#devors your whole design

[hifilounge]

Bel Canto Now Available at HiFi Lounge, Now This Was A Real Surprise!

Hi Everyone,

So it has been a while since we have bought on any new brands, I actually made a decision a few months ago to refine our offerings and go back to just focusing on the brands we really love, HFL is now in its 12th year and we have tried a lot of different kit and brands over that time so it is really refreshing to know exactly what brands we want to support and offer our customers but you have always got to keep your eyes, and ears, open as something may come along that really excites which really has been the case with Bel Canto.

So in all honestly this one has been a real surprise, now I will listen to anything as that is a great way to learn what is out there so when I was asked the other day if I would like to listen to some Bel Canto kit I thought why not, what's the harm but with my current thinking of focusing on the brands we have I had no intention of bringing them into the HFL fold, then I heard the £8900 All In One E1X integrated and I was sold instantly.

Bel Canto E1X With our demo YG Cairn Speakers

Like most people into HiFi I am sure the name Bel Canto is one that is known, I had heard the name before but knew nothing about them, but the only thing that matters to me is sound quality and you know when something is right and the E1X really delivered instantly, yes there is a lot of tech inside its sleek box, it is basically an integrated amp with a high quality streamer and phono stage built in but for me the sound quality was so open and natural I was instantly hooked, there was so much space and air it instantly reminded me of some of the valve amps we have here that have that ethereal spacious sound, you can also alter the treble and bass and it is Roon compatible, it really is a hell of an all in one.

Bel Canto Black EX With the Rega Naia and DeVore Fidelity

Then we tried the next level up, the Black EX Integrated, basically a £17k version of the E1X, this sounded amazing, much more than it’s size hinted to what was possible, such a natural and big sound. I have been looking for a Solid State brand that would work well with the DeVore speakers that we love so much at HFL so the next thing to try was to put the Black EX on our DeVore O/Baby's and 0/96’s and as I hoped It was a great combination, a real alternative to the 300B valve amps that makes them sing normally, I love its simplicity, you can have one of these boxes, a turntable and a pair of speakers and you are good to go with a system that will sound amazing.

Bel Canto Black Control DAC with Wilson Audio and D'Agostino

Next we tried £45k 2 Box Black Control DAC plugged in direct to our D’Agostino Momentum Stereo power amp which was driving our Wilson Audio Alexia V speakers, this is basically a streaming DAC/PRE but what I really love is that like the rest of the Bel Canto range is it actually has analogue inputs and a very high quality phono stage built in so and again you can build a really highend system without loads of boxes, again we got that amazing open sound but just more of it, certainly shone in this system.

Obviously Bel Canto do a whole range of kit so I look forward to exploring some more of their range, I particularly like the idea of the Pre/Power version of the all in ones, but from what I have heard so far I really believe that they will be a great addition to or portfolio as they offer something totally different to what we already offer and sound amazing, I am confident our customers will love it as much as I do.

So at the moment we have all 3 of the above products on demo so please feel free to come in for a listen anytime and please find a link below to Bel Canto on our website - 

All the best,

Paul.

[snkpolls]

SnK S3E20 Poll Results (Manga Reader Version)

The poll closed with 287 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Please note that these are the results of the manga reader poll. Anime only watchers are suggested not to read if you do not wish to be spoiled about certain events! Anime only viewers, click here to view your poll results!

RATE THE EPISODE 279 Responses

This episode was another hit with most viewers, with 74.6% of participants ranking it 5 out of 5.

Just brilliant. Best series.

This was the first episode I’d been excited for in weeks. With the serum bowl I was dreading the last three episodes but the Marley Arc is my fave and I’m super super excited for what comes next in the anime.

The music was incredible and Grisha's VA stole the show.

The best of this season yet!

This season has now given us 2 (two) episodes WITHOUT openings and both times the episodes blew me away. I’m so stoked for the fourth season

I'd say it was a pretty solid episode. I can't believe we've finally made it to Marley, I am so not ready for the nonstop angst that is to come…

Anime quality was ass again, but the plot and voice acting make this a fantastic episode overall

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING SCENES WAS THE MOST MEMORABLE? 282 Responses

There were several informative and memorable scenes. 45.7% of participants thought Kruger’s big reveal was the highlight, while 12.1% can’t decide what stuck out the most. 9.9% of participants felt Dina becoming the Smiling Titan made the biggest impression.

DO YOU THINK GRISHA’S FATHER WAS RIGHT IN EASILY DEMEANING HIMSELF AND GRISHA TO GROSS? 270 Responses

Though Grisha’s father yielded to the Marleyan police regarding Faye’s death, 77.4% of participants believed he was right to prevent the rest of his family meeting a similar fate. 15.6% thought he should have shown a bit of resistance towards Gross’s accusations. Many in the comments agree the situation is simply not that black and white.

It's not whether it's 'right' or 'wrong' in these situations - if your options are the death of your family or satisfying your own feelings of dignity, then I think it's up to the individual what their priority is. But I think it is not a sign of weakness to put your family first.

He probably hated himself for doing it (at least I'd do), but losing another loved one would be horrible for anyone in his situation, so I can understand why he did that.

