#i spotted another script alteration when i was editing this

[spectre-six]

Star Wars: Rebels // 3.02 "Steps Into Shadow Pt. 2"

#star wars rebels #ezra bridger #kanan jarrus #mine #rebelsedit #star wars #atollon #swedit #starwarsedit #swgifs #sw rebels #swr #swrebelsedit #starwarsdaily #swanimation #thestarwarsdaily #starwarsblr #starwarsfilms #i spotted another script alteration when i was editing this #will talk about it later!

[jiangwanyinscatmom]

Sorry, my wifi disconnected so my previous ask may have gotten deleted? If not, discard this please and thanks lol

I was wondering what your thoughts are on CQL in terms of its portrayal/characterization. I know adaptations can change things but I don't know if I agree with fundamentally changing characters or altering them to suit your whims?

Good morning anon, I did get this one and perhaps not the other.

I... have a certain soft spot for some of CQL aesthetically and the acting of scenes from Wang Yibo and Xiao Zhan, but, I mostly despise about 90% of the scripting and story changes. (No, I won't ever drop that Yang Xia literally thought the two were just carrying a corpse between them while they traveled miles of China and that's why she made it a sword fetch quest).

Do I personally agree with the adaption changes. There's a certain way to please and respect the original work even with censorship mandates. CQL as an adaptation, was not that. I'd actually vastly recommend Legend of Fei or Word of Honor instead if you want a full adaptation vs canon text original. CQL, was from conception done to wash it of the original thematics, character intentions and the effects of those that rounded them as deeper and a natural progression of gay men falling in love.

One was the way it pawned off Jiang Yanli being so obsessed with the three of them as "together forever". No where in the novel does she say this, as she knows she is bound to be married into another family and grow up apart from Wei Wuxian in some way, SHE was already prepared for this, and Wei Wuxian had always expected to be a servant to Jiang Cheng, but he never said it would be indefinitely even in his promise. There was no indication of "forever together" among the three, Jiang Cheng also only expected forever submission from Wei Wuxian as no one else had expressed a want of listening to him (his parents as his elders having been outright abusive or passively apathetic).

It also made Wei Wuxian cope through the usage of alcohol at the idea of Lan Wangji now not "approving" of him. He did not want Lan Wangji's approval in the novel, he wished for his attentions and stated as such he felt they could be friends because they were so similar. He only grew volatile and distant towards him when Lan Wangji himself did not put up a strong front of liking him in Wei Wuxian's own presence each time they continued to interact. It cheapened Lan Wangji's own growth and realization that the expectation of "good" doesn't need to come from oppressive traditional rigidity as he had been told since he was young, and that a good person is not made by rule obedience.

There is good intentions, and there is Yang Xia. The only ones with good intentions were the director Chan Ka Lam (Who was the one to produce and film the happily touted "alternate" JP CQL ending that removes the separation of the special condensed edition to be more "Wangxian") Wang Yibo, and Xiao Zhan once they were able to lean into the original romance of the original work after fan backlash to the original script approvals from Yang Xia. Unfortunately, when the script you are made to work with is a bit of a turd, you can polish and glitter it as a fix, but the turd is still there under the gold veneer.

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #cql negativity #that's actually yang xia negativity #more #family oriented is double speech for gay censorship

[notactuallyanonky0mk]

Why Even New ABA 'therapy' Is Bad.

I got bored so I decided to start a project.

Note: I write everything in the notepad app on my computer so it isn't exactly fit to Tumblr format and might look a bit wonky because I don't feel like editing it to fit. I also put off posting it for a while because it wasn't something I originally thought about posting while writing. I don't actually know what to put as a rating so I will put mature as it does make a mention to SA/Peer pressure + Bullying. I will note that even though I did do research it does not mean I am fully correct on some of these topics so feel free to correct me and remember that I am just another person on the internet and not an actual professional.

Reminder: This is all opinion backed up on personal research and experiences.

2:03 PM 2022-10-21

Why Applied Behaviour Analysis "Therapy" is Harmful.

ABA 'therapies' direct goal and main focus is to alter and/or eliminate an Autistic childs

behaviour, this holds to the fact that they think Autisic children need to be "fixed" and that

their behaviour is bad, behaviour is a from of necessary communication to people who

do not talk or even those who do talk, towards the people they know an example would be

"Grabby Hands" that is often used to show a want or need for an object in sight without

touching, or taking it away from its spot or the person who has it in their possession, if you

saw two children playing together and one suddenly grabbed a toy out of the other childs

hand you would think to reprimand the child for "Stealing", Children pick up on the fact

that taking it is bad, so they have to instead find a way to get the other child to give it to them

by communicating that they want it, usually using "Grabby Hands", by teaching children that,

said behaviour is bad they might resort back to just grabbing it, but by reinforcing the child to

talk who is often mute, it stresses them and causes anxiety, by punishing them when they

don't talk it teaches them that being comfortable and feeling safe in situation is "bad" and

"against the rules", often leading to them growing up with Mental Health issues and difficulties

with rules and/or authority causing outbursts, anger, and dislike towards those things.

Forcing a child to practice scripts and sit still so they can look like a

"Normal Child" is abuse, its unfair and teaches them to mask their Autism

and Neurodivergent traits. Autistic children should not have their behaviour

changed simply beacause it is not how an Allistic/Neurotypical child

acts, masking is a destroying behaviour and it ruins the ability to create

a personal identity, because you are constantly acting as if you were a

different person, to teach a child how to do this ruins their life,

It is abuse.

Credits to Research:

For more information on Masking and its Consequences. Also quoted a "A life of Suicidality".

https://www.healthline.com/health/autism/autism-masking

Quote From Above Site :

People may mask their autism characteristics for many reasons —

to boost their careers, connect with others, or avoid being stigmatized by other people.

Masking may help at times, but regular masking can have serious effects on mental and physical

health. This may include anxiety, depression, exhaustion, a loss of identity, and suicidal thoughts.

https://psychcentral.com/autism/autism-masking-why

Quote From Above Site:

Standard practice in particular autism therapies such as applied behavior analysis (ABA) has

historically been to redirect autistic behaviors and traits to meet neurotypical expectations.

But some autism advocates and members of the autistic community disagree with this strategy.

Some research has suggested ABA may cause post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms in some

autistic people.

https://www.spectrumnews.org/features/deep-dive/costs-camouflaging-autism/

Quote From Above Site:

Lawrence says that if she’d been diagnosed as a child, her mother might have understood her

better. She might have also avoided a long history of depression and self-harm. “One of the main

reasons I went down that route was because I knew I was different but didn’t know why —

I was bullied quite badly at school,” she says.

Mandy and his colleagues interviewed 14 young women not diagnosed with autism until late

adolescence or adulthood. Many described experiences of sexual abuse.

https://walkietalkiespeechtherapy.com/why-teaching-autistic-people-to-mask-is-an-outdated-and-harmful-practice/

Quote From Above Site:

In addition, research has shown that autistic people are more likely to commit suicide.

Many autistic people report that they feel a direct correlation between this statistic and the

exhaustion and depression that accompanies constant masking. Many autistic people mask

because they are expected to do so by society. But even occasional, limited masking can be damaging,

exhausting, and lead to long-term burn-out.

Why Applied Behaviour Analysis "Therapy" is Harmful.

ABA is a Compliance-Based 'Therapy' this means it is considered successful when the

child does what the 'therapist' says, in majority of cases children have their personal

belongings withheld, or taken away from them until they meet, and comply with the

demands that have been made, whether the personal belongings taken away are simply

something they want like a favourite toy or something they need like a comfort item or

food they packed and brought along to eat within the very long appointment hours, alot

of times attention is withheld which means if the child asks for say a bathroom break, or

something to eat/drink, they won't get it. This 'treatment' style is incredibly problematic

because in any other situation, such as with a spouse, or friend this kind of treatment->(punishment)

is seen as toxic, and manipulative towards the person, as if they didn't matter, all that

mattered was compliance towards another person's orders.

Beyond that and more, focusing heavily on compliance for children, especially autistic

children, is extremely dangerous. When autistic children are pushed and forced into

hours upon hours of compliance-based 'therapy' and 'therapies' from such a young and

vulnerable age, they are taught that their body is solely at the mercy of someone else,

that their body is not theirs to make decisions with or express feelings with. That when

somebody tells them, to do something with their body, they must comply.

It may seem as though this is not such a bad consequence but what happens

when it isn't a 'therapist' telling them to sit at a table and rearrange number magnets,

but instead a peer pressuring them into drugs or even sex.

Credits to Research:

This leads to issues with consent and decision making, when somebody doesn't know

how to make decisions for themselves or understand how consent works it leads to

vulnerability towards sexual assault, rape, domestic violence and abuse, among other

things it makes them a likely bully victim throughout Elementary School, Middle School,

Secondary->(HighSchool) and even College or University. Students with Autism are

already more likely to be bullied in a general standpoint of just simply existing with or

without a diagnosis, an interview study showed that if you asked a group of bullies if they

would bully a child for having a diagnosis of autism majority would say no, but if you asked

them whether or not they would bully a child with autistic traits such as strong insistence

on organization, difference in speech, difference in social interaction, adherence to routine,

ect… They would say "Yes, I would bully them." 33.9% of students with Autism face

high levels of bullying victimization in school(Reported) based on a 2016 Study, with an

increased risk due to ABA or any other type of compliance-based 'therapy' that number

would probably look something more like '45.5%' or possibly even higher.

https://www.pacer.org/bullying/info/stats.asp

Quote From Above Site:

When assessing specific types of disabilities, prevalence rates differ: 35.3% of students with

behavioral and emotional disorders, 33.9% of students with autism, 24.3% of students with

intellectual disabilities, 20.8% of students with health impairments, and 19% of students with

specific learning disabilities face high levels of bullying victimization

Why Applied Behaviour Analysis "Therapy" is Harmful.

ABA focuses on positive reinforcement for target behaviour, though it may seem great it

doesn't work in the long term, as research has shown using extrinsic/external rewards

actually decreases the chance of the child doing said target behaviour in the future if a

reward isn't immediately present or available, instead intrinsic/personal rewards are more

effective as it teaches doing an action for personal need or want.

Rewarding extrinsically means that in later instances throughout life such as school work

or a business project, even just simply doing laundry will prove difficult to get done beacause

they have been taught that if they do something 'right' or 'successfully' they will get a

sticker or candy, so if there is no sticker the action is either 'wrong' or in the child's eyes

"Not worth doing." you don't get a sticker or candy for doing laundry or school work, so

the child will subconsciously lose any or all motivation towards doing the action and will

more than likely fail to even start the work, a example of this would be, reward a child for

sitting at a table and they will continue to sit at the table, but stop rewarding that behaviour

or expect the child to continue in a different setting than originally rewarded in they will

stop sitting at the table, this is especially true for autistic children who follow routines of

sameness and rules. In the child's mind if you give them a sticker for sitting at the table, they

should always get a sticker for sitting at the table. If you stop giving them stickers to sit at the

table why would they ever sit at the table?

Credits to research:

If the child ever wants to do anything in the future this will effect the decision making

behind its reasoning and rewards as they will begin to think that doing something

for personal reward isn't good enough, because there is no external reward, this causes

"Black and White" thinking, or as a more common term "All or Nothing", if they set a goal

and a 'good' extrinsic reward is there they will complete the goal they set even if it kills them,

another example would be if the task has an extremely important intrinsic reward that is

well needed they won't start it because it's simply not a 'good enough' reason to them, this

continues throughout adulthood and affects decision making behind reasoning, even if the

autistic person starts the task they either do their best and try so hard they mentally kill

themselves or they don't try at all, they are unable to see a middle ground in life thus unable

to make decisions surrounding it.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27084549/

Quote From Above Site:

Extrinsic Rewards Diminish Costly Sharing in 3-Year-Olds

https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/black-and-white-thinking

Quote From Above Site:

An all-or-nothing mindset doesn’t allow us to find the middle ground. And let’s face it:

There’s a reason most people don’t live on Everest or in the Mariana Trench.

It’s hard to sustain life at those extremes.

https://www.talkspace.com/blog/black-white-thinking-ways-poisons-your-perspective/

Quote From Above Site:

Of course, the world is not an either/or place: Our lives are full of shades of gray.

