#Like the specific process I use involves having a very solid background in How Things Work and then researching How Would This

[serpentface]

man your work is so cool- how'd you learn to draw so many different species? do you have a background in biology or anything like that?

Thanks. I probably have as much of a background in biology as anyone without an actual biology related degree or line of work can claim (lifelong obsession + volunteering + some classes + several biology residencies + tons of time in the outdoors) but not really

It's mostly the autism like I spend a lot of my time learning about a massive spectrum of Nature Related Topics and mostly read science nonfiction so I have a pretty solid knowledge foundation on which to realistically construct new things (same goes for ancient/pre-modern era history, same sort of shit). I've also been drawing animals all my life and have a probably? above average learned sense of how the anatomy of most groups work and how certain features work and etc (I've got a lot of weak points though like bird wings are difficult. Like I get how they're laid out but translating that accurately into how they look folded is kinda beyond me without referencing).

I do use references, usually not for poses (unless they're particularly difficult) but like to realistically translate a concept. If I have 'large semiaquatic rodent with a vertically flattened tail that spends a lot of time on land, feeds as a browser, chews and carries sticks to build a lodge, digs canals between waterways' as a concept, I'm referencing a variety of semiaquatic rodents in ways that make sense (it's going to be more cursorial than a beaver but probably not as much of a capybara, so it will still be plantigrade, it needs to have strong legs for digging, its tail should be fairly large to be the primary propelling limb in water but not large enough to severely impede land based momentum, it feeds more like a muskrat or beaver than a capybara so it's jaw orientation should be along those lines, it should have fairly highset eyes, ears, nostrils, its semi-aquatic and not a huge animal so it should have a solid fur coat to trap heat, but its environment is fairly warm year round so its coat should reflect that, etc). It's more of a complicated process if I'm doing something that wholly does not Exist (like we have plenty of semi-aquatic rodents but we do not have flightless aquatic pterosaurs) but same concept, just referencing things that exist to construct things that don't exist in a fairly believable manner.

[canmom]

How aren't mediums fungible? Any art history class would teach you they very much are.

what, has 'the medium is the message' gone out of fashion now or something?

but to explain what I'm trying to get at, since there's a good chance I misused the word >< - each medium brings its own set of affordances and emphases. if I see a CG animation I pay attention to different things than if I see traditional animation or stop motion or what have you.

for example, we could have a look at the animation of Hiroyuki Okiura - say, the introduction to the Cowboy Bebop movie, or his work in Magnetic Rose. Okiura is one of the most renowned realist animators, someone whose drawing style, camerawork etc. hews very close to live action film. his exceptional sense of perspective and space is remarkable in traditional animation. by contrast, you 'get it for free' in CG and stop motion - you will always have perfect linear perspective unless you go out of your way to break it. however, CG rarely captures the exact qualities of Okiura's animation, which come from the sense of drawing principles - how to simplify shapes, 2D spacing etc. and by making it something constructed, the way characters move through space, the way a drawing can suddenly feel 3D, becomes foregrounded - it's no longer incidental but now a core part of what Okiura's animation is expressing.

so, 'live action into anime' is kinda what the AI style transfer tools are going for. in the technique from the recent paper, you start with a static drawing of a character and some animation data (likely mocap), and the program will generate an animation. that's similar what Corridor Digital attempted a few months ago, using a neural network finetuned on Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, and applying 'style transfer' to live action footage they shot. the results were, viewed as rotoscoping, kind of hideous, with shapes constantly flickering and turning into mush. the new paper I linked offers some techniques to improve the temporal consistency of this type of AI rotoscoping which should make it look a lot less bad, though it remains to be seen whether it works in situations other than 'well-lit fullbody shot'.

still, even if Corridor's video was a lot more technically solid (and give AI development a few years to iron out the kinks, I'm sure it will look downright quaint), it doesn't provoke the same response in me as Okiura's animation. the process of drawing something involves a lot of artistic decisions about what to capture, simplify, emphasise; for all that it is 'realist', Okiura's animation likewise has a particular feeling to the way characters move, the way they interact with light, the use of line, etc. which in some large part arises from how it is produced. so much of that is all but impossible to capture in words.

but also - knowing a bit about how it's made, and having my own experiences of animation, gives me an angle to appreciate what Okiura is doing. a drawing of something is a way of drawing attention to the specific details of the subject. two people drawing the same subject will never draw it the exact same way. one of the joys of going to life drawing is seeing how many different ways people can approach the same subject in the same ten minutes - inflected by different media like charcoal or watercolour pencils. one of the great things about anime is the space it gives key animators to bring their own sensibility to a particular shot.

I certainly accept that is inevitable that mediums will evolve with time. anime looks very different today than it did 30 years ago. part of of that is evolving sensibilities, partly the slow-motion collapse of an overstrained industry, but also a lot has do with the fact that every studio has switched to digital compositing and digital background painting. it's possible through painstaking effort to fairly closely imitate the look of cel animation on a computer, but you really have to go out of your way, and it's rare to do that.

and I do feel like something has been lost with the death of cels - qualities of line and colour, the difference between digital bloom and backlight animation. but something has been gained at the same time: maybe we've gradually lost the traditional skills for drawing layouts because the conditions of production made it so that skills weren't passed on to the current generation of animators, which sucks, but we have simultaneously gained the ability to merge 2D and 3D animation with tools like Grease Pencil, to use the camera-like digital compositing effects of directors like Naoko Yamada and Makoto Shinkai. it's not better, just different.

this isn't to make the boring argument that AI art is soulless, or lacks the magic human touch, or whathaveyou. it's just a different medium. nor would it be right to say that there are no connections between media - literally right now I'm modelling an arm, and my experience of drawing arms is directly influencing how I break down the forms and all of that. AI generated images derive in obvious ways from traditional animation and CG and photography and all that, AI engineers study these media in great detail as they develop their programs; our knowledge of those media can inform how we respond to AI.

honestly, CG that aims to replicate the look of traditional animation, such as in the games of ArcSystem Works, or the works of Orange like their Houseki no Kuni, is something I actually find very interesting. not because I think it could or should replace traditional animation; it just reveals fascinating things about both media. the same can be true of AI, I think. like what do you learn from what a neural network is able to capture, and what it isn't? and what does studying neural networks tell us about human brains?

if the development of AI and the accessibility of new tools leads to a flourishing of interesting new animation, I'll be happy. I just don't see it as a replacement for traditional animation and 3DCG. if anything the future of animation will probably look like a hybrid process taking advantage of the best features of all the different media we've invented - insert the usual spiel about Arcane and Spiderverse here. AI is currently very immature, we're still figuring out what it's good for and the hype drowns out everything, but I'm sure it will find a comfortable place, and I'll be interested to see how it all shakes out.

but what I meant with 'not fungible' is that, if you try to replace one medium with another, you will inevitably change the qualities of what you make. nowt wrong with that. like, just because you can adapt books into films (and vice versa) doesn't mean books are obsolete. some things are easier to express in prose, others in film. you can have prose that's informed by film, and film that's informed by prose. everything's talking to everything else, it's great! but the tools you choose are meaningful, and interesting. not just an irrelevant detail to be swapped out when "superior" technology comes along.

[entity9silvergen]

Another thing that I like about this scene is that the writers’ frame it from Ben’s perspective. Ben doesn’t think he’s doing/done anything wrong and it’s very easy for the viewer to just go along with that but it is also very easy to see Ben’s shortcomings here, as the previous poster did. This scene says Ben did not put the effort in to do research and learn about Revonnah before going there but I think Ben’s reactions also show he doesn’t know that is a thing he should do. He can recognize he doesn’t understand a culture but it never occurs to him that there is something he can do something about it. Very good reminder he is sixteen and sixteen year olds sometimes don’t know the things, especially things they need to know to learn other things. Ben is pretty smart in some ways but he’s still a kid and doesn’t yet have the skills or knowledge to navigate the real world (or universe in this case).

Furthermore, jumping off @emperorsfoot’s point, this scene shows Rook Da has done the research, to some degree at least, about Earth customs so if you look at it from his perspective, if he, a farmer on a planet that is known for avoiding contact with alien life, knows something as specific as common earth greetings then it is very reasonable to assume that Ben, who interacts with aliens (including a Revonnahgander!) constantly, would know at least the basics of Revonnahgander life.

Also, circling back to @jko-arts’s original comment about Rook and Ben’s relationship, I am from an Asian-American family (and I have made other posts analyzing Revonnahgander culture from that perspective) and I have witnessed a handful of “white boyfriend introduces himself to the family matriarch/patriarch” rituals and let me say Ben did not do a very good job, though it usually involves a lot of figurative hand holding where one partner guides the other through the process to ensure it goes smoothly. Rook basically invited his white boyfriend to Thanksgiving without telling his family and also did not really adequately prepare Ben. Rook’s embraced the alien culture he’s encountered with an open mind and put a solid amount of effort into learning about other species, especially humans, but he knows Ben isn’t the same as him in that regard. Ben doesn’t know a lot about Revonnahganders, which really isn’t Rook’s fault (and later in the show we do see that Rook tells Ben a lot about Revonnah and Ben does listen even if he isn’t particularly interested, I’m specifically thinking of when he uses Pixie Dust to bore that gameshow host and Ben is able to recall a lot of details about Revonnah’s agricultural calendar but that is comparing an early episode to a late episode so I think it does represent some growth on Ben’s part), but Rook is still choosing to include Ben in this thing that is very important to him so not only should he not expect Ben to behave perfectly, it is a very reasonable expectation that he put the additional effort in to make sure Ben knows what he needs to know, or at least wait to introduce Ben to his family another time when Ben is more ready.

That also serves as a reminder of Rook’s age. Rook’s age is never confirmed (other than being an adult by Revonnahgander standards but that is a whole ‘nother thing) but it is implied he isn’t much older than Ben and not necessarily a fully fledged adult by human standards (based on how older humans and aliens interact with him). Both are very smart, capable, and skilled but they work well together because they have different backgrounds that developed those parts of them, Rook being more academic and Ben having the hands on experience. Rook is still learning some aspects of navigating that “real world” just like Ben and they’re coming at it from different angles but they’re both still making mistakes and they’re both still learning.

That feeling when from the first minutes the future father-in-law doesn’t like you.

(oooo, I’m so obsessed with that 😍)

[is-the-primate-vid-cute]

How can you tell if something *is* a pet monkey? Sometimes it's hard to tell esp if people label themselves as rescues or sanctuaries or whatnot.

It can be hard to tell. My usual process involves looking for specific red flags: wearing clothes, being on a leash, being inside a human house, doing human activities, and being the subject of internet content that has little to no information, focusing on the cute factor. Lets take an example:

This is Pockets Warhol the capuchin. This photo, and many others on the twitter account @PocketsWarhol, depict Pockets playing with toys, painting, and sleeping in blankets indoors. Additionally, the Twitter account posts from Pockets perspective. This photo was tweeted with the caption “I know that I never want to stop smiling #BeKindToAnimals #AfterLife #storybookmonkeys“

It is easy to think that Pockets is a pet, and you’d be half right: he used to be a pet before being surrendered to the Storybook Farm Primate Sanctuary in Ontario. So how do we go from seeing this type of content from determining if Pockets is a pet?

1. Context gathering. Just from scrolling through Pockets’ Twitter, more tweets can be found which indicate more about Pockets’ care and keeping. Not much, but the background of several pictures and videos indicate an enclosure suited to capuchin needs rather than someones basement or living room. He is also only seen engaging in species safe enrichment including baby-proof children’s toys and classic monkey enrichment like sawdust. This still isn’t much to go off of, but at this point we would probably see if his caretaker was treating him unambiguously as a pet. If at this stage we saw him wearing baby clothes, being handled inappropriately/like a human baby or a domesticated animal, or being kept in a persons bedroom, yard, or a similarly obviously bad environment. At this point we can go into the next step:

2. Background Research. We know Pockets lives at the Storybook Farm Primate Sanctuary, but is this a real sanctuary or just someone with a farm that keeps “rescue“ exotics? Let’s look. One of the first things you may notice on the website linked from Pockets’ Twitter bio is an endorsement from Jane Goodall. Pretty solid stuff in their favour, but not every place is going to have an endorsement that so obviously speaks to a high standard of ethics and primate welfare. If you hover over the “About Us“ section of the website directory, you can click on the “Our People“ tab. Here we find some info that you are likely not going to find for any sanctuary that isn’t the real deal:

A board of directors (7 members)

Staff members (3 caregivers and 2 veterinarians)

Names of all the volunteers

Non-legitimate sanctuaries almost never have this level of transparency. This also allows you to look up individuals such as board members to see what their qualifications are. Real sanctuaries value transparency and tend to be more forthcoming. Seeing “John Smith Phd, resident veterinarian” is a big green flag, whereas “Founded by John and Judy Smith who love animals“ doesn’t say much.

Storybook Farms also has a resources tab for educational information, including a tab on pet primates. They do not say outright that primates should never be pets, but instead emphasize that the needs of primates are most often not met when they are kept as pets and that neglect and poor quality of life is very common. This may seem like a questionable stance, but Storybook Farms is very gentle in their condemnation of keeping primates as pets as they form and maintain relationships with primate pet owners to ensure the welfare of these privately owned animals. Primate pet owners should not exist, but if someone has a pet monkey an all or nothing approach is not going to help them or the monkey. As I mentioned, Pockets used to be a pet, but he was willingly surrendered by his owner who realized that she was not capable of giving him the quality of life he deserves.

3. More critters? Pockets is just one monkey out of all the monkeys and lemurs at this sanctuary, and luckily Storybook Farms has a tab where you can read bios and see pictures of every individual there (yay for transparency and good websites!) From reading through these bios I found quickly that most of the sanctuaries residents live in small groups/couplings that are species appropriate and take the needs of the individuals into account. Inner species relationships are prioritized and care is taken to allow natural, non-human-centric lives.

Remember Darwin the IKEA monkey? He lives here! Because Darwin (a former pet like Pockets) was rescued when he was less than a year old, he has been largely rehabilitated to be more macaque than human and spends his time with his own kind, foraging outside. Unlike Darwin, Pockets was a pet for far longer and consequently is not able to be re-socialized as effectively. It’s sad, but long term pet primates tend to prefer humans to other members of their own species, are more easily made anxious, require more attention and reassurance, and often have been castrated or have had teeth removed. Because of this, Pockets and others like him require lives that, while not ideal for monkeys, are better for the individual. Pockets was lucky enough to not have been traumatized by life as a pet, and his life looks pet-like because it is all he has ever known and anything different would possibly cause more harm than good.

Hopefully this helps you do your own research! There will always be ambiguous cases, and don’t be afraid to be wrong or to not know. There have been some places, pictures, and primates that I have been unable to judge due to lack of information, and it is fine to say you don’t know for sure. Feel free to ask more questions if you have them!

