I think 90% of my gripes with how modern anime looks comes down to flat color design/palettes.

Non-cohesive, washed-out color palettes can destroy lineart quality. I see this all the time when comparing an anime's lineart/layout to its colored/post-processed final product and it's heartbreaking. Compare this pre-color vs. final frame from Dungeon Meshi's OP.

So much sharpness and detail and weight gets washed out and flattened by 'meh' color design. I LOVE the flow and thickness and shadows in the fabrics on the left. The white against pastel really brings it out. Check out all the detail in their hair, the highlights in Rin's, the different hues to denote hair color, the blue tint in the clothes' shadows, and how all of that just gets... lost. It works, but it's not particularly good and does a disservice to the line-artist.

I'm using Dungeon Meshi as an example not because it's bad, I'm just especially disappointed because this is Studio Trigger we're talking about. The character animation is fantastic, but the color design is usually much more exciting. We're not seeing Trigger at their full potential, so I'm focusing on them.

Here's a very quick and messy color correct. Not meant to be taken seriously, just to provide comparison to see why colors can feel "washed out." Top is edit, bottom is original.

You can really see how desaturated and "white fluorescent lighting" the original color palettes are.

[Remember: the easiest way to make your colors more lively is to choose a warm or cool tint. From there, you can play around with bringing out complementary colors for a cohesive palette (I warmed Marcille's skintone and hair but made sure to bring out her deep blue clothes). Avoid using too many blend mode layers; hand-picking colors will really help you build your innate color sense and find a color style. Try using saturated colors in unexpected places! If you're coloring a night scene, try using deep blues or greens or magentas. You see these deep colors used all the time in older anime because they couldn't rely on a lightness scale to make colors darker, they had to use darker paints with specific hues. Don't overthink it, simpler is better!]

Warning, AI rant ahead. Gonna get long.

So I read this post about how people using AI software don't want to use the thing to make art, they want to avoid all the hard work and effort that goes into actually improving your own craft and making it yourself. They want to AVOID making art--just sprinting straight to the finish line for some computer vomited image, created by splicing together the pieces from an untold number of real images out there from actual artists, who have, you know, put the time and effort into honing their craft and making it themselves.

Same thing goes for writing. Put in a few prompts, the chatbot spits out an 'original' story just for you, pieced together from who knows how many other stories and bits of writing out there written by actual human beings who've worked hard to hone their craft. Slap your name on it and sit back for the attention and backpats.

Now, this post isn't about that. I think most people--creatives in particular--agree that this new fad of using a computer to steal from others to 'create' something you can slap your name on is bad, and only further dehumanizes the people who actually put their heart and soul into the things they create. You didn't steal from others, the AI made it! Totally different.

"But I'm not posting it anywhere!"

No, but you're still feeding the AI superbot, which will continue to scrape the internet, stealing anything it can to regurgitate whatever art or writing you asked for. The thing's not pulling words out of thin air, creating on the fly. It's copy and pasting bits and pieces from countless other creative works based on your prompts, and getting people used to these bland, soulless creations made in seconds.

Okay, so maybe there was a teeny rant about it.

Anyway, back to the aforementioned post, I made the mistake of skimming through the comments, and they were . . . depressing.

Many of them dismissed the danger AI poses to real artists. Claimed that learning the skill of art or writing is "behind a paywall" (?? you know you don't HAVE to go to college to learn this stuff, right?) and that AI is simply a "new tool" for creating. Some jumped to "Old man yells at cloud" mindset, likening it to "That's what they said when digital photography became a thing," and other examples of "new thing appears, old people freak out".

This isn't about a new technology that artists are using to help them create something. A word processing program helps a writer get words down faster, and edit easier than using a typewriter, or pad and pencil. Digital art programs help artists sketch out and finish their vision faster and easier than using pencils and erasers or paints or whatever.

Yes, there are digital tools and programs that help an artist or writer. But it's still the artist or writer actually doing the work. They're still getting their idea, their vision, down 'on paper' so to speak, the computer is simply a tool they use to do it better.

No, what this is about is people just plugging words into a website or program, and the computer does all the work. You can argue with me until you're blue in the face about how that's just how they get their 'vision' down, but it's absolutely not the same. Those people are essentially commissioning a computer to spit something out for them, and the computer is scraping the internet to give them what they want.

If someone commissioned me to write them a story, and they gave me the premise and what they want to happen, they are prompting me, a human being, to use my brain to give them a story they're looking for. They prompted me, BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN THEY WROTE THE STORY. It would be no more ethical for them to slap their name on what was MY hard work, that came directly from MY HEAD and not picked from a hundred other stories out there, simply because they gave me a few prompts.

And ya know what? This isn't about people using AI to create images or writing they personally enjoy at home and no one's the wiser. Magazines are having a really hard time with submissions right now, because the number of AI generated writing is skyrocketing. Companies are relying on AI images for their advertising instead of commissioning actual artists or photographers. These things are putting REAL PEOPLE out of work, and devaluing the hard work and talent and effort REAL PEOPLE put into their craft.

"Why should I pay someone to take days or weeks to create something for me when I can just use AI to make it? Why should I wait for a writer to update that fanfic I've been enjoying when I can just plug the whole thing into AI and get an ending now?"

Because you're being an impatient, selfish little shit, and should respect the work and talent of others. AI isn't 'just another tool'--it's a shortcut for those who aren't interested in actually working to improve their own skills, and it actively steals from other hardworking creatives to do it.

"But I can't draw/write and I have this idea!!"

Then you work at it. You practice. You be bad for a while, but you work harder and improve. You ask others for tips, you study your craft, you put in the hours and the blood, sweat, and tears and you get better.

"But that'll take so looooong!"

THAT'S WHAT MAKES IT WORTH IT! You think I immediately wrote something worth reading the first time I tried? You think your favorite artist just drew something amazing the first time they picked up a pencil? It takes a lot of practice and work to get good.

"But I love the way [insert name] draws/writes!"

Then commission them. Or keep supporting them so they'll keep creating. I guarantee if you use their art or writing to train an AI to make 'new' stuff for you, they will not be happy about it.

This laissez-faire attitude regarding the actual harm AI does to artists and writers is maddening and disheartening. This isn't digital photography vs film, this is actual creative people being pushed aside in favor of a computer spitting out a regurgitated mish-mash of already created works and claiming it as 'new'.

AI is NOT simply a new tool for creatives. It's the lazy way to fuel your entitled attitude, your greed for content. It's the cookie cutter, corporate-encouraged vomit created to make them money, and push real human beings out the door.

We artists and writers are already seeing a very steep decline in the engagement with our creations--in this mindset of "that's nice, what's next?" in consumption--so we are sensitive to this kind of thing. If AI can 'create' exactly what you want, why bother following and encouraging these slow humans?

And if enough people think this, why should these slow humans even bother to spend time and effort creating at all?

Yeah, yeah, 'old lady yells at cloud'.

I've been meaning to make more posts about this, but there's so much i have to say/images to show that this will be a part 1 out of ??? and this one focuses mainly on the first batch of Purple Iris watercolors and the pH mystery they made me unravel through chaotically-organized researching.

Basically, I've been messing around with anthocyanins, a common class of plant pigments that are pH sensitive/can be used as a pH indicator. The first source I've tried has been purple irises, which i've only vaguely been familiar with in the past. The ones I picked were the ones that had begun to shrivel slightly, to the point where they were still a deep purple but picking them they would almost be leaking a purple liquid that stained my hands. I put them in a thing of hot tap water (not boiled, just the hot setting on the faucet), enough to cover the flowers, and let them steep. they began changing the color of the water almost immediately, with the fresher ones not losing their color as quickly as the ones that had begun to wilt on the plant. within 30 minutes i decided it was extracted enough.

This left a strong purple in the water, which i then poured off into three other containers, two of which i would alter the pH of.