By seeing the world in black and white — rather than the complex rainbow it actually is —

we may initially make it easier for ourselves to separate out good from bad, right from wrong,

and beautiful from ugly. But this kind of thinking can be exhausting, sending us through

constant ups and downs. And on a deep level, simplifying things into easy, binary terms robs us

of much of the complexity that makes life and relationships so rich.

https://www.soberish.co/black-and-white-thinking/

Quote From Above Site:

Everything is all or nothing.

Either you’re 100% committed to this diet or you’re stuffing your face with whatever you

can get your hands on. If you mess up and have a cookie?

The entire diet is destroyed! Throw it all away. You’ll never be healthy. You can’t do it!

Why Applied Behaviour Analysis "Therapy" is Harmful.

Most ABA 'therapists' say that an autistic child should have 20-40 hours in 'therapy', that is

essentially a part time to full time job that is expected of autistic children as early as toddlerhood.

Why should we expect that out of such young autistics, or even any older child.

On top of that big pile of misfortune parent are also told to continue the 'treatment' outside of

'therapy' hours, It is teaching children to constantly mask and hide themselves, even with people

they are supposed to feel comfortable and/or safe with, such as their own parents or friends, and

possibly even when they are alone.

That they must hide who they are constantly to act like somebody else because others don't like it

and prefer that they would act neurotypical, but when are the children aloud to play in their own way

and with their own autistic behaviours, while nowadays children are being encouraged to spend more

time with unstructured play, autistic children aren't given that luxury.

Why do autistic children have to be 'on' for so long, when do they get to rest and have downtime.

No child should have to work 20-40+ hours changing who they are because of others opinions.

No person should have to work to change who they are because of others opinions.

Credits to research:

The effects of masking are terrible. Being told to do that all the time even when with someone you

trust or when you're alone is just torturous and escalates the effects of it.

www.acceltherapies.com/how-long-are-aba-therapy-sessions

Quote From Above Site:

This implies they might require up to 40 hours of ABA therapy every week.

Why Applied Behaviour Analysis "Therapy" is Harmful.

ABA 'therapy' promotes the idea that autistic people and children must change to fit in, that their

behaviours and personalities are unwanted, that they as a whole are broken, a toy, an object to be

fixed so others will be comfortable and want to play and even just interact with them, and as long

as we subject and force autistics into these intensive 'therapies' we are continuously telling them

and society that autistic behaviours must be changed, that they are wrong and not welcome.

A world where stimming and meltdowns were understood and accommodated instead of openly

shamed and trained away as if they were 'bad' behaviours in a dog.

That will never happen when autistic children are spending multiple hours every day being taught

and told they have to change by doctors, family, 'friends', peers, teachers, and every other person

you could think of or imagine walking into their life.

Do not dismiss the concerns, cries, and pleas of autistic people who are speaking out against ABA 'therapy'

because even if your experience with it wasn't the torturous punishment-beased 'therapy' that was used

from 1968 and only started dropping in usage during the early 2010's but is still used in some settings today.

Autistic people are tired of being spoken over by neurotypicals, especially when they ignore the issues with

something and only point out false positives.

Main points:

By: E. Kerr.

7:57 PM 2022-11-08

Word Count: 2415

1 Changing Behavior as the Primary Goal

2 Compliance-Based Therapies & Issues of Consent

3 Focusing on Positive Rewards Instead of Intrinsic Motivation

4 Extreme Hours of Therapy Limits Autistic Children’s Free Time

5 Promoting the Idea That Autistic Children Must Change to Fit In

I have done external research on these topics as well as on child and early

adolescence psychology focusing on how situations affect adulthood and

the childhood brain, I truly hope that this personal writing project will help

bring awareness on the affects of ABA 'therapy' and other 'therapies' or

situations like these.

#asd

[stillebesat]

Hello Darkness (My Old ... Friend?) -part 1

December Drabbles Day 22 Sanders Sides: Roman, Virgil  Blurb: Is it possible to search for something...for someone...when you don’t even remember that they’re missing?  Inspiration: What if Virgil ducked out and made sure no one remembered him? Fic Type: Mindscape!AU, Hurt/Comfort Overall Fic Warnings: Sword, Talk about Fighting Monsters, Injury mention, Trouble Sleeping, Memory Loss Taglist in Reblog. 

He shouldn’t be awake. Roman knew that. He shouldn’t be awake. He ran a hand through his already mussed hair, glancing at Patton’s and Logan’s darkened rooms as he passed by them. He quickly reached the end of the hallway and turned on his heel to head right back to the stairs to repeat the loop. 

Pacing. Because he couldn’t sit still. Pacing. Because his mind wouldn’t shut up. Pacing. And he didn’t know why.  

Thomas had gone to bed hours ago after a long day of difficult filming, drifting off so quickly that Roman hadn’t been needed to jumpstart a dream for him to fall asleep to. 

Truthfully, Roman hadn’t needed to stay up later than eleven to help Thomas fall asleep in forever. The last time they’d been up past midnight had been at last year’s New Year's Eve party, and even then, Thomas had struggled to stay awake. 

Tonight though, Roman had been unable to drift off. Cinderella’s hour had come and gone long ago, yet he continued to pace like a caged tiger up and down the hallway. Anxious. Though he couldn’t quite put his finger on why. Why couldn’t he fall asleep?! 

He knew it would be easier if he were actually laying down in bed with his eyes closed, but after an hour of tossing and turning, unable to find a comfortable spot, Roman had given up on that particular venture. 

He turned, once more passing Patton’s and Logan’s rooms, mind racing. Was it stress from earlier in the day? Filming had, after all, not gone quite to Logan’s scheduled plan. First, there had been a miscommunication on the time everyone had planned to meet up, then when they’d finally gotten together the weather had ended up far windier than expected making hearing everyone’s lines near impossible. And finally...they’d ended up having to make three emergency trips to the local electronics store when well...he was sure the first camera could be salvaged from the lake...maybe...probably not. At least the memory card had survived the unfortunate dunking unlike the second camera or the now broken tripod.  

None of that was new though. There were always setbacks in filming. Unforeseen problems that didn’t arise until they were on location ready to work on the next video. Logan had even planned the schedule to make room for those potential problems so they wouldn’t fall behind! 

Roman bared his teeth, glaring at the end of the hallway as he stalked towards it. They technically weren’t behind. Not yet. There was no reason to stress over today. Filming, once they’d switched to their backup location, adjusted their mics, and finally got started, had gone flawlessly. 

Roman shook his head. No. That wasn’t right. Flawlessly wasn’t the right word. 

He had felt it. It was expected as Creativity to realize that something was...lacking. 

How though? Everyone had been doing so well! They had the character beats down. Their pacing just right. The flow of the scene uninterrupted. Even with the change in location they’d barely needed to alter the script because everything sounded--- 

He paused at the top of the stairs, drawing in a slow breath as he stared down into the darkened living room below. 

Something had been missing. He knew. There was a part of the script that wasn’t flowing right no matter how many times they filmed the scene. A missing piece. 

He clicked his tongue, nodding to himself as he flicked his eyes to their original filming spots. The curtains, the TV, the side of the stairs, the stairs themse--Roman blinked shaking his head. No, Logan hadn’t stood on the stairs in ages. After the first couple of videos he’d moved to the side to give everyone better sight lines to each other. So why had he included the stairs? 

All these emotions and thoughts and complete turmoil? How could I not show up at this party?

Roman groaned, scrubbing at his eyes. “Unbelievable.”  He turned away. One night of staying up late and he was already losing his ability to think clearly. “I need sleep.” he mumbled as he stalked past his doorway once more. But how could he sleep if he couldn’t pinpoint the problem that was keeping him up?! Was it the script? It had to be something in the script. A line said by the wrong person. A stage direction that wasn’t quite right. But to Crofters if he knew just WHAT they were missing! 

Roman glanced at Patton’s door as he once again passed it. Maybe it wasn’t packing enough of an emotional punch? Were their lines falling flat? He frowned, racking his memory. 

Gah. Pat would know best. He could sense exactly what needed to be done to convey the right message to their viewers--he hadn’t said anything earlier though about it not feeling right...of course he usually spoke up more during the editing part. But it wasn’t like Roman could exactly go ask him right now if he felt that the script needed ‘more’ to it. 

No, not when it was the middle of the bloody night! The others shouldn’t lose their precious sleep because of him. 

He glared at the blank wall at the end of the hallway before turning to head back to the stairs. No, If Roman was ever going to find his own measure of sleep tonight, he needed to find the answer to this problem. NOW. 

A chill ran down his spine as a faint creaking reached his ears. He whirled, sword flashing into existence in his hands at the unexpected sound. “Who’s there?” He demanded in a loud whisper, searching the darkness at the end of the hallway.

Silence met him. 

Roman frowned. If it weren’t for the fact that Logan’s and Patton’s rooms had been nowhere near the noise...he would have thought one of the others had woken up.

Their doors remained firmly closed though. 

Tightening his grip on the sword he edged forward back to the end of the hallway. “Who’s there?” He demanded again, a little louder. He really didn’t need to deal with an intruder in the middle of the night along with his inability to sleep.

His vision fuzzed as he took another step. 

The bigger message is to just run away from your problems.

Roman hesitated, but shook his head, working to clear his sight. If it weren’t for the fact that he wasn’t in his room he’d think this a trick of the Dragon Witch. “Sometimes the best solution is to get out of a bad situation,” he muttered, pushing down the wave of deja vu that hit him. 

Had he said that before? 

“Whatever you’re doing.” Roman declared, lifting his chin, the creaking of old wood once again reaching his ears. “I’m not running!” Not from a sound. He was no coward. He gritted his teeth, moving forward despite his blurry vision, sword at the ready.

You tried. You failed. Just go to sleep.

If he could sleep he wouldn’t have been standing here in the first place. “I am not afraid of you.” He was the Prince! A Knight, thank you very much. He didn’t run from strange noises in the middle of the night. “Come out!” 

A Prince doesn’t yelp. 

And Roman definitely didn’t make such a noise when a door slammed into existence with a loud bang right in front of him as his vision suddenly cleared. He definitely didn’t jump backwards, slashing wildly at said door as it swung closed in front of him. No, no a Prince did not do that. Not even a sleep deprived one. 

Roman lowered his sword, still on guard, heart hammering away in his chest like the frantic beat of a humming bird’s wings. 

That was...well...he gave a grim smile, a flutter of anticipation curling in his stomach. That had been unexpected. It had been a long long time since anything had got his blood racing like that. Not since they’d finally filmed the final battle between him and the Manti-Core Chimera. One injured man against a multi-headed venomous beast. It had been the battle of the ages. 

Something he only realized now, now that this--this---door had appeared, that he’d dearly missed. The anticipation of danger. The thrill of facing the unknown. 

Was this--he stalked forward on silent feet to the blackened doorway that looked like it had been there for years despite it only appearing a bare minute earlier. Right when he needed--

Oh. 

Needed.  

“Is that what you are?” He mumbled, tilting his head as he studied the faded silver scrollwork around the edges, his fingers hovering over the faint lightning bolt design on the handle. “Some kind of Room of Requirement?”

To Be Continued. 

#Hello Darkness (My Old ... Friend?) #December Drabbles #stillebesat #Sanders Sides #Roman #Virgil #Creativity #Anxiety #sword tw #talk about fighting monsters #injury mention #trouble sleeping #memory loss tw #Logan mention #Patton mention #December Day 22

[mantrabay]

Hitchhiker From Another World Part 2

Improvements and edits.

.

“Watch your driving, there." Lelia being brash.

Her different voices now somersaulting.

“Very quite aren't we, Josh?"

Josh mark you!

Grilling me like an interrogator trying to crack a stubborn suspect.

Without a word of warning Lelia raised her voice and got into a tantrum.

“What's the matter ….lost something?”

Joshua said anxiously.

A curious search resembling a scrum ensued.

Then more silence.

I craned my neck and spotted an uncanny regression.

Lelia talking to herself in a child-like manner and then changing tack.

“Don't worry. Found what I was looking for.”

Another void.

A tense lull. A little lockjaw appears when the juice runs out of discourse.

