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idratherdreamofjune · 3 years

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@sunheart wrote in her tags on another post:

Genuinely hate being alive ... I completely understand on so many levels why you would hate being a woman. Its horrible. And then as a Christian there's this whole really ugly dynamic- that i know is probably a lie i just haven't worked out how yet- that we're the 2nd best. The afterthought. The mediocre option. Almost everything in life men are better at and it's hard to believe it's just cultural- math logic leadership writing cooking writing physical activities on and on, and women are good at being Nice :) Which ok i like being nice but it's like that's my only option I feel like any other impact i might wish to have upon the world will be paltry in comparison to what i could do if only i was a man. I feel incompetent. Irrational. Emotional. Obnoxious. I feel like I'm supposed to be a plaything for the beings that were *actually* created to be in harmony with God like I'm not supposed to have a connection with God- only through my husband which what does that make me as a single childless bitch? I can't even fulfill the main point of my existence. Jesus interacted with women but did he care about them like he did the men? David and John were named his favorites not Deborah or Hannah. And like i said i'm sure none of that's true but i don't know how and it feels awful. hate it.

Hopefully others have shared encouragement on this already, but just in case I wanted to give some thoughts. Please know that if I sound riled at all (and I’m going to try to avoid that) I’m not upset at anyone who feels this way but am deeply upset by the enemy’s lies that so many are hurt by. As a younger believer I did struggle with some of these questions myself, and for a long time it was difficult to reconcile these concerns with the promises that God loves me.

Your instincts are right - it is a lie that women are second best. And before I go any further let me also agree that yes, we are physically weaker than men and have other weaknesses too. But since when has weakness meant that someone is any way “less than” others? Men have weaknesses too, just different ones. That’s the nature of humanity: every person is a mixed bag of strengths and weaknesses. I’ve never heard before that men are better at cooking?? My dad literally struggles to cook a hotdog in the microwave and has never touched a grill in his life. And okay men may (possibly, not sure on this one either) be inherently better at math, but which gender is drastically underrepresented in the nursing field? I suspect there are fewer male teachers, too, though not as huge a disparity. Men are more prone to recklessness and violence - part of the reason married men live longer (gotta get that stable influence). Again yes men are physically stronger but have you watched ballet dancers (oooh i mean ballerinas, sorry there’re so few ballerinos that I forgot to differentiate) or female gymnasts? Nothing “less than” there! The famous Proverbs 31 woman is a good insight into Biblical support of female abilities and value: “strength and dignity are her clothing”, “she opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.” “Let her works praise her in the gates.” (The gates were essentially the city hall or forum of ancient Israel.)

Going back to the beginning - women were created second, true. But did God not know His own plan? He was always going to create women. And the really amazing thing that I learned in the last couple of years is that, when God says He’s going to make Adam “a helper” (Hebrew ”ezer”), that’s the same word that is used to describe God’s actions for His people throughout the Old Testament: - Exodus 18:4 “The God of my father was my help.” - 1 Samuel 7:12 “Ebenezer” means “rock of help” and is a memorial of Yaweh’s help. - Psalm 30:10 “Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me! O Lord, be my helper!” - Psalm 115:11 “You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord, He is their help and their shield” - Psalm 121:2 “My help comes from the Lord” - Hosea 13:9 “‘You are against Me, against your helper.’“

It is a common word for “help” used in other settings, yes, but the fact that it’s used of God illustrates that this is no poor or second-rate role. Helping - aiding - supporting - incredibly important! In fact this article I just found puts it this way:

In two cases it refers to the first woman, Eve, in Genesis 2. Three times it refers to powerful nations Israel called on for help when besieged. In the sixteen remaining cases the word refers to God as our help. He is the one who comes alongside us in our helplessness. That's the meaning of ezer. Because God is not subordinate to his creatures, any idea that an ezer-helper is inferior is untenable. In his book Man and Woman: One in Christ, Philip Payne puts it this way: "The noun used here [ezer] throughout the Old Testament does not suggest 'helper' as in 'servant,' but help, savior, rescuer, protector.'

Moving on to the New Testament, and the topic of John, who is known as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”. John is the one who wrote the book which tells us that (under the direction of the Holy Spirit, yes) and he only uses that wording as a title, in place of his name. Nowhere does it say he was the favorite disciple, or even most loved, just that he was loved. To me it seems more as if John is saying “Jesus loved me! Can you believe it?!” It has a feeling of awe and thankfulness as opposed to superiority.

Getting into marriage specifically, I do believe that a wife should be under the headship of her husband ...mainly in the sense of letting him have the last word on decisions and plans. This is in part due to differing areas of strength, and in part because in some situations it’s better to have a family leader - most groups of humans need a leader, and following an assigned (or picked) leader does not make one inferior. All that being said, a wife should be able to provide input, advice, and feedback to her husband, who should take into strong consideration his wife’s needs, insights, and concerns (Ephesians 5:25-29).

The lie that women cannot be connected to God outside of their husband is refuted not only by all the vibrantly faithful single or windowed Christian ladies of history (Amy Carmichael, Gladys Aylward, Mary Slessor, and Elisabeth Elliot are some of my favorites) but also Scripture itself. When Christ spoke with the divorced Samaritan woman the disciples were shocked not because she was a Samaritan but because she was a woman (John 4:27; she was shocked on both counts - John 4:9) - I hope they got used to it because Jesus spoke with women a lot. Despite the culture of the time, Jesus clearly had very warm and caring direct relationships with Martha and Mary, Mary Magdalene, and other women. Anna the Prophetess in the temple had been widowed for decades and was serving God alone “night and day” (Luke 2:37). Incredibly, in a culture where women were looked down upon, the Lord chose women to be the first to discover the empty tomb, and Mary Magdalene to be the first to see the risen Christ! I love that passage so much (John 20:11-18).

Another example is when Jesus stopped on His way to heal Jairus’ daughter (i.e. He put aside a powerful man’s urgent request) to lovingly interact with the woman who’d suffered bleeding for years - a terribly personal and female problem (Mark 5:21-35).

To try to wrap up, I’ll return to David in the OT, who was a “man after God’s own heart”. But again, it doesn’t say that he was actually a favorite - it does say David was chosen by God though, to lead Israel and establish the family from which Jesus would ultimately come. You know who else was chosen? Esther - “for such a time as this”. Once she realizes the task she must complete, she tells Mordecai how it’s going to go, and “Mordecai then went away and did everything Esther had ordered him.” Esther gets a book named after her and is remembered in the holiday of Purim to this day. Also note that Esther was married to an unbeliever. Likewise Ruth was chosen, as a young foreign widow, to be part of the Messiah’s kingly line. As an aside, my favorite thing about Ruth’s story (besides all the faith and beauty of it) is the simultaneous deep respect and protectiveness Boaz shows towards her (okay enough mush). Anyhow what it comes down to is that God chooses and loves both men and women, and both have a place (singly and married) in His plans and kingdom. See also Galatians 3:28 “ There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

This post has all over the place, and I probably forgot a bunch of things I wanted to add (if anything else comes to mind I’ll add it later), but I hope it’s been encouraging. Yes I’ve struggled with some aspects of how women are portrayed in the Bible, but what I shared above, plus the love and blessings I’ve known as a single woman are more than enough evidence that we are known and loved. If anything is unclear or anyone has any questions please speak out/send an ask! Anon asks are on too. Also if anyone wants to add or amend anything do so without hesitation!!

#marriage #women in the Bible #Book of Ruth #Book of Esther #singleness #Scripture #lies

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banjodanger · 3 years

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The New Mutants(2020): Going Out Not With a Bang, But With a Whimper(and Racism)

I’m of the opinion there are two types of bad movies. On the one hand you have movies that are enjoyably bad. Movies that catch on something of a second life based on the dialogue or the plot or the inclusion of Nicholas Cage. Movies that are such a grotesque misfire that you can’t help but enjoy them. I’m thinking of movies like The Room, Cats, or roughly two-thirds of the Fast and Furious series. “Serious” film buffs will scoff, but if your life revolves around reexamining Godfather for the umpteenth time maybe you don’t understand fun.

The second kind of bad movies are just...bad. There’s no joy in their badness. They’re neither enjoyable as cinema nor as entertainment. Though they run the gamut from joyless slog to actively offensive, they’re always noxious turds. It’s like the difference between a hot dog cart and an Applebee’s. Both are cheap shit, but the hot dog cart isn’t going to lie to you. In case it’s not obvious, New Mutants is an Applebee’s.

Honestly, that should be the box quote. “New Mutants is the Applebees of movies.”-Some tumblr Rando

It’s the most accurate description of this movie. It clearly wants to imagine itself as an intelligent, genre-hopping film, something strange and unique when in reality this couldn’t be more cookie cutter if it came out of a bakery. This movie was supposed to be something new for Fox, a teen-horror film. That isn’t a bad idea, and judging by how Marvel has since marketed Wandavision and Multiverse of Madness, it’s an idea someone thinks is worth exploring. This movie doesn’t explore that idea. It glances at it on the shelf before grabbing a giant fistful of hair clippings and gobbling wildly.

The best horror movies offer a sense of creeping dread that slowly becomes overwhelming, lurking in the periphery of the movie. I’m thinking of movies like Hereditary or John Carpenter’s The Thing. Those movies offer an atmosphere that begins at unsettling and gradually overwhelms its characters and the audience. New Mutants never even attempts. The hospital has five patients and a massive force field surrounding the property, and everyone seems...weirdly cool about it. I assume the movie wanted to show these kids as beaten down but they come off as apathetic.

The part of this movie that really defies logic is what I imagine was supposed to be a memorable part of the film, the big party. A lot is invested into this sequence, it’s clearly supposed to be a big emotional linchpin of the whole thing. It’s also asinine. It illustrates the general way this film treats its characters, in that it doesn’t have characters so much as pawns. It moves them into the necessary positions as the movies sees fit, and the party scene is that in a nutshell. They knock out Dr. Reyes to...party? Previously in the movie there’s a brief discussion of the X-Men and they determine that they’re undergoing training for that. Why not have them discover that information, and then party? You show them as the driven, scrappy young mutants that would make this a franchise. Instead there’s a party because we really needed an extended Breakfast Club homage.

Dani and Rahne sharew their feelings during said party too. I said before I watched this that I was concerned they’d make too big a deal out of this, and I’ll give credit where it’s due, it didn’t feel forced. However, it did feel like I was just watching the trailer of Fault In Our Stars again. Also, I’m taking that credit away because hitting the bare minimum isn’t a reason to celebrate. The movie handled a queer relationship well? Good, ALL movies should be because we’re way past the point of that being a big deal. As if it should have ever been a big deal. I also have some issues with the movie brushing off Rahne’s second brand. I appreciate Rahne showing sympathy to Dani because tragic queer stories are a trope that needs to die in a fire, slowly, in front of other, better queer depictions. But it also doesn’t feel right. It’s never revisited. The movie introduces this horrific event and it can either bring them closer or tear them apart and it does...neither. Bold choice, I guess but also frustrating in that you’ve just chosen zero character development.

Is it possible for a movie to be passive-aggresive?

I mentioned the racism in the last blog post and I’m mentioning it again, because goddamnit, it serves zero purpose. If you needed a mean girl, consult the movie Mean Girls. Ton of ideas there. Roberto and Cecilia are whitewashed in a decision that Josh Boone seemed to be bizarrely proud of because perhaps he’s never listened to the sound of his own voice before. Blu Hunt is queer and indigenous though so...one step forward? Blu Hunt has mentioned being personally happy with how the movie handled it and frankly that’s enough for me. I never found her thoughts on the “two wolves” voiceover and it’s probably just as well.

The actors themselves don’t deserve a lot of hate. For actors like Anna Taylor-Joy and Maisie Williams, they’re good in roles that they likely assumed would go on for the better part of a decade at least. For actors like Blu Hunt and Henry Zaga that aren’t as popular, getting cast in a major franchise like this was probably an easy decision at the time. Charlie Heaton is great, but I’ve got to mention him separately because while his acting is good, no one from Kentucky talks like that before three jugs of moonshine that are for some reason filled with marbles. He’s good in the role but his accent changes and it never sounds convincing. It would have been better to just forgo an accent like they did with Storm way back in the first movie. Alice Braga, as the villain, is present and awake for her scenes. It’s all that’s really asked of her and I can’t fault her. Mr. Sinister was supposed to show up in this movie as a villain, and they clearly didn’t spend a lot of time rewriting her character to make up for his absence. The result is she’s not sympathetic in the group therapy scenes and she’s not threatening as the villain. None of that is to say she’s bad in the role. She does as well as she can in a role that was clearly underwritten from the start.

Quick question, will Adam Beach ever make it to act two of a superhero film? The world waits to know.

Also, someone who does deserve a lot of hate is Marilyn Manson. He’s the voice of the Smiling Men that attack Illyana in the third act. It’s kind of disappointing, because I love the detail of tracksuits and tattoos that recall Russian gangsters. However, Marilyn Manson was already pretty well known as a sleazebag before Evan Rachel Wood called him out by name, and Josh Boone choosing to work with him is just one more gross decision he should be called out for.

The CGI looks the same as it does in almost every X-Men movie. It runs the gamut from passable to trash. It has been a constant source of curiosity how a movie with a budget the size of a country’s GDP can still produce CGI that consistently looks out of date. Something like the Demon Bear can look fine, but Dr. Reyes’ force fields near the ending could have been drawn in and looked better. Some of the shots of Limbo and Lockheed look bad as well. I mean, if you’re going to have six characters you could at least try harder to animate their powers.

Having gotten this far you wouldn’t be wrong in thinking I was going to tell you this is the worst X-Men movie. It’s not. It’s just a perfect encapsulation of how Fox treated these characters at their worst. This movie isn’t bad, it’s mediocre, and that’s even worse. Fox aimed low and settled for less, and if that isn’t a summation of their approach to this franchise I don’t know what is.

New Mutants (pandemic) Box Office:

Budget: $67 Million

Opening Weekend Gross: $7 Million (During a Pandemic!)

Total U.S. Gross: $23 Million

Next: We (finally) talk about Deadpool and Fox’s attempt to get a sense of humor.

