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the berries

the berries in swedish

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Selten denke ich über meine Lieblingswörte der Sprachen, die ich lerne. Das einzige, was ich weiß, ist dass, mein Lieblingswort auf japanisch komorebi ist.**

Comma doesn't go after "dass", only before it! ...was ich weiß ist, dass mein Lieblingswort... would be better! Also this is way too picky, but I would say in this context "Nur selten denke ich" if you want to say that you only think about it occasionally.

Es meint “das Licht, das durch der Bäume fällt.”

"Meinen" only means "to mean" in English in the context of an opinion. "I mean, yes." DOES translate "ich meine, ja." However "mean" would be "es bedeutet" in this context. You can connect it to "Bedeutung" meaning "Meaning" and "Meinung" meaning "Opinion", if that makes sense.

Ich weiß jetzt, dass auch auf Englisch ein Wort mit einer ähnlichen Bedeutung existiert, aber wenn ich das Wort komorebi erst gelernt habe, war diese Wahrheit mir unbekannt.

"wenn" here should be "als". It's a common mistake, but "wenn" is more similar to "if", and not "when" in English. "Wenn du das machst..." = "If you do that..." "Als du das machst" = "When you do that".

Das Wort ist immer noch mir interessant, und es ist mein Lieblingswort auf Japanisch. Hier kann man das Kanji schauen: 木漏れ日.

Slight problem with the word order here: "Ist mir immer noch interessant" would be correct. Schauen is also not quite correct here, it more means "to watch" like "to watch a film". I would use "sehen" or "lesen", I think.

Auf Deutsch habe ich kein Lieblingswort. Ich finde das kömisch, weil Deutsch hat so viele spezielle und unübersetzbare Wörte.

Beware the trap of "weil"! If you use it, you MUST put the verbs in the second half of the sentence at the end because it forces them into a Nebensatz. "weil Deutsch so viele... Wörter hat." Also, small weird thing: There are two plurals for "word". One is "Worte" and it means spoken words "we exchanged words" is "wir haben Worte gewechselt". The other is Wörter and it's for written words, "er hat nur ein paar Wörter geschrieben". Komisch (strange/odd) also doesn't have an Umlaut.

Oh, ich habe mich gerade ein gutes Wort erinnert, aber ich weiß nur die englische bedeutung…

Erinnert uses "an" - "ich habe mich AN ein gutes Wort erinnert".

Man benutzt dieses Wort, wenn etwas, das funktioniert nicht, ohne Probleme anfängt, zu funktionieren, genau wenn ein Zeuge kommt. (Ich habe keine Ahnung, wie ich das sagen soll. Hilfe.)

"Anfangen" only really means "to start" as in "to begin something", if you mean to start a computer or another object, it's "starten", funnily enough!

Auf Litauisch ist mein Lieblingswort bis jetzt geležinkelio, weil es ein langes Wort ist, und es ist schwierig zu sagen, aber ich kann es tun.

In German you don't really need the "do" in "can do" like in English, "kann" works on it's own, if you know what I mean? "aber ich kann es" is better here.

Es meint einfach “Eisenbahn,” aber ich bin stolz auf meine Fähigkeit es auszusprechen.

** Kann ich auch sagen “Das einzige, was ich weiß, ist mein Lieblingswort auf japanisch komorebi ist,” oder? 

I am insanely impressed with your German. I only wanted to correct it because I see SO much potential, your sentence structure is pretty much flawless and your ability to express yourself is incredible. Learning German was one of the biggest challenges in my life but also one of the most rewarding things I have ever done, and I wanted to just tell you how fantastic you are at it!! I have no doubt that if you keep going you'll be native level at some point! Also, German is my third language, so I in no way claim that my correction is perfect - these are just the things that stood out to me as mistakes I myself have made! In case it interests you, my favourite word in Japanese is 花瓶, kabin, because I love the way it sounds!

Best of luck on your continued German learning, viel Erfolg und viel Spaß dabei!!

your comment at the end actually made me so so happy! I’m smiling like a fool right now 😁 some of these errors made me feel a bit embarrassed bc it’s one of those “you see it and it makes immediately sense,” but I really appreciate the corrections.

I really love hearing that others see lots of potential with my skill. hopefully, I do right by everyone and hit my C1 goal!!

All initial ideas/designs that I will present in the first tutorial ( bare bones- not full designs).

I had done this post in far more depth and then it deleted its self and I have had to re-do it , so unfortunately it is in less depth.

There are many components missing from this spread, but I liked the graphics of it. it may be too article like and the font doesn't work very well. I use the cross over of the words , ‘ swiss’ and ‘rosti’ frequently to connotate the meshing together of potato which is a rosti. 

This is too basic. it isnt finished, however, there are many components missing, I tried out the umlaut which connotates authenticity, however, with it being homemade, many people of the demographic may see this as unobtainable..

This font doesn't work as a body copy - I used it as it was reminiscent of the geometric swiss designs, the swiss flag and swiss mountains. This is too plain and boring, I put the title in this orientation so that someone flicking through can easily see the recipe title rather than having to thoroughly looking at the pages.

This is quite plain also. It is too boring , there are missing components, but I like the font, its is gastro style, connotates freshness and handmade but professionalism. I like the use of the personal images, I will try to incorporate that further.

( for both the above ^^) Along with the gastro font, the picture of the ingredience is quite humble but also fresh, makes it seem obtainable, and as sides they seem healthy and wholesome. on the second one especially, the grid is terribly un- utilised.

I made this using this font as I thought the font was interesting, However, I have found it doesn't work for a body copy. I like the bold graphics but thought that it needed an image of the actual final product. And it doesn't work that well being over the top so I would have to do It in a different way maybe, I like the boldness, and I think it is appealing to the demographic, however it is not overly clear and doesn't work that well and has many components missing. 

I thought maybe the previous one didnt workas it was TOO plain, howver, this maybe makes it too busy, so overall, it doesnt work.

I like the graphics, so tried to make it work with a better body copy font and clearer design, but some components are missing and although i like the sidebar, it is too magazine like and doesn't fit the brief as well as something else could potentially. 

I used a French font as I believed this carried off what I was hoping to create - professional and rustic, the image also seems fresh. I looks like a traditional recipe book. Although, this may not fit the demographic as well since this tends to be the type of recipe books families have that include tried and tested recipes and they are looking purely for the recipe not the design experience.

I tried to do a really bold and outstanding design which catches the eye and uses similar patterns to Leon and other more alternative branding, however, this has the potential to look too busy and not maybe old enough for the demographic, doesn't have the right balance of professionalism young adults want to feel to fun the want to experience. 

I tried to have amore laid back version of the previous spreads (french font) that is more appealing to a younger audience, by using the font ‘Elephant’ That has less traditional values. Although, there are components missing and I would want to add more elements of interest on the body copy side and change the body copy font maybe.

This is probably too article like, it is missing some key elements, but I thought it felt fun and colourful and also easy enough to read on this colour and the font works well for the title, overall I quite like this design as it stands out, but may not work as well for a recipe book as it is fairly minimalist and doesnt show the outcome which may not work for this demographic.

I like the graphics of this and the fact that the rosti’s could be used to create interest while still showing the product if I was to have text around them. Having the shopping list ( which doesn't conform very well to the grid system so would have to be changed) makes it easy to see what you would have to buy in order to make this recipe as well as creating something that is a bit different and draws attention and interest so it isn't all the same. this would probably have to rendered in a different way in the final version as it has the potential to look a little scrappy.

This is my favoured outcome, I will work most to use this as my final design, it is not fully finished and is still missing some components, but the collage allows me to incorporate all the aspects I wanted to and a personal touch which makes many people look back on their family holidays, and especially ( it works with everyone) but for the target demographic this is effective as they are likely to maybe newly be away from home and want to look back on memories as well as wanting to make things they have had on holiday. The illustrations give a scrap book feel that many young people are gravitated towards because it makes it more interesting and many people of the demographic 18-25 are less likely to read something extremely wordy and something that looks boring. 

@prokopetz

My D&D group didn’t have an actual session this week, so instead we messed around with Rotate Bird character creation. Five beautiful characters under the cut.

Professor Gecko

Being

✏💎 👓 🕷📎

Professor Gecko is an anthropomorphic gecko who is also a university professor. He is very good at climbing and sticking to things, like most geckos. His most valued possession is the knowledge he has gained along the way. He is also very good at seeing things, especially when they are moving. He prefers his own research to the teaching side of being a professor.

Doing

🎯✋:  Precision grabbing

♂🐾: Werewolf boyfriend

≠⏳: No time like the present

Happiness Witch Shi-Kesh

Overall

Shi-Kesh is a collection of human parts that appear to fit together as a normal human, but they rotate at varying speeds about her central Y axis. This does not seem to bother her very much. The colors and exact size of the limbs range throughout normal human colors and sizes, but do not match from one limb to the next. It is possible that there are more than two of each limb, but that is hard to gauge given the rotation and tricks of the light. 

She sits astride a blazing torch with various settings like “LIQUIFY” “CARPET” and “AUTOCLAVE”, and wears a rose colored pork pie decorated with fishbones and acorns. Her attire is business formal, 80s style, but in flannel with trains and reindeers in white against a maroon background. In at least one hand she carries a small pouch with the $ sign on it, which emanates a disquieting aura when one presses their ear to it. 

Shi-Kesh’s nervous tic is to constantly rock, paper, scissors against herself when given the chance, and to hum the melodies of Muse and Oasis songs slightly off-key. 

Her face is a constant changing mask, as the individual features rotate as if on discs. Only one feature is constant; her mithe are always smiling, and her eyes are creased with the small joys of being alive. 

When her mount is not in a flaming form, debris surrounds and coalesces around her; it is theorized that if this was allowed to continue unabated for long enough, this swirling mass of small items and junk could potentially form accretion discs and begin the process of birthing planets. Thanks to Shi-Kesh’s love of cleaning with fire, this has yet to occur. 

Being 🧹💰🧲✂🌪

Torch/Broom: Shi-Kesh rides a torch, which can double as a cleaning implement, though beware flammable surfaces.

Bag with $ Symbol: The S Is For Sucks (Spell) Any time another being says that something sucks, the concept of that thing is stored in the bag. This energy can be used to fuel happiness magic later.

U with Umlaut: The Sign of the Happiness Witch. Commonly mistaken as a magnetism symbol, this smiling face assures the reader that the bearer of this sign has good intentions.

Scissors: Shi-Kesh cannot lose in Rochambeau, Rock Paper Scissors, or Janken.

Tornado: Debris constantly floats around and is drawn towards Shi-Kesh, and her features and limbs revolve faster the more detritus there is in her space. Use of the Torch Cleaning function may be required to slow her spin, in situations requiring pin-point limb usage.

Doing 🧠♂🎭⏩🍾≠

Brain+Mars: Sign of Martian Himbo

Theater Masks + Fast Forward: Dramatic Acceleration With Tracking Errors

Wine + Not Equals: Circle of Is Not Boozy Enough

“Tex” Luis, the Candy Gunslinger

Being 🤠☁🍴🍋🍭

This character is/has (differentiation is unclear) a powerful relationship between two primal forces: The power of the cowboy and the power of the confectionary chef. Using exquisitely confected candy cane guns that shoot lemondrops, and clouded in cotton candy, this being artfully balances creation and destruction.

