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tangents-within-tangents · 2 months

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The Bad Batch as Penguins of Madagascar Quotes

Bc I’ve seen a few posts making this magnificent comparison and both of these squads are near and dear to my heart and bc I need a distraction from the s3 premiere ahhh

Tech: *mission relevant info* Hunter: Tell me something I don’t know! Tech: Without mucus your stomach would digest itself Hunter: … Hunter: Tell me something else I don’t know…something less disturbing

Hunter: (to Caleb) It's okay, kid. We're not going to hurt you Crosshair: *cocks his gun* Not true, Hunter, they did authorize lethal force

Wrecker: *absolutely decking his bros* You pillow fight like a bunch of little girls!

Crosshair: What part of "zip it" eludes you?! The "zip" or the "it"?!

Echo: I don't mind saying it, that guy vexes me. *narrows eyes* He's a vexer.

Hunter: Boys, no training tonight. It's game night! Tech: Trivia! Let's play trivia! I dominate trivia! Omega: Oh! Can we play Simon Says this week? Tech: Yes, Simon says we play TRIVIA!!

Crosshair: I find reason tedious and boring. We'll use force.

Echo: I'm sorry, boys. I sometimes resort to sarcasm when facing the unknown Tech: No doubt

Hunter: Oh I’ve seen accident prone, try Wrecker and Crosshair! With a Chandrilan lantern! And SIX BOTTLES of rocket fuel!! Tech: Worst talent show ever

Hunter: There's no such thing as too paranoid, Omega. Remember that, and forget you ever heard it!

Tech: SCIENCE! WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?!?

Omega: I have an idea! But I'm not sure how safe it is Wrecker: I like it already!

Crosshair: *while fighting* You cannot win, Hunter! I am fueled with a boiling hate! A raging fury! Hunter: And a babbling mouth! *slaps him*

Omega: No! I swore I’d never use my adorability as a weapon again, and I meant it!

Echo: Wrecker, cover Omega’s ears, I intend to use my angry words

Tech: This red line shows the frustration level of a really smart person forced to take orders from some dunder-brained boob. As you can see the frustration just keeps rising and rising and rising. I mean, why don't they put the smart guy in charge, huh? IT DOESN’T MAKE ANY SENSE! SOMETHING HAS GOT TO GIVE, PEOPLE! AM I THE ONLY ONE SEEING THIS?!

Wrecker and Omega: *run in making incomprehensible panicked noises* Hunter: Anyone catch that? Echo: *nonchalantly interprets it exactly* The Batch: … Echo: What? I’m fluent in panic

Tech: Cool cars go faster. That's a scientific fact.

Cody, in his one episode: I believe now I know why “volunteers” ends in “tears”

Hunter: No batcher gets left behind, that’s why! Wrecker: What about Crosshair? Hunter: Okay, one batcher gets left behind Omega: and Echo? Hunter: Maybe two batchers get left behind Tech: Um… Hunter: *groan* Comparatively few batchers get left behind, okay?!

Omega: I thought you agreed this was a dangerous weapon! Wrecker: Which is the best kind! What good is a safe weapon?! Tech: He has a point

Hunter: Avert your eyes, young Omega, you’ll never be able to unsee this! Tech, recording bc that’s his freaking hobby: Don’t worry about it I’ll burn you a dvd!

Crosshair: *standing outside the Marauder* Hunter! I have brought you a hand drawn greeting card! It says “Roses are red. Posies are green. Sorry about Bracca, I was too mean. Your pal, Crosshair” :) Hunter: *walks out and shreds the card*

Hunter: Get up here. That’s an order! Tech: *salutes* Permission to defy order? Hunter: Permission denied! Tech: Then I deny your denial (sorry)

Echo: *watching Hunter and Wrecker, captured and surrounded by stormtroopers* Well this hardly seems fair Echo: *jumps in a walker and defeats them easily* Told you it wasn't fair

*Phee and Tech kiss* Omega: *eyes being covered by Hunter* awww Wrecker: Finally!

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a-little-slice-of-fandom · 4 years

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what was the ending before it was a fake competition??

Hey anon!

So Six is interesting when it comes to scripts since there’s been like...6 of them, all with slight changes to lines and characters that end up having massive effects.

I’ll look at the four main incarnations of the script: student, studio, U.K tour and Current West End. I will NOT be looking at the US run (because it’s redundant as the changes are more to with Americanising the language) and the West End Preview script because I have no idea what the changes were in that one (seriously! They changed the script for the West End Preview in January and then,,,changed it,,,again,,,three days later.:)

Student Run script:

There was no implication at any point in the student run that the show was a fake competition. After Parr’s song, the queens say that they were “all survivors” before launching into the “we might just be remembered for being...etc etc” and then singing Six.

Interestingly, there’s no dialogue in the middle of Parr’s song, which is where the hinting/ exposition for the competition being faked is placed in the new scripts . The queens just join in half-way IDNYL and that just sort of solves all their problems. It’s a bit weird and rushed but,,,Toby and Lucy only had 60 minutes to play with and the German techno rave was the obvious priority.

Apparently there was some descriptions of the show that stated that the queens were all in purgatory and whoever won the competition would become the leader of the band and also go to heaven? Although though that sounds awesome as all hell, I have never heard of Toby and Lucy discussing this weird plot point and the student queens never refer to it at the end of the show either so I honestly have no idea whether that’s true or not. It probably isn’t, but it is an interesting concept!

Studio script:

This version of the script introduced the break between the two parts of IDNYL and while the the general message of this scene is the same, it was slightly different.

The queens talk directly to the audience, telling them that they “won’t be choosing a leading lady tonight”. Whether or not you think that this implied that the competition was faked is up to you. I personally feel like the competition in this run was genuine, as the queens seem genuinely depressed by the realisation that they’ve wasted their time. The only thing that lifts their spirits is the suggestion that they should reclaim their stories, and Cleves joking that it would be amazing, if only there was some way they could all be together at the same time in front of 400 people...queue the second half of IDNYL.

I don’t feel like any of the lines in this scene implies that the competition was faked in the studio script. You could definitely make an argument, but I think that a lot of that argument would come from the added context of newer scripts.

ALSO they cut out a FANTASTIC line from Parr here. Howard laments that it really doesn’t matter which queen the audience thought should have one, and Parr agrees, stating that all the queens have “already lost to Henry”. Like??? That line SLAPPED so hard??? Why get rid of it??? It made Izuka!Parr one of the most intellectual Parrs of the show and I loved it???

Original U.K Tour script vs Current West End Script

Okay so the biggest difference between the old version of the script and the new version of the script is how the fake competition is handled.

In the new version of the script, the fact that the show is a fake competition is practically shoved down the audiences throat. During the dialogue inbetween Parr’s song, Parr remarks that if they had realised that this “competition” was going to be such a mess that they could have done something else, like a “fake competition to show how messed up comparing us (the queens) is”. This is then followed by a lot of fourth wall breaking of the queens all agreeing that a fake competition would have been so much better, before launching into the IDNYL remix.

Now...I personally think that in the older version of the script, the competition was still faked. That’s always what I got, even before the script was changed to make the fake competition more

The queens make some very sarcastic comments during the break between IDNYL in the old script, commenting how they could have found a “really cool way to reclaim our (the queens) stories”. All the queens in this version agree that something like that would have tied the show together “so neatly”. They all pause for comedic effect, before going into IDNYL part two.

I just,,, I feel like all that dialogue, when put together, hinted to the audience that the queens knew that this wasn’t a concert, but a play about themselves, and that everything was scripted in universe. It was always a fake (or at least, partially staged) competition in the old script.

But I can understand why Toby and Lucy wrote in the competition being faked/ made the competition being faked a more obvious plot point. A lot of people complained that pitting the queens against each other was unfeminist and sort of felt like it went against the point of the show. Having the competition being set up to show that comparing the queens was wrong took away this complaint, as the queens were in on the joke the whole time. BUT if you thought that the competition was genuine in the older version of the script, you might feel that it detracted from the agency of the queens in those final scenes...and I can understand that, as the competition being faked almost negates any character development of the queens outside of their solo numbers.

I hope that explained everything anon! Honestly whether you prefer the show implying that the competition was fake or genuine is just a matter of preference. I don’t mind either version of the script, as they both have incredibly funny lines and, in my own opinion, do make sense in their own ways and have their own strengths as both stand alone scripts and as two versions of the same show.