The purple is due to delphinidin, a type of anthocyanidin that forms the building blocks of anthocyanins. Note i italicize the word anthocyanidin just so it's easier to tell apart the two.

there are anywhere from 16-31 anthocyanidins depending on what source you find, but they are basically the backbone structure of anthocyanins, of which there are over 600 something. The main thing that turns an anthocyanidin (aglycon) into an anthocyanin (glycoside form) is a sugar attached to it.

Realistically, that distinction isn't useful when simply extracting things from flowers in hot water, but i thought it was a fun fact to note. Anthocyanidins also come in handy for knowing what builds the anthocyanins in your flowers/plant part;

cyanidin (30%), delphinidin (22%), and pelargonidin (18%) make up the base for a good majority of all the anthocyanins in plants (~60% collectively),

peonidin, malvidin, and petunidin being runnerups (20% collectively)

the 20-something remaining anthocyanidins make up the rest

So basically, they all have slightly different colors that are pH reactive, and can provide anything from red to pink to orange to purple to blue. But, for our purposes, if you have a blue/purple flower, that likely means it has some amount of delphinidin-based anthocyanins in it! there can also be more than one anthocyanidin type present in the same plant.

Other well-known sources of anthocyanins are grape skins, red cabbage, red onions, butterfly pea tea, and purple violets. However, they're also very abundant in many many other plants, these are just the common ones i can think of that lots of people are probably familiar with to some degree.

Fun fact, grape skins are actually really well-studied as far as anthocyanins go (i believe they mainly have malvidin-based ones) because they're so important for the coloration of wine! Anthocyanins as a whole are also studied as a natural source of food dyes, along with other flavonoids such as carotenoids.

As for why it turns colors, this is because of the way the anthocyanin changes structure in different pHs. The short answer is it turns red/pink in low pH (acidic) conditions, purple in slightly acidic/neutral conditions, and blue/green in slightly high pH conditions.

The long answer is something I'll explain in a moment, but for now here's the acid/base colors:

(on the left, i altered it with vinegar and it became a bright magenta color; on the right, i altered it with baking soda and it became a sea green/blue cyan that refused to show up accurately on camera). That's one thing I've noticed, and others have too, is that when working with pigments (especially natural ones) the color accuracy of the camera often just completely fails. there's only so many colors a digital camera can capture!

Here's a slightly more accurate color due to different lighting, note how it's more a malachite green than a pure blue. off the bat this was interesting becuase I wasn't expecting as green of a liquid as i got.

Anyways, the first thing i did with them was use them as-is, no alterations past the addition of the respective vinegar and baking soda. I painted with them just as one would paint with watercolors, and interestingly enough, when i put them onto paper, they began to change from their pink/purple/malachite colors to a teal/indigo/emerald set instead.

This seems to be the result of something in the paper itself, likely calcium carbonate (which i only recently learned is added to "buffer" paper against acidic substances; the cellulose in paper is more stable long term when there's no acid present, and the calcium carbonate neutralizes any acids applied to a degree).

It's still interesting that even though the acids are neutralized, they give a unique color when compared to the basic paint.

I also tried soaking some of the same paper in vinegar water, which got rid of that buffer and let me paint with the pinks intact, but that's for another post.

Also, note that i said "neutral" for the middle, this is just what i wrote down for the tap water sample; in actuality the tap water is actually a bit closer to pH 6 instead of a true neutral 7, which i only found out after i had gotten this far. So whenever i say "neutral," i mean "tap water that's slightly acidic"

Here's something interesting that happened, though. Overnight i left the jars on my desk, and while the acid and neutral colors were the same when I came back ~24 hours later, the basic had degraded into a murky brown. this was interesting since that meant the instability was pH-dependent.

So, i made another color swatch with the acid/neutral/base, and used that as a comparison to look at how it had changed. Surprisingly, it painted out a yellowy-green instead of a murky gray-brown

here's the murky water that the once-malachite-green turned into:

I also poured off a bit into another container, and shifted it back into a low pH with a bit of vinegar to see if it would still change color. Surprisingly, it turned a slight pink, like pink lemonade, which means there were still anthocyanins in there but they were likely a lot less concentrated than they used to be.

Here's the pink, with a few leftover bubbles from the baking soda/vinegar reaction:

Here's the results of painting with these:

the acid was basically unchanged after sitting in a jar for 24 hours, the neutral had lost a bit of its purple color but was still about the same, and the base was now a lot yellower/tanner with a bit of green still showing through. The shifted sample was a pale stormy gray that ended up taking on a green color as it dried, as though following the trend of pink shifting to a bluer color but on a much more muted scale.

Now obviously, i wanted to figure out what caused this, so i dug around both on wikipedia and other sites but found myself eventually reading into scientific papers on the topic, at which point it became very clear that i would need to learn like, organic chemistry and such to be able to say for sure what was happening.

I did eventually manage to figure out a few things despite the dense terminology; for one thing, anthocyanins are more unstable than other plant pigments such as carotenoids. there are plenty of things that can affect their stability, including the pH of the substance they're stored in. Any higher than pH 7 (basic pHs) and theyll begin to degrade. This explains why the high pH sample lost its blue/green color, and why there was very little left to be shifted back to a pink color.

I also found out that the pH color shift isn't as simple as it seemed. Rather, there are multiple chemical forms of anthocyanins.

At the lowest pHs, basically all of them are in the "flavylium cation" state, which basically means it's positively charged and this is what gives a red color

still at a low pH (2-4), there's anothe chemical form that appears, the "quinoidal" structure that gives a blue color. Note that the red cation is still present, just no longer the only form

the more the pH rises, the more forms start to coexist, with some of those forms being colorless (one of which is a "colorless carbinol"

so, between 4 and 6 there are the cations (red) quinoidal (blue) carbinol (colorless) and something called a chalcone that gives a pale yellow

and then past that, I'm unsure, but of course that's around when the anthocyanins begin to degrade

There are also a lot more than these that i've encountered in various contexts but these seem to be the basic ones.

Do note that i do not fully understand these terms (flavylium, quinoidal, carbinol, chalcone, etc.) and have only recently begun to actually try to learn what they mean and the context surrounding them as i only had a class of basic high school chemistry under my belt prior to this. The main paper i combed over to try to find info on it seems to be behind a paywall but the DOI is:

doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2008.09.001

for anyone curious and able to access it, whether through legit means or what have you.

That being said, to me, the takeaway here seems to be that there's a yellow form that appears around the time that other color forms begin to disappear, and as those degrade it makes sense that the resulting degraded forms also contribute to a murky color. This helps explain why it changed color in the jar and also retained a bit of yellow and green.

This also explains why the blue form seems to also be slightly green, it's got the blue quinoidal chemical form as well as the yellow chalcones.

There are also interesting things of note that I will get into at a later date, such as the texture/reflectivity of the way it dries, the differences in extraction ease between this and purple violets, the addition of a genuinely neutral/pH 7 sample later, a sample from a plant that doesnt seem to have delphinidins, and sample the seems to genuinely sparkle??? Much more of interest to come soon!

I wanna say a few things about Synthesizer V, because a lot of vocal synth fans, especially of mainly Vocaloid and UTAU, tend to misconstrue intent when it comes to wishing for vocals to migrate or cross-platform on the engine.

-It isn't about 'realistic,' or at least for the most part. It isn't about disliking their classic robotic sound just because of progress. I'm gonna say it- I do dislike Vocaloid 6. I don't think that's an unpopular opinion. But I don't hate Vocaloid in general, and want badly for the software to improve.

Banks like Gumi and Una got smoother transitions and (bad) crosslang... at the cost of getting put through a white noise factory. Their V4s were much clearer and even Gumi V3 English was far more reliable, while their V6 updates sound as though someone in the recording booth is rubbing styrofoam and the mic lacks a pop filter. Supposedly in the name of the iconic 'Vocaloid sound' that the type of engine noise doesn't even resemble. And for those who like the robotic sound and don't like SynthV because it's not, I've got news for you- you can have it without the fuzz.

For one, you can tune robotically in SynthV very easily. Tune entirely manually like any non-AI program, and since there's very little of that metallic twang, certain effects just move to mixing. Rather than taking out the sound of engine noise, it's putting certain things back in instead, which is a lot easier to do than the inverse- and the option of keeping things sounding more natural and clean without all that work is a huge bonus for people who don't think that sound fits their taste or style.