Doing

🔀☀ -> Scramble Mechanisms

🚫💀 ->  Remove Skulls

🎯, 🌪 -> Tornado shot

Manley “Bright Boy” Laguna

(Being : Bone 🦴, Light Bulb 💡, Red Heart ❤, Black Flag 🏴, and a Globe Showing Americas 🌎)

A brilliant skeleton of indeterminate…a lot of things, once known as the most beautiful pirate in all of Arizona. Now, the only flesh that remains is a bright red heart, which you assume is his? He likes to pass it around at parties; he’ll tell people it’s purely ornamental, but then pretend he’s having a heart attack, and then throw something else at them. At all times Manley is wearing a pirate hat (how would you know about the piracy otherwise?) and a decently sharp cutlass that he says once belonged to Montezuma. To prove this point, he has written “Monty Zooma” on the handle. He doesn’t have a brain, because he’s a bit of a bonehead. However, he is prone to flashes of inspiration, especially when other people are having problems.

(Doing 1 : Screwdriver  🪛 + Female Sign ♀)

His Beautiful Skeleton Wife

(Doing 2 : Paperclip 📎 + Heavy Equals Sign =)

Pull It All Back Together

(Doing 3 : Headphone 🎧 + Prohibited 🚫)

Walk Softly and Carry a Big Stick

Julie

Being: 🍦☂🍋🐾☀ Doing🍎📊, ✂🎯,🥛➗

A outcast radiant protector of the weak, cursed with lycanthropy during training. As a result they were kicked from the order and instead found employment as an ice cream lady. Has a bitching truck to make deliveries that has reinforced bars to protect people during the full moon. 

Toxic Schemer

Precice shearing

Fractionate Liquid

Concept:

(Before season finale (goldifying) but after the big mega bunny-explosion thing)

The Mod Frogs are short on food because of Scarlemange taking food for his coronation. Harris is considered a low-ranking frog due to Jamack’s exile, and others (besides Kwat, of course) don’t care for him because of this and his combined unusual appearance, so he is given a very small, non-sustainable ration amount.

So, Harris eventually gets desperate enough to try and steal food, and gets caught. This gathers a crowd, and eventually Kwat comes out to see what the ruckus is. Kwat sees Harris cornered, without Mrs. Sartori or any other authority figures in sight, and so Kwat backs him up.

Unfortunately, this only gets the both of them exiled. To add injury to insult, the group of frogs, meant to shadow them as they leave in order to make sure they actually leave, end up attacking them to try and steal their meager items. Kwat manages to get out of the fight relatively intact, having had a larger ration amount and as such, being stronger, but Harris is pretty heavily injured, having been mildly dehydrated, and hungry. The bruises littering his unusually pale skin were much larger than they really should have been, his eye was partially swollen, and the large gash on his arm was slightly inflamed, which was concerning.

Tie already cut, and his suit now in tatters, it broke all illusions of still being a Mod Frog. Harris hadn’t even bothered even trying to button his suit back up, he knew it was useless. He just discarded the external suit jacket, and tore his already ravaged sleeves all the way off so they could be used as bandaging for his wounds. His colorful arms were now showing clearly now, which was certainly a shocking act, considering all of his… hang-ups about them.

Kwat did the same, throwing aside her suit jacket and rolling up her sleeves. She looked more intimidating this way- her undershirt showed off her muscular frame well, and she knew it.

They traveled aimlessly for a short while, before deciding, albeit a bit hopelessly, to try and find Jamack. So, they set out to search for clues and information on where Jamack is. It takes a month or so of traveling through Las Vistas and other nearby parts of the wasteland, and way too many deals and… favors, but eventually they figure out he’s in Timbercat Village.

Luckily, since they’re relatively near the Timbercat Forest, it only takes another half month or so of traveling to get there. Unfortunately, they’re in the driest area near Las Vistas, and even less fortunately the half-month they travel is full of small but nonetheless harmful skirmishes, and the two combined work to worsen Harris’ already poor condition.

Kwat grows increasingly worried as Harris seems to get more and more tired, more and more quiet, but whenever she brings it up he simply shrugs it off, until one day, after a particularly harsh battle with some of the Umlaut Snake gang, Kwat suggests they stop and rest for the night, and Harris snaps. “No! We will not stop until we reach Jamack, we cannot afford to! Don’t you dare forget about what we’ve gone through to get here! What I had to do to get us here!” He yelled, throwing his hands up and tossing his spiked bat on the ground. He turns away from her, and crouches on the ground, hands on his face, “We- we need to reach Jamack as soon as possible, Kwat- I… Kwat… I don't think I… I don’t think I- I’ll make it much longer l-ike this,” He drags one hand down his face, voice breaking, and Kwat can see the shine of his tears in the last rays of the yellow-orange sunset.

They had become... closer, in the time they traveled together, and so Kwat felt she could get away with comforting him as he was currently. She approached him, and sat down beside him. She draped her arm across his slim shoulders, and pulled him closer. He leaned into her, and let out a strangled croak of distress. She spoke quietly, “Harris, we need to rest. I’m sorry about… what we had to do get here, I- I’m sorry that was ever necessary. I can’t fix that for you, Harris, hell. I can’t even fix it for- for m-myself,” She let out a strangled laugh, and Harris looked up at her sympathetically, “Just.. know I’m here for you. We’re in this shithole together. And… Look, you need food, and we both need water and sleep. Let’s just set up camp here, and I’ll go see if I can find anything in those stores we saw earlier. Okay?”

Harris takes a deep breath, and nods shakily, “O-okay. I… I can do that. Thanks for.. that. I.. Try not to get into any trouble, Kwat. Just…please stay safe. I.. I need you here with me,” His voice got quieter as he spoke, and remained shaky, but it still brought a small, sad smile to Kwat's face. She nodded to him, and grabbed her bag before getting up to travel back in the direction of the small town they passed earlier.

Harris focused on getting their, albeit limited, supplies out and set up, ready for when Kwat was back, which wasn’t for another hour and a half. When she did finally return, it was thankfully with a day or two's worth of food, a small sum of water, and the metaphorical holy grail, medical supplies.

Not just any medical supplies either, but pain killers and vaseline, which could be mixed and applied to their skin so they could easily absorb it. Kwat helped prepare and apply it, which was… a bit awkward, considering that his injuries were virtually everywhere on his body, but nonetheless it helped, immensely so. After they were done with that, they snacked on some of the food, and Kwat insisted Harris take the majority of the water despite being almost as dehydrated as he was. Kwat took first watch, of course, and Harris slept.. reasonably peacefully, bearing in mind what he’d been through.

After another few days of traveling, they come across their worst fight yet. They had been raiding a small apartment building that turns out to belong to the Humming Bombers. Harris manages to pack up a fair amount of stuff and run while Kwat holds them off, but this results in Kwat obtaining a substantial burn injury on her abdomen from one of the nectar bomb blasts. Now, with both of them having potentially lethal injuries, their only hope is to make it to the Timbercat Village before something terrible happens.

Finally, they make it to Timbercat Village. After weeks of traveling with injuries, having to scavenge for even a little food, they make it to their destination. They manage to limp their way to the entrance of the Main Hall, where Jamack comes out to see what the ruckus is about.

Harris passes out nearly immediately.

He manages to croak out weakly, fallen, hands and knees on the ground, “Jamack…I-I’m sorry for what we did, f-f-for what I did.. but I…I j-just… hnngh,” he groans, arms buckling and giving out, he continues in a raspy whisper, “Help us… a-at least help her… sh-she deserves it… please, Jamack… p-please,” before he completely passes out.

Kwat falls with him, sitting next to his prone body, breath shallow. She presses a hand to her chest wound, and hisses out a strangled “F-fuck,” Trying, and very nearly failing, to contain a pained croak. Jamack is still standing in the entrance, mouth agape, trying to find his words.

“Kwat, what… what happened? I.. I thought…” he trailed off, as Kwat chuckled, and then coughed. She put a hand to her mouth as she coughed, and it came away stained with red. Jamack gave a small gasp, followed by an aborted move to try and put a hand on her.

“There’s a food shortage back ho- back at The Pond. We- Harris needed more food. We got caught, and… and we paid the price for it,” she looks away from him. “We’ve been on the road for about a month and a half, now. Harris.. Harris isn’t doing well, Jamack, I know…” Her breathing stutters and Jamack rushes forwards and sets his hand on her shoulder before jerking it back, as if burned.

She continues, “I know we didn’t help you, when you were… exiled, but, please Jamack. If you really want us gone… well. You know what to do if you- you really want us gone. I.. I wouldn’t blame you. But, please, just let us rest here for a day or two. We haven’t made camp in days, a-and-“ A coughing fit overtakes her for a moment, before she continues, raspier and quieter than before, “I don’t think he’ll make it much longer, Jamack. He.. he’s not good. Hell, I don’t even know if I’ll make it much longer,” she looks at her blood stained hand, “I don’t think I will. So, wh-hat do you say, Jamack, for… for old times sake?”

She looks at him, staring right into what feels like the very center of his being.

He shakes his head, trying to wrap his mind around this. Misinterpreting this as a ‘No’, Kwat very nearly starts crying, letting out a small croak.

Jamack rushes to correct her, lifting his hands up towards her “No- no, not like that, I- I mean, yes, of course, you can stay- please stay, let me take care of you, let me help you, you- you’ve always been my family, you’re so important to me, Kwat, I- I’ll never stop wanting you and Harris near me, just- just stay with me, please,” his hands relocate themselves, one ending up on his leg, the other on his face.

Kwat lets go, and tears stream down her face silently. She laughs, swears to herself that this is fake, we could never get this lucky- except for this is real, she’s always known Jamack was emotional, she just thought his ability to hold grudges would hold out more.. more than his love for them. She was sure it was love, from the look in his eyes to knowing what he was feeling, she felt the same. They were family. They always had been, since when they were tadpoles.

She hesitantly holds her arms out, and Jamack practically dives in, careful to avoid her injury. Kwat’s hugs are the best.

what do they eat????

the surface culture in KATAOW is Very Strange, and part of that strangeness is what people eat

when there was only one sapient species on the planet, humans, it was easy to draw the line between what was morally okay to eat and what wasn’t. broadly speaking, anyway. Don’t eat other humans; why? because they’re sapient. they’re people. just about everything else is fair game. humans will eat anything

not very complicated. and generally when humans thought about hypothetical other sapient species, whether they be mutants or aliens or whatever, they usually came to a similar conclusion: despite being a different species, the other sapients are still sapient, still people, and so would be off-limits, if they did exist. the What Measure is a Non Human trope does start to come into play here, because it is easier to question a being’s sapience if they are different from humans. But generally speaking, to humans, sapient = not a menu item

Here’s where things get complicated.

In KATAOW, humans are no longer the only sapient species on the planet. Far from it, in fact. I can name about thirteen just off the top of my head.

Now, if they were aliens, they’d have come from their own entirely separate ecosystem. Usually in media there is an unspoken “one sapient species per origin planet” rule. This rule is rarely broken. this wouldn’t be a problem, as long as all the sapient species agreed to not eat any other sapients. The more there are, the less likely this is to happen, but it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine, as humans usually do, that assuming the alien sapients have their own supporting ecosystems already, they could all agree not to eat each other, as a moral compromise if nothing else; a truce of sorts, a show of respect

Well. the new sapient species in KATAOW are not aliens. 

They mutated, or evolved, from existing species in Earth’s ecosystem. In many cases (but not all) they seem to have entirely replaced their ancestors. For example, the Timbercats are the only example of modern ex-domesticated felines. There are no little kitties that can fit in a shoebox. None. None that we’ve seen, and Benson implies there aren’t any.

With birds, however, it’s different. We see examples of wild bird mutes (Beakbeak), and sapient bird mutes (Hummingbird Bombers). Is this distinction based on individual species? I don’t know.

