#fun fact i have a simple lineup of the four mains in one if my notebooks | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

kamino-ink · 6 years

Text

Romeo | Lee Felix

genre ⌁ friends-to-lovers, [ sort of,,, not exactly lover status but it is implied ] minor angst but also fluff uwu

summary ⌁ Ever since the boy you called your best friend left on the day of his sixteenth birthday with no goodbye or warning, you’ve been determined to grow past the pain he left with you; but of course, not everything works out that way - especially when two years later you end up in South Korea as an up and coming variety show host.

word count ⌁ 2.8k

warning ⌁ this is bad and technically just a long drabble tbh,,, sorry

Check out my masterlist!

Lee Felix was born on September fifteenth of the year 2000, and you were born just three months later on Christmas day; call it fate or anything of that matter, but on the very day you were born, your dad had run into Felix’s - probably because your dad was having a mild panic attack and the other nurses around were busy, you know, helping you be born. Simple enough, really - both of your dads bonded over the fact that yours was about to be a dad and his was, well, still struggling to being a new dad. Boom, instant friendship.

Along with that came the fact that you and Felix instantly were destined to be childhood friends. Turns out that his family also lived just down the street from your house, too, which made it even easier to stay close with the slightly older boy after all those years. Not that... you were complaining.

See, here’s the thing; Lee Felix was a ray of sunshine to not just the people around him, but you as well. His warm smile was enough to make your heart pound in your chest, and his charismatic attitude certainly helped your lesser days become just a bit, or a lot, brighter. It was as if he was, for lack of a better term, your own guardian angel. On your darkest days he would be there to cheer you up with homemade cookies and milk, and on his darkest days you would do the same for him.

You and Felix were practically made for each other, as everyone put it. Whether they meant it as something more than platonic care or something more, it was up for the two of you to decide. Except... you never got to figure that part of the whole mystery between the two of you out. All because he left before you could tell him how you truly felt.

Being able to vividly recall every individual detail of the day you lost Felix wasn’t exactly something you cared for. And the fact that this haunting nightmare kept coming out of nowhere to attack your thoughts out of thin air wasn’t the most pleasant of reminders.

It had been Felix’s sixteenth birthday when he left so suddenly, and it had also been an otherwise normal day; except, whenever his birthday came around, you would always wake up a couple hours early to bake him chocolate chip cookies. He never asked for anything else from you, always stating that having you as his other half was enough to last a lifetime of birthdays. So you obliged each passing year, handing him the platter of cookies at lunch during school with pink tinted cheeks and a wildly beating heart.

But that particular day, something felt... off. Felix hadn’t shown up to any of his classes or even lunch, plus he didn’t answer any of your texts throughout the day. To say you were worried was quite the understatement.

So naturally you booked it to his house after classes had ended, anxiously chewing on your nails during the bus ride to your house and the short walk to his down the street. When you arrived at the front door, it was like everything else was a blur to you.

“Oh Y/N, we thought that he told you,”

“Sweetheart... Felix had his party last night and flew out to South Korea this morning. He’s going to be a trainee-”

No goodbye, no note, nothing - all Felix had taken with him was his luggage and your heart.

Even now, almost two full years later, you found yourself reminiscing on the older boy; of course you knew he was doing well, growing into quite the young charmer as a member of a Korean pop group called Stray Kids. In fact, you had watched their survival show after getting a message about it from his mom back in Australia. You could also vividly remember nearly throwing your phone across the small bedroom of your apartment when he initially was eliminated - and when he was included in the final lineup you just about cried; oh who are you kidding, you did cry. Like a baby.

He’d always been cute, even as a kid and growing teenager, but god almighty he had become so handsome and utterly stunning at the ripe age of eighteen; it was as if he’d stolen all the good genes of your generation and used them himself, in all honesty. But it was so much more than just that - he grew up as a person, too. Seeing the boy you were so proud to once call your best friend so happy and well... kind of hurt, at times.

You’d always grown up making silly promises of moving in together after school, going to the same university, and being together forever; in what context it was never specified, but it was pure all the same. Yet here you were, just having turned eighteen not even four months ago. You live a solitary life in a small yet cozy apartment in the heart of Jeju, having been brought in by a decent internship at a radio station a few months back.

Then when you had to host the show for the regular broadcaster when she called in sick for a solid week and a half, you found a new love in the entertainment industry. Since then you’ve been doing small gigs, like guest hosting other radio shows or acting as a temporary host for variety shows; and then one day, you got a call from the producers of Idol Room - it was still somewhat fresh since Doni and Coni had left Weekly Idol, and they were on the hunt for occasional guest hosts and the like.

To put it in lighter terms, you got a temporary opportunity to help host Idol Room. You were kind of already making a name for yourself in the variety business, being able to make guests comfortable with light humor and adapting to their personalities with ease; with such a big opportunity like this, you were simply ecstatic to see what the outcome would be.

And then came the day you were going to be on Idol Room.

Most of the staff were pretty relaxed, helping you rehearse the lines you needed help with (as Korean was not your native language) and encouraging you to do well on the show. What didn’t help calm your bundling nerves, however, was the knowledge in knowing that Stray Kids would be today’s guests. Of all the idol groups out there, you just had to host the popular show on the day your once best friend was going to be there.

“Remember, you come in and introduce yourself when Coni calls for you,” one of the female staff reminds you calmly, noticing how you’ve started to chew on the tips of your nails with growing anxiety, “you will do wonderful, Y/N, and I’m sure the boys will adore you as well.”

You were so not ready for this.

“- today the rookie monsters, Stray Kids, will be joining us!”

Was it too late to back out?

“Ah, but that’s not all - we have an intern with us today too! Welcome, Intern Y/N!”

That was your cue.

“H-hello,” shit, “I’m Intern Y/N, it’s nice to meet you!” You quickly introduced yourself after having stepped out from the crowd behind the cameras, feeling the curious stares of the idol group burning holes into the back of your head. Doni and Coni supportively pat your shoulders, making some oddball joke before telling you to get on with your ‘job.’

That was how most of the show went; you’d be smiling in the corner of the shot at their silly antics and games, occasionally sending the two main hosts glares whenever they said something a bit too harsh, and introducing small segments. Until, that is, they’d started poking a bit of fun at Felix for having done theater in school - particularly bringing up old recordings of him playing as Romeo during freshman year.

It was silly at first, just a quick joke about how he was a theater nerd, but then Doni started to take it a bit too far for your liking.

“Oh, I think that your Juliet was hesitant to kiss you! Even her lines are shaky!” The older man insisted with a chuckle, though you could just tell from Felix’s awkward laugh that it wasn’t all too appreciated. You also just knew that it had to hurt the boy, especially since theater had been his life in school - he’d even dragged you into it.

You would know, because you had been playing his Juliet.

“Actually, my lines were really shaky because we were performing in front of the entire student body.” You utter quietly, only to feel your cheeks heat up to a degree you didn’t even know was possible because your mic had increased the volume - meaning everyone heard your words. Not one ear fell short of perking up at your words; especially not Doni and Coni’s.

“Your - your lines?” Coni said in awe, quickly coming over to your little spot at the side of the room and pulling you closer to the center just a few inches in front of the boys. “So... that little girl is you, Intern Y/N?”

With a nervous laugh escaping your lips, you rub the back of your neck - a sort of nervous habit you’d picked up over the years. “Erm, yeah. Lix - I mean, Felix and I went to the same school.” You admit, knowing full well when the episode aired that the information would easily be found by fans anyway. The two men hum in understanding, but wicked smiles slowly find their way onto their lips.

Doni gently pushes you closer to where Felix is standing, teasingly patting the top of your head while Coni does the same for a baffled Felix. “Say some of your lines, they don’t have to be in order! Let’s see if it was really the stage fright that made Intern Y/N so nervous.” One of them cooed, though you were too focused on catching your breath after meeting the taller boy’s nervous gaze.

No - he had no right to be nervous. He left you hanging, not the other way around.

“But, soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.” The freckled boy utters without a single stutter or break of his words, reciting the line perfectly with no hesitation whatsoever. Your lips part in surprise, to which you swear he chuckles softly at.

You weren’t too sure of what the following line was, in all honesty, so you quoted the first one that you could think of. “O Romeo, R - Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy... thy father and refuse thy name; or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love and I’ll no longer be a C - Capulet.” Curse your stupid nervous heart for having you stutter in front of Felix, curse his intoxicating smile for making your heart feel as if it was beating out of your chest.

You faintly hear Doni and Coni giggling like little school girls in the back, clearly milking the scene to garner to their viewers watching at home. But you were entirely focused on the freckled idol in front of you, his gaze flickering all over your flushed face even though he knew that there were a dozen cameras filming his every move - his every reaction.

“... It’s been a while, Y/N.” He speaks up softly, finding solace in staring at your eyes after he’s analyzed the rest of your heated expression.

“Since you left without even saying goodbye?” The sharp jab spills from your lips almost inaudibly, but by the falling features of his speckled face you can tell he’s heard you loud and clear. “Yeah, it’s been two years. Two years of not having my best friend with me.”

He winces, but doesn’t make an effort to argue against it. For a moment it looks as if he wants to say more, to keep talking to you, but by then Doni and Coni are moving the show onto another segment; meaning you had to walk away first. Of course, you could feel Felix’s sad gaze following your back as you turned away from him to face the cameras, and as much as you hated it; you felt a twinge of longing tugging at your heartstrings.

“Good job today, intern!” Coni praises you lightheartedly after the shoot is finally over, playfully ruffling your hair much to your slight distaste. “You’re a natural at this sort of thing, so don’t be surprised if we give you another call soon.”

“Ah, thank you - that means so much coming from someone like you-”

You’re suddenly interrupted by a hand going to hover over your shoulder, as if the person behind you was too scared to touch you with no warning. “Y/N, can I talk to you?”