I can't really answer with clear 'yes' or 'no'. On one side, He was right to protect the rest of his family, on the other... He could try to comfort Grisha in a better way (you know, not yelling at him to be silent)

No, but I think he could’ve dealt with Grisha more privately. He didn’t have to continue with his indoctrination of Grisha.

I think it's complicated

no one is right or wrong here.

SERGEANT MAJOR GROSS STATED THAT “PEOPLE LOSE TOUCH WITH LIFE AND DEATH AND START TAKING THEIR LIVES FOR GRANTED." DO YOU THINK THERE IS TRUTH TO WHAT HE SAYS? 283 Responses

Gross told Grisha that people took their lives for granted when losing touch with life and death. 60.4% of participants think there is truth to his words even if his actions are morbid. 27.2% believe he just said this to excuse his cruelty.

Idk but him staring into my soul made me unconfortable

That is true, but it doesn't actually justify or support his position. We're SUPPOSED to all have the luxury and privilege of 'taking life for granted', as he puts it - that's why humanity has worked so fucking long to improve society to this point! We shouldn't have to think in life-or-death terms to consider ourselves worthy of living.

There is truth, but it's obvious that it's more words for him justifying his horrible actions more than a maxime which guides his life. If it were so, he wouldn't have been scared and screaming when the titan eat him.

Yes, but he's just making excuses for his sadistic mind.

DO YOU THINK HUMANS IN GENERAL BECOME INTERESTED IN VIOLENCE? 284 Responses

The episode observes humans and their reaction to violence, Gross saying he finds it interesting. 49.6% of participants believe that most people are interested in violence, while 40.1% specify that it depends on how violent the event is.

The most interesting part of the episode is Gross addressing the viewer over making his victim dance. Part of SnK is watching some victim being devored by the lions. Be it Faye to the dogs, Mike to the titans, Eren's squad to the titans in Trost, Carla to Dina, Marco to Araki Titan, Bert to Armin... the reactions however differ. Some of us came to see characters fighting and get eaten by giant monsters, but as the story progressed, our point of view differed and it became disgust for the most part.

HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT GROSS'S DEATH? 281 Responses

Gross’s death was a gruesome one, but 53.4% participants were satisfied he got what they feel he deserved. 17.1% were less comfortable by the irony of the situation, and 13.2% found his struggle enjoyable.

Watching reaction videos where people cheer on Gross getting his face chopped on kinda unsettled me, I'm not gonna lie.

IS FAYE’S DEATH THE CRUELEST MOMENT IN THE SERIES? 282 Responses

Being torn apart by dogs is a disturbing way to go and 46.8% of participants felt it was the cruelest moment of the series thus far. 45.4%, however, believed there were crueler moments worthy of mention.

I didn't think Faye's death was the cruelest because let's face it, Mike's was the absolute worst. :(

GIVEN HOW HE TREATED ZEKE, DO YOU THINK GRISHA IMPROVED AS A FATHER WHEN IT CAME TO EREN? 280 Responses

Though Grisha didn’t show a lot of compassion for Zeke as a son, 55.4% of participants believed he learned to be a better father for Eren as a result. 24.3% would rather have more information before saying for sure, and 20.4% of participants felt Grisha didn’t quite change his ways. 

GRISHA STATED THAT YMIR “BROUGHT BOUNDLESS PROSPERITY” TO THE WORLD. WHEN GRICE QUESTIONED THAT, GRISHA RETORTED WITH THE FACT THAT HE “BELIEVED IN YMIR”. WHAT DO YOU THINK HAPPENED? 282 Responses

There was a mix of histories regarding Ymir Fritz. 50% of participants believed Ymir may have brought prosperity but that Grisha was also jumping to conclusions without context. 40.4% of participants thought Grisha was just seeing what he wanted to see.

Grisha’s va knocked it out of the park this week. The episode made me re-think whether grisha actually could read any of the sacred texts. Was he just BSing the whole way through? Will we ever know what they say in that case?

BEST ROGUE TITAN DESIGN? 282 Responses

Out of the three Rogue titan designs, a majority 62.8% of participants thought Eren’s was the most physically appealing.

Best Rogue Titan design? That's not even a question. ITS ALWAYS ERENS. LOL

HOW FAITHFUL WAS THE ADAPTATION TO THE ORIGINAL MANGA? 276 Responses

A majority of manga readers believed the episode was mostly faithful to the original chapters, with 54.3% believing it was nearly perfect. Others felt the episode could have been more accurate.

Great, pacing was a little quick but I think the anime adaptation explained everything a bit better than the anime. I had to go back and read those chapters like 3 times to fully understand everything lol. I do wish they didn't cut lines from the warrior selection announcement though. Overall great though!

Great adaptation. They should've cut the ending too, so they wouldn't need to cut some parts, but it was as close to perfection either way.

I'm sad that they omitted so much when Marley announces the Marley warrior program. Besides that I think it was an amazing episode.

Was thoroughly impressed with how they managed to adapt two of the most dense chapters into a single ep without any significant cuts. The artwork for the Eldia/Marley lore was gorgeous, and the performances were as expected, phenomenal. Kruger's transformation was breathtaking, as was the OST. Definitely one of the best episodes of the season. Also, Marina Inoue saying "Shingeki no Kyojin" in the preview gave me chills.

