#come the end of the game and his stream was deleted 20 minutes in for violenc

[dubiousdisco]

He's streaming this

[serotocin38]

As YouTubers

Shen Qingqiu: Started at age 14 playing video games and making crappy quality videos, cursing excessively, and saying very cringy things. Then disappeared without a word for over a year and suddenly deleted all his old videos. Did an entire revamp of his channel, but still does gaming. Somehow gathered an audience of kids under the age of 15. Is relatable AF. 8.3 million subscribers, but has no idea how because he literally doesn’t try. Does a 36-hour live stream and raised $200,000 for abandoned and abused pets.

Luo Binghe: Has a cooking channel with an audience made up of almost all middle-aged women and grandmas that are subscribed only to him. Makes a lot of comfort food and desserts and always brings them to his husband at the end of his videos for a rating. Seems like a sweet boy, but if anyone else is in the kitchen at the same time as him, he turns into Gordon Ramsey 2.0. Has 3k subscribers, but totally okay with that. Not after the money, just wants to feed his husband (who sometimes doesn’t bother to eat because 36-hour livestream :/).

Wei Wuxian: Daily vlogger. Clickbait titles, no shame - “I TOLD MY FAMILY I’M PREGNANT!!! SHOCKING RESPONSE!!!”  10.2 million subscribers, and has a lot of spontaneous meet-and-greets when in public places. Actually makes some pretty high-quality videos. Often jokes about himself being gay, flirts openly with men and women, but when confronted by his audience about his sexuality, is in major denial while sweating bullets. Had no idea he was a bisexual mess until his sister gently broke it to him, found out his first kiss wasn’t with a girl, nearly has a mental breakdown on camera, had his second kiss, and started dating his boyfriend all in the span of one (1) 20-minute vlog. 

Lan Wangji: Had a video clip of him playing the guqin in an airport go viral. Pressured into making a channel because everyone wanted to hear (and see) more of him. Makes music tutorials and covers popular songs. Also writes and sings originals. His songs are obviously all written about one person, and he never reveals who that person is, but everyone knows (except for that one person, but now he knows too). Does collabs and duets with his family. His audience wants them to start a family band and maybe do a tour someday, but that’s too non-traditional for his family to even consider. Has a good 800k subscribers because model-like men playing the guqin and writing love songs is hard to come by.

Xie Lian: Has no real theme to his content. Often making half-serious depression jokes (and probably has it, like most of his audience). But is a big mood sometimes. Often seen making the “kill me” expression when things go wrong. Basically uploads twice a year, sometimes consecutively, sometimes 51 weeks apart. Has a total of 10 videos over the course of four years, but half a million subs. Loves disappearing from his social media for long periods of time, but also making posts at 3 AM while drunk with no context or explaination. Is an actual cinnamon bun, like he probably smells like a cinnamon bun. His only haters are people who are just angry with how unbelievably adorable he is.

Hua Cheng: Makes commentary and reaction videos. Dry, sarcastic humor that is highkey very insulting. Literally hates everyone and cannot be bothered with their bullshit. Has more haters than followers, but does not give a fuck. Super controversial and has beef with almost everyone in the YT community at some point. Destroyed a quite a lot of YT careers as well. What little followers he does have are loyal diehard fans. First saw Xie Lian when doing commentary on one of Xie Lian’s old videos and immediately fell in love. Has since then been silently stalking him on all social media and leaving creepily sweet comments on all posts. His fans have noticed obviously and a huge influx of fanart and fanfic has been produced centered around them, even though they have yet to have any interactions. 

[foryouthegays]

Visiting Dream [Dream SMP] stream summary and timestamps

Summary:

Techno starts the stream in his house. The plot is supposed to starts at 3:40. He leaves the house and meets with Phil, and immediately gets distracted with the paintings of Tommy in Phils house. Phil starts glitching and leaves the game, so Techno moves to his backup plan, which is a map of Phils face, but that also glitches and is deleted. He stalls and eventually, at 9:17, Phil returns. They start their lore conversation at 10:13. Techno tells Phil that he’s going to visit Dream. Phil asks if that’s a good idea, and Techno admits that it really isn’t. He knows that everyone whose visited Dream has had something horrible happen, but he also knows that he owes Dream a favor. Techno refuses to let Phil come with him, but he does give Phil his will.

Before he leaves, Phil and Techno ring the channel member bell, and Dream joins the server.

Techno leaves at 17:35.

He goes through the Nether and reaches the prison at 22:20. The warden joins the call at 22:30.

Sam denies him entry to visit Dream, but Techno came prepared. He brought his field trip form, signed.

Sam agrees to let him in, and Techno reads the form, aloud. He signs it “Techno Blade.”

26:10 He answers the prison questions.

30:10. He’s in the prison. They go through the security stuff for so long oh my gosh like im impressed with the prison but ughhhhhh

34:50 he signs this book ‘Technoblade’ instead of ‘Techno Blade’. Interesting. Probably just him bein him but whatever

38:50. Techno walks to Dream. Dream yells that it’s a trap, that Quackity was lying. He says that Quackity and Sam are working together. Techno quickly brushes past that, and tells Dream to explain everything that’s been going on. He says it doesn’t matter, and that he’s already trapped. Techno turns around and asks Sam how long he has to stay, and is told that he is the main threat to Dream escaping, and that he could stay for a long while. Techno tells Sam to send the bridge back, and he refuses. He brings the lava back down, and Techno is trapped with Dream. He tells Dream to write down everything that’s happened, and everything he knows about the prison.

They talk, and Dream tells him that he used to have a clock. I’m gonna be honest i dont really know much about the prison stuff but i saw a ton about him loosing a clock so i thought id mention it.

Techno ends the stream.

Timestamps:

Ya know im gonna be honest i like these shorter streams. Less overwhelming.

Techno recording a vid? Yes? Pog? Please?

3:40 philza minecraft? Him? Hello? My beloved?

4:20 philza minecraft has left us :( he is now canonically dead cant believe it this is so funny

8:07 du du duuu

9:15 sTEVE- oh hi mr minecraft

10:45 ‘also itll be views’

12:00 ‘how many people accidentally punch dogs irl, phil’ alkdhf

14:45 awwW techno knows his pets favorite foods alsldkhf!

I stg techno is incapable of being serious when phils around

18:37 ‘hello brothers’ @ a zombie pigman my Beloved

Does. Does techno not know the difference between piglins and zombie pigmans. Like im not surprised but *techno*

22:00 awww darn techno has to die. Like i knew he would but :(

I literally cant get over how little techno cares about serious lore its so funny

23:27 ‘….bro ur door broke’ ALDKDHF

The field trip form im crying

“Sam. Technoblade will be playing Dream a visit. This is business related. Let it happen.

It’s also a tax write off :)

- Quackity”

25:10 Oh im gonna cry technos reading voice is so nice even when its fast

31:20 techno appreciating redstone my beloved.

34:29 techno reading my beloved

40:35 ‘a nice long stay with dream’ ‘so like five minutes?’ ALDKDHF

41:39 ‘thiS IS NOT DOING MUCH TO CHANGE MY POLITICAL OPINIONS’ aldkdhf

I stg if ANYONE makes a ‘and they were roommates’ joke i Will kill you

also i am honestly really impressed w the prison. This is the first time ive seen it ’live’ and like. Wow gg thats so cool

[shoezuki]

This is a post on the cheating accusations around dream mostly surrounding his response video.

If you don’t want to see this or any of these posts then blacklist the tag #discourse

SO I’ve been doing a lot of digging into what dream has said in his response to Geosquare’s original video and report, which was compiled and conducted by the Minecraft Java mods on speedrun.com. 

I won’t talk about that original report in detail, but basically: the mods came to the conclusion that Dream had a 1 in 7.5 trillion chance of getting the pearl bartering rates and the blaze drop odds that he did within the 6 streams he did. As in, someone would need that luck to replicate what dream got. Therefore, he cheated. 

I’m going to put this into a sort of ‘point form’ in according to topic, attempting to put it in chronological order.

Dream’s Initial Tweets

Ok so first like. these are bad. these tweets are what he said (on twitter, excluding in the speedrunning discord) directly after the video was Uploaded to Geo’s channel. 

worth noting he did apologize later, although i wanted to talk about these two instances so i felt the need to include it. 

there’s a lot of interesting wording in the apology tweet itself too. I personally find that when he apologizes he tends to still be very subtextually angry in them with the tone, but more specifically. where he says ‘although i have reason to be upset’, that’s kinda weak and really unneeded. Alongside the ‘intense criticism’, it reads as him trying to say he’s still in the right. kind of like “im sorry i was rude even though I had reason to be rude’. Its an apology sure but he’s not saying sorry for how he really reacted; its justified to him.

Dream’s Response Video

Dream posted a response on his side channel DreamXD on the 22nd, along with the report he had a supposed astrophysicist conduct. I’m going to talk about the report separately from the video for reasons I’ll explain. 

Frankly, the video doesn’t really summarize or explain the report in a meaningful way. At most, it takes some points from it but tends to twist the numbers around, misunderstand the probability and math, and also what the report itself concludes. 

Essentially, dream’s video insists that the numbers found by the mods are wrong and therefore he didn’t cheat at all, yet the report concludes that the numbers found by the mods weren’t entirely accurate, however they’re still extremely unlikely. This is also all under the assumption that the report is entirely correct (ill say how its not next)

His first point is that only his 1.16 run (that was at 5th place two months ago, would have now been 16th) was deemed cheated. This is true; the mods have said that he isnt banned outright and theres no reason to question the legitimacy of his 1.15 runs. 

He also concludes that Geo’s statement that Dream didn’t cooperate with them, and that he deleted 1.16 mod folders, was false. This one is a little more complicated. It could more be chalked up to a miscommunication, although it’s relevant. Geosquare posted screenshots of the specific conversation they had:

Essentially it wasn’t entirely clear, i can understand how geo and the mods interpreted it in such a way. Altho April added in a quote retweet thread that dream didn’t supply the folder she asked for, so he didn’t supply everything they asked for like he states in the video

Essentially: yeah, misleading and weird on both ends. I dont think this is really anything quantifiable, although dream talked about this in the video heavily. 

Out of this though, Geo DID correct himself in the description of the mods’ video. Dream shows this in his own response, but it crops out some of what geo says. here’s from dream’s video

that Update 2 is where he corrects himself. literally why the fuck would you crop it like this and put it in the video i mean this looks so weird and genuinely doesnt provide anything. Here’s what geo actually said

Dream specifically cut it before the line where geo mentions how he said he deleted his specific 1.16 speedrun profile. This one is just so dumb to me. I’d say ‘why not include that’ but either i feel its a) so there’s no potential for people to say what he had actually said could be interpreted otherwise easily or b) doesnt want people to know he got so upset he deleted files (ego wise yknow). Again, I dont think this is definitive of anything but god. it feels scummy lmao

The Video: Incorrect Representation of His Own Report

Dream straight up doesnt present the report’s numbers properly. In fact it makes the entirety of his visuals forfeit, i.e. the gold block analogy that goes on for like 20 minutes. 

The mods said his luck was 1/7.5 trillion. Dream’s report says its 1/10 million (with the addition of 5 other streams) or 1/100 million (only the 6 streams).

I’ll only consider the 1/10 mil odds, since its all dream really brings up. but Basically; there’s not much difference between 1/10 million and 1/7.5 trillion. 

Dream says that the difference is 7.5 trillion minus 10 million, aka 7.4999 trillion. This is what his entire visual with the gold blocks is based on. This is absolutely incorrect, i cant stress that enough. 

You can’t find the difference of fractions by subtracting only the denominators. Like. this is elementary school math. it just doesnt work. 

It’d actually be calculated as: (1/10 000 000) - (1/7 500 000 000 000) = (74999/7 500 000 000 000)

If the mods are wrong, they’re only wrong by 749999/7.5 trillion. that’s literally only  0.000000099999866666667. 

Dream no doubt saw the numbers, considered 10 million vs. 7.5 trillion, and used these big numbers to hold his own point. PROBABILITY DOESNT WORK LIKE THAT. I really think he was just taking advantage of the seemingly big numbers here and wrote it out in a way that favoured him. The gold block analogy in the video played throughout the entire video practically, jokes were made on it, and he made a point of it being ‘so big the game crashed’. 

It’s just plain wrong. even so a difference in the odds doesnt prove shit. He’s downplaying his own odds that he found too. 1/10 million isnt a small number. Even though the legitimacy of that calculation is in question, it is still significant enough to proclaim he cheated. 

Some quick points before I move onto the report; these aren’t as significant in my eyes but it adds to the picture

there’s been criticism of his joking manor throughout the entire video, very specifically the Bill Nye joke. Considering he doesnt actually have a name to provide for his astrophysicist, this joke doesnt feel right

the mod he had a voice clip from (willz) even believes that he cheated and has agreed with the mod team the whole time. 

Dream never has a name for the mod who is apparently on his side (more understandable), the minecraft developer he quoted, or the astrophysicist (most damning)

Dream states that fabric is used by most speedrunners which is true, but fabric and fabric API are different; dream also had the latter installed. my knowledge of how theyre different is limited, all i really know is the API is what can enable editing of the code while fabric is more a modloader. im not entirely sure on this

Dream has said at the end of the video that all funds will go to the mod team so they can make a client that will regulate cheaters. this has been noted as feeling manipulative or like a ‘bribe’, but it definitely puts the mods in a bad position. 

either they accept it and look like they ‘gave in’ to dream and therefore acknowledge him in the right

they deny it and look selfish/taking dream’s kindness for granted

geo said they would insist it goes to a charity instead

Dream constantly disregards the mods as young, inexperienced, ‘just volunteers’ etcetcetc, despite the fact that theyre analysis has been discussed by people with confirmed PhDs without much criticism

Dream’s Report

The report itself is extremely interesting, in that it’s very questionable, but even so it doesn’t come to the conclusion that dream didn’t cheat. The tone between the video and the report is drastically different. 

This is from the “3. What are the goals of this document?” section:

It essentially says this isnt intended, from the very beginning, to completely exonerate dream of cheating. Also note that the author says the mods’ report was mostly correct. 

This is at the end of “9 Conclussions”:

It does notably say cheating isnt the only explanation, but it doesnt actually go as far to say that it’s not possible that he cheated. 

But this can be argued to not matter if we consider the validity of the report as a whole

Dream’s Report: Criticisms

Possibly the first and most known debunking of the report is by u/mfb on reddit, although there’s been much more such as this programmer criticizing the code provided at the end of the report (partially due to how the author of it stated that piglins barter 4-7 pearls, which is incorrect: it’s 4-8), Andrew Gelman, an actual statistician professor from harvard, commented on the original mods’ report as ‘impressive’ while Dream’s report is being regarded as something funny in the comments, and even analysis of dream’s behaviours and his argument by a law student

But what u/mfb posted is what i’ll focus on. Some background into the user; he’s a particle physicist, is moderator in subreddits like r/cosmology and r/astrophysics, he’s regarded as a reliable source on r/askscience and r/askreddit. Basically, multiple other people have vouched for him and before all this he had many posts in these fields. 

that’s already better than the unnamed astrophysicist. 

The post is better speaking for itself but here is a few exerpts from it;

Essentially, the report’s methods are debunked by u/mfb-, alongside that a moderator of r/statistics regarded the report as ‘nonsensical in its application of statistics’ and linked to u/mfb-’s comment. 

i’m going to end this here. Partially because severe backpain or whatever,.

but I want to say at this point its practically definitive that dream cheated, that he lied to us, and that he continues to do so. Much more could be said on his video such as his tone, intentions, the overt emphasis on the ‘biases’ of the mods. 

I havent even mentioned that the ‘astrophysicist’ themself may be a scam; they are sourced from a website that is extremely sketchy, has no names attached to it, and was created less than a year ago (with practically no traffic on it until maybe a month ago). 

But i hope this is coherent. I have interest in this so if theres questions im always open. 

[ick25]

Rockman.EXE Episode 55 Review.

STRANGER DANGER!

I’ve got the blues... For this is the last time I’ll see the Enzan I like before Axess ruins him.

We start the episode in the arcade where Rockman and Blues are having a battle!

Not as epic as the one in the tournament finals, but a little more credible.

Enzan decides to end the battle by using the Program Advance, however, Netto and Rockman figured out a way to deflect the Beta Sword with just a Sword.

This surprises Enzan and Blues because, it’s the Beta Sword... Its not something a preschooler can do with little effort, right?. XP

The battle continues until Enzan receives an emergency call on his PET and tells Netto that they have to postponed their battle for another time.

I just like their reactions.

In his limo, Enzan is still surprised about Rockman using a Sword against the Beta Sword, showing us a flashback of what we just saw, literally, a minute ago.

“The probability of doing that is just as high as Gutsman using a Program Advance”

After the title card, we see that Enzan’s emergency called was just about his dad being impatient about getting a contract signed for a partnership with a new company.

