#and hes had that mon this whole time (evolves via knowing that move)

[audinite]

pokemon storytelling through the pokemon itself and even the moves is always so good

[jacobsmith321]

Contextual Studies: Designing the Anthropocene

Instead of our regular lecturer, we had Fred Hubble, a graphic designer who’s practice’s work on the theme of nature, actually came in to talk about the Anthropocene and how it was designed. 

This is about how we are living in our current climate and what effects do we have as humans on the planet.

Currently we are specified to be living in what’s called “the Holocene” and it’s the time after the ice age and it’s been going on for 11,500 years. However, a lot of people think we are entering a new epoch.

We are calling it the “Anthropocene” which was coined in the 1980s, meaning that humans are affecting the earth manually at a drastic rate.

People are suggesting it’s been because of the atomic bomb, industries and environmental destruction. Regardless, we are entering the age of the human.

Biologist EO Wilson suggests we’re living in the age of the ‘Eromacene’ because it’s the age of loneliness. This is supported by Covid 19 as it’s difficult to spend time and meet one another, even with video calls.

There’s also the suggestion of the Cthulucene, where it’s all about our relationship with animals and how we all mix.

There’s also this talk of Gaia, which how it’s been mutated by Gaia and how humans have mutated it over the years.

There was a painting made called ‘Hunters in the snow’ and it was made in 1565, depicting political issues. In this painting, humans are coming back with a fox on their back and the all the snow and mountains that don’t actually exist in the Netherlands. represents the fact it’s all about human and nature interactions. But it also represents a change in our climates and dealing with them.

They even parodied this piece to represent to represent how Trump is one of the hunters.

Blue Planet 2 also represents how we are slowly seeping into the Anthropocene.

One of the most depressing images to represent climate change and plastic in the ocean, was a seahorse holding onto a cotton swab.

There are fashion industries that are attempting to create clothing using bionic yarn, which is made from recycled plastic. Adidas is attempting new shoes in this style as well. The Mavericks create bags that are recycled materials but are stronger.

There’s worn wear to fix their clothes and go over there to fix them, to imply that you shouldn’t waste clothes but instead fix them and stop wasting materials.

Fiona Benner and Green Piece made granite stone full stops, to stop fishers and crawlers from killing off and damaging marine life.

In the Syrian civil war, there have been refugees; they created shelters from plastic that can be moved and are insulated for those who need temporary refuge.

In another country, there had been structures made from not only wood but recyclable plastics, reducing the usage of more materials, reusing older stuff and recycling anything else again. But not just for practical use but also art.

There’s the concept of tending to a plant, where you’re interacting and looking after something from nature and not focusing on our screens.

Humans are very sociable animals. We need to create interactions and spend time with one another for out own mental health and being with someone helps that.

There are other ways people becomes interactive with nature or being sociable digitally, that being either with Pokemon go to be outside and catch mons, Tamagotchi where you’d look after your own pets or learning to manage a farm via Farmville.

Design

When we were asked about “would you work for sustainable clients only?”, this was a very mixed answered question

Some people said “yes” some said “I don’t think I could” (within the context of I won’t work for damaging clients but I need some sort of work to live) and others expressed they will consider how sustainable they are, but they need to eat and live, plus the industry’s hard to get into, so they need to get into as much as they can to survive, so they’ll keep morals and not work for horrible industries that are destructive but you need something.

As to what kind of approach one can take, there’s recycling materials, marketing campaigns, animations and posters.

Virginie Kypriotis creates a music video called “Like Lightning” where climate change is obvious and real, but it’s being ignored or only slightly acknowledged. Until one bigfoot monster comes out of his cage to replicate a scene from Forest Gump, running along for the same of it, wearing a hat about making the environment better and people who get hit by lightning join him, representing how he’s changing the world and how you need a better leader; people start getting inspired and help the environment. 

What Virginie said about this whole situation was ‘What makes us angry is that now more than ever believing in climate change defines people’s political identity, rather than something you just should just know and believe. This stupidness in the world was the main inspiration for the project. So rather than a message that is 100% sad we wanted it to be like a funny mirror on the world as we see it.’

It’s said that designers can influence minds and change them.

There’s symbols such as ‘Extinction’ which is used against climate change, for graphics pieces.

You have Ryan McGill who created many different recycling symbols.

‘It’s Freezing in LA’ is a quote said by Donald Trump, that was used as a brand name and weaponised to fight climate change.

Moby Digg made the US flag but it was slightly melting throughout the years, as an example of climate change (also it resembled a graph). But this style has been done for many other flags too.

WWF just* & Leo Burnett Agency created cool packaging where it uses the empty space filled by oranges, lemons or spices, to fill the shape of sprays, washing powder or bleach, instead of having those actual products; you have a more sustainable instead of wasteful or harmful solution.