Oh no, it was Felix - you could recognize that deep yet soothing voice from just about anywhere. You stiffen up slightly, pouting when Coni immediately obliges and heads off to wander somewhere else in the aftermath of the shooting.

“Y-yeah, sure thing.” You give in easily with a small sigh, knowing you couldn’t exactly escape the situation at hand. Felix lets out a cute noise of relief, akin to a sigh but a bit too high pitched.

Said idol leads you to an empty corner of the otherwise crowded studio, letting his hand fall off of your shoulder and down in front of him to wring with his other free hand. “Okay I don’t - really know how to go about this,” he breathes out quietly, playing with the hems of his sleeves as he tried to get the words he wanted to say out, “I just... wanted to say that I’m so unbelievably sorry for leaving you behind like that, back home. It’s a shit excuse, but - I didn’t want to say goodbye because saying goodbye means that we weren’t going to see each other again.”

“You’re kind of right - it is a pretty bad excuse,” you utter after an awkward moment of silence, quick to cover up your tracks when his lips purse into a sad pout, “but - I’m over it, freckles. Seriously, it was in the past.”

You weren’t lying, truly; for almost two years you’d been moving on not from Felix himself, as that was a task you deemed quite impossible, but from the day he left home. Erasing that single day simply brightened the memories you held dear to your heart, which was practically every waking moment you had spent with the boy.

Sure, it hurt how he left you so suddenly - how he hadn’t bothered to at least fight for you two to remain in communication. That’s just how life worked out, and you were strangely alright with it; especially since you were here, right now, seeing the boy who’d been by your side your entire life after two years of watching his blossoming success on a screen.

“No, you shouldn’t forgive me so easily,” he insisted, much to your surprise, “I want to make it all up to you, even if it takes me months or years. I just... I just want to be able to call you my best friend again, my other half, my - my soulmate.”

“Felix, you don’t have to do all that... though if it might make you feel better, I won’t stop you.”

The boy with little constellations dotting his dark cheeks blinks; once, twice, and a third time before his lips crack open to reveal a tiny, hopeful smile. “Great! I mean - good, yeah! Can I um... have your number, then?” He asks you almost timidly, making you giggle softly under your breath as you nod slowly at him. “I don’t have my phone on me, can I just put my number into yours for now?”

When you nod again and hand him your phone, the smile on his face seems to brighten even more - if it was possible to be blinded by a smile, you were sure that Felix’s would’ve made you unable to see long ago.

“Okay, here-”

“Felix, we gotta go!” One of the other boys calls out to the younger, waving for him to join the waiting group. Frantically, he hands you your phone back, neglecting to lock it before he starts to head off.

“Just text me whenever you can, Y/N! I’ll be waiting for you!” He states in a rush, catching up with his friends soon after. With a slight shake of your head in quiet amusement, your gaze flickers down to the screen of your phone where Felix had put his contact name in. A warm, bubbly smile twitches onto your lips from the name, and you’re sure it’ll only continue to appear in the near future whenever you get to texting the boy back.

Contacts:

…

Romeo <3

#skzwriters #stray kids #stray kids au #stray kids drabbles #stray kids imagine #stray kids scenario #stray kids fic #lee felix #felix lee #felix drabble #felix scenario #stray kids angst #stray kids fluff

292 notes · View notes

dipulb3 · 4 years

Text

2021 Ram 1500 TRX review: Glorious overkill

New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/2021-ram-1500-trx-review-glorious-overkill/

2021 Ram 1500 TRX review: Glorious overkill

Put 700 horsepower in just about anything, and you’re bound to have a good time.

Andrew Krok/Roadshow

Back when the Dodge Hellcat lineup was first unveiled, I joked that it was only a matter of time before that hulking supercharged V8 made its way into every vehicle its parent company builds. While my hopes of a Chrysler 200 Hellcat have been sorely dashed, that whining lump did eventually find a strange bedfellow in the Ram 1500 pickup. The result is the 2021 Ram 1500 TRX, and while it defies common sense, I’ve been having way too much fun to notice.

Goes like spit

Over-the-top aesthetics

Great cabin tech

Don’t Like

Starts at $70,000

Has a drinking problem

Modern pickup trucks already look like they’re chiseled from solid blocks of testosterone, yet somehow the TRX manages to amplify that even further. The Ram is almost 2 inches wider, about 2.5 inches taller and has 0.3 inches more ground clearance than the Blue Oval’s Baja big-boy, the F-150 Raptor. In my quaint, quiet neighborhood, the TRX looms large on my driveway — well, mostly on my driveway, since it’s so wide that the passenger-side tires bleed over onto my neighbor’s lawn. Not that my neighbor would dare say anything, because the fat fenders and copious black accents make the truck look like it’s ready to beat you up just for looking at it the wrong way.

When it comes to capability, the Raptor and TRX are pretty evenly matched, but the Ram squeaks ahead by slim margins. The TRX can tow 8,100 pounds, a hundo more than the Raptor can muster, and it’ll haul 1,310 pounds in the bed, 110 more than the Ford. Ram’s also got the advantage in breakover and departure angles (21.9 and 23.5 degrees, respectively) albeit by a few tenths of a degree, while approach angle is equally matched at 30.2 degrees. Both trucks also boast a foot or more of suspension travel front and rear, which matters less on the street than it does in the dirt.

Even though I know this truck is plenty capable, as our own Antuan Goodwin proved by actually jumping the thing, odds are many of them will never see that sort of intense off-road action. But it’s not like the TRX doesn’t shine as a garage queen, either. In fact, it’s one of the dumbest and most grin-inducing experiences I’ve had in months, and it left me wanting more every time.

Under the hood is the same 6.2-liter supercharged Hemi V8 as every other Hellcat-based product out there, and in this instance, it’s tuned to produce 702 horsepower and 650 pound-feet of torque. When I jam my right foot into the firewall, the standard four-wheel-drive system pushes me forward with surprising haste — a 4.5-second jaunt to 60 mph isn’t quick in the grand scheme of things, but when it’s in a crew cab pickup that weighs almost 6,400 pounds, it damn near feels like I’m rewriting mechanical physics. Combine that almost unnatural feeling of speed with the loud supercharger whine and the basso profundo roar coming from the exhaust pipes out back, and it makes for quite the engaging sensory experience. The only way you’ll miss a gap in traffic is by overshooting it. The V8 can drone a bit at highway speeds, but people in it for the sound and the fury probably won’t care.

The ride quality is… truck-ish. With up to 14 inches of suspension travel and meaty 325/65R18 Goodyear Wrangler all-terrain tires, things are on the softer side, with the usual body-on-frame movements that are part and parcel with all pickups. But the TRX is far from a discombobulated mess, thanks to Bilstein adaptive dampers on each corner. In its standard Auto setting, the truck is pretty well balanced, and throwing it into Sport adds some stiffness while boosting throttle response. Modes for snow, towing, rocks, mud and sand and Baja-style dune-blasting are all standard, too. Braking is surprisingly good, given the thing’s heft, but it’s hard not to be keenly aware of the momentum I’m carrying at all times.

Just make sure you’re good at staying in your lane, because the TRX is roughly the size of the lane, so there’s not a lot of space for deviation.

The only thing that truly sucks about the TRX is its fuel economy, which, as you might expect, is pathetic. The EPA couldn’t do better than 10 miles per gallon city and 14 mpg highway — and even achieving those numbers requires a lightness of foot that flies in the face of the Hemi mantra. After a couple hundred miles of urban and highway driving, I barely break into double digits. Yikes.

That Hemi is thirsty — and hard to photograph, considering how high off the ground it’s mounted.

Andrew Krok/Roadshow

The latest iteration of Ram 1500 boasts one of the best and most luxurious interiors in the light-duty pickup segment, especially compared to the Raptor, which still uses Ford’s last-generation body. My TRX tester is thoroughly kitted out, thanks to a $7,920 equipment package that includes ventilated leather front seats, leather dashboard and door-panel trim, adjustable pedals, a heated steering wheel, the whole nine yards.

Whether it’s for people or for stuff, there is a ton of space in here. The rear seats are extremely spacious, which helps for hauling things that you don’t want in the bed, while door and armrest pockets swallow up everything from purses to tablets and whatever other tchotchkes I bring along. The 12-volt outlet atop the dashboard is a nice little touch for fans of radar detectors, and there are ten USB ports (five USB-A, five USB-C) scattered about the interior, in addition to a wireless device charger just under the infotainment screen.

Ram’s parent company continues to improve its already-great cabin tech, and the Ram TRX offers some of the newest, flashiest kit on offer. Standard equipment includes a honkin’ 12-inch portrait infotainment display running the automaker’s Uconnect system, which boasts Android Auto, Apple CarPlay and Performance Pages, which allow me to pick and choose settings for different parts of the vehicle, in addition to monitoring things like wheel articulation and steering angle. I like that the screen can show multiple corners of the system at once, whether it’s audio, navigation or Sirius-based weather maps. The controls are large and legible, making for easy use with minimal distraction. A large display in the gauge cluster is capable of showing just about everything the main screen can, with dead-simple steering wheel controls to cycle through tire pressures, transmission temperatures and a variety of other information, all wrapped in this rugged-looking design that keeps the beefy TRX theme alive.

UConnect fits like a glove in this portrait configuration. Then again, when doesn’t it?

Andrew Krok/Roadshow

Some harder-core vehicles eschew the usual panoply of active and passive safety systems, but most of the good stuff is available in the TRX. In addition to standard forward-collision warning, my tester has a $995 package that adds emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection, adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go capabilities and lane-keeping assist. The $7,920 equipment package also throws parking sensors into the mix, because trying to fit this thing into a typical parking space takes a little more effort than usual.

