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cmaidaartworkblog · 1 year

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Some months ago, I created a series of maps and diagrams for @iguanodont‘s Birdbug worldbuilding project, representing the planet inhabited by their original species and its planetological data. This isn’t the first time I mapped out this planet, as I was also commissioned by Ripley back in 2020 back when I didn’t have nearly as much experience and knowledge as I do now. Two years later, I’ve been commissioned once again to revisit this world and its peculiarities.

This first map (in Equirectangular projection and poles-centered perspective) depicts the elevation for this planet, with a color gradient applied to the data.

Here is the same elevation data, presented without the color gradient.

This time, the elevation is presented with bodies of liquid water included, such as rivers, oceans, and lakes.

and in this one, the water is isolated from the other data, against a white background

Next, there are the surface temperatures that occur on this planet, the key to which is shown above. The four maps below show the seasonal temperatures for land and sea, in order of Northern Spring Equinox, Northern Summer Solstice, Northern Autumn Equinox, and Northern Winter Solstice.

Correlating closely to the above data is the snow and ice cover, which is fairly extensive on this planet owing to its high obliquity and distance from its star. Land ice only occurs where the snow falls and is compacted year-round, but snow and sea ice can be much more seasonal.

Seasonal precipitation levels were another important phase of this project, and the below diagram shows those levels for a given latitude (y-axis) on a given date (x-axis), with a key attached.

My reference for creating the above graphic is the figure below, which comes from a 2019 paper by A.H. Lobo and S. Bordoni titled “Atmospheric Dynamics of High Obliquity Planets”, and shows Earth’s precipitation levels compared to those of a planet with an 85° obliquity.

The following maps can now be better understood in light of these diagrams and keys.

-Northern Spring Equinox

-Northern Summer Solstice

-Northern Autumn Equinox

-Northern Winter Solstice

I was also tasked with mapping out the extent and density of this planet’s vegetation (or at least its alien equivalent), and from this you can see how wildly it varies by season, with very few year-round holdings. Precipitation is a major factor in where it is possible for plants to flourish, but snow cover and the extreme temperature swings limit it too. Near either pole, for example, within the space of a year temperatures soar far above Earth’s upper limits and also plummet below freezing; if either extreme were to be the annual norm for a region, some plants might adapt to those conditions, but because of the wild fluctuation any adaptations to one extreme would leave plants especially vulnerable to the other. These regions, then, remain barren regardless of rainfall or brief windows of mild temperatures, while areas with less wide temperature ranges allow for at least brief periods of flourishing.

Determining the surface temperatures for this planet required a lot of background work. The first piece of the puzzle for this was knowing the number of daily hours of sunlight for a given latitude and date, which is exemplified first in this diagram for Earth:

and then for the Birdbug planet, below. Since this planet rotates on an axis of 60 degrees, there are many more latitudes within range of either pole that experience periods of sunlight and darkness lasting longer than a day. The higher the latitude, the longer this period lasts, with the poles themselves experiencing either condition for half a year at a time.

Another important factor is the height to which the sun is seen to rise (more scientifically, the angle at which the sun’s light hits parts of the planet’s surface), seen here first for Earth and then for the Birdbug planet. In these diagrams, white represents the sun reaching the zenith of the sky (meeting the surface at a 90° angle), and black represents the sun failing to appear above the horizon (meeting at an angle of 0° or below), while shades of green and purple stand in for angles between those extremes. For Earth and the Birdbug planet alike, the sun reaches the zenith within the bounds of either planet’s Tropic circles of latitude, and fails to rise at all only within the Polar circles of latitude; the difference in obliquity means that the Birdbug planet’s key circles of latitude are flipped compared to Earth’s.

The duration of sunlight and the angle at which that sunlight is reaches the planet’s surface determine a planet’s Insolation, that is, the amount of solar energy it receives. The first image below is a preexisting diagram of Earth’s Insolation, where it is measured in watts per square meter. The next two images are my own attempts at replicating this data for Earth, and then for the Birdbug planet.

As seen in the diagrams above, Insolation on the Birdbug planet differs from Earth not only in its latitudinal distribution, but also in its sheer intensity at the higher latitudes. Compared to Earth there are twice as many latitudes for which the sun is shining longer than one rotational period, and many of those latitudes see the sun shine at a direct or nearly direct angle, whereas the Polar circles of latitude on Earth see the sun shine much more obliquely. Below, we can see the data that all the above figures were instrumental in finding: that is, surface temperatures. The first image is a preexisting figure that measures Earth’s mean surface temperatures by date and latitude, and below that is my attempt at replicating the data by my own process.

This is done not by just copying the seasonal Insolation data, but by also factoring in the yearly average for each latitude.

Above, we see the temperatures of the land by date and latitude, and below, we see the temperatures at the surface of the sea, which lag behind the land temperatures and remain comparatively mild.

Lastly, here’s an image I created to combine the snow and ice cover as well as the vegetation extent and density, as of the Northern Spring Equinox. This, along with the elevation map also seen here, is what I uploaded to maptoglobe.com in order to produce the screenshot at the top of this post.

These maps and figures (except for the preexisting ones) were all created in Photopea. Higher resolution versions of many of these images can be seen in my dedicated Reddit posts, linked below: reddit post one, reddit post two

2022

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finnlongman · 1 month

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hi, I just found your blog :)

If I may ask, how in the world did you manage to write entire books while also being a PhD student????

Is there a way to not let your PhD consume every waking hour of your life?? :') please tell me your secret

Heh, well, the first thing to note is that I'm in the first year of my PhD, and traditional publishing is slow. So the books I'm talking about right now -- Moth to a Flame and The Wolf and His King -- have been in the works since long before I started my PhD. I originally wrote The Wolf and His King in winter 2019, when I had a full-time job; I originally drafted Moth to a Flame during my full-time MA in 2020. So the PhD is only the latest thing they've had to compete with for my time and attention!

I've always been writing alongside everything else -- I wrote my first novel at 13 and I was writing the whole way through my school years, despite doing a million extra-curriculars. Honestly, I have no idea where I found the energy, but it got me into the habit of writing during lunchbreaks or in short bursts whenever I had the time, and while that's not my preferred way to work these days, it sure did teach me a lot. These days I've got two sets of edits and promo and admin, and the PhD, and my occasional side-gig as a bodhrán player in a couple of trad bands, and whatever other casual work I pick up (today I was invigilating exams), so it's always a balancing act.

But specifically, with these next two books: Moth to a Flame was largely finished before I started my PhD in October, with structural edits done; I was partway through line edits during the first month of my PhD, and then copyedits and proofreading after that. I was doing copyedits over Christmas, including on my phone during a family visit on New Year's Eve. I've been editing The Wolf and His King more recently, with structural edits also happening mainly over Christmas (working on Christmas Day, my favourite) and line-edits happening right now.

Balancing TWAHK with my PhD, or The Butterfly Assassin with my MA (since I sold it at the start of my second semester and that wasn't the best timing), has mostly been about speed and prioritisation. I'm lucky to be a fast writer and a fast reader, so I can get 7k of academic writing on paper in the course of a day or two and therefore keep the wolf (my supervisor) from the door while I run off and do line-edits. Doesn't mean I should, but it happens more than I care to admit. Likewise, I can (and regularly do) edit/rewrite a novel in the space of two weeks, even if that is also not sustainable.

But it's also about being open with my editors (and supervisors) about my deadlines -- e.g. we pulled line-edits for TWAHK forward to March, even though I only submitted structural edits at the start of February and there's often a longer gap, because I'm going to be super busy with PhD work in April ahead of a deadline at the start of May, so I knew I needed to get the bulk of the work out of the way. That means right now, I'm spending more time on writing, but next month, it'll be nearly all academic work.

On really good days I can do both, and usually write for 1-2 hours in the morning, work all afternoon, and then write again in the evenings (this is what I was doing in December with structural edits), but with chronic pain/fatigue and a changeable schedule, that's harder.

Mostly, though, I'm lucky that my adult books and my PhD are very closely related, so a lot of the research I'm doing for the books also feeds into my PhD, and vice versa -- meaning that a lot of the time, I'm multitasking. It was much harder when I was juggling The Butterfly Assassin and my MA, since they had nothing in common; I would basically just focus on one or the other at a time, and was very grateful that we got a slight extension for our thesis submission deadline because of covid or I don't think it would've been in on time.

Oh, and I also don't have a social life (thanks covid + disabilities) so there's that, too. And my house is a mess and I don't eat enough vegetables. But I don't have any caring responsibilities or dependents, and at the moment I don't have fixed hours/work obligations, so that's something.

As for how I used to write when I had a full-time job (and disabilities) (and a social life)... honestly I was definitely writing at work sometimes. And not just on my lunchbreak. 🤫

#answered #kirk-goes-to-gallifrey

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a-silent-symphony · 2 years

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NIGHTWISH's FLOOR JANSEN Releases Music Video For New Solo Single 'Me Without You'

Dutch powerhouse singer Floor Jansen has released the official music video for her third solo single, "Me Without You". The track is the follow-up to "Storm", which came out in May, and "Fire", which was made available in March via ADA, the division of Warner Music Group dedicated to independent label and artist distribution.