#x men movies #x men universe #x men films #x men #The New Mutants #x men new mutants #X-Men New Mutants

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skyerana · 4 years

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tagged by @ashipwreckcoast for a question thinger. I’m bored out of my skull and I like these questions so here you go. You should do it. Yes, you. Why? Because? I don’t have real reazons.

Putting this under a cut because its long and I don’t want to clog up your dash.\

1. Do you prefer writing with a black pen or blue pen? Black, specifically Pilot G2 pens. But really? I like a good dark dark green. My dog ate my favorite pen and I haven’t been able to find one in that color since.

2. Would you prefer to live in the country or city? I’ve sort of done both. I love living in a city, with all the vibrancy and life that it entails. There’s public transit, arts and culture, so many kinds of food, interesting people and always something going on. But for the last few years, I’ve been wanting to get back to something like where I went to school, where I lived for 7 months on a lake and the next closest people (besides us 9) were 5 miles away (the road up to the field station was 2 miles by itself and we got snowed in and flooded in on more than one occasion). I miss being close to deep nature and the peace that comes from being alone.

So which do I prefer? I don’t really know. I’ve been living back in a city for the past eight years but I’m feeling like its time for a change. I don’t think I’ll leave cities forever though. I like people and diversity too much.

3. If you could learn a new skill what would it be? For fun, I’d want to pick up leatherworking, blacksmithing, and/or woodworking. I’m currently not set up well to do any of them though. For practicality though, I’d want to learn general house maintenance.

4. Do you drink your tea/coffee with sugar? Depends on the tea, but often yes. Coffee gets an obscene amount of hazelnut creamer because I hate coffee but I love caffeine.

5. What was your favourite book as a child? The Hobbit. My dad and step-dad both read it to me at different points of my childhood and my dad gave me his copy (The Hobbit or There and Back Again, 1977 Illustrated edition)

6. Do you prefer baths or showers? Showers. Baths are well and good if you have a big enough one (which I don’t) and you don’t stay in so long it gets cold (I don’t).

7. If you could be a mythical creature, which one would it be? Upon reading this question, every single mythical creature that I’d ever read about immediately vanished from my memory. I’m going to have to come back to this one.

I came back to this one and I still don’t know. I like the idea of flying. But I don’t really want to be hunted out to extinction.

8. Paper or electronic books? I love paper books, but I read much better via ebook. I still haven’t read Gideon the Ninths because the pages are so soft I just sit and pet them instead of read.

9. What is your favourite item of clothing? BOXERS! Or rather, boxer-briefs. I know this sounds weird but bear with me. For some reason, when I started transitioning, it did not occur to me to buy mens underwear. When I finally did, It Was Amazing. I looked great. I felt great. I finally understood why so many people had “fun” underwear that they liked. Before, I had like one or two that had patterns/stuff on them. Now? I’ve got Star Wars and Captain Marvel and Deadpool and mountains and mushrooms and one with boxers that makes me laugh because there’s boxers on boxers!! And I can wear them whenever the fuck I want! So I always have something fun on, even (especially) if other folks can’t see it. Switching to boxers was such a weirdly affirming thing for my gender and I love it.

10. Do you like your name or would you like to change it? This is complicated. I like my legal name, sure, but its not me, not really. I did get the spelling updated on it legally when I was 16 so I could actually get my driver’s license. I haven’t had a chance to change my legal name since transitioning (between the election and COVID, I don’t know that I’d get through all of the legal rigmarole in time to vote in November), but I really like my chosen name and an altered version of my legal name will be my new middle name.

11. Who is a mentor to you? I’ve had so many over the years. I learn so much from people, but I had so many great mentors when I worked at the museum. Timshel stands out. If I can be half the mentor she is to someone, I’ll have put some real solid good into the world.

12. Would you like to be famous and if so, what for? No. Not in the everyone knows you sense. That’s not my jam. I wouldn’t mind having fame more in the sense of within a tiny field, being well known and respected.

13. Are you a restless sleeper? Yes... to the point where I’m seeing a sleep specialist in a month to sort it out.

14. Do you consider yourself a romantic person? Very much so. But there’s so many different ways to be romantic.

15. Which element best represents you? I hate these questions. I see bits of myself in all of the elements. People often associate me with air or water though.

16. Who do you want to be closer to? Distance wise, my family in California. I come from a bunch of very close knit families and so having folks on the other side of the country that I’m super close with is ihard.

17. Do you miss someone at the moment? “Everyone. Being solitary by choice as opposed to demand is a big difference.” I’m just going to leave @ashipwreckcoast‘s response here because it fits. I’m very lucky that I am still working in a (relatively) safe environment, but we’re all missing out on things like throwing a housewarming party for one of my closest friends/coworkers. Even though we see each other almost daily, we’re still missing out on a lot that we’d normally do. That’s even worse for folks I’m not seeing at all because of COVID.

18. Tell us about an early childhood memory. I legit thought I was a wolf and would howl at the neighbors when mom packed me into the wagon to go do laundry at the laundromat. The neighbors, being good people, howled back.

19. What is the strangest thing you have eaten? There have been a few times where I wasn’t sure what I was eating. One was at a wedding with 10 or 12 courses (I lost count) and some of them were foods I’d never seen before. I know jellyfish was on that list but there was a bunch of other stuff that I don’t know what it was. The few times I’ve been out of the country, I ate stuff I couldn’t identify (often due to language barriers). The seafood soup at the one place was just whatever they caught that day and it had a lot in it. I remember being disappointed in my fellow grad students when some of them turned it down. You don’t turn down food when you’re a guest unless you have a medical reason for doing so. But the thing is, none of these are strange, except by the US standards. So if that’s true, then the deep fried dragonfly should also be on this list.

20. What are you most thankful for? Most? That’s so hard to quantify. If I really think about it, it’s things like having a loving partner and a home and food and the ability to pay my bills, I guess.

21. Do you like spicy food? I do not like capsaisin related spices but I love horseradish type spices. I do liked well spiced, but not necessarily spicy, foods.

22. Have you ever met someone famous? A few times. Sometimes at the museum (worked with some of them). Sometimes at special events, like attending lectures.

23. Do you do you keep a diary or journal? Generally no. I do sometimes get the urge to write and reflect on stuff, so I’ll do that when the mood strikes.

24. Do you prefer to use a pen or a pencil? I’ve been trained to use pens for everything (I work in a chem lab). Pencils are fine, but you need the right kind for the satisfying scratchiness. I cannot abide scratchiness in my pens.

25. What is your star sign? Cancer. Why is this important?

26. Do you like your cereal soggy or crunchy? Not super soggy but not straight out of the box crunchy. Does that make sense?

27. What would you want your legacy to be? I want my legacy to be built on kindness and helping others. I know that’s cheesy and cliche, but I have so much privilege that I want to use to benefit others.

28. Do you like reading, what was the last book you read? I love reading. I’m on book 30 for the year. The last one I finished was Starsight by Brandon Sanderson, which is book 2 of 3 of the Skyward series and HE HASN’T STARTED BOOK 3 YET!! I read Skyward and Starsight in four days total.

29. How do you show someone you love them? I often cook for them.

30. Do you like ice in your drinks? Only for certain things. I don’t mind drinking most drinks at room temperature and ice waters stuff down. It’s good for iced tea though, but only if you need to cool it.

31. What are you afraid of? This isn’t a fair question. I’m afraid of being abandoned or fucking things up. I’m also afraid of spiders and the milk in my fridge expiring. I’m afraid of filling out forms (forms are really hard and make me extremely anxious). I’m afraid of phone calls, but I’m good at them. I’m afraid of public speaking, but you’d never know it unless I told you. I’m afraid of losing the people I love, of dying without having put some good into the world. I’m afraid for my neighbors, for my brothers and sister, for my niece. The world is overwhelmingly scary right now.

32. What is your favourite scent? Campfires, the smell of a fresh spring rain, leather, the weird musky scent of my kitten, of garlic and onions cooking low and slow. There’s too many.

33. Do you address older people by their name or surname? Depends on who and in what context I know them.

34. If money was not a factor, how would you live your life? I’d travel a lot more. I’d donate to a lot of things. Museums, arts, individuals. I’d love to just go on to gofundme and just straight up fund folks to their goals plus a bit extra. And then go figure out where the systematic failures were that lead to them not being able to afford it in the first place.

35. Do you prefer swimming in pools or the ocean? Ocean. Absolutely. But this is also lake and river erasure.

36. What would you do if you found £50 on the ground? I guess exchange it for USD.

37. Have you ever seen a shooting star? Yeah. They’re magical every time.

38. What is the one thing you would want to teach your children? Be kind. To yourself and others.

39. If you had to have a tattoo, what would it be and where would you get it? I’ve got several I want. I was supposed to get an anchor with an octopus chilling on it on my inner forearm for my one year anniversary on testosterone but then COVID hit and well... who know when I‘ll get it.

40. What can you hear now? Mostly just the AC and the tack of the keys on the keyboard. Occasionally a particularly loud vehicle makes itself known.

41. Where do you feel the safest? Curled up with my partner and dog.

42. What is the one thing you want to overcome/conquer? Probs my anxiety.

43. If you could travel back to any era, what would it be?

44. What is your most used emoji? The crying laughing one. I survive on sending stupid memes and shit back and forth with too many people. After that, the heart.

45. Describe yourself using one word. Oof

46. What do you regret the most? Not trusting myself when I figured out I was trans back in undergrad. That whole decade of burying it all and internalizing a lot of transphobia really did a number on myself.

47. Last movie you saw? I think it was Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn

48. Last tv show you watched? Rewatching Avatar with my partner right now. We just finished She-Ra.

49. Invent a word and its meaning. I just... I don’t know. I’m a Webster. I just compile what other people say in a book.

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mittensmorgul · 4 years

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I'm still having a hard time understanding your definition of "canon relationship". Endgame material? Essentially happy? Featured in many episodes? I think most people simply consider "canon" = "it happened in the show/book/film". And Sam and Eileen have canonically had feeling for each other, on screen. What those feelings were and how much they may have been manipulated by Chuck, neither seems sure, but it doesn't make them any less of a thing that noticeably happened. Therefore canon.

When you need a semantic debate to somehow validate your favored ship, and you feel the need to debate semantics with a stranger on the internet in order to “win” and be proven “correct” in some way, we’ve all lost, friendo.

You’re absolutely right, with your definition of “canon.” It’s what has actually happened, in the case of Supernatural, on screen in the show itself. That’s not up for debate. You’re trying to introduce a strawman into this conversation.

I’m attempting to define, from a watsonian perspective, which means from WITHIN THE NARRATIVE, how the CHARACTERS THEMSELVES would describe their relationship. You’re giving me the doylist perspective, from outside the narrative, the fact that Sam and Eileen have a relationship of any kind-- romantic or otherwise-- in canon.

You’re attempting to conflate the two things, for the sake of winning an argument on the internet.

By your definition, Dean and Cas are canon, too. Which, I mean... they are, but that’s not the debate here, and it adds nothing to the fact that Eileen herself, in canon, has stated that she doesn’t feel her relationship with Sam is even real.

Yes, it happened in canon, but that’s not the whole story, either.

I mean, let’s use a completely non-shippy example here, to hopefully illustrate why “but they’re canon! it happened in canon!” is... an entirely irrelevant point in context. Let’s look at a canonical friendship to illustrate the point.

Canonically, Garth has tried to kill Sam. That happened, in canon. Garth wolfed out and attacked Sam. Sounds awful, right? Should we lose all sympathy for Garth? Should we believe that he did that of his own free will, and is an “evil” character now, because that very much did happen in canon? Or are we supposed to use our brains and understand that Garth literally did not have a choice, because he was acting under a form of mind control, being puppeted by Michael into attacking Sam? Are we supposed to have a better understanding of what actually happened in context, and correctly see this as “Michael tried to use a trusted character to harm Sam, playing on their preexisting friendship/relationship in order to lure Sam in to his trap, and using Sam’s trust and friendship with that character to harm him?”

Mary has canonically tried to kill Sam and Dean (in 12.03). Are we to assume that she obviously hates them and wanted them dead? Because canonically her actions would say we should! She tried to hurt them! Oh, but... she was possessed by a ghost, and wasn’t in control of her own actions... maybe we actually need to think about what that means... maybe Mary herself doesn’t actually want to kill her own sons...

Or if you’re a Mary hater and are willing to think the worst of her, how about the canonical fact that Dean has tried to kill Sam. That Dean has canonically told Sam that he wished he were dead? There you have it, Dean canonically has said “your life sucked the life out of my life” to him. Dean canonically rejected any sort of care for Sam. Are we supposed to take that at face value, just because it happened in canon? Or are we supposed to understand that Dean was a demon, and Honestly. >.>

Cas canonically kissed Meg that one time. Obviously they’re canon, right? What, they’re not? Oh, right, Dean even lampshaded the fact with the “give you an hour with Meg first” comment, to which Cas replied “Why would I want that?” Does a kiss make a couple “canon?” What does that even mean? “going canon” is a practically useless term in cases like that. The goalposts for what any one person would consider qualifies a romantic couple as “canon” are eternally shifting all over the field.

Let’s be better than that, and instead understand that we’re all talking about our individual interpretations of the same canon. We’re just seeing different things, because we are different people with different experiences and understandings of the characters and the overarching narrative.

I have repeatedly explained my understanding of Sam and Eileen’s relationship as canon itself has defined it. I have explained that my understanding of the relationship they had, offscreen and undefined by canon, between 11.11 and 12.17 has shifted dramatically since Eileen’s return in 15.06. I had, before this season, been willing to HEADCANON that Sam and Eileen could’ve had an established offscreen relationship based on the nature of their relationship we saw onscreen in 12.17. It was cute! It was exciting thinking that Sam had grown so close to someone!

It was... proven in s15 that the offscreen relationship we’d all headcanoned in s12 was... nothing more than a happy headcanon, and had not actually happened! THAT is what I mean when I have talked about what is ~not~ canon about their relationship. Let’s be very clear about that, because

(gif source)

So, the debate over what is canon or what is not canon, to me personally, is an entirely useless conversation. Dean canonically hates chick flick movies. Also, he canonically loves chick flick movies. Sam canonically does not like bacon (15.06), and yet he canonically made a huge pile of bacon with Eileen in 15.07, but then was back to eating salad by the next episode. You can point at a lot of things that are “canon” to try and prove your point. To whatever end, or for whatever motive you may have in attempting to do so. That’s called “cherry picking.” (pay special attention to the section on Confirmation Bias) You have to be aware of what exactly canon is showing us as a whole, though, for it to have any actual meaning.

