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asiryn · 4 years

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this post is going to be very rambly, so i apologize in advance. if you’re potentially interested in my liveblogs, and/or interested in hearing a bit about my current life and disability issues, tune in. if you aren’t, then....keep scrolling i guess XD

(if you just want the current liveblog schedule, scroll to the bottom)

[and this got predictably very long, so i’m gonna put it behind a cut for convenience]

up to recently, my main liveblogs have been about the pokemon anime, with a few other shows, books, and especially video games sprinkled in here and there. essentially, waaaay back in yonder year of 2014, netflix added the first season of pokemon, the indigo league, to their site, and i, in a fit of nostalgia, made the veeery questionable decision to watch all of the pokemon anime---rewatching the stuff i hadn’t touched since i was kid, and then continuing on into the unknown, and watching all the seasons from gen 3 onward that i had missed due to dropping out of pokemon. i only really started actually making liveblog posts once i hit gen 3, then i stayed consistent-ish from then onward. (for the curious, i’m up to sun & moon, and i have 44 episodes left until i finish it (i’m not ready ;;;; ), and then netflix actually just dropped the first 12 episodes of the newest series, pokemon journeys, so....56 until i’ve caught up with the dub XD)

so, all of y’all who climbed aboard with those liveblogs are probably already aware of Who I Am, at least a little. (....this is making it sound like i’m Some Big Name in liveblogging, but i’m not really anything of the sort, just so we’re all on the same page XD) at least, in terms of the fact that i’m physically disabled, suffer from chronic pain, etc. but recently, i’ve joined two new fandoms, and i’ve begun liveblogging spop and my next life as a villainess. and my spop posts in particular are already becoming some of the most popular posts i’ve ever done (like wow, you guys). and i think part of that popularity is due to the fact that these are two pretty recent, pretty popular fandoms (tho i do also like to think that i do make good content XP). but the point is that quite a lot of new ppl are coming across me, and idk how much, if any, of you have taken the time to look at my bio or anything. so i guess....part of this post is just some ruminations, but also my way of letting you know more of what you’re getting into.

so, for those who don’t know: hi, you can call me kiryn, i liveblog stuff sometimes, and i’m physically disabled. i suffer from intense, constant, chronic pain. it stems from a bone disease called HME, or hereditary multiple exostosis, if you’re curious (i have a severe case of it, joy of joys). the short version of what that means is that i have a lot of bone spurs everywhere on my body, and they....cause me a lot of pain. basically, i cannot do any kind of sustained activity without the already significant, never-ceasing pain that i feel cranking up to unbearable levels, and basically i’ll be rendered immobile. i do have pain meds that i take, and that very much help to take the edge off, and make it so that i can function at all (bc, believe fucking me, w/o them, i wouldn’t be able to achieve even the little i can do), but even with them, it only makes a dent in my pain levels, and again, sustained activity makes up that difference very quickly.

now, the gist of this stuff i’ll mention from time to time, but....i don’t usually go into much detail about it (and this post is probably the most detailed i’ve been about my condition in years). bc, quite frankly, it’s depressing. (and seeing as i also already have clinical depression, that’s definitely not something that i need more of XD) i participate in fandoms for escapism, and bc i don’t really want to think about that crushing mountain of reality. i’ve had this condition since birth, and i’ve literally lived my entire life in constant pain, and i honestly have no fucking idea what it even feels like to be painless. and what’s even worse is that it’s a degenerative disease---essentially, the bone spurs are wearing down my joints, so....my entire condition will just keep worsening as i get older. (and no, surgery to remove the spurs isn’t really an option.) i’ll be 29 next month, and i can already tell you, i’ve been feeling that decline sharply. when i was a kid, i could still run. by the time i was a teenager, i couldn’t even do that anymore; the best i could manage was a jog. now....i don’t think i could even do that.

i guess the main point in why i’m saying all this, is that for the last year especially, i’ve been dealing with the worst downward swing that i’ve had in years. in my late teens and early-mid 20s, i got into a pretty good rhythm, of knowing my body’s limits, how to budget spoons to accomplish things, etc. but now even that fragile equilibrium has been thrown out the window, and i’m currently struggling to learn the new limits and rhythm of this downward swing that is unfortunately now my reality. even before, i was pretty limited on what i could accomplish, but even that narrow window has shrunk even further. so basically, i’m in the testing zone still. and it’s a very slow process, bc once i exceed the limit, my body breaks down, and now it takes me even longer to recover. as an example, i used to know that i could wake up in the morning and get ready to leave the house in 20-30 mins. now? i need at least an hour, which involves me pushing through a wave of agony to be able to take my pain meds in the first place, and then wait for those meds to kick in and the pain to die down enough to move without feeling like i’m moving through a wall of spikes. (and that’s just the start of every day for me, and before even throwing in all of the other variables)

so, coming back to the liveblogs......obviously, that’s affected by all this too. if you’ve wondered why there’s been a gap between me finishing up spop s1 and starting s2....that’s why. partly, i didn’t expect how analysis-heavy i was going to get on spop; pokeani just doesn’t tend to be as consistently thematically deep, so those liveblogs took far less out of me than spop has, and pushing myself to finish 5 episodes in one day....well, it was too much. and the thing is, it’s obviously unhealthy for me to continually push myself to the point of total breakdown, so...that’s where learning my new limits comes in. so, these past few days, i’ve been thinking, and essentially trying to better figure out how to do liveblogs like this without pretty much killing myself in the process (bc i honestly do love making them....i mean, if i didn’t, then it really wouldn’t be worth the literal pain it takes to make them XD). and also there’s a component of managing my anxiety-brain, bc leaving things Unfinished stresses me out, and so when coming to terms with the fact that it’s going to take me awhile to finish one show....knowing that i’d be leaving others hanging....Doesn’t Help XD

so, here’s what i’ve got so far (and obvs, this is subject to much tweaking in the future XP)

currently, i’m watching 4 shows: pokeani, good omens, villainess, and spop. villainess rn is the least of my worries, bc 1 ep is coming out a week, so it’s not demanding a lot of my time.

for the other 3, here’s the preliminary schedule i’ve sort of hashed out:

- pokeani sm103-106

- spop s2

- pokeani sm107-110

- spop s3

- pokeani sm111-114

- spop s4

- pokeani sm115-118

- spop s5

- pokeani sm119-122

- good omens

- pokeani sm123-126

- [catch up block] (i don’t have a good track record in keeping up with ongoing shows, so if i fall behind on villainess, this is where i can catch up)

- finish pokeani sun & moon [sm127-146] (the league starts on ep 128, so i’d rather not experience any big interruptions in the battles XD)

basically, i’ve given myself a limit of 4 pokeani eps in a single session (bc as stated, they don’t take as much out of me), and with spop, the most i’ll let myself watch in a row will be 3 eps (s2 will probably be broken up into a 3/2/2 block, s3 a 3/3 block, and s4&5 will be a 3/3/3/2/2 block).

now, keep in mind that i’m very deliberately making no guarantees about specific days, bc who even knows, but at the very least, scheduling and talking it all out like this will help me to better manage my spoons, and if you’ve actually read this far, then you’ll know the method in the madness and why i’m doing things this way. XD the vague goal is to get in a least 1 liveblog session a week (plus a bonus of the new villainess ep on saturdays)---at least for the shows. i’m still having to working out what i’m going to do about video games....maybe i should just go on a ‘once a week’ model for all my hobbies across the board XDD

in the next couple of days, i’ll be posting that in-depth look into all the ships of villainess (it started as me just pecking down a few thoughts while i was taking a social media break due to the Current Events, but now i’m at the point where i’m like, i’ve put too much effort into this to not post it, damn it XP), and then depending on spoons, i’ll try to start in on that schedule this week, so stay tuned for some pokeani! (again....i’ll try to hit at least 1 liveblog a week before i start trying to get more ambitious XDD)

in any case, if you have stuck through to the end, thank you very much. your support means a lot to me 💖

#kiryn's adventures in liveblogging #kiryn watches pokemon #kiryn watches spop #kiryn watches she ra #kiryn watches my next life as a villainess #kiryn watches good omens #life updates #disability talk #scheduling

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lucimorningstar812 · 4 years

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Review of the Decade

From the beginning of 2010 to the very end of 2019, this decade had certainly been a journey that has defined me, for better and for worse. So here’s a list of things I can recall that happened and have brought me to where I am now

Trigger warnings of self harm, suicide and manipulative relationships Also this is VERY long

2010

I went to Thailand for the 2nd time, with my grandparents and mum

I used to use my mum’s Facebook to play games and keep up with friends. She eventually gave me her account and made a new one for herself

I had my Year 6 prom, which I remember being a relationship counsellor for my best friend and her boyfriend while my own boyfriend didn’t even go. There was also an end of year residential trip for year 6 that was one of these adventure centres with abseiling and stuff

I left primary school with pretty decent SATs grades and got into the high school I wanted. Not many people I knew were going, and it was tough at first, but once I started making friends, it became a lot easier

I had my longest relationship (6 months) with said boyfriend I mentioned earlier I’d know for a few years now, and would continue to be friends with throughout high school and into college

I got some stick insects! It was fun to have them for the short time we did. I also kept snails and a caterpillar for a short period of time

2011

My mum had to go into hospital for back surgery

I went to France with school. Discovered I am AWFUL with boats and part of that trip was to Disney, but not even the main park and even then, I barely saw anything because my friends abandoned me

I joined the school netball team. Well, I think it was 2011 when I joined

I sprained my ankle. This damn injury still bothers me to this day if I walk too much, and it’s only just gotten better after recently aggravating it again

2012

I was part of a group at school that we called PAD (people are different) and it was essentially an anti-bullying group

I went on a coach trip to Newquay with my grandparents and mum, and part of the trip was going to the Eden Centre. I loved that trip so much

I got a pair of budgies. Lilith and Jasper were my little sweethearts that I trained to even sit on my finger

2013

I can’t remember if it was this year or late 2012, but I started learning to play violin, and then when I started my GCSEs, that became my focus instrument for the practical exam

The last time I went abroad. We (my grandparents and I) went to Bulgaria for the 2nd time. We stayed at the same resort so we had a decent idea of where everything was now, and it was lovely, but the weeks leading up to going troubled me a lot as all I could imagine was the plane crashing. The anxiety from that and being in the airport is why I’m not too nervous to go abroad

Honestly can’t remember what else happened

2014

I was part of an orchestra. It was part of my GCSE because my music teacher said it would help my friend and I improve, and she also convinced us to go by saying she would take us the first night and buy us KFC

Went to York for the first time with my parents, and then London with my mum, where we stayed with a family friend and did lots of touristy stuff

My Uncle’s dog Ki died. I loved him to bits and I still get upset sometimes thinking about him. He was the first of the 3 to die. I can’t remember when Nikita died, but Shamara was only a few weeks back

2015

I can’t remember if it was this year or 2014, but I did a keeper academy at my zoo and had some amazing experiences, like stroking a sea lion

Had my high school prom. Got to wear my dream dress and it was actually a lo of fun, just hanging out with friends and enjoying the night

Left high school with pretty good GCSEs and got into sixth form, but starting college was my downfall

Got into a relationship for the first time in 4 years with a manipulative asshole who tried to accuse me of manipulating him and forced me to do sexual things I didn’t want to because apparently if we didn’t, he couldn’t be sure the relationship would last. Also felt suicidal for the first time, and when I told my boyfriend, he broke up with me because I wasn’t the girl he fell in love with and it scared him

Had him and my two other friends fuck me over multiple times

2016

Had lost all my friends, so I had to cling to my best friend and hang around with his friends in order to not be alone. Ended up falling for one of his friends and getting into another relationship. Still a shitty one, but better and it hurt way more when that ended

My best friend got into a relationship with one of he friends who fucked me over the previous year. I made friends with her again for his sake, but then she fucked up his life and dragged me down too because I trusted him more than her

Went to Cardiff and the Doctor Who Experience for my 18th. An experience I will forever be grateful for because the place isn’t there anymore

2017

The worst year of my life by a long shot

My dog, my beautiful baby girl Sandy, was put to sleep at age 11. Losing her broke me, and I’ve never recovered, because she was around for over half my life and I never fully grieved, which caused me to unintentionally shut off some emotional reactions that I’ve never gotten back

I had my first proper emotional breakdown at a student day at the college I was looking to go to. I realised all these years I’d been following a dream I didn’t want anymore and was doing it to please everyone else as well as not panic about not having a plan b. I gave up the goal of being a vet, something I had worked towards since I was old enough to know what a vet was

Not part of the bad, but I went to a supernatural convention and got to meet a bunch of the stars which was pretty cool since it’s the first time I’d ever done something like that

Got the closest I ever have to actually considering suicide and throughout that day, spent so much time thinking of how I could do it. Couldn’t go through with anything obviously but it didn’t stop me using a tie to choke myself multiple times trying to make myself pass out, which left a bruise on my neck

I self harmed a lot more back then, from 2015 onward really, and I have all the scars to show

2018

Saw Mark and the guys on tour, and Mark blew a kiss at me. First time I’d ever seen any of the YouTubers I watch in person

Was supposed to get a rescue puppy, but she and her whole litter bar one died. I’d already been feeling iffy about getting a dog again, and this was the last straw that sent me into my worst depressive episode of feeling nothing for 2 straight weeks

Met Dan and Phil at their show during said numbness period. Meant I couldn’t feel anxiety which I guess was good

Ended up getting a puppy and the depression kicked in on day 2 that I waned nothing to do with this dog after saying for months I didn’t even want a dog

Nan got diagnosed with leukaemia and was in and out of hospital for the next few months, first with chemo and then for her bone marrow transplant. I saw her at her lowest, where she was just about ready to give up

Met so many amazing people at the HDWGH show, and got to ask Sean a question in the Q&A. The best day of my life, well until VidCon 2020

Had a massive fallout with my sister, essentially making it so I didn’t speak to her at all throughout 2019 unless I had to

2019

I outlined everything in this post, but there’s a couple of things I didn’t include

Me and my sister made up. Might not be a permanent thing, but at least at Christmas everything felt ok again

I embraced my sexuality this year. I had been questioning it since 2013/2014, and realised I wasn’t straight before June 2018, but 2019 was really the year I thought ‘yes, I’m panroace and proud’

I’ve missed a shit ton of stuff because things blur together and I don’t remember when anything happened, but this decade started with someone excited and determined. It’s ending with some who has that same passion but for a different path, after fighting through the darkest times I’ve had to face. I am who I am, and I am ready both for 2020 and for the next decade

#the last half of this decade has been hectic and a tough battle #but I'm here and I'm alive #and I'm ready

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yuzusorbet · 6 years

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27 Feb 2018, interview on 'Minna no News':

Interviewer (I) "Congratulations on your amazing results!" Yuzu "Thank you."

