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#Also that says “monthly updates beginning 1/2/24”
bluejaywriter · 4 months
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Anyway, I've been sitting on "The Five Times Queen Hippolyta Had Her Heart Broken (and the one time she didn't)" for about 2.5 years and 2024 seems like as good time as any to finally release it!
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Weekly Update for 24 April, 2023
Hello, everyone! Welcome back to the weekly update!
Mind Games: Trepidation
I have done QUITE a bit on MG:T this week! Not as much as I'd like, but still quite a bit!
I have finished the roughdraft of Scenes 1 and 2, and I started Scene 3 today! I'm fairly certain it'll only take me a day or two to get Scene 3 done as it's expected to be a shorter, more clear cut chapter. I also took time to go into my planning and add some new variations I hadn't thought of originally for Scene 2! I actually have two fairly large branches that will definitely add to replayability, hehe.
Also, I did mean it when I said I was making a WW nsfw game. I've gotten quite a bit of planning and world building done on it, but as I'm still planning the demo, I will not release too much information on it. HOWEVER, what I can say is: the demo will be free, there are five ROs, and the individual routes will be sold separately (might make a bundle for them? possibly?) due to each route having a very different story to tell. They won't be expensive, however.
OTHER THAN THAT, there has been some stuff going on over on Patreon! Blake and Loche's monthly bonuses have been released, and I will be beginning Iri's this week at some point. There's also been some updating to old posts as I hadn't opened them properly, as well as new tags added to find Fem Loche and Masc Loche stuff separately! I also had some pretty bad mental health days this week, which also put a stopper in progress. I'm hoping next week goes better <3
Thank you guys for the asks smsm, and I'll see you next week!
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nathank77 · 1 month
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3/26/24
7:22 p.m-Updated/Added to/Edited
I have my t-shot tomorrow and I see my PCP Thursday. So I'm still stressed about this week once I see my PCP I will be less stressed. I will finally have less doctors appts just my biweekly t-shots, therapy 3 days a week, 1 monthly bloodwork, and that's it mostly.
I got my thyroid ultrasound April 1st and the dentist April 12th and my ultrasound on my lower region on April 17th... and then my bloodwork right now on April 23rd but I'm thinking about scheduling it to April 16th.. I mean it'll be 4 days earlier than last month's bloodwork but approximately 2 months that I've been on methimazole... I want to do it earlier to make sure I don't go too hypo if I'm actually going into remission. I'll probably reschedule it. Also I'm sure I'll have to see my PCP again for insomnia. She's keeping me on a tight leash.. it's going to be monthly appts as long as i use benzodiazepines for sleep.
Either way I got to make time for my eye doctor depending on when she can fit me in.. and i may have to move stuff around....but I'll deal with that when the time comes.. tomorrow...
I'm worried about my pcp appt and the benzodiazepine script... I hate having to open up with a lie. My tongue isn't gross cause I scrape it twice daily but it will not heal.... I'm kinda forced to lie cause behavioral health only wants me to take antipsychotics...she won't be able to say psychiatrist anymore if I lie and that's important...
I called the investigation unit to ask questions and I explained why I want to lie and at first it didn't seem like he understood, it seemed like he thought I wanted to lie about Kristen. I explained I needed to lie to my PCP to get a quality of care I'm being denied bc of my diagnosis. I think he finally understood it but he said the people I wrote on the release of Information, Elise, Kristen, Mike and Erin. They would request records. They could call but it's a case by case basis. They could even meet in person with anyone on that release form...
He said that he could request information from my PCP but not talk to her unless I give them the right to which I won't.. but I guess I'm going to have to write that paragraph really well. And have it somewhere near the top so they understand I'm lying about recovering to re-humanize myself and remove that label and the stigma...
He said the investigation might not even get looked at past reading the paperwork. He said it could take 6 weeks. He said it could take a year.
I guess I'll have to consider whether to get my medical card considering this time frame. I guess I have to consider that when they look at my case considering sleep/benzo/insomnia and all that is like half my argument, they likely will pull my records from my PCP.
I'm worried they'll tell her I still have auditory hallucinations but I don't think they can... I'm worried if they do i will lose my prescription and my doctor. Losing my PCP will really mess things up for me. Its hard getting benzos. It's hard having biweekly appts for my t-shot. They are super reliable. So reliable, that my xanax is already ready for renewal in early April when I don't need to refill until April 5th.. I won't pick it up any earlier either.
So I'm kinda in a rock and a hard place. I can occlude auditory hallucinations from everything at this point but when it comes to my PCP, I either lie.... and worry about it impeding my investigation/losing my PCP... or I tell the truth and keep getting referred out to Behavioral health and have to stay on xanax....
Idk what to do but damn fucking Kristen. My tongue doesn't hurt but it's gross even though it isn't. It won't heal and I just want to switch to Halcoin...
Idk what to do, I don't want to lie to begin with. Yet I feel I have to but this investigation scares me cause if my PCP finds out I lied bc i wanted my insomnia to be treated as a separate issue, I could lose a lot.
If I tell the truth well I don't even think she will even listen to me about halcion...
I have 3 ideas:
1) lie and know in my heart, that they can't share information with her. They can only obtain information.. but my anxiety is like what if? And I can't turn it off..
2) tell the truth, have her say Behavioral health and have my tongue never heal. Continue to treated like a mental case....psychotic. unable to make good decisions. Have my quality of care be lower than it should be..
3) tell a stretch of the of truth, I hallucinate only a few times a day now. Only during the day... it's actually countable. Then even if the board contacts her directly, my records will still say I hallucinate, they won't tell her I'm stretching the truth bc they will also think that my hallucination has improved. However she still may say behavioral health..
Idk what the fuck to do. My anxiety is like lying can bite you in the ass.
You already have a turtle biting your tongue and it won't heal so you're already being bit in the ass.
Telling a stretch of the truth can help but she will still be like you're hallucinating so behavioral health..
Idk what to do. I have a lot of thinking to do. Calling the investigation unit actually made it worse...
Why? Cause now I'm like what if they can meet with my PCP bc of my benzo script and the way I was when I came to them in December is an important part of my case... they'll say he was a mess. Unable sleep. He looked like he didn't sleep. He was suffering.
I am so anxious bc i have to make this decision by Thursday. I can tell the truth, now. Submit my paperwork and lie in April. Or May when I go back cause this is going to be a monthly appt.. but that's another month of my tongue looking like shit.
Idk if they can actually tell her what I reported I doubt it but I know they can pull my records. Idk what to do. I'm sick of hearing behavioral health. What it really means is----> go on antipsychotics then I'll consider changing your benzodiazepine to a different one with a comparable dosage..but I'd rather your psychiatrist do that cause you're, "psychotic."
Of course I could not say auditory hallucination. She didn't bring it up last time... but I did. When I called about the temazepam, the receptionist was like if you're seeing and hearing stuff you need to go to a psychiatrist we might discharge you from our practice if you keep calling/showing up. I showed up a few times for random things. Once or twice was the benzodiazepine... but the other 2 or 3 times I didnt say a word about them... so there is a reason Im scared..
And just the fact that they said seeing things.... I never reported seeing things cause I fucking don't!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I don't have visuals. It's obv they think I'm completely crazy. This is why I want to peel off the fucking label.
I know I have to take things one day at a time but I got to plan what I'm going to say Thursday. Whats best for me and the investigation. But overall what best for ME.
Whats best for me is to lie.... although I'll always be scared it'll bite me in the ass and cause me to lose my PCP getting another reliable benzodiazepine script will not be fucking easy... getting discharged from this place will severely effect my health...
If I don't submit the report, Kristen gets to live her perfect life and I have to, "live," like I have been living... but then I can lie with no worries.... and get the best quality of care...then again my PCP may be like idc if you don't hallucinate anymore, I would never percribe such a high dose...
What's best for me is reporting Kristen... what's best for me is lying to my PCP and getting the best quality of care.... assuming the lack of hallucinations would make her more willing to perscribe .50 of halcion. Which .25 is the largest dose tablet and I'm asking for TWO A NIGHT. With hallucinations there is no way she will listen to me but without them she may cause it becomes MEDICAL. Although she may still be like that's wayy too much I'd NEVER.
What's not best for me is having the investigation cause my quality of care to be lower than it should be preventing me from lying bc of anxiety and the potential they will talk to her. I suppose as a person I have the right to say you can obtain records from my PCP but you cannot talk to her under any circumstances...idk..
I'm very anxious about it. It seems there is no right answer...
I'm going to think about it nonstop until Thursday and figure out what I should do. I'm so anxious.
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animecreator3000 · 3 years
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About the Boueibu iceberg
@delphoxqueen asked me to explain about my list for the iceberg so here it is. I might update this from time to time with links and stuff if I stumble across the original posts. This is all from what I know so feel free to add new info. Also, spoiler warning for RobiHachi and the Boueibu manga and novels. (This is like a masterpost it’s very long)
1. There’s a theory in tumblr about which decade the series is set in, using data like the friday the 13th calendar in s2 ep11. In HK we got a second number for when the next monthly Pretty Boy Contest was happening and using the one from Love it was theorized that around a decade had passed since then, which ended up being true.
2. The stage play had a few original songs and characters exclusive to it so unless you watched the full performance, you probably weren’t able to witness all of them. One of the characters is called “Robato Deniro”, as romanized in the stage play booklet I own.
3. The nurse and the cafeteria staff from the s1 mobile game appear in the background in around the first half of s2 ep3.
4. S2 had an unfinished manga that was only available online and was never released on physical format; it was centered around the defense club and sometimes the conquest club and Beppu brothers. All that’s left from what I know are the scans linked on magicalgirlsandcerulean’s blog.
5. This isn’t that obscure because it’s talked about in the anime, but I’m mentioning it because I think many people dropped it before the ova, where right at the beginning it is revealed that the alien that resucitated Mr. Tawarayama twice was, as described by Io, a “mulberry-colored naked mole rat-looking thing”, and was nicknamed “Moley-san” by Yumoto. At least in the anime, we had never heard before of who this was and it never appeared on screen nor was mentioned again.
6. In HK ep8, Karurusu promises the knights to grant a wish if they show him how earthlings spend summer. Kyoutarou reveals at the end of the episode that he wished that summer lasted one more day so he could spend it doing nothing, which prompts Ichiro to theorize that it’s the 32nd of august, and the next day is the second 1st of september.
7. The stage play was was held from march 10th to 13rd, of which the latter is Ryuu’s birthday. There’s an additional recording of a small celebration with cake focused on Ryuu and Io.
8. Atsushi mentions his older sister in the flashback at the beginning of s1 ep4, but she never appears or is mentioned again.
9. There’s a few posts on tumblr theorizing about what happened to the Hakone parents since Yumoto only says in s2 ep3 that according to Gora, “they are busy with their hot springs tour”. En mentions that it’s a bit suspicious, but it’s all the information we have from the anime. Posts talk about the parents perhaps passing away from an accident or an illness, thus the reason why Gora was so worried about Yumoto’s cold in s1 ep10, but from another post I think it’s implied in the second novel that they actually left their home when Yumoto was still a toddler.
10. It’s no secret that the surnames of the characters are all real onsens in Japan that even the seiyuus have visited, but apparently the Arima onsen has two different kinds of water, “kinsen (gold hot spring)” and “ginsen (silver hot spring)”, with different properties each, and the Kusatsu onsen water also has certain properties, both that were used to build the characters. Additionally, Ryuu’s favorite food are Sato Nishiki cherries, which are grown in the same prefecture, Yamagata, as his onsen, Zaou.
11. The press club lose relevance after s1, with only Kinosaki and Tazawa reappearing briefly in s2 ep2 to interview the Beppu twins after they arrive at the school. Tazawa doesn’t even have lines. Hireashi is mentioned by Zundar in ep11.
12. What the heck
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13. Exclusively in the manga we see that Arima met Kinshiro and Atsushi when they were little and they were good friends, but when they met again as adults, Kinshiro seemingly didn’t remember Arima. Atsushi, however, stated that Kinshiro’s talent is remembering people’s faces and names, so Arima wonders if he’s just trying to distance himself from him. He also explains to Akoya that he follows Kinshiro and obeys him because as a child, he was fascinated by his radiant smile. This is never talked about in the anime.
14. Like the previous point, the anime never shows Akoya being bullied, at most just a slight dislike of his full name, but the manga shows that he was made fun of for it and how he actually hates his surname, to the point of introducing himself formally to the president and vicepresident of the student council as “Holy Angel Akoya”.
15, 16, 17, 19. Batonama lives were the livestreams done through the franchise by the defense club seiyuus on youtube and niconico. They’re all on youtube, without any kind of translation.
Love-ko is a girl with a shell bikini drawn on a piece of cardboard that was used as a girlfriend in the Batonama Love! lives, acted by the seiyuus themselves.
RobiHachi has one episode full of official Boueibu artwork and a parody of the series too, a Love-ko doll appears, and Wombat appears as well, named “The Don”. It received an english dub, so for a bit, people were excited that Wombat was going to speak in english too. Also, various mechas appear in both Boueibu and RobiHachi.
18. The director of Fairy Ranmaru (Masakazu Hishida if I’m not wrong) revealed in an interview that he was inspired by Boueibu and aimed to make a show like that.
20, 21. The website super-groupies.com has results for defense and conquest club lingerie sets, dc and VEPPer tote bags, the Beppus’ scarf rings, dc bath sets and the pumps magicalgirlsandcerulean mentioned. I’ve found the s1 Loveracelets and Caerula Adamas’ ring on different sites, the True Loveracelets on TheChara’s twitter and the Happybraces (apparently called “Hapibure”) on broccoli.co.jp but I’m not sure where exactly they were all announced and sold, so I’ll just drop that.
22, 33. Boueibu was originally pretty much a copy of Sailor Moon, I think they were all going to be called “Lackluster Moon” and that stuff and be literally Sailor Moon genderbent. They were all different from color palettes to physical features (except Yumoto’s), and Ryuu was a shota, even smaller than Yumoto. Their names were also very reminiscent of the five Sailor Senshis’. Even if they made it more original, the show is still clearly inspired by Sailor Moon (just look at Caerula Adamas lol) and Pretty Cure. It has also referenced, very blatantly, animes like Doraemon, Detective Conan, Aikatsu and even Vocaloid, when Kyoutarou tries to guess what Karurusu is saying with ““Just Google It, Asshole”?” in ep1.
