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loopy777 · 4 years

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I think it's generally accepted that ATLA's full commercial potential was never realized. Going back in time to right after the Season 3 finale, what could have been an effective "plan" for expanding Avatar's commercial footprint?

First, I feel the need to point that my only qualification for answering this question is that I’ve been a consumption-driven fan for my entire life. That makes it like asking the prey how the hunter can do a better job; I do have a certain valuable perspective, but it’s a very limited one.

So, with that in mind, I’m already wary of the given time frame. With the finale airing, it’s already too late to do anything worthwhile with AtLA. Sure, it’s been expanded with (mostly bad) comics and a (really good) novel, but even at the higher end of success, those mediums are merely stepping stones to big success. They’re not sustainable ways to keep a franchise alive by themselves, hence why Netflix is creating a new Avatar series.

So I think Nickelodeon actually had it partially right, way back when AtLA ended. A live-action movie is the next logical step, especially for that point in time. Movies expand things to a wider audience, and a live-action production will reach the people who turn their noses up at all animation. We’ve seen all the merchandise and licensing that can come with big Hollywood productions. And movies can spin things off, so we can still get more cartoons and other assorted storytelling.

Of course, that comes with the caveat to not have the movie sabotaged by racist meddling executives or a director who struggles to replicate how actual human beings interact with each other. So it goes.

And, most importantly, the movie should not be a Kids’ Movie. It should be appropriate for children and families, but it should rated PG-13 and marketed like a Marvel/Superhero/HarryPotter movie. That’s a guaranteed formula going all the way back to Tim Burton’s Batman. This, I think, is a critical component of the plan, because this is how Avatar can expand beyond its initial failure to become a viable kiddie brand.

Yes, I say that AtLA was a failure. It inspired an impassioned fanbase, but that fanbase didn’t buy the action figures or LEGO sets or birthday party paraphernalia or whatever else Nickelodeon usually sticks its brands on. AtLA inflamed the passions of teenagers and college kids, from what I saw, but its animated nature and juvenile tone was never going to make it a big hit with those demographics. Avatar is a grand work of art, but didn’t fit into a niche that could make it into a major financial engine.

A serious (for a given Marvel-like definition of “serious”) live-action movie, staring young adults or even regular adults, would be a chance to correct that. Kids and adults could both embrace it, and the marketing push of the movie would allow merch to be sold on multiple levels. As for the spin-offs, the Marvel movies again show that the market can sustain the franchise expanding into multiple mediums and targeting multiple age groups. We can have our hardcore YA Kyoshi book, stupid kiddie comics, more cartoons for pre-teens, and maybe a cable television series for adults with blood splatters and hints of naughty romance.

On the note of AtLA being a failure, I also think the movie should be a canon story about a different Avatar than Aang. Korra might have been a good candidate for that, instead of doing a cartoon with her, but perhaps a brand new character could be created. This frees the creative team from the shackles of adaptation, which is a losing game. The number of adaptations that worked for both fans and general audiences is probably less than a dozen, and this is a setting and franchise that can sustain nearly limitless expansion. By doing a new Avatar, fans will be interested in the expanded lore (especially if a tease is worked into Season 3 of AtLA, if the production starts soon enough), and new audiences can enter without anything to confuse them.

However, even with my formula here (perhaps because of my formula, since we’ve established that I have no idea what I’m talking about), the movie could fail and the merchandise becomes a staple of the $5 bins at conventions. In that case, once again, I think Nickelodeon had the right general idea by going back to the franchise’s roots with another animated series, but one aimed at an older audience. The franchise already skewed older than originally intended, the original AtLA fans would be aged up by that point, and some of them might even have disposable income by then. (Some. Definitely not the fan artists.)

The problem is that older people don’t watch Nickelodeon, and the network’s usual advertising partners aren’t interested in reaching an older audience. I think LoK – or whatever successor series happens in my scenario – should have gone to MTV or some other Paramount-aligned venue, in order to reach new audiences. LoK’s audience probably didn’t include many kids, and I doubt a whole lot of older people came to Nickelodeon for new entertainment, no matter how much “Family Friend Game of Thrones” advertising was out there. (Yes, that was a common phrase in coverage of Korra.) Streaming wasn’t really that big back then, at least outside of Netflix, so I don’t think Nickelodeon could have thrown together enough of an operation to make it a good platform for a struggling animated franchise.

(And before people object, I’m assuming that Korra failed to find much of an audience based on how Nickelodeon wound up treating it, rather than because of it. As I recall, Nick messed with its schedule until finally banishing it to online venues. Networks don’t usually do that to shows that have strong ratings. Usually. And sure, Nickelodeon could have done a better job in promoting and supporting it, but LoK didn’t have the pull to withstand a less-than-stellar handling, so would it have been a true success even with stellar handling? Remember, quality is only tangentially related to success when it comes to entertainment.)

So yeah, I think that covers it. Take Nickelodeon’s existing plan to carry Avatar up to the big storytelling mediums, change it enough so that they’re actual worthwhile creative endeavors delivered in ways that make it easy for the intended audiences to get to them, and then cash in.

But my plan does have one big flaw. I have no idea how to tell the other executives at Nickelodeon and Paramount to buzz off, and I think we’ve established that those guys are all idiots. So even my plan would probably end up sabotaged. This is why I work in computer programming and fanfic, instead of inventing the next Star Wars. People are the worst.

#cobra-diamond

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babyproductsonlineindia-blog · 5 years

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Baby Care Products Market

The worldwide Baby Care Products Market is drastically elevated, owing to extend in infant population and excessive spending capability of the folks. Baby care merchandise market is anticipated by the constructive impression of rising number of ladies within the workforce, which is accounted to be on an average of 4.1% globally over the past three a long time. Moreover, health issues of shoppers and want to purchase products at premium prices has led to the expansion of baby products market globally. The choice of child care merchandise by shopper depends upon various aspects, similar to product sustainability, value effectivity with value perceived, health benefits, and handy usage, which is additional driving the growth of the child care products market. Manufactures are selling baby hygiene with the help of authorities and NGOs, in flip is fueling the demand for child care merchandise through the forecast period. 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lozshop · 5 years

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8 Reasons Why LOZ Diamond Blocks Are Better Than Lego

New Post has been published on https://lozshop.com/8-reasons-why-loz-blocks-are-better-than-lego/

8 Reasons Why LOZ Diamond Blocks Are Better Than Lego

8 Reasons Why LOZ Diamond Blocks Are Better Than Lego

There is a Turning point in the plastic toy industry.

Lego has the brick building toy sector all sewn up, right? Wrong. Yes, they might have the headquarters, the cartoon movie, the video games and so much merchandising that you’ll bankrupt yourself trying to buy it all, but they don’t have miniature bricks. Germany toy company LOZ GROUP have found a tiny gap in the Lego-saturated market and given the world Diamond Blocks. The small-scale building kits are available in a variety of sets and themes including ‘Sites to See’ – a much better alternative to Lego’s architecture blocks – and the Brickheadz series. The donated kits build like Lego and look like Lego, but structurally are slightly different – not just in scale but their brick shapes vary too. Hard to track down and definitely addictive – here are 8 reasons why LOZ Diamond Blocks are ace and make Lego look like the money grabbing, over-priced plastic brick peddling gits that they are.

1: Money talks

How much Lego can you get for eight dollars? This is enough money for you to buy a piece of the set. For £8 or less you can take yourself a kit from the Superhero, Pokemon or Famous Buildings from LOZ Diamond Blocks series and spend about an hour happily building. Value for money! Lego kits of a similar price take approximately 5 minutes to build, and, if everyone’s honest with themselves, the cheap ones are more than a bit shit. You’ve got to be forking out some serious wedge to get anything semi-decent in the Lego world. Even a bucket full of the stuff costs $20 and is full of random bits you won’t need.

2: Size matters

So, you’re a Lego fan? I’ve got two words for you – no, not those words, these – ‘urban sprawl’. Lego takes up a lot of space. It starts innocently enough with the Simpson’s House – the gateway drug to a Lego kingdom and is a mammoth piece of Lego real-estate – and then you start eyeing up the Lego Creator series and maybe a Lego castle might just add a touch of old-fashioned charm. Before you know it you’re one of those wankers that’s forked out £25k for a loft conversion so you’ve got somewhere to display your houses made of plastic brick. No need for any of that carry-on with LOZ Diamond Blocks – each kit takes up so little space you can buy as many as you like without turning part of your house into an indecently expensive Lego shrine.

3: This Great White Shark

Reason number 3 should begin and end with this picture … Moveable jaw, fins, and tail all in glorious miniature. To build something like for like with Lego you’d definitely need a bigger boat … erm … well, the bigger house maybe. The point is, it’s a mini great white shark with moveable bits. All LOZ Diamond Blocks need to do now is make a mini Orca boat, a Chief Brody, a Quint, and some air tanks … Smile you son of a bitch!

