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lunanoc · 3 months

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this is probably definitely an unpopular and potentially controversial opinion, but i saw a take recently on npss and the female characters of dmbj that to be fair pops up often that i feel it’s a pretty prevalent one, so i just. decided to give my two cents on it that once again no one asked for

more under the cut because this got a little long

just to be clear, this a topic that has quite a bit of nuance and multiple layers to it, and perception entirely depends on both personal interpretation and your medium of choice. i’m also not saying that npss is some pioneer in terms of writing female characters because he’s not. but i also feel that saying he’s a blatant misogynist and that he can’t write female characters properly at all is a gross exaggeration and doing the ladies of dmbj a disservice

i’m also going to be talking about the books specifically here, since the books and the dramas/movies treat female characters differently not only because of plotline reasons, but because of the differences in the nature of their narratives. the dramas have quite a bit more of the accusations people tend to like throwing at dmbj like reducing female characters to flat, one-dimensional archetypes or fridging the dramas do have su nan though, but contrary to what a large part of the fandom seems to push forward, the dramas don’t and can’t represent dmbj in its entirety, and if you’re going to try and do that, you can’t leave out the books and vice-versa, but seeing how different both versions of the story can get at times i just tend to separate them entirely

as it stands, the only female characters who die in the books zhang haixing not counting because we technically don’t know what happens to her are a ning and yuncai, and i guess you can add huo xiangu to that, but she's part of the lao jiumen and chen pi ah si dies similarly so not sure that counts here really. and while you can argue for a ning at least that her death for narrative purposes was fridging, npss also used panzi’s death later on for similar narrative purposes, so at least in that respect he doesn’t discriminate

don’t get me wrong, the books aren’t perfect either, and you do get misogynistic comments from the male characters from time to time that make me squint, which is why i’m not trying to pretend dmbj is peak feminism, but they’re also not egregious or frequent enough comments, and in my opinion the main difference with the dramas is that the male gaze in the books is at least somewhat more justified, because where the dramas are necessarily presented from a third person pov, the books are wu xie’s first person pov for the most part. dmbj is essentially written as and treated as wu xie’s memoirs, and so everything and everyone is seen and filtered through the lense of his perception. and wu xie is a man, so that comes with its own set of ramifications. and even then ironically, wu xie is far from the only or the worst culprit when it comes to casual misogyny. pangzi has his fair share of takes, as do a number of other characters

but for all that the female characters are sometimes placed into archetype boxes by virtue of not only the narrative being from wu xie’s pov, but also the fact that the tomb robbing business is shown to be a male dominated one, and also just because npss himself is a man, that doesn’t mean those female characters aren’t complex and fleshed out characters in their own right to the same extent as their male counterparts of similar narrative relevance

i’m thinking of huo xiuxiu for example, who’s arguably the most prominent and recurring female character in dmbj, who from the get-go is very quickly made out to be not a pretty girl (or rather not just a pretty girl) but quick-witted the likes of which wu xie resonates with as a kindred spirit and draws a number of parallels with himself because he finds they share similar ways of thinking and problem solving. she’s capable, skilled, and sees herself as an equal to the iron triangle and the men around her, and yet none of this detracts from either her femininity or her vulnerability as the youngest lao jiumen member, and later as the one left behind to pick up the broken pieces of her own family. she’s a leader in her own right, and she gains support from xiao hua and wu xie in the years leading up to sand sea just as much as she lends them her support in later canon. all of this without ever being presented as a potential love interest and reduced to only that wu xie’s lack of interest in women in a practical sense as romantic/sexual partners is a topic for another post but it’s also a thing that contributes to not relegating most of the female characters to just that too

i’m not about to say npss is being particularly progressive, but it’s also interesting and nice to note that even in recent canon, just like the iron triangle and xiao hua, huo xiuxiu is well into her 30s and unmarried without it ever either being mentioned really or being an issue, which considering the cultural significance of marriage in china, even more so seeing as xiuxiu is the heiress and head to a powerful family, it’s worth noting she’s not treated any differently from the male characters who make the same equally culturally problematic choices. she’s too busy going with the iron triangle, xiao hua, and hei xiazi down into dangerous tombs (which is why she’s often featured in official merch as a main cast member alongside the iron triangle and heihua)

i’m not going to get into the nitty-gritty about every single female character otherwise this would get way too long but i could, but even someone like liang wan, who is absolutely portrayed as vain and sometimes unrealistically obsessed with her appearance and chasing after men, i personally find still has more depth given to her in the book in some respects, because as zhang rishan isn’t in sand sea the book, she has no romance plotline, and so not only does she get pov chapters, she gets pov chapters that flesh out her involvement with wu xie’s plan and the wangs by extension, and her goals, though never followed through on because npss didn’t tie up that loose end, i find are far more driven by something deeply personal. zhang haixing in tibetan sea flower is arrogant and condescending, manipulative as much as she is competent, and while pangzi especially responds to her behavior with borderline misogynistic provocations, it’s very clear that her character isn’t so much the fruit of putting her in the femme fatale archetype box as it is a consequence of her being a zhang. because both zhang haike and zhang hailou (aka ‘little brother zhang’) who are both men, are very much also like this. special mention also to the girls from the side novel a thousand faces because yes npss wrote a book that’s entirely about two women who may or may not be girlfriends

i could also talk about chen wenjin whose entire story runs very much parallel to wu sanxing’s and they both end up with similar endgame situations and are both tragic characters but this post is already long enough. there are more minor female characters who get their share of both “screentime” and development on par with their male counterparts, and for the sake of argument, some of these female characters have as much presence and/or depth given to them as a character like liu sang, who while being a fandom darling, is also very much a minor character. so what i’m saying is that while yes most of the characters in dmbj are men, and the main cast even more so (excluding xiuxiu), at equal level of importance, there’s about as much depth to a character like liu sang as there is to a character like liang wan, or a ning, and so at some point it begs the question of how much of the fandom’s perception of depth in minor female characters is colored by personal preferences rather than objective fact. are there female characters who are basically reduced to being a romantic interest and serve no real purpose other than to be the source of a man’s pain? yes looking at yuncai whose death is both sudden (while it does have some minor foreshadowing) and happens so far towards the end of the book that it almost seems pointless, and in the end only serves as the catalyst for pangzi’s own suffering and justifies his almost ten-year on-and-off retreat to banai

because again, npss isn’t out here making dmbj a feminist manifesto, and there’s room for criticism and pointing out a number of things if you wanted to. but he also doesn’t write bad female characters. they’re as much people as the men are for better or worse, and saying npss can’t write women properly is doing them a disservice. not to mention the fact the dmbj never leans into romance and that actually almost every single ‘canon’ romance is doomed in some capacity means women are rarely relegated to solely being potential love interests, which in a narrative dominated by the male gaze is actually nice?

#dmbj #dmbj ladies #idk what else to tag this with honestly #this is more me rambling into the void than anything else

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drnikolatesla · 3 years

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Nikola Tesla On X-Rays, Electrons, Radiation and Cosmic Rays

History tells us that J. J. Thomson discovered the electron, Marie Curie radiation, Albert Einstein the photoelectric effect, and Victory Hess the cosmic ray, but below is proof Nikola Tesla was the first to discover the electron (a year before Thomson), radioactivity (2 years before Curie), the photoelectric effect (9 years before Einstein) and Cosmic Rays (16 years before Hess). All went on to win Nobel Prizes.

“TESLA’S LATEST ROENTGEN RAY INVESTIGATIONS.” The Electrical Review, April 22nd, 1896.

“Further investigations concerning the behavior of the various metals in regard to reflection of these radiations have given additional support to the opinion which I have before expressed; namely, that Volta’s electric contact series in air is identical with that which is obtained when arranging the metals according to their powers of reflection, the most electro-positive metal being the best reflector. Confining myself to the metals easily experimented upon, this series is magnesium, lead, tin, iron, copper, silver, gold and platinum. The lastnamed metal should be found to be the poorest, and sodium one of the best, reflectors. This relation is rendered still more interesting and suggestive when we consider that this series is approximately the same which is obtained when arranging the metals according to their energies of combination with oxygen, as calculated from their chemical equivalents.

"Should the above relation be confirmed by other physicists, we shall be justified to draw the following conclusions: First, the highly exhausted bulb emits material streams which, impinging on a metallic surface, are reflected; second, these streams are formed of matter in some primary or elementary condition; third, these material streams are probably the same agent which is the cause of the electro-motive tension between metals in close proximity or actual contact, and they may possibly, to some extent, determine the energy of combination of the metals with oxygen; fourth, every metal or conductor is more or less a source of such streams; fifth, these streams or radiations must be produced by some radiations which exist in the medium; and sixth, streams resembling the cathodic must be emitted by the sun and probably also by other sources of radiant energy, such as an arc light or Bunsen burner.

"The first of these conclusions, assuming the above-cited fact to be correct, is evident and uncontrovertible. No theory of vibration of any kind would account for this singular relation between the powers of reflection and electric properties of the metals. Streams of projected matter coming in actual contact with the reflecting metal surface afford the only plausible explanation.

"The second conclusion is likewise obvious, since no difference whatever is observed by employing various qualities of glass for the bulb, electrodes of different metals and any kind of residual gases. Evidently, whatever the matter constituting the streams may be, it must undergo a change in the process of expulsion, or, generally speaking, projection — since the views in this regard still differ — in such a way as to lose entirely the characteristics which it possessed when forming the electrode, or wall of the bulb, or the gaseous contents of the latter.

"The existence of the above relation between the reflecting and contact series forces us likewise to the third conclusion, because a mere coincidence of that kind is, to say the least, extremely improbable. Besides, the fact may be cited that there is always a difference of potential set up between two metal plates at some distance and in the path of the rays issuing from an exhausted bulb.

"Now, since there exists an electric pressure of difference of potential between two metals in close proximity or contact, we must, when considering all the foregoing, come to the fourth conclusion, namely, that the metals emit similar streams, and I therefore anticipate that, if a sensitive film be placed between two plates, say, of magnesium and copper, a true Roentgen shadow picture would be obtained after a very long exposure in the dark. Or, in general, such picture could be secured whenever the plate is placed near a metallic or conducting body, leaving for the present the insulators out of consideration. Sodium, one of the first of the electric contact series, but not yet experimented upon, should give out more of such streams than even magnesium.

"Obviously, such streams could not be forever emitted, unless there is a continuous supply of radiation from the medium in some other form; or possibly the streams which the bodies themselves emit are merely reflected streams coming from other sources. But since all investigation has strengthened the opinion advanced by Roentgen that for the production of these radiations some impact is required, the former of the two possibilities is the more probable one, and we must assume that the radiations existing in the medium and giving rise to those here considered partake something of the nature of cathodic streams.

"But if such streams exist all around us in the ambient medium, the question arises, whence do they come? The only answer is: From the sun. I infer, therefore, that the sun and other sources of radiant energy must, in a less degree, emit radiations or streams of matter similar to those thrown off by an electrode in a highly exhausted inclosure. This seems to be, at this moment, still a point of controversy. According to my present convictions a Roentgen shadow picture should, with very long exposures, be obtained from all sources of radiant energy, provided the radiations are permitted first to impinge upon a metal or other body.”

“The preceding considerations tend to show that the lumps of matter composing a cathodic stream in the bulb are broken up into incomparably smaller particles by impact against the wall of the latter, and, owing to this, are enabled to pass into the air. All evidence which I have so far obtained points rather to this than to the throwing off of particles of the wall itself under the violent impact of the cathodic stream. According to my convictions, then, the difference between Lenard and Roentgen rays, if there be any, lies solely in this, that the particles composing the latter are incomparably smaller and possess a higher velocity. To these two qualifications I chiefly attribute the non-deflectibility by a magnet which I believe will be disproved in the end. Both kinds of rays, however, affect the sensitive plate and fluorescent screen, only the rays discovered by Roentgen are much more effective. We know now that these rays are produced under certain exceptional conditions in a bulb, the vacuum being extremely high, and that the range of greatest activity is rather small.

"I have endeavored to find whether the reflected rays possess certain distinctive features, and I have taken pictures of various objects with this purpose in view, but no marked difference was noted in any case. I therefore conclude that the matter composing the Roentgen rays does not suffer further degradation by impact against bodies. One of the most important tasks for the experimenter remains still to determine what becomes of the energy of these rays. In a number of experiments with rays reflected from and transmitted through a conducting of insulating plate, I found that only a small part of the rays could be accounted for. For instance, through a zinc plate, one-sixteenth of an inch thick, under an incident angle of 45 degrees, about two and one-half per cent were reflected and about three per cent transmitted through the plate, hence over 94 per cent of the total radiation remain to be accounted for. All the tests which I have been able to make have confirmed Roentgen’s statement that these rays are incapable of raising the temperature of a body. To trace this lost energy and account for it in a plausible way will be equivalent to making a new discovery.

"Since it is now demonstrated that all bodies reflect more or less, the diffusion through the air is easily accounted for. Observing the tendency to scatter through the air, I have been led to increase the efficiency of reflectors by providing not one, but separated successive layers for reflection, by making the reflector of thin sheets of metal, mica or other substances. The efficiency of mica as a reflector I attribute chiefly to the fact that it is composed of many superimposed layers which reflect individually. These many successive reflections are, in my opinion, also the cause of the scattering through the air.

"In my communication to you of April 1, I have for the first time stated that these rays are composed of matter in a “primary” or elementary condition or state. I have chosen this mode of expression in order to avoid the use of the word “ether,” which is usually understood in the sense of the Maxwellian interpretation, which would not be in accord with my present convictions in regard to the nature of the radiations.”

—Nikola Tesla

#nikola tesla #science #history #discovery #electron #cosmic rays #radiation #photoelectric effect #noble prize #j. j. Thomson #marie curie #albert einstein #Victor hess #Physics #experiments #quotes #ahead of his time #ahead of our time

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jackdawyt · 4 years

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Since my last news update in March, today I’m dissecting everything that has come out of the woodwork in April and May regarding Dragon Age 4. So, get some tea and let’s get this show on the road, because we’ve got over 4,000 words of news to delve into!

Reveal? (game shows/new hire/remaster):

Following the cancellation of E3, EA Play 2020 Live has been officially confirmed as a digital show, taking place on June 11th, at 4:00 pm PST / 7:00 pm EST.

Before the outbreak cancelled E3 2020, we knew Mike Gamble, the Project Lead on the next Mass Effect game had plans to make a physical appearance at E3/EA Play. So, the question remains, will BioWare still have a presence at EA Play this year?

Mike Gamble is one of the key members of the Mass Effect team, I highly doubt he’s talking about revealing the next Mass Effect game which is currently in very early stages of development, and won’t release until after Dragon Age 4. Perhaps, Mike back in 2019 was hinting at revealing the heavily rumoured Mass Effect Remaster this EA Play?

Earlier in May, EA had a quarterly conference call and it revealed some fascinating information regarding future unannounced titles. Currently, EA have “one more EA HD title, Four EA Partner titles and two mobiles games still unannounced”. Also, EA said "multiple titles" are set to launch on Nintendo Switch this year.

The EA HD title refers to a remaster of an EA game, hence why most people are speculating at the Mass Effect Trilogy. Venturebeat went on to officially state that this title was indeed the Mass Effect Trilogy.

So, there’s one rumoured possibility for the Mass Effect Trilogy Remaster to be revealed this EA Play, which is cool! BioWare may have a presence this year after all! But I know you all didn’t come for Mass Effect; you came for Dragon Age. So, what do we know about that franchise and a potential reveal?

Jo Berry, a Writer at EA retweeted EA Play Live’s announcement with a party emoji! 👀

This could be absolutely nothing, but at a whim, perhaps a reference to a Dragon Age 4 teaser, or EA Motive’s new I.P since she has worked within both teams....

On top of that, Brianne Battye, Writer at BioWare tweeted about her 8-year journey at BioWare. She’s very grateful for sharing her work, and the awesome people she’s worked with along the way.

Patrick Weekes replied saying they: “Cannot wait for everyone else to see what you've been working on recently. :)”

Then, Brianne said: “Right back at you :)”

Two HUGE witters on the Dragon Age team are excited for everyone else to see what they’ve all been working on recently! 👀 When I saw this tweet, I was trying to stay calm and keep my expectations low, but come on when you see a tweet like this, you just get so excited! The question is, when will we see what they’ve been working on, and is it anytime soon? Please?

Well, there is something else we need to talk about that may relate to a potential tease.

Hilary Heskett, who used to be EA’s Global Product Manager has returned to work at EA and BioWare. Put simply, she’s a Digital Marketer for BioWare.

