#Would it have been easier to take a screenshot of the transcript? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

savethegrishaverse · 27 days

Text

Here is the Transcript to the Questions Answered by Eric Heisserer!

Recently, we were very fortunate that Shadow and Bone showrunner Eric Heisserer agreed to answer some fan questions! Below is the transcript of the screenshots that have been previously shared—not an entirely new interview. The transcript in this format should be much more accessible and convenient, particularly for anyone using a screen reader.

To make it easier to read through Eric’s responses, we’ve nested his answers below coordinating questions.

Okay, taking these one at a time -- because some of these will have very long answers, and I may have to return at later intervals to answer them: (note: questions will be in bold)

"I'd like to know if there's a way to liberate the pre-written scripts if Netflix doesn't plan on using them" - Asked by Christian Thalmann, the creator of the Fjerdan language.

"There is a way to liberate the Crows scripts from Netflix, yes, and in fact that would be part of the buyout for another streamer when acquiring the rights to Leigh's novels. It would be a package deal."

"In my view, "The Crows" have the potential to revitalize the Grishaverse. Unlike "Shadow And Bone," this new show could rely less on elaborate visual effects and offer a fresh narrative angle. Heist-themed shows are currently in high demand, adding to its appeal. Am I mistaken in thinking that our focus should primarily be on "The Crows"? The likelihood of "Shadow And Bone" returning seems slim, but l've always believed that "The Crows" had a greater chance of success." - asked by fellow fan Joleen

The focus on the Crows is helpful in two ways -- first, those scripts are written, which lets us get a running start at production, and second, just from casual analysis of book sales, it's far more popular worldwide than other Grishaverse titles. So it will be a bigger draw for viewers.

The trap though is the cost. It's more grounded than S&B, sure, but the Ice Court is a unique location that either requires a really costly set build, or set extensions and VFX work to make it look authentic, which means nearly every shot of the heist once our crew gets there could be a VFX shot.

My guess is the budget would be on par with S2 of S&B.

"If/when the spinoff is back (finger crossed) was there anything he had planned that would completely surprised, for good reasons obviously, the audience. And we should hold our breath for that twist/turn?" - asked by fellow fan Rti

Yes, there is a surprise or two in the Crows spinoff season, but overall it's as close to the novel as we could make it. And Leigh's novel is such an amazing story with natural cliffhangers that work as episode "out" moments, etc. I think the biggest move we made was to feature every single Crow's backstory to go with their episode. So that was fun/sad/exciting.

"What was the difficulties you mentioned about filming Season 2 in that Reddit comment? Don't want to sound negative but what went wrong?!" - asked by fellow fan Mitra

S2 kept throwing challenges at us, and it started long before we got to production. Like months earlier, when we learned the location we used for the Little Palace in S1 was closed to us due to the pandemic. So right there we lost out on a ton of S&S scenes, because it wouldn't be a match. But we also had written a compelling side arc for Ivan and Fedyor in S2, these two Grisha trapped on either side of the civil war. Each of them played a big role in the story, but Simon (Ivan) had a feature film that overlapped with our schedule and couldn't move, which meant we lost him. So Daegan worked to revise the season keeping Fedyor and leaving Ivan as most likely dead from the end of S1. He was Kirigan's right-hand man for the season. But poor Julian caught COVID just when we were to shoot out most of his scenes, and after trying to make the schedule work, we had to come to the brutal truth that there wasn't a way to keep Fedyor in the story. Our only option was to bring him in at like episode 8, which would've been too little, too late.

COVID continued to be a monster all through production, requiring us to juggle schedules and miss out on days, and it was madness for the cast, who had to pivot with almost no notice whenever someone was ill and quarantined. This isn't unique to our show of course -- it happened with everyone. It's just a challenge.

Beyond that, we had been given the go to write a special standalone story, The Demon in the Wood. This would have been released on its own around Christmas, like a BBC special but for Netflix, and would help bridge seasons 1 and 2 by showing a little of what Kirigan was doing before we see him in 52, and also provide more character context, etc. Christina Strain wrote that and did great work adapting Leigh's short story. But it never went the distance.

There was a lot more to 52 as well, scenes and side stories and little interactions that were lost due to budget or time restrictions. Again, not unique to our show, but agonizing all the same, since what you get is not what we had written, or in some cases even shot.

I'm incredibly proud of the cast and the team, and Daegan did the heaviest lifting while I was off finishing the Crows writing room. But we had a lot more thrown at us.

"How long was the sizzle reel ready to go but he had to keep it secret?" - Asked by members of the Discord Team

That sizzle reel was put together about four months before the second season dropped.

"I would love to know his perspective on the impact of streaming on storytelling. Would we have had to launch a campaign like this 10-15 years ago for a show like this? What are the main pain points when it comes to streaming models & telling unique, diverse stories?" - asked by fellow fan Acorn_Bri

Streaming is a challenge to serialized storytelling in that it looks at 'content often with a different agenda and uses metrics that can take a creative issue and exacerbate it. Like in broadcast, if viewership and thus ad revenue has slightly declined, the show will need to find a way to make their 22 or 13 episodes on a proportionally smaller budget. What is not done is reduce episode order. But if a streaming series underperforms or doesn't meet expectations, and the streamer doesn't cancel it outright, the go-to budget reduction idea is to reduce episode order for the next season.

When you just have 8 episodes and continue to deal with notes to compress, pace up, or omit for what you'd scripted for a longer season, reducing further to six or four episodes is exhausting.

This happens due to a slide in autonomy from what the showrunner position had been. What the chatter on the picket lines revealed to us is that most showrunners today don't get to see their own show's budget, and thus don't get the freedom to make budgetary decisions that could better protect the story they're telling. More and more, showrunners not at a legacy network aren't the final say or at times even involved in hiring key roles. I don't have any ideas that aren't already in a contract language, I just see how the job on this side has gotten harder and there isn't much of a way for us to make it easier for each other like we could with having writers on set or in post production, because the streaming model has made that impossible.

—

Once again, we would like to give a big thank you to everyone who asked their questions, and an even BIGGER thank you to Eric Heisserer for answering them!

51 notes · View notes

cleolinda · 7 months

Text

In which we try to do something with the Patreon

I'm gonna try something tomorrow: the first of the month is when the Patreon billing cycle starts, so on Sunday (October 1st), I'll open a $5 level. (Right now I just have a $1 level with tumbleweed rolling by as a tip jar sort of thing.) There, you'll be able to see Effort Posts, you know, the essay-length things about vampires or perfume or music, or anything else that strikes me, early. At least 24 hours early, in a handy PDF file, and also, I can see if people like the piece before I post it here on Tumblr. Some personal pieces may stay Patreon-only, depending on the topic (do I want Tumblr at large commenting on my genealogical research? Probably not!), so there's also that. Similar things I've already posted are the Varney recaps, Donna Summer and Disco Demolition Night, Sparking Joy (Jean Patou, 1930), or my retelling of Tiny Moist Hand, so that's the kind of thing you'd see early.

That up there, in screenshot preview format, is a two-part (true) story called "I Grew Up in a Haunted House and I Didn't Notice"; it's about 5300 words all told. (Question: would you rather have the pdf in the larger font size, which I found easier to read on mobile, or the standard 12 pt, both shown above?)

After a day or so, I'll put the story here as two normal tumblr posts. So you will be able to see them here, but if you want to know how tf I could have been haunted and not known it and then my sister said I had it all wrong anyway, you can see it tomorrow on Patreon Dot Com Slash Cleolinda.

What I would also like to do is start posting weekend links as free/public posts on Sundays--kind of like a newsletter you can get whether you chip anything in or not. I'm more concerned with people knowing where I am while all these social media platforms crumble into the sea, honestly. I'll also archive some older posts as PDFs as well, although that might take a minute, so there'll be a back catalogue to browse.

As we go along, I'd like to see if I can either record some readings or just do short (under five minutes) voice posts, but I would also want to type up transcripts for those, so I need to get a feel for how much time that takes. I miss doing podcasts, although I deeply need to get a new headset. And some Throat Coat. I'm already looking over the two short Halloween stories from Livejournal that people mentioned, the ones I read aloud years ago; I'll repost those as we get further into October, and I have some posts about scary movies in the works. And you'd get those delivered to your inbox rather than them be solely awash on the waves of Tumblr.

Anyway, I'll reblog this tomorrow once the $5 level goes live, but I thought I'd get some feedback a bit in advance.

#me for some reason #odds and ends #I've spent eight months being nervous about this #THE BRAVEST GIRL

67 notes · View notes

nexility-sims · 3 months

Text

𝐍𝐎. 𝟑 ❛ 𝐝𝐨𝐥𝐥 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭 ❜ | QUEEN'S OFFICE, MID MARCH 1991

❧ 𝐛𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 / 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 / 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭.

❛ Beatriz, like her grandmother before her, lived by the belief that Uspana was her true firstborn. When her daughter’s mourning period concluded, she returned to work on its behalf. She was not a simple figurehead. Her job was not to pose for pictures, to fundraise money for good causes, to lift the spirits of the weary with a benevolent smile. She did the work of a statesman, and she did it well. She was a politician. On any given day, her attention divided in a thousand directions—domestic versus foreign affairs, diplomacy and economics, tempestuously petty interpersonal dynamics on which national matters of life and death too often depended. Staff abounded to keep it all in order, but Beatriz had always been a hands-on executive. She knew what skeletons lurked in the closets of allies and adversaries alike, and she knew the details of bills and proposals less careful eyes overlooked. She enjoyed sparring with representatives. She harangued her ministers for sport. It wasn’t ideology that drove her so much as the desire to win. More than merely dedicated, the queen thrived in the high-stakes, head-spinning world of governance. It was one in which her weaknesses were strengths. The people of Uspana knew her reputation, but most of them credited it with the long era of stability that she seemed to have held together, almost single-handedly, through sheer force of will.

❧ TAKE TWO FUCK TUMBLR i took the screenshots for this ages ago, and !!!!! i wish that i’d had the time and energy to redo it, but :/ fine enough to just post. i wish i could say beatriz gets better, but ... idk, man, this is just who she is, which sucks sdkfshj

𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐭 ↓

TRANSCRIPT:

{Conversation}

[L] She canceled again, didn’t she?

[B] Not quite. It’s business as usual, is all. They’re taking a coffee break in a moment, so she’ll see you for a few minutes then. [L] {scoffs} Of course.

[B] Look at you. Such a tired trio.

[B] I’m glad to see your faces. These last several weeks have been difficult for everyone. Time to come together.

[B] That’s what I wanted to share with you. Everything is the same for us—well, except for you three. How can we have orphans in a family so large? That’s how you feel, I presume.

[B] You don’t know this, but he had all sorts of inquiries about Safya’s estate within mere days of … Well. Mourning is over, and there is a definitive, sweeping answer. An eviction, in fact. That was her home, and I intend to preserve it as such indefinitely.

[L] I don’t understand. What about Gil and Mateo? [B] You would understand if you let me finish, Leonor. Anyway, this is hardly your concern. You wanted to live alone.

[B] Boys, you will take up residence at Nakawe Palace. Damian and Julian are there, Arnaut’s pair will be around … You will be with me, with your grandfather—right where you ought to be. [G] Mother Beatriz, will Papa be there?

[B] These apartments are for those who belong to the Crown. You belong. Some others do not. [G] Can he visit? [M] We’ll still see him, Gil.

