vennela kishore deserves an award for existing

Just me casually being mad about some shit

I fucking seethe when people find it okay to say

"mademoiselle"

Aren't you aware that you can't use it no more. It's technically incorrect. Either way use ma'am or nothing at all cause imma smack the dog shit out of you.

By the way, I don't know if anyone has shared highlights from the Maghni AI stream yet? I caught the beginning when it came out but it was 2AM and the demons told me to go to sleep. I decided to watch it now, and I thought I'd do it over multiple sessions because livestreams can be a little stressful for me but honestly everyone in the team seemed really friendly and I didn't mind watching the entire thing (at 1.75x speed of course,) but either way, here are my notes:

Natalia's cats are named Chip and Pancake.

Third parties will reveal their voicebanks at their own discretion. First party voicebanks will be revealed/demo-ed, if I understood well, whenever they're ready; especially those that should be available on or near launch.

No set project timeline yet (for features, voicebank reveals, and such); maybe in a few months when they're more certain. It should be revealed around March or April.

They are planning to share weekly updates for the crowdfund and to host monthly livestreams.

Re: "when are we getting Aurum and Audine demos?" Demos will come out as time goes on; it seems the VPs aren't done re-recording yet. (Oliver will have his own demo over the time of the CF too, most likely with more recordings than what was shared so far.)

Oliver's old recordings are owned by YAMAHA. Vocatone hired a new voicer; Natalia mentions he is an adult. They chose to work with an adult for ethical reasons. He, as well as other voice providers, made the decision to remain anonymous.

No plans for free voicebanks à la SynthV Lite. They are looking for ways to have people test voicebanks before they make their purchase, but they're worried about having a version that isn't an accurate reflection of the finished project.

Languages such as Spanish or Portuguese, which can vary largely depending on region, should have separate support. I'm definitely not wording this well AT ALL but basically, Maghni AI is ready to deal with European Spanish sounding different from South American Spanish. Canadian French and correct French will also be separate. (<- I'm French and a little jokester)

There are no plans for Standard voicebanks. However, Caleb Long has been working on a """robot mode""" meant for people who preferred the sound of their previous line of products.

They are not ready to show off the program's crosslang abilities, because they don't feel like it's up to their standard of quality yet. Hopefully in the next few months.

Some items are going to be CF exclusive, but others not, such as Library Physicals, which will be available to purchase later.

Base program is going to be free; libraries should be about USD$85 each, give or take, with potential differences for third parties. Vocatone's voicebanks should be $85.

Crossy (art designer) will post artworks on Bluesky, not Twitter.

No TTS plans for now; it would be in the very distant future.

The ability to create your own plugins would also be in a fairly distant future.

tl;dr: while singers are meant to keep their "native" accent, if a voicebank was recorded in multiple languages, it should have a dataset for each accent. For example, Oliver, whose languages are English, French, Japanese and Mandarin, will be able to sing in French with a French accent. When it comes to other supported languages, he would be able to sing in, let's say, Norwegian, but not with a Norwegian accent (or, if he can, it will be generic and not native to his voicebank). You could choose to give him a British, French, Japanese or Mandarin accent in Norwegian. Makes sense? No? Watch the livestream I'm just a girl

Oliver wears shoes in some languages. Do with that as you will.

Merch will be shown very soon.

You will be able to import MIDI, VSQ, UST, SVP files and such into Maghni AI.

Voicebanks will be linked to an account, not a number of activations. You will be able to log onto two devices at a time.

Maghni mobile is in the plans for the future, but it'll require more resources so not for now.

Oliver is slightly older! He's 13-ish.

Ref sheets soon.

The editor will have many different themes, some character based, some based on different accessibility needs, and will be customisable. (The character based themes were inspired by VOCALOID1.)

Customisable phonemes

They really said "vocal synth fans are largely minors" (or basement dwellers?) (would they be wrong?). Either way, in order to avoid piracy, with the knowledge that their fans may not have their own source of income, they're looking to make their product as affordable as possible and are considering Free Limited Trial voicebanks, although I mentioned their hesitations above.

You should be able to input breaths as their own phoneme (assumedly the way "br" works in SynthV).

Vocatone's characters don't have official genders. But in related properties, Oliver uses he/him, Aurum uses they/them and he/him, and Audine uses she/her and they/them. For example, in narrative-led projects, Aurum is non-binary, but as a voice library, he is genderless.

No VST/i support planned for launch, but in the future.

There will be tutorials.

They're planning to have less expensive vocals too; read "lower quality so the price can be decreased, but of course still up to their standard."

I think that's about it. If anything is unclear I'd be happy to try to clarify - that is, if anyone cares about this post. 😎 How did I get famous in my previous fandoms again . Was it the youth? It was probably the youth

They've also answered some questions in the comments of the crowdfund, so feel free to double-check that!

SALTYYYYYYY I MISS MY HORNY JAIL FRIEND. WRITE ME SOMETHING THAT WILL GET US BOTH LIFE SENTENCES SVP <3333333

Request #8

ALRIGHT EVERYONE, EPIC HAS DECLARED TONIGHT AS HORNY NIGHT - PREPARE TO GO TO JAIL.

Cw: SUGGESTIVE

The hero really didn't know why they'd kept them.

They also didn't know why they'd kept them in the second drawer of their bedside table.

Work had been...long today. The hero was tired but not exactly sleepy tired: they wanted to relax - have a little downtime to themself - and that was fine. There was nothing wrong with that - nothing wrong with it at all!

