#i have bought a scanner it's fancy and it scans well

[bluecapsicum]

[jungshookz]

that cashier game brought me on an idea... what about a grumpy yoongi as cashier and very clumsy y/n who likes him

i know this month is already a yoongi drabble month but i.,,.,. truly cannot resist writing about grumby yoobi :DDD

➺ pairing; cashier!yoongi x y/n 

➺ genre; yoongi is cocky and y/n is nervous what’s new 

➺ wordcount; 1045

(unfortunately i wasn’t able to track down the original maker of this gif but this is where i sourced it from! all credits go to the original creator of course :-))

                                       »»————-　🛒　————-««

“well, well, well…” yoongi sighs, getting up from his creaky stool before slipping his phone into his back pocket, “look who it is.”

“yoongi!” you greet enthusiastically as if you’re surprised to see that it’s him standing behind the counter when you were the one who purposely lined up at his checkout station, “fancy seeing you here!”

“…fancy seeing me at my workplace?” he raises a brow, reaching over to tap his finger against the computer screen to wake it up, “if anything, i should be surprised to see you here.”

“what, like it’s weird for me to be buying food at a grocery store?” you snort as you begin to pile your things up onto the counter, “sorry i need to eat to survive-”

“no, that’s not the weird part — the weird part is that you bought, like, three bags worth of things yesterday and you’re already back for more.” yoongi points out with a shrug, leaning over to take a peek at the contents of your cart, “that’s all.”

“well, i just-” you pause at the realisation that, yes, your fridge is currently packed to the brim and you probably don’t have to go food-shopping for at least a month so it doesn’t make sense as to why you’re rolling up today with a cart full of food, “i… like to eat. is that such a crime?”

“touché.” yoongi hums, pausing to stick his hand out towards you 

you frown lightly as you stare down at his open palm, your eyes flickering to the side for a second before you raise your own arm and gently place your hand in his

oh

his hand is so soft… and so warm…

a second of silence ticks by before yoongi clears his throat and speaks up again: “this is nice, but i actually just need your rewards card.”

“oh!” you immediately pull your hand away, your cheeks flushing as you hurry to pull your backpack off your shoulder, “i knew that! i knew that, i was just- i was just playing with you, that’s all-” you chuckle nervously, fumbling through your wallet with buttery fingers before pulling the blue card out and plopping it onto yoongi’s palm, “here you go.”

“mhm.” yoongi slides it over the scanner with a beep! before handing it back to you, “hey, check out all those points! someone’s a shopaholic.”

“yeah, well-” you smile sheepishly, reaching up to scratch the back of your neck, “food is good, so-”

“you bought one of these yesterday, didn’t you?” yoongi interrupts, dragging a family-sized box of cheerios over the scanner, “boy, you and your family must really like breakfast-”

“i live alone.” you blurt out, pressing your lips together immediately upon realising that it probably would’ve made you look better if you’d just played along with what yoongi was saying instead of now being reduced to a cereal-gobbling monster, “i… live alone.”

“ah.” yoongi nods in understanding, “so it’s just you who’s a big fan of breakfast-”

“it’s the most important meal of the day, after all-”

“mhm, give me a second-” yoongi turns to pull the microphone towards him before pushing the red button and leaning in, “yeah, could i get a price check on the magnum XL extra ribbed-for-her-pleasure condoms? just to be clear, that’s the magnum XL extra ribbed-for-her-pleasure condoms, item number 3-2-6-9-0-”

“no!” you gasp, reaching over to snatch the condoms out of yoongi’s hand before quickly tossing it back into the cart, “that- ha, i must’ve thrown those in there by accident, i don’t need those- i mean, not that i don’t need those, because safety is always a priority, but i just don’t need them because i’m not currently in a- in a position where i need them- like, i totally could be, don’t get me wrong, but i’m just choosing not to be-”

“never mind on the condoms.” yoongi clicks the button again before turning the microphone away from him and continuing to scan through your items with a smirk

look

it’s obvious that you like him — every time you come in here there are basically little pink hearts floating around your head

and it’s not that yoongi isn’t flattered (because he totally is) and that’s why he hasn’t called you out on it yet, he just likes the fact that it’s almost like he’s got you under a sick little spell

…what?? it’s not like he’s a bad person or anything, right? he’s just teasing!!

at first he thought you just really liked collecting points and that’s why you came so often, but then he started to notice that every time you were here, you’d only ever line up at his station even when the other ones had shorter lines

as a matter of fact there was one time that one of his coworkers was literally gesturing for you to come over to them and you stepped aside and let the person behind you go before happily skipping over to his station

even after that he thought that maybe he was being a little too cocky and assumed that you just preferred to have him check you out (ha) because he is a fantastic bagger, after all

but there was that one afternoon where you came in and he saw you grab ten packs of gummy worms before hurrying over to his station to check out and that was just... odd? 

it just seemed like you were willing to buy anything just to talk to him — so, yeah, it’s fairly obvious now that you like him

(and he must admit… you are definitely his type.)

“and… there’s your receipt.” yoongi hands you the flimsy sheet of paper with your card tucked underneath it, “you sure you don’t need those condoms? last chance.” he teases, smiling lightly when he notices your ears turning bright red

“yeah, i’m sure-” you cough, tucking your wallet back into your backpack before zipping it up, “i don’t know why you had to announce it to the entire store-”

“hey, i needed a price check! the box you grabbed had a scratchy bar code on it.” yoongi shrugs, pulling his phone out before plopping back down on his stool, “oh, y/n?”

“yeah?”

“see you tomorrow, you cereal killer.”

🎙️help me help you make your wishes come true (send me a request!)

✨why don’t you explore the rest of the library while you’re here? (full fics!)

💫or perhaps you want something shorter to read? (drabbles!)

🌟or something even shorter? (teeny tidbits like this one!)

[rockmiyabideusexmachina]

Megaman Production Art Scan of the Day #382:

Mega Man 6 US Box Art Advertising Film Cel 

Let’s start off the new year in 2022 with something a little different from the usual settei sheets. 

As some of you may know, a bunch of film transparencies of the American Mega Man box art, originally created by Greg Winters, went up for auction last month, and I was lucky/appreciative enough to be able to purchase 3 of them: MM6, MMIV, and Wily Wars:

Judging from the agency sticker on the protective sleeve, these were most likely just used in the creation of advertising/marketing pieces for the game. 

You also might remember I came across one for X3 a couple years ago. Only problem being I didn’t have a scanner that could scan film properly, as there needs to be a second light source, one for both sides of the film. So the quality of my scan then wasn’t all that great.

So, now that I have more of a reason for it, I bought a fancy new scanner specifically built to scan film before Christmas, and I can happily tell you I’ve been able to preserve them at high quality. How HQ? Well...after messing around with settings, and maxing out the limit of memory on my computer, I was able to get it up to 3200 DPI. So, this little 4x5 film was able to be maxed out close to 10000 x 14500 pixels. Cropped. ^^; 

Can you see that full resolution on tumblr or twitter? Certainly not. But, hopefully my solution works, keeping it at full resolution in a Google Photos album. However, due to the sheer size of the file, I’m only going to upload the crop of the main artwork in HQ, not the full film. I actually think the full film file size is too large to upload. It’s failed on me twice.

This film is interesting, because it has obvious sets of push pins holding down the main art on both the left and right side of it, which stay preserved in the image. The art itself is slightly crooked, probably due to how they captured it, as well. Only this one is weird like that.

You will see some natural flaws in these. I rescanned them a few times to make sure it really wasn’t a strand of my hair on my new scanner (it wasn’t, there really was a strand of hair forever etched onto one of these). But I have attempted to use the clone stamp tool to touch up a few glaring imperfections (like push pins) and film deterioration.

Have you ever seen Knight Man or Wind Man in this detail?

It’s pretty doubtful any of us will be as lucky as the guy who owns all of the original paintings to ever see these in all their glory, so this is my best attempt at doing that for you. And I will bring you the other 3 over the next few days, as I try to get back on track with daily-ish posts again. Enjoy, and Happy New Year!  

Full Resolution Scan Album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/YpTDgUofJzeBs27TA  (be warned, image is 147.8 MB!)

[EDIT: Google Drive link if Album download does not work]

[purrincess-chat]

Marinette Dupain-Cheng’s Spite Playlist: Remix CH17

The queen has arrived ;)

Previous     First    Next     AO3

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Chapter 17: Kings and Queens

“Look out!” Chloe shoved Marinette out of the way of a red beam of light. Her knees buckled, and Marinette scrambled to catch her.

“What a shame. I missed.” Black boots climbed long legs, kissing the hems of a ripped dress at the top. A dark tiara crowned flowing red curls, framing the dark green eyes glaring at them from behind a black mask.

“Gabrielle?” Marinette gasped.

“I go by Heiress now, but don’t worry, Marinette, your stupidity has bought you a free pass. I just wanted to make sure my powers were working, and it looks like they do.” She nodded to the girl coming to in Marinette’s arms before strutting off.

Chloe sat up with a groan, rubbing her head. “Ugh, what was that?”

“Chloe, your-” Marinette clamped a hand over her mouth.

Her once shiny hair hung dull and stringy at her shoulders, now resembling straw more than soft silk. Perfectly manicured nails had shriveled into dirty stubs, and her Gabriel-original dress was replaced with a knock-off.

“What?” Chloe’s shoulders heaved, escalating until a shrill scream echoed through the hall.

“You saved me—I think.” Marinette winced. “It looks like Heiress’s power made you-”

“Poor!” Chloe screeched. “Oh, Ladybug better get here soon and fix this! If I see that akuma, I’ll teach her to put me in off-brands!”

“Wait, you saved me. You saved me!” Marinette realized. “Aw, you do miss me.”

“No, I don’t!” Chloe’s cheeks flushed. “I didn’t even know what was happening. I just reacted, okay?”

“Please, you don’t have a selfless bone in your body. You saved me because you miss me,” Marinette said.

“Do not.”

“Do too.”

“Do not!”  At Marinette’s smug grin, Chloe folded her arms over her chest with a huff. “Whatever. I’m going after that akuma to give her a piece of my mind. You can go get help or… go buy some shoes that aren’t awful!”

“I don’t think you’re one to talk about awful shoes right now.” Marinette pointed to the ratty sneakers on Chloe’s feet.

“Just go,” Chloe said through clenched teeth.

Marinette raced up the hall, a smile tugging the corners of her lips. She hated to admit it, but in a weird way, she did miss Chloe Bourgeois. Wow. She never thought she’d say that.

“You’re changing a lot of mean girls today.” Tikki remarked when Marinette ducked into a closet. “I think that was Chloe’s way of protecting you.”

“I’m not holding my breath. She probably had too much wine,” Marinette said. “But never mind that. Transform me!”

Ladybug sprinted back up the hall, palming her yoyo in one hand. She should have known Gabrielle would get akumatized once her secret got out, but now wasn’t the time to play blame games. There was an akuma to catch.

Rounding the corner, she collided with another person, scrambling to catch their hand before they both fell backward. “Sorry!” she gasped, but when gorgeous green eyes locked with hers, her heart took off into a sprint.

“Ladybug?” Adrien blinked in surprise. “What’s going on?”

Why did she have to find him now? Even if she defeated the akuma quickly, she needed to be there for Gabrielle. Lisette would have to help her look cute for him another time.

“There’s an akuma on the loose. You should find somewhere to hide,” she said.

“Right.” He flicked his gaze down to their hands, still twined.

Ladybug let go, cheeks burning. “Um, stay safe, okay?”

“Good luck, Ladybug,” he said before running the other way up the hall.

She watched him go with a longing sigh. What she wouldn’t give to be a normal girl right now. Then they could snuggle up and hide together, and maybe he’d finally kiss her. They could get married, buy a house, and-

She patted her cheeks to snap herself out of her trance. There was no time for that now. Akuma first, then Gabrielle, Adrien later.

