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dredshirtroberts · 1 year

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I have a few minutes and some thoughts and i might as well put them out into the universe and see where it gets me

I'm relearning how to be a people, which i think i've said already on here. It's still true, btw.

Actually I'm relearning how to be several people but that's a conversation for another time perhaps.

I've found comfort in a lack of definition. Much like my over-sized sweatshirt, I like not needing to be perceived on a metaphysical level as much as I enjoy not being perceived on a physical level.

[img ID: a gif of Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride saying "Let me explain... No, there is too much. Let me sum up"]

I lived by labels for a very long time. I also wore clothes that fit tight to my skin, exposed a lot of my skin for comfort reasons as well as desire reasons. I liked being seen because I felt invisible. I liked being placed into a box because I didn't feel like I belonged anywhere. I wanted people to look at me and think I was the most fuckable in the supermarket (despite being under 18 for a large portion of the time i was doing this).

This conflicted with my self image a lot. Despite being a perfectly fine weight and shape my whole life, I was convinced very early on (when i was at my smallest even) that i was unattractive because i was too heavy. This is something I am still unpacking and I have a lot of thoughts and feelings on the subject of my body in this regard. This is not the time for that.

I wanted to be Shaped. I wanted to Exist Specifically. As in I wanted to be something specific so that I could point to it for people and go "here! this is me! this is what i am! please see me!" I tried on many boxes - sometimes they were ones that fit me, sometimes they were ones i tried to fit myself into. Some worked. Some didn't. Some have stuck around and I keep for nostalgia's sake. Some I still wear from time to time as it suits me, or as I need to.

But life isn't box-shaped. It's not neat and tidy, there is no clear delineation between colors. How do you know which is green-yellow and which is yellow-green - when does one become the other exactly? Point to it on the gradient, please.

(I can use that analogy because I can see more colors than most according to online tests and I can't find the point of change) (jokes but also)

The fact that I am not just me but many factors into these feelings, of course. I have a nebulous grasp of gender on the best days - whose gender, is it accurate? are we feeling it now Mr. Krabbs? What does it mean to feel like a man, like a woman, like a girl, like a boy, like something outside of that, like none of the above, anyway? Why does it matter?

Am I autistic? ADHD? Struggling with C-PTSD from my childhood trauma? Depressed? Anxious? Are they symptoms or are they diagnoses? Does Bruno Mars is gay?

Why does it matter?

I mean for me specifically, for other people your answers might vary. And in some cases maybe I need the labels still - for accommodation, for pointing to what is going on with me so I can work on it and fix it, for existing in the world outside of the apartment, for dealing with family or friends who i'm not that close to yet.

But why do I need them? I'm not using them outside of those cases - perhaps having a set that fits best would help in a couple of those scenarios but which ones? and why? and fitting best only goes so far - what if i've picked inaccurately and it still chafes? Do I go to a cobbler to fix my shoes i got from walmart? No, I just wear them until they're shaped around my foot or i give them away and say "maybe not for me". With a little time and sitting in the zone maybe i'll make the box fit me, reworking the definitions and shoving the parts i don't care for out of the way.

Am I bisexual? Pan? does it matter? I like everyone regardless. I prefer one flag over the other because I like the colors better. Am I aromantic? Maybe! How about a good vague label - they've got lots thankfully. So do the Aces because how can I tell something that no one will explain in detail what i'm supposed to "just know" according to them. I can't "just know" anything - that's not actually how my brain works.

If you can't describe it, I can't tell you whether or not I feel it because lord help me if I can know how I feel about anything.

What is anger if not sadness made fire? What is grief if not love without a home? What is gender if not a box I need to settle into and see if it fits around me, like a cheap sneaker?

Maybe much like the rest of my wardrobe, most of these boxes are second-hand, given to me by others that I've made my own because I didn't know where to find my own. And perhaps the right boxes are out there somewhere, or maybe I'll just finally pull out my sewing machine and start making my own clothes and my own boxes to fit into.

I contain multitudes and perhaps I'm not meant for any single box. perhaps i am meant for many. Perhaps I am meant for none. who can say.

Anyway I'm trying on They/Them pronouns. Feels like it'll fit better maybe.

#wanna see how much i can write to let you know about a pronoun change?#click read more

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nutty1005 · 4 years

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The Gamer Monster Xiao Zhan – It’s not that I am afraid of losing, I just want to win.

Original Article: https://www.weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309404484936814952856#_0 Original Author: 小胖子 (Published by: 爱战DAYTOY_1005)

(TN: This is more related to physical games as opposed to video games.)

The highlights of Xiao Zhan in games…

From hopscotch of our childhood, to table top games, to even ice breaker games in working life, games can be considered as a common activity in our lives. Where do all the fun in games come from? A part of it comes from the interaction among friends, and a big part of it comes from competition and the joy of victory. In order to obtain victory in games, you need to find the shortest path to the goal, and that is like problem solving – you need analysis and understanding to find the crux, and you need effective techniques to solve it. Different games have different requirements – some need you to have swift reactions, some need strategies, some would need logical thinking, some needs endurance and patience, some require teamwork, some require physical strength…

When we speak of “Gamer Monster”, I feel that this person would at least be outstanding in most of the above mentioned requirements, so when I saw some comments that Xiao Zhan is a “Gamer Monster”, my first thought was to ask – what qualities does Xiao Zhan have to be called a “Gamer Monster”? After doing some research into his history, I appeared to have found my answer.

Top 2 Moments of Gamer Xiao Zhan

When we speak of the top moments in Xiao Zhan’s game history, we would have to praise the two “45° Inclined Soda” and “Who’s on the Shiatsu Pad”. After watching these two, all I have to say is – intelligence is a good thing.

45° Inclined Soda

Game Mission: To drink the soda in the can down to a specific amount such that the can is able to stand inclined at 45° on the table, as shown in the image below, balanced on a corner:

Xiao Zhan was the first of the eight to complete the mission – what seemed like random chance was actually calculated.

At the end of the game, Xiao Zhan spoke about the secret to this game – “It’s just the principle of equilateral triangle, so you have to drink until the bottom becomes an equilateral triangle, then the corner will be stable.”

In fact, this is a very simple theory, we just need to ensure that the center of gravity of the can is above the corner, and we will be able to ensure the can’s stability; when this happens, we would have an equilateral triangle. For Xiao Zhan, as an art student, to quickly react to with this physics and math theory, we should be quite glad to know that we do not really forget what we learn in school after all.

Who’s on the Shiatsu Pad?

Game Mission: One of the five members of Group A is standing on the shiatsu pad, only their upper bodies are visible. Group B will need to guess who is standing on the shiatsu pad by giving them specific instructions to complete.

From the first look of this mission, most of us would probably have the same idea – let the 5 of them jump on the spot, the one who is jumping on the shiatsu pad is probably in pain. But after understanding Xiao Zhan’s strategy, you might feel that your idea might be a bit too flimsy, after all, people can be acting.

So, what did Xiao Zhan do?

First, he let each of them hop past each position. (It seemed logical, since someone’s expression is bound to slip.)

But! At the end, Xiao Zhan said that he was not looking at the expression of the person jumping, but at the expressions of those at the side – when the person jumps on the location of the shiatsu pad, the surrounding 4 persons would unintentionally look at position, and he used that location to determine the person who was standing on it.

Shocking! We did not know that you’re Mr. Xiao-Calculated-Psychiatrist-Zhan!

Full Marks on Skills, Full Marks on Attitude Sporting:

What is idol image? I don’t know

There are those with idol-worthy looks, but tosses his image away like trash.

There is this game that both guys are tied together with a long rubber robe and they would need to bring items from the basket to their respective tables. Xiao Zhan, in order to increase friction with the ground, took off his shoes and socks, totally ignoring his idol image.

In addition, there is this game where they were to put on pants without hands, and all kinds of weird positions were used.

The only thing we can see in all his expression and his casually tossed away image is – I! Want! To! Win!

Memory Power: I am a lines robot with emotion

When it comes to games that require memory power, Xiao Zhan’s teammates would unanimously nominate him to participate. In the lines memorization game, both teams were to reenact classic scenes from Chinese Drama, and the team with the most number of correct lines would win.

The first scene is a classic scene from “Romance in the Rain” (TN: This scene is already a meme in China.):

(TN: This is the meme edit, where Wang Xueqin would be relentlessly pounding on a door and yelling at the people behind the door.)

Xiao Zhan was acting as … the door, but he is not an ordinary door – he is not only a talking door, he can also remind his teammates of his lines. It’s a door with lines prompting and lines correction.

The second scene is a classic scene from “My Fair Princess”, a conversation between Meng Dan and Han Xiang.

This part was slightly longer, Xiao Zhan not only had to memorize the lines for two persons, he also acted as both roles, and in the end he won the victory for the team, unlocking the title “The Lines King”.

Self Control: A real man will not smile if he does not want to

From many of Xiao Zhan’s interviews we could see that he has a lot of self control – he spoke of dieting and his strict self discipline in his work and daily life. We can see this once again in his performance in the game.

This game required the other participants to try to make him smile/laugh, whereas he will need to control his emotions and not smile/laugh. Xiao Zhan was the only one in the entire session to not only maintain his emotions, he was actually attempting to cry, and in the end he made the other participants laugh instead.

Reflexes: As fast as a rabbit

This is a game where the participants were assigned values, such as 1 dollar or 50 cents. When the game master calls for a specific amount (e.g. 2 dollars), the participants will need to quickly gather together to form the called amount. If you are not part of any group, you would be eliminated. This game required fast reflexes, and Xiao Zhan displayed his quick reflexes by ending the game before anyone else has realized.

In the trash segregation segment for his “Happy Camp” episode, Xiao Zhan not only reacted fast, he also used his actions to prove that “if you change your answers fast enough, you can’t be wrong”.

Using his own advantage: With my looks, I can be whimsical

In the challenge “send a Weibo post without using hands”, Xiao Zhan chose to use his nose, and only spent 52 seconds to sent a 9 worded (TN: Chinese words) Weibo post, winning the challenge.

In the background and in the comments were full of “Zhan Zhan’s nose is so good looking!” You can say that he does whatever he wants with his looks.

Serious challenger: Let’s play well together, shall we?

During team games, we can observe that Xiao Zhan would always be patiently explaining his ideas to his teammates, and suggesting on how to cooperate in order to meet the goal more effectively.

Not only he does this to his teammates, he is also very serious and respectful to his opponents. In this game, where both of them were to cross a log bridge in a sack, and if you were to fall, you would have to start from the beginning. In the whole process, as long as the opponent fell off, he would push Xiao Zhan off the bridge, so that both of them would have to restart together. Despite all these, Xiao Zhan did not get angry, but instead after noticing his opponent’s frustrations, he calmly said “Let me teach how to play this game, let’s play this round well shall we?”

In this, we not only see his serious attitude for fair play, we also see his good nature and good upbringing.

After reviewing so many of his exciting moments, do you want to play a game with Xiao Zhan?

Easter Eggs!

Try to guess what Xiao Zhan is gesturing! (Answers at the end.)

1. Guess an item used during Chinese New Year

2. Guess a plant/flower

3. Guess something that flies

4. Guess an activity that the elderly like to gather and do

5. Guess a cartoon character

Answers:

Firecracker

Sunflower

Rocket / Space Shuttle

Square Dance

Teletubbies

Follow 爱战DAYTOY on WeChat for more articles.

#xiao zhan #sean xiao #xiaozhan #肖战

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megalony · 4 years

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Oops

This is a small murderer! Ben Hardy imagine I had an idea for, I hope you will all like it, feedback is always appreciated.

Taglist: @lunaticspoem @butlegendsneverdie @langdonzvoid @jennyggggrrr @rogmeddows @radiob-l-a-hblah @rogertaylorsbitontheside @chlobo6 @rogertaylors-lipgloss @sj-thefan @omgitsearly @luckytrashgooprebel @scarsout @deaky-with-a-c @killer-queen-ofrhye @bluutac @vousmemanqueez @jonesyaddiction @ambi-and-sunflowers @milanosaurus @httpfandxms @saint-hardy @7-seas-of-fat-bottomed-girls @mrsalwayswritex @rogerina-owns-me @peterquillzsblog @im-an-adult-ish @crazylittlethingg

Murderer! Ben masterlist

Summary: Ben is taken to hospital just before he is meant to go to prison and (Y/n) is the doctor assigned to treat him. But it’s not as easy as she hopes when her patient scares her.

Enjoy.

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With each clicking of her shoes against the polished tiled floor, she could feel her heart adding an extra beat of blood around her body until she was certain that the organ was about ready to give out. She could feel her heartbeat becoming louder in her chest making every beat feel like it was pulsing through her ribcage and echoing against her lungs. A cold sweat started to rattle through her as she got closer to the door she didn't really know if she wanted to go through or not.

The moment she reached the door her body was subtally shaking which she was sure the security guards must have noticed when she took her ID badge from her waist to flash in front of their eyes. It was her golden ticket to get her inside a room that was limited to who could see what it held within.

Her imagination didn't do him justice.

When (Y/n) tried to remember the last time she had seen the man who was in this room, her memory was hazy. She remembered long ash blond curls that swept everywhere on his head. She pictured dark coloured eyes that were like voids with no emotion, she could see thin lips that stayed straight or held a frown but no smile. She could see hardened, cold features that were not flattering and a medium sized build. What she was faced with was much different to her memory that had been helped out with her imagination.

The man laid in the bed was taller than she remembered, to the point his head and feet were almost touching the ends of the bed. He had a very broad muscular frame that made him more of a threat to everyone who stepped into this room. His eyes were the deepest shade of sea-green that (Y/n) had ever seen, they were like gems, but his pupils were what scared her. The darkness was swirling inside of them and they held no sparkles from the light, they were filled with so many bad emotions that looked so inviting yet frightening that it made (Y/n) cower.

His lips were bright ruby red but they were crooked into the most sinister grin that (Y/n) had ever come across in her life. His eyes were slightly narrowed but they were solely stuck on her frame as her own eyes darted around him, forming a lasting image in her mind. His light blond hair was longer on top but shaved very short at the sides and it was folded back over his head so none of it would fall in front of his eyes and distort his vision of her.

What caught (Y/n)'s attention more than his features was his wrists and his ankles. They were handcuffed to the plastic frame of the bed, locking him in a sitting position so he didn't hold the right to raise his hands an inch above the bed, nor could be kick his feet out at anyone. Those restraints caught (Y/n)'s eye for the specific reason that she didn't trust them. This man had muscle, he clearly held strength and his eyes showed he was cunning, just how long were those shackles going to restrain him before he managed to break free?

"Here to help me, sweetheart?" His voice was low and gravelly like his words were rubbing against sandpaper, but his pet name that she remembered so vividly made her cringe.

"Only to make you better, Mr Hardy." (Y/n) kept her voice level and looked down at her notes as she spoke like she thought looking him in the eyes would put her under a trance. She was a doctor, all she was here to do was to find out what was causing his health to decline and then he would be on his way to prison just like he was supposed to be.

Ben was in the hospital because he had a seizure and crippling pains a day before he was supposed to be taken to prison. A lot of doctors here thought he was just playing things up so he could try his luck at escaping but (Y/n) didn't think so. She vaguely knew him and what she remembered about Ben was how he liked to work. He wouldn't want to escape by faking a seizure and he wouldn't want to go to hospital for unnecessary tests to try and make his escape.

