#has amazon prime learned from their mistakes?

[2008hondacivic]

i was so worried that class of 07 would have a the wilds season 2 moment,, like especially when the girls were initially so excited about men joining them,, but then saskia and the other girls picked up rocks and other weapons and i was like fuck yes the show knows what they’re doing

#has amazon prime learned from their mistakes? #class of 07 #class of ‘07 #the wilds #class of 07 spoilers

[orowyrm]

got any tips for beginner aquarists? :O

any advice i’d give is highly dependent on what you’re looking to accomplish — all fish are very different and have different needs! however in all my years working in the aquatics department at a pet store, i’ve found that water quality can be hard to grasp for some people — understandably so, it can get complicated, but it’s very important for the health of your fish. here’s some of the important stuff that i learned the hard way so you don’t have to!

- FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY. DECHLORINATE YOUR WATER!!! seachem prime is the most concentrated dechlorinator you’ll find at most stores at 2 drops per gallon, and it lasts a good while. it’s got a strong sulfur smell to it in the bottle, but unless you massively overdose it you won’t smell it in your tank. the #1 mistake people make is not dechlorinating their tap water before filling a tank or doing a water change, and it sucks because it’s such an easy fix but can totally wipe a tank. always pre treat your water!!

- if you’re going to be using tap water, consider testing your water’s pH at the very least so you know what you’re working with. pH is integral to the health of aquatic animals down to a cellular level — if your pH is too high or too low, it doesn’t matter if you’re doing everything else right. keep an eye on that shit.

- if you need to adjust it, look into more natural ways to do so rather than bottled pH booster or reducers (sometimes chemical additives can react with eachother in funky ways). to raise your pH, put a mesh baggie of something like crushed coral sand in your filter. to lower it, look into driftwood that leeches tannins - it’ll turn your water a bit brownish, but that’s okay. in fact, a lot of fish in the hobby naturally come from waters thatre tannin-y, and will be quite alright with things a little murky!

- if you can’t use your tap water for whatever reason, bottled spring water is next best. distilled is really only good for topping off after water has evaporated, but it lacks a lot of minerals thatre important for your fish’s health, so don’t JUST use distilled.

- the larger a volume of water you’re working with, the more forgiving the entire tank system will be. i usually don’t recommend going smaller than ten gallons for your first tank — maybe a 20long or 29 if you want lots of options. you can definitely make tank volumes smaller than ten gallons work (i’ve got a planted low tech 3gal that’s been going strong for quite some time now) but it’s generally a lot more finicky and will be much easier for a mistake to snowball into an emergency

- filters are good! please use a filter on your tank. in general every tank should have a mechanical filter for water movement and to help maintain good bacteria (more on that in a bit), an airline bubbler to help keep the water moving and make sure it’s oxygenated, and a heater because most fish in the hobby are tropical and like things toasty.

- make sure you get a heater with a built in thermostat that will shut off if it gets too hot, ideally one that you can adjust instead of a pre-programmed one. they’re a bit pricy at box stores because they’re the ‘advanced’ option, but hygger is a solid brand and you can get a really nice one of theirs with a temp control dial on amazon for like 20$.

- PLEASE NEVER EVER EVER LEAVE YOUR HEATER PLUGGED IN WHILE ITS OUT OF THE WATER!!! it will overheat and break and is also a fire hazard. i recently had my water level on my reef tank drop due to a pump malfunction and the heater was SMOKING when i got home from work and found it. it will also make your heater thoroughly nonfunctional, and replacing them is a pain. most have a minimum waterline marked, make sure you pay attention to that. unplug it during tank maintenance if you’re worried about it not being fully submerged.

- you’re going to want to be patient. while you COULD fill a tank with water and then plop fish into it the next day, you’re not going to be as successful as if you’d aged the tank a bit and allowed a biofilter to establish itself . i recommend doing some research about the nitrogen cycle and nitrifying bacteria, but the long and short of it is as follows:

— biological waste (fish poop, uneaten food, dropped plant leaves if you have live plants) in your tank produces ammonia. ammonia is highly toxic to fish even in small amounts, so you want this to be as close to 0 as possible.

— there are certain bacteria that will process ammonia into NITRITES. nitrites are still not great to have a lot of, but are much less toxic than ammonia.

— there are OTHER bacteria that will then take those nitrites and turn them into NITRATES. nitrates are the least toxic of the three, and so your end goal is to establish a healthy population of these various bacteria so that any available ammonia is quickly processed into nitrite, which then becomes nitrate. nitrate can only be removed from the system via a water change, but some is absorbed by plants as well. you still definitely want to do water changes even in a well planted tank.

- there are lots of different ways to introduce these bacteria populations to your tank and establish a biofilter. bear in mind that you want to treat your biofilter like any other living thing, so make sure things like temperature and pH stay as consistent and stable as possible. ideally, you want to decide what sort of fish you’d like to keep and then figure out what their preferred ranges are, and then keep your tank at that for the entire bioseeding process

- if you want to do it au naturale, these bacteria will colonize any body of dechlorinated freshwater if given enough time. you want to add a source of ammonia (some people will buy cheap feeder fish and put them in there, but i find that a bit unfair to the fish as if it doesn’t go smoothly they could suffer from ammonia burns or other health issues. plus, it could introduce all sorts of parasites and pathogens to your tank that can be a pain to clean out without hurting your bacteria) . the safest and cheapest way is to ‘feed’ your tank with little bits of fish food every now and then

- either invest in a test kit, or find a fish store that can test for you. chain stores like petco or petsmart offer testing, but they use the cheap strip tests that are probably the least accurate. they’re mostly good for telling you ‘yup, ammonia is there’ but not actually indicating if it’s decreasing over time or not. do some digging to see if there’s any local fish stores in your area that can test for you, and ask what methods they use. chemical tests are good for giving a ballpark and generally the highest quality the average hobbyist will get. i use a spectrophotometer at work so i’m spoiled LMFAO but you don’t need all that

- you want to see an initial spike in ammonia, which will then start to go down. you don’t want it to go down TOO much and starve your bacteria, so keep feeding your tank as this happens. eventually, you’ll also see a nitrite spike — this is good! this means the first group of bacteria are here and working hard. once the nitrites start decreasing you will hopefully see nitrates start to go up, and then congrats, your tank has a biofilter!! you can start adding animals now, although make sure you don’t have too much leftover ammonia or yucky food on the bottom first. i would start small — nerite snails are the roombas of the freshwater aquarium world, so you’ll want a couple anyway. add these first. if they’re still chillin after about a week, you’re good to proceed.

- this process can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. the longer you wait, the more well established and stable your tank will be.

- you CAN buy bottled bacteria to speed this process up a bit — your success may vary. most of the stuff you’ll find on shelves at a pet store likely isn’t alive anymore, but it doesn’t hurt to add because even if the bacteria are dead, you’re still adding waste material to help kickstart your cycle. the brand i’ve had the best luck with (and that we use for bioseeding systems at the aquarium i work at) is dr tim’s. not sure how many stores carry it, but you can find it online easily. there’s freshwater and saltwater versions, make sure you get the right one.

- even if you’re adding bottled bacteria, i would still let the tank run empty for a couple weeks. this lets you make sure all your equipment runs well and lets you play around with decor or lighting without stressing any fish out.

- when adding animals to your tank, do so gradually to avoid overloading your biofilter with ammonia. how gradually depends on tank size, but it’s always better to be more cautious than not.

- information about the hobby in general varies in quality depending on where you get it — so seek information from as many sources as possible! look through forums! read articles! ask the guy at your local fish store! ask another guy at a different fish store! don’t take any one source as fact, but bear in mind that not everyone may be right. the more opportunities you take to learn, the faster your knowledge base will grow and the easier it will get.

- tank size is its own beast, but my rule of thumb has always been that there’s never any such thing as giving a fish TOO MUCH space, but there’s absolutely such thing as not giving them enough. a betta fish, for example, can SURVIVD in 1-3 gallons of water… but will absolutely thrive in 10-20. in general, take a recommended tank size for any species as the bare minimum if anything.

- most of all, don’t be afraid to make mistakes! it happens to everyone, and it’s part of learning. anyone who tries to make you feel bad for not knowing something is just being rude. if you’re willing to learn, that’s the most important thing!

- pet store employees usually aren’t experts, but they’ve got questions they’re obligated to ask before they sell you an animal. if they deny you a sale due to tank size or something like that, don’t argue with them. they’re not judging you personally, they’re just doing their job. if you absolutely must lie to them to get them to give you the fish, at least be consistent with it. nobody ever likes having to go ‘well actually…’ halfway through scooping a half dozen fish because you let slip that you only have a ten gallon after insisting you have a 40.

- unless you have a pond or space for several hundred gallons of tank, stay away from goldfish. they’re adorable, i know, but they’re carp. they get big. they live a long time. they poop so much. they aren’t worth the hassle for most people.

- please never ever release fish you don’t want into the wild. if a pet store won’t take them for whatever reason, that sucks, but it’s on you. we don’t need any more invasive species. please

- please don’t flush fish that are still alive. if you absolutely must euthanize a fish, look into how to do so humanely (yes, people do this, and yes, there’s a right and a wrong way to do it)

#THIS GOT INSANELY LONG I AM SO SORRY. IM VERY AUTISTIC ABOUT FISHKEEPING

[scarlet6rose]

🎤 hello people of the internet ✦

I’m Scarlet Rose,

I’m a writer (somewhat) and (mostly) digital artist that has been drawing since I held an apsara pencil 💀.