Terrified shrieks signaled that Heiress had found the rest of the party. Thomas was the one who outed her, so he was likely Heiress’s first target. Ladybug needed to get to him first, even if he was one of the skeeviest people she’d ever met. It wasn’t her job to pick who needed saving. Why did she have to be such a good person?

Bursting into the dining room, she skidded to a stop as Heiress zapped Thomas before she could even draw her yoyo.

“No!”

The tall boy transformed in front of her. Perfectly combed brown hair shriveled into shaggy clumps, and a once flawless complexion broke out in angry, red zits. Stylish clothes turned to tattered rags as Thomas became a shell of his former glory. He scurried away from Heiress with a squeal, and she turned to Ladybug with a triumphant smirk.

“Too slow,” Heiress said, “but don’t worry. Now I have plenty of time for you.”

Ladybug dodged the red beam. She might have been too late to save Thomas, but there was still time to save Gabrielle. This battle was far from over. She just needed to focus.

“I know you think there isn’t a way out of your situation, but teaming up with Hawkmoth isn’t the answer!” Ladybug pleaded.

“Please, I’ve lived among these people long enough to know that they don’t appreciate what they have. I know I didn’t…” Heiress lowered her gaze, jaw clenched. “My family lost everything, but now I can take it all back!”

Ladybug flipped out of the way of several blasts, taking the time to examine her opponent closely. The barcode scanner shot red beams of light that stripped its victims of their fancy clothes, jewelry, devices—anything expensive. Gabrielle wanted everyone to feel the pain of losing everything, so she was taking all of their wealth for herself.

A metal baton struck Heiress’s hand, skewing her next shot, and a black-clad feline cast his partner a smirk. “Having a party without me? I’m insulted.”

“Your invitation must have gotten lost in the mail,” Ladybug said. “You and I both know it’s not a party without your sweet dance moves, kitty. Care to show us how it’s done?”

“It would be my pleasure, LB.” Chat Noir winked.

Heiress pointed her scanner at him. “I wonder how much that cat suit is worth.”

Chat Noir dodged her attack easily. “This cat’s style is one-of-a-kind. All the money in the world can’t buy this swagger.”

“We’ll see about that,” Heiress growled.

The heroes took turns charging in, dodging and weaving around beams from her scanner. Ladybug hooked her yoyo around Heiress’s legs, swinging her around into the China hutch. Realizing she was outmatched, Heiress retreated to the living room where more party guests were hiding, but Ladybug and Chat Noir were hot on her trail.

“Run!” Ladybug ordered, and terrified teens scattered.

Heiress ducked out of the way of Chat’s baton, scanning anyone who passed her between blows. Lisette’s older brother raced from behind the couch, and Heiress wasted no time scanning him before he reached the door. She caught Chat Noir’s staff on the next swing, a grin curling on her lips.

“Looks like someone’s watch was worth a lot. I wonder how much this costs?” She scanned Chat Noir’s baton, leaving him with a plastic copy.

“Hey!” Chat Noir gasped.

Ladybug snagged her yoyo around Heiress’s wrist before she could scan him, but Heiress kicked him through the large window with one long leg instead. Before Ladybug could react, Heiress gripped the string of the yoyo and spun her out after him.

Chat Noir braced as she landed on top of him in the bush, her yoyo bouncing onto the grass beside them. They rolled over with groans, untangling their limbs, and Ladybug grasped for her yoyo.  

“Everything she scans makes her stronger depending on its worth. We need to think of a plan,” she said.

“I’m all ears, Bug.” Ladybug eyed him. “What?”

“You haven’t called me m’lady or Bugaboo all evening. I think it’s a new record for you.” She flicked his bell with a smirk.

“Well, I- you hate it when I call you that,” he said pointedly, cheeks flushed.

“That’s never stopped you before. Has another lady finally stolen your heart?” she giggled.

“I-”

“Ladybug!” Chloe shouted. “What are you two doing out here? The akuma is turning more people into dried up peasants. Have you seen what she did to my hair? Bring me my Miraculous, so I can beat some sense into her!”

“Chloe, this isn’t the time for revenge.” Ladybug sighed.

“I’m not out for revenge,” Chloe said matter-of-factly. “The faster we defeat the akuma, the faster I go back to looking fabulous. So bring me my Miraculous, and let me help you, please?” Chloe pressed her palms together, and Ladybug pursed her lips.

Chloe was right. They needed to defeat the akuma quickly and save Gabrielle, but did she really want to give Chloe her Miraculous back? With her identity blown, Chloe was in even more danger every time she became Queen Bee. Not to mention trusting Chloe in general was risky, but after she sacrificed herself for Marinette earlier…

Something was different about Chloe. Sure was still the same bratty, primadonna, but her blue eyes were steadfast and sincere. Ladybug once believed that giving Chloe a Miraculous would help her be better, and part of her still believed that.

There was only one way to settle this.

“Lucky Charm!” Ladybug caught the record as it manifested and turned it over in her hands.

“Now isn’t the time to practice your DJing.” Chloe scoffed.

Ladybug glanced between Chat Noir, Chloe, the plants surrounding them, but nothing stood out. A record. What was she supposed to do with a record? Unless…

“I have to go. Chat Noir, keep an eye on Heiress until I get back, but be careful. I don’t want you getting scanned. We don’t know what will happen to our powers if she scans one of us,” Ladybug said.

“Got it.”

“Are you going to bring me my Miraculous?” Chloe perked up.

“Do you promise not to do anything reckless while I’m gone?” Ladybug asked.

“Oh, yes, yes, yes! I promise, Ladybug.” Chloe bounced excitedly, then cocking a hip added, “But hurry up! These shoes make me physically ill.”

Ladybug rolled her eyes and dashed up the lawn, leaping through the very same garden she and Adrien had walked through an hour before. The mansion was far from Master Fu’s apartment, but her yoyo made short work of the trip. Her mentor was enjoying his bedtime tea when she entered, sitting cross-legged on the mat with Wayzz on his shoulder.

“Master, there’s an akuma, and I think my lucky charm wanted me to come here.” Marinette flicked her gaze to the phonograph resting on the chest in the back.

“Then there is no time to waste,” Master Fu said. He set his tea aside and retrieved the Miracle Box from its hiding place. “Who do you have in mind?”

Marinette surveyed her options with pursed lips, then resigned herself and reached for the bee. Chloe was different tonight, and if they were going to stop Heiress, they needed an ally they could count on. Never in her life did she picture that to be Chloe, but given the present circumstances, she didn’t have any other options.

“Are you sure, Marinette? Choosing her is risky.” Master Fu cautioned.

“It’s a long story, but…” Marinette smiled. “I’m sure.”

“Then best of luck.”

When Marinette changed schools, she intended to leave everyone behind and start over, but the most unlikely people had found their way back to her. Adrien took her by the hand and refused to let go. Chloe begrudgingly kept one foot in the door, constantly threatening to close it for good, but something told Marinette she never would.

To Ladybug’s surprise, Chloe actually listened to her instructions to stay out of trouble. When Ladybug found her, she was dutifully ushering other raggedly dressed teens out to the garden. She really could behave when she wanted to.

Chloe spotted her on the balcony, and when Ladybug waved the small box, Chloe raced up the stairs faster than she’d ever run in gym class. She held out her hands expectantly, but Ladybug held up a finger.

“I’m trusting you this time, Chloe, but you don’t need a Miraculous to be a hero, ya know. You can be nicer to those around you all the time,” Ladybug said.

“Yeah, yeah,” Chloe groaned. “Can I have my Miraculous now?”

“Do you promise to be nicer to people?”

Chloe’s cheeks flushed, and she crossed her arms over her chest. “Alright, fine.”

Ladybug tossed her the box, and Chloe ripped it open, completely unfazed as Pollen materialized. She fastened the comb into her hair and smiled. “Pollen, transform me!”

Ladybug didn’t wait for Queen Bee’s transformation to finish before they hit the ground running. Chat Noir had been holding Heiress back on his own, and it was time to bring him some backup.

The two heroines kicked in the front door, leaping straight into action. Ladybug shielded Chat Noir with her yoyo while Queen Bee snagged Heiress’s leg with her spinner and tossed her through the door to the living room.

“You sure kept me waiting,” Chat Noir said.

“It was kind of a long trip, but I thought we could use some help,” Ladybug said as Queen Bee fluffed her ponytail.

“Let’s show this wannabe who the real queen is.” Queen Bee readied her spinner.

“So, what’s the plan?” Chat Noir asked.

“If Queen Bee can sting Heiress with her Venom, then you can Cataclysm her scanner. Avoid getting hit at all costs. There’s no telling how powerful a Miraculous will make her,” Ladybug said.

Heiress was kicking debris from the cabinet she’d crashed into when the heroes found her. They didn’t waste time as she righted herself, taking turns charging in. With a growl of frustration, Heiress flipped back into the foyer, scanning the crystal chandelier in the process. Ladybug’s yoyo wasn’t far behind, snagging her wrist again. Queen Bee bound her legs with her spinning top, but Heiress absorbed enough power from the chandelier to break the stone fountain beside her. Tossing a large chunk at Queen Bee, Heiress freed her legs, using her free arm to sling Ladybug into the staircase. Chat Noir grappled with Heiress while his partners recovered, but Heiress parried his blows easily before taking his wrist and tossing him across the foyer.

Ladybug sat up with a wince, rubbing her back where it had collided with the smooth marble. Her yoyo had bounced to the base of the stairs, too far for her to reach as Heiress closed in. She braced as Heiress raised her scanner, but a flash of yellow shot across the foyer.

“No!” Queen Bee leaped between Ladybug and the red beam.

Vibrant yellows dulled, long golden curls shriveling to dried husks. The bee comb in her hair lost its shine, transforming into a powerless, plastic barrette. Queen Bee collapsed at Ladybug’s feet.

“A noble sacrifice, but even your Miraculous has given me enough power to end this fight quickly,” Heiress said.

“Cataclysm!”

Heiress turned as Chat Noir slid past her, dragging his claws across the tile. The ground crumbled and gave out under his touch, plunging Heiress into the wine cellar below. He raced over to Ladybug, kneeling beside Queen Bee as she sat up.

“She really saved your skin, LB,” he said.

“She saved all of us,” Ladybug corrected. “That was really selfless of you, Queen Bee. Thank you.”

“If she hit you, then things would never go back to normal.” Queen Bee took Ladybug’s hand, pressing the yoyo to her palm. “You’re the only one who can fix all of this, so don’t you dare let me getting hit by that freak twice be for nothing.”

Ladybug nodded, gripping her yoyo tightly before issuing the call, “Lucky Charm!” She caught the small black card as it materialized, turning it over in her hands. “A credit card?”

“Well, she’s certainly got enough money to take you shopping,” Chat Noir remarked.

Ladybug pursed her lips, flicking her gaze around the room. With Chat Noir’s belt, her yoyo, the credit card, and Queen Bee…

“I know what to do. Chat Noir, I need you to lure her into the dining room and be ready to use your belt,” she instructed. “Queen Bee, come with me.”

“But I don’t have any powers.”

Ladybug offered her a smile and pulled her to her feet. “Remember what I told you. You don’t need superpowers to be a hero. Trust me.”

Queen Bee searched her expression, then smiled, and the two heroines retreated up the hall.

“So, what’s the plan?” Queen Bee asked as they entered the dining room.

“How fast can you swipe a credit card?” Ladybug turned to her, and Queen Bee cocked a hip.

“Please, I can swipe one faster than my daddy can realize how much money I’m spending,” she said. “Why?”

“Chat Noir and I are going to subdue Heiress, but we need you to swipe this across her scanner. It’s maxed out, so it’s basically worthless. With any luck, it will short-circuit her powers long enough to get the scanner away from her,” Ladybug explained. She placed the card in Queen Bee’s hands. “I’m counting on you.”