He would want to bribe or kill the guard, he would want to break out on his own in the dead of night and get ahead of the game. He would want people to marvel at his twisted mind and his quick getaways.

"Better how? Are you going to try and see if there's something making me ill, or are you going to try and make me better in my head?" When he spoke he flashed his teeth and the look reminded (Y/n) of a shark or a predator eyeing up its prey. He looked ready to devour her or frighten her to the point she either left or let him go free.

(Y/n) knew who Ben was, but the man laying in front of her now was different to the one she had known a few years ago. The man she remembered hadn't been a killer, but he had definitely been heading in that direction. She had read more about him in the news, he seemed to be rather good at killing people considering how long it had taken the police to even get one small crime connected to him with enough evidence to charge him and send him to prison.

He had been killing people and doing dodgy dealings for at least five years with no consequence because he knew how to evade the police and rid himself of any evidence. He did intrigue her, a lot, but she wasn't a psychiatrist. (Y/n) couldn't delve into his mind and find out what made him this way, she would get trapped and never be able to find her way out.

But that seemed to be what Ben wanted.

He loved the thought of people trying to get into his head because he had the ability to trap them without giving them the answers they were looking for. He didn't think there was any reason he was like this, he had a good upbringing, a loving family, a good education. No traumas or accidents happened to him to make him suddenly take to murder, he wasn't damaged or broken or unhinged, this was just how he was and what he liked to do.

"I'm just here to find out what's causing your health problems, nothing more." When (Y/n) lifted her eyes from the notes on Ben's case, she found he was still grinning at her like the Cheshire cat and it was beginning to feel unsettling. No one looked at her the way he was looking at her now, it was like he knew something about her and he was goading her and holding the information over her head like bait. Willing her to take it.

"And you can do that with me cuffed to the bed, or is that how you like all your patients?" Ben tilted his head up to look at (Y/n) when she dared to move closer until she was standing beside the bed instead of at the foot of it. Her eyes locked with his own for a brief moment but she didn't respond, he was only trying to get a rise out of her. "Come on doll, undo them for me. Where am I going to go with ten guards on this floor? I don't wanna run away from a pretty face either."

(Y/n) pursed her lips as she tilted her head to the side, she wasn't stupid and she wasn't born yesterday. Whether Ben really just wanted to sit without being shackled at the joints or whether he wanted to escape made no difference to (Y/n). She didn't have the keys to unlock the cuffs and she wouldn't do that anyway. They didn't pose a problem unless they had to do an MRI but even then, the hospital had other ways of restraining him so that he didn't try and make a break for it.

"I'd love to, but I don't have the keys."

Grabbing a small light from her pocket, (Y/n) cautiously rested her hand on Ben's temple and tilted his head back. Holding his eyelid open with her thumb as she used her other hand to shine the light over his pupils to see if they were constricting quickly or not.

"Any headaches or pains anywhere?"

"Why do you think the lights are turned off?" Ben watched with a smile as (Y/n) seemed to blink like she was clearing her mind of fog, turning her head to look up at the lights before looking around the room to find that it was significantly darker than the corridor. The natural light from the window provided more than enough lighting to see but it wasn't nearly as bright as what the room would be if basked in the illuminated lights.

"I'll schedule an MRI, see if there's anything wrong with your head." (Y/n) held onto the plastic frame of the bed as she looked at Ben who was still smiling which was beginning to make her feel unsettled. There was no reason for him to be grinning, there was something wrong with him and he was going to prison when they treated whatever was wrong, he had no reason to smile.

"That's what they all say... your little bodyguards will have to uncuff me for that. We can finally have some fun."

Ben's words sent shivers running down (Y/n)'s spine and made her stomach churn like she was going to be sick. His tone showed he wasn't messing around or just blabbering, he was thinking about this and he was excited at the prospect of finding a chance to escape. Restraints like buckles around his body would be a bit easier to get out of than handcuffs. But when he spoke about having fun, his eyes glimmered for the first time and showed sparkles without any light in the room.

He was making her a promise.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Are you scared?" The question came with a tone of sincerity and worry but the catfish grin that it was spoken through said otherwise. The way those words made his cheeks puff up near his eyes that were narrowing and inquisitive made shivers run down (Y/n)'s spine when she was already trying so hard not to shake from fear.

"Why would I be scared?" (Y/n) tipped her head to the side as she responded to his rather sudden question that seemingly came out of nowhere. (Y/n) was trying very hard to seem and act normal, she didn't want Ben to think she feared him but she didn't want to be cold towards him either. He was her patient and it was better to keep him talking and stay on his good side rather than dare to see what the bad side looked like.

"Because the artery in your neck is pulsing faster than normal... you keep looking at the straps which we both know aren't such a good restraint for me."

Ben's eyes were solely focused on the artery he could clearly see pushing up beneath the surface at such a rapid pace that it looked like it was going to burst. It implied that (Y/n)'s heartbeat was increasing and he could see how hard she was trying to keep her breathing normal. He couldn't have cuffs on because the MRI machine worked with magnets, but the straps binding him down were worn and looked like Velcro that he would be able to tear free from without breaking into a sweat. They both knew that Ben was devious and dangerous and (Y/n) didn't want to see him get free or know what he would do to break free.

"We both know if you manage to get up you're hardly going anywhere with a gown that barely covers your ass and no boxers on underneath. Besides, with no weapon, how do you expect to get out of this room?" (Y/n) adjusted the brace beneath Ben's head so it was fixed around his neck and head to give support whilst he would be in the machine for about forty five minutes.

Ben looked surprised at her answer but his smile didn't slip from his features because she had given him something to think about. He was wearing a gown that tied at the back and he didn't have underwear on, he was hardly going to be able to get out of the hospital wearing that. Nor did he have weapons to get himself out of this room, let alone the hospital. Security had guns and tasers and there was a lot of security who could pin him down and a doctor could sedate him. Ben was outnumbered here.

"Try not to move."

(Y/n) didn't like the wicked grin Ben wore when (Y/n) pressed the button that moved him into the MRI machine. He looked like he was one step ahead of her and always would be.

Half an hour had passed but (Y/n) felt like she was going to be sick because he just would not stop. His lips kept moving and words and phrases kept passing from them but they were rattling around in her mind and rubbing (Y/n) up the wrong way. Worse still, Ben knew what he was doing. The more he talked about what he did, the more (Y/n) felt like she could picture clearly what he had done and who he was. She felt sick when he described how he killed people and how he made sure no one found out. She felt shivers running up and down her nerves when he kept calling out to her. Random nicknames drawled sweetly or seductively or creepily from his lips to try and gain her attention or some sort of rise from (Y/n).

But even though Ben couldn't see her and she was staying deadly silent, Ben knew he was having a bad effect on her and it was making him carry on.

Lifting her head from where it was lowered down to look at the screen, (Y/n) felt a wave of both panic and relief flowing through her when the voice suddenly stopped. Ben was no longer trying to call out to her and ask if she was still there or rambling on to her about whatever dreadful thing spilled into his rotten mind.

Deciding that the scan was done now since it was showing nothing irregular, (Y/n) got up from her chair and entered the MRI room in front of her, Ben's name drawling quietly from her lips but he didn't respond.

Pushing the button, (Y/n) looked at Ben with tired eyes but he still had that same shit-eating grin on his face that she wished to become tired of seeing. She went to say something, but before any words could pass through her lips, her body jolted and her heart stopped in her chest when his hand suddenly latched around her wrist with a viper's grip. His fingers felt like sharp teeth digging into her skin and he held so much force because when he pulled her closer to the point (Y/n) almost fell on top of him, it didn't seem to take any energy from him at all.

"Ben, let go." (Y/n) spoke in a stern tone as her other hand quickly grabbed his own to try and release herself from his grip but it wasn't working. He had more strength than she did, she could already feel the bruises beginning to form on her skin.

"Come on doll, be a good girl and let me out, you know you want to."

(Y/n) shook her head and tried again to pull away but she stopped and her eyes snapped closed when Ben leaned his head closer to her to the point she could feel his breath on her neck. She couldn't let him free from his restraints, he could use her as a hostage to try and get out or he could kill people to get himself free. He was here for a reason and he was bound for a reason, (Y/n) couldn't let him out just because he asked or because he was trying to seduce her.

"I can't, now let go before I call security."

Fear rushed through (Y/n)'s veins along with adrenaline, but she wasn't fearing what Ben was doing or what he was capable of, she was afraid what effect he was having on her because her voice was lost. She couldn't find her voice to call out to the security men that were only on the other side of the door. She stayed deadly quiet when she felt Ben's grip on her wrist tightening and his teeth grazing against her neck.

The moment his mouth left her neck and she could pull back and straighten up, (Y/n) felt like she was going to faint and the urge to pass out only increased when all the blood drained from her head. But her moment of relief lasted two seconds before she looked down at Ben's wrist agonisingly slowly and a whimper left her lips when she realised his hands were now free from the restraints.

Every part of her froze and turned stiff as she watched him sit up with a shit-eating grin on his lips and the void in his eyes that drew her in until she became lost. When his eyes darted down to look at the restraints, he rose a brow and tipped his head to the side in an almost innocent manner.

"Oops."

#ben hardy #ben x reader #ben hardy imagine #imagine #BoRhap #murderer! ben

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lions-arch-chronicle · 4 years

Photo

Issue 9

WARNING: Major spoilers for the end of LWS5 in the headline, the rest of the paper is spoiler free

Image ID under cut

Title: The United Legions put Dominion on ice

Subtitle: WARNING: Major Spoilers for the end of Living World Season 5

Story: As a part of our continuing coverage of the Charr Civil war and the fight against the Elder Dragons, we have finally obtained another update from the front. Former Blood Imperator Bangar Ruinbringer has been reported to leading his Dominion followers to unthinkable ends in pursuit of victory. Reports of charr being transformed into ice brood known as the Ice Legion have been flooding in as the Ice Legion has begun to work with the Sons of Svanir in communing and serving the elder dragon Jormmag. United Legions report that all attempts at negotiation have failed and Jormagg has awakened and has chosen their champion. However, there has been an unseen turn in events. Despite the former Blood Legion Imperator being vocal about his goal of becoming the Elder Dragon’s champion to bolster the charr, reports have come in that the dragon has taken none other than Blood Tribune Rytlock Brimstone’s son and Dominion Tribune Ryland Steelcatcher. Reports say that neither the dragon nor the tribune has been seen since the United Legions and the Commander lead their strike on the Frost Citadel. Ruinbringer is reportedly being held by the Dragon’s Watch guild in the Eye of the North the status of the former Imperator is speculation at best and we cannot report more detailed information at this time.

Title: Community Event: Tyriaslibrary first anniversary

Story: Our lovely friends over at Tyriaslibrary are coming up on their first anniversary. For those unacquainted with the blog they are “A place to promote the many talented writers in the Guild Wars 2 fandom.” Where they reblog and promote the fan writers within the community in one place for people to browse and find content. For their first anniversary, they are hosting a community event from Aug 30 through Sept 6 where writers are encouraged to participate in writing for a specific prompt every few days.The prompts listed from the blog are as follows:

August 30-31: Visiting the library. Write about your characters visiting the library and enjoying some books!

September 1-2: Tyrian book excerpts. Write what you think you’d find inside a book from Tyria! Someone’s got to compete with Snargle Goldclaw, right?

September 3-4: Anniversaries. With the game’s anniversary happening too, celebrate by writing about any type of anniversary.

September 5-6: Relaxation. You don’t need to curl up with a good book to relax, but it does help! Write about what your characters do when they get that well deserved break.

They are also hosting a meetup for the community on Saturday, September 5th at 3 pm pst on NA servers. The meeting will be on the second floor of the Minister Wii’s Mansion poi in Divinity’s Reach and look for or whisper Librarian Ink! And finally for content creators that aren’t as involved in writing they are also encouraging people to participate in the #tyrian book hunt where players take screenshots in areas with books to be shared on the blog.We here at the LAC would like to say congrats to the Library for a year of awesome content for their support of us as well!

Title: No Reservations: The GroveBeautiful as a garden but boring

Story: The Grove is pretty on the outside, sure, but what is it like to visit? I will tell you! It’s very humid. There are lots of weeds everywhere to trip on so be sure to watch your step! I hope you like bugs because this place is full of them, you can’t go anywhere without a creepy crawly walking across your feet. All the residents are related too! Must be really hard to date here because everyone is your brother or sister. I will say it is a lively place and it stays green year round. On the very bottom level of The Grove there is a beautiful pond with lily pads that would be a great place to stay if you were a frog! I mean seriously, would it kill them to put in a mall and a McDonalds or something?Editor’s Note: We are unsure what Kittyblog means by “A McDonalds” when asked she wouldn’t clarify so your guess is as good as mine.

Title: The Boasting Hall, Hot Spring and Swing

Story: With everyone running around at the festivals lately, I’ve been running dry of sparring partners at Zelechor Hot Springs! Those of you who have run into me before know I follow a two-part spring strategy. I sit in the steaming waters and let them soak into my pores. Then, I get out in the cold, and fight something. It keeps me young. Come here and let me fight you. You’ll see my wisdom. The festivals are nice and all but all of that food? All of that running around and the food and drink will weigh you down after all that time. Water washes the surface. Battle alone and cleanse your insides. Come visit me at the hot springs then you can truly be cleansed. Title: The Shadow Behind the Throne: is Queen Jennah a Cat?

Story: Like many of you, I paid a visit to the Crown Pavilion recently, partially for the event, but mostly for the hors d’oeuvres. While I was there, I decided to take a gander at Queen Jennah- I mean, what self respecting gossip writer wouldn’t at the very least check to see if she really walks around barefoot! She does. But that got me thinking. While I was enjoying my light dinner, as well as the truly spectacular show, I realized something. Isn’t it quite the risk for the Queen of Kryta to be just… sitting in public like this? Besides, I’m sure she has plenty to do, even in a time of festivity, but as far as I could tell she’s been there since the party started! So, how could this be? Well, my first thought was mesmer clone, of course. But could you really trust a simple illusion to be so close up with the people? Of course not! It has to be a disguise, and it has to be someone she trusts with her life… That’s when it hit me. The Queen Jennah we see sitting in the Crown Pavilion is… the Queen’s beloved cat, Shadow! Call it far fetched all you want… But I’ve never been able to put shoes on a cat.

#Lion's Arch Chronicle #Guild Wars 2 #lws5 spoilers #tyriaslibrary

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cats-obsessions · 4 years

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Mark Your Love in Ink Part 2

A Geraskier soulmates au

Part one - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5

Rating: T

Chapters: 2 of 5?

Notes: I decided to split this up into 5 parts, but on ao3, I posted parts 2-4 in one chapter. So, if you want to read ahead, read on ao3

It turns out, Geralt can run from ‘fate’ but not Jaskier. Somehow, Jaskier worms his way into his life. Forcefully. And deeply. What he expects to be shared milkshakes and parted ways turns into Jaskier following him to the warehouse, determined to set his eyes on some monsters- lucky for them, the ‘monsters’ weren’t werewolves or noonwraiths like he had expected. Nope, they were elves. Angry elves that captured Geralt and Jaskier, bashed the starving artist’s guitar and kicked them both in the gut. Geralt was able to reason with them, and Jaskier was given a lute for his troubles, but he didn’t get any money for his troubles.