You can see me as any gender you like and use any pronouns, I really couldn’t care less, I’m just here to have a little fun 👁👄👁

I am in a lot of fandoms (some breakups were there 😃)

Just to give a lil idea:

✦ Good omens (literally binge watched like yesterday 💀) (novel and tv show)

✦ Omniscient reader’s viewpoint (joined late 2022 and early 2023 I think 🤔) (novel and Webtoon)

✦ Undertale (since the beginning tbh but it’s a bit off rn lol 🙃) (Game)

✦ The Stanley parable (joined around the middle of 2023) (Game)

✦ Five nights at Freddy’s ( 💀 I’m a very loyal viewer of the game theorist… I don’t need to say more. Other then the fact that I’m not that active anymore) (Game, books, and movie)

✦ Heavens official blessing (joined around the middle of 2022 I think 👁👄👁) (novel, webtoon, and donghua)

✦ Not so Shoujo love (start of 2021, lmao much gayness 🫦) (Webtoon)

✦ Heartstopper (middle of 2022, so much fucking gayness 🤌) (Novel and webtoon)

✦ Uzumaki (I’m still reading this lmaoo, I think I started to read junji ito’s works around late 2018-19(?)) (manga)

✦ Hellstar Remina (🙂 it was funny as fuck, totally recommend) (manga)

✦ trash of counts family (around the time i started orv) (webnovel and manhwa)

✦ hazbin hotel/helluva boss (again, around the beginning. I dont really have an opinion on them.) (indie animated series on Yt and Amazon Prime)

There are many more but I literally can’t remember ‘cause I’m not actively active in them ig 😶‍🌫️

Anyway as you can see, I’m fine with literally any kind genre as long as the story is (mostly) interesting for my shit attention span.

Some bondaries (will be updated as I go on):

✦ No NSFW / no sexual themes

‣ I’m fine with jokes and shit, like have fun and all, but no sexualisation of me or my ocs. I’m fine with horror/ angst art (as long as it isn’t taken too far).

✦ Minors and majors/adults

‣ Please no pedophila. I do not want to be in any romantic relationships online (learn from my past one mistake of being fucking delusional)

‣ I do wish to be ageless online for now, so yeah…

✦ No weird dms

‣ I’ll fucking ban you and probably make fun of you publicly.

‣ Weird dms include (but aren’t limited to): asking sexual stuff, death threats, obsessive behaviour etc.

✦ Personal issues

‣ Don’t come at me with your severely personal issues, such as family issues, life issues or whatever. Just cause I’m fine with taking ‘bout mental health and its severities doesn’t mean I’m responsible of your mental health in any way. Don’t talk to me or anyone online, talk to someone you trust irl and take therapy.

✦ Stalking/ doxxing

‣ Doesn’t matter if it’s me or not, you need grass for doing some chronically online bullshit. Go outside man or ma’am or neuter.

✦ Parasocial

‣ No, just no.

‣ I’m fine with the buddy buddy shit but please refrain from thinking that I’m important in your life. I’m just here to have fun and cook bullshit. Nothing more.

✦ Shipping

‣ Don’t ship me with other creators or yourself (please).

‣ Don’t ship my ocs with yours.

‣ I’m fine with people shipping my ocs with eachother.

‣ I don’t mind fan fiction (I write most of my characters fan fiction anyways 💀) (you’re free to do whatever but please have some kind of common sense).

‣ Don’t fucking art police or ship police (?) people if non of my characters are being shipped in a borderline pedophilic or incest ships.

✦ Hating

‣ I don’t mind if you dislike or even hate me, you’re allowed to do whatever, but keep in mind that this is the internet and you hate me on the internet. Don’t take internet matters irl or attack anyone I know in real life.

‣ No racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, sexism, extremely offensive jokes (that actually harm people) etc. will be tolerated.

Ik that I am not that big at all, but better safe than sorry lol

#blog intro #blog introduction #meet the artist #multifandom artist #boundaries #artists on tumblr #help 💀

[ogradyfilm]

2023: A Year in (Movie) Review(s)

Every cinephile has at least one Holy Grail. It's a common story: interest in said rare movie is piqued by a fleeting allusion in the pages of some neglected reference book or obscure magazine article. Gradually, curiosity evolves into infatuation, then obsession, manifesting as a desperate pursuit that might persist for decades, the search constantly hampered by the tragic fact that the White Whale in question remains stubbornly elusive—either out-of-print or never officially licensed or localized in the first place. And even if it is available (usually through sources of dubious legality), the image quality is always barely a step above an nth generation VHS transfer.

Well, in 2023, I managed to cross five such films off my personal “bucket list”—and despite the year’s numerous challenges (financially, in particular), I think that’s an accomplishment worth celebrating. Thus, in the interest of posterity, I’ve enumerated them below, along with brief descriptions and links to the corresponding reviews I wrote immediately after seeing them:

A Page of Madness: Of all the miraculous discoveries on this list, this one was undoubtedly the most unceremonious and anticlimactic. I randomly stumbled across this silent avant-garde masterpiece (of which I became aware way back in college) while nonchalantly browsing Amazon Prime’s digital library; suddenly, there it was, available to rent for a paltry three dollars. The movie itself was sublime, of course; after spending such a significant chunk of my life hunting it down, however, the relative ease with which I ultimately acquired it couldn’t help but feel a bit… underwhelming.

Samurai Wolf: Although Hideo Gosha’s lean, mean chanbara classic has never truly been out of reach to those “in the know,” my own research into the assorted bootlegs and unauthorized foreign imports available via various online marketplaces was… less than encouraging. Fortunately, Film Movement came to the rescue like a chivalrous ronin; the restoration on the company’s Blu-ray release is borderline pristine, enriching the director’s already bold compositions and dynamic camerawork. Nihilism and moral decay have seldom looked so beautiful.

Angel’s Egg: Home video copies of Mamoru Oshii’s surreal animated allegory tend to be obscenely, prohibitively expensive in the West, and tickets for the infrequent repertory screenings generally sell out almost instantly. Thankfully, a recent overabundance of free time afforded me the opportunity to experience the film’s haunting, hallucinatory magic under ideal circumstances—in a theater absolutely packed with fellow fans and aficionados. The Q&A with art director/character designer Yoshitaka Amano that followed the feature presentation (courtesy of Japan Society) was just icing on the cake.

Door: While Banmei Takahashi’s taut, suspenseful, claustrophobic thriller is the latest addition to this list (I learned of its existence roughly a year ago, through out-of-context clips shared between several Twitter accounts), you shouldn’t make the mistake of underestimating my enthusiasm for it—my desire to see it burned with the fiery passion of a spurned admirer. As luck would have it, my thirst was sated rather quickly compared to the previous entries on this countdown; the movie played at this year’s Brooklyn Horror Film Festival—perfectly scheduled to coincide with the Halloween season.

Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis - When I initially encountered this ambitious, extravagant, and extremely expensive special effects extravaganza, the only viable way to view it was in twelve parts on YouTube, compressed to about 240p resolution—a format that hardly does the spectacle justice. Thank goodness for the fine programmers at Japan Society; the big screen really smooths out the movie’s minor flaws and superficial blemishes, and Kyusaku Shimada’s magnificent performance as the nefarious Yasunori Kato certainly benefits from a more expansive frame. Guess I can finally stop requesting the film in the feedback section of literally every post-screening survey…

And that essentially sums up my 2023; the satisfaction of enjoying so many films that had been taunting and tantalizing my imagination definitely took the sting out of the whole "prolonged unemployment" situation. With that said, I’d like to wish everybody a very Happy New Year! Hopefully, my adventures in cinema will continue in 2024. (For God’s sake, will some distributor please show Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Sweet Home the love it so richly deserves?!)

#New Years Eve #Happy New Year #New Years 2024 #Goodbye 2023 #A Page of Madness #Samurai Wolf #Angel's Egg #Door #Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis #Hideo Gosha #Mamoru Oshii #Yoshitaka Amano #Banmei Takahashi #Japan Society #Brooklyn Horror Film Festival #Japanese cinema #Japanese film #film #writing #list #lists

[digitamizer]

Snapdeal’s Epic: Story of Rise and Fall

Snapdeal’s Epic: Story of Rise and Fall

Snapdeal, once known as one of the most trusted marketplaces, had the most dramatic rise and fall, challenges, and opportunities in the digital marketplace. From its inception till 2017, Snapdeal’s journey has been a lesson of innovation, competition, wrong decisions taken, and lessons learned.

Inception and continuous journey

Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal founded Snapdeal in February 2010. In the beginning, it was a daily deal platform as a coupon provider. Initially offering discounts on a wide range of products and services. Later, company officials found the scope of e-commerce business in India and they changed the website to a full-fledged online marketplace.

Early days and funding

Since the company started in the days when people started using smartphones and the internet, it has seen exponential growth in users as well as in business. Snapdeal‘s business model was to offer products at competitive pricing. The company attracted funding from good and big investors, including Nexus Venture Partners, Kalaari Capital, and Softbank, which added substantial capital to fuel its expansion. Ratan invested. Also, other investors were Ru-Net Holdings, Premji Invest, Tybourne Capital Management, Temasek Holdings, Blackrock, eBay, Saama Capital, Intel Capital, Ontario Teachers’ pension account, Singapore-based investment entity. Brother, Alibaba Group,  Foxconn Technology Group,  Bessemer  Indo US Ventures, Fortune Apparel

Story of Success

When Snapdeal was busy building too many warehouses they never worked on their USP in categories like Flipkart had fashion and electronics and Amazon had pantry and prime. By 2014, Snapdeal had a significant number of customers and a market share, and in March 2015, their total market share was 24% and September 2015 was the peak when they had a market share of 25%’. , Snapdeal has had the highest number of warehouses to Amazon and Flipkart.

