#our last show had. 317. for reference

[two-entire-bits]

WE ONLY HAVE 65 CUES

[the-moon-prince]

The Last Of us~Kurapika x Reader ~Chapter XI

AN: Hi my lovely fellows!

I’m sorry for the delay! Thank you so much for your patience and support! I’m here with another chapter! I put some uncany descriptions and a tiny fight scene in this chapter. I hope it will dynamic and intresting enough. If you have any feedback, I would be more than glad to recive it! I have some work this week, however I’ll do my best to upload the next chapter as quickly as possible! Thank you, have a great day and I hope you will enjoy the new chapter!

I wish you a pleasant read, and I hope you’ll enjoy the new chapter of my story.  (Chapter I) (Chapter II) (Chapter III) (Chapter IV ) (Chapter V) (Chapter VI) (Chapter VII)(Chapter VIII)(Chapter IX)(Chapter X) (Chapter XII coming soon!)

Paring: Kurapika Kurta x GN! Reader

Word count: 2 317

TW: Blood // Morbid Descriptions  // Violence (? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I don't bother. I want to make sure that I'm not selling one of my prized items to anyone."-The black-haired man dictated.

(Y/n) cleared their throat-"Understandable. Your collection is impeccable. I can clearly see the devotion put into it."-they agreed with their smile. sitting down on one of the bar benches. Kurapika mimicked the action.

Human and animal parts were too part of the person's collection.

Just another one of those sick scums for Kurapika. He loathed this guy. Referring to (Y/n)'s family as an article in his collection. Still making the reclaim difficult with an air of false supremacy and narcissism.

"I'm glad you recognize it."-the man seemed pleased with the adulation.-"Especially because I'm going to confer you one of my favorite pieces."

(Y/n) nodded-"If I were giving one of my pieces, I would as well be concerned about who was receiving it."-they added with their smile.

"Speaking of, tell me about your collection."-the man challenged. 

He pulled up a crystal bottle filled with a dark drink. At the moment of uncovering it, an intensive scent of alcohol came off. He proceeded to pour a generous amount of liquor in a spacious glass with ice

(Y/n) had no collection. Kurapika started to bug. What are they deemed to say to persuade him? 

"I have a peculiar appreciation for bodily oddities."-they tilted their head-"I own a hand with polydactyly, another one with syndactyly. A fetus with 15pp tetrasomy, a specimen of dipygus, a pair of lungs with tracheal agenesis, the list can go on."

The man lifted his chin at the answer. Kurapika relaxed. Using his medical knowledge to give examples of abnormalities was skillful. 

"That is in the human realm. My favorites are the animal eccentricities. Aren't beasts beautiful?"-they advertised, directing their gate to a taxidermized Golden Pheasant displayed on the shelf behind the man.

By this point, both (Y / n) and Kurapika were certain they had convinced the man sufficiently for him to finally sell them what they were seeking.

"Are they, right?"-the man bragged with his gruff voice-"Your interest shows, kid, that's good."-he nodded, drinking his liquor and refilling the glass-"But do you know what is special about my Fuse?"

Fuse? Didn't that mean beastman or dogman? Kurapika was perplexed. By what right did he refer to them like this...

"It would be the least! The Fuses, aren't they intriguing? Wonderful beasts."-(Y/n) praised, trying to widen their smile.  Kurapika could only imagine the pain they felt having to fake that excitement.

The man finished his drink in one gulp and served more.

"Even more for the few that remained. A true rarity! I had a good time studying them."-he shouted. It inflated his ego to be able to show off his collection.-"Imposing! Some tremble with fear when they see them. The demons robed, mated, and killed men, women, and children alike to eat their souls. Since they were disguising themselves as humans, they hid for a while. But they smelled like animals, you know? Beasts in body and soul."-he voiced and made motions of greatness with his hands. Letting out a pant that stank of alcohol.

All of this disgusted Kurapika. The man was putting on a deplorable show: spitting pest and bile out of his filthy mouth. All the collectors were rotten to the core. Would it also own scarlet eyes? What would the miserable bastard state about the Kurta? They were dull and reckless forms who were better off in vases on shelves? His blood was boiling.

(Y/n) didn't took their eyes off the dark-haired for a moment.

"It must be outstanding to hold one! I've been seeking a chance like this for a prolonged time now."-they exclaimed, putting their hands together in triumph. Kurapika felt sorry for them. 

"But beasts after all."-the man continued, finishing his drink and serving one plus anew. He was presumably drunk.-"Poor fools, they didn't stand a chance against us."-he started to laugh.-"But enough is enough, I'll go for what you want, kid."

The man finished his 3rth drink, got up, and left his bar counter to climb a wide staircase. Kurapika, who had stayed muted the whole exhibit and was staring at the glass of alcohol, let out a groan once he was assured the bastard was gone. Fuse, it even sounded awful. He turned to see (Y/n). They were looking at the things on the back furniture, their head resting on their hand. 

The man went back inside, and they both followed him with their eyes from the entry to his seat. He placed a head on the bar table on a polished wood plank. The head was of a dog. Its fur was light in color, and it had a longer, darker coat on the top of its head from which its ears poked out. His muzzle was somewhat elongated with a slightly recurved blackish nose A dog with human-like traits, resembling (Y/n). Only that he was a child and his grimace was a mixture of surprise and terror. His eyes had been replaced by doll-like ones, cold and lifeless. However, it wasn't him.

They degraded a child to wall decor.

"Look at it!"-the drunk man blurted, elevating the head by the ears to the level of his head.-"A real treasure! Even more, being from a predator, they were the most unusual among the Fuse!"

A twisted and degrading spectacle.

(Y/n) has a face of admiration, and started to clap.-"Wonderful!"

The man laid the head back on the table and sat.

"It is, it is. But it's a pity that it is dead. It would be even more impressive to have it as a pet."-He interjected with a grin, showing his open hand, waiting.

(Y/n) took an envelope out of their bag and handed it to him. The man took money out of it and began to count it. At that, Kurapika took the head and pulled it towards him. On its own, it was quite heavy, and the wooden base didn't help. The fur was soft and covered the moderately battered neck. When viewed up close it was worse. 

"Okay, take good care of my Fuse."-he teased displaying his hand to them. They watched it for a moment before pulling their own out and shaking it.

"I will. So you don't have to trouble about that."-they responded smiling.-"We will with-"

"Fuse."-The black-haired interrupted them.

(Y/n) inclined their head, and Kurapika looked up at him. How drunk was this bastard?

"You are a Fuse kid: you have claws. When you shook my hand I saw them, even if you put black nail polish. Your aura is not human either, although you mirror it well. But specialize in hunting beasts, you can't trick me."-the man condemned, with a severe look.

Kurapika felt his blood run cold for a second. (Y/n)'s smile got substituted by a sober expression.

"Why don't you kill me, kid?"-his face changed into an expression of repugnance.

Kurapika was already preparing to attack.

"There is no use in such an act. We will withdraw now."- they calmly declared standing up. They held the head with both hands, and the two directed to the exit. 

The man looked down at his now hollow glass, it did not seem that he was going to launch an attack. Nevertheless, Kurapika didn't let his guard down all the walk to the exit. The man didn't seem to move from his chair.

Still, the walk from the bar counter to the door felt heavy. Neither of them would show fear, they couldn't permit it. They would not indulge the wretch.

As soon as they were out the front door, they heard another scream from the man.

"Fuse!"-he shouted that name again. The smell of strong alcohol reached up to them.

 Kurapika and (Y/n) stopped, standing on the small path between the porch and the gate. Kurapika turned to see him. This man was nothing to him but a wretch. And he was already on the last nerve of him. 

(Y/n) continue to turn their back to the drunk.

"I'll tell you why you don't kill me!"-he shouted-"You don't kill me because you know it won't change anything. You will never get anything back. Because your kind never had anything."-he raged. He seemed almost offended.

(Y/n) tilted their head and remained silent for a couple of seconds. Kurapika was ready to deliver a punch to the man right into his face. At any circumstance, in his current shape, he wasn't going to be capable of much.

"No."-(Y/n) alleged, without turning to see him-"I already reclaimed what was robbed from us."-their tone was not the same as before. This one was more pressing. 

Kurapika hadn't heard that tone of theirs before. While they weren't screaming, it radiated indignity.

"They only robbed our bodies."-they maintained-"They will never be able to take away our pride, dignity, nor greatness. And that reality pains you."

The man rushed towards (Y/n), he was fast. In a fit of rage and giddy with alcohol, he concentrated his nen in his right fist and delivered a punch into their head. This action pushed (Y/n)'s head to the floor and their entire body hit the concrete, releasing the puppy's head from their grasp. Which fell to the ground, slightly staining its fur.

It was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Kurapika's eyes glowed scarlet. It could be subtly perceived under the contacts he wore. The man had made the mistake of revealing his type of nen. He was an Enhancer, practicing hand-to-hand combat. That puts him at a disadvantage against Kurapika's ranged techniques. 

Kurapika conjured his chains. He dashed towards the man and unleashed his fury in a blow that struck the man in the side, targeting the kidney. The hit was potent enough not only to beat the man off but also to thrust him a few feet away from the two of them.

He was writhing in the grass, panting.

Seeing that (Y/n) didn't get up, Kurapika went to his side and helped him to their feet. Their legs were shaking. They had hit their noses on the pavement. It was bleeding heavily, and their eyes were watery. They also had their left cheek bruised. Neither of them noticed the blow coming. 

Once steady on their feet, (Y/n) stepped to the head and lifted it. Whipping the dust and dirt off the pup's face.

"Let me see your other form. Transform yourself."-the man whimpered between gasps, still in the ground.

"Sir, you are drunk."-(Y/n) finished. 

In other conditions, Kurapika would keep pounding the bastard. However, the blow (Y/n) received was considerably strong and had a great deal of concentrated aura. Above, they had little physical resistance against direct attacks; their physical fragility could not be ignored. His priority was to get them out of the place. The man did not move and did not say anything again.

Kurapika put a hand on (Y/n) 's back to help them advance to the car.

Getting to the safety of the truck, (Y/n) sat down after putting the puppy in the back. So far it had been a disastrous night. They had to put up with a drunken narcissistic idiot and (Y/n) got beaten, insulted, and denigrated.

When they put their weight on the seat, their frame inclined forward, still shaking. They put their trembling hands together and supported them on their legs meanwhile they puffed.

Kurapika was troubled for their well-being. He moved closer to them to get a better glimpse at the wound. They would have a mark on their cheek and their nose continued to bleed.

"(Y/n), how do you feel?"- he pleaded, a hand in their back.

They sniffed and pulled out a tissue to clean their face. 

"I feel better. It is not grave, I'll be fine. Thank you, my love"-they affirmed, turning to see him and offering him a smile.

Kurapika didn't understand. He knew how affable his darling was, except this was exceedingly much. A narcissistic and vulgar man had insulted, not only them but their entire deceased family. Not having respect for the gone is the limit of acceptable decency.

 He referred to them as demons, assassins, and other barbarities. He had even demoted them to pets. Yet with all that, he was the one who attacked. He was the one who was boiling in pure anger, not making the smallest attempt to be polite with the bastard. Not (Y/n).

They could have attacked at any time. However, they didn't even conjure their ribbons. They didn't shout at him, they didn't insult him. They remained terribly calm. Even now, when they were alone in the car. It seemed as if they had forgotten everything. They even smiled.

As someone dares to speak like that of the Kurta clan, Kurapika would grind them with his chains and fists.

But this was an enigma to him. Was (Y/n) even vexed? Whatever it is, they had enormous self-control, even excessive...

Kurapika would reflect on this entire experience several times in the future. Despite the fact, there were diverse imports one particular thing adhered with him like glue: the response (Y/n) gave the man screeched they would never recover what was lost. 

Kurapika embraced (Y/n) and drew circles on their back, attempting to comfort them. They rested their head on his chest, he could feel them quivering.

"(Y/n)."-he called softly-"It's over, dear, let's go home."

They shook their head.-"Not yet."

[potionsmasters]

Maya daddy please share your favourite fics (doesn't have to be just Snarry). You shared that Spirk fic long ago and I want more

Ohh baby you’re in for it now ;)

Severus Snape/Harry Potter (Harry Potter)

This Time of Ours by emynn (complete; 35k+)Severus Snape wasn’t supposed to die. Neither was Harry Potter. 

Snape: The Home Fries Nazi by pir8fancier (complete; 27k+)When Harry defeats Voldemort, all those marked by Voldemort lose their magic. Snape decamps to the United States, where he becomes a fry cook in a diner. Five years after Voldemort’s defeat, Harry comes to him for advice.

Rapture by mia_ugly (complete; 48k+)Snape sees the man, for the first time, on his twenty-fifth birthday.

A Nick in Time + the sequel Growing Pains by tiranog  (complete; 52k+ & 120k+)After a strange dream on Christmas night, Harry Potter awakes to find his world strangely altered.

Painted in the Worst Light by asecretchord (complete; 98k+)Severus survived Nagini’s bite and is now on trial before the Wizengamot. Due to a weird loophole in the law books, he has the right to choose any Ministry employee to defend him, and he chooses Auror-trainee, Harry Potter. 

Hints From Severus by cruisedirector, Dementordelta (complete; 27k+)When Rita Skeeter seeks Snape’s help with a household advice column, Snape reads a letter from a correspondent with a familiar problem.

Unregistered by htdcd (complete; 72k+)Harry gets a unique opportunity to get to know Severus Snape. Who knew Snape would turn out to be a cat person?

The Courtship of Harry Potter by dkwilliams (complete; 27k+) Another teacher’s interest in Harry Potter forces a reluctant Snape to compete for the young man affections.

—–

Sam Winchester/Dean Winchester*** (Supernatural) ( i can’t believe i wrote Dead Winchester in the original post what a fkin typo amiright)

Courting Death by theproblematique (complete; 50k+)Sam Winchester lived the first six months of his life in a happy family; the next twelve years as John Winchester’s only son, and the last decade as an orphan. He’s supposed to die at twenty-two trying to save the woman he loves from a fire, because he doesn’t have a brother to pull him back. But the night Sam meets his Reaper he discovers that Death is overly fond of pop-culture references, too beautiful to be real, and reluctant to kill him.(I love this fic more than words can describe tbh)

The Truth in the Lie by flawedamythyst (complete; 62k+)Sam and Dean pretend to be gay lovers while they hunt a monster on a bus tour of Nova Scotia. (I love a good fake dating fic like hell yea bruh)

Fumbling in the Dark: Love Advice For the Romantically Impaired by leonidaslion (complete; 72k+)True Love really is blind…

—–

Harvey Specter/Mike Ross (Suits)

Not the Worst Step-Dad in the History of Everything by Pookaseraph (complete; 15k+)When the son he never knew he had is deposited on his doorstep by Child Protective Services, Harvey does the kindest thing he knows how to do: put Mike Ross on the case. Mike responds by doing what he does best: get emotionally attached to the client.