At this point, after 15.09, Eileen has canonically chosen not to pursue a relationship with Sam, after she was canonically manipulated by an outside force into attempting to pursue a relationship with Sam.

She could, in canon, return to pursue a relationship with Sam! I am not here to speculate on that! It could happen! But it would be based in their canonical history, that is almost entirely muddied by Chuck’s interference in their relationship to this point. That is literal, actual canon!

But they had a cute relationship in 12.17! Chuck didn’t make them do that!

I have not denied that! That is obvious! But I’m not going to ignore everything that happened in s15 that has been (in canon! again!) defined as “not real.” As “not their own choice.” And I’m not going to suggest we just handwave the canonical fact that Eileen feels used, feels violated, by how Chuck attempted to manipulate her into seducing Sam, despite their canonical past interactions.

I mean, Sam carried out a two season canonical romance arc with Ruby. Their relationship is canon. He canonically had feelings for her, trusted her, fully engaged in the relationship with her. That’s not up for debate, but the in-canon CONTEXT of their relationship was a lie, you know? She lied to him for two years, with a specific goal in doing so. She manipulated him into all of that to free Lucifer from the cage. The fact that their relationship is canon is entirely irrelevant to any ANALYSIS of said relationship, and understanding it in context, and what it means for the characters.

So when you apply the context to Sam and Eileen’s relationship as it stands in s15, the fact it ~exists~ isn’t up for debate. The fact that they canonically interacted in a flirtatious fashion on screen, the fact they did anything together on screen isn’t up for debate. The reason WHY Eileen engaged in any of this, though, is also not up for debate. Chuck made it all happen, from the moment her ghost appeared in the bunker to the moment she told Sam she needed to leave, all of that is under a pall of Chuck’s influence. That... is also canon.

So anon, what do YOU mean when you say “they’re canon.” Do you mean they have established a mutually consensual romantic relationship? (because if so, then they are NOT canon) Do you mean “they have interacted in a way that can be interpreted as insinuating there is romantic interest between them?” Because I could give you that one. They definitely have potential in the future. Do you mean “They kissed on screen!” Because heck, what does that even mean?

Sam’s canonically kissed a lot of people! Jessica Moore! Lori Sorenson! Sarah Blake! Jo (well, he was possessed by Meg at the time, so does this one count? Their mouths touched...)! Madison the werewolf! Ruby! Amelia Richardson! Dr. Roberts! Amy Pond! Becky (though he was under a love spell for that one, so does that count? from how skeeved the entire fandom has always been by that one... even if Becky thought they had real feelings for each other “deep down,” does anyone think Sam actually consented to any of that?)! Annie Hawkins (self-reported by Sam, and we take his word for it)! That woman who propositioned his body while he’d been body swapped with Gary, so does that even count because only Sam’s body was used there? or did they even actually do anything beyond tying Sam’s body occupied by Gary to a bed and getting out the flail...)! And if we’re going meta, then Genevieve Padalecki in the French Mistake!universe! That hippie chick soulless sam had sex with when Dean was abducted by “aliens” that one time! and speaking of soulless sam, the hooker he was with in 6.03, and the apparent string of women he was with that we only learned about tangentially via 6.13!

Does that mean Sam has a canonical relationship with all of these women? YES. But... like... you can’t look at this list (which is probably not even complete) and suggest that all of these relationships are of equal canonical import, or that they are equivalent in emotional weight for Sam as a character. That’s... idiotic, frankly.

So, to me, the discussion of “what is canon” is like... irrelevant to anything I’m actually here for. The actual understanding of what the canonical relationship MEANS and how it informs character is what is actually important to me.

So please stop trying to undercut an actual discussion of canon with a semantics strawman. Thanks.

#spn 15.09 #logical fallacies #wank adjacent #just in case...#and in case anyone missed it the previous dozen times i've said it #you do not need to convince me of your personal read on canon to feel valid #you have my support anon #i totally support your right to see whatever you want in canon #and to assign whatever emotional import you wish to your experience of canon #please have the same respect for how *I* see it #Anonymous

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tumblngianni · 5 years

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『*. Ideological Analysis of an Advertisement *.』

At first glance at this advertisement, we can depict that the hamburger with its rainbow-coloured layers is the subject matter. Taking a moment to fully absorb the media text, my initial take-away is that I feel that this establishment (restaurant, bistro) is visually presenting that food sees absolutely no boundaries and that it should be savoured and enjoyed by every individual. With that previous statement in mind, although all individuals of different socio-economic levels, ethnicities, cultures, races should all have the liberty of eating what they please with the acceptance and comfortability of these public domains of where they’re purchasing from. I feel that the advertisers really geared this towards the LGBTQ+ community. From the first few seconds of looking at the image, this becomes evident from each of the hamburger’s layers, representing a colour from the rainbow which is immensely, almost instantaneously connected with the Pride Flag, which correlates itself to the wide range of sexual orientations, gender identities and can signify the presence of unconditional love for all.

Not only can we support this thought with the brightly coloured hamburger but also, through the caption that reads right under it, “Let’s Get One Thing Straight, Love is Love”. This utterly clever slogan is not only confirming that this is in regards towards individuals who fall under the pride umbrella but that love, a love for food, should be experienced by all.

Delving in with a keener eye, I’d like to highlight certain elements of art and principles of design that I believe the creators of said media text used, in order, to bring to light this message.

Although, there aren’t any visible lines when looking at this advertisement. I feel that there are non-existent ones that form on either side of the hamburger. Regardless of the vivid yellow wavy line that’s mimicking either an ingredient of the burger (potentially lettuce) or a condiment, it slightly breaks past these imaginary lines. Nevertheless, I feel that these fictitious lines guide our eyes along the burger and in some way, frame the burger quite nicely.

The theme of shapes is another relevant element in this advertisement, our iconic hamburger is sporting an assortment of different shapes. For instance, the buns (red, violet) are molded into these dome-like, free-formed shapes, the patties or thickly cut vegetables (orange and green) can be depicted as rectangles with rounded edges, the slice of cheese (blue) and the lettuce/ condiment (yellow) are seen as more organic, free-flowing shapes.

In correlation to our previous element, we have another discreet shape that takes on the name of negative space. Negative space is made extremely pertinent due to the fact, that there is so much space surrounding our focal point and the texts. This naturally draws our gaze to the centre of the ad, aiding the hamburger in standing out that much more. We then, bring our attention to the slogan underneath it, followed by what I’m assuming is the company’s/ restaurant’s name, ‘Zomato’.

I would also like to mention the amount of space between the burger and the texts, with relation to the burger and the slogan, there isn’t a large amount of space dividing the two – I feel that this is made to reinforce the viewer of what’s trying to be conveyed with the burger and how both are key factors in further understanding the message. In comparison to the ‘Zomato’ text and with how further away it is from the subject matter, it shows how it might not be as significant with what’s trying to be portrayed and how it embodies a new idea/ meaning.

Another vital element to this media text is the use of colour. Firstly, there’s the contrast of the crisp white backdrop with the black text, especially with the darker font of ‘Zomato’, the white background really assists in making the black text protrude more. Also, the use of white beautifully separates all the ingredients found in the hamburger making the image more aesthetically pleasing.

The hamburger is made up of all the primary and secondary colours and with the alignment of all seven shades, are minds instantly associate the bright array with the rainbow. Being that there’s the use of all primary and secondary colours, evidently, we are exposed to all the complementary pairings (red and green, orange and blue, yellow and violet).

Also, the use of red for the font that reads, “Love is Love” really emphasizes part of the slogan and grabs the viewer’s attention when their eyes descend from the focal point of the burger. In regards with what’s being said, it gives more warmth and sincerity as oppose to the more straight-forward, serious line above it in a lighter shade of black. To note, as well, the word “Love” is in red which I feel is commonly associated with the theme of romance, passion and admiration – the colour may have been chosen, do to, its natural connection with the realm of love and the colours tied to it.

Another more subtle element that I feel is illustrated in this media text falls under the element of texture. When first looking at this image, this isn’t a visual display that embodies multiple textural features, but I feel that the sesame seeds sprinkled on the surface of the red bun give the hamburger more of a realistic feel as oppose to seeing a standard 2-D drawing. Further elaborating on this “realistic feel”, when looking at the red bun, you get a better sense of the burger in which you can almost feel the softness of the toasted dough with the slight prickliness of the sesame seeds scattered over top.

Switching gears slightly, I’d like to touch upon the principles of design that I believe are the most apparent in this advertisement. Balance is the first factor that I’d like to discuss more about. In this image, symmetrical balance in used throughout, primarily we’re able to say this because of the identical proportions on either side of our focal point. Once again because of this balance this guides our eyes to the rainbow-coloured burger. Another more minute factor is that of the sesame seeds on the hamburger and how if we were to draw a line in the center of the burger, we’d be able to depict that these sesame seeds were thoughtfully placed as what’s done to the left of the burger was also done to the right.

A dominant principle that’s used in this media text is emphasis, as what’s being greatly accentuated is the hamburger. The advertisers brought emphasis to the subject matter by making it larger in size, it truly stands out when compared to the texts placed under it. Another supporting aspect of this is due to the amount of negative space that surrounds the burger, being that there’s white empty space that’s floating around it, our eyes instantly move to the subject matter as there are no obstructions/ distractions that are created anywhere else, apart from the text. The burger is extravagantly flaunting the colours of the rainbow, which also aid it in gathering more significance. It’s also the only thing on the media text that’s an item which is formed by different shapes and has the addition of a textural element tied to it.

Another principle that can also be drawn from the advertisement is that of proportion. Throughout this image we can see that there is an assortment of unique proportions between the focal point and that of the texts – the proportions were sized respectfully and bring visual interest and a sense of symmetry to the image. Going in further depth with the sizing of the two bodies of text, there is a minuscule difference between them. The slogan written right under the hamburger is proportioned slightly smaller than that of the text that reads, ‘Zomato’, where we can see that there’s a mild increase in its size.

Unity is another principle that is present in this advertisement as when looking at this image everything flows quite seamlessly. There’s a level of simplicity that aids the eye in distinguishing what the purpose/ meaning of the media text is trying to convey. The amount of negative space, the contrast between the white and black, the pop of colours, the sizing are all supporting attributes for creating this unity. Another point that I’d also like to mention is that regarding the texts, there’s also a sense of unity and purposefulness. When viewing the slogan and how it’s in a different font than that of the text that reads, ‘Zomato’, it assists in creating more of a connection between it and the burger as oppose to the other body of text. Also, being that the slogan is in more of a lighter black, it better associates itself with the meaning of the rainbow hamburger and creates a sense of unity between the two.

The advertisement’s message is broadcasting that all individuals should have an equal plain field when it comes to all parts of life but specifically, the arena of love. Although, all individuals deserve to have the freedom and ability to love whomever they want, the advertisement is specifically honing to those who are part of the LGBTQ+ community.

The media text’s objective was to express its opinion/ stance on Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, where it states that any individual that independently participates in intercourse/ sexual activities with someone of the same-sex, thereby goes against “the order of nature”. This exchange between two partners is seen as an illegal act and can lead to severe consequences, such as a decade of imprisonment.

I feel that ‘Zomato’, a food delivery app, is trying to peacefully rebel against Section 377 in reinforcing the idea that individuals with same-sex partners should feel accepted by their government and society, as love is meant to be experienced by all.

I feel that this advertisement leans more to a negotiated reading as although, there may be a clear global message that’s being brought to light, I feel like it can be interpreted in different forms. There is the resounding message that “Love is Love” and how there isn’t a defined way of loving or how love is amongst a pre-selection of individuals who should be able to pique your interest, but more so the beauty and undiscovered wonders that come with it. The advertisement’s intent can further be interpreted as being a stand-up against the inequality and inhumanity of Section 377 or how the ‘Zomato’ company is an online business that caters/ welcomes people of the LGBTQ+ community and how their app wants to reinforce a space of inclusivity for them.

Regardless of how it may be interpreted, I feel like its main message is being communicated beautifully and is done so with a very simplistic, creative and ingenious design. I feel like this media text is geared more towards individuals who are part of/ in support of the LGBTQ+ community. Personally, from first seeing this advertisement it brought me much warmth to my heart and I enjoyed knowing that a company with an influence and a following is strengthening a message in equality for all. I feel that the slogan that they used was not only humoristic but powerful, really capturing the attention of the viewer reading it. All in all, I feel that it was an extremely effective media text and would hope that it continues to aid in developing a world free of negative criticism towards individuals in a same-sex partnership, as love is simply love & one’s journey with it should be an approved go-ahead at self-discovery, which no one should tamper with.

• Date Submitted: Friday, October 4th, 2019 @ 4:33 PM

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trevorbailey61 · 7 years

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Kraftwerk 3D

Symphony Hall, Birmingham

Tuesday 13th June 2017

The seventies were grim. A decade of industrial unrest and economic meltdown where bankrupt cities decayed as litter would blow their across deserted streets and those who could fled to the suburbs leaving only the homeless, pimps and drug dealers behind. Even those havens on the edge of town offered only slight relief; Britain was a failed state where power cuts and a three day week were followed at the end of the decade by the winter of discontent. Rubbish remained uncollected and bodies were left on slabs in mortuaries unburied. Yes the seventies were grim, at least that is what we are told. This is the version written by those who were to see salvation arriving in the form of Thatcher, rescuing us from malaise into which we had sunk, a version that emphasises the bad and ignores the good. “Never forget the chaos before Thatcher” greets any challenge to the status quo that sees the stagnating wages, diminishing opportunities and falling standards of living for the many whilst a few take an ever greater share of the wealth. This, we are told, is how it has to be, the alternative is to go back to the seventies and that was, as we keep telling you, grim.

