#fun fact: the hardest part of this whole thing so far was writing the intros.....

[clarionglass]

for those of you keeping up with the sam reich!master/game master cinematic universe currently being masterminded by the delightful @northernfireart and my good self: oh BOY there's a part 3 coming, and she's a doozy, currently clocking in at 9600+ words with a decent chunk still to go. the end is in sight, though, and while i might split the final post into two or maybe three parts, depending on how i'm feeling, hopefully i'll be able to get the first of those parts out on sunday/monday (time zones...) to fill the hole left by the game changer episode that should be released at that time...

however! delayed gratification is for chumps! so to whet your collective appetite, i've put together a "trailer" of scene fragments >:3 feel free to read on its own, or while listening to this particular track for added ambience!

trailer starts under the cut for those who want to launch into part 3 when it comes out without spoilers :)

The Doctor ran his hands over the TARDIS console, marvelling at her clean lines and metallic flourishes, the way that even now she felt brand new but familiar, and paused. He’d just pop off for a quick adventure, nothing too dangerous, but—where to go?

He could scan for a distress call nearby, and pitch in to help. He could drop in on Donna and Shaun and Rose, beautiful Rose, and see how they were all doing. Or he could just hit the randomiser button, and jump in feet first wherever he ended up.

\\\

This was a game show. And with the Toymaker banished, and Satellite Five not coming into existence for another 198000 years, give or take, the Doctor found himself smiling. Maybe third time would be the charm.

///

“Get ready for a Game Changer!” came the host’s voice from onstage. “Tonight’s guests: he can shoot off a monologue with laser accuracy; it’s Brennan Lee Mulligan!”

Brennan, his back to the camera as the curtains opened, spun on his heel and, with a stone-cold expression, pointed finger guns straight down the barrel, before letting the facade crack open. “Hi!” he exclaimed, and walked over to the leftmost podium.

“It’s his first appearance, but he’s already on fire; it’s the Doctor!”

The Doctor leant against the archway to the stage and flashed a broad smile towards the camera, then in a few skipping steps, had bounded over to the next free podium. 

“And even in the toughest of mazes, you’ll always be able to find him; it’s Grant O’Brien!”

Grant dipped his lanky frame into an approximation of a curtsey, spreading his arms wide, then sauntered over to the closest podium with a grin.

“And your host, me!” Sam Reich announced, a ring of manic white showing around his irises as he beamed down the barrel of the camera. “I’ve been here the whole time!”

\\\

—and then came the crash, the explosive noise of heavy machinery moving relentlessly through a drywall set.

The Doctor was already moving. “Everyone down!”

“Duck!” Brennan yelled at the same time.

The two of them hit the ground within milliseconds of each other, but Grant was still paralysed in the face of the giant, science-fiction type laser cannon that had just ploughed through the wall. 

///

“I’m going to hate this so much,” Brennan muttered.

“So’s he,” Grant smirked, then raised his voice. “Oh, Daddy,” he started in a breathy singsong. “Daddy, do you want to make us play for you, huh? Do you want to degrade us, Daddy? Hurt us?”

\\\

“You’ll never get to them all in time,” came the voice through the speaker, dangerously soft. “You can try, of course, but if you die up here, well. That just leaves your new human friends alone with me while you regenerate, and goodness knows what I can do in that time.”

“You don’t get to do that,” the Doctor growled, even as another detonator deactivated. “You don’t get to hurt them because of me.”

For a moment, only laughter echoed into the room. “Better make your decision now, Doctor. Two detonators down, eleven to go, and they’ll reach spark point in ten… nine…”

///

“But you won't, don't you see? Nobody can win a rigged game—the best you can do is run it through to the end. You're standing at that podium, and we're over here, and that's why you can't win. Because no matter how many points you take away from me, you never had points at all. You want to beat me? Then play.” 

\\\

“Run?” Brennan suggested.

“Run!”

///

“And lastly, Doctor.” Sam’s smile broadened. “Sam says: say my name.”

“You can’t be,” the Doctor breathed. 

Sam smirked, leaning in across his podium. “Oh, but Doctor… I’ve been here the whole time,” he stage-whispered with a wink.

“He said you lost,” the Doctor said, shaking his head, looking wrong-footed for the first time that Brennan and Grant could recall. “You lost, and he trapped you.”

Sam just smiled, drumming his fingers against the podium with an audible beat, fast but distinct. Four taps, four taps, four taps. “I’m waiting.”