23. Wombat’s real name and the name of his planet sound like gibberish to the earthlings and ends up being named after the Earth animal, but Zundar, Dadacha, Karurusu and Furanui all have original names. And I think Hireashi means “goldfish”?
24. If you google “zundar technology”, it’s actually a company in Shanghai, China. Aren’t Wombat and Zundar always talking about “advanced alien technology”?
25. Zundar and Dadacha are siblings, so are Karurusu and Furanui, and so are their father King Kamopapa and their uncle minister Wao, but neither are the same species and, except the first two, not even the same color. But they are supposedly related because they share birthmarks or something like that...
26. Everyone who’s in this fandom knows about the pixel blur and voice pitch censor from s1, but I’ve added it anyway because it’s so rare for mahou shoujo and shounen animes to explain why the heroes aren’t recognized when transformed.
27. A good while of s2 ep11 is spent discussing Zundar’s ex-wife and his problems to give child support. Naturally, he gets mad at this.
28. “Money doesn’t betray” (s1 ep6) and “The despair hidden behind your smile that comes from not being understood” (s3 ep11) are sentences that came out of nowhere and implied that the people they were said by (Io) or about (Taiju) respectively had some kind of angst going on but were never explained at all. They’re famous for just that.
29. The Beppu twins’ house in Andromeda shown in flashbacks had strange green circles that apparently are from another anime I don’t know but honestly I didn’t get it very well... It was revealed on a tweet from Takamatsu.
30. Alien language mostly appeared in s2 due to the many flashbacks of Aki and Haru in Andromeda, but in Boueibu s1, it appears on the Zundar Needle before it is shot on the human. It appears a lot through RobiHachi as well, due to being a story about travelling through space. There might be an alphabetical chart somewhere, but I can’t assure it exists, I might even have dreamed it.
31. Hikaru Midorikawa as the melon monster, Kousuke Toriumi as the bishounen monster, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as the kotatsu and panda monsters and Takuya Eguchi as the remote controller monster in s1 and 2, before going on to voice the main cast in HK. Keisuke Koumoto voiced Hatchi Kita in RobiHachi as well as Akihiko in Boueibu, and the characters look similar.
A new addition is that so far Boueibu is the only anime I’ve seen where children weren’t voiced by female seiyuus, but by actual children. Personally, it’s charming and makes it so much more realistic, specifically since no women appear in the franchise at all either (not counting Protag-chan in the game).
32. Speaking of seiyuus, Can I Destroy The Earth? had a dub shown in ep11/12 (?) that made Gora the villain that wanted Earth to stay the same and not progress, against the monsters that supposedly wanted to bring good things to earthlings. Aki and Haru quickly dismissed this dub as fake. (I made a mistake in the title in the previous post btw)
34. As seen in the glossary in the Boueibu Mook (I think, but might not be the mook), Caerula Adamas’ speeches are based on an old japanese detergent commercial that went “Gold, silver, pearl, gift”.
35. In the manga there’s a short parody of the first chapter of Sailor Moon with “Pretty Boy Guardian Gakuran Akoya”. The conquest club manga was released before the anime, so I remember reading somewhere that a fake website appeared for the Gakuran Akoya manga, before turning into the conquest club manga website in the day of its release.
36. Cgi was used a few times in the anime: s2 ep10 for a short sequence of the defense club on a rollercoaster and the carousel monster, ep11 for a cenital shot of the Battle Lovers singing, and HK ep12 for the Honyalaland soldiers and the Wao mecha.
37. The toothbrush incident in s1 ep7. (It’s definitely well-known but it’s so weird lol)
38. “We hope we can see each other again someday!” Something along those lines was the last text to appear in the last episode of HK, implying a s2. We all know how that went.
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ka-za-ri · 4 years
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Obey Me wants to do Too Much and in an attempt to please the fans, it’s failing them instead.
Based on the post @1abbie7​ made regarding the common complaints players seem to have with OM and its choices as a game. I just wanted to put my two (very long) cents in while looking at OM as if it is the gacha game it truly wishes it was.
MAJOR DISCLAIMER: this post is based on my experiences and is not a reflection of the community as a whole. These are observations and personal thoughts and should be taken with a grain of salt. Also, please feel free to discuss or correct me if I have any of the information wrong. For reference, I’ve reached 5-3 in OM!, 9-2 in AL, and 6-17 in AK.
Now that we have that out of the way… ON TO WHAT I WANT TO SAY. Buckle in folks, I’m rambly and I have a lot to say. Obey Me! Has a lot of potential, and it’s a shame that a lot of things Solmare does are not helping it grow in a way that it could.
So this post is MOSTLY going to be comparing Obey Me!’s (OM) gacha and gaming experience with Azur Lane (AL)  and Arknights (AK) since I feel like both those games have a very good f2p model and don’t really have any PvP/Ranking system that affects the main gameplay. I will have other examples from other games that I’ve played before as well.
Ignoring any issues with storytelling and plot holes, since I feel like there are people who are much more qualified to speak upon that than I am, I’m just going to look at the more game and gacha experience.
EVENT SPACING, GAMEPLAY, STAMINA REFRESHES:
OM! As far as I know, is marketed as an Otome game with gacha and … Rhythm??? Game??? Elements? (I’m not quite sure how to even describe the ‘battle’ stages tbh) to break up the story stages. With the battle stages being the main way you can farm for materials to power up your cards, the bottlenecks that are built into the game are surprisingly super frustrating.
OM! Does not have an auto battle option, but it does make up for it by allowing you to sweep the stage once you’ve received 3 stars. This does make resource farming much quicker, but this also means that your stamina will disappear faster than ice in a desert. Coupled with the fact that the battle stages don’t really have much interaction or strategy for a good portion of the beginning of the game, there’s no real replay value in trying for older stages unless they have the resource you want to farm.
I guess I can let this pass since interaction isn’t what’s really marketed, but it IS important to keep your audience logging in and eager to play. At Level 40-ish, my current stamina cap is around 70. WIth the average stamina cost of a regular stage being 5 AP, and the hard stages being 8. This means you’ve got 14 normal stages and less than 10 hard stages in a full bar of stamina. Assuming I log in twice a day to get the bonus AP, that’s really not a lot of stamina to work with and just enough to maybe get through my dailies. 
Having that little stamina makes farming resources exceptionally difficult especially for the high requirements needed once you get about half-way through a devil tree. Add that to dealing with farming event points almost constantly, with your limited stamina pool, you’re pretty much forced to purchase extra stamina to meet the requirements to finish said events to get the rewards. Assuming you spend all of your daily Devil Point reward on Stamina, that’s only 180 stamina a day which makes for a really tight run IF you’re aiming to get everything in an event. 
ADDITIONALLY, this is also the fact that events and new lessons don’t seem to be announced prior to them dropping. Almost every gacha  game I’ve played before will give you a few days notice before an event drops whether it be via Social media or through in-game mail. This is to mainly generate excitement and allows players some time to prepare, whether it be hoarding what stamina refreshes they have or saving premium currency for gachas to hopefully get the chase card/unit that they’re looking for. Not being able to prepare makes it difficult to stay engaged considering you CONSTANTLY have to have resources/stamina to partake in all the events and you can’t plan accordingly.
AK announcing the current event two days prior to it starting in game and on twitter:
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AL’s announcement on the 12th, almost a week prior to it starting. Maintenance was on the 17th when the game reset.. (In game notices update regularly and I don’t have a screenshot of what it would look like since maintenance has already passed.)
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OM! basically giving people on twitter about 24 hours notice of a new event dropping followed by announcing that the new lessons are available on the day it drops:
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I understand that OM! Devs may want to keep the new cards a surprise to players. If stats and skills played a more prominent role in the game, maybe there would be a better way to tease these events to build up hype. As of right now though, it feels like a surprise slap in the face to force players to purchase currency in order to maintain that stamina requirement. IF Solmare is adamant about having back-to-back events, at least provide players with a roadmap or a calendar so they can pick and choose what’s important to them.
Just… Don’t let it become like the FEH calendar…
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Please, do not let it become like this.
In my opinion, it feels like OM! Has a bit of an identity crisis. It sorely wants to bank on the money making powers of a gacha game while also clinging to the claim that they’re an otome game revolving around the plot. It’s hard to really promote the plot when it’s locked behind a power requirement that a majority of players will not be able to reach.
With how difficult it is at the end game, players are most likely going to look for transcripts or screenshots of new lessons instead of playing the main storyline in order to save what little they have for the constant limited events. Either give the players time to recoup resources to prepare for your events so they can pull for all your new cards or lower the difficulty cap to give players the story you’re emphasizing so much. 
Tl;dr: back-to-back events will burn out players and not announcing them prior does not allow players to prepare resources, forcing them to drop money on the game. The amount of stamina it takes to complete an event AND level your cards does not make it f2p friendly.
GACHA RATES AND PITY SYSTEM:
Call me spoiled, but I feel like OM! ‘S banner rates are too low. Consider the following image for the current banner pool:
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That’s a combined 1% to get your UR and that’s still not going to be guaranteed to get what you want. Consider the following rates from other games:
Azur Lane:
(Ultra Rare was a new rarity that was added with this new banner. Before that the highest rarity you could pull is a Super Rare)
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Arknights: 
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Fire Emblem Heroes: 
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Final Fantasy Brave Exvius: War of the Visions
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For a game that’s always introducing new cards, you’d think that OM! Would maybe consider raising those rates so people won’t be so heartbroken when they don’t have enough currency for a 10 pull. (Especially if they have been spending what Devil Points they have on stamina to complete event stages) Yes, a majority of banners have bigger pools and  the chance for a specific 6*/UR/SSR is ultimately lower; but considering in OM!, you have stories and characterization locked behind devilgrams connected to these cards, the rates are pitifully low. At least in the other games listed, the units/cards/operators/ships aren’t tied to stories. 
I will say, the pity system isn’t absolutely abysmal. Keep in mind though, this is based on the assumption that you’ve saved up for 100 pulls. Considering how difficult it is to save that much currency while being f2p 100 pulls per banner is a tall order and impossible without the help of goldie or somethin. The frequency of new cards along with the difficulty obtaining gacha currency creates an extremely predatory model of currency purchase. With no guarantee of when event banners will be rerun, you’re pretty SOL if you make it half way through this pity system and you’re sitting on shards you can’t use. 
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Players will get tired of this model mega fast. Especially with these kinds of rates. Assuming that your luck is the worst on earth, you need 2,700 Devil Points to reach the pity breaker. That’s more than two packs worth of Devil Points. So we’re looking at over $160.00 USD to get a guaranteed UR. Seeing as new banners come what feels like every two weeks or so, you’re looking at over $300.00 USD a month JUST for the gacha. If OM! Was purely a gacha game without such a heavy emphasis on the characters and the stories/scenarios they unlock, I might be able to overlook it. However, since the cards themselves unlock cheats for events and outfits and devilgram scenarios, that’s a steep price to pay, so I kinda just have to say… Yikes.
Tl;Dr: For a game that has so much content tied to limited cards and events, gacha rates for OM! Feel too low. Pity system is average as long as you have the currency to complete all 100 pulls. The reason to purchase premium currency is predatory and likely will not be sustainable in the long run. 
MONTHLY PACKS AND PREMIUM CURRENCY
So, we can agree that if you don’t have some cash on hand, it’s not going to be a real fun time to play OM! So, where do you spend your money? Let’s take a look at what they offer in terms of premium currency and how far that will get you. It’s also almost 3AM here and I’m losing my patience and filter, so excuse me if I sound more angry here than in the rest of the post.
So, here’s the basic Devil Point Shop for reference: 
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If we equate Devil Points to stamina, you’re looking at about 100 stamina per dollar you spend. But let’s be real, Solmare makes their money off of gacha and them pretty pngs ‘cause y’all want those spicy devilgrams and sweet outfits for your secretary.
To even get a 10 pull, you’re looking at $22.00 USD worth of premium currency. (Why they didn’t make the $19.99 pack a full 10 pull is BEYOND me tbh.) Now most gacha players that I know who are willing to go all in on a specific banner will want to spend a pack, which means they’ll go for the most expensive option as it is the most bang for your buck. That’s an $80.00 pack for approximately 4 10 pulls and some change. Let’s compare that to the price of some Originite Prime from AK: 
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It takes approximately 33 OP for one 10 pull in AK. 1 OP = 180 Orundum (currency used for gacha) Keeping this in mind,  if you don’t count the first time purchase bonus, at first glance, it’s overall more expensive to purchase this currency SOLELY for gacha purposes.
Here are the packs offered for AL: 
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If you’re using gems to purchase the cubes needed for the gacha, it takes about 600 gems for 1 10 pull. One pack will net you about 8 10 pulls. Out of all the models we’ve looked at, this is honestly the most value for your dollar specifically for gacha purposes.
Take into consideration what the premium currency is used for. As stated above, 1 DP = 10 stamina. 1 OP = 1 Full stamina refresh in AK, so that’s a pretty equivalent exchange rate. (I won’t go into the AL stamina and gacha system since it differs too much from OM! To really make a good comparison.)
But, what else can DP do? A quick glance under the “Items” tab in the shop, you’ll see that it can also purchase Keys to read your devilgram stories (integral to your gaming experience), Demon Vouchers for summoning, Glow Sticks to help you in battle (Integral to gameplay), and consumables for your Surprise Guests to raise intimacy (arguably connected to gameplay). Compare this to what you can purchase with your OP outside of summoning currency in AK: Furniture (cosmetic) and Skins (Cosmetic). That’s it. 
What I’m trying to say here is that Solmare has made DP the currency for so many things that affect the game itself. This subtly pressures the players to purchase DP in order to maintain the same quality of life that they might have experienced at the beginning of their gaming experience when the level ups came fast and when the rewards were plentiful for completing all the beginners quests.
“But wait!” you say. There’s ways to earn DP passively through dailies! You’re right! You’re given 18 DP per day for completing your dailies. That equates to 1 10 pull per 2 weeks if you’re diligent in keeping up with all your quests and log in daily. Comparatively, AK will give you 2,800 orundum per week for completing all your quests and the weekly annihilation runs, so just short of 1 full 10 pull in the game. However, AK gives you the specific currency used exclusively for gacha. This leaves your OP relatively free to be used for stamina refreshes, or you can hoard them for when new skins come out, or you can use a few to supplement your missing orundum for a banner pull.
