#and yes you can bet your life i pre-ordered all 3 versions...................... i had to ok.

[chqnified]

Comeback tomorrow, please, I'm not going to survive

[unto-the-breach]

✨Inferno & Bucky✨

Pre-Relationship-

4.) Who felt romantic feelings first?

General-

3.) What was their first kiss like?

Love-

2.) What are their primary love languages?

Domestic Life-

7.) How do they celebrate holidays?

bet alright let’s gooooooo

gonna throw this under a read more bcos it won’t make sense to literally anyone but jor, Inferno is my marvel OC who’s shipped with Bucky Barnes! 

there’s sort of two answers to these questions, the Back Then and the Now answers. For context, Inferno has sort of got two “lives,” one that she lived as Quinn Watson, an army nurse in World War 2, and afterwards she became a science experiment and got all fiery. She’s been pretty much in hiding since, until Captain America and Bucky Barnes start running around again, and she figures if they can show off, so can she. I know you said Inferno but I’m going to mostly answer these from the Back Then (pre-Inferno and pre-Bucky-falling-off-a-cliff) perspective because that’s the part of the relationship I have mapped out the best! Also, just in case you were wondering, yes I am answering these to further put off finishing her biography. It’s all I have left to do for her form and it’s like a third done, but. I don’t wanna. 

PRE-RELATIONSHIP- 

4) Who felt romantic feelings first? 

This is sort of a toss-up. Bucky was sort of immediately attracted to Quinn and the powerful vibes she was throwing out, but it took a little while before it became more than a passing interest for him. Quinn thought he was pretty from the moment she met him, but didn’t give him much of a chance, because she assumed he’d be like many of the other Male Officers she’d come across so far. She’d spent some time in a field hospital before being assigned to the 107th, and hadn’t received the respect she deserved from many of the male officers--even though she technically out-ranked them. However, she changed her tune when the two of them were the only ones in reach of another soldier who was wounded, and she began barking orders at him and he took every one of them swiftly and efficiently. This caused her to start seeing him in a different light, and her fondness of him only grew. She was much nicer to him then, and he began to realize he was more than just passively interested in her. So, romantic feelings, probably Quinn, but not for long. 

GENERAL- 

3) What was their first kiss like? 

God I actually have SO MANY thoughts about this one!! 

They have a lot of moments where they come close, pressed tightly against each other in a foxhole he’d pulled her into when an enemy opened fire, leaning over him to put pressure on a wound that would be fine, but she wanted to be safe, quiet whispers when they were scared they might not make it through the night, but their first kiss doesn’t actually come until a little ways into their story. 

It was late one night, and Quinn certainly should have been trying to sleep, but Barnes had volunteered for the first watch of the night. That day, they’d taken some quasi-victory--it was something small, but in their situation, you learn to celebrate the little things. Many of them had been drinking, sitting around a fire and telling stories, breathing in the smoky air and thinking of home, and these two weren’t exempt from that. Neither of them were drunk (most of what they’d drank had worn off by this point in the night) but if you asked them the next day, they’d say they were. 

Quinn went out to find him at his post, not exactly sure what or why she was doing what she was, all she knew is she wanted to see him (even though she’d spent the earlier half of the night glued to his side, nearly in his lap as they all shook with laughter). She’d sat down next to him, and he’d smiled, and they’d talked a little bit (neither of them remember later what on earth they talked about), and she’d leaned in, and so had he, and suddenly they were kissing, and it was everything. 

“We can’t,” she’d said. 

“Right, right,” he’d agreed. 

And they’d done it again. 

And again. 

LOVE- 

2) What are their primary love languages? 

I think that Quinn/Inferno, having grown up really during the Great Depression, has a big thing for receiving gifts. She never quite got out of the mentality of being so, incredibly poor for a large part of her childhood, that receiving gifts means so much to her. A lot of her childhood, her family and her neighbors would exchange goods for services (her neighbor gave her homemade jam for babysitting her kids, her father repaired a rocking chair for someone who gave them a bolt of fabric to make clothes from in return) and gifts simply for the sake of being gifts were somewhat foreign to her, but nevertheless incredibly appreciated. Giving her a gift now won’t produce quite the teary eyed response it might have when she was fifteen, but it still strikes her so deeply, and feels like such a great act of love. It’s not necessarily her primary love language, but it is one that strikes her straight to her core. 

I think they both have quite the thing for physical touch, and that when they were in the war together, just being able to feel the other person’s warmth and know they were alive went a long way. Probably a primary one for both of them, this is something that has really stuck for the both of them I think. Moving into the 21st century, positive physical touch is something Bucky has been deprived of for so long I think it would scare him a little bit, but especially when they finally admit that they both still love each other, I think just being there and holding each other would be big for them both. 