Four months ago, Floor was asked in an interview with FaceCulture if she is planning to eventually release a full-length solo album. She said: "There are a lot more songs ready. There's not an album ready, but also because it would make no sense to have one. Due to the pandemic, there's an entire NIGHTWISH still not done and still yet to be done; as it looks like, we actually are gonna do that now. So before that, I cannot say, 'Okay, I come [out] with a solo album.' 'Cause then you also would like to do some more [solo] shows and do the right promotion and all of that, so there's no time for that — which is a luxury problem on itself. But it's fun. And that's also a big difference with this pop music thing — you can release singles. It's not an album-based world; it's completely different."

Jansen went on to call "Fire" "a statement and "the kick-off of everything. And from there I'll keep releasing singles. And the aim is to release the album in '23," she explained before clarifying that there are a lot of variables involved that could affect the timeline of the LP's arrival. "But the ambition is there. And everything is geared up to do that."

Jansen is best known as the frontwoman in the multi-million selling and internationally successful symphonic metal band NIGHTWISH. As part of the band, Jansen has landed two number one albums in Finland, and Top Five albums in Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.

Born in the Netherlands, Jansen joined her first band, one of the world's first symphonic metal bands, AFTER FOREVER, when she was only 16 years old. The group went on to release five albums from 2000 to 2007, before they broke up in 2009.

Jansen's next band, REVAMP, released two albums in 2010 and 2013, before she joined NIGHTWISH as a full-time member. NIGHTWISH's first album with Jansen as the lead singer was 2015's "Endless Forms Most Beautiful", which landed in Top 10s around the world. This was followed by 2020's "Human. :II: Nature." , which was also an international success.

Jansen has toured extensively with the band and appeared on three of NIGHTWISH's live albums "Showtime, Storytime", "Vehicle Of Spirit" and "Decades: Live In Buenos Aires".

In 2019, Jansen participated in the popular Dutch TV show "Beste Zangers" where she scored a big hit with "Phantom Of The Opera" together with Henk Poort. She was recognized with a Dutch Popprijs award — a prestigious accolade for artists that has made important contributions to Dutch music. In the same year, her first solo tour sold out in less than 24 hours.

Jansen performed live with NIGHTWISH for the first time on October 1, 2012 at Showbox Sodo in Seattle, Washington following the abrupt departure of the band's lead singer of five years, Anette Olzon. Jansen officially joined NIGHTWISH in 2013.

#floor jansen #NW members side projects #Floor solo career #Me Without You #2022 news

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aayushisblogpoint · 2 years

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F1 fan, but as a newbie.

F1, one of the most expensive and fast paced sports in existence. Immense drama, historical feats, etc. It’s truly an exciting sport, one of a kind, where you expect the unexpected relating to driver transfers, contract extensions, terminations and most importantly the adrenaline spiking race results. It’s a sport of glory, power, politics and the most important factor, “Money”. If you can bring in sponsors with big pockets you are set to join a good team.

I was not always a F1 fan but ever since I watched Charles Leclerc’s race in Monza – 2019, I was hooked into the sport. I’ve faced a lot of criticism from people for being a newbie fan. They presume that I have no knowledge of past F1 incidents and history. But I know enough to prove the stereotypes wrong. 1940s are where the roots of modern F1 began and in the beginning, F1 was entirely based on pre-World War 2 regulations defined by engine capacity. I am aware of most of the past events that have happened in F1, I know about the Era when Alfa-Romeo dominated the championship; how Cameron Earl died in the hospital due to the skull fractures he got as aa result of his car overturning during a test drive; how Ayrton Senna was killed while leading the 1994 San Marino GP in Italy; the Era where driver’s safety wasn’t the utmost priority, but winning a race was; Sebastian Vettel winning all three races that happened in India and a lot of other things that maybe even the fans who have been watching the sport wouldn’t know. You don’t necessarily need to be part of something to have knowledge about it.

As a kid I used to sit with my dad while he watched television, most of the times it used to be just the news but he did occasionally watch sports and one of them being the fastest open-wheel, open-cabin, single seated, four wheeled automobiles in the world, racing all around the world which we call as Formula 1.The cars racing at full speed, the roar of engines, the cheers by fans seated on the bleachers fascinated me. I always, since I was a child, have had a keen interest in cars and sports, after discovering formula one, which is a sport that involves car, there was no stopping me. Now every Saturday and Sunday when there’s a race you will find me sitting in front of some or the other device having hotstar with my heart praying for Ferrari to win the World Championship. Yes, I am a Ferrari fan and my 2022 seems to be Tifosi’s year. I took my time to learn technicalities related to the sports. I had my friends to explain everything to me, but some may not have people around to explain. So, I am going to give a small guide for newbies to understand the sport.

Guide:

Pirelli is officially recognised as the tyre supplier by FIA for Formula One. Formula One car tyres are built to last only between 60 to 120 kilometres. The main tyres that one needs to know are Hard tyre – colour white ( slows down the speed a little but lasts longer); Medium tyre – colour yellow ( moderately fast & moderate stability); Soft tyre – colour Red ( more grip & speed at the expense of compromised stability)

There are ten teams enrolled to compete for the 2022 Formula One season with two cars each. According to the rules for the season, a maximum of 26 cars will be allowed to compete. A maximum of 13 teams because each team is allowed to field two cars.

All the drivers have a contract of specific year(s) with the teams to drive for them.

F1 cars are required to weigh a minimum of 746kgs without the driver and fuel in them. F1 cars are required to weigh a minimum of 746kgs without the driver and fuel in them.

The average time taken for a race is about 2 hours and the average distance of a circuit is 305 km (190 miles)

Pit stops are essential for cars to change tyres and for making repairs, mechanical adjustments or as a penalty. Drivers make a call on taking a pit stop depending on the state of their tyres and any mechanical repairs or adjustments their car might need.

Races are usually on Sundays, however it may vary as timings and dates are different in different countries.

Qualifying happens on Saturdays, again depends on the country you are watching from. In case if there’s a sprint race, the qualifying session will happen on a Friday.

Sprint race is a new concept in F1. A qualifying race on Friday evening determines how Formula 1's drivers line up for the Sprint race on Saturday, when they compete to earn their starting places for the full race on Sunday, as well as those potentially precious extra points.

Point system of sprint race - the winner eight points and the runner-up seven points, with each subsequent position earning a point less than the rival behind whom they finish.

Point system of Race – The winner receives 25 points, the second place finisher 18 points, with 15,12,10,8,6,4,2 and 1 points for position 10 to 3.

Aayushi Raut.

Sap ID- 88012100009.

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hex-flareheart · 11 months

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Hex Reviews The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

I really hope that last trailer's back's okay, because it fucking carried this game.

Genre: Open-World Sandbox/Action Adventure Platform: Nintendo Switch Price: $70 for some fucking reason Length: 4-200+ hours Do I recommend it? Yes, but not for $70.

This game had a LOT to live up to. In the pipeline for six years after the last one, and the last one basically hard carried the Switch off its success. You literally could not have asked for a better launch title for a console. Breath of the Wild is one hell of a predecessor to follow up.

Tears of the Kingdom wound up having a bit of a rocky road to release, from an initial teaser in 2019 that in retrospect was all custom footage, another in 2021 that showed actual gameplay footage, but no actual name for the game yet, and then finally an actual trailer declaring the game's name in 2022, and a pushed-back release to 2023. 2023 itself was a bit rough for the game, with an unpopular price tag increase (more on that later) and an underwhelming gameplay showcase, which together did the game little favors, especially since it was just looking like Breath of the Wild with extra stuff taped on top of it. Which, not unreasonable for a direct sequel, but with such a dev time and a price hike... yeah, there's a reason people were making jokes at the game's expense.

But the game would ultimately have a couple more trailers released, with the mid-April trailer being by a country mile the best the game received, and I strongly suspect playing a non-insignificant factor in reviving interest (hence the subtitle above- which, yes, I'm planning on doing that more in the future). And I don't think I have to tell you how it was received on launch; I'm pretty sure the entire Internet knows the answer to that question.

And to Nintendo's credit, having played the game extensively (currently in excess of 70 hours), I very much understand now why it took so long. Adding functionally two entire new layers to the world (1 1/2 if you feel like being petty) takes a lot of time, but the big thing lies in the new systems; adding a building mechanic as freeform as Tears of the Kingdom's into a game is a very involved process, and from my understanding the game was basically feature-complete a full year before release, and they spent that entire time polishing everything. Time that was clearly well-spent, because these systems are astonishingly well-integrated.

Before I really get into singing this game's praises, though, I really need to re-touch on one key point, and the single biggest caveat with this game: No game should cost $70. I hated it when Sony started doing it, I hate it here. To preempt the obvious argument, no. Nintendo does not need that extra $10. With the numbers these games pull they could easily sell it for $10 and still make all of the money. The decision wasn't made because Nintendo needed the extra money to justify continuing to make games, the decision was made because Nintendo's executives and shareholders wanted to pad their already-obscene bottom line. Also their wallets. None of that money is going to the people who actually did the work!

