#i have to write a full 20-min script | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

tiffanylamps · 2 years ago

Note

🔥🔥🔥🔥 of course, some beyond evil hot takes 🔥🔥🔥🔥 but also, what is some controversial opinion that you have about something entirely mundane :^0

ask me ask me ask me baby (Disclaimer: I started writing this, then had dinner, watched an episode of Bros on Foot, then had a shower and now I'm pretty exhausted (thanks rona + bad health). So my answers may seem a lil disorganised... they most likely are) Oh, gosh. I don't think I have that many opinions that are actually controversial when discussing be. But I shall still give it a go. I going to put a break here 'cause I really didn't know when to shut up. Also, sorry Iva but I feel like my answers are things we've already spoken about. So, I don't think any of this is new information to you 😩 TL;DR: Dong Sik and Joo Won shouldn't be represented by one aspect of their character. They're more complicated than that. (Including a mundane opinion at the end) (please excuse any weird funny business in this post (writing, grammar, spelling, clarity), we're trying our best here at Lamps HQ)

i. We as a fandom baby Dong Sik too much. I love Dong Sik. I adore him. He has seen and experienced far too many traumas, and I want nothing but good things for him in his future. What happened to him and his family when he was 20 was a tragedy that could have been avoided if the system (which should be in place to aid victims) wasn't systemically corrupt. He was beaten by police officers whilst in custody. He was framed and belittled, degraded, and humiliated. (the trauma he experienced is so layered and would take a lifetime for him to unpack and get closure from).

It almost completely ruined his life and future prospects, and it would have been done if Nam Sang Bae hadn't come in with his lvl 100 guilt and tried to make up for his actions. Dong Sik tried to make the best out of the awful circumstances that befell him and I sincerely admire him. Not everyone is as kind and loving as Dong Sik.... But but but... Buuuuut that doesn't absolve him of his actions. He murdered someone with his bare hands and allowed the system that was once put against him to be used in his favour.

Police officers shouldn't be murdering civilians. full stop. Yes, he was emotionally compromised- technically it could be seen as self-defence, but an unconvicted man, a suspect, was murdered and Dong Sik didn't face repercussions. Nam Sang Bae skewed the evidence so Dong Sik didn't get into trouble. Dong Sik took a year (?) off work after that event and to "help" him recover, Sang Bae got Dong Sik transferred to his substation (which Sang Bae had been demoted to as a result of one of his rookies dying on the job. Although, it wasn't deemed much of a punishment considering he was so close to retiring anyway). All the while, Dong Sik feels justified for his actions (as he did when he moved Min Jeong's fingers). (Screenshots from the translated script book/author's notes doc)

I think it's best that when discussing and exploring Dong Sik's character, we remember that he is a man capable of murder. He is a murderer. (Do I blame him for what he did? No, not really. I can see why he did it. Objectively, I fucking love it for the narrative lol). But yeah, he isn't a guiltless sweet baby angel who never did anything wrong in his life. (DISCLAIMER: obviously jokes are just jokes. I love them and I never want them to stop. I am super guilty of participating in this line of joking and I'm not about to stop any time soon. But when discussing DS in serious conversations, we shouldn't erase his history. By doing that, we are devoiding him of agency and retribution (which is one of the main arcs/themes of his character development)).

ii. Joo Won is autistic and people need to stop calling him stupid. I will die on this hill, I don't care. I fully encourage everyone to bully Joo Won, because, well, he fucking deserves it. I know that bullying him is a hilarious love language the fandom has developed and I fully participate in this pastime. I honestly love it. Yes, he has done a lot wrong and shouldn't be absolved of his sins (that being said, we should allow him the space to learn and grow. We should learn to forgive whilst still keeping him and ourselves in check). But where I draw the line is when people outright laugh at his characteristics/actions which are derived from the fact that Joo Won is coded as autistic.

I know not everyone is going to be particularly versed in neurodivergent symptoms and that is completely fine. I even didn't fully clock Joo Won being autistic the first time I watched the show- I "labelled" his actions as a result of one) his obscenely privileged upbringing and two) the fact that he (imo) has some degree of OCD (which is a type of anxiety disorder). Then it hit me one day that he is soooo autistic. A few examples (I'm too ill to list each one or go into full detail): 1- People say that he's a bad detective. Which, ugh. 2- That he should have seen the "obvious" signs that Dong Sik wasn't the killer earlier. This sentiment completely ignores the timeline of the show and the fact that the viewer is provided information that Joo Won doesn't have access to. And it also removes Dong Sik's accountability for being purposely obtuse and antagonistic. 3- the whole (very minor) narrative that joo won is lame because he has terrible people skills (or something along those lines, I can't quite remember the tags I read as it was a while ago). This one, in particular, ties in with Joo Won's autism coding. With a (relatively sound) understanding of what autism looks like in male adults, to me, it would seem that a lot of what Joo Won does (speaking bluntly, getting easily confused when provided a lot of information during an intense situation, overwhelm, struggling to gauge people's emotions/tone, being very black and white, hyper focussing on a topic of interest, struggling to adapt to new social environments, masking, issues with food and sensory stimulation, etc) can be credited to autism. Perhaps I'm connecting dots that don't exist and am projecting an ideal onto his character, but as someone who grew up with multiple friends and family members who are neurodiverse (and is neurodiverse myself), I can see so many similarities between Joo Won's actions, thought processes, and mannerisms to that of a person with autism.

^ (credit) here is an overview of some characteristics of autism in adults (obviously, it's a complex topic which differs from person to person. But I can definitely connect many of these examples to joo won's character and actions). [I feel like I could say a lot more about this subject, but it would be distracting away from the original point. I have thoughts on Joo Won masking and how he struggles to mask around Dong Sik]

How does this relate to Joo Won being "stupid"? One may ask. I will try to explain it as best I can (even though I don't fully have my answer planned out). Labelling Joo Won as stupid, as a stuck-up nepo baby who did nothing for the storyline, or just a useless dolt that needed Dong Sik to spoon-feed him, completely misconstrues the source material. Joo Won is intelligent, hard-working, determined, stubborn, foolish, annoying, pompous, proud, narrow-minded, snobby, short-sighted, dedicated, loyal, loving, persistent, and perceptible to change (and even more than that). We wouldn't have a story if Joo Won was stupid. We wouldn't have a conclusion if Joo Won was stupid. Downplaying Joo Won's intelligence and chalking up his characteristics as something that makes him less-than does a complete disservice to his character as well as his importance within the story. Beyond Evil is a story with TWO leads. It's not the Dong Sik show. I can NEVER subscribe to the act of bringing one character down in order to hold another up. Dong Sik is not this all-seeing, all-knowing, flawless character. If he was, he would have never been framed for murder, he wouldn't have been stuck for 20 years, and he wouldn't have needed help in uncovering the truth. He needed Joo Won (and Ji Hwa, Jae Yi, Jung Je, Ji Hoon, Du Soo, Sang Bae, etc). Without Joo Won, he may have never found out the full truth of what happened to his sister (as how many people in his life had a part to play in the traumas he faced). So, I think it's about time that people start to recognise Joo Won as a neurodivergent character (and stop giving him a hard time for not seeing signs that WE were given), as well as stop downplaying him. Kim Soo Jin, Sim Na Yeon, and Yeo Jin Goo created such a multi-dimensional, complex, flawed character with good and bad qualities, it does a disservice to their creativity and hard work when one belittles Joo Won down to one descriptor. Dong Sik and Joo Won aren't just the idiot and the downtrodden. They're more than that and fan interpretation shouldn't rewrite the facts of the show.

Anyway... there's a point in there somewhere... I think... I have no idea if I managed to construct a reply that makes sense. I don't think I fully relayed all my thoughts on this particular matter, but we live. tbh, I feel very icky when an autistic character gets labelled as stupid or useless. It gets on my nerves and if it wasn't obvious, I am pretty protective of Joo Won (maybe I shouldn't be, but... well... here we are!). Also, as a note: I don't expect anyone to agree with my opinion that Joo Won is autistic. But yeah, I was going to include more "controversial" opinions for be, but I have already said way too much. This post reads like a rant - which it probably is - and I don't want it to ruffle anyone's feathers. It's not an attack, it's just my opinion.

As for the mundane opinion: iii. kiwis are the scum of the fruit world. They're nasty and a lot of effort to eat (considering they don't taste great), and their texture is gross. But I do think their furry shell is pretty neat, even if it makes my skin cruel. (idk why this was the first thing that came to mind lol)

(sorry Iva. Maybe one day I will learn how to give short answers😂🫣)

#ask answered #ask game #chatty lamps #thank you <3 #beyond evil #i'm ill and yet I manage to write this beast of a post. this is what this show has done to me. i just can't help myself 😂#i do have more opinions for be that are less intense and a lot more fun but... i guess i wanted to have a bitch and moan #as a pre-emptive warning:#rn i will not be taking constructive criticisms. maybe in the future. but right now??? I'm trying not to be miserable #soooo if anyone thinks i suck for what i wrote then... 🤷‍♀️ idk... maybe keep it to yourself

20 notes · View notes

kelmcdonald · 2 years ago

Text

See You at VanCAF

This is copy pasted from my newletter.

Hey all! My main thing is I'll be at VanCAF which is in Vancouver, British Columbia on May 20&21. They haven't posted con maps yet, so I don't know what my table number is. But I'll be there and it's free to get into. So stop by!

Like I said the big thing this month is going to VanCAF. The rest of the month is mostly keeping my nose to the grindstone.

This month's full moon movie is The Wolfman again. This time the remake. While watching the original Wolf Man, myself and other folks in the discord talked about some of the stuff that was changed in the remake (stuff like the remake is twice as long.) So I figured doing a back to back would be kinda fun. So if you wanna join, we'll be watching it May 5th at 6pm PST. Join the discord if you want.

As always I'll be streaming art on Twitch. My schedule is currently the following:

Tuesday 8pm-10pm PST

Wednesday 8pm-10pm PST

Thursday 6pm-9pm PST (during the Iron Circus Geekshow)

I mentioned last month that I was redoing the live reading of Fame and Misfortune. My mic worked this time so I've saved it and posted it on my youtube. We go over through the whole story in about 30 mins. Then I answer some questions from fans.

I'll definitely doing something like this for The Better to Find You With. As I'll get to in the next section, I got a lot of stuff on my plate. It will probably be some time in the fall.

I spent a lot of April still playing catching up on things. I was really backed up on my work for Seven Seas. I think I got it handled now, but Blue Moon is still not done. I think that has to be my primary focus this month. I was hoping to get the current chapter of You are the Chosen One last month, but that didn't happen. It's penciled so for the next few Fridays I'll post the pencils of the rest of chapter.

By the time those go up, I'll hopefully be done with Blue Moon and can give You are the Chosen One more attention. I hate to do it, but I have to put something on hold. The City Between being free means it gets me more new readers/attention and You are the Chosen One takes longer. And after I write Blue Moon, I should probably make sure the next batch of You are the Chosen One script are ready for drawing. So here's my to do list/priority:

Write Blue Moon

Keep up with The City Between

Freelance thing that is NDA

Clean up Murky Water to make a book

Finish Chapter 3 of You are the Chosen One

Review next few chapters of You are the Chosen One

Anyway, that's quite a lot. I barely had time to read or watch new stuff this month. So kinda a short list this month.