The Doctor took a slow, deep breath. Set his jaw. 

“Master.”

[drundertalescum]

The Kings Beneath The Mountain - Fic Questions

SOOOO...

@audaciousanonj asked a few questions, and then @rabbitpietale decided to challenge me to do ALL the questions for this fic, so I’m doing all the questions for this fic.

Please send me questions for not-this-fic.

I’ll put it under the cut. It’s long.

1: What inspired you to write the fic this way?

I was in an angst mood and started writing for a few hours and ended up with a huge, disconnected mess. A week later I decided to publish the first part since it was pretty solid and could stand on its own. Then I made the mistake of trying to continue before I was really ready for it.

I don’t really remember the exact inspiration for the first night of mad typing. It was probably a migraine. That’s the cause of most fics I write down.

2: What scene did you first put down?

HONESTLY? It’s a scene way in the future. Like... 20 chapters ahead if it continues at the pace I want to? I’ve got doubts about going down that route for a few reasons, so there’s a chance the fic will divert before it ever gets there, but it’s... uh... it’s really not pleasant.

Maybe if I do divert I’ll spin that off into another fic. I do really like the scene. I just... I dunno. Self doubts.

3: What's your favorite line of narration?

It’s a paragraph, not a line, but this:

Undyne would have known what to do. She knew all sorts of things about magic, and about Asgore, too! She knew how he handled things, the way he made it all work. This was knowledge he desperately needed now. And it just would have been lovely hear her stories and share a cup of tea! (Papyrus himself hated tea, but he drank it all the time now. Asgore must have had good reason for drinking the stuff. Which flowers did he use again…? He was so forgetful lately.) They didn't have to spar or cook or do any of the stuff they used to. They could just chat or walk around the garden and reminisce about older, better times. His joints hurt so much; that sounded more appealing. She'd probably think it was boring, but he could make it fun! She could play piano for him and he could try to sing along. They should have done that more. It was fun. Or maybe they could watch some of those baby cartoons together. He didn't know which one was her favorite, and he felt now that he'd really like to know.

I just love their friendship so much and it hurts knowing how much he missed her and how much he was ignoring about his own self-destruction while still thinking about her opinions and ways to spend more time with her.

I also like this ultra secret future snippet:

Creativity was always strongly associated with humans, and for good reason.  Papyrus had seen so many old maps and books about human buildings and architecture. If, with unlimited time and resources, you asked a single human to build you two great cities, you would get exactly that: two cities. Different streets, different buildings, different names. A monster, on the other hand, would just build the same city twice. After all, the first was fine, wasn't it? There was no reason to betray tradition-- even if it was a tradition of just a few short days.

There’s another actual line that might be my favorite but it’s spoilers.

4: What's your favorite line of dialogue?

Of what’s currently written:

“WOWIE, UNDYNE! I DIDN'T KNOW THERE WERE FRIEND RULES!” “OBVIOUSLY! That's rule number two of the Friend Rules!!” “AND WHAT'S NUMBER ONE?” “‘Don't talk about Friend Rules!’” “BUT YOU JUST--!!!”

I also like: 

COOLSKELETON95: THERE ARE LOTS OF THINGS FOR BABIES THAT ARE STILL VERY GOOD FOR GROWN MONSTERS! LIKE MILK! AND DEADLY SPIKES!

ALPHYS: * ummmmm * spikes!?

COOLSKELETON95: OF COURSE! KIDS LOVE SPIKES!!!

There’s a conversation way down the line that I love (part of the sequence that might get cut that I mentioned) but the whole thing is spoiler-town.

5: What part was hardest to write?

The next chapter. (:

I’m serious. It’s awful. I thought  I would be able to get it done months ago! It’s not really all that hard, it’s just finding a balance, because the way the scene plays out really determines the direction of the story in a lot of ways. It’s just the chat with Undyne, it’s not some big surprise, but it’s hard! It doesn’t seem to want to work out right! And I get overwhelmed when I try to work on it.

The dinner with Sans was really tough, to, and the conversation that followed dinner. I didn’t want to give too much away from what Sans was thinking or what he’s aware of and that made it pretty tricky getting the dialogue to not go the wrong way.

The brothers actually wanted to talk things out and this is an Undertale fanfiction. It cannot be allowed.

6: What makes this fic special or different from all your other fics?

It’s really long.

And uh... aside from Papyrus and Alphys friendship showing a bit it hasn’t really reached any of the “different” parts yet. 