As the sun began to rise over the city, bright lights reflecting off of the buildings, they parted ways. The younger man smiled at Geralt with sunshine in his eyes and said “I’d offer you my number, but I suppose you already have it,” which was true- even if it weren’t on his body, Geralt’s had it memorized for years. He was surprised, though, when the musician added “This was fun. Let’s do it again sometime,” with a genuine warmth that told Geralt he wasn’t lying. He was sure that misadventure would have driven the boy away, but he didn’t seem deterred. If anything, he seemed more interested.

Geralt practically passed out once he got home, eager to sleep rather than focus on the situation. He was more alarmed to find the familiar number texting him once he awoke. How did he even get his number?

It didn’t seem to matter much. The next thing Geralt knows, he’s getting roped into going for coffee or drinks, then just hanging out doing things he’d never bothered spending time on before, like playing video games. Then, Jaskier starts showing up at his apartment whenever he wants. Geralt tried to argue, but Roach, his cat, loves Jaskier almost as much as she loves Geralt, which is odd considering she scratches up most strangers.

Every step of the way, he tries and tries to push back against this odd little human that seems set on getting close to him, and every battle he picks, he finds himself losing. When Jaskier starts following him to jobs, he knows he’s gone too far to turn back.

That he was not fond of, but Jaskier is the most persistent thing he’s ever met- like a weed. At first it was just local jobs, things he knew Jaskier could watch without getting in the way, but then he started following him on longer jobs. And, well it’s kind of nice to have someone to camp with, especially when he can convince the musician to stay at the camp while he hunts. He even proves to be useful once or twice. Six months later, Geralt finds himself with an intrusive friend with blurred lines and a lack of respect for personal space.

But it’s not bad, surprisingly.

Geralt finds himself smiling more. Jaskier is tactile and unafraid to show emotion in a way that’s almost frightening after so many years of being a loner. And Geralt, he puts up with it- at least that’s what he says. In reality, he does his best to keep his emotions from spilling out of ‘friends’ and toward something more.

Because he doesn’t believe in fate or destiny.

A soulmate bond is a social concept made up to explain magical connections that only go skin deep.

That’s all it is.

So, he doesn’t fall for Jaskier as if he could prove how fake Destiny is by refusing to feel.

Geralt hums some song that’s been stuck in his head for days- certainly not because the dumb musician had been playing it last time they saw each other. He’s cooking dinner one late evening when he hears his apartment door handle jiggle followed by several knocks. Does he really expect it to be unlocked for him all the time?

As soon as he unlocks the door, it’s being opened by the musician on the other side. He’s a little flushed and his hair is messy as he complains “If you gave me a key, this would be easier.”

“If I gave you a key, you’d never leave me alone.” Geralt rolls his eyes. “Did you bike here in the middle of the night?” he asks, noticing the helmet in one of his hands, a duffle bag in the other, and his lute thrown over his shoulder “and what’s all this?”

“My stuff- for our trip.” Jaskier answers as if it were obvious. He throws his bag down, slips off his shoes, and begins to make himself at home. Geralt watches as Jaskier moves to the living room, stopping to pet Roach on his way. The brown tabby shoves her head into Jaskier’s palm, meowing happily to greet him. Geralt does his best not to smile at the sight.

Their trip. Geralt had tried to convince him to sit this one out to no avail. It will be a week-long trip at the least- granted he can even find the beast. He got reports of a possible griffon terrorizing an isolated town a few days north of them. They’ll have to drive part way, then hike through the forests and camp there for however long it will take to find and defeat it. But Jaskier hasn’t seen a griffon yet, and he’s enamored with them- that’s probably Geralt’s fault, though.

“We don’t leave for two more days, Jaskier.” Geralt reminds him.

“It’s better to be prepared early, isn’t it?”

Geralt lets it go, turning back to his cooking. Jaskier can entertain himself if he’s so set on showing up unannounced. Though, Geralt throws an extra pork cutlet on the pan; the gods know the boy doesn’t eat enough real food.

He can hear the musician talking to Roach in the background. He’s almost surprised Jaskier hasn’t pestered him about his day yet. But, he doesn’t refrain from taking advantage of the momentary silence. With the meat on the pan, crackling and popping while it cooks, there’s nothing to do but wait. So, he pulls out his phone and scrolls mindlessly through the local news. He doesn’t care much for politics, but occasionally things will pop up that point to creatures, monsters, and jobs.

‘Local YouTuber Dies in Attempt to Catch Kikimora’

A dark figure can be seen in the background of what he assumes is a screen shot from the recording. “It’s an Ekimmara, you morons.” Geralt scoffs under his breath. Typical. Mankind has been chasing after monsters since the dawn of time. The widespread use of cameras only made things worse. He scrolls down further, and another headline pops out to him.

‘Local Dive Bar Found to be Drug Front: Shoot Out Between Owners Leaves Renters Evicted’

Also not terribly surprising; humans are always doing these kinds of things. Over his near century of a life, he’s seen more deaths from greed than monsters could ever cause. But, wait… he looks closer, picking up the details of the image provided. Isn’t that-

“Jaskier, what the fuck?” he barks, turning to face the man now sprawled out on his couch.

“What did I do?” he asks innocently, though the cringe he’s trying to hide tells the witcher he knows exactly what he did.

“You didn’t think to start with ‘Penellie’s had a shoot-out.’!?”

“Ah,” Jaskier starts uncomfortably. “Right- well, you know, it didn’t seem like the most important thing.” he looks down to fidget with his nails- a telltale nervous habit.

Geralt bites back his urge to press for more information “Are you okay?” He asks, finding himself out of his comfort zone.

“Of course! I’ve seen a lot worse.” Jaskier shrugs.

“Wait, were you there when it happened?”

“No, no, dear witcher. I was in my apartment. Apparently,” He starts with renewed energy, “the whole building has drugs in the walls! Those possums that were always making racket- Probably thugs shoving drug packets into our shared walls. I guess Penellie and James had a disagreement about how to split the funds. It wasn’t so much as a shoot out as shooting each other in the close confines of their office.” Jaskier makes a gun shape with his hand as he says it, pretending to shoot at Geralt. “Guess renting from your boss isn’t that good of an idea, huh?”

“Who woulda thunk.” Geralt murmurs flatly, remember the exact words ‘don’t rent from your boss’ coming out of his mouth when Jaskier moved to that dump six months ago. Of course, Jaskier was working as a bartender, and Geralt expected him to get fired and evicted in one go rather than an unknowing renter of drug lords. “They didn’t make you ID the bodies or anything, did they?” he pushes. He’s not sure why it matters to him.

“Oh, come on now. It’s very nice of you to think you have to protect my innocence, but like I said- I’ve seen worse. Specifically, I’ve seen you do much worse. You know, most people have never seen the intestines of anything much less helped dig a liver out of a cave troll or pull teeth from a foglet while brain matter is splattered around them. You’re quite lucky I’m so well adjusted.” Jaskier rambles, accentuating his words with wild gestures of his hands. Geralt ignores it, though.

“You’ve never seen me kill a human.”

“Well, you haven’t recently, right?” he says nonchalantly like he wouldn’t be bothered if the answer were yes.

Geralt shakes his head “Not supposed to, though I’m tempted often,” he grumbles, shooting Jaskier a glare. The musician sees the fondness behind it though and chuckles a little. Somehow, he seems to know Geralt’s only so exasperated because he cares- against his best efforts not to, of course.

Geralt finishes up in the kitchen and pops the caps off two beers, handing one to Jaskier along with a plate of food.

“Oh, thanks! You don’t have to, though,” Jaskier smiles, a little blush tinging his cheeks. Geralt pretends he doesn’t notice.

“Had extra,” he murmurs, shoving Jaskier’s feet off the couch so he can sit and eat as well. After a few bites of food and a long drink of beer, he finally asks “What now?”

“Well, the place across the street will probably have a drop in price,” Jaskier smirks.

“Seriously? Should live somewhere safer.”

“I would, but you know I can’t afford that… I suppose I could get a roommate” Jaskier says, biting his lip as he stares at Geralt.

The witcher grunts. He knows exactly what Jaskier is asking even without the words leaving his mouth.

“Come on, Geralt! It’d be fun!” He pesters “You live in a dump, too. Roach deserves better than this! Don’t you, Roachy?” he coos, the cat mewls at him as though she’s agreeing. Traitor. “We could afford something a bit nicer together. And I promise I won’t get in your way more than usual. No jam sessions late at night or early in the morning. I’ll even cook sometimes. Please… Unless, you want me to find some stranger from Craigslist to live with me… But hm, isn’t that how the Craigslist killer found his victims?”

Geralt grimaces. “No- he killed a masseuse he hired through craigslist.” Is Jaskier even old enough to remember when that happened?

“Ah, I thought he asked them on dates,” Jaskier muses.

“No, you’re thinking of the Grindr- no, the Tinder killer.”

“Ah, so Grindr is a safe app to find roommates with then?” Jaskier asks, tilting his head as if it were an innocent question; he bites his fork as if he were thinking- fucker even flutters his long eyelashes. Geralt does his very best not to stare at his over obvious flirting. He knows exactly what Jaskier is doing, yet that doesn’t seem to prevent it from working.

Geralt groans, pinching the bridge of his nose “Mac n’ cheese doesn’t count as cooking. No unannounced guests, and do not touch my swords when I’m gone.”

“Really?!”

“Don’t make me regret this, Pancratz.”

“Yes! You won’t- I promise.” Jaskier beams.

A silence falls over them while they eat before Jaskier pipes up again “Wanna watch the Monster from Brokilon? it’s the one with the Leshen!”

“Witchers don’t even know that much about Leshens; I can only assume what kinds of inaccuracies are in this movie.”

Jaskier smirks, “You can lecture me about it afterwards.”

It has become somewhat of a past time for Jaskier to find various old and horrible horror movies to force Geralt to watch. At first, he was simply curious if there was any truth in them, but once he found Geralt ranting about their atrocious and uneducated portrayals of even the simplest beasts, he seemed determined to put the witcher through more.

For some reason Geralt puts up with it. Jaskier usually ends up talking over it half the time anyways, and he’d be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy having someone to share his monster facts with. There’s something that lights up in the musician’s eyes whenever they talk about creatures and adventures; he doesn’t shy away from it like other humans.

So, he hums contentedly as Jaskier sets up the movie. When it starts, Geralt rests his arm on the back of the couch as he always does. It’s not his fault if somewhere in the night, Jaskier scoots closer and closer until he’s pressed up against the witcher. He’s just like that. And if he falls asleep, his head drooping to rest on Geralt’s shoulder, the witcher only lets him because Jaskier’s had a rough day.

#geraskier #geralion #geralt x jaskier #geralt x dandelion #soulmates au #tattoo au #oh gosh I hope the read more button works #fic #geraskier fic #fic rec #fluff #modern au #geralt of rivia #jaskier #my stuff #roommates

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notdeadjusttrash-blog · 6 years

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My Friend has been Falsely Accused of Tracing So I Will Defend Him

Okay I accidentally deleted the blog I posted this one because I’m a dumbass, so I’ll just repost it here even though I don’t use this blog anymore, but apparently I still have followers. Bless caches because I was able to get this back from google caches so I don’t have to retype everything. I added further evidence and refutes to claims that were not in my original post btw.

Anyways, I am making this post to help out my good friend @5ru9 aka Falco who has been recently accused of tracing/copy pasting other people’s / official art!

I’ve known Falco for over 3 years, and we’ve grown as artists together. Once in a while we give each other advice on art (thanks for the mech and armor advice and teaching me how you line and color!), but most of the time we just meme each other.

Anyways, a lot of people have pointed out that they’ve seen him livestream before, and he’s already posted some of his block outs and other wips as proof that he does not trace in his post here:

http://5ru9.tumblr.com/post/168277137427/hello-i-have-been-informed-about-a-callout-post

To further prove his claim with solid evidence, I shall present to you!

Times he’s asked for advice on his art, or I randomly decided to mention things I notice in his WIPs!

Exhibit A-1:

A Tenkai Knight he made up! I pointed out a few things I thought were awkward about the perspective in his WIP.

Exhibit A-2:

He started working on this way back in July and didn’t finish it until much later because he was working on several other pieces at the same time. I suggested lowering the eyebrows and drawing the eyes a bit narrower to get more of the playful expression he was aiming for. In his final piece here, you can see that Falco continued to refine the piece.

By the way! The reason he sometimes posts a lot of detailed artworks one shortly after the other is because he sometimes works on multiple pieces at once! And then finishes coloring them around the same time.

Exhibit A-3

Falco and I spent good time trying to figure out why he felt like something was wrong with his sketch! I thought maybe it was the trapezius and I decided to red line (or blue line i guess) it so it’d be easier for him to see approximately where i thought the line should go to fix it.

Exhibit A-4:

The gif-ing process turned white bg into blue… anyways! Falco showed me an early version of his Tenkai Knights OC that he eventually used in an April Fool’s joke to pass off as a new character in the series. He mastered the tenkai style enough that at first glance, people really did believe it was official! Like you had to get a good look to realize Shiyu was not really a real new character! Btw I had to go into my old twitter acc to find this…. (Edit: the gif wasn’t working bc it was too big so i had to make it smaller… and choppier and stuff to fit the mb max)

Well now that brings us into!!!

Exhibit B

Some of his old art!! (I’m so sorry falco i’ll be exposing your ancient art to ppl now)

Here you can see his progress from 2014 Tenkai fan art to early 2015! It starts looking more and more like the official art, which is what he was going for.

For reference, here’s what the character Ceylan Jones/Washizaki looks like:

I blocked out fan art by everyone except falco (which i marked) that shows up in this google search. Everything else is official art. The two fan arts by falco you see here are more recent, the angel one being from 2016 and the chicken one from 2017 (i think he also made a version with sonic instead of the chicken? lol). They’re both on his dA accounts btw! The 2017 one really looks like official art, doesn’t it? But it’s his artwork! He practiced a LOT to reach that point, and I hope the earlier arts I showed above this one are enough to convince you in his art progression! Side note: i only used images w/ceylan because 1. i’m biased because ceylan is my favorite character and 2. he drew ceylan a lot because ceylan is his favorite character Also you can see his handle change from s3iwashi to burningbraven. 5ru9 is is a pretty recent handle.

ANYONE WHO HAS BEEN IN THE TENKAI FANDOM FOR A WHILE CAN VOUCH FOR HIM!!!!!

And now for the last one,

Exhibit C

WHAT? WHO IS THIS???

This is my favorite character from a Chinese series called AOTU World! His name is Grey, or 格瑞。I commissioned Falco to draw Grey for me, and let me tell you it would be IMPOSSIBLE for him to have copied any of this. Why? Because the donghua is 3D and the manhua’s art is very inconsistent!

Let me show you the reference pictures I gave him to work with!

