#because most of those interactions happen on Joe's streams | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

jvstheworld · 9 months

Text

The Buffy Re-watch: S1E8 (part 1)

I, Robot, You, Jane

Also known as the perils of online dating

The title itself is a play on 'Me, Tarzan, you, Jane'. The only version of Tarzan I've seen is the 1999 Disney one, Does anyone remember the TV show they did of it? And did anyone like it when it was a playable world in the first Kingdom Hearts game? For me it was kind of meh.

Straight away we know who our monster of the week is. Moloch. A demon that was around in 1400s Italy corrupting people to love him before he kills them. Sort of a Jim Jones vibe here.

Circle of Kayless. Huh, sounds kind of Klingon to me.

Evil demon is trapped in a book and kept in storage for 500 years until it happens to be in the possession of our favourite librarian. Question is: how did he get?

The first appearance of Jenny Calender. And is the complete opposite of Giles. Those tend to attract.

Giles in this season is hesitant to scan his books for easy access, but this is something he tries to do at the beginning of season 5 when he is making plans to leave for England. But the project was probably never finished as when he does leave in season 6 the gang still use the books.

Fritz's speech on the greatness of virtual vs paper is kind of true, but in a very annoying way. We currently have everything an our finger tips, news, books, TV, film, any info we want we can find by going online, and get it quicker than we can brew tea. it's convenient, anyone can access it as long as it's not behind paywall, and it is often cheaper than a physical copy. However, you don't own it. With what we are seeing with streaming services removing films and shows from their libraries is that nothing is permanent. Companies like HBO do it so they can save money. It's imperative, now more than ever, to own physic copies of the things you like because it may disappear virtually. Tech is great and using it can make lives easier, but in some cases just because you paid for it, doesn't mean you own it. Physical copies my cost more and take up space but it will still be there for later.

Giles is horrified that more interactions take place digitally that face to face. Yeah, it just gets worse over time. Giles would hate social media.

Jenny is flirting with Giles, so cute.

How is Willow scanning anything. She's holding the scanner so close to the book that she's missing both sides of the page and she did like 2 pages. What was the point of that?

Demon is a computer? Oh shit!

Chad Lindberg- also starred in Supernatural as Ash, the guy who lived at The Roadhouse with Joe and Ellen in season 2. There are a few Buffy actor who appeared in Supernatural, including Charisma Carpenter who was in season 7 episode 5 playing Maggie Stark, the wife of Don Stark who was played by James Marsters.

Did you notice that Willow has a photo of her and Giles in her locker door? When did they take that? Also gives more credence to her admission that she had a crush on him in season 4 episode 18.

Buffy has a good reason to be mistrustful about Malcolm. This was back when internet dating wasn't as prevalent as it is now. Nowadays it's more widely accepted, hell my dad met my step-mum through a dating site. The internet was still in its infancy here and Buffy just wants to make sure that Willow isn't getting catfished. I mean she is, but they don't know that yet.

An extra is talking about how his history report got messed up to say things that should not be said. We get a few details like this throughout the episode to show the scope of what Moloch is capable of.

Okay, okay, okay. I went on a couple of tangents and turned one point into a slight rant. Won't guarantee it won't happen again because it most definitely will. These posts I'm doing are in order of what happens in each episode and what I think of while watching them, so tangents happen and so long, drawn out thoughts.

Part 2 tomorrow.

#buffy the vampire slayer #buffy summers #rupert giles #willow rosenberg #xander harris #buffy rewatch #tv show thoughts

2 notes · View notes

sootburs9000 · 1 year

Text

BOP!!!

bits n’ pieces:

1 -❥ we r a system- however due to ordeals with other systems we will be refusing to call ourselves such after this post & interacting w/ syscourse and if u show u r anti-endo/similar or anti-otherkin we will block u due to prev stuff that happened w/ them. in case hard to read/understand, We don’t want any syscourse here, it will be deleted and/or ignored, anti-endos and anti-otherkin CAN theoretically interact but you are on THIN FUCKING ICE because of others of those types who interacted before. We don’t need to be “taught” about them and the “harm” they do to the community. So don’t even try it even as a fellow system or as a medical professional. Our stance is firm and bringing that shit up is distressing because of how it was done in the past.

2 -❥ We’ll call ourselves a “caffeine cabinet” and each other “blends” over the normal medical terms. This is a note about that for later reference

3 -❥We do not owe you any information about us otherwise, however we will state we are 20 years old bodily

4 -❥ this is primarily a blog for our various bur introjects and interps and such. Others (including me) might do some things to include the others due to knowing them or to talk about our own burs.(<- mum lied abt this this is actually now essentially just our mcytblr blog)

5 -❥we’re primarily english speaking however we r trying to get the body fluent in at least spanish and french for the q!introjects!! if we ever say something wrong we trust y’all to correct us

6 -❥ we do not like ds/mp, we do not involve ourselves with ds/mp or dr..m let alone the dr..m stans. so Please, do not come to us on that. :} we do however LOVE making ourselves interps/aus off it & ourselves: many here u find here r likely that. pls do NOT tag our posts as dr..m uncensored UNLESS for others to block it- we personally will tag them with a “emoticon masker” as a blocklist tag

7 -❥ Literally the only canon content of ds/mp we have is by having watched Technoblade’s streams: everything else is hear-say of people we know and trust to tell us about it back when it was happening. That is also the case of most interps and such here. We heavily don’t interact with the canon content most of the time: this however does not mean that we will not figure out how to make an interp, let alone an oc off literally 3+ emojis and each other’s brainrots

8 -❥ c!sbi is beloveds, along w/ c!karlnapity, c!beeduo and c!benchtrio

9 -❥ we mostly see things as queer platonic HOWEVER we r heavy /r beeduo & /r tntduo enjoyers, as well as wish /r karlnapity wasn’t touched by the fans since to our knowledge it was better left alone. We do look at /r d/nf but that’s specifically bc we have a G..rge and Dr..m pair of blends who had the entire xdnf bit be ENTIRELY a joke during their memories. Also there’s multiple polycules in the cabinet including it.

10 -❥ we don’t always vet who we reblogged from if they’re on our feed!! there’s a good chance we haven’t interacted with them in a long enough while we forget they exist besides sillies to point at later!!- if you know they’re a terf or some shit TELL US PLEASE!! we don’t like them and it is normally a mistake it they appear on our blog bc we followed them pre-terf bullshit or knowing such!!

11 -❥ tags on this will serve as a navigation of sorts. With that being said hope you enjoy your visit and such!!

ASK GAMES: 1,

CHALLENGE CHALLENGE!!!!: 1,

ANONS CLAIMED:

tags for specific blends:

she/they simpbur, Cupid’s: #cupid shot my heart

he/she l’manbur, Barclay’s: #✘✘✘

he/him argbur, Joe’s: #random joe

#moderator ramble #navigation #important #bur reblog #wilbur soot #bursonas #blend stuff #the cabinet will decide your fate #cabinet art #cabinet muse #bur save

6 notes · View notes

thatgamefromthatad · 3 years

Text

Mobile Game Review - Helix Waltz (Recommended by @raimi)

🎻 What is this app? Helix Waltz is a dress up game with an elaborate storyline that heavily involves character interactions. On the App Store it’s described as a “thrilling ballroom drama set in Baroque style dress,” which I think accurately reflects the sort of vintage European court-style setting the game takes place in. The setting also has fantasy elements, including characters of different “races” such as elves and people with animal ears and tails called Orens.

The game follows a main storyline as well as various side storylines and has a large cast of characters with their own personalities and preferences, all of whom you can build up your relationship with, which will affect their interactions with you depending on the level of favor you have with them. Rather than playing out in a linear set of stages or chapters, the story progresses as you accept and complete missions and attend balls where you have the chance to encounter other characters attending the same ball. There’s a bit of freedom in that sense where you can attend any of the available balls you want and encounter any of the characters that are there without necessarily following the main storyline, building up favor and getting to know anyone you want.

The dress up part is structured somewhat similarly to other dress up games I’ve played - there are various items in different categories (hairstyles, headwear, dresses, shoes, different types of accessories, etc.) with different attributes and rarities that will affect your “chic” level at any ball or other outing you attend, as well as how other characters perceive you depending on their preferences. You can have “beauty contests” with other characters you encounter at balls that compares your outfit’s chic level to theirs and there are other parts of the game where your outfits can compete with others players’. You can gain new dress up items through completing quests and through a gacha-type mechanic where you draw from different sets of potential items.

📝 Review Summary: The sheer number of different characters you can interact with in this game is very impressive, and it’s definitely entertaining getting to know them all and try to build relationships with them. I definitely found myself getting invested in certain characters and wanting to progress through the storyline so I could learn more. The art in this game is also very beautiful, which includes both the character designs and clothing items.

The follower who recommended this game noted that there is queer representation, including a trans character, which is a positive aspect, but I noticed there was not a lot of BIPOC representation, specifically a lack of characters with dark skin and limited options to have dark for your own character. The default character you play is white with very pale skin, and from my understanding from doing a little research, skin color changes are included as makeup items which definitely seems wrong, not only because you have to get your hands on the right item to have darker skin but because skin color as makeup seems to imply blackface, even if that’s completely unintentional (the makeup items in this game aren’t technically just makeup - they also change the shape of facial features). I definitely think this game should add different base skin tones, as well as characters who aren’t all super pale.

Full review below:

***

👍What’s good about this app? The enormous cast of characters in this game and the multi-faceted system involved in gaining favor with them and getting to know them are definitely this game’s biggest assets, in my opinion. Each character has their own unique personality, backstory, style, relationships and role within the in-game society, but what’s really enticing is the fact that the story tends to build up a bit of mystery and intrigue about different characters and families/factions, which motivates you even more to get close with certain NPCs and learn the different secrets they hold. The game is pretty immersive that way in the sense that your goal of building up enough trust and prestige to gain access to the most interesting intel/gossip aligns with the main character’s goal of integrating and positioning herself strategically amidst higher society.

That sense of immersion also comes through in the way the game is structured to allow you to interact pretty freely with the characters rather than following a linear path from one encounter to another. You encounter other characters similarly to how you would if you really were a young noble in this sort of society - by wandering around ballrooms or other settings and seeing who you run into or seeking out those that you already have some level of relationship with. You can even get letters from them! You can choose to follow closely to the main plot, or pick your favorite characters and go out of your way to interact with them, or a mixture of both. This game really focuses around character interactions in a way I’ve never personally seen before, and it’s very impressive - and fun!

Another great aspect of this game is the art, which of course is an important aspect for any dress up game. I’m not very well-versed in fashion in general, but I can say from an average Joe perspective that the clothing items and outfit sets are overall just very pleasing to look at and give me that sort of mouthwatery fashion-p*rn feeling whenever I see some extravagant “look” whether it be from real life, a game or any other sort of media. You could say I’m easily pleased though since I can say that about just about any other dress up game I’ve played or been widely exposed to (Love Nikki, Time Princess etc.). One thing I think is especially cool in this game is the perfume category which I can best describe as creating a kind of animated aura around your character that differs in appearance depending on the perfume. This works well with the fantasy-type setting of the game and gives a little extra magical oomph to the outfits. Other outfit pieces can also be animated, like jewelry that sparkles for example, which is also a nice touch.

The last positive thing I’d like to mention is the theme song of this game that plays in the main menu (and pretty much everywhere else except outings), it’s so beautiful and I love it so much I added it to my Spotify playlist I listen to every day lol. The song is Sans Toi by Sarah Natasha Warne if you’re curious.

In the video below you can see a perfume item in action creating a galaxy-like aura around the character, and hear a short clip of the song as well.

[Video Description: A screen recording showing a fully dressed-up character wearing a luxurious red white and gold robe over an ornate black and white collared top with a red vest and loose-fitting brown pants that have two golden stripes at the end of each pant leg. They are holding a sword, have long blond hair tied in a high-set ponytail that drapes over their left shoulder and have a large, circular golden ornament position behind their head resembling a sun or halo. They are wearing dark stockings and black high heels, and there is a sparkling, swirling aura around them with streams of light changing color from blue to purple flowing toward them. The rest of the character and clothing is still except for jewelry and accessories that sparkle and glow and some golden parts of the clothing that shimmer.]

👎 What’s wrong with this app? There are a few minor flaws with this app such as a glitch(?) I experienced a few times where I was talking with one character and another character suddenly appeared and then disappeared, which I’m pretty sure was a glitch because after it happened for some reason I wasn’t able to complete any of my goals at the ball. Also if you don’t have a great internet connection it can be very frustrating because the game will freeze often, although I can’t criticize this that much since my internet connection just sucks and I’ve experienced this with other games before that are just highly reliant on having a constant internet connection.

Probably my main problem with this game is the lack of diversity in skin tones, both in the cast of characters and in your options for your own character. Like I said there are dozens of characters in this game but from what I’ve seen so far they almost all have pale/light skin. I don’t really think the setting of this game is an excuse considering it’s a fantasy setting and there are definitely characters from different regions or backgrounds but they all just happen to have very light skin. Another reason I think there should definitely be more diversity is that there are definitely themes of racial discrimination in the story - some characters will spout stereotypes and hateful comments about other races, in reference to fantasy races or other social groups in the game, and I’m definitely not saying the targets of those comments should be dark-skinned, I just feel like if you’re going to touch on those subjects but have little to no representation of the people who experience that kind of discrimination in real-life, it seems a bit hypocritical. As a disclaimer I am mixed-race (East Asian and white) and semi-white passing with pale skin so I’m not an authority on the skin tone issue specifically but my opinion as someone reviewing this game is that there’s no reason to not have more diversity in the game, even regardless of whether it involves the themes that I mentioned.