In an inversion of the cat situation, the bunnies, or rather, megabunnies we see, are the only bunnies we see. But is it possible that there is now also a branched-off separate sapient species of bunny that we just haven’t met? I don’t know.

What causes some creatures to develop sentience, and others not to? They all seem to have changed in some way, but only some are intelligent now. Why? I don’t know. Humans seem to have, generally, been exempt from the mass mutation event. As we learn more about the world, this information may change, but this is what we know now.

Regardless, the fact remains that the creatures, the fauna of the world changed drastically, and with that change their needs changed too. Many plants and I would have to assume fungi and bacteria, archea, viruses, etc. have thankfully ALSO changed drastically. Is the ecosystem balanced, then, after such a drastic disruption? I’m not sure. The mutated life survived for 200 years though, so the environment coped well enough not to just kill everything, at least.

But still, food. Balanced or not, stuff definitely changed.

Let’s get the humans out of the way because they’re simpler:

Something happened to drive the humans underground, leaving a lot of food behind. They stay down there, so obviously they found ways to grow and hunt food down underground. If we can do it on Mars, a burrow is no problem. Humans were already eating whatever they wanted, so not much changed. And unless a lot has changed over 200 years, humans would still be averse to eating other sapient species. That’s been our history.

There are a few humans on the surface. Wolf implies that she won’t eat a mute if it’s sapient, when she first catches Mandu. Wolf and Benson seem to live off of old abandoned human food and non-sapient mutes. This works fine because there’s only a few surface humans; otherwise the supply of abandoned food would quickly run dry.

And that’s it for humans. 

Non-sapient mutes will eat whatever, regardless of sapience. Beakbeak doesn’t care that his prey is intelligent. He’s an animal in the traditional sense of the word. Wild animals continue to be wild animals, just like before the mutation. Nothing new there.

But the sapient mutes? The sapient mutes are weird.

Just so we’re on the same page, here are a few sapient mutes we know:

The Mod Frogs, the Newton Wolves, the Hummingbird Bombers, the raccoons, the Dubstep Bees, the Scooter Skunks, the rats, some elephants, that waterbear/tardigrade guy, our insect bud Dave, the Snäkes, the Timbercats, Scarlemagne and his assorted primate gang, and those rodent ppl in Umlaut Valley--prairie dogs? Punk Prairie Dogs? Etc.

Quick note, there are a few that are questionable mostly for lack of information (Mandu, dragonflies, flies) and I’ll touch on them later. For now we’re working with indisputably fully-sapient mutes.

So.

Obviously their diets changed from their wild ancestors’, but I think we can assume that generally, their broad dietary range didn’t change. Strict herbivores are still built to handle plants only. There’s no reason their digestive systems and various feeding adaptations would have changed that drastically.

Herbivores? Probably mostly still herbivores. The Dubstep Bees seem to still rely on plant products, and don’t care for meat. Elephants are also obligate herbivores, and we see some with, what, some popcorn and cotton candy? That tracks.

For the sake of simplicity, I’ll be glossing over the fact that most carnivores I know do occasionally eat a bit of plant and can thus be considered technical omnivores. That’s not relevant right now. There are plenty of plants and none of the plants are intelligent, so there isn’t an issue.

Omnivores need a bit of both. Raccoons, rats, and skunks are our best examples. They have plants, so that’s fine. There seems to be enough variety of non-sapient mute prey for them too. These mutes are urban too, so just as their ancestors did, they supplement their diets with human food. There is no need for them to eat sapient mutes, and as far as I can tell, they don’t. I’m pretty sure most primates fall under this category too. Insects vary, but Dave seems to be an omnivore. Wikipedia tells me tardigrades go here as well.

There are some animals that are generally herbivores but occasionally eat meat, like Hummingbirds, but again, there seems to be plenty to go around, and no reason for those few meaty meals to be sapient mutes.

Carnivores. Yeah. I’ve been waiting the whole essay to write this part. Who’s left? The Mod Frogs, the Newton Wolves, the Snäkes, and the Timbercats. If they can’t eat meat on the regular, they just can’t survive.

The Newton Wolves, Timbercats, and  Snäkes express their willingness to eat humans. The Snäkes also are implied to be regularly eating sapient prairie dogs. The Newton Wolves are known to hunt and eat Mod Frogs and humans. These are all hard facts.

Little bit more speculative here: The Timbercats, like irl cats, would probably be more keen on eating Snäkes if they weren’t so venomous. I don’t think they’d be opposed to it though. The Snäkes are large enough that wolf could potentially be a menu option. Wolves have historically been known to eat cats and snakes, so their sapient counterparts are probably fair game too. I don’t think the cats would want to eat wolves, though that thought is based largely on size and the fact that irl domestic cats don’t hunt irl wolves. Could they? Sure. I just don’t think they’d go for it when there are other options. Likewise, various omnivores would be considered prey to various carnivores, with practical and historical considerations determining their exact place on the food chain. Snakes and cats regularly eat frogs irl, so that’s that on that.

You may have sussed out my main driving question by now, but before I get to that, let’s take a little detour: humans as prey

No animal specifically hunts humans in the wild. We are not the prime prey animal of any species. Well, besides some bacteria, and a few parasites, but until we see a sapient bacteria or tapeworm, that’s not relevant. But these new mutated species, much larger and more intelligent than their ancestors, seem to see humans as just another prey option. And rightfully so! We are bald primates, just clever little mammals. Heck, even the rats are bigger than us now! If a mute would eat a rat, how different would human be? Different shape, but otherwise? Not much! I’m just saying I get it. Humans have been established as equal to other sapient mutes, and susceptible to the organization of the food chain in a way we’ve never been before. We’re not special anymore. We’re not even in power! We’re in hiding!

Now I don’t know, but I have to imagine that the reason several sapient mutes are okay with eating other sapient mutes is twofold: history and demand. 

All these animals were, before mutation, accustomed to eating beings on a similar intelligence level. That was their normal. So when a few of them mutate and gain sentience, what reason should they have to stop what they’ve been doing for all of history? Inter-species communication isn’t new, just easier.

And demand? Demand is more speculative. All of the mutes are much larger than their animal ancestors. So they need more food. If their main food source grew as well, and wasn’t sapient, there’s no issue... until you keep going down the food chain and run out of what they eat, and so on... But anyway, that could be alright. No moral issue, certainly. If their main food source stayed small (intelligent or not tbh), there’s going to be a food shortage for the predator.

This is all VERY simplified, btw, ecology is complex as hell and I could spend years mapping out all the causes and effects here

Back to the point: if there’s a food shortage, you either find a solution or die. Predators are probably gonna want to hunt prey of an appropriate size. So they either find different prey, change their preferences, adapt as many animals have had to do for ages. Difficult sometimes, and a hassle, but doable. OR... if their prey did grow, but also gained sapience? Screw the morals, which are historically more human-based anyway, and eat them. For both prey and predator, it’s not very different from what they’re used to. It’s not new.

Alright. That all makes sense to me. So what’s the problem? What’s that big question? I’ll tell you what’s been bugging me:

What the fuck are the Mod Frogs eating!?

“Well Blue,” you might say, “Just big insects and stuff, right? There are dragonflies and flies in the show. Why should the frogs be any different from the other predators in the show?”

They shouldn’t be any different, by the logic of this whole essay, but they are.

All the other animals, I’ve been able to find reasonable food sources for. But then the frogs subvert the whole thing by having dragonflies and flies working for them. The two most obvious and recognizable prey animals for frogs. So, are they in some kind of weird servant-prey Stockholm syndrome relationship?

Okay, possibly. I don’t have any data to disprove that. But it doesn’t fit with the rest of the kataow vibe and also I don’t like it. Like, the predator and prey stuff I can understand, but that is a special kind of fucked up, sapient or otherwise.

So if not that, then that’s gotta mean the frogs aren’t eating them, right? Okay, that makes some sense, I mean, they use the dragonflies for transportation and the flies are?? Also transportation????? Or assistants??? Its unclear. How that arrangement came about, I don’t know. 

Are the flies and dragonflies sapient? I’m not certain. The flies wear suits, so that’s a point for Probably Sapient. The dragonflies are largely treated as non-sapient but intelligent animals, like a domesticated horse. So maybe they’re like Mandu? Only they can speak. Dave knows and speaks their language. You don’t say “oh I speak a little Horse, lemme talk to them.” That’s not a thing. So the dragonflies for now are Probably Sapient, But It’s Complicated

Alright, alright, enough of that nonsense, there are plenty of bugs! Large ones too! And small mammals, irl frogs will eat those too! If they can get it in their mouth and it’s an animal, an irl frog will be willing to try and eat it. There’s no problem! What’s the point of this! They just eat big bugs! Just not flies because they’re sapient and--

Ah. Aha. No; see, that’s just it. Because they’re sapient. But hang on, didn’t I just say I wasn’t sure about the flies’ sapience? Yeah, I did, and I also said they probably are sapient, and even if they’re not, I have more.

ALL of the obligate carnivores in kataow reacted to Kipo’s gang in the same way; “Oh, that’s food.” And then only later, even if just a minute later, and usually reluctantly, “But maybe friends instead?” All the obligate carnivores EXCEPT for the Mod Frogs.

“That’s because humans are too big and--” Bullshit. Humans are the perfect size for mute frog prey. Sorry, that’s just a fact. And not only that, but they treat Dave and Mandu the same as the humans. Why? Why? Dave is a freaking insect!!! And the perfect size!!! And Mandu would be a great snack! Wolf almost ate Mandu, and she’s got a strict “if it talks it’s not food” policy.

Alright so I don’t have an explanation for Mandu besides “their sapience is uncertain and maybe that’s enough.” Maybe they’re too focused on the humans? I don’t know.

But Dave?????? When they captured him with Benson in the beginning, why didn’t they at least threaten to eat him??? Huh?? My proposal: because he’s sapient.

...So ...what?

So, if we go with this logic, the Mod Frogs are the only carnivores who care AT ALL about sapience of their prey. The omnivores and herbivores have the privilege of way more options, so they don’t get an opinion.

Why do the Frogs care? Why? And why is it just them?

This is where I run out of answers.

And yeah, there are probably other sufficiently-sized non-sapient prey animals for the frogs. There was a big spider and that’s probably enough proof for that point. They’re fine. They have stuff to eat.

But that doesn’t take away the fact that while they seem to choose not to eat sapient animals, none of the other carnivores do. 

Why.

Is.

That?

Jamack caught a Dubstep Bee in his mouth and what did he do?? He spit it out! Why would he do that if sapience wasn’t a factor? Why?

Seriously though if you have answers PLEASE share them with me, I am absolutely bewildered

Slept Ons: The Best Records of 2020 That We Never Got Around To

Tattoos and shorts! How did we miss the Oily Boys?

It happens pretty much every year.  After much fussing and second-guessing, the year-end list gets finalized, set in stone really, encapsulating 12 months of enthusiastic listening, and surely these are the best ten records anyone could find, right? Right?  And then, a day or a week later, someone else puts up their list or records their year-end radio show, and there it is, the record you could have loved and pushed and written about…if only you’d known about it.  My self-kick in the shins came during Joe Belock’s 2020 round-up on WFMU when he played the Chats.  Others on our staff knew, earlier on, that they weren’t writing about records they loved for whatever reason — work, family, mp3 overload, etc. Except now they are.  Here.  Now. Enjoy.  

Contributors include me (Jennifer Kelly), Eric McDowell, Jonathan Shaw, Justin Cober-Lake, Bill Meyer, Bryon Hayes, Ian Mathers, Andrew Forell, Michael Rosenstein and Patrick Masterson. 

