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Ink Test: "New" Uniform
#helluva boss#striker#inking#zebra disposable brush pen - extra fine#Very sensitive ink pen and you have to take it for account#You can get thin-thin lines to a medium thick#So this pen requires some more practice and controlling the pressure to get the right line#The size would work well for comics and smaller works since you can get those finer details#Not my favorite from the set but I like it well enough#IMP AU#Legit just took off his coat and hat and there you go#When designing for comics (and especially animation) remember: you're going to be drawing said character A LOT.#So aim to simplify the design#Especially dangling bits#Striker already screams *cowboy* with his boots#bandana#accent#attitude#and (if needed) his hat and horse#Does he occasionally wear his hat on missions? If it's daylight sure#at night he'll leave it at the office till he gets back#rambling in the tags
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Manuscripts in Star Wars (And Star Wars Fan Fiction)
This is the text of a talk originally presented at the conference Fan Cultures and the Premodern World at Oxford University in July, 2019, organized by Dr. Juliana Dresvina of the Oxford History Faculty. This presentation represents a collaboration between myself and Dr Brandon Hawke of Rhode Island College, and is essentially a summation of our video project Sacred Texts: Codices Far, Far Away, (Introduction to the series at that link) and examples below will include links to brief conversations where Brandon and I talk about the examples in a bit more detail. This has also been posted on my academic blog but I’m cross-posting here to reach a different audience.
Hi, My name is Dot Porter, and I want to start by thanking Juliana for the wonderful organization of this conference, and also for including me in the program. This is very different from the kind of conference I normally present at – in my day job I’m a special collections curator at the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in medieval manuscripts, their digitization, and their post-digital lives. Basically I get paid to digitize medieval manuscripts and then play with them. (I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the Bibliotheca Philadelphiensis project, funded by the Council on Library and Information Resources, which is just finished, and through which we digitized and made available for reuse more than 465 codices from institutions in Philadelphia)
Aside from my family there are two things in life I adore: medieval manuscripts, and Star Wars. I must admit that while I am a scholar of manuscripts, of a sort, I am also a fan. I love manuscripts – the way they look, feel, smell; I love to hold a manuscript and think about all the other people who have touched it, and consider the signs of use that imply their long histories. This interest has led to current work on conceiving of medieval manuscripts as transformative works themselves, first presented at Leeds 2018 and work I’m continuing looking specifically as Books of Hours. (My original draft of this presentation featured some of this work, but it threatened to take over, so I axed it all; a blog post of my Leeds paper is on my blog, if you’re curious).
While I am arguably a manuscript scholar, I am most definitely not a scholar of fandom studies – you will, I’m sure, find my theory wanting – nor am I a scholar of Star Wars, but I am a fan. I do the things that fans do. I’m on Tumblr, although that platform is pretty dead now, and I have a fandom Twitter account, which is much more active. I write and consume fan fiction, and I regularly commission artwork to illustrate my stories and stories I would like to write. I have written exactly one notable meta, which was even picked up by the AV Club – they actually cited me, unlike many of the other websites, which only cited the person who stole my work and posted it on Reddit!
In Star Wars: The Last Jedi, released in December 2017, we were introduced, for the first time, to manuscripts in the Star Wars universe. I had avoided trailers and spoilers, so the first time I saw this was in the theater, and I was, as the kids say, shooketh. Not only one manuscript, but a whole shelf-full of them! And they’re important. Rey, our heroine, has been sent to the island of Ahch-to to bring Luke Skywalker back to help the Resistance, led by Luke’s sister General Leia Organa, defeat the First Order. Rey has been there for a day or so, following Luke around, making no headway, when she is called to the Uneti tree, a large, hollow, Force-sensitive tree that houses these manuscripts. It’s in the company of these books that Rey and Luke finally communicate with each other, when Rey admits that she has only recently come to the Force and that she needs Luke to train her to be a Jedi, and when Luke grudgingly agrees to give her some lessons, but also tells her that the Jedi must die. Exciting stuff, and the books are there to hear it.
According to Star Wars The Last Jedi: The Visual Dictionary, Luke Skywalker scoured the galaxy for these texts and collected them himself, storing them in the tree that we see in the film. So these texts weren’t originally all in one collection, they are from many different planets, potentially written in ten different places, ten different times, ten different languages and alphabets, although there’s only one we ever see in the film. The starwars.com blog post “Inside the Lucasfilm Archives: The Jedi Texts” gives us an up-close look at the prop book that was shown in the film; as you can see it’s a real book, written and bound, and even damaged. There are manuscripts in our collection at Penn that look not very unlike this book. It is a real manuscript.
This is one manuscript in the universe. What else do we know about manuscripts in star wars in general? To be honest: not much. But we do know that it is rare to write by hand (as opposed to writing with digital technology like data pads). In Claudia Gray’s novel Bloodlines, which takes place six years before The Last Jedi, Leia Organa is preparing for a fancy party when she finds a handwritten note at her seat, and she’s shocked: “Virtually nobody wrote any longer; it had been years since Leia had seen actual words handwritten in ink on anything but historical documents.” So it appears that, by the time the current films take place, there are no longer manuscripts being actively written in the galaxy, or at least it’s very rare.
Interestingly there is one character in the Sequel Trilogy who it is suggested knows how to write by hand: Kylo Ren, formerly Ben Solo. There is a scene – the same scene is actually shown three times, from three different points of view – where a young padawan Ben is sleeping and his Uncle, Luke Skywalker, comes to him and looks into his head, sensing great darkness in his dreams. Ben calls his lightsaber to either attack his uncle or defend himself against him, depending on the version of the scene, and in one of these shots we can see that he has a calligraphy set in his bedroom. We can see the set here, in a screenshot of his desk just before he calls his lightsaber over – which knocks over the pen and inkwell and jar of parchment scrolls in the process – and in The Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
What else do we know about these specific books? There is concept art in The Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi; including six internal pages and six shots of the bindings.
I remember looking at the concept art and thinking how alike and different they were from the manuscripts I’ve had the pleasure of working with at Penn, and I discovered that my Twitter mutual Brandon Hawke, an Assistant Professor of English at Rhode Island College, was having many of the same thoughts that I was. So in October of 2018, Brandon came down to Penn and we sat for hours in front of a green screen and talked about manuscripts and Star Wars, comparing books in the Penn collections to what we see of the manuscripts in the concept art. We’ve been posting snippets of our discussions on the Schoenberg Institute YouTube channel, and there’s a link at the top there if you want to check them out. So for most of the rest of this paper I’ll be walking through some of the possible comparisons between real manuscripts and the Star Wars manuscripts. I want to stress that we did this for fun, and not for science, and that we’re limited by the collections at Penn and by our own knowledge.
Consider yourself warned: The remainder of this presentation is essentially an educated fan, raving.
As far as Brandon and I have been able to determine, this is a previously unknown script in the Star Wars universe. When I saw it my mind immediately went to Ge’ez, shown here in an early 20th century book of Hymns from Ethiopia. There’s something about the blockiness that is just slightly curved, and a few of the letter forms are slightly similar although I don’t think that’s necessarily meaningful. (video)
We also made a comparison with Coptic, which is thinner, more curved, and perhaps a closer match. (video)
For the third example we looked not at the text, but at its layout on the page. We found a similarity with this 16th century collection of Persian poetry, both its illuminated header (similar in aspect to the illuminated blue line of text in the center of the ancient Jedi text) and the framing of the text. (video)
Aside from text, it is clear that the concept art of pages supplied to us here represent astronomical texts. This is really not surprising, considering that in the Star Wars universe we have a galaxy that seems to have been very closely connected, between planets and cultures, for a very long time, and so it makes sense that even the most ancient texts would be concerned with objects in the system – stars and planets and moons – and how they related to and interact with one another. And this is a major concern in medieval astronomical texts, too: these texts illustrate people trying to make sense of the system they live in, in the best way they know.
One of the pages in the jedi texts is the symbol of the Galactic Republic, but placed on some kind of chart, with characters dispersed through the chart and text – perhaps labels – along the outside. We found a similarity with this chart in LJS 57, a 14th century astronomical anthology from Spain. I don’t know exactly what this chart represents but I can tell you that astronomical texts are full of similar charts; it was one of the ways that medieval people made sense of the data they had available to them. (video)
Something similar is happening here, in LJS 449, a 15th century German medical and astronomical miscellany. These charts are perhaps a bit simpler than the Spanish chart, but they have that attractive blue coloring. Both the coloring and the arrangement of data around the circle reminded Brandon and me of the diagrams on this page of the Jedi texts. (video)
The next three slides show diagrams from LJS 26, a mid-13th century copy of Johannes de Sacro Bosco’s, Algorismus and Tractatum de sphaera, an immensely popular text that was copied and translated and commented upon from the time it was written in the early 13th century (it is possible that our copy was written during Sacrobosco’s lifetime) through the 16th century. It is full of diagrams illustrating the movement of the planets, and the sun, and the moon in relation to the earth. I personally find these diagrams most reminiscent of the two pages on the bottom left, although I feel like their organization suggests a sense of scale that is lacking in the medieval diagrams. (video)
Medieval astronomers only had to think about the earth, and the moon, and the sun, and a few other planets. On the other hand, the Star Wars universe operates on a whole other level – a galaxy with countless star systems and planets that aren’t even charted. When I look at these diagrams I see a clever attempt to illustrate scale using the relatively primitive technology of ink and paper in place of the star charts and 3D maps that we see in the films.
On the other hand, there are some really simple 1:1 comparisons to be made, such as this diagram, which pretty clearly illustrates the phases of a moon. (video)
I want to take a quick look at the bindings of these manuscripts, particularly this piece of concept art, which is quite similar to the prop that we see in the film.
This has a fairly standard binding structure, quite similar to LJS 102, the Ethiopic manuscript we looked at earlier, except for the front cover, which is built of three separate pieces that are obviously connected together. In western bindings, if a wooden cover were a composite of multiple pieces, we would expect that to be obscured, as in this late 13th century Catalonian manuscripts (It’s hard to tell, which is the point, but this cover is made of three pieces of wood).
The only example of a cover like this I’ve seen is from the Walters Art Museum, this 14th century Ethiopian Gospel book. The cover was broken and then sewn back together, but this was the result of an accident, not done on purpose.
My colleague Alberto Campagnolo also suggested that it is similar to the Chinese practice of writing on bamboo strips and binding them together, as in this 18th century example.
This is one instance where the artists who created these concepts have done an excellent job with suggesting a manuscript culture – in fact, several manuscript cultures, cultures that use what is available to them. There are two manuscripts here that appear to be bound in decorated tusks, one that has what appear to be shells embedded in a leather binding, and another that might be bound in hairy skin or – I like to think – had the binding grown on it underground. In any case these all suggest books written in different places, perhaps at different times, and as a manuscript scholar I find that fascinating.
Following up on this I wanted to see how the concept of the manuscripts was received by writers of fan fiction. As a fan author myself I have written a few stories featuring the ancient Jedi texts, but given my interests that made sense; I was curious to see what other authors have done with them. I think there’s more extensive work to be done here, but in reading through the 40 or so stories I was able to find (by searching AO3 for ancient jedi texts, and the “jedi text” tag) I discovered not surprisingly that the stories focused on the text of the books, not on their physical appearance (which is at least partially due to fan fiction being a written medium, vs. film being a visual medium) and that there are three main themes that can appear by themselves or be combined:
Rey can read the texts on her own, or she needs help (Kylo Ren, C3PO, Obi Wan Kenobi’s force ghost)
The translation is used to further the story (whether or not it happens)
The texts do something (e.g., magic spells)
What will happen next? Will there be manuscripts in the Rise of Skywalker, the final film in this last trilogy? Of course I hope so, and it seems likely. The Uneti tree was struck by lightning and burned, but Rey took the manuscripts with her (here is a screenshot of a drawer in the Millennium Falcon, at the very end of the film, showing the books clearly safe and tucked away)
and in the Poe Dameron comic #27 we learn that Rey has been working with C3PO to translate the texts.
And there’s also the spectre of Kylo Ren with a calligraphy set; if he had access to these manuscripts when he was studying with Luke Skywalker, it’s possible that he has read and perhaps even annotated some of the books. Only time will tell, and I for one can’t wait for December.
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September Decision
A staff member leads you down KT’s winding hallways to Katie Lee’s office, then opens the door and leads you inside, where the CEO awaits, sitting at her desk. She observes you as you’re instructed by the staff member to take a seat. Next to your chair, is a company lawyer whom you recognize from before; he’d been present when you signed your initial company contract. The staff member then leaves the room. You hear the door close and the latch click back into place just as your CEO finally decides to speak up.
“I’m very glad you are here today because it means you have finally achieved our goal, haven’t you? Trainees come here and sign away their two-year contracts with hope of one day making to where you are right now, but not everybody makes it.” She says it all with a serene smile. “Your years of training are what got you here.”
“You stood out from the others, even if you also had your ups and downs. What’s important is that you managed to get yourself back on your in feet and kept on improving.” She pauses, and diverts her attention to her desk, where she shuffles paperwork until she sets one singular sheet of paper in front of her. “I’ve been proud of your growth here, and I trust you to do your best to continue to improve, even after debut. This, here,” she says, motioning towards the document, “is a contract exclusive to NSG and will tie you to this group, and to KT Entertainment, for the next six years.”
There is no sign of regret on her features as she slides the contract toward you and hands you a pen. “If we share the same vision of making NSG the next boy group of the world, and you wish to be a part of this journey, you know what to do.”
Maybe it ought to concern Hyunjin, that he had signed himself over so easily as a trainee and that he was so willing to do it all over again. Of course, he had put thought into the decision, had internally expressed his doubts along the way. But in the end, it wouldn’t have mattered if he had spent an extra year trying to decide whether to sign the contract, or had simply walked in and been handed a pen. The decision was almost inevitable: Hyunjin would sign.
However precarious his place on stage may be (as this industry was far from the stability he had always strove to reach), it was still a place that he wanted. A place that a younger version of himself had kept hidden away, placed on a pedestal of hopes and dreams he secretly worried he would never truly reach with every passing day. Even as he pens his name in ink, there’s still the possibility that he won’t reach that dream.
Nothing guarantees success in this industry. Big companies such as KT give you a leg up, but even still tens or even hundreds of people just like him come and go from the stage every year. There is no true guarantee. But maybe it’s that bit of risk that secretly excites him.
Certainly, the risk scares Hyunjin right down to his bones. Leaves his fingers fidgeting and his senses far too sensitive to the stimulating environment around him as anxiety presses in close. Yet at the same time, risk is new for Hyunjin. Stepping down this new path, forging one that isn’t planned and planted with subtle misery until the day he passes away, is so freeing.
So the decision to sign the contract was hardly a decision at all. It was his first step fully down a new path that included his own happiness for once. Hyunjin was done making choices that put his happiness second, and this was just the beginning.
mun note: sorry I completely lost track of time and didn’t even notice the deadline was coming up (and passed)! if he’s still allowed to accept even though it’s late, thank you for allowing the late submission (´;ω;`). but if not I understand since there was a specified deadline there!
OOC NOTE: First of all, congratulations on arriving at the final step before debut! I know it’s been a long and crazy journey, and I’m so glad you’ve stuck through it. When you are ready, feel free to post this prompt with Hyunjin’s response to it.