I have no idea what that stick Blues showing is supposed to be, but we have reached the MADEA... I mean MAEDA company.

Enzan enters and sees a man working on something, he tries to talk to him about the contract but the man isn’t interested in working for another company like IPC.

You know, the thing. That thing, go get the thing.

Oh, that thing... What even is that thing?!

The man asks Enzan to do more chores, like shredding some documents, when a Higure like character comes in and yells at him demanding to know who he is.

The man tells him that Enzan is from IPC and the Higure guy, whose name I forgot, gets all creepy on him until the man tells Enzan to move on to his next chore, cleaning the toilet.

I don’t know what confuses me more, the fact that the guy has a pink apron the fits Enzan perfectly, or seeing that the toilet also has a sink.

After cleaning the toilet, Enzan returns to the man and his assistant who are working on a special program with the help of some standard Navis.

Don’t ask me what that machine is because I don’t know.

Apparently the Navis have to use Swords to cut the data rock into a perfect copy of the model the man wants. And I really mean perfect because once they’re done the man analyses it, finds a small imperfection, and that’s enough to tell the Navis to destroy it, ignoring his assistant telling him that kind of precision is almost impossible to achieve.

Like everything humanity does, it took way less time to destroy it than it took to make it.

This upsets the Higure clone because of the time they spent working on it. They begin to work on another data rock, but this time Enzan offers to give it a try in hopes to speed things up.

He plugs in Blues who scares the standard Navis and even more after he performs the Program Advance to give form to the data in a matter of seconds.

Unfortunately for Mr. Child prodigy the shape is not perfect either since the man shows him that it is just a tad smaller than the model.

He tells Enzan that the Program Advance, even though its a powerful move, it is useless without control and sometimes a simple sword is just right.

So after Blues’s fail, the Navis are not afraid of him anymore and invite him to work with them, and their interactions with him are kinda cute.

My new favorite trio.

Since this is an Enzan episode we cut to and back from commercials with two cube scenes with the chibi Blues.

What’s funny is that Blues says Shakin twice the second time and Netto’s voice points that out.

We see that Blues was left working with the Navis using regular swords while Enzan is out on an errand. Suddenly, the power goes out in the work station making the data rock disappear, but wouldn’t that affect the cyberworld too?

I guess they would just lose contact with the humans.

The man suddenly says that he forgot to pay the power bill and... calmly and shamelessly tells his assistant to go steal power from somewhere. 

Meanwhile, we see Netto at the Maha Ichiban talking about how he enjoyed his battle with Enzan and that he can’t wait to continue it.

They are just so adorable!

So anyway, the power goes out causing Mahajarama to give Count Elec third degree burns.

The Ex-WW soon discover that the Higure double is the culprit and they give chase to him, until he turns around a corner but goes back to kick a garbage can to stop them which was pretty funny.

Speaking of funny scenes, you can’t help but laugh with the subtitles’s sense of humor in this next one.

Even the subs are tired of having to translate Aki’s cheesy song. XD

So the Higure bootleg returns to the office just in time for some mafia looking guys from another company to arrive and attempt to destroy the man’s work for not wanting to join them. Luckily for him, Enzan returns just in time to save the day by throwing a chip at one of the thugs, karate chopping another one, and had apparently taken out all of the others outside off camera... Damn, you don’t mess with this kid. O.O

What is it with rich people and throwing collectible items a bad guys?

“That’s for making me waste a perfectly good battle chip!”

Anyway, Enzan scares off the mafia boss by telling him he is from IPC. While Enzan and the man watch the bad guys leave, the Higure copy makes a creepy face as he is doing something on the computer. Turns out he is a bad guy who steals part of the program data to sell it.

He easily runs away before Blues tells them that there are viruses destroying the original data. So Enzan sends chips to help Blues fight them.

He says, as he deletes a Metool.

Blues protects the data from the viruses and then suddenly does this.

It looks like Blues found an invisible hole that is bringing the viruses in, Enzan sends a Paladin Sword to destroy the hole and the real enemy appears.

Drillman, where have you been?! The season is almost over!

So Blues fights Drillman and...

Wow guys, you suck today. 

Not even the Beta Sword can beat him, and it’s practically unavoidable!

PRACTICALLY!

Enzan is running out of ideas until he exchanges looks with the man and understands that a single Sword is more than enough. So Blues uses a Sword and cuts Drillman in half!

I bet this was edited in the dub.

So the day is saved, but their celebration is interrupted by the Ex-WWW who caught the Higure knock off and demand something in return for stealing their electricity.

Since the assistant is the ”real” bad guy here, the man doesn’t take responsibility for telling him to steal power from them and offers a trade, the stolen data for the thief.

I initially though he was offering the data he stole, but nope.

“Please boy, I’m not stupid. Why would a famous company like IPC have a kid working for them if it wasn’t the president’s son?”

So the man finally accepts IPC’s partnership as thanks for Enzan helping him out and the episode ends with Blues and Rockman continuing their battle at the arcade while a news anchor informs everyone about the newest PET that will be released.

The Advance PET is going to be so revolutionary that it will practically hijack the flashbacks for this season by making everyone forget the Plug-in PETs and even rewrite history!

How is this even possible?!

My thoughts?

I like to think this is the last time I’ll see the Enzan I know and love before Axess makes him boring. I feel that this Enzan is more of an interesting character that I would like to know more about, but instead will become someone obsessed with his job and only follows orders. The Enzan in this episode, and in this season in general, has always been portrayed as Netto’s rival, someone who enjoys Net Battles and wont let anyone get in his way, just like back in episode 20 and 21. Sure, he takes his work at IPC seriously, but he was doing the jobs his father told him to do, he didn’t look like the type of person who would stay all day in an office doing paper work, he is a kid for crying out loud! Axess basically makes him an adult, he doesn’t feel like a kid anymore, to me, he was just a cool, kind of a snobby kid who respects his father and is proud of his family’s name, but he also enjoys Net Battles and eating at fancy restaurants by himself, and even hangs out with Netto when he has the chance (mostly to show off to him).

The episode introduces Drillman.EXE who had a bigger role in the game. He was a WWW Navi, it was not known if he had an operator, but somehow was related to Bubbleman a Navi that will debut in Axess. It’s a shame that Drillman’s character goes to waste here, but at least he returns for an episode in Rockman Stream... To fight Blues again.

Looks like Capcom was already working on Battle Network 4 when this came out since it announces the arrival of the Advanced PET that will take over the next season.

[pinkbubbles-and-bigtroubles]

If You’re Gone (Girls Talk  Boys part 32)

I think I've already lost you I think you're already gone I think I'm finally scared now You think I'm weak, I think you're wrong

If you're gone, maybe it's time to come home There's an awful lot of breathing room But I can hardly move If you're gone, baby you need to come home, come home There's a little bit of something me In everything in you

Ashton got to Cal's about 20 minutes after Cher texted him. He knocked but when he got  no answer he opened the door and let himself in, the place was a wreck. Calum had flipped his coffee table over slinging things across the room and he'd  kicked a hole in the drywall by his front door. Ashton carefully made his way around the mess hearing Calum upstairs. He saw the refrigerator door open and went to close it before heading up noticing the whiskey Calum had just bought was not there.

Ashton jogged up the stairs and peeked into Calum's bedroom. Seeing no sign of man or beast as he made his way down the hall. Calum had a 2 bedroom unit and had turned the second room into a gym/music room. He was sitting at his piano with his back to the door and Duke at his feet half slurring half singing “If You’re Gone” by Matchbox 20. Ashton shook his head, he knew this was gonna be a mess. He put a hand on Calum's shoulder causing him to look up with a tear streaked face and unfocused eyes.

“What happened?” Ashton hadn't ever seen Cal look this dejected.

“I fucked up,” Calum hung his head and sniffled fighting back tears again scooting over so Ashton could sit next to him.

“Did Camille break up with you? Cal I don't understand what's going on,” Ashton was puzzled.

“I acted like a complete asshole towards Camille, and she's probably never going to speak to me again. She's already blocked my number on her phone and all her social media,” Calum slumped against his shoulder and reached for the bottle before Ashton grabbed it.

“Getting sick everywhere won't make you feel better tomorrow” Ashton told him taking a swig himself draping his arm across his friend as Calum alternated between babbling and crying trying to explain the fight with Camille.

Cher pulled into the airport's unloading zone and took a deep breath. Both women had been crying as Camille told Cher everything that went down. Camille was devastated by the argument  and pissed beyond words but Cher knew she had the ability to compartmentalize and decide she wasn't dealing with Calum right now. With him deleted and blocked she had to focus on work and put her personal life on hold until she got back. Cher had always admired Camille's ability to just that, but also knew it was her way of avoiding dealing with her problems. She helped Camille with her bags and gave her a hug.

“You're gonna be great Cam, don't let this shit get to you. Calum knows he fucked up,” Cher cupped Camille's face in her hands sharing the sadness in her friend's eyes.

With a flash the sorrow vanished and Camille was angry and again Cher knew she was more comfortable being mad,  as Camille didn't do sadness well.

“Are you guys done? He thinks you broke up with him,” Cher asked her.

“No I mean, I don't think so. He really fucked up and pulling this right now made it so much worse. I'll deal with it when I get back. Thank you for texting Ashton to go check on him,” Camille shook the thoughts out of her head and put her game face on.

“I'll see you when you get back,” Cher gave her another quick hug before waving to Stephen who was already waiting for Camille in the terminal.

Before Camille made it to the escalator to head up to check in her phone dinged. Cher had sent her a $10 Starbucks gift card knowing Camille needed a pick me up.

Cher checked her messages seeing two missed calls from Calum and a text from Ashton.

Cal's drinking and in a bad way. I'm gonna stay over here at least until he passes out. He tried to call you, Camille has him blocked. Did they really break up?

Cher answered him

Camille won't talk to him until she gets back. He acted like a complete asshole and I don't want to talk to him either. Camille hasn't decided what to do yet I'll explain later.

Ashton set his phone down. “The girls don't want to talk to you right now.”

Calum nodded, he was now sitting on the floor with his knees pulled to his chest. Duke kept nudging at him and Calum would almost smile. Ashton had gotten some of the story out of him but Calum couldn't bring himself to repeat the worst he'd said. After a couple hours of drinking and listening to sad songs Ashton put him to bed and texted Cher.

I'm staying here tonight. I hope Camille is ok, Calum is too upset to talk about it but he knows he's wrong

Cher smiled and messaged back

Thank you for not defending him but still supporting him. I'll see you tomorrow daddy

Ashton chuckled and squeezed his dick through his pants glad this fight between their best friends wasn't coming between them.

Calum had spent two days holed up with his laptop and journal in his music room with Duke. Ashton checked up on him but they didn't talk much as Calum was watching the all the ProFantasySports live streams and scribbling down song ideas. Calum was laid out on the floor with his laptop watching Camille's interview on SportsTalk and Ashton was fiddling around on the piano when they both jumped at the sound of the front door slamming.

Footsteps came thundering up the stairs before Luke burst into the room.

“What the hell is wrong with you?!” Luke was angry and accusing.

Calum flinched at his words and Ashton stood up “Luke you don't know the whole story,” he said trying to calm him down.

“Actually I do, I was on the phone with her last night because she couldn't sleep,” Luke fumed. “He basically accused her of lying, wanting to cheat on him with her ex, and, this is the best part, accused her of using sex to get ahead in her career.”

Ashton was stunned and Calum couldn't meet their eyes, his face burning with shame.  

“The worst part is the timing of it. Camille feels like you’re trying  to sabotage her job. You need to figure out your insecurities and your jealousy because while she's going to forgive you this time, you will lose her if you keep it up,” Luke sat down and his expression softened. “I know you love her. I want to see you guys make it.”

“What did you come back from your vacation with Summer just to yell at him?” Ashton asked slightly annoyed.

“Did you and Summer have a good time?” Calum asked.

“Yes, thank you. We're really good right now” Luke replied. “I'm not here to fight. I'm here to help you get your girl back.”

“Wait did you say she forgave him?” Ashton asked.

“No she hasn't yet but she wants to. He needs to convince her, and we're going to help.”

The party was going strong but Camille wasn't really having fun. She'd escorted the contest winners around from breakfast, a day in the NFL Zone meeting players and testing their pass, punt, and catching skills before ending the day at a charity dinner. She'd promised Brandon Pearcy she'd drop by his party tonight and Stephen agreed to tag along. Being a sports agent Brandon had gone all out, he had clients on both the Rams and the Patriots so they'd split house down the middle, blue and gold on one side with silver, red and blue on the other. The food was themed accordingly, New England had lobster rolls, crab cakes, fried clams, Greek pizza, fluffer nutter sandwiches and whoopie pies. L.A. served up french dip sandwiches, Pink's chili cheese dogs, Pho, shrimp tacos, chicken and waffles and rice krispie treat chocolate chip cookies.

Brandon was always friendly and introduced her to several big name players. Rob Gronkowski, Tony Gonzalez, Calvin Johnson, Cam Newton and even Odell Beckham Jr who was extremely good looking and very flirty. People were snapping and posting pics and Camille couldn't shake the feeling she was doing something wrong.

“Camille,” a familiar voice was at her side and she looked up to see Quentin standing there.

She jerked back, panicking when he put his hand on her arm.

“Easy now, baby girl I didn't mean to scare you.” Camille relaxed seeing the concern on his face.

“Sorry I was lost in thought. You scared me.” Camille put her hand on her chest.

“You looked miserable,” he told her with a laugh before she noticed his eyes catch something across the room distracting him for a second.

Before she could turn around his attention was back on her “I know this is a work event for you but come hit this blunt,” he spoke quietly leading her out to a side patio where several people were smoking.

Camille took a puff and Quentin leaned down to talk to her.

“You need to leave this party. Brandon is going to make a move on you and he can be very aggressive and very nasty if he doesn't get his way.”

“Q, why are you telling me this? You think I can't handle myself?” Camille kept smiling and her voice low.

“Please trust me this one time, this will get ugly if you stay. His dealer just showed up and Brandon on cocaine It's something you don't want to see. It's only 9:30 my dude was just talking about getting out of here and hitting up this bar he knows that's got some decent food, you should go with the girls. I'll tell Brandon you're fighting with your boyfriend and left.” Quentin stopped when she looked surprised and hurt. “Damn I'm sorry, I was just making shit up. I'll go get your boy Stephen and we'll turn this night around.”

Quentin went back into the party and Camille found herself being surrounded and hustled out of the house by three women she'd just met.

They stopped once they got to the driveway and one of them began laughing “Well that was dramatic.” She stuck her hand out “Hi, I'm Brittany. This is Shay and that's Megan.”

“Nice to meet y'all. I'm still a bit confused as to what just happened,” Camille shook her hand.

Stephen, Quentin and three other guys were right behind them. Camille recognized two of them as  NFL players Patrick and Von. The other one, Jalen, she knew personally from her guest appearances on his ESPN show “Two Minute Warning.”

They ended up at Vortex for burgers before finding a silly karaoke bar. For the first time since she'd arrived in Atlanta she was actually having fun. Camille wasn't even worried about posting pics to Instagram, let Calum be mad. She wasn't doing anything wrong and if he couldn't see that then he had to go. Of course the thought of actually breaking up with him made her feel like someone knocked the wind out of her. She blocked that thought almost as soon as it popped into her head.

Tonight was her night with her new friends. Quentin left before midnight to make the teams curfew the rest of the group stay till closing at 3am. Camille had to be up at 11 AM to appear on Two Minute Warning in a surprise guest appearance. Camille texted Cher the details before getting some much needed sleep.

Cher hadn't ever had a Super Bowl party without Camille which made it really weird. Camille usually went all out with a Tex Mex taco bar but Cher went instead with pizza and chicken wings. It was the first time Cher had seen Calum since he stormed out of her house the night of the fight. She was pleased to see he looked like hell. He deserved it for making her best friend cry. Aside from that everyone seemed to be in a decent mood. They all cheered through Camille's segment where she dissected, correctly as it turned out, just how and why the Patriots would win. Everybody was in a great mood, and then the game started.

“Be serious, that game was a fucking snooze” Camille joked with Stephen as they presented their boarding passes to go home.

“The halftime show was worse than I thought it would be,” Stephen responded. “Both Sicko Mode and Sweet Victory deserved better.”

Camille laughed but then the Dramamine kicked in and she knocked out for the flight. Cher picked her up at the terminal.

“I hope you know Calum went all out for your return,” Cher warned her as they drove home.

“Mmmm we'll see,” Camille tried not to smile.

“Are you still mad?” Cher asked her.

“Yes, but I really missed him,” Camille sighed.

Walking in she immediately saw the place was filed with pink roses. She headed upstairs to her room and saw tulips strewn out on her bed with an envelope in the center.

Opening it she recognized Calum's messy handwriting and sat down on her bed to read.