The Chats — High Risk Behavior (Bargain Bin)

High Risk Behaviour by The Chats

Cartoonishly primitive and gleefully out of luck, The Chats hurl Molotov cocktails of punk, bright and exploding even as they come. They’re from Australia, which totally makes sense; there’s a sunny, health-care-subsidized, devil-may-care vibe to their down-on-their luck stories. Musically, the songs are stripped down like Billy Childish, sped up like the Ramones, brute simple like Eddy Current Suppression Ring. Most of them are about alcohol: drinking, being drunk, getting arrested for being drunk, eating while drunk…etc. etc. But there’s an art to singing about getting hammered, and few manage the butt-headed conviction of “Drunk & Disorderly.” Its jungle rhythms, vicious, saw-toothed bass, quick knife jabs of guitar frame an all-hands drum-shocked chant: “Relaxation, mood alteration, boredom leads to intoxication.” Later singer Eamon Sandwith cuts right to the point about romance with the couplet, “I was cautious, double wrapped, but still I got the clap.” The album’s highlights include the most belligerently glorious song ever about cyber-fraud in “Identity Theft,” whose shout along chorus buoys you up, even as the dark web drains your savings account dry. The album strings together a laundry list of dead-end, unfortunate situations, one after another truly hopeless developments, but nonetheless it explodes with joy. Bandcamp says the guitar player has already left—so you’re too late to see the Chats live—but it must have been fun while it lasted.

Jennifer Kelly

Oliver Coates — skins n slime  (RVNG Intl)

skins n slime by Oliver Coates

2020 was a year of loss, of losing, of feeling lost. Whether weathering the despair of illness and death, the discomfort of displacement or the drift of temporal reverie, English cellist Oliver Coates creates music to reflect all this and more on skins n slime. Using modulators, loops and effects, Coates employs elements from drone, shoegaze and industrial to extend the range of the cello and conjure otherworldly sounds of crushing intensity and great beauty. Beneath the layering, distortion and dissonance, the human element remains strong. The tactility of fingers and bow on strings and the expressive essence of tone form the core of Coates composition and performance. If his experiments seem a willful swipe at the restrictions of the classical world from whence he came, the visceral power of a track like “Reunification 2018”, which hunkers in the same netherworld as anything by Deathprod or Lawrence English, the liminal, static bedecked ache of “Honey” and the unadorned minimalism of “Caretaker Part 1 (Breathing)” are works of a serious talent. skins n slime is an album to sit with and soak in; allow it to percolate and permeate and you’ll find yourself forgetting the outside world, if only for a while.  

Andrew Forell  

Bertrand Denzler / Antonin Gerbal — Sbatax (Umlaut Records)

Sbatax by Denzler - Gerbal

Tenor sax player Bertrand Denzler and drummer Antonin Gerbal released this duo recording last summer which slipped under the radar of many listeners. Denzler is as likely to be heard these days composing and performing pieces by others in the French ensemble ONCEIM, playing solo, or in settings for quiet improvisation. But he’s been burning it up as a free jazz player for years now as well. Gerbal also casts a broad net, as a member of ONCEIM, deconstructing free bop in the group Peeping Tom, or recontextualizing the music of Ahmed Abdul-Malik along with Pat Thomas, Joel Grip and Seymour Wright in the group Ahmed amongst many other projects. The two have worked together in a variety of contexts for a decade now, recording a fantastic duo back in 2014. Sbatax, recorded five years later at a live performance in Berlin is a worthy follow-up.  

Gerbal attacks his kit with ferocity out of the gate, with slashing cymbals and thundering kit, cascading along with drubbing momentum. Denzler charges in with a husky, jagged, repeated motif which he loops and teases apart, matching the caterwauling vigor of his partner straightaway. Over the course of this 40-minute outing, one can hear the two lock in, coursing forward with mounting intensity. Denzler increasingly peppers his playing with trenchant blasts and rasping salvos, riding along on Gerbal’s torrential fusillades. Throughout, one can hear the two dive deep in to free jazz traditions while shaping the arc of the improvisation with an acute ear toward the overall form of the piece. Midway through, Denzler steps back for a torrid drum solo, then jumps back in with renewed dynamism as the two ride waves of commanding potency and focus to a rousing conclusion, goaded on by the cheering audience. Anyone wondering whether there is still life in the tenor/drum duo format should dig this one up.  

Michael Rosenstein

Kaelin Ellis — After Thoughts (self-released)

After Thoughts by KAELIN ELLIS

To be sure, “slept on” hardly characterizes Kaelin Ellis in 2020. After a trickle of lone tracks in the first months of the year, a Twitter video posted by the 23-year-old producer and multi-instrumentalist caught the attention of Lupe Fiasco, quickly precipitating the joint EP House. It’s a catchy story from any number of angles — the star-powered “discovery” of a young talent, the interconnectedness of the digital age, the silver linings of the COVID-19 pandemic — but it risks overshadowing Ellis’s two 2020 solo records: Moments, released in the lead-up to House, and After Thoughts, released in October. It doesn’t help that each album’s dozen tracks scarcely add up to as many minutes, or that the producer’s titles deliberately downplay the results. And some, of course, will judge these jazzy, deeply soulful beats only against their potential as platforms for some other, more extroverted artist. “I’d like to think I’m a jack of all trades,” Ellis told one interviewer, “but in all honesty my specialty is creating a space for others to stand out.”

Yet as with all small, good things, there’s reward in savoring these miniatures on their own terms, and After Thoughts in particular proved an unexpected retreat from last fall’s anxieties. Ellis has a poet’s gift for distillation and juxtaposition, a director’s knack for pathos and dramatic sequencing — powers that combine to somehow render a fully realized world. As fleeting as it is, Ellis’s work communicates a generosity of care and concentration, opening a space for others not just to stand out but also to settle in.

Eric McDowell   

Lloyd Miller with Ian Camp and Adam Michael Terry — At the Ends of the World

At the Ends of the World by Lloyd Miller with Ian Camp and Adam Michael Terry

Miller and company fuse the feel of a contemporary classical concert with eastern modalities and instrumentation. The recordings sound live off the floor, and give a welcome sense of space and detail to the sensitive playing. Miller has explored the intersection between Persian and other cultural traditions and jazz through the lens of academic scholarship and recorded output since the 1960s. With this release, the performances linger in a space where vibe is as important as compositional structure. The results revel in the beauty when seemingly unrelated musical ideas emerge together in the same moment, with startling results.

Arthur Krumins

 Oily Boys — Cro Memory Grin (Cool Death)

Cro Memory Grin by Oily Boys

The title of this 2020 LP by Australian punks Oily Boys sounds like a pun on “Cro-Magnon,” an outmoded scientific name for early humans. It’s apt: the music is smarter than knuckle-dragger beatdown or run-of-the-mill powerviolence, but still driven by a rancorous, id-bound savagery. The smarts are just perceptible enough to keep things pretty interesting. Some of the noisier, droning and semi-melodic stretches of Cro Memory Grin recall the records made by the Men (especially Leave Home) before they decided to try to make like Uncle Tupelo, or some lesser version of the Hold Steady. Oily Boys inhabit a darker sensibility, and their music is more profoundly bonkers than anything those other bands got up to. Aggro, discordant punk; flagellating hardcore burners; psych-rock-adjacent sonic exorcisms — you get it all, sometimes in a single five-minute passage of Cro Memory Grin (check out the sequence from “Lizard Scheme” to “Heat Harmony” to “Stick Him.” Yikes). A bunch of the tunes spill over into one another, feedback and sustain jumping the gap from one track to the next, which gives the record a live vibe. It feels volatile and sweaty. The ill intent and unmitigated nastiness accumulate into a palpable force, tainting the air and leaving stains on your tee shirt. Oily Boys have been kicking around Sydney’s punk scene since at least 2014, but this is their first full-length record. One hopes they can continue to play with this degree of possessed abandon without completing burning themselves to down to smoldering cinders. At least long enough to record some more music.

Jonathan Shaw

 Dougie Poole — The Freelancer's Blues (Wharf Cat)

The Freelancer's Blues by Dougie Poole

A cursory listen might misconstrue the heart of Dougie Poole's second album, The Freelancer's Blues. When he mixes his wobbly country sound with lyrics like those in “Vaping on the Job,” it sounds like genre play, a smirking look at millennial life through an urban cowboy's vintage sound. Poole does target a particular set of issues, but mapping them with his own slightly psychedelic country comes with very little of the postmodern itch. His characters feel just as troubled as anyone coming out of 1970s Nashville, and as Poole explores these lives with wit and empathy, the songs quickly find their resonance.

The album, though it wouldn't reach for pretentious terms, carries an existential problem at its center. Poole circles around the fundamental void: work deadens, relocation doesn't help, spiritual pursuits falter, intelligence burdens, and even the drugs don't help. When Poole finally gets the title track, the preceding album gives his confession extra weight, a mix of life's strictures and personal limitation combining for a crisis best avoided but wonderfully shared. The Freelancer's Blues comes rich in Nashville tradition but finds an ideal fit in its contemporary place, likely providing a soundtrack for a variety of times and spaces yet to come.

Justin Cober-Lake

 Schlippenbach Quartett — Three Nails Left (Corbett Vs. Dempsey)

You might say that this record has been slept on twice. The second recording to be released by the Alexander von Schlippenbach, Evan Parker and Paul Lovens (augmented this time by Peter Kowald) was released in 1975, and didn’t get a second pressing — on vinyl — until 2019. So, Corbett Vs. Dempsey stepped up last summer, it had never been on CD. But this writer was so stumped on how to relate how intense, startling, and unlike any other free improvisation it was and is, that he just… slept on it. Until now. Even if you know this band, if you don’t know this album, well, it’s time you got acquainted.

Bill Meyer 

Stonegrass — Stonegrass (Cosmic Range)

STONEGRASS by Stonegrass

Released on the cusp of a tentative re-opening for the city of Toronto after two months of lock-down, this slab of psychedelic funk-rock was the perfect antidote to the COVID blues when it arrived at the tail end of a Spring spent in near-isolation. The jam sessions that became Stonegrass were also a new beginning for multi-instrumentalist Matthew “Doc” Dunn and drummer Jay Anderson, who reignited a spirit of collaboration after a decade of sonic estrangement following the demise of their Spiritual Sky Blues Band project. Listening to these songs, you’d never know they spent any time apart. The tight, bottom-wagging jams on offer are evidence that these two are joined together at the third eye. Anderson’s grooves run deep, and Dunn — whether he’s traipsing along on guitar, keys or flutes — is right there with him. There’s enough fuzz here to satiate the heads, but the real treat here is the rhythmic interplay. Strap in and prepare to get down. 

Bryon Hayes 

 Bob Vylan — We Live Here EP (Venn Records)

Bob Vylan flew under the radar in 2020 successfully enough that when someone nominated them for the best of 2020 poll in Tom Ewing’s Peoples’ Pop Polls project on Twitter (each month a different year or category gets voted on in World Cup-style brackets, it’s great fun and only occasionally maddening), most of the reaction was “is that one a typo?” Nobody had that response after listening to “We Live Here” — my wife also participates in the poll, so we just play all the candidates in our apartment, and Bob Vylan was the first time both of our jaws dropped in amazement; the song got played about ten times in a row at that point. Bobby (vocals/guitar/production) and Bobbie (drums/“spiritual inspiration”) Vylan’s 18-minute EP lives up to that title track, fireball after fireball aimed directly at the corrupt, crumbling, racist state that seems utterly indifferent to human suffering unless there’s profit in it. Whether it’s the raging catharsis of the title track or the cool, precise hostility of “Lynch Your Leaders,” Bob Vylan have made something vital and essential here, that very much speaks to 2020 but sadly will stay relevant long past it.  