Stellantis’ high-horsepower offerings are not cheap, and the 2021 Ram TRX is no exception. Its starting price of $71,690 (including $1,695 for destination) leapfrogs the Challenger and Charger Hellcat twins, and with a hefty dose of options, my tester rings in at an eye-watering $87,370. You could buy a real sports car for that much.

But there’s nothing quite like the Ram TRX. The Hellcat’s 6.2-liter V8 has always been something special but throwing it into a pickup truck results in a vehicle that exceeds the sum of its parts, delivering equal doses of high performance and hilarity. It’s a hoot.

0 notes

charliefromtheuniverse · 9 years

Text

Knights of Sidonia Review

This is review number two hundred and ninety four. This is part of the Spring 2014 lineup. The show I’ll be reviewing is called Knights of Sidonia. It’s a twelve episode show of robots and aliens in space. My review is pretty damn long so let’s just read on. I’m tired already.

Story

This anime follows a guy named Nagate Tanikaze as he fights giant alien monsters in space. He was recently enrolled in a school that trains students how to pilot giant robots if giant alien monsters ever invade their ship. Their help is crucial because the ship contains some of the few surviving humans in the entire universe after the alien monsters successfully wiped out the solar system. It’s been a hundred years since the last contact with the aliens though so all is good so far. Nagate lived underground all his life so there are some people ready to ridicule and belittle him. He isn’t that affected but adjusting to life above ground is certainly proving to be challenging. To make matters worse, the first sight of an alien monster has been confirmed after years of silence and now a bunch of inexperienced pilots like Nagate is soon thrown to the wolves. For the survival of mankind, they fight but humans being cornered often brings out the ugliness in all of us.

Taking the Pants Off

Knights of Sidonia did not strike as anything interesting at first. It was a mecha anime and these damn things all look and sound the same. The structure never changes as we let angsty teenagers fight in huge robots for the sake of mankind. This anime pretty much has the same concept. It had a teenager pilot a giant robot so it can fend off some space aliens with tentacles. If you watch a bunch of mecha then they will eventually look the same. I’m at that weird point where the mecha genre doesn’t do much for me. Do you know what I genre I am more than interested in though? Sci Fi. Knights of Sidonia excelled in two things. It had a cast of interesting characters able to carry the disjointed story and it featured a wonderful world of Sci Fi. I have never been so indulged in a rich backstory quite like this anime. It was able to present a society full of subhumans, space aliens, societal and political practices that just captures everything the Sci Fi genre does best. It doesn’t start out good and the story is admittedly clunky from start to finish but I think the concept art alone is enough to keep you watching. Of course, the fully rendered visuals will catch your attention as well. I’ve seen this done before in a Fall 2013 anime called Arpeggio of the Blue Steel. At first I thought Seiji Kishi also handled this anime but soon feared the fact that he didn’t. This kind of style is very hard to pull off because emotions aren’t carried well by the presentation. Knights of Sidonia certainly suffered from that but I think the mangaka’s vision is actually given more justice thanks to this kind of visual presentation. I have complains with the story but this show certainly did a lot of things right. It was able to present an interesting story of mankind’s survival in space against some alien menace while capturing the interpersonal issues among the characters. It also had a talking bear in it so that’s something to certainly admire.

As I said before, the story is clunky from start to finish since it has a lot of components to it. Establishing important plot points while also developing them proves to be a bit tricky for the show. It constantly introduces a lot of new elements to the story while often backtracking on important ones already established. It keeps on developing the characters giving them deeper meaningful roles that often affect the pacing of the story. The familiar mecha structure is intact though to easily follow the show but it really doesn’t start to warm up right away. I’d say the anime only started to get good right around episode eight or so. It’s a lot of narrative and exposition dump to unload so you’ll often be left confused as the show wanders around aimlessly. This show isn’t all about exposition though. The characters carry the show wonderfully and the action is a nice enough pay off to keep you tuned in. The Sci Fi elements hook you as well. The various individuals in the show has contrasting and complementing personalities that make certain situations very interesting and the alien monster battles features some fast paced fully rendered CGI battle that will really delight you. So I guess things really balance out. It has a good amount of scattered plot points brought to focus by the action and the characters that function in it. The first episode is really the only indication you need though. If the visuals and the sci fi elements capture your attention then you will easily enjoy this show. If you think the main character is annoying though to the point it spoils the whole thing for you then you might not like this particular anime. Still, it’s not that hard to like this one as it does gradually get better as it progresses often presenting a satisfying narrative full of action and social drama despite a lukewarm and disjointed overall plot.

With that being said, and as far as I can gather, this anime has three plot points. The show introduced a lot of potential stories left and right but I think majority of them fall under these three plot points. They are often strengthening the plot point’s structure or sharing the same idea. The first one is about the alien monsters. Once upon a time, monsters called Gauna attempted to wipe out the human species and they succeeded in wiping out the solar system. I’m not sure if the Sun is included but that’s not important. The important thing here is that humans were forced to evacuate. Up to five hundred vessels escaped the onslaught. These ships doesn’t make contact with each other though as they aimlessly travel around the universe. If you live inside one of those ships then it’s basically the same as living in a planet. Gaunas still attack various escape vessels and the show follows the survival of a ship called Sidonia. This plot point is basically about the pilots tasked to fight against the alien monsters. This isn’t a cut and dry affair though. The humans don’t just enter the battlefield, fight for their lives then fight harder when their comrades die. It is said that the last time a Gauna attacked was one hundred years ago. Most of the pilots about to re-engage these alien monsters are inexperienced people about to witness the terrorizing powers of the Gauna. If you add the fact that they’re angsty youths at the peak of their life then the whole thing becomes a bit bittersweet. We were given a sampling of this when the best four pilots of Sidonia battled a Gauna. Emotions took over, fear rendered them helpless and the rest of Sidonia soon saw their best hope of survival screaming for their lives. It’s absolutely freaking amazing as you soon realize the main characters are about to have a full serving of this bittersweet experience soon enough.

The Gaunas are also mysterious creatures. Under the first plot point, the anime also tried to establish what Gaunas are. They are still wrapped in mystery though like the origins of those Titans in Attack of Titans. All we know is that they seem to be attracted to humans, they have killer instincts and humans have no way to properly communicate with the alien monsters. Towards the second half of the show, humans were given a chance to understand the alien monsters. During a certain battle, Nagate is able to secure a sample of the alien and the anime mostly focuses on the rather intriguing personality of this sample. I don’t want to spoil much since it’s an integral part of the story but the mysterious alien monsters are given a chance to present a little about themselves. Whether it’s the bloodlust murders of recruits during a skirmish or the attempt to look presentable in front of a human being, Gaunas are tough to figure out but the hints seem to give us an idea exactly what they are. This is one of those scattered plot points in the show though. Notice the hints and examine them because the show doesn’t do much afterwards. It establishes other things so the story about why the Gaunas attack is still kept in the dark. It was fun while it lasted though because the characters made this scattered idea prominent. It featured a relationship between two characters while it slowly unveils certain things about the Gaunas. The show is smart that way. Confusing plots are interesting to a degree because of the characters that gives meaning to it.

The second plot point is about Nagate and his path to maturity. I don’t really know how to properly call this plot point. It simply focuses on Nagate and his rather unenviable position as a target of so many people. Again, it is a scattered plot point which is why it’s a bit hard to describe. Anyways, Nagate started off as this guy living in the undergrounds who resurfaced because his stomach was growling. He was caught stealing food and he was soon summoned to meet with the captain of the Sidonia ship. Why, exactly? Nagate turns out to be someone important to the captain because Nagate’s grandfather, the one who raised him, is closely acquainted to the captain. Instead of being punished for stealing, Nagate is given a chance to become a pilot. He was given a lot of opportunity to fight the Gaunas simply because people are really interested about him. In the captain’s case, Nagate’s grandfather is actually a really skilled pilot who once disobeyed her orders. A council of high ranking immortals are now ordering the captain to make sure Nagate doesn’t do the same thing his grandfather does and make sure he die at the hands of the Gaunas. So he is asked to participate in a lot of battles. Of course, it’s not that simple. Nagate is actually really talented after practicing in virtual simulations all his life. As it stands, he is the best pilot Sidonia has to offer so he is given a lot of chances to fight with mankind vouching out for him. This second plot point follows Nagate’s own personal journey and the things he learns while being on the surface after a long isolation underground.

The second plot points mostly just follows Nagate and his relationship with a bunch of people. By people, I mostly mean girls out to bang him. This is probably the most infuriating part of the show that makes it hard to take it seriously. For very little reason, the anime follows Nagate’s journey into meeting three girls very much interested in him. The show put a lot of importance in it as well. Nagate bonds well with a friendly third gender character that looks out for him. He is also very close to this short haired girl that seems to show fondness and flirtatious gestures towards him. He is also an object of obsession of this green haired girl completely enthralled by his amazing capabilities as a pilot. It even came to a point where the girls started fighting over him and I think it was a bit ridiculous. You have this rich Sci Fi component and you decided to do an accidental harem shtick. It’s seems a bit counter intuitive for such a wonderful anime. The way he builds a relationship with the girls seems to be a huge highlight of the show as they appear to be very integral to the overall plot. They also aid helping Nagate mature. This dude does a lot of sulking and other pathetic attitude that counters his awesome pilot skills. You can chalk it up to his lack of experience talking with other people after being underground for so long. Whatever is the cause, it seems that his personal maturity is also an important part of the story. With that being said, I think being romantically involved with the three girls also plays a big part in the bigger picture. The reasons are still a bit unexplored but the show focuses on his romantic adventures for a reason. I think it’s for emotional growth. A lot of people die in this show and more will follow. Maybe being closely related to Nagate and sharing a bond would make their deaths more impactful. With their death, a more matured Nagate is realized. It’s all up in the air for now since the anime just establishes this harem and nothing more.