I am very much of the general opinion that pirating Nintendo games is morally okay; this goes for ANY supermassive video game company, but especially Nintendo, given how much of fucks they can be. And that especially goes for Tears of the Kingdom.

That point out of the way: frankly, Tears of the Kingdom makes its predecessor look like a feature-length tech demo, and that is not to disparage Breath of the Wild. That game did what it did well, Tears of the Kingdom does it better, on nearly every level. One of the most unpopular aspects, disposable weapons, becomes almost a plus in this game because of the Fuse system, as it encourages you to fuck around and find out, and boy can you really do both. Ultrahand is Magnesis if you put it on some seriously wacko steroids and handed it gorilla glue and duct tape. Cryonis kinda sucked and is accordingly gone. Stasis was overpowered and has been replaced with Recall, less powerful but with more opportunities for hilarity. Remote bombs were... also, probably a little too powerful, and are also gone, but bomb flowers are back!

Tears of the Kingdom's tone is notably less immediately dire compared to Breath of the Wild, and this is reflected in both gameplay and story. The world is even more alive than before, and it feels less like surviving in the wilderness after an apocalypse and more like exporing the wilderness with a toolbox continuously strapped to you. Accordingly, gameplay is even more prone to slapstick than Breath of the Wild was. That game already had a tendency towards slapstick, but having the ability to build shit and strap all sorts of random things onto your weapons just amplifies it. You can glue a bomb to your sword! Is it a good idea? Probably not! Can you do it? Absofuckinglutely! The shrines are also notably a bit more consistently better, and there's NO APPARATUS SHRINES, THANK FUCKING GOD.

There's also notably more... well, story to the game's story. Again, this isn't to disparage Breath of the Wild, but its story was by nature a bit barebones. Tears of the Kingdom's is a fair bit more fleshed out, though this does come with the caveat of making the timeline significantly more confusing. I'm at this point on the side of "BotW and TotK are their own continuity after SS" simply because it makes things vastly simpler.

To get more into the specifics, though, we'll need to get into spoilers, so you know the drill.

Champion abilities are no longer around, as the spirits of the champions moved on 6 years ago. (In-universe, not just a joke.) In their place are, a), ACTUAL DUNGEONS, FUCK YES, and b) sages, who both provide an ability to be used in-world, as well as providing phantoms of themselves that help you in combat. They're generally less powerful than the champions were, and their abilities can be very awkward to use (as outside of certain situations for 2 out of 5, you have to walk over to their phantom to use the ability), but having up to 5 extra characters helping you in combat is immensely useful, and makes even poor Sidon, whose ability kind of sucks, still actively very helpful.

Regarding the extra layers to the world, there's the sky islands of course, which were very heavily-advertised, but the layer less advertised is the Depths, a massive, very dark underground layer spanning the entirety of Hyrule. From corner-to-corner. It can be a bit annoying to navigate, and does have generally less to do than the surface, but it certainly has its purposes, and has a crucial role in making the dragons a bit more interesting.

There's four now, with the original three from Breath of the Wild still being around, and a fourth that now hangs out high in the sky. Unlike in Breath of the Wild, the dragons are always on the map, following a continuous loop; Farosh loops the southern part of the map, Naydra loops the eastern part of the map, Dinraal loops the northeast, and the mysterious new Light Dragon does a full loop of Hyrule high in the sky. Crucially, a) you can now land on and ride the dragons, with conditions around them corresponding to their respective element, and b) besides the Light Dragon, each of them spends roughly half their route underground, passing through one chasm on the surface, travelling through the Depths, and emerging elsewhere later. You can ride them the entire time, and getting materials is now on a 10-minute cooldown rather than being per-appearance. (I personally feel like this cooldown should be significantly shorter, but I digress.)

As for building and Fuse, there's a ton of options on both fronts, and in exploring the Depths you can unlock Autobuild, which lets you save things you've built and automatically build them on-demand, either from parts-on-hand or using Zonaite ore gathered in the Depths. Fuse, meanwhile, can be used with arrows, shields, and weapons- for arrows, it's just attaching things to the arrowhead, which can do things as simple as adding special properties like elements, to things as wacky as placing floating platforms for you to use. With weapons and shields, though, we need to go a little more in-depth.

You can attach a lot of different materials to both; with shields, they'll mostly just increase defense power and durability a bit, and often add a damage component if you feel like swatting enemies with it. With weapons, you can essentially attach a single material to make a custom weapon; depending on the material, you could end up with a thing impaled on the end, which is kind of comical, or as is the case with some of the horns in particular, replacing large parts of the weapon with the material, resulting in some VERY cool-looking hybrid weapons. The real wacky shit though, that comes with Zonai devices.

Zonai devices are, of course, devices built by the Zonai. Mostly these are meant for use with Ultrahand for building contraptions, but they can also be glued to your shield and sword. (Also arrows, but they're less notable there.) And this is no small part of why I understand why the game took so long, because there's a lot of unique attractions here, particularly with shields. Attaching a device to a weapon will typically cause it to activate briefly when swung, with generally very predictable results, but with shields, they'll behave differently between guarding with the shield and shield surfing. Three good examples of this.

One, the Zonai Cannon. Strap it to your shield and you have, well, a portable cannon. Guard with your shield, blast your enemies. Two, the Zonai Cart; a big flat platform with integrated wheels. Strap it to your shield, and it's now a fucking skateboard when you shield surf with it. No, I'm not joking. It'll even let you grind on rails! And three, the Zonai Rocket. Strap it to your shield and you have two options. Guard, and you'll rocket upward for a couple seconds, giving you a mini-Revali's Gale. Shield surf? You can fucking fly.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg here. You can do some wacky shit with Fuse! Try fusing a bomb to your shield and shield surfing sometime, you'll see what I mean.

All told, this game's combat sandbox is absolutely apeshit on a level Breath of the Wild wishes it could reach. If you've seen clips of this game, you've almost certainly seen some of the hilarity you can get up to with Ultrahand, and I just described what you can expect from Fuse. Combat is even more diverse than ever before- albeit just as likely to kill you repeatedly early on. That never went away! And compared to Breath of the Wild, the rest of Tears of the Kingdom is also just generally more refined than even its already famously-polished predecessor.

I think the price tag's bullshit, but I'm not going to pretend Tears of the Kingdom isn't a really good game.

Hex Rates This: 9/10

#hex posts things #hex reviews things #hex reviews games #this game is basically like if you took botw #and strapped some minecraft shit on top of it #and frankly that's always something I kinda thought botw needed so like #fuck it it works

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awesomejustgotawesome · 3 years

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So I recently finally finished my 2019 Film Edit, and like the 2018 one it is longer than the previous. But this time a lot longer. Like 4 times longer. It’s 2 hours long hahaha. Yeah it just happened. But it being this long is really good, it represents a lot of the films way better than the other two ever could.

I started working on it in May, was going great but taking a while. There was just so much content I had for it, and wanted to include, by July I had done all the sections but they still needed finalizing. And then in August I decided I needed, really needed, to step back and take a break. It was all I was doing for a few months.

Biggest thing was, because of how long it got and how much was in it, I pretty much figured I’d never be able to upload it to YouTube. There’d definitely be clips that would get it flagged/blocked worldwide. Heck even the 2018 one did with just 15 seconds from Deadpool 2. So that made me a lot less motivated to complete it quicker, if it’s just going to be for myself I can finish it whenever no problem. But still the break lasted longer than I intended, watched a few more 2019 films I had forgotton to add to it too. Got back into editing a bit in Nov and Dec, finally finishing it. All I need to do is export it which my computer is making a hassle of (3+ hours tonight and only exported a few bits lol).

I hope I can share it somewhere, because as a film lover I love how it turned out and if anyone else might enjoy it too well that would be neat.

#matt babbles #hoping to have it done the next couple days #reason why I didn't get to that Marvel xmas vid I thought of #save it for next year #I do plan on getting into a lot more marvel vids next year too #I had so many planned this year but the 2019 edit burned me out hard #speaking of the film edits though #this whole time I have wanted to go back and make ones for all the years of the 2010s #but now that the 2019 one is two hours and a lot more extensive #I want to also remake the 2017/2018 ones to be like that #but then there's the 2020 one I want to do now hahah

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idy-ll-ique · 3 years

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Paparazzi.

Pairing: Sebastian Stan x F!Reader

Genre: Fluff, Angst

Warnings: TOO META, m*sturbation, mentions of s*x

Requested: nope

Summary: I'm your biggest fan, I'll follow you until you love me... Y/N Y/L/N writes Marvel fanfictions. One day, Sebastian stumbles upon her account and, unable to help himself, reads all the stuff she has written about him. He didn't mean to fall so hard for her but he does. How can he not? She has shown him parts of himself that he never even knew existed.

Author's Note: Hiya peeps! Okay so a few weeks ago I read a similar (but dark) fanfic and I really wanted to write a softer version of it... Enjoy!

---

Same old, boring routine.