Darling by Olivia Stephens - Darling is a Western Horror about a black woman who's living as a werewolf to escape the racism of 1800s America. She meets a black man on the run and the two have an instant connection Olivia art is excellent and rendering makes every page look both beautiful and haunting. It's one of the best werewolf comics I've read. You should all go back it here.

Love is Hard for Otaku - This is one checked out because Mangasplaining did an episode on it. They had a kinda mixed opinion of it, but I was curious to look into it myself. It's about a gal who's a big nerd but is hiding it from her day job because her last boyfriend dumped her for being too nerdy. A nerdy guy friend proposes they date each other because since they are both nerds she won't have to worry about him dumping her for it. There is a manga and an anime. The manga is a little rough. The pacing seems to be kinda wonky. The anime does a better job landing the jokes, mostly because a lot of the jokes involved references to anime. So the joke works better when they can copy the scene from Evangelion shot for shot, rather than translation the animation into a comic. I don't 100% buy the characters as a couple so I'm on the fence about continuing to watch it.

Nope - This was something that was on my I should get around to seeing this movie since it came out. It was streaming so I made a point to watch it. It's less than a year old so I won't go into details about the plot. But I really liked the point it makes about random chance and nature. I also really liked the relationship between the two main siblings. It was a good mix for conflict, frustration, and affection.

Anyway, thanks for sticking with me through the big workload that's going on. Please back my Patreon if you can. Every little bit helps!

#newsletter #kel mcdonald newletter #werewolves #comics #webcomics #fame and misfortune #the city between #you are the chosen one #nope movie #love is hard for otaku #olivia stephens

2 notes · View notes

felassan · 4 years ago

Text

Gamers For Groceries 2 event

A Twitch stream event from a few days ago. It can currently be re-watched here (it was fun & interesting, so I do recommend to check it out direct). This post contains some notes on things of particular interest & relevant timestamps, in case this is useful to anyone (for example bc of accessibility reasons).

First up is the All About Animating panel, a series of mini-interviews with game devs (animators) asking what they do, how they got there, and advice for anyone interested in getting into the industry. Some or all of the devs that were interviewed are currently working on DA4. They talked a bit about their day-to-day work and a lot about the craft of game dev animation in general. This segment runs from timestamp ~38 mins 40 secs to 1:07:50. Some notes:

[sounded like DA4] Right now the creature team are working on different creatures in a way which involves going through a lot of mocap data

At BioWare they have a pretty big technical animation team, to support their animators, so each tech animator has a different specialty. Tech anim involves animation support, character art support, and rigging the characters so that the animators can pose them

[not sure if re: DA4 work specifically, another project or a general comment on the craft] One of the featured animators’ area of specialty at the moment is faces and hair (building the control structure for face animations). First they had to decide how the face rig and its control structure would work. This involves a lot of performance capture of live actors for things like cinematics and gameplay animation, therefore the rigs for bodies and faces have to be able to accurately capture the full range of expressions and emotions that the actor is portraying. Right now the stage that this dev is working on most is setting up the heads that they’re getting through the pipeline from character art e.g. making adjustments based on feedback from the cinematics team. “Polish - just trying to get realism”

Hair tech has come quite a long way in the last few years [in the industry]

[not sure if re: DA4 work specifically, another project or a general comment on the craft] Hair is very complex to get right. “In the past most games have used card-based hair, which is basically like sheets of polygons with a texture on it that looks like hair, through layers of transparency. But real hair is strand-based, digital strands, so we’re starting to look into that kind of tech - try to get more realistic, more beautiful hair, but there’s always a performance cost to hair. Layers of transparent things are always an expense, they need to balance like, it looks good and moves well, but it doesn’t make your computer or console chug. [...] I guess we’re in the prototype stage but we’ve almost got a set pipeline. It’s always fun to experiment”

In Mass Effect 2 or 3, Miranda’s hair was as expensive as a whole character (!)

[on balancing hair costs/performance, general] It depends on things like character importance and how many characters are on-screen at the time. When you’re in gameplay fighting a bunch of monsters you’re not going to be giving full beautiful hair to all the characters and the monsters, as it will cost too much. (Having a helmet on is a convenient way to get rid of hair.) But if it’s a cinematic scene, with 2 characters talking to each other in a dramatic context, there’s a better budget for nice hair allocated

Some of the hair in Anthem was quite expensive in cinematics. They kept getting bugs from QA saying (for example) that a character’s hair was tripling the performance cost in the scene, so it would go back to character art so they could take away some of the hair cards. “Tough balance, quality versus cost”

“I wish all the characters could have beautiful strand hair”

For p-cap, a lot of the time they don’t want to be too prescriptive in terms of the direction that they’re giving the actors, as the actors know what they’re doing and have a lot of experience, so they give them vague instructions that they then riff off of

[sounded like DA4] They recently did a mocap shoot

[sounded like DA4] There’s a bit more productivity happening now in the pandemic situation; now that the animators are not all going to the capture lab in Vancouver in person for shoots, if it’s not their turn to direct a shot they can instead be working on something else on their computers (multi-tasking). ((Lead DA4 Producer Scylla Costa recently gave a talk at a games festival on the challenges of DA production during the pandemic. In part of this talk he talked about various benefits and drawbacks to the remote-working situation. He also talked about and showed some behind-the-scenes stuff for p-cap and mocap. Notes, images and link here))

[sounded like DA4] Special mocap suits were sent out that they can use with a laptop to go anywhere and shoot motion capture. It’s not as high fidelity as what comes out of the capture lab, but it’s really good for prototyping stuff. Before the pandemic they did some of this (going to a park and shooting some running around)

[sounded like DA4] In one of the shoots they had some actors who were really well-trained in dancing. They were trying to get them to do some combat stuff. This was a bit challenging in the pandemic situation as there’s only so much they can demonstrate/portray as an example to the actors from a distance on camera. “It’s hard to describe what a ‘dodge to attack’ is through the camera to somebody who has no idea what combat looks like in video games”

[not sure if re: DA4 work specifically, another project or a general comment on the craft] The pandemic has really affected performance capture for the face side of things badly, as in order to record, the actor gets dots painted on their face in specific locations by a makeup artist. They can’t do that right now because of social distancing/restrictions, so they haven’t been recording faces at the moment

The more detailed a face, the more joints it has, the more the cost to performance is

---

There was also the Writers’ Block panel, featuring DA writers Mary Kirby, Sheryl Chee and Patrick Weekes, and DA editor Karin Weekes. The timestamps for this segment are ~2:37:50 - 3:26:20. Some notes:

PW has never been weirder than when they were writing Cole on DAI

PW thinks that they accidentally wrote part of “Timber” by Kesha into Solas at one point and they were like “Well, okay, I have to stop listening to Kesha”

For Sheryl, after a while Blackwall’s VA always nailed doing his lines. She loved the quality of his voice and so after a while would always hear his voice while she was writing. This really worked out

^ Mary had this with Merrill. As soon as they cast Eve Myles she listened to several hours of her in Torchwood, and then just wrote to the way that she spoke as much as possible

^ PW had this with GDL as Solas and FPJ as Bull. As soon as they heard FPJ’s delivery, they were like “Oh, okay, I have to write some lines differently, because Bull is smarter than I realized”. With GDL they were like “Okay, he’s going to put poetry into anything I say, in the best way possible”. In early drafts of Solas lines there were parts where they [PW] wondered “Is this too melodramatic? Is this too tragically-angstful?” and then they would hear GDL and be like “Oh! [It’s fine] Game on!”

For localization, German words are often quite long so they often have to make sure that everything fits on the GUI

They think scenes like the romance scenes sound prettier in the Italian versions

Behind the curtain in creating the in-world languages: PW: “There are some awesome websites that have every elven word, like ‘Here are the translations and verb tenses and conjugations’ [etc], [...] and usually Mary and I get very sad slightly looking at those pages going like ‘Does that mean that we have to stick to that?’ [...] The rule is, if I’ve looked at the Wiki and the words, and I go ‘Here’s the correct grammatical way to do it’, and if that turns out to be too long or too many disconnected syllables and it just looks bad or sounds bad, then we shorten it to something simpler, because the key is we want to give the flavor of a foreign language, but we don’t have the world-building budget and capacity to make something that is going to be dictionary-real [in a way that] someone could go through and translate all the background things written on the old temple walls”. Part of the reason for this is the consideration for VAs, who already have to act while bearing lots of things in mind, like the cues in the script for each line

Mary: “For building a language, the first things that I started with for qunlat, elven and dwarven, was what words do we need to use the most? Greetings, farewells, words for friend and enemy, basic things that will come up easily in conversation. After that it’s ‘How difficult is this for other writers to use?’ Can they just pick it off the Wiki? Do they need just one word? Do they need to write whole sentences, and how does that work? Qunlat has almost no grammar to it because asking anyone to learn how to use Qunari grammar and conjugate verbs in a pretend language is impossible, and then once you’ve done that a human being has to be able to read it, while not knowing what any of it means”

PW: “One thing that I was really impressed with with Mary in particular doing, Mary was one of the big lore people across the entire DA series; I can look at a word and go like, ‘That has two A’s in a row, that’s definitely a Qunari word. That word is kind of long and maybe has some apostrophes and has a couple of flowy vowel sounds, that’s probably elven’, I think that’s what’s important. You want players to be able to look at a word, players want to feel smart, [like] ‘Oh I don’t know what that means but I totally know that’s a word from the Qunari people!’”. Mary: “Every language has its own set of phonemes, the sounds that they make, and the sort of word structure and spelling so that it gives a flavor to that language. Hopefully that is always chosen to be pronounceable, because again, very important that the words can be said by human beings :D”

Sheryl: “One of the fun things to do is to make up swear words in the fake languages [...] Recently Brianne wanted a word, I don’t know if she managed to find one”

The origin of bosh’tet in ME: it’s just saying “bastard” and slurring it

PW: “I feel like there are times when past writers kind of leave traps for future writers, where past writers will go ‘Okay, I’m going to write this detailed phrase in a codex entry but don’t worry, it doesn’t matter if it can never be said aloud, because it’ll never have to be voiced!’ and then, next game, guess what guys! Look what you have to make someone [a VA] say! And you’re like [facepalm], c’mon!”

Karin: “Now, four games in, we have pages and pages of all these examples, and I wanna say this, well that’s how we said something before, well that’s ridiculous, I don’t wanna say that, but now we’ve said it and it’s out there, so it’s like, how do we, y’know, how do we evolve, and sometimes we just go ‘Screw it! Languages are living languages! We’ll just say it like this now!’”