KRUGER'S HAIR: BLOND OR BLACK? 282 Responses

Kruger’s hair was colored dirty blond in the anime compared to the darker shade in the manga. 47.5% of participants felt that either color choice worked well for him, while 39.4% preferred his black hair.

kruger is a dirty blonde colour imo ;p

I’m just over the moon to finally see The Owl aka Kruger animated with a voice.

The color scheme in this series has always been weird. Not that Isayama himself is limited palette-wise, but the colors have been much sober than WIT's multicolor fest. Kruger's hair are meant to be black or dark brown. Isayama draws blonde/hazelnut hair with full lines. Same goes with the uniform: Isayama uses frames for dark colors (the SC's green coat ie), ink for black and dark blue. Anime already made odd choices with Mikasa's scarf (black in the manga) or Armin's eyes (brown).

Always thought Kruger was brunette

After last week's preview I thought Kruger with blond hair was weird but having watched this week's episode I think it fits better with the blue uniform and the show's colour palette. Besides, he still looks hot so all is fine lol

HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT THE APPEARANCE OF MARLEY? 282 Responses

A majority 60.3% of participants believe Marley’s appearance was just as modern as they expected it. 29.4% of participants thought it appeared more lavished.

WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT THE CENSORSHIP FOR SOME OF THE GRAPHIC SCENES? 283 Responses

Some of the more graphic scenes were censored in the anime, but 53% of participants aren’t bothered by it. 35.7% of participants were disappointed that some parts weren’t shown as a result and 11.3% felt it was appropriate to censor the more graphic scenes.

I don't mind Grisha's penis as well as the gory parts being censored (it's NHK after all), but the censorship comes across as convenient for the series. They omitted some marleyans officers saying Gross was going too far, or masked the details of the warrior program: no full confirmation of RBA being trained into infancy to be promoted at the status of Honorary Marleyans. Conbine that with the RBZ+Pieck scenes from this season being watered down and you have the anime making it even more black and white than the manga.

ISAYAMA ASKED THE ANIME TO HIGHLIGHT GROSS’ SPEECH TO BREAK THE 4TH WALL AS A “CALL OUT” TO THE VIEWER.  WAS THIS DIRECTION SUCCESSFUL? 277 Responses

Gross’s 4th wall break was a request made by Isayama to address the viewer as he spoke. 65.3% of participants felt the direction made them feel more called out than when they originally read it. 24.9% can’t relate to what Gross is saying in the first place.

His eyes that never left the spectator's gaze froze my blood, it was really very successfully made.

I get what Isayama was trying to do but there's a huge difference between being sadistic knowing that it's fictional and being sadistic in real life

Honestly I didn't even know that he broke the 4th wall until I took this poll.

I didn't feel like what he was saying pertained to me because I've always been repulsed by his mentality and justifications.I think it says more about Isayama that he felt this was something that needed to be broadcast to society.

The speech wasn't as well done in the anime. I think he broke the 4th wall in the manga pretty well.

The Gross 4th wall break didn't really deliver in the end. Wish it was more obvious (eye contact, zoom in, voice acting)

It would have been a lot more successful if he'd written the call out to come from someone less sadistic and despicable. It's hard to reflect like that on words that came from a character that had a nine year old child eaten alive by dogs.

considering i had no idea it was meant to be a callout, i'd say it failed

WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL HAPPEN WITH YMIR’S BACKSTORY FLASHBACK NEXT EPISODE? 280 Responses

Since Ymir’s backstory was moved to Season 2, 39.3% believe that Historia reading the letter will show Ymir’s death instead of the entire flashback. 35.7% of participants think the scene will just show a cut down version of the backstory with Ymir’s narration in the background. 21.1% believe that the backstory will be shown again with some tweak to the narration.

Fuck man I dunno, maybe they'll play some interval music and Ymir will tapdance

I feel like the one disappointing thing about this part in the manga is that Ymir died offscreen. This would be a good change and I wouldn’t mind a teaser of Galliard also.

The backstory shown in season 2 wasnt the letter 1/1 right? Then just have the letter read out and have slightly altered images of her story

I got no idea which way they'll go, but WIT will do her story justice, no doubt about that

They will recycle s2's animation and that's it. If they show Ymir's fate, kudos to them, considering they've been pretty lazy with additional content so far.

THE ANIME ADAPTED EREN'S LINE AFTER WAKING UP AS "WHO AM I?" WAS THIS A MORE APPROPRIATE PHRASE THAN THE TRANSLATIONS ABOUT EREN USING DIFFERENT JAPANESE PRONOUNS OR HAVING A DIFFERENT VOICE? 280 Responses

In the manga, Armin comments on Eren’s change of pronouns when he first wakes up, but the anime changed this line to “Who am I?” 38.6% of participants thought this change made more sense in context. 30.7% of participants didn’t realize there was a change, and 21.4% thought the manga made enough sense for it not to warrant a change.

I feel like this episode is where we lost Eren as he once was. The change wasn't immediate, but this is the impetus. All that information, all those memories. The boy has started to become a man.

