#only for them to admit at the end of last year that to implement Daniel’s suggestions meant changing too much of their car’s dna and | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ilovejevsjeans · 3 years

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WHAT MAKES ‘PECULIAR’ McLAREN SO HARD FOR RICCIARDO TO MASTER

The esoteric driving-style demands of the McLaren MCL35M have been laid bare during the 2021 Formula 1 season by Lando Norris consistently producing superb performances while new team-mate Daniel Ricciardo has faced a long, hard and often fruitless slog to adapt.

Norris and former McLaren team-mate Carlos Sainz also found the car tricky to drive, but ultimately adapted well. But over his first 11 races as a McLaren driver, Ricciardo has been frustrated by attempting to implement a counter-intuitive driving style required by what he’s described as a “peculiar” car.

“I knew straight away it was a different beast,” said Ricciardo of the McLaren-Mercedes MCL35M.

“I’d be lying if I said the Renault wasn’t a different beast to the Red Bull, so they are all different. But there’s certainly some things where this car is slightly more peculiar. That’s the puzzle that I’m still trying to solve.

“But every car will respond and react differently, and this one’s got a couple of other things, I guess.”

Usually, you would expect a driver of Ricciardo’s high calibre to get on top of a new car after half-a-dozen races. Certainly, he thought that was how long the process would take before reluctantly admitting more recently that his struggles are “a reality” rather than a temporary problem.

McLaren’s executive director of racing, Andrea Stella, suggests the problem is Ricciardo is from the “opposite end” in terms of driving style. But what exactly is it about the McLaren that is so specific and has caused so many struggles, and why can’t these characteristics be dialled out easily?

“What we kept is some characteristics of our car that make it very special to drive, which we see with the experience Daniel is going through because he came from the opposite end in terms of how you would like to drive a Formula 1 car,” said Stella of the transition from 2020 to ’21.

“Our car requires some special adaptation, while we work to improve this aspect. It’s no secret that our car is good in high-speed corners and may not be the best car when you have to roll speed in mid-corner.

“We are trying to adjust some of the characteristics to make it a little bit more manageable to drive. At the same time, the important thing to deliver is aerodynamic efficiency, even if we couldn’t necessarily improve in terms of balance and [driver] exploitation of the car.

“We are relatively happy with the rate of improvement of aerodynamic efficiency that we have been able to achieve in early races and hopefully a little bit more will be coming in the next races.”

So let’s delve a little more into the characteristics of the McLaren that have stymied Ricciardo. In keeping with what Stella says about high-speed performance, Silverstone in July was a strong qualifying performance relative to Norris, even though he struggled for race pace.

But Silverstone is a high-speed circuit without so many medium and slow speed corners that remand more rotation of the car. It’s here, with the kinds of corners that dominate at the Red Bull Ring and Hungaroring, which hosted the races either side of Silverstone, that have proved difficult.

Ricciardo’s problem is that he likes to carry speed into the corner by braking a little earlier (except when making one of his trademark overtaking moves) and rolling the speed into the corner. The McLaren has a front-end weakness that is mitigated by braking later, but then appears to still require a relatively progressive application of steering lock.

Ricciardo has struggled to do this, often braking earlier than Norris and ending up with the car under-rotated, meaning he is still traction limited for longer in the exit phase than Norris simply because he’s effectively extending the corner.

“He’s a driver who likes to roll the speed in the corner and not necessarily attack the braking as much as our car requires,” said Stella. “We understood very quickly what the issue was. We could model this aspect, which means Daniel knows what to do in terms of working on the simulator, in terms of coaching the driver. But the progress that we do see race after race is not necessarily a switch.

“Sometimes I use the example of a musician. You can tell him how to play the guitar, you can use a lot of theory but at some stage he will have to spend quite a lot of time with the guitar and make quite a lot of exercises. You don’t necessarily take a step in concerts. Most of the progress you make will be when you work in background at home and you spend hours and hours exercising.”

Just as Ricciardo has done, Stella points out the lack of testing opportunities has made this problem harder to get on top of. Ricciardo had just a day-and-a-half in the car pre-season and since then has done his learning on race weekends. At times, he’s been intensively coached by race engineer Tom Stallard as he battles to tune into a driving style he’s at odds with.

But this has to fit in with the usual work of the race weekend and can’t waste time doing needless experimentation. It’s an extra distraction, but Stella says he’s “optimistic” Ricciardo will eventually get on top of it – and has been impressed with how his racecraft has at least made it possible to put together a solid run of results, albeit only scoring 50 points compared to Norris’s 113.

The obvious question is why McLaren can’t simply change the characteristics of its car. After all, we have seen other drivers who had to adapt to the machinery be met in the middle by teams, notably Fernando Alonso who benefitted from a power steering change that gave him the sensitivity he needed to optimise his driving style.

But in the case of the McLaren, it is more about the aerodynamic characteristics than the mechanical ones. And even if the trait could be eliminated, it would likely make the car less competitive. The need to brake late and the fact the car can have a weak front end perhaps indicates the necessity to be more aggressive in shifting the aero centre of pressure forwards at corner entry in lower and mid-speed corners.

If you brake earlier and roll the car into the corner as Ricciardo wants to, the aero centre of pressure will not be as far forward as if the car is on the nose. But in attempting to make this style work, there is also a more aggressive shift in the aero centre of pressure rearward as the driver comes off the brakes, which also appears to be creating a limitation for Ricciardo in the corner entry phase.

It’s also a style that is close to Norris’s default approach, although it’s important to note that he’s put a huge amount of effort into evolving his driving style in recent years.

At the end of 2019, he spoke about experimenting with his style in the Abu Dhabi test and given he and Sainz struggled in different ways, the pair were able to learn from each other. The result of that was a tricky car but that both could make work – but creates a driving challenge that surprised Ricciardo.

Stella is uncertain how long this characteristic has been in the DNA of the McLaren, although it appears to have been for some time. After all, progressing along development paths often augments such characteristics over time.

“We have been scratching our heads on how long this characteristic goes back in time,” said Stella.

“The aerodynamics is where the forces come from and I think it goes back to some seasons before the current season. It’s a set of characteristics in terms of how the car delivers the aerodynamic forces, which is not new to this year’s car.

“This year’s car is a close sister of last year’s and there’s certainly a close relationship to the previous years’ cars. So it has to do with the methodology that can produce quick cars, but with some [specific] characteristics.”

It’s also important to remember that the aerodynamic characteristics are not independent of the mechanical ones.

What’s crucial is the interaction of the mechanical platform and the aero – as well as the all-important aero performance of the floor.

This is not just about how the car is loaded up front to rear, but also in other directions. It’s a hugely complex equation to capture these interactions through all phases of a corner and this is where understanding of the characteristics will lie. This is why McLaren is largely stuck with the characteristics for the rest of the season.

“F1 cars are entirely dominated by aerodynamic delivery,” said Stella. “Then you work with suspension and the other mechanical aspects, but those aspects are often compensation and integration, not the leading parameter which is the aerodynamic delivery of the car at the various attitudes, the attitudes being the front ride height, the rear ride height, the yaw angle, the roll angle.

“This is what causes the car to be strong in a straight line and to be less strong as soon as you generate some yaw angle or rotation of the car. At the same time, when I talk about aerodynamics, this is definitely what leads to this characteristic, but it is also quite difficult to fine tune because to generate the aerodynamic forces you need to establish floor structure.

“It takes months or years of development to consolidate these floor structures so that you can achieve the aerodynamic efficiency of the car is absolutely astonishing and never matched in the past by any Formula 1 car.

“So when you embed these characteristics so deeply, it is difficult to change them. So it’s easier to work with mechanical aspects, but even those aspects are relatively limited because of homologation in 2021.

“You find yourself relatively stuck and that’s why a lot of the requirement and a lot of the demand shifts to the driver’s side. This is the tool, it’s quick, but it needs to be driven in a certain way.

“There’s not much we can do at the moment. So while we can improve the aerodynamic efficiency, it is a lot more difficult to improve some of the characteristics with a mind to the driving style.”

You might assume that these characteristics will be eliminated next year given the comprehensive change in regulations, but Stella suggests it is possible that it could be a consequence of the methodology used by McLaren.

If it’s a product of the underlying science, then it’s possible the characteristics could carry over. This is why Ricciardo can’t simply ride out the season then start anew in 2022. What’s more, given it has produced a competitive car, it would be wrong to say that McLaren has got things wrong.

All F1 cars have what is called ‘limit behaviour’, particularly when it comes to corner entry. Some aspects will always ‘give up’ first and it’s simply that McLaren is a more extreme example of the tradeoffs present in most cars.

“I find this quite typical,” said Stella when asked if this was something he had encountered before. “Even going back to my days at Ferrari there were various seasons in which the cars were pretty much experiencing similar characteristics.

“It’s always a bit difficult to find the right blend between having the car which is strong in mid-corner and maintains good characteristics in straightline speed. Conversely, if you focus your car on straightline and high-speed, then it comes a bit difficult to maintain good aerodynamics in the middle of a corner

“It’s not McLaren specific. What is McLaren specific is that our car is clearly on one side of this typical split of characteristics that you can achieve.” (X)

#daniel ricciardo #articles #andrea stella #dan

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formula365 · 4 years

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A thing of the past - Bahrain GP review

In 1973, the Formula 1 season closed with the US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen. The title had already been decided in favour of Jackie Stewart, who had secretly decided to retire at the end of the season, and leave the mantle of leading driver of Tyrrell to his teammate, François Cevert. Stewart would leave at the peak of his powers, with 100 GPs to his name, tired of seeing friends die on track. It had been a dark era for the sport, and there had been an impact on his and his wife’s mental health. It had taken too much of a toll for them to bear it any longer.

As fate would have it, they were in for another sad ending. On the Saturday practice session, Cevert lost control of his car in the Esses, hit the barrier on one side and was sent careening towards the barrier on the other side at an 90 degree angle. The second impact ripped the barrier from the ground; Cevert was killed instantly, from injuries caused by the barrier that was meant to save his life.

A lot has changed since those days, and Stewart was one of the men who most contributed to that. After retirement, he lead a campaign for improved safety in both tracks and cars. It took time for safety to arrive at today’s standards, but F1 can now boast an incredibly positive record. Despite some big shunts, only one driver lost his life in the past 25 years. People like Stewart, Charlie Whiting and Dr. Sid Watkins were instrumental in achieving this remarkable record, and the changes they campaigned for have saved many drivers.

Romain Grosjean added his name to that list yesterday. As the replays of his accident hit our screens, and the carcass of his survival cell became visible in the wreckage, it was clear that the barrier had given in. His head would have gone straight into the upper section of the barrier, at a speed of over 200km/h; just like his countryman 47 years ago, the car headed to the barrier at close to an 90 degree angle. Had it not been for the halo, the last great measure championed by Whiting before his untimely death, Grosjean would surely not have survived.

But for all that was impressive in how the car, the marshals and the medical car protected and ultimately rescued the driver, there are questions to be asked, particularly about the barrier. Improvements in barrier technology were one of the most important steps towards driver safety; accidents like the one that killed Cevert showed the importance of improving the design and build of the barriers to ensure that they could sustain heavy impacts without breaking apart. Barriers that were supposed to save lives were taking them instead.

Which is why we have to question what happened to Grosjean’s car. The similarities between Grosjean’s and Cevert’s crashes are inescapable, and in both cases the barriers failed to do their job. Yes, the halo saved Grosjean’s life, but the main point should be the fact that the halo should not have been necessary at all. If the barrier had fulfilled its purpose of absorbing the impact and throwing the car back out, the halo would have played no part in this crash at all.

To make matters worse, the way the fail structures of the car are meant to work, once the survival cell was stuck in the guard-rail, the back of the car had nowhere to go and, as it’s meant to do, it split from the monocoque. The violence of the impact and the fact the chassis was wedged between sections of the barrier probably led to the break happening further back in the car structure than it should. (I am in no means an expert in this, so take this sentence with several grains of salt) This, in turn, led to a fuel line rupturing, which led to the fire. The barrier failure not only caused the accident to be more serious than it should have been, it also caused a fire that made the driver escape harder and more dangerous than it should have been.

Don’t get me wrong: I don’t want to diss on the FIA, when their relentless pursuit of safety has significantly contributed to saving many drivers’ lives. Grosjean’s survival was not a matter of luck, or a miracle, as many have said; it was the product of decades of work and science by those in charge of the sport. If news of tragedy are now rare in motorsports, we owe it to them. There is also no way to entirely remove the danger factor off these sports: every time a driver straps themselves to a cockpit, there is always a possibility that it will be their last time.

But certain elements of danger should be a thing of the past, and what happened to Grosjean is definitely one of them. There will certainly be a thorough investigation into the crash and the causes of this failure will come to light. If the past is any indication, the FIA will learn new lessons and will implement new measures to ensure that barriers will be improved and will continue to do their job. Most importantly, I am certain they will ensure that barriers will not endanger drivers’ lives rather than save them.

The comments made by Ross Brawn after the race were very encouraging. Instead of the usual platitudes about what a great job they have done to protect drivers, he talked about the things that did go wrong. It shows that the willingness to admit problems and study solutions has not gone away and that there will be a continued resolve towards protecting the stars of the show.

We should rejoice that Grosjean survived with only minor injuries what was quite possibly the scariest accident of the past 25 years. Witnessing a car burst into flames was something that we thought belonged to the distant past and brought home the stark reality of the risks these super humans take for our entertainment. But we should also not allow such an incredible escape to blind us to glaring problems that led to this big scare in the first place. There were other times in the past in which we were lulled into a sense of false security by miraculous escapes. Let’s not repeat that mistake.

Talking points

• When the race eventually got underway, it significantly helped to clear the fight for third in the constructors’ championship. What little hopes Renault and Ferrari still had were ended, and Racing Point lost a bag full of points when the chequered flag was in the horizon. Perez had another masterful race, taking third place early on and controlling Albon from a distance. His engine giving up the ghost was a cruel moment for the team, with the despair etched on Otmar Szafnauer’s face and body language in the pit wall.

• The major beneficiaries of Perez’ misfortune were McLaren, who leapfrogged Racing Point and are now 17 points clear in third. Even without that retirement, they would have still outscored the pink panthers, but this has made them overwhelming favourites in this particular battle. As mentioned in an earlier review, they continue to maximise their results even when they don’t have the fastest car. That ability to get the job done even when the odds are against them is an excellent sign for the team’s future.

• And Sainz’s race was enormous. P5, coming from P15 on the grid? Bwoah.

• Daniel Ricciardo, who will replace him at McLaren, left his teammate in the dust once again. The first time he was stuck behind Ocon he asked to be let by on the radio, as he was clearly faster; the team obliged and he quickly left his teammate behind. Later on, after a round of pit stops, he found himself behind Ocon again but this time passed without the assistance of the pit wall. The Frenchman is not a bad driver, but the Aussie’s superb form is making him look vulgar.