Wear My Name by LunarFlare14 (complete; 55k+)Harvey has always put on a good show at work. He has put a lot of effort into the smoke and mirrors act, and it had worked to his advantage- until now. Backed into a corner by a law he can’t side-step, he decides Mike is his only way out. They’re getting married, and Mike really has no say in it. (Based off “The Proposal” which is one of my fave romcoms)

—–

Sebastian Michaelis/Ciel Phantomhive (Kuroshitsuji)

Under These City Streets by DisgruntledMinion (complete; 90k+)The city held many secrets: hidden pathways that led to a hole in the wall restaurant boasting the best pizza in town or that the dinky looking building off Hickory Ave. was an upscale club. That creatures of the night existed among humans was not one of them. Ciel only wished he remembered that those same beings kept secrets of their own.(hands down the best vampire!AU I’ve ever read. I’m not kidding) 

Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier (X-Men)

The House Spouse by Butterynutjob (complete; 78k+)Erik Lehnsherr is an out-and-proud gay author, columnist, and television personality (a la Dan Savage). Charles Xavier is a straight widower with two children who hosts a radio show dispensing (somewhat conservative) advice about sex and love to teenagers (a la Drew Pinsky). Their mutual attraction is undeniable, and yet, frustratingly, Charles still denies it. Erik figures with the right opportunity, Charles will act on his feelings, and when the opportunity to ‘bid’ on Charles to be his ‘spouse’ for the week comes up, Erik wins the auction.

—–

Hank Anderson/Connor (Detroit:Become Human)

Sweet Dreams Are Made of This by MorganOfTheFey (complete; 66k+)Connor has a three year seduction plan to make Hank love him back, and it starts with getting the lieutenant into his bed.(hilarious fic, made me laugh so fkin hard, also sweet&kinky)

Autodidact by yohan (complete; 11k+)After installing new sensory upgrades, Connor’s life begins to change.(this fic is short but it makes me feel A Lot)

A Tourist in a Dream by Octobig (wip; 164k+)(there’s a reason everyone is screaming about this fic and that’s because it’s amazing thanks for coming to my TED talk)

Skin Deep by bughnrahk (complete; 53k+)Hank is 53 years old. He’s never had a soul mark, doesn’t have a soul mate. And he’s fine with that. He cheated the system once and it cost him everything he had. Never again.When August 2038 rolls around and the number ‘313 248 317 - 51’ appears on his arm in perfect Cyberlife Sans font, exactly where a soul mark should be, Hank wants nothing to do with it.

eighteen wheels on an uphill climb by blackeyedblonde (wip; 73k+)Hank is going to die. He’s going to die right here in Kentucky, 53 years old, halfway to broke, and tragically sober. Survived only by a nine-year-old St. Bernard and the 31-year-old twink who delivered the fatal blow.(this fic is my current obsession. I’m not kidding. I reread the WHOLE FIC every time a new chapter comes out. this will put me in an early grave)

[kainout]

There's more to China's virus story than its statistics -Kainout

NEW DELHI: Chinese information clamp down on Coronavirus early this year is in sharp contrast to this week's surprising admission by the top leadership that China has taken an economic hit because of the virus. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang admitted at the on-going National People's Congress in Beijing: "At present and for some time to come, China will face challenges like never before." “The horizons for China’s development are full of promise,” Li said, to quote the new York Times, but if the 3000-odd delegates to the country's annual meeting of its legislature were impressed, they did not show it. For, they must have realised that their leaders broke away from tradition and did not set any growth target for 2020. Global economics monitoring agencies suggest that China, along with India, may just about survive recessionary trends in 2020 but the rest of the world will not. However, that brings no cheers to China which realises that statistics don't tell the real story. The size tells the real story: Its size, its massive population, the need for massive production, the need for more massive production in order to export, the gigantic material unloading and storage facilities, the loading areas and transportation complexes, the huge labor force, the unimaginably big infrastructure --- even a multi-billion dollar stimulus – a little over 2% of last year's GDP -- will just be a drop in this ocean. That is the task China faces as it limps out of the impact of Coronavirus which, incidentally, returned for a brief second wave even as the lock down was lifted to restart the economy. There was some good news in April, when exports that month rose 3.5%, but it later became clear the spike owed it to demand for health care equipment like PPEs and face masks from abroad. There are reports of large shipments awaiting export clearance in Chinese godowns, but where are the orders? Exports actually dipped 6.6% in March though they were better than the +15% dip in January and February, 2020. Debt propelled China's economic stimulus programs at the turn of the century. Various factors helped surge growth, but the fact remained China was badly debt-ridden. As of this month, Chinese debt is roughly 48% of its GDP. Post-Coronavirus, the Institute of International Finance (IFF) estimates that "China’s total debt hit 317 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter of 2020". In the previous year, the corresponding figure was 245.4 per cent of GDP. On the other hand, China’s foreign debt stood at $2.05 trillion last year. Not so easy to dispose off this debt. Most of the country's domestic debt is held in financial bodies controlled or owned by the government. There are hardly any foreign investor presence in domestic financial or wealth schemes. Now, with its growth slowed thanks to Coronavirus, China fears possible default on debt repayments that can cripple its financial scenario. In April, China resumed production as the lock down was lifted. Workers started returning to factories, but the capacity utilisation is said to be much below 100 per cent. The primary reason is two-fold: Lack of foreign orders and a depleted domestic demand. Retail spending has plunged. Remember, it had alone contributed to 80 per cent of the country's economic growth in 2019. Investments in factories halted too. They in fact went down by more than 15 per cent. Unemployment may soon be touching the 20 per cent mark. People are withdrawn cash from banks and sitting on it. They are not spending, contrary to expectations that consumer spending will revive after the lifting of lock down. There is no shopping spree as the businessmen anticipated. People hardly go out to eat. The people are worried that they may lose their jobs at any time. Thousands have already suffered that fate. The government has been promising sops to factory owners and businessmen provided they pay regular salaries to their staff. But that is not stopping the flood of bankruptcies. On top of it, a second Coronavirus scare has forced people to shut themselves indoors. Local institutions, companies and governments are in a financial mire as well, leading to fears of default on loans. As it is, consumer loan repayments have taken a hit. The bond markets, facing a run through defaults since last year, are braced for worse in 2020. According to one newspaper, "in May 2020, listed oil and gas firm MIE Holdings failed to make a US$17 million interest payment on its US$248 million bond''. On the other hand, the local governments and other bodies are not confident of meeting revenue targets either. They suspect they would be forced to return to debt culture. The Chinese government has already bailed out several local institutions, including small banks. Aware of its unhealthy situation, the Chinese leadership appeared uncharacteristically humble at the National Congress meet. It admitted “many weak links have been exposed in public health emergency management'' it said, in an indirect reference to the global criticism of Coronavirus cover-up, adding that “...the people have expressed their views and suggestions, which deserve our attention''. Premier Li also told the US that China remains committed to the phase 1 trade agreement. Under this, China can once again import American farm products including pork. The US, in return, can continue its tariffs on specified Chinese goods. There is an expression of Chinese concern in this reference to the agreement: The agreement has set targets to be met but after Coronavirus, China has not been able to import targeted quantities from the US. It needs to placate the US in order to improve its export side of its economy. President Donald Trump is waging a literal battle against China at the UN, WHO and other platforms apart from the trade and tariff war with China. Faced with such an unprecedented economic crisis, if one expects China to discontinue its bullying tactics or expansionist programmes, one expects wrong. Amid the economic alarm bells, the National Congress heard the leadership announce stricter laws to quell the Hong Kong protests, so much so that the Hong Kong stock market nose dived after the announcement. China's expansionist priorities have not taken a back seat either. India has reported about increased tension at its borders because of bullying tactics by Chinese troops. It continues its belligerent attitude towards Taiwan. It continues to back its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in spite of lock downs in several BRI partner-countries stalling projects, disrupting supply chains and availability of labour and possible reneging of Chinese loans to these countries. The budget proposals to be announced before the conclusion of the National Congress will indicate if China is willing to learn from its mistakes or it will simply over-burden its debt-ridden public sector with an unrealistic growth target in face of the troika of troubles – shrinking exports, tumbling private investments and drowning consumption levels. if(geolocation && geolocation != 5 && (typeof skip == 'undefined' || typeof skip.fbevents == 'undefined')) { !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s) {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)}; if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0'; n.queue=;t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e); s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script', 'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js'); fbq('init', '338698809636220'); fbq('track', 'PageView'); } Source link Read the full article

[stringnarratives]

What You Leave Behind: “Atlantis: The Lost Empire”

[This post brought to you with major spoilers for Disney’s 2001 animated film “Atlantis: The Lost Empire,” along with some history and math.]

For many, there’s a sense of magic around Disney films. Whether it’s romantic happily ever afters, selfless anthropomorphic animals, or arcade characters run amuck, most films in the Disney Animated canon achieve some sort of joyous acceptance, even if just in the memories of its viewers. However, as with any perceived rule, even the charm of Disney has its exceptions, and a few films in particular have drawn the short straw when it comes to that fan nostalgia. 

Wedged in-between the Disney Renaissance Era’s last film “Tarzan” in 1999, and “The Princess and the Frog” in 2009 (in 2008, “Bolt”  would would be the transition film leading to our current era, known as the Disney Revival), eleven “Second Dark Age” or “Experimental Era” films were released with on-average lower levels of financial and critical success immediately following the turn of the 21st Century. On Box Office Mojo’s ranking of total gross for every Disney-parented studio film, “Lilo and Stitch” (2002) ranks the highest of this era’s films at #80, and “Treasure Planet” (also 2002) comes in the lowest at #317 (and is also the only of these films to gross less than its total budget). However, while it may rank in the top 100 for Disney overall, the same site reports that “Lilo and Stitch” earned $167,061,223 less in theaters than Disney’s hardest hitter in the traditional animation category, “The Lion King” which came out 8 years before. 

The films produced in this "Second Dark Age” were both transitional and non-traditional for the company, shying away from the Renaissance films’ proclivity for musical numbers, leaning more heavily into computer animation, and exploring new genres of film to pay homage to, including science fiction, buddy comedy and Western. Whether the decade-long dip in popularity was due more to wobbly-leggedness that came with the experimental productions, a greater saturation of competition for animated films in the market, a defiance of the audience’s expectations or a combination of any or all of the above, there seem to be an Internet-full of possibilities. (I recommend researching them yourself, if you’re interested.) The overall consensus is that the majority of Disney films released between 1999 and 2009 are generally less beloved than their Renaissance or Revival counterparts.

While I didn’t realize it at the time, I came to prime movie-watching age in this era. Where I learned language, colors, numbers and animals to the tunes of the Renaissance Era songs, I developed artistic fascination, a sense of humor, and interest in what it takes to actually tell a story alongside the adventures of this Disney dead zone (and, to be entirely fair, some of DreamWorks Animation’s competitive offerings of the same period: “Road to Eldorado” [which apparently also was not considered a commercial success] and “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron” [which seems to have done alright]). I spent many summer breaks popping those DVDs in to play one after another, memorizing the exposition of “Treasure Planet,” singing along to Rob Thomas’s closing number in “Meet the Robinsons.” They still make regular appearances on rough, rainy adulthood nights. 

While the “Second Dark Age” films may not have left much of an imprint on the popular consciousness as a whole, they certainly left their mark on me, and one in particular has legacy buried deeply in its DNA. 

“Atlantis: The Lost Empire” -- released in 2001-- centers around a 1914 expedition to find the titular lost city, a technologically advanced island civilization lost to the sea centuries before. Funded by an off-beat millionaire (John Mahoney), and guided by the inherited knowledge of linguist and cartographer Milo Thatch (Michael J. Fox), a team of mercenaries and specialists discover that the lost city is not only still intact below the Earth’s crust, but still inhabited by its long-lived citizens under King Kashekim Nedakh (Leonard Nimoy) and his daughter, Princess Kidagakash Nedakh (Cree Summer). When the mercenaries betray the party, kill the king and kidnap the princess, who has melded with the city’s power- and life-source, the expedition specialists are roused to action to protect the city they had once considered an artifact.

From the beginning, the viewer sees Milo as a man driven by legacy: Between the research of his explorer grandfather, who raised him with stories of Atlantis, and the writings of The Shepherd’s Journal, which serves as a guide to the city, his whole life is dedicated to the pursuit of both personal and ancient history. He both seeks to fill his grandfather’s shoes as a scholar and provide the scientific world with proof that Atlantis isn’t just a fairytale, but a real civilization that once flourished. At the beginning of the film he (like some, but not all adventure archaeologists before him) seeks to return proof of Atlantis to the surface to solidify a legacy for both himself and his grandfather, but abandons this soon upon realizing that the city is still inhabited, opting instead to preserve the legacy of Atlantis’s culture by helping to rebuild after the events of the film.

“Sometimes I get a little carried away. But, hey, you know, that's what this is all about, right? I mean, discovery, teamwork, adventure. Unless, maybe, you're just in it for the money.”

Up to the point that the mercenaries forcibly take Kida, Milo’s attitude is placed in some contrast with that of the other specialists on the crew, who admit flat-out that they joined the expedition to make money, though these perspectives are not without nuance. Soon, the crewmembers open up to Milo about the legacies they carry as well: "Vinny" Santorini's (Don Novello)’s family flower shop, Dr. Joshua Sweet (Phil Morris) following in his father’s footsteps as a physician and maintaining a connection with his mother’s Arapaho culture, Audrey Ramirez (Jacqueline Obradors) taking over her retired father’s machine shop. Later in the film, Milo references back to this conversation, implying that a few had plans to continue their family businesses - investment in their own legacies - with the money they would have received upon returning to the surface.

“You're wiping out an entire civilization, but, hey, you'll be rich. Congratulations, Audrey. Guess you and your dad'll be able to open that second garage after all. And, Vinny, you-you can start a whole chain of flower shops. I'm sure your family's gonna be very proud. But that's what it's all about, right? Money.”

When the crew decides to fight for the Atlanteans and forfeit their payment, they place themselves in direct opposition to the true antagonists of the film, Commander Lyle Rourke (James Garner) and Lieutenant Helga Sinclair (Claudia Christian), who describe themselves as “adventure capitalists,” interested in getting rich at any cost. If they have any legacy that they’re trying to protect, it’s never mentioned in the movie, and the lack of regard they display for the Atlantean legacy set them apart from the rest of the characters in a significant way.

In addition to our explorers’ legacies, the Atlantean characters -- especially Kida. In her 2018 SYFY FANGRRLS article “All Hail Kida Of Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Disney’s Forgotten Queen Of Color,” writer and podcaster Afiya Augustine not only describes Kida’s legacy as Disney’s first animated queen of color, but also succinctly describes the history she carries with her, both as a preserver of her people and the heir to historically royal responsibilities, like bonding to the city’s main source of power.