(I) "How are you feeling, the medal has the weight of something you wanted from the bottom of your heart, I assume?"

Yuzu "Yes I am feeling the weight of it. But this is not the weight that only I can carry around. It was achieved by the effort of everyone. So I want to share this 'weight' with them."

(I) "I am sure there are many people who were happy for you. Please, take a seat"

Yuzu "Thank you."

(I) "We had you and Shoma in this show after the 2017 World Championships. You won the gold and you were smiling. Yet you looked like you were still in a fight towards the Olympics. Compared to back then, you now look that you are finally freed."

Yuzu "Yes, I actually feel being released now. It was like facing a dead end with no luck left. I cornered myself, and it was quite a difficult situation. I bet and sacrificed so many things. So I am fulfilled as all my sacrifices and work paid off, in a way."

(I) "Would you summarise that the past 4 years was all for the gold medal?"

Yuzu "Well, it was not just for the Olympics. However, everything was done for skating, for sure. Of course, everything was linked to the Olympics but I put my best effort in all competitions one by one. The consequence of all effort led me to the Olympics."

(I) You spoke of sacrifices, so there were a lot of hardships...

Yuzu: Yes... for the sake of skating, I had to choose what to take and what to give up a lot. But given the consequence that brought me this happiness and the happiness to all my supporters, I am glad (I did what I did)"

(I) "So you think you received massive support?"

Yuzu "That's right. Of course I had big support to recover from my ankle injury. But I have never felt, not even once, that I could skate only with my own strength. I really think it was all due to the support."

<chart of past 4 years> (I) "Here is the brief history of your last 4 years. Were you thinking about winning the next Olympic gold medal straight after Sochi in 2014?"

Yuzu "Yes, I was thinking about it."

(I) "Was your next goal the gold in Pyeongchang already?"

Yuzu "Yes"

(I) "(scrolling down the screen) Look at this. There was the accident, sickness, injuries. How do you describe your last 4 years?"

Yuzu "Well...It was long. So many things happened and it was a meaningful time. But I always had a life with big ups and downs anyway, the earthquake, closing of the rink. I have been living a life of many obstacles all the time. So looking back now I've come to understand that's how my life goes."

(I) "You pick Seimei which you scored the world highest record with in 2015 to reuse. Was it a part of your gold winning plan?"

Yuzu "Yes. Since that season when I broke the world record many times, I have already decided to use this programme in Pyeongchang. It is my masterpiece and the one I can perform really well."

(I) "And on your road to Pyeongchang, the injury happened in November last year. How did you feel when it happened?"

Yuzu "Yes it was a rough time... (watching the scene of the fall) ohh ouch.... It's really painful...."

(I) "Ahh does it hurt by watching it, oh I'm so sorry..."

Yuzu "It was a hard time for sure, but people who cheer for me continuously cheered for me. And the skaters I respect and admire kept on raising the voice that they believed in me. So I strongly felt that I had to believe in myself."

(I) "I assume that you felt fear, panic, frustration during the injury time?"

Yuzu "I certainly had frustration. When I resumed practise, I decided to take painkillers as I could not jump due to the pain. I was panicking after the decision as there was not much time left."

(I) "Did you feel pressure that you cannot betray your fans and supporters?"

Yuzu "I did feel a sense of responsibility, but it was not a feeling of betrayal or not. It was more like a duty. Knowing people whom I admire believe in me. Because I could believe in them, it was not so much about if I could believe in myself. Their words naturally sank in me. So I always had a confidence to win"

(I) "How did you train in Canada when you could not skate?"

Yuzu "The training for figure skate actually does not have many options for that situation. For example, there is a training called rotation practice which we jump and do rotations on the ground. Or we practise in front of a mirror as we do some ballet-like moves. But this time I had some training tips and ideas from short track and speed skating to keep my cardio. I also used a stationary bike."

(I) "Did you feel prepared and confident when you landed in Korea?"

Yuzu "On the day before I flew into Korea, my condition finally reached the level that I aimed for. I was feeling disappointed until that day, thinking 'Oh no, I can't win when my jumps are so bad'...but on the previous day of my departure I finally could jump alright. So I was confident."

<9:06> (I) "How do you look back on your SP and FS?"

Yuzu "SP was good. Even FS, I did everything I had to do."

(I) "We all cheered 'yes Hanyu is back' in SP. Did you feel calm to go back to the competition after a long while?"

Yuzu "No I wasn't calm. It could have been different if it wasn't the Olympics, but fortunately I had a confidence as the gold medalist in Sochi. I experienced it, and I let myself admit my confidence from that experience. It eventually worked well for the good result."

(I) "People talk about artistic quality of the performance. How do you think about the balance of technique and artistry of figure skate?"

Yuzu "Artistry is only possible if you have technique. [t/n. then he says it's just like artists who paint....] [we are not sure how to best translate his analogy, so it’s omitted.]

(I) "So you need to build up technique for the beautiful artistic performance?"

Yuzu "Yes. Technique itself IS the artistry."

<Pooh rain > (I) "The Pooh rain was bigger than usual. Did you feel the cheers of your fans more than usual?"

Yuzu "Yes, especially for the last lutz jump, I was fighting with some anxiety and pain, and I almost fell. I think the fans literally 'supported' me."

<about the scores> (I) "Let us talk about a little more technical stuff. The GOE of your SP. Your 3A got +3. How do you, the skaters, read those?"

Yuzu "The jumps. 3A, 4S, 4T, their max GOE is +3. So I check them first. But please also look at the spin and the step sequence. You might think the spin only got 1.4 but the max GOE of spin is 1.5. And the max for step sequence is 2.10. So it is huge that I could get good GOE in those elements."

(I) "let's look at your FS. Your 3A got +3 in SP, 2.14 in the 3A combo in FS. And you mentioned 4A in the press conference. Does it mean the axel jump is so special to you?"

Yuzu "Well, when you look at the score, 4S, 4T, and 4S of the 2nd half all got high GOE. I think it was the reason I could win. As for Axel, yes I have special feelings for it. The first jump I did after the earthquake, when I resumed my training on the ice, was 3A. So it was like my new start line. So yes, 3A is very special to me."

(I) "Now Pyeongchang is over. I understand your next motivation is 4A. What about other goals, such as breaking the world record score again?"

Yuzu "No, I am not thinking about that. We have been told for a while that the rules would change (after the Olympics), we have no idea how the new rules will affect the scores, including the world highest score. For the last 4 years under the current rule, I could achieve the world highest score in all three, SP, FS and the total. I think that is the result of all my hard work."

(I) "Regarding 3 consecutive Olympic golds that no one has done before, how much feeling do you have for it now?"

Yuzu "None. (Hosts: None??? Hahaha. ) Before I talk about if I can do it or not, my answer to the question if I want to become a three consecutive gold medalist, is NO. But um...... if I could go, I will win. That's how I feel."

(I) "It can be said, you have become a 2-time gold medalist that even Plushenko whom you admire could not reach. Do you feel like that?"

Yuzu "Not at all."

(I) "He participated in the Olympics 4 times."

Yuzu (pointing at the sign 'withdraw' for Sochi) "It would be Gold if he could compete."

Yuzu "He had to withdraw from his single event but he still skated amazingly in the team event. I was in the same competition field with him and I somehow won. But he is still a legend after all and I could come this far because his words always motivated me."

(I) "Could you please write your current motivation or your goal as a figure skater? You don't feel burnt out, do you?"

Yuzu "No, I am not burnt out."

[Yuzu writes the words 'Perfect package'.]

(I) "Maybe you mention that all the time but please explain to us."

Yuzu "I've never said this before." (haha.....) Yuzu "My coaches always talk about 'total package'. It means you are good in all aspects of skate. 'Perfect package' means you are perfect in all elements and aspects. I know 4A will get a lot of attention from now. But within me, to me, I want to aim at becoming a skater who is perfect in everything. Everything is perfect, on my scale. That’s what I want to be."

-------

Translated by Rena Moriguchi in YHIFG; video thanks to pino16.17. (for the hosts’ words, only the main points are translated.)

[Do not use nor re-post without permission]

#minna no news #Yuzuru Hanyu #Evgeni Plushenko

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graemeruns · 6 years

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Multiple update time: Reigate half, Sittingbourne 10 and Abingdon marathon

Oh dear, it’s been 3 months since I last wrote anything on here about my running, so now’s the time to get up to speed with what has been going on.

After the Caterham half (detailed here) I looked at the goal races I had lined up and drew up a training plan. I actually only had two races booked in my calendar: the Reigate half marathon in mid September, and the Abingdon marathon five weeks later. So I decided to loosely follow the marathon training plan I used for my first ever marathon in Brighton in 2014, with Abingdon as the eventual finale and Reigate as one of the marathon tune-up runs. I always find training difficult in the warm summer months and during the school holidays, but this plan was doable because it shouldn’t mean excessive mileage (the greatest week being 55 miles, but most weeks between 40-50 miles). It also only meant five running days per week, so two days to fully rest and recover and not create any further injuries. I was hoping that training when it was warm would mean that the cool autumn races would be much easier too!

I had entered the Reigate Half in 2017 at the ‘early bird’ price and it had always been my main aim this year once recovered from my injury; it had been useful to have a long term goal to focus on when I started back running in April. After my Caterham half disappointment my training needed to focus on building up the Sunday long runs (all after a fast paced Saturday parkrun) and also ensuring I tried to get one tempo or interval session in during the week. I was also determined to listen to my body, so if I felt too tired for one of the sessions, I would change it to something else, but make sure that I still got the miles under my belt. By the time the Reigate half came round on 16th September, I had managed 5 runs between 16 - 20 miles, and felt a lot more prepared than when I ran Caterham 2 months previously.

This was my first time running the Reigate half. The organisation was superb, and the communication, event village, baggage tent and parking was faultless. The course itself was all on closed roads, and I’d been warned it was quite hilly. In fact there were only really two hills - in the first mile and the last mile - but everything else was all slightly undulating; I never felt like I was on the flat at any point. My race plan was to go out at 4min/km (6:25/mile), and see how long I could keep that up. In the end I managed that pace for the first 8 miles, then started to slow, crossing the finish in 1:26:34. My whole run, however, had been slightly hampered by the hill in the first mile: going up it had been slow, so I had rocketed down it and that had made both my hamstrings sore, like a minor strain, which remained for the rest of the race. It probably didn’t slow me down much, but it certainly wasn’t nice to run with. Nevertheless, I was content with my time, and finished 1st in the V50 age category, which was an added bonus despite there being no age category prizes. You can view my race on Strava here.

After Reigate there were now five weeks until the Abingdon marathon. In the next two weeks my long runs consisted of a 16 miler with 12 miles at around marathon pace (4:13/km or 6:46/mile), and a 20 miler. The following week I decided to do a final tune-up race and entered the Sittingbourne Striders 10 mile road race. I had run this race in 2015 in a time of 64:30; you can read about that encounter here, which explains the course in detail. This year I was hoping to run a bit quicker and something in the 63 minute range. The weather was cool and conditions very good apart from a fairly stiff breeze in places, and this came to the fore midway through the race at the highest point of the circuit. I ran well, and, more importantly, enjoyed the race; I enjoy few races these days as I’m usually thinking of pace, splits and times rather than the event itself. The fact that I didn’t hit my goal time, but finished in 64:22 (which was a small PB) didn’t really bother me. Oh, and I was third too, and received a £10 Sweatshop voucher and a trophy for my troubles.

You can view my efforts on Strava here.