Below is just a handful of the NPCs but as I scrolled through the list pretty much everyone had pale/light skin, Gedanh is the NPC with the darkest skin tone as far as I know:

As far as a lack of diversity in selecting a skin tone for your own character, that didn’t specifically stand out to me at first considering the main character is a pre-established character and not as much of a self-insert as in other games like Time Princess, but the fact that you can change your facial features using “makeup items” and skin tone is also locked to certain makeup items doesn’t seem fair, since it makes whiteness the default and limits darker skin tones to these specific items and corresponding makeup looks. I’m not sure what adding diverse base skin tones would look like from a programming perspective for this game but with everything else this game has going on that is so complex and impressive I feel like there’s not an excuse in this day and age to exclude something as basic as different skin colors.

While the lack of diversity is definitely my biggest criticism of the game, I’ll just add that another flaw is that many aspects of the game can be confusing and despite a pretty lengthy series of tutorial quests that teach you about different parts of the game, I still have some confusion after playing for a while. For example I’m still not even completely sure if winning a beauty contest against a character strengthens your relationship with them, and I had to look at the Helix Waltz wiki to learn how to investigate NPCs’ preferences and exactly how remaking clothes works etc. The wiki and other players are a great resource, but having more guidance in-game, even if it’s in the Help/FAQ section (which I checked and still didn’t have all the info I needed), would be an improvement.

🪞Full list of features (there are a lot but I’ll try to cover them to the best of my ability):

Storyline (main plot, side plots that unlock when you strengthen your relationships with characters and event plots)

Quests (there are quests that go along with the plot or events as well as daily quests. The daily quests are more simple such as “talk to X amount of NPCs” or “attend X amount of balls” while the other quests involve having interactions with specific characters, wearing specific dress up items to certain events, etc.)

Dress up (you dress up for every ball or other outing you attend. Each ball will have a different clothing attribute, such as a certain color or style, that increases your chic points if you wear items with the corresponding tag. Different characters also have style preferences but you need to investigate to find out each character’s preference. In addition to dress up before events, the mirror section of the main interface allows you to make whatever outfit you want with the items you have, which will be the outfit your character wears during scenes outside of outings. There are different categories of items corresponding to different parts of the outfit and for some categories you can wear more than one item from the same category, such as wearing a different bracelet on each wrist)

Balls (this is one of the two main ways you will interact with characters and complete quests. There are a few balls you can choose to attend at any given time, hosted by a specific family or faction, with specific characters attending that you can check before you enter the ball. Once you enter the ball and dress up, you can choose to approach a certain character if that option is available - I think you can only approach characters directly if you’ve already talked to them at the ball or if you are wearing an outfit they like but I’m not sure about that part - or you can choose “wander around” and have the chance to encounter different characters who are attending)

Other outings (in addition to balls there are other places in the game where you can encounter other characters, such as the slum and the tavern, and these outings work similarly to balls in terms of character interactions)

Conversation (for basic conversation you pick from a selection of topics and you can gain favor with a certain character by correctly picking the topic they prefer. There is dialog to read for every conversation although these are stock conversations that repeat so you’ll usually want to just speed through them. When you increase your relationship with a character you can unlock special conversations with them that are more unique and tied to the plot)

Q&A (sometimes a character will ask you a question and depending on if they like your answer it can boost your favor with them)

Beauty contests (while conversing with a character sometimes you can have a beauty contest against them comparing your outfit to theirs, and if you win you get points that I believe go toward earning in-game currency - another thing I’m not 100% sure about. I think you can only have a beauty contest with female characters but there is at least one male character I’ve been able to have a beauty contest with. Sometimes a character will immediately force you into a beauty contest when you encounter them)

Dancing (sometimes when interacting with a character at a ball you’ll have the option to dance with them which opens up a short memory-based minigame. I think completing the minigame correctly yields similar rewards to winning a beauty contest. I think you can only dance with male characters as I’ve never had the option come up with female characters so far)

Gathering intel (intel is a resource in the game that is used to learn more about characters and that can be exchanged with characters for rewards. While wandering around a ball you may have the chance to eavesdrop on characters and gain intel)

Gift Box/gacha mechanic (The Gift Box section of the game is where you can draw from different gacha-type pools for items and resources. Different pools take different currencies and have different sets of items)

Remaking, dyeing and enchanting clothes (you can change the style or color of some clothing items if you collect the right resources, which changes both the item’s outward appearance and attributes that go toward chic points/gaining favor with different characters. You can also enchant clothing items, which changes their appearance and increases their chic points)

Events (there are limited-time events such as events that offer limited-time items/gacha pools and limited-time quests)

Illusion Contests (one way you can compete with other players in the game rather than NPCs. You are given preset clothes items to choose from in order to put together an outfit, and can give the outfit a name. Your outfit is scored based on a voting system where two outfits are shown and players can vote for one or the other. You get rewards based on how many votes you get and you also get rewarded for voting on other outfits)

Championship (another way to compete with others players using your owned items rather than preset items. I have not participated in the championship myself yet but from my understanding you make one outfit to defend against other players challenging you and then make outfits to challenge other players’ defending outfits. The players you have the option to challenge will be the same rank as you so the competition is balanced and I believe this competition is based on the attributes of your items and a theme set for the current championship cycle, a bit more like a NPC beauty contest than the voting-based Illusion Contests.)

⭐️ Overall Rating: 4/5 (this would definitely be a 5/5 game if they fixed the racial diversity issue but it’s unfortunate that a game that’s otherwise so complex and engaging - and has LGBTQ+ representation - drops the ball in this area. I definitely hope they at least add the ability to have different base skin tones in the future.)

I really enjoyed this game so thank you to @raimi for suggesting it! If anyone else has any game review suggestions feel free to send them 🥳

#helix waltz #dress up games #dressup games #mobile games #baroque #full game reviews #fashion games #lgbt characters #game characters #interactive fiction #recommended #court games #fantasy games #game music #image descriptions in alt text #long post

31 notes · View notes

r3almellow · 4 years

Text

MLQC Boys With A Famous S/o

Here we go! Thank you anon for this request I hope its to your liking!! Apologies for typos as always!

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

Kiro (YouTuber S/o)

How did you meet ?

You were a YouTuber that had over 500,000 subscribers. During a Mukbang Q&A video you received a question in regards to your celebrity crush.

“I think the big ass poster currently behind me kind of gives it away, but my ultimate crush is Kiro. I’d give anything to meet him at least once.” You went even as far as to give him a shout out. “Hey, super star! I heard you were a big foodie and since you like to eat and I like to eat, maybe we can eat together sometime? Okay, that was dumb, please ignore this!”

Little did you know, Kiro was a huge fan of your videos and just so happened to see your request. Next thing you knew a clip of you “shooting your shot” made its way to his social media page with a caption of “Its a date ;)” right above it. You just about died when you saw his post. You were only joking around! Well...not 100% joking, but you didn’t expect him to respond!

You spent weeks talking to each other through private messages soon after. Your messages filled with gushing over your similar interests, playful banters and light flirting. He offered to be a part of your next Mukbang stating that it was better to have two people eating themselves into a coma on camera than one. You couldn’t argue with facts and took him up on his offer! Kiro only had one condition...you let him take you out on a date afterwards.

And the rest was history.

Dating

The cutest couple to have ever existed!

Both of your social media pages are filled with couple photos.

You both get to dress up in disguise whenever you go on dates! A baseball cap, sunglasses, and face masks are your usual go to’s, but depending on where you’re going you might be required to get a little creative.

Dealing with overly excited fans and even more persistent paparazzi was a bit new for you, since your interactions with people is mostly through the internet, but you handle it pretty well.

Interviewers practically threw themselves onto every opportunity to get information about your love life. Kiro was more skilled than you about these things, so you tend to just laugh awkwardly and let him take care of it.

Kiro appears a little more in your videos whenever he’s free which the fans are grateful for. Of course, your channel doesn’t turn into all things Kiro and you never use him for your own personal gain.

Dating Kiro did open up some opportunities for you, like getting to experience award shows and networking with other celebrities and content creators. Again, you refused to throw Kiro’s name around just to get the things you wanted.

You both like to bounce ideas off of each other, whether its for his music or for your latest video. Having two creative minds come together does wonders!

You’re almost always somewhere in the background during his live streams.

Gavin (Actress S/o)

How did you meet?

High school. You were a part of the drama club and Gavin was...well...forced into being a part of the stagehand after being threatened with expulsion from his last brawl.

You were the first one to welcome him. You were kind, funny, and cute. And when you were on that stage? Mesmerizing was the best way to put how Gavin saw you. You were inspiring.

After graduation Gavin lost contact with most of his acquaintances, but he never once stopped thinking about you. Gavin wasn’t big on celebrity news, but he actually kept up with your progress once he got wind of a newcomer taking the entertainment world by storm.

Fast forward to a few years later and he was playing bodyguard for one of the most successful actresses in the world. You. This was just an undercover job that was going to last as long as his target was still out there.

There was definitely chemistry between you. And while Gavin wanted to act on his feelings, his work had to come first. You respected that, but that didn’t mean you weren’t going to let him know you were interested. How could you not be? You had a huge crush on him back in high school and now that he was by your side practically every day those feelings came back with a vengeance!

As soon as Gavin’s objective was complete he continues being your bodyguard stating, “Only I can keep you out of trouble.” Which you responded by kissing him.

Dating

Once word got out about you dating your “bodyguard”, it shocked many that you decided to be with someone that wasn’t a celebrity.

Even so, Gavin doesn’t look like your average Joe. He has the body and face of man who could easily be on the cover of Vogue or Vanity Fair, but you know your man isn’t about that life.

You’ve spent years being a private person, so when you and Gavin start dating not revealing much was easy. The public only knew what you wanted them to.

There are a lot of at home dates filled with takeout and movie night. Just being in each others company is more than enough for you!

You work out together a lot! He’s really good about motivating you especially when you have to prepare for an upcoming movie. You honestly don’t need a personal trainer when you have Gavin.

The paparazzi are afraid of Gavin. Like they won’t even get within six feet of you whenever he’s around. The last poor soul who got a little too close for your liking ate asphalt within seconds.

Gavin isn’t one for the limelight or the glitz and glam, which you appreciate. Its nice to be around someone that isn’t a part of the entertainment world.

You don’t have to hide a part of yourself, in fear of judgement, whenever you were with him. You appreciated Gavin’s genuine nature. He was always truthful with you and he never gave the impression that he was only with you because of your status.

Gavin does a great job with making you feel special. Whenever you feel like you don’t meet the standards of what the industry wants, he pulls you out of that dark hole and gives you the pep talk you need to get through the day.

You could walk around without an ounce of makeup on or trade in a Dior dress for sweatpants and a t-shirt, and Gavin still found you beautiful.

Victor ( Famous Pianist S/o)

How did you meet?

Victor was a fan of your work for quite some time. There was something about your raw talent that drew him to your work. He always made it a point to go to all your live shows whenever he was available, but has never met you personally.

It wasn’t until you waltzed right into his office out of the blue. When he saw you enter his office with Goldman and two security guards tailing right behind you, he didn’t even recognize you. You looked as if you had just rolled out of bed with a messy bun, ripped jeans, t-shirt with some random cartoon character and thick rimmed glasses. His first thought as you stared him down with a frown was, “Who let this homeless person into his office?”

When Goldman called your name as the two security guards grabbed your arms, Victor had to do a double take. The elegant and graceful woman, who commanded the stage with just pads of her fingertips, was...YOU?!

Victor allowed you to stay, curious to know why you were here. You business with Victor was simple. You wanted funding to create music schools for low income families. You had sent countless emails to LFG with hopes to do business with them, but after being ignored the first few times and receiving a rude rejection email that morning, you were ready to take the bull by the horns.

Surprisingly Victor found himself intrigued by you and thus started an interesting partnership.

The more Victor got to work with you the more he became attracted to the headstrong, smart, and talented person who seemingly enjoyed ruffling his feathers every chance they got.

You were also attracted to the blunt, detail-oriented man and it bothered you to no-end. What you saw in a man who probably would critique drawings from a toddler, you had no idea. But you appreciated his work ethic. He genuinely wanted you to succeed with this project and you couldn’t deny his heart was in the right place.

The day the first school opened was the day Victor decided to stop tiptoeing around the mutual attraction and asked you out.

“We can celebrate your accomplishments over dinner.”

Dating

The CEO of LFG and the child prodigy turned world famous pianist dating?!

CAN WE SAY POWER COUPLE?!

Whenever paparazzi get a picture of the two of you, you both look as if you just finished a professional photoshoot. You NEVER look bad in those photos. Never!

And when you do professional shoots? It leaves people SHOOK. Magazines like Forbes have never had such a beautiful couple grace their covers before. Just wait until people see your wedding photos.

You always ask him to visit you during your rehearsals which he almost always declines but shows up anyway, if he’s not too busy. He’ll also bring a box of his homemade pudding because knowing you, you probably were too busy with preparations for your upcoming concert to eat. He’ll take you out to eat afterwards, but the pudding should hold you over for a bit.

Victor will never admit this to you, but your music helps him de-stress after a long day at work, so whenever he isn’t with you, your music helps him fall asleep.

Victor also likes to watch you work. Seeing you so focused as you create your next piece was a sight to beheld. The pensive look in your eyes as you went over your music sheet, the slow nod of your head as your fingers danced across the keys as you intently listened to the melody, and the way your eyebrow twitched when you hit a key you didn’t like; all things oddly enjoyed seeing.

You’ll never catch him staring. He’ll pretend he’s working whenever you feel his eyes on you and if you try to call him out on it, he will most likely deny it.

Lucien ( Novelist S/o)

How did you meet?

You needed the help of someone knowledgeable with neuroscience for your next book. Someone recommended a Professor at Loveland University who specialized on the topic. That was how you met Professor Lucien.

You two worked closely together once you started your manuscript, going over various topics under the neuroscience category. It wasn’t surprising just how intelligent the man was on the subject, but you were in awe about how much you knew.

