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mamagabi-s-corner · 5 years

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Borderline patch 2 notes and bugfixes

it’s on gamejolt now, go download it there too! :)

anyways as you can see, there have been more changes to the patch 2 comparing to patch 1 which had minor bug fixes and some minor additions (like sprites. it’s done, chii can take a break, I can take a break to work on Pretender, LET’S DO THIS! I might not list all the bug fixes, cuz I’ve done so much at this point, most of the fixes are just grammar and graphic errors. PLEASE NOTE: THIS BUG FIX ONLY COVERS THE MAIN ROUTE! I WILL EVENTUALLY WORK ON THE ALTERNATE ROUTES FOR EXTRA CONTENT AND OF COURSE PLAN THINGS OUT AS THINGS GO!

Patch 2

Starting point:

-’New’ (actually not new but you get the point) title screen (thanks to dismaluprising for helping me out with the icons and for teaching me how to code the damn thing!) -Fixed grammar errors (god English isn’t my first language and I write too fast, thanks to Puff and Chii for helping me out with the grammar errors) -If you decide to go for Pretender’s quest, you will now be shown how many items are left until you can go and visit her (that is, if you don’t end up killing off the zone. 😏😏😏😏😏😏) -Punishment game is still there... except I fixed a minor bug during the shedder scene in Zone 3 where you could actually get out while fast pacing. Changed it into a cut scene version where when you make the wrong choice, Max acts on his own. It’s a set event dammit! -Not much changes to the alternate routes, will get there when I get there, I mostly put focus on the main route, although when I was writing down defeat handlers for the Guardians (we’ll get to that), I added dialogue for all 3 alternates. -Lost soul and Elsen sprites have been revamped (same goes for cameo elsen sprites. Also Chii did a Gabe sprite. -More content by Chii! (Iloveyou ;w; ) -Interior panoramas have been included in certain parts of the game (my crops have grown, my depression is cured, and I have began abusing panoramas as interiors, you can NOT STOP ME!!!!!) -More cameo appearances! -Defeat handlers for the Guardians have been implemented. You will see what I mean. >w> -More redraws from Baka27powwaa -Sprite overhaul. Because that takes me up to a day to do. ;w; -Option to find Birb has been added. -Solution folder has been added for those who prefer a visual walkthrough instead of a text walkthrough! -Removed the OFF music, with the exception of “a thousand pounds” and the default “meat sound effect”. Meat sound effect is replaced by air speckling *eyebrow wiggles* -Gave Sneec a little buff so he is gonna be a wee bit stronger than before. -Only Max has perks, the perks are self-boost perks to help with the final battle (there will be more perks for others in the final release.) -Fixed experience points with most monsters so hopefully the battle won’t be tedious and you won’t have to level grind as much. -Some books in Zone 2 have received their well-deserved revamp.

Introduction: -Fixed minor graphic issues which were found in the kitchen. -Teleportation blocks (aka red cubes) are officially replaced with zodiac teleporters! An idea that I had for a while now, not to mention it would make some sense since the yellow block is replaced with Bob. -Nameless officially appears in-game. And when I mean by that, I mean by the fact that instead of you seeing him in zone 4′s roof, he’s now everywhere.. So everywhere that there is a nowhere too. Birb what are you saying? idk?????? -world map is now a panorama. Zone 0:

-ZONE 0 GOT ITSELF AN EXPANSION AREA(tm)!! There are 4 houses and 1 bakery! -Beth is now included in the game and probably in the near future (or if I decide to go with it), she is a temporary character for post-Japhet defeat handler and only lasts for 1 Zone before she returns back to Zone 0. -On the fourth house (second house on the bottom) there is a treasure chest which gives you a fortune ticket!

