#and i really should play kodee again

[ggukkiedae]

When an introverted puppy meets an extroverted cat | NCT JENO & TOMORROWXTOGETHER SERI [SELF-ON KODE]

Click Below to See the Video

(pink chats for for jeno, blue for seri, based on which color of the wall they’re sat on. fair warning, this is unedited aksjdj)

*insert teaser clips here*

jeno sits on the pink wall side this time and sighs, putting on the airpods “i really hope this isn’t a prank again”

interview jeno: zhong chenle if you come out again… i think i may develop trust issues

seri walks in, hopping slightly into her seat, airpods already on and a grin on her face

interview seri: i’m excited. i really want to grow as a person through experiences with and experiencing more people

they scan the codes to enter the chat

moeongmeong: hi

nyangi: hi! how are you today?

m: i’m okay, just a little skeptical because my friend pranked me last time i was here

n: really? what happened?

m: he pretended to be on the show with me, but he knew who i was and wasn’t wearing airpods

seri laughs

interview jeno: i’m still upset

seri: this person seems to be innocent if they fell for that

n: how old are you? you seem young

jeno snickered “should i say how old i am? should i be nice or not?… i’ll be nice”

seri stared at her phone "this person isn't answering... oh, wait"

m: i’m a millenium kid

seri’s eyes widened “this person’s older than me?”

n: you’re older than me!

n: only by one year though

jeno straightened in his seat “oh? oh no, now i feel like i have to lead the conversation… unless this is chenle again”

seri is thinking “i know a few people born in 2000… soobin oppa? did he follow me here?”

m: yah

n: what?

m: i swear if this is you from last time again

seri laughed out loud at that. “they must let their younger friends pull pranks on them, huh?”

jeno gave his phone a skeptical look "zhong chenle... this is ridiculous, am i actually being pranked by chenle again?”

n: you seem like a nice person to let someone younger than you mess with you

n: your younger friends must find it funny

n: my younger friends become babies when they’re with me

"it isn't chenle," jeno tilted his head with a curious smile, "it feels almost like this person is in an idol group, too"

m: are you perhaps an idol?

m: is that why you’re nyangi? your fans say you look like a cat?

seri looked to her right curiously “how did he figure that out so fast? or was that a lucky guess?”

jeno laughed at the momentary lack of answer, "i must be right"

interview seri: i deducted they must be an idol too. by that logic, they’re an idol who’s known to look like a puppy, right?

n: ooooh, you’re right

n: you must be an idol too, meongmeong

jeno laughed

m: right!

m: good

m: so you like music?

n: i do!

n: i’ve been doing music even before my i entered my company

jeno looked up for a while “they’re an idol…”

interview jeno: they must be someone who debuted after me, right? the only person i can think if younger than me who debuted before me is bts miya”

seri looked at naver for idols who look like puppies born in 2000, then a familiar face popped up

she snorts and shakes her head

interview seri: if this is kim seungmin, i'm walking out. he's gonna start nagging me again. that was my first thought

n: *one image attachment* (a picture of seungmin)

n: it’s you, isn’t it?

m: ???

jeno had to put his phone down for a bit while laughing

m: did you search naver?

n: i did!

m: no

m: wait

m: we shouldn’t play like that

seri was just laughing “cute! there’s no way this is seungmin! they do seem a little bit familiar though”

n: okay okay

n: i got it

n: HAHAHAHA

n: but are you a girl or a boy?

m: do you want to guess?

m: i can put my hand over the corner

seri looked at the staff “are we allowed to do that? yeah? okay”

n: go, i won’t look

jeno got up, putting his hand over the edge of the corner

seri got up as well, looking away and reaching her hand out, jumping slightly when she found jeno’s hand

jeno’s jaw dropped in shock while he let go, “it’s really not chenle, it’s a girl”

“boy hands,” seri nodded to herself, laughing

n: so you’re a millenium boy?

n: you’re an oppa, then

m: you’re a girl

m: your nails felt long, by the way

m: i have a friend that likes doing nails, i can recommend you to her

interview jeno: her nails did poke me, and they felt long and textured

interview seri: i did my nails last night! it's like a hobby, but i didn't think he'd notice them

n: *one image attached* (a picture of her nails)

n: pretty, right?

m: woah

m: they’re my favorite color

n: oh?

n: blue is my favorite color too!

jeno smiled at his phone “good, there’s common ground”

seri tilted her head, "i wonder what else we have in common"

m: do you want to exchange song recommendations?

n: sure!

seri looks at the screen, tilting her head with a smile “what is this? he sent me one of the somgs on my play list”

the song jeno sent is my favorite part by mac miller and ariana grande

jeno laughed “yah, i have this song in my playlist!”

the song seri sent is ... smile by juice wrld and the weeknd

m: lol we must have similar taste

n: i think so…

m: the song i sent…

m: was it already in your playlist, too?

n: yeah!

n: i think we’ll get along well

n: want to go out to eat after this?

jeno’s eyes widened as he read this, and he burst out laughing “what is this?”

meanwhile seri tilted her head a little “is that too straight forward? i hope not”

jeno was looking off camera towards the staff “yes? you’re telling me to say yes?”

m: will you treat?

n: since you’re the oppa…

n: shouldn’t you treat?

jeno gave an incredulous look

seri was laughing her ass off while typing

n: kidding! i offered, so i’ll pay

m: we’ll see after the reveal

m: let’s send our home screens!

seri takes one look at jeno’s black home screen and laughs

jeno pulls a face at seri’s homescreen. it’s pure white

n: we match well

m: your home screen is so bright

m: kinda like your personality

jeno cringed as soon as he sent that

seri straightened “oh?”

n: was that flirting?

n: because i can up my flirting game

m: no!

m: i wasn’t flirting!

jeno drapes himself over his chair “oh no, this person must think i’m weird!”

n: it’s okay! my friends have a habit of flirting all the time, so i’m used to it

n: let’s send baby pictures!

seri sends hers first, and jeno looks at it closely “i don’t think i can guess who this is… she looks familiar”

before jeno could send his, the chat disconnected

the two now stood on opposite ends as the staff counted down

they both looked around the corner

seri burst into laughter, turning and heading back to her chair while jeno stood there with an amused shock expression

“yah!” he called to her, “what are you doing? you’re so straightforward!”

seri was still laughing on her chair, “oppa it was you! then whoever pranked you must have been either chenle or another 00 liner!”

jeno looked down “you’re right, it was chenle”

interview jeno: i guess i shouldn’t be surprised. the way of messaging felt familiar… yah, you shouldn’t search for people in stuff like this”

jeno looked at her weirdly while pulling her to stand from the chair, “you don’t listen to juice wrld?”

“you introduced him to me,” she shrugged, “and i kinda just started”

jeno smiled at that

interview seri: i’m happy it was jeno oppa! now i guess why he just let his member prank him like that without holding a grudge or getting angry

int jeno: we found out we had a lot in common in chat, but these are things we already knew in real life

she leaned against the wall while jeno looked at her, arms crossed

“so we’re eating out today?” “yeah, i’ll pay” “oppa, i said i’ll pay!” “how can i let you pay when you paid last time?”

interview seri: it was a good conversation, honestly. it didn’t feel forced, and it wasn’t too deep or too shallow, but this oppa held my hand…”

jeno in the background of int seri: to my defence, chenle did it to me first

interview seri: oh, oppa you’ve gotten bolder because you would have never done that when we first met

jeno got up from the chair and stood next to int seri, placing an arm around her shoulders “okay, thank you for this opportunity, even if i already knew the person, it was a fun experience, bye!”

seri just looked at him and laughed while he was waving. he looked at her and gestured to the camera “say bye, seri-yah”

“bye” she’s laughing while the screen fades to blank screen

you hear them talking with their icons popping up to show who was speaking

“you know, i was going to call you after to recommend this person to you for nails” “really?” “hannah says you do her nails really well” “that’s sweet of you to think of me, oppa… can i do your nails?” “with the extensions?” “if you want? i can do plain ones or nail art on your natural nails, too!” “okay”

you can hear the sound of seri clapping while jeno chuckles

-end-

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[crqstalite]

eh,,, close enough. probably should’ve reffed kodee when i made lali, but they look enough like sisters that i’m not complaining lol.

just for reference, citlali and kodee are stepsisters anyway.

[kodie-ffxiv]

#5 Vault

“Hopefully this won’t end up like last time where we were ambushed by creepy spider robots.” Tesh said as she paused to look at her surroundings within the Allagan ruins.

“Heh we don’t want that now, do we? I didn’t get a reading on anything out of the ordinary but ya never know around here.” Kodie replied as he continued checking the large locked door blocking their way.

This wasn’t a job they were hired to do. This was something more along the lines for Kodie, the occasional urge to upgrade or build something new came around often, of course some of those upgrades needed parts that could only be acquired from Allagan ruins. A tip was all he needed to find this specific one, but arriving both he and the little Seeker found a large door sealed between them, and hopefully a jackpot. 