PW's favorite is the sarcastic Mythal’enaste, “Because it’s the sarcastic Mythal's blessing that basically means you’re getting screwed over somehow. I love it because Mythal nasty! Whoever wrote that clearly never thought that someone would have to say this out loud”

Sheryl wrote Bull’s joke icicles line. She also wrote Isabela’s big boats line - Jennifer took it out but then DG was like “No it has to come back”

They have a pun test, they get a few of them and have to allot them wisely so as not to oversaturate on the puns. “Is this good/bad enough to be one of the times that we pull the trigger? We did have one of those recently, I obviously can’t talk about it, but it was pronounced Okay to go ahead”

The ‘baby-est’ writer is Brianne, who’s been there 8 years

It makes PW sad that the players never get to see the writers’ temp-text [placeholder text when portions are a WIP]. “People have the best temp-text". Mary: “The number of conversations that I’ve temped in like ‘WELL. I hope nothing BAD happens HERE’”

Q. If you could bring in anybody from outside of gamedev, who would you like to work with and do a writer’s session with? PW: “I will say romance novelist Nora Roberts, she is really smart and also she knows how to write inside a genre, and do wonders within it. Her structure is so good. If you pick up one of her books, you know here’s when this is gonna happen, here’s when they’re gonna meet, here’s when this first moment will happen. We’re all experienced and I feel pretty good about that but I really like all of the things she does that way, and also I am a sucker for romance so I would love to bring a romance novelist in and just have them look at our scenes and go ‘Okay here, no, they should pull the tie so that the article of clothing comes open, we need a sense of how warm the skin is here’ - something like that. I’d wanna see what they could do with that”

“Luke writes the best worst lines”

“I’m always impressed with Mary getting away with lines. There are lines that I look at like, wow, you buried that one. [...] The only players who get that line, I feel like they earned it if they went that far into it. [...] And then Varric or Merrill says a ridiculous line in a one-time throwaway”

Karin: “The group dynamic, you’ll see conversations or snippets of a lunch chat or a thing we’ve been joking about and you’ll see it get pulled in, and how all of you [the writers] are able to take a normal kind of thing - as normal as we get as a group anyway - and then turn it into a moment, and use it to further the plot or use it to further a character. It’s just the cleverest thing and it happens in so many different ways. [...] The little snippet of life, then how you crafted it into this very cool thing”

Quartermaster Threnn was written by PW in half a day. “When I was writing Threnn, ‘Okay, this is a good-hearted [person], I was doing a little bit of Steel Magnolias, southern, no-nonsense, but like, blue collar Steel Magnolias’. This is someone accustomed to the ways of the world so she’s going to call a spade a spade. If you come up to her and you’re an elf she doesn’t recognize you and says ‘Buckets are over there’ because she thinks you’re there to clean, [but] ‘Anyone calls you a knife-ear you come to me I’ll take care of it’. It’s problematic but she’s trying - the good-hearted person rooted for the wrong group on every occasion. She was a proud Loghain supporter, she gets really exited if he comes to Skyhold. That was a fun character for me to write because I had a viewpoint in my mind. I remember someone was like ‘Threnn is really important to me’. And you have to honor that, cause you’re like ‘Cool, it means so much to me that this connected with some part of you’”

---

Also of interest was the Mass Affection panel, in which BioWare devs looked back in over a decade of history to remaster a classic. It featured devs who worked on MELE. The timestamps for this segment are ~3:36:09 - 4:24:37. Some notes:

When the pandemic hit the MELE team were in a relatively awkward spot. They were really entering into what they consider full production and were on-boarding a bunch of teams, as well as training and on-boarding third-party external partner specialized teams worldwide. When the pandemic hit, BioWare and EA were super on top of it. They were tracking it weeks beforehand, getting everyone their computers ready, and getting everything encrypted. When the middle of March 2020 hit they were home rightaway. EA were nothing but supportive throughout the entire thing. They got money every quarter for stuff. It functionally ‘hit’ at 4-6 different times for them as the pandemic occurred in different places throughout the world at different times depending on each country’s response plan (and their external partners were in different countries). “So it was one of those things where it was just like, every day we’d come in like can we still work with this company anymore? Do we need to find someone else? Do we need to pull people in off the other projects at BioWare to fill gaps here and there?”

There was a bug on Virmire at the part when you’re coming into the STG camp. If the Mako had its new boosters on and you came hurtling in really fast, it cut to the cutscene, but the Mako hit a jump and when Ash was like “What do we do now?” the Mako ended up literally flying around in the background sideways and then crashing into the camp

Another bug: when they were re-tuning the guns, the physics force on some of the guns with Hammerhead rounds was so high that when you were fighting some of the Thorian Creepers, you could ragdoll them so hard that you could basically embed them in the roof. They’d be moving so fast that they’d penetrate all the walls with their legs dangling out. It was so easy to do and you could do it to everybody. You could launch a geth halfway across an Uncharted World

Another bug: with Shepard’s casual appearance in ME3, if you didn’t have it set up perfectly correctly it would default to Grunt for some reason. You’d be walking around as Grunt, going on dates as Grunt, and your face would be all scrunched up because it was all mapped to human bones still, so it was just, like, Nightmare Fuel of Grunt

Another bug: in ME2 on Illium when trying to recruit Samara, the Asari enemies just would not stop screaming - regardless of whether they were hit or not, it was endless screaming. Later one of the devs got an audio file of the scream, endless and looped, and now one of the devs has it on their phone and uses it for their morning alarm tone

“Shepard would come up to characters and they’d just be screaming”

---

There was also the Programming Variables panel, talking about what hurdles game programmers face. Some [or all?] of the devs that were part of this panel are currently working on DA4. They talked a bit about their day-to-day work and about the craft of game dev programming in general. The timestamps for this segment are ~ 4:24:46 - 5:06:02.

[source]

[insights/notes from Gamers For Groceries 1]

[☕ found this post or blog interesting or useful? my ko-fi is here if you feel inclined. thank you 🙏]

#dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #da4 #dragon age #bioware #video games #long post #longpost #in case this is of interest to anyone #mass effect #anthem #covid mention #cole #spirit boy #solas #lul

26 notes · View notes

xxairo-dev · 5 years ago

Text

Next Log

So I started making a 2D pixel art game. Welcome to my new Dev blog!

No official name, but the unofficial name is Bowfish.

(TLDR and Dev log with pretty gifs at bottom)

Hello internet, friends, and 2020 -- those of you that have been following me all this time know that I’ve been doing art for a loooong time. Even before I got into digital art in 2010, I’ve been drawing with paper and pencil for as long as I can remember and probably started playing video games right at the same time. For reference, my earliest memories of video games consist of Lemmings 3D on PS1, followed shortly by Rayman and Spyro the Dragon.

I’m still a big Spyro fan, also pretty sure this is how I became obsessed with dragons in general.

Science based dragon MMO girl, wherever you are -- I feel you, I am you.

Basically, I’ve been playing video games all my life (to the detriment of my parents) and I owe it to gaming for igniting my early artistic ambitions. In fact, I remember learning how to draw by copying the character art of Neopets and Sonic Advance before one day stumbling upon one of my dad’s Game Informer magazines and being blown away by the art that I saw in there (particularly the WoW art). I’m pretty sure that was when I was first introduced to Big Boy™ game art and instantly thought, “Whoa, I want to be able to draw like that”.

Later, when I got my first drawing tablet and started making digital art, it became “I want to draw for a video game”.

Even later, when I learned that being a video game artist was not a very realistic career path and opted to pursue a bachelors degree in biology instead of art, it became “I want to draw for a video game... on the side”.

Even later-er, when I got my degree in 2017 and started working full-time and realized that work saps you of all energy and motivation to work on projects at home, it became “I want to draw for a video game... some day”.

Well, today here we are in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In March, I got furloughed from my biology job due to the quarantine. I spent four months passing time, thinking that I’d go back to work soon. But by the end of July, I was at wit’s end of what to do with myself after getting burnt out on a number of hobbies, games, shows, books, etc. without spiraling into some very expensive hobbies (hello aquariums) with the money I wasn’t making. I badly needed to find something productive to do that I thought would also benefit me in the long run i.e. post-quarantine, and unfortunately I couldn’t work on wet lab techniques at home.

“Learn to code” is what my parents have said to me about a thousand times for the past 5 years. “Learn to code” is what I did try for about two weeks with Code Academy a few years ago before realizing that none of what I was learning was going to stick because I wasn’t programming in any part of my daily life. As a biologist, in evolution we like to call this “if you don’t use it, you lose it”.

I know all too well about how coding is one of the best skills you can learn. However, I also know myself all too well to know that learning code for the sake of learning code wasn’t going to work for me. I wanted to wait to learn when the right situation presented itself, ideally when I would have an opportunity to use it almost every day at like a job or something.

Well, one of my good fellow artist (and biology) friends had recently taken the plunge into creating his first video game Meganura earlier in the year. I was (and still am) seriously -- and I cannot emphasize this enough -- impressed by his progress, dedication, and ability to learn coding for this game. Or more frankly, I was seriously impressed by his dedication and progress in to learning how to code for this game.

Meganura in all it’s crispy pixel-y goodness. Man, my friends are talented.

I dwelled on this for a while.

I always considered making a game to be out-of-reach because I absolutely could not muster up the motivation to learn a single drop of code without being paid to do so after 1) being beaten over the head by “learn how to code” for so long and 2) having already tried and given up in the past.

But as it got harder to sleep well, eat well, and feel happy during the quarantine, I feel like I hit a rock bottom where I felt like if I didn’t make a big effort to find a new purpose, then I was probably going to become depressed. To preface this, I have experienced depression before, and ever since I got out it has been my goal in life to never experience it again.

The only way I was going to survive this quarantine was to give myself a new “job”.

I already had a creative mind and the skills to create art and animations for a game. I already had a lifetime of game playing experience that had formed a detailed list of specific mechanics and visual details that I knew I wanted or didn’t want in a game. I already had an analytical and detail-oriented mind (thanks biology... or thanks videogames?) that liked to plan and build things.

All it would take is just a little bit of code...

If you’ve read this far, thanks for listening and I hope some of you hear yourselves in my story.

TLDR;

I am just a daytime biologist and hobby digital artist with zero coding experience.

I’m extremely proud to say that since 07/29/20, I have been successfully developing and coding my own 2D pixel art video game in Unity and am in full swing!

This is the start of my dev blog, where I’ll be logging my progress and thoughts throughout this journey for like-minded and aspiring individuals.

My Goals:

- To create everything from scratch -- art, scripts, etc.

- To create a game about bow hunting with intuitive drag/release controls

- To create a game that has cooking and campfires

- To create a game with pretty water graphics

- To create a game that has sushi and cats

- To have a playable demo by mid 2021 (my guess for the end of quarantine)

How I’ve been learning C#:

I have been following along with YouTube tutorials to create a base script and then looking up things in Unity’s scripting documentation to expand and modify my code to achieve exactly what I want. I’ve been learning C# and how to read documentation through almost entirely pattern recognition (e.g. mimicking and experimenting with code I’ve copied from tutorials and recognizing keywords in documentation) and turning to Google or my Tech Career Peers™ for help when I get stuck or to clarify things.

The key thing is that even after copying some code, I read the documentation and figure out how every line of code in my script works before moving on.

This is because after spending a few days of looking up YouTube tutorials, I realized there were no tutorials for the exact bow controls that I wanted. Instead, I ended up watching multiple tutorials and learned how all of their scripts worked before combining and modifying pieces together. Then, I started relying entirely on documentation to write lines of code.

I don’t know how many original lines of code I’ve written so far, but there are so many now and I am so proud of all of them.

So anyway, here’s what’s happened over the past 2-3 weeks.

Dev Log:

7/29/20

- Came up with an idea for a game

7/30/20

- Installed Unity and started watching Unity tutorial videos

7/31/20

- Created water shader via shader graph (no coding required!)

- Created a basic background, player sprite, bow sprite, and arrow sprite in Photoshop

08/03/20

- First time coding in C#

- Struggle to code in Notepad++, switched to Visual Studio Code

08/06/20

- Created physics based slingshot controls for the bow and arrow with a line renderer bowstring

- Colliders!

