#i just;; want the iconic test flight to have an audience

[wickedcriminal]

"Let's take this nice and slow!"

...

"Tuh-Tuh-Toothless think he's gonna cruh--crash."

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Younger looked up from his copy of the tailfin cheat sheet with a squeak of both horror and indignance, blue eyes wide. "Toothless!" He scolded to the little green creature curled over his shoulder. "Don't say things like that! I've been worried enough as it is!!"

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Younger was posted dutifully at the cliffsides on the far side of the island, looking out at the sea as he waited for his brother to come into view. They'd been planning this for weeks, practicing religiously with wind and ropes and stakes and even a little cheat sheet that they drew up themselves.

Now it was time for a test drive. And Hiccup would never admit it to his older brother's face, but he was feeling quite sick to his stomach.

Toothless-- his little green Common or Garden or Terror or whatever he was-- was preening himself on his human's shoulder, tittering every so often about how stupid of an idea this was. It was a good thing his older brother didn't know dragonese, because the little dragon's words were really not encouraging.

"We just have to trust in his training," Hiccup murmured, trying to squash his nerves and think optimistically. "and the will of the gods."

The wind picked up, and a shadow crossed over the sun. Hiccup looked up in surprise and gasped as a black dragon finally swooped into view, crossing directly overhead as he flew out to the sea. If you squinted, you could see the tiny smudge of tan leather on the left tailfin. If you let your eyes trail farther up, you could see the slight green and brown of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Elder, buckled securely to the saddle on the night fury's back.

He was right on time.

"Oh, he's gliding beautifully!" Hiccup gasped in amazement, feeling his fear fall away for just a moment so he could admire the scene. "Look at the way they ride the wind!! These cliffs create the perfect updraft, it was an excellent idea to come here--"

"Hu-Hu-Hu-Hiccup!!" Toothless interrupted, pointing with his wings. Hiccup quickly turned his attention to his older brother, who was making a gesture down at him. "That's fuh-fuh-four fingers!"

"Position four." Hiccup quickly noted the position on the cheat sheet in his hands, then held a thumbs up out to the flyers. It's go time.

The night fury and his rider banked wide, and once again Hiccup marveled at how well the tail held the wind. They wobbled only a little, the prosthetic slightly flimsier than the flesh and blood fin, but the night fury's euphoria at tasting the sky again was palpable even from all the way down here.

They tilted slightly downward into a slow dive, the wobbling becoming slightly more pronounced as they corrected their balance. Hiccup the Younger held his breath as they rushed toward the rocky arch, praying to Thor, to Woden, to Freya-- come on, Hiccup, come on Toothless...

And they sailed straight through without a hitch.

"Yes!!" Hiccup bounced on his toes a few times, laughing breathlessly. "It worked!! That was so graceful, they haven't even hit any--!"

Ow. Spoke too soon.

Ouch! Twice?!

Toothless giggled on Hiccup's shoulder. "Duh-Duh-Do ya still think they lo-look graceful?"

"Oh shush." Hiccup muttered, and squinted out at the flyers again. His brother was making gestures again. "How many fingers now?"

"Thuh--Three." Toothless observed.

Position three. Hiccup checked the sheet again, and give him another thumbs up. He was starting to feel much more optimistic about this, seeing how well their training was being put into action. Maybe this would end well after all.

The elder Hiccup and Toothless the night fury climbed into the sky. The prosthetic tilted and sent them into circle as they rose, but it only made the endeavor look all the more exciting. Down on the ground, Hiccup only watched in awe and tried to imagine what euphoria his brother must be feeling right now.

And then they fell.

And Hiccup's stomach fell with them.

"Oh gods--" Hiccup gasped, throwing his hands up to his mouth. "Oh no oh no oh no no no--!!"

Rider and dragon had been separated somehow, plummeting side by side, twisting and turning in the air. The faint dot that was their cheat sheet fluttered high and away from them, swishing like an idle bird. There was no hope of getting it back, now. Hiccup could only watch in horror, white hot panic clutching his lungs like dragon talons.

"Oh gods, oh gods he's going to crash he's going to die--!!" He babbled, yanking his hands into his hair and crushing his copy of the cheat sheet against his head. And then-- beard of Thor, his cheat sheet!

"Toothless!" He yelled, shoving the crumpled paper into the tiny dragon's face. "Take this to him! Help him get back on Big Toothless!"

"Wuh-Wuh-Why does Toothless have to do it--" Toothless complained, but then Hiccup gave him a sharp 'NOW!!' and the little dragon was off, quick as a flash and muttering all the way.

The next few moments felt painstakingly slow. Hiccup saw his brother catch up to and grab onto his night fury, and he even saw the flash of green that deposited the extra cheat sheet into his hand.

With a painful looking jerk, Big Toothless's wings snapped open to parachute their fall. But they were going too fast, rushing straight at a cluster of sea stacks. They wouldn't be able to turn in time. They were going to crash straight into the rocks, and they were going to die.

The extra cheat sheet that Hiccup had wanted so badly to get to his brother was then tossed aside. Of course it was. The was no need for it, now. Hiccup tried not to cry, watching with wide, burning eyes as flyer and rider disappeared into the stacks. They were gone.

And yet... he waited. Maybe... just maybe...

He waited.

And waited.

And...

Like a prayer answered, they flew back out, a flash of black and green.

They did it!! Hiccup's heart jumped into his throat again, this time in joy. He jumped up with his fists in the air, copying his brother's own wild gesture of triumph. He whooped so loud they'd have heard it in Valhalla.

The test drive was a success.

[caralara]

7 x Babygate

I wanted to keep track of all the 7 mentions Harry and Louis do because at this point it is getting ridiculous - half way through this post I found this great compilation of 7s by @so-idialed-9 as well. Big thank you also to @bluewinnerangel and @ialwaysknewyouwerepunk for their help!

369 weeks are 7 years as pointed out in this post

LTWT / Away From Home Festival Setlist: Louis covers 7 by Catfish and the Bottlemen, the cover of the album being an alligator, first word of the song is Larry (also has Twice from that album in his preshow playlist, in which we have a line that says “I ain’t ever going back to thinking straight”

2021

7 Years Sober Post by Florence Welch - 02 February: Harry likes the instagram post

HSLOT Denver - 07 September: Harry wears the peace ring. Also he repeats this in 2022 on 07 September.

2022

LTWT Vancouver - “We’ve got about 7 minutes, give it everything you’ve got - this is Through The Dark”

LTWT Copenhagen - “From about 7pm on i could tell this was gonna be an amazing crowd, i could feel all your energy and love!” While wearing chequers

You Are Home Door - 07 May: door reveals an image that could be interpreted as sperm, the tweet containst “tap” which is”pat” (ernity test?) backwards, as Harry constantly tells us to rewind/reverse

Pleasing - 30 June: Harry’s hands for pleasing ad have him showing 7 fingers

HSLOT Antwerp - 07 July: Harry wears black white “chequered” trousers

Late Night Talking - 13 July: the man Harry is on a date with in the music video has four 7s on his sleeve (4x7=28)

Babygate Anniversary - 14 July: 7 year anniversary of the One Conception Breaking Article  

HSLOT Vienna - 16 July: Harry’s first appearance after the Babygate Anniversary, Harry wears chequered trousers and a kiwi shirt

HSLOT Krakow - 18 July: Harry interrupts his performance of Kiwi says the audience is giving not enough energy for the song, telling them they’re a 7 out of 10

LTWT Brisbane N1 - 19 July: Louis wears a shirt with a big 7 on it

LTWT Brisbane N2 - 20 July: “Maybe about 7 years since I’ve been here, obviously.”

HSLOT Krakow - 20 July: Harry posts a big 7 in the background to his instagram

The Project - 20 July: “It was amazing, the crowd were unbelievable. I think it’s been about 7 years since I’ve been in Australia. I love this country.”

Sunrise Australia - 22 July:  “It’s about 7 years since we did the One Direction tour”

Bentley - 23 July: exactly 7 days after Harry wore the chequers/kiwi outfit, Louis wears chequers to meet the little louie Bentley (who’s been used to push babygate a lot, e.g. with the dms to his mother in which Louis says he loves his son a lot)

Louis Tomlinson Changeover playlist - 30 July: John Delf’s playlist on on Spotify was updated to remove 28 songs and add 7 songs.  7 of these songs are also on HSLOT’s pre/post-show playlist.

Amazon Pre-Order - 11 August: Faith in the Future has 7 songs on each side of the vinyl

HSLOT Toronto II - 16 August: “ Who did you come here with tonight Shelby? There’s one two three four, seven! 7 AHHHs just happened. “

LT2 Promo - 25 August: YouTube Community Post contains 7 photos of Louis and 7 28s.

Faith In The Future - 31 August: Louis tweets the phrase precisely 7 times before he announces his second album with the same title at the end of August. (credits to this post)

LTWT Taormina - 01 September: exit song is Seven Nation Army

LTWT Milan - 03 September: first announcement to officially start the show at precisely 7 past (was supposed to start on the dot), enters stage 28 past, performs 7 in front of a chequered background

HSLOT NYC VII - 03 September: Harry posts iconic MSG photo for the seventh NYC Residency

HSLOT NYC X - 07 September: Harry wears the peace ring again, just like the year prior.

F1 Playlist - 07 September: playlist published, discovered 10th, with songs like 7, 505 (lyrics: seven-hour flight) and Let’s Dance to the Real Thing (seven different writers), playlist contains a total of seven 7s (thank you @bluewinnerangel)

Lorraine Kelly - 08 September: “Freddie normally goes to bed at 7 o’clock”

Instagram Throwbacks - 09 September: Lottie and Helene Horlyck post throwbacks from 7 years ago to their instagrams

Formula 1 Q&A - 10 September: Louis mentions Kimi Räikkönen by name whose car number is 7

GMA - 15 September: Louis carries a jumper with the numbers 77 on the sleeve over his arm, clearly visible, when arriving for his Good Morning America performance 7 years after confirming his fatherhood on the very same show.

Zach Sang - 28 September: Louis mentions again that Freddie goes to bed at 7 pm usually.

LTHQ Bigger Than Me Live From Milan - 29 September: battery percentage is 77% after going from 92% to 93% when landing on the single being played on LTHQ’s Instagram promo

Tour Bus Playlist - after Louis added Bigger Than Me and Bigger Than Me Live from Milan the playlist is exactly 7:07 hrs long

Music Week: Louis mentions 7 twice, first saying he’ll be in his 70ies, and then talking about 7 months of touring.

Music For A Sushi Restaurant - the man at the very end is wearing Lyon’s Township High apparel, sporting a 74 LT on the chest (7x4 makes 28 again, LT is selfexplanatory)

NRJ Interview Austria - Interview on 7th November, talks about wanting to get into F1 more 🏁 and mentions being on his 7th cup of coffee after rumours spread the day prior of him getting papped with Freddie at the lakers game the previous Friday

102.7 KIIS FM: he talks about drinking when he was 6, 7 years younger

LTHQ‘s TikTok for „That’s the way Love goes“ flashes a 7 right at the END

BUAs - exactly 7 weeks lie in between the Holivia BUA on Friday, 18 November 2022 and the Elounor BUA on Friday, 06 January 2023

Flying from Cabo to LA(?) for Freddie’s birthday, Louis is wearing Trackies with 1977 on them, as well as the golden stunt sunglasses

2023

Woman Harry performs Woman as his 7th song for the first show back after Louis was seen stunting with Sofie.