Without knowing what could be coming up next in terms of events and banners, OM! Makes it very difficult for you to hold onto your DP due to the sheer stamina sink that events can be. Unless you’re really good at optimizing your resources, you’re likely going to be spending DP on things outside of gacha, making it difficult to save those 20 pulls in a month.
Tl:dr: DP is used for too many things that aid in gameplay which leaves less for gacha, forcing players to make a choice between moving forward in harder story stages or unlocking card specific stories.
Alright, but let’s say you don’t have enough for packs, but you still want to support a game. You don’t wanna whale ‘cause you got bills to pay, but maybe you’ve got enough to be a minnow or a very sad and small dolphin. For this, most people turn to those delicious monthly packs. Usually, the monthly packs or subscriptions are really a good bang for your buck. Usually, the bonuses that these packs provide will add up to a value that is much more than your initial investment in them. So, let’s look at what OM!, AK and AL offer, shall we? 
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Let’s break down what the VIP gives you since there’s quite a bit and it’s presented in a less condensed format. So, at first glance, I have to ask… “VIP login bonus?” What does that even mean? When you look at the details the description is as follows:
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I’m sorry, what? This vagueness will not help sell this pack to me. Most monthly packs will give you premium currency right away that is equivalent to the amount that you paid. You can see that both AK and AL list this and also let you know exactly what else you get for the next 30 days. There’s no vagueness in what these packs provide. 
Next thing to look at:
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I’m sorry. What? I don’t understand why a max AP increase is the choice for a VIP perk here. This is banking on the fact that you’re going to be playing at max efficiency and will be under max stamina in order to take advantage of the refill timer giving you the extra AP. Why OM! Doesn’t just give you the stamina in your mail is beyond my comprehension. This is just saying “yeah, you could have more stamina if you’re playing this game and making sure you’re below your cap. I … no. Just why.
NEXT PERK: 
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No. This is useless for higher level players. Perks should benefit all players, not just your new players that you’ve tricked into spending money ‘cause this pack is only $9.99 a month. I’m so angry at this I don’t want to look at this anymore. NEXT.
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This is a fine perk. Paying for easier passive resources is fine. I don’t have anything to say.. Next.
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Oh thank fuck. An actual good perk. Passively getting the harder to get resources which cuts down on your already limited farming? Hell yeah.  Also fine in my book. NEXT. 
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“Spend money to spend more money! Because we know this monthly deal ain’t shit!” is all I’m getting out of this.
Finally, I need to talk about this: 
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So… you’re telling me that for $10.00, I’m going to get $6.00 worth of DP and I won’t get the full value unless I STAY subscribed? If I cancel and then resubscribe, will that go back to 60 DP when I subscribe later? Why would you do this other than to give your players less than what they deserve? These packs are supposed to be designed to give you the value of your purchase and some extras as incentive to keep playing and coming back to pay. This just… as a first impression leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.
Also, let’s talk about the fact that you’re BILLED MONTHLY? Listen, I get that they’re trying to be ‘convenient’ so you can set this up and forget about it and reap the benefits, right? It’s about the same cost as a Netflix subscription, no big deal. But listen, that means they’re also banking on you to forget you even have this subscription if you’re a casual player and you’re going to continue to give them money Stop that Solmare. Bad.
I’m too tired to look at sales. Just as a quick glance. the discounts and deal are meh at best.
Tl:dr: Monthly pack is underwhelming and likely not worth it. Automatically being billed monthly is the worst thing I’ve seen all week and this was written in 2020. 
SOME SUGGESTIONS? IT’S NOT ALL BAD, I PROMISE.
So, how can Solmare improve? OM! Is honestly one of the most stylish otome games I’ve seen and has a lot of potential to continue growing its player base if the devs directed their energies in the right direction. Right now, OM! Suffers due to the fact that it’s trying to do too much in too little time. For a game that’s less than a year old, it’s pushed out enough content in the last three months to last six. Dialing back the gacha and collecting elements to focus on the story and a slower pace would really help, if you ask me. 
OM! Really needs to slow its roll. Events are losing their impact from being rolled out at such a quick pace on top of current pop quizzes, new lessons and banners. Every week I feel like I’m watching the more hardcore players yell at having too much to do when everything is layered on top of one another. This is not inherently a bad thing. Having a lot to do keeps the player base engaged and excited for your game.
The problem arises when you’re not giving your players any time to recover from events and just throw things at them all the time. Finding a good balance between events and downtime is difficult and it likely won’t happen overnight, but it would be nice to see them maybe give a week or two to really let the impact of events sink in and let players really find time to nurture or use the new cards/rewards they just got.
First step in the right direction would be giving more notice prior to events and lessons. Just something more than 24 hours before, or the day of. Not providing a notice makes it feel like these things are being rushed. 
If Solmare is adamant about keeping the pace it’s set up, then give us a roadmap or event calendar of when new lessons or pop quizzes are coming. They can keep the details of the lessons and quizzes limited until closer to the actual dates, but at least this will let players prioritize where they want to put their resources.
Gacha rates for URs being raised to 2% would likely make a reasonable difference. When so much story and cosmetic content is tied to a UR or SSR cards along with their frequency, it serves to likely benefit them to make it more accessible to players. Locking so much behind luck and a paywall makes it more obvious that they only care about the money that they can get from the diehard collectors in the game.
Make skins obtainable by DP. Stop locking them behind event cards. Allow players to have easier access to cosmetic features. It’s a less predatory model than what they’ve got right now. Granted, Lonely Devil has sort of helped this issue considering they’ve grouped event reruns all in one place to play at your leisure, and if I remember some of the event cards have skins tied to them. Still, just… idk sell the skin on its own. It makes more sense than to pray that you roll that UR with the one 10 pull you have. 
Make resources easier to obtain passively. I’m sure I sound like a broken record, but limited resources make this game difficult to enjoy. You’re barely through doing one thing to level up a card and you’re met with a giant wall of requirements for the next step. AL has commissions and the dorm, AK has the base. OM! Has Jobs, which gets you grimm and some items if you’re lucky, but it definitely needs expansion considering the power checkpoints late game.
Hell, just making some of those DP purchasable items actually farmable might help.
Get a publisher to work with you. I know Solmare has been around the block and this isn’t the first otome game they’ve made, but I definitely think working with a publisher who’s familiar with the ins and outs of a proper gacha helping them will benefit them. Having a publisher will help ensure that there’s adequate funding for the game to be as good as it can be. Not only that, you’re looking at a better social media presence which the player base can interact with and get more attached to.
 Literally, having a publisher could solve so many pacing and announcement issues since they would be in charge of when events come out and likely has a better eye on how players react. This way, Solmare can concentrate on making the content as quality as they can and not inundate people with a new lesson or event as soon as it’s done.
Tl:dr: Solmare, please get a proper publisher so they can help with quality control and balancing your game. Please. I’m begging you. You have so much going for you please don’t let this game die before it turns a year old.
Ok. it’s 4 AM and I spent most of the day writing this post. If you’ve made it this far, congrats and I’m sorry for being so rambly. I’m so sorry if none of this made any sense in the end.  I’m sure there are points that I’ve missed out on like stage replayability and a more engaging battle mode, and the lack of any sort of meta which makes the lower rarity cards you pull feel completely useless…  but uh… I can’t think anymore and I haven’t had time to farm in my horny ship girl game. Feel free to let me know your thoughts or discuss! 
Thanks for your time and I hope y’all have a good day. Happy romancing some demon boys!
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State of the Fic
Hey, everyone! With the semester in full swing, I have less time to write and it’s been really hard to write when there are even fewer reblogs than ever encouraging me, so I really didn’t write much this month. I’m hoping that this is just a typical early-winter, late-in-the-year response to fandom but I’d like to remind everyone that if you find yourself disproportionately liking things rather than reblogging, please think about how the content creators feel and ask yourself if you’re helping to create a welcoming fandom environment.
Last month, I got a request to start adding ships to the works on each monthly roundup so that’s a new addition. I’ve decided to add them next to each fic instead of tagging them, as I don’t want to clutter the tags with non-creation stuff. Hopefully, that’s a compromise that works for everyone.
Lastly, congratulations to my MTH auction winners! We’re still working out what I’ll be writing but I can’t wait to share it with you all once we’ve made a final decision!
And now for what you’re really here for:
WIPs: 
More Complicated than a Smash and Grab (Stony): Chapters 16 & 17 posted this month
Kissed by a Muse (Winteriron): Chapters 3 & 4 posted this month
Recently Posted:
Language of Love (Winteriron): posted on October 7
When Bucky agreed to let Tony plan their first anniversary, he hadn’t expected Tony to tell him they would be spending the anniversary right at home in the tower. They had spent Tony’s birthday at his lakehouse in upstate New York and Bucky’s in Barcelona. For Valentine’s, Tony had flown them both to Paris. To be told that they’re going to stay here for their anniversary, an event that Bucky would argue is bigger than either Valentine’s or their birthdays, is a surprise to say the least.
But when he steps off the elevator to reveal the penthouse lights dimmed low, a picnic blanket spread out in front of the fireplace, and Tony standing nervously beside it, wearing nothing but the silk robe Bucky bought him for his birthday, he can’t bring himself to be upset by it.
A Quiet Morning (Winteriron): posted on October 8
Natasha figures it out on a Saturday. She hasn't known up to this point what brought Bucky and Tony together but she figures it out on a quiet morning
12 Secrets You Never Thought You'd Get to Learn About the Avengers  (Stuckony): posted on October 10
Natasha finishes reading the last sentence and smiles just a little, letting her gaze travel over her family—and they are her family, she doesn’t need an article to tell her that, but it’s still nice to see it spelled out for everyone to read.
At the Touch of You (Winteriron): posted on October 13
Bucky is already waiting for Tony in the living room when he enters. It’s the small hours of the morning when the rest of the team is asleep. Bucky had been asleep too up until a few hours ago when he had felt Tony slip from their bed and head for the workshop. He’d waited a bit to see if Tony would be coming back to bed but he’d thought even at the time that Tony was having a bad night. So he’d left their bed as well and headed out into their kitchen to prepare two mugs of hot chocolate and a plate of apple slices before asking JARVIS to tell Tony that he’d like to have a grooming session if he was in the workshop because he couldn’t sleep and not because he’d had an idea.
Ready for This (Winteriron): posted on October 14
On the verge of an early and unexpected rut, Tony makes sure that he and his alpha are ready.
Give Me a Taste (Winterironfalcon): posted on October 18
Sam has Tony pinned underneath him. This isn’t so unusual. Sam often has Tony underneath him. This is practically a regular Tuesday night for them.
Strawberries and Cream (Stony): posted on October 24
Steve vaguely remembers meeting Lady Virginia Potts when he and Tony were children. He remembers a shock of red hair, the fleeting scent of strawberries and cream, and a determined spirit that wouldn’t take no for an answer but that’s about it.
So to him, the first time he meets Lady Virginia is a little over a year after his wedding to Tony, after they've sorted out their feelings. And, oh, does Lady Virginia Potts have some things that she wants to say to him.
I Know You (Ironfalcon): posted on October 25
When Tony gets sick and hides away from everyone else, it's up to Sam to find his wayward boyfriend. Good thing he knows him so well.
Lay Me Down (Ironfalcon): posted on October 30
An Ironfalcon Ko-fi fic about emotional hurt/comfort
Wet and Warm (Winteriron): posted throughout the month
A Winteriron Ko-fi fic about our boys getting up to some fun in the sun
Coming Up:
1. 1000 Followers Celebration: the last of those, Spoils of War, will be updating soon!
2. Under a Wandering Star: the Winteriron western arranged marriage
3. The Thunderiron/Ironfalcon prompts I recently got
4. A King for Christmas: currently in the second round of edits, please remember to let me know if you want to be tagged once it comes out as this is your last opportunity, and, as always, all related posts can be found under #a king for christmas
5. With Smash and Grab hopefully wrapping up at the end of this year/ beginning of next year, it’s time to start thinking about the next long fic I’ll be working on so expect a poll coming out about that soon
6. I’ll also be setting a schedule for the next year’s round of long one shots and would like to get y’all’s opinion on what fics you’d like to see next year so I’ll be posting a poll for that as well
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My 10 wildlife/photography highlights of 2020 posts: Blog 2-Seeing some of my favourite birds this year-Part 1: A general look
As always in these thread of posts I shall now take a look back over times that stood out when seeing some of my 30 favourite birds this year. This highlights blog comes in two parts this year due to length, with part 1 tonight and part 2 tomorrow. This one a general look and the second part a detailed look into some favourite birds I saw very close to home at Lakeside and around the house whilst working from home in response to the pandemic. The number of favourite birds I have increased from 28 to 30 as I added two species that were previously on my B list of favourite birds the Short-eared Owl and Great White Egret. I saw 24 of the 30 this year which I was really happy with as with the pandemic etc. a lot of them it just didn’t look possible I’d see and for the other six it was either really rare/elusive ones or I just didn’t go anywhere where I could see one. I got off to a great start for favourite birds of mine in 2020 as I mentioned in my highlights blog yesterday over the opening days off I had of the year. Five of the year ticks I got on New Year’s Day were highlighted in red on my spreadsheet for my year list to denote they are favourite birds of mine, Great Crested Grebe a fitting first favourite bird of the year for me and not for the first time over Lakeside on the walk it would perhaps as I mention in tomorrow’s part of this post have the biggest role of all my favourite birds this year at Lakeside. I took the first picture in this photoset of one at Hayling Island in March. I then saw Buzzard and Little Egret on the way to Portland from the car on New Year’s Day on the motorway in Hampshire and as I said yesterday got spectacular Gannet and Short-eared Owl views there. The first three species were actually consecutive year ticks on my chronologically ordered list so this made it look distinctive on the list.