Should Hyunjin choose to SIGN the NSG contract, he will be employed by KT Entertainment without a need to renew a contract until the duration of this one has concluded. As a reward for making it this far, he will receive THREE WEEKENDS unpaid vacation time to use any time between now and the end of December, so long as it doesn’t clash with any special debut activities (such as music show appearances, meaning he can’t actually use her vacation time until after her music show performances have finished.)
Should he choose to REJECT this contract with KT and NSG, he will leave the company, effective immediately upon rejection. He will be able to keep all of his debut points, but will not be able to take any trainee workshops or earn any more debut points/workshop points until he becomes a trainee again. He will not have any special advantage over newer characters when he auditions for other companies in the future, and should he become a trainee at a new company he will be considered a junior trainee all over again, even though he will still have his debut points and would be eligible for debut right away. He WILL have the right to audition for KT again, but the fact that he gave up a contract renewal, especially a debut one, WILL be taken into account in final casting decisions.
He will have up to one week to make his decision IC, meaning that if he does not make a decision by September 19th, he will automatically be cut from the company. Exceptions can be made for those on hiatus.
#[ haha;;; i forgot to respond to this;;;;;;;#if it's too late i understand !! but i'll write something for now ]#[ loudly sweats ]#submission
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study buddy, pt iii
series summary: after crushing on you since freshman orientation, Natasha finally gets the guts to ask you help you pass her postmodern lit midterm, to which you agree.
chapter summary: after an eventful night, there are things you have to accomplish at the library...alone.
pairing: natasha romanoff x reader
words: 4,365
trigger warnings: explicit talk of sex work, heavy sexting, smut (incl. fingering, oral sex (F receiving), strap ons, mdlg, humiliation), angst if you REALLY squint
ask box / masterlist / commission info / ko-fi
part one, part two
You and Natasha stayed like that, her entire body wrapped tightly around you. After sleeping alone for basically the entirety of college, you enjoyed the closeness. It was hard to fall asleep, given how intimate you were to someone you’ve been fantasizing about for, you know, forever. Natasha fell asleep first, mouth pressed onto the back of your neck and hand laying across your waist. When her breath evened against your burning skin and you found the perfect angle to admire the posters on her wall, your own eyes droop closed (what can you say, being the little spoon makes you feel...safe. Also, you hadn’t had sex in a long time and you’re very tired of the mix of solitude and the post-orgasm haze).
When your weekend morning alarm went off, it took everything inside of you not to throw it against the far wall. You played softball for one season in eighth grade and still had pretty good aim, you could probably hit the very center of a beat-up dart board about four feet up from the round. Luckily, you were able to constrain yourself enough to just hit snooze a few times.
Natasha, annoyed by your overly-adorable alarm song (hey, Ed Sheeran is a great artist to wake up to! The guitar calms you as the reality of the crushing weight of your own self-expectations crashes upon you), pushed you to get out of bed. “C’mon, babe you definitely have something to do. And that’s like, one of his worst songs and I need it to stop.”
You shrugged. The Google calendar alert that flashed across your screen notifies that you did, indeed, have to get up and do something. You groaned at the thought of being productive, flopping back down while you told yourself that Zizek would want you to do stay in bed.
Isn’t the only way to defeat capitalism to become unproductive? You’re studying for the next quiz, you tell yourself, even as Natasha starts pushing at the bottom of your spine to get you off the mattress. You’re just experimenting with different ways of destroying the most invasive and deadly economic system. Wait...is capitalism just an economic system, or is it more of a way of life? Can capitalism merely be described as an organizational system and a way to categorize the exchange of goods and services for monetary compensation without influence from government(s)? And like, do humans control the market, or the does the market simply own us like little pawns or a bunch of dumb, yappy puppies? What even is the market? Is the market a finite thing or is it some indescribable, infinite theory? Is it, like the universe, becoming infinitely larger by the minute?
Finally, you sat up, discontented by your own incredibly existential train of thought. As you got up and stretched, you could feel your worn muscles aching and joints popping obscenely loudly. As you bent to crack your back, a dull but satisfying pain started to spread through your body. You couldn’t tell if it was Natasha’s sub-par bed frame or her extraordinary sex kills; either way, though, you’re going to need some painkillers before you leave.
Searching for clothes was...much harder than you anticipated. The pink cotton underwear and matching lace bralette you had pulled on in the middle of the night stood out against the grey cinder block walls, the smoke stains on the ceiling, the deep brown floors. Starkest of all, you were an anomaly amongst the piles and piles of dark clothes. Like a sunflower that’s sunken down to the bottom of the ocean, a ray of sunshine deep within a cave, a small baby animal stuck in a concrete cage.
Still - for whatever reason - you couldn’t find your clothes from the day previous. You would’ve screamed if it wouldn’t further disturb the half-asleep Nat. Why didn’t you just bring clothes with you, you knew were going to be staying over! You even thought far ahead enough to wear a matching underwear set. But no! No, of course you couldn’t just pack an extra skirt and tank or top or something else in your bag. Or even just a toothbrush, or floss, or some fucking gum, because of course you were out of gum. Of course, you were.
Good job, scholar.
After ten minutes of desperate, fruitless searching, you finally accepted your fate of wearing Natasha’s clothes for the day. Sighing, you grabbed a pair of (hopefully) clean workout shorts and a worn hoodie from a band you’ve never heard of and take them into the bathroom to shower.
It was stereotypical, something out of a scene in a shitty romance movie: You wear her clothes as a sign you’re really in love or something, and then she sees how hot you look in clothes you’d normally never be caught dead in, then she fucks you nice and slow with one of those cute white strap ons while she moans into your ear everything she wants to do to you.
Maybe she won’t be fucking you, maybe you’ll ride her dick, or thigh, or her fingers so she can maintain a good look at your in her soft sweatshirt, or maybe-
Fuck, the short and hot shower needed to turn into a long and cold one real quick. A long one. A very, very long one. That also needs to be cold. Did you mention that it needed to be long? And freezing?
When you trekked into the kitchen, you found the cupboards mostly empty. You were able to track down some bread to make toast and discover an egg in the back of the fridge, so you shouldn’t have been be excruciatingly hungry until you could get back to your food-filled apartment. You could pick up a snack on the way to the library if you get hungrier, anyway. Everything should be fine. It’s fine! Everything is fine. You even found some pepper and rosemary, that had to be a good sign.
About halfway through your tiny (and minimally satisfying) meal, Natasha emerges from the bathroom (that’s weird, considering you never noticed her come out of the bedroom). Her sides were fixed, and she had makeup on. Nice makeup on. The soft orange eyeshadow, white eyeliner, blush, bright highlighter, and pink lipstick made her look...sweet, kind, approachable. Her usual outfit had been replaced with black dress pants, black heels, a black dress shirt, and a burnt orange cardigan. You’d guess she’d be dressing for work, or an internship. You watch her closely as she moved behind you and wraps her arms around your waist. Natasha rested her chin on your elbow and pouts, silently asking for a bite of your breakfast like a pitiful dog. .
Reluctantly, you broke off a piece and fed it to her. She grinned as she chews, then kissed your fingertips as she swallowed. “That’s good,” she mumbled.
“Th-thanks,” you managed to get out, still inert at the feeling of her lips on such sensitive skin. In that moment parts of that night flashed in front of your eyes, including when she shoved four fingers into your mouth and told you to prep them for when they’d be inside you. You stuff the last of the bread and egg into your mouth to stop yourself from saying something stupid, sexual, or both. Also, from moaning. But mostly from talking and embarrassing yourself.
Sweet Jesus, you needed to get out of there.
Natasha still hadn’t moved from behind you and pressed her crotch into your bruised ass as she speaks. “You look amazing in my clothes,” she whispered in your ear, nibbling at your earlobes. It was hard to moan and chew at the same time, but she still got the picture as you choked on your half-chewed breakfast. Natasha giggled, a stark contrast to the heat behind her voice. “Look almost as pretty as you did last night,” it sent shivers down your spine. “All spread out and begging for me to touch you.”
You swallowed and whimpered, reminded of the night you two spent together. More memories flooded your brain all at once:
Her standing over you as you babbled for her to “take it, take it Natasha it’s yours it’s all yours please take it.” Her barely touching you with a vibrator while she mumbles how cute you look when you’re a struggling, desperate mess. Her complimenting your high-pitched whines when you’re begging for her to fuck you again, and again, and again and...
“Natasha, please,” you pleaded. You didn’t want to pull away, too entranced with the thought of more time along with Natasha. Still, if you had a sliver of a chance of getting done what needed to be done that day, Natasha would’ve had to let you go first. “I need to go study at the library.”
Natasha stopped peppering kisses on your neck and shoulder to smirk. “Oh, please. You have a whole day off, and I don’t have to leave for work for another hour. We can afford to spend a little more together.”
You sighed as you scrunched your eyes shut and bite your bottom lip. You wanted that so much, so fucking much, but that study session wasn’t a regular one that you can just blow off. You couldn’t just push this work aside and make up the time missed the next day.
That day was that time where you look at all the commissions people have applied for and pick the ones you want to do. You normally only did it once a month, but your rent was almost due, along with student loans and some repairs required around your apartment and you were anticipating your mother’s birthday gift costing a lot (on account of your guilt) and you were hoping to buy some new sticky notes and your favorite pens were almost out of ink and-
In short, you needed money and you needed it now.
That was usually a thing you make into a little time with just yourself; you made some sort of day of it. You’d go to the library, pick one of those secluded rooms where no one can bug you for a few hours, put on the large headphones you only use for when you get super intense in your studying, and listen to your favorite music. You’d track everything in gorgeous marble-patterned notebook you use especially for planning commissions, with some inspiration quote in golden lettering along the front. In it, you’d track stuff props needed, when you’d do the commissions, how much money you’d charge, if there was anything that money needed to go to, if you have to spend anything to buy something specific, and so on.
It was like the calm before the storm of which is taking lots of lots of nude photos and videos of yourself.
All of this means you had to put your foot down and turn down whatever Natasha wanted so you could leave. “Nat, seriously. I’ll be back by,” you checked the clock on your phone. Fuck, it was already nine fifteen. You wanted to be out of here ten minutes ago. “What time does your shift end?”
She shrugged, a little taken aback. “I dunno, like one or two this afternoon. Two fifteen at the latest.”
“I’ll be back before two, I promise.”
Natasha looked you up and down, eyebrows furrowed with concern. She’d never seen you like this in the short time she’d known you. She could feel you were tense, incredibly tense. Sensing something was off, she dropped it and backed off. “O-okay. I’ll see you then.”
You smiled, grateful for her not pressing you on why you seem so pressed. At some point, you’d need to explain to her what you were doing, what you did for a living - especially if this relationship was going where you thought (hoped) it is. But not right then. You’d know when the right time is, and that wasn’t in Natasha’s kitchen with your heart racing. Maybe once you figured out her stance on sex work. But how could you weave that into a conversation?
Hey babe, before we start officially dating, I just wanted to ask you about SESTA/FOSTA, the decriminalization of sex work, and material autonomy? What’s your stance on camming as sex work?
Maybe you could relate this back to what you were supposed to be teaching her, sneak it into a mini-lesson or something like that. Butler’s talked about sex work, so have a bunch of other people. Maybe those people were queer theorists or media studies scholars, but they were still people talking about sex work in a context at least loosely related to post-modernism! Just because those people wrote obscure papers or dissertations from small college in the middle of nowhere didn’t mean their opinions on sex work didn’t matter! But those papers were all probably about prostitution, or escorting, or the phrase “sex work.” None of them about camming or selling private Snapchats and nudes or being commissioned for special videos (which included anything from getting yourself off with a hairbrush or eating cheeseburgers until you throw up). None of them exactly matched up to what you needed to know, making your inquiry that much more complicated.
Still, you could almost imagine the short-answer questions now:
What would [insert author here] say about “modern” sex work verses “old school” sex work? What does newer forms of sex work say about the way capitalism forces us to adapt the ways in which we are productive? What has changed in sex work since its origin? What hasn’t? Why do some disagree with postmodernists stance that the dollar is the most powerful force in the world, whether dissenters believe that racism, sex, or gendered violence is more powerful? How does the frequent use of “porn” as a metaphor show how postmodernists view porn and the way we relate to it? Should porn ever be used as a metaphor? If no, what should take its place?
Grabbing your backpack and phone on the way out the door, you started on the twenty-minute walk to the library. The commute was mostly barren of people, leaving you to the thoughts whirring around your brain.
By the time you’d tripped five (5) times, you’re cursing yourself for nothing taking the bus. Why would you ever need so much time to think? It’s just thinking!
Process might be a better word, though. That girl back there fucked you so good you’d never be able to sleep with anyone else again without measuring them against the night before. You’d never be able to get yourself off without seeing her when your eyelids flutter closed from pleasure. That type of experience just doesn’t happen without changing a woman. Worse, you’d gotten this little baby ache in your sternum and shakiness in your hands that always happened when you had a crush. Why couldn’t you ever see pretty girls without reconsidering your entire life story?
As you kicked a rock over a tree stump, you tried to remember that she seemed into you too. This wasn’t like in tenth grade when you were drooling over that super popular senior girl and it turned out she just wanted to use you for an AP Calc project. This wasn’t some unrequited love story. So why are you so fucking nervous?
Oh. Right. Your profession (or, “profession” as some people have called it in poorly-worded anonymous messages on Tumblr or with fake emails).
Once you stepped inside the library, you found your favorite spot (close to the vending machines and bathrooms) and started working. Once the door had been locked and the headphones were on, you opened your laptop. Slowly, as your email loaded, you saw a notification of a text from Natasha.
You looked behind you on instinct, even though you were completely alone. When all your eyes saw was a wall covered in poorly-applicated beige paint, you sighed and clicked on the little grey box.
As the text loaded, all you could see is that there’s an attachment, and it caused your heart rate to increase dramatically. It felt like a forever later when you finally opened your scrunched eyes, and another trillion years until the photo loaded.
It was a picture of her holding the pink panties you forgot to grab (in your defense, the shorts you snatched from her bedroom floor had built in underwear) back at Natasha’s apartment with the caption “Looks like you forgot something...you gonna come back and get it?”
God, you hadn’t even opened a single commission email, which is the only thing you had intended on doing that day. You should answer at least a few before you text her back…
But a hot girl was flirting with you! Money and paying your rent be damned, you needed to focus on getting laid again.
You hold your breath as your typed, as if filling your lungs would cause your fingers to lose the ability to type.
I don’t know.
You bit your lip as you texted her again.
Why don’t you keep them as a trophy?
You opened one email while you wait for her reply. It was about scat. You specifically said that you don’t do that. Deleted. Immediately after you got a reply from Natasha.
Don’t be naughty with me or I’ll gag you with them.
Before you could reply you get another text.
Or is that what you want?
Um, yes. It was what you wanted. It’s all you wanted. You mean, it’s one of many things you wanted. But you did want it. Since you weren’t physically with Natasha, it’s easy to make your replies a little bolder.
If I did want it, would you give it to me?
You quickly opened another email. This one was easy, just some really artful nudes with your stretch marks on display. Maybe some cool-colored mood lighting. You replied with the normal stuff (the payment, when you’ll have them done, etc). Once that email was sent, you saw another text.
I can give you anything you want, princess
That made you shiver, your hands shaking and breath hitching as you reply.
Anything?