My Darling Camille,

There is no excuse for how I treated you and I can't tell you how deeply ashamed and sorry I am. You are the best thing that has happened to me and I'm so afraid of losing you. I've already put you through so much I feel like an asshole asking you to forgive me. I should've never acted like you had to choose between me or your job. Your career is your life the same way mine is and that was completely unfair. You love what you do, you're brilliant, funny and I am so proud of everything you've accomplished. I didn't mean to act like you ever have to choose and I'm truly sorry.

The rest of what I said is completely inexcusable. I lost my mind for a second and lashed out at you and while there's no taking back what I said please know that I didn't mean it. I never thought you would cheat on me. My jealousy is all on me and I'm an absolute twat for behaving like that.

I know words are empty unless they're followed by changed behavior. I want us to really talk this out and I want to be more open with you. I've never been good at expressing my feelings but I want this to work. I want us to work. I have more to say but I'd really like to do it in person. Please give me another chance.

Yours Always

   Calum

Luke watched as Calum paced back and forth staring at his phone. It had been almost an hour since they'd seen Cher's car come back from the airport. Calum was sweating and looked nauseous. There was a knock at the door and Luke saw Calum slump in relief when he answered.

“I thought we should talk,” Camille said before she saw Luke “hey peanut, are you guys busy?”

“NO,” both men answered in unison.

“I talk to you guys later,” Luke gave Camille a quick kiss on the cheek and quickly left.

Camille found herself wrapped up tightly in Calum's arms the second the door closed.

“Camille I am so sorry. I'm an idiot and an asshole. Please don't leave me, I want to be better for you.” Calum was trying not to lose it, barely choking out the words.

They stood there like that, both of them crying together, his face buried in her hair and her face pressed to his chest. Until Camille finally had to pull free because she was all stuffy. Returning from the bathroom wiping her eyes she found Calum splashing his face with cold water at the sink. She came up behind him hugging his waist before he turned and picked her up setting her on the counter.

He looked her in her eyes, “so are we ok?”

Camille nodded, “yes but this can't happen again. Mistakes will be made and this won't be our last fight, but I don't want to keep having the same fight. Respect is the minimum I expect from you. My job is going to get hectic next fall and you're going back on the road. We're going to have enough problems without creating new ones for no reason. I need you to talk to me., I need you to trust me. You're so good at hiding your feelings babe, I never thought about you being insecure. I look at you and see Calum Hood: this gorgeous rock star who I'm lucky enough to be with. I can't imagine you'd ever think you weren't enough.” Camille brushed his curls off his face and stroked his jaw.

“I just think you're amazing and you could do better than me,” Calum couldn't meet her eyes now. “Honestly you could do better than most of the guys you're around. None of them are good enough for you either.”

“You saw the pictures?” Camille asked.

Calum nodded looking guilty. “I watched all your live streams and checked your Insta and Twitter constantly.”

“And?” Camille raised her eyebrows.

“And it was the first time I saw you smile since you got to Atlanta. I'm a complete dickhead for ruining your trip. I'm glad you got to have some fun,” Calum met her eyes again. “I have a surprise for you if you'll come upstairs.”

“Calum we are not jumping into bed. I couldn't anyways,” Camille laughed before giving him a light kiss on the lips.

“No come upstairs to the music room,” Calum put her back on the floor and pulled at her sleeve.

She followed him upstairs and he sat her in a chair before getting behind his piano. He cleared his throat and Camille could see he was nervous but once he started to play and sing Camille was left in awe of his talents.

I was just coastin' Never really goin anywhere Caught up in a web I was gettin kinda used to stayin' there And out of the blue I fell for you

Now you're lifting me up, instead of holding me down Stealing my heart instead of stealing my crown Untangled all the strings round my wings that were tied I didn't know her and I didn't know me Cloud nine was always out of reach Now I remember what it feels like to fly You give me butterflies

Kiss full of color makes me wonder where you've always been I was hiding in doubt till you brought me out of my chrysalis And I came out new All because of you

Now you're lifting me up instead of holding me down Stealing my heart instead of stealing my crown Untangled all the strings round my wings that were tied I didn't know her and I didn't know me Cloud nine was always out of reach Now I remember what it feels like to fly You give me butterflies, yeah You give me butterflies

Now you're lifting me up instead of holding me down You're taking my hand instead of taking my crown Untangled all the strings round my wings that were tied I didn't know you and I didn't know me Cloud nine was always out of reach Now I remember what it feels like to fly You give me butterflies You give me butterflies

“Calum, that was beautiful,” Camille was trying not to cry.

Calum motioned for her to come sit in his lap and when she did he kissed her and looked her in the eye. “I'm sorry for everything. I love you and don't want to lose you.”

“Calum do you know what you just said?” Camille was stunned.

“Yes,” he was smiling at her his eyes bright. “I love you my darling Camille, my everything, my queen.”

“I love you too Calum,” Camille had more to say but it was smothered by his kiss.

@biba3434 @toofadedtofight @babygirlcashton @kiiiimberlyriiiicker1995 @slimthicccal @vfdsstuff @unabashedlymyself @5sos-ficssmut

[makistar2018]

How to succeed in business by being a Taylor Swift fan

Fandom can be an expensive hobby, but there are also ways to get paid for your time and affection.

By Kaitlyn Tiffany Nov 7, 2018

Taylor Swift’s very popular snake jewelry. Big Machine Records

Twenty-two-year-old financial analyst Zainub Amir moved to New York City from Albany last June, around the time that her Taylor Swift news account @SimplySFans celebrated its seventh birthday on Twitter.

The account has 124,000 followers as of this writing, but when Amir started it at the end of eighth grade, there was almost no demand for it. She was alone on Twitter as a Swiftie, she says, with “maybe 30 other fans.” It’s that early adoption of the platform that she credits with her success, and with her permanent place at the top of the Swift fan account hierarchy — it’s too late for anyone else to get this big.

Now Amir has a full-time job and responsibilities to her employer. Also: responsibilities to the 124,000 people who depend on her for news, as well as the management and tour sponsors and brand partners for the biggest pop star in the world, which regularly ask her for help promoting awards shows, limited-edition Keds, and Swift’s every move.

“It’s hard,” Amir tells me, sitting on a corner sofa in her Midtown office building, after most of the lights have gone down but the granola bar wrappers and Lipton tea bags have yet to be scooped from the floor. “The thing is it’s, like, the same thing as texting someone while you’re at work; you just have to be really fast. The whole point of an update account is getting the news first.”

“EVERYTHING COMES DOWN TO SOMETIMES THE SECOND OR MINUTE YOU POST”

To help, Amir has push notifications set up from fan accounts on Tumblr and Twitter, for Swift’s friends and management and publicity team, and, obviously, for Swift herself, who has made a tentative return to social media in recent months after conspicuously vanishingand deleting thousands of posts last August.

“As soon as she posts, I make sure I put it on Twitter. You just have to be quick about it. After a while, it becomes second nature,” Amir says. She does not use Google Alerts, which are too slow. “Everything comes down to sometimes the second or minute you post.”’

That’s because Amir isn’t alone on Twitter talking about Taylor Swift anymore. There are dozens of update accounts, plenty of fans who are willing to take on the job of fandom as a second full-time position. And Swift is far from the only celebrity who draws this kind of cottage media industry around her.

Last summer, I spoke to 19-year-old Yucatán resident Armin Lizama, who runs one of the biggest Lorde fan accounts on Twitter and regularly helps professional music journalism outlets fact-check fan rumors and news items.

Last spring, Harry Styles fans organized to teach each other how to download VPNs and fake US streams of his first solo single “Sign of the Times,” hoping to game the Billboard charts. One account, @StylesPromoTeam, put out a public application to join them, which was longer than a traditional job application and required applicants to state whether they’d be able to dedicate up to 20 hours per week to the cause. This is just how modern fandom operates.

Most of these fans are not doing it to be compensated, but there is compensation to be found nonetheless — like any account with substantial followings, they can charge for sponsored posts and retweets; like any influencer a brand wants to woo, they can expect gifts and trips and special treatment; like any ambitious young person situated in an economy that celebrates optimizing every moment of your life, they can try to use hundreds of hours of self-managed, largely unpaid “fun” labor as a line item on a résumé.

“I don’t really care about how much money I make with it,” Amir says.

Nevertheless, she’ll readily call her account a business.

And as with any business, there are challenges. One is copyright: “Any time a video goes over 30 seconds and it has music or media, anything from Taylor or any of her sponsors, it usually gets picked up by copyright,” Amir explains. “Same thing with photos that photographers are taking, even if it’s Taylor’s own photographers with Getty Images.” They’ll get flagged and removed, and it only takes six or seven violations to get an account suspended, which is a challenge for accounts updating three or four times a day while an artist is on tour, or dozens of times a night when they’re performing and talking and raking in trophies at an awards show.

“Screen record has become my friend. Mainly when it’s YouTube or DirecTV Now, but I have to be careful, which is why I’ve resorted more to retweeting from the source,” she says. She tries not to push it, usually taking clips of around 10 seconds and asking permission whenever she can.

“You want to grow your reach as much as you can, but is it worth getting that copyright notice at the same time?”

All this is why Amir, like many of the other proprietors of major news accounts, has a separate account just for media, which she’ll retweet into her main account’s feed, giving up maximum engagement on her main page in favor of preserving it.

She’s had to learn how to streamline the process, trying to provide a good product without running herself off the road. “There are all these paparazzi pages you can go on and get the image itself, and then you have to delete the watermark,” she explains. “But it’s not worth [the effort] really, because someone’s just going to post it two seconds faster than you.” She’ll ask permission to repost GIFs and videos from fans at tour shows, but only if she’s sure they’re sharing something Swift hasn’t done before. She’ll engage in trending topics only if she has something to add, an image and a great quote, or a video clip short enough to not get pulled. “Otherwise, I’m better off retweeting from the actual source, even though I’m going to lose engagement.”

She had to figure all this out on her own, since other pages are competitors, jockeying for the same audience and the same engagement.

Swift is counting on her, for real. In 2012, before there were very many other major fan accounts, and before Swift’s team really used or understood Twitter, they asked Amir to be the official promotional account of the Red tour.

When Swift joined her favorite social media platform, Tumblr, in 2014, the account was run by her management and only followed five accounts — all update accounts, and one of them Amir’s. “I posted something about the fall, apple picking or something, and I had no idea anybody was reading it,” Amir recalls. “Taylor reblogged it and it was her first reblog of Tumblr, and she ended up adding this whole paragraph about how she loves the fall. So every fall, late August, September, I get so many notifications because people start reblogging that again and again and again. It’s a ritual.”

Being early to two platforms guaranteed that both Swift and her team would be aware of Amir, which means they regularly come back to her — to include her in special fan activities and to do promotion work. (She’s spent time with Swift in person three times in the past six years.)

“FOR ME, IT’S COMMUNITY FIRST; I DON’T REALLY THINK ABOUT THE MONEY.”

Amir says Swift’s management has a list of popular and reliable update accounts that it gives out to her sponsors and brands regularly dole out exclusive content or giveaway items to her and her update account competitors. Dick Clark Productions, for one, will fly fan account operators to awards shows to post updates live, as well as provide them with a stipend to support a vacation day in Los Angeles afterward.

“Either I get compensated through money or through free items,” Amir says. “Or it’s things like free tickets or perks or just being on the inside or being able to go to a release party. Sometimes it’s not directly money-related, but when it is, it’s per post or how many engagements it gets. That’s why stats or using Twitter analytics is so important — so you can say what your worth is. I’ve had it be $300 for retweeting someone before, because it’s a lot of followers and it’s huge engagement. I think the lowest I’ve done is $50.”

“It’s like another job, basically,” she says. But “it isn’t as stable as people think it is with a fan account like this. For me, it’s community first; I don’t really think about the money.”

Madame Tussauds’ Taylor Swift figure, revealed in 2014. Chelsea Lauren/Getty Images

It’s not all profit. “I bought the [last] album five times without really meaning to,” Amir says when I ask about how much fans typically spend to put their affection into practice.

Swift combated the ongoing industry-wide decline of album sales by selling two versions of a limited-edition magazine to go with Reputation last fall, each going for $20 exclusively at Target and each coming with another copy of the album. Buying extra copies of her album also helped fans improve their place in line in Ticketmaster’s controversial Verified Fan program, which sorted fans into a queue to buy presale tickets to her stadium tour.

“EVERY TIME SHE LETS YOU INTO HER LIFE, IT’S A NEW MARKETING SCHEME, BECAUSE IT’S A NEW PART OF HER LIFE THAT YOU DON’T KNOW”

“You want the magazine because you want to see into Taylor’s life; she had to have two different volumes for some reason,” Amir says. “You want the album for the code to put in your Verified Fan thing; that’s your first incentive. And your second is that you want to read these poems that Taylor never released to the world, or pictures that have never before been seen during her two-year [social media] blackout.” The Reputation merch was “trendier” and more expensive than previous Taylor merch, but “as a fan, you tell yourself that you’re just going to compromise and buy it, and you do it without thinking.”

She says she doesn’t want to criticize anyone, but she noticed that Verified Fan tickets were more expensive than regular sale tickets, and says she paid $160 (plus TicketMaster fees) for a decent seat, electing not to spend the nearly $800 it would cost to be in what Swift called “the Snake Pit” at the front of the stage.

“Every time she lets you into her life, it’s a new marketing scheme, because it’s a new part of her life that you don’t know,” Amir says. But again, none of this is criticism. Why shouldn’t a pop star also be a savvy business manager? Why wouldn’t intimacy with her be commodified? These are not contradictions, Amir argues. It’s also not a contradiction that she loves Taylor Swift and benefits financially from loving Taylor Swift.

Taylor Swift with Australian fans in 2012. Brendon Thorne/Getty Images

Because it involves people, business is almost always personal, but when it involves heroes, it’s even more so.

Amir is Muslim, and she says that made it difficult for her to watch Swift’s quiet refusal to engage with a swirling national debate about basic human rights in the wake of the 2016 election. “I really wanted her to say something, because she does say stuff at her concerts, or to you personally, and she’ll like things on Tumblr.” It’s not as if she didn’t know Swift was on her side. Still, “she never said stuff out there, outside the community, where it makes a difference.”

Swift’s longtime silence on political issues — which ended with an October Instagram postendorsing Democratic candidates for several key midterm election races in her home state of Tennessee, seemingly spurring a massive increase in voter registration in the state — was always in tension with her near-constant willingness to speak up on her own behalf. She has been more publicly involved in her business interests than any artist at her level, championing the 2016 battle against the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which she argued gave YouTube a free pass on copyright infringement, and sitting at the center of the debate about Spotify (and music streaming payment practices in general) for years.

That’s a chapter she closed (somewhat awkwardly) during the lead-up to the release of Reputation last year, but she is still known for her litigious spirit, which she demonstrates by trademarking the names of her cats, attempting to copyright phrases like “look what you made me do,” and sending cease-and-desist letters to Etsy sellers who put her lyrics on homemade apparel.

In each of these cases, Swift isn’t really doing anything other artists wouldn’t (or don’t) do — but because she’s built a reputation as a ruthless capitalist, further news items that fit that narrative are easy to package. Each time she adds a brand to her portfolio — be it American Express or New York City — it looks cynical.

Amir doesn’t see it that way. Swift “reinvents herself just like companies innovate products, and that’s what keeps things exciting,” she says, swirling Swift’s musical evolution and personal brand metamorphosis and business strategy into one blanket compliment. She would understand, as an aspiring businesswoman who worked at a bank all through college, graduated early, moved to New York after interning at PR firms, was briefly the social media manager for a folk-pop duo, and is now looking for a way to blend financial analysis with the marketing skills she’s been honing since middle school.

“Taylor’s been a huge part of my life and the [fandom] community’s been a huge part of my life,” Amir says. “But you mature after a while; you get older. You can’t take days off work to be at an awards show.”

Vox

[justasmallbloginabigklainefandom]

Rec This Thing: Interactive Introverts

Interactive Introverts in Amsterdam RAI, evening show on June 2nd

Story: Dan and Phil decided to give the people what they want.

My Story: Okay, fun fact, I bought my ticket on June 1st. When they first announced their tour, my friend Sammy immediately bought tickets for her and her sister and she asked me to come along.

I declined.

After all, I wasn’t that big of a fan of Dan and Phil and I decided that people who are actual fans of them could have my possible ticket. Fast forward a couple of weeks and I became fan of them and both shows were sold out. Yup. Bummer. Instant regret. Total sadness. So Sammy promised to tell me everything yada yada since I couldn’t go. Then just over 24 hours before the show, Sammy sent me a message that there were five seats left for €55.

Crap.

Okay, I decided to do it. Fuck work the day after. Let’s go. And boy, am I glad I did.

Rating (1 to 10): 9

Why?: QUITE DETAILED SHOW SUMMARY UNDER CUT, SPOILERS!