The hero bit their lip as they came to sit on the edge of their bed, letting their hand reach down to open the second drawer and barely getting a glimpse of what they knew was inside before slamming it shut again, a heavy blush lining their cheeks. They got back up and paced about the room, sat back down again and then got back up again and closed the bedroom door which had been left open. A little anxiously, they stared about the room before them - studying the space carefully.

Safe to say, when you were constantly fighting an opponent who could turn themself invisible you got a little...paranoid. The villain had no true reason to come to their house - let alone know where they lived - and yet the hero could never stop their thoughts from panicking over the prospect of being followed. A few seconds passed and they eventually resorted to spreading their arms out, walking about their bedroom and pretty much swinging loosely at any free space around them. It looked stupid, they knew that; it also wasn't very practical, they knew that too. But it made them feel a little better to an extent so they did it all the same, finally stopping with a sigh once they were content and returning to their place on the bed. Their eyes turned back towards the drawer.

Why couldn't they just watch a movie? Read a book perhaps?

No: their stupid mind had come up with this idea and now refused to give it up - practically plaguing them with the thought of it all day.

Slowly, the hero pulled open the drawer and tried to ignore the heat that instantly rose to their face as they pulled out the pair of black leather cuffs, setting them down beside them before also fishing out the key for them.

Yep, this was stupid alright...stupid, stupid, stupid--

They swung their legs up onto the bed and sat at its centre, hands a little fidgetty as they stared down at the item before them. The cuffs were power-suppressors, designed specifically for use on the hero by the villain themself. The other had tried to ambush them one night - clearly planning to take them captive - but, unfortunately for them, the hero hadn't been as alone as they'd thought. A brief scrap later and the villain had been forced to flee, leaving both the cuffs and the key to them behind. At first the hero had decided to keep them for research purposes: they'd planned on handing them over to the scientist and seeing what they found.

They never handed them over.

The hero's eyes darted about the room again and suddenly everything felt a little hot - their hands fumbling to undo the first few buttons of their shirt though it hardly seemed to help. It was simply curiosity, that was all. The villain was always so flirtatious and the hero couldn't be blamed - not really - when the thought had practically been put into their head intentionally. Yes, this was absolutely all the villain's doing and was in no way an actual interest of the hero's at all - nope. It was a trap, an obvious one that the other had laid out and the hero was certainly not stupid enough to even think about falling for it...

They put their left wrist into one of the cuffs and clipped it shut.

Fuck.

The hero felt something shift inside of them immediately - their power feeling strangely fuzzy now. The cuff was softer on their skin than they'd thought it would be though, and honestly the overall sensation of it wasn't half bad.

Yes.

Yes, this was...interesting.

Okay, so maybe they'd been exaggerating when they said it was a trap: they were just too damn embarrassed to acknowledge what was obviously a kink they had and had been using the excuse of the villain to try and stop themself from exploring. It was just what it looked like: a pair of power-suppressing cuffs that the villain had dropped by accident and likely didn't even know that the hero had kept. Why would the hero have kept them? No - there was no way the villain could have ever anticipated this.

The hero locked in their other wrist and gasped a little as they felt their power leave them entirely - a strange emptiness and a feeling of being exposed left in its place. It excited them.

What if the villain had caught them that night? What would have happened? What did the other have planned?

Okay, okay, so maybe it wasn't just a kink either. Thoughts of the villain were spilling into the hero's head and they couldn't hide from the fact that it only seemed to excite them more - they didn't think they'd blushed so hard in their life and yet here they were, by themself, no more than a pair of leather cuffs and the image of the villain hiding in their room, watching them, making them more heated than anything else ever had.

Was this normal? Probably not. But the hero decided that since they'd already gone this far they might as well just push it a little further, eyes scanning across the room once again before reaching for the key and unlocking the one cuff, repositioning themself so they were kneeling instead. They put their hands behind their back and clicked the cuffs back into place, dropping the key down to their side so it was still within reach.

It took them a few seconds to get over their thoughts on how weird it was before finally relaxing into it, letting their eyes shut as they let a scenario play out in their head: the villain had caught them. The hero imagined how the other might grin down at them with that sharp smile, telling them just how pretty they looked like this - so perfect. They imagined the villain vanishing from their sight, teasing them with small touches that they couldn't predict, invisible hands trailing up their thighs and waist, tracing lines across their chest whilst soft kisses were placed against the back of their neck, the villain's lips--

In front of them, the bed seemed to dip slightly.

The hero startled, eyes fluttering open to look at the empty space before them - gaze turning downwards and their head cocking to the side as they stared down at the sheets. They looked...strange. Had they been like that before? There was something in the way some of creases seemed almost flattened down, as if some kind of weight was resting on top of them.

...No.

The hero suddenly let out a yelp as hot breath ghosted over their face, immediately falling backwards in their surprise before moving about in a panic - awkwardly scrambling to try and find the key with their hands still bound behind their back.

Where was it? It should have been right there - the hero remembered leaving it on the bed so where the hell was it?!

They managed to get back onto their knees and glanced about, looking for something small and silver amoung their sheets only to spy it halfway across the room, resting on top of their dresser. Well, that wasn't where it was supposed to be at all! The hero went to move to the edge of the bed only to find themself held back, their entire frame freezing as they felt hands wrapping tightly around their waist - the sudden heat of another body pressed against their back.

A pause.

When the villain finally came to speak, the hero felt that they might just pass out from the embarrassment of it all.

"Huh...so that's what happened to my cuffs."

Can we interest you in rtumblr, all of the time?

I covered @dweebodoodle's Welcome to Rtumblr with SynthV Kevin!