Queen Bee squared her shoulders with a nod. “Okay, Ladybug!”

Footsteps pounded in the hallway, growing closer, and Ladybug signaled Queen Bee to her position. When Chat Noir burst through the door, he removed his belt as Ladybug readied her yoyo. Heiress was hot on his trail, and the two heroes engaged her the moment she stepped through the door.

“Chat Noir!” Ladybug called.

He slid across the floor on his knees, looping his belt around Heiress’s legs and pulling tight. Ladybug lassoed her torso with her yoyo, immobilizing her limbs. Queen Bee slid in, swiping the credit card across the scanner with practiced precision.

Heiress shook them off, but when she raised her arm to scan Chat Noir, no red beams flashed.

“What?” She banged it against her palm.

“Oops, looks like I’ve hit my limit,” Queen Bee said.

Chat Noir kicked the scanner from her grasp, and Ladybug snagged it from the air with her yoyo, slamming it against the ground. The casing shattered, and the black butterfly fluttered free.

“No more evil-doing for you, little akuma. Time to deevilize!” she recited. Queen Bee handed her the credit card, and Ladybug tossed it into the air. “Miraculous Ladybug!”

Her magic spread around the mansion, repairing broken cabinets and missing objects, and most importantly, everyone’s fancy clothes. Chat Noir kissed his baton as it reappeared in his hands. Queen Bee twirled in delight as her Miraculous regained its power.

Gabrielle stood up, averting her gaze. Ladybug approached her, but before she could get close, Gabrielle stalked from the room. A speech from Ladybug wasn’t what she needed—Gabrielle needed a friend.

“It feels so good to be fabulous again,” Queen Bee said with a contented sigh.

“Thanks for your help. You can be really selfless when you want to be,” Ladybug said. “Imagine how much of a difference you could make if you were nice all the time.”

Queen Bee’s cheeks flushed. “Okay, okay, whatever!” She flipped her ponytail over one shoulder. “I’ll think about it.”

Chat Noir joined in, and the three touched their fists together.

“Pound it!”

“Well, I hope this is a lesson to Hawkmoth. If an akuma ever ruins my hair again, he’ll have Queen Bee to deal with.” Chloe removed the comb from her hair and handed it back to Ladybug. She headed for the door with her head high but paused with her hand on the frame. “Thanks, Ladybug. For trusting me.”

Ladybug smiled as she sauntered off, turning to Chat Noir. “Thanks for your help, kitty.”

“We’re partners, aren’t we? I can’t let you have all the fun,” he said, shifting when Ladybug pursed her lips at him. “What?”

“Are you okay? You’re quiet today. Usually, you talk my ear off,” she said.

He eyed her with a pensive frown and shook his head. “It’s nothing. I’ll see you next time.”

He raced off without kissing her hand or even a parting flirtatious remark on how beautiful her hair looked in the light. Something was off about him, but she couldn’t place her finger on what. This wasn’t one of his usual pouts when she refused to go on a date with him, and it had been a while since he’d even asked for one. Was he finally moving on from her?

Ladybug shook her head to clear it. There was no time to worry about him. She needed to find Gabrielle.

♪♫♪ Old Scars/Future Hearts ♪♫♪

 “Gabrielle!” Marinette skipped down the stairs.

The red-head slumping for the front doors turned over her shoulder with a scowl, but her face softened when she saw Marinette—slightly. “What do you want?”

“I just wanted to make sure you were okay. Thomas told everyone about your family, then you got akumatized,” Marinette said.

“Ugh, you’re such a goody-two-shoes.” Gabrielle rolled her eyes. “You shouldn’t be seen with me. If they catch you being nice, they’ll throw you under the bus just as quickly as they did me. Trust me, it’s better if you just ignore me from now on.”

“But what about you?” Marinette asked.

“What about me?” Gabrielle grunted. “I’m done. Now that everyone knows my family’s out of money, I’m the school laughingstock. As far as they’re concerned, I deserve it. Don’t waste your time on me. It’s more trouble than it’s worth.”

Marinette remained quiet, eyebrows knitting together before she finally muttered, “I’m sorry.”

“For what? It’s not like you spent all of our money,” Gabrielle said.

“Yeah, but I know it must be hard for you.”

“Why do you care?” Gabrielle asked. “It’s not like I’ve been nice to you. I dragged you here against your will, then wouldn’t even let you socialize with me. You shouldn’t care about me.”

“Well, you don’t know me very well,” Marinette said, “but you could. We could be friends if you wanted.”

Gabrielle opened her mouth as if to say something, then shook her head, red curls bouncing against her shoulders. “No. I don’t think we could be. Even if I wanted to be your friend, it’s social suicide for you.”

When Marinette frowned, Gabrielle rolled her eyes and added, “Look, forget about me, okay? Forget any of this ever happened. We’re not friends, and we never will be. Just leave me alone!”

Marinette watched her climb into her town car, a sinking feeling weighing her stomach. Gabrielle was right. She shouldn’t care. But she did. Maybe she was just a goody-two-shoes, but Marinette had seen a more vulnerable side of Gabrielle—one that she likely didn’t show many people. After everything, Marinette truly believed that Gabrielle Burton wasn’t a bad person. She just needed someone to show her how to be good.

“Marinette?” She turned to find Adrien approaching from the living room.

“Hey,” she said lamely. Because what did one say to the love of their life after an almost-kiss in the garden?  

“I saw you talking to that girl, and I didn’t want to interrupt,” Adrien said. “I don’t know exactly what happened, but isn’t that the girl who was picking on your friend the other day?”

“Yeah,” Marinette said, and when Adrien tilted his head to the side, she added, “it’s kind of complicated.”

“Right,” he said. “So, I guess you need a ride home then?”

“What?”

“Earlier you said that girl brought you here, and now she left, so we can take you home if you want.” Adrien offered. Was it possible for him to be any more dreamy?

“Oh… I guess, I do need a ride. Thank you,” she said. And maybe they could pick up where they left off in the garden. Did she dare even think about it? But what if he tried to kiss her again? Oh, the stories they could tell their kids one day.

“Hey!” Chloe called from the base of the stairs.

Oh, right. Chloe.

“Didn’t I separate you two earlier?” she growled.

“Marinette needs a ride home,” Adrien said, and Chloe cocked a hip.

“She’s got legs.”

“Chloe.” Adrien scolded. “She’s riding with us.”

“No.” Chloe whined, but after a stern look from Adrien, she sighed. “Fine, but we’re dropping her off first. I don’t want to be stuck in a car with her for any longer than I have to be.”

“Well, aren’t you sweet,” Marinette said.

“I’m only doing this because Ladybug told me to be nicer to people, so I can still be Queen Bee. Don’t think for a second it’s because I like you.” Chloe retorted.

“Don’t worry. I’d never imagine that you like me.” Marinette rolled her eyes. “I haven’t missed you.”

“Well, I haven’t missed you either!”

“Maybe you two just shouldn’t talk on the ride home.” Adrien suggested gently.

“Fine, I don’t want to talk to Dupain-Cheng anyway.” Chloe flipped her ponytail over one shoulder. “You and I can have glowing conversation, Adrikins.”

“Why do you get to talk to Adrien?”

“Because I’ve known him the longest, so ha!” Chloe stuck her tongue out.

Adrien sighed and fell into step alongside Marinette. “Sorry, I know it’s not ideal, but it beats walking.”

“It’s fine. I don’t get to argue with her much anymore, so this is filling up my quota.” Marinette shrugged.

As Adrien reached to open the door for her, another voice called out from the front door. “Leaving already?”

Marinette’s spine stiffened, and she spun around to see Thomas pacing down the front steps like a predator stalking his prey; however, he wasn’t approaching her.

“I saw you fighting that akuma with Ladybug earlier. Being a superhero is pretty cool, huh?” He looked Chloe up and down. “You’re the mayor’s daughter, right?”

Chloe eyed him with disinterest, her nose wrinkling in disgust. “Didn’t Dupain-Cheng turn you down earlier?”

“Well, she and I didn’t exactly hit it off-” Chloe held up a hand to silence him.

“Save it,” she said. “I’m not anyone’s second-choice, and I’m sure as heck not taking home Dupain-Cheng’s scraps. Buzz off, loser.”

Marinette hated to admit it, but she was actually proud of Chloe. Thomas was sleazy, arrogant, and greedy—just her type. Maybe Chloe really had changed.

“Absolutely not. Move over.” Chloe wedged her way between Adrien and Marinette on the seat.

And maybe she hadn’t.

[sammysdewysensitiveeyes]

Finally found Marauders 27 scans online (for what it’s worth, I bought a paper copy from my LCS, I just don’t have ready access to a scanner myself.)  Images below, just the Pyro and Bishop stuff for this post, although Lourdes also appears:

First off, the Pyro and Bishop stuff is fire.  It is everything I’ve wanted to see in this series.  It would only be better if it ended with Pyro and Bishop having a victory make-out session, or Pyro texting eggplant emoji’s to Avalanche.

Look at fashion plate Bishop and Pyro there.  Bishop actually looks good, Pyro looks like he crawled out of a Miami Vice episode like Sadako from Ring.  And not as one of the stars, either, as one of the one-episode criminal lackeys.

Minor quibbles - it’s hard to believe Verendi don’t recognize either of them, especially Bishop, who has personally beaten up and threatened a couple of them, up close and personal.  And they were literally watching a live-feed through Pyro’s eyes for awhile, but maybe they don’t recognize him without the skull tattoo.  It’s also hard to believe that Bishop, the “serious cop” character of the series who is also a Captain of Krakoa, wouldn’t read the mission briefing or know ALL the background details of the characters that they are playing.  But maybe he’s just messing with Pyro.  Their banter through this sequence is delightful.

Also.....Bishop thought background stories for two male characters named Mr. Nobody and The Blade was one of Pyro’s romance novels?  I’ll consider this canon evidence that Pyro also writes gay romance.

Btw, I really want a definitive answer as to whether Bishop has an Australian accent.  He and Pyro are playing Australian criminals here, and I know Bishop is Australian Aboriginal.  But he was raised in the US, and previous depictions of Bishop (like on X-Men TAS) usually give him an American accent.  I think comic writers more frequently give Bishop more of an American accent, and Duggan certainly hasn’t given Bishop little bits of Aussie slang like he has with Pyro.

Ahahaha, that horrible 80′s mullet gets worse from every angle.  I have to say, I like how Pyro is drawn here.  The artist remembered that he generally has a long, narrow face with a prominent chin.  He’s not ugly, but he’s not suspiciously handsome Backstreet Boy Pyro.  That’s how I like my Pyro.  Not model-handsome, but not an ugly little gremlin, either.  He’s an okay-looking dude who’s a bit awkward, but would probably do well enough on Tindr Grindr.  Also appreciate that the artist made Bishop noticeably taller.  He’s still not as big as he should be, but I appreciate the size difference.

I think Pyro got to talk more in this scene than in the entire run of Marauders, and he sounds reasonably intelligent.  Love him sweet-talking Verendi, and not even missing a beat as one of the Helicarriers drops out of the sky.  From his exchange with Bishop, it sounds like this plan was largely Pyro’s idea, too.  Look at my boy, coming up with criminal schemes without Mystique telling him what to do.

Btw, the French Laundry is a very fancy restaurant in California.  I choose to believe that Pyro is trying to low-key ask Bishop out on a date.

Whoops!  I’ll choose to believe that Pyro’s awful haircut was so that he could more accurately play Mr. Nobody, not because he has terrible fashion sense.  (I highly suspect that Pyro’s high school year-book picture looked a lot like what he’s wearing now, though.)

Gotta admit, this is genuinely funny.  I love their expressions.