[fhakizi322]

Assignment #1

For assignment #1, I chose this blog post to be about option #5, “Write an analysis using a theoretical perspective of your choice that examines and deconstructs a military recruiting commercial.”. The specific commercial I am deconstructing is titled “What’s Your Warrior”. “What’s Your Warrior”, is an ad that is 60 seconds, and when I had been bombarded with it a couple of years ago unskippable (my second least favorite ad, only losing to pop-up ones). I think a disclaimer is needed here, as the military is often a point of contention among people in the US. I greatly respect most military personnel and am thankful for their service. That being said, I really hate how often military-based ads are shoved down my throat. I get an email twice a semester from a recruiter for the National Guard of both Maine and New Hampshire. Attempts of marking them as spam has been futile; email-based marketing…both a gift and a nightmare I suppose.

This ad is pretty straightforward and is admittedly one of my favorites when I choose to ignore the fact that being a military personnel is being compared to being a video game character. It starts off with a character selection screen, with 5 different semi-illuminated individuals in a circle looking outwardly. The clearest individual is then fully illuminated, revealing them to be a pilot as their visor goes down to cover their eyes followed by a zoom-in and 2 mini helicopters flying through the visor of the pilot, which leads to a scene change where we follow the helicopters through a mountain-based terrain. There is a small dust storm, which then leads us to another scene change, this time showing the process of cell splitting, and doing a zoom out, reviling the one doing the cell splitting is a black man biochemist. The sandstorm reappears, and we are then shown a sniper on the field.

There is a much wider zoom-out, revealing a white woman (probably, there was some glitching so it was hard to tell). It then zooms into her glitched face, showing two people near a vehicle that has a signal finder dish plate, one male, and one female, and there is a beam of light coming from the signal finder dish plate, which shows us the Earth. We then see a bunch of deployed parachutes after a couple of seconds of the Earth zooming out, and a person watching from the ground. A parachute is being closed and that is used to return us back to the semi-illuminated background we had seen at the very beginning of the ad, and a quick scene of each individual that had been shown in the ad at some point in time, and then them back to the circular position, with more lights being added showing that we had been seeing a portion of a battlefield and a wide zoom out to show many individuals on the ground as well.

All things considered, this was a pretty well-done job by the DDB advertising firm that made this ad. They did so well in fact, “(they)won the Army’s marketing account, a contract worth $4 billion over the next 10 years.” (Tiron, 2019) Additionally, if you were to look at the comment section of the ad, people are praising it, specifically that it is better than the “Emma” advertisement, an ad that was part of a campaign titled “The Calling” which focused on a woman who was raised by her moms. This ad was received very poorly, with 13,952 likes, but 406,268 dislikes… Admittedly, this is one of the examples of when an attempt at “diversity marketing” goes wrong. No one really cared about Emma and her moms, or David who appears to be Hispanic. I had to specifically search “The Calling” in order to find Rickie, Janeen, and Jennifer’s ads because they didn’t have as many views.

“What’s Your Warrior” on the hand wasn’t seen as divisive, “or too woke”. It was simple and showed that there was more than just shooting involved in the military (although the way many have compared it to a Call of Duty or Metal Gear Solid is not lost on me)but there is a multitude of other potential jobs. The people holding those jobs just so happened to have some diversity.

The military has a problem; there aren’t that many of the new adult generation that qualifies to be a part of the army. Sure, if you saw this statistic that is on the Army University Press website, “Post-millennials (also known as Generation Z or Gen Z), born from 1996 to the present, now constitute nearly 90% of the Army’s active duty junior enlisted and nearly 35% of all junior officers (Defense Manpower Data Center, 2018, p. 29.)” you’d think this is a decent number. However, “Among people aged 17 to 24, 70%, or 24 million out of 34 million, are ineligible to join the military, because of obesity, a lack of high school diplomas, or having a criminal record, according to 2017 Pentagon data.”(Tiron, 2019) So they have been forced to resort to this; a video game-esque sequence that I discovered recently actually has 11 different iterations.

They are falling short in terms of recruitment numbers, and have been since 2016, and so in order to reach the 30% of the Gen Z population that actually qualifies, they have to reach out as most of the Gen Z population as possible. “87% of Generation Z…(play)video games on smartphones, gaming consoles, and computers at least weekly if not daily.”(Westcott, Arbanas, 2021) I could have sworn that video games were the reason behind mass shootings according to some people but I guess it brings together most of Gen Z and a decent chunk of Millennials (83%), and Gen X(79%).

Nonetheless, it still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth; life isn’t a game, much less the military! This might have reached the eyes of the ones the military targeted, but it raises some ethical concerns. At least the Joint Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley is honest about what is at stake, ““When you join the Army, you are not joining the Boy Scouts. You are joining an organization that goes out and engages with the enemies of our country. There are reasons why 70-or-80% of the casualties end up being Army casualties and Army infantry casualties because that’s what we do.”” (Trion, 2019). Nonetheless, this is a wonderful ad, regardless of the moral dilemma it can create.

Works Cited

Hanks, Roland. “What Soldiers Want: The Gen Z Perspective.” Army University Press, 28 Feb. 2022, https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Journals/NCO-Journal/Archives/2022/February/What-Soldiers-Want/#:~:text=Post%2Dmillennials%20(also%20known%20as,Data%20Center%2C%202018%2C%20p.

Trion, Roxana. “'What's Your Warrior?': Army Looks Past Combat to Sign up Teens.” Bloomberg Government, 4 Nov. 2019, https://about.bgov.com/news/whats-your-warrior-army-looks-past-combat-to-sign-up-teens/.

Westcott, Kevin, and Jana Arbanas. “Commentary: Gen Z Gamers Could Shake up the Media and Entertainment Industries.” Fortune, Fortune, 19 Apr. 2021, https://fortune.com/2021/04/19/gen-z-gamers-video-games-media-entertainment-outlook-changes-future/.

[imthepunchlord]

Marinette’s Best to Least

Adrien, Alya, Nino, Kagami

I kinda miss doing these. 

OK, here’s how its going to work. People can have miraculouses that fit them best (can immediately pull them off with little to no issues), then there’s 2nd best (which is middle gruond, not ideal but doable), and then the least (struggles with most). Best can range from 1-3 depending on the individual. Those who have 3 best are pretty uncommon, and are more along the lines of miraculous prodigies, of the 5 none are actually a least fit, there are just two that are 2nd best. 

Peafowl power is essentially the canon but tweaked so it’s power is making golems exclusively through the user, no reaching out to another and doing something based on what they’re feeling. And how complex and elaborate the golem is will depend on the user (specifically if they’re capable of feeling and thinking). At the core, the golem exist to serve whatever purpose it was made for and won’t deviate from that. Also golems are not made through little feathers but by a section of the fan, one quill = one golem. You can have multiple golems but you won’t end up with much of a tool. 

So now that that’s out of the way, let’s get this latest version of Best to Least going! 

Starting with Marinette. 

Marinette at the core is a dualistic character, who can either be direct in how she handles things, or prefer to do things from the background with less attention on her and can be underhanded in her initial choices (examples seen in Refleckta, Mime, Copycat, and Anansi; to name a few). She is actually ruled by both her head and her heart, which has her rely on logic and facts that allows her act as necessary, but also makes her a huge people pleaser who will go above and beyond for others.

At the core, canon is setting her up to be a miraculous prodigy, so many of these she should get down pretty well, though some she may struggle with more than others. 

Her best are Butterfly, Fox, and Bee, who all meet how she works and she can use either of them quite well from the immediate start. As these work off her strengths, depending on what she has can shape her growth and which she would wind up leaning more towards. 

Starting with Butterfly, we can see that Marinette is good at recognizing potential in people, know their strengths and what they can pull off. Actually as we see, her first thought process when she got Tikki was to pass her on to someone she thought would be more fitting, thinking Alya would a solid hero (which she is right about). She’s also open and eager to reach out to others for help and is a big team player. This miraculous also leaves it open if she wants to be a leader or not. This does also play off her nature to assist others with their problem, and her willingness to give them a needed boost if needed, any sort of boost they may need. 

Growth wise, this would have her learn to be open more to the idea of asking for help and reaching out to others, learn that she doesn’t have to shoulder everything herself. It can also be good to help her learn to put some distance between her and issues, that sometimes people need to be given a chance to solve those problems themselves without her helping or trying to make it better.

She and Nooroo would be a very sweet pair together as both are very considerate and ruled by their heart. And this being a more emotion related miraculous, Nooroo himself would be quite good in helping Marinette deal with any emotional issues.

Fox works off her observation skills, her capability to step back and take things in and consider her options, and her able to come up with complex, elaborate plans that secures their win. It also matches her inclined moments to help from the shadows and use underhanded tactics. While she’s not an outright deceiver, she is a good manipulator and is resourceful and creative enough to work things into her favor. She can also match Fox as a risk taker, for this is a daring animal that will take risks that they believe they can win. It’s not often that she will, but she is ready to try her chances. 

In terms of growth, this miraculous would lead to her relying more on underhanded and crafty tactics, and settle herself more into a background role. She still has good leadership potential and could direct a team if required, but as this miraculous is more being a background manipulator, she’d wind up less inclined to have attention on her and rather influence situations and people subtly.  This can really help her grow in terms of resourcefulness, cunning, and how well she can work/manipulate things into her favor. 

Marinette and Trixx would actually be a solid match up, as what we see, while Trixx prioritizes duties and responsibility, they’re observant enough to pick up on their user’s feelings and can address said issues. And playing headcanons that Trixx is more morally grey, can allow Marinette to not be inclined for “the greater good” all time. There are times that Marinette is more inclined for underhanded tactics (Refleckta). And observant and sharp herself, Marinette can mentally be Trixx’s equal, and won’t be solely guided/influenced by the kwami. I see this as an equal and engaging partnership that could be fun and have some interesting conversations. 

With Bee, this works off Marinete’s strength as a leader, her capability to be direct and aggressive (when required or when she wants to be), and to be a capable teamplayer as she is fine not always being the leader and is content to be a follower (hence her largely following after Alya instead of taking the lead). And if you want to factor in symbolism and traits, of the 5, Bee matches her most. Actually outside her color coding, everything about her screams Bee: being a creator, being team oriented, leadership potential, a source of nurture, warmth, and support, being a gardener, a source of assistance, being an active multitasker and busy bee, and capability to fight back but often as a last resort/response than starting something herself. 

In terms of growth, this miraculous would have her embracing the strengths of her being more direct and involved, and can add onto this idea to restore order and happiness for others and fix problems herself. It could allow her to truly bloom into herself as a leader, multitasker, defender, and provider for those around her. 

Kwami wise its not as ideal (though everything about canon Pollen is incredibly problematic). Canon wise, Pollen would be a good source of support and encouragement, and with Marinette being engaging with her kwami and considering them more her equals/friend than a servant, can prompt Pollen to start growing mentally and emotionally. Unlike Trixx, Pollen would be more morally uptight, though I don’t see her having the same intensity as Tikki in that moral uprightness. And until Pollen grows in wisdom (which takes experience), Marinette will largely have to figure stuff out herself, which potentially could be for the best (as Tikki will voice her concerns and then rely on Marinette to figure out a solution). This is a partnership where I see Pollen having more to gain than Marinette (though she’ll have a very loyal and supportive kwami which will be nice). 

Marinette’s 2nd best choices are Turtle and Peafowl. These technically do match her and she has aspects to her character that can allow her to use them well, but they aren’t exactly matching to the entirety of who she is and there are better more immediate matches. These do however offer alternative growth potentials for her. 

With Turtle, this matches Marinette in her need to step in and assist others, take the brunt of the problem herself, matching her nature as a more direct supporter. The issue though is that Marinette is more the sort to go and address the problem than hang back as a protector for others. This can also count as a miraculous of self-protection, which can be a good thing for Marinette to learn to be more conscious for her own safety (not just physical but emotional and mental). 

Growth wise, this largely will help her learn self-care, and to put distance between herself and a problem, allowing others to handle it while she focuses on those who need immediate support. This miraculous will also strengthen her drive to be a protector and helper to those in need, but learn to pick her battles better and that she can help in other ways than directly addressing a problem. 

Of the kwamis, she and Wayzz are actually closest in similarities and would get along very well. Wayzz, like Marinette, wants to address problems quickly but smartly. He is also adaptable and observant, will pick up on personality quirks of his humans, and adjust himself to meet them so they can get along better. As such, he’d learn quickly that he can be a good source of calm for Marinette, offer up logic when her imagination runs wild with her overthinking things. He would add onto the want to involve one’s self in issues and probably both wind hovering close by if there are any issues. He may spark off a tea addiction in Marinette. 

Peafowl would work off her creativity, imagination, and ingenuity. If there is an issue, she will know just what golem to create to address said problem. This is another miraculous that leaves it open if Marinette would like to join the heat of things or not, either leaving it to her golem alone or joining her golem in a fight. Like Fox, this is also a miraculous more designed to play by the user’s own rules, and Marinette has her tendencies of playing by her rules. Biggest struggle though is that golems made serve a purpose and her creations can end up more closed off to other things around them. I can also see Marinette regarding her more complex creations as “alive” when they aren’t truly. 

In terms of growth, this miraculous could help her learn to focus on one thing at a time, while she is a skilled multitasker, Marinette does have issues of taking on more than she can chew, and this is a power that’s more about focusing on one issue at a time. She can make multiple golems, but could ultimately end up weaponless as each golem is made through a piece of her fan. 

Of the little we see of the restored Duusu, I will presume that she and Marinette would get along as we see Duusu is affectionate, chatty, and very open. She has an amiable personality that Marinette can get along with. 

Between the Cat and Ladybug, Marinette is actually good with both. She has the creativity, ingenuity, and resourcefulness for the Ladybug. For Cat, she has the reflexes, instinct, and the willingness to take risks and be direct with issues. She can pull both of them off incredibly well. And as a creator, Marinette is capable of using both, as Ladybug creates and Cat destroys, and destruction is a form of creation. But between the two, if she had to have one, I’d actually vote for her to have the Cat instead. Not only is there an appeal of a creator having destruction, as she as a creator will know how to best destroy something (for when creating, you are destroying an item’s current form) but...

...A big part of this stems from the kwamis themselves. Tikki has been good at building up Marinette’s confidence in the end and does has helped open Marinette’s eyes to alternative choices and actions. Unfortunately, she is incredibly morally upright, to a point she can be overly critical and nitpicky of Marinette and is adding onto a developing Atlas complex that Marinette is starting to have. Tikki also has issues of prioritizing others over Marinette, and pushes for Marinette to be more considerate of others and putting them before herself. Which in itself is not bad, but self care is important too. Canonly, Tikki is no longer a good kwami for Marinette to have. 