#six the musical #six #sixthemusical #anne boleyn #katherine howard #catherine of aragon #jane seymour #catherine parr #anne of cleves #anna of cleves #enya discusses: six

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ialreadyreadthatfanfic · 4 years

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So I saw the new Star Wars movie

SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT PEOPLE

First off: I went to a marathon of the whole sequel trilogy with my friends, and I’m glad that I did, because I forgot A LOT.

Mostly how many good memes there were born out of those films.

The Force Awakens evoked pretty much the same feeling it did during the first watching: it’s a good, enjoyable beginning, with a lot of hooks, not a lot of risks, a bit too much resemblance to the original trilogy, but on the whole a promising start.

The Last Jedi, on the other hand. I forgot how effectively this movie killed my interest in Star Wars for a long, long while. The plot is a mess. Most of the characters are unlikeable, because the idiot balls they’re holding are too big to get past them. Main offenders are: Poe, Hondo, Finn and Rose. The unfortunate Casino subplot, which is tiring. The fact that whoever wrote Rose’s character arc (or rather didn’t bother to write it) did the actress massive disservice, because the way Rose “saves” Finn at the last minute is, frankly, rage inducing and makes her character devoid of any shred of consistency. I have a lot of other complaints about this movie, but the storylines not making sense are a common theme, so let’s not rehash the familiar arguments.

Now, onto the main event.

The Rise of the Skywalker was… mostly okay.

For me personally, it would be hard to match the disappointment of TLJ, so this worked to lift the sequel ROTS up. I went in pretty much unspoiled, actually! I heard the “oh they plan to bring Palpatine back” thing back when the first teaser/trailer was released. But after that nothing more.

Number one: Leia.

It’s such a shame that Carrie Fisher didn’t get to act in this movie. There are several scenes with Leia mentoring Rey, but it is obvious the filmmakers went as far as they could with the footage they had available, but could go no further. Some scenes with Luke and Han (Han especially) are obviously done with Mark and Harrison standing in for Carrie.

Number two: Palpatine and the theme of Rey’s legacy.

This is where the lack of overall plan for the sequel trilogy, and subsequent lack of proper foreshadowing in TFA and TLJ hurts the most, probably. So Rey is revealed to be Palpatine’s granddaughter. Her parents chose to abandon her for her own safety and were killed when they refused to give up her location. Okay, that’s interesting backstory. Sadly, after the WHO ARE REY PARENTS… PERHAPS SOMEONE WE KNOW and the OMG PLOT TWIST SHE’S NO ONE AND HE PARENTS DIDN’T CARE FOR HER AT ALL, the third plot twist gets me merely to roll my eyes and sigh heavily. I wish dearly there was more time to develop this storyline. It’s wasn’t ENTIRELY bad, but the whole thing has this feel of “uhhh people were really pissed off after the last one… what can we do to fix it?? Oh shit we kinda killed Snoke too and there is Big Bad Villain missing bc we want to redeem Kylo… you know what?? Palpatine was the big bad in prequels AND in the original… let’s have a dramatic reveal how it was him all along. It will nicely bring the story back full circle, you know” and so they did just that.

Nr two subsection A: the whole Sith legacy/Final Order thing was interesting, but again: too little time to develop it. It should have been tied into First Order and Snoke in previous movies… and the less said about Deus Ex Machina Sith Fleet in which every ship has a planet-killing weapon on board the better. Just don’t thing about it too much PLEASE.

Conclusion: Snoke was Palpatine’s test tube baby experiment? That actually explains a lot…

Number three: redemption of Ben Solo.

Honestly, this one? Is actually a net positive for me! I had so little patience for Kylo Ren as a villain that redemption storyline actually made me like Ben Solo in the last part of the movie (AT LAST). And while two first movies had me uninterested in Reylo to the point of irritation at its prevalence, the last movie actually made me ship it a little! Maybe I’m a sucker for redemption. Maybe I don’t have patience for characters who themselves have no idea why are they doing what are they doing and they kinda maybe might not want to do it but continue to do it because it’s easier than giving it up aaand you get the picture how I saw Kylo Ren. And how glad I’m that Ben Solo at the end got to move past this stage of his character.

Also, the Reylo Force Skype was strong in this one. And how!

Number four: Finn and the Stormtroopers deserters.

Again, this should have been in TLJ. They should have taken this whole storyline about Finn meeting other deserters from First Order out of sequel ROTS and replaced the goddamn casino thing with it in TLJ. Sadly, they only thought of putting it in the script once the fanbase got pissed off about lack of Finn’s character development/his BACKWARDS character development in TLJ.

Consequently, Rose was sidelined. On one hand, it’s a shame. On the other, I’m a bit relieved; after the mess they made of her arc in TLJ, there was no salvaging it. It’s better to let the actress have a few scenes to note that she didn’t just disappear from the plot, but don’t try to aggressively resurrect her plot and make an even bigger mess.

The unintentionally hilarious thing about this point: Finn suddenly comes across as such Casanova. Here’s Rose! Here’s Stormtrooper deserter lady! (sorry, I forgot her name). Here’s a sly hint that he might have feelings for Rey!! Pick a girl, for god’s sake!!!

Nr four subsection A: Poe also got an old flame lady Who Happens To Help Our Heroes. Just so you know that he’s definitely into ladies, you know, just a heterosexual dude… The relationship in the movie is handled actually pretty well – they’re old flames and while Poe wants to rekindle the relationship, the lady is ultimately like “nope” and the Poe does “aw” face and moves on, so pretty classy overall. Just in the context of Finnpoe and great chemistry they had in the first movie? This is such a shame.

Number five: Poe in charge and the Resistance thing.

Poe’s storyline in The Last Jedi totally ruined this for me, sorry. I couldn’t even get all that invested.

Also, it feels at times like the movie wants to have Poe taking up Leia’s legacy, Rey taking up Leia’s legacy, Ben taking up his mother’s legacy and you know what? Leia’s legacy is big. There’s definitely enough to go around! TOO BAD THERE’S NOT ENOUGH TIME IN THE MOVIE TO SHOW ALL THIS PROPERLY YOU KNOW GOD I WISH THERE WAS MORE ABOUT LEIA’S JEDI TRAINING

Number six: the ending.

Rey and Ben fighting together – I was actually finally sold on Reylo at this point. Their fight together in TLJ against Snoke’s guards was pretty cool (one of few good things in THAT movie), and here their shared fight against Palpatine/Knights of Ren (?) was also great.

Palpatine shooting the force lighting into the sky to disable the whole Rebel fleet and friends apparently got someone in the cinema to go “seriously?!” out loud, as my friends report. Enough said.

Rey dying and Ben trying to bring her back to life: this part actually got me really excited. For a moment there I thought that Ben would fail, and the force ghost Anakin would show up to Deliver Some Hard Earned Wisdom About Bringing People Back To Life And How You Can’t Do It and this would be a very satisfying ending to the whole “Ben/Kylo tries to be Just Like Grandpa Vader” storyline. Well, that didn’t happen.

The fact that Ben brough Rey back, then kissed her passionately, and then IMMEDIATELY KEELED OVER DEAD got the whole theatre laughing (me included). Again, enough said.

The “Galaxy Shows Up To Help Out BC The Resistance Asked Twice And They Felt Bad After Ignoring The First Call”: I got it. You want your feel good moment here. Look how happy ending is when the people of galaxy unite together, aww. Sadly, when you think about it for a two seconds more, this is such a bullshit and disservice to Leia, because the implication is that they didn’t pick up when LEIA was calling, but decided to help after all when LANDO asked… What??? Go fuck yourselves.

The ending-ending was ok. Rey, Finn and Poe hugged (aww!). Two ladies kissing in that 0.5 sec long shot are all Disney needs to show how open-minded they are*. That one kiss with Ben was apparently enough to marry Rey into the family, she’s a Skywalker now. Leia and Luke look approvingly on as they force ghost along, that’s nice.

At least people who wanted Rey to have a double blade got what they wanted in the end.

*So it’s actually genuinely good that scenes like these ARE put into cashcow franchises like Star Wars, but I’m hesitant to give Disney too much credit. Knowing them, they’ll just shove one blink-and-miss-it scene in all their movie and claim that’s comprehensive proof of their supportive approach to alternate lifestyles.