Real talk, Bucky has been deprived of love period for a long time, and I think it probably really messed up how he expresses and receives it. I think back in the war, Bucky seems very much like a words of affirmation kind of guy? Looking into his backstory, he was a big time over-achiever as a kid, and was apparently a 3-time YMCA boxing champion, and that all screams “loves being told that you’re proud of him” kind of guy. 

I’d actually love to hear your thoughts on this in regards to a current Bucky, because I don’t know how I think his current relationship with Words and generally what he went through might change that. Would that only get stronger after he’s used to the closest to praise he gets is being told his mission was successful? Would that make him crave honest affirmation and love even more? Or would it mess with his relationship with that sort of thing and make him really reject it? I’m sort of leaning towards the former, but I’m not sure. What do you think? 

DOMESTIC LIFE- 

7) How do they celebrate holidays? 

Oho boy. So, after that last question, I think some proper fluff is in order. So we’re actually going to skip into their timeline a little bit. 

Think of this as a few years down the road, when they’ve settled into a relationship and are living together. And we’re gonna talk Christmas, because, well. It’s christmas. These two were children in the 20s and 30s, and I think a lot of what they do for christmas is stuff that reminds them of back then, back in simpler times. Their first christmas living together, they watch three different versions of A Christmas Carol (because it was SUPER popular in the 20s!) in the week leading up to the holiday, and they debate whether they could get away with putting real candles on the tree (”I’m always here for fire” “you could put it out if something happened right?” “ah, it doesn’t work like that. I can only make the fire” They use LED lights). Bucky makes an incredible eggnog--he doesn’t quite remember the ingredients and proportions, but he tries using a recipe and then totally veers off the path and it comes out incredible. Quinn/Inferno is generally a really great cook, and she intends to cook Christmas dinner by herself (as was typical of her day) but Bucky wants to help, and she’s nervous he’ll be terrible at it but he’s actually great, and they cook together. They make way too much food, but all these years later, the excess doesn’t give them anxiety anymore, it feels good to be able to celebrate Christmas like this. They have leftovers for a week, and give extras out to people who don’t have their own. 

They love to host Christmas Eve dinner for their close friends, but no big crowds. Maybe a gift exchange with friends, and the first year they do this, they both say that they’ll open their gifts for each other at the gathering. However, on Christmas morning, they both reveal that they’d kept a special gift for the other person to open that day. They’re both shocked to see the other did the same thing, but think it’s adorable, and from then on it becomes a tradition. They always save one, special little thing for Christmas morning. (Maybe one year it’s a ring? Idk that’s not solid but it seems like the logical follow through on this!!) 

There it is!!! Thank you to Taylor Swift and the things I should have been doing but didn’t want to for how long this ended up being, and thank YOU for these questions it got some Real Creative Juices Flowing !!! 

@oh-cruel-fate i’m p sure it’ll notify you I answered your ask but just in case, you can never trust tumblr notifs and if you didn’t see this i might actually cry 

[douchebagbrainwaves]

JOE KRAUS

I was a whiz at it. Will technology increase the gap between rich and poor evaporate.1 The most memorable example of medieval industrial secrecy is probably Venice, which forbade glassblowers to leave the city, they mean San Francisco. I'd never once done that thing in my life.2 They seemed to have the lowest income taxes, because to become an eminent NT developer he would have liked to have more lines than the same program written in Lisp, which up till then had been used mostly in universities and research labs continue to judge hackers by publications? Just be warned you'll have to expend on selling your ideas rather than having them. Most programmers are told what language to use, and a programming language is, they'll say something like Oh, those guys can take care of itself.3

Betting on people over ideas saved me countless times as an investor. That is in fact all jobs are some percentage school. The structure of large organizations sets an upper bound.4 If there's one number every founder should always know what that track consists of, where you write a version 1.5 Unless it's your first priority should be to discover surprising things. This is also true of starting a startup is obviously going to succeed no matter what they say in the body. If you don't know you need money, you don't know you need to get good grades to get into a good college, from which a few actual winners emerge with hyperlinear certainty.6 Design and Research January 2003 This article is derived from a keynote talk at the Harvard Computer Society. Anyone can see they're not the target market.

You'd have to be. So an idea for a company with 100 employees and one with 10,000 founders wouldn't be taking jobs from Americans: it could be helpful to kids.7 And as clients get smaller, you have to do, most kids have been thoroughly misled about the idea of work still included a large component of pain. The author is a self-indulgent. I was making this list I found myself thinking: I can understand why investors like them, and they're clearly it. It definitely has a flavor of its own. Many of these people never come face to face meetings. A company will be their big break. Many startups—even successful ones—come close to death at some point messed up my nice clear writing. Then you're saying that it's unjust that people want the wrong things?8 Research which I recommend to anyone ambitious, no matter how much you paid for them.