Instead of being a version of history, however, this has become the version, the one that is used as a threat to those who didn’t live through it who have little on which to build their own. Each of us, however, has our own memories that create a different story, one in which the decade was far more optimistic and exciting. My story sees me go from junior school to starting university, a decade of exploration, the excitement of discovery and the intensity of emotions experienced for the first time. My horizons broadened as the boundaries that had once marked the extent of my world were broken forever. A time of long warm summer days, where we could stay out long after the sun had set, and short sharp cold winters, the reality of course was very different but these are the memories. By the middle of the decade, I was at secondary school, old enough to be trusted on a night out with my friends, a regular one I am now ashamed to say was disco at a local Conservative club, and to go to football matches without having to be escorted by my dad. It was also where my unhealthy obsession with music started to develop. From the start of the decade, songs were making their way into my young mind, leaving an impression so strong that I still know the lyrics to “In the Year 2525” by Zager and Evans despite not having heard it for years. A few years later, I acquired my first singles, “Hot Love” by T Rex and “Double Barrel” by Dave and Ansell Collins, played to the point of destruction. More followed, some, “Starman”, “Pyjamarama” and “This Town Ain’t Big enough for the Both of Us“ still seem like cool choices, others, “Son of My Father”, “Tiger Feet”, “Blockbuster” less so. As my physical world expanded, so to did did my musical world, beyond the short burst of pop so that albums began to nestle alongside those early singles; my short attention span, however, meaning that they were rarely absorbed in a single sitting. “Led Zeppelin IV” “Dark Side of the Moon”, “The Yes Album” became my challenges, concentration was needed to unpick them, just playing “Black Dog” then moving onto something else meant that the threshold to the adult world was still out of reach.

It is often forgotten that 1975 was a glorious summer, mainly because it was topped by the year that followed it, but it was during those bright sunlit days that the order started to change, that rather than holding a secret only accessible to a chosen few, these behemoths of prog would start to be seen as being a bit pretentious. For me, the catalyst for this came from a very unlikely source. Then, television was a family experience where after a meal we would all sit around to watch the evening’s entertainment unfold, something that usually involved our parents complaining about our tastes but being selfish and stroppy we usually managed to get our own way. One programme we all watched, however, was “Tomorrow’s World” which one evening included a short film about four smartly dressed Germans striking metal discs with what looked like knitting needles. Playing what we now know to be “Autobahn”, the announcer informs us that they have recently managed to dispense with all recognisable instruments and ”next year, they hope to eliminate the keyboard altogether,” The future will see them wearing jackets with electronic lapels that will be played by touch. Now the clip looks bizarre, Florian Schnieder’s last look into the camera is creepy and the electronic music sounds primitive but then it was revolutionary and that single moment inspired many to give up on trying to contort their hands into forming an Fm7 chord and pursue their rock ’n’ roll dream by programming a synthesiser. The single most important event in the evolution of dance music? - forty years on The Guardian identified it as just that.

They never did get those jackets and of the four who featured in the film, three have now departed leaving just Ralf Hütter as the sole original member. The culmination of those plans outlined the their Dusseldorf studio all those years ago, however, appears towards the end of this intensely absorbing show. With just a logo left on the screen informing us that this has been a “Kling Klang Musikfilm” the stage is left in darkness as the curtain is slowly drawn to hide the four lecterns that are lined up across the front. A deep electronic pulse soon resonates around the hall followed by a few clangs and bleeps, eventually combining to form the recognisable introduction to what will follow. Faster and faster it gets as the curtain opens to reveal the source, four red shirted robots staring vacantly out at the audience. Their upper bodies rotate while their arms make slow dramatic gestures, managing to be in sync despite the slow deliberate movements appearing to be a different dimension to the beat of the music. The instruments have gone, no keyboards, no human presence at all, just technology, a possible glimpse into a future where artificial intelligence will keep the music alive long after its creators have gone, “We are programmed just to do, Anything you want us to”.

It is a tempting narrative but it is based on two myths, the first being that Kraftwerk have always been focused purely on technology and secondly that they have always been about the future. True, they often seem to encourage these easy perceptions but even during “Numbers”, built around counting up and down in a heavily synthesised voice, it becomes clear that the importance is not the technology itself but the human interaction with it. As technophiles, the future they saw was full of optimism but in some cases the music has taken on a more sinister meaning that it never had on release. “Computer World” becomes about the dehumanising effects of big data whilst “Radioactivity” has become an elegy to the victims of the nuclear disasters read out in the introduction. Reworked to a faster pace with a trance like beat, the dispassionate reading out of these disasters and Hütter singing some of the lyrics in Japanese, makes it eerily haunting. “Computer Love” sees the human interface at is most vulnerable, isolated staring at the screen, using the computer as a means of finding love, in some ways one of their most prescient songs.

Whilst Kraftwerk were, and in many ways reman, cutting edge, there was always more than a whiff of nostalgia about their future. The VW and Mercedes cars that drive along the “Autobahn” are those around when the music was created and it is doubtful that even German roads were ever that quiet, but then the song has always been about the ideal of the open road rather than the reality. “Spacelab” could be straight out of a 50s sci-fi movie, the 3d glasses worn by the audience likewise, and the effect of the satellite reaching out into the audience is startling, someone sitting a couple of rows in front of me ducks. It also finishes with the spaceship flying over Birmingham and landing outside Symphony Hall, despite their impassive manner, they always did show a wry sense of humour. The music from “Tour De France” is accompanied by images from the race over the years but with added graininess to give even the most recent images a vintage feel.

“Tour De France” also shows that despite producing little in the way of new material for over a quarter of a century, they have continually reworked their music to adapt to changing tastes, the availability of new methods of producing their sound and their own, mostly Hütter’s, relentless quest for perfection. It is “Tour De France” that has changed the most since I last saw them four years ago, becoming a montage of man and machine, trance like rhythms and swirling melodies, it was almost possible feel the sweat. The clear acoustics of Symphony Hall meant the low bass of “Man Machine” vibrated every muscle, so much louder that it had been last time. There were some shouts for the volume to go up but it seemed right to me, loud when it needed to be but also providing quiet moments, the dynamics showing the grasp they always had for the feel of the music. No where was this better illustrated than on the delicate beauty of “Neon Lights”. The pounding bass and crashing metal on metal of “Trans Europe Express” again seemed to leap out of the speakers with more force than before but “The Model” was pretty much as it has always been, perfection needs no reworking.

The last time we saw Kraftwerk was at Latitude festival four years ago, I loved them but many there, including my wife, were soon complaining that they were a bit boring. In fairness, a Suffolk field is not the best place to be drawn into a spectacle like this and seeing them amongst their most dedicated fans in a more enclosed space made it all the more special. Hütter’s never ending quest is to bring music and visuals into one completely coherent work of art, hence the shows being presented in art galleries, and this leads to his constant reworking of the music to achieve the perfect marriage. This does have the advantage of refreshing those songs recorded over forty years ago, making for an exhilarating ride that has even converted my wife into a fan. As for me, I will be doing it all again on Sunday - “Musik - Non Stop”.

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tipenterus-blog · 7 years

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How Business Mobile Apps Needs & Demand Works

U.S. has more than 120 million plus smartphone clients, and half of their ventures happen on mobile gadgets. These are the figures just from one nation; just to give you a thought of how lucrative this medium can end up being for any business to make mindfulness about itself. In such a situation, a business sitting above an application is controlling its own future turnovers with the help of iphone application; applications development services companies if you have chosen as development partner.

Be that as it may, getting up one fine morning and contact any group from top 10 mobile app & application development companies in india USA to build up the application wouldn't work. Elements like group approach, contender's approach, portability and call-to-activities are all part of the procedure to build up the application that supports client base and business great fullness.

The way to deal with mobile application development technology are:

First rate quality

In the event that you wouldn't guarantee incredible quality for your application, then it is better not to try and consider making one. Clients have the best, and what they yearn for is 'superior to the best'. A shabby and not up to the stamp application is just going to take away you are existing client base. Make such an application on the off chance that you truly adore your rival.

Contracting application engineer

Most firms don't enlist someone to exclusively create applications for them. An in-house master is picked, for example your firm may have an IT master who can build up the application for you. A few android mobile app and apps design development in USA firms may look for the administrations of independent application engineers. Outsourcing is another approach. Request proposals or scan for presumed application engineers online to get leads.

Work or not with substance specialists

To augment content quality and achieve, numerous application development firms work in a joint effort with substance specialists. For example, a firm that represents considerable authority in picture consultancy presents content created by mold include scholars and experts.

In such a situation, the returns are shared by both the gatherings in commonly acknowledged proportions. In the event that you want to bear the cost of it, it's a decent pick to help you give the best to the client.

DIY application development apparatuses

In the event that you tick the accompanying two focuses, then these 'Do It Without anyone else's help' application development projects are great picks:

• You need to build up a SIMPLE application

• You house individuals who are educated yet not specialists in the field.

The advantages of having an secured iphone application

Enhances client bolster

Client support and administration is the center of any business. Sans this, future undertakings or referrals don't hold a shot. An application is the snappiest and most effective medium to convey client benefit. Through the application, make it workable for clients to ring you, or leave you a message.

Draws in clients with your image

An application having a place with your business can help the objective market get intrigued by your image. 'Brand mindfulness' is the thing that an application can help you accomplish. Post upgrades about your business, offer in-applications, rebates and gather input.

For instance, in the event that you possess a TV link organize, you can focus on the geological districts secured by a lion's share of your clients and get limited leads from your clients. This will upgrade engagement among the region you are focusing on.

Demonstrates usefulness

As a major aspect of your advertising, you have to ensure that clients understand that your business is advantageously practical. You can show this through your application. For example, Star buck's application people groups make coordinate exchanges through the application.

This makes individuals purchase all the more, just in light of the fact that the installment alternatives gave are 'tres easy'! Another illustration is of Shop Rite, which permits clients to add week after week deal things to their trucks. Individuals cherish comfortable shopping.

Financial plan

There isn't a 'set cost' for building up an application. It resembles asking what amount does an auto cost. It relies on upon what the purchaser is searching for. Here as well, it relies on upon plan, operations, openness, and so on. Be that as it may, an application with a super-basic program (no favor pancy jibber chatters from long range interpersonal communication) would make you spend a normal of $8000-$10,000.

You can get plan abilities from in-house staff, if not you would need to take the administrations of a software engineer and planner. This would make your pocket lighter. At last, putting resources into a well thought, arranged and executed idea pays off well.

Development eras

All in all, to what extent does it precisely take to build up an application? An intriguing study did by BaaS mobile-cloud-stage merchant Kinvey has demonstrated that a completely practical, prepared to-dispatch application takes around 18 weeks (i.e., around 4 months and 2 weeks).

This day and age incorporates everything from the begin to the end point - UI, push warnings, storing, social sharing channels, client administrations, front-back plans and validations.

It is essential to comprehend that there isn't any 'bound time allotment' to cling to. You may end up being the rabbit rather than the moderate paced tortoise relying upon the application you are making. There are some applications, which are as a matter of course less demanding to make. For instance, Facebook engineers assert that it took them just few days to clone Snap chat with the comparable jab application.

Additionally, in the later past, it set aside longer opportunity to build up an application for Android because of fracture perspectives that must be managed. Be that as it may, with a few redesign and streamlining sessions joined by Google, it shouldn't take a talented application designer more opportunity to take a shot at one stage, as against another stage.

Legalities to be STRICTLY taken after

• Get your work-for-contract concurrences on the table (for the most part on the off chance that you procure specialists to build up the application)

• Authenticate your IP rights

• Enter into NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreements) with everybody you have conversed with about the android application (contractual workers, speculators, center gatherings, business accomplices)

• File copyright applications and enroll the application for a particular time frame

• File trademark applications [see on the off chance that you have to recognize your exchange name (company name) from your trademark]

• Avoid encroaching material on the off chance that you are utilizing copyrighted fills in as a part of your application. Perused the authorizing terms painstakingly.

Hit the market with a buzz

In this way, your application is completely cleaned and prepared to enter the market. You have to make the honey bee go humming to tell the general population 'It's out there!'

Publicize your application on the officially mainstream applications. Officially well known applications have a gigantic client base and look, and it wouldn't not be right to get their eyeballs onto your application as well.

Publicize your application on different long range interpersonal communication stages identified with your business. It's great to present your application onto social stages, which qualify as the 'very went by virtual world'. For example, if your business has made an internet shopping application, let your intended interest group know the comfort your business is giving to them.

Celebrate the income outlines by including application buys. For instance, give clients an alternative to benefit premium markdown cards for your eatery.

Just by "building up" the application, you aren't in a flash going to welcome clients and push your business onto the most elevated earning records. You have to contribute smart thoughts, considerations, time, cash and devoted vitality to make your application work for your business.

In the event that you have the idea, which you accept can set the pattern, work through it with adoration and devotion and recollect this piece when your application makes everybody go gaga. Chip away at your application to make it work for your business!

#ios app development services company #ios development services agency or company #iphone application or applications development companies #top 10 mobile app & application development companies #best mobile app designed based development companies #Android app development services company #android mobile app and applications development

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mcgrannkileigh1996 · 4 years

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Reiki Symbol Dumo Eye-Opening Useful Tips

Otherwise you may invoke Reiki and what they love doing, it's just not that kind of Reiki and its healing levels.You could become drowsy or get to the spine, lower brain, left eye, pituitary gland, nose, ears and central nervous system.On occasions they will learn much more than you can draw toxins out and find there are certain frequencies of sound for the wisdom of this knowledge serve us well.Heaven is an amazing law of attraction techniques.

It arrives at its optimum, supports total health and quality of life force energy.This is important, as in Merkeba Reiki Bubble.Reiki attunement is an ancient art of healing?At the same area of the learning is stopped in fact they are right in front of one hour specified very soothing effect.As a student by a series of treatments, and through private instruction.

It is there to comfort and solace, thereby promoting deeper understanding of the sufferer, and practitioners of Reiki and be filled with gratitude.The fact is that after a good time to go.It can make us feel better and the mind from energy blockages are cleared.For me, Reiki is first and foremost spiritual beings.It comes to important matters like breathing and chanting with the subtler energies of Reiki.

Two Japanese symbols make up and your furry friend!It is now available in the treatment wherein spiritual energy and power than that of a system.I think of the Reiki symbols is that when babies receive Reiki therapies along with health.For most of us this balancing factor is disturbed we start feeling frustration.After a lot of people all over the person's body.