I personally love robotic-sounding vocals. But a clean, clear, and fluent base render output is essential to get the most out of your sound. I love Eleanor Forte R1/lite because that's what she is. Clean, clear, and fluent. But not realistic in any sense, unless compared to previous vsynths. She's probably just an Arpasing bank with higher render quality, but she's amazing regardless. And free too!

-Accessibility. SynthV is very accessible and easy to pick up. There's a limited version to try it out and make projects at the cost of fancy features that even allows commercial use, and many voicebanks have lite versions also with limited features and no commercial use. There aren't time limits on trying out the program- and just like Vocaloid, if you tune something with one vocal you can send it to a friend to render with another. Having lite voices to work with a lower quality version of the same voice that will render it means you actually know for the most part what you'll get, save for a couple quite old exceptions.

And when you do want full versions, it's dirt cheap. It's cheaper than Cevio, and far moreso than Vocaloid or Piapro. The two most expensive voicebanks on the program convert to roughly $120USD, and they're known for their special features and high quality. Most are 60-90 for digital, and SynthV voicebanks are feature-rich with the equivalent to appends already built in.

Full versions of AI voicebanks (the current gen) are also multilingual with little quality loss between languages, mainly just an accent. No need to purchase a separate English voicebank with no appends or deal with extremely clunky input and tuning. Currently four- (soon five!!) are options usable for any voice. Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, English, and when testing is done, Spanish will go from being exclusive to one bank to fully available.

It's also just generally very user-friendly. Especially if you dip your toes in with the basic editor before being barraged with all the features of pro, everything is laid out simply. While the UI could use a minor revamp because it's getting crowded and being able to resize the sidebars would be nice, there isn't really anything bad to say about it. As someone who'd hardly touched vocal synths myself, I knew how to work it in hours.

Oh, the autopitch. This one is contentious. There is a certain laziness to doing plug-n-play on a cover and calling it a day, just like with any other vocal synth. However, on originals, or working with it to make sure the voice cooperates, more time can be spent on phonemes, parameters, and mixing. Calling SynthV bad because it's just 'too easy' is gatekeeping vocal synths, plain and simple. Being able to make what you want without having to manually make every single pitchbend or fight with the program before getting to do anything more interesting is a way to make people more creative, not less.

-In regards to people complaining about the updates- aside from Stardust because of her limited copies and discontinuation, previous versions are still there! Dreamtonics doesn't give companies or individuals predatory contracts that force them to stop distributing older products with the same VP or wait for years to move. They're okay with their voices being on multiple engines and still supported. You'll still get your UTAU Teto, Renri, Oscar and XYY, Cevio Rose, Popy, and Kafu, and Vocaloid Gumi, Sora, Miki, and Kiyo. And you'll get your SynthVs!

Synthesizer V, Voicepeak, and Dreamtonics are not turning into a monopoly. Vocaloid still has tenure and the current version has a backlog spanning back to V3. Cevio has some heavy hitters that make it huge in Japan. Ace Studio is big in China and has the Vsingers. If you see characters coming to SynthV, that speaks of the quality of the program and its capabilities of bringing a wider audience. It has naturalness for those that want it, high quality render output, expressiveness, fluent English for marketing to the west, and Windows, Linux, and Mac support. There's nothing wrong with wanting options, and the companies know this. It's broadening the market, not vice versa.

Every Record I Own - Day 777: Lungfish Feral Hymns

One thing I prefer about books over movies is that you always have a tactile sense of where you are in the narrative. More specifically, you can gauge how much longer the story goes on by the thickness of the remaining pages, whereas with a movie you are just sorta adrift in the arc unless you're carefully monitoring the clock. It's also why I prefer LPs to digital formats. It's easier to digest and process an album if you know you're nearing the end of side 1 versus somewhere in the depths of a 70 minute audio stream.

There's something similar in digesting an artist's catalog when they have a set number of albums versus an ongoing career. Lungfish's final album, 2005's Feral Hymns, likely sounded a little different to the die-hards who bought the album upon its release than it does to folks like me who only picked it up after the band had slipped into an indefinite hiatus. We now know this was the band's swan song, and you can't help but hear it accordingly.

As with their previous album Love Is Love, Sean Meadows returns on bass guitar after his absence post-Indivisible. He brings his loud and blown-out style back into the fold, nudging the band back into their more heavy-handed approach, as opposed to the more adventurous and dynamic sound of the late '90s. In many ways, it feels like the evolution of the band's sound has cycled back to an even more rudimentary approach. The songs have the simplicity of yesteryear rockers like The Troggs or The Kingsmen, where one deliciously ham-fisted riff is enough to fuel an entire song. The arpeggiated chords and meticulously plucked melodies from their instrumental vignettes are kept to a minimum this time around (though still heard on "Picture Music" and "Interdimensional Seams"). Lungfish were here to make their statement and leave.

Maybe Lungfish didn't know this was their last endeavor, and maybe the straightforward nature of Feral Hymns wasn't meant as a visceral climax as much as it was simply the material they had at hand. But in 2023, with the added benefit of being able to absorb the beginning, middle, and end of the band's lifespan, the no-frills approach and authoritative songwriting feels like deliberate closure. Even the album's title seems to put a cap on the band. Feral Hymns is arguably the most apt description of what Lungfish created: a wild, uninhibited noise that still somehow exuded a sense of reverence with the universe and an attempt to tap into the invisible bonds between us.

I'll be honest, Feral Hymns is not a good entry point into the band's canon for the uninitiated. But it may be the best possible exit, for once you've grown attuned to the band's tactics, the album translates as a concentrated distillation of their sound, an intoxicating and transportive toast to a completed life cycle. In particular, the latter half of the album feels like a triumphant stroll through the twilight years. The tempo never raises above a resting heart rate. Higgs sounds less unhinged and snide, more celebratory and reflective. There isn't as much here that will trigger your adrenaline or make your hair stand on end. Instead, it feels like a wistful winding down.

Feral Hymns feels like that last slim fraction in the novel you're reading. The driving conflict has come and gone, but every word on every remaining page is just as important as the words that built up to that apex. And perhaps they're even more important, because these are the words that tie everything together and creates cohesion to the larger story. Death gives life meaning. And Feral Hymns provides closure to the book of Lungfish.

SENSE AND OTHER SPECIFIC HEADCANONS.

what does your muse smell like? the vaguely fruity and somewhat hard-to-catch scent of his pomade and hairspray, combined with varying colognes/perfumes (he has many, and his choice of scent for the day changes often). well-worn leather if he's wearing his trademark leather vest, which he often does. there can be a light hint of faded cigarette smoke, too, or alcohol.

what do your muse's hands feel like? they are calloused from his many years of guitar playing, but not in an unpleasant way. kerry takes great care of his hands - though they're calloused, they are moisturized, and kerry gets regular manicures and hand massages. one could look at them and tell they are hands calloused through love and maintained like something precious (because they are).

what does your muse usually eat in a day? kerry's eating habits are horrendous. he doesn't eat as often or as much as he should, and can have a tendency to pick at things like a bird. his ideal breakfast is a serving of fruit, or kakanin (palitaw or maja blanca are most favored, but any kind will do), with whatever for dinner. he typically skips lunch, either from forgetfulness, not having the time, difficulty with eating, or simply not wanting to eat. the same can be said for other meals in a day too though. his friend/"cook", ariel, will sometimes put together food, but otherwise, kerry can have a lot of takeout/delivery, dishes delivered from restaurants, microwaved ready-made meal delivery service food, leftovers, the like.

does your muse have a good singing voice? of course.

does your muse have any bad habits or nervous tics? he has many, many bad habits and nervous tics, too many to list here. a few, however, are: smoking, drinking, drug use, he can lie quite often (often white lies but bigger ones too), he has a tendency to ramble when avoiding talking about something instead of just talking about it until someone pushes him too or points that out, etc.