Now there were two weeks left before Abingdon, so I tried to do a mini taper, but failed really because I had put myself down for the Surrey League Cross Country the following Saturday, and ended up with a 41 mile week. So in the end it was more like a 1 week taper, with a half-hearted attempt at carb loading two days before the race. I examined the training I’d done over the past 17 weeks, and the mileage worked out at an average of 43 miles/week. Compared to 2015, when I finished the London marathon in a time of 3 hrs 06 minutes on an average 52 miles/week, and 2016 when I finished in 2 hrs and 58 minutes on an average of 57 miles/week, the training was certainly on the light side. Saying that, I’d got some good long runs in, and was sure that the warm weather training would be beneficial now the temperature had dropped. I was also weighing in at the lightest I had been for some time, which could only help. Realistically, I didn’t think I could get under 3 hours again, but thought I could be close, so my plan was to run the first 13.1 mile in 90 minutes and see how it went from there.

5:10am on Sunday and I’m up before my alarm goes off. I’d sorted out everything the night before, but it still took me the best part of an hour to eat and get ready, so soon after 6am I was in the car and away. I hadn’t been looking forward to the drive much, and it took me about 1 hour 45 minutes, taking it easy as it was dark and also foggy in places, with the outside temperature about 8 degrees - perfect running conditions though! Parking was in a local school, for which there were plenty of spaces, and the event all took place at the local sports arena, so everything (toilets, baggage, snacks and coffee, and space to warm up) were all close to hand. I spotted the local scouts were selling flapjacks for 50p, so bought some to add to my pre-race banana as I was already feeling peckish from my breakfast 2 hours previously. I stayed dressed until 15 minutes before the start, did one lap of the track just to get the legs moving, and settled in waiting for the starter.

Abingdon marathon is a marathon for serious marathon runners. You won’t find many charity fun-runners here. The only real reason to run it is because it is flat and fast, and the race was packed with lean racers who were certainly not new to this game, looking for that elusive PB that perhaps they had missed at the hottest London marathon earlier in the year. It was 18 months since I last raced the distance, and I was quite nervous whether I’d be able to complete it on the limited training I had done. When the hooter went, there was the usual excited racing off by some runners who forgot that it wasn’t a 5k, but I soon fell into my own pace and let these runners gradually come back to me.

The route heads out to the east at first to Radley, onto a footpath through Radley lakes (covered in low mist) then back to the west, twisting through the narrow streets of Abingdon town, where we were greeted with some generous support. The route then headed south out of Abingdon, along the River Thames, until it turned sharply to the west again, just before 10k, for the first of two loops through the local villages, each loop approximately 14k. It then headed back towards Abingdon town again, through western part of the town before turning back to the finish at the athletics track.

My memory of races is usually vague, but there were some parts that stuck in my mind:

There was the heavily panting runner who was taking up the whole path through Radley lakes by running in the middle (it was easily two-abreast if you ran to the side). That slowed me down a bit, and I genuinely worried that he could safely run 10k let alone a marathon.

There were the three runners who drafted behind me for many miles, using me as a slight windbreak against the breeze. I didn’t get annoyed because I was running my own race, but it would have been nice for them to have taken turns at the front. I dropped them both later in the race.

There was the point after about 5 miles when I said to myself “Why am I doing this? It all feels quite hard, and I could just stop and go home early”. That was a strange emotion so early on, and I think I was focusing too much on the remaining distance. I calmed down by telling myself it was just a long training run.

There was the lady runner who caught me somewhere around the 18 mile mark, and it urged me to concentrate on my pace, which must have been slowly dropping. I ran with her for a few miles before she gradually pulled away and finally finished a minute in front of me.

I remember the joy at seeing the 20 mile marker, and knowing it was only 10k to go. If I could keep my pace up I would finish in a respectable time. Although I was starting to struggle to turn the legs over, it was only in the last 5k that my pace really started to slow.

As you run through Abingdon town with only 3k to go, you have to negotiate a twisty underpass, and climbing up the short steep far side was torture!

Finishing on the athletics track with a fast 300m sprint where I overtook a few people, including the triathlon legend Annie Emmerson. It was a great conclusion to the race.

So how was my race overall (which you can view on Strava here)? Well, I passed half-way in just over 90 minutes, and proceeded to lose another 3 minutes over the second half. My 10k splits were 42:28, 43:05, 43:43 and 44:34, so no big collapse, just a gradual slowing, although I did get my pace back on track for the final 2.2k which I completed in 9:33. My finish time was 3:03:23, which is my second fastest marathon time, albeit 5 minutes slower than my PB. I placed 152 out of the 744 finished, of which the first 124 ran sub 3 hours. Now that is a quality field of marathon runners!

Would I recommend it? Absolutely - the results speak for themselves! The race has a capacity for 1200 and does sell out, so enter early. It usually opens in mid February and is full within 6 weeks. I got a medal and a t-shirt for my £43, as well as some very sore legs for a few days, followed by a nasty head cold as my immune system wasn’t up for keeping anything at bay!

Next race is the Brighton 10k in 3 weeks. I’ve not run a 10k this year yet due to my long time absence with injury, so it will be interesting to see if I can remember how to pace myself over that shorter distance. I’d like to aim for 38 minutes but I need to shift this cold first and get some speedwork in to see if I have any hope of that. Whatever the outcome, it’s great to be back running well again.

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wrestlingisfake · 6 years

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Strong Style Evolved preview

New Japan is coming to California for this show, so Americans don’t have to stay up late to watch this one. It will air live on AXS TV on March 25 at 8pm Eastern. It will be available for live stream and VOD on NJPWWorld.com like any other event, but Americans will be region-locked out of the stream.

I don’t have cable, so for last year’s US special I used a free trial of Sling.tv to watch the AXS feed on my computer. That worked out pretty well, so you may want to give that a try.

Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi vs. Nick Jackson & Matt Jackson - This is the latest chapter in the growing schism in Bullet Club. Things started heating up on 1/5 when Omega ran in to save Ibushi (his former tag partner) from a Bullet Club beatdown led by Cody Rhodes. Then on 1/27 Cody turned on Kenny, and Ibushi ran in to make the save and reconcile with Omega. The Young Bucks (Nick and Matt) have tried to stay neutral in this conflict, but they resented Kenny saying he and Ibushi are the best tag team in the world.

Omega and Ibushi teamed together as the Golden Lovers in DDT from 2009 to 2014, with an “are they gay or not?” gimmick, which Omega reportedly says “won’t be emphasized” in this new run. The net result is that everybody “knows” they’re a romantic couple but it never seems to be directly stated on-camera. In general, Bullet Club has played this like they’re offended Kenny is putting his lovelife ahead of his faction; that Kenny happens to be involved with a man is beside the point.

This match will probably determine which side the Bucks end up on. If they settle their differences with Kenny in the ring, the three of them can remain united as The Elite and frustrate Cody’s efforts to drive a wedge between them. If not, I expect the Bucks will remain on track to violently turn on Omega and cement their allegiance to Cody once and for all. The payoff could happen here, although I could see the bookers saving the big angles for Sakura Genesis on 4/1, or Supercard of Honor on 4/7.

Amid all the drama of this storyline, it’s been overlooked that this match has major implications for the heavyweight tag team division. The Lovers were junior heavyweights in their original run, but they each moved to heavyweight during their time apart. The Bucks dominated NJPW’s junior tag division for years, and have just recently switched to heavyweight. The winners of this match are probably going to be in line for a title shot sooner or later. That makes it tougher to pick a winner for this one, because it’d be an easy feel-good pop to put the Lovers over, but I can never count out the Young Bucks.

Jay White vs. Hangman Page - White is defending the IWGP United States championship. Two years ago these two were basically jobbers, but New Japan has been pretty aggressive about making new stars in 2018. So White scored a massive upset on Omega to win the title, and Page was chosen ahead of more prominent Bullet Club members to issue a challenge.

This is an interesting position for these guys to be in. The average American fan of New Japan wants these shows to come to US soil so they can see Okada, Tanahashi, Omega, and top guys like that. The live crowd may not appreciate getting these two guys in the semi-main. Or they may be so solidly supportive of the promotion that they accept the goal of getting both guys over. We’ll see.

White’s big push has already struggled to get out of the blocks from when he challenged Tanahashi for the intercontinental title at the Tokyo Dome and choked. Getting the US title made up for that somewhat, but losing it in his first defense would be a disaster. He basically has to retain here.

Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre, Jr. - Okada is set to defend the IWGP heavyweight title against Sabre on 4/1, so this tag match will be a little preview of that. Suzuki is the current intercontinental champion so it wouldn’t shock me if they do something here to set up Ishii challenging him later. The live crowd should get a kick out of seeing all four of these guys in action, but it’s a bit of a placeholder match. I’m thinking either Sabre submits Ishii, or Ishii pins Suzuki, but I’m not sure which.

Will Ospreay vs. Jushin Thunder Liger - Ospreay is the IWGP junior heavyweight champion, but his title is not at stake. This was originally going to be Liger taking on Rey Mysterio, Jr., but Rey suffered a biceps injury so he had to pull out. Ospreay should really get the win, but I suppose it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for Liger to upset to set up a rematch for the title.

Tetsuya Naito & SANADA & BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & KUSHIDA & Ryusuke Taguchi & Dragon Lee - Naito’s team is everybody from Los Ingobernables de Japon except EVIL (who is recovering from an orbital bone injury). Tana, Kushida, and Taguchi have teamed in the past to do little LIJ spoofs to piss those guys off. Dragon Lee is an old rival of Hiromu’s from back in CMLL. I figure LIJ will win.

Cody Rhodes & Marty Scurrl vs. Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa - If there was an angle to set this up, I must’ve missed it. All of these guys are in Bullet Club, although the Guerillas of Destiny (Tama & Loa) represent the Tongan side of the group, which has been pretty quiet while the white guys have been bickering. It’s not clear what Cody can gain from this match, or that it’ll lead to any significant advancement of the plot. So I’d expect a lot of begging off and attempts at peacemaking, leading to a lot of nothing. Cody and Scurrl will probably win.

Davey Boy Smith, Jr. & Lance Archer vs. Toru Yano & Chuckie T - Chuckie has gotten more involved with the CHAOS faction through his long association with Trent Beretta. Just seeing him booked with Yano makes me think they’ll be doing a lot of zany comedy. Smith and Archer are literally the Killer Elite Squad and like to yell “EVERYBODY DIES,” so I’m not expecting zany comedy to work here. KES for the win.

Hirooki Goto & Gedo vs. Juice Robinson & David Finlay - Goto is the NEVER champion so if I was booking this I’d have Robinson pin Goto to set up a title match.

Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky vs. SHO & YOH & Rocky Romero - SoCal Uncensored (Daniels’s team) hold the Ring of Honor trios championship, but the title isn’t on the line here. Roppongi 3K got off to a hot start last year and have held the junior tag titles a couple of times, but they’re kinda treading water right now waiting for their chance to regain those belts on 4/1. It would be neat if Romero and RPG3K won to set up a title match at an ROH show, but I wouldn’t count on it.

#njpw #strong style evolved #kenny omega #kota ibushi #the young bucks

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hopefulfestivaltastemaker · 3 years

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December 27, 2020

My weekly round-up of things I am up to. Topics include goals for 2021, game design, and decadence.

Goals for 2021

Each year I set a handful of goals that I hope to accomplish in the coming year. Sometimes I am successful, sometimes (usually) I am not. Last year I set a handful of goals and accomplished, arguably, one out of three of them. Things went swimmingly for about nine days; on the tenth day things came off the rails and never recovered.

One of the secrets for successful goal-setting is to choose smaller goals that can be accomplished. “I will find a job in [field X]” is not a good goal; “I will submit 100 job applications” is. The latter can unambiguously be accomplished, while the former depends on what hiring managers do and the state of the general economy. The latter can also easily be broken down into chunks that can be done in a single day. One must have a certain degree of confidence that the latter will lead to the former, which is the true goal.

I have 34 goals for 2021 set up, which sounds like a lot, but many of them can be done in a single day. They fall into three general clusters: get the Urban Cruise Ship site built out, advance software work, and game design, with a handful on miscellaneous topics.

The main enemy I’ve faced is complacency. In 2019, things in life were good enough that my motivation to work on goals was sapped. In 2020, I faced my wife’s major health problem, the pandemic, losing a big chunk of savings, nearly getting stranded in Singapore, and my own major health problem, so I’ll call it a victory that I survived.

Game Design

I got back to work this week on Repair the Cosmos, which is one of my ongoing game projects. I haven’t worked on this, or any other game project, since September. The codebase is a bit of a mess. I had started the project last January and initially prepared to have it done in a weekend, so the codebase not designed to be extensible. I also did the project with React, which was good for learning but probably not a good choice for game design and not something I would do if starting over.

Nevertheless, I am forging ahead. I think it will be a decent game once complete, and I hope to get a draft on GitHub soon. It’s been a long time, but the GitHub upload is waiting until I have the game back in a playable state.

Decadence

The New Atlantis had another good review of Russ Douthat’s new book. It outlines the “four horsemen” of decadence as Russ defines them: [technological] stagnation, sterility [low birth rates], sclerosis [of institutions], and repetition [of popular culture].

It seems to me that in the last year or two, there has been a great increase in awareness that the United States, or the western world or entire world more broadly, is facing stagnation and decline. This in contrast to “technological explosion” idea that was more predominant around 2014 or so. I think little of substance has changed since then, only the understanding of reality. My own views have evolved similarly as well.