#star wars #the rise of the skywalker #sw #spoilers #sequel trilogy #nebra original #also on my dreamwidth #TROS #the rise of skywalker

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raku-fansubs · 5 years

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hi raku! thanks for your hard work! i was wondering how you learned japanese/started doing translations, and if you can share some tips or advice for learning japanese!

Hey there! I’ve answered a similar ask previously so feel free to read that if you’d like to :) However, it’s an endless topic when it comes to learning Japanese so let me elaborate a little more here.

Just to give a bit more insight to what I previously wrote, I first went for private Japanese tutoring classes when I was 12. It was after I started learning the language properly that I became more sensitive with what I was listening to in anime, and that slowly led to me developing a voice fetish and being extremely aware of the spoken speech. I found trailers especially intriguing, the way each line comes in together with the music and the scenes, I was fascinated at the flow of the composition, and how so much emotions and twists could unfold within such a short span of time, it’s able to make me so hyped for shows that I haven’t watched even though I’m not exactly able to understand what they were saying in it. So I really liked reenacting trailer scenes (quoting the lines and singing the insert song at the right timing), but in order to do that, I started a weird hobby of transcribing the lines in trailers: basically, I wrote the lines out in Japanese on a document so that I can “read” from that “script” and memorize them. Oddly enough, that’s how I used to practice the language in my own time. Listening >> Writing >> Learning the words >> Listen again >> Read them aloud >> Memorize it (heh, the last step isn’t needed, it’s just my obsession)

Just “listening” and trying to understand is definitely not enough (in my opinion), there are times when your brain makes its own assumptions of converting words that you don’t know to words that you already know. It’s when I first tried to transcribe what they’re saying in words that allowed me to make new discoveries of varieties of sentence patterns, and I’ll notice how two phrases can sound similar yet their nuances are slightly different depending on the grammar pattern used. I also need to point up that Japanese is an extremely vague language, there are many times where they speak halfway and the other party has to “take the hint” to understand what they’re trying to say. And it’s also extremely delicate in the sense that subtle differences in their intonation make the same-sounding words mean completely different things. It’s a language that requires a lot of contextual understanding of the situation, which is why I think that listening to Kaji all day long may have helped me in my contextual understanding of the things going on around him. So even if he sometimes doesn’t finish his sentence or gets cut-off by someone else when he’s speaking halfway, I will have a rough idea of what he was trying to say (because he would have touched on the topic somewhere else) and still manage to translate what he’s saying in one way or another.

Not to say that my translations are perfect, but I believe that this practice of stalking everything about Kaji and searching up even the most basic Japanese words that I hear may have helped me become less prone to common mistakes (count out my old subs pls). All in all, I believe that being in constant contact of the language is very important, I’m almost listening to Kaji’s radio 24/7 (still in the process of catching up to his 10 years worth of radio programs). I also tend to re-watch or re-listen to events/broadcasts/episodes multiple times, and surprisingly, just listening to the same thing repeatedly can give you an understanding of the word in Japanese without knowing how to write it out or even what it is in English. [However it’s not just about “re-watching,” I find myself repeating after them when they speak, just to confirm that I know what I’m listening to. Don’t get pulled back hearing this, but my expressions change according to whoever I’m translating when I do subbing, like if they’re frowning, I’ll frown too and repeat what they said in Japanese with the same tone, then try find an English equivalent and repeat it with the same tone and expression. But I swear I’m not the only one that mumbles to myself when translating. It’s a process of stepping into their shoes, thinking, does it make sense to say what I understood in this situation? If it doesn’t, I’m probably understanding it wrongly, then I’ll search up any word, even if it’s a simple word I thought I knew.]

Let me give you an example of a word I learnt through re-watching the same thing over and over again, it was a sound that sounded like the English alphabet “V”, they frequently say it when they use Dummy Head Mics, and they’d ask the audience which “V” they should speak from. I cracked my head for ages but could never spell the exact Japanese word, still, I roughly guessed from context that it meant something like “part/direction”, and it was only a few years later that I learnt that it was a terribly. simple. word. ー部位 (bu’i), which did indeed mean “part.” So in cases like this, re-watching content is definitely good. Even if you don’t understand everything the first time you watch it, so long as you take note of the sounds you hear carefully, one day you’ll surely find out, and even while you don’t, you still sort of understand it. Did that example even make sense (-∧-；)

I’m panicking a little that I rambled this much but still haven’t answered your question on how I started doing translations…! Erm, lemme attempt a summary:

I just wanted more friends that would talk to me about Kaji with ╮(╯∀╰)╭

It’s an honour that you’d be interested enough to ask about this but I highly doubt you’re THAT interested in “the story of how Raku became a fansubber” so I’ll keep my answer as short as that :’)

PS. I’ve been putting off the asks in my inbox for months already so I figured I should get to them, but really, feel free to unfollow me this instant if my chunks of texts are annoying you (-人-) Although people may have gained nothing from my answers but I appreciate that they still bother to ask me things, so I’d like to take each ask as seriously as possible. This was kind of long though, I’m not in the mood to proofread so I apologize if some parts didn’t make sense （─∀─）ゞ

#ask raku0925

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loadgs850 · 3 years

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What Does Your Typeface Say About Your Brand?

Fonts perform a great role in your design, so you should know which fonts not to use in your designs. Either in typography or in web page design, the use of proper fonts is a great advantage. Sometimes, designs become disasters just because the font is not used properly or, in some sense, does not fit the occasion.

This calls for the proper selection. For decades, the Internet has constantly provided us with a vast database of fonts, all segregated by variety, style and use.

This lets us choose which to use. Because of this wide variety that we have, it is just fitting to say that nobody can have an excuse why they chose the wrong font. It’s also safe to say that with the liberty each designer has, he should pick the right fonts at the right time.

But some fonts, of course, tend to have become more popular because of their availability. Operating systems like Windows have provided default fonts for the user. It removes the hassle of choosing, downloading and installing them. This convenience has been good because of the easy access of readily available fonts but has become detrimental too because the fonts that were popularly used became cliché. Hence, they are to be avoided.

I tried to make a list of fonts that you should never use again. These were selected because they were too cliché and very hard to put into the design. The essence of this list is not to fully discriminate mainstream and cliché fonts but to properly use them for fitting occasions.

UNLIMITED DOWNLOADS: 400,000+ Fonts & Design Assets

Use of a sans serif signals to customers that your brand appreciates clean lines, has style and is easy to work with. Thinner stroke widths create a trendy vibe, while bolder strokes often feel important. Use a regular weight to take the emphasis off the type altogether, allowing it to fall into the rest of the design.

Sep 20, 2020 Fonts Help Building a Brand Personality. Brand personality refers to the personification of the brand. Adjectives like caring, cool, funny, luxurious, etc. Are associated with the brand because of their brand personality. Fonts have their very own personality and brands can capitalize on it if they use the right type of font for the right content.

Starting at only $16.50 per month!

Your visual brand consists of your colors, fonts, and the style of images you use on your website and in social media. Modernist brands will likely have to re-make their brand image more often than Classic brands to stay ahead of visual trends.

Comic Sans MS

Comic Sans MS is one of the basic Windows fonts installed in your computer as you boot up Windows. Microsoft first introduced this font in 1994. Comic Sans was designed by Vincent Connare as a child-oriented font. Its inspiration was mainly gotten from comic books in Connare’s office (they were Watchmen lettered by Dave Gibbons and The Dark Knight Returns lettered by John Costanza).

According to him, he originally designed the font to be used with speech bubbles and not for general use. But since then a lot of people have fallen in love with this font and it became a cliché.

One main reason why you should stop using this font is it is childish. It lacks formality, though it is used for formal events and announcements (doing facepalm right there). Unless of course you’re running a website for kids, or designing a first-birthday invitation, you could use these kinds of fonts (I said these kinds because you have other choices than Comic Sans).

Never use it for swimming pool rules signboards, grave epitaphs, commemorative plaques, hospitals, government job applications, heart transplant activities, and books.

Never use this font when you are designing for business sites, or warning signs. It might give people an impression that your client is childish and might not take them seriously. Never write DO NOT ENTER in Comic Sans, else, the reader might see it as “Do not enter says stupid childish whoever”.

Use Comic Sans MS only when your audience are below 6 years old (parent-letters not included), when you’re writing speech bubble contents for comics, and when you’re client is dying and his last will and testament said so.