It was nice to tick off a good few more of my favourite birds at home on trips over the rest of those opening days, with the owls the last tick of mine on my highest ever New Year’s Day bird haul Brent Goose was the very next at Farlington Marshes on 2nd January, I also saw my first Shelducks of the year there. 3rd January just like New Year’s Day over Lakeside in 2019 was a woodpecker double as I saw my first Great Spotted Woodpecker of the year at Denny Wood in the New Forest and my first Green Woodpecker of 2020 on a quick sunny second Lakeside walk of the year that afternoon. On the way back from Denny Wood I saw my first this year of my other new favourite bird the Great White Egret in a field from the motorway at Broadlands. This year tick the one directly before Green Woodpecker so another double. Pochard and Jay were year ticks the next day at Blashford Lakes. I enjoyed some great times seeing these birds.
It has been a strong year for me for seeing Great Spotted Woodpeckers, I’ve seen many and its often been the bird to pop up when I’ve seen or photographed something else memorable to make it into a truly special day. Examples of when this has happened have been along the Titchfield Canal path on that classic day seeing Barn Owls, Fox and Roe Deers that I mentioned last night where I saw one fly over and at Blashford Lakes where I first fell for these birds on more than one occasion. I took the second picture in this photoset of one here on 1st March. It’s really reminded me why I adore this species with its striking appearance, sound and colours and the aura around it.
Back to the first days of the year and like last year on the way to Gloucestershire for Slimbridge for my birthday we stopped off at Red Kite stronghold Oxfordshire, having a look at some at Benson and like last year Watlington on the way there and back home. Especially on the way and particularly at Benson we enjoyed phenomenal views of this iconic and precious species. At Benson we saw dozens flying in the air at a time over a lane and some flew over very closely. Even though it was against grey skies it proved a perfect chance to test the flying shot ability I was unsure of on my new camera to begin this trip away. I took pictures I was so proud of including the third of mine in this photoset and most importantly enjoyed an exceptional wildlife experience with one of our greatest birds. It topped the same stop off last year. Red Kites continued to be more and more common at home building on last year where I noted this a lot as I saw some on the way to work from the train and during working days in Winchester quite often which was great, as well as a few at home which I talk about in part 2 of this highlights post tomorrow. I got a great view of a Red Kite flying low over our head at Noar Hill in mid-May which I took the fourth picture in this photoset of. At and on the way on the motorway to Fleet Pond I got great views of Red Kite and Buzzard on 27th September. At Slimbridge I took the fifth of one of the stars of the place a lovely Shelduck.
When back home and back to work in January attention of course turned to another of my favourite birds of prey the Peregrine Falcon, particularly Winnie and Chester the Winchester pair. I picked up where I left off in 2019 really what had been an amazing year for them seeing the adults and chicks so many times and taking so many photos on days I took my spare bridge camera to work with me. I got Peregrine as a year tick on 9th January with a view of one on the north tower at Winchester Cathedral. I then continued to monthly or twice monthly bring my bridge camera to work to try for pictures of these beautiful birds as they continued to fly between the cathedral and St. Thomas Church. In February I photographed both birds at both locations during the course of the month which felt fantastic, I took the sixth picture in this photoset during my February cathedral with-camera-visit. In April this picture and one I took of a hyacinth in the cathedral grounds taken in March both appeared in the Hampshire Chronicle newspaper in the camera club section a proud moment for me and this Peregrine picture appeared with an article they did on the family too. I got so many of my wildlife, landscape and minority subject pictures in the chronicle this year especially local ones whilst working at home which really stood out I loved putting my pictures on Facebook groups this year during lockdown and working from home. My photos of the Peregrines seemed to get better and better if I say so myself and I could just not get enough of seeing these birds. It sort of began to feel normal seeing them up until I had to work from home which brought other benefits a key theme in all of these highlights blogs but as I remarked when watching them at St. Thomas in February it sort of still feels surreal to be seeing this bird fairly close up at times and just so easily see one. I got stunning views of these birds regularly across this year again.
In February also it was ramping up towards their breeding season with the webcam being switched back on with a second camera this year too making their journey so accessible at more than one angle to all and by March eggs were laid. I found myself feeling the same feelings as last year when I first started to observe these birds around that time and I could look on the webcam before I left the office each lunch to see if they were about then go and see them. So it made me feel good in terms of my connections with these birds. When I was working from home due to the Coronavirus in late April I was thrilled to get little glimpses on the webcams on the cathedral website of the very little chicks as the eggs began hatching. Such an amazing moment. I was a lot more on the ball with reading updates this year than last of knowing when the chicks would hatch, hence I enjoyed seeing the eventual five chicks on the webcam in their early stages a lot more with great views of them being fed and things. As all five fledged successfully a big theme for me became watching them and Peregrine families from other local cities’ cathedrals a great thing to do whilst working from home which a lot of people did too in these isolating times. On 10th August I got a precious chance to go and watch the Peregrines again when I had to go into the office for a morning. My Mum dropped me off and picked me up at Winchester and during my lunch break I saw a noisy Peregrine fly over St. Thomas Church where I spoke at a safe social distance to a kind person about them, one flying at the cathedral and one adult on the Winchester Cathedral north ledge which looked fantastic in the sun of a summer’s day during a heatwave. It felt surreal being back seeing and photographing one with my bridge camera here after five months away whilst it was a one-off thing. Seeing them in the flesh and indeed just seeing Peregrines I didn’t see one on walks at any stages of the restrictions in between elsewhere I don’t think felt quite surreal. It did give me a valuable chance to connect with this bird once more, a chance to reminisce on my times with the families in previous years and the successful year for them this year again with the five chicks fledged unusual for the species I learned to fledge that many and it was bringing something I do so much whilst working in the office at lunch breaks at Winchester into what the days in my life were like at that time which was very different. A very warm and satisfying feeling being so in aw of them and watching one I could not take my eyes off it when there. I also got fantastic views of a Peregrine flying at Lymington-Keyhaven nature reserve again the Lymington end towards the start of the year where I had seen one on Christmas Day 2019 and I saw one there in October.
Winchester really confirmed itself as the raptor haven I’ve portrayed it as this year with one of my non-favourites Sparrowhawk a regular sighting for me here but also great Buzzard views often with quite a few in the sky at times. A great chance to enjoy a bird that’s been one of my favourites for a long time as I have at a lot of places this year. I enjoyed Buzzards immediately locally in lockdown a lot as I mention loads in my next highlights post. But on days we did other local walks in lockdown it was nice to appreciate different common members of my list of favourite birds and get excited to see and hear them a lot. Notable instances seeing Little Egrets and Red Kite flying over at the river Itchen, Bishopstoke, many Jays and a Great Spotted Woodpecker heard at Stoke Park Wood and another Jay and a few Buzzards flying over at Magdalen Hill after I’d seen two of the latter at home that morning also. Shelduck alongside favourite birds of mine I’d more regularly seen seeing during lockdown Great Crested Grebe and Little Egret was a delight to see at Lymington on 23rd May when we did our first trip there and to the sea in just over two months as I took pleasure and had a surreal feeling at seeing common species of that habitat which I hadn’t seen for months so this felt great. When at Pennington a couple of weeks later it was lovely to see Shelducks with adorable ducklings among many other baby birds that day as well as many Little Egrets and Great Crested Grebe. When back at Pennington in early September I very much enjoyed seeing older young Shelducks, Little Egrets with a few flying right by us which was nice and it was almost weird seeing Great Crested Grebes on the sea somewhere other than Lakeside with my journey with them there this year detailed in my next highlights post.
On a January day at the Lymington end of the Lymington-Keyhaven nature reserve I marvelled at Kingfishers again with some great views as they were a year tick that day for a third year running here. A memorable time again. I’ve also had such a good year for Brent Geese another speciality bird  here with many seen and heard at different locations. One weekend that sticks in the mind is a February one where I saw lots and photographed some at Hayling Island on the Saturday and then I saw many more and photographed one at Pennington on the Sunday the seventh picture in this photoset. When seeing Brent Geese at Farlington Marshes in early October at the point in the reserve I had my first amazing experience as a boy with them when hundreds flew over my head noisily I reflected on why this made me fall in love with them. Farlington Marshes as I’ve said so often is one of if not the best place in the country for Brent Geese there are so many around in the season and it’s so good for them. I read a bit that day about how important the Brent Geese are to the local area as their presence has stopped a lot of development proposals in Portsmouth over the year including Portsmouth Football Club’s desire to leave their Fratton Park home to build a new stadium at a site at Farlington near to the marshes. Which we could have a huge debate about but there is no denying this is helping the environment. So it reminded me something I am passionate about just what a special place this reserve is and what a special bird this really is in Hampshire as a whole. That October afternoon was a special one for favourite birds of mine at Farlington with Shelduck seen well and lots and lots of Little Egrets, Great Crested and four Buzzards one on a light three flying together seen on the M27 on the journey there. It was also a memorable goose day as I enjoyed close views of the odd Barnacle and Snow Goose that goes to Farlington that I had seen before here and at Baffins Pond where they fly between really intimate views that day and I got pictures. On 31st October I enjoyed seeing lots of lovely Brent Geese at Lymington there in numbers by that point as well as Great Crested Grebes out to sea and great Little Egret views I took a photo of one of the latter.
On a daily exercising walk on 2nd May I made it a tenth spring in a row that I’ve heard a Cuckoo in since I saw my first in 2011 when I heard a faint one calling at Bentley Wood which was magical as always. Hearing one of these birds is almost as good as seeing one especially my first in a spring it’s that exciting and amazing it’s the sound of spring for me. I heard Cuckoos really well on a visit to Martin Down in mid-May when restrictions had lifted a little so we could go there it was nice pure belts of it to hear very clearly it does feel me with such joy hearing it. That day I got smashing Buzzard views too of one at the reserve, one flying along the lane as we exited and two closely on posts on the way back. When back in late July I got a brilliant view of a wet Buzzard on a rainy day on a pylon on the way home. The next day after that I got a nice view of a Buzzard flying over at Stockbridge Down. I was so happy to see my first Cuckoo of 2020 and make it my fourth consecutive year seeing them at stronghold for them Fritham in the New Forest where we were very lucky to see two and hear the call again throughout the walk on a nice sunny and hot second May bank holiday Sunday. What a top experience! The next day I heard another Cuckoo at Bentley Wood much more clearly the sound was than the last time here, it’s certainly different hearing them after seeing one there’s no pressure of I’ve heard it now I need to see it but it’s just amazing hearing them on their own as I’ve said before anyway. That day I also saw Jay and Buzzard flying through. I got a brilliant view of Buzzard on another visit here the following Saturday a paler looking one over the path against a blue sky. Cuckoo, Buzzard and Jay were stars of another Martin Down visit to close May, hearing the former and seeing Jay at the beginning of a hot and sunny walk. On that walk we got brilliant close Buzzard views flying against a bright blue sky so nice to feel spoiled by this coming so soon after similar at Lakeside again and again in weeks one particular Lakeside Buzzard moment from the spring I mention in part 2 of this blog tomorrow. On 13th September we got as we often do a nice view of a Buzzard on a telegraph pole on the way home from Martin Down. A place that September day when we walked around the reserve we also got some great moments watching Red Kites watching one mobbed by a Jackdaw a lot not a sight I’ve often seen so that was very intriguing to see on a great afternoon of birds.
On 13th June at Common Marsh I got a brief view and then cracking prolonged binocular views as it moved around the reeds of my first Sedge Warbler of the year. I took the eighth picture in this photoset of this bird. I really did see what a beautiful, well-marked and striking bird it is that day and it reminded me why I love it. A key moment in one of my best general and packed Saturdays this year where at Stockbridge Down where we went first we saw two Buzzards and Red Kite and Little Egret seen at Common Marsh as part of an impressive array of birds by the river. I had a quite honestly rare in years for me now second encounter with a Sedge Warbler on a scorching Saturday 8th August at Farlington Marshes getting a great view of one in and around the reedbeds. It felt amazing. I also saw a Buzzard sat on a post for our whole walk that day as well as Little Egret and Shelducks including young on a generally brilliant day of birdwatching with many other top species seen too. On 18th July whilst dog sitting I took Missy on a walk at Fleming Park in Eastleigh I’d not been for years over the old golf course. I knew from when we used to go there loads that it’s good for Green Woodpeckers and sure enough I got two great views of them on this walk really brilliant to see I enjoyed it on a generally great local Saturday of wildlife and photos for me so much seen and so many taken a very hot and sunny day a true part of summer, it was a brilliant welcome back to the old golf course area of the park for me. On 1st August at Emer Bog and Baddesley Common nature reserve it was great to hear a Buzzard calling closely a lot and see a Jay a memorable afternoon generally for me. I saw another Buzzard really well the next day at Magdalen Hill flying over my head which was fantastic not for the first time at this near to Winchester reserve this year with Kestrels seen well that day also as they often can be there.
‪On 16th August at Hayling Island oysterbeds we were treated to glorious views of two young Buzzards flying around and in trees. They looked so creamy and lovely in plumage. Their wingspans looked massive as they flew over it really was quite a sight to behold and I loved seeming them in the sunshine. Quite a moment. That day I also saw Great Crested Grebes out to sea and a Great Spotted Woodpecker during rain at Earnley Triangle on Hayling Island where we went first.
I had a great August bank holiday Sunday walk at Thursley Common in Surrey seeing a few Dartford Warblers near to the car park in an area here we never had before possibly relocated from the area we see loads behind the lakes on the heath that had been badly burnt by the heath fire in the spring so this was encouraging and great. That day on a day Hobby and Kestrel views starred too I liked seeing a Red Kite an ever present here on our visits and the area generally in a glorious weekend of raptors with five species seen and a woodpecker double with great particularly flying views of Green and Great Spotted making out their lovely markings I heard the or a green nicely too. I saw another Dartford Warbler very well at Ashley Walk in the New Forest on 17th October on a generally brilliant afternoon I wrote more about that in my third of these posts going out next Thursday about my visits to the New Forest this year I saw a Buzzard well that day too.
I wrote about experiences with more of and some I’ve mentioned here and part 2 of this blog already my favourite birds a lot in my fifth of these posts about my week off in June, when I saw my first Dartford Warbler of the year at Arne and another at Thursley Common, my first Guillemot, Razorbill and Fulmar of the year at Durlston and then again at Portland the next I took the ninth picture in this photoset of a Fulmar from the cliff flying that day and my first Osprey of 2020 at Fishlake Meadows. In my seventh of these posts about my autumn some get a mention. In my eighth of these posts about visiting Devon and Cornwall for a weekend in August I wrote about seeing my first Dipper of the year at Fingle Bridge and first Choughs of the year at Cape Cornwall and Botallack, and some favourite birds of mine get a mention in my ninth of these posts about our week in Norfolk too where at the nature reserve Sculthorpe Moor I took the tenth and final picture in this photoset of a Kingfisher. In my bonus eleventh highlights post this year about my November and December I also wrote about favourite birds of mine. 