Zone 1:

-Elsen has an extra area, you can find a chest which gives you a luck ticket, going to the end you will meet Nameless. -Sam’s event is set to a cutscene to prevent you from running off and/or examining the area which was never intentional! -You no longer have to read the note in Pentel tunnel to trigger the event (I know people skim through it so it’s for the best fghfgh) -In Shachihata, some Elsen say ‘null’ when spewing out music notes. Null is ZERO! it’s to avoid confusion when typing in the numbers so it doesn’t be like 85260, but rather 03559. (No, that’s just an example, stop asking!!!) -During an Orodemus run, you can apparently escape from the elevator. Which I THINK I fixed in patch 1, but I will re-state it. You can’t run away from the melon man. Don’t run away from the melon man, he just wants to punt you into oblivion so he can please his master! -Dedan defeat handler has been implemented!

Zone 2:

-Not much changes to the library, just added Nameless in and that’s it. -More minor bugs are fixed, Im just a dumb and I forget what bugs I fixed, so work with me here..Most are graphic errors and grammar. -Uncluttered the haunted attraction of excess decor. -An extremely minor dialogue change with Shedder. -Added in a pathway to the adoption center which can be accessed after you finish Zone 2.. that is, if you do finish it.. from the mall, head to the left, pretty much follow the arrows. -fixed an error where you get on the door when you enter after the erika event. when aleyes lets you pass? Yea, that one.. Not sure how that happened. -fixed a bug, even though it’s not a rare bug unless you put in the right arrows in the crying room, where when you enter wrong, and then correctly, the game doesn’t register it as complete and doesn’t give off the head. MAJOR NOTE TO SELF. VARIABLES GO BEFORE SWITCHES! VARIABLES GO BEFORE SWITCHES!!!!! VARIABLES GO BEFORE SWITCHES!!!!!!!!!!! I actually had to fix this issue by going with switches because even if you enter it wrong then right the game refuses to register the puzzle being completed. Which drove me insane!!! -That one shedder image... yea.. I forgot to switch it with the other one, don’t judge me I work too much already.. -From the hallway in Sen’s route, instead of going back to the beginning of the hallway, you would end up going to the 3 hallways.. I hopefully fixed that issue. -You will not be able to interact with Horus from the left side as Seneca. Only from the right side. -Japhet defeat handler has been implemented! Depending on whether you killed Dedan or not, Japhet’s defeat handler dialogue is different, but the outcome is still the same. -Somewhat fixed Japhet’s past event??? Will need to make some changes for the final game(tm)

Zone 3: -Grammar errors and some minor bugs have been fixed.. -Beth’s event where she talks about her past has been added. -Monorail event is fixed! There were some bugs that Puff pointed out (when you go to the lever and pull it, the timer still continues on for a few seconds before it stops. Now when you pull the lever, the timer stops immediately!) -Enoch’s defeat handler has been implemented. Once again, depending on whether you defeated either Japhet or Dedan (or both), the dialogue is different but the outcome is the same. -If Max goes through the defeat handler, he loses all of his items (equipped items) and an arm. Did a sprite where his arm is missing and re-did the battle sprite for one armed Max. To also avoid confusion, there’s an NA in brackets which means no arm. I had to add that to avoid confusion when I was doing his events. -Enoch’s past event has been changed a bit here and there, mainly some bugs fixes and shit.

Zone 4: -Not much changes there, just some minor bugs have been fixed. I forgot which ones dhfgfhh. -You now fight alone against Gabriel. To make up for it, I added a temporary solution until I figure out a way to balance it out. You has perks now. Well, Max for now. -Defeating all 3 guardians will trigger an event where you are unable to fight Gabriel (you will see :3c) and of course. some lore! -Added a little event for a friend :)

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luwucas04 · 3 years

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About 4000 (I am so sorry) Words Concerning Films that Helped Define My Existence

Ah, movies. So much in one package. Story, music, visuals, what’s not to love? Today I shall be elaborating on the most noteworthy films in the thrilling ever-changing saga that continues to be my life. Screenplay alongside a screenplay, if you will (please take this statement as modestly as you can).