You didn’t have time to open another email before you saw Natasha’s next texts.
Anything at all, Princess
You just gotta tell me what you want.
You felt like God is speaking to you directly. Surely this woman was Heaven sent, given to you by the Holy Father as a gift for all your hard work over the years, or something.
But how am I supposed to talk if I’m gagged?
With that sent, received, and read, you closed the chat before Natasha could reply. If you just opened five more emails, then you could answer. That’s good, right? That’s a good way to keep yourself focused. Four answered emails, two replies from customers, and one blocked user later, you found it in yourself to open the texts from Natasha again.
Oh, really? Is that what you want?
Not gonna answer me?
Looks like you’re actually studying
what a good girl you are
Bad news:
I have nothing to do without you here bc I finished everything early
so I guess I’ll text you what I want
A sharp inhale of breath pierced the stale air, scaring you. Oh wait, you realized. That was you.
Want so much from you. Wanna sit on your face, I bet you’re the champ of eating pussy, aren’t you? So pretty and eager to please. I’d love to see you blow a strap on. Had a girl do that once a while ago, it’s the hottest thing I’ve ever seen. She wasn’t nearly as pretty as you, though. Bet you’d look a billion times better with spit dripping down your face while I shove my cock down your throat. Maybe tie your hands behind your back with those panties you left me. You look so cute tied up.
You nearly choked on the water you started chugging in an empty effort to make yourself calm down. Oh fuck.
That’s when you saw another message from her.
I know you’re reading these, little one. Don’t run from Mommy.
You sucked in a breath, unable to respond. It took forever for you to craft your text, in the meantime you tried to switch back to your inbox to see if there was anything you could do to ground yourself.
No such luck, though.
Tell me more, Mommy. Please.
Natasha happily obliged.
You know what my absolute biggest fantasy is? Me and some other top just domming the hell out of you. Passing you around, leaving bruises all of your pretty little body. You’d be so cute, just mewling and whining under us. Maybe we’d both fuck you at the same time, stretching your pretty little holes to the max.
This woman was about to be the death of you.
I’d love that, Mommy
After you saw that message had been sent, you started to pack up your stuff. You texted her you were about to start your walk home, but before you could stash your phone in your backpack you saw another text.
Don’t worry baby. Mommy’s got you. I’m right outside.
And when you stepped out the front doors, she was. You blushed when you saw her, clamoring into the front seat with your knees nervously knocking themselves together. You were about to stutter out a “thank you” before she lunged forward to kiss you deeply. It was hard, aggressive, dominating. As she pulled away, she bit your bottom lip before she turned back to the wheel. “You’ve been bad, baby. So bad.”
You didn’t speak as she sped away, making your way back to her apartment in record time. Each stop light, her fingers seemed to worm their way up your thighs and tease at the hem of your shorts; each time the light went back to green, and she pulled away, you’d whimper as loudly and lewdly as possible. In all honesty, you were hoping to get her attention. Whether or not it would end how you wanted it to be questionable, but it was worth a shot. You would try anything at that point, to be close to her. To feel the softness of her cardigan, to unbutton her shirt, to unzip her pants.
When you made it her front door, you could barely make it inside before Natasha had you pressed against a wall. She slipped your backpack onto the slightly-warped hard wood carefully, not wanting your laptop to break.
You gasped as she ripped the shorts from your body. “Oh, God, Nat- “
She placed her left pointer finger over your lips as two fingers from her right slid into your dripping center. “Sh, baby girl, call me Mommy,” she whispered before she dropped to her knees.
Natasha didn’t start with any niceties, no prepping, rather she immediately began sucking on your clit and curling the now-three fingers inside of you. You wanted to scream, wanted to cry, wanted to do something, but the combination of shock and the proximity to the front door made your mouth silent as you shook violently. You’d stuffed the sleeve in Natasha’s hoodie as you shrieked from your almost-too-quick orgasms, the fabric muffled your hearty screams as Natasha continued to fuck her fingers into you.
“N- Mommy, mommy please stop,” you begged. “Please stop I can’t, Mommy I can’t take it!”
Nat just laughed, never slowing down. “C’mon, princess. If you come one more time like this for me, I’ll stop. Okay, baby girl? Just one more…”
You’d had both hands covering your face now, your cheeks hotter than the face of the sun as your whole body convulsed. For a moment the feeling you had to piss cuts through the fog that had flooded your meninges, and then you felt a wash of pleasure wave through you that made you collapse against the wall.
“Hey, baby girl,” you heard Natasha coo in a metaphysical plane not your own. “Hey, princess it’s okay, I’ve got you.”
It took a few moments for you to come back, for your vision to stabilize. When you were finally able to see the woman in front of you, the first thing you noticed was her cheeks and lips and chin and nose glistening wet. While you looked confused, a shit-eating grin broke out on Natasha’s face.
“Was that your first time squirting?” She asked, her voice just above a whisper and full of excitement.
You nodded. “Y-yeah.”
Her grin only got bigger as she picked you up and brought you into her bedroom, sheets just as messy as when you had left them that morning. The uneven fabric was uncomfortable as she dropped you onto them, but then was no time to complain. No, you were smart enough to know as Nat held up a toy in each hand that you were not in a position to grumble about the sex-dirty sheets or protest to being thrown or grumble that this woman seduced you into coming home from the library early that day.
“Which toy you want, sweetheart?”
They were both silicone cocks, the one in her right hand a glittery pink while the toy in her left a matte black. The pink one was sleek and long, but the black one was truly the one that caught your attention. It was girthy, veiny. Your pussy already ached looking at it, and you squeezed your thighs together for relief as you imagined Natasha fucking it in and out of you at a pace that would leave you bruised and breathless.
Natasha noticed this right away. “Aw, is my little princess feeling greedy today?” She crawled on top of you after pulling on the strap and securing the toy in place. “You sure you want this one baby girl? You sure you want me to fuck you with something so big…could your tiny little cunt even take it?”
All you could do was whimper.
“Good girl,” she purred. “This is gonna look so cute covered in your cum.”
#natasha romanoff x reader#natasha romanoff lemons#black widow x reader#lukis writes stuff#study buddy
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Microsoft Office 2019 for Mac 16.23 VL [Multilingual]
Office 2019 for Mac is designed from scratch to take advantage of the latest features of Mac, including Retina display support full – screen view and even bounce displacement.
It is the perfect combination of Office that you know and you trust, and the Mac you love. Microsoft Office 2019 is the latest iteration of the industry-standard office suit.
Microsoft Office 2019 includes the latest versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Exchange, SharePoint and Skype for Business, each of which is an essential tool in the computerised office workplace of today.
It also boasts a range of enhanced IT options that are designed to make life easier for newcomers to the field. Make no mistake: this is a versatile set of tools and no office should be without it.
What is Office 2019?
Microsoft Office 2019 is a standalone, local (not cloud-based, like Office 365) version of the Microsoft Office software suite. It is a “perpetual” release, which is just a fancy way of saying you buy the software once and own it forever, rather than having to pay an annual subscription fee to access it.
That said, you only get a license to use it on a single PC, whereas a subscription to Office 365 lets you use it on a PC, a tablet, and a smartphone.
This new release updates and replaces the 2016 versions of Word, Excel, etc. and includes many of the new features that have been rolled out to Office 365 users over the past three years. We’ll get to those in a bit.
When is Office 2019 available, and how much will it cost?
Office 2019 is on sale now, but only for commercial-level customers. Availability will be rolling out regular ol’ customers like you and me in the coming weeks. That also means we don’t yet know what the price point is for individual users, but Microsoft will likely have that info soon.
Expect to potentially pay a bit more than what you’d shell out for Office 2016 (currently $150 for the “Home and Student” version), as Microsoft already boosted the price of the commercial version ten percent to account for its “significant value added to the product over time.”
What are the system requirements for Office 2019?
Here’s a big change. On PCs, you’ll need Windows 10 for Office 2019; Microsoft will not support any versions of Windows 7 or 8. As always, Microsoft will make 32 and 64-bit versions of Office 2019 available.
Features
Add visual impact
Bring visual interest to your documents, worksheets, presentations, and messages by inserting Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) that have filters applied to them.
Insert 3D models to see all the angles
Easily insert a 3D model, and then rotate it through 360 degrees.
Inking is where it’s at
Convert ink to shapes, write out complex math problems, highlight text, and more. Use a finger or a pen. A mouse works too!
Precision selecting
Ever selected too many cells or the wrong ones? You can now deselect extraneous cells without having to start over.
Timeline filters
Want to take a look your PivotTable data across years, quarters, months or even days? Easily filter a PivotTable with a timeline filter by sliding the date range.
Add motion with Morph
Make smooth animations, transitions, and object movements across your slides with Morph.
Add pizzazz with icons
Increase the visual impact of your presentations by illustrating your slides with our library of 500 icons.
Add punch with live action video
Add an online video to your slide and watch it without leaving PowerPoint.
Swipe right or swipe left? You decide!
Set the swipe left and swipe right gestures to the actions you use most. Choose from Delete, Archive, Mark as Read, Flag, or None.
Timeliness across time zones
Traveling across time zones? Create an event with different start and end time zones, and Outlook will take care of the conversion. No mental math required!
One-click fixes for accessibility issues
The Accessibility Checker is better than ever with updated support for international standards and handy recommendations to make your documents more accessible.
Learning Tools improve readability
Give your eyes a rest. Adjust text spacing, column width, and page color. Or listen as Word reads your document aloud, highlighting text as it’s read.
Microsoft Office 2019 Products
Word
Create and share professional-looking documents with state-of-the-art editing, reviewing, and sharing tools.
The new Design tab provides quick access to features, and Smart Lookup shows relevant contextual information from the web directly inside Word.
Excel
Analyze and visualize your data in new and intuitive ways with a fresh user interface plus your favorite keyboard shortcuts.
Leverage features like Analysis Toolpak, Slicers, and Formula Builder to save time, so you can focus on insights.
PowerPoint
Create, collaborate, and effectively present your ideas with new slide transitions and an improved Animations task pane. Threaded comments alongside your slides help you incorporate feedback into your presentations.
And Presenter View displays the current slide, next slide, speaker notes, and a timer on your Mac, while projecting only the presentation to your audience on the big screen.
OneNote
It’s your very own digital notebook, so you can keep notes, ideas, web pages, photos, even audio and video all in one place.
Whether you’re at home, in the office, or on the move, you can take it all with you wherever you go while sharing and collaborating with others. It’s great for school assignments, work projects, travel plans, party planning, and more.
Outlook
Like Word, Outlook is also getting a new focus mode, called the “Focused Inbox,” to help streamline workflow and email drafting. Users can now use “@” commands for tagging people in emails, and contact cards have been overhauled.
Also, PC users will now have travel and delivery cards, while Mac users get new email templates; a Send Later function for scheduling delivery times; and read receipts. Both platforms also get Office 365 Group integration.
PowerPoint
The changes for PowerPoint are all about enhanced media and visual element support in presentations.
The notable additions here are support for 3D model display/manipulation and SVG files on slides; new morph transitions; the ability to export your presentation in 4K UHD video format, and you can now write by hand and move elements with your pencil while editing.
Better pencil support and other tweaks
In addition to these program-specific updates, there are also changes that apply to all Office 2019 software.
The most important of these is Microsoft’s beefed-up support for digital pencils, like expanded “roaming pencil case” support, which lets users write by hand and move parts of documents with their pencil, as well as new support for pressure sensitivity and tilt recognition.
Office 2019 also comes with some behind-the-scenes changes such as monthly security updates and a reduction to network bandwidth use.
Will Office 2019 replace Office 365?
No. In a post announcing the software release, Microsoft makes sure to point out that Office 2019 is a standalone package of its software geared primarily towards private users and businesses who do not have the necessary internet access required to use the cloud-based Office 365.
Because of this, many of the features present in the Office 365 versions of these apps are not included in their Office 2019 counterparts, especially cloud-based and collaborative features.
Furthermore, Microsoft makes it clear that while Office 2019 will be receiving regular security fixes, it will not be getting expanded feature updates, while Office 365 users can still look forward to new and updated features through regular monthly updates just as they always have.
The bottom line here is that Office 2019 is not going to replace Office 365, and it really isn’t meant to. That said, regardless of the particular use case, Office 2019 still fills a crucial role and services a section of Microsoft’s customer base that may have felt a bit neglected since Office 365 took the spotlight.
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Microsoft Office 2019 for Mac 16.23 VL [Multilingual] Microsoft Office 2019 for Mac 16.23 VL Office 2019 for Mac is designed from scratch to take advantage of the latest features of Mac, including Retina display support full – screen view and even bounce displacement.
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hello! what happened with Jared at jibcon or around that time that you (and a lot of other people) say that he feels bad? im sorry if youve already answered this, but i cant find anything about it! i do hope hes okay tho! i know he has depression and anxiety so i wish him the best
Hi, anon!
In the chapter that he wrote for the book Family Don’t End With Blood (which I have as a pdf, and can send you if you want), Jared wrote very honestly about the period of time before JIBcon 2015 - he didn’t show up to the con that year because of mental health reasons, remember?
It turned out to be way worse than I (or I think anybody) had thought.
I’m going to put this story under a Read More because it might be triggering. Below is the account of JIBcon 2015 that Jared gave, as paraphrased by me:
A bit of background: Jared had a month-long convention tour sketched out for that summer. From Rome to I think New Zealand or something and then to Australia, all about 10 days after he’d just stopped filming Supernatural. He was understandably very worn out and just wanted to be with his family, but he decided to suck it up and go attend all these conventions (which can be very draining, understandably) because he knew that so many fans were counting on him.
He decided to take a little side stop in Geneva before going to Rome, just to do some touristy things and take a day for himself. Unbeknownst to him though it happened to be a national holiday on the day he flew into the country. Everything was closed, he couldn’t get anywhere or do anything, and he kind of just snapped. He described it as the most alone he’d ever felt, trapped in a place where he knew no one and literally had nowhere to go. He was beating himself up about not checking the calendar before flying in, like it was his fault.
I broke.
Plain and simple.
I. Broke. (236)
He had a full-out hour long breakdown on a park bench somewhere, full on tears and chest convulsions, shaking, just awful. He was on the phone with a friend for three hours until his phone died. He described that he came very, very close to actually killing himself. He confessed that he didn’t think he was going to leave Geneva alive. He made the decision to fly home to Austin.
But I knew I only had two options: go to Austin, or go away forever. (237)
He also wrote very candidly about that stressful plane ride home. Apparently he’s usually a very steady flyer, even enjoys it, but this flight was like Geneva > London > Chicago > Austin, very long with a lot of stops and he was obviously very strung out emotionally. The only thing that kept him from physically harming himself on the flight was writing “AKF” onto his arm in pen over and over again. He was covered in ink by the time he got back home. Gen, Danneel, and his manager met him at the airport after he got off the plane and rallied around him as support.
I had of course known that Jared struggled with depression and that he had to take time off from JIB to work on it, but I had no idea it was that bad. It was really shocking and heartbreaking to read about such a difficult time in his life in his own words.
So JIBcon comes at a point in the year where filming has just wrapped, Jared hasn’t really been home in a while - where he is at his most comfortable - and of course he has the haunting memory of a few years ago to add to his feelings. It’s a stressful time that is very hard on him emotionally, but since 2015 his friends are also super sensitive to how Jared must be feeling. To see Jensen work his ass off trying to cheer Jared up and take some of the burden off him at this particular convention was really, really good. He’s really good friend to Jared and it’s always touching to see that.