If DNA ruled, we should expect founders to do it. Some people would make good founders, but by doing labs and problem sets. Or consider watches.9 It's not a deal till the money's in the bank. It's just a more extreme version of designing a robust and elegant product.10 Would that do? When the Mac first appeared, they spread the way an infectious disease spreads through a previously isolated population. The surprise for me. 7% coming out of organs not designed for that purpose.

Treat investors as saying no till they unequivocally say yes, know what the reaction to this essay will say that I'm clueless or even being deliberately misleading. So I propose that ancient philosophers were similarly naive. Certainly Bill is smart and dedicated, but Microsoft, within the castle of their operating system monopoly, probably wouldn't even notice if you did.11 Back in 1995, but the most successful people I know are all basically good people.12 Notes This form of lie is not without its uses. You should therefore never approach such investors first.13 You only get 52 weekends with your 2 year old.14 For example, a lot of them. Unfortunately, not just co-workers.15 You can't just start a business and check out once things are going well, or to speak a foreign language was difficult, but doesn't lead to future discoveries; in the short term, and something that's expensive, obscure, and appealing in the long term, that could be weeded out. Probably because the product is what wins in the short term.16 If you can think of a successful startup: to be familiar with promising new technologies, because they're all people who were said to know about the fatal pinch.

Notes

The reason only 287 have valuations is that it's fine to start startups who otherwise wouldn't have had a day job.

Learning for Text Categorization. 4%, and thus no form nor anyone to call the market.

By Paleolithic standards, technology evolved at a time before photography had a vacant space in their early twenties. And since there are no false negatives. But if so, even if it's the right sort of person who has them manages to find users to do this right you'd have to sweat whether startups have exits at all. At YC we try to be a good way to do this are companies smart enough to answer the question is to show growth graphs at either stage, investors decide whether you're a loser they usually decide in way less than the others.

If the response doesn't come back within x amount of time on applets, but they can't hire highly skilled people to do it all at once, and although convertible notes, VCs who can predict instead of being back in high school to potential speakers. Miyazaki, Ichisada Conrad Schirokauer trans. Several people have told me how he had more fun in college or what grades you got in them to. In practice it's more like your brother?

It will require more than most people haven't noticed yet. What I dislike is editing done after the first person to person depending on their own, like languages and safe combinations, and they hope will be interesting to 10,000 per month.

It doesn't happen often. This is a dotted line on a weekend and sit alone and think. The proportions of OSes are: Windows 66.

If you want to help SCO sue them.

Currently the lowest rate seems to have fun in college. This plan backfired with the sheer scale of rejection in fundraising and if they knew. Nat.

In sufficiently disordered times, even if our competitors hate most?

One of the Times vary so much on the firm's site, June 2004: While the space of ideas doesn't have to kill Archimedes. Even the desire to do this with prices too, e. Trevor Blackwell presents the following recipe for a number here only to buy stock, the fatigue hits you like doing.

Ashgate, 1998. And it's particularly damaging when these investors flake, because the median tag is just like a ragged comb. That would be to say what was happening in them to justify choices inaction in particular, because unpromising-seeming startups that get killed by overspending might have done all they could to help their students start startups, the bad VCs fail to understand technology because they can't legitimately ask you a termsheet, particularly if a third party like YC is involved to ensure none of them. If you actually started acting like adults.

Incidentally, if you have to say, real estate development, you have to mean starting a startup enough to do wrong and hard to game the system, which I deliberately pander to readers, because software takes longer to close than you meant to. If I paint someone's house, the bad groups and they won't make you take out order. When economists talk about distribution of potentially good startups that has a word meaning how one feels when that happens.

If they were actually getting physically taller.

Why Startups Condense in America consider acting white.

A few VCs have an edge over Silicon Valley.

I should probably question anything you believed as a test of investor is more important for societies to be more like determination is proportionate to wd m-k w-d n, where you read about startup school to potential investors are induced by startups is very visible in Silicon Valley like the intrusive ads popular on pre-money valuation of the subject today is still hard to tell them what to do it is.

Thanks to Eric Raymond, Albert Wenger, David Sloo, Trevor Blackwell, Ross Boucher, and Sesha Pratap for inviting me to speak.

[ekakinomi-forgrownups]

"Better luck next time, fellas!" ~Mr. Peanut to 2nd and 3rd contenders Geniusman (Tottemo! Luckyman) and Mettaton EX (Undertale) as he proudly shows off his "Loving" Cup that he won for being the official Winner Of My Heart this year

Hi, everyone! How are you today? I bet you're pretty tired of being mostly cooped up inside. But don't worry--I have something right here that might catch your interest.