Y/N hit post and slumped against the headrest of her bed, sighing. She waited; a minute, then two passed and she noticed that someone had liked her post. She smiled to herself as she kept her phone away. Though boring, she wouldn't trade her life for the world. Y/N… well, she was a university student first and foremost but she was also a writer.

Being a big fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, she had started writing fanfictions a few years ago. She posted them on Tumblr, where her blog, though not very well-known, stood out enough for her posts to get around 800-1000 likes per post. She loved it; she loved writing, she loved posting her stories and especially, she loved the feedback.

Sometimes people were rude, but most times, the reviews she got were fantastic. She read each and every one of them, smiling goofily as people freaked out over her fanfictions. It warmed her heart. A smile automatically blooming on her face, Y/N lay down on the bed and decided to go to sleep, it being almost 3 am.

Unbeknownst to her, someone else was up at the same time, tossing and turning in his bed, restless.

Sebastian sighed as he sat up, running a hand through his hair. He drank some water and lay down again, closing his eyes but it was like sleep was mad at him. Refused to be anywhere near him. He groaned to himself and picked up his phone from the nightstand, deciding to go through Instagram, hoping he'd finally fall asleep to the glare of the screen.

As he logged into his account, he skipped the activity page and went straight to the explore page. Bored, he continued scrolling until his eyes landed on a specific photo. And the breath escaped his lungs when he clicked on it; the woman in the picture was absolutely gorgeous. He just couldn't resist going to her page, smiling widely when he read her bio.

It gave him her basic information; her name, her age, the university she attended. But what caught his eye was the link below the bio. My Marvel Fanfictions Master List. Marvel fanfictions? She was a writer? Smirking, he clicked on the link and it took him to Tumblr. Of course, he'd heard of the site, but didn't have an account on there. At 3 am, his mind sure wasn't working right.

A post popped up on the screen, the same master list she had mentioned earlier. And his eyes bulged out of their sockets; damn, those are a lot of fanfictions. He went through the whole thing, smirking again when he noticed that she had written the most fanfictions about him. Not Bucky Barnes, no, Sebastian Stan.

He clicked on the first one. The date of posting was way back, in 2019. He started reading; nothing about it felt weird to him; he was intrigued, if anything. And as he continued reading, he couldn't help but imagine her being in the stead of the female protagonist. Her, the writer. The woman whose picture had made him end up reading in the first place.

When he finished the story, his heart thudded wildly in his chest. Wow, she really has a way with words. And he had also noticed how in the author's note, she used a lot of slang but reading the story had made him realize that she had an amazing, extensive vocabulary. He went back to the master list and clicked on the latest post under his name.

Posted: 15 minutes ago.

His breath hitched in his throat when he read the warnings: there was going to be sexual intercourse in this one. For one moment, he hesitated; did he really want to read this? "Oh fuck it," he huffed and scrolled, starting to read. The more he read, the more his shaft twitched in his pants. He wasn't really like that during… but oh damn, he wasn't complaining.

"Oh, Seb…"

His hand slid down and he rubbed himself through his boxers, unable to take his eyes off the text in front of him. His strokes got harder and faster as the sex got steamier. "Ungh, I'm gonna cum—" And he suddenly came in his boxers, groaning. Slumping down on the bed, he quickly finished reading the rest of it, going back to the master list.

He took a screenshot with the account's name in it and then went back to her Instagram account to take another screenshot. Keeping his phone away, he slipped out of his boxers, cleaned himself and pulled the covers on top of him, finally feeling tired enough to fall asleep.

---

Y/N was walking across the campus of her university, going to the cafeteria when her phone buzzed in her pocket. Taking it out, she opened Tumblr to read the message someone had sent her just then.

his-username: Hi there! I was binging your account last night, you write really well

your-username: Omg thank you!!!! I really appreciate it, I love getting feedback! 🥺❤

his-username: You're welcome! Especially your latest post, that was really good ;)

your-username: hehe 😈 glad you liked it!

Smiling widely, she kept her phone away and continued walking, not knowing that the person who had texted her was the same man she had written about. Sebastian smiled to himself when he read her text. After getting up in the morning, the first thing he had done was install Tumblr on his phone. Then he made an account for himself.

Figuring out the app was easy; he found out that there was an option to keep your liked posts and the accounts you followed hidden, and selected it immediately. No one needed to know what he did on the app. Then he went back to her account, pressed the follow button and started binge-reading her fanfictions again. Last night had he read only two, and that had left him wanting more.

Funny how much things can change in a night. He liked and reblogged all her posts without a second thought; he even read all her Bucky Barnes posts. She understood his character so well, put him on what he thought was an undeserved pedestal while writing about him. Some of the stories were AUs, which he found out stood for Alternate Universes. Mostly mobster or mafia stuff.

He had the day off, and he spent the entire time cooped up in his apartment, on his bed, reading. The more he read, the more he started fawning over her, over the version of him that she put out to the world. Dominating, suave and just perfect. He loved it. At the end of the day, he decided to text her again, hoping she wouldn't think he was weird or find out the truth.

his-username: do you wanna be friends, maybe? I'm new to the app, don't really have any friends here ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

That was a lie, he knew Mark Ruffalo had an active Tumblr account. But it's not like he could tell him.

your-username: Yes sure!!!! I was also thinking of making some friends on this app lol

his-username: You don't have any on here? But you've been here for years, haven't you?

your-username: haha yeah, but I don't really reach out to people much. Sometimes people leave their feedbacks on my posts, text me but that's that

his-username: Ohhh

his-username: well, let's start with names. Mine's Sebastian

your-username: Really?????? omg that's so cool lmaooooooo (didn't think you were a boy but 😳👀)

his-username: Not a boy, I'm a man 😤😂

your-username: 🤣 im y/n, btw

his-username: Y/N, that's a nice name

your-username: thank you!!!! So, what do you do?

his-username: nothing really that interesting, I'm in theatre

your-username: theatre is nice! I'm studying at [university] in New York lmao

his-username: Wait you're in New York? So am I!

your-username: ASDFHKSHKGF that's awesome!!! also I noticed that you've been going through my account the whole day 😏 notifications upon notifications keeping my phone busy

his-username: Oopsie?

your-username: 😂😂 I really don't mind, it was great! Despite the amount of likes on my posts, I only have a few loyal followers lmao gaining one more felt nice

your-username: You a big fan of Sebastian Stan? Cuz I noticed that you were only reading his and Bucky's fics 👀

Sebastian's face heated up.

his-username: kinda yeah 🤷🏻‍♂️😁

your-username: Cool cool cool, I'm a big fan of his too!!!! also got a crush on him but whatever 😳

Sebastian smirked at his phone. A crush on him, huh? That… was acceptable. He suddenly felt his cocky side coming out; the one she described in nearly all her fanfictions.

his-username: wouldn't blame ya, I mean, look at him. You have also written the most fics about him and Bucky

your-username: right????? damn that man has raised my standards. Anyway, I gtg now, I have to finish a paper before midnight. ttyl!

his-username: Bye! 👋🏻

He kept his phone away and took in a deep breath. This was the most fun he had had in years, and he was not letting her go so easy. He realized he was quickly falling for her; rather unhealthy, but he couldn't help it. Look at her. She looks like a goddamn angel, writes like one, makes him feel like one, do you really expect him not to fall for her? That's insane.

---

Months passed by like a breeze. Y/N and Sebastian had become very good friends, and he knew his way around words just enough to keep her from finding out his identity while not lying to her. Y/N also appreciated his friendship, because he was the one to whom she could rant about her most favorite man in the world— Sebastian Stan.

Sometimes, she thought about how weird of a coincidence it was that her new friend and the actor shared the same names, but then she used to brush it off; that was a common name, right? They talked for hours on end; Sebastian (her friend, not the actor) was extremely witty, smart and fun to talk to, she had to admit. Sebastian felt the same way.

His feelings had worsened. Y/N entirely owned his heart now. Somedays, he'd just go on Instagram, go to her account— her username memorized by him— and stare at her photos until he grew tired; he'd never get tired of looking at her beautiful face but his stiff body afterwards begged to differ. She was just so Elysian. He longed for the moment when he could meet her in real life.

His personality had also changed majorly, and people had caught on. Especially his Marvel co-stars, who knew him to be introverted, shy and, in Anthony Mackie's words, "boring". They were surprised at his sudden change in attitude; he knew his worth and Y/N had helped tremendously in finding it. Now, all those adjectives that she used in her fanfictions fit him perfectly.

Sebastian was never tempted to read fanfictions about himself from authors other than Y/N. No, he only loved her work. He was sure no one else could write as beautifully as she did, he was her #1 fan. Y/N even sent him funny Marvel memes she found on the app and he used to enjoy them heartily; God, the others have no idea what they're missing out on. Our fans are awesome.

Everything was going well.

Until one day.

Sebastian was getting bored at home, so he decided to go to the nearby library to clear his mind. He had read not one book in the past few months, hung up on Y/N's fanfictions. At this point, he was obsessed with her and he knew it. It was nothing dark, per se, it was— it was similar to how Y/N was attracted to Sebastian. How she was a fan of his work.