The third plot point is about the societal and political under goings of Sidonia. This is perhaps the biggest plot point of all as if features the various important people of Sidonia making political decisions amidst a growing tension with the citizens of this human vessel. This plot point mostly follows the role of Sidonia’s captain, Captain Kobayashi. She is a very cold person because decisions involving humanity’s survival often includes breaking a few eggs. In the show’s case, it’s sacrificing a few individuals for the overall survival of mankind. I think this is best displayed during various battles where she stands a top everyone and she gives the orders that affect the outcome of battle. One very good example involves her decision to move the ship vertically and letting gravity does its work of demonstrating how humans go splat when dropped from a height. She doesn’t regret her decisions and she goes about handing out even more outrageous orders for the sake of mankind. Her decisions aren’t just hers alone though. It is soon revealed that Kobayashi belongs to a council called the “immortals” who actually gives her orders that often benefits just themselves. This is where the beauty of the politics arises. Kobayashi acts for the greater good and prolonged survival but she follows the orders of a bunch of selfish individuals who only cares about their own survival. They don’t make it pretty as well. They simply order Kobayashi in what actions to take so they can benefit from the situation. Kobayashi would often just take everything in stride but it is suggested that Kobayashi know that Sidonia is strong enough not to ask for aid among the Immortal Council. It is explained though that they mostly have knowledge about Gauna and events going back from when Sidonia left earth. Such ancient knowledge is the only reason the council has high authority. Still, Kobayashi is ruthless and it’s really only a matter of time before something starts to give. This woman won’t allow to be ordered by obsolete selfish individuals for too long.

Kobayashi has a complicated relationship with the Immortal Council but she has an even more strained one with the citizens of Sidonia. With the Gauna attack, tensions are rising. Radical idealism is spreading throughout the people and she is slowly losing control. The residents believe that Gauna are actually harming them because of the alien spears Sidonia has on board. They believe that the military should stop using the spears and maybe the Gauna will leave them alone. Unaware of the horrors of the battlefield, the radical movements have grown fiercer. All they see is the aftermath with soldier’s funeral so they remain stubborn with the belief that the Gauna only attacks because they are attracted to the alien spears. It’s a theory people can’t deny or confirm so the radical ideas keep spreading. Coupled with the brash decisions of Kobayashi sacrificing lower residential areas to keep the ship alive, her own people are starting to grow unsteady. In the show, Kobayashi is such a hard ass that she simply allowed people to leave. If you’re unhappy in Sidonia then you are welcome to leave. One of the focuses of the third plot point is actually the journey of the disgruntled citizens travelling to a small planet unarmed with the belief that the weapons only attract the alien monsters. It’s a recipe for disaster but something ignorant people will soon realize is a huge mistake. Much like the rest of the plot points though, this one is just established so far. Are the pacifists going to be alien food soon? No one really knows since the anime doesn’t focus on it after it departed. It does tell me though that tension is only going to build when more citizens are dissatisfied living in Sidonia. Of course, the fate of the pacifists and their role in the bigger story is also up in the air.

So far, nothing really big materializes in terms of story. Really, only the action sequences and the character development carried this show. It’s not as scattered as the plot points since the show needed something stable to rely on. Letting the characters grow and develop is one of the best aspects of this show. For me though, it’s the Sci Fi setting that really made the show worthwhile. The interesting backstory of a bunch of sci fi elements really bring the whole show together for me. Humans have lived for a long while in Sidonia. In the fourth defensive war against the Gauna, two Gauna actually entered Sidonia and almost wiped out the entire race. To help repopulate the masses from I think less than a hundred survivors, humans resorted to cloning and growing babies in test tubes. One of the freakiest and awesome things they also added is the creation of a human being with a third gender. To answer the population crisis, a third gender is achieved. They remain mostly neutral for the rest of their life until they choose a mate and decide a gender. It’s pretty freaky dicky, huh? In a strange way, Hideyoshi lives in the mind of one sci fi fanatic. I shuddered upon learning this strange fact but, really, it only gets weirder/awesomer from here.

Photosynthesis.

One of the reasons humans can live long in space, with an obvious food problem staring them in the face, is for humans to photosynthesize. It’s basically like plants getting nutrition from the sun. With this, humans can only eat once a week to stay alive since they just have to shed clothing and bathe in the sun for the rest of the week. This is really what I like about the sci fi genre. It doesn’t create fantasies and magical ideals. It often uses humans as its main subject and then grows an idea from there. Humans travel in space, humans having interspecies sex time with aliens, humans with advance technologies to fend off aliens, and (in this anime’s case) having them gain food by bathing in the sun. Sci Fi explores the boundaries and limits of humans and decides that it can go further than that. I am in no way a Sci Fi fanatic but I am a fan of good storytelling. Sci Fi is often the result of a very active imagination and the things presented are often ideas others would likely to indulge and share as well. Humans photosynthesizing sounds like a wonderful idea and the show fuses this notion in the anime seamlessly. It gives us fan service and a lot of other great things at the same time as well. The Sci Fi elements don’t end there though. There is also this awesome feature about the suits the pilots wear. It sticks to their bodies and you can urinate in it. It’s a living breathing suit that doubles as the pilot’s skin. I still remember that moment where the pilots all act uncomfortably while the suit attaches itself unto them. It mentioned urinating in the suits and I think the suit inserted itself in a place most people doesn’t want things inserted in. Nothing was explained but the blushing faces tell a lot. Lastly, I love this whole thing about dead people being fed to a biothermal reactor. In Sidonia, when someone dies, they aren’t buried. There is a tombstone with their name engraved on it but the bodies go elsewhere. Gad knows what the biothermal reactor is for but the dead is sent there. I don’t think it’s to be cremated. I think the bodies are being used as fuel for the ship or something. It’s a rather dark concept but something I quite find intriguing. There is a well-rounded idea behind the sci fi elements of the show that really enriches the overall appeal of the show. After all, humans have been in Sidonia for more than a century now so you can just imagine the measures needed to develop all these things. It all relates back to their survival but it also gives us this fascinating look to a dystopian future that I think Sci Fi really does wonderfully.

The characters are the ones that really made this show fun to watch. They started out clunky though like the rest of the anime. Some characters also looked alike so it was hard to get into rhythm with the show. Most of the scattered plot points lead to a character being fleshed out though so they do grow on you as the show progresses. With the story not showing any clarity as of now, the anime was smart to develop the characters to help gain intrigue to the scattered plot points. Nagate is your typical lead. He is the type that sacrifices himself for others, he eats a lot and he has this childish personality that oddly attracts a bunch of girls. He started out pretty much like a wooden plank though. The whole angle of him living underground, getting caught, being enrolled in the pilot school and becoming a student didn’t transition well. It was forced and I personally had a hard time figuring out Nagate. He didn’t really come off as interesting as well. He spent majority of the first half being beaten, acting gullible enough to have others ruin his life and aimlessly wandering around like a lost cat. Naturally, he became interesting in the second half. Oh wait, no, he doesn’t. Nagate did develop but he turned into this whiny b*tch emo that cried a lot and spent most of his times too emotionally beaten up to act as a likeable main character. He only really mattered because of his crazy ability to fight Gaunas despite having no experience. So he is like this badass alien ripping machine wrapped in a gullible blanket unaware of the harshness of the world in front of him. He had his moments of heroism and that’s really the only thing to like about Nagate. He also had some fluffy moments with some girls and I guess that’s also a nice thing about him. Don’t be fooled though. Nagate is a bumbling idiot that doesn’t know his head from his ass for a reason. One of the main plot points involves his maturity. Nagate experiences a lot of difference things new to him. He basically shared the same fascination viewers had with the Sci Fi elements of the show. He shows his vulnerable sides way too quickly, easily gets attach to people easily and experiences the bitterness of losing someone and failing just as quickly as well. It’s not quite a coming of age story but it does have the same approach where Nagate eventually becomes a more well-rounded person thanks to his rather inexperienced self getting a strong dose of life. I think it serves the story to have Nagate act like a cute innocent puppy because he will eventually turn rabid and it’s only a matter of time before we see a battle hardened Nagate overcome his weak self.

There are a lot of interesting characters in this show. All of them were presented pretty nicely as they slowly take their definite role in the overall story. One big stand out is Captain Kobayashi. The cold hard ass that runs the ship shows both her ruthless side and her soft side throughout the run of the show. She usually wears a mask like the rest of the immortal council and this often makes her a cold person but she seems to favor Nagate a lot and treat him like her own son. She also has some amazing conversation with other characters. Her decisions during battles relayed by her second in command are often the most haunting. When overwhelmed by aliens, she would give the order to continue the mission despite the slaughter she is seeing herself. She would make tough decisions on the spot and simply respond with a short breath yes or no. Her decisions often affects Sidonia in a huge way so you’ll often see her second in command questioning her and going wide eyed in shock that someone could issue such an order. Despite being a ruthless person, she also seems to show her regrets and weaknesses when talking to other people. It was revealed in the second half about the things that transpired during the Fourth Defensive War and she personally hold a deep regret with her actions in it. I don’t want to spoil much. One can only wonder where she goes from here though. With the pressure of she experiences and the tension she has with a lot of the characters in the anime, it’s interesting what cold hearted decision she might do next.