Kodie ended up finding a console, and began working on it, being careful however to make sure there wasn’t any traps he could potentially spring. Glanced over from behind on occasion, the curious Marmot Tribe Seeker never really understood her husband’s obsession with advance tech, nor did she understand it in general, but she was none the less fascinated. Of course she kept guard while he was working, the new blade he had made for her worked out perfectly, items attached to her hands and wrists made it so the blades would retract when returning to her, not that she ever had trouble with them before hand, but it was a good precautionary measure. After all the training with Selphie while in the East, she took well to the Thavnarian dancing style. 

“Whatever is inside, they really made sure this wouldn’t be easy..” Kodie broke the silence.

“Sooooo meaning something bad is in there and we should just turn around and go.” Replied Tesh, despite knowing that was a futile request. 

The Midlander turned and smirked at the cheeky Seeker. Shaking his head as he went into a satchel to grab a small Allagan Node, as soon as it was out the node came to life and began floating about. “Ari, need you to access this console and get us in.”

The small glowing node moved towards the console and began to scan it. “Processing…multiple safeguards are in place, may take several moments.” The node spoke as it began its own work, leaving Kodie and Tesh to themselves. 

“So it’s getting close, ready to be an Aunt?” The Midlander asked, as Tesh turned to him and beamed right away, nodding.

“Yes! I can’t wait to spoil them soooooo much.” He replied as she moved close to him, wrapping her arms around on his his own.

“Heh you’re gonna be the coolest Aunt too. I’ll make sure you get them everything they want, and we’ll them get away with stuff. Give’em all the candy, cake, and junk, and stuff.”

The little Seeker grinned and giggled at the thought as she leaned closely to her husband. A large sound interrupted the two, the sound resembling something moving. The pair quickly turned towards the direction as the door slowly began to open. “There we go, good job Ari..” He said as the node returned to the palm of his hand, shutting down as he returned it back to his satchel. “Let’s see if this tip was worth the gil huh?”

Tesh had reluctantly removed herself from Kodie’s arm, reaching to grab her weapons again, nodding along as she moved to follow the Midlander. “Just be careful okay, Kodee?”

Kodie nodded as he slipped his mask back on, the red lights of the eyelets immediately began to glow. He made sure he had his revolver ready for any potential ambushes. The large door led them to a small room to their surprise; Kodie quickly scanned the area, finding no hidden access areas, but also plenty of old Allagan equipment. He then removed his mask, slipping it back into his pocket to get a better look. “Well well, I think we hit the jackpot…”

To Tesh this was just junk, but she believed in her husband, and if he said it had value, they really did. She smiled while standing at the entrance, letting Kodie go through everything to see what he was going to take back. “At least we ran into no trouble…” she paused as she hoped she didn’t jinx anything.

“Let’s see, we got plenty of scrap I can melt down to make into my new fire arm. Some upgrades to my shop….ohhhh is that a…” He paused as he made his way to one specific item. “That’s a battery, and it still holds a charge…bet I can use that for the car.” He grinned as he lifted up the heavy item. 

“Those Allagans were complete arseholes according to the history books, but damn they made some good tech.” He spoke again as he began to inventory all that was in the room, it would take a few trips to grab what he needed, but in the end he was grateful for the lack of enemies that attacked them. 

Tesh of course did what she could to help, grabbing whatever the little Seeker could carry. “Come on let’s get moving, we don’t want to overstay our welcome.” Still she was being a little cautious. “You can play with these toys at home.”

@mteshi-ffxiv

@sea-wolf-coast-to-coast

[huahsu]

YEAR OF THE GHOST DOG

[TL;DR version for the New Yorker -- I loved many great short songs and became obsessed with (1) a very old, much longer one (2) and YouTube comments this year.]  [links to previous year’s lists at the bottom]

A while back, I found myself in an extended funk. The reasons are uninteresting and honestly a bit dumb, a mix of everyday bummers and more existential stuff, all of which manifested in a kind of 360º sluggishness. I couldn’t really figure my way out of it but I believed that I would eventually stop feeling this way.

One night, I saw that someone online was selling a copy of the Emulations “These Are the Things,” a magnificent soul ballad 7″ out of Oakland. I wasn’t exactly homesick for the Bay Area, but something about the song’s roots, as well as its overwhelming feeling of optimistic yearning, resonated with (through?) me. There’s a moment when the singer’s falsetto peaks, and the piano starts cascading, and things feel like they’re going to work out after all. The copy for sale wasn’t in great shape, and it cost $100, an extravagant amount of money to spend on a piece of music. But I convinced myself that I’d feel better at some point, weeks, months, or years later, and I’d listen to my Emulations single, and recall that weird summer/fall.

As often happened with independently produced records of the sixties and seventies, “These Are the Things” was pressed on styrene, rather than vinyl. Styrene is a kind of plastic that’s lighter, cheaper and much more fragile than vinyl, and you can tell the difference by a kind of hollow plink when you put it on a turntable. Styrene also means that it has a limited life, and that each time the needle drags across its grooves, the record degrades a little bit. Over time, styrene records that get played a lot no longer sound as crisp or clear (or so it seems). I listened to it once it arrived, feeling a bit of regret at this wild expenditure, but also imagining my future self’s gratitude. I imagined entering into communion with everyone who had played this copy before me. I decided to only listen to the song once a year, if that--after all, each time I listened to the record, the song was changing, slightly.

A few months later, I felt normal (whatever that means) again, and the record became a marker of...I’m not sure what--maybe a kind of blind, stubborn optimism. Someone years later uploaded the song onto YouTube, which means I can listen to it whenever I want. This fall, I was trying and failing to spend less time on the Internet. But I decided that, instead of going on Twitter and Facebook, I would just read comments fans left on YouTube. I became obsessed with reading all the intimate histories people shared with one another--the chance encounters, the teenage dates and breakups, the seventies shop owners who recalled the days when stocking the right hit single could cover an entire month’s rent. I was listening to the Emulations when I noticed this comment, from Deric Jackson, who was apparently one of the group’s members: “I sung this song when I was 19yrs old. It was a pleasure to record and send this messageout into the airways. I have been with the women that God had given me to marry when I was 22yrs old. I did not understand at that time I was singing about my own life and the women who I had not met, but how wonderful it is to be with my wife fo 35yrs and life is still a breath of fresh air and wonderful. I would like to say to all real men love your wife, never worship her only one to worship is God alone.“ I’m pretty agnostic about most things relating to providence. But I felt as though I had been living in these words: “I did not understand at that time...” Jackson’s song was a prophecy, maybe even a conjuring, of his own path, and I wonder what he hears when he listens to it now. Sometimes you don’t know what’s coming next. But there’s always another song, and it doesn’t always sound the same as the last time.

(LATE 2017 BUT I REALLY DOUBT ANYONE NOTICED AKA THE FRENCH “MO BAMBA”) Junior Bvndo, “T’as ça #3 (Kylian Mbappe)”