Your meetings would often start at the university which led to you going home together once you found out he lived in the same building as you. You leveled up from the lecture hall to aquariums, movie theaters, restaurants, and his apartment where you had lunch or dinner.

Your conversations never stayed on the topic of work. It often changed to your interests. You found that you and Lucien had a lot of similar interests like your taste in books and art. He also developed a love for teasing you.

Seeing the look on your flustered face turned into one of his favorite pastimes.

When it came to the topic of your books, you learned Lucien has read quite a few of them and was very intrigued with your work. He asked you numerous questions, questions no one thought to ask.

He admitted to you his favorite of yours was the first book he ever read titled, “The Boy Who Dreamed.” You jokingly offered to sign his book, but he declined with a smile.

“I’ll admit I do enjoy the book, but I’m more interested in the woman who wrote it.”

Dating

More dates at your favorite places.

Almost every other week, Lucien seemed to have tickets to art exhibits, festivals, or the movies.

His teasing intensifies by a hundred! That man loves to tease you and you hate it! You love it.

The closer you got to Lucien, the more you realized he didn’t enjoy talking about himself, so it takes a while to learn about him or his past. You never press him for information, but he does reveal things to you within time.

Lucien loves when you read to him. Its how he falls asleep and once you find out he has trouble sleeping, you always suggest what you call “story time.”

In truth, having you by his side is more than enough to get him to sleep, but if you aren’t there hearing your voice will do the trick. You could be reading anything and he’d be fine with it. From Dr. Seuss to H.G. Wells, Lucien was fine with it as long as he got hear your voice.

You like to ask for his opinion on your latest projects. He does a great job making you think outside of the box which will make things easier or challenging during your writing sessions.

Whenever you encounter writer’s block, Lucien will pull you away from your laptop and mountains of papers to enjoy a nice relaxing day with him.

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

Doooone! Please comment if you enjoyed this! I’d love to know what you guys think!

Want to read more of my writing? Check out my MLQC masterlist here!

#mlqc #mlqc gavin #mlqc kiro #mlqc victor #mlqc lucien #mldd #mr. love #mr love queen's choice #mr love #mr love dream date

289 notes · View notes

lastsonlost · 5 years

Link

GET THE FUCK OUT? Creepy Uncle Joe Biden is a creepy ass motherfucker?

No shit.

In 2014, I was the 35-year-old Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in Nevada. The landscape wasn’t looking good for my party that year. There were no high-profile national races to help boost turnout, and after the top candidate bowed out of the governor’s race, “None of the Above” ended up winning the Democratic primary.

So when my campaign heard from Vice-President Joe Biden’s office that he was looking to help me and other Democrats in the state, I was grateful and flattered. His team offered to bring him to a campaign rally in an effort to help boost voter turnout. We set the date for November 1, just three days before election day.

In a state as large but sparsely populated as Nevada, it takes nonstop travel to connect with all its residents. You’re lucky to get properly fed, much less look properly coiffed as female candidates are often required to do. I was exhausted and short on time, so decided to not to wash my hair the morning of the rally. I sprayed some dry shampoo in my hair, raced off to the Reno airport, and flew back to Las Vegas.

The event proceeded as most political events do: coordinated chaos with random problems that no one can predict. I found Eva Longoria, co-founder of the Latino Victory Project, roaming the parking lot trying to figure out how to get inside the union hall. My staff was running around town trying to purchase ferns because according to Biden’s team, no other vegetation was acceptable for the stage.

I found my way to the holding room for the speakers, where everyone was chatting, taking photos, and getting ready to speak to the hundreds of voters in the audience. Just before the speeches, we were ushered to the side of the stage where we were lined up by order of introduction. As I was taking deep breaths and preparing myself to make my case to the crowd, I felt two hands on my shoulders. I froze. “Why is the vice-president of the United States touching me?”

I felt him get closer to me from behind. He leaned further in and inhaled my hair. I was mortified. I thought to myself, “I didn’t wash my hair today and the vice-president of the United States is smelling it. And also, what in the actual fuck? Why is the vice-president of the United States smelling my hair?” He proceeded to plant a big slow kiss on the back of my head. My brain couldn’t process what was happening. I was embarrassed. I was shocked. I was confused. There is a Spanish saying, “tragame tierra,” it means, “earth, swallow me whole.” I couldn’t move and I couldn’t say anything. I wanted nothing more than to get Biden away from me. My name was called and I was never happier to get on stage in front of an audience.

By then, as a young Latina in politics, I had gotten used to feeling like an outsider in rooms dominated by white men. But I had never experienced anything so blatantly inappropriate and unnerving before. Biden was the second-most powerful man in the country and, arguably, one of the most powerful men in the world. He was there to promote me as the right person for the lieutenant governor job. Instead, he made me feel uneasy, gross, and confused. The vice-president of the United States of America had just touched me in an intimate way reserved for close friends, family, or romantic partners — and I felt powerless to do anything about it.

Our strange interaction happened during a pivotal moment in my political career. I’d spent months raising money, talking to voters, and securing endorsements. Biden came to Nevada to speak to my leadership and my potential to be second-in-command — an important role he knew firsthand. But he stopped treating me like a peer the moment he touched me. Even if his behavior wasn’t violent or sexual, it was demeaning and disrespectful. I wasn’t attending the rally as his mentee or even his friend; I was there as the most qualified person for the job.

Imagine you’re at work and a male colleague who you have no personal relationship with approaches you from behind, smells your hair, and kisses you on the head. Now imagine it’s the CEO of the company. If Biden and I worked together in a traditional office, I would have complained to the HR department, but on the campaign trail, there’s no clear path for what to do when a powerful man crosses the line. In politics, you shrug it off, smile for the cameras, and get back to the task of trying to win your race.

After the event, I told a few of my staff what happened. We all talked about the inexplicable weirdness of what he did, but I didn’t plan on telling anyone else. I didn’t have the language or the outlet to talk about what happened. Who do you tell? What do you say? Is it enough of a transgression if a man touches and kisses you without consent, but doesn’t rise to the level of what most people consider sexual assault? I did what most women do, and moved on with my life and my work.

Time passed and pictures started to surface of Vice-President Biden getting uncomfortably close with women and young girls. Biden nuzzling the neckof the Defense secretary’s wife; Biden kissing a senator’s wife on the lips; Biden whispering in women’s ears; Biden snuggling female constituents. I saw obvious discomfort in the women’s faces, and Biden, I’m sure, never thought twice about how it made them feel. I knew I couldn’t say anything publicly about what those pictures surfaced for me; my anger and my resentment grew.

Had I never seen those pictures, I may have been able to give Biden the benefit of the doubt. Had there not been multiple articles written over theyears about the exact same thing — calling his creepy behavior an “open secret” — perhaps it would feel less offensive. And yet despite the steady stream of pictures and the occasional article, Biden retained his title of America’s Favorite Uncle. On occasion that title was downgraded to America’s Creepy Uncle but that in and of itself implied a certain level of acceptance. After all, how many families just tolerate or keep their young children away from the creepy uncle without ever acknowledging that there should be zero tolerance for a man who persistently invades others’ personal space and makes people feel uneasy and gross? In this case, it shows a lack of empathy for the women and young girls whose space he is invading, and ignores the power imbalance that exists between Biden and the women he chooses to get cozy with.

For years I feared my experience would be dismissed. Biden will be Biden. Boys will be boys. I worried about the doubts, the threats, the insults, and the minimization. “It’s not that big of a deal. He touched her, so what?” The immediate passing of judgement and the questioning of motives. “Why now? Why so long after? She just wants attention.” Or: “It’s politically motivated.” I would be lying if I said I didn’t carefully consider all of this before deciding to speak. But hearing Biden’s potential candidacy for president discussed without much talk about his troubling past as it relates to women became too much to keep bottled up any longer.

When I spoke to a male friend who is also a political operative in Biden’s orbit — the first man who had heard the story outside of my staff and close friends years ago — he did what no one else had and made me question myself and wonder if I was doing the right thing. He reminded me that Biden has significant resources and argued points that made me question my memory, even though I’ve replayed that scene in my mind a thousand times. He reminded me that my credibility would be attacked and that I should be prepared for the type of “back and forth” that could occur. (When reached by New York Magazine, a representative for Vice-President Joe Biden declined to comment.)

I’m not suggesting that Biden broke any laws, but the transgressions that society deems minor (or doesn’t even see as transgressions) often feel considerable to the person on the receiving end. That imbalance of power and attention is the whole point — and the whole problem.

Now all of you who follow me know that I am a firm believer of innocent until proven guilty. So I’m genuinely asking out of curiosity. How much evidence is there and how much more is needed? If I’m being perfectly honest Lucy Flores for the most part isn’t telling us anything that we haven’t already known for years.

But I wonder if we’re just going to continue to ignore it because he’s not wearing a Maga hat. I’m sure the guardian or Huffington Post will make some excuse right?

#joe biden #metoo #vision 2020

636 notes · View notes

ts1989fanatic · 4 years

Text

Taylor Swift And The End Of An Era

Love her or hate her, Taylor Swift embodied the contradictions of the decade in pop music

“I’m so sick of running as fast as I can,” Taylor Swift sings in the chorus of “The Man,” a song from her latest album, Lover. She chose the up-tempo tune to open her “Artist of the Decade” medley at the AMAs last month, and it’s a return to familiar Swiftian themes; she claps back at unspecified, sexist critics who fail to acknowledge her “good ideas and power moves.”

Whatever one might think of Swift’s underdog complex, it’s not surprising that the end of the 2010s finds her exhausted. Her transformation from tween country sensation to tabloid-friendly pop star to polarizing Twitter talking point and, finally, to celebrity supernova, required — at the very least — plenty of stamina.

There’s no question that straight white femininity still occupies a privileged place in the cultural landscape, which helped pave the way for Swift’s rise and decade-long pop dominance — even as she became a zeitgeisty symbol of that privilege and a target for those seeking to contest it. Yet as many of her similarly situated peers have faltered, she has endured as one of the last pop behemoths of her kind.

Time and again Swift strategically read and rode the decade’s cultural waves, deciding not just which trends and genres to jump on but, perhaps more importantly, what to pass on. As pop music became feud-centric reality television, there was Taylor; as stan culture transformed the way listeners interacted with performers (and each other), there was Taylor; as artists’ rights in the streaming era entered the conversation, there was Taylor; as politics infiltrated music, there was (sort of, eventually) Taylor.

There are definitely plenty of other contenders for Artist of the Decade (a title both the AMAs and Billboard recently bestowed on Swift) — artists who have hugely impacted pop music over the past 10 years and managed to ride out the seismic, industry-wide shifts they’ve contained, from Beyoncé to Lady Gaga to Kanye West. But you don’t have to think Swift was the “best” or even most significant artist of the decade to acknowledge that her cultural domination, and her ability to pivot and reinvent herself, captured many of the defining tensions of pop music over the last decade.

It’s hard to remember (in internet years) that before 2010, Swift was just a teen pop star and not yet a cultural lightning rod. She was already taken seriously as a musician and had plenty of cultural capital coming into the decade; in 2009, having already won Artist of the Year at the AMAs, she was about to accept a Video Music Award for Female Video of the Year when Kanye infamously interrupted her speech. In early 2010, she won Album of the Year for Fearless at the Grammy Awards, beating out Beyoncé and Lady Gaga.

Her early stardom revolved mostly around the fact that she was a precocious young country artist who wrote her own songs, without the risqué edge or sexy-but-wholesome cognitive dissonance of someone like an early Britney Spears to worry white parents and inspire pearl-clutching tabloid magazine covers. And it wasn’t really until Speak Now — when Swift was already a mainstream star but still categorized as country — that she began teasing the media and her fans about the ways her autobiographical lyrics mapped onto her real life, especially regarding the men she was dating.

People are still wondering whether Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know” is about Uncle Joey, so it was startling for a young woman songwriter and musical celebrity of her commercial reach to use her songs to consistently craft such intimate stories about such equally public men, including Joe Jonas, Taylor Lautner, and John Mayer. And there was something uniquely bold about the way Swift started using her confessional songwriting and melodic sensibility to “get the last word” on her relationships, as People magazine framed it in her first cover story.

People hardly batted an eye in 2018 when Ariana Grande’s first No. 1 hit, “Thank U, Next,” literally name-checked her list of ex-boyfriends, and that’s in no small part because of Swift. Because even as reality TV stars like the Kardashians and Real Housewives were figuring out how to create multiplatform storytelling through social media, Swift was already pioneering the strategy in the big pop machine. Yes, she opportunistically used this to shame exes, create fodder for talk shows, and garner magazine covers; and even then, it raised some hackles about the way she was using her power. But it was undeniably compelling theater, and even nonfans were watching.

That multiplatform mixture of music and drama wouldn’t have succeeded without the undeniably catchy earworms Swift’s diary entries were wrapped in, or without the devoted fanbase of Swifties that she cultivated online. This all helped her break chart records with her most explicitly pop albums, including 2012’s Red and 2014’s ’80s-inspired 1989. The latter garnered the biggest first-week sales for a pop album since Britney Spears in 2002, helping Swift keep the tradition of the monocultural pop star alive.

But as Swift’s music saturated airwaves, and her willingness to tease behind-the-scenes details of her life in her songs moved beyond ex-boyfriends like Harry Styles (“Style”) into swatting at other pop stars like Katy Perry (“Bad Blood”) the public began to sour on Swift’s strategic use of her personal life in her music. (To Swift’s credit as a performer, no other pop star could sing the lyrics “Band-Aids don’t fix bullet holes” about a dispute over a backup dancer with a straight face.)