I’m not sure how this awareness translates into tangible policy. The causes of stagnation are highly debated, as I’ve pointed out before. Moreover, large chunks of social elites seem to view stagnation as a good thing, as a sign either of social success or as a pulling back from destructive forces of growth. Among those who recognize that stagnation is happening and is a bad thing, there is a diversity of opinions as to how to reverse it, including several contradictory views.

I’d probably read Russ’s book directly, but by now I’ve seen enough good reviews that it probably isn’t necessary. It’s a good way to save money.

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tinyqueensatoko · 7 years

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Since the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games, Satoko Miyahara (Kansai University, Kinoshita Group) has been leading the Japanese ladies’ figure skating. She has been the national champion for 3 years (2014-2016), second at the World Championships (2015) and second at the Grand Prix Final (2015, 2016). She is also one of the favorites going into the PyeongChang Olympic Games.

However, she was diagnosed with a stress fracture of the left hip joint in January this year. “It was my first serious injury so I couldn’t accept it at the time”, Miyahara reveals with a painful expression. While she was away from the ice, Mai Mihara (Sysmex) and Wakaba Higuchi (Nihonbashi Girls’ High School) showed remarkable growth and experience on the world stage.

Japan has two slots for the ladies at the Olympic Games. Miyahara, who will make her comeback in November at the NHK Trophy, talks about her expectations for this season and the time she spent while being injured.

The reason for her theme “Stick to the original plan”

The Olympic Season is finally here. Your chosen theme for the season is to “stick to the original plan”.

Going into this season, I thought I might be asked about my theme for the season so I thought a lot about what my theme should be (laughs). In the end, I decided that I couldn’t use obvious phrases like “having fun” or “skating clean” anymore. I don’t have an actual motto but I thought it might be good to have a main theme so I finally decided on “sticking to the original plan”.

What is the meaning behind this choice?

Last season I was injured and I went through many other difficulties that I hadn’t experienced before. However, while all of this was going on, no matter what happened I was able to perform my best and I ended the competition at Nationals having fulfilled my goals with no regrets so I thought this theme was perfect.

You moved up from juniors to seniors 4 years ago, during the season of the Sochi Olympics. You finished 4th at Nationals so you didn’t qualify. Looking back, how have the 4 years since then been like?

During the time of the Sochi Olympics, I wasn’t thinking “I really want to be able to go”; it was more like “If I do end up going to the Olympics, I’d be really lucky”. I was far from reaching my full potential and I was still skating like a junior, so compared to then, I was just starting to compete in senior competitions and was working on improving my world standings. Now, I think I’m in a striking position to get chosen to represent Japan. I’ve come this far so I’m going to give my best in order to get a ticket to the Olympics.

So 4 years ago you didn’t think that competing in the Olympics was a realistic goal?

[At the 2013 Nationals] I had to compete against Mao Asada, Akiko Suzuki and Kanako Murakami, all of whom were skaters I used to watch on TV and also sometimes skate with. The only thing I would think about was how long it would take me to be able to perform like they did. It was the Olympic season so I was thinking that all the other skaters had trained to skate well in that day. The best I could do was to think about doing my best at such an important competition.

“It feels like time has stopped for me”

Miyahara has been a leader for the Japanese ladies, but she says that the way she feels hasn’t changed much since she made her senior debut.

As you’re considered to be the leading lady, or the “ace” of ladies’ figure skating in Japan, what do you think about yourself in terms of your position?

I’ve managed to become the National Champion three times in a row, and finished second at Worlds once. I know that when I skate properly I can be a world-class competitor, but I’m in a position where I know there’s still things I have to achieve for myself.

Even though you’re still very young, at 19 years of age, the average age of the ladies is dropping. What do you think about this situation?

Rika-chan (Hongo) is a year older than me, but everyone else is younger. It’s like before I knew it, I realized that most of the other skaters (in Japan) were younger than me. How I feel, however, hasn’t changed at all compared to my first year as a senior. It feels like time has stopped (for me).

For your free program, you’re performing Madama Butterfly. What part of this performance do you think reflects the most on your personality?

I think I’m probably good at choreography that’s in a very “Japanese” style, so I feel like Madama Butterfly is easy to skate to. While it doesn’t involve expressing much outward emotion, it’s a program that’s supposed to evoke a sense of stoic power, which I’d like to be able to portray. I’m a really shy person, so I find that the fact that the point of this program isn’t to convey emotions only through facial expressions the best part about it.

Your short program “Sayuri” is also Japanese themed. Why did you choose to take such a risk with your program choices during the Olympic season?

I wasn’t thinking of the Olympic season as particularly more important than other seasons, but my choreographers thought that both of these pieces suited me and so they chose them for me. But since it is the Olympic season, I thought it would be nice to skate to two Japanese-style performances and so I went with those two pieces.

“I didn’t know what was the right thing to do”

When they diagnosed her with a stress fracture, she was “dumbfounded”. However, she switched her mindset to devoting herself to receiving treatment for the injury.

You were forced to miss the last half of last season because of your injury. How did you find out about the stress fracture?

At first I was feeling pain occasionally but I wasn’t really worried about it. However in December, on the day that we left Japan for the Grand Prix Final, it started hurting more and after that it was constantly hurting on some days and not hurting on other days. By Japanese Nationals, it was hurting every single day. I continued to train after that, but the pain wouldn’t go away. When I went to the hospital in January, I was diagnosed with a stress fracture.

How did you feel when you heard that?

“Why this stress fracture?” ... I couldn’t accept it and I was stunned. It was the first time I sustained a major injury and I couldn’t really come to terms with it. For about 3 days I could not decide whether to continue competing or not and whether I should continue training or not. Should I rest? I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know what to think. But after deciding to rest, I was able to change my mindset. I told myself that I should concentrate on healing first, because training would just make things worse. I tried not to think about the fact that I couldn’t skate.

How did you spend your time away from the ice?

During the day I was at the JISS (National Sports Science Center) in Tokyo, doing rehabilitation exercises. I went back to Kyoto on the weekends and did things that I didn’t have the time to do before. I wanted to dance but it’s a bit difficult to dance using only your upper body, so I listened to music and watched movies. I had never had the time to do this before so it was all a fresh new experience. I think it has helped to expand the range of my emotions, and this is a good thing.

She increased her weight to improve her body as an athlete and makes it a point to eat properly even in the off-season.

Comparing the before and after in terms of your injury, how did your perspective on how to deal with your body change?

Before, even if there was pain, it would go away at some point, so I just trained as hard as I could to get into peak condition. But now I know I can’t do this anymore. Of course I do need to increase my training to peak, but I also need to pay attention to body care and balance my nutrition levels with the amount of my training. Now I pay attention to these things.

I’ve heard you made it a point to increase your body weight.

When I was injured, I was told that my bone density indicated that I was too thin, and the doctors advised me to increase my average weight a bit. They told me that this would be better for my bone health. An athlete tends to use up all their energy training, so eating more meant that more nutrition would go to my bones and muscles. In my case, putting on more weight doesn’t necessarily mean that I am heavier; it has given me more power. So I have been eating properly, training and building up my physique.

Have you increased the amount of food you eat?

I'm the type of person who eats a lot anyway, but I had trouble with weight control and losing too much weight when the competitions started. I tried to do something about this with supplements. Until now, I didn’t really think about what I was eating in my days off. On some days I didn’t eat much. Now I have learned that when I do have a day off, that’s when I really need to eat properly. This probably means that overall, I do eat more.

“I am a plain type of skater”

While you were recovering, Mai Mihara and Wakaba Higuchi have both rewritten the highest scores for Japanese skaters.

I have seen how high the scores have been soaring. I wondered what kind of score I would have been awarded had I been competing and skating perfectly. However I wasn’t impatient, It just gave me motivation to perform in such a way that I could break their records when I returned.

There are only 2 slots for the Olympics. A fierce battle is anticipated so how do you plan to use your 4 years of experience?

4 years ago, all the Japanese skaters managed to peak at Japanese Nationals and skated very well. I was able to observe their strength at close range. I thought to myself back then: “when I’m a senior skater, I want to be as strong as them”. Because I was there feeling and thinking these things, I think I will be able to emulate the strength of my seniors this time around.

What kind of a career do you want to establish as a skater?

I’d like to produce firm results. I’d also like to skate in such a way that my skating leaves a lasting impression on the minds of the audience - become someone they’d like to see again.

So what type of a skater would you say you are?

I don’t possess anything particularly outstanding, I am very plain. I tend to pay attention to executing each element properly and consistently (laughs).

How do you position the Olympics (in your skating career)?

I’ve always dreamed about going to the Olympics. We’re in the Olympic season now and this is the competition I’d like to go to the most.

Translated with the help of Iron Klaus.

#fstranslation #Satoko Miyahara #season: 2017 2018 #interview #translation

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thevideogamestudies-blog · 5 years

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A Cult Classic To Sink Your Teeth Into

Let’s be honest. Most of you have never heard about Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, so you have no idea why everyone is so ecstatic - or negative depending on whom you talk to - about the new sequel coming out next year. Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines isn’t considered a cult classic for no reason.

**Under the cut does include pictures of animated violence between fictional characters and blood**

What is V:TMB?

Synopsis: Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is an RPG that takes place in modern Los Angeles and you play a character who has recently turned into a vampire - shocker - in the character creation you choose the vampire clan you want to be a part of, as well as their starting stats. The game revolves around following or disobeying the Masquerade, which is just a fancy word for vampire laws, that keep humans oblivious to all the vampires’ existence. The main plot centers around the arrival of a sarcophagus that is rumored to contain the remains of an old and powerful vampire - and without going into too much detail - there is some vampire politics because of this as well.

Vampire: The Masquerade started as a table-top roleplaying game in the 1990s, which sparked novels, and video games - such as Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption, and Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines followed shortly after (Wikipedia). Bloodlines was released way back in November of 2004, and unfortunately, sold fewer than 80,000 copies. Compare that to other games released the same year like “GTA: San Andreas” which sold 12 million copies - and that was only on Playstation 2 (Wikipedia).

Why Did Bloodlines Perform So Badly?

According to the lead writer, Brian Mitsoda, "It was dumped on the market at the worst possible time - most people didn't even know we were out...both fans and the Troika devs are always going to wonder what the game could have been like with another six months,” (Lane).

Sure, maybe the timing wasn’t right, but it didn’t help that the game was pretty much ‘unfinished’ when released. The engine used for Bloodlines, Valve, was still in development. The developers were dealing with code they were unfamiliar with (Lane). The issues with the engine caused the game’s development to extend longer than Bloodlines’ publisher, Activision, was wanting. After three years of being development, Activision was getting impatient, "We were told to wrap it up in a matter of months at a point where we knew that was going to require a lot of crunch. It was pretty obvious at that point that we weren't considered a very important project anymore,” commented Mitsoda (Lane). Shortly after release, Troika laid off more and more developers until Troika’s doors were permanently closed (Lane).

Why Does Bloodlines Have A Following?

The issue with Bloodlines was never the story. The unforgettable characters, dialogue, and storyline are why the game still has a following 15 years later. In ScreenRant’s article on the announcement of the sequel they commented, “Bloodlines is considered to be one of the best RPGs of all time (even if parts of it haven't aged well),” (Baird). In IGN’s “Top 100 RPGs”, they list Bloodlines as number 42, and Game Informer lists the game at number 98 in their list. PC Gamer mentions Bloodlines in their “The Best RPGs on PC” article as well.

Bloodlines gets the ‘unfinished’ label because it was unfortunately left a bug-ridden game, and as it gets older and operating systems update, the game seems to keep getting worse. In my personal experience, certain quests are impossible to complete because of bugs. Luckily enough, the fanbase has a passionate player, Werner Spahl, who continuously updates the game - and occasionally adds new content that he recovers from the game files - for free (Lane).

Bloodlines 2: Electric Boogaloo

Paradox Interactive, Bloodlines new publisher, and Hardsuit Labs, Bloodlines new developer, announced the sequel in March and will be released sometime in March of 2020.

What We Know So Far

We will be playing as a ‘Victim of the Mass Embrace’ in Seattle, and we are thrown into the middle of heated vampire politics. Your background, discipline, clan, faction, humanity will affect the main character throughout the whole story (Bloodlines). Brian Mitsoda is still the lead writer for the series, Mitsoda promises, “a true successor guided by the people who knew what made the original so special,” (Robertson). There will be more clans than in the original, new abilities such as telekinesis, turning into mist or bats (Game Checkup). In character creation for the sequel, we don’t choose a clan, (clans are picked later in the game) but instead, choose a background for our character, and since the character starts as a ‘thin-blood,’ we get limited powers (Alexandra). Senior writer, Cara Ellison, confirmed that there is a massive side quest revolving around finding all the other ‘Victims of the Mass Embrace,’ “We’re looking at introducing you to the idea that lots of different people will have a different experience of being a vampire,” Ellison said. “And their vampire puberty might be a bit more difficult or more fraught,” (Alexandra).

The sequel will also support all the features from Nvidia’s latest video cards - such as real-time ray tracing effects and DLSS technology - and mod support (Capel).

Response

In an article on GameGavel, they claimed Bloodlines 2 as the most anticipated RPG sequel (Bassili). In Kotaku’s review, they commented, “I’m cautiously optimistic about Bloodlines 2. The gameplay’s emphasis on exploration and Hardsuit’s goal of building a vibrant Seattle are compelling. The team’s willingness to talk about the first game’s stumbles was good to see. And it’s exciting to have a Vampire game that appears to play well,” (Alexandra).