Fun fact though: pretty much every detail of the King Papyrus ending Papyrus came from is the reverse of the details of my other (planned) King Papyrus fic Observe:

TKBTM:

Fell down 9 months in

Aborted genocide run

not Frisk’s first rodeo

features at least 2 timelines

Papyrus banned himself from sleeping

Papyrus has near-perfect reset memory (from origin timeline to new timeline)

Flowey died in Origin timeline

KPCV:

Takes place 1 year into reign

“Coward” run

the first Frisk run

the only Frisk run

Papyrus sleeps whenever he can he gets it now

No reset memory, only deja vu

Flowey lives

7: Where did the title come from?

It’s a reference to Asgore’s intro-to-battle music, which translates to The King Beneath The Mountain. Only there’s plural kings. Because Papyrus is also a king.

It’s really clever, you see. I’m really good at names.

8: Did any real people or events inspire any part of it?

Naw, not this one. This one is just pure self-indulgent fulfillment of my Papyrus angst needs.

9: Were there any alternate versions of this fic?

Not really! There’s a lot of scenes that I changed or cut and by the end of it there may be a very different ending than the self-indulgent trash I was aiming for but right now its not that far.

Here’s a cut part of the scene where Sans and Papyrus are goofing off after Papyrus throws a glove at Sans’s face. Originally he missed:

“i feel so attacked right now. i better get going before you start throwing your boots too. ‘m weak, not sure my sole can handle it!”

“ARRRGHHH!!!” Sans had shortcut a short distance away before the shoe could properly land, as both knew he would.  They’d played this game many times, but it never got old. If anything, it only got better with time. It was hard for Papyrus to maintain his look of great offense while he was holding back a giggle. He started to chase after him, using his magic to prevent himself from tripping from having only one shoe.  “GET BACK HERE!!”

“i wouldn’t do that! you’re running a temperature!” Sans dodged out of the path of the second shoe before it even came close. “later!” Sans yelled from his spot down the road, then shortcut out of sight once more, this time for good.

Papyrus smiled as he floated above the ground and gathered up the strewn pieces of his gear.

10: Why did you choose this pairing for this particular story?

There’s no pairings here besides maybe one or two if-you-squints in the future. And one of those squints is... really not a healthy relationship if you read it as a relationship. Please don’t ship that.

11: What do you like best about this fic?

This isn’t clear yet but it’s super self-indulgent on my favorite tropes.

12: What do you like least about this fic?

This isn’t clear yet but it’s super self-indulgent on my favorite tropes.

13: What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn't listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?

hmmm....

You know, I don’t really listen to music when I write. It doesn’t work. (Conversely, I MUST listen to music while I draw). I can’t remember what I was listening to around the time of writing, since music usually plays a role in brainstorming.

Maybe a nice, soft, sad orchestral ASGORE. Or if it exists, a soft, sad, orchestral ASGORE/Bonetrousle mashup.

14: Is there anything you wanted readers to learn from reading this fic?

Sleep is healthy.

15: What did you learn from writing this fic?

“Nope! Still can’t handle longfics! A pity!”

[minkakcllyrps]

LAW SCHOOL 101 

I am basing the following off of my experience as a law student at a Florida school. Keep in mind that schools within the same state may run differently and, especially, schools throughout the country may run differently.

Firstly, law school is in a building (or a cluster of buildings) separate from the undergrad campus, so you’ll have zero interaction with undergrad.

Law school is 3 years. The “freshmen” equivalent is 1L; “sophomore” is 2L; “junior” is 3L. The entire 1L class is split up into three sections. Your section will have every single class together (these are required courses) and by the end of the year, you will know every single person in your section. Law school is a lot like high school in this sense (we actually refer to my school as Levin High rather than Levin College of Law).

Required courses for 1L:

Civil Procedure

Basically, the rules of litigation

Torts

Honestly, it’s really hard to define a tort but Googling could be helpful!

Legal Writing

You’ll learn how to write a legal brief

Legal Research (this is the only class that lasts the whole year, but it is only 7 weeks of each semester)

You’ll learn how to effectively utilize legal research websites to find cases related to your research question

Appellate Advocacy

You’ll learn how to conduct an oral argument

Property

Pretty much what it says... rules of property law

Contracts

Once again, pretty much what it says

Introduction to Lawyering

I think it’s rare for a school to have this class, but we basically had an brief intro to the legal field. The only thing I took away from this course is that attorneys are #1 alcoholics. Seriously.