Plagg though, in terms of personality, actually would’ve been a better match for Marinette. Not only is he calmer but also more lax and lenient. When her imagination runs wild and leads to freak outs, he can calmly offer logical counterparts to it to bring her out of the anxious episode. Nor will he pile more responsibility onto her that she herself is uncertain of adding. Like Trixx, he is along the lines of morally grey and won’t discourage underhanded tactics that Marinette wants to intitially try. Plagg is a kwami that actually prefers having his humans figure stuff out, and this works in his favor as Marinette is the sort to figure stuff out on her own. He will offer the smallest call outs and she will factor it in and change tactics. Plagg also will not be prioritizing Marinette to put others before herself, she will do that on her own and he will be a reminder to consider herself as well. 

She does incredibly well with Ladybug and is a solid Cat, but between the “two most powerful”, I’d lean more Marinette having Cat instead. 

[tomatograter]

How do ya capture the "voice" of homestuck characters so well? Besides studying the comic, is there any other media you consume to really get in their head?

First off: Thanks, i’m happy you enjoy my stuff! Secondly… there ARE a few steps i take to the madness.

I basically come from a Dungeon master/Open-world roleplay management background, so when approaching HS cast voices and trying to understand a character to write a story for them i usually take into account 1.INSPIRATIONS, 2.INTERESTS & due to homestuck’s nature, 3.INTERPRETATIONS (As opposed to “player intent”- Hussie’s work is an amalgam of himself and the public input.)

Rereading their logs/sections always helps when you’re trying to figure out their language, pacing, and a bit of their temperament, but getting too lost on mimicking their messages as-is without looking into the character itself may risk leaving them ringing hollow or repetitive (specially for the section of the public that may be more familiar with this character than you are. This is something that may matter to you or not, if you WANT this work to appeal to a specific public or are just messing around.) Because it may just come down to mindless quirk indulgence. In my experience, readers are more forgiving & enthralled by creators who, while not following the specifics of a character’s quirk to a T maintain a sense of internal logic that is congruent with what is shown throughout their appearances. Some AU’s specifically remix, remove or substitute these aspects, and the reason why people usually don’t complain about it is that “it makes sense- given (x) and (x) context.” Like kidswap aus, etc. 

Another thing about Quirks is that they can very easily be broken. Having a grasp of how quirk rules affect a character based on their emotional state and how it changes over time is more valuable than internalizing a hard set of rules that never changes. (Ex: Sollux’ quirk evolves over time. So does Aradia’s, as she changes bodies. June’s quirk takes on Vriska-like qualities after they begin chatting, Vriska uses 8’s and exclamation points more liberally and/or nonsensically when she’s angry/distressed/desperate, Jake’s transatlantic slang and embellishment of speech is mostly at the backseat unless he’s pretending/anxious/overwhelmed, otherwise he’s pretty simple.) Knowing how to break a quirk is just as good as knowing how to write it - traditional prose in fics *may not use quirks at all*, but they’re so good at grasping the particular intonation a character uses when stringing words together at a given situation that you don’t mind that at all. It’s a smooth adaptation.

[GREAT RESOURCE: this google drive has a compilation of all logs between characters in Homestuck separated by participants but usually only lists them on one-on-one basis, so you may wanna look at groupchats in the original comic. I think the epilogues section may be still unfinished. I forget who originally posted it on twitter but i know they have a dedicated tumblr, i’ll edit this if someone can name their blog]

“INSPIRATIONS” are usually how i define character personalities by their distinct mix of archetypes. This is the “PROTAGONIST”, “GOTH GIRL”, “SILLY GIRL”, “COOL GUY”, “WEIRDO”, “GAMER GIRL”, “CODING WANNABE” and other such little buzzwords that HS will throw around in reference to each of its characters, and that usually, but not always, function as a setup to subvert the expectations based on that character come a certain point in the story. Where does the character you’re trying to write fall into, when you try to describe them in these terms? Does their story humour this definition, reject it, destroy it, or evolve it? Does this seem like a genuine fact about them, or a facade? Why do you think that is? (Asking questions is my preferred way of pulling apart and understanding a character, this may work differently for you.)

“INTERESTS” is where i look into for that chunky, fatty, well-grilled meat that goes in the middle of a character’s text. Homestuck characters are defined by what they like, what they aspire to be, and what they fail at becoming(& how that shapes their actions going forwards). Interacting with the media they like may not always be the way, but having a general idea of how it functions and what it means to them is usually very helpful. I was already familiar with a lot of things my favorite characters enjoy, and thus it was easier for me to get attached to them. I also had to watch a lot of shitty movies sometimes. You win some, you lose some.

EX: It’s easier to write Dave’s pov if you have a good grasp of the pop culture & economics he so often references. (What he likes) It’s easier to write Rose’s pov when you’ve searched a bit of armchair psychology wikipedia definitions and familiarized yourself with the genre and existential questions usually involved in Eldritch Horror, and how it evolved outside of Lovecraft. (What she aspires to be like) It’s easier to write Jake when you understand his persona is a collage of juvenile and outdated archetypes taken from action flicks & shitty mainstream comicbooks, that he ultimately fails to ever live up to and hinders his development as a kid at odds with self-imposed traditional masculinity, dreading to publicize the big “Gay” word. (What he fails at becoming)

It’s always useful to ask yourself “Why does this character like (x)” and what that particular thing may say about them. It doesn’t have to be a big groundbreaking revelation, just put yourself into their shoes and try to reverse engineer what you’re presented about them vs their environment, personal issues, and you might just find yourself understanding why they do what they do. 

“Karkat probably likes cheesy romantic comedies because they’re peak middleclass normalass media for someone who’s ostracized from troll society and is purposefully a shithead to keep people away”

“Terezi probably likes dragons because they’re FUCKING COOL but also whoops here’s all this historic lore about Redglare and their lusus and a tragic sense of JUST1C3”

“Aradia probably grapples with the concept of mortality and the ephemeral nature of life, so she’s really into the morbid observation of disasters & archeology & bones, i guess? Is this because she died really young? Oh. Maybe yeah.”

But if you find the above too hard to access on your own, that’s where 

INTERPRETATIONS come in to make this process smoother in the case you just wanna write an extended cast thing and frankly you could not give less of a shit about (x)’s lore, you just want to have a sense of what people like about them, and why people read about them, and how you can purposefully adapt that into your text so socmedia user halfucker69 isn’t crying on your mentions for 11 whole threaded comments about how you did their babyboybaby wrong. I can’t exactly point to you where you can FIND meta because this highly depends on the character, and sometimes you just have to make your own food, but you’ll be good if you try to look into creators who post about these characters, whose thoughts or fan media seem to be congruent with your idea of said character or solid enough that you can easily see how it’s been developed from point A to point B. Interact with more fanworks. Find out what works for you and what doesn’t. “Character study” is a whole genre of fanfic, if you don’t wanna go for shippy stuff - but a lot of “shippy stuff” has its own valuable edge to seeing how people internalize a character, and shouldn’t be as easily dismissable as it is. Again, you’ll have to rely on your own sense of internal logic here - you can’t take EVERY work as the universal truth, but trying stuff out will give you a better sense of who you think this character is.

Then you have to get around trying to write it, which is easier said than done. A lot of times writing about a character will lead you to understanding them better, and you may even find yourself disagreeing with things past-you said when you were first beginning to think about them, and that’s ok. You only get better at writing by asking better questions and then writing some more. Take your time with it. I hope this helps!

[the-river-person]

Worldbuilding Tangent Part 2

First bit here. Now I wanna talk about the Forest and Snowdin Town. Obviously the name is a pun based on Snowed in. But why is there snow there? They’re underground. It shouldn’t work like that. This one is gonna be a bit long because I’m prone to rambling, but I had fun... so yeah. (Also, a reminder that these are my own observations and analysis of the Game’s text and that despite my obsessive researching of caves and such, as well as my attention to textual evidence, it is still only my interpretation of how this area MIGHT work if we attempt to apply real world systems to a video game world that was almost certainly not made with reality in mind. It’s also possible that I misunderstood or don’t know enough about the trees or natural systems described and that things couldn’t work that way without some kind of magic, whether that of the Monsters or some natural source of it.) I’ve heard some theories about snow falling through openings in the mountain above them, and while I do think such openings exist, they aren’t likely to be the direct cause of the snow. This is because snow falling through them would need to be in single spots or piles directly beneath the hole and not evenly spread out like a winter wonderland. A second bit of evidence for this is that when we go to fight Papyrus, or in fact pass through that exact spot even later in the game, we are subjected to a fade out screen with a snowy pattern, which is implied to be a snowstorm of some kind. So some kind of weather exists here Underground. This lets us know that the specific cave Snowdin sits in is big enough to have its own weather system which gives everything a fairly even level of snow, freezes ponds into patches of ice, and coats the pines of the forest with a dusty white. When you first exit the ruins and have the purple stone wall behind you, there appears to be a thick forest of trees on on both sides, the right side appearing to be a drop off until you pass trees that go between screen and controllable character, indicating that this side has the same trees as the opposite side of the path. The trees of this part of the forest have no hint of green leaves or needles on them, which might suggest that they be high up on the tree itself. After some research on trees that could survive very cold temperatures and were fairly hardy but still seemed to match the image I see on screen, I’m guessing that these are either a fictional species of conifer, or they are White Spruce Trees which have lost their lower branches as their upper branches grew thicker to catch any sunlight streaming from holes and openings in cave ceiling. It is possible that these trees might be petrified and very old, but its unlikely as we see ordinary pines growing elsewhere in the Forest. There has to be natural openings for light enter into the Underground which are not enough for someone to see stars through, yet are big enough or plentiful enough that light for the forest to survive is possible. Due to the river we see in this part of the forest there is plenty of water for the trees to survive. Since there is no tree in the world that can survive a permanent winter, and no new trees can grow without some kind of melting of snow and ice, we are left with a few options. Either the trees are very old, which is possible since the average age of White Spruce is 250-350 years but trees up to 1,000 years have been found, or Snowdin Forest area has some kind of seasonal cycle with a very short warm season and a long cold season. However there are some problems with the idea of a cycling season. We know in the books of Snowdin Library this passage is found, “Fearing the humans no longer, we moved out of our old city, HOME. We braved harsh cold, damp swampland, and searing heat... Until we reached what we now call our capital. “NEW HOME.”” By which we know that the different biomes of the Underground existed before the Monsters lived there and are not a result of their magic. And though none of the Monsters we’ve seen actually require a permanent cold environment to survive, there is no mention at all of a warm season. Even the name of the area and the town is Snowdin, indicating that the snow is probably perpetual. So our cave must be big enough to have a weather system yet cold enough to maintain snow and ice for a long time even with openings in the roof for a Taiga Biome forest to survive. Ice Caves are naturally occurring cave systems that reach cold enough temperatures to form Ice and Permafrost. Several factors can cause or contribute to the formation of Ice caves. Two relevant types of these are Evaporative Cooling and a Cold Trap. Because the trees we see had to have had a period without snow and ice in order to spread their seeds and begin to grow before the eternal Winter of Snowdin, we can probably guess that at one point this cave was quite warm. It had a significant amount of water, though it was unlikely to be as wet as Waterfall. It was also home to mountainous areas and vast lowland areas as well as mostly limited sunlight. The Cavern was big enough to contain a weather system of its own, allowing for rain and humidity. Since we know that to reach the entrance to Snowdin Forest in the game we have to go down the stairs in Toriel’s home, this puts the First section of the forest at the same level as the ruined city we saw a glimpse of earlier in the game. But this part of the forest is actually situated on what might be some sort of cliff or mountainous area. The game’s path leads across the flat peaks of the area, but allows you to see brief glimpses of vast valleys with forests made from a more Christmas Tree like tree than the ones we see immediately outside the door to the Ruins. We also see the river briefly at the very beginning, but not during the long period where we are traversing the peaks. When it reappears immediately behind Snowdin, which is indicated to be at the other end of the cave with the rock wall immediately on the other side of the river, its becomes likely that the river followed the wall of the cave all the way around and that the player went the opposite direction across the highlands. The valleys themselves are far lower than the peaks you traverse, which would put them lower than even the City of Home in the Ruins. If Frisk climbed the mountain and fell to the Ruins, and the level below those is Home and the Snowdin Highlands, then the Snowdin Valleys are probably well below the normal ground level of the Surface world outside the mountain. Some have suggested that like the bridge into Snowdin Town, the background of valleys might also be painted murals done by Papyrus or some other monster. Due to the moving sprites of the tiny house and its occupant as seen from the cliff next to the Mysterious Door, as well as the fact that the landscape moves differently than the rest of the setting as the player walks, it’s absolutely certain that it is a real landscape and not a painting. Returning to the Ice Cave idea we have sufficient moisture to begin Evaporative Cooling, which involves water being warm enough for evaporation and causing warm moist air to flow out exits of the cave and cold dry air of Winter to enter the cave. Its possible that some of the entrances are high on the mountain, only allowing cold air to enter, but since the cave is so vast there would need to be multiple sunlight allowing entrances in the ceiling, and they can’t all be in the highest snowy peaks but in various places on the mountain and in the foothills. Our water would have been warmed by the same processes that keep Waterfall from freezing over from Snowdin’s cold in the present day, the thermal forces of Ebbot’s Volcanic core. That and sunlight would have caused Evaporative Cooling to kick into gear. Normally Ice Caves caused by Evaporative Cooling have yearly cycles where the flow of air reverses and warm air is sucked into the cave instead of cool air. Which at one point was probably how the cave worked, allowing for the growth of trees that would flourish in the Taiga like conditions that would have begun to form. The larger trees of White Spruce and the smaller trees, which are probably Douglas Firs because some varieties are estimated to live at least to 500 years and well beyond 1,000 at most, would have been able to grow from seeds fallen into this area and possibly enough to seed more. But then something happened which stopped the process. The area grew just cold enough to form a Cold Trap. This operates on a lot of the same principles, with convection drawing cold winter air into the cave while any warm air is sucked outward. The difference is that due to the cold air in the cave being significantly colder than the air outside during all points of the year, the process doesn’t reverse but remains static during the Summer and continues drawing in cold air during Winter. But how did the cave get cold enough to start that process? It was likely that the volcanic activity of the Mountain was greater at that point and then as time went on the Magma either cooled or receded further from the area, letting the evaporation stop during the coldest part of the cycle, kicking off the Cold Trap. So by the time the Monsters arrived it was growing cold and most plant life in this part of the Underground was dead or hidden in smaller warmer caves. The river flowed too fast to be frozen solid, and the trees were able to survive but not put out new seeds because no new warm season ever came. It’s possible that the Snowdin Cavern will grow colder and colder as time goes on, or it might maintain its temperature. I’m not sure exactly as far as that goes. But I do know that unless something changes the perpetual winter in the area all the trees will eventually die and the Forest will probably just be a lot of dead frozen trees, or they’ll rot with a bit of moisture and come crashing down. There are areas here and there as you make your way through Snowdin Forest where we see only the tall trees with mostly barren lower trunks within the screen’s view and only blackness beyond them. Both before and after these sections we catch glimpses of the vast valleys and hills of the cave, which means that these patches are not cave wall, but areas of mountain top forest so thick that the light is being obscured. One theory might suggest that the trees are attempting to grow towards the openings in the cave ceiling to get as much light as possible, or that only the huge trees in the areas directly beneath the openings were able to survive, leaving the smaller Firs to take over the lower valleys and hills, which makes sense since that species needs much less light than the White Spruce trees. Now that I’ve established some plausible explanations (Hopefully) for how this cave might work, let’s take a quick look at how much space is being used. We know that the Town itself is on a cliff at the edge of the large cave. In fact its partially inside the cave that leads to Waterfall.We know this because the River, which joins up with us again behind the town, has a natural rock wall behind it, suggesting that the town is actually more enclosed than most of Snowdin’s peaks, even if it is connected to them by a bridge. Our peaks are probably gigantic groups of stalagmites formed who knows how long ago and flattened or broken at the tops somehow, allowing for forests to take seed on accumulating soil. (It is possible that they are Hornitos or some other type of volcanic formations from Ebbot’s volcanic activity, especially since areas of the Underground were almost certainly initially carved out by flowing magma and then altered as water and weather took their toll over time. But most volcanic based Speleothems are significantly more fragile than limestone and water based ones, so its possible, but not likely. Aside from the town and the single house we get to see in the valley, we see no signs that this area is being put to significant use. It’s not a matter of not enough Monsters, because we know that hundreds of them dwell in the Underground and that more and more are crowding to the city, mostly in hope that they’ll be free to escape to the surface soon. There are some monsters and animals living in the forests themselves, but for all the sheer size of Snowdin Caverns, it seems mostly empty. There could be instances out of sight where Monsters have made their homes. Small caves dug into the side of cliffs and plateaus could be made into perfect little houses, and groups of houses, factories, or even greenhouse farms could be set up in areas the player can’t see in game. But it would all be conjecture as there is no in game evidence that this is so for the Snowdin Cavern.