I WILL LISTEN TO ANYTHING THAT USES DISTORTION Sheck Wes, “Wanted” OR OLD SCHOOL STABS Santi feat. Shane Eagle and Amaarae, “Rapid Fire” EVEN MORE THAN THAT, I LIKE THINGS THAT SOUND MESSY AND SLOPPY BUT ARE ACTUALLY PERFECT Caleb Giles featuring Cleo Reed, “Name” WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN AS GOOD AS IF IT HAD BEEN PERFECT, THE WARPED AND SMUDGED BEAUTY IS WHAT MAKES IT BEAUTIFUL Tirzah, Devotion Niagara, Apologia SAME, BUT SLIGHTLY OFF-STEP Blood Orange, “Charcoal Baby” THE BEST GENRE OF MUSIC REMAINS “SADE” Sade, “Flower of the Universe” and “The Big Unknown” Amber Mark, “Love is Stronger Than Pride” Bon Iver and Moses Sumney, “By Your Side” Kelela, “Like a Tattoo” 808s AND HEARTBREAK AND NEAR-OCTOGENERIANS Swamp Dogg, “She’s All Mind All Mind” I WASN’T AS ENAMORED WITH A LOT OF “NEW JAZZ” BUT DID LIKE Sam Wilkes, Wilkes Sam Gendel and Sam Wilkes, Music for Saxofone & Bass Guitar …WHICH REMINDED ME A BIT OF THIS FACEMELTING REISSUE (RIYL: ALICE COLTRANE, DON CHERRY, ETC ETC) John Tchicai, With Strings SPEAKING OF TERRIFIC JAZZ-ADJACENT STUFF Dos Santos, “Manos Anjenas” THE ORIGINAL “BIG MOOD” Okonkolo, Cantos THE YEAR I REALLY REKINDLED MY LOVE OF THE CELLO Clarice Jensen, For This From That Will Be Filled Oliver Coates, “A Church” …WHICH I DEFINITELY PREFER TO VIOLIN--ESP PIZZICATO--THOUGH THIS WAS QUITE GOOD Sudan Archives, “Nont for Sale” HARPS ALWAYS SOUND GOOD Leya, The Fool Meg Baird and Mary Lattimore, Ghost Forests ALWAYS HAVE TIME FOR WOODBLOCKS AND VIBES Kate NV, для FOR AS WELL AS MIAMI BASS SIGNIFIERS (KICKSTARTER FOR CITY GIRLS TO RAP OVER DJ BATTLECAT IN 2019) City Girls, “Act Up” AND BANJO DRONE...WHY NOT Nathan Bowles, Plainly Mistaken ALBUMS THAT I LIKED IN 2018, AND THAT I SENSE I WILL LIKE EVEN MORE BY THIS TIME NEXT YEAR Ben LaMarr Gay, Downtown Castles Can Never Block the Sun Neneh Cherry, Broken Politics AN ALBUM THAT I WISH WAS TEN ALBUMS Tierra Whack, Whack World AN ALBUM I WISH WAS JUST A LITTLE BIT LONGER Pusha-T, Daytona OF THE MANY REASONS I MOURN THE DEATH OF “THE ALBUM,” ONE IS THAT I ALWAYS LIKE TO HEAR WHAT PEOPLE DO WITH THAT LAST SONG YG, “Bomptown Finest” OR HOW ALBUMS, FULL OF SIGNS, ANGLES, FLEETING MOMENTS, CIRCULATE AND RE-CIRCULATE Angelique Kidjo, Remain in Light AND HOW THEY ARE LIKE WHAT NOVELS REPRESENTED IN THE AGE OF POETRY—OPPORTUNITIES TO LIVE INSIDE COMPLEXITY, SPACE, A DEMOS U.S. Girls, In a Poem Unlimited ONE OF THE BEST ALBUMS OF THE YEAR WAS A SOUNDTRACK... Kendrick Lamar et al, Black Panther AND TEASER FOR  Jay Rock, Redemption AND ANOTHER WAS JUST SOME RAP SONGS Earl Sweatshirt, Some Rap Songs WHICH ISN’T TO SAY ARTISTS DON’T STILL VALUE AND HAVE FUN WITH THE FORMAT Vince Staples, FM A TWENTY-FIVE TRACK ADVENTURE INTO VIBES Pink Siifu, ensley AND SOMETIMES TWENTY MINUTES OR SO IS ENOUGH boygenius, boygenius ONE MORE ALBUM THING – FIRST SONGS HAVE ALWAYS FELT LIKE THESIS STATEMENTS, AND STREAMING HAS ONLY APPLIED MORE PRESSURE TO THE SOOTHING, BEWITCHING, PERFECT WELCOME Mac Miller, “Come Back to Earth” MAC MILLER AND THUNDERCAT LOOK SO HAPPY HERE whole thing, but esp six minutes in, and even more so about nine minutes in THE BEST VIBES Show Dem Camp feat. Boj and Ajebutter 22, “Damiloun” Koffee, “Toast” HAPPY-GO-LUCKY B/W DEVIL-MAY-CARE Shoreline Mafia, “Nun Major” I LIKE NEF AND EPs PERFECTLY SUIT HIM Nef the Pharaoh and 03 Greedo, Porter 2 Grape 

RAPPING AS FAST AS YOU CAN OVER FREESTYLE/HI-NRG WILL NEVER SOUND BAD TO ME… SOB X RBE, “Paid in Full” SOB X RBE, “Carpoolin’” …ALTHOUGH THEY ALSO SOUND SICK OVER FAKE GHOST DOG BEATS, TOO, THIS WAS ONE OF MY SONGS OF THE YEAR SOB X RBE, “Paramedic!” SAME WITH MEDHANE Medhane, “The Garden” TRIPPIE REDD PUTS OUT A LOT OF MUSIC FILLED WITH TRANSCENDENT MOMENTS, BUT RARELY MAKES TRANSCENDENT SONGS, AND IT PAINS ME A BIT THAT MY FAVORITE SONG OF HIS THIS YEAR WAS Diplo featuring Trippie Redd, “Wish” TRIPPY-ASS DOO-WOP Cuco, “Sunnyside” A STRONG HARMONY IS A VISION OF WHAT LIFE COULD BE Ben Pirani, “How Do I Talk to My Brother?” WHERE WERE U IN 94 Young Echo, Young Echo SWEAR I'VE NEVER HEARD MUSIC THIS “GREY” ManOnMars, ManOnMars IF YOU ARE GOING TO MAKE A FAKE D’ANGELO SONG, IT SHOULD BE THIS GOOD Patrick Paige III, “Voodoo” LIKED THIS, BUT IT’S ALSO POSSIBLE TO BE A BIT TOO FAITHFUL TO THE PAST Teyana Taylor, “Hold On” NOT QUITE FAYE WONG DOING THE CRANBERRIES (RIP DOLORES O’RIORDAN) BUT STILL MEMORABLE Katherine Ho, “Yellow” LIKE THE BEST PARTS OF FEELS-ERA ANIMAL COLLECTIVE, BUT TAIWANESE Prairie WWWW

NEVER THOUGHT TO VISIT THE LOUVRE UNTIL The Carters, “Apeshit” video BROWN EXCELLENCE Humeysha, Departures "BROWN BEATS” FOREVER RIP Cameron Paul

MY FAVORITE DISCOVERY OF THE YEAR Pharoah Sanders playing “Kazuko” in a tunnel near the Marin Headlands LIKE NONE OF ITS INFLUENCES (FOOTWORK, AMBIENT), LIKE NOTHING ELSE OUT THERE, REALLY Foodman, Aru Otoko No Densetsu DARESAY SKI MASK WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN BOOED OUT OF THE CIPHER Ski Mask the Slump God, Beware the Book of Eli THE MOST FAMOUS PERSON I’VE SEEN ON THE BIG SCREEN AT THE PAST THREE YEARS’ NETS GAMES IS Young M.A., “PettyWap” DEMOS FROM A GROUP I HAVE ALWAYS ADORED, BEFORE THEY FOUND THE SOUND THAT I ADORE The Nonce, 1990 EXTREMELY GOOD AND LARGELY OVERLOOKED REISSUE Suzanne Menzel, Goodbyes and Beginnings FOUR TET IS GOING THROUGH HIS LIVE ARCHIVES, AND IT’S A TREAT TO STUDY HIS ARC/EVOLUTION  Live at Hultsfred Festival, 18th June 2004 Live at LPR New York, 17th February 2010 Live in Tokyo, 1st December 2013 Live at Funkhaus Berlin, 10th May 2018 STRANGE TO LIVE IN A MOMENT WHERE BEING WEIRD SEEMS A BIT DERIVATIVE. STILL, THIS IS BLISSFUL SahBabii, “Anime World” HAPPY FACE Smino, “Klink” SAD FACE Drake, “In My Feelings” (especially this version) “JIM FROM THE OFFICE” FACE Pusha-T, “The Story of Adidon” STOLE YOUR FACE Sophie, “Faceshopping” FACE/OFF YG and Mozzy, “Too Brazy” Sammy Bananas feat Antony and Cleopatra, “Slow Down” Kode 9 and Burial, Fabriclive 100 GASSED FACE E-40 and B-Legit, “Whooped" ABSOLUTELY FACEMELTING Todd Barton and Ursula K. Le Guin, Music and Poetry of the Kesh VACATION AWAY MESSAGE SiR, “D’Evils” Bad Bunny x PJ Sin Suela x Nejo, “Cual Es Tu Plan” BEST OPENING DISCLAIMER TO A VIDEO 808INK, “Come Down” “TAGS: LATIN CHORAL CUMBIA GOTH LOS ANGELES” San Cha, “Cosmic Ways”