Just the same. He was a fan of her work in the same way. Just how she was attracted to him, he was attracted to her. Walking into the library that he visited often, he gave the librarian a smile and ventured further into the dark place. He checked his watch; the library closed at 12 am, it was currently 9:30 pm.

Not many people were around, heck, nobody was around. He thought himself to be all alone until he heard it. A sigh, coming from a few aisles away. He walked in that direction and peeked around the corner, freezing when he saw the other person. Y/N? Her books were strewn all across the table as she sat alone at the booth, rubbing her temples.

"You okay?"

She looked up and her breath caught in her throat. I'm dreaming. This is not real. Now I know for a fact that Sebastian Stan is not standing in front of me, asking me if I'm— "Hello?" He snapped his fingers in front of her face, pulling her out of her thoughts. "I, uh— I'm— h-hi," she stammered and he almost chuckled. "Hi." She gulped visibly and blinked at the table, not meeting his eyes.

"Can I have a seat?" He wants to sit with me?! "Y-Yes, sure, sir," she blurted out and he easily slid into the booth next to her. "Hey, please, call me Sebastian. What's your name?" He gave her a friendly smile, even though all he wanted to do was push her back into the booth and kiss her wildly. His shaft twitched just by thinking about it; Y/N was a thousand times more beautiful in person.

"I'm Y/N, it's very nice to meet you, I'm… I'm a fan," she admitted, playing with the ring she wore on her left thumb. I'm your fan too, sweetheart, the biggest one. "Y/N, nice name. You come here often? I haven't really seen you around." She shook her head. "Oh no no, I moved to this part of the city just a week ago, this is my first time here. The library is cozy," she shrugged, easing out of her tense position.

Sebastian nodded. "Yes, I know, this place is awesome. Got all my favorite books here," he chuckled and she smiled at him. "What's all this?" A groan left her lips. "Ugh, stupid university work. I have to write a book report but I don't even know what to write about." He smiled gently. "Well, I have a few favorite books, would you like some suggestions?"

"Oh, please! Tell me!"

He started listing some of his favorite works and Y/N noted the names down until he said the last name. At that, she froze. That's the name of my latest— She looked up but he had a smile on his face. "Oh, and the last one is by my favorite author." He took a pause. "Y/N Y/L/N." She froze completely, staring at the man with her jaw dropped.

Sebastian grinned. "We finally meet, Y/N, I've been waiting for months." Her mouth opened and closed several times as she recalled every interaction she had had with her online best friend— scratch that— her celebrity crush. All the times she had confessed her love for Sebastian Stan, all the dirty and inappropriate memes that she'd sent him…

Embarrassment flooded her entire body as she exhaled shakily. "It was you," she croaked out, "On Tumblr, the account— I'm so sorry—" Sebastian frowned in confusion when she blinked back sudden tears, a few still rolling down her cheeks as shame replaced embarrassment. "Y/N, please don't cry…" She looked up at him, his figure blurry due to her tears.

"You've read everything, haven't you? I just— I'm sorry, I don't want to make you uncomfortable—" He pulled her into his arms, hugging her tightly. Y/N couldn't hug back, though she appreciated the hug especially since it came from him. "You don't know how much you mean to me, doll," he mumbled into her shoulder, using the nickname she often used in the stories she wrote about him. He grew accustomed to it easily.

"Huh?"

He pulled away to wipe her tears. "It was an accident," he admitted, "But I stumbled onto your Instagram account from my explore page. Then I clicked on your account, saw that you wrote Marvel fanfictions and I just couldn't resist the urge to read what you had written. Blame it on 3 am me, to be honest. You're a great writer, and I was immediately drawn to your works. They're awesome.

"They've helped me so much in the past few months. You see this changed attitude that everyone's been talking about lately? All because of you, sweetheart. I'm sorry for keeping my identity secret, but after reading your works, I knew I had to get closer to you. I made the Tumblr account just for you, just so I could talk to you. I'm sorry for lying, but thank you."

Y/N dumbfoundedly stared at him for a few moments, her heart beat getting steady with each thump. Here was a man she admired, loved more than anyone else in the world, telling her that he harbored the same feelings for her. How crazy was that?! Not trusting her words, she simply pulled him into another hug. Sebastian wrapped his arms tight around her, pulling her flush against him.

"Can I kiss you, doll?"

She slowly pulled away from him and nodded, shyly biting her lip. Grinning at the endearing gesture, Sebastian cupped her face and leaned in, gently pressing his lips to hers. The kiss grew hungry in a matter of seconds, and Y/N responded just as eagerly. His hands slid down to her waist and tugged on it, pulling her on his lap. She straddled his thighs as they continued kissing.

"Fuck," he groaned when they finally pulled away from each other, out of breath and panting. "You see what you do to me, doll?" Sebastian spoke huskily as he took her hand, placing it right on top of the tent that was forming in his pants. "Oh," Y/N whimpered when she felt him, the sound going straight to his shaft. "How about I take you home and we recreate some of the scenes from your stories, hm?"

"O-Okay."

"Good girl."

---

A/N: What a meta experience 🤡 Leave a like if you enjoyed, thanks for reading!

#sebastian stan x reader #sebastian stan x you #sebastian stan x y/n #sebastian stan x female reader #sebastian stan characters #bucky barnes x reader #winter soldier #disney #mcu #marvel #avengers #fanfic #writing #writeblr

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celestialmazer · 2 years

Text

‘He was 50 Years Old Going on Eight’: Stewart Copeland on Taylor Hawkins’ Childlike Joy

Hawkins idolized the Police drummer, then befriended him. This week, Copeland called up Rolling Stone to pay tribute to his late “brother of the stick”

By ANGIE MARTOCCIO for Rolling Stone

"As a young drummer, Taylor Hawkins worshipped the Police. “My brother handed me a copy of Zenyatta Mondatta,” Hawkins told the BBC in 2019. “This was 1982. He goes, ‘If you want to be good, you have to play it like this guy.’ My two first major inspirations — probably the two guys that shaped a lot of what I do when I play drums in a rock band — are Roger Taylor and Stewart Copeland.”

Hawkins finally met his hero in 2005, and they began a long friendship that consisted of jams at Copeland’s home studio, the Sacred Grove, late-night phone conversations, and frequent hangs. Copeland called Rolling Stone to share his memories of the late drummer."

"All of us in the drummer community are texting back and forth our shock and horror at this unexpected event. In fact, not to get too Grim Reaper-ish about it, but the last time I physically saw Taylor — although we talked on the phone a lot — was just as the lockdown was beginning, at Neil [Peart’s] memorial. I was there with [Jethro Tull’s] Doane Perry, [Tool’s] Danny Carey, and [Red Hot Chili Peppers’] Chad Smith, and Taylor, all lamenting the loss of our guiding light Neil Peart. And now, we will be reconvened.

We enjoyed each other’s company. Much more than guitarists do. You would think we would be more competitive, because there’s only one drum set on stage and you can have any number of amps. But for some reason we like extra rhythm clattering around us. He was very much in the drum tribe. Brothers of the stick. We have our own language, one not understood by guitarists, and particularly alien to keyboard players.

Taylor was a great hang, and there’s a big hole where a lot of laughs used to live. When we weren’t goofing off with each other, we were on the phone talking crackpot theories, get-rich-quick schemes, and just general hang bullshit. He was just indefatigably cheerful. He was emotional as well, but that just gave spice to his cheerfulness.

He was always Mister Fanboy, but that was part of his shtick. “OK, OK, Taylor, calm down!” One of his social tricks was that whenever we were hanging out, he’d select a Police T-shirt from his extensive collection. When he hung out with Neil, he’d have his Rush T-shirt on. He was 50 years old going on eight.

He was a fan of everybody, a real enthusiast. Even though he was a star, he was very interested in all the other people, how they got there and what they do. He knew it all — all the different things that everybody could do. Every flammadiddle and rattamacue as played by his heroes.

He’d go to his extensive estate, at the end of which is a guest house he turned into the drum palace. He could do the John Bonham double-bass-drum kick thing before they invented double-bass-drum pedals. Neil’s single-stroke rolls down all 14 tom-toms. All my stuff, Roger Taylor’s stuff, Phil Collins. He was fascinated by it all — and I’m sure it informed his own style — but he had his own thing. He went straight for the money.

He had no sense of competition or one-upmanship, and we all know the reason for that: because his boss was a drummer. The worst indignity: His boss was one of the best drummers ever. So this made all of us other drummers with our axes to grind and gripes look at the world more calmly. Just think about Taylor’s gig.

I was thinking about when we met. I got a strange invitation out of the blue from the Foo Fighters to join them on their jet up to San Francisco to play a show [in 2005], and then straight to New York where they did 24 Hours of Foo on MTV. I think that’s the first time I met those guys. What really impressed me about all of them was that not only were they the headlining act, but they all had side bands that were the supporting acts. Hardworking, those young musicians.