Obviously there is more so I will update with what I find but also feel free to send me stuff you’ve seen and that I missed! Again, big thank you to the pre-existing posts, I tried to link everything I saw somewhere else. I am also sure, more will come! I am also sure that some of these listed are actually coincidoinks. But you know, how to tell at this point? I just needed to get this out of my system because they are NUTS your honour. 

[interactiondesignstudio4chiara]

Week 3 Activities (Monday)

Today to do;

Testing, 1-2 people

Prepare animations/transition design - questions to ask about them - to prepare for user testing

User Testing session

TESTING

To check if things produced work in the way we thing/expected to work, if they are intuitive, and up to the user expectations

Double diamond system

USER TESTING

Remember is not 50% about THEM and 50 about you, but mainly 80% about the User/Them

ESTABLISH THE FRAME OF MIND

 Create a perspective to introduce your work, what why how, etc..Ask questions: have you ever been on a flight? What do you expect? Everyone is already an expert using things, so we have to see if we reach their expectations. Never ask Yes and No questions, but  - What is different from your expectations? How? Why? Does it fit or how much is different?

OBSERVE THE USER/AUDIENCE BEHAVIOUR

“I noticed you behaved like that/ reacted like this...why?”

Think out of the box, maybe there are 2 ways to get sort out something.

GROUP OF 3 - to do: 

Each designer invites 2 other designers:

Establish the frame of mind (2min)

Ask about expectations (5min)

Reveal and ask (10min)

Exercise:

MY FRAME OF MIND + OPEN QUESTIONS for classmates of the group:

Have you ever taken a flight that is longer than 10h? Have you ever felt bored and tired that you don’t even feel searching for the content you’re interested in? This IFE is designed to pair your phone with apps you use mainly (such as movie apps, music apps, reading content, search content, and social media) and proposes to you content on the IFE that you are interested in.

1) What do you expect from this? ..their answer.

You can pair with individual apps, and you can reverse the pairing at any time during the flight. 

2) When do you think is possible to pair it and how? ..their answer.

I thought just before departure, and via Bluetooth or a plane Wi-Fi that then turns down when departing, or even earlier before the flight.

3) Would you worry about the data stored by AirNZ from the pairing? ..their answer.

You can delete all the info/data of your interests at the end of the flight.

THEIR ANSWERS:

1) They suggested as an expectation ‘fluidity’, good selections of apps that most people use, taking into account that different apps are used in different countries. Work on apps that work on Tablets too, to maintain a great format. = They expect them to see the app's configurations on the IFE, so to have for example Spotify and Netflix on the screen. --> I should make clear that it doesn’t sync with existing apps, but incorporates your interests in the IFE. They imagine connecting the screen of the phone to the IFE. They suggested to use Samsung decks, and Nintendo steam deck, to create a smooth pairing between screens. I should make clear when onnecting a device --> the concept, maybe with a pairing icon and a phone at the beginning. 

2) At the beginning of the flight, and being able not to pair it if you don’t want to. Make it clear on the home page too.

3) Ethical question, questions about data privacy are normally in the term and conditions, agreeing to use the software you would agree for the data to keep, so I shouldn’t worry so much about it BUT make a clear statement to inform if the data would disappear. Jackie said that for him most people wouldn’t worry so much about deleting passwords and personal data as they are stored anyway on so many other devices.

CLASSMATES WORKS:

About Jackie’s work: Modularity - create a personalised screen with what you want to do during your flight, having some icons (music and movies, for example), and we suggested what we imagined modularity to be, and to add the tagline “Personalise your entertainment on-screen/ Plan your screen entertainment” on the Home page, to make clear straight away his concept.

About Beckie’s work: interaction between users, socialising during the flight. Suggested to share screens, suggested to be about games and messaging but keeping the privacy. Suggestions on the colour palette.

WHAT TO IMPROVE ON MINE, IN BULLET POINTS:

Clear home page visuals to make understand that:

you can pair a device to the IFE

you don’t have the apps on the IFE screen but the data about your interests get incorporated in the entertainment the IFE proposes you, personalising it 

why I chose this 

that you can pair, reverse the pairing, and delete your data.

[betweensceneswriter]

Island Hopper-Chapter 17b: Sugar Sickness

Brand new chapter, but out of sequence.  Posted 10-16-2020

Previously Chapter 17: Bitter Jamie and Claire have different ideas about what being back together should look like.

ISLAND HOPPER Table of Contents

Back to work, we meet someone important, and an illness leads to an early parting.

    “Thirsty.  Lukkuun thirsty.  Alap awa.”

    Perkaj’s mother wiped her son’s forehead with a cool washcloth, looking at me with concern.

    “Lukuun kilep.  Now, bery skinny.”

    A group of children—siblings, cousins, and interested neighborhood kids—crowded around the mat where the little boy lay, feverish and unresponsive.  It had taken me several tries to say his name correctly.  Finally a patient cousin had grabbed my hand to get my attention.  “Him name Purr Gus” the little boy had said clearly, smiling as I repeated it.

    My heart had sunk at her first words.  Perkaj was thirsty all the time?  Just that one word had given me a preliminary diagnosis.  I was almost positive it was type I diabetes.  And how was a person to manage type one diabetes out on an outer island?  Spare insulin needed to be kept at a moderate room temperature. Since it didn’t often get above 85°F in the islands, it wouldn’t have to be refrigerated, but it would last longer if kept cool.  And if he ever ran out of it, he could quickly slip into a diabetic coma from high blood sugar.

    That was what appeared to be happening right now.

    I spread open my black bag—an iconic black leather satchel like the doctor’s bags of olden days.  I located the supplies I needed and pulled out the blood sugar monitor from its protective plastic bag, unwrapping a stiff testing strip and slipping it in the slot in the tester, then twisting off the plastic tip of the lancet.

    I heard the intake of breath as the children saw the gleam of the sharp lancet tip and sensed them all bending closer as I picked up Perkaj’s small hand and firmly pricked his fingertip.

    Watching his face for a response, I was grateful to see a shadow pass over his features at the pain.  At least there was a little consciousness still.

    Turning back to my task, I squeezed his finger and watched as the burgundy swell of blood appeared on his skin.  I gestured with my head toward the tester on the mat, and several pairs of small hands reached for it, one child passing it to me so I could meet the testing tip to the droplet of blood.

    A chorus of “ohhhs” was the response as the absorbent testing strip slurped the droplet of blood off Perkaj’s fingertip.

    “I need to be able to see,” I said, hoping my voice wasn’t too sharp.  I didn’t want to hurt their feelings, but all the little heads were blocking the light from outside.

    “Move,” ordered one of the mamas.  “Etal,” she added in Marshallese.   My little audience backed away reluctantly and I breathed a sigh of relief as a gentle breeze of cooler air from outside swept through the small house.

    My fears were confirmed when the tester flashed Perkaj’s current blood sugar level.  615.  Six hundred and fifteen?  Healthy was under 120.  Elevated was anything over 200.  Four hundred was seriously high.  Six hundred?  No wonder the boy, his features slack in unconsciousness, was so feverish.  Perkaj had indeed slipped into a diabetic coma.

    Although my medical bag held a multitude of items, insulin was not one of them.  The small stock of insulin I had was kept in the clinic in a brick enclosure. There may have been no means of refrigeration, but whoever had built the clinic had realized that caves tended to be cooler than the surrounding area and had created—in essence—a small root cellar for storing medicines that were sensitive to temperature.

    “I have to go get medicine,” I said, my Marshallese failing me in the moment of stress.   “Kottar jiddik—wait a little bit—and I’ll be back.”

    Perkaj’s house was in the town of Ine, just a half mile or so from the clinic.  I broke into a jog, trying to ignore the sensation of sharp rocks under the thin rubber of my flip-flops.  The sooner I got some insulin into him, the sooner Perkaj would recover and the fewer side effects he would suffer.

    “I’m not enough,” I panicked as I jogged.  “I don’t know enough.  I recognize diabetes, but I’m not an endocrinologist.  I need a doctor.  Perkaj needs the hospital.”

    The plans for the coming days swirled in my head.  Jamie and John were working on the solar still.  John would be leaving on the Jolok boat tomorrow—he needed to be back to Majuro on Thursday. Jamie and I had planned to ride the fishing boat with Kona on Thursday evening, knowing that our flight didn’t leave until Friday.  We had scheduled a little time for shopping on Majuro Friday morning.  We wouldn’t need a hotel;  Jamie had mentioned our need of a place to stay Thursday night to Mr. MacKenzie before he left on the final leg of the field ship voyage, at which Dougal had grinned and said Revka would be happy to sleep at a friend’s house so we could have her room.

    I was trotting past the Iroij’s palace when I realized I should call the hospital, remembering that the Iroij had one of the two satellite phones on the island.

    I smiled shyly at the man sitting on a chair by the gate into the Iroij’s property.   “Is the Iroij here?” I asked.  My brain scrambled for the words in Marshallese. “Iroij ijin?”

    He nodded toward the house with a low “Ayet, ijo,” and I walked up the white gravel pathway to the Iroij’s door.

    I’m not sure why I was surprised when the Iroij himself opened his door, but I smiled at the stocky man with salt-and-pepper hair cropped short, wearing a sarong and an embroidered island shirt, his outfit completed with bare feet.

    “Miss Beauchamp!” he exclaimed.  “I mean, Mrs. Fraser.”  His smile was warm, and he urged me into the large open room lit by electric lights.  It was a simple building, but in comparison to most of the dwellings on Arno it was lavish.

    “Thank you, Iroi… Sir… Your honor?”

    “Call me Mayor Timisen,” he urged at my apparent discomfort.  He had gestured for me to sit in one of the chairs in the main room, and he leaned forward once we were both seated, urging me to speak.

    I was grateful he spoke such fluent English as I explained to him what seemed to be ailing Perkaj. Although it wasn’t going to cause an instant death, high blood sugar meant that glucose wasn’t getting into the body’s cells, and organ failure was a possible consequence of elevated blood sugar left too long without treatment.

    “Perkaj needs to go to the hospital,” I said.  “Can we use the satellite phone to contact them and ask what we should do?”

    He nodded slowly, then got up and went to his desk, coming back with the chunky black satellite phone. I eyed it with mixed emotions as I watched him dial a number and then hold the phone to his ear.  Just seeing the phone brought back a flurry of remembered events that had led to my first satellite call out here—

    That dark night after my trip to Matolen with Sharbella, I had ridden with Jamie on his bike back to the clinic… later, lying next to him under our makeshift mosquito-net tent—after he'd said it would be inappropriate to hang out in my apartment after dark —we had been looking up at the stars and talking when I’d accidentally called him Frank…

    I remembered the sinking sensation in the pit of my stomach when Jamie pulled away from me, and the deepening discomfort a few days later when Angus confronted me about my behavior towards Jamie, when he told me the engagement ring on my finger was about the only part of me that was engaged…

    My heart sank at the memory of the night I took care of baby Maxson when he  was sicker than I could deal with in my primitive clinic, waking the next morning to find that the infant was dead.