Visit: Comics Sans Criminal

Subtitute Fonts:

Lexia Readable

P22 Kaz Pro

JM Doodle Medium

FF Friday Regular

Sharktooth Regular

Comic Strip

Papyrus

Remember that term paper about Egypt your teacher told you to write? I bet you used Papyrus back then! And I bet too, that you might as well, if you can, forget that shameful design experience.

Papyrus came out in 1983. Chris Costello successfully managed to design it after six months of manual hand-drawing. According to him, it was designed to imitate the pre-modern writing in papyrus leaves.

Be that as it is nobly designed, this font wasn’t really seen in papyrus rolls alone. You can now see it in captchas, advertisements, signboards, banners, books, and even in most typographic designs! It seemed to have been seen everywhere to the point that you might even vomit if you see it again in your page.

This saturation resulted to people hating the font. (For proof, find iheartpapyrus.com.)

Travis Estvold once wrote via blog.echoenduring.com:

“I, myself, hate when people use Papyrus—the font, that is, not the plant or the paper. I’ll be the first to admit it’s a strange thing to detest but whether it’s justified, this loathing is my constant companion. Surely, if someone proclaims the most bothersome part of his day is unearthing new and terrible ways in which locals have used and displayed a particular typeface, he must also be a designer. This is true… I’m not sure when my obsession with the font began, but my poor girlfriend, who has been a party to most of my Papyrus sightings over the past two years, can tell you it’s been building for some time.”

Truly, Papyrus is one of the ‘I-was-used-repeatedly-until-I-became-useless’ type of fonts.

Curlz MT

Okay, I personally loathe this font. Once a classmate of mine used this font in a letter sent to me and I went nuts. My eyes had a hard time reading and I got dizzy and nauseous! To my anger, I wrote him back. Guess what font I used, WINGDINGS! Imagine the hate in his face.

Curlz was originally designed by Carl Corssgrove and Steve Matteson in 1995. They were added into the default Windows fonts and were also originally created for party invitations. This font copied what happened to the Comic Sans Font, it became to mainstream to a point that people got sick and tired of them.

Aside from that, it lacks formality and authority. You can never use it in coat-and-tie events, warning signs and many more because it will just give your readers an impression of a joke. Curlz also has big issues with legibility. Imagine writing a book with Curlz MT font. People who read your book might sing, ‘You spin my head right round right round’. If you want to make your body readable, do not, not even in your drunk days, use this font in the body.

Now this font, too, has become overused. It’s almost everywhere too! Most people think that just because your website caters to women, you have all the right and privilege in the world to use this font.

Actually, the female target market does not oblige you to use Curlz MT. It is very wrong to think that women will fall for cute and curly letters. No, that would never happen. Well you might be able to attract middle-aged ex-cheerleaders who think they are still in middle school. I guess that would make an audience.

Arial

A designer friend of mine once said, if you have Helvetica, use it. Don’t settle for Arial.

According to designworkplan.com, Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders originally designed Arial in 1982. It was widely used as the standard typeface for normal computer usage. It became popular after the release of Windows 3.1 where it was installed as free. After that boom, the usage of the Arial font spread like wildfire across the globe.

People may have liked Arial because it is readily available in the operating system. Of course, the mentality is, why buy an expensive font if you could make do with what you have. The result? Arial explosion. Arial on magazines, on street signs, on banners on advertisements and even in TV! Of course this made most designers sick of it. Also, Arial has no proper and true Italics, which made it difficult for body texts to italicize with style.

Good thing, we can have substitutes for Arial nowadays. We can easily swap this ubiquitous font to make your body texts look new.

First is Verdana. Released in 1996, Verdana is one of the more popular substitutes to Arial because aside from its ready availability, Verdana is easier to read. Second is Tahoma. The Tahoma font was released with Win95 as part of the MS Office. It’s also readily available as Verdana is. Third is Trebuchet MS. Trebuchet MS was released with Windows 2000 and looks more like Verdana.

Courier New

Ever remembered the typewriter? Do you notice the resemblance of the typeface your typewriter produces and the font Courier New? Well, it’s supposed to look like it because it was how Howard “Bud” Kettler thought it to be in 1955. Courier is a slab serif type of font that was originally sold to IBM. It was made to look like a typewriter print because IBM originally made typewriters.

Kettler says that the font was called courier because instead of being a messenger, “a letter can can be the courier, which radiates dignity, prestige, and stability.”

Had it radiated dignity and prestige? I don’t think so. Courier’s stability as a font has been questioned a lot of times. All we know about the courier font is that it is a serif font. But aside from that, nothing. Courier had been suffixed with ‘New’ but I still see nothing new in it.

Courier are used for certain occasions like film scripts, codes and plain text documents. Web designers avoid courier because its lettering is not properly measured and it suggests a more ancient design. Also, because it was originally designed for typewriters, courier font letters have low-resolution and cannot be placed in the body artistically but it does look good with a green background.

What Does Your Typeface Say About Your Brand Name

The Courier font is used on movie scripts, novel manuscripts and other forms of literary art. But in web design it has no place, unless you want your website to look like it’s fresh out of the typewriter.

For font alternatives, try Cousine.

Cousine was designed by Steve Matteson as an innovative, refreshing sans serif design that is metrically compatible with Courier New™. Cousine offers improved on-screen readability characteristics and the pan-European WGL character set and solves the needs of developers looking for width-compatible fonts to address document portability across platforms.

Times New Roman

One of the best updates Microsoft Word had in the past years is its use of a new default font. In previous version, I recall that Times New Roman was the default font used. I personally didn’t like Times New Roman because it’s very hard to read and suggests a mood of laziness in it.

For a fact, Times New Roman was named after the Times of London, a British newspaper. They needed a new body text font for their paper in 1929. They hired a guy named Stanley Morison of Monotyope, a British company. Morison did the job with Victor Lardent as supervisor and eventually named it Times New Roman.

Then on, the font was used in most body texts and has been popularized as it became Microsoft Office’s default font. This led to its status of being cliché. It became so overly used to a point when people found it disgusting and insulting to use.

Most designers see the Times New Roman font as narrow-spaced because they are originally designed for newspapers and though it is formal in nature, Times New Roman’s bold typeface makes it hard to read and thus loses its formality. Spacing has also been a problem for Times.

If you can avoid it, please do. You can substitute with fonts like Concourse, which is a sans serif font which can be used for more formal situations and legalities. Equity is also a good font as it is a combination of classic and convenient designs. Book Antiqua is also a good candidate and has better spacing flexibility than Times.

Bradel Hand ITC

It might come to his senses that Richard Bradley might soon be sick and tired of seeing his handwriting. I mean, it’s literally everywhere. It might even cause him a very serious headache to even see his penmanship!

Richard Bradley is the designer of the seemingly abused Bradley Hand ITC font. According to Microsoft, this font is an informal script- based font. It is characterized as warm and familiar in nature and has a relaxed rhythm typical to the real handwriting.

Being a readily available font, this font has been used to convey a personal touch in the sans-serif font because fonts like Arial and Helvetica cannot do this. Producing a handwritten-like design will make it look like the designer himself bothered to personally write. That is why it was used in a lot of occasions like posters, school announcements, bulletin boards, cards, invitations and even in story books.

But this, sadly, all resulted into chaos as it was turned into a cliché. Aside from this, the Bradley Hand ITC font is ineligible. If you’ll use it for headings and announcements, which should be seen from afar, it will not become visible as it is thin, even if emphasized. Meanwhile, if you’ll use it in the body, your reader will probably go mad because he would not understand the text properly because Bradley Hand’s readability goes lower as it size decreases.

Personally, I wound not suggest any alternative for handwritten fonts because I totally don’t want to use them as they are difficult to place together with other elements in the design. So might as well stick to your Helvetica.

Vivaldi

A guy named Freidrich Peter designed this intricate script typeface. It is very calligraphic and copperplate-ish. Because it is a script font, Vivaldi is commonly used in wedding invitations and other formal events.

Vivaldi is pretty formal and good except that it has problems in spacing. Vivaldi characters tend to get crowded because they are not full scripts, meaning their characters are not woven into one stroke only. For a semi-script, it is very much condensed.

This results to difficulty in reading. Yes, you may adjust the spacing between letters, but I won’t even think of that in semi-scripts. Expanding the spaces will result to inconsistency in the font design.