[B] Before you get any ideas: don’t mistake this for a discussion. I was just going to send a moving van to pick you up, but your grandfather was convinced that would be somehow cruel.

[B] Leonor, give me a moment. I have something to say.

[B] Why would you go out like this? They’ll notice. [L] Who will? [B] Come on now. The papers, obviously.

[B] You look awful. To start, go home and wash your hair. These things matter.

[B] They’re going to eat you alive. Do you hear me? They will because they can, and there’s little I can do about it. [L] {softly} They already are …

[B] Exactly. This is my one warning. Let’s not disappoint.

[M] Why didn’t you say anything? [L] Why didn’t you? [M] That’s not fair.

[L] Don’t call him. He should hear everything from her people. It’ll be easier for everyone that way.

[M] Easier? You know that’s not true.

[M] Wait—where are you going? We have plans!

[M] Leonor!

38 notes · View notes

trilobi-te · 4 months

Text

Chipspeech Twitter Archive Update

Hi I should have done this months ago.. I do not know when (or if) I am going to finish that website lmao. So I am just going to share my notes from Google Docs. Should be easier to read than the original posts and helpful as a starting point if anyone else decides to make a website :3

The documents are all on commenting mode so feel free to make comments to bookmark things for yourself or write your thoughts or whatever. Under the cut I have put some formatting notes.

It's a folder, each year of Twitter posts is its own document (I tried to compile them into one but it lagged too much). There is also a document with all of the original Tumblr posts (from the accounts I could find, no tags yet but I will go back and get them eventually, also no dates but they're all from 2015), and one with the bios from the official website for ease of access.

The formatting is a little (a lot) weird and there are probably pictures that need resizing/transcription but I figured it's better to give people access now. The text is small (to keep the page count as low as possible) so you will have to zoom in.

It goes by day, organized with a bulleted list. The top level bullets are each character that tweeted that day. The second level bullets are original tweets/retweets by that character. The third+ level bullets are comment threads under that tweet, the organization here is inconsistent but imo still readable (if you think something needs an edit for clarity let me know and I'll fix it).

For each character's section of the list, normal text is that character's tweets/comments. Italicized text is anyone who is not that character. If it is labeled with unitalicized text, it is that character/important account (e.g. the official Chipspeech account), otherwise it is a fan. I also included some labels and/or clarifying comments for Vocaloid producers I like, they're not central to the story though

I got rid of the line breaks within the tweets when copying them down because it was easier to format. Sorry about that. Idk how to fix it other than going through everything again but it doesn't take away from the story so I'm leaving it for now.

If something came from a website other than Twitter, I tried to provide the link (unless its content was deleted). I did my best to transcribe the Clyp posts that were not deleted.

If something is a text-only retweet, it is marked with [retweet]. If it includes an image, it's probably a screenshot of the whole thing. I only included retweets that felt story-relevant (so no miscellaneous cat pictures, Apple-related aesthetic images, etc.), but if people really want it I can go back and add the rest.

Deleted tweets are noted with [deleted tweet], with the characters they came from if applicable. Idk how Twitter works but it the person in the thread is replying to the username of a certain character, I assumed it was that character's tweet that had been deleted. If something says [deleted Dandy thread], assume there is a deleted Dandy tweet in between each of the listed tweets (or another character, but it's usually Dandy). That was meant to be a temporary time-saver and I've gone back and fixed the ones I've found, but there's probably more I accidentally skipped.

Anything not in English is translated in a comment. Except the X-Sampa (I will fix that sometime but there's not much of it). Also it was done with the built-in Google Translate feature so it may be a little incorrect. Unclear pictures and whatnot also have clarifying comments. I can add more clarifying comments (or image IDs) if anyone needs them.

I tried not to include any unattributed fanart but there are some that I forgot to copy the handle for (I am also fixing these when I find them).

As for any future updates to this folder as a whole, I kind of want to go back through each account's liked tweets to see if there's anything funny in there but idk when that will be. That would probably be its own document.

Honestly I should have given everyone access back in June.. oops. If you have any questions you can put them in a comment on this post (or reach out to me another way, idk). As I mentioned before, feel free to use all of this as a starting point if you're making your own website.

I'll pin this post so it's findable in the future. Also sorry for disappearing for several months (it will happen again).

#chipspeech #chipspeech archive #posts by the bug

15 notes · View notes

accessibleaesthetics · 10 months

Note

hello! I've been reading through the resources you've compiled and I really appreciate them! You seem pretty experienced with image descriptions, so I was hoping I could possibly ask you for some advice on how to make my poll tournament more accessible. If you don't have the capacity to help out right now, that's totally fine—let me know if there's someone who you think could better answer my questions!

Anyways, currently I'm running a tournament for poems that are popular on Tumblr (@poetrysmackdown). For Round 1 I just included the images of the poems, which I'd still like to include in future rounds just because it makes it easier to compare side by side, and a few of the poems' precise line structures would be pretty difficult to faithfully replicate on Tumblr. That said, I want to also include text transcriptions in the future rounds for obvious accessibility reasons (and I'm now really wishing I did for Round 1! I didn't realize the tournament would be voted on by anyone besides like ten of my mutuals haha). Do you have any advice on how to format text transcriptions for poems? I'm not sure how best to convey a line break for text-to-speech, for example—should I write it as a "/" between lines, or is it preferable to just write out the poem as I would otherwise? Is it okay if I put the transcription below a read more (some of the poems are quite long), or is that considered rude? I may be overthinking this haha, I just wanna make sure I get it right so everyone can enjoy the poems. I'm attaching two sample poems just so you can get an idea of what I'm working with—thanks in advance!

Not overthinking at all! Before anything else, let me describe the two examples you gave and then I'll put some more detailed thoughts under a read more.

[Image Description: Two screenshots of poems.

The first poem is titled "Scheheraade." It reads: Tell me about the dream where we pull the bodies out of the lake / and dress them in warm clothes again. / How it was late, and no one could sleep, the horses running / until they forget that they are horses. / It's not like a tree where the roots have to end somewhere, / it's more like a song on a policeman's radio, / how we rolled up the carpet so we could dance, and the days / were bright red, and every time we kissed there was another apple / to slice into pieces. / Look at the light through the windowpane. That means it's noon, that means / we're inconsolable. / Tell me how all this, and love too, will ruin us. / These, our bodies, possessed by light. / Tell me we'll never get used to it.

The second poem is titled "Having a Coke with You." It reads: is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne / or being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in Barcelona / partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better happier St. Sebastian / partly because of my love for you, partly because of your love for yoghurt / partly because of the fluorescent orange tulips around the birches / partly because of the secrecy our smiles take on before people and statuary / it is hard to believe when I'm with you that there can be anything as still / as solemn as unpleasantly definitive as statuary when right in front of it / in the warm New York 4 o'clock light we are drifting back and forth / between each other like a tree breathing through its spectacles // and the portrait show seems to have no faces in it at all, just paint / you suddenly wonder why in the world anyone ever did them // I look / at you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world / except possibly for the Polish Rider occasionally and anyway it's in the Frick / which thank heavens you haven't gone to yet so we can go together the first time / and the fact that you move so beautifully more or less takes care of Futurism / just as at home I never think of the Nude Descending a Staircase or / at a rehearsal a single drawing of Leonardo or Michelangelo that used to wow me / and what good does all the research of the Impressionists do them / when they never got the right person to stand near the tree when the sun sank / or for that matter Marino Marini when he didn't pick the rider as carefully / as the horse // it seems they were all cheated of some marvellous experience / which is not going to go wasted on me which is why I'm telling you about it.

End Image Description.]

Now, obviously I went with the traditional academic rules for quoting poems in the above ID, and I did that because the location of line breaks can be very important in poetry, and that's not always going to translate with a screen reader if you just format it that way. Additionally, if you have someone who sight reads but needs to make the text large, this will often change the location of the line breaks.

I don't know of a good or natural way to convey the right-aligned text in some places via a text description, but if any of my followers do, please feel free to comment!

Capitalization, punctuation, and even font choice are all things that can potentially convey significant meaning in poetry. I opted not to attempt to transcribe those in the above two, but if you're more familiar with the poem and thing those aspects are important in context, you could always make a note about the capitalization. And for things like italics, you could do something like "except possibly for the [italics] Polish Rider [end italics] occasionally and anyway it's in the Frick."

Punctuation is also a tricky one...I tried to keep the description as true to the text as possible, because the lack of punctuation in the second poem defintely seemed very intentional and internal to the flow, but I did add a period at the end of the last poem to give a proper stop between the end of the poem and the "end image description." Your call on how you deal with that, just be aware that not all screen readers are going to pause between lines or paragraphs.

I would generally discourage putting descriptions under a read more, though I do very much understand the concern about length. The formal poem quoting rules above can help condense things space-wise, if that helps.

I also want to encourage alt text! Don't put the entire poem in the alt text of course, but if you put a little blurb in the alt text of each picture, that can signal to screen reader users that it's worth their time to continue down the post. Some screen reader users will simply skip the post entirely when they start hearing "photo, photo, photo," and never even get to the image ID, since it's often not there. Such a blurb could be something like "Screenshot of the poem Scheheraade. See body of post for full description" for the first photo, and "Screenshot of the poem Having a Coke with You. See body of post for full description" for the second.

And finally, just to throw it out there, you don't necessarily have to do a traditional image description the way I did, especially if you provide the supplementary alt text. You could simply transcript the poems too...it's all up to you!

Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any more questions, I'm defintely going to follow, this is such a neat idea.

Oh, and one more thing: don't be afraid to let AI help you with this! And I'm not talking about the neural network kind, I'm talking about good old-fashioned optical character recognition. For example, I plugged that first poem into onlineocr.net and got this:

Scheheraade Tell me about the dream where we pull the bodies out of the lake and dress them in warm clothes again. How it was late, and no one could sleep, the horses running until they forget that they are horses. It's not like a tree where the roots have to end somewhere, it's more like a song on a policeman's radio, how we rolled up the carpet so we could dance, and the days were bright red, and every time we kissed there was another apple to slice into pieces. Look at the light through the windowpane. That means it's noon, that means we're inconsolable. Tell me how all this, and love too, will ruin us. These, our bodies, possessed by light. Tell me we'll never get used to it.

Sure, it required proofreading, a bit of clean up, and of course the line/stanza breaks, but made the process of creating the image description much less effort than it would have taken to type it all out manually. Of course, if you have access to a text version of the poem, that could work even better, but this is a great way to do it if you only have access to the image for whatever reason!

8 notes · View notes

glassfullofsass · 1 year

Text

Job application tips

job applications SUCK but i have made my personal process easier and I'm going to show you how

i hate updating and tailoring and editing my resume so it fits perfectly on the page and then still having to input each bit of information individually to the online application, but back in college when my brain worked better, I did this:

[id: a screenshot of my documents folder with seven word document names visible, two have been edited to hide my last name. The documents are titled:

Master Coursework, Master Experience, Master Publications, Master Skills, Name Resume 2023, Name Resume, Template. end id]

When I need to build a resume for a specific job, I make a copy of the 'template' and put it in a folder named "Specific Job"

I name that template copy 'Name_Resume' then I open it up.

The top has my name and contact details, formatted how I like.