“Turns out, the crystal must bond with a royal host — and Kida, much like her mother, was chosen by the crystal in order to unleash its immense power to protect its world. That’s right — Kida is not only a protector by choice, but she’s been chosen to be such by blood. Like their precious stone, Kida powered the survival of her people.”

Which means that, by the end of the film, Kida is charged with not only restoring her civilization to its former glory, but also carrying the legacy of both her parents, now deceased. It’s a heavy load for a strong character, and one that Kida handles with gravity throughout the film.

And that’s just the character design.

In addition to being the first Disney film to feature a queen of color (rather than the “princess” title that had been utilized in previous films), “Atlantis: The Lost Empire” was also Disney’s first animated science fiction film, launching a jaunt into the genre that would include a other “Experimental Era” films like “Lilo and Stitch” and “Treasure Planet,” leaving its own (generally unacknowledged) mark on the canon itself. It, like many adventurer archaeologist stories before it, pays homage to many a story of lost world before it, from Jules Verne’s depictions in the mid-1800s on through the pulp adventure novels and into the territory of one Indiana Jones. Its art style, with its blocky shadows and angular motifs, pays serious homage to production designer and comic book artist Mike Mignola, an item of his legacy in turn.

“Atlantis” may not be a popular Disney film. It may never have gotten its true sequel or its spin-off television show. Your average casual Disney fan in 2019 might not would have known it existed if it weren’t on Netflix (for now, anyway). But this is not to say that the film didn’t leave its mark, both on the people who did see it and enjoyed it and still enjoy it almost 20 years later, and on the canon in which I truly believe it has rightfully earned its place.

[nythroughthelens]

On rejection, looking for a job, and numbers that boggle the mind...

(Long read, would mean the world if you read it and share it) I wanted to shed some light on the overall challenges I am experiencing in trying to find a full-time job right now.  I am going to share the raw numbers and effort with you before I share my background and situation. 

1. Of the now 317 creative jobs I applied to on various job boards and networks over the last 4-5 months, I only received 11 replies. 

Yes, only 11 replies.

Seven of those replies were automated rejections due to my CV not making it through the tracking systems in place.

The other four replies were mainly that they felt I had a great CV but that the position(s) had been filled internally or otherwise.

2. Let's talk a little more about the automated systems in place that read your CV. The systems are widespread and meant to lighten the load of in-house recruiters. Your CV passes or is rejected due to keywords and phrases. In the past, people apparently used to try to stuff their CVs full of keywords and/or essentially copy the job listing to pass the system. However, the systems have gotten more intelligent and also should you do that to your CV, it makes it a tad unreadable once it reaches the eyes of an actual human.

I am fairly positive that cold-applying to jobs is a futile process for the most part due to this factor.

3. Some listings aren't actually viable jobs. Companies leave listings up long after positions are filled or worse, there are CV harvesting services posing as regular listings that essentially are collecting CVs and data. 

4. I even tried paying to in-mail hiring and talent managers on LinkedIn. I reached out that way with personal notes about 32 times. 

People who replied from this effort: 4

One person who replied was from an agency I really want to work at and she replied to let me know she had just quit her job but wanted to wish me success. Another recruiter also replied to let me know that she moved on to working at a dog rescue and hadn't updated her profile. 

The other two people replied that they loved my background and would get back to me while also admitting that they had a hard time keeping up with in-mails. I never heard back from them despite pinging them again just to re-establish a connection.

I should add that for every job I apply to via that job site, I also seek out the talent acquisition person(s) at the company and send a personal note to them. This hasn't actually led anywhere.

5.  I compiled a list of 84 media/streaming/ad/design/PR agencies in NYC and cold-emailed them all with personalized emails. 

Replies from this effort: 0

Not one response.

6.  I reached out to over 12 recruitment/staffing people/agencies (also called half of them and was assured I would have someone 'get back' to me). 

Replies from this effort: 0

7.  I was referred to 4 recruiters personally who I reached out to. 

Result of this effort: 3 of the recruiters ghosted me after talking to me, and the other one I never even reached in the first place.

8.  I swallowed my pride and plastered myself all over social media publicly asking for leads (for reference, I have around 400,000+ people following me across networks, see below for my actual background if curious). 

Actual responses that panned out: 1

One potential really great lead did contact me and we talked on the phone. 

Perhaps that will turn into something. 

Let that sink in though.

Only 1 person with a genuine lead appeared.

The rest of the replies were from people who didn't read any of my actual post (skipped over where I said I am specifically looking for a full-time job in creative/advertising/media/design related work)

9. I tapped into my network by posting a few private posts to specific groups of people. Truthfully, some people went out of their way. However, ultimately those leads haven't materialized into anything either due to a non-response despite having internal referrers.

In fact, I have exhausted all of the familiar networking advice typically given. I am a the point of not wanting to actively get the people in my network to resent me for all the times I have reached out already to them individually.

In the last decade, I have been to more networking and various industry events than I can count. I have a lot of thoughts on this that would be more suited to another lengthy post though. Just wanted to add that this is not something I haven't done. 

Rejections:

Of the rejections I have received from agencies (creative/media), I keep hearing that I am not being considered because I don't have literal agency experience (meaning, because I never worked full-time at an agency, I am tossed out of the running even with my background which involves doing actual contract work for various creative agencies). This has been the most maddening part of the whole process to be honest.

This brings me to my background. Here's my formal background statement that I had to write out for a job months ago but covers quite a bit.

Having just spent the last decade building my art career from scratch resulting in a following of around 500,000 people across all social media, two passion projects that became a traditional book deal resulting in two internationally published and best-selling photography books, a multi-year financial sponsorship with a major imaging brand, and a wide array of experiences that have informed how I approach collaboration and creation, I am at the next step in my life. That step is to find a full-time creative home. I truly believe that ideas are at their best when they are allowed to thrive alongside a diverse array of audiences and collaborators. Nothing excites me more than sharing an idea with utmost excitement knowing that the sharing of that idea is just the start of the story. In fact, I truly believe that storytelling is at its heart a collaborative process and that everyone has the potential and ability to contribute to the storytelling process. Everyone has their own unique set of experiences and adaptive knowledge that they can contribute and I love nothing more than being the person that can synthesize all of these perspectives and ideas into something incredible. I believe that everyone I have collaborated with, from the astronaut who chose me to tell the story of our trip to the Arctic together, to the teams I worked with to create creative campaigns, to the communities I was privileged to help in the Dominican Republic and Cuba, has changed me in a multitude of ways in terms of my perspective, and how I approach life, art, storytelling, and the process of creation. Every day, as humans, we learn and grow in a variety of ways. The ability to look back and call upon these experiences that help us learn is what truly helps foster a well-rounded view of what it means to be, at heart, a storyteller and synthesizer of ideas. Now that I have hopefully regaled you with that formal statement, here are the last 10 years of my career put into a tidy format:

► Directed the creative process of all photography and writing projects from ideation to execution and distribution ► Managed all project assets, including project plans, data back-ups, uploads, photo-editing, photo-management, photo-shoots, disc storage management, file transfers ► Negotiated contract rates, terms of usage, and day rates while producing project requirements and timelines to consistently meet deadlines for events, exhibitions, and roll-outs of product releases ► Collaborated and executed many large-scale projects resulting in exhibitions around the world and even a featured collaboration with Astronaut Commander Hadfield presenting our collaborative art project to the Toronto Art Gallery of Ontario ► Expanded brand presence across multiple social media networks, resulting in 200,000 followers on Facebook, 115,000 followers on Instagram, 44,000 followers on Twitter, 195,000 followers on Tumblr, 1.8 million followers on Google Plus, and developed PR strategies for photography and books, including construction of a contact list of relevant press targets in the US and UK, production of press releases, and development of pitch ► My two books NY Through the Lens and New York in the Snow were the result of a traditional book deal. Both were published and released worldwide in stores (Barnes and Noble, Target, Walmart, the Strand, Watersmiths, WH Smith, and a host of other well-known stores and indie outlets offline and online) in 2014 and 2017 via Ilex Press, an imprint of Hachette UK. ► NY Through The Lens was based on the writing and art featured in my blog of the same name which had grown in popularity over the span of three years. The book was featured in the Guardian, on the Weather Channel, in the NY Post, on Yahoo News, as well as across many other news outlets. ► New York in the Snow was the culmination of a passion project that involved 7 years of taking photographs in every snowstorm in New York City. The book was featured in the NY Times in December of 2017 and had a major book-signing in London, England in January of 2018 ► As a full-time Sony sponsored artist, my art was used in multiple national ad campaigns and I regularly collaborated with the Sony Digital Imaging, and Sony marketing teams ► Selected to speak on behalf of Sony at PhotoPlus Expo, the largest annual photography event in the United States and at WPPI, the largest annual portrait photography conference ► Ideated and executed exhibitions for gallery spaces and new media installations including a showing at the Park Avenue Armory and show at London's Somerset House during the Sony World Photography event ► Participated in a pop-up store event hosted by Wired Magazine in which Sony sponsored a photography gallery featuring black & white prints and 250 signed copies of NY Through the Lens were given to VIP guests ► Commissioned to write regular features for multiple entertainment and media partners representing the Sony brand Why am I looking for a full-time job with this background? 

I am looking towards a sustainable career future I can invest in. What I have loved the most about the last 10 years of my career has been working with various teams. I adore people and I excel in team environments. I also love structure. 

When I say I am looking for a creative home, I mean it. I have a very strong work ethic as is hopefully evident by the career I built from scratch. I am looking to apply that work ethic and my creative output and vision towards a full-time job.

What do I want?

Jobs and roles I have been going after: creative producer, art director, brand strategist, engagement manager, creative strategist, various marketing positions, various social media positions, creative lead I have mainly been looking at ad agencies, media (broadcast and streaming), and some marketing and PR agencies.

Icing on the cake:

To add to this, I am losing the lease to my apartment at the end of August. I have no safety nets which I know is hard for most people to imagine. I don't have family, I don't have a Prince/Princess Charming, it's just me and that's terrifying on tons of levels considering that I really want/need a full-time job right now to not only move on with my career/life but because of this time-frame.

Hope this helps some of you understand my plight. I have gotten tons of messages about this and wanted to answer all the questions generally.  --- Links for good measure: My LinkedIn

Portfolio

Instagram Twitter

[reciprocaltechnologies]

Innovation and Smartphone Arent as Related as They Once Were

Smartphones are, in a word, ubiquitous. With 86.29% of the global population owning a smartphone in 2023 (according to Statista), one would think—pretty justifiably—that the smartphone market is doing pretty well indeed.  The opposite is actually true. Let’s take a quick look at the smartphone market and its decreases, as well as the lack of innovation that is largely blamed for this decline. The Smartphone Market Has Gotten Smaller Through Consolidation Or, in other words, the market is shrinking. Not all that long ago, the smartphone market was relatively flooded with companies looking to carve out a share for themselves. As time has passed, however, many of these companies have left the space. Some, like LG, Microsoft, and Amazon, simply closed their smartphone divisions and stopped making the devices, while others have been bought and sold, like Motorola—once a leader in the space—has experienced a few times. 2022 alone saw a 12% decline in the market. Admittedly, this doesn’t seem to line up with some of the statistics we’ve referenced here. How could the market for a product category with an 86%-plus global adoption rate be in decline? Here’s the thing, though: a lot of these people aren’t shelling out for a new phone every 18-to-24 months like they once were. There are various reasons for this, of course, but a big one is the lack of innovation most of the smartphone space has seen. Are Smartphone Manufacturers Actually Innovating? If you ask the manufacturers, they certainly are. Nowadays, a budget smartphone can compete with what a flagship from just a few years before had to offer. However, this accomplishment means less each year, as flagships introduce less and less with each iteration. Keep in mind, these flagship phones—famously, the most expensive option—once showed massive improvements across the board each year. New chipsets were incorporated into the builds, displays were brighter and increased in resolution, there were real improvements made to the camera setups, and user interfaces tried new and innovative designs.  Lately, this has changed. Real innovations have been scarce, but costs have risen more than ever. Any actually innovative changes we’ve seen haven’t really gone anywhere, as the practical need for these changes falls short of the costs. Little Reason to Invest Means People Aren’t Going to Make an Investment As innovation decelerates, so does the incentive for people to buy a new device. Let me put it this way: would you jump to purchase a new device, for twice the money you paid for your last one (that still works, by the way), that really didn’t add anything significant? No? That’s exactly why so few companies have persevered in the space and managed to make a profit. They’ve filled their marketing with buzzwords referring to innovation, without doing very much of any substance to back up these words. Sure, having the latest and greatest new iPhone or Samsung Galaxy or Google Pixel is nice, especially when upgrading from an older phone from a few years ago, but the differences between the model from one year to the next really doesn’t justify the cost for most consumers. However, despite all this, it can’t be denied that the smartphone is integral to today’s societal makeup. This is what has largely preserved the need for continued buy-in, despite the lack of any functional enhancements of any note. We Can Help You Integrate Mobility into Your Business’ Operations While adding mobile devices to your organization’s IT brings a lot of benefits, it also adds some significant managerial challenges. We’re here to assist, with our technicians helping you manage all the new endpoints you have with a robust mobile policy, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy, and other aspects that will help you better take advantage of mobile productivity. Call us at (317) 759-3972 to get started, or with any questions you may have. from https://reciprocaltech.com

[leastrachan123]

