understand them on a deeper level.

So...

22. It's OK to Get Personal.

Again, people want to be around and do business with other people. When you get personal and are vulnerable about your experiences, you are more endearing.

23. Forgive Yourself for “Failing.”

Whether it was a relationship or a campaign gone bust, sometimes things don’t go as planned. Actually, things almost never go as planned. Dust yourself off and try again. You only failed if you didn’t learn anything from it.

24. Don’t Propose After the First Date.

Speaking of failed relationships, respect the natural progression of human interaction whether it be professional or personal.

Just like you wouldn’t propose after a first date when someone is just getting to know you, don’t go in for the hard sell after a first meeting.

In neither of these situations is the person likely looking to seal the deal, so slow it down.

25. Create Good Memories.

People love to talk about “the good times.” As a brand, you should be creating good memories like these for your buyers and as a person, do it for your soul.

26. You Can’t Make Everyone Happy.

There’s always going to be a critic or someone who disagrees with what you do or say so don’t set out to try to make everyone happy. Focus on those who actually matter -- your audience; your loved ones.

27. Be Yourself.

They say imitation is the highest form of flattery, but it also means that you’re just one of many. Embrace what makes you or your brand unique and different or you’ll get lost in the crowd.

Plus, people can always sense when you’re trying to be something you’re not and nothing is a bigger turn-off.

28. Take Risks.

Risks can be scary, but only because they can be life-changing. So, take the leap. I’m not saying be reckless, but if an opportunity or idea won’t destroy everything you’ve worked for, give it a shot.

If it doesn’t work out, remember #23.

29. Discomfort Is Good.

If a situation makes you uncomfortable, it’s likely just because it’s something you’ve never experienced before. It’s an opportunity to grow and discover. Embrace it.

30. You Never Stop Learning.

Like many of you, when I was growing up, 30 seemed ancient.

When I hit that age, I would be an old woman. I would have seen everything, experienced everything, and learned everything. I would have everything figure out -- but that, obviously, was absurd.

Whether it comes to work or life, there is always something new to be uncovered and improved.

Both digital marketing and life are always changing and I certainly do not know nearly everything about either of them. But I do know that as I keep learning and evolving in both arenas, I will be excited and honored to share my lessons with all of you.

Here’s to officially being thirty, wordy, and thriving.

from Web Developers World https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/30-things-i-learned-before-turning-30-about-life-marketing

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sentrava · 6 years

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What’s On in Stockholm: April 2018

Spring is finally here and we are happily basking in any sunlight we can find! In Stockholm, spring also ushers in a great music season as people begin to emerge from their hibernation. Whether you’re keen to check out a concert, enjoy the outdoors, or stroll through a gallery, the Swedish capital has something for you!

Here’s the best of what’s happening in Stockholm this April:

Sunday 1st April

Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami at Bio Rio

A movie breakfast? What a cozy idea for a Sunday! First enjoy breakfast supplied by the cinema, then the film “Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami,” and finish off with a conversation about the film. Tickets are 195 SEK including breakfast, and 145 without breakfast.

Sunday 1st April – Sunday 8th April

Easter at Skansen

For one week, open-air museum Skansen is hosting Easter-related events. There are activities for children like face painting and pony rides, as well as activities for adults such as glass blowing. Some of the events end earlier than 8th April, like the Easter Market, so check the schedule for those you want to attend!

Thursday 5th – Saturday 7th April

ISU World Synchronized Skating Championships

The public is welcome to the free opening ceremony in Kungsträdgården, where there will be entertainment and the starting order will be decided. Friday and Saturday events will be held in Ericsson Globe, including the competition and award ceremony. You can purchase a ticket for a single event or for all of the events to see this fascinating sport.

Friday 6th April

Justin Nozuka at Södra Teatern

Nozuka comes from a musical family: three of his siblings are also musicians and he has been writing songs since he was 12 years old. His folk-style music often focuses on heavy topics. Tickets for this show are 195 SEK.

youtube

Friday 6th – Saturday 7th April

Davis Cup: Sweden vs. Portugal at Kungliga Tennishallen

Are you a tennis fan? Come support the Swedish players! Tickets cost between 150 – 250 SEK if you’re over 18.

Saturday 7th April

La Paulée Nordic at Operakällaren

Treat yourself to a day of wining and dining. The program for La Paulée Nordic includes a seminar and tasting (both in English), followed by a gala dinner with a tasting menu and an all Burgundian wine pairing. Prices vary depending on how many of the events you choose to attend.

Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th April

Hornstulls Market Premier

Enjoy the first Hornstulls Market of the season! This market runs every weekend throughout the summer (except for midsummer), with new collaborators every month. The market features a range of food, antiques, art, design, and vintage clothes. If you’re an interested vendor, check out the website for more details. An outdoor market is the perfect way to welcome spring in Stockholm.

Thursday 12th – Sunday 15th April

Urban Burn at Nobelberget

Nobelberget brings a Burning Man-style event to Stockholm for the third year. Tickets give you access to the empty 2000 square meter indoors space. From there, the community has the opportunity to co-create. Tickets to this event are 600 SEK, and ticket sales end on 9th April.