what does your muse usually look like / wear? kerry's outfits are extremely varied across the board, and it's hard to pin down what he usually looks like or wears because of it. however, there are some commonalities between many of his outfits: he almost always wears an abundance of jewelry (multiple rings, multiple bracelets, often multiple necklaces, he always has many ear piercings in as well as his facial piercings typically), and he is very much a fan of leather, be it leather pants, jackets, vests, boots, etc. one of his very favorite outfits consists of his favored near knee height black leather platform boots, black leather pants, a tank top (typically white, usually his favorite avante tank top), and his trademark leather vest, dripping in gold jewelry. he can wear anything from typical rocker chic to mini skirts and fishnets and heels to dresses to crop tops, etc. like i said, extremely varied, it'd be easier to say what he wouldn't usually wear.

is your muse affectionate? how so? with people he is affectionate for or loves or cares deeply about, kerry is extremely affectionate. he's very touch-oriented, and will liberally douse many touches throughout a given day or time span, without it being too much - small brushes of his hand, squeezing an arm or shoulder, quickly pecked kisses (he is a big fan of cheek kisses casually given), so on. he can also be a gift giver in his affection, be it something he's bought or even made (such as a mixtape, digital or physical, something crafted or painted, etc), and he will do almost anything for someone he feels that way towards, too, and he will send small text messages or emails even just to say "saw this (with a picture added), thought of you," whatever. affection can manifest in many more ways with kerry, but... in short, yeah, he's affectionate, and that affection has a wide range.

what position does your muse sleep in? on his stomach usually. sometimes his side, if he's sleeping with another and they're cuddled up in some capacity.

could you hear your muse in the hallway from another room? it isn't like kerry conceals his footsteps, but he tends to walk very quietly. if he happens to be wearing shoes that make noise (like heels), someone would easily hear him, of course. but walking normally? he's quiet. you could hear him if you really tried but it wouldn't be immediately obvious.

tagged by: no one. tagging: you. if you see this and do it, @ me?

Jeff Geschwind  Tips On Being Healthy While You Are Being Treated For Cancer

Jeff Geschwind Expert tips provider. There are 4 stages of ovarian cancer. In stage I the cancer is confined to one or both ovaries. In stage II it has spread outside of the ovaries to the uterus or fallopian tubes. In Stage III the cancer has spread outside of the pelvic area but still within the abdomen. Stage IV means the cancer has started to spread throughout the body.

If you have been diagnosed with cancer the best advice anyone can offer you is to take it in stride. Whatever you do, don't freak out or panic. Rather, take a methodical approach, and try to get yourself cured. While the rates of cancer related deaths are still alarmingly high, they get better every year. There is hope.

There is a better chance of beating cancer if it's detected early. Talk with your doctor and set up regular times for screenings to best eliminate the chance for early cancer growth to get out of hand without treatment. You should perform a self examination of breasts or testes once monthly, to detect any changes.

When battling cancer it is important for you to try to find humor somewhere. Many people fall into depression while they are battling cancer and do not even realize it. It is understandable for someone to feel depressed about the diagnosis but fighting is what helps save lives. Humor can be a great way to put up a fight.

You need to follow a workout regimen if you have been diagnosed with cancer. It is important to keep your body as strong as possible, so that it can hold up against the treatments that it is going to have to go through. Simply walking around your block a few times, can be a great start to living a healthier lifestyle.

The sun can be a major cancer causing factor for many people. The sun releases ultraviolet rays that enter the earth's atmosphere. When we step outside, our skin is exposed to these rays, and too much exposure can cause skin damage that can lead to skin cancer. Be sure to protect yourself with sun screen to prevent this.

Jeff Geschwind Qualified tips provider. Don't change your life drastically. It may be better if you try to maintain your lifestyle as it was while introducing necessary modifications. A big change can increase your stress level and confuse the people around you. Take every day at a time and make changes to your life as is needed.

Do not be afraid to ask for help following your cancer diagnosis. Friends and family members often want to do everything they can to assist you; let them pick up items from the grocery store, take you to appointments or make you dinner. It makes them feel good to do something for you, and it makes your life a little easier.

People with cancer need complete honesty from you, so do not hide anything from them just because you feel it may hurt them or hurt your relationship with them. Whether it's something the doctor said or a secret you've been sitting on for another reason now is the time for full disclosure.

Spirituality plays an important role in the fight against cancer. Now, you do not have to believe in any higher power per se, but there is plenty of documented evidence that a person's belief in something greater than themselves can instill the confidence necessary to fight cancer until it's defeated.

Make sure you take advantage of today's technology by going digital when you receive a mammogram. Digital scans are able to do an all-around better job of catching any tumors in time, whereas older machines are pretty much antiquated at this point and will not always catch them in time.

Beans are incredibly good for your heart, but they're also essential in preventing cancer, especially colon cancer. The amount of fiber contained in beans and legumes will help to rid the body of free radicals via the fiber and also the saponins, phytic acid and protease inhibitors contained within the beans.

Jeff Geschwind Top service provider. The life you had before cancer may seem like a distant memory as the battle wages on, but always cling to your past to remind yourself of what you have to look forward to in the future. Keep old pictures and old videos around to remind yourself that cancer is not all there is in life for you. A positive view of the future is good for for your health.

Be cautious of contracting a bacterial infection when you're receiving chemotherapy. After a week or so into the treatment, you can spike a brutal fever and even become septic (blood poisoning). Be very aware of what's going on with your body in order to keep your strength and health up.

There is no conceivable reason that you have to live with unbearable pain as a cancer sufferer, so make sure that you are getting the right pain medication. There are dozens of pain meds out there, and if the one you're taking isn't working well, make sure you tell your doctor that you need something different.

Don't continue seeing a doctor who doesn't openly communicate with you. When you have a question, you want it answered promptly. You need a doctor who will get back to you right away.

Avoid being in the sun between the hours of 10 am and 3 pm. Have your fun in the sun outside of these peak hours to drastically minimize your chances of serious, potentially cancerous, sun damage.

When it comes to preventing skin cancer, don't forget your lips. Wear a lip balm with UVA and UVB protection daily. Reapply it often as well. The skin on your lips is especially thin and delicate. Forgetting to protect it can lead to dangerous burns that just might lead to cancer.

Jeff Geschwind Skilled tips provider. Stage I is the best case scenario. The cancer is still confined to the ovaries, making surgery alone a more successful option. When it goes into stage II, a hysterectomy is often necessary to make sure all of the cancer was removed. Stages III and IV are more likely to require chemotherapy.

3 Technical Solutions That Will Accomplish Your Recruitment Goals

As recruitment starts to pick up again after the COVID-19 outbreak, recruiters are facing new challenges that make it harder for them to stay productive. The field was always fast-paced, of course, and required professionals to have excellent organizational skills, consistent motivation, and strong efficiency — but now things are significantly tougher. One way that recruiters in Pune can stay productive is by working with other people who either specialize or happen to be experts in specific areas related to recruitment. This way, they can share the workload and focus on the areas where they can be most effective.

Consider the plight of the average recruitment team. Both employers and employees are hungry for results, and they're not willing to wait around for sluggish recruiters. If you're still using an outdated playbook, you're going to struggle. It's time for a new strategy.

New recruiting tactics have always helped make the process smoother and faster, but what's been holding back progress is the lack of technological innovation. Even forward-thinking recruiters have been reluctant to embrace digital technology because of its cost or complexity.

In the past, many recruiters believed that the best way to improve performance was to invest in more technology. However, this is no longer the case. Now, 68% of recruiting professionals believe that investing in technology is the best way to improve recruiting performance.

If you don’t match this commitment, you’ll be left behind. In this post, we’ll explain a little more why efficiency is so important at this stage, then look at three technical actions you can take to make your recruitment team more efficient. This will majorly boost your entire operation. Let’s get started.

Why Effective Recruitment Requires Efficiency?