Making performance 2 blog Performance overview The key themes and issues within our performance were, sex trafficking, violence, abuse, sex, rape, prostitution, grooming, abuse, child abuse, suicide, and nudity, loss of identity, curupt society, and modern society. Our vision for the performance was to create a documentary piece that would educate, entertain and enlighten. By including statistics in our script it made the performance become a reality. Linking the performance to delight, We wanted to put our own twist on it and how the victims can gain back their identity and the delights in life. Enlightening our audience on the matter and structuring the performance in a way that does not horrify them meant we enlightened them on the subject, and did not push them away from wanting to help and educate others. In relation to the dramaturgical decisions, we took a lot of time discussing what movements would work and not, throughout the performance we made pre recorded sequences which included, cat walks, chair duet, and walking sequences. The reasoning for these choices was to make our performance as physical as possible and now covid regulations have changed we thought we would make the most of it, and give the audience a sense of liveness online and in person. The start of the performances started with Iona, Josh and I with bags on our heads and a pre-recorded video beforehand, we used breathing techniques at the start to create an atmosphere for the performance which then led to the opening monologues. Our lighting remained neutral for the monologues however we used red lighting in our pre recorded videos to represent the colour of love and sex, despite us playing the victims it represented how the victims are treated /perceived, yet a simple thing like sex which is so personal and private has been taken away from them, and is viewed by them as unsatisfying and tiring. We used props such as stockings, toothpaste, red lipstick, condoms and perfume. We wanted to make this live section very intense and seductive. Despite the realisation that the victims are being forced to work for traffickers it showed their day to day life of getting ready, we physically spat out our toothpaste, we slowly put on the stocking to create a sensual atmosphere, applying lipstick slowly and then getting close to the camera asif we was kissing the audience, little moments like these really structures the performance. The last section of monologues included our shadow work, we made the movement slow and meaningful and in one section the victim would get slapped which then sped up the rhythm of the piece, we ended the piece with Iona playing a victim who is spotted by charity workers, you see her struggle with leaving the pillow case and walking off, which then led to our last pre record video of a fire that had all the victims names on pillowcases that were then placed into the fire. Research into For our performance we chose the genre documentary, this meant that we would have to devise and write our own script, whilst researching possible sources and interviews which we could use within our script. Before deciding on this we did research into Derek Paget and all the information we needed to create a successful documentary performance, ‘when Derek Paget first wrote of the use of tape recorders to make documentary theatre, he noted that documentary forms were situated at the ���edges of the professional theatre’ (1987: 317, sited by Cantrell, 2013:1), documentary theatre has come a long way and has become very popular, and today is seen as a ‘mainstream british theatre tradition’(Cantrell, 2013:1). We found sources from interviews, articles and government reports, which helped put together our script and what angle we wanted to take to structure our performance. Documentary drama is also known to contain many other elements and theatre techniques,‘The genre typically includes or is referred to as verbatim theatre, investigative theatre, theatre of fact, theatre of witness, autobiographical theatre, and ethnodrama’(Wikipedia, 2021). This genre has allowed us to be more creative and develop our own performance around a very significant matter, sex trafficking. Our two main influences for our performance were frantic Assembly and Berkoff, we decided on these because we wanted to focus on physical theatre. Whilst researching frantic assembly we thought it was crucial to follow some exercises that frantic assembly would do in workshops, ‘In the early stages of rehearsal we may ask our performers to improvise using rolls and lifts without ever coming off the floor, (Hoggett, by Scott Graham and steven, 2004:87). With our performance being so physical, exercises like these really helped create ideas for our physical movement/moments. Berkoff and Frantic Assembly both have similarities as they both like to focus on physicality, Our monologues/dialogues within our script was well thought through, therefore too much movement would distract the audience from the dialogue, however whilst researching Berkoff it was found that ���Berkoffian actors use techniques such as background movement, repetitive actions, and mime to explore further the ways in which Berkoff approaches exchanges between two characters’, in our performance we worked with shadowing and background movement so that it does not distract the audience, but still creates meaning. Both Berkoff and Frantic Assembly worked well together with our research and gave us ideas/techniques on how we could make our performance physically successful, whilst still focusing on the speech. Sex trafficking was the most interesting to research into for me individually, as it was educational and shocking when finding statistics and articles. Shockingly from our findings it is aparant there is far more sex trafficking happening then what we know about worldwide, and although ‘UK authorities have began to launch aggressive anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts to uncover trafficking and identify victims’, the media and individuals still have a guard up around the sensitive subject. After researching individuals who have been victims of sex trafficking we wanted to share their experiences and stories, looking into research studies it was found that ‘one participant talked about being angry at anyone and everyone, another participant talked about being angry specifically at her trafficker, herself, and that no one had ever come looking for her’(Mumey et all, 2021:187). It was evident our main focus was to create justice for all the victims and create a physical piece that would symbolise all the emotions developed before and after being trafficked. Victims’ attitude and views of the world soon changed after being trafficked, and some would say ‘all men became potential “clients,” relationships became transactional and not for pleasure, and family became the other individuals working for the same exploiter’(Mumey et al, 2021:187). Reviews and analysis Shakesqueer by Tom Marshman Tom Marshman executed a wonderful digital performance, creating a sense of liveness, a montage of shakespeare plays, and queer atmopshere. What I took from the performance and would use in my own work was the idea of a moveable trolley, so that movement can be more fluid and moments with the audience could be more intimate,e.g getting close to camera and using eye contact and facial expressions. He embrased his sexual ora and used it in his favour to create a queer alternative view on shakespears plays, whilst also enteraining the audience. He quoted in the Q&A that his inspiration was heavily focused on David Bowie and his use of mime, this is also something that was used effectively and created an abstract illusion with the editing to create a mirrored effect of Toms face, whilst also quoting from A midsummers night dream. His change of costumes and backdrop developed on the idea of how crazy and vibrant shakespeare plays are, him and the tech team used appropriate music to compliment the scenes, overall the performance was very creative, however when performing we have to try and remain in character and focused despite whatever distractions occur. Sharps teeth Sherlock in Homes Sharps teeth did an amazing job of creating a live murder mystery and really engaged their audience, the main element/moment for me was the idea of breakout groups, this allowed them to create a personal relationship with the audience and also use improvisation for them as their character. We would ask the character we was investigating questions about the murder and at the end of each investigation they would give us a slight hint about the muder and leave, for me this small technique seemed to draw me in even more, even when i knew it was coming. Another element that impressed me was the costuming and background, they really did embrace their characters and not hold back, for me this virtually allowed me to put myself in that exact room with them and see in the backgrounds of the potential tools they used to kill the victim, which was also purposefully intended by the director. This performance brought many emotions alive and really made the audience active members whilst also entertaining them. Chang and Eng and Me Chang and Eng and Me was a well devised abstract performance that investigated many ideas of what theatre is and can be, one moment i vividly remember is the touching and sculpting of clay, which linked to the quote ‘I can count the times i’ve feared for my safety of my ethnicity on one, maybe two hands’, whilst quoting this the use of hands and pressure into the clay almost represented society and the anger ethnic individuals have towards society, yet feel stuck and trapped just like clay itself, for me this was a visual metaphor which was used so emotively/discreetly. The digital performance was not like many i have watched before and used the online platform to create liveness, what i also think worked well was the discussion of sexuality/race and the bareness that came with the performance, by getting changed infront of the camera and showing vulnerability just like many homosexual individuals feel scared about doing, it almost connoted that you should love yourself for who you are. I also picked up on the focus of puppetry and how these items can speak to audiences meaningfully, the focus of this performance was very creative and artistic with the use of drawing and sculpting e.g it painted a story without having to physically say anything. ShakesQueer. Tom Marshman. (2021). [Online, 27th February]. -Sherlock in Homes: Murder on Ice. (2021). Sharp Teeth Theatre. Directed by: Stephine Kempson. [Online, 4th March] Chang and Eng and Me: Wattle and Daub Figure theatre (2021) (online, 14th May) Evaluation following the performance Originally i developed the idea of an online meat auction, which we all as group discussed and put forward different ideas for, this was to symbolise that the victims are treated as meat and can be sent off globally, with this idea we explored breakout groups however the concept became too complex and we had a creative block for the middle section, therefore instead of still continuing with the idea we explored other ideas and researched into physical theatre. The research we found within sex trafficking and physical theatre inspired us to make the performance about physicality, the bareness of victims and how they are invisible, feedback from Laura helped us understand that if we was to approach the performance by making the audience feel to uncomfortable and shocked, it would make them less likely to keep watching, so after we had fully developed our script we decided to make a lot of the dialogue upbeat so that it would juxtapose with the speech itself. As a group we all worked very hard and put in a lot of time and effort, me and iona were the main editors for our flip grids and material for the piece, my strengths within this performance was to motivate and make sure everyone was always there, thinking of the slight movements and moments needed within the piece, charlotte and myself became the creative directors for the physical theatre (chair duets), personally i naturally take on a directing role, however we all equally put in ideas and bounced off eachother, and was definitely my favourite group to work with so far, my weaknesses are that i can be overwhelming with ideas, but the group helped turn these ideas into what became our performance. If we were to change our performance I would definitely like to explore some type of breakout room, however research and extra technical help would definitely be needed to make it successful and easy to follow. We were put off by making it too physical as our research from Berkoff shows that background movement can be more symbolic than up close and personal physicality. For me this year of online theatre making has changed my outlook on acting and theatre, we have managed to create an appropriate, well thought out/rehearsed performance about a topic that does not get spoken about enough, whilst also including all the dramaturgical elements i have learnt and explored this year, what i learnt mostly from devising 10,000 cases was that audience like repetition and difference, so by using the catwalks as a motif it allowed the audience to take in what was being said without even saying anything, and the repetition was the continuing of monologues with the pillow cases over our heads, and we used these to lose our identity and make the audience really listen to what was being said. I learnt a lot of elements in our rehearsal time and in class sessions. This year has definitely made me open to creating online pieces and understanding that theatre can be anything that you make it. Bibliography Cantrell (2013) Acting in documentary theatre. Acting Psychological aspects.; Acting; Experimental theater. Available at: https://www.vlebooks.com/Vleweb/Product/Index/680079?page=0 Mumey, Audrey; Sardana, Srishti; Richardson-Vejlgaard, Randall; Akinsulure-Smith, Adeyinka M (2021) Mental health needs of sex trafficking survivors in New York City: Reflections on exploitation, coping, and recovery. Available at: https://library.bathspa.ac.uk/items/eds/pdh/2020-79438-001?resultsUri=https%3A%2F%2Flibrary.bathspa.ac.uk%2Fitems%3Fquery%3Dsex%2Btrafficking%26checkbox%3Deverything%26facet%255B0%255D%3DEdsRecordOptions%253A%2522IsFullText%2522%26target%3Deds#availability Morgie BTECH acting ( 2015) Steven Berkoff’s techniques. Available at: http://morgiebtecacting.weebly.com/epq-extended-project-qualification/steven-berkoffs-techniques Graham, Scott, 1971- author; Hoggett, Steven, 1971- author (2014) The Frantic Assembly book of devising theatre. Improvisation (Acting); Frantic Assembly (Group); Theatrical companies Great Britain.; Experimental theater Great Britain. Available at: library.bathspa.ac.uk/items/eds/cat06393a/bath.106158?resultsUri=https%3A%2F%2Flibrary.bathspa.ac.uk%2Fitems%3Fquery%3Dfrantic%2Bassembly%26checkbox%3Deverything%26facet%255B0%255D%3DEdsRecordOptions%253AIsFullText%26target%3Deds#availability Wikipedia (2021) Documentary theatre. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_theatre#:~:text=Documentary%20theatre%20is%20theatre%20that,altering%20the%20text%20in%20performance. Wikipedia (2020) Human trafficking in the united kingdom. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_trafficking_in_the_United_Kingdom

[aion-rsa]

Riverdale Season 5 Episode 1 Review – Chapter 77: Climax

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This RIVERDALE review contains spoilers.

Riverdale Season 5 Episode 1

“Clearly our last two weeks of high school are going to be fraught…”

Friends, on this day we find this country starting a new chapter, one that is full of hope and excitement for the future.

I am of course referring to the airing of Riverdale‘s season premiere, a somewhat wheel-spinning, melodramatic affair that feels more like the closing pages of a book than the start of another story.

And that’s because it is precisely that. This episode was a leftover from last year, filmed but not completed production until the pandemic lockdown was over. As such it thrusts us into the start of the endgame of last season’s storylines — namely the fallout of the Betty and Archie kiss, Mr. Lodge’s illness and how he is using vigilantism to cope with it, the mysterious (and suitably anachronistic videotapes) arriving at the doorsteps of Riverdale residents, and the gang prepping for their imminent post-high school lives.

There’s a lot to be told here until the show finishes telling this specific story. Writers Ace Hasan and Greg Murray handle this arguably thankless task with aplomb, squeezing out the necessary exposition needed to push the plot points towards their approaching conclusion while shoehorning in a (now unfortunate) Katy Keene tie-in. To be fair, it’s a solid episode. Just one that, through no fault of its own, doesn’t really work as a season premiere.

That minor gripe aside, there’s a lot to enjoy here. First and foremost are Archie’s struggles. It was wise for the showrunners to make the character realize that he is a bit of a rudderless dolt. Addressing this most obvious of character flaws makes our oft-shirtless protagonist that much more of a likable guy. He’s discovered that while he has some options — running the gym is his best bet — he also needs to clear his head, and getting out of Riverdale would help with that greatly.

Now that the Navy isn’t an option, and he’s questioning his whole life. This results in his destroying his relationship with Veronica by telling her about his illicit kiss with Betty. One, it should be mentioned, that made Betty feel super uncomfortable…although that could’ve just been the terrible song Archie wrote for her.

The deception is enough to blow apart the pair’s “endgame” status…at least until after the upcoming time jump and their old flame is inevitably rekindled. (Even though we know that Veronica will be married to the jerky Chad Gekko, another Katy Keene character climbing aboard the Riverdale express). Much drama will ensue, but in the show’s now, they are done. What’s the over/under until we see Veronica performing “Bittersweet Symphony” at La Bonne Nuit?

Elsewhere, the Choni ship (I am in my forties and just wrote those words!) is threaten by the ghost of the greatest thing to ever happen on Riverdale: The Blossom family’s Maple Syrup Blood Feud. It’s not that Toni’s Nana has an issue with her granddaughter’s sexuality — although she kinda does — but more that Toni is dating a sworn enemy of the Lopez family. As much as I love me some Shakespeareian motifs, these characters regularly deal with serial killers and cult members. So the family drama here isn’t really very compelling, you know?

The most interesting thing happening on Riverdale right now is also its most frustrating, the saga of The Auteur. Betty didn’t tell Jughead about Archie’s shitty song or the kiss because in her mind, it wasn’t that big of a deal. Just a sort of awkward thing that happened in the moment that isn’t worth blowing up her life over. Adult decision making at its finest! Whether or not this choice impacts her relationship with Jughead, and I bet it does, will be revealed soon. Right now though they are doing what they love the most, investigating a mystery. One that really needs to ramp up the excitement and fast.

David seems to be too obvious of a choice to be the identity of the Auteur. It also goes against the show’s habit of making the protagonist someone we already know. Episodes from last season have shown us Charles and Chip plotting together for a yet to be revealed reason. To a lesser degree, Evelyn Evernever is a possibility too. But this episode raises the most intriguing potential suspect yet.

Jellybean Jones.

Think about it. She is a cipher of a character, one who would have had access to Jughead’s stories and knows about almost every aspect of his life. Perhaps she is making these videos because she is scared about him going away to school. Maybe they are some sort of bizarre revenge plot cooked up by Jellybean and Gladys Jones against Jughead and FP? By making Jellybean the auteur this creates more drama for the ever-complicated Jughead and gives him a personal tragedy that mirrors what Betty experienced with her father. I truly feel that Jellybean being at David’s film fest/rave by herself (we never see her friends she is supposedly with) is much more than a red herring. Time will tell. But we need to see some clarity on what the motives behind these tapes are, ASAP.

And so Riverdale is back. While we are watching the blending of the programs fourth and fifth seasons unfold due to real-life production concerns, it remains the most welcome of escapes.