The first ever thing in my entire life that I remember being an avid and enthusiastic fan about was the original Star Wars saga, written and directed by George Lucas, spanning May 1977 (A New Hope) – May 2005 (Revenge of the Sith).

As mentioned in the podcast and as you may be able to tell from said podcast, I can’t really pinpoint an exact point in my life where I was introduced to it as it was kinda integrated into my upbringing from the get-go—and due to this it’s a very near and dear franchise to me. And oh boy fun fact my first ever childhood crush was Luke Skywalker (I vividly recall my uncle asking why I had his page bookmarked haha). I remember it was something that I would always watch with my dad and or grandpa, and then when I couldn’t find the VCR set that we had for it, I officially commenced my illicit streaming career (not really though, I didn’t get very far. Only crappy 20-minute clips on YouTube). Star Wars for me was the first thing that I actively sought out stuff for or showed genuine interest in pursuing if that makes sense. Like, you’d watch whatever movies or shows were thrown at you and you never thought much of them. Ohoho not Star Wars, though, that one lasted years. My cousin and I would always bring our little action figures to play with whenever we visited—or we’d find long-ish sticks in the backyard and have lightsaber fights, I got the video games, posters, Lego sets of ships (X-wing and Y-wing to be exact), an entire encyclopedia that I still own to this day (I just checked and there’s a date written inside, April 9th 2010 (which is my 7th birthday)), and of course inspiration for my own art and such. I remember I made this magazine that was essentially just me redrawing pages from the guidebook I had. I still have it, too! Sitting at the bottom of a drawer right now. Also, later on for some reason I absolutely loved drawing Ashoka Tano. Over and over again man. I drew her taking up my cousin’s entire driveway in chalk once.

Not only are the Star Wars films a nostalgic and comforting series, but it held onto its marvel throughout the. Wow well over 10 whole years, I’m getting old. Additionally, because at the time we didn’t have as much access to the things we can achieve with modern technology, I was basically all on my own with it. I fueled my own fascination. And shockingly, not a lot of people in my elementary school (up until maybe grade 6-7) showed much interest in it either. So it was pretty much just me myself and I, and occasionally my cousin whenever he visited, and I think that made it all the more special to me. Also, at the time I think it was geared way more toward kids. There weren’t series like The Mandalorian or active internet communities that were obsessed with the series as far as I was aware, so there wasn’t the same quantity of content nor overall enthusiasm around it. Nonetheless, it was and still is a very personal series due to how engrained it is into basically every aspect of my childhood. I’ll try not to be too repetitive with what I said in the podcast, but ultimately the clear nature of the franchise (attractive character designs, colours, setting in general (it’s an action-packed space adventure what’s not to love)) is what really made me latch onto it, and it kickstarted my interest in the very essence of media and understanding the film medium and what it has to offer. I remember asking how they got Jar Jar to exist on screen and he told me they made him out of CGI, and I interpreted that as they somehow made a real-life computer model out of him and that they were actually interacting with like a physical, solid hologram. Anyway, revisiting the franchise and diving into more of its intricacies now (like the production diaries) is like an absolute goldmine. There are so many aspects of it that 100% contributed to and nurtured my goals, passions, and ultimately who I am as a person. Here is some of my very recent art for good measure:

Up next up we got Lord of the Rings (dir. Peter Jackson, December 2001 – December 2003) or I guess a better way to put it would be those plus The Hobbit (December 2012 – December 2014) trilogy. I think it was earlier than the Marvel phase (which follows this section) because like Star Wars I can’t really remember my first viewing of it, but I definitely watched it all. It might’ve been around grade 3 so 2011-ish? Quick anecdote, one time I had a sleepover I was really excited for, and as we all know when you’re excited for something as a kid and it’s later on in the day, time doesn’t actually pass at all, and so my genius ass decided to flip on The Fellowship of the Ring and boom it was 5 pm and time to leave. Also my grandparents from my mom’s side of the family (they’re German so we call them oma and opa) were visiting once and my opa (grandpa equivalent) wanted to watch something so I was like “omg Lord of the Rings is perfect there are so many characters he can feel empowered by (Gandalf and Saruman because they’re old)”. Phenomenal logic—now thinking back it was probably much too violent for his tastes but yknow.