I squinted in the mirror once more.

This time Lelia was talking to her palm.

Staring vacantly at it she kept repeating the name Linda.

Lelia continued oblivious to what I saw or might be thinking.

She hummed this strange lullaby.

Suddenly my "selves" surfaced in an uncontrollable flurry.

I tried to suppress them but failed abysmally.

The "whispers and selves" started to have a life of their own.

This car is getting a bit crowded.

It's being converted into a train with fantasy passengers on board.

The sort one hears late at night hurtling through the countryside as dim lights flicker.

Both inside and outside this vehicle a tumult of events was took place.

Out of the blue the rain poured heavily.

“The gods or the elements must be cross or something.” Lelia opined.

“Let’s get introduced to my playmate in a palm.

Linda, these are Joshua’s true other selves.”

Lelia chuckling.

A comic situation arose where I changed my voice for each of my "selves" by way of introduction.

My great powers of concentration helped while driving.

"Pleased to meet you, Linda.”

Lelia altered her voice when teasing all my "selves."

She had some experience as a ventriloquist.

But Lelia was having this hypnotic effect too.

I was being manipulated.

One by one my highly personalised complexes were being extracted and subject to a rigorous interrogation.

This was some hitchhiker.

Was this car journey now becoming a high rent farce or a mock therapy session from an amateur shrink?

The rain continued to lash and my other "selves" felt like the last sting of a dying wasp.

A certain lightness ensued.

Almost as if my “aspects” were floating away.

For the first time my "other selves“ didn't seem to have this grip on me.

But deep down I knew I wanted to keep a little of them.

Although they were a burden they did have their positive aspects.

“Jonah … he still bugs doesn't he.

He’s almost like one of those "other selves!"

The "whispers" I heard earlier … I've a very delicate ear.

Those under the breath "whispers" gave the game away.

The names and complex relations between them."

Lelia now probing very deeply.

The wind howled and seafront rain waves splashed across my bonnet

There was a warped synchronicity.

As my complexes receded so did the thunderous weather.

They were working in tandem.

“Wash it all away. Come on, come on

See me waving my wand.”

Lelia chanted.

The Exorcist film had nothing on this.

Before his very eyes Joshua's "reticence" and the other "selves" were disappearing virtually.

Against the backdrop of all this inner and outer cacophony Lelia kept looking out the window.

Was that this home she mentioned earlier getting closer as Joshua was

"going home” to himself?

“Windows are amazing.

They show us the world but sometimes screen us from it.”

Lelia notes.

fog from the car window.

“Trees and branches swaying. Clouds darkening.

Thickening ominously.

Exodus of pedestrians seeking answers.”

Her voice penetrating Joshua.

“Am I being cleansed of what they call inner demons?"

Joshua panic stricken.

"This other worldly person has me spellbound.

There's a chessboard in this moving vehicle.

A total stranger has me in her palm.” .

Lelia assumed various postures.

As Joshua was the driver she didn't want to send him to sleep.

Lelia's voice was either a hypnotist's drone or excited sports commentator.

Joshua could never forget this encounter.

“Don't forget Jonah too. Joshua wherever he might be.”

Her sinister tone rising.

“The name on your credit card.

I found it earlier when searching for my script.

Joshua Jonah king.”

Joshua confessed he was an only child.

“Am I a prisoner?.

Must button my lip.

I'm being freed and incarcerated by this person, the likes of whom I've never met before.”

Joshua felt a final therapeutic process coursing through him.

Very little was left of his "selves,” whispers.”

Joshua drove through a stoically preserved area whose haunting nature was blurred by this encounter.

“Terrible to have all these half-worlds revealed with such clinical accuracy.”

Joshua to himself.

Lelia's voice gradually lost its domineering tone.

At this point by accident or design the tense atmosphere eased.

“You are probably wondering where this is all going to end.

Maybe I have whispers, Jonah's and selves to face too.”

A casual Lelia random comment.

On this occasion a composite of adult confidence and infantile charm.

“Oh here we are, this place.”

She stated.

Joshua had undergone some sea change catharsis.

“Should I thank Lelia or what?

Jonah my make-believe twin. Don't really need him do I?”

Joshua pondered.

“Back to earth my dear.

This is where we part.”

Lelia again.

“Better change the name on that credit card.

It could bug your company!”

Lelia cackles..

“See that building..

It's called “Another World School of Acting.”

Acting is therapy..

Therapy in every sense!

They are auditioning for a play

“Inside The Split Mind." She said.

"Wonder will I get the part?”

Lelia looked away sadly.

“Off I go. Enjoy yourself or yourselves or whatever is left of them.”

Lelia laughing through her tears..

“Better get out of here fast, Josh.” Joshua to himself.

“I'm beginning to sound like her.” Joshua now driving at top speed.

“It will be awhile before I offer someone a lift again.

I suppose I should be grateful to her.” Joshua’s face now a deep red.

"Well, Jonah, I guess I'm going to miss you and all those "issues" in a way.

But at least I can be myself …. sort of.”

Short story by mantrabay copyright protected

[kaydeefalls]

Tagged by @andrea-lyn​ , who is the most astonishingly productive writer I've ever known, which means I've got waaaay slimmer pickings than she did for this one. XD

Rules: it’s time to love yourselves! choose your 5 (or so) favourite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought to the world in 2020. tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

My lofty goal this year was to post 100k words of fic, and I did! I managed just shy of 125k words (and wrote another 40k on my TOG Mini Bang, which won't be posted until Saturday, so I guess it'll jump start my 2021 total instead). That only wound up breaking down into 7 fics + 1 vid, but hey, a few of those fics were on the longer end. So picking of top 5 is more like...side-eyeing my bottom 3. WHATEVER.

1. Travellers from an Antique Land (Old Guard, Joe/Nicky + Andy/Quynh + ensemble)

Canon-divergent AU. Five hundred years ago, they lost Andromache to the sea. Now Quỳnh leads the team, a new immortal just woke up, and some pharmaceutical company is getting a little too interested in their business.

I nattered on about this one in a different askmeme, but look, I love canon-divergent AUs, and I love long plotty fics, and I really, really enjoyed writing this one.

2. life is very long (Old Guard, Joe/Nicky + team)

Andromache tells him: "The Greeks used to have seven different words for love. Well. More, probably. But I remember seven." She shrugs. "There are many ways to love one another, and life is long. We've time enough for them all. It's the only thing that makes it worthwhile." Nicky and his immortal family, over the centuries.

My first foray into TOG fandom, and MAN did I luck out. I hit the sweet spot of posting this a week after the movie hit and JUST as the fandom was taking off, and it got a truly stupid (for me) amount of kudos. But also, I am genuinely fond of this one, and it helped me wrap my head around Nicky as a character (which has served me well since).

3. We'll Show Them All (X-Men, Charles/Erik + Raven)

Pacific Rim AU. Ten years later, the monsters are back, and newly-instated Marshall Charles Xavier needs to pull a team together to prepare for the coming war. That means finding his talented sister a Drift-compatible copilot -- even if that turns out to be his old flame Erik.

It would be wrong for me to not include this, because X-Men is by far my personal longest-running fandom (I'm pretty sure I first posted fic for it in 2002?), and even if I've kind of let it drop off recently, I'm sure it'll pull me back in eventually. Also, I will always be a sucker for an X-Men fusion AU, and Drifting is fun. And the art by @irelise is GORGEOUS.

4. though it was not my task to watch (Old Guard, Joe/Nicky)

"Death always matters. It is not a game, it is not casual, it is real and it is painful and it is not a thing to be chased, not ever!" After Merrick, Nicky can't stand seeing any of them die. It takes Joe a while to put it together.

Wrote this to help myself process personal grief, when a close friend was unexpectedly diagnosed with terminal illness this summer. Kind of hard to go back to it now that he's passed. But still. I'm glad I wrote it. All our gays should be immortal.

5. When It Alteration Finds (Star Wars, Poe/Finn, WIP)

Poe is nine years old when his mark first appears, in an alien script he can't even read. When he's twelve, it…blurs. Like someone took an eraser to an old chalkboard, but couldn't quite scrub it out. That's not the end of their story. (Soulmark!AU. Sometimes it takes a while.)

Look. Did I finish it? No. Do I intend to? Yes, as soon as all these damn challenge deadlines have passed. But I'm still glad I started posting it as a WIP, because I honestly think I would have dropped it entirely if I hadn't forced the external motivation, and I am FOND of this dumb 'verse, okay? Poe and Finn are great and deserved better and I need to figure out how the hell to wrap this fic up without actively rewriting the entirety of TRoS.

Tagging @lindstrom2020, @turtletotem, @ladynox, @kianspo and whoever else wants to celebrate the fact that this year is OVER and you SURVIVED IT and you deserve to brag about the stuff you're proud of!

#my fic #rec yourself #because someone ought to! #ask me anything

[chacusha]

DS9 Companion liveblogging (3/14)

From 2x01 “The Homecoming” to 2x13 “Armageddon Game”:

“Quark’s alter-ego, Armin Shimerman, was delighted to discover that Season 2 would establish him as quite ‘a ladies’ man,’ with liaisons of one sort or another in ‘Rules of Acquisition’ and ‘Profit and Loss’ and numerous flirtations in between. ‘I believe Quark’s had more relationships than anyone else on the show,’ Shimerman notes with pleasure.” This is cute. I like how no one is a bigger booster of Quark and Ferengi than Shimerman <3

On Bajoran fashion: “Kira’s recreational garb in the episode [2x02 “The Circle”], and also her outfit from the mission to the Hutet labor camp in ‘The Homecoming,’ represent a deliberate shift in Bajoran costuming enacted by Costume Designer Robert Blackman. ‘The color palette remained the same, the rust, green, and gold earth tones, but the textures changed,’ explains Blackman. ‘During the first season, the clothes on background Bajorans were flat-finished,’ a reflection of what the producers liked at that time. But as the show moved into its second season, says Blackman, ‘they felt that the clothing needed to have a rougher texture, that the wardrobe looked too sleek, like something you’d see at the Sherman Oaks Galleria’—a place made notorious in the 1980s by Frank Zappa’s satirical song ‘Valley Girl.’ Thus, Blackman chose to use loose knits, crochets, and ‘things over things’ for Kira’s off-duty clothes, ‘so that you would get a kind of buildup of texture on a Bajoran background.’ Blackman notes that the shift in costume design had synergy with changes in the look of the station’s Promenade. ‘It became more bazaarlike, with banners and more neon. It had been too utilitarian, too perfect.’”

For 2x04 “Invasive Procedures”: I didn’t realize the woman guest star in this episode also played the scientist in “Little Green Men.” And Tim Russ was one of the Klingons in this episode!

Interesting notes here on how this episode reveals sides of the characters that hadn’t been seen before: Bashir showing genuine affection for Jadzia; Sisko handling a hostage situation and in an up-close fight; Jadzia young and vulnerable and afraid without the Dax symbiont in her; Quark going far beyond the harmless criminal schtick he normally has and Kira drawing a line with him.

It surprises me that 2x05 “Cardassians” is really Garak’s SECOND appearance. He appears in the second ep of season 1 and then disappears for a whole season?! He becomes such a regular part of the cast and his closeness with Bashir is so well established and convincing that I feel like I falsely remembered him being around more than he actually was (onscreen).

I feel a bit dumb but I didn’t realize that “laying pipe” had, like, a non-sexual meaning? Ira Behr: “How do we take Garak and lay pipe?” Me: Oh my.

Anyway, interesting note that this is the first episode to establish a link between the Cardassian characters, Garak and Dukat.

I like this note on Garak learning to see Cardassian politics through Bashir’s eyes:

“When offers of wine and women fail to win over Kot, Quark appeals to Odo for help. Although the constable enjoys seeing Quark squirm, he agrees to look into the situation.” - More suggestive Quodo lmao.