    I remembered the pain of Jamie discovering me on the beach and trying to comfort me, only having to force him away.  I could picture him seated on a mat with Rupert and Angus across the gravel-strewn yard at Maxson’s funeral, and I remembered trying to convince Anni and myself that I truly didn’t want him.

    I chuckled as I recalled Anni and that crazy midnight run to the fishing dock on the ocean side to see the miracle of the full moon.  But that joy was followed by Frank’s letter—familiar handwriting crushing my soul as he told me he didn’t want to wait for me, that he was breaking up with me.

    That pain had been followed by the comfort of Jamie’s arms, by tender murmured reassurances and his touch when I went to him in the darkness, desperately needing to not be alone.  And later, I had slept in his bed with him, curling in the hollow of his form, reassured by his even breathing, his warmth, and the solid substance of his body behind me.

    The comfort of Jamie's kindness was replaced by Angus’s disappointed, bitter voice the next morning, accusing me of sleeping with—not just ‘sleeping with’—Jamie, telling me that since I wouldn’t stay away from the young man on my own, he was going to have to take more drastic measures.

    And then I could vividly picture the Iroij standing outside my door, handing me a black phone and telling me the person on the other end was Mr. MacKenzie— that I was being summoned to UniServe headquarters.

    Now I looked at the white gold circle on my right hand for a moment and then back at that boxy black phone held by the Iroij and found myself shaking my head, gratefully astonished at how that story had ended; hoping that this sequence of events would have a similarly positive end.

    Mr. Timisen held the phone out to me then, lifting me out of my deep deja vu.  After taking a breath, I quickly explained the situation to the emergency room physician on the other end of the line.

    “We could try to catch the Jolok boat tomorrow,” I said.  “I have some insulin.  I could administer it and try to monitor his blood sugar, but I’m concerned that if I gave him too much, he could die.  And he has a high temperature and is almost unresponsive—he can’t stay at this blood sugar level without doing drastic damage to his organs.”

    There was static on the line and I wondered if the connection had been severed, but then the doctor’s calming voice came back on.

    “We can’t do much until you get the patient here, unfortunately,” the physician said. “Administer insulin and monitor his blood sugar. Perhaps the Iroij could charter a private flight so you could get here sooner.”

    The conversation was loud enough that the Iroij heard the request.  He nodded to me reassuringly, reaching for the phone and bidding the physician farewell, then dialing another number and having a brief conversation in Majel.  I assumed he was calling the Majuro airport.

    “The plane could meet you at the landing strip beyond Jabo.  Are you able to transport the patient there by truck?”

    I nodded, then told the physician that we could get him to the landing strip within an hour and a half.  Mayor Timisen smiled reassuringly at me, going into the hallway and calling out into one of the other rooms.  In a few moments, a young man entered.  At Mr. Timisen’s terse command, he quickly trotted away, I assumed to go locate the island truck.

    “Can you travel with him?” the physician asked me over the phone.  “The plane has room for the patient and a parent, but a doctor or nurse should go along as well.”

    “Don’t you send a nurse or EMT out on the plane?” I asked.

    “Not unless it’s a heart attack or severe injury.  We’re understaffed as it is,” he responded.

    With a few last directions, the doctor and I hung up, and Mr. Timisen assured me that they would bring the truck to the clinic to pick me up and then take my patient to the air strip on the way towards Arno Arno.

    As anxious as I was feeling, I was actually grateful to run the rest of the way home. I felt calmer knowing that I would soon be getting Perkaj to a hospital where he would have the round-the-clock monitoring I was incapable of providing on my own.  

    After unlocking the clinic, with shaking hands I removed the vials of insulin from the medication locker.  Making sure I had syringes and a few glucose packets to counteract the effects of accidentally giving Perkaj too much insulin, I locked up the clinic and entered the apartment.

    What was I supposed to take with me?  I hadn’t yet packed my big suitcase for Guam, so I threw a few dresses, bras, and pairs of panties in a backpack, along with my conditioner and skincare bag. Then I pulled my larger suitcase from under the bed and loaded it as quickly as I could, though I couldn’t tell if I had what I needed for our trip.  I’d been planning on a leisurely evening of packing once I had been done for the day at the clinic. An evening of packing, followed by some more quality time with my husband…

    My heart sunk at that thought.  My memories of those days of sadness without Jamie had made me long to be close to him again.  As I remembered that night when Frank broke up with me, I could almost sense Jamie’s warm comfort next to me in his bed.  And today, helplessly looking at Perkaj lying limp and unresponsive on the mat on the floor had brought back those feelings of powerlessness I had felt with baby Maxson.  I could feel my need for Jamie in the pit of my stomach, but I steeled myself. This was a time I was going to be strong without him.

    But I couldn’t just leave without telling Jamie where I was going.  I went out to the side yard where I discovered him and John working, the two men standing in remarkably similar positions with arms crossed, heads cocked to one side, looking in puzzlement at the structure in front of them.  It looked a little like a terrarium or sunroom, with a slanting glass roof on top of an enclosed wooden box. As I watched, they each moved a few steps to the right, resuming the same quizzical posture when they stopped. I chuckled at their incidental resemblance, the tall, broad-shouldered, auburn-haired Scot and his slighter, dark-haired Marshallese friend.

    “Claire, come see,” Jamie said, ushering me over and pulling me under his arm.  “We put an inch or so of well water into the reservoir there,” he explained, drawing me toward the structure and pointing at the shallow pan that stretched the entire length and width of the base of the still.  “The water soaks up into the black cloth draped over those blocks, which heat in the sun and then the water evaporates from the fabric, traveling upward as the heat rises.”

    “But the sloping glass ceiling traps the moisture inside the still,” John continued as he came close on my other side, “and as the air outside is cooler, it condenses on the inside of the glass.”

    “We’re trying to figure out the right angle for the glass,” Jamie said, “so that the water doesn’t drip back into the pan but instead dribbles down the glass and finally into this channel,”—here he pointed at a sloping half-pipe near the lowest part of the glass, cupped upward underneath a line of something that looked like clear caulk, where the droplets of water that had snaked their way down the glass-collecting surface were stopped from sliding further, growing into larger and larger reservoirs until their weight overpowered the surface tension and gravity forced them to fall.  I could see a thin stream of water in the bottom of the pipe, slowly flowing toward the place where the pipe exited the still and entered flexible tubing threaded into the top of a large water jug on the ground.

    “It looks great babe,” I said, finally grabbing Jamie’s arm to stop him.  “But I don’t have time right now.  I have to take a plane to the Majuro hospital,” I said quickly, before he could speak.

    “What?” he exclaimed with an involuntary squeeze closer to him, looking me up and down as if I were the one injured.  “Have ye been hurt?”

    “No, it’s Perkaj,” I said.  “You’ve mentioned how Rupert said he’s been losing weight the last few months and hasn’t had much energy at school.  Well, there’s a reason for it.  I’m almost positive he’s diabetic!”

    From the look on his face, I could see it hadn’t completely sunk in yet, but when the truck pulled up in front of the house at that very moment, Jamie questioned me again.  “Truly?  You are leaving now?  You are going to Majuro? Today?”

    I nodded quickly, slinging the strap of my backpack over one shoulder. “I started packing my suitcase for Christmas, but I’m sure I’ve forgotten something.  Can you finish packing for me?

    Jamie had his hand around my upper arm, a grip that expressed what he couldn’t seem to be able to say.  His forehead was wrinkled, his face clearly communicating that he objected to my departure.

    “I’ve gotta go, babe,” I said, beginning to move toward the truck. “I’ll see you tomorrow evening when you get to Majuro on the fish boat?”

    Jamie still looked bewildered, but a sudden certainty flooded over his face and he took two quick steps to me and crushed me in his arms.

    “Be safe,” he murmured into my hair. “I canna believe I’m losing ye again so soon.”

    Gently pushing me out to arm’s length, he met my eyes.  “I love ye, hen,” he said, stooping to firmly kiss me on the lips once more before urging me toward the waiting vehicle.  John and Jamie followed me as I went to the truck, and Jamie offered a hand as I climbed up into the bed of the pickup.

    “I love you too,” I mouthed, blowing him a kiss as the truck drove off nearly before I’d settled myself on the truck bed.  He watched, waving until I couldn’t see him anymore.

    Once at Perkaj’s house, I waded through the crowd of concerned well-wishers, thankful for Mayor Timisen’s ability to translate and explain to Perkaj’s family what we were doing.  The biggest challenge was determining which family member should travel along with the boy.  Perkaj’s mother was eliminated as a good option because the boy had several younger siblings, one of which was a nursing infant.  I couldn’t follow the entire conversation, but Mr. Timisen also explained to me that Perkaj’s father was out fishing and wouldn’t be back until dark.  After some rapid fire conversations in Marshallese, it was determined that his auntie Maria—a lovely girl of around twenty—would come along with Perkaj so he had family to watch over him.

    As the family had debated who would travel with Perkaj, I had re-tested his blood sugar.  Finding it still over six hundred, I gave him eight units of fast-acting insulin, hoping that each unit would drop his blood sugar by about 50.  I knew the ride to the air strip would take a half hour or so, and expected the helicopter ride to Majuro to be about the same.  I would continue to monitor Perkaj’s blood sugar level as we traveled, but I could feel my agitation easing at the promise of a more updated facility and an ICU where my young patient’s progress could be closely monitored.

    The process of transferring Perkaj to the truck was accomplished by a group of four young men who gripped the corners of the woven pandanus mat on which Perkaj had been sleeping, and using it like a stretcher, carried him out to the truck and unceremoniously slid the mat into the bed of the truck. I had grabbed a blanket from my house so we could cover him and then his auntie and I sat on either side of him to keep him from rolling as the truck drove down the bumpy island road.

    When we reached the air strip, I got out of my cramped sitting position.  I tested Perkaj’s blood sugar again and was pleased to see that it had dropped, but not with such rapidity that I would have to worry about his sugar level getting dangerously low..  

    I’d traveled over the air strip several times since my arrival on the island.  Each time we’d gone on the Jolok boat, the time I’d heading out on the Field Ship trip, and then returning back home again all necessitated driving through that narrow stretch of the island.  But this time it wasn’t as green as I remembered from my first arrival on the island.  The grass on either side of the wide-open swath of land was yellowed, a sign of the continuing drought.

    Maria smiled at me as I stretched and bent over to touch my toes, preparing for another half hour or more of sitting in a cramped position before arriving in Majuro.  She was patting Perkaj’s hand gently, her forehead wrinkling as she looked at his expressionless face.

    “He will be okay?” she asked.   “Ejjab mej?”

    “Ejab malele,” I said sadly, shaking my head.  “I really don’t know if he will die.  But I hope not.”  I tried to smile for her.

    By the time we had been loaded onto the plane with Perkaj strapped onto a gurney that was then locked into place, he was moaning.  Though it sounded worse, and though his face wrinkled more furiously when I again pricked another finger to test his blood sugar, I was relieved to see the gradual signs of a return to consciousness.  