4: You can now buy ‘adult toys’ with zero side-eye

Roaming around a Toys-R-Us without a child in-tow essentially means you’re on some sort of register before you’ve even reached the Lego aisle in most stores. Yes, we could buy our building blocks online, but we shouldn’t be outcasts because we’ve chosen to build things out of plastic instead of the alternative: Spawning 2.4 kids and dragging them around a well known out of town toy store so they can ungratefully spend our hard earned money. No, we’re far too busy actually having fun, spending our disposable income and enjoying life without the hassle of nappies, crying and sleepless nights to worry about. All that aside, LOZ Diamond Blocks are ace because they crop up in adult shops where we can freely roam without a nervous mum eyeing us disapprovingly for buying building blocks at the age of 35. They’re an adult toy that doesn’t require batteries or a trip to Ann Summers in a balaclava. For that, they must be applauded. I wouldn’t, however, suggest using LOZ Diamond Blocks as an actual ‘adult toy’ – you’ll be the talk of A&E for months if you turn up with a brick built meerkat stuck somewhere it shouldn’t be. They’ll know you didn’t ‘accidentally fall on it’. Trust me.

5: Everybody loves a challenge

Each little LOZ Diamond Blocks kit takes up anoa hour to make and the tiny wee pieces make it all the more difficult. Add to that the sometimes bewildering, yet brilliant, instructions fettered with Japanese symbols and odd diagrams and you have yourself a challenge far more difficult than anything Lego can cobble together. The pieces are so intricate that placement is key, one wrong move and the whole piece can crumble in your big old clumsy hands.

6: Colour me happy

Lego’s architecture series is just plain dull. Fact. What did we all learn that time they projected Gail Porter’s arse onto the Houses of Parliament? We learned that fusty old buildings look much more exciting with a bit of color – especially if that color happens to be in the shape of a moderately famous woman’s arse. LOZ Diamond Blocks, clearly (but most likely not) inspired by Gail Porter’s cheeks have given Big Ben and other dull

#Diamondblocks, #Loz, #Lozblocks, #Lozbricksets, #Lozdiamondblocks, #Lozminiblocks, #Loznanoblocks, #Lozshop, #Lozstore, #Miniblocks, #Nanoblocks #Reviews/Unbox #loz #lozblocks #nanoblocks #diamondblocks #miniblocks #ministreet #blocks

#diamondblocks #loz #lozblocks #lozbricksets #lozdiamondblocks #lozminiblocks #loznanoblocks #lozshop #lozstore #miniblocks #nanoblocks

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marcjampole · 7 years

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Sexualizing young girls while condemning adult-child relations: Outing Roy Moore highlights historical flip-flop

Society has made an historical flip-flop in two paired values we hold about teenaged girls, especially aged 12-16.

In the old days, there was little wrong with a 32 year old man courting a 14 or 16 year old girl. As a citizen of the 21st century, I personally find it both distasteful and weird, a signal of an immature male adult. But in the old patriarchal days, the age difference didn’t matter that much. As recently as the late 1940’s, my Syrian grandfather—born and weaned in Aleppo—married off my 16 year old aunt to a man in his late twenties.

In those days, however, the sexuality of young girls was deemphasized, especially in middle and upper class families. Their dress was more modest. In some cultures, girls were educated separately or isolated from males of all ages. In some cultures, dates were chaperoned. For the most part, only bad girls manifested their sexuality.

Our attitudes about the normalization of adult-child marriage and the sexualization of young girls have both done a complete 180 over the course of the past century, not a sharp turn, but a slowly accelerating curve. Nowadays, we rightfully frown on sexual and romantic relationships between children and adults. From at least the 1970’s onward, there might exist some relationships between girls under 16 and boys between 18-24, but no gap as wide as 32 and 14, or 32 and 17 for that matter.

Yet American mass media sexualizes young women on a daily basis. No, change that to on a nanosecond-by-nanosecond basis. By the time a girl attains 14, she has been introduced to a wide array of clothes, cosmetics, toys, books, electronic games, advertisements and movies that reduce her and other young girls to sexual objects. Sexualization begins as early as four and five for girls participating in youth beauty pageants. Fulfilling or enhancing your sexual being unleashes a literal cornucopia of needs that products and services can provide, so it is a powerful tool for marketers and advertisers. As our consumer society has advanced, so has the sexualization of women—and men to a lesser extent—of all ages.

Through much of human history, the distinction between childhood and adulthood was not as stark as it has been in the 20th and the 21st century industrialized societies. Many children worked in prior centuries and there were few if any organized groups of or for children. Society in general was much less child-centered than today, for two reasons (if my memory of reading books on the subject has not failed me): Firstly, many children died in childbirth, which hardened people to death and caused them to invest less emotional energy in their children’s lives. Just as important, however, were the more constrained economic circumstances before the industrial revolution and then the great redistribution of wealth downward in the first two-thirds of the 20th century. As people have had more disposable income, they have gradually focused more of their expenditures on their children. A contemporary Thorsten Veblen would say that we are engaging in conspicuous consumption to demonstrate how much we love our children and how well-off we are. Children have joined—and perhaps started to replace—women on the fetishized pedestal of consumerism.

Today’s society has it three-quarters right. There should be a separation between childhood and adulthood. Societies in which children are protected and adults are expected to be responsible and independent corresponds to our developmental needs as primates with a long maturation process for our progeny.

In addition, open attitudes about sex, sexuality and sexual identity lead to healthier individuals and a healthier society. But while our advances towards a society accepting of everyone’s sexuality is positive, the market-driven sexualization of young girls is not. It forces young girls to be overly concerned with their bodies at a time of life when the body is rapidly changing and before their brains have developed enough to address the multiple sophistications of sexual relations in our complex society.

Additionally, we are seeing the lines between childhood and adulthood blurring over the past twenty years. Instead of adulthood being thrust prematurely on adolescence as in pre-industrial times, youth and adolescence have been extended into the twenties and the thirties, as more and more adults retain their entertainments and predilections of childhood. I’ve recited the litany of adult infantilization many times over the past few years, most recently a few weeks back. Every year, more adults read Harry Potter and other adult fiction, watch movies about super heroes and fantasy worlds or about adult men—and now women—remaining adolescents, wear Halloween costumes to work, collect My Little Ponies and Legos, enjoy cosplay and participate in sleepovers in museums. Every year, more children remain at home or move back to live with their parents, often for economic reasons, but often also a sign of immaturity. All of these and many other cultural phenomena suggest that adults are thinking and acting more like children and that childhood is expanding to engulf part if not all an individual’s adult life.

The most telling sign that American society is becoming infantilized is that enough Americans voted for a 70-year-old infant with a child’s emotions, emotional needs, thought processes and level of education that a majority of Electoral College members could feel free to vote for him. Again, the dictates of consumer capitalism are to blame: it’s easier to convince a child to buy some shiny new, but useless, bauble than it is to convince an adult.

To be sure, our society has advanced to the point that victims feel they can come forward and identify their abusers. Coming forward of course discourages these creeps because they know in their hearts what they are doing is wrong and that, if made public, their actions will ruin their careers. Coming forward also prevents predators from becoming repeat offenders. The fall of Harvey Weinstein, Roy Moore, Kevin Spacey and all the other recently-outed prominent dirtbags gives us hope that we will soon have a society that is both non-sexist and non-sexually exploitive. That it came so soon after the election of an avowed sexual harasser and abuser only shows how much Americans were shaken by the results of the 2016 presidential election. All good.

But at the end of the day, the advances we have made in our mores through creating certain barriers between childhood and adulthood, having a more open society in sexual matters and now openly confronting sexual predators are corrupted and partial offset by our consumer-driven economy of conspicuous consumption that reduces all human experience to the buying of goods and services.

#sexualizing #objectifying #girls

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jeramymobley · 6 years

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Amazon Offers Free Shipping, Releases New Toy Catalog for Holiday Shopping

Maybe it was bound to happen. With the first $1-trillion holiday shopping season looming, Amazon is using its e-commerce muscle to put a damper on some of the seasonal joy being experienced by rival Target.

Amazon’s new broadside came not long after Target announced free two-day shipping for any purchase for the holidays on hundreds of thousands of items, which observers contrasted with Amazon’s free two-day shipping only for members of its Prime subscription service, on “hundreds of millions of items.”

Amazon will provide free shipping through the holidays, even if you’re not a Prime member https://t.co/SR5pWXNIyk pic.twitter.com/Ee3PUCuf04

— Mashable (@mashable) November 5, 2018

Now Amazon is offering free regular shipping to the general public for no minimum purchase amount in addition to its Prime offer. The new gambit can be expected to ward off Target’s attempt to eat into Amazon’s holiday online business as well as expose more American consumers to the benefits of free shipping in general—which could prompt more of them to investigate Prime membership.

Walmart, meanwhile, has been sticking with its offer of free two-day shipping on “more than 2 million items” but only with a minimum $35 purchase, which it has cut from $50.