WHICH SCENE FROM THE PREVIEW ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO? 284 Responses

Of the scenes that were shown, a majority of 52.1% of participants are most looking forward to more conversation between Kruger and Grisha.

Historia is lookin fine in the preview

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE EPISODE?

Just a nitpick but I wish Kruger’s attack titan was animated more in destroying the boat since it felt more like a colored panel; I’m still happy how it turned it though! Maybe there might be additional animation next episode but I can only hope :’D

This episode was beautifully done. The voice acting really knocked it out of the park, especially Grisha's. His screams, holy shit. I got chills. Kruger's voice was also brilliant, just that perfect blend of nonchalant and forbidding. What I found interesting was the VA for young Grisha sounded so much like Kaji Yuuki! I saw in the credits that it wasn't actually him, but what an excellent casting choice!

Needs more Floch

KRUGER!!!!

This S3P2 has to have the weirdest pacing I've ever seen: the 2ch1ep formula doesn't work at all for backstories like Grisha's, considering the whole worldbuilding is unleashed. That being said, the preview from last episode's accustomed the anime-onlys to the outside world, but combining chapter 86 and 87 leaves no time to breathe properly.

Thinking back on it, wasn’t this Grisha’s first time seeing Titans in the flesh, and eating a person right in front of him?

I had hoped Kruger's hat toss would be more dramatic, but alas, t'wasn't. Other than that, went pretty good

They pronounce 'Zeke' completely different from how I imagined it would sound.

Perfect, especially the final scene. I knew what was coming, but seeing the restorationists become the Trost Titans, the Dina reveal, and Owl transformation was something else. That sequence is on par with Reiner/Bertholdt reveal and Erwin’s charge as best scenes in the series. At least for the anime so far.

I thought this episode was kind of disappointing. Maybe it's just because I really dislike the tone shift that came with the Marley stuff, but I thought the manga handled all this exposition kind of awkwardly and was hoping for better from the anime. Nope, the only thing improving it is that it won't be drawn out for months between chapters this time.

Bby Zook my boi, must protecc at all costs, so innocent, so pure

In one episode all this information WAS WAY TOO MUCH! poor anime-only fans lmao

WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES? 265 Responses

Thanks again to everyone who participated! We’ll see you again in a few days!

[ratandphilgames]

Our Lives Don’t Collide

{chapter 5: hey look ma i made it}

summary: Shit hits the fan when famous actor!Phil is caught smooching a boy in an alleyway. Only problem? He’s not out and what’s worse? The boy he was smooching was a journalist who set it all up to get a quick picture and now Phil is royally screwed. The only answer Phils management can come up with is a fake relationship to try and do damage control and famous actor!Dan is the perfect candidate.

chapter word count: 2873

total word count: 12809

rating: t

note: super thanks to everyone who likes/ reblogs/ sends me a message! the support has been amazing! also huge thanks to all the babes in the writing gc for motivating me to write! ily!

updates on thursdays!

tw for this chapter: homophobia 

{read on ao3}

{read from the beginning}

{next chapter}

—–

“Do you like me Dan? Are you trying to say you’re a big old gaylord?”

 Dan was shaking his head furiously, trying to find a way to make it out of the room without being killed. There was no way out, there was never a way out. The room had no doors, no windows, no hope for escape. Just rows and rows of lockers.

 He was in his teenage body, but his mind was aged adequately.

 “Have you got a big fat gay crush on me Dan?”

 He was cornered in the school hallway, conveniently, no teacher in sight, whether that was on accident or by design, Dan would never know. Sometimes he thought the educators turned a blind eye towards moments like these, thinking the little gay boy needed to be put in his place. A shiner wouldn’t do him any harm. A bruise would heal but a message would last forever.

 The boy had no face, he was slenderman esq in his school uniform as he walked closer and closer to Dan, leaving no option for escape as Dan backed himself into the corner.

 “Please don’t hit me.” Dan begged, the boy just laughed. All he ever did was laugh and taunt and corner him.

 Suddenly people were crowding around, watching, humiliating him.

 “FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!” the audience was chanting, knowing full well Dan wouldn’t fight back. He never fought back, his limbs seemed to be made of cement but even if they weren’t he wouldn’t retaliate.

 The boy with no face raised his fist, prepared to pummel Dan into nothing, his peers screaming their support for his attacker, losing their shit as the faceless boy prepared to attack.

 Right before the faceless boy could hit him, Dan’s eyes shot open and he looked around to realize he was not in his old school hallway, but rather his lounge. He’d fallen asleep on his couch the night before after Phil had left.

 His heart was beating a mile a minute as he tried to get his bearings on the world around him. He always woke up from nightmares feeling as though he’d just run a marathon, his heart working overtime trying to choose between fight or flight when all it really needed to do was wake the fuck up.

 You’re okay. You’re okay. You’re okay.

 This wasn’t the first time Dan had a dream like this, the feeling of being trapped, cornered, and cowering in fear of the faceless boy. It was reoccuring, to the point where he’d talked about his therapist about it. She said it was just his way of coping with the shit he went through growing up, the intense homophobia that just fueled his depression.

 Dan sat on the couch for a long time before he finally felt any motivation to do anything. He tried to regulate his breathing and get his nerves under control, once the initial shock had passed it was all about calming down so he didn’t ruin the whole days productivity.