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Riverdale Rundown

• This episode was filmed before production on the series was shut down due to Covid-19. As such, the next few installments will cover the gang’s final weeks at Riverdale High before jumping ahead seven years — which will occur in what was originally intended to be last year’s season finale. And you thought Doctor Who was timey wimey.

• The above explanation also explains why a character from a cancelled CW series — K.O. Kelly from Katy Keene — plays such a crucial role in tonight’s proceedings.

• Speaking of Katy Keene, that show took place during the time period that Riverdale is about to jump ahead to — one in which Hiram Lodge has completely recovered from his mystery disease.

• Did anyone else find Archie’s constant referring to K.O. as bro endearing? And OF COURSE these two characters were given a shirtless workout montage/steam room scene. Besides, what’s an episode of Riverdale without plenty of gratuitous objectification?

• Archie really did himself no favors by neglecting to mention to Veronica how Betty shut him down after his attempt to woo her. Communication is the key to a solid, healthy relationship, fam!

• Ashleigh Murray’s Josie McCoy was a main character on Katy Keene, yet as of this writing it is unclear if she will return to Riverdale or not this season. (And for the record, Archieverse showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa hasn’t permanently shut the door on some sort of Katy Keene revival either).

• The cancelled fifth season of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina would have been a major crossover with Riverdale. Although we were denied that magic, if the above official key art is to be believed, it does seem that we will be getting some major supernatural happenings is season. Afterlife with Archie anyone?

• Archie’s scars from his bear attack really come and go, don’t they?

• Kett Turton returns tonight as David, the owner of the Blue Velvet video store. His perfect recreation of David Lynch’s cadence and mannerisms combined with the costume department seemingly raiding the Twin Peaks mastermind’s wardrobe is a perfect illustration of how Riverdale commits to its goofiness 100%.

• I’m not sure, but I think the Black Hood movie being shown in room 317 is a very subtle reference to the Miss Saigon song that also takes place in that location.

• In a nice callback, some of the tickling videos like the ones Kevin and Fangs made are being shown at the film party/rave. (Along with snippets of exploitation/art flicks clearly inspired by the works of Kenneth Anger and Herschell Gordon Lewis).

• “You had me at snuff film.” Here’s hoping Kevin Keller never changes.

• Cheryl is at her most Cheryl tonight, melodramatically spewing lines like “perhaps your camera will capture the sublime tragedy of my life” with an effortlessness that would make Bette Davis proud.

• Putting Fizzle Rocks in the punchbowl, classic Reggie Mantle.

• Further evidence of how this show is, to quote The Tragically Hip, chronologically fucked up, the songs played at the prom were Sixpence None the Richer’s “Kiss Me,” BoDeans’ “Closer to Free” (itself the theme song to another popular teen show, Party of Five), Collective Soul’s “The World I Know,” Mazzy Star’s timeless “Fade Into You,” and Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer.” Would any of these songs actually be played at a prom taking place in whatever year in the 2010’s this series is set in? Your guess is as good as mine.

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from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3p2dews

[phgq]

Surigao Norte gets P9.5-M PPE from DOH, OCD

#PHnews: Surigao Norte gets P9.5-M PPE from DOH, OCD

BUTUAN CITY–The provincial government of Surigao del Norte has received PHP9.5 million worth of hospital grade personal protective equipment (PPE) from the Department of Health (DOH) and the Office of the Civil Defense (OCD), which would be distributed to all the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) front-liners in the province. “Aside from Siargao Island, we will provide protective equipment for all our front-liners in the mainland Surigao del Norte and Surigao City,” said Surigao del Norte 1st Dist. Rep. Francisco Jose Matugas, in a statement Wednesday. The office of Matugas received the PPE last week. Roberto Parada of the provincial information office said the PPE will be distributed after an inventory. “We will proceed with the distribution process after the inventory. Aside from the personal protective equipment, the supplies include facemasks and face shields,” Parada said. He said the Caraga Regional Hospital, Surigao del Norte Provincial Hospital, and the other medical and quarantine facilities in the province would receive protective gear. As of Dec. 1, data from the DOH-13 showed that Surigao del Norte had a total of 296 Covid-19 cases, while its capital city of Surigao recorded 317 cases. (PNA)

***

References:

* Philippine News Agency. "Surigao Norte gets P9.5-M PPE from DOH, OCD." Philippine News Agency. https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1123634 (accessed December 03, 2020 at 04:42AM UTC+14).

* Philippine News Agency. "Surigao Norte gets P9.5-M PPE from DOH, OCD." Archive Today. https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1123634 (archived).

[toyfrog]

So thanks to Skyrva I'm breaking down Diego's "one and only" Interview.

And boy, I had to re-read it due to Google Translation because many of his answers are based off raw definition not necessarily tone or slang. But this was enlightening to say the least. I can see why he hasn't spoken on the writing since 318. I mentioned this before: Lead actors that feel frustrated with the writing or story, will vent overseas. Spader did it for Australia. Now Diego for Poland. Unbelievable. No wonder Ryan Eggold was the only one shooting off his mouth. Embarrassing. Eggold acts like his Keen 2 story direction was planned all along. No it wasn't. and it's still not 100% guaranteed. When a lead actor cannot move demos, their Q rating falls. That means Network receives unfavorables with the overall impression of your character. That hasn't changed and once he returns, audience will see it's far too much of him. That's pretty bad because he's only so far in one episode. They'd be wise to cut him as much as possible in order to not jeopardize numbers. But Diego plainly informs the Polish Press one minute his story and character are progressing like a live movie then by the end of the season nothing. And you got to SHRUG IT OFF and "understand it's a process@ [THATS WHAT HW SAY TO ACTORS ON HOLD. IT DOESN'T LAST LONG. ] Here's why. INTERVIEWER: In the third season, your role has changed, and your character saw more of doubt and pain - [Describe how] you played it? Diego Klattenhoff: At first it was great. [AND THIS IS 3A.]The role was significantly different than at the beginning, [DIEGO IS EXPLAINING HIS ROLE IN STORY IN 3A WAS A SHARP CONTRAST COMPARED TO 3B AND HE KIND OF THROWS SOME SHADE HERE BETWEEN THE TWO STORY DIRECTION. In 3A THE PRODUCTION CREW WROTE IT LIKE] [More like a] “movie series.” I was much more strongly involved in the hunt for Liz. [HERE HE EXPLAINS HE HAD STORY INPUT AND DIRECTION WITH HIS CHARACTER HE WAS MUCH MORE INVOLVED IN THE STORY PROCESS. SOUND FAMILIAR?] Later we returned to a more [PROCEDURAL] nature of the Blacklist . [THE POINT HES MAKING IS IN THE BEGINNING HIS ROLE WAS INTERPERSONAL TIED TO THE SERIAL NATURE of the original canon. IN 3B it's PLOT PLOT PLOT PROCEDURAL NO INTERPERSONAL DIALOGUE ITS DIFFERENT. And RATINGS REFLECTED THAT] The point is not that there is some magic formula that we should stick to, [DIEGO PREFERS CHARACTER DRIVEN STORYTELLING NOT PLOT IT WAS CHARACTER DRIVEN FOR HIM TO HUNT DOWN LIZ BECAUSE OF HIS JOB AND HIS FEELINGS FOR LIZ -CONFLICT IS STORY. WHEN THERE IS NONE, your show CANNOT PROGRESS] but [Its] very interesting [To see] how such changes [AH THERE IT IS. PROOF THAT 3B WAS ALTERED DELIBERATELY-HE WAS LED TO BELIEVE ONE STORY THEN THEY DROPPED IT AT THE END] affect the series itself and its perception by the audience. [INTERESTING TO HIM HOW THOSE CHANGES IN 3B occurred and how it's PERCEIVED BY THE AUDIENCE] INTERVIEWER: Ressler was torn by internal conflicts. I think that it [played very well]. Yes, [On] the one hand, he wanted [To arrest her] [Because she's a killer] on the other hand … he loved her. [Lets take this apart because it's important. HES GIVING STORY DIRECTION. DIEGO WAS TO PLAY 3A ,CONFLICTED BECAUSE ON ONE HAND HE WANTED TO ARREST A CRIMINAL. On The other hand..HE LOVED HER. SO THERES YOUR CONFIRMATION. RESSLER IS STILL IN LOVE WITH LIZ. AND HE WAS TO PLAY IT THAT WAY. But then 3B changed everything and he mentions that. He is not happy he's frustrated and u cannot blame him.] Just as in life. [NOW THIS IS INTERESTING. He's basically saying, YOU LOVE THIS PERSON, but you want to "kill them" at the same time when they HURT YOU. HE IS ALSO EXPLAINING THE CURRENT STORYLINE NOW. RESSLER/LIZ WENT DIFFERENT WAYS FEELINGS THERE BUT NOT TOGETHER. He's BASICALLY USING A REAL ANALOGY TO DESCRIBE THAT RESSLER RIGHT NOW HAS THAT SAM/DIANE LOVE/Hate thing going on because Liz makes him crazy...and do crazy things...she violates his ethics...but he's got feelings for her So he copes] I do not mean that specifically with Megan, [NO WE GET IT DIEGO ] but to people in general. There are certain things that you love. [THERE ARE CERTAIN THINGS THAT YOU LOVE IN REGARDS TO A PERSON ][When you start to go in a different direction theres more fun] [NOW WE ARE BACK TO STORY DIRECTION] Not always to the end, [AS IN THE LAST 3 EPISODES WERE CHANGED ] you know which way everything is moving, [As IN EVERYTHING WAS MOVING FORWARD WITH KEENLER THEN IT STOPPED AT GREGORY DEVRY] but then you just have to shrug and tell yourself that this is a process that also depends on the other person. [SO THE DUMB ASSED WRITERS HAVE RESSLER IN LOVE WITH LIZ, BUT RESSLER BELIEVES LIZ IS IN LOVE WITH TOM (SO SICK SERIOUSLY BUT THATS WHY RATINGS ARE DOWN RESSLER IS IN LOVE WITH LIZ WHEN HE SEES HER AT THE SUMMER PALACE BUT HIS WORLD OF BLACK AND WHITE[Shes with Tom he won't touch that] Since [Its about] both of you. [He's saying IT CANNOT BE ONE SIDED] Let’s say - you appear in [a scene], [NOW HES TELLING YOU WHAT HAPPENS BTS AS IN YOU SEE THEM GIVE EYES A LOOK SIGNALING MORE THAN JUST IN THAT MOMENT SOMETHING ELSE IS GOING ON AND HE CANNOT PLAY IT LIKE THAT WITHOUT MEGAN GIVING AS MUCH AS HE DOES IN THOSE SCENES. How she gives moon eyes to him] and although you do not see the [scene] make sense, [HES TALKING ABOUT WITHOUT DIALOGUE ACTION IS MOVABLE STORY NOT JUST IN STUNTS BUT INTERPERSONAL DIALOGUE AND WHEN ITS GONE, THEY PLAY TENSION OR AS WE SAY IN THE SCRIPT LIKE AT THE END OF LADY AMBROSIA PLAY THE MOMENT. LIZ LOOKED LIKE SHE WAS LONGING FOR RESSLER] you have to do something, because I have to. With this, it was very pleasant. [I THINK HE USED A DIFFERENT WORD BUT YOU GET THE GIST. THEY CREATED SOMETHING OUT OF NOTHING WITH THOSE LONGING LOOKS. AND THIS IS 3A & 3B HES TALKING ABOUT. THERES SOMETHING UNDER THE SURFACE. A SCENE MAKES NO SENSE BUT THEY GIVE THESE LOOKS.] Megan is a great person, very well with her game, she can contribute a lot to the show, so this type of relationship is very engaging. [AGAIN HES REFERRING TO KEENLER AND ENGAGING I DON'T THINK HE USED THAT WORD EITHER I think he used APPEALING SAME MEANING] We’ll see how it unfolds in the year. [SO HERE AGAIN DIEGO EXPLAINS KEENLER IS UP IN THE AIR NOT DEAD BUT UNEXPLAINED AND ALTHOUGH SCENES MAKE NO SENSE THEY ARE STILL PLAYING SOMETHING ELSE. EXAMPLE: Blacklist PR ASKED "DO WE SENSE SOME TENSION?" That one scene episode 3, Liz stares down Ressler in his office. He looks down. That's deliberate SO HE IS TELLING FANS A YEAR. TRULY DISGUSTING HIS CHARACTER IS ON HOLD TILL THE DAMN KEEN2CRAP PLAYS OUT. But that's basically what he's saying. Keenler isn't dead, just limbo] [I SAID THIS BEFORE WITH RATINGS IN FREE FALL THEY'D BE SUICIDAL NOT TO DO KEENLER AFTER ALL THIS GARBAGE. THEY WERE HEADED IN THAT DIRECTION SO GO BACK BEFORE THE SHOW DIES BECAUSE OF ONE CHARACTER. DIEGO NEVER MENTIONS HIM AND HE DOESNT GIVE STORY INPUT ABOUT LIZ FEELINGS EITHER, JUST HOW MEGAN AND HIM WERE PLAYING IT IN 3A and then how they continued to play it in 3B] INTERVIEWER: I assume that a few weeks after the death of Liz people accosted you on the street and asked for information, and you could not tell them anything …[YES HE WAS ON GAG ORDER WHENEVER A SHOW IS DARK ACTORS CANNOT REVEAL STORY INPUT. ILL BE REALLY SURPRISED IF BLACKLIST LEAKS-Not because OF SPOILERS BUT BECAUSE THEY CHANGE STORY ALWAYS AT THE LAST MINUTE. [THEY NEVER STICK TO THEIR OWN ARC] Frankly, given the nature of the shocking death of [Liz] my character had neither too long nor too many scenes that relate to it. [HERE HE IS FRUSTRATED AGAIN. AND WE ALL KNOW WHY. THEY DIDN'T TELL HIM ANYTHING AT THE END. STORY AS HE MENTIONED WAS GOING FINE UP UNTIL THE END] That’s why I was surprised that people ask [me] about it. Because several of these people were, [Yes they wanted to know where was RESSLER AND WHY DIDN'T HE HAVE SCENES ] I agree. [I DO LOVE THIS SHADE HE GIVES, BECAUSE HES RIGHT. How they wrote 3B was selfish and deceptive.] It is unfortunate that the writers did not pay more attention to this, [or] how this situation has affected Ressler. [YES THIS IS WHY BOKENKAMP/Eisendrath PROMISED DIEGO IN SEPTEMBER THEY WERE WORKING ON STORY FOR HIM YET DIEGO DIDN'T TWEET BACK NOR ENGAGE IN ANYTHING AFTER LAST YEAR SINCE 318-WHEN THE STORY CHANGED IN PRESENT TIME FOR HIM] I was a little surprised, in the end they were partners. There was some animosity between them in the first and second season, but then everything started [To play like they got along well ] [But] There has not been any romantic themes. [Now this is IMPORTANT. Go back to 317-318 320 dialogue-LIZ WEDDING COOPER GIVES THE SPEECH] I spoke with our television series advisor. The FBI and various police about what feeds the feelings to your partner. [CRYPTIC DIEGO GIVING YOU STORY DIRECTION WITHOUT REVEALING STORY. GO TO ARTAX NETWORK AND READ TOM KEENS TEXT TO AGNES DOCTOR AND HOW TOM AND LIZ THOUGHT OF EACH OTHER AND YOU MATCH THAT TO WHAT DIEGO SAYS HERE. Same with the wedding vows] Everyone said that due to the fact that so much time is spent away from the family, the partners become for you family. I think this year, this knowledge somehow pays off. [SO YOU HAD BOKENKAMP AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SEASON TALK ABOUT THE TASK FORCE AS A FAMILY YET NONE OF THEM INTERACT LIKE A FAMILY YET RESSLER AND LIZ ARE PARTNERS AGAIN AND TOM IS GONE. OK SO ARE WE GETTING THE GIST OF WHAT HE IS SAYING? ILL GIVE YOU A HINT IN NATALIE LUCA ALONG WITH THE FORBIDDEN LOVE ANGLE LIZ SHOUTS AND RESSLR ADMITS THE COUPLE FELL FOR EACH OTHER IN THE WORKPLACE, LIZ AND TOM REFER TO KEEN 3 as "This family" not "our family." BOKENKAMP WROTE IT AND ITS DELIBERATE DIALOGUE BECAUSE THEY BOTH REPEAT IT BEFORE ADMITTING THEY ARE FALLING APART EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE TOGETHER.] image INTERVIEWER: It’s nice that there was a little warm feelings from Samar. Whether it will develop? I do not think so. [THAT WAS MATTER OF FACT.] They wanted to go this route, but later it became a one-off, a closed issue. [I KNOW WHY LOL EISENDRATH WANTED THIS SO KEEN2 COULD HAPPEN] I do not know what will happen after the fourth episode of the new season. [BUT HE KNEW SAMAR HAD FEELINGS FOR ARAM.] Samar discovered [Her] feelings [For Aram] before Ressler, but I do not know yet how he will approach this. [RESSLER DIDCOVERS SAMARS FEELINGS FOR ARAM BUT HE DOESNT KNOW HOW HE APPROACHES IT.] INTERVIEWER: What is the beginning of the fourth season for the Ressler? We begin where it left off [from] the previous season. We’re trying to find Liz. Ressler follows the footsteps, trying to find Tom, and then Agnes. It is not easy for him, because he lives in a world where everything is black or white, good or bad, right or wrong. In this matter I think nothing has changed. [PLOT MODE] INTERVIEWER: Some of the current topics feature almost predicted the events that occurred in the real world. This applies to several series, which played in the Homeland. Is this something you are looking for, what do you care? [IS DIEGO LOOKING FOR STORIES ON THE BLACKLIST TO REFLECT REAL LIFE LIKE HOMELAND? HERES ONE HINT: SALKE IS.] I think it goes hand in hand with a good script. [SHADE] [It worked out really well for Law and order. Homeland [showed] almost exactly what happened in Paris. But those scenarios were created months earlier. [Predicting the future.] Much depends on whether the [STORY] board [has writers] who feel what can happen and which way [the] events will turn out. Something like this testifies to the fact that the show is good, it is well written. [AND WE KNOW FROM THE RATINGS, the plot mode of 3B THAT THE SHOW IS HORRIBLE AND ITS WRITING.] I hoped that was easier to read. IMO I'd expect the worst, until the show gives concrete story to give you otherwise. [THE SHOW IS DARK FOR A REASON] PS I haven't seen this gift before what was the dialogue surrounding it because once again these two are expressing mutual sadness that relates not to the case but each other. That's a medium panoramic and it's done to capture reaction simultaneously. Such as...👇🏻