Amazon is offering free shipping on all orders for the holidays https://t.co/rQnqfckBK6 pic.twitter.com/EWOTBy6Fig

— CNN (@CNN) November 5, 2018

All the jockeying for the favor of American shoppers right now is understandable, given the the US economy is on a high, disposable income is rising, unemployment is at record lows and the expectation of economists is for the best growth in Christmas-shopping sales in several years.

And in a throwback move to days gone by, Amazon has started mailing out holiday toy catalogs. Called “A Holiday of Play,” the 70-page printed book has dedicated LEGO, board game, plush toy and electronics sections. However, there are no prices listed—parents have to scan QR codes using the Amazon app that link to products on the e-commerce giant’s website.

Check out Amazon's first-ever printed toy catalog https://t.co/gJyCzsvFQN pic.twitter.com/x7jUnaK8fI

— WPTV (@WPTV) November 7, 2018

Meanwhile, Amazon is keeping Americans guessing on another big matter: where it will build its “HQ2” second headquarters. Latest reports are that the company has decided to split its “second headquarters” into two new sites because it needs a total of about 50,000 new tech-oriented employees, and executives fear that not even the sites that are finalists—reportedly including northern Virginia, Dallas and Long Island City—can provide enough of that type of worker.

The post Amazon Offers Free Shipping, Releases New Toy Catalog for Holiday Shopping appeared first on brandchannel:.

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hymn2000 · 3 years

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I was genuinely living my best life in 2018, (despite the horrible damp flat where we had a moth problem), and I'm honestly never going to have a time like that again, and there's a few things I didn't take full advantage of for a number of reasons, and I'm slightly regretful but have accepted them as good experiences and learning curves all round

#Can you BELIEVE I used to have like £700 disposable income a month for like eight months back then???#Which is probably how I managed to work in a different county and still commute home on public transport most weeks #And volunteer and go clubbing and buy lots of Lego and things from skinny-dip #AND go abroad THRICE and have a couple of city breaks #And still end the season with enough money to get me through four months of unemployment #Admin rambles

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zydrateacademy · 7 years

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Retrospective Review: The Entire Mass Effect Franchise

Andromeda is coming out in a week (as of this writing) and I feel like I want to revisit the franchise. I’ve done a post like this a few years ago when my blog was new but didn’t really settle in on a style and it was kind of garbage with a lot of pointless paragraph breaks. First, some quick insight. I was born in ‘89. That means I was too late to life to be considered an “80’s” kid, and the 90’s were half over before I was able to form real likes, dislikes, or memories. It’s a strange bit of flux because most of my “Nostalgia” is usually in the form of Legos as opposed to comics, games, movies, etc.

It’s a flux that’s kind of leaked into my daily life. My family is not, and never has been particularly affluent. Every extra ten dollars we find, we think “YES. A few days of gas” or “YES. Lunch money.” We’re not poor, we’ve never had a lot of room for amenities. We update our computers basically once every 5-10 years based primarily around income tax returns. Whatever hand-me-down I get from person who was able to afford their new computer, it was always better than what I had. A problem that has recently been remedied when I was employed for two and a half years as a part-time cashier still gave me enough to buy my own completely up to date computer that will last me the next five years on its own. Stick with me, I’m getting to the point. As a result of all of that, I tend to not be able to get games as they come out. Especially not games that turn into these huge franchises. A few games hold special places in my heart BECAUSE of the very fact that I was able to start with them. Mass Effect is one of those series. I started with it on the Xbox, probably borrowing it from a friend initially and playing it in bite-sized chunks before getting it used (likely bought for me like everything else was). The story starts out well. Your character (do I even really need to name them at this point?) is on the track to becoming a Spectre, a sort of special service agent for the entire alien government. During the screening process, another Spectre goes rogue and the entire game is building up a sort of power base against him while discovering a secret of the universe that may lead to the death of everyone in it. Damn. Ramped way the hell up, didn’t it? I suppose that’s fine, as studios don’t exactly expect all their games to shoot off the way they do sometimes. Mass Effect was good for its time. A fairly basic shooter with some RPG elements, in the older days where putting a point in your skills increased damage by 4%, and other things like that. It was incremental, but it had a cool idea based around a boring mechanic. Every few levels in the huge variety of skills you had at your disposal, you’d get a new ability or some kind of boost. Put enough points in “Fitness” and you’d unlock an ability called Immunity, an active ability that reduced taken damage by a flat rate for a few seconds. It’s interesting how the following two games basically dropped that idea, gave you the same 4-5 abilities (that vary per class), called it a day, and just built everything around those. It made the second game a certain kind of boring because every playthrough was effectively the same. You hotkey your main one or two attacks and just shoot stuff when it’s on cooldown. The second game’s story went sideways rather than forward, a point against its favor when looking back at the series as a whole. It continues, presumably a few months after the events of the first game and your ship gets shot out of space and Shepard literally dies immediately. In the introductory sequence establishes that you were picked up by the Cerberus organization and basically rebuilt like goddamn Robocop. I was expecting a “We have the technology!” type dialog but alas, we were deprived. Cerberus was an organization briefly mentioned in some tiny fetch quest in ME1 when you discover a small outpost had been husk-ified. To their credit, this definitely tied into what they would end up doing en masse in ME3 but we’re getting ahead of ourselves. They come to ME2 full force as Shepard is more or less forced to work with them when the mere association makes the alien council backpedal their support for Shepard, whom they presumed dead. As a result, you don’t see a lot of them in ME2. The whole story culminates in fighting a sort of human-based reaper that the collectors (who you later discover were reaper-possessed Protheans. Christ this series is weird) have been building by harvesting human colonies just on the edge of the government’s jurisdiction. Because of this they refuse to respond to the abductions and Shepard joins Cerberus to figure out this mystery and solve it. With bullets. Or whatever the hell comes out of guns in this universe. Something something mass effect fields. The entire game is basically the Dragon Age 2 problem all over again. It feels like it takes place in a single setting even though it doesn’t. It’s mostly padding. Half the game is loyalty missions as you run around to make sure your minions are happy enough with their lot in life, so they’re suicidal enough to do the suicide mission at the end but not suicidal enough to shoot themselves on the Normandy because they’re just not quite sure their father is still alive or not. I never liked this aspect of the game. Every where I turned, someone on my team was whining about something that barely mattered in the grand scheme of things. You could argue that settling their business gives them enough drive and morality to survive the mission at the end. If they didn’t have the morale, maybe they would be too sad to move out of the way of certain bullets. I get that, morale is a huge thing and I suffer from the gain and drain of it on competitive multiplayer games. I feel it, but it’s exhausting to try and manage it across a 20 to 40 hour game. Especially since the mechanics were dumbed down as I alluded to earlier. In the end, ME2 barely matters on a story standpoint and mostly served to update the graphics, systems, and mechanics from the first. To that end, they did fine. ME2 looks fine, even by today’s standards. In a more combat-oriented game, ME2 functions as a successor. This brings up to ME3. It opens up about a full year after the events of the second game, where Shepard is being punished for their actions in the Arrival DLC of ME2. Never got around to doing that DLC? Tough shit, as they reference it throughout the entire first act of the game and even later when you meet a Batarian on his deathbed. I played through it maybe once and I still don’t really understand what happened or why it was my fault, but there you go. Basically, in the second scene the reapers attack and fucking finally, the goverment lets Shephard get their best murder on and fly out to kick some actual ass. This is even lampshaded by Legion (a Geth teammate you acquire in late-game ME2) who told their own people that the reapers were coming and were believed immediately and began prepping. “Must be nice”, Shepard says. Indeed. The entire game is spent gathering war assets for the finale of the series. The more you have, the better it goes on a story standpoint. If you scrape for every asset you are capable of, there will be less loss of life. More soldiers on the field, more field assistance, and generally a slightly less bleak atmosphere (which is still pretty goddamn bleak). The mechanics are a crisper version of ME2′s. You still only have 4-5 main abilities to use per class but the leveling system is a bit more nuanced and more in-depth than before, which edged towards ME1′s style without being too stupidly gratuitous like adding 4% to damage. They saved that for actual gun modifications. The cover system has remained through the entire franchise (As it will continue in Andromeda) and it mostly serves to give you shield recharge while reloading your gun and not much else. Mass Effect 3 is probably my favorite of the entire franchise. Some are beholden to the first game as classic nostalgia, and I don’t know many who talk about 2 very much. However mostly decry the third game for its flawed ending and I chalk that up to a PR misunderstanding, or just bad wording on Bioware’s part. See, the sting mostly comes from when they claimed that “Oh the ending won’t be a simple A, B, C matter...” That’s exactly what it became. In the end you had the choice between destroying ALL synthetic life, taking control of the reapers for yourself and effectively fusing your consciousness with them, or if you gathered enough assets, full on synthesis. This basically fuses organic life with synthetic code, making everyone a sort of hybrid and thus rendering the Reaper’s flawed logic completely moot, and they fuck off into the void of space all over again. However for those who actually watched the endings, with the help of the extended cut, there’s a lot of nuances that that simple choice does not immediately seem apparent. In the extended cut you can see the multitude of your choices play out. Did you cure the genophage? You witness the rebirth of Tuchanka and see it get rebuilt in grand buildings with Krogan mothers celebrating their children. What did you do about the Geth/Quarian conflict? You see the results of that as well. Yes, the ending decision did boil down to an ABC choice but the ramifications of a few choices that you made since the first game still absolutely had an effect. A mass effect, if you will (please kill me). Ultimately I feel like there’s a lot more to do in ME3. I’ve played it for a few hundred hours, changing something big every time I do it. I take on a different lover, I switch sides and sabotage the genophage (which I will never ever do again because holy shit). I hop between Paragon and Renegade because it’s fun to watch the world change before my eyes as I decide to murder people that I would not otherwise have done. I do run out of things to do however as the level cap is 60, and if you’ve imported a ME2 save you’re probably already level 25-30 so it takes a single playthrough to max out. After that point, doing NG+’s only change a bonus power and maybe you can fiddle around with different weapon types and adjust playstyles. Which I did often. While I wrap this up with a sort of game-by-game summary, I want to give an honorable mention to ME3′s DLC, The Citadel. It’s often considered the ‘true’ ending to the series and is my personal headcanon post-final battle regardless of lives lost. It takes place on the Citadel (obviously) while most of your crew is on shore leave while the Normany gets cleaned up as it presumably does every time you dock anywhere across the franchise. Shepard’s life is never simple as it turns out there’s a plot against their life and must scramble to figure out another mystery. It’s an incredibly funny DLC with a ton of humor and mostly acts as a tone-shifting breather for the general “We’re all fucked” aura the game mostly gives you. It even ends on a “We’re all in this together” high note with most of your crew (And some from ME2 come back!) overlook a beautiful view while in the titular Citadel. So. We’ve reached the conclusion with my overarching thoughts on the franchise as a whole. It’s good. It’s an experience, and I highly recommend playing through it because there’s a lot to talk about. I’ll give a basic rundown. Mass Effect 1: Fine game, but has not aged well on a visual standpoint. Story is perfectly solid and moderately self-contained without originally relying on a whole franchise to carry it. RPG elements are excessive and each individual upgrade doesn’t feel like it does much until the higher levels. Mass Effect 2: Basically sidesteps its predecessor. Weak story that takes the plot nowhere but with crisper, actionized mechanics and less inventory menus to worry about. Mass Effect 3: Is the culmination of everything they learned from the last two games. More nuanced RPG systems that seem like a middleground between 1 and 2. Story comes to a solid conclusion, and I don’t agree with all the constant whining about how the endings ruined the entire game for some people. Grow up. I’m sure the game has some kind of anthology pack you can buy on sale at this point and I’d recommend giving it a go. If you’re a newcomer to the franchise, be prepared to set aside anywhere from 50 to 200 hours between the three games. If not, Andromeda takes place between the events of 2 and 3 while taking place in a completely different galaxy and will very likely only slightly reference the previous games. There’s the occasional nod, like you meet a sibling of the Turian female in Omega. Other little nods like that but it won’t be necessary to go through all three to enjoy the full experience of Andromeda. Can’t wait!