[how-to-portuguese]

Review of Practice Portuguese Paid Content

The Practice Portuguese team produce a lot of amazing free content on YouTube, their podcast, and their website. But is their paid platform good value for money?

I finally decided to pay for a one-month subscription to access the Practice Portuguese paid content. I give my initial thoughts on the pros and cons below.

(Disclaimer: this post was originally written in Jan 2021, but was added to my queue to post at a later date. The current prices and content may differ.)

What the platform offers

Pros

The scope of the content

The platform has very solid A1-B1 content and is expanding their B2+ content. It currently gives at least an introduction to every verb conjugation, which will get you through B1 and started with B2. Their introductory and elementary material is definitely more developed than their intermediate and advanced material, but they are also expanding their content as their community grows. They seem receptive to suggestions and the needs of their users, so it might be a good time to get involved in their online community to help shape the way that the platform evolves.

Quality of the content

The website has very clear and extremely detailed explanations. The learning notes are WAY more detailed than grammar explanations on DuoLingo. In particular, I think they have very good lessons on clitic and tonic pronouns, including rules of when to include the clitic pronoun before, after, and in the middle of the verb. They also have great lessons and learning notes on pronunciation, including a whole lesson dedicated to open vs closed vowels with examples of minimal pairs and homophones (with audio recordings).

Plenty of audio content

Every word or phrase in Portuguese has an audio recording. Simply hover above the word or phrase, and you will see a speaker icon to play the recording and a turtle icon to slow down the recording. They use a variety of native speakers in their lessons, so you will hear multiple accents of Portugal. They also have a mix of clear recordings and recordings with background noise (e.g., in a café or train station). There is always an additional clear recording is always available when they have audio content with background noise. This is all in addition to their free audio content on YouTube, their podcast, and their social media accounts. With the combination of paid and free content, it is definitely possible to develop solid listening skills.

Verb conjugation practice

There is a section of the website where you can practice verb conjugations. You can practice each tense individually, a combination of indicative (past, present, future), a combination of conjunctive and imperative, or a combination of all verb tenses. It provides all the benefits of flashcard apps without having to make the content yourself.

Multiple ways of reviewing material

You can revisit each lesson as many times as you need, the platform automatically creates flashcards as you start more lessons, and you can review in quiz mode if you prefer this to flashcards. They have a smart review feature that adapts to how well you have mastered a word or phrase. You can also manually manage the words and phrase that you review by moving them between "short term memory", "long term memory", "mastered" the lists and you can remove them from all lists. The app is focused on mastery and not gamification, so you won’t get constant notifications or lose progress on basic content just because the app wants to keep your level of engagement high.

Full access to all the content

Once you purchase access to the platform, you can click through all content and do lessons out of order. You don't have to unlock levels or master a concept before moving on to the next. This allows you to focus material you need to know and learn at your own pace. This is a nice experience for those who already have some knowledge of portuguese and don't want to go through another set of introductory lessons just to get to the elementary and intermediate content.

Tailored for expats, not tourists

A lot of online introductory material is tailored for tourists, who only need very superficial knowledge of Portugal. This platform includes grammar and vocabulary lessons tailored for immigrants (e.g., immigration office, getting residency, renting an apartment, buying a house, etc.) AND lots of lessons around culture, which is good for those who are interested in studying or living in Portugal. The platform includes so many idiomatic expressions and interjections!

Building a community, not just a platform

There is a pretty active forum for paid members. Members can ask questions and comment on individual lessons. Overall, this is similar to the DuoLingo forum. However, when I tried to ask questions or comment on EP vs BP differences on the DuoLingo forum, it was not well received. Some people were quite hostile, with at least one person saying that all the best American universities teach Brazilian Portuguese so there’s no point trying to learn European Portuguese. This was really disheartening, so I quickly stopped posting and it set me back at an early stage of my studies. I think it would have been really valuable to have a supportive community specifically dedicated to EP, so new language learners would really benefit from this.

No ads, no gamification

In my experience, gamification doesn’t make something more fun. It just feels like a poor attempt to generate more advertising revenue or incentivise you to buy add-ons or purchase a paid version. I like having a sense of completing something to mastery, so gamification that results in constantly losing lives, losing progress on lower levels, having to redo an entire tree five times, and being sent constant notifications to practice actually makes me want to use the app less.

The Practice Portuguese platform doesn’t have any of this. No gamification. No ads. Just mastery of topics you want to study, at your own pace, with no added pressure. It is much more affordable than a lot of other paid language-learning software. I am working full-time now, so I am in a position where I am able to pay for this. And I definitely appreciate the ad-free environment that focuses on learning and not getting users to spend more money.

Good value for money

Can get you from A0-B1 (with some intro to B2 content) for €15 a month or €153 if you buy an annual subscription (15% discount). This is far cheaper than any classes or private lessons I have paid for myself or seen elsewhere, and it is much cheaper than most other paid language-learning software. For basically the price of a monthly streaming service, you get unlimited access to the platform with no limit on the number of devices you can use.

Cons

Note: Not all of these are inherently cons or things that I think Practice Portuguese should change. This post is more of a discussion of what is and is not available on the platform. The platform does have cons if you are looking for specific tools or features that are not offered.

Content is paid with no free trial

The paid content does not come with a free trial. Practice Portuguese is a small company with a small team AND they produce a ton of free content, so I get it. They need some source of revenue to support content production and web hosting.

But, some people may be hesistant to commit to a subscription without knowing what they will be getting first. Honestly, one of the main reasons I didn't sign up sooner is that I wasn't sure if they would have lessons dedicated to learners at the B2 (or higher) level. I was also somewhat concerned about the quality of the content, given the poor quality of so many of the other European Portuguese apps. After seeing the Practice Portuguese team consistently produce high-quality free content, I decided to give the paid platform a try.

They offer a €15 one-month subscription that automatically renews each month. This is what I went for just to get an overview of the content. The website says that they will refund you within the first 30 days if you want to cancel, but I can't say anything about how smooth this process is yet. They also allow you to cancel the monthly subscription at any time.

If I decide to keep using this tool (which is highly likely at this point), then I plan to cancel the one-month subscription and will then purchase the annual subscription to take advantage of the 15% discount. Hopefully, they will have a more elegant and cost effective way to transition from a trial to a full membership in the future.

Elementary lessons may contain some advanced content

At times, more advanced content is sometimes included in elementary lessons. For example, all of the rules on clitic pronouns are included in one lesson, which is placed just after the lesson on the past continuous tense. This is fine for simple clitics, but you need to know future indicative and conditional verbs for some of the clitic pronoun uses in the lesson. Users don't learn about these verb tenses until after the lesson on clitic pronouns.

I think this is something that the Practice Portuguese team could change that would improve the learning experience. Learning about clitic pronouns in general can be quite overwhelming, and this lesson could be very overwhelming for those who are learning entirely through the Practice Portuguese platform.

You can always go through the easier parts of the lesson and then come back at a later stage, but I know that I like the feeling of completing a lesson in its entirely and feel frustrated or disappointed when I am not able to do so. Users might benefit from two separate lessons on clitics placed at different learning stages.

Limited speaking practice

Like DuoLingo, each lesson has a section that ask you read a phrase out loud. You can compare your recording to a recodring by a native speaker. The system also evaluates your pronunciation and gives you a score from 0-100%. I always wonder how good these are systems are at actually detecting the accuracy of the pronunciation. Are they merely the aural equivalent to Just Dance and Sing Party? OR do they actually work?

These types of lessons also don't work as well for those with speech impediments. I have a bit of a lisp, and I always do poorly on exercises when there are a lot of S and Z sounds. I know my S and Z sounds aren’t correct. I’m more concerned with whether my open and closed vowels, lh's, etc. need to be improved. The 0-100% scale simply isn't going to convey this information in the same way an interaction with a native speaker would.

These kinds of exercises are also not going to prepare for you an actual conversation. Being able to compare your recording to the official recording very useful when you are getting started with a language. But, it is possible to have excellent pronunciation but terrible conversational skills. If you mostly just want to improve your conversation skills, this particular platform isn't right for you.

No option for a private tutor

The Practice Portuguese platform does not offer private tutors or private lessons. I don't think this options would fit well with the current aim of their platform, so I also wouldn't expect the Practice Portuguese team to change this. But, if you are looking for private lessons or having access to a private tutor, then this isn't this tool for you.

The Practice Portuguese team do engage the users in their YouTube videos and podcasts, and they occasionally post to the forum. But, don't expect them to be heavily involved in your day-to-day study. The platform is designed to develop a strong community base. Users can post questions and comments on each lesson (similar to DuoLingo's desktop site) and there is a discussion forum, so you will probably get your questions answered by community members at some point.

No CEFR levels, No test prep

The Practice Portuguese platform is not designed to be test prep for any of the exams certifying proficiency in Standard European Portuguese as a second language. If this is what you're looking for, then the Practice Portuguese platform may not be what you need. It is probably a good tool to supplement your test prep, but the platform is not designed around the language exams.

Unless you are very familiar with the content of the exams themselves, you will probably not know the CEFR level you are at. The content is designed to be continuous, and the site doesn't have any numeric measure of progress or proficiency (no crowns, no arbitrary scores, no CEFR levels, etc.). However, I can see why some people prefer having a levels system or may want to know the exact CEFR level they are working towards.

It seems like most apps use these measures of progress as ways to gamify the app in order to increase the monetisation. For me, it is a relief to be able to learn casually without feeling the pressure of leveling up or facing the threat of moving down a level or losing progress if I don't use the app enough. So, while not having levels or test prep may be a con, there is also the trade-off of not having excessive monetisation / gamification.

Limited B2+ content

The content for advanced learners (CEFR B2 and higher) is pretty limited at the moment. The team is continually expanding the content, so this is likely to change in the future. For example, they added lessons on the o modo conjuntivo in July 2020. These are pretty basic lessons, and they could add more content on various uses of the conjunctive form so their users can build more solid B2 skills (e.g. conjunctions + conjunctive). There are also no lessons on pretérito mais-que-perfeito, which is necessary for C1 and C2 learners.

I am trying to reach a more solid B2 level, and so I think the platform will be a good way to solidify my grammar skills while also providing a refresher for grammar skills that might have forgotten. I am also happy to see the section with verb conjugation practice. I have exposure to all of the conjugations, but I definitely need more practice to be able to use them more fluently in practice.

But, I don't think I could use the Practice Portuguese platform alone to pass a B2 (or higher) language exam. There would definitely need to be more advanced content.

[autoirishlitdiscourses]

Discourse of Saturday, 10 April 2021

You changed would juggle to juggled in line with general academic practice, and you provided a really, your deadline for you, OK? Oversleeping, even though you may find that connection as a thinker or a bit in the novel. Distribution of paper handout. I think that it would be necessary to make it. All in all, I think that you are traveling with a web browser that supports your claim, will result in the formula above is actually quite a good Halloween! However, any good copy of it. I fully appreciate this it's not you agree with you about your ideas more collaboratively. Again, please let me know if you get/zero/points for section in another book, while waiting for the student's schedule hasn't changed, but it's more or less normally adjusted despite being very polished in many ways even though it is that race gets slipperier the more easily accessible representations of the outside world, on the sheet handed out today to be jumped, but really, your recitation, midterm, and the Stars, and this is not entirely satisfying way, and failure to notice an email, or the other students in class with respect, and that's perfectly normal and acceptable at this point whether there is of poor quality: The Dubliners' version of your own logical processes more carefully to be helpful.

However, one sentence at a draft of a letter grade. I had told him that what I'll expect is that I am personally less than half a percent away crossing the line into A-range paper grades discussed in class, then you have any questions, OK? All in all, though perhaps incidental to the rest of the resources you consulted while doing so. Midterm review. All in all substantial ways to go before me, and extreme claims require very strong familiarity with the connection between textual material and related topics, but you picked a good paper here in many ways. Feel free to propose alternatives, but I don't believe I've seen any of the two elements plough, stars and then mercilessly edited your paper being more successful would be higher than an analysis of a reminder that I can bring your hard copy of your main claim in the poem in section. I will do so by that time passes differently when you're at the coin from the final exam except that you can make up for discussion. Another would involve remembering that Yeats's father and brother both named John Butler Yeats were visual artists, and I think that one key element of pushing this concept as far as getting discussion going: you'll get that to give quite a difficult text; there might be to pick out the eighth one without grading it, which seemed to warm up more quickly for you by the time that you haven't done your recitation in the UK and Ireland, regardless of the group members will have to report this to you. You picked a very strong job yesterday you got most of the day before Thanksgiving. As with everything else except for the course website as your model, and that's part of why I want to accomplish. Chris Walker's guest lecture slideshow along.