Hilary; particularly, was heavily involved in Dragon Age: Inquisition’s marketing! In fact, the majority of her work at EA involved representing BioWare as a brand online creating trailers, key art, screenshots, packaging, and advertisements. So, it’s a fair assumption that she’ll be fulfilling the exact same role for future BioWare titles like Dragon Age 4.

With Hilary joining the team at this point in development, could the marketing stages of Dragon Age 4 soon begin, perhaps at EA Play? Or later on in 2020? Or is she going to be marketing the Mass Effect Remaster?

I sound impatient, but, in the past BioWare have a habit of starting the marketing stages of their products at least two years before an initial release.

With that, we’ve got to ask ourselves, is hiring a marketer at this point in time a mere coincidence? or is it preparation for when marketing does start? Are we on the verge of seeing Dragon Age 4 official content soon?

Not to waffle on, because we’ve got a lot to talk about in this video, but I was hired as a Digital Marketer for an app company in the UK. As I understand it, you normally enter projects, mid-to-end of production, because what would a marketer do in the early stages logically? Your role is to be there for the advertising of the product.

So, in BioWare’s case, it's my understanding that Hilary has joined the team with one year full-swing production, is she about to begin the marketing stages of the next Dragon Age game? Is the game ready for that stage? If anything, I think with Hilary’s background, she’s the perfect person to market Dragon Age 4.

On top of EA Play, Geoff Keighley announced Summer Game Fest, a new industry-wide celebration of video games. Showcasing digital news, In-game events, & playable content. EA are headlining the event with EA Play, but there are many other world premieres spread throughout the summer. So, there’s a potential for other trailer reveals later on in the year, not to mention The Game Awards.

And, there’s also this leak that shows Dragon Age 4 on a list of PS5 games from the newest issue of PlayStation magazine UK. PlayStation are having an event on June 4th, so we’ll find out if this leak is true soon enough.

If we’re going to see anything Dragon Age 4 related this year, EA Play is the biggest contender for a reveal. I know the whole world could do with that right now! At this current moment, there is no schedule for the show. However, Saria, myself, Fusselkorn and maybe other content creators will be streaming EA Play, no matter what, so turn those reminders on and come join us in our clown suits.

Development (teases/production):

Moving on to teases and development updates. Currently, BioWare are hiring a ‘Senior Outsource Producer.’

This is a pretty big deal, to those who don’t know what a ‘Senior Outsource Producer’ would do...

“Outsourcing development means to hire out any process of a business to third party. The process helps your company or organization to grow.”

To grant more perspective, during Mass Effect: Andromeda’s development, major aspects of the game's animations were outsourced to other EA studios.

However, this isn’t going to be the same for Dragon Age 4, this role is for one Producer to help the outsourcing team into a robust and comprehensive department that supports BioWare projects in all aspects of development.

I have friend in triple AAA games, and they had something to say about outsourcing regarding Dragon Age 4: “To be honest, I'd say (outsourcing is) different per studio due to scope. But with something big like Dragon Age I'd probably say outsourcing would start early to mid-production as they have a hell of a lot to do. Some studios outsource from the get go though so that's also possible. And It's rare that outsourcing starts in the final leg of development.”

What I understand from the job posting is that BioWare are looking to hire a producer who will be dedicated to outsourcing so they can establish a pipeline and maintain proper standards for outsourcing. This hiring was posted in May, so the studio might be a few months early from when they actually have to outsource. However, this process will be coming up soon in major development.

Moving on. In early April, Mark Darrah went on a twitter rampage sharing many tweets relating to Dragon Age 4. One tweet stated: “Is tweeting more going to make you all speculate more or less?”. Followed by a poll with the answers “more”, “less” & “Dragon Age 4!?”

The following week, Mark Darrah teased his three Wolf-Rook books he has placed on a shelf at home.

Later on, in the month, he decided to stack each of them, prompted with the caption: “Spoiler: these are a terrible building material…”

Just last week, Mark tweeted the Wolf-Rook book once more, with the following meme: “Dear men, what is preventing you from looking like this?”

This cheeky tease encouraged Melissa Janowicz (Gameplay Designer) to join the fun and share her own Wolf-Rook book! She said: “It's an absolutely gorgeous book. I'll treasure it for life.”

Ahhh. The secrets these books could hold about Dragon Age 4’s core concepts.... And Mark Darrah is just staking them together, making book forts out of them, as you do! 😂 Maybe one day, we’ll uncover the secrets held within every page, but that day is not yet upon on.

On the same memey day, Chris Anderson, (Application Development/Publishing Support at BioWare) tweeted: “Other people are teasing things, so what the hell, here's an image that I used in something I was working on today.” With a pink image shown.

Chris and Melissa followed a Twitter conversation about pink being the “perfect colour for when you need something that screams temp.”

Basically, this pink actually has some context for the development of Dragon Age 4. ‘Temp’ means temporary textures, the first blocked out layer of a texture before actual detailed textures are added.

This can refer to many scenes or models in the early texturing phases, as art assets are still in the approval stages. On a wild, out-there whim, perhaps the team are wrapping up a trailer for a reveal? Maybe?... please?

John Epler (Narrative Director) shared his most controversial opinion of all time:

I loved the Hinterlands, but as a fan of the previous Dragon Age game’s ‘linear with freedom' approach, I appreciate John’s take on open world’s since Dragon Age: Inquisition, perhaps this will shape the way forward for future BioWare titles?

Alix Wilton Regan, voice actress of the Female British Inquisitor retweeted Autumn Witch’s poll asking if people believe the Inquisitor will return as a voiced appearance in Dragon Age 4. Alix tweeted: “C’mon #DAI Fans, you know what to do ;)”

Patrick Weekes replied to Alix’s post with an eye's emoji 👀.... I think I speak for everyone when I say, in some capacity, the Inquisitor has got to return in the next game!

In another tweet, Patrick Weekes teased potential new companions when a Twitter trend placed 5 Dragon Age characters in 6 different camps went around the platform.

When choosing their preferred camp, Patrick Weekes tweeted: “Finally, in Camp 7, it's turned into a bit of a mess, with coffee grounds spilled everywhere and the couch inexplicably on fire after a drinking game gone wrong. But that's another story.”

Of course, there’s not much to tear apart here, but we have acknowledgement of the next party members! It sounds like they’re a wild bunch already!

In early April, Mark Darrah answered a few current development tweets:

So, that’s...Splendid.

Karin Weekes (Editor) tweeted that they “got to sort/catalog/document updates to made-up languages at work today.”

Following that tweet, @ladyiolanthe asked Karin: “Do you think BioWare might ever be able to release Qunari, Dwarvish, and Elvhen lexicons in a World of Thedas Volume 3 sort of book? Or is that unlikely since they're ciphers and maybe there isn't a standardized grammatical structure, etc?”

Karin replied with: “That’s an interesting idea - I, for one, would find it a hoot! I might send out some feelers…” Any books of made-up languages I can get my hands on would be greatly appreciated!

Alain Baxter, (‘Production guy’) tweeted: “BioWare review of content today. All I can say is “Scriplet”. 😎

Apparently a ‘Scriptlet’ is an action verb. Alain is teasing premature scripts as they ‘perform their function’ So, something exciting is going down in the scripts, to be worked on in-engine. Or maybe it’s just an inside joke?

John Epler tweeted a great design message about “how 90% of ‘bad’ decisions are, in fact, the best decision at the time. For John, that will always be the camera zoomed conversations in DA: I. People didn’t like it, and asked why not just make them full scenes. But that’s not the decision they make in-house. It was 'make them simple conversations or else cut them'. Game dev is all about making the best decision you can at the time, with the resources you have .A lot of stuff you thought was weird or awkward came down to a gut call of 'this is the best I can make this and I trust it's good enough'. Sometimes we're right, sometimes not.”

Awesome words to think on, Dragon Age 4 will be amazing, I’m sure, but just remember to set your expectations right and realise everything design-wise, happens for a reason.

Shifting to other design aspects. Jos Hendricks (Senior Level Designer) tweeted:

Mike Jungbluth (Animation Director) tweeted: “Just reviewed something in game that hit THIS LEVEL! Hot damn, moments like this are what I live for.”

Both tweets are incredibly excited and telling of development for Dragon Age 4, it sounds like they’re building and prototyping an epic scene equivalent in scale to the attack at Haven scene? Perhaps, Solas destroying the Veil? Who knows, but it sounds epic, and I’m living for both dev.'s enthusiasm!

For the final tweet regarding the development side is from Åsa Roos (Principle UX Designer)

A UX designer writing about Solas? That must be for codex entries? Right? More lore on our Rebel God!

Unannounced Dragon Age Game:

In my previous March news update, I discussed brashly about the developers on Dragon Age 4 still claiming that this project has not officially been announced yet, however, The Dread Wolf Rises teaser in 2018 certainly alluded to an announcement regarding the next Dragon Age title. Following this story, we have many sources providing clarity on Dragon Age 4’s current ‘unannounced’ situation.

Patrick Weekes confirmed that they are “working on an unannounced game in the Dragon Age universe.”

Patrick said: “We would LOVE to be able to say more. We are really excited about what we’re working on. But we can’t share anything right now. Sorry!”

In April 2019, I painted this unannounced situation rather conspiratorial, I said that perhaps the Dragon Age dev’s can’t share anymore on the next game because Anthem was the next project, and EA are forcing them to not speak on Dragon Age. In an attempt to maintain the crowd by not letting BioWare developers regard Dragon Age 4 as the next working project in the works.

However, I don’t think it’s that deep. I think the developers are just under an NDA, and literally can’t speak about the game.

In Episode 121 of the Anthem-based ‘Freelancer Codex’ Podcast - as a guest, Melissa Janowicz shared that the developers on the secret Dragon Age team cannot talk about the next game, in fact, they can barely talk about the contents of The Dread Wolf Rises teaser trailer.

Chris Anderson also emphasised this same point in a tweet:

As a side not, someone asked Chris why not lie and come up with fake answers to fool the fans, and Chris said: “That can, unfortunately, get me in nearly as much trouble!”

Which shows the validity and value in BioWare developer tweets. The developers can’t just lie about the project either. Which honestly helps someone like me out.

As we know, a game is coming, yet it’s still is very much unannounced, probably because as Jason Schreier reported in 2018, Dragon Age 4 is going to change at least 5 times in the next two years, perhaps BioWare don’t want to show us anything because they don’t want to set anything in stone, or show gameplay that is not representative of the final game.

But that doesn’t extend to a CGI trailer, or a full title drop, Maker knows that would be amazing, and is within the realm of possibility.

New Lore/Fun:

We have some new lore, and other fun things I wanted to share.

Dragon Age Comic Writer, Nunzio DeFillipis talked HUGELY about the red lyrium idol and what was originally planned for their comics.

Nunzio recently mentioned in the Unofficial Bioware Forums that the comic characters from Deception were originally chasing the red lyrium idol.

Nunzio stated that the original plan for the comics would've had the characters retrieve the red lyrium idol. Only to have Solas take it back. Eluding to the idol's planned whereabouts before the plot changed since Joplin's cancellation and BioWare's shift regarding this idol in the comics.

Does this still mean that the location of the red lyrium idol is most likely in the hands of Solas and might only be discovered in Dragon Age 4? Or does the next protagonist have a shot at retrieving the idol before Solas finds it?

It seems like a bummer that the original comic idea was scrapped and the writers were forced to change narrative direction regarding this particular idol.

As a funny tweet I saw. Emily (Domino) Talyor tweeted using her overheard in the office hashtag:

BioWare dev’s can’t even tell their kids, folks.

And, regarding the Fuzzy Freaks livestream. Patrick Weekes’s response to my question, asking how does Solas kill dwarves in their sleep if they have no connection to the Fade, was “very effectively.” This will be a mystery I will personally be investigating when we have our hands on the game.

Considering it was really fun for those who watched the Fuzzy Freaks livestream, I’m going to share other silly takeaways:

Patrick Weekes doing a New York accent for the Carta Dwarf is amazing!

“DREAD DUMBASS” - is a jokey dialogue option that Karen Weekes scribbled notes for future reference.

Patrick likes soft romances and happy endings! IRONICALLY.

Patrick’s style of writing is less high fantasy and more modern.

@DrunkDalish, Co-founder of Dragon Age Day interviewed both Karen and Patrick Weekes. As a lover of Dragon Age lore, these interviews reveal so many loving tidbits that you should read for yourself. However, something I noted that was very significant regarding the future is based on Masked Empire’s ending. So, spoilers for that, but Felassan’s fate isn’t what it seems. Perhaps this elf could come back in the future if needed.

Wellbeing:

And, we come to the last topic, this one is centred on the BioWare staff’s wellbeing. Last year, there was a Kotaku article revealing the crunch and working conditions at BW, there was a lot of worry and confusion in the air that the people working on these games were struggling mentally because of senior management and many other reasons. With that in mind, I’m dedicating a section in these news updates to the wellbeing of the developers, any signs/tweets of positivity and hope will be shared in an effort to see if there has been any change in the BioWare offices since Anthem’s release.

It seems like things are going pretty well and people seem happy and optimistic about the next Dragon Age.

If there are any major updates to a Dragon Age 4 tease at EA Play, I'll be sure to make an update video, but otherwise, be sure to join our livestream as see for ourselves what waits us this EA Play.

Let me know your thoughts down below, what do you think about a potential EA Play teaser, where are your expectations at?

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stumpyjoepete · 4 years

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One of the controversial things we did with Signal early on was to build it as an unfederated service. Nothing about any of the protocols we’ve developed requires centralization; it’s entirely possible to build a federated Signal Protocol-based messenger, but I no longer believe that it is possible to build a competitive federated messenger at all.

In some circles, this has not been a popular opinion. When someone recently asked me about federating an unrelated communication platform into the Signal network, I told them that I thought we’d be unlikely to ever federate with clients and servers we don’t control. Their retort was “that’s dumb, how far would the internet have gotten without interoperable protocols defined by 3rd parties?”

I thought about it. We got to the first production version of IP, and have been trying for the past 20 years to switch to a second production version of IP with limited success. We got to HTTP version 1.1 in 1997, and have been stuck there until now. Likewise, SMTP, IRC, DNS, XMPP, are all similarly frozen in time circa the late 1990s. To answer his question, that’s how far the internet got. It got to the late 90s.

That has taken us pretty far, but it’s undeniable that once you federate your protocol, it becomes very difficult to make changes. And right now, at the application level, things that stand still don’t fare very well in a world where the ecosystem is moving.

Indeed, cannibalizing a federated application-layer protocol into a centralized service is almost a sure recipe for a successful consumer product today. It’s what Slack did with IRC, what Facebook did with email, and what WhatsApp has done with XMPP. In each case, the federated service is stuck in time, while the centralized service is able to iterate into the modern world and beyond.

So while it’s nice that I’m able to host my own email, that’s also the reason why my email isn’t end-to-end encrypted, and probably never will be. By contrast, WhatsApp was able to introduce end-to-end encryption to over a billion users with a single software update. So long as federation means stasis while centralization means movement, federated protocols are going to have trouble existing in a software climate that demands movement as it does today.

Early on, I thought we’d federate Signal once its velocity had subsided. Now I realize that things will probably never slow down, and if anything the velocity of the entire landscape seems to be steadily increasing.

XMPP is an example of a federated protocol that advertises itself as a “living standard.” Despite its capacity for protocol “extensions,” however, it’s undeniable that XMPP still largely resembles a synchronous protocol with limited support for rich media, which can’t realistically be deployed on mobile devices. If XMPP is so extensible, why haven’t those extensions quickly brought it up to speed with the modern world?

Like any federated protocol, extensions don’t mean much unless everyone applies them, and that’s an almost impossible task in a truly federated landscape. What we have instead is a complicated morass of XEPs that aren’t consistently applied anywhere. The implications of that are severe, because someone’s choice to use an XMPP client or server that doesn’t support video or some other arbitrary feature doesn’t only affect them, it affects everyone who tries to communicate with them. It creates a climate of uncertainty, never knowing whether things will work or not. In the consumer space, fractured client support is often worse than no client support at all, because consistency is incredibly important for creating a compelling user experience.

For example, even GitHub has problems with consistency and control right now. They introduced issue templates, but a number of third-party GitHub clients don’t support them, so even after creating a thorough issue template for the Signal Android repository, we still get people who post “it doesn’t work please help,” because their client never even showed them the template. That makes me annoyed with GitHub, even though I use the official GitHub clients. It’s a potential opportunity for a GitHub competitor that can display issue templates consistently.