[jillmckenzie1]

Apologies to Ian Desmond

The Colorado Rockies have put on an offensive show lately.  The team scored 48 runs in a recent four-game series against the San Diego Padres as Charlie Blackmon set a modern-day record with 15 hits, Nolan Arenado is hitting .317 with 19 HRs and 62 RBIs, Trevor Story has 17 dingers, David Dahl is hitting .320, and Daniel Murphy has knocked in 40 runs.

Generally, this is the part of the article in which I give praise to many, then ridicule Ian Desmond.  I’ve been rough on Desmond, and rightly so.  Signed to five-year/$70 million contract back in 2017, Desmond has been nothing short of awful since he put on the purple uniform.

But as I sit here today, Desmond is hitting .279 with 11 HRs, 41 RBIs, and 20 doubles.  He’s been the sparkplug to the Rockies offensive machine, and I owe him a well-deserved apology.

Here are the top ten insults I’ve written about Ian Desmond, and for this, I am sorry.

I once said that the last name, Desmond, was derived from the French language and was originally Des Mond. Which translated means, of the miss.

After being placed on Injured Reserve, I wrote that Desmond should find a good chiropractor, to help him with that continuous slump.

In one article I suggested that the Mendoza Line, a baseball vernacular named after Mario Mendoza symbolizing futility at the plate (Mendoza had a .215 career average), be changed to the Desmond Line. Desmond was hitting .220 at the time, five points higher than Mendoza, but Mendoza never made $15 million a season.

After a poor series against the Brewers, I referred to Desmond as Ian Des Moines. Stating that he should be in AAA somewhere in Iowa, rather than the big leagues.

I also gave Desmond the nickname of Bausch & Lomb, implying he struggles with contact.

Later that season, I changed his nickname to Donut Desmond, because he leaves a big hole in the middle of our lineup.

Joking about Desmond’s contract in which the Rockies were hoping to get the all-star that hit 22 HRs, stole 20 bases, and scored 107 runs for the Texas Rangers, not the player that hit only 7 HRs in an injury plagued 2017 and batted .236 last season for the Rockies. I said the deal worked out so poorly that you would have thought Colorado bought Desmond sight unseen from Craigslist.

I noted that it was fitting that his first name was Ian, because Ian never gonna get to first base.

Inappropriately, I once wrote – Don’t call him Trojan, because he’s protecting nobody in that lineup.

And just recently, when writing a piece on great Rockies players alphabetically, I suggested that Desmond’s name should be listed under the letter O instead of D, because every time I look him up in the box score he has gone 0 for 4.

Now, I’m not saying that Desmond will ever be worth the ridiculous contract they gave him.  And I’m not saying that we wouldn’t trade Desmond and his contract for anyone willing to pay him, any phone that rings, any six-pack of beer offered.  But at .279 and 41 RBIs, Desmond has finally earned his paycheck, the respect of the fans, and my apologies.

Images via numberfire.com, mlbtraderumors.com, denverpost.com, bleacherreport.com, fantasyalarm.com

from Blog https://ondenver.com/apologies-to-ian-desmond/

[zeroviraluniverse-blog]

GreenGeeks review | TechRadar

Visit Now - https://zeroviral.com/greengeeks-review-techradar/

GreenGeeks review | TechRadar

Go shopping for a web host and environmental concerns probably aren’t high on your list of priorities, but maybe it’s time for that to change. Web Neutral Project founder Jack Amend calculates that powering the average website produces 4,500 pounds of CO2 a year, equivalent to driving the average new car for more than 10,000 miles.

Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be that way. GreenGeeks eco-friendly web hosting isn’t just optimized for maximum energy efficiency, the company also offsets 300% of its power usage by investing in renewable energy, which is perhaps why it tags itself as the ‘World’s #1 Green Energy Web Hosting Provider’.

Social responsibility is great, but hosting quality is also important, and GreenGeeks gets off to a good start with its shared product. There’s only a single plan, but it’s absolutely crammed with features: a free domain, unlimited websites, emails, databases, web space and bandwidth, plus free SSL. You also get an integrated CDN, nightly backups, Softaculous one-click app installer, a website builder, and support via email, chat and telephone.

A choice of data centers (SingleHop-owned, apparently) allows your site to be hosted in Europe, the US or Canada. That’s unusual for a budget hosting plan, and could make a real performance difference if your web audience is mostly located in one of those countries.

Standard prices for shared hosting start at $9.95 (£7.10) a month, but you can cut this to an introductory $3.95 (£2.80) if you sign up for three years, and a 30-day money-back guarantee gives you time to see if the company delivers what you need.

GreenGeeks offers managed WordPress, Drupal, Joomla and other application hosting, but these are essentially repurposed versions of the shared plans (similar specs, same prices) and don’t offer any major specialist features.

If you need more power, GreenGeeks has some VPS and dedicated plans. These score in some areas – even the starter VPS supports four cores, while other hosts might give you only one – but overall they don’t stand out for their price or features.

We had some issues with the GreenGeeks website, as it sometimes leaves out key information. It lists a website builder in the shared hosting package, for instance, but not that it limits you to three pages. Meanwhile, the separate Website Builder plan lists a single price of $3.95 (£2.80), but we had to ask a support agent to get the full details on what this included, and hear about another two plans that the site didn’t even mention.

And low prices are regularly advertised without any warning that you must buy three years hosting upfront to get those deals. These kind of tricks aren’t unusual, but that’s no excuse, and we’d like to see more and clearer information on exactly what you get in each plan.

Account setup

Signing up with GreenGeeks is easy, especially if you’re buying shared hosting. Whether you choose the website builder, managed WordPress or regular hosting, there’s only one plan listed, and a single Get Started button to kick off the purchase process.

After asking for your choice of domain – you can register one for free, or use your own – you’re prompted to enter your contact information (name, physical and email address, phone number), choice of plan and payment details (credit cards and PayPal are supported).

There are a few small catches to think about. If you want to keep your first payment to a minimum, you could go for the £9.95 ($13.80) monthly subscription, for instance. But do that and you’ll pay a non-refundable £15 ($21) setup fee, so it’s not necessarily the best option. Choose carefully.

GreenGeeks hides its PayPal button behind a ‘See more payment options’ link, but we found it anyway, filled in the form and handed over our cash in the usual way.

A post-payment web page explained that we would have to wait for our order to go through some ‘internal checks’ to ensure it wasn’t fraudulent, and the company would call to verify the order if there were any problems. Our order did take a little longer to process than usual, but no phone calls were required, and within 15 minutes further emails arrived with login URLs, usernames, passwords, links to support documents, and more.

Creating a site

GreenGeeks’ web account manager is simpler than most competitors, with only the basic information displayed: your contact details, a list of plans you’ve purchased and buttons to view more information or quickly access any service.

We were interested to try out the website builder, but there was no sign of it in the interface. Instead we had to manually activate it from the support site, then watch as GreenGeeks sent us an email invoice for $0 and another message once the support team had enabled the product. It’s a minor hassle, but only took a few minutes, and once activated the website builder appeared as a new product on our account manager page.

Launching the builder gave us access to hundreds of templates. These weren’t exceptional, but there was plenty of choice and they were very acceptable for a simple site. Each can be customized in a simple way via the drag-and-drop editor. It works, and it’s easy to use, but widgets are very basic (no fancy slideshows, lightbox effects or anything else), and we suspect the three-page limit will make it useless for most people.

If you really need a drag-and-drop solution, GreenGeeks also provides a second builder in SitePad. It doesn’t match Wix or any of the other big names, but does offer 317 templates and a decent number of widgets and customizations.

There’s a far more professional alternative in Softaculous, the excellent one-click installer bundled with GreenGeeks’ plans. This provides scripts to easily install WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, PrestaShop, Magento and many other big-name apps. Mastering something like WordPress will take time and effort, but it’ll help you build top-quality, industrial-strength sites, and you’ll be able to apply your WordPress skills with any other web host you choose in the future.

Further options include uploading your website files via FTP, or adding them manually via a browser-based file manager.

Whichever way you create a site, GreenGeeks bundles the excellent cPanel to help you manage it. Our account had a standard installation with options to view server status, create email accounts, manage databases, control security and everything else we would expect.

There are also one or two bonus options, including integration with Cloudflare CDN. This doesn’t do very much – you still have to set up your account separately, all you really get is an icon which makes it easier to access your settings – but it’s still a small timesaver, and we’re happy to see it included in the package.

Performance

Whether you’re a hosting novice or an industry expert, everyone needs a helping hand occasionally, and we were interested to check out GreenGeek’s support options.

The website has a support knowledgebase, but surprisingly, there are no links to it from the main account manager screen. If you didn’t visit the main website, or follow some of the links in the welcome email, you might never realize it was there at all.

We headed off to the knowledgebase anyway, and found around 200 articles organized into categories like Sales, General Hosting, Reseller, VPS, Billing and more. This seemed reasonable, but it didn’t take long to spot a major problem: most of these articles were horribly out of date.

The Latest Articles list included only one item that had been written in the last year, for instance, and the Popular Articles list was even worse. We find it very hard to believe that “How to publish your website using FrontPage 2003” or “Configuring Thunderbird” are major topics for web hosting customers in 2018. And although the WHM Video Tutorial article sounded better, listing videos on more than 25 topics, every single one of those links was broken. (The article was dated 2012, so maybe no-one has paid attention to it for a very long time.)

We tried using the search engine to locate articles on various topics, but without much success. This seems to run a simple keyword search only, with no intelligence to find related articles or display them in any sensible order. The lack of technical content in the articles doesn’t help, either. A search for the word Apache returned just one article: “Does GreenGeeks Support Frontpage Extensions?” Which probably isn’t the question you were dying to have answered.

A separate Tutorials section includes many step-by-step guides to common tasks. These are more detailed and relatively up-to-date, but cover very few standard hosting topics. They’re generally more focused on setting up and managing web apps such as WordPress, Joomla, PrestaShop and more.

If you can’t find what you need on the website, there’s 24/7 support available via ticket and live chat, and both are easily accessible from the GreenGeeks web console.

We tapped the Chat button, and even though we were logged into our account, were prompted to enter our name and email address again. It’s not a big deal, but indicates that the chat system isn’t automatically picking up the details of our account.

We were almost instantly connected to a support agent, and asked a simple product question about the website builder. His first response was to ask us to wait while he checked our account status, which also suggests that the chat system wasn’t automatically showing him our account data.

These delays seemed unnecessary, but they only held us up for a minute or two, and after that the agent answered our question quickly and in detail. There were occasional issues, in particular our being referred to a help URL which didn’t exist, but when we pointed that out he copied-and-pasted the necessary text into the chat window instead. Overall, while we weren’t impressed by the website or the support framework, the agent delivered the help we needed, and that’s what really matters.

As usual, we completed our tests by using Bitcatcha and some related web tools to measure server speeds. This revealed one small surprise – our Netherlands-based server had faster access from the US than the UK – but otherwise showed the kind of ordinary but acceptable performance we would expect from a shared hosting plan. Tune your website with features like the CDN and speeds are unlikely to be an issue for most users.