And I know that he has our full support as well!
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XP-Pen Deco Mini 7 Wireless Graphic Tablet Review: Embrace Portability, Create Anywhere
XP-Pen Deco Mini 7 Wireless
9.00 / 10
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For those on the go, the XP-Pen's Deco Mini 7W helps you get to work and implement your creativity in almost every scenario. With its compact size and wireless connectivity available at a budget price, there's no need to worry about budget or workspace. If you aren't after a full-featured at-home set-up and want accessibility foremost, the Deco Mini7W is worth your consideration.
Key Features
Up to 8,192 pressure sensitivity levels
Battery-free stylus supports up to 60 degrees of tilt
2.4 GHz wireless connectivity
8 customizable shortcut keys
Specifications
Brand: XP-Pen
Active Area: 7" x 4.37"
Multi-Touch Support: Not touch sensitive
Pressure Sensitivity Levels: 8192
Connection: USB
Pros
Good range of pressure sensitivity levels
Wireless receiver
Compact size
Wide array of system and software support
Cons
Screenless
Small active work area won't appeal to all
Buy This Product
XP-Pen Deco Mini 7 Wireless amazon
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The XP-Pen Deco Mini7W (or Deco Mini 7 Wireless) doesn't challenge your definition of a drawing tablet with a pen. Instead, it takes what's most desirable, cuts the excess, and delivers it all in a travel-friendly package.
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Regardless of your skill level with graphic tablets, the Deco Mini7W focuses on accessibility while integrating its use across different software, platforms, and uses.
XP-Pen Deco Mini7W Design and Specifications
After peeling off the initial plastic, you'll notice the Deco Mini7W keeps things minimalistic. With a black matte finish that utilizes white for contrast, eight lightly raised shortcut key buttons, and four directionals to symbolize the drawing area, it provides an easy functional read. At the base of the tablet are four rubber feet to keep it in place.
XP-Pen's Deco Mini7 measures out at 10.24 x 6.38 x 0.36 inches while providing an active work area of 7 x 4.37 inches. Thanks to its small footprint, it's very easy to stash the drawing tablet in a bag, backpack, or large pocket of your choice. With it also weighing just under a pound, you'll hardly notice it's there.
If you're a fan of the XP-Pen Deco 01 v2, sadly the light-up drawing area with adjustable brightness didn't make the cut. However, even in more dim lighting, this wasn't much of a factor.
As one might guess by the name, the major selling point of the Deco Mini 7W is its 2.4 GHz wireless connectivity via a USB wireless receiver. For charging or for a wired connection, a USB to USB-C cable is included, but the 1000 mAh battery with its ≥ 10 hours of operation and two-hour charge time keeps this to a minimum. This means more time spent working with the Deco Mini7W wherever you want.
Included alongside the graphic tablet is the P05D battery-free stylus. This stylus supports up to 60 degrees of tilt and up to 8,192 pressure sensitivity levels. For those planning to extensively use the stylus, ten extra nibs are included with a pen clipper tool to remove any worn down nib as necessary.
Checking Your Compatibility and Connectivity
As for the Deco Mini 7W’s compatibility, XP-Pen has done a good job making sure it works on just about everything with the right connector. On top of the USB to USB-C cable and wireless receiver, XP-Pen has also included a USB to USB-C adapter and USB to Micro-USB adapter. Before plugging in, however, it's advisable to update your drivers for Windows and macOS.
However, even with all the right prep work, there are some nuances to keep in mind regarding your platform of choice. On Windows, you’ll want to disable Windows Ink by unchecking its box under the PenTablet app. Should you need to use Windows Ink, it's easy to re-enable, but you can otherwise quickly mitigate any cursor issues that result from it being active.
On macOS, XP-Pen needs certain access permissions to function fully. Overall, this was the most complex set-up process; XP-Pen outright alerts you of what's needed when you go to download the driver. Thankfully, there's an included PDF with the driver and an official YouTube video for anyone needing some extra help getting everything smoothed out.
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In the case of Android, XP-Pen notes that some devices aren’t supported. My Samsung Galaxy S7 isn’t considered a fully supported device, but I was able to draw and use assorted drawing apps despite this note. Most of these are Samsung-based devices, so it's helpful to check XP-Pen's FAQ before considering a purchase.
If you’re using a Chromebook, the deco Mini7W does support ChromeOS; you need to make sure you have it updated to the appropriate version as noted by XP-Pen. For now, that means you need to update to Chrome OS 88.0.4324.109 or above.
Getting Started With the XP-Pen Deco Mini7W
Once you've figured out what platform you're going to be using, it boils down to a question of what software to use and your operational preferences.
When it comes to software, XP-Pen makes sure their graphic tablets works across an expansive array of popular applications like Photoshop, SAI, ZBrush, Maya, Clip Studio, and many more. However, if you're just starting out or want to try something new, XP-Pen does offer free software depending on what you purchase from them.
With the Deco Mini7W, I was given the option to choose either ArtRage and OpenCanvas for digital art. For those interested in e-learning or digital whiteboards, a three-month individual plan subscription was also offered for Explain Everything. Activating the software requires an XP-Pen account, entering your tablet's serial number, and following the instructions to redeem your activation code.
Once you have your software of choice, you'll want to poke around in PenTablet to set your work area, pen settings, and express keys.
For your work area, you can set your screen area or tablet area to either the full coverage or your preferred range. For those that prefer to draw on their tablet in a certain position, you're able to adjust its rotation settings between 0°, 90°, 180°, and 270°.
For both the P05D stylus and the Deco Mini7W's shortcut keys, you can change from the suggested defaults to either mouse controls, quick application launches, or custom keyboard inputs. These pen and key settings can also be set to work only for certain programs, so you don't have to change them between projects.
Prior to use, you can also manually adjust the pressure sensitivity of your pen under pen settings. While it ranges between soft and hard, the differences didn't feel too noticeable. In the interest of keeping it most balanced for my hand during testing, I opted to stay with the defaults.
Ways to Utilize the Deco Mini 7W
How can you use this drawing tablet?
While digital drawing comes to mind usually, graphic tablets fulfill numerous niche purposes whether it's remote learning, workplace note-taking, digital signatures, or even gaming. All of these capitalize on the precision of the Deco Mini7W and feel even better without the wired requirement.
Digital Art with the Deco Mini 7W
When looking at a drawing tablet, there are a few baseline criteria to consider. I want good pen detection when drawing, little latency, and a good range of pressure detection. Whether wireless or wired, the Deco Mini7W did give me this.
In terms of experience, I found the XP-Pen Deco Mini7W to be more effective when used more traditionally with a desktop or laptop. The mobile software offerings had limited support for the shortcut keys; I highly valued the customization that came with the PenTablet app. If you prefer drawing on mobile, it's not too bad to have to implement a touch-based setting command.
Regardless of what you choose to use as your screen, drawing with the XP-Pen felt comfortable and easy to use.
E-Learning and Work with the Deco Mini 7W
For those that don't traditionally use a drawing tablet, the increase of popularity for these devices for remote working and e-learning is worth noting. To test the Deco Mini7W's effectiveness here, I decided to approach it as if I were preparing some slides for my students.
As Explain Everything serves as an online whiteboard, it was very easy to open up a template and just start using the stylus to write, highlight, and otherwise emphasize information for video recording. Specifying custom shortcuts for Explain Everything wasn't hard; I just bound them to my browser of choice for the time of recording.
For those remotely working, writing out notes by hand was similarly easy across different software. While not a necessity, it was refreshing to be able to jot down notes without a long wire against my desk. When you consider the XP-Pen retails for around $60, it isn't the most expensive option either when it comes to a more comfy workflow.
Relax with the Deco Mini7W
Gaming with unique peripherals isn't a new practice, but it's always an intriguing one. To test the precision of the tablet, I decided to try out osu! with XP-Pen. While I'm certainly not the fastest in response time, the Deco Mini7W and stylus allowed for precise inputs while playing the rhythm game.
While I wouldn't recommend it for every game, it's a pleasant distraction if you want to take a break and try something unique.
Repairability or Replacement for XP-Pen's Deco Mini7W
If something does happen with your Deco Mini 7W, there are a few options to consider. For those concerned about the tablet itself, XP-Pen doesn't currently sell any protective film for the Deco Mini7W. However, the Deco Mini 7W is pretty small, so it’s not hard to keep it protected in transit.
If you happen to lose or get through the ten included nibs, XP-Pen offers 100 of their nibs for around ten dollars. If something happens to your stylus, the P05D can also be replaced for about sixteen dollars.
For any initial problems, XP-Pen offers a twelve-month warranty from the time of purchase. If you purchase directly from their e-store, they instead offer an extended eighteen-month warranty.
Should You Buy the XP-Pen Deco Mini7W?
The XP Pen's Deco Mini 7W offers the opportunity to easily work whenever inspiration strikes. It's compact, affordable, and gives the option to go wire-free. As far as drawing tablets go, it's perfect for travel.
If you're simply after the best drawing tablet, it doesn't have all the premium features. However, if you're looking for an inexpensive tablet to get you started, it's one worthy of your attention.
XP-Pen Deco Mini 7 Wireless Graphic Tablet Review: Embrace Portability, Create Anywhere published first on http://droneseco.tumblr.com/
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Writober 2020 - 24 (ink)
Summary: Everyone loves a fan meet and greet, right? Well, Ray doesn’t, especially when she winds up on staff at her own event. What’s an idol supposed to do when her fans don’t show up? Apparently, the answer is manning the line so nobody acts up for her senpai. At least she’s useful that way.
(Sunburst Idol Unit)
---
“Hey, thanks for stopping by today!”
“You're going to be the next head of the Zodiac for sure, Lena-chan!”
Lena was all smiles as she finished shaking her fan's hand. “Here's hoping anyway. Keep your eyes out for me!”
Somehow, she made it look so easy.
Ray shook her head as she glanced at the line in front of her. All of them were wearing some form of red, and plenty were sporting bandannas. It was easy to see who they were here for, and just why they were waiting so long.
Thus... there she was helping out.
“Hey, next person c'mon up.”
Some kid not much older than her breezed past and started chatting with Lena about something related to school. Ray didn't really parse much of it as she kept her eye on the line. They were pretty full, so the time limit was strict today. While she wasn't quite Seiza Academy level bouncer, she could get the job done just fine.
As long as... you ignored she was technically part of this fan meet event as an idol and not staff.
Her own line was... empty. It had been since she had gotten there. Nobody had come to see her to get an autograph or to shake her hand. That last one she didn't mind all that much, but it was still … well, it sucked. There was no other way to put it besides the fact it fucking sucked and she hated standing there. But running away to the bathroom wasn't an option, and Lena needed the help. So she just pushed it down.
Later, when she got home... that wasn't going to be fun. Hooray, rejection sensitive dysphoria rearing its ugly head.
“Shoot, my pen's out of ink.”
Lena's voice carried over the din of the waiting crowd. Ray was already on it, reaching into her pocket in order to toss a new one. It was one of the red ones, not the pink one she kept in her left pocket. That one was hers.
“Heads up, senpai!”
Even though she had been a soccer player, her fellow idol caught it. “Thanks, Raychi!”
A few in the crowd gave her approving looks as she stepped back into her spot at the side of the line. Of course, it didn't exactly make them jump over to meet her, so that didn't really mean much. Luckily, Ray was good at projecting a neutral face as everything crumbled to pieces inside of her. Nobody was the wiser as she assumed the position.
Would it have killed them to come see her after, though? She wasn't asking for much...
It didn't matter. The line kept going, and fans kept wanting to meet their idol. Most of them were more than happy to abide by the rules. The few that didn't... well, a glare from her put them in their place just fine. No need to chuck people on their ass when a giant lesbian is watching the line.
If this idol thing didn't work out, she clearly had a future in crowd management. No doubt by the time she was fully grown she would even tower over the crowds back home. What that would make for her in Japan, she wasn't sure.
But she was happy to think about it. The alternative was just depressing.
“So uh... whose that other table supposed to be for? Is someone else from Seiza coming later?”
One of the fans with a bandanna around their neck was whispering to someone in a bright red t-shirt. They were both pointing over at her table, where a plain sign said that the line began a few feet behind it. Nobody was exactly running up to it, all things considered, so no doubt it probably looked weird.
T-shirt fan was more in the know as Ray tried to avoid the conversation by staring blankly ahead. “No... that's the line for Ray Jones. Guess nobody showed up.”
“Wait, is that why she's here? I thought it was just because Lena-chan knew she could keep people in line.” They had the nerve to glance her way, then look back just as quickly. Smart. “She's handling it pretty well, I'd be crushed if that was me.”
Bandanna nodded to this sentiment. “Same. Guess she's used to it.”
No, she was just good at faking it. Ray resisted the urge to grit her teeth as she motioned the next in line along. It probably made her look even scarier to those who would consider misbehaving, but maybe that was for the best. If she couldn't be an idol, at least she was a deterrent.
Once the clock struck 2, Lena got up. “Hey, everyone, I need to take a fifteen minute break so I can stretch my wrist and eat something! I'll be right back, so don't go anywhere!”
A large amount of fans responded with hopes she had a good snack break, to which they got a wave in return. Given the fact her own stomach was rumbling, Ray took this as a sign that maybe she should break too. She glanced at the line before shrugging her shoulders.
“Yeah, same...”
Nobody heard her as she headed off to where the vending machines were. She caught Lena in front of one, the idol happily feeding change into the slot so she could get her snack. Right then, she was in her own world as Ray stalked the machine that had Monster in it.
Was it healthy, no, but fuck it. With the day she was having she didn't feel like being healthy.
“Here, to thank you for helping me out.” Lena was nudging something into her side – looked like a cream cake. Ray was never one to turn down free food, so she accepted it as they sat down to eat their snacks. Much like her, her senpai wasn't being very healthy either – the sugar would've killed somebody, but she needed the calories.
Ray just needed something to do with her hands so she didn't punch a wall.
“Thanks.” She popped the top on her Monster and took a long sip. “Looks like you've got a full house going on out there. That'll make you look good to Seiza for the Zodiac ranking, right?”
Lena nodded as she drank from her can of soda. “Yeah, I think I should be heading up to the final three this week if I keep it up.”
“Kick her ass.”
She didn't know the evil Nana, of course, but if Lena hated her then she had to be bad. The idol didn't hate anyone, she was like a freaking puppy. Anyone who failed the love you test was pure evil, at least by her account. Then again, she wasn't exactly someone to go to for better judgment.
Much to her surprise, Lena's expression turned sheepish as she picked at her own cream bun. “Listen uh... I'm sorry that you had to stay behind. I know you have that thing with-”
Ray shook her head as she started to eat her own snack. “RSD isn't your problem, senpai. Nobody showed up for me, that's just how it is.”
“Yeah but at least you could've gone home or something. You're stuck here with me.” Lena was frowning now. “I appreciate and all, don't get me wrong... but I'm worried you're doing this to hurt yourself.”
As she spoke, she was flexing her ink-covered hands. They were both left handed, so ink smearing when they wrote was part of the job description. The side of her hand was absolutely scarlet – it was a miracle she wasn't getting it on her fans. Honestly, it kind of looked like a murder scene...