BEST USE OF “OOCHIE WALLY,” STILL ONE OF MY FAVORITE BEATS EVER Stefflon Don, “Oochie Wally freestyle” BEST USE OF “SUPERTHUG” Rico Nasty, “Countin’ Up” EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS--THE HEADBANG MINIMALISM, THE LAS VEGAS WALGREENS--BUT ESPECIALLY THE LINE ABOUT WELLS FARGO Rico Nasty, “Trust Issues” “ORGASM ADDICT” (RIP PETE SHELLEY) Victor Oladipo, “One Day” “I JUST TOOK A FLIGHT TO FRANCE TO COP CARDIGANS” Black Thought and Styles P, “Making a Murderer” “AT THE EMIRATES I MILLY ROCK” Manzo and Malachi Amour, “Lingard” DOPE TUNE, AND UNEXPECTED KELLYANNE CONWAY REFERENCE JPEGMAFIA, “1539 N. Calvert” YEAH YEAH YEAH (RIP MARK E SMITH) Travis Scott and Drake, “Sicko Mode” R-E-S-P-E-C-T (RIP ARETHA FRANKLIN) Rosalia, El Mal Querer REEL DEAL, “DRIPPIN’ DOPE (SAXAPELLA)” (1989) Gunna, “Top Off” WAMP WAMP (WHAT IT DO) B/W WAIT (THE WHISPER SONG) Vallee feat. Jeremih, “Womp Womp” SAD REGGAETON IS NOT BAD Bad Bunny, “Solo De Mi” SOUNDS GOOD TO ME, 2002-PRESENT Temani, “Power” Westerman, “Confirmation” REAL LIES, POET LAUREATS OF “YOUNG PEOPLE THINKING ABOUT BEING OLD” Tom Demac and Real Lies, “White Flowers” A SONG DESIGNED TO SOUND LIKE IT CAME OUT THIRTY YEARS AGO, WHICH ALSO FEELS LIKE IT CAME OUT A MILLION YEARS AGO (IT WAS JUST JANUARY) Bruno Mars feat. Cardi B, “Finesse (remix)” TAY-K WAS JUST A YEAR AGO Comethazine, “Highriser” FAVORITE 2 BRIDGES MUSIC ARTS “MIGHT AS WELL” RANDOM PURCHASE OF THE YEAR  Kizaki Ondo Preservation Society and Clark Naito, 木崎音頭 Kizaki Ondo FEELS LIKE IT CAME OUT TEN YEARS AGO (IT WAS JUST JAN/FEB) BUT I NEVER GREW TIRED OF IT Rich the Kid, “Plug Walk” ODDLY REASSURING THAT PEOPLE STILL JANGLE Massage, “Oh Boy” Earth Dad, “Walter” ...AND DISCOVER WORLDS FROM WITHIN THEIR BEDROOMS Soccer Mommy, Clean ...AND EXPLORE THE CONTOURS OF GROWLING AND NAGGING Sada Baby and Drego, “Bloxk Party” ...AND CAN USE THE PAST TO MAKE SOMETHING SO VISIONARY AND FORWARD-THINKING Virginia Wing, Ecstatic Arrow Mitski, Be A Cowboy ...AND LOOKING FOR FOURTH WORLDS Arp, Zebra ...AND MAKE IMPOSSIBLE RHYTHMS Heavee, WFM ...AND THAT ARTISTS I HAD NEVER HEARD OF, WORKING IN IDIOMS I HAD NEVER HEARD OF, MIGHT STILL BLOW MY MIND Odunsi (the Engine), rare. JUNGLE LIVES X-Altera, “Blowing Up the Workshop” mix TOP THREE TIMES I SAW STANDING ON THE CORNER THIS YEAR 3 - The Merciful Allah Black Hole Theatre 2 - The Time it All Ended with Fireworks on Grand St. 1 - An Empty Storefront During a Blizzard

{HONORABLE MENTIONS -The Time They Brought a Monolith -THEME DE YE-YO [Respect to the Gods]} SONG OF THE SPRING, SUMMER, WINTER, YEAR,  STILL UNDEFEATED ### A CHURCH AND JOHN LENNON’S “IMAGINE” :: 2017 SIKH DEVOTIONAL MUSIC :: 2016 SPOOKY BLACK :: 2015

[magzoso-tech]

New Post has been published on https://magzoso.com/tech/supermodel-karlie-klosss-lesson-to-young-women-never-be-afraid-to-ask-questions/

Supermodel Karlie Kloss's Lesson to Young Women: Never Be Afraid to Ask Questions!

The Project Runway host built a coding school, Kode With Klossy, to inspire a generation of tech-savvy women. But her real mission, she says, is much broader.

December 24, 2019 13 min read

This story appears in the October 2019 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »

­The view is stunning up here, from the 34th floor of this downtown Manhattan office building. Outside the floor-to-­ceiling windows, the day is bright and clear. But the 24 teenage girls occupying the space are over it. Their noses are buried in MacBooks, while a soundtrack of Disney hits plays in the background. There’s work to be done, after all: They’re students at a nonprofit coding camp called Kode With Klossy, and today’s assignment is to design and code an online photo gallery.

They’re so focused on the task, in fact, that they don’t notice when the camp’s creator and very famous namesake walks in.

“Hey, guys,” says supermodel, Project Runway host, and coding enthusiast Karlie Kloss, as she gives the students a friendly wave. The girls seem a bit too stunned to react.  Eyes widen as they glance around at each other, quietly nodding with shared enthusiasm. But before they can do much of anything else, the 27-year-old Kloss is checking out their work, bringing her six-foot-two-inch frame to a squat so she can be eye level with her students and their screens. For the next 90 minutes, she asks questions about their code and their plans for the future — though conversation occasionally veers off to Harry Potter and chocolate chip cookies.

If it’s all a little surreal inside this room, it can look even more so from the outside. Kode With Klossy operates in 16 cities and this year alone gave almost 1,000 young women the (free) opportunity to learn a critical skill. It has attracted a wide range of support, though also the inevitable skepticism. Supermodels, after all, aren’t supposed to code.

Related: Karlie Kloss Looks to These Female Founders for Inspiration

Kloss has heard it before. And she has a straightforward response. “There are a lot of misconceptions about being a model, and how that directly correlates to your intellect,” she says. “Yes, I’m a model, yes, I’m a woman, and, yes, I’m interested in these areas. And I think a lot of other young women are interested in these areas, too, and they deserve the opportunity to learn about them and decide for themselves if they belong or not.” 

Kloss is careful to never claim expertise in the world of computer science. She’s an enthusiast. She can code, but she considers herself a perpetual student of the craft — and a person not defined by others’ expectations. That, she hopes, is the sensibility her students will come away with. More than attaining any level of coding experience, she wants Kode With Klossy’s attendees to appreciate the power of curiosity and the willingness to ask questions. She owes her career to this instinct, she says. And she’ll continue to use it as her professional life evolves.

As Kloss makes her rounds at the camp, one young coder sings the praises of the instructors but sheepishly apologizes for asking them too many questions. “No!” Kloss says emphatically. “Do not apologize. That’s what they’re here for. You should always ask your questions.”

Image Credit: Jake Chessum

Kloss grew up in St. Louis with her mom, dad, and three sisters. At 13, she participated in a local charity fashion show and was, as they say, discovered. By 15, she was walking the runway for Calvin Klein. In the years that followed, Kloss became one of fashion’s favorite faces, gracing countless runways and magazine covers. (To date, she’s covered various editions of Vogue 40 times.) 

But by 2014, she wanted more. “I was 21, a bit of a veteran in fashion — it’s like dog years — and I just wasn’t feeling challenged,” Kloss says. “I was so in awe of what was happening in tech but a bit frustrated that I didn’t understand it. Why do certain people know how to scale businesses and ideas and problem-solving? What is it that certain people — primarily men, and primarily highly intellectual men, or at least men who are perceived to be super smart — are privy to that the rest of the world isn’t?”

To answer those questions, she signed up for a two-week coding boot camp at the Flatiron School in New York. Kloss was captivated by the experience. “The way I learned code was very real-world applicable,” she says. “Being able to understand the building blocks of [technology]? It turns the lights on. It turned the lights on for me.”

In the months that followed, she kept studying. She struck up a friendship with Flatiron School cofounder Avi Flombaum, who helped her along. And as her fluency in code continued to grow, she started to think about how many other women could benefit from the same perspective-­changing experience.

“I had an audience of young women paying attention to me on social media and in my career, and I wanted to connect them to opportunities that could really open their minds and open doors in their lives,” she says. “It’s not only a responsibility but a real privilege to be able to point someone in a direction that could be valuable to them.”

Related: In Pitching Your Business, Take Every ‘No’ As a ‘Not Now,’ Says This Founder

But how? Kloss decided to start with what she knew. The summer after she learned to code, she partnered with the Flatiron School to underwrite 21 boot camp spots for young women. She publicized the opportunity on her social media channels and was surprised by the response. Thousands of applications came in. 

This got her thinking about what it would take to reach more women. The first step, it seemed, was to build something herself — ­something she could eventually scale nationwide. “I had no idea how, or even the intention, to build a nonprofit or anything in this realm,” she says. “I had no idea what I was doing.” 

But then again, she didn’t know anything about code until she threw herself into the boot camp. “It’s just been about figuring it out as you go,” she says.

Image Credit: Jake Chessum

Kloss calls her camp “my nights, my weekends, my day job, my baby.” But at the very beginning, it was just her puzzle. She had no experience building something like this, but she did have an enviable professional network. She counts Diane Von Furstenberg and Anna Wintour as mentors, and has longstanding business relationships with brands including Adidas and Carolina Herrera. So she made some calls and got some direction.

“Like with any business, you focus on an area you understand,” she says. “And as you grow, identify who else out there is doing good work, and figure out how you can align to better accomplish your goals.”