08/09/20

- Unable to find a way to pull arrow back horizontally (-X) regardless of mouse Y movement (OnMouseDown)

- Decided that slingshot controls are for slingshots, not bows and arrows

- Scrapped physics based slingshot controls due to overcomplication (rip)

08/10/20

- Created new projectile based controls that still include drag/shoot physics

08/11/20

- Limited rotation of the bow while aiming to max 45° and min -45°

- Developed distaste for vector algebra

- Made it so that if you don’t drag far enough, you won’t release an arrow

08/12/20

- Created a trajectory line coming off the bow

- Made arrows fade away after colliding

- Created git repository to keep all project files backed up on github (Don’t wait to do this! Should’ve been done on day 1)

08/14/20

- Added physics and collider to player

- Allow you to face and move left/right with the A and D keys + updated bow controls to match

- Created left/right movement while aiming + updated bow controls to match

- Created mouse drag line for development use

- Created waterline

- Made it so the bow resets to it’s default position if you haven’t used the bow for over 2 seconds

08/15/20

- Updated Player sprite in Photoshop

- Obtained Asesprite

- Created walk animation

08/16/20

- Created bow walk, bow equip, and bow unequip animations

Next Log

#game design #game dev blog #game dev #game dev update #indie game #pixel art #pixel animation #bowfish #meganura

2 notes · View notes

sambart93 · 6 years ago

Text

2019.01.14 GARO Stage Vol 3: Kami no Kiba - JINGA - Reincarnation [Review]

Official Website here Official Twitter here Press Coverage 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 Videos 1

CAST and CHARACTERS

Inoue Masahiro as Jinga Yamamoto Ikkei as Sasha Inami Anju* and Oda Erina as Tomoha Masaki Kaoru as Ruka Matsunoi Miyabi as Amelie Fukuen Misato* and Nazuka Kaori as Shera Shimizu Saki as Ontake and Yuzuki Miyagi Koudai as Ushio Sengoku Minami and Isohara Kyouka* as Saeka Yumoto Misaki as Kerusu doNcHY as Tomino Sato Daisuke as Ramedo and Pakutora Sato Kazuma as Kaise Namiki Shusuke as Ikari Noda Hiroshi as Kido Iwata Arihiro as Lumido and Midouji Nakamura Seijiro as Fugi Horrors: Ega, Ryo, Hiro-C, Taka-ki, Kraus, Shimoo Hiroaki, Kudo Shoma, Katakabe Hiromasa, Sakai Hayato, Noda Ryunosuke, Yoshiba Yuki, Tezuka Sae, Ito Reina, Taguchi Fumiya

*There were some double casts so the * signifies the ones I saw.

NON-SPOILER REVIEW Overall: This was very good. This was a solid stage. I thoroughly enjoyed the action, I enjoyed so many of the new actors, seeing the horrors IN PERSON and so up close was amazing! The use of the projection mappings and how they used the front screen for the effects was really cool! The combination of heavy rock and action scenes was a perfect combination and I absolutely adored the two - three big action scenes that used heavy rock music to their advantage to intensify the action. One of the fighting scenes actually really impressed me with HOW they did it! Also the fact that we had a LIVE band performing is awesome! The adlibbing was gold. I can see a lot of potential in some of the characters and their future storylines. I hope we get more development and more appearances from certain characters in the future! I thoroughly enjoyed myself at this stage, even with the earthquake about 30 minutes into it which FREAKED me off. However, I had a few technical issues. This play could’ve been amazing with about 2 - 3 more days rehearsing. Let me clarify; the actors are not the issue at all! But, the sound staff and the scene transitions were very questionable at times. Sometimes the sound effects for punches and such were either played too early or too late, and it was glaringly, obviously off beat. There were a lot of moments where the orchestra would go from one song to the next as a scene ended and started, but there’d be like 10 seconds during that transition where none of the actors could more or say their lines, and it felt very unnatural and roboticly timed. If they had had just a few more days of rehearsals I really think they could’ve fixed and perfected the sound and music timing. The other issue I had was the story. The main story and the main points of the story were absolutely fine, but I felt like one character and their story line (which is attached to the main plot) was totally unnecessary. At first I thought maybe only I have these issues, but upon talking to other friends, our negatives about the play matched completely. They also had problems with the timeline in the story too, they said it was confusing to figure out when all these events are supposed to take place. But luckily, I was able to understand the timeline without any problems. But besides me, my friends found that a problem. Rating: 6/10 - I enjoyed myself, but with a few more days of rehearsing and script revising, this stage could have been amazing.

SPOILER REVIEW

PreShow

I was very confused when I got to the cinema and got in line for the goods. My goodness Goods was confusing!! You had to pick up your goods from the tables first THEN line up to pay?! No wonder the line was going so fast!! XD It took me a minute or two to figure out what the hell was going on. I kind of wish all shows did this. Would be so much faster in the goods line!! Rather than waiting for Miss-Take-A-Lot who is always in front of me buying about 40 sets of different bromides when all I want is a pamphlet but I have to stand behind her for 10 fucking minutes, also because the effing staff are taking their god damn time too trying to get everything and counting everything out for then about three times. <<< A common occurrence I experience unfortunately.

But anyway....

Then I got into the theatre and right away the very front screen is down and the projection mapping for the Garo opening sequence/advertisement on the screen looks so damn cool! And the GARO music to go along with it!! It was very Messiah-esque in that it had random patterns and shapes floating about but you knew they signified something or someone. Just like in Messiah’s movie openings. It was so cool to watching while counting down to show time.

I was to the right of the stage fourth row, but just not far enough to have any of the stage cut off - PHEW!!

Finally, about 20 minutes in, I ‪FINALLY experienced an earthquake during a show! It was bound to happen soon xD‬ although it went on for much longer than I was comfortable with so I momentarily didn’t focus on the play, so I have no idea what happened during those few minutes.

The Story

I want to talk about the story first:

So the story actually jumps around; it occurs before, during and after the Jinga tv show. Some people (as mentioned above) found it really difficult to figure out when it was set but I took little hints to figure out when it was. The first 40 minutes or so are set before Jinga is reborn as a human; he’s still hanging around Amelie and the Horror are bowing down before him. Then the middle section is set during the Jinga tv show; we see where he went those few episodes where he came back bloody or he doesn’t remember what happened. And the final part is setting during after the events of Jinga when he gets his Horror posse to turn and such.

The main running thread throughout all this is a girl called Tomoha. Tomoha is a Makai Priest in training, and she has a group who she trains with, she has a sister, and has some normal friends. One of her normal friends unfortunately succumbs and becomes a horror, but Jinga gets involved and reverts her back to a human being. Tomoha learns that the person who saved her friend is called Jinga and that he can turn horrors back to humans. After this she decides to find him, but when she does Jinga doesn’t recognise nor remember her. She realises there are two Jingas. Later she wants to introduce him to her training clan but while there Jinga’s Horror henchmen, and a group wanting to destroy Jinga turn up and the entire clan is doomed.

That the basicness of the entire story. Now to get into details.

The Show

Maybe I’ll just get the negatives out first and then I can flail to the end.

☆ As mentioned above I had some technical issues with the play. First was the timing between action/movements and the sound effects. The timing of some action hits were either too fast or too slow. And the off beat of the sounds were glaringly obvious unfortunately. Also, the transitions between songs, the actors would stay frozen until the right note in the music and then the scene or line would start, which made it look and feel very robotic.

☆ I really do think just a little more (a few days of) rehearsing would’ve really perfected this stage! There were technically things like timing that could’ve been spot on if they had had just a little more time. I heard from a friend that: they didn’t have a GenePro for the press because it wasn't good enough yet, and that they kept pushing things back until eventually just cancelled the GenePro and only gave interviews instead. So clearly, I’m right in thinking (even at Senshuuraku) that they needed a few more days. During the curtain call, Masahiro even commented that he only had one day to rehearse. But I’m not even calling out on the acting! I thought everyone did well. I only had issue with technically stuff.

☆ Call me bias but the first 30 mins or so were so unnecessary and were pretty boring. They use Tomoha as the central character for the plot but in all honesty, Tomoha’s entire storyline and participation was unneeded and unnecessary. I liked the main storyline for Jinga, and the storyline of Jinga being tracked down by the Ikkei crew, but Tomoha was completely pointless. We didn’t need her in order to know about a training group of priests and knights, we didn’t need to know she had a sister, we didn’t need one of her friends to turn horror, we didn’t need her begging for Jinga to save her. This all could’ve been just a random human or a random training crew and nothing in the main storyline would have changed. Jinga could’ve just found and gotten to that training crew on his own, Jinga could’ve ‘saved’ this human-turn-horror without introduction. We didn’t need to know about her or her sister or any one specifically at all. You could’ve switched ANYONE in where she was and it wouldn’t have made any difference to the story at all. Having her as the ‘main character’ just made the first half full of unnecessary introductions, absolutely pointless, and SO BORING.

☆ And because the story was somewhat lacking, they really missed a great opportunity to have Jinga get really evil. We have Tomoha who has clearly fallen for Jinga and completely trusts him, and you’re telling me Jinga didn’t even TRY to manipulate and use her?! I really wanted Jinga to USE her! Manipulate her! USE HER!!! That’s what the real Jinga would do! He’d be like ‘oh this idiot LIKES me. Well I’ll trick her into falling in love with me and then she’ll do anything for me mwahaha’ but nooooooooooo the story makes a romantic bullshit subplot out of it where it’s hinted that Jinga also likes her. Oh FUCK OFF! The real Jinga would have used and abused her, and he would have laughed in her face the moment her world came crashing down! That’s the Jinga we know! But alas the story did not go there. Seriously, a few more days of script writing and rehearsing would’ve made this amazing!!

☆ Another thing I wish that changed in the script was during a few battle scenes, the entire cast are dancing to the battle music rather than actually fighting... wtf?Again, another missed opportunity! Even as the music and the dancing started, I immediately thought: TARANTINO! I really wish they had done a Tarantino-style thing: Jinga orchestrating and dancing to music while everyone else is actually fighting and screaming. That would’ve been much better. I was completely fine with Jinga being all orchestry and dancing but I think going Tarantino style would’ve been better: only he can hear the music and is dancing, while everyone else is actually screaming and fighting. Instead of this bullshit of everyone, including Horrors, dancing to the entire song.

☆ Lastly, I didn’t have a problem, but a lot of people were confused as what the the timeline of this story was. I’ve already explained above, but I can see how others might been confused. It wasn’t exactly stated so you just had to pick up on what people were saying and who was where in order to understand what point in the timeline we were in.

Now to the fangirling!!

☆ Sticking to the fighting and music topic: The actual fighting scenes with the very heavy rock music were AMAZING! You could feel the music through the floor and the fighting was very well choreographed! It was so god damn fun!!

☆ I’m jumping ahead but the best fight scene was definitely the climax fight between Jinga and Sasha. It was absolutely amazing how they did it!!! Ikkei (Sasha) had a body double so it looked like Sasha could move super fast from one end of the stage to the other! It was so fast paced, and so well executed, that even from the 4th row, I couldn’t tell where the real Ikkei was during the fight! Also the use of the lighting during this scene, and having their weapons light up. We had some points that were in complete darkness and all you could see were Jinga’s sword and Sasha’s weapons that were lit up and fighing. It was SUCH A GOOD SCENE. It was best scene in the entire play. Absolute kudos to the choreographer and to Masahiro, Ikkei, his body double and everyone involved in that scene because holy hell it was amazing!

☆ We had a LIVE orchestra the entire time which was absolutely amazing! The music itself is just a masterpiece! It’s so good! I guess that’s why they called it Garo the ‘Live Entertainment’.