Lyrics and stuff under cut

Original song by Bo Burnham SVP/Tuning by me Lyrics by Dweebo (I made a few edits just so it fits with the song better)

Lyrics:

Welcome to Rtumblr! Have a look around Anything unexpected you think of can be found We've got mountains of lore, some wholesome, some cursed If these things are confusing you, well you ain't the first

Welcome to the Rtumblr! Come and take a seat Would you like to see Plex News or maybe Kevin having feet? There's no need to panic, this isn't a test Just nod or shake your head and we'll do the rest

Welcome to the Rtumblr! What would you prefer? Would you like to see preggy Clippy or observe Cuppy's tits? Be happy! Be horny! Be bursting with rage! We got a million different ways to engage!

Welcome to Rtumblr! Put your brain aside Here's some adorable fan art and RTSans fucking died! We got Boards, and roleplay, and some therapy And a bunch of colored pencil drawings of all the different RT AUs and personas fighting each other

Welcome to Rtumblr! Hold on to your ass Cuz a random guy just kindly blazed the Board onto your dash It is lengthy and it's low-res Your tumblr just crashed! Don't be surprised, you ain't seen shit just yet so-

See a capitalist, but what is this, he's a twink Here's some all new RT AUs and more at least every week Start a theory, wanna hear-y Fluffy's dandelion theory? Where Magical John from Miitopia says that they have milkies in their-

Do you wanna join our roleplays? You should take their hat Here's the canonical mpreg and here's Magic John x Chat Which Irish Lad are you? Take this quirky quiz So tell me now do all these things just make you want to scream?

Can we interest you in Rtumblr all of the time? A little bit of Rtumblr, all of the time? Apathy's a tragedy and boredom is a crime Anything and everything all of the time

Can we interest you in Rtumblr all of the time? A little bit of Rtumblr, all of the time? Apathy's a tragedy and boredom is a crime Anything and everything all of the time

You know, it wasn't always like this...

Not very long ago Just before our time Right before the RTBreaks Year 2020 There was art, headcanons, a fan song or two We set our sights and spent our nights Waiting...

For you You... Innocent soul you Watched RTGame on your IPad The Rumble Tumble himself Tumblr did all the things we designed it to do

Now look at you Look at you! You, you! Innocent, confused Your time is now, you know it now Honey how you grew! And if we stick together, who knows what we'll do? It was always the plan to put these things in your head

Can we interest you in Rtumblr all of the time? A bit of Rtumblr, all of the time? Apathy's a tragedy and boredom is a crime Anything and everything all of the time

Can we interest you in Rtumblr all of the time? Little bit of Rtumblr, all of the time? Apathy's a tragedy and boredom is a crime Anything and everything and anything and everything and anything and everything and All of the time

you know how i feel about fantasy royal fairy etc etc etc bull shit so tell me about the prince who is also a cat or cat prince or whatever exactly that title was i would like some deets svp <3

Absolutely! ����

In this fic, everyone has a magical power of some kind that they 'unlock' when they turn 18. Adrien, as the crown prince, is expected to have some very powerful, flashy, and suitably royal power, like his ancestors, like his father expects him to. Unfortunately, his only power seems to be shapeshifting, not into anything, but only into a little housecat. His father is not happy.

Meanwhile, Marinette is a commoner and recently discovered witch, who's learning how to do a summoning spell for her familiar. There's no way this could go wrong, right?

You got lucky and picked a fic I have a lot written for, so here's a snippet:

They hadn’t told the country what his power was yet. According to the magazines, it was going to be a “big surprise” that would be revealed for the 120th anniversary of the capital city’s founding.

Adrien wondered what his father was plotting to disguise the disgraceful reality of his son’s power with. False telepathy, perhaps. That would be easy to fake, until the first meeting with anyone he didn’t know from the palace. Which was, of course, a lot of people; most of them, in fact.

For now, his father’s plan remained a secret, and Adrien resigned himself to another afternoon of boredom as he sat down with Lady Bourgeois for another lesson in royal fashion.

As she began to ramble on about the key differences between mauve and indigo, Adrien closed his eyes and held back a sigh, taking care not to let his perfect posture slip. Forty more minutes and he would be free from this lesson… and then he’d be delivered into the hands of yet another boring tutor.

I wish I was anywhere but here, he thought, silently bemoaning the fact that he hadn’t been given the gift of teleportation, after all. That would’ve impressed his father and been useful for evading redundant lessons.

Suddenly, the sounds of Lady Bourgeois’ voice faded away, replaced by a thoughtful hum, several awed-sounding murmurs, and a high-pitched squeal.

“A black cat! See, Marinette, I told you you could do it!

Adrien’s eyes shot open. He looked around, taking in the bland-colored room, full of desks and perhaps fifteen people his age. 

Had his wish somehow worked? Had he switched powers and been granted one his father could finally accept?

He took a hesitant step forward, but then Adrien froze. 

The tile floor hadn’t vanished when he touched it, so this wasn’t a dream, but he could’ve sworn he hadn’t had paws just a few seconds ago! If he had the power of teleportation now, then how could he still be able to turn into a cat? And why had he done so without even noticing?

“A black cat for your familiar, how lucky!” a redheaded woman said, stepping forward to examine Adrien, who suddenly felt more on display than he had at his birthday party earlier that year, when everyone had been watching to see what his power was.

Beside the woman who seemed to be the class’s teacher, a girl with dark hair pulled back in pigtails scratched her cheek. 

“Er, do you really think so?” she asked, looking nervous as she glanced back and forth from Adrien to the teacher.