Then there are sections that are empty except for the headers "Skills", "Experience", and "Publications"

I've got my template set up, now I just need to fill it in, to do that, I go to the 'master' documents and cherry pick the pieces that are relevant to the job I'm applying to.

I've had pretty consistent employment since graduating, so under "experience" I'm going to include all of those jobs, but I might bulk up or pare down the descriptions that go with them.

I might not include any publications, and skills are where I'm going to spend the most time.

Each "master" document includes all the things I've done that fall into that particular category.

I can probably do away with 'Master Coursework' but if you're a recent grad, or you've taken a few classes here and there, or you take online seminars or whatever, this might be a good one for you. I have grouped mine by topic instead of when I took them. I have an unofficial copy of my transcript for the timeline of my college career if I need it.

My experience document includes every job and volunteer position I had in college, all the way to now.

I list the job title and company and dates of employment on one line, and right underneath the title, I list the location. Underneath that is a bullet point list of responsibilities I had at that job.

The document also includes a complete list of just the job titles, companies, and dates. If you ever have an inch or two at the bottom of your resume, pad it with that kind of list.

Publications includes the papers I wrote in college and their academia(dot)edu location. I was also in the school magazine a couple times, and in a regional publication. All of those are listed, as are my college presentations. Everything is in a specific citation format. I don't remember which one that is, but it's consistent.

My skills document is a mess, but I've grouped it into categories like "science", "office", "interpersonal" and "art". I include things I've learned at work (instruments I'm familiar with, tools, and processes I've learned to use), and life skills like communication and cooking. You might come across some weird job postings. If you have the skills they're looking for, it doesn't matter where or how you gained them.

Those two resume documents in the list are fairly generic but already filled out resumes. If I were going to a job fair, that's what I would take with me to hand out. I have also started from here instead of the template on occasion.

When building your resume, keep in mind you want either one full page or two full pages (print front and back!)

After you've got your resume ready for the specific job, start a document for your cover letter in the same folder. When you upload all your 'relevant documents' later they will all be exactly where you need them.

#job search #thanking my previous self #I know this is written terribly and isn't a great guide But #I got my resume ready in ten minutes last night and I was so relieved #I just want to try

17 notes · View notes

hekatekun · 3 years

Text

The metanarrative’s grand narrative: Osomatsu-san’s characterization throughout the franchise

The growing cynicism throughout the entire Osomatsu-san franchise shows itself in season 3 with more prominence than anything prior. I think that’s pretty common amongst any “long-running” gag comedy - replacing a plot with spiteful commentary that’s admittedly pretty hit or miss at times. However, it invariably creates a negative but pretty funny character growth, and I love the way the show (I’m including the movie too as “canon” material considering season 3 has referenced it way too many times for me to disregard) has set up this metanarrative across seasons. Long post ahead.

Obviously, Osomatsu-san is self-aware and has a casual relationship with itself. No linear plot (though S3 seems to be trying it out and I’ve enjoyed it - I love that they’re willing to experiment), rather a collection of unrelated skits; and so it points out its own metanarrative because of this “lack of consequences.” With comedy comes impermancy and Ososan AND -kun will always bounce back from that week’s insanity. From the Oxford Dictionary, a metanarrative is “a narrative account that experiments with or explores the idea of storytelling, often by drawing attention to its own artificiality.” Basically: a story about stories.

On top of this, is what I’m calling the “grand narrative,” which is often used interchangeably with metanarrative, but here I’m making a distinction to make it less confusing. Of course, Ososan is a story about stories, but with that comes a story it’s not directly telling, which is where most of the (little) character development is taking place. This is what I’m going to call the grand narrative of a show whose premise is being a meta-aware comedy. I’ll admit I’m by no means an expert on these subjects, but storytelling methods are something I enjoy trying to analyze. As a media format, Ososan really utilizes the fact that it’s a tv show.

Right off the bat S1E1 makes it clear what to expect: Nothing. Not a damn thing. But, the show had already been cleared for this first season, so it has to be produced. This same episode’s preview is done by Osomatsu, which I’m just gonna quote instead screenshot because there’s too many.

“...we plan on properly starting the anime the next episode.” “...you ended up with an extra minute, so you need me to do something to fill it?! Actually, is this anime going to be okay with episode one being like this? I’m getting worried about how the rest of this is going to be...” “There, I used up a minute! [EPISODE ENDS]”

Episode one is not only batshit referential, but downright mocking the state of anime in 2015. Which, truthfully, I don’t have much to comment on in that regard, as I’m not an avid anime fan. However, it does this under the premise of being indecisive about what kind of anime they wanted the Osokun reboot to be.

They’ll do just about anything to stay popular and relevant considering that is, quite literally, all they have going for them as characters in the series and just being characters in general. They may be pieces of shit, but they’re likeable pieces of shit. The dynamics they’ve built upon to be entertaining is encouraged, and they’re basically just roleplaying different skits and fucking around.

All the AUs! All the skits! They’re just playing! They’re just fuckin’ around!! They couldn’t come up with any interesting plot nor could they “graduate” from being anime protagonists and join the real world, so they just fuck around and make a gag anime!

Even if we follow both as the audience, the show makes a difference between the what’s them in their “normal life” (crazy begets crazy, no?) and what’s their “show.” But, really, that’s just one way to look at it, as they don’t really follow any rules as a show. I could say the Joshimatsus are separate characters from the sextuplets, and it’d be a “correct” interpretation. It doesn’t really matter - I’m choosing to examine it all as being the six of them just running around and playing, because being entertaining and having fun is all they know as characters. Besides, having it blended together beyond recognition reinforces how it prioritizes entertaining us, the audience, above logic. Storytelling doesn’t need to make absolute spatial-temporal sense for it to be enjoyable to fans.

In any case, that mentality really seems to be what pushes their character development negative, as they look to reinforce habits and rituals despite them being really detrimental for them in the long run. They know they’re popular characters as is, and with really everyone from staff to fans encouraging this behavior further, so they see no point in fixing what isn’t really broken.

I found this 4 year old article from Manga.Tokyo discussing the Ososan phenomenon in Japan because while the craze died off pretty quickly in American anime circles (which deserves a whole other post), Japanese fans went fuckin’ nuts.

This portion caught my attention, as it makes sense that entitled and enabled asshole children would grow up to be entitled and enabled asshole adults. The article also goes on to compare them to idols (even beyond the F6 spoof) and that they are rooted in being comfort characters above all else.

It’s worth a read, especially because Japanese fan response is what drives majority of the content post-S1, and, inevitably, ties into their character development.

They know that they’re Characters, particularly Protagonists. You know what happens to protagonists? Everything works out. Just about every single story created has stuff working out for protagonists. In fact, we have a whole genre made that separates stories with bad tragic endings from our Normal Stories. Ososan is a comedy, not a tragedy, so surely there’s gonna be some payoff somewhere along the road, especially as the seasons and other content are still being pumped out. To a self-aware, entitled, enabled protagonist, assuming everything is just gonna work out for you isn’t that far off from your narrative truth.

However, Ososan is a gag anime, and a lot of gag content (like 4koma mangas) is dropped for other projects before any emotional cathartic ending is provided for characters and fans alike. So, three seasons and a movie later, nothing has happened. It’s a great idol cash cow with a Family Guy filter, and the characters (and writers) don’t even bother to hide it anymore. And I know I’m being hypocritical concerning my definition of “canon material” but I think this portion from one of the drama cds “Choroplex” basically summarizes my point:

CHOROMATSU: Wait, don’t make this into a gag! You don’t even care about becoming employed, right? KARAMATSU: There’s no way that could happen... CHOROMATSU: What kind of future are you imagining? Is it nothing but this? [HUGE PAUSE BEFORE THEY MOVE ONTO SOMETHING ELSE]

They’re parodies of themselves and are running out of ideas. Stagnation and decay is normal, if not unavoidable, at this point in time for them. They’re just 20 somethings who’ve hit a wall but they’re too scared and insecure to bring about permanent positive change. It’s easier for them to fall back into normal patterns and joke off the rest.

They have an antagonistic relationship with expectations. They can’t handle a single iota of expectations, or responsibilities. They’ve never needed to worry before, so why bother now? Once the biggest hits on the block, now they’re just guppies in the ocean, and there’s nothing they believe themselves to be able to accomplish to keep up with this big brave new world. This is epitomized in S3E15, where old man Osomatsu tells a bastardized version of the Tortoise and the Hare, blatantly projecting his feelings onto it. Again, too many screenshots so let me pull more quotes (bolding for my own reference):

“The place that the tortoise thought was the goal was not actually the goal. His journey down the road of life still continued on. The tortoise was quite tired, but he continued running anyway.” “No one actually knew who was in front anymore. There are too many people above you.” “After the tortoise found out how society worked, he thought, ‘So this is the difference in talent? No amount of hard work is going to fix this. All right. I’m done competing with others.’”

S3 has left more questionable endings than its counterparts. The last 2 skits I referenced don’t even a gag to them, and the marriage skit doesn’t play music for the entire second half of S3E5. There’s more involved too. I haven’t even brought up the rice ball twins becoming actual entertainers in their universe, or how they introduced this whole AI subplot only to reject it because All Six Of Them aren’t interested in expanding their little corner of the world. Here’s a transcript of the ending preview from S3E1:

“Hey, hey, Osomatsu here. I thought we were saved from being replaced, but I guess we get new characters next week. Man, we’re busy. New encounters, changing surroundings... We’re NEETs to begin with because all that is a pain. I guess a lot can happen after three seasons. [EPISODE ENDS]”

The sextuplets’ mindsets are extremely self-centered, which is also an environmental thing (the parents don’t even really care that they’re NEETs, for one) and an understanding of what they ought to be (epic successful protagonists). They also have a very black and white mentality, all or nothing. They’re extremely sheltered, and once they realized where they stood in society at large, they just gave up. To them the world is divided between winners and losers, and somehow, “inexplicably,” they found themselves to have fallen from grace. But they’re protagonists, that has to count for something! Everything’s gonna end up okay, right? Well... what this show has told them: No, not at all. They are consistently compared and warned of Iyami, and are perfectly aware of this fact, and have come to internalize it as a truth rather than a reversible self-fulfilling prophecy.

Too many screencaps, taken from the S3S5 marriage discussion:

JYUSHIMATSU: I wonder if we’re gonna get married someday, too. CHOROMATSU: Well, I mean... probably? I’m not exactly sure, but... TODOMATSU: What? You’re gonna get married, Choromatsu-niisan? CHOROMATSU: Huh? Well, yeah... someday.

Surprise! They have commitment issues! The same group that couldn’t commit to a fucking plot! Though their personality issues have several factors involved, I can’t overlook the theater motifs abound. Life’s a stage, and they’re performing entirely unscripted and it shows.

Do I think all of this is 100% intentional on the writers’ part? No, probably not. There’s also an extra layer here regarding contemporary Japanese commentary that I’m not familiar with, so I just ended up focusing on the characters. I can’t be in the writers’ heads, but whatever decisions are being made by executives regarding censorship and “compliance” are reflected in these character changes that result in being significantly more bitter and defeatist.

In the all or nothing, winner-take-all mentality, the only way to save face at this point, in their minds, is to own up to it - act like it’s what they wanted all along. And, hey, it’s funny to watch, right?

“Why is Osomatsu all my examples”, you might be asking. Well, he’s the damn blueprint for it all. The leader of the bunch, the first personality to grab your attention, has had all his issues projected and ricocheted in their echo chamber.