One more problem I see with Vivaldi is its caps. When you capitalize a whole word in the Vivaldi font, it would be pretty difficult to read and discern the difference between letters. I tell you. Try it if you don’t believe me.

Kristen ITC

Kristen ITC is one of the cutie-patootie fonts. It was designed by George Ryan for the International Typeface Corporation. It consist of two weights and was inspired by a handwritten menu at a Cambridge restaurant. This font is asymmetric and resembles the handwriting of a toddler. Like Comic Sans, this font is targeted to the child target market and was impliedly drawn to attract little children.

Kristen font users are usually grade schoolers, gradeschool teachers, child psychologists, and other people who work for kids. The font is playful in nature. You can almost see it in your children’s classrooms all saying how life should be good and that they eat a lot of vegetables.

What Does Your Typeface Say About Your Brand Say

But Kristen should be pretty much avoided. A designer should always think of the issues this font poses. First is that it is has no formality. Using this font in a legal document could make you lose a case. Second thing, is that Kristen’s non-caps are placed in the middle part of the caps. Unlike other fonts that place the non-cap characters as where the cap character baseline are.

Manual spacing could also be a problem as the spacing of the capitals of the font are difficult to measure since the characters are a little bit curved.

Viner Hand

Viner hand is an informal script font developed from the handwriting of John Viner. I’m pretty sure this font sucks because it has been overused, like the others in this list. Commonly, this font has been abused by angsty teenagers and goth wannabes.

Other Fonts to Avoid Using

Mistral

Impact

Symbol

Stencil

What Does Your Typeface Say About Your Brand Say

Wide Latin

Conclusion

For a designer, originality is everything. Fresh designs should always be produced by his rather queer mind. He should always be innovative with the design trends that happen around him. He should also be experimental in the trends he use for designing.

That is why one must not be satisfied by the fonts present in his computer. He should look and look and look until he finds that font that suits him.

Remember, a good designer has no go-to fonts.

This post may contain affiliate links. See our disclosure about affiliate links here.

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calliecat93 · 6 years

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Lightnign Round Thoughts time! Hard Truths SA! It’s Sarge’s time to shine!

I’m just imagining how the recording session for this went and wondering how much of it was scripted and Matt just improvising like crazy.

If Sarge ever retires for good, he needs to make a Hard Truths Podcast.

The PSA being a trick to ahve an interventionf or Sarge WOW

“But I’m in the htunbmail” IDK why that made me laugh so hard I had to pause the video, bUT THAT MADE ME LAUGH SO HARD I HAD TO PAUSE THE VIDEO.

Donut having lines. Donut having significant screentime and not just for innuendo jokes. Just... just Donut. I missed my son.

Of course Sarge would like being roasted. OF COURSE HE WOULD.

So... is Wash the creative director for the PSA’s? Cause that’s the impression I’m getting and I like it!

Speaking of which, Wash and Carolina! Yay!

“Sit down Simmons!” And Simmons immideatly complies, HA

What do you guys mean everyone did it? Simmons and Tucker didn’t!

I honestly can’t tell if Grif is just being Grif in not outitng any effort into roasting Sarge and giving up, or he is legit just resigned to it. I can't tell if he’s just being him or genuinely disappointed, but the latter was what If felt like. GDI Geoff (I COULD blame the writer but Geoff did the voice acting so I choose to blame him!), quit making me feel sad for Grif!

Caboose is... so pure.

Caboose likes Sarge! Aww! And sure Sarge got mad at not being insulted, but he absolutely was touched! Deny ti all you want Sarge, we know you have feelings!

....okay I saw a post joking that Sarge and Tucker had shared custody over Caboose... but IDC if that was a joke, as far as I’m concerned this made it canon!

Sarge’s breakdown... of course the way to break him was to praise him.OF COURSE. But seriously, I honestly felt pity for the guy. And him not knowing what civilian life is like anymore... I always had that thought and felt part of his motivation in S15 was he just did NOT know how to not be a soldier. This pretty much confirmed that. I never thought that I’d want to hug Sarge, but GDI Red Team Dad needs a hug!

It’s a tiny thing, but Grif and Carolina glancing at each other during the breakdown. I just like their weird friendship, okay (And I... do crackship them... don’t judge me!)? Also since I want Carolina to be a Red and be the older sister figure and I already see Grif as the disgruntled over brother, imagining them dealing with Team Dad Sarge while he’s emotional is too hilarious.

Okay but seriously, Sarge an Caboose bonding. I loved in in Season 3 and that camping PSA and this made me want it again. In S6, just have Sarge say that it’s his weekend to get Caboose, name Caboose an honorary Red, and have them go to some... apocalyptic future since time travel is teased and go all Max Fury or something. DO IT JOE! YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO!

And side note, major kudos to Matt Hullum here. He did EXCELLENT. I mean he’s always done an amazing job voicing Sarge, but he made Sarge’s breakdown both hilarious AND heartbreaking. And again, IDK how much he improvised but the staff have said more than once that Matt LOVES to go on for hours when doing Sarge lines. Either way, great job Mr, CEO!

I. LOVED. IT. IDK what else to say, I loved it. It was both funny AND feelsy! That’s the best kind of content, IDK who wrote this one, but whoever did, I hope they got paid well for it cause they deserved it.

#rvb #red vs blue

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brilliantorinsane · 7 years

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Twitter ARG: A Sort of Summary

I’ve seen a lot of confusion here on Tumblr about what is supposedly going on in the twitter-verse. There’s a reason for that: it’s confusing. It’s vague. It relies on intuitions and moves in fits and starts. But it is also fascinating, compelling, and loads of fun. So for anyone who is interested I thought I’d give it a go, summarizing what is happening and what we think might happen. For starters:

The reason you’re hearing very little concrete information about twitter is: there is very little concrete information about twitter. It is all halls and mirrors. There have been (as far as I am aware) two major instances of people receiving DMs from the twitters: the first was the Dale Pike ‘reveal’ in which she ‘confessed’ and released her ‘script’; and the second prompted worriesconstantly’s announcement that we need to trend Norbury on March 21. But if it’s all so vague, why are putting any stock in it? Well, there are a few good reasons.

1. The show itself pointed us towards twitter in numerous ways.

2. If you’ve been following the ARG theories, you are doubtless aware of the speculation that the John and Sherlock twitters are BBC run. Evidence includes their posting of an original photo that seems like it could only have been taken from a window of the BBC building.

4. Our fellow tumblr-ers who are convinced something is going on. As far as I have seen, there tends to be a direct correlation between the amount of time someone has been digging through this twitter game and how convinced they are that something is happening. Sure, you could call that confirmation bias. Or, like I am inclined to do, you can see it as the collective consensus of those who have the most solid basis for reaching an informed conclusion.

3. The most compelling evidence is the intricacy of what is occurring. Like I’ve said, I’ve only been there two days, but it really is compelling. There’s a network of interconnecting accounts, interacting with each other and with us. Even those who don’t openly communicate display the most curious coincidences in timing. And it’s hard to conceive that they could be fellow-fans—there are too many oblique hints of ‘something coming,’ which would be cruel if they don’t actually know something. To me this feels like a game of ‘BBC or trolls’; and I’d be ridiculously impressed with any trolls who could pull this off, and somehow maintained this level of dedication and interest over such a span of time.

Very well, then. Here are the known players in this Twitter story:

1. The Sherlock and John accounts: These, of course, are the ones tumblr is most familiar with. For the most part, they are just telling an ongoing narrative about their happy existence as a couple—a remarkably frequent and high-quality narrative. However, they have had some meta discussions about stories, about ‘the game’ being a bit harsh but still worth playing . . . It is also worth noting that in their universe Rosie does exist, but the events of TFP apparently do not.

2. Contact_JM, i.e. an account that claims to be Moriarty: This one is also pretty well known around here. He tweets less frequently than the Sherlock and John, but still with impressive dedication. He has not infrequently dropped codes, puzzles, and cryptic clues. Other times he just rambles on in a thoroughly psychopathic-sounding manner.