☆ There was a higawari/daily change guest every day and the show I went to had Kashiwagi Yusuke as the guest. If you don’t know, I love Kashiwagi so I was super excited for this! And he did not disappoint. He was GOLD.

Yuusuke did fucking Osomatsu!!! Everyone was DYING of laughter! Even Amelie and the other cast couldn’t keep it together! SO MANY OSOMATSU JOKES!! So his story is that Amelie and co. can’t eat him because he already made a promise with Jinga that Jinga would devour him. So he explains that he wanted to save his brothers (and that there are six of them), but they accidentally got mixed up in his scheme of trying to rob a bank, and they all ended up getting shot at. In exchange for stopping those bullets from hitting his brother, he agrees to make a deal with Jinga. During his storytelling four of the ensemble came on stage in the other Oso-coloured jumpsuits and Yusuke’s like ‘WHERE’S PURPLE?!?! You couldn’t even get me five people?!’ He was absolutely amazing! So many round of applauses during his higawari. And he did some backflips too. At the Amilie ran after him with her knife like ‘KKAAARRAAAMMAATTSUU!!!’.

During the curtain call, he said he wants to come back as a Horror if they ever let him come back. He also apologised to the vast colour difference between everyone’s outfit and his; he was ain a bright blue jumpsuit with a kimono styles scarf over his shoulders xD Absolutely GOLD.

☆ I absolutely loved being able to see Jinga’s costume so up close! I absolutely adore his grey coat from the TV show and being able to see the detail of that coat so close in person was amazing!

☆ Also the full body Horror and Makai Knight suits that we got to see on stage were phenomenal! They looked AMAZING! They were pretty terrifying as they went past me in the theatre! xD And huge kudos to the people wearing those suits. They must be absolutely dying in sweat in those suits!!

☆ There is a scene where we get to see the switch between Human Jinga and Horror Jinga. Seeing that transition right in front of my eyes was amazing! I love how different his body language and posture is between the two Jingas. I also adore how different his fighting style is too between the two versions of him.

☆ Ikkei/Sasha was so good too! I absolutely adored his look. I love how he always called himself ‘Sasha’ and referred to himself in the third person, and I love how over the top he can be. And I already said but that final fighting scene with him was phenomenal!

☆ Nakamura/Fugi’s fighting style and weapon is so cool! I really loved how much control he had with his weapon. He had some moves where the weapon could’ve easily fallen out of his hand and gone flying but he had such control and so flawlessly used it. I was so impressed.

☆ Koudai as Ushio was GREAT! He was playing a young, cheerful, sorted stupid Knight in training and he just lit up the stage with his happiness and silly moments xD I wanted so much for him to survive and get all revenge-y on Jinga’s ass! I was so sad when he died. I wanted so much more from him!

☆ A quick note on the Sasha/Fugi/Ruka/Ontake group: They are neither Makai nor Horror. From what I understood, they’re from their own world and Ontake is actually like....a god? or at least an overseeyer of the human world. Because she has a forest of candles, and the candles are everyone’s life/souls. Some candles have black flames which shows who’s become a horror, and the rest are normal flames. So essentially they’re from another... dimension/world? And they hear about Jinga’s plan to steal their goddess/spirit called Tomino so they want to kill him before he can get to Tomino.

☆ There is a twist at the end where Tomoha is possessed by Tomino (we assume she’s a goddess/spirit from the world that Ikkei is from) which means ‘Tomoha’ might have a bigger role in the future.

☆ A comment from curtain called that I enjoyed: Nakamura mentioned that he’d like a spin off dorama just about his character Fugi, and then Ruka’s actor was like “I hope Ruka gets a spin off dorama too!”. Inoue immediately after said ‘not like Sasha’s gonna get one cos he’s dead’ and Ikkei was absolutely distraught looking, it was hilarious. He was like ‘hey!!!!!!!!! I can come back! I can just pop out of nowhere!’

☆ After the show: Miyabi/Amilie was at the dvd corner and Inoue/Jinga was at the buppan corner!

And that’s all! I hope you enjoyed this short review!

#garo #jinga #kami no kiba #inoue masahiro #miyagi koudai #miyagi kodai #review #stage #stage play #2.5D #2.5次元 #yamamoto ikkei #nakamura seijiro #inami anju #masaki kaoru #miyavi matsunoi

12 notes · View notes

hulahoopingholt · 7 years ago

Text

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Live - Philly

Okay, so I was writing this mainly to share the full scoop with my frenemy @msjessicaday, but then I figured there might be some other people interested in hearing about it, so I’m posting it publicly for all to hear about the most amazing time I had on April 7, 2018 at the Trocadero Theatre in Philadelphia. This is MEGA comprehensive, so cutting for extreme length, but do read on if you want a play by play of the show, or if you want to hear how Smash Mouth and Sugar Ray made surprise guest appearances.

Doors opened at 7PM, and we showed up around 5PM. There were probably about 20 people in front of us at that point. We were surrounded by a really great group of people who were SUPER entertaining and made time fly, thank god, because it was COLD and there wasn’t much to do, haha. People walking by seemed REALLY confused by why there was such a crazy (punny!) line, and when we said we were there for CXGF, most said they’d never heard of it. But then at one point a city tour bus drove by, and the guide looked over at us and said into his mic, “it’s a lot more nuanced than that!” It was fab.

It was general admission seating, and we managed to get 2nd row center seats, thankfully. (I say thankfully bc the theater frisks people as they enter, and so ladies had to line up on the left and guys on the right, which wouldn’t normally be a big deal but since this audience skewed so heavily female, guys from way back toward the end of the line were being allowed in before women who had been in the front of the line which feels like a MIGHTY PAINFUL BIT OF SYMBOLISM WHOLLY INAPPROPRIATE FOR THIS SHOW but I digress, because fortunately we had a guy in our group and we sent him ahead to grab our seats, haha.)

Okay I do have the set list so from here on out that’s what I’m going to refer to, but some of the asides/ad libs I may not have in exactly the right order because there was just a lot going on and my memory isn’t the best.

First off, you can see the first 10-15 mins of this show on Rachel’s Facebook Live but I’m still going to paraphrase what happened.

They started with Where’s Rebecca Bunch? Everybody except for Rachel came out and dramatically looked for where Rebecca could be! Gabrielle had Rachel’s phone out and was filming the crowd. She came around the front during the “the town is all atwitter ‘cause the whole town is on Twitter,” and that + the phone got a really loud cheer from the audience. Then Rachel popped out and was like “um, guys, I’m right here, I was just taking a dump in the scary bathrooms.” (Okay so I gather this whole bathroom bit is scripted but this theater REALLY DID have murder bathrooms, the ladies’ room was ALL this Pepto-Bismol pink, the stalls were a) made of what felt like plywood and b) were REALLY short, like I’m only 5′6″ and my head was WELL above the stall wow.) And then Scott was like “that’s just the song we sing whenever we can’t find you” and Rachel goes “um so you just burst into full band and choreo whenever you can’t find me?” So then they all agreed to start with the REAL opener, West Covina. It was really short, but fab. Highlights included Rachel singing “my life’s about to change...oh my fucking gosh,” and then when she got to “because I’m hopelessly, desperately in love with...” and then Vinnie stepped forward and just PREENED. Our audience LOVED him and cheered for him for a really long time. It actually seemed like they were ready to move on but we were all NOPE, WE ARE HERE FOR JOSHUA FELIX CHAN LET US HAVE THIS MOMENT. But then Rachel finished and instead of saying “West Covinaaaaaa” she sang “PHILADELPHIAAAAA.” And Donna Lynne just casually brought up that final note an octave or two and DAMN that is a talented woman.

Then the rest of the cast left and Rachel did a welcome and said how excited they were to be in this historic city. The Trocadero is a rock theater, so she asked how many people in the audience were musical theater nerds and thus this was their first time in a rock theater. Only a few people cheered, so she said “ohhh, this is a pretty cool crowd. If it had been me, I would have [raised hand]. My first concert was Bette Midler at the Staples Center.” She introduced the band, which included Adam Schlesinger on piano and Jack Dolgen on guitar/bass. She said that women have been known to throw their underwear at Adam...and in fact, somebody in Boston had given them their dirty underwear, so we just had to be trashier than Boston. She then said women have been known to throw their tampons at him and mimed removing a tampon from her vagina and throwing it at him. She then said “that is terrible and classless, do not laugh at that joke.” Obviously we all laughed. Then she said “speaking of classless, let’s do a song.”

Song was Sex with a Stranger! Dance moves were appropriately raunchy. Girl was feeling herself, as she should. Highlights included “My name’s Jason.” “Shut the fuck up, Jason, I don’t care about your fucking name.”

She then came back and asked if there were any children in the audience, because it was going to be on a full on sex show. (There was, in fact, one child in the audience, she was behind us in line, haha.) She brought out Vinnie (who walked out with TP on his shoe, oops?) and said “Vinnie...have you ever hooked up with someone in your life...I mean, have you ever hooked up with someone in your life...Vinnie are you a virgin?!” and then got back on track and clarified hooked up with someone you SHOULDN’T have, which then led into We Should Definitely Not Have Sex Right Now. Yup, full on sex show. Lots of thrusting. It was fab and awkward and anything. Honestly, just watch the Facebook Live. It’s about 16 mins in.

Vinnie then wanted to show off his West Covina hoodie that you can buy at merch. Rachel said he’s a really big fan of capitalism and therefore you should buy his hoodie. FUN FACT in the Facebook live when you hear Rachel say “and that gentleman is holding up a t-shirt,” that was my friend holding up the CXGF he had bought before the concert, BOOM RECOGNITION.

So then apparently Boston had an ASL interpreter, and they shared that Period Sex basically looks like holding up a pager to your face, then two bunnies fucking. So she then demonstrated “paging all bunnies...time to fuck.” Oh Rachel.

Rachel then exited and left Vinnie on stage. He said he wanted to share something really personal with us, and when he was little he was super into martial arts and thought that was all he wanted to do, but then he saw a Gene Kelly film and that transformed him, and then he went from wanting to do this [martial arts move] to this [fancy Gene Kelly-esque dance moves]. And he talked about how excited he was to have this number in S3...yes, of course, I’ve Got My Head in the Clouds. Oh, but a great moment was before he started he took off his hoodie, and the audience went wild, and you could just hear Rachel from backstage go, “You all are thirsty. He just took off his hoodie.” LMAO WE HAVE NO SHAME IN OUR THIRST. But the number was great, and the HOLY GHOST came out and was AMAZING and sparkly. And then Vinnie said “let’s see who the Holy Ghost is tonight!” and it was GABRIELLE, who did a high kick and smiled and waved goodbye. (Sidenote, can’t remember when this happened, but Gabrielle was all about the high kicks and Jack would always do a drum hit when she did, and at one point made a crack about how Gabrielle never leaves the house w/o a drum set...to which she responded with another high kick.)

So then Rachel came back out and asked who was single, and made all singletons stand up and lock eye contact with someone, and then said “there, you know each other. Now go meet up for drinks afterward.” She then went into this whole bit about how, and she was totally serious, if anybody met their sig other at this concert, she would marry them at their wedding...but don’t think you could cheat the system, bc she would check up on you. She’d go through social media, interview you both, probably watch you have sex to see if you had chemistry...so honestly, is it really worth it? But then that led into Fuckton of Cats, which was amazing, and the whole cast came out with cat ears and they each had their own kitty personalities and it was just the cutest thing ever.