    Before we landed at the Majuro airport, Perkaj’s blood sugar had dropped to 420, which although still horrible, was a significant improvement.

    There was an ambulance waiting for us on the runway. As we rode the twenty minutes to the hospital, I briefed the EMT on Perkaj’s symptoms.  He tested Perkaj’s blood sugar again and I was glad to see it had dropped yet a few more points.

    By midnight I was beyond tired.  I had sat, holding Perkaj and Maria’s hands, trying to understand the Marshallese explanations given by the medical professionals, trying to reassure the young Marshallese girl that her nephew was going to recover.  I was weary but grateful that Perkaj’s blood sugar was at a reasonable level.

    “Lass, why dinna you come to our house for the night,” said a familiar voice.

    “Mr. MacKenzie?” I asked.  This time Dougal seemed completely unsurprised when I stood and hugged him.  In fact, he even patted my back gently before releasing me and picking up my backpack. Speaking briefly to Maria, he took me by the hand and led me from the hospital.

    I was so exhausted I refused the offers of food made by Moneo.  I simply slipped off my sandals, lay down on the couch in the living room, pulled a light blanket over myself and fell asleep.

    Something about being on Dougal’s couch brought back such intense memories that all night I dreamed of cuddling next to Jamie the night after we got engaged.  One dream-memory was so vivid that it startled me awake.

    In the middle of that night after our sudden decision to get married I had found myself tossing and turning on the mat on the floor in Revka’s room. You’re an impulsive idiot, my brain told me. This is a rebound.  You don’t really want to marry Jamie—you just didn't want to lose him as a friend.

    I had gotten up as quietly as possible and slipped through Revka’s door, standing in the darkened living room trying to let my eyes get used to the darkness.

    “What’re ye doin’?” a deep voice murmured from the couch.

    “You’re awake?” I asked, moving a few steps forward.

    “Canna sleep,” he responded.  I could see a faint movement as he scooted over on the couch, and I tiptoed to him, finding his hand reaching out to me to guide me around the coffee table.

    “Here,” he said, drawing me down to lie on the edge of the couch in front of him and covering me with the blanket. “Though I dinna ken whether having ye next to me is going to make sleep come any more readily.”

    “I’m not out here to make out with you,” I said bluntly. “I’m just… having second thoughts.”

    “Ye dinna have to marry me,” he said without hesitation, though his muscles had tensed at my words. “Dinna feel guilty if you’ve thought better of it and have changed your mind.”

    “Are you having second thoughts as well?” I asked him.

    He hesitated.  “No,” he said calmly.  I could feel him shaking his head behind me.

    I scoffed in disbelief.  “Why not?” I asked.

    He sighed, and I could feel his chest expand against my back. “Do you believe in providence?” Jamie asked slowly.

    “Providence—like a good coincidence?” I asked.

    “Not exactly… Providence—as in, an act of God.  Something that canna be explained away with logic.”

    “Maybe,” I responded.  “I’m not sure.”

    “In the month before you came to Arno,” he said, his voice a husky rumble in my ear, “I found a letter from my ma.  She had tucked it inside the Holy Bible she gave me on my first confirmation.”

    “What did it say?” I asked, curious.  I knew his mother had passed away when he was a teenager, so I knew her words would matter to him.

    “She told me that while I should have in mind the things I wanted in a wife, that I might be surprised at what God provided. But she also told me that she had prayed for the partner of my future, and that I should do the same.”

    “And did you?” I asked in surprise, turning my face to look at him over my shoulder.

    “I did,” he said simply.

    “You started praying for your wife a month before I came to Arno,” I repeated, stunned.

    “Aye,” he said. “Every day.” I could see the smile on his face despite it being dark in the living room.

    “So I appeared, and you saw an answer to your prayers?” I asked, amusement edging into my voice.

    “No, actually.  I thought he would choose a local girl for me,” Jamie explained.  “When you arrived, I mostly saw a kind nurse who was clueless about island mores and desperately needed a friend.” At that, he leaned in and kissed me on the tip of my nose.

    I pushed him away in mock disgust. “You pitied me?"

    “Ye didna need to be pitied?” he asked, pulling me closer.

    “Well, I was clueless,” I agreed, settling into his arms again, only slightly perturbed at him.

    “And engaged,” Jamie added.

    “That too,” I said. I felt a sudden ache in the pit of my stomach. “Unavailable, as far as you were concerned.”

    “Well…” Jamie continued, “As for that, I wasna exactly convinced.”

    I remembered the way he had asked me about Frank on the ocean side dock the day we did laundry together… And how I couldn't answer him, how I couldn't bring myself to say that I loved my fiance.

    Jamie caressed my arm, running his fingers lightly from elbow to shoulder to neck.  When he brushed my hair aside and leaned forward to press his lips beneath my ear, I shivered.

    “Dinna fash,” he said.

    “What does that mean?” I had asked, turning to him again.

    “Don’t worry yourself,” he answered.  “Trust.”

    “Trust?” I had asked.

    “Providence doesna always make sense, but I believe this has all worked out as it should. And it will continue to work out because He is in it.”    

    With that reassurance again running through my mind, a ghost of his kiss on my neck, I wrapped myself in my blanket and slept the rest of the night.

Next chapter is officially  Chapter 18: Hopping to Guam Jamie loves plane trips about as much as he loves boat trips.

[dalekofchaos]

Ways they could’ve handled Rey in the Sequel Trilogy  and what they did instead

My other Sequel trilogy wasted potential posts

Finn

Poe

Rose

Luke

Han

Leia

Kylo Ren

Captain Phasma

Hux

Snoke

Ways they could’ve handled Rey in the Sequel Trilogy

Let Rey have a character arc. Rey starts off as a mix of Han Solo and Jyn Erso. Someone who only cares about her own survival and is consumed by her own trauma but learns to overcome her trauma, start caring for other people and something bigger than herself. That would’ve been the perfect character arc for Rey.

Rey would sell BB-8 for food, then fight to get him back.   It doesn’t work that she would be selfless and was willing to pass up all that food for a droid she just met. So I think it would help if she had sold BB-8 and later after meeting Finn, she learns of the importance of the droid and she feels guilt and fights to get BB-8 back. That I think would’ve improved her arc in TFA

Show that Rey is still learning piloting a starship and have Han teaching Rey how to fly proper. Rey will mention that she flew simulations on Jakku, but realizes flying simulations is different than flying for real. This will give us a nice scene of Han mentoring Rey in flying the Falcon.

When returning to D’Qar, showing Rey going to the infirmary with Finn, while Leia hugs Chewie. Rey’s concern should be to make sure Finn is okay, we didn’t need to see an unearned hug between two characters who didn’t know each other.

Have a meaningful mentor and student relationship with Luke and Rey. Luke reaches out after R2 and seeing so much of himself in Rey. It is more important to have a Rey and Luke strong mentor-apprentice relationship than having Rey have a connection with Kylo Ren. It should be about training Rey and establishing a relationship between Luke and her. It was said their relationship would be the heart of the film, so my suggestion is do just that. Focus on Rey and Luke having an actual relationship with each other and her training. Rey needs to be trained in the force to be a believable character. Even Anakin, Ahsoka, and Luke himself were given training and time to become skilled and powerful. Instead of just copying Yoda and old man Obi’s personality into him, do something we have never seen before in a Jedi Master in the movies: make Luke humorous, lighthearted, make Luke lecture Rey ON the importance of attachments and understanding the darkness just as much is the light. It would also create a parallel to what Snoke is teaching Kylo. Have Luke show Rey how to feel the force. Even show Luke teaching Rey to craft her own Lightsaber. Rey could finally make her Saberstaff with Yellow or Purple Crystal and teach Rey that attachments can lead you to the dark side if you let them, but they won’t lead you to darkness if you control your emotions. 

Keep that Rey is related to no one, but Rey knows this. She knew who her parents were, she did not want them to be anyone special, in the end all she wanted was for them to come home. She was going to pass up adventure and being important to stay on Jakku because all she wanted was her family. She didn't want them to be important, the audience did. All we needed to hear is they died. We could get Kylo saying "When you reached out as they flew away, you destroyed their ship, Rey you killed your parents....you were never the same again and cut yourself off from the force.” The important thing about Rey is she found a new family in Luke, Leia, Han, Finn, Poe, Rose and The Resistance, a family who loves Rey for who she is, not her heritage.

Rey and Luke together go to The Supremacy after they both feel Leia and Finn in danger. Rey flies the Falcon, while Luke lifts his old X-Wing and head to the Supremacy to face Snoke. Rey will pose as bait, while Luke sneaks aboard The Supremacy.  Rey is brought before Kylo Ren and Snoke. Snoke taunts that today hope dies and The Resistance dies. But what happens next, Luke enters the throne room. “MASTER SKYWALKER! AT LAST WE MEET” Snoke will echo through his throne room. The Praetorian Guards will attack, but Luke kills them easily with the force. Luke will say he’s come to save his apprentice, his sister and the rebellion. And finally what we’ve been waiting for Luke vs Snoke. Snoke takes out the true Darksaber, while Luke takes out his Green Lightsaber. The master of the light and master of the dark. And we have the rematch between Rey and Kylo. This time Kylo appears stronger. He is dominating Rey in the fight. Kylo will tell her “you should have accepted my offer, scavenger” “Rey will say “I’ll never join you!” Kylo with the famous Solo snark will say “pity” and cuts  Rey’s hand off. Luke enraged will use the force to knock Kylo out. Finally Luke defeats Snoke. Luke will take Rey with him. As the hyperspace ramming happens, the Falcon is there to pick up Rey. Luke leaves on his X-Wing to guide Rey to safety.

Rey awakens and senses Finn nearby on Crait. As Luke is fighting Kylo, Rey knows while injured, she has to lift the rocks in order to save Finn and The Resistance. Finally Rey embraces Finn, reunited again. The movie ends with Rey getting her mechanical hand and joins Luke and Leia. Leia places her hand over her and Luke’s hands and say “we have everything we need”

What they chose to do with Rey

Rey is good natured and selfless for no reason or build up whatsoever. My issue with this it makes no sense considering that Rey grew up on Jakku, a dog eat dog world. She had no reason to be selfless on that planet. I do love Rey, but it really makes no sense that a person who was raised on a ruthless and violent planet of thieves and scavengers, abandoned and lived the life of a scavenger who barely makes enough to survive would give up all that food for a droid she just met.

Rey perfectly flies The Falcon despite not flying a ship. In the movie she says she’s never flown before and doesn’t know how she did it. In The novel she says she flew ships at night and flight simulations. That’s all well and good, but if you choose to explain things in the novel, but not in the movie. Then you deliberately chose not to explain how a scavenger who never leaves the planet knows how to fly the Millennium Falcon.

She pulls off maneuvers and mechanical tricks that not even Han Solo could think of and a scene later he is dumbfounded and astonished by Rey

Rey hugs Leia. Leia hugging Rey out of nowhere instead of Chewie just doesn’t work. Why is she hugging and grieving with someone she just met when Chewie is right there?