There are also the girls that form Nagate’s stupid harem. They all just started hovering around Nagate for all different reasons. The main reason though is his amazing pilot skills but each girl is in love with a different side of his pilot skills. The anime is weird that way. The first one is Izana Shinatose. She’s basically the Hideyoshi of the group who is known to be among the third gender of humans. So I guess I should call her “it”. She still sounds like a girl though who looks flat chested but gawd, one can only imagine if she becomes male. Oh, the things I keep imagining. That scenario is definitely made for hentai though. Anyways, Izana didn’t do much in the show. She was the third wheel when Nagate started having love relations with another girl. Izana is one of those girls that often get the short straw and she rarely gets some time alone with Nagate after being there for him during his low moments. She’s one of those underappreciated third gender characters often being ignored in favor of a more hotter character. Izana grows on you though. She has this endearing quality to her and her supportive attitude is very likeable. She basically becomes Nagate’s rock whether he knows it or not. It was nicely veiled by the story as well but Izana is the only character Nagate shows his vulnerability too. The anime would distract you by focusing on Nagate going emo but Izana is always the shoulder the dude cries on. Her role was nicely cemented though when she was chosen as a pilot. New pilots have higher chances of dying in battle so imagine her poor self being drowned in a sea of misery. Nagate assures her that he is there for her though. Still, one can only imagine what would happen if Nagate loses his rock and he is faced to tackle life without the shoulder he always cries on. Damn good character relationship if there ever is one.

The girl Nagate eventually has a love relation with is called Shizuka Hoshijiro. She personally felt like an eyesore at first. She hung around this arrogant dude in the start of the episode and eventually wafted over Nagate after seeing how skilled he is. Her reasons for liking Nagate aren’t important though because she is a very pretty girl and Nagate is attracted to very pretty girls. He is always flustered whenever they meet and Shizuka just giggles like an innocent flower whenever she sees him act foolish. Their relationship is soon strengthened after a life altering encounter in space that ended with both of them stuck in space while we see Shizuka photosynthesize. I’ll try to control the spoilers but they eventually hit it off afterwards with the next scene is hinting to be a kiss and an official announcement between the two. Sadly, those events did not occur in the show because something happened that involves aliens and Shizuka facing off. Can you guess who lost? If you guess neither then you win a cookie. Shizuka really just symbolizes Nagate’s teenage drive and youthful energy. He was living it up with her as every moment between them is just bright and vivid. The show established somewhat of a safe zone for Nagate when he is with Shizuka and he just indulges in the moments spent with her. The aliens and Shizuka eventually transformed their relationship into a complicated matter giving fuel to another scattered plot point but losing his safe zone certainly triggered something big inside Nagate. This also relates to his maturity. The last girl is Yuhata Midorikawa. She is this really aggressive girl who fell in love with Nagate after discovering how skillful he is at piloting a robot. She is a robot nerd of sorts and she fell in love with his stats during combat. She has since decided that she wants the dude for herself. She is a tactical genius that is even suggested to replace the captain’s second in command if the need arises. She plans in advance and this makes her a formidable opponent when it comes to conjuring up strategies. She is a bit of a nutcase though. She is like a super fanatic oddball and she is a bit of an eyesore. Her role isn’t properly established in the show as of now but it seems like she is primed to doing bigger things in the future. She also had the least screen time with Nagate but really, her presence is overwhelming by itself already.

There are a lot of side characters presented in the show and they seem to have some pretty cool roles to fill in the anime. There is Norio Kunato. He is a fellow pilot who is raging jealous of all the attention Nagate is getting. He wants to be the one on the spotlight and it annoys him that someone who is basically an innocent cat is getting all the prestige he is supposed to be getting. Kunato is one of the well-developed characters in the show. It was mentioned how he fought hard to get where he is and yet all the recognition is being given to a guy that just happened to crawl out of a manhole. Kunato isn’t just a jealous comrade. He is also a scheming villain. With his hatred for Nagate and the glory he is supposed to have being given to someone else, he eventually plots to claim all the glory that was rightfully his. He is a wonderful antagonist for the anime often clashing with Nagate albeit indirectly. For all his bark though, Kunato shriveled up fairly easily after experiencing the traumatizing battlefield he partakes in. He is a really interesting character but he did lose his place in the show come its second half. It’s all thanks to the scattered plot points. It’s established that he is bad but also soft and emo-ish on the inside. His participation for stories to come is promising because he doesn’t play well with others and this might serve as a particular component that will give depth to the overall story. Another great character is the bear. Yup, the bear. She is the dorm master and she spends her time cooking dishes in the mess hall. She also gives some proper push to Nagate when he needs it. The bear, Lala Hiyama is actually an immortal council member and she is a hybrid of a human bear genetic experiment. She has close ties with the captain of Sidonia and her kind hearted nature severely clashes with Kobayashi’s cold one. She seems to mostly act as this wise sage in a time to turmoil but she doesn’t have a big role to play as well. Perhaps the tension among the immortal might give our bear a role to play soon but one can only wonder. There are also a lot more pilots with small roles to play in the show. There are these two budding senior pilots that often lead a squad together. It’s unfortunate that their squads are often slaughtered though. There are also these eleven clone twins that have a minor role to play in the show. The anime gave some of them a time to become somewhat relevant despite often just ending up dead a few episodes later.

But you know what else is interesting? One shot characters. I’d like to point this out. Most characters that die in battle are given a chance to state their case. They’ll often be friendly towards others and some of them would display a somewhat romanticized version of their life story. Such care was given to these minor of minor characters that it does hint how much potential the eventual overall story contains. I particularly love the second episode where the first girl eaten by a Gauna had her life flashed in the screen. Her parents cheering her on and her dreams of making them proud made her demise somewhat interesting. She literally had less than five minutes of screen time before the last image of her swallowed by a Gauna. The anime was mindful of every minor character’s death because it impacts the overall story. Seeing them die in battle after a decent introduction makes them somewhat memorable and you can only imagine how the deaths of more major characters are going to be like with how minor characters are treated in the show.

The main reason this show has a clunky story is mainly because there will be another season. It was announced at the end of the show and the first two episodes are apparently set to premiere in a huge event in Japan. This sh*t is getting hyped and I can only wish that the second season is going to be epic. I think the second season is set to come out in Winter 2015 but I’m not sure. It is coming though that is certain enough. The second season is sure to compensate for the clunky storytelling. Enough has been established to really set the entire thing ablaze. This anime established everything in the first season down to the smallest details so the second season should deliver on a lot of promises the first season made. I am honestly nervous because second seasons tend to suck. I’ve seen a lot of them and most hype is often met by lazy and uninspired continuations. This anime is deliberately split into two halves though so I hope it does give us something beyond epic for its second season. This show is presented by a studio called Polygon Pictures Inc. I have not heard of them before. According to wiki, they mostly do 3DCG stuff so I guess it makes sense for them do produce Knights of Sidonia. They seem to have captured the appeal of the full CG style that Sanzigen first presented in Arpeggion of the Blue Steel. PPI seems to have done a much cleaner version though but it does lack in certain areas. You can trust a studio akin to video game graphics to deliver something satisfying with fully rendered CG. I think they did a great job of it despite my small complaints. This was directed by Koubun Shizuno. So far, he’s a very small time director with a few Detective Conan movies under his belt. Knights of Sidonia might be his first critical stuff and I think he did a great job of it. He captured the vision of the manga quite perfectly and I applaud him for that. I hope he continues his great work for the second season.

Sight and Sound

Tsutomu Nihei’s character design is very dark and gritty. He captures a very mature feel with his work. Sometimes, it’s not about the character design itself but his actual concept art that will dazzle you. He does very little to make a character look special but instead, every panel is soaking in darkness and heavy inking while the cyberpunk elements creep out in every corner. His characters are notably “Japanese” though. They often have characteristics similar to what a Japanese person would look like. The girls often have small round faces with almond eyes and dark hair. Even if the characters might have different hair color and a more bright color palette, the foundation seems to still be the same round face, almond eye combo in different variations. His male characters have a more muscular build but they still have the typical Japanese design that seems a bit familiar. Of course, the characters don’t look familiar because Tsutomu’s manga exudes cyber punk overwhelming everything else. I’m picking it apart but his character design is mostly defined by how cyberpunk it is. The outfits are mostly tight skin fitted, a large percentage is leather, and the heavy inking defined by the empty spaces gives incredible depth to a rather ordinary suit. His cyber punk style is sadly not captured by the anime though. One of the downsides of the fully rendered CG style is that darkness looks dull and everything excels in the details. The manga is outstanding with even the Gaunas looking amazingly created as each panel have lines dancing around, inking mingling, and a dark horror mood is easily established as you stare unnervingly in the empty spaces that he purposely left blank. In the anime, without the cyber punk appeal, you can easily tell how lacking in details his characters look. They often look dull and they look the same without the masterful visual narration the manga does best. It’s a good thing character development eventually saved the show and made the characters interesting once more.

The cyber punk appeal is still decently presented in the anime but I think Sci Fi permeated more. It’s not a bad thing because the visuals still gave justice to Tsutomu’s action heavy manga panels. The background is also outstanding. As I said, it’s the first thing that’ll capture your attention. The concept art in fully rendered CG looks absolutely amazing. The tall buildings and the camera angles seem to celebrate the world of the manga in a magnificent way. The animation is pretty awesome as well. The battle scenes are pretty amazing. The story telling is mostly presented in the cock pit of Sidonia though. The screens act like a video game screen where you see the stats of the pilots as they fight the Gaunas. It gives more detail to the fast paced action of the battles. The robots are nicely rendered and it’s pretty awesome seeing them dart through space and avoiding tentacles. The way a Gauna disperse is outstanding as well. Seeing it dissolve in a bubble like explosion is stunning. The way the robots explode and the various action heavy scenes of the manga are nicely presented in the anime as well. The animation seemed to have perfectly captured the manga’s vision as it marry it with a video game like cut scene form of storytelling. It looks pretty damn complex and I am often caught up in how stunning the animation is. With that being, there are a few downsides. Emotions are lacking among the character interactions. It’s the same downside in Arpeggio. Emotionally charged moments aren’t visually captured by the show and the characters often look a bit wooden. Without the strong plot to support it, it’d be very hard to like the show judging by the stiff look of the characters alone. Some of the fight scenes also seem a bit fast paced. It’s hard to follow the movements of the robots darting through the tentacles because of the employment of a shaky camera and lacking camera angles during certain scenes. It’s a good thing the cockpit shows us what is happening in the battlefield because the visuals often just confuse the fight’s pace. I do applaud the way the Sci Fi is represented but I have to be critical and say that the cyberpunk appeal actually makes up majority of manga’s appeal. The anime should’ve tried harder to incorporate it. With that being said, I must applaud the director for giving life to the panels in such an amazing way. I personally can’t pace a manga by myself so it’s amazing how vivid the panel scenes are in the anime.