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bccity · 4 years
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SEPTEMBER 2020 BC ENTERTAINMENT SCHEDULES & REVIEW
Members may earn 3 points each (up to 6 points) for writing, by the end of October 7 KST:
A solo para of 400+ words based on their monthly schedule (does not count toward your monthly limit).
A thread of six posts (three per participant, including the starter) based on the monthly schedule.
Threads and solos do not have to take place directly during an important date listed on the schedule, but must be related to what the muse is mentioned to be doing in the paragraph explaining their schedule/the company’s schedule for the month and/or their thoughts on the mentioned activities or lack thereof.
These schedules may be updated throughout the month if new information needs to be added.
Reminder: August schedule posts are due by the end of September 7 KST. Please do not post schedule posts in the fmdschedule tag.
OVERALL COMPANIES
As has become standard at this point, all idols under the company will be permitted a short, three-day break over Chuseok unless they have individual schedules (admin note: points claims) conflicting with the vacation. It is a true break, meaning idols may travel as they wish and are capable of doing within such a short time period and, if they don’t have individual schedules, their manager will be off the clock as well.
Important dates:
September 30(-October 2): Chuseok vacation (no activities save for any individual schedules).
BC SOLOIST 1
Following the conclusions of her latest comeback promotions, she still has another performance on the festival circuit as a performer at the Seoul event of Waterbomb 2020. She’s been allotted a fifteen minute set which includes ‘Love U”, “Roller Coaster”, ‘Why Don’t You Know”, and her cover of “Bang Bang”. Later in the month, she’ll be dropping into a popular dance studio to film a video showcasing choreography of one of her b-sides, “Do It”, from her album earlier in the year alongside the choreographer.
Important dates:
September 5: Performance at Waterbomb 2020 in Seoul, South Korea (also performing: Dimensions Soloist 1).
September 28: Filming of 1MILLION Dance Studio collaboration video (to be released: October 12).
DECIPHER
Before their maknae leaves the country once again at the end of the month, the members of Decipher must learn the choreography for their new comeback title track as well as for their staged b-side “My Beautiful”. Later in the month, they’ll go in for their regular comeback fittings to decide their comeback promotion wardrobe. 
Important dates:
September 21: Comeback MV and stage outfit fittings.
        ↳ Decipher R & V
No schedules for the month.
Important dates:
N/A.
        ↳ CHAMPION
On September 25, CHAMPION once again flies out from Seoul to return to finish off their tour dates in the US. The routine is the same as before, but the members will fly out almost immediately after finishing their last concert in the states in order to return to Seoul in time for them to still have their full Chuseok break.
Important dates:
September 26: CHAMPION: We Are The Future Live concert at Viejas Arena in San Diego, CA, USA.
September 27: CHAMPION: We Are The Future Live concert at The Forum in Inglewood, CA, USA.
September 28: CHAMPION: We Are The Future Live concert at SAP Center in San Jose, CA, USA.
September 29: CHAMPION: We Are The Future Live concert at ShoWare Center in Kent, WA, USA.
BEE
BEE finishes off their music show-promotions mid-month after yet another successful album release. Following the end of promotions, they’re offered a full two-week vacation to do as they please. They’re welcome to travel abroad if they wish, with or without a manager, as long as they don’t have other individual activities to attend to in Korea. They’ll only return to business for a few days before they get another, shorter vacation in the form of their time off for Chuseok.
Important dates:
September 5: Fan sign in Gangnam, Seoul.
September 10: End of music show promotions.
September 11-September 24: Vacation.
        ↳ 2BEE
No schedules for the month.
Important dates:
N/A
KNIGHT
The members of CHAMPION depart back to the US for more tour dates at the end of the month, so, before they leave, the group members have to fit in the shoot for the teaser photos for their comeback as well as filming a concept trailer and the title music video. The comeback has a concept involving alter-egos, so the members will be expected to embody both Knight and X-Knight versions of themselves for photos and filming.
Important dates:
September 11: Comeback teaser photo shoot & KNIGHTDEUX Concept Trailer filming.
September 13: “Obsession” M/V filming.
        ↳ White Knight
No schedules for the month.
Important dates:
N/A
        ↳ CHAMPION
On September 25, CHAMPION once again flies out from Seoul to return to finish off their tour dates in the US. The routine is the same as before, but the members will fly out almost immediately after finishing their last concert in the states in order to return to Seoul in time for them to still have their full Chuseok break.
Important dates:
September 26: CHAMPION: We Are The Future Live concert at Viejas Arena in San Diego, CA, USA.
September 27: CHAMPION: We Are The Future Live concert at The Forum in Inglewood, CA, USA.
September 28: CHAMPION: We Are The Future Live concert at SAP Center in San Jose, CA, USA.
September 29: CHAMPION: We Are The Future Live concert at ShoWare Center in Kent, WA, USA.
       ↳ Knight Light
Knight Light ends their promotions early in the month and then their schedules halt for the time being. Their unit debut was well-received among fans, if not as much the general public, and the general attitude around their promotions seems to suggest the unit will be making a comeback in the future, although no plans have been officially put into place or discussed with the unit members at this time, as preparations for the full group comeback are more important now.
Important dates:
September 3: End of music show promotions.
LIPSTICK
Only the members of Lip Gloss will be performing for Queendom this month for the unit and Fandora’s Box rounds, but the rest of the members will still appear during all filming days. The group’s lead vocal/lead dancer will be representing the group for the vocal unit performance, while the maknae/main dancer/lead rapper/sub vocal will represent them in the performance stage. Full details of Queendom filming for this month can be found here. In the meantime, the full group has a photo shoot for the cover of and an inside spread in the October issue military culture magazine HIM this month.
Important dates:
September 3: Episode two of Queendom airs.
September 7: Queendom episode five & six filming.
September 10: Episode three of Queendom airs.
September 12: Photo shoot for HIM Magazine’s October issue.
September 17: Episode four of Queendom airs.
September 24: Episode five of Queendom airs.
September 28: Queendoom episode seven, eight & nine filming. (unit stage, Fandora’s Box stage)
        ↳ Lip Gloss
Lip Gloss has been chosen to perform their debut single “Catallena” as Lipstick’s Pandora’s Box stage. Accordingly, they’ll be expected to have the performance down by heart and will go back in to original outfits from their initial promotion period of the song refitted as their schedules allow.
Important dates:
September 28: Queendoom episode seven, eight & nine filming. (unit stage, Fandora’s Box stage)
CHARM
Now that their tour is finished, CHARM must return to the studio to record their next Japanese single album, which they’ll be releasing before the end of the year. After learning and recording the song, they’re gifted a slightly extended Chuseok break. They may travel abroad with or without a manager during this break if they wish to do so, unless they have individual schedules that require their attendance.
Important dates:
September 27(-October 3): Extended Chuseok vacation.
        ↳ CHARM U
No schedules for the month.
Important dates:
N/A
WISH
WISH wraps up their world tour this month with dates in Shizuoka, Tokyo, and, finally, Seoul. In addition to recording the track for their Japanese album repackage this month, the members will also begin to practice for the special fanclub-only concert they’ll be holding next month to commemorate their fifth anniversary. They’ll practice all of their title tracks so far, plus “Downpour” that they recorded last month, and will also be assigned special stages (Admin note: distribution is slightly altered from the canon here to have every muse participate in at least one special stage):
Dance Stage
Gangsta: Maknae/vocal
2 On: Lead rapper/vocal
Player: Lead vocal/lead dancer
Say My Name (Tatsuro Remix): Lead dancer/vocal
Sorry: Lead vocal 1
Bitch Better Have My Money: Main dancer/sub rapper/sub vocal
Once Upon A Time: All above.
“No”: Lead vocal 1 (Somi), Maknae/vocal (Doyeon), Main rapper/vocal (Yoojung)
“Western Sky”: Leader/main vocal (Yeonjung), Lead vocal 2 (Sejeong)
“Misty Road”: Maknae/vocal (Sohye), Lead rapper/vocal (Yoojung), Lead dancer/vocal (Chaeyeon), Main dancer/sub rapper/sub vocal (Chungha)
“Gangnam Style”: All
Important dates:
September 5: WISHlights Tour concert at Ecopa Arena in Shizuoka, Japan.
September 6: WISHlights Tour concert at Ecopa Arena in Shizuoka, Japan.
September 15: WISHlights Tour concert at Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan.
September 16: WISHlights Tour concert at Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan.
September 19: WISHlights Tour concert at KSPO Dome in Seoul, South Korea.
September 20: WISHlights Tour concert at KSPO Dome in Seoul, South Korea.
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dimensionsunited · 4 years
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AUGUST 2020 DIMENSIONS ENTERTAINMENT SCHEDULES & REVIEW
Members may earn 3 points each (up to 6 points) for writing, by the end of September 7 KST:
A solo para of 400+ words based on their monthly schedule (does not count toward your monthly total).
A thread of six posts (three per participant, including the starter) based on their monthly schedule.
Threads do not have to take place directly during an important date listed on the schedule, but must be related to what the muse is mentioned to be doing in the paragraph explaining their schedule/the company’s schedule for the month and/or their thoughts on the mentioned activities or lack thereof.
These schedules may be updated throughout the month if new information needs to be added.
Reminder: July schedule posts are due by the end of August 7 KST. Please do not post schedule posts in the fmdschedule tag.
OVERALL COMPANY
Last month’s photo sessions for the base Culture Complex were a success and it seems like the project is off to a solid start, although some idols may be called back in for reshoots, especially for the 3D imaging, as necessary this month. All of the idols under BC, Dimensions, and Gold Star have been tasked with a new duty for the building this month: filming videos that will accompany some of the museum exhibits. The videos will be once again filmed in a studio, this time in front of a green screen, and the idols will be asked to talk about their feelings about important career events like their trainee days, debut, song releases, and major achievements. They will be given all of the subjects they are expected to talk about beforehand to rehearse their answers, and the director may request different wording or delivery of their answers as seen fit. (admin note: Muns have freedom about the specific topics muses are asked to talk about here within the guidelines given above, but any talk about scandalous or negative occurrences will be avoided.)
Important dates:
August 1-August 31: base Culture Complex museum intro videos filming (admin note: muses may encounter idols from other companies while there).
DIMENSIONS SOLOIST 1
Her comeback single is recorded, so it’s time for her to get the choreography down and optimize her performance for the catchy dance performance and charisma she’s so known for. She also has her second fittings ahead of teaser shoots and music video filming next month to decide on the final comeback wardrobe, and at the end of the month, she’ll be joining the company’s other two soloists in Los Angeles for a weekend for KCON.
Important dates:
August 23: Second MV and stage outfit fittings.
August 29: Performance at KCON LA (also performing: Dimensions Soloist 2, Dimensions Soloist 3, 7ROPHY, and Gold Star Soloist 2).
DIMENSIONS SOLOIST 2
He holds two solo concert dates in Seoul this month, where he’ll include “When You Call My Name” in his set list to give his fans a preview of his next release (and so that Dimensions can monitor fan reactions and decide how much promotion budget to give the song). The following weekend, he’s off to Los Angeles with the rest of Dimensions’ soloist roster for another KCON, this time on the west coast of the US. 
Important dates:
August 22: Zero concert at Yonsei University Main Auditorium in Seoul.
August 23: Zero concert at Yonsei University Main Auditorium in Seoul.
August 29: Performance at KCON LA (also performing: Dimensions Soloist 1, Dimensions Soloist 3, 7ROPHY, and Gold Star Soloist 2).
DIMENSIONS SOLOIST 3
She continues to rehearse for her upcoming solo concerts this month, and will continue to be filmed throughout them for her reality show. The domestic market is by far Dimensions’ focus for her now since she’s shown such potential success in it, but they’ve decided to send their full soloist roster to KCON LA this month, which means she’s giving her first solo performance overseas this month, too.
Important dates:
August 29: Performance at KCON LA (also performing: Dimensions Soloist 1, Dimensions Soloist 2, 7ROPHY, and Gold Star Soloist 2).
GAL.ACTIC
August brings their ninth anniversary since debut on the 28th, thought Dimensions hasn’t organized any event for the full group to celebrate for fans in lieu of hoping to raise anticipating for tenth anniversary activities next year. Members are still encouraged by management to put some extra thought into reaching out to fans this month, though. In the meantime, they continue preparing their comeback by learning and rehearsing the choreography for the title track and the choreography for b-side “Bad Man Crying”, and attending fittings as usual. From August 23 to 26, they’ll be in Los Angeles for a festival performance.
Important dates:
August 10: MV and stage outfit fitting.
August 25: Performance at Korea Times Music Festival at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, CA, USA (also performing: Decipher, Unity, and Fuse).
ALIEN
Alien continue music show promotions throughout the month, alongside a busy schedule of fan signs. The album does well, only improving on their past sales, and the song is received well by fans despite going mostly under the radar for the public as most of their releases have since the lawsuit. The end of promotions signal continued work on their first English album as they’ve been doing for the past year or so now, as they film the MV for ”Middle of the Night”, which they’ll have finished recording in the studio earlier in the month.
Important dates:
August 1: Fan sign in Gangnam, Seoul.
August 2: Fan sign in Yongsan, Seoul.
August 9: Fan sign in Mapo, Seoul.
August 10: Fan sign in Yeouido, Seoul
August 17: Fan sign in Gangnam, Seoul.
August 20: End of music show promotions.
August 21: “Middle of the Night” MV filming.
August 29: Performance at KCON LA (also performing: Knight, Alien, Lucid, and Gold Star Soloist 3).
MARS
Preparations for MARS’s Japanese comeback continue as they’re taught the choreography for “Can’t Say” in the early weeks of the month. The wardrobe is simple for the music video this time, so they won’t have full fittings before the filming day for the music video comes on the twentieth. Mid-month, MARS are also met with the news that they’ll be making a Korean comeback in the fourth quarter and they’ll record the album in the second half of the month with a return to form of what they’re most known for: a darker concept.