Alright, yup, I’m just going to write down everything, including the entire show. Or at least what I remember cause holla, this is done from memory.

Basically, we arrived in Amsterdam after a lot of panic because my bus didn’t drive so we were about to miss our train. I ran back home and yelled to mum to grab the car (called Snuit) cause HOLY FUCK MY BUS IS 6 MINUTES LATE AND WITH THE NEXT BUS I WILL MISS MY TRAIN FOR SURE.

But okay, Amsterdam. We got there around four? First we checked out the venue, which wasn’t hard to find because their matinee show had just ended, so we just had to follow the stream of fans who were leaving, and then we had dinner at this Japanese place. Then around 18:30 we were back at the venue. Only VIP was allowed to go in already, so we decided to buy merch. The place was packed, so they decided to already open the merch stand. Good thing we got merch (I got a poster) before the show, because other merch was sold during intermission and after the show. Almost no one got merch during intermission, because it was only 20 minutes long, and after the show the line was insane. Probably 2,5+ hours wait time.

We found our seats. We got split up. Sammy and her sister had a great seat (row 9) and I sat on the other side of the theatre in a balcony seat which was fucking great as well. They put on Dan’s playlist and that playlist was banging. Sometimes, Dan’s Siri interrupted. I mean, they were playing Hard Times when I entered the theatre- great start. 

And of course they came on stage after Welcome To The Black Parade.

First we had a video kinda introducing danis not on fire and AmazingPhil and then they came in on a moving plaform. Like, their set was so minimalistic but also so great?

After the “Hello! Hi!” stuff they talked about being in Amsterdam (”Amsterdamn” - Phil) and how Phil is feeling a bit sick because he decided to eat tons of stroopwafels (strupwaffles, they called it). Dan called him out, because when you buy a pack of stroopwafels, they are obviously not supposed to be eaten at the same time.

Oh, and those poor foreigners aren’t used to shit ton of bikes in Amsterdam (or in the entire Netherlands tbh) so they were talking about how they almost got killed by bikers while crossing the road. 

They were obviously telling us what to expect and all of that.

Then first, What are we not going to do. They acted out everything they were not going to do. I only remember the erotic roleplay, because they did cop roleplay and it was fucking hilarious (”Please be gentle with those handcuffs, I have sensitive skin” - Dan), and the part where they dressed up as their cute pastel versions.

Truth Bombs came next. Phil got asked something among the lines of: “What Olympic sport would Phil excel in?”

Keeping houseplants alive

I forgot.

SPORTS??? LMFAO!

(If anyone’s reading this… if you happen to know the missing parts cause you were at the same show, hit me up.)

Phil said something about how avoiding bikes in Amsterdam is a sport and then he procceeded to jump over the small hexagon on stage. He chose the houseplants.

Dan’s question was: “What is in Dan’s browser history?” 

Fursuits (I think???)

I also forgot.

Something with Shrek 

Which was ironic, because Shrek the Musical played at the RAI. I don’t remember what Dan chose.

Then, “How will they die?” 

Demonetization

They fall off stage in a few minutes

I forgot….

Honestly, they kept talking about demonetization during the entire show. Every time they said something too raunchy, they’d say something like “We’re getting demonetized.”

I think the Simulator came next? Anyway Phil started out with ordering a unicorn frappuchino and he ended up being killed by Satan cause he tried make a deal with him to restore his twitter account after accidentally posting a sexy photo of himself in his pants. We cheered for Satan, and they kept reminding us of that during the entire show. 

Dan was outside for once and got approached by a furry, did body shots of an otter, and ended up dying in an underground furry rave after he decided to use the ladies’ restroom.

After that, Phil synced us all as Linda, so hooray, we were all Linda. Now as Linda, we could continue to the magic trick and the audience participation. What is hidden in the mysterious box that Dan hid under his bed? Our three answers were: cereal, a panda, a fursuit. 

I still don’t know how they did this trick. The box was unopened on stage all the time. Sammy and I first came up with this special electronic paper, but then we realised Phil gave it to audience members to rip it up and fight about it.

I only remember three questions asked during the Survey. There was apart about their favourite content and Dan was very happy to present it as a pie chart. Also “Do you think you know Dan and Phil?”

Yes

No

Who is Dan and Phil?

After joking about how all the parents answered the last answer, they noticed a small percent still answered no, and they talked about authenticity on YouTube and sure, they put themselves out there because they want to entertain people, but that they are still genuinely themselves and that they’re not faking it. But if you wanted to see the non-entertaining version of them, you’d be bored. (”On my sofa, with an overheated laptop on my crotch and a bag of crisps under my chin and me trying to eat them with my tongue cause I’m lazy” - Dan).

Then, of course the “Dan or Phil?” question and they presented the wheel and they made the most dramatic act one exit I’ve ever seen, and I am a Broadway fan.

During intermission, the two women next to me were talking about merch and I told them where to find it. Then I exited the theatre. Sammy’s sister bought Pringles and I bought M&Ms and the three of us were kinda shocked to see the queue for the merch stand. Those poor fuckers.

We went back to the theatre and I talked about the merch again, because I happened to know the whole merch stand and its prices by heart after looking at it for 45 minutes (hoodie €40, sweater €30, wristband €5, poster €10, Dan and Phil plushies €25, denim jacket €65, two t-shirts €20 and €25, keycord or whatever it is called €10, cap €15, woops I still know it).

Back to the show! Phil was on the wheel and Dan used a slingshot, a bow and arrow, and a bazooka. And afterwards Phil was showing off his ass while taking off that white body suit. He said he was dizzy and Dan dared him to jump over the hexagon again, but Phil refused.

Okay anyway the next thing I remember is the wholesome Daniel and X-Rated Lester part (”I’m already feeling naughty” - Phil). In the beginning they had this whole talk about authenticity and how they are still humans bla which was really cool. Since I am a recent fan, I completely missed the actual wholesome Daniel craze, but yeah, they talked about how they are actual people and sometimes, they don’t meet certain expectations of fans.

Also, at one point in the show, Dan was talking about God and he yelled “Spite me, daddy!” and I think it was around this moment. The entire crowd yelled.

Alright Dan had to sweet talk disturbing fan fiction, Hello Internet, and another thing uuuuhm. I don’t remember. Anyway, he kept saying “Oh for God’s sake!”, especially at the Hello Internet one.

Phil had to bad mouth cute animals, endless kittens (he failed), and ugh I have also forgotten his last one. The person who sent in cute animals sat in front of me and it was just absolutely amazing to see how happy she was to see her submission on screen.

Then the Dan vs. Phil friendship game. There was a lot of stuff, but I remember some. I can’t believe they shocked each other, but maybe that is because I’d read the Milgram Experminent earlier that week.

First, psychic connection. They both had to name the same number between 1 to 20 and they failed. 

Then a dilemma. Dan got the dilemma: “Guest star in Infinity War 4 or Phil gets thrown in a pool of cheese?”

Phil had to choose between: “A billion dollars or Dan will never be able to see dogs again?” According to Phil, he’d buy two big airplanes and then merge them together for an ever bigger airplane.

Then the Dan or Phil or Rat. They both got it right. Phil just got a photo of something white, but he guessed that it was his own pale skin and Dan got some hairs and he guessed that it was a rat.

Trivia. Dan needed to name 3 pre-2008 Phil videos and succeeded. Dan thanked Phil for uploading his newest video about his his old deleted stuff. Phil needed to recall the kind of cake that Colin ruined and failed.

There was probably more to Dan vs. Phil but I am blanking. Phil got the big shock (”I’m Phil trash no. 1!″ - Dan).

Then the intimate moment. Or personal. Phil called it intimate and Dan just went “PERSONAL? DON’T CALL IT INTIMATE, IT’S PERSONAL” and then proceeded to point out that Phil has a degree in English language.

It was just so down to earth. There were three questions, and I remember two. The first person asked for an appropriate name for their zoo animal YouTube channel. I forgot the name they recommended, but they said it was great that this person had a clear theme.

I remember one person saying that she wants to be a singer but her parents want her to go into medicine and well first they were like “hey singing doctor!”. But they talked about how passion is important and how they both didn’t do what was expected and how they are much happier now (“Lawyer Dan is as awful as a singing doctor!” - Dan) but I unfortunately forgot the other two questions. It was just a really nice moment where both Dan and Phil just sat down to have a chat. Oh and they also talked about Phil’s apparent awful handwriting.

Then the power came back on and I think that is when the Awards happened? Glitter jackets af and a self-made statue (”Two naked men in bondage really represents Dan and Phil” - Phil, or something like that.)

The first category was: Best dressed pet as Dan and Phil.

A lizard wearing a flower crown while watching the video of Black Parade won.

A cat wearing Dan’s merch.

I don’t even know but it looked like Dan was riding Phil so that was that. I suppose it was a dog.

And then Most inaccurate expectation of the show

I fucking forgot first place.

Two hour long Hamilton reenaction with Chris Evans.

Them giving birth on stage.

Also the most annoyed parent was just incredibly funny. I remember the winners but hey I don’t feel comfortable just sharing their names cause… privacy. I know the winner sat on the second row and all kids were pointing at her and I guess Dan and Phil saw her and said: “This was probably the worst day of your life, thank you for sharing it with us!” “You probably thought you were seeing Shrek the Musical.”

And then back to the scripted part, aka the Big Finale. A dog video that has nothing to do with the show, PHIL’S DISS TRACK, Dan at the piano, and them singing a duet. This ain’t Broadway, but it was still kinda nice and just sweet.

And well, that is it. They runned around on stage, waving at everyone, saying goodbye. Then they stepped on their moving platform and they disappeared.

Some random things:

Phil kept calling a part of the set a “flap” which annoyed Dan.

Dan… just… couldn’t… stop… dabbing…

They hinted at a new gaming video that involves a lot of Dan’s screaming - coming next week.

So many pride flags in the crowd.

Phil and Dan sounds wrong.

There was one moment where a picture of Dan’s had pasted on a horse from My Horse Prince appeared with a text bulb saying “Ride me, senpai” but I don’t remember when that happened. I think before the Simulator?

Interactive Introverts kind of reminded me of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. There’s clearly a format and a script, but thanks to audience participation, no shows are the same.

But in all seriousness, as my friend Rowan @rothetree pointed out, the entire message of this show was about how Dan and Phil are just human. As Ro put it: “On a serious note, there’s a whole underlying theme to this show, which was them basically going “Hey, we’re real people, stop objectifying us"”. This felt so in line with what the three of us were talking about. Me, Sammy and Sammy’s sister had to endure a two hour train ride and we talked a lot about fandom’s perception on real life people they stan and how they sometimes reduce those people to the image they have in their minds.

Cause we were talking about stuff like real life shipping, and about how celebrities are being seen, and how the moment they do something the fans don’t like, you get all those moments of “X is not real anymore!”

Newsflash asshole, they are people with feelings, and just because you don’t want to see those feelings, doesn’t mean they don’t have them. For example, Sammy was talking about how one K-POP star basically got stalked at an airport and when he clearly showed his dislike of it, people were all “OH MY GOD HE DOESN’T LIKE HIS FANS HE IS SO RUDE HE’S NOT WHO WE THOUGHT HE WAS” and I gave the example of people saying Darren is “no longer himself” after he called out the people who are seriously threatening his fiancée and all that stuff.

Before the show started, we overheard two other fans talking about how they should come out bla bla bla, and just… no? That is so personal and we are not entitled to that at all? 

To quote Ghostly, they are not our dolls. We can’t dress them up in whatever way we want.

I recently read I Was Born For This by Alice Oseman, which follows a band from the fans’ POV and through the band’s POV and how sometimes those things clash, and I feel like with Interactive Introverts, Dan and Phil wanted to show people who they are to avoid a clash like that. That’s why they kept talking about how they value authenticity, while they are aware of the fact that they are also putting on a show. Or how, when people have certain images of them, how unrealistic those images can be and that they cannot live up to the expectations, and therefore it is important for fans to realise that. The tagline is: “Giving the people what they want!” and they did that without having to change for the fans’ sake.

As Rowan (rothetree, not Rowan from the book I Was Born For This) said: "we don’t own their image or expect too much from them. Something about their interactions with us is changing in a really good way."

Because that exactly.

Since I am a recent fan and I got my ticket one day before the show, I wasn’t aware of the questions, but in the “Do you think you know Dan or Phil?” (as they said: or do you think we’re people putting up a whole show) I would’ve answered a solid “no”, because I always think it’s dangerous to say that you know a celebrity, but after this show, I’d vote “yes”, because the way they acted on stage and the way they conveyed their message of “yes, we’re putting on a show right now because we want to entertain you guys, but we still care about authenticity” was well done.

And that is what made this show so great and enjoyable. Yes, it was a show and there were scripted parts, but it was still very genuine.

Recommend?: Yes, please, just like TATINOF, put it online for sale!

[hcmj]

HCMJ’s Favorite Albums of 2017!

Listen to a mix featuring these albums here: HCMJ’s 2017 End Of Year Mix

Honorable Mentions:

Carla dal Forno - The Garden

GFOTY - GFOTYBUCKS

ミスト M Y S T - 緑の目

Nmesh - Pharma

Black Marble - It’s Immaterial

Leyland Kirby - We, so tired of all the darkness in our lives

世界は80年代に終了しました - People Lead Such Busy Lives

Virtual Vice - Sanctuary Runner

Golden Living Room - Autoscopy

DESIRE - STAQQ OVERFLO

20) World War - Soundsystem

Distorted Redrum rhythms dripping with gabbery, housey, bounceable goodness. Every moment is more relentless than the last, with strange electronic and sometimes nightmarish sound elements effortlessly woven into the complicated crescendos that comprise each track. 

STREAM/DOWNLOAD

19) Curved Light - Quartzsite

It’s rare to find a synth album that isn’t endlessly droning or cheekily nostalgic. Quartzsite utilizes slow-attack expansive pads alongside stabby knob turners without falling into the tropes that have been turned over time and time again over the last decade. Subtle but fast tempo percussive elements ticking beneath pure white pads and icy synthfalls of pure crystal.

STREAM/DOWNLOAD

18) Geo Metro - Ravage2099

Fellow Philadelphia artist Geo Metro dropped this dense debut on Tiger Blood Tapes earlier this year. His shows are always foggy headthumpers with mind melting realtime sampling, deep drones, dancing rhythmic enigmas and astral melodies. None of this was lost in translation to magnetic tape, the bubbling pulse of beyond - a spiritual guide.

STREAM/DOWNLOAD

17) Disasteradio - Sweatshop

Another incredible performance I was fortunate to witness this year was Eyeliner AKA Disasteradio. His on stage MIDI splicing with its gravity-increasing, vocoded, show-stopping finale was exhilarating and inspiring. All of that energy, bombast, and humor can be found on Sweatshop. There’s also a high level of musicianship - touching upon 90′s FM video game music, new wave DEVO synthpop, and moments like “Unleash The Free TV Revolt” which echo Daft Punk vocoder jams. Playful and reflective of what childhood in the early 90′s actually felt like.

STREAM/DOWNLOAD

16) x.y.r. - Labyrinth

x.y.r. could keep putting albums out like this every year until I die and I would still count them among my favorites. No one does lo-fi synth music the way he does - his unique musical character pulses and wanders in this fuzzy maze.

STREAM/DOWNLOAD

15) Computer Graphics - Lo-Fi

This collection of hazy house jams was a lens back through time. Flashbacks of downloading strange electronic artists off LimeWire in the early 00′s, sinking endless frustrated hours into PixelJunk Eden, and now dancing around my house with Computer Graphics bumping. It’s just as dreamy and hypnotic as you’d hope.

STREAM/DOWNLOAD

14) Nico Niquo - In A Silent Way

Taking a step away from the “darkwebwave” of 2015′s Epitaph, Nico Niquo explores more expansive snow plains on In A Silent Way. Gone are the stabbing vocal samples an occasional swirling rhythmic patterning - in their place is Eno-esque slow burners with that rise and fall like the breaths of a sleeping frost giant against moments of purity and silence. 

STREAM/DOWNLOAD

13) Arca - Arca

Arca’s 3rd full length is thick and operatic. Like haunted ballroom music with a broken falsetto whispering in your ear, being engulfed in underwater explosions, or watching the credits roll on your own life. It’s sometimes oppressively stark, sometimes intimately vulnerable, and always entrancing. I was initially pulled in by the video premiere for the masterpiece “Desafio.”

VIDEO STREAM

12) Nyoi Plunger - Poiret Status

Playful and full of detail, twisted and bent as it’s pulled into a black hole and spit out again. Poiret Status is always teetering on the edge of a nightmare. Strange voices laugh and coo, like being trapped in a realm ruled by the manifestation of fear, or a dance hall where your very physicality is distorted, warped, and twisted as time becomes unhinged and there’s nothing left to hold onto.