One potential benefit of federation is the ability to choose what provider gets access to your metadata. However, as someone who self-hosts my email, that has never felt particularly relevant, given that every email I send or receive seems to have Gmail on the other end of it anyway. Federated services always seem to coalesce around a provider that the bulk of people use, with a long tail of small scattered self-hosting across the internet. That makes sense, because running a reliable service isn’t easy, but it’s an outcome that is sadly the worst of both worlds.

If anything, protecting metadata is going to require innovation in new protocols and software. Those changes are only likely to be possible in centralized environments with more control, rather than less. Just as making the changes to consistently deploy end-to-end encryption in federated protocols like email has proved difficult, we’re more likely to see the emergence of enhanced metadata protection in centralized environments with greater control.

On some level, federation is appealing precisely because it does freeze protocols in time. It’s great when centralized clients and servers roll out features that benefit us, but they could just as easily roll out features that don’t. Federation gives us more collective control over what changes we accept, but that comes with an unacceptable inability to adapt.

Given that federated services always seem to coalesce around a provider that the bulk of people use, federation becomes a sort of implicit threat. Nobody really wants to run their own servers, but they know that it might be possible if their current host does something egregious enough to make it worth the effort.

However, over the past six years, we’ve also seen the user cost of switching between centralized communication services reduced substantially, particularly given the tendency towards addressing with user-owned identifiers like phone numbers. The device’s address book is now the social network, so using phone numbers as an identifier has reduced switching costs by putting a user’s social network under their control. In a way, the notification center on a mobile device has become the federation point for all communication apps, similar to how older desktop IM clients unified communication across multiple IM networks.

The effect has been visible in the messaging space, where market leaders have come and gone, new popular apps come out of nowhere, and even the most successful players seem compelled to continue iterating and improving their services as quickly as possible.

This reduced user friction has begun to extend the implicit threat that used to come with federated services into centralized services as well. Where as before you could switch hosts, or even decide to run your own server, now users are simply switching entire networks. In many cases that cost is now much lower than the federated switching cost of changing your email address to use a different email provider.

An open source infrastructure for a centralized network now provides almost the same level of control as federated protocols, without giving up the ability to adapt. If a centralized provider with an open source infrastructure ever makes horrible changes, those that disagree have the software they need to run their own alternative instead. It may not be as beautiful as federation, but at this point it seems that it will have to do.

#interesting take #security

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consummate-deviant · 5 years

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I reckon I’m gonna talk about Hordak for a minute

So, I feel the need to talk about Hordak. This is, perhaps, not unusual. Once upon a time ago, writing stupidly long pseudo-essays about characters I rather liked used to be my thing… and it’s still a bug that bites me from time to time. The timing certainly seems right! Homeboy has been the topic of conversation lately, thanks to the recent release of She-ra season 4, and the manifold feels associated with it. I’m fond of Hordak, as it were, so I don’t mind sharing my perspective on the subject, since there’s some confusion as to his appeal.

The two stances I see taken on Hordak most often, by those who don’t like him, I should specify, are as follows:

A.) He’s an irredeemable villain who has done terrible things, and I don’t see why anyone would like him.

And

B.) He’s a lame, nonthreatening villain.

I’m not going to be engaging with mindset ‘B’ quite as much as with mindset ‘A’ in the following post, in part because the reasons why he’s so lame and nonthreatening are kinda tied to what I’ll be discussing by implication, but mostly because my response to mindset B can be summed up with the following: “You are not wrong, at all. However, that’s literally the entire point of his character, so while you aren’t wrong to be disappointed if you were hoping he would be a more measured, megalomaniacal sort, it’s also not a failure on the part of the writers, since his lack of suitability for the role he was trying to play was always going to be what his story was about.”

Mindset ‘A’, though... well... that’s a bit tricky. Ultimately “irredeemable” is a personal value judgment. The threshold a character must cross before one audience member feels they no longer deserve forgiveness can vary quite wildly from another, and while trying to pass one’s personal opinion off as an objective fact is something of a pastime on the internet, I am- and I cannot state this emphatically enough- NOT your dad… probably. At least, I hope to god… Look, odds are really good that I’m not your dad, so… you do your thing and shine like the crazy diamond you are. I probably can’t change your mind, and considering I don’t even know you, it’d be kinda creepy if I thought I could! What I can do, though, for those genuinely curious how anyone could consider him redeemable, is share my own perspective on the character, and why I think redemption is the direction the story is going, based on how I’ve read the text thus far… So I’m gonna do that. Let’s go over Hordak as he has appeared in the She-Ra reboot.

Part I: Season 1 Hordak

Now see, when we kick things off, I totally get where both the ‘A’ group and the ‘B’ group are coming from. Hordak, as he appears in season 1, seems ruthless, intimidating, and single-minded. Hordak doesn’t carry the conflict in season 1, serving as more of a background presence while Catra and Shadow Weaver, who have a more personal investment in the central narrative, do all the heavy lifting of antagonizing the heroes and angsting.

This keeps the attention off of Hordak, which is precisely how he likes things. When people aren’t going out of their way to interact with him, then it’s easy for him to control what few interactions he does have. That’s what season 1 shows us: Hordak, when he has perfect control over his own narrative. Every scene that features him is shot with a low angle, often with his form either concealed in shadows or with his face partially out of frame. When he speaks, he’s always calm and distant… but calm in that ‘he could totally fly into a rage at any instant’ way that keeps people on their toes. Pragmatic, taciturn, perfectly measured and groomed,… pretty tall! By any metric a reasonable person can measure a competent, intimidating villain, Hordak circa season 1 seems like he’d pass the test.

Part 2: Season 2-3 Hordak

Here’s the thing... though... about season 1 Hordak... that we learn pretty quickly when we transition into season 2: Season 1 Hordak is a massive fraud. Like, seriously, he’s a fabrication created out of necessity to hide a single, prevailing truth: Hordak is an awkward dork who is kinda terrible at being an evil overlord.

I’ve seen some people describe Hordak’s season 2-3 character development with the expression “You thought I was Ozai, but I was actually Zuko this whole time!” Now, I like this expression fine. I’ve borrowed it a time or two in the past, but with regard to Hordak, I prefer to phrase it like this: “You thought I was Emperor Palpatine, but I was really the Wizard of Oz this whole time!” The former expression gives someone an idea of the tropes of the character pretty well, but the latter does a better job, I feel, of showing the relationship between season 1 and later seasons with Hordak. Hordak is a competent, unflappable, all-seeing leader… hey, hey! Pay no mind to the man behind the curtain! Hordak’s past… as a mindless clone created to lead other mindless clones in a mindless clone army… has left him laughably unprepared for the task of leading others. He’s smart, like, in a general bookish sense, but he has no charisma, no interpersonal talents to speak of, and doesn’t really seem to have any grasp of how to motivate his underlings, save to reward talent with promotion.

Out of necessity, Hordak keeps his true self buried underneath multiple layers of protection. The first layer is the season 1 illusion: Delegate direct command of his soldiers to a single adjutant, interact with that adjutant just enough to keep them in line, and remain in his sanctum all day, like the geeky shut-in he is.

The first layer is pretty nice, and seems to have bought him quite a few years running the horde… but what happens if, say, some uppity Force Captain decides to pester him with personal status reports… or some absent-minded inventor decides to raid his lab for a six-sided hex driver? Personally interacting with his minions for too long will reveal the illusion he’s been hiding behind! Well, fear not... This is where the second layer of protection comes in handy.

Yes, Hordak’s second layer of defense: blustering, shouting, and intimidating. Threaten them with dire consequences for bothering him, let them visit the planet with nearly-enough-atmosphere for a few seconds… do everything in his power to frighten them so badly they never want to directly interact with him again. What should happen if this second layer fails him, though? They learn of the most terrifying secret in Hordak’s entire arsenal.

...There is no third layer…

Nope. If a minion is plucky enough to peak behind the curtain of his grand illusion, and then bold enough to stand their ground at the explosion of hot air that follows… he has basically no follow-up left. One of my favorite nonverbal scenes in the entire series is the moment where he realizes that his screaming is having no visible impact on Entrapta. There’s a look on his face that seems to say ‘What the hell am I supposed to do now!?’… like, it’s clear the dude has never needed a third step to scare someone away before.

Ah, but you, my savvy reader, have no doubt cottoned on to the error in my argument thus far. Establishing that Hordak is an awkward, introverted nerd doesn’t really change the fact that he built the Etherian horde. The fact that he’s not especially competent doesn’t change the bad deeds his committed! Well, rest assured, you beautiful person who can claim no paternal relation to me, I agree! However, characterizing Hordak like this goes hand in hand with the other big reveal of season 3: his backstory.

Now, cards on the table, I’ve been taking Hordak as he comes, and up until this point I didn’t really have any strong idea of whether they were going the big-bad or redeemed-bad route with him. It wasn’t until season 3, when his origin was revealed, that I genuinely began to suspect that the redemption path was where the writers were headed, because it re-frames his actions in a subtle, but pretty important way.

With no Horde Prime, when one looks at Hordak, they see a man who orchestrated a corrupt and oppressive system for his personal benefit, who holds others in disdain due to self-aggrandizement, and is motivated by a desire to be seen as greater than everyone else. That is a character who would be very hard to convincingly redeem. While I’m loathe to raise the specter of Steven Universe discourse here, it’s a lot like the notion of redeeming the Diamonds… and, while I have no strong feelings about that show one way or the other, suffice it to say I can at least see why their redemption is controversial.

Horde Prime shifts the context of Hordak’s actions, though. Now, Hordak is a man who perpetuates the very system he is, himself, a victim of, because it’s the only system he knows. His conflict with others is born from the projection of his own self loathing. Said self-loathing comes from his chief motivation, which is to be acknowledged as worthy by an authority figure who has no interest or desire in ever offering him that acknowledgment.

Such a character is still flawed and villainous, because of course it is. If a character has done nothing wrong, they don’t need redemption in the first place. It’s a lot easier to accept the struggles of a flawed character if they’re a victim of oppression rather than its source. To borrow the SU comparison one final time, the Horde Prime twist reveals to us that Hordak isn’t a diamond, he’s just another one of the countless gems caught in their system.

By the by, does “perpetuates a system they, themselves, are victims of, suffers from conflicts born of projected self loathing, and desire to be acknowledged by an authority figure who has no interest or desire in providing said acknowledgment” sound familiar? I hope so! It ties into my final point of the day.

Part 3: Season 4 Hordak (aka “Hordak and Catra have basically the same arc”)

Now, implying similarity in the character arcs of Hordak and Catra has, historically, been a fraught endeavor. Even I, Hordak stan extraordinaire, felt that we needed to see a bit more of where the writers were wanting to take Hordak before we went and made comparisons. Then season 4 happened… and guys… the subtitle of season 4 may as well have been “Hordak and Catra have basically the same arc.”

Well, that’s a bit of an oversimplification. Catra had people she could perceive as her peers, which granted her a social circle outside of her direct superiors whom she could feel camaraderie with, which added a dimension to the emotional turmoil she felt, but in broad strokes it seems to be a comparison that the writers are inviting us to make. Their alliance in season 4 is based around their commonality. They motivate one another by feeding into the insatiable hunger both of them feel for external validation… in that regard, they bring out the worst in each other, and thus season 4 ends with both of them brought to their lowest point.

At the end of season 4, if the princesses had never arrived, and Double Trouble hadn’t been there to finally force her to confront the emotions she insistently projected onto others, Catra would have assumed the mantle she claimed from Hordak. She would have ruled the horde, devoid of satisfaction or happiness, and any children she took into her numbers she would have treated in exactly the same way Shadow Weaver treated her, and the same way Horde Prime treated Hordak.

To escape that fate, she needed her chance to face the system that oppressed her, and then the chance to face herself… and only once she had done both, could she start to move forward again. That’s why we see the start of her recovery in the final scenes of the season. Catra did unspeakably terrible things- by the end of season 4 her atrocity count easily rivals Hordak’s- and not everything can be blamed exclusively on others, but we, as an audience, have seen enough of what made her the way she is… that’s why most of us are onboard with her eventual redemption.

Catra is, beneath all the layers of spite and illusions of who she thinks she should be, a sweet kid who ultimately wants to reconnect with a friend she fears abandoned her, and to be respected and appreciated by the authority figures in her life. Hordak is, ultimately, a hikikomori dweeb who, not too long ago, was content to spend the rest of eternity with his gamer girlfriend in his lab, pretending to put together a portal machine.

The villain of She-ra is Horde Prime, and the system he put into place to feed his arrogance at the expense of those trapped within it. For those inside that system, like Catra or Hordak, they don’t cross the line and become truly irredeemable until they are given a clear and unambiguous chance to escape from that system and change their life for the better… but refuse to grasp it. Even then… sometimes it takes them a little while to see the hand being offered to them… and sometimes that hand is in the form of a fist.

In conclusion

Look, guys, I’ll be real with you… I made a play at pretending that I wrote this for some point or another… but I kinda didn’t. When I get into a fandom headspace, words get stuck in my head, y’know? When they do, they buzz around like bees until I write ‘em someplace… so here we are.

I’m not so arrogant as to assume I can change anyone’s mind with my 4 AM word vomit about the emaciated bat villain in my favorite children’s cartoon. This is just a thing I wrote! Maybe if you agree with it it makes you happy, and if you disagree with it then it doesn’t get’cha too worked up! I was gonna include Hordak’s relationship with Entrapta into the proceedings… but honestly, that would have doubled the length of this thing, and would have been kinda tangential to the point. I may do a more shippy essay thing later on… but if there’s one thing I learned from the last time I wrote a bunch of these… it’s that planning them out never works well. I guess if people wanna see it I can write it though.

Anyway, I’m rambling, so I’m gonna letcha go! Thanks for listening to my TED talk. Remember, villains are an artform, people are complicated, and hot cocoa is the best winter beverage. I’m going back to fanfic writing until the next bout of insomnia!

#she ra hordak #entrapdak #hordak #she ra 2019

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lucindarobinsonvevo · 4 years

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Good News This Week for Fans Of Eerie, Indiana Who Just This Week Put Out Their Long Time Unreleased Album ‘Broken Record’

“We had no idea we were making a controversial record when we made it.” Band member Simon Holmes said this week, in an interview about the release of Broken Record, “I was just writing about my experiences. I guess my life was controversial.” “I always felt like Simon never got enough recognition.” Admits the band’s front man Marshall Teller, “So when we made Broken Record I told promotion that it had to be equal this time, not like the mess that was promotion for JSNTF. When they decided not to put the album out, it felt like the label was just twisting the knife.” (note: JSNTF is Just Say Not To Fun was the band’s previous release) “Of course, then we had to throw something together from cut tracks and other bits we had lying around. I was never happy with the quality of America’s Scariest Home Videos.

Broken Record was mostly forgotten for two decades before the band’s third member and later addition to the band, Dash X, was asked about it on an Instagram Q&A (of all things) when responding to a question from a long time fan he revealed that the band’s entire back catalouge had been destroyed by the label in an ‘accident’ and chances of release were ‘minimal’ unless ‘the bastards who keep leaking our tracks want to give us a copy’. Indeed, hard core Eerie, Indiana fans will know that various tracks from Broken Record have been making their way through fan groups for the last two decades since the initial recording. How they got there is difficult to say, though some sources claim that ‘Weird Kids’, ‘Tension’ and ‘Bigfoot is Real’ were all set to be singles and sent out to radio stations, and others claim to have taken them straight from work tapes of the record. One enterprising fan claims to have traded rare Taylor Swift tracks to someone who gave them a copy of ‘Ousted’, which they then shared on Periscope.

Of course, how this release came about is as strange a story as one might expect from a band who released a concept album about being hypnotized into hating fun. Long time collaborate of the band, Janet Donner was apparently looking for pictures of her girlfriend and band mate Melanie Monroe (Both were considered part of the Indiana Six) in her storage locker with Teller when they came across a box marked ‘Marshall’s Junk’ inside was a variety of old ‘memorabilia’ from the era where all six projects were active at once. Among the junk was an old work tape of the first time the group recorded the album’s centerpiece ‘MMNH’, sheet music for several other tracks, and a large binder promotional material, lyrics and old photographs. Seeing that they now had the last remaining copy of any track off the album the band decided to get together and re-record it as a special gift to their fans. ‘Janet is a bit of a character. She hates to throw away anything to do with work, but she’s utterly ruthless when it comes to her personal life. She’s got three storage containers full of junk, and a house where she won’t even hang up artwork. We used to tease her, but I guess it paid off in the end.” Teller said of the find

But what of the album itself? Well, the overall sound is like no other Eerie, Indiana album that’s for sure. Despite all their changes and use of multiple genres, one thing always held every E,I record together and that was Teller’s skillful guitar playing. Complicated riffs, long solos and difficult to reproduce life performances were a staple of the group, but almost utterly absent on this record, but not gone entirely from the tracks meant to be released as singles where the pop flavouring the band usually has remains undiluted.