Brands that don’t do this well are Coco cola, because they made labels made from recycled plastic (supposedly), but they’re biggest waster of plastic; the packaging looks too good and refined, instead of having that sort of roughness to it’s look and feel.

Some companies are blamed to fall under “greenwashing” where it appears that companies only use sustainability as a form of branding to get more people to go to them. It’s also considered wrong because they’re not legitimately caring and they may just do it for a little while then dump it later.

However, back on to good forms of sustainability, there were bars of soap made called “soap bottle” and instead of buying plastic soap bottles to wash yourself, just use a bar. However it is a soap bottle and dispenses soap, but it can be used for both the body and hair.

Conclusion?

What I learned from this, was that we are altering the way our lives are. We have made too many changes and adjustments to start “reverting back” but instead we can learn to adapt and evolve with what we have.

[cyanoticfireflies]

Pokémon Sword Avatar Challenge Playthrough Part 2

Greetings and welcome back to my written Let’s Play of Pokémon Sword: Avatar Challenge.  For those of you unfamiliar with Avatar Challenge, a quick guide to the rules is available. Avatar challenges are the only types of Pokémon challenges I do, and this time I’m doing Water Tribe since it’s my third playthrough of Sword and the only starter I haven’t used yet is Grookey.

I’ve been doing Avatar challenges for several generations and always have a lot of fun with them! Because you’re limited in the Pokémon you can use and need to get creative with your dual-typings, it can actually lead to you using a lot of Pokémon you haven’t used before.  They’re a very beginner-friendly challenge for those looking to spice up their replays.

 If you missed Part 1, it’s available HERE.

 In Part 2, we’re diving in to get a sixth member of our team, explore the Wild Area, and get our first Gym Badge.  Ready? Let us commence.

We finally made it to Professor Magnolia’s house just in time for her and Leon to discuss this generation’s one-off mechanic, Dynamaxing.  Because we’re already over Mega-Evolving and Z-Moves – those are so last generation.  I kind of liked Mega-Evolution at first, but then I got over how gimmicky the whole thing was.  Let alone Z-Moves and Dynamaxing – just let my Pokémon Pokémon, you know?

We go grab the Great Ball to the side and TM57 “Payback” behind the house then get ready for a “spectacular” battle with Hop.  I mean, we have two more Pokémon than he does at 1.5x to 2x his level, but points for enthusiasm I guess Anyu the Grookey one-shot his Sobble, so.

Suddenly there’s an amazing Wishing Star.  Total coincidence.  (I’m going to rag on this game a lot.  Just so you guys know, I do enjoy it.)  We sleep over at a complete stranger’s house because Hop’s brother knows her so I guess it’s okay.  But she gives us the super dope Dynamax Bands.

Hop challenges us to a catch-a-thon, but we’ve got the team I want from here for now so we just accept the loss with grace.  He gives us “Swift” as a consolation prize, so no complaining.  Our moms come to the train station to see us off then we hop (with Hop) on the choo-choo all the way to where the Wooloo herd cuts us off in the Wild Area.

I have to say, I actually do like the Wild Area.  It kind of reminds me of Gens 1/2 where you had more flexibility about where you went when. You can take on something way above your level if you have the guts or else run past all the fully evolved ones that will kill you – whatever you’re up for.

I’ve played “Let’s Go, Eevee!” so I get the free Eevee from the guy in the corner and name him “Varro.” Normal type is allowable for all nations and I can evolve it into a Glaceon, Leafeon, or Vaporeon later depending on what we need so that’s actually pretty handy.  Level 10, so he’s not far behind our team at all.  Ability is “Adaptability” which is… frankly fantastic. 200% on STAB sounds awesome. Relaxed nature like Anyu, so low Speed and high Defense.  I’d rather have this nature on Anyu to tell the truth.  We’ll see what we can do with a slow Eevee.

Our first area is drowning in Combees and Bunnelbys (Bunnelbies?) but neither of those is too exciting even though I did do an Air Nation run with a Vespiquen one time…. Eh, been there, done that.  Varro Quick Attacks down a breeder’s Grookey with minimal damage thanks to Sand Attack, then we switch to Amal the Chewtle for Scorbunny and Rajuna the Skwovet – then to Rorou the Dottler (apparently Sobble has high Defense?) – for Sobble.  Nice way to get the last starter in your ‘Dex.

We go ahead and make some changes to our team.  First we catch a Wingull to add some Flying type to our team, sending Karane the Grubbin to the Box.  We name her Amelie.  She’s level 10 so just a bit behind the rest of the team, but we can take care of that in no time.  Hydration ability which we probably won’t get really any use out of.  Quiet nature, so less Speed and more Sp. Attack, which is actually really not bad.  Still, I’m not sure if I want to use a Gen 3 Pokémon the whole way through, but for now it’s an added type on the team.