• Albon inherited a spot on the podium, and, after his big crash on FP2, the champagne must have tasted sweet indeed, but it was not lost on anyone how he lost the battle to Perez, the one driver vying for his seat, while driving superior machinery. Nevertheless, it is a moment that can give him a boost of confidence for the final two races and allow him to relieve some of the pressure.

• When asked after the race about the potential for drivers refusing to drive after witnessing such a terrible accident, Verstappen said that if he was a team boss he would fire them on the spot. The Dutchman’s alpha male attitude is beginning to grate a lot of people the wrong way, especially when his words have such a negative connotation in terms of mental health. It was heartening, though, to see a few of the drivers of the 2019 F2 grid were quick to denounce his words, having lived through something even worse than Grosjean’s crash. There is a different mentality in the new generation of drivers coming through, making Verstappen’s attitude look more and more out of place in today’s motorsports.

• Pierre Gasly drove another masterclass, this time in terms of tyre management. He was struggling by the end and was saved by the late safety car, but would have nevertheless (quite probably) finished P8 on a one-stop strategy in one of the most tyre abrasive tracks on the calendar. It was risky, but with Perez’ failure at the end, it proved to be a good roll of the dice by AlphaTauri.

• At the front, nothing new. Hamilton controlled the pace from start to finish, keeping Verstappen at bay and always responding when the Red Bull driver pushed that little bit harder. In the end, the Dutchman had nine of the ten fastest laps of the race, but it was still no match for Hamilton’s consistency over a grand prix distance. Try as he might, his car is no match for the W11 and that is robbing us of a mighty fight between arguably the two best drivers on the grid.

• Dr. Ian Roberts deserves all the plaudits he is getting, and then some, for the way he ran towards the flames to help Grosjean escape the wreckage. With protective equipment that is far less safe than the drivers’, he still dared to run towards the fire. Enormous bravery.

• A different type of bravery was shown by the Haas team members, who still had a car running in the race and carried on with their jobs. Even knowing that Grosjean was ok, it must have been difficult to continue their work after that enormous scare. But carry on they did; a special bow to them for that as well.

• To cap off another miserable weekend in terms of safety, a marshal crossed the track with a fire extinguisher in his hands right in front of Lando Norris’ car. He was trying to reach Perez’ stricken Racing Point, and the safety car had been deployed, so the speed of the cars had been significantly reduced, but this is a risk that simply should not be taken. An eerily similar situation killed Tom Pryce in 1977. And once again, Michael Masi shrugged it off by saying that, while not ideal, we should not castrate (his words, not mine) anyone for trying to help put out a fire. Non-chalant, flippant, callous. I miss Charlie Whiting.

#F1 #bahraingp #bahrain gp crash #romain grosjean #mclaren #Racing Point #sergio perez #lewis hamilton #daniel ricciardo #Max Verstappen #pierre gasly #Carlos Sainz Jr #alex albon

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fuzziemutt · 3 years

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Headcanon Background

These are my headcanons following the world of “Do You Understand?”

This is just extra world building and character stuff that I didn’t want bogging down the main story or have established in there for future reference. Some of these headcanons are inspired by fics I’ve read btw. I might add onto this in the future.

WARNING: Minor Spoilers ahead - I do suggest reading this after the story is complete.

-this mostly covers Connor, Nines and Hank because they’re the ones I most often deal with. If anyone asks for the others or I think of some for them I might add em.

MasterList

World:

This is Post Pacifist route and everyone lives (best ending)

The actual events of the game take much longer, the revolution doesn’t end until towards the end of December to January.

Some events of the game went a bit differently since the time is stretched and because mister Cage is dumb. Like Markus can’t do the weird look deviation thing for funsies. And Alice is human (even if not shown). And there were more revolutionary events that aren’t discussed but happened.

Androids are also much more open about their inhumaness, they often act more human like around humans. However, while alone, androids tend to talk via their internal networks most often (some choose to outwardly speak only too, it’s just preference) and refer to themselves in less human manners.

Okay ngl I’m not gonna get into how to fix this mess of a world Cage made, I’m going to idealize some things in this fic (like I made a landlord nice and not much ACAB- or really any cop stuff), this is merely for fic purposes. I ain’t gonna play moral battlefield with Cage’s dumbass for what started as a vent fic. Just know I don’t agree with a lot of the decisions Cage made for this game’s plot.

Connor RK800:

The RK800 model was made with less articulations in his face so as to cut corners given he was meant to just be a trial. -He needs to consciously run facial expression programs and they can be quite awkward.

Same vein, Connor’s constant calibration, while also a stim, lack of tear ducts, and blinking glitch are also due to Cyberlife cutting corners

Connor Has ADHD because I do so he does too

He also stims by pacing or running, but he tends to do this in absolute private.

He likes to change his hair color quite often to differentiate himself from Nines (He would change his eye color if he could), he does have Bryan’s curly hair but he still consistently styles it to the game style.

His wardrobe style consists of button ups (black, white and floral), turtlenecks, a dark grey blazer, knee length black coat, black jeans, and dress shoes (often Cyberlife ones since they’re just slip ons essentially)

He has killed/hunted way more deviants (and humans) than in game Connor. When he isn’t with Hank, Cyberlife ordered him to simply hunt down and dispose of any deviants he could find. (they wanted results they just played nice with the law for show)

While he wasn't cruel and let all deviants he met with Hank go (except Rupert), any deviants he found while "off duty" did not receive the same mercies (some would even be found mangled beyond recognition). Hank really amplified the humanity in him but only when present. It was also easier to ignore orders when he had a scapegoat.

He also remembers all prior iterations of himself; while the corruption in memory is still there, it was used to condition him in “right” from “wrong”.

He spent a lot more time with Amanda especially during early trials as well so his loyalty to her is very deep and she is like a mother figure to him.

This is Connor model -54. Past 3 models deactivation: Fell with Daniel while protecting Emma (Successful mission); Success w/ Carlos’ android, but he still self destructed and got shot in the interrogation room when trying to stop them; Stratford tower kitchen but the deviant crushes his thirium pump before running leaving him unable to be saved.

He did go up to the roof and saw how Simon was left behind, but he thought about how Hank would be displeased if he killed this android in front of him, given prior results, so he left back to the kitchen last second. Simon knows he left him alone but he doesn't know why.

*pats his head* this boy can hold so much unprocessed trauma

Also this Connor is not an “uwu soft boy”, he is a bastard man. A nice bastard man, but a bastard man none the less. He will sell you to Satan for a single corn chip (/j). He is severely touch-starved though.

He is very bad at expressing and showing his true emotions in a way that makes sense since he’s spent the last, however many, iterations putting himself in a tomb of denial, fear and anger in order to survive. He often expresses nothing or in a manner that he feels will benefit him (arguably manipulative but he is in constant survival mode still). (unless he gets too overwhelmed by his own emotions like hella overwhelmed)

He wasn’t necessarily “deviant” when a machine, his social relations and general programming just saw the act of being more emotionally expressive as giving him a higher chance of not being killed by his handlers. Basically “if they think I’m like a cute roomba, they won’t kill me as easily”. He still experienced frustration, fear and other emotions he ignored, but he was under command (with code and external pressures), his own AI just got fucky and advanced without anyone realizing it (from trauma).

The books in his apartment are random books hes bought from a thrift store, but there are some mystery books and a sea creature encyclopedia in the mix. - The manta ray plush is a gift from Hank, the Whale is a gift from Nines.

Connor (Nines) RK900:

He looks and sounds exactly like Connor. Height, build, face, voice and everything is the exact same except he has blue eyes.

Arguably Nines’ system name is still registered as “Connor” but he just never felt the need to change it since he just goes by Nines anyways.

He has more articulations in his face, even more than the average android, and he tends to take advantage of this. He does feel bad sometimes after being a walking reminder that Connor meant nothing to Cyberlife, but they both tend to not want to talk about that and just ignore it. He doesn’t know how deep Connor’s jealousy goes though.

Given he activated deviant, he really isn’t sure what being a machine is like or having to follow orders. This sometimes is a disadvantage as he doesn’t get sometimes why androids, like Connor, would lean so heavily onto their old programming.

This also means, he’s very expressive and open about his emotions. They were free so why would he try hiding what he felt ? (This can sometimes get him in trouble)

Where Connor changes his hair, Nines wears very loud and vibrant clothing, if he finds a shirt that screams ugly he will wear it. His usual get up is asymmetrical colored button ups, whatever pants he grabs that morning, dress shoes (don’t worry they’re ugly too) and his favorite highlighter neon yellow and orange hooded jacket. He also tends to change into more comfy wear when at his room in New Jericho.

He is partnered with Gavin Reed, but those two really aren’t friends and never will be. Nines can handle him just fine at work but he would never invite that man anywhere near him after it. He is friends with most of the DPD. People find him really friendly and enjoy talking to him.

He also owns a cat named Clem, not much is known about her because she’s really shy.

While he still has access to the base zen garden program, the program is not connected to anything and never had the Amanda AI implemented yet. Since he was never rolled off the press properly and Amanda was set to change connections to the new model set when Connor was done, it never happened.

He was released from Cyberlife storage due to an agreement between them and Markus that all remaining prototypes would be released and androids would have access to the tower in order to produce biocomponents and parts (Cyberlife still owns the building arguably and has access to any info/security there though). He’s honestly not that close to the Jericho leadership despite everything. He talks to them every once in a while but he doesn’t actively talk to them.

Arguably yes he is one of many RK900s, but for sake of story, he is the -84 model of the series and the only one we will see.

Hank Anderson:

After the revolution, he offers Connor a place to stay out of worry. He won’t admit it, but he had a gut feeling con man wasn’t doing well (he was right)

He does work on his drinking problem, but he still has a lot of issues and sometimes relapses. He’s slowly getting better.

He’s like a dad figure to Connor but he isn’t his dad. He gives guidance, but he also gets that Connor is arguably a full grown adult even if he is emotionally like 1 years old. He kinda is a dad to Nines too, but this isn’t as focused on in the story. While he is a bit less grumpy (aggressive) enter Connor, he still a bit of a sour boot most of the time. He just is sober while doing it now. He started wearing a ponytail after the revolution to keep his hair out of his face. He lets Connor trim it every once in a while, but he can’t bring himself to go back to the short style. This Hank adopted Cole as a baby after finding him at a crime scene. He never got married. (He jokes about having an ex-wife out of a sense of compulsory heteronormativity and because it’s funny to him) He used to treat Gavin like a son of sorts before Cole’s death, but practically dropped him afterwards which is why Gavin is doubly hostile towards him. The house he lives in now is not the same house he lived in when Cole was alive. He also got rid of a lot of Cole’s stuff when moving (The toys and clothes he kept are in a box in the garage).

#i write #dbh #detroit: become human #do you understand #long post

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douchebagbrainwaves · 4 years

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OK, I'LL TELL YOU YOU ABOUT BODIES

Customers are used to being maltreated. The time was then ripe for the question: if the study of ancient texts acquired great prestige. Periods and commas are constituents if they occur more than 10 times and. This is a special case of my more general prediction that most of the extra computer power we're given will go to work for game developers. Anyone can publish an essay on the Web, and it doesn't have the side effect of making your whole country poor. Java is controlled by Sun. Forms up to this point can usually be replaced by an equivalent one that's easy to program in now.

Founders usually have a lot of progress in that department so far. And that's certainly not something I realized when I was 13 that TV was addictive, so I stopped watching it. Dangerous territory, that; if anything you should cultivate dissatisfaction. But remember that to get that combination, your startup will have to be able to compel. Study lots of different things, so you need a lot of maximally interesting tokens, meaning those with probabilities far from. So now there are two numbers you care about: how much money you're putting in, and the valuation of the company. And when you agree there's less to say. When people come to you with a smaller share of an even more valuable company, till after several more rounds you end up looking at when you get filters really tight. An essay, in the course of the conversation depends on the answer. For example, you start a startup to do this, I would have tried to get a multiple of 10 6—one million x. That filter recognized about 23,000 tokens.

Bulgaria offering contract programming services. Cobol: Fortran is scary. The list of n things is easier for writers too, it's not imaginary either. Much Renaissance art was in its time considered shockingly secular: according to Vasari, Botticelli repented and gave up painting, and Fra Bartolommeo and Lorenzo di Credi actually burned some of their work. Contradiction. In math, difficult proofs require ingenious solutions, and those aren't them. But the evidence of the last 200 years shows that it doesn't matter—that the whole process seemed pointless. A few days ago. I could have thought of that.

Ok, so we get slower growth. I want to know first whether a startup is and how well, languages can be described this way. Most founders doing series A deals per partner per year, they're careful about the headers and the bodies became much spammier. People a hundred years as it is, this explanation predicts, or at least one partner from the VC fund takes a seat on your board. When people first start drawing, for example, didn't have numbers. It was from someone saying they had finally finished their homepage and would I go look at it. Open-source software has fewer bugs because it admits the possibility of bugs. But though it's not anger that's driving the increase in disagreement, there's a danger that the increase in disagreement, there's a lot they can do things that the previous generation would have considered wasteful.

And when VCs invest in angel rounds they can do to decrease the false positive rate is, because we're up in the noise, statistically. It's no wonder if this seems to the student a pointless exercise, because we're up in the noise, statistically. Cultivate them. There are whole classes of risks that are no longer worth taking if the maximum return is decreased. Or hasn't it? But the real advantage of individual filters is that they'll all be different. And once you start to design things. Prolog: Programming is not enough like programming languages.

There's no real answer. Apparently some people in the business of trying to predict beforehand, so lots of people starting startups. Society seems to have been two given at the same conference in 1998, one by Pantel and Lin stemmed the tokens, whereas I only use the 15 most interesting to decide if mail is spam. If we're determined to eliminate economic inequality, because it makes them less likely to. Founders tell themselves they need to hire in order to grow. Unless the opposing argument actually depends on such things, the only purpose of correcting them is to discredit one's opponent. What makes a good founder? I was afraid of flying for a long time to work on and others that aren't. -Discipline, experience, and empathy. Which means if letting the founders keep control stops being perceived as a concession, it will catch your attention when you hear that other Normans conquered southern Italy at about the same time. And that might be a net win.

How common is it for founders to keep control after an A round? 16% false positives. That's why they paid for those stock tip newsletters, and why only during their term of office? Now we have a way of hacking the investment process. There's no real answer. In a real essay you're writing for yourself. Prolog: Programming is not enough like logic. Now that VCs have competitors, that's going to put a market price on the help they offer. Maybe you're just running fast.