I’m not sure if it was Taylor or Dave who decided “That’s it, on the Police reunion tour [in 2007] we’re opening for the Police, damn it!” They were already a stadium act! So when we played Dodger Stadium, they insisted on opening for the Police. It was a very good thing, because they lit the whole stadium up. All we had to do was walk out there and look handsome, and the place was ours. There was that one moment [in the 2008 concert documentary Certifiable] where Dave’s going, “They’ve got lamb. We don’t have lamb.” By the way, they had lamb.

He had many more chops than he ever showed in the context of the Foo Fighters. The singing part came later. He always wanted to do the Klark Kent [Copeland’s 1980 solo debut] band. I said “Look, everyone wants to play the drums on that, can you play guitar or sing?” And at the time I got the impression he didn’t have that. Dave probably pushed him out in the front of the stage. He discovered, the same way Dave did, “Hey, it’s not rocket science. All you’ve got to do is have charisma and you can sing.” Dave and Taylor were so fraternal. They would claw at each other’s jugular veins and hug very soon after. In a way that only brothers can.

As I’m entering my 70th year, I’m an agony aunt for all my brothers of the stick. Never gave him any advice on how to play his darn drums — I would not be so impertinent — but we did talk long into the night about life’s complexities. OK, I’m giving the game away here, but he was a rock star, but also a father of three, husband to Allison. The three kids, Oliver, Annabelle, and Everleigh. And since I have seven kids and five grandkids, I had a couple of words of wisdom to impart. But in that sense, he was extremely solid.

He would come over here to some of our parties. Some of which were daytime sober parties, some of which were nighttime. Some of which were extremely unsober. But I can comment that Taylor never was an out-of-control, or even in-control, party animal. He was a pretty straight arrow, as far as I knew.

I had just finished playing a show with the Nashville Symphony [when I found out he died]. It was just an amazing show. Came offstage, the hotel was a block and a half away, so I was in the shower before the audience was out of the building, with endorphins pumping out of every pore. I was heading down to the bar, and just as I’m walking out of my hotel room door, I get the text. “Oh, for fuck’s sake, you’re kidding.” I get down to the bar, which is full of a throng of happy cheerful people all saying “Good show.”

The natural endorphins are still going strong, and at the same time just overwhelmed with disbelief and shock. Like I said, Neil saw his train coming and he had a first-class ticket. Nobody saw Taylor coming. He was just a force of life that seemed unstoppable. He was a living thing, not a thing that will ever die. So the suddenness was profound.

The music, of course, is going to be important to a lot of people, but the hang, that’s what I miss. The guy, that laugh, the husky kind of voice that he had, that surfer voice. He was certainly the quintessential surfer dude. Laguna Beach all the way. Was he actually a surfer? I never got a chance to ask him.

I’m so sorry for Allison and those kids. Dave, the band. That’s what makes me get through my day, is how much deeper and more profound, sudden, their loss is. They have a much bigger emotional mountain to climb. But for his people who are more just his chuckle buddies, it takes longer to sink in that there’s a hole there. You know that if it had been anybody else, Taylor and I would be on the phone right now, deeply thinking about it. I just miss him."

#Taylor Hawkins #Stewart Copeland #rolling stone magazine #drums #music #foo fighters #the police #Neil peart #rush #Chad Smith #red hot chili peppers #klark kent

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k-k-keroppi · 3 years

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How I got diagnosed

When I was in the various waiting periods for my diagnosis procedure, I tried to hard to find an account of what was actually going to happen, what stages there were, anything to make the situation clearer, and I couldn’t find anything. I am since diagnosed, and so am writing down everything that happened to help other people who are frustrated by the lack of information. This is for england, and this link is also very helpful for more professional information, it’s an interactive flowchart for the NICE guidelines. Anyway, on with it.

First, I want to say don’t be discouraged about the time periods. It took me two years to be diagnosed, but I had a series of circumstances that led to it being that long, covid being one. So, I first had my appointment with my GP on the 5th march 2019, when I was 15. I went with my mum, and the doctor asked some questions about how I was generally, I don’t completely remember. I blocked a lot of it out, because it was really stressful, and my doctor wasn’t really making sense, but that was just a him thing. He agreed that I needed a referal at the end of the session, which was really lucky, and so that was where it started. On the 21st of august 2019, I recieved a letter from the NHS telling us that we had to do an evidence based program through my school. #

Since my referal was through my school, my pastoral team were technically involved. What actually happened was that in (possibly) december/january, my mother had a meeting with one member of the pastoral team, and that was it. My mother was instructed to complete an online parenting course to make sure she understood how to properly look after me, and the referal process couldn’t properly start until she had done that. It was emailed to her, and she completed it on the 22nd of february 2020. In march 2020, england obviously went into lockdown and both my school and the referal offices weren’t active, so the process halted again. We got a letter all referal services had been paused, and we could email them again once three-four months had passed.

In August 2020, we emailed them again, and the referal started again. I’m sorry I can’t remember exactly what happened then, but this was the worst period of waiting. Me and my mother think that, because of the backlog they presumable had, they forgot about me. On the eighteenth of february 2021, six months after my referal resumed, I recieved a letter with a series of surveys in it. There was an extensive one for my parents to fill in, and there was one for me to fill in. It asked questions like how I felt I interacted with people, had I ever done xyz before, and I ticked a box out of strongly agree to strongly disagree. My parents survey asked similar questions, but also included questions about my habits as a baby or a young child, whether I had ever slf hrmed, how they percieved my behaviours, and things like that. I wasn’t in the room when they filled it out.

We sent it back to them filled out the next day, and on the 14th of april 2021 i got an appointment for an observational assessment. The observation was on the 5th of may 2021, and included me and my mother. I was taken into the walk in center and my and my mum sat in a room with a one way mirror, where the nurse who led us in was sitting. There was a table with some activities on it, and I was told to sit on a specific side of the table. First we had to play snap. There was only one snap in the pack, which my mum won. The nurse would knock on the glass when she wanted us to move on, and we would have to stop what we were doing even if we weren’t done and move on to the next one.

The next activity was a plastic jenga tower. When each person took a jenga piece the person had to ask a question from a set list of questions they had on cards, and both people had to answer. Some of the questions were things like ‘have you ever saved money for something you wanted’ ‘what makes you angry’ ‘what makes you sad’ ‘what do you enjoy doing with friends’ and other things like that.

The next activity was conversation again, but only my mum had instructions. She was told to engage me in conversation about anything, and it specified that she could ask me about something I liked. I talked about the magnus archives, and the woman knocked on the glass before I could finish talking and I had to stop, which I did. I don’t know what would happen if you chose not to.

The final activity was similar to the jenga game, where we both had conversation cards. There was a metal pole hanging from a a frame, a bot like a bigger desk toy, and we had to balance other metal poles on t without it tipping, so we had to work together. My mum had more conversation cards to ask me, similar to the jenga ones. At the end, she had to engage me in two way conversation, rather than asking me about my special interest, and then the nurse came in and led us out. The nurse was really lovely, very smiley even though I kept saying how condescending I found everything during the observation.

On the tenth of may 2021, my mum and dad had a virtual meeting to talk to a different nurses about me. The meeting was meant to last two hours, and ended up lasting four and a half. They were asked about the family’s history of autism, my traits as a child, my traits now, going very in depth about my behaviours. I obviously wasn’t there, so I cant say with clarity what happened then.

It was mentioned that there would be a virtual feedback meeting to talk about the results of the assessment, but that never happened. What did happen was a phone call on the 24th of may 2021, confirming that I had been diagnosed. A report explaining my traits, and the results of the assessment was said to have been posted to me, but I haven’t received it yet, The report will allow me to send to information to my teachers and receive help from my school.

So there you go, i don’t know how helpful that was but I remember the lack of information and I wanted to add mine to the fix, so heres a full post about the two years it took me. :)

#actuallyautistic #autism #asd #asd diagnosis #autism diagnosis #self diagnosed autism #self dx #self diagnosis #diagnoses #autistic #camhs #nhs #nhs mental health #neurodivergent #neurodivergency

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joezworld · 3 years

Text

Toby - Rap God

Guys I was making myself laugh when I wrote this - I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Based entirely on one line from this.

2019

There are many engines on the Island of Sodor, and like many people, music is often part of their lives.

Some engines, like Percy and Duck, have no interest in the subject, having never been exposed to it in a real manner.

Others, like Gordon and Henry, have extremely well-defined music tastes. (Unfortunately for those around them, they do not like the same music, and arguments often ensue.)

James, being extremely vain, enjoys the songs written about him for the children's television show based on the writings of The Thin Clergyman.

And then there’s Toby...

-----------

Toby is a small brown steam tram. He has spent almost all of his life on Sodor on Thomas' branch line, where he and his coach Henrietta trundle up and down the valley at the top of the line - providing a valuable commuter service from the branch line terminus to the stone mines at Anopha.

Toby likes music, as does Henrietta; they like it so much that in 1989 the workmen installed a radio in Henrietta so that the two could listen to music on it as they worked.

This was very thoughtful gift, but there was a small problem:

The hills outside of the quarry meant that many radio stations couldn't reach the small antenna on Henrietta's roof.