Daisy doesn’t think Rey should have any flaws and that’s a problem

Rey has a connection and starts to trust Kylo Ren…when only ONE DAY passes since Kylo has tortured her, killed Han Solo, and injured Finn. There’s a difference between being “forgiving” and there’s being blindly gullible. She went from wanting to kill him to believing he’s “our last hope”….for reasons.

Rey’s stupidity in TLJ. Rey’s plan. Rey has some vision of Kylo Ren deciding to help her out and locks herself in a box to fly straight to him, with no escape plan or regard for her own safety. As bad as JJ chose to develop Rey, I will admit that Rey is adaptable. Rey makes plans and strategizes. She has been raised as a scavenger, working hard for every day of survival and fighting for every item in her possession. While Luke and Anakin throw caution to the wind in order to succeed, Rey keeps a level head and fights her way through things. TLJ acts like that version of Rey doesn’t exist.

Rey has no character arc in TLJ.  Rey doesn’t learn anything and I don’t feel like she has a character arc or journey. She starts her journey in TFA and I was excited to learn where her character would go. And TLJ does nothing with Rey.  I do love Rey, but I don’t feel like it truly tests Rey and forces her to grow as a character. Rey is intriguing and we care for her, but her journey feels non existent.  Luke and Anakin had struggles and journeys.  I just don’t feel it from Rey. I am really disappointed with how TLJ handles Rey. Rey doesn’t have any struggles. Rey is all powerful and she is the same character she is from TFA. Everything TFA was building her up was instantly ignored.  How Maz got the Skywalker lightsaber? Never mentioned again. How Rey was drawn to the Skywalker lightsaber and what the force vision was meant to mean? Never addressed. Rey says that she’s classified information, “none of your business” Then her parents are revealed as junk traitors who sold her for drinking money and died in Jakku. If her parents were just junkers, how did they afford that space ship if they spent the money on booze? Rey herself told BB-8 she was classified information. All that build up for nothing. The force can come from anyone, we all feel it but you build Rey up only to do nothing with her. Whatever TFA was building up for Rey was dropped entirely.  My big issue with how TLJ handles Rey, is she does not learn anything. She was awakened by Kylo’s mind melding and has his powers transferred to her, she doesn’t even earn her powers on her own, it’s all from Kylo. Your big feminist icon has to get her powers from the man who’s been harassing her. How empowering….please kill me. She doesn’t learn anything from Luke and she feels like the same character in The Force Awakens. We see Luke showing Rey to feel the force and the Jedi’s hubris. The third lesson was deleted, but we did not really get to see Luke train her as a Jedi. Rey doesn’t learn anything. Rey even defeats Luke… In the end we see Rey has the sacred Jedi texts, but Yoda pointed out that those texts were holding back the Jedi and doesn’t teaches her what she doesn’t already know. SO in the end, Rey doesn’t learn anything and that’s the problem. And the big problem is we are expected that Rey will learn everything off screen….that’s the problem. You cannot just have a character who can do all these amazing feats, show her not being trained as a Jedi and make her even more powerful in the final movie with no build up whatsoever.

Rey in TROS teaser looks like nothing ever changed. The same type of outfit from The Force Awakens, the same Lightsaber and the same hairstyle. Like nothing ever happened or changed. Like nothing ever changed. God forbid Rey looks like a mix of a Jedi Knight and Resistance Leader, godforbid Rey builds her own lightsaber, especially a Saberstaff. It’s almost as if JJ and Lucasfilm are afraid to develop Rey as a character and let her look different at all….*sighs*

Rey has no development or arc. Rey is not allowed to have flaws or personal struggles or has a real hero’s journey.  Which is disappointing because I truly loved having Star Wars be centered around a female lead and feel like it’s a missed opportunity. It’s not Daisy’s fault, I feel like the blame lies with Disney. I’m not sure if Disney got cold feet with a female protagonist and felt they would get backlash if they made her character naturally flawed but it’s storytelling 101 to have your protagonist faced with problems that aren’t easy to overcome and correlate to said flaws. Instead we got a hero who faces no real consequences, has no real goals, and can defeat everything in her path with abysmal training. Which ultimately makes for an extremely uninteresting hero. No hard training, no real consequences, no real flaws, no struggles or not even an arc and everything is handed to her. It just makes Episode IX predictable and boring. Rey will defeat Kylo again to no one’s surprise. There is just not a reason to care to see what will happen with Rey. I’m more invested to see what happens with Finn, Poe, Rose and Jannah. I just lost any and all investment in Rey after TLJ. Rey just doesn’t feel like a reason to even want to watch Episode IX and Disney just failed Rey as a character.

[haddock-family]

HTTYD 3 Thoughts

(there are spoilers, obviously)

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I expected the ending, I expected it would be sad. But being a kids movie, they couldn't make it sad soooo they had Hiccup and Toothless reunite, which is good.

Grimmel felt like a generic villain, but after the movie, he wasn't the biggest source of conflict - Toothless' conflict between his human connections and calls to the wild is. I felt Grimmel was kinda useless as a villain, but since he brought the Light Fury in the picture, provided some sweet action scenes and lead to the iconic "save him" moment, I guess he's okay. He had super generic motivations though. "Oh, I want to kill all dragons. Ha ha ha."

I think the movie is paralleling Hiccup and Toothless, as they are the leaders of the human/dragon side respectively, and they are pressured to get married/find a mate. But I felt like they were making the Light Fury being the main reason why Toothless had to go, which is kinda funny as Toothless had known the Light Fury for like a week and had known Hiccup for SIX YEARS. I think what the writers meant to say is that Hiccup and Toothless are from different worlds and they need to separate- but I feel like a little more focus on Toothless' role as king of the dragons is more important than him being attracted to the Light Fury.

The separation scene between the Vikings and the dragons could be done better. It was emotional between Hiccup and Toothless, but maybe I was too busy crying, it didn't feel as emotional with the other riders and the dragons (except Astrid and Stormfly, I started to cry again when Astrid's voice cracked). Also, everyone just... spontaneously takes off saddles and the dragons just fly away? I feel like a little foreshadowing would be good (maybe it did happen, correct me if I'm wrong), perhaps having a few dragons look longingly to the wild and someone commenting on how dragons live differently from humans. I don't know. It seemed too sudden even though I knew it was inevitable.

Although, one thing I had to admire is the "save me" scene. It shocked me completely and you can see Hiccup was literally ready to die for Toothless. And Hiccup wasn't even struggling against Grimmel until the very end. He just let him tear up his flight suit and clothes and that was totally depressing. Hiccup had full acceptance of his death in face of Toothless. Like, this guy was the chief, a well respected and known chief, with amazing friends and family, and he was ready to die for his best friend. I mean, Hiccup said "I knew you'd come back" or something along the lines when the Light Fury returned, but even with that, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't mind dying if Toothless was safe. WHICH JUST DESTROYED ME.

Ten seconds after the dragons' departure, Hiccup and Astrid get married! Yay... I guess? I was too busy caught up on the whole emotional dragon leaving thing, so guess I'll cry again from happiness. A little bit of transition would be good, like Hiccup doing his cliché narration. I'm also curious to see how Berk coped with no dragons. Also, they could now move back to their old island without the overcrowding problem, right? They left a ton of infrastructure back there!

The Hiccstrid kids were adorable. I can totally see how they look like their parents. And holy hell, that moment when Hiccup stretched out his hand to Toothless like in the original Forbidden Friendship scene struck me right in the feels. Oh gosh.

Hiccup was hella frustrating in this movie. Before watching the movie, I thought he was going to be cool and adult like and doing nice chiefly things instead of RUNNING OFF AND SAVING DRAGONS ALL THE TIME instead of, y'know, caring about social welfare of his villagers. But Hiccup, is, apparently, still stupid and makes stupid decisions.

yOU JUST MOVE YOUR ENTIRE ISLAND FOR A PLACE YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW IF IT EXISTS and even if it exists maybe you can't live there. Gosh, Astrid (and probably Valka) is the only one who has more than two brain cells in this movie. Hiccup's plans don't usually end well and the gang's "fight or flight" response is usually, literally, flight. Alright Hiccup, stop being so reckless and actually PLAN.

Hiccup being stupid in the first movie is acceptable. He was 15 and teenagers do stupid things. Hiccup being stupid in the second movie is more annoying, but still somewhat acceptable. He's not chief and HTTYD 2 is supposed to show Hiccup's transition into chief. But HTTYD 3, when Hiccup's been chief for one year, aaaaand he makes stupid decisions that affect his ENTIRE tribe? Oh gosh, someone (read: Astrid) slap some sense into him.

Despite all the above, this movie had spectacular animation and soundtrack. John Powell knows how to use tracks from previous movies in the right places to destroy his audience. Test Drive and Forbidden Friendship, oh man. Truly iconic.

Overall, it was okay for a movie. It didn't disappoint, but didn't exactly surprise me either. Kind of sad that Toothless and the other dragons had to go after all the years they had spent on Berk. And it's utterly depressing that all the information the riders had gathered about dragons may never be used again. Generally, a good trilogy with solid themes of friendship, family, and growing up.

[wrestlinghasmelike-blog]

Smackdown Live! Review- April 10th, 2018

Happy Tuesday gang! Surprised that I’m here for another Smackdown review? It’s the Smackdown after Mania, of course I’m here for a review. Where else would I be but watching the show? Honestly I’d either be at the gym or my best friend’s house, but not tonight!

I’ll be posting my Mania reflections tomorrow (hopefully!) Look out for that when it drops!

Please let me know what your thoughts on the show were, or your thoughts on this review! Any type of feedback is welcomed. Thanks for reading and sharing!

Opening- Shane McMahon

After his match against KO and Sami at Mania on Sunday, we have to wonder where Shane will go next. Before Mania, Shane did step down from his role as commissioner of Smackdown, so he’ll probably name his successor.

Shane thanks the audience for a great Wrestlemania, and thanks everyone for travelling and supporting the show. He hypes the audience up by talking about Daniel Bryan and what an amazing job he did at Mania. Shane has accepted Daniel’s resignation as Manager and has him back as a full-time performer. Noiceee. We’ll have to see how often Daniel is allowed to compete, however. I have to imagine that they have to test him before and after every show to make sure things are okie dokie.

Shane announces that there will be a new GM for Smackdown, and he brings to the ring no one other than Paige! Paige is a great choice for this! She just retired from in-ring competition last night on Raw, and having her be GM is such a great choice. I wish her the best, and I can’t wait to see what she does for the Shake-up next week.

New Day vs. The Usos

On Sunday, both of these teams lost to the Bludgeon Brothers in a 3-way tag match for the tag titles. It was not surprising that the Bludgeon Brothers won, but I’m hoping their title reign does not last very long. I don’t want them to be this unbeatable force that no one can beat. That would make for a very uninteresting story in my opinion.

Jimmy and Jey bring some awesome teamwork against the New Day in the opening moments of this match. It looks like Xavier and Big E will be fighting tonight. New Day quickly counter the Usos attacks to get the upperhand in the match.

I’m really excited for the Shake-up this time around because we really need some fresh faces on the show, especially in the Smackdown tag division. I wanna see the teams in the ring change it up and fight someone else for once. I’m so sick of these matches every week.