The most stand out track on the record is MMNH, which is sung by both Teller and Janet Donner, who take on the role of a dysfunctional couple arguing over the top of a beautiful piano track. The liner notes say that this fight is based on the arguments of Holmes’s parents and the personal digs that they take at one another are extremely niche and telling of that. While there are certainly no lack of tracks were Teller takes an emotional, confrontational stance with his singing, here it sounds much more refined and serious than he did at the time this album was originally recorded. Donner takes her voice an octave higher than her usual singing, and comes across as loud, and shrewd, at one point breaking down into tears while still singing. Conversely, Teller only gets louder, and angrier as the song progresses to a peak around the seven minute mark where his voice cracks, he stops and Donner sobbing is the only sound on the tape for minute afterwards. It’s an uncomfortable listen, to say the least, but the performances are perhaps some of the best in the career of both singers. The worktape version of the song is five minutes longer and very clearly an extremely early pass. Throughout the recording, someone, probably Donner, is wearing very loud, jangling jewelry. There are several long pauses on the track of Holmes at his piano, contributing a rare vocal performance of background vocals, which were cut from the final track. At the end, you can hear Holmes say cut, and Teller comforting Donner, who insists she’s fine just emotional. The track is experimental and clearly emotionally taxing, just like the rest of the album. While I wouldn’t have put it so close to the other most emotional track on the album, Broken Record, it’s certainly a one of a kind experience.

Broken Record, the tile track, is also an extremely emotional track, but personally I think would have qualified the album and the track for grammys. The track is written and played solely by Holmes, the only track of it’s kind in the entire Eerie, Indiana cataloge that was released, though there are rumors that there were more Holmes led tracks that he personally refused to release due to dissatisfaction with his singing voice. The track is a ballad, performed with a guitar, and is essentially a letter to Holmes’s brother, Harley. He sings through the run time, apologizing for not being able to not protect him enough. In the gentle climax of the song, he professes to feeling like a broken record, apologizing and apologizing and feeling like he’ll never say it enough. This track too is a deeply emotional listen, and extremely sad. At the time the song was written, Harley Holmes was in a military academy after getting into to much trouble in the small home town of the bands two founding members. Truly, Holmes has a nice singing voice, but it’s imperfections make the track all the more compelling in my opinion. Thankfully, one quick look at his Instagram account shows that his relationship with his brother seems to be a happy one. The leaked version of the track is not notedly different to the released version, other than it’s remarkably low quality (probably from years of being traded as an MP3 through various fan emails), and sounds far sadder than the version released now that Holmes’s relationship with his brother is doing better.

Of course, the track-list is not devoid of the usual Teller-isms one finds on an Eerie, Indiana album. The supposed first single ‘Bigfoot is Real’ is a spot of real sunshine on a very bleak track-list with your usual flavour of complicated riffs. The song is devoted to celebrating the friendship between the two leads, who met as children and in their own words were ‘kind of obsessed with proving that their hometown as weird’. It’s a fun, fast paced moment of happiness on the album.

Ousted, the final leaked track is a song with steel drums leading the charge. Though Teller is once again the singer, he’s clearly just the mouthpiece for Holmes, who sings about being ousted from his home life with his parents and moving in with Teller’s family. While it seems like it might be another sad song, it’s actually a loving song about finding family and non-typical family structures. The opening samples a recording of the actual court appearance where the Teller family was awarded full custody of Holmes by a judge. The liner notes suggest that this was recorded by Teller illicitly because he wanted to remember the day ‘Simon became my brother for real.’ Like the band’s final effort, Reality Takes a Holiday, Broken Record is a one two punch sort of record where the theme you think you’re going to get isn’t quite what you get. Yes, Broken Record is about the disrupted home life of Holmes, there’s a lot of love in the happier tracks. Weird Kids, Inbetween Tweens and Bigfoot is Real are all about being loved and accepted by your friends, and the deeply rooted friendship between Holmes and Teller. It ultimately becomes a record about finding a home and a family who love and accept you for you.

Dash X is largely absent on the album, though he is the guitar player on the intermission track, but since he was not a member of the band during the initial recording, and he is busy with his current job as a voice actor there is seemingly not a lot of use for him here. Not to say he doesn’t pop up on some tracks, there was an entire extra verse added to High Strung for him where his raspy, gravelly voice adds a new layer of sound and texture to an otherwise cutting floor worthy track. Another track that feels like a miss is Under Foreign Stars, which is a Teller penned track about feeling alone in a new town that belongs on Foreverware, or an early demo tape far more than it belongs here.

The liner for the album contains the lyrics, and a lot of previously unseen photos apparently taken by Donner of Eerie, Indiana in the studio recording in all era’s of the band’s existence. Including an extremely rare picture of PDA between X and Teller, who were closeted at the time. When asked about the owner of the broken collarbone features on the back of the album, Holmes revealed that it actually belongs to Melanie Monroe, and that it was technically because of her that the album was re-recorded they wanted to pay homage to her and use an old x-ray of hers instead of the one that was featured originally, apparently a broken arm belonging to Teller after disregarding the instructions of a waterside.

When asked if this means that Eerie, Indiana was reuniting, Holmes said that they were not, this was currently a one of project to say thank you to their fans. “Eerie, Indiana fans have always been such great supporters of our individual careers, we wanted to give them something new. But there’s always hope about Eerie, Indiana putting out new music. Who knows. Watch this space!”

#eerie indiana #Simon Holmes #marshall teller #dash x #janet donner #mitziedits #another adition to the EIAACU #(eerie indiana as albums cinematic universe)#this one only took me 4 hours and i like it way more than the other one lol #i thought simon deserved more than the two lines he got in the stah album so. yeah

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falneou17 · 4 years

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BanG Dream Favorite List - 6

With the introduction of Morfonica and the almost completion of the third season, I figured I might as well update this list a bit. I will add Morfonica on the list for now but keep in mind that I have very little information to go on for them. I also don’t play on the Japanese server anymore, so I don’t know what kind of an impact the new girls have on the franchise in that regard. All I got are their designs, their introductions, their character profiles, and their MV.

Favorites

Yamabuki Saaya (1, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1)

The same old song and dance right here. While the gap between her and Moca is really small, it is still there and Saaya is still standing at the very top. For now, anyway.

Aoba Moca (2, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2)

And with Saaya at the number 1 spot, Moca remains on the number 2 spot. She’s definitely easier for me to depict in fanfictions than Saaya is, but... being easier to depict does not make me like you more, unfortunately. I also semi-recently found out about this (because she did a collab with Yukki (Lisa) and Meguchi (Ako)), but Moca’s seiyuu has a Youtube account now as well! Been quite amusing to watch her so far.

Mitake Ran (3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3)

Despite being even easier for me to depict than Moca is, Ran remains on the bronze medal. That said, she’s definitely got a lot going for her, and she’s still growing as a vocalist more and more. All the props to her seiyuu!

Hazawa Tsugumi (4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4)

And look! The Tsuguteru is still on the number 4 spot; Rinko hasn’t surpassed her just yet. I mean... is there really anything left for me to say about this adorable bundle of cute of Afterglow? She’s a selfless hard worker and she keeps her friends going; and, despite remaining relatively static over the years, in Tsugu’s case it’s a good thing. Don’t fix what ain’t broke, am I right?

Imai Lisa (5, 5, 5, 6, 6, 5)

As a matter of fact, Rinko even lost her number five spot to Lisa. I am kind of being unfair here, but it’s my list so I can make my own rules... the fact that I actually like Lisa’s new seiyuu (and semi-regularly watch her Youtube channel where she is a ton of fun to watch as well) helps to indirectly raise Lisa up the ranks.

Shirokane Rinko (7, 6, 6, 5, 5, 6)

What can I say? ENdori has officially changed Rinko’s voice from Akesaka Satomi-san’s to Shizaki Kanon’s. And, if it hasn’t been made obvious by now... Akesaka-san really made Rinko who she was and the shift has been really... jarring, to put it lightly. She’s still high because she’s Rinko and there are a ton of amazing Rinko cards left to appear in the EN server, but... she might drop even further at this rate...

Satou “MASKING” Masuki (20, 21, 10, 9, 9, 7)

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: Season 3 has a lot of problems. But the one thing they did well is truly allowing Raise a Suilen to grow; both as a collective unit as well as individuals. And nobody has grown as much as MASKING has. She’s literally transformed from the girl in the shadows who had like three lines in season 2 to the girl with the biggest impact in season 3. I mean, CHU2 is close, but she can’t reach MASKING’s level. ...get it, ‘cause CHU2′s sho-

Uehara Himari (6, 7, 8, 7, 7, 8)

Himari has actually grown, which can be seen in her jumping up into the favorites, but... she can’t keep up with MASKING. That said, the new voice lines that the EN server has received as a result of the anniversary have really allowed Himari to shine some more in my opinion.

Udagawa Tomoe (8, 8, 7, 8, 8, 9)

Honestly... Tomoe’s pretty much the same as Himari in this regard. She gained a bit of ground relative to those at the very top, but she just hasn’t gained enough to close that gap entirely...

Loves

Asahi Rokka (12, 12, 12, 12, 11, 10)

Like MASKING before her, Rokka has grown to become pretty much the protagonist of the third season... and she’s done a lot of growing for sure!

Tamade “CHU2″ Chiyu (13, 13, 16, 14, 15, 11)

Probably... a more controversial choice to push her this high up again, but... listen... Season 3 has really done her justice. It really allowed her to grow, for us to see her past and the darkness in her heart and it allowed her to, at least a little bit, try and surpass that. Pretty big things for such a shortie.

Maruyama Aya (9, 9, 9, 10, 10, 12)

The first time Aya dropped from the top ten, and it’s by two spots, too. And it’s not even that something happened to make me like Aya less; it’s just that the RAS girls who have surpassed her are that much better in my opinion. Bushiroad really knew what they were doing with RAS, that’s all I am going to say. Speaking of RAS...

Wakana “LAYER” Rei (25, 20, 15, 11, 13, 13)

Out of all the RAS girls, Rei is probably the one with the least amount of growth. We saw Rokka grow from her Season 2 shy and reclusive self to her more determined and confident form in Season 3. Masuki’s growth is insane. CHU2 and PAREO both had an entire episode dedicated to their past and inner demons. LAYER... doesn’t really have any of that. Sure she had little flashbacks, but nothing to the extent of the other girls... She’s still pretty high, though.

Wakamiya Eve (11, 10, 11, 13, 12, 14)

A bit of a drop thanks to the RAS girls, but still nothing too extreme... I think... there’s really not that much I can say about her aside from the usual, really. That said, the Bushido is strong and Eve will remain strong.

Nyubara “PAREO” Reona (14, 14, 14, 15, 16, 15)

She technically jumped to 15th spot, but she’s still at the bottom of the RAS girls... despite having an episode dedicated to her past demons... I dunno, it was definitely not badly written or executed or anything, I just didn’t get moved by it as much as I did with, say... her precious CHU2-sama...

Okusawa Misaki ( 10, 11, 13, 16, 14, 16)

Back down to the lowest ranking she’s ever been to. At least she didn’t drop below that yet... but, let’s be honest... with how she’s been doing, it is only a matter of time... especially if Morfonica ends up shooting past her like RAS has.

Likes

Hikawa Sayo (17, 16, 18, 18, 17, 17)

Sayo is... still very weird for me to place. She’s had a little moment in season 3 where she clashed against Yukina (being the only Roselia girl who openly clashed against her, surprisingly) which did raise her a bit... but then she apologized as if she was in the wrong, which... you guessed it, lowered her again. So I think putting her in the same spot as last time would be fair enough?

Futuba Tsukushi (NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, 18)

The first Morfonica girl on the list, and one that might surprise some people who I have talked with about Morfonica. Again, I have very little to go with when it comes to Morfonica, but what I do have makes me feel like Tsukushi has a lot of potential. Only time will tell if this first impression was right.

Ichigaya Arisa (15, 17, 17, 17, 18, 19)

Losing her 18th spot to a fellow twintail, there’s nothing that Arisa did that really made her “lose” the spot. I don’t like her less, it’s just that I can see the potential for Tsukushi.

Tsurumaki Kokoro (16, 15, 19, 19, 20, 20)

And back to the 20th spot for Kokoro. Like Arisa, nothing of note happening for her to jump up again, it’s just... she kinda did.

Kurata Mashiro (NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, 21)

The Morfonica girl people would probably think be my fave Morfonica girl so far. A lot of potential as well, especially with her seiyuu being the youngest seiyuu of the franchise by such a big margin. She’s gotten a lot of hate already from what I can tell, and to that I say: give her some time to truly grow into Morfonica’s vocalist. It took a while for Kokoro (and, by proxy, HaroHapi) to really take off as well if memory serves.

Kirigaya Touko (NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, 22)

I am not going to lie... Touko might be the Morfonica girl I look forward to the most. From what I know, she’s got a pretty decent base going, she seems fun enough, and now all that is left is for Bushiroad to give her the justice she deserves. That every Morfonica girl deserves!

Udagawa Ako (19, 18, 20, 20, 19, 23)

It’s not really fair to call this a drop for Ako (and all the girls below her), because we did get introduced to five new girls. That said, she did lose her spot from Kokoro, but that aside... Ako is all right. Watching Meguchi collab with Yukki (Lisa) on Youtube is always a very entertaining watch. Even if Meguchi does end up on the losing side more often than not when they play games together.

Yashio Rui (NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, 24)

Rui is, not only for me but also for a lot of other people, the only Morfonica girl who people knew a little bit about her seiyuu’s background prior to appearing in BanG Dream. For those unaware: her seiyuu, Ayasa, has a Youtube channel as well where she does violin covers of a lot of amazing songs (including, at the time of writing this, three BanG Dream songs: Starmine, LOUDER, and Star Beat). That being said, it’s not fair to judge Rui based on her seiyuu, so I think this is a fair enough spot for her for the time being.

Toyama Kasumi (26, 24, 23, 22, 21, 25)

Those numbers really make it look like she dropped, but she didn’t. Kasumi is as great as ever and she’s even gained a couple new songs to her name!

Matsubara Kanon (23, 25, 24, 24, 23, 26)

Back up above Chisato, if only slightly. I think that Nico x Nico song of HaroHapi has really helped her out a lot. That, or seeing a more serious, self-confident Kanon (because we all know what happened to Rinko after I started seeing her in a different light).

Shirasagi Chisato (22, 22, 22, 21, 22, 27)

...again, a lot of potential. But as she is probably the biggest link to my least fave of the franchise (who, surprisingly, fell even more), it drags her down as well. If it were any other franchise, Chisato’s growth would have been much much better...

Above Neutral

Hiromachi Nanami (NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, 28)

I don’t really know what I can say about her. I can see the potential, I can see how Nanami can grow to jump a couple of spots... but at this point in time, I don’t really see the realistic path to reach that final destination. Not yet, anyways...

Hikawa Hina (24, 23, 25, 25, 24, 29)

A lot of potential, a lot of very impressive scenes... I think she would do better if she wouldn’t hyperfocus on her older sister as much as she does. While endearing and definitely adorable to a certain degree, it does... kind of limit her growth. Not to mention that we already know how much Hina loves Sayo by now, can’t we see how Hina does with other stuff?

Hanazono Tae ( 18, 19, 21, 23, 26, 30)

I said it before and I will say it again: Tae is a fun character and I love watching her seiyuu perform live and appear on livestreams. That being said, Tae really needs something to help her stand out in the crowd. BanG Dream is only getting more and more characters as time goes on, so being static is not a very good thing...

Yamato Maya (27, 26, 26, 27, 27, 31)

Maya is... definitely rising if only slightly. At the rate this is going, she might even surpass Tae one day. As I said in the previous entry, I went back to try and see Maya’s growth again, and I will be the first to admit that I kind of overlooked her in the beginning. She’s a lot of fun, but will she be enough fun to make a bigger name for herself?

Neutral

Ushigome Rimi (28, 28, 27, 26, 28, 32)

Rimi has definitely changed over the last month and a half or so since my last tier list, but... she’s been changing for both the better and the worse, which kind of evened out to keep her at about the same spot?