Acquisition and Ventures

Snapdeal bought many companies but most of them failed. They bought Exlusively.com earlier but it shut down in a year. Also, they were in talks to acquire fashion marketplace VOONIK and e-commerce marketplace Zapyle but failed after some stages of discussions. The company acquired companies like Reducedata, RupeePower, Doozton, TargetingMantra, Reduce Data, Fashiate, MartMobi Technologies, RupeePower, Exclusively, Wishpicker, Doozton, Shopo, eSportsBuydotcom, Grabbondotcom. that did not give any fruitful result.

They bought GOJAVAS but failed to utilize it and finally sold it to Pigeon Express despite a 20 million investment in GOJAVAS. Another acquisition was FREECHARGE, which acquired 350 million and, for that, was a competitor of PAYTM but did not capitalize and, due to a loss, Snapdeal sold it to AXIS BANK for 80 million. Freecharge could be a game changer if it was done during demonetization but did not attract more customers and it was a loss deal.

Another big acquisition was Unicommerce, which was an e-commerce-enabled software used to manage warehouses and inventory. This platform was very popular with sellers who used to sell on marketplaces. Snapdeal acquired this company in 2015 in undisclosed amount. However, the company did not get fruitful results after the acquisition. Their tie-ups with redBus, ClearTrip, Urban Clap, which is now known as Urban Company, and Zomato for their respective services failed to make any impact.

Strategic Mistakes

Inhouse Seller or Armband Seller

Every big company in e-commerce had its seller, like Flipkart had WS Retail and Amazon had Cloudtail and they were getting the maximum sales of their website from these sellers, whereas Snapdeal did not have any.

Omni Channel Failure

It could be a game-changer but didn’t happen. In this process, customers can order a product and pick up the order in 2 hours from any store and the offer is not available in cash on delivery. Tata Cliq had the same practice. Initially, Omni Channel started in 70 cities.

No Grocery and Furniture Category

The furniture and the grocery category was one of the big revenue generators of the e-commerce marketplace. In 2016, total sales of these categories were $25 Billion and $ 250 million sold online, whereas in 2020, $35 Billion was total sales and $750 million online. It was indicates that these two categories are getting a significant share in online sales. Snapdeal did not have either of these.

Value Added Service

Like Amazon, Amazon Prime gives benefits to shipping and delivering the order the next day in 499 rupees. In 2015 it said one in every three orders is a prime order. They also offer other benefits, like Amazon Prime Video. Snapdeal launched Snapdeal Gold and they started delivery on the next day delivery and also gave customers 14 days return time instead of 7 days, but at the end of the year, they got only 20% of orders, which was from Snapdeal Gold. Customers wanted more apart from shipping, which they did not have to offer, like Amazon Prime video.

Customer Version on Snapdeal

A lot of customers started claiming that they were receiving the wrong item, counterfeit items. Customers were receiving the items after the promised delivery day. There were a lot of complaints about late delivery and package mishandling. Some customers received bricks instead of phones, However, brick delivery happens with other websites too.

So, the latter one was instructions from the courier company if the package value is higher to ask the customer to open the package in front of the courier guy, and if there is any issue then can be addressed at the same time. Customers started moving to other marketplaces after September 2015 and Snapdeal started losing its business. They wanted to give a discounted product instead of having a loyal customer base. They never focused on it.

Boycott Snapdeal

It happened twice by some groups and many customers uninstalled the Snapdeal app and rated 1 or 2 on the Google Play store. The first time, it happened due to a statement by Amir Khan who was the brand ambassador for this company, and 2nd time there was some issue with Snapchat but it was communicated that Snapdeal had done this. If a company’s graph is going down, then a couple of factors about losing customers can be a lot and the same happens with this company.

Seller Version on Snapdeal

Sellers Basic Issue

I was also one of the sellers of Snapdeal and I have seen it very closely and know the views of a lot of sellers. Seller support of Snapdeal was not good and it even seems they do not keep the follow-up if you contact them regarding the issue. Every day they had technical problems with their panel and it was not easy to process the order on time.

They started increasing the commission on the items and there was a time when they were charged 2.5 times in comparison to other marketplaces. A lot of fraudulent orders started coming to the panel and the seller was supposed to pay for the shipping of those orders. We were getting a lot of COD returns. However, these were the general issues.

Account manager for the seller

Every account had an account manager who was visiting the premises of the sellers from time to time. But their only interest was to sell loans and advertisements. Most of the salespeople wanted to increase their business in an organic way but they wanted to get a part of the sale in terms of advertising for sale.

Big Strategic Mistake

Snapdeal started a process where every person has to send their products to a warehouse and all the orders will be fulfilled from there. Unlike Amazon, where you have the right to choose the product you would like to send to a fulfillment center and you can even do additional listing on Amazon as fulfilled by a seller. But this option was not available in Snapdeal.

They said that a seller can ship a maximum of 5 orders from their premises. When sellers sent their products to warehouses, some were lying for weeks and sellers started complaining about it but the issue was not resolved. Later on, Snapdeal asked sellers to get the items from a warehouse. When they went to pick up, they found that a lot of items were missing and this was done by the warehouse team members. A lot of complaints were about it but nothing happened.

In this whole scenario, Snapdeal was the only loser. They restricted the order to 5 and the buyer wanted the item and when they tried to purchase the item, it showed out of stock. So, they purchased from other marketplaces. So, the only loser was the policymaker.

Order Fulfilment Issue

During the sale, their fulfillment capacity, once finished, blocks the order from customers and does not take any more orders. However, small and medium sellers were at a loss as they were getting hardly any orders due to fulfillment capacity, whereas they also spent some amount on inventory and warehouses. On the other hand, some sellers were receiving orders on other marketplaces. So, they almost lost their trust in the company in return on investment. So, they started working with other marketplaces.

CEO and Management Decisions 

Another big setback for the company was the leaving of Nikesh Arora from Soft Bank. He was president of Soft Bank.

Snapdeal Merger with Flipkart

Sanpdeal was the only Unicorn e-commerce company that crossed first the market value of $1 Billion. In the middle of 2015, it reached $6.5 Billion. However, due to their internal policy and customer dissatisfaction, they started losing their business. Their customer share decreased from 25% to 4%. Flipkart tried to acquire Snapdeal and it was almost done. However, due to big opposition from investors, it did not happen.

Snapdeal 2.0

Since the merger did not happen with Flipkart, then the company started once again. It was called Snapdeal 2.0. However, as per their claim, they minimized some losses and gained new customers. But, the same number of customers did not start purchasing from Snapdeal. In the new system, they remove badly rated sellers and give benefits to good well-rated sellers. Their other policy is to involve manufacturers and ship the order directly from manufacturer to customer. We call it M2C(Manufacturer to Customer).

It was claimed that revenue from operations increased by 85% and traffic increased by 100%. Where 80-90% of orders are being received from non-metro locations. The company added 6 million new customers during the lockdown and 20K more sellers were added during that lockdown time.

Snapdeal aims to achieve profitability within the next quarter, as it bets heavily on the value customer base to drive growth, according to Himanshu Chakrawarti, CEO, Snapdeal Marketplace.

We are hoping that the company can do best in this sector. However, it is very hard to regain customers and build trust again.

Digital Marketing Services and E-Commerce Solutions in Delhi, India.

Also, read the below articles:

RISE AND FALL OF AN E-COMMERCE GIANT – eBAY INDIA

Flipkart – An online bookseller to one of the largest marketplaces

E-Commerce: The Internet’s Retail Revolution

The Social Media Revolution: From MySpace to TikTok

Online Marketplaces – Unleashing the Power of Digital Marketing Influence

Digital Marketing Services, SEO and E-Commerce Solutions in Delhi, India

Author – Farhanul Haque

This article is written by the Founder of Digitamizer who has been working in the e-Commerce Sector Since 2006 and is also a certified Digital Marketing Professional from IIT, Delhi, India.

#e commerce #snapdeal #onlineshopping

[myfrenzi]

OTT for History Buffs: Period Dramas and Historical Documentaries.

Voyage Through Time: OTT for History Buffs — Period Dramas and Historical Documentaries — Best Movies on OTT”

History is a tapestry woven with the threads of the past, and OTT platforms have become a gateway to explore the rich, captivating stories that define our world. For history buffs, these platforms offer a treasure trove of period dramas and historical documentaries that transport us to bygone eras. In this blog, we will embark on an enthralling journey through the world of OTT for history enthusiasts, uncovering the finest period dramas and historical documentaries. Let’s dive into the past to discover the best movies on OTT.

Act I: The Allure of History

History has an undeniable allure, as it allows us to connect with the past and appreciate the events, people, and cultures that have shaped our present.

Time Travel Through Stories: Period dramas and historical documentaries are our time machines, taking us back to moments of triumph, turmoil, and transformation.

Act II: Period Dramas — A Glimpse into the Past

Period dramas transport us to different epochs, immersing us in the costumes, customs, and conflicts of bygone eras.

Historical Accuracy: The best period dramas are meticulously researched and designed to accurately represent the historical periods they depict.

Act III: Historical Documentaries — Unveiling Untold Stories

Historical documentaries are windows into the past, shedding light on forgotten events, remarkable individuals, and the evolution of societies.

Authentic Storytelling: These documentaries often utilize primary sources, eyewitness accounts, and expert analysis to deliver a thorough and genuine narrative.

Act IV: The Best Movies on OTT for History Buffs

Let’s explore some of the finest period dramas and historical documentaries available on OTT platforms that have left a lasting impact:

1. “The Crown” (Netflix): This series offers an intimate glimpse into the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, showcasing the challenges and triumphs of the British monarchy.

2. “Downton Abbey” (Amazon Prime Video): Set against the backdrop of early 20th-century England, this series explores the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants.

3. “Ken Burns: The Civil War” (PBS Documentaries on Amazon Prime Video): A masterpiece of historical storytelling, this documentary delves deep into the American Civil War, using letters, diaries, and photographs.