That became her approach. She had a vision; now she needed to piece together the right operational elements. She assembled a team of what would become five full-time staffers, and at first, they simply expanded their partnership with the Flatiron School. In 2016, Kode With Klossy launched as a stand-alone nonprofit, hosting two-week camps for girls ages 13 to 18 in New York, St. Louis, and Los Angeles. In 2017, the program expanded to 11 cities. By 2019, it was in 16 locales. 

As Kloss and her tiny team have taken on more and more of the logistics and back-end operations, they’ve required additional partners. The Turing School of Software and Design now helps craft a technical curriculum. Teach for America has also signed on, tapping into its network of teachers, and, with an assist from Kode With Klossy, is teaching them to code, and then training them to teach code.

Related: Model and Entrepreneur Karlie Kloss Shares the Importance of Always Learning

Students — which the program calls “scholars” — apply for a coveted, completely free spot at one of the camps, which aims to select students who otherwise wouldn’t have easy access to these kinds of opportunities. Those accepted spend two weeks learning code, attending workshops on topics like career paths and financial literacy, and building various projects until “Demo Day,” when they pitch their completed websites or apps to their teachers, fellow students, and parents. Past projects have included an app that connects students with peer tutors and another that helps users locate public gender-neutral bathrooms.

As the guts of the program have become increasingly well-oiled, Kloss has relied on her existing network to make Kode With Klossy’s offerings as robust as possible. 

As a brand ambassador and face of Estée Lauder makeup, for example, this summer Kloss arranged for the cosmetic giant’s female engineers to speak to scholars, and created an exercise that allowed them to explore the back-end design of a new digital campaign for the corporation. The partnership provided summer internships at Estée Lauder for two Kode With Klossy alumnae. 

Kloss also aligned with Away, the travel startup, which she’s invested in. (Her growing portfolio includes the female-founded brands Lola, which makes feminine products, and SkinTe, a collagen-infused tea.) In 2018, Away launched an exclusive collection of luggage in new colors, designed in collaboration with Kode With Klossy. Sales benefited the coding organization.

Kloss herself isn’t able to visit every camp — she tried at first, but the endeavor has simply grown too big. So she appears where she can and makes sure to FaceTime in with the rest. As she does, and as she’s talked to the girls who attend, she’s come to realize that her program is providing something that she herself lacked as a child.

“I wanted to become a teacher or a doctor, because that’s what I saw: My dad’s an ER doctor, and I had amazing teachers at my public school who really helped me love learning,” she says. “But those were the only avenues forward I saw. So now, for example, we have one scholar who’s a really gifted artist, and when she tells me she wants to go into game design, I’m like: ‘Yes! That is a great application of both of your passions.’ ”

For Kloss as well as her young scholars, coding boot camps become a portal to a bigger world. For the supermodel, it was an awakening that led her to create one of her own. And now, for the students at that camp, it’s a beginning that can lead anywhere.

Image Credit: Kode with Klossy

In spring 2017, Valeria Torres-Olivares was wrapping up her junior year of high school in Princeton, N.J. She’d taken a couple of computer science classes and loved what she learned but found the experience to be isolating.

“I was one of the only girls in my classroom, and I was the only Latina in any of the computer science classes at my school,” she says. “I felt almost unqualified to ask questions, like I should be able to figure them out for myself.  That can spiral into a lot of self-doubt.” 

Related: 5 Things I’ve Learned Teaching Hundreds of People How to Code

So she decided to apply to be a Kode With Klossy scholar and encouraged her little sister Kyara, who was 13 at the time, to do the same. (“I wanted her to be exposed to code, but in a different environment,” she says.) They recorded a joint video application and were accepted. The experience changed everything. 

“I had never been in an all-female STEM environment before, and I expected some sort of weird competitive vibe to be happening,” she admits. “But it was one of the best learning environments I’d ever been in. My sister and I both fell in love with how collaborative it was. No one was afraid to ask what might be labeled as ‘dumb’ questions.” 

Torres-Olivares went all in after that. She spent the next two summers with Kode With Klossy — once more as an attendee, and then as a paid instructor’s assistant. And like Kloss, she immediately knew she wanted to share her knowledge.

With her little sister, Torres-Olivares approached her local library and offered to host and teach free coding classes for kids. That kicked off a new organization, Code Equal, which she launched in Princeton in 2017. It has since served more than 200 students and held workshops at Fordham and Rutgers universities. This year, Code Equal will launch classes in Detroit and Omaha. 

“Kode With Klossy has an amazing network of students and instructors, and we have massive group chats where people are always supporting each other,” says Torres-Olivares, who is now a sophomore at Princeton University, where she’s studying computer science with plans to create a custom major that blends the craft of code with public policy. “Because of that, we’ve been able to expand our mission.”

For Kloss, these are the stories that prove the organization’s success — not because former scholars are choosing to commit to code, but because they’re choosing to create their own path. Next, she wants to dedicate more resources to empowering that budding alumnae network and has her eye on programming for girls younger than 13 and for women older than 18. 

“In the grand scheme of things, a Kode With Klossy camp is a short two weeks,” Kloss says. “But our scholars take it and run with it. We’re at a point in this organization where we’ve only just scratched the surface, and it’s time to look at what’s working, and innovate and scale. But being able to see impact in even one person? It’s so much bigger than what I ever imagined.”

Check out more stories from our October/November issue’s list of 100 Powerful Women.

[sydha]

The Output Overflow

Yes, it’s a terrible title, I know, y’all can yell at me later. Tugas kami selanjutnya adalah mengambil input dari sebuah sensor dan menampilkan outputnya dengan media pilihan kami, entah di serial monitor atau LCD atau seven segment. Sensor pilihan kami adalah sensor temperatur LM35. Dan karena yang diukur adalah temperatur, it follows that we need two digits to display the temperature, at least. Jadi, kami punya tiga pilihan. Pakai serial monitor, which, as Sherlock said, is just boring! Atau pakai LCD, which is practical. And less boring. Atau, kami bisa memakai dua buah seven segment dengan bantuan shift register.

Of course, I just can’t let the chance to play with a new toy slide. I mean, shift register? Turning three outputs to seven? Sounds cool, baby, sign me up! I mean, pakai LCD lebih gampang, but still... dull. So this is what we used for this particular project!

- satu (1) buah board Arduino Uno, - satu (1) buah breadboard, - satu (1) buah sensor suhu LM35, - dua (2) buah shift register, - dua (2) buah seven segment, dan - empat puluh (40) (YES , FORTY) buah kabel jumper.

And you know what? It was just as exquisitely awesome as I thought! Karena kita pakai... *ehem*mainan*ehem* baru, saya nggak bisa langsung ngarang sirkuit seperti tugas sebelumnya. Jadi saya melakukan riset dan mendapatkan informasi tentang pemakaian shift register dari rastating.

Pastinya, dia agak sedikit lebih rumit. Cara kerja shift register itu dengan meng-assign nilai kepada 8 bit dan mengirimkannya ke shift register. Awalnya kami percobaan sedikit dengan kode asli yang disediakan oleh rastating. Kode tersebut menyalakan delapan LEDnya secara bergantian hanya dengan 3 pin output, and it surprisingly works as okay as expected. LED seven segment menyala bergantian. Sooo we started tweaking.

That’s when the trouble starts.

Awalnya, saya mencoba memodifikasi fungsi displayNumber() dari tugas sebelumnya. Saya suruh Arduino men-display angka dari 0 hingga 9 secara bergantian. Funnily enough, it didn’t work. Seven segment cuma menampilkan strip horizontal di tengah, jadi hasilnya seperti ‘-’. Wonderful.

Kami berusaha debugging, tapi gagal. Kami tidak berhasil membuat LED menampilkan angka yang dapat kami kenali sama sekali; hanya ‘-’ di tengah tengah.

Akhirnya, kami mendapat pencerahan. Saat mencari tahu tentang metode bitSet(), yakni metode yang kami gunakan untuk meng-assign nilai kepada kedelapan bit yang kami kirimkan ke shift register. Dan ternyataa, menurut website arduino, bitSet() itu hanya bisa digunakan untuk mengubah nilai bit menjadi satu, namun tidak sebaliknya. All my fault, really. Di kode rastating ditunjukkan kalau cara menggunakan bitSet() itu begini:

bitSet(leds, currentLED);

Saya kira variable leds itu berisi nilai bit, which it’s not. Surprise surprise. Stupid of me, really, karena nilai variabel leds di kode rastating tidak pernah berubah. Nol terus.

We poked around the arduino official website a bit more and found this function called bitClear(), which is just exactly what we’re looking for! Kalau bitSet() menge-set bit menjadi, bitClear() menge-set bit menjadi nol.

So we changed the code. Sadly, that was not the end, karena huruf yang muncul di seven segment tetap gibberish. Nice. Di titik ini saya mulai takut kalau tugas ini nggak bisa selesai dengan sekali kumpul.

Tapi, well, tentu saja hanya ada satu solusi logis untuk seven segment yang menampilkan gibberish: ada yang salah dengan ketujuh (keempatbelas?) pin yang dipakai untuk menghubungkan seven segment dengan Arduino. Jadi, kami menyalakan LED yang tersedia satu demi satu. 