Damn, Pyro looks so young here.  He easily could be Bobby’s age.  More proof that resurrection de-ages people, because Pyro had to be at least mid-thirties when he died.  Way to punch that guy in the dick, Pyro.  Always aim for the nads.

The gun misfire is a really clever trick, and I appreciate it.  Pyro’s never done that before.  In fact, there’s an old X-Men issue when he gets shot while robbing a bank and gets treated by Cecilia Reyes, where he says that he usually creates flames hot enough to melt the bullets, so this is maybe something he learned since Krakoa.  I’d like to imagine Bishop or Bobby or Callisto suggested it to him, while kind of “training” and seeing what he could do with his powers.  I can’t imagine Pyro could do that on a grand scale though, like causing 20-odd soldiers to misfire at one.  That would require a lot of concentration.

If I want to give Duggan a LOT of credit for character development (more than he maybe deserves), I’d say Pyro’s gun misfire trick isn’t just him being “cool,” it’s showing how his fighting techniques have changed.  He’s not indiscriminately blasting people with fire or chasing them around with flame animals, he’s using small, subtle, non-violent methods to protect himself.  (Then punching the guy in the dick.)

Again, I choose to believe that Bishop “forgetting” which characters they’re playing is just him joking around, because Bishop is much smarter than that.  Also, that jump from the Helicarrier to the ship’s deck should have broken both of Pyro’s legs, but whatever, it’s comics!

Yes, Bishop, lift Pyro up with your strong, manly arms.  Pyro’s gonna write a suspiciously similar scene in one of his novels, and Bishop will be side-eyeing him hard. 

 Really like this group fight scene where everyone gets to participate and talk.  Love Lourdes and Emma just casually sipping champagne while all this is going on.  And Lourdes asks Pyro about his writing, what a polite lady.  Pyro’s abrupt announcement is his last appearance in this book, but I don’t mind.  The book tour isn’t completely out of the blue, since Duggan had a snippet of Pyro’s upcoming book in an earlier issue.  I’d rather see Pyro land on another on-going, but this kind of send-off made sense, and actually felt respectful for his character.  As much as I’ve complained about Duggan’s shallow interpretation of Pyro, at least he remembered that he’s a writer, and even made it part of the story. 

I have a lot of complaints about Bobby’s departure that I’ll save for the next post, this is the positive post.

Godspeed, Bishop, I hope Orlando actually gives you an arc in the reboot.

[t-baba]

How to Create a QR Code Reader for Your Mobile Website

The barcode and QR code have modernized our shopping and searching experience. Customers carrying smartphones can now pick up a product anywhere in the world, scan its barcode or its QR code using one of the many free phone apps and find out its lowest price as well as where it can be bought.

Companies like Walmart and Amazon have embraced this technique to draw customers to their online and offline stores using their phone app. Other companies like Fedex and UPS allow customers to scan the codes on packages using a phone app, instead of needing to manually type in long lists of characters.

If the users of your mobile website have a need to type in long codes like activation codes, or they like to look up specific products on your website based on a model number printed in a magazine or advertisement, then you too can take advantage of QR codes to eliminate the frustration of tiny keyboards and spare them the need to double check for errors.

QR Code Scanning with Your Mobile Website

You don’t need a native phone app to scan QR codes. It’s quite simple to create your own QR code reader. Your website running on a smartphone equipped with a camera and running a little JavaScript can do the same trick.

Here’s a demo of a QR code scanner that works not only on Mobile but also in most modern devices. All you need is a camera and a QR code to scan.

If you don’t have a QR code handy, here’s one that shows the first eight digits of Pi.

Creating the QR Code Reader

Our QR code reader will need some HTML and JavaScript but most importantly, a JavaScript library capable of interpreting the QR code.

We’re not going to build that ourselves, because there are some great libraries out there doing this for us, so we don’t need to reinvent the wheel for our current purposes.

Let’s begin by creating an index.html file.

Adding the HTML

We’ll need some very simple HTML for this project. Add the following to your body tag:

<div id="container"> <h1>QR Code Scanner</h1> <a id="btn-scan-qr"> <img src="https://dab1nmslvvntp.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/1499401426qr_icon.svg"> <a/> <canvas hidden="" id="qr-canvas"></canvas> <div id="qr-result" hidden=""> <b>Data:</b> <span id="outputData"></span> </div> </div> <script src="./src/qrCodeScanner.js"></script>

As you can see, we have a wrapper container with a title, the QR icon image wrapped in an a tag, a canvas and a div where we’ll show the result of the scan.

Outside the container div we’re including the qrCodeScanner.js file. We’ll create it later, but first we’ll improve the look of our app.

Adding Styles

Add the stylesheet to the head of our HTML:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="src/styles.css" />

Now we want to create the style.css file within the src folder. We just want some basic styles for this sample app. Add the following to your css file:

html { height: 100%; } body { font-family: sans-serif; padding: 0 10px; height: 100%; background: black; margin: 0; } h1 { color: white; margin: 0; padding: 15px; } #container { text-align: center; margin: 0; } #qr-canvas { margin: auto; width: calc(100% - 20px); max-width: 400px; } #btn-scan-qr { cursor: pointer; } #btn-scan-qr img { height: 10em; padding: 15px; margin: 15px; background: white; } #qr-result { font-size: 1.2em; margin: 20px auto; padding: 20px; max-width: 700px; background-color: white; }

Nothing fancy at all. We’ll leave everything centered with a big QR button in the middle and the result underneath. We’re using black and white like the QR codes.

Including the Dependent JavaScript Libraries

The secret to reading QR codes is math, and the substitute for math is open-source libraries. To read QR codes, we’ll be using the JavaScript port of the Java-based image processing library written by ZXing. The JavaScript version was ported by Lazar Laszlo.

Because the JavaScript library consists of 17 files, we’ve taken the liberty of merging them into one file, wrapping the code in an anonymous function to prevent pollution of the global namespace and putting the file through Google Closure’s minifier to make the file size smaller.

Some Minor Tweaks to the Library

In order to make the library more adaptable, we’ve added a few minor changes to the library’s output function to differentiate between a success response and an error response.

Two important changes made were in qrcode.js, to these two lines:

qrcode.result = "error decoding QR Code"; //... qrcode.callback("Failed to load the image");

These strings have been replaced by Error objects:

qrcode.result = Error("error decoding QR Code"); //... qrcode.callback(Error("Failed to load the image"));

Now I can detect in my callback function whether an error occurred, just by checking if the callback payload is an instance of Error or not.

Those changes can be found in this fork of the library.

Adding the Script Tag

To use the library in our QR code reader, we first need to include it in our HTML using a regular script tag:

<script src="https://rawgit.com/sitepoint-editors/jsqrcode/master/src/qr_packed.js"> </script>

Treating It as an App

Something we’ll need to do is tell mobile browsers that we don’t want to scale this site in portrait mode. This can be achieved by adding the following meta tag within the head element:

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0; maximum-scale=1.0; user-scalable=0;"/>

Continue reading How to Create a QR Code Reader for Your Mobile Website on SitePoint.

by Dmitri Lau via SitePoint https://ift.tt/2YAyUnn

[raygoodwinbaphotographyjournal3]

PHOT301 - Mileage May Vary - Research and Influences

Influence is a funny thing. Looking at other’s work has always seemed odd to me as it comes across as you’re ingesting what they create, and then recreating it. To me, it seems somewhat disingenuous to take someone else’s work and make it your own, as it doesn’t seem entirely conducive to create a body of work. Perhaps there’s a disconnect between looking at work, and being influenced by it. Because of this, I don’t tend to look at other photographers work nowadays. The ways that I ingest photographers is usually online, with social media applications - but sometimes I stumble across words of wisdom with passing visiting practitioners such as Nicholas J.R White or Jack Latham. As for social media, its people such as Vlad Tretiak. And past projects such Chris Dorley-Brown’s “Driver’s in the 1980′s”. 

How do I get inspired? This, is the million dollar question. Inspiration has been always a stumbling block when it comes to my work: I don’t like looking at other people’s work and taking it and I rarely find work that truly resonates with me. I have always found it easier to shoot more often and see where my eye takes me. One could say that my eye is influenced by what I have ingested, and that could potentially be the case. The other thing that initially inspires me is the contextuality of my practice, which is usually philosophically based with some political undertones. My previous work played a lot on my own experiences living in a modern capitalist society - PHOT201 featured a lot of my own personal feelings on alienation/estrangement, and PHOT102 used my interests of Brutalism. In terms of PHOT301, this is spearheaded by the intrigue of the system that we live in, the 2008 Financial Crisis and the then Labour Government’s 2009 Scrappage Scheme. As well as this, there is the personal appreciation for the everyday vehicle. Mentioned in the post in the first shoot, I talk about how I grew to appreciate the car that the layman use on a day-to-day basis. Cars of a certain age were purged once the Labour Government unveiled the scheme to rid the roads of ageing vehicles, replacing them with newer, safer and more environmentally friendly options. 

This scheme was set after the 2008 financial crisis, where banks were allowed to trade through a deregulated system, demanding mortgage schemes which they couldn’t necessarily pay back. This lead to banks like Northern Rock collapsing, which returned to private ownership, but dissolved in 2012. The global financial crisis of 2008 led to a mass recession across the western world, causing the most significant financial crisis since the great depression. In the 2009 budget, the Labour government unveiled the VSS as an incentive for motorists to trade their old car, get a discount, and get a brand new car which offers greater safety, reliability and environmentalism. Governmental information regarding the scheme is easily accessible on the internet, and can be see - https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/357672/bis-foi-2014-20775-scrapped-vehicles-supporting-data.csv/preview . 

With this link, one is able to download an Excel file which details all of the vehicles scrapped in 2009. This covers everyday cars of the day like the Rover 214 (of which 2045 were scrapped), as well as odd manufacturers such as Lada’s Riva, where 7 were scrapped. In total, 392227 cars were scrapped in total, according to the spreadsheet in 2009. The document can be seen here - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1azLGX99mmsL79kbA8qnUuV_C8_k3fI--

Meaning, the Government managed to get rid of a number not too far off of half a million undesirable vehicles from the scheme alone. That being said, there are some discrepancies within the document, such as potential duplicates and spelling errors which could hamper the end result. 

Thankfully, the ever helpful Government have released a document with the results which states that there is some variability, as the information was collected by the manufactures instead of the Government itself for the VSS (Vehicle Scrappage Scheme). These numbers are fascinating to me - browsing the document also brought up some interesting results. A lot of the manufacturers that are/were stationed in the U.K, such as Ford, Nissan, Peugeot and Vauxhall recorded higher numbers compared to manufacturers such as Mercedes or Volvo for example. This means, there is some potential correlation between vehicle manufacturer location and scrappage numbers, as well as the type of manufacturer that’s marketed. Higher market vehicles, such as Mercedes again saw lower numbers in general, compared to a more consumer based manufacturer such as Toyota. Obviously, this would make sense are Toyota is more of an accessible option compared to Mercedes. 

Top 5 Scrapped cars from 2009/2010

Ford Fiesta - 13622

Nissan Micra - 11808

Vauxhall Corsa - 10453

Volkswagen Polo - 8432

Vauxhall Astra - 8066

(info provided with the VSS Spreadsheet linked above)

This is intrinsically fascinating to me, as it puts into perspective the number of vehicles that were rid within the period of the scheme. Despite the high number of scrapped cars, many of these models still roam our streets. There is a great website titled ‘https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/’, which collates Governmental data on cars that are left on our roads. The website can be used to search models of cars that are still being used today, which details cars that are being used on the road, as well as cars that have been SORN. For example, we saw that 2045 Rover 214s were scrapped in 2009. Today, there are only 155 left on the road, with 189 SORN (not on the road). The graph the website offers shows the rapid decline in 2009, correlating with the VSS. This can also be used to see the gradual decline of the vehicle’s usability, whether that’s due to owners discarding it or replacing it. 