STREAM/DOWNLOAD

11) The Caretaker - Everywhere at the end of time - Stages 2 & 3

Discovering Leyland Kirby’s work was a turning point in my life. Over the last decade release after release of both haunted ballroom music as The Caretaker and reflective synth/piano music as himself have becomes markers for the years of my life. This year we received the next two stages of the dementia simulation of Everywhere at the end of time. The flowers have wilted, and the darkening mind is displayed with a poignant beauty.  

STREAM/DOWNLOAD

10) TVVIN_PINEZ_M4LL - orz

More than half a decade after the wave rose and fell, torch bearers continue to twist the pop of the past to express new ideas and add their emotional mark to the blockchain of internet music. In the case of the prolific TVVIN_PINEZ_M4LL, orz uses vaporwave techniques and traditions as a framework for an emotionally radiant, deeply personal love story. Bursting with raw emotion and feelings of NUWRLD.

STREAM/DOWNLOAD

09) Various - Even Further

It feels weird putting a remix compilation on one of these lists, but the Zoom Lens label tribute to Infinity Shred is one of those rare moments when a compilation isn’t just a total mishmash of whatever happened to be thrown into the pot. A fitting showcase of the LA label’s diverse palette of sound, from Berserk ost aping to widescreen chiptune bliss - heavy beats and the brightest black leather darkness that is worthy of Infinity Shred’s cinematic scope.

STREAM/DOWNLOAD

08) FIRE-TOOLZ - INTERBEING

Metal-screeches in empty halls drip over post-eccojam synth operas, spastic crystalline outbursts, and high-tempo-high-energy half pipe spaceship rides with broken bits of sound and a cyberpunk sheen. Songs completely split open with massive bombardments of noise and an endless layering of digital artifacts. A labyrinth of glitched out modernity.

STREAM/DOWNLOAD

07) Koeosaeme - Sonorant

Fast and full of neck-breaking spins, Sonorant alongside Nyoi Plunger’s Poiret Status were two of the most forward-looking albums I heard this year. With the endless tiny pattering of a billion bits of music playing up against unnatural arrangements of bizarre rhythmic breaks and supernatural harmony. Part sound sculpture part audio apocalypse.

STREAM/DOWNLOAD

06) Piper Spray - r.i.p.

When pieces of you die and slowly fall away, they leave a trail of memories in their wake. Piper Spray, one of my favorite artists of the last decade, has been prolific and mysterious - even elusive. His entire body of work has since been deleted from his bandcamp and only this retrospective release that looks back at the last 7 years of his output and life in 6 tracks remains. Full of noise, pain, frustration - with a touch of sorrow and sweetness we are given once last glimpse into the nostalgia for a place we’ve never known. His music has been my constant companion on my own personal journey these last 7 years. RIP Piper Spray.

STREAM/DOWNLOAD

05) Euglossine - Sharp Time

It wasn’t until I was lucky enough to play a show with Stany Bebe AKA Euglossine that I discovered to my amazement that the majority of the sounds on this album were performed on MIDI guitar. The sound blips and pan flutes expressed with metronomic precision on a real guitar having its note data interpreted by a MIDI conversion box. Mind blowing musicianship and sprawling melodic composition.

STREAM/DOWNLOAD

04) Giant Claw - Soft Channel

I couldn’t stop listening to Soft Channel this year! The culmination of everything that has come before and a wide leap into the future. Orchestral fragmentation in a thick rainbow of sound that breathes and pulses - the sound design is mind blowing, frantic and brilliantly produced. It’s a crisp and meticulously designed new height. 

STREAM/DOWNLOAD

03) Marcus Fjellström - Skelektikon

It’s hard to believe it’s been 7 years since Marcus Fjellström’s Schattenspieler was listed as my favorite album of 2010 (on the inaugural annotated list!). Now, all these years later, we were finally treated with a proper followup - and tragically lost Fjellström himself. Skelektikon is a remarkable swansong, picking up where Schattenspieler left off - diving deeper into the anxiety ridden halls of darkness. Larger orchestral arrangements pop up, tape flutter constantly threatening to snap the dread to a sudden end. There’s is a sometimes darkly romantic turn to its harmonic movements however - a humanizing touch that makes the ghosts that much more terrifying.

STREAM/DOWNLOAD

02) Sour Gout - I S O L A T E

It doesn’t matter how you get there, only how good the ideas are. I S O L A T E may be built out of a collection of new age and incidental music samples, but its collages give a sense of a deep personal expression. Saccharin guitar, C418-esque piano phrases, and blankets of emotional vulnerability eventually fall into the uneasy loneliness of the 15 minute title track. The empty soul that was once full, bordering on brooding but very soft to lay in. I found myself keeping this one on loop for hours at a time.

STREAM/DOWNLOAD

01) Machine Girl - ...BECAUSE I’M YOUNG ARROGANT AND HATE EVERYTHING YOU STAND FOR

Machine Girl puts on a really incredible/brutal show - and the recorded version of that experience loses none of the warped maelstrom of sound that makes them so viscerally intense. Heavy industrial punk with face smashing breakdowns peppering every track - like moments of floating in violence as you’re torn apart by passing gravity wells. Disillusioned anger with the musical chops and temperament of someone who grew up listening to Phantasy Star Online music - it was my favorite album of 2017!

STREAM/DOWNLOAD

[bannedtogether]

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Ok, I just found your blog from another one I follow, so I’m not sure if I’m coming in late in the game here or not to tell my story. My close friends are the only ones who know about this, and it has been a few years at this point (my last text to SN being in 2015) but I still feel like I need to actually put this public finally because I didn’t realize this behavior was as prevalent as it is (or was, I’ve honestly stopped following the band just because I stopped keeping up, I’ve done that with a lot of artists lately). So I pretty much have a 2 year long SN story. Going back through your SN tag, someone mentioned that in 2014 at SPWF he kissed a fan in a hallway in front of a bunch of people right before they left? Yeah I’m pretty positive that was me. I want to put out there that through the entirety of this I was above the legal age of consent, there was a definite age gap, as seems to be a pattern.

Just a warning this is going to be long. I can also send screen shots and pictures he sent me as proof of all of this. From the time I started texting with him to when I stopped, there where 200 pictures exchanged that are still on my phone. I made sure to never delete anything.

He actually started talking to my sister and I (we are twins as well) in 2013, the first year we were at SPWF. We had met the band in either 2011 or 2012 (whenever they were still at the zoo) during a trip to San Diego, but hadn’t met him, and then went and saw them when they were actually on our coast for SPWF. Sam had broken the pipe on the side of his hat and needed tools to fix it, so my sister messaged them once they put a call for help and told them we had parts that could fix it. So when we went to the signing they had before the meet and greet, the band already knew who we were and I guess that made SN interested, especially when he found out we are twins. He made sure to tell us we needed to come to the photo op they had later, where he made the band scoot to the side so he could get a picture with us, each one of us kissing his cheek on either side, and had us redo the picture like 3 times. We really didn’t think too much of it, thought it was fun and moved on.

Next year (2014) they came back, and SN had messaged me several times through tumblr, talked on his video game streams, even made sure to message me as soon as they knew they were coming back to SPWF to tell me to buy tickets before they released that knowledge to the public. I thought it was cool, seeing as I am looking to go into the audio field, I was hoping for the chance to get to see the set up he runs, ask some questions, learn a little bit, while hanging out with this seemingly pretty cool guy. I went with my friends as planned, re-enacted the cheek kiss picture as he requested, hung out for a few minutes, and then we went on with our day. Saw him in passing throughout the weekend, never really spent and extended amount of time together, but again, he tried to make sure we were coming to the meet in greet. This year, it was a private one you needed a higher level ticket for, one I didn’t buy. He swore it would be fine, just tell the people at the door and they would let us in without a ticket. I’m not that brave, and I wasn’t trying to create an issue, so we just waited outside the door until it let out and trying to grab him as he left. We caught him as he came out, talked for a quick minute, then the whole “well I gotta leave, so let me give you a kiss bye” thing happened. I thought he meant on the cheek like before, as did my friends who were frankly shocked as hell as I was. But he did ask if it was ok, and I thought he meant on the cheek, so I agreed. He kissed me on the lips, then kissed my sister, and gave both of us his phone number on a slip of paper (he had already prepared with a freaking little red heart next to it) and ran off. So like I said, we were all in a little bit of shock.

From there, we started texting pretty regularly, as did my sister. It was pretty innocent at first, and then started to get more mature in nature. I don’t know if it was the same for my sister but I can make an educated guess that it did. He would say stuff to me that if we lived closer he would be really interested in dating, or dates he would like to take me on if I was in San Diego. He didn’t go straight into the inappropriate stuff, he kind of eased into it, and really made me think he was actually interested in me as a person, would do stuff like text me good morning and good night almost every day for a long while. Clearly that wasn’t the case though.

He continued to talk to both of us, add us both on steam, co-op games with us, send us selfies, everything like that. There was pretty much always enough communication to feel like I could call him a friend, even when disregarding the texts that where more sexual in nature.

We saw him at several more events across the country. I’m smart enough to say that I never traveled to a convention or show just to see him, they were parts of trips I planned with friends or trips that had other reasons for us to be in that area, so I don’t regret any trips where I ended up seeing him. Everything sort of came to a head when we where out in California so my sister could look at a school out there and we saw one of their shows that was at the same time we were out there. Of course I had told him we were gonna be there, and he knew what hotel we where staying at and asked to come hang out with us for a while after they had their sound check the night before. He ended up coming over later than planned because they went to dinner with the people from the venue, and then he didn’t end up staying long, because long story short, we told him he didn’t get to sleep with both of us, that that is not how this works.

Things went downhill from there, but that is not to say he didn’t try that again. He still was asking for pictures, and was starting to put in less effort, texting less, responding less than he had been before. The next SPWF he tried a different tactic, figuring he would get what he wanted if he got us to come to his hotel room we might actually agree, and we still both said no. This time he didn’t take it nearly as well, we actually were staying at the con hotel this time, and didn’t see him any time other than shows or soundchecks. He literally told us he wasn’t leaving his room unless he had to, he started acting like a pouting child. After the convention, he really stopped texting as much, and then started removing both of us from friends lists on any thing he had any of us on. It became extremely apparent that he was only interested in having sex with twins and when he didn’t get what he wanted he didn’t care at all about either of us, even as friends. The last time I texted him was May 20, 2015, only 4 days after SPWF.

Looking back I realize now how manipulative he is. This story doesn’t paint myself or my sister in the best light but I prefer to put my stupidity out there for people to see if it means warning someone else off to make sure that they don’t make mistakes like I did. Everything since has worked out for the best since, my sister is now engaged and I’ve been in a relationship for almost 2 years now, neither of us have any animosity for each other, only for him because we realize what he was trying to do. 

If you are interacting with this man please realize what he says to you may not be true and don’t let him talk you into anything you are uncomfortable with. I fully believe that he has pulled off the internet because he knows hes been doing this enough its going to catch up with him. Don’t let this man sweet talk you and make you think you mean something to him, please realize there is a pattern.

Thank you, Anon, for sending this to us. We are extremely appreciative that you are willing to be so open and honest about what happened to you and your sister. I personally would also like to say that if consent is acquired by means of deception, as in this case, it does not count as consent - you and your sister both were under the impression that he was asking to kiss you on the cheek, and he likely knew that. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard of this sort of bait-and-switch behavior coming from him.

I would also like to thank Anon Z who sent us this video of the incident being referred to in this submission. Just to clarify, we have received permission to post this video from Anon Z and the Anon who sent us this submission.

- Mod X

[firephox]

Why are you reblogging mental illness posts, you of all privileged people don't know what real mental illness is.

I don’t know where you are getting I am “privileged” from, and mental illness comes in all forms. I drove myself fucking insane and still contemplate suicide to this day. I’m going to share my story with you, Anon, in hopes that you are listening. I’m going to add a “read more” because it’s going to be a long one. I’m only sharing this so people like you will understand that mental illness is a struggle. 

My parents were very mentally abusive and strict, preventing me from doing any normal teenage activities and even going so far as to monitor my texts. I had to delete my facebook app whenever they asked to check my phone. They wouldn’t let me leave the house from the ages of 10-17 unless I was going to school. I never got to experience normal teenage life which caused me to develop severe anxiety, depression and dissociative disorder.I couldn’t even do extra curricular activities because my mother wouldn’t let me stay after school. My mother wouldn’t even let me take the city bus, which was quicker, so I had to take the school bus with a bunch of middle schoolers. I wasn’t even allowed to get my drivers license. I don’t know why, she just kept saying I wasn’t allowed. She stayed up really late at night too so I couldn’t even sneak out or escape. 

My mother was ByPolar, and had PTSD, and refused to get treatment. When she was in her “bad” moments, she would get extremely angry over the littlest things. Like once I forgot to refill the ice trays and she got so mad that she threw them across the kitchen into the sink and started going on about “how she does so much for us and that we were ungrateful brats”. That was just one of the hundreds of incidents living with my ByPolar parent. Now that I am an adult I am too afraid to do anything on my own and always fear if my mother will be mad if I do something. Her issues began ruining her marriage, and she became so bitter that she drove my father away, and into the arms of another woman. My mother was very mentally abusive and drove him insane. My parents fought a lot, sometimes until 6 AM and my father had to get up for work at 7. I could never sleep because of the fighting half the time. I never really liked my father because he was barely around, but I felt so bad for him. My mother also favored my little sister a lot more and never ever disciplined my little brother. he has since become a spoiled brat. I used to always get in trouble if anything happened to him and he would always rat me out for every single thing I did. I never had a good relationship with my siblings. It was always a battle for who could be the best child and get all the attention. 

We grew up poor, and lived in a mobile home in the “shitty” part of town. The drywall on my ceiling caved in once and we found mold everywhere in the insulation. Every year during the spring I had a massive leak in my wall so the water would stream down like a waterfall. It would have costed too much to fix so we just dealt with a shitty house. My highschool was all the way on the other side of town and was a 20 minute drive every morning and afternoon. During the 11th grade, I wasn’t allowed to take the school bus anymore and she had to drive me to school, but she hated mornings and half the time she slept in so I missed a lot of school. Which led to a lot of missed classes and a lot of homework. My mother never answered the phone to numbers she didn’t know, and she never ever went to my parent teacher interviews, so when the school would call it didn’t matter. 

I started making friends in the 9th grade, a single friend who I miss very dearly. Lets call her… Julie. We both loved anime and art, I learned a lot of my techniques from her. One time she texted me saying she was going to the movies and really wanted me to go see Divergent with her, but my mother was taking a nap and I would have gotten in shit if I woke her up to ask. So I didn’t bother. I cried. Julie was such a good friend and threw a massive sleepover party during that summer with some other friends, and really wanted me to come, but yet again, I had to make an excuse because my mother would never let me stay at “strangers” house. They posted pictures on facebook of them hanging out at the waterpark and camping in their backyard. I cried because of that too. Those were just a couple incidents with Julie. I hung out with her at school a lot though. We had some good times during lunch and art class. 

The 10th grade was… okay, I had a great English teacher (Mrs. B) who really liked me and told me my writing was amazing. She even offered to publish a short story I had written, but I declined. She was the only teacher I had ever had that praised me for something. My science teacher (Mr. S) on the other hand was a prick. If I came to class 2 minutes late he would kick me out and tell me I was never going to succeed in life and that I would be homeless or living in my mother’s basement. He never believed you if you said you had learning disabilities or couldn’t understand something. If you got an answer wrong, he would make fun of you in front of the whole class. He also did not believe that art was a job and would degrade students who enjoyed it. I was finishing a sketch for art class in my science class once and he actually took my sketch book from me and locked it in his desk. I never got it back. I worked really hard on it too. I failed his class and was forced to enter a science class for “slow” children. That crushed my self esteem 100%. I also failed Mrs. M’s Math class that year because I literally cannot even comprehend times tables. I’m so stupid. 

During the late end of the 10th grade, I got a friend request on Facebook from a guy. His name can be… James. He began messaging me and apparently he was a student in the same English class as me and we had the same interests. We were also mutual friends. We became friends and slowly he introduced me to his group of friends who all sat at the same table during lunch. They played Magic, D&D, and other card games, and I felt so happy because I finally knew some people who also played these games. I didn’t realize that slowly I was leaving my old friend Julie for these new kids. I think that really hurt her and I am sorry. So James and I began talking more and more on FB messenger and at lunch. 