I love everything about this:

The episode synopsis in this book says “Odo had become even more suspicious a short time later when he spotted Pallra kissing Dukat.” I got confused because I was like, "I don’t remember THAT happening." Looks like it was in the script and probably filmed but was cut at the editing stage (I’m guessing):

Odo comes out of a turbolift... moves down the corridor... stops at a corner as he hears voices: PALLRA (O.S.) Goodnight. GUL DUKAT (O.S.) Trust me. You have nothing to worry about. Odo peeks around the corner to see Gul Dukat is standing at Pallra's door... kissing her... Odo moves back behind the wall, reacting. ANGLE - ON DUKAT AND PALLRA as they break their kiss, Dukat smiles and she goes inside... he walks toward Odo, turns the corner and as he passes where Odo used to be, there is now a picture on the wall of Dukat and it's crooked... he walks by it, then stops, looks curiously at the picture, straightens it and leaves.

(Interesting that this demonstrates Odo using his shapeshifting for the first time to discreetly observe people.)

Interesting notes on 2x09 “Second Sight” about why the episode was unexpectedly weak. Interesting because I also thought that episode was weak but I wasn’t sure why. The reasons listed in the book are that they changed the love plotline from Bashir to Sisko, and the terraformer character ended up changing quite a bit and eventually ended up more eccentric and egotistical rather than tortured. The first one I agree changes the story quite a bit because I feel like Sisko is a bit too sensible to get much attached to a nice woman he meets for like a few seconds at a time, but Bashir would probably be intrigued and easily drawn in. I think the episode is an important one for Sisko, though, because it indicates he’s started to heal from Jennifer’s death, but other than that, the emotional stakes just seemed off/not there.

Interesting notes on all the Trek actor connections there are in the 2x10 “Sanctuary” episode.

“But somehow, aside from some positive comments about the racquetball sequences, the episode [2x11 “Rivals”] seems to have struck out with both viewers and crew. ‘Our e-mail fans really liked the tight suit that Bashir wore in the matches.’ Robert Hewitt Wolfe grins. ‘They liked that a lot.’” - lmao

I kind of liked "Rivals," though? It's not a very memorable episode if I'm being honest, but I liked seeing a character who is as slimy as Quark and the Bashir/O'Brien one-sided rivalry was comedy gold, and it's an important episode for establishing their relationship?

I did not know that the swindler character in this episode was the same race as Guinan, and originally intended to be her son! Also, he was originally conceived as a recurring rival for Quark, but the competitive dynamic didn’t really gel between the two so that was dropped. Probably okay, though, since we eventually got Brunt instead.

Interesting how there originally was the idea for Rene Auberjonois to play both Odo and Mora, and for Armin Shimerman to play both Quark and Ishka (lol), but in both cases the time-consuming makeup procedure made that intractable.

Not much to say about 2x13 “Armageddon Game” except it’s another good Bashir and O’Brien episode and Rosalind Chao is a great actress.

#book liveblogging #ds9 companion liveblogging #star trek: deep space nine #st ds9

[laruemcbride9-blog]

Comparability Between APE And FLAC

I just currently wanted to convert some audio information sort a consumer intoflac format. ‘FLAC‘ - (Free Lossless Audio Codec) - it is an audio compression format likemp3, butmp3 files use a lossy" compression, which primarily lose sound information that individuals cannot hear, FLAC uses a lossless compression, which will not alter the grade of the compressed sound. Convert mp3, m4a (iTunes & iPod), WMA, WAV, AIFF, AAC, FLAC, Apple Lossless (ALAC) to name a couple of. On the finish of conversion, you can see a folder with the name of artist and album in the vacation spot folder. You can access output audios in Finder, export them to iTunes or open them in Tag Editor, straight from the converter. Also supported, MP3 to MP3 - to convert to a unique bitrate. Select your APE file(s). Convert APE to lossy audio codecs, like changing APE to MP3, to AAC, OGG, WMA, and so on. Suggestions. You may as well merge audio by clicking on the + merge button" and alter the audio bitrate under Settings. What's more, HD Video Converter Factory Pro additionally works as an audio compressor that enables you compress WAV file and different massive measurement audio codecs like ALAC, FLAC to MP3 and related compressed audio codecs. audio-convert makes use of a number of CLI instruments to do its job. It wants MPlayer to decode WMA recordsdata, musepack-tools to manipulate MPC audio recordsdata, and flac and others in order to convert files to and from Ogg, MP3, FLAC, ACC, WAV, APE, and WMA formats. If you wish to preserve it simple, use this elegant script. is one other on-line audio converter, which suggests though you don't have to obtain any software program to make use of it, you do must add and obtain your recordsdata to make it work. 5.Audio joiner utility allows you to join a number of ape audio files into one massive audio file. Convert video to audio format or convert amongst all types of audio codecs. Besides attaining the duty of transcoding among audio codecs, another nifty characteristic of this APE converter is the ability to simply accept a variety of digital videos as enter and convert into video formats on a Mac or PC's. The video formats consists of MOV, AVI, MP4, MKV, MTS, AVCHD, M4V, 3GP, MPEG, WMV, WebM, and so forth. Convert APE with CUE to FLAC easily. APE FLAC Converter permits you convert APE to FLAC Audio. 11CD, MP3 and WAV settings may be customized respectively. Bit price, high quality, pattern charge CRC test, and so on may be customized in CD, MP3 and WAV settings dialog. You might get a good high quality mp3s. If you wish to support the artist, there are several websites that let you buy FLAC files. Flacon extracts particular person tracks from one big audio file (fashionable for his explanation or her high quality CUE, APE and FLAC) containing the complete album of music and saves them as separate audio information. Every format is supplied with a profile package and a preset editor. You may create new presets, delete and edit the old ones, and modify the audio converter settings and parameters. Be fascinating to learn what members are using at the moment on windows machines to convertape to wav files. For the ultimate 12 years I have been listening to only 320mp3s and every time I come accross flac or CDs, I really don't hear sufficient of a difference to change the whole lot to flac. It has a bonus over MP3, although, in that it'll most likely obtain higher sound top quality with the same file dimension or smaller. FLAC is a lossless audio format. There are a restricted variety of media players that assist this, too. Click on OKAY a couple of times to get back to the principle display and then click on on the Play button at top to begin the encoding process. In my instance, I transformed a 6 min forty five sec 68 MB WAV file to a 12 MB 256 kbps MP3 file using this program. Should you go with the default settings, you will get a 4 MB MP3 file. The Best ape2flac online website hyperlink: download online ape to flac methodology subsequently free convert ape to flac people Please be aware which you'll select a singular output format, supported are for instance ogg or wav as correctly (nonetheless not aac). This technique uses Lame to encode the music into completely totally different codecs. A click on on the settings button opens the choices convert ape to flac on-line window with many various settings. Audio supplies full support for the Unicode character set. That method it might well take care of not solely Latin scripts, but as well as Japanese, Cyrillic, Arabic or Indian. For those who like music from all world wide, you may tag your info appropriately. XLD is an open provide utility Mac utility that will convert audio file codecs from one format to another. You may also set the APE to FLAC Converter to delete a supply file after conversion and preserve the the unique folder building, when doing batch conversion. Convert APE to FLAC with the quickest conversion pace whereas maintaining the unique ape to flac high quality. After the conversion of ape to flac has finished, you may discover the flac recordsdata in the output folder you specified. Moreover, this APE to FLAC converter is provided with some modifying perform like trim, merge or break up audio file, change audio channel, alter audio birate, compress audio to a smaller size, and many others.

Mp3tag is a strong and simple-to-use device to edit metadata of audio files. has a recording function that means that you can report from line-in (cassette, LP, and many others.) streaming audio, or some other source out there on your systemUse the audio recording feature to document MIDI ,audio file protected by DRM to a different audio format:mp3,wav,wma. After loading a number of audio files to , you simply need to decide on one of the output formats from beneath. When the file is ready to be downloaded, use the small obtain button to save it to your pc.5.Audio joiner utility allows you to be a part of a number of flac audio files into one large audio file. Cut, be part of, trim, mix, delete components, break up with AVS Audio Editor Use Timeline for max precision. Use specially designed filters to take away irritating feels like roaring, hissing, crackling, and so on. MP3 converter is a superb application for music loversEasily convert MP3 files in to different audio codecs. With so many media formats out there at the moment, chances are you need to convert your audio files from one format to another quite often.

[shaylayork996-blog]

Convert Ape To Flac Free

If you need to convert FLAC to MP3 in Mac OS X totally free, the best way to take action is utilizing a utility called All2MP3. Supported enter formats of audio files defined within the CUE sheets: APE, FLAC, WAV, MP3, SHN, www.audio-transcoder.com WV, TTA, MPC, OGG, WMA. Now click on the Convert All button to begin changing FLAC to MP3, AIFF or any format you need on your Mac system, the changing process might be finished within a couple of seconds and you may switch to the Converted tab to find the convertedflac recordsdata on your Mac. In 2014, a number of aftermarket mobile electronics companies launched multimedia options that embody help for FLAC. These include the NEX collection from Pioneer Electronics and the VX404 and NX404 from Clarion. For the final 12 years I have been listening to solely 320mp3s and every time I come accross flac or CDs, I really don't hear sufficient of a difference to alter all the things to flac. It has a bonus over MP3, though, in that it's going to in all probability obtain better sound prime quality with the same file dimension or smaller. FLAC is a lossless audio format. There are a restricted variety of media players that help this, too. Click OK a couple of occasions to get back to the principle display and then click on the Play button at top to begin the encoding course of. In my example, I transformed a 6 min 45 sec 68 MB WAV file to a 12 MB 256 kbps MP3 file using this program. If you happen to go along with the default settings, you may get a four MB MP3 file. To provoke the conversion and splitting of the large audio file, just drop the CUE Sheet, the file with ".cue" extension, to the principle window. Drag recordsdata or folders onto one of the format buttons. The Any Audio Converter, also an advanced APE CUE Splitter, is the versatile APE CUE Splitter software for you to break up an extended APE file into particular person songs. So you are able to slice packaged APE file to separate ones in keeping with CUE file, and lower them all the way down to different codecs, including MP3, WMA, APE and WAV. Info in CUE file is written to MP3 and WMA files's tag. You can change the monitor's name, artist, album, 12 months and style. Tags are supported for mp3, ogg, flac, wav. The only problem with this program was that I was not able to get it to transform a WAV file into an MP3 file. For whatever purpose, it just did not do something once I selected a WAV file. Possibly I configured it incorrectly, but if it's good to convert from WAV to MP3, take a look at the final program beneath, which worked. APE to FLAC Converter helps conversion with none non permanent information it brings you excessive changing velocity and saves the hard disk useful resource.

Flacon is an audio file encoder that extracts particular person tracks from one big audio file and separates them into different tracks. It could actually additionally convert them in the course of. If ID3v1 or ID3v2 tags (e.g. artist, title, album) are present in a flac or ape file, these are transferred to the mp3 file. The FlicFlac audio converter supports MP3, OGG, WAV, APE, and FLAC audio information. When you give it an MP3 file, it may convert it to OGG, WAV, APE, or FLAC. In the event you give it an OGG file, it may convert it to MP3, WAV, APE or FLAC. IF you give it a WAV file, it may well convert it to MP3, OGG, APE, and APE to FLAC converter FLAC. Need I am going on? I feel you get the concept.One of the easiest and most elegant ways to convert audio information is by utilizing the audio-convert script. It makes use of Zenity to display GUI messages and home windows, however does the remainder of its work from the command line. When conversion completes, you possibly can proper-click on transformed file and select "Play Destination" to play the FLAC file; or select "Browse Vacation spot Folder" to open Home windows Explorer to browse the outputted FLAC file. Every FLAC file I have - all from the unique supply discs - sound equal to and normally - significantly better than the original supply CD.Step 3: Watch for some time to finish changing APE to MP3. Then, download the output recordsdata onto your pc. Added assist of format APE (Monkey's Audio). Furthermore, this APE to FLAC converter is provided with some editing operate like trim, merge or break up audio file, change audio channel, modify audio birate, compress audio to a smaller dimension, and many others. A: The APE to FLAC Converter obtain for PC works on most current Home windows working systems. Unlike conventional strategies resembling mp3, ogg, or lqt that completely discard high quality to save lots of house, Monkey's Audio doesn't loose data throughout the encoding course of, and encoded audio recordsdata are typically reduced to about half of their authentic measurement.Wine , utilizing Winetricks or PlayOnLinux to install theNET Framework and Visible C++ 2008 runtime files in a wineprefix. Audio file converter tools are additionally helpful if your favorite music app on your telephone or tablet doesn't support the format that a brand new music you downloaded is in. An audio converter can convert that obscure format into a format that your app supports. For users who don't want to install any plugins, there are a lot of free online converters that do not have installation requirements and permit you to convert APE files easily online. I've tried many distinction on-line companies and personally, Zamzar has fairly nicely efficiency.Convert music information to the common MP3 format on your COMPUTER, Mac, mobile phone, tablet, or any MP3 player. Get MP3 sound of top quality, up to 320 KBps. The output MP3 songs shall be suitable with any system: iPhone, iPad, Zune, Samsung Galaxy, Nokia, HTC Desire, SanDisk Sansa, Walkman, Huawei, Xiaomi, Honor, and many others. Secondly, you don't need an internet connection to take heed to your music, and while the Offline modes of each Tidal and Spotify allow you to apply it to the subway, it still must be related to the 'net in some unspecified time in the future to get the information. What if your music player does not have apps or network functionality? For cheap music gamers just like the Sony A17 , a set of FLAC recordsdata take advantage of sense.Nonetheless, due to its restricted applicability and decrease fault tolerance, there's typically a need to deal with your APE files properly by changing them into another audio tracks. Hereby, we would prefer to concentrate on a dependable audio changing device - APE Converter for Mac & Windows , with which managing yourape music collections will change into an easy job. Flac has the most superior quality of audio there may be I suppose. Convert APE to lossy audio format like convert APE to MP3, MP2, WMA, AAC, AC3, AIFF, AU, RA, DTS, OGG and etc.