Final verdict

GreenGeeks’ poor website and limited product range are a concern, but the company’s full-featured shared hosting plan is good value, and the 300% power offset with renewable energy is a promise we’ve not seen anywhere else. This could be a smart hosting choice for eco-warriors everywhere.

[goldeagleprice]

Whose silver was used for 1794 dollar?

(Image courtesy www.ngccoin.com)

Editor’s Note: This is the first of a two-part installment. Read the second installment here.

  By David Finkelstein, Joel J. Orosz and Len Augsburger

For more than 50 years, multiple numismatic researchers have speculated as to which silver bullion deposit was used for coining the 1,758 mintage of 1794 dollars, and which silver bullion depositor or depositors received those 1794 dollars. Many of these incorrect speculations came to be regarded as fact, simply because they were put in print. They have been reprinted by others, and now appear in multiple publications and auction catalogs and on several websites. Due to the rediscovery of the first partial coin return warrant issued by Mint Director David Rittenhouse by Joel Orosz and Len Augsburger, we now know that:

1. The silver from David Rittenhouse’s two silver bullion deposits of Aug. 22, 1794, was used for coining the 1,758 1794 dollars.

2. On Oct. 15, 1794, David Rittenhouse received all 1,758 1794 dollars in a partial coin return towards his two silver deposits.

3. The Bank of Maryland and the Bank of Maryland’s silver deposit of July 18, 1794, were not connected to the coining or release of the 1794 dollars.

The October 15, 1794, partial coin return warrant has been in the Society Collection at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania for the last 81 years. It provides us a clearer understanding of the Mint’s processing of David Rittenhouse’s two silver bullion deposits, and the release of the 1794 dollars from the Mint’s treasury. Note that is article is part one of a two-part series. This article provides a chronological account of what we now believe occurred from Aug. 22, 1794, through Oct. 15, 1794. Part 2 will discuss what occurred after Oct. 15, 1794.

Figure 1: The Mint record of silver deposits show David Rittenhouse making deposits 2 and 3 in the Register of Certificates of the Standard Weight of Silver Bullion, deposited for Coinage. This image shows deposits 1-7.

August 22-24, 1794: Deposit & Assay

David Rittenhouse, in addition to being the Mint Director, was also a depositor of silver bullion. On Aug. 22, 1794, David Rittenhouse (depositor) made Silver Deposits #2 and #3 with Treasurer of the Mint Dr. Nicholas Way (see Figure 1 last column). On Aug. 24, David Rittenhouse (depositor) was provided two certificates (see Figure 1 column 1) that specified the values of each of his silver bullion deposits to be coined into United States money. Silver Deposit #2 was valued at $1,706.82½ and Silver Deposit #3 was valued at $294.51½, for a total of $2,001.34. (see Figure 1 column 6).

Figure 2. The Chief Coiner records the transfer of silver deposits Nos. 2 and 3 to the custody of the Chief Coiner. From Waste Book: Aug. 25 & 26, 1794.

August 25-26, 1794: Transfer Bullion From Treasurer To Chief Coiner

On Aug. 25 and 26, 1794, David Rittenhouse (Mint Director) ordered Silver Deposits #2 and #3 transferred from the custody of Treasurer of the Mint Dr. Way to the custody of Chief Coiner Henry Voigt. A paper warrant was dated and signed by David Rittenhouse (Mint Director), then provided to Dr. Way. The bullion was then physically moved from the Treasurer’s vault to the Chief Coiner’s vault. In addition, audit trail entries of the transfer of custody were made in Mint ledgers (see Figure 2).

Figure 3. The ledger entry shows the transfer of 1,758 silver dollars. From Bullion Journal: Oct. 15, 1794 – Delivery Warrant #1.

October 15, 1794: Delivery Warrant #1

On Oct. 15, 1794, David Rittenhouse (Mint Director) issued Delivery Warrant #1 to transfer 1,758 Dollars from the custody of Henry Voigt to the custody of Dr. Way. A paper warrant was dated and signed by David Rittenhouse (Mint Director), and provided to Henry Voigt. 1,758 dollars were physically moved from the Chief Coiner’s vault to the Treasurer’s vault. Audit trail entries were also made in Mint ledgers (see Figure 3).

What Happened Between Aug. 25 and Oct. 15, 1794?

Beginning Aug. 25, Silver Deposits #2 and #3 were prepared for coining. The silver bullion was melted and refined, then poured into ingots of similar sizes and weights, with a thickness that was greater than the dollar. This standard approach gave David Rittenhouse (Mint Director) flexibility. He did not need to decide how many coins of each denomination were going to be struck while the bullion was being melted and refined. At a later date, the ingots could to be rolled into strips, the thickness of any denomination, punched into planchets, and then processed through the Castaing Machine, if required, to impart the edge design.

The position of Melter and Refiner was not officially created until the Supplementation of the Mint Act of March 3, 1795. Without a Melter and Refiner, Director Rittenhouse had the next best person melt and refine silver bullion deposits; Assayer Albion Cox. How do we know this? On Oct. 28, 1794, Director Rittenhouse sent a letter to Secretary of State Edmund Randolph. Randolph forwarded Rittenhouse’s letter to President Washington. On Nov. 20, President Washington forwarded Rittenhouse’s letter to the Senate. Rittenhouse’s letter included:

“Near 120,000 ounces of bullion have already been deposited in the mint for coinage; a considerable quantity of which, being too base for the standard of the United States, has, in part, been successfully refined by the assayer, who is still going on with that process”.

Note that Director Rittenhouse stated that the bullion was “successfully refined by the assayer”. On Oct. 28, 1794, the Assayer was Albion Cox.

Figure 4: David Rittenhouse wrote the warrant to pay himself 1,758 dollar coins tha were struck from deposits 2 and 3. It is a partial coin return warrant.

October 15, 1794: Partial Coin Return Warrant For 1,758 Dollars

On Oct. 15, 1794, David Rittenhouse (Mint Director) issued a partial coin return warrant to deliver the 1,758 1794 dollars from Dr. Way to depositor David Rittenhouse (see Figure 4). The text of the warrant, which was rediscovered at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania by Joel Orosz and Len Augsburger, is as follows:

Depts No 2 & 3 Mint of the United States 15 October 1794 Sir Pay to David Rittenhouse one thousand seven hundred and fifty eight Dollars in part of Deposites No 2 & 3 made the 22.d of August 1794 ~

Dollars 1758 To the Treasurer of the Mint

(Signed) Davd Rittenhouse Director

The Mint and Coinage Act of April 2, 1792, did not specify that the coins returned to a depositor had to be in only one coin return. We now know that David Rittenhouse (depositor) received multiple partial coin returns for his Silver Deposits #2 and #3. The first partial coin return was on Oct. 15, 1794. Two other partial coin returns most likely occurred on May 7 and 8, 1795. How do we know this?

Figure 5: Waste Book: May 7 & 8, 1795, Coins Returned to David Rittenhouse

The audit trail entries in Mint ledgers specify that on May 7, 1795, David Rittenhouse (depositor) received 1,706 Dollars, 1 Half Dollar, 6 Half Dismes, 2 Cents and 1 Half Cent. Also, on May 8, 1795, he received 52 Dollars, 484 Half Dollars, 51 Cents and 1 Half Cent (see Figure 5).

We know that David Rittenhouse (depositor) received all 1,758 dollars on Oct. 15, 1794, therefore he could not have received them on May 7 and 8, 1795. So why were the audit trail entries dated May 7 and 8, 1795?

Although partial coin returns occurred, they were not logged in Mint ledgers. What was logged, was the summary of all partial coin returns that occurred, or the one full coin return that occurred. The date of the audit trail entry was the date of the final coin return. This is the date that closed out the accounting for the specific deposit.

David Rittenhouse (depositor) received 1,758 Dollars, 485 Half Dollars, 6 Half Dismes, 53 Cents and 2 Half Cents for his Silver Deposits #2 and #3. He received the 1,758 Dollars on Oct. 15, 1794. On May 7, 1795, he most likely received 1 Half Dollar, 6 Half Dismes, 2 Cents and 1 Half Cent in a partial coin return to close out the accounting for Silver Deposit #2. On May 8, 1795, he most likely received 484 Half Dollars, 51 Cents and 1 Half Cent in another partial coin return to close out the accounting for Silver Deposit #3.

Note that documents in the Mint’s General Correspondence files at the National Archives and Records Administration identify that the Bank of Maryland, the Bank of North America and John Vaughan also received multiple partial coin returns for their silver bullion deposits (see Figure 1).

To Be Continued

Part two of this article discusses (1) what happened immediately after David Rittenhouse took possession of the 1794 dollars, (2) why the Bank of Maryland and the Bank of Maryland’s silver deposit of July 18, 1794, were not connected to the coining or release of the 1794 dollars, and (3) how the Oct. 15, 1794 partial coin return warrant made its way from the Mint to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Click here to read more!

References

The Mint and Coinage Act of April 2, 1792.

The Supplementation of the Mint Act of March 3, 1795.

Records of the Bureau of the Mint, National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 104; Bullion Journals, Waste Books, Register of Silver Deposits, and Miscellaneous Correspondence 1792-1899.

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Society Collection, David Rittenhouse folder, documents donated by Mrs. Williams Stansfield, Feb. 28, 1936.

American State Papers. Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States, Gales and Seaton, 1832, Finance, page 317.

  This article was originally printed in Numismatic News. >> Subscribe today.

  More Collecting Resources

• Are you a U.S. coin collector? Check out the 2018 U.S. Coin Digest for the most recent coin prices.

• Subscribe to our monthly Coins magazine – a great resource for any collector!

The post Whose silver was used for 1794 dollar? appeared first on Numismatic News.

[itsworn]

Bam! Get 18 HP With New DiabloSport P2 Predator Hemi Tuner!

When it comes to hand-held tuners that modify the factory tune on a mildly upgraded Mopar Hemi, the Predator was the tuner of choice for nearly a decade. At the time of its introduction, the Predator was an advanced tool that provided the enthusiast an opportunity to modify the factory software and take advantage of the potential of newly installed bolt-on parts. As time progressed, DiabloSport dropped the aging Predator, but after a few years’ hiatus, the Predator is back. The new Predator, called the Predator P2 (part No. 7301, $329.95, retail), is an all-new design that extends the legacy of the Predator. According to Matt Barker of DiabloSport: “The Predator P2 is a completely redesigned piece of hardware compared to the original Predator.” Barker continued, “It has a full color screen, a lightning-fast user interface, and a broader vehicle coverage for each sku.” The Predator P2 is a premium tuner packaged in a comfortable ergonomic case with a five-button controlled navigation screen, which provides great tuning capabilities at a low cost.”

Barker explains: “With simple upgrades like an intake or exhaust, the pre-built tuning in the P2 will work great. When you start making internal engine modifications, forced induction, use race fuel, or bigger cams, then you may need a custom tune.” With the relatively stock test car used in this story—a 2006 5.7L Hemi Charger—the 50-state compliant tuner with the built-in tunes would meet our needs. The Charger has been a test bed for a series of evaluations over the last year. Currently, the Hemi has SOS coils from Performance Distributors, AMSOIL products throughout the drivetrain, a pair of TTI long-tube headers and full exhaust, and a Trickflow underdrive damper installed. If a Hemi has radical engine changes, DiabloSport offers the Predator P2 Pro Performance Programmer, which includes the DiabloSport tuning built in, and has the ability to accept a Chip Master Revolution (CMR) custom tune, provided by independent dealers. If you feel your Hemi may be too extreme for the 50-state compliant P2, visit DiabloSport.com for guidance.

When the Predator arrived, the package included the P2 tuner and integrated OBDII cable, a USB cable to connect to a PC with internet access for product updates, a California Air Resources Board (CARB) Executive Order (E.O.) No. D-770 sticker (to be placed in the glovebox or affixed to the driver’s side door jamb), an instruction manual, and a DiabloSport sticker. Before any tuning could begin, the P2 required a software download. With the P2 connected via the USB cable to a PC and the installation software installed on the PC, the P2 was registered, and an “Ignition” shortcut icon was installed on the PC’s desktop. Clicking on the “Ignition” icon started the software program and any updates for the Predator automatically downloaded. If additional options were available, the user could select the options. Once all the updates were completed, the “Ignition” software signaled on the PC’s screen that all the P2 updates were finalized. Now we were ready to use the Predator!

The Charger was strapped to the Pennsylvania College of Technology’s Mustang chassis dynamometer. With the Hemi and the drivetrain warmed up, three pulls were performed to establish a baseline. All three runs were within 1 percent of each other with a best baseline of 343 lb-ft of torque from 4,200-4,500 rpm and a peak of 317 hp at 5,200 rpm. With the baseline established, the P2 was connected to the OBDII port under the dash of the Charger. After the P2 powered up, we followed the screen prompts in the “Tune” menu which gave us the choice of selecting one of two pre-built tunes to upload to the Charger’s Powertrain Control Module (PCM). We selected the Diablo Tune, which would maximize the engine and transmission output while requiring 93-octane fuel. The other tune was a 91-octane tune. Depending upon your vehicle, a Diablo Tow mode tune, an 87-octane performance tune, and an 87-octane fuel economy tune may be optional selections. With 93-octane in the tank and the Diablo Tune installed, the Hemi twisted the Mustang’s rollers three more times. The results were impressive and repeatable. All three runs were within 1 percent of each other. The increase in peak torque was 17 lb-ft to 360 lb-ft at 4,600 rpm. The peak horsepower rose to 332 hp at 5,200 rpm for an increase of 15 hp. Throughout the entire pull, the average increase in torque was 14 lb-ft, and the average horsepower increase was 12 hp. A best of 23 lb-ft of torque increase was seen at 3,500 rpm, and the best increase of 18 hp was at 5,300 rpm.

With solid numbers from the P2, we explored the advanced tuning options. The P2 allows the modification of the canned tunes within certain parameters to attempt to increase the Hemi’s output. The advanced tuning options allowed the modification of the engine idle, gear ratio, speed limiter, rev limiter, tire size, automatic transmission shift points and shift (line) pressure, cooling fans operation, skip shift (manual transmissions), spark advance, and Multi-Displacement System (MDS) cylinder deactivation. Adjusting the spark advance did not improve upon the Diablo Tune provided in the P2. The altering of the shift points and line pressures provided very little in terms of horsepower or torque gain but may show promise at the dragstrip. Deactivating the MDS allowed all the cylinders to operate 100% of the time. The relatively stock Hemi seem to operate best with the 93-octane tune. If there had been more dyno time or the Hemi had been stouter, the advanced tuning operations may have had greater output.

After the performance tests, the P2 was used to return the PCM to the stock tune. From the “Tune” menu, we found the stock tune, and within minutes, the stock tune reloaded to the PCM without any indication of a software change having ever occurred. This is a recommended procedure whenever the vehicle requires service, so the repair center does not flash (reprogram) an update to the PCM that will limit the ability of the P2 to communicate with the PCM due to a software mismatch.