These guys have fought and put on some great matches, and the crowd is really into the match tonight. I love the New Orleans crowd a lot, they’ve been really great this week so far. 

Xavier and Jey have been really going at it ever since the show came back from commercial. This is now turning into a huge fight, and it’s interesting now. Big E gets the sneaky tag to Xavier, unbeknownst to the Usos. Xavier and E hit a huge neckbreaker, but it doesn’t get them very far as the Usos find a way to counter and nail Xavier with a bunch of superkicks. Jimmy goes up to the top rope and hits Xavier with a beautiful splash. 1,2,3 for the Usos tonight. This match started out as nothing, but turned into a great fight by the end of it. The Usos will challenge the Bludgeon Brothers for the titles at the event in Saudi Arabia later this month.

Naomi vs. Natalya

At Wrestlemania, Naomi won the first ever Women’s Battle Royal to be held at Mania. I’m glad she won, I think she was the best choice to win. She’s so talented and athletic and so accomplished. I hope she gets another shot at a title soon, she deserves it.

Her opponent, Natalya, also deserves another title shot at some point. Nattie is one of the most experienced women on the roster, and having her as champion again would make me so happy.

The bout starts off with a little showboating and some slaps from the women. The two go back and forth for a bit, and Naomi tosses Nattie right out of the ring and onto the floor. Have we seen these two fight before? I feel like this is a matchup that could really take flight if given the proper time and planning. 

The match returns with Nattie in control as she stands of Naomi. Nattie gets Naomi in position for a nice snap suplex, and transitions into a nice submission move that I don’t really know how to describe? It almost looked like a standing surfboard mixed with a crossface? 

Naomi finally breaks free and hits Nattie with those fast kicks and jumps to the top rope but Nattie comes behind and knocks her down. Nattie then tries for the sharpshooter, but Naomi gets away and fights Nattie back finally. She ends up knocking her down with a boot, and then she does her flat-legged moonsault to get the win.

Charlotte’s Title Celebration

Oh my god you guys, Charlotte defeated the streak at Mania against Asuka in what I can only describe as the most unpredictable thing of the night. I have so many mixed emotions, mostly all positive, about the match. I wish Asuka had won so we could have a shakeup in the Women’s division on the show, but with the shakeup next week, maybe I’ll get what I’m hoping for.

OH MAN THE ICONICO ONES BILLIE KAY AND PEYTON ROYCE ARE HERE! CHARLOTTE WAS LIKE WHO’S NEXT AND THESE TWO ARE HERE YESYESYESYES

Oh man, I love these two already. I loved them on NXT, and I think they’re a great addition to SD. These two really are the future.

Charlotte was done with what the iconics were saying and threw an elbow right at Billie. Charlotte does well for herself at first, but the women quickly get a hold of her and ambush her. They throw her over the announce table and into the ring post. They stand on her hands, and then they throw Charlotte right into the steel steps. 

This was straight up brutality from the iconics, and it was amazing. 

OH SHIT CARMELLA IS HERE SHE’S CASHING IN YES OH GOD YES

SHE KICKS HER IN THE FACE AND CARMELLA IS CHAMPION FINALLY!!

This is it. This is all I want from the show tonight. Thanks very much.

Randy Orton vs. Bobby Roode vs. Rusev

At Wrestlemania, Jinder Mahal came out on top and beat these three guys for the U.S Title. Tonight, these three guys will fight to see who becomes the number one contender for the title to face Jinder at Backlash.

It’s still so surprising to me how over Rusev is. I think it’s because he’s easy for people to chant for. I want him to be a wrestler again, not a gimmick.

It looks like Randy is taking the lead in this match thus far. He’s got Bobby in a headlock currently, and he knocked Rusev out of the ring early on. I think Randy will get one more shot at the title, but I think Bobby or Rusev deserve to be champion more this time around.

Rusev is back in the ring and is trying to knock Bobby down. He doesn’t, and Bobby almost pins him, but Randy is quick to get back in and break up the fight. It’s now Randy and Rusev, and Rusev nails Orton with a huge superkick to his jaw. Randy and Rusev are now fighting outside of the ring, and Randy lifts Rusev on to the table and flips his over. Bobby makes his way back into the match and tames Orton for a bit, but Rusev now slides back in and goes for Bobby.

Rusev is so quick to build the pace of the match back up to where it should be. He fires with everything he’s got at Bobby and locks in the Accolade, but he doesn’t get it all the way and Randy comes back in to stomp at Rusev. He nails Bobby with the RKO, and Randy wins, earning a chance to face Jinder again.

Daniel Bryan vs. AJ Styles

AJ said it best in his backstage interview, no one thought this match would happen in a WWE ring EVER. I think this is now the new dream match.

AJ and Shinsuke had a great match at Mania that had an upsetting ending with AJ still as champion. I wish Shinsuke would’ve won, but the heel turn at the end is such a captivating and promising thing and I love it already.

Daniel is dawning his classic wet slicked back hair, and he is ready to get back into the ring as a competitor.

The match starts with some easy lockups and sequences that set the technical pace of the match. Daniel is down for most of the beginning, but he’s now on his feet after a sweet kip up, and he’s now focused on kicking the shit out of AJ. Daniel has turned his focus to AJ’s arm, and this is where Daniel shines.

Daniel keeps his rally going but is suddenly put to a halt by AJ with a huge ass dropkick right to Daniel’s face. 

I think I’m going to have to try to like Daniel Bryan again. I am so happy that he gets to continue to live his dream and is able to wrestle again, I think that’s so inspiring. But as I’ve said before, I have never bought into the Daniel Bryan hype. When he hit his peak, I wasn’t watching a lot of wrestling at the time, and I missed a lot of great moments. I know Daniel can impress me, but I’m not jumping at the chance to be in his corner just yet. 

The match rolls on as Daniel nails AJ with a flying forearm. It really looks like Daniel has never stepped away from the ring, he looks like he wrestled yesterday. He’s sharp and clear, hopefully this can last.

I can’t help but worry every time Daniel gets hit on his head. I don’t him to wrestle today, only to hang it up again tomorrow.

Even with selling a knee injury, Daniel is able to lock in an armbar from a suplex. AJ is able to escape and lock in the calf crusher, but the submission specialist in Daniel sneaks out of it, but AJ is able to find a way to lock back in. Daniel almost gets the yes lock in, but AJ gets up and delivers the pele kick to Daniel. He goes for the phenomenal forearm, but Daniel counters and gets back to his feet. He tries for those dropkicks in the corner, but AJ trips him and tries to hit the clash, but Bryan gets out and tries for the yes lock, but AJ finds the bottom rope to break the hold.

Daniel and AJ start fighting on the top rope, and Daniel tried to hit a superplex on AJ, but AJ shifted his weight and was able to knock Daniel over in mid-air, and I think he landed on Bryan’s face? Ouch? With both men down, Shinsuke inserted himself into the match and kicked Daniel in the head, making the bell ring. He then attacked AJ again, and walked away with a sly smile on his face. If we are getting true heel Shin, sign me the fuck up.

That’s it for the Smackdown after Mania! I thought this was a pretty good show. There weren’t as many debuts as there were last night, but we get Carmella as champion AND the iconic duo! I’m happy with that. 

Stay tuned for more posts during the week! My Mania reflections post will hopefully be up tomorrow, as well as maybe a post for NXT??

Please reblog and leave some feedback!

Casey

[joanelizebeth]

dreamers: don’t die

I know you think none of this matters anymore. You don’t even care so much to abide by sentence structure. The newest version of the new you could give two shits about what the Oxford comma even is. You don’t write to attain a grade anymore. You don’t write to get into college anymore. You write because……...

Dot. Dot. Dot ...still thinking, uploading, pending, synching. The world you once believed in, the audience still waiting on the last time you gave serious, genuine, interested, effort into your skill...

But something always causes the pen to stop writing before it actually intended on stopping. Suddenly the fingers stop typing at the keyboard...

You look up to kiss him goodnight (you realize he’s filling up his water bottle to head to bed), & so you shrug silently to yourself, “oh, this isn’t anything big I’m working on anyway right now, I can pause this and put it away.” NBD! Easy! 

Dot. Dot. Dot. 

The laptop closes and we don’t even recognize the severity of the moment. Such a subtle, little... moment, right?

My dad, born in 1953, believed in a lifelong dream of getting a Corvette. He got it when I was like 5. I’d sit in the back and stare up at the Wisconsin stars and think “I’m gonna chase my dreams like this one day, and never stop driving.” I’m 24, he hasn’t driven it regularly since I was 9. 

One day that garage door closed for the last time that he’d ever take that red corvette out, before giving up on remembering why he’d made it such a life goal in the first place...

And suddenly years and years later, so many pauses, so many put away ideas, brainstorming lists, and even frickin potential tweets and instagram captions fill up nothing but receipt space in your Notes app (a habit kept like my mom’s iconic giant black purse, all too familiar: like a landfill of thin crumpled papers, dollars, and big break ideas, always meant to go somewhere someday, right?).

Ideas are only dangerous if you feed them. House them. Watch them age, and help them develop into actions. As an artist, but really as an overthinker; it’s a game within your own creative intellect to balance the test of modern revolutions and trends & the analytical application of methods classically proven to work. We must not think we have to choose one or the other, but learn how to derive new opinions, ideas, and experiments by utilizing both thought-habits to new, peaceful third productive outcome to remain open minded to perspectives of people with much different life experiences and lives, different reality lenses than our own. 

Three dots that wait to continue the conversation, as eager as a new college grad awaits the dialog after sending a cover letter. The art of a cover letter? Is that really an art? I find well crafted writing with any purpose other than for the passion that letters themselves inspired one to pursue opportunity, to be a mockery of language itself. Do not exploit my talent, do not disrespect my education, for you have no idea what I’ve learned behind the closed doors of my personal life and interests, of things beyond what the ACT scans for. I might have read AP Chemistry in 5th grade, I might have read my father’s divorce journal during the military, you have no academic acclaim in my eye to judge the motivation behind why I type what I type. What I say and why I say so is something I’m still discovering myself, but I question the validity of my talent, of my career, every day that I realize I don’t have a stupid Bachelor’s Degree Paper saying that I majored in English and also sucked up to the professor’s particular philosophy. I’ve read more books in my lifetime than days I’ve spent in school. I’m not lying. I’m 24, one year out of college, one year a resident in the city of Angels: dying. Dying of Apathy. The same criminal that tried to take me when I tasted a life of comfort.

You need more than ambition now. Now, more than ever, you need to focus. To stop picking up your phone to see if he viewed your story, even if you’re alone in a foreign world and don’t know a single soul who understands your context. You can’t drop the mask now and visit Aunt Linda after church at Starbucks. You can’t force smiles anymore to strangers, trying to convince other people why you moved here with a dream. But why not? You can’t force strangers, you can’t force friends, you can’t force family to believe in you if you’ve chosen to stop believing in yourself. So cheesy, those words must have come from someone from Wisconsin. Regardless, reality.

The months fly by like EXPO tickets at a busy restaurant, once they’re gone they’re forgotten. 