 After he had managed to chill out a little, he felt around the couch, hoping to find his phone. He didn’t really know where it had ended up as he spent most of the time before falling asleep avoiding his responsibility of picking out the pictures he would post of him and Phil. He’d tried, at first, but soon found it made his heart ache just a little too much so he put it off for a later time, a terrible habit that he would have to break one time.

 When he finally found his cellular device the first thing he noticed when he went to unlock it was that it was 4 in the fucking morning, Dan was used to going to sleep around this time, not waking up (unless of course there was some sort of weird schedule for being on set for filming, in which case he dragged his butt out of bed at the asscrack of dawn, downing about 5 cups of coffee, and then trying his best. Those days were the ones that required the most takes to get the right scene.) The second thing Dan noticed about his phone was the fact that it was almost completely dead as he hadn’t been charging it all night.

 With a big fat groan Dan got up from the couch, walked into his bedroom and plugged his phone in, giving it the sweet juice it so desired. After that business was out of the way, he shuffled through his dresser and found some pajamas, or rather some sweats. Whether he would fall asleep again was still up in the air, but Dan was still wearing the skinny jeans he’d been wearing yesterday and it was just too uncomfortable to deal with anymore. How did he even fall asleep with such suffocating pants on?

 Falling asleep so soon after a dream such as the one he had would almost certainly result in having the same terrible experience again. It was still too fresh in his mind, he’d have to find a way to get the memory of it out his brain completely if he wanted to have a peaceful rest. That being said, if he just got up for the day now, at 4am, he could nap anytime during the day as he had literally nothing to do.

 The bad thing about acting is that you worked a shitton for a few months or less and then you’d made your years salary and you could just fuck around for the rest of the time, but for Dan, that just resulted in a lot of lounging and playing video games and general unproductivity. Working was a constant, it required him to get up and have a schedule and he actually enjoyed what he was doing most of the time, even if the hours were shitty. When he had all the time in the world to lay around, Dan would do exactly that, not being able to coax his mind into doing something productive.

 In the end Dan just decided to stay awake, he put on a pot of coffee and skimmed through twitter. The buzz around him and Phil was getting more serious, but some fans were adamant that Dan was secretly seeing his co-star Adam Devore, despite the fact that they hadn’t seen each other once since filming wrapped for ‘Switch Hitter’ and probably wouldn’t see each other until press for the movie officially started.

 It was the way the trailers painted them that made people so sure they were together, people forgot it was for the movie and that they’d both been acting. Still, he couldn’t blame them, and soon enough the whole thing would blow over once him and Phil had officially made their debut.

 There was definitely a lot of speculation over the nature of Dan and Phil’s relationship since the first photo had come out of Phil and the boy who looked startlingly like Dan kissing. Some people assumed it was Dan, some defended that it couldn’t be, and some just didn’t give a shit. It would certainly hit the news that Phil had stopped by his place by the time the sun rose completely and shortly after that the photos of them together would be on Dan’s instagram, making it ‘official’ so to speak.

 Once Dan started thinking about the photos and the events of the night prior, he couldn’t stop. He was also reminded that he needed to call his mum, better to get it over now than wait for her to see the tabloids. She was constantly checking entertainment news sources for Dans name in the headlines, claiming he didn’t keep her up to date enough so she’d figure out what was going on in his life herself.

 His mum was 8 hours ahead of him, meaning that if Dan did his calculations right it was just about noon back in Wokingham. The perfect time to receive a call from your son informing you that he was seeing a boy.

 Truth be told Dan wasn’t really sure how his mum would react to the news. She was constantly hounding him about finding someone who was good to him, but that was just because he worried about him being all alone in such a lonely position. Sure, he had the people who admired his work, and a handful of diehard fans, but at the end of the day he was going to bed alone and spending the majority of his days by himself. True, in this relationship he would still be going to bed alone, but at least his mums mind would be put to ease.

 He wasn’t sure how he felt about lying to her about such a big thing, but in the end Dan decided it was better for her health if she wasn’t so worried about her son, so really this was doing her a favor, right?

 After his phone had a little while to charge, Dan unplugged it and proceeded to go to his contacts, found his mum, and tried not to put too much thought into it as he clicked the little call button.

 Ring. Ring. Ring.

 “Hello?” his mum greeted.

 “Hi mum.”

 “Oh blimey, Daniel isn’t it near 4 in the morning, what’re you doing up?” She was a lot quicker at her time zone math than Dan was.

 “I woke up early and I needed to give you a ring anyways.”

 This sparked her attention immensely.

 “You needed to ring me? What about? Are you alright?”

 “Yes mum, I’m fine, I just wanted to talk to you about something before the entertainment news got ahold of the story.”

 “Oh, alright, well then, spill the tea, bear.”

 There was so much for Dan to unpack in that one sentence from his mum. First of all did she just say ‘spill the tea’? She truly had been spending too much time reading gossip, it was getting scary. Second of all she called him ‘bear’, something that he’d actually quite missed. His childhood nickname held a soft spot in his heart, he felt waves of nostalgia and comfort from such a simple thing.