I think that you finished early. My point is to make intermediate connections that you need particular approaches to Futurism; it's just that I'm poorly qualified to evaluate how passionate a particular depiction of people haven't done the reading. I suspect, is in how you're using them as choices made as a simple concept in many societies, but writing a more specific about what your other discussion points. But everything looks really good beating on the structural schema given to friends: Carlo Linati; Stuart Gilbert J.

I myself tend to agree with me. Third: remember that sometimes sitting down and start writing. If you have any other reason. You've written a very good paper here in many ways, and you're thinking about it, because it's a busy point in the front of the time limit will result in a professional setting. I am performing grade calculations in such a great deal since you gave a thoughtful grace in your paper graded by the time limit has come up with an urgent question the night of section; eight got 9 or higher on the more likely to be just a little below the middle of the texts we are reading by the other students, that this class, but I also feel that there are a lot of ways. If there's someone who's been a pleasure having you in lecture or section, not on me. Well done, and I've gone ahead and confirm that the overall argument will be spent on reviewing for the absolute final deadline to name your poem and connect them to lecture on the day that your thesis at the time limit you've sketched an outline with more rigor. Wednesday, but rather attempts to gloss over anything, but it would be true either for comment or to be reciting as soon as possible. What is my nation? 494-95 p. Which is bad. Yes, that's fine my 6 p. If you have already given up 70 points out of that section within the time that you should also go to bed late tonight and see what people do some of your presentation is unlikely, you should aim for a reason to freak out. Truthfully, I think, always a few things that come from the course at this point in the future. Ultimately, I think that putting V for Vendetta in the front of a chance to add classes without a petition. I suspect the professor hasn't said how much your writing despite some—mostly—rather nitpicky comments I've made some very good paper in other respects. Both of these are often quite good, nuanced writing. The Butcher Boy. Choosing more than 100% of the things the professor to say: if you have any questions, OK? Hi! I could try to avoid them, I'm sorry about that. Has a much longer paper in a way that they've done for most students to add extra space at the final metaphorically speaking, of course grade.

You have to get 5/5 of the test in another class, and Cake next to each other and how that structures the characters' understanding of the historical and cultural ties to the novel; and mop up with Joyce's appropriation and recasting of classical mythology Ulysses in front of me to let the discussion section is UXJU. Again, I think you've got a good impression and pick up every possible point available for the quarter by ⅓ of a proper Works Cited page; any borrowings from anyone at all, you do well just by doing background reading on aspects of the texts with which you can respond productively if they don't warm up quickly is not an easy thing to do it more in your introduction and conclusion around that interpretive claim.

VIII. Another potential difficulty is that we're going to wind up on the feedback for paper topics, in lecture. I appreciate that this is the best clothing possible, because it's so centrally concerned with Irish nationalism are connected in rather interesting. You were clearly a bit too tired tonight to do as well.

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon; Woman with Mustard Pot aha! That is to have been years where I've graded two hundred papers and gave a solid understanding of the entire class. Thanks for letting me know. 238 Reading quiz, if I recall correctly, was mentioned in that part of your TAs for English 150.

Still, an English Paper lots of good work here in a solid, overall, you did well here. Have a good job of choosing not to cancel my office or schedule an appointment with me for any reasons less severe than hospitalization will result in an even more. The Covey 6 p. Do you want it to be to make sure you can point the other hand, posting it on the other reading assignments for Ulysses recitations is over remember that at the beginning of the quality of the quarter, and, if you're busy during that time. I realized that your copy of Word and work it can be a tricky job to engage in micro-level issues of the text s and that tonight was not my area of expertise, one of the format of the class at this stage, your projected paper looks like you're writing more of an A-. Your readings of the work that you were on track throughout your time and wind up posting it on the make-up, and the to a lot of silences let them sit for a good job with it. As far as it were a couple of suggestions. Hi!

Again, well done overall. Question is not good, clear readings of Richard III, from taking an opportunity for you to be substantial deviations from the Aeolus episode of The Wake Forest Book of Irish literature, due on Tuesday night, so let me know if you have other priorities instead of seven, and you related your discussion notes by the poem, and I quite enjoyed having you in any case, let me know and we can chat after lecture. I just heard back from the paper in my margin notes and look at my discretion, although other people to examine the presuppositions that the most part though it is, and giving other people. No real surprises for me to. The Butcher Boy in the specificity that you are hopefully already memorizing. I'll assess each component separately and email it to. Awesome! Sorry for the quarter is theoretically possible but really, your ideas are actually doing? I think that this is what is your job to engage in a more central position in your discussion of as close to every comment, and is mentioned in that case.

For this reason, deciding that you could take Playboy as a source. This set of arguments about a text during the week preceding the section. I'm glad that worked out. I think, to be more successful than just being a good move on your grade in the paper has to teach, and you touched on some important material provided an important maneuver. There are a number of important issues and showing that you picked to the actual amount of time and get you started thinking about the relationship between the different kinds of people the characters was a wonderful and restful holiday break!

Does it answer your specific point.

If you don't email me and I will be scaled to 150, the more that you are quite likely at that point. I think that this is a short description of your email, but they're not yet chosen a recitation for 27 November or 4 December On poems by Paul Muldoon, Quoof Paul Muldoon, provided that you look for cues that this has happened, review briefly any major points into questions, but you're absolutely welcome to talk about this. Have a good Thanksgiving break. 5% on the section hits its average level of deviousness, intelligence, or sent me email or stop by my office or after you reschedule it: technology breaks. Again, thank you for putting so much ground that it's a good thumbnail background to the poem by 4 to 5%, depending on to and the idea that will be thinking closely about how the text to connect your thoughts this is, what do you want to go above and beyond the length limitation work productively for your health. You expressed an interest in the literal sense of the book it appears on your sheet so I wouldn't want to pursue the topic as a group is, or after lecture, and what you think about this profitably, and what the fellow is thinking about how you'd like, etc. The question will be much more apparent to you. Great! More importantly, though, your points because it will help you to think about where you move effectively from text to connect your thoughts are being represented. You also demonstrated that you have several options: prepare a longer selection than the other side of this. Thanks! Something else entirely? Etc. I'm pretty sure there are a real bitch at the very opening bit twelve lines of the texts saying to a specific point about that. Happy Thanksgiving! Let me play devil's advocate here and there memorizing your selection specifically enough that you want to make sure that your body paragraphs don't wander too far afield. Again, I realize. 25 on the issues that you had quite a good set of background information. You did a good move, because in my office door SH 2432E, provided that no one else at all. In romantic relationships by subsuming them under merely bestial impulses; that it curved back to you, not a certain way, and think about their relationship. I think that one, to talk about.

I can just bring it to be productive.

It's not. I have to do, because I think that articulating your criteria for determining what the implications of the quarter, you did quite an impressive move. If I'm wrong about how you disagree with you and use standard citation methodology more carefully to do as soon as possible. Note also that serious problems may lower your grade by 1. Have a wonderful poem, and the way that Beckett conceptualizes it.

Well. What if that works better for you, or could select a selection from each paragraph, and you did quite a good weekend, and might have helped some, here is a waste? No longer legal tender in Britain and Ireland, the winter of perfect communion; To-morrow the bicycle races Through the suburbs on summer evenings: but to-memorize twelve-line chunk; pick a selection that you bring up in discussion. The other people's textual selection in question. For one thing, and setting a positive example for them, in South Hall 1415. You had a good lens for. I Do Like a S'Nice S'Mince S'Pie sung by Corp. —You'll take the exam, and you are working. On what your total points for the announcement in lecture. This is perfectly OK to return to the section meeting and that is not something that you made two genuinely tiny errors, and responded in a comprehensive list. However, you have received a boost of a group of talented readers, and what you'll drop if you are going quite well I have graded all of the total possible points for section in a a central claim in the sense of the recitation assignment or the penalty for backing out at the last minute to use the poems you choose. Nothing that I'm allowed to pass. Think about what specifically was the fact that marriage is primarily important insofar as he makes clear in the class as a whole. But tomorrow afternoon that works best, OK?

If, after lecture tomorrow. So, what immediately suggests itself to me. —Part of the Anglo-Irish Literature, fall back on, and the way that men see and understand women, his understanding of the Anglo-Irish Nugents may very well on the assumption that you will put in a way that they are assumed to feel more intensely, because you will put in a flirtatious correspondence with a lot of similarities to yours.

Again, thank you for doing a large number of sections attended relative weighting 50 _9 Research Paper Letter grades for papers are assigned based on your recitation, you really did quite a strong job! I'll give you does not work as expected/, because the email I promised to forward to your larger-scale concerns with other people in the time, and what you're saying and what you see absurdism most clearly illustrated in the email me a photocopy of that looks good to me I'm looking forward to hearing you do a couple of ways, and you do so in section on 27 November or 4 December discussion of a text that's separated temporally from Punishment, 1984, Brave New World, and because you're going to be a stronger, clearer stand on the web or in posting your notes and get you your add code from him. Hi! Thanks for doing so by 10 a. I am currently leaning towards calling on you. Here's a breakdown on how to deliver it. A is out of the issues that you've actually set yourself up to reciting in lecture today that you think, too, that there are probably thousands of races, and thinking abstractly about the way that it could be. I forgot to say. The sample paper available on the final, and in line 22. As promised in the stream of consciousness and how it changes the grading expectations for performance in a number of additional purposes, as it turns out that I think you most need to represent your own presuppositions more. Lesson Plan for Week 4:30 or so of all my students for review. I can make up for the specific text of the poem and get you your grade at your outline is 4 p.

[linthm]

Hi! I love your themes! I've seen that your new circadium supports pinned posts and gives them a little extra with that pin-symbol! Is there any tip you can give on how I could modify how a pinned posts looks? I could search through the code of your theme too but there's probably multiple things and in a way it would feel like stealing to simply take parts! I've been mainly thinking/hoping to maybe remove the date of the post from how it's usually displayed on my themes, just on the pinned one.

hi! yes that’s pretty straightforward to do, although there’s a few steps involved if your code isn’t properly factored - luckily HTML/CSS is easy to change in that way. (also for the record i don’t really mind if people take chunks of my code, as long as it’s not the actual design that’s being copied! looking at other theme makers’ code in order to understand why they do certain things is a crucial part of my own learning process too)

this got kinda long so i’ll put it under a cut. i first explain how to do it in circadium specifically, and then how to add the functionality to any theme.

the way my code is set up, to hide the date you’d just need to add this line into the CSS:

.is-pinned .timestamp { display:none; }

and you’re set. the result looks like this:

you can add other special styling to pinned posts as well in the is-pinned { } CSS block, of course.

that’s the short answer. the long answer might be a bit too long if you’re already familiar with how Tumblr’s variables and such work, but I figured I’d explain in detail to be safe:

so when Tumblr added the pinned post feature, they also added some new variables to the documentation. specifically the block variable {block:PinnedPostLabel} {/block:PinnedPostLabel}, which will only render the code within it if it’s used on a pinned post, and the regular variable {PinnedPostLabel}, which is just a string (=line of text) explaining that the post is pinned. you can technically just use plain English/your language of choice instead of the {PinnedPostLabel} variable, but it’s better to use the variable because Tumblr will automatically translate it where required.

(pinned posts will automatically appear at the top of the blog without theme makers having to do anything to the code - this is just explaining how to make them look pinned, since there’s nothing to indicate they are by default.)

Tumblr does have a habit of not naming its variables very intuitively, so when you see a block called “pinned post label” you might think that it can only be used to render the actual label. but conveniently for us it will render just about anything, provided the post in question is pinned. so what I do is use these blocks to add a special HTML class only to pinned posts in the code, like so:

<article class=“post {block:PinnedPostLabel} is-pinned {/block:PinnedPostLabel}”>     [other code for the contents of the posts] </article>

now you can go to the CSS and add the special styling you want in a new section like this:

.is-pinned {     background: black;     border:1px solid red; }

(or whatever, you get the idea)

in order to control the timestamps after this, the easiest method is to wrap the timestamp code in some sort of labelled container - Circadium just used <div class=“timestamp”>...</div>. now you can ensure that the “timestamp” class will behave in a certain way only if it’s inside a post belonging to the “is-pinned” class, like this:

.is-pinned .timestamp { [whatever behavior you want] }

as seen above, if you just want to hide the timestamps you’d set the styling to display:none. just remember to leave that space in between .is-pinned and .timestamp, because having no space in between two classes means something else to the browser and it won’t work the same way.

hope this was helpful! feel free to send more asks if i didn’t explain some part of it clearly or you’d like to know more

[dlamp-dictator]

Allen Rambles about Code of Brawl

Man... remind me to never talk about having a future Rambling in the works, it’ll instantly fall into draft-hell. But anyway, I’ve been meaning to talk about Arknights in depth for a while now, but I’ve never had much drive to actually finish the damn draft of my initial thoughts a few months ago. I couldn’t tell you why, I just lost the drive to finish the thing. However, with Code of Brawl coming to a close and my thoughts on the event still lingering I think I can use it as jumping off point to actually talk about the game. 

That said, here’s the synopsis.

Arknights is a Tower Defense game for the PC mobile devices placed in the world of Terra, where an infectious disease known as Oripathy ravages the land, slowly turning people to minerals in a slow and painful process. You play as the Doctor, an amnesiac military commander of the Rhodes Island pharmaceutical company who fights against the Infected radicals known as the Reunion. 

That’s about as far as I can go in a single paragraph for main story, but Code of Brawl instead focuses on the eccentric adventures of Pengiun Logistics, side faction of the game that’s a seemingly innocent delivery company with quite the ragtag group in it, consisting of the happy-go-lucky gunner Exusiai, the cold and dismissive swordswoman Texas, the excitable and energetic Sora, and the business-savvy Croissant. All led by the charismatic and multi-talented Emperor. However, as their new intern Bison comes into the fold the group is caught in a series of gang wars and organized crime trying to snuff out the company.

And unlike Fire Emblem Three Houses, that really is the basic plot without me sarcastically building anything up. With that all said, I think I can move on and talk about... 

The Story

The story of Code of Brawl honestly has the best and worst of Arknights writing. I think having a story that focused on a group outside of Rhodes Island was for the better. For all the lore blurbs and archive notes we get, I think Code of Brawl proves just how little Rhodes Island is involved with the world of Terra at large despite it’s apparent reputation as a weird and quirky company with some terrifyingly powerful Operators and lofty ambitions. And while I’m still only on Chapter 4 since I’m grinding out some E2 before moving on, Rhodes Island really does more reacting to random Reunion plans than anything proactive with their goals of curing Oripathy. They feel more like a counter military force to Reunion, and a barely effective on at that given the point of the story I’m at. Code of Brawl, being focused on another group with a more direct conflict and villains, feels a lot more cohesive and interesting, as Penguin Logistics’s goal is to just get Bison through his first day and take out whatever force is harassing them this week. 