Important dates:
August 20: “Can’t Say” MV filming.
7ROPHY
7ROPHY are fully dedicated to focusing on filming Queendom this month. For the cover song task, they’ll be covering a song originally performed by the group the NPC Soloist competing on the show originally belonged to, so the stakes are high to prove what they’ve got, especially after coming off such a successful first round for them. Full details of Queendom filming for this month can be found here. From August 28 to August 30, they’ll be in Los Angeles to perform at KCON LA.
Important dates:
August 24: Queendom episode three & four filming (cover song stage).
August 27: Episode one of Queendom airs.
August 29: Performance at KCON LA (also performing: Dimensions Soloist 1, Dimensions Soloist 2, Dimensions Soloist 3, and Gold Star Soloist 2).
UNITY
It’s comeback season for Unity after a full year without a comeback and it seems the wait has paid off. The comeback earns them not only the best digital charting of their careers, but also A-tier boy group physical sales and a music show win. There’s no questioning that they’re now the best-selling boy group of the company physically, even if MARS still outdoes them in the public recognition that earns high digitals. Dimensions grows more eager than ever to see the heights Unity can reach as the month draws to a close, and the general attitude of staff around them reflects both the pressure and relief of a successful comeback.
Important dates:
August 7: “Kick It” MV reaction video filming.
August 7: Release of “Kick It” & Unity Zone album, music show promotions continue through September 7. 
August 8: Fan sign in Mapo, Seoul.
August 9: Fan sign in Gangnam, Seoul.
August 15: Fan sign in Seocho, Seoul.
August 23: Fan sign in Songpa, Seoul.
August 25: Performance at Korea Times Music Festival at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, CA, USA (also performing: Decipher, Gal.actic, and Fuse).
August 29: Fan sign in Gangnam, Seoul.
         ↳ CHAMPION
As Decipher finishes promoting their comeback and Unity makes their own comeback, a hold is put on touring, but BC and Dimensions have managed to land the members of the sub-unit a deal with Korean Air and they’ll be recording a special CF song for a music and safety video collaboration to bring more international attention to Korean Air following CHAMPION”s success overseas and to bring more domestic attention to CHAMPION, who are still not wholly accepted as a unit by fans of their main groups.
Important dates:
August 27: Korean Air x CHAMPION “Let’s Go Everywhere” MV and Safety Video filming.
LUCID
Lucid wraps up their Welcome to The Dream World tour on the second and then they fly back to Seoul to finish preparing for their comeback. They film their music video on the sixth, but in addition to comeback rehearsals, they also begin rehearsing for their LOL Showcase tour, which will tour Asia and focus on the “normal realm” side of their concept instead of the nightmare one they just toured for. This tour is far less performance-focused due to having a more fanmeeting-style set list with games, longer talk sections, and a hi-touch at the end of each show, so the rehearsal period is much shorter. Their comeback on the seventeeth proves they weren’t a one-hit wonder as Navillera soars to the top of the charts like “Rough” did and “You and I” failed to.
Important dates:
August 2: Welcome to The Dream World concert at Teatro La Huaca in Panama City, Panama.
August 6: “Navillera” MV filming.
August 17: Release of “Navillera” & LOL album, music show promotions continue through September 17.
August 23: LOL Asia Showcase tour at Yes24 Live Hall in Seoul.
August 30: Performance at KCON LA (also performing: BC Soloist 1, Knight, Alien, and Gold Star Soloist 3) 
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goldstarnation · 4 years
Text
SEPTEMBER 2020 GOLD STAR MEDIA SCHEDULES & REVIEW
Members may earn 3 points each (up to 6 points) for writing, by the end of October 7 KST:
A solo para of 400+ words based on their monthly schedule (does not count toward your monthly total).
A thread of six posts (three per participant, including the starter) based on their monthly schedule.
Threads do not have to take place directly during an important date listed on the schedule, but must be related to what the muse is mentioned to be doing in the paragraph explaining their schedule/the company’s schedule for the month and/or their thoughts on the mentioned activities or lack thereof.
These schedules may be updated throughout the month if new information needs to be added.
Reminder: August schedule posts are due by the end of September 7 KST. Please do not post schedule posts in the fmdschedule tag.
OVERALL COMPANY
As has become standard at this point, all idols under the company will be permitted a short, three-day break over Chuseok unless they have individual schedules (admin note: points claims) conflicting with the vacation. It is a true break, meaning idols may travel as they wish and are capable of doing within such a short time period and, if they don’t have individual schedules, their manager will be off the clock as well.
Important dates:
September 30(-October 2): Chuseok vacation (no activities save for any individual schedules).
GOLD STAR SOLOIST 1
Rehearsals for her concerts get more intense this month, as she’ll be beginning the tour next month. She’ll also be holding two mini fanmeetings on the day of her twelfth debut anniversary where she’ll let in 120 fans drawn from a lottery of her fancafe per time. Since she’s holding concerts next month, the fanmeeting will be more focused on meeting with fans in a more intimate setting and interacting with the celebrity MC than giving more than a handful of performances of old classics. She won’t be performing any of her songs from her latest album at the fanmeeting to save them for her concert. Other than that, she’s given the kind of freedom in her schedules only able to be afforded to someone of her seniority and status in the industry.
Important dates:
September 18: Twelfth anniversary fanmeetings.
GOLD STAR SOLOIST 2
With the turning of the seasons over to fall, the time comes for her to record her next comeback. Her comeback, as has previously been conveyed to her by the company, will be a holiday single release that she’ll be putting out in both Korean and English. Christmas releases in the industry are often hit or miss in popularity and Gold Star hasn’t done them often, but it’s been decided that she fits the image for one well, so she’ll need to go into the recording studio this month to record “Sweater” and its English version.
Important dates:
N/A
GOLD STAR SOLOIST 3
He starts off the month by filming the music video for the title track of his English album, as well as live performance videos for his title track with his featuring artist and for his release from earlier this year, “Love Die Young”. Three weeks later, the album is released worldwide and he begins promotions. Though it’s an English album, he’ll be promoting solo on music shows for a month to meet with his Korean fans. To help promote it internationally, though, he’ll be performing a set at a YouTube Music Night event in Seoul and the videos will be uploaded on YouTube shortly after.
Important dates:
September 5:  “Congratulations” M/V filming.
September 6: “Congratulations” Live Performance video and “Love Die Young” Live Performance video filming.
September 24: Release of ”Congratulations” and Before We Begin album, music show promotions continue through October 24.
September 26: Performance at YouTube Music Night Seoul.
SILHOUETTE
Preparations for their repackage are more laid back than usual due to the nature of the comeback not being performance heavy and the repackage only including one additional song. This month, they do have fittings for their stage outfits, but the fittings will be shorter than usual since they don’t have to worry too much about the range of movement the outfits offer. Later in the month, the members will go in for a simple photo shoot with Grazia Korea that will be released in their November issue. The photos will be accompanied by an interview, where the members will be asked about passing their tenth anniversary, the success of their last comeback, and their future plans.
Important dates:
September 13: Comeback stage outfit fittings.
September 21: Photo shoot for Grazia Korea’s November issue.
ARIA
Queendom nears its final month of filming next month, so Gold Star have continued to clear out Aria’s schedules to focus on the show. The eventual airing of their “Sixth Sense” cover stage this month brings a surprising amount of criticism among fan communities, largely drummed up by the stark contrast to the image the public is used to from them and for covering a song by their company seniors that’s still freshly released. Management instructs the members not to let that discourage them, though, as they see the Fandora’s Box performance as the perfect chance to show exactly what fans want from them. The group’s main vocal and lead dancer/vocal will be representing the group in the vocal unit and performance unit stages respectively. Full details of Queendom filming for this month can be found here.
Important dates:
September 3: Episode two of Queendom airs.
September 7: Queendom episode seven filming.
September 10: Episode three of Queendom airs.
September 17: Episode four of Queendom airs.
September 24: Episode five of Queendom airs.
September 29: Quendoom episode eight & nine filming (unit stage, Fandora’s Box stage).
ORIGIN
The end of “Black Swan” promotions on September 14 only allows a few days before their album release and a brand new round of promotions for “On”. In those few days, the group will once again fly out to the US, this time to New York City, to film a performance in the middle of the night at Grand Central Terminal that will be aired a few days later. They’ll also fit in a few radio interviews while they’re there before they make a quick return to Seoul in order to begin music show promotions once again.
Important dates:
September 14: End of music show promotions.
September 14: Release of “Outro: Ego”.
September 15: Filming of performance on The Tonight Show in Grand Central Terminal in New York, NY, USA (to be aired September 19).
September 18: Release of “On”, music show promotions continue through October 18.
IMPULSE
While the company focuses on the debut preparations for PULS2, the other members of Impulse are offered an extended vacation for Chuseok that they are free to take unless they have individual schedules that will interfere with it. They’re encouraged to take advantage of the break while they can, as they’ll be hosting a fanmeeting before the year comes to a close.
Important dates:
September 20(-October 3): Extended Chuseok vacation (excluding PULS2 unit members).
       ↳ PULS2
While their group mates are offered vacation, the members of Impulse’s new sub-unit don’t get the same opportunity, as they must continue to work hard preparing for their unit debut. Now that their album is recorded, this month, they’ll learn and practice the choreography for the title track “Focus”, as well as b-sides “Drunk On You”, “Senses”, and “Long Black” in preparation for music show promotions and the showcase tour they’ll be embarking on.
Important dates:
N/A
FUSE
"Psycho” is a success, whether that’s because of the time fans of the group were kept waiting or because the song is more fitted to the public’s tastes. Promotions are kept to a minimum for reasons management doesn’t go into depth on, with only one fan sign and no radio show appearances or television appearances beyond music shows, but it doesn’t stop the song from earning praise and several music show wins. Fuse has re-proven their place as a top girl group this time, if anyone has begun to doubt them. Their Chuseok break begins slightly later than everyone else’s on the evening of September 30, but Gold Star will offer them an extension of their break next month to make up for it.
Important dates:
September 12: Fan sign in Gangnam, Seoul.
September 30: End of music show promotions.
ELEMENT
With no comeback yet confirmed internally, the members will take a brief trip to Los Angeles from September 25 to September 28, during which time, they will film a Halloween-themed video with Access Hollywood that will be uploaded next month and they will also film some content for their YouTube channel. During the short time they’re there, they’ll film a video of them taking a guided tour of the best tourist spots in LA and will also be able to explore Los Angeles themselves with self-cams on September 25. On the 26th, they’ll film the Access Hollywood Mukbang video and get time to themselves off-camera. On September 27, they’ll film a vlog of the whole group visiting Universal Studios Hollywood. 
Important dates:
September 25: Los Angeles guided tour and free exploration Youtube video filmings.
September 26: Access Hollywood Spooky Halloween Candy Mukbang video filming.
September 27: Universal Studios Hollywood vlog Youtube video filming.
FEMME FATALE
Before they hold their fanmeeting next month, the members have to go into fittings for their stage outfits. The stylists will take into consideration some of the members’ preferences due to the more intimate setting of a fanmeeting, but the stylists will still have the final say in what the members wear. The members are also expected to continue rehearsing their solo stages as they began to do last month.
Important dates:
September 14: Fan meeting stage outfit fittings.
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yume-x-hanabi · 4 years
Text
Writer Meta Meme
I decided to do all the questions on this meme :)
1. Tell us about your current project(s) – what’s it about, how’s progress, what do you love most about it?
My current project is Concubinage, my gaiwin arranged marriage AU. It started as a random, entirely self-indulgent idea, but it has since grown into an actual project. Progress is good, I’ve managed to do bi-monthly updates and I have 30k in my drafts so far.
What I love the most about it is that, since it’s an AU, I’m pretty free to do whatever I want. I don’t have to be too careful of timelines and so on. Plus, in this AU, Gaius and Wingul are able to get closer than they otherwise would, due to the different circumstances. They have their own trials, but it’s different than in the canon timeline.
Another current project is Tales of Xillia Week, but I didn’t get much inspiration for it so I think I’m gonna do meta/headcanon posts more than fics ^^;
2. Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project
I’m looking forward to getting to the part where it’s just domestic fluff haha. It’ll take a while to reach that point though.
3. What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway)
Not just one scene ig, but I’ve been wanting to write one-shots showing how the Chimeriad survived, and... haven’t gotten around to planning it. So it’s pretty low on my project list tbh.
4. Share a sentence or paragraph from your writing that you’re really proud of (explain why, if you like)
I have... a few, but they’re all spoilers for future chapters XD;;
5. What character that you’re writing do you most identify with?
I don’t... really identify with characters. I mean, they’re pretty different than me in personality, life and circumstances...
6. What character do you have the most fun writing?
I love writing Gaius and Wingul of course, but Agria’s probably the most fun. She’s completely unrestrained, which makes her pretty easy and fun to let loose XD
7. What do you think are the characteristics of your personal writing style? Would others agree?
Exposition and worldbuilding XD
I can’t help it, I always need to develop the setting...
8. Is what you like to write the same as what you like to read?
Yes. I would love it if more people wrote gaiwin XD
9. Are you more of a drabble or a longfic kind of writer? Pantser or plotter? Do you wish you were the other?
I used to be more of a ficlet writer, but I’m currently doing well with a longfic XD
As for the rest, it varies. I like to plot and outline a bit, but it’s often rather loose and I let inspiration guide me.
10. How would you describe your writing process?
Wait for inspiration time, energy and motivation to align.
11. What do you envy in other writers?
Those who update super long fics every week. How do you do it????
12. Do you want your writing to be famous?
Naah, I’m fine in my corner of fandom. Though I wouldn’t say no to a few more readers, if only to know that the ship still sails xD
13. Do you share your writing online? (Drop a link!) Do you have projects you’ve kept just for yourself?
Yep, I post on AO3. And all projects are meant to be posted one day, but some aren’t simply because they aren’t finished.
14. At what point in writing do you come up with a title?
The beginning, usually, but I might change it
15. Which is harder: titles or summaries (or tags)?
Tags are easy. Titles and summaries are hard, and I always end up with something boring but heh, as long as they get the meaning across...