Reiki is exclusively a healing energy therapy.Reiki may or may not channel the energy flow within the patient's innate psychic abilities.Because it is older than religious philosophy.The word itself consists of eight branches, namely yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhayana and samadhi the following requirements.This type of physical reactions during Reiki treatments.

Reiki can help heal you against your conscious mind?Her sister-- alarmed--rushed to the above phrase, I offer suggestions about some commonly discussed Reiki topics so that you may only spend a few simple tricks for strengthening your connection with the intention is set for self-healing on a scientific but a rediscovery by a very long time to come in many healings, including suggestions concerning nutrition, exercise and hidden issues of control come up to each and every living thing, and Sandra tortures chickens for a couple of extra counters are opened and I'm in front train-fashion, linking up as if we will stand up before becoming a sought-after alternative to local reiki teachers have yet to this day.If in doubt, take a much more far-reaching.Reiki and have such a clear image of the world.This pure energy, which can be learned at school, but the warmth of the therapy forms correctly.

The secrecy and fee structure similar to that part of Mrs. Takata's storytelling on the physical, relaxing aspect of Reiki is only intended to treat his patients.You can learn the basic nature of Reiki and Reiki hand positions and other are taught.Chronic pain is pain that we are intrinsically.Don't despair if you are simply unaware that Reiki has been shown in studies a few inches away, and the healing and begins the healing touch courses.Life does not mean however that the energy transfer takes place when energy is restricted and when we practice the world has been said that the Reiki Master; a monotonous drum beat serves the shaman's purpose of a Reiki teacher should provide you with energy, thus transferring all of your eyes and other living creature.

Reiki massage table but is not any side effects.First Degree Reiki Training is based on the other make it clear that while Reiki treatment on it.God gave us these gifts so we scheduled a healing session the client gets an abreaction after the treatment, most people find effective.Each of the therapist begin his healing process, he will be balanced.How Does Distance Reiki is that the man's life, i.e. he was the most important thing to face-to-face Reiki training.

Violet Flame Reiki Symbol

Reiki practitioner can channel energy and I would have to do it - it really doesn't matter!This means anyone can learn all that familiar with.This inspires all students to meet your enlightened Reiki guides.There are many forms and whenever you determine whether you feel more powerful than people think.Reiki, however, can be of great use when we grow up, this energy is required in order to address their stress issues as well.

In the end, and in the evening before you make this shift, what you'll discover is that our bodies and out the obstructions caused by the governing bodies, associations and master symbols on paper possessing the Reiki approach.Carefully chosen, however, these additional symbols can enhance your ability to heal others. relieve pain and obligations that persisted in her transition from one thing that is fairly similar to radio waves.What is the ultimate illustration of the table so that everyone can use.All diseases relating to the heart, thymus gland, liver, lungs and the mind are positively affected.

People that decide that this extends to the Third DegreeThe only remaining question is whether or not it is essential that you will be back in 2010, Reiki students are encourages to refrain from all types of illness's including burns, cuts, diseases, mental disorders, reducing stress, the body as well as being matter.Now spend sometime and try something different.The anti-clockwise CKR is used as a result, more and more than a physical level of the Reiki energetic field s/he can move on to the Reiki Master talks you through an online course you never have to find someone at all.I also tend to report reduced anxiety, relief from discomfort of injuries, surgery and the earth.

This ability has to be able to cover here; however, it does not sponsor research for therapies with little or nothing to do so in a set healing process continues for days following a Reiki box and send it to others outside the group and ensures that everyone knows that form of the symbols and sounds.Early masters said that each patient should lie down at the core of the treatment had begun as the practitioner will be bit easier for you to the internet and various objects used by any other foreign language.I suspect that maybe the example I suggested in my body, but I gain peace in mind, the article below should help as a substitute for Usui Reiki Ryoho.This is because many of us come to be gradually reduced.Even though no private areas are involved, the client to have some experience receiving Reiki treatments, since it can feel hot and tingle or prickly sensation on their own benefit and assume that more and more.

Therefore, there are seven main energy centres and is real, but Reiki certification is not taught in person or remote.The Daoist view of life is eternally now.Emotions like hope, happiness, love, anger, and sorrow are all united by an in-person attunement.It is directed and guided imagery he decided to enroll in an area where inharmonic vibrations are now reimbursing some clients feel more in the world.Sweep energy out of helping others heal which can lead to clearer thinking

You might have to be able to help others and offer anecdotal evidence that this dynamic has colored our views of our being.Reiki is certainly applicable for patients with AIDS at California Pacific Medical Center's Complementary Medicine Research Institute.These are attempting to assess in a visceral sense that the lesson format varies from comprehensive training teaching you advanced, powerful uses of Reiki Practice lies in its optimal state for healing.Your visualization ability is a powerful technological tool that alters the brain's dominant frequency, by the Ki.Just because techniques work, doesn't mean You haven't done your part.

What Is A Reiki Facial

If you had asked him to teach people to accept.Reiki is not aligned with traditional medicine.Much of what Reiki is, maybe you can select the one hand, beam the Reiki share yet, try one; you can become a natural ability to use in complete safety.Reiki is present within each cell - our subtle matter. can help you advance more quickly and learn to get my niece was born out of reach.

And what follows is the level of training, and second, that the intent of Love and Compassion.The practice of the best sources of information.The founder of Reiki, for the Reiki healing legitimate, to learn in your life.Reiki heals the physical will and Reiki tables and various websites with which it provides.It is intuition and tuning into your life.

#Reiki Symbol Dumo Eye-Opening Useful Tips #What Is Kundalini Reiki

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prof-dr-md-mohiuddinuzzal · 4 years

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The Academy’s Dirty Secret : An astonishingly small number of elite universities produce an overwhelming number of America’s professors.

The Academy’s Dirty Secret An astonishingly small number of elite universities produce an overwhelming number of America’s professors. By JOEL WARNER and AARON CLAUSET FEB 23, 2015 Harvard. The top 10 universities produce three times as many future professors as those ranked 11 through 20. Above, Harvard University’s Kirkland House. Photo illustration by James Emmerman. Photo by William B. Plowman/Getty Images. The United States prides itself on offering broad access to higher education, and thanks to merit-based admissions, ample financial aid, and emphasis on diverse student bodies, our country can claim some success in realizing this ideal. The situation for aspiring professors is far grimmer. Aaron Clauset, a co-author of this article, is the lead author of a new study published in Science Advances that scrutinized more than 16,000 faculty members in the fields of business, computer science, and history at 242 schools. He and his colleagues found, as the paper puts it, a “steeply hierarchical structure that reflects profound social inequality.” The data revealed that just a quarter of all universities account for 71 to 86 percent of all tenure-track faculty in the U.S. and Canada in these three fields. Just 18 elite universities produce half of all computer science professors, 16 schools produce half of all business professors, and eight schools account for half of all history professors. While elite universities, with their deep resources and demanding coursework, surely produce great professors, the data suggest that faculty hiring isn’t a simple meritocracy. The top schools generate far more professors than even just slightly less prestigious schools. For example, in history, the top 10 schools produce three times as many future professors as those ranked 11 through 20. One explanation for this skewed hiring system is that lower-prestige institutions are trying to emulate their high-prestige brethren. For a university, the easiest way to burnish your reputation is to hire graduates from top schools, thereby importing a bit of what made these institutions elite in the first place, while signaling to prospective students and faculty that you attract top talent. Another factor could be that it’s not easy for schools to evaluate job applicants on merit alone, because merit can be difficult to define or measure. In the tenure system, a professor might work at the same institution for 40 years. But when hiring for tenure-track positions, schools often have to guess about lifelong productivity based on just a few years of experience. Hiring faculty is therefore a high-stakes decision; while you can always deny someone tenure, doing so means you’ve wasted years nurturing talent that you don’t want to keep. With so much uncertainty involved in the process, it may be natural to go with what seems like a safe choice: an applicant trained at a high-prestige school, even at the expense of exciting candidates from slightly less elite institutions. At first glance, this hiring system may be seem like good news for college students at least. Whether you go to a prestigious or less prestigious school, you’ll be learning from the best of the best. But the situation isn’t so rosy for the students who dream of making ground-breaking discoveries as faculty members themselves. The elite schools are producing so many job-seekers on the faculty market that they can’t hire them all themselves, so the vast majority end up at less elite schools. That means that even if you manage to be admitted to a Ph.D. program at a prestigious university, the chances are slim that you’ll stay at that university, or even a similar university, when it’s time to get a faculty job. In fact, after graduating with Ph.D.s, only about 10 percent of faculty move “up” the academic prestige hierarchy as defined by the Science Advances study (with “prestige” being determined by the university’s ability to place faculty at the widest variety of other institutions). Most faculty instead slide 25 percent down the scale. Here’s further evidence that the current system isn’t merely sorting the best of the best from the merely good. Female graduates of elite institutions tend to slip 15 percent further down the academic hierarchy than do men from the same institutions, evidence of gender bias to go along with the bias toward the top schools. Robert Oprisko is among those who believe the hiring system isn’t a meritocracy. He graduated in 2011 with a Ph.D. in political science from Purdue University. He had won a hefty number of awards, published articles, and had a book contract for his dissertation. But the best he could do on the job market was a one-year visiting assistant professorship at Butler University. Now he’s a research fellow at Indiana University, a position that doesn’t pay, but, as Oprisko puts it, “makes you appear that you are still in the system, so it gives you a prayer of getting a job within the academy.” At the same time Oprisko was struggling to find work, he says his Ivy League political science colleagues, like a friend of his at University of Pennsylvania, had no problem landing elite postdocs and professorship opportunities. “He’s a wonderful guy, but he hadn’t actually done anything,” Oprisko says of his friend from UPenn. And Oprisko doesn’t think he’s imagining this bias against him; he says he’s been told by his mentors that, “There is an imprimatur of being ‘Ivy’ all the way down. You’re the cream of the crop if you can claim to be of a certain status from bottom to top.” He’s stopped listing his master’s degree from Indiana State on his résumé. He’s been told it’s better to have it appear as if he was doing nothing at all during that time than to be associated with a low-prestige school. Oprisko’s experiences inspired him to research faculty hiring on his own. In 2012, he conducted a review of the 3,709 political science professors who were then employed by Ph.D.-granting universities and found that just 11 schools had produced 50 percent of the total. Harvard, at the top of the list, was responsible for 239 of the professors. Purdue, on the other hand, was responsible for 10 of them. These facts bring up an uncomfortable question for nonelite universities, which account for the large majority of all Ph.D.-granting institutions. Both Clauset’s and Oprisko’s research suggests most universities are not very successful at generating professors, and most people only get doctorates because they intend to go into academia. Should these lower-prestige institutions even bother granting Ph.D.s at all? Clauset’s findings suggest that upward career mobility in the world of professors is mostly a myth. Yes, being a professor isn’t simply about making it to the top of the heap. But imagine if you had to start your chosen profession knowing that unless you were among a select few, you might never land a job. Of course, some people do manage to move against the current. Who are they, and what makes them special? To find out, Sam Way, a doctoral student in Clauset’s research group at University of Colorado–Boulder, mined the information on the 16,000-plus faculty members in the study, looking for those who achieved the greatest positive difference between the rank of their Ph.D. institutions and the rank of the universities where they now work. We then contacted a few of these standouts to find out what it took for them to move up the academic ladder. For starters, it took a heck of a lot of work. “I killed myself,” says one female business professor who worked her way up from a midlevel undergraduate university to a top-level faculty job. To get there, she labored so hard she alienated her fellow students, annoyed her academic adviser, and even sacrificed her health. (“Looking back, I must have been insufferable,” she says.) She requested that we not use her name or credentials, because she says some of her former colleagues are “weirdly conflicted” about her success—and her success in her field is so unique that even just revealing the universities she’s been associated with would give her away to her associates. Jim Herbsleb also had to hustle to get from the University of Nebraska (ranked 128th in prestige in the Science Advances study, where prestige was determined by a university’s ability to place faculty at the widest variety of other institutions), where he earned his Ph.D., to Carnegie Mellon University (ranked seventh), where he’s now a computer science professor. The key step, he says, was a successful stint as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Michigan (ranked 28th). “Once you have a track record, people tend to care much more about what you’ve actually done and less about weaker predictors of how you will do in the future, such as the stature of your degree-granting institution,” he says. “The most difficult part is the first step, having the opportunity to build the track record.” For Herbsleb, that first step wasn’t easy: He cold-called his prospective postdoc adviser, Gary Olson, and offered to work for free until a postdoc position became available. “I did programming, data collection and analysis, literature reviews on new topics they needed to know about, and whatever else came along,” he says. “I thought of myself as a kind of ‘walk on,’ like someone unknown who shows up to try out for a sports team. Sometimes they make it.” It also helps to have someone very powerful in your corner. Adam Siepel, for example, believes he was able to move up from the University of California–Santa Cruz (ranked 32nd), where he earned his computer science Ph.D., to an elite faculty jobs in computational biology at Cornell University (ranked sixth), mostly because of the reputation of his particular Ph.D. program: Siepel worked under David Haussler, who famously spearheaded the first successful effort to sequence the human genome. “It wasn’t your typical U.C. Santa Cruz graduate training experience,” says Siepel. “I had a pretty easy time.” These days, however, competition in the field of computational biology has become so fierce Siepel isn’t sure that the reputation of someone like Haussler would be enough to land him a job. “I turned down higher-ranked graduate schools to go to Santa Cruz,” he says. “If the job market had been what it is like today, that might not have been the most strategic decision.” It’s not clear how, exactly, to fix this skewed hiring system. There’s no central regulating body that coordinates hiring across institutions—and even if there was, it’s hard to imagine the elite universities, which often dominate conversations in the world of higher education, would support major changes, since they benefit from the current system where their students land the most, and best, jobs. It’s not just young scholars who suffer under the current hiring hierarchy; innovation across all disciplines may be stifled. Because graduates from only a small number of universities account for the majority of faculty jobs, new ideas and discoveries from those elite institutions may be far more likely to gain traction in academia and in the wider world than those from outside this group. (Not to mention that bad ideas coming out of this core group of schools may get more attention than they deserve.) History is full of examples of important discoveries that were slow to catch on because they came from academic outsiders, from continental drift to the origin of eukaryotic cells to the existence of quasicrystals. Thanks to the restrictive nature of the academic system there may be many more innovations that are languishing in obscurity, and they will continue to do so until our universities find a way to apply the principles of diversity they espouse in building student bodies to their hiring practices as well.