3. Dale Pike/The Skull/ContactWSSH: Yes, this the Dale Pike who wrote the fics everyone went wild over, released a script they had written, then ‘confessed’ to being a fan and said goodbye. This one concerned me most at first, because I was genuinely concerned that we might be harping on a fan who just made a mistake and wanted to be left alone. The thing is: she didn’t leave. She is still posting fics which are no less meta and suggestive that her previous ones. And she is still using her Dale Pike twitter account—an account created solely for the purpose of . . . whatever it is she is doing. And while using that account she is still being just as openly cryptic and suggestive and interactive as ever—even to the point of resurrecting the old contactWSSH twitter and having a thoroughly mysterious conversation with them. Whoever she is, she has chosen to play this game; she hasn’t been forced into it. And what is she up to? Well, she is the queen of mixed messages. One moment kind and encouraging, the next insulting. Portraying herself as a fan and then claiming some mysteriously privileged status. Declaring she is finished only to begin again. Dropping cryptic hints, ranging from her fanfiction to an eminem music video which concludes with an innocent DVD being replaced by one labeled ‘explicit content.’ She is most likely one of the villains of this narrative.

4. Assorted: Besides these major players there are a few minor players who seem significant—@Bask_in_flies and @HarappaTiger have had brief, cryptic conversations with Contact_JM about executing some sort of plan. @eugenim portrays herself as sort of Eurus/Moriarty hybrid, and interacts like a cross between Contact_JM and Dale Pike: sometimes talking like a fan, sometimes like a psychopathic insider. Besides these, there are a few other potential players that people are keeping eyes on.

5. Creator twitters: there are a few of the Sherlock creators who periodically tweet things that are . . . suggestive, to say the least. Sometimes they are manifestly striking, other times they would passed unnoticed if it weren’t for uncanny timing: Gatiss and the Sherlock account both posting about moors around the same time, for example. The comments on their tweets can also be ripe with suggestion and ‘coincidence’.

Good. Now, finally: What all of this is hinting at:

I’m going to divide this section into two parts. First: What we know (as much as we know anything at this point):

1. The hints and the halls and mirrors cannot yet be assembled into a complete and coherent image. But they insistently hint at a secret episode, a false narrative, and something coming.

2. What has been seen on twitter strongly supports theories about a future fourth-wall break—both in the sense that what is going on in twitter is already breaking the fourth wall, and that it is hinting at some further, more undeniable break.

3. In this narrative, there are good guys and bad guys. Figuring out which is which seems to be part of the puzzle.

4. There are hints that this might be a ‘choose your own story’ ARG: obviously it would end in the release of The Lost Special no matter what we do, but we might have some say in how that happens and what role we play in its release.

5. Whatever is coming is still being only hinted at; it has not yet begun in earnest.

6. Maybe it’s a fluke, maybe it’s intentional, but this past week has felt different. More urgent—like something is coming. (Having just arrived I can’t testify to this one, obviously; but it seems to be the general consensus of those who have been involved long-term).

7. We are supposed to trend Norbury on March 21st—and this time, we will have help. (Okay, we don't technically know this. But again, worriesconstantly assures us that she has good reason to suspect this is the case on the basis of some dms. And seriously, what could she have to gain by making this up? Making people angry at her if nothing happens? There is always the possibility that this is another intentionally false lead from tptb; but worries constantly is certainly trustworthy, and it’s worth a try. Fortunately, #norbury has the added bonus of being worthwhile even if it doesn’t launch anything ARG related).

And finally: What we believe might be coming:

Well, okay, the actual speculations are far too numerous to actually list here. I’m just going to give my personal favorite theory about what might happen if/when the ARG kicks off and the fourth wall collapses for good. However, because this post is getting quite long and this isn’t really an essential part, I’m going to link to a separate post here for anyone who is interested.

In conclusion: What do we do with all of this?

Whatever you want, really. If you’d rather sit back and watch things unfold, go for it. (Although I’d still encourage participating in #norbury even if you are giving twitter theories a wide berth. That’s is a worthwhile project regardless of the ARG; something being set in motion by it would just be an added bonus!) But if you are aching for engagement, learning to navigate this twitter story will give you no end of entertainment and brain-teasers. So if you want to have a good time while potentially participating in making history, give it a look.

And remember, all of this endorsement is coming from someone who attached very little credibility to the ARG until getting on twitter just one day ago. If you’re intrigued, come and see for yourself. You would be most welcome!

@worriesconstantly

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toussainttomove · 7 years

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#WOD AKA Windows Of Displacement. (update)

Greetings to whoever is reading this blog. It is starting to feel like an echo chamber as I haven’t been approached by a kind stranger commenting on my poor use of grammer. Let us put that aside as there has been much positive developments surrounding one self at the moment and it feels good.

Let’s see. So last we spoke I was going into my week @Pure Heart Centre with Zodwa Nyoni. We worked tirelessly- *(not really). To be honest we piped down a lot compared to my anxious expectations, which made me chill out.

I went in head first.......

And was brought to my senses by sitting down and reading the script. The act of reflection, is most powerful when reached through a seemless state. Then the concious refelction can begin.

Looking at the script, disecting it, feeling it, saying it, moving it, keeping it still. All of this allowed myself and Zodwa to write the gaps in the script which helped me bring the piece into moving. This was met actully with a hesitation to fully dance as I didn’t know the new bits fully. However by the time we got to Thursday I felt more with it, more confident and more tired haha. Outside the studio I write demos of what can be parts of the piece. The time with Zodwa on Monday and Tuesday was spent cleaning what I previously wrote and cleaning the new parts I wrote. It was also spent bringing ourselves back up to speed with the piece.

(Zodwa likes pink I think)

The sharing @Pure Heart Centre was purely to spark conversation and that we did. We could have spoken all night. The participants had so much to challenge and expand on the piece. They also confirmed the use of some elements and decisions I made. This put a smile in my heart as I begun to feel that I am on the right road.

The sharing also showed me that I do get nervous and I do know how it feels to be nervous and completely forget what you’re doing in a room filled with some new and old faces. One does crumble when one is feeling nervous, yes one does. I only say this as for the past year and a bit ive toured around the country performing in a company of 11 and in all the nervous moments we styled it out, we backed each other up, our eyes met and all was saved.

For this I am alone, all I have is what myself and others will be creating, there is no safety net. There is only knowing your shit and executing it to the truest of yourself in that moment. For this I base my mishaps on Saturday on the truth that the piece is not finished and will not be fully within it until it is finished.

Slowly though I feel this happening as today I was quoting parts of the piece. I am also realising this work is more than just a dance or theatre piece. It is in a way a manifesto for humanity, a manifesto on how to make small shifts in creating a better world. It is a manuel explaining that it is hard, so hard to change the world but easier yet very hard to make the changes in yourself which will impact the world.

Heres a link to a summary of the sharing filmed and edited by Tom Bosley

youtube

After sharing the piece I then lead my regular workshop @Pure Heart Centre. Never Alone was participated by two amazing invididuals on Sunday 15th of Jan 2017. It was a blast seriously, it was weird going from being in a room with 10-15 people watching me and adding thoughts. To then leading a workshop for two people the next day. Did I promote the workshop? yes Did I tell people the cost? yes Maybe that did it. haha

Anyways it was amazing and I relearned how to do my workshops again. As it has been a while since I last lead people in the Never Alone journey but when I do it is always something quite transformational for me and for them. I get face to face with my fear of leading and they come face to face with their fears; to be seen, or not to be seen, am I funny, does this look good?, why am I doing this? From childhood recollections to adulthood realisations. So much comes up in these workshops so I am feeling it is my duty to take this work furthor.

Leeds is Awesome!!!!

I seriously love this city. I love it so much I am making a film around it. This brings me to today. I did the first day shooting for my Random Acts Comission. The portrait shots of people being people. This entailed people from different walks of life, existing on camera together or alone in some cases and maybe saying a word or two of my poem to the camera. This was fun like super fun. I got to be bossy and not feel guilty about it because time was going andthe clouds were brewing. I felt the day went very well despite the unplanned happenings of seemingly negative nature. There were a lot of positive unplanned stuff too.

I will tell you a moment now but it maybe won’t do justice. We walked up Briggate and I seemlessly stopped behind one of the volunteers without realising. Turns out he was hungry and wanted falafel too on his way to meeting us as we were on our way to meet him. Thing is I forgot he was in the film until I saw him and then it all clicked. I was just happy to see him. Super happy!!!!