“Raychi?”
Ah. She was doing it again, wasn't she? Picking up on tiny details to ignore the thing that was actually bothering her.
Ray finally allowed herself to frown as she sipped at her energy drink that really didn't do much in the energy department. “Self harm isn't really in my pathology description, senpai.”
“Maybe not that, but... you know. You're really hard on yourself, I don't want you to do this as a punishment or anything.” Lena sighed as she finished her bun off and licked her fingers. “Though your fans are dumb if they don't come. Just plain dumb.”
That got her snickering into her drink. “Thanks, senpai.”
Their time was growing close to an end – she swore she could hear the muttering on the other side of the wall. So, Ray finished up her energy drink and tossed the can. Lena was right behind her, also disposing of her trash. After a quick trip to the bathroom to freshen up, both were walking back into the main hall.
“Hey, everyone, I'm back!”
Lena had shifted back into idol mode as she took her table once more. Ray returned to her position by a nearby column, arms folded across her chest as she leaned back. They still had plenty of fans to get through if they wanted to finish on time. No wonder the other staff were really harping on that time limit.
Speaking of... one was coming her way.
“What's up, need something?” She shifted positions, returning to her full height. To the woman's credit, she didn't cringe as much as others did. Definitely looked a little unnerved by the giant foreigner, but she covered it well.
Maybe they wanted her to move or work the merch or something...
“Oh, uh... we need you at your line.” She gestured towards a small line practically dwarfed by the bandanna-wearing army. “Your fans are waiting.”
Ray felt her heart pound in her ears as she managed a nod. Now, it was the staff leading her to her table, where the first person was already waiting for her. It was a girl, maybe a few years older than her, still wearing her school uniform. She had a bright pink bow in her hair that matched her image color perfectly, and in her arms was a rolled up poster.
Shit, she brought merch with her.
“Oh, uh... sorry it took me so long to get over.” She nodded her head. “Uh... wow. Hi?”
The girl smiled at her. “Am I the first?”
“Yeah... you are. Forgive me that I suck at this.” Ray rubbed the back of her head. “You uh, want me to sign that for you?”
The poster was unrolled – it was from her first single. Just seeing it on the table made her heart pound as she found a spot to sign her name in the neon pink pen she had brought with her. For once, the ink didn't smudge as she worked, sighing in relief once it was dry. She hadn't messed it up.
“Man, I was worried I was going to smear everything.” She handed it back. “Thanks for supporting me...”
Her school-girl fan giggled. “It's Nami.”
“Thanks, Nami. Way to restore my faith in humanity.”
They shook hands briefly, and then her fangirl moved on. However, Ray wasn't done just yet. A small crowd was starting to trickle in, some of them dressed as though they had just come from a mosh pit. All of them had something pink on – buttons, shirts, a few ribbons on people with hair long enough to hold it. They looked excited to be there as they stepped into line, talking animatedly. It wasn't quite the size of Lena's line... but it was hers.
She had fans.
The staff who had walked her to the table was back. “They printed the wrong time on the poster. Seiza corrected it, but nobody told Sunburst.”
Well... shit.
Despite that, Ray found herself snickering as she got her pink pen ready for more. “Well, then I better get started.”
Her next statement came loud enough for her line to hear. “Alright, y'all, you coming or what? Get your shit ready because I'm probably gonna babble a lot!”
She got cheers in response, and a few chuckles. While some of the red line looked disturbed, her pink party was down to clown. Ray definitely caught Lena smiling and giving her a thumbs up as she prepared for the next person in line, pen at the ready.
No doubt by the end of this, the side of her hand was going to be absolutely fluorescent pink. Well, at least a few people would get a hand print with their signature. That had to be worth something, right?
Hell if she knew the merch game, she was an idol. A very busy idol who now had to work her way through a fan event. Good thing she had a few extra pens in her jacket, because she got the feeling she was going to need them.
#writober2020#sunburst idol unit#ramblinganthropologist's writing#Ray Jones Sunburst Idol Unit#Tsukamoto Lena Sunburst Idol Unit
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Tagged by the fantastic @bardingbeedle !
5 things you’ll find in my bag
An over stuffed pencil case full of multiple pencils, inking pens, grey markers and an ever changing line up of erasers
My battered old Wallet, with its many many club cards, my glasses wipes, my donor card, ID and not very much money. It’s less a wallet and more a carry case at this point
Charging cables and spare battery(s), I like to always be accessible since I'm usually the one my family calls first and the idea of not being able to get help in emergencies makes me nervy
My sketchbook, I take it with me wherever I can, and if I'm bothering to take my backpack somewhere its certainly coming with me
Headphones, if they aren't in my pocket they’re in my bag, I like to listen to music whenever I can
5 things you’ll find in my room
All my assorted range of art supplies, from acrylics to polymer clays, its all in here because I don't trust my brother with any of it
My millennial cliche succulent garden, they live on my window sill, they all have names, and I love them.
Fans, I have one ceiling and one desk fan, and from spring to early autumn a pillar fan too, because I over heat ridiculously fast
Many posters and frames(Including an awesome art deco Ironman frame is still need to hand but have been putting off till I can get the cap counterpart), I display my nerdy loves like the exhibitionist I am
My big box o’ comics, my whole collection just about fits into a big cardboard box beneath my desk is have a constant brother watch over, its my own personal dragons hoard dammit.
5 things that make me happy
Talking, as is no doubt obvious, I love to talk, get me going and I will not shut up, I like to be passionate and I'm blessed with so many friends who let me ramble till I tire myself out and then keep talking to me after
On the same vein as above, Replying to things; Comments on posts, Asks, or just online conversation, I enjoy it so much, Someone asked me about one of my Ults HC’s on twitter the other day and let me go on about it for 2 hours and even if we never talk again I’m a little in love with them for that alone.
Reading tags, sort of falls in with above, but reading tags makes me gooey n happy
Coffee, I’m addicted to the stuff and I love it.
Finally getting time to work on ideas, I have so many and theres not enough time in existence to get them all down
5 things I’m currently in to
SteveTony, feels like a cop out answer, so wishing S/T I’m currently reading To The Victor, and despite being someone who doesn't cry at fiction easy, this has had me on the verge or tears more times than I can count
The Adventure Zone / MBMBAM, after watching a couple people I follow whether the finale, I got into it, and god is it good, I'm a couple episodes from the ending and desperate for it not to be over
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver: I don't know if this counts as a thing I'm “into” but its the only thing I watch on TV really anymore, I'm too busy to sit down with TV anymore but i’ll make time for this
I’m reading through The Ultimates, I found a way to get my hands on them and I'm making it my main reading quest, which is why I won't shut up about it ever
Uh I’ve run out of things, does school count? I’m so busy with it I barely have time to sleep, but I love this foundation course so much.
5 things on my to do list
A hush hush super secret time sensitive project, more will be revealed soooooon
STH, I feel awful about how long this is taking, but I'm just about finished with the sketch for one and the planning for another, once the sketches are down I can finish it inside or 2 days, but its getting the time to flesh the sketch out thats making it take so long, apologies to both my auction winners!
Floomies, Ferret and I finished writing book 2 a couple days ago and we’re taking a short break before diving into the edit and filling in more little bits of the series we have planned. With all accounts we might be posting into April next year or even longer.
College work, there’s a lot of it and its perpetually on my to do list
Multiple comics! some 1 page short and some up to 10 pages long, some written and scripted and some just sketchy baby ideas, I have so many its stupid and I want to draw them allllllll, comics about Ults, comics about tony and the multiverse, comics about Riri, about steve and moreeee, I have a lot of plans and no time
This doesn't begin to cover my WIP list and ideas hutch, I’m stocked with ideas for years
Tagging: @sabrecmc @alstonwiggles-study @foldingcranes @festiveferret @ashes0909 @ishipallthings I feel bad tagging you guys in everything but I'm also not gonna stop doing it because you’re the least likely to be annoyed ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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-see the uncommon oc asks- 1-50 for your pic, cyn sleet or morning! >;3c
Hey?? How about all three darling??
[[MORE]]
1. A little-known talent of your OC?
Cynthia: One of her proficiencies that gets overlooked is her calligraphy skill. Most people around her see her merely as a lady of brawn, but the skills of keeping a still posture or collected composure in combat helped keep her hand steady while writing.
Sleet: I imagine Human!Sleet is great with a needle! She’ll knit some scarves for everyone when it gets chilly!
Morning: She hums quietly to herself every so often, hoping no one hears her. However, Lichen can hear her velvet voice.
2. What trait does your OC like best about themself? (Eyes, guitar skills, random bird facts, etc)
Cynthia: Definitely her swordsmanship.
Sleet: She appreciates that she’s able to remain kind when the world smacks her in the face.
Morning: Her aesthetics!
3. How many pillows does your OC sleep with?
Cynthia: what’s a pillow. maybe one pillow some nights but some nights her pillow is Nur.
Sleet: She insists that she wants to sleep with one. Slate gives her four.
Morning: She is a pillow princess! She has one of those pillows that you can draw on with the sequins.
4. Is your OC good at keeping secrets?
Cynthia: Yep!
Sleet: She is good at keeping secrets, but that’s because she most likely forgot it.
Morning: She can overshare a lot, and she’ll likely tell secrets if she thinks it’s something too important to not share.
5. Your OC’s worst habit?
Cynthia: Currently, she has a huge insomnia problem thanks to the recent events of the campaign. Also, she doesn’t even want to confront her trauma or anything, and that’s only going to make it worse for her later.
Sleet/Morning: Both of them have the same habit of trusting people too easily and being too kind to everyone. With Morning, she also has a habit of breaking into peer pressure.
6. Does your OC prefer tennis shoes/sneakers or flip flops?
All three of them prefer tennis shoes. This is also because flip flops are worthy of bane to me.
7. What is your OC’s opinion on body modifications?
Cynthia: She probably would modify herself if she could.
Sleet: As long as it’s not impacting one’s health, she’s fine with it!
Morning: She thinks it’s a waste of money.
8. Your OC is given a full-ride scholarship to any college they would want to go to. Where do they go and what do they major in?
Cynthia: She would probably study religion at a quiet college that has a swordsmanship or LARP club.
Sleet: “Any college you say?” Would be her first words. And then she’d research the hell out of medical colleges to find which one lands you a job the most.
Morning: Similar to Sleet, but says “fuck you” and picks the most expensive of the best.
9. What chores does your OC hate the most?
Cynthia: Anything that requires a serious amount of patience or time. She’s an active person, and she can get annoyed if she’s sitting in one spot for hours.
Sleet: She enjoys her chores except vacuuming because it’s loud. She’s overall a clean freak though.
Morning: Taking out the garbage.
10. Would your OC prefer to live in the city, the suburbs, or the country?
All of them would prefer the country! However, they would all have concurring opinions.
Cynthia: She’d pick the country because it would give her a chance to have more manual labor tasks and give her a higher chance of having a backwoods to explore.
Sleet: Sure, she loves talking to and being with people, but she would just want to live on the prairie in a cottage. The vastness of the land, possibly some trails to hike, and raising farm animals would be her dream.
Morning: For the aesthetics. Also where else is she going to hide away with Lyra once she has the money to retire?
11. Is your OC a blanket hog?
Cynthia: Yes!
Sleet: She shares the blanket.
Morning: She feels bad whenever she wakes up with all of the blankets on her like a burrito.
12. Would your OC play by the rules in a fight or take cheap shots?
Cynthia and Sleet play by the rules, but Morning may take cheap shots if she dislikes someone enough.
13. Does your OC have a widow ’s peak?
Cynthia: nope!
Sleet: a small one!
Morning: nope!
14. Happy birthday! What kind of present would your OC want?
Cynthia: (obviously Mordecai to be alive. /s) She just wants a day that nothing hellish happens at this point.
Sleet: To be surrounded by friends!
Morning: Some time with Lyra!
15. Something that grosses your OC out?
Cynthia: She is really starting to get grossed out by tentacles. It just be like that when you’re getting nearly killed by them every month or so.
Sleet/Morning: men who don’t wear deodorant
16. Your OC is suddenly on an adventure! Where do they go and what do they do?
Cynthia: points towards canon
Sleet: hiking! lots of hiking. preferably on a good meadowy mountain.
Morning: time for some camping in the middle of the woods and creeping out her girlfriend with spooky stories!
17. Is there a real person that looks like your OC?
Cynthia: Not really! First of all, she’s an angel, and secondly, her skin and hair color are so much of an ethnic mix that I’m unsure if it can even happen in humans!
Sleet: I actually think of one of my childhood friend’s moms but with longer hair whenever I think of Sleet!
Morning: Not that I know of, but there’s probably some cute lady out there who does!
18. Something that makes your OC laugh without fail?
Cynthia: Remembering some of the hilarious conversations between her and Mordecai when he trained her! “First of all, fuck stealth” is one of the main ones.
Sleet: She doesn’t quite laugh easily, but whenever Slate gets a bit too clumsy she can’t help but to laugh a bit. She makes sure Slate is okay though first.
Morning: Lyra telling her jokes and memes
19. Something that makes your OC cry without fail?
Cynthia: She is more of an angry crier, but anytime any of her crew gets severely injuried she cries. Also, any time she remembers a softer moment in her life, she can’t help but to cry because she misses those moments dearly. She tries to make it not look like she’s crying and holds back tears, but she can break easily.
Sleet/Morning: Whenever their significant other gets hurt or similar happens to them! And also animated films.
20. A obscure/ridiculous fear your OC has?
Cynthia: Most of her fears are justified, but probably her most obscure fear is running out of ink on her pen and not being able to write.
Sleet: She’s a little bit of a germaphobe from all of her years in the medical field.
Morning: Morning is pretty fearless, but she is deeply afraid of wandering around on the internet and accidentally finding some weird kink stuff or hentai.
21. Does your OC have any type of disability, whether it be mental, physical, etc?
Every one of my OCs have some sort of disability or I purposely make them unlikable. However, they tend to be more of mental disabilities than physical ones! I should definitely make some OCs with physical disabilities too!
Cynthia: Anxiety, insomnia, depression, and literally has so many concussions that she’s probably got some brain damage. While not a disability, I’ll throw in here that she has major scars on her right shoulder and, in AAF, grey scars on her left side.
Sleet: OCD, Autism, ADD.
Morning: Anxiety, RSD (rejection sensitive dysphoria), prone to addiction.
22. Does your OC get frustrated when people forget to close the door behind themselves?
Cynthia: no
Sleet: yes
Morning: no
23. What is your OC’s first memory?
Cynthia: The earliest memory she can recall was a simple day with her original family. It was a very happy day because there was a huge feast that day, and no major arguments broke out. She assumes she was about three or four years old at the time.
Sleet: Sleet’s mother reading a book to baby Sleet! She remembered her mother reading a bunch of dots on the page and being amazed that her mother could make words from it. Her mother grabbed Sleet’s hand at one point and let her feel the words as her mom read them out loud.
Morning: She was walking through a huge city while holding her stuffed cat plush! She was very nervous, but her parents made her comfortable by keeping an arm on her shoulders while she held her plush.
24. Something you like that your OC would hate?
Cynthia: Honestly? If Cynthia met me in person she would absolutely pummel me into the ground. But unlike her, I like waiting around sometimes and looking around for small details!
Sleet: I like a lot of mess sometimes! She doesn’t.