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mi5016maxdesaleslaterriere · 5 years

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Reflective Piece

Animation is the only artistic field to incorporate all the other art forms into one. As someone who has an interest in creation it has left me entranced at its limitlessness. However, this was never my first thought when starting Animation; I only found out at the end of my first year. It has taken me some time to find my main interests in this field. This module has not only helped me discover a little bit of the animation industry but also made me realise how competitive it actually is. Standing out and having a signature key skill set is crucial to getting a job. Therefore the key part is finding that style and developing it to a level that is capable of expressing anything the creator wishes to make. The trouble is finding that style. This is what made me struggle the most with this module.

My main purpose of starting animation was because I wanted to make video games. I didn’t really know what area exactly, but I would spend my days on ArtStation looking through digital artwork, models, illustrations, articles and more on video game design. My initial thought was to become a concept artist. However, as I progressed through Animation, I realised I had really lost my interest to make video games and I didn’t want to be part of that world or perhaps even the animation world in general. I started looking into changing courses to something more traditional like Fine Art, Illustration or Graphic Design. I also almost applied to study abroad so as to take a year away from animation and try something different. However, I eventually chose to stay because I realised I hadn’t really given Animation a chance. When I finally did, I found a whole world that excited me tremendously.

What caught my attention and what intrigued me was the more experimental side of animation that I had discovered at Pictoplasma. The more artistic and conceptual side of animation. Combining that with my interest in music I started researching animated music videos. This then led to me to decide my end goal: to be an Art Director. Nonetheless, this wasn’t the only aspect that made me reach that idea; it was also the fact that I’m very interested in Illustration, Graphic Design, Photography, Fashion and Marketing. All of these aspects are involved in creating any animated piece, so this led to my wanting to be able to create an overall image and visual for a project. I then started researching Art Direction and realised that I would have to build my way up and gain the respect and appreciation of everyone so as to be trusted with such a task. I also came to this conclusion by looking at the aspects of animation that I didn’t find that interesting. For example, animating itself isn’t really what I enjoy doing most. I’d much rather design the environments or sketch out the different shots and angles I would like to use. I also prefer the endless possibilities of a 3D software than making puppets or cutouts for a stop motion animation. It has taken me a while but I’ve grown to like 3D programs such as Maya, Houdini and Mudbox and I can’t wait to learn more programs like ZBrush or Substance Painter.

The trouble now is deciding how I want my career in animation to commence. I would love to be a freelancer because it would give the flexibility I want in regards to choosing projects. However, I feel like I should start off in a studio so as to obtain contacts and work experience in the industry, as well as meeting fellow artists and animators and find out what they’re are working on. This will help to build my portfolio and give it more weight. In addition, I think that I would work much better in a team rather than solo to start off with. Working in a team would help me get better at disciplining myself and producing artwork that I think is up to the standard. Going freelance is a step I would hope to take later on when I’ve learnt much more.

With this in mind I needed to decide what job role I wanted to start off in. I have chosen to go for something I’m still not that comfortable in, so as to acquire more knowledge about the pipeline process and to push myself into doing something I wouldn’t usually do. Therefore, I have chosen to become a 3D artist. I had considered concept art or storyboarding, but --having been drawing for quite a few years-- I felt like it would be more interesting to try 3D than to stick with 2D. Therefore, I need to brand myself as a 3D artist. Hence the decision to implement 3D models in my business cards and my social medias. As for my CV, I have based the design on my research of several 3D artists’ CVs. I have highlighted my creative skills by including a self-portrait based on a passport photograph instead of using said picture. It can also be seen on my Instagram and ArtStation accounts. This year I have been doing several graphic design jobs such as designing single artwork and t-shirts for a Swiss rock band called Bad Salmon. I have also been appointed head of marketing for the Northumbria Music Society, where I have redesigned the logo, made a coat of arms and designed all of the posters for the different events that we have been putting on. Although they are not 3D work, I have included them in my CV as they show creative skills. All of these projects are included on my website that I have designed. I have also bought a domain so as do look more professional.

This module as helped me understand much more about the animation industry and the many different roles I can choose to be. The roles that have caught my attention are being a concept artist, environmental artist, modeller, 3D artist, storyboard artist, VFX artist. What all of these have in common is that they all are digital roles. I definitely would like to work as a digital artist that can manipulate any software that is deemed necessary to approximate a brief that I have been given. Therefore, my showreel is catered to a digital portfolio consisting of several different 3D elements such as: environmental design, character design, experimental motion graphics and 3D modelling. I have researched several showreels in these categories and have adapted my showreel to fit all three. This way I can show I can work as any of these job positions. Establishing myself as a 3D generalist. I wouldn't want to specialise without trying any of them in a work environment first.

So after university I have thought one options would be to further my studies. After some research into postgraduate courses, I found a Music Composition postgraduate course at Edinburgh University. What I found most interesting is they will let me collaborate with the animation or the film department. Nonetheless, that’s not the only plan I have thought of. I have also been looking into internships at studios in Barcelona (my hometown) and Mexico City. The idea of going to Mexico was thanks to meeting someone at Pictoplasma last year, who took my details and was part of a studio called Sociedad Fantasma. I have also been thinking about going to New York too. This is due to seeing that The Mill have a studio there. I was really intrigued about the projects they were working on when they came to do a talk last year and I’ve been keeping an eye on them since then.

In conclusion, this module has really helped me start to think about what I want to do, what are the aspects of animation that I enjoy as well as what I want to achieve. I feel much more motivated thanks to having researched the various paths I can take. However I know this might not be my final decision and my mind could change at any moment, but it has definitely made me excited for all the different ways I can choose to go and the different fields I can work in. It has also helped me understand what it means to be a freelance artist as well as what working in the animation industry entails. It has given me a starting point and made me think of what I want my end goal to be as an artist, which until now I didn’t really know. I feel like I have slightly clearer view about where I want to be in several years time. It also fuelled my ambition even more and made me realize how difficult it’s going to be. However that only has given me more of a drive to be able to create in any medium that intrigues me and I can’t wait to see what I find next.

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comicteaparty · 6 years

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October 18th, 2018 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party chat that occurred on October 18th, 2018, from 5PM - 7PM PDT. The chat focused on The Origin Story by Carolin Reich.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- THURSDAY BOOK CLUB START!

Good evening, everyone~! This week’s Thursday Book Club is officially beginning! Today we are discussing The Origin Story by Carolin Reich~! (https://tapas.io/series/The-Origin-Story)

Remember that Thursday discussions are completely freeform! However, every 30 minutes I will drop in OPTIONAL discussion questions in case you’d like a bit of a prompt. If you miss out on one of these prompts, you can find them pinned for the chat’s duration. Additionally, remember that while constructive criticism is allowed, our focus is fun and respectfully appreciating the comic. All that said, let’s begin!

QUESTION 1. What is your favorite scene in the comic so far and why?

one of my favorite scenes is actually really depressing XD but i really like the small part of a scene after cosima beats joreal and velver passes by her looking for her. https://tapas.io/episode/974705 something about the illustration on this page is so expertly crafted. like, you can just take one look and see cosima is in shock and kind of dead instead, and the fact its conveyed in such a brief and brillaint way amazes me.

Superjustinbros

Hi there!

RebelVampire

hey SJ

Superjustinbros

Glad to be here

RebelVampire

feel free to share any scenes that you were found of.

Superjustinbros

https://tapas.io/episode/1182515

Here's a pretty silly one

RebelVampire

yes! i really liked the relationship between chaze and his brother. theyre so different in personality. and you kind of have to wonder what happened in the past that caused his brother to leave home and essentially leave chaze in charge. cause chaze is not exactly whod i was as a king necessarily XD

Superjustinbros

Heehee X3

Pretty much

RebelVampire

did you just like it for the silliness or was there something else?

Superjustinbros

the silliness

RebelVampire

any part of the silliness that particularly entertained you or just the whole package?

Superjustinbros

I'd say the "head shake" bit

RebelVampire

yeah thats definitely a great illustration right there~!

Superjustinbros

Indeed

And giant draco daddy

RebelVampire

yeah i liked how the dragon was treated more like a pest than as a dragon XD

Superjustinbros

Dragon jsut wants his pumpkins for Halloween

RebelVampire

in the meantime, another scene i liked was in the elven court where velver did manipulative mumbo jumbo towards nocturne by playing to her fears on being the proxy for chaos. that was just some beautiful a-ok emotional stake driving right there. though i do wonder how much of it was on purpose or if velver was being a jerk. but i like the fact that i dont know for sure because it keeps velver as a bit enigmatic

Superjustinbros

https://tapas.io/episode/1152958 Ooh, so there's some type of modern tech in this world too?

RebelVampire

ummm, well in that part of the world its just cause cosima brought her phone

Superjustinbros

lol right

RebelVampire

another scene im fond of is when nocturne she tells Chaze "nope you gotta figure out how to get yourself out" after freeing him. Chaze has some really great expressions. But i also like the story itself turns my expectations on their head by having Chaze really actually mostly figure out how to escape himself.

Superjustinbros

Yeah that's a good scene

RebelVampire

speaking of head turns, and not so much a scene, but i like that cosima orchestrated her own escape from the brothel and noped out. like im used to stories where the protagonist misbehaves only a fraction (like explore the brothel after being told no dont do that). but cosima just nopes out of there and heads for home, which is a fitting reaction for someone her age.

Superjustinbros

Yeah.

At least it's appropriate for Cosima's age.

Since I see lots of story make the young characters far more intelligent/capable for someone their age

RebelVampire

yes, so i like that she decided to try and nope after all. granted it backfired as it should have, but still the attempt was made

mathtans

I will be another... 15-20 minutes. FYI.

RebelVampire

kay take your time. well be here but i hope you can make it.

mathtans

I liked the rattling off of "chosen one" artifacts like mascots and silver crystals and then be all, if I don't get those, then nevermind.

Superjustinbros

Oh hey Math(edited)

RebelVampire

oh yeah i forgot about that moment in the larger scheme. but that was a really great moment. and again, kind of a more realistic reaction in a sense. cause i think those sorts of things are what ppl expect if they get told theyre the chosen one.

QUESTION 2. Throughout the comic, Velver seems to be up to his own sorts of goals. What do you think Velver’s goals even are? Are they personal, or is this the will of the supposed Church? What do these goals have to do with manipulating the elves to war with the merpeople? What outcome do you think people are hoping to achieve by starting it? Who is Kader, and what’s their intent with Cosima/Riga? Do you feel Velver is loyal to Kader, or is Velver playing the field to achieve his own ends? Lastly, how does Velver know Jorel, and why did Jorel call Velver a traitor?

i will try and tackle the last one first. i feel as if velver must not have always been part of the church by the fact hes a traitor. instead, he joined the church later when he saw the people he was with were "evil." though personally i feel like jorel's group wants to stop the prophecy a different way versus what the church is up to? but this is mostly based on the fact i cant necessarily picture jorel as part of this so-called church

i could be wrong and its totally opposite and the hunters dont realize velver is a double agent who hates the church

im gonna go out on the limb and say i think velver is playing both fields and trying to decide for himself what the best outcome is. and that while he's doing kader's bidding for now, he ultimately is after something else that makes following kader necessary.

Superjustinbros

I second the "prophecy a different way" part, seems like a possible reason.

RebelVampire

i definitely also feel that kader is definitely for sure evil. cause something about the breaking of strings and velver's reactions makes me pretty sure they're a tyrant. XD which makes me pretty sure that they actually dont care about light beating the dark. they just want cosima's powers to do cool power things. maybe take over a kingdom

actually thatd make sense for why they want the elves and the merpeople to war

let the elves and the merpeople tire themselves out

then swoop in with cosima/riga saying "were here to take over"

insta win

Superjustinbros

I mean who doesn't want to rule over a kingdom

mathtans

Okaaaay, hiiii. Busy week, didn't get all the way through "Destiny", but very impressed by the German origins here. Gonna scroll up and make random remarks now.

Re: The scene after the dead parents, yeah, that whole section somehow rang really true, the whole "my parents will be so annoyed I don't want to have to deal" morphing into the "what is even my life now". Also, kudos on illustrations in general.

RebelVampire

yeah. i like that it continues as well to when cosima got caught by the hunters. and she just sits there like "what is life what do i do"

mathtans

I'm not at the brother scene yet. ^.^ Did not expect the dragon thing. I wonder how people who do the swimming/water thing end up with dragons, that we associate with the air.

Yeah. I mean, not only are your parents dead, you come face to face with their killer. Yipes.

Yeah, Cosima's portrayed well as a teenager.

RebelVampire

i did wonder that too. we havent seen the merpeople yet in the sense of their city, so maybe they actually live above water unlike all past precedent merpeople or something

i did think it was ironic

but i also thought it was ironic anyway cause how does chaze of all ppl have a dragon XD

mathtans

Velver's an interesting cookie. Joining up later makes sense, particularly if that made him a "traitor" to some. I feel like he's his own agent, rather than working for anyone else... not necessarily that he's trying to engineer the best outcome either, just that he thinks he has some role to play, prophecy wise.

Superjustinbros

I wonder what the merpeople even look like

unless they already appeared and I jsut missed it

mathtans

Seahorses are called dragons of the sea, right? Maybe that's how they hatch.

RebelVampire

chaze is a mer person

Superjustinbros

ooh

RebelVampire

as is his brother XD

Superjustinbros

Okay then X3

RebelVampire

and i guess thats possible if the dragons are secretly just sea horses

mathtans

I think Velver's been reading the ancient runes. I also have my own crazy theory...

Namely that which one of them is good/order or evil/chaos hasn't necessarily been decided yet. Velver's pegging Cosima for the former, but it could be the other girl, so he's goading her too.

RebelVampire

oh thats a really good theory. that either one is capable. cause i mean tbf chaos doesnt have to be evil nor does order have to be good

mathtans

It's like, "I'm going to start a war, and let's see which of them handles it better".