Being a good recruiter is a lot like being a good coach. You need to be able to focus on efficiency and have a game plan for how you're going to manage your time. If you can't achieve swift turnaround times, you could lose out on an opportunity or worse, earn a reputation for being slow to respond. The key is to focus on being efficient and organized so that you can always be one step ahead.

There are various factors that have made the recruitment process more complicated than ever before. some key contributors to this include:

As the workforce has developed over the years, so too have the expectations of employees. With mental health no longer being as big of a taboo topic as it once was, workers now expect more from their employers than just a good salary. It's now important to find a company that shares your values and where you feel like you belong, rather than simply being a cog in the machine.

With more and more people working remotely, it's becoming increasingly difficult for employers to find the right fit when it comes to office locations. It's no longer as simple as just finding an employee who is willing to work in the company's location. With so many people now working remotely, the scope is much wider.

The process of hiring is quickly becoming an international one. With businesses recognizing the ability for employees to work remotely, the candidate pool is no longer limited to those who live near the company headquarters. This increase in options can be a recipe for confusion if not managed correctly. When choosing someone for a role, it is important to consider not just their skills but also whether they will be a good fit for the company culture. With remote work becoming more commonplace, it is easier than ever to find talented employees who may be located anywhere in the world.

There are a lot of different recruitment channels available today. You can't just rely on the same old job listing sites. Social media platforms and mobile apps are becoming increasingly popular for finding positions. And who knows what the future of recruitment will hold? It could extend into video games! It can be tough to keep up with all the changes.

In today's employment market, it's the recruiters who can accelerate their processes the most who are best positioned to take advantage. If you can demonstrate that you're able to stay ahead of the competition, you can improve your reputation. With that in mind, let's get to some technical solutions.

If you're looking for ways to be more efficient in your recruitment process, here are three technical solutions that can help:

The recruitment process often requires a lot of time and effort in order to be successful. One way to ease this process is by utilizing technology to your advantage. By tracking and managing your core recruitment tasks through various online tools, you can save time so you can put it towards other things. There are many different online solutions that could help with this, but we will take a look at three particular actions you can take.

1. COMPLETELY USE REMOTE-CENTRIC SYSTEMS AND SERVICES

With how much the world has changed in recent years, it's no surprise that some of our processes need to change too. One example is the screening of candidates, which can be a very time-consuming recruitment task. In the past, this was done through in-person meetings, but given today's recruiting landscape, that's not always practical. Instead, product managers can work with other people who either specialize or happen to be experts in specific areas related specifically when it comes down to making decisions about what flavors go into your project's recipe book.

When it comes to scheduling searches and interviews, there are a lot of tools available that can help you strike the right balance between giving searches enough time and keeping your workload varied. In most cases, remote screening is just as effective as in-person meetings: and when there’s a pressing need for an in-person interview, you’ll have more time to make it work.

With the rising interest in overseas hiring, it's more important than ever for recruiters to be able to operate internationally and understand the logistical complications. Establishing a relationship with an employer of record service provider can help you find more interesting placement opportunities, and creating some relevant knowledge-base resources and FAQs can only help your cause.

2. TO MAINTAIN RECRUITERS ENGAGED, USE REWARD-LED PLATFORMS.

When team members don't have their engines revved up about the work they're doing, it's hard for them to stay in high gear. To get them back up to speed, one of the best things you can do is give them a pat on the back when they do a good job or make progress in relevant areas. The positive reinforcement will let them know they're on the right track and help keep them motivated to keep putting the pedal to the metal.

A well-designed training platform that offers rewards for key milestones will make a big difference in engagement and motivation. struggle to pay attention. Laying out set training plans that are carefully designed to keep recruiters engaged and motivated will make a huge difference. When someone completes a key piece of training, they should earn a suitable reward, be it time off or further training of their choice.

Training courses can sometimes be tedious, but the benefits of having employees who are capable of taking on new tasks and developing their skills far outweighs the cost of the course. Anything you can do to ensure that your team members push through the pain will be worth it in the end.

3. PUT CRM SOFTWARE IN PLACE TO TRACK RECRUITMENT JOURNEYS

A CRM system provides a business with a way to store customer (or prospect) data, track customer interactions, and carry out other relevant tasks. The term "customer" is quite vague in this context, as a CRM system can just as reasonably stand for candidate relationship management. There’s no foundational reason why not.

A CRM system could make life much easier for your recruiters by tracking recruitment journeys, applicant preferences, and relationships. Additionally, since a CRM gathers vital information in one repository, it could grant you superior oversight and allow you to find key pieces of data when needed.

If you want to be able to flexibly source and place temps, tracking recruitment journeys through a CRM-style system is a logical step to take. This will also make your life simpler overall. So if you haven't been tracking journeys in this way, now is the time to start.

To sum things up, being efficient is extremely important in today's recruitment landscape. To increase efficiency, it's crucial to use available technology and services to the fullest extent. By following the steps we've discussed, you can take your recruitment process to the next level and make it easier than ever to reach your hiring goals.

Kitchen Equipment List

Your restaurant’s kitchen is the heart of the operation. That’s why we’re making it easy for you to find all the essential cooking equipment you need.

You already know where to find the best prices on what you need to get started, but today we’re making it even easier with this handy dandy list of essentials. We know that restaurant equipment can be intimidating—so many choices, so many questions!—but don’t worry. We got your back.

We went ahead and put together a list of our top picks for your kitchen equipment needs so you can spend more time thinking about how you want to serve up those seasonal specials and less time stressing about what kind of oven will get you there. Read on for a quick rundown of our favorite cooking equipment and some tips for picking out the right pieces for your kitchen.

Ovens

Ovens are probably the first things that come to mind when you think about restaurant cooking equipment. But unlike residential ovens, commercial ovens are designed with higher power outputs and greater capacities for cooking all day, every day.

They're also built to withstand the heavy use and abuse of a commercial kitchen. That's why many restaurant ovens are made from stainless steel, which is easier to clean and keep sanitary than other materials. These ovens can also come with a variety of features, such as easy-to-read digital displays and adjustable racks to accommodate different sizes of pans.

Ranges and ventilation

There's no question about it: ranges are powerful pieces of restaurant kitchen equipment.

They provide the means to cook a variety of items over electric heat or a gas-powered flame. Cooks use ranges to fire up food in pans and skillets, bring water to a boil, or simmer sauces.

And why wouldn't they? With some ranges capable of reaching temperatures as high as 650 degrees Fahrenheit, they offer the power and control that you need to perfect your recipes—all while remaining easy to clean and maintain.

There are two types of restaurant kitchen ranges: gas ranges and electric ranges.

If you try to open a restaurant without proper ventilation, you might as well just give up now. 

Proper ventilation is essential for both your sanity and the safety of the people in your kitchen. It’s not just about keeping the cook from passing out from all the heat (although that is pretty important): Proper ventilation also helps keep employees and customers safe by preventing grease fires and toxic fumes from lingering in the air of your restaurant.

In terms of safety regulations, a ventilation hood is required to be at least as wide as the range or cook top it covers, but there’s no reason it can’t be wider. In fact, it’s a good idea to make it wider since much of the smoke created when cooking rises above the actual flames. A ventilation hood can also extend beyond the width of a griddle or char broiler, as long as its front edge is at least six inches above the cooking surface.

When building out a ventilation system, think about the layout and size of your kitchen. You’ll want a ventilation hood to be up to code and meet safety regulations while providing enough power to move air through and out of the kitchen.

Food processors

So you want to buy a food processor? (And make some kickass hummus and dressings.)

You've come to the right place!

According to our extensive research (eating), there are two types of people: those who use a food processor, and those who don't. And if you're in the "don't use a food processor" camp, well, it's time to change that. Food processors are a must in busy restaurant kitchens, making easy work of slicing, chopping, blending, blitzing, and pureeing a variety of ingredients. A food processor is handy for making dressings, dips, sauces or simply slicing up veggies.

Food processors are available with a wide range of different features and accessories; we recommend looking for one that's easy to clean and has good safety features. (A safety feature is important because they make sure hands don't get caught in the blade while processing.)