4. “WWII in Color” (Netflix): This documentary series vividly portrays World War II through rare color footage, offering a fresh perspective on the global conflict.

Act V: Personal Connection to History

Watching period dramas and historical documentaries can create a personal connection to history by humanizing the past.

Empathy for Historical Figures: These narratives allow us to empathize with the people who lived during pivotal moments in history.

Act VI: Relevance to Modern Times

History often holds lessons and parallels for our contemporary world, making historical content not only fascinating but also relevant.

Understanding Societal Shifts: Learning about past events can provide insights into societal shifts, cultural evolution, and political developments.

Act VII: FAQs for History Enthusiasts

Q1: How accurate are the events portrayed in period dramas? The accuracy of events can vary, but many period dramas aim for historical authenticity and conduct extensive research.

Q2: Are historical documentaries suitable for all ages? Most historical documentaries are suitable for a general audience, but some may contain content unsuitable for young children.

Q3: Why is understanding history important for today’s society? Understanding history helps us appreciate the present, learn from past mistakes, and make informed decisions for the future.

Curtain Call: A Voyage Through Time

In conclusion, OTT platforms offer a captivating journey through history, with period dramas and historical documentaries that bring the past to life. These narratives allow us to walk in the shoes of historical figures, witness their triumphs and tribulations, and gain a deeper understanding of the world we inhabit.

The best movies on OTT for history buffs are a bridge between eras, inviting us to explore the rich tapestry of human history. They remind us that the past is not a foreign land but a continuum of our own story, providing context, perspective, and a deeper appreciation for the world we live in today.

#ott #web series #best movie on ott #movie review

[straycatboogie]

2023/07/08 English

BGM: New Order - World in Motion

I have been learning what philosophy can be from Wittgenstein. The ABC of that... and also how to live this life (his books have several lifehacks). He writes this in his "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus". "The world is independent of my will". In my reading/opinion, this can mean that "the world moves and never cares how I worry/wonder the things in this world actually". This idea is really great for me because I had experienced a "Wittgenstein-like" event like this. It was when I was a high school student, and I had wanted to share my taste of music therefore I entered the broadcasting club in the school. But at there, I had to be isolated by all of the members. They hated me terribly. Why? What did I do to them? Should I apologize to them for the reason why I couldn't understand? I can't remember... Anyway, it has still been a piece of painful trauma. My behavior and taste of music became some triggers to them to hate me, and they never gave me any opportunity to me to apologize that. Ah, it's really the Nine Inch Nails experience. "Everyone I know goes away in the end" (from Nine Inch Nails "Hurt"). If I do single mistake, they leave. I have to be alone. I can't say any excuses to say sorry...

I never trust the concept as "Be strong enough to defeat the bullying" or "Be tough enough to live alone by yourself". The idea of revenging that bullying by a kind of violent solution doesn't sound real/actual for me (and if I could "revenge" or "defeat" the situation, I would learn "I should trust my violent power only to solve the problem" or "It's good to 'beat' someone by physical power". It's dangerous/hurtful idea for me). And also, I don't want to support the idea of "enduring the bullying by escaping to someone's own space/world". That doesn't sound great for me. If I did that solution to survive the problem by myself alone, then I couldn't got any self-esteem which the communication with others must afford me. Me, even after that period, even at the college days I couldn't "open" my mind/heart to someone else. Yes, I worried a lot by thinking "This person must hate me" and "This person will leave me alone one day". This idea disturbed me to make any friends so I had to live an isolated life with serious depression. As you know, at that period no one bullied me. I was the person who made me isolated.

And now... I can feel that I can have been connected with a lot of heartful friends. I can actually/certainly feel that they won't leave me alone. As you know, I am just an imperfect person, so I make a lot of mistakes and also show the uncool/pitiful figure. But my friends accept them. I can feel the "bond" (in Japanese, we call it "kizuna"). "You are OK" and "Be yourself"... I can feel these messages so I show my real/true self. I can show shameful myself. Indeed, if I do the mistakes, I feel "OMG" and "Ouch". But the people/friends won't leave me. I know that. They won't deny me completely. This "kizuna"... No, I have never written this "kizuna" on paper to make any contract with my friends, so we never check the existence of this "kizuna" at all. So if I tried to think deeply/carefully, I would reach the possibility of being isolated/denied tomorrow even though we have been bounded by that "kizuna". Tomorrow, they could throw that "kizuna" away, and we couldn't be friends anymore... But that's too unreal idea. Indeed, I have been suffered by that idea. But if I referred to the issue of possibility, then I had to say that "the possibility of ending this life suddenly by heart attack must not be zero". That's not wrong, but I want to follow the spirit of "Take it easy", "Let it be", and "Que Sera Sera". Now it seems going alright, so I trust the current state. They never leave me alone.

Today I spent my day really lazily. I couldn't read Sartre's "Nausea", and also never watched any movie (I am interested in the movie about Brian Wilson on Amazon Prime Video). The evening I sent a message about my dream to my parents. "I wanna be a bridge, and be one of the staff/people who connects this town and the world". My mother lined me as a return one. "Thank you for the e-mail. Good luck!" I'm glad to remake this "kizuna" again. Yes, it is a pleasant event among us. I think about another possible meaning of the quote "The world is independent of my will" by Wittgenstein. This is just my reading, but I can feel that I am beyond this tiny, small brain in this vast world... There must exist the big, really big world. That even enrolls me... It might sound spiritual, but I can feel this idea fits me. I'm not alone, and my existence is also not only by mine. I have been supported by many people. That's a meaning of this life, this "kizuna".

#diary #english #journal #online diary #personal diary #tumblr diary #ludwig wittgenstein

[mylifewithmybooks]

I Read 60 Books This Year, Here Are My Top 5  

By Prachit Kanwar 

I started back in 2020 during covid –19 lockdown through eBook's when it was a big problem for me to read through my mobile screen and my English was also a big problem for me but now  I read whenever I can: When I wake up early morning, before I go to sleep, on the bus, and whenever I have a few hours to myself. This year, I managed to squeeze in 60 books from across many genres, from contemporary fiction to mystery novels to psychological thrillers and some of the books which got adapted in films in previous years. Here are my five favorites.  

‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ by Jenny Han 

Currently streaming on amazon prime!Summer love abounds in the New York Times bestselling The Summer I Turned Pretty series, now available in a paperback boxed set.Belly has always lived for the summertime, because summer means all her favorite things: swimming, the beach, and the Fisher boys, Conrad and Jeremiah. For as long as she can remember, she’s shared her summers with the brothers at Cousins Beach. And for as long as she can remember, she’s been in love with Conrad. Then one summer it seems like he might have feelings for her too—but so does Jeremiah. As the summer seasons pass, Belly has to choose between two brothers who love her…and she’ll have to break one of their hearts. This paperback collection of the complete series includes The Summer I Turned Pretty, It’s Not Summer Without You, and We’ll Always Have Summer.  

‘As Bright as Heaven’ by Susan Meissner  

From the acclaimed author of The Last Year of the War comes a novel set during the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, telling the story of a family reborn through loss and love.In 1918, Philadelphia was a city teeming with promise. Even as its young men went off to fight in the Great War, there were opportunities for a fresh start on its cobblestone streets. Into this bustling town, came Pauline Bright and her husband, filled with hope that they could now give their three daughters—Evelyn, Maggie, and Willa—a chance at a better life.  But just months after they arrive, the Spanish Flu reaches the shores of America. As the pandemic claims more than twelve thousand victims in their adopted city, they find their lives left with a world that looks nothing like the one they knew. But even as they lose loved ones, they take in a baby orphaned by the disease who becomes their single source of hope. Amidst the tragedy and challenges, they learn what they cannot live without—and what they are willing to do about it.As Bright as Heaven is the compelling story of a mother and her daughters who find themselves in a harsh world not of their making, which will either crush their resolve to survive or purify it.  

‘Family of Liars: The Prequel to We Were Liars ‘  by E. lockhart 

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The addictive prequel to the TikTok phenomenon We Were Liars: the story of another summer, another generation—and the secrets that will haunt them for decades to come.  "I anticipated that at some point a shocking twist would come. And, wow, does it ever." —The New York Times  "A perfect beach read." —The Boston Globe  A windswept private island off the coast of Massachusetts.   A hungry ocean, churning with secrets and sorrow.  A fiery, addicted heiress. An irresistible, unpredictable boy.   A summer of unforgivable betrayal and terrible mistakes.  Welcome back to the Sinclair family.   They were always liars.  

‘The Gray Man’ by Mark Greaney 

THE FIRST GRAY MAN NOVEL FROM #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR MARK GREANEY—Now a Netflix Film Starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans    “Hard, fast, and unflinching—exactly what a thriller should be.”—Lee Child    To those who lurk in the shadows, he’s known as the Gray Man. He is a legend in the covert realm, moving silently from job to job, accomplishing the impossible and then fading away. And he always hits his target. Always.    But there are forces more lethal than Gentry in the world. Forces like money. And power. And there are men who hold these as the only currency worth fighting for. And in their eyes, Gentry has just outlived his usefulness.     But Court Gentry is going to prove that, for him, there’s no gray area between killing for a living and killing to stay alive.... 

‘Nothing More to Tell’ by Karen McManus  

From the internationally bestselling author of Netflix's hottest new show, One of Us is Lying, comes a new, page-turning thriller . . .  True crime can leave a false trail. 

  Four years ago, Brynn left Saint Ambrose School following the shocking murder of her favourite teacher. The case was never solved, but she's sure that the three kids who found Mr. Larkin's body know more than they're telling, especially her ex-best friend Tripp Talbot. He's definitely hiding something.    When Brynn gets an internship working on a popular true-crime show, she decides to investigate what really happened that day in the woods. But the further she dives into the past, the more secrets she finds.    Four years ago someone got away with murder. Now it's time to uncover the truth . . .   