Over the summer we sent each other thousands of messages. Probably hitting the 11,000 mark. I began to depend on his messages because they gave me comfort when my parent’s were fighting or when I felt like dying. Soon I began to feel very stir crazy locked in my own house because I was not allowed to go anywhere unless my mother was with me. I became so depressed that I would curl into a fetal position on my floor and cry until my lungs hurt. Quietly however, as I was terrified to think what would have happened if my mother heard me crying. The only time away I got from myself was when I would take my dog for a walk. That was the only time I was allowed to leave the house. I rescued my dog, and my mom hated the dog because she barked and was too big. That dog probably saved my life countless times, she would snuggle with me every time I wanted to kill myself. She was a big 120 pound akita mix, who was very protective of me, but she was not friendly so I would have to hike for an hour into the deep woods just to let her off the leash. She was always attached to me and would whine and bark when I got into arguments with my mom. I remember once just hiking until I was lost, flopping down in the snow, and looking up at the evening sky with my dog sitting beside me. My dissociative disorder was so bad then it always felt like nothing was real and that I was in a dream. The trees didn’t even look real, but I knew they were trees. The snowflakes falling didn’t even feel like they were coming near me. 

James began asking if we could hang out, and I would always have to come up with excuses. When the 11th grade picked up, I found out I was in James’ History class and started to like him. I became so attached to him that I actively depended on him. I fell so hard for him that I literally couldn’t even look at him. This was bad. Art class that year I became friends with a punk, rebelious girl named Shelly. She was hot and influenced me very badly. She had a boyfriend and would actually message me selfies with condoms every time she was going to have sex. I was only friends with her because I didn’t want to hurt her feelings by saying I didn’t want to hang out. This, paired with what was going on at home was bullshit. She would cut her wrists and legs for attention and tell everyone about it and make it seem like she was so emo. She was never really depressed, she did it for show and actually told me that. 

She negatively influenced my life so much, I began skipping my science and math classes just to hang out with her around town. I only did this because my mother would never have caught me since our house was all the way on the other side of town. she even forced me to try smoking weed once and I don’t know what the hell it was laced with but my heart began palpitating so much I could see it on my chest and I had a severe panic attack. I don’t even remember what the fuck happened after that I just remember coming to in my English class. 

I got a job working at a fast food restaraunt and bought myself a cheap laptop and wacom tablet. I would skip my lunch and 3rd period class just to hang out with James, he ended up manipulating me into things I didn’t want to do. I didn’t want to miss my art classes, but it was the period that James had a free block so he would usually walk home. I began going with him. I really hate talking about this part, since it’s really what hurt me the most. His parents worked during the day, so when I would skip class to go home with him, the house would be empty. It was friendly at first, and we would just watch tv or play games. He wasn’t the nicest person either, he would make fun of me sometimes. I told him I wanted to be a Journalist but he said they never made any money and I should pick a job that society really needs. Those weren’t the only times he was a dick. 

Eventually it led to things happening that I wasn’t ready for. I went along with it because I was afraid of losing him, and that security. I felt awful. So far as to lose my virginity to him. I didn’t want to and it was very painful. I even said no, but he insisted. This is so cringey and awkward to explain. He was like 6′1″ and heavily build, and I was 5′1″ and maybe 120 at the time. It was so awkward to walk back to school after that and then get picked up by my mother haha. After that time we messaged on facebook for another week and suddenly we stopped talking. It was nearly the end of the school year and he would avoid me every time I saw him. He was so ahead in History class that he didn’t even need to go so I never saw him again. I wondered if it was something I did or said that made him hate me. Ugh… I regret it to this day and I still haven’t told anyone. My mother makes me feel so bad about it and highly degrades women who have sex before marriage. I was 16 and lonely! 

Over the summer after the 11th grade, I fell into a dark place. Like really dark. I had all these emotions and no one to talk to. My mother would just judge me and punish me for it. Oh my god I’m even terrified of writing this in fear she will find it. I began bursting out in tears for no reason, staying awake all night and going a week without showering. I would get out of breath just walking and I was always tired. Deeply emotionally exhausted. I would begin making food and give up because It wasn’t worth it, I would look at a sharp object and picture myself stabbing it into my body. I wondered if it really hurt. I even found some baneberries growing in our yard and really thought about eating them since they were highly toxic as stupid as that sounds. I couldn’t even get help for my severe depression and still can’t because that would mean therapy and my mother would need to know why. 

So I ended up dropping out of highschool. I couldn’t face going back to that highschool because I was pretty sure he had spread rumors about me. My “friends” just never looked at me the same. I was out of school for a while and my mother got very, very mentally abusive. She would tell me I was ungrateful and explode over every little slip up that I did. She would freak out and say things like “You don’t want to go to school and you don’t want to work so what the fuck do you want”. Which it was those types of things she would do that really hurt me. I never once raised my voice to my mother, we had some arguments but they were pretty one sided, I wasn’t allowed to say anything to her or disagree with her. I was out of school for a few weeks into grade 12 as well, until I heard about a 2nd chance highschool for troubled students. It was right across the road from my old highschool, and everyone always made fun of it and said it was a school for dumb kids. I decided to check it out and I ended up signing up. It was weird at first, since it was set up like a group home, but the school work was a lot easier and I actually understood the math. I felt at ease for once. I was getting a lot done. Until the end of the year rolled around and everyone at the regular highschools were getting ready for grad. No one understands the pain you feel when you see pictures on top of pictures on facebook of your old classmates and friends with their grad dresses and accepting their diplomas and you didn’t get to. I wanted to walk on that stage and prove to the teachers that I was better than they said. I wanted to have fun trying on grad dresses. I wanted to show them that I beat mental illness as I accepted my diploma, but unfortunately I didn’t. It is still very relevant and some of us can’t get help until our situations change. I fucking cried my eyes out when I saw pictures of them having fun at grad. I wish I could go back and redo my entire highschool life. I’m legal age now, so I can’t even go back and get my highschool education without paying a hefty price for it. Lesson learned people, don’t give up on education. It really is important. 

I didn’t want to write this but eh, it made me feel a little better. That was my story of how mental illness ruined my life, and how I let it. Anon, if you are reading this, fuck off. 

[hollow-transient]

All The AX Videos That Matter Because I’m Lazy I Guess

So finally heres the videos I took during some panels at AX. Really just two, the Funimation Presents: Boku no Hero Academia and An Afternoon with Lab Zero: Indivisible, Skullgirls, and More!

Its a long post though.

Mostly the Lab Zero panel because the BnHA one was being streamed on Twitch anyways so I'm sure SOMEBODY else recorded it, maybe. However theres some really bad shaky cam and a lot of movement because it was on my phone and my arm would get tired and I was zooming in and I'm a bad cameraman, so I'm sorry. Also anytime you hear a "THSSHH" sound that was me trying not to laugh, it comes off rather loud so I'm sorry for that too.

First off

I barely started recording bits when Chief Animation Director Yoshihiko Umakoshi draws All Might. Lauren and Chris liked to ramble throughout the whole panel.

Some time later

Lauren starts a small faction war by asking who should be drawn next or who is the favorite character or something. Nobody wins this one however and instead Yoshihiko starts to draw his OC because people/Lauren asked him what kind of Quirk he'd want if he was a part of the BnHA world and he said "It would be easier to show you instead." and began drawing it.

And here is him drawing it and Lauren and Chris comment on it, Yoshihiko replies. Its hard to here what he says at some points but he says "Yes", "He's crying too", and "Trembling too".

Now on to Lab Zero. Which I will preface with saying it was a pain to record because a dude sat in front of me and his hair kept getting into the frame and also he kept sitting in such a bad way that he leaned over and made his hair cover MORE of the frame so I had to be all crooked. I didn't want to move seats because I didn't want to bother the people behind me, whooops. Also I miss some segments because I tried to cut the videos up in case anything happened and also because my phone's storage was filling up so I wasn't recording while I tried to clear up space by deleting apps, memes, reaction images, and older photos that I had backed up already. It was a very informative panel though.

This is the introduction where they started late because Earl was late. Alex Ahad was fiddling around with his mic and made it fall off the mic holder and that was the loud noise. I tried to see what it was through the camera but Mike Z began to play the trailer for Indivisible and I had to quickly switch over and try to get my phone's focus in order.

This is their actual introductions and the start of the Indivisible showcase. At the start I think Mariel (Kinuko) accidentally knocked off Mike Z's glasses with the microphone somehow. This is the start of the "TSHH" sound because the panel was a riot.

Here is the beginning of the Indivisible Showcase. I'm pretty sure Mike Z boosts the sound way louder than it was before. A lot of interesting gameplay mechanics are talked about in this one and the next.

The continued Indivisible showcase. Partway through I accidentally lower the camera and it moves a lot because I was answering a text my cousin sent me, sorry. Conveniently you can pretend I did that to show that one of the voice actresses in the game was sitting up front, turned out to be at the panel the whole time.

PERHAPS MY WORST FUCK UP where I missed a good portion where Mike Z showcased the completed characters but I had to clear up storage space so I missed most of it and also a cool attack, but I thankfully managed to get the "up close" version of the attack recorded. Then Trigger staff and Titmouse Rep came out. Basically the Trigger people love it though, it seems. Especially Yoshinario who worked on Valkyrie Profile 20 years ago and is reminded of it, a game which seems to be an inspiration for Indivisible according to Mike Z who says so later on during the Q&A I think.

One of the voice actresses couldn't make it but made a video. One of the voice actresses had a tired voice but was cool. One of the voice actresses brings race into it and I think for a moment you can see Mike Z's expression go "Oh fuck" but was still cool. This segment was so long that I couldn't take a moment to stop the video and free up storage so it goes from the Titmouse rep Will talking to the voice actresses and then I realized I had been recording for 11 minutes and thought "OH FUCK" because I did the math and that was basically a Gigabyte of storage used up and I had less than a GB left on my phone.

HERES THE VIDEO WHERE IT STARTS GETTING ISSUES. Partway through the Beowulf Trailer video my phone tells me "Fuck you." at just the right moment and stops recording. The storage is now too full to continue and I’m all out of things to delete.

I tried to record more anyways but I could only get this 18 seconds. Basically the rest of the panel is Beowulf’s voice actor Kai Kennedy talking for a bit, the end of the Skullgirls Mobile dudes talking. Then we get some Concept Art Corner with Alex Ahad that I sadly couldn't record but it was real neat. And then the Q&A and that was pretty good and some people asked good questions but I also couldn't record it. Oh well.

And thats all there is.

[greyknighterotica]

Coming clean

I don’t lie to you often and they haven’t been big ones, well big ones that I don’t think you’d understand and certainly wouldn’t think less of me for after everything I’ve actually already revealed, often.

That’s an ominous opening line...

But really, this is not a scary post and in fact I’m writing it just to, well, be more connected with you. Old Jack would have played this close to the chest, I’m really trying to turn over a new leaf, so here it goes.

I didn’t have internet problems today and tomorrow. I had other sorts of issues. I’m still recovering. I could, I’m convinced, have pushed through today and recorded and have everything be “fine” but instead I’m writing this.

Before concerning anyone any further: 

Things have never been great with me health-wise, but they are getting much better.

Europe was was the start. David Sedaris once traveled to Japan to quit smoking. It worked. His theory was that in a new place, using new parts of your mind, it would be easier to not be so habitual in vices either. I don’t know the science behind it, but it has a certain romantic charm.

Less drinking, no cat hair around (no pets in the building at all, I think), walking to get food every day, better food, less take out. It’s no surprise it was a real boost to the system. Then I’ve talked more about Marijuana elsewhere, so no more of that here. Besides, that story isn’t over yet.

Back to the matter at waist. 

One of my biggest challenges with home recording has been my health in a very specific manner: My tummy talks a lot. Long time fans most surely know it and the pops and whizs appear in those first 50 audios much more than the rest, but audios aren’t so bad. Audio books however? Imagine not only having to get the words, the tones, the characters right without background and then having your stomach just “pop” out of nowhere and then having to delete that line. That paragraph. Over and over again.

Welcome to my world. And my search for solutions. There will be biological stuff coming after this. You have been warned.

So basically since I got my card in February, I’ve declared war on my stomach. Eating good, using the non-fun, no-THC stuff to keep the system going, etc. But then, as I got out of pain something...happened.

I’m not being coy. I’m not being cute. It’s too much to explain here and the facts are still unclear but, basically, since the middle of February I have been playing a game of Jack’s Gi Tract: Total War. Where factions have made alliances and the terrains is ever shifting. Whatever long-form demons took up residence in my stomach? They didn’t want out. 

And to be clear? I’ve tried a lot of stuff in the past. Master Cleanse, without cheating a single calorie, for 8 days straight? Nothing. Intermittent fasting? Nada. Getting into the best shape I possibly could? I mean, seriously amazing vegetarian for two years and going to the gym literally every day (didn’t I ever tell you about this period of my life where I was an Adonis no it never came up yet how weird but I bet no girls out there want to see pictures or hear stories about me from my 20′s when I was super smoking hot and buff anyway so).

This problem had dogged me my whole life in this, and other, ways.

But it’s clearing up. And it’s clearing up, I think, for a lot of factors. The hard, deep cleaning I’ve been doing around the house. The positive attitude. And yes, the THC. Well, the CBD in it, more likely, if I had to guess. Maybe a combo of the two?

None of that answers why you didn’t get your podcast yet. Why, even if it COULD come today, I’ve chosen for it come tomorrow.

And the reason is: I literally shat my guts out to the point that I was full on dehydrated. 

It was an epic battle that the Battle of Five Armies could not hope to recreate. But I can. And I will, for Patrons on this livestream and then, for the rest of you, at another date because what’s the fun in being paid to masturbate and play video games for women if you can’t ALSO tell them a 10-20 minute poop story that makes them laugh, first.

I am okay. I have insurance now. I do not feel bad and I haven’t all week, I just took three days shitting all the electrolytes out of my system and I am drained. 

Before anyone offers any medial advice that was not sought (it has been)...

I have chugged a bottle of gatorade. I have chugged 12 ounces of pedisure. I have 36 remaining, and will drink those. I am drinking water and tea at all time. The tea has lemon and honey, yes real lemon and honey, no it is not green tea, yes I know that a diuretic. I have plenty of food, and I am taking it slow with that as I haven’t eaten much lately. do not worry, there is lots of fresh fruit and vegetables and I am not working out or operating heavy machinery. Good? Good. No one is going to send anything in about me being okay, right? Right. Good.

So.

The bad news is your podcast delayed because I feel like a sack of hammers dropped into a black hole tired and I got shit to do tomorrow besides the podcast. I’m resting up.

There’s your bad news. Here’s your good news to make up for it.

As it became clear to me that this project was going to continue, I decided that I’d have to do something called the “Gastrological Forecast.” Don’t think me too clever, I stole that from a local paper, it was the name of their dining out column. 

The idea was, instead of just saying “Guys, I have some tummy issues” to simply try and tell you when I could and could not do work in advance like some king of smog/terror warning (remember that, when people would TELL YOU what color the terrorism was that day!?) for my stomach.

I am no longer considering those plans. I am curing myself, or making rapid recovery toward treatment, whatever. There’s a cure here somewhere. I’ll find it. 

That means more time recording, less stress doing so, for bigger projects. And that means a happier Jack who can do TGK stuff with less worry.

It also means more improv and ramble stuff. You can see where sudden and unknowable gas pockets escaping may have made a few REALLY GREAT Cowboy Jack audios vanish because they simply became swiss cheese after the blips were edited out. 

But more than that in a way that is not easy to explain here, it meant a lot of thinking. Some of that, sure, was simply because I occupied a porcelain throne instead of my more standard venue.  But it’s also because I’m feeling good, and been thinking, a lot. And I’ve floated pieces of this idea to people who’s opinion and council and respect a great deal. I’m getting the thumbs up. It’s very exciting.

I don’t ever want to do that announcement of an annoucement bullshit, but the simple truth is the proposal is far from done, it’s not even written up, much less amended and edited. And that’s exactly what it is, a proposal, to you gals. Not for money, not for money of it. Not for help or items. But an idea. A basic, “what if we really try and do something with this idea that this community is special.”

Without revealing more the premise is to construct a series of projects, both on my own, with some of you, and collective in order to, well, “reveal” me in August 2018 for my birthday. And to do a live show then. And to stream it everywhere in the world, for free. 

On my part this is going to take a lot of hard work with feeling comfortable. It’s going to take a lot of exercise so I don’t feel totally weird and drained for 2-3 hours on stage (yes stage). It’s going to take rehersal. It’s going to take what I can only call a “fostering of talents, personalities, locals and infrastructural resources that I have no right to summon or use” from the UK. Namely Scotland. So, you know, file that away if you are.

To give you an idea of what a “project” could be, a simple one that nobody has to do anything but me? A “project” to complete is to get a better streaming rig before it happens. See how easy that is? I just need to get a better computer, I know enough about them, I budget, I do some extra work, boom. 

It is my goal to align a few of these projects so that they can come together in the UK in 2018 with me and you so that EVERY FAN, every single one of you, get something you want. All of you. All of you. 

All of you.

That’s not going to be easy, I know. But I’m hoping between a live show and a reveal and surprises and you getting to see me in some form (more on that later) and you know, proving that this is real and all that, I think that does it for most of you. But the goal is to make every last one of you happy for one night with one thing in one place.