Ian Mathers

 Working Men’s Club — Working Men’s Club (Heavenly Recordings)

It’s been evident these past few years that I’ve retreated from music and committed myself to the slower world of books as a way of giving my mind a break from the accelerating madness outside, but I could never really leave my radio family the same way I could never really leave Dusted. Another great example why: A fellow CHIRP volunteer played “John Cooper Clarke” in a December Zoom social I actually managed to catch, and I’ve been addicted to Working Men’s Club’s debut LP from October ever since. The quartet hails from Todmodren, a market town you won’t be surprised upon listening to discover is roughly equidistant between Leeds and Manchester; the album screams Hacienda vibes in its seamless integration of post-punk signifiers and dancefloor style. It’s easy to bandy about names from Rip It Up and Start Again or even The Velvet Underground in 12-minute closer “Angel,” certainly one of the most arresting tracks of the year, but the thing that struck me immediately is that this was the record I’d always anticipated but never got from Factory Floor — smart, aloof and occasionally calculated, yet still fun enough to play for any crowd itching to move. Until the community of a dance party or Working Men’s Club live set is once again possible, patience and a fully formed first album will have to suffice. You’ll have to imagine the part where I corner you at the party to rave about it, I’m afraid.

Patrick Masterson

NO MATCHES FOUND || mitch & cambie

@cambieandrews

For better or for worse, Mitch Douglas was someone who could only be described as desperately nostalgic. Unfortunately for him, in a post-apocalyptic society where everything about life could and often did change with a relentless and unforgiving regularity, this frequently trended towards the “for worse.” It made it exceedingly difficult to exist as a person mired too thoroughly in their past. Mitch imagined himself relatively adaptable for his age and the circumstances, but this was one true hangup he had some difficulty getting past.

Not long after Echo and its database had been implemented, Mitch developed a relationship with searching it that could only be described as… moderately unhealthy. Borderline obsessive, even. A lot of the time it’d taken the shape of searching the names of his former students, and survivors popped up just frequently enough that he was able to breathe a sigh of relief and reassure himself that this searching wasn’t as unhealthy as it could be. A plausible case couldn’t, however, be made that searching for his ex-wife was any kind of healthy. It was an endeavor largely motivated by guilt, and a misplaced guilt at that. Even if Mitch could admit that to himself -- which he did, eventually -- he still couldn’t quite help it. On a more anxious day he would check every free moment he had, and almost never went more than eight hours without.

As the years wore on and the rate at which new names entered the list slowed to a trickle, though, Mitch began to look for her less frequently. A weekly check turned biweekly, biweekly turned monthly, and every now and then he’d even manage to forget for a month. The impending holiday, of course, made forgetting difficult. Made forgetting a lot of things difficult.

After a late dinner his footsteps had carried him to his office instead of straight back to Calyset and his suite, having remembered that he’d left his Echo-pad perched on his paper- and journal-littered desk. Gathering some notes to fold and slip into his pockets, Mitch paused before he pulled back his chair and sank into it, eyes fixing on the blank screen of his Echo where it sat. He eventually pressed his thumbprint where was needed to bring the screen to life and gave his hands a tentative flex, muscles and joints still stiff with the chill that’d seeped into them over the meandering walk he’d taken to get here. The moment stretched on as he stared at the slow blink of the database’s search box cursor, long enough that it eventually became impossible to keep blaming the hesitation on his numb fingertips.

Finally and with a quiet exhale, his hands moved to type out a name: Adelle Kühn.

It stung a little less to type than it used to. Her maiden name. What he assumed she’d gone back to after the divorce. As the search function spun Mitch stared at those four simple letters and couldn’t help but remember how excited she’d been to take his name after their wedding. “It’s not because I belong to you now, so don’t get any ideas,” Adelle would joke with an irresistible spark in her eyes. “It’s just going to be so much easier for people to pronounce. And spell. And everything else. ‘Douglas.’”

The database chimed just loudly enough to drag Mitch back to the present, which was merciful except for the NO MATCHES FOUND scrolling mutely across the screen. He ran a hand over the bottom half of his face, scraping across a couple days’ worth of stubble before he pressed cool fingertips against one eyelid under his glasses. Mitch knew as well as anyone that a no match didn’t necessarily mean deceased; as useful as it might be to have a list of the confirmed dead he couldn’t fathom the time and energy it’d take to compile as a secondary database, not when people had more pressing matters to attend to. So circumstances were confined to “survived” and “question mark.” Schrödinger’s status. Neither dead nor alive.

The subsequent few search attempts came with less hesitation, now that he’d started. Adele Kühn likewise yielded no results; neither did Adelle Kuhn or Adele Kuhn.

“It’s Adelle with two ‘l’s, Kühn with an umlaut. I don’t see how that’s so difficult for people,” her voice echoed in the back of his head, with a tone that endeavored to make light of it. Mitch knew her well enough that he’d always heard that fuzzy edge of frustration.

“Now I can just say ‘It’s Adelle with two ‘l’s, and Douglas as in...’ well, Douglas. Only one ‘l’.”

His PDD chimed with a notification that startled him out of his reverie: Cambie. His hand moved to hover over the device in indecision for a moment before dismissing the alert, without opening the message and with a measure of guilt. She’d sent him a notice earlier when he was out walking that he’d similarly left unanswered, the usual desperation to spare her an instance of doom and gloom overriding his typically punctual responses. Mitch made a mental note to send off an apology once he was back to the privacy of his own suite and returned his attention to the Echo-pad.

He typed in one last name, and this one still stung as much as it used to. Mitch couldn’t imagine it’d ever yield any results, but some part of him couldn’t let go of the ‘what if,’ not to mention the off chance he wouldn’t find her if that actually was the name she chose to register and he didn’t bother to search it.

The cursor spun; the same result eventually filtered back.

It didn’t surprise him, but it exhausted him. Slipping his glasses off and setting them aside, Mitch buried his face in his hands, taking a deep breath in that he held to a count of five before letting it out again. This was the sort of thing that might’ve caused a lapse in control a couple of years ago, would’ve had the potential to tip a precarious stack of journals or send papers wafting to the floor with half a wayward thought. As it was nothing moved, bidden or unbidden, and Mitch resigned himself to the blanket of quiet in his office. He didn’t have the capacity left to reminisce or even think, but at this point, maybe that was a blessing. He sank into the naggingly persistent exhaustion instead and, folding his arms onto a stack of papers to pillow his head, let a restless doze take over.

The Echo-pad’s screen didn’t time out, declaring its results to the ceiling: Adelle Douglas: NO MATCHES FOUND.

Survey #477

“hell doesn’t want them  /  hell doesn’t need them  /  hell doesn’t love them”

Which breed of dog do you find most scary? I'm not scared of them personally, but the sheer potential of the Tibetan mastiff is terrifying. I mean the thing hunts bears. What’s the secret to your success? What success? Do you keep any photos in your wallet? Yes, of some of my nieces and nephews. I need to organize my wallet and get all of them... Would you ever wear a white tuxedo? Eek, I think white wouldn't look good on me. I'd wear a black one, though. Do you prefer brown or white bread? Brown/wheat. Have you ever spent an entire day in bed? Ohhhh yes. I did that for years, literally until yesterday. I used to do everything in my bed. Now I've finally moved into the spare room when I'm on my laptop. Don’t you just find it annoying when people get too much plastic surgery? No? Do what you want with your body, boo. Whose birthday is next, out of all the people you know? My boyfriend's. Do you have embarrassing parents? Dad can be embarrassing. What’s something that really matters to you? My mental health. Tell me something interesting about one of your close relatives: Uhhh. I'm blanking. I'm not really close to my extended family. Do you like the smell of freshly-mown grass? NO NO NO I HATE IT. If given the opportunity, would you employ a monkey-servant? Absofuckinglutely not. That's horrible animal abuse. Do you get a lot of earwax (don’t be shy)? Yes. It's partially why I got wax adhered to my eardrums: I was pushing too much back with using q-tips too much. Do you find green eyes attractive? Very. Who depends on you the most? My pets. Would you ever donate a kidney to anyone, and who? My mother comes to mind absolutely instantly, given she only has one kidney. Can you really be racist to a white person? It's possible to be racist towards any race... I've never understood this question. What was the first website you made an account on? I want to say Neopets. Do you listen to any podcasts? No. I'd love to listen to Mark, Bob, and Wade's, I'm just so bad with keeping up with podcasts. I've tried. Do you prefer long or short surveys? Long ones, if you couldn't tell. I combine surveys for a reason: I'd be spamming the FUCK out this place otherwise. Do you enjoy making YouTube videos or just watching? Watching. I miss making them honestly, but I just don't have the motivation to dedicate to even a short project. When I edited videos, I was VERY slow at it, and I just don't wanna invest the time anymore. Do you think vlogging in public is scary? I would be MORTIIFED. I don't know how some people can do it so confidently. Would you want to be in a collab channel on YouTube? I could see myself having a gaming channel where I was either with a friend or s/o. It'd be fun, like chilling on the couch and just chatting while playing. Not trying to be funny or anything, just... chillin'. Some people (myself included) enjoy that content. Have you been to an escape room? Was it a success? I haven't, but it'd be cool. Have you ever recorded a cover of a song? No. Do you prefer hoodies or sweaters more during the autumn? Hoodies. What's the best Halloween costume you had as a kid? I don't remember. Does family come to your home for the holidays, or do you go to theirs? We go to my older sister's place. Have you been diagnosed with CoVid-19 since the pandemic began? Not yet, but I'm getting tested Friday. How often do your pets have to visit the vet? Venus, essentially never unless she has a serious issue. Reptile doctors aren't very available here. Roman has only been to the vet once to get neutered. And I think his shots? How many times have you been in the hospital in your lifetime thus far? A good number of times. Cheese-Itz. Cheese Balls, Goldfish, or Cheetos? Ohhh, I think I have to go with Goldfish, but I like them all, save or Cheese Balls. Have you ever made your own trail mix before? What did you put in it? No. What is your favorite thing to eat alongside peanut butter? Chocolate. Do your pets sleep on the furniture or in their own pet beds? Venus is obviously in her terrarium, usually sleeping behind her water bowl. Roman always sleeps in my bed snuggling me. :') If you have dogs, how often do you take them for walks? We don't have a dog. Does anything on your body cause you chronic pain? Any chronic illnesses? Yes, my legs. I have chronic mental illnesses for sure. What is your favorite Thanksgiving food? Just rolls, ha ha. I'm not a fan of Thanksgiving food in general. Would you prefer cake or pie as a birthday treat? Cake; I don't like pie. What is something annoying about the person you like/love? Nothing he does really annoys me. What is something that makes you feel old? My knees and energy level in general, ha ha. And how early I can go to sleep nowadays. When's the last time you experienced a panic attack? Over what? Hm... I don't like to abuse the term panic attack, so I'm not entirely sure. I'm definitely familiar with them, but shit's gotta be pretty extreme for me to consider it a genuine panic attack and not an anxiety attack. Which professions do you feel deserve the highest amount of pay? Probably surgeons. Do you donate to a specific charity or cause on an annual basis? No, but I desperately wish I could. :/ What's the highest amount of money you received in a card? I want to say $300? My paternal grandpa was way, WAY too generous. Like seriously, I think the dude met my sisters and me ONCE. I really do wish I'd taken up Dad's offers to go to Michigan with him before he passed away. I only turned it down because he didn't have WiFi, which is a horrible, selfish excuse. I wanted to know him better. Did you get any scholarships or grants towards your education? I think? Have you ever wondered what your pets are saying to you? Roman? ALL the time, especially because when I talk to him, he usually answers in his own kind of meow. It's adorable. Have you ever had to turn someone in before? For what? No. Describe a time where one of your parents embarrassed you. Oh my goddddd. When Dad was helping me take care of my laptop when it was broken, he was consistently SO rude to the employees, convinced they were trying to scam him into paying more money. Which they certainly weren't. I wanted to DIE when we were in that store. Do you prefer grapes, raisins, or prunes? Grapes. The other two are gross. Have you ever had a party when your parents weren't home? No. What is something that irks you about your sibling(s)? Nothing. They're wonderful women. If you get married, will you take your spouse's last name? Yes, please get rid of my last name. Do you still eat Lunchables as an adult? Hell yeah, man. What's your favorite comfort food? Ice cream. If you had to work in a store, which would you choose, and why? An actually good pet store. Not a chain one that gets their pets from breeding farms and doesn't know jack shit about the animals. You won't ever see me adopt a pet, especially a reptile, from places like PetSmart and Petco. They are so goddamn ignorant. Hell, I'd probably be willing to work with people if I was an employee in a proper pet store, because I'd be so excited about the animals and helping them get adopted into homes that will suit and treat them well. If you were a teacher, which subject would you teach? English or science. Do you spend a lot of time outdoors in the summer? Hell no, I HATE summer. Do you have a desk in your room? Not my bedroom, no, but in the spare room/my "office," I do. I've finally moved into there to get out of my bed except for sleeping. I'll tell you, my back sure hurts, though. What did your favorite backpack in high school look like? Yo, I had the COOLEST Ouija board backpack. The zipper was even a planchette. Do you wear band tees? Of course. Frosting: chocolate or vanilla? Chocolateeeee. Ice cream: chocolate or vanilla? Depends on my mood. Do you drink protein shakes? No, I can't stand the taste. What is the highest name-brand thing you own? Nothing unrealistically expensive. What color GameBoy did you have as a kid? Red. What was your favorite GameBoy game? Man, I can't pick! My sisters and I had a whole lot. Do you have a PayPal account? No. Would you be interested in building a water feature for a garden? If *I* wasn't the one building it, sure, ha ha. A koi pond would be amazing. Do you consider the letter "Y" a consonant or a vowel? I see it as a consonant, but I know it can be a vowel. Pick a side, Y. Would you rather wear a tie or a bowtie? Hm, idk. Which birds are most common around your neighbourhood? Sparrows or robins? Idk. Are you the kind of person to look at accident sites, when passing them by? Admittedly, yes. Morbid curiosity is real. Have you ever seen a polydactyl cat? Only online. Are there any languages you could try to work out what some words mean? A good deal of German, probably. What is your dearest stuffed animal that you own? Why is that? My stuffed moose Brownie, which I got from Cabela's in Ohio. I cuddled him every night as a kid for MANY years. He's on my shelf now. <3 Have you ever had to try to pronounce words that have letters with umlauts? That's common in German, so. Are you more an Eeyore, a Piglet, or a Tigger? I'm Eeyore and Piglet's child. Name something awesome from another culture that is not part of yours: I'm not educated enough on other cultures to answer this, sadly. What are you grateful for NOT having? Various health conditions. What do you think is the most interesting sea creature? Man-o-wars. I mean c'mon, they have no brain. Do you currently own any teddy bears? Yeah, stored away. Have you ever caught fireflies? All the time as a little kid! My sisters and I loved that. Do you know anyone who has changed their first name? Not legally (to my knowledge), but I have a number of trans friends who have. Do you know anyone who has been on life support, and survived? No. At least, I don't think so. Do your parents have a strong relationship together? Holy fuck no. What was the last necklace you wore? It was my bottlecap one with the Halo of the Sun from Silent Hill 3 as the center. If there was such a thing as a mental health first aid kit, what would you want to be in it? Can it only be physical items? If that's the case, gimme a bit of candy, some money for a tattoo, a Mountain Dew, a new meerkat plushie to cuddle, a weighted blanket... Stuff like that.