So many months, so many days, so many interactions with strangers on the street. Things we don’t think about. It’s been a year, what the fuck have I accomplished? I haven’t even written a Goddamn thing on a computer since I worked at ESPN. When my voice felt validated. I could have stayed. How many nights do I wake up jerking, imagining the best case scenario of an unrealistic positive scenario of the other side of the crossroads we faced when we were only a little bit younger? But I chose to move from Wisconsin to California. I believed in myself when I bought that flight, when I wobbly-handed my debit card to the TJ Maxx cashier for that suitcase, the one suitcase I moved here with. Flyin’ solo sounds more glamorous in quote form. It was really lonely. But day by day things can really, really; really improve. 

Those restaurant tickets are forgotten. We take shots at the end of the night with both BOH and FOH together, completely forgetting about that side of chipotle ranch for that lemon lady that was never ran. We move on in life and don’t care about the little details that occur around us as we take in the information overload called being alive. 

But among those tickets, among those many little random tickets, big, small, we know the clock out feeling still leaves us smiling, wondering why even if work was hectic, it was worth it. It was and is always worth coming back again, even when we have slow nights. Just kinda like how, even if we haven’t gotten verified on Instagram or Twitter, we still kinda like life in LA.

Tickets fly by like days, weeks, months, even years lived in Los Angeles, and I don’t fast forward through those moments as I previously had. I used to guilt trip myself for not being “critically acclaimed” whatever the fuck that means, yet if I were to forever focus on that rubric as the sole way to define my sense of self, I’d land up where my brain of creative fire fears most: apathy. Not caring. Not having emotion. Make excuses to replace the thoughts of guilt, the thoughts that comfort me into affirmation that my negligence, my lack of work ethic, my dwindling inspiration that was once the sturdy backbone I had as my secret weapon during the fight.

Those tickets don’t matter. A side of ketchup you forgot to run a few days ago that you just remembered doesn’t matter. But the concept of tickets not mattering ever is just as common and dangerous a mistake to make as getting caught up in labels, titles, and details. 

The days I’ve been in Los Angeles, I haven’t acted in feature films, modeled free outfits on Melrose, made out with Halsey backstage, or had some magical unrealistic moment where someone wants to read my poetry or script ideas drunkenly on the patio at Berkshire House. At the end of the shift, the restaurant tickets don’t matter, right? Or do they?

At the end of the day, the time I spent in LA without getting a self affirming job doesn’t matter, right? All this time I have spent living in LA with strangers and paying rent that seems so expensive, is it a waste of my life? These days in LA that pass by without me making my “big break” are a fucking waste of time, right? Or are they? 

But,

Did you learn Street names? Freeway names? Did coffee shop faces begin to become recognizable by name? What about your favorite parking spot at work? What about when the Uber app recognizes your patterns and little favorite spots? Do you have a coworker you vent to about all the BS banter from certain regular customers? What about the checkout lady at the grocery store where you get your favorite coffee creamer? Has the weight of meaning of seeing a familiar friends’ handwriting on a postcard carried its weight a little differently? All these little things, all those little tickets at work, never seem to matter in the moment, but at the end of the day, at the end of our shift: they’re what makes us feel at home. Habits are what makes the difference between what feels like a house and what feels like a home. 

You’ve made what was just a house, now a home. Through habit. Through noticing.

Although Apathy is a real phase we all sometimes experience in life due to comfort and lack of change, apathy doesn’t have to corner us into self imposing a giant change upon our lives, forcing us to lose something we love. We can fight these fits of apathy, of self doubt, of questioning everything, by …

Dot Dot Dot...

Does anyone have an answer?

My answer to Apathy, to a dead soul, to feelings of  “why hasn't anyone noticed what I’m capable of yet?” is that the answer never mattered to a dumb self conceited question to begin with. 

Remember those tickets. Remember those days. Remember those that laughed at your jokes, asked to take pictures with you, invited you to parties, or smiled at you with a sense of familiar relief when you punched into work. People have been noticing you. Have you been noticing them?

[amplesalty]

Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)

We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We’re going to live on!

In honour of the fact that yesterday was July the 4th, it felt appropriate to finally check out the sequel to the 1996 classic Independence Day. Not that I should really be honouring it considering my side lost in that particular exchange. Plus, as K-Pop stans on Twitter taught us: #allcountriesmatter

I remember thinking it was a bit strange that it took 20 years to get a sequel. I mean, the original was one of the highest grossing movies of the 1990’s (and still within the top 100 of all time) and featured the iconic image of the White House being blown to smithereens. There was a massive marketing push at the time with that scene featuring heavily and the nickname ‘ID4’ seemed to be everywhere. And whilst not exactly in line with the contents of those movies, its scenes of mass destruction helped continue the ongoing disaster movie trends and helped it kick on into the late 90’s and early 00’s with the likes of Twister, Dante’s Peak, Armageddon, Deep Impact and The Day After Tomorrow.

Of course the most notable part of that first movie is President Whitmore’s stirring speech that is rivalled perhaps only by the words of Colonel William F. Guile in Street Fighter as the most inspirational speeches in cinematic history. Even Gilbert Gottfried felt compelled to give his own reading to this glorious battle-cry.

The sequel leans quite heavily into this speech, with Whitmore’s words echoing out across the galaxy and being picked up by what seem to be brethren of the original attack force from 96, giving rise to the new invaders.

But Earth isn’t going to be a pushover this time around, we’ve been able to meld the alien technology from that first wave with our own, developing plasma weapons and even establishing a moon base with a giant frickin’ laser beam. It’s cool to see that technological leap and how humanity was able to learn from that event in a materialistic way. Plus, it provides a nice contrast later on in the film when the aliens wipe out all satellite communication and people are forced to go back to the old ways of radar and radio waves. There’s something amusing about people literally dusting off an old piece of equipment they found in a cupboard and it helps save the day.

If revisiting the speech wasn’t fan service enough, the movie really starts to wallow in it as it starts trotting out all the old faces, even if that’s only a painting in Will Smith’s case. Apparently he wanted too much money to sign on so his character was killed offscreen in a test flight back in the year 2007. Still, it’s high praise to have his picture hanging on the walls of the White House alongside Washington, Jefferson etc. We still get an ace pilot named Hiller though in the form of his son, whose old friend Patricia Whitmore, the former president’s daughter, is working in the White House. Her fiancé is out in space and has a bit of a rivalry with Hiller. I spent the whole movie thinking the actress who plays Patricia looked really familiar and it turns out she’s the girl from It Follows. These characters are a bit underdeveloped and it feels like they just drafted them up last minute as a replacement when they realised they couldn’t get Smith to come back, only apparently they knew for years that he wasn’t going to be involved so chalk it up to incompetency I guess.

As happily coincidental as it seems to have them just happen to have grown up and filled these crucial roles, it does save us from further movie padding from having to break off the story to go find out what happened to them. Like, there’s a good portion of the movie dedicated to Julius Levinson (Jeff Goldblum’s dad in the original) miraciously surviving the initial wave of this 2016 attack before meeting up with a bunch of kids that just spring up out of nowhere and their grand adventure to get to the safety of Area 51. Only, they still end up in danger when they get there and we have this whole scene of David trying to save them whilst also trying to co-ordinate the big fightback at the end of the movie. It just feels like these kids were inserted as a means of providing some sort of connection with the adults in the audience, as if they can’t sympathise with the fate of the entire planet so they have to give them a bunch of primary school kids to worry about instead.

Even Dr. Okun is back, seemingly from the dead! And he seems to have been Dumbledore’d because apparently he was gay this entire time? I don’t remember that from the first movie. I can only imagine the proverbial angry fist waving going on at the time of the release when the internet found out about this; ‘They’re ruining my childhood with this SJW bullshit!’. Being in a coma for 20 years doesn’t seem to be the hinderance you might think it would be because he’s up and about within minutes, running around marvelling at how the world has progressed and barking orders at people. Kinda lose a bit of your dignity in that when you’re still in your hospital gown with your arse hanging out mind you.

He does have a bit of a lasting effect from his close encounter from the first movie, remnants of the psychic connection to the aliens that is also lingering in President Whitmore and a new character, Dikembe Umbutu who is a African warlord who has been leading a groundfight with his troops against an outlier set of aliens who were able to land and survive the 96 invasion. There seems to be a bit of a wider ID4 canon through various novel releases so I wonder if any of those cover this African war, that might be interesting. I thought this whole psychic connection story might be going somewhere, like maybe the aliens might be able to control those individuals when they do invade and they might use it to sabotage some of Earth’s defences but no. Even President Whitmore starts out portrayed like he’s gone a bit crazy and that he’s barely able to function at times but he heals up pretty quick.

Either that or maybe the US General is in cahoots with the aliens somehow? I mean, he does end up being sworn in as acting President when the current President is killed along with her line of succession so he has benefited from it personally. I probably wouldn’t have had any thoughts like that though if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s William Fichtner playing him and he’s just a perennial bad guy.

That Umbutu guy is pretty badass though, runs around with a pair of big knives that he goes into close quarter combat with, cutting the aliens out of their suits and then chopping their heads off. Which ties in to an aspect of the movie that I liked, there’s much more hands on combat between the humans and the aliens in this movie. The first one obviously had a big focus on aerial combat, which is largely present here as well, but there’s a lot of ground combat as well which freshen things up a bit. There’s a section where the air troops are sent to attack the mothership and end up inside it, only for it’s defense mechanisms to ground them. It has this jungle/marshland vibe to it, like they have this whole habitable land with crops and stuff within the ship, and it leads to this section where a couple of the pilots are hiding beneath the water, sneaking around to avoid detection.

On the other hand though, I didn’t feel anywhere near the impeding level of threat of the first movie. The story is that the aliens are drilling into the Earth in order to harvest it’s molten core in order to fuel their systems before moving on to the next world, kinda like Galactus I think? Whilst this would lead to the destruction of the entire planet, it just felt more threatening when they had their ships stationed over all the major cities of the world. Plus, it feels like they’re more content on their drilling operation than actually engaging in any fights with humanity which leads to a lot of scenes where people are just standing around not really doing anything. It seems at odds with the introduction to the movie as well where the initial attackers distress beacon is sent out, that would imply they’re calling for reinforcements but now it just seems like they were just going to come and steal our shit anyway? Or maybe they just consider us vastly inferior that it’s not even worth the effort. Pretty dismissive considering we wrecked you last time out.

That’s not to discount some of the special effects on show, the movie is bookended by big action scenes that are a particular highlight. The invading mothership is said to be so big that it has it’s own gravitation field leads to a really cool visual of our heroes trying to navigate their ship through a skyline littered with buildings, cargo ships and jumbo jets.

The finale with the alien Queen attacking Area 51 is really cool as well. You’ve got this massive alien rampaging through the desert, controlling all the alien fighters around her like a swarm. I think all the sheer size and all the tentacles lend it a bit of a Cthulu vibe.

Absolutely massive amount of sequel baiting at the very end though which doesn’t look like it will ever be fulfilled. It did take us 20 years to get this one but they seem to have had ideas to make a trilogy of sequels in fairly quick succession but the critical and financial failures of this one means it’s looking kinda dead in the water at this point. It still grossed some $390m against a production budget of $165m but you’ve probably gotta factor in a fairly sizable marketing budget that will really eat into that margin.