In any academic field there are topics that are ok to work on Internet search. The recipe for great work is: very exacting taste, plus the ability to gratify it. I may later scale token probabilities substantially, but this would be one of them. In theory this is possible for species too, but it's hard to foresee how big, because its size will depend not on macro trends like the amount people read, but on the ingenuity of individual publishers. These get through because I'm a programmer too, and the spams are full of the same words as my real mail. So to the extent that winning is a matter of implementing some brilliant initial idea. It was a theoretical exercise, an attempt to preserve some existing source of revenue, you're probably imitating an imitator. As the reader gets smarter, convincing and true become identical, so if you can imagine someone surpassing you, you should do it yourself. I write down things that surprise me in notebooks. There are more shocking prospects even than that.

Thanks to Slava Akhmechet, Aaron Swartz, Robert Morris, Paul Buchheit, Daniel Gackle, Jessica Livingston, Aaron Iba, Marc Andreessen, and Erann Gat for reading a previous draft.

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booksofrequirement · 5 years

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I guess I subconsciously implemented a color scheme for the books I read this past month because almost all of them had red, black, and white on the covers. And apparently, I was only in the mood for fantasy which means that February will most likely be a contemporary month.

Do you guys ever go through phases for what you’re reading? If so, what kind?

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness – ★★★☆☆

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas – ★★★★★ – I reread this book for a book club I’m in and I, once again, had the greatest time. The amount of times I had to pause to either yell at the book because of Tamlin or squeal because of Rhysand is unsurprisingly high. I’ll be honest, I’m too invested in the lives and well-being of these characters to be unbiased towards the book or the series. The sequel is still my favorite book of all time, but it was fun to see all of the foreshadowing for future books that she sets up even from the first book.

to make monsters out of girls by Amanda Lovelace – ★★★☆☆

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern – ★★★★☆ – This book started out so strong, the concept is intriguing, the writing is beautiful, and the magic is fascinating. I think I was about 30 pages in when I knew that I would love this book. Unfortunately, towards the end of the book is where I started disconnecting with the story because it felt dragged out. It feels less about a love between the two main characters and more about a love between us and the circus, which is fine, but they build up the love story between the characters so it was a little disappointing. I debated on just giving it 3.5 stars, but I loved it so much at the beginning that the good outweighed the bad.

Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray – ★★★☆☆

A Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare – ★★★☆☆ – I’m finally trying to get into The Infernal Devices series after so long. I have to admit I am enjoying the story more than The Mortal Instruments, but I’ve only read one book so that judgement isn’t official just yet. I will say that I know understand the fascination with Will Herondale⏤he’s sarcastic, he’s broody, and he reads, sign me up⏤and I’m in love.

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab – ★★★☆☆ – I actually gave this book 3.5 stars because at times I found myself getting a bit bored with the story. I loved the characters ⏤I even liked Holland as a bad guy⏤and the concept of traveling between worlds, but there were moments where the story dragged that prevented me from loving it like I thought I would.

2019 Reading Challenge Progress

At the beginning of last year, I combined a whole bunch of different challenges to make one that would allow me to read books I would normally read as well as books outside of my comfort zone. Click here my entire wrap up of the 48 different prompts I came up with for the 2018 year.

…a book about grief/death. (A Monster Calls)

…a book with more than 500 pages. (Lair of Dreams)

…a book you’re hesitant to read. (Clockwork Angel)

February TBR

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Winter by Marissa Meyer

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

Circle of Shadows by Evelyn Skye

What was your reading month like? Have you read any of the books mentioned? Leave a comment!

January Wrap-Up/February TBR I guess I subconsciously implemented a color scheme for the books I read this past month because almost all of them had red, black, and white on the covers.

#a court of mist and fury #audiobook #book review #books #bookshelf #fantasy #favorites #feminism #movie #new year #poem #poetry #romance #sarah j maas #ya books

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recentanimenews · 3 years

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FEATURE: Thank You, Black Clover. It's Been Great

"It's surprisingly good. Try it out."

I got that message on October 15, 2018. It was from Peter Fobian, the Crunchyroll Associate Manager for Social Video and it was in regards to Black Clover. I was looking for something to watch, having earlier that day finally caught up with Boruto. I, a man who's loved stories about good, spiky-haired boys that enjoy yelling and fighting since he began watching One Piece a decade earlier (and the adventures of the eternally loud Ash Ketchum a decade before that) wanted another anime to satisfy that insatiable need. And so Peter gave me Black Clover, and for that, I am grateful.

Black Clover is an anime with a reputation that preceded it. Just like before I dived into Dragon Ball, I heard copious, COPIOUS jokes about people spending hours charging up (it really wasn't that bad). I'd been made aware that Black Clover was apparently tough to get into because Asta was loud. He shouted too much, every word coming from his mouth filtered through a teenage screech. But isn't that a shonen main character thing? They yell their attacks. They yell about their dreams. They yell just to be heard. It's not exactly a super subtle brand of person. And there's something kinda beautiful about that, about beating your chest and shouting against the world. Not declaring it your enemy but making sure that it knows that you're up for anything it throws at you.

And when I finally watched it and heard Asta be more excited than, well, anyone...it wasn't that bad. Here was this weird, optimistic kid, desperate to prove to a universe full of magic that his non-magic existence mattered. I'm not trying to write a Criterion Collection booklet essay about why Asta's yells thematically work for the character, but they do. Whether he was being insulted for his lack of magic or for his low-class upbringing, Asta copes with it partly by being the loudest in the room and the most passionate. You can demean him however you want, but he'll always keep pushing and working and trying and yelling.

Anyway, Peter was right. Black Clover WAS surprisingly good. The Black Bulls were immediately lovable, this collection of outcasts that formed a little found family. Captain Yami was (and is) infinitely cool, a father figure whose approval means so much to his team. The confidence that he has in each of them is inspiring because he sees so much potential — potential that the Clover Kingdom society seems eager to trample down and hide. The world of Black Clover is chock-full of classism, with the rich and the powerful being so easily willing to discard others and their own. It's how a royal-like Noelle Silva ended up among the Bulls. She has a kind of promise that her elder siblings aren't willing to admit or understand. But Yami does, and so he pushes her and Asta and the rest to be better. Because they might never prove their worth to the upper class, but they'll at least prove their worth to themselves.

I recently wrote about this, but the way magic was implemented in Black Clover was an ever-increasing treat, rendering the battles both interesting conceptually and in actual practice. The work of series directors Tatsuya Yoshihara and Ayataka Tanemura only got more confident with time, much in thanks to their talented line-up of animators. Action sequences became more dynamic and emotional scenes overflowed with atmosphere. The big moments, those that manga readers wait for and anime fans beg them not to spoil, became more and more impressive. There are few series in general that just get better and just keep surpassing their limits, but Black Clover is one of them.

Also, I'd be remiss if I didn't include the Black Clover openings, of which there isn't a single bad one. There's a playlist of them over at the Crunchyroll Collection YouTube page. Today seems like a good day to have them on in the background.

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Tuesday's are gonna be weird without a weekly installment of Black Clover. Nothing lasts forever, though, and I'm truly excited to see what its story can accomplish in movie form. So I guess it's goodbye for now, Black Clover, goodbye and thanks. Thanks to Yuki Tabata, the creator of the manga, for delivering a fantasy narrative that's so effortlessly enjoyable. And thanks to all of the animation staff and freelancers and voice actors and writers that worked on Black Clover for the past few years. Your efforts are more than appreciated.

Take it easy, Asta. Or don't. You probably won't. We'll see you again one day regardless.

_____________________________________________________________________

Daniel Dockery is a Senior Staff Writer for Crunchyroll. Follow him on Twitter!

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: Daniel Dockery

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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deadcactuswalking · 4 years

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REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 22nd December 2019

It’s the special Christmas episode – or at least the climax of many – of REVIEWING THE CHARTS, where we discuss the UK Top 40 every week without fail, with a complete disregard for my deteriorating mental state. Let’s start with the top 10 and finish what is essentially season two of this show.

Top 10

I’m sure everyone knows the Christmas #1 by now. I’ll talk more about it later, I actually have a lot to say, it’s British YouTuber LadBaby’s “I Love Sausage Rolls”, debuting at #1 much like he did last year. I’ll elaborate in more detail once we reach the new arrivals section.

Steady at the runner-up spot is “Own It” by Stormzy featuring Burna Boy and Ed Sheeran, sadly pipped at the post even with the release of his sophomore album, Heavy is the Head.

At number-three, actually up one space this week, is “Before You Go” by Lewis Capaldi.

It replaces “Don’t Start Now” by Dua Lipa, down one spot to number-four.

We have our first true Christmas song in the top five this year next, as “Last Christmas” by WHAM! is up two spaces to number-five. It isn’t the first time it’s reached the top five, or even its highest placement, but I think they’ll settle for top five this year.

At number-six, we have another debut, the second of three in the top 10, and first of two for Stormzy: “Audacity”, a pre-release single from Heavy is the Head, or “Audacitiy”, as the BBC’s page, in its typical fashion, misspells horribly. It features Headie One, becoming Headie’s highest-peaking song ever, tied with “18HUNNA” featuring Dave, and fifth UK Top 40, as well as second top 10 entry. It’s Stormzy’s 20th UK Top 40 hit and also his ninth entry into the top ten.

At number-seven, we have “ROXANNE” by Arizona Zervas, down two spaces to number-seven.

Also down two spaces, surprisingly, is “All I Want for Christmas is You” by Mariah Carey, despite the release of a new music video. In reality, all of the top 10 has probably gained in performance, and Carey here was a victim of LadBaby and Stormzy.

We have Stormzy’s third and final debut here, “Lessons”, at number-nine, this time solo, which is his 21st UK Top 40 hit and his tenth entry into the top ten.

Finally, at #10, we have a nine-spot crash for “Dance Monkey” by Tones and I, hurt by streaming cuts that dumb UK chart rules implement, but also would have possibly cost LadBaby the Christmas #1, and at least his song is vaguely Christmassy, unlike “Dance Monkey”, which would have otherwise spent a consecutive twelfth week at #1 hadn’t it jumped down to #10.

Climbers

We have one non-Christmas climber this week, and it’s “Falling” by Trevor Daniel up nine spaces to #26.

Fallers

We don’t actually have many of these, either, though, but we do have a handful at the tail-end of the chart: “Heartless” by the Weeknd is definitely in freefall, down 13 spaces to #35, whilst “Don’t Rush” by Young T & Bugsey with Headie One curiously goes down seven spaces to #37 after going up seven spaces last week, “Someone You Loved” by Lewis Capaldi crashes down 11 positions to #38, and “Netflix & Chill” by Fredo collapses down 12 spots to #40.

Dropouts & Returning Entries

As always with these Christmas weeks, we have quite a few drop-outs, yet very little returning entries. Streaming cuts have dragged out “Memories” by Maroon 5 out from #10 (Thank God), and brought out two other garbage top 20 hits with it: “South of the Border” by Ed Sheeran featuring Camila Cabello and Cardi B from #13, and “Lose Control” by MEDUZA, Goodboys and Becky Hill from #18. Sadly, a pretty fantastic top 20 hit, Lizzo’s “Good as Hell” featuring Ariana Grande, is out too from #20. Also out from middling positions last week, #37 and #38 respectively, are “Down Like That” by KSI featuring Lil Baby, Rick Ross and S-X, and “Into the Unknown” by Idina Menzel and AURORA, from the Frozen II soundtrack. Oh, yeah, and “Professor X” by Dave is out from #40.

In terms of returning entries, we only have one revolving around pretty depressing circumstances. The early death of 21-year-old emo-rapper Juice WRLD, one that we have seen a lot on this show, has propelled his song “Lucid Dreams” back to #27. For what it’s worth, the song has grown on me a lot since its release, and I’ve said my peace on the matter on Twitter. Rest in peace, Jared Higgins.

There is one returning entry and one drop-out that I’ve missed, but we’ll talk about them later.

IT’S CHIRSTMAS INNIT

First of all, the non-movers, climbers and fallers: If “River” by Ellie Goulding counts, it’s down three spots to #11, but otherwise... “Fairytale of New York” by the Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl is at #14, “Merry Christmas Everyone” by Shakin’ Stevens is at #16, “Do They Know it’s Christmas?” by Band Aid is up two to #17, “Step into Christmas” by Elton John is up six to #19, “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” by Michael Bublé is down one spot to #24, “One More Sleep” by Leona Lewis is up four to #25, “Santa Tell Me” by Ariana Grande is up three to #28, “I Wish it Could be Christmas Everyday” by Wizzard is up five to #29, “Merry Xmas Everybody” by Slade is up five to #31, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” by Brenda Lee is at #32 and “Underneath the Tree” by Kelly Clarkson is up six to #33.

We have one Christmassy returning entry, and that is the festive albeit creepy “Santa’s Coming for Us” by Sia back at #36. Combined with the Christmassy new arrival and the songs within the top 10, that means we have within 15 to 17 holiday songs on the “Christmas chart” (More on that later). So, basically, we’re 50% Christmas here on the UK Top 40... arguably, disputably, whatever. Here are the Album Bomb(s)?

ALBUM BOMB(S)?: Heavy is the Head by Stormzy and Fine Line by Harry Styles

This is a pretty awkward album bomb as I’ve already covered most things about Stormzy in the Top 10 section and it’s really disputable if Harry Styles had an album bomb but he had one debut and one re-entry as well as a faller, all from the same album, so I’m counting that as an album bomb. Rod Stewart, however, the damned fool, didn’t get an album bomb however he got the Christmas #1 on the albums chart, trumping both UK rapper and songwriter Stormzy at #2, and former One Direction member and current rockstar Harry Styles at #3.

I haven’t heard Heavy is the Head but I’m excited to check it out. I’m weary of its length, but some of the features seem intriguing. Its impact on this chart is weakened by both UK chart rules only allowing for three songs and the fact that, well, it’s Christmas, technically. That would also explain why Harry Styles’ “Lights Up” dropped out from #33 this week, as it was the single that performed the least, whilst “Watermelon Sugar” is back at #18 and “Adore You” has dropped off one spot from its debut, landing at #12 on this chart. Before we even get to exciting new music from Stormzy, let’s cover some weaksauce garbage from Harry Styles.

#39 – “Falling” – Harry Styles

Produced by Kid Harpoon and Tyler Johnson – Peaked at #62 in the US

Aw, do I have to? Well, I’ve already said how much I disliked Styles’ sophomore record and why, back on last episode (And the last paragraph) actually, so I don’t need to bring it up again. “Falling” is Styles’ fifth UK Top 40 hit, and the third best-performing song from the album; three is all allowed from one album on the UK Top 40. Styles had an actual album bomb on the Hot 100, and this one charted decently high there too. Also, fun fact: since Trevor Daniel is still here, this marks the first time in forever that two identically-named songs with entirely different lyrics and content (I.e., aren’t covers) have charted simultaneously. Somehow, and I dread to think, the Trevor Daniel song may be better. The pianos here are reverb-heavy and saturated so much to the point where I geta feeling of drab, moist dread, which is represented in the production overall, especially when Harry Styles belts and his vocals clip pretty heavily in the mix here. The lyrics are specific and do resonate to some extent, especially the self-referential and dare I say meta second verse, and I can’t exactly say Styles’ delivery is unconvincing, despite it reminding me too much of Lewis Capaldi than it probably should – you’re a much better singer than him or this, Harry. If the production wasn’t so shoddy and it wasn’t four plodding minutes, perhaps this gross, distorted excerpt of a power ballad wouldn’t be so excruciating, but alas, here we are. Good effort, I suppose.