They’re all in my gdrive folder here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1CqwH5KS-pHX0ZqLHQpoIZBi6W-gsU_Tz

This is all official art from the manhua, except the 3D model is from the donghua. Look at how inconsistent the references are! There’s no way he could have copy and pasted or traced this! Grey doesn’t even do this particular pose anywhere. lol. I told Falco “give him a cool sword pose”. (I’m sorry for being so vague, Falco! But it turned out great!!) The style he ended up drawing in was a mixture of all of them.

Btw!! here’s the blockout and the sketch he sent me before I sent my payment for the commission!! You can see his construction in the block out!! The arm construction and leg construction is light, but it’s there. You can also see the block out below the sketch. Notice he actually fixed the leg length from block out -> sketch?

ARGUMENTS AGAINST SPECIFIC ACCUSATIONS

LOOK, thte actual drawing doesn’t even match the sprites that closely. Pay attention to the collar especially. The whole frankensteining the image and then painting over it thing is just way more effort than drawing it himself. They don’t even match that well in the overlays. Like wow it’s such a crime to try and stay on model.

WHO WOULD EVEN NEED TO TRACE A MOUTH LIKE THAT? IT’S SO EASY TO DRAW. I CAN DRAW IT PERFECTLY JUST BY LOOKING AT IT. (well i AM an animator so I also do style mimicking)

Doesn’t the fact that you have to edit the sprites to match his artwork prove that you’re just a tryhard in making up fake evidence and not a tryhard enough at art since you think it’s so impossible for people to draw characters on model?

Yes he referenced the broom and possibly the heels from this image, but your overlays for the leg and arms are disingenuous and you know it. The leg positions are different, and the overlay doesn’t even match up. Face tracing also makes no sense. You literally stretched the mouth to try and make it fit but it still doesn’t fit. Do you really think it’s that hard to draw mouths and eyes in the DR style? DR faces are really simple to emulate. Also you fool, if you follow Falco’s artwork enough, you’d realize the way he draws bodies is actually rather consistent even as he does different styles. Especially when it comes to hands. His way of drawing hands is how I recognize his art and know right away it’s his art and not official art or a trace (also his coloring style). The heels he drew are also reminiscient of how he typically draws shoes/feet. he draws them bulkier. The other art has dainty heels. At most he referenced how backside works because he’s used to drawing sneakers.

Also come on, if all you referenced from an image was a broom because you liked the style (his is also clearly drawn by himself since you can’t overlay it on the other one. like i said he mostly used the style as a reference for how-to-broom) and you referenced pieces from many other images, are you going to list every single thing you referenced? While yeah it’d be nice to, it’s a little ridiculous to expect all 5-20 references whenever they post the image. It’s a thing where, if someone asks, you’d tell them, but it’s too much to list all of it. This isn’t a 20 page thesis.

If it’s such a crime, then holy shit sue all those people who parody other people’s comics and sue everyone who dares!!! to ever draw something remotely similar to someone else. Dang.

Art doesn’t live in a vacuum.

Okay, this one is just plain stupid. You distorted the sprite to match it up with his, but what would be the point for him to distort it just to trace? Also if he traced, can you explain the rest of the fingers that are drawn nicely but clearly different from the sprite? Also the thumbs don’t even match up. His faces more downward while the sprite is facing more forward. Also explain the turned body in Falco’s sketch, then!! And the hair! OH WAIT YOU CAN’T EXPLAIN IT BY ANY OTHER WAY THAN HE DREW IT HIMSELF!!! BECAUSE NO SPRITES MATCH IT AND YOU CAN’T FIND ANY SPRITES TO DISTORT ENOUGH TO EVEN GET CLOSE TO MAKING FAKE EVIDENCE FOR IT.

By the way, the style he drew it in is closer to the drv3 than this sprite. while it’s pretty much the same style as the older games, drv3′s art is more refined than the older games. Falco’s art is also more refined as you can see. (wow not only did falco’s art improved from back when we first met; even professional artists improve. shocker. /s)

Dude what the hell? The overlays don’t even match up even ifi you tried to frankenstein them. And these are really common poses at really common angles, and once again, must every single thing we reference from be listed in the description of every place we post an image? Let me just list all 30 videos and 50 images i used as reference for one of my prints. jfc.

As for the saihara animation based on the digimon opening animation? It was pretty clear to everyone that it’s some kind of parody. Many people when making parody animations don’t mention the original video either?? It’s a fun thing for fans of the franchise to recognize the reference themselves. Yes he could have said it was the digimon opening on the description, but at least he didn’t say he thought of the idea himself? And if you talk to him about the animation, he will openly tell you it’s from digimon. And the fact that you think it’s a trace despite how much the overlays do NOT work out is practically proof that you’re just doing this maliciously and hoping that saying he traces enough with shoddy evidence will make people believe you.

ALSO PEOPLE LITERALLY TRACE ANIMATIONS TO MAKE PARODIES OF, DOWN THE STYLE WHERE ALL THEY CHANGE IS THE HAIR AND OUTFIT, AND YET SOMETHING WITH DIFFERENCES EVEN DOWN TO THE STYLE LIKE THIS IS SOMETHING YOU THINK IS A TRACE? Do you need a new pair of glasses?

I was gonna ignore this one because it was the same as a lot of the others, but you literally erased Falco’s face line so it would match the sprite, and you covered the bigger boobs Falco gave her, and totally ignored that the angle doesn’t even match properly. Like you covered parts of his sketch in your overlay just to make it look more like it matches, but if you actually fucking overlayed it correctly, even with squashing it, it won’t fit. (Also sorry to point this out Falco, but the circles on your goggle lenses are too small compared to the sprite; Maybe if you actually traced like this person claims you’re doing, they’d be perfectly like the sprite. OH BUT WAIT YOU DREW IT YOURSELF SO OF COURSE THERE’S SOME DIFFERENCES. JUST LIKE HOW EVEN THOUGH ALL YOUR OTHER WORKS ARE REALLY CLOSE TO THE STYLE AND PRETTY MUCH ON MODEL, THEY’RE NOT EXACTLY THE SAME WITH THE SPRITES! SHOCKER...!)

HOLY FUCK. I already pointed out and gave evidence that Falco started on the Nier Automata drawing waaaaaaay before he posted the actual picture. The 2 sketches are sketches! They don’t take a super long time. I busted out 10 inktobers in 1 day. (thumbnails of my artwork below)

Look I even even lined and colored 5 fairly detailed chibis in 1 day (i did the sketches earlier though. btw i hand drew the plaid on ray. it was annoying)

At the moment I have 5 wips. They’ll likely all be done around the same time. I know Falco often has multiple wips as well, and sometimes he also finishes some of them close to each other. Some artists (like my friend Fish) can pump out extremely detailed paintings in less than a day. WOW some artists can draw at a fairly fast rate. WHO KNEW? (manga artists in weekly magazines pump out 15-20 pages of manga in a week)

He’s still developing a style; he’s mostly doing style mimics of series he likes in the mean time.

At the moment he’s mostly experimenting with the drv3 style, but he was practicing p5 earlier. By the way, he DESIGNED a phantom outfit for mishima. Who the heck would he copy that from? He made it up because he loved mishima and wanted to make him part of the gang in some AU fan art. Mishima doesn’t have artwork like this for him to trace, so it should be obvious it’s his own work.

And the pokemon and crash bandicoot ones are actually not that close. The pokemon one looks like a good attempt at imitating the pokemon style, but since he hasn’t practiced it enough, you can tell it’s a little off model because, well, he drew it himself and doesn’t practice the pokemon style a lot. Same with the crash one. Had it been a trace, with his level of control over his lines (which you can’t refute), it would have been much closer.

And you act like it’s a crime to imitate others’ art style. It’s really not. What is wrong with you? Do you want to slow down animation production by only letting the character designer draw everything? Or do you want animation where the art has 0 semblance of consistency because all the artists draw in vastly different styles? lol. What do you have against artists that try to stay on model?

LOL THIS IS ONE IS SO STUPID WHERE DO I EVEN START?

Oh, I KNOW. Why don’t I do that same pose with my own hands?

IT’S A MIDDLE FINGER, YOU IDIOT.

Just because YOU don’t know basic anatomy and can’t tell a middle finger from a pinky, doesn’t mean everyone else is as incompetent as you. He wasn’t doing the rock-on hand pose (sry idk if that pose actually has a name lol), and he’s drawn the rock-on hand pose properly before.

Closing statement

I believe I covered a lot of things and provided a lot of evidence here that Falco and his other friends did not cover in his defense against the false accusations.

I even added more counter arguments in this repost because apparently my original post wasn’t enough to convince people.

Perhaps the person calling him out meant well (no, I doubt it because they made a new side blog just to diss him because they knew if they did it on their actual blog, they’d be called out for being a jerk), but they did not do enough digging to find out if their claims were true or not (and they probably know well enough that they MADE UP THEIR EVIDENCE).

If you’re going to make a call out post, please make triple sure sure of everything before you accuse people. Talk to them first. Talk to those who know them too.

Many jobs require you to be able to draw characters exactly in the style given. Animators for example! There are multiple animators working on one series, and they all need the skill to draw consistently! Some games also have teams that need to be able to draw in the same style so they don’t have to leave everything up to one person. Comic artists often have assistants that help them draw background characters, but those background characters can’t be too different from the main style either.

As for the people who believed the call out post before, it’s perfectly understandable. I am also guilty of falling for similar posts in the past. Due to that, I decided it was best to double check before retweeting (i say retweet because i use twitter far more than tumblr these days. heck i almost never post anything on this blog) things, and if i wasn’t sure, I would just leave it be.

I hope my post was able to convince you on Falco’s innocence and all his hard work. And if you already believed him but checked out this post anyways… Thanks! ObligatoryPleaseWatchAotuWorld.

And again:

Art does NOT exist in a vacuum. All artists are influenced by each other and MANY artists, especially professionals, use a lot of references, whether it be from photographers, their own pictures, others’ artwork, life, or whatever. We all use many different resources. If you’re going to say that’s wrong, you just dismissed millions of artists in the world.

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thatquirkypixel · 4 years

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Reed Enger | Designer google | Design Systems

PART 2

Exploring the souls of design systems13 min read

Nathania Gilson

• Aug 16, 2019

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Reed Enger is an artificial intelligence experience designer at Google. He’s also the founder of Trivium Art History, a digital platform that shares the stories behind 30,000 years of creativity.

After graduating from the University of Northwestern in 2009, Reed left behind his training as a print designer. Employers at the time were more interested in hiring web and user experience designers. “The term ‘experience design’ was kind of frowned around early on,” Reed remembers. “It seemed a little indulgent, like, “I’m an experience designer.” Well, come on, man. You make websites.”

Reed describes his post-graduation years as the best time to build a big portfolio quickly at many of the local agencies—back then, user experience was still maturing as a discipline.

Reed Enger, the man himself.

As Reed’s knowledge expanded, he realized that experience design was more than just building websites: “I have to never take it for granted that I might have to learn a brand new language, metaphorically, to tackle new problems.”

In 2017, after spending a few years embedded in New York agencies, he moved to Seattle to join the Google Cloud team. Here, he was tasked with driving a seamless experience of design systems for one of the technology giant’s most important divisions at the company.

“You should have fun when you’re designing. I would love to think of a design system as just a box of toys.”

This involved having a direct impact on how people interact with products and services like computing, data storage, data analytics, and machine learning every day.

We spoke to Reed about design as a form of patience and caretaking, contemplation as a kind of counter culture, and why it’s a good thing to remain skeptical about the future of design systems.

[Be secure in the future of your own system with InVision Design System Manager]

ID: Why is it important to keep human-centred design in mind when building design systems?

Enger: It’s that idea that you need to design for a person and, to do that, you have to understand what they need and hopefully some of how they think. That’s, I think, what you can do with a design system.

Because a lot of design systems sort of grew out of code repositories, because developers were way, way ahead of designers when it comes to modular, flexible, reusable kind of componentry. So, I think that as part of that legacy you do wind up with design systems that are pretty formal and sort of optimized for Ctrl+F. They know exactly what they’re looking for and then know how to get to it. It’s a resource and less of a guidebook.

UX can make design systems more of a guidebook—an invitation.

Design systems can get a bit of a bad rap because they’re seen as a constraint. The thing is you can’t do whatever you want, because you’ve got to work from the system. But, just like a box of Legos, a design system applied correctly is a creative tool. It’s not a limiting tool.

ID: You described yourself as a caretaker for the design specifications of the Google Cloud when you first joined. I wondered what made you use that word and how you take on the responsibility of the caretaker role in your design practice.

Enger: Caretaking is humble work. It’s not particularly flashy. It’s playing bass, not lead guitar. Working in design systems I found to be very patient work, and I don’t think that that’s a bad thing.

I’d come out of the sort of rock-and-roll New York agency scene, which was really, really fun. It was an interesting adjustment to then go to a place where a huge part of my job was just listening and identifying the challenges that future teams were working on and then supporting them however I can. My job was not to create something that had real sting, real flavor. It was to melt it away until it was strictly function and could be applied anywhere.

It’s a very invisible sort of design, working on a design system. I really came to love that. I found it to be kind of egoless. You just want the thing to work really well. You want it to be clean. You want to sweep out the cobwebs in the corners. You want to Marie Kondo that design system. It’s that same satisfaction you get from lining up your shoes in front of the door in a really nice straight line. It’s that sort of thing. Caretaking, I think, has its real benefits.

ID: How would you explain a design system to someone if the phrase didn’t

exist?

Enger: I would call it a box of Legos. I would say, “Here’s a box of toys.”

You should have fun when you’re designing. I would love to think of a design system as just a box of toys. Lots of possible combinations. And then somebody comes along every now and then, gets creative, and lights all of the toys on fire and builds a new one, which is great.

It should also be participatory. You should involve lots of people. You should share your toys. If you have a really nice toy, you should add it to the box.

ID: In your experience, how can you make a design system less intimidating

and more useful?

Enger: Edit, edit, edit. Documentation can be so long, and most of the time you don’t need the majority of it. Describe everything as simply and concisely as possible. Use visuals when you can rather than words. Provide very simple overviews that somebody can breeze through and glance their way around. Make it fast, and make it simple.

“I think that you have to get comfortable with the fact that many things can be true at once.”

It’s funny, a design system is like any other experience. You have to design it for elegance and optimize it for efficiency in the same way that you would any other experience.

ID: Can you talk a little bit more about the process of optimizing for efficiency when building a design system?

Enger: I think it’s about providing entry points that speak to different types of users. I’ll think of an example here. Someone who’s really familiar with the design system is going to want to get to what they want as fast as possible. So, you need to build in a search page. You need to have lists with the keywords that they need so that they can just get right to it. You’ve got to make sure there’s power to use your features.

Icons from Trivium’s design system

Even all the different heads on the same design system can be a big factor in how efficient something is. We had an engineering-focused portal for the design system that was basically just a huge, long list, and the engineers loved it. It was super fast. But then, for the designers, especially because the team that was growing really fast, we needed to onboard people. So, we had a visual overview that showed images relative to components.

The system should present itself in a way that is clearly understandable to the user that is using it.

ID: How do you think your knowledge of UX shaped the way that you approached living in the world on a day-to-day level?

Enger: I used to worry that being a visual person and a designer and a writer was making me dissatisfied because so much of trying to develop taste is learning to identify when something is off. It’s that carefully curated sense of dissatisfaction that lets you improve as a designer. I used to worry that it was going to turn me into a grouch.