How B2B Marketers Can Get the Most Out of Webinars in 2020

There has to be a word for the creeping dread B2B marketers have been feeling this year, preferably something German with a ton of umlauts. As we watched events in the spring cancel, postpone, or go virtual, we held out hope that summer would be different. Then July’s events moved out. Now it’s looking like the type of large-scale events B2B marketers depend on will have to wait until 2021… at the earliest. But we don’t have to despair! We can close the gap with virtual events. The speaking gig at an industry conference can become a webinar, as can a planned panel discussion or product demonstration.  The good news is plenty of people have more spare time than before to watch your webinar. The bad news is that everyone who makes webinars has time on their hands, too. So, your webinar has to have a little extra oomph to stand out in the crowd.  Here’s how you can level up your webinar creation and promotion.

How to Get the Most from Your B2B Webinar

It’s no longer enough to put up a slide deck and talk through bullet points. These tips will help you make a more compelling webinar — and make sure that people attend it.

Start with Content Research

No marketer worth their salt would make a blog post without doing content research. Why should your webinar be different?  To determine the best subject matter for your webinar, bring all of your research tools to bear:

SEO research via SEMRush and Google Analytics

Question research via BuzzSumo and AnswerthePublic

Prospect feedback from your sales team

Competitor content evaluation

All of these resources will help you home in on the topics that your audience most wants to hear about. Your research might even drive what type of webinar you create: If your audience needs how-to advice, you might do a live demonstration. If they’re looking for thought leadership, you might partner with influencers. Speaking of the latter...

Reach Out to Influencers

In case you missed the headline yesterday, B2B Influencer Marketing is kind of a big deal. There’s no greater boost to your credibility (and your potential audience) than adding industry thought leaders to your webinar.  Look for people who are influential with your audience — those who are regularly producing content and engaging with anyone who posts a comment. They don’t have to have Taylor Swift-level follower counts to make a difference. They just have to be able to get a relevant audience’s attention and hold it. Also, it’s not enough to just have someone appear with you on camera, though — it’s important to ask meaningful questions that will enable a substantive discussion. Keep your content research in mind as you plan the interview.

Create a Landing Page & Promote

Give your audience plenty of time to prepare for your webinar. We recommend starting outreach at least two weeks beforehand, and up to a month if you can swing it.  Create a short landing page to collect sign-ups — include a few key points you plan to cover, and introduce yourself and your guests. You can promote the landing page via social media — image-led social works well — and blog content that builds anticipation for your topic. Don’t forget to include the webinar in your newsletter, and to enlist your influencers to drive pre-registration. One great way to promote the webinar, and focus your content at the same time, is to poll your audience via social media. Ask for their thoughts on your topic. Ask what they most want to know about it. Ask what they would like to ask your thought leader guest. These posts can help drive registration while also making sure the content will be more relevant to the audience. [bctt tweet="“One great way to promote the webinar, and focus your content at the same time, is to poll your audience via social media. Ask for their thoughts on your topic. Ask what they most want to know about it.” @NiteWrites" username="toprank"]

Change Up the Format

The Q&A, the panel discussion, the lecture — there are a few tried-and-true formats for webinars. But as the market gets flooded with content, we need to be more creative. For example, what about a working session instead of a discussion, where your panel collaboratively creates something? Or what about spicing up an interview with interstitial, pre-produced video content?  You could even host the webinar on a platform like LinkedIn Live (while recording it for later publication, of course) and interact in real time with the audience. Just make sure to have a moderator to help keep the questions flowing smoothly.

Plan and Practice, But Be Flexible

It’s always a good idea to run through your entire webinar a few times before you go live. If you’re doing a lecture or presentation format, that means practicing all the content you plan to put across. For a panel discussion or interview, you may not be able to do a full run-through with your influencer, but you can still test the technology you will be using. Don’t let your practicing and planning make your presentation too rigid, though. You should be able to follow an interesting conversational thread in your interview, or incorporate an audience comment in your presentation, without the whole thing going off the rails. Of course, it’s always going to be tricky to run a live presentation, especially if you or your guests don’t do this type of presenting for a living. It can be challenging to think on your feet, come across as engaging, and keep a conversation focused and interesting to your audience. Which is why I’m going to court controversy and say...

You Don’t Have to Be Live

As we think about changing up the format and offering a higher-quality experience to the audience, it may be time to let go of the idea that webinars have to be live.  After all, editing is the gift that you give to your audience. You wouldn’t write a blog post in real time with a hundred people watching. You wouldn’t record a podcast episode and publish the raw audio. So why not pre-record and edit your webinar? It’s true there is an immediacy to a live presentation that would be lost with a pre-recorded one. But the boost in quality for the audience could cover that loss. And you can still have an interactive experience with the audience through chat. You could even play the pre-recorded portion first, then hop on the video stream live for an audience Q&A. There’s an enormous gap between the standard slideshow & lecture webinar and the produced, polished video that audiences appreciate most. Pre-recording and editing is one way to start closing that gap. 

Follow Up with Extra Content

What should your audience do next after attending the webinar? That’s a question to answer before you take your first registration. Once you have a next step in mind, create a content bundle to send to each registrant after the webinar airs. This bundle could include a normally gated eBook or two, some recommended reading from your blog, or more content from your influencer guests. You can also create extra content from the webinar to help fill out your editorial calendar. Use excerpts from your discussion to fuel blog posts. Repurpose the audio as a podcast. Pull the best quotes to use as video posts on social media that drive to a gated version of the recorded webinar. Essentially, it’s about getting the most value possible from your content asset — the same thing you do with eBooks or blogs.

Webinars Killed the Radio Star

The pandemic has made webinars a go-to tactic for marketers who are missing out on face-to-face events. But as more marketers get into the webinar game, your content needs to be extraordinarily valuable and extremely well-promoted. If you plan, produce and promote your webinar with the same strategic care that you use for the rest of your content marketing, you’ll bring your audience more value and earn their attention in return. Check out our CEO Lee Odden in a recent webinar: Social Media in the Times of Social Distancing.

The post How B2B Marketers Can Get the Most Out of Webinars in 2020 appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

How B2B Marketers Can Get the Most Out of Webinars in 2020 published first on yhttps://improfitninja.blogspot.com/

How B2B Marketers Can Get the Most Out of Webinars in 2020

There has to be a word for the creeping dread B2B marketers have been feeling this year, preferably something German with a ton of umlauts. As we watched events in the spring cancel, postpone, or go virtual, we held out hope that summer would be different. Then July’s events moved out. Now it’s looking like the type of large-scale events B2B marketers depend on will have to wait until 2021… at the earliest. But we don’t have to despair! We can close the gap with virtual events. The speaking gig at an industry conference can become a webinar, as can a planned panel discussion or product demonstration.  The good news is plenty of people have more spare time than before to watch your webinar. The bad news is that everyone who makes webinars has time on their hands, too. So, your webinar has to have a little extra oomph to stand out in the crowd.  Here’s how you can level up your webinar creation and promotion.

How to Get the Most from Your B2B Webinar

It’s no longer enough to put up a slide deck and talk through bullet points. These tips will help you make a more compelling webinar — and make sure that people attend it.