I love Lord of the Rings so much because it’s the true embodiment of an ideal fantasy story; there’s such pure character dynamics and personalities and Tolkien created such an incredibly solid world in which these stories take place. Man knew his stuff, and in turn provided a charming and utterly wonderful scape for young minds to roam free within. I was going to talk about this if I did my other culminating idea regarding masculinity within the media, but I have the perfect opportunity to do so here: something so great about said world is how sincere and genuine a lot of the male characters are (yknow minus people like Denethor and Alfred). Namely the fellowship, they all openly care for and are affectionate towards one another, something we rarely see between men both in modern media and in real life. Aragorn is a perfect example of someone owning and being comfortable in his masculinity. He is kind to and uplifts others, and communicates openly with them. He isn’t afraid of being intimate and vulnerable towards them, either. We see this in Boromir’s death scene. Aragorn doesn’t patronize him for trying to take the Ring, he consoles Boromir in his last moments and they treat each other with the utmost tenderness and respect—not callously or stiffly. Right after decapitating an orc, Aragorn is still able to run to his side, hold him, and kiss him on the forehead following his passing. Aragorn also isn’t afraid to share fame or glory, in fact he never seeks it out in the first place despite his lineage. It was at the battle of Helm’s Deep that he embraced that destine to be king, not out of lust for power, but because these people needed guidance and leadership and he could provide it for them. He elevates others in an incredibly positive and empowering way, especially Frodo and Éowyn, and is content with the fact that the story is not about him. Even at his own coronation, he directs every single person’s attention to the literal earth-saving feat that the hobbits have achieved in light of his own massive accomplishment. He is such a great role model to have been able to look up and aspire to be like, and I wish there were more characters and people like him.

I was a fan of those original films at an earlier point in my life, but the thing that brought that interest back a little stronger was undoubtedly the release of the Hobbit prequels. Like the Star Wars prequels, everyone can say what they want but they are very gorgeous to me. I skipped out on seeing Frozen with my class to go see The Desolation of Smaug with my dad and that was SUCH a good decision. Although, I’m rewatching them all now and Battle of the Five Armies kinda sucks at the beginning. They kill Smaug in like the first five minutes and like it wasn’t bad but it was very anticlimactic. I also don’t like how they shoved Legolas in there, his personality is really jaded and he’s kind of a big prick in those films. But it’s fine I love Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage and the rest of the dwarves the most. They were obviously the most significant and I like them a lot, and there are three movies as opposed to the one book so there’s even more content!

WHEW sorry about that anyway The Hobbit really was the revival/rekindling of that past love for Tolkien’s world. I also had a good close friend who was also along for the ride as well—being able to be into these things alongside someone is always fun and I’m grateful she was there and shared my same energy. She had the Lego game for that one, very similar free-roam concept as my Marvel one (coming up next), so we had lots of fun with that too. To reiterate, I am rewatching these movies again now as an older person with like an actual conscience, and my takeaway from them is vastly different on more of like… a philosophical level, I suppose. I appreciate the process of things more and the backstory behind Tolkien’s lore and the timeless characters and deeper meanings that he’s conceived. But that wouldn’t be very chronological of me to go into it here so moving on.

Proceeding next, around grade four at the most (so just after it came out), I watched The Avengers (dir. Joss Whedon, 2012). Not only did this single-handedly make my art convictions explode (in a good way), it also instigated my love for soundtracks (and also the entire Marvel universe but we’ll obviously be covering that very soon).