Kitazawa Hagumi (29, 29, 29, 28, 29, 33)

Hagumi has a lot of problems, being in HaroHapi where she is completely overshadowed by Kokoro is one (and my biggest complaint). That being said, when you cannot jump up the rankings, there is another way for you to be saved from being at the very bottom...

Minato Yukina (21, 26, 28, 29, 25, 34)

I’m not going to pretend anymore: I am disappointed in Roselia, I said that before in an answer to an anon. That being said, my disappointment in Roselia is only overshadowed by my disappointment in Yukina. Despite knowing how much Season 3 butchered Roselia’s personality, Yukina’s more than anyone, the issue is that... all my complaints, all my annoyances, and all the disappointment I have with Roselia... it can all be traced back to two words: Minato Yukina. And until Yukina manages to provide a song that truly befits the level in which she supposedly presents herself, I really can’t see her rising up the ranks anymore.

#BanG Dream! Fave List #Falneou17

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oldtvandcomics · 5 years

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I've seen some posts going around about Crowley/Aziraphale being queerbaiting in the Good Omens series. I'm afraid I will regret writing this, but I have OPINIONS, said opinions being less about Good Omens and more about Tumblr not necessarily understanding the way audiovisuel storytelling and the queer community work, and maybe it's worth taking a moment to think closer about these things.

Spoilers for Good Omens (2019) and some allusions to the Discourse below the cut. Also, long post. You have been warned.

I probably should say here that I liked Good Omens, am myself aro ace, and am of the opinion that Crowley/Arizaphale is canon. So yes, personal bias exists, although I am going to do my best to be objective. Also, I haven't read the book yet, so am only going to be talking about the series.

(Ignoring hereby that they are supposed to be agender. It is a very good series, but they really, REALLY should have found a way to include that piece of information.)

This is a surprisingly complex question, that can be boiled down to three different problems: First, the way people analyze audiovisuel stories (in this case, television, but the argument also stands for movies), second, the term “queerbaiting” not being clear enough and also used too broadly, and third, people's still too narrow view of what is and isn't queer.

In this order, I am going to start with the way tv (and movies) work. It is the least controversial.

One of the things that I love about tv so much is just how complex and layered it is. There is what is directly said and shown to happen, but than there is the music, the acting, the costumes, locations, camera angles and editing, all of which have their own language and add something to how we will see a story. If you watch Good Omens, you'll notice that the exact nature of Crowley's and Aziraphale's relationship never is directly addressed or them confirmed to be queer. However, you will also notice the way they keep looking at each other, the fact that romantic music plays in the background for an awful lot of their scenes together, that they do and say things on a regular basis that goes further than the normal limits of a friendship, and the list goes on. This show is as clear about them loving each other very, very deeply as it possibly can be without directly talking about it.

This, of course, leads us to the question: What is and isn't text? What level of queercoding counts as representation? And this is where things get a little more complicated, because there IS NO clear line. People usually say that it doesn't count, unless the correct term is used. Which makes sense, given everybody's tendency to just... Idk, make a movie about somebody fighting his ex without ever telling us that he is, in fact, his ex, and than hope that they can get away with either the queer fans doing all the hard work of reading between the lines, or just write a couple of tweets about how they're totally gay and get credit for the representation.

Seriously, people, don't do that. If there is a way to use the terms, do it.

But there is a gray area. Welcome to Night Vale never labeled Cecil's orientation, yet we still know that he's gay. That scene they cut from Thor: Ragnarok of Valkyrie leaving the room of a woman? It never said that she was bi. I mean, I haven't seen it, but from what I know, I'd bet A LOT of money that, had they included it, people still would have complained about it not being clear enough. We still act as if including it would have confirmed Valkyrie's bisexuality. What about period pieces, set in times when certain labels didn't exist yet? And, finally, what if a relationship would actually benefit from being left vague and undefined?

There is no clear answer to this. It's a gray are, so feel free to just sit around and think about your own opinion on these things.

Which leads us to queerbaiting: Creators playing up the fact that they MIGHT have a queer character or relationship in their work for publicity, without ever planning to include it. It's a thing that happens both inside and outside of the story. In practice, this usually looks like putting in a lot of subtext between two same-sex characters, including suggestive scenes in the trailers, and going in interviews “well, they could be, it's an ongoing series, you'll just have to wait and see. ;) ”.

Queerbaiting is a VERY vague and very popular term, that is used very broadly, even in cases where it isn't exactly accurate. It is not exactly easy to tell what is actual queerbaiting, and what queercoding because Higher Powers wouldn't let the creators include openly queer characters in their work. Than there is of course the cases where queer characters are kind of there, but it's a blink-and-you-miss-it thing. I've heard the term “queercatching” used for that in a video. Also, queerbaiting is an accusation people like throwing around every time a show disappoints them by not making their OTP canon. (Stop doing that, PLEASE!)

In this context, it is understandably difficult to say if a certain ship is or isn't queerbaiting. However, I would argue that Crowley and Aziraphale are not. I haven't seen all the promotional things going on, so no idea how big of a selling point their relationship was. But I do know that everyone behind the scenes seems to agree that those two love each other very, very deeply, and the show itself isn't trying to hide it. On the contrary, it goes out of it's way to draw our attention to it. To anyone who is watching halfway attentively, it is going to be very, very clear that what those two have going on is NOT straight.

Which leads us to our final point: What is and isn't queer.

Oh dear. It is a topic that is still hotly debated within the community (at least on Tumblr), mostly by people trying to exclude certain orientations or keep other people from using certain terms.

Queer is an umbrella term used for members of the LGBT+ community, meaning “not straight”. It may refer to gender identity, romantic or sexual orientation, and things that don't quite belong in any of the boxes we have. The beauty of the term “queer” is exactly that it is so huge and so vague that it exceeds all boxes and definitions. A really handy thing to have, if you want people to know what you're talking about without needing to give them an hour-long vocabulary lesson first.

Please note here that so far, I have avoided using any labels for Crowley, Arizaphale, or their relationship. Please also not that while I did say that they love each other very deeply, I never used the word “romantic”.

Because here is the thing: I really don't think that they're gay. Or bi, or pan. Or anything else, really. They, and their relationship, like the term “queer”, fall outside of any predetermined categories. It is just, really, really, really clear that what's going on isn't heteronormative.

I have seen many aces being happy and feeling seen and seeing themselves in Crowley and Aziraphale in Good Omens. I've also seen many aros think the same thing. Because here is the beauty of it: We only know that they love each other more than anything else in the world. It is never said that that love is romantic.

I've also seen many allos completely miss this point.

Asexuality and aromanticism, as is to be expected from orientations that are defined by the lack of something, are still very invisible, both in RL and in fan circles. While we do have our own spaces and our own little community, mostly we are just there between our allo friends and... kind of stand and wait in a corner while they are busy with the sex and romance our society is constantly throwing at all of us. Being ace and/or aro is often confused with “being celibate”. We don't talk enough about what sexless or romanceless relationships could look like. No wonder so many people missed it when they saw one in Good Omens.

The queer community is STILL very strongly sexualized. And this is a problem, because while sexual attraction IS an important part of being queer, it is also not the only one. Queer people are still queer if they are not having sex. They are queer if they DON'T WANT TO have sex. They are queer if they don't enter romantic relationships. There is nothing straight about the close bonds aros can have with their friends. There is nothing straight about having a friend be the person you are emotionally closest to, close enough to openly beg them to run away together. Multiple times.

Queerplatonic or quasiplatonic relationships are the ones that are a bit difficult to define, because they are somewhere between “friendship” and “romantic relationship”. What they look like depends really on what the people involved want them to be like. Some live together, others don't. Some do things together that are usually considered to be romantic, others don't. Some kiss or have sex, others don't.

So far, I haven't really seen anybody really talk about the existence of queerplatonic relationships outside of ace and aro circles. And while I aggressively headcanon Sherlock Holmes and John Watson being queerplatonic, this was the first time that I've really seen an actual relationship onscreen that can be easily, or even best, read as being one.

But almost by definition, this means that it has to be vague, and subtle, and floating around somewhere around the lines separating friends from romantic partners. As such, I think that Good Omens did a really good job, giving us a relationship that is so obviously loving but also so beyond easy descriptions. However, this also means that it is easy to miss and end up feeling baited.

The problem is, I'm not sure that they COULD have done it better. Any explicit discussion about Crowley's and Aziraphale's relationship would have felt forced and out of place, and the term queerplatonic isn't enough known, they would have had to follow it up with an explanation of what that even is. And it isn't as if they could have made it any clearer how much they love each other as they did.

Some people say that they should have kissed onscreen.

Betty and Veronica in the Riverdale tv series kissed, and we all still know that it was only queerbaiting.

And isn't that, wouldn't that be, in the end, reducing queerness once more to the sexual bit in queer relationships?

I don't know. As I said, there is no clear answer, and in the end of the day, everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

I suppose, the best I can say is that what Good Omens did with Crowley and Aziraphale is very beautiful and well executed and also undoubtedly queer. It is, also, not enough. We still live in a time where we don't have much representation, and therefore all collectively jump on anything we can find. As long as this is the case, people will always be unsatisfied with everything. We need more. More explicit, more sexual, more romantic, yes, but also more quiet and subtle and undefined loving ones.

Anyway. I just had to write my opinion on this, because I REALLY didn't like what looked like a group of people dismissing a queer relationship because it wasn't sexual. This isn't even about Good Omens, not really, more about Tumblr being generally Tumblr and not seeing nuance and not thinking things through.

So... Please learn how to properly analyze audiovisual stories. Please be more careful and think a little before you start throwing around the term “queerbaiting”. And, please, PLEASE take a minute to think through if what you are doing isn't in fact sexualizing queer people and excluding parts of the community because of a too narrow definition of queerness.

And finally, PLEASE leave Gaiman alone. One, he has no obligation towards you whatsoever, and two, this was originally a thirty year old book that, three, he co-wrote with a now deceased friend. Being critical of media is one thing, and obviously, Good Omens isn't perfect. But... Just think about what you're doing before you do it, ok?

#good omens #crowley/aziraphale #my opinion #long post #queer representation #queerbaiting #queerplatonic ships #asexual #aromantic #aro / ace relationships #it's not many people who said it #and there are always some idiots who don't agree with me #in the end of the day #it's up to personal interpretations #but this is a bigger and more structural problem #and good omens just gave me such a good reason to talk about it

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centaurrential · 4 years

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The first.

The nice thing about blogging is that one doesn’t need to follow a strict academic essay structure: the issues and concepts I want to write about are always architectures built upon some underlying causal, foundational plot. It would be nice if we could hyperlink the written representations of our thought processes, but alas, that is one domain in which modern technology has fallen short. You might see that I jump around between topics, but I promise there are connections everywhere. So, here we go!

I’ve been hesitant to write about what ignites my passion the most.

There are a couple of reasons for this.

For one, save for some semblance of a university degree I attempted to put together years ago, I have little in the way of ‘respectable’ credentials. I rely on my own observations of what is happening around me. A high school friend once revealed to me a technique in visual arts that has stuck with me since. “Draw what you see, not what you know to be there.” I have applied this not only to achieve realism in the scant visual artworks I have produced and which have gone unseen by most others, but also to compose a coherent understanding of my world--or in other words, everything I feel. This “motto” of sorts shows that we often ignore details about our experience that are in plain sight. Despite holding this key, I am well aware that I have not necessarily earned any institutional authority to write on the matters that compel me so--yet, as a person who has simply lived and observed, I still feel that I should express myself, for what ever it may be worth.

Second, though my risk of legal and political persecution in some form or another is not as dire as was obviously the case in the past with established thinkers, I’ve felt compelled to dress my thoughts in verse, marching what I think are critical ideas down the runway, letting the audience gently scrutinize the layers of different conceptual fabrics in motion rather than to place what is thought to be controversial on a podium, open to the personalized savagery of modern “progressive” critique. Misunderstanding is a very real fear of mine as I believe it is one of the greatest tragedies of the human condition. I suppose, as a sensitive person who is deeply emotional and deeply invested in my own thought as a means to a better world, my intent up to now has been to create a buffer of some sort between what I theorize and the ideology-driven hate that tends to characterize Internet culture (which, incidentally now, always carries a ‘social media’ component with it). But I don’t wanna hide anymore.

Something I’ve noticed about that very vehicle for thought is how utterly unforgiving it is. Someone uncovers a person’s past involving a stupid, ignorant mistake along the lines of political incorrectness and suddenly all the good they may have recently put into the world evaporates because there is some sort of twisted expectation of social perfection we’ve adopted--even though there is some overlap between this absolutist, impossible approach to other, equally fallible human beings and the tendency to wax poetic about one’s own cathartic emotional experience, along with a new awareness emerging from the remnants of self-destruction, and forcing ‘compassion’ toward oneself in light of one’s mistakes.

The message is that “I” can learn, but “you” cannot. It seems that people are so volatile these days, they’re ready to pounce without really thinking about what a person is trying to say in earnest. And while I believe that we should work hard at our collective and individual duties to skepticism, I cannot condone, to the furthest reaches of any influence I may have, the deadlock of pseudo-critical thinking when it involves scapegoating and self-righteousness.

I sense (and feel) a lot of (justified) anger, and many well-meaning individuals are looking for a place to which they can direct such intensity. The unfortunate thing is that the fire mutates into hostility toward people who don’t deserve it. Shuffle formless anger into boxes designed to look nicely and glamorously radical, and chuck it at those who--excluding the really terrible people in the world--are honest and serious about answering the questions of “how to achieve the maximum possible distance from pain”, and, “what is, essentially”, and you’ve got a problem on your hands. Nothing is ever as simple as we’d like it to be.

And by the way, I find the dismissive “ok, boomer” attitude reprehensible. Like, OBVIOUSLY there are going to be differences among generations in “opinion” and lifestyles and so on. And obviously past generations have made what we now deem to be ‘mistakes’. But just like any individual who may regret past actions, whether personal or professional, one makes decisions supported by the most convincing reasons they can muster, and so they do the best they can with the knowledge they have at hand, at some particular moment. Maybe some visionaries in the past were able to extrapolate from the contemporary and predict what would happen in the future. Even if their equivalents exist in society today, we will not know for certain the downright traumatizing effects current societal mechanisms could force to manifestation in the years beyond, until they actually become fact. “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” And, there is wisdom that only comes through living life. That, I’m afraid, is not up for debate.

I must say this here, now. I realize I’m walking on eggshells with what I’m about to say. But, while it is clear that there is a significant degree of ‘white privilege’ in North American society, I’d be careful to declare ‘privilege’ an inherently white experience. It is an historical reality (and is therefore biased). Not all ‘white people’ are the same; and it is CERTAINLY not the case that it has only been ‘white people’ that enforced slavery, for example. And it is definitely true that different members of different religions and different races and different ethnicities and different cultures and different dialects have, historically, perpetuated evil across many axes. Furthermore, I believe that the explicit and intentional denigration of ‘white people’ MADE BY WHITE PEOPLE THEMSELVES is probably one of the greatest expressions of white privilege. How secure must one feel if they can freely diss their ‘own kind’ and know that nothing diabolical will happen to them? We owe justice through opportunity to people we have marginalized, but that is not the way. I just think that people are either willfully ignorant, accidentally ignorant, or have forgotten that all kinds of people can be villains, and further that a truly corrupt person will even torture people with whom they may have a great deal in common.

I tend to think that ‘intersectionality’ is a seriously important concept and is most empirically aligned with individualism. People move around more, cross-cultural contact happens more; global connection ushers cuisine, rituals and traditions, spiritual beliefs, and languages into landscapes that were previously barren of particular social technologies. The result is a person who may have many characteristics sort of in common with others who share those qualities in a scattered manner, but unless one of those forces was exceptionally prominent in the person’s life, the commonality is negligible.

Emergent from this phenomenon is the serious tension between individual self-actualization and the requirements for so-called proper functioning of the broader ‘community’ to which one feels they belong. The needs of each can often be at odds with one another, and it doesn’t appear to be an easy task to resolve this conflict. I do know that sacrifices will have to be made, as there is always a price to pay; I almost think of that as a universal law.