Ultimately, my point here is that you could think their “canon characterizations” (though canon means nothing in a show like this) as being intertwined with the nature of their self-aware existence. They’ve shown you all their tricks, the smoke and mirrors are getting boring, and they’re stalling long enough the story seems to be moving on without them - in spite of them. And when something genuinely threatens their way of life, they don’t know how to respond.

You can play it all straight, of course. Remove the meta jokes and all the same plot points can be hit, but, as a slapstick comedy, it’s able to easily add this additional layer in that I appreciate. I’ve said it in my last post and I’ll probably say it in more, but with comedy comes sincerity - the caveat of all the cartoon violence is that, on some level somewhere, this is how they really feel.

#osomatsu san #osomatsu #karamatsu #choromatsu #ichimatsu #jyushimatsu #todomatsu #osomatsu matsuno #karamatsu matsuno #choromatsu matsuno #ichimatsu matsuno #jyushimatsu matsuno #todomatsu matsuno #analysis #confession this was sparked by a convo i had w friends about s3e18 #this is a bit truncated but i couldnt bring myself to make this longer #maybe ill make a pt2 or whatever idk

106 notes · View notes

jaxsteamblog · 3 years

Text

Love Letters

This is the plain text version of an IMAGE SET! Please check out the chapter on AO3 for the visual, or enjoy the plain text here! If you end up liking the visual chapter, make sure to thank @the--descension and their fic, as well as @zk-modernau!

Click here to read the full fic on AO3

Image ID: Screenshots of a text chat between Katara in green chat bubbles and Zuko in white chat bubbles. / End Image ID

[Author’s note, timestamps are not included in this transcript as they were not accurately edited in the app. Texts will be labelled by sender first, followed by the message. Readers using accessible software please be aware that text messages will include extra punctuation for emphasis and misspellings. Emojis used will be typed out as a description.]

Blue text box with the date December 09, 2020

Yellow text box with lock symbol that reads Messages to this chat and calls are now secured with end-to-end encryption. Tap for more info.

Katara: BTFS!!!!!

Zuko: That good huh?

Katara: WHY are there so many earth kingdom cities????

Zuko: Oh, geography class. My favorite.

Katara: Crying emoji. This is worse than anatomy.

Zuko: NOTHING is worse than anatomy.

Katara: True.

Katara: But why do I have to memorize this? I can Booble ALL OF IT.

Zuko: Same reasons as anatomy.

Katara: Three red angry emojis

Katara: I’m making everyone wear name tags.

Zuko: That’s one way to handle it.

Zuko: Have you learned anything about FN yet?

Katara: Why else am I dating you if not for that?

Zuko: I thought it was for my stunning good looks….

Katara: I do miss your face.

Zuko: I miss yours too.

Katara: You’re coming for the coronation right?

Zuko: That’s the plan.

Katara: How is your family being?

Zuko: Terrible, as usual. Who knew a failed kidnapping plot would put them in such a bad mood?

Katara: Straight face emoji

Katara: I still think you should’ve said something.

Zuko: It would just make things worse.

Katara: I know.

Katara: I keep thinking about you during these stupid lessons.

Katara: I can’t believe you already know all this BS.

Zuko: I’ve been learning it since I was a kid. Male shrug emoji

Katara: Sure, but I’ve seen your interviews and stuff.

Katara: You’re really good at it.

Zuko: Aww, are you internet stalking me???

Katara: Shut up!!!

Katara: I feel like every interviewer has a crush on you.

Zuko: Again, my stunning good looks.

Katara: That’s starting to sound like sarcasm. You are aware that you’re handsome, right?

Zuko: Love IS blind.

Katara: I’m serious! You have really nice cheekbones.

Zuko: And you say you can’t be diplomatic.

Katara: You’re impossible.

Zuko: I just don’t do well with compliments like that.

Katara: I’ll have to find other ways to compliment you then. Smiling devil emoji

Zuko: Sounds like a challenge.

Katara: I have to go. Arnook has me working with Pakku on “Courtly Behaviors.”

Zuko: Sounds terrible. Have fun!

Katara: Miss you! Six emoji hearts alternating red and blue

Zuko: Miss you too.

Blue text box with the date December 22, 2020

Zuko: So, by the end of it, Uncle had the guy by his collar and the wife was mortified.

Katara: I cannot believe this happened.

Zuko: Me neither. It only ever happens when I’m home.

Katara: Do you ever wish you stayed in Ba Sing Se?

Zuko: I used to, from time to time.

Katara: Not now?

Zuko: Now I think about how the Water Tribe Queen can’t go around dating a tea server.

Katara: What if we both left and ran off to the earth kingdom interior? We can open up our own tea and herb shop.

Zuko: Training not going well?

Katara: Training is FINE.

Katara: I just really miss you.

Zuko: I miss you too.

Zuko: I think about you all the time. It’s really distracting.

Zuko: I zoned out in the middle of an important luncheon today.

Katara: Why????

Zuko: I was thinking about you.

Katara: That’s dumb. You’re dumb.

Zuko: You like me dumb.

Katara: Hot and dumb, himbos forever.

Zuko: Hey, Thuy’s calling me. I gotta go.

Katara: Say hi!

Zuko: Will do. Talk to you later?

Katara: Heart eyes emoji

Blue text box with the date December 30, 2020

Katara: And it happens every new moon!

Zuko: That sounds like a lot of work every month.

Katara: It’s unbelievable.

Katara: I mean, maybe the South Pole did it before the war. But it’d be news to me.

Zuko: I guess that’s why they really want a Bender on the throne.

Katara: It makes things easier but also, we know the moon is going to come back. Like, scientifically.

Zuko: I think Arnook might be holding on for different reasons.

Katara: Shoot. Yeah. You’re right.

Katara: Crap, now I feel bad.

Zuko: Sorry. I do understand what you’re saying though.

Katara: Maybe I can change it? Make it more about Yue and less like we’re all gonna die if we don’t appease the spirits?

Zuko: That sounds reasonable.

Zuko: You’re really getting good at this.

Katara: I’m good with the tribe stuff. I’m still bad doing all this talking out the side of my mouth.

Zuko: Pardon? Monocle emoji

Katara: It’s an Earth Kingdom expression. When you’re not talking straight and buttering someone up. Or backhanded compliments.

Zuko: Unfortunately, you’ll have to do that a lot.

Katara: Whyyyyyy? I’ll be queen. What are they gonna do about it?

Zuko: Rebel?

Katara: Against the ocean? Eye roll emoji

Zuko: Sounding a bit tyrannical there darling. Fire emoji

Katara: They’re making me do all this stuff!!! It’s not fair!!!!

Zuko: It’ll get easier.

Katara: Can’t I just go visit you? Let’s go to Ember Island again.

Zuko: I wish.

Zuko: You look good on a beach.

Katara: Everyone looks good on a beach. That’s why it’s popular.

Zuko: Fair.

Katara: I can’t believe that was just a few months ago.

Zuko: I can’t believe we’ve been dating for a full season now.

Katara: Do we have an actual anniversary? Thinking emoji

Zuko: Honestly, I wasn’t thinking about it because I don’t want to jinx this.

Katara: Three cry laughing emojis

Katara: Would it be the summit tho?

Zuko: I guess so?

Katara: We wasted SO MUCH TIME this summer.

Zuko: Well…

Katara: It’s not my fault you were dating someone else.

Zuko: If I had been bolder during the war…

Katara: How would that have even worked?

Katara: I hadn’t even hit my peak rage against the Fire Nation

Zuko: Probably wouldn’t have been down for dating the crown prince then huh?

Katara: But it was you. So who knows?

Zuko: You think you would’ve still fallen for me?

Katara: Didn’t I do exactly that?

Zuko: That wasn’t me though.

Katara: Tomato, potato

Zuko: Your brother says that.

Katara: He stole it from ME!!!

Blue text box with the date January 03, 2021

Zuko: Sorry I missed your call.

Zuko: Kat?

Zuko: Are you mad at me?

Katara: Yes.

Zuko: I’m sorry Katara, the meeting ran long.

Katara: I know.

Katara: I’m still mad.

Katara: Today was really rough.

Zuko: What happened?

Katara: I don’t want to talk about it.

Zuko: Hey, did you want to call now? I’m free.

Katara: No.

Zuko: Katara.

Katara: I just really needed you!

Katara: Arnook keeps yelling at me because I keep forgetting names and stupid stuff like that, and Pakku is telling me that I’m going to cause the next world war because I’m rude, and now one will train with me because I’m the stupid princess now and I’m really really lonely!

Zuko: I’m sorry Katara, that really sucks.

Katara: It does suck!

Katara: And when I call my boyfriend when he told me he’d be free, he didn’t pick up!

Zuko: I couldn’t control that.

Katara: I know.

Katara: I’m sorry.

Katara: I really want to see you.

Zuko: We can video chat?

Katara: No, I really want to see you in person.

Katara: We just started dating but I never get to be with you.

Katara: And when we are together, something bad always happens.

Zuko: I know. I’m sorry.

Katara: It’s not your fault.

Zuko: It kinda is though. It’s my family.

Katara: I just wish you were here.

Zuko: Me too. But I’ll see you soon.

Katara: Ugh, don’t remind me. Fed up emoji

Zuko: You’re going to do great. And you’re not going to be taking over right away. Arnook is still around for a bit.

Katara: Promise YOU will be around for a bit?

Zuko: I’ll stay as long as I can.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38

#zutara #fanfiction #jax writes #zutara month #modern au #the fic that prompts built

16 notes · View notes

satoshi-mochida · 4 years

Link

Tobyfox has provided a status update on the second chapter and beyond of Undertale sequel Deltarune in celebration of Undertale‘s fifth anniversary today.

First, here are the latest screenshots from Deltarune‘s second chapter:

Get the full update below.

Introduction

Hi everyone.

If you’re reading this, you must have been sticking around for about five years.*

I want to express my gratitude for everyone that has supported and encouraged me over this time.

Thank you.

I’ve said it many many times before, but I didn’t expect the simple game I made to receive so much attention. Because of that, many interesting things have happened, and now I can even spend my time making another game.

It seems both of us received a lot of happiness from this occurrence.

If it’s okay, I would like to keep striving to do things that make both of us happy.

Let me know what you think about that.

*Since the Undertale demo released in 2013, the game has really existed for 7 years. It’s already been more than 25% of my life…

Deltarune

I will make another.

I am making a game called “Deltarune.” It is the second game in the Undertale series.

The game will be released in many “Chapters,” the first of which I released two years ago on Halloween. Since that time, I’ve been working hard to figure out the rest of the game.

However, it’s a game that’s much harder to make than Undertale.

Graphics are more complicated and several times more involved.

Systems are more complicated.

Exposes the weak points of my creative and artistic ability.

Plot is much harder to tie together (more characters, more important locations).

Significantly more content than Undertale in one playthrough (especially cutscenes).

I have only made one game ever.

Unlike Undertale, this is the type of game that would normally have many designers working on each aspect of the game.

A story writer, a composer, an audio director, a map designer, a battle designer, a minigame designer, and an overall director. Instead, all of those roles end up handled by me.

The good news is that a few months ago, I completed a significant milestone regarding the game’s design. I completed readable outlines for every chapter in the game, including first-pass dialogue for almost all the cutscenes, examples of the music, etc.