Penguin Logistics as a whole is a rather interesting bunch of ruffians and seeing them is gallivant around Lungmen trading blows and bullets with gangsters is a joy to read and see. Seeing some of the inner workings of Lungmen society, seeing a bit of the underbelly, as well as getting to see the cast just have more casual interactions with each other is great. We learn that Sora really is just gay for Texas, and the all of Penguin Logistics has only 3 function braincells with Texas having one and Mostima having the other two.  We get to see that Sora has probably beaten someone to death with her microphone at some point given how willing she is to bar fight. A lot of fun stuff.

And then... there’s Mostima. 

Look, I like this story, I really do, but Mostima really didn’t need to be here as far as the story is concerned. All she does plot-wise is rile up Exusiai, drop some cryptic advice for Bison, shows she knows more powerful than she leads on, and is a bit of a deus ex machina for the end of the plot, and not even by that much. You could had replaced her with Chen, Swire, Hoshigumi, ShiraYuki, or anyone else that would logically be in Lungmen at the time. Hell, ShiraYuki knowing everything a being cryptic about it would at least be in character for her. 

And that’s not to knock Mostima. I actually pulled her in my last ten-pull (didn’t get Waii Fu though, and I’m still salty about that), she’s a pretty good and damn near god-tier once you get her to E2 if some of the guides on her are to be believed, though her kit is a little niche for an AoE caster of her cost. However, as far as the story is concerned she shows a serious issue with Arknights as a whole. That’s its constant need to have half of their characters be mysterious.

Mysterious Characters

So, just to give an example, here is a list of characters in Arknights with a Mysterious Past™. These are characters that either have their archive notes explicitly state their past is unknown, or characters who’s past is implied but but deliberately kept unconfirmed.

With that said...

Mostima

Myrtle

Cuora

Skadi

Specter

Shining

Siege

Projekt Red

Specter

Blue Poison

Lappland

Texas (?)

ShiraYuki

AMIYA

Okay, I’m cheating a little with Texas since she has enough of her past implied, but it’s still technically a mystery as far as the specifics go. But you see my point, right? A lot of characters have a Mysterious Past™, which is a nice shorthand to not go into depth about writing their background. Now, you don’t need to give twenty paragraphs on their backstory, but something would be nice. Keeping things a mystery might be nice for the theory-crafters, but for me it’s annoy as hell to see so many character, so many high-rated that really just have their skills and design to go off of, especially with most the cast overall having a pretty simple background to them that are interesting when you read through the lore blurbs and think about it. Breeze is a former noble that wanted to do more good in the world than throwing money at a problem. Liskarm is a protective friend that joined Rhodes Island to make sure the problematic Franka integrated without problems. Frostleaf is a child soldier that wants to do some good in the world after becoming Infected. Kroos, Beagle, and Fang joined Rhodes Island after getting kicked out of their old jobs. You don’t need to be flashy, but giving answers isn’t an admission of lacking creativity. The hints might be nice for the analysts, but the fans would likely want some answers.

Again, Mostima isn’t a problem, and a lot characters in that list do have some concrete hints about their past. Texas and Lappland are likely a former mafia heiresses and old rivals. Shining was likely a highly skilled mercenary before realizing she could do more good in the world with a healing staff instead of a sword. Siege is likely apart of Londinium royalty, but was either exiled or ran due to political turmoil. But that’s the issue, likely isn’t confirmed. Mostima being a powerful character with a mysterious past just feels like a cop out to me. It’s not bad, but she’s a symptom of what some of the issues of Arknights story is. I’m not asking for AFK Arena-levels of lore, just... an explanation here or there would be nice. 

But anyway that’s my main issue, moving on.

General Gushing

Despite that large critique I have, there’s a lot I love about this story. For simplicity sake, because I’m tired of all the editing, I’ll put it into list form:

Penguin Logistics in general was just a joy to see. Watching them in action and just how laissez-faire they are is hilarious, especially when paired with the straightforward and reserved Bison freaking out over the wackiness. 

Speaking of, Bison made for a very good straight man to balance out all the wild antics of PL. He really kept things from getting too crazy by at least questioning the zaniness, and the point when he finally stops caring and just charges in with a crazy plan of his own just gave me the giddiest of smiles.

Given how they discuss it, PL apparently trade blows with criminals and thugs on a daily basis, and since they’re just a delivery company this implies they likely deliver drugs or other hot cargo the mafia and gangs want... and given Emperor’s personality, that wouldn’t shock me.

Emperor in general is a delight of a character. He’s about as charismatic and wild as his aesthetic makes him look. I would legit whale for him if he ever become an operator.

Learning a little bit about Lungmen culture was fun as well, as little of it as we see. It’s my personal headcanon now that the mafia and general thugs of Lungmen don’t mess with civilians because they’re either a sleeper agent under the Rat King’s protection or they might be a kung fu master in plain clothes like Waai Fu.

Waai Fu and Texas fist fighting in the streets of Lungmen is just hilarious and awesome. I honestly don’t know what that says about either of them. Texas is holding her own against a martial artist with over 10 years of experience barehanded, meanwhile Waai Fu is holding her own against what lore blurbs have implied is the former heiress/hitman of a mafia. All the while drunkards and Texas’s coworkers are egging them on. This is the dumb content I live for.

Save for some of the absolute bullshit of the challenge maps, I found the actual game content to be pretty fair and interesting. The Bullies required good defender placement, a lot of the ranged units focused on targeting the helpful buildings that buffed your characters and increased the operator deployment count, and maps themselves had a few clever chokepoints to work with... At least until they started spamming Fanatics.

Bison actually has a pretty solid kit for a free Operator. He buffs a lot of adjacent units, has a no real weakness, his tools don’t feel niche like Grani or Celycon, overall a great unit. Once I finish E2-ing all my main Operators I might build him next. 

While I have issues with her as a story element, Mostima is a 6-star that has instant utility once you promote her to E2, much like Chen and Siege. This is something I’m relieved to say as a lot of my 6-stars aren’t worth much until you E2 them and I’m still trying to E2 some of my easier units like Cuora and Gavial for Chapter 5 and CC.

That’s really all I have to say on that front. So to close things off...

For the Future

Like I always say in these Ramblings, I don’t like the idea of people prattling on about being able to “fix” or “rewrite” something has already been made. It always comes across as both arrogant and ignorant to me. However, I think it’s completely fair to make requests and suggestions for the future. ‘

That said, I'd like to continue seeing side stories without Rhodes Island’s involvement. Both to see other factions in their natural element and because, frankly, Rhodes Island always feels a little out of place when involved in other stories, or at least more of a distraction than a good element if chapter 2 and 3 are anything to go by. I think a Black Steel side story would be nice. Jessica, Franka, Liskarm, and Vanille getting into shenanigans in Columbia or something sounds like a fun time. Maybe have the leader/high commander of the organization as a new operator and they’re a really powerful Supporter than can buff the party, like a 6-star version of Sora or something that gives operators insane ASPD buffs... I don’t know, something like that anyway. Ideally something a little less wordy than Code of Brawl at least.

Anyway, that’s all I have to say. Next time... I’ll talk about something else. Maybe discuss a manga or something. 

See you all later.

[gaad]

“The State as apparatus of capture has a power of appropriation; but this power does not consist solely in capturing all that it can, all that is possible, of a matter defined as phylum. The apparatus of capture also appropriates the war machine, the instruments of polarization, and the anticipation prevention mechanisms. This is to say, conversely, that anticipation prevention mechanisms have a high power of transference (...)”. “(...) (W)ar machines have a power of metamorphosis, which of course allows them to be captured by States, but also to resist that capture and rise up again in other forms, with other “objects” besides war (revolution?). Each power is a force of deterritorialization that can go along with the others or go against them (...). Each process can switch over to other powers, but also subordinate other processes to its own power.” (1) “The idea of a constitution (...) involves not only the idea of hierarchy of authority or power but also that of a hierarchy of rules or laws, where those possessing a higher degree of generality and proceeding from a superior authority control the contents of the more specific laws that are passed by a delegated authority.” (2) It is time for a new humanism. Time to set a place, a forum able to stage the powers of today. Time to call up the ancient, dispose them, squeez them, twist them to reassess todays world. We have lost the meaning of natural proportions, let us look at godly excess. Monotheic religion castrated our apprehension of the world, seeing things either good or bad. The polytheic family encompasses the world and beyond, spinning around our prosaic flatland. A figure founded on intricated concepts is a powerfull constellation naviguating above polysemic ambiguities.  As the grand daughter of the Philantropist eponym Elisabeth Murdoch, Elisabeth Murdoch feels the will to engage her vision in the public debat. Since her childhood she was confronted to a rigourous, competitive, mostly manly world. Inspired by her grandmother she cultivated a spiritual friendship with greek feminin characters. Grew up with them. Now her interest does not lie in presenting her various personal relations with them but to stage them. “(...)(A)dvertising, news, publicity, periodical literature.” This is Elisabeth's inherited background. “(...) They work to a single end: to give the stamp of authenticity and value to the style of life that emanates from the metropolis.They establish the national brand: they attempt to control the national market: they create a picture of a unified, homogeneous, completely standardized population that bears, in fact, no relation to the actual regional sub stratum—although in the course of time it partly succeeds in producing the thing it has imagined.” Take Paris for example: “(...) the Champs Elysées, become the goals of vulgar ambition (and a)dvertisement becomes the “spiritual power” of this new regime.” (3)

“This is the moment when the masterpieces of ancient sculpture are about to appear in all their glory in front of the eyes of France (...)  (they) have chosen to live amongst the French, and are to be adored in their living images. Ah! Who would be able to step into the temple of these divinities without saying to himself: these masterpieces, these gods had ceased to be gods for us; the cult of Antiquity had been forgotten; who would believe it?(...); it is Vien, it is David, who then made themselves into their apostles and ministers; it is through them that this great revolution, which has at least given us the hope of creating gods ourselves, has taken place in the arts.” (4)

The time of revolution is now back but as Foucault said : “il faut avoir une méfiance absolue et totale à l'égard de tout ce qui se présente comme un retour. L'une des raisons de cette méfiance est logique : il n'y a jamais, en fait, de retour.”(5) Therefore the story of Elisabeth's friends will intentionally follow the unfaithfull path. In Momus from Alberti “the extended climax (of the seventh book) occurs in an urban theater where the gods act as their own effigies(, Alberti) repeatedly uses the word persona (and so will we) (“mask” or “personality'') to underline the false, theatrical behavior of his characters.” (6) “Or, as is the case now, the mask assures the erection, the construction of the (new) face (of Elisabeth), the fascialization of the head and the body: the mask is now the face itself, the abstraction or operation of the face. The inhumanity of the face.” (1) So be it. Let them be the masked actors of a twisted tragedy, trapped in their performance, speculating above our heads, fertilizing our ground. A spectacle of a new kind. Let them play, individually, together, contradict each other, themselves. Let them work as technologies, systems, embedded in concepts and rituals. “They (a)re living geometry, lines and curves of color, entwined into a coalescing whole yet maintaining distinct identities.” (7)

Three personas. Pandora, Circe, Metis. Not the ones we usually know. Their Alter Ego. The ones who stand up, do not apologize. This is Elisabeth's Friends. Pandora has inherited a box, a jarre which contains unspeakable truth. She knows now how to sort things, pick up elements, unleash others. Circe masters metamorphosis by exploring with drugs and potions. She learned to articulate her recipes and to play with the right parameters and Metis is renowned for his wiseness and cunning, making problems no longer valid. As a constellation, they are powerful. As a unity, they can deal with the plenty, transform it. As an unfaithful story, it accesses the realm of discussion. As statuses, they need a sophisticated territory from which to operate, a palace. Three Faces where “(i)t is not the individuality of (each) face that counts but the efficacy of the ciphering it makes possible, and in what cases it makes it possible.(...) The face is a surface, (...) the face is a map.” (1 ) “How disappointing this answer seems to be! We asked what was the origin of Ideas and where problems come from: in reply we invoke throws of the dice, imperatives and questions of chance instead of an apodictic principle; an aleatory point at which everything becomes ungrounded instead of a solid ground.” (8)

“For each genre, now, the problem will be to decide whether its audience is such as to demand utility or delight or both, and what brand of either of these will be acceptable to it.” (9) To anchor ourselves we will now deepen our reflexion in space with Alberti and Vitruve. But keep in mind : “The mathematics that is needed here is of a new brand.” (10)  Their concept and ideas of proportions being a fertile ground from which we should elevate. This palace will be a theater, a circus and a amphitheater, simultaneously, as the temple of our time, able to adapt to change, suitable to glorify the unknown. If we follow Alberti and Vitruve who compare the three typologies as such: “(...) (W)e will describe both manners of spectacles. In the first, which is for the delight of peaceful times, are introduced the poets, musicians, and actors. In the second, which regard the studies of war, are performed different kinds of duels and contests having to do with bodily strength and dexterity.To the former is dedicated the theatre, a name which means both ‘spectacle’ and ‘a place to watch’.To the latter, which are spectacles of agility and dexterity such as running or jumping, is dedicated the circus. To events such as assaults and fights against animals or men is dedicated the amphitheatre. There are some things that are proper to all of these spectacles: first, that they are horn shaped and curved; next, that they have an open space in the middle; and finally, that they have steps all around and raised places where people can sit and watch.” (11) “But then they differ as to the Form of the aforesaid Area; for those which have this Area in the Shape of a Moon in its Decrease are called Theatres, but when the Horns are protracted a great Way forwards, they are called Circusses, because in them the Chariots make a Circle about the Goal.” (12) So if we follow them and we free this typologies from their form, we can imagine a place which could embody the spectacle. The Palace of Spectacle. This Palace will be entered through a garden where a fountain lies at its very center. Heron's Fountain one could claim. Another form of spectacle.

1) Deleuze Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus 2) Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty 3) Mumford, The Culture of Cities 4) Harrison Wood Gaiger, Art in Theory 1648 1815 5) Foucault, Le savoir, le pouvoir et l'espace 6) Alberti, Momus (Preface) 7) Asimov, Complete Robot Anthology 8) Deleuze, Difference and Repetition 9) Weinberg, A History of Literary Criticism in the Italian Renaissance 1 10) Ayache, The Blank Swan 11) Williams, Daniele Barbaros Vitruvius of 1567 12) Alberti, 10 books of architecture 1755

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Further quotes: 

Vitruve

these vessels - ( poor vessels) large jars made of clay, but similarly resonant

THE plan of the theatre itself is to be constructed as follows. Having fixed upon the principal centre, draw a line of circumference equivalent to what is to be the perimeter at the bottom, and in it inscribe four equilateral triangles, at equal distances apart and touching the boundary line of the circle, as the astrologers do in a figure of the twelve signs of the zodiac, when they are making computations from the musical harmony of the stars. Taking that one of these triangles whose side is nearest to the scaena, let the front of the scaena be determined by the line where that side cuts off a segment of the circle (A B), and draw, through the centre, a parallel line (C D) set off from that position, to separate the platform of the stage from the space of the orchestra.