#novel #bookworm #crime fiction #ya fiction #murder mystery

[routepain1]

The Ultimate Guide To Restored Used Basketball Arcade Games

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Find out more Arcade Basketball Games (Online Battle & Challenge, Shoot Hoops) - Electronic Basketball Arcade Games, Dual Shot / Blue 3.9 out of 5 celebrity 31 Pop-A-Shot Official Home Single Shot Basketball Arcade Game - 10 Different Games - 6 Audio Options - Near 100% Scoring Accuracy - Huge Top Scoreboard 4.7 out of 5 stars 589 $219.99. $. 219. . 99 Delivery. Mon, Nov 7. Ships to France Small Business Small Business. Store products coming from tiny business labels sold in Amazon’s retail store. Shop in one of over 60 nations. Purchase straight coming from an authorized reseller. Receive an precise price quote by means of order delivery or contact or message amount if you haven't chosen your country. Order coming from Amazon's Shop Team and obtain your products without being charged. Read More Here ensure premium and complete satisfaction. Find even more regarding the tiny services partnering with Amazon and Amazon’s devotion to enabling them. When chatting concerning how AWS helped make its decision to buy AWS as part of our purchase of CloudFlare, AWS CEO Fred Ehrsam recognized that a decision to obtain AWS was made in purchase to help make the association a lot more dexterous and maintainable. Discover more Franklin Sports Mini Basketball Hoop along with Rebounder and Ball - Over The Door Basketball Hoop With Automatic Ball Rebounder - Indoor Basketball Game For Kids 4.3 out of 5 celebrity 1,522 $62.32. $. 62. . In other words, Franklin Sports Mini Basketball Hoop will certainly not be participating in under the radar at all. While we value that he works hard at it, we just like his ideas as well, especially his layout and the exciting for his workers.

#Basketball Arcade Games

[cultbooking]

8 Proven Low-Cost Marketing Tactics to Boost Your Ecommerce Sales

8 Proven Low-Cost Marketing Tactics to Boost Your Ecommerce Sales 

US ecommerce sales are expected to surpass $1 trillion for the first time this year. As the stakes get higher, investments in ecommerce marketing are often staggering. While you are advised to invest between 6 and 20% of your gross revenue into marketing, when margins are low, it can be difficult to see a high return.   Instead of pouring large amounts into advertising or organic marketing tactics, try these low-cost tactics that can boost sales. They will also increase the value of your ecommerce business overall, as they have a direct impact on your scalability and conversion rates. 

Highlight Your USP Right Off the Bat  

The average customer will see dozens of websites when looking to make a purchase. Unless their first impulse is to shop on Amazon, they will likely check out several stores before deciding who to do business with.   Since you only have a couple of seconds to capture the attention of your audience, you want to highlight all of your main selling points as soon as possible. Ideally, you will do this in the hero section of your website, and in as few words as possible, tell your customers why they should convert.   Take a look at Mannequin Mall. In four short sentences, they tell you everything that might sway you: they ship to your home or business premises, have fulfilled more than 10.000 orders, and they work with other brands in the fashion industry.  

Source: mannequinmall.com  If you scroll down the page, you’ll see who they have worked with, and your trust will further increase. 

Speak Your Audience’s Language 

A lot of ecommerce brands make the mistake of de-personalizing their online presence in an attempt to appeal to a wider audience. And while niching down certainly means you are limiting your customer pool, it also makes you more appealing to a select audience.   This may not work for every brand. If you sell a large variety of items, you can’t hope to specialize in all of them. But if you sell one type of product and appeal to one kind of customer, speaking their language will certainly go a very long way.    Meowingtons is a prime example of user-focused copywriting done right. Everything about their website speaks directly to cat owners, who have their own way of speaking about their pets. There are plenty of other online stores that sell similar products. 

Source: meowingtons.com  But Meowingtons has done a great job at building a community by highlighting everything that makes them just like their audience.  

Be Of Actual Use to Your Customers  

Success should be about more than just making a sale. Community and brand building are valuable ways of attracting and retaining customers. Acquiring a customer costs five times more than retaining one, so it’s easy to understand why being of use to your audience will be a low-cost marketing tactic.   Note that there will be some investment involved, but it does not have to be monetary. You can invest your time and expertise to create valuable, educational content that will teach your audience something and help them navigate your store better.  Transparent Labs does this well. Their blog is filled with posts that help their customers choose products, learn more about their mechanics and understand how they will slot into their workout routine. This post on the best creatine supplement is a good example to reference.   It explains what the product is, answers common questions, and goes on to recommend an actual product. Never forget to offer customers a chance to shop directly from your blog posts. It’s a much better experience than having to do a search manually. 

Make Help Easy to Access 

No matter how useful your content is, there will be times when customers need to ask you a question. Operating a stellar customer service department is a very effective way to improve conversion rates.   Customers want their questions answered fast, and they want to be treated with care and respect. Even if you aren’t available 24 hours a day, you should note your response times and working hours clearly.   The more contact options you can provide, the better. Take a look at how Mirror, which sells a very innovative product that is bound to raise a lot of questions, handled it well. They have a phone number with clear working hours, along with email and live chat.  

Source: mirror.co  The live chat option also goes a step further and offers access to a help section. If you can’t find your answer there, a human will be happy to help you out.  

Source: mirror.co 

Rely on User-Generated Content 

User-generated content is an extremely low-cost way to improve sales. It’s easy to access (provided that you ask for it or ask for permission to use it), and it is incredibly trustworthy. Most people will trust reviews more than they trust a brand’s own product descriptions.   You can quickly gather plenty of useful data simply by following up on each purchase and asking your customers to tell you their honest opinion. Including images with the reviews is just an added bonus.   You can also reach out on social media and ask customers if you can use their photos. Make sure to credit them and give them a shoutout on socials, too.   Gili is a great example of UGC done right. All of their product pages, as shown in this example, come with plenty of user photos of their paddle boards in action, which make it so much easier to determine the actual color and size.  

Integrate Social Media 

Speaking of social media, making it easy to shop on your profiles is another great way to boost sales. Most platforms have some sort of shop available for integration, so it won’t be too difficult to set up.  If you also add your Instagram roll to your website, for example, and make the products shoppable, you can expect to see an increase in sales. Don’t forget that you also need to always mention which product is featured in any image you post on social media. Linking to the exact product page will immensely improve UX.    MVMT applies this strategy with great success. Their Instagram is both a part of their homepage and very easily shoppable, so customers don’t have to spend any time determining which watch they’ve spotted and how they can get their hands on it.  

Source: mvmt.com 

Work With Bloggers and Affiliate Websites 

Asking others to do the marketing for you – with a small commission included – is always a cost-effective tactic. Since you won’t have to pay anyone a fee unless you get featured (or perhaps even if you make a sale), you can capitalize on others’ efforts to promote your products.   Working with bloggers and affiliate websites will take some effort, as you will need to reach out to them, set up commission tiers, and work out specific deals based on everyone’s unique audience. However, it can turn out to be quite a lucrative investment.   A good example to reference is this post on Eachnight. Each time someone clicks on a link and then purchases a mattress a small commission gets paid to the site for the referral. It likely doesn’t cost the mattress companies that much, and most importantly it will save them the cost of running their own user acquisition campaigns.  

Grow Your Email List with a Discount 

The ROI of email marketing is still quite staggering, with a return of $36 for every dollar invested. Growing your email list thus becomes a very cost-effective marketing tactic.   Other than promoting your email list on your social media and in your content, you can use a popup to entice new visitors to sign up. FYE offers a 20% discount when you opt into their list. This is a very small price to pay for the potential return that will come with access to a vast number of customers. Since they already know what products they are interested in, they can easily send personalized deals straight to their inbox.   Wrapping Up  

Source: depositphotos.com  Quality marketing does not need to cost you an arm and a leg. How well you know and understand your audience is much more important than how much you invest. Just rely on all the data you have access to, and you’ll be able to design effective campaigns at a fraction of the cost.   Read the full article

[warrentranberg58]

Many people all over the world love to create unique arts and crafts designs, but for most of us it becomes difficult because we don't know where to begin. If you are thinking about arts and crafts and want some interesting tips, then the following article is for you. Continue on for a great education on the subject of arts and crafts.

One of the best places to find crafting materials is Amazon. By signing up for an Amazon Prime account, you can get free shipping for an entire year. Additionally, many of Amazon's sellers offer Free Super Shipping items. To qualify for Free Super Shipping you must spend at least $25 dollars in merchandise. Get your kids involved with your next arts and crafts project. Kids love to play and learn, and a cool family project will do all that and more. It makes for an exceptional bonding experience between you and your little one. The child gets to learn from you, and you can have some smiles and laughs along the way! Keeping your arts and crafts supplies organized can lead to a more pleasant experience when working on projects. Invest in good storage boxes, organizers and cases especially for smaller items. Supplies like beads and glitter can easily be spilled or lost. When you bring home new supplies, immediately transfer them into storage or organizational boxes. Make friends with the people who own or work at the local hobby store. This can help you get valuable insight on sales, loyalty discounts and special offers. You may even be able to display your crafts or meet others who are interested in the same crafts that you are. Does some of your arts and crafts projects involve painting? Do you sometimes have difficulty painting straight lines? Masking tape can help with this problem. Stick the tape on the craft that you are painting and paint a little over the edge of the tape. When the paint has thoroughly dried, pull it off. Now, you will have a perfectly straight line! To get your kids ready for some fun watercolor time at the kitchen table, put down a layer of newspaper or a plastic tablecloth first. This protects your kitchen table and lets your kids' creativity go wild, and you're not stressing out about paint staining the table for years to come. Getting rid of unwanted arts and crafts supplies can both be easy and rewarding. If you've found yourself with too many supplies to keep organized, consider donating them to a local school or youth center. You can also create your own gift baskets or arts and crafts kits full of the supplies you no longer need. Do not make the mistake of only looking in art supply stores for all of the materials you might need. Places like discount and factory closeout stores are great places to find materials at low prices. You may not be able to find everything you need, but you may find a lot of the basics there. Never recycle or throw away newspaper if arts and crafts are done in your home. Old newspaper is sometimes a craft material in itself for some projects. It is more often valuable as something to cover surfaces with. Thick newspapers spread out over a table give you a work area and protection for the table. You can easily entertain both adults and children with craft projects. You can enjoy projects with a large group, no matter their age. Check online for projects that are best for the particular age group you're dealing with. Consider opening up your own shop online, if you are particularly clever with arts and crafts. motherboards info are making considerable earnings by selling their works online, and so can you. A place like Etsy will allow you to sign up for free, and after that it's just between you and your customers; offer your most unique designs up first, and take it from there! As you can see from the above article, there is so many things a person can use their creativity for in the field of arts and crafts. It does not have to be complicated, and if you stick with these tips there is no reason why you can't succeed. Use the tips to your advantage to help you create something that everyone would be proud of.