“I knew it, girl!” Adrien recognized that voice from before. He watched as a girl with ombre-colored hair elbowed the nervous one and offered her a grin. “You’re going to be the best witch this country’s ever seen! Only the best witches ever summon a black cat to be their familiar.”

Adrien’s heart momentarily stopped.

“Meow?” he asked, forgetting that no one could understand him in this form.

The girls and boys in the class let out a chorus of awwwws. He was so flustered that he sat down and flattened his ears while he tried to figure out what had happened.

He’d been summoned as a familiar? A witch’s familiar? Despite being not only human, but magic on his own, and the prince, to top it off?

How on earth was this possible?

Thanks for the ask @aidanchaser!

Beautiful People 👑

essence:

Daddy’s COMING HOME

The thoughts we have running through our head, just take us all to the water. This is our confession, we licked the screen. Forgive us.

Want to jump in? This cover is available ONLY to subscribers. Click the subscribers link in the bio to grab your copy.

In case you thought we were letting up, we’re not! @Usher for #ESSENCE is the only thing on the internet today.

Now, please excuse us while we look for a straw. For some reason we just became indescribably thirsty.

Roll the Credits: Talent: @usher

Writer: @ghostwritervic

Photographer: @adrienneraquel

Stylist: @yashuasimmons

Barber/Groomer: @shizz215x

Makeup: @jennartist

Nails: @noirmensgrooming

SetDesign: @codycr

Location: @thebeverlyestate

Production: @themorrisongroup SpecialThanks: @lermitagebh @shortstorieshotels ESSENCE,SVP,Creative: @coreytstokes ESSENCE,SeniorContentDirector: @itsnandibby

ESSENCE,VisualDirector: @_mq______ ESSENCE,DesignDirector: @anthonybones_

essence:

Everybody Loves Usher Raymond We call him U-S-H-E-R-R-A-Y-M-O-N-D. Also known as ESSENCE Sexiest Man of the Moment! Usher Raymond has always been at the center of culture. So, let’s set the tone like a vocal coach — because we are currently screaming out falsettos. The quiet yet obvious giant fills the room with his calm, magnetic energy, and overwhelmingly good looks, but he’s not just a heartthrob; he’s an artist with the music catalog and acumen to back it up. After 30-plus years in the industry, the singer is busier—and hotter—than ever, solidifying his legacy as a family man and the R&B king. His resume is as long as CVS receipts. Just in the last year, he sold out his high-profile residency show in Las Vegas, released his acclaimed album ‘COMING HOME’ and curated the most-watched Super Bowl Halftime Show ever. And he doesn’t show signs of slowing up! Brimming with natural charisma and an ability to be authentically present in every role he takes on, our final ESSENCE Sexiest Man of the Moment cover star still has our hearts, and it’s his to keep! Read the full May/ June cover story at and buy our Men’s Issue on newsstands 4/23. Roll the Credits: Talent: Writer: Photographer: Stylist: Barber/Groomer: Makeup: Nails: SetDesign: Location: Production: SpecialThanks: ESSENCE,SVP,Creative: ESSENCE,SeniorContentDirector: ESSENCE,VisualDirector: ESSENCE,DesignDirector:

chloeadvocate:

chloe for @fendi ✨

#chloebailey #chloe #chloexhalle #explore #dreads #locs #chlovers #sirens #parkwoodentertainment #fendi

zillafatu:

🩸 👎🏽

alycia.parks:

@wta 😉🤳🏾📸

serenawilliams:

Nike On Air Event 2024 - Paris, France 🇫🇷 on my way! #NikeOnAir

biancabelairwwe:

wrESTleMania XL GEAR!\nGEAR: MADE BY ME!!!

This gear whooped me, because I didn’t really have a drawing or any idea of what I wanted to do. I just had fabric, scissors, needle, and thread. 2 weeks in and I had sewn and cut up everything I created just to start over… I was overthinking it. Once, I relaxed and let go I was able to create! I’m proud of this moment! I keep pushing myself more and more and more to try new things!#ESTofWWE

#wrESTleMania #wrESTleManiaXL

I’ll post the gear making video another day! Because the details on this thing are crazy.

Makeup: @beautybyjett

And shoutout to @beynevolence for helping me figure this futuristic look out. Your creations really helped get my mind rolling with the ideas to create this gear!

rihverce:

Rihanna for Vogue+ China April 2024 İssue 📸

post breakup drarry svp

It's amicable; there isn't really another option. There's no screaming, no infidelities, there isn't even any slammed doors or forgotten dates. They don't even drift apart, really, it's just logic.

"Darling." Pansy's sighing, kicking off her stillettos and signaling for him to lift his head; he does, and she slips underneath him, resting his head on her lap and running her fingers through his hair. "It's been three days. I don't want to rush you, but you're staring to worry me."

"I'm fine," he says. He's leaving for Brazil in three days, for a Potions' apprenticeship that's literally everything he's ever wanted in his life; he's not going to let it go, not even for Harry, not even for their relationship, and Harry - who can't leave, as he's just signed his contract with the Chudley Cannons - isn't going to give up his dream, either.

It's what's best for both of them, it really is.

It doesn't mean Draco doesn't feel like his entire torso is suddenly void of all of his organs.

"You've cried every single night since you broke up," she says. It's true, but it's been barely a week, so he assumes that's normal; he's never had a breakup - at least not from any relationship that mattered to him - and neither has Pansy, so they're both a little clueless here. She'd tried getting him ice cream and Hollywood rom-coms, which Luna had told her were essential to get over any break up, but neither of them understood the muggle references in the films and Draco's always lost any sort of appetite when he's sad.