Hi there! I deeply admire your art, especially your color choices. Looking at your sculptures always feels like a warm hug, or the sun shining on your face. I'm a sculptor myself (polymer and porcelain), though I know precious little regarding color theory, and it shows. If you have the time, I was wondering if you had any recommendations for guides or suggestions on how to develop an eye for color?

ahhh thank you so much for the kind words, and as for color theory....

i'll start off with a few book recs on the subject! picture this by molly bang is probably my all time favorite book on art making ever, and while it is primarily about shapes and composition, she does touch on color and the emotions colors can produce, which is always a good thing to keep in mind (also its just a great book and everyone should read it)! and color and light by james gurney is a classic book on, well, color and light. while i actually don't like gurney's color schemes all that often (at least in the examples he has in the book), he breaks down basically everything you need to know about color theory really simply and quickly in the book, so it's a great read if you need to touch up on basics and get an overview of the whole field.

if you're looking to develop an eye for color, i would recommend starting to pick out and define the colors in your favorite pieces. what colors are actually present? which ones cover most of the piece and which ones are only there as a highlight? what ranges of shades are there in your colors? just getting comfortable with picking apart a piece into base colors might be very helpful, and it will give you an idea of the kinds of color schemes you prefer!

another good thing to keep in mind is the ratio of one color to another. i tend not to like ratios that are close to 50:50, or 33:33:33, or what have you. instead i like an "uneven" ratio, like 75:25 or 50:30:20. it just adds a little more visual intrigue!

it's also been super helpful for me to limit the colors i am actually able to use! when i paint, i use pre-mixed house paints. i rarely ever mix colors for a piece, just choose pre-mixed colors from the selection i already have. this makes picking a color scheme easy because i can SEE all the colors i have and how they fit together without putting paint down anywhere. it also limits my options, which makes it easier for me to pick a handful of colors i like and stick to them for the whole piece. i think having some limits or a structure (to use a less mean-sounding word) in which to work like this can be really helpful. it also makes me feel way less paralyzed when my color scheme selection process is just picking out jars of paint and putting them next to each other to see if they look good, instead of mixing and tweaking and whatnot.

finally, one thing that really helps me but is mostly (maybe almost entirely?) applicable to digital art is to stay in THIS PART

of the color selector. it is so tempting to me to go to 1000% on my saturation, but it is really hard to work with super saturated colors! if you've got a lot of different colors that you want to look harmonious together, if they're all somewhere in that mid range, they'll work together, even if they would look awful at full saturation.

i'll be honest with you, though, the range i actually stick to with digital art is more like this:

but avoiding the temptation of the full saturation is a win for me!

Hey are the requests open? If so, can you do a a-z nsfw for Lucifer? If they're not open then please ignore this. Anyways, I love your writing and I'm looking forward to more 😊😊😊

I’ve never done one of these before so I hope it’s okay. Also I struggle to take anything seriously so of course there’s gonna be some dumb shit in here. Anyway, hope you enjoy and thank you so much! 

Warnings: NSFW, mentions of murder

NSFW A-Z: LUCIFER

A = Aftercare (What they’re like after sex)

Lucifer can be rough - he's known to be a sadist after all but that doesn't mean he doesn't know how to look after you once he's had his way. Softens his voice, asks if you're okay, if there's anything you need. Will clean you up and praise you for how well you did. If it's him needing the aftercare, he's very quiet, playing over what just happened. Appreciates a drink and gentle caresses to bring him back down to earth

B = Body Part (Their favourite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

I think that Lucifer has quite a lot of insecurities - being told you're perfect all the time can make you dwell more on your flaws (or what you deem to be flaws.) But one thing he does like is his eyes. He knows he can make you lose yourself in his eyes with a single look. One look from across the room and he can have you begging for him within moments.On you he loves your hands. He doesn't let many people get close, let alone touch him, but your hands can ease his pains and make him feel loved. Massages, caresses, the way you hold his head against your chest at night, or the way you grip his cock so eagerly once he's riled you up. Also ties into a little somethin' I'll mention below in the D section eh ehhhh. (Oh and your mouth is a close second. (And not just because you called him baby boy once and had him malfunctioning for a whole hour.))

C = Cum (Anything to do with cum basically… I’m a disgusting person)

Lucifer doesn't like the thought of cleaning up, so prefers to cum inside you - it's his main way of showing that you're his. But accidents happen and there have been times he's slipped out at the last minute and coated the skin of your stomach/back and for a moment he found himself admiring it - like a new way of marking you as his. Oh he also likes painting your tongue with his cum too because watching you swallow it makes his pride bl o s s o m.

D = Dirty Secret (Pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

Dirty to him anyway - he actually likes submitting to you. (Once you two are quite established.) Shock horror! But you're the only one he trusts to completely let loose with, and sometimes when you have this much pressure on you it's nice to let someone else take control. BE HONOURED. OH and the hand thing. He will fucking worship your digits. Kiss 'em, suck 'em, nuzzle 'em. OOF. 

E = Experience (How experienced are they? Do they know what they’re doing?)

He's been around for a long time, so it goes without saying he's had plenty of experience. He's well versed in the basics and is quick to pick up on every little thing you like to use against you (in the best way possible).

F = Favourite Position (This goes without saying. Will probably include a visual)

Likes being able to see your face, to watch every little sound escape your lips, every little sign of pleasure. Feeds off of it. But is not averse to shoving you face first into the mattress and fucking you senseless until you can barely utter a word. So y'know depends on his mood really. 

G = Goofy (Are they more serious in the moment, or are they humorous, etc)

Serious. But dumb shit can happen during sex and even the Mighty First is not immune to this. Will laugh stuff off and get things quickly back on track by muttering naughty things in that delicious voice of his. If you insist on being jokey he'll insist on making it so you can't do anything but moan ;)

H = Hair (How well groomed are they, does the carpet match the drapes, etc.)

He's a busy guy, but he makes sure to always be groomed. This does mean that things get on top of him and well...don't blame the overworked tired bean if he gets a little unruly down there sometimes, okay?

I = Intimacy (How are they during the moment, romantic aspect…) 

He's almost always quietly praising/encouraging you - in between the teasing of course. 

J = Jack Off (Masturbation headcanon)

He's a stressed mess, he needs to release his frustrations somehow. Does it less so since you came along, and honestly didn't masturbate too often before, but when he does it's a scene. He takes his time, making sure to work up to a glorious finish so that he can truly relax afterwards.

K = Kink (One or more of their kinks)

Probably has a Sir or Daddy kink. Kinda likes choking you as well. One time your hand slipped from his chest to his throat without you thinking and that's when he realised he kinda likes being choked too oii oiiii.

L = Location (Favourite places to do the do)

His freakin' giant glorious bed because he's old and has back pain. Also bending you over his desk after rather troublesome days works too.

M = Motivation (What turns them on, gets them going)

You teasing him throughout the day. "MC you're eating that corn too sexually I'm going to have to teach you a lesson later." "Did you just call me mum? I don't care if it's an accident, I'm going to have to punish you later." "Did you just breathe? That's it, you asked for it." In all seriousness he rarely shows his want for you on the outside, but inside he'll be raring to ravage you. Depends on the day - one day you could have him popping a boner simply by rubbing your foot against his calf. The next, stripping naked and grinding on his face might not even make him blink. 

N = NO (Something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

"Roleplay as Satan for me, Lucifer." You're probably dead before you even finish speaking those words, sorry I don't make the rules. (Oh wait I kinda do right now oops.)

O = Oral (Preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc)

Prefers to give as he likes having the power over you to make you come completely undone. Can feel a little vulnerable receiving - maybe he got bitten by a devious ex lover, who knows, but once you get going and his confidence with you grows he likes nothing more than grabbing the back of your head and urging you to take more of him.

P = Pace (Are they fast and rough? Slow and sensual? etc.)

He can be both. Fast and rough are his go-to, and when he does go slow, his thrusts are still usually on the harder side.

Q = Quickie (Their opinions on quickies rather than proper sex, how often, etc.)