Juxtaposed with Swift’s self-celebrating “girl squad” feminism, her opportunism — and seeming hypocrisy — started to rankle. By 2015, even racist sympathizer and critic Camille Paglia came out of the woodwork to anoint Swift a “Nazi barbie,” calling out her tendency to treat friends as props. And all these contradictions of Swift’s persona would come to a head when Swift’s seemingly buried feud with Kanye came roaring back the following year.

It makes sense that her clash with Kanye and Kim Kardashian West became the first time she experienced a real backlash. Unlike the drama around her dating life or with Perry, it was the first time Swift was up against equally savvy adversaries — celebrities who, like her, were professionals at merging their public and private lives.

The fight was a meta moment by design, inspired by West’s song “Famous,” where he raps: “I made that bitch famous.” In retrospect, it seems clear that West, as much a publicity-seeking pop diva as Swift, was trying to get the last word after going on an apology tour about the interruption heard round the world. Swift claimed to be annoyed over what she saw as the song’s credit-taking message, and she tried to make it part of her own narrative. “I want to say to all the young women out there,” she intoned in her speech accepting a Grammy for Album of the Year in February 2016, “there are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame.”

In another era, Swift’s storyline might have won the day. Her publicist denied that she had approved the line in the song, despite Kanye’s claim that he had checked with her before releasing it. But celebrity narratives, to some degree, were no longer being decided just by white-dominated mainstream media. Black publications were the first to tease out the racial undertones of Swift’s lie in the ensuing “he said, she said,” specifically as a white woman playing on the ingrained sympathy and benefit of the doubt that white women are given in US culture.

Still, it wasn’t until Kim’s Snapchat leak that July — where Swift could be heard approving the song — that the Swift-as-victim narrative became a framework for understanding her entire career. Contemporary white pop stars like Grande and Miley Cyrus had faced musical appropriation backlashes, but this time it was Swift’s entire persona — not just her music — that were under scrutiny.

Swift’s memeable response to the leak — “I would very much like to be excluded from this narrative” — was followed by her own disappearance from the media landscape. By the time the 2016 election happened — amid the chatter about white women’s complicity in electing Trump — Swift’s refusal to take a political stand solidly cast her as a cultural villain, and her symbolism as an icon of toxic white womanhood was sealed.

If the clamor of social media (especially Twitter) was central to the Swift backlash, it was also central to her eventual resurgence. Over the past decade, social media (especially Instagram) has tipped the scales in celebrity coverage and helped celebrities tell their stories on their own terms, almost without intermediaries. Swift knew how to use that to her advantage and decided to play the long game.

By refusing interviews for 18 months, wiping her social media clean, and focusing on cultivating her Tumblr fanbase, Swift removed herself from the cultural conversation for a beat. This kind of brand management helped her keep an ear to the ground while in a self-imposed exile. But it’s as if the culture couldn’t stop conjuring her; rumors about her absence spread, including that she had traveled around inside a suitcase.

In August 2017, she wiped her social media clean and reappeared with a snake video — reclaiming the serpent emojis — in what was ultimately the announcement for her Reputation album, and which remains one of the most iconic social media rollouts ever. “Look What You Made Me Do,” the lead single, was endlessly memed — Swift couldn’t come to the phone, a perfect metaphor for her cultural disappearance and, perhaps, a kind of ghostly remake of the Kanye call. The album succeeded because it seemed as though Swift was finally open to owning her melodrama and messiness. She subsequently broke records with the tour and album sales.

Still, her political silence was affecting her image and music. By 2018, insipid corporate wokeness had become the order of the day, and Swift Inc. again pivoted musically and culturally. Swift came out for the Democratic candidates in the 2018 midterms, framing her support in terms of LGBTQ rights and racial justice. And this year, the second single from her latest album, Lover — “You Need to Calm Down” — was a perfect encapsulation of her politics of messiness, conflating anti-gay prejudice with Twitter drama. (And somehow turning the video into a celebration of pop queens supporting each other). This fall, she has made sure to include über-stan–turned–pop star (and video coproducer) Todrick Hall at her awards show moments, attempting to expand the range of racial and sexual identities included in what used to be her mostly straight white “girl squad” feminism.

For all of Swift’s success at updating her persona, she’s never quite regained her massive radio dominance — but no pop star can depend on the success of singles for over a decade. In fact, Swift is one of the most interesting figures of the decade because her stardom is caught between the old-school era of album buying and our current streaming moment.

And, inevitably, Swift has turned her own industry issues around streaming and artistic ownership into a wider commentary on artists’ rights — which happens to work as a canny form of further brand management. She framed herself as an ethical businesswoman when she called out Apple for not paying artists, and she battled with Spotify over streaming royalties but without really pushing for wider systemic industry change.

Earlier this year, Swift started a new artist-versus-industry fight about her music masters being bought out from under her by nemesis Scooter Braun. It’s a complicated story, one that Swift has framed as being about “toxic male privilege,” and the fact that Braun mocked her during the Kanye era — once again blurring, in her trademark mode, the personal with the public and the systemic with the individual.

Instead of being seen as opportunistic, Swift seems to have succeeded in framing her campaign as a fight for unsigned and less powerful artists’ rights, which has resonated at a moment where content creators are all pitted against the 1% of the tech and corporate worlds. This time, even Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — a squad member any star would envy — backed her up.

Swift’s response to being anointed Artist of the Decade by the AMAs and Billboard provides interesting insight into how she sees herself now and where she thinks the next decade is going. She chose Carole King, one of the preeminent symbols of pop music authenticity, to present her AMA, squarely placing herself in a genealogy of great women singer-songwriters. She also enlisted shiny next-gen pop stars Camila Cabello and Halsey to join her during her performance of old hits.

In her Billboard speech, Swift name-checked newer stars like Lizzo, Becky G, and Billie Eilish as the future of the industry. Tellingly, they are women who, so far, have not played into the tabloidy pop dramas that dominated the 2010s. If this decade has shown us anything, it’s that blurring public and private through music can reap big rewards, but it also opens up stars — especially the women of pop — to more intense scrutiny and a higher degree of personal accountability.

In a Billboard interview looking back on the decade, Swift spoke about her relationship to fame and learning to hold things back. “I didn’t quite know what exactly to ... share and what to protect. I think a lot of people go through that, especially in the last decade,” she said. “There was this phase where social media felt fun and casual and quirky and safe. And then it got to the point where everyone has to evaluate their relationship with social media. So I decided that the best thing I have to offer people is my music.”

Like Lana Del Rey denying she ever had a persona, or Lady Gaga stripping down with Joanne, there seems to come a point when white pop divas need to declare themselves authentic and all about the music — as if their ongoing narratives aren’t part of the show. But the way Swift used her image and the never-ending soap opera that swirled around her to make space for her music in an increasingly saturated attention economy was itself a kind of art. ●

8 notes · View notes

makistar2018 · 5 years

Link

Taylor Swift’s Feud With Scooter Braun Spotlights Musicians’ Struggles to Own Their Work

Prince, Janet Jackson and Jay-Z all fought to control their master recordings. In a blog post about the sale of her former record label, Swift put her personal spin on the issue.

By Ben Sisario and Joe Coscarelli July 1, 2019

It is one of the oldest and hardest lessons of the music industry: No matter how successful artists may be, chances are someone else owns their work.

Prince, protesting how his label, Warner Bros., had control over his master recordings, quipped in 1996: “If you don’t own your masters, your master owns you.” That same year, when Janet Jackson negotiated a landmark contract with Virgin Records, ownership of her original recordings was a major deal point.

Now we can add Taylor Swift to the chorus of artists who have bemoaned that their creative work is someone else’s property, as she once again used her social-media megaphone to stir debate about the inner workings of the music industry.

In a Tumblr post on Sunday, Swift responded bitterly to the news that her former label, Big Machine, had been sold for more than $300 million to a company run by Scooter Braun, the manager of pop stars including Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande.

Swift had strong personal objections to the deal, which included the rights to her first six albums, blaming Braun for orchestrating “incessant, manipulative bullying” against her by Kanye West, an on-and-off client.

But the episode also highlighted the fraught and little-understood industry politics of master recordings — the original copies of an artist’s work — and the copyrights associated with them.

The owner of a master controls all rights to exploit it, including selling albums or licensing songs for movies or video games. The artist still earns royalties from those recordings once associated costs are fulfilled, but controlling the master could bring greater income, as well as a level of protection over how the work is used in the future. (These rights are separate from copyrights for songwriting.)

The deep significance that musicians attach to their masters was highlighted last month, when a group of artists sued the Universal Music Group over a fire in 2008 that destroyed many original recordings, after an exposé was published in The New York Times Magazine.

Historically, record companies have retained rights to masters in exchange for the financial risks they take in backing an artist over the course of their contract.

“Fundamentally, the business model that most record companies operate under is not unlike the venture capital business,” said Larry Miller, the director of the music business program at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development.

“They make investments in unproven talent,” he added. “The trade is that, traditionally, the masters stay with the record company.”

Swift, despite appearing to have an almost unrivaled level of self-determination as a star — like single-handedly getting Apple to change a royalties policy in 2015 — signed such a deal with Big Machine in 2005, at the beginning of her career. Her post on Sunday was partly an admonishment to young artists to avoid those kinds of contracts.

“This is what happens when you sign a deal at fifteen to someone for whom the term ‘loyalty’ is clearly just a contractual concept,” Swift wrote, in a jab at Big Machine’s founder, Scott Borchetta.

Hours later, Borchetta posted a rejoinder, including a snippet of a deal proposal, that suggested that Swift could have earned her recording rights back had she renewed with Big Machine last year. Instead, she signed with Universal. (Her next album, “Lover,” is due in August.)

Borchetta also called into question Swift’s claim that she only learned of the deal once the news broke — he said he texted her the night before — and noted that her father, Scott Swift, was a minority shareholder in Big Machine.

The barbs between Swift and Borchetta, a rare example of such contractual dirty laundry being aired outside of litigation, captivated the industry and raised questions about the age-old power dynamic between artist and label.

“This kind of deal is neither unusual or controversial,” the media mogul David Geffen said. “She didn’t want to put up $300 million. Someone else did. They offered her a deal that she rejected to get ownership of her masters. Only time will tell who made the wise decision.”

Geffen, whom Braun has frequently described as a mentor, added: “I’m betting that Scooter will build an important company with the addition of this asset.”

Steve Stoute, a music and advertising executive whose new company, UnitedMasters, allows artists to keep their rights, saw the Swift episode as a painful illustration of what he called “the fundamental problem with the record industry.”

“The record business historically runs the same business model as sharecropping,” Stoute said. “You build it; we make you think that you own it; you act like you own it; but at the end of the day, we own it.”

The battle between Swift and Braun also divided celebrities on social media, as accusations of exploitation intermingled with personal loyalties.

Some of Braun’s clients, like Bieber and Demi Lovato, defended his personal character. “I have dealt with bad people in this industry and Scooter is not one of them,” Lovato wrote on Instagram.

But other female artists took Swift’s lead as an opportunity to discuss their own experiences in a business that has long faced criticism for its treatment of many creators, especially young women and people of color.

“I signed contracts when I was 15 & I’m still paying the consequences for it,” the singer Sky Ferreira, now 26, wrote on Instagram after pointing people to Swift’s blog post. “Insisting on your rights, value & ownership doesn’t make you difficult.” She added: “Just because this system has been the same for decades doesn’t mean it’s okay or you need to bow down to it.”

In a statement expressing support for Swift, the pop singer Halsey wrote: “it turns my guts that no matter how much power or success a woman has in this life, you are still susceptible to someone coming along and making you feel powerless out of spite.” Alessia Cara chimed in: “stop stealing from women who work hard!!!”

And the rapper Iggy Azalea, while interacting with fans on Twitter, added: “this is why I’m so happy to own my master for this new album, they really do ppl crazy dirty on ownership of their intellectual property in the biz.” After years of limbo on major labels, Azalea recently announced a deal with the distributor Empire that gave her ownership of her recordings.

Tension over the ownership of recordings is nearly as old as the industry, but it has gained momentum as superstar artists have exerted greater control — typically after years of work. Prince rebelled against Warner Bros. in the mid-1990s, after nearly two decades of hits. And when Jay-Z became president and chief executive of the Def Jam label in 2004, he insisted on earning back control of his masters on that label.

The industry’s shift to streaming has begun to change the dynamic between artists and labels, which once held exceptional leverage through their ability to market albums and promote songs to radio stations. Given this change, some younger artists have leaned toward autonomy.

The singer and rapper XXXTentacion, for example, who was killed in a shooting last year, rejected traditional long-term label deals in favor of one-off contracts for each of his releases that offered lower payment upfront, but gave him full ownership and a higher royalty rate.

Swift’s talent for fueling debate continued on Tumblr — the platform where she frequently communes with her most faithful fans — well after she published her account of the deal. “taylor will not be silenced,” wrote one fan who earned acknowledgment from Swift.

Elsewhere, some questioned whether Swift, with her enormous wealth and reputation for careful self-mythologizing, was the best messenger for this ongoing battle, especially after Borchetta pushed back, sharing deal points and private text messages between the two parties.

But the power of Swift’s fame made her message about the importance of ownership a vital lesson, Stoute said.

“If you’re an artist today, you must go into the record deal owning your master,” he said. “If not, then you are basically building an asset that you will not own.”