I’ve been very relieved to discover that what it’s actually done is just develop my curiosity more, because, if you see something that feels off, that feels wrong for some reason… Maybe it’s type that’s kerned poorly. Maybe it’s a door that opens in instead of out. When you start to pay attention and notice those things, sure, you can be a grump about it, but you can also be curious about it, and you can try to figure out why that was made that way. Was it an accident, was it intentional? Maybe there’s something going on that you don’t know about.

It opened up this sense that there’s always something to learn. So I try to exist in that space of being excited to learn and keeping my eyes open to see what I can learn next.

ID: Earlier this year, you gave a talk at the Awwwards Conference in New York on how design systems have souls. Your talk alluded to the fact that everything has a soul—what do you mean by “soul?” How do you know it’s there?

Enger: When I talk about the souls that are in design, I’m using the word in an esoteric sense. There’s a variety of long, dead philosophers and scientists and nuns who referred to objects having an inherent purpose and unique and specific purpose. And everything had that purpose. A person had it, but so did a tree. So did an apple. I love that idea. And I think the thing that I like about it is that it forces you to ask the question, why is this here? What is the purpose of fill-in-the-blank? Apply it to anything at any level within a design project.

I think it’s also a really kind of lovely way of equalizing many disciplines, If everything has a unique purpose, then that purpose accounts for not only its functional behavior as a UX person would craft, but that unique purpose needs to be served by the visual design. That purpose needs to be served by the copywriter who creates the snappy call to action. That purpose is applicable to everyone who touches it, and everyone needs to be responsible to that purpose.

Then that purpose is also something that relates up and down. It’s that as above, said below hermetic thing. So, you have the small element. Is it harmonious with the larger themes of the product, the website, whatever it is that you’re working on? Everything has to make sense from the top to the bottom, the bottom to the top.

You’ve got this symphony of elements and components and design styles, and they all have to sing in tune. Their souls have to be aligned for the product to feel good.

When everything’s lined up, when all the souls are being expertly crafted and they’re all singing the same tune, then you wind up with something that feels complete and finished.

“If everything has a unique purpose, then that purpose accounts for not only its functional behavior as a UX person would craft, but that unique purpose needs to be served by the visual design.”

That kind of goes back to that idea of dissatisfaction. If you’re crafting that dissatisfaction, then you can start to see where things are out of alignment. I think that that’s what all good designers do. That’s what all good writers do. That’s what a good UX designer does. They identify where things are not serving their purpose. That’s it.

ID: In that same talk that you gave, you mentioned the word ‘glanceability’ as a key component of design systems. Why is that important?

Enger: People don’t read. People just don’t read.

ID: Why do you think that is?

Enger: I think it’s because we’re in a hurry. You know? We’re on a deadline.

A timeline of 40,000 years of art, taken from

But also, documentation and design systems tend to be pretty dry. I think that’s kind of the other component. It’s really rare to run across writing that is pleasurable to read in a design system. It’s not impossible. It’s out there, and god bless the people that put in the time and love to do that. Make it glanceable so that somebody can whip through it as quickly as possible.

I think it’s just a matter of kindness. To try and describe a dropdown menu in words is … It’s terrible to write, and it’s terrible to read. If you’ve just got a little animated image of a dropdown opening and closing, you get it right away.

It’s just easier on everyone. I mean, even better, if you’ve got a little live snippet of code, and you just have the dropdown menu there. Then somebody can go in, and they can click it, and they can see it open, click and see it close. It’s just merciful to everyone involved to try and keep things visual and short.

ID: When it comes to the history of design systems, key moments have included the publication of Christopher Alexander’s A Pattern Language, Jenifer Tidwell’s view of design systems as shortcuts in the 90s, Brad Frost’s theory of building systems, not pages, and the introduction of Google’s Material Design. Let’s look to the future, perhaps 50 years from now: what do you see as pivotal—and hope will exist—in 2069? How far could we go?

Enger: We’re in a weird spot right now with design systems. They’re primarily used by large-scale products. A lot of enterprise-level products. A lot of products that are used by millions if not billions of people.

What we’re seeing is a radical standardization in design systems. And how could you not standardize? These things have been exhaustively A/B tested, optimized down to the pixel.

So, now what we have is an extremely narrow range of highly-performant elements that are recognizable and efficiently usable by the greatest number of people possible. We have arrived—or we are close to arriving—at a point where there’s something like a design supersystem, and everybody’s kind of just using variations of basically the same thing. That’s extremely, extremely efficient.

“A good system would know when you want to use tool A versus tool B versus watch YouTube. That’s what a hyper-personalized system would allow.”

I think it’s going to flip from being a standardized design system to being an individualized and generative design system where every individual person has their own design system [assigned to them by the product], and they’re probably not even aware of it. The system’s probably being generated based on the patterns that you yourself have as you move through space, both digitally and the real world, when you interact with your devices; when you walk into a Starbucks.

The massive awareness that is being sort of slowly created, the coverage that we have now with sensors and transactions I think is going to be enough to inform a hyper-personalized design system for the individual that will then build your experiences and your tools, probably from some insane fleet of microservices.

A good system would know when you want to use tool A versus tool B versus watch YouTube. That’s what a hyper-personalized system would allow.

ID: Do you think there is such a thing as healthy skepticism about all of this?

Enger: Oh god, yeah. I think that you have to get comfortable with the fact that many things can be true at once. The same slice of code that could be hugely empowering could also be used to reinforce a surveillance state. I think skepticism is really, really important.

The potential is so incredibly, incredibly strong. It could be absolutely, radically misused. It is every day. But it could also be wonderful. You want to keep making stuff that pushes it in a wonderful direction

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puppyluver256 · 2 years

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[Image Description: Blue Oak, the rival of Pokemon Red/Blue and FireRed/LeafGreen (specifically in his FRLG appearance) with his Bulbasaur. Blue is a boy with light skin, orange spiky hair, and brown eyes. He is wearing a black collared short-sleeved shirt, a round silver pendant, purple wristbands, a light grey fanny pack with a black strap, purple cargo pants, and black shoes with light blue fasteners on the straps on the top. He is pointing toward the viewer as he grins confidently, his other hand holding up a red and white Pokeball. Bulbasaur is a small aqua green reptilian quadruped with teal spots on its forehead and legs, small triangular ears, big red eyes, and a large green bulb growing on its back. It is looking up at Blue and smiling. The background is Route 22, a location in the Kanto region of the Pokemon games that leads to the Pokemon League. It is a yellow brick path surrounded by grass, with two large rock ledges on the left of the image and a shorter ledge to the right. End ID.]

-----

“Yo! You're still struggling along back here? I'm doing great! I caught a bunch of strong and smart Pokémon! Here, let me see what you caught!”

Back on the Kanto train! Here's the first of many Pokemon rivals! Whether you know him as Blue, Gary, Jackass, or any other name you may have called him over the years, he is basically The Template for the rude rival that people keep claiming they wanna see again. Honestly tho, I think people just want rivals like Blue again just because of his character development in subsequent games, he's less of an explicit asshole in Johto and Alola and more just very confident. Then again, at both of those points, he's also had several years of extra experience beyond his own Kanto adventure, hehe.

💖🐶 Check out my pinned post for ways to support my artwork, among other things! 🐶💖

~If you like, please reblog to show your friends! Likes are appreciated, but reblogs let more people see my content! If you have something to say, feel free to give feedback in tags/comments/replies as well!~

Blue Oak, Bulbasaur, and other Pokemon concepts © Nintendo/GameFreak Artwork © PuppyLuver Studios

#pokemon #pokemon fire red #pokemon leaf green #pokemon trainer blue #bulbasaur #jess drew the thing #sfw #image description

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shirlleycoyle · 4 years

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Does Jeff Bezos Have Huge Feet? An Investigation

“To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them that they can never have; it turns people into objects that can be symbolically possessed. Just as a camera is a sublimation of the gun, to photograph someone is a subliminal murder—a soft murder, appropriate to a sad, frightened time.”

– Susan Sontag, On Photography, 1977

"The feet pics, darling. It's been 15 days. You don't want to make me angry."

– An internet meme, 2018

Everyone in New York has a story about a close-call with a celebrity. In a city that's home to one million millionaires and almost 80 billionaires, a run-in with the rich and famous is bound to happen eventually. I don't frequent the right ticketed sex parties and don't have the foresight to book tables 10 months in advance, so this is a rare occasion for me. But one time, I showed up to an indie zine fair allegedly 10 minutes after Jeff Bezos, his body-double, and a bodyguard detail, left.

My only regret in my entire six years as a Brooklyn resident is not leaving my apartment for this event even 11 minutes earlier. Not because I need to get a glimpse of that shiny head perusing anti-capitalist art, but to get a peekie-see at his feetsies.

Months later, I found myself standing at the entrance of the Liberty Ferry in Battery Park on a 30-degree day, gazing at a spot where Bezos walked last spring, closely examining the stones where his shoes once tread. How big were those shoes, I would ask myself on this unholy pilgrimage.

To the general public, the size of Bezos' feet is a mystery no one seems to have the answer to except the man himself. I sought to discover it.

THE CURRENT CLAIMS

There are dozens of websites devoted to celebrities' bodily measurements, including statistics about their height, weight, eye color, age, and astrological signs. Most of these sites include an entry for Bezos and on average, they agree on the basics: He's five feet, seven inches tall, weighs around 154lbs, is 57 years old, and has brown eyes.

Some sites go further than others, but most conflict on the feet. Several attempts have been made to try to guess the size of his feet. Gossipgist.com says they're a 14, a size so large and uncommon, most shoe size charts don't list it, and that sometimes require a special order. Celebrityboss.com says 10. Celebrityinside.com cites his "distinctive features" as being his cleft chin, asymmetrical eyes (the right one is always a little bit more closed than the left), and his "style of laughing." This last note is haunting, but it's not what I'm here for.

WikiFeet Men—"the collaborative celebrity feet website"—also lists Bezos' foot size as "unknown." And if the good folks of wikiFeet don't know, it's safe to say that no one really knows the truth, except the man himself.

In 2004, Amazon's top reviewer Joanna Daneman crossed paths with Bezos at an Amazon-sponsored event, and noticed that "he has really large feet." So large that, six years later, these flippers stand out in her memory. Then again, she also characterizes him as "really tall," which he objectively is not.

He is 5'7. His feet can't be that huge.

There's scant data available on any sort of foot-to-height average, but anthropometric data from the University of Rhode Island cites an average ratio of 6.6:1—for every 6.6 inches of height, average males have one inch of foot length. For Jeff's 67 inches, we could assume his feet are 10.15 inches long, approximately a size 8.5. But Bezos, one of the richest and arguably most powerful men to ever flap his footsie-wootsies across this humble planet, is no average man. Perhaps his body defies norms as well.

My working hypothesis at this point is that as a short-to-average height man, and a billionaire, he carries himself as if he's a much taller dude, but maybe his feet are disproportionately large compared to the rest of him, making them seem enormous in photos and eyewitness accounts.

We have to confirm via forensic photo analysis.

EXHIBIT A: THE SHOE THAT FITS

Bezos' wikiFeet entry contains a handful of paparazzi photos, mostly of him barefoot or in sandals on vacation. In some, his feet seem very large. In other photos, the perspective changes, and his feet seem impossibly petite.

One thing is for certain: the man fills out a pair of strappy sandals. I thought these were Birkenstocks, due to their iconic two-strap slide design, so I emailed a handful of Bezos feet pics to the Birkenstock company, hoping for some enlightenment.

A spokesperson replied within 20 minutes: "Hey Sam, they are not Birkenstock."

I asked Zappos, which is owned by Amazon and therefore Bezos, if it could help ID the size or shoe. A spokesperson there, while apologetic, was unable to give me any information.

But the UK tabloid Daily Mail had the answer all along: They're a $531 pair of Prada slides. Reinvigorated with hatred for the rich, I turned to the foot fetishists of Reddit.

I messaged the mods of r/CelebrityFeet, a forum devoted to celebrity feet, my very earnest request for help. Do they know anything about these elusive sweeties? If they do, they aren't telling. I was promptly silenced for even asking:

When I asked a mod for r/jeffbezos if they knew anything about their #1 guy's feet, they told me to "learn to code." On to the next.

I messaged u/jokes_on_you, who helped me debunk the faked Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez foot pic last year, if he'd be willing to lend his trained eyes to the investigation of Bezos' feet. He asked me to send my own foot pics in exchange for information, which in a non-journalistic context might be a fair price to ask. But according to Motherboard editor-in-chief Jason Koebler, trading quid-pro-quo foot pics with a source would "set bad precedent."

Fine.

EXHIBIT B: THE SUPERYACHT TENDER

In the wikiFeet photos, Bezos strolled his $531 Pradas through a December 2019 vacation, set aboard fellow bald billionaire David Geffen's yacht in St. Barth's. This big boat, I learned, is named the Rising Sun, and is manufactured by ship builder and navy contractor Lürssen, which also manufactures naval ships armed for warfare.

(The photos, it turns out, are owned by a firm called The Mega Agency. We know this because we bought one of these photos from the company for the very reasonable price of $250.)

Rising Sun is a 453-foot long superyacht, and has capacity for at least one "tender," the name for the little day-excursion sized boats that come with ships that big. One of the wikiFeet photos from the St. Barth's trip is a group picture on a tender, seemingly exploring some sea cave, with Bezos front and center, barefoot.

View this post on Instagram

Having a great time in the Balearics

A post shared by David Geffen (@davidgeffen) on Aug 6, 2019 at 3:52am PDT

His feet look humongous in this photo. Most usefully for our investigation, his left foot is placed right next to a straight line of paint on the floor. If we knew the square footage of the floor area of this tender, we could potentially deduce the length of this piece of floor paint—and therefore, the foot.

I emailed Lürssen, maker of $200 million yachts and war vessels, and definitely did not mention any feet. But they still wouldn't give me anything helpful.

"We do not comment on our yachts (or their tenders) to the press as a matter of confidentiality," Timothy Hamilton, director of Lürssen Americas, replied. "Best of luck with your article; it sounds interesting!"

Timothy, you have no idea.

EXHIBIT C: CLINTON CASTLE FLAGSTONES

At this point, powerless and frustrated at our inability to learn a simple fact about a multi-billionaire whose unprecedented empire is in part fueled by the wholesale and dangerous collection of data on millions of innocent civilians, we reached out to a true professional for help.

Motherboard managing editor Emanuel Maiberg contacted Eastern Europe/Eurasia lead researcher and trainer Aric Toler at Bellingcat, the award-winning open source investigations team that previously used images posted to social media to discover key information about the downing of flight MH17 in Ukraine and unmask Russian government assassins.

Toler generously agreed to aid our investigation. We were heartened to hear from him that we were on the right track. "If anyone can figure it out, it's wikiFeet," he said, before we explained that it was not responding. Then he, too, suggested we find a photo of Bezos' feet next to an object we can measure. But while we were fixated on the photo of the Big Foot on the superyacht tender, Toler provided this crucial image of a Bezos photo opp in Battery Park. More specifically, according to the Getty Images caption, "Statue Cruises Terminal in Battery Park in New York."