He loves taking his time with you, as he likes driving you crazy for him but if the mood calls for it he has no issues with bending you over his desk and taking you right then and there. Will probably take extra care of you next time.

R = Risk (Are they game to experiment, do they take risks, etc.)

Damn straight he's down to experiment. Is curious to see how far both of you can go and what you're willing to do. 

S = Stamina (How many rounds can they go for, how long do they last…)

Only one round, his back hurts too much. I'm kidding, he can go a few rounds, and can last a long time. There have been a couple occasions he's cum rather fast - either when drunk, or it's been a while since the last time. Gets very embarrassed over it but knows it's natural and happens sometimes. (That’s not the norm though, he promises.)

T = Toy (Do they own toys? Do they use them? On a partner or themselves?)

He got a bit crazy when you came along. Anything you like the sound of, he has. Already had blindfolds and things to bind you with - rope, ribbons, string cheese, you name it. But now you're here he has a whole collection of toys to tease you with. Even has a favourite vibrator he loves to leave strapped to your thigh so you can't get away from it. Ah, good times.

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

Biiitch. BIiiiiiiiiiiiiiitch. This monster is the biggest tease. "Hm...I'm not sure you deserve my cock today, MC. Now now, begging will get you nowhere." (It probably will eventually, just saying. ...Maybe.) He'll leave you on read for days but magically turn up just as you're about to pleasure yourself like "nuhuh bitch, not today."

V = Volume (How loud they are, what sounds they make)

Fairly quiet - any sounds he does make are low in his throat, deep. Loses control closer to reaching his climax - gets breathier, speaks a little louder and noises are more frequent. Buuut once he did manage to wake up everyone in the house but that was because you'd been teasing him all day, you hadn’t slept together in like a week, and he'd been drinking and-- the list of excuses go on.

W = Wild Card (Get a random headcanon for the character of your choice)

Was once convinced to try out women's underwear once after a conversation with Asmo and was pleasantly surprised by how nice his ass looked. Will never EVER tell anyone this though, not even you and shit I shouldn't even be writing this he's probably gonna-- Oh heyyy Lucifer, nothing to see here I was jus--*gurrKH*

X = X-Ray (Let’s see what’s going on in those pants, picture or words)

Decent length, decent thickness. Just enough to take a bit of work to fit in but not too much that it's uncomfortable, y'know?

Y = Yearning (How high is their sex drive?)

Not very high, definitely not above average. Can definitely go without, but his mind might wander.

Z = ZZZ (… how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

Depends how tired he is, and how much is on his mind. You'll probably be the one to fall asleep first most of the time, which is great because he's good at giving after-sex cuddles. Plus your steady breathing makes it easier for him to sleep as well so...win win?

Inspired by my previous post, I have decided to post my opinions on the current Tomb Raider Games and Multiplayer in general.

Tomb Raider is simple: I liiked the modern games, they were done well. But in my opinion, while the Stealth of the third game really fit the themes in that arc set, Lara Croft is not an Assasin. She is Loud Proud and In Your Face, Storming the Enemy with kickflips, acrobatics, and guns like a better Male Action Protagonist, except (Wo)Man, not "This is a stealth game, I sneak around unseen".

To clarify (maybe), In the first two of the Survivor Era games, she traverses the world and shoots the bad guys, and this is completely normal for both Tomb Raider and a good hack'n'slash in general. The Third, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, took away the intensity that made the first two great and fitting in with the rest of the franchise and replaced it with a massive focus on stealth-combat. I am not a particularly stealthy guy in a game, for all that I am pretty sneaky IRL, and for someone raised on Halo and 2005 SW Battlefield 2, there are simply too few enemies and enemy concentration having a weak constitution in Shadow to be properly enjoyable.

Instead of the enjoyable, challenging, morally justified bloodbaths of the previous two, we have some anemic blood puddles that barely took effort, to the point the hunting of digital animals and honestly the traversal required more skill than hunting the evil humans.

Please remember I am talking video games here. Fiction.

But seriously, killing an army should not be easier than climbing a wall. Even when you're trying to be stealthy.

I refuse to shame the artistry in every other aspect of the game, as the story was well done and the art was even better, but the combat was looking away from who Lara Croft was established to be in the previous two games and game eras.

Meanwhile, multiplayer is simple.

Any attempt I take at competitive in any way shape or form is going to be walking around with a "Kill Me, free Points" sign on my back. Halo, Call of Duty, Gears of War, random other thing... doesn't matter, I do not have the skill to go out and kill other players because I do not have the skill, understanding, inclination, or experience the other players do, no matter if they have been playing for longer than I've been alive or just picked up the game a few weeks ago.

I really don't have the brainpower to have any kind of 1+ Kill-to-death ratio, resulting in it not being any fun, and leaving me going Player vs Environment in Singleplayer or Story.

But cooperative gameplay is a whole other ball game. Because then, we're having fun together. We're working together. Then you go from walking points dispenser to a pair of unkillable killing machines, working to cover each others' blind spots or just mopping up everything because they're splitting their focus and you and your partner are not.

And That?

I call that a Good Day. :]

There're 5 photos taken of this black and orange combo before these well-worn shorts officially retire and I'll use them in 2 separate entries. In this post I would like to focus on the positive because all of us need a reprieve from anxiety over the COVID-19 situation nationally, as well as globally. Firstly, I'm thankful for the internet because we're able to cross-reference information rather than simply swallow the news we're being fed.

Because of this, I've been able to share the severity of the virus in my private Facebook account. Many people aren't aware of just how serious it can be and not solely for the elderly either; young people aged 40 and under have suffered from the effects of contracting this illness. Jeff, who I've mentioned in an earlier post, was urging people to go outdoors for exercise and sunshine. Now, he's being more cautious and recommending places which allow for better social distancing and I'm so grateful that he's doing this.

Second, I count medical professionals as friends, including those who work in hospital emergency wards. They've allowed me to share their photos on my private Facebook wall in order to remind other locals to be more civic-minded so as not to expose these dedicated workers to increased exposure to COVID-19. As long as I respect their privacy and do not reveal their identity, they're happy for me to spread the message.

So far, I've only shared 1. I have not edited any of the photos I post on any social media platform, but for them, I made an exception since they requested for it and I appreciate their trust at such a crucial time. We need to take care of our medical professionals because, if they start dropping like flies, not only will there be fewer of them to attend to COVID-19 patients, but other critically ill patients as well.

What I've also done during this time is, what I haven't charged others for at any point, I'm now giving away for free. Because I'm not a professional PT, I've refrained from sharing what I do. However, when my friends are fighting to save lives and request for my help because they don't have the time to workout with an expert or engage a registered nutritionist and they know I've had over 10 years of trial and error under my belt, I have a duty to answer.

So I've given them simple tasks to do over Whatsapp. Nothing too strenuous since they're already exhausted and stressed-out from work; just basic stuff that they can manage in order to strengthen their immunity, where nutrition and exercise are concerned.

(Yes, that is a bruise on my thigh because I don't digitally enhance my photos and life happens because I'm clumsy sometimes)

I recognise that in spite of what is happening around us, I've been very fortunate to still be able to secure grocery deliveries before my food supplies and basic necessities run out. I still have hot coffee in the mornings to keep me going, am able to eat balanced meals, have exercise to keep me from plunging into depression or overwhelmed by anxiety and have incredible support from close friends and family. Although shopping is the last thing on my mind apart from daily living needs, I'm trying to give back to society in other ways.

I'm also incredibly blessed that, although self-isolation has yet to be made mandatory for the public, many of us are voluntarily engaging in it for the greater good, because we recognise the importance of containing the spread of COVID-19. So whilst I miss the good and fun times with my babes, knowing that what we're doing will help all of us return to safety and our old lives as soon as possible makes all of this easier. I long to see my family in person, but it's better for us to remain in contact via Whatsapp for now.

Btw, if you haven't gotten creative with cooking yet and you somehow managed to accumulate enough ramen to last you a year, did you know there're gourmet recipes to dress up those instant noodles so that they resemble a dish served at a restaurant or your brunch hangout? I personally prefer rice, but these recipes can be modified for our preferred carbs or whatever ingredients we've managed to buy and I've tried out some of them. Here's one.