#9 – “Lessons” – Stormzy

Produced by Ed Thomas

I have no idea what to expect. It’s the penultimate track on the album and it’s produced by some guy I don’t know. I haven’t been this clueless about a song before hearing it on this show in months, but it’s actually pretty high here because of how it touches upon Stormzy’s personal life, specifically his relationship with television presenter Maya Jama... and I really want to like this. The song is honest and soulful, with Stormzy admitting his faults in the relationship multiple times, and I enjoy the theme of childhood that he toys around with in the verses, but it’s really vague to exactly how he “disrespected” her, and I’m not asking for a vent that details his entire relationship with Jama but it feels somewhat insincere if the closest you get to a specific memory is either having candles lit up, which is overwhelmingly common, and pacing around the kitchen after a fight, “like this s**t is foul”. Some of these rhymes are also pretty painful. Rhyming “Maya” with “Maya”, and then, “fire” with “desire”? Come on, man, you’re better than that, and there is a lack of internal rhymes or even a comprehensive flow to the whole thing. I do like the vintage R&B beat with some very 90s keys sprinkled through the fake finger-snaps, and the blocky percussion is pretty smooth, albeit too stiff to make the chorus work at all, as it’s just really odd, aimless, multi-tracked rambling, with really half-hearted singing vocals from Stormzy. I don’t know, I really want to like this, but the content is overly vague, the production is dull and uninteresting, and the performance is just the same, as he sounds like he hasn’t slept in days. Maybe that’s the point? Probably, but it doesn’t make this song any more endearing. Sorry, I really wanted to like this, so a half-decent single here sounds like the biggest disappointment, but it’s just passable at best, really.

#6 – “Audacity” – Stormzy featuring Headie One

Produced by Fraser T. Smith

This is the banger of the record, with an up-and-coming UK drill rapper, that would burst onto the chart with a wham... whilst also being right next to WHAM!, but that’s a coincidence. T. Smith is on the boards, Stormzy and Headie One are on the mic, and they sound hungry. Any time Stormzy starts off a track with that trailing “It’s like...” ad-lib, I know it’s going to be ferocious, and this is what this track is. Over looming 808 bass and crawling synths, Stormzy is losing his breath, rasping through his bars because of his insistency to do an angered one-take, like a madman, and it sounds angry and really violent. I’m genuinely kind of scared, it kind of works like Bobby Schmurda’s “Hot Boy” because its purpose is to paint such a vivid picture of gang violence that it gives you goosebumps. Stormzy is talking about inexperienced rappers dissing him... and in the first verse, he goes into detail about why he wants to kill this man, in an oddly calm demeanour before he starts losing it once he starts talking about how he’s going to “skeng-fry his dome”, even accepting the gunsmoke (Both literally and figuratively) that this person tries to use to intimidate Stormzy as just weed smoke, which sounds a lot more savage than I made it sound. Headie One is more melodic on this mix of nasty grime synths and UK drill bass beats, but his more casual delivery really makes the pretty funny bars somewhat intoxicating, especially when he says, “Knowledge is power, ask Gandhi”, which is just hilariously nonsensical... but it’s still not great. It runs way too long at four minutes, and feels pretty repetitive and like a drone by the end, especially due to lack of a true climax. Also the beat just fades out and leaves Stormzy’s isolated vocal, which is abruptly cut off by the end too, so that just sounds awkward. I wish I liked this more, but it sounds more like a weak “Wiley Flow” than the anthemic “Vossi Bop” or the pounding “Sounds of the Skeng”. I still like it, though, it’s just a fair bit duller than Stormzy’s usual offerings in this trap banger lane. Speaking of that, I listened to “Big Michael” out of curiosity and that was freaking amazing, so why didn’t that chart instead of these comparatively mediocre offerings?

One week, it’s “Blinded by Your Grace” / Next week, it’s bang you in your face!

NEW ARRIVALS

#34 –“Happy Christmas (War is Over)” – John Legend

I have no production or chart data for this one, because, guess what? It’s another Christmassy cover song released by an aging and increasingly irrelevant pop star exclusively on platforms that provide more sales and hence boost its false chart placement. I’m glad this is only a holiday thing because it’d drive me up the wall if this was done often. Legend released his Christmas album in 2018, called A Legendary Christmas, and it included many covers, including the infamous “woke” “Baby it’s Cold Outside” rendition with Kelly Clarkson on the 2019 deluxe edition. Of course, this song’s not on said deluxe edition for whatever reason... he really couldn’t just cover a nice old Christmas song, he had to do the controversial songs, huh? The whole album is really disposable garbage filled with novelty and commercialised merriment. I used to really like this guy but he is far beyond receiving my best wishes at this point in his career. Uh, the original song is a hot mess as well. Let’s just get to the meat and potatoes, no pun intended.

#1 – “I Love Sausage Rolls” – LadBaby

Produced by LadBaby

No, not DaBaby. LadBaby. Okay, so, first of all, this potentially isn’t the true “Christmas #1”, as after all, this chart was released before Christmas Day and doesn’t count sales that were made on December 25th, although the press seems to have accepted this as the Christmas #1, and have highly publicised it as such, so I’m allowing it, even though I guess you could dispute that. Second of all, LadBaby is a YouTuber who makes comedy videos or vlogs or something? I don’t know, I don’t pay attention. The video for this that they showed on Top of the Pops (Yes, this was aired on Top of the Pops) had his family in, all wearing sausage roll outfits, so maybe he’s a family vlogger? Speaking of those outfits, the same family is featured on the cover, which is a parody of the famous Abbey Road album cover by the Beatles. Not only is that not a Christmas album but it equally doesn’t work because this is a parody of a Joan Jett song, “I Love Rock and Roll”. Finally, LadBaby got to the top before with “We Built This City” in 2018, a parody of the Starship song with the exact same punchline as this one. Bottom line, this is just a novelty song with a dumb punchline and pretty terrible production, because as with all YouTube songs, it sounds cheap and very royalty-free. These guys can’t sing, especially not LadBaby himself, but it really doesn’t matter because we’re not supposed to actually listen to this. We’re supposed to listen once and have a chuckle, and move on, but sadly, this isn’t even funny enough for me to snigger. I’m not a fan, and if Tones and I’s song hadn’t crashed as hard as it did thanks to dumb UK chart rules, LadBaby would be even less liable to stick the landing next year, and I really hope he doesn’t.

Conclusion

On principle, I feel like giving a tied Worst of the Week to John Legend for his annoying exclusivity and really garbage album that “Happy Christmas (War is Over)” is connected to, alongside LadBaby, for hitting the #1 spot with a cheap novelty song in “I Love Sausage Rolls”, which is a joke he’s done before, instead of Stormzy or, you know, an actual Christmas song. In reality, I haven’t heard the John Legend song and I don’t even want to, and the LadBaby song isn’t really worth getting angry about. The Best of the Week is just as hard to pick due to the sheer lack of quality on display here, but I’ll give it to Stormzy and Headie One for “Audacity”, I guess.

I hope you guys enjoyed this second season of REVIEWING THE CHARTS – I know it was a rocky one, but we got there in the end. I can’t really say happy holidays because I’m a day or two late from Christmas but I’ll definitely say thank you for reading this past year. Follow me on Twitter @cactusinthebank for more musical ramblings and I’ll see you next week – but that’ll be next season, and possibly next year.

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ilovejevsjeans · 4 years

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How another Aussie champion helped Ricciardo recover from horror start with Renault

As beginnings go, it was less than auspicious. Mere seconds into the first race of his high-profile Formula One move to Renault, Daniel Ricciardo's 2019 Australian Grand Prix disintegrated into a shower of broken carbon fibre, the front wing of his car smashed to smithereens after he ran off the side of the Albert Park circuit and clipped a trackside ditch.

Things didn't get a lot better in the early races of 2019 for Ricciardo who, so accustomed to fighting at the front with his former team, had to sate his hunger with occasional crumbs dropped by the Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull outfits that annexed the available podium places. Top-10 qualifying efforts were rare, decent race finishes largely out of reach. He couldn't recapture the feeling on the brakes in his new Renault that had made audacious, last-gasp passes his trademark at Red Bull, and he knew he was over-driving to make up for the performance of his car and his own frustrations, determination to fix one mistake inevitably leading only to another.

Ricciardo's signature smile was still there, but those who know him best could see the grin's wattage was dimmed. Ricciardo knew something needed to change – and another high-profile Australian athlete unexpectedly provided the impetus.

"It was April last year, the season hadn't been going all that well for me, and I was spending some time with [Australian snowboarder] Scotty James," Ricciardo tells The Age.

"Scotty's a good friend. He writes a daily journal, and he was telling me about how much it helped him focus on his goals, what he wanted to achieve, and how regularly writing things down for yourself forces you to be honest and accountable.

"I started one myself to see if it would make a difference, and it definitely has. I'm being honest with myself and it's for my thoughts and my eyes only, and it's something I look back on. It could be something as simple as 'how did I feel today?', 'how did I feel how I felt about that race?' and so on, and then going back and trying to understand why.

"It's just me and my thoughts, and it has definitely given me some clarity. I never sit down with a plan of what to write, but in the writing process you answer questions you may have about something, and that's really useful for me."

Ricciardo's season eventually recovered to some degree from its stuttering start, and while ninth place in the championship didn't get his pulse racing after a pair of top-three finishes with Red Bull in 2014 and 2016, he comprehensively out-performed the driver in the sister Renault, German Nico Hulkenberg, and achieved the team's best result with a storming drive to fourth in Italy in September.

A strong finish to the year gave the 30-year-old reason to be optimistic about the 2020 campaign set to start in Melbourne next weekend, but it's a season he realises comes with questions he can, so far, only take an educated guess at answering.

Ricciardo's knowns for 2020 are few, yet indisputable. One, he's in the second and final year of a deal with Renault that hasn't yet delivered on its considerable promise. And two, there's little chance the West Australian will see the view from any step of a Formula One podium given drivers from Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari have annexed the top three positions in all but six races over the past four years.

Can Renault show enough progress that he'd consider re-signing? Might Mercedes or Ferrari, both of whom have driver vacancies next year, remember Ricciardo's recent past in a race-winning team and come calling? And what of 2021, where a significant shake-up of F1's rulebook could completely change the sport's pecking order, as Ricciardo discovered the hard way the last time the regulations were rebooted seven years ago?

"This year definitely carries more weight than most," Ricciardo admits.

"The chaos that surrounded my move from Red Bull to Renault, I don't expect it to be anything like that. But there's a lot happening. I'm 30, so whatever I do, it's a case of 'how many more contracts will I sign?'

"The easiest decision would be that if my year is going well [at Renault], then I'd feel like we were only going to get better and I wouldn't even think about the what-ifs or maybes elsewhere. Even though next year is going to be a new car, I think if we were able to make some big gains this year with Renault, that would give me enough confidence that whatever happens in the future would be good, but you never know how these things will play out.

"I certainly see myself in the sport for at least five more years, but every year I'm one step closer to when my career might end. You're not thinking like a 20-year-old anymore."

While Renault's preference is to retain their combination of an established race-winner in Ricciardo and French youngster Esteban Ocon for the first season of F1's rule reset, chances to drive for Mercedes, the dominant team of the past six seasons, and Ferrari, still the sport's biggest name despite not winning a drivers' title since 2007, are rare.

When the lights go out at Albert Park, Charles Leclerc will be the only driver among the sport's two biggest teams to have a contract beyond this year, the 22-year-old Monegasque inking a deal with Ferrari until 2024.

Reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton's retention by Mercedes appears a formality, but the futures of 2019 Australian Grand Prix winner Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) and four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) are murkier, particularly with Ferrari banking its future on Leclerc with such a long-term investment.

Ricciardo openly expresses his admiration for what Mercedes, who won a record sixth consecutive constructors' championship last season, have achieved since the advent of the sport's V6 turbo hybrid engine era in 2014, which brought down the curtain on a reign of dominance by a Vettel-led Red Bull as Ricciardo joined the team that same season.

Mercedes debuted a revolutionary dual-axis steering (DAS) system at February's first pre-season test in Barcelona, a hydraulically powered innovation that allows their drivers to adjust the angle of the front wheels to gain lap time by pushing or pulling the steering wheel while the car is in motion.

Rival outfits were blindsided by the DAS concept when it was unveiled, Renault's sporting director Alan Permane commenting the team was "wide-eyed" about something Mercedes admitted they had been hatching in secret for a year, but Ricciardo says Mercedes' relentless pursuit of progress should be lauded.

"Hats off to them because they have been dominant this whole turbo era, yet they are still the ones pushing everyone else," he says.

"They're not getting complacent, and I think that's why they've been so dominant. They're setting an example right now and as a competitor, I certainly respect that."

Further clouding any picture Ricciardo paints of what 2021 may look like are rule changes that will make the grid that appears for next year's race in Melbourne almost unrecognisable from next Sunday's starting line-up. The next generation of cars will feature significantly different bodywork and low-profile tyres on larger, 18-inch wheels, while a cost cap, set at US$175 million ($A263 million) per team per annum, will halve the budgets of the sport's biggest spenders at the flip of a calendar, creating, in theory, a more level playing field.

The sweeping changes have the potential to make more of an impact than the implementation of the current iteration of rules in 2014, which propelled Mercedes from the midfield to a team that has won more than 80 per cent of grands prix since.

Pre-season testing threw up enough clues to suggest Mercedes, who never really showed their true pace in Barcelona, may just demolish the field again from Melbourne onwards. Should that happen, and with little carryover between this year's rules and next, expect their rivals to switch their focus to 2021 early.

Driver market intrigue, short of Leclerc and Max Verstappen, who is contracted to Red Bull until 2023, will be the narrative of the season, and Ricciardo will be in the middle of it.

#daniel ricciardo #dan #love that he openly talks about this kinda stuff

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enkisstories · 5 years

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The android cemetery (Ch. 23)

The first thing one had to take care of when entering the Reed apartment was not to bump into the stairs leading upwards. The second was to dodge the cats that were sitting on the staircase and clawing playfully towards the interesting hats and hairs that came within their reach. Afterwards everything else was a trifle.

The floor/downstairs living room combination was L-shaped. To the left the smaller arm contained a lounge chair, various installations for the cats to climb on and a bookcase. Straight forward the longer arm was dominated by a long sofa, a wall-mounted TV and the usual household electronics. The left wall was completely made of reinforced glass. It offered an amazing look out at balcony and over Detroit. At the far end of this room a door led to the kitchen.