Criminal Law

Again, rules of criminal law

Required courses for 2L:

Professional Responsibility

You’ll learn the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, which is a large part of the Bar exam

Legal Drafting

You’ll learn how to draft a pleading, contract, and responses

Other than the above two, every other class will be electives.

3L: All electives! Students typically have secured post-grad jobs the summer before their 3L year and will therefore choose light classes to take during 3L. Students will especially choose light classes if they are on Law Review, Trial Team, or Moot Court (discussed below).

Outlines:

At the end of the semester, students outline their entire course using the book and their class notes because most exams will be open book and professors will allow you to bring in your outline. These outlines vary in page length from 15 pages to 100 depending on how detailed the student wants to be.

There are also commercial outlines you can purchase, but these are usually used as a study aid rather than in place of your own outline since they’ll never be detailed to your specific course.

Social Life:

Our school has something known as JMBA, which is basically a part organization. They plan events like Woodser (drinking in the woods, Google it), Barrister’s Ball (pretty much every law school does this, Google it), Thirsty Thursdays, Halloween Party, etc.

Once again, everyone knows everyone. It’s like high school, which isn’t always a good thing. SO MANY CLIQUES! Also, depending on the school, students can be REALLY competitive. Fortunately, this was not the case at my school.

Student Orgs:

You name it, there’s a student org for it. Each organization is run by an executive board and each e-board is elected at the end of the spring semester each year.

Student orgs will also hold socials (sometimes combining with other student orgs) to help garner attention of new students.

Co-Curriculars:

Law Review

This is a big fucking deal in the legal world. Practitioners LOVE to hire students who were on Law Review.

To join Law Review, you have to participate in a competition that takes place the summer after your 1L year. This competition includes a writing portion (usually, writing a court opinion based on the facts they give you, using the case law they give you) and a portion in which you edit citations). If you make it onto Law Review, you remain on it until you graduate, so for two years (2L and 3L).

Basically, you spend an entire two years editing journal articles. Specifically, you edit the citations of an author’s article to make sure that they conform with the rules in the Bluebook (like MLA, Chicago, etc. for lawyers).

Law Review also has an e-board, as it is an entirely student run journal.

Other Journals

These function the same as Law Review, but are not as big of a fucking deal as the Law Review. Employers still like seeing these journals on resumes.

Moot Court

I was on Law Review and not Moot Court or Trial Team, so credit goes to hunterrps for the following descriptions of these co-curriculars.

So starting out, Moot Court can be a whole lot of fun, but they are also a ton of work. First year students are not allowed to be part of the Moot Court teams usually due to time restraints and general allocation of time and energy needed. There are tons of different subjects for Moot Courts so you can have some fun with that. The ones I have seen deal with animal law, LGBT law, civil rights, and environmental law, but there are many more out there. Problems are distributed based on that particular Moot Court’s time so teams could be working on their brief during the school year, during the summer break, or even during winter break. You will also receive a team number as everything is supposed to be anonymous regarding where each brief is from and what school the team members are from. The important thing to remember about Moot Court is that it is appellate style arguing. What that means is that it is not the kind of trial where you call up witnesses or submit evidence to the court. Moot Court will receive a problem at the designated time and then they are expected to write a brief as if they were writing it to the Supreme Court of the United States. This brief is due on a certain day where it will be tagged with your team number and then after that it’s all about practicing for oral arguments. When you get to the oral arguments section, that’s where things can get really fun. Most Moot Courts will let you argue off-brief meaning that you do not have to stick to every argument that you put in your brief. This allows you to read other team’s submissions (anonymously, of course) and evolve your legal argument as you see fit to win the case. Most Moot Courts operate in two rounds, one on-brief argument and one off-brief argument, so your team will have to have practiced arguing both sides of the case. Usually, off-brief is the hardest just because it is the side that is newest for the team to argue. While giving your oral argument, the judges will stop you and ask questions usually to elaborate the argument or provide challenges for your argument. Each team member receives fifteen minutes to argue and Petitioners are allowed to reserve usually up to three minutes from either teammate’s time for rebuttal.