This information spearheads the project, mostly in it’s entirety. This projects sets to document what’s left behind from the VSS, as well as the vehicles themselves. Each one is different despite it being made identical in the factory with robots and humans. Each and every car has been used differently by different people, and this shows different ways in which it has been worn and battle torn. These can take the form of scrapes, dents and missing pieces of trim - which can sometimes be enough for one to scrap their car. Despite the scheme being scrapped in itself in 2010, VSSs are still being employed by manufacturers and website on the internet. This means that these cars aren’t all that safe after all. They might have missed the initial barrage of time, and the Government’s scheme, but at any moment they could be still given into the dealership and discarded, being recycled into a fancy washing machine or a bean tin. Manufacturers such as Citroen and Vauxhall still offer such schemes, with money-off incentives on new models, as well as a scheme in London set by Sadiq Khan, with vehicles such as mini vans and mopeds to be scrapped to reduce carbon emissions in London, with an ultra low emission zone in London by October 2021 (TfL, 2019). 

There is also a somewhat philosophical aspect to this body of work, also. Hauntology has risen in popularity within the last decade, with Mark Fisher potentially reviving it into the focus of conversation with his easily accessible writing. At first, I found Derrida’s original explanations absolutely horrid to understand. His writing (to me, at least) was often confusing and convoluted. Thankfully, Fisher’s writing in Ghosts of my Life and What is Hauntology offer realistic and easily understandable explanations on what Hauntology really is, and how it’s applicable to our contemporary zeitgeist. It can really be distilled into ‘a time out of joint’ (p.21. Fisher. M. Ghosts of My Life). Hauntology is really the philosophy of the past haunting the present. Derrida links Communism being a spectre on western Capitalism. This, can be applied to almost anything within popular culture, in addition our world now. Fisher also mentions our futures, due to our mixture of past melding with our current times. Things have been increasing harder to see what the future really is, as our times become more anachronistic. This all plays into my work, in terms of subject and what it has been taken on. The cars themselves are inherently anachronistic, as they belong from a different time period. And, the images themselves have been taken on cameras that should, in essence, be extinct - hence digital photography has taken the spotlight in contemporary image making. 

Although, film photography certainly is a spectre hanging over digital photographer, and offers up a form of spectral nature of itself. Yet, there is still a place and a market for analogue photography, despite companies either discontinuing their stock or raising prices. The rationale of shooting film is purely a personal choice. It isn’t because I think it’s better than digital, it’s because I enjoy the tactility of the equipment, and the process of scanning in a physical photograph. There are so many more nuances and variables that can’t be corrected once it has been taken, and can only really be corrected once it has been digitised with a scanner. It may even defeat the point when an analogue image is digitised, as the scanner is interpreting the tones and colours of the film with its processing and software - scanning with different scanners can vary everything about the film. I found this out when I bought my own Canoscan 9000F MKii in first year, and there is a massive quality difference between the Canoscan and my favourite scanner: the Epson V850 Pro. This, of course is due to the large price difference and aim towards the demographic. The Canoscan is aimed purely at the enthusiast who needs a scanner, and might potentially need to scan the odd roll of film. The Epson is of course aimed more towards the professional, with the increase in scan quality and scanning options. With this, there are quality differences, with the Epson scanning a lot flatter, with increased dynamic range, compared to the Canoscan’s odd colour cast and contrast increase. 

Visual Inspiration

Vlad Tretiak - A Small Town in Siberia II

 As mentioned before, I find visual inspiration often hard to come across, with a feeling of nihilism towards looking at photographers of the past. Many copy established photographers which to me, renders the image useless as you’re just recycling someone else’s project or aesthetic. I do feel that it’s good to look at photographers and take notes from what they create, but not totally rip off what they have already done. The biggest inspiration for my work at the moment is a little known photographer based in Russia, called Vlad Tretiak. He is a Russian based photographer and graphic designer. His work centres around parked cars in the dusk hours, with Tretiak often utilising street lights to enhance the aesthetic of the image. The cars he documents aren't brand new offerings from the automotive conglomerates; they're often bruised Ladas and Japanese obscurities, as well as documenting the spaces that these cars occupy.

The project doesn't just focus on the cars, but also the small town in Siberia, which is Kemerovo - a town closer to China than Moscow. The landscape is often ridden with Siberian snow and the town's neon lights creates an almost vaporwave feel to his work. They're also incredibly cinematic, with an almost tangible look and feel. Tretiak shoots mainly on a Pentacon Six or a Mamiya C33, often with expired film, such as using Kodak Aerocolour III; which has long since been expired. This gives Tretiak's work a hauntological aspect, as he is shooting scenes with film that shouldn't exist in this time (theoretically). With this, it creates a haunted present, as it's presented on a format that is from another time period - unlike shooting fresh film which has been produced in the contemporary sense, but uses the same formula.

All of these aspects makes Tretiak a key piece of research for Mileage May Vary, as it shares a lot of the same themes and aspects as mine. The biggest thing I can learn from A Small Town in Siberia II, is the use of lighting.  My previous analogue night photography attempt was lacklustre purely due to the light, as well as not exposing the film for long enough to get some of the shadow detail. I do plan on shooting on some expired film for my project, and as older film usually needs longer to expose, this will lengthen the night exposures exponentially. Yet, Tretiak manages to keep these images looking crisp, clean and clinical. The images are incredibly sharp and features such a deep tonality. There aren’t many practitioners that when I look upon their work, I think to myself that this is what I want to be striving for. a lot of the time, I blankly gaze at work and nothing works for me, but there is something about how Tretiak manages to capture the scene, isolate the subject and use natural, and artificial light to his advantage. The scenes are also so mundane to the layman, as they are just Ladas being photographed in their natural environment in Russia.

This also has another link to Hauntology, as these cars are haunted by the spectre of Communism itself. They were born from the CCCP, lived through the state and now survive in a Capitalist Russia, and then they are documented on a process which has been superseded by a digital process. They’re scenes haunted by Communism, taken by a haunted process. It makes one think how omnipresent Hauntology really is, and this is the reality that we live in. It also makes me think that I have always had links to the CCCP and Hauntology without me really knowing. I have managed to document Brutalist structures and things of the past, but in the present; but its only now that I am able to see what I have been doing and it’s contexts. 

Below, is a number of Tretiak’s images from that project which I really enjoy. 

Chris Dorley - Brown - Drivers in the 1980′s

I came across Dorley-Brown’s work due to Jack Latham recommending his project to me to look at for MMV. The project in question is Drivers in the 1980′s; a documentation of drivers stuck in East London traffic jams in the summer months during the 80′s. Dorley-Brown initially wanted to document the privatisation of Rolls Royce, but instead chose to photograph the faces of the traffic jams of Thatcher’s Britain. For me, its a very humanising project to look upon, and feels slightly odd enjoying a body of work which features actual people. I often feel slightly alienated to look at work with people in them, as I don’t really have any or no connection to the subject. Yet, a lot of the images within this project feel very candid and Cartier-Bresson-esque in terms of their decisive moment feel. That being said, some of the subjects have noticed Dorley-Brown and posed for the camera, knowing they will be photographed and changed their pose ala-Barthes.

Speaking of Barthes, Dorley-Brown’s work feature both studium and punctum. The studium is the subject, and something about it that has jumped out to Dorley-Brown, and the punctum is the end result of that studium. And the end result is rather aesthetically pleasing for what is essentially a portrait of the urban environment. 

There is an immediate aesthetic to these images that just shout out 1980′s, purely because of the tones and colours. There is something about these aspects of which I enjoy, and I am not entirely sure why that is. Perhaps its linked to nostalgia, as these was only taken 10 years before I was a small child, and I can remember seeing photographs in a similar style to these. Either that, or its the cars included in the photographs, which I used to see when I was younger and feel nostalgic about seeing; or that I have fallen for the Capitalist ploy to sell me nostalgia of the 1980′s despite never actually experiencing it first hand. There must be something with the emulsions used at the times, causing these bold, yet washed out colours. All of these photographs were taken with either a Rolleiflex 3.5 or a Mamiya C33 (as did Tretiak in ASTiSii). In addition, eight rolls of film were shot in a space of six hours, with a total of 162 photographs. Dorley-Brown is noted in saying about shooting the project:

“They are both waist-level finders so that put me at driver level and helped me be a bit more invisible,” he wrote via email. “People are never sure with those viewfinders whether you are looking at them or not so it gives you some space to work without appearing too obtrusive.”

This gives one insight in the creation of the work, and the use of a TLR camera. They are something that I really want to love, but hate using. Looking down at the viewfinder always feels very unnatural to me, and the inverted movements always throw me off. However, this hasn’t stopped me looking at purchasing a Mamiya C33 or equivalent down the line. Perhaps I will learn to love TLRs, just like I learned to love square format images, and seeing as the C33 is 6x6, its another hurdle to overcome. 

Franck Bohbot - Parked Cars

Bohbot is a French born photographer and film maker based in New York. His images offer a cinematic and meticulous approach to image making. They also offer a certain atmosphere that juxtaposes the reality of the day to day. I will be focusing on Bohbot’s ‘Parked Cars’ project. I used Bohbot during the Economy Exhibition, as he used a very similar composition style to what I was already doing. I found the typography of his images very Becher-esque and visually intriguing, as its interesting to see a lot of cars presented like this. 

Parked car, Parkslope #1 Brooklyn, NY, 2013

Parked car, Gowanus #5, Brooklyn, NY, 2014

Parked Car, Gowanus #6, Brooklyn

Untitled

Bohbot offers an interesting take on a typographic style of automotive photography. It manages to capture the vehicle, as well as the surrounding space around it. They often tell us things about the area as well, just like the state of the economy and the grade of social status of the occupants. The photographs also tell us what kind of life the vehicles have lead. Just like the Camaro Iroc-Z above, it has discoloured/faded panels. This could mean they have been replaced because its had a collision, or they have just faded over time. Red paint has a habit of doing that as the wavelengths absorb more light compared to other colours, and the UV light degrades the paint faster (oh my previous life as a mechanic and body repairer). This can also be seen on the Caprice Classic at the top, as that has heavily faded and also started to rust around the wheel arches. These elements especially reflect on what I am doing, and focusing on the cars that have aged and seen some years of use. These scrapes and scars can tell a story of what the vehicle has gone through, and shows that its just a mode of transport that someone uses. 

Since looking at Bohbot’s work in first year, it has been updated with more detailed and less typographic images. An example is of the Pontiac GTO’s rear lights/badge. Just like my current work, it incorporates a more detailed look at the wear and tear of the vehicle, in addition to using a shallow DOF to isolate the subject.  

A Coda

Being inspired and influenced by practitioners is something I find that’s hot anc cold. Quite often, I rarely find photographers that I really get and understand. It seems all too often I blankly stare at ones work and it doesn’t do a thing for me, and I tend to find it easier to just go out and shoot, without any prior research to see where my creative mind is at. Although, I do find that sometimes, one does need to ingest other’s work and get some insight into how they create that work - whether that is due to the camera or film they have used, or the way that they have composed and taken the photograph. Of course, this can be a valuable asset to the photographer to gain insight into how to make a photograph just that little bit better, or something to avoid if they haven’t executed it properly. With Tretiak, Dorley-Brown and Bohbot, they have certainly informed and influenced how I make my work. I enjoy all of their images, and find it fascinating how they actually make their work, as well as the context within them. Yet, these projects seem different, and oh so similar at the same time. Tretiak is documenting the vehicles that lay dormant where he resides, and Dorley-Brown documents similarly dormant cars, but in the hustle and bustle of the nation’s capital. Finally, Bohbot documents the dormant and parked cars in Brooklyn, where the social and economic background is vastly different to the Manhattan setting that most people think of when New York is mentioned. All of these play a key roll in my work, and are useful to further my practice.