“Farewell, Vampire”

If you haven’t already gathered, I am excited about this sequel, so much to the point, I am contemplating pre-ordering it - and I never, ever pre-order games – unless it’s a new Sims 4 expansion pack. I have pretty high hopes the sequel will be worth it, considering the positive reviews from those who tested it at E3 and that the lead writer returned. March 2020, please get here faster!

Follow me on Twitter @ girlfrmthesales where I post a lot about video games, comics, etc! Or follow me here on Tumblr @mentallyinnoir!

Also if you have never played the original and you want to check it out here is a link to a forum that links mods and the patches! But of course, beware of spoilers in the comments!

Buy the original game here on Steam for $19.99! Pre-order Bloodlines 2 here on Steam for $59.99!

Works Cited

Alexandra, Heather. “Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines Is Getting A Sequel, And It Looks Pretty Good.” Kotaku Australia, Kotaku Australia, 22 Mar. 2019, www.kotaku.com.au/2019/03/vampire-the-masquerade- bloodlines-is-getting-a-sequel-and-it-looks-pretty-good/.

Baird, Scott. “Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 Announced, Story Details Revealed.” ScreenRant, 22 Mar. 2019, screenrant.com/vampire- masquerade-bloodlines-2-details/.

Bassili, Albert. “10 Best RPGs of All Time: Don't Miss Them Even in 2019.” Game Gavel, 14 May 2019, gamegavel.com/best-rpgs-of-all-time/. Capel, Chris J. “Vampire Bloodlines 2 Will Have Mod Support, plus Ray Tracing and DLSS.” PCGamesN, 23 Mar. 2019, www.pcgamesn.com/vampire-the-masquerade-bloodlines-2/vampire- bloodlines-2-mod-support.

“Game Info: VtM: Bloodlines 2.” Game Info | VtM: Bloodlines 2, 2019, www.bloodlines2.com/en/game-info.

Game Informer Staff. “The Top 100 RPGs Of All Time.” Game Informer, 1 Jan. 2018, www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2018/01/01/the- top-100-rpgs-of-all-time.aspx.

“Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 25 Aug. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto:_San_Andreas. Lane, Rick. “Reanimated: The Story of Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines.” Eurogamer, Eurogamer, 27 Apr. 2014, www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-07-10-reanimated-the-story-of-vampire- the-masquerade-bloodlines.

PC Gamer. “The Best RPGs on PC.” Pcgamer, PC Gamer, 12 July 2019, www.pcgamer.com/best-rpgs-of-all-time/. Robertson, Adi. “Cult Role-Playing Game ‘Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines’ Is Getting a Sequel.” The Verge, The Verge, 21 Mar. 2019, www.theverge.com/2019/3/21/18275652/vampire-the-masquerade- bloodlines-2-world-of-darkness-white-wolf-rpg-sequel-announced-release- date.

“Top 100 RPGs of All Time.” IGN, www.ign.com/lists/top-100-rpgs.

“Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 Announced for 2020.”

Gamecheckup, Gamecheckup, 23 Mar. 2019, gamecheckup.com/vampire- the-masquerade-bloodlines-2-announced-for-2020/.

“Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Aug. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire%3A_The_Masquerade_%E2%80%93_Blood lines.

“Vampire: The Masquerade.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 3 Sept. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire:_The_Masquerade#Video_games.

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iguana012 · 7 years

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The Lord of the Wedding Rings: The Return of the King - iguana’s 2017 HELLsinki Worlds recap

This is it guys, the last big competition before the Olympics. So much potential for great skates, great disasters and great distress; this competition did not fail to deliver. Nor did the announcers, who were screaming out names and scores as if it were a wrestling match. And it was, in one way or another. Albeit a sparklier one. For a brief couple of days, we thought Javier Fernandez was gonna win his 3rd consecutive World title and I almost had those memes ready but at the same time I knew coming from behind like a wrecking ball was Yuzuru Hanyu’s specialty. To nobody’s surprise Evgenia Medvedeva broke a record; to everyone’s surprise, she only broke it in the long program. Meanwhile, Wenjing Sui and Cong Han’s blues for koolk brought the pairs crown back to China and Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir purple rained on Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron’s parade. Let’s start the recap!

It began with the forging of the Great Rings. Three were given to the Technical Panel, immortal, wisest and fairest of all beings. Nine to the Judges, great miners and craftsmen of the mountain halls. And the rest of the rings were gifted to the race of Men, who above all else desire power. For within these rings was bound the strength and the will to govern each race. But they were all of them deceived, for another ring was made. Deep in the land of Eden, in the Fires of Mount Timshel, the Philosopher Lord Machida forged a master ring in secret, and into this ring he poured his cruelty, his malice and his will to dominate Hanyu’s all life. One ring to rule them all.

But on April 1st 2017, the world had changed. Yuzuru Hanyu could feel it in the ice. The stars were veiled. Something stirred in the East of Eden. A sleepless malice. The ring was THERE.

Ok seriously now, this guy had been waiting for this gold for 3 years. The first time he got it there were HOLY SHITS and OH MY GODS and CONTROVERSIES because 2014 Worlds is still remembered as that one competition where the difference between gold and silver was

None of that shit here. Yuzuru Hanyu’s long program performance should be framed and taken into the church. Because no one else comes close to his ability to make those quads look like spinning on a fucking chair, all the while hearing music in the background and interpreting it. He really needed this gold medal and I’m glad he got it.

World Silver Medalist Shoma Uno has been skating to Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra (aka Ladies in Lavender) all season and that’s a song I will personally forever associate with Tatsuki Machida’s retirement (ahahahah) but that program gave Shoma a new personal best, a medal, and a 2nd place in the World standings. Not too shabby going into the Olympic season.

Boyang Jin has successfully defended his bronze medal with two great programs. I just can’t believe it was only 2 years ago when he and Shoma were battling for the JUNIOR Worlds gold and now here they are giving some uncles a run for their money. His quad lutz is a masterpiece. It can probably belong in the Sistine Chapel.

Javier Fernandez’ Elvis wasn’t successful enough for the long program. While he dominated the short with his Matrix Malaguena, Hanyu skating a flawless program before him proved to be too much pressure for the two-time World Champion (how the fuck). tl;dr it was a mess. Probably a ~hot~ mess for some ladies and gents.

Patrick Chan has successfully defended his 5th place from last year but this time he got a small bronze medal and joined the 100 club in the short! He also landed a quad salchow and not so Canadian axels. His programs this season were great and his skating is great.

Nathan Chen had boot issues huh? Well honestly, after US Nationals and 4CC I would have been very surprised to see him skate another clean competition because: it’s his first senior year, he is pressured af, he will be even more pressured going into the Olympic season but hey - at least he got a nice, cold bottle of Coca-Cola to make him feel better.

THE LADIES

And here’s the most disastrous event of the whole shebang. Well at least it was disastrous enough for Evgenia Medvedeva to refrain herself from smiling during a 9/11 program?? I guess??

Heavy silver medal favorite Anna Pogorilaya reverted to the old Pogofalls in the long program. It was almost like she’s been under a spell since Boston and it broke near its 1 year anniversary. That was certainly not what the Russian federation wanted to see, but Maria Sotskova wasn’t much better either. All in all Ilia Averbukh proved his point; his programs can save the world and Russia’s 3 spots at the Olympics.

Speaking of spots, the Canadian ladies managed to get 3 spots for the first time in a millennium and they did it in high fashion; both Kaetlyn Osmond and Gabby Daleman made the podium. Who would have guessed? Figure skating is full of surprises after all. And it looks to me like the judges are more ready to reward Osmond than Pogorilaya. She’s going with a good reputation in the Olympic season and she has the support she needs to follow the footsteps of Joannie Rochette. All she has to do is deliver.

Delivering is not always the best solution for other girls though. Wakaba Higuchi was criminally underscored in the short program. And by criminally I mean she can sue those judges for boycotting Japan getting 3 spots. With a 3Lz-3T and a 3F in the second half of the program she was 9th after the short. Really bitch? Really? They suddenly decided they were gonna punish the lack of steps into the solo jump? The fuck? Mai Mihara was great but that mistake in the short program was very costly Veeery costly. And lastly Rika Hongo was very brave. She was tired, she was injured, she wasn’t supposed to be there. But she was brave and I applaud her.

The American ladies were lucky. And they did enough to keep 3 spots. The judges also did enough there I said it. Karen Chen did great, I love her short program.

Basically everyone got back home having fulfilled their main goal, except for Japan, who has the deepest field in the World after Russia. For the first time in over 10 years, only two ladies will represent Japan at the Olympics. Figure skating fans are speculating who JSF will favor which ladies are more likely to get it. Will Mao Asada get her triple axel back? Will Satoko Miyahara manage to get back to her top form after injury? Will Marin Honda make a splash in her first year as a senior? Will Mai Mihara continue to stay consistent? This topic probably needs a separate post of its own.

PAIRS AND ICE DANCE

Aliona Savchenko is a badass. The height she gets on the triple twist is probably the equivalent of two, two and half quad lutzes of Boyang Jin. Also throw triple axel!! Wtf bro my ankles hurt just looking at it!!

But Wenjing Sui and Cong Han were no doubt the class of the field. Two A-M-A-Z-I-N-G programs. You can see how connected they are. Not a single movement is wasted. Truly a gift in the field and I’m so grateful Wenjing recovered so well.

Shoutout to Xiaoyu Yu for her potato finish! She’s done so well this season considering circumstances. And she’s so beautiful to watch!

Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron had pretty uninspiring programs this season but the free dance they put together was perfection. Yeah it’s nothing we haven’t already seen but everything about that performance was top stuff.

Scott Moir had to fuck up to showcase Tessa Virtue’s flawlessness. But their Prince SD is great stuff. So great it broke some nice records. Including most of the free dance event (seriously what the fuck was that mess).

This is probably all I have to say about Worlds? This review sucks big time but I’m so tired I feel like I've been competing myself. Well that and the fact that Japan losing one spot really put me off. And I’m constantly worried about Satoko Miyahara so my snark wasn’t as sharp as it usually is during other competitions. This one was too much of a Real Deal y’know what I mean.

Meanwhile the GP competitions next season look something like this

10/20-22 Cup of Russia

10/27-29 Skate Canada

11/3-5 Cup of China

11/10- 12 NHK Trophy

11/17- 19 Trophee de France

11/24- 26 Skate America

To be more exact

Ah it smells like Olympics already.

Just like last season and the season before last season I’m gonna make a top 10 programs of 2016-2017 sometime soon. But first I gotta get your requests done lmao sorry for the delay /o\

But since it’s (almost) the end of this season I want to thank you all for following me, sending me nice messages and being interested in my childish ramblings. You’re the bestest.

#Helsinki 2017 #Yuzuru Hanyu #Shoma Uno #Boyang Jin #Evgenia Medvedeva #Kaetlyn Osmond #figure skating #review #personal

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redhood5092 · 7 years

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Pens Round 3 Preview

Well well well, here we are again, in the Eastern Conference Final. If you’re tempted to look at these Conference Finals, like you did last year’s, you’re not alone. Last year, the Penguins dispatched the President’s trophy winning Washington Capitals and faced the #2 seed in the Atlantic, the Tampa Bay Lightning. Sound familiar? While the circumstances sound similar, the opponent, the Ottawa Senators, are not.

Last year, I, along with many others, took the Lightning lightly. The Capitals were the Goliath that the Pens slain. The Lightning, without their star (Steven Stamkos) seemed to be just a speed bump to the Stanley Cup. The only problem was, the Lightning knew how to take advantage of any crack in the Pens attack (much like the Pens did to Washington last round). That led to a 7 game series, including a 3-2 series deficit at one point. Now I’m going to tell you right now. The Ottawa Senators are not as good as the Tampa Bay Lightning from last year. However their game plan can be equally frustrating and effective. What should you look out for?

Norris Trophy Mainstay: Erik Karlsson has won the trophy for the League’s best defenseman twice, and is regularly a contender for it. Listen to these point totals for his last 5 full (>70 gp) seasons: 71,82,66,74,78. Those are the kind of numbers you’d love to have for any forward outside of the truly elites. Now consider that Karlsson is a defenseman. That’s phenomenal. Karlsson going to do things to Penguins’ players that is going to make your head spin. The kind of moves we’re fortunate enough to see Sid do. He quarterbacks their entire attack with precision passing and excellent decision-making skills. He definitely has the speed to skate with the Pens and he’ll readily join any offensive rush. He’s the leading candidate for the Conn Smythe for good reason.

So how do you beat him? Well that’s the biggest knock on Karlsson and his perennial reservation on the Norris Trophy ballot. For a defenseman, he’s not the greatest at…well...defending. One of my favorite examples of taking advantage of that defensive deficiency is James Neal’s undressing of Karlsson during their last meeting in the play-offs. Karlsson, so opportunistic and aggressive, commonly gets caught out of position. He banks on his athletic ability to get back into position to cover on the play. Most of the time he can recover, but a strong offensive team can make him pay. The Rangers put a lot of pucks in the Ottawa net because their speedy forwards burnt the Ottawa defense. The Penguins are on a different level. They are going to make Karlsson pay.