 “Okay, wow, okay. Uh. I’ve started seeing someone.”

 His mum gasped, actually audibly gasped.

 “Dan! That’s fantastic! Is it that boy from the movie you just shot?”

 Great, even his mum had heard the rumors about him and Adam fucking Devore. You film one movie with someone and suddenly your mum and everyone else on twitter thinks you’re dating, good god.

 “No, oh my god mum. It’s not Adam.”

 “Well then who is it?”

 “Uhhhh, you remember how over Christmas we watched that romance movie, I think it was called ocean eyes? Anyways I’m seeing the guy who played the fiance in that film. Phil Lester.”

 “Oh, he was lovely! I told you to find someone who treated you like he treated his girlfriend and now look! I practically got you two together.”

 Dan had forgotten about the offhand comment his mum had made during their viewing but now that he thought about it, she did mention finding Phil ‘charming’. That was around the time Dan’s little crush on Phil had started. His mum was a psychic? Who could’ve seen this coming?

 “Good job mum, you’re an everyday cupid.”

 “Of course. Well, I’ve got to go, your aunt was supposed to meet me for lunch and she just texted, so I better get a move on.”

 “Okay, have a nice lunch, tell her I say hi.”

 “I will, and hey Dan, if things get serious, do you promise that you’ll bring this boy home for me to meet?”

 Dan’s heart skipped a beat. Maybe this was going too far. Maybe he shouldn’t have mentioned anything to his mum. Maybe this was all a mistake. Everything was getting too real.

 “Yeah, I promise.”

 They said their goodbyes and his mum hung up to go have lunch with his aunt, leaving Dan to himself at what was now 4:30 in the morning.

 The obvious thing to do would be pick out the photos he was going to post on his instagram later that day now to get it out of the way, but Dan decided to instead watch anime for 2 hours as he sipped his coffee and found some cereal to eat. Only then could he flip through the pictures he and Phil had taken the day previous.

 They looked cute together, that was undeniable. It looked genuine too, not just on Dans part, they looked happy, in love, together.  Most of all they looked extremely convincing.

 Dan picked out one photo from each pose, one with them smiling, one with Phil kissing his cheek, and one with Phil nuzzling into Dan’s neck.

 He made sure they both looked nice in each of the photos before finding a black and white filter (he had an instagram theme to uphold) and making final decisions.

 Out of all the pictures they took, one was by far Dan’s favorite, but it wasn’t post worthy. He’d managed to snap a picture the moment Dan realized Phil’s lips were pressed against his cheek, the look on his face was absolutely priceless.

 After thinking about it for awhile, Dan decided that maybe he should send the pictures to Phil, get his approval before posting and all that.

 Don’t overthink it, just send him the photos and move on with your day. Don’t hyperfocus on this one message to the point of not being able to do anything else with your time. Just don’t do it.

 Trying not to think too much about it, Dan went to his contacts, started a message with Phil (or the number Phil had put in his phone, he really hoped it was his personal number and not like his publicist or something.) and send the 3 photos he’d picked out along with a short and sweet “caption?” as Dan hadn’t yet decided what he would caption the post and was hoping Phil had some sort of idea.

 He put his phone down after that, knowing that if he stayed on it he’d end up refreshing his texts every few seconds and that just wasn’t healthy. Instead he spent his time doing literally anything but that, he went through his closet, organized his movie collection, showered, and vacuumed.

 By the time his anxious productive energy had worn off it was nearing noon for him. He finally decided to grab his phone again.

 3 new messages.

 One was from his mum, telling him that lunch with his aunt had gone well, the next was from Shannon the momager, asking if she needed to arrange a car for Dan for any reason today, and then the third. The third message on his phone was from one Phil Lester.

 He was too nervous to open it. After a whole day of ignoring his phone for this exact reason, he couldn’t bring himself to look at the text he’d gotten.

 Eventually (too long for Dan to admit) he decided to just do it, to open the notification and see the doom that was waiting for him.

 From: Phil

 caption it “the cats out of the bag” or something

 we look cute ;)

 The sexual tension was too much for Dan as he stared at the winky face. That was flirting right? That was definitely flirting. There was no such thing as a platonic winky face, then again maybe Dan was reading too much into things, that was something he tended to do.

 Just calm down you chicken nugget.

 With Phil’s blessing Dan focused his crazed energy on formulating his instagram post. But then he thought ‘maybe I should give Phil a heads up before posting this’ and then he wondered if he was supposed to tell Shannon or Sam that he was going to post this. How much was he really supposed to do and where did Phil’s publicist step in?

 Against his better judgement Dan formulated a text to Phil asking him if it was okay if he posted the photos, and then he wrote out a similar one to Shannon.

 An hour later he had an answer from both of them.

 From: Shannon the momager

 all this stuff is up to you bby, this isn’t like acting, you don’t get a script.

 And

 From: Phil

 yeah! I’m okay with that, thanks again <3

 A heart? A HEART? Dan was literally going to have a heart attack, why did Phil have to be so damn flirty? It was too much for him to handle.

 With the final confirmation from both sides of the story, Dan made the final instagram post, captioned it with ‘guess the cats out of the bag now’ and clicked share, before all his anxiety could manifest into a person and physically beat him up.