Jeff Bezos arrives at the Statue Of Liberty Museum Opening Celebration at Battery Park on May 15, 2019 in New York City. Getty Images

Here, again, we have more straight lines next to his feet, in the form of large, identical flagstones. This we could work with; if we could get down there and measure the stones, we could theoretically calculate a rough foot length.

Before I headed out to wander Battery Park on a very cold February afternoon, Koebler, Maiberg, and I did some Google Street View exploring to find the exact location the photo was taken.

In the Getty photo, everything in the background is slightly compressed—a result of using a telephoto lens, as photojournalists capturing Bezos often use. But I had my landmarks: a distinctive bush, some columns, this gray monument building, and Castle Clinton.

With the coordinates dialed in (40°42'11.7"N 74°00'59.4"W) I headed to Manhattan's southernmost tip to walk in Bezos' footsteps. As I got closer to the spot we'd seen in photos, I saw the flagstones.

I moved slightly out of view of a park ranger and got to work taking measurements. Each stone is about 55 inches by 52.5 inches.

I sent this data back to Maiberg's forensic photo lab (Microsoft Paint) and he set to work:

If a little more than four and a half of Bezos' shoes fit in one of these stones lengthwise, that's around 11.9 inches of shoe.

If you account for the shoe being a little bit bigger than the foot inside, and reference various shoe and foot size charts, one can assume his feet are around 11 inches long.

These measurements are obviously not accurate to the nanometer, but even by the widest margin, the length of Bezos' shoe is between 10 to 12 inches long. It is likely somewhere closer to the middle of those two extremes, and while we don't know for sure, we are confident that his feet are not notably large, and certainly not a daunting size 14.

At least in this respect, Bezos is just an average man.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

If I'm being honest with myself, I don't feel better with this information. Maybe some things should remain mysterious.

Throughout this investigation, however, when I ranted and raved in dark hours to friends and loved ones about my week-long quest, several people asked, "Why?"

The pursuit of knowledge is always worthwhile. If the tagline of the newspaper Bezos himself purchased is to be believed, "Democracy Dies in Darkness." Information wants to be free. Etc. The feet of a billionaire should be no less subject to scrutiny than, say, the feet of a congresswoman. When the boot is on your neck, measure it.

Amazon did not respond to a request for comment on the size of Jeff Bezos' feet.

Does Jeff Bezos Have Huge Feet? An Investigation syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

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charlottebellblr-blog · 4 years

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Charlotte Bell Professional Portrait

A professional portrait headshot is essential for all businesses. Websites, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. all require a quality image. Charlotte will work with you to create a portrait that “looks like you”. Plus Charlotte’s sessions are fast and fun. You will get to see the images immediately and pick the one that you like best. Then she will add her magic: lightening wrinkles, eliminating blemishes or skin imperfection if necessary. Within 24 hours you will have a classy portrait of yourself that you can proudly display to the world. [email protected]

Whatever your service or product, think about how you are coming across to your customers. If you look cheap, expect people to start by letting out a sigh and asking, “How much?” If you communicate quality you will attract customers who value quality and will be willing to pay for it.

To illustrate my point, think of a business website you have seen where all the photos are different: difference background, different lighting, and different colors. Some are done with a cell phone others look like a mug shot. Your potential client notice details. They expect you to pay attention to details in your service or product. So you make the introduction to your business classy with professional consistent photographs.

Preparations

Before every job, we make a list of the following details: contact names & phone numbers. I’m detail-oriented and listen carefully to what my clients say so the finished photo portrays the taste and style desired. A Portrait Photography session can be held at our conveniently located studio or a client-suggested venue. Clients are provided with immediate feedback so they know what the finished product will look like.

Pricing

For Portrait Photography economical pricing is essential. For an individual portrait, the basic cost is $125. However is you have a company where you need many headshots the price can be as low as $75 per person depending on the total number. We also honor that price when new people are added to your staff even though they will get their photos done at our studio. Of course, everything will match. We think we have the best pricing in the Austin area.

Editing

Every Professional Portrait needs some editing. Perhaps something as simple as a scar, shiny nose or blemish needs to be removed. However, we can do more than that. Perhaps you have a large company and you want all the headshots to have the same background. You provide the background and we will make everyone match. Or we have backgrounds that you can choose from. Perhaps you want to look 10 pounds thinner? No problem. Or you have darkness or lines under your eyes. We can also fix that. However, you will never look plastic. All editing is done with a light touch. Basic editing is included in the price of your head shot.

Below is a sample. We added an optional vignette. We also could have been less dramatic in eye editing. However, when you meet this man you would not think you were some whose photo was edited. He still looks his age. He just looks rested.

Model Actor Musician photography

For a Model Actor Musician, photography is an essential tool for getting the job. The following are just a few examples of photography for performers.

Actor

An actor’s first foot in the door isn’t the play they did in high school; it’s the professional head shot that accompanies their portfolio. We’ve worked with hundreds of aspiring and successful actors and actresses to help them land their dream gigs. When you need a photography team that knows the difference between Theater acting and Hollywood pictures, our portraits can give you the modern, creative, or old-school head-shot you need. To do that, we can work directly with acting schools and teachers for guidance to create the best acting portfolio. Even if you already have one, together we will find a way to update and improve it to meet your specific professional goals; all so you can achieve them in the shortest period. We always work until your satisfaction.

Model

Certainly, models and photography go hand and hand. This is the essence of what models need and want. They need a portrait to get the job. I work with models of all ages and gender to give them this essential tool for getting jobs. Plus it's fun. Try this link for tips for models

Musician

Frequently musicians never think of getting a professional head shot taken but these are just as important for them as for an actor. When you are selling yourself to a promoter your look is only second to your music. Frequently on-site photography works the best but a staged set up is equally powerful. So, in essence, it is a model/actor/musician that all need good head shots.

But they usually do not have big budgets. Charlotte provides great images and fun photo sessions at very reasonable costs. She can also do on-site performance photos. With models, she can even do a trade. So if you are a model/actor/musician give me a call and get a quote for your photography. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Family Photography

Family Photography for children, babies, and families.

We believe that great family photography has the power to take your breath away, make you laugh with delight, and/or move you to tears. Our style is capturing real moments that tell a story while showcasing the wonder, joy, and excitement of childhood. We love to get creative with beautiful light, artistic perspectives, and funky angles. Most of all, we love to present those precious memories as stunning works of art that you will appreciate forever. Children change every day.

We suggest you schedule a family photograph every year. If not the entire family certainly you want to capture the children. Look at the precious children in these photos. These children are showing their true personality. This is what you want to remember forever and we can make it happen.

Investing in a Charlotte Bell portrait, you get far more than a photograph. Charlotte’s approach to portraiture begins with the design and planning of the location, style, and fashion of the family photography session. She will meet with you to discuss clothing, setting and the best time to take the photograph to best suit your individual needs.

When it comes to choosing the best family photography you’re going to want to choose someone who knows how to capture your uniqueness. The best family photos are the ones that can show people who you are at a glance.

Over the years, Charlotte has developed a relaxed style that will make the shoot enjoyable. Your family photography can be made at a destination of your choice, or in the comfortable atmosphere of your home or at her studio.

It can be a lot of fun modeling for the camera even when you’re bursting at the seams during your pregnancy, but not only are maternity photos proof of the amazing things your body is going through, they’ll also serve as precious keepsakes for your child one day. Where you would like some elegant of fun we can record this special time in your life. Portraits are a family history.

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Call today to discuss your portrait needs. 512 447 2150

Senior Portrait

A senior portrait is a record of one of the most important times in a young person's life. The following are some examples but first see what I can so with those photographs as something you can send to family, put on Facebook or other social media.

For a senior portrait, graduates are looking for photos that reflect their interests and show their personalities. Working with me is relaxed and fun. You can come to my studio or we can meet at one of Austin’s unique locations: UT, SOCO, 6th street or one of many local parks. Bring your dog if you like. The idea is to enjoy yourself so we can capture how you are. This can be high energy, romantic, casual or whatever you want. It’s up to you. Combining state-of-the-art equipment with experience and innovation, I can produce portraits that can be edgy or beautiful. So call me today to talk about this “all-important” portrait to remember your graduation. 512 447 2150

Senior Portraits run from $350 – $500.

Consult me ahead of time and find out what to wear. I suggest colors that will complement your hair and eyes. Try to stay away from clothing with “designs”. You want your face to command attention, not the design of the clothing. Remember little things like wrinkles in clothing, clean shoes, and clean/groomed nails, etc. You could also bring a shirt with your high school logo, a letter jacket or a college shirt to show where you will be going and anything else important to you.

I’d love to hear any other favorites you may have too! Do you have a vision of what you want to see? Maybe with the skyline of the city or on a motorcycle, diving in the water or kicking a soccer ball. We can do whatever you want. This is your senior portrait so dream big and we can do it.

This list may be helpful in your planning.

1. What makes a good portrait in your opinion?

2. Are there things that you would like to have in your photo? Like some sports objects, soccer, tennis, baseball or theater props.

3. Is there something you hate about having your photograph taken?

4. What are your plans for the future?

5. Do you have some idea of what would be fun to do when we take your photo?

6. Think about the clothes you would like to wear: something casual and something dressy.

7. Do you have a creative idea on how we should do the photo? A location for instance.

#Professional Photographer in Texas #Portrait Photography #Best Wedding Photographers in Austin #Austin Photography Studio

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bizzaro-stormy-blog · 7 years

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Like, Questions and Stuff?

eeeeeee i dont think ive ever been tagged in one of these so thanks @latenightgaymer you are the bees knees!!

Where do you currently live?

portland oregon

Where would you prefer to live if given the option, and why?

oregon is my home, i used to have a dream of moving back to seattle and buying back the house my grandfather built but the city has changed and so have i.

the weather is usually perfect here (we have had waaaaay too much sun lately) theres green literally everywhere and it feels alive.

i have always thought about alaska for the same reasons + snow

Shoe size?

14 us its hard to find cheap and nice shoes in my size

Is there a movie/book/show/game you’re looking forward to? What about it has you most excited?

i really want to borrow the scarlet gospels from my friend i know its not a new book but i want to read it super bad, also comic books from another friend (too many to list honestly but Trees, Wytches and the wicked + the Divine are at the front) id also like to read a physical copy of kill six billion demons when i can afford it.

im super excited for the second seasons of westworld, legion and american gods aswell as the next seasons of Killjoys, the magicians, archer, my hero acadamia, steven universe, shameless, van helsing, its always sunny, RPDR and like all of the netflix shows, im also looking forward to the rest of the seasons of the good place, the orville and the mick...i might watch too much tv.

im super excited for the .hack gu remaster, the last of us 2, shadow of the colossus remaster, cyberpunk 2077 and bloodborne 2 as unlikely as it is (miyazaki grant us a sequel as you once did for vacuous darksouls)

Wine, or hard liquor? What is one of your preferred drinks?

i dont drink, thats not to say i havent just that it took soo much for me to feel even a tiny bit light headed im pretty sure i cant get drunk and dont see the point. im a water man and on the occasions i have soda dr pepper and root beer are king, if not lemonade i guess

Physical touch, do you enjoy it? What’s your favorite spot, what spot do you not want to be touched?

im a bit weird here, i tend to recoil and flinch if im touched (probably a result of growing up with an older brother who used his size to be physically controling and abusive aswell as various other people in my life who have treated me as a punching bag) especially around my chest i tend to curl up and get defensive (again probably the result of an older sister who thinks twisting my nipples so hard they bleed is an apropriate answer to a disagreement).

on the other hand i am very physically affectionate i love to hug people, touch people, hold people, bite people (not in the sexy nibble way so much as the "bro did you just fucking bite me?!" way) anything really if im around other physically affectionate people which is kinda rare as there are like 2 physically affectionate people in my life and i only see one on a regular basis

Go into your YouTube history and provide the link to the 7th video in the list.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbq01mubZqc

though i had to open a video to get to my history so i guess its technically

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnq3VBQu_kI

What was the last song you listened to?

This Song By RAC ft Rostam

Do you have any thoughts on ‪Nick Jonas‬?

Who?

Water or silicone based?

well gee im a water based life form myself but id be interested in meeting a silicone based life form :p

The most illicit controlled substance you’ve partaken in?

does doctor prescribed Vicodin count?

If you could get your friends/family to watch one specific gay movie, which one would it be?

i would have to say closet monster though i think of that less as a specifically gay movie and more as a delve into the stress and pressure of someone transitioning into adulthood coming from a broken, dysfunctional and traumatic childhood, its honestly such a great movie.

now a movie where the plot is specifically gay? the weekend, its simple sweet and is easily relatable for most people, honestly i love this movie because it doesn't over dramatize a relationship and makes the characters feel real,

orientation aside its just a good human story

Do you listen to podcasts? If so do you listen to them while you’re doing something else?

not often its almost always a one off or the savagelovecast, i used to listen to professor blastoff regularly but stopped for some reason, usually im reading or writing and want something not as easy to zone out to as music and not as distracting as silence

What do you do on a Sunday?

not much save check for manga (i know im a neeerd) or webtoon updates which usually ends with me frustratedly remembering Tower Of God updates on Mondays

Birth sign and zodiac? What do you like most about both, what do you like least. If you could pick which would you prefer?

ok so in advanced astrology is not much more than a novelty for me and i generally believe signs and what not to hold no sway over real life, i do find it interesting how they can sometimes get portions of peoples personalities and lives right but i would rather attribute that to the trillions of factors that went into the conception and birth of a person before the position of far away stellar bodies (ie babies born 9 months after valentines day probably have romantic parents so they themselves are romantics? idk dude).

that said i am a Taurus and my zodiac sign is the dragon i love them and would never change them, while i dont believe they hold any greater meaning to me i do feel the bull and the dragon represent me more as symbols of myself, though strangely i cant seem to escape them (along with crows and bears...idk dude my conscious and unconscious worlds are strange).

In front of my salad?

Bitch if you would stop breaking into my house to eat your salads you wouldn't be seeing anything you dont want to.

Last book or comic you enjoyed?

uuh physical book? shiiiiit its been a minute but it was ether a david sedaris book or a reread of the water mirror series.

comic books? old man logan was amazing and i always reread Dango Sunshine occasionally.

if webcomics count then kill six billion demons, a better place, avas demon, paranatural, gunnerkrigg court, cassiopeia quinn, unsounded, gloomverse, mokepon and i just reread both Vibe and JUNE (if you havent read any of these please check them out they are amazing)

A kink or fetish you have, can you explain how it became one for you?

uhmmm i dont know dude im pretty vanilla i dont have allot (read any) experience so im pretty open to trying anything really, i dont know dude even if im outwardly an asshole sometimes when it comes down to it so long as you arent forcing yourself upon someone or something unable (unaware, underdeveloped or unable to fully understand what it means) to give consent im open to you and will atleast try to understand you and your kink and maybe participate with you if thats your goal....

....ok so i might have one fetish? tattoos are hot af that is all...

Supply the link to either an image or video you think will bring a chuckle to those following you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0c29Cu_8bQ

imma just tag yous guys cause you are the collective best

@sbot12 @bonefireheart9 @that1cameraguy @incredible91 @dammitcat @mapcus

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dante2568 · 5 years

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Zwift RunPod has landed! Well, we said landed, but should we perhaps say appeared! We know that Zwift has the coding chops to produce amazing 3D worlds, but do they have the expertise to get into the hardware game? Well The Zwift RunPod has a little secret…

Zwift RunPod – Your Treadmill Just got Upgraded!