Although certain details are still hazy, the flow of the game and all major events and battles that take place are now clear.

In summary, I largely spent the past two years writing, composing, designing, and drawing. However, that’s not the whole story.

We had actually attempted to develop the game since the time too. Development started around March 2019 and a 99% work was spent on investigating engines alternate to GameMaker, which I used for Chapter 1.

Without getting into the details, I decided a few months ago to go back to GameMaker after all. It still felt like the best fit for the project. So using Chapter 1 as a base, we’ve started creating Chapter 2 since May 2020.

A lot of progress has been made since that time. I believe we can complete this chapter, content-wise, before the end of the year (not accounting for translation, bugtesting, and porting).

I feel very confident. And the strange thing is, even though we ended up using the original engine, I don’t regret the lost time, either. Not only was I still busy designing the game, but during that long period, I was able to think of many ideas that make the game’s story and characters better.

I’m glad that I’m making the Deltarune that I have now and that we are making healthy progress.

Deltarune Status Estimate

■ Chapter 2 (04.15.20 – 08.13.20)

Phase 1: Design

Main Design: 100% (dialogue, etc.)

Initial Setup: 100% (stuff involved setting up people to make the game, adding debug tools, documentation, etc.)

Phase 2: Implementation (05.01.20 ~ 08.13.20)

Art: 90%

Cutscenes: 80% (90% are started, needs 2nd pass)

Bullet Patterns: 70% (enemies are mostly completed, bosses are about 40% done, needs 2nd pass)

Non-Bullet Battle Elements: 30% (Some ACTs are done and enemies are fightable, but interactive ACTs need to be completed and polished and the bosses aren’t programmed outside of bullet patterns)

Audio: 80%

Maps: ??% most are started or placeholder, most need 2nd pass. NPC interactions are completed in all spots where written.

Other: 65%

Phase 3: Finishing

Balancing: 0%

Bugfixing: 0%

Translation: 0%

Porting: 0%

(Honestly, a lot of stuff FEELS like 80% to me, but the truth is that what’s there is quite rough now. Polish ends up taking a lot of time, so the real actual time value may be around 50% done…? We’ll see what happens. It’ll be a lesson for everybody.)

■ Chapters 3 and Beyond

Phase 1: Design

Story and General Game Progression (first-pass): 100%

Cutscene Dialogue (first-pass, lacking cutscene instructions): 95%

Map Design (textual): 70% (varies per chapter, earlier chapters totally completed)

Map Design (drawn): 0% (this takes a lot of wrist energy so I don’t do it until we start programming)

Enemy Design (conceptual): 90% (all bosses are known)

Enemy Design (bullets / visual): 80% (varies per chapter, earlier chapters totally completed)

Music (concept): 95%

Music (completed): 50%

Visual Design:BG Concept (first-pass): 75%, Important Character, Bosses (first-pass): 100%

Phase 2

Sprite Art: 20%?

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES

Small businesses can survive the pandemic and beyond, if they learn to provide what customers are now looking for. From desks to 3-D printed face shields, to including toilet paper on your takeout menu, to moving online, acting quickly has given these businesses hope. ABC also did a piece on this topic. [text & video; mentions Etsy & masks] Here’s another article discussing adapting to pandemic ecommerce “new normal”, with interviews with staff from Etsy, TechStyle and Zulily.

Ecommerce is about to get way more competitive (it probably is already), & arguably the retailers who will succeed are the ones who already put plans in action, including advertising plans. (mentions Shopify, Google Shopping & Etsy.)

Facebook and Instagram will now have “Facebook Shops”, which are free to set up. Sounds like it will be a slow rollout, though. Many take this as direct competition for marketplace sites such as Etsy, but it will probably also have a large impact on small website builder sites such as Indiemade.

ETSY NEWS

Etsy’s first quarter for 2020 was good, but April was astonishing by any standards; I covered it all here.

Etsy Payments will soon be available to sellers in Turkey, Malaysia, & Mexico. This will likely be welcome news to sellers in Turkey in particular, who haven’t had an easy way to accept payment for Etsy orders since PayPal left Turkey a few years back. It looks like this move will be optional at the moment for those 3 countries, unlike those of us who are forced to use EP if it is available in our countries.

Etsy gave some listing credits and ad credits to shops who had substantially lower than normal sales in late March through April; the credits don’t kick in until July, though.

Etsy is beta-testing a new listing video tool. You can join here; if you want more info first, here are some details. Note that the videos must be quite short, and will not include sound.

Etsy is still getting some good traction from the face mask initiative: “I would argue they were just in the right place at the right time," says Kodali. "When you think of who is able to consolidate the power of a million sewers in the country, the only answer is Etsy." However, they are also getting some criticism for masks taking forever to arrive, if at all. The slow customer support is also annoying many of these new customers that the CEO was so happy to attract, with little to no response from Etsy.

The Wall Street Journal did a well-received article on people buying food (mostly baked goods) on Etsy [paywall]. Other sources have picked it up, although some are a bit skeptical about safety.

More trend info directly from Etsy: first, summer at-home ideas with Dayna Isom Johnson [podcast links with transcript]. It also covers what to do for socially-distanced celebrations. “[P]eople are taking what they would typically do for a birthday, but then doing it virtually. So many people love paint night parties and I've actually seen quite a few paint kits that Etsy sellers are creating. It’s a wonderful way to celebrate your birthday and still have that experience of expressing your creativity and having fun with your friends, but just through a screen.” Also, “tie-dye is blazing hot right now.”

Second, craft supply sellers get their own trend article for a change. Supply searches close to doubled in April, with “346% YoY increase in searches on Etsy for “diy”. Many buyers are making their own masks with supplies from Etsy; “2,089% YoY increase in searches on Etsy for “elastic”. Do read the whole article if you want to spin your shop in this direction, as there is a lot of good info included.

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES

Google pushed out a core algorithm update starting May 4, which finished rolling out on May 18. It seems fairly large, maybe the biggest in some time, and may have hit more areas than other recent core updates. They did take some criticism for releasing it during a pandemic. Possible targets aren’t agreed on yet by the people tracking it, but could include cryptocurrency, travel, real estate, health, tech, finance & dating. Or maybe we shouldn’t rush to pick winners & losers so quickly? News media changes may be affected by the regular algorithm reaction to people reading a lot more news these days, and some ecommerce companies had a boom that could affect their rankings. This article discusses Etsy among other companies, who might have benefitted from the update. [I’m not sure on the Etsy complaints, as I have been seeing multiple links for some searches for well over a year now.]

Link building is generally the hardest part of Google SEO, in part because you aren’t allowed to do any of the obvious things that might get you easy links. Anyone confused about the rules & the benefits should check out this guide for 2020.

While you can learn a lot from general SEO guides, if you have a Shopify site, this guide provides some specific SEO tips.

LinkedIn managed to de-index itself from Google on May 6, at least for the United States. Here’s one theory. Well-paid webmasters for major internet companies can still screw up, it turns out.

(CONTENT) MARKETING & SOCIAL MEDIA (includes blogging & emails)

If you are one of those organized marketers who plans their campaigns ahead of time, here are 5 content marketing ideas for June.

With so many people not working as much as usual, this might be a good time to start a podcast. Gizmodo has compiled instructions on doing it cheaply.

The best time to send an email depends on the purpose of the email. For example, “General site traffic emails have always been most effective mid-week — mid-morning or mid-afternoon. Mondays and Fridays tend not to perform as well” while “A general awareness campaign can be sent almost any time to be effective.”

Refreshing your evergreen content can be more productive than producing new content. That has some really good ideas for many types of businesses produce

Facebook bought Giphy, and while it will still be available to people without Facebook-owned accounts, it will be integrated directly with Instagram.

Instagram is testing new fonts in its Stories feature.

Twitter is enabling users to see how many people quoted a tweet, but so far only on IOS. They also have a new test where you control who can reply to your tweets.

LinkedIn is rolling out both video events and polls, but maybe it is too late to get a big bump from either change?

ONLINE ADVERTISING (SEARCH ENGINES, SOCIAL MEDIA, & OTHERS)

Online advertising can be expensive; here are some stats on the cost of various search engine ad clicks as well as a bit on social media.

Google Merchant accounts now let you compare your prices to other sites and also look at trends in clicks.

Here is a good brief overview of the new free Google Shopping listings, including the 3 main reasons the author believes Google made this change. Here is another much longer overview, with screenshots for those not in the US, and info on how to set this up for your website. The PayPal integration is now available.

Online advertising clicks seem to be bouncing back from the worst of the pandemic, according to several sources, including this one. It is still far too early to tell if this will last, however.

YouTube has re-conceived its premium ad program, now called YouTube Select.

If you have ads that slow down people’s computers or drain batteries by being too “resource-heavy”, note that Chrome is going to begin blocking those in August. “Chrome will filter ads based on the following thresholds: 4MB of network data or 15 seconds of CPU usage in any 30 second period, or 60 seconds of total CPU usage.”

STATS, DATA, OTHER TRACKING

Seeing all hits to one page in Google Analytics is a lot easier if you exclude the URL query parameters (but note that sometimes they are useful, such as for various pages on Etsy.) If you like the idea of filtering your GA results in general, here is another tutorial on that.

If you want to do A/B testing on your website, here is a fairly straightforward introduction to Google Optimize, which is free to use.

ECOMMERCE NEWS, IDEAS, TRENDS

Many online companies had a good first quarter despite the pandemic, including Shopify, which beat income estimates and saw its stock rise 5% after its first quarter report. “New stores created on the company’s online platform jumped 62% between March 13 and April 24 as many brick-and-mortar businesses migrated online.”

Shopify rolled out software that allows its users to more easily do curbside pickup orders. “...Shopify was already in the process of redesigning its POS before the coronavirus, but decided to accelerate the development of a few new features, namely fulfilling curbside pick-up orders and home delivery. Shopify said that by the end of April, 26% of its merchants with a brick-and-mortar presence were offering local delivery or buy online, pickup in-store, compared to 2% in February.”

Rolling out for the US first, Shopify is also getting into financial products, offering a new debit card which you can use to receive your sales income on the same day you earn it. Shopify Balance can be described as “a merchant account with no fees and no minimum balances.” It’s also setting up an instalment plan feature for customers.

Also new with Shopify: a Pinterest app for turning all your products into shoppable pins.

An Amazon VP quit - very publicly - over the company firing several whistleblowers and labour organizers. “Amazon declined to comment.” The company is taking heat for those issues as well as poor management of and information about how many employees have tested positive at various warehouses. Several employees are known to have died of COVID-19 so far.

Amazon has extended its order performance suspension exceptions for the pandemic to May 31. Which is a good thing, because it seems that buyers are leaving more bad feedback than ever before [soft paywall] “More than 11 percent of reviews left for sellers in the past 30 days are negative. That’s nearly twice the level of frustration vented by shoppers regarding Amazon’s third-party sellers during the holidays, when customer anxieties spike over not getting presents on time”. eBay extended some seller protection changes until July 19. [note: if you sell on these platforms outside of the US, lease check for your own country’s rules, as some of them are different.]

Amazon Handmade sellers from the US got a boost from a new local makers page and the accompanying blog post. [I was unable to find any similar promotions for other countries; seems like a missed opportunity]

Buyers in Canada and the US are trying to get class-action lawsuits certified against Amazon for their policy preventing/discouraging its vendors from offering lower prices elsewhere. This article includes the US class action complaint paperwork.