We did 3 locations in the space of 4 hours all in this beautiful City. We went to Leeds Bridge, Market Wall and Town Hall. All monumental parts of the city encapsulating the beauty and diversity of the landscape and people in the city.

I cannot wait to film the other parts and get the fim edited and sent to channel 4. Then I can be nervous again haha feels like im goingthrough a series of nervousness and confidence.

It also seems like ive been making a lot of films. I spent 6 hours this week rehearsing and creating for Zodwa Nyoni’s first screen play “Notes on Being A Lady”. This is an independent project which we are doing to keep the ball rolling on a collaborative relationship. My role this time around was movement director and the mover I was directing was Pariss Electra. Musical genius, with a stunning voice (when she sings all the heavens stop and put one fist in the air) and amazing personality, she is definately a soul sister.

Working on Zodwa’s project as a movement director gave me such a rush again because I could be bossy. Deeper than that I was seeing visions in the moment and had the space to bring them to reality, my creative input was valued as I have valued so many in the past. I feel working the way I am working now will allow myself to grow as an artist. No safety net, no director above me. True clear collaboration to sustain this upward motion within and without one self.

I leave you now with this beautiful image taken by Jamal Gerald....

#artlife #love #toussainttomove #dance #theatre #magic #beauty #beats #life #peace #activism #soul

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sibilantly · 7 years

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hi, sib. i just read your fic persistence, and it was so beautifully done that i wanted to drop you a note. your writing has seriously been such an influence on mine, but lately i've been having so much trouble because of my ocd. now i can't read anything without nitpicking the grammar, much less write. it's been this way for months now and i feel like i'm losing my mind. all i ever wanted was to write something good but... well, at least i still get to read something by you. i shall be content.

I’m sorry for the delay in replying, anon. Your message was so thoughtful, but also struck this… almost painfully bittersweet, personal note with me, and I had to take a couple days to reflect.

I’m so happy you enjoyed Persistence - it was a lil 500 word labour of love, but it’s somewhat different from my usual body of work, and I was a bit nervous putting it out there. So I’m delighted you enjoyed it. And it’s quite flattering to hear I’m an influence on your writing, since I feel I’m still learning the craft of writing, in many, many ways. Thank you!

Now, as for the latter half of your message…

Oh, anon.

Nonny non anon, I feel you. I’ve been… well, perhaps not right in your shoes, as I have never had OCD. But I’ve been in the same vicinity, most definitely.

Up until half a year ago, or thereabouts, my writing process was: write out a few paragraphs (if that - sometimes it was barely a paragraph) and then rework them. I would rework them over and over and over, until I felt they were just right. Only then did I feel I could move on. I felt like I was laying the foundations for a house, you know? If I didn’t get the first things laid down just right, then everything that came after would be on shaky ground, might even come tumbling down.

Thing is, writing is more like sculpting. You dig up some clay (your discovery draft or your outline, whatever), you mould it (your first draft), and then you carve and add little bits, over and over (editing. and more editing. and more. fucking editing >.>)

Anyway.

Eventually, I started slowing down, and the threshold of what I could stand before I needed to edit got smaller. It became ‘write a few lines. stop. edit those lines over and over’. And then it became ‘write one line. stop. edit that line over and over’. Rinse, repeat.

It got to the point where I stopped writing completely, for almost half a year, because everything I wrote down was so far from what I envisioned in my head, it was crushing. I had the exact same despairing thought you did: ‘All I want is to write something good’. And if I didn’t write it down, if I kept it in my head, it was good. It was perfect, in fact. Surely that was better (I thought to myself).

I feel you, I feel you, I do.

I wish there was some magic bullet that I could use to erase all those thoughts from you, to divide writing from editing in your mind, because they’re two very different processes. I would… well, I would use it on myself first, because I am human and selfish, but then I would turn it on you, and everyone else who is plagued by this period ;)

But the horrid thing (which I was very, very displeased to realise), is that if you want to write, the only thing you can do in this period is just… push… through it.

It’s the worst fucking epiphany ever. If I got that in a fortune cookie, I’d be fucking pissed. But it’s seriously all there is.

There’s nothing wrong with not wanting to write, if you ultimately decide it’s not for you.

BUT.

If you do want to write, or if there comes a time when you’re not content with reading, and… y'know, you’re willing to indulge me, random fanfic lady on the internet, I want you to do this:

Pick up the pen (or put your fingers to the keyboard, but if you can, I recommend pen because you can’t backspace pen and paper) and eke out some words every day.

It doesn’t have to be a lot. It might just be a sentence.

Whiskyrunner, who we all generally acknowledge to be amazeballs, went through a period where her goal was 10 words a day because she knew she could achieve that.

That’s important. Pick a word count that you know you can achieve, not one you have to push yourself to achieve, because if you fail, you will self-flagellate. Trust me, I have been there. I hated every son of a bitch who recommended ‘write every day’, because for every day I failed to write a page, I’d hate myself a little more, and the joy I found in writing would shrink. (And they’d always recommend a page, or pages, and I’d be like, ‘What, motherfucker? There are some days when I can’t summon up the energy to get out of bed, and you want me to write a page? Pages?’ There should be some script that edits ‘write every day’ to ‘write an amount that’s achievable for you every day, even if it’s one sentence’, I think.)

Write until you hit your word goal or until you’re satisfied, whichever you have the mental energy and fortitude for that day. If there’s a day where you do the latter, don’t fall into the trap of thinking you have to match that the next day. Don’t move the goal posts. Your goal is still (X) words. Everything beyond that is like the stretch goal on a Kickstarter. Nice, but not the main aim.

Next (and this is the hard part - or, at least, it was for me: do nothing.

Don’t tweak them. Don’t delete them. Don’t touch them.

The second you hit your goal, close the doc, close your notebook - whatever you write in. You did it, you achieved the goal, which is ‘(X) number of words’.

Do whatever you need to do to remind yourself of that.

Your goal is not '100 (or 50 or 25 or 10) good words a day’. Your goal is words.

Just words.

To paraphrase Bane: now is not the time for qualitative judgement, only quantitative. Right now, you’re at the 'digging up the clay’ stage of the writing process. You’re just trying to get enough clay to sculpt into some lumpy-looking motherfucker which you will eventually carve down into your nice sculpture.

(Don’t think about the sculpture right now. Think about (X) number of words, and digging up clay.)

There was a point where I did all sorts of objectively bizarre things to remind myself of this, and to outfox my anxiety-ridden brain and its need to edit, including, but not limited to:

- writing on a fresh page each day, even if it meant 90% of the preceding page was still blank

- opening new docs each day to write my daily goal (which I would then have to piece together later, haha)

- using that program - ilys? - that only lets you see the last letter of what you typed

- muttering to myself ‘the goal is (X) words. the goal is (X) words. the goal is (X) words. only the number of words matters. only the number.’

If you’re anything like me (and, hey, I felt your message on a deep level, so I think we’re at least a little alike), you will hate every word you write with this process. You will hate this process, period. You will want to go back and retool the words because holy fuck, what if someone, somehow, gets access to your notes and sees this mess you just eked out? What if you die, and all that’s left to show of yourself as a writer is this half-written piece of shit?

(Okay, maybe that last fear is just me.)

Still. This is normal.

But how you feel about your writing immediately after writing it is not an objective, accurate measure of how good it is. You’ll be tired, you’ll be stressed, you’ll be comparing it to the image you have in your head and thinking about how far apart they are and despairing.

Stop there.

Close the doc (or the notepad, or the notebook, or turn over the post-it note (I did that at one stage, too - writing on post-it notes, haha)). You did it, you wrote the words. You dug up some clay. No one will see them but you, and whoever you choose to show them to. You can edit them later. You can make them better, or throw out whole paragraphs or whole pages if you need to. But later. Only after you finish the draft, however many new pages or new docs (or post-it notes) it takes.

Try to be kind to yourself. It’s so damn hard, I know it is, but try to remind yourself that what you wrote for the day does not define you as a writer. Even the finished, edited work does not define you. It just shows what you were capable of writing in that moment, on that day, at that point in time.

I can’t guarantee this will work for you. But there is something to be said for habit, for retraining one’s brain (to a certain extent). If you do want to try writing again, and you try this, anon, know that I’ll be proud of you, and I’ll salute you for the very act of trying.