Morning: Being the aesthetic person she is, she wouldn’t like my wardrobe of just T-shirts ahahaha
25. Your OC is going into battle/on a mission! What song is their anthem?
Cynthia: aggressively points to canon and then kindly says that I want to make her a battle theme myself at some point!
Sleet: If she’s going on a mission of any sort, she’d put on some ambience music. She doesn’t fight!
Morning: “Bubblegum Bitch” by Marina and the Diamonds? Maybe?
26. Does your OC have good or bad posture?
Sleet has the best posture, Cynthia has good posture, and Morning tries her best.
27. Most despicable thing your OC has ever done?
Cynthia: I mean, she’s definitely murdered some innocent people to get what she wanted. That one guard in S8, that guy in S14 who threw a chair at her, and probably some more. (But at least she hasn’t slaughtered tens of orcs because a demon told her to.) Also, she’s reckless a lot of times, and it’s even put the crew’s lives in danger a few times.
Sleet: She’s been incredibly passive in situations where she should have done something. Other than that, she had done nothing wrong.
Morning: She can get really petty. Probably managed to get someone arrested.
28. Is your OC a conspiracy theorist?
Cynthia: Yes, but in the sense that she believes that Roland is to be held accountable for the Plague.
Sleet: No!
Morning: Participates in the Area 51 memes but not seriously a conspiracy theorist. She likes to believe in aliens and cryptids, though.
29. Someone does something awful in front of your OC. How do they handle it?
Not well at all!
Cynthia: She turns towards whoever caused it and punishes them.
Sleet/Morning: Tries to help the victim of the incident!
30. What is your OC’s favorite drink?
God damn it, they all love tea!
31. Does your OC prefer to sleep in a warm or cool area?
Cynthia: Warm area!
Sleet/Morning: Cool area!
32. Would your OC like you if they met you?
Cynthia would kill me on sight, and then Sleet and Morning would barely be able to tolerate me.
33. A song that reminds you of your OC?
Cynthia: “Rubik’s Cube” by Athlete, “In the Woods Somewhere” by Hozier, and “Sky Full of Song” by Florence and the Machine. Hmmmm I wonder why
Also “El Tango de Roxanne” because of AAF
Sleet: “Little Talks” by Of Monsters and Men, “Wisdom’s Tragedy” by Disasterpeace, and “And So It Goes” by Mariana’s Trench.
Morning: Not really any song in particular, mainly because she’s quite new to the human AU, and she wasn’t quite developed on before that.
34. Is your OC a nail biter?
Cynthia: yes!
Sleet: no!
Morning: yes!
35. What is your OC’s favorite quote?
Cynthia: “First of all: Fuck stealth” probably, said by Mordecai. Also literally any time Jinri calls her darling.
Sleet: probably the whole “The Two-Headed Calf” poem
Morning: “Treat yourself”
36. Your OC’s favorite fashion era? (20’s, 70’s, etc)
Cynthia: Victorian!
Sleet: American Colonial era of clothing!
Morning: She loves the modern fashion era, but also she loves the 1920’s.
37. Does your OC get excited when they get mail?
All three: yes!
38. Random thunderstorm! How does your OC react?
Cynthia: She gets Wall to handle steering the ship, and then goes to her room to try to absorb the energy of the thunderstorm.
Sleet: She gets a little worried at first, but she eventually carries on with her day.
Morning: Netflix time!
39. A strange talent of your OC?
Cynthia: despite having a +6 to CON saves and +3 to DEX saves she still manages to fuck these two saves horribly.
Sleet: She’s really really good at organizing.
Morning: She can recount word-for-word in real time her favorite movie.
40. Assuming your OC doesn’t have them already, what superpower would they want? If they do, would they change it, keep it, or get rid of it?
Cynthia: She likes her divine magic, thank you.
Sleet: She’d want healing magic!
Morning: Weather manipulation!
41. Does your OC like/make puns?
Cynthia: loves puns!
Sleet: doesn’t like puns!
Morning: makes puns!
42. What kind of shampoo does your OC use?
Cynthia: ??? Does she even get the chance to shower???
Sleet: It has to be a very certain shampoo brand, and the exact shampoo that she always gets. As to what, it’s definitely one that helps clean out dandruff well.
Morning: (I apologize, I can’t really answer this one too well! But probably one that’s safe for dyed, coiled hair!)
43. Your OC wakes up with a coin super glued to their forehead. How do they react?
Cynthia: which Philious was it
Sleet: She would be doing everything to remove it.
Morning: Laugh! Good prank! Now how do I remove it.
44. Can your OC sleep if there’s any kind of light?
Cynthia: Cynthia doesn’t even sleep either way. But yes, she can sleep with some light. In some cases, she even prefers it.
Sleet: Nope. Pure darkness and cold room only.
Morning: yes!
45. What kind of self-esteem does your OC have?
Cynthia: a slowly-declining one!
Sleet: She has high self esteem!
Morning: Low self-esteem, but it’s getting better.
46. A word that your OC can’t stand?
They all hate the word “moist”.
Cynthia also hates even the mention of The Living Plague.
47. Does your OC fold their clothes, hang them up, or just leave them in the basket/dryer?
Cynthia folds her clothes, Morning and Sleet hang them.
48. Would society call your OC a good guy or a bad guy? What would they say they are?
They’re all good people, but people might think wrong of Cynthia and Morning for their occasionally-illegal actions.
49. Your OC’s most prized possession?
Cynthia: Her diary!
Sleet: She has a moonstone necklace that she wears on very special locations. It was a gift from her mother.
Morning: She has a plush cat that she’s managed to keep throughout the years. It’s a calico plush that she named “Mewsie” as a kid.
50. What is your OC’s happy place?
Cynthia: A calm fireplace, a spot on the couch next to Jinri or Mordecai. She wants everything to be back to what it was before the Plague. She wants to be back home at the mansion, but the temple works just as fine. Small talks about life, a few words about Sune and how much Sune has given them, and being able to heal emotionally.
Sleet: The summit of a mountain covered in meadows. The wind stirs, but it is not enough to chill the air or blow her away. A picnic with Slate, up on the summit, chatting about how beautiful everything is. How beautiful he is.
Morning: A walk through the forest during autumn. A strong smell of pine cones, wet leaves from morning dew. A fog rolls over, but isn’t obscuring her sight. A cabin in the middle of the woods, calling her back home. Holding hands with Lyra yet again.
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ReTales: My Experience Working at Staples (Part 1)
Hi everyone! It’s about time I posted something. With the summer coming to a close, I thought I would share my experiences working as a Sales Associate for Staples-both the positive and the negative ones. In my series known as ReTales (I credit Youtuber Domics for the punny title), I’ll be talking about my first hand accounts. Hope you all enjoy!
I’m the type of person who loves to be busy. Call me crazy, but I hate doing nothing. At the start of the summer, I read posts from my friends about starting their internship at a major start-up, taking summer classes, or studying abroad. My initial reaction was “GOOD FOR YOU. GO GIRL YASSSS”. Soon afterwards, I would shut down my laptop and stare at the ceiling thinking, “I should be doing something”. Don’t get me wrong. I love my free time. I occasionally watch NikkieTutorials or Buzzfeed videos while tucked up in bed. But then I come to the realization that my tuition needs to somehow be paid for, which means... SUMMER JOB.
I did what any college student on summer break would do. I started looking for summer internships but to no avail. Finding internships related to law or government is more difficult than you think. For most of them, I either missed the deadline or did not meet the requirements (HOW WAS I GOING TO HAVE TWO YEARS OF EXPERIENCE WITH LEGAL CONSULTATION WHEN I’M ONLY 18?). I was thinking of just giving up. I kept thinking, “Well, maybe I’ll just help my mom around her office”. Only problem is... she already had two interns helping her out. One of them was my little sister. I did not want to rid my sister of this opportunity. She needed internship experience. I wanted her to be equipped with job skills, so she could be prepared for what is to come later on. Something everyone seems to be struggling with.
I thought I was at a dead end, but then one day something came up. While walking over to my mom’s office, I noticed a “Now Hiring” sign outside of Staples. I was at a lost for words. I was really thrilled and excited. I didn’t want to get my hopes up though. I only had one summer’s worth of experience in a retail setting, but I was never trained at the register and I only sold luxury chocolate. Immediately when I arrived at my mom’s office, I submitted my application for the “Seasonal Associate” position. I was offered the job and my training began.
My first few days were definitely a challenge. I got nervous at the register and messed a lot of things up. I would sometimes forget to scan items and to ask the customers some important questions, like “Do you need a bag?”. I felt like I kept annoying a lot of the staff by asking so many questions. It took a week, but afterwards I was finally comfortable with being up on the register. My nervousness seemed to slip away as I got more practice. Once my boss noticed this, he put me on the sales floor.
Now here’s where things get interesting. For a lot of the workers at Staples, they’ll say they love being at the register and hate being on the floor. The reason is that they’ll get a lot of attitude from customers while on the floor. They would get yelled at, ignored, and disrespected. I found the opposite would be true for me. I enjoyed being on the floor. I loved making customers smile once they found what they were looking for. I especially loved helping customers with kids who had a long list of school supplies. While walking all over the store searching for exactly what they needed, there’s a special bond that formed between them and me. I never saw it as an ordeal, but as something very rewarding. However, these customers were a rare occurrence. A lot of times I have been disrespected or put down, to the point where tears spilled out of my eyes.
One time, this one older man came into the store and bought about $20 worth of merchandise. At least on the floor, we didn’t have the type of pen he needed, so I spent ten minutes searching through our inventory to find that pen. Once I found it, he seemed really thrilled and thankful. After I rang him up, per our cashier protocol, I asked him if he could complete a short survey of his shopping experience and wrote my name down at the bottom of the receipt, right above the highlighted survey link. An hour after he left, the store received a phone call from him. Coincidentally, I answered his call. He was screaming into the phone, asking if he could speak to a sales associate named “Gabby”. I told him it was me. He blamed me for supposedly losing his rewards card, which I DID NOT DO. And even if I did, it wouldn’t matter.
Now here’s some context for the situation:
Staples has a free loyalty program known as Staples Rewards. Essentially, Rewards Members get really cool benefits: getting up to 5% back in points for their purchases, receiving store credit for recycled ink cartridges, free shipping on online orders, and getting coupons. Now come on, who doesn’t love coupons?
Before I worked there, Staples used to issue little laminated paper cards for Rewards Members. Now, everything has gone digital. Once in a while, someone would come by with their Rewards Card. But now, all they have to do is provide the cashiers with their phone number and that’s it. Their Rewards membership would be attached to the purchase, they get their points, and everyone’s happy.
With that in mind, you could probably tell how frustrated I felt when I kept assuring him he doesn’t even need his Rewards Card anymore. It’s as if whatever I said did not register in his mind. He kept yelling at me, saying he would report me to corporate and would never shop there again. I kept calm. I was more guilty than angry. However, I swear that he put the card back in his pocket after I scanned it. He even asked me, “Are you done with this?”. He continued screaming and cursing, saying that I should be fired for my incompetency. I kept on reassuring until finally he hung up on me. Seconds later, I was in tears.
Thankfully, my sister who was nearby, dropped off my lunch. She comforted me and told me to not take it personally. It was my first incident with a difficult customer. I know for some people it’s easy to just shake it off. I was different. I’m a bit more sensitive. I can't help but take things personally. A lot of my coworkers were also very supportive, sharing me their own experiences with difficult customers like him. I realized I had a lot to learn and this was only the first experience of many.
My experience with that man made me have a newfound appreciation for retail workers. I learned to put back things where they’re supposed to and not dump it three aisles away. I learned to acknowledge an associate’s presence when they greet you at the door (SERIOUSLY, WE DO FEEL SAD WHEN YOU IGNORE US). They put up with a lot of difficult people, who have no respect for their service whatsoever. Hope you all keep this story in mind the next time you visit your local Target, Walgreen’s, or even Staples! Treat people the way you want to be treated!
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15 incredible last-minute tech knacks for anyone on your shopping list
Christmas is just days away. If you havent already completed your Christmas shopping functions, then you are officially almost out of time. Of course, the Internet is ever a terrific rich for last-minute offering ideas.
Rather than pillage a nearby convenience store for lame knick-knacks to get your loved ones, weve rounded up a inventory of cool tech circumstances you can get all the members of your family online. If you ordering them now, you can probably opt for expedited ship so they have something to unwrap on the 25 th. Or not, but it’s the had considered that weighs!
For your significant other
Microsoft Band 2
If your beau isnt an Apple fanboy, then an Apple Watch is possibly out of the question. If a smartwatch is something you think your beloved would absolutely experience, consider going the updated band by Microsoft.
Microsoft
It tracks various fitness statistics like a Fitbit, with the added bonus of guided exercisings in accordance with the arrangements of utilization causes extradited right to the wrist. It can be used to constantly track heart rate as well as keep records of their controls. They can also persist has become a multitasking machine through useful docket, announce, email, social, and text updates as well as memoranda and remembers that you can prescribe expending your own voice through Cortana. It comes in three wrist sizings and handily beats most wearables when it comes to looks, acquiring it a pretty snazzy Christmas gift. Price : $249.99 on sale for $199
Perfect Drink App-Controlled Smart Bartending
For the cocktail admirer in their own lives! This smart scale( that comes with a stainless steel shaker) helps invent new liquor recipes as well as improve their favourites thanks to the free smartphone companion app. They can use their own design selecting a glas from the thousands of recipes and follow real-time pouring instructions; for advice, a virtual glass will fill up on the screen as they run.
Brookstone
In suit they become heavy-handed with particular parts, the app will automatically re-adjust the recipe, ensuring that they end up with a well-balanced drink.
If they dont have a particular drink in knowledge, they can plug in the contents of their liquor locker and the app will come up with recipe recommendations.
The perk? If you enjoy booze and live with your S.O ., this endowment assistances you as well. And its on sale!
Price : $69.99 $49.99
We-Vibe 4 Plus
Theres good-for-nothing like a fornication toy to come duos from nice to naughty this vacation season. This particular vibrator is arcked in such a way that gives it rest comfortably when furnished, adequately paying attention to all of a woman’s most sensitive characters. When used during copulation, it also provides subtle and effective male foreplay as well.
We-Vibe
What shapes the We-Vibe 4 Plus unique is the channel it can be controlled through a smartphone app, so ladies, in case youre apart from your sweetheart during the course of its coldnes, wintertime nights, the kinky contraption can stay with you while your collaborator steers your arousal through the many available vibration motifs on the app.
Price: $179
For an older sibling
Casetify Apple Watch belt
Make an Apple Watch even cuter with a fasten customized according to your motif sensibilities! Casetify offers a slew of ready-made intends in its list, including a brand-new Looney Motif row boasting beloved caricature characters from your loved ones childhood.
Casetify
If you want to go a step further, you can even customize your own blueprint by uploading a photograph from your computer or your social media accounts. Price : $70
Beyond Ink Pen
Who replies writes are a lame endow? If they come forearmed with peculiarities like a built-in micro-USB or iPhone cable store, a 16 GB memory drive, and a built-in battery, theyre actually a pretty cool gift for your techy bro or sis. It also has a stylus pen connect thats easily interchangeable with the ballpoint pen tip, preparing it the perfect writing tool for both article and screen.
Beyond Ink
The smartpen is made from high quality brass and to come down either a stylish pitch-black or grey finish.