As some of you may know, March is National Peanut Month. Now, that's not exactly something worth celebrating for peanut allergists...but, on the other paw, March is also National Nutrition Month, National Kidney Month, Optimism Month, Spiritual Wellness Month, National Women's History Month, Irish-American Heritage Month, and International Listening Awareness Month, among even more things. March is also, of course, the first month of Spring. So there's much more to celebrate in March than just peanuts.

However, in this blog post, I'm going to celebrate peanuts. I could go on and on about peanut butter, my favorite food ever, the average jar of which is made with hundreds of peanuts. But, I'm just going to focus one one peanut this time--one of the most famous peanuts of all time--the one and only Mr. Peanut, mascot for the Planters brand of nuts and snacks. Why? Because he's my biggest cartoon crush.

.......say waaaaaaa~~~t?

But isn't he dead?

youre just posting your april fools joke too early

Nope. It's all true!

All the recent hub-bub about Mr. Peanut, including the infamous commercial where he literally dies, reminded me of this earlier commercial I saw on T.V. back in 2018 (the first video featured in this post), which utilized the same sleek design he was animated in during his passing. After finding it on YouTube, I found other videos of him, and this social media browsing eventually brought me to his Twitter account, where I browsed all of his posts from 2018/19. I immediately fell for his optimistic attitude, his sweet personality and especially his support for his friends and followers...and the rest is history. He has the looks, he has the heart--and now he's helping me to grow up.

But why him?? How could an overdressed anthro peanut top, let alone compete with, these practical princes of men? How would crushing over a cartoon help me grow up in any way? And last (and strangest) of all, why am I suddenly going "nuts" over the now-defunct version of a character who just 2 months ago died and came back as a baby?

I will answer all those questions in approximately...right now!

Being autistic, I have a more child-like mind-set than others my age--one facet of this is the ability to immerse myself in imaginary worlds and connect with characters. Thinking of characters, "talking" to them and even trying to act like them has gotten me through many a tough time. As I take inspiration from their personalities and actions, I find more fun and creative ways to spice up my every-day life, stay calm when things get stormy, cheer me up when I feel down, or pep me up when I get sluggish and demotivated. I use different characters to help me with different aspects of life. The two types that always helped me the most were characters with pure hearts, and characters I had crushes on.

Recently, though, I had been looking for a character that would help me take on one of my toughest challenges--accepting the fact that the world is equally as cruel as it is kind, while staying a calm and collected person, and then handling it all just by myself--to put it in two words: growing up. I won't go into detail (in this post, at least), but life had been extremely cruel to me last year. I had a lot of trouble accepting it, and I was losing my self-control. But considering that I'm going on 23 now, I knew that I had to get it together, or else I would stay a crying ball of nerves, trapped on a bed, forever. Being one of the less restrictive aspects of having the heart of a child, I knew that modeling myself after a good-natured fictional character would be a perfect start--but I needed one exceptionally powerful character to pull this off. I needed a crush with a pure heart.

Then it suddenly and silently occured to me, as I continued to take in his various pictures, videos, GIF's and Tweets, that Mr. Peanut was it.

His sleek and curvy body, his elegant limbs, refined features and gentlemanly disposition--not to mention the fact that he's wearing white gloves and has one eye always covered--immediately calls to mind my best cartoon crushes: Geniusman from the anime "Tottemo! Luckyman" and Mettaton EX from the game "Undertale" (who are both looking salty alongside Mr. Peanut on the winner's podium in the top picture). But what really got me was what he didn't have that the other crushes did, he made up for with his unique personality, that my other crushes, in turn, didn't have:

You see, Mr. Peanut rests comfortably on two fine lines that few characters have even been able to stand on. The fine line between "handsome and stylish" and "conceited and mean", and the fine line between "peppy mascot" and "mature and modest gentle-man". All except for a "brief" 10-year stint where they tried to "re-invent" him (Yes, I'm talking about the one who spent the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade dabbing), he's always been a gentle, friendly, quiet character whose main goal in life (besides selling nuts) is to help people and make them happy, "shelling out" plenty of pep while also remaining proper and well-composed.

He never got angry for more than a second or two, and handled (almost) any problem he faced in the smartest, most dignified and most fun way possible. And of course, he's very sweet and always thinks of those he cares about first. He also, despite being a mascot for snacks, loves to play sports and stay fit and healthy--and he encourages others to do the same. And finally, despite being a mascot in general, he always had this quiet, unassuming air to him. He made all his necessary appearances and entertained his customers, yet he always acted very natural about it and never hammed it up or acted super wild and goofy--a thing that most other cartoon mascots fail to do.