The New York Times

#taylor swift #2019.07.01 #scooter braun is a piece of shit

8 notes · View notes

valeriemperez · 5 years

Note

I personally think Grant and Jessica have a nice chemistry, but I don't think it's as natural as Candice and Jessica's, despite the little Nora/Iris we've gotten in comparison to Nora/Barry. I do think it's a conscious acting choice, but I also notice that Barry is a little guarded with people who are not Iris and Joe. I think it's less prevalent in his interactions with Cisco, Caitlin, and Ralph, b/c he isn't vulnerable with them (like occasionally with Cisco but that's it) (1/2)

Whereas with Nora, he definitely is emotionally vulnerable, because she’s his daughter, and I feel like he struggles with that a bit, which is why the chemistry feels ~off to some people, because Nora can be really emotionally intense with him, and it’s clear Barry’s keeping her at arm’s length, emotionally. With Iris, Barry doesn’t have any guard, which is why the emotional/vulnerable scenes are always amazing with Barry and Iris, and this is true in relation to Barry and Joe as well. (2/2)

I agree with this. Barry has been purposely pushing Nora away a little, which is reflected in the chemistry, but I think they have a strong bond despite that and it’s never taken me out of their scenes precisely because it feels “right” for the characters and situations.

@backtothestart02 said:

We’re getting future!Iris!! Think we’ll get a scene w/ her & Barry? Maybe Nora reconciling w/ her? Maybe both?! (Hopefully at least one) Do you think the future will look like an absolute mess regardless?

I hope we see what Iris was like before Nora disappeared to the past, and then eventually the reconciliation! And yes, the future is definitely a hot mess, lol.

Is it just my semi color blindness? Or is Iris wearing green in the elseworlds poster match Barry?! (And Felicity is in red)

I thought so too, lol. Is that not the case?

1/Hallmark type cheesy movies could be a last resort or a big break for actors. For example washed up actors who can’t get other jobs like Melissa Joan hart or the high school musical girl are in them. But Parisa fitz Henley played Megan Markle in one last year and it was her big break. Critics loved her and she’s gotten much bigger. Grant was in one a while back and it helped him. Same for Danielle’s friend Rose who was in those terrible Netflix Christmas movies. Critics I saw liked Danielle’sMovie so I think it’s going to help her. She’s not a great actress. She’ll never be Oscar level but most actors never get there. TBH I don’t think Grant or Candice will either. But they have enough talent to make a living doing it so that’s a lot more talent than most.

Parisa’s movie helped because it was about Meghan and Harry, or else it wouldn’t have gotten the buzz it did. And a movie you can stream on Netflix gets more buzz than one that airs a few times on Hallmark. So the movie won’t hurt DP of course, but I don’t think it’s doing anything for her either. Which is fine, it was a paycheck.

As for Grant and Candice, I have no idea what they’re capable of once they have time after the show ends.

I don’t want to sound bitchy so if I do I’m sorry. This is a genuine question. I’ve watched about 95% of the old interviews of DP and I haven’t once heard her say anything like the fandom described. She only talks about SB of the interviewer brings it up first. She never said it would happen. I watch all the clips fans point me to as evidence DP is a snake but I come away confused why they’re upset. I don’t like SB either but I don’t get the “DP pushed SB to steal leading lady from CP” narrative

She has said those things, though, so either it’s just doesn’t bother you or you haven’t seen all the interviews. She’s talked about how a love triangle would be fun, how she’s lucky she and Grant have such nice chemistry, etc. And the thing is, she doesn’t have to go out of her way to hype SB either. The issue was that in the same interview, the media person would hype DP/SB and cut down CP/WA. Danielle could see that and merely went along with the interviewer instead of pushing back. And sure, it’s “not her business” because it’s not her character, but it shows she was willing to take advantage of an unfair situation. There’s a reason Carlos was the one bringing up Snowstorm every time he was in an interview with DP and Candice.

#the flash #anonymous #backtothestart02 #tatiana's thoughts #more asks under the cut #long post for ts #sb ask #gossip

30 notes · View notes

samtheflamingomain · 3 years

Text

remember when tik tok was a song?

A lot has changed in my short time on this planet. I grew up to the sound of the ole dial-up and now I can watch someone talk about why the Earth is flat for an hour from anywhere on the disc!

The way we create, consume and criticize media is one of the things whose recent evolution is probably what piques my interest the most. Not necessarily the content of the media, which is always changing, but trends in the structure behind it.

Tech has obviously improved exponentially. Health, science, education - all significantly changed in the past few decades. But same goes for the past few centuries.

Media has, necessarily, been slower to evolve. Can't have TV shows without a TV. It basically went from book to newspaper to radio to TV to Internet. There's at least a few decades between all those things, if not longer. However, from TV to today is what I'm most interested in.

For decades, for generations, TV was channel-surfing via an antenna or a satellite dish served by your cable provider. A lot of those words mean nothing to a teenager now.

I'm 26. I started with cable (10 channels), then we got satellite (500 channels), then by the time I was 16 or 17, Netflix the streaming service came out. So I'm in a very small window of people who were young enough for all of these things to happen in my childhood. 5 years older than me and you didn't get Netflix as a teen. 5 years younger and you didn't have cable as a teen. Maybe 10 years. You see the point.

Then realize that the 16 year-old of today hasn't grown up without Netflix being a household word. If the 16 year-old of today wanted to watch Peter Pan, he would boot up Disney+. I would've gone to Blockbuster and rented it for $3. If he wanted to see a kitten falling down stairs and then doing a backflip, that's probably somewhere on Youtube. If I wanted to see that as a kid, well, I'd better start looking for a very gymnastic cat with all its lives.

So to sum up so far, a lot has changed very quickly - about how we consume media. What about how it's formatted?

And how we consume it always necessarily comes before what it is we're consuming changes. Remember when "Netflix Originals" didn't exist? The platform was built, the people came, and then new media came from it.

We've seen TV shows go from the binary of "22 minutes or 44 minutes" to "however long we fucking want". The disintegration of the binary of "comedy or drama". When I was a kid, sitcoms had seasons of 22 episodes, once a week, in the fall. Drama shows usually had 16 episodes. Now Netflix puts out "Mike Tyson Mysteries", with any number of episodes in a season, with each only 11-13 minutes long, pretty much at random. Letterkenny puts out 6-episode seasons once a year on Christmas. Back in my day, we never knew if this season would be the last. Even if the last episode was a cliffhanger, there was no promise of a resolution. Sitcoms kissed the rings of the networks every year hoping to be renewed. The other day South Park announced it was making 6 more seasons and a bunch of movies.

There are a few TV formats that I consider "evolution proof" - game shows (not reality, game), soap operas, late night and standup. All of these date back to radio times and have rarely if ever changed format. I'm personally hoping that, within my lifetime, I'm able to see a change in the way standup is done. We've seen very few attempts to break the mold, and the only example I can think of right now is Mulaney's Sack Lunch Bunch, and to be honest I think it left a lot to be desired. But that's to be expected if media itself is going to change formats - it'll take a lot of trial-and-error.

Quick tangent: I'm not talking about comedy itself. Comedy is constantly changing formats. Vine made absolute stars out of SIX SECOND-LONG content creators. I mean standup. I'd like to see its definition change from "70 minutes of uncut, unedited, scripted jokes told in story form on a stage in front of an audience with a microphone and maybe a few props done by one person, with pauses for laughter and applause, sometimes with audience interaction" to "long-format comedic content delivered by one person to an audience", taking away the mic, the stage, the very structured format. With the exception of maybe Bo Burnham, even if you've never seen a specific comedian, you know what to expect and when to expect it. You can Just Tell when the last joke is about to begin. You're not going to be surprised when the guy picks someone out of the crowd to make a few jokes with. You probably even know the definition of a call-back by name because they're so common. I don't know how it would necessarily change, but I don't think it's impossible.

Back to the main post for one more point: fandom. We've talked about the evolution of the consumption of media and what format we're watching it in. We know the content has evolved. But I think one of the most interesting changes in this category is the way we interact with shows now.

I'm currently sitting in my Simpsons-character-covered tracksuit I bought for $15 on Wish, next to my closet which contains about 15-20 t-shirts. At least 8 of them are Simpsons-themed. When I started building this collection, it started about 5 years ago when I saw my very first Simpsons shirt in a Bluenotes, and it was the only one I had for a few years. I would buy any Simpsons shirt I saw for a while. Today I went to the mall, and if I still had that policy I'd have blown through my savings in one trip.

I actually consider myself lucky; The Simpsons isn't as popular on merch you'd find at the mall as say Rick and Morty, Adventure Time, or Spongebob. I've seen giant stuffed Pickle Ricks, but never an oversized Homer.

My point being, I'm a superfan, but of a slightly older show that isn't nearly as popular as it used to be. If you walk into a Hot Topic, you can probably find any pop culture property on a t-shirt, mug, keychain and temporary face tattoo. This was not the case 10 years ago.

And that's just fandom with regard to the physical world. Did you know that John Mulaney, who did 3 Netflix specials 4 years ago, has THREE subreddits? Every time I get into something new it used to cross my mind, "Hey, I wonder if there's a subreddit for this yet". Now it's "I wonder which of the several subreddits that surely exist for this show/movie/vague concept is best".

A lot of the time when I see the concept of fandom discussed in mainstream media, it's still a severely outdated depiction. Even documentaries tend to stop at "and then Comic-con was invented. The End". I hate to praise it for anything, but if it did anything good, The Big Bang Theory did properly define "fandom" for the world.

I remember when 99% of people polled would not have heard of "fan fiction". I started writing it at 12 when the category for Harry Potter fan fiction on fanfiction.net had but a few thousand entries. My show of choice, Death Note, had a few hundred. I got in on the ground floor and built my way to the top. I abandoned that account 6 years ago and I still get 10-20 story comments or favorites per week.

Now try finding someone who hasn't heard of fan fiction. Find someone who's too old to have written on AO3.

Finally, and I know it's been a long ramble but bear with me, I want to address the homicidal, drunk-driving, pregnant-wife-killing elephant in the room: stans.

If you don't get the reference I just made, please google "origin of the term stan". Caught up? Good, so now answer me this: how did we take a term that refers so very, very obviously to a very, very negative situation and turn it into something someone says casually or even proudly of themselves?

Obviously when I say I stan Green Day that doesn't mean I'm going to write Billie Joe threatening letters and kill my girlfriend, it means I consider myself one of their biggest fans. I think in all of English vocabulary, there's only one other word that's taken such a 180 in definition and it's one I can't say.

Anyway, that's me done. Now that there's more streaming platforms than people who've fucked your mom, I'm interested to see where we go from here.

Stay Greater, Flamingos.

#media #media consumption #evolution of media #tv #sam

1 note · View note

resurgence-rp · 6 years

Photo

Under the cut you can check out all the players that have been accepted for their roles. Congratulations! Please take a look at the instructions at the bottom of the page. For those who haven’t been accepted this time around, don’t be discouraged! Send me a message if you want more feedback on your application and I would love for you to re-apply in the future! Congratulations again to all of you and Welcome to RESURGENCE!

✦ Roman, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of Heath Arlington & Cormac Newman. You chose two characters that are practically opposites, and yet you managed to bring them both to life. I was completely in love with both your applications! For Heath, I absolutely adored the way you developed the parallels between Cerberus and the underworld, and how much the club means to them. And for Cormac my favourite thing is definitely his identity crisis of sorts, and how he’s trying to solve it actually making it the topic of his thesis. I think there’s so much potential here and I can’t wait to start seeing them in action! Great job! (fcs: finn wittrock, thomas doherty)

✦ Marie, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of Elena Lima & Pietro da Costa. Elena and Pietro are trouble in such different ways, but also in the best way. Elena with her almost naivety when it comes to romance, and her need for attention; and then Pietro, this reformed devastatingly charming surfer who’s out to break all of our hearts. It’s not easy to write two apps for two major gods like Aphrodite and Poseidon - but you managed to do it wonderfully! I can’t wait to start writing with you, and see what’s going to happen with them. Amazing job! (fcs: bianca santos, marlon teixeira)

✦ Shannon, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of Valentine Wyght. I absolutely loved Valentine’s family history, and how much that impacted on his personality. How is rebellious ways started as a way of trying to belong, and the search for a place he could finally called home basically still follows him around. I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen to him now that he’s back and he’s clearly seeing things from a different perspective. Is the bad boy attitude over for good? I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Amazing job! (fc: sean teale)

✦ Harleigh, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of Rhiannon Hébert. A champion returns! Lawful evil Rhiannon? Sign me up! One of the most interesting things about Hera as a goddess is how grey her morals are. Sometimes she’s a hero, sometimes she’s an icon, and others she appears like a true villain. I think your app for Rhiannon reflects just that. It’s hard to portray such a morally grey character in a modern setting, but you did a wonderful job, and I can’t wait to see the queen of Mount Wells in action! Drama is assured! (fc: paulina singer)

✦ Kiki, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of Dorian Winslow. One of the things I love the most about Dorian is that he’s such a wild card. The way he’s written, mixed with the Dionysus’ soul component pretty much allows you to go anywhere with him. You saw this change, and took advantage from it flawlessly. From his passion for art, to his predilection for social media, to his commitment when it comes to equality; there’s a lot of potential there and i can’t wait to see him in action! Great job! (fc: avan jogia)

✦ Nat, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of Naia Guerrero. What a lovely and refreshing application this was! I’m so glad that Naia is here to complete our trio! I love how determined she is, how passionate she is, her relationship with the ocean since the beginning, how her parents’ divorce affected her, and how she balances partying and having fun with starting her own life project. I think there’s so much potential there, for both development and drama, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for her. Wonderful job! (fc: bruna marquezine)

✦ Kat, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of Vera Whittemore. I love love love how much thought you put into this application. You just need to read your occupation section to realise you’ve planned everything in Vera’s life to the T, and that’s absolutely amazing to see. You’ve managed to take the info in the skeleton, and give it your own twist, turning Vera into a complex character I’m so eager to see grow here. I can’t wait to write with you and see her in action. Congratulations! (fc: dominique provost-chalkley)

✦ Izzy, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of Edith Pratt. There’s a Clover, and also an Edith, and I couldn’t be happier we got our terrible duo complete from the very beginning! I love the extra quotes you added to the app, but my favourite part were definitely the headcanons. The ones about her relationship with her mum in particular. I feel like you managed to keep the “villain” aspect of Edith but at the same time you made her realistic, and that was amazing to read. I can’t wait to see what she brings to the table! (fc: sky ferreira)