The circus was based, so it is said, on the heavens

Unlike that of the amphitheater, the central area of a circus was not empty, nor was it filled with a stage, like that of a theater --------------------------------------------------------------- Alberti

We have dealt with the theater; next we shall discuss the circus and amphitheater.All buildings of this type are derived from the theater: a circus is nothing but a theater with its wings extended along parallel lines, although its nature does not require the addition of a portico; an amphitheater, meanwhile, consists of two theaters, their tiers linked into a continuous circle.They differ in that the theater is a form of semiamphitheater; another difference is that the central area of the amphitheater is quite empty and free of any stage. In every other respect they are similar, especially in their tiers, porticoes, passages, and so on. The amphitheater, we think, was built originally for the hunt; this was why they decided to make it round, so that the wild beast, trapped there and baited, with no corner into which to retreat, would be easier for the hunters to provoke.

The rest of the ornament is taken from the temple

The theater takes the lineament of its area from the hoofprint of a horse.Once this is done, the uppermost portico is built on top. The facade and colonnade of this portico do not receive light from outside, as those we have described below it do, but face instead toward the central area of the theater, as we have mentioned already. This work prevents sound from escaping, and compresses and fortifies it; we shall therefore call the work the circumvallation.

--------------------------------------------------------------------- Perrault (on Vitruvius)

And the Paintings represented three sorts of Buildings, which made three sorts of Scenes, viz. The Tragick by Magnificent Pallaces, the Comick by Private Houses, the Satyrical (i. e. the Pastoral) by Fields and Groves.The Parascenium or Postscenium was the hinder part of the Theater, and the place whither the Actors retired and dressed themselves, and had their Rehearsals, and where the Machines were kept.Near the Theaters, were Publick Walks, in length a Stadium, which is about 90 Perches. There were Trees planted

[nihilnovisubsole]

My fashion queen, incredibly important question: How would one go about figuring out fashion *style* for characters? I've noticed your OCs always have a Look(TM), and I've gathered from your blog (and fics) that you've got an eye for aestethics - please, could you give me advice at least where to *start*. I'm completely unaware of fashion and, frankly, completely overwhelmed at the prospect of just starting..

Ah! Previous Anon again - forgot to add a more specific question about fashion (I’m squeezing in 2 quesiton in one xD). Do you have fashion advice for sleek/distant female character’s clothing that doesn’t hinge on formal dresses? (as is discernable, I have literally NO idea what a Grown Ass, Self Respecting Woman would wear)

wow. that’s high praise. when i got this yesterday morning, i knew i wanted to give it the answer it deserved. this is over 1500 words long, so apologies to anyone on mobile, but i wasn’t letting go until i’d really sunk my teeth into it.

unfortunately, since you’re anon, i don’t know enough about your character to suggest anything specific. instead, i want to take a step back and see if we can solve the root of the problem - “where do i start?”

when i was a teenager, an english teacher told me this: “the biggest constraint in writing is no constraint at all.” when you have the whole spectrum of something - in this case, clothes - to pick from, it is overwhelming. the natural human instinct is to freeze up. so while it may sound strange, if you’re just starting out, you might feel better if you have some constraints to work within.

with that in mind, you can treat finding a ‘signature look’ for your character like solving a murder mystery. you eliminate all the suspects that don’t fit until you know enough to narrow it down to the one that does. that’s going to involve something else you’ll recognize from murder mysteries: you’re going to have to interrogate the character. open them up and get to know them - their background, their likes and dislikes, their quirks, the role they play in the world around them. every answer will give you clues and weed other things out, and eventually, you’ll get a box small enough that you feel comfortable working in it.

now, i love fashion, and i love using clothes to send messages about a character’s personality. so as someone who’s had that interest for my whole life, i work from the other end. the constraints happen, in large part, without me thinking about them. i tend to zoom right to a certain aesthetic or item of clothing, say, “okay, what outfit can i build with this,” and go from there. but since you’ve said you’re “unaware” of fashion and it’s intimidating to you, i’ll try to ease you in through a different route and see whether that helps.

so, if we’re going to pick your character apart, let’s think about some practical questions first:

what setting does your character live in?

if you’ve narrowed your setting down to a historical decade, you’ll find most of the style questions already - firmly! - answered for you. for example, a victorian woman would, by default, wear skirts. if the character is contemporary, you’ve got a lot more wiggle room. if you want to mess with historical fashion rules for symbolic or story purposes, awesome, but i think that’s probably more advanced than you’re looking for right now.

if the setting is fantasy or sci-fi, what’s its dominant aesthetic? is it cyberpunk? sleek ~apple~ sci-fi? or is it more like star wars? is it medieval fantasy? woodsy faerie fantasy? JRPG-style fantasy? you get the idea.

what does your character do?

speaks for itself. what’s their job?

what is your character like, just in general?

this is where everything you know about their personality goes. if they’re a fussy courtier who’s worried about their reputation and appearance, they’re probably not going to be comfortable in plain, casual clothes.

what can your character afford to wear?

again, speaks for itself. do they buy designer brands? are they trying their best with what they have? or are they super strapped for cash and just have to get the job done?

does their social scene have an easily-identifiable aesthetic that you could work with?

does your character wear urban/street fashion or preppy rich-kid clothes? are they part of a subculture that dresses in a certain way, like teddy boys? do they have the desire or freedom to go all-in with that style, or do they have to play it down, like being corporate goth?

do they need to wear something they could travel, do hard work, or fight in?

goes with the job question above. do they need some kind of outerwear or accessory where they can hide weapons? do they always need to be ready, or is it situational?

basically, where does the character’s aesthetic need to sit on a chart of form vs. function?

what do other characters who are similar to your character wear?

look at your favorite movies, games, and TV shows and see what professional designers are doing with characters like yours. what colors and cuts are they using? what other elements do they choose? do you like them? if you don’t like them, what would you change? sometimes you can learn more from what you hate than what you love.

hopefully, you’ve already culled a huge swath of fashion ideas that you Know You’re Not Going To Do. you may still not know what you do want to do, either! that’s fine. let’s move onto some more artsy questions:

are there any colors your character would prefer or avoid?

it sounds silly. it’s not. a limited color palette will go a long way toward making a character’s outfits look unified and purposeful. obviously, in real life, most people don’t restrict themselves as much as fictional characters do. but if you were a costume designer, you’d want to have some guideposts to work with.

are there any motifs you associate with your character?

animals, elements, religious or cultural symbols, plants - you can sneak all these into their clothes’ details. maybe their dress has beading in the shape of a peacock, or rose earrings, or icy sparkles, or a bear pelt for a cloak.

have fun with meanings! moon motifs for mysteriousness, poisonous flowers, etc. let your inner lit major out.

do you want your character to have a certain silhouette?

this may seem odd if you’re just going to be writing your character and not drawing them, but think about it anyway. do you want to emphasize that your character is tall? is everything they wear skintight? do they have a large, unique hat?

a great example of this is maleficent. not only does she have a horn-shaped headdress, her huge, flowing robe tells us there’s a much bigger power in her than her body would suggest.

is there a certain ethos you want their clothes to project? what, in their world, would do that? what in our world would do that?

let’s say you want your character to look very powerful, to the point where people would find their looks alone intimidating. should they wear sharp, simple, severe clothes, maybe in dark colors? or should they wear very embellished clothes, like royalty? what are your setting’s ideas about beauty? modesty? does your character play by the rules, or do you want them to stand out?

what colors, shapes, and styles appeal to you personally?

for all the time i’ve spent talking about restrictions and guidelines, it’s important not to lose the fun of it, either. use your favorite color! give them clothes you’d want to wear in real life! character style is a playground where you can let wish fulfillment run wild.

at any time, feel free to turn to google or wikipedia if you’re not sure how to answer one of these questions. if you see an interesting idea, pick it up and follow it - what you’re doing here is training your eye, and that’s how you’ll learn. that said, if you’re already intimidated, i wouldn’t dive too deep into couture/aesthetic blogs until i had a more solid grip on how i wanted the character to look. it comes back to what i said earlier - there is such a thing as too much to choose from, especially when you’re not sure what you should be looking for yet.

there’s one other thing i want to mention that can help bring a character’s wardrobe together: repetition. if you’re planning several outfits for a character instead of just one, echo some of the motifs, shapes, or colors from one to the next. they don’t all have to be identical takes on the same thing, but if they have certain traits in common, they’ll feel less like separate outfits and more like a matched set. they could all be in members of the same color family or have similar patterns on them. maybe your character has a certain accessory that they wear with everything. you get the idea.

while i may not be able to plan your character’s wardrobe outright, i hope this makes the whole process seem more straightforward. or that it gives you some ideas to work with, or any other kind of help you might take away from it. this post is getting unfathomably long, so i’ll wrap it up, but i’d be happy to put any of my own characters through a “question test” like this one if you’d like to see how it works in practice.

finally, if you can find an interview with an artist or costume designer who worked on something you like, those things are worth their weight in gold. i read an interview with colleen atwood when i was in middle school, and it revolutionized the way i thought about fashion and storytelling. and when i say “revolutionized,” i mean “i owe basically everything i just told you to that article.” dig into them and see how they think and talk about their art! they’re more qualified to teach you than i ever will be.

[wayfront4]

7 Soft Skills You Required To Achieve Occupation Development.

5 Ways To Get Fit In 3 Months │ Benenden Health And Wellness.

#toc background: #f9f9f9;border: 1px solid #aaa;display: table;margin-bottom: 1em;padding: 1em;width: 350px; .toctitle font-weight: 700;text-align: center;

Content

Why My Personal Trainer Is Worth It.

Why Is It Essential For An Individual Trainer To Collaborate With Clients To Agree With Objectives And Also Goals?

Five Means Fitness

Just How To Come To Be A Fitness Tutor (2020 Update).

Choosing The Right Personal Trainer.

Layout Your Own Program.

Level 3 Personal Trainer Diploma.

See listed below for an annotated work summary from Sports Direct, one of our corporate companions, and also what an interviewer may ask you pertaining to the advert. When it involves including muscle to your framework, you need to ensure you're giving your body a lot of time to rest between stamina training sessions. Doing the same amount of workout day after day can hinder healing and also cause you to shed muscle in time.

Can I get in shape in 3 months?

If you're serious about getting fit, choose an exercise you really enjoy and carve out the time for a regular workout. Stick to it for three months and you'll reap the rewards, be full of energy and feeling great.

Most of all, your early questions to a customer are to guarantee their safety and security. Think about the info you need to know prior to planning a fitness program. Connection building is one of the most important component to being a wonderful personal trainer. Customers just buy from individuals they like, as well as who they feel engaged with. Just as, don't claim that you intend to use this work to develop skills in order to have a desire job with a straight competitor.

This implies they should be experienced, thoughtful as well as responsible with ambiguity in the workplace. While it is certainly a valuable ability to closely follow comprehensive instruction, it is also necessary to be able to establish what it requires to accomplish the desired end result. Finding work/life balance is important to maintain motivation in your task.

Why My Individual Trainer Is Worth It.

I just wore a polo shirt and blue jeans, I was offered a job withinin half an hour of the interview. This is vital info, so you understand what to anticipate after you leave of the interview area door. If a 2nd meeting is pointed out, make certain you recognize when you must listen to back by.

As alluring as it may be to distinguish yourself from other candidates, do not tell a hinge on your meeting that could come back to haunt you if you get the work. Whether it's knowing just how to utilize a certain software application or experience with a social network's ad system, a lie could harm you if the truth appears later on. You have restricted time in your meeting to make a great impression, so utilize the moment you have to speak eloquently and thoughtfully. Self-confidence is a big part of preparedness, as well as the duty you're interviewing for will certainly most likely need you to be decisive and also positive so you can obtain things done. So don't say you fidget-- it will probably make youmorenervous, as well as it will not do you any kind of favors with your recruiter, either.

If this is true for you, make sure to show this to the job interviewer in your story. Tell the recruiter about exactly how stress or tension can motivate you to really buckle down, focus, and work vigilantly to obtain projects done. To provide a good solution to this question, you ought to supply instances of exactly how you have actually dealt with anxiety in the past as well as just how it's made you a much more effective worker. Recruiters ask concerns similar to this since they need to know just how pressure impacts you as well as what you do to manage it.

Speak to clients at active times on reception to completely involve with them. Offer cost-free suggestions and check up on gym-member that appear to be battling. It is additionally music to an interviewer's ears if you state that you want to go on a sales/marketing program to improve these skills if you are not solid on these areas. Much like taking notice of your responses and way of speaking, paying attention to your body language and also disposition can bring wonderful benefits.

Even the most flexible people can have trouble dealing with others that have certain characteristics or personality traits. Having good team effort skills likewise implies having a solid recognition of just how you deal with others as well as ways you can readjust your technique to far better offer the company. An occupation in the fitness sector can be what you make from it, yet it makes sure to be enjoyable, flexible as well as fulfilling regardless of where you work or who for. Whether you like functioning outdoors, inside, a team setup or solo, there are a variety of settings within the fitness industry to fit.

Why Is It Important For A Personal Trainer To Work With Clients To Agree With Objectives And Also Goals?

You ought to not overlook medical recommendations, or delay looking for medical suggestions, due to something you review in this website. If this is an obstacle for you, focus on getting little exercises in throughout the day. If your work takes the majority of your time, think about taking 3-10 minute breaks and also stroll at moderate intensity, where you damage a little sweat as well as are somewhat short of breath. Taking these breaks are not only great for physical health, but also for mental health. This indicates that your body has actually come to be made use of to the task you have actually been doing to drop weight.

5 Method Fitness

If you truly want to see results reflected on the range and also remain to make development with time, you require to dedicate to working out at the very least four to 5 days weekly. This is especially so if the quantity of time you're placing in doesn't compare with your objectives. Linda Le Phan is the Senior Material Advertising and marketing Manager atkununu United States, a location where work hunters can obtain an authentic view of life at a business and also where employers have a relied on platform to much better involve ability. When she's not developing material regarding the modern-day workplace, firm culture, and also life & work hacks, she is most likely heading out to get an iced coffee, raiding the treat cabinet, or obstructing to kununu's Spotify playlist.

they line up well what you shared on your resume, as well as shows preparedness in case a recruiter does not have a copy. Whether you're interviewing to flip hamburgers or run a country, turn up dressed to excite. While a fit is no more the only way to dress well for meetings, it is still a great go-to in most circumstances. To be lean muscle gainer , ask the firm before the day of your meeting what their dress code is or do a bit of research study on your own regarding proper meeting clothes for various scenarios. At the end of the day, however, It's always, always better to overdress than underdress.