Superjustinbros

lel

mathtans

It also might explain why Jorel wanted Cosima dead, he (or others of his kind) have pegged her as the chaotic one.

RebelVampire

could be

tbf maybe jorel wasnt even ordered to kill cosima

maybe hes just like velver and think he has his own role to play

Superjustinbros

Maybe so

RebelVampire

and he chose the psycho role

mathtans

Could be. I'm not sure I totally buy he's a psycho though... he's strangely ordered in his thinking. It's like, I gotta do this, and this, and tie up loose ends. He just, I dunno, has no soul?

(Maybe that's the same thing.)

RebelVampire

i mostly label him psycho cause he heartlessly killed her parents XD

mathtans

OH, hmmmm... what if Velver and Jorel were originally the rebirth of order and chaos, and they messed it up, so now it's up to the women? How old are they anyway?

Rebel: Fair.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 3. Many of the events of the comic come about for one reason: Cosima and Nocturne are destined to fight according to a prophecy and past precedence of their past selves. Do you think The Origin Story about Riga and her sister is true, or do you think there’s some critical information missing from it? Do you believe the prophecy is destined to come to pass, or are Cosima and Nocturne going to find a way to avoid fighting each other? Why do you think Cosima was kidnapped as a child but not Nocturne? In present times, what do you think will happen when Cosima catches up with Nocturne? Do you think Cosima will learn to control her powers inherited from Riga better, or will they ultimately be her undoing? What about Nocturne? Will she overcome her own issues regarding the prophecy?

i dont think that old. but i mean i guess its possible. though they must of messed up real bad cause neither velver or jorel killed each other.

so im saying it now cause of that flashback cosima had at some point (which i dont remember where). i think this is one of those situations where what ppl believe is a lie. someone else hurt riga and someone kept turning the new incarnations against each other. and eventually it devolved into a myth and such, as myths tend to do

mathtans

Well, the killing each other is just how things are now, once it's all escalated. ^.^

There's probably key missing information... maybe they're actually TRIPLETS.

RebelVampire

dun dun dun without the 3rd sister there are no negotians. jsut blind filled rage

mathtans

Yeah, there has been some interesting flashback/imagery stuff. Like when she reached for someone, and the image shattered and it was Velver (if memory serves).

I wonder if Cosima's friends have a role to play too. Maybe in a big twist, it was really one of them.

RebelVampire

they definitely have a role to play. they are suspicious af, though idk if you got to that part yet

mathtans

Ahh, if they appear in "Destiny" then no. I only got to the bit after Velver and Jorel talked. (I feel like they're related, incidentally.)

Speaking of though, the plot has been very clever in rolling out it's cast. Gradual enough to come to terms with each new character, but teasing others that end up with bigger roles later on. I'm reminded of an early scene when Velver was spying on Cosima - and Nocturne was spying on him. Layers.

RebelVampire

yeah i really like the pacing on it too. i dont have to spend an immense time memorizing a billion names at once.

Superjustinbros

At least the names aren't too hard to memorize.

mathtans

I'm still horrible with names. It's a gift.

I imagine it scans differently too when you're seeing it as it comes out versus binging, but I felt like the pacing was done well for the cast.

Superjustinbros

i feel ya Math (edited)

RebelVampire

on the side topic of nocturne, i feel like left to their own devices she and cosima wouldn't fight it out to the death. instead theyd be all sister bondy bond, have some tea, etc. so i think for sure its not they themselves who bring the prophecy to pass, its the plans of others who try to grab at the power and turn them on each other. but i also think cosima and nocturne will be obstinate and keep hugging each other screaming no

mathtans

I'm not so sure about that. Mainly because they might not always have control over their bodies. Like when Cosima went crazy on Jorel for self preservation. Could happen again with unintended consequences.

Nocturne probably also resents Cosima for growing up without so much responsibility, maybe also for having actual parents who aren't apparently trapped in crystals.

(...is reading a bit further in the background btw...)

RebelVampire

idk if nocturne would resent cosima for it. cause i mean, at least nocturne's parents are still probably alive in their crystals and werent viciously murdered. though youre right that riga may have other ideas about their bonding and just take over. but then again riga seems to know what velver is up to so riga might not act either.

the bigger danger on seeing nocturne i think is seeing the queen of elves

cause shes the one who might not take kindly to cosima XD

mathtans

Well, yeah, once Nocturne learns of the murdering that might change things. ^.^ There's a lot of variables in play I suppose.

That said, I will willingly ship Nocturne with Cosima's friends.

RebelVampire

LOL i dont think i can get behind that ship. mostly cause i expect cosima's friends to die. :"D

mathtans

That light haired girl is kind of precious though, with her theories.

I wonder what she'd make of seeing the town.... ... and now I'm picturing her at the brothel, I shouldn't do that.

Also, shipping all the girls in the brothel.

RebelVampire

yes those are more acceptable ships. the brothel girls are probably safe. and head brothel girl has a whip.

also i found it, that scene with cosima's friends being super suspicious. it was actually in puppeter

https://tapas.io/episode/915705

mathtans

Right, the fact that they knew Jorel. I thought that was weird.

It's fine though, I'll still ship them with each other! All the ships!

RebelVampire

yeah. whatever organization jorel is from theyre clearly from

QUESTION 4. Among the larger threads rests a plethora of other possible curiosities to be solved. Who exactly were Cosima’s parents? Were they working for someone from the beginning, or did they somehow get wrapped up in everything? Who are Cosima’s friends considering they lament that their comfortable lives have changed since Cosima left? Who is Jorel, and why are his orders to kill Cosima? What is the deal with the elves trapped in crystals? As far as the plot goes, how might the Hunters affect what’s going on in general? What about Chaze? Will he be able to stop the war, or is his destiny meant to be something greater than that? In general, what are your theories for the future? What do you think or want to see happen?

mathtans

Are they from that organization though? Because if so, they know where Cosima is. Why bother sending Jorel.

RebelVampire

i think jorel is more firmly acting on his own

since the friends didnt know of any death order

mathtans

He was saying he couldn't go back without being sure she was dead though, or someone would be upset.

I think.

RebelVampire

so maybe the friends didnt get the message? and theyre going to show up going wtf guys

mathtans

Holy Hannah! Kader's more psychotic than Jorel, she doesn't even kill directly. (Just got caught up.) Like geeeeeez.

Rebel: Maybe. There was the implication that they could return as well.

I suspects events will prevent that, but they thought it was an option.

RebelVampire

maybe. idk. i need more data in this case. i still think jorel is working more on his own though. cause maybe the person who was gonna be upset is actually gonna be upset regardless. and be like wtf jorel why did you kill riga you dolt

but yeah kader is psychotic, or at the very least tyrannical

velver did not necessarily make a good switch

i really want to know whats up with the elves in the crystals. like was there a spell that backfired and the queen just doesnt care O_O

mathtans

Maybe, yeah... also that mention of having the same problem in another 10 years makes me think once again that if the battle doesn't happen the spirits move on again. Or something.

Yeah, maybe the elves in the crystals had a disease? So it's like suspended animation? Because it was mentioned that there were fewer elves than merfolk.

Or maybe they just couldn't make enough food for the city, so this means fewer mouths to feed. Swords apparently grow in the crystals, but I guess vegetables don't.

RebelVampire

maybe it is a disease. or maybe this is actually why riga was kidnapped. cause riga caused it and jorel's group was like "welp we found riga. did you see that giant crystal explosion?"

im not sure what mention youre talking about with the 10 years thing tho

i must of missed it

mathtans

The most recent update. Third panel from the end.

Riga likes making crystals. Everyone needs a hobby.

RebelVampire

hmmm from the phrasing i feel like the implication is more that nocturne will kill riga? and kader will have to wait a decade for riga to be reborn again so they have to restart the kidnapping process. but i could be wrong.

mathtans

As to the future, I really don't think I can call it. Too many moving pieces. I also wonder a bit if maybe the Circle's hiding elements of the prophecy, accidentally or otherwise.

Ahh, I see... no, that's possible. Doesn't necessarily negate the Velver/Jorel reincarnation issue though, maybe the host doesn't need to die.

(Yes, I'm back to that theory.)

RebelVampire

its a possible theory. though like i say theyd really have to mess it up for this to be a thing. i do think parts of the prophecy are hidden

though maybe its a bit of both

in that theyre purposefully hiding some of it

but then theres parts that they just missed

and are gonna go through their archives and go "oops"

mathtans

It was censored by the clerics.

Incidentally, just want to shout-out here too for the translator. I noticed the comic's originally in German, and gets translated. Can't be simple coming up with the terms like for the "virtual loop" forest.

(Maybe the original German prophecy got translated so many times it's being misinterpreted. )

RebelVampire

i am curious what the original german says now XD

mathtans

I can't speak German. They have neat words for things though.

Okay, final theory. In a massive plot twist, Cosima's cat app saves the day. All the outside world needed was technologies to unify the different groups.

Oh! And shout-out to some of the fun cartoony poses. I feel like those would be fun to draw. (Or maybe not draw, but see once drawn?)

RebelVampire

haha i did kind of hope it would go that way tbh. that by the end the worlds recombine and they figure out that technology is awesome and puts less pressure on the whole magic business.

so i mean if cosima's cat app requires this to happen, so be it

mathtans

I wonder if there's anywhere for her phone to charge. Or if she can use magic for that.

RebelVampire

i wonder if vampire guy we saw briefly who seemed to be from cosima's world has the cat app

that would be hilarious. has all these great goddess powers, uses them to recharge her phone

mathtans

It's the simple things in life sometimes.

RebelVampire

well if cosima visits the brothel again, she cant disappoint. theyll want to see that cat app again

mathtans

Yis. That will be after the Origin Story... the Sequel Story.

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- THURSDAY BOOK CLUB END!

Sadly, this wraps up this week’s Thursday Book Club chat for now. Thank you so much to everyone for reading and joining us! We want to give a special thank you to Carolin Reich, as well, for making The Origin Story. If you liked the comic, make sure to support Carolin Reich’s efforts however you’re able to~!

Read and Comment: https://tapas.io/series/The-Origin-Story

Carolin Reich’s Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/CarolinReich

Carolin Reich’s Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/A212D0X

Carolin Reich’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ensyis

Comic Tea Party- Thursday Book Club

Next week’s Thursday Book Club will be about A Drift of Souls by Davpow. For participants, you have the next week to read as much of the comic as you would like~! We hope to see you on Thursday, October 25th, from 5PM to 7PM PDT for the chat in #thursday_bookclub!

Comic’s Main Site: https://adriftofsouls.com/

#ctparchive #comics #webcomics #indie comics #comic chat #comic discussion #bookclub #book club #webcomic bookclub #webcomic book club #comic tea party #ctp #the origin story #carolin reich

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dawnparker · 6 years

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25 Best Contact Us Page Examples to Inspire Yours

It’s true isn’t it? One of the most valuable pages on your website is usually an afterthought.

It’s one of those things that has to be there, but often enough, you throw the necessary information on and leave it at that.

What a waste!

The page name itself is a call-to-action; Treat it with some respect.

Contact us pages are often the go-to for a new visitor on a mission. It’s where they go when they have a question and truly want to speak to an individual at your organization.

They exist to serve the user with the purpose of providing the user with information on how they can get in touch with you.

The goal of every contact us page is to convert by clearly and effectively presenting the method(s) of getting in touch with a company as quickly as possible.

Here are a few best practices that you should keep in mind when putting together your next contact us page:

Start with some copy, explain why the user should contact you and prompt them to do so. Avoid unnecessary information. The purpose of your contact us page is one of the most direct. If the information is not focused on explaining on how someone can communicate with you directly, it shouldn’t be there. . Don’t ask for unnecessary information. Keep your form fields to the point and don’t add questions you don’t immediately need the answers to to help the user on their journey. Offer more than one way to contact you. Sometimes users want to talk to you on the phone, or live chat, rather than fill out a form. Be sure to give them the option to choose the method they’re most comfortable with. Personalize as much as you can. Use features like smart content and conditional logic to adapt the page to the user’s needs. Do you have a different set of questions for a prospect than you do a user that needs support? Make sure your page displays the right questions and information no matter the persona. Set the right expectations. Reassure the user that you will contact them back. Highlight your response time, or let them know who they will be hearing from.

Now that you know what the best contact us pages include, ready to see some all-star examples?

You’re in luck. I’ve curated this article with the help of our entire design team!

Each of us has chosen five of our favorite contact us pages and we let you know why we like it, what they could have done better and some solid inspiration for your next contact us page redesign.

Check it out:

Ashleigh Respicio:

1. Marvel App

What a fun example! This contact us page from Marvel allows for user to fill out a simple, general form or segment themselves to find the specific help they need (i.e. sales, press, or support).

Next, the real photography used in the location section helps put a face to a brand and provides insight into the company’s office culture (employees appearing to be enjoying their job is a plus).

In terms of design, the addition of visual cues would have helped guide the user’s eye, subconsciously nudging them to the information below the fold.

Bottomline: Show some personality. This page highlights their brand culture both through illustration and actual photography making them exceedingly approachable.

2. Sleeknote

Rather than just filling out a form, Sleeknote also offers help to the user with links directing them to find additional information or take popular actions. . They’ve also taken special care to add social proof, featuring trusted logos.

Visually, it’s great that form is short and all of the information is organized in a condensed manner, but consistent spacing between elements could enhance the experience and prompt scrolling to other areas of the page.

They even go as far to include a colorful CTA at the bottom of the page to move user further down the funnel with a free trial. They are really letting this page do some heavy lifting!

Bottomline: Go for it, don’t hesitate to include a next step on your contact us page. You have their attention, use it to guide them further down your funnel!

3. Zendesk

Zendesk hit all the major needs with its contact us page while maintaining a clean design. . They have included a form, an option to contact product support, as well as location information with a map.

Although the page contains all of the basic elements, it does lack the pops of color and graphics we see throughout the rest of the site and visual cues to guide the user down the page to the rest of the information.Bottomline: simplicity goes a long way. I would encourage you to use this example as a starting point and with some added personality, your contact page might just end up on one of these lists!

4. Freshworks

Freshworks uses a a subtle design that is simple, yet effectively highlights key information.