✦ Nella, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of Nina Campbell & Thea Crawford. When I saw your apps for these characters, my first thought was that it was going to be difficult not to make them similar. Even though their stories and backgrounds are completely different, it would be easy to fall for that trap. However, you avoided it completely! You gave Nina a very defined personality, and you wrote a very misguided one for Thea, which I believe was key for both interpretations. I can’t wait to see what kind of situations they’ll both go through now that they’re making changes in their lives. Great job! (fc: naomi scott, sofia carson)

✦ Dani, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of Tristan Santiago. Finally a Tristan! I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw your application. I absolutely loved how detailed it was. Tristan’s relationship with his family, everything to do with his biological father, and his reaction to this sudden fame he has gained after what happened - everything is so well thought and beautifully written that I could go on and on about all the parts I enjoyed while I was reading it. I can’t wait to write with you and see Tristan develop! Wonderful job! (fc: diego boneta)

✦ Mia, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of Dera McClery. I absolutely love Dera. I think she’s one of the most interesting characters of this roleplay, and I’m so glad she has found such a passionate roleplayer to bring her to life. My favourite part of your app were definitely the headcanons. You managed to combine fundamental traits of her character with little things that also paint a perfect picture of who Dera McClery is. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for her and her abilities! Congratulations! (fc: saoirse ronan)

✦ Chloe, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of Amdeus Minett. We have all of our love gods with us and I couldn’t be happier about that! Pretty much like Eros and Aphrodite themselves, Amadeus and Elena paint such a different picture of what love means, and I’m eager to see how that develops. I love how passionate he is about his art and how his creations seem to be the only true love he can keep (and let me tell you, I also appreciate that you went into so much detail about his art preference). There’s a ton of potential, and I can’t wait to see Amadeus grow as a character! Amazing job! (fc: joe keery)

✦ Caitlin, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of David Arevalos. A starving artist that works as a barista - I read that bit and I was already in love. David is simply adorable, and your application was a pleasure to read. I love his sensitivity, the way he thinks about art, and his interest in divination was such a good addition! Honestly all I could think while I read the app was that I want him as a best friend, please. I can’t wait to see him in action, and all that he’s going to bring to the rp! Congratulations! (fc: tyler posey)

✦ Morgan, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of Preston Carver. I was dying for a Preston! He’s definitely one of my favourite characters (maybe because I’m a gamer who plays D&D as well). I love that he’s the go to guy whenever someone is having computer problems (the text to his mum killed me), and on a more serious note, I really enjoyed how you balanced his gamer past with his present - how he enjoys interacting with people and how his personality comes alive when he’s on stream. Also I play a rogue, so much appreciated. Great job! (fc: alberto rosende)

✦ Jane, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of Zachary Bailey. I was so relieved when your application came because I was afraid we were going to start without our king of Mount Wells himself! Your interpretation of Zac is basically all that I would except in a modern Zeus, and more. Occupation: rockstar? Depending on his father’s money? Trying to drag his friends around towards every crazy scheme he comes up with? Just flawless. And to conclude, the text messages made me laugh out loud. Amazing job! (fc: michael b. jordan)

✦ Spooky, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of Katrin Moreno (soul of Hecate). I love love the whole idea of Katrin. Their relationship with their parents, their grandmother, how they leaned on their friends, the fact that their background was so different from the usual one you’d find in Mount Wells - and yet they persevered and turned that into something magical; honestly I was hooked from the very beginning. I truly believe they will be a fantastic addition to the roleplay, and I can’t wait to see them in action! Congratulations! (fc: danny noriega/adore delano)

✦ Emma, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of Clover Wald. This was such a difficult decision! Both applications had very good and different interpretations of Clover. Ultimately what swayed me was the amazing balance of her neutral evil nature. I enjoy a character who isn’t afraid to do morally grey stuff and is proud of it - and that’s exactly what Clover is about. There’s so much potential in her, and honestly I can’t wait to see how exactly she’ll shake things up. Wonderful job! (fc: courtney eaton)

✦ Aaliyah, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of Layla Dunn. Layla is completely and absolutely adorable. I love the fact that she’s very rational and practical, but she’s also got some pluck in her. I also find really interesting that she’s participating in the Science fair to possibly gain some perspective on what to do after she graduates. I feel that was a great way of giving your own interpretation and twist to the info in the skeleton! On a side note, the bit about Pottermore was fantastic; and I’m also addicted to Color Switch. Great job! (fc: jessica sula)

This is what you need to do next:

Follow EVERYONE

Track all of the tags (found HERE)

Make your character account send it in within 24 hours

Open up your askbox

If for any reason you need more time to get your account in, don’t hesitate to message me so I can keep your role open! If I don’t get a message from you then I will assume you’re no longer interested in keeping your spot. Once you send your account, you’ll be provided with the necessary links and we can get started! And of course; HAVE FUN!

#accepted

5 notes · View notes

narrowtriangle33-blog · 3 years

Text

Quotes that accurately describe White Trump Voters.

"It’s not just that he’s white. White people sneer at, mock, ostracize, and generally hate on other white people all the time. It’s that he DELIVERS RACISM and THAT is the priority to his base. This is what gets me when writers and thinkers wring their hands in befuddlement, like Nichols is doing, about how Trump’s base can “vote against their own interests.” They’re not! They’re prioritizing the babies in cages, the “shithole countries” remarks, the deadly Charlottesville clashes with literal fucking Nazis, etc OVER health care, transitioning the economy away from fossil fuels, education, assistance to the poor, and whatever other liberal agenda items one would think would be natural, rational fits for the Cleti everywhere.

These people are absolutely voting in their own interests, and getting exactly what they wanted out of the Trump admin. He has been a tremendous success in their eyes because he has delivered racism since Day 1, and that’s what they want out of politics."

"This, They will never -ever- admit it, outside of trolling on the net, but Trump has done more to support their views and find great joy in it then any GOP member before.

He’s all but given up on the dog whistles, once he found out that the media will simply ‘tut-tut’ and that delights his base. Even when he does something that will fuck them over, they overlook it because he continues to advance their agenda with huge leaps. Most of the never-Trumpers discovered early on that going against him can lead to getting primaried and Mitch is content to let Trump do whatever the fuck he wants with limited disagreement, because he’s busy installing GOP goal friendly judges everywhere.

The DNC’s response has been to avoid rocking the boat as much as they can by offering up Joe with a bone thrown to black people with a possable black woman VIP. (If that even happens), but the chances are high that Trump will get another four years to continue to do as he likes. And what will the Dems do? Protest and throw shade and offer limited resistance that won’t slow down Trump for a second.

People don’t like to even entertain the idea that Trump will win, but without a huge number of people turning out against them, what else can they expect will happen?"

"My father HATED John Wayne with a burning passion that I remember from age 3-4! He loved Westerns but he would spend the entire movie foaming at the mouth at all the racist tropes and outright historical lies of each one of them! Honestly, although he loved thoughtful rap, I think he idolized Chuck D for simply uttering his infamous lyric!

Now that I’ve reached a certain age, I find I love Westerns too - but not John Wayne, Clint Eastwood or any old ones. I like the newer ones that speak to what deplorables white cowboys were: The Revenant, Bone Tomahawk, Hostiles and the like. They’re still white-centered and white-washed but any modern thinking person can see that the cowboy image should stand for nothing but a savagely cruel, thieving, raping murderer (and we’ve been consistently lied to)."

"Does Trump accept responsibility and look out for his team? Not in the least. In this category, he exhibits one of the most unmanly of behaviors: He’s a blamer. Nothing is ever his fault."

"This is nothing but rose-colored bullshit. Anyone who’s ever spent more than 5 minutes working in corporate life knows for the most part this isn’t how white men behave. Those offices are full of extremely mediocre men who are very confident and have nothing to back it up with other than their bluster, egos, and the generational wealth that allows them a leg up over others. That generational wealth allows them to go to the diploma mills that open doors for them. Admitting mistakes or even admitting just not knowing something in that environment comes off as weakness to them. They spend most of their energy trying to project the image of confidence and control, which is why they’re quick to rage when things don’t go their way. A good example is the douche bag running Quibi that gave that horrendus interview a couple of weeks ago. He was asked a couple of questions about why his company was failing while other streaming services are thriving, and where they might have went wrong in their business model. He didn’t accept responsibility for shit. He went into his hurt little feelings and attacked the interviewer, and tried to make the questions seem like they weren’t valid.

On steroids this white American exceptionalist world view is called patriotism. It manifests in the idea that we as a country can do things counter intuitive the rest of the world just because we’re the USA. More mass shootings by far than any other country? USA! Other countries have cheap/free education through college? So what, USA! Biden even displayed this during one of the debates when Warren pointed out the same disparity in our healthcare compared to every other developed nation. Guess how he responded.

I feel like I started rambling a little but what I’m trying to get at is that whiteness, toxic masculinity, and patriotism are so intertwined that its beyond the author of that Trump think piece."

"Funnily enough as the article and subject matter were in regard to racism in the US I didn’t feel a burning need to mention Indigenous Australians but to answer your question they are pretty much in the same boat as black Americans. Did anything I say imply otherwise or were you just fishing for an argument?

"Stupid as it is, “You’re a manly-man, right? So why is your manly-man leader such a cowardly little pussy?”

That’s not what he projects and that’s not what they see. They see him using aggressive and accusatory tones and language all the time and it makes him look tough."

They fall for the “Emporor Has No Clothes” routine because they never look at him critically. They buy the bullshit on the surface, and don’t see that his words never match his actions. He said on tv several times that if anyone in the country wants a Covid test, they can get tested. Ask them how many people they know whose jobs don’t require it, have actually been tested. He down played the death toll of this disaster every step of the way. Remember when we were supposed to be in church for Easter? As long as he lies with confidence, they’ll follow him to hell."

"I’m definitely tired, and frustrated, and everything else. I keep holding my nose and voting, and that only adds to the exhaustion and frustration because very little if anything seems to change, and in some ways we keep repeating the mistakes of the past. I’d never advocate for doing nothing, but trying to engage and challenge the average Republican-voting dipshit to think critically, and not keep supporting people and policies that perpetuate and exacerbate the problems this country has??? No thanks. If you’re not black, I so encourage you to take up that mantle, but for me as a black dude in this country I can’t. Talk about shooting the messenger. Plus, to keep it a buck, this is mostly white people’s mess, if not all. They need to fix it.

Honestly I feel like racism festers because most white people just look the other way. The racism of their peers/friends/relatives doesn’t impact them personally so they’re probably just people to be avoided. Why rock the boat when you can just avoid an uncomfortable topic? Joe might forward you Fox News and OANN stories, and racist FB memes, but he’s fun at Bills games. Well what if Joe is also a cop, or in a management position over minorities? You can bet money he takes those views you overlooked with him to his job. The PoC he interacts with won’t have the benefit of seeing him at Bills games, or might not even have the benefit of being seen as equals."

"People get so caught up in the blatant, mustache-twirling racism that they don’t see the subtle pervasive way it spreads like a cancer. For every Trump there are dozens Joes, and along with the Joes are the real problem: The people who ignore the Joes. The Joes and Karens go on to commit all kinds of microaggressions that Poc pretty much have to tolerate, and in Joe’s and Karen’s minds that’s just the way the world works. I deserved to get followed around Joe’s store. I came in wearing a hoodie and Adidas so I couldn’t be up to any good. Karen felt threatened when I walked into the building she lives in, so she felt justified to call the police, never mind the fact that I live there too. This is how deep this shit runs. It’s not just politics. Racism isn’t just baked into politics. It’s part of the flour the US was baked with.

So I appreciate you if you’re willing to call these fools out. I’m glad somebody is because I’m not wasting my breath. They won’t hear me anyway."

"I mean if Tom Nichols was in front of me and read this steaming pile of shit to me I would’ve slapped him silly and said the reason that people that look like you excuse all of his fuck ups, failings and mistakes is because well HE LOOKS LIKE YOU!!!! The question that none of these mouth breathing chud monkeys seem to want to answer or are incapable of answering is would you excuse any black, Hispanic or Asian man that had his resume? We know the fucking answer.

When this bloated piece of unseasoned chicken shut down the government in January of 2019 hurting his all white, poorly educated base the most a quote from a voter in Florida was burned into my head forever. She said upon not getting her government subsidized check (I mean they have no issues with the government helping them, it is those pesky brown people that are lazy and entitled) “He is not hurting the people he is supposed to be hurting.” Let that sink in. A voting US Citizen thought it was the job of the sitting *president to hurt people. That says it all. Their allegiance isn’t based in anything other than anger and hatred of those that they deem less than them. Fuck him and them and may they both rot in hell."

"“He is not hurting the people he is supposed to be hurting.”

That spontaneous, bewildered, stream of consciousness utterance by someone who doesn’t think critically but has an indwelt recognition of like-mindedness IS the Trump voter exemplified! A racist who found themselves too poor, too old and without the power to demand or protect the status quo and just wants to stick it to their perceived enemies while retaining ‘something’ for themselves.

That sentiment has fueled every waking thought, worry and action of an American white since the founding of this country.

So, it’s not just every Confederate flag waver, every neo-Nazi and every flyover state’er; it’s every aggrieved American white who had to accept the changing world around them; there’s no reasoning with them nor changing their minds.

My fear is that I’m becoming inhumane like them because I was soooo happy when he cut her Meals on Wheels and didn’t cut her Social Security check."