I also find its key to have some contextual backing to the work. All the way back in PHOT202, I ditched anything contextual and focused on the aesthetic of the photograph. This wasn’t a great idea, as it totally sabotaged my grades and was harshly scrutinised - deservedly so. Just like a broken record, I repeat to say that I hated PHOT202 and it’s outcome. Now, I am creating work that I am proud to be attributed to and willing to progress with. MMV is a project that feels that it will last me a long time, as previous projects felt as if they died as soon as they were handed in and never felt as personal as they were portrayed to be. But somehow, MMV feels as if I can keep this project going, even past university is over for me. Perhaps this is because its something that I want to be creating, rather than interpreting a brief and making something fit with brute force. 

Bibliography

Behance, (2019). A Small Town in Siberia II. Behance. [Online]. Available at https://www.behance.net/gallery/81633539/A-Small-Town-in-Siberia-II. [Accessed on 01/12/2019]

Franck Bohbot’s Portfolio. (2019). Franck Bohbot’s Portfolio - Parked cars | 2013-2015. [online] Available at: http://www.franckbohbot.com/parked-cars [Accessed 1 Dec. 2019].

Franck Bohbot’s Portfolio. (2019). Franck Bohbot’s Portfolio - Parked cars | 2013-2015. [online] Available at: http://www.franckbohbot.com/parked-cars#e-5 [Accessed 1 Dec. 2019].

Franck Bohbot’s Portfolio. (2019). Franck Bohbot’s Portfolio - Parked cars | 2013-2015. [online] Available at: http://www.franckbohbot.com/parked-cars#e-35 [Accessed 1 Dec. 2019].

Franck Bohbot’s Portfolio. (2019). Franck Bohbot’s Portfolio - Parked cars | 2013-2015. [online] Available at: http://www.franckbohbot.com/parked-cars#e-8 [Accessed 1 Dec. 2019].

Franck Bohbot’s Portfolio. (2019). Franck Bohbot’s Portfolio - Parked cars | 2013-2015. [online] Available at: https://www.franckbohbot.com/6914744-parked-cars#e-24 [Accessed 1 Dec. 2019]

Rosenberg, D., (2015). Being Stuck in Traffic Never Looked So Good. Slate. [Online]. Available at https://slate.com/culture/2015/06/chris-dorley-brown-drivers-in-the-1980s-is-a-look-back-at-london-car-culture-photos.html. [Accessed on 14/01/2020]

Fisher, M., (2014). Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures. John Hunt Publishing (p.21.)

Jones, M., (2016). Angry drivers stuck in London traffic during the Eighties. British GQ. [Online]. Available at https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/drivers-1980s-book-london-hoxton-press. [Accessed on 14/01/2020]

Transport for London, and Matters, E. J., (no date). ULEZ Car and motorcycle scrappage scheme. [Online]. Available at https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/ultra-low-emission-zone/car-and-motorcycle-scrappage-scheme. [Accessed on 08/01/2020]

[snowbryneich]

@apirateslifeforme123 asked 1, 2, 3 and 17

1.       What’s the last book you read? What did you think of it?

The Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson. Which I raced through because the ending of Way of Kings (previous book in the series)  was so good – just really one of the best endings I’ve read in a long time. Words of Radiance – while good didn’t quite live up to it. Thus far the series has confirmed my previous opinion of Brandon Sanderson which is that yes fantasy is meant to be epic but this could have done with a much stricter edit. But while he is long winded he has some of the more original world building and notions and magic systems I’ve read in some time. (Also he seems to actually finish series and regularly publish which as a reader emotionally invested in some never ending fantasy series appeals)  And man I am still am not over the ending of the Way of Kings.

 (I’m still working on master and commander because it takes me longer with audio books) 

2.       What’s the worst book you’ve ever read, and why?

Oh man – I am struggling with this because if I don’t like a book by a certain point I tend to abandon it. Life is too short. A book that filled me with rage though was the sequel to Discovery of Witches (I’ve suppressed the name lol)  where the main character is a history professor (and a witch) and marries a vampire and then time travel to the Elizabethan England to hide (I have forgotten why) and she spends the entire book outraged by the way she is treated because she is a woman. It drove me potty and I had to finish it because it was a book club book. (And they all loved it of course bah)

 3. A book you found overhyped, and why

The Night Circus – everyone recommended it to me and omg it was so slow. I hated it and I think it was worse because the world and the idea was fascinating but I found it unbelievably irritating. Everyone praised it because of the descriptive writing too (I think it got a lot of love in bpal circles) and I found that incredibly overdone.

 17. Preferred bookshelf organisation scheme

All the books. On a shelf. Ahaha

That said I live in a house which was a three bedroom when we moved in and is now a 1 bed with a library and a study (priorities!) and the shelves are organised like so – living room bookshelf folios and fancy books. Library – non fiction and hardback fiction, Study – uni books and paperback fiction. There is some sort of categorisation involved as well but it is nothing to do with me. My husband actually bought a barcode scanner off the internet (before smart phones did this) so he could scan books into some sort of data base. I think before I lived with him – I used to shelve things by author roughly. Just basically books everywhere is the system I like.

.

[targetwetales]

"Ma'am, let me insert the cheese code"

Buckle the HECK down, because my time in Tescos is one hell of an experience. I’m one of those people who stand by the little cheap 10p bags in the self-service aisle and have the fancy little headset and coat. I was never told of the horrors with the CHEESE BARCODE NOT SCANNING.

When this happened, I think it was my first three months working there, so I barely had any of the ‘non-scanning’ items memorized. I had not been prepared for THE CHEESE NOT SCANNING. I also remember the incident of the day so well. The lunch break I spent asking all the cashiers, “what’s the cheese code??”

Imagine it, 8AM. The schools haven’t started, so all kids are getting stuff for their lunch. Kitkats, cola, the odd cake for the odd birthday, socks.. But three kids in the space of half an hour were getting cheese. Not grated cheese in a bag and some bread, no. A block of cheese. The cheese in the broken cooler that we had to move twenty minutes earlier, so the bottom of it (where the barcode was), had been soaked, and stuck together slightly. So, I was very unaware of this. Why would I ever care about the cheese that never sells until 10AM? It had to be dry by then. Anyways, this kid comes in, cheese in hand, tomato in the other. The poor boy was probably cooking in school. Scans his tomatoes easily. Tries to scan the cheese. Cheese doesn’t scan. Alright yeah, whoops, scan it proper kid. Tries to scan the cheese again. Cheese doesn’t scan. And again. And again. I eventually see the kid looking at me with hope, so I go in and enter the cheese code from the bottom of the pack. I give the kid his cheese, and he’s on his way. No more than five minutes later, the odd Harry comes up with a pizza base and cheese, not to mention squeezy tomato. He scans his base and squeezy tomato easily, but not the cheese, oh no. That doesn’t scan. I just think they got one of the few ones we moved last, so they were messed about a bit. I enter the kids code, he’s on his way. Same with the other kid that came in. I just thought it was unlucky.

But no, Lord behold, the 'let me speak to the manager cut’ woman comes in with a BASKET. Love, why must you do this. It’s 10AM, just order online. I had already entered 10 cheese codes that day, and I’m thinking maybe the cheese has to refrost or whatever; I don’t work in stocking. So, I put myself on standby for this woman, watch her scan the little milk cartons (semi-skimmed, good choice) and the rest of her good eating looking basket. Then the cheese comes up. Oh god. I walk over to her, say the cheese won’t scan for the others, so it’s easier for me to put in the code. But no, no, she can make it scan. “My boy works in retail you see, one of those fancy shops in the big places? Yeah, those. Real good, told me how to scan.” OK love, whatever you say. I go back to my corner and mess around with the bags. Two minutes later, the lady still can’t get her cheese to scan. I go back over to help, but no, no. She has this. I tactically retreat to my bag corner. Another two minutes, and I put away the 'something in the bagging area’ thing for her. I watch her good, healthy veg as she goes to get two different blocks of cheese. She comes back. Her cheese is not scanning, so I offer yet again to code her cheese.

“Ma'am, let me put in the code. It’ll count as being scanned then.” No. She will not yield to my cheese scanning. I ask her once more. She will regret not accepting my offer. I tell her OK, I retreat to my corner. I begin talking to the cashier. His name was Matt, got sacked for being a twit of a driver. Nice guy, bought me stickers once. No more than five minutes later, the woman’s red light on the scanner goes off. She had tried to enter the cheese code and failed. She had entered the tomato code. Feel my wrath, Helen. I go over, and I enter the cheese code. I am free from her, she has left. But, she had brought MORE cheese buyers. Five more people fell to my idiotic cheese entering, I did not know the cheese code. I entered what I had. My lunchbreak had finally come up, and the first thing I said when leaving was good luck to the security man. If an item doesn’t scan, it’s usually taken out and people claim that “It’s free.”

The cheese saga ends here, but to this day, I continue to watch people fail at scanning the legendary cheese. I am the cheese slayer, I get people their dairy goodness. I do not like any of it, but I enjoy watching kids do my job for me.

I am the Tesco cheese slayer. I know non of the cheese codes, but I will slay them anyways.

[marcringelmd]

What Is Telehealth?

What is “telemedicine” and “telehealth?”

Here’s what people imagine telehealth to be, an interactive real-time video consultation between a doctor and a remote patient.

Telehealth is that, of course.

It’s even better when the consultation is enhanced with instruments that let a doctor (or other provider like a nurse practitioner or physician assistant), examine a patient’s eardrum or listen to their heart from afar.

Access to a shared electronic medical record makes the encounter that much more powerful.

Phrase trends of "telehealth" vs. "telemedicine"

View Graph on Ngram Viewer

As a rural family doctor, I did telemedicine many times every day, a decade before I owned a computer, let alone a smartphone. In the days when there were only landlines, I gave medical advice to patients and sought advice on challenging cases from colleagues over the phone.

That was telemedicine.

I was practicing medicine from a distance. Likewise, when I called a prescription to the pharmacy or an order to the laboratory. After a few years, I was faxing some of those prescriptions and orders.

That was telemedicine too.

You may have noticed that I’ve used both words, “telemedicine” and “telehealth.” The word “telehealth” came along in the 1980s, about 15 years after “telemedicine” first appears in Ngram.

The word “health” is meant to convey a broader scope of practice than “medicine,” which implies just a physician-based medical practice. “Telehealth” includes for example: consultations with therapists or dietitians; support groups; and lately, self-monitoring and uploading of everything, from steps taken to blood sugar to mood.

Truth is, most everybody, including me, uses “telemedicine” and “telehealth” interchangeably.

How Modern Telehealth Has Influenced Healthcare

In 1999 McGraw-Hill released a book I co-wrote with healthcare futurist Jeff Bauer, Telemedicine and the Reinvention of Healthcare. Jeff and I came up with this definition for our book:

“Telemedicine is the combined use of telecommunications and computer technologies to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare services by liberating caregivers from the traditional constraints of place and time and by empowering consumers to make informed choices in a competitive marketplace.”

That’s a mouthful. But it holds up pretty well, I think, considering it’s 190 tech-years (19 people-years) old.

What Is Telemedicine and Digital Healing?

For my book, Digital Healing: People, Information and Healthcare, published last year by Taylor&Francis and released in audio version by Audible, I wrote this streamlined definition, “Telemedicine is the use of electronic information and communication technology to overcome barriers of distance and time when delivering healthcare.”

It’s about using technology to subdue distance and time. Period. Which means that the questions and pictures about a rash that you send to me electronically or that I forward on to a dermatologist are telemedicine.

The care doesn’t have to happen in real time—it can be based on information that is stored-and-forwarded.