Bingo! Ternyataa, kami terbalik memasang pin LED pada shift register. Alhasil pin A tertempel pada output pin G, dan sebaliknya. A quick round of switching pins round, and everything is working as it should be.

This is the final code that we used:

int val; int tempPin = 1; int latch1Pin = 12; int clock1Pin = 11; int data1Pin = 13; int latch2Pin = 8; int clock2Pin = 10; int data2Pin = 7; byte leds = 0; int currentLED = 0; int n = 0; int p; int s; void setup(){   Serial.begin(9600);   pinMode(latch1Pin, OUTPUT);   pinMode(data1Pin, OUTPUT);   pinMode(clock1Pin, OUTPUT);   pinMode(latch2Pin, OUTPUT);   pinMode(data2Pin, OUTPUT);   pinMode(clock2Pin, OUTPUT);   leds = 0; } void loop(){   val = analogRead(tempPin);   float mv = (val/1024.0)*5000;   float cel = mv/10;   int celint = (int) cel;   float farh = (cel*9)/5 + 32; Serial.print("TEMPERATURE = ");    Serial.print(cel);    Serial.print("*C");    Serial.println();    p = (celint%100 - celint%10)/10;    s = (celint%10);     leds = 0;    displayNum(s);    digitalWrite(latch1Pin, LOW);    shiftOut(data1Pin, clock1Pin, LSBFIRST, leds);    digitalWrite(latch1Pin, HIGH);    displayNum(p);    digitalWrite(latch2Pin, LOW);    shiftOut(data2Pin, clock2Pin, LSBFIRST, leds);    digitalWrite(latch2Pin, HIGH);    delay(300); } void displayNum(int n){  bitSet(leds, 0);  bitSet(leds, 1);  bitSet(leds, 2);  bitSet(leds, 3);  bitSet(leds, 4);  bitSet(leds, 5);  bitSet(leds, 6);  //Conditions for displaying segment a  if(n != 1 && n != 4)  bitClear(leds, 0);  //Conditions for displaying segment b  if(n != 5 && n != 6)  bitClear(leds, 1);  //Conditions for displaying segment c  if(n != 2)  bitClear(leds, 2);  //Conditions for displaying segment d  if(n != 1 && n != 4 && n != 7)  bitClear(leds, 3);  //Conditions for displaying segment e  if(n == 2 || n == 6 || n == 8 || n == 0)  bitClear(leds, 4);  //Conditions for displaying segment f  if(n != 1 && n != 2 && n!= 3 && n != 7)  bitClear(leds, 5);  //Conditions for displaying segment g  if (n!=0 && n!=1 && n !=7)  bitClear(leds, 6);  digitalWrite(latch2Pin, LOW);  shiftOut(data2Pin, clock2Pin, LSBFIRST, leds);  digitalWrite(latch2Pin, HIGH); }

Dann that’s all today guys. No time-lapse for you this time, because we used forty jumpers (More? Maybe more), and no way am I messing with what’s already working. I’m so not risking putting everything back together and having everything break for no discernable reason--and then spending another hour troubleshooting. So, here’s a result video for ya.

And all is well again with the world... or not. Who knows what next week would bring?

See you and best wishes,

Sydha Septifika Puteri Rohima

[kluaranhkgevc410-blog]

Lottery System That Provides Winning

Now after we are a conservative and say the prize won by you isn't 1 the super dooper US style jackpots with 2 of hundred million shared but simply ordinary draw of $3 or 4 million. Escalating reasonable spot on? I know people have got bet decide to purchase in lotto for three decades and have maybe won a few hundred us dollars. They never think about exactly how much they've got spent. Using my conservative estimate above, it is over $30,000. Wow, again.

Find some systems and software packages that let pick numbers easily and pick number combinations with calculated probabilities of winning. Indeed, choosing your number combination can often be puzzling and with help from your local neighborhood system or possibly a computer program, the task of choosing and computing probabilities can be a little easier and convenient.

By being a great motivator, Ken explains the method success. He wants for you to definitely feel excited when you get a ticket after utilizing the Silver lotto System. Ken https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/?search=data hongkong wants that think of what you would do jointly winnings. Even if you didn't win this time, he wants you to be able to forward to a new time you play.

You also can check any web site that offers lottery exploration. There are a lot websites how the give out super numbers for any draw. Carbohydrates pick one from create .. There is nothing wrong when you get no assurance that it really is win the day after. What is important let me suggest that you learn to take into consideration sources where you'll get your winning numbers. Anyway, there are not any rules that limit your pick of numbers. You can easily even count the numbers from 1 to 49 and ask somebody some thing as the "stopper." You tell him/her to say "stop" six times. You should use the six numbers for all your winning formula of. It is like a foolish game but it is one means of selecting your numbers with little thought.

Did fretting or constant that utilized increase your odds of of picking the right numbers by up to almost 50%. It indicates that you've got a 50/50 chance in which you could win zona kode once again. When was given out time anyone might have seen suffering from this . in a gambling display? Not very many right?

Do require this mistaken way, folks have made money quickly with advertising. One of these, the author of one beginners summary about internet marketing I profited greatly from, went from nothing to quitting his day job in about six seasons.

Internet Marketing is combined in today's world with Multi-level marketing. Oh, sure you can sell you Mary Kay or Amway Products without the internet, we will be limiting your source of income.

[bki-writing-blog]

No. 6

        Otto wasn’t sure how many more phone calls he could take. His parents were the subject of the first call that came in two months ago, when the bacterial plague started to take lives. Since then, every call he’s tried to make to family or friends was not answered by them, but by a government agency a few days later, notifying him that whoever he tried to contact recently was confirmed dead. Every. Single. Time. By becoming a librarian, Otto hoped to continue living the quiet, introverted lifestyle he never grew out of, but he had never imagined such a scale of isolation. A week ago, Otto crossed another name out of his directory, his last friend in the Los Angeles area. No more family. No more friends. There was one contact left in his phonebook under the name: “Kode.” He was a friend he hung out with when he still lived out in New York before moving to Los Angeles when he was thirteen. He had actually been the first number Otto had put into his phone. When he called his number, a chime sounded off followed by an automated voice. It said that the number could no longer be reached and that the system would send him a correct number in the future if one could be found. That’s the moment Otto decided to go to New York. He wouldn’t miss a possible chance to see the last person on Earth he knew; he had built up enough guilt from not seeing anyone else before they passed. Plus, if he couldn’t see this Kode again, he could at least get some comfort in seeing his hometown again.

        Otto was reluctant to step foot in LAX with some of the extra security measures, but if he really wanted to get across the country fast he knew he would have to put up with them. Because the bacteria developed new strains quickly, newer versions of the cure and vaccine had been issued, the latest being No. 6. While international flights remained grounded, today cross-country flights were allowed – Otto considered himself lucky. Beyond the security line was a cylindrical tube that connected all the way to high ceiling of the terminal. Inside the machine, plastic restraints unfolded from the walls onto Otto’s arm. A needle drew a blood sample and another tool cauterized the injection hole from the needle. Otto looked away to avoid a fit of squeamish fidgets and growled from the pain as the exit door opened. He scuttled to the conveyor, slung his bag over his shoulder, and took deep breaths. He never wanted to be inside one of those things again. Otto had trouble putting his earbuds in his ears with his surgical mask in the way. Even after wearing it non-stop for two months – besides for the relief that was a meal – it still annoyed Otto. It was uncomfortable now, but he knew he shouldn’t dare to take it off. Not here. It was annoying looking at everyone wearing them too; they reminded Otto of dogs wearing muzzles. Otto sat down in a row of seats and looked at the ticket information on his watch: “Flight 0029 | LAX  > LGA | 10:42AM  March 7th, 2032.” Sullen faces of others stared at the television above.

        “…the number of lives taken by Hysuina is currently reported to be just over 6.1 billion, around seventy-two percent of the 8.5 billion people who walked this Earth before the Hysunia pandemic. The latest of the now 136 states to be declared collapsed or politically inert is Mongolia, as no official response has been given to UN communication attempts for over a week. The UN is still hotly debating about what should be done regarding states where it is confirmed that all of the former state’s citizens have perished-”

        A boarding announcement interrupted the television audio. Otto and a small group of passengers were lead out of the fire escape and onto the tarmac itself instead of walking through a jet-way. He was somewhat surprised to see only a few small private jets on the tarmac. He recognized the plane his group was being led to as a Cessna Citation X+, a more streamlined private jet with swept back wings and a curvy fuselage. After climbing the steps into the plane, Otto moved along the tightrope narrow cabin, counting twelve seats. He thought it was odd that the some seats were oriented backwards and facing other seats, but remembered this was a business jet, not an airliner. He sat in the back, already nauseous. Outside the window, there was a team of airport staff scrapping parts off of a Boeing 787. The jet airliner looked like a model kit fresh out of the box with components neatly categorized around it.