The anime’s OP is “Sidonia” by angela. It’s a pretty decent OP. Angela’s voice gives this uplifting and pumped up beat to the song while the lyrics are really insane. It’s about pilots laying down their life for the greater good and it does capture the duty of the pilots but seem to leave out the human component in the equation. It’s a rather thrilling and ominous song. The Op sequence features a few scenes of robots battling Gaunas while it flashes various characters and notable events into the sequence. The anime’s ED is “show” by Eri Kitamura. It has a nice beat to it as it sings a song about hope and Sidonia travelling in space for such a long time. Eri’s voice is pretty cool but it’s the rather moody lyrics and rhythm of the song that really stands out. The sequence is simply a3D hologram version of Sidonia travelling in space.

Overall Score

7/10 “A wonderful story of human survival covered in a wonderful Sci Fi wrapper.”

The clunky story prevented the show to have a solid eight out of ten but I think the second season will easily make up for it. The strong characters and the rich Sci Fi background also made the experience pretty amazing. If you like mecha anime then you’ll enjoy this show. If you like a wonderful story with a lot of interesting characters then you’ll like this show as well. If you enjoyed Arperggio of the Blue Steel’s visual presentation then you’ll enjoy how this anime try to make a better use of it. It has a lot of strong components to easily overshadow its negative aspects so I do think this is worth a try. I recommend it.

1 note · View note

wineanddinosaur · 5 years

Text

High-Quality Absinthe Is Finally Having Its Moment in America

Absinthe has long held a special intrigue in the minds of imbibers, and when updated regulations in 2007 effectively allowed for a large-scale reintroduction of the spirit in the United States, a surge in popularity was expected — only it didn’t really happen. Initial interest was largely tied to old myths and the mystique of a taboo, and that attention waned as quickly as it arose. In recent years, though, absinthe has made a real return, fueled by a few factors: U.S. craft distilleries producing their own renditions, a more developed cocktail scene, and bars that celebrate traditions like absinthe service, water fountains and all.

“I think the most exciting thing about absinthe right now is that it’s sloughed off the novelty tag that it had during the first few years it was reintroduced in the States,” says Brian Robinson, a spirits collector and absinthe aficionado, as well as a partner in Columbia Room, a renowned Washington, D.C., bar. “Instead, many people now view it as almost a necessity in a fully stocked bar because so many cocktails call for it, even if you’re not doing the full drip ritual.”

A Traditional Approach

That ritual, though, is at the heart of how some bars and restaurants are approaching and showcasing absinthe, allowing guests to participate in a tried-and-true tasting experience. At Jeune et Jolie in Carlsbad, Calif., beverage director Leigh Lecap offers a wide-ranging lineup of different absinthes available with traditional service, highlighted as a fundamental piece of the establishment’s identity with a cherub-adorned marble fountain in the center of the bar with piped-in, properly chilled water.

Photo by Jake Emen

“Jeune’s cuisine is a reaction to the current trend of bistronomy in Paris and how the new guard of chefs are interpreting classic French cuisine,” Lecap explains. “We’ve embraced the Nouvelle concept of adopting global influences, obeying the seasons, celebrating locality, and paying a lot of attention to composition. In a way, we thought the bar program should mirror our kitchen’s sentiment and honor an era in France when the country as a whole experienced a renaissance in art, literature, and science, and adopted new ways of thinking and perceiving. Absinthe soaked the thread woven between all those things.”

To honor that thread, Jeune et Jolie has even instituted L’Heure Verte, or “The Green Hour,” an all-things absinthe late-night happy hour of sorts, late on Friday or Saturday nights. “With the consumer, there are always still questions of whether or not it’s real, or ‘will I hallucinate?’, which is my favorite,” Lecap says. “A couple quick facts about when the ban was lifted in the U.S. and what ingredients in the distillation make absinthe what it is, usually does the trick. Explaining absinthe is — more often than not — enlightening and incredibly enchanting. There’s nothing else like it.”

At West Main Crafting Co. in Lexington, Ky., Jonathan Laurel has put absinthe at the forefront of his offerings as well, including in cocktails and traditional fountain-style service, and offers an environment where imbibers can taste in an environment built for education and dialogue. “The average absinthe drinker — even the experienced ones — still have plenty of questions about absinthe chemistry, styles, history, and tasting,” he says.

For Laurel, West Main fills an important gap in the beverage space. The country has plenty of whiskey or agave bars, for instance, “but not yet a program like ours where you can drink an absinthe, read tasting notes, and taste individual tinctures that illustrate those notes,” he says.

Beyond an educational approach and a deep selection, using a traditional fountain was an essential part of what West Main envisioned with its absinthe offerings. “The iconic golden-age apparatus for diluting absinthe was the fountain, an artistic, elaborate silver stand with a bowl of ice water in the top and individual spouts,” he says. “We couldn’t do absinthe service without offering this pillar of the experience — it’s such a spectacle and it captures people’s imagination.”

Photo by West Main

Absinthe Made in the USA

A range of distilleries are now trying their hands at quality all-American absinthe. Philadelphia Distilling, for instance, produces Vieux Carré Absinthe Supérieure, which was initially released at the end of 2008 as the “first legal absinthe to be distilled, bottled, and sold on the East Coast of the United States” in nearly a century.

Robinson points to brands such as Delaware Phoenix, Leopold Brothers, Lawrenceville Distilling, Tenth Ward, and Mt. Defiance, as among his favorite American producers. “They’re all doing great work by integrating historical protocols and ingredients with slight twists to make them their own,” he says. “All of them are great representations of the category, and they all seem to be doing it as a labor of love, which shows in the final product.”

The Absinthe Verte from St. George Spirits is another bottle to know. The lauded distillery infuses brandy with wormwood, fennel, and star anise, distills the infusion, and then infuses again with botanicals such as mint, tarragon, hyssop, and stinging nettles. The company suggests serving its absinthe with a single ice cube and no sugar, or using it in a classic cocktail.

Some of the most widely available American absinthes come from Louisville brandy producer Copper & Kings, which produces two absinthes in its lineup, an Absinthe Blanche, as well as a barrel-aged offering. “We also have some sublime absinthe aging in port and in sherry now that is over four years old, and ridiculous,” founder Joe Heron says. He calls absinthe a “distiller’s paradise in terms of botanical engineering,” and notes that original absinthe had brandy as a base as well. “We wanted to celebrate the history and the heritage, and to showcase our own brandy distillation competence.”

As with St. George, Copper & Kings also recommends skipping the sugar cube during a traditional service. “We do not add sugar to the spirit, with the botanicals, such as fennel, licorice, anise, and black pepper (which distills sweet) all sweet enough already,” Heron says. “The sugar cube is really for spiky absinthe made with grain-neutral spirits.”

Photo by Copper & Kings Absinthe

Classic Cocktails & New Riffs

At Jeune et Jolie, Lecap relishes the opportunity to showcase absinthe in a broad range of cocktails. “It’s a fun challenge to remind people of absinthe’s versatility,” he says. “It doesn’t just bury every drink that contains it. I think tiki really opens the door for the inclusion of absinthe in cocktails the way it lends itself to warm spices and tropical flavors. And even as bartenders, we forget how absinthe is used across the spectrum of drink styles, from the Sazerac and Robert Burns, to the No 2. versions of both the Tuxedo and Corpse Reviver.”

An example of that versatility is seen on Lecap’s menu, where he also offers an absinthe frappé. The refreshing serve is about as far removed on the flavor spectrum from the spirituous, bold Sazerac as possible.

“Absinthe cocktails serve as a genius gateway for people,” Laurel says. “Just as with other spirits, there’s always a way or a cocktail to make a proper introduction for every palate. Convincing someone they actually love the spirit they’ve expected to hate is rewarding.”

At Columbia Room, beverage manager Paul Taylor feeds off the curiosity of his guests and seeks to deliver an authentic experience. While the Sazerac is his personal favorite absinthe cocktail, he also recommends a French 75 riff with absinthe subbing in for gin, particularly for the first-time, absinthe-curious imbiber. “If someone is interested in getting into absinthe and enjoys the flavor, I like to make that for them,” he says. “Shake the absinthe, a rich simple syrup, and lemon juice, strain it into a white wine glass, and top with Champagne. Boom!”