Trial Team

Trial Team is run similarly to Moot Court as far as tryouts go and the whole team preparation, but this is where it is an actual trial rather than appellate level. The type of case often rotates between criminal and civil each year. During the Trial Team competition, students will be given the fact scenario and spend a lot of time working through how they will question witnesses, present evidence, and prepare to object to anything the opposition tries to bring in that is inappropriate. Trial Team is a great way to really put the rules of evidence to work and see a practical use for them. Witnesses and jury members are usually provided at the school that is hosting the competition which is why it is important for each team member to know how to direct their questioning and be prepared for everything. Students will also be expected to perform a voir dire on the prospective jury members as well as before the trial begins. A voir dire is when attorneys ask questions to the jury to figure out if that particular jury member will be favorable or unfavorable to the client in an attempt to construct either a balanced or slightly beneficial jury for their side. From there, it goes on as a regular trial with members calling up their witnesses and paying close attention to each question asked or piece of evidence introduced.

Note: you shouldn’t try to join more than one co-curricular unless you have a death wish because they are very time consuming.

Clinics:

There are different types of clinics you can apply to join. Some examples of clinics we have at my school include the Intimate Partner Violence Assistance Clinic, the Criminal Defense Clinic, the Juvenile Clinic, and the Family Advocacy Clinic. Basically, if you're accepted to join a clinic, it acts as a class for one semester and it's worth up to six hours. You have office hours during which you meet with clients and you will also be going to court to represent this clients under the supervision of whichever professor heads your specific clinic. In order to join a clinic, you first need to apply for CLI Clearance from the Bar, which means that you are cleared for the Character & Fitness portion of the Bar (which helps you out later on when you're applying to take the Bar).

Jobs:

The most stressful part of law school, no doubt.

During your second year, you will be interviewing non-stop for a summer job. Summer jobs are the key to success, whether it’s with a non-profit, the State Attorney’s office, Public Defender, a firm, or as a clerk for a judge. 

Most of these interviews with take place on campus in a process known as OCI (on campus interviews). Basically, employers post on a school-affiliated website that they’re interested in hiring from your school, you go on and “bid” on the employer by submitting whatever they ask of you (usually, a resume, cover letter, writing sample, sometimes references), and the employer decides whether or not they want to accept your bid and interview you.

An interview does not equal a job. I repeat, an interview does not equal a job. During my 2L year, I had probably 27 interviews, got 2 callbacks (the firm wants you to come to them and meet the rest of the office to see if you’d make a good fit), and wound up with 1 offer (the firm I’ll be working for after graduation, which is why a summer job is so important!).

There is so much competition and not enough jobs in the legal field, so your character should not automatically get a job unless they have some really good connections in the legal field.

Usually, if you impress your summer employer, they’ll give you an offer to work there postgrad and you can spend your 3L year knowing that grades no longer matter! Otherwise, it’s back to the drawing board and OCI, plus websites like Monster.com, will be your new best friend.

The Bar:

The Bar exam is administered in July and February, though most graduates will take it in July.

You do not need to stress out about the Bar until May, usually after you graduate, at which point you should be treating studying for the Bar like a full time job. Bar prep courses are highly recommended.

The Bar exam is two days, with one day dedicated to the multi-state laws (federal) and the second day dedicated to your specific state.

This is really all that I can think of at the moment, but if you have any specific comments/questions, if you’re interested in hearing about my experience at law school, or if you’re actually interested in attending law school and want an unbiased, honest opinion on what it’s like, feel free to message me!

[obwcmp]

First Year Done

2018 is pretty much done! As is my first year of CMP. It’s crazy to think that there’s only two years left... I’ll be sure to make the most of them! With this post i’ll be going through the final stretch at the end of semester 2, and looking at a bunch of photos i found recently which date back to April this year. In my previous post I said i’d hopefully post something after the 25th. Well... here we are a month and a half later. On to it!

As of writing this intro on the 16th of December it’s somewhat of a blur as to what happened in the last couple weeks of the semester. After my Folly Foley post a bunch of things changed in rapid succession. I got week long extensions for VFX and 3D Modelling, and Sound as I was running out of time and nothing was done. That week (week 12) I attended fewer classes than I had for the duration of the semester. Taylor had his week 12 set out in such a way that it was possible to skip on of his lectures which was a huge help. That Friday (19th of October) I felt somewhat down as it would’ve been great to have pretty much everything done by then, but I kept trudging on. 