"I think you nailed this right on the head. All through the article, he keeps pointing out what we already know except for one thing. After all, why would white people elect someone who is so far outside of what they claim to be/stand for? He’s not conservative in any real way. Yet conservatives stand behind him. He’s not a Christian in any practical sense by his actions. Yet Christians say he’s sent by God. He’s not a good businessman, father, or even person. Yet here we are. The only answer that makes sense in any real way is that he is proof that to many people, any white man can do the same or better than even the best black man, woman, or POC in general. There’s always a backlash to progress both real and imagined. Trump is it."

"Also, a lot of the characteristics Nichols thinks represent the opposite of idealized masculinity are actually representative of masculinity as it is performed in this country. From my experience with men who lean into their masculinity, it is about performing dominance by antagonizing people, all in the service of making shallow, insecure men feel better about themselves. Trump is a domineering asshole, which is what too many men think being a man is all about."

"It is fascinating how unbelievably brainless racists are. Many of the commenters and you Damon have pointed out the stupidity of racism. I mean this seriously, racists have absolutely abandoned intellect, progress, humanity or desire for real greatness that could manifest through equality, in order to hold onto the despicable delusion of superiority based solely on a human having more melanin than another. The sheer simplicity of the trick doesn’t even seem like it should work; but alas, all roads merge at Slave Rd. The dimwitted aptitude it takes for a person to actually believe stealing humans, beating, burning, assaulting, selling their children on auction blocks, splitting families (and more brutalities)...... all for greed born out of sheer laziness, and again stupidity is mindblowing. You literally must turn your brain off to be a racist, and you see it now. Millions of white people, with switch STILL off, courtesy of their forefathers, have continued down this same disastrous, nose-spite-ing road. There’s a lot of white people walking around with black kerchief’s, hiding the draining blood and a ragged hole where their nose once occupied, holding a tight grasp of their hate. Their greed. Trump finally allows them to remove that blood soaked kerchief with pride for all the world see their disfigurement. It’s stunning that there is pride where instead, their should be pure shame for then and for now."

0 notes

thestartupdubai · 3 years

Text

Top 5 Business Ideas for Start Business in Dubai UAE

We're going to go over 15 new business ideas that you can start during this crisis that might allow you to create something brand new that you never thought possible in just 15 minutes, that's right, one business idea per minute, but first, let's go over some background information.

Discuss what is going on right now. Recent data has shown that unemployment is at an all-time high, with one out of every five Americans unemployed, which is insane, and it reminds me of my storey from 2008, when I was laid off during the recession for various reasons, and it A tell you a little bit about the niche and why I think there's opportunity there, and a lot of these are a resurgence of the recession.

Business Ideas Under 10 Lakhs in Dubai

I think that demonstrates where I'm coming from, so fuck you. What I want you to realise is that yes, you can take advantage of the resources you have here to serve a community of people, but you must come from a certain background.

Kids are home all day right now, which they've never seen before, and if you're like me, you want your kids on the iPad for nine hours a day, right? But we also need to get them to learn, so there's that distant learning that's going on right now, but we as parents still have to get stuff done.

What Small Business Can You Start at Home

Right now is a good time to concentrate business ideas on that and assist them, because if you can find parents and appreciate their pains and concerns, that's where you'll find some good opportunities right now. Number two, I want you to consider content creators right now.

Guess what, they're going to need some help, so companies that start to help those new creators who are focused on their efforts edit their things, repurpose their material, there are massive opportunities right now and there's going to be a huge boom in services that help content creators.

7 Innovative Business Ideas in Response to Coronavirus

Number three, let's talk about speakers. This is a fantastic opportunity for you to zero in on a particular niche in the creator room. Speakers have been hit particularly hard during this time, with events being cancelled left and right by people who used to fly. What do these speakers have to say?

Build their own virtual events, from which they can then create their own online mini-events - and many of them, with a lot of experience talking about these subjects over and over, are best suited to guess what to write books now, so maybe you can step up and assist speakers.

What Is a Good Business to Start With 10k?

Starving musicians, guess what, they were already starving, and now they could business ideas be starving even more, and they're going to need some support. There are a lot of people right now who are stepping up to teach art, creativity, and their work, whether it's guitar, piano, or whatever it is, there's a massive demand.

Business Ideas You Can Start With No Money

I think we all know that hobbies have been really good, from piano to guitar to art to all sorts of stuff, and now is the time to lean into that and support those who really need that extra income right now, and it could be a fantastic situation with a win-win situation for everybody.

Business Ideas With Low Investment and High Profit

Cation, and I believe there will be a big opportunity connecting students who are at home now learning out while at home to communicate with companies tech companies and other companies who might need some support that are now looking at a lot of remote work solutions, so a student just coming out of college will have a lot of opportunities.

Business Ideas Related to Information Technology

Very well, and you can get paid for it. For example, I know a lot of people who used Craigslist to find students right before the crisis, so why not be the middleman who can help link great students with great talent with companies that need that talent? Let's take a look at some entertainers.

Business Ideas That Can Make You a Millionaire

They've been spending a lot of time in person going from audition to audition and working on their work outside of the house, but guess what? They're in the house now, and you may be able to help them consult, bring them ideas, and even help them develop their personal brand online.

Business Ideas During Lockdown in Dubai

Developing their online brand is number seven. The health and fitness niche is obviously big, and what I believe there are opportunities in terms of specialty fitness solutions for people in this current crisis and what the new normal will be, and I'm reminded of a man named Joe who has a channel on YouTube about this.

What Are Some Good Ideas for a Small Business?

That niche, or even virtual training like I get from my friend Jeff at total body construction com, there are massive opportunities in fitness right now because people are at home eating junk food and need support, and you can help them - so that's fitness. That's what I'm talking about when it comes to diet.

What Are the Most Successful Business Ideas?

This is another way to tackle companies now here's what I would business ideas suggest figuring out what a business type is because businesses are concentrating on new things that they've never had to concentrate on before and there may be software-based solutions that can support them so instead of going in and helping them in, I would recommend finding out what a business type is because businesses are focusing on new things that they've never had to focus on before and there may be solutions that are software-based that can help them.

Create tools to assist them in managing their inventory and a variety of other tasks. I did an episode with a man named Dane knacks Dane Maxx, which was episode 46 in my podcast, where we actually called companies and asked them what they needed help with and what was inconvenient that they wished they could fix.

Memberships are a massive opportunity right now, and one of my good friends, Steve Mc Claren, has just spoken about how his students in his tribes network, who are all membership-based website owners, are booming right now because guess what people are missing right now? They're craving community and interaction, and when you can provide that, it's a win-win situation.

Connect with the group and share your business ideas on the website. It's not even about the content you put in there; it's about the link; it's about the guidance; it's about that sort of yearning for connection, community, and networking that people are sorely lacking right now, so if you can build a membership platform right now, that would be fantastic.

During these times, I know a lot of people who are starting gardens in their homes and even trying to grow their own food, which is incredible. I also know that the gardening niche is exploding right now, as shown by some of the numbers on Amazon with a lot of the items that are being sold.

You just need a small group of people who could use your guidance and advice, and you know expert curation whether it's selling your own goods or affiliate marketing as an opportunity, you could become the go-to person to help people start their own garden at home, and check in and share your progress with them every day.

Sports are also going on. There are several opportunities in eSports electronic gaming sports. For example, there are opportunities to create competitions for various types of games. There are also opportunities to create guides, YouTube channels, business plans, and twitch streams for various games.

We're moving into a new normal where people are engaging and seeking community. There are also opportunities in both VR and gaming, as well as AR. What are your plans to take the next step?

Many of those people don't know how to do that; they frequently have people who help them behind the scenes, and guess what? You can step up and support them as well by identifying college and professional athletes in a variety of sports and being their go-to person for assistance.

Should something else happen and they are unable to return to their line of work, it is worth a lot to me, and you should step up and support someone in that space as well number thirteen. I'd like you to consider brick-and-mortar companies.

I always say that the riches are in the niches, and your niche may be something like, "I'm going to help brick-and-mortar businesses stay alive by selling more goods online, starting a Shopify website, or being able to deliver more products and help them fulfil their things," or something similar.

Focus on learning the language of the audience and knowing what their buyers need, as well as learning how to ship those products and get refunds if they don't suit and other stuff like that. There are so many possibilities if they only focus on that niche and then have discussions to understand what they would need help with.

Meditation in virtual reality, I believe, would be a thing. Traveling through VR, I hope, would become a thing, and there are massive opportunities there have always been opportunities to do that in VR, and I believe now is a great time for a lot of those spaces inside VR to emerge.

Especially in relation, and while the gaming aspect is important, I believe the VR community will see a massive boom as a result of what's going on even outside of the game. Okay, number 15, and this is a big one for me. There will be a new educational norm in the future.

focus your energies and resources on a particular community, whether it's parents, teachers, schools, or whatever, and seeing if you may be able to build something is it an opportunity for you there in number 16 yes, I said there are only 15, but we're doing 16 because I always want to do more.

I'll take you to a fast and simple tutorial on how to get started with live streaming and the best apps to do so, but consider this: there are people who are used to watching regular television shows or late-night shows at home, and I'm one of them.

Opportunity for you to provide value to others, and I believe you will become the person who can help others go live as well, so if you want to learn more about how it works and maybe even get paid to help others do that, just click on the connection that's up there in the icon.

Conclusion

Perhaps you know someone who has recently lost their job, and there are new opportunities coming out every day. I believe it was Sir Richard Branson who said that business ideas are like buses, and if you miss one, you just have to wait for the next one, and guess what, there are a whole load of business idea buses that ribe hit those Bell notification icons so that I can send you more videos as they come out.

Business setup Dubai is not easy, just like anywhere else. Do your research. Talk to other business owners and possible co-tenants. Consult experts on how to set up a company in Dubai and make sure to utilize available resources to help in your efforts.

If you need assistance for a Dubai business setup , KGRN is at your service. With years of experience in the industry, they are able to have you and your team legally ready to work within the day.

Ref: https://kgrnaudit.com/business-setup-in-dubai/

#Business Dubai Company_Setup

0 notes

whereareroo · 3 years

Text

THE LAW OF AVERAGE

WF THOUGHTS (4/6/21).

We're in the midst of another heavily televised criminal trial. It's happening in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This week, we started the second week of testimony. Every day, I've been watching about 30 minutes at lunch time and another hour in the late afternoon when I do some weight lifting and other exercises.

Derek Chauvin is facing criminal charges arising from the death of George Floyd. At the time of the underlying interaction, Chauvin was a Minneapolis Police Officer and Floyd was a Minneapolis resident. Chauvin restrained Floyd by cuffing his hands behind his back, putting him face down on the street, and kneeling on the back of his neck. Floyd died. Chauvin was fired. The City of Minneapolis reached a $27 million civil settlement with the Floyd family. At this trial, Chauvin is facing three criminal charges arising from Floyd's death. The gist of the charges is that Chauvin unintentionally, or negligently, killed George Floyd.

As a lawyer, I hate televised trials. Because the proceedings are on television, the public expects the lawyers to perform like the lawyers who have been portrayed by outstanding actors like Matthew McConaughey, Gregory Peck, Julianna Margulies, Joe Pesci, Tom Cruise, Calista Flockhart, Sam Waterston, Reese Witherspoon, Andy Griffith, or Raymond Burr. Inevitably, the viewing public is disappointed with the real lawyers and the general reputation of lawyers is further diminished. Lawyers have enough problems. They don't need to take extra abuse because the real-life lawyers on televised trials are mediocre.

Lawyers are no different than any other profession. The folks in the top 10% are real superstars. The folks in the next 20% are pretty good. After that, everybody is mediocre or worse. Let's face it, most people are average. That's life.

You can't make yourself into a superstar lawyer. Similarly, you can't make yourself into a superstar baseball player or a superstar musician. The underlying innate skills are a gift. To reach superstardom, those innate skills need to be enhanced with years of study, experience, experimentation, and hard work. If you don't have the underlying stuff, all the work in the world isn't going to turn you into a superstar.

Championship sports coaches are frequently asked: "How did you get this team to the top?" They all have the same answer: "By constantly competing against teams that were better than us." Doesn't that make sense? You get to the top by facing stiff competition and increasingly difficult competition. That's how you learn. That's how you mature. That's how you gain confidence. If you're a mediocre softball team and you only play against other mediocre softball teams, you're probably going to stay mediocre. To become a superstar, you have to place yourself in an environment that offers very stiff competition and you need to push yourself to the top. That's what separates the superstars from everyone else.

Now, let's apply some of these thoughts to the lawyers who are handling the Derek Chauvin trial.

The prosecution team is led by Matthew Frank. The other key team member seems to be Steve Schleicher. They could be brothers. They look alike. They're both White, they're both 50ish, and they both have "average" builds and appearances. Their mannerisms are similar.

Frank and Schleicher have another thing in common. They both went to the same law school in St. Paul, Minnesota. I looked into the history of the law school. It's a strange story. It's an amalgamation of a few very small law schools that decided to merge. The "big" players in the merger were the William Mitchell College of Law and the Hamline University School of Law. I've never heard of those law schools.

What conclusion can be drawn from the fact that these guys didn't go to a "Top 20" law school like Yale, or Stanford, or Harvard, or Columbia, or the other top names? It means that these guys weren't at the top of the applicant pool when they applied to law schools. According to the academic standards used by the top schools, these guys didn't have the brain power to become superstars. To enhance their own reputations, the top law schools want to produce superstars. They only take applicants who show superstar potential. It's just like our Olympic Training Facilities. They only take athletes that show superstar potential.

Let me give you another data point about the strange law school that trained Frank and Schleicher. (It's now called the Mitchell Hamline School of Law.) U.S. News and World Report ranks all sorts of universities and professional schools. In the most recent law school ranking, the Mitchell Hamline school ranked #141 out of a total of 197 law schools. Thus, it's in the bottom 30% of all law schools. Students at such law schools are not exposed to world class professors who stretch the minds of students. Students at such law schools aren't able to grow by competing with the top law students in the country. It's almost impossible for graduates of such law schools to overcome these initial obstacles and become superstars.