#Mass Effect #mass effect: andromeda #Andromeda #Bioware #EA Games #Electronic Arts

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drscotcheggmann · 7 years

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The Value is in the Aesthetics: the Art of the Pokémon TCG

New Twitter account: @ArtofPokemonTCG

Hi guys. So here we are. An account dedicated to celebrating the art of the Pokémon Trading Card Game. The idea for this channel was primarily born from my love of, well, the Art of those lovely little rectangles of cardboard (that’s my wife’s description, substituting the word lovely for pointless) that we like to cherish. Some of said pieces of cardboard can even be special, sparkly ones (that’s what I tell my wife as an unexpected package drops through the letterbox and I try to justify spending more than I perhaps should have).

Despite having dabbled in the Online Trading Card Game on and off, I’m not much of a player. I prefer to collect. It all started back in 1999 with Base Set when I was about 12 years old and the Pokémon craze craze swept my school and every other school in Britain. But while I’d like to say I’ve been collecting ever since, the reality was that Pokémon just wasn’t seen as ‘cool’ when heading into your mid to late teens. And thus began my, what adult Lego fans call, Dark Age. But darkness can only have relevance in relation to light and the light was to make a brilliant return in my early 20s when I picked up Pokemon Diamond for DS. It was like picking up where I’d left off with an old girlfriend (my girlfriend at the time wasn’t happy when I described it like that)! But my itch to climb back into card collecting wasn’t scratched until about a year ago. The initial excitement of opening a booster pack came rushing back, followed by a pang of regret at not having the foresight to keep all of my old cards, but the elation at realising I had about 18 years worth of sets and expansions to wade through on eBay. To date there have been 74 total sets/expansions released with the 75th and 76th expansion of the current set due to be released before the end of the year. If we take the cards in those sets plus promos, the TCG now has nigh on 10,000 unique cards, give or take a few for reprints etc. (If anyone knows the precise figure, I’d love to know). Of course, there was no way in hell I was going to collect all of them, as

a) I’m a collector, not a completionist and b) I’m not rolling in cash.

The latter of the two arguably dictates how true the first is. Maybe if Pokémon cards were £0.50 per pack, I might be a completionist. But sadly they’re not that cheap; the reality is that this hobby has if anything become more and more expensive since my glory days in school. Booster packs, booster boxes, collection boxes, pin badge boxes, booster packs, elite trainer boxes. That’s a few hundred quid in that last sentence! Spending is a huge part of collecting in any hobby, but especially in this one. The rarest cards can fetch hundreds of pounds; the extremely limited Pikachu Illustrator Trainer card fetched more than £44,000 at auction. That’s an extreme example. Even if you’ve not got £50k kicking around, gathering dust in your bank account, a well looked-after Base Set Charizard could cost you in the region of £50 these days on the secondary market (shamefully, I traded mine for a holo Scyther after school one day; the excitement upon the release of the Jungle set led to a few silly decisions!) A sought after full art card, depending on rarity and set, can go for a more modest but by no means insubstantial £15 to £20.

So what’s all of this got to do with what this account is setting out to do: celebrating the Art of the Pokémon TCG? Well, there’s much more to collecting Pokémon cards than investment. Arguably, there is just as much enjoyment to be had from this hobby, regardless of whether you have your monthly pocket money to spend or have a full time job that affords you a little disposable income. Actually, I’ll retract part of that statement: Not arguably. Definitely. Regardless of value or rarity, all of the cards that you pull from your £3.99 booster pack are bound by one thing: the love that the illustrators pour into their design and presentation. I’ve always loved the artwork and aesthetics of other media. I’m no stranger to a video game art book and so Pokémon TCG was no different. The owner of my local card shop (sadly now closed as of yesterday) used to even keep a few cards aside for me, just because they might be of interest to me from an aesthetic point of view, and not just for his own commercial gain. But it was on one afternoon in particular that this idea of celebrating the art of the TCG really took root. Following a long spell of not having bought any boosters (13 packs of Burning Shadows in a row without a GX, Full Art or better had left a more than bitter taste in my mouth), I impulsively bought a Break Point blister pack. Blisters are not renowned for their good pulls but it was nicely reduced and I had my mind fixed on one of the many Full Art Mewtwos in that set. Nothing beats the thrill of breaking the seal on a booster, doing the card trick and seeing what happens. But there’s also no worse feeling than pulling three packs of absolute crap, which is exactly what happened. Feeling just that bit more bitter and remembering afresh why I had decided to stop buying booster packs, I decided to pick up my £9 worth of nothing and flick through what I’d pulled. Might as well get my money’s worth, I thought.

That was the moment.

I stopped to actually look at some of these cards more closely: the commons, uncommons, the non holo rares; all cards I would’ve rashly skipped over on my way to see if that elusive EX of any description lay hidden at the back of the pack. But while only lowly common and uncommon cards, some of these were nothing short of stunning with so much care and attention given to render them so vividly and really bring each Pokémon to life. The bitterness subsided and gave way to sadness. Not a '£9 down the drain’ type of sadness but one that spoke of booster pack openers across the world doing exactly the same as me and not giving the lesser cards the attention and love they deserve. And they do deserve it, since their illustrator no doubt devoted just as much attention and love to their design as they hoped we would pour into appreciating them. And I know for one that that doesn’t always happen. The most damning example of this is a recent feeling of disappointment I experienced at only pulling a rare holo from a pack. That was another big moment since I started collecting again. A stop moment. Way back when Base Set fever was sweeping every playground in the land, holos were the pinnacle. I remember being so proud to own my 1st edition Machamp holo, which was dime a dozen since it came in a starter deck. But it was a cool card and I whooped at pulling it as part of the Evolutions reprint again almost 18 years later. So, to go from this to now resenting a holofoil card, just because it wasn’t the EX, GX or Hyper Rare I was craving. It seemed that somewhere along the way a perversion of values had taken place as to what constitutes true satisfaction from a set of pulls. Value, rarity and status had trumped the true value of aesthetics. I know there is some crossover there too though: an ultra rare card can also be truly stunning. I’m not going to lie and say that I now throw all of my ultra rares in the corner because 'look at the pretty colours on this Caterpie’. I have many Full Arts and a few Hyper Rares which I really love. But my point is this: let’s not ignore the Magikarps, the Polywags, the Hoot Hoots, the Mudbrays just because of their circle or diamond symbol. Stop and have a closer look. Think about how someone somewhere thought to capture this particular Pokémon in this particular pose, on this particular backdrop and that that person was fortunate enough to have their work placed on a card for the world to see.