[kezya-ar]

The workflow: Unity

Unity is a very powerful yet strange software to me. It is all new and weird in a way... and definitely confusing! Andy gave us a quick walk through on how to use Unity and figure our way around it and it really does help. However, I quickly forget about several of the tricky processes and had to start slowly from the beginning again. 

https://youtu.be/6crhLHeyFLE  This is Andy’s tutorial! (Edit: It seems that it is private now :( )

To make the AR Experience (as in the science, magic and coding side of it), scripting and coding is required but thankfully enough, Karen created a script for us! So what we need is just to export the required file into the EMS (Appearition website) and avoid the scripting bit!) Here is the link to the resources: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1I2Er9pcSJK-nBLQh6dR-BZAHDMVo_GtN

Inside Unity

First we have a scene, this is where we’re going to see and preview the look of the experience. We can always create more and more scenes as we go! We can add mesh and other things in the scene but it won’t be a part of the experience that is going to be imported unless stated otherwise.

The mesh and other objects in the scene can be made into a prefab where you can easily drag and drop the object on the side menu (usually on the left) to the prefab bar. A prefab is something like a copy of the game that is converted into a reusable asset. It is sort of like the Master page in indesign where you create one page and you can keep on recreating the same page by appling that Master page into a blank page. It is highly recommended to change and alter the objects in the prefab.

Then comes the material, which is pretty much self-explanatory. It allows one to change the colours, type of texture and appearance (as in the skin) of the objects. We can also have image as our texture!

The camera basically gives us the preview of how the object in a scene looks at the designated spot, angle, height and so on. 

If by any chance I am planning to have a model imported into unity from another software, I can drag it and drop it into the Models folder. This gives me the ease to keep on going back to the original file of the model after I mess up or alter the model in a scene/prefab. This is why it is important to have it as a variant prefab (a kind of save as thingy).

There is also Unity asset store that offers numerous packages and bundles of models, textures, presets and many more. Although I am looking forward to explore the store, I am only interested in the free assets though! I don’t think I’ll spend money on them as I can keep on looking for other free-of-cost alternatives in the internet.

Exporting the Objects as an Experience

To export the files in Unity and have them as an experience, I have to ensure that the object is a prefab and I have to name it. Then I can head over to Assets (in the menu bar) --> Build Assetbundle while ensuring that I am on the right prefab and assetbundle! I also need to ensure that I avoid using symbols when naming the assetbundle to avoid errors and such.

[djivideopostproductionsoftwarenw]

Post Production Editing Podcasts

Unfortunately, the files that editors software like to use aren’t as convenient for producers to review, partly because of their file size and partly because they may require special software to be installed. Avid’s DNxHR and Apple’s ProRes are very common for editorial.

When your film is barreling toward its release date and you’ve got lots of interested parties wanting to see how their money has been spent, making sure your editorial department is happy and productive is the key to success. After all, a happy editor is a finished film, or so they say.

What is a content workflow?

A content workflow is a set of tasks that a team needs to complete for a given client or content type — a web page, a blog post, a white paper, an email, or any other kind of content that the group needs to deliver. Even if you haven't defined your workflows, your team has them.

Workflow in a Content Management System (CMS)

I have the best tools, an ironclad workflow and the will to keep chipping away until this sucker is done. I needed simplicity and a clean workflow to help push smartly towards the finish line.

What does a post production producer do?

Post production is a huge portion of the production process as it is when editing, title credit creation, audio mixing and color correction occur in a TV show, movie or commercial. The post producer is responsible for overseeing the completion of all of these elements.

Top 25 Online Video Software List

What are the three phases of post production?

Television. In television, the phases of post-production include: editing, video editing, sound editing, animation and visual effects insertions, viewing and the start of the airing process.

At some point in pre-production, there will be a read-through of the script which is usually attended by all cast members with speaking parts, the director, all heads of departments, financiers, producers, and publicists. In filmmaking and video production, pre-production formally begins once a project has been greenlit. At this stage, finalizing preparations for production go into effect. By the end of pre-production, the screenplay is usually finalized and satisfactory to all the financiers and other stakeholders.

On a smaller project, it may be quite feasible to send the media files to another editor over the internet. On a larger project with terabytes of footage, it’s usually easier to just mail a hard drive. For decades, the only way for the editor to receive feedback was for the director or producers to come directly into the edit suite, and that is still common on feature films and broadcast TV workflows. Many edit and color correction suites include couches, kitchens, and large TVs which allow the client or producer to view a work-in-progress comfortably. Instead, a distributed editorial workflow requires different editors to “check out” or “lock” a sequence or set of files.

That's why Scripted.com started out as Scripped, a business scriptwriting service. The original script may have been forgotten by the time post-production rolls around, but it will determine in large part the course of your production and post-production schedules. Taking the time to get professional input at this stage of pre-production is an extremely worthwhile investment. The most important part of the video production workflow is actually what happens before the camera starts rolling. Pre-production, or the planning and logistics phase of a video project, is where most of the magic comes together before it gets recorded.

JavaScript Tools for Collaborative Editing

Post Production Scripts are a necessary part of the post production process. A Post Production Script is your film on paper, shot by shot, word by word. One of the best ways you can do that is by not giving yourself a razor-thin window of completion, especially if you aren't very familiar with video production workflows. Underestimating production time is just as bad as overestimating resource capacity.

What are post production activities?

post-production. This includes tasks such as the editing of raw footage to cut scenes, insert transition effects, working with voice and sound actors, and dubbing, to name a few of the many pre-production tasks. Post-production is the third and final step in film creation.

Media Composer production workflows can take advantage of the following products:

The 5.1 format is commonly used at film festivals, in broadcast television, and for many online streaming services. Most post audio mixing facilities are set up to work in 5.1.

It is often better to make slight alterations to picture when lining up a music track with visual cues, rather than try to make a forced music edit work during post audio. So, many of these potential problems will be solved before audio post. In any case, keep the lines of communication open so your audio editor can collaborate if need be. A poor dialog edit makes the post production process negatively visible to the viewer, through awkward jumps in the dialog’s tone or cadence.

This process makes it difficult for the editor to manage and process all the feedback, especially if there is a large number of collaborators on the team. The greatest advantage of this setup is that it allows the reviewer to interact directly with the editor as he or she works, giving comments and suggestions that the editor may be able to implement on the spot. That setup can also be a downside, however, as many editors find it frustrating to work with a reviewer literally standing over their shoulder, especially if the reviewer does not have a deep understanding of the editing process.

Lower-end workflows (especially on projects that will only be viewed on computer screens) tend to go with simpler, smaller color spaces in order to save time and money. So, recording in log still adds some complexity to the workflow. You have to find the right LUT for your footage, and you also need to manage your LUTs throughout the whole post-production process. Unless you happen to be shooting with an edit-friendly codec, you may have to transcode your files to another codec for a smooth editing process, and that can take time. For most people, transcoding the footage isn’t a huge issue because it can be done overnight or on a spare computer.

Collaborate on Word documents with real-time co-authoring

This workflow will vary according to whether you’re creating a video or audio project. In this phase, you’ll edit and polish raw video or audio content. This phase varies according to the type of project you’re working on and the details in your brief.

[aion-rsa]

Wheel of Time Amazon TV Series: Everything You Need to Know

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The Wheel of Time, the sprawling fantasy novel mythology by Robert Jordan, is heading to Amazon Prime as a series.

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One of the most popular fantasy franchises of the literary world, The Wheel of Time, is getting a live-action television adaptation. Originally authored by Robert Jordan, the 80 million-selling 1990-2013 book series depicts a sprawling mythology, amalgamating feudal and magical tropes with elements of Eastern mysticism. Indeed, the books bear philosophical influences from European and Asian culture, notably Buddhism and Hinduism, centered on the idea of time being cyclical in nature.

Amazon gave a series order to The Wheel of Time back in October 2018, setting the project as an hour-long series that will stream on Amazon Prime Video, as reported by Deadline and confirmed by an APV retweet. The move was the culmination of what had been a year-and-a-half process, going back to April 2017, when it was first reported that Sony Pictures Television was moving forward with the TV project.

The Wheel of Time Cast

Amazon recently released this footage featuring The Wheel of Time cast in a table read of the script, which also reveals the presence of Naana Agyei-Ampadu (GameFace), whose role is unknown at this time.

On September 10th, the cast and crew of #WOTonPrime got together to read the first episode of The Wheel Of Time. Production is now on its way and we are VERY excited to see this show come to life! #TwitterOfTime, this is for you. pic.twitter.com/FmWA4zeh2r

— The Wheel of Time on Prime (@WoTonPrime) October 2, 2019

As for the rest of the cast...

Daniel Henney was recently added to The Wheel of Time cast. He will play al’Lan Mandragoran, a.k.a. Lan, the stoic warder (essentially a protector,) of Moraine (Rosamund Pike). However, Lan happens to be the lone survivor of a royal bloodline, and is the uncrowned king of Malkier, a province that was overrun by forces of the Shadow. Henney's announced casting as Lan was accompanied by the following quote: "I swear to stand against the Shadow so long as iron is hard and stone abides - to defend the Malkieri while one drop of blood remains. I swear to avenge what cannot be defended."

Henney, an American actor, can be currently seen on CBS’s Criminal Minds, which he joined in 2015’s Season 10, and is also known as the voice of Tadashi in 2014 feature Big Hero 6 and its current animated series. Besides TV runs on Revolution, Hawaii Five-0 and Three Rivers he appeared in the 2009 Fox-Marvel solo spinoff movie, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, as Agent Zero, the character known in the comic book mythology as assassin Maverick.

The series recently revealed a quintet of main cast members. The show’s official social media also provides pertinent quoted descriptions for each of the characters, culminating with the message, "It was about them all." The cast members consist of the following (pictured directly below from the left):

Madeleine Madden (Picnic at Hanging Rock, Tidelands) as Egwene Al’Vere. – “It was about a woman who would not bend her back while she was beaten, and who shown with a light for all who watched.”

Josha Stradowski (Instinct, Spangas) as Rand Al’Thor. – “It was not about me. It’s never been about me.”

Marcus Rutherford (Obey, Shakespeare & Hathaway) as Perrin Aybara. – “It was about a man whose family was taken from him, but who stood tall in his sorrow and protected those he could.”

Zoë Robins (Power Rangers Ninja Steel, The Shannara Chronicles) as Nynaeve. – “It was about a woman who refused to believe that she could not help, could not heal those who had been harmed.”

Barney Harris (Clique, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk) as Mat Cauthon. – “It was about a hero who insisted with every breath that he was anything but a hero.”

They will, of course, join the show’s June-announced headliner...