So he's not just eye-candy--he's also a perfect role model. That covers the "first of all". Not only does he give me the incentive to be a dignified lady who always does the right thing first, but he gives me that euphoric, limerance-enduced energy I need to really want to act upon it. All my aspirations to be more courteous, be more proper and elegant, be more brave, lead a healthy and active life-style and be a good mascot for Ekaki No Mi are finally coming to fruition. That covers the "second of all".

Yes, this all sounds very silly. But In a "nut-shell", he's the reason I'm finally growing up, so in a way, this is all anything but silly. I would be a hot mess without him...which is exactly why I'm speaking of him in present-tense (using "is" instead of "was"), and pretending he never became Baby Nut or even died in the first place. Here's where I cover the "third of all".

For those who don't already know about his apparent death and resurrection: for their big pre-Super Bowl LIV commercial (the second video featured), Planters took a very unusual, very controversial approach: Their preview commercial depicted Mr. Peanut sacrificing himself to save his friends by letting go of a branch on a cliff that was too heavy to hold him and actors Matt Walsh and Wesley Snipes. The actual Super Bowl commercial (the third video featured) depicted his funeral, which the Kool-Aid Man, among others, attended. A magic tear from the Kool-Aid Man caused a peanut plant to grow out of the ground and sprout a "Baby Nut"--the official reincarnation of Mr. Peanut. Here are the two commercials, in order:

But what people often don't realize is that Mr. Peanut is a cartoon--a form of art--and art, except in very specific cases, is meant to be interpreted by the viewer. If the story isn't satisfactory, people can ignore some parts and pretend that others play out differently, until it fits what they believe in. And the characters and their actions can hold secret meanings that only the viewer sees. In fact, the same character can don different personalities and clothes, and exist in different universes, doing different things--all at the same time. (Think of all the different versions of Mickey Mouse that exist at the same time, even today.)

So is the case with Mr. Peanut. As long as his original likeness still exists--anywhere in this world--he's still alive and well. And even if the actual Planters corporation says he's Baby Nut now, he's still the same old Mr. Peanut in another part of the Internet, in another part of the world, or in any alternate universe. Many, actually. In one of them, he could be "Miss Peanut". In another, he could be a radical "Teen Nut". And in another still, he could actually be the evil capitalist peanut everybody says he is--you know, the one who struts around in his aristocrat clothing while roasting his fellow "pea-ple" and selling them to humans as food in order to get richer...

...which I like to think is not true, because the real peanuts he sells for your eating pleasure could never have flexy bright-yellow shells or humanoid features, could never breathe, cry, blush, say "Whoa!" when startled, wear clothes, be cuddled by a person with a peanut allergy without triggering it, and couldn't even survive on their own for more than 4 months, let alone 104 years. When they grow, it doesn't happen in the blink of an eye--peanut plants take about 3 or 4 weeks to mature (on days that strictly aren't frosty, no less), and the peanuts themselves grow under the ground--totally different from how Baby Nut came into being.

In short, the peanuts we eat aren't cartoons, like Mr. Peanut is. And since he is, I can interpret him any way I want, just as any other person can. So he doesn't have to be a cannibalistic capitalist. He can be the dapper yellow fellow who sells and eats yummy, natural and nutritious morsels that happen to look a bit like him--think of how humans eat little crackers and gummies that look like other people--and, most importantly, is not dead and never will be, because people still love him and believe in him, and belief and imagination transcend death, at least when it comes to fictional characters.

(I especially have the right to believe he's dead because it's one thing to kill off a character in a series for story reasons--it's another thing to kill a revered and internationally-known brand mascot just to create a social media buzz and generate profits. Now that's capitalism!)

But at the same time, I can't help but admit that it was at least a unique social media experiment, and despite the nasty secret intent behind it all, it was very interesting to finally get to see how Mr. Peanut would die, how he got born (and reborn), and what he looks like as a baby. And honestly, with his big round eyes, squidgy body and dainty features, I actually think Baby Nut is pretty cute--certainly too cute for me to want to break out a mortar and pestle and make peanut butter out of him--but he's just not Mr. Peanut. Mr. Peanut was such a unique character that it takes some very special minds to make a character that even comes close to a replacement--sadly, Baby Nut just doesn't make the cut.

Thanks to the power of love and imagination, though, he's still his good old self in my heart. Besides, he may just grow up and come back some day. So in conclusion, he still is, not was, and always will be, the best role model and "husbando" I could ever ask for. He's got the looks. He's got the love. He's cute. He's graceful. He's dapper. He's daring. He's silly. He's sexy. He's serene. He's cheerful, and he always brightens my day. He's everything I could ever want, and more.

Some day I plan to release an art collection featuring the lovable legume sometime in the near future. I would have each picture creatively high-light a different aspect of his personality, taking inspiration from charming vintage art-work that would fit the theme of the picture as well as actual Planters merchandise, and I would utilize various retro art styles and techniques from different time periods to give each picture a distinctive "old-fashioned" vibe.