Price: $70
Gorilla Gears Complete Selfie Kit
Lets face it, teens even off the majority of members of the Internets selfie-loving population. The sooner you accept that as truism, the easier your last-minute shopping becomes.
While there are tons of selfie lodge options that are more cheap, lightweight, and is very easy to connect to your smartphone via the headphone jack, you get a lot more bangs for your buck with this gear. The selfie stick included in the package is Bluetooth-enabled and well-designed. It has a padded administer and a nifty twist-lock function that sees it easy to use on longer photo shoots.
Gorilla Gear
Other goodies include a mini tripod( for taking photographs of sceneries and photos of bigger groups) and a rubberized cellphone clamp, ensuring that your design persists securely attached to your monopod during utilize. It also comes in a stylish walk case-a great endowment for the selfie pro in your family. Price : $45.00 $24.99 through Amazon Prime
For a younger sibling
Hello Barbie
Barbara Millicent Roberts may be 56 years old, but she doesnt look a era over 20. The recent battery-operated version of the highly popular doll is now equipped with Wi-Fi compatibility and speech acknowledgment engineering, facilitating her to converse, tell storeys, and play games with your teenager sister( or brother !).
Mattel
Hello Barbie is programmed with more than 8,000 recorded threads and is designed to remember what she is told and to adapt to her customers advantages. A companion app lets elders set up a Hello Barbie account that unlocks the dolls conversational features.
Price: $74.99
Osmo Gaming System for iPad
Is your child siblings attention incessantly glued to a design screen? You might as well get them something that diverts a tablet into the ultimate educational toy. Osmo is an iPad camera clip-on that passes the room in front of the design into an interactive activity opening where users can play all sorts of games.
This is, without a doubt, one of the hottest toy this season, so you better grab one while you still can.
Price: $149.95
For a baby( and mothers !)
MamaRoo Infant Seat
A baby wants constant motion and stimulant, which prepares this awesome chair the perfect offering for the baby in your household. Its movements imitative yours when you are carrying the baby yourself. If you need to gradation away for a bit to do other real life circumstances, you can set the child down on the MamaRoo and control its gestures and sounds( it can play MP3s !) through your smartphone using Bluetooth connectivity.
4moms
The price tag on this contraption might be a little steep for a newborn endow, but if you think about it, its a combo gift for “their childrens” as well as the mommy and father, so its totally worth it.
Price: $269.99
Kinsa Smart Thermometer
When your baby is find under the weather, its tantalizing to let terror and stress reign; formerly you do , nothing gets done. This is why its almost necessary to have easy-to-use tools at hand when you are caring for a sick child.
Kinsa
One such implement is a smart thermometer that plugs into your smartphone through the headphone jack and tells you take advantage of your machines treating supremacy, which is far and away better than that of a digital thermometer.
It comes with an app that attains the accomplishments of temp-taking easier on the mother and much more merriment for the child. If you’re looking to give a practical and inexpensive child gift, this is your best bet.
Price: $14.99
Mimo Smart Onesie
As an adult, tone nap is hard to come by. The offering of good sleep is something almost anyone will appreciate and is beneficial for, specially a newborn. This smart onesie is equipped with a sensor that would allow us to keep track of highly important baby stats such as mas standing, sleeping temperature, gesture, breathing, and of course, sleep.
Mimo
This is something that makes a great endow to new mothers because it gives them retain attached to the newborn at all hours of the nighttime; the onesie regularly moves reports to a smartphone, standing moms and pops a restful night as well.
Price: $199.99( includes 3 kimonos sizing 0-3 months)
For your pet
Petzi Treat Cam
If youre going to be away for the holiday season, you better make sure your furry friend is accompanied by a loving replace. While a human pup sitter is of course required, having a contraption helpful that let you keep in touch with your domesticated has its perks.
Through your smartphone, you can see live footage of your baby, thanks to the Petzi Treat Cam. It likewise allows you to speak to your pet as well as take still pictures when they come and respond to the chime of your singer. What shapes it breathtaking is it also makes you dispense plows remotely, so even though youre not there to feed or reinforce your puppy or “cat-o-nine-tail” in person, you are able to be involved in their daily routine.
Price: $169.99
Pet Bed Warmer
Elevate your swine digs with a lil somethin somethin to keep them heated at night( or daywinter is coming ). This bottom warmer might be a so-so concept to you whos already comfy in your sweaters and fleece PJs and cushy comforters, but for your hound or cat, this could be heaven.
K& H Manufacturing
This is the warmer part, though, so make sure you likewise purchase a cover. Price : $15.99( small ), $19:45( medium ), $19.59( big ), and $36.44( extra large) through Amazon Prime
Bark Box subscription
Dogs are very easy to please. Just give them an smorgasbord of dolls and plows and theyre golden. Just like a toddler, however, the best interest is very easy to walk, so what they adore now they may not open a damn about later.
BarkBox
Rather than regularly going to a domesticated supermarket to purchase a variety of new domesticated playthings, Bark Box sends you brand-new knick-knacks your furry pal will surely experience. And they do it on a monthly basis! Price depends on the kind of subscription you avail, and makes are dependent on the size of your dog.
Price: $29/ container for a few months, $24/ casket for 3 months, $21/ carton for 6 months, and $19/ container for a year
Illustration by Max Fleishman
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The present condition of styli and the iPad: does the stylus still blow it? While Apple has everything except overlooked stylus input, the new iPad might be the best.
Be that as it may, he was doing the gadget all off-base. It had a stylus. When you have a stylus, you're dead. This supper resembled the tenth time he conversed with me about it, and I was so tired of it that I returned home and stated, "Fuck it, we should demonstrate to him what a tablet can truly be."
Spurious supper story or not, Apple did to be sure show Microsoft how tablets are done, and endeavored to cover the stylus in doing as such. Be that as it may, after 10 years and soon after the dispatch of the new iPad, it turns out the stylus isn't dead in any way. Actually, it's improving.
Pen and Paper
The absence of styli at the Apple Store misrepresents the gigantic market of pens perfect with the iPad, by far most utilizing a straightforward capacitive nib made of elastic. Like the basic simple ballpoint pen, picking a capacitive stylus to a great extent boils down to individual inclination, however the Bamboo Stylus from Wacom is a well known decision, and in light of current circumstances.
At around $30 US, the Bamboo Stylus is not modest, and it doesn't feel shabby. Close by the pen is smooth, yet not elusive, wonderfully profound (20g) and all around adjusted. While the 120mm length may appear to be smallish, I think that its agreeable in my largish male hand. The nib is delicate elastic, smaller than numerous contenders (6mm), and effortlessly replaceable. When they can be found in stock, a 3-pack costs $5 from Wacom.
The main outline grievance I have with the Bamboo Stylus would be that the clasp is not a removable top for securing the sensitive nib. Other than that, Wacom has made an amazing showing with regards to in making an advanced pen that is the equivalent of more refined simple partners in look and feel. Tragically, not even 25 years of configuration involvement in advanced pens can defeat the iPad's inherent blemish as a bit of paper.
To be reasonable, iPads, and also Android tablets, speak to an enormous figurative headway over the great Windows Tablet PC, from earth tablets to papyrus as far as mass and weight. Likewise, papyrus has about twofold the battery life of dirt, however the iPad includes a noteworthy specialized issue of its own.
Palm Rejection
No note-taking application that uses a basic stylus, regardless of how all around coded, can conquer the natural information strategy for the iPad, multi-touch. Numerous purposes of contact unavoidably leave stray imprints from knuckles and the side of hand. Having said that, some note-taking applications are superior to others, both in palm dismissal and list of capabilities.
At the low end are free applications like Bamboo Paper (Free) from Wacom. It gives a solitary note pad, a couple of various foundations and pen decisions, and restricted sharing. For $1.99, an in-application overhaul includes numerous journals and distributed storage, yet it's still really lean.
Pixel Density of Paper
More costly applications like ($7.99) Notes Plus let you take notes by hand, console, and voice. Notes Plus additionally functions admirably to annotate PDFs, and including pictures and even website pages utilizing an implicit program. Alternatives for changing the pen stroke and shading are countless, and penmanship acknowledgment can be included as an in-application redesign for $1.99. Other than messaging or sending out pages or scratch pad as photographs, fare to iTunes or Google Docs as pictures and PDFs is upheld, as is Dropbox.
Notes Plus is a brilliantly rich and exquisitely composed application for taking notes on an iPad. What's more, similar to all the others, it bombs pitiably as a swap for pen and paper when utilized with a basic capacitive stylus. It resembles composing with a cracking crayon.It's not the blame of any application or stylus, however. Or maybe, this is on account of the iPad was composed because of a considerably blunter instrument: the finger. Notes Plus and different applications work around this constraint best by utilizing a zoom window that moves as you write in colossal, kid measured script that exchanges keeping in touch with the page. On the off chance that you need to compose between the lines, you'll require a superior apparatus, or for this situation a dongle.
Studio Pen I
The Studio Pen I from Byzero consolidates a capacitive stylus fueled by two watch batteries with a UART Dock Connector on the iPad in a smartpen framework. As the smaller, felt-shrouded, plastic tip infers, this outcomes in very precise situating and incredible palm dismissal when contrasted with a straightforward capacitive stylus.
The pen itself is plastic, without the weight of the Bamboo Stylus. The body is mysteriously formed like an adjusted square instead of being barrel shaped, and the top doesn't connect to the base when the pen is being used. So, the physical plan of the Studio Pen is discovered needing—it probably won't make any difference at all.
For the individuals who put the most elevated an incentive on free frame note taking, blending content with drawings, outlines, recipes, comment, or the syncopated musicality of experimental writing by hand, the Studio Pen is freeing. In any case, flexibility is not without a cost—effortlessly in abundance of $100 right now—and cost is not by any means the only issue with the Studio Pen.
The UART connector will require the expulsion of most iPad cases. Once associated, the Studio Pen will periodically should be adjusted, which takes around ten seconds. Adjustment depends on how you hold the pen. Change your hold and you may need to recalibrate.
Utilizing the Studio Pen requires a little weight, which brings about capable of being heard clicking. It's calmer than touch writing, and a great deal less recognizable with cursive over printing, yet there is sound. Some may locate the hard tip feels elusive on the glass surface of the iPad, while others might be diverted by a small circle, a virtual tip, demonstrating where the written work will be. With respect to slack, I saw none on an iPad 2, yet inquisitively had issues on the new iPad. Byzero item support rushed to react that a refresh tending to the issue will be inevitable.
On the off chance that this makes the Studio Pen appear to be unremarkable at the cost, it's simply because the Studio Pen is so near duplicating the simple experience of penmanship in the computerized medium, and the way that you are composing, yet not on paper, is an involvement in itself.
The product could be better, notwithstanding.
Ostensibly taking moderation somewhat far in both look and feel, Byzero's (Free) Studio Basic Plus is ordinary note programming, ailing in components and clean contrasted with applications like Notes Plus. For instance, the fix include just backpedals five strokes, not cool in a penmanship application. Studio Basic Plus has simple comment bolster for PDF records and Web pages. Fare and sharing is through email and Photos, Twitter, Facebook, and Dropbox.
On the off chance that Studio Basic Plus appears to be excessively austere or uncertain, the Studio Pen is bolstered by a few other phenomenal note applications, including ($3.99) GoodNotes and Ghostwriter Notes ($3.99), with support for Notes Plus and Noteshelf coming. Anybody owning an iPad or iPad 2 would do well to consider the Studio Pen, and also proprietors of the Android Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9. Be that as it may, on the off chance that you have another iPad, you might need to hold up somewhat longer before purchasing a smartpen.Because the quantity of capacitive sensors in the new iPad is probably not going to have expanded, the Retina Display doesn't seem to enhance smartpen exactness, precisely. In any case, similarly as content looks better on a Retina Display, inking and smoothing of composing looks better in refreshed applications. Despite the fact that there's very little contrast between the A5 and A5X on figurative paper, on advanced paper the practically vague slack of the iPad 2 vanishes totally when composing with another iPad.
In any case, the greatest change will be Bluetooth 4.0. The low-control innovation will hinder the dongle, bring network without blending, consummate palm dismissal, and even include weight affectability. The code-named Blue Tiger from Ten One Design is a phenomenal case of cutting edge smartpens going to the new iPad. In the event that Bluetooth 4.0 is the greatest pick up for penmanship on the new iPad, there remains a particular missing feature.While OS X has had penmanship acknowledgment with Ink since 2002, it appears a sad expectation that iOS 6 will incorporate it. In the event that there is any expectation, it might return once more, amusingly, from Microsoft. Ten years after that critical supper party, Microsoft is planning to dispatch Windows 8 on another era of multi-touch tablets that are likewise penmanship amicable. The promotions contrasting the new iPad with W8 tablets could practically think of themselves, aside from not on another iPad without penmanship acknowledgment. All things being equal, Windows 8 tablets are probably not going to affect the market until 2013.
In 2012, the new iPad offering in the many millions will guarantee a 5,000 year old innovation stays fit as a fiddle in the computerized age, regardless of the possibility that Apple keeps on trusting the stylus is dead.
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15 incredible last-minute tech knacks for anyone on your shopping list
Christmas is just days away. If you havent already completed your Christmas shopping functions, then you are officially almost out of time. Of course, the Internet is ever a terrific rich for last-minute offering ideas.
Rather than pillage a nearby convenience store for lame knick-knacks to get your loved ones, weve rounded up a inventory of cool tech circumstances you can get all the members of your family online. If you ordering them now, you can probably opt for expedited ship so they have something to unwrap on the 25 th. Or not, but it’s the had considered that weighs!
For your significant other
Microsoft Band 2
If your beau isnt an Apple fanboy, then an Apple Watch is possibly out of the question. If a smartwatch is something you think your beloved would absolutely experience, consider going the updated band by Microsoft.
Microsoft
It tracks various fitness statistics like a Fitbit, with the added bonus of guided exercisings in accordance with the arrangements of utilization causes extradited right to the wrist. It can be used to constantly track heart rate as well as keep records of their controls. They can also persist has become a multitasking machine through useful docket, announce, email, social, and text updates as well as memoranda and remembers that you can prescribe expending your own voice through Cortana. It comes in three wrist sizings and handily beats most wearables when it comes to looks, acquiring it a pretty snazzy Christmas gift. Price : $249.99 on sale for $199
Perfect Drink App-Controlled Smart Bartending
For the cocktail admirer in their own lives! This smart scale( that comes with a stainless steel shaker) helps invent new liquor recipes as well as improve their favourites thanks to the free smartphone companion app. They can use their own design selecting a glas from the thousands of recipes and follow real-time pouring instructions; for advice, a virtual glass will fill up on the screen as they run.
Brookstone
In suit they become heavy-handed with particular parts, the app will automatically re-adjust the recipe, ensuring that they end up with a well-balanced drink.
If they dont have a particular drink in knowledge, they can plug in the contents of their liquor locker and the app will come up with recipe recommendations.
The perk? If you enjoy booze and live with your S.O ., this endowment assistances you as well. And its on sale!
Price : $69.99 $49.99
We-Vibe 4 Plus
Theres good-for-nothing like a fornication toy to come duos from nice to naughty this vacation season. This particular vibrator is arcked in such a way that gives it rest comfortably when furnished, adequately paying attention to all of a woman’s most sensitive characters. When used during copulation, it also provides subtle and effective male foreplay as well.