Start with Content Research

No marketer worth their salt would make a blog post without doing content research. Why should your webinar be different?  To determine the best subject matter for your webinar, bring all of your research tools to bear:

SEO research via SEMRush and Google Analytics

Question research via BuzzSumo and AnswerthePublic

Prospect feedback from your sales team

Competitor content evaluation

All of these resources will help you home in on the topics that your audience most wants to hear about. Your research might even drive what type of webinar you create: If your audience needs how-to advice, you might do a live demonstration. If they’re looking for thought leadership, you might partner with influencers. Speaking of the latter...

Reach Out to Influencers

In case you missed the headline yesterday, B2B Influencer Marketing is kind of a big deal. There’s no greater boost to your credibility (and your potential audience) than adding industry thought leaders to your webinar.  Look for people who are influential with your audience — those who are regularly producing content and engaging with anyone who posts a comment. They don’t have to have Taylor Swift-level follower counts to make a difference. They just have to be able to get a relevant audience’s attention and hold it. Also, it’s not enough to just have someone appear with you on camera, though — it’s important to ask meaningful questions that will enable a substantive discussion. Keep your content research in mind as you plan the interview.

Create a Landing Page & Promote

Give your audience plenty of time to prepare for your webinar. We recommend starting outreach at least two weeks beforehand, and up to a month if you can swing it.  Create a short landing page to collect sign-ups — include a few key points you plan to cover, and introduce yourself and your guests. You can promote the landing page via social media — image-led social works well — and blog content that builds anticipation for your topic. Don’t forget to include the webinar in your newsletter, and to enlist your influencers to drive pre-registration. One great way to promote the webinar, and focus your content at the same time, is to poll your audience via social media. Ask for their thoughts on your topic. Ask what they most want to know about it. Ask what they would like to ask your thought leader guest. These posts can help drive registration while also making sure the content will be more relevant to the audience. [bctt tweet="“One great way to promote the webinar, and focus your content at the same time, is to poll your audience via social media. Ask for their thoughts on your topic. Ask what they most want to know about it.” @NiteWrites" username="toprank"]

Change Up the Format

The Q&A, the panel discussion, the lecture — there are a few tried-and-true formats for webinars. But as the market gets flooded with content, we need to be more creative. For example, what about a working session instead of a discussion, where your panel collaboratively creates something? Or what about spicing up an interview with interstitial, pre-produced video content?  You could even host the webinar on a platform like LinkedIn Live (while recording it for later publication, of course) and interact in real time with the audience. Just make sure to have a moderator to help keep the questions flowing smoothly.

Plan and Practice, But Be Flexible

It’s always a good idea to run through your entire webinar a few times before you go live. If you’re doing a lecture or presentation format, that means practicing all the content you plan to put across. For a panel discussion or interview, you may not be able to do a full run-through with your influencer, but you can still test the technology you will be using. Don’t let your practicing and planning make your presentation too rigid, though. You should be able to follow an interesting conversational thread in your interview, or incorporate an audience comment in your presentation, without the whole thing going off the rails. Of course, it’s always going to be tricky to run a live presentation, especially if you or your guests don’t do this type of presenting for a living. It can be challenging to think on your feet, come across as engaging, and keep a conversation focused and interesting to your audience. Which is why I’m going to court controversy and say...

You Don’t Have to Be Live

As we think about changing up the format and offering a higher-quality experience to the audience, it may be time to let go of the idea that webinars have to be live.  After all, editing is the gift that you give to your audience. You wouldn’t write a blog post in real time with a hundred people watching. You wouldn’t record a podcast episode and publish the raw audio. So why not pre-record and edit your webinar? It’s true there is an immediacy to a live presentation that would be lost with a pre-recorded one. But the boost in quality for the audience could cover that loss. And you can still have an interactive experience with the audience through chat. You could even play the pre-recorded portion first, then hop on the video stream live for an audience Q&A. There’s an enormous gap between the standard slideshow & lecture webinar and the produced, polished video that audiences appreciate most. Pre-recording and editing is one way to start closing that gap. 

Follow Up with Extra Content

What should your audience do next after attending the webinar? That’s a question to answer before you take your first registration. Once you have a next step in mind, create a content bundle to send to each registrant after the webinar airs. This bundle could include a normally gated eBook or two, some recommended reading from your blog, or more content from your influencer guests. You can also create extra content from the webinar to help fill out your editorial calendar. Use excerpts from your discussion to fuel blog posts. Repurpose the audio as a podcast. Pull the best quotes to use as video posts on social media that drive to a gated version of the recorded webinar. Essentially, it’s about getting the most value possible from your content asset — the same thing you do with eBooks or blogs.

Webinars Killed the Radio Star

The pandemic has made webinars a go-to tactic for marketers who are missing out on face-to-face events. But as more marketers get into the webinar game, your content needs to be extraordinarily valuable and extremely well-promoted. If you plan, produce and promote your webinar with the same strategic care that you use for the rest of your content marketing, you’ll bring your audience more value and earn their attention in return. Check out our CEO Lee Odden in a recent webinar: Social Media in the Times of Social Distancing.

The post How B2B Marketers Can Get the Most Out of Webinars in 2020 appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

from The SEO Advantages https://www.toprankblog.com/2020/07/b2b-webinars-2020/

20/05 Typeface:

Typeface:

Article: https://uxdesign.cc/tips-when-choosing-a-typeface-with-infographic-d8a85a999f1

Scope:  - Designers should think whether typeface will be used for digital projects or also in print  - Designers should also think about whether the fonts will be used for a limited time or indefinitely.  - Helpful to make a list of potential projects a typeface will be used for at the outset of choosing a new font.   Mood:  - All projects has a mood. formal, informal, fun, serious, modern, classic.  - Every typeface also has a mood.  - Important to consider the mood of the project and how the typefaces they’re considering reinforce or clash with that mood.

Functionality:  - Test fonts considering at each size they may use those fonts to be sure they’re readable and don’t negatively impact UX.

Versatility:  - Fonts that are perfect for web use may not trasnlate well to use in print - Can the same fonts be used on multiple medium

Message:  - Message of the project whether it’s a slide dect or a brand’s visual identity-is viral determining the best font to use.  - Wrong font can completely derail the message a brand is trying to send.

Readability:  - Most important feature since type is used to communicate a message.  - Readability and legability aren’t exactly the same. Legibility refers to how easy it is to distinguish letterforms within a font. Readability takes that one step further and refers to how easily different words can be distinguished and read.  - can both be impacted dramatically by the size of the font being used.

Languages:  - Not every website or design project will be trasnlted into multiple languages.  - Some types do not support accents and umlauts.

Style:  - Basic font styles: serif, sans serif, display and script.  - Serif: more triditional and formal - Sans serif: More modern and minimalist - Display: Fonts are unsuitable for use at small sizes, appearances varies widely: - Script: resemble handwritten or calligraphy. Used for headlines and titles

For readability:  - Serif fonts are viewed as more reader friendly in print while sans serif fonts are more reader-friendly on screen. But most modern typefaces in both sytles can work well in either mediums.

- Consider whether they want to use display or script fonts for their headlines and titles, and decide whether serif or sans serif typefaces better suit their message and the projects brand.

Brand:  - Everybrand has a mood and a message - Important that all visual elements not just typefaces match and support the impression the brand wants to give off.  - Narrowing down typeface choices based on brand suitability can start with making a list of keywords that represent the brand. From there, designers can search for fonts that include those keywords or synonyms.

Licensing:  - be understanding the liscensing of any fonts they’re considering using and what limitations those license might impose.

Combinations:  - Some fonts are neutral enough to be paired with hundreds of other fonts.  - Other fonts have unique character that suitable combinations are limited.  - Having wilder options can offer up more flexibility.  - “Choosing font combinations is both an art and a science and takes fair amopunt of experimentation and practice for designers to master.”

Large font families:  - Roboto or Baskerville that have multiple weights and styles makes it easier for designer to create complex typographic designs without the stress of figuring out which typefaces work well together.  - On longterm projects like brand’s visual identity, larger font families also offer more versatility. Bring able to switch between multiple weights or styles based ont he exact project needs offers designers mpre flexibility without having to deviate from the brands estabilished identity.

Choosing right typeface:  - Practice choosing new typeface for a well-known brand or fictional project then be faced with real-world projects.  - other considerations such as readability, functionality, language support can help designers further refine those choices to find the perfect font for their design work.

Reflection:  - This article is really helpful looking at using typography for long terms and really trying to future proof projects. I found that having to keep the future in mind, really helps to eliminate using some typographys and stay within the classic types that will not go out of style.

Recent listening—

Benjamin Britten, Cello Symphony (1963) Schonberg (yes, the other—Harold, and sans umlaut) had Brahms as ‘keeper of the flame’ despite that pre-1900 it was never in any danger of being snuffed out. Perhaps the title belongs instead to Sibelius, or Strauss, or Shostakovich. Or Britten, who was pals with the latter. Night-watchmen over the long decades post-fin-de-siècle tumult these staunch tonalists affirmed and reaffirmed that the compositional potential of the once ubiquitous triad had yet to be exhausted. And this at the risk of being sneered at as Rachmaninoff once was. Not until the 70s did tonality’s second coming vindicate their years of stubborn toil, and even then it did not return the same—it was a crippled tonality, a cynical, self-parodic burlesque, an aftermath. See Zimmerman. See Ligeti. And see Britten’s Cello Symphony as an exemplary traditionalist’s genuine anguish, a surrender to the corruption that had consumed his entire art, to the truth that it was the world that shaped music and not the other way round.

Robert Schumman, Piano Quintet in E-flat major (1842) Ligeti preferred Schumann over all the 19th century Romantics and probably he was not the only 20th century progressive to do so as there’s plenty intellectual to decipher in Bobbert’s ultra-personal confessions, his self-portraits in dual perspective, binary AB form—Florestan and Eusebius, id and superego, extro- and introvert, the two polarities whose resultant transient was inevitably to collapse under their combined potential; that which Wieck the father sought to catalyse as teacher and Wieck the daughter likewise as muse. In the language of the 50s, 60s aesthetes, Schumann’s brand of European Romanticism was neither contrived nor pandering; no Lisztian pyrotechnics or Beethovenian angst, just honest, flowing feeling with enough compositionally idiosyncratic about it to be called unique—yes, swoon why don’t you at that gorgeous inner polyphony, syncopation, and, and, downbeat! with app. dom. after app. dom. then modulation proper to a distant tonic, now there’s a dissonance worth languishing on, and what’s that?! A IV-6/3 as Neapolitan sixth!! Ohhhhh… And can someone find me Berg’s alleged Träumerei analysis?

Alban Berg, Lulu-Suite (1934) As indulgent chords go, those that punctuate the end of the first movement are some of the most monumental ever penned. They are earth-shattering. Berg’s hyper-emotionalism and overwhelming pathos represent the apotheosis of German Romanticism, surpassing even the Sturm und Drang, even Wagner. Interesting to note Ligeti confessed to look favourably also on Berg, that is, Berg above his two Second Viennese compatriots, and no surprise really as feeling was back in vogue during the time—but doesn’t this intensity also frighten? Berg takes expressionism to its limits and in doing so wrenches at the extremes of human emotion. His melodies are contorted and sinuous, his harmony opens up chasms, his music writhes; it is dark and sensuous and sinister. But it is also wildly, recklessly passionate. 