This plan is the first plan I’ve made in my life that is 100% me. It’s projects that combine into projects. It’s daring. It’s a bit insane. It’s too much hard work for me, it’s too much to ask others, it stands no chance of working, the benefits are minimal (at least to me personally and financially) anything else would be more surefire and more enriching in the short term and if you think you’ve seen the internet push back against erotic audio so far buckle up because dark days are coming and we’re all going to fail and there will days of doubt and nights of no sleep and fear and that constant voice that says you will fail you will fail you will fail and they never loved you anyway.

So knowing all that?

Let’s do it anyway.

See you tomorrow for the more normal stuff tomorrow and the end of the month for my proposal. 

[weekegg2-blog]

The Bear’s Den, November 6, 2018

BEAR DOWN, CHICAGO BEARS, BEAR DOWN!!!!

BEARRRSSSS

Bears-Vikings Game On Nov. 18 Flexed To Primetime - 670 The Score The game will be played at 7:20 p.m. and televised on NBC.

Akiem Hicks Pleased With Progress Of Bears’ Defense - 670 The Score The Bears (5-3) are preparing for a key stretch of three division games.

Emma: Bears’ Khalil Mack, Allen Robinson Could Be In Line To Return Sunday - 670 The Score Each player has missed the Bears’ past two games.

5@5: Are Bears Front-Runners In NFC North? - 670 The Score The Mully & Haugh crew debates a five-pack of questions every weekday.

Pompei: Observations From Bears-Bills - 670 The Score The Eddie Jackson-to-the-Pro Bowl campaign should start now.

Rozner: Chicago Bears take care of business against woeful Bills - Daily Herald The Chicago Bears took care of business Sunday against a terrible Buffalo team. So there's that.

Mayer: 3 things that stood out in Week 9 win - ChicagoBears.com Senior writer Larry Mayer identifies three things that stood out Sunday in the Bears’ 41-9 drubbing of the Buffalo Bills, including the defense’s best performance of the season.

Mayer: Bears-Vikings game moved to primetime - ChicagoBears.com The NFL announced Monday that the Bears-Vikings game on Sunday, Nov. 18 at Soldier Field will be flexed from noon (CT) to 7:20 p.m. (CT) on NBC.

Medina: The Bears Are 6.5-Point Favorites Against the Lions! - Bleacher Nation The first-place Bears are favorites for the fifth time in their last six games.

Medina: Don't Look Now, But Kyle Fuller Is Tied for the League Lead in Interceptions - Bleacher Nation Kyle Fuller signed a big-time contract in the offseason and is now re-paying the Bears with excellent coverage.

Medina: Bears Sign Free Agent Offensive Lineman Willie Beavers to Fill Practice Squad Opening - Bleacher Natiopn Willie Beavers was a fourth-round pick of the Vikings in 2016, but the Bears make his fourth organization in two years.

Hughes: Bears Take Care of Business, Throttle Undermanned Bills - Da Bears Blog Strange game. From the moment Eddie Jackson returned a Roquan Smith-forced fumble for a touchdown with 7:07 remaining in the first half, the entire building knew the game was over. Here are six specific, in-building thoughts from Bears 41, Bills 9.

Dickerson: Jordan Howard looms large for Bears' stretch run - ESPN Matt Nagy promised to get Jordan Howard more involved, and he now has touchdowns in three consecutive games, which can only help the offense.

Wiedman: Chicago Bears love their new look - Our Turf Football OTFB's Wanda Wiedman reports on the Chicago Bears and how their defeat of the Buffalo Bills is just an example of their new look giving results.

Bears' Adam Shaheen 'Close' To Returning To Practice - 670 The Score Shaheen has been out since August with a foot/ankle injury.

Finley: Bears game vs Vikings on Nov. 18 moved to 7:20 p.m. - Chicago Sun-Times The Bears will play in prime time in two weeks.

Finley's Good, bad and best: How the Bears fared in Week 9 at Bills - Sun Times Some weeks are better than others for the Bears. Here’s how three Bears fared in Sunday’s 41-9 blowout win against the Bills at New Era Field:

Campbell: Bears injury updates include uncertainty on Khalil Mack and optimism about Adam Shaheen - Chicago Tribune Bears injury updates on Khalil Mack, Allen Robinson, Adam Shaheen, Taylor Gabriel and more ahead of the Lions game Sunday.

Brad Biggs' 10 thoughts on the Bears' 41-9 blowout win over the Bills - Chicago Tribune Brad Biggs offers his 10 thoughts after the Bears crushed the Bills 41-9 Sunday at New Era Field. Are the Bears set for a return to prime time soon? Is Khalil Mack almost back? How about Adam Shaheen? And why is Kevin White riding the pine?

Rosenthal: Can't overlook Fox analyst Daryl Johnston's insulting storyline for Bears vs. Bills - Chicago Tribune Fox analyst Daryl Johnston took Bears coach Matt Nagy’s judicious move to preserve the near-term health of two key injured players — Allen Robinson and Khalil Mack — as overconfidence rather than prudent restraint against the Bills.

Talarico: Bears' Defense Proves Its Not a One-Man Unit - Da Bears Brothers Blog The Chicago Bears defense had production all over the field against Buffalo and have proved they can survive without Khalil Mack.

Stankevitz: Bears grades - A fine day for Mitch Trubisky against a good defense - NBC Sports Chicago Mitch Trubisky didn't play his best game on Sunday, but it was more than good enough for the Bears to beat the Bills.

Hoge’s 10 Bears Things: Bears Getting Healthier, More Attractive As Primetime Spotlight Shines - WGN Radio - 720 AM Nov. 11, 2012. That’s the last time NBC’s Sunday Night Football crew visited Chicago. It was also a significant time for the Chicago Bears organization. They were 7-1 and rolling after winning six straight games.

Mayer: Nagy will ensure Bears living in present - ChicagoBears.com Instead of dwelling on the past or trying to predict the future, Bears coach Matt Nagy will spend the upcoming week focused solely on Sunday’s home game against the Detroit Lions.

They Said It: Week 9 - ChicagoBears.com Following the Bears' 41-9 win over the Bills in Week 9, take a look at what writers around the country are saying about the team.

Jahns: Five takeaways, including a look at Mitch Trubisky’s early third-down success - Sun Times From Mitch Trubisky’s early success on third downs to a nice block from rookie guard James Daniels, here are five takeaways from the Bears’ 41-9 win.

POLISH SAUSAGE

Eagles Claim CB Cre’von LeBlanc From Lions - PhiladelphiaEagles.com - Cornerback Dexter McDougle was waived to make room for LeBlanc on the active roster.

KNOW THY ENEMY

Green Bay Packers don't hold up their end in Brady-Rodgers showdown - ESPN The Aaron Rodgers-Tom Brady showdown petered out late, leaving the Packers under .500 and putting future Rodgers-Brady matchups in jeopardy.

Packers are crumbling: 3 takeaways from loss to Patriots - PackersWire Three takeaways from the Packers' frustratingly inconsistent night in New England, which ended in a 31-17 defeat.

Stock up, Stock down: Buffalo Bills pass catchers, Jordan Poyer play poorly - Buffalo Rumblings The Bills were bad all over.

Detroit Lions vs. Minnesota Vikings Week 9 snap count observations - Pride Of Detroit A look at the Lions’ playing time for Sunday’s game and what it means for the team.

Detroit Lions Week 9 report card: Offensive failure wastes defensive improvement vs. Vikings - Pride Of Detroit Grading Detroit’s miserable Week 9 performance.

Lions vs. Vikings stock report: Stafford stinker, Slay stays strong, season sinking - Pride Of Detroit The Lions got smoked badly by the Vikings defense, wasting a strong day by a defense that has been improving.

Packers’ loss to Patriots marks unofficial end of Mike McCarthy era - Acme Packing Company The Packers’ loss to the Patriots removes any lingering doubt that change will come to Green Bay this offseason.

Mike McCarthy, Aaron Rodgers polar opposites in post-game pressers - Acme Packing Company One man took the blame for his mistakes while the other bailed after less than two minutes.

Bills have the bottom three passers in the NFL – ProFootballTalk The Buffalo Bills' offense isn't just the worst in the NFL. It's among the worst in NFL history, and so impossibly bad that no matter which of their three quarterbacks are playing, they have the league's worst passing attack.

Voting in Buffalo Bills’ midterm elections, Chicago Bears recap podcast - Buffalo Rumblings - The Bills are at the halfway point of their 17-week season, so we’ve got mid-terms.

Detroit Lions work out WR Brandon Marshall - Pride Of Detroit - The Lions continue to look at wide receiver options after trading away Golden Tate.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT ON WINDY CITY GRIDIRON

Infante's Bears vs. Bills: Notes from a victorious 41-9 walloping - Windy City Gridiron The Bears head into a tough stretch off of the heels of a blowout.

Leming's Chicago Bears Week 9 game balls - Windy City Gridiron The Bears are 5-3 at the half way point and coming off a 32-point drubbing of the Buffalo Bills. Dive into this week’s game balls.

Householder: Chicago Bears-Minnesota Vikings Week 11 flexed to Sunday Night Football - Windy City Gridiron Bears get their third primetime game of the season with a division opponent at Soldier Field

Wiltfong's Bears vs. Bills: Snap counts, stats, and more - Windy City Gridiron We’ll list out the complete playing time breakdown, and spotlight a few individual and team statistics from the Chicago Bears in their monstrous 41-9 win against the Buffalo Bills.

Zeglinski: Chicago Bears’ Adam Shaheen on the mend, could practice this week - Windy City Gridiron The big, burly tight end is recovering well from a sprained foot suffered in the summer.

WCG CONTRIBUTORS BEARS PODCASTS & STREAMS

2 Minute Drill - Website - iTunes - Andrew Link; Steven’s Streaming – Twitch – Steven Schweickert; T-Formation Conversation - Website - iTunes - Lester Wiltfong, Jr.; WCG Radio - Website - iTunes - Robert Zeglinski

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[investmart007]

ARLINGTON, Texas | The Latest: Bills trade up to No. 7, get QB Josh Allen

New Post has been published on https://goo.gl/Upwzsp

ARLINGTON, Texas | The Latest: Bills trade up to No. 7, get QB Josh Allen

ARLINGTON, Texas— The Latest on the NFL draft (all times local):

7:57 p.m.

The Buffalo Bills traded up to No. 7 to take Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen, a 6-foot-5, strong-armed passer.

Allen had no major scholarship offers out of college and went to junior college before spending two seasons at Wyoming.

He needs some seasoning and to work on accuracy, but he could sit behind AJ McCarron in Buffalo for a year or two.

___

7:54 p.m.

The Colts grabbed the best blocker in the draft, Notre Dame guard Quenton Nelson at No. 6.

The Colts had traded down from No. 3 with the New York Jets.

Indianapolis took Nelson to help protect quarterback Andrew Luck, who missed all of last season with a shoulder injury.

___

7:45 p.m.

Bradley Chubb of North Carolina State, seen as the best pass rusher in this draft, was selected fifth overall by Denver.

Once Cleveland, with its second selection in the top four, went for Ohio State cornerback Denzel Ward, it left the dynamic Chubb for the Broncos.

Chubb will bolster a defense that already has one star in linebacker Von Miller. Denver ranked third in overall defense last season, but GM John Elway couldn’t pass on a game-changing end.

___

7:39 p.m.

The Browns surprised the experts again, picking Ohio State cornerback Denzel Ward No 4 overall.

After passing over more classic quarterbacks to take Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield with the top pick, Cleveland skipped over North Carolina State defensive end Bradley Chubb, the top pass rusher in the draft, to grab the top cornerback.

___

7:30 p.m.

The New York Jets, another of the NFL teams desperate for a franchise quarterback, chose Sam Darnold with the third pick Thursday night.

The Jets had traded up from sixth overall with Indianapolis with the expressed mission of finding that quarterback. Southern California‘s Darnold, who had a superb 2016 season and was not quite so productive last year, was the choice.

Darnold might sit a while and learn behind veteran Josh McCown.

“There’s nothing better than being on this state,” Darnold said. “I think whatever the coaches what me to do, if they want me to sit, want me to play, I’ll do my role. That’s what I’ve done my whole life, not going to do any different.”

___

7:23 p.m.

The New York Giants selected Penn State running back Saquon Barkley with the second pick in the 2018 NFL draft.

The All-American with speed, power, shiftiness and excellent hands is considered this year’s best player. New York has had one of the NFL’s worst running games in recent years, and Barkley is expected to boost an offense that has a veteran quarterback in Eli Manning and star receiver in Odell Beckham Jr.

Barkley also is a sensational kick returner.

“It’s unreal, two of the biggest moments in my life in the same week,” said Barkley, whose girlfriend gave birth to a girl earlier in the week.

Not surprisingly in the Cowboys’ home, the pick generally was booed.

___

7:20 p.m.

Baker Mayfield, until the past few days considered an outsider to be chosen at the top of the NFL draft, has been taken by the Cleveland Browns to begin Thursday night’s selections.

The first Heisman Trophy winner taken No. 1 overall in the following draft since Cam Newton went to Carolina in 2010, Mayfield joins a team that went 0-16 in 2017.

The Browns were sold on his leadership skills and creativity inside the pocket and outside.

Most prognosticators pegged another quarterback, perhaps Josh Allen, Sam Darnold or Josh Rosen, for the Browns.

Instead, it’s the Oklahoma star —the Sooners went 34-6 with him— who overwhelmingly won the Heisman Trophy last season. He is the eighth winner of the award selected first in the NFL draft following that season since 1970.

___

5:45 p.m.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will be accompanied by two Hall of Fame quarterbacks who won multiple Super Bowl titles with the Dallas Cowboys, when he takes the stage to open the NFL draft.

Quarterbacks Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman, and tight end Jason Witten are all former winners of the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award that recognizes an NFL player for his excellence on and off the field.

The fans still booed Goodell loudly and all the players threw footballs into the crowd.

Staubach led the Cowboys to Super Bowl titles during the 1971 and 1977 seasons. Aikman was the quarterback when Dallas won three Super Bowl titles in a span four seasons in the first half of the 1990s.

This is the first time the NFL draft is being held in a stadium.

Staubach and Aikman played their home games with the Cowboys at Texas Stadium in Irving, the team’s previous home that no longer stands. The Cowboys moved into $1.3 billion AT&T Stadium in Arlington nine years ago.

___

5:45 p.m.

For one Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, the QB to concentrate on in this draft is Baker Mayfield.

That’s hardly a surprise when the speaker is Roger Staubach, the 1963 trophy winner who won two Super Bowls with the Dallas Cowboys and is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame .

After all, his nickname was “Roger the Dodger.”

“There’s something about Mayfield that’s interesting,” Staubach says. “He does some funky things, seems to be a leader, and they like him. He can move around and find people who come open. In the NFL, you have to do that.”

As Staubach did in one of the more storied careers. After playing for Navy, he spent four years in active duty, including a tour in Vietnam. After spending two weeks at the Cowboys’ training camp in California the year before getting out of the service, he was told by coach Tom Landry that the team was eager to have him back the next season.

From there, Staubach led the Cowboys to the top of pro football in an 11-year career in which he went 85-29 as a starter.

Speaking Thursday to current and former military members at a draft event held by USAA, the official military appreciation sponsor of the NFL, Staubach offered some advice to the audience — and to the players headed to the NFL.

“The qualities you need to succeed in the military are the same as you need to succeed in sports, in the NFL,” he says.

“Integrity, hard work, teamwork. Those are all the attributes companies are looking for. Take advantage of the qualities you have.

“You must work hard at it. Of course, for the NFL you must have the talent. But if you have the talent and don’t work at it, someone with less talent will go past you.

“The service taught me and all of us to learn about teamwork and hard work. It takes a lot of unspectacular preparation to get spectacular results.”

___

5 p.m.

The NFL has renewed an exclusive partnership with Amazon Prime Video for digital streaming of Thursday night games during 2018 and 2019 seasons.

Amazon will stream the 11 Thursday night games broadcast by FOX this season. Those games are also simulcast on NFL Network and distributed in Spanish on FOX Deportes.

Through the streaming deal with Amazon, the broadcasts will be available to more than 100 million Amazon Prime members worldwide in more than 200 countries and territories.

“Having over 100 million Amazon Prime members provides a massive platform to distribute Thursday Night Football digitally, not only to our fans in the United States but also around the world,” said Brian Rolapp, chief media and business officer for the NFL.

With 10 Thursday night games and one on Christmas last year, Amazon built on the audience Twitter had in 2016 in the first year of streaming on Thursday nights. The average per-minute audience for the 11 games hit 310,000, a 17 percent increase from Twitter’s numbers.

___

2:45 p.m.

Bradley Chubb jokes that he’s changed positions for this draft and is now a quarterback.

In reality, the North Carolina State standout is probably the best defensive prospect in this draft. When you get past all the hype for QBs, much of the first round will be devoted to guys on that side of the ball.