Whether you called me with your initial query or contacted me with pictures and questions via my practice’s patient portal, it’s all telemedicine. It’s all care at a distance.

BUY ON AMAZON

BUY ON AMAZON

What is Telehealth?

Once we grasp that telemedicine is based on a broad set of communication tools, we can begin to solve real problems and meet real needs, usually at reasonable cost. The technology itself gets cheaper, more reliable and easier to use every day.  

“Let’s get a cool interactive video system. Now, what’s the problem?” describes a process that is 180 degrees from what it ought to be.

It should go more like this, “We see patients with acute strokes at our rural emergency room. The sooner we get clot buster drugs into their system, the more stroke patients we could save from a lifetime of disability. But if we give this potent medication to the wrong patient, such as one whose brain event is the result of a bleed, not a clot, we could make things catastrophically worse. We need a neurologist to interpret the acute brain CT scan and advise us how to proceed; and we need them right away, because time is neurons. The longer the delay in administering anti-coagulation, the worse the outcome.”

Fortunately, I have in my rural ER a CT scanner and a stock of anticoagulant. I am present myself to interview and examine the patient. As a family doctor, what I need most of all is for a neurologist or a radiologist to interpret the radiology image. The hospital’s CT scanner must have a broadband connection so it can send the digital “films” STAT for expert interpretation.

Crucially, there has to be a protocol on the receiving end for a consultant to look at the images immediately and call me back with the results. We need a system. That’s the challenge. These days the technology is pretty standard.

Parenthetically, what we don’t need is for the consulting doctor and me to be able to see each other on a video monitor nor, for that matter, for the patient and distant doc to be in visual contact. That’s how one big hospital organization in my state sold their acute stroke management system, by featuring their fancy, new video system.

“Let us do a telemedicine consult,” they said. And people bought it.

Telehealth Isn’t a Magic Solution

The real-time video just made the whole interaction more cumbersome, especially in the old days of telemedicine when you had to wheel a cart bearing a big monitor and a heavy codec (the video equivalent of a modem) up to the patient bedside and hook it up to hard wiring that had been installed in the room.

Fortunately, this medical center does have excellent stroke doctors who give good advice and a well-oiled system for communicating with referrers. But it was the sizzle of *T*E*L*E*M*E*D*I*C*I*N*E* more than the steak of immediate expert consultation that made their program go, and also made it more expensive.

Telemedicine Should Enhance Healthcare, Not Replace It

Whether you’re a provider or a patient, located in the city or in the country, try to think of telemedicine as a set of tools, no different than what you have in your shop. Sometimes you need a table saw to make a cut. Sometimes all you need is a razor blade.

Choosing the right tool for the job is critical. But first you have to understand what that job is.

In healthcare that means that sometimes you may need a high-end video system for talking a distant surgeon through a hairy procedure and sometimes you’ll just need the telephone to reassure a worried parent.

It’s all communication. And it’s all telehealth.

The post What Is Telehealth? appeared first on Marc Ringel | Author & Healthcare Professional.

source https://marcringelmd.com/digital-healing/what-is-telehealth/

[truthbeetoldmedia]

Killjoys 4x05 "Greening Pains" Review

Between an expected father/child relationship (D’avin Jaqobis and still-unnamed son) and two unexpected (Turin and his newly adopted ex-Hullen son Weej, and Gared and his brood of kidnapped children), “Greening Pains” had some great familial moments, both biological and found, as well as some pretty great body horror, some unexpected team-ups, and of course, a good old-fashioned stick-up. Let’s dive in!

Episode 4x05 of Killjoys opens with a woman singing a lullaby to her child, when suddenly the door is kicked in, and two dark figures with glowing red eyes shoot the mother with an energy blast, snatch the child up, and vanish into the night.

In her bed on Lucy, Dutch tosses and turns, suddenly waking and bolting upright to find D’avin seated on the floor, leaning against the wall. “You shouldn’t sneak up on people,” she tells him, to which he responds, “You shouldn’t scream in your sleep,” echoing the words she said to him his first night on Lucy. He starts to leave, but Dutch asks him to stay. “The last time I stayed, you disappeared into the green,” he reminds her.

“True; the first time you tried to kill me,” she responds, “so...progress?” He needs a room; she has a room, she points out, telling him not to overthink it. D’avin sits on the bed next to her, and she takes his hand. After a moment of looking at one another, they kiss, the sheets Dutch had clutched to her chest falling away. (These two have always had incredible chemistry, and it’s lovely to see them together again!)

Zeph and Johnny are babysitting Delle Seyah’s baby and giving him a checkup, noticing that while everything looks good, the muscle cells in his heart are regenerating abnormally fast. Johnny pulls up his own scans, noting that the Hullen parasite is still gone, and that his brain is in perfect health. “Who knew that psychotic rage and repeated head-bangings could be so rejuvenating?” he jokes. Zeph gives a halfhearted fake laugh, and when Johnny presses her, tells him that it’s hard to be around him, because while he’s back to his old self now, when he was Hullen, he was… “A complete dick?” Johnny finishes. Zeph knows that Hullen Johnny isn’t who he really is, but he apologizes nonetheless that she had to deal with whoever that other Johnny was. Not quite good enough for Zeph, though; she zaps him in the ribs with a tool, then declares that they’re good now.

Over drinks (though it’s early in the day, Johnny points out), Dutch and Johnny try to figure out what hidden message Khlyen had for her in the story he told her. They remember the story pretty differently, but before they can delve too deep into the past, the baby starts crying. A half-asleep D’avin (along with the rest of the gang, including Pree in an ornate robe with an eye mask on top of his head) comes stumbling out to go check on him, only for Zeph (who was watching him) to come running asking where he is. She’d fallen asleep for a second and he’d disappeared, but where could a literal infant have gone? Dutch pokes her head down a hallway and finds a toddler sitting there — the rapid growth he experienced throughout the pregnancy is still happening.

While Johnny and Zeph try to figure out how to stop the rapid growth, Pippin entertains the boy — he has younger sisters, so he’s good with kids. Johnny and Zeph tell D’avin that the child has both human and Hullen cells, and while the human cells degrade as normal, the Hullen cells see any degradation as something they need to fix. This forces the human cells to regenerate, and the more they regenerate, the “older” the child gets. “This biology is way beyond me,” Zeph confesses. They need to get back to her lab on the armada, and fast.

Dutch checks in with Turin, who is still aboard the Hullen mothership, which lost all power when the green crystalized. He also tells her that there have been 13 child abductions in Old Town, and more across Westerly. He’s sent Fancy to investigate, and wants Dutch to join him when she gets back, but Dutch tells him that she’s not coming back yet. Pree is going back to Old Town (and tries to steal Delle Seyah’s jacket-cape when he’s packing), and Dutch asks him to be her eyes and ears instead. She doesn’t know how yet, but she assures him that they’re going to win.

On the Hullen ship, Turin has the Hullen doll that Zeph reactivated show him where the rest of the plasma is kept. The man hasn’t been given full control of his faculties yet, but he keeps saying “something is wrong” as he and Turin walk down the ship’s corridors. Partway through the hallway filled with the still forms of the non-reactivated dolls, Turin realizes something: the dolls are facing the opposite direction of where they used to be. They reach the room where the plasma was stored, only to find it all solidified, just as the rest of the plasma is. The Hullen doll has no idea what happened — he doesn’t even know his name.

Suddenly, they hear the sounds of marching, and rush back out to the hallway, which is now empty. The two search the decks for the army of skinwalkers (Turin’s words), and they suddenly round the corner to find a room full of them, holding rifles. The ex-Hullen start marching toward them, and Turin readies himself to die, but not without taking out a few of them first. But the man grasps Turin in a tight embrace so he can’t fire his gun, and shifts them so they’re between the rows of marching dolls. After the army has passed, the man excitedly declares that he remembers his name, Weej, and he knows where the army is going. They arrive at the hangar bay to find all the smaller ships streaming out, with no idea where they’re going.

Dutch tells D’avin and Johnny that she doesn’t think they should go back to the Quad yet — the missing kids are almost certainly because The Lady is trying to find Aneela’s child. But as D’avin points out, the child is going to have another growth spurt within hours, and more after that, if they don’t figure out how to stop it. Johnny says that they need someone with bioweapons experience, and while Pippin is rummaging through the cupboards to find some food and non-alcoholic beverages to give the kid, he pipes up that he knows someone. He’s on Utopia, he says, much to Johnny’s delight.

While D’avin and Pip go seek out Pip’s connection, Dutch and Johnny go gun shopping. Well, Johnny goes gun shopping, while Dutch is preoccupied with the story. They still differ on main points, but Johnny insists that his version is more interesting. Elsewhere, D’avin and Pippin try to get a meeting with Pippin’s connection, Kravn, but his receptionist won’t let them through, even with a bribe, which the man pockets despite turning them away. But they have a backup plan, of course — a scanner in the bribe that gives them the whole floor plan of the store. Pip is horrified at the thought of ripping off someone who makes biological weapons for a living, but the Killjoys assure him they’re not going to rip him off — they’re going to kidnap him!

Johnny gives D’avin the gun he just bought, a set of goggles, and some other tools, and the team goes over the plan while we watch their mental images, set to spy music: D’avin will enter Kravn’s storefront (we see him charging down the stairs and ordering everyone to put their hands up like he’s an old-timey bank robber) — with the mask, D’av — (the footage cuts and he comes back down the stairs, this time wearing the large goggles that obscure his face). The receptionist will trigger the silent alarm, prompting Kravn to go to his safe room, where Dutch and Johnny will be waiting (Dutch and Johnny grab him, put a bag over his head, and flash a big wink and thumbs-up at the camera). Pippin will be the lookout. Pippin is less-than-confident that the plan won’t end with his eyeballs melting, so when Dutch tells him he can go wait on the ship, he can’t get to Lucy fast enough.

D’avin bursts into the store (wearing the mask), ordering the receptionist and guard to fill his bag with “anything shiny,” and pretends not to notice the receptionist triggering the silent alarm. Down below, Dutch and Johnny crawl through the vents to reach Kravn’s safe room. But Kravn doesn’t appear. Instead, code starts flashing on the mirrored walls of the room, and Kravn’s voice comes through — he’s somehow uploaded his own consciousness to the main frame. He starts pumping a nerve agent into the room, and Dutch tears Johnny’s shirt in half to tie around their faces.

Upstairs, D’avin is running out of things to have the guard and receptionist put in his bag, and when he radios Dutch to check in, the guard injects himself with stimulants and attacks him. The receptionist and D’avin also grab fistfulls of the stim packs, and the three get into a full-on brawl, barely reacting to the punches thrown. The receptionist gets knocked unconscious quickly, but D’avin and the guard continue to inject themselves with the stim packs and beat the snot out of each other, laughing their asses off from the high that follows.

In the safe room, Johnny is succumbing to the nerve gas and has to dictate to Dutch what to type as they try to hack Kravn. Kravn easily runs circles around them, until he realizes he doesn’t recognize the code Dutch just typed. Johnny directs him to read it out loud, which he does: “Got you, asshole.” Johnny (through Dutch) had reprogrammed Kravn’s voice commands, and Kravn had just ejected himself from the system. Johnny and Dutch grab the drive as the gas clears and get out of there — but they’ve got a partner to collect first. After knocking out the guard, they find D’avin sitting on the floor giggling to himself. Dutch tells him she’ll stun him if he can’t keep it together, and he nods solemnly, then says, “you’re pretty,” and bursts into giggles again.

Pip comes sauntering up Lucy’s ramp with a bag of scented bubble-bath (with extra for Zeph; how considerate) and notices Zeph’s panicked expression. The child is laying on the exam table, extremely thin — he’s burning through nutrients faster than she can get them into him. As Pip helps her give him electrolytes, the boy bolts upright, gasping, and we see his spine pop and expand as he grows another several sizes.