16. Tried anything new with your writing lately? (style, POV, genre, fandom?)
It was last year, but I tried first person pov with my Agria fic, because that fits her well. I’d like to try poetry, maybe.
17. Do you think readers perceive your work - or you - differently to you? What do you think would surprise your readers about your writing or your motivations?
I have no idea tbh. When I write, I like to imagine what my readers will think (especially like when I write funny scenes, I hope they’ll make people laugh), but idk if it’s exactly like I think.
18. Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations?) Tell us about them.
In Concubinage, I considered adding a plotline where Arst met an ex and had to deal with complicated feelings about it -- being reminded how it was to be in a loving relationship vs political marriage, craving intimacy like he used to have with said ex, etc. I ended up scrapping the idea though.
I also have... two or three possible ways things can play out in a much later plotpoint, and I think I’m pretty sure of which way I’ll go already, but the other possibilities exist. Maybe I’ll make a post about all abandoned plotlines one day...
19. Is there something you always find yourself repeating in your writing? (favourite verb, something you describe ‘too often’, trope you can’t get enough of?)
“And, but, and, but...” XD;
Also characters often find themselves doing something before they knew it...
My style is probably pretty repetitive. I’m not a native speaker, and I feel limited sometimes...
20. Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)
Concubinage is the result of watching too many sageuk and  taiga drama. No I’m not sorry.
When writing AU, I always like to include “cameo” of the original storyline (for example, as the plot of a book, or treating the canon games as a fractured dimension in Chimeriad Live AU’s, etc)
In Fractured Lives, I try to alternate Wingul and Gaius’ pov. It’s probably gonna bite me in the ass when some plot points work better in one pov but the chapter requires the other. I’ll probably have to come up with some fillers or something...
I have extensive headcanon about Auj Oule’s geography, history etc, which pops up in a lot of (planned) fics. Even if it’s different fics/AU’s (ex. Concubinage vs my pre-game gaiwin project vs the Wingul fic I was writing for the big bang), I reuse the same settings and OC’s. Most of those aren’t written/posted yet so it’s pretty self-contained for now, but if I ever get to completing those projects I hope it won’t be too confusing to readers who don’t follow all the stories...
21. What other medium do you think your story would work well as? (film, webcomic, animated series?)
If I had the art skills, I’d love to turn some of them into comics ;A;
22. Do you reread your old works? How do you feel about them?
Sometimes. Usually because I need to refresh my memory before writing a new chapter XD
23. What’s the story idea you’ve had in your head for the longest?
That project to write the whole pre-game Gaius & Wingul history, that’s something I’ve been wanting since forever. Well, I originally wanted to read it, but since no one’s gonna do it, I started thinking I should write it. It’s gonna be a huge project though...
24. Would you say your writing has changed over time?
I honestly have no idea. I do sense a difference in that it’s much easier for me to just write now; I guess habit helps. But I have no idea if style changed or anything lol.
25. What part of writing is the most fun?
Filling the tag with my OTP XD
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Text
Determining a Kitchen Remodeling Budget
Basement remodeling atlanta
It is very important to find out a financial budget for virtually any do it yourself project, and kitchen remodeling isn't exception.
A thing of caution: I spent hrs researching kitchen remodeling cost and budgeting online to accumulate data with this article. I ran into a few websites that gave size pricing for kitchen remodeling. Although I commiserate using look for an easy approach to determine remodeling pricing, this kind of advice just isn't based in reality. Remodeling jobs normally are so specific to the conditions of the building and tastes from the homeowner that no square footage pricing is ever going to starting point. I additionally encountered many sites that didn't offer you any real information about establishing a budget but basically interpreted Hanley Wood's Remodeling Cost vs. Value report that's published annually. You happen to be far better off going to the Cost vs. Value report on the web and evaluating the final results yourself.
home remodeling marietta
Like other things in this world a kitchen remodel will cost more than you thought it would and the sky's the limit about what it can cost determined by your preferences. You can find multiple factors that go into determining a remodeling budget.
There are numerous places online you can check out help you establish a basic budget number to start with. Our recommendation is Remodeling Magazine's Cost vs. Value Report which is released by region and major city each year. The truly nice thing about this report would it be provides description from the "average" project to help you gauge in case your kitchen remodel is going to fall above or below the benchmark. Furthermore, i find their average pricing to be an exact reflection in the pricing for our company, so by recommending to clients before I even talk to them that they can investigate this report they are prone to begin a realistic budget we could work within to present them an incredible kitchen.
Custom Hutch designed with Semi-Custom Cabinets
While Remodeling Magazine's report is quite helpful, it is a very one size fits all method of establishing a budget. Continue reading if you want to try to hone your numbers a little.
Escape a pad and paper and jot down several notes about each factor along the way through their list:
Factor 1 Home Value- Consider not merely how you feel your home is worth, but also the price of similar homes where you live that curently have updates. The best site to check home values is zillow.com, simply enter your address and you also have an interactive map with home along with other information listed right on the map. Pay attention to which homes are of similar size to yours, happen to be purchased recently, but have a higher value, then peek in their windows to determine exactly what the house looks like. Ok, seriously, I became only kidding. Should you not know them perhaps it's time to meet the neighbors and ask for a simple tour.
Factor 2 Wow! - It is everything to use your primary goal and motivations. Write down each motivational factor which can be crucial that you you in the kitchen remodel. Here are several possible examples: Kitchen is falling apart. You want to cook and the layout doesn't suit you. You love to entertain and want to start living rooms like a place to gather. You need a kitchen that wows your guests. You get able to sell your own home and also the kitchen is really a sticking point with buyers... Now that you have your list, determine what motivations are most important and relist them in motivational order. Imagining your financial allowance beginning in "the middle" pay attention to which factors might move the budget up or down...i.e. attempting to remodel to encourage sales might slowly move the budget down, remodeling to wow guest might max it...etc.
Factor 3 Did someone say AGA? - List any "must haves" for a kitchen remodel to become worth the cost to you personally. Possible examples: granite counters, a tropical with an extra sink, an extra dishwasher, an advert quality gas range, etc.
Factor 4 Longevity- Determine to the best of what you can do the length of time you intend on owning the home.
Factor 5 Size Matters- Determine what amount of your property your kitchen encompasses. A sampling well over 100 modern home floorplans of 1000 to 3000 square feet homes revealed the average kitchen size to be 7% from the home's sq footage. If your kitchen is greater or smaller than this average you might need to decrease or increase your allowance accordingly.
Factor 6 Layout- should you may have learned you're going to want the sink moved, hawaiian isle sink added, an enclosed wall moved plus an exterior door added, you will want to add money on your budget well past such a basic facelift would cost.
Tricky layout: the decorative column conceals a sound wrapped drain pipe
Factor 7 Funding- Determine the maximum amount money you could manage to spend. If you're financing your project you are able to calculate such a lender will likely lend you. Lenders are interested in a personal debt to income ratio(DTI) of.36 or less. Your DTI is established by taking all of your monthly debt obligations (credit card payments, automobile financing, mortgage, etc.) and dividing from your monthly income. To discover your maximum safe monthly debt multiply.36 times your monthly income. Now subtract your existing monthly debt out of this number and you've got a monthly budget maximum. Here is a connect to a calculator that will perform the math for you personally: mortgage calculator
Putting it All Together
The key to managing your finances are choosing the amount of your home's value you should use being a budget guideline. While researching this article I discovered recommendations to make use of percentages starting from 10% to 25% of home value. For any kitchen remodel of any substance that features new flooring, appliances, cabinets, sink/faucet, lighting and bringing electric approximately code I have discovered anything below 15% to become very dubious number. I guess on a million dollar house 10% will be a workable budget, but on the 200k house a 20k affordability is marginal at the best for the complete kitchen remodel.
If resale value is very important for your requirements it is wise to keept the cost of your home renovation project within 20% of the present worth of your home. Staying within this range insures that the majority of the brand new kitchen's price is recouped in increased home value immediately, and the remaining cost must be recouped within 5 years because your home appreciates.
Ok, let's put into practice one example. Remember, there is no exact formula here. We have been simply doing good to become as informed as you possibly can and create a wise decision about how exactly much to spend on the kitchen remodel.
For the example let's use the house. It's a 50's cape cod with a modest square footage of 1500.
Factor 1 value: Zillow provides me with an estimated price of $167,500, however, I notice zillow hasn't yet updated and taken into account the single homes which are recently integrated the sector behind us with a starting expense of $270k. Zillow also has our square footage listed at under 1200. Looks like the previous owner did a bit remodeling with no permit. I am going to base my budget with a expense of 180k which is similar to other houses locally which might be exactly the same size.
Factor 2 Goals: My family and i want to entertain guests. To create a kitchen remodel worthwhile for all of us we must lose an interior wall to spread out up the kitchen and dining nook on the family area. I am going to add 1% to plan for this.
Factor 3 Most important items: As being a former chef two most important items for me personally are a new oven as well as a really nice propane range(no gas main service here), preferably an advertisement range modified for your kitchen at home (real commercial ranges lack insulation throughout the oven, critical for home safety). I am going to add another 1% to my budget to make certain there's enough money to acquire me my range and propane installation.
Factor 4 Longevity: We plan to be in the house at the very least 4 years. Generally of thumb it will take Five years for most remodeling to achieve and recoup all of its cost. Because we will probably be at least Five years I'm not gonna penalize the budget, consider there's a good chance we'll move right around Five years That's not me gonna increase it like I might whenever we were staying considerably longer.
Factor 5 Size Kitchen: The kitchen at home is approximately 140SquareFeet(SF). That's over 9% of the SF of your home, 2% excellent. Obviously this kitchen is going to require some extra material and cabinets. I'll in the budget 1% with this, I am hoping it's enough.
Factor 6 Layout: We are going to customize the layout of our kitchen pretty extensively. We currently use a cooktop peninsula. The product range will probably use a differnet wall as well as the dishwasher will move to the peninsula, though organic beef ditch the peninsula, slowly move the fridge and add hawaiian isle instead. About the only stuff that won't move may be the sink. I will add another 1% to my budget, again hoping $1800 (1% individuals 180k value) is enough to cover the electrical and plumbing changes.
In my base I am going to use 20%. Because i mentioned earlier on, you'll find gonna be people who will argue with me on that, but going lower often doesn't leave you with workable budget numbers for full blown kitchen remodels. I'm adding 4% according to my factors in the above list. I adjusted my zillow.com estimated home value to 180k depending on the comparable size and value of other homes around me. This provides me a working budget of 24% x 180k= $43,200 When I match it up to the Cost Vs. Value report I see that in the centre Atlantic Region an important Kitchen Renovation is $59, 098. It looks like my budget could be bit low, especially since i have really would really like granite countertops along with the Cost Vs. Value specs necessitate laminate tops. Conversely the kitchen at home is really a lot small compared to their 200SF benchmark, i really think I'll opt for my budget number and discover what my contractor can perform personally because budget.
1 note · View note
Text
Determining a Kitchen Remodeling Budget
Kitchen remodeling atlanta
It is crucial to determine a financial budget for almost any do-it-yourself project, and kitchen remodeling is no exception.
A thing of caution: I spent many hours researching kitchen remodeling cost and budgeting online to gather data just for this article. I ran into a couple websites that gave size pricing for kitchen remodeling. Although I commiserate using attempt to find an easy method to discover remodeling pricing, this type of advice is just not operating out of reality. Remodeling jobs in general are really specific towards the conditions in the building and tastes from the homeowner that no square footage pricing will ever starting point. Also i bumped into many websites that didn't provide you with any real details about starting a budget but basically interpreted Hanley Wood's Remodeling Cost vs. Value report that is published each year. You happen to be much better off visiting the Cost vs. Value report web evaluating the results by yourself.
home remodeling marietta
Like whatever else on this planet a kitchen remodel is going to are more expensive than you thought it would and the sky is the limit on the it may cost depending on you. There are multiple factors which are into determining a remodeling budget.
There are many web sites you can check out assist you to begin a basic budget number to start with. My personal recommendation is Remodeling Magazine's Cost vs. Value Report which is released by region and major city every year. The truly nice point about this report is it offers a description in the "average" project to help you gauge if your kitchen remodel will almost certainly fall below or above the benchmark. Also i find their average pricing to be a definative reflection with the pricing for the company, so by recommending to clients before I even meet with them which they investigate this report these are prone to generate a realistic budget we can easily work within to provide them a fantastic kitchen.
Custom Hutch developed with Semi-Custom Cabinets
While Remodeling Magazine's report is extremely helpful, it is still an incredibly one size fits all approach to generating a budget. Read on if you would like try and hone your numbers somewhat.
Get out a pad and paper and take note of a number of notes about each factor as you go along through their list:
Factor 1 Home Value- Consider not only what you think your property is worth, but the price of similar homes in your town that already have updates. The best site to check house values is zillow.com, simply enter your address and you also receive an interactive map with house values as well as other information listed directly on the map. Pay attention to which homes are of similar size to yours, happen to be purchased lately, but have a higher value, then peek inside their windows to see just what the house appears to be. Ok, seriously, I was only kidding. If you don't know them perhaps it's time to meet the neighbors and request a fast tour.
Factor 2 Wow! - It has everything to apply your objectives and motivations. Jot down each motivational factor which can be important to you within a kitchen remodel. Below are a few possible examples: Kitchen is fallling. You want to cook and also the layout doesn't suit you. You love to entertain and wish to start the kitchen as being a place to gather. You'll need a kitchen that wows your guests. You are getting prepared to sell your home as well as the kitchen is often a sticking point with buyers... Now that you have your list, determine what motivations are most crucial and relist them in motivational order. Imagining your financial allowance from "the middle" be aware of which factors might slowly move the budget up or down...i.e. attempting to remodel to encourage a sale might slowly move the budget down, remodeling to wow guest might max it out...etc.
Factor 3 Did someone say AGA? - List any "must haves" for any kitchen remodel to get worthwhile to you. Possible examples: granite counters, hawaiian isle having an extra sink, an extra dishwasher, a commercial quality gas range, etc.
Factor 4 Longevity- Determine on the better of your ability just how long you plan on owning the property.
Factor 5 Size Matters- Evaluate which percentage of your house your house encompasses. A sampling of over 100 modern home floorplans of 1000 to 3000 square foot homes revealed the typical kitchen sq footage to be 7% of the home's sq footage. In case your kitchen is larger or small compared to this average you might need to decrease or increase your budget accordingly.