Rosamund Pike officially landed the lead role in The Wheel of Time as Moiraine. A member of an all-female secret society of magic users, called the Blue Ajah of the Aes Sedai, Moiraine embarks on a dangerous journey with five young people she comes to mentor, one of whom she believes could be the reincarnation of someone prophesized to either save or destroy humanity.

Pike, an Oscar-nominated actress for her role as Amy Dunne in 2014’s Gone Girl, is also known from 2005’s Pride & Prejudice and as a Bond villainess in 2002’s Die Another Day. She recently fielded a small screen starring run on SundanceTV comedy State of the Union, and appeared in films such as A Private War, 7 Days in Entebbe, Beirut, Hostiles and The Man with the Iron Heart. She’ll next be seen in the August-scheduled crime drama, The Informer, and, amongst other projects, will co-star as Marie Curie in the fact-based 2020 romance drama, Radioactive.

The Wheel of Time Director

Uta Briesewitz is set to direct the first two episodes of The Wheel of Time, reports Deadline. This should be great news for genre fans, seeing as the German director and cinematographer, Brieswitz, brings small screen experience from directorial runs on shows like Netflix’s Stranger Things (in the recent Season 3), HBO’s The Deuce and Westworld, AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead, Starz’s Black Sails and Netflix-Marvel shows such as (the just cancelled) Jessica Jones, Iron Fist and The Defenders, as well as streaming giant offerings Orange is the New Black and the returning Altered Carbon. Plus, she’s fielded runs on Fox’s Lethal Weapon and The CW shows The 100 and Jane the Virgin. Indeed, with a peak television CV like that, The Wheel of Time should be in good hands for its launch.

The Wheel of Time series buck stops with Rafe Judkins, who assumes duties as writer, executive producer and showrunner. Judkins is no stranger to genre television, serving as a producer and writer on ABC’s Marvel series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Netflix horror series, Hemlock Grove. He was also a story editor for NBC’s beloved geek-wish-fulfillment spy series, Chuck. Judkins will be joined by executive producers Rick Selvage and Larry Mondragon of Red Eagle and producers Ted Field and Mike Weber of Radar Pictures. Additionally, the property’s authorial legacy is in place with Jordan’s widow, Harriet McDougal, onboard as a consulting producer.

As Sharon Tal Yguado, Head of Event Series, Amazon Originals states:

“Developing and producing Robert Jordan’s beloved fourteen-books-series for TV is a big undertaking, and we don’t take it lightly. We believe that Rafe’s personal connection to the material and soulful writing will resonate with the book’s passionate fans.”

The Wheel of Time Release Date

The Wheel of Time has yet to announce a release date. However, a production timeframe was recently spotted in trade magazine Production Weekly, via fan site The Daily Trolloc. The excerpt claims that the series is set to begin rolling cameras in Prague, Czech Republic sometime in September 2019.

The Wheel of Time Details

The Wheel of Time TV series is moving along swiftly, with production having started on September 16, a bittersweet date, since it also marked the 12-year anniversary of author Robert Jordan's passing.

#ThankYouRobertJordan pic.twitter.com/B5MF5LO5aU

— The Wheel of Time on Prime (@WoTonPrime) September 16, 2019

Of course, The Wheel of Time is a large-scale endeavor, since the novels of Robert Jordan (nom de plume of James O. Rigney Jr.), three of which were completed by Brandon Sanderson after Jordan passed away in 2007, build an intricate mythology governed by the titular seven-spoke Wheel of Time powered by an incorporeal celestial source of power. Like the Force in Star Wars, it is a binary power utilized by gifted people, here called “channelers.” The story is spread across epochs in the continuing battle against Shai’tan (or, the Dark One,) who, upon breaking free of imprisonment from the Creator, exerts influence on the malleable to lead the source toward evil.

Amazon's series order for The Wheel of Time arrives after several years of starts and stops, going back to 2000 when author Jordan was still alive. A pilot called Winter Dragon, starring Billy Zane and Max Ryan, aired on FXX on February 8, 2015 (at 1:30 a.m.) to no fanfare or fruition (it was essentially a move by Red Eagle to prevent the rights from expiring). However, McDougal herself made media ripples in April 2016 when she announced “exciting news” about the property; something that required the clearing of some legal issues before moving forward. After the resolution of said legal issues, McDougal speculated that The Wheel of Time would become a “cutting edge TV series.”

We’ll keep you updated on Amazon’s The Wheel of Time as things develop.

Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2019 Special Edition Magazine right here!

Joseph Baxter is a contributor for Den of Geek and Syfy Wire. You can find his work here. Follow him on Twitter @josbaxter.

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Joseph Baxter

Oct 18, 2019

Wheel of Time

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[thefairystales]

Mashima-sensei’s involvement in Fairy Tail Dragon Cry

4Gamer posted an interview with the director of Fairy Tail Dragon Cry, Minamikawa Tatsuma. I’ve loosely translated a small part regarding Mashima-sensei’s involvement in the movie. Please correct me if you spot any errors.

Article ©4Gamer Translated by thefairystales | DO NOT EDIT OR REMOVE SOURCE Please credit by linking back when using. (usage rules)

I’ve heard that the story for this movie is based on a 200-page storyboard drawn by Mashima-sensei; what is this about?

He was supposed to write the script at first, but when I looked at what he had submitted, it was a manga storyboard (laugh). It was approximately 200 pages, which I guess is about 1 volume? Even the character’s lines and such were handwritten, just like the storyboard of a manga.

That’s amazing (laugh). In anime production, the story is usually written as a script, and cuts of the scenes are used as a base to create the storyboard, which is considerably different from the storyboard of a manga. Were the staff at the scene perplexed?

We normally come up with the script, and calculate the number of cuts required when drawing the storyboard based on that. For example, how many pages of script would be needed for a length of 20 minute. If we don’t calculate that while doing the storyboard, we would greatly exceed in length when the storyboard is complete.

We are unable to calculate the time required from one frame to another in the case of a manga storyboard. In manga, battle scenes might finish in 2 panels even though there are actually 5 or 6 attacks happening. In anime, there will be cuts to show what happens in between, adding to the time. It was a little difficult to calculate the time.

I see; there’s a difference between words and drawings.

However, there are also merits [to drawings]. Since it was not words that we received, but instead drawings, Mashima-sensei’s intentions were clearly conveyed. Even if we had to make changes such as adjusting the flow of the story, we would not be altering what sensei had intended if we didn’t remove a certain part. It made our judgement easy.

To what extent did Mashima-sensei supervise [the production of the movie]?

We began meeting after the screenplay was created based on sensei’s storyboard, and he checked everything from the settings to the storyboard. He even helped with the editing, such as suggesting minor cuts to certain parts.

He looked over it with considerable detail. Even though he must have been busy since he also has his weekly serialization...

Once a week, we would set a day for our meeting, and he would supervise the production without fail. Even if he had a storyboard to work on, he would have things done in 2 weeks.

According to what I’ve heard, Mashima-sensei likes games, and there have been times where he completed his manuscripts at a quickly so that he can make time to play them. I’ve heard that he’s someone who works quickly.

Yes, I’ve heard about that (laugh). His passion towards his work is amazing too. When we say that we are making a movie, it means that another person gets their hand into our work. “If I’m working on something, I want to do it properly.” His enthusiasm was clearly conveyed with that.

He made drawings at our meetings, and also made big changes to the storyboard when the completed parts where shown to him. There are also scenes that have been completely redone (laugh). Naturally, the content of those parts became of extremely high quality because of that.

In short, Mashima-sensei came up with the story for Dragon Cry. However, since he drew a manga-style storyboard instead of writing a script, the script had to be written by someone else based on what he had drawn. This is why the script is credited to someone else. Mashima-sensei supervised the production of the movie, and based on this interview, it should be safe to say that any changes made along the way were approved by him as well.

#fairy tail #fairy tail dragon cry #translation #interview #fairy tail movie #mashima hiro

[bewitching-elizabeth-olsen]

Press: Elizabeth Olsen does double duty in 'Wind River' and 'Ingrid Goes West'

  LA TIMES – Room 64 at the Chateau Marmont is possibly the most Instagrammable spot in L.A. Its wrap-around terrace is suspended just below the homes built into the Hollywood Hills, tiny glass boxes that form their own constellation when night falls. Rumor has it Howard Hughes once lived in this two-bedroom penthouse, spying on girls at the pool below, decades before Lindsay Lohan and Lady Gaga crashed here for a slumber party.

  Today, however, it is home to the actress Elizabeth Olsen, who has arrived at the hotel with a team of people to help beautify her. High-heeled sandals are lined up on a desk. There are multiple pieces of luggage containing makeup kits. She is wearing borrowed diamonds on her fingers, paging through the room service menu, from which she can order whatever she would like.

  It’s a scene, no doubt, that would incite lust among her half-a-million Instagram followers. But she doesn’t feel like she knows how to do the setting justice. Just this morning, she attempted to photograph her breakfast, but then ended up deleting the image in haste.

  “I’m bad at it,” she says. “I’m bad at the lighting. I’m bad at the framing. I’m bad at the editing. When I look at my food, it looks pretty. When I look at it on a phone, it looks not pretty.”

  This is not a problem that her character in “Ingrid Goes West” would have. In the dark comedy — one of two films the 28-year-old is starring in this August — Olsen plays Taylor Sloane, a social media influencer who has established a reputation as the quintessential California cool girl. She tools around in a vintage Mercedes, is perennially reading Joan Didion’s “The White Album” and spends her weekends at a Joshua Tree abode. When she photographs her breakfast — avocado toast, obvi — it always looks pretty.

  Matt Spicer, who directed the film, felt certain that Olsen could embody this kind of aspirational figure. Sure, he was a fan of her acting, but he’d also noticed how often she popped up on best-dressed lists. She also had proximity to the style world via her sisters, the twins Mary-Kate and Ashley, who run two of their own fashion lines.

  “She has a natural charm and likability to her, which isn’t something you can really teach,” he says. “She’s one of those girls that other girls look up to. Since we did the movie, I think I’ve gained 1,000 Instagram followers that are just Lizzie fan accounts.”

  And for the most part, it appears that those fans gravitate to Olsen due to who she is off-screen. Even though she’s been part of the hugely popular Marvel universe for two years — playing the reality-altering Scarlet Witch in “The Avengers” and “Captain America” films — most headlines about her still tend to relate to her style choices. A quick Google search of her name turns up five Daily Mail articles from July alone, nearly all centered on her clothing.

  But Olsen has been steadily building up a respectable film resume since emerging as an “it girl” at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011, where her performance in “Martha Marcy May Marlene” signaled the arrival of a formidable new young Hollywood talent. A couple years later, she completed her acting studies at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and began taking roles in movies from bigger filmmakers, including Spike Lee (“Old Boy”) and Gareth Edwards (“Godzilla”).

  Then Marvel came calling — a huge coup for Olsen, who grew up watching action-heavy flicks from the Indiana Jones and James Bond series with her father in Toluca Lake. But participating in the superhero franchise has also meant turning down a number of projects that could have shown off more of her acting ability — including a role in Yorgos Lanthimos’ critically acclaimed “The Lobster.”

  “There have been things more in line with the career arc I’d like to create that I had to turn down due to scheduling conflicts,” she explains. “You want to create a personal canon.”

  That’s what she’s hoping to bolster this month with “Ingrid Goes West” (Aug. 11) and “Wind River,” which debuts Aug. 4. The two movies, to put it mildly, are incredibly different. “Wind River,” which earned filmmaker Taylor Sheridan the top directing prize in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section in May, is a dark murder mystery. Olsen stars opposite her “Avengers” co-star Jeremy Renner as a rookie FBI agent sent to Wyoming to investigate the death of a local woman on a remote Native American reservation.

  The role would require the actress to train with a veteran law enforcement officer and learn how to shoot a gun — opportunities she relished. She was more worried about flying to Park City, Utah, for production, because she hates the cold and high altitude.

  “So I bold-faced lied to her and said, ‘We’re not shooting high and it’s not cold there,’” Sheridan recalls with a laugh. “I knew it would be, which was one of the things I loved about it — you can see it on her face in the movie that she really doesn’t like the cold. But she overcame it.”