In the days leading up to our group’s transmedia pitch I mostly worked on my other stuff but made sure to stay in contact with Paris and Hunter. We had a final meeting not long before the pitch, either in week 12 or 13, and settled on what we were going to do and then left it until the day of the pitch. They both wanted to use a script to be sure everything would fit in, but at the time I was against the idea almost entirely. In retrospect it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, and they both did a fantastic job. All in all our pitch went super well, Kevin loved the ideas presented, provided good feedback (as usual), and we managed to score an A+. What a relief! 

I seem to remember that i finished SND at some point earlier than VFX or 3DM but i could be remembering that wrong. In fact as I type this I can remember standing in 1D12 alone in the dark playing through our movie soundtrack over the projector and loud speakers to make sure our levels weren’t fucked on the night before I was due to hand it in. In retrospect, my time management was completely fucked! But I got it to a point where I was satisfied with everything in the ProTools project. I cleaned it up, prepared a package, and had it on a USB ready for 11AM on Friday the 26th. I met up with Mereana and Paris, and we headed in to a mixing booth with Neil. He actually really liked it! Another massive relief. There were a couple of details we had put in that no other group had which made us feel good. There were some sounds which we just completely ran out of time to record, but I managed to keep all the sounds we used originating from our own recordings. Some of them sounded strange, but some worked really well and it was satisfying to listen through the completed product. I wrote up a big document with details on all the sounds the night before, and Neil responded to that later with fantastic feedback (as always) and suggested things we could do to improve it. The same thing happened with the Formative assessment, where he even created a new ProTools session with a little tweak he made to one of our sounds. He’s a fantastic teacher. Mereana and Paris were also the best teammates I could’ve had. I failed to show up to so many recording sessions and meetings (for Transmedia too) and they still persisted with me which was really cool of them. They were also great when it came to talking to Neil during our presentation, they made it easy which was the best. Same goes for Hunter and Paris again with Transmedia too. 

After the pitch and sound presentation, it was time to move on to completing VFX and 3D Modelling. I took a short break, then headed over to K3 and set up camp. As expected, K3 was busy as fuck! Many people were in there finishing their stuff, and it wasn’t just first years but some second and third years as well. I remember starting with VFX. It was the one I was finding the hardest at the time as the assessment was so vague, and as a result I hadn’t properly started something which was worthwhile. After a bunch of different prototypes I came up with the idea to create a similar effect to a move by Katara in ATLA where she stops the rain in it’s tracks, creating a dome of water, turning it into sharp ice shards and sending it careening towards a target. I didn’t get quite that far with it, but I ended up creating an interesting effect where a fractured object explodes, the pieces fly into the air but are stopped in their tracks, and then are thrown into the ground. Looking back, it would’ve been fun to expand on with some animation and cinematography but there was no way I could’ve done it all in one day of course! 

By the time I was ready to render I was actually running out of time. To my knowledge K3 closed at 1am so I started creating a manual render farm out of the now empty computers there. I set up 4 computers all running Arnold renders at once doing different portions of the video. It was awesome! To figure out a networked render was the dream but I had no time to figure it out at that moment. I managed to get down to 100 frames left before 11pm when the awesome security guy came along and politely told us that the labs actually close at 11pm and that we really should clear off before then. I stopped my renders just before 11pm, packed all my shit, and cleared off. I was sorta bummed but I wanted to keep going and get this sucker done otherwise it’d get in late. I set up my laptop that I’m writing this on in the coldest part of my room in such a way that allowed for plenty of airflow, and just let it whirr on while I fell asleep. 

By this point I had actually finished 3D Modelling, I ended up creating a hand painted, slightly low poly Toad from the Mario Bros. series. Unlike VFX, I had been working on this model previously so it was mostly creating maps, painting, and rendering while I simultaneously worked on VFX. We were using Quixel to paint and man that program is a pain in the arse! I used to be a staunch defender of it in light of Substance Painter but man at this point I’d go over to Substance any day, Ddo really got on my wick. I managed to complete it and hand it in on time, unlike VFX which I ended up handing in the next day. 

08:55MON22OCT2018: Work on Toad begins...

15:56FRI26OCT2018: The joys of xNormal’s 3D viewer

17:29FRI26OCT2018: The painting is done!

17:38FRI26OCT2018: Sadness from across the room

18:59FRI26OCT2018: A new legend is born from the mind of Marie...

It’s Toadd Howard!!!

Oh shit!!