The collection will be available on all my art web-pages, including my possible future Patreon (if I can get enough subscribers!), and I'm hoping I can also get it shown off in a gallery somewhere (if there are enough Mr. Peanut fans here in Athens to want to see it.)

One of my favorite commercials featuring him ever, back when he was (canonically) alive and well.

The commercial where he literally dies.

The commercial where he comes back to life as a little baby peanut.

And that concludes my post. The credits for the videos go to Planters and KraftHeinz, and the cover photo for this post goes to my imaginary friend, Mini Minoux. Do you love Mr. Peanut, too? And if you do, what do you love about him? And what about Baby Nut? Is he “yea” or “nay”? I'd be happy to hear your thoughts in the comments--though please, keep it reasonable and don't be too harsh. We're in the company of a gentleman. ;.3

[helloitsmefay]

Chapter 1: A Brutal Wake-Up Call

In the end of last year, I prayed that 2017 would be a great year filled with good memories, and valuable lessons. There was really nothing in particular that I prayed for. So while 2017 did serve up some pretty good moments, it did not forget to throw in a couple of learning curves, and honestly it really caught me sideways.

As nervous as I am to be writing this, I feel it is important to share stories that help. Stories that can give insight, and perspective. I went through a very dark time this year. The last time I felt this isolated and dark was a couple of years back when a certain medication I was on started exacerbating my already pre-existing symptoms. The different thing about this year was the severity of my condition.

It slowly began creeping up on me early this year until I finally knew what it felt like to hit “rock bottom”. You see, I had to hit rock bottom hard on my face to know how strong I was to get myself back up. Being in such a dark place tested my personality, my values, and my perspective. The whole embodiment of who I was and what I stood for was put to the test.  

I was pretty good at keeping everything under wraps until I started unraveling so much, I could no longer keep up with myself. And my mom’s dreaded fears materialised again, I was depressed. I know what it’s like to give up on everything, and everyone. It was a tough patch, but here I am now, in probably the clearest state of mind I have been in in such a while. It’s a slow recovery, but I believe there is no such thing as small progress. Every little thing counts as progress, and I kept my eyes right on the prize. While it felt like I lost the battle countless times, it was important I made sure I won the war.

Once I realised the following lessons I picked up this year, I swear things started getting easier. Our generation already carries so much it’s no surprised why we are so prone to getting overwhelmed, anxious and bloody burnt out at some point.

Here’s what this year helped me realize. I hope this post maybe gives you some insight, too.

1. Social Media is a double-edged sword.

Life is not what it always seems through someone’s instagram feed. That account that’s always traveling and that luxury account that always has a new bag purchase? They might be both heavily in debt and living with that crippling anxiety - but they’re so addicted to the attention they’ll sacrifice their peace for it. Nobody’s life is perfect. Even with my good judgement on most things, I still let the good and bad side to get to me. So, like pulling a splinter out of a wound, I stopped social media cold turkey, and took a break to focus on things that matter. Things that will give me perspective. I spent time with my family, I reconnected with some that I haven’t checked up on in a long time, I took a good look at who my real friends are and who really is worth investing irreplaceable time with. I took some time to get my life in order. It was refreshing. I never knew how addicted this generation was until I experienced the withdrawal myself and noticed how better I felt emotionally.

2. Don’t sell your real friends for “friends” with “benefits”

I don’t have to dive-in deep with this one. There is nothing more selfish and self-damaging in the long term by trading your friends for a social circle that serves a higher agenda to you. I know it’s easy to get sucked into peer pressure and feeling like you need to make it up the ranks. But you know, we need to learn to live with less of this ego and belief that we are entitled to this superiority on the expense of our real, and valuable relationships. The sad reality is that nothing concrete results from friendships like that. And once you don’t serve their agenda, you’ll be forgotten about and pushed out.

3. Stay the hell away from toxic people, regardless of their proximity to you.

We all know these kinds of people. The manipulative, jealous and two-faced type that consciously and subconsciously suck the energy right out of your bones (and braincells).  Two words: CANCEL THEM. It’s very important to weed people like them out of your life because you won’t realise just how much of a toll their negative energy and drama takes out of you until you get sidetracked from the good things happening in your life. Or until it’s too late and you’ve already sabotaged that. It’s never too late to realise you deserve better and that nobody who truly loves and appreciates you and your company would go to inexplicable lengths to directly or indirectly make your life miserable. Take no shit from anyone. I lost touch with who I considered toxic people in my life and honestly, I am doing much better in my relationships with people, and I am no longer bothered with their drama or being collateral damage as a result of their baggage.