If you are wondering about Prime Day, Amazon is apparently going to try for September, but there is no official announcement yet.

eBay will be changing the fee structure for sellers using managed payments, including charging one fee on the entire transaction instead of separate commission & processing fees.

USPS, complaining of deficits and being pressured by Trump, is reportedly reviewing its package delivery contracts with large companies such as Amazon. “According to the Washington Post, over the last few weeks the USPS has been seeking bids from consulting firms to reexamine what the agency charges companies like Amazon, UPS, and FedEx. Contracts are generally reviewed on a yearly basis, and analysts have repeated warned that suddenly raising package prices that drastically would cause more bad than good, not just for the USPS or Amazon, but for small businesses and individuals too.”

Square has created an easy online checkout option that works without being connected to a website/shop. (US only)

BUSINESS & CONSUMER STUDIES, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE

Google has introduced a new Trends-like tool that covers recent top product searches by the amount of growth. Yes, it is free!

Gen Z wants to see “fun and exciting advertising” during the pandemic, because they are bored. They are apparently not really fond of “things are different now” ads. Also: “A survey taken seven weeks ago indicated that younger consumers were more likely than older adults to say they wanted to see purpose-driven advertising that showed how companies were helping others.” Actually, Gen Z isn’t alone in wanting something different from commercials right now

Consumers want to see companies taking positive action and supporting their employees during the pandemic - and claim they will remember who did a good job, so they know who to support with purchases.

Not surprisingly, mobile usage is up during the day time since the pandemic was declared, and people are also staying online later during the week. Web browser usage is up, and more serious news and information is getting attention.

There will likely be many more bankruptcies as the effects of COVID-19 ripple through the economy, but some businesses don’t have enough cash flow to go bankrupt. [text & video]

Canadian retail sales were down 10% in March compared to 2019, but many things went up, including general merchandise stores (6.4%) and online retailers (40%). Note that the online numbers didn’t include sales made from Amazon.com or Amazon.ca and delivered in Canada, so ecommerce was actually higher than that. In the US, March retail sales were down 8.7%, but April looks like it turned around for many ecommerce sites.

MISCELLANEOUS

So-called “cookie walls” are not enough to comply with the EU’s privacy laws. “[I]n order for consent to be legally valid under Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) there are specific standards to meet: It must be clear and informed, specific and freely given. Hence cookie walls that demand ‘consent’ as the price for getting inside the club are not only an oxymoron but run into a legal brick wall.”

Website layouts (and even other elements) are starting to look like each other more & more.

#search engine optimization #EtsyNews #content marketing #smallbiz #ecommercetips

1 note · View note

archiveacademics · 4 years

Text

Why write fanfic?

I left off my last post with a screenshot from AO3′s homepage that gave some stats about how many fandoms are represented and stories have been written on the site. And there’s a lot, over 5 million works so far. But what is it that drives people to write fanfic?

In Fic by Anne Jamison, popular YA author Rachel Caine writes about how fanfic saved her writing career.

“By 1999, I was ready to quit professional writing. Quit, completely and utterly. I was still doing the occasional short story...During this time I wrote another novel, Exile, Texas, a straight mystery/thriller; but although it was published, it also sold in not fantastic numbers.

But mostly? Mostly it was the fic that kept me writing, from the sheer joy of creating stories in a wold that I loved to inhabit. I also loved the challenge of working in a world that had clearly defined rules and characters. Unlike most fanfic writers, I didn’t want to write outside the lines; the highest compliment I could be offered was when readers confused one of my stories for an actual episode of the show [I was writing about].”

A similar story is told by Betts, a guest on the Fansplaining podcast episode “The Craft of Writing (Fanfiction)” Betts was working at a bank and smothered her creative and fannish impulses when she discovered a popular fanfic in the BBC Sherlock fandom called “A Cure for Boredom.” And it changed the whole trajectory of her life. She eventually got an MFA and became a writing instructor. She even uses fanfic in her classes.

“In Creative Writing, I have a lot more freedom, and so since I went into the MFA as a…as what they called a “self-taught” writer, since I had no creative writing—traditional creative writing instruction before that point, I developed my class around how I taught myself how to write, which involved very heavily fanfic.

And so I would take, when I started writing fic, I would take a concept that I wanted to improve on—and I did this very systematically, very scientifically—take a concept I wanted to improve on, and I would do all this research, and I would find like, resources and what other people thought of it and whatever, and then I would write a fic where I only focused on that single thing. And then everything else I didn’t care about. So like, if I was focusing on character development or voice, then it didn’t matter what anything else was doing. I was just, one thing at at time.

And so I got to develop my class around that, and that, like, I have these like—I have lesson plans, and I have a week dedicated to fairy tales, and a week dedicated to…and the fairy tale week is actually about form. And how to break form and invoke meaning. And I have a week based on character development, a week based on, on endings, which is called “Exit Strategies.” [all laugh]

And so I do very much bring in fandom context into my classroom, because we also talk about—I should say, I meet with students one-on-one, because I’m, I think I’m better one-on-one than, you know, just standing in front of people talking at them. And I can usually tell by sitting in front of someone what their interaction with pop culture is. [all laugh] And so, like, they’ll be talking about their story, and I’ll just kind of insert, “Do you like fanfiction?” [all laugh] And it’s amazing, it’s amazing how many faces just like light up, like “I didn’t know I was allowed to write that, I didn’t know I was allowed to do that.” And I’m like “Yes, please please please write fanfic, please write things that are a step away from it, please begin with a fic and then move original,” you know.

And so when I phrase it like “You can start something with something you’re familiar with, and then slowly work it around into something original,” and that kind of branches off of what I see as a major block for a lot of people who are writing original fiction, which is there are just too many decisions to make when you face a blank page.” (From the episode transcript)

Ok, so that’s a lot of words from someone else, I know, but I think what Bett’s gets at here is so important. Writing fanfic is not only about loving something and participating in it, it’s also about learning. Writing fanfic can teach you how to write.

A simple Google search for “writing fanfic” will bring up a myriad of articles on the subject. From Julie Beck’s “What Fanfiction Teaches that the Classroom Doesn’t” to Colleen Mitchell’s “How Fanfiction can Improve your Writing” and Vivian Shaw’s “6 Ways Fanfiction Makes your Writing Stronger.”

As Betts says in the podcast episode “[Fanfic] is a genre of freedom.” It allows for lots of different ways of writing and reading and interacting with a piece of media (be it TV, movie, book, or otherwise) that other genres don’t generally allow because there are boundaries, rules of what makes a genre a genre that fanfic doesn’t necessarily have. And it becomes easier to focus on particular aspect of a piece, be it character or plot, when you don’t have to fill in all the blank space. So an AU gives you a new setting to play with, but the characters are still the same, and you’ve got the story laid out for you. Meanwhile a story where you add an OC into an existing world allows you to work on character development without making you create the setting or the plot as well.

I actually ran a survey, posted to Facebook and it only received 12 responses, so it’s by no means scientific. But I asked my friends if they wrote or read fanfic and why.

One of the questions I asked was about when they started writing fanfic, and the answer for most of them was between 10 and 15, though one person said they didn’t start writing fanfic until they were 22, and another said they started at 35! Fanfic is for everyone of all ages, is what I’m saying. I also asked when they stopped writing and while some are still going strong, others stopped in their twenties.

The most important question I asked, though, was what they got out of writing fanfic. A few of the answers were the expected, about loving the world or being inspired by reading other people’s fics. Many, though, had very interesting reasons for writing their fics.

The survey was anonymous, so here are some of the answers in no particular order:

“It was some of my first serious attempts at writing a story more than a couple pages long. It was a great way for me to practice plotting, and writing a longer piece, without having to spend all my time working on world building and character creation as well. Also, playing around with the characters and the world, almost like a set of dolls, was - and is - just plain fun!”

“I first started writing it to make my own little world where I could be important and cared about, since I didn't have it in real life. After that I was just interested in exploring a couple concepts/characters deeper than the canon did.”

“I wanted to know what happened in those side stories, but obviously the author wasn’t going to tell me so someone had to do it. I had fun, entertained myself and others, flexed my creative muscles, and learned how to emulate others’ writing voices.”

“I wanted to see the characters explore storylines that weren't getting written in the comics (Rogue was done dirty by the x-men comics in the early 2000s), half of my oc got killed off (Anakin Solo [don't get me started on how much material Disney squandered when they rendered a bunch of novels/comics non-canon]), or I just really hated all the canon pairings (HP)”

I also asked why my friends read fanfic, because a whole big part of the experience is not just writing, but reading it as well!

“The last season [of Gilmore Girls] changed writers and producers and it became a different show, so I turned to fanfic to continue wondering what would happen if the original writers and producers were on the show. Additionally, the fanfic became a lot more interesting. I realized that there were a lot more people that liked the show than I even realized. I was also really impressed with the creativity of the writers. They were able to replicate the characters, how they would act, what they would say, almost perfectly to make a completely new scenario. I would say that reading fanfic has made me more imaginative about the shows I watch, or even the books I read, but also it has opened up a realization that there is a community in almost everything you do.”

“Fanfiction gives you alternate takes so you can spend time in the viewpoint of a character who barely makes an appearance in canon. Also, importantly, fanfic is written by peers, so you can interact with the writers. We are all friends.”

“Probably the main draw is getting to spend more time with the characters that I love, and seeing how they might react in different situations that didn’t come up in the source material. Also, it can be nice to be able to search the archives online to find something to exactly match my mood at the moment (such as if I’m in the mood for angst, or romance, or family bonding, it’s easy to find exactly what I want).”

“Ff is definitely 1) an easier lift than reading something new and 2) satisfies a slightly different itch than canon. It’s easier to read just because I mostly know what to expect from the characters and the type of story. There are few unpleasant surprises and I’m already invested, and if I don’t like a story, it’s easy to drop and move on. Fix in my brain is also wish fulfillment. There are many many things I would never stand for in canon, like overly saccharine endings or pointless melodrama, that I can enjoy in ff because “real” story is already established. Canon has the hard job of making a world or a character enjoyable or interesting. Ff is where I can go to wallow (sometimes for years) in that joy or interest, whether it was a character or a dynamic or just a specific trope.”

At the end of the day, fanfic isn’t just about reimagining stories we love, it’s about reimagining those stories with other people.

Both Rachel Caine and Betts discuss this, that it was the positive feedback of the fandoms they wrote in that helped give boost their writerly self esteem and keep them coming back to write more, which eventually led to them writing their own original fiction.

Not that you have to move from fanfic into original fic! There are plenty of people who are completely satisfied writing nothing by fanfic for the rest of their lives. And that’s ok.

Whatever your experience with fic, whether you are a lurker who just reads but never comments or writes your own stuff, or if you’re a BNF (big name fan) or even a fan who became a big name (like Rachel Caine or Naomi Novik), the pleasure of fanfic is that we get to experience it together.