They also tried firewhiskey, but even that has lost the appeal, and Pansy's suggestion of a rebound shag had been met with silence; that's what Draco's done, after other breakups, but it had been spite, or simple carelessness, and Draco isn't angry.

He wishes he were. Maybe that would give him a break from the feeling of emptiness inside him that's only ever absent when he's crying and feeling so sad he feels like his emotions are lead, pulling his heart down to his feet and then past them, down past the earth and the fossils Granger had told him about and anything that's even remotely reachable.

"So?" he asks. "You cried every day for two weeks after they changed the label on your favorite brand of firewhiskey."

"Shut up," Pansy says, and yeah, it was a bit of a low blow; he knows Pansy hates any kind of change. A part of him is afraid of what will happen when he goes to Brazil, but she's assured him a thousand times that she'll be alright.

Blaise, who knows just how much Pansy hates change, has assured Draco he'll use a cardboard cut-out of him until she can get used to his absence. Draco knows that won't work, but he hopes she'll at least get a laugh out of it.

"I just want to disappear," he says. Not even in a dying sort of way, just in a way that'll mean he doesn't have to experience this suffocating sort of sadness anymore. It's too exhausting, he can feel it in his bones, and it isn't even like the other kinds of sadness that he's experienced in his life; it's worse, because instead of anger or righteousness, it's just accompanied by the all-consuming desire of everything being different.

He knows that isn't going to happen.

Pansy sighs. "Come on. We'll watch something on the telly."

She flips it on with the remote, and Draco sighs.

"Nature channel?" she asks. "That always puts you to sleep."

Draco doesn't answer, and she takes that as a yes and puts it on; he closes his eyes and tries not to think about the way he used to fall asleep in Harry's arms when they watched it at his house, because that always sends a wave of longing through him that's so strong it makes him nauseous.

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

Send me a Request :D

If you enjoyed this, please consider buying me a kofi <3

Masterlist: [1] [2]

Commissions

NFL Marketing Exec On Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce Viral Phenomenon: “People Think We May Have Had Something To Do With It - Absolutely Not, We Knew Nothing”

A senior marketing executive at the NFL maintained that the league had nothing to do with helping to engineer Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce's ultra-viral courtship of pop superstar Taylor Swift.

Marissa Solis, SVP of global brand and consumer marketing for the NFL, addressed the phenomenon during a panel at Advertising Week on the topic of how sports leagues are trying to reach elusive Gen Z audiences. Once the romance became public in September, she said, the league could only do its best to react and make the most of it.

Communicating with fans about the relationship offered "a perfect example" of the challenge of connecting with Gen Z fans, who are "fast paced and ever-changing," Solis said. "It's really, really tough to actually get them and to be ahead of them." The league "learned from the best, Ms. Taylor Swift," she said with a smile, leaning into the off-field development, which also boosted TV ratings at a time when Swift was also getting set for the wide release of her Eras Tour concert film.

"This thing happened like this," Solis marveled, snapping her fingers. "People think that we may have had something to do with it. Absolutely not. We knew nothing. We knew what you guys knew and followed on social media. Travis went to her concert, asked her to maybe come to a game. We had no idea that she was going to show up. And once it happened, she showed up to a game and in an instant, literally in a second, it's viral. Luckily, we have an incredible team" of specialists working to promote it across league social channels.

"All you can do is be there and be ready for the moment," Solis said. "When it happened, we were ready to roll with content like 'Football 101 for Swifties,' making sure that Swifties who had never watched a football game, didn't understand what football was, knew at least the rules of the game. But here's what's more important: I bet you didn't know, there are thousands - thousands - of core NFL fans who actually don't know who Taylor Swift is." As her fellow panelists laughed, she continued, "It was also an opportunity for us to educate our core NFL fan on who she is. You guys may have seen some of the video content and social content around the Chiefs dancing their victory laps to Taylor Swift songs. That's a way to bring our core audience to it."

The league aimed to "be a student of culture and be ready when the moment hits," Solis concluded. "You can't be ahead of it, but you can be just right there so you can be sure to take advantage and fully grow your audience."

The panel, moderated by Matt Fasano, SVP of Next Gen at Wasserman, also featured Melissa Brenner, EVP, Digital Media for the NBA, and Anne Marie Giansutsos, CMO of the Drone Racing League. The central theme was addressing an audience of largely cord-nevers, who take in sports content primarily through social media. "There's no way they're going to sit and watch a 4-hour game," Solis said of Gen Z. "We have to create snackable content that they enjoy."

Lifestyle content, a way to help younger fans more fully connect with players, has been described within the NFL as the league's "helmets off" strategy, the exec added, noting that the NBA long ago blazed a trail in that area.

Brenner said each social platform has its own algorithm and sensibility and also evolves constantly, so customizing to each one "in a bespoke, targeted fashion" is crucial. The NBA has a joint venture with Warner Bros. Discovery to operate NBA.com and create official digital content, she noted.

The global nature of the NBA helps boost its social reach, Brenner said, with about 25% of players and two-thirds of players coming from outside the U.S. The league also takes a more "democratic approach to fan-generated content" than do other pro sports operations, she said. "We've put pretty narrow restrictions on it. It's influencers. There's a virality, it works." Getting "written about and posted about" is the main goal.