 Emotionally drained from all the intense feelings and physically drained from waking up at 4am, Dan plugged in his phone and crawled into his nice comfy bed, ready for a nap.

 As he drifted off his thoughts were warm and positive, any trace of the horrid dream he’d woken up from earlier vanished.

 He was nervous, scared, but most of all, he was happy.  

[vrsoffers-com]

Virtual reality offers architects "a whole new way of designing"

hi I'm eka from the autism today I'd like to talk about architectural design in Virtual Reality virtuality technology is developing rapidly and has already found many uses in various fields here at the artisan muse real-time rendered virtual reality to create immersive and interactive architectural visualization experiences architectural virtual reality is an amazing tool because it allows you to create a one-to-one replica good project Devore is constructed allowing you to effectively communicate architectural ideas and everything from scale and icing to detail components and materiality I would like to show you how you can not only visualize projects in virtual reality but actually designed them we'll be showing you a quick demo how we use the HTC vive and the unreal engines be edited to do exactly that I come from an architectural background when I started my studies I quickly noticed difficulty in converting my intuitive understanding of spaces into scale drawings I think we all know from everyday experience how high is a desk how big is a door or whether space feel small or generous to translate this sensor project you would usually need to know the exact dimensions of the elements requiring Heat even measure them we use common practices I think sometimes this can make designing space is more difficult and constrained because you are relying on your interpretation of dimensional representations of intuitive experiences as designers we are used to thinking in planar views like plans and sections virtuality and answers to take a step directly into design and really engage with the space from a user's perspective think the main benefit of designing virtuality is that it's much less constrained compared to 3d modeling packages which makes it great tool for both conceptual design and detailed development the motion controllers are intuitive and flexible in that devices that allow you to create spaces and elements around you in an unconstrained way you can use your entire body as part of the design and create the space around you it's a very quick way to check the proportions of a space and how it feels in human scale designing within virtuality is the next step forward in creating modeling and the ways in which designing in first person from within the space benefit design process are numerous it's a great way to test out complicated ideas and also communicate them very quickly and intuitively is you can quite literally put someone else inside your mind's eye when they can walk around the virtual environment they have imagined and created this will be very rewarding and highlight important aspects of the project that were previously not flow about especially when designing spaces with complicated arrangements or unique things like stairs and furniture you can also apply different materials directly in the scene to test out the relationships between lighting materiality and scale in this case the base geometry was exported from robic and once we are finished we can import the virtual reality design back into a BIM model which starts designed very basic components we can add to the C and develop it further with more detailed elements textures and lighting you you thank you for watching don't forget to subscribe and follow us on Twitter to keep up to date with our latest architectural virtual reality projects you can also find a link to the full design video below until next time you

https://youtu.be/SLfW2WbpIHE

[expandoffshore-blog]

How Outsourcing Can Help You Build A Better Startup

Subsequently published their first wildly popular application Cartoonatic - they never would have expected the success (and increase in workflow) which they'd face. After rave reviews on their debut app, they chose to generate photo-editing apps that always top the App Store charts. While their software were receiving awesome Recognition and they grew to over 22 million customers worldwide, they nevertheless sought to streamline some of their essential business processes anyway they can. Kevin, VP of Macphun tells us that he believed outsourcing in order that they could be able to support their clients in a professional manner and free up the inner personnel that were preceding working with customer support so as to help Macphun grow and become more productive.

"We certainly did respond to customer Inquiries by email and phone, but again it required man-power within the business that we could deploy in different ways."

Now this is just one small market of outsourcing, but each Sub-category all share the same function, which brings us into the core of the manual

HOW CAN OUTSOURCING HELP YOU GROW? (and everything you Want to understand )

So Incase you've gotten this far and don't understand what outsourcing is exactly... here's a brief and right to the point definition by Merrill Matthews of Forbes.

Outsourcing is when a business Contracts with an outside person or company to provide some product or service, such as bookkeeping, payroll processing or janitorial services, or even more complex functions such as marketing or IT services. And households do exactly the exact same thing when they turn to professionals for important pipes, air conditioner or car repairs.

While outsourcing is Typically seen as a maintenance strategy for some immense corporations such as GE, Microsoft, Intel, Oracle - it's also recently been popularized as a growth strategy for many lower-level startups which need to prioritize more important locations. Nancy Mann Jackson from Entrepreneur backs this up by stating,"entrepreneurs have long seen outsourcing as a strategy earmarked for large business, but technology has made it a more accessible tool for small businesses and for some tiny firms, outsourcing has made a strong effect on their development, productivity and bottom lines"

As stated above, High-tech is growing more and more popular with small companies, because of their increasing accessibility to technology which make outsourcing smoother and more effective. However, in addition to the, outsourcing is blowing because there are a extraordinary amount of qualified professionals that have chosen to leave the corporate world in favor of functioning at a less stressful environment such as their houses or small startup offices.

Now you probably have a couple questions that you need answered before considering outsourcing like...

When to outsource?

Where to outsource?

Concerns with outsourcing?

Now That you have asked all these questions, it is time to create this guide as detailed as possible simply by heading down the list.