The Avengers was like an epiphany for me. Literally ground-breaking and earth-shattering. Changed my entire 10-year-old life. It was all that I ever wanted and more, and since it was around 2012-13 that I became aware of its existence, the internet community was blossoming with possibilities and content. That same friend liked it as well! My Avengers/Marvel phase definitely rivals my Star Wars phase; I think I watched The Avengers first, and then my dad was like “yeah ok you need to watch everything else now” and so henceforth Captain America and Iron Man and Thor. Those were very good times, and I actually remember experiencing all of them for the first time ever. The Christmas of 2013 was absolutely wild. I only got Marvel related gifts which was incredible at the time. My first ever ‘art of’ book was for the Avengers film, too! I also got an arc reactor shirt that actually lit up and I thought that was the absolute coolest thing ever, and then I remember I cut my tongue on this candy I was eating and my mouth bled profusely for a while. However the most iconic gift of all was my copy of Lego Marvel Superheroes for the PS3. I finished it in about 2 days, and it’s the only Lego game that I’ve gotten 100% completed progress on. I love that game dearly and still play it sometimes. The thing that I love specifically about it was the ability to free-roam the entirety of New York City as any character you wanted, me and that friend would do that exclusively for hours on end and make up our own stories with all the characters. Here is Galactus perusing the streets

Speaking of characters, this was the first thing that really got me making up and drawing a shit ton (apologies for lack of a better phrase) of original characters. I’d make superhero characters for me and my friend (ok I guess I should give her a name huh), Mackenzie, and even for random people in my class cause we needed to fill in some blanks in the stories we’d make. I’d create comics, write little stories, make variation after variation of these people we came up with, and of course like normal children me and Mackenzie would go to the park near my old house and pretend we were said characters. Man it was so fun. Then we’d do all those personality quizzes to find out which member you were most like. Mackenzie and I would do these quizzes on none other than our state-of-the-art BlackBerry playbooks. For me it was usually either Iron Man or Thor, and Mackenzie had this weird curse where she’d only ever get Loki as a result for anything at all which was very hilarious to me. Circling back to soundtracks, The Avengers OST was one of my first full album purchases. The main theme was my favourite track out of all of them for obvious reasons, but I still paid respects to all of them and listened to it often. Since I bought it with my dad’s Apple ID, it’d show up on the communal iPad that we used for music in the kitchen and I have full recollection of my grandpa playing it on blast in the morning to wake us up one time. I was aggravated at first but then when I realized what it was I was like ah yes of course. After the Avengers soundtrack, I got the Wolverine (2013) OST and that was fun but I didn’t like all the tracks in the same way, but THEN I got the Days of Future Past soundtrack. THAT is a good soundtrack AND a phenomenal film.

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Anyway, after that I was a Marvel connoisseur for a little while. Like Star Wars I got an entire character encyclopedia, a bunch of comics, posters, you name it. My parents and sister also enjoyed dabbling in stuff too; we’d watch the animated series together on Netflix and eventually ended up seeing all the new movies together when they came out in theatres (except not my mom though cause she gets motion sickness from action films). Marvel was a staple in the adolescence stage of my life before I was introduced to anime (then it was all downhill from there (I am kidding anime was a part of my life that I look back at with great fondness)). It was reason for so much of what I explored with my art and my own imagination, and was one of my first experiences in what it was like to be a part of a fandom-esque community. There were also memes ripe for the picking when it came to Marvel; as one can assume I had no access to memes in kindergarten to grade 1 in the late 2000s. It was such a lovely and warm point in my life, something that established what kind of passion I really poured into something when I really liked it. And akin to Star Wars, there’s just so much to like about it. There’s so much to offer, an array of colourful characters and storylines—and of course, creative liberty when it came to superpowers and that whole narrative. The sky was literally the limit. Here is some of my ancient 2014 portraiture that I dug up for the sake of this assignment