Watch "What is the Shared Services Model" on YouTube

Hourly rate from company to company intranet in a supplier approvalist external to that single pipeline never to be always use multiple at once from all divisions and all segments

Apply these segments under President level and even at SVP level and then roll these up to shared services so share Services is impuring whatever Corporation within that star Galaxy Cosmic just make that need in convention and keep it as is as a family business type because with transition so government is a function that Imperium company provides so you got to get hourly rates back to from government to imperium. Understand current United States bankrupted tax rules we're going to Market because they can collateralize as multiple locations I proved it at JP Morgan even though I kind of Flushed it was get single car from International location using Korean trade Association and trade Finance to get the car triple loaned on a secondary Patricia market so that's not right single asset being able to divide a three levels

Williams Street Records | November 2, 2007 - 3:45AM | Infomercial

On the night of November 1, 2007 (or early morning of November 2nd if you’re a pedantic dickhead… which I am), Adult Swim played an 11 minute infomercial for the Witchdoctor album The Diary Of An American Witchdoctor. At least, that’s what I’m assuming happened, because it’s literally lost media. This is surprising to me, because I was a pretty diligent Adult Swim recorder back then, and you’d think I’d remember seeing this. I would routinely record the whole block and fast forward through it looking for fun promos or stealth premieres. It’s literally the reason the stealth version of “Carl Wash” exists to this day as a fan copy: BECAUSE I RECORDED IT.

Okay. So a friend of mine found this tweet, which I’m going to transcribe in case that link goes dead in the future. It’s one of those things where you can ask anonymous questions and the person answers. It’s from a person who worked in production at Adult Swim. Their profile:

SVP of Action and Anime, Warner Discovery. Co-created Toonami. Producer of The Lord of The Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, Housing Complex C, & more

Here’s the question, originally posted as a screenshot. I had to transcribe it. The things I do for you people:

There was an 11 minute special that aired on Adult Swim November 1, 2007 promoting Williams Street Records which is not available anywhere online. Do you guys still have this, and could it be posted?

They replied:

Honestly don’t remember this at all unless you’re talking about the long form infomercial for the Witchdoctor album we released? Which I think is lost to the sands of time…

The video I linked to above seems to be the shorter version of what they are talking about. My theory is that they produced an 11 minute version of the Witchdoctor commercial. It was probably easy to use that shooting set-up to just shoot extra material and cobble together an 11 minute special. Maybe it was just aired as a goof or maybe it was a contractual thing or maybe they thought they’d grow a sack and actually show it early enough when people would be awake to see it. I genuinely have no idea.

There’s another wrinkle: I was hipped to THIS video, which is another lengthy infomercial-like commercial for the Dethklok’s Dethalbum and Metalocalypse season one DVD. The video description says it never aired, and I wondered if it DID air as part of this “Williams Street Records” special? The timeline roughly matches up as far as I can tell. If you watch the above video, you’ll notice some fade-outs to edit out little TV spots for the album. These seem familiar to me, like they were the actual 30 second TV spots that aired on Adult Swim, just inserted into these guys’ sales pitch. There’s also a music video edited out of the above video. So, maybe this thing roughly ran about 6 minutes, which would roughly comprise half of an 11 minute time slot? Hell, if they just sandwiched the presumably longer version of the above video between two airings of the two-minute long Witchdoctor spot, you’ve roughly filled the entire time slot.

The thing is, November 2007 is when Williams Street Records, the company, officially launched. So it’s very difficult to search for the air date and the phrase “Williams Street Records” without just returning a lot of search results for the company itself. This special was likely designed to advertise the promos for the record label’s launch titles, making some combination of the videos I’ve shown you here the likeliest explanation for what this was. But until an actual recording turns up, who truly knows what this might have been?

I gotta dig my DVD-Rs out of storage, man.

i've spent my morning listening to our politicians discuss how to tacle the fact that many people will struggle financially because we get hit by higher energy costs (current effects of climate change and the war in ukraine), higher medical costs (insurances are talking about 10%) and the ongoing struggle that is the pension for retired people.

what's obvious is that left leaning parties and even some from the middle are all bringing valid motions and ideas, while the right wing (SVP my beloathed) is giving 1 idea (which is bullshit btw but do i even have to say it?) and then spending the rest of the time bashing and shitting on everyone else. they are really up there at the podium throwing a tantrum about how everyone else is to blame and pissing and shitting themselves. like okay i see that you think your voters are actually watching this session (they don't) but could you, for once in your life, just help solve the problem instead of just pointing at it and say ''mimimi this problem is obviously caused by everyone but us''.

in any case, the Bundesrat doesn't support any of these ideas (yet) so we will do what we do best. talk about it and not do anything (at least the svp bundesrat was like ''we actually have to talk about this TOGETHER so get a grip'' lol)

Original from the Evillious Chronicles by mothy akuno www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmDK_uJu7kQ SVP edited from Magpie's VSQx www.youtube.com/c/MAGPIEbatty Translyrics inspired from those by Octo and used in*PsySoubi's 2022 cover www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QKKCHuoufo Tuning, mixing, track art, etc. by spontaneousglitterbees

gift (English) <noun> 1. Present, something donated, charity 2. A special ability; a talent from birth 3. (British colloquial) A cheap item; a task that's easy to do

gift (German) <noun> 1. Toxin, poison, powerful medicine

First posted SynthV dub made in a year? First posted SynthV dub made in a year. Hello again, friends. I got Solaria. (and also am trying to learn to mix in FL Studio. Here's a starting point).

YouTube upload coming soon.