“Yeah, don’t forget about us,” he says with a smile.

Chubb can do it all — stop the run, pass rush, shoot gaps, block passes and kicks. Some believe he is a better player than Myles Garrett, who was the top overall pick last year by Cleveland.

Chubb could wind up with the Browns, bookending the D-line with Garrett. Cleveland owns the fourth overall spot and after taking its quarterback at the top, could go his way.

“That would be awesome,” Chubb said. “I don’t know Myles, but I do know he’s a great player.”

As for sending some love the defenders’ way, Chubb reasons it will be coming.

“I feel like I got a spotlight now,” he says as reporters gather around for his views on the proceedings. “There are so many great players who can go into an organization and change it. I hope to be one.”

___

1 p.m.

Don’t look for many wide receivers to be selected high in this draft.

Indeed, only Alabama’s Calvin Ridley seems sure to go in the first round, and he comes from a run-oriented offense.

Recent history shows that wideouts are not particularly wise choices until deeper into the proceedings.

Consider that in the past three years, the likes of Phillip Dorsett, Breshad Perriman, Kevin White, Laquon Treadwell, Josh Doctson, Corey Coleman, Mike Williams, Corey Davis and John Ross have gone in the opening round. Anybody seen or heard much from any of them so far in their NFL careers?

After evaluating the receivers on his roster, Browns general manager John Dorsey said: “Then you have to let the other young guys fight out for their roster spot. Who’s to say? We may get a receiver or two in this draft.”

Guaranteed it won’t be with the first and fourth overall spots Cleveland owns.

___

12:20 p.m.

Former Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen has apologized for a series of offensive tweets he sent while in high school.

The potential No. 1 NFL draft pick apologized for the now-deleted tweets to ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith less than 24 hours before the draft.

Yahoo! Sports reported Allen sent the tweets in 2012 and 2013 and they contained racially insensitive language and offensive statements.

Allen told Smith he was parroting rap lyrics and catchphrases from TV and pop culture. In his apology, Allen told Smith he was “young and dumb” at the time.

According to ESPN, the tweets were removed from Allen’s account when it was vetted in January.

Wyoming coach Craig Bohl says Allen had “great relationships with his teammates and our fan base.” The coach adds in his statement that while at Wyoming Allen “embraced diversity.” Says Bohl: “We wish him all the best on his big night.”

___

12 p.m.

This isn’t just the year of the quarterback in the NFL draft. It’s the century of the QB.

The previous time a quarterback wasn’t selected in the first round of the NFL draft was 1996, when 41 other players were chosen before the Rams selected Michigan State’s Tony Banks at No. 42.

Banks went 35-43 in eight seasons as a journeyman with the Rams, Ravens, Redskins and Texans.

He was by far the most accomplished of the six quarterbacks selected, two of whom never played in the league and another who never started in the NFL.

Third-rounder Bobby Hoying of Ohio State went 3-9-1 in five seasons for Philadelphia and Oakland.

The Broncos chose Jeff Lewis of Northern Arizona with the 100th overall pick, but this was during the Elway Era and Lewis made zero career starts in two seasons in Denver and two in Carolina.

Another fourth-rounder was Florida State’s Danny Kanell, who would post a 10-13-1 career mark over six seasons with the Giants, Falcons and Broncos.

In the seventh round, the Ravens took John Stark of Trinity International and the Packers selected USC’s Kyle Wachholtz, neither of whom ever played in the pros.

So, that was a total of 48-65-2 for the inglorious QB class of 1996.

There have been 56 quarterbacks selected in the first round since then, including five in 1999. That mark is expected to be matched or maybe broken tonight in Dallas.

— AP Pro Football Writer Arnie Stapleton reporting from Denver.

___

11:00 a.m.

The most inspirational story in this NFL draft, bar none, is Shaquem Griffin of UCF.

A standout linebacker for the undefeated Knights, Griffin achieved all of his success despite having no left hand. He wears a prosthetic, yet Griffin stunned onlookers by bench-pressing 225 pounds a staggering 20 times at the combine, then ran the 40-yard dash in 4.38 seconds.

Griffin is fast, hits hard and never stops coming. Will that make him a first-rounder? Probably not, given NFL teams’ concerns with any sort of physical issues for a prospect.

But Griffin, whose brother Shaquill was selected in the third round last year by Seattle, insists there are no drawbacks about him as a pro prospect.

“I don’t see it as a handicap and I have never looked at it that way,” Griffin says. “I hope I am an inspiration for people, to see I can do whatever I want. I haven’t seen anything I couldn’t do. I’m never going to let someone put a label on me.”

NFL personnel people praise Griffin to the sky for his talent, work ethic and fortitude. What they don’t say is how highly they will consider him on their draft board.

Griffin doesn’t like hearing that, though his cheerful demeanor allows him to laugh when told he could be sitting at this draft until Saturday before being selected.

“I don’t have a chip on my shoulder,” Griffin says. “I have chips. I have a bag of chips. Everyone else can have a chip. I need more than that.”

___

10:40 a.m.

The Houston Texans will be bystanders deep into this draft; their first pick is in the third round, 68th overall.

That doesn’t mean they won’t be paying attention Thursday night and during the second round Friday. Plus, the man in charge of personnel moves believes the Texans already have achieved a lot in the offseason.

“Part of the process in this player evaluation is mixing the pro scouting element with the college draft process,” says new general manager Brian Gaine.

“As it relates to how we’re going to solve some of the issues on our roster with personnel, we feel like some of the things we did in free agency are going to put us in position in the draft where you’re not going to get forced to have to draft a player based on need.

“The players that we acquired both on the offensive line and in the secondary give us position flexibility within the group, so at least now we feel like we’re in position that if we draft players now, we’re hopefully drafting the best available player in that regard. The best combination of a pick is when you take the best available player that also meets a team need.”

Among Houston’s needs are the offensive line and tight end. Barring an unexpected run on tackles or tight ends, the Texans should find value when they finally get going.

“There are certainly challenges involved with that in terms of getting blue chip talent and blue chip prospects,” Gaines says, “but the focus that I have had and our staff has had here has been we are going to get a chance to get four players in the top 103 in this draft.

“So, if things were standard and we had a first- and second-round pick, a third- and fourth-round pick, that would still give us four players in the top 103.

“Now, although they might not be player 50 or 60, we’re still going to get four players, we believe, in the top 103. So, we’re very positive that we’ll be able to get contributing players at any one of those picks in the third and the fourth round.”

Meanwhile, barring a trade, the Texans will watch.

___

9:50 a.m.

This year’s deep draft at quarterback lacks just one thing: a consensus top pick.

None of the mock drafts heading into Thursday’s actual NFL draft in Dallas seems to even put them in the same order.

So, let’s see what the quarterbacks themselves think.

All of them say they’re the best of the bunch except for USC’s Sam Darnold, who suggests: “That’s for other people to decide.”

Hogwash, say Wyoming’s Josh Allen, UCLA’s Josh Rosen, Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield and Louisville’s Lamar Jackson.

They all unabashedly tout themselves as the best option at QB in this draft.

“I think I’m the best quarterback here,” Rosen has said. “I think every person in this draft should have the exact same answer.”

Allen has said every quarterback has to believe he’s the best because that confidence is the cornerstone of a successful pro career.

“We’re all different, we all have our pluses, our minuses,” Allen says. “But if you don’t have the mindset that you’re the best quarterback in this draft, you’re not going to fare well in this league.”

Mayfield has concurred, saying, “If you don’t have that mindset then something’s wrong.”

When it comes to ranking the quarterbacks, most people have Jackson well behind the so-called “Big Four,” going somewhere in the middle of the first round.

Jackson has just as much confidence as the others, suggesting he’s better than all of them.

“But I don’t really care about what order we’re in,” Jackson has said. “They’re all great quarterbacks, as well. So, I know they feel the same way.”

— AP Pro Football Writer Arnie Stapleton reporting from Denver.

___

9:35 a.m.

As the traveling road show that the NFL draft has become settles in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the league has added a new fan touch: the Inner Circle.

More than 1,600 fans — at least 50 from every franchise — will be in AT&T Stadium for the selections, and the festivities that go with them.

Each team selected its “draft ambassadors,” and the list of attendees ranges from locals who just happen to root for, say, the Eagles or Bills or Jets, to fans who will travel to North Texas (Falcons, Ravens). Many are season ticket holders.

The Inner Circle will feature team rivalry zones and chances for fans to celebrate the club’s selections with NFL players and former team standouts.

On Thursday night, some of these fans will be visited by their newest team members after they are selected on stage.

___

Dave Gettleman has learned many lessons as an NFL executive. The new general manager of the New York Giants has one mantra in the draft room.

He says teams must “stay with the value.” They “can’t get too cute” or hope for a player to be around in a later round.

The Giants pick second Thursday night after the Cleveland Browns. The New York Jets go third, followed by the Browns and Denver Broncos.

Plenty of top quarterbacks are available: USC’s Sam Darnold, Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield, UCLA’s Josh Rosen and Wyoming’s Josh Allen. There’s also Penn State running back Saquon Barkley and North Carolina State defensive end Bradley Chubb.

Analyst and former NFL general manager Phil Savage says the Giants are in the “catbird seat” and can go in many directions, but he encourages them to consider Barkley.

__

By Associated Press – published on STL.News by St. Louis Media, LLC (Z.S)

___

[junker-town]

16 amazing things about the day Tennessee almost hired Greg Schiano, but didn’t, after incredible backlash

There’s a lot to digest here.

On Sunday, people took to the internet, the streets of Knoxville, and the phone lines to prevent Tennessee from making Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano its next football coach.

Word came out in the early afternoon that the Vols were closing in on Schiano, and the sudden backlash was massive, even by college football standards. Players, politicians, and fans all raged against Schiano’s hiring.

Many of them cited an allegation that former Penn State assistant Schiano had been aware of sexual abuse by Jerry Sandusky. Other arguments by Vols fans included Schiano’s failed Bucs tenure, his one-game-above-.500 record as Rutgers’ 11-year head coach, the fact that his best year in the Big East was more than a decade ago, reports about many of his NFL players and even Peyton Manning hating him, his defense giving up 55 points to Iowa this season, and his perceived similarity to recently fired coach Butch Jones.

By nighttime, it was clear that Tennessee wouldn’t follow through with the hire. UT athletic director John Currie looked out of touch, careless, and incompetent.

That was an unusual day. Here were a few things about it that stand out.

1. It worked.

Tennessee fans, boosters, politicians, and alumni refused to accept the hire, and they found a way to take charge of the program.

2. Tennessee’s first-year AD, whose job is to hire coaches, might have gotten himself sidelined from hiring a coach.

Just asked a source familiar with the Tennessee search who might be offered next. “Gotta see if Currie is still involved.” https://t.co/TUuJhweRq2….

— FootballScoop Staff (@FootballScoop) November 27, 2017

3. A Facebook account pretending to belong to the White House press secretary weighed in and got widely cited in sports media.

Also, the fake page has since been deleted or something. It’d been posting daily for months with tens of thousands of followers. A Tennessee coaching search is what got it removed from public.

At least, I think it’s fake, but in this particular moment in both the United States and the Tennessee football program, I can’t say with certainty. The thing about the Vols is that I don’t think anyone has a firm grasp on where fantasy ends and reality begins.

4. This fake Twitter account seemed believable for a second, because this is the kind of staggering incompetence Tennessee could pull off.

Sources close to #Vols AD John Currie tell me he wasn’t aware Greg Schiano coached at Penn State - nor was he aware of the sworn testimony identifying him as having witnessed the abuse of minors - Currie only vetted Schiano’s time from his days at Rutgers thru present day

— Jimmy Hyams (@JiminyHyams) November 26, 2017

Again, that’s not real.

5. Same with this almost certainly incorrect tweet:

There are reports that TN will owe Schiano $20 million in a buyout for a contract that was signed but TN backed out of it. But only speculation on this. Fox Sports Knoxville mentioned this.

— Brad Jones (@BradJonesBBBTV) November 27, 2017

6. All of these local politicians spoke up.

I have reached out to @John_Currie and others in administration at UT expressing that WE as a TN Community do not approve of Schiano. #higherstandards

— Rep. Jason Zachary (@JasonZacharyTN) November 26, 2017

@UTKnoxville if you hire him, the backlash will be insurmountable and devastating to the University and the state.

— Jeremy Faison (@JeremyFaison4TN) November 26, 2017

Our Tennessee standards mean something, and a Greg Schiano hire would be anathema to all that our University and our community stand for. I sincerely hope that these rumors are not true, because even serious consideration would be unacceptable.

— Eddie Smith (@RepEddieSmith) November 26, 2017

@John_Currie YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING!! So you plan to hire you're close friend... someone who knew about the Penn State abuse? This says volumes about your judgement & lack of respect for Tennessee. St. Rep Dan Howell http://pic.twitter.com/69TOlTTYQa

— Dan (@DanHowell10) November 26, 2017

We expect the highest standards for our public institutions. The special few chosen to lead within those institutions should have a demonstrated history of integrity and character. I hope today’s rumors are not true, because protecting children is more important than anything.

— Bill Lee (@BillLeeTN) November 26, 2017

7. This politician is the pro wrestler Kane.

Too many well-founded concerns about Schiano from our community. Hiring would be very unpopular and hurt UT.... https://t.co/MryvM8Qrfc

— Glenn Jacobs (@GlennJacobsTN) November 26, 2017

This guy:

WWE

8. One prominent Vol announced he’d choose a new college.

I’m just going to say this if we hire Greg Schiano as our next head coach my options will be open to which college program I will Be donating my TIME and MONEY to. (No disrespect to GS) but if UT leaders don’t take football serious then I will find the program that will!!!

— Albert Haynesworth (@haynesworthiii) November 26, 2017

9. A local coffee shop joined in.

Greg Schiano is not allowed in our establishment.

— Remedy Coffee (@remedy_coffee) November 26, 2017

10. There was in-person protesting.

https://t.co/OpziFKo6Wn

— Jon Reed (@Jon__Reed) November 26, 2017

One leader of the picketing in Knoxville said, “We’re reclaiming our program tonight.” That person was right.

11. Lane Kiffin, who once literally abandoned the Vols in the middle of the night, suddenly seems like a great idea.

Protests on Tennessee's campus on hiring of Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano - Now.. per @Mark_Schlabach - it's not happening - #bringbackkiffin http://pic.twitter.com/FK2P0c5DKW

— Zach Klein (@ZachKleinWSB) November 27, 2017

12. This is what was written on The Rock, a Tennessee icon.

The Rock on UT's campus. http://pic.twitter.com/aG3BXrkKOW

— Louis Fernandez Jr (@LouisWBIR) November 26, 2017

The basis for this allegation was a reference to an alleged secondhand discussion. Yahoo’s Dan Wetzel, who’s covered the case, explains the origin:

From the deposition [of former Penn State assistant Mike McQueary]:

Q: “Did [former Penn State assistant Tom Bradley] tell you that he had had information concerning Gerald Sandusky and children?”

A: “He said he knew of some things. … He said another assistant coach had come to him in the early ’90s about a very similar situation to mine, and he said that he had — someone had come to him as far back as early as the ’80s about seeing Jerry Sandusky doing something with a boy.”

Q: “Did he identify who the other coaches were that had given him this information?”

A: “The one in the early ’90s, yes.”

Q: “And who was that?”

A: “Greg Schiano …”

Q: “And did he give you any details about what Coach Schiano had reported to him?”

A: “No, only that he had – I can’t remember if it was one night or one morning, but that Greg had come into his office white as a ghost and said he just saw Jerry doing something to a boy in the shower. And that’s it. That’s all he ever told me.”

Bradley and Schiano denied it when it came out.

In response to media reports from earlier today: I never saw any abuse, nor had reason to suspect any abuse, during my time at Penn State.

— Greg Schiano (@OSUCoachSchiano) July 12, 2016

13. Tennessee got itself blasted for trying to hire a former Buccaneers head coach.

This after a search that had included the following Jon Gruden-related things:

A continuation of a decade of Knoxville infatuation with the former Super Bowl winner.

Thousands of UT fans tuning into a live stream of an airport parking lot in the hopes that it’d reveal Gruden getting off a plane and heading to an introductory press conference at Neyland Stadium.

A local ribs joint confirming false reports that Gruden was dining in Knoxville one night, then walking back that confirmation in an apologetic tweet.

A fan following Currie around the stadium hollering Gruden’s name for the better part of a minute, as the AD masterfully pretends not to hear him.

14. Currie seemingly thought a hire of Schiano would go over fine.

This might be the most amazing part.

15. Now the Vols still have to hire a coach.

Some actual good ideas are here.

16. And while this was all happening, SEC East rival Florida was hiring a great head coach who happened to be the one Currie actually wanted.

Other than that, Tennessee had a smooth and positive day.