Feel Good Story: Craig Anderson is the feel good story of the season. In early December, Anderson’s wife was diagnosed with cancer. That led Anderson to take almost 3 months off to be with her. When Anderson came back, he continued his strong play, leading the Senators to not only the play-offs but shockingly, the Eastern Conference Final. Good for Craig. That’s a great story and makes him easy to root for. Now that we have that feel good story out of the way…

The Penguins own Craig Anderson. First off, let’s look at their last play-off meeting. The Penguins dispatched the Senators in a very NON-competitive 5 game series in 2013. During those 5 games, Craig Anderson was pulled twice, and should have been pulled in the clinching game but was left in to give up 6 goals. The Penguins scored 22 goals in 5 games that series, and this team has more firepower than that one. That was 4 years ago however. How has Craig done recently? This year Craig only played the Penguins once. He gave up 7 goals in a losing effort. From 2014-2016 he went 0-3 with 11 goals against. History has not been kind to Anderson vs. the Penguins. Let’s hope that continues. Anderson is no where near the caliber of goalie of the Penguins first two rounds (both Holtby and Bobrovski were past Vezina winners by the way). But much like last year, fans didn’t take Vasilevsky seriously after dispatching Holtby and Lundqvist back to back, but he ended up being the hardest goalie to beat. The edge still belongs to the Penguins though.

It’s A Trap!: Ottawa’s main goal is to slow things down. They know they can’t skate with the Penguins, so they are going to force the Pens into 1-0, 2-1 games if they can help it. I’d be surprised if we see anyone score more than 4 goals in any game this series. How are they going to try and do that?

Ottawa’s coach, Guy Bocher, implements a 1-3-1 style trap. So how does it work? The forward up top (usually a winger) does a lot of chasing. His goal is to pressure either defensemen to make a pass quicker than he’d like, usually towards the boards. From there, the wall of 3 is waiting. This usually comprises of the centerman, other winger, and one defenseman. Their job is to get stick on puck. Clog any juicy passing lanes and cause turnovers. And finally, the 1 back is the better puck handler(usually Karlsson) of the two defensemen. He is there to pick up the garbage of the turned over puck, and start a counter attack. When there is no great chance for a counter attack, the defenseman will just reach the red line, and dump the puck in, causing the opponent to reset. This strategy will be maddening for Penguins fans but it’s certainly beatable.

There are soft areas in the 1-3-1 trap that the Penguins and their elite passing and skating ability can exploit. The Penguins can employ bank passes and lobs to the corners, giving their fast forwards free space to gather the puck and set up in the offensive zone. This is very doable, but it’s not easy. Fortunately, the Penguins have been doing non-easy things for two rounds now. Crosby, Malkin, and Kessel are more skilled than any forward the Senators have seen thus far. Tack on Guentzel, Bonino, Hornqvist, and Sheary and the Senators defense will never get a break. I fully expect the Penguins offensive attack to break through the trap enough to get some quality chances on Anderson.

Prediction: The Pens can ill-afford to take the Senators lightly. They are inferior to the Capitals in basically every way outside of Erik Karlsson. But that doesn’t mean they won’t find success. Their passive trap system can lull you into making sloppy plays, leading to bad mistakes. They have enough skilled forwards to make plays. Bobby Ryan has been wildly inconsistent but every so often makes a Geno-like drive to the net. Brassard is a point per game forward vs. the Penguins and Mike Hoffman is a vastly underrated sniper. All that being said, the Penguins forwards are far greater. There is no one on Ottawa capable of keeping Sid quiet, or Geno for that matter. Look for Guentzel to continue his play-off leading goal-scoring tirade. The Penguins defense can handle this much smaller forward far better than they did with Washington. The only way I can see this series going poorly is if the Penguins are just out of gas. Otherwise, they are in a totally different class than Ottawa. I can see the trap keeping the Penguins’ scores down for a few game. I can also see Karlsson winning a game or two by himself. But that’s as far as it goes. Penguins in 6. But it has a greater chance of going only 5 games vs. any longer.

#stanley cup playoffs #pittsburgh penguins #ottawa senators #sidney crosby #Evgeni Malkin #craig anderson #erik karlsson

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ciathyzareposts · 4 years

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Game 358: Ishar: Legend of the Fortress (1992)

Ishar: Legend of the Fortress

France

Silmarils (developer and publisher)

Released 1992 for DOS, Amiga, and Atari ST

Date Started: 22 February 2020

I’ve been wanting to play Ishar for a while now, partly because I bought the entire series in 2014, and partly because while I thought Crystals of Arborea (1990) was pretty awful, I also thought it had some lovely graphics. Until they reach a certain point, I don’t get excited about graphics. I mostly want them to be functional–show me where the enemies are and help me figure out what door I need to enter. If your graphics are just repeating textures, to me they’re not much better than wireframes.

Walking through some pretty beach trees.

When we get to the era in which graphics actually establish an ambiance and pull me into the setting, that’s when I get excited. And Ishar‘s are almost there. Like Arborea‘s, they border on impressionistic. The opening screen shows a field lush with grass and flowers, a tree filled with branches and leaves, wispy clouds on the horizon, and other trees, dimmer, further away, partly hidden in a mist. I’m not prepared to say that they’re the best graphics we’ve seen, but they certainly come close.

Some of the best water graphics we’ve seen so far. They don’t move or anything.

Ishar is first of a trilogy for which Arborea was a kind-of prologue. In that game, you play Jarel, Prince of the Elves, and your goal was to find four crystals and use them to raise the island of Arborea–the only land left after the gods destroyed the world. Along the way, you had to kill the fallen angel Morgoth. You were aided by five companions.

The backstory of Ishar tells us that Jarel renamed the land Kendoria. He ruled for a while but was killed in a hunting accident. After his death, the land fell into anarchy. A “shady and powerful figure” named Krogh took advantage of the chaos, gathered wealth and power, and built a temple on the borders of Kendoria. The temple’s name, Ishar, means “unknown” in Elvish. Your mission is, I guess, to stop Krogh. Honestly, the backstory took the bloom off the graphics almost immediately. Aside from being overly derivative of Tolkien (I don’t know what I expected from a developer called “Silmarils”), it explained essentially nothing, including who the main character is.

The starting character.

There is no character creation process. You start as a human warrior called Aramir, presumably the third son of Denethor. He carries a sword, 2000 gold, and has no other inventory. He has 16 strength, 14 constitution, 16 agility, 12 intelligence, 11 wisdom, and 12 vitality. Temporary statistics are physical power and mental power. Statistics for “level” and “experience” at least assure me there will be some character development. Clicking around, I find that I also have skills: lockpicking, orientation, first aid, one-handed weapons, two-handed weapons, throwing, shooting, and languages. Aramir is best at the two weapon categories and worst at “Languages.”

The game comes with no kind of map or even description of the world. Am I on an island? Are there towns? There’s a guy standing in front of me in the field, so I head towards him. He greets me with a nonsensical phrase (“Warm Tear!”) and tells me about a village to the south, “in Angarahn country,” where there’s a tavern called “The Thirsty Barbarian.” I try to recruit him and it works. His name is Borminh, and he comes with a dagger, single-digit attributes, and strong skill in lockpicking. The manual suggests that micromanaging the relationships among my NPC companions is a big part of the game. They can reject and dismiss each other and apparently murder each other.

The first NPC has a nonsensical greeting.

Following Borminh’s instructions, I head south and soon come to a town. In the first shop, my 2000 gold suddenly doesn’t seem all that much. A light helmet sells for 1,200 and a suit of leather armor sells for 1,800. Even a loaf of bread is 320, which makes me think the economy is really out of whack. The shopkeeper also bids me “warm tear” when I leave the shop. What the hell.

These prices don’t make a lot of sense in proportion.

Orcs attack as I explore the village, and I’m disappointed to see that the series has changed the flawed-but-intriguing tactical grid used in Arborea for real-time combat in the style of Dungeon Master. There’s nothing particularly wrong with Dungeon Master combat, I hasten to add, but it’s not well-adapted here. The spell menu is harder to get into than it should be, and cool-down periods are not made obvious by the graphics. I also soon find that the famous “combat waltz” doesn’t work at all; enemies don’t even appear if they’re not facing you.

First-person combat means hitting the “attack” buttons repeatedly.

Nonetheless, I successfully kill the orcs and loot their gold, spending some of it to rest at the tavern and recover some lost hit points. The tavern serves as a location for rumors; this one tells me that one of Jarel’s companions lives in the village. You can also recruit NPCs in taverns; this one offers only one, a warrior named Kyrian. When I select him, Aramir and Borminh both “vote” and agree to let him into the party.

The town has a place where I can train strength, and later I find another one where I can train agility. I also find a hut occupied by Akeer, who seems to give me the main quest:

My name is Akeer. I am one of Jarel’s mates, who once braved, then destroyed the evil dark lord Morgoth. But today, we have to face a brand new danger . . . This threat has a name: Krogh. He murdered our good prince Jarel [so much for him dying in a hunting accident] and sat on his throne in Ishar, an evil temple unleashing hordes of monsters all over our beloved land. Now the time has come for revenge. If you manage to destroy Krogh, you’ll be able to use Ishar’s tremendous powers, and soon you will reign over the whole kingdom . . . The companions are old, but they still may help you. In Lotharia, near the Four Birches, Azalghorm the Spirit could give you some advice . . . Warm tear, my friends . . .

When I’m king, I’m going to abolish that stupid phrase, whatever it’s supposed to mean.

I spend some time trying to get oriented. The “action” menu allows me to bring up a map of Kendoria, but it doesn’t show our current place on it. It does show the starting position, on the far west side of either an island or peninsula crisscrossed by rivers. It looks like the starting are has two bridges that cross an eastern river to new territories.

I soon find that one of the bridges leads to another town, and this one is guarded by a hulking barbarian. But my party of three manages to defeat him.

A tough enemy, but it was three-on-one.

The town consists of a bunch of building situated on docks. In the tavern, I learn that Krogh may be Morgoth’s son. As Morgoth was a withered skeletal creature, ick. This tavern has five NPCs to recruit. I first try a lizard-looking thing named Xylaz but everyone votes “no.” I’m not sure how I feel about my own characters overriding my orders. I try again and everyone agrees to a mage named Dorian and a warrior named Golnal.

A bunch of damned racists, that’s what you guys are.

I explore the area a while longer, killing some orcs and bandits and bears, finding loose gold strewn in bushes and empty huts. I walk into a teleporter at one point, but it didn’t take me very far because I soon found myself in the same basic area. I lose some characters in a fight against werewolves and then I suffer a full-party death against some bandits.

Is that supposed to be Krogh? That’s messed up.

Dying has significant consequences in this game because you have to pay 1,000 gold pieces to save. We just left a game where it cost experience points to save (Blade of Destiny) and I’m concurrently playing another game with saving limited by turns (Ragnarok). It’s interesting to see three different approaches in three consecutive games. I’m all for making things more challenging in this way, but it cuts particular deep here where things cost so much and you start with comparatively so little gold. From what I can tell, monsters do seem to respawn, so at least there’s some way to keep earning money.

Ouch.

I can also report positive things about the interface. The developers clearly want you to use the mouse, but unlike Arborea, they’ve given an analogous keyboard command to every mouse click. The commands aren’t as intuitive as some games, but they’re there. I’ve complained repeatedly about having to click the buttons in Dungeon Master-style combat, and here finally is a game where you just have to hit a series of F-keys in quick succession if you prefer not to use the mouse.

Also, the sound complements the graphics superbly. I’m a sucker for a game that offers good ambient sound, and here we have it: the chirping of birds, the swell of water near the river, the croaks of frogs, the murmur of background conversation when I enter the tavern. Even if I don’t end up liking gameplay much, Ishar at least looks and sounds pretty.

I think I’ll start over and see about mapping the island. A rough estimate based on the map would put the island at around 100 x 400. That’s big but not unmappable. I want to be able to annotate what I find and what I don’t understand. After the first few hours, it’s clear that it’s more of a game than Arborea, but I don’t know if it’s necessarily a better one.

Time so far: 3 hours

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/game-358-ishar-legend-of-the-fortress-1992/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

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ronaldmrashid · 7 years

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The Main Types Of Risk Exposure To Be Aware Of When Investing

I’m not sure if homebuyers truly realize how much concentrated risk they are taking when they buy property. I’m particularly concerned about first time buyers putting less than 20% down because they can’t afford a larger downpayment. Given they can’t put at least 20% down, it’s likely they also don’t have any meaningful investments in stocks, bonds, or private ventures. In other words, they are all-in and then some with real estate.

Just in case it’s not obvious, mortgage debt is also considered investment risk exposure. You’re basically leveraging up to make a concentrated bet on a single asset that hopefully goes up. If it goes down and you need to sell, you’re screwed. During the last downturn in 2008-2009, the average American’s net worth got destroyed because over 80% of the average American’s net worth was in real estate.

Some people have asked me why I’m not in a bigger rush to reinvest 100% of my house sale proceeds (~$1.8M) in this bull market. If I did, I’d still have $815,000 less in risk exposure because I paid off the mortgage.

The first reason why I’m not in a rush to reinvest the proceeds is because it’s a lot of money and I don’t want to lose it. I’ve redeployed about 60% and am slowly re-investing the balance each month. The other reason I’m in no rush is because I still have roughly $1,000,000 in mortgage debt, meaning that with a current cash balance of ~$900,000, I’ve got maximum exposure + $100,000 in leverage to risk assets.