  The director, who nabbed an Oscar nomination for writing “Hell or High Water” and also scripted “Wind River,” cast Olsen long before Renner. He says he wanted her from the “very, very, very beginning” because he responded to an “essence of confidence” she exuded — a certain kind of toughness. “There’s a blue collar element to her, which I mean as a compliment,” he explains. “That’s how grounded she is, and maybe it’s because she grew up with [Hollywood], she’s able to see it for what it is.”

  Renner, who plays a local U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agent who takes Olsen’s character under his wing, admits he put off reading Sheridan’s script for months. (Chris Pine was originally cast in the role.) Eventually, the actor decided to sign onto the film because he wanted “to work with Lizzie in a different way — in a real way.”

  “Here, I got to observe somebody working in a very different capacity — with more emotional intelligence, not just being in a costume and the whole thing,” the actor says. “She had to be pretty bad-ass with a handgun, I’ll tell you what — and that’s coming from a guy who knows how to use a lot of weapons.”

  “Ingrid Goes West,” of course, didn’t require quite as much prep — though Olsen did start a secret Instagram account, following women like lifestyle guru Jenni Kayne, fashion blogger Aimee Song and Who What Wear founder Hillary Kerr for inspiration. Spicer encouraged her to start posting her own photographs, which she did: one of a crusty baguette with dipping oil, another of some Diptyque candles. (“Those first ones were a little bumpy,” the director says with a laugh. “Like, food that doesn’t quite look as appetizing as it should, or sunsets. Very obvious starter photos.”)

  Then, this winter, Olsen decided to bite the bullet and start her own public page.

  “I decided to join because I realized I was only taking something away from myself,” she explains. “It’s so funny that people like to pretend that they’re maybe or maybe not getting paid to post something. Financially, it’s a brilliant opportunity. Like, I’d really love to be a brand ambassador. I’d love to do a campaign. I think sometimes working with brands or different cosmetic companies — that can help people recognize your face and then they go see your movies. I was only hurting my opportunities by not participating.”

  While some young Oscar winners like Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Stone have held out on joining the platform, it has increasingly become commonplace for even serious actor types — Anne Hathaway, Brie Larson, Shailene Woodley — to open up on social media. Before, Olsen says, she was “being old-school about it” — something she learned from her sisters, who she acknowledges are “notoriously private people.” But even they supported her launching an Instagram account. And besides, she’s not good at being “super mysterious.” She’s too chatty for that. Plus, there are plenty of accounts she wants to keep stalking.

  “There are so many times I’ve seen a picture and thought, ‘Oh, God, how do they make those flower arrangements look so great all the time?’” says Olsen, who recently bought her first home in L.A. and is decorating it with an aesthetic she describes as Diane Keaton’s Hamptons beach house in “Something’s Gotta Give.” “Or: ‘How expensive are those chairs I’m looking at on Pinterest? Did they find them at some place I’ve never heard of? How do you have that kind of eye?’”

  The rest of the photoshoot is posted in the gallery.

    Gallery Link:

Studio Photoshoots > 2017 > Session 017

  Press: Elizabeth Olsen does double duty in ‘Wind River’ and ‘Ingrid Goes West’ was originally published on Elizabeth Olsen Source • Your source for everything Elizabeth Olsen

#Elizabeth Olsen #Lizzy Olsen #Avengers #Scarlet Witch #Wanda Maximoff #Marvel

[xseedgames]

Question Extravaganza Blog #2

Hi there! Remember, back in December, when we had an “End-of-the-year Question Extravaganza Blog”? And how there was going to be a second part? Well, FINALLY, here it is! Round two of our answers to the questions that you sent to us via Twitter, so long ago.

Who’s playing this time:

Tom – Localization Producer

Brittany – Localization Producer

Junpei – Assistant Product Manager/XSEED’s Garbage Disposal

Ryan – Localization Lead

Nick – Localization Editor

Alyssa – Product Associate

Liz – QA Tester

Danielle – QA Tester

 WARNING: Spoiler alert, just in case! And maybe some language.

 Question: which character from Senran Kagura New Wave would you most like to see become playable in a future game

Liz:

There are so many! Kasumi, Kumi, Fuga, and Bashou     Kasumi - shy girl that can code her way into your heart? aw yuss.     Kumi - ngl I like foxes. I'm also hella curious what her animations would look like...     Fuga - dude it's fireworks coming from a shamisen who doesn't wanna SEE THAT. AND THOSE PLATFORMS. DAMN.     Bashou - paintbrushes: creation, destruction, or the beauty that comes from their combination? tune in next time on quiet girls that can artfully kill you

Brittany:

Fuga. I've loved her design ever since I first saw it and I've actually begged Takaki-san in person to put her in one of the core games.

Alyssa:

Picking just one is hard, so these are the ones are the top of my list:

Meimei – She fights by throwing bombs shaped like steam buns. Just. Yes.

Ukyou – For some reason, I really like the idea of a machine gun shaped like a bass guitar. She’s also a cutie, I like her design.

Seimei – I like the fact that she rocks pajamas. I wish I could wear pajamas all the time…

Question: What is your most favorite game that you have localized And why?

Brittany:

Trails of Cold Steel II. I cried so much while working on it, haha. It was the game that made me feel like I was really growing up as a writer, and I was so proud of the effort I put into that during every step of the process. Everyone knows I love the series, but for now, that game has a particularly strong place in my heart because I feel like I grew as a person together with those in Class VII (is this too cheesy? lol).

Junpei:

Definitely the EDF series. I’ve been a big fan of the series since the first EDF came out in Japan, but also I learned a lot from the producer and the dev team. It was a very exciting to work on, and luckily, EDF2: Invaders from Planet Space was selected as a D.I.C.E  Award nominee.

Also, Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity was a favorite, too. The game is very fun and pretty. I didn’t really know about the Touhou series at first, but this was a good title for Touhou beginners like me to learn what Touhou is. The dev team is very passionate and professional. I was always impressed by them while working on this.

Ryan:

I have a few personal favorites: Estival Versus because I love the character banter, Deep Crimson for the same reason, and Suikoden V because it was my first real localization project and I still have a soft spot for it.

Alyssa:

I have a soft spot for Ys: Memories of Celceta. It was published before I started working here, but was the first XSEED game that I played.

Even though we didn’t really localize it (just published it physically), I’m a big fan of Shantae: Half-Genie Hero. Working with WayForward was an absolute treat and I’m so glad that we have a chance to do something with them.

Tom:

I think anyone who knows me knows my answer to this, but in case you don't: RETURN TO POPOLOCROIS, BABY!! ;) The very first game script I ever translated was part of the script to PopoloCrois Story II on the PS1, which I translated in play-script format and uploaded to GameFAQs as a translation guide. After that, the very next thing I translated was all 51 episodes of the two existing PopoloCrois anime. I am a PopoloCrois super-fan, and when the opportunity came along to work on a PopoloCrois game, to say I was ecstatic would be an understatement. Getting to officially write English dialogue for Prince Pietro Pakapuka, Narcia the forest witch, the White Knight, and the GamiGami Devil was an absolutely amazing experience, and getting to sit in on voiceover sessions and help shape the way they sounded in English was the icing on the cake.

Corpse Party is a close second, though, because I was able to get much more graphic than I'm used to, and it was a bizarre amount of fun describing some of the most horrible acts of mutilation and torture imaginable. It was weird working on Corpse Party and Fishing Resort at the same time, as I had to keep stopping myself from inserting extremely graphic language into the Fishing Resort script.

And Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed gets an honorable mention, as the three weeks spent in voice-recording for that game may be the most fun I've had in my seven years at XSEED.

Question: Where do you face the most unexpected challenges during the localization process?

Nick:

The thing about unexpected challenges is that they're...well, unexpected. The things we run into the most frequently are things we know to be watchful for based on past experience (which is why we usually catch the major stuff). A good example of an "unexpected challenge" would be realizing partway in that we don't actually have all the text files for the game, even though the developer said they gave us everything. Working on games that are still in production also has the tendency to turn up a lot of unexpected issues, particularly when the developers change things and neglect to mention that they were changed. If you learn that a localization was being worked on while a game was still in development, know that it was probably a huge headache for the translators and editors compared to working on something that has been finished and more or less finalized.

Sometimes it's because there's an honest mix-up and they thought they'd given us everything. Other times there's a breakdown in communication along the way, as can occur when information has to pass through too many hands. So...ultimately, miscommunication is where we stand to face the most unexpected challenges. It varies from project to project, and we know to be mindful of it, but we can never fully predict when this sort of issue will pop up.

Question: Where do you try to draw the line between remaining loyal to the original and changing to fit the region you are localizing for?

Nick:

Every editor will give you a different answer for this, so I can only speak personally, but here's where I stand on this issue. When I localize a game, I absolutely want the intent of the original to come through. That's what people are coming to the work for - what they want to experience. However, sometimes, truly conveying the spirit of the original work necessitates departing from the exact language of the original.

If one facet of my job is about accurately conveying information and character relationships, another facet is to ensure people who buy our games are entertained and engaged. That happens best with a script that feels fairly natural in its English phrasing. A quick example is how, if you listen to people converse, most people make frequent use of contractions. They’re a natural linguistic shorthand for English, so it feels natural to make broad use of them in character dialogue. But I often see dialogue written without them (like, where it doesn’t strike me as an intentional editorial choice). Without contractions, at the most basic level, you'll get dialogue that sounds wooden and has less flow to it (Tom and I often compare it to the speaking style of Data, from Star Trek: TNG), but in some cases, using or not using contractions can subtly alter the way we perceive a line, especially if there's no voice-over to clue us in. "I cannot believe he said that about me" carries a bit more of a testy tone than "I can't believe he said that about me."

There are also cultural differences that, when translated over on a 1:1 basis, won't elicit the same response from an international audience, so some tweaking is necessary to make sure Western players of a game experience enjoyment similar to what Japanese players would've felt. This is admittedly a touchy issue, since a lot of this involves getting a good feel for the characters' personalities, and so is inevitably colored by an editor's own interpretations of them. In a blog I wrote before the first Trails of Cold Steel was released, I laid out some cases where I basically felt that the characterizations provided in some places by the original script were lacking, so Kris and I embarked on a mission to strengthen characterization not through any sweeping gestures, but just by bringing certain traits more clearly to the fore in scenes specific characters were in. It's something you might notice if you had the Japanese and English scripts side by side, but it never stood out to most players, and from anecdotal accounts I've read many places online, I think this initiative of ours was very successful. Certainly, I think it brought a lot to Rean's character in particular.

Ultimately, I want a localization to keep all the information the original script gave, but sometimes I re-frame how that information is conveyed because I value entertaining/engaging writing and want our games to feel, as much as possible, like the English scripts could just as well have been the original scripts.

“So, where do I draw the line? As someone who always wants to push for better writing, I generally won't make an edit - even if it would sound great - that would result in dropping factual information conveyed by the original. Not necessarily on a line-by-line basis, but definitely on a scene-by-scene basis. Ultimately, I want a localization to keep all the information the original script gave, but sometimes I re-frame how that information is conveyed because I value entertaining/engaging writing and want our games to feel, as much as possible, like the English scripts could just as well have been the original scripts.”

Brittany:

This question is too broad and no one should have one answer for it. It depends on the game itself, the context, the importance of the topic in question in the scope of the story, the emotional impact it's supposed to make. The most generic answer I can give is that we should always remain loyal to the spirit/intent of the original game, and if anything comes under question, we should consult the dev team and get their perspective on it.

I guess an example that's happened a few times throughout Trails is one where Japanese honorifics are dropped as people become closer. A big deal is made out of it, but that sort of thing doesn't exist in English. At the same time, there's no reason to force it in the English version because the name-dropping isn't necessarily the focus--it's the result of characters becoming closer. The intent is the bond, and as long as you write the scene so that English players understand these characters have become closer thanks to what's going on, then I believe we're still loyal to the Japanese while still properly localizing the scene.

 Question: outside of trails in the sky sc what was the hardest game to work on you've released?

Brittany:

It's a toss-up between Unchained Blades and Rune Factory 4. RF4 was a joy to work on because I'm a big fan of the series, but it also contains so many complex algorithms that even the Japanese version of the game occasionally had random bugs that just couldn't be reproduced. Those were everywhere during QA, and then we also had had all that text that needed to be checked for context...