#pc parts like motherboard

[imagineswriting47]

Learning to pole dance

A/N: This is for the Anon that asked Sam/Reader who has no impulse control when Sam is gone, Just randomly buys a stripper pole, sets it up in the Bunker, and when the boys come back home after a few weeks and look for the Reader they find them just spinning around the pole and giggling like a child.

All mistakes are mine and mine alone.

Summary: Learning to pole dance when Sam and Dean are gone on a hunt.

Parings: Sam/Reader

Warnings: None

"I'm fine, Sam. Be careful on your hunt. I love you." I tell him as I hang up the phone. Sam and Dean had gone on a hunt, leaving me back at the Bunker. I hadn't been feeling well before they left and decided not to go with them. Sam thought that it was best as well. He can become such a mother hen at times. That was one of the things that I love about him.

They had been gone for a couple of days, and I was feeling better. But being stuck in the Bunker was starting to drive me crazy. Then, scrolling through Amazon, I came across a stripper pole. Before I could think about it was in my cart and purchased. With prime, it had one-day shipping. I would have to run to the post office tomorrow to get it.

I am making a list of other things that I would need for the Bunker while I was out. Before leaving, I take one of the other cars in the garage and head into town. Getting into hunting, I never thought that I would have a place to call home. Meeting Sam and Dean were one of the best things that ever happened to me. Not only did the boys give me a home, but they also gave me a family. It gave me Sam.

Once in the store, I grab some more medical supplies knowing that all the first aid kits need more and pain medicine. Then, I get the stuff that I would need to make a homemade meal when the boys got back. Dean usually did all the cooking, and man, was he a good cook. But I want to do something nice for him. So I also grab the stuff to make a cherry pie for him.

I get all the mail at the post office, and I can't help but giggle like a girl when the woman hands me my package. I drive faster to the Bunker than I need to, but I wanted to get back and set it up. With everything put away, grab the box from the library table and go to Sam and mines room. Sitting on the floor, I read the instructions on how to put it together. Once everything is set up, I make my way to Dean's room and grab the tools he leaves.

It took longer than I thought to get it all set up and ready to be used. Then I remember I don't know how to pole dance. YouTube. Grabbing my computer from the side table, I quickly look up videos on how to pole dance. I start with a video that is for beginners and watch them all. For hours I sit and watch all the videos that I can find on how to pole dance. I never realized how hard it was.

I was changing clothes. I set the computer up on the bed to see it and start the video to see if I could follow along. I spent the next two days learning how to pole dance. I got a lot of bruises from falling, but everything was worth it. I was getting good at it.

"We're back." I hear as the bedroom door opens I was in the middle of working on a new move that I had seen.

"What do we have here; is that s stripper pole?" I hear Dean's rough voice say after Sam freezes in the doorway, making Dean have to look over his shoulder. My cheeks grow red with embarrassment as I get down from the pole.

"Well, you see...Yes, it is but I." I stutter out.

"Sam, you lucky dog. You got yourself a girl...." Dean starts but doesn't finish as Sam pushes him out of the door and closes the door.

"Sorry, Sam, I'll take it down; it shouldn't take too long," I tell him as I turn my back on him. Sam was always on me about being impulsive, doing and buying things that I didn't need. Unfortunately, my impulsiveness has led to many an argument between Sam and me when it comes to hunts.

When I turn around to start taking it down, Sam is right there and leaning down to kiss me. I can't help the squeak that makes its way past my lips. Kissing Sam has always felt like coming home to me. So when I feel his hands on the back of my thighs, I give a small jump and wrap my legs around his waist. Sam turns and sits on the bed, leaving me to straddle his waist.

"If this is the welcome I get when I don't go on a hunt, I need to stay home more often," I mumble as we pull away to catch our breaths.

"Want to show me what you have learned?" Sam says with a raise of his eyebrow. I can't help but let out a giggle as I lay my head down on his shoulder.

A/N: Thanks for reading! Please leave a heart and a reblog. Request are open and so is the tag list!!

Tag List: @mythandmagik

#supernatural x reader #supernatural fic #supernatural fanfiction #supernatural imagine #supernatural #sam winchester x reader #sam winchester imagine #sam winchester fanfiction #dean and sam #sam and dean #dean winchester #sam winchester #dean winchester fanfiction #dean x reader

[morannon]

Game of Stones

This is an incomplete list of my issues with the Amazon Prime Tolkien series (Game of Stones). And make no mistake, I will keep complaining about each new bit of information we learn, but I think what bothers me most is what they add up to, not any particular decision, but an approach I fear they have because of who is making this series and what is driving the production.

I don’t think I have to explain how bad a start it is that this is Amazon money behind it. If Amazon is notorious for anything it is for making money at any cost. No one is making this series out of the goodness of their hearts and dedication to Tolkien’s legacy. Money is the bottom line. I hardly need to get into it here because it’s all just a Google search away.

Another red flag is the inconsistency around Pete’s involvement with the production of the series. Especially because there has been a lot less ambiguity on the production side of it. He, Fran and Pippa are the only ones with experience in adapting Tolkien for screen and as of right now, none of them are said to be involved. And no one seems to have indicated otherwise since 2018.

This brings me to the next thing. One of the most glaring issues has to do with understanding the source material. There were several Tolkien scholars involved with LOTR, including Tom Shippey. As of now, there is no confirmed Tolkien scholar on board as a consultant. Just some “lore experts”, whatever that means. It sure sounds like they found a couple people off Twitter posting Tolkien memes or something. The bad omen here is that although Tom Shippey (generally considered one of the world’s preeminent Tolkien scholars) was initially on board, he left the project in early 2020. I also doubt this is for some arbitrary reason, given how dedicated Shippey is to Tolkien. The reason also couldn’t be because of something like him fulfilling his role as a consultant given how extensive the material is and that Amazon’s filming rights have been extended considerably from what they originally covered, now also including  parts of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales. This seems highly suspicious and concerning. Not to mention that no replacement has been named as far as I’m aware.

This is also alarming if we look at the very short tenures of people working on it, before we get to them individually. Game of Stones isn’t supposed to be an anthology series, but seemingly every episode has a different director, writers come and go. I really wonder how they are going to build a cohesive whole and how anyone involved would be able to familiarize themselves with the material in any significant way if they’re not even going to work on a season, but a single episode.

Now lets take a look at the people in charge of making this series. Perhaps most concerningly, Brian Cogman, the husband of David Benioff’s nanny. That’s how he got Benioff to read his writing which Benioff was amazed by. If that alone isn’t bad enough a sign, he also has no prior experience as a writer or producer. But has since given us such beloved gems as Game of Thrones S8 E2 (A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms), Game of Thrones S5E6 (Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken), S4E4 (Oathkeeper). Cogman has already packed his bags and left The Game of Stones however.

What sticks out to me like a sore thumb however is how the entire executive branch consists overwhelmingly of Americans. And I have an underlying fear that there is a layer of meaning that is lost when the makers, particularly the writers of something like this don’t have a deep personal connection to the material and for whom it is first and foremost another franchise like action films based on comics, not legendarium, mythology and culture. This is a disconnection I fear because Tolkien didn’t set out to create entertainment. The driving force and idea behind Middle-Earth is creating mythopoeia, specifically for England. And there is so much depth to the material that writers who don’t have an understanding of it couldn’t possibly do it justice.

I’m just looking at this incomplete list of things sticking out to me and I am not feeling confident. Please tell me I shouldn’t worry about all this.