Lyrics: "Now, lay it all to rest"

Gaze into the dream with this gift that I give Grants the deepest, soundest sleep to you as long as you live Call me "Princess Sandman" if it keeps your mind at ease Stay relaxed, let your worries go and be merry

SECTION 1:

Even though I know our marriage was a matter of their politics (I never minded since I truly loved you) ... You womanizing cretin, indulging your own wishes (I sent my love out long before all *that* too) You only had eyes for money, so you wed a doctor's daughter (But, if I must, that's something I can live with) ... Even if you've forgotten the promise that we made as kids... (If it keeps me by your side, I'll be happy nevertheless)

But you always seem troubled, Since I found you out it doubled, You seem in need of a good tonic or two At a loss for how else to help you At least I know healing I can do So I took the time to make a gift just for you

CHORUS:

Gaze into the dreaming with this gift that I give Grants the deepest, soundest sleep to you as long as you live Just a bit of sweet relief from your dear "Princess" All I want is to see you find your happiness

SECTION 2:

Everybody that I see is plagued by their anxieties My mother, my father, this whole bustling town knows no peace For the sake of those awake to spare them the sight as they degrade I'll use my talents to create a new sleeping aid Darkness beyond your control? Feeling like you're less than whole? Can't shake the sense something's unwell? It infects the depths of your soul As you lay upon the bed you're safe from reality's spreading dread Your world will decay too someday I say let it fade!

SECTION 3:

After six attempts to spread my gift out to everyone in town Spores of Belphagor in the air got them all to settle down As for this poor wretch, cursed to never sleep, I've received something else instead That would be my dominion over them

"So. Lay down with the rest."

CHORUS 2: Gaze into the dream with this gift that I give Grants the deepest, soundest sleep to you as long as you live Who has lain them all to rest and yet to join them then? Just a little lady trying to feel hope again

ENDING: My whole life, I'd bide my time been used by them all Filler inbetween the lines a decoration like a doll I've been broken up inside for so long you see, all I wanted was to ruin everything I can guarantee, it's a potent medicine So effective just a little drop you'll never wake again With one final dose, I might finally find my own repose be ""Princess"" no more, now you'll all call me Sleeping Beauty....

"... Hah. My prince. Meet me at our spot? For old times' sake. Okay?"

So I have news

The new laptop finally came in. I went with another Alienware (an M18 this time) because at the time I was still employed at SVP and we had a nice big discount with Dell, putting it far below the ASUS ROG I had been eyeing. Basically the same specs, and to be fair, until my last lappy ate itself, both brands had proven rock solid. Dell's tech support proved slightly better than ASUS in my own personal experience. And considering that machine was well over 7 years old, I'd say that it held up really well! So now I'm still moving data over. I had online backups through Carbonite which kept most things that I'd forgotten. Sadly, I lost my OneNote notebook. The online copy was over a year out of date. Apparently it had stopped backing up, and I could not find any local copies. If I could've gone back, I would have manually exported a backup copy somewhere. Oh well, you live and you learn. Sucks because that's where I stored all of my custom Powershell scripts I'd written over the years. Bleh! Almost all of my software licenses were backed up via email or my external backup drive. Unfortunately about 25% of my Plex library is on that drive too since I'd store my manual DVD and BluRay rips there. I've now got the drive mounted on my Shield again, so those are populating back into Plex now. I lost the rips I had done of my iTunes library, so I'll have to do those over. No biggie, just gonna take time. I wish to God someone had a place where I could buy movies and TV shows with no DRM. I mean, it's easy enough to buy on DVD or BluRay and rip it myself, but the out of print stuff is harder and harder to find. :( Like, I'd love to have all of Murder She Wrote. Let me pay to download full copies to own myself and put on my Plex so I can watch offline. That's one of my few comfort shows. Netflix, Hulu, Peacock Premium, hell even just basic cable, it's all too expensive now. Let me pay for and own what I want. /le sigh At least DRM-free music is easy to find and usually pretty reasonably priced, so no worries there. :) Also: I accepted a job offer this past Friday with DataPerk. It'll be a pay and benefits cut, but the job sounds fun. The guys I met seemed nice enough. I'm not looking forward to having to go through all the medical authorizations for all of my treatments and medications again (considering we JUST did that when SVP changed providers). And DP's benefits do not cover my therapy so I'll be back to paying that out of pocket, which is going to hurt for a while. Better than going without though. Been there, did that, not gonna be that stupid again. I honestly don't have updates on much else. I know I need to get away first chance I get. Unwind, let off some steam. The last year has mostly not been good for me outside of the few trips I took. This year I need to take better care of myself, drawing firmer boundaries where needed (family included). So we'll see ... source: https://www.nickifaulk.com/2024/01/28/so-i-have-news/

Oracle cyber maverick dives into cloud security and AI - CyberTalk

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/oracle-cyber-maverick-dives-into-cloud-security-and-ai-cybertalk/

Oracle cyber maverick dives into cloud security and AI - CyberTalk

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

David is the Senior Vice President for the Oracle SaaS Cloud Security engineering and operations organization. Previously, David was the public Cloud Security Engineering Director in the Google Security and Privacy organization and his preceding 18 years were spent with Microsoft in numerous security cloud, product and engineering leadership roles. David holds a B.S. in Computer Information Systems as well as an MBA with a Management Information Systems concentration and is a longtime advocate of security application and technology, stemming from his U.S. military service background. In this edited interview excerpt from the CISO’s Secrets podcast, SVP & CISO for Oracle SaaS Cloud Security, David Cross, shares insights into his unique career journey, the cloud security evolution, and artificial intelligence. Don’t miss this!

We are very fortunate to host this interview with David Cross! It’s pretty exciting to be here.

I like to say that I’m just a ‘worker bee’, but one who likes to make things happen. I’m a multi-tasker; a quality that’s inherently relevant to security.