I say that Zwift RunPod has a little secret, you see the MilestonePod as released in 2017, stepped into the door, and out came the Zwift RunPod. Same kit, difference face (slightly)

Zwift has taken the indoor cycling market by storm, but the gym treadmill has pretty much remained the zone for flat screen TV’s and subtitles, until Zwift turned their sights towards runners as their next market.

One story I was told about regarding the inception/development of Zwift Running was related to one of the wives of a Zwift HQ staffer. Their partner had a running group which they enjoyed, but when travelling with work, wasn’t able to get to their meetups. The discussion ensued at ZwiftHQ along the lines of, “We meet up on Zwift for our group rides etc wherever we are in the world, wouldn’t it be cool if we could do the same with a running group? Pop down to the hotel gym, jump on the treadmill, and be able to run together…” So now we have Zwift Running!

To get Zwift running, up and well running, you need to be able to communicate to Zwift your pace. The two products at the current extremes of the Zwift Running kit scale are the Stryd foot pod, coming in at £199, and then Treadmill Smart Speed phone app which comes in at a distinctly more palatable £4.99, but with the need to wear a phone armband

As Zwift expects their running app to have an even larger market than their cycling simulator, it made sense of the company to snap up the MilestonePod foot pod and rebrand it as the first piece of Zwift hardware, adn is available direct for $29.99

Thus the Zwift RunPod is the cheapest hardware option for getting into Zwift Running. However the internals mean this is far from a dumb foot pod. The MilestonePod is able to record some excellent running metrics data, which the Zwift RunPod is also able to access through use of the Milestone App

In fact, the only major thing which the Zwift RunPod / Milestone is unable to record is power when running – which given that Polar has just incorporated this into their Polar Vantage V running watch, I’m inclined to wonder if this is only a timing thing?

So let’s take a closer look at the Zwift RunPod!

Zwift RunPod – Device Design

The Zwift RunPod arrives in a company specific orange box, which opens up to reveal the pod nestled within

So what do you get in the box? You have the RunPod in itself, quick start guide, aand a Cr2032 battery hidden behind

The actual Zwift RunPod is quite small, a subtle “Z” on the centre. There is a slight texturing to the lower portion of the device, which breaks up the otherwise plain black plastic. Overall the Zwift RunPod is a very unassuming package, which will quickly disappear when you attached the pod on your shoe, especially if they are dark in colour…unlike my yellow and blue On Running shoes!

The back of the unit twists off to allow your shoelaces to pass through, and is then secured by turning the back plate to get a “click”.

The Zwift RunPod lace openings initially appear a little small, but I had to, apply more pressure to attach my laces

I’m sure that the sharp eyed of you will have noticed that the back of the Zwift RunPod still has the original Milestone mouldings. Given that they team have gone as far as changing the branding underneath the battery I’m surprised that the battery cover was not also replaced, but I suppose an unneccessary cost is just that!

SO with the foot pod installed, time to test things out!

Zwift RunPod Specifications and Metrics

Battery life: 6-8 months of use per battery change (hmm my battery needed replacing after 3 weeks!)

Battery: CR2032

Communications: BlueTooth Smart

Weight: 13g with battery

Water resistance: IPX 67

Storage: The Zwift RunPod has memory to store about 20hrs of run/walk data – which can be downloaded when you sync with the Milestone app – (an update has currently broken this, Milestone say a fix is due next week)

Auto detects run: Once cadence passes 100 SPM for >6mins, the Pod will start to record, and include those previous six mins of activity. Conversely when doing <100SPM for >6mins the pod will call the run over

Zwift RunPod – Manual

Well there isnt one really, the instructions are so simple they fit on a very small piece of card in the box. There is however a troubleshooting section on the Zwift Homepage here

Using the Zwift RunPod

The first thing to do after unboxing is to download the MilestonePod app – available for Android HERE, or for iOS HERE – yes the rebrand only runs to the hardware. Once installed, you need to connect your pod to your smartphone. It is very important that this is done through the Milestone App and not your normal bluetooth settings connection

I have found that sometimes the app finds the sensor without trying, but that sometimes you also need to put in the identifer code for the podWith the Zwift RunPod connected, you can name your black dot whatever you desire. There is a clear marketing reason for this, given the low cost at which the Zwift RunPod has been pitched, it is hoped that you’ll actually buy a pod for multiple pairs of trainers, such as both for your gym shoes and your running shoes – hence personal naming

During the setup, you are asked to fill in the information regarding the shoe you are using. Not merely the shoe type, but brand model and size. I was genuinely amazed at the HUGE range of shoes the Milestone app has in their database, quickly finding my On Running shoes

Final setup involves telling Milestone who you are, and a few personal stats. Now this is different from your Zwifrt account, as the two are not connected. You need to enter this double data for the app to be able to correctly calculate your running metrics With the app primed, the Milestone paired, and shoes identified, it is off for to the gym! But there is still more calibration to do!

The connection to Zwift is much easier. Simply select the Running option after login, and search for the Zwift RunPod

Once selected, you are returned again to the Device screen – by the side of the Run Speed box there is a small wrench, you need to click this in order to calibrate the Zwift RunPod against your trainer

You set a pace on your treadmill that you are comfortable keeping for 40 secs, hit calibrate and then you good to go.

It is important to calibrate your unit as soon as you can, as out of the box, the Zwift RunPod is approximately 93-95% accurate out of the box in my experience

Zwift Running with Zwift RunPod

Everything works exactly as you would expect on the general Zwift front. I fact I would argue that the setup is a touch easier, as you only have the footpod and heart rate to worry about. After the the device screen you are presented with the Zwift Run options. Top RIGHT has the upcoming group events, far LEFT is any active missions you may want to joint. Finally in the centre, you can see RIDERS whom you know, but they are greyed out, and other users running. Clicking on the runner will allow you to join with them.

Then you have to… well get on with the job of running!

Some observations when actually using the Zwift RunPod, to you know, Zwift run:

No dropouts,

The slight lag of maybe 1-2 seconds between me changing pace and the avatar responding.

Very accurate speed estimation (comparing to the treadmill) – treadmill set at 10.7km/hr – with Zwit putting that at 10.85km/hr after conversion of pace

Ultimately a very simple add on to your Zwift setup. Essenatially a “fire and forget” hardware option for running on Zwift, stick on a shoe, and just change the batteries as needed. Now, it might sound a bit strange to suggest just leaving the Zwift RunPod attached to your shoe regardless, but there is a simple reason for that. The Milestone metrics are probably of MORE use when running outside

Zwift RuningPod – OUTSIDE Running!

The Zwift RunPod is able to autodetecting your run when it detects your cadence going over 30 RPM, so you can see that data generated after the run. Again fire and forget, you can go running, and leave your running watch at home if you wanted.

If for some reason you dont use Zwift – which would be a little odd, buying their branded run pod, you can also calibrate using the Milestone app in conjunction with your phones GPS

In order to calibrate, when you have returned from the run, load up the Milestone app, sync, then view your last run. If you look at the run details, you can “tap to calibrate” in the top LEFT. From here you can input the distance calculated from your GPS, or treadmill tracking to increase the accuracy of the MilestonePod on your next run. The Milestone app is where you get the additional running metric data. This data can be accessed in two ways. Firstly visible within the run details, where you can see your various running metrics from that activity, while critically explaining what they mean. Across the bottom of the activity details, are three additional pages for foot strike, graphs and laps, which allow you to view your results in different ways, with suggestions on how to use the data to improve

The graphs tab allows your to visualise how your pace relates to four metrics, cadence, stride length, GCT, and Runficiency; all focused on helping you to understand how to get to a faster pace The graphs tab allows your to visualise how your pace relates to four metrics, cadence, stride length, GCT, and Runficiency; all focused on helping you to understand how to get to a faster pace

I do like the Foot Strike data, but as you can see, I’m not doing too well at converting to midfoot running! But hopefully with a little concentration on my running form, I’ll manage to adjust, and that will hopefully reduce my knee pain when running! It would be good to be able to see THESE two metrics on the fly, either to the app, or broadcast to a running watch.

If you want to look more generally at what the three core metrics of cadence, ground contact time, and stride length mean, you can use the “insights” tab on the home screen of the app to select a metric to focus on. After that the MileStone app, not Zwift, will send you periodic emails to improve on your selected parameter. Personally, I think this subtle education is one of the best features of the MilestonePod, and would dearly like to see more integration with Zwift. I’m sure that there are many people who have devices with a broad range of metrics that don’t fully understand either what the metric means, or how it relates to the athlete, and Zwift may prove to be a great education platform – heck look how many people have a rough idea of what cycling with power is now!

Zwift RunPod / MilestonePod – Conclusion

You have a battery life measured in multiple months, a simple user interface, and the cheapest hardware approach to running on Zwift.

Even with a battery life of months, as the battery is easily user replaceable there is no faffing waiting for the recharge if you do find a flat battery, just swap the coin cell and head out You have a battery life measured in multiple months, a simple user interface, and the cheapest hardware approach to running on Zwift.

The fact that the Zwift decided to purchase Milestone is such a no brainer for me. Such a great price, coupled with good accuracy for speed and distance when on Zwift, all the additional information, and how this might improve your running as well, I have no hesitation in giving the Zwift RunPod (and Milestone progenitor) 5/5, AND a TitaniumGeek Recommend!

“So there we have it. The MilestonePod provides a very simple way of getting excellent, “fire and forget” hardware for running on Zwift. With many cherries on top as well!”

Zwift RunPod – Your Treadmill Just Got Upgraded! Zwift RunPod has landed! Well, we said landed, but should we perhaps say appeared! We know that Zwift has the coding chops to produce amazing 3D worlds, but do they have the expertise to get into the hardware game?

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clarencenicholsonata · 6 years

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3 Ways You Can Still Nurture Leads Who Don't Opt In

Email is undoubtedly one of the best ways to acquire customers. Social media might be good for driving lots of traffic, initiating conversations and even capturing leads, but email is where you can have a private conversation.

After people sign up to your list, you can nurture them with personalized content over days, weeks and months, respond to their email responses and build a relationship.

Once you’ve built enough trust with a given subscriber, and he or she is showing signs of being ready to close a deal, you can pitch them your products and convert leads into sales.

So, if your aim is to increase revenue, you should implement tactics to generate maximum leads from traffic.

Unfortunately, the average conversion rate of a website is 1.95%, even when we're talking lead generation.

Even the top 10% of websites only convert at 4.77%. This means that for every 100 visits, you will probably capture between 2 to 5 leads.

Do you feel good about letting the other 95 go? Didn’t think so.

And that’s why you need a strategy that will help you nurture the visitors who don’t opt in to your offers.

This post will show you exactly how to do that.

1. Start conversations with your website visitors

Two important factors responsible for the low conversion rate of websites are the absence of relevance and trust. No one is going to give you access to their inbox unless they’re convinced that you won’t abuse the privilege, and that you’ll email them content that they actually want.

When people visit a website, they are often presented with offers they aren’t interested in. Let’s take a look at my blog, for example.

On the sidebar, I promote a few different offers (like my social media images bundle) to everyone who visits my site. There is no customization here. People who visit any page on my blog will see promotions for the same offers.

But I have set custom popups to appear depending on the topic of the post. On most posts, I have a popup that promotes an ebook that helps people create a social media strategy.

But for my posts on Pinterest marketing, a different popup, that promotes a Pinterest template for creating the perfect post, appears. You can see it in action on this post on Pinterest image sizes.

Even though this popup is targeted towards people who are interested in marketing with Pinterest, only a few people will be interested in signing up for that template. This is because they might already know how to create a good organic post. And they might be more interested in a topic like Pinterest ads or how to get more followers.

But there is no way for me to know this as soon as they visit my website, so there’s no way for me to present them with the right offer.

The best way to learn more about visitors’ interests is simply to ask them.

This can be done with the help of live chat widgets. You can install one on the right bottom corner of your website. When people visit your website, it will slide up. And you can add a question that will encourage visitors to engage with you in a discussion on the topic of the post or landing page they are on.

You can answer their questions, build trust and gather more information. Then you can direct them to a lead magnet they will be more interested in signing up for. Or, if you’re using on-site chat tool that is powered by Facebook Messenger, you can even skip the email capture goal altogether, since you’ll be able to send them nurture-focused follow-up messages on that platform, which may even get a better response rate than email.

Sometimes, through your chat, you will learn that they are ready buyers, so you won’t need to even send them through your sales funnel. You can immediately direct them to a landing page where they can make a purchase.

That conversation you have with them is the nurturing process. As the person is right there having the chat with you and very active, the nurture to sale process can be achieved in minutes instead of days, weeks or months.

You can see an example of a well set up live chat on the Directive Consulting blog. It appears on all their blog posts.

Wishpond has one on the side of its blog articles:

It looks very inviting as it asks you if there’s anything they can help you with. There’s also the name of the person you will be chatting with and a photo of them.

If a website visitor has a question, and the call-to-action in the content they’re viewing doesn’t resonate, they can use live chat instead.

A real person from your company won’t need to get involved in most chats, as chatbots can get the job done. A well-programmed chatbot can answer questions and direct the person to the right places, and when the time comes, it can reassign the conversation to a real person.

To set up your live chat, you can use a tool like Kayako or LiveChat. After you install it on your website, the live chat will be displayed, and visitors can begin having conversations with your customer service team. If all members of your team are offline, the prospect can leave their email address so that you can contact them later.

2. Use advanced analytics to track website visitors

If you are looking for a more subtle, data-driven method to nurture leads who don’t opt in to your offers, you can try website tracking instead. This is where you integrate a website visitor tracking tool with your analytics tools and/or CRM.

It will track people visiting your website and provide you with their contact details. It will also give you some information about their activity.

You can use this data to connect with them using carefully crafted, personalized outreach messages on other channels.

One effective anonymous visitor tracking tool I have tried is Leadfeeder, and another is WhoIsVisiting. Once you integrate one of these tools with your Google Analytics account, they repackage your Analytics data to be specific to each IP address, showing you the pages each site visitor checked out, where they are located, where they work and more.

It also shows you which of your Linkedin connections work in that company so that you can message them.

It can be used just like you use the Linkedin “who has viewed your profile” feature, except that in this case, you’re following up with people who have checked out your website. You can also tweet or email people directly, simply asking them if they need help with anything.

3. Retarget qualified visitors who don’t opt in

Another popular method for nurturing leads who do not opt in to your offers is through ad retargeting using social networks. Most social networks that provide the option to advertise also give you a custom pixel to install on your website.

This pixel tracks people every time they visit your website. You can then structure your ad targeting settings to only target these people. You can choose between reaching people who visited any page on your website, or people who visited a specific page – or combination of pages.

This is called retargeting, and it’s a great way to display highly relevant ads to people who already have some familiarity with your brand.

For example, let’s say you have a shoe blog and someone recently read a post on the Chelsea Boot. You know that this person is interested in this topic, because you installed a pixel on that post.

So, you can serve them ads that promote lead magnets on boots that they didn’t see while they were on your blog. You can also direct them to more blog posts on boots – or even a product page for direct sales.