Thor and Loki didn’t leave their vantage points on the stairway when the bipeds took seats. Being the smallest of the adults Gavin sat down on the sofa’s back, feet on the seating. Daniel sat down to his right. Emma, after a moment of hesitation, sat down on the sofa, too. Separated from Daniel only by Gavin’s dangling feet she grabbed the sofa’s edge with both hands and stared down as if she was utterly enraptured by the floor’s pattern. Jason circled the sofa and ended up standing to Emma’s left, looking down at the PL600 in a mix of fascination and suspicion. Evelyn grabbed a book from the bookcase and curled up with it in the lounge chair that almost swallowed her. The child android grinned, because she was staying up past bedtime tonight and nobody seemed to mind. Finally Connor chose the lowest stair to sit on. Ever since picking up a fish on the verge of suffocating had set him on the path of increasing program instability, the android liked animals. Surrounding himself with pets helped him focus on being a person instead of a function. Hoping that the cats would eventually come down for cuddles while serious matters were underfoot was immensely childish, that much Connor realized himself. But to hell with maturity! The others in this room didn’t have deviancy, they didn’t know how taxing living with a mental illness was! Okay, Daniel had deviancy, too, but he had been a nutcase to begin with and given in to their condition. Therefore Daniel’s opinion on the handicap didn’t count in Connor’s book.

“How did you find me that fast?” Emma asked the apartment floor, but Jason understood that he was being addressed. He started to explain, only to get cut short by Gavin: “Ever wondered how the damn automated cars decide who to run over? Well, for one, the valuable kids like you get tagged with subdermal implants.”

Jason saw the policeman’s nose twitch while he said that. An old scar ran across the bridge. Maybe there was a connection, or maybe not. This wasn’t the time to be nosy, because Emma exclaimed: “I thought the tags were only for opening our lockers at school and for showing when we are not in the classroom!” The idea of her position getting tracked, even if it was for her wellbeing only, didn’t sit well with the girl. “I didn’t know they were active all around the clock! As if we were androids… or criminals…”

Daniel, who was both, weakly supplied that the tag could save Emma’s life one day. If she ever got lost or taken away, the police would find her and return her to her mother.

The child didn’t respond. She didn’t even look at the android whom she had known as a friend under two different names now. What was wrong with her, Emma wondered? Had she not set out tonight to re-activate her caretaker? To smuggle him out of the police station and set him free? Well, now she had confirmation that Daniel had lived as free as possible for the last one and a half year. He was happy, he was friendly towards the child and rude to everyone Emma disliked. So why did she feel the urge to run away and hide?

“And you were…?” Connor spoke up, nodding in Boyfriend Jason’s direction. In his back the cats were shifting uneasily, now that the big plastic thing had started moving, even if had been on the spot only and only so subtly.

“Jason Graff”, the man answered. “I am Emma’s mother’s new partner.”

“Graff… that name sounds familiar”, Gavin mused. “I think Danny cursed you two nights ago!”

Connor quickly consulted the internet. A number of entries and photographs came up. The third one was matching Boyfriend Jason and Connor announced that this man was the head of CyberLife’s humanization department.

“Are you the guy who implemented flash grenade sensitivity in household android eyes?” Daniel inquired.

“Among other things, yes”, Jason admitted. “Not that it would impede your functions in any way. Flash sensitivity doesn’t apply to just brightly lit rooms. But you’ll squint a little during a thunderstorm, that kind of endearing thing.”

“Yeah, thanks, we got almost taken apart by a trash golem because of that!” Daniel replied. “Endearing? More like endangering!”

“Are you also responsible for my voice?” Connor asked, this being the second thing right after deviance that made his life unreasonably difficult. Gavin, probably ranking third on the list (although Connor wouldn’t admit that anytime soon in order not to give the detective that satisfaction), laughed out loud!

“Don’t get me wrong, Mr. Graff, I do not think there’s something wrong with it”, Connor quickly added. “It’s just…”

“No, no that wasn’t me”, Jason said quickly. “I was down with the flu and when I returned to work, the damage had already been done.”

“The “damage”…” Connor replied. The android shook his head. “Okay, new rule”, he announced then. “Not only are you three including Tina forbidden to mention my Daniel-encounter ever again, the same goes for my voice!”

“Not fair!” Gavin countered, still laughing. “You get to use it on us every day!”

“Yes!” Daniel chimed in. He noticed that both Jason and Emma were smiling now and that the girl had let go of the sofa she had been clinging to like to a lifeline. That Connor! Aptly nicknamed The Negotiator, the RK800 certainly knew how to defuse a tense situation and wasn’t afraid to play up his dorky side to achieve his goal. “Yes, Con’”, Daniel repeated, “you cannot just ask that of us without offering something in return!”

“Your bones”, Connor chirped, playing up his voice’s quirk on purpose. “Intact.”

A playfully delivered threat, but a threat nonetheless. Or a warning, rather.

The android wasn’t prepared for the reaction that prompted from Jason:

“Hell, yes, Connor, that’s our adaptive routine in action! Exactly as we had envisioned you! Oh my god, I’m so proud…”

Connor looked up, his expression one of amazement not unlike the day he had watched Dewey resume circling the fish tank in the Phillips residence. None of his handlers at CyberLife had ever said they were proud of him before. Not of his successes and least of all of Connor’s personality. Perhaps the prototype had been below their notice, his feelings irrelevant to even those who believed he had some. But there was also the possibility that he had never done anything to make them proud. Not Portia Colch, who always had preferred Brandon over Connor, not Amanda, who was just a simulation and least of all Elijah Kamski, who deemed himself so far above the normal frame of reference that Connor could have sworn to have dealt with Gavin Reed instead.

A sincere smile that carried a hint of relief crossed the android’s face.

“Thank you, Mr. Graff!”

“…of my team’s work”, Jason had wanted to finish, but seeing Connor like that made him reconsider and he let the rest of the sentence hanging in the air.

Thor, too, was almost hanging in the air. The black cat was stretching his head through the railing, his gaze fixed on Mama Gavin and especially on the sofa’s underside. But the only path to that safe space was blocked by the plastic biped. Thor’s tail twitched left and right, up and down... Meanwhile Loki felt the need to add some scratch marks to the wallpaper, just in case there was any question about who owned this place.

“We call the RK800s Witchers, internally”, Jason went on. Here he was, totally lost at the situation, but being able to talk about something he understood, something that was familiar. Not that Jason’s grasp on android lore would have mattered to any of the assembled, but chatting them up like that might at least serve to break the ice before tackling the real questions of this night.

“…because of the prototype. It helped ending the android crisis of November ’38.”

“Yes, that it did”, Connor whispered and away went his smile.

“I’m actually very happy with their design!” Jason claimed.

“Uh-huh…” Daniel and Gavin went simultaneously. It didn’t do anything to stop Jason from gushing about his team’s creation:

“The thing about the Witchers is, when out of uniform they look absolutely adorable! Like a young adult fresh out of college. The B-series even more so than the Connors, they can pass as freshmen.”

“It fucking worked”, Gavin remarked.

“What worked?”

“They both got adopted”, Daniel explained. “Only Brandon’s still in denial about it. But if he is supposed to be an older teen, then this reaction is only natural.”

“That’s not what we intended”, Jason admitted. “Fascinating, though.”

Emma raised her head. Her confidence restored by the shared laughter just now the girl asked Jason, and she sounded as innocent as Connor, when she did so: “Does mom know that you design androids for a living?”

Daniel winced. That wasn’t just confidence, that was a declaration of war! Ever since he… ever since the… ever since august 2038 Caroline Phillips didn’t allow androids of any kind in her apartment. Or near her precious daughter, if she could help it. The therapy sessions had been one of the rare exceptions, because the slow exposure to Dean had unquestionably helped Emma overcome her experience with Daniel. But other than that… Caroline paid a maid service that exclusively employed humans. She specified that she wanted a human to deliver her pizza or would fetch it in person from the store. And she had transferred Emma to another school, one that only had a few android janitors and cafeteria workers, but a full staff of human teachers. The widow wasn’t confrontational towards androids, she just did her best to ignore them. Caroline learning that her love interest was actively participating in filling the world with more of the dangerous machines, even made them likeable, would probably spell the end of the relationship.

“I didn’t have the courage to tell her yet”, Jason confessed. He said nothing else, only his eyes were silently pleading.

#non sims #sims4 dbh partfive #detroit become human #dbh #sims4danielgavin

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epacer · 5 years

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The Politics of Education

SDUSD Superintendent Cindy Marten

San Diego Unified Settles Case Over Shelved Anti-Islamophobia Policies

San Diego Unified recently settled a lawsuit targeting its planned – and later shelved – anti-Islamophobia efforts, bringing an end to a multi-year legal battle in which parents and other groups accused the school district of seeking to give Muslim students special treatment.

The district, which did not admit any liability, agreed as part of the deal to circulate information to school leaders describing “limits on the conduct of public school officials as it relates to religious activity.”

The case, filed in 2017, drew the attention of some right-wing politicians and organizations, sparking anti-Muslim comments by the likes of Rep. Duncan Hunter.

Meanwhile, the settlement comes amid renewed focus on Islamophobia worldwide in the aftermath of mass shootings at two mosques in New Zealand that left 50 dead. Locally, Muslims were deeply disturbed by a fire set at a mosque in Escondido Sunday morning in which the suspect left a note referencing the New Zealand terrorist attacks.

How it All Began

In July 2016, the San Diego Unified’s school board directed staff to develop an anti-Islamophobia initiative. Then in April 2017, the board voted to adopt action steps related to the initiative in response to what it claimed were increased instances of Islamophobia sparked by President Donald Trump’s campaign.

Soon after, the plaintiffs filed their federal suit, seeking to block the adoption of the initiative. They argued in part that there was no Muslim bullying crisis, but rather the initiative was a pretext to establish the district’s preference for Muslim students in violation of the First Amendment.

They also alleged that the district’s relationship with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, known as CAIR, was unlawful. They sought to halt any formal partnership between those two groups.

In response to concerns raised by parents and the lawsuit, the school district decided to instead team with the Anti-Defamation League to implement a broader anti-bullying initiative, known as “No Place for Hate.”

The lawsuit continued, however. In September 2018, U.S. District Judge Cynthia Bashant denied the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction on all grounds.

“Plaintiffs do not argue nor present evidence regarding how an objective or reasonable observer would perceive the initiative as an endorsement of Islam and Muslims and rejection of other religions,” Bashant wrote.

The judge also said that while San Diego Unified admitted CAIR had provided guidance on preventing bullying against Muslim students, the plaintiffs’ allegations that the district’s anti-Islamophobia action steps were the product of close collaboration with CAIR was speculation that was “not credibly supported.”

The Settlement

The memo San Diego Unified circulated to area superintendents and school principals in early March as part of the settlement, which was filed in court last week, was titled “Religion in Education.” It noted that while the First Amendment does not prohibit the study of religion, it requires such content to be presented in a manner that does not promote one religion over another.

“Educators should treat each religion with equal respect, with the time and attention spent discussing each religion being proportionate to its impact on history and human development and the material presented in its historical context,” the guidance stated.

The memo also said guest speakers from religious organizations are not permitted to make presentations to students on religious topics.

The plaintiffs in the case were five families and two organizations, San Diego Asian Americans for Equality Foundation and Citizens for Quality Education San Diego.

They were represented by the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund, a Rancho Santa Fe-based group whose chief counsel is Charles LiMandri. He is best known for his pro bono legal work to ensure the Mt. Soledad Cross in La Jolla could remain amid constitutional challenges.

As for the settlement in the anti-Islamophobia case, the defense fund said its clients were thrilled.

“From the beginning, they just wanted to make sure that the school district isn’t even giving the appearance that it is preferring one religious group to another,” said Daniel Piedra, the defense fund’s executive director.

Piedra also said his clients were pleased that the only anti-bullying program the school district will implement moving forward will be “holistic, broad-based and won’t single out any religious sect.”

“The settlement speaks for itself,” San Diego Unified spokeswoman Maureen Magee wrote in an email.

Both sides agreed to cover their own attorneys’ fees.

Hunter, Others Enter the Fray

From the beginning, the case became a cause célèbre in some corners of the right-wing internet. Sites like the Daily Caller and World Net Daily breathlessly tracked the case with headlines like “Judge to Hear Alleged Islamic Takeover of U.S. Schools.”

The same week as Bashant’s October ruling, Hunter referenced San Diego Unified during a campaign appearance in Ramona.

“You have radical Islamist propaganda being pushed on the kids in our San Diego school district,” Hunter said, according to Times of San Diego. “Have you seen that? They put them on prayer rugs and they say: We gotta honor every religion.”

The comments, unsupported by evidence, came during the Alpine Republican’s campaign against Ammar Campa-Najjar in which Hunter repeatedly used anti-Islamic rhetoric and was said to have run “the most anti-Muslim campaign in the country.” (Hunter, who prevailed in the race, is facing federal campaign finance charges.)

More recently, a group called Understanding the Threat posted news of the settlement on its website.

The organization says that its primary concern is “threats to the Republic and the West in general from the Global Islamic Movement.”

It called the San Diego settlement “a big win for the students at San Diego Unified School District, and UTT hopes many other school districts will follow suit.”

Meanwhile, the new executive director of CAIR-San Diego criticized the lawsuit and some of the commentary surrounding it.

Dustin Craun argued the case was driven by the so-called “Islamophobia Network” that receives millions of dollars annually to produce and spread falsehoods about Islam and Muslims.

“That type of misinformation has produced white supremacist hatred like the deadly type we just saw in New Zealand,” Craun said. *Reposted article from the VOSD by Lyle Moran of March 26, 2019

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junker-town · 5 years

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Full schedule, changes and preview for Formula One 2019

The 2019 Formula One season is almost here and we have all you need to know to get ready for what promises to be an exciting year of racing.

Another season of Formula One racing is here, and the gap continues to close between Mercedes and the rest of the top teams, at least as far as preseason testing indicates. It promises to be an exciting season, with some serious driver changes, including the young Charles Leclerc now driving for Ferrari alongside Sebastian Vettel.

The biggest change, other than the numerous team and engine differences, is the addition of a point being awarded to the driver and constructor who manage to set the fastest lap in each race and finish in the top 10 while doing so.

From Lewis Hamilton all the way on down to the return of Robert Kubica, we have all you need to know going into the 2019 Formula One season, which gets underway on Sunday, March 17 with the Australian Open.

What happened last season?

Mercedes once again had the best car, but there were times when others shined. Ferrari was their top challenger, while Red Bull was occasionally in the mix on the tracks where their cornering-centric aero helped them take it to the top two teams. Mercedes didn’t run away with every race, but, by and large, when they didn’t have a Lap 1 incident and they had pole, they went on to win it.