Thanks to lucky snow, we also get an early Ice type.  We capture a male Vanillite and name him “Kovali.”  We say a quick farewell to Varro the slow Eevee to keep Skwovet since we only need one Normal type.  He’s level 12 so not far behind us.  Ice Body ability, which won’t actually help us much but that’s okay.  Lax nature, so more Defense and less Sp. Defense.  We’ll see.  At least it starts out with “Icy Wind” as a solid early Ice move.

We do our first bit of camping while grinding a few more levels in the Wild Area.  We make some Fancy Apple and Oran Berry curry that gets acceptable reviews from the team.  We grind up to about level 15-17 just exploring around and picking stuff off the ground.  During this, Anyu the Grookey evolves into Thwackey, which is probably up there for worst mid-stage ‘Mons.

After all that fun and excitement, we finally make our way into Motostoke.  After a stop at the PokéCenter we get our hair cut, grab “Focus Energy,” get a Miracle Seed from Leon, then take the lift up to the stadium.  All this excitement and we haven’t even gotten our first badge yet!  We register for the challenge and (sort of) meet Bede before we’re shoved toward the Budew Drop Inn.

Can I just say how dumb Team Yell is?  I didn’t mind the evil teams right up until Gen 6.  Team Flare was just no (though having an Elite Four member be one of them was neat) but these guys are… yeesh.  Though they don’t pose like Team Skull.  And we get to see Kiss-Fan – I mean Galarian Zigzagoon.  Kovali makes quick work of these goons.  Turns out Icy Wind hits the full far side of the field.  At least Marnie is chill.

We get our first glimpse of the gym leaders then have to head over to Turffield via Route 3.  This game has a LONG lead in before you get to a gym!  We’ll call it here for now and pick back up next time!

[destiny-smasher]

So I did the “get to know me” meme on Twitter but because of how Twitter functions now it’s a hard to follow mess of a thread. Decided to post it all here -- and hey, if any of ya’ll are curious, feel free to read.

1) When I was 10 my abusive stepdad threw a spray at me. I ducked -- it scraped my head. Sent to school bleeding b/c he was too stoned to realize it'd get noticed and I'd get pulled out of that environment immediately. This moment changed my life, left a scar on head.

If I hadn't ducked, would've hit my stomach. No cut. Whole childhood would've been different. My first Butterfly Effect Moment.

2) I started writing fiction about Pokémon. First-person, from the Mons perspective. Rotating point of view each scene.

3) I moved on to crazy crossover fanfic where I constructed an entire war, personal and political motivations, so many ideas I still like?

4) Part of this involved detailed drawings of Mario-themed Keyblades I wish I still had.

5) Paper Mario 1&2 are some of my most influential inspirations. expanded such a simple world so much so fluidly. (Harder than it looks)

6) When I was a kid my sister would wake me st like 6am to watch dubbed Sailor Moon. Bothered me they all sounded like same person.

7) I can recognize voices very well and even specific sounds and songs. Couple years back my roommate ran a test - playlist of 100 NES tracks, he'd play the first NOTE, singular, and I could recognize exactly where it was from if I'd played the game.

8) My first computer was a PC I bought w/$ saved up during an entire summer of custodial work in HS. Had no Internet.

So I'd use the public library's very slow connection to download things to floppy disk and copy them over.

Eventually, I was able to graduate to a USB. Obtaining music was hellish so I treasured each song I could download -- most from OC Remix.

9) We had this tiny rabbit ears TV that could get WB and Fox sometimes if it was set up in a specific corner of my sister's room

And so I would desperately use it to try and stay up to date on Pokémon and Digimon, it was so bad

10) Teen Titans was arguably the most influential piece of media for my teenage mind. It formed the base of so much I care about re:stories

Fleshed out, varied protags who grew together and each had their times to step up and step down. Action w/character dev context.

Fantastic themes important for growing humans; awesome moments "between the panels" instead of all comic book melodrama and action.

Then everything changed when TT GO attacked and pissed on everything smart and thoughtful because MONEYYYYY

11) Cowboy Bebop was the first "good" anime I ever saw and blew my mind open about what animated stories could do -- i.e. Not just kid stuff

I don't like "anime" in general because most of its common tropes but the shit out of me even worse than most western toon tropes

And yet like 50-75% of my most favorite shows ARE anime because thoughtful animated storytelling has so much potential.

11) I predicted months before Last of Us came out that you'd play as Ellie but when it happened I had to stop, cry happy tears.