#Game of Stones #The Amazon LOTR series #Tolkien

[kaizokuou-ni-naru]

The Voyage So Far: Paramount War (Part Two)

east blue (1 | 2) || alabasta (1 | 2) || skypiea || water 7 || enies lobby || thriller bark || paramount war (1 | 2) || fishman island || punk hazard || dressrosa (1 | 2) || whole cake island || wano (1 | 2)

ace’s execution is, in a way, the exception that proves the rule when it comes to one piece’s themes of blood and family. ace is set up to die for the crimes of a father he never knew and never wanted, and he does die here, but in the end he dies for the family he did choose, in the form of luffy, rather than the one he didn’t. 

god do i wish we knew more about ms portgas d. rouge. with ace’s storyline pretty much wrapped it looks unlikely that we’re going to be learning more about her than what we got, which in my opinion is an absolute tragedy, because what little we do know about her is amazing and she’s an absolute badass. oda give us more female ds please.

whitebeard’s power is so cool. it might be one of the visually coolest devil fruits we’ve ever seen, in my opinion. he he causes earthquakes and tsunamis while far past his prime; he pulls the sky apart with his bare hands. this whole arc is world-shaking, and whitebeard’s power is perfectly appropriate for it. 

doflamingo’s speech on justice and rightness is one of the most well-remembered quotes from this whole saga, and rightly so. i’ve always found it fascinating, myself, because he’s right. he dead-on hits how the one piece world works- the world government and the marines rule the world not because of any inherent actual goodness or justice or right, but because they won a war a very long time ago. 

in a way, this reminds me of blackbeard’s line of “people’s dreams never die” from jaya. i like how oda isn’t afraid of letting his villains be right about the themes of the story, sometimes even having better awareness of them than the protagonists. 

man, if i had to pick a single favorite spread out of the whole manga, it might be luffy’s marineford entrance. it’s so epic, and so completely unexpected for everyone else there. absolutely nobody was expecting strawhat luffy to drop out of the sky with a posse including two former warlords. it just makes me grin!! so much!! 

it also gets followed up by a solid two pages of just people’s reactions, from smoker’s “what the HELL is he doing with CROCODILE” to moria’s immediate incoherent rage, and i just love that the world and cast of one piece is so well-established and built up that we know exactly how all of those people know luffy and why they react the way they do. 

going back to what i mentioned in the last post about marineford being luffy’s conflict of interest arc, i’d say it’s also the only time where he isn’t the future king first and foremost. in this arc, before anything else, he’s a little brother.

there are a lot of what-if moments in marineford. moments where you kind of have to ask “what if this specific thing hadn’t happened, had gone differently?” would things have turned out differently? squard’s betrayal is one of them. does this change the outcome? would whitebeard have been able to survive if not for this injury? there’s no way to know. marineford is a lot of little tragedies, and they just pile up and up.

marineford has just so many incredibly striking spreads. all of the momentous moments (and there’s a lot of them, in this arc) are done full justice. this is such an image heavy post just because marineford is such an incredibly visually strong arc. 

conqueror’s haki is so cool and i love the way it’s set up and built up throughout this saga, with luffy’s constant inadvertent uses of it, from duval’s bull to marigold and sandersonia to the wolves in impel down, all leading up to this moment. 

i’ve heard people complain about conqueror’s as kind of a deus ex machina, but i honestly love it, it’s very cool and honestly i think it just seems to fit luffy as a power. if there was ever gonna be a character who turned willpower into a weapon, it would be monkey d. luffy. 

i’m gonna take this chance to talk about garp, because this sequence of panels is heavily implied to be garp’s thoughts just before luffy punches him down, and it hurts. garp is a flawed person who makes some bad choices, and there’s no arguing that, but i think it’s very obvious he really, really cares about his grandsons, even if he never could understand them as people and that they never would have been happy as marines. and that’s just tragic, really. 

the moment ace gets freed and the brief span of time where he and luffy can fight together feel so triumphant, and i think it’s one of the reasons the final tragedy of marineford hits so hard and feels so cruel, because luffy succeeds, here. he saves ace. he gives absolutely everything he had and makes it, and saves ace. the ultimate failure isn’t his. there was nothing more he could have done. 

the first time i was reading one piece, i hit this page (which is also the last in the volume) and had to put the book away, take the bus downtown, wander around for a few hours, and buy myself some candy and some new books before i started feeling okay again.

the thing about ace’s death, i think, is that it’s a tragedy, but it also feels so completely essential to the story going forwards and luffy’s character growth specifically that it’s really, really hard to imagine one piece without it. there are a lot of (really excellent!) fix-fics out there for marineford, and although those are often really good and their authors super talented, i think it’s really hard for them to ever hit the same way canon does with regards to this. 

i always think of this scene specifically in contrast to zoro and mihawk’s fight, back on baratie. zoro and mihawk are both people who believe in honor in battle, true victory or death, and that’s reflected in their fight, in zoro’s refusal to turn and run even in the face of imminent death, and mihawk’s respect for that resolve. whitebeard, too, is an honorable man. he refuses to turn to run, even when facing certain death. 

the blackbeard pirates, however, are not. 

i do enjoy how, just like roger’s, ace’s execution backfires tremendously on the marines. this was entirely a predictable outcome, too! this exact thing happened twenty years ago! the marines don’t learn. they don’t change. they’re so assured of their own rightness and power that they make stupid mistakes like holding a massive public execution after the last one blew up in their faces. 

(this is why they need coby so badly, for the record, and why it’s important that he still decides to become a marine after witnessing their corruption firsthand in shells town. the marines are long overdue for a reformation, one that orients them towards real justice.)

i really, really enjoy crocodile in this saga. mostly because he hasn’t been redeemed at all, he’s still pretty much the exact same kinda awful person he was in alabasta, he’s just on luffy’s side this time, and it lets us see him in a better light, when he gets angry at whitebeard for nearly dying or when he helps luffy and jinbe escape to keep the marines from getting their way. few of one piece’s characters are truly so one-dimensional as they can seem, and i really appreciate that. 

i really really love all the interactions between luffy, ace and sabo as kids. they’re so fun and bounce off of each other so well. even though we only see them together for a brief time, they really feel like siblings. (which of course only makes later events hurt so much more.

i’ve always been a little fascinated by the fact that it takes us this long to get luffy’s full backstory. it’s almost a fakeout, because we get part of his backstory in the very first chapter, and we’re kind of led to believe that’s all there is. it’s not until ace’s introduction nearly two hundred chapters in that we’re given any indication there’s more.

but at the same time, it makes sense. marineford is luffy’s focus arc, as arlong park to nami or thriller bark to brook. he hasn’t had a focal arc that’s really about him before this, while all his other crewmates have. it makes sense that this would be when he finally gets his flashback. 

i think it’s cool that dragon and the revolutionaries show up at the grey terminal fire, because it’s one of the only looks we’ve gotten so far into what their actual regular operations are like. and, of course, they’re saving people. i really like this about the revolutionaries, that helping people in trouble is basically their modus operandi, when pretty much everyone else in one piece’s world mostly does saving on an incidental basis if at all. 

i think a lot about how the last line of sabo’s letter to ace is also both of their last words to the strawhats. 

death in one piece always feels much realer and more impactful to me than in most other series, and i think this is part of the reason why: in one piece, we are always shown the mourning. nami at bellemere’s grave, carrot grieving pedro, ace and whitebeard’s funeral. 

there are fewer deaths, comparatively, than most other series, but they’re given so much room to echo. we’re still feeling the impacts of ace’s life and death in the most recent chapters of wano. it ties into the theme of inherited will and all the way back to hiriluk’s final speech, of men not being dead so long as they’re remembered. 

the picture of luffy at marineford always kind of strikes me. he looks so young and so solemn, and yet much more himself than he did when we last saw him losing his mind on amazon lily. i really like it. 

sometimes i just think about the sheer depth of trust and love the strawhats must have in each other to separate for two years, far longer than they were ever together, to solely dedicate themselves to improving for the sake of crew and captain. none of them even hesitate, and none of them ever doubt that the crew will be reformed at the end of it.

after all, luffy keeps his promises. 

#the voyage so far #one piece #opmeta #not japanese #arc: marineford #arc: post marineford #long post

[shhhhsh]

About Tim’s New Story….

I just really hope they address Tim’s mental health. Like, DC just been ditching really good plot lines in favor of being “woke” or pandering. Just look at all the live action shows.

Now I’m not saying they can’t make Tim queer/bi/gay, but (as someone pointed out to me) Tim’s previous story writer was bi and he still chose to write Tim as straight & in a healthy romantic relationship with Stephanie Brown. I’ve seen several people who identify as queer/bi say that to have Tim go “ ooooh I’ve fooled myself into thinking I was straight, but now I’m freeeee” sends the message that Tim’s previous relationship failed b/c he was with a woman and not because of Tim’s poor mental and emotional health.

To go back to my previous statement; by him not writing Tim as bi tells me that he didn’t want or care for Tim to be bi, but instead saw Tim as, or preferred him to be, straight. The writer had free control to write Tim how ever he wanted and yet he chose to keep Tim straight. And he actually liked & wanted Tim/Steph. Again, I’m not saying Tim can’t be queer/bi, I’m just saying I find the motivations for this possible change very fishy. Almost as if the new writer is trying to get brownie points for pandering to a portion of the fans.

I think this way b/c in every other media where a character is revealed to be LGBTQ they just did it. They didn’t beat around the bush or do any queer coding/baiting. They either announced it, just made the character that way right out the gate, or just dropped the bomb w/out warning (as seen in Netflix’s Voltron, Amazon Prime’s Invincible, and Nickelodeon’s Legend of Korra respectfully).

DC currently has a bad habit changing things to be “woke” and bragging about it or shoving it in our faces. DC is becoming the “pick me girl” of superhero media. If you want to do it, just do it. Again I just get the “look at me, look at me” & “carrot on the stick” vibes from them now. If you truly feel in your heart to do something you would just do it without the need for recognition or to be so dramatic about it.

Now what I much rather see & think it’s a natural progression for Tim:

I personally believe that if Jason, Dick, & Damian can get a story that attempts to give them character development beyond romantic relationships (romance was more of a B-plot to the character driven A-plot anyway) I think they can give it to Tim as well.

I know that the Bat-Family all struggle with some form of mental health problems (most commonly paranoia and PTSD). However, I would like to point out that trauma is was what brought the others into the vigilante lifestyle, while Tim & Barbara became traumatized because of the vigilante lifestyle. Yet, Barbara was shown overcoming her trauma and using it as motivation to get better. Tim is yet to have this moment.