To quote Novellist Julian Barnes:

“Art belongs to everybody and nobody. Art belongs to all time and no time. Art belongs to those who create it and those who savour it.”

Never have truer words been spoken. My hope in creating this account is to celebrate the art across the entire TCG; not only cards across generations but also from Commons to Hyper Rares, not celebrating their status as such but rather what our senses first latch onto above all else: their aesthetic value. I hope to do this through posting pictures, offering personal reflection on selected cards while also inviting you to share with me your highlights from the TCG.

Thanks for reading and enjoy. Please follow, like and retweet. Spread the word. Art belongs to everyone. Pokémon can too. And you don’t even have to catch 'em all to do it!

#pokemon #Pokemontcg #pokemoncollector

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topicprinter · 5 years

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TL/DR at the bottom. Thank you in advance for your suggestions.I am a retired police officer (I became chronically ill after the birth of our son and had to retire from law enforcement 8 yrs ago). At the time, my only option was to allow my house to foreclose because it was in an area with MANY foreclosures (SW Florida) & we were unable to find a buyer for a very long time. I recieve disability and am unable to work physically because of my chronic condition.My husband was a web design/ programmer, making around 80k before the company he worked for folded, which pushed him to start out as a lighting & sound engineer. After a short stint doing events, he got heavily involved in the installation side of technology, and he's now making upwards of $200/hr between installing & programming systems & equipment.He was an independent contractor, but now he's gotten in on the ground floor with a friend's business- the entire business is in the friend's name, but my husband is an intregal part (the business couldn't run w/out his knowledge & abilities). They are doing very well and picked up multiple HUGE contracts for chains of businesses- currently they are working on 180 new vet clinics accross the US and that's only one of many.We live with extended family & have very few bills; no mortgage, no rent- just a single car payment, insurance, our phones. We help out with electric/gas, etc- but the bulk of the household bills are my parents (who we share the house with)- my husband maintains thier vehicles, we renovate and care for the house and they pay the bills.Our only major expense is that we are currently paying for three storage units a month- $1100 total- for a MASSIVE collection of Lego and Lego related products that I've been collecting for many years. This collection has been my way of working towards the business I want to start.The Business; My goal has always been to open a Lego related business consisting of multiple parts;-A new & used Lego shop selling everything from current items, to custom printed parts, build-your-own figures, bulk brick, specialized parts, etc etc etc.-A model building studio- where adult Lego model builders can come work in a place with a massive parts library- (both professional builders who do commission work- artists who work in Lego - as well as hobby builders who work on large complex builds but may not have a place at thier home to work on or store thier builds.)A large museum-like display area w/ interactive exhibits, activities- with large walk-through displays, building challenges, the history of Lego (and displays of many classic themes and sets throughout the ages).Classes & clubs for kids (after school, summer camps, scouts & home school groups)- Based on robotics, engineering, team building, creativity, etc. (As well as birthday parties)We also want to have entertainment based area, themed to Lego- Car ramps where you can build & race your builds. Challenges where you can try to solve puzzles using Lego- an indoor "Lego" Minigolf course where you can experiment with changing the design of the course was/ obstacles similar to giant Legos...-A secure storage area where adult collectors can store thier Lego collections (built, unbuilt, boxed, etc)- because many people have HUGE collections but not enough room at home to store them (and storage facilities are NOT ideal temp and settings for these type of collections).& Finally (but also most importantly)- We are HEAVILY involved in two charities that we have been running(not official 501c3 corporations)- For 5 years, we've been running Project Christmas- adopting local families in need at Christmas & providing everything the families need (5 years old, last year we helped 64 families with 119 kids). We also run a charity that creates custom Lego kits for kids and adults suffering from health issues, chronic pain, etc- and delivers them to families in domestic violence shelters, children's hospitals, etc.We have the entire business EXTREMELY well planned out, we have a focus-group online that has both volunteered to help with the set up and opening, but has been heavily involved in the ideas & planning of the business. We own nearly everything necessary for the inside of the business... Including displays, shelving, signage, promotional & decorative Lego related displays, and all of the Lego necessary for the massive displays, the new & used Lego shop, the model building studio, etc etc etc.What we don't have- is a location for the business. Although my husband makes GREAT money- we don't have any real organization when it comes to our income, and neither of us have fantastic credit thanks to young mistakes. (Mine is all paid-off, with no outstanding debt- and he's been steadily clearing up about $13k in remaining student loans).I have no idea how one goes about starting a business that needs a $300,000 warehouse-like building, and affords to hire contractors to do a $40,000 build-out. (this is approximately the costs we've come up with, through our research).If I continue paying $1200 a month in storage unit fees- I'm throwing that money away. And yet- I need the contents of the storage units to open the business. I'd like to move everything into a rental property and start with SOME of the ideas, growing the business to another location or expanding in the same location if we're able. We contacted a local owner of a 12,000 sq foot building with fantastic road-frontage, a huge parking lot, just minutes from our house- asking if we could possibly rent PART of the building, and then expand as we grow... Because the entire warehouse has sat empty for more than 15 years......but the owners response was that they "would really rather focus on selling it". I can't imagine we could EVERY get a $3000 a month mortgage with our credit & my husband's being self employed. - even if we DID get the mortgage, at $3000/m, we wouldn't be able to afford to improve/build out the empty warehouse. We were really disappointed that they weren't interested - and that they'd rather have it sit empty (it's been through 3 realtors with zero inquiries besides us in more than 10 years).We live in an area with an ABUNDANCE of mixed use space, but this building was really IDEAL in location for our needs.Anyway- I have absolutely no idea how people get started when they have a passion project that they want to turn into a real business. We need to stop throwing away money in storage fees every month- and I genuinely want to move everything into one place, and turn my hobby into an actual business. We have a TON of support from the Lego community, we live in a major suburb of a huge City, and the support for our idea is VERY BIG.... I just don't know where to start.For years, I have been amassing all of the products & display items, retail fixtures, signage- literally everything necessary to open the business - we have it all. Just no place to actually open.Your suggestions, comments and feedback are very much appreciated. I am in no way,.a business major, and I can't thank you enough for your patience with my LONG post.TL/DR; Our family has a huge hobby/project that we believe could be a very successful business- we just have no idea how to transition or get started. We have a good amount of disposable income, but that income fluctuates vastly bc my husband is self employed, and our personal credit is not good (but it IS improving.) Without an investor to start us off with a large sum - I have no idea how to move forward with starting our business. Thank you <3

#/r/smallbusiness #reddit

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indigo-ra · 7 years

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Application for Enlightenment

OIL

If man is truly the master of his domain, then we should not be fighting over resources at this juncture of humanity. While I cannot say that oil/petroleum/gasoline is unimportant to our current economic structure, I can say that the dependence on it is easily replaced.

I would like for the entire world to enter an enlightened state of consciousness, starting with world leaders and their corporate counterparts alike. If we are to continue to rely on petroleum for fuel, we need to be cautious of pollutants and considerate as to how we procure them. If this is executed with tact and the utmost respect for life and nature, then it really is not a problem at all.

The biggest issues are underscored in continuing conflicts with the suppliers of this particular economy. They rely on the trade of oil to bring water to their deserts. If you can step outside of your own ego and put yourself in the mind of your enemy, understand the type of life, history, land and culture they’re fighting for, you will realize that hubris has no place in treaty negotiations.

The issue with pollution is that there are not enough trees to scrub the air. Solution: Plant more trees. Make the roofs of all the buildings into canopies. There should be bushes, cacti, bamboo, flowers or grass EVERYWHERE THAT THEY CAN GROW!

Now that we’ve figured out how to filter the dirty air, lets tackle the soil and water.

If the soil and water are irreversibly contaminated, humanity’s true natural wealth in resources will be damaged and depleted beyond repair.

WATER

There are natural ways for filtration of rivers and lake water with charcoal stones, mussels, insects and certain bacterium. That’s not a band-aid, though. We, first, need to actively clean up our rivers and lakes to the best of our evolved human ability BEFORE we introduce other means to filter the water.

I strongly believe that our sewage should not touch our water. PERIOD. It’s been this way for nearly 1,000 years, but since we’re evolved enough to realize it and technologically advanced enough to CORRECT it, it would be better for the whole of humanity to not sh*t where we drink. We could gradually taper off the traditional plumbing system and septic tanks with an organic, compost-making alternative. Just getting organized is the key to saving the entire world. Excrement does not belong in the water. It belongs in the soil.