Which It's likely that you're already outsourcing a portion of your business tasks like payroll administration or criminal and background checks for job. With the points mentioned above, it is simpler than ever to outsource any activity that you see necessary. BUT this does not necessarily indicate you should outsource only as it's simple for you. Many procedures are better off being cared for in-house, based on what your priority is... For instance, if your priority is to create massive amounts of revenue with your special sales technique that just your in-house staff has perfected then it is likely not the best idea to give that task to an offshore contractor. On the opposite end of the spectrum if your priority is customer support, then it's probably OK to outsource something such as graphic design.

Here's a Fast list of jobs which are better off left to get an qualified contractor to take care of:

Tasks That need highly skilled experience. Let us say you are a CEO of SaaS startup and do not possess a group of executives created yet, for example CFO, COO, CIO, etc.. Outsourcing some of these positions (at least briefly ) can help get your startup off the floor. So ultimately you will have a highly skilled task outsourced for much less than it'd cost to get a full-time worker take action.

Repetitive tasks. This may be anywhere from outbound sales calls for out the word about your merchandise or conduct client satisfaction surveys to very common troubleshooting problems. Let's face it, providing these repetitive tasks to a highly qualified in-house staff to be concerned about may be a massive waste of your business's resources and time.

Also included in this list:

Tasks that require unique talent or knowledge.

You Might have a great idea for an app and some funds to fund it's development, but no comprehension of coding/development/design. This is where you might need to think about outsourcing the development of your program. It is possible to hand over your thoughts to an experienced developer on the opposite side of earth and let them take care of the remainder (obviously with your supervision). Another example is if you do not possess the resources to hire whole time IT support staff to handle your own IT systems, you can easily employ an IT specialist from freelancer sites like Elance-Odesk or Guru.

To cut a very long story short... you can certainly And effectively outsource any business process which isn't a priority within your business, one which does not require full care from the in-house staff, or some other tasks that you are not comfortable performing yourself.

For the guys at Macphunthey finally made the choice to outsource when taking care of heaps of support tickets became too much for their comparatively small staff to take care of. But it's different for everyone.

The time to Choose outsourcing might come very early for someone whose product growth depends on it. OR it may come at a later time for all those companies that just need a little support.

For Chris Devor of all Macroplant Inc. the decision to outsource came about 1 year into starting his company:

After About 1 year in business, I had help with our support emails. It was both a time issue and an issue of being able to properly respond to my users immediately and effectively. I had another developer doing emails. But given the price of a programmer's salary, it didn't make sense to get them answering support emails all day. Next I hired a freelancer or two to help with service emails.

Where If I Outsource To? In the realm of tech and IT outsourcing services, the most well known nations to outsource to are India, Philippines, Central America, and Eastern Europe with a total workforce of almost 1.5bn (Statistic Brain). On account of the bad economies of third-world nations, many companies select these regions simply due to the cost-savings.

Having said that, you should not enter the Recruitment process with a particular country in mind, but using an individual's exceptional talents/skills in mind. Remember you're finally focusing on quality instead of merely prices. It's possible to review thousands of salespeople on websites such as Elance.com or Guru.com to pick and choose which ones will fit your requirements best.

Why would your normal Silicon Valley CEO hire software developers for 100k+ a year, when he can hire equally qualified off-shore workers for under $15 an hour?

This Question may bring up some ethical worries that I'll address below, but it is important to not forget that your average CEO's job is to perform what is in the organization's best interests.

Concerns With Outsourcing

There Are a few different concerns you need to appear at before considering outsourcing. Concerns like security, quality, management, inadequate work environment, transparency, etc..

Here's what to look at when choosing the right builder...

Can they take data confidentiality and privacy steps to ensure the protection of your customers' personal information? Will they be available to communicate with whenever you have a question or concern?  Can they protect your very best interest by accepting legal measures?  How can they handle the management of their team can you routinely review your outsourced worker's performance?  Are they doing a job that your in-house team actually can not perform effectively? Could you see/visit their office and evaluate working conditions?  Do they have reputable clients they already provide service for?

If they don't follow any of these simply business steps... it is a big red flag.

Another However, by adhering to a strict recruitment and training procedure that this one may be overcome easily.

Finally, communicate your Expectations clearly and even compose a contract before hiring outsourced members to be certain there is not any confusion anywhere.

"When Risk Vs. Reward Of Outsourcing

Outsourcing Is widely known as one of the best solutions to decrease costs and lots of studies are completed to verify this fact. It pointed out:"Savings typically result because the outsourcing supplier can access a cheaper, more flexible work force and the latest, most efficient technology. Organizations assert they reach, on average, a 15% price reduction through outsourcing" However Successful outsourcing is in conserving a company money - it still has the capacity to harm a organization's reputation. There is a massive stigma against outsourcing. If you reside in a community which has an outsourcing firm and they use your friends and acquaintances, outsourcing is wonderful. But if your neighbors and friends lost their jobs because they were sent across the world, outsourcing may bring bad publicity. If you outsource part of your operations, morale may suffer in the remaining work force.

However... if done right and professionally, Outsourcing may be among the biggest assets to your company and the Benefit of huge quantities of work being raised from your plate, often Overshadow the downsides.