As an audience member, I experience retargeting ads on a regular basis. I was on the Masterclass website recently looking at some courses, and ever since, they have been promoting those courses to me using retargeted ads on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, with trailers for the courses.

I am certain they are retargeting ads, as they are promoting the same specific courses that I checked out.

This is a great way to reach people who don’t op tin. Using retargeting, you can also upload email lists and change the settings to not show the ad to people who already made purchases. This will increase conversion rates and reduce your ad spend.

Don’t let the good ones escape so easily

These are my favorite three techniques for nurturing leads who don’t opt in to your offers. In my experience, you can get the best performance by experimenting with combinations of the three. Including live chat on your site lets you learn more about your audience before you present them with the right offer or product. The other two involve tracking website visitors to learn even more about them before you contact them via organic and paid social media.

They are all relatively inexpensive and easy to implement, so you might as well give them a try today.

How do you nurture leads who don’t opt in? Have you tried any of the above tactics? Please leave your comments below.

About the Author:

Mitt Ray is the founder of Social Marketing Writing, where you can download 100 Free Social Media Background Images.

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aracecvliwest · 6 years

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Your Emails (and Recipients) Deserve Better Context

Email communication is an integral part of the user experience for nearly every web application that requires a login. It’s also one of the first interactions the user has after signing up. Yet too often both the content and context of these emails is treated as an afterthought (at best), with the critical parts that users see first—sender name and email, subject, and preheader—largely overlooked. Your users, and the great application you’ve just launched, deserve better.

A focus on recipient experience

Designing and implementing a great email recipient experience is difficult. And by the time it comes to the all-important context elements (name, subject, and so on), it’s commonly left up to the developer to simply fill something in and move on. That’s a shame, because these elements play an outsized role in the email experience, being not only the first elements seen but also the bits recipients use to identify emails when searching through their archives. Given the frequency with which they touch users, it really is time we started spending a little more effort to fine-tune them.

The great news is that despite the constraints imposed on these elements, they’re relatively easy to improve, and they can have a huge impact on engagement, open rates, and recipient satisfaction. When they all work together, sender name and email, subject, and preheader provide a better experience for your recipients.

So whether you’re a developer stuck fixing such oversights and winging it, or on the design or marketing team responsible for making the decisions, use the following guide to improve your recipient’s experience. And, if possible, bring it up with your whole team so it’s always a specific requirement in the future.

Details that matter

As they say, the devil is in the details, and these details matter. Let’s start with a quick example that highlights a few common mistakes.

In the image below, the sender is unnecessarily repeated within the subject, wasting key initial subject characters, while the subjects themselves are all exactly the same. This makes it difficult to tell one email from the next, and the preview content doesn’t help much either since the only unique information it provides is the date (which is redundant alongside the email’s time stamp). The subject copy could be more concise as well—“Payment Successfully Processed” is helpful, but it’s a bit verbose.

Avoid redundancy and make your sender name, subject, and preheaders work together. Periscope repeats the sender name, and doesn’t provide unique or relevant information in the subject or preheader.

Outside of the sender and the dates on the emails, there’s not much useful information until you open the email itself. Fortunately, none of these things are particularly difficult to fix. Weather Underground provides a great example of carefully crafted emails. The subject conveys the most useful information without even requiring the recipient to open the email. In addition, their strategic use of emojis helps complement that information with a very rich, yet judicious, use of subject-line space.

Weather Underground does a great job with the sender and even front-loads the subject with the most valuable bit of information. The date is included, but it’s at the end of the subject.

Weather Underground also makes use of Gmail Inbox Actions to provide a direct link to the key information online without needing a recipient to open the email to follow a link. Gmail Inbox Actions require some extra work to set up and only work in Gmail, but they can be great if you’re sending high volumes of email.

Both scenarios involve recurring emails with similar content from one to the next, but the difference is stark. With just a little effort and fine-tuning, the resulting emails are much more useful to the recipients. Let’s explore how this is done.

Emphasizing unique content for recurring emails

With the earlier examples, both organizations are sending recurring emails, but by focusing on unique subject lines, Weather Underground’s emails are much more helpful. Recurring emails like invoices may not contain the most glamorous content, but you still have an opportunity to make each one unique and informative.

Instead of a generic “You have a new invoice” notification, you can surface important or unique information like the invoice total, the most expensive products or services, or the due date.

By surfacing the most important or unique information from the content of the email, there’s additional context to help the recipient know whether they need to act or not. It also makes it easier to find a specific invoice when searching through emails in the future.

Clarifying the sender

Who (or what) is sending this email? Is it a person? Is it automated? Do I want to hear from them? Do I trust them? Is this spam? These questions and more automatically run through our heads whenever we see an email, and the sender information provides the first clue when we start processing our inbox. Just as for caller ID on incoming phone calls, recognition and trust both play a role. As Joanna Wiebe said in an interview with Litmus, “If the from name doesn’t sound like it’s from someone you want to hear from, it doesn’t matter what the subject line is.” This can be even more critical on mobile devices where the sender name is the most prominent element.

The first and most important step is to explicitly specify a name. You don’t want the recipient’s email client choosing what to display based on the email address alone. For instance, if you send emails from “[email protected]” (with no name specified), some clients will display “alerts” as the name, and others will display “[email protected].” With the latter, it just feels rough around the edges. In either case, the experience is less than ideal for the sender.

Without a name specified, email clients may use the username portion of an email address or truncate longer email addresses, making the name portion incomplete or less helpful to recipients.

The technical implementation may vary depending on your stack, but at the simplest level, correct implementation is all in the string formatting. Let’s look at “Jane Doe <[email protected]>” as an example. “Jane Doe” is the name, and the email is included after the name and surrounded by angle brackets. It’s a small technical detail, but it makes a world of difference to recipients.

But what name should we show? This depends on the type of email, so you’ll want to consider the sender for each email independently. For example, with a receipt or invoice you may want to use “Acme Billing.” But with a comment notification, it may be more informative for recipients if you use the commenter’s name, such as “Jane Doe via AcmeApp.” Depending on the context, you could use “with” or “from” as well, but those have an extra character, so I’ve found “via” to be the shortest and most semantically accurate option.

Similarly, if your business entity or organization name is different from your product name, you should use the name that will be most familiar to your recipients.

Recipients aren’t always familiar with the names of corporate holding companies, so make sure to use the company or product name that will be most familiar to the recipient. In the above cases, while “Jane Doe” may have made the comment, the email isn’t directly from her, so it’s best to add something lik “via Acme Todos” to make it clear that it was sent on Jane’s behalf. In the case of “Support,” content doesn’t clarify which product it refers to. Since users could have a variety of emails from “Support” for different products, it fails to provide important context. Avoiding contact confusion

In the case where you use someone’s name—like with the “Jane Doe via AcmeApp” example above—it’s important to add a reference to the app name. Since the email isn’t actually from Jane, it’s inaccurate to represent that it’s from Jane Doe directly. This can be confusing for users, but it can also create problems with address books. If you use just “Jane Doe,” your sending email address can be accidentally added to the recipient’s address book in association with Jane’s entry. Then, when they go to email Jane later, they may unwittingly send an email to “[email protected]” instead of Jane. That could lead to some painful missed emails and miscommunication. The other reason is that it’s simply helpful for the recipient to know the source of the email. It’s not just from Jane, it’s from Jane via your application.

You’ll also want to put yourself in your recipient’s shoes and carefully consider whether a name is recognizable to your recipient. For example, if your corporate entity name and product name aren’t the same, recipients will be much less likely to recognize the sender if you use the name of your corporate entity. So make sure to use the product name that will be most familiar to the recipient. Similarly, you’ll want to avoid using generic names that could be from any company. For example, use “Acme Billing” instead of just “Billing,” so the recipient can quickly and easily identify your product.

Finally, while names are great, the underlying sending address can be just as important. In many ways, it’s the best attribute for recipients to use when filtering and organizing their inbox, and using unique email addresses or aliases for different categories of emails makes this much easier. There’s a fine line, but the simplest way to do this is to group emails into three categories: billing, support, and activity/actions. You may be able to use more, like notifications, alerts, or legal, but remember that the more you create, the more you’ll have to keep track of.

Also, keep the use of subdomains to a minimum. By consistently only sending transactional email like password resets, receipts, order updates, and other similar emails from your primary domain, users learn to view any emails from other domains as suspicious. It may seem like a minor detail, but these bits of information add up to create important signals for recipients. It is worth noting, however, that you should use a different address, and ideally a separate subdomain, for your bulk marketing emails. This helps Gmail and other inbox providers understand the type of email coming from each source, which in turn helps ensure the domain reputation for your bulk marketing emails—which is traditionally lower—doesn’t affect delivery of your more critical transactional email.

Subject line utility

Now that recipients have clearly identifiable and recognizable sender information, it’s time to think about the subjects of your emails. Since we’ve focused on transactional emails in the examples used so far, we’ll similarly focus on the utility of your subject line content rather than the copywriting. You can always use copywriting to improve the subject, but with transactional emails, utility comes first.

The team at MailChimp has studied data about subject lines extensively, and there are a few key things to know about subjects. First, the presence of even a single word can have a meaningful impact on open rates. A 2015 report by Adestra had similar findings. Words and phrases like “thank you,” “monthly,” and “thanks” see higher engagement than words like “subscription,” “industry,” and “report,” though different words will have different impacts depending on your industry, so you’ll still need to test and monitor the results. Personalization can also have an impact, but remember, personalization isn’t just about using a person’s name. It can be information like location, previous purchases, or other personal data. Just remember that it’s important to be tasteful, judicious, and relevant.

The next major point from MailChimp is that subject line length doesn’t matter. Or, rather, it doesn’t matter directly. After studying 6 billion emails, they found “little or no correlation between performance and subject length.” That said, when line length is considered as one aspect of your overall subject content, it can be used to help an email stand out. Clarity and utility are more important than brevity, but when used as a component to support clarity and utility, brevity can help.

One final point from the Adestra report is that open rates aren’t everything. Regardless of whether someone opens an email, the words and content of your subject line leaves an impression. So even if a certain change doesn’t affect your open rates, it can still have a far-reaching impact.

Clearing out redundancy

The most common mistake with subjects is including redundant information. If you’ve carefully chosen the sender name and email address, there’s no need to repeat the sender name in the subject, and the characters could be better applied to telling the recipient additional useful information. Dates are a bit of a gray area, but in many cases, the email’s time stamp can suffice for handling any time-based information. On the other hand, when the key dates don’t correlate to when the email was sent, it can be helpful to include the relevant date information in the subject.

With these examples, after the sender, there’s no new or useful information displayed, and some form of the company name is repeated several times. Even the preheader is neglected leaving the email client to use alternate text from the logo.

With the subject of your application emails, you’ll also want to front-load the most important content to prevent it from being cut off. For instance, instead of “Your Invoice for May 2018,” you could rewrite that as “May 2018 Invoice.” Since your sender is likely “Acme Billing,” the recipient already knows it’s about billing, so the month and year is the most important part of the subject. However, “May 2018 Invoice” is a bit terse, so you may want to add something at the end to make it more friendly.

Next, in situations where time stamps are relevant, avoid relying on relative dates or times. Phrases like “yesterday,” “last week,” or “two hours ago” don’t age well with email since you never know when someone will receive or read it. Similarly, when someone goes to search their email archives, relative dates aren’t helpful. If you must use relative dates, look for opportunities to add explicit dates or time stamps to add clarity.

With regularly occurring emails like reports or invoices, strive to give each message a unique subject. If every report has the subject “Your Monthly Status Report,” they can run together in a list of emails that all have the same subject. It can also make them more difficult to search later on. The same goes for invoices and receipts. Yes, invoice numbers and order numbers are technically unique, but they aren’t particularly helpful. Make sure to include useful content to help identify each email individually. Whether that’s the date, total value, listing the most expensive items, or all three, it’s easier on recipients when they can identify the contents of an email without having to open it. While open rates are central to measuring marketing emails, transactional emails are all about usefulness. So open rates aren’t as purely correlated with successful transactional emails.

There’s a case to be made that in some contexts a great transactional email doesn’t need to be opened at all for it to be useful. The earlier Weather Underground example does an excellent job communicating the key information without requiring recipients to open it. And while the subject is the best place for key content, some useful content can also be displayed using a preheader.

Making the most of preheaders

If you’re not familiar with the preheader, you can think of it as a convenient name for the content at the beginning of an email. Campaign Monitor has a great write-up with in-depth advice on making the most of your preheaders. It’s simply a way of acknowledging and explicitly suggesting the text that email clients should show in the preview pane for an email. While there’s no formal specification for preheaders, and different email clients will handle them differently, they’re still widely displayed.

Most importantly, well-written and useful preheaders of 40–50 characters have been shown to increase overall engagement, particularly if delivering a concise call to action. A study by Yes Lifecycle Marketing (signing up required) points out that preheader content is important, especially on mobile devices where subjects are truncated and it can act as a sort of extended subject.

If the leading content in your email is a logo or other image, email clients will often use the alternate text for the image as the preview text. Since “Acme Logo” isn’t very helpful, it’s best to include a short summary of text at the beginning of your email. Sometimes this short summary text can interfere with the design of your email, so it’s not uncommon for the design to accommodate some visually muted—but still readable—text at the beginning. Or, as long as you’re judicious, in most cases you can safely hide preheader text entirely by using the display: none CSS declaration. Abusing this could get you caught in spam filters, but for the most part, inbox providers seem to focus on the content that is hidden rather than the fact that it’s hidden.

If you’re not explicitly specifying your preheader text, there’s a good chance email clients will use content that at best is less than useful and at worst makes a bad impression.

If your email can be designed and written such that the first content encountered is the useful content for previews, then you’re all set. In the case of receipts, invoices, or activity summaries, that’s not always easy. In those cases, a short text-based summary of the content makes a good preheader.

Context element interplay

The rules outlined above are great guidelines, but remember that rules are there to be broken (well, sometimes …). As long as you understand the big picture, sender, subject, and preheader can still work together effectively even if some of those rules are bent. A bit. For example, if you ensure that you have relevant and unique content in your preheader for the preview, you may be able to get away with using the same subject for each recurring email. Alternatively, there may be cases where you need to repeat the sender name in the subject.

The key is that when you’re crafting these elements, make sure you’re looking at how they work together. Sometimes a subject can be shortened by moving some content into the preheader. Alternatively, you may be able to use a more specific sender to reduce the need for a word or two in the subject. The application of these guidelines isn’t black and white. Simply being aware of the recipient’s experience is the most important factor when crafting the elements they’ll see in preview panes.

Finally, a word on monitoring and testing

Simple changes to the sender, subject, and preheader can significantly impact open rates and recipient experience. One critical thing to remember, however, is that while some of these improvements are guaranteed winners, monitoring and testing things like open rates and click rates is critical to validate any changes made. And since these elements can either play against each other or work together, it’s best to test combinations and view all three elements holistically.

The value of getting this right really is in the details, and despite their tendency to be overlooked, taking the time to craft helpful and useful sender names and addresses, subject lines, and preheaders can drastically improve the experience for your email recipients. It’s a small investment that’s definitely worth your time.

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#Your Emails (and Recipients) Deserve Better Context

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