Cyber security is not a single task. It’s multi-tasking. You’ve got to jump into many things, all at the same time.

You’ve got to keep things moving. And that’s why it’s a great fit for some people, like myself.

You know one of the things I’ve said for a long long time is and that’s really so awesome about this industry is that no matter when you get in, you’re getting in at the beginning of something.

Would you like to share a bit about your background, which is quite storied and impressive? Sure thing. At the very beginning of my career, I was in an electronic Navy attack squadron, the EA-6B Prowler. I am very thankful to the United States Service. It really helped me in my career…

This kicked off my passion for security. Electronic warfare. The threats. The offensive attacks, those type of things that are both virtual and electronic.

And that was early too…For you to have been thinking about the intersection of the virtual world and security, at such a point in time, is pretty interesting. Well, going back to my earliest days with the squadron, we didn’t really have network computers. We had embedded weapons systems that were based on DOS.

And as we evolved, in just in a couple of years…we went to Banyan Vines for their computer systems. But then in our plane, we had our prototype — and I can’t go into much more detail than this — but we had the Toshiba laptop, with NT 3.5 on it…And at this point, the world was changing…And the threats and risks changed with it.

You talk about the attack squadron…Here we are 20-30 years later…How do you feel that your experience in the military influences your role today? At that point in time, not a lot of people were thinking about security.

Long story short, we were coming back from our last deployment, I was in an aircraft carrier. I was standing watch in the ready room. My commander wants me to sign-up and do another tour. And my thinking was ‘no, my time is done’.

I then stopped at the naval exchange bookstore, in Naples, Italy, and I picked up Bruce Schneier’s first book, Applied Cryptography. And as I was reading that, I realized ‘this is what I need to do’.

And it wasn’t my domain at that point. I was not a cryptographer and I wasn’t into cyber security. But after my experience and after I saw the transformation in terms of what was going on in the military…I felt that it was the time to jump in.

What are your views on cloud and how the cloud is evolving within the security space?

Absolutely. I spent a lot of my time on the operating system layer and on things like Windows. But then it became clear that the cloud was emerging…And you really just had to jump in.

Otherwise, it would be like saying ‘no, I’ll never use online bill pay, it’s too dangerous!’ Not for me. But, once the gate opened…

Right, otherwise it would be like saying, ‘I’d rather keep buying stamps!’ 

…It’s not ‘if’ everybody’s moving to the cloud, it’s ‘when’ you’re moving to the cloud. There’s no getting around it. For how long do you think that your favorite mail server on bare hardware is going to be produced and supported at this point? It’s going away. There could be some things that remain on-premise, but let’s look at reality. We have to accept emerging technologies. Just like AI.

Is AI going to go away? We already know the answer to that, don’t we?

Right, not a chance. With your background, I’d love to hear you talk a little bit about your views on AI. With AI, we’ve had ML for a long time, but now we’re witnessing a transformation. Pretty exciting, right? I think that now is the opportune time for us to develop applications, as we did when computer infrastructure came out.

My real question to you is, when are we going to adopt the laws of robotics that Issac Asimov came up with so long ago? Isn’t that the same as AI?

That’s a great question, David… I was born and raised in Detroit, an area home to the auto industry. At one point, it was thought that automation within the auto industry would kill jobs.

But it hasn’t. The auto industry has survived. The manufacturing and the roles have not changed.

AI is likely to have a similar effect. People fear that it’s coming for jobs, but the reality is that it probably won’t make a dent in that regard.

Another element that’s been hinted at a few times is that — whether you’re an engineering leader, a security leader or any other type of leader — things are going to change, and you have to keep learning.

The moment you stop learning is the moment that you’ve plateaued, and then you’re declining into the ocean.

AI is the next big thing — Am I going to reject it? No. Am I going to embrace it and learn it? Yes. It’s just like the cloud. We had to embrace it and learn it…

Another thing that I like to say is that it’s not about how hard you work, it’s about how much you invest in yourself. And that is what really makes a difference in people and the world.

You can choose to ignore the latest technology…But I think your point is spot-on. The fascinating stuff is the unknown; it’s not the stuff we know. And I think that’s what’s exciting about this industry, right? The cloud, IoT, SASE…The list goes on in terms of things that are coming to the fore. Totally, and…

Listen to the full podcast here.

                                                                           Related resources

7, 12, and 13 for the writing game, svp! 🩵

Jules darling! Thank you for playing ❤️

7. Favorite Character To Write?

Oh gosh, this is a harder question than it should be! Palomino!Jack is my favourite, but Consent!Dieter is a very close second.

For Jack, it was a learning curve - when I started the series, I didn't know much about this cowboy at all, and I only started filling in the gaps as the fic progressed. Palomino!Jack also has the most detailed back story out of the other Pedro boys I've written, and it was such a joy fleshing him out as a character.

For Dieter, it was the opposite. I kind of just knew him, inside and out, even before I watched The Bubble. I believe in chemistry between writers and their characters, and he's my fic soulmate. His voice always shone through in anything I wrote for him.

12. How Many Different Fandoms Have You Written For?

Oh this is a fun question! Before I joined the Pedro fandom, I wrote exclusively on FF.net. My first fandom (at the tender age of 16) was King Arthur, and I wrote for Lancelot and Tristan (still love Mads). I also wrote a Dramione fic and a Haldir fic.

13. What's Your Goal For Your Writing In The Future?

I have no lofty goals, literally just writing is my goal 😂 I really hope to add to the Seams universe next year, their story is not done, but it just seems that I physically don't have the ability to write anything at the moment.

Writing ask game