Lewis Hamilton wasn’t challenged by Valtteri Bottas, his teammate, but by Sebastian Vettel, and at points was trailing Vettel in the Drivers’ Championship. That said, down the stretch, it was clear Hamilton was going to win it, even if Vettel wasn’t mathematically eliminated until the final two races.

Throughout the rest of the grid, it was more a story of incremental improvements and some regressions. Force India, now Racing Point, regressed, as did the Williams team. Renault picked up some steam here and there when the track suited their car, and battled with Red Bull occasionally. McLaren wasn’t a factor, and Fernando Alonso retired from the sport after the team failed to make meaningful improvements to the car.

Mercedes won 11 races in 2018, with Ferrari taking six of them and Red Bull winning four. Only Hamilton, Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo, Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen won races last season.

Who can challenge Mercedes in 2019?

It might not even be about challenging Mercedes — it might be about challenging Ferrari. Throughout preseason testing, Ferrari has been consistently faster than Mercedes, and Hamilton has admitted already that this season could be Mercedes’ toughest in a long time. Of course, we thought Ferrari was close last season, and Mercedes found enough pace to routinely stay ahead of them. But if the gap is further narrowed, as it seems to be, then Vettel could certainly be pushing for a title.

It will also be interesting to see if Bottas, after a disappointing 2018, can challenge Hamilton, and if Vettel is at all challenged by the young Charles Leclerc. Both of the top drivers may get challenged more than they’re used to.

Red Bull hopes to be in the mix, but the Honda engines have a lot to prove after the company returned to the sport and fell well short of expectations. Toro Rosso performed well with the Honda power units a season ago — or better than expected — which is at least a good sign.

And the rest of the teams?

One of the bigger risers may be Haas, the only American-owned team on the grid. The team was fairly steady as a middle-of-the-pack player last year, and preseason tests have shown them to be gaining on and even surpassing their 2018 competition, namely teams like Racing Point and Williams. Haas finished last season fourth, behind only the big three, and their car looks to be much-improved from last year.

There will be a lot of hope for Renault after they went out and got Daniel Ricciardo, regarded as one of the better drivers currently in the sport. They are making big moves, but the car may not be ready to take it to the big three.

Toro Rosso is looking to build on a better-than-expected 2018 with an improved Honda engine, but their ceiling is still an unknown as Red Bull itself has a lot to prove.

Alfa Romeo, formerly Sauber, went out and signed stable veteran Kimi Raikkonen, and for that reason, they shouldn’t be written off as contenders in the mid-field.

Racing Point seems to be falling, and falling fast. Formerly Force India, Racing Point looked like they were well on their way to a fourth-place finish in the standings just a couple years ago, but they’ve looked slow and uncertain in testing.

Finally, Williams — one of the more storied teams yet one that has looked downright bad in testing. The Robert Kubica comeback story is a great one, but it’s hard to imagine him or anybody leading the Williams cars to significant points in 2019.

Notable team and engine changes

Sauber, building off an Alfa Romeo sponsorship from last season, has fully removed Sauber from their name and now race as Alfa Romeo Racing, with a Ferrari 064 power unit. Force India is gone, completing their transition to SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team, using a Mercedes power unit.

The most notable change, though, is Red Bull Racing moving on from Renault, ending a 12-year partnership to make the switch to Honda engines, which have been particularly terrible since Honda rejoined Formula One, though not for lack of effort.

Notable driver changes

There was a ton of shuffling near the end of the 2018 season and throughout this past offseason. There are a bunch of new drivers and we’re going to run down the changes. The biggest saw Ricciardo of Red Bull move on to Renault, replacing Carlos Sainz Jr., who will race for McLaren in 2019, taking the spot of former champion Fernando Alonso, who left the sport. He’ll be partnered with Lando Norris, 2017 European Formula 3 champion.

To replace Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly was promoted from Toro Rosso. Daniil Kvyat rejoined Toro Rosso after racing for the team in 2017. Alexander Albon, a former Formula 2 driver, will pair with Kvyat, and in doing so will become only the second Thai driver to race in Formula One, and the first 65 years.

The other big change is Leclerc moving up from Sauber to Ferrari, taking Kimi Raikkonen’s spot. Raikkonen, not yet ready to retire, moved over to Sauber (now Alfa Romeo), where he started his career in 2001. He’ll be partnered with Antonio Giovinazzi, who has made emergency starts in the past. Lance Stroll of Williams moved over to Force India (now Racing Point), where he’ll race alongside Sergio Perez.

Finally, reigning Formula 2 champion George Russell will join Williams, and he’ll be racing alongside Robert Kubica, who is making his return to Formula One after an eight-year absence brought on by a near-fatal rally car crash in 2011.

2019 F1 Entrants, Drivers and Cars

A look at each team’s 2019 car

Here are the sporting and technical changes

Once again, Formula One is changing up how the tires are viewed and presented to the audience. All of the types of compound return for 2019, but instead will simply referred to, on race day, as soft, medium, and hard. So what were called the yellow soft tires in 2018 could be considered the hard compound on race day if last year’s supersoft and hypersoft tires are among the three available compounds that Pirelli designates for each race.

For the first time since 1959, Formula One will give a bonus point in both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships for those who set the fastest race lap, but only if the driver finishes the race in the top 10.

There were some changes to bodywork regulations. A series of aerodynamic changes were agreed upon for the front and rear wings to increase the potential for overtaking. The front wing endplates were reshaped, while the rear wing slot was widened, giving a boost to DRS performance. Some other changes were made to the bargeboards and rear wing to add further space for sponsorships. The maximum fuel levels were also raised from 105 kg to 110 kg, giving the drivers some breathing room when it comes to conserving fuel (and making themselves dangerously skinny to offset the heavier engines of today’s Formula One).

This is a behind-the-scenes change, but the FIA recently introduced a new standard for driver helmets with stricter safety testing, and plan to implement those standards through all of their racing events, not just Formula One.

How can I watch F1 in the United States in 2019?

Starting last season, ESPN acquired the broadcast rights for Formula One. The first broadcast included commercials and was a disaster as it used the Sky Sports F1 feed, which is commercial-free. Fortunately, ESPN chose to broadcast the rest of the season commercial-free, and plans to do the same in 2019, thanks to a sponsorship with Mother’s Polish.

Races will primarily be broadcast by ESPN2, though there are a handful that will appear on ESPN proper and ABC. Last season, races in many European countries were pushed back an hour to make the sport more convenient to watch for those on the other side of the Pacific.

Live streaming of ESPN’s coverage, including practices and qualifying, can be had via WatchESPN.

Remember these calendar changes

The only notable calendar change is the swapping of the United States and Mexico Grands Prix. The Mexican Grand Prix will take place Oct. 27, while the United States Grand Prix will take place Nov. 3.

Here is the 2019 race calendar, including US viewing information.

Note: full broadcast schedule has yet to be announced by ESPN, only confirming channels and times through the Monaco Grand Prix.

We are using the networks from last year’s schedule on the other races, and will update when they’re confirmed, if necessary.

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crystalracing · 5 years

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As Formula 1 continues its relentless progress into pioneering technology, it's refreshing when a real throwback enters the fray. The little HRT team that ran aground in 2012 was most definitely one of them; staging a full F1 season on a €46million budget, F1's first Spanish team was a modern homage to the mass of tiny outfits battling for a space on the grid in the late 1980s and early '90s.

After three years of toil with little reward, it met a similar fate to the likes of Simtek, Pacific and Forti when its owner Thesan Capital was unable to sell the team.

Triggered by the collapse of Lola's F1 dream in 1997, the FIA had tightened up the entry requirements to join F1, requiring any entries seeking to join at the turn of the new millennium to pay a bond of $48m, later repaid in instalments, to demonstrate financial security. This virtually priced all except manufacturer teams out of the market and, in the immediate years after, only Toyota emerged from scratch, as the large start-up costs put off even the largest marques from lodging new entries, instead electing to take over existing outfits.

In 2008 and '09, the global financial meltdown and ensuing exodus of manufacturer teams gave F1 and the FIA the job of replenishing its dwindling grid, amid the unfulfilled promise of a cost cap. Of the four teams admitted, Lotus Racing and the Manor-run Virgin Racing squads made it, US F1 was a stillborn project, while Campos Racing's entry went through a difficult birth and ultimately ended up with adoptive parents.

From the very beginning, the team toiled with financial pressures. Having budgeted for the cost cap, owner Adrian Campos's dream looked dead in the water, but a last-minute reprieve by Jose Ramon Carabante's Hispania Group provided the impetus to make the grid for the Bahrain 2010 season-opener - just, in the case of Karun Chandhok's hastily assembled machine - with ex-Midland chief Colin Kolles drafted in to run the day-to-day operations.

Although its Dallara-built chassis were underdeveloped and lacking pace, the team managed to avoid the wooden spoon at the end of its first two seasons, beating the Manor-Virgin outfit to 11th in the constructors' standings in both years.

Midway through 2011, Carabante sold up to Madrid-based investment company Thesan, which came in with the goal to drive HRT up the order while demonstrating a clear Spanish identity. Relying on Kolles's personnel to go racing, Thesan gave the Romanian his marching orders and went on a recruitment drive to bring more elements in-house. Ex-Minardi driver Luis Perez-Sala took up the reins as team principal, while the team moved its headquarters from Murcia to a new facility in Madrid.

How to build a budget F1 car

On the driving front in 2012, Narain Karthikeyan was re-signed for a second year having been benched mid-season to allow Red Bull to blood Daniel Ricciardo, while the experienced Pedro de la Rosa was signed to lead the team, bringing a wealth of knowledge from testing duties with McLaren and Pirelli to develop the car and boost the team's commercial presence.

"I learned a lot from the management side and how complex an F1 team could be," recalls de la Rosa, who now works as a sporting and technical advisor to DS Techeetah in Formula E. "I was not just focusing on racing, because there were many other things I had to help with; I had to try to look for sponsorship, and there was also the fact that we moved the team to Madrid, which I also had to help with.

"I remember the first time people asked me why I was going to HRT, and there were two reasons. The first was to continue racing, and the second was that it was a Spanish Formula 1 team. That was unique, [and if] I didn't help establish it then it might not happen again. I knew exactly where I was going and the difficulties we would be facing. I knew that it was going to be hell, but it was hell with a group of very committed people."

The F112 was hardly a significant departure from its predecessors, although some time had been spent in the vehicle dynamics lab to understand the F111's chronic lack of grip. Nonetheless, it was late in arriving - HRT attended pre-season testing with the old car, as the new design failed the roll-hoop and lateral nose crash tests needed to run.

It was another difficult birth for the team, and the long-awaited F112 finally made its on-track debut in a Barcelona shakedown. Dressed in a white, burgundy and gold livery, HRT's new chariot was a very conservative, functional design with little in the way of innovation. This was hardly surprising given its diverse roots, having been outsourced across Europe.

The design, development and construction had been produced by Munich-based Holzer, and the chassis was put together by UK-based Formtech Composites. Stress-analysis simulations were carried out in Portugal, leaving HRT's new technical chief Toni Cuquerella to tie everything together from various European industrial parks. It was far from ideal to lift the team off the back of the grid.

Avoiding the aesthetically challenged stepped noses of the time - a result of the FIA's lowering of the front crash structures - the car looked a lot more clean-cut than some of its counterparts, but just overwhelmingly basic in comparison.

In particular, the front wing seemed to have changed very little. In 2012, the complexity of the designs began to increase as aerodynamicists started to explore the realm of element curvature and vortex tunnels. Conversely, HRT's wing featured a trio of slats, still rooted in designs akin to those seen in '09 and looking rather utilitarian against the competition.

There was also performance left on the table through packaging, most noticeably at the rear end. Most teams had emerged from the 2011-12 off-season with a pronounced Coke-bottle effect at the back as the sidepods tapered in around the rear wheels. Even with a Williams-produced gearbox on board, which was kept as small as possible for the FW34's tight rear packaging, HRT's geometry was considerably more chunky.

However, the rear wing was completely overhauled, dispensing with the long-chord top flap for something smaller to boost the airflow attachment across the wing - especially in transient conditions when the DRS was activated.

Having briefly considered a switch to Ferrari power, budget constraints ensured that HRT continued with the cheaper Cosworth engines - derived from the fast-but-fragile units used by Williams in 2006. Like back-of-the-grid rival Manor, now renamed Marussia and also using Cosworth power, HRT chose not to complicate its car with the addition of KERS.

"I was quite surprised by the Cosworth," de la Rosa says. "It was very reliable. I would say the engine was not on our list of issues. OK, it had less power than the Mercedes and probably the others as well, but if you put that engine in a competitive car it would have been a decent package.

"Let's not forget that we didn't have KERS either, and that was at a time when everyone was running KERS. But we thought that the extra few tenths it was giving you was not worth the €1.8m, because we had other time gains to invest our limited budget on."

Those gains appeared in the form of a new aero package at the Spanish Grand Prix, after the team had propped up the field in the opening flyaways - and failed to qualify both cars at the Melbourne season opener for a second successive year.

The front wing featured a larger, more shapely top flap, yielding more contemporary airflow management ahead of the front wheels. Sure, other teams had ventured into three-element wings, but HRT was now consistently closer to the Marussia cars with the upgrade - which also included a new bargeboard package and revised rear-wing endplates to control vortices.

"In terms of set-up," recalls de la Rosa's race engineer Mark Hutcheson, who had joined the HRT rebuilding project from Marussia, "it was OK, a normal car from that point of view. The main limitations in all these teams is that you have ideas, but you can't implement those ideas in the same way as everybody else because you've got a budget limitation.

"HRT was very limited. We maybe only had one floor update through the year and three front-wing updates. If you consider in the same year Red Bull were on front-wing update number 30 or 40, you can see the difference. It's not that the team doesn't know what to do or have any ideas, but there's a limit to what you can do."

"We had a €46m budget and 85 people," adds de la Rosa, "including the marketing department and administration - it was incredible to have a team running with this budget. The group of people I found there... if people ask me, 'What is the difference between HRT and McLaren?' I say the quantity. The quality of people in these teams is outstanding."

Next time out at Monaco, where HRT's shortfall in downforce was at its most pronounced, de la Rosa plonked himself ahead of Marussia's Charles Pic in qualifying and within two tenths of Pic's team-mate Timo Glock, producing "one of the best laps I've done in my F1 career". It counted for nothing though, as his race was over on the first lap after Pastor Maldonado rode over the HRT's rear wing. Karthikeyan, meanwhile, rescued the team's best result in a twice-lapped 15th place.

The team had neither the budget nor the resource to continue its development, having outsourced the entirety of its aerodynamics department, so began to turn its attentions to 2013, with de la Rosa and Hutcheson both set to continue. Development of the F113, intended to be an evolution of the '12 car, began in earnest under the guidance of new chief designer Mark Tatham.