Then at this point (I’m pretty sure at least) they said how they’d love to meet fans at the stage door, but their schedule is so tight they don’t have time to, so this was time for everyone to get their selfies. So then they posed facing each direction of the theater, like “okay, now this pose is how you’d look when the Eagles won! And now this is how you’d look if someone told you the Eagles suck.” NGL I got some pretty amazing pictures...

Also I can’t remember if this is actually when it happened, but I know the whole cast was on stage for it and it was toward the beginning, so I might be right...there was a center row reserved for cast comp tickets, and there were 3 empty seats. Rachel went “whoa, whose comps didn’t show?” And everybody was mumbling to themselves like “well my people are here.” So Rachel said “actually, those seats are reserved for our founding fathers. That one is Thomas Jefferson... and that one is Benjamin Franklin...and that one.....is Betsy Fucking Ross. Because everybody else is out there with their quills, and she’s like, you know what? I’m gonna sew a GIANT FUCKING FLAG.”

Next up was The Math of Love Triangles. Rachel segued into it by saying she writes with two guys, so sometimes it feels like she’s in a love triangle. She was going back to flirt with the guys in the band...and when she was by Jack, COMPLETELY wiped out, fell right on her ass. But she kept going, so at first we weren’t actually sure if it was an accident or not. Still amazing. But then she got to the end and she couldn’t hit the high note...just raspy air. We cheered anyway. And she then said the cast has been getting really run down with the tour, and in other shows they’d been telling the audience that, but then Jack said it was a real downer, so she decided not to that night...and LOOK what happened. And Jack goes “yeah, well I also say things like...don’t fall.” ASJDKASLFJASLFD They just roasted each other CONSTANTLY it was amazing and honestly Jack is my new fave.

Pete came out next, and Jack stood next to him on guitar as they did I Love My Daughter But Not in a Creepy Way. Pete was super earnest and made a lot of uncomfortable eye contact, and all the while Jack was making these “wtf this is so creepy” faces. ALSO there was a guy in the balcony right by the theater who dressed up like Darryl in Getting Bi, right down to the ‘stache, and Pete pointed him out and you could tell he genuinely loved it and said it was his favorite venue just because of that. OH BUT ALSO when Pete came out, he said “wow, Rachel, you’re looking very rock and roll tonight, all that leather.” She thanked him, and then he said “now you’re supposed to say something about me.” So she said “you look....exactly the same as you always do. It’s like the TV show Doug...you know when he opens his closet and it’s just all green sweater vest? Hmmm, which green sweater vest should I wear today? That’s like Pete...but with yacht clothes.” ASDJLKFNASFAK

Next up was Donna Lynne doing Maybe This Dream, and omg, that woman is a goddess. Seriously. That’s all there is to it. On a really shallow/superficial note, it became really clear to me that they frump her up on the show, because she is GORGEOUS IRL, and also a lot thinner than she looks on TV. But her voice...goddamn. She just makes it seem so effortless. Audience adored her and gave her a standing ovation because she’s magnificent and that’s just what you do in the presence of magnificence. But her niece was there and had just gotten engaged so she congratulated her and said “yay love!” before starting, it was so cute. (Jack, being a snarkosaurus, was like “oh they got engaged? And Donna Lynne said yes, and he goes “I don’t know those people.” AJSDKLASDNA)

Then was Women Gotta Stick Together. Gabrielle referred to it as “remember in S1 when Valencia was just always hangry...let’s go back to that.” Apparently normally during this song she comes into the audience and twirls people, but this stage didn’t have steps so she said “if I point at you, you better fucking dance.” Some people were a bit hesitant but overall people were into it and it was fab. Oh and when Gabrielle got to the line “so if some weird troll named Rebecca moves here from New York and is all up on my boyfrienddd” she turned to Rachel, who gave a tiny wave and said “hiiiiii” in that little voice, you know the one I’m talking about. It was adorable.

Back to the sex with Let’s Have Intercourse. Again, nice and raunchy. At the end Scott handed Rachel the condom and walked off stage, and Rachel asked who wanted it. Crowd obviously went wild, which led to her asking “you DO know it’s not a used condom, right? You’re acting like he personally used this condom...to be clear, this is an unused condom, still in its wrapper.” People STILL cheered, but then one woman in that balcony near the stage by Fake!Darryl shouted “I lost my job three months ago!” Rachel looked taken aback and was just like “whoa, okay, well ifI don’t give you this then I’m the asshole, here you go, take your unused condom.” There was a bit of an exchange trying to get the condom to the woman because it kept falling back down to the stage and Rachel joked about stopping the show so we could get this woman her condom, but alas, had to move on.

Rachel brought out Kabir Akhtar, who is an editor for the show and is from Philly. They talked about Philly for a bit (here). Rachel was also giving him props for being so great at editing and said how he fixes their acting and is so nice about it, because she’ll say “do we have a take like this?” and he’ll say “no, the actress was not in the mood that day,” or she’ll say “oh do we have a shot of my dancing from this angle?” and he’ll say “well the actress had some trouble with this choreography.” And he said “well it’s better than saying ‘ya did it wrong, bitch.” WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT THEM CONSTANTLY ROASTING EACH OTHER?! and then Rachel said since he’s from Philly, she told him he could perform any song he wanted...he chose Where’s the Bathroom (here). Then Rachel said she forgot a prop so he had to kill some time...so he talked some more about Philly and then led the crowd in the Eagles chant. Jack was SUPER judgey and was like “I cannot believe a bunch of CXGF fans know ANYTHING about sports let alone care enough about them to know the Eagles chant” LMAO.

Rachel came back out and said “let’s do a song that makes me feel the opposite of how I feel about sports...which is interested,” which of course led into Strip Away My Conscience. Gabrielle and Vinnie joined her and it was appropriately sexy. Rachel tossed a thong out into the audience at the end. Alas, just slightly too far to the right for me to grab.

Then Rachel said there are really three types of guys...there are the Josh Chans, the Nathaniels, and the Gregs. And the problem with loving a Greg is how hard it is to have a relationship when they don’t love themselves. So then Jack came out and did I Could If I Wanted To. He changed a verse to be all about Philly, and it was HILARIOUS. It sounds like he changes a verse at most, if not all, venues to be about their current city, but at least some of this HAD to be improv, which made it even more impressing. He went on a rant about how everybody from Philly has to tell you that they’re from Philly, all you ever hear is that they’re from Philly, if he knows where a person is from they’re from Philly bc it’s all they can talk about, he doesn’t even know where his own family is from except for his Uncle Joe, who’s from Philly. And THEN he went off about how he STILL can’t believe a bunch of musical theater nerds care anything at all about sports or the Eagles or the Flyers, our faves are Miss Saigon, and honestly, I’m SO upset it wasn’t recorded because it was ACCURATE and hilarious and I’m in love. (Seriously Jack, please marry me, bye.)

Then everyone came out and Gabrielle announced it was the intermission and time to stretch, so we all stood up and did I’m So Good at Yoga. At first people weren’t really joining in and she said “no, this is no good,” and insisted we do the yoga moves. (But honestly it was really hard, there wasn’t much space.) Rachel was hilarious in this, basically reenacting the scene from the show. And then at the end the whole cast circled her mockingly while she was on the floor, and Scott ended his post basically thrusting his crotch in her face? And the entire cast burst out laughing and Rachel afterward was like “wow, if I had a nickel for every time Scott’s dick was in my face...I’d have one nickel because that has NEVER happened before.”

Oh also after this Rachel was like “you know, that line ‘I come vaginally...’” and went off on her PSA about how most women can’t climax from vaginal penetration alone and gave us extensive details about the wonders of the clitoris. But she acknowledged there were still going to be some guys in the audience going “no, my dick’s so good,” lmao. It was amazing and Jack was amusing here as well but I can’t quite recall what he said, except he expressed wonderment that nerve endings from the clit extend toward the anus in some women.

That led into the Horny Angry Tango. So they were using handheld mics the entire show, and at one point Vinnie and Pete came out to hold the mics in front of their faces so Scott and Rachel could do the dance and still sing. It was oddly comical. Also at some point here, can’t remember if it was before or after, someone in the audience shouted out “SCOTT I LOVED YOU IN ONCE UPON A TIME” and he seemed startled and said thank you. Rachel said “wow, that was like the equivalent of YouTube comment,” and Scott said “yeah, and I think I did the equivalent of liking it.” Then somebody called out “Rachel, they did a musical episode in S6, you should check it out, I think you’d like it.” Rachel said “okay, and that was an Instagram comment.” They then joked that they just needed someone to say “Come to Brazil!” to make it complete.

Then Adam did What’ll It Be and it was lovely and beautiful but honestly I miss Santino sigh.

Next was First Penis I Saw and i was a fucking delight. Donna Lynne is the cutest, Gabrielle and Rachel doing backup were delightful, and seriously, that song is just so much fun and seeing it live made my life complete.

Then, of course, we had Getting Bi. Pete came out and gave it his all, and the cast joined in with inflatable musical instruments. Scott did the sax solo on a kazoo held up to a mic. Digging it.

This is a random aside because I can’t remember exactly when it was said or why but I need to call it out. At some point Rachel was talking (honestly can’t remember to whom or what about, which is making me sad) and it was going on for a while, but then heckler Jack called out “what are we doing, recording a podcast?” And it was LOL seriously this man is my hero can he be onscreen in S4?

So then Rachel did I’m a Good Person and honestly, what else is there to say? It’s an amazing song, Rachel killed it, she made someone in the audience tell her she was a good person...god I just love this concert take me back please?

Then Rachel came out and said in a stage whisper “okay, I just don’t want the band to hear this. But we’re going to do what’s known in rock venues as an encore. So since for a lot of you this is your first time at a rock venue, an encore is when the band, let’s say Smash Mouth (here we all laughed bc wtf Smash Mouth? And she said it was the only rock band she could think of) finishes their set and they walk offstage to go shoot heroin up their eyeballs, and everybody in the audience goes NOOOO WE NEED MORE SMASH MOUTH and starts chanting SMASH MOUTH SMASH MOUTH, and so then the band goes okay we’ll stop shooting up heroin and do one more song, and so they close on All Star instead of Walking on the Sun. Okay, we’re gonna do that.”

And then Donna Lynne came out to do Face Your Fears and did I mention this woman is a goddess????? Seriously her RANGE is phenomenal, she didn’t even break a sweat hitting any of those notes, her voice is just FLAWLESS and SHE IS A FLAWLESS QUEEN. She started off solo and then the whole cast came out wearing white choir robes to do backup behind her. And when she finished she got another standing ovation (of COURSE, Philly may be obnoxious but we know a little thing called RESPECT) and the cast literally got down on their knees and bowed to her AS THEY SHOULD.

Then there was an empty stage....oh no! But we know to do what we’re told! And started chanting... SMASH MOUTH. SMASH MOUTH. And we had a view of Rachel backstage then and she LOST IT, literally bent over at the waist laughing hysterically at us chanting for Smash Mouth.

So Smash Mouth didn’t come out, BUT Vinnie and Scott did! They performed Fit Hot Guys. They stripped off their shirts to reveal t-shirts w/super ripped bodies drawn on them. They were doing their thing, and then who appears but PETE, wearing only fireman’s pants and a cap, his torso completely slicked up with what he told us later was Pam cooking spray. Vinnie and Scott were all “whoa what are you doing, have you even seen the show?” and Pete’s like “um YEAH HERE I AM” and got SUPER into it, and when they sang “without these pants” he stripped off his pants to dance in his American flag boxers. Anyway Pete is as pure as Darryl and I will protect him with my life. He also proudly stated at the end that he had just started working out this morning. LOVE.