Friday 13th – Sunday 15th April

Market Art Fair at Liljevalchs

Prominent galleries, artists, and collectors all in one place for the weekend. Whether you’re looking to purchase, or just look, this fair will have the latest in the Nordic art scene. There will also be talks scheduled. For a full list of galleries and artists that will be represented, check out their website.

Stockholm Writers Festival

The first-ever Stockholm Writers Festival promises to be a treat for established as well as up-and-coming writers. The events are in English, and include speakers, workshops and more. This is a great way to make industry contacts and surround yourself with a community of writers!

Saturday 14th – Sunday 15th April

Licorice Festival at Annexet

The Licorice Festival returns for a 10th year and we Scandi fans are excited; Swedes definitely know how to do licorice. You can purchase tickets in advance or at the door for this event (140 SEK/day). There will be entertainment and, of course, as much licorice as you can eat!

Thursday 19th April

Sam Smith at Ericsson Globe

Sam Smith’s exquisite voice will fill Ericsson Globe and we can’t wait. Tickets range from about 500 to 800 SEK, some of which goes toward War Child, as Sam Smith has partnered with PLUS1.

youtube

Saturday 21st April

The Girl 21K

Start your spring training for this event! You can choose to do the full 21 kilometers on your own, or split the distance with a friend. Stayed tuned: time and location are still tentative!

Female Athlete Running Outdoors

Saturday 21st April

Cherry Blossom Day in Kungsträdgårdsgatan

The aim of this day is to celebrate Japanese culture, including multiple Japanese performances. There will be workshops, food, and activities. And (hopefully) cherry blossoms!

Saturday 21st April

Culture Night

This night affords the amazing opportunity to explore cultural institutions, museums, studios, theaters and more for free! For information on participating venues, check out this website. We love the comfort of our home city, yet it’s so easy to forget to continue exploring. This is the perfect opportunity to broaden our view of Stockholm.

Tuesday 24th – Wednesday 25th April

Sunny at Dansens Hus

Emanuel Gat originally planned to become a music conductor, until a workshop changed his mind and he became the well-renowned French choreographer that he is now. With its playful choreography, Sunny is perfect for springtime.

Tuesday 24th April

>Mystique: The Inspector is Coming at Scalateatern

This magic show ensemble performs a completely new show every month, each with a different guest performer. This month the guest is Gabi Pareras from Spain. Tickets are 220 SEK when pre-purchased and 300 SEK at the door.

Friday 27th April

Lauv at Södra Teatern

Lauv is stopping in Stockholm on his first world tour. Maybe he’ll leave with a song dedicated to our city! Stockholm in the Rain? Tickets are 175 SEK.

youtube

Sunday 29th April

Bryan Adams at Ericsson Globe

We’re going back to the “Summer of ’69” with this one! He’ll be performing songs from his new album, “Ultimate,” which includes new material and some of his classics.

youtube

Monday 30th April

River Rafting in Uppsala

At the end of April, students of Uppsala University celebrate Valborg. One of the events is rafting down the Fyris River. The rafts are homemade, and there are often entertaining ones to see! If you are a student, there are more events that you can attend during Valborg so check out the website for information about specific events.

Ongoing in April

Free Photographers’ Department 2018 at Kulturhuset

This exhibition includes photographs from over one hundred participants, from beginners to seasoned photographers. Rules for participation in this exhibit were minimal. We are so excited to see what the creative eyes of Sweden have presented us! Open until 22nd April and shown in Gallery 5.

My Olsson at Gallery Anigo

Throughout April, you can view My Olsson’s colorful work. Check the website for hours; the gallery is only open Thursday through Sunday.

Weaving Silk at Millesgården

Traditional looms and weavings from Nanking are on display throughout April. The exhibit will also highlight the beginnings of silk production. Entrance fee is 150 SEK, and 120 SEK for students. Consider downloading their free audio app to enhance your tour of the museum!

Sigrid Hjertén at Waldemarsudde

It’s no secret that we love the influence of a strong woman, and this exhibit highlights just that. Sigrid Hjertén was at the forefront of the Swedish Modernist avant-garde movement; she’s been both praised and criticized for her use of strong colors. She was a pupil of Matisse in Paris. Entrance fee is 150 SEK, and 130 SEK for students and seniors.

Self-Guided Hiking Tour

Stockholm Adventures provides self-guided hiking tours all-year round. We think that April is a great time to get yourself back outdoors. For 290 SEK, they provide you with all of the provisions you need (map, daypack, lunch, etc.). You can choose between three trails, ranging in distance from 6 km to 13 km.

Bergmans Filmstaden

Ingmar Bergman, as many Scandiphiles will surely know, was a Swedish director, writer and producer of film, born in 1918. On 12th April, Filmstaden opens an outdoor exhibition of photographs to tell Bergman’s life story. These will hang all year. There will be events throughout the year, such as film screenings and tours, to honor his work.

If you’re a business or organisation that would like us to add your event to next month’s calendar, please contact us at hello [@] scandinaviastandard [dot] com. Thank you!

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