Ok heads up we are now veering AWAY from childhood content and touching on a film that played a more personal part, namely during a very pivotal point, in my life. I picked up The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Stephen Chbosky, 1999) at a bookstore and read it at the speed of light; I was crying in my room on my bed by the time I finished it. I love how we see Charlie’s character change over the course of the novel, not only through what he describes or how he perceives things but his style of writing in general. Anyway, I wanted to read the novel first before I watched the movie (dir. Stephen Chbosky 2012), and I was pleasantly surprised by how accurate the movie is to the book (well duh the author directed it). I read/watched this right before I started high school, so I was kind of (but not really considering the built-up childhood trauma he has yikes) in the same position as the protagonist, Charlie, as he was starting out (minus a lot of the major aspects of his character and what he went/goes through (like drugs)). A lot of the things that he learns were really important takeaways for me before heading into that new chapter of life like he did.

Contrary to the title of the (I know it started out as a novel but I’m just gonna say film) film, you need to put yourself out there and advocate for yourself in life. It’s great to be a trustworthy individual whom everyone is vaguely aware of and likes, but you need to approach things with reason and make yourself known somehow. At the time, both before and during grade 9, and even still sometimes in the present (though I do it more deliberately now), I found myself just standing on the sidelines as life happened before me and I let it sweep me away without having any feet planted on the ground. It was like I wasn’t in control of it, and in turn I might’ve struggled in some areas more than I should have. I didn’t own anything, like I wasn’t totally present. Similar to Charlie, I was a person who’d always be there for others, someone people could talk to and confide in, and ultimately someone people truly enjoyed having around—which is pretty great. But I didn’t fully know my position or what I ultimately wanted in any of those situations. Don’t get me wrong, I am incredibly grateful for my entire freshman experience and I absolutely wouldn’t have wanted it any other way considering all personal circumstances, but with that foreknowledge of the importance of making a name for yourself, especially in high school, I think I was able to branch out with ease a bit more than I would have without it. I at least was aware of what was going on in that sense. That movie is really special to me because it ended up being a pseudo-mirror of my own experiences. Charlie’s English teacher, Bill, embraced his writing abilities and urged him to participate more, share his own thoughts, and express more of his personality by giving him books for extra reading. My first ever semester of Laurier did the exact same for me as Bill did for Charlie. It fostered my interests and intellectual abilities, and you guys constantly urged me and everyone else to go above and beyond what we were used to because you knew we could do it (even though I feel like I could’ve done a lot better on some things as my marks in grade 9 are a bit lower than I’d like them to be, but hey it was a time of adjustment and I did my best and that’s what matters). As a direct result of Laurier, I’m really lucky to have been surrounded by an amazing group of passionate students, a handful of which became my closest friends throughout high school, and that my very first teachers of the day were people who uplifted me and genuinely cared not only about furthering my academic work, but about my growth as a person.

Whew let’s wade out of the sap and get into some more energetic stuff!!! To tie off this recollection of my life through film the most recent and notable movie that impacted my life was, the one and only, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (dir. Peter Ramsey, Bob Persichetti, Rodney Rothman, 2018). Similar to The Desolation of Smaug and Frozen, I went with my dad to the cinema but parted ways with him to watch this movie by my lonesome (he went to the Aquaman theatre instead smh). Again, phenomenal choice. I talked about this in my grade 11 blog, but Spider-Verse is an absolute masterpiece in every way shape and form.

At the point I watched it, I knew what I wanted to generally do with my life (be part of the art industry) and the visuals of this movie alone were enough to make me want to elope with it and never see or talk to anyone ever again. It is such a gorgeous film. The way they strayed from the yucky 3D conventions norm—and there is literally no way they could’ve done the majority of what they did in that movie effectively if they did it live action. Or, they could definitely try and make an attempt, but it’d look like garbage. For example, a lot of the action scenes in general and also when they become abstracted like with the particle collider. 40-60 fps would not do that sense of movement justice at all. Too smooth. Not enough grit and personality.