Then reality started to bite. A perfect storm of Spanish financial meltdown, the banking crisis, and a hangover of the global recession continued to unwind into 2012 and quelled HRT's attempts to find solid sponsorship. Looking towards '14 and the introduction of turbo hybrid V6 power units, HRT's financiers were considerably turned off by the massive investment required. With no low-budget option available - Cosworth had decided to pick its ball up and go home rather than try to compete in a high-budget exercise - and no other investors forthcoming, Thesan Capital pulled the plug.

"The biggest regret I have is that the turbo era caught us in the middle of the project, and the big Spanish crisis of 2012 hit us hard," says de la Rosa. "There were many factors, but we were really in serious conversations with [potential Spanish sponsors] and then in '12 we had the banking crisis and it was very difficult to get any sponsors at all. Everything conspired against us.

"I feel very sorry about it, because I knew that if that project died, I would never in my lifetime see another Spanish F1 team. When I told Ron Dennis I was leaving for HRT, he didn't even know what the name of the team was! Then he said to me, 'You must be nuts!' and he left the room. But that's what I wanted to do! [He was] right, but I think there's a time in life when you have to do what you think is right and that's why I don't regret it."

The remainder of 2010's 'new teams' passed in the succeeding years. Caterham (formerly Lotus) bit the dust at the end of '14 despite a concerted crowdfunding effort, while Manor survived falling into administration only to bow out two years later when Sauber snatched 10th in the '16 constructors' championship by one point. With costs of the current powertrains sky-high and the level of engineering needed to be competitive also requiring massive capital, talk of a budget cap persists.

Unless hell freezes over and the championship's grandes fromages agree to cut and limit costs, could the HRT F112 be the last true budget F1 car? As things stand, it certainly looks like it.

This feature first appeared in January's Autosport Engineering supplement, which includes an in-depth profile of Williams Advanced Engineering, an engineer's guide to designing a Formula 1 car on a budget and a look back at the engine wizard behind Audi's LMP1 success. Out every other month, the next issue of Autosport Engineering will appear on March 14.

Click here to see the full list of previously published Engineering articles

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snicketsleuth · 7 years

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Was the publication of “A Series Of Unfortunate Events” nothing but a marketing scam?

The success of the series remains a mystery to this day: why would any publisher in their right mind publish and promote a book that prides itself on being terrible, let alone thirteen? There was simply no market for it. Although its sales could retroactively be explained as a collective enthralling of morbid fascination, it must have been hard for Daniel Handler to get his foot in the door. Someone, somewhere, apparently thought that an abysmal product which revels in its own filthiness was a good idea. So where was the profit? Who was originally supposed to benefit from Daniel Handler’s ill-conceived and ungodly experiment?

Other writers, that’s who.

See, the joke’s been on us the whole time. Daniel Handler is exactly what he pretends to be at his book signings: Lemony Snicket’s legal representative, his agent. But the idea that he’s the actual author of these books is simply ludicrous. He essentially gets a share of revenues to pretend being the creator, while claiming plausible and legal deniability because of the pseudonym. But the actual author is still at large. The answer has been hidden in plain sight: the series was, for its entire run, ghostwritten by other literary figures who wish to remain anonymous.

“A Series Of Unfortunate Events” masquerades as a parody of children’s literature, but it was more of a mad scientist experiment. It was a pure product of the market, designed to test and implement new ideas. Terrible, terrible ideas. Whenever an author or a publisher had doubts about his/her own production, he/she quietly submitted the idea to Rupert Murdoch (owner of Harpercollins) who previewed it in Snicket’s books. And when readers complained, Daniel Handler claimed it was done on purpose for the sake of being atrocious. But when readers didn’t complain, the ideas were deemed as “safe” by the higher-ups and greenlighted for other series.

This process started very early on. It’s become pretty well-known that “The Bad Beginning” was designed to explore the desire of easily swayed teenage girls for gross and abusive older men. The popularity of the Violet/Olaf relationship in fanfictions following the publication convinced publishers all over the world that the time was right for a new trend of February-December romance. Stephenie Meyer has repeatedly thanked Daniel Handler for his work, claiming that Olaf’s forcefulness was a major inspiration for the character of Edward Cullen. Without “The Bad Beginning”, the “Twilight” series would probably never have been published. Daniel Handler would later be rewarded for his pioneering works with a contract at Little Brown, the same company which published the “Twilight” series.

Likewise, the last book in the series seems to have been commissioned by Damon Lindelof and J. J. Abrams (of “LOST” fame). Both “A Series of Unfortunate Events” and “LOST” feature an increasingly complex net of interrelated mysteries which never go anywhere nor see any resolution. Both involve a not-so-desert island. And both last episodes of these series are called “The End”. Coincidence? The most likely answer was that the last book of “A Series Of Unfortunate Events”, published in 2006, was a training ground for the last episode of “LOST”, broadcast in 2010. Lindelof and Abrams wanted to see how much shoddy writing they could get away with, and how negative the audience’s reaction would be. The commercial success of the book alleviated their fears, and Daniel Handler got very rich in the process.

Most connivingly, it’s hard to deny that the character of Sunny Baudelaire recalls some pocket monsters of an obscure Japanese video game franchise. Her unintelligible shrieks, deep attachment to her owners and fantastic combat abilities make her more of a beast than a child. And her creation coincides with a time when the popularity of the “Pokémon” franchise was dwindling. She was nothing but a test run for a new generation of semi-sentient creatures. The writers of the TV show “How I met your mother”, on the other hand, have admitted their admiration for Snicket’s series’ ultimate twist regarding the character of Beatrice.

Of course the legality of the entire arrangement was shoddy at best. J. K. Rowling allegedly promised Daniel Handler a million dollar check to kick-off the mystery of the three initials (V.F.D.) in “The Austere Academy”, an obvious set-up of the mysterious three initials (R.A.B.) she was preparing for “Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince”. When it turned out that every single reader guessed who the mysterious R.A.B. was minutes after the book was published, Rowling angrily refused to pay Daniel Handler for his prep work. The legal dispute eventually escalated into a full-on fistfight at court, during which the phrases “washed-up Stevie Nicks wannabe” and “gluttonous B-list yankee” were reportedly exchanged. The fact that two of the most successful children’s literature authors of today have never been seen in public speaks volumes of how much bad blood there is between them.

The list goes on, but naturally not every plot point eventually found its way back in mainstream media. Some ideas were just considered too weird or risqué to implement in other works. G. R. R. Martin’s “A Dance With Dragons” was eventually supposed to end with Sansa Stark’s valiant ascension of the Eyrie with her bare teeth, but criticism of “The Ersatz Elevator” convinced him otherwise. Famous Madonna impersonator Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta also submitted a number of costume ideas for the character of Esmé Gigi Geniveve Squalor, all of which were rejected on the account of being, in Daniel Handler’s words, “too stupid, even by Esmé’s standards”. The notion of forcing every witness to wear blindfolds during legal investigations (just like in “The Penultimate Peril”) has also been in discussion within the U.S.’ Republican party for quite some years, but was eventually scrapped off for budget reasons. Daniel Handler has so far denied any involvement, before excusing himself from the heat with a custom fan made out of dollar bills.

Here is the truth: Daniel Handler must be stopped. This evil genius has committed what amounts to the dirtiest piece of garbage in the history of modern literature. Not only is it horrible, but it encourages other content creators to be horrible. So few of us know of his true nefarious nature. But we have seen the light, and our numbers are growing. You are a part of us. There is no escape. What was that noise just now? They’re here. Now they know you know. They’ve found you. They’re coming for you. You must fight, for you cannot run.

N.B.: this article was originally published on April 1st, 2017. Do not send us e-mails.

#0467 #crack #various #Lemony Snicket #ASoUE #a series of unfortunate events #daniel handler

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cynthiadshaw · 4 years

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What’s the Most Important Lesson You’ve Learned Along Your Journey?

Every twist in our story, challenge we face, and obstacle we overcome is an important part of our story. These difficulties make us stronger and wiser and prepare us for what’s ahead. As we grow and succeed we may imagine that soon the challenges will fade away, but in our conversations with business owners, artists, creatives, academics, and others we have learned that the most common experience is that challenges never go away – instead they get more complex as we grow and succeed. Our ability to to thrive therefore depends heavily on our ability to learn from our experiences and so we are asking some of the city’s best and brightest: What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?

Liz | Account Specialist and Stylist

The most important thing I have learnt in my journey so far is to “never let anything stop you from been happy, it is the best fuel you can give to your mind and body. Always stay strong & positive. You got this!”

@Liz__vintage

Caroline Brito | Exchange student from Brazil & Musician

We are never alone. God is always on our side and he sends other people to help us just as he sends us to help others people too.

@carolinebbrazil

Hugo Gonzalez | medication aide

The most important lesson I’ve learned on my journey so far is to have goals set out for yourself and not to be “”stuck”” in just one spot in life. I say that because one should always want to grow as a person and want to be better than what they were the day before. What I would tell others is don’t give up .. anything is possible. All you need is God, patience, and determination to reach your goals. A little motivation goes a long way.

@_hugogonz

Danielle Bateman | Color Specialist @ Avalon Salon

The most important lesson I have learned so far as a hair stylist is it’s not just hair or a job. The clients that sit in your chair don’t just come to get highlights or a blowdry. They come because they care about how you make them feel; it’s about helping someone see potential and the beauty in themselves. It’s not about coming to work, making the money and going home. It’s about the sad face and the hug they give you when they walk in the door after a hard day and seeing them walk out with a smile on their face. There’s no feeling like knowing you brightened up someone’s day by making them feel good about themselves.

@danidoeshair_

Meredith Bramblett | Health and Fitness Coach

The most important lesson I’ve learned in my journey is to not allow my fears or doubts dictate my actions. I spent a long time questioning my ability to be a fitness coach, but when I decided to step out in faith and trust the Lord despite my feelings, I have been able to walk in freedom to help people live healthier and more fulfilling lives!

@meredith_bramblett

Will Bramblett | Financial Advisor

The most important lesson I have learned in building my wealth management practice would have to be overcoming the fear of failure and rejection. Leaving a salaried position with benefits to building a business where nothing is guaranteed can be intimidating since only about 5% of financial practices make it to the 5 year mark. And the fact I was starting at 23 years old probably didn’t help my odds either. I decided early on that failure would not be an option. I decided then that I would not only build one of the most successful practices in the United States, but I would do it before I am 30.

When I started, I put a list of 500 names and numbers of everyone I had every met in my life and called every single one asking for the opportunity to work with them as their family advisor. Many of them said no, but that didn’t faze me and I pressed on. Even if they didn’t want to do business together, who did they know that might? I would take meetings 7 days a week from 6:00am-9:00pm, whatever it took to get my practice off the ground. When I finally lifted my head up after a year, I had over 150 clients across 16 different states, was awarded Rookie Advisor of the Year, asked to be a keynote speaker at Northwestern’s Annual Planning Day speaking over mindset and vision, and was in the process of hiring my first assistant.

Many people let the fear of failure and rejection hinder them from accomplishing great things and that is a shame. Only through failure and rejection can you find success, they are just stepping stones along the way.

@WillBramblettNM williambramblett.nm.com

Gabby Juarez | Self Taught Makeup Artist

I’ve been doing makeup for about 2 years now, which is crazy because it feels like no time has passed. But, one of the really important things I’ve learned on my journey so far is to always do things that make me happy. It’s so easy to see the makeup trends and re-create a specific look or stick to one specific style. But, I’ve found that it’s more gratifying to just sit down and not have a plan in mind. True art is not something that’s been done and re-created it’s something that you’re proud of, that you’ve created, and that’s totally original.

@grabby_patty YouTube: Grabby Patty Network

Bianca Brown | Dfw hair colorist

Spencer Brown

Being in the industry over 8 years, I think the most important lesson I’ve learned so far would be that you can never learn enough or try too many times. The hair industry is ever changing, theres ALWAYS something new to learn and something new to try. I try to keep an open mind when observing new technique and how I can incorporate it with fundamentals so I can give my clients everything they deserve! I love learning and I’m very fortunate that I pursued a career that allows me to fulfill my need to be creative while being challenged all at the same time. I will definitely admit, it wasn’t easy starting out, but you just have to keep at it and one day it just clicks!

@hair_by_bianca_slp @HairByBiancaAtSalonLapage

Jasmin Little (Sunnie) | Nail Technician

Believe in yourself, and always be confident, Never look at someone else’s success and feel less about yours, You can’t build your castle looking at someone else’s empire.

@Sunnie_Nails 469-615-6564

Maria Alquicira | Manager | Painter

“Often, we hear people encouraging us to “go out of our comfort zone”, but we barely pause to realize that it’s not something spontaneous, it’s a process, an intrinsic part of life just as adaptation and survival.

An actor who then decided to become a scriptwriter, was dismissed by Robert Greene with the phrase ¨Jack Of All Trades, Master Of None”. This unknown guy named William was judged for not sticking to one thing to master it. Who would know that a couple of playwrights after, Shakespeare would become such an influence.

This phrase has resonated in me and is the best summary of my greatest lesson in the last couple of years.

Studying different majors, collaborating in different projects, working on different fields, moving to different towns are processes that can make us feel lost but at the same time is an opportunity to question if that frustration is nurtured by society’s paradigms that people will do better by focusing solely in one thing. Specially in an environment called life which is the less predictable scenario.

Change means movement and movement means we are being brave enough to establish our objectives and humble enough to redirect our paths to achieve them. It means we are learning from the challenges we face while implementing our previous knowledge that is leading us to what I believe is the human’s ultimate goal; improvement.

I´ve learnt to be brave enough to set high goals and humble enough to redirect my path to achieve them. I´ve learnt that there is no failure on trying but on being static. I´ve learnt to go out there and make mistakes, go back to my starting point if needed, make a pause, analyze, plan again and move forward.”

mtalch16.wixsite.com/alquicirafineart Social Media: @alquicirafineart

KaDeshia Anderson | Boutique Owner of Pretty and Poised & Show Producer

The most important thing that I have learned in my journey this far is God’s timing! Everything you go through small or big is a testimony, don’t let the no’s or the uninterested interfer with your vision. Keep going keep pushing it will all be worth it in the end!

beprettyandpoised_

Charlotte Hardie Photography | Portrait photographer

The most important lesson I have come to appreciate is to enjoy every moment in my life. and how I did this was through learning what the world has to offer. I started of working in travel and it inspired me to capture what I was seeing through my travels, people, culture, History and breathtaking scenery. I wanted to keep making memories for myself and wanted to keep enjoying them through my photos.

During one of my travels I met my husband and moved to the USA, we now have 3 beautiful children. I take portrait photography now and I love taking portraits as I also want to capture those precious memories for my family and clients.

I do not take anything for granted and I keep appreciating what I have in my life.