It’s a bit of a shame,  I would have been interested in the series continuing as I personally found this enjoyable in spite of some the issues I have with it’s run time, bloated cast list and inadequate replacements for the charm and energy that Will Smith brought to the original. Trim off some of the fat and it would have made things a lot smoother. Did we really need to know what Mrs Hiller was up to 20 years on? I think just about the only character we didn’t revisit from that movie was their dog. I guess Boomer will not live.

[exilesofembermark]

Game Dev Update | Time to Test.

Shall we play?

We’re about to embark on our first closed test of the Exiles combat system, starring... you! That’s right, we’re firing up Test Flight, and if you signed up for closed testing (or on the site, “Beta”), then you will have a chance to be among the first guinea pigs for Exiles. The first batch of players will be small-- probably around 50-- then we’ll gradually open it up to more as we see how stable we are and start eradicating bugs.

We’ll be inviting people from our dedicated Exiles Discord community as well as some from the lists first. Then we’ll expand to some of the rest of the list randomly in batches. We won’t get to everyone in this little test. That said, if you haven’t signed up anywhere, go here and get on the list!

WHAT WE’RE TESTING

This is not a Beta. It’s a closed pre-alpha test of the Combat System and Arena Tiers (plus some power curve balance). 

It’s important to note that we won’t be testing the whole game. We’re just testing combat and the new Arena Tiers mechanics to get them feeling right and get feedback. 

The rest of the game is in various states of development and isn’t intended for testing-- BUT-- feel free to plunge the depths of FPO (for placement only) and buggy unfinish, but beware-- things won’t be as they seem and most of it will only sort of work. This is particularly true of PVE-- when you hit the World Map and start to click around, there will be some Quests-- there will be some fights, there will be what seems to be progression. But don’t get too excited about it, and don’t report bugs-- we decided to leave that stuff open so that you can at least take a look at where we’re going. As you know, we’ve been open about the state of things, so when you click anything other than your Character and Arena, you take your functionality lives into your own hands. 

Here’s the link to the test welcome forum post. 

So... what are Arena Tiers?

ARENA TIERS

The Arena Tier system is new to Exiles and the focal point of this test. When players participate in an Arena battle they are eligible to earn Renown. Renown represents a player’s skill. Players can gain or lose Renown either by winning or losing battles. Earning Renown unlocks new Arena Tiers which reward the player with new abilities to use, more powerful equipment, increased drop rates, a new environment to fight in, and eventually new monsters to fight in another system we’ll cover later called Monster Dive.  

In this build you are able to:

Gain Renown (30) from your victories and lose Renown (-26) should you suffer a defeat.

Increasing your Renown will progress you to higher Arena Tiers:

Arena Tier - Training Grounds - 1st try

Arena 1 - Wildewoods - 60+

Arena 2 - Askala - 150+

Arena 3 - Vanisir - 300+

Arena 4 - Siege - 600+

Arena 5 - Bog - 1,000+

Arena 6 - Cave - 1,400+

Arena 7 - Ruins - 1,800+

Arena 8 - Addrighar - 2,200+

Champions Arena - 2,600+

View your current Renown total. Indicated by the number to the right of the flag icon in the Arena Lobby:

Poor “MageGod” has zilch for Renown, but will be gaining it quickly.

Click an Ability slot, then “Equip” to replace your Abilities with others.

As you go up in Arena Tiers, new Abilities become available.

REFERENCE RESOURCES FOR COMBAT

The tutorial system at this point is pretty bare bones, and the wiki (many thanks to SecretOwl and the gang for starting one) is early, so we’ve put together a few one-sheeter reference guides for combat. I’ll post them both as images here, but grab the PDFs here if you want to have clear readable copies.The first is a legend for Battle. It outlines the various parts of the UI and some of the feedback that will pop in as you battle:

A key concept in the above is that of Generate/Consume. We’re experimenting with ways to get that across (currently it’s via circle or upside-down triangle, respectively). Will be interested in opinions on this...

The second is more of a definition list for rules. The various Abilities in the game will display and execute a number of effects that you’ll want to keep track of, so until the game itself teaches these concepts, here’s a handy reference guide:

WHAT ELSE TO CHECK OUT

As I mentioned, the only sanctioned areas of the game are Character and Arena. You enter the rest at your own risk. However, if I was going to recommend a stroll through anything else to see where we’re headed, it would be the following:

The Map - we’ve shared lots about this feature, and it is the gateway to PVE. The current state of PVE is that you can do some things, but there will be lots of bugs and you’ll get stuck. And it won’t make perfect sense narratively, so go easy. But the map is cool and its functionality is something we want to dive into. 

The Forge - it doesn’t work, so don’t click around too much. Don’t try to salvage yet -- this is a known issue and we are deploying a fix on it as we speak. You’ll be able to see the intent, but not to do what you will definitely want to do... yet. 

House (it says “Guild” in the nav) - this is a mockup, so you can choose a House and fool around with the concepts, but it’s not actually live. 

CHAT!

Yes, good Exiles, there is chat in the app, so bang on that feature if you’re in the closed test. It is basic functionality at this point (don’t expect DMs or history), and the Discord Channel is probably still the best bet for player-to-player comms, but click that little icon in the bottom left of the home screen and voila!

FIND FRIENDS & RIVALS TO FIGHT

If you’re in the test and not in the Discord Channel, let’s change that. If you are in the channel, then you’re all good for communicating with potential opponents (and you’ll need this type of communication to find people ready to fight, given the small-audience nature of this test). 

If you don’t find a live opponent when you hit “Battle” in the Arena hub, you’ll still find player characters to fight, but AI will be your foe. If you’re wanting to direct-challenge someone, you’ll want to use the Search function (the magnifying glass), and you’ll be able to find specific names or find foes by Arena Tier or Class. 

Anyone online will show up on the results list as green, while offline people will show up as red. You can still click the reds to “Spar” them (fight the player character as an AI). 

MOAR VFX

This update has focused on the test that we’re starting up, but, as always, we have a few visuals to share, some new some updated for the modern exile...

First, it’s the Mage class with a hot seat that this Ember Elf is not going to appreciate (and I cut out his reaction so you can see it yourself in the test if you venture into the very early PVE experiences...)

ROGUE VFX

Hey, Dwarf Brute, GET SOME...

WARRIOR VFX

And a Quake Stomp wouldn’t be very quaky without some earthquake VFX busting this Ember Beast down to size. 

NOW.. DON’T FORGET TO REMEMBER…

The test is on-- check the forums and Discord for bugs and feedback, and if you’re not in yet (but want to be), send TheWizard a PM in the forums, and we’ll see what we can do (no promises).

And if you haven’t already, follow along with Exiles development on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. And if you haven’t, I’ll find you. And SMITE you.

CONNECT WITH OTHER EXILES

If you want to hear about the game, ask questions or connect with others who are helping the development team think about features, design and narrative, hop into the Discord Channel for live chat and say hi– it’s a friendly crew with plenty of daily/weekly/sometimes-planned shenanigans.

[jamiekturner]

Scarcity in UX: The psychological bias that became the norm

Short analysis on the current state of affairs and a few tips to keep in mind.

You know how it works.

Casually watching a review on Unbox Therapy about this mug that apparently is unspillable. I’m having a laugh but by the end of the video I’m also intrigued what people ask for it.

There it is on Amazon. On sale at $14.99 from $24.99. For a limited time only. Only 3 left in stock for the stainless steel version. I love stainless steel. It’s a bargain and it will soon be gone. I’ll be left to drink coffee from my spillable mug. It would be a shame to pass this. F**k it. 💸

Yes, it’s unspillable. Most of the times.

It makes things desirable

Scarcity is the psychological bias that makes us place a higher value on things that are scarce than those in abundance. Basically, we tend to like things that are harder to obtain.

It has become the norm

As most things, scarcity started offline. Expensive restaurants serve small portions on large plates to suggest that ingredients are rare and prestigious colleges have limited places to maintain the sense of exclusivity.

This looks expensive.

But as tech businesses became more mature and digital products more refined, scarcity was quickly adopted online and it is now one of the most popular methods to increase desirability.

We have come to a point in which people are so used to seeing and expecting some form of scarcity when browsing online, that implementing one inside your product is not a competitive advantage anymore but a starting point for any goal that aims to satisfy users’ needs.

It combines multiple biases

Scarcity became popular because it’s extremely powerful and fairly easy to implement. And the reason it’s so effective is because it combines multiple biases into one:

1. Loss aversion

If we don’t act upon a scarce product, it basically means we’ll lose both the product itself in the short run but also our freedom to choose it in the long run. Double the loss = double the pain.

2. Social proof

Usually, products become scarce when the demand is high. Once that happens, it implies that other people bought it in the past so it must be valuable and we should seize the opportunity.

3. Anticipated regret

When facing a decision, we anticipate not only the events but also the associated regret we might experience. Deciding to act now is our attempt to try and eliminate that possibility.

It comes in different forms

Even though scarcity can be applied to unquantifiable features like quality or experiences, its effect is much more powerful when assessing measurable resources like objects or places. It’s the reason the likes of Amazon and Booking.com embrace it and use it extensively.

Based on these measurable resources, there are 3 main forms of scarcity:

1. Time-limited scarcity

When time has a limit, it creates a deadline that makes people act before the time is up. When the deadline is unknown, people are not certain that they can get the object anymore unless they act now, which increases the pressure but shows lack of empathy from a UX standpoint.

Examples:

Lightning Deals on Amazon: Good

They last a few hours and show the deadline. They are accompanied by the percentage claimed by other people to highlight the urgency.

Courses on Interaction Design Foundation: Smart

Present the time until enrolment ends. Fully booked courses are still displayed to show people what it’s like to miss the opportunity.

Buying things on eBay: Bad

Time limited products are marked with a red icon and a vague “Almost gone” tag. Not showing when the offer ends is unthoughtful and manipulative.

Searching places on Airbnb: Fair

It shows people how limited the offer is by displaying the low percentage of listings left and a “Rare find” tag to make them feel lucky about their search.

2. Quantity-limited scarcity

Limited or rare supplies are perceived by people as a threat to their freedom of choice, triggering a reaction to fight the threat and maintain their access to the resource.

Quantity-limited scarcity is considered more effective than time-limited scarcity because the end of the supply is unpredictable, depending exclusively on demand rather than time.

Examples:

Looking for hotels on Booking.com: Impressive

Booking is the Usain Bolt of scarcity and probably owe much of their success to it. They show the number of rooms left but also a ton of tags and labels that make you feel you’re about to make the deal of your life.

It’s smart how they use the massive data they have and, even though everything is pretty overwhelming, the information is useful.

Booking flights on Ryan Air: Good

They take advantage of the fact that cheaper seats sell first and use this to highlight the limited number of seats left for the lowest price.

Buying clothes on Selfridges: Subtle

Product details display both the available and unavailable sizes. This way, it makes the available ones feel more scarce. Subtle and useful as some people are between sizes.

3. Access-limited scarcity

It refers to limited access to features like information, groups or spaces. Research showed that censorship made people place a higher value on the restricted features than those that