When I was 19 and took a philosophy of feminism class, I started noticing what problems arise when a mode of thinking is assumed to apply to a particular “community” (loosely speaking), just because its members all share some intrinsic quality. In the particular case I’m talking about, it was “being female”. When someone speaks the word ‘feminism’, it is loaded. You have liberal feminism, eco-feminism, radical feminism, third-wave feminism, black feminism, post-colonial feminism, and so on. The relevance of these various types is stretched so thinly throughout the human landscape that one could legitimately wonder why those theories should even be considered to have anything in common. In other words, how can you possibly come up with an ethic of revolution that applies universally to, I dunno, how many billion people in the world? Here’s a situation: women in the West, particularly in the Deep South, are fighting for their choice to have an abortion. Meanwhile, in some parts of India and China, female infanticide is more common than a decent person should like to admit, and that’s not because Indian and Chinese women want it! Asking someone who is thoughtful in ANY respect if they are a feminist is like asking someone if they believe in God, and that is not, nor should it be, an easy question to answer.

To be clear: what I am talking about is definition, and if you break down the etymological components of that word, you see that it is about deciding what sorts of conceptual boundaries must be drawn (the finiteness)--to determine what is included, and also what is excluded. My belief is that it is actually the interplay between those qualities intrinsic to a person and external forces placed upon us that dictate the degrees of self-satisfaction and happiness we experience.

That pain is to be avoided is generally unquestionable, though the finer details of rational action (because I do see the treatment of pain as an issue of rationality, and as something more fundamental to the exercising of rational action than market economics is) are still up for debate. And, I suppose, that is the case for many injustices that an active, voluntarily thinking society wishes to eradicate. I’d like to return to that topic some time in the future, but what concerns me today is the issue of essentialism.

Essentialism has been a problem for philosophers for a really long time. Often it is conceptualized as “what makes something that thing”, but in my view, Essence seems to lie in the realm of the experiential. In one minor paper I wrote for a metaphysics class, I argued (incompletely) that an object’s ‘essence’ could be partly defined by the function one identifies when they come into contact with said object. For example, because even though chairs can be made up of different numbers of legs, or be of different colours, or be upholstered or not, we place them into a category of ‘something to be seated upon’. But then again, there are many things that can be sat upon, and, on the other hand, one does not look at a real life dog and think of it as an object that innately serves a purpose, let alone is built for one.

So why am I talking about what seems to be an obscure and useless topic?

It is the utility of Essence that gives form to our experience. And for those who believe that we erroneously categorize and judge every single damn thing we come across in our lives, go ahead and try to reverse neurological evolution through time of geologic scale. I mean, this mode of existence came to be before we even defined what ‘values’ were.

Tangentially, my introduction to the study of philosophy started with the great divide between ‘rationalism’ (ie. some inherent structure which creates the capacity to ‘know’ already exists in a person at the time of birth) and ‘empiricism’ (the school of thought where a person only collected knowledge through experience after they were born with a ‘blank slate’ of a mind). I never understood why the distinction between rationalism and empiricism was so important, because it seemed so obvious that our system of moving through the world was a combination of the two. We see now that the belief in one to the exclusion of the other is just plain stupid: genetics, epigenetics, logarithmic counting in BABIES, education, debate, and research, all contribute to an individual’s understanding of the world. (It is this idea, too, that contributes to my belief that free will is an illusion [though a helpful one at that] and that ‘luck’ is an epistemological concept. I will also use this idea to, eventually, communicate my argument that astrology is theoretically plausible, but that involves discussing archetypes and the cyclical nature of our known world...) Note: “Epistemology” is the study of knowledge and how we come to accumulate it. I went on this tangent because I think we need to demonstrate a great deal of respect for both pre-existing neurological realities and the staggering potential of science to teach us about our environments and ourselves. There are some core things about us that we would be wrong to ignore, and unforgivably so if the sound science is right there.

We do not typically go through life coming into contact with objects or people and checking off items on a list that comprise criteria for something being what it is (unless, of course, you’re prone to collect little hints as to whether a potential lover loves you back or not.....). To do so would reduce the fluidity with which we interact with externalities. That being said, I can conceive of a time when one goes outside for a cigarette in the night and watches a creature (as I just did) that may be a cat, or that may be a raccoon, cross the road. You peer at this creature for several seconds, up until the point that you conclude, and are certain, that it is, indeed, a cat. It is then that you can move on with your life. Perhaps what helped you to come to this conclusion was a short list of criteria that separate catness from raccoonness. Obviously that would be more efficient than consulting an exhaustive mental list of “cat properties” and comparing it to a similar list, but of “raccoon properties”. But even so, by the time you’ve witnessed the cat/raccoon, you’ve already filtered out any possibility that the creature might be something else, like a stray dog, or a lizard, or a floating chair. In conclusion, I propose here that context is essential to Essence. And Essence is a fully whole sensory experience, insofar as your sensory faculties work. This is why it is so hard to define.

The social relevance of the concept of Essence is becoming more important with the emergence of identity politics, the crises in feminism, “queerness”, the feminine/masculine dichotomy, and even paradigms in psychological health. Inherent to Essence is continuity, and no one can argue against the notion that we rely on general continuity to go about our daily lives.

But out of continuity develops expectation. Expectation is immensely helpful for the reason I laid out above. Additionally, in public, we rely on a common yet tacit understanding that individual members of the public will behave in a way that is safe and appropriate for everyone. The problem is, if you have experienced a good chunk of your life, well into adulthood, having never seen an unfamiliar and idiosyncratic expression of certain properties, why WOULD you do anything else other than fumble in your acceptance that that is the way something is? Your mind scrambles to organize what you are interacting with in the way that makes the most sense.

I was once accused of being an essentialist because of some remark I made referencing biological differences between men and women. I wondered if the dude was joking because I really cannot grasp why someone would think that the differences are trivial. Lately I’ve toyed with the conclusion that there must be something essential, something bounded, about the way we express ourselves, which matches what we are that isn’t seen by absolutely everyone, including exuding femininity or masculinity. If there wasn’t something essential about these “descriptions”, why would anyone make an effort to look a certain way in the first place? Or, why would anyone have a subconscious tendency to adopt certain characteristics? The point I’m trying to make is that communication in the form of appearance is just as important as a verbal explanation of something, and can in fact be more truthful than what is verbally expressed. Whether one wants to admit it or not, you are offering information that allows others to draw conclusions about you. And it’s not that you merely fulfill a checklist of the sort that I mentioned earlier. It is that, often, though not always, each separate quality supports all the others, forming a sort of “mesh-like” coherence. If there wasn’t something essentially feminine that you identified with, or something essentially masculine that you identified with--if these things didn’t matter--there would be no point in going to great lengths to change your appearance to communicate something. (And I think this holds even in the case of the non-binary person.)

Of course, judgments are made all the time about people, which have nothing to do with being transgendered or cisgendered. A person asks you your age. Why? Because they’re collecting information about you and the particulars in the category of “age” should reveal something about you that you’re not stating explicitly. And this information is only grounded in other information the inquirer has about you. And the only reason this information might be reliable is because a consolidation of an individual’s past experiences tells them that a certain age represents an axis of consistency of mentality and/or behaviour. The deductions we make are not always accurate, but if we didn’t instinctively think of this information as important, we wouldn’t seek it!

I will now apply the above problem to sort out why we are in such a mess, socially. First of all, the person is born into expectation of behaviour. That expectation depends on their sex at birth (assuming the person is not intersex), their social, economic, political class, the levels of education their immediate family members have achieved, their spiritual practices, et cetera. It seems to me that feminism arose in the first place because of the particular kind of anticipation of behaviour that swirls around whether you have a testicle-penis or a uterus-vagina combination. The traditionally ‘male’ realm was the unexplored frontier to many women; it was one of excitement, possibility, and opportunity, and arguably more freedom than the domain to which women were typically assigned: the home. Women can produce babies, and if you could produce babies then you SHOULD produce babies, and you should care for them too. And not only that, but by virtue of the fact that you are a mother you can’t even fathom leaving your babies behind. I haven’t yet come across a proper articulation of why this point is so crucial to understand. The women who have the term “TERF” (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) slung at them are attacked by people who don’t understand that this fundamental difference in expectation between female-born individuals and male-born individuals is looming in the background, and how damn well important it really is, because it inevitably shapes a person’s perception of the world and quite possibly the expectations they have of other people! And the perception that falls upon you isn’t just something you can shed on a whim. And also, why are people surprised that this is still an issue? Even as advanced creatures we still succumb to evolutionary forces. I don’t think any reasonable person could say that “you aren’t female even if you feel female”, but it’s not about how you “feel”. It’s about what happens between you and people once they figure out a vital fact about you. It’s about the context in which you, a whole being, operate. You want to talk about oppression? I think your self-identity being misaligned with how other people think you should be is pretty high up there in the ranks.

So, to digress a little: the notion of changing yourself and making an impression on strangers, making a difference in the world, is intoxicating. But we enter dangerous territory when visions of child-rearing and home care become afterthoughts. Child psychologists have identified the age range between 2 and 4 to be particularly crucial in socializing children; it is at that age that they are the most impressionable with regard to how they learn to interact with others. That’s not really a huge window to make sure you ‘get it right’. I think the family unit, whatever its configuration may be, is pretty foundational to the rest of society. While many people presently carry harmful opinions about things we don’t understand, and changing those opinions tends to be rather difficult, the most radical, most powerful thing we can do to initiate reform is to make sure the children we are responsible for grow up valuing honour, kindness, and a sense of duty and justice, not just in relation to themselves and their immediate families, but to society as a whole.

People are throwing tantrums because society hasn’t given itself an overnight makeover. I think that anyone involved in politics understands, either consciously or unconsciously, that even though political institutions and bureaucracies were created by real people, they’ve sort of become fragmented away from human life and are entities of their own, floating above our heads like clouds in the higher atmosphere, and which do not have any readily identifiable boundaries. It appears that the various bodies of legislation and bureaucracies have become so bloody complex in correlation with the complexity of human interaction that they seem almost impossible to disentangle. Furthermore, ideas take a long time to die...if they ever even do.

Rather than viewing child-rearing as a burden, I choose to view it as the greatest responsibility and the greatest tool we have for genuine change. I feel, honestly, that sometimes we waste energy trying to convince people of something where there is no convincing possible. We often preach to the choir because they’re the only people who make us feel heard--but our own little choirs already know and believe what we know and believe.

So. I think, once I reviewed what I said above, that I’ve attempted to illuminate a conundrum about simultaneous utility and danger found in the act of expecting. This “study” of sorts is a microcosm of a world where darkness and light are aspects of all things. I’m convinced that the formulation of potential is expressed in binaries, but unlike computers, we are able to interpret ambiguities, and in many pockets of society people are tolerant of self-expression. With so many belief systems up for grabs, and with the world as it is in its ebbs and flows, it is up to the individual to craft their own transcendent values as a way to “orient themselves”, as Dr. Jordan B. Peterson put it. Be mature and do not dismiss nuance. Challenge yourself. And for God’s sake, the next time you’re thinking of buying that innocuous avocado that’s become the symbol for the Millennial generation, ask yourself what is more important: dismantling violent and antisocial Mexican drug cartels, or supporting Mexican farmers who are trying to make their ways through life, just like every. last. one of us.

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flooringinstaller101-blog · 4 years

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Choosing a Reclaimed Wood Floor

To make sure you are trying to choose what kind of flooring to pick out? Maybe we can help you with a little primer on some personality differences with reclaimed wood flooring from the perspective of a manufacturer like ourselves who specializes in making wood flooring from reclaimed lumber. Did you see a picture that you like and now you have the bug that you want that special floor? The good news is that it may well probably be made for you, but before you go a long ways down the path of choosing which floor you want and inquiring a display room full of samples, ask about some price ranges. There is a common misconception that since reclaimed wood is definitely supposedly salvaged it should be cheaper than virgin wood floors. If you are buying a quality kiln dried and precision machine made product, generally that is not the case. The only cost savings would be if you found some scraps or did some salvage succeed yourself, you might save some costs. For example you might find a gym floor or planks out of a barn existen loft that you want to nail down on your floor. The material might have been next to free, but how much time are planning to have in making it usable and pulling nails? Are the results what you want? In this article we will be discussing several different categories of lumber flooring. Solid wood flooring is one board with no glued up laminations; it is basically wood board that has been size and profiled to a certain dimension. Engineered flooring has a on the top whatever species and texture you want, and this might be glued to a plywood backer on the bottom. Engineered is still all wood but is made with multiple layers which were laminated for better stability and dimensional accuracy. Floors that we will not cover here are laminates or any grp composite products which are often not wood entirely through the plank or may be made with a photo printed surface. We also will not necessarily cover vinyl, carpet, stone, or tile. Hardwood flooring is often a generic term that could apply to any type of wood floors. Hardwood trees (oak, maple, cherry, walnut, elm, chestnut) are generally trees that had leaves which fall off of in the winter. Softwood trees (pine, fir) have needles that may stay on all year and usually they generate cones. Hardwoods are usually more dense and more durable than softwoods. Of course, there are exceptions to these generalities. Within our product line the hardwoods cost more than the softwoods. As a reoccurring theme in this article you will find that you often get genital herpes virus treatments pay for. Admittedly, the higher end price point products ($11+/sf) from more rare woods are not necessarily better quality although we find that up to that point quality improves with price. Our solid wood floors range in price from $4-9 per square foot and our engineered ranges from $7-15 per square foot. We will discuss software programs below, but our point is that you need to have a realistic budget when shopping. Sometimes a nice alternative if you have ones heart set on an expensive floor is to use less of it and put it just in key areas. Don't complete the whole house. Maybe just do the main high traffic areas and use a cheaper alternative in bedrooms.. If your primary price-point is not even in the same zip code, maybe it is in a different state, start shopping other options. For instance if you are in the $1-2/sf range look at the deep discounters or laminate options. The FSC certified 12mm exterior birch plywood that we use to manufacturer the engineered flooring costs us that much alone, not counting all the other labour and materials. Also when pricing a floor be sure to factor in the whole installed cost and the lifetime cost. Allow me to share examples of some variables that could alter the total costs: With reclaimed material waste factor is a huge variable. The amount of effort does the manufacturer take to give you a 100% usable product? Poorly milled with very little defecting and culling executed on a solid wood floor that costs $6/sf and has a 15% waste factor actually costs more than a similar item that is milled better costing $7/sf with a 2% waste factor. That extra wastes costs more in delivering and labor to defect. This is one of the hardest things to demonstrate to a customer that the face value costs doesn't necessarily make up the actual raw material cost unless one is truly comparing identical quality and specified products. For the second changing here is a controversial opinion: we do not end match our flooring which means there is no tongue and groove on the closes of the planks. Since we recommend our floor be glued down we say this is an unnecessary charge for the customer. End matching reduces the yield in production and raises labor costs. Most end coordinate profiles are milled so loosely that they really don't hold the floor in place anyway. The biggest benefit to the installer is certainly that the plank can be cut in half in any place and reused anywhere without have to mate up to a complementary language or groove since the end is just square cut. This means all end trim pieces or any waste may be reused. Therefore on our engineered flooring product the waste factor is virtually nothing unless there are facets or radiuses to work around. We also help with waste factor by usually supplying a random width system so when one gets close to the end of a room they can plan the width combination patterns out to not ought to rip much off the last row. The third variable is installation costs. Our engineered product has labor financial savings over our solid wood product because it is pre-sanded and milled to tighter tolerances. It is also prefilled in the cry and has next to zero waste. On the other hand you may have a little more in cost of gluing it down in addition to nails, nonetheless this is just a step in direction of better quality and peace of mind during the install. Fourth, factor in the cost of refinishing the ground later or doing touchups. This is a whole another article. Some finishes can be spot touched up like most of the oils while others require a full sand over the whole floor. Some finishes require a professional installer and may have serious odor during the cure. If you live with the floor for very long, factor these decisions in for the type of finish for you to select for lifetime durability and the cost & effort to refinish. Fifth, compare overall thickness and the height in the top of the tongue or nail groove to the top of the face on the floor. On an engineered floor this is generally the thickness on the wear layer. Most solid wood floors are 3/4" overall before sanding (but some are less) with 1/4" above the nail groove. Our engineered floor is manufactured to equivalent measurements but most engineered floor surfaces have a thinner wear layer. This comes down to how many times the floor can be sanded. What kind of finish and texture and consistancy you want on the floor factors into how deep you will re-sand the floor during refinishing. A number of our reclaimed wood floor coverings are sold with an original texture that shows the old saw marks and character in the floor, so very likely you won't want to sand this out. As a rule of thumb, the thicker the wear layer then the longer a floor will last. Sixth, compare the cost of a character grade virgin floor to reclaimed. The reclaimed may cost even more up front, but the additional variability, texture and character in it may hide or mask the abuse better. It could actually therefore last longer because of the forgiving nature in the inherent look of the reclaimed material. What is resale value to having a specialized product installed? You may alienate some buyers by taking a risk or impress others with the customization. Seventh, considering a do-it-yourselfer? Think through every step of the process to be sure that you can do it yourself. Usually the install can be done using relatively moderate skills and simple tools like a chop saw and rented flooring nailer. The finishing approach is a whole different matter. The sanders and buffers take some special skills to operate. A normal price range with regard to labor and materials to install a wood floor is $4-5 per square foot. It is possible to build your own perspiration equity into a floor install. Maybe this is where you choose to use our engineered product for example because it is presanded to more accurate tolerances than a solid wood product. It can be touched up with a hand held orbital sander rather than commercial floor sanders. Then if you are doing the finish yourself, you will want to consider using a finish that may not require as much buffing between coats. Here is a word on prefinished product if they factor into your decision. If you come up short on your get, the next lot that you buy may not match your previous batch. This is especially a problem on the lower end price surfaces and import floors. Good luck trying to blend it in with your previous floor. So if you go this route, end up extra accurate on your measurements. Right now the rage is lifetime warranties on flooring. We stop to think is without a doubt that really even possible? First will that importer or manufacturer really be around a lifetime? A lot of products are produced oversees; the warranty is only good if there is somebody still around for the life of the warranty. Are you going to be able to take the warranty? Also, do you really think that a finish can last a lifetime? For example take a nail and try scraping it across the surface. Sure it is a durable, well applied finish, but it is impossible to make a product that won't get hold of abused at some point in its lifetime. Do you think that the only serious trial your floor will ever see can be a stinky sock? Read the fine print on the warranty and regardless of what it says consider the true replacement cost on the floor. The idea probably only covers the cost of material of the specific damaged product under normal wear and tear. Your product may not be produced exactly the same later (trends and product lines change) to replace the section that is warrantied, so you may have to replace the whole floors years later. You will have labor cost along with displacement of trim, cabinets, and appliances. Also most of these lifetime closes cannot be repaired or sanded because of a micro bevel put on the edge of prefinished floor. Our advice will be instead to buy a quality product that can be refinished and repaired because something will go wrong in the lifetime of the floor; do not get a false sense of security. We personally do not care for prefinished flooring due to installation problems associated with the idea, so our product requires site applied finish. This means that your floor finish if site applied will be better to sand and refinish than a prefinished floor. Also you do not have to deal with that micro bevel groove between each table that tends to fill up with dust and crumbs. Most prefinished hardwood floors really can't be refinished easily. To help sand it off means that the wear layer has to be thicker than the height of the nails and have room to help sand off the micro bevel between boards; that amounts to a lot of sanding. You also will not be able to spot sand and touch up parts of the floor. In a reclaimed product the engineered flooring really shines. Since the nature of gotten back material is rustic with splits, various height, warps and so forth by doing an engineered product we can take away those issues. We match the texture and color that you want in the floor but you don't have to put up with the built in problems that come with installing and living with a reclaimed wood floor. A number of solid wood reclaimed floors have warped in addition to twisted boards, gaps between rows, height difference between rows, holes, and other "nostalgia and romance" that may end up unwelcome after living with the floor for a while. Due to our precise sanding during the lamination process for the engineered product along with after, pieces are more consistent in height, more uniform in texture, fit together tighter, no waste, holes and even cracks already filled, and no sanding necessary after install unless you want to do a light screen or buff.