@pages/category/Photographer/Charlotte-Hardie-Photography @charlotte.hardiephotography

Sasha McClanahan | Owner of DEMI NATURALS

The biggest lesson that I’ve learned is to not compare my business with others. I focus on perfecting my own craft, goal setting, and improving my business everyday. As long as you are progressing, you are working towards meeting a goal.

deminaturals.com etsy.com/shop/deminaturals @deminaturals @deminaturals

Jasmine Anwer | Architecture & Commercial Photographer

Shot by Jasmine Anwer Styled by Lisa Kasberg

While it’s hard to point to one example that shows it, the most important lesson that I have learned along the way is to treat every job like it’s the most important. I spent my free time creating a portfolio and building my confidence in order to cater to my clients needs. However, by treating each job and each client like they were the most important gig I had worked on, I was able to build relationships and expand my portfolio. Because of that, some of those clients and photos became instrumental in shaping the future of my career.

jasmineanwerphotography.net @jasmineaphoto

Eric J | Singer | Songwriter | Musician, & Producer

The most important lesson that I have learned is that you have to know your own worth. We were made to be ourselves. No one else can show you how to make yourself happy. So go out & live. Surround yourself with people that challenge you & make life memorable. Dream big, Work harder!!!! That’s my slogan & I hope to continue making my dreams a reality all!!!

linktr.ee/ericjmusic

Leigh Breunig | Jewelry Designer

This journey has taught me infinitely more about who I am created to be. I am a dreamer, feeler, creator and having a forum to express myself has led to a brighter version of myself — one I have more confidence in, more understanding of, more grace for. I am thankful for the space to grow.

@leighbreunigdesigns

Nykol Harris | Actress | Model and Dancer

@zarah1110

The most important lesson I learned on my journey is to trust the process and be patient because as long as you believe in yourself and never give up the universe has no choice but to give what you have been putting out and working for.

@NykolHarris

Lindsay Burkhart | Social Content Creator

I have learned that staying patient is one of the keys to great success, and to always remember to be yourself because the payoff is always so much greater. In my position it can be difficult to stay in your lane and trust yourself with your ideas. Every time I do end up going with my plan of action it honestly has always either ended up with great results or I learned something from it and became better. I truly believe that life is all about improving yourself to become a better person, a harder worker, a better friend, etc. Identifying your goals and working hard to achieve them, but not losing yourself in the process is always a tough lesson to pass but it’s not impossible. I like to look back every so often at the work I have accomplished in my job or in my personal creatives and see the growth that has happened, the lessons I did learn from trying something new, but most importantly knowing that I never once changed myself in order to get there.

@lindsay.burkhart

Lacy Studdard | Salon Owner and Hairstylist

The most important lesson to learn for me being a stylist and salon owner is that you have to create boundaries. I’ve been doing this for almost 15 years, and being self employed, you have to hustle at first if you want to make it. Success can sometimes come at the expense of time with family and friends that you can’t get back. You’ve got to switch gears at some point. For me, that looks like working less late nights and weekends so I can spend time with my family. I still accommodate those clients I love and have built relationships, I love my job!

thebungalowsalon.com @lacystuddard_hair

SARAH BRIGGS | Entrepeneur | Jewelry Designer

I’ve learned countless lessons in my journey and one prevails no matter how much I pursue others. I had a mentor who passed away. I was talking to her in my mind one day, wondering what my next step in trying to scale should be. It was as if she spoke to me and her answer was clear as day, “it doesn’t matter darling, just enjoy your life”. Let go right now of what you think success is supposed to be. Decide for yourself and don’t forget to add in family, balance + giving to that equation.

@sarahbriggsjewelry sarahbriggs.com

D.H. Jonathan | Author and Art Model

The biggest lesson I’ve learned is to not just sit back and wait for something to happen. Take control of what you want. Go after the big job, write and publish that novel, take that trip you’ve always wanted to take.

dhjonathan.com

John Wannamaker | Co-Founder & Chef at WannaEat Seafood

We all eat in order to live and food is an universal connector of people. I’ve learned we must continually find a new way to reach the people we want to feed. Starting out, we made many mistakes and found every platform doesn’t need your money or attention. Good food and good service will make a way for you.

WannaEat Seafood is a fusion of Caribbean and Southern cooking. We are catering leading up to the opening of our quick serve brick and mortar location.

wannaeatseafood.com

Jacilyn Tucker | Wedding Planner

The most important lesson I’ve learned so far as a wedding planner is that building and maintaining vendor relationships are key! They are a must! Of course it’s good to have your preferred vendor’s list together, but to know more than your “dream team” is crucial. I enjoy having a variety of vendors to priovide my clients with, depending on their budget and style preference. How I build these relationships are attending networking events, making a presence on social media marketing groups and coordinating styled shoots! When planning styled shoots, I often reach out to vendors that I look up to, that I’ve yet to work with, to jump start our relationship. From there I try to refer business to one another to maintain that rapport. In this industry, referrals really go a long way, and while I get some from friends, family and past clients – majority of them come from those friend-ors!

@NothingButLoveWeddingAndEvents @NothingButLoveWeddingsAndEvents

Zach Woodie | World Wanderer & Techie

@jamesdeangonzales

The most important lesson I have learned is to never stop exploring. There is always something new to see out there.

@zwoodie @zwoodie

Truitt Rogers | Photographer | Owner of Truitt Photographics

So much has changed in the field of photography since I started in 1976 (that’s really weird to realize because I don’t often think of how long I’ve been a photographer I just enjoy it so much) so much has changed. I’ve had to adapt to the new digital way of doing things. Most of which I’m really grateful for. I love not having to mess with chemicals in the darkroom, the better image quality and the total control I have over every detail of the my images. I’ve had to embrace the changes and adapt to a whole new way of creating and I’ve had new ways of creating images opened to me that I never dreamed of. So the lesson learned is embrace changes because they are going to come and seize the opportunities they offer.

truittphoto.com @truittphotographics

Conni Redding | Management consulting recruiter & soon to be full-time Minnesotan

Conni Redding

The most important lesson I’ve learned in my journey so far is to find your niche. I combined my love for food and hip hop / rap music (all of my captions come from music lyrics), and I turned it into an instagram that offers unique content.

@forkwithme_

Kacee Anderson | Portrait and Lifestyle Photographer

Photography has taught me how to read people quickly and win them over. Sometimes kids (or even adults) come into pictures tired, nervous, or stressed out. I’ve learned the art of diffusing those situations. I want families to walk away with photos that stay true to who they are while bringing out their absolute best.

Seniors and couples often come to me with little experience in front of the camera aside from a quick smile. I find these groups can be especially nervous. Putting people at ease is important so I can get them the fun, silly, romantic, or timeless photos they’re looking for. It starts with helping them select a location and style that will best represent them. But even if meet a dozen different clients at the same location, every single one of them will have a unique experience. My job is to learn who you are and capture that through lens.

KaceeAndersonPhotography.com @KaceeAndersonPhotography @KaceeAndersonPhotography

David Kozlowski | Freelance Photographer

The biggest lesson that I have learned, came early in my career. Shoot for myself and don’t base my photography on online comments about the images. I rarely shoot from a shot list and most of my sales come from requests for use of existing photos.

@texas.photographer

The post What’s the Most Important Lesson You’ve Learned Along Your Journey? appeared first on Voyage Dallas Magazine | Dallas City Guide.

source http://voyagedallas.com/2020/02/24/whats-important-lesson-youve-learned-along-journey/

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torentialtribute · 5 years

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Even after their spring slump, Leeds fans still have faith in Bielsa

Already in October last year, before Leeds even lost a match under Marcelo Bielsa, there were private concerns that their blisters would start staring [4459003]

It's easy to forget now that they dropped the playoffs that Leeds started the campaign with four impressive wins of five – a 3-1 win against Stoke, a 4-1 demolition of semi – final opponents Derby and a 3-0 win away from home against the final Norwich champions.

But the problems had started popping up. Kemar Roofe and Pablo Hernandez, such an integral part of that early form, had sustained injuries. A bit of chatter came from the club.

Marcelo Bielsa & # 39; s Leeds have only one of their last five contests in it. championship won one of their last five games in the championship "

Marcelo Bielsa & Leeds has won only one of their last five games in the championship

They are confronted with Derby in the playoffs who have missed automatic promotion to the top flight "

They are faced with Derby in the playoffs who have missed out on automatic promotion to the top flight

Bielsa and his style have a reputation. Ander Herrera, who played with him at Athletic Bilbao, said: & # 39; It's a pretty romantic view of football, but I can't lie to you, in the last months we couldn't even move. We had five games to play in the competition and were in two cup finals (the Copa del Rey and the Europa League) and I think we lost them all (they both lost 3-0).

Our legs said "stop". We played with the same players and were not at our best in the final. We were a very different team than we had been before, because to be honest we were physically f *****. We could no longer run. "

It is worth noting that Leeds dropped a few points after the injuries and then victories began to pick up like a machine. Bielsa is like a prophet and the team were all admitted converts.

They won seven in a row and shot to the top of the table, but if that wasn't enough, it wasn't clear – they returned from 2-0 to Villapark on Christmas Eve to win 3-2 and scored twice on Boxing Day to dramatically beat Blackburn Rovers.

The problem was that with every popular measure the team was enormously high, Bielsa had inherited a team that had dropped to 13th place in the previous season and had them play some of the best football matches in the country.

Leeds started their 2018-2019 championships well, but there are cracks to see

Leeds started their 2018-2019 championships are good, but cracks have appeared

A new blow for the already thin team. Samuel Saiz had not delivered the goals and assisted him in his first season, but if you look back the first half of the campaign, he is involved in building almost every attack.

He had already asked to leave Leeds in the summer and still be convinced to stay. However, Bielsa decided to replace him with Adam Forshaw in the basic line-up and Said asked for permission to move to Getafe and return to Madrid.

Then there was controversy.

Then there was controversy. The Spygate drama unfolded and the rather glowing reputation of Bielsa got a hit.

Leeds responded by defeating Derby 2-0 through criticism from Frank Lampard and ongoing media debate. The shape of the whites has not been the same anymore, with eight losses in 19, although no one would suggest that it was related to being able to observe training.

<img id = "i-1caf6dd0246fc800" src = "https://dailym.ai/2Hbl8jR 14 / 13341884-7015185-image-a-16_1557495988265.jpg "height =" 345 "width =" 634 "alt =" Kemar Roofe, the man who started the season before the season, was hit by injury problems "the man who the season started in the front, was hit by injury problems "

Kemar Roofe, the man who started the season in the front, was beaten by injury problems

Bielsa & # 39; s brief briefing about his desktop background had a video file.

James was the only player who wanted Bielsa Leeds to be signed in January, apart from goalkeeper Kiko Casilla, and sharp observers noted that it was referred to Daniel James or Swansea. had identified the winger as the man to fill the void left by Saiz

Leeds has him even got in the door. A deal was concluded whereby Leeds initially lent him with conditions for a permanent deal that was agreed before the summer. He was on Elland Road on the day of the deadline, performing his basic functions as a new signature, and waited. And kept waiting.

Swansea stopped answering the telephone. Huw Jenkins, the then chairman, refused to penalize the sale of one of the club's crown jewels, and Leeds remained abandoned. James was forced to leave Leeds, destroyed by missing en route and potential promotion.

With Manchester United now close to a deal for the Welsh winger, it seems like a sliding door moment for Leeds – and their season.

Bielsa has implemented its philosophy at the Elland Road club and it is beginning to take its toll "

<img id =" i-52368ec4f6bff727 "src =" https: // i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/05/10/14/13341766-7015185-image-a-19_1557496167346.jpg "height =" 460 "width =" 634 "alt =" <img id = "i- 52368ec4f6bff727 "src =" https://dailym.ai/2LBo6SX "height =" 460 "width =" 634 "alt = "Bielsa has implemented its philosophy at the Elland Road club and it is starting to take its toll"

Bielsa has implemented its philosophy at the Elland Road club and it is beginning to take its toll

Form quickly submerged. Losses were the most damaging compared to Norwich and then to Sheffield United. Leeds kept ticking.

Yet Leeds kept ticking. They beat Millwall thanks to a Pablo Hernandez master class and when they recorded Wigan at Easter celebration, automatic promotion was still in their hands.

Wigan received an early red card.

Bielsa then probably made the only tactical mistake I made the entire season. He took over Kalvin Phillips and Tyler Roberts for Adam Forshaw and Kemar Roofe, trying to push the advantage.

Wigan had equalized before the break and then went through a rapid counterattack. Leeds tried for an equalizer that would have kept them in second place in the race but could not break the Latics. The players were on their knees full time.

Leeds was defeated by relegation Ipswich on the last day of the championship season – Ipswich on the last day of the championship season

Leeds was defeated by Ipswich on the last day of the championship season

Worse would come.

This was followed by a draw against Villa, including the huge fight after the controversial goal of Mateusz Klich. The manager, being the man he is, got Villa to score and that is & # 39; The gesture of Bielsa & # 39; named in his native Argentina. The myth is growing.

A defeat at the bottom of Ipswich on the last day completed a terrible end to four games. When Leeds started playing the Wigan game, they only needed 10 points to confirm the promotion.

The story has inevitably been Bielsa fatigue, although the running statistics have repeatedly shown that they are still working as hard as during the opening weekend. issue is a lack of clinical touch for the purpose. Bamford scored 10, was injured with two loose knee injuries and also missed some.

Roofe, the man who started the season in the front, has also had injury problems and his absence may have been crucial than anyone had expected. While Ipswich scored three of their four shots on Sunday, Leeds took 13 per goal and even missed a penalty.

Tyler Roberts (C) fights to be suitable for Leeds & # 39; Tyler Roberts (C) fights to be fit for the Leeds semi-final play-off after an ankle injury "

Tyler Roberts (C) fights to be fit for the play-off semi-final van Leeds after an ankle injury

Leeds goes into the playoffs on a downward movement and it would be a fight for them, yet there is optimism in that dressing room. Pontus Jansson, a big voice, said on Thursday: & # 39; At the beginning of this week, we decided to look forward to it and accept it. Don't feel sad to lose automatic promotion. Use it as motivation. & # 39;

And they all believe in Bielsa. & # 39; Each of us would be a legend (if we went up), especially Marcelo, & said Jansson. & # 39; He is already God with the fans. the club has changed, he is the most important man.

& I, maybe when I came here, I saw myself as the most important man, but not anymore. I'm just one of the players and I'm happy to be here. I am blessed to be here. & # 39;

Leeds is now convinced that Bielsa will stay another season, whether or not they win promotions. Some have observed that the city has not been united since Don Revie.

It was not the perfect end but the journey had its moments. Leeds has won 25 games, most since the 2009-10 season when they won League One promotion.

Bielsa & # 39; s reputation preceded him, but those early doubts no longer exist. Leeds has faith at the lowest point of the campaign.

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#Even after their spring slump #Leeds fans still have faith in Bielsa"

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