        Otto touched down at LaGuardia at around six o’ clock, shortly after the sun had disappeared to remind people on the other side of the Earth that this still wasn’t a nightmare. He was happy to be off the plane, but hated being rescreened upon entering the terminal.

        The city was far different than what his memories told him. The entrances to the subways were barred up and police tape hung like spider webs. A sign read: “Contaminated Bodies Inside! Closed until further notice.” The elevated rail tracks didn’t rumble and screech above Otto’s head. There were so few people on the street that it wasn’t a requirement to bump shoulders. The former terrible gridlocked city streets now had traffic resembling that of a remote mountain highway and no taxis could be found. Every so often a patrol car or ambulance would whip past Otto. What was most frightening to Otto was the absence of lights in the skyline, as if Death itself had smashed nearly every one like mailboxes. Hardly any people were left to use them. “The City that Never Sleeps” may as well have been replaced with “The City that Never Awakens.” He trekked to Upper East Side Manhattan. The building where he grew up had only a couple of lights on in the windows. No children were playing or laughing on the street like he did years ago. Just then, Otto’s phone buzzed. A “Do not reply” message had been sent with a phone number, which Otto called immediately. When Kode picked up he sounded lifeless, but his voiced warmed up after Otto jogged his memory about times they shared, like dissecting frogs together in middle school. He hesitated when Otto asked to come over, but brushed whatever awkward feeling there was by saying,

        “Who else is going to visit me?” When Otto asked where he was living, Kode asked, “You said you were outside your old building?”

        “Yeah…” Otto replied, looking at the desolate state of the building and trying not to become upset. One of the windows now had a silhouette of someone looking out, holding a hand up to their ear. The figured waved over in its direction with its other hand before Kode said,

        “Come up.”

        Otto tripped on a cluttered pile of garbage in the stairwell. He was approaching the third floor door when it banged open above him. A woman ran down screaming for someone to help her. When she saw Otto, she latched on to his shoulders with both hands.

        “Please! Help my son! He’s collapsed! He’s…” Her voice drowned in her tears.

        “I’m sorry,” Otto said, forcibly removing himself from the mother’s grasp, “I don’t know what I could do.” She begged him to help her as she tried grabbing onto him again. Otto ran up the stairs until he hit the fourth floor. He could hear the lady continue stomping up the stairwell.

        Otto banged on Kode’s door. It opened to reveal a tall lanky man. Otto’s head only came up to his shoulder. Otto had always looked down to him when they were younger. It was displeasing to him to have to look up now. Kode’s hair was now blonde and disheveled instead of stealth black and tidy, and his clothes looked so wrinkly that they could have just come out of the washing machine with him still inside them. Kode welcomed Otto inside. The apartment’s main room was quite small; there was only just enough room for two loveseats facing each other with a low coffee table in between them. Kode invited Otto to relax while he got some beverages out of his fridge. Hung up around the room’s walls were different insects in display cases, some still trapped in amber. A good deal of aluminum soda cans and glass beer bottles cluttered the coffee table on top of a reprint of The Cask of Amontillado, and the pile of pots, strainers, and pans suggested no one had washed the dishes for weeks. Otto noticed the beige fabric loveseats were covered in a variety of faded stains. He was grossed out as he sat on the carpet – the cleanest part of the room – and tucked his legs under the coffee table.

        “Hopefully watching a movie isn’t too boring for you,” Kode said dully. “I couldn’t think of what else to do on such short notice.” He had his arms full of bottles of beer as he tried to clear off the coffee table. He dropped two of the glass bottles and stood silent in front of Otto. Otto noticed his arms shaking and his knees locking as he stared at the jagged glass chunks. When Otto asked him if he was alright, Kode jumped and contorted his body around at the sound of his friend’s voice. “Of course, of course… just dropped some glass… Making a mess is part of life, isn’t it?” He shrugged and rushed around muttering, “I’m sorry, mama,” before he finally found a dust pan. After cleaning up, Kode laid out numerous bottles of beer on the coffee table. Kode stuck Watchmen on DVD into the player and sat across from Otto. Otto didn’t want to take the beer Kode offered him, but didn’t want to be rude either, so he took one off of the coffee table. After both men took off their masks, Kode downed his first bottle with the fervor of a passionate churchgoer drinking grape juice during communion. His head and the bottle’s butt rotated up and down like the way the pendulum of a clock swings. Otto slowly sipped his beer.

        The movie had played halfway before a brownout plagued the apartment. Kode reassured Otto that these were common and that the power would be back up in half an hour. He turned on some electric lanterns he had around the apartment. Otto couldn’t take the silence anymore.

        “Do you even remember me?” Otto blurted. Kode squinted his eyes at Otto.

        “Sort of…” Kode responded, “But having you as company is still better than having complete strangers over, or nobody for that matter.”

        “So that means… everyone you know’s-” Otto started hesitantly before Kode cut him off.

        “Yeah…” Kode sighed, nodding. There was a slight quiver in Kode’s voice. He finished his fifth bottle with a gulp and smacked it with the other empty bottles, adding to the accumulation already on the coffee table. He turned to Otto and said, “I guess that’s one thing we have in common then, eh?” Otto waited another minute before he let his next words hit the air.

        “So… you must like to drink… a lot?” Otto said nervously. Kode shrugged.

        “I used to a lot with friends before the… I stopped for a while though, about five years. I’ve only picked it back up recently.” Otto knew he must’ve unearthed precious memories. The distance in Kode’s eyes were scarier looking away than when he stared directly into Otto’s eyes.

        “These insects seem… interesting.” Otto said, unsure if it was a good comment.

        “Yeah, I got into that in college. Took an entomology course. We had to keep small collections as a requirement,” Kode said. He glazed over his collections one more time. “Those were fun times.” Otto looked away from Kode as he ran a hand through his hair. Catching up was a lot harder than he had imagined. Kode picked up another bottle and groaned. He asked Otto if he wanted any ice for his beers. Otto politely declined. Otto thought it was strange that he stumbled down the hallway to get ice, but then Kode was already strange in Otto’s mind. Kode came back with a bag of ice. He picked out an ice cube and placed it in his mouth. Then he resumed drinking, but not for long. His body suddenly swayed back and forth and he had trouble sitting in his seat, as if overran by anxiety. “Say Otto…” Kode started, “I want to show you something.”

        “Show me something?” Otto asked, glad the conversation seemed to be turning positive.

        Kode nodded excitedly. He stood, picked up an electric lantern, and lured Otto with big slow beckoning hand motions at the apartment’s hallway entrance while displaying a wide grin. Otto – who was tired of sitting in semi-darkness and thought that getting up and moving around might make the beer in his stomach settle better – agreed and followed Kode down the hallway.

        “It’s in my mother’s room,” Kode said. They stopped at a door on the left. Insulated foam was jammed under the door. Kode opened the door carefully as if there were some wild animal sleeping behind it that shouldn’t be awoken. After Otto inched inside, Kode closed the door behind them. There was nothing in the room that belonged in a bedroom. Instead, there were piles of boxes of frozen food, bags of ice, fogged up jars with insects inside, and a large shiny refrigerated vendor cart that was in the center of the room. Brown and dark red stains had painted the waterlogged carpet surrounding the cart, the sight of which agitated Otto’s stomach even more. The room seemed more organized then the rest of the rooms in the small apartment and smelled of something rank enough to burn one’s nostrils, but not of something that was unbearable. It reminded Otto of the day in middle school when his biology class dissected frogs once more. Finally, Otto noted the coldness of the room when he started to shiver and he was able to see his own breath waft in front of him like a scared ghost. Kode marched over to the cart. The wet carpet squished and foamed under his feet. “This is where I freeze captured insects until they die, but it’s more purposeful than that alone. It’s all about what’s in here.” Kode rapped a couple times on the top of the vending cart and shot raised eyebrows toward Otto. “C’mon, get over here.” Otto stepped lightly to the other side of the cart. Kode gave Otto the lantern and shoved the cart’s top door back with both hands. A plume of fog arose out of the cart and Kode moved some bags of dry ice over. Finally, a gray and wrinkled woman’s face poked out from the dry ice. The lips had cracked, looking like slabs of tough rubber. The hair looked like it would snap if you breathed sweaty air onto it and the frost on the eyelids could probably have kept those eyes shut. Otto covered his mouth and nearly ripped the door off its hinges to get out of the room. He barreled down the hallway with wet feet, tossed the lantern onto the couch, and threw up in the kitchen sink. He finished heaving as Kode stepped behind him.

        “Jesus,” Otto gasped, “I have a stomach made of tissue paper!”

        “Oh I’m sorry, does my love for my mother make you that sick?” Otto turned around to face Kode and wiped his mouth. Now that he could think clearly, Otto fired back.

        “Love?! Who the fuck calls shoving their mom’s body in an ice cream cart love? If you really loved her you would’ve buried her!” Kode shrugged while Otto snapped back on his mask.