Fortunately, a few did, mostly overpowered stations on the Isle of Man. These stations were designed to reach boats far out at sea, and mainly played uninteresting things like the Shipping Forecast.

There was, however, one station that did come come through loud and clear no matter where you were...

---

You're listening to ManxPirate - the Barely-Seaworthy voice of the Sudrian Sea. I’m your sea-going Deejay - or Sea-Jay - Musik Mike! Up next is our most popular block of the day - that’s right, the JAMS are LOUD and we're all gonna get DEF!

"Oh Henrietta! It's starting!"

"Just be ready on the choruses Toby"

------------------

The sounds of music echoed off of the Els river valley as Toby and Henrietta trundled towards Elsbridge.

Aside from their Quarry duties, Toby and Henrietta also worked 'the school bus', a daily train that carried schoolchildren from the remote farmhouses between Elsbridge and Hackenbeck to the Saint Pedroc's school in Elsbridge.

Toby loved this route - many of the children had been taking 'the bus' since Grade 1, and he felt privileged to have seen them grow up into fine young adults.

As he pulled into the platform at Elsbridge station, he saw those young adults crowded around each other.

'"Peep Peep! Let's go, everyone!" he called to the teens.

"Just a minute Tobes!" Called back Sera, one of the teenagers, before she turned back to her friends, who were filming her with their 'smart-phones'.

"Whatever could they be doing?" He asked Henrietta as Sera and her friend Phoebe bounced up and down in unison while waving their arms around.

"Undoubtedly something for the internet," the coach mused. "But I have no idea what - trends change so fast now".

"Internet?" Toby was puzzled. "Don't they need a computer for that?"

"Toby. Smartphones have been around for over ten years. How do you not know about this?"

"I'm sorry that I'm not as technologically advanced as you - but at least I know what steam is!"

"Oh my goodness, it's also a video game company now. You've heard those jokes before!"

Toby and Henrietta likely would have gone on like that until the guard blew his whistle, but Phoebe broke away from the group of teens, her phone in her hand.

"Toby?" She asked, clearly trying not laugh. "Do you know what Vossi Bop is?"

Toby was taken aback. "Of course I do. Vossi Bop isn't my favourite, but that's just because I don't like Stormzy that much - I'm not one for Grime."

Phoebe blinked like she'd been poleaxed. "What?"

"It's a Stormzy song, isn't it?"

"Toby," Henrietta sighed. "She was asking because she thought you didn't know. Was this going to be some kind of thing where you show rap music to the elderly and laugh at them being shocked?" She asked Phoebe, who nodded slowly.

"Well, you're going to have to better than that young lady," The coach smirked. "We've been listening to ManxPirate since before you were born!"

"Really?" The blonde asked slowly.

"Oh yes!" Henrietta boasted. "Eazy-E was still alive when we first tuned in!"

"Oh, em, gee!" The girl said, before turning and shouting down the platform. "Guys! They do know!"

The excited teenagers crowded around Toby and Henrietta as they quizzed the tram on rap music. Any thought of leaving on time was totally forgotten about as Toby's extensive knowledge of gangsta rap was laid out for them.

"Mate, mate," said John, one of the boys. "You gotta do The Challenge if you know all this!"

"What challenge?" Toby asked.

The teens clamored over each other, before they all stopped to let someone speak intelligibly.

Rachel Kyndley eventually spoke up: "It's a thing that ManxPirate is doing on TikTok. You sing along to a rap song and whoever does it the best gets to record a charity single with Stormzy!"

The teens again spoke over each other, all claiming that Toby and Henrietta should sing for the challenge.

Toby had to blow his whistle to calm them down. "I suppose there's nothing to lose by it," He said after a moment. "But I should say that my flow isn’t that good."

"Mate, I am amazed that you know what that means,” Said John. “But you just need to sing along to somethin’ that’s already out there.”

“Oh.” Toby looked back at Henrietta. “Well that shouldn’t be too hard. Do you have any N.W.A we could sing along to?”

As he had the only ‘eye-phone pro’, Simon the student newspaper editor was volunteered as cameraperson, while Rachel set a small ‘blue tooth speaker’ on Toby’s bufferbeam so that he could hear the music.

The remaining teenagers pulled out their phones as well - whatever happened next was going to be un-fucking-believable.

The music began with record scratching. The kids looked at each other in shock. There was no way that Rachel had picked this.

"Right about now NWA court is in full effect” Henrietta sang.

Rachel had. The teens could barely contain themselves.

“Judge Dre presiding in the case of NWA versus the police department.

Prosecuting attourneys are MC Ren, Ice Cube and Eazy motherfuckin' E”

Hearing Henrietta say ‘fuck’, was an astonishing experience for the unprepared teenagers.

“Order, order, order, Ice Cube take the motherfuckin' stand

Do you swear to tell the truth the whole truth

And nothin' but the truth so help your black ass?”

“You goddamn right” Toby responded. Rachel Kyndley barely could hold back a shout of astonishment. I hope there’s no book written about this! She thought.

“Well, won't you tell everybody what the fuck you gotta say?"

Then there was a record scratching sound.

The teens knew what came next. They hoped that they were prepared to hear this song come out of Toby.

"Fuck the police comin' straight from the underground!"

Toby and Henrietta not only sang this lyric, they sang it in harmony.

The teenagers thought that they had been prepared.

They were not prepared.

Most of the next few verses were lost underneath the clamor of twelve teenagers losing their goddamn minds.

--------------------

A few days later

Toby was resting in his shed when a little car came tearing into the station parking lot. More girls than should have been possible to fit in it came tumbling out and made a beeline for his shed, Rachel Kyndley in the lead.

“Toby! Toby! Toby! You won! You won!” She shouted as she skidded over the gravel.

“Won what?”

“The Contest!” She shrieked. “Your video went viral and you won The Contest! Stormzy said on Instagram that he was excited to meet you!”

She and her friends dissolved into happy squealing, preventing any further speech.

“What’s Instagram?” Toby asked Henrietta.

--------------------------

The Next Week

Stephen Hatt was enjoying his tea and tolerating his toast and marmalade, when his son Richard burst into his office, waving his phone around like a sword.

“Were you just not going to tell me that you let Stormzy visit the engines? Or was I just supposed to figure this out when Kieran and Micah tore my ear off for not letting them meet him?!”

“I have a phone, you know. And a receptionist.” Stephen said as he cleaned tea off of his desk. Fortunately, most of it had gone onto the marmalade covered toast, which he unceremoniously dumped into the trash. “And who have I let meet the engines?”

“Stormzy? The rapper? He headlined at Glastonbury last bloody month?”

“I don’t follow.”

“He’s a musician, and you let him record an album with Toby!”

“He recorded music? With Toby? Our Toby?”

“Yes! It was supposed to be a single, but now it’s an album! It hit number one! And it’s been out for three hours!”

“You’re saying this as if I have the slightest idea what you’re talking about.”

“Just read the article!” Richard shoved the phone into his hand. The website for BBC Sodor and Man was open.

STORMZY DROPS SURPRISE ALBUM WITH SURPRISE COSTARS

ELSBRIDGE - Music fans across the world were surprised this morning when Stormzy unexpectedly announced via Instagram the release of his newest album, Back in Their Day - featuring two of the realest OGs I’ve ever seen.

Residents of Sodor were especially surprised to discover who those “two real OGs” were: Toby and Henrietta, an engine and coach on the Ffarquhar Branch Line.

This unexpected collaboration began several weeks ago when a viral video on TikTok featuring the pair attracted the attention of the rapper...

Stephen skimmed the rest of the article, not quite believing what he was reading. “I didn’t authorize any of this.” He said at last.

“Really?” Richard said, not quite believing him. “Because that’s what the staff on the Branch told me too.”

“I swear to you I didn’t do anything.”

“Then what, did the biggest star in the country just go to Ffarquhar and record an album with Toby? With nobody’s permission?”

----------------

[TWO YEARS LATER]

--CHANNEL 4 INTERNAL TRANSCRIPT: THE LAST LEG 2021 CHRISTMAS SPECIAL--

ADAM HILLS - So we’ve had a lot of questions, about, the last album you dropped-

[AUDIENCE LAUGHTER]

AH - The one with the train engine - I think his name is Toby?

STORMZY - And Henrietta. Can’t forget her.

AH - Of course not.

S - What do you wanna know?

[MORE LAUGHTER]

AH - Well, I don’t have any questions - and when I say we, I don’t mean Alex or our viewers -

[PROLONGED LAUGHTER]

AH - I mean Josh.

JOSH WIDDICOMBE - [TO ADAM] You’re an Arse. [To STORMZY] - Um, I just wanted to know how you did it really. Is it, is it true that you snuck in and did it all in one night?

S - Oh yeah! Absolutely. ‘Cause, I thought that it was gonna be a one and done, like just a single y’know? So I just went there and was gonna do it and go. But as we kept talkin’ I realized that, that, I just had to make more, and then it became the album and we shot a music video for ‘scrapp’ on the same night and then I did some sound work and then it went up.

AH - Just like that?

S - Just like that.