#fanfic #writing #reading #fansplaining #community #why #fic

1 note · View note

blackkpoppers101 · 5 years

Text

Seungri, VIPs, and Burning Sun Scandal

Now before I start my long ass rant I am going to say this once and only once. Yes, in my first few years of Kpop I was a HUGE Big Bang stan...yes believe it or not my black ass really gave a damn about them at one point or another, but I stopped stanning Big Bang for awhile now, so before some of you go on this long ass tangent about how I am a "hater" or "..But you stan Big Bang" or even " You're just saying this cause you stan *insert fandom names here* and you are bitter" bullshit just know that this is bigger than fandom and kpop bs. This is about Human Rights being continuously violated more or less WOMEN'S RIGHTS (and the continous mistreatment of women in korea).

I have spoken up about issues before in the kpop industry and I will continue to do so because nothing can ever change for the better if you do not speak up. And for those fans who wanna come under the comments talking about how I'm spewing bs how about yall stop blindly defending people without checking your fucking sources because sorry to burst your fragile egos and supiriority complexes, but just because your fave is considered a 'king' doesn't mean that they don't do fucked up mess w/o y'all knowing. Why? BECAUSE THEY DON'T KNOW YOU!! NOR DO YOU KNOW THEM PERSONALLY! You can link all the "evidence" you want of someone being a good person on TV and doing good deeds all you want but guess what! That is ALL irrelevant to the subject matter at hand because as stated before this issue is bigger than someone being " Out to get yall" or "Someone being a target" just because a group of people don't like them. So, if that is all cleared up lets move on.

TW: R*pe, Assault, Prostitution/Pimping, Harassment, Drugs & Alcohol, Abuse, Berating of Women, Blackmail & Extorsion, and Bribery, etc.

People CURRENTLY involved in the ongoing investigation of Burning Sun and Gangnam Club sex trafficking rings as well as Drug Rings and Sting level ops:

Clubs- Burning Sun and Multiple Gangnam nightclubs

Companies- Burning Sun, YGE, Dispatch, and KPD (Korean Police Departments more specifically Gangnam and Seoul)

Reporters- Naver, KBS, SBS, Dispatch (unfortunately), Netzienbuzz, Pann, Allkpop, Soompi, ONESEN, and local Korean news stations

People CURRENTLY involved/ under investigation- Seungri, Park Han Byul & her husband, Employees of Burning Sun (both former and current), Gangnam Police, VIP/High profile guests who have yet to be named, Mr. Kim (both a victim AND enabler), and a woman whos named hasn't been revealed to my knowledge as well as other female victims, and YGE.

WHOs REPORTING is Reliable? SBS, Korean news, and Naver

-SBS' Investigative Journalist or more specifically the one working on the current Prostitution and Drug scandal of Burning Sun is none other than Kang Kyunghoon who has an EXTREMELY good track record with reporting the FACTS first and gives opinions towards the end. She has exposed numerous and CREDIBLE cases such as the recent Goo Hara case, Yang Yongsuk aka the politician with the affair, and Jo Jaehyun for sexual harassment as well as SEVERAL #MeToo stories and court cases. Everything that comes out of SBS is 100% FACT CHECKED as well as Credible.

-Naver& Korean local News get their information STRAIGHT from companies as well as the Korean Police Department and government officials. They do nothing more than report what they have been told.

Whos TRANSLATIONS are Reliable? SOOMPI and Netzienbuzz (sadly)

-NetzienBuzz gets their comments right off of websites such as NAVER AND Nate therefore everything you read from comments are from the Korean General Public themselves as well as fans. They may not translate the FULL ARTICLE for their website, but their website is strictly for COMMENTARY on the issue from and by the KOREAN public and entertainment journalist.

-Soompi is the most ACCURATE when it comes to article translations and direct quotations on SUBJECT MATTER however, some articles may be LATE due to finding and getting proper and complete translations from Korean media and Reporters, so it can be as accurate as possible.

Which Translations have been INACCURATE?

Any post from a fan or so called media that have called the current TRANSCRIPTS of Seungri's KKT/ messages a screenshot is not correct. It is infact EXTREMELY WRONG. The current messages from Seungri's KKT/phone are indeed TRANSCRIPTS that SBS got from the PHONE PROVIDER THEMSELVES. These messages came straight from the source. Anyone who says the messages themselves are photoshopped are completely wrong. The messaages that have been provided from both SBS and Dispatch are simply transcripts provided by phone companies that are giving during invesitgations with full times and dates to help out. The messages that you see in the articles are simply modified so that it is easier for the readers to see since transcripts are on separate sheets of paper in black and white. Another false piece of info is that the messages are photoshopped. The nessages are not photoshopped. The investigative journalist from SBS as well as Dispatch have removed words from conversations to make it more appropriate for the news and articles because that is how disgusting and degrading they were. Korea's censorship laws are different from the U.S. and other western countried, so they HAVE to edit them to make it more public friendly. These messages would have never gone out if they did not change them or check their souces which they both did, so stop defending Seungri and his employee's triflin' ass messages to the 'client' by saying they were from 2015 or photoshopped. If you are going to lie and defend get your so called twitter threads correct and on the same page cause y'all look stupid. JFC I hated saying the word 'client'. I'm disgusted just typing this.

-Allkpop is not the best source in the world but it is useful when needing to summarize events, but PLEASE do NOT just go by what Allkpop says because lets face it almost everyone looks stupid by going off of what Allkpop says. Allkpop is nothing kore than an exteremely biased rumor mill with bits and pieces left out of articles.

People who are NOT involved but are due to heavy association with Seungri and Burning Sun as well as shady past- Hyoyeon (only involved because she is a DJ and she was doing a show right before the assault inccident which was 12am), Park Hun Byul (she is only invloved because her first boyfirend used to 'buy' people who prostitute. She is also involved because her CURRENT husband is someone who is under investigation for being a Pimp for Burning Sun and being close with Seungri, so as far as Park Hun Byul herself goes she is INNOCENT), Other BigBang members (yes his members are problematic, but they are not involved currently and have no association with Burning Sun.), The original victim of Burning Sun that brought the issue to light after being dragged out of the club unconciously. She has decided to drop the charges. No one knows why, but it is due to suspected bribery which is what Burning Sun is also under investigation for (Bribery, Blackmail, and Extorsion.) There are only rumors of the victim being bribed into silence and blackmailed, but the is no current official confirmation for the victim HERSELF, but there are also reported videos of other female victims and high profile clients that CANNOT be revealed right now nor will they be released to to the public anytime soon.

WHY Seungri is involved- I shouldn't have to explain this, but because people insist on being stupid and refuse to use their reading comprehension skills let me explain this quickly. Seungri is invloved because Seungri HIMSELF has claimed to be someone who is "heavily invloved" in his businesses and that he basically RUNS/OWNs the place. Yes, Seungri may not be CEO or anything like that, but he has been a main INVESTOR in the club for awhile now as well as his name being on the official website. He runs his businesses behind the scenes due to his schedule. And before some of you all say "If he is busy how can he be there abd at his schedules?" There is this thing called a PHONE and a *gasp* COMPUTER. He can easily video chat and text his employees hence the recent text messages that have been revealed. If high profile clients go to this club they can easily contact Seungri through the club manager. It is basic business. Where tf do you all think he gets all this money from besides his concerts. It has also been rported that his own MOTHER allegedly has been helping him with the club's finances at some point. Seungri is also involved because if the selfie he took with the club's Drug Dealer who provides more than just marijuana, but drugs such as E and other date rape drugs. Even though he claiked to not know her we do not know if that is true or not because there has been flimsy evidence support except the insiders' words. Needless to say Seungri is in a shitload of mess...and by mess I mean Federal Crime that can give him life in prison mess, so this isn't a joke. It is not about people being out to get BigBang. It is about women and their rights as well as their bodies being violated and taken advantage of and it is the most sick fucked up thing I havd heard since R.Kelly. That is how bad this is.

Why YGE is continously Denying everything? YGE denies everything that paonts a dark image on his company. In fact most compa ies do this, but YGE has a bad habit of being full of bs. YG himself is shady, so I personally take everything with a grain of salt, but his recent statements about Seungri and his text messages of being "fake news" is nothing more than a cop out since he is clearly in the dark about Seungri, Burning Sun, and their activities so he has no choice bit to deny it regardless of what the truth is. Not to mention he runs an entertainment company, so it would bad if he were to say what is true because this entire situation is disgusting jo katter which way you spin it since Burning Sun is tied to a CITY-WIDE PROSTITUTION RING AS WELL AS DRUG AND STING OPS. Hell, YG himself has been under investigation for his artist marijuana use alone. Not to emntion he cannot say much due to it being an ongoing and current investigation.

Overall, ttying to defend Seungri blindly and claiming he is innocent by trending hashtags is not only damaging the fanbase and Seungri even more it is damaging and hurtful to the victims involved in this case as well and other fans and bystanders who have been affected by abuse, harassment, rape, drugs and alcohol by not listening and being quick to claim being inncocent. Not to mention there are a lot of successful entertainers still on tv not becaise they were innocent, but because people did not care. That is how you all as a fandom have been coming accross. However, for those fandoms trying to use this a leverage to promote your faves and fuel your fan wars is not only dissmissive, but extremely disrespectful to everyone involved. I am not picking sides, but providing facts and what has been confirmed. It is better to listen to both sides without bias regardless if you like Big Bang or not because this issue affects how Korea views women and their rights and right now korean women have very few and that is what this scandal is about. It is about women's ri ghts, Human Rights, and extreme law breaking to the highest degree. It doesn't matter what is legal in your country and what is not becausr this isn't about YOU nor is it about people being out to get Seungri or Big Bang becaise it is not. I am not saying Seungri is guilty, but he isn't compeltely blind to all of this either. Whether he was active or is just a bystander is disgusting either way. Because if you are going to run a business your FIRST job is to make sure people are hapoy and safe and you take what ever measures need to be taken to PREVENT monstrosities such as this from happening. Either he was active in this prostitution ring or he was a neglectful business owner who doesn't care for its employees or costumers and more importantly women, so it isn't good either way. Again, there was no bias in this post. I don't have a hatred for Seungri or BigBang no matter how problematic they have been, but facts are facts and like a wise man once said "THHE TRUTH WILL SET YOUR FREE, BUT FIRST....IT WILL PISS YOU OFF" So therefore I urge everyone to see things from a non biased pov and learn to think before you react to thing and say things that will have you looking stupid.

P.S. THIS BLOG IS A SAFE SPACE THAT IS OPEN FOR DISCUSSION BUT HARASSMENT OF OTHER USERS INCLUDING MYSELF WILL NOT BE TOLERATED BECAUSE YOU WILL BE BLOCKED AND REPORTED WHEN MYSELF OR OTHER ADMINS SEE THIS. If you have any questions for me my main blog is @zozoppl and on my blog we treat people with respect, but fair warning if u disrespect me I will disrespect you right back. Golden Rule: Treat people the way you want to be treated

-Admin Z 😇💗💖

#bigbang #seungri #kpop

58 notes · View notes

jabrooks-blog · 5 years

Text

Accessing Digital Media as a Disabled person, and the benefits for all when Designing with Disability in mind

For many of us, the internet can provide an instant global network of community; which for many disabled people offers a lifeline to the outside world (MyCareSpace, n.d). A myriad of barriers can make accessing the physical world difficult for people with disabilities; from chronic fatigue to mobility obstacles. For these people the internet can offer an easier solution to environmental isolation: and yet the internet and social media comes with endless accessibility issues of their own. So what difficulties do disabled people face when attempting to access online media? And what are the consequences of this exclusion?