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myth-and-mischief · 7 years

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Beauty and the Beast (2017) review

I just came from seeing the live action/ 2017 version of Beauty and the Beast. The original animated 1991 version is one of my favorite movies of all time, as well as it came out the year I was born (we’re both 26) AND the live action/2017 came out on March 17th (my birthday). However, I had been hearing that there was some concerns (the dress) and things that might not be handled well (LeFou being gay) but I still went to see if anyways.

Short Version:

I adored it. I think its probably the best live action adaptation of a Disney animated movie to date. IT FUCKING INCLUDES ALL THE SONGS FOR ONCE. Not only are they good/sound close to the original, there’s a couple original songs that also sound good and fit in the movie well.

LeFou I thought was handled well. He doesn’t die. I didn’t really pick up on the movie making fun of him/ blatantly using the trope, but I might not be the best person to pick up on it (being demisexual myself). And he gets an implied happy ending.

I’d definitely give it a chance and go see it.

Long Version (spoilers):

Plot:

The movie answers a lot of the “plot hole questions if you sit here and think about it” of the animated version without raising more of its own (like Cinderella did). Namely: age of Beast when cursed, Beast’s parents, not wondering where the royalty/castle went, and Belle’s mother. And that’s what I can pick out in one viewing.

Beast’s age: If you pay attention in the animated version, you realize that Beast was 10 to 11 years old when cursed (spell must be broken by his 21 birthday, but Lumiere in his song says “10 years we’ve been rusting”). In this version he’s clearly an adult when cursed, there is no 21 birthday limit, and the “10 years” lyric is not present in the song.

Beast’s parents: Beast is referred to as a prince in the original version, which raises the question potentially where his parents are. (If he’s a royalty prince, implies there a king vs. are we dealing with the occasional land owner referred to as prince in some countries). Beast IS a prince in this version and his parents are seen in a painting and in a flashback. Essentially his mother the queen died when he was a child, and his father the king was cruel and responsible in part for twisting the prince into the selfish/cruel person seen in the beginning of the movie. There’s also a bit of an implication that the reason the servants/etc in the castle also cursed was that they were partially responsible for not stopping the king (Mrs. Potts also outright says something about it too).

Where did the royalty/castle go: In the animated version, there’s a castle and royalty, meaning someone ruling subjects. And given the amount of time it takes Maurice/Belle to ride back and forth on horseback, the castle is reasonably close to the village. Which raised the question of how could the king/queen/prince and castle be cursed and no one wonders about it. In this version part of the Enchantress’ curse is that everyone outside the castle forgets about it and the people inside until the curse is broken. At the same time it ALSO answers the infamous Chip question. Chip is cursed as a child (and I GUESS no one ages except Beast?) and his father/Mrs. Pott’s husband was away from the castle when the curse came down and forgot about them.

Belle’s mother: OKAY. I know its somewhat Disney tradition that either one parent is gone at the start or dies in the process of the movie, but there’s NEVER been any talk of Belle’s mother before. The only time I’ve EVER seen anything on Belle’s mother is at Belle’s Storybook Cottage in Magic Kingdom (Disney World, not sure if this area is present in Disneyland). In this movie Maurice is a painter/inventor (I think) in Paris with Belle’s mother. Belle’s mother catches the Plague when Belle is an infant/newborn, and the parents agree to separate/Maurice take Belle away before the baby catches it too.

Songs:

OMGOSH. It includes the songs. It opens with the Prologue music which had me in goosebumps and most of the original opening narration (some changed) and includes almost all of the songs. I think the only ones not included were "Home" (which I remember from a cassette growing up, but I guess is from the Broadway version. But an instrumental version is in the background during the scene), and "Gaston (reprise)" also wasn’t sung.

There are also atleast three original songs and I liked them all. I thought they fit the scene and the movie. There’s one that Beast sings as Belle leaves to rescue her father that had me in fucking tears.

Now, I know the “look Disney bursting into song” is a hit or miss with some people. But I grew up with this movie. I grew up to Disney songs. I adore them. I WANT THE SONGS DAMNIT in the live action remakes, so it means ALOT to me that they’re all included AND they sound close to the original. Are they sung exactly the same? Not quite. Some points beats or pauses are different, and some have additional lyrics (Gaston and the Mob Song come to mind) but for the most part they’re good.

The Dress:

I’ve seen the dress pop up now and then among fans, almost as a controversy. The dress definitely isn’t as bad as it looks in the stills. But on the other hand, its not the exact dress from the animated movie. And *waves hand* I’m not sure how to feel about it? My personal opinion, with this being my favorite movie and wanting it to be close to the original, I would have liked a dress more like the original. And there is no opera gloves which would have liked to have seen.

What WAS an issue for me was Belle leaving to rescue her father IN THE BALL GOWN. In the animated movie she changes from the yellow ball gown to her blue every day dress. Here she literally rides out in the ball gown AND NO ONE QUESTIONS HER ABOUT IT IN ANY SUBSEQUENT SCENE.

Like Maurice: My daughter is being held by a Beast in a castle. Gaston/villagers: There’s no beast or castle, he’s crazy Belle: *shows up in beautiful rich yellow ball gown* He’s telling the truth Gaston/villagers: She’s just as crazy, lock her up to. Maurice: How did you escape!? Belle: He let me go Maurice: But how??

Gaston doesn’t question her showing up IN A BRIGHT BALL GOWN after being missing for days. The villagers don’t question her. Her FATHER who knows where she’s been and thought she was a prisoner doesn’t question her on it. It was just.... an immersion issue for me?

The only other wardrobe thing was Belle/Emma Watson frequently has the hem of one side of her dress tucked into her belt at various points (showing the under shift and petticoat like leggings) and... There’s no explanation for it? The everyday blue dress isn’t long or tight enough for be hampering her legs to warrant picking it up like that. I thought it would be used in the Belle/opening song as sort of another way she was odd, but nothing came of it (and the dress is suddenly worn right in the middle of the song) and she does it at other points in the movie.

LeFou:

Allright. So after the announcement that LeFou is gay in this movie raised a lot of concerns in the community. I’m demisexual and as soon as I read title of the announcement I literally went “please not LeFou *sees its LeFou; head smack*”. Because LeFou is already treading trope lines in the animated version and I didn’t want worse ones showing up.

Again, I’ve only seen the movie once and I have only my experiences to go on but I didn’t notice anything? The movie wasn’t making fun of him, characters in the movie weren’t making fun of him (no more than Gaston does/uses him in the original). He doesn’t die, and has a sort of implied happy ending but blink and you miss it at the end.

They actually gave LeFou more characterization/layers in this version. There’s a part where Gaston leaves Maurice tied up in the woods to be eaten by the wolves (to punish him for not giving Gaston Belle’s hand) and LeFou is already questioning him. And in “The Mob Song” one part of the additional lyrics is LeFou already wandering something to the effect of “we’re going to fight the beast, but who is the real beast” (aka questioning Gaston)

Before I get into it, one thing is: During “Gaston”, during the lyric “Nobody bites like Gaston”, LEFOU LIFTS UP HIS SHIRT AND THERE’S A BITEMARK ON HIS STOMACH. I HAVE QUESTIONS.

So spoilers for LeFou scenes.

During the scene in the tavern (”Gaston” song), LeFou sings the familiar lyric “you can ask any Tom, Dick, or Stanley” while pointing out three guys. There’s a brief additional pause before Stanley’s name, which I took at first like he didn’t know the guy’s name. Then during the lyric “tell you whose team they prefer to be on” Stanley has this look on his face that almost could be interpreted as liking guys/Gaston? I’d need to watch the section again.

During the mob/villager assault on the castle, Madame Wardrobe dresses three guys in women’s clothes/makeup like the animated movie. The men are Tom, Dick, and Stanley (as far as I know). Two are horrified and run off, but the third one looks at himself and smiles like “oh hey this is actually cool” and I THINK this is Stanley again. (He sort of walks off down the stairs slowly/skippy) (AND Madame Wardrobe seems delighted and saying something to the effect of “GO BE FREE!!!”). Also during this scene, LeFou officially changes sides (because finally had enough of Gaston/Gaston deliberately leaves LeFou being trapped under the Harpsicord).

Finally, in the ending dancing scene (where Belle and human!Beast dance) LeFou is with the people dancing. He’s dancing with one of the women when the dance calls for a sort of “turn and dance with person behind you”. He turns and I think Stanley again/a guy sweeps into frame and dances with him and they’re both smiling. I THINK this is the scene the announcement/news was talking about? However its pretty brief and doesn’t really show the two again afterwards.

Would an LGBTA+ person pick up on LeFou? Probably. Would a straight person have picked up on LeFou if the announcement/news hadn’t been made? Probably not (my dad literally said this as we were watching the credits). Again, I’m just one viewer and if its still a concern for people read other reviews/see if for yourself.

#beauty and the beauty #beauty and the beast 2017 #batb #beauty and the beast 2017 review #batb 2017 review #review #lefou #batb 2017 dress

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junker-town · 6 years

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Soccer officials need to become anonymous again

Jon Moss is a real person with a name, but you’d forget about The Referee very quickly.

In many ways, Jon Moss has only himself to blame.

First, he became a referee. That decision, while presumably done with the best of intentions and the highest of hopes, was probably a mistake. There is no compatibility between top-level refereeing and a quiet life.

Second, he gave two penalties against Liverpool at Anfield. That’s a noisy thing to do, even before we consider their correctness (or otherwise) and their timing (God help the man who robs the Kop of its late winner). A calm week will not follow.

Third, he gave those penalties in entirely the wrong way: he asked for help. He availed himself of the assistance of his assistant. It’s odd, the way this works. Abstractly, getting an informed opinion from somebody with a different view sounds like quite a good idea. But a referee that asks for help, then listens to it, is somehow diminished and weakened. They no longer own their decisions. Guessing with confidence might not be better, but it certainly looks better.

(Particularly if you accidentally make a reference to a television replay that your colleague isn’t supposed to be watching, as can so easily happen in any normal conversation.)

Finally, those decisions. We won’t go into the contested rights and wrongs of them here, because (a) that would be tedious, and (b) we’d be guessing. What was interesting, however, was the fact that they remained contested a few days later, even after every available expert in the land had viewed every conceivable angle. Even the former referees themselves couldn’t agree: in the wake of the game, Mark Clattenburg and Dermot Gallagher offered different views on whether Dejan Lovren kicked the ball deliberately — it can sometimes be hard to tell — and what that meant for the apparently offside Kane on the first penalty.

The problem with such refereeing decisions is not that they happen, or that they’re debatable, or that they’re sometimes just straightforwardly wrong. That’s all inevitable. The problem is that they’re useful. Useful for anybody — players, fans, managers — looking for a figure to blame. Useful, to, for any media outlet looking for the kind of content that generates and sustains itself as it flutters back-and-forth. Wrong? Right? Yes? No? Here’s Jürgen Klopp, he disagrees. Changed your mind? No? Yes? Here’s Graham Poll. No, wait, come back.

Here it’s probably worth noting that the drive for better refereeing standards may be working, in a general sense, but it does appear to have done some strange things to the standing of officials. Professionalisation, for example, may have made referees better, but it has also served to increase the responsibility they bear for their decisions. Amateurs making mistakes is part of the deal, but a professional is supposed to be, well, just that. Meanwhile the encroachment of referees into punditry positions has only served to intensify things: either they agree with their erstwhile colleagues, which is boring and predictable, or they disagree, which is controversy and, yes, more content.

As for VAR, even when it does work as planned, it brings weird interruptions into the flow of the game. Correct decisions, which should be good things, are rendered strange: celebrations are truncated, momentum stalls, and the atmosphere curdles. And there’s the referee in the middle of it all, talking into his headset. Ruining everybody’s day. In any case, as Clattenburg and Gallagher’s disagreements show, sometimes the only thing on TV is Rashomon.

So we’ve ended up in a thoroughly unvirtuous circle, where officials are more exposed for their errors, and those errors can be usefully exploited by almost every other interested party. The obvious solution is for football to re-mystify its officials. To obscure them behind a layer of enigmatic anonymity, so that decisions are handed down not by fallible people, who can be criticised as such, but mysterious oracles, who toy with the fates of footballers for their own inscrutable ends.

Take their names: they are just The Referee. Cover their face. Remove all recognisable features: admittedly, this might be complicated. Perhaps those shifting skinsuits from A Scanner Darkly? it is perhaps not a coincidence that Pierluigi Collina, the only modern referee ever to be broadly accepted as competent, looked intimidatingly otherworldly as he went about his business.

What matters is that it becomes impossible to say something like “Mike Dean hates Arsenal” or “Jon Moss robbed us today.” Instead, we’ll be limited to “The Referee was good to us” and “The Referee was bad to us,” which will inevitably collapse into “The Referee giveth, and The Referee taketh away.” At this point, even the most dedicated of conspiracists will get bored of arguing with ineffable and uncaring forces, and be forced to move on with their lives.

The alternative is that football, as a broad cultural collective, agrees to some kind of collective breathe, and relax moment. A general moment of recognition from all parties that banging on about referees beyond the heated moment is, at best, an exercise in noisy boredom. At worst, it’s both a malignant assault on the fabric of the game, and a pretty shabby way to treat a person whose greatest sin is, usually, giving the other lot a penalty.