        “I almost did, I even pumped her veins full of formaldehyde. But let’s just say burial plots are a premium these days. I couldn’t bring myself to go through with a burial anyways. I couldn’t give her away; I wanted to preserve her legacy, her being. That’s what I am doing now… preserving…” Kode’s eyes became the darkest Otto had seen them that night. He stared down at the mess of bottles. “None of this would be necessary if it wasn’t for this damn Hysunia. It’s just not right for something so small to take my strong, hard-working mama away from me… no one understands how much I loved her.” Otto felt heat in his lower chest as he remembered how he drove three hours to attend his parent’s funeral at the church they attended in Palm Springs, to say goodbye to what used to be them.

        “I’m pretty sure everyone living today knows exactly what that feels like! I know what that feels like!” Otto shouted.

        “Nobody!” Kode bawled back. His shoulders were hunched over and his back shuddered with every raspy breath. He picked up a bottle by its neck and chucked it at the wall. The pieces sparkled and shimmered as they twirled in the electric lantern’s ocean of light. Kode’s face looked undisturbed and he was silent, but as he picked up more bottles, he gritted his teeth more and his grunts became louder. He sliced the edge of his right hand opposite to the thumb on broken glass, but shrieked and threw two bottles at once to punish the inanimate object. When there were no bottles left, he stood still and his chest heaved. He said with an uncontrolled voice, “But it’ll all be fine in the end. When this whole thing blows over, everything will be normal again! ...And mama will be fine.” A hint of hope dug onto Kode’s voice. Otto had come out here as a desperate act of loneliness, but the disrespect Kode displayed for his mother overpowered his original feelings. This wasn’t the Kode he thought he knew. Otto gathered his belongings.

        “You know keeping a contaminated source will land you in serious trouble right?”

        “Are you going to tell them then, Otto? Or will you leave me and my poor mother alone?” His eyes couldn’t lock still as he glared at Otto. “Some friend you must be to call the cops on your longtime pal. Where are you going?” Otto stared into Kode’s eyes one last time with his hand on the door handle. Kode’s stare was wicked and Otto didn’t like what he saw looking back at him. Otto mustered up the courage to say,

        “I can’t sleep here tonight knowing there’s a body in the next room over. My stomach nor my mind will allow it, because it fucking disgusts both of them.” Otto braved the night and walked the whole journey back to the LaGuardia area. He checked into a motel next to the airport and spent the remaining hours of the night trying to calm down his stomach and his mind.

        Otto woke up exhausted. His heart raced from just getting out of bed and difficulty breathing made the surging heartrate worse; it felt like Kode’s insects were in his windpipe, still alive. He saw large purple Ganglion cysts speckled on his upper arms that sent panic down his nerves. Otto quickly dressed in multiple layers. Calling the police on Kode wouldn’t be in the day’s agenda nor would flying back to Los Angeles, but Otto knew what would. He stepped into the trash-filled alley next to the motel, the pain of the sunlight knotted in his eyes. He frantically rummaged through the motel’s overflowing dumpster, his arms burning. Otto threw up before finding a glass bottle. He smashed it on the alley wall, the noise almost fully dampened. He put the broken bottle into his bag and walked briskly to Central Park. With his heartrate, it felt as if he sprinted there. Any voices were muffled and lost. Otto hurried to Bow Bridge overlooking the park’s lake. He took in the sight as he ripped off his mask to take in whatever fresh air he possibly could. He leaned on the concrete railing for about fifteen minutes before his peripherals became fuzzy. He didn’t have long. Otto took out the broken bottle and held the sharp edges to his neck with both hands. After all the Hysunia had taken from him, Otto wouldn’t let it take him. Maybe he’d even see his parents and friends again. He twisted the bottle as it plunged into his neck, severing the jugular veins. The area was cool right before hot blood cascaded and filled the spaces between his layers of tops. He dropped the bottle and stared out across the lake, clutching onto the railing. He collapsed within the next minute. The screams of the few people around him were muffled to whispers. He stared up at the sky, his vision becoming less and less. In that moment, Otto could’ve sworn he saw Montresor walking away from him with a full stride as the last thought Otto could process grinded along the top of his mind: “May he rest in peace!”

[promomagazine]

5 Women Shaking Up The Fashion Industry Through Technology

By: Oline Abildstrom

Day by day, technology changes the way we work and plays an ever growing role in the fashion industry. With this evolution, we see an increasing number of women conquering the field and making it their own.

An increasing number of organizations are getting involved in helping educate future generations. The non-profit organization Girls Who Code is shedding light on this cause by reaching out to girls at a young age, showing them that technology and computer science is a place for creativity and is most definitely a future to embrace. They have witnessed remarkable growth in participation over the past few years, so the future looks bright already!

Even fashion’s darling Karlie Kloss is a well-known advocate for technology, using her wide reach and social media fame to empower girls to learn to code and become leaders in tech through Kode With Klossy. Her organisation hosts summer camps and award scholarships throughout the year.

While we’re praising these inspiring ladies, we’d like to give a shout-out to some of our own wonder women. Making technology that transforms the way you work while being easy to use is very much at the core of what we do and we’re really proud of the amazing people we have on our team helping us on this journey. There are many other women pushing the boundaries out there, showing the world that everyone should embrace technology as the field of the future. In today’s article, we’re celebrating some of the women shaking up the fashion tech scene.

Here are 5 women who are shaking up the fashion industry through technology!

Currently: Head of Google’ Fashion Week Search Project Original Stomping Ground: Fairfax, Virginia where she studied Journalism Experience: Australian Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle Magazine, The New York Times’ T Magazine, Maxim

Lanphear grew up in the middle of Virginia and has proved that handouts aren’t necessary and that with a lot of hard work and determination you can succeed. For example, when she finally got her first internship in London, working for a magazine, she lived in a crammed hostel where she would clean in the evenings to help pay the rent.

Kate is one of the most loved people in the industry in New York. Her inspiring story shows that you don’t need connections or money to succeed in fashion.

Currently: Gucci’s Digital Media Director Original Stomping Ground: Rutgers University, where she holds a BA in Journalism and Media Studies Experience: Previously at Morpheus Media where she managed brand portfolios for L’Oreal, LVMH, Burberry and more

With Katana as the Digital Media Director, Gucci’s most recent digital campaign #TFWGucci broke the mold of digital marketing for luxury brands. Using memes designed by various artists, they promoted their new watch collection. The campaign spread across social media like wild fire and from that we can draw the conclusion that sometimes making a bold move can really pay off. You do you, Gucci! 

Currently: Founder and CEO at VINAYA Technologies. Original Stomping Ground: Kate holds two degrees, one in Mathematics & Statistics, the other in Economics, both from The Unviversity of Edinburgh. Experience: Founded Student Webstore, worked as a Technology Consultant for many years.

VINAYA Technologies, formerly Kovert Designs, is a wearable tech, fashion brand that started in London. They make connected jewellery that gives a gentle buzz when receiving only the most important notifications. With wellbeing as the main focus, these pieces can also guide you through meditation and breathing exercises. Unsworth saw a gap in the market of fitness trackers and decided to create something aimed at millennial women, with great success! 

Currently: Co-founder and Creative Director at Rebecca Minkoff Original Stomping Ground: Attended The Fashion Institute of Tech Experience: Assistant Designer at Craig Taylor before starting her own brand in 2001

She is a known advocate for incorporating technology, making it part of fashion, something we have seen her do with her own brand time and time again.

Making women the key focus seems to be one of the main drivers for Minkoff and we saw that once again with her venture capital fund that was announced earlier this year. At the Retail’s BIG Show Student Program, she said:

“As we’ve delved more into technology, I’ve come face-to-face with the unsettling truth that it’s devoid of women and our voices. We have men creating technology for women and advocating for our preferences and our needs. We’re often left with the ‘shrink it and pink it’ approach or just not considered at all. That’s not okay.”

See the full talk here:

Currently: Director of Fashion Partnerships at Instagram Original Stomping Ground: BA in Magazine writing from Columbia and a BA in English and Creative writing from John Hopkins University Experience: Lucky, Teen Vogue

 Chen has been dubbed the Anna Wintour of the Digital Age as she has been at the top of everything digital, including social media, for quite some time now. When asked what she wishes she had known at the start of her career she said: “I wish I had known to trust my instinct more and to speak up more! The advice I would give you is to work your hardest and not be glamorized by the glossy aspects of the job. Learn the BUSINESS of it too. That’s the secret!”

Besides being a mom, long-time Launchmetrics supporter and forward-thinking innovator, Chen has a fun and quirky side which you can see with her daily #shoefies Instagram posts. Need a lunchtime break? Definitely check them out!

There are so many amazing women in fashion technology, these are just 5 of them. Do you have a #womancrush we should know about? Who do you find inspiring? Let us know by tweeting @launchmetrics.