The Definition Of Maximum Exposure

Maximum Exposure is not just investing everything you have in risk assets like stocks and real estate. Having Maximum Exposure is investing everything you have in risk assets AND borrowing as much as possible to also invest in risk assets.

With real estate, banks will generally lend your household up to 5X your annual household gross income. With stocks, brokerage accounts may let you borrow up to 50% the value of your stock holdings in the form of margin. For the record, I’m not a fan of going on margin buying stocks or taking a HELOC out to buy risk assets.

The time to have Maximum Exposure to risk assets is when there is blood in the streets. That time period was most recently between 2009 – 2010. The problem is that nobody can properly time their Maximum Exposure to perfection. It can only be done in hindsight.

Given perfect timing is impossible, one must raise and lower their exposure during a cycle. The long term trend is luckily up and to the right. But the desire or ability to work is finite, and so is life itself. There’s no point dying with boatloads of money, especially if it’s going to be taxed at 40%.

I did a reasonably good job getting Maximum Exposure from 2003 – 2007 with investments in stocks and two San Francisco properties and one Lake Tahoe property. Total mortgage indebtedness was roughly $2,200,000 as a 27 – 30 year old. Then I went backwards for several years until the market started stabilizing in 2010, and ultimately recovering.

I wanted to de-risk by $1.1M in 2012 because I had just left my job, but nobody wanted to buy my property at the asking price. By the time 2014 rolled around, a 4.1% CD came due and I had the fire power to buy another property to gain Maximum Exposure again.

It’s strange how quickly my mindset changed from de-risking to increasing risk in two years, but I decided to take on $1,000,000 more in debt to buy a fixer in Golden Gate Heights because my online revenue was growing, my net worth had rebounded, and I strongly believed buying a panoramic ocean view home on both levels for $720/sqft was a no brainer.

The Definition Of Full Exposure

After selling my rental house this summer, I’ve now only got Full Exposure. This is exactly what I want after a ~60% rise in San Francisco property prices since 2012, an ~82% rise in the S&P 500 since 2012, and a ~130% rise in the NASDAQ during the same time period. Further, given my site’s size and the fact that I’m still a one man band who now has fatherly responsibilities, I’m expecting online revenue growth to slow.

Full Exposure is defined as investing all your cash flow and having all your assets tied up in risk assets plus a comfortable buffer. The comfortable buffer is up to each individual. For me, I like to have at least $100,000 in cash for emergencies or investment opportunities.

Full exposure also requires one not be leveraged to a risk asset, or have cash equal to the amount of mortgage or margin exposure. Given I have about the same amount of mortgage debt and cash, I’ll further refine my definition and describe my exposure as Synthetic Full Exposure.

Because I’m not sure how long the bull market will last, I’m concurrently paying down mortgage debt and investing in stocks, bonds, and cheaper real estate investments around the country each month. The goal is that by the time a bear market arrives, I’ll have less debt, additional gains in risk assets to buffer for a downturn, and plenty of cash to take advantage if things get really ugly.

The Definition Of Reduced Exposure

I define Reduced Exposure as investing less than 70% of your regular after tax, after all expenses income and having more than 30% of your net worth in risk-free assets like cash, CDs, treasuries, and municipal bonds. Reduced Exposure is great leading up to a bear market and for at least the first year of a bear market. Eventually, you’ll want to switch from reduced exposure to Full Exposure once there are indications that the bear market has bottomed.

Again, it’s impossible to perfectly time the market. Therefore, it’s important to do your best to manage your risk exposure at various points of the cycle. It’s not bad to sell a little too soon or buy a little too early. You don’t want to be selling when everyone is selling, nor do you want to buy when everyone is buying. The herd mentality destroys pricing rationality.

I’m not in Reduced Exposure mode yet because corporate earnings are still very strong, interest rates remain low, and the government is trying to be accommodative to businesses with tax reform. Although it feels like 2007 again, it also feels like the party could continue for a couple more years.

Little-To-No Exposure = Misery

You can have little-to-no exposure to risk assets, but that type of exposure will likely leave you bitter at life because you’ll have to work forever or experience endless envy towards those who bought a home. Read any real estate section in any major city newspaper and you’ll feel the angst of the writer talking about how unaffordable prices are. The same goes for the stock market section where journalists regularly make fun of the meteoric rise in certain stocks and cryptocurrencies. You can bet your bottom dollar all the authors have been left behind.

Don’t get left behind.

In 20-40 years, your children will ask you why you didn’t take advantage of today’s low prices. We all wish our parent’s bought as much ocean front property and unhealthy McDonald’s stock when they were young. My grandfather could have bought beach front land in Waikiki during the 40s for nothing, but he didn’t want to be next to a butcher. Darn it.

One thing I will note is that after you achieve your stretch net worth goal, you can’t help but want to run up the score even more in a bull market. One reason why is because you know the bad times will eventually come again and you want as big of a buffer as possible. Another reason is simply because you can afford to take risk with money you didn’t think you’d ever obtain.

To achieve financial freedom, more than half the battle is to simply have enough risk exposure for as long as possible. The exact type of exposure you have is secondary. You can read endless articles and books about why such and such an asset allocation is best.

Here’s my take on the proper asset allocation of stocks and bonds by age and my recommended net worth allocation by age and work experience.

My hope is that everyone who reaches their stretch net worth goal uses the money to buy themselves time. Time is always running out, which is why I encourage everyone to retire by a certain age and not a certain financial figure.

Readers, what type of risk exposure do you currently have? How do you plan to adjust your exposure in the coming years?

The post The Main Types Of Risk Exposure To Be Aware Of When Investing appeared first on Financial Samurai.

from https://www.financialsamurai.com/main-types-risk-exposure-investing-hard-earned-money/

#Financial Samurai

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sandralow97 · 7 years

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Semester break (June-July).

Life is surrounded with LOVE – A love that transcend the impossible

This may be a long post, but it’s worth reading.

I’m a student studying away from my hometown, I always look forward to every semester break. Holidays give me a picture of rest and time of fun, nothing more than it. However, this time round is different. It has given me a whole new definition, it’s an impactful and the most fulfilling break ever so far.

Before the start of semester break, I was in my rock bottom. I was stressed, upset, discouraged and super disappointed at myself or things in many ways. I had no idea what to expect for my semester break.

All I ever remember is praying a prayer to just trust God for his matching grace onto me and I chose to surrender whatever it comes by then. Surely as it goes, God answered my prayer and this holiday had turn out to be the most impactful and memorable, until the point that I cried leaving the airport on my last day in KK.

Bible says that,

“If you seek me with all your heart, you will find me.”- Deuteronomy 4:29. “Ask and it will be given, seek and you’ll find, knock and it will be opened to you. – Matthew 7:7

Firstly, God is lover. “We love because He first loved us.” – 1 John 4:19

I want to thank God for people. I’m always a people-person. I felt encouraged and energized every time when I spend time with people around me. I love to hear from different people as they share their different experience and struggles in life. They also have their inspiring testimony and messages as they discover in this life. In the same way, I love to tell people of my story. I love encouraging them with my personal encounter in different challenges as I faced in this life. To some extent, I find myself talkative and too noisy. HAHA.

Anyhow, I felt really loved to hang out with great people whom I loved and valued a lot. I got to spend time, catch up with people. I’m so blessed and privileged to have some of them generously spent for me. I see God’s love in every one of them because they are God’s masterpiece and we are all fearfully and wonderfully made by Him.

“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” – Ephesians 2:10

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” Psalm 139:14

Next, God is a healer.

He does wonders and miracles that can blow our mind. I can say I’m so blessed to experience one of His miracle healing in my life. It was a physical one.

So, the situation was I happened to fall sick during early of June, I had a terrible sore throat and fever while I was sitting my finals. I did not see the doctor or seek any medications. When I got recovered, I was left with a small lump bump at the right side of my neck. It gets harder as time pass. I got anxious about this. I was paranoid enough and worried that it could turn out to be any benign tumour or if it’s cancerous cell growth in my body. I thought my life was pretty much over. The hardness and location was somewhere at the lymphatic line of my body. Imagine if it’s some sort of cancer, it would have spread to elsewhere and the most uncontrollable because our lymph line is our body’s main defence system.

Hence, I went for a check-up and seek consultation at luyang clinic. After weekly appointments and check-up (biopsy test), I got my result. Thankfully, it was nothing serious like cancer or tumour, but lymphadenitis. It can be explained as a swollen lymph node at the lymphatic vessel. The only solution is though antibiotics medication and prayers to reduce the infection. I’m relief after receiving this good news.

“O Lord my God, I cried out to you, and you healed me.” – Psalm 30:2

Sometimes, the thing you thought it might happened or afraid of, might not happen or it could turn out to be other way round. I used to worry for fitting-in and being adaptable every time I head back KK. It’s not like I want it or I ask for it, but the feeling of lostness and fear of “not belong” always bother me without fail. Nevertheless, I was carrying a fear in me, a fear that of people might judge me or have a different eye-sight on me especially of what had happened to me through this season of my life. The worries did not happen, whereas I had fully experience the warmth of my beloved hometown friends, the people of God.

God does answer prayers. I had the opportunity in learning to be Interpreter. It was a good try and experience even though I could have done better. Funny how I ever did pray a prayer of such opportunity to be interpreter if God allows. It might seem to be an insignificant request at first. However, God hears each of our prayers. Besides, we had this Raya outing held during the Raya holidays. It was my first PYA (paragon young adult) cell group outing. It was also my first time organizing and I really get to know them better. I had never really known them or close with each other even though I’ve joined PYA since 18, which I’ve been there for two years. In this sem break, I also had the chance to send Hugo off for his further studies in Melaka. He used to be my cell member in 2014, 3 years ago. Not forgetting he was part of the so-called “Hilltop gang” back then when we were all still in KK. It’s rewarding and amazing to see not only how he has grown so much spiritually from the first day I met him in church. Also, the fact of how we’re growing up together, until his turn to go out of town for further studies.

For my personal growth, I’ve pushed myself to continue in practicing taekwondo. I haven’t been going for about a month before semester break. I’m glad I got to sweat and exercise when I got back in KK this time round. I was excited to know they would have their grading examination on July, which I wasn’t approved by my Master unfortunately. As a result, I could only go and watch the rest who are based in KK to take their grading test.

Apart from physical, spiritual exercise, I also pushed myself in mental exercise too. In other words, I took hold of the time I had to read as many books as I can to expand my knowledge, enrich my mind and understandings. I’ve made a target which is a setlist of books that I ought to accomplish by this year-end. Another personal goal is to improve in my piano playing. Ever since I went for further studies and not involve in weekly ministry serving, I had not been playing piano for long. My fingers became rusted and not improving any better. It’s like I’m stuck at this phase and couldn’t go any further which I do not want to stay at the level which I’m at when I can go further and beyond this. Moreover, I’ve tried to transform a new look for myself to keep myself fresh and a new makeover. There’s a saying goes like,

“Every accomplishment starts with a decision to try.” We’ll never know what we can achieve if we dare not even give a try. A good product often comes out from multiple tries and attempts. For me, I did undercut for my hair and upper ear piercing. It was fun to try it, I thought it’s better to do it young than later in ages.

To end this, God is good. He never forsakes us.

I have never been so satisfying by God’s goodness in my life. It’s always a matter of the heart, mind and a choice. Anyone of us can really be in such a great place and experience God’s greatest blessing. Be grateful, humble, surrender and ask God. He will never forsake and he will work everything for the good to those who love Him.

Love, not just with the mind.

Love, with the heart.

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bridalpearlnecklace-blog · 7 years

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( The Forbes ) - The Swiss luxury goods division Timex Group Swiss Luxury Division, which manages the watch business of the fashionable luxury brands Salvatore Ferragamo, Versace, Versus and Nautica under license agreements, is the last company to leave the watch and jewelery exhibition Baselworld.

Paolo Marai, president and CEO of this department of Timex Group, in an exclusive interview said that the investment in this exhibition of $ 3 million can be better spent on other parts of the global business of the company. These four brands occupied Hall 1.1, the second floor of the hall, allotted to the "world" brands of watches and jewelry.

"I believe that participation in the Baselworld exhibition is a huge investment for any business and, in my opinion, the business is losing some effectiveness from this," he said. "It used to be important on many levels. Firstly, it was a good opportunity to meet with journalists, but they are less coming to Baselworld. And even those who come stay there less time, running from one appointed meeting to another. "

He continued: "Secondly, we used to meet many retailers before. This year, only one country sent retailers. Therefore, Baselworld can be found only by distributors. But we know the distributors. I do not need to go to Baselworld for this. "

Marai said that changing the business associated with luxury goods requires that luxury brands, especially those that are fashionable, should be closer to the consumer. He argues that Baselworld, based in Basel, Switzerland, is not an effective way to achieve this goal.