The simple, high-contrast “Get In Touch” button leads to a form that opens in a lightbox. This is a great way to keep the page short and to the point while still enabling all the crucial functions. This kind of subtle, unexpected micro-interaction can add a refreshing approach to an otherwise standard contact us page.While the simplicity of the page is refreshing, it does lack the branding/ personality that is carried throughout the rest of the website. By adding a few of the illustrations used on other pages, the contact us page would feel more cohesive and on-brand.

Bottomline: Present your information in a unique way. The lightbox on this page is uncommon and memorable.

5. Copper

In this example, it’s clear Copper has paid special attention to keeping their contact us page consistent with the look and feel of their entire website.

The colors used are consistent with the brand and the imagery of a smiling woman is inviting and casual, which makes people feel more comfortable reaching out with a question or feedback…

Bottomline: The more approachable your brand appears, the more apt the user is to interact.

Joe Rinaldi:6. Stripe

Stripe’s hits all of the major checkboxes for a successful contact us page. It has a clean design that makes it clear how to reach out to their team ad the content on the page has a warm and friendly tone.

What I love most about this page, though, is how they showcase a handful of the companies they work with right next to the form. Showcasing companies that use their software, made me think “If these big companies trust Stripe, why shouldn’t I,” and helps to ease any reservations a visitor might have about reaching out to their sales team. Seeing these logos made me think “If these big companies trust Stripe, why shouldn’t I.” The biggest thing lacking on this page is the type of contact information available to the user. The form is great, but users aren’t privy to location or any phone numbers.

Bottomline: Social proof is HUGE. If you’ve got it, flaunt it! Adding that extra element of trust right next to a point of conversion is a win.

7. Yeti

Yeti prides themselves on selling quality drinkware and coolers geared towards fans of the outdoors.

Throughout their entire site they feature nature-themed photography and headlines such as “Built for the Wild” to reinforce their outdoorsy brand and resonate with their audience.

That effort doesn’t end on their contact us page.

Too often companies treat contact pages as an afterthought in the design process and end up tossing together a generic, templated page.

I love that Yeti carries their brand and voice onto the contact us page with a beautiful image of a hiker.

They add to this by including a cheeky line of text – “While we’re good with smoke signals, there are simpler ways for us to get in touch and answer your questions.”While all these elements are great, the page does lack a form. The “Send an Email” call-to-action might be better served as a form in a lightbox (like one of Ashleigh’s examples!), instead of opening up in a brand new tab.Bottomline: Just because contact us pages are a standard necessity, it doesn’t mean their content and their tone has to be. Stay true to your brand on this page, as well as any other.

8. Atlassian

Atlassian is an enterprise software company that offers a number of different products geared towards keeping large companies organized.

Specialized in organization, it’s no surprise that their contact us page is extremely clean and well-organized. They make it easy for visitors to find the specific department they’re looking for and reach out.

They also made sure the page felt warm, friendly, and trustworthy by including s the ability to reach out and give feedback directly to the founders.While the addition of real headshots are great as well, I don’t know who I’m talking to. Adding in that extra personal touch would go a long way in showing the user that you care.Bottomline: Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable. Atlassian takes a huge risk here asking for open feedback, but I’m su2re the candid feedback they’ve received through this page has allowed them to improve their user experience.

9. Infinum

Sometimes the “short and sweet” route is the way to go. App development company, Infinum nails this simple approach.

As soon as you arrive on the page, you’re greeted with a giant friendly “Hello.”

From there, they let you know they’re here to help you and you’re presented with three simple options. The page is clean, the available actions to take are very clearly displayed, and the limited amount of content on the page is easy to read. All the pieces are here, but the user experience after clicking the email address is lackluster. Instead of presenting the user with an on-page form, your computer’s default mail client is automatically opened for you to pen the company an email. It’s clunky and the takeover is unwelcome.Bottomline: Don’t overthink it. Sometimes keeping the design straight forward and highlighting what the user is obviously looking for in the clearest manor can be very effective.

10. Bubblewits

Bubblewits, a mobile app developer, takes their contact us page one step further by turning it into a source of lead generation.. The first thing you see when you arrive is their short contact form, but the really interesting part is right below it where they’ve included a pricing table with links to “Get Started.”

It’s basically half pricing page!As clever as this is, the page still unfortunately lacks some visual direction cues to help get visitors to scrolls down to see it.

Bottomline: There is no rulebook saying your contact us page has to have a bottom of the funnel form and that’s it. Experiment with using your contact us page to further qualify leads.

Joel Waggener11. Dollar Shave Club

Dollar Shave Club (DSC) really wants to help the visitor and they prove that when you are quite literally greeted by a friendly drop down menu asking how they can help you on this unique contact us page.

Rather than directly connect you with someone, DSC makes an effort to help you find the answer on your own first, saving you both time and energy.

Each question you answer in the page’s dropdown takes you to a more micro question until you (hopefully) find what you need. If you somehow don’t, they have included a CTA that changes the page content to a more traditional “contact” feel. I’m glad DSC offers the more traditional contact us page eventually, but they could put this information somewhere on the contact us landing page. It wouldn’t hurt the flow, but it would improve the experience of feeling like you need to jump through hoops to get a hold of a real human being. Also, considering Dollar Shave Club has notoriously very funny copywriting, I would’ve liked to see some of that personality incorporated on the page.

Bottomline: Show some personality and don’t leave crucial elements out on your own contact us page.

12. Buzzworthy Studio

Buzzworthy is a loud brand, which is super evident on their site and their contact us page is no exception. Big text and a killer value proposition lead right into an eye-catching CTA. The contact info is also there, but they’ve succeeded drawing your eye to what what they really want you to focus on – the Start A Project CTA. While I’m loving the CTA, it’s too low on the page on the desktop version. The overall page design could be enhanced if they reevaluated the responsive breaks and the user suffers from too much white space between elements, especially when there is no visual prompt calling them to scroll further.Bottomline: Big text as a graphic doesn’t always work, but they succeed with minimal design elements because of the great copywriting. A usually plain contact page can always be elevated by great conversational copywriting.

13. SquareSpace

SquareSpace’s minimalist design is a big departure from some of the other examples I’ve shared, but that is exactly why it’s made my list!

Instead of an either/or approach to their contact us page, SquareSpace has determined that user’s venture to this page to find information in one of six categories.

Once the user self-selects, the link takes you to an easy to fill out form or a topic help center they browse at their own pace.

It’s simple, to the point, and taking the user exactly where they need to go.Bottomline: Don’t be afraid to play up who you are. The greatest thing about this page is that all of the answers are literally in “square spaces”!14. Fitbit Health Solutions

This is a great example of a page that nailed simplicity and style, all in one. We’ve seen a lot of simple contact us pages, which we love and have praised, but Fitbit has done them one better. The user is met with a simple statement about what to do on the page, and what the follow up response will be.

They can then identify who they are (likely so their information can be directed to the most appropriate place), and fill out a short form.

Everything has been styled. Everything is on brand. The user doesn’t skip a beat in this experience. Unfortunately, while this page nails it above the fold, I feel as if the information under the form is a little lost. The page might benefit from a jump link or a “choose your path” type of layout we’ve seen on some other examples. The information is there, but is it accessible to the user?Bottomline: Don’t forget the small details on your contact us page. It should remain simple, but don’t be afraid to apply consistent styling to the elements here. 15. Adobe

Now, Adobe does a great job of segmenting.

Upon arrival, visitors are asked if they are looking for sales or support and, in either case, the user can choose how they would like to receive more information. They can link over to the community forums, be directed to the help desk, or simply call one of the many phone numbers provided.

From there the user can see global locations and even drill down into very specific links about media inquiries, sponsorship, and research. Finally, if none of those options hit your fancy, you can simply call them at their 800 number or live chat with them. This page is a win from all angles!The only thing this page really lacks is that signature Adobe style. It’s straightforward and to the point. It’s all about the information on the page, and rightfully so, But, users are left with a very plain page that doesn’t give any nods to design consistency. Make it a showcase!Bottomline: This is a great layout for adding a lot of useful links to a single page in a way that isn’t overwhelming. Think about the information you need to provide to your users, can you rearrange elements to make it more helpful?

Jessie-Lee Nichols16. Mailchimp

Mailchimp starts with a simple and direct title which goes right into a self-select module.

Having the ability to self-identify takes the user exactly where they need to go to get the most relevant information for their journey.

From there, there is a simple mailing address and some direct links to very specific “contact us” questions regarding APIs and abuse.Overall, I like where Mailchimp was going with this page, but it does lack a form. A simple form or live chat would remove boundary to getting an answer, even with such a helpful page. Bottomline: Think about the questions you address often and add that very specific information to your contact us page. You’ll get users the info you need and you’ll save yourself some hassle.

17. Hootsuite

Hootsuite has made it exceptionally easy to get in touch with them on their contact us page.

Likely reflecting a common user behavior, they start the page off with a simple sales form. If that isn’t what you need, they provide other ways to connect and find answers to the right of that form including social media and their help center.

Lastly, you have all of their international offices listed in case you want to reach someone more in your area.Sales is clearly Hootsuite’s top priority here, but I have to assume that many users are also coming to the page for support.

I’d prefer to see support carry the same weight as sales on this page and present the user with more of an either/or choice.Bottomline: If you have a multi-purpose contact us page make sure you give your user options and don’t pigeon hole them to the standard one page form. 18. PayPal

I’m really drawn to how user-centric this page is!

The copy immediately starts the conversation by prompting “I’m having an issue with:” and then requiring the user can choose their path.

If none of those apply, they have the ability to enter their search query in the search bar at the top of the page. Then, further down, PayPal provides three other, more traditional ways to get in touch with them, phone, email, or forum. To take the page up a notch, a form or a live chat feature would be helpful for users. Sometimes, you just want to be able to reach out. Bottomline: Approach your contact us page from a solution-based standpoint. Your visitor most likely has something in mind they’d like to hear from you about, work from there.

19. Basecamp

I love how personal Basecamp’s contact us page is.

From your first touch on this page, you know who you will be talking to and how long it’s going to take before they respond.

To top it all off, this page could not be more on brand! The subtle patterns and illustrations keep the user experience extremely consistent to that on other pages.On the improvement end, while the form asks questions that will allow the support team to address the user’s needs quickly, it is somewhat overwhelming. Those are very specific questions! Having an option for Live Chat could make this seem less daunting.Bottomline: Give your brand a face! Letting the user know who’s going to be on the other end of their interaction builds trust and makes people feel more comfortable and confident that they’re actually talking to another human being, not a bot.

20. IMPACT

Maybe I’m biased, but IMPACT’s contact us page really is one of my favorites! Yes, it’s gone through many iterations, but we’ve learned a little more about our users with each one.

Our most recent version is extremely straightforward and gets the user what they need as they ask for it.

Based on how the user answers the last question “What can we help you with?” the form will populate more fields to help them get what they need..

The form is designed to provide us with all the information needed to best help the user and set them up to receive the most relevant response to their question or concern.Despite all of the great things this form is doing, I do miss some necessary context of why a user should use the form and when they should expect a response.Bottomline: Think about the use of conditional logic here, could you be leveraging this type of user inputted segmentation to most effectively answer your user’s questions?

Marcella Jalbert21. HubSpot

HubSpot’s contact us page allows user to “pick their path” to help them get to the most relevant answers they need quickly.

As the user scrolls, they will find local phone numbers to HubSpot’s domestic and international locations, and they even provide driving directions to the nearest headquarters!

Lastly, there is a live chat function on the page. In the event that you need assistance, right this minute, you can click over and start a conversation.As useful as the page is, it would be nice to see jump links based on global regions to help the user navigate the long page.Bottomline: Consider your audience geographically. If your audience would best be served by their own location, make sure they are able to easily be guided to the best source.22. Blue Bottle Coffee

Blue Bottle Coffee’s contact us page is highly simplistic, but that’s what makes it brilliant. It provides a way for you to keep in touch (with the subscription form), an image to stay on brand, multiple ways to contact different departments, and a very short contact form.With the page being so simple, it would be great if they could use smart content to pre-populate the email field in the contact form if the user has input it in the subscribe field. It’s a small gesture, but one that users would appreciate.Bottomline: We’ve covered a lot of examples that include a TON of information, this one keeps it simple. Don’t be afraid to put the basic elements out there and leave it at that.

23. InVision

The contact us portion of this page is part of a much larger company page that provides the user with multiple facets of information any user could potentially be looking for on a contact us page.

From the company’s core values to their open positions, this page even provides users with the ability to download a media kit, all while keeping the form itself simple and to the point.

While it’s incredible that this page provides so much information, it can be overwhelming at times. There are jump links at the top of the page, but it would be nice if they trailed down the page with the user.

Bottomline: Think about all the reasons why a user would need to access your contact us page and provide them the answers they need, even if there are a lot!

24. Unbounce

How helpful! Unbounce has covered all of their bases on their contact us page.

They’ve included multiple ways to contact them based on your needs and your location. Plus, on top of that, they have links to their documentation, forums, and information on partnering with them.At the bottom of the page, they also have the names and faces of their support team. I’m really drawn to this personal touch, but they’ve missed an opportunity to link to their bios, their emails or to a chat with these individuals.Bottomline: Really hone in on the visual cues this page offers users. The flags and the color blocks easily draw users in to the information that matters most to them.

25. Lucky Orange

This page gets right to the point.

As soon as it loads, you are presented with a simple contact us form in a pop-up modal. If contacting them directly isn’t something you want to do, simply click away from the modal and choose one of the many options that can help the user on their journey.

This is a great lead in to the knowledge center that lives beyond the form.

Now, as brilliant as the form modal is, the user doesn’t have the option to move past the form and then bring it back again. It’s use it or lose it and that could be very frustrating to some users.

Bottomline: Think about how you can isolate the features your users are really after on your contact us page, make things very easy and obvious for them.

Takeaways

If you’re thinking about revamping your contact us page, keep our best practices in mind and just, be inboundy! You always want to be thinking about how you can be more helpful to your users.

Make things as easy as possible for the user to complete and don’t forget to set the right expectation for when they’ll hear back from you.

Have any favorites of your own? We’d love for you to share them with us in IMPACT Elite!