Much love,

Sib

(P.S.: Here, I recovered a partial copy of the very first draft I wrote of Persistence. I don’t know where the rest is (on paper, probably), but hopefully it’s enough for you to see the difference between draft and finished work, and to… idk, have a good chuckle, maybe, but hopefully feel reassured, too ;). We all write shitty first drafts. They’re the clay that you mould into something better.)

They’re two levels down, in a sunny, light-filled build meant to evoke the mark’s childhood home and favourite holiday spot, when the windows and the door and the fucking walls blow in, and a SWAT team swarms in like a tide of gun-toting ants.

(DUST, STUFF FLYING EVERYWHERE. YELLING. CHUNK OF PLASTER GOES FLYING TOWARDS EAMES.)

Eames ducks, which means the chunk of plaster misses him, but, unfortunately, takes out Cixin, their extractor, with a wet crunch. They’ll have to work on Cixin’s spatial awareness later, Eames thinks.

The SWAT team levels their guns at the remainder of Eames’ team. Even a few years ago, Eames might’ve considered running. Now, he just raises his hands, gets down on the ground when ordered to.

Everyone else runs.

There’s sporadic gunfire, the sound of running footsteps, truncated screams and cut off swearing as Eames’ team is violently kicked out, one by one.

Eames stays where he is until silence reigns.

(FOOTSTEPS, A GUN MUZZLE AGAINST EAMES’ BACK, BUT NO SHOT COMES.)

Eames peeks upward, just in time to see the leader of the SWAT team yanks his mask off, revealing Arthur’s exasperated, sweaty face.

“I can’t believe you’re working today, of all days,” Arthur says. “I should probably shoot you just for that.”

“But you won’t.” Eames rolls over onto his back, smiles his most charming smile as he gets to his feet. “And you have to admit it’s somewhat fitting, me working today.”

Arthur smiles fondly, diluting the exasperation. “Maybe.” He looks Eames up and down. “You look good.”

“You’re lying, but thank you,” Eames says. He nods at Arthur’s outfit. “That looks good on you.”

Arthur is inspecting his outfit. “You know, this wouldn’t be a bad disguise, if you were working on an opposing team. Make the other team think you’re the mark’s militarisation–”

“Stop right there.”

“What?” Arthur says. “Worried you’ll be tempted away from the side of the angels?”

“Worried I’ll be tempted away from my regular paycheck, anyway,” Eames says, sniffing.

Arthur chuckles, then nods upward. “Are they going to give you the kick soon?”

“Not just yet. They’re probably debating whether or not I’ve gotten to the safe or not.”

“You need to get on top of that,” Arthur says. “You can’t have your team hesitating over what to do next on live jobs.”

#anon #anon reply #long post #text post #very very long post #navel gazing #writing #writing is hard #do it anyway

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soporificsoap · 7 years

Text

Into the Dream

You can tell this was the last one I wrote the night before it was due. It was more a bit of fantasy fulfillment since the guy I liked at the time (good lord that was like 5 years ago...) was named Max. I needed one more page and this is what came out.

I once heard a hypothetical question: If you could watch your dreams like a movie, but had to watch them with your closest friends and family, would you? You can’t prescreen them either. Think about that. Can your loved ones handle a glimpse into your head? Can you?

So I find myself…somewhere. I couldn’t tell you where. Last place I could tell you where I was, I was in a lab waiting for them to start an experiment. Not on me, heavens no! My friend, Max, had volunteered to be the first “Dream gateway”. Scientists have figured out how to “see” into dreams. It’s complicated egg-head stuff that I don’t understand. They had strapped Max down and put a “Dream Portal” on the back of his neck. It’s a small disk, about the size of a hockey puck that has steel prongs sticking out of it. They take a rubber mallet (not even joking) and SMACK, into the back of your neck it goes. Like I said, Max had volunteered to be the first person they tested this contraption on. Rats were the only ones they had tried it one before, but rats don’t have very interesting dreams.

Let me retrace my steps; I was in the lab. They were setting Max up with wires and every sort of life support. I was there just in case things went wrong. I went to talk to him. I tripped…grabbed a wire to stop myself from hitting the ground... and then… I woke up here. This weird grey room. I think it’s a room. The weirdest part; I was standing up when I opened my eyes. There are no scientists, no medical equipment, and no Max. The walls are blurry, like my eyes won’t focus. I’m starting to think there are no walls. And is it just me or is everything…pulsing? Steady like a heartbeat. The air moves with it. BUHBUMP. BUHBUMP. BUHBUMP.

What’s going on?!?!?!?!

I look down at myself. I’m not wearing the same clothes as before; my usual jeans, t-shirt and sneakers are missing. Now I have on a nice blouse, some dress pants and no shoes. Whoever dressed me has no fashion sense. Everything looks intact though with the exception of my hands. They’re soft and really small, like baby hands! Something occurs to me. There was a spike of interest in lucid dreaming a couple of months ago and one of the techniques to test if you were dreaming was to look at your hands. Dream hands apparently don’t have much function.

So, I am in Max’s dream. Explains the clothes; he can’t even dress himself. Now what? And where is Max? Maybe he’s not dreaming yet, he had only just started to doze when I tripped. “Hope the show starts soon” I say to myself. As if on cue, the room changes from dull grey to a light pink, then to a deep blue. The colors start to blend and swirl like a light show. Little orbs of light start floating around the room, wildly flinging themselves in different directions. I thought dreams were supposed to be peaceful! The colors and orbs slow down. The wall takes on a beige color, well... blurry beige. The orbs start to morph into various objects while still changing colors; a couch, a table, pictures on the wall, and a fridge. The room starts to look familiar. It’s Max’s apartment.

Things look pretty similar to the real apartment, only cleaner. Only in his dreams could his apartment be this clean. The furniture is still slightly changing colors when a big orb starts to form in the middle of the room. It starts to change form, starting with the legs, then the arms, then his head. It’s a multicolored Max. Once he stops flashing greens and oranges, his clothes take shape. He’s dressed in a green plaid jacket and jeans with no shoes, the usual for him. Why does he get to look normal?

He opens his eyes and suddenly, the room is dark. There’s a beam of light, sort of shaped like a slice of pie where he’s looking. As he looks around the pie slice moves with his line of sight. The wedge of light moves over me and Max smiles at me from across the room. Wait. Is it just me or is something glowing? I look at my baby-hands and see that my skin is glowing like someone is holding a flashlight under my skin. Is this normal? I guess anything goes in dream land. I look back up at Max and he has the strangest look on his face, one of love.

He and I have an almost parent-child relationship. He screws up, I fix it. We work together and so I have plenty of chances to fix his mistakes, but we get along well. We’ve known each other for years and not once has he ever shown any kind of “more than friends” attitude toward me. The look on his face would suggest otherwise. He moves toward me, arms out as if to hug me. I try to move, but my arms open up against my will. It’s as if I’m being forced to play out the script of this dream. He hugs me and my arms wrap around his torso. I keep trying to fight it but it just can’t. I give up and move on to trying to convince him that he is dreaming but my mouth is already busy saying, “Max, my love!” I didn’t say that! I did but I didn’t! This isn’t me. I must be clashing with Dream-me. Is this how dream-me always acts??

Max and dream-me are now looking at each other eye to eye. This is seriously uncomfortable. The two love birds lean in for a kiss and I’m struggling as hard as I can. In my head I’m screaming “This is a dream! You are dreaming, Max! WAKE UP!” One of my attempts miraculously breaks through and escapes just moments before our lips touch. I see his eyes widen and he moves back. Suddenly, the furniture and the walls start changing colors. Max’s hands are losing shape. The whole room is morphing and flying around again. I start to get tunnel vision and the room is reeling.

Just before everything goes dark, I hear Max say, “I love you.”

I open my eyes and violently sit up. I’m lying on a couch back in the lab. One of the scientists is leaning over me with one of those eye flashlights pointed at my right eye then my left.

“She’s regained consciousness” He tells one of the nurses. “Miss, you pulled out one of the wires to the dream portal and were electrocuted. You’ve been out for quite some time. How do you feel?”

“I was there. I was in the dream! In Max’s Dream.” I say nearly hysterical.

“Miss, Max never went to sleep. You broke the connection and we had to postpone the experiment. You must have been dreaming yourself.”

So what did I see? Was that my dream? Max is standing over me with a relieved grin and says “I was going to tell you later, but you might electrocute yourself again. I’m getting married.”

#creative writing

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