"Baselworld is increasingly becoming a place where people are trying to impress. I'm there because I want to show that I'm participating in an exhibition in Basel, and not to do something that is actually effective for the end user, "said Marai, a native of Milan, who now lives in Lugano, Switzerland, where the Timex Group is located Swiss Luxury Division. - We need to move the matter off the ground and be closer to the end user. I can invest the same amount of money in order to be closer to the end user and become more efficient. I believe that we can no longer afford such costs. "

He added: "I'm not the only one who left Baselworld. A lot of brands decided to leave from there. When the market suffers, I think we should try to do something new. We should do something else. "

He is right in saying that others are also leaving Baselworld. In May, luxury watch brands Ulysse Nardin and Girard-Perregaux announced that they are leaving Baselworld and will be exhibiting at the "International Salon of Fashionable Watchmaking" (Salon International de Haute Horlogerie, SIHH), which is held in January in Geneva. Both mentioned brands, owned by Kering, the French luxury goods holding company, occupied the most expensive space at Baselworld - Hall 1.0, the first floor of the "Global Hall", where the most prestigious independent watch brands are located and owned by the corporation.

The watch, jewelery and precious stones companies left Baselworld ever since the trade exhibition opened after the modernization of its Messe Basel exhibition complex in 2013, which cost $ 454.5 million. This reconstruction caused a tangible increase in the prices for the exhibition space, as This trade show began to position itself as an event that belongs to the category of luxury. In response, in 2013, the number of exhibitors was reduced by 355 companies, mainly from medium-sized players of the market and those who provided goods and provided services in the sphere of trade. But several large brands also rejected the new asking price. The international jewelry brand David Yurman has probably become the most expensive brand that left the fair in 2013.

This change still attracted some luxury brands, the most notable of which is Graff Diamonds, which in 2014 began to be exhibited in Hall 1.1.

But UBM Asia in 2014 established the fair "Jewelery & Gem Fair - Europe" in Freiburg, Germany. The date and venue are in good agreement with Baselworld. Freiburg is less than an hour's drive from Basel, Switzerland. Many of the companies involved in the trade in jewelry, precious stones and watches that used to exhibit at Baselworld are now taking part in this new exhibition.

Despite these problems, Baselworld remains the world's largest fair of watches and jewelery. It is also the most important watch and jewelery exhibition in the world for the presentation of new products and for their international display. In 2016, the exhibition was visited by 145,000 visitors, including representatives from exhibition companies, buyers and other visitors, which is 3 percent less than in 2015, according to Baselworld officials. About 1,500 enterprises took part in the exhibition. The number of journalists covering this event increased by 3 percent - to 4,400 from 70 countries. This is observed not only on Baselworld. Large and small trade jewelry and watch exhibitions around the world are struggling to ensure their sustainability. September Hong Kong Jewelery & Gem Fair, The world's largest jewelery fair, reports a drop in attendance for two consecutive years. In the US, the JCK Las Vegas (the largest jewelery trade exhibition in North America and once the largest in the world) has not fully recovered from the global recession of 2008-2009. The international salon of fine watchmaking SIHH, known for its exclusivity, has opened the doors to more companies exhibiting their watches and buyers.

Marai says that this step shows a change in consumer attitudes toward brands. This prompted him to look for new ways for his company to get closer to customers through his methods of marketing and sales. The business climate is further complicated by various economic and geopolitical issues throughout the world that affect distribution and sales volumes. They include a lot, starting with a sharp drop in sales in the once booming markets of China and Hong Kong and ending with existing conflicts in the Middle East, Western economic sanctions imposed on Russia, and the unexpected victory of Donald Trump in the presidential elections in the United States.

He says that the brands he manages through the separation of luxury goods from Timex are doing better than most brands, because they are smaller and newer for the industry. Brands Versace and Versus in this company appeared in 2004, and Ferragamo and Nautilus - three years later. But he says that it is necessary to act more actively.

"In difficult times, it is necessary to be more active. The market is now suffering, the economy is not perfect everywhere. We are still very satisfied with what is happening this year, but I must admit that things are not going very well on the market, "he said. "We are still demonstrating growth, because we are a relatively small company. We can still grow, but in general things are not going well on the market. "

Part of the activity is what Marai calls a "new digital revolution", which is characterized by the thinking "go to the store and buy it right now."

"Everything is now becoming digital, and we have been trying hard to do this for the past two years. First of all, we have some limitations, because we work under a license. Brands can not go in that direction only with respect to watches. But more and more luxury brands need to understand this digital revolution and we need to do it. "

This requires more direct interaction of brands with consumers through social networks and due to the availability of their goods. In itself, this approach is not new for those who are present on the luxury market. But achieving such an interaction is difficult for famous fashion brands and luxury brands.

"In the next 10 years, you need to use a completely different approach to gain access to those who have money," he said. - Traditional means of communication are over. Those who are able to understand this and bring it to the market will be more effective. "

Marai is interested in using the Internet to communicate directly with customers and to present their products and brands. As an e-commerce person, he still says that traditional retail will remain the main source of sales, noting that, as data show, e-commerce will account for 20 percent of total luxury goods in 2025.

"There is still a long way to go. I'm quite sure that traditional trading is frightened by the Internet, but it has nothing to fear, since it is used more as an information tool, and not as a means for shopping. (But) this is the best way to present your products. You can have your own beautiful exhibition, your beautiful store, where you can present all your products exactly the way you would like to present them. "

Marai also knows that shopping on the Internet is a quick and convenient way of making purchases of goods for consumers.

"On the Internet, you can offer the buyer everything he wants, so when he turns to us for another dial or another strap, it's very simple (fill in such an order). We must try to create a bridge between the traditional distribution and the new means offered through electronic commerce in order to become more effective for the end user. "

Marai says that they often do not pay attention to the fact that over 50 percent of the hours are bought as a gift. "This means that sometimes the presentation methods should be more luxurious than the product itself."

"For brands like ours, fashion brands, design is more important than the clockwork itself. We now have a good opportunity. Who is interested in what's inside? A new generation - they do not consider watches a high-tech device. "

That part of the technology that overshadowed the watch market is a smart watch, says Marai, who, after their initial success, ceased to interest consumers. But they caused damage, confusing consumers and the industry. He said that the desire of traditional watch manufacturers to create their own electronic clock was a mistake.

"Apple has achieved tremendous success at the initial stage, but people who bought watches created by it do not use them," he said. - This created confusion for the end user and distribution channels. Everyone wanted to produce this product first, and I think that was a mistake. It was somewhat premature. "

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jamesstrotherbct · 7 years

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Put Down that Drone: Statements

Contextual Statement

The story is shown through an exhibition using a survey which is a unique way to tell a story, an effective way to convey the meaning of the exhibition as a whole. It should impact people positively and getting them to think again about internet security and giving away personal information by making them remember the experience.

Using sound to promote the exhibition was really important throughout the semester and tackling the aspects of sound to amplify the audience’s experience was a big challenge which needed support from the research I have conducted throughout the semester. Sound is important to promote the user experience. Sound also helps people make decisions in certain situations according to Heap (2014) which will help with the first part of the survey. According to Lerner (2000) emotion can play a heavy role towards experiencing a story and not having any way of fully immersing the audience then whatever they’re feeling before the experience could affect how they experience the story. Having a database of sounds was very important for us to use because they were for sound effects for the experience such as glitch-like sounds to go along the videos. Sound effects are used in mostly every experience especially movies and games because it’ll take the audience away from the story if there were no sounds at all, or if the wrong sound effects are used. According to Lerner (2014) our cognition listens to everyday sounds and associates it with everything we do in real life, therefore our cognition requires that we expect to hear sounds that are associated with what we see and thus is the reason we’re using sound effects for this experience especially for the second phase of the experience.

An important aspect of this project is using ambiance to immerse the audience and bring them into the exhibition using headphones. Multiple techniques are applied here using sound to help the audience be engaged. One of the techniques used is to overlap two tracks together to amplify the mood of the audience as they progress through the story and be guided by Charon. An example of this being used is in the television show ‘Who Wants to be A Millionaire’ where the ambiance would change when the stakes are higher. On the website, ‘Do Not Track’ the audio being played is usually not too prominent too distract the user from listening to the person talking, but the ambiance changes when the website waits for the audience to answer the question. Having ambiance while listening to someone talk is also quite effective because it takes people away from the real world where natural sounds occur and into the world being shown to them, allowing them to concentrate more on the experience. During our exhibition the ambiance starts off with a positive mood to it to help with the first phase of the exhibition, then the ambience will change when the second phase starts and will change the mood to help the audience feel more intensified and negative about their previous actions to help motivate them for the second phase.

Creating the character Charon was very important towards the outcome of this project because we’re creating a story where Charon is the guide for the audience who plays as the main character. Having a guide for this story is of utmost importance because we want the audience to be the main character in this story, but they aren’t familiar with anything in this exhibition obviously. According to Corbett (2011) guides are used in stories as a means to show inexperience for the main character to build them up to a point in the story which is compelling for the audience. The reason we wanted the audience to feel like the main character in this story is because it will help them remember it after because they experienced it themselves rather than watching someone else experience it. According to Lerner (2014) having someone experience something first hand they will be more likely to remember the experience and use that knowledge later in life.

Using the above techniques we were able to create an immersive story experience for the audience to enjoy and reflect about after the experience, making think twice about giving away their information. Sound and character design is important for this particular exhibition to help immerse and guide them throughout the experience. The outcome should make the audience remember this exhibition in the future which will help them think twice about putting information up online.

Conceptual Statement

Project: Charon is an interactive story piece where the audience is portrayed as the main character being guided by someone beyond the realm of the survey. The basic idea of the survey is to make the audience realize the potential dangers of giving personal information out to companies they don’t know anything about. By creating Morello Systems, a company based on improving transport, we were able to relate to most people because transport is something being used everyday and can cause people a lot of problems. However, this survey is only the thin layer of ice on top of the lake. The company is only being used to grab the audience’s attention and once they interact with the survey then the true motive of this project reveals itself to the audience to teach them about keeping their personal information safe.

Originally we set out to create a interactive story involving a character with a mental disorder, but we couldn’t settle on the idea because we weren’t sure on what to teach the audience. So we came up with the idea of things not actually being what they seem, such as communication online and sending information to unknown companies. Do Not Track is a perfect example of all the talking that happens in the background as you’re surfing the internet, but we wanted to look at personal information being entered into forms online and how people don’t actually know what companies did with that information and actually how much that information is worth. Giving out information is a problem in the modern world mainly because of how easy it is to do so with the internet, we can’t solve it but we can try to get people to understand giving your information out could be dangerous and thus remind them to be more careful.

My role in this project was to create the audio for the experience and help entice the audience more into the survey as well as the experiences after the survey. Audio is very important when it comes to creating any sort of immersive experience. Ambiance helps people make decisions as well as spark creative inspiration. I also needed to change the mood of the survey quite quickly as the second half of the experience showed itself to really make the audience serious about recovering their information. During the production of our project I learnt heaps about how audio plays it’s role for making the audience feel more immersed and part of an experience created for them. The process included creating ambiance using Ableton Live, and recording voice lines for our character, Charon. I also created a sound database for our group to use and experiment with, when creating the prototype.

Earlier in the semester I said that my personal achievement for this project was to get the audience to experience this and finish it learning more about the dangers of giving out personal information, and then remember this experience in the future when they’re asked for personal information. I feel like that my original goal has been met so far because we’ve created an experience that people will most likely remember because of the surprise they’ll get in the second half of the survey. The showcase will finalize this achievement if everything goes as it has so far.

Next time I would have a look at a list of possible software to use and choosing with software would benefit my approach the best. For example, using Audacity to modify about one-hundred separate voice-lines wasn’t very efficient, but it was free software. Instead, using Reaper would have been less time consuming because of the ability to save effects previously used and applying them to separate files at the same time. Another aspect of this project I would do differently next time is to start listing the possible voice-lines as early as possible so I can plan ahead for the voice actor and not have to contact the voice actor multiple times, this would’ve kept the voice-lines more consistent with each other.

Overall, this project has been such a good learning experience for me in so many ways which includes problems that we couldn’t solve but I don’t regret making any of these mistakes because it helped me learn about sound design. This is the first time I’ve worked with creating ambiance from scratch as well as recording specific voice lines for a character. It was really easy to share files and communicate with my group using Google Drive, as well as using Soundcloud to upload the ambiance tracks, which made collaboration for this project all the more effective. For what resources we had available I think I made the most of what I had at my disposal, and I’m very pleased with our outcome.

References:

U. (n.d.). Retrieved May 24, 2017, from https://donottrack-doc.com/en/intro/

(2009, August 24). Retrieved May 28, 2017, from https://youtu.be/EL_m8UcVSQw

(2009, August 01). Retrieved May 28, 2017, from https://youtu.be/Iqwh6bxJPe0

Lerner, J. S., Li, Y., Valdesolo, P., & Kassam, K. (2014). Emotion and Decision Making. Retrieved March 28, 2017, from https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/jenniferlerner/files/annual_review_manuscript_june_16_final.final_.pdf

Lerner, J. S. (2000). Beyond Valence. Cognition and Emotion 14: 473-93. Retrieved March 28, 2017, from http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~keltner/publications/lerner.keltner.2000.pdf

Heap, D. (2014, January 16). Restaurant Ambiance & How It Impacts Profitablity. Retrieved March 28, 2017, from https://www.signs.com/blog/how-restaurant-ambiance-affects-the-bottom-line/

Farley, S. (2012, December 29). Creating the Spaces of Ambience. Retrieved March 30, 2017, from http://designingsound.org/2012/12/creating-the-spaces-of-ambience/

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