20:12FRI26OCT2018: Rendering in progress

The last thing I did was write up my individual report for Transmedia on the 27th and... that’s it! First year was done. It felt strange at the time and for at least a month afterwards too. I felt completely devoid of purpose, for a while when hunting for holiday work I felt the same way. I was still hanging out with friends which was what saved me from feeling any worse than I already was. It took me a long while to figure this all out too, it was the end of November when I realised that I have a need to create things constantly otherwise I feel like garbage! I also had the daunting task of moving out the cube ahead of me after all of my uni work was done. I managed to land my new place on the 12th of November and moved in at the end of that week on the 18th. 

Always interesting to see just how much garbage accumulates over the course of a single year.

At some point around the 22nd or 23rd I went and hung about Hayden’s room at the Cube for an entire weekend. We ate junk food for 4 days straight and just sat around doing fucking nothing but playing games and watching shows. It was kinda fun to begin with but it was what finally made me realise that to get myself out of my slump I was in I just had to create and do something. Anything! So I hauled arse out of there and started to make some changes. I stopped looking at social media. It sounds so obvious typing it out but MAN it took a lot of time out of my day. YouTube especially had the potential to scoop hours out of my day. YouTube, Reddit, Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and Instagram were all huge time sinks which I removed from my daily schedule. Of course this filled my day with... nothing. Around this time I was lucky enough to come across Lisa Kogawa’s Time Management Stuff when my friend Lauren reblogged it. I decided to use her method to fill my day with a bunch of projects which would keep me creatively busy over the holiday period. 

I went on a spur of the moment trip of Auckland for a week to relax and help me recoup, then as soon as I got back I was into cleaning my Cube apartment. I still hadn’t cleaned anything despite moving all of my shit out and the lease ended on the 8th of December. So both the 7th and the 8th were busy days for me but I got it done in the end, I had held on to my room until the very end and it was sad to see it go. I had many good times there and it was the perfect introduction to Wellington, student life, and university as a whole. 

See you 2F ...

That pretty much brings us to the present, but there are a bunch of photos and videos i found on my phone which I wanted to share here.

10MAY: Digital Video Production in semester 1! My room briefly turned into a studio for our summative assessment. So many people ended up using the Cube for their DVP projects in semester 1 and to an extent those who took Film on Location in semester 2 continued to.

STUURRRRTTT for Computer Animation in semester 1! For context:

24JUN: One of many great views from the windows of 2F

In the process of uploading these photos and videos I actually found out there’s a ton of photos that predate April! It’s probably too many for this one post though, this is long enough! I’ll be waiting until Stream is updated with all of its new course pages to get writing on the impressions and anticipations post for semester one of year two, 2019!

[tune-collective]

The 10 Best Kygo Songs

The 10 Best Kygo Songs

The lead up to Kygo’s big Selena Gomez collaboration had us in a frenzy all month. Now that it’s out, we’re playing it over and over in excitement, but the whole thing has us looking back on Kygo’s career so far, and we’ve got to say, he’s got a lot of hits.

His tropical key-infused sonic style is the stuff easy listening dreams are made of. You can’t be stressed out with Kygo pumping through the speakers. Non-scientific studies conducted in cubicles across the country show listener’s shoulder hunch 45 percent less than they do when not listening to Kygo.

A lot of his best jams came from his debut album Cloud Nine, but there are some some preceding singles that bear revisiting. Some of Cloud Nine‘s best are deep cuts, too. In honor of “It Ain’t Me,” here’s a list of the best Kygo songs to date (not including remixes, which we listed here). Kick back, relax, press play, and pretend you’re on a beach somewhere.

10. Kygo feat. John Legend – “Happy Birthday”

For a really long time, the Happy Birthday song was a licensed ditty, and no one was allowed to use it in movies, TV, commercials, or even public restaurants without maybe probably getting slapped with a fee. That all changed when the tune became part of the public domain in February of 2016, but that didn’t stop Kygo from writing his own total remake of the timeless classic. John Legend is one of the greatest r&b singers of this generation, and who doesn’t want to hear a heart-melting, feel-good serenade from the Legend himself on their special day? Plaster this all over your friends’ Facebook walls when the time is right.