Later, as the now-teenage-sized boy sits on the exam table wrapped in a blanket, Team Awesome Force returns with a still-high D’avin, whose giggles fade as he realizes that the young man before him is his son. After Dutch whisks him away to come down before he meets his son, Johnny tries to convince Lucy to let him plug Kravn’s file into her system (and both Zeph and Pip find it weirdly arousing). After Lucy agrees, Johnny plugs Kravn in, and tells him to help them find a way to stop the child’s rapid aging. Or else Lucy will overwrite him with cookie recipes, she threatens.

In Dutch’s room, D’avin is still melting down. He can’t decide if he should talk to the boy or not — is the story of how D’avin is his father going to be what he wants to hear, or is it going to sound crazy? He starts to go to talk to him, but Dutch asks if he really thinks he’s in the best shape to give the birds and the bees talk to someone who’s less than 24 hours old. “Absolutely,” he assures her while walking away, then turns and comes back into the room. “What do I tell him, Dutch?” he asks, looking utterly lost.

“Tell him what he needs to hear. Because that’s what you always do,” Dutch responds, the tender moment underscored by soft piano and strings. D’avin looks down, and then — “Have you ever really looked at your hands? I mean, really looked at them?” Yep. He’s still high. Dutch pulls him back inside the room so he doesn’t have his first conversation with his son while high as a kite.

Pippin sits down with the boy as he wolfs down some soup, already able to string short sentences together. But as Pip watches him, the score sours and Pip’s fingers twitch, and everyone watching simultaneously remembers that The Lady’s spiders are...possessing him? It’s not real clear. But it’s not gonna be a good time. Meanwhile, Kravn and Lucy have come up with a formula to stop D’avin’s son’s rapid aging, but when they go to retrieve him, they discover that neither he nor Pip are still aboard Lucy.

While the rest of the team scrambles to locate them, Delle Seyah appears, looking for “the baby,” saying that there’s a Qreshi ceremony she needs to do while he’s still nursing, so Zeph goes off with her to break the news that her baby boy is now a teenager (and hopefully stall her finding out that he’s missing), and Kravn offers to give them access to security feeds. Using them, they’re quickly able to spot the two, who just bought tickets off Utopia. Pip walks stiffly, telling the boy that “she’s waiting,” to which the boy responds, “You’ll be dead before you see her.”

This stops Pip, and as Dutch, D’avin, and Johnny come running, Pip comes back to himself, confused and seeming not to remember how he got there. D’avin knocks him out, and introduces himself to his son. Back on Lucy, Pip is in his bed, bound and sedated, and Zeph tells Dutch that she’s going to run every test she can think of to find out why he dissociated, because she knows that Pippin didn’t do this himself.

Johnny gives the boy the treatment Lucy and Kravn formulated, which successfully stabilizes his growth, and then ejects Kravn from Lucy’s system, but not before Kravn flirts with Lucy some more and asks her to come with him. But her humans need him, as she tells him. As Delle Seyah enters the room, Johnny goes to leave, but she stops him, wanting to know if the boy is really her son. She gets choked up, and is clearly embarrassed by showing emotion, of which she seems to be having an unusual amount lately.

Johnny tells her that since she was cut off from human emotion for so long as Hullen, it’s pretty intense — which he would know. Delle Seyah realizes that Johnny is one of the few people who might actually be able to understand her, and tries to let some walls down. “When does it go away?” she asks. Johnny laughs and says, “I don’t know; maybe when you actually make some amends for the things you did. You want to stop feeling bad, Delle Seyah? Stop being a sh*tty person. Do the work.”

In Oldtown, Fancy and Gared try to work together to investigate the missing children. The woman we saw at the beginning of the episode comes to them, and they notice a red handprint on her door, only visible under UV light. They then go on what can only be described as a stakeout, with Fancy as the gruff veteran cop the talkative rookie (Gared) is annoying.

As they watch, a seemingly-drunk man staggers down the street, slapping his palm on several doors. Once he’s passed, the unlikely duo investigate, finding a red handprint on those doors under UV light. Once it gets dark, they watch as cloaked figures with infrared lenses (those red eyes we saw earlier) go to the first marked door. Gared can’t just sit by and watch them grab another kid, so he confronts the figures, despite Fancy trying to stop him. And then Fancy gets shot with an energy blaster by someone else who thinks that the Killjoys are responsible for the abductions.

Gared manages to get the kid away from the kidnappers, but they hit him with a shock baton and drag him off “for questioning.” He assures the assailants that when Dutch gets back, she’s going to kill all of them, but I think they really should be more worried about Pree. He strides up and hauls Fancy off the ground, demanding to know where “his man” is, and I don’t pity those kidnappers who are going to have to face down Big Daddy Scrimshaw. Speaking of his man, he’s waking up in a Hullen ship surrounded by young children, and assuring them that everything is going to be okay.

Finally, Dutch, Johnny, and D’avin sit down for a drink, and to work out once and for all what Khylen meant by the story. As they go over it, they realize that they differed on one of the fundamental aspects of the story — the gender of their mark. Thinking back to her time in the green, Dutch remembers feeling Khlyen do something while telling the story, and they realize that he hid a code inside the story that only she and John would be able to break, because Khlyen knew that The Lady would look through Dutch’s memories.

Notable quotes:

“This biology is way beyond me,” — Zeph “Hey, don’t be so hard on yourself,” — Johnny “—and if it’s beyond me then Johnny doesn’t stand a chance.” — Zeph

“I think the technical term for it is ‘fuster-cluck.’” — Turin

“I have been a warlord, a sexer, an entrepreneur, and that big, goofy bear is what I miss the most. How did this happen — to me?!” — Pree

Killjoys airs Fridays at 10/9c on Syfy.

Michaela’s episode rating: 🐝🐝🐝🐝

[ramialkarmi]

One photo shows that China is already in a cashless future

Mobile payments have become so common in China that paying with cash is practically unheard-of, even with street performers and taxi drivers.

The mobile payment market is dominated by two apps, WeChat Pay and AliPay, which have hundreds of millions of active monthly users and make Apple Pay's 127 million global user base look small in comparison.

Paying by phone became popular in China in part because credit cards never gained the popularity they see elsewhere in the world, and because the infrastructure for mobile payments was already in place.

Phone-scannable QR codes also mean that anyone can become a merchant, since you don't need hardware like a card or chip readers.

Paying with your phone isn't a novelty in China these days. Paying with cash is. 

Over the last 15 years, mobile payments in China have grown into a $16 trillion market dominated by China's two biggest tech giants — Tencent and Alibaba. Mobile payments totaled $9 trillion in 2016, according to iResearch Consulting Group. Meanwhile, the US saw $112 billion in mobile payments in 2016, according to a Forrester Research estimate.

Tencent and Alibaba's competing mobile payment apps — WeChat Pay and AliPay, respectively — are used by just about everyone in China, from fancy restaurants and high-end designer boutiques down to street vendors, taxi drivers, and even panhandlers.

The depth to which the payment method has become part of daily life was driven home for me on a recent visit to the city of Xi'an, a city of 13 million in northwestern China. At the gate of the city's ancient walls, I happened upon a group of Chinese students gathered to listen to a few musicians sing on a Saturday night.

This is not an uncommon sight in New York, where in nearly every metro station, a musician is strumming a guitar with his or her guitar case dotted with dollar bills.  But the musicians in Xi'an had no open guitar case.

At first I wondered how the musicians might receive tips. But every couple of songs, one of their friends held up two cards printed with QR codes — one for Alipay and the other for WeChat Pay. Dozens of the attendees lifted up their phones and, in seconds, had scanned the QR code and sent a few yuan to the performers.

It was genius. 

No more digging around for loose change and finding you only have a $20 bill. No more trying to push your way to the front of the crowd so that you can deposit a few coins in the guitar case. Only a couple of clicks.

In China's major cities, mobile payments are the preferred way to pay for just about everything

It would be easy to write my anecdote as some particularly tech-savvy millennials, except for the fact that such uses of mobile payments are common, and not just with young people.

Tencent's WeChat Pay has a whopping 900 million monthly active users, while Alipay, from Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial, has over 500 million monthly active users. Almost all of those users are Chinese nationals.

For comparison, Apple Pay has 127 million users globally — and it comes pre-installed on every iPhone. 

Walking through the colorful Muslim Quarter street market in Xi'an the following day, I noticed that all of the food vendors had set out AliPay and WeChat Pay QR codes for tourists to pay for their food. I was the only one paying in cash. 

I saw the same at street-side fruit stands in Shenzhen and Beijing weeks later. One coffee shop in Beijing didn't even have a register, only a QR-code scanner. I had to leave and go to a different cafè because all they accepted was mobile payment. 

Phone-scannable QR codes means that anyone can become a merchant. No one needs hardware like a card or chip readers. All you need is an account and your personal QR code. Print it out on a sheet of paper and anyone passing by can send you money. Or simply scan the QR code of the person trying to pay you.

Ninety-two percent of people in China's top cities said that they use WeChat Pay or AliPay as their primary payment method, according to a 2017 study by Penguin Intelligence. And the amount spent per month through those services keeps going up.

Chinese spending using cash, however, is down around 10% over the last two years, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Young Chinese people I spoke to said they rarely carried a wallet or cash at all. There was no point. Smartphones were the easiest way to pay for things, so why bother? 

Mobile payments have become wildly popular in China for two reasons

It is clear that mobile payments have taken off in China in a way that they have yet to in the US or Europe. While it is tempting to suggest that this has occurred because China is so far ahead technologically, the reality is that it comes down to existing infrastructure. 

Credit cards were never popular in China, due in large part to poor options, cultural attitudes about debt, and, until recently, the lack of disposable income. China's state-owned banks, meanwhile, are notoriously difficult to deal with.

When AliPay launched in 2004 as an escrow-service between buyers and sellers on Taobao, Alibaba's massively popular consumer-to-consumer e-commerce platform, it provided a much needed layer of security and trust. By the time it evolved in a mobile payment service in recent years, it already had a large user base. And compared to signing up for a credit card or using the state-owned banks, AliPay was infinitely more user-friendly.

Meanwhile, WeChat Pay is a function within WeChat, Tencent's messaging app that is used by more than 1 billion people. It has been China's most popular app for some time.

The payment function was launched in 2014 during Lunar New Year, when it is common in China to give friends and family red envelopes of cash. Tencent drove adoption by allowing WeChat users to gift digital red envelopes of money to groups of friends. Users who opened the packets first — and, in the process, signed up for WeChat Pay — got bigger sums.

WeChat Pay saw 16 million red envelopes get sent in the first 24 hours of launch, according to The Wall Street Journal. Pretty quickly, the app became the primary way for friends to send money to each other or split bills, similar to Venmo in the US.

Alibaba and Tencent are sitting on a treasure trove of consumer data

The benefits for Alibaba and Tencent go far beyond the transaction fees collected. The ubiquity with which Chinese people use mobile payments means the companies are sitting on a treasure trove of consumer data.

WeChat and Taobao, Alibaba's primary app, both serve a variety of functions from messaging, social networking, and e-commerce to taxi-hailing, bike-sharing and travel booking. The consumer data from payments is used to build detailed profiles of each user, which can then be monetized for marketing purposes directly within their apps in ways that even Facebook and Google would salivate over.

For example, that baby formula that you bought from the convenience store is telling Taobao to start sending you ads and promotions for other infant products to buy directly in the Taobao app.

Further, both Tencent and Alibaba have credit scoring businesses — Tencent Credit and Zhima Credit, respectively — that heavily factor payment histories into their scores. Both companies are beginning to introduce other financial products, such as loans and money market funds, as well.

In terms of market share, Alipay has 54% compared to 40% for WeChat Pay, according to iResearch Consulting Group. But the battle for who will dominate the mobile payments industry is only just starting to heat up.

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