Factor 6 Layout- in the event you know already you will want the sink moved, hawaiian isle sink added, an inside wall moved plus an exterior door added, then you need to incorporate money in your budget well past that of a basic facelift would cost.
Tricky layout: the decorative column conceals a good wrapped drain pipe
Factor 7 Funding- Determine the most money you can manage to spend. Should you be financing your project you can calculate what a lender will probably lend you. Lenders are interested in a debt to income ratio(DTI) of.36 or fewer. Your DTI created by subtracting all your monthly debt obligations (bank card payments, automotive loans, mortgage, etc.) and dividing from your monthly income. To find out your maximum safe monthly debt multiply.36 times your monthly income. Now subtract your existing monthly debt from this number and you have a month-to-month budget maximum. Here is a connect to a calculator that will perform the math for you personally: mortgage calculator
Putting it All Together
The key to managing your finances are choosing the percentage of your home's value you should use being a budget guideline. While researching this article I came across recommendations to make use of percentages which range from 10% to 25% of home value. For the kitchen remodel of the substance that also includes new flooring, appliances, cabinets, sink/faucet, lighting and bringing electric approximately code I find anything below 15% becoming a very dubious number. Perhaps over a big house 10% will be a workable budget, but on a 200k house a 20k finances are marginal at the best for a complete kitchen remodel.
If resale value is vital to you it is shrewd to keept the expense of your house renovation project within 20% of the present valuation on your home. Staying in this particular range insures that almost all the new kitchen's charges are recouped in increased home value immediately, as well as the remaining cost needs to be recouped within Five years since your home appreciates.
Ok, let's run through an example. Bear in mind, there isn't any exact formula here. We're simply doing our best to become as informed as you possibly can making a good plan regarding how much to pay on the kitchen remodel.
For the example let's use the home. It's a 50's cape cod with a modest sq footage of 1500.
Factor 1 value: Zillow provides me with an estimated value of $167,500, however, I notice zillow hasn't yet updated and included the one family homes that had been recently integrated the area behind us with a starting tariff of $270k. Zillow also has our square footage listed for less than 1200. Looks like the previous owner did a bit remodeling without having a permit. I will base my budget on a expense of 180k which is analogous with houses locally which are exactly the same size.
Factor 2 Goals: My wife and I wish to entertain guests. To make a kitchen remodel worthwhile for us we should instead lose an indoor wall to open up inside the kitchen and dining nook to the family area. I'm going to add 1% to plan for this.
Factor 3 Most important items: Being a former chef two most important items personally certainly are a new oven plus a really nice propane range(no propane service here), preferably an industrial range modified for use at home (real commercial ranges don't have insulation round the oven, critical for home safety). I'll add another 1% to my budget to make certain there is enough money to obtain me my range and propane installation.
Factor 4 Longevity: We plan to live in our home at the least 4 years. Usually of thumb it requires Several years for the majority of remodeling to comprehend and recoup all of your money. Since we might be right here at least A few years I am not planning to penalize this, but as there is a pretty good possibility we'll move right around Several years That's not me going to increase it like I'd personally as we were staying for a long time.
Factor 5 Height and width of Kitchen: Our kitchen is all about 140SquareFeet(SF). That's over 9% in the SF of the home, 2% above average. Obviously this kitchen is going to require some additional material and cabinets. I am going to up the budget 1% with this, I hope it's enough.
Factor 6 Layout: We are going to change the layout of our kitchen pretty extensively. Supermarket use a cooktop peninsula. The stove will probably go on a differnet wall and also the dishwasher will turn to the peninsula, though we might ditch the peninsula, slowly move the fridge and add an island instead. The only thing that won't move will be the sink. I'll add another 1% to my budget, again hoping $1800 (1% individuals 180k value) is sufficient to cover the electrical and plumbing changes.
For my base I'll use 20%. Because i previously mentioned, there are gonna be people who will argue when camping with that, but going lower often doesn't provide you with workable budget numbers for full blown kitchen remodels. I'm adding 4% according to my factors in the above list. I adjusted my zillow.com estimated home value to 180k depending on the comparable sq footage and expense of other homes around me. Thus giving us a working budget of 24% x 180k= $43,200 While i compare this to the Cost Vs. Value report I see that in the centre Atlantic Region a significant Kitchen Renovation is $59, 098. It appears as though my budget may be bit low, especially ever since i really would like granite countertops along with the Cost Vs. Value specs require laminate tops. On the other hand my kitchen is substantially smaller compared to their 200SF benchmark, therefore i think I'll opt for my budget number to see what my contractor can do for me because budget.
1 note · View note
dailyaudiobible · 3 years
Text
11/02/2020 DAB Transcript
Ezekiel 3:16-6:14, Hebrews 4:1-16, Psalms 104:24-35, Proverbs 26:27
Today is the 2nd day of November welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I'm Brian it's wonderful to be here with you today as it is every day. It's my oasis just like it might be your oasis coming in around the Global Campfire and letting all the other stuff go. And when is there never not other stuff to focus or obsess on or be brought down by. But just to come in here and know that I'm not alone in here, that we are in here together and then God's word is gonna speak and wash into our hearts and lives. That…yeah…that's my oasis too. And, so I’m so grateful that we can be in this together as we take the next step forward. So, let's do that. We’re reading from the Evangelical Heritage Version this week. We began the book of Ezekiel, another book of major prophecy. And again, the major prophets aren’t major because they're more important. The major prophets are…well…they’re called the major prophets because of the volume of material in these books. And then when finish the major prophets we’ll move into the minor prophets, which it doesn't mean they’re like the minor leagues of prophets just hoping one day the be called up to the big game. It's just…they’re shorter, more direct, or focused. And, so, we will get there when we get there, but we are here at the beginning of a new month and the beginning of the week or at least the beginning of the workweek. And, so, let's dive in. Ezekiel chapter 3 verse 16 through 6 verse 14.
Commentary:
Okay. So, in the book of Hebrews today we encountered a very, very, very famous passage of Scripture. “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates even to the point of dividing soul and spirit, joint and marrow, being able to judge the ideas and thoughts of the heart.” This is a scripture so famous that we may have committed to memory, but have you…have you ever thought about what kind of instrument we are talking about when we are talking about how deep the Scriptures can penetrate? I mean, so like many of you have medical backgrounds, many of you have psychology backgrounds. Like what scalpel, what tool, what can go that deep? And even if we said we could go that deep, maybe not with a scalpel because how would we even find where soul and spirit divide? But if we could approach that in some way, in some kind of psychological capacity, like how long would it take to get there, to the essence, to the core of the true self? This is the claim that the author of Hebrews is making about the word of God. And we just talked about like, where do soul and spirit meet? Where would that be? How do you even find that place? Well…if the soul, as many believe is the seed of consciousness, like the awareness that you are you. And if it encompasses our emotional nature and our moral convictions. And if the spirit is…is what makes us alive, if it is the source of life, it is God within animating life itself then we’re talking about...I think we’re talking about as deep as you can talk about. Like this is at the level of consciousness. This is at the level of our instincts. This is at the level of…of love and feeling and emotion and conviction. This is where we make choices. This is where we decide what our bodies are going to do and then our bodies go and do those things that we've decided that they're going to do, whether they’re good things or bad things. According to Hebrews this is how deep the word of God can penetrate. So, it just…it cuts through all the crap that we invent to cope and it cuts through all of the façade of personality that we create to have some sort of place in this world and to cope and move around. And it goes below, beneath, under all of the wounding of our lives, all of the things that have pulled us into isolation. It gets under or behind all of that to a place that's true and speaks there. It speaks truth there. That's why we’re showing up here every day. I mean that's why we come around this Global Campfire because the word of God speaks deep things into our deepest truest self and over time, that changes things. We might call this transformation. We might call this sanctification, if we want to be all theological. But what's happening is that we’re being changed. Our identity is coming into alignment with the nature of our Father as we have been adopted into His family as His sons and daughters. And according to Hebrews, the Scriptures guide that process. What a joy.
Prayer:
Father what a…what a relief. Thank You for this gift. Thank You for giving this to us. Thank You for every day bringing Your word into our lives in a way that we need coming at us from every angle. And we’ve spent a year in Your word, and You have come at us from every angle, encouraging and rebuking us in ways that we simply can't hide because You’re touching every aspect of our lives. And, so, we are grateful for that and we are deeply committed to finishing this year well as we move forward into all that You have yet to speak to us. We’re hearing loud and clear. It's been a disruptive year and it's been very, very difficult on many levels but such a reset on so many fundamental levels in so many primary ways. You have done the hard work of inviting us into starting over in a lot of ways, and we are thankful for that and we look forward to all that You have yet to speak, not only in the days and weeks ahead of this year, but for the rest of our lives. So, we are thankful for Your word and we are thankful that it is something that can get to the core beyond our own deception of even ourselves, it can get the core. And, so, we commit ourselves to continuing the relationship that we have with the Scriptures, allowing it to speak to us each day. Come Holy Spirit we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Announcements:
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And that's it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Hello DAB family this is Michael from Fort Worth Texas. I just wanted to call in today basically to encourage and be thankful. And I’m thankful for Brian Hardin and this whole DAB family community all the people behind the scenes that work hard to put this on and I am thankful for all those people and China for her…her effort on the Chronological side and all the people that do the different languages and all that stuff going on. This whole app is an awesome thing and I’m just thankful for that. And I would encourage anybody who doesn’t contribute to challenge themselves to give monthly to the DAB to keep the servers spinning, to keep the updates coming and keep this great ministry viable from now on, from today to the future for…for everybody and for anybody new that would come on board. Also just wanted to say thank you for all the faithful prayer warriors who call in diligently daily and all the new ones we got now are very awesome and appreciate all you guys your encouragement your words of wisdom that you share with us your songs love all that stuff and just thankful for all you guys. Stay safe. Love you all. Again, Michael from Texas. Stay safe. Love you.
Hello Daily Audio Bible family. First of all, I want to say thank you very much. This is Jane Roos from Nebraska. I…I want to say that when Brian says, “don’t shoulder your problems alone”, believe him. This is a praise report. From the moment that you speak out your prayer request to the moment that you realize that God is holding you and this fellowship is praying for you, it is phenomenal what God is doing because I have experienced an amazing, amazing transformation in so many ways. And, so, let me just say thank you. I can’t even go into everything that has happened in detail and I won’t. First of all, let me say you are all loved. How does my daddy love me? With all his heart no matter what I do forever and always. I borrowed that from a pastor. I have been experiencing ADHD in a big way. My conscious mind always processes…only processes 40 bits per second but my subconscious processes 40 million bits per second. It’s scary. My mouth won’t say what my head wants…my head needs to say. I just want you all to know that you are loved.
Hi family I’m calling in today to pray for Brian from Austria, his first time calling today on October 29th he called in for prayers and support. Brian I’m so thankful that you called in and you shared your heart with us about your wife being unfaithful. And you are so right. You can’t do this alone. Many of us have been where you are in some form of betrayal in our marriage one way or another and I just want to encourage you. I want you to know I’m going to be praying for you and your wife for a long time. As many of us have experienced healing in our marriages, we know that it’s possible for you. So, Father, Holy Spirit we just lift up Brian and his wife to You. We thank You that we all come to the foot of the cross, needing forgiveness restoration healing, places in our lives that have been broken. And sometimes that causes us to not be faithful in areas of our lives or our marriage. So, Father I thank You for complete healing for Brian and his wife. I thank You for restoration, healing, intimacy. I thank You that You would encourage Brian to pursue his wife as they were first dating and coming together that You would pour out Your love and Your love is there. I know…I know it’s already there…
Hello DABbers. Just reaching out to say hello and follow up with another thanks. I’m just thankful for all of you, thankful that Kingdom Seeker Daniel has a great idea for the month of November and that’s for everyone just to call in thanks. I mean I could go on and on and it’s just crazy but, you know, we have so much to be thankful for every day no matter what’s going on, like just whose we are, God, all that He’s done. We could just go on and on about all He’s done. And then, all that He’s doing and then all that He will do. It’s just…to focus our mind on those things and just praise Him, I want to do that. I love living that way, but I want to do that with all of you. So, it’s just an encouragement and to let you know that I’m thankful for you every day. I don’t call in to say it but I am. So, thank You Jesus. Thank You, Lord for all that You are and all that You give. You just give so much. We are so blessed and may we just focus on that every day, but especially next month maybe inspire us Holy Spirit to just do that together. That would be really cool. Love You all. Bye.
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croissantbae · 4 years
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March 24, 2020
1. My eating habits are reverting back to college days. Today alone I finished a bag of Trader Joe’s popcorn and chocolate covered pretzels. I also ate dduk, fruit, tons of curry and rice. I feel like such a fatass because I get such a hankering for snacks at like 9 pm now.
2. Today is Naya’s 9 month anniversary. When i was updating her monthly board, we realized she hasn’t grown in weight or height at all. Literally exactly the same. 17.2 lbs and 29 inches. We started getting worried that we’re not feeding her enough and went into overdrive today. She honestly seems to eat a lot but I don’t know it’s clearly not enough. I just looked at the photos I took of her today and she does look super skinny. Poor girl. She’s starting to get a little picky with her food. Her favorite thing to eat is white bread (and grandma gives her lots of it). She’s not eating egg, avocado or other good stuff as much. She’s also going through something because man she is whiny and cranky. A nice way of saying she’s so spoiled and bratty. I looked up if 9 months old can be spoiled and it seems like it’s just about the age where they can begin to understand how to get things according to their behaviors (eg crying gets you attention). She’s also not sleeping well lately so it makes her extra sensitive. She’s still the cutest thing to me ever but we definitely need to make sure we raise her properly. Putting her in her high chair demonstrates that she actually knows what’s going on. If I put her in she cries a lot less because she knows I just don’t care. When it’s her dad she cries really hard because she knows he’s a softie. Grandma is medium.
3. In my heart of hearts I want to believe that the social distancing and corona scare will be over in a month. But, that’s also what trump seems to think so it makes me think then it must be wrong lol. Also medical professionals are advising it could be much longer than that. My mom said it could go away once temps warm up but then may flare back up again in the winter.
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