Legal education alone does not make anybody a legal superstar. The next step is experience in a competitive legal environment. That generally means a job, or a series of jobs, in a major metropolitan area where big law firms handle complex legal matters. Superstar lawyers tend to become superstars by working in the metropolitan areas surrounding places like New York City, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Washington D.C. The Chauvin prosecutors didn't go to any of those places to get top notch legal experience. They've spent their entire careers in the Minneapolis area. I'm sure Minneapolis is a nice place. It is not a training ground for legal superstars. It's not a place where great legal minds push each other through competition, and it's not a place where there's steady diet of complex legal matters that force lawyers to constantly expand their skills.

Frank and Schleicher are totally adequate prosecutors. For the reasons set forth above, they’re not superstars. They'd probably be the first to admit that they're not superstars. The viewing public shouldn't expect them to be superstars just because they got stuck with a case that's on national television. Give them a break. They're adequate. There's nothing wrong with adequate.

What about the other guy? The defense lawyer is Eric Nelson. Guess what? Same weird law school. Same 100% Minneapolis career path. Same result. He's an adequate lawyer. He's clearly not a superstar and he'd probably admit it.

So, we have an even match here. There are mediocre lawyers all around. It's always good when there's an even match. People can't say that the outcome was the result of unequal legal talent.

As you watch the rest of this trial, you should be celebrating the fact that it's a fair legal fight. Yes, some of the questioning is disjointed and unfocused. Yes, the examinations lack punch. Yes, the lawyers are boring and they're totally unable to use theatrics to bring life to their story lines. You can't expect superstardom here. Pretend that you're watching a high school baseball game between two relatively equal teams. It's not major league baseball, but it can be an enjoyable experience if you approach the game with reasonable expectations.

It took me a few days to adapt to the mediocre lawyering. Ever since I adjusted my expectations, I'm doing fine. As I watch, I've stopped shouting an endless stream of snide remarks. These guys are doing their best. They've a product of their history. They're totally normal American lawyers. There's nothing wrong with normal. In some ways, "normal" is very comfortable. I wish both sides the best of luck. They have tough jobs. Let's hope that the Jury convicts Chauvin, and that the Judge imposes the maximum sentence.

0 notes

contradictoryenigmas · 3 years

Text

2020 Postmortem: 10 Questions

2020. A year that did not go as planned. Okay, I am massively downplaying just what a complete shitshow it was. The best way I can describe is that episode of Seinfeld where George declares it to be the "Summer of George", only to have him in a hospital bed towards the end, disappointed that it didn't work out.

When I started writing this year's 10 questions piece, I wasn't sure how it would form considering most of the year was spent at home, trying to survive. But the result is the longest 10 questions to date. Guess I had a lot to get out there.

Author's Note: If you are new to this or want to take a look back at previous pieces, you can click on the links here: 2017, 2018, and 2019.

What made up your body of work this year? Which parts are you most proud of?

I should start with one of the major elephants in the room. Since March 12th, I have been working from home. The day before, all of us at work got an email from the home office in the United Kingdom saying the offices there and in the U.S. would be closed for a time to protect employees from the growing spread of COVID-19. Many of us thought we would be back in the office in a month or so. Oh boy, how wrong we were considering later that day, news would come out that Tom Hanks and his wife contracted the virus and the NBA would suspend their season after a player tested positive.

Not being in an office has some significant downsides for me. For one, it was the place where I interacted with people outside of close family. Now, the only real interaction I do with co-workers is either over email or Microsoft Teams, mostly dealing with work stuff. I worry this long period of isolation will hurt my social abilities, which to be fair were at negative levels when I had started this job last year, but were improving. The other is losing the separation between work and home. Since coming home and spending time in my room as an office and place to rest, my anxiety and feelings that I should be working started to come in. Some of this was alleviated by me setting some ground rules such as having a hard stop. But those feelings are still there and likely hampered efforts to try and relax.

Most of my work for the year was spent on three big projects that would set the course for the future of the company. Having this on the back of my shoulders added a bit of anxiety and drained me of a lot of energy. Every day, I found myself crashing in bed to take a quick nap so I could regain some energy.

That brings me to writing. 2020 I was hoping to get back to writing in a big way. Not only with automotive stuff, but doing some more with this blog and launching a new project. But with everything that has been going on this year, a lot of these ambitions had to be shelved. A lot of this stems from not having any energy or motivation to either start and/or finish various pieces. There would be moments where a burst of energy comes on and could I belt out a quick review or news story, but it was rare. At the end of this year, I have a bit of a backlog of new car reviews to get up. But at least I'm not pushing myself to the grindstone and getting them out. This only results in shoddy work and I feel quite bad.

For the personal blog, this is going to be the first and last piece for the year. It wasn't for the lack of trying. Several pieces currently sit on my laptop that are in varying states of completion, but again, I lacked the energy or motivation to go forward.

There are a couple of pieces I want to call out,

Afterthoughts: A Car In Troubled Times: This was written after my Grandfather passed away in June (not from COVID). With this and everything going on in the world, I wrote about how the car became a place where I could escape the world for a bit and work out various thoughts and feelings.

Quick Drive: 2020 Lexus RC F: My last new car review of the year and man what a car. I loved the throaty V8 engine and the grand touring nature of the suspension. I think the last line sums up my feelings about this car,

"It brought me the joy which sometimes is all you need a car to do."

What were your top 5 moments of the year?

Getting back to reviewing vehicles on a somewhat regular basis

Saving enough money to move forward on finding my first apartment

I know that's only two, but I really can't think of anything else from this landfill fire of a year.

What are you really glad is over?

THE YEAR! (cymbal crash)

Okay, that was obvious, so let go a bit deeper.

The mess of the 2020 elections are mercifully done. A lot of us knew this was going to be very different, but I don't think we knew how much it would be. Just look at the first debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Then election day rolls around and seeing the collective sadness rear its head as the first ballots are being counted, even though we knew that the mail-in ones were still waiting in the wings to be tallied. It took a few days, but the sense of jubilation when the results were leaning towards Biden was not all that surprising, considering the mess of the past four years. Whether or not this gets better remains to be seen.

How are you different today than you were 365 days ago?

I touched on this with the first question, but loneliness has been a big issue. Not being able to interact with people outside of my own family has brought back memories of some of the dark days of depression where I wouldn't talk with anyone. Thankfully, I'm not fully returning to these ways. But I can't help but worry that my socials skills will be back at a negative level. Twitter and Instagram have filled in some of the missing social aspects, but I can only use it so much before feelings of "Fear of Missing Out" and not being able to interact in person. Also, the deluge of various events such as the killing of George Floyd and the election meant I had to turn off social media at times to allow time to process and work out various feelings.

My mental health has also taken a bit of a stumble. Various aspects of my ADHD have started to come back in force with procrastination, distractions, fear of rejection, and warped perception of time to name a few. There has also been a large amount of stress and anxiety to work through because of the year. I think it's a bad sign when your anxieties have their anxieties to deal with.

To top it off, it has been hard to find something to keep my mind occupied for longer than five minutes. I look at the number of books and video games currently sitting on shelves or stacked in the closet waiting to be open, or the various movies and TV shows I have in queues for various streaming services and my own media server. Yet, they are left untouched. I drift towards scrolling through various social media outlets or watching the same YouTube videos. I've been trying to figure out why these are my go-to and not the items listed above that would give the same pleasure and stimulation, but also open some new windows and ideas. I haven't fully figured it out yet, but I do have some clues and ideas as to why.

On the flip side, I'm very lucky that I am still employed. That may seem like a put-down, but out of my close family, I'm the only one who has stayed employed throughout the year. My mom's last day of school was the day I started working from home, and she wouldn't return until the start of the new year. Both my dad and brother had furloughs at their respective jobs during the late Spring.

I have been slowly messing around with some projects that I've been wanting to do. These include expanding my media sever collection to include music, cataloging various media so I stop buying duplicates, and starting to explore various interests that I had when I younger.

Getting back to reviewing new cars has been quite enjoyable. Despite having a backlog that will not be finished till sometime in February or March, it has been fun again to figure out a vehicle's high and low points.

Is there anything you achieved that you forgot to celebrate?

Nope.

What have you changed your perspective on this year?

Two things come to mind. First is that I don't need a firehose of information. I was subscribed to several sites through RSS and had many people I was following on Twitter to see what was happening. But this massive flow of information was only making my anxiety and stress worse. For the past month, I have started to unsubscribe to a number of newsletters and RSS feeds, along with culling down my Twitter following list.

Second is that I need to slow down. What I mean by this is I need to take my time and not focus on trying to finish everything as fast as possible so I move on to the next thing. There is something about taking a moment to breathe or letting things play out to a point to where you can jump in and provide a different point of view.

Who are the people that came through for you this year?

My therapist came through this year, transitioning from in-person visits to doing chats either through Zoom or on the phone - depending on whether or not either of us run into technical issues. They have been really helpful just listening to whatever was on my mind that week, and point out possible thoughts and directions to chew on to get me into a better place.

There is also a large number of people I interacted with that made the lockdown and isolation a little bit more bearable. Too many to list here, but I would like to say thank you to all.

What were some pieces of media that defined your year?

Casiopea, Mint Jams: There is a person who I follow on Twitter that brings up Casiopea from time to time. This Japanese jazz fusion band has been around since 1976 and produced a number of albums. I had them in the back of my mind for a time to check, but wasn't until the fall when I started listening to Mint Jams - their seventh album (and I believe second live album). I immediately fell in love with the band after hearing the first track Take Me. Something about this brings absolute joy and pleasure. Since then, I have bought the CD and started to dive fully into the discography.

youtube

Yakuza Like A Dragon (Playstation 4): I don't know how to describe a game where one minute you're beating up criminals and the next minute you're trying to figure out who is urinating in a river. It seems ridiculous, but that's Yakuza Like a Dragon in a nutshell. There are moments of complete absurdity that is intertwined with tender and heartfelt moments as you interact with your compatriots. I'm currently on chapter five and finding new stuff to do such as a Mario Kart knockoff and running my own business, while trying to figure why I was betrayed by a father figure. It's chaotic and beautiful at the same time.

Zero 7, Simple Things: This album was the one I would play if I was feeling down or needed a reminder to slow down.

youtube

Growing Collection of Face Masks: If I am going to wear face masks to protect myself and others, I might as well have some interesting ones. Currently have around twenty masks that I wear and wash, all of them with some distinct pattern or fabric to have them stand out. I'm likely going to be buying a few more in the new year because I'm really like wearing them.

Honorable Mentions: Ghost of Tsushima; Animal Crossing: New Horizons; Paper Mario: The Origami King; Tatort - German Crime Drama; Motorweek's Retro Reviews on YouTube; Newton and the Counterfeiter by Thomas Levenson; x + y: A Mathematician's Manifesto for Rethinking Gender by Eugenia Cheng (currently reading, may appear in my 2021 10 Questions).

What will you be leaving behind in 2020?

This one hurts but it is the "old normal". I remember listening to a podcast about a couple of months after starting working from home and one of the hosts brought up that the old normal isn't coming back. We need to take time and mourn the loss. I didn't know what to make of this at the time, but it really started to sink in as this mess slowly continued throughout the year.

Think about how much has changed in your day to day routine. For example, I don't leave the house unless I really need to get something from the grocery store, taking the dog for a walk, or going for a drive to clear my head. A lot of places I would have normally gone are either only allowing pickup or closed down. I haven't seen anyone outside my family since March and have seen only a couple of relatives since then.

No one knows what comes after the virus is at a state where all of us can resume some sort of 'normal'. Will our favorite places still be around? Is virtual learning going to be the next step for schools? Are we going to watching new movies over streaming services and not at a theater? Will online shopping take over as the main source of getting goods?

There's a lot of unknowns that will not have an answer for quite some time. But I have started to mourn that the old normal is gone. As much I hate it and don't know what's next, I know that I have to ready myself in some fashion.

What do you hope to accomplish in 2021?

Unfortunately, a lot of the stuff I want to work on in the coming year depends on what happens with the rollout of the vaccine and containing the virus. There are a few things I have marked as priorities.

Moving into my first place: So I never have talked about this publicly except to a few close people, but I'm really looking forward to moving out and into an apartment. Originally I was planning to do it this year, but then everything came to a screeching halt. This proved to be a blessing in disguise as I was able to save a bit more money so that I had two months of rent and the security deposit. I have a few places in mind and the goal is to move in before the end of March. That will give me enough time to figure out several items such as insurance.

Writing: I feel like this is something I mention every year. Some progress is made, but not as much as I would like. This past year, I was hoping to branch out by doing more with this blog and starting a couple of projects that had been sitting around for a while. But none of those things happened. Next year, I have some maintenance items to do for the personal blog. I don't know if I'll have anything worth writing about at the moment since my brain is currently recovering from a pile of mush. As for the projects, I'm hoping to launch one sometime in the next few months. The other is going to sit on the sidelines still as I still need to work out some items with that.

Keeping Records: I always think that I remember 'x' and I don't need to write anything down about it, and it turns out I do forget. Yeah, I'm wanting to change that for this coming year. Primarily, I'm doing this for any vehicle I review because it might be months before I start writing, and have forgotten key parts I wanted to mention. This is also something I want to do with books, video games, and music as a way to remember what I enjoyed throughout a given year.

It would be at this point I would end this postmortem with some pithy note about 2020 getting kicked out and 2021 hopefully being a massive improvement. Except that feels quite insincere. We have various vaccines rolling out, but it remains a massive question as to how fast and whether or not enough people take it. There's also the toll on mental health that is only going to get larger not only from those working in hospitals but in other fields. I could go on with other items, but you get a general idea.

#2020 #postmortem #reivew

0 notes