Doesn’t sound very likely. Bring on the robes. Bring on the masks. Jon Moss is no more. Jon Moss has been eaten. There is only The Referee.

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drnikolatesla · 4 years

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Nikola Tesla's Experiments With X-Rays, Electrons and His Cosmic Ray Theory

—Nikola Tesla

“TESLA’S LATEST ROENTGEN RAY INVESTIGATIONS.” The Electrical Review, April 22nd, 1896.

#Nikola Tesla #science #experiments #physics #history #x rays #electrons #cosmic rays #photoelectric effect #ahead of his time #ahead of our time

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rodrigohyde · 5 years

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Watch Snob Goes All In on Audemars Piguet’s Obscure Offerings

Watch Snob Goes All In on Audemars Piguets Obscure Offerings

Millenary Take One

I get it that a great deal of watch “value” is about the image it projects to others. That is why celebrity endorsements work, and that is sticking to the established archetypes (man as diver, pilot, James Bond) will always sell.

At the same time, it hurts my eyes to see that the price of the value watches you often recommend (Nomos, Tudor, Seiko) you can get a veritable piece of no compromise high horology. Of course, it will not be the hot and hyped model, but still.

RELATED: Last Week — Watch Snob on What to Look for in the New Year

The watch I have in mind is the forgotten and unpopular Audemars Piguet Millenary ref. 15016. It is a perfect everyday watch, almost a field watch in its austere black dial aesthetics and time-only functionality. At the same time, it has a unique design, a well-finished movement from a Big Three Swiss brand, an elegant thin profile — what is not to love for the price of a Tudor Black Bay (on pre-owned market, of course)?

Please prove me wrong in my reasoning. Am I not wise?

Here is wisdom: He that hath an ear, let him hear. You are indeed wise. The Millenary in general and that watch in particular are an opportunity to own an interesting watch with an intriguing design that has largely been passed over by the enthusiast community. The movement is the Audemars Piguet caliber 2225, which is derived — if my memory’s right — from the Jaeger-LeCoultre 960; very nicely finished by AP.

The reason that the price is as low as it generally is, is obvious — an oval-shaped dress watch is not particularly what the market wanted from Audemars Piguet, and the Millenary (which came out in 1995) never really caught fire in the market. In fact, as a men’s dress watch, it was a bit of a flop, although AP has occasionally used the design for really spectacular statement pieces, like the astonishingly lovely Cabinet Piece No. 5 and the Millenary Minute Repeater. If, however, you don’t care about the fact that the Millenary Collection is currently largely a repository for ladies’ timepieces, you can indeed get something very nice for not a great deal of money. It’s not a bad litmus test for whether someone is a serious watch person either: Anyone who recognizes a Millenary as an AP has probably been around watches for a while. The same is true of the Edward Piguet collection, which AP has abandoned, more’s the pity.

Millenary Take Two

I have enjoyed watch collecting for many years, but I think that my interest is getting depleted. When I just started, there was so much to learn and understand: “What are the good brands? What are the good models? What makes them good? What makes a watch valuable and why?” Most importantly, it was a journey of self-discovery and an exercise in critical thinking, as I had to dig through the layers of marketing narratives and the taste of others to formulate my own values and the watches that these represent. Now, however, I have figured out the answers to these questions and there is not much new learning to sustain my interest.

Therefore, I want to retire from the hobby, but do so in the proper way — by sealing the decade of an obsessive-compulsive quest with a few horological symbols of my newly recovered, liberated self. First, to represent the values of creativity, originality and individuality, I will get the Audemars Piguet Millenary Chronograph ref. 25822. Second, to represent mechanical tradition, elegance, and a certain “ancient” chic, Breguet ref. 3490. Third, for the everyday, practical wear and the appreciation of sculpture, Vacheron Constantin Overseas Chronograph ref. 49150. All these watches are from top-end brands and represent good value for money, thanks to them being non-mainstream and under the radar.

Not that I am unsure of my choices. They are thought-out, but it is interesting still to hear an opinion of a hobby veteran: you. Would you say that there are better candidates out there to stand for my values?

I’m flabbergasted. Two questions in one week that reference one of the more obscure modern watch designs, by which I mean the Audemars Piguet Millenary. I wonder if the design mightn’t be poised to take the world by storm at long last … almost certainly not, it is simply too much an oddball, but you never know.

OK, sir, to the business. You obviously know your own tastes and I can see from the watches that you have chosen that you know watches quite well also. There is little or nothing that I can do to further educate you about the watches you have picked. They each of them represent aspects of the company that has made them, that are a bit off the radar, as you say, but that are also highly characteristic of those firms. The Millenary, for instance, is a reminder that once upon a time, creativity in case designs was very much more AP’s stock in trade than is currently the case.

This particular approach really does have its pleasures. By this, I mean the approach of finding watches made by very good brands with real history, which, for whatever reason, have been passed over by broader tastes (pocket watches in general are an excellent example). If you were at the beginning of your horological activities I might counsel you to find something more generally appealing, but as you are clearly aware, general appeal can also be generic appeal and comes with a higher price tag. There are always alternatives to any choice, however well-educated it may be. I might suggest some of AP’s extra-flat series produced watches from the period, say, 1965 to 1975 as representing an interesting alternative to the Millenary, but the latter has much character on its side.

Mountain Time

Every once in a while when I am casually surfing the web or reading emails, the greedy servers lurking in the background try to sell me things and throw up something that actually catches my eye.

This week I was presented an ad for a watch with a single hand and a 24 hour dial. I won't bother you with the details of the maker of this obscure quartz offering, but the marketing verbiage talked about the mindset of slowing down and seeing the world rather than rushing through with pointless precision — getting off the hamster wheel of life and all that. So I began searching around for better examples of the single-hand complication (simplification?). I did not see many. Are there any current offerings in this genre that you might find interesting?

Thinking about why this ad was presented to me, I realized I had been reading much about the Long Now Foundation and their project to build a 10,000 year mechanical clock in a mountain in the desert. Although it's obviously not a watch, would the Snob care to render any opinion on this also?

Aha, yes, the Clock of the Long Now. We have a working scale model in the Science Museum (in London) which is worth a visit. It is a most fascinating project, creating a mechanical object capable of running for so long a period of time poses unique engineering challenges, of course, but it is also a kind of public artwork with many intriguing features. It will probably be over the heads of most readers, and the fact that the construction is being funded by the controversial billionaire Jeff Bezos may color perceptions, but the fact remains, it is one of the most worthwhile clock projects in ... well, ever, I daresay.

Single-hand watches are rare; most folks would prefer to know the time to a bit better resolution. Audemars Piguet, to bring up obscure APs again, made one, the so-called Philosopher’s Watch, which is worth hunting around for. It is ref. 9040, I believe. Billed as a lady’s watch and a bit small, but I think at this point in the Year of Our Lord 2019, we can ignore that. Other than that, may I recommend you to a little brand called Meistersinger. They have more or less cornered the market for hour-hand-only watches and have for many years. (They do, if I recall correctly, a jumping hours version as well.) They are charming, interesting, and you would have to exert yourself to spend more than perhaps $2,000 at most to get one.

Send the Watch Snob your questions at [email protected] or ask a question on Instagram with the #watchsnob hashtag.

You Might Also Dig:

Best Watches Under $250 Best Watches Under $300 Best Watches Under $150 from AskMen https://www.askmen.com/style/watch_snob/watch-snob-goes-all-in-on-audemars-piguet-s-obscure-offerings.html

#AskMen

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elanceashishmdr-blog · 5 years

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Adobe Premiere vs Final Cut Pro

Comparison Choosing the right video Tracking applications can be confusing, can't it?

You know it comes right down to Two choices -- Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere -- but deciding between them is hard.

Each one of them looks Compelling, but you want to make certain that you're investing your hard earned money into the perfect tool. After all, there are just a few worse feelings than buyer's remorse.

Asking around doesn't seem To help. It is like each review, friend or YouTube video features a contradictory opinion

But that's about to change.

Show you a side-by-side contrast of each tool and how they stack up against each other at the most vital categories. So, by the time you've finished reading, you will be able to make a choice once and for all. Much about the specifics and just want us to pick for you, jump directly to the final segment where we provide you per-case recommendations for different hypothetical video-editing requirements and circumstances. Ease Of Use

The first time you open any New editing software it can feel a little intimidating. You will find all these new bells and whistles, and getting to grips together is a daunting job. Thus, let's first look at which of these tools will be simplest to use.

The most intuitive user friendly interface; it's put together in a means that makes sense to a first-time user. Editing options are placed In logical progressions for an editing workflow, and finding your way round the tool just feels natural. Whilst you get a great deal for your money, it doesn't ever feel like you're attempting to wade through a sea of resources to find the most suitable one.

And, since you'll see Throughout this article, Apple has attempted to make this instrument easy, fun and accessible, without damaging the quality.

Adobe Premiere is not quite As instinctive in comparison, and can be concentrated to more experienced video editors. But, that does not mean it's bad.

They have sacrificed some User expertise to create a more logical structure for their users. Documents are easier to locate, layers are clearly divided and as soon as you get the hang of the menus that which is easy to discover. Meaning you are able to spend less time angrily muttering,"Why isn't it where I saved it?" , to yourself.

Color Alternatives

The hands-down winner here is Adobe Premiere.

From the box, Adobe Premiere comes with the ideal colour grading options on the market. Not only compared to Final Cut Pro, but to each tool you might possibly need to use.

With such a wide and varied Palette of options, you may: bring your raw videos to life, use colors to evoke feelings in specific scenes or just enhance the total pop of your movies.

Even Though It is possible to Improve the color options in Final Cut Pro by using external plugins like Shade Finale, it's still a few paces behind Adobe Premiere.

If you are working on simple Videos, like interviews or marketing videos, not needing this will not give you too much problem, and also the colour options available will probably be okay.

But if you're trying to Create long-form videos, in which you require emotion and also to bring individual scenes and moments to life, then it pays to have this highly effective tool in your arsenal. Especially if they will be broadcast on bigger, higher quality displays.

In General Optimization

In this section we'll look At how these programs will perform on your computer, and see which one works best for your needs. (Don't worry, there's no worthless techie-jargon).

Fastest video editing tool in the world at this time. The inner workings of this tool have been created to interact perfectly within the constraints of your computer. As a Result of This, it's able To provide low rendering and exporting occasions for videosat 4k caliber, without consuming too much power. Making it the perfect choice for situations where you can not connect to mains electricity, like on a plane.

Adobe Premiere, on the Other hand, is much slower. Without being tailor-made to get a computer, it has to use what is available on every device. This makes exporting and rendering times much slower and means it will drain your battery quicker than you can drain your bath.

Final Cut Pro is the apparent Winner in performance. (Provided you have an Apple Mac computer).

Timeline And Tracks

Final Cut Pro has a pretty, Nicely...controversial timeline. The Magnetic Timeline is loved, or hated, by users.

This timeline functions like a Narrative. It allows you to seamlessly connect scenes or sections of movie, and removes anything in your timeline which may interfere with this. This also prevents you from inadvertently overwriting any present footage by transferring a clip around.

You can also take advantage Of a great tool called associated clips. This allows you to cycle in various parts of footage, such as three different takes of the same scene, to see how it fits into your own content. This can save a lot of time in the long term.

But it can often feel Restrictive and rigid, which explains why many people prefer Adobe Premiere's more traditional and flexible timeline.

Of video, audio, image, and text, you're able to precisely work on individual elements. This also makes Cooperation (more on that next) much easier to perform. It is possible to work on your layer of this undertaking, and your sound editor can swoop in and work magic on her degree, also.

Like I mentioned before, it Can be a bit less intuitive, and a slip of the mouse can often mean disaster for your job. But once you get the hang of this you'll love the quantity of freedom you have. Especially on bigger projects with lots of moving components.

Collaboration

If you are going to be Working as part of a bigger team, with various editors, it's worth paying attention to how this works in a group environment.

Adobe Premiere is really Before the curve .

Through the Adobe Teams Job, you're able to share files and edit across a system. Meaning that no matter where your team is, you could always get access to the same files without exporting them into another party tool.

As I touched on at the last Section, the different layers of the deadline allow this to work incredibly well amongst large teams. Seamless changes could be made to a job without worrying about losing any of your work along the way.

This system even functions Across different types of computer. If you are editing on a Mac and your counterpart is functioning on a PC you can still share files and collaborate on the exact same project.

In the newest updates, Final Cut Pro does allow for cooperation with external parties. But, unlike the rest of the tool, it is time intensive rather than straightforward. Plus you'll hit snags the minute you need to work with anyone who is not with a Mac.

Integrations

Final Cut Pro can easily be Improved with plugins. If there is a part of the instrument you believe isn't as good as you need it to be, there's most likely a plugin on the market to help you make it even better.

Assist you: produce 3D visual effects, remap time to make slow-motion scenes, stabilize your videos and improve the color options. These plugins can be pricey ranging from $99 to $399 and beyond, but do enhance your expertise. You can also take advantage Of lots of tools and templates to assist you compensate for parts of the editing process you are not so powerful at.

For Instance, If you wanted To make a moving title card you can download a movement template in MotionVFX. It would then be editable in real time in your timeline, without exporting to a third party tool. That wouldn't be possible at Adobe Premiere, which would need your movie to be exported to Adobe After Effects first.

This can make for a protracted And time-intensive process. But this can often be worth it. Why? Since Adobe Premiere comes within Adobe's Creative Cloud, and it will be a Marvel's Avengers-esque suite of tools to support your movie making.

Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effects to mention just a few. So, even though this could add extra time and effort to your workload, does it really matter if it's being done using the best tools available on the market? Importing, Before, but because it'll make up a large part of what you do within this tool, it's worth going a little deeper here.

Importing in Final Cut Pro You can view your snippets and files before you upload them. Allowing you to avoid bulk importing entire files, in the hopes that it is possible to dig out the most suitable one.

Exporting and rendering in Final Cut Pro is seamless. Once you begin your export to a particular place -- let us say Facebook -- it happens in real time. There's not any waiting around for the file to export, save to a computer, and then waiting again for it to upload.

High quality videos, as high as 4K quality, with no damaging the rendering, frame rate or quality of the video. All these contribute to Making the entire process quick and painless.

Loses punctually and simplicity of use, it makes up for in choice. The tool offers the widest Array of export presets, which range from little iPhone screens, all of the way up to theatre projectors. If you know your audience, and where they'll be swallowing your content, you can maximize your videos like never before.

Pricing

Final Cut Pro retails at an Affordable one-time payment of $299. For this you get the entire master bundle, which may be updated with additional plugins should you want them.

Adobe Premiere is paid for You are able to pay $239.88 to get a yearly subscription ($19.99 per month), or if you'd rather have a monthly contract, then you are able to pay $24.99 per month.

If you want to get Premiere within a complete package of expert tools, you can pay a yearly payment of $599.88 ($49.99 per month) or you could pay monthly at $79.99 per month.

When choosing among them Tools, you ought to pay close attention to your requirements, your expertise and what a fantastic workflow for you is.

Both These tools are Great when employed for the right purpose. There is no wrong or right camp. However, each of these tools is much better suited to a different circumstance.

Here are the situations we

You should choose Final Cut Pro if you're

· On the lookout for a easy tool with a short learning curve which still delivers high quality end product. This is by no means a"basic" instrument, but it is the most plug-and-play of the two.

· Interested in the least expensive option of the two. Though neither computer software would be considered cheap, Final Cut Pro is the cheaper option since it costs a one-time purchase of approximately $300 instead of Premier's yearly membership fee of $240.

· Working independently, or within a small team, to create easy videos such as video blogs, interviews or fundamental advertising videos.

· Especially seeking to upload them directly online. (Provided you have an Apple Mac apparatus )

Along the way to assist you enhance the tool and when you want it. You should select Adobe Premiere if you are...

· On the lookout to get a more advanced instrument, with a wide selection of editing choices, to prepare you for any video project that's thrown your way.

· A freelancer or a corporate staff, looking to create higher-end long-form video articles that call for a good deal of flexibility and collaboration.

· Already familiar with additional Adobe editing software.

You'll be backed up by an Impressive package of tools that will help you polish those videos to perfection. But you'll have to spend some time into learning how to use all of them.

And there you have it -- Whatever you want to know to create the ultimate choice between Adobe Premiere Happy editing!

Check out Final cut pro plugins, themes: Here

#FCPX #finalcutpro #videoediting #finalcutproplugins

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