The primary way in which disabled people are being excluded from accessing online media is through physical inaccessibility; from the actual technology used to access media, to the online platforms. For visually impaired people, and people with auditory processing disorders, closed captions have become a critical way to access online media (Gordon-Salant & Callahan 2010). In recent months, disability activists have begun campaigning for Instagram to include closed captions, or transcripts, to their Instagram feed videos, IGTV videos and stories. As it currently stands, videos on Instagram are almost completely inaccessible to some with hearing impairments, with some users even going out of their way to purchase cliptomatic; a text on video app (“cliptomatic” n.d), just to add captioning to their Instagram stories.

[ Image description: A screenshot of Jameela Jamil using cliptomatic in a twitter video. Jameela’s Face and shoulder can be seen. She has dark long hair with a fringe, and is in the middle of saying something. At the bottom of the screen is a semi-transparent speech bubble with the text “easy if you to caption your”, which is from the software Cliptomatic.]

The fact that Instagram doesn’t have such a default as standard, and that those who are striving to be inclusive of hearing impaired individuals have to purchase such software with their own money is a primary example of digital media taking for granted an able-bodied user (Ellcessor, 2016).

While Instagram and twitter now include image descriptions, an essential accessibility option for people with visual impairments, many social platforms are yet to follow suit. The increasing popularity of gifs on sites such as twitter, are posing a new barrier to disabled people. Not only are they completely inaccessible to those who have visual impairments, but for those with epilepsy some gifs can trigger photosensitive seizures (Quito, 2018).

The ramifications of digital media and technology being inaccessible clearly has a variety of consequences for disabled people, but also as a society as a whole. When creating and upholding media that sees able-bodied users as the norm, people with disabilities can be left out of a wider part of society. With so much modern news, popular cultures, memes and easily accessible information being obtainable now days on the web, leaving disabled people unable to access digital media leaves them at a clear disadvantage. A 2013 Disability study showed that 24 percent of the New Zealand population were identified as disabled, a total of 1.1 million people (Disability survey: 2013, 2014) . This is a huge portion of people who are potentially being left out of many daily online conversations due to inaccessibility.

[Image description: an info-graphic titled Designing for users with Physical or Motor Disabilities by Home Office Digital. The left side is made up of “dos” and the right is made up of “don’t’”. Each do and don’t has an icon beside it showing an example of what to do and what not to do when designing to keep websites accessible for people with physical or motor disabilities. The do list reads-

make large accessible clickable actions The Icon beside this is of a mouse hovering over a large clickable action that reads Yes

give form fields space The icon beside shows an example of empty form spaces

design for keyboard only or speech only use There is an orange tab key icon beside this do

design with mobile and touchscreen in mind Beside this is an icon of a tablet with a hand icon pointing toward it

provide shortcuts This icon reads “postcode” below this is a large blank space with a shortcut underneath that reads “find address” in a green button.

The Don’t list reads

Demand precision This icon shows a mouse hovering over a very small circle beside the word “No”. The Circle has been selected

bunch interactions together There is an icon of a black mouse hovering over many bunch together blank typing fields.

make dynamic content that requires a lot of mouse movement There is a very colorful and convoluted icon of a black mouse hovering over a list that reads “1,2,3″. The mouse has selected 2 and another list has extended from the original list selection reading “2a, 2b, 2c”

have short time out windows There is a rectangle beside this with a orange triangle in it that has a white exclamation point in the center. This is an example of an alert that reads “ Your session has timed out”

tire users with lots of typing and scrolling There is an Icon showing two long, blank field entry point with the word address at the top. It is an example of a field entry where the user must type out their entire address. ]

Not only this, able-bodied users can also assisted by accessible technology. Adding transcripts to YouTube videos can benefit the uploader; the YouTube algorithm directly extracts keywords from transcripts helping videos appear higher up in search results. Closed captions are helpful in environments when listening to something out loud isn't always appropriate, and can make translation of videos easier (Edelberg, 2019). So many inventions we take for granted, such as the potato peeler, were designed specifically for disabled people and were adopted by the wider public for their universal usefulness, a fact disability activist Elise Roy shares in their TED talk, “When we design for disability we all benefit”.

To conclude with a quote from one of the Internets creators, Vint Cerf, “It’s a crime that the most versatile device on the planet—the computer—has not adapted well to people who need help,” (2017). In the age of information it doesn't make sense to leave behind such a large demographic of people, especially when accessibility has benefits for us all.

References

Accessibility 101 (n.d) Retrieved from https://webaccess.its.uiowa.edu/accessibility-101/who-benefits.html

All About Image Descriptions (2015) Retrieved from https://livingwithdisability.tumblr.com/post/124066767358/all-about-image-descriptions

Capture your words right on videos (n.d) Retrieved from https://www.apalon.com/clipomatic.html

Disability survey: 2013 (2014) Retrieved from https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/disability-survey-2013

Edelberg, E. (2019) 8 Benefits of Transcribing & Captioning Videos. Retrieved from https://www.3playmedia.com/2019/02/21/8-benefits-of-transcribing-captioning-videos/

Ellcessor, E. (2019). Restricted access: media, disability, and the politics of participation. Retrieved 23 August 2019, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09687599.2018.1443587

Gordon-Salant, S. & Callahan, J. S. (2010) The benefits of hearing aids and closed captioning for television viewing by older adults with hearing loss. Ear and Hearing The Official Journal of the American Auditory Society. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2820302/

My Care Space. (n.d) The Benefits of Social media for people with Disability. Retrieved from https://mycarespace.com.au/resources/the-benefits-of-social-media-for-people-with-disability

Quito, A. (2018) There’s already a blueprint for a more accessible internet. If only designers would learn it. Retrieved from - https://qz.com/1407450/theres-already-a-blueprint-for-a-more-accessible-internet/

Read, D. (2019) MARKETING TIPS How to Add Captions to Instagram Videos. Retrieved from https://skedsocial.com/blog/instagram-video-captions/

Solsman, J. E. (2017) Internet inventor: Make tech accessibility better already. Retrieved from https://www.cnet.com/news/internet-inventor-vint-cerf-accessibility-disability-deaf-hearing/

2 notes · View notes

sol1056 · 6 years

Note

When does a criticism become a valid one? There was a time where I spoke and explained why S7 and Shiro's overall treatment in the series hasn't been well received but apparently the criticisms weren't valid enough and people are just overreacting. It's fine if people like Shiro in Atlas but I still don't understand how the common criticisms for S7 aren't valid or worth thinking about when there's evidence is in the EP's writing and interviews.

At first I thought you were asking about the moral judgment between valid and invalid. After some thought, I think I know what you’re really asking: when do people grant a credibility to a critique?

Well, truth is: sometimes never.

In some ways, we’re (un)lucky enough to be fans of a series with a staff that talks an awful lot. Like easily ten times what I’ve ever seen before. And that’s before we add in random commentary from directors, storyboarders, VAs, writers, even interns. I’m kinda surprised we never heard from the guy who stocks the kitchen, too.

That’s a lot of fodder for fandom debate, and it doesn’t help when the EPs contradict everyone else and the story itself. Maybe they think controversy makes buzz, or they’re susceptible to interviewer manipulation, or maybe it’s stress and jet lag. Who knows.

All I know is it feels sometimes like people are standing in the aisles shouting at me while I’m trying to watch a movie. I’m not entirely without sympathy for the impulse to shout at the audience. It takes a lot of self-discipline to shut up and let a story speak for itself.

I’ve said this before and I’ll keep saying it: the story only exists with you in the picture. The creators bring the body; you’re the half that gives it life — and your praise or critique is also a story: you’re walking readers through your experience. Readers mix that with their own perspective, which means your reaction, by definition, now exists outside you, as much as the story exists outside its own creators.

Unfortunately, all that shouting from VLD staff has now become part of our experience of the story. And while it can be entertaining in a slightly twisted way to tug apart those often conflicting or ambiguous messages, sometimes you gotta step back and remember what’s driving the noise.

It’s each person also trying to express their experience of the story. From the showrunners down to the kid in receiving, their reactions will be as myriad as fandom’s own; they’re also people with their own varied experiences. Where it becomes a problem is anyone else insisting that this other version should somehow override yours.

And no: it doesn’t, and it never will, and it never can.

I’m not saying there isn’t an objective story: we have the transcripts, we can make gifs, we can screenshot. But we lose that objectivity as soon as we try to put a finger on what it means, because we keep forgetting that what it means should come with an addendum: for us.

So you gotta do what’s clearly given the EPs so much trouble: you accept that another’s interpretation, in the end, is their own. You gotta back off and let them have it; if they disagree, that doesn’t make your version invalid. It just means they bring different experiences to the table. You aren’t responsible for that, and it neither reduces you nor boosts you if they agree, disagree, or stick sporks in a little doll made in your image.

By the same token, your reaction — your critique or praise, your experience of the story — is also valid, full stop. New experiences down the road may change your reaction, and that’s fine, too. Sometimes it’s from experiencing another’s reactions; sometimes it’s everyday life itself teaching you a new perspective.

But, see, there’s a beautiful thing hiding in all this chaos, and it’s the real reason we get noisy about our reactions. It’s a desire to bridge the distance. It’s to hear someone say, yes, it’s exactly like that. Because that means somewhere in their experiences, they align with us just enough to have seen the story much like we did. The story reveals our common ground.

Sometimes, bridging the distance means hearing someone say, I hadn’t seen it that way but now I understand why you do. This is where critique and praise teach empathy. In hearing/reading another’s reaction, you are literally walking through the story in their shoes, seeing it through their eyes. The story reveals our common humanity.

Not everyone wants to go there. Not everyone can. For them, your critique or praise will fall short, because they can’t or won’t or just aren’t ready to hear what you’re saying. There’s a good chance they never will be, but maybe you’re not ready to hear their experience, either. It’s a difference of opinion based on a difference of experience.

There are too many factors to list for why some percentage of the fandom (or the staff itself) can’t or won’t hear your critique. Their refusal to listen does not invalidate your reactions, but it does --- to me, at least --- underscore that your reaction is all the more valuable.

In retail, we say that for every happy customer, there’s five more who are silent. For every unhappy customer, there’s fifty more. It’s so much easier to say nice/good things; it’s much harder to say, “what you did there, that hurt/made my life harder/was bad.” That’s why we pay so much more attention to the unhappy customers, because they’re the ones stepping up to let us know what we need to fix or do better. That wasn’t easy, and we should recognize that.

If you’re pointing out problems and it seems like you’re surrounded by people who insist it’s all in your head, it’s just you, you’re overreacting, that tells me two things. One, chances are better than even that some of them privately agree with you, but lack the energy, time, or confidence to speak up. And two, that you gotta look around and find your tribe. Because those insisting it’s all fine and you have no right to your reaction? They ain’t it.

Maybe someday they’ll be ready to hear what you have to say, and walk the story’s miles in your shoes to understand how it made you feel. But they aren’t there yet, and until they are, there’s no point in shouting them down.

Fandom has no governing body to grant your response credibility; even if it did, most of us would just ignore it, anyway. Our reactions --- whether praise or critique --- are valid, because they’re ours. No one, and nothing, can take that away from us.

Tell your story, build that bridge, and find your tribe. You’re not as alone as you feel right now.

#vld #voltron #fandom #critical thinking #sol thinks about stuff

50 notes · View notes