I predicted the second I saw the Left Behind trailer what was going on w/those two and again, still had to stop and cry happy tears.

(I seem to have pretty good gaydar now but I also don't like, ship everyone together all the time)

It just hits me so hard when actual canon queerness happens in mass media and is done well, but we're still so bad at following through.

12) Favorite m/m ship: Troy and Abed in the Morning. Favorite w/w ship: Max and Chloe BFF Pirates 2008.

ATLA ships: Tokka the most, also Katang, also Smellershot. ATLA makes me more open to shipping than any other series?

Like, Zutara makes me feel kinda gross and some of the crack ships like Sokka/Azula scare me but otherwise I'm pretty chill w/ATLA ships?

13) When I was a kid, and we'd role play, I always wanted to play the girl characters. I was surrounded by boys so they always were weirded.

It was weird to me, too, honestly.

Now it makes perfect goddamn sense.

14) Apparently I was kidnapped as a baby by some mobster or something but it's hard to tell with my mom what's real or not.

15) Smash Bros. Melee was the first game I ever got genuinely hype over before launch. I still remember being startled to discover it --

-- existed via E3 trailer on GameTrailers back on my goddamn dialup connection in 2001. I had to wait all fuckin' day for that thing to load

And when it did, it was GLORIOUS (and had FZero music, which at the time I did not recognize) and I was FLOORED.

The screenshots made the game look too good to be real, and I was instantly sold on the GameCube, the first time I NEEDED new hardware Day 1

I got SSBM as an Xmas gift before my grandpa's GCN present arrived, so for a week or two all I could do was stare at the box/manual/disc

That game kind of changed my life -- SSB64 was the first time I'd gotten so invested in a multiplayer game, and SSBM crushed it.

A fire was born in me -- competition, something I'd never been much interested in w/games before, not against actual humans.

Those months between E3 2001 and finally getting to play SSBM felt like forever. And thus did I post online fiction for the first time.

That's actually how I met @SDiDuro , my first 'Internet friend' and what I'd consider to be my first proper 'reader.'

16) After college, I ended up working at a call center because it was  the only job I could find and I needed to support my disabled wife.

DURING college, I gave up on writing fiction and had focused on gaming editorial through a site where I'd engaged with an online community

But that empty space between phone calls eventually got filled in by writing fiction on a notepad, with a pen, inspired by Street Fighter 4.

Eventually, this evolved and radically changed into what is now (still in dev) DownRight Fierce.

Back then, I had no idea I'd be motivated to DO this, though -- write original fiction -- but the fire had been re-lit.

I wanted to write.

I was sickened by my "naive" adolescence crossover fics and wiped them from my http://FF.net  profile and started anew.

Having just come off of ATLA 1st time, I knew I wanted to explore that world/characters more, so I wrote a story about Toph & puberty.

That serving as "practice," I then went on to write SRU, and...well, that...changed EVERYTHING.

17) My biological dad (who I have never met) has OCD, to the point where he apparently washed his skin raw trying to avoid germs?

So as soon as I showed enthusiasm in gaming, my parents FREAKED and worried I was exhibiting OCD and they brought the hammer down.

They made me feel BAD for writing about video games when I wasn't playing them, but they never READ anything I fucking wrote.

Even now, my mom tries to comment on what a good writer I supposedly am, yet when I ask for her thoughts, I ask what she's read?

Silence.

I wasn't writing fiction based on games because I was THAT addicted to games.

I did it because a storyteller was awakening within me --

-- and I told stories through the worlds and characters I was familiar with.

(And my first genuinely "serious" fic was Teen Titans, anyway)

But even now, it really hurts that my parents will sometimes try to guilt me over not calling or whatever the fuck, when they never READ

never supported, and actively DISCOURAGED my writing, my storytelling, refused to understanding why I loved games.

18) I never watched Avatar until after college (years after it had finished), and I watched it because of the live action movie.

I watched halfway through the season 1 of the cartoon to get "read up" on it. Then the movie. Which was horrible. Then the rest of season 1.

At that point, the movie utterly baffled me. My wife and I proceeded to marathon the rest of the series. And it became my fav story ever.

But I ironically owe it to that terrible live action movie. ^_^;;

19) My taste in music is really weird. I couldn't tell you what my favorite genres are, and even fav musicians is hard.

Like, every year my top three fav musicians "change" because I just add more to the pile and spend the year focused on their music.

But music inspires my storytelling more than any other medium, I'd say -- in terms of me actually planning and growing ideas.

I didn't just give Nishiko and Seiko last names of my two fav game composers as tongue-in-cheek. In fact, that's not why I did it at all.

I gave them those names because I wanted some element of their very design to express how Japanese composers inspired me in my teen years.