Anyway, they also pioneered new animation techniques in mixing 2D and 3D, and explored a newer superhero trope where the main character’s own mundane life struggles are equally as important as him trying to sort things out with these new powers. It’s more of a battle between what Miles wants with his own personal life—new school, the friends he won’t be able to see because of said new school, owning his own abilities and adjusting to change. Then on top of that he’s met with all these alternate-dimension people that he has to work and be on par with. Aside from the art, I thought the overall message was every special: Miles learns through trial and tribulations, unsureness—and most importantly, failure. Confidence and optimism, in regard to what he thinks he can and can’t do, is vital. Amidst everything he is faced with, he starts out as just another kid who wants to be just another kid. But we all have something special inside us that we must choose to embrace if we want to truly flourish. We see him come to terms with the fact that he really is capable of greatness if he sets his mind to it—and that’s the main message: anyone can wear the mask. And can we talk about that soundtrack??? Not only the instrumentals, but the actual songs were great too! “Sunflower” and “What’s Up Danger”? Lovely and fitting. And back to the OST, the Prowler’s theme??? Shivers.

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There is such a unique and beautiful vibe to this movie, and it’s inspired me in more ways than one. Aside from that nice motivational stuff, it also has recently played a tremendous part in developing my own art. All of the artists who worked on the film are people I immediately tried to find on social media so I could see more of their work. I purchased the art book, and even bought a 2D sequence illustration course provided by one of the art directors, Patrick O’Keefe. That course also came with the (digital) brushes he uses, and I’ve used them in pretty much every single one of my pieces since downloading them. This movie really showed me the possibilities of what could be achieved in the art industry, and it made me want to be a part of it so much more than I was before. I want to be involved in revolutionary visual achievements, and I want to develop characters and stories and worlds that are as interesting and loveable as the ones in Spider-Verse. (my stuff featured below)

So there you have it folks, 5 (five) of the most significant movies in my life relayed in a whopping just over 4000 words. I hope this has been enlightening for all you readers out there, perhaps you now have a better understanding of how I came to be personality/interest-wise, and I hope you can catch a glimpse of that same importance these pieces of media have in regard to me and my values.

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nerdybff · 5 years

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The Webby Awards 2019... too much awesome

Every year when The Webby Awards are announced, I promise myself that I’ll just spend a few minutes finding the highlights to share with you. The awards highlight everything from great newsletters to fun games. I search through the hundreds of winners and nominees to find great stuff for productivity, augmented reality, artificial intelligence and more things we talk about here.

There are literally hundreds of sites, but I can’t possibly go through them all, can I? I was just going to skim this time… and now 12 hours later…. I’m so excited! I scoured the lists from top to bottom.

I have to apologize because this is wayyy tooo much awesome for one blog post. But I gotta do what I gotta do.

Here are my picks for the best of The Webby Awards.

Artificial Intelligence

If you haven’t seen this deepfake video with Obama, you don’t understand the craziness that is coming.

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Upload your picture to this site, and artificial intelligence will redraw you. I think I kinda look good in AI.

Productivity

Collect by WeTransfer is a new one for me… it looks like a souped-up Evernote that lets you collect, keep and combine ideas from apps, including songs, pictures, videos, links and articles.

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One of my team members likes Monday.com, so now that they’ve won a Webby, I should check out how they help with project and time management.

All the Feels

Sick kids watching a VR Smileyscope. #WhatYouNeedToday

Google’s GBoard team created a keyboard that opens up a whole world of communication for differently abled people. Watch what I’m talking about here, and check out the Google Experiments Morse code page here.

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Weird/Cats

So. Yeah. If you like cats and chicken, here’s a video of kittens crawling on a cat tree decorated like Colonel Sanders. Guys, I don’t know. They actually live streamed it for four hours, and more than a million people watched. It won both the regular Webby and People’s Voice.