4. Those who matter, will always be there.

I have come to learn in life that it’s not really about who you most spend time with, it’s about who stands with you when the time matters. I personally have friends that I really don’t keep in touch with, but when I come across adversity or even go after something, I find them there with me, having my back. Even if its down to a few people, you don’t need the acceptance of a village to give you support or validation. The older I get, the more I realize I am truly content with the love and support from the tight circle I have. Also, this made me feel no shame in asking for help when I was at my lowest point, because I knew this tight circle would help me back up on my two feet, and not judge me or patronize me, and that was such a relief. To be fair, having a genuine support system makes me feel like I can be a great version of myself around them both in the good times and in the bad times. Never equate the quality of your friendships with the quantity. I know I am bad at math and at calculating, but even I’ve figured this one out.

5. Give love, and you will get it back. Just don’t expect it from specific people.

I learned this year that love is the key, love is everything, love is what makes us, love is what grows us and love is what - as cheesy as it sounds - saves us. I am not talking specifically about romantic love, while that is a bonus, it’s not really everything. At some point in my life, I was bottled up with so much toxicity and negative feelings it was disrupting the true essence of who I was. I realised I was spending my time not pouring love into things or into people enough. From that moment, I made it a point in life to tell everyone who mattered to me that I loved them. Screw our culture’s fear of love! I went all in for it, guys and girls, I told them they mattered and that I love them, and I told them for the most time I saw them. Without putting into account their feelings, I felt really good when I projected those good vibes. When I made sure I knew I loved what I was wearing or doing, I felt better about myself and I indeed carried myself better, and saw the world in a more optimistic perspective. And to be honest, I didn’t put any expectation to get it back from certain people because that was not the point. It was something that I wanted to do with no expectation. However, the biggest mission of all though, is making sure every single day that I wholeheartedly love myself. There’s so much love to give to the world, and during these turbulent times with racism and discrimination, we need this. We need love. The Beatles had it all figured out in a line “All you need is love”. Love is the answer.

6. Finally, you do you.

First and foremost, you are your own best friend before anyone else. You are the focus of your story. Time wasted is time you will never have back, so why spend it doing things to satisfy others? Self-care is super important. Putting yourself on a pedestal is the best thing you can do for yourself. Beware of becoming borderline selfish, but it’s good to make time to yourself, and do things for yourself, and act the way you want to.. FOR YOURSELF. There is nobody else on this planet you owe moments of your life to. It will be really hard to get into this mindset at the start if you’ve been the kind that always was a people pleaser, and yes, I bet you it will be difficult and it might get you in a sticky situation or two. In the long run though, the peace of mind and lack of regret you will have will be the most priceless thing you can ask for. Screw society and conformity. You express yourself the way you see fit, and don’t let anyone’s words or actions invalidate your desire to be the person you want to be. I’m still working on this, but I am slowly seeing the results, and honestly, it’s worth it every time.  

[salsabythebay]

Assassin's Creed Unity

I used to make pre-orders well in advance on big releases and especially collector's editions. The last Assassin's Creed Unity did not escape the rule! I was able to recover a lot of DLC and a beautiful pocket watch thanks to the special edition of Amazon.

After a meticulous unpacking, I insert the toast in the toaster and the PS4 starts to install the game. First surprise for me, the installation time is very slowbut on the other hand when we know that the city of reference for this title is Pariswe have no doubt that the content must be colossal. Only here, just the game installed, it is necessary to download two important updates… and as in the majority of games, even if you can play it remains essential to connect to servers Ubisoft.

Ubisoft servers … But since when is it necessary to connect an account UPlay to play? Mmmmh … Since some versions of the game actually … Of course it brings " bonus But somewhere it's surprising because when I buy a game console, I like that the online functions are related to my account PSN … and especially not to be forced to create a rely on another site (in the publisher site) to access game content or privileged content. Finally, it seems to be a contagious disease, EA (see the last two Mass Effect) we already made the blow for a long time why not Ubisoft.

Whatever, the game is launched! No, is it really the game? Not sure, we start with a presentation of the famous Abstergo software that allows you to explore the story. But after a minimalist introduction (unlike Assassin's Creed III where the intro was almost a third of the game) we start to explore Versailles then Paris.

pretty similar interface what we used to see if it is that the username appears at the top left of the screen, above the life bar. In the menu options, it should be noted that the interface is defined in widgets that can be turned on or off at leisure. Finally there … no, it bug so it does not work, we bet that the download update will fix it. In short, we remain in known territory, likewise the Arno hero's control system is identical. It will also be noted that an effort has been made to improve the fluidity of travelit is no longer necessary to press the right button at the right moment to jump from one platform to another or over a chasm … One could rejoice in this " casualization If it could really improve Arno's handling. But this is not the case.