We all know that Tim struggles with depression, self-esteem, and suicidal tendencies. I mean heck, him becoming Red Robin only happens because of Tim’s degrading mental health. I hate to say it, but Tim is very psychologically broken and has been show to get so depressed that he can’t even get out of bed some times. To my knowledge, Tim is the only one in the Bat-Fam that struggles in his head with the idea of not being needed, useful, or forgotten when in reality that is furthest from the truth (Steph, Jason, & Damian also feel like the black sheep periodically, but that is because they have been presented with real evidence that would lead them to logically believe this. I.e being actually forgotten or dismissed for past mistakes despite great efforts to better themselves).

While yes, Dick did Tim dirty by replacing him without having a proper conversation first, the motivation was because he saw Tim as his equal and not Damian. He thought highly of Tim, but Tim couldn’t see that over his offense. Tim is so beat down by life that he see’s everything with negative lenses. Everyone came to check on Tim’s mental health but Tim took it as an insult instead.

And even though now Tim has reached some form of “peace” in his life, that only happens because the people he lost came back (Bruce, Conner, Bart, Cassie, etc). Tim never fully learned to handle grief, to handle his emotions, instead he represses them. Again in the Red Robin run, the main reason he doesn’t believe in any form of God is because he can’t logically justify the pain he has gone through. He is hurting and doesn’t know how to deal with that. In his original Robin run, when he tried talking someone out of committing suicide……the words and comfort he gave….that wasn’t something that was just inside Tim, this is something that was told to Tim. This is followed by him calling Dick to get the same pep-talk he just regurgitated to someone else.

In short: Tim is hurting. Deeply. And having been someone who’s emotional & mental sanity was pushed to the brink and attempted to jump off several times, I think it’s really sad that DC just ignores it. Now as someone who’s gotten the help they needed & now helps other people who struggle with the same issues as myself & Tim, I think that they’re going to say a lot of Tim’s problems come from him not being “aware” of his own sexuality, which is just sad.

In the story in question, Barbara talks about Tim not having a solid identity. People are more than their sexuality. People are capable of making future decisions for themselves without it hindering on their sexuality. If Tim was real, I would brake down his struggle as so:

Tim refuses to go to college and do something more with his life because he cannot see anything beyond his current circumstance. And the only reason why Tim cannot see anything beyond his circumstance is because he has no internal sense of purpose, identity, and acceptance beyond the cape & cowl. And when Tim finally found that in being Robin, Tim held onto it as a lifeline. There’s a reason why everyone says Tim is basically Bruce 2.0: it’s because he is Robin/Red Robin/Drake & Tim is the mask. At a young age, he did not grow up having these things instilled into him due to his parents neglecting him at a very important age in his development. Tim raised himself, and for a lack of better terms; an idiot cannot teach themselves to be smarter, an idiot becomes smarter by learning from the intelligent. A child can’t teach themselves to be an adult, they have to learn from others to grow & better themselves.

Now a parent doesn’t necessarily have to sit down and give a lesson about how to be an individual, but children learn how to live life by watching their parents. A good example of this is the rest of the Bat-Fam; they all grew up with some form of parental figures that taught them how to behave (for better or worse). Of course children have their own personalities, which is why two kids can go through the same type of trauma but come out differently, but it is a battle of nature vs nurture. Steph, Jason, Cass, & Damian grew up in abusive/unstable homes, while Dick, Barbara, & Bruce grew up in loving homes, but their personalities & character dictated how they responded to trauma. They took what life gave them and decided what to leave or take.

Tim had nothing to work with & is basically playing catch-up with the rest of his peers.

In a weird sense, Tim is like Zuko from The Last Airbender: only living to serve their father’s purpose. Anything outside of that they don’t know what to do. They’ve been trained to be something externally without been given a chance to figure out who they are internally.

Again you are not your sexuality, your sexuality does not determine who you are as a person. When a person struggles through life, it is due to the conditions of thier soul. Everything starts internally and shows it’s self externally.

I want to make that very clear because I am truly scared that in DC’s attempt to claim “clout” they are missing the bigger picture. Tim doesn’t have identity problems simply because he “doesn’t know” he likes boys, but because DC never gave him is own identity to begin with. Robin was never his own identity, Red Robin was never his, & Drake was his first attempt to make his own but he quickly gave it up so that he can be Robin once again. What is Tim going to do once Damian gets back? Is Damian going to get his own identity before Tim? Or is Tim just going to go back to one of his old identities?

I would like for Tim to personally move on from being a vigilante and rejoin civilian society for a while. Go to college, do something for himself and only for himself. Give Tim the self-discovery story, let him heal, and grown to be his own person. Besides you can never have a functional romantic relationship if you are not a functional individual. Self love > romantic love.

#red robin #batman #dc comics #tim drake #batman and robin #bruce wayne #dick grayson #jason todd #damian al ghul #damian wayne #stephanie brown #batgirl #cassandra cain #batfam #robin #I just want a good and meaningful story that doesn’t have some secret agenda #just do right by Tim #beware the pandering #not everything has to be about romance

[cosplayinamerica]

Summer & Snuffles from Rick & Morty // Cosplayers: eileen.chase & aachase1401

So, how did you come up with Snuffles exo-suit?

SNUFFLES IS MY SLAVE NAME!  YOU MAY CALL ME SNOWBALL BECAUSE MY FUR IS PRETTY AND WHITE!.......It's a pretty awesome character and one of my favorite TV shows.  I always loved Snowball, probably because I love dogs so much. 

Coming up with the logistics of a costume that isn't really proportional to a human person was a challenge. I figured the best way was with a black puppeteer suit and to create the illusion of a non humanoid.  The LION KING Broadway show did this really well with the animal puppets.  So that really helped inspire me to go that route.  

Luckily, cosplayers before me have come up with great builds that served as source material to chose from.  I had lots of cosplays to reference when it came to the over sized hand puppets.  Keegan Sommer and his dad did a Liberty Prime cosplay last year and were kind enough to send me some build photos of the arms.  For the legs I used various Velociraptor costumes as inspiration.  The head was tricky, I got lucky that my idea worked.......barely worked.  I finally got it to work the morning of Con!

That exo suit looks like it took time to put together! Could you talk about it?

I started with a base.  A cardboard box for the torso with arm and leg holes, and jumped off from there.  I did a small mock up of the legs to try out joint movements, and get the positions correct before I put together the PVC skeleton. 

The joints were made of PVC....fun fact, when making a pin for joints...USE A BOLT!  the wire i used initially snapped under the weight 20 min before contest judging.  THANK THE STARS FOR MEGACON COSPITAL! 

They were a godsend and helped me fix the foot joint with a much thicker Pin. The structure around was expandable foam from the hardware store.  I covered the PVC in it and carved the foam down into the foot and calf shapes.The Hands were balsa wood and Insulation foam.  I made a base/grip for the glove that worked the outer fingers. 

The puppet fingers were made in three parts, with balsa wood, fishing line on the inside, and elastic on the outer side.  I put thimbles in the fingertips of the gloves to lessen the "give" of the string as it pulled. 

This part took a lot of tweaking to get the desired result.LEDs:  I had never worked with a soldering iron before, so I was worried about getting the lights to properly work.  So i took shortcuts where possible. lol.  The light in Snowballs Helmet is a twisty Tea light that people use for decor.  

The LEDs in the hands were strip LEDs that are used to decorate bedrooms and even came with a remote so i could change the color and pulse if I wanted too.  But I did end up doing some custom soldering that I'm very proud of.  The lights in both shoulders and collar are ones I put together.SNOWBALL: This was the most fun.  The centerpiece of the costume is what needed to be right.  Everything else could suck, but this had to be good. 

I've never needlefelted before, but I knew it was the best way to create a custom animal.  I really have to say, it's my new favorite hobby!  Seriously, it was an absolute blast creating this piece.   If you're looking to add a cute animal or felted piece to your cosplay, take up needlefelting!

 I've become a huge fan of the medium and was surprised at how easy it was to get used to, especially if you're already a sculptor.   Normally you can't really felt onto a piece of Styrofoam because the wool will just fall out.  But i needed the base to be solid for the puppetry to work, so what i did was glue felt pieces onto the styrafoam base and then felted a base layer of wool onto that felt.  It worked pretty well. 

The fur will never be as solid as if the entire piece was felted, but it worked well for this cosplay.   I build the face up the most, added glass eyes and a nose sculpted from thermoplastics.  The arms and legs were wire with wool wrapped around them. 

The helmet was an upside down bowl I found at Party City.  It was the size and color I needed, so i cut away until it looked like a visor attached to a shorter helmet, painted the non visor parts, added foam and then glued on some Dixie cups.  The light is just a party cup I thought looked cool.It's easier to describe the build process when i have the accompanying photos.  So i'll be creating a step by step guide on Instructables.com like I did with my Power Loader.  Hopefully it will make more sense, and other people who love the character can see my successes and mistakes and improve on the design.

Any interesting or funny response from congoers while walking around Megacon in the exo-suit?

Well, i made a child cry.......so there was that.   It was actually kind of cute.  He was fine until the head moved.  That spooked him.  Another funny thing was when my sister and I were filming a recreation of the "where are my testicals" scene and I accidentally hit her in the face because my vision is limited in the suit.

How has cosplay impacted your life since you’ve started cosplaying?

There's a great line in the book "The subtle art of not giving a f***"  That says we are happiest when we are setting goals for ourself and overcoming obstacles to achieve them.  It's a great feeling and I think if you have the chance to challenge yourself, go for it.  It's a great feeling that lasts well past Con even when all the attention has worn off.

 It's also great to learn new skills.  I learned how to work with electronics this time around, LEDs and many more that I'll continue to use outside cosplay.  The other ways it's affected me is by severely limiting the amount of closet space I have available..  Big cosplays take up big space. I'll probably need to get a storage unit at some point.

https://www.allisonchasemakeup.com/

________________________

Rick & Morty on Amazon https://amzn.to/3s1tsa8

#rick and morty #rick and morty cosplay #snowball cosplay #cosplay #cosplay interview