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This site is just cats bouncing. That’s it. But it’s hard to stop watching.

No cats, but definitely weird. Here’s a site that celebrates what technology was like when Britney Spears was all that. It’s actually kinda awesome.

Movies/Music/Data Visualization

Wow. This National Geographic video won a couple of acknowledgements. Worth taking 7 minutes to enjoy. Be sure to use your mouse on YouTube to swipe 360 degrees.

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The Google Experiments tools are my fave! Check out all these music-making tools in the Creatability Collection. This GIF is me making music with my hand. I’m hiding my face because #BadHairDay.

Well, I’m not really sure why I would need to explore 50 Years of Swiss Music Charts, but it sure is fun to do so. This site was nominated for data visualization.

Even if you’re not into birds, you’ll be fascinated with the data visualization of migration patterns.

Language and Travel

Both Google Assistant’s new interpreter mode and iTranslate’s Converse were recognized. They both let you carry on a more-or-less natural conversation with instant translation with different language speakers.

Yea! My favorite flight price-watching tool, Hopper, won!

Voice Assistants

Amazon’s Alexa devices are getting a few HIPPA-compliant connections for use in healthcare, but Lucy is ahead of the game. These voice-activated “bedside assistants” help patients in hospital rooms summon the right help at the right time just by speaking what they need, like “Lucy, tell the nurse I’m in pain.” Right now they’re only in The Prince of Wales Hospital, but this will probably catch on.

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An Italian nonprofit needed donations to fight ALS, a progressive neurodegenerative disease. So they created an app that let Italians record one word that would be used to build a database of voices that A.L.S. patients could use to speak. It became the most downloaded app in Italy… and everyone had to pay a couple of bucks to get it. So now there’s a beautiful “voice” with countless voices, plus lots of money to help the cause.

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Security

A few days ago I gave you guys all kinds of tools to help with robocalls.RoboKiller was recognized for its efforts to cut down on spam calls. It’s the one that messes with telemarketers with recorded “conversations,” and then lets you listen to the chaos.

Both Dashlane and 1Password showed up at The Webbys for the best password management tools.

They have nothing on this security tool… even though we’ll probably never know the name of it. A group created a secret Alexa skill that helps domestic violence victims. The name of the skill is shared at women’s shelters and the like. The person enables the skill, then if there is an episode of domestic violence, telling Alexa to “play loud music” will summon help. This technique may work because domestic violence victims frequently turn up music to cover the sounds of the abuse.

And then there’s Outro, an Apple app for rating and reviewing bars and clubs based on security, comfort level, vibe, inclusivity and cleanliness.

Augmented Reality

OMG I love this app! Download it and scan a US dollar bill (or other denomination) to replace the face on the bill with a #NotableWoman. “Swapping out the faces we all know for the faces we all should.”

Mental Health

Two of our favorite apps made the list… Calm and Headspace. Shine is new to me, but it won a People’s Voice award, so it’s worth a look. Shine calls itself a “daily self-compassion coach.”

The Cheetos Vision app isn’t really there for your mental health, but it will totally make you smile.

#becausecheetos

Not even an artificial intelligence Cheetos filter can disguise the #badhairday I’m having.

Speaking of artificial intelligence… check out this Emoji Scavenger Hunt! AI helps identify objects around you that match up with the emojis that came from them.

Fun and Games

So fun! Just visit 7up.com on your phone to find the Digital Bartender. Then stand your phone next to your adult beverage glass and pour ingredients as advised.

To disprove the idea that kids today don’t read, the New York Public Library created Instagram stories for novels… Voila the #instanovel.

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Remember IFTTT, the tool that connects cloud-based services to automate all kinds of little tasks? Well, Domino’s created little automations to trigger a Domino’s order if it’s your birthday or if it snows more than 4 inches or if your plane lands or…. You gotta visit If This Then Dominos…

The Webby Awards 2019… too much awesome was originally published on Your Nerdy Best Friend

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