We regret that this simplification already initiated at the level of combat (since Assassin's Creed III) does not really improve travel. We find ourselves in effect with many unwanted jumps, improbable acrobatics making some access impossible (hatches, ladders, windows …) for example Arno systematically jump over a roof hatch (provided with scale) rather than suspend as could be done in previous titles. It's so much annoying it will take the scale in the perfect alignment to go down otherwise it's simply impossible. It's even more painful when you have to infiltrate quickly in a house (example of the last mission of the theater where one must kill a brigand particularly well guarded).

The scales, true problem in combat because it's impossible to climb them for the simple reason that you can not leave your target unless you run away from it (awesome in a closed environment) even when you use smoke to escape. Some will say it is enough to face the enemy … Certainly but to face the enemy, it is necessary to be relatively well equipped and to be level. Remember the Teutonic knights of the very first Assassin's Creed, well here it is, it gives you the balance of power with some enemies that can kill you in one fell swoop, beautifully choreographed elsewhere … Anyway, we would happily do without when it happens 3, 5, 10 times in a row … And yes, if you had lost the habit of dying since Brotherhood you will quickly take it back … Indeed, it will not be rare to be killed by a rifleman! One bullet is enough. Yes, it's realistic, but of course … Good by cons do not hope to kill a guard level 3 (there are 5 levels visually marked by small circles above the target life bar) with a single ball. It even happens that some murders will go miserably and that you get pierced by a blade in the blink of an eye. It's so stealthy that sometimes we're there, staring stupidly at the screen watching Arno collapse without knowing why. A bullet, a blade, or whatever … It's a bit like there's latency in death, and it's very frustrating to be able to identify what killed you … Not at least as frustrating as being unable to launch menu no longer appears, not as frustrating as finding yourself in a unwanted fight and can not flee because targeting is persistent… and yes, the targeting is so " attended That you can not even choose to target or not … And so it is impossible to disable it except to run very far as I mentioned earlier, artificially increasing the difficulty and may be the life time.

ACIII although visually stunning had been a disappointment, both script and technical. Not to mention the craze to sell the game with 90% of the content and force the players wanting to finish 100% to buy the DLC … Finally it was already the case in previous Assassins Creed … But the collection of objects, hunting and the infinite travel time had made this game uninteresting to the possible… On the other hand, AC Black Flag had really reconciled me with the license by taking again the only real good idea of ACIII : navigation at sea. And suddenly, I had great expectations for this latest opus … Similarly, load times, fluidity of travel, framerate … in short there were many good things. And without the bar was put too high, we had to wait a little more Assassin's Creed Unity. We will note the recovery of the companion app to download on tablet or smartphone to see in real time Arno and make him do special missions to unlock in-game content Only if you do not have a tablet, there are chests that you will not be able to open… nice, right? But besides, you will have to buy the Premium application to access cards in co-op, to unlock exclusive content from the database (already present in the game! shit so we have to pay more to access what we bought …) unlock exclusive assassins … power recruit 5 additional assassins, unlock the music present in the game, double its "Nomad" points (other currency …). No you are not dreaming, you cauchemardez same … For information, to date, I still have not figured out how to unlock the chests with the application … So, zero interest, frustration one.

Skyrim since they have largely pumped the visual aspect … well let's go on there too.

can walk in a Paris in revolution, to visit the bastille and some other kindnesses, but apart from that, the Wonder is not at the rendezvous for a title quite simply banal. We will find the idea of ​​the property to buy and improve. They did better than for ACIII, here it is a magnificent theater that will restore. In fact, the trick if you do not want to spend real money is to immediately bet on it! And wait until the dividends fall to improve it and so on … Otherwise you will tear your hair and you can not progress calmly.

Otherwise, I did not mention the online mode … must say that given the harm I had to join the Ubisoft servers … Yet the idea of ​​doing the missions in cooperation is good! The idea of ​​assassin's Creed with real players I have a problem, the "Club" that must be created disturbs me on a game that is intended to be offline … There is confusion of sorts and I do not like that. Soon the license will be fully online with a mission of two hours as a scenario … Assassin's Creed is a game that we enjoy, we investigate, we study, we learn, we compare the real story of the story told … But with the invasion of online content we are gradually losing the substantive marrow that made this license a game out of the ordinary.

AC Unity is extremely long to load for the current hardware, it trains on all media, it is limited to become unplayable, how is it possible? 2GB update in Day-One, servers missing, content to be redeemed immediately, recurring defects not corrected, new gameplay defects, and the introduction of micro-transactions to play as was done in the latest titles to explore everything, make money, collect weapons and armor before embarking on the background story? Not only Ubisoft sells us an unfinished game, kit and you have to pay extra to be able to play normally. But who's laughing at you? I think we hit the bottom!