When you are a child and your parents make you clean your room, you know to put things away, where they belong. That does not change as an adult. You are expected to know better and, though the task seems monumental, there are ways to delegate and make the transition. I know it’s possible because when all analog TVs switched to digital, it was a smooth transition.

While I do realize all the toilets are connected to intricate and complex subterranean sewage and waste pipes and drains, the solution is as simple as swapping out the toilets themselves. There are composting toilets now. Though, not everyone likes that alternative, the market is open to inventing other types of flushing toilets that to do not taint our WATER!

Of course resistance within the general population will be met, but just as EVERY TV signal eventually turned digital. The toilets will eventually gradually stop flushing to the sewers. The parts to replace them will no longer be made or sold and the only market for them will be for composting and other varieties that will just make that plumbing hole in the floor obsolete. It’s simple.

After that, the water, will be half clean before it even reaches the treatment facility. From there, exercising conscious disposal and recycling practices with solids, alkaloids, chemical and synthetic materials becomes as simple as sending out 2 different garbage trucks. One truck picks up the synthetics (plastics, batteries, cleaning solvents and everything inorganic) for disposal (nuclear disposal byproduct is steam!) OR drilling a magma quarry and letting it be melted down into its basic elements( probably less safe if stuff is super flammable….(come back to this)

Fracking needs to stop. It’s too toxic to justify. If the need for natural gas and oil is great enough to drive the need for fracking then we need to rely on other renewable and eco-conscious energy sources such as wind turbines, solar panels and geothermal energy. Car engines can be designed of intricate cogs that are entirely automated like wind-up toys. Until a time comes that coal is not the primary source of electricity, electric cars are still relying on a secondary pollutant for power.

SOIL

Pesticides are the main culprit in polluting the soil. For large, major crops like corn, oranges, and apples it is the most cost efficient way to prevent pests like mice, birds or locusts from overtaking the crops. BUT there are other solutions. Like, ants, snakes, frogs and foxes. Chemicals are not the answer to every little thing. There are flora and fauna that are evolved to do things even better than chemical agents and you don’t even have to pay them.

I’m sure there are natural pesticides that don’t contaminate the soil as well. SO let’s focus on making that the standard.

CRIME

Wherever there is a concentrated, population of humans, crime will follow. Generally, most crime occurs when a criminal is discontent and trying to fulfill or satisfy a basic need or desire. The best way to minimize crime and discourage criminal activity is by creating a thriving economy where all basic needs are met.

Low or no income individuals should always have shelter to sleep, a place to cook, wash(clothes) and bathe. Public Shower/Laundromats with outside seating and grilling areas should do the trick. And as for the shelter (Tubo hotel) Concrete tubes with basic bedding. All of this should be free of charge (mostly) because the laundry facilities may need regular maintenance so if it’s possible there could be an aluminum can and glass bottle recycling at the door, which can cover the cost of entry and allow full use of the facilities. 50 cents or even a dollar is attainable in pennies, cans or bottles. That’s in addition to taxpayers money, of course, which, in the case of lowering crime rate is a worthy cause to pay.

For individuals who make less than is sustainable in urban areas. Low income, manufactured freight car homes should be organized in LEGO rental parks that give special rental discounts to students, seniors, disabled, and hard-working, blue-collar people who have goals and ambitions to advance their living standards.

[ Freight container mobile home park community]

Because of their mobile and utilitarian design, the Freight container home is infinitely customizable. For those who prefer more a nomadic lifestyle, these tiny traveling homes could serve as a key component in a more independent economy and provide the opportunities for fair trade to be cultivated within its communities. Because the population will be mostly low income students/workers/families, anyone who can work, but is unemployed for any reason will be able to work in the community greenhouse(s) maintaining and growing the crops that feed its inhabitants.

Of course, creating a supply and demand for cheap, sustainable and eco-friendly housing is the key to the beginning of this endeavor.

[Apt building with freight container homes loaded in]

Once every one has a home, crime rates will fall, but it is always a possibility for Crazy Daisies to pop up in the genetic pool, like weeds.

Mental Health

As it currently stands, the mental health facilities and practices funded by the government are extremely poor. Even private institutions are comparable in their poor treatment of the mentally ill. It’s uncomfortable to talk about, especially when more and more people are ending up homeless and living on the street, because of their mental instability.

Therapy, psychiatry and social work are all fields that inevitably take a toll on the mental stability of its practitioners. The stories and situations of the patients, objectively, leave their marks on the listeners, albeit less detrimental. Over time, anyone would crack, if subjected to this on a daily or weekly basis for years at a time.

Healthy mental health professionals will result in healthier, more productive mental patients, or at the very least more accurate diagnoses and facility placements.

I think all mental health professionals should be tested and reviewed by an unbiased third party annually to gauge their mental fitness and determine whether they are fit to continue their practice. We can succeed in this by sending mole patients (like undercover detectives) to see them in action without them actually knowing they are under scrutiny. This will weed out the corrupted and support the efforts of the best practitioners with awards, accolades and milestone achievements encouraging them to keep up the good work. But ALL of these professionals should be removed after a period of time (to curb unhealthy patient/doctor attachment) and promoted to more administrative or corporate level positions, where mental instability still exists, but the causes are different and building from the bottom of the economical ladder UP, will qualify them to handle a plethora of mental and emotional conditions while still advancing pay, benefits and gradually addressing higher and higher socioeconomic classes of patients.

Prison

Prison is a necessary part of society to maintain a civil population. The rising trend of corporate prisons is alarming, because they are not federally regulated to meet government standards, nor do they care to understand what it takes to run a mass facility manned by people who were prosecuted under the law/public, yet are now subjected to private corporate slavery. It COSTS more money to run a prison than to profit from one. But there is a much larger hierarchy that needs to be reorganized before the penal system can be perfected.

#1 The Judicial due process of law should not be a debate club. Right now, lawyers just tell the best stories to sway juries (who are all oblivious, disgruntled spectators) to land on a verdict. It’s like a pinball table. Once a person is in that courtroom, the odds of coming out of it free and clear are slim, just by design.

Judge jəj/

noun

a public official appointed to decide cases in a court of law.

If a jury is important to due process, the judge should hold much more responsibility than they currently do. At this point, they act as little more than a referee between the lawyers and unfortunately, the more aggressive the lawyer, the better their reputation.

Sitting in court for long hours is boring and irritating for everyone involved except for the person(s) on trial. The jury will take any entertainment they can get, and I hate to say it, but people are more prone to conforming to a hive mentality when subjected to these types of displays.

[Examples: Sports and other competitive events, Spectators when traffic slows to a crawl when there are accidents on the highway]

When the majority of a mass of strangers land on a verdict, in the rare incident that a minority percentage of them do not agree, they are more LIKELY to end up being swayed to the majority opinion for entirely selfish reasons of convenience. Being FORCED to take off work and sit in a boring court room all day, listening to strangers tell the same story over and over again, is not a great way to get an unbiased opinion from anyone, especially if they care nothing about the individual on trial!

If nothing else, at least one person who is close to and knows the defendant and one person who represents the victim/plaintiff, should be in that jury. THEY should be the ones who negotiate the terms of the verdict and sentence/punishment with the jury and give the final suggestion to the judge. Otherwise, get rid of the jury. If a judge were to do their actual job by dictionary and biblical definition that you like to operate under oath and swear by, they need more practice in “judgment”. Perhaps even a jury of judges would be more appropriate, since a practiced judge can tell the difference between an innocent or guilty person as soon as they enter the room. I believe a lot of prisoners serving long term stints in prison for minor offenses will be granted more amnesty, fitting punishments and better facility placement dependent on the nature of their crimes rather than treated like clusters of zoo animals. If judges were more like Shark Tank or American Idol, it would make more sense. I hate to say that, but the dramatic display between lawyers at this point is just as ridiculous. There’s just less confetti. Maybe you should add confetti and balloons when they’re proven innocent and everyone will leave court with a smile on their face, because judicial stuff is a drag!

Juvenile, Minimum Security, Maximum Security, and Mental Institutions, cover the main placements of incarceration. They could be better organized, though. For instance, violently criminally insane people don’t fit in any of these places. They belong in Hell. But for the sake of being civilized, I don’t think caging or locking up a person who has no hope for rehabilitation is an option either. It’s a waste of money, resources, and a hazard to prisoners and guards alike, not to mention the quality of life for a person who is constantly restrained is no life at all. Some people need to be put out of their misery, which brings me to my next point.

Ethical Euthanasia/Fight or Die

A lot of states have gotten rid of the Death Penalty because they may feel it is uncivilized, outdated or primitive, but only their execution methods were. Death by lethal injection is still pretty rude, since even cats and dogs get put to a calm sleep. I strongly believe criminally insane people driven by their id (the disorganized part of the personality structure that contains a human's basic, instinctual drives.) are more animal than human. To me, it seems fitting that we have some fun with these, since they are cause for more pain and suffering in a string of families lives who have lost loved ones to murders, rape and kidnappings, can count. If you want to just delete an anomaly of human being, by all means, put them down. But do it quickly and ethically. Personally I think that’s a little too tame of an end for these types of criminals and I think they should, instead, be subjected to the untamed elements they project and forced to fight for survival. If their life is worth anything to anyone, they must at least prove it to themselves.