Unchained Blades is far shorter with less text, but it was plagued with bugs during QA to the point where I once ran to the bathroom to cry from losing my save data for the umpteenth time. We had no debug mode for that one, either, so anything I had to test, it had to be done by playing through like a normal player. Hopefully the effort was worth it. I don't think I've ever heard of players experiencing the issues on that game that I had!

Ryan:

Probably Fate/EXTELLA, which had a lengthy, lore-heavy script with a long history behind it, plus a writing style that was both abstractly poetic and strictly technical.

Danielle:

I would say the Story of Seasons series, mostly because of the sheer volume of text and variables to test.

 Question: which sort of cultural references do you try to keep rather than rewriting for localization?

Tom:

Generally, all of them. It's always better to keep a reference, and just maybe insert a brief explanation, than to get rid of it. People who play our games know that they're playing Japanese games, so I figure, why try to disguise the Japaneseness of them? Better to celebrate it.

Ryan:

Depends on the medium and context. Fate, in general, is known in part for drawing lore from all over the world, so we did our best to keep its references to world history and literature intact. Akiba's Trip was chock full of Japanese-language anime references, some of which had only unofficial translations, so we did our best to cobble together appropriate translations from Japanese and English fan sites. SENRAN KAGURA drops references to well-known anime now and again, well-known enough that we can keep them intact, with an English take on their wordplay (such as when Katsuragi's play on "a great era of sexual harassment," referring to the "great era of piracy" from One Piece, became "a great invasion of privacy.") Occasionally, we'll run across Japanese proverbs that don't have direct translations, so we'll do our best to find English proverbs or wordplay that match the general sentiment of the original.

 Question: What was the situation in a game that gave you trouble? Joke? A conversation? Interactions? Items? Names? Tell us the worse!

Tom:

Shiawase no Sachiko, in Corpse Party. To this day, I'm still not 100% satisfied with my translation there.

See, in the Japanese, there's supposed to be a distinction between 幸せのサチコ ("Shiawase no Sachiko"), which roughly translates to "Happy Sachiko," and 死合わせのサチコ (a different way of writing "Shiawase no Sachiko"), which roughly translates to "Sachiko Aligned with Death."

The English I came up with for this is "Sachiko Ever After" vs. "Sachiko in the Everafter." And even that vaguely acceptable solution took far, FAR too long to come up with.

Sometimes, Japanese linguistic references are just really tough to work with!

Ryan:

The first example that comes to mind is a certain "My Room" conversation from Fate/EXTELLA, where Nero and the Master have a back-and-forth conversation about different kinds of bathing. The original Japanese script had an entire conversation tree about misreadings of kanji, which had no direct translation. This is one of those rare times where we were tempted to, as we sometimes call it, "Go full Samurai Pizza Cats," after the old anime dub where the American dub team never received the original script and had to make up a whole new one, but we stuck with it, and eventually came up with some reasonably close wordplay in English.

 Question: Do you have friends in other localization teams/companies? What could you learn from them? Do you reach out to them?

Brittany:

I'd love to hang out with some of the localization people I've interacted with via Twitter, because I'm actually pretty ignorant of what goes on in other companies. I'm pretty much XSEED only, but I'd love to learn the process in other places or just bond with others who do the same work that I do.

Tom:

Absolutely! Other companies are "competition" to an extent, but they're also colleagues, and we've met with people from numerous other nearby companies for lunch, karaoke, etc. many times since I've been working here at XSEED. I don't know that we really learn much from them, nor they from us, but we always "talk shop" when we meet up, discussing localization challenges we've faced, fun stuff we've done recently, etc. It's just good to sometimes talk with other people who fully understand what we do.

Ryan:

We're good friends with the Aksys team down the street, a lot of our staff have Atlus experience, and most of the original senior staff came from Square-Enix. For Fate/EXTELLA, the Aksys guys were kind enough to share their notes and script from Fate/EXTRA as references. One of the best bits of advice I can give people looking for work in the industry is "Make friends wherever you go," and that's as true once you're in as it is when you're getting started.

#xseed games #xseed blog #Q & A #long post

[skadventuretime]

I am shopping in your bookstore and you didn’t notice my mother was standing directly behind me when you really blatantly hit on me. - Soma

Time to bust out of that post-resbang slump. Please accept this little bit of ridiculousness as I adjust back to writing past tense and Black Star’s shenanigans.

On FFN. Edit: On AO3 too, because I was too lazy to do it last night. 

It started out as a dare.

More like a challenge, really, one to see who could ask out their respective crushes first, and Maka refused to lose to her muscle-headed nincompoop of a neighbor who still insisted on being called by his childhood alter ego’s name.

Black Star. More like Black Death the way his nonsense seemed to kill all logic and reason with the speed and ferocity of deadly bacteria.

Gritting her teeth, Maka peered around the edge of the bookshelf she had strategically chosen for surveillance purposes - it was far enough away from the checkout that the grumpy object of this godforsaken mission would have a hard time seeing her, but close enough that she could gauge both how busy the store was and how tired he seemed. If she played her cards right, she could walk up when there were few people around, dazzle him with some tried and true wordplay that she had spent all of the previous night researching, and then be done before he woke up enough to realize he’d agreed to go on a date with someone as pathetically endowed as her.

She lurked in the sci-fi/fantasy section for another thirty minutes while the lunch rush came through, nearly forgetting about her mission entirely when she overheard a couple of teens talking about Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series and getting into an animated discussion about the pros and cons of being soul-bonded to another sentient being. But then they left, and the relative quiet reminded Maka she had a job to do.

A final peek around the shelf confirmed that there was nobody else in the store but her and Sir Slouches-A-Lot. Remembering the Internet’s reminder that men like confident, assertive women, she put on her competitive jiujitsu face and strode up to the counter with her back straight and her head held high. Her script was memorized. Her research was iron-clad. There was no way this could end in failure.

“Do you have a name or can I just call you mine?” she asked him in the most neutral tone she could manage. No need to pull out the sultry yet - all of the articles she’d read had agreed that pacing was important.

“Excuse me?” he stuttered, eyes wide as he half-tripped, half-collapsed onto the counter.

Maka frowned. It seemed the initial line didn’t work so well - perhaps something more poetic would get the point across. “Do you have a map? I’m getting lost in your eyes.” That should definitely provoke the needed response - his eyes were a brilliant shade of wine-red that did funny things to her stomach when she thought about it too much, but she supposed that was why Black Star teased her about him so often. That’ll stop when she wins this bet, though. Surely Star couldn’t be faring any better with Kid given his utter inability to form coherent sentences that didn’t involve some inane portmanteau of ‘bro’ and the meme of the week.

“I’m sorry, I still don’t understand?” he wheezed, red splotches making his cheeks glow in an awkward, adorable way. “Do you uh, need some help finding something in the store?”

Maka took a calming breath. Of course she’d fall for the one who couldn’t take a hint. Third time’s the charm, they say, so she summoned her most seductive smile (the amount of time she spent practicing it in the mirror the night before was borderline embarrassing) and said, “Are you my appendix? I have a pain in my side that makes me feel like I should take you out.” If he missed the subtext of that last bit, she might have to resort to some of the more drastic measures mentioned in the article, like showing up at his window with a boombox and 80s music or giving him a bouquet of roses, and flowers were expensive.

“Are you hitting on me?” he said, voice cracking in the middle and rising an octave or so while he looked at her with a strange mixture of incredulity and something a little like hope.

“It appears that way, Soul,” an amused voice said to their right, and oh god, someone else was there the whole time. She had waist length blond hair, fine cheekbones, and some of the sharpest eyeliner Maka had ever seen. With a growing sense of horror, Maka realized this must be his mother.

Soul jumped and turned to face her, groaning when he saw the satisfied smirk and delicately placed hands on hips. “Why are you here? Weren’t you doing inventory?”

“Now now, is that any way to treat family?” she chided, still smiling while moving past Soul to collect a stack of receipts by the register.

“I try to forget I’m related to you,” he grumbled, scrubbing at his face in a vain attempt to rid himself of the color in his cheeks. “Don’t you have better things to do than creep around up front?”

She laughed and ruffled his hair with an easy kind of affection that made something in Maka’s heart twinge. What it must be like, to have a mother like that.

“I’ll leave you two kids alone. I can’t be late to my modeling gig, anyway. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” She winked and, after making her way around the counter towards the door, turned and stage-whispered to Maka, “And that only involves anything without clearly negotiated safe words and boundaries, so have at it!” Another wink and she was gone, the small bell above the door chiming her exit.

“Your mom seems nice,” Maka said cautiously, not wanting to say much more because Soul already seemed like he was one wrong look away from disintegrating on the spot and she was busy trying to figure out how to steer this conversation back to dates.

“Mom?” he said, aghast. “That wasn’t my mother, that was my brother.”

Now it was Maka’s turn to blush. “Oh! I’m sorry, I guess I presumed with the hair and — do you think he can teach me how to do eyeliner like that? I always mess it up.”

Soul’s laugh was more like a whimper while he lowered his face into his arms, sinking into the small stool behind the counter like he wished he could simply fade away. “Probably. He’s always picked to do high fashion stuff like this.”

Maka allowed him one minute of embarrassed sulking before clearing her throat and asking, “So, is that a yes?”

He raised his head, confusion breaking through the pained set of his features. “Huh?”

“Will you go out with me?” she said impatiently, glancing at the clock. Kid had gotten out of orchestra almost an hour ago and she didn’t want to risk Star somehow being smooth enough to fingergun his way into a relationship before she could apply her hours of thoroughly researched technique.

“I mean, that sounds—” He’s cut off by the door slamming wide to none other than Black Star and Kid, the latter wearing an impeccable neutral face despite Star’s large bicep curling into the back of his neck from the arm around his shoulder.

“'Sup nerds,” Star said, sauntering over to join them by the counter. “This hot piece of sass agreed to go out with me just a few minutes ago, and given the awkward tension I felt from down the street, you two haven’t even gotten to the confession yet. So I’m gonna say booyah and you lose, Maks.” He raised his other hand over his head, fist formed, and didn’t break eye contact with Maka as Kid sighed and lifted his fist to bump Star’s.

Maka seethed. She’d been so close! All of her planning, her research, was for nothing after all.

“Actually, she was just waiting for me to finish my shift,” Soul said, glancing between Black Star and Maka. “She asked me out hours ago, and we’re also heading out on our first date soon.”

She tried not to look so surprised when he made eye contact with her then, that warm feeling coming back in waves and allowing her to return his smile with a genuine one of her own. “Yeah, right. We’re thinking about a movie.”

Star gaped at the two of them. “Are you kidding me? Punch Ya Albarn got a date before moi? Jeez man, we gotta be friends if this one’s nerdery didn’t scare you away. We were going to the movies, too, so how about a double date?”

“Sounds good to us,” Maka said.

“Great, we’ll meet you out front.” Black Star and Kid walked back outside, and the longer Maka looked at them, the more she saw the bashful tilt to Star’s smile and the small fidgets he made when Kid leaned into his arm. It looked like Star wouldn’t be the only one with teasing ammo.

“Thanks, by the way. For covering me,” Maka said to Soul when the others were out of earshot. “We’d had a bet about who could ask their crushes out on a date first and—”

“I’m your crush?” Soul looked dazed again, but this time with such an honest, open smile that Maka couldn’t help but indulge the melting emotion lapping at her heart.

“Yeah, you are,” she said, tamping down her own starstruck expression and remembering the need to project confidence. “I spent a lot of time looking up how to flirt. I’m glad it wasn’t all for nothing.”

“Well, that’s cool because you’ve been my crush for a while.” That wide-open smile seemed to be a permanent fixture on his face, and he held out his hand to her as he walked towards the door. “But just so you know, you shouldn’t take dating advice from cheesy pick-up line sites.”

Maka’s eyes widened. “How did you know where I sourced my information?”

Laughing, Soul enveloped her hand in his and opened the door. “Call it a hunch.”

#soul eater #soulxmaka #soul eater evans #maka albarn #deathstar #bad pick up lines #black star is always so fun to write #madi tries words #listen i apologize for nothing #anonymous