Grace and I have a weekly activity where we pick 1 common ingredient we managed to buy and - usually on a Saturday or Sunday - we incorporate it into a meal we cooked that is nutritious and tasty. For example, using tinned sardines, I made a sardine fried brown rice with chopped bak choy. She used it for a healthy bowl meal with julienned caramelised onions, softboiled egg and quinoa.

If you're struggling from anxiety, there're ways to distract yourself, from being active (dopamine releases are so important right now) to finding ways to get creative in the kitchen. Most importantly, we're still blessed in many little ways, so keep that in mind when the going gets hard during self-isolation. It's for everyone's benefit, remember that, okay?

Till the next post.

How to Find the Right Digital Marketing Agency NJ

Digital Marketing Agency NJ has hit associate degree incomparable high globally, as major and minor firms are making their own websites and making an attempt to cater to the public. Promoting on-line is completely different from offline marketing because the rules and laws of attracting customers differ massively. Digital Marketing agency comes in and ensures that on-line marketing, from creation of online sites to making sure that they stand out in programmed rankings, is obtainable to purchasers as a full package. While not the assistance of a digital promoting agency, it's uphill for firms to enter the net market and emerge self-made.

The primary thing about hiring a digital marketing agency is that these agencies are fully fledged and perceive the online world of promoting. Since there are major variations between the online worlds and also the offline world of promoting, gathering skilled facilitate for the higher performance of a web site is much counseled. Digital promoting agencies have specialists on their board who perceive what a selected consumer web site contains and the way it are often marketed digitally. From keyword serious content to social media promoting, all choices are obtainable and it's up to those agencies to implement these options as per their understanding. Search engine optimization is that the biggest good thing about hiring a digital promoting agency. Promoting on-line serves no purpose unless folks often visit a company's web site and undergo its options and merchandise. Competition within the on-line market nowadays is usually concerning securing high rankings in search engines. Securing high rankings in search engines mechanically interprets to quality of the web site moreover as increase in client awareness. A digital promoting agency is known of all this and they are often trustworthy with the responsibility to extend a website's programmed rankings. They acumen to travel concerning it and whether or not they ought to take a content connected approach or publicize the positioning via social media, is up to them. A digital promoting agency additionally perceive that in today's age of flashy and tech-heavy websites, a corporation will ne'er attain the specified programmed rankings unless is web site is up to the mark. A digital promoting agency additionally typically acts as an online planning organization and styles the websites for its purchasers. It is aware of that betting on the content; however a web site is to be designed so what folks are searching for within the site is often simply found. From the Home page to the page handling the options of the corporate merchandise to the page concerning the history of the company, all are obtainable on the web site. It’s up to the digital promoting agency to place along these items in an exceedingly manner that may be appealing to regular and new guests of the web site. Since constant presence on the social media is very necessary for a corporation to achieve success in on-line promoting nowadays, a web promoting company ensures that they're able to offer full social media marketing methods. It’s vital not solely to own Facebook or Twitter pages for firms however additionally make sure that those are active. Sharing regular links to the company's web site and its new merchandise, options and news are a requirement for each digital promoting agency. They additionally encourage active interaction between folks and also the company via social media pages. This helps the corporate perceive their customers and what the consumers forestall to from the company. Mechanically, this provides the corporate a good probability to boost its programmed rankings. For firms that are starting their innings new within the on-line promoting world, it's extremely useful to rent a digital promoting agency with correct expertise. Therein case, it's the corporate which have all the expertise and can be able to guide the consumer on the way to improve programmed rankings. Purchasers will provide the content and also the layout of the web site, however it's up to the digital promoting agency to create a site that may make sure that correct customers are drawn to the positioning. Digital promoting agencies stumble upon all types of purchasers and that they acumen the success of a web site is achieved. Thus being obsessed on them is really useful for a corporation, particularly those who have simply begun. A business would fail to comprehend its objectives if it didn't reach on-line in an exceedingly timely manner. After all, the net is filled with opportunities wherever each consumers and sellers exist along and facilitate one another notice their goals. To travel on-line, a business can want a combination of well-designed and well-developed web site and a right promoting strategy as each facilitate gain superior visibility there. After all, what purpose would it not serve if your business reached on-line however didn't generate any interest there among users? This can be wherever the role of digital promoting comes into play because it helps boost a website's presence on the net. As a result, a business ought to rent workplace specialized in delivering fashionable digital promoting solutions to businesses across trade verticals. Such workplace can have a radical understanding of the digital market because it is aware of all those steps and activities that deliver on-line visibility edges to websites or businesses. It’ll initial analyze a business, its websites, its audience and its goals and supported that, return up with an appropriate promoting strategy. The agency can devise a concept to spice up a website's presence across channels on the net. It’ll specialize in organic and paid traffic for higher results. More so, the agency can leverage SEO, PPC and digital ads to assist businesses reach to a lot of users and convey to them their complete messages. If the budget is low and a business can't afford to assign pile for promoting functions, then the agency can advocate it natural or organic traffic. It’ll implement programme optimisation techniques so the budget constraint ne'er impacts the expansion prospects of the business. Organic traffic would be best suited to a corporation that lacked budget and needed to make its base and grow its business in an exceedingly gradual and systematic manner. Similarly, the agency can devise paid promoting methods for those firms that have a decent budget and might afford outlay massive for promotion functions. If workplace is fully fledged, it'll facilitate in maximization of returns on investment for a business by managing it Pay-Per-Click campaigns in an exceedingly superior method.

As a result, it's vital to rent a digital promoting agency supported its account and its ability to deliver results to customers within the domain. If workplace lacks the suitable experience of the domain, it'll ne'er be able to deliver desired edges to businesses. On the opposite hand, established players are conversant in the tropes of digital promoting and that they grasp the market and its dynamics within out. New Jersey Seo Company builds this polar method easier by applying bound tips and techniques. However, to decide on a digital promoting agency, there are bound filters that require to be applied. This can make sure that you forge a long partnership with the proper firm. For your reference, bound points are summarized here. Start With Assessing Your Company's want before you begin dig for a replacement digital promoting agency, you initially ought to get clear on your business objectives. Distinguishing your business goals and motives is that the opening moves to beginning the digital promoting journey. With distinct visions of however you wish your business to show out, you'll be able to proceed to create a clearer selection. This can be a crucial method for it determines your next moves. Do your assignment Well There are many sensible digital promoting agencies to decide on from, however, you've got to be conscious of the swindlers. There are firms who keep collection the money however ne'er offer the work on time. Obviously, to avoid such a scenario, it's vital that you just analysis well. This can be the primary step to segregate the pretenders from the contenders. Workplace that contains a clean account, has established an esteemed standing within the market and engages in clear communication with you ought to be thought-about initial. However, you furthermore ought to take care that the agency fits your business wants. Place the businesses you're thinking that you'll be able to trust and so check them out consequently. Pick a corporation that matches your vogue A good digital promoting agency won't solely sell their client's product however will sell their own. Once you do your school assignment, look however they market themselves. Begin with the web site of the company! A decent agency will have associate degree informative website that may answer all of your queries. To understand concerning associate SEO services NJ, you'll be able to access its Google ranking. If the web site contains a high rank, it are often established that they're operating onerous and right. Not solely the design and ranking, however their work ethics and culture ought to be like yours moreover. Since your aim is to make a long-lived relationship, it's polar that you just opt for workplace that matches your objectives. Plan for a long Relationship Digital Marketing Agency NJ isn't concerning throwing cash to extend your brand's standing. And it's under no circumstances a one-time method. Digital promoting could be a continuous methodology and you've got to develop a strategic partnership with the agency thus on build your business for a brighter future. This strategic relationship ought to be developed keeping in mind for a protracted amount of your time. Since it takes time to determine a complete over any and every one digital forum, it's vital that you just trust Reclaim Digital whom you'll be able to work for as long as within the close to future.