We had the guys, so next up were the ladies doing Let’s Generalize about Men. The crowd just loved it, it’s such a fun song, and you could tell they were having a blast doing it, but I missed Vella. :(

Then there was just Rachel. She spoke to us first (I think? I might be getting my order mixed up slightly here) and said how she had chills hearing us chant Smash Mouth, that it was the perfect mix of improv and flash mobs. So then some girl called out “Rachel, I have a question.” And she went “Wow, okay, that was so polite and direct, okay, what’s your question?” The girl then asked if they could do a song from Rachel’s Sugar Ray Jukebox Musical. She said no, they weren’t remotely prepared to do that...but then Adam started puttering around on the piano and Rachel was like “wow, you know some Sugar Ray?” Soooo that’s the story of how we had a brief singalong with Rachel Bloom to Fly by Sugar Ray, and yes, she did the dance moves she did in the video.

Then we got to Stupid Bitch, which she said she knew everyone could relate to at some point in their lives. Right before the final note, she stopped, walked over to her water bottle, played up taking a looooooong drink of water, and then came back to center stage to hit that final high note. We were proud of her.

And then FINALLY, we closed out the night with Heavy Boobs. Rachel stripped off her shirt (she said we had earned it) and showed off her bra, which she said was a Natori. My friend shouted out that it was a great brand and Rachel nodded and agreed that it was a great brand. The entire cast came out midway with bras over their clothing to dance along with her...and that’s it! That’s the show!

Seriously it was beyond amazing. I didn’t take any photos/video other than the selfie moment since I was so close to the stage I thought it would be really obvious/obnoxious...I KIND of regret that just because I want to LIVE IN THE MOMENT FOREVER, but honestly, it was just SO MUCH FUN that I wouldn’t change a thing. It was more than 2 hours long and it felt like 10 minutes. I laughed SO much, and was blown away by all the crazy talent on stage. And I need them all to be my best friends.

I know the tour’s winding down now, and tickets are all sold out, but seriously, if they do this again? Do NOT hesitate. Go. Just go. (Also maybe have a guy in your group if it’s general admission, really my best tip.)

Also if anybody was at Philly and remembers anything else PLEASE SHARE I AM TRYING MY BEST TO REMEMBER EVERYTHING FOREVER AND ALWAYS AND I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE ALL YOUR RECOLLECTIONS AS WELL TO HELP WITH THAT EFFORT. <333

#Crazy Ex Girlfriend #Crazy Ex Girlfriend Live #Rachel Bloom #also I'm not even from Philly...my friends and I joke that we claim it for the good and disavow ourselves for the bad #but I could appreciate the fully Philly experience #you could tell the cast was having SO much fun and honestly that made it even better #okay now that I'm done my novel I'm gonna go #byeeee

14 notes · View notes

theposse · 5 years ago

Text

Hi Posse...

12/10/20

Wrote a really deep personal song in like 5 mins. I always think it’s great when artist can really “get there.” I’m constantly there. I’m always thinking deeply. It’s a blessing and a curse. Sometimes lovers don’t understand that I can’t just drop everything and be their bitch... or I can’t just be the one who’s driving us around when they’re ten years older than me and still have no stability.... I mean... there’s a lot of different men for different reasons who have fucked me over. But you know what? It gets to a point where... you just don’t even wanna try. And you shouldn’t. Because they don’t deserve you when you’re vulnerable if they are going to take the situation and taint it or it not be genuine. Any who, here’s the rough lyric sheet I was jotting down on.

The voice memo is on my phone, but just wanted to share with you what my ideal process is like. Get it out quick and be as vulnerable as I can. I think when people meditate too much on a song or have like 50 people writing on it, it becomes less sacred and more “produced” even if it’s an acoustic vibe. I like the fact I get to be a part of every angle of the process... the writing... the demo... the production (most of the time through collaborating and actually being there).

As much as I’ve wanted to put out a new record, I honestly just haven’t been able to lately. Music is really expensive. People say that me spending good money on production is “stealing my money” etc or when people ask for percentages up front... which just happened to me for the first time... and he asked for access to my Spotify information I’m like... uhhh NO! You made ONE SONG for me that I’ve already paid tons of money more than I’ll probably ever see... people can be so money hungry... especially the ones who are the laziest straightest ugliest or most full of themselves. It’s crazy. Like, they’ll say one thing and it’s a complete other thing. The nerve of some of these “producers” for ALL entertainment. Not just music.

Like, for example, this very predatorial producer whom I tried to give the benefit of the doubt multiple time’s although I shouldn’t have... asked me if I would put my music in his film, and so we signed the contract that they had permission to use two of my songs in the film.

Well, what a sigh of relief he asked, because the film is something I wouldn’t let anyone with two eyes let alone a blind person have to listen to the horrible script writing and editing. The actors were a little less good than a bad porn film. Cute boys and i know one of them, but... I mean, you have to be illiterate in art to not think it is actually terrible. He kept sending me all these fake mock-up awards it was winning and I thought that was rather foolish let alone what are these accredited to. Anyway, it’s no ones fault but the writer / editor. And obviously the producer who bragged constantly about getting other peoples money to invest in it, but when it looks like you shot it on an old point and shoot from the early 2000s and edited it in iMovie.... there’s a problem... The actual real time waiting for the text was painful not cute not exciting... boring and dreadful. And then my song comes along to save the day... but anyway... watched it once, collected my money, and told this mother fucked I wanted nothing to do with him.

Every comment I ever would make to him turns into something sexual. And yes, we have been intimate and had sex several times. It has been okay. Nothing very memorable. Very energy draining though just like the individual. I told him after this last visit to never speak to me again. And he sends me an email projecting all of what I tried to call him out on by being a complete asshole at 40 something years old with his only claim to fame dancing with some washed up country star that no one knows nor cares to talk about from the 90s or something? It’s quite funny how much he wants to be this generations thing when he’s a sleazy producer who buys his friends and feels the need to rent a black car which was cute to ride around in for sure but... we don’t do that here sir. If you’re that important the car is already arranged through your house manager / assistant.... fucking amateur mistake... (laughs) I kid I kid, but it is rather ridiculous for someone who made probably a Grade Z movie if that’s even possible? To be so pompous, entitled, and predatorial blaming it on my wine which I had immediately sobered up after him and a guy who was my friend I invited to come to the pool with me got into a huge fight... like real housewives. I don’t do that shit. It made me so angry. And sad. My body shook from both the trauma of the fighting as well as the PTSD and trauma response of confronting someone who is being sexually innaproproate or invasive of me ie my rapist and other situations just like the one he constantly has put me in.

Between losing my uncle... not ever getting to mourn my gramma... my rapist / co-writer reaching out to give me money which i needed but still never wanted to hear from him again.... my not so great friend hitting me in the face after being in love with him for months... and then my xanned out pathological liar ex friend just abandoning me when i needed her.... oh... and this guy i used to be in love with who I thought was a real man reached out to me on thanksgiving... to which I blocked... sadly but it had to happen... it’s been a lot. I just want something easy. Life isn’t easy, but I just wish I could make music and be good and not shitty or whatever at production. I could really do it myself but it’s just hard when you wanna work with people who know what the fuck they’re doing but no one on that level cares about you. It’s fine. It’ll get there. I won’t stop.

Kk. Enough ranting. I love you.