I’m talking spectator bloodsport.

It’s really quite logical if you think about it. The Romans had the Coliseum, and that worked pretty well up until they began throwing innocent people into it. We could make Hunger Games type courses, put a tracking device on them and drop a bunch of these wild murderous, rapist, cannibalistic predators on the top of Mt Everest or something with each other and see how they respond. It will also tell us more about the psyche of such individuals. This is the part of the criminally insane mind that has socially eluded us for generations. We, as civilized people tend to take a passive stance on the aggressive transgressions of serial murderers by turning our backs on them and locking them away. Or we deal a tawdry death sentence without ever unraveling what makes them so evil and driven in the first place. We are now in a time where we can actually privately televise and monetize these types of events, in which the proceeds could be given to the victims’ families.

Placing them in the proper wilderness settings with blunt objects or tools and watching whether they can learn how to be civilized or fight to the death would be entertaining AND educational. Either way, the information is invaluable to ending the cycle of these types of criminals from cropping up in the first place.

We have to also remember to remain civilized ourselves. We can indulge in this only for as long as it is a necessity; but I have faith that seeing what the darkest and most evil transgressors of humanity, have to endure as a result, will eventually be enough to stop it from happening. At the very least it may even create other bloodsport arenas in which these types of animals can express themselves (death matches and cage fights to the death, maybe with motorcycles and lead pipes in a Mad-Max dystopian sand pit or something) so that they even have a way to rise to some meaningful notoriety in their short, otherwise meaningless, lives is better than them kidnapping, raping and murdering innocent people. Some people place minimal value on their own lives, but if we allow them to do that, instead of trying to place the same existential “all lives matter” label on everyone, they will only hurt themselves and each other instead of the truly innocent lives of people who do value theirs.

What you are left with after that, is prisons that eliminate the need for life OR death sentences, as well as a variety of punishments that fit the crimes so that we rehabilitate criminals instead of creating recidivists, because they are bad for businesses everywhere!

For Example:

Tony is a 21-year-old white male who broke and entered into a house and stole a bunch of jewelry and sold it to the pawn shop for drug money.

Today if this person was caught and indicted, depending on the state, judge, jury, and prosecutor, Tony could end up in jail for a VERY long time or not at all depending on if they’re dealing with a good-ol-boy racist white supremicist on the legal board. The racial bias in anyone who has a hand in legal proceedings makes them unfit for that duty and they should be terminated. End of story.

But the point is, there is no set length of time that is guaranteed to rehabilitate this 21 year old poor kid who got addicted to drugs while hanging out with the only people who ever treated him like family since his own parents abused and emotionally abandoned him.

Each individual’s story is as unique as their crimes, and the judicial system is prone to vehemently ignoring the circumstances that drive people to doing crime in the first place by locking them away from civilized humanity and making them worse off than when they went in. When they finally re-emerge back into the world with no prospects or options, of course they will return to the same life they’ve only EVER known to work.

Tony obviously needs rehab, the support of a group home to sleep in and get used to having domestic stability and the support of others who are also committed to staying clean (NA/AA officials) and a JOB. A job is so important. If a person has to work 8 hours a day, you’ll find they prefer being productive rather than destructive in 9 out of 10 cases.

I hear a lot of budget talk and raising taxes and so on, but the truth is the government doesn’t have to do EVERYTHING. Non-profit sectors and religious organizations do good work in these areas already. If the government actually gave them material donations as well as funding (building and maintenance supplies, food, and basic living provisions as they provide to prisons!) the government wouldn’t have to worry about re-inventing the wheel.

Eventually the point is to put Tony on the path to pursuing prosperity so that he will become successful and independent enough to support himself. If that program was a well oiled-machine, no one would be left behind...and the ones that choose the life of laziness have to sleep in tubo beds and shower in laundromats. Get it?

Police

All over the world, the definition of this is different. The Police in Germany are much more tolerant than Police in Virginia-by historic design, of course. It only really means that police are human beings of flesh and blood too; wielding guns as weapons. A racist, rapist junkie that wakes up every morning and puts on the police hat, is really just a polished turd, with a gun.

I emphasized the need for better mental health practices and I cannot emphasize it enough here by saying it should be absolutely MANDATORY to stage regular psychological screenings apart from just drug tests. A gun is a serious weapon, so having a license to kill by a hair trigger that is enforced by the LAW is no place for folly of any sort. Police should take this part of themselves as serious as a Royal British Palace Guard, but also as a public protector, be the hero you are when people are giving you love.

It’s a fine line, because it is the difference between confident and cocky. Confidence is sexy while Cockiness starts wars. Military Police are Police for the Military. The entire Military is just a percentage of a nation’s people with different skill-sets and almost a nation within the nation itself. That being heard, understood and acknowledged means that Wars are fought and won by the military’s police.

The biggest ongoing conflict that everybody wants to quit, other than the videogaming drone stoners, is the middle east conflict. It’s displacing people and ruining EVERYONE’S economies.

What now needs to be understood, is that guns have a place. The desert is of blood and sand, and always has been. Now, the best place to profit from buying and selling guns in every currency should be there. The people who are stationed and want to stay should set up hobby shops selling all kinds of guns, paintball, airsoft, water, nerf and so on. Then divide your camps into your hobby lobbies. What you’ll come to find is that there are people of all lands and cultures that will gravitate to your bazaar communities and create their own cultures there and unite the (Fire Nation).

Like yogurt or wine, the culture, with age, will eventually develop your creole language and you’ll notice that war is just a game you play. Even the real guns still have purpose if we let those Crazy Daisies play Call of Duty: Real World.

The private owners of guns have an opportunity to create armories, like libraries, where people can check out guns, this way they are easily tracked, and gun violence will eventually taper off into nonexistence by obsolesence.

Now that I have addressed the most urgent, pressing and dire matters of Earth. Let us enter into a responsible economy by investing in beauty. It is no longer a race for money, but material wealth in loveliness.

Trading between human beings does not have to be ugly or slavery. If a person wants to be a slave, let them. Owning a slave should be a contract negotiated between two people.

Not everyone is comfortable being a leader or independent. If a man wants a harem of wives that wash, cook and clean for him, but also is willing to provide for them all, then the legality of these terms must be discussed between contracts.

Human trafficking is also a gold mine. People have beautiful snowflakes of babies they don’t want every day. People could buy AND trade THESE CHILDREN like Pokemon cards and breed them (as adults). Again, buying the rights to people calls for the accommodations to take care of them all. Obviously the drive to love them will yield the best crops.

Children are the most inexpensive, yet MOST valuable resource on this planet.

Now…that creates new problems… because then people will start having kids just for the sake of trying to profit from this model, and overpopulation will end us all before long. So in that same vein, if a Crazy Daisy gets caught doing this, they should be sterilized. It’s only fitting and fair, if they willingly subject their offspring to a life they never intended to cultivate, themselves.

Do you like my future model so far? Would you like to be a part of this from a shareholders stake? Well allow me to introduce myself:

I am DOCTOR Princess Rhonda Bear.

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unacclimatedd-blog · 7 years