The article High-Quality Absinthe Is Finally Having Its Moment in America appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/high-quality-absinthe-is-finally-having-its-moment-in-america/

0 notes

isaiahrippinus · 5 years

Text

High-Quality Absinthe Is Finally Having Its Moment in America

A Traditional Approach

Photo by Jake Emen

Photo by West Main

Absinthe Made in the USA

Photo by Copper & Kings Absinthe

Classic Cocktails & New Riffs

The article High-Quality Absinthe Is Finally Having Its Moment in America appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/high-quality-absinthe-is-finally-having-its-moment-in-america/ source https://vinology1.tumblr.com/post/611845392422912000

0 notes

johnboothus · 5 years

Text

High-Quality Absinthe Is Finally Having Its Moment in America

A Traditional Approach

Photo by Jake Emen

Photo by West Main

Absinthe Made in the USA

Photo by Copper & Kings Absinthe

Classic Cocktails & New Riffs

The article High-Quality Absinthe Is Finally Having Its Moment in America appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/high-quality-absinthe-is-finally-having-its-moment-in-america/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/high-quality-absinthe-is-finally-having-its-moment-in-america

0 notes

abigail-mcnatt-photography · 5 years

Text

You know those days when you’re just waiting for something to go wrong? You try to make sure everything is running smoothly, but there’s only so much you can do. Well, Four Chord Music Festival 6 seemed to go exactly that way. From the issues with the ground covering and having to move the entire show to the Highmark Stadium parking lot, to the threatening rain, to the main act cancelling 5 minutes before doors, things started to feel like they were falling apart on the inside. Yet, as always, Rishi Bahl, the creator of the festival, still never gave up. The show went on, as the saying goes, and it turned out to be an incredible show. From the merch tents, the pro-wrestling, the tattoo parlor tent, and the music, it felt like the biggest Four Chord I’ve been to for the last 4 years. The rain nor the cancellation seemed to stop anyone from showing up.

Being that the festival was moved from Xtaza, where it has been held for the last 4 festivals, to Highmark Stadium, another difference this year was that it was produced by local promoting company, Drusky Entertainment.

With a large lineup of fairly well known bands, Four Chord 6 turned out to be incredible. So, let’s dive in and talk about the bands that played.

First off, we had pop/punk locals, Atlantic Wasteland. If you’re familiar with my blog, that name may ring a bell. They’re good friends of mine and I shoot their shows on a regular basis. They’ve got a great mix of pop and punk influences in their music and it’s very refreshing. I’ve seen so many of their shows, but I find myself enjoying each one better than the last. Ausinette (lead vocals), is like the hype woman because she’s everywhere and gets the crowd going. Sam (lead vocals, guitar) puts so much of himself in each performance. You can always tell from my photos cause I capture all his different facial expressions. They’re incredible. If you went to the festival and enjoyed them, they have another show coming up at Club Cafe on November 8th. They put their all into every performance and it’s great to watch.

Next up, and on the second stage, we had pop/punk Pittsburghers, Look Out Loretta. They are a very underrated band. They don ’t play very often, but when they do, it’s almost as if no time has passed since their last performance. Despite them being a small band, the crowd didn’t seem to care. Their energy during the performance was electric. The next time Look Out Loretta hits up a show, I strongly recommend you not missing it. These guys are excellent.

Back on the main stage, we had Fortune Cove, formerly known as Harbour, from Toronto, Canada. They have a sort of fast pop/punk style, which really got the crowd going, thus starting what would be a long evening of mosh pits and crowd surfing. They were a great compliment to the (new) headliners as well. They kind of reminded me of a more punk version of Fall Out Boy. Fortune Cove has played Four Chord in previous years, but under the name Harbour, so they were no stranger to the festival crowd.

Now we are headed back to stage 2, to talk about Keep Flying, an alternative pop punk band from Northeastern US. They’re unique for their inclusion of different and unconventional instruments, such as the saxophone and the trumpet, which were used during their performance. They blend the instruments together, almost as if they’re meant to be used. The crowd kept the moshing going, the drizzling rain not deterring them. Like Fortune Cove, they too have been seen at a few Four Chord Festivals.

If you’re a Four Chord regular, this next band will be very familiar to you, as they’ve played every year of it, since I’ve even been going. Patent Pending, from Long Island, NY, is the band who took the main stage next. They classify as rock/pop punk, and I really enjoy them. Joe Ragosta, the lead singer, is one of the most active and interactive lead singers I’ve ever shot. Every single photo I take of him is different from the last. Plus, he’s constantly moving, so he poses a challenge too. He crowd surfed during this set, which I proudly got some nice photos of. He also talked about being obsessed with the Pittsburgh accent and talked a lot about it, haha. Two of their catchiest, and most popular, songs are, “Douchebag” and “Hey Mario”. The crowd always responds so well to them; from crowd surfing, moshing, throwing their hands in the air, and screaming along lyrics, the audience was no different this year. They’re a bigger band, but they’re the example of a band stuck in their roots, enjoying and treating every performance like it’s their biggest yet, which was the case at Four Chord for sure.

Ping-ponging back to the second stage, we have another band from Ontario, Seaway. No surprise, but they are also classified as pop punk. I can tell you, with certainty, that the rain didn’t get the crowd’s energy down, quite in fact the opposite effect. They were moshing so much I couldn’t get a great spot for my photos, in the front, haha. They were a great adrenaline booster and addition to the festival.

Next up on the main stage, we have the man of the hour, Rishi Bahl and his band, Eternal Boy, local to Pittsburgh.

Let me side track for a minute and just talk about Rishi. This man puts his all into the festival each and every year. This show was no exception, and although it had its issues, it turned out to be incredible. So if you attended, be sure to give him a shout out on Twitter or something because he deserves some major recognition for his dedication and passion for this pop punk festival he created.

Okay, anyway, Eternal Boy. Although Rishi has a festival to put his focus on, his band doesn’t end up coming second. Their performances are always on par — festival or not. They played all the favorites, like “Katie” and “Awkward Phase”, of course. The crowd went wild for them and kept the moshing going. Joe, from Patent Pending, came in for a guest appearance, and to just mess around with the crowd and the band. They always put on an incredible performance, and they definitely didn’t disappoint for this show.

Up next, for the final time on the secondary stage, we had Grayscale, a pop punk band from Philadelphia, PA. I’d first heard them in the VIP event, with Atlantic Wasteland, playing acoustic and I really enjoyed them. They have some heavier vibes, but they aren’t hardcore, which is nice for casual pop punk listeners, like myself. I enjoyed their set during the acoustic session, and enjoyed it just as much when they played the full band set later on in the day. The crowd was insane for them. I was in the pit for about half a song before I gave up and went to photograph from other angles. It started to rain a little bit harder too. But the rain never stopped the audience from enjoying the day.

And now we bring it back to the main stag for the rest of the evening. Now we have Chicago based pop punk band, Knuckle Puck. If you’re an avid pop punk listener, you’ve likely listened to it already love them. If not, you may have at least heard of them. From a photographer perspective, they’re extremely fun. They’re all over the place. The audience was too, with crowd surfer after crowd surfer came through, sometimes two at a time. Knuckle Puck is exactly what you expect when you think of pop punk. They’re just on the cusp of being heavier punk, but are still a tad bit into the pop part of the genre. They’re heavier and definitely embrace their genre and have fun with it, which keeps the crowd on their feet.

Real Friends took the stage next, to continue our trend of heavier pop punk. Real Friends is originally from Illinois and are considered emo/pop punk. Like, Knuckle Puck, they’re a little insane too. But also very fun to watch. By this point it started to get dark and it really added to the effect of the genre. Real Friends have everything you’d ever want in pop punk music. Crowd surfers, yet again, cam multiple at a time. Crazy cool band to watch.

The next band on stage, hasn’t been active since 2014. Anberlin, a rock/alternative band from Florida hit the Four Chord stage next. I personally had never heard of them prior to the show announcement, but the attendees were extremely excited about their reunion show in Pittsburgh. They’d toured over the summer elsewhere, but hadn’t been to Pittsburgh in a good while. By this point in the night, it was pitch black out, but the energy of the crowd was still at an all time high. I barely was able to be in the pit shooting because the crowd was crazy. It was very fun to watch them perform, barely skipping a beat.

And last, but not least, we had our (new) headliners, Simple Plan, a pop punk band from Montreal, Canada. You know, in case you haven’t heard of them, which I don’t know how that’d be possible. They were incredible. They played a decent mix of fan favorites, oldies, and more recent releases. The audience was hyped up for the Four Chord headliners and had the time of their lives. You could see they were in a different world. There were a bit less crowd surfers, but they showed their love and appreciation by dancing and screaming along to every lyric. Since Four Chord, Simple Plan has released a single with State Champs and We The Kings, called “Where I Belong” and will be touring the country as well.

Four Chord Music Festival 6 was a success, despite all of the ups and downs throughout the process. I couldn’t be prouder of Rishi and how much work he puts into his festivals. I can’t wait to see what he’s got up his sleeve for Four Chord 7.

Grayscale

Seaway

Simple Plan

Atlantic Wasteland

Eternal Boy

Grayscale

Anberlin

Real Friends

Fortune Cove

Atlantic Wasteland

Real Friends

Keep Flying

Knuckle Puck

Eternal Boy

Fortune Cove

Look Out Loretta

Knuckle Puck

Fortune Cove

Seaway

Knuckle Puck

Fortune Cove

Real Friends

Simple Plan

Grayscale

Simple Plan

Eternal Boy

Keep Flying

Look Out Loretta

Atlantic Wasteland

Anberlin

Grayscale

Knuckle Puck

Look Out Loretta

Seaway

Real Friends

Simple Plan

Patent Pending

Atlantic Wasteland

Anberlin

Simple Plan

Patent Pending

Look Out Loretta

Patent Pending

Eternal Boy

Seaway

Four Chord Music Festival 6 You know those days when you’re just waiting for something to go wrong? You try to make sure everything is running smoothly, but there’s only so much you can do.

0 notes

datinglove07-blog-blog-blog · 5 years

Text

The 4 Step Plan to Talk to New People: Learn to Master the Conversation With this Guide

New Post has been published on https://onlinedatingloves.com/awesome/the-4-step-plan-to-talk-to-new-people-learn-to-master-the-conversation-with-this-guide/

The 4 Step Plan to Talk to New People: Learn to Master the Conversation With this Guide

If you find yourself unable to talk to new people, you’ve come to the right place!

Today we’re gonna teach you how to master a conversation, instead of staring at your feet hoping somebody else will come talk to you.