We-Vibe
What shapes the We-Vibe 4 Plus unique is the channel it can be controlled through a smartphone app, so ladies, in case youre apart from your sweetheart during the course of its coldnes, wintertime nights, the kinky contraption can stay with you while your collaborator steers your arousal through the many available vibration motifs on the app.
Price: $179
For an older sibling
Casetify Apple Watch belt
Make an Apple Watch even cuter with a fasten customized according to your motif sensibilities! Casetify offers a slew of ready-made intends in its list, including a brand-new Looney Motif row boasting beloved caricature characters from your loved ones childhood.
Casetify
If you want to go a step further, you can even customize your own blueprint by uploading a photograph from your computer or your social media accounts. Price : $70
Beyond Ink Pen
Who replies writes are a lame endow? If they come forearmed with peculiarities like a built-in micro-USB or iPhone cable store, a 16 GB memory drive, and a built-in battery, theyre actually a pretty cool gift for your techy bro or sis. It also has a stylus pen connect thats easily interchangeable with the ballpoint pen tip, preparing it the perfect writing tool for both article and screen.
Beyond Ink
The smartpen is made from high quality brass and to come down either a stylish pitch-black or grey finish.
Price: $70
Gorilla Gears Complete Selfie Kit
Lets face it, teens even off the majority of members of the Internets selfie-loving population. The sooner you accept that as truism, the easier your last-minute shopping becomes.
While there are tons of selfie lodge options that are more cheap, lightweight, and is very easy to connect to your smartphone via the headphone jack, you get a lot more bangs for your buck with this gear. The selfie stick included in the package is Bluetooth-enabled and well-designed. It has a padded administer and a nifty twist-lock function that sees it easy to use on longer photo shoots.
Gorilla Gear
Other goodies include a mini tripod( for taking photographs of sceneries and photos of bigger groups) and a rubberized cellphone clamp, ensuring that your design persists securely attached to your monopod during utilize. It also comes in a stylish walk case-a great endowment for the selfie pro in your family. Price : $45.00 $24.99 through Amazon Prime
For a younger sibling
Hello Barbie
Barbara Millicent Roberts may be 56 years old, but she doesnt look a era over 20. The recent battery-operated version of the highly popular doll is now equipped with Wi-Fi compatibility and speech acknowledgment engineering, facilitating her to converse, tell storeys, and play games with your teenager sister( or brother !).
Mattel
Hello Barbie is programmed with more than 8,000 recorded threads and is designed to remember what she is told and to adapt to her customers advantages. A companion app lets elders set up a Hello Barbie account that unlocks the dolls conversational features.
Price: $74.99
Osmo Gaming System for iPad
Is your child siblings attention incessantly glued to a design screen? You might as well get them something that diverts a tablet into the ultimate educational toy. Osmo is an iPad camera clip-on that passes the room in front of the design into an interactive activity opening where users can play all sorts of games.
This is, without a doubt, one of the hottest toy this season, so you better grab one while you still can.
Price: $149.95
For a baby( and mothers !)
MamaRoo Infant Seat
A baby wants constant motion and stimulant, which prepares this awesome chair the perfect offering for the baby in your household. Its movements imitative yours when you are carrying the baby yourself. If you need to gradation away for a bit to do other real life circumstances, you can set the child down on the MamaRoo and control its gestures and sounds( it can play MP3s !) through your smartphone using Bluetooth connectivity.
4moms
The price tag on this contraption might be a little steep for a newborn endow, but if you think about it, its a combo gift for “their childrens” as well as the mommy and father, so its totally worth it.
Price: $269.99
Kinsa Smart Thermometer
When your baby is find under the weather, its tantalizing to let terror and stress reign; formerly you do , nothing gets done. This is why its almost necessary to have easy-to-use tools at hand when you are caring for a sick child.
Kinsa
One such implement is a smart thermometer that plugs into your smartphone through the headphone jack and tells you take advantage of your machines treating supremacy, which is far and away better than that of a digital thermometer.
It comes with an app that attains the accomplishments of temp-taking easier on the mother and much more merriment for the child. If you’re looking to give a practical and inexpensive child gift, this is your best bet.
Price: $14.99
Mimo Smart Onesie
As an adult, tone nap is hard to come by. The offering of good sleep is something almost anyone will appreciate and is beneficial for, specially a newborn. This smart onesie is equipped with a sensor that would allow us to keep track of highly important baby stats such as mas standing, sleeping temperature, gesture, breathing, and of course, sleep.
Mimo
This is something that makes a great endow to new mothers because it gives them retain attached to the newborn at all hours of the nighttime; the onesie regularly moves reports to a smartphone, standing moms and pops a restful night as well.
Price: $199.99( includes 3 kimonos sizing 0-3 months)
For your pet
Petzi Treat Cam
If youre going to be away for the holiday season, you better make sure your furry friend is accompanied by a loving replace. While a human pup sitter is of course required, having a contraption helpful that let you keep in touch with your domesticated has its perks.
Through your smartphone, you can see live footage of your baby, thanks to the Petzi Treat Cam. It likewise allows you to speak to your pet as well as take still pictures when they come and respond to the chime of your singer. What shapes it breathtaking is it also makes you dispense plows remotely, so even though youre not there to feed or reinforce your puppy or “cat-o-nine-tail” in person, you are able to be involved in their daily routine.
Price: $169.99
Pet Bed Warmer
Elevate your swine digs with a lil somethin somethin to keep them heated at night( or daywinter is coming ). This bottom warmer might be a so-so concept to you whos already comfy in your sweaters and fleece PJs and cushy comforters, but for your hound or cat, this could be heaven.
K& H Manufacturing
This is the warmer part, though, so make sure you likewise purchase a cover. Price : $15.99( small ), $19:45( medium ), $19.59( big ), and $36.44( extra large) through Amazon Prime
Bark Box subscription
Dogs are very easy to please. Just give them an smorgasbord of dolls and plows and theyre golden. Just like a toddler, however, the best interest is very easy to walk, so what they adore now they may not open a damn about later.
BarkBox
Rather than regularly going to a domesticated supermarket to purchase a variety of new domesticated playthings, Bark Box sends you brand-new knick-knacks your furry pal will surely experience. And they do it on a monthly basis! Price depends on the kind of subscription you avail, and makes are dependent on the size of your dog.
Price: $29/ container for a few months, $24/ casket for 3 months, $21/ carton for 6 months, and $19/ container for a year
Illustration by Max Fleishman
The post 15 incredible last-minute tech knacks for anyone on your shopping list appeared first on apsbicepstraining.com.
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15 incredible last-minute tech knacks for anyone on your shopping list
Christmas is just days away. If you havent already completed your Christmas shopping functions, then you are officially almost out of time. Of course, the Internet is ever a terrific rich for last-minute offering ideas.
Rather than pillage a nearby convenience store for lame knick-knacks to get your loved ones, weve rounded up a inventory of cool tech circumstances you can get all the members of your family online. If you ordering them now, you can probably opt for expedited ship so they have something to unwrap on the 25 th. Or not, but it’s the had considered that weighs!
For your significant other
Microsoft Band 2
If your beau isnt an Apple fanboy, then an Apple Watch is possibly out of the question. If a smartwatch is something you think your beloved would absolutely experience, consider going the updated band by Microsoft.
Microsoft
It tracks various fitness statistics like a Fitbit, with the added bonus of guided exercisings in accordance with the arrangements of utilization causes extradited right to the wrist. It can be used to constantly track heart rate as well as keep records of their controls. They can also persist has become a multitasking machine through useful docket, announce, email, social, and text updates as well as memoranda and remembers that you can prescribe expending your own voice through Cortana. It comes in three wrist sizings and handily beats most wearables when it comes to looks, acquiring it a pretty snazzy Christmas gift. Price : $249.99 on sale for $199
Perfect Drink App-Controlled Smart Bartending
For the cocktail admirer in their own lives! This smart scale( that comes with a stainless steel shaker) helps invent new liquor recipes as well as improve their favourites thanks to the free smartphone companion app. They can use their own design selecting a glas from the thousands of recipes and follow real-time pouring instructions; for advice, a virtual glass will fill up on the screen as they run.
Brookstone
In suit they become heavy-handed with particular parts, the app will automatically re-adjust the recipe, ensuring that they end up with a well-balanced drink.
If they dont have a particular drink in knowledge, they can plug in the contents of their liquor locker and the app will come up with recipe recommendations.
The perk? If you enjoy booze and live with your S.O ., this endowment assistances you as well. And its on sale!
Price : $69.99 $49.99
We-Vibe 4 Plus
Theres good-for-nothing like a fornication toy to come duos from nice to naughty this vacation season. This particular vibrator is arcked in such a way that gives it rest comfortably when furnished, adequately paying attention to all of a woman’s most sensitive characters. When used during copulation, it also provides subtle and effective male foreplay as well.
We-Vibe
What shapes the We-Vibe 4 Plus unique is the channel it can be controlled through a smartphone app, so ladies, in case youre apart from your sweetheart during the course of its coldnes, wintertime nights, the kinky contraption can stay with you while your collaborator steers your arousal through the many available vibration motifs on the app.
Price: $179
For an older sibling
Casetify Apple Watch belt
Make an Apple Watch even cuter with a fasten customized according to your motif sensibilities! Casetify offers a slew of ready-made intends in its list, including a brand-new Looney Motif row boasting beloved caricature characters from your loved ones childhood.
Casetify
If you want to go a step further, you can even customize your own blueprint by uploading a photograph from your computer or your social media accounts. Price : $70
Beyond Ink Pen
Who replies writes are a lame endow? If they come forearmed with peculiarities like a built-in micro-USB or iPhone cable store, a 16 GB memory drive, and a built-in battery, theyre actually a pretty cool gift for your techy bro or sis. It also has a stylus pen connect thats easily interchangeable with the ballpoint pen tip, preparing it the perfect writing tool for both article and screen.
Beyond Ink
The smartpen is made from high quality brass and to come down either a stylish pitch-black or grey finish.
Price: $70
Gorilla Gears Complete Selfie Kit
Lets face it, teens even off the majority of members of the Internets selfie-loving population. The sooner you accept that as truism, the easier your last-minute shopping becomes.
While there are tons of selfie lodge options that are more cheap, lightweight, and is very easy to connect to your smartphone via the headphone jack, you get a lot more bangs for your buck with this gear. The selfie stick included in the package is Bluetooth-enabled and well-designed. It has a padded administer and a nifty twist-lock function that sees it easy to use on longer photo shoots.
Gorilla Gear
Other goodies include a mini tripod( for taking photographs of sceneries and photos of bigger groups) and a rubberized cellphone clamp, ensuring that your design persists securely attached to your monopod during utilize. It also comes in a stylish walk case-a great endowment for the selfie pro in your family. Price : $45.00 $24.99 through Amazon Prime
For a younger sibling
Hello Barbie
Barbara Millicent Roberts may be 56 years old, but she doesnt look a era over 20. The recent battery-operated version of the highly popular doll is now equipped with Wi-Fi compatibility and speech acknowledgment engineering, facilitating her to converse, tell storeys, and play games with your teenager sister( or brother !).
Mattel
Hello Barbie is programmed with more than 8,000 recorded threads and is designed to remember what she is told and to adapt to her customers advantages. A companion app lets elders set up a Hello Barbie account that unlocks the dolls conversational features.
Price: $74.99
Osmo Gaming System for iPad
Is your child siblings attention incessantly glued to a design screen? You might as well get them something that diverts a tablet into the ultimate educational toy. Osmo is an iPad camera clip-on that passes the room in front of the design into an interactive activity opening where users can play all sorts of games.
This is, without a doubt, one of the hottest toy this season, so you better grab one while you still can.
Price: $149.95
For a baby( and mothers !)
MamaRoo Infant Seat
A baby wants constant motion and stimulant, which prepares this awesome chair the perfect offering for the baby in your household. Its movements imitative yours when you are carrying the baby yourself. If you need to gradation away for a bit to do other real life circumstances, you can set the child down on the MamaRoo and control its gestures and sounds( it can play MP3s !) through your smartphone using Bluetooth connectivity.
4moms
The price tag on this contraption might be a little steep for a newborn endow, but if you think about it, its a combo gift for “their childrens” as well as the mommy and father, so its totally worth it.
Price: $269.99
Kinsa Smart Thermometer
When your baby is find under the weather, its tantalizing to let terror and stress reign; formerly you do , nothing gets done. This is why its almost necessary to have easy-to-use tools at hand when you are caring for a sick child.
Kinsa
One such implement is a smart thermometer that plugs into your smartphone through the headphone jack and tells you take advantage of your machines treating supremacy, which is far and away better than that of a digital thermometer.
It comes with an app that attains the accomplishments of temp-taking easier on the mother and much more merriment for the child. If you’re looking to give a practical and inexpensive child gift, this is your best bet.
Price: $14.99
Mimo Smart Onesie
As an adult, tone nap is hard to come by. The offering of good sleep is something almost anyone will appreciate and is beneficial for, specially a newborn. This smart onesie is equipped with a sensor that would allow us to keep track of highly important baby stats such as mas standing, sleeping temperature, gesture, breathing, and of course, sleep.
Mimo
This is something that makes a great endow to new mothers because it gives them retain attached to the newborn at all hours of the nighttime; the onesie regularly moves reports to a smartphone, standing moms and pops a restful night as well.
Price: $199.99( includes 3 kimonos sizing 0-3 months)
For your pet
Petzi Treat Cam
If youre going to be away for the holiday season, you better make sure your furry friend is accompanied by a loving replace. While a human pup sitter is of course required, having a contraption helpful that let you keep in touch with your domesticated has its perks.
Through your smartphone, you can see live footage of your baby, thanks to the Petzi Treat Cam. It likewise allows you to speak to your pet as well as take still pictures when they come and respond to the chime of your singer. What shapes it breathtaking is it also makes you dispense plows remotely, so even though youre not there to feed or reinforce your puppy or “cat-o-nine-tail” in person, you are able to be involved in their daily routine.
Price: $169.99
Pet Bed Warmer
Elevate your swine digs with a lil somethin somethin to keep them heated at night( or daywinter is coming ). This bottom warmer might be a so-so concept to you whos already comfy in your sweaters and fleece PJs and cushy comforters, but for your hound or cat, this could be heaven.
K& H Manufacturing
This is the warmer part, though, so make sure you likewise purchase a cover. Price : $15.99( small ), $19:45( medium ), $19.59( big ), and $36.44( extra large) through Amazon Prime
Bark Box subscription
Dogs are very easy to please. Just give them an smorgasbord of dolls and plows and theyre golden. Just like a toddler, however, the best interest is very easy to walk, so what they adore now they may not open a damn about later.
BarkBox
Rather than regularly going to a domesticated supermarket to purchase a variety of new domesticated playthings, Bark Box sends you brand-new knick-knacks your furry pal will surely experience. And they do it on a monthly basis! Price depends on the kind of subscription you avail, and makes are dependent on the size of your dog.
Price: $29/ container for a few months, $24/ casket for 3 months, $21/ carton for 6 months, and $19/ container for a year
Illustration by Max Fleishman
The post 15 incredible last-minute tech knacks for anyone on your shopping list appeared first on apsbicepstraining.com.
from WordPress http://ift.tt/2wF9Krl via IFTTT
0 notes