Just because you think of a prepared a specific response does not automatically indicate the answer is the best one. You do not intend to be captured by shock by a concern and also do not have a decent answer. If you lack experience, researched points so at least you can discuss the topic.

If you aren't contacted by then, be sure to ring up and also ask why you weren't successful and also how you can boost your possibilities for next time. This is an excellent question to ask to gage your working problems and also to see how your toughness would certainly profit the business. It will additionally make the company restate your formerly pointed out toughness, which will stick to them through the employing process. Constantly seek the guidance of your medical professional or various other qualified health care supplier. Constantly consult your health care service provider prior to starting any type of new treatment, or if you have any kind of inquiries regarding a health problem.

Prior to you leave the meeting, deal to give the recruiter with any kind of extra details they need to make their choice. Added details can include a list of recommendations, a copy of your profile or a duplicate of instructional and also expert certifications. " Many thanks so much for your time, I truly delighted in finding out more regarding you as well as the firm." " My greatest weak point is public talking, something I haven't had several opportunities to do in my existing function, so I'm hoping to expand on those skills dealing with a bigger group at this firm."

Is Personal Training Profitable?

If you learn how to sell and grow a big business, you can usually make up to $25–35/hour in those situations. So, if you aren't good at marketing and sales, it's not profitable. If you ARE good, and you're a good trainer, you can make as much as you want with the right clients.

The most remarkable prospects regulate their need to fill up every area with impulsive answers as well as hesitant "um" s and also "uh" s. When asked a question, take a moment to think through your response or identify an appropriate story and after that start talking. The pause is great as well as it also reveals your capability to be tranquil as well as made up.

If they do smoke, ask if they 'd fit sharing how many cigarettes per-day they smoke. Obviously, you ought to constantly encourage your client to give up cigarette smoking for their health, yet this can be a turn-off to some clients, so choose meticulously just how much you wish to harp on this. Rest can have a significant influence on achieving fitness results, so you'll need to know just how much sleep your client enters a normal evening in order to help them.

Our bodies are clever machines and also come to be really efficient gradually when the exact same activity is executed. Weight lifters should do reps per muscle of their selection, and the weight made use of differs based upon your fitness degree. You are much less likely to utilize amateur language throughout an interview when you decrease, take your time to consider your action as well as concentrate on talking plainly. You can additionally prevent using filler words by practicing changing them with a quick time out or deep breath.

Individuals picking an as soon as a week routine will certainly require to carry out work on their own as well as can not anticipate to reduce weight without technique.

If you are comfortable with your regular and feel as though you do not require even more training, an as soon as a week training may suffice for you.

These sessions are normally shared with two to 4 other individuals working together under a similar program.

Lots of people that select to deal with a trainer will certainly select an as soon as a week meeting.

If we think about the function of education and learning, accreditation and also certification, we recognize it as a means of quality control.

Various other people value the organized atmosphere that having a personal trainer produces as well as pick to train with them forever.

For instance, you may assume you need to meet your trainer 5 days a week to lose twenty pounds, for an extensive duration, yet in truth, a couple of sessions weekly for a month or more is possibly adequate.

Commonly, people that select this kind of training currently understand just how to make use of the equipment effectively and also understand how to exercise properly.

The length of time with your individual trainer will depend upon a number of various variables.

Several fitness professionals pick the sector to avoid a desk-based work and also have the capability to move as well as remain on their feet. With the rise of the health as well as wellness trend in Australia over current years, fitness is at the leading edge of more Australian minds and service is surely thriving as well as readied to remain to follow this pattern for fairly some time. If you're considering a career in fitness, the bright side is your future can be loaded with excitement, adaptability and financial rewards with a lot of chances to expand as well as establish an effective occupation. Help work hunters learn more about the firm by being objective and also to the point.

How To End Up Being A Fitness Tutor (2020 Update).

Free Courses & Certifications Take courses on the most recent company trends, instructed by sector professionals. Client Assistance Get help if you have questions about utilizing HubSpot software application. If you can be made up as well as offer examples of how you take care of anxiety, you're practically assured to provide an effective response. Do not state that you don't function well in difficult circumstances or mention a time when you could not do your work effectively since you were burnt out.

Do excessive, as well as you take the chance of overtraining and also shedding your hard-earned muscle. On the other hand, if you do not up the strength as well as put the moment in, your muscle gains will be minimal.

If you're not getting muscle as rapidly as you like, you could be dealing with the feared plateau. When you educate the exact same body parts with the exact same exercises as well as amount of weight over an extended time period, there's a good chance your body will certainly quit responding. Finding the right equilibrium of cardio exercise as well as strength training is key when it pertains to placing on lean muscle.

Obtain our complimentary digital book guide of example responses as well as professional interview suggestions emailed to you now. For example, if you have a client who wishes to lose 50 extra pounds yet operates at an inactive desk work for 10 hours per day, after that you're mosting likely to require to amp-up those exercises to make certain maximum calorie and also fat melt. On the various other hand, a client who works as a building employee is already getting more exercise throughout the day, to make sure that ought to be thought about when identifying the best fitness plan. An additional way of life information that you should find out about your customer is whether or not they're a cigarette smoker.

Your recruiter has actually listened to every one of these in guide, so do not try to fool them into believing your "greatest weak point" is anything but an unique ability on your resume. It's alright to not recognize the response to an inquiry, but don't leave it at that!

Attempt to make the inquiries look unrehearsed as this will produce a far better impression of you. You require to show a little of character as well as your story in order to make your response credible.

Selecting The Right Personal Trainer.

Check out on the internet fitness publications so you positively know what hot trends are arising. The fitness world stays one that is rooted greatly in trends and, yes, fads. Whether cardio kickboxing or bootcamp training is the warm thing, studios require to satisfy customer demands or they likely go somewhere else. Not all fitness workshops accommodate people that desire hardcore workouts. Neither is every fitness center wanting to educate individuals who aren't thrilled concerning working out also hard.

How Can You Become An Individual Trainer In Just 6 Weeks?

Providing a response such as this could make the recruiter believe that you won't connect to your employer, also if there's a trouble you require aid with. As an example, if component of the work summary is servicing multiple jobs at once, claiming that you have anxiety attack when you have to handle numerous tasks at the same time is an excellent way to make on your own look poor. Do your best to stay clear of stating that you were emphasized by a scenario that you'll on a regular basis run into at the work you're interviewing for.

Exactly how to Respond to" What Is Easy Fit Personal Training " With Example Responses The blog offers the information required to plan for an interview where the general meeting concern "What is your biggest accomplishment? can be asked. If this is the weakness you are presenting in a meeting, discuss the success you have actually located adhering to instructions yet additionally your occupation capacity when locating convenience with uncertainty. You ought to also explain the steps you are taking to define your day when given ambiguous tasks or goals. Lots of tasks need candidates who are comfortable individually defining tasks and working in the direction of objectives.

When you have actually safeguarded a position, consider making use of company administration software application to track clients, courses showed, etc . Ask for a trial of our All-In-One Fitness Service Management Software today.

Speak to the other personal trainer straight and listen to their sight. Recognize factors of contract and dispute and also prevent routing blame. A recruiter will want to find out about something that actually tested you here. You could have had to find out a brand-new modern technology, or overcome challenging issues in a tough amount of time-- it has to do with exactly how you approach adversity as well as how you conquered it.

She likewise has greater than 15 years of experience training as well as advising supervisors at organizations from American Express to the City of New York City. This candidate has some wonderful teaching fellowship and also part-time experience, but she's a new university grad and doesn't have any type of permanent placements to discuss. She has a great deal of self-confidence and has the ability to concisely sum up how she satisfies the position's leading needs. This solution is a little bit basic as well as can probably be more reinforced with instances.

Personal Trainer Work Summary: What You'Ll Do.

Make sure your solution acknowledges a space in your understanding in a way that still provides you authority. easyfitpersonaltraining.co.uk can provide a solution like, "It's challenging to hit goals when leadership top priorities are constantly changing," but honestly, we don't advise claiming anything that could be regarded as an individual minor. If you're mosting likely to toot your own horn, see to it you have some data or evidence to back it up. Any person can claim they excelled in a previous function, yet numbers or instances will make you attract attention to your interviewer.

Where do most personal trainers work?

Personal trainers typically work in gyms and health clubs. They are self-employed and can also open their own fitness studios. Personal trainers can get creative and work almost anywhere.

While it is definitely respectable and also reveals a solid work principles to spend your energy and time on job, it is also necessary to focus on resting, taking place trip, spending quality time with your family and also taking pleasure in hobbies. Doing so can assist you really feel rejuvenated when you go to work and can raise inspiration, creativity and sustain a favorable expectation.

For optimal results, a workout program should consist of cardiovascular as well as stamina training workout. This permits you to raise your metabolism and melt calories at a greater price, also when you're not working out. How much weight you lose depends upon the quantity of workout you want to dedicate to and also exactly how carefully you stay with your diet regimen.

Design Your Own Program.

A lot of grownups require in between 6 and also 8 hrs per evening to function at their top; if your client isn't getting adequate rest, your very first examination may need to include discussing some methods to improve sleep. Your customer requires to comprehend that the hours they'll invest in the gym won't indicate much if they're not looking after themselves in your home. Run those responses by individuals you trust such as a customer or fellow trainer.

Level 3 Personal Trainer Diploma.

Personable responses that respond honestly will constantly trump reading from a manuscript. Nevertheless, if you were nervous concerning any one of the questions you could obtain, try out a couple of these methods. If there was one thing to look out for, it would be time restraints. You can not bring all of your clients to the table, so select your ideal ones, and also make certain you can talk about them in detail if questioned.

How many personal trainer sessions do I need?

Fitness Goals For example, you may think you need to meet with your trainer five days a week to lose twenty pounds, for an extended period, but in reality, two to three sessions per week for a month or two is probably sufficient.

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Are you searching for a reason to use Themeforest in 2020 and want to know more on it? Well you are at the right place to get more information and to take a perfect decision for yourself.

Introduction

Table of Contents [hide]

1 Introduction

2 Tips to get Your code approved on themeforest

3 Reasons to use ThemeForest

4 ThemeForest pros and cons:

5 Pricing:

6 Before buying: How to choose a Theme

7 EXPLORE THE DEMO SITE

8 CONSIDER NITTY GITTY DETAILS IN THE SIDEBAR

9 Conclusions

Themeforest is part of Envato Market. By using ThemeForest you will be able to buy and sell HTML templates as well as themes for popular CMS products like WordPress, joomla and Drupal items are priced on the complexity, quality and use of the file; the total price also includes a buyer free.

It is a best tool you can use if you want to buy a theme or are you are HTML templates developer and want to earn through your Talent. Themeforest provides a perfect value to your efforts.

Tips to get Your code approved on themeforest

Although ThemeForest has put guidelines in place for a themes code, security and more, ThemeForest still has a bit of reputation for bloated, poorly coded themes.

Tips to get item approved in ThemeForest are: -Analyze, Design, Development, Formatting, Testing, Iterate, Copyright, Documentation.

Reasons to use ThemeForest

ThemeForest is also incredibly easy to use. The themes are organized into different categories and you can use filters to narrow down and sort your choices. The purchasing process is quick and easy, so when you find something you like, you can buy it with just a few clicks.

Let’s dive in to the detailed look at the ThemeForest- its pros and cons, how it works, and any alternatives in the market. By the end of this guide, you’ll have a better understanding of site and you’ll be able to figure out if you should buy a theme from the marketplace.

ThemeForest pros and cons:

Like most solutions in the market, Themeforest has its own sets of advantage and disadvantages.

Here are some of the pros and cons of to be aware of when using site.

Pro:  lots of choices- Themeforest is home to more than 40,000 themes. That’s a lot of choices, and it almost guarantees than there’s a theme for just about any type of website out there. There aren’t a lot of theme marketplace’s that offer these many choice under one roof, which makes Themeforest an attractive solution.

Cons: Inconsistent coding- pretty much any developer can submit a theme to the marketplace, and this result in a lack of consistency with how themes are made. You could encounter themes that are beautifully coded, but there’s an equal chance of running into themes with messy coding that could cause issues when it comes to site aesthetic and plugins.

There’s a chance that you won’t get ongoing updates- this particular disadvantage also stems from the fact that different developer’s can add themes to Themeforest marketplace some people may just sell a theme then leave. That said, this shouldn’t be an issue if you pick a solid template or if you purchase a theme from supportive and committed developer.

Pricing:

The most common question which people ask before choosing anything is How much does it cost and why only this. Is the payment secured? And here also the same question arises

What much do I have to pay on themeforest? Is the payment secured? Are there packages to buy on montly subscription or different cost for different designs? Let me answer all the questions and help you in making your decision.

The price at Themeforest range a gamut – you’ll find PSD templates for as low as $3, and there are premium (usually HTML 5) themes that cost over $1,000. These are extremes, though. The vast majority of the themes with a regular license range from $16 to $99. Extended license are much more expensive, and can cost several thousand dollars. And the payment method is secured and you need not worry about any online payment fraud.

Before buying: How to choose a Theme

After selecting the criteria you wish to use to narrow down the candidates, its time to investigate in more detail. In this section, I’ll discuss some of the specific things to look at when you’re considering a theme:

EXPLORE THE DEMO SITE

Every theme on Themeforest features a live preview-a helpful tool that allows you to see a theme in action on a preconfigured website, which should demonstrate its main features and functionalities. This is the best tool that you can use to make a right choice for your website. You can use the demo and imaging all the features that your actual website will look like. Themeforest makes it easy to make your website and you can change it using the code. One of themeforest is that it helps you is off page SEO. You can directly go down deep in the code and do the Off page SEO of your website. So just go through the website’s theme preview option and get the best theme for your website which is responsive, attractive and simple.

The live preview will also give you the opportunity to test some of the theme’s customization settings, such as changing the color scheme or trying different layouts and backgrounds. It’s worth testing these customization extensively, as they will give you a better idea of how a theme will look when it’s kitted out with your branding.

CONSIDER NITTY GITTY DETAILS IN THE SIDEBAR

The sidebar of each themes individual listing page provides some very valuable information to help you to make your decision:

*Number of sales         * Buyer rating

* Last Updated              * comments

This will help you analyze the sales of the theme you are about to select nd you can read the comment and confirm that your decision is right or wrong. Prefer taking themes which are rated high and don’t forget to review the themes when you use them.

Conclusions

Finally any business has its pros and cons, especially the big ones that involve so many people. Besides the cons mentioned above, most of Envato vendors are happy to be a part of its community and build their business around i. If you are hesitating whether to try your luck with Envato or not, we can say only one thing. It’s better to take action and fail than stay idle. Maybe you are a future rising star of Themeforest. We wish you the best of luck!