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omoi-no-hoka · 4 years

Note

I read your post on how you got started in the translation industry and I was wondering if it is possible to get an entry/basic level translation gigs in Japan with N3-level proficiency or if even those want at least N2 proficiency. Also since you've been living and working in Japan for a long time, what advice would you give those wanting to work in Japan in regards to avoiding black companies?

Finding Translation Work in Japan

Hi there! Thank you for your ask.

To be honest, “translation” is so very broad that I can’t give you a simple “yes” or “no” as an answer. My answer is “Maybe” with the following caveats. For the sake of this post, I’m going to assume that your native language is English, or that you have native-level proficiency, and you plan to do English↔Japanese translation in a Japanese workplace.

Field of Translation

This is perhaps the biggest factor. I understand that in order to translate legal or medical things, there is a particular certification that you must obtain. This requires N1/native level proficiency in both languages. I have thought of attempting to obtain the medical one, but I’m not ready for it. I would need to study a LOT of terminology in both English and Japanese.

As for other fields, I think it really depends on the company and how much they are willing to teach you on the job. Also, depending on the field, many field-specific terminology may be katakana words derived from English, meaning that while they will be new Japanese words for you, they will not be entirely new words.

But if I were to work in, say, the banking industry doing translation, I would certainly have a hard time learning all the words, especially if I didn’t already have some sort of background in banking in English.

For example, I specifically work as a translator for a company that provides services to other very big companies that you have heard of. Technically, I work for an anti-malware software company and the technical support aspect of it. When a product is updated, I will translate internal manuals and things like that. I also translate the Big Wig conversations, which are done in English since the client and our company’s HQs are in America, so that our local guys know what’s going on. I also create/translate/edit/take minutes for presentations given to Big Wigs. I also handle all IT issues in our project, because our IT ticketing system is 100% in English. ANYTHING English-related is funneled to me.

Contractually-speaking, I do not work for any other clients. But since I’m the only translator in our company in Hokkaido capable of interpretation as well, I am often asked to assist under the table. (Translation and interpretation are two entirely different beasts, btw.)

While I don’t have a background in IT or computers or anything like that, since most of the terminology is in katakana and I’m not absolutely clueless about computers, my learning curve wasn’t too sharp. I struggled more with bullshit corporate acronyms and the formalities of Business Japanese (sonkeigo and kenjougo).

A person holding an N2 is considered capable of Business Japanese. Even if you have extensive knowledge in the field of translation, you will have a VERY difficult time adjusting to the Japanese-language workplace if you are not good with Business Japanese. From that standpoint, I cannot recommend someone at N3 to enter a Japanese company to do translation. It will be grueling. I was N1 when I joined the company, and I still had difficulty composing emails and other workplace-related words I hadn’t come across.

Start with Freelance Translation/Proofreading

There was a year or so where I had N1 but was still teaching English. I found freelance English-Japanese translation jobs online. Lots of them were one-shot things, like “translate this brochure about our little tiny town” or “I am a researcher who has written a paper on Persian-French relations during the 16th century, and I need someone to proofread my English.” Lol that one was pretty specific and paid very handsomely. By doing well on a job, I established a relationship with that client and I would get more work either from them or someone they knew. Prices are fixed before translation.

The average price for translation is 3-7 yen per character (if the original text is in Japanese) or per word (if the original text is in English). The price increases depending on the complexity of the material. The brochure about the little town was 4 yen per character, but the research paper was 9 yen word (despite the fact I was only proofreading instead of translating because it was incredibly complex).

Proofreading goes alongside translation. I didn’t really do much of that, but you can see a price range of 1-5 yen per character/word. If you are N3, proofreading is great way to get your feet wet!

NOTE: Do not take on proofreading or translation jobs for a language that is not your native language. No matter how good you think your Japanese is, it will not be good enough to proofread. Even if you have an N1, you will miss things. Even I, as a translator with almost 3 years experience in my field, always have a Japanese coworker proofread everything I translate into Japanese, and 9 times out of 10 they fix at least one thing.

How to Avoid Black Companies

In Japan, some companies are labeled ブラック企業 “black kigyou,” which means that they violate labor laws in some heinous fashion. Denying pay, benefits, or leave, forcing employees to do grueling amounts of overtime that can lead to 過労死 karoushi (death by overwork), etc. These companies will rob you of your sanity at best and your life at worst, and are to be avoided at all costs.

When I was searching for a position teaching English, I googled reviews of each big Eikaiwa school, like AEON or whatever else there is. Many previous teachers air their grievances on places like glassdoor.com. It was easy to learn which schools I should avoid.

Also, I applied online to many different big Eikaiwas. Three of them (sorry, I can’t remember which) immediately emailed me back and said I was hired, without an interview or anything. That should be a HUGE red flag to you right there. Why are they so desperate to hire that they’ll take you without even giving you an interview? And even if they do later say, “Your hiring is dependent upon an interview,” that means that their initial contact email was fraudulent.

Research the company as best you can. See if you can find someone who has worked for them. Beware of smaller, private companies. They tend to fly under the radar and are prone to be even shittier. Then again, there was a woman who died of death by over work a few years ago and she worked for the biggest advertising firm in Japan.

Here’s an article from Business Insider about karoushi and black companies.

A 2016 report examining karoshi cases and their cause of death found that more than 20% of people in a survey of 10,000 Japanese workers said they worked at least 80 hours of overtime a month.

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry defines the threshold for karoushi as greater than 80 hours of overtime a month. Since this article was posted in 2018, a new law regarding overtime has been implemented by the Japanese government. Now there is a legal cap on overtime of 100 hours per month (and 720/year) for busier months, with the general upper limit set at 45 hours per month (360 hours/year).

Even if a company isn’t black, be prepared for overtime. My company makes sure that every employee adheres to the 45 hours per month limit...as best they can. If you follow this blog you know that I have done 60 and 70 hours of overtime in certain months, because I am our only translator and when shit hits the fan I’m the only one who can handle it.

However, my company is very good about making sure that I receive all of my overtime pay. Every single minute of overtime I do is properly reimbursed. Sometimes this means that if I work 60 hours one month, I will only report 45 that month, and then report 15 extra hours the next month. Or I will take a couple days off but claim that I worked (with my bosses’ approval, of course).

I can’t speak for other companies for sure, but I fear that when this law was introduced in 2019, many companies did not change their business models and instead forbid employees from reporting overtime that exceeded legal limits, meaning they would be going without compensation.

So be aware that if you are going to work in a Japanese company, you are likely to have overtime. Some people don’t, and congratulations to them! But it is an extremely real possibility. Make sure that you can handle it physically and mentally, and that you are being properly compensated. After my first month of Big Overtime, my boss told me, “I’m surprised that you managed to do all that. I thought that Americans had a poor work ethic compared to Japanese people, but now I see that’s not true.”

kinda racist, but thx

If you have an interview and it goes well and you receive a contract, ask to take the contract and have time to think about it. Then, have a Japanese person you trust read the contract and make sure there is nothing shady hidden in there. Contracts and legalese are difficult enough in my own native language--I don’t trust myself to catch something in Japanese.

If your friend thinks that the contract is fair as well, and if you feel like the company has a good atmosphere, take the job. That is what I did, and I am glad I did.

Translation and Interpretation

A lot of people don’t know the difference between “translation” and “interpretation” and use them interchangeably, but they are actually entirely different tasks that require different skills.

Translation: the conversion of written text from one language to another.

Interpretation: the conversion of spoken word from one language to another.

You will most likely be hired as a translator, because translation is much cheaper than interpretation. However, if your company is like mine, you will have interpretation work to do as well. You may be asked to take part in meetings and facilitate communication between the English-speaking and Japanese-speaking people, or act as a guide to a client from American headquarters, for example.

With translation, you usually have the blessing of time. You can look up a word you don’t know, you can think about the grammar, you can think about tone.

But with interpretation, you need to be:

Listening to Speaker A’s English and mentally summarizing their words

Starting to say Speaker A’s words in Japanese while holding on to the bits that will come later because English and Japanese word order is so different

Continuing to listen to added speech from Speaker A as you concurrently are relaying their previous speech in to Japanese and retaining the parts that you can’t say yet because of word order.

Then do it all for again for Speaker B’s reply, and repeat.

Basically, your mind has to be doing three things at once. Does your head hurt? Mine does. If I have to do simultaneous interpretation like that for more than a couple hours I literally develop a headache.

I will NEVER recommend an N3 person attempt interpretation in a business setting. Nor N2 for that matter. It is hard and you do not have the benefit of time to think and double-check things.

Also, many people don’t understand exactly how difficult it is to do interpretation. I have to sometimes just say “Sorry, pause” to the speaker because my head can’t retain any more, especially if figures and data and dates are referred to. Thankfully my coworkers have come to understand my method and are just happy that I can facilitate communication for them.

If you have any other questions regarding job hunting, please let me know and I’d be more than happy to offer what advice I have! 💖

#Anonymous #work in japan #life in Japan #expat in japan #japanese translation #japanese interpretation #job hunting #job hunting in japan #japan #ask me anything #asks are open

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