We’ll teach it in 4 easy steps :P TAGEND

Step 1: How to Make Small Talk- and Not Suck at It( Human Interaction ) Step 2: How Do You Talk to Random People( Thoughtful Small Talk ) Step 3: How Can I Be Good at Talking( Be Quirky ) Step 4: How Can I Be Fun to Talk To( In Defense of Being Imprecise ) How Do You Interact with Others( Start Talking )

By the end of today’s article, your friends will need a muzzle to shut you up.

Believe it or not, we really often work on “social skills” with our 1-on-1 NF Coaching. Many clients are bettering themselves to start dating again, so we work hard to help them level up all areas of their lives.

Click below to learn more, then head to the article to learn how to master a dialogue :P TAGEND

Step 1: How to Attain Small Talk- and Not Suck at It.( Human Interaction)

The main reason we human folk seek to connect with one another is that it scratches a social itching. Our social needs are just like hunger and thirst–we eat, drink, and talk to people because there’s a gap between our actual country( hungry/ thirsty/ lonely) and our ideal country( satiated/ slaked/ connected ). Your brain is saying, “Dude, mind helping me out a little? I’m not where I want to be.”

The whole idea here is to feel better after than we did before. You ever talk to people who are in a super sour mood? It’s kind of contagious, isn’t it? Unless you happen to be friends with people who can induce crankiness charming( such as professional comedians and/ or giant puppies woken up from deep slumber ), it’s usually a bit of a bummer. Let’s not be bummers! Let’s be those other various kinds of people, people who leave our conversational partners in good moods after they talk to us.

Engaging in happy small talk isn’t just good for the people we talk to, by the way–it helps us as well. “Fake it’ til you make it” is more than just a catchy rhyme. The idea that acting a certain way promotes us to be that way has been around since Aristotle’s time. Take a look at his quote( from over 2,300 years ago !):

“Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way. We become merely by performing simply actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.”

Turns out the man knew what he was talking about. A team led by Fritz Strack presented in 1988 showed that simply holding a pen in your mouth in a way that simulates the muscle movements of smiling attains cartoons seem funnier than when you hold it between your lips like a straw; other studies have shown that merely traversing your arms can build you more persistent!

So the next time you’re feeling surly and looking forward to a change, challenge yourself to talk to someone in a more upbeat way and see if that helps shake it off.

I’m not suggesting you bop around like sunshine and fairy dust, but isn’t it powerful to be recognised that by simply chatting with another person in a positive way, you can walk away from the conversation with both you and them feeling better off?

( Feel free to give a little mental fist bump to Aristotle when you see how well this works .)

Step 2: How Do You Talk to Random People?( Thoughtful Small Talk)

Good small talk accommodates in real-time, thoughtfully and attentively is applicable for whatever is happening in the moment.

This may sound overwhelming at first, especially if you like to plan things to say out in advance. The trick is to take a step back and pick one thing, any thing, on which to focus your attention.

There’s a finite listing of what this thing will be:

Whether it’s sunny, rainy, or snowy, that’s weather. Whether it’s a street procession, an art exhibit, or a hot tub limousine driving by, that’s scenery. Whether it’s someone with crazy shoes, a guy doing back handsprings, or a woman swinging from a chandelier, that’s people. Whether it’s a cute newborn, a fluffy puppy, or a cool book, that’s belongings.

See how all of a sudden you can imagine having one or two prepared responses that can still perfectly apply to even the most novel of situations?

Now, this may merely get you as far as your first or second line within a conversation, after which you may need to start coming up with stuff in the moment. But the same logic of “step back/ pick one thing” applies here too, and will help you keep from getting overwhelmed or panicking about what to say.

Here’s an example :P TAGEND

You: “I guess I literally saw a cat and a dog raining down from the sky today.”

Them: “Ha! I know, right? I thought it was supposed to be spring.”

You: “It must be really tough to be a weatherman. You’re either stating the obvious or you’re a liar.”

Them: “My cousin is a weatherman.”

Curveball! You haven’t prepared anything about weatherman cousins! But this is interesting and fiction enough to justify a conversational tangent all its own( and could fall under the category of jobs, if you wanted to add it to your earlier list ). Try a simple question.

You: “Oh, interesting. How’d he or she get into that? ”

Before you know it, you’re having a unique dialogue , not banal “small talk”. You’re also learning things about your conversational partner( and they about you ), which will help you build from one-off conversations with strangers to consistent friendships and relationships with people.

Challenge yourself to identify these “one things”( climate, books, back handsprings) as you’re out interacting with people. Use the consolation of a prepared line to open with if you like, but with the goal of finding something interesting that’s happening in that moment to comment on. Your conversations will instantaneously be more thoughtful, and the people you’re talking to will feel it, too.

Step 3: How Can I Be Good at Talking?( Be Quirky)

My cousin Kim met my fiance for the first time a few months ago. As soon as we all sat down, she said to him, “Tell me every single thing about yourself, starting from birth, and aiming with right now.”

I thought it was just about the greatest thing I’ve ever heard.

If my friend Jess is at someone’s house for the first time, she’ll say, “If I were the bathroom, where would I be? ”

She gets the answer- and a chuckle.

My friend David struck up a dialogue with a cute daughter in Jiffy Lube by asking her if she thought the guy in the waiting room looked like a beagle.

He called me to thank me for introducing him to his girlfriend.

These instances all have in common the theme of turning awkwardness into awesomeness. They’re about being confident , not being smooth. Sometimes dialing up the awkward dial can be just what everyone needs to loosen up a little, like when my friend Mike starts his presentations at work by saying, “If I seem unbelievably nervous, it’s because I am indeed incredibly nervous.” It’s a bold strategy, must be ensured, but it can be incredibly refreshing.

There’s something undeniably fun about someone who says, “I’m staggeringly overcaffeinated right now, so I may pass out at some phase. How was your weekend? ”

In short, don’t feel pressure to rigidly adhere to some abstract notion of what small talk should be, losing all of your own delightful personality in the process. You’re a member of the Rebellion, after all!

You challenge conventional wisdom and embrace the weird every day- let small talk be no exception.

Step 4: How Can I Be Fun to Talk To?( In Defense of Being Imprecise)

Remembering the little things? Sweet. Remembering every little thing? Creepy.

I happen to be in possession of a frighteningly good memory; I remember specific dialogues( as well as where they took place, and what we were wearing) with people who couldn’t pick me out of a lineup. I’m perfectly the person who goes up to people and says, “You’re a chiropractor? We sat next to each other on a plane from L.A. to San Francisco about a year ago, right? ” Yes, right … but it didn’t matter. The dude was exhaustively creeped out, and I couldn’t blame him!

I’ve had to learn to hold back a little( okay, a lot) and not spew forth with every single thing I recollect about my last dialogue with person the next time I assure them.

Instead of saying:

“Hey, how was that conference you went to in Phoenix? ” go with, “You were going out of town when I saw you last, right?

“Is your upper left molar feeling any better? ” go with, “Hey, how’s it going? ”

Like a good hairstyle or pocket square, it sometimes takes a bit of attempt in conversation to make it seem effortless, but it’s far preferable to freaking people out. Take your time. With each dialogue, you’re watering a healthy plant , not dousing a fire.

In fact, leaving a bit unsaid is probably the best way to ensure future conversations, and give you something to talk about next time! Besides, when you’re imprecise, you let the other person to narrow in on a topic that they are comfy with, rather than forcing them to talk about their upper left molar!

How Do You Treated with Others?( Start Talkin’)

With these four keys in intellect, you’re ready to start small talkin’.

Challenge yourself to approach one person a day and strike up a dialogue, even if it’s brief.

Like everything else we do in life, good social abilities can be learned, developed, honed, and improved. Though, it’s really tough to practice unless you commit to TRYING it out. And who cares if those discussions runs poorly? Failure is awesome. Odds are you will NEVER see that person again in your life, and your life is no different now than it was 5 minutes before the conversation.

Of course the opposite could be true: you were able to satisfy somebody awesome.

And there’s only one way to find out which outcome you’re gonna get.

If you’re feeling actually rusty, give it a shot with a friend or family member and ask for a little feedback afterward. If you’re feeling bold, approach someone you wouldn’t usually talk to. If you draw a blank, ask a question.

Breathe, smile, listen.

Most of all, recollect why you’re doing this, and remind yourself that you’re not imposing on someone by having a pleasant conversation with them–you’re making their day a bit brighter, and you are able to never be made to feel bad about that.

As always, I’m very interested to hear what you think, and how these lessons feel when you take them out for a spin.

We all crave regular social interaction; you might be surprised by how easy being good at small talk really is!

What are your major hangups with small talk?

Where do you plan to give these tricks a try?

-Lindsay Miller( good friend of Steve, and the Relationship& Social Skills expert of Nerd Fitness !)

PS: Like developing your social skills, getting healthy can be really intimidating, which is why we’ve constructed services and products to assist you in overcome the chaos and are certain in the actions you’re taking every day :P TAGEND

1-on-1 Online Coaching: A coach from Team NF gets to know you better than you know yourself and builds a workout program and nutritional strategy that fits your busy life, your body type, and your goals. The Nerd Fitness Academy A self-paced online course with 7-level no-gym-required workouts, boss combats, HD-video demoes, a nutrition and mindset roadmap, and supportive community in our flagship course.

Just want to learn more about what we do? That’s great too! Grab your free Nerd Fitness Starter Kit by clicking in the box below and I’ll send it right over!

Get your Nerd Fitness Starter Kit

The 15 misstep you don’t want to attain.

Full guide to the most effective diet and why it runs.

Complete and track your first workout today , no gym necessitated.

I identify as a:

Woman

Man

###

Check out Lindsay on Twitter @RellimYasdnilor send questions/ comments at LoveAndDatingAdvice @gmail. com.

photo source: lego small talk, happy, thoughtful, imprecise, quirky, storm trooper