9. Kygo feat. Foxes – “Oasis”

This Kygo song from Cloud Nine is the sonic oasis to your crappy day. Stuck in traffic? Blast this sucker with the windows down. Locked in a boring conference call that’s going nowhere? Sing this tune silently in your head. Actually, pay attention. That’s what you’re paid to do, but Foxes’ voice will be there for you, ringing clear and bright through life’s hardest moments, as soon as you’re free to press play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhzN7-Q00KU

8. Kygo feat. Kodaline – “Raging”

My favorite part of this Kygo song might be that beautiful acoustic guitar intro. It gives me serious Led Zeppelin, Middle-Earth minstrel vibes, and those are warm and fuzzy indeed. Kodaline’s vocals are somehow relaxing and energizing at the same time, and that beat comes in like a push to the soul. It all comes together in the perfect sound of adventure. Listen to “Raging” on a long trip or whenever it’s time to get back on that open road.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AOtEnH87Mg

7. Dillon Francis, Kygo feat. James Hersey – “Coming Over”

Listen and watch Kygo draw out funnyman Dillon Francis’ underlying sweetness. James Hersey is so romantic on this one. All I can think about is you coming over, too, baby. You’ve got to love the way Kygo’s tropi-vibe melts in and out of Francis’ bass-loving edge. The two make one delicious couple, that’s for sure. More Francis Kygo collabs, please.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8PPap4dJog

6. Kygo feat. Ella Henderson – “Here For You”

Once upon a time, “Here For You” was simply known as the Ultra Music Festival anthem for 2015. It didn’t yet feature the smoky singsong of Ella Henderson, but it did entrance listeners immediately with its bouncing key melody and subtle bass lines. Those elements still ring true in the official “Here For You” release, although Henderson helps push the track into true jam territory. It’s just haunting enough to stick in your soul, but catchy enough to stick in your head the whole day through.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9porfO8C_Q

5. Kygo feat. Maty Noyes – “Stay”

This fourth official single from Cloud Nine comes through your speaker like a ray of sunshine, even as the lyrics tell the story of a person who probably should get out of a crappy relationship, but doesn’t. It’s one of the Norwegian artist’s bigger hits, co-written by vocalist Maty Noyes. This Kygo song is really cheerful and fun to listen to, so we will “Stay” playing it, just like the character in the song. Mind blown.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgfcToAjfdc

4. Kygo feat. Parson James – “Stole the Show”

When you talk about Kygo, you’ve got to talk about “Stole the Show.” In a way, its a beautiful metaphor for his own career. Kygo came out of basically nowhere, and in his first year as a professional music maker, he covered for Avicii at the main stage of TomorrowWorld. That is some next-level upward mobility, no matter who you ask. In any case, “Stole the Show” plays like an overall thesis statement of what characterized Kygo’s catalogue. It’s got fun pan pipes, R&B pop vocals, and a laidback beat just rockin’ enough to keep you day drinking through sunset. It’s a Kygo classics, for sure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Sc-ir2UwGU

3. Kygo feat. Conrad Sewell – “Firestone”

“Firestone” is Kygo’s biggest hit to date, possibly the first song fans think of when they get that special Kygo feeling. Conrad Sewell’s falsetto has a touch of the ’80s playboy, matched perfectly by the low register piano chords and humming synth of the first verse. That choral build is made for interpretive dance or those emotionally-overwhelmed performances you give your best friend in the car. There’s something about the song that could be sad if it weren’t for that pulsing, sunset-colored hook. Fun Fact: The song was written by Dutch songwriter Martjin Konihnenburg who was inspired to pen the hook upon seeing a Firestone tire billboard in Venica, Ca. The more you know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vusqQJ56iIM

2. Kygo feat. Julia Michaels – “Carry Me”

No, this isn’t Kygo’s biggest hit, but in the world of music, biggest doesn’t often mean best. Right out the gate, that arpeggiated melody sets the tone with a colorful, playful energy. Julia Michaels’ strong voice carries the hook to greatness. Lyrically, it’s the perfect best friend anthem, a vibe that carries over into the FOMO-inducing music video. “Carry Me” is instantly infectious, and it’s got an amped up finish big enough to rock the crowd at the 2016 Summer Olympic closing ceremony – which it did, if you recall. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0UZTRyWJDM

1. Kygo with Selena Gomez – “It Ain’t Me”

“It Ain’t Me” is right out the gate with some lazy beach day acoustic guitar runs, but it’s Selena Gomez’ voice who comes in powerful and strong, ready to take Kygo’s collaborative vocal game to a whole new level. Her voice gets cut and pasted in a new melodic arrangement for the chorus which gives the track a certain edginess new to Kygo’s catalogue. The latest track shows growth and maybe heralds a new era of Kygo’s sound, though all our favorite parts are still there.

This article originally appeared on: Billboard

http://tunecollective.com/2017/03/15/10-best-kygo-songs/