Arnold Schoenberg, Chamber Symphony No. 1 in E major (1906) Graz, 1906: The Austrian premiere of Strauss’s Salome, composer conducting, and in the audience: Mahler, Schoenberg, Berg, and possibly Webern. Whatever scandal likely ensued would with hindsight reveal itself as ancestor to the Skandalkonzert of 1913—it was perhaps in Graz that the then embryonic Second Viennese School first tasted the power of widespread, total uproar, and plus musically you have Strauss continuing the Teutonic implication, hand in hand with Mahler, pushing at the boundaries their young contemporaries were eventually to shatter. And they could see it coming, or something, at least—Mahler was well aware that his ‘conceited puppy’ had somehow transcended or was ripe to do so: "I don’t understand his music, but he’s young and perhaps he’s right. I am old and I daresay my ear is not sensitive enough.“ So said he after a performance of the Chamber Symphony, as Alma Mahler recollects. And her own words here: “He felt, even if he did not yet know, the secret of those tortuous paths which Schoenberg’s genius was the first to tread.”

György Ligeti, Melodien (1971) In this case everything is in the name, well, the name as seed with all implicit extracted with context, that is: by this point Stockhausen, Boulez, and Cage, and to some extent Ligeti, had ruled the musical climate for some two decades. Their dictates became dogma. Dissent would have you ostracised—Ligeti himself mentioned character assassination. Recalling the post-war avant-garde he said: “Tonality was definitely out. To write melodies, even non-tonal melodies, was absolutely taboo. Periodic rhythm, pulsation, was taboo, not possible.” And but so comes one of the gurus of the music of the future with a piece titled Melodies that, funnily enough, actually includes them—ensuing shock, horror. Remember these? Ligeti in fact had never forgotten, only obscured, and therefore there is a natural connection between this and the earlier micropolyphony. This organic development of ideas is characteristic of Ligeti’s body of work and is part of what makes it so interesting. He forged his own path, and his students (notably Abrahamsen and Chin) continue that path today.

Keto // OS Max

Keto // OS Max is a ketone operating system! This health drink will help your body burn fat in a physical process known as ketosis. Not only that, the advertising claims it will enhance strength, mood, energy and mental focus. If you like the supplement, you can sell it yourself by becoming a promoter for this MLM company.

Pruvit is a USA based Multi-Level Marketing company which sells health drinks based on increasing ketosis. In their own words, their products are “starting the ketone revolution. “ However there is something about this company that looks a bit haphazard despite the glossy advertising. We look into Keto // OS Max to find out more about the supplement and the company behind it.

Keto // OS Max Pros

Unlikely to cause side effects

Keto // OS Max Cons

Very expensive

Pruvit is a MLM company

No evidence of effectiveness

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What You Need To Know About Keto // OS Max

Keto //OS Max is a ketogenic supplement that comes in the form of a powder that you use to make a drink. It contains Beta Hydroxybutyrate(BHB) which some people take for weight loss but it lacks any real evidence it will work. Keto // OS Max is expensive and sold via MLM. You can join up as a promoter yourself but the small print advises that you will probably not make much money if you do.

What Are The Side Effects Of Keto // OS Max?

Side effects may include abdominal pain, upset stomach, diarrhoea, gas, anxiety, jitteriness or insomnia.

How Much Does Keto // OS Max Cost?

Keto // OS Max is very expensive. It costs $130 for a pack of 20 servings.

If you buy from the website and sign up to auto ship, you get a reduction of just $15.00. This is the same price that is available to Pruvit promoters so it unlikely that you will make many sales or much profit if you try to sell it yourself.

You can also buy Keto// OS Max via Amazon USA for $129.00 making a saving of just $1.00 .

Our Verdict On Keto // OS Max

In our opinion Keto// OS Max is a shocking waste of money. You are advised to drink it twice a day, every day and do that and it will cost you $390 for a month’s supply. In addition, we do not believe that this supplement will really help you lose weight or provide any other of the advertised benefits. There is just no evidence that key ingredient BHB will work in the way as described. We like malic acid – one of the other ingredients but whether this will be included in sufficient quantities to even do anything is unknown.

Finally, the whole Pruvit set up looks a bit of a shambles. The MLM promoters get very little benefit from signing up to sell this supplement and there seems to be little point to doing this when ordinary customers pay much the same price as the promoters.

In addition we hate that this product seems to go under different names. In our opinion this should have been sorted out in the planning stages.

Finally, the Pruvit name is just plain irritating and there is no reason why a Texan company should use a German punctuation mark in their name that they cannot even write themselves. In our opinion that umlaut is pointless and unnecessary. And this last point seems to sum up this product perfectly.

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Key Features

Ingredients

Side Effects

Testimonials

Guarantee

Where to Buy

Keto // OS Max Review

It is always irritating when companies cannot seem to decide on a product’s name. Equally annoying is when a product or company name includes weird symbols and punctuation. Pruvit Keto // OS Max achieves a double whammy with these practices and in truth it looks as if it has been designed by a committee. Pruvit – the company behind the supplement includes an umlaut over the U so is written as Ü or Prüvit. They are obviously struggling with this themselves as the company name is actually written as Pruvit in the terms and conditions.

The supplement is equally confusing when it comes to the name. The full name appears to be Pruvit KETO//OS Bio MAX. Alternatively it is referred to as KETO//OS® Max – Maui Punch or even KETO//OS® Max – Maui Punch Charged. It does not inspire potential buyers with confidence if the company cannot even decide on a proper name. We will stick with Keto // OS Max for the purposes of this review. Now we have got the name sorted out let’s look at the supplement.

Keto // OS Max Facts

Comes in powdered form which you add to water.

Each pack contains 20 individually wrapped servings.

Pruvit is an MLM company based in Texas.

First up, Keto //OS Max is expensive. A pack of 20 servings costs a whopping $130 working out at $6.5 per serving, making it $13.00 a day if you drink as recommended. The drink comes in powder form that you simply add to water in order to make a health drink that the makers say will put your body into fat burning mode. It contains the equivalent caffeine to an average cup of coffee.

How to Take Keto // OS Max

Dissolve 1 heaping scoop or OTG pack in 12-16 oz. of cold water and shake/stir vigorously. Can be taken with or without food. Therapeutic dose = 1 daily serving Optimal performance = 2 servings AM/PM

According to the ingredients list it also contains a patent pending ingredient called Beta Hydroxybutyrate, more usually abbreviated to BHB. We can find no record that Beta Hydroxybutyrate is patent pending. However this compound is supposed to increase ketosis – the body’s burning of stored fat usually when carb supplies in the body have been exhausted so raid the body’s fat stores for energy. This ingredient is not really mainstream with people looking to lose weight and most of the evidence is based on testing on mice. You can actually buy BHB in many other supplements so it is very unlikely that Pruvit have anything to do with researching or registering the patent for this ingredient as is implied by the ingredients list.

Other ingredients include Erythritol a sugar alcohol that is a food additive for low-calorie sweetness. It also contains amino acids L-Taurine and fermented L-Leucine but the other ingredients such as citric acid and Stevia are only there to enhance the flavour and not for any physical benefits. Overall, this supplement does not look very impressive. Yes, the Pruvit website looks glossy and high quality but in truth it all looks to be a bit of a shambles.

Keto // OS Max Concerns:

People may waste a lot of money on this supplement.

Lack of evidence that proves it will work.

May cause unknown side effects. Very little clinical research into BHB.

Leave the glossy pages of the site that most people will see and the good quality impression soon evaporates. A simple word document suffices as a terms and conditions page and we were amused to see that Pruvit obviously struggle with their own practice of putting the ü into the company name. It is not very impressive.

Pruvit is based in Texas. It appears to be trying hard to be an MLM company but it lacks any incentives for potential promoters or “prüvers” as they are also called. Although being a promoter is described as an exciting opportunity, the company lacks enough statistical data to prepare reliable income disclosures.

Based on industry standards and company projections, the average annual gross income for Prüvers is projected to be anywhere between $500 and $2,000. Remember that is gross income that does not take expenses into consideration. We think people will struggle making sales given that a day’s supply costs a whopping $13.00.

What Does Keto // OS Max Claim To Do?

According to the product information, this health drink does pretty much everything! Key features are as follows:

Focus: Reduced brain fog and increased awareness

Energy: Fast and sustained energy from within

Fat Loss: Assists in abdominal fat loss

Sleep: Wake up feeling recharged and fresh

Strength: Increased strength & less inflammation

Mood: Help regulate your ups and downs

To go with these claims there are numerous images of customers posing for before and after pictures. They all look good but did they really get these effects from this health drink?

There is no real evidence that any of this is true.

Does Keto // OS Max Work?

It seems unlikely because there is nothing in the formula that is likely to cause these effects. We cannot see why this supplement should work in the way as described.

What Are The Ingredients of Keto // OS Max?

Each serving is equal to 1 packet (18.4g). The supplement is dairy free and gluten free.

Beta Hydroxybutyrate: Despite this being the principal ingredient, there is very little information about what BHB actually is or how it works. We looked into Beta-Hydroxybutyrate ourselves and found that it is produced in the body and helps regulate how the body uses energy. If carbs are unavailable BHB liberates fatty acids from the liver. These are taken from the body’s fat stores. When you take BHB in supplement form these BHB salts as exogenous ketones are called, kick the metabolic state into action, bypassing carbs.

Erythritol: This is a sugar additive used in numerous food products. It contains zero calories and does not cause tooth decay like sugar. There are no health benefits to using it though apart from the advantages over sugar.

L-Taurine: Amino acid found in meat and protein and an ingredient in Red Bull energy drink. Once believed to increase mental alertness but these claims have since been disproven.

Fermented L-Leucine: L Leucine is an amino acid that is used by the body for the synthesis of proteins and is important for healthy muscle function. Animal testing suggests that L Leucine supplementation may reduce food intake but there is no evidence it will work in the same way for humans. Fermented L Leucine is just a different method of preparation.

Malic Acid: Natural substance in fruit and vegetables. Taking malic acid supplements can be beneficial for conditions such as fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. It can help increase energy levels. The dosages used in studies and supplements of malic acid range from 1,200 to 2,800 milligrams per day. It is unknown whether the serving size of this supplement conforms to clinical testing.

Caffeine: According to the product information this supplement contains the equivalent caffeine to an average cup of coffee.

Does Keto // OS Max Have Any Side Effects?

The supplement looks pretty safe and does not come with any health warnings. However Beta Hydroxybutyrate can cause what is described as gastrointestinal distress. This could cause:

Abdominal pain

Upset stomach

Diarrhoea

Gas

Anxiety

Jitteriness

Insomnia

Caution: Not suitable for individuals under 18. Avoid if you are pregnant or breast feeding. Speak to your doctor first if you suffer from an underlying medical condition or are taking prescription medication.

Are There Any Customer Reviews For Keto // OS Max?

There are very few independent customer reviews for Keto//OS Max and of these it is hard to spot whether they are truly genuine. MLM promoters often post positive reviews for the products they are trying to sell in order to create a buzz.

Here is a selection of feedback comments taken from the 6 so-called independent reviews we found on Amazon.

It does what it says it does. The price is a little high but other than that no complaints. I’m placing my second order today.

The MAX works, lost 20 lbs in 18 days.

We find this hard to believe!

Waste of money!

There are numerous positive comments, heart-warming stories and before and after pics posted on the official Pruvit website, such as this man who bizarrely put on weight when his wife was pregnant.

I put on 30-40 pounds when my wife had our baby. When I first tried KETO//OS, I felt like superman in 20 minutes. I’ve lost 44 pounds so far with this product!

Does Keto // OS Max Offer a Money-Back Guarantee?

There is no money back guarantee with this supplement.

Where Can I Buy Keto // OS Max?

You can buy directly from the Pruvit website or via a Pruvit promoter. Pruvit Keto //OS Max is also on sale via Amazon.

The post Keto // OS Max appeared first on Diet Pills Watchdog.

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