- Benjamin

0 notes

globalmediacampaign · 5 years ago

Text

MySQL Configuration

I’ve been using MySQL 8 on Linux for a couple years but the Linux repository version didn’t install the new MySQL Shell. So, I discovered the new MySQL Shell when I installed MySQL 8 (8.0.21) on Windows to teach my student how to use it to learn SQL commands. I encourage you to read the full MySQL Shell document. The following is a tutorial to provision a student user and studentdb database in MySQL. It uses the MySQL Shell (mysqlsh) and stages for uploads of comma-separated values files. After installing MySQL on the Windows 10 OS, open the Window OS Command Line Interface (CLI) shell by entering the following in the search field at the bottom left: cmd It launches a CLI interface to the Windows OS. The cmd (command) utility opens the CLI in the following directory (where you substitute your user’s name for the username placeholder below): C:Usersusername At the command prompt, you would enter mysql to launch the old MySQL CLI. Instead of that, you enter mysqlsh to launch the new MySQL CLI as the root user. The command to launch the MySQL Shell as the root user is: mysqlsh -uroot -p It should return the following and prompt you for a single character entry to save the password for the Operating System user. As a rule, in a development instance that’s a good idea and practice. MySQL Shell 8.0.21 Copyright (c) 2016, 2020, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. Type 'help' or '?' for help; 'quit' to exit. Creating a session to 'root@localhost' Please provide the password for 'root@localhost:33060': ******** Save password for 'root@localhost:33060'? [Y]es/[N]o/Ne[v]er (default No): y Fetching schema names for autocompletion... Press ^C to stop. Your MySQL connection id is 9 (X protocol) Server version: 8.0.21 MySQL Community Server - GPL No default schema selected; type use to set one. MySQL localhost:33060+ ssl JS > The prompt will not accept SQL commands because it always initializes in the JavaScript (JS) context. The MySQL Shell supports three interactive interfaces: JavaScript, Python, and SQL. You can verify the integrity of the shell from the JavaScript (JS) context as the root user with the following command: MySQL localhost:33060+ ssl JS > shell.status() As the root user, it should return something like this: MySQL Shell version 8.0.21 Connection Id: 9 Default schema: Current schema: Current user: root@localhost SSL: Cipher in use: TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 TLSv1.3 Using delimiter: ; Server version: 8.0.21 MySQL Community Server - GPL Protocol version: X protocol Client library: 8.0.21 Connection: localhost via TCP/IP TCP port: 33060 Server characterset: utf8mb4 Schema characterset: utf8mb4 Client characterset: utf8mb4 Conn. characterset: utf8mb4 Result characterset: utf8mb4 Compression: Enabled (DEFLATE_STREAM) Uptime: 20 hours 4 min 19.0000 sec You can switch to the SQL context as the root or any other user with this command. The switch only changes your form of interaction with the server and you remain connected as the root user: MySQL localhost:33060+ ssl JS > sql You can verify that your session is still owned by the root user with the following SELECT statement: MySQL localhost:33060+ ssl SQL > SELECT user(); It returns: +----------------+ | user() | +----------------+ | root@localhost | +----------------+ 1 row in set (0.0005 sec) The next step shows you how to setup a sample studentdb database. Some syntax has changed from prior MySQL releases. Here are the three steps: Create the studentdb database with the following command as the MySQL root user: MySQL localhost:33060+ ssl SQL > CREATE DATABASE studentdb; Grant the root user the privilege to grant to others, which root does not have by default. You use the following syntax as the MySQL root user: MySQL localhost:33060+ ssl SQL > GRANT ALL ON *.* TO 'root'@'localhost'; Create the user with a clear English password and grant the user student full privileges on the studentdb database: MySQL localhost:33060+ ssl SQL > CREATE USER 'student'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY 'student'; MySQL localhost:33060+ ssl SQL > GRANT ALL ON studentdb.* TO 'student'@'localhost'; Our sample database uses large file uploads with MySQL’s LOAD command, which means you need to grant one additional global privilege: MySQL localhost:33060+ ssl SQL > GRANT FILE ON *.* TO 'student'@'localhost'; The MySQL FILE privilege is a global privilege to read and write files on the local server. MySQL 8 installation on Windows 10 sets the following directory as the target for uploading files in the my.ini file: # Secure File Priv. secure-file-priv="C:/ProgramData/MySQL/MySQL Server 8.0/Uploads" You can find the setting in the C:ProgramDataMySQLMySQL Server 8.0my.ini file. You can find this value without referencing the my.ini file by querying the data: show variables like 'secure_file_priv'; A new installation should return: +------------------+------------------------------------------------+ | Variable_name | Value | +------------------+------------------------------------------------+ | secure_file_priv | C:ProgramDataMySQLMySQL Server 8.0Uploads | +------------------+------------------------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.2253 sec) You can test the ability to use the LOAD command with the following avenger.csv test file. Copy it into the C:ProgramDataMySQLMySQL Server 8.0Uploads directory and make sure the directory permissions are set to read-only for Everyone (check the Microsoft OS documentation if these concepts are new to you). 1,'Anthony','Stark','Iron Man' 2,'Thor','Odinson','God of Thunder' 3,'Steven','Rogers','Captain America' 4,'Bruce','Banner','Hulk' 5,'Clinton','Barton','Hawkeye' 6,'Natasha','Romanoff','Black Widow' Open another cmd (command) CLI and put the following code into a file that you save as avenger.sql in the C:Usersusername directory. -- Conditionally drop objects. SELECT 'AVENGER' AS "Drop Table"; DROP TABLE IF EXISTS avenger; -- Create an avenger table. CREATE TABLE avenger ( avenger_id INT UNSIGNED PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT , first_name VARCHAR(20) , last_name VARCHAR(20) , character_name VARCHAR(20)); -- Load the data from a file, don't forget the n after the r on Windows or it won't work. LOAD DATA INFILE 'C:/ProgramData/MySQL/MySQL Server 8.0/Uploads/avenger.csv' -- LOAD DATA INFILE 'avenger.csv' INTO TABLE avenger FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',' ENCLOSED BY '"' ESCAPED BY '/' LINES TERMINATED BY 'rn'; -- Select the uploaded records. SELECT * FROM avenger; From the cmd (command) shell, launch the MySQL Shell as the student user with the following syntax: mysqlsh -ustudent -p -Dstudentdb At the MySQL Shell (mysqlsh) prompt switch from the default JavaScript (JS) context to SQL context and run the following query: MySQL localhost:33060+ ssl studentdb SQL > sql MySQL localhost:33060+ ssl studentdb SQL > SELECT user(), database(); If you did everything above correctly, it should return: +-------------------+------------+ | user() | database() | +-------------------+------------+ | student@localhost | studentdb | +-------------------+------------+ 1 row in set (0.0003 sec) Again, assuming you did everything above correctly, you should be able to run your avenger.sql script file from the MySQL Shell (mysqlsh) prompt, like: MySQL localhost:33060+ ssl studentdb SQL > source avenger.sql It should return output like the following: Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.0003 sec) +------------+ | Drop Table | +------------+ | AVENGER | +------------+ 1 row in set (0.0003 sec) Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.0595 sec) Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.0002 sec) Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.1293 sec) Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.0002 sec) Query OK, 6 rows affected (0.0046 sec) Records: 6 Deleted: 0 Skipped: 0 Warnings: 0 Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.0004 sec) +------------+------------+------------+-------------------+ | avenger_id | first_name | last_name | character_name | +------------+------------+------------+-------------------+ | 1 | 'Anthony' | 'Stark' | 'Iron Man' | | 2 | 'Thor' | 'Odinson' | 'God of Thunder' | | 3 | 'Steven' | 'Rogers' | 'Captain America' | | 4 | 'Bruce' | 'Banner' | 'Hulk' | | 5 | 'Clinton' | 'Barton' | 'Hawkeye' | | 6 | 'Natasha' | 'Romanoff' | 'Black Widow' | +------------+------------+------------+-------------------+ 6 rows in set (0.0005 sec) You now have a student user and studentdb database like my students. I hope it was fun to build. You can find the my.ini file in the C:ProgramDataMySQLMySQL Server 8.0 directory of a standard Windows 10 file system. Its a good idea not to change anything unless you know what you’re doing, and remember you need to restart the Microsoft MySQL80 Service for any change to be made effective in your database operations. https://blog.mclaughlinsoftware.com/2020/09/27/mysql-configuration/

0 notes

laurelkrugerr · 5 years ago

Text

Content and Content Marketing Are Not the Same. Here’s How to Frame the Top 11 Content Formats.

August 20, 2020 8 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

On the internet, content is anything that expresses thoughts, information or experiences through written, visual, or audio form.

This article is content. The 95 million photos uploaded to Instagram today are content. The 500 hours’ worth of videos uploaded to YouTube in the last 60 seconds are all content.

The internet is built with content and always has been. It also means everyone has content, and everyone creates it all the time.

That creates some confusion when it comes to content versus content marketing. A lot of content is intended to market a brand … but that doesn’t mean the brand does content marketing agency.

Here’s why.

What does content marketing really look like?

Content marketing agency is a strategic approach to marketing agency that emphasizes the creation and delivery of valuable content to attract, retain and convert a clearly defined audience.

In other words, it’s using content strategically to provide solutions to problems that either your business or your readers have. Great examples abound:

The fitness brand that creates a community and encourages its subscribers to share knowledge.

The home décor retailer that distributes a monthly magazine on minimalism and good housekeeping practices.

The SaaS platform that uses gamification to encourage users to discover and get to know its features.

The travel company that uses a thrilling interactive website to hint at the experiences it offers.

The health supplement site that publishes a vegan recipe blog.

Do you see a difference? All of these efforts position you as an authority in your industry, demonstrate your expertise in your topic over the long run and cultivate trust in your audience by putting their needs and interests first.

How to tell if you’re doing it right

You’re doing content marketing agency (and not just content creation or digital marketing agency) if your content:

Puts your audience first. Be customer-focused, not company-focused. You’re delivering helpful, valuable content and letting the customer decide when they trust you enough to buy from you.

Links back to a business goal or solution to a problem. You’ve laid out how your content works together to further your business goals.

Rarely, if ever, actively promotes your brand outright. CTAs are great, but you aren’t trying to push your readers to your solutions.

Attracts readers to your turf. You’re building authority by providing readers with a destination to which they can keep returning.

Gets published consistently and continuously. You’re building trust by proving you’re an expert in the matter over time rather than publishing one-offs.

Uses metrics to measure and optimize. You can identify what’s performing well, and where you need to improve based on data.

Related: How Do You Improve Email Marketing? Start by Improving Your List.

To master content marketing, you must master these 11 content types.

High-performing content is central to your content marketing agency, but the way you craft it can make or break your strategy. It’s not enough to simply create eBooks, blogs and catchy social media that provide helpful information … that’s still biased toward your brand.

People are catching on to even that now.

Yet, with all the content creation that you will still do, it can be easy to lose your focus. Here’s an overview of how to use the eleven main types of content in content marketing agency:

Blogs. Make sure they’re optimized for SEO Company because they’re one of the best ways to boost your page ranks. Include a CTA and consider opening up comments for further engagement.

Case studies. Illustrate your expertise by taking your readers on a journey that showcases solutions to their pain points.

eBooks. They make great lead magnets, especially when you craft a magnetizing title and supply information people can’t find elsewhere.

Emails. Write direct, powerful, concise copy that contains information that can change your readers’ lives. They’re a direct line to your audience and can build long-lasting relationships when done well.

Headlines. Powerful, compelling headlines (that don’t sound spammy!) let your readers know exactly what they’re getting. They’re also a great way to convey brand with language.

Meta titles and descriptions. Put yourself in your readers’ shoes and let them know you have the answers they’re searching for right now.

Product descriptions. Optimize with keywords and describe products in terms of benefits rather than features.

Social media posts. Create an experience that puts them at the center and encourages engagement. This helps your audience connect with your brand emotionally and can help you find their pain points.

Video scripts. Tell your brand’s story engagingly. You can also include the script text on the page to make your content more accessible, and boost SEO Company.

Web content. Make important or helpful information prominent, include a clear CTA, and use high-quality images to craft a powerful message.

White papers. Explore relevant topics in-depth and give your target audience ideas that they can apply to their own problems or daily life.

Related: What You Need to Know About the LinkedIn Stories Feature

Content making content marketing work: an example

By now, I hope I’ve demonstrated how content creation is intrinsic to content marketing agency. However, just because you’re creating content, it doesn’t mean you’re doing content marketing agency.

I want to drive things home with an example.

Let’s say that we’re growing an athletic clothing brand and looking for ways to attract more customers to our e-commerce site. We’ve decided to turn to content marketing agency for help. It might look like this:

1. You want to increase your brand’s presence on Google and social media, but you don’t want to constantly annoy your readers with ads. How else can you get your brand in front of your readers?

You decide that the best way forward is to start a blog full of topics that interest your readers. A few things that come to mind include clean eating, exercising at home, and personal empowerment. You can also talk about clothes, of course, but your models can all wear your brand, which eliminates the need for more direct advertising.

2. You start your blog, set up your social media and let your following know about it.

Engagement metrics indicate that readers are most excited about exercising at home. Looking through their comments, you notice that things like staying focused, finding the right space, and keeping a schedule are all major pain points that they have.

3. You respond by creating an online guide to exercising at home.

You use a combination of eBooks chock-full of challenges that are available as lead magnets, and video tutorials for exercises hosted on your site. To demonstrate how popular your guides are, you create a way for users to record their progress and encourage each other.

4. To maintain engagement, you start up an email newsletter with the latest challenges, shoutouts for people who have achieved their goals and occasionally a promo here or there.

Throughout this, you continue to grow your online community, adding more content to your blog that addresses questions or pain points. You even start a hashtag that your followers can use to highlight their fitness efforts so that they can spread the word about you.

5. At some point, you realize that you can enrich your readers’ experience with case studies and white papers.

You begin to include “white papers” about health and fitness that are relevant to your target audience. You also start to create case studies of “success stories” from your community.

6. As fitness centers start to notice what you’re doing, you start getting offers for sponsored classes and requests to sell your brand in their shops.

Your content marketing agency is now extending your brand’s reach into the offline world. You’ll continue all of the efforts above, as the results are feeding further content production.

Can you spot all eleven content types above? Look carefully. They’re here.

(Bonus: Do you know what brand I just described? Spoiler: This is Athleta’s content marketing agency strategy. Check it out at https://events.athleta.com/)

Now you know the difference between content and content marketing in 2020.

The main difference between content versus content marketing agency? Content marketing agency involves a lot more than just content creation. In fact, the emphasis isn’t content creation at all, but crafting an experience that improves the lives of your readers. If you’re putting your readers first, addressing pain points and producing exceptional quality content consistently, then you’ll grow your brand while you cultivate authority and trust. That’s content marketing agency.

Hopefully, I’ve left you with an idea or two about your content marketing agency strategy. Now, go forth and convert that target audience into passionate fans.

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/content-and-content-marketing-are-not-the-same-heres-how-to-frame-the-top-11-content-formats/ source https://scpie1.blogspot.com/2020/08/content-and-content-marketing-are-not.html

0 notes

riichardwilson · 5 years ago

Text

Content and Content Marketing Are Not the Same. Here’s How to Frame the Top 11 Content Formats.