Whenever the Charger wheels roll on the chassis dyno, several ABS and traction control Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTCs) are set, and their corresponding warning lights illuminate on the instrument cluster. The Predator has a “Scan” menu option to read the DTCs, and once repaired, can clear these codes. The navigation buttons allowed us to see that seven DTCs had been set. With the touch of button, the P2 erased all the codes. The P2 lists each DTC by the OBDII compliant P0XXX code. Any online reference provides a description of the code and a brief repair procedure.

Additional uses of the P2 are gauge display and data logging. If there is a need to monitor a particular Parameter ID (PID), the P2 can be set up to display that PID. The P2 “Scan” menu allows the monitoring of a total of eight PIDs within eight groups at one time. The PID data can be recorded and then viewed later to evaluate the current tune of the engine. Besides tuning and scanning, the P2 provides the user with important information (Info menu) about the vehicle such as the VIN, tuning level, and vehicle files. Additionally, the P2 will provide device information from the same menu. The information includes sku, app, database version, and other device parameters. This provides the user with information about the latest update applied to the P2.

Is the Predator P2 as good as the original Predator? Hands down, the P2 is better. It is faster, more powerful, and has a better viewing screen than the original. The P2 is an inexpensive way to get dyno-proven performance increases while not requiring a deep understanding of the theories of engine tuning. The P2 provides manufacturer scan tool capabilities, data logs for optimizing tunes, and provides detailed information about the vehicle and itself. The ease of use and the great performance potential of the P2 makes the tuner the only tuner most aficionados will ever need.

Read More Late-Model Hemi Tech On This Car!

SOS Performance Distributors ignition coil install and dyno test

AMSOIL synthetics dyno test

TTi headers and exhaust install and dyno test

Add 8 HP to your hemi with a TFS underdrive crank damper!

DiabloSport has developed the all new Predator P2 for modern Dodge and Chrysler vehicles. The 50-state compliant P2 (part no. 7301) provides tunes, a scan tool to read and clear codes, and datalogging capability. Included with the Predator is a USB cable to connect the P2 to DiabloSport.com for updates, a 50-state CARB E.O. sticker, an instruction manual, and a DiabloSport sticker.

Before the Predator could be used on our 2006 Dodge Charger, the Predator had to be connected to a PC via the USB cable to download and install the “Ignition” Updater software, register the Predator, and use the “Ignition” updater to bring the Predator to the latest update. Whenever the Predator is connected to a PC, the Predator screen displays that it is in USB mode.

This is a screen shot from DiabloSport’s download webpage (diablosport.com/downloads). The PC option is selected and the screen prompts are followed to download and install the “Ignition” software on the PC. This procedure was completed in less than 10 minutes. If you have a Mac computer, DiabloSport has you covered as well with their Mac download.

When the download and installation is completed, the newly installed “Ignition” icon is double-clicked and the Predator has to be registered. The registration of the Predator allows DiabloSport to provide correspondences via email to notify of new updates for the P2.

After the registration is completed, the “Ignition” icon is double-clicked every time an update via Ignition Updater is required. Every time, prior to its use, it is recommended that an update is performed. This screen shot shows the Predator is up-to-date. During the process of this article, the author was emailed twice about updates for the Predator. Each time the Predator was connected to the PC, and the Ignition Updater downloaded ten new update files (three on the first download and seven on the second download).

The Predator was connected to the Charger at the OBDII connector under the dash. The connector allows bi-directional communication between the Charger’s powertrain control module (PCM) and the Predator P2. Depending upon your application, some trim panels may have to be pulled aside or removed to gain access to the OBDII connector.

The Predator immediately powered up when the OBDII connector was attached. The ignition key was in the off position until the P2 requested the key to be turned to the on (run not start) position. Following the screen prompts got the P2 prepared to perform tasks on our Charger.

Once the Predator finished its startup procedure, it came up to the “Tune” menu screen (the first of three choices on the main menu). From this screen we could move to uploading a built-in tune to the Charger or we could make some quick adjustments to the factory tune. The navigation of the screens is completed with the use of the four directional buttons and the “ok” button.

When the “ok” button is depressed when in the “Tune” menu, the “Tuning and Options” screen provided us with two options: “Quick Options” or “Tune Vehicle.”

The “Quick Options” offerings are the modification of the engine idle to maintain idle if a bolt-on part had changed the idle speed of the Hemi. If the tire size was changed from the factory tire size or the rear gears had been swapped, there are options to correct the revolutions/minute of the tire to maintain the correct speedometer reading, and maintain the proper operation of the ABS and Traction Control systems.

Going back to the “Tune” menu, we moved forward to the “Tune Vehicle” selection and started the upload the Diablo Tune (93-octane tune). The Predator first downloads the factory tune into its memory, and then it uploads the Diablo Tune (or whatever tune that was selected) to the factory PCM. After the installation, the Predator actuates several engine components and instrument cluster lights as it verifies the proper operation of each actuator and sensor. This process requires several key on/off cycles during the update. If the stock tune is ever desired, the stock tune can be re-uploaded following the same procedures described above.

A second option after the “Tune” option is the “Scan” option. Selecting the “Scan” page will provide the viewing of any Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTCs) that have been set. Parameter ID (PID) information (up to eight) can be viewed and data logged. Lastly, the battery voltage can be observed.

The reading and clearing of DTCs and the monitoring of the battery voltage is self-explanatory, but the monitoring of the gauges and data logger is more in depth, so an explanation follows.

The PIDs have been grouped into one of the eight groups on the Predator. The selection of one of the PID groups will open up to all of the PIDs available in that group. The selection of one or more from each group is allowed (to a maximum of eight PIDs total). The use of the navigation buttons and screen prompts allows the selection of the PIDs.

For the gauges, we selected eight PIDs from two PID groups. When in the gauge display, the dividing lines between the PIDs will be red in color. When the “ok” button is depressed, the dividing lines turn a green color, and at this time, the PID data is being data logged for later assessment. Depressing the “ok” button a second time will end the data logging session and return the dividing lines to a red color.

When the Predator is connected to the PC, the data log(s) can be opened into Windows Excel, and the information can be manipulated into easy-to-read graphs. In this graph, the PID data that was selected in the last screen capture is now represented in a graph format. This data was collected at 55 mph with the engine revs held at 1,550 rpm. The greatest movement on the graph is represented by the upstream O2 sensors. Several different PIDs can be selected and logged when the vehicle is stock, and then those same PIDs can be rechecked after modifications are made. The two can be compared to each other to determine if additional adjustments are necessary.

The third choice from the main menu is the “Info” menu. When this is selected, information about the vehicle can be viewed. Additionally, this option provides information about the Predator itself (information about the sku, database version, app, and status among others).

The warmed-over Charger has TTi long-tube headers and exhaust, AMSOIL products throughout the drivetrain, SOS ignition coils from Performance Distributors, and a Trick Flow harmonic balancer. The Charger on the Mustang dyno showed an increase of 20 lb-ft of torque down low (3,400-3,500 rpm) and an increase of 18 horsepower up high at 5,300 rpm with the DiabloSport Diablo Tune. Comparing the peak torque of the baseline to the Diablo Tune there was an increase of 17 lb-ft of torque at 4,500 rpm and an increase of 14 peak horsepower at 5,300 rpm.

To establish the baseline, three runs were performed with results that were within 1 percent of each other. Then the Diablo Tune was installed, and again, three runs were completed with the results of each run within 1 percent of each other. The Diablo Tune was removed for the final three runs, and the pre-baseline and post-baseline runs were within 1 percent of each other (ABA testing), so the Diablo Tune results were deemed valid. In the graph, it can easily be seen that the Diablo Tune outpaced the factory tune throughout the entire rpm range. The Predator P2 is a very powerful tool for the price, and best of all the hood is not even opened to perform the uploads.

The post Bam! Get 18 HP With New DiabloSport P2 Predator Hemi Tuner! appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

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[gaiatheorist]

‘Drawing.’

Two headlines on BBC news articles containing reference to ‘drawing’, and they’re another illustration of how polarised ‘everything’ is becoming.

‘Corbyn draws crowds at Glastonbury’ and ‘Archbishop tells PM to “Draw the poison from Brexit”.”

Classic Guardian-comments style, I haven’t read them. I have very little interest in what ‘organised religion’ has to say, especially the C of E, it’s a made-up religion, self-serving offshoot of the Roman one. Not The Roman one, the other one, I’d have more interest in the Roman one if we were having Saturnalia, and devotions to Bacchus and such, but that’s just hypothetically hedonistic me. 

I did watch the video of Jeremy addressing the crowd at Glastonbury. I have a soft spot for him, with his allotment, and his inconsistent tie-wearing, and his general not-raising-his-voice. Yes, it was a wealthy man addressing a load of people who could afford tickets to Glastonbury, I do see the issue with that, but he just comes across as so ‘human’, unlike the other one. His speech raised my spirits, and we all need a bit of that, the crowd were roused, even if sections of the mainstream media tried to complain about it. He’s being criticised for not ‘appearing’ at a forces-veteran thing, and taking to the stage at a music festival, I’m not certain where the other one was, probably under a rock somewhere, planning to suck draught-excluders out of buildings so she can use the money for sprinkler-systems.  

The Glastonbury crowd, there’s criticism that he was preaching to the converted, but that’s a sack of balls, in the face of Theresa’s stage-managed public appearances during the election campaign. Thinking-around-corners on that, it might actually be the fear that a Tarquin or a Persephone in the audience might hear something Mummy and Daddy had tried to shield them from. Can you imagine Theresa addressing Glastonbury? I can’t. I don’t know ‘who’ goes to Glastonbury, I’ve never been. (Appalling flash-back to myself and three blokes sleeping in a camper in a supermarket car-park in Glossop one Glastonbury weekend. Bloody ridiculous, especially when some passing drunks tried to ‘rock’ the van in the middle of the night. Oh, and the ex getting ‘food poisoning’, which was actually a hangover, and one of the other lads having to drive the van, with spewy-ex rolling about in the over-cab bunk. Honestly, 20 years of stupid ideas.) 

Off-topic. (I’ve been awake since just after 3am again.)  I have Pulp’s ‘Sorted’ roaming around my head, “Is this the way they say the future’s meant to feel, or just twenty thousand people standing in a field?” I don’t know, or care which other politicians have ever addressed Glastonbury. I don’t know how many of the people in the crowd will have had their opinions changed by JC’s words, or how many of them were in a lucid enough state to even remember they’d been there, then. It’s not exactly a JFK-moment, and ‘Say no to drugs.’, or do drugs if that’s your thing, but please be careful. It stirred me, a 40 year old woman, who sees too much about how the current government are getting an awful lot of things very badly wrong. I look under rocks, it’s what I do. I can’t say I’m fully on-board with all of the Labour party manifesto pledges, and, for all the mainstream media criticism that JC is some sort of rampant socialist, he’s actually going against some of his personal viewpoints to stay relatively safe-central. Jeremy is not ‘the prince who was promised’, but, dammit, he’s better than any of the Lannisters. 

He was articulate and engaging, he means what he says, and that integrity is appealing, in contrast to the inconsequential, hollow repetition of the May-bot. Yes, she has a lot on her plate, and yes, she was handed the shitty end of the stick by her predecessor, but she enrages rather than engaging, she’s evasive, not persuasive, she’s as far through as a kipper, she’s not as endearing as everyone’s pet badger-in-tweed. The only crowd she’d ‘draw’ would be people wanting to throw things at her. (Not advocating physical assaults on politicians, in any way, shape, or form, we’re better than that. A segment of Facebook did get a little whipped-up by a rumoured personal appearance in the area during the election, and it could have turned nasty, if it hadn’t been efficiently investigated, and found to be a false-flag, raised by one of the genuine socialist groups.) 

Drawing out the poison, that’s an evocative phrase, and comes with the connotation that someone is at risk of swallowing it. It won’t be Boris or Nigel, and there’s a fairly broad consensus that Theresa is done-for already, she’s lined up to be the collateral damage in this utter omnishambles. Sacrificial mutton, lined up to fall on a sword someone else sharpened. A year in, no further  forward in terms of what ‘Brexit’ really means, other than a toxic and divisive topic. A year ago, 48% of the UK smacked its collective head, more than 48%, to be fair, due to a quoted third of the population not even bothering to vote. 52% of those who voted had a bit of a party about the permitted curvature of bananas, and other such vital matters, and waited for the money we ‘could’ give to the NHS. The third that didn’t vote, I don’t know what they were getting up to, other than sitting about, thinking ‘Bugger, this is a bit of a mess, isn’t it?’

The ‘youth’ are angry at the ‘old people’ for voting leave. I’m not certain whether I count as ‘old people’, when I was ‘youth’, anything over 30 was assigned to the coffin-dodger category. I don’t engage with the ‘youth’, so haven’t had to explain that I voted stay, other than to my son, who knows, because he was in the booth next to me when I did it. (It is an offence to disclose how someone else voted, but you’re allowed to say which box you put your own cross in.) The ex, and the boy’s companion had both said they weren’t going to bother, which isn’t disclosing their vote, just their bloody toxic apathy. There’s anger directed from both ‘sides’ at the non-voters, I’m not angry as such, it’s more of a sadness, I know some people will have had valid reasons not to be registered to vote, not all of us want to be search-able, but those who could, and didn’t, I’m sad for them. There’s no poetry in that pity, I can’t ‘Dulce et decorum est’ it, the voiceless will die alongside those of us who spoke up, as corners are cut, and services dismantled, we ARE ‘in this together’, it’s just that we don’t know what ‘it’ is. 

“Brexit means Brexit.”, but NOBODY knows what ‘Brexit’ means in the first place, we’re fractious mushrooms, here, kept in the dark, and fed shite. Fungus spreads, as does the disquiet that the current government appears inept. That athlete’s foot itch, that the powers-that-be don’t appear to have a plan, that’s more infectious than the original “Shut up, snowflake, we won!” rhetoric, where the ‘prize’ turned out to be a voucher for a time-share, that could only be redeemed at an inconvenient point in time. Hollow, Pyrrhic, it’s no kind of a ‘win’ in real terms, and that’s the poison that needs to be drained, the uncertainty and insecurity, that nobody seems to know where we’re going. On paper, in theory, ‘showing our hand’ could give the 27 other players the advantage. We’re not children, bargaining for our ball-kicked-over-the-fence back, these decisions will have a lasting impact on all of us. I’m hover-hesitating on applying for vacancies in certain sectors due to the limbo-unknown factor, that’s a detriment to me, because I’m running out of money, a detriment to the sectors, because I have some phenomenal skills, and a detriment to everyone-else, because ‘you’ are paying the £317 per month the government thinks I can live on.

Drawing. I can’t draw any conclusions, other than that the country is screwed.