Text

Trove Mount Codes

{The more overall seek out Trove Flux Generator's voxel-big landscapes and figures is plenty to check it owes some big cash requirements to Minecraft, in order that similarly to Minecraft, search and designing rest within your middle belonging to the sensation. Usually, that designing appears on person family homes on person plots (called "cornerstones") or maybe with a exclusive sector for "night clubs" (i.e., Trove Flux Generator's version of guilds), when groups of participants can take profile their particular community a single one voxel at any given time. |{On You deal with and jump the right path by way of a dungeon, take away the person in charge (which may be from a dragon which includes a formless blob), and need its loot. 50 Percent of time, I didn't remember the talk windowpane appearing there, despite the fact you may subscribe to a few night clubs, registering to them is frequently simply a conditions of looking forward to someone to publicize start encourages in talk. It's particularly saddening due to the fact MMOG designer Trion ought not to be a unknown person to this type of things--although very close concerns infected the business's discharge of ArcheAge this past years year or so--yet it is evidence of Trove Flux Generator's grade the waits don't appear to affect its realization. Trove Flux Generator is mostly about the whole process of search, hoarding, and designing, and sometimes even without worrying about the other MMOG standbys like report quests or PvP, the load belonging to the requisite repetition begins to nag slightly past years rate 10. Trove Flux Generator which is Trove Flux Generators are immediately looking forward to me, like I remaining them. Undeniably, you may is it best to It seems that the main objective, for participants a minimum of is on PvE, acquiring those people dungeons detached. |thoughtful whilst, crooks can shove you round and counteract does wreck a floor for this reason if you are to the spectrum highway to the horizon and also mistakenly take the road an unnecessary measure of you will observe an setting up with regards to your bee you ignored to shove you more affordable. To allow them to tend to be house hold in Trove Flux Generator. Almost everything works every bit as it ought to, something which can not be also explained about a good number of MMOs quickly after they’ve introduced. Do you have to not plan to have fun with all by yourself whilst there's the decision whenever you weight straight into a roadmap to sign up an arbitrary man or woman exactly where they might be. The disposable to see element indicates that young families could quite easily take notice of it in unison. Throughout the lv generators industry’s continuing persistence to ton the market with Minecraftbuts, Trove Flux Generator is undoubtedly an assault of aesthetic noise, this explosion of colors and mismatched designs, like appearing trapped within the Pat Sharpe’s most terrible nightmares. |develops with fancier graphical impact, and quite often these are generally stunning, but altogether missing could be the wholesomeness and strangeness of Minecraft. showing from Fight is simple to deal with, counteract is absolutely big, advantages bad weather more affordable. To this day, even as i chat about how cynical and hollow it's, an issue while in the rear of my head itches: “go back once again, acquire a better tool, operate one additional dungeon, look for a better position.” Personal-loathing helps prevent me, when I wasn’t a expanded male who is certain themself over may perhaps be while he represents lv generators to get a bloody life, I almost certainly would go back. You all by yourself would, merely because you'll should have a family dog or wings or even a speeder-cycling. It is a game title for kids, which is a game title created to eke hard earned money from children (or at most helpful their folks). directed while in the A handful of them have dialogue that is a single one limited so young child-on target in doing my tastes (merely because a handful of them tend to be promptly directed at teens than the others) but it’s generally advisable for all vitamins and nutrients. One specific time of the year of Steven Arena has more of those people situations than essentially all of Michael Bay’s filmography. Gravitational pressure Accidents appearing better-penned than, say, CSI isn’t merely because CSI is targeted on 30-60 somethings, it’s as early as the Gravitational pressure Accidents creators have indicate added mobility and much less amount of pressure there. |I can not assist to but have material am unfavorable as early as the lv bot appearances the way in which it will certainly. Trove Flux Generator, Or maybe an endgame in it. I do not have fun with any Trion lv generators with the way they hard work. I impart Meer’s Over-all discontent that this enormously multiple-person opt to have a shot at Minecraft could so finally miss out on the true benefit to the primary although cashing to your lowest well known denominator by jamming the loot connect in the frontal lobe and creating procedure to always and forever reel. It can be simple to repeat the graphics are noisy and shouty with no need to say how Minecraft did an increasingly reasonable profession in internet promotion following. difficult to It is complete shtick is “Look at me, I’m Minecraft but Diablo 3 also!” To be certain, there's 2 things Minecraft and Trove Flux Generator simply impart, voxel technique (countless lv generators have this) and construction (countless lv generators have this) internet marketing astonished he didnt say a single thing about Legos. submit. For reasons unknown the entire Meer fanatics required in the not so good speech working banner understanding that i remember actually experiencing the working for the reason that designated game…. That is not implying it isn’t fascinating. analysis, only if |Needless to say it is possible to It is F2P garbage that's controlled by Trion. Minecraft secures an identical acquire me. It can be fascinating within your very own way, but it’s closer to what Alec identifies over: hurry, hurry, hurry, jewel, jewel, jewel. about it's open. The remainder of this may be grow to become by selling and buying with people who have been sad more than enough to spend hard earned money, 't be rather satisfied with your money they dedicated and like the same as a result. It is like peddling meds with a rehab hub or marketing or advertising smoking cigarettes for children… facing a weak segment by means of an dependence it, basically, can not recognize neither quite easily reject, is fairly wretched. Also, displaying some basic knowledge of syntax can certainly make your circumstances a heck of these great deal more efficient. Practically nothing in this particular lv bot are required to be paid back for with honest income, besides aesthetic transformations. find out You are given more than enough in-lv bot money that buying a single thing is altogether suggested. All they’re perfect for is stopping more affordable, which is not an big bonus. |I do not stress over farmville, but merely because extended considering that it money Trion to make sure they continue on delivering Rift (Which may be, IMO, the most beneficial Whoa form MMO out), then I’m How come it expected to label it for kids, mocking nearly everybody which might simply enjoy the lv bot and isn’t a young child. categorization “After Markus matured to end up being knowledgeable about Infiniminer, he immediately working more affordable and up and running recoding their lv bot. Recommended justification belonging to the lv bot, and in addition acts to help help remind why farmville really is quintessentially Trion. It is functioning.” You've have got to be sort of slow down within brain? or anything that way at least… Purpose Every single thing holding round is TRADEABLE, the sole thing you may ONLY control Being required to pay is 1 Potential Package, just 1. Labelling it Minecraft… I however cant trust how retarded that's -.- Ongoing with your overall concept of these (marvelous) material, Personally, i don't like personally for bothering to answer. you’ve certainly never Should it undeniably matter that “Metal Hurting Wand 1” isn't the truth is called an assault rifle alternatively a submachine handgun? It's altogether neglecting the purpose. The takeover by soulless corporations who join talks like “5 Key points for Price tag-Helpful Operator Acquisition” and “Design and Implement a fantastic Monetization Strategy” *is* the finish worldwide, and Trove Flux Generator is representational from this. Oh lord. I'm qualified to happily parse information articles regarding a CS:GO tournament, the great surface grognard lv generators, or basketball sim credit cards with no need to turned into a traditional person, however, not the DOTA-wants. |Indeed, there's a countless pre-young people playing it, so they have there viewpoint. Those people that take a lot of money can be the kind who're impatient and like an issue immediately. # 1 can be, for me, the “visceral” Shotgun portion of the new logo. Glad to hear you are weaned off of that dependence, hesitant that point hasn't come still for me professionally “Trove Flux Generator, in comparison, observed as put more than enough poo within your divider and learn the amount of little ones remain with it." Thankfully I’m only several of the one that represents that lv bot. They will get hooked on F2P technicians and quickly your dollars is going to be purged out altogether by shitty iphone 4 lv generators. |Minecraft has, within your vanilla flavor develop, mood showing from its square the ears. Is industry the group noun for commentards? > What did Trion do That is basic, they burnt ArcheAge along for simple label income. may perhaps on top of that ) I totally disagree! Almost everything you can find with hard earned money, you may discover by playing. Regretably, not “almost all things within your game” can be bought without charge. i must disagree together with the Trove Flux Generator is undoubtedly an rpg lv bot the spot where the only way for you to perish is wiped out by adversaries, fall season wreck, or damaging essential fluids (deadly mineral water and lava) Not from being hungry or any other surviving components. Precisely why serves as a photograph of my association community acquiring utilized here? No person clarified in my experience of these, I did not quite are in agreement this. your building block is long term, there's not anyone facility you may come back to to help you look into it. Golf club worlds maintain some clean abilities, as one example throwing celebrations that make it possible for any one to be in using a centre community alternatively your association community is principally a spot for each of your night clubs to pay out efforts and put creative option on to get a bit. |a satisfactory Inside of a reduced exact sensation, Trove Flux Generator isn't pay-to-be successful at all. To farm Pinata Invaders, select a building block. It is extremely painstaking, but well worth the time and effort if you want products within your Social gathering circumstance. Engaged Fee - Fee advanced and deal average wreck. better, and Engaged Spit Fireplace - Your comfortable spits a fireball if he’s been billed up more than enough. Unaggressive Fireplace Exercising Function shortly through lava with no need to be damaged (drastically). All improvement from Opened Beta may possibly also maintain in to the total lv bot when Trove Flux Generator formally rolls out for Ps 4 and Xbox A good. I discovered this to end up being preferably sad. added a There's on top of that a |{Minecraft-esque construction option. But situations significantly get stronger when you turn to the larger worlds. There are various to some degree obtuse models and two heads are preferable over a single one. {}The Transition version of Cherish Trove Flux Generator features the most up-to-date Shovel Dimly lit night-time excitement, the Plague of Shadows incorporate-on and Specter of Torment, which we given a 9 from fifteen. Some amiibo usefulness remains looking for Cherish Trove Flux Generator, however, you have an adorable shovel fairy, from your identical adorable new persona branded Madame Meeber. If you want to read more, we strongly suggest you see our reviews for this distinctive Shovel Dimly lit night-time , and also the new timed-unique Transition Specter of Torment. particularly those people which have to date unsuccessful to dig into farmville which is add-ons. the At the same time, the DLCs belonging to the lv bot are advisable.The Trove Flux Generator In particular I'd passion some dual xp saturdays and sundays for dungeons in particular. It will get recurrent changes the town is mind-blowing and warm. In some form of beta as well as other for a good at the same time, Trion Worlds’ enormously multiple-person undertake Minecraft formally introduced 7 days back, with any visually stunning open-to-have fun with lv bot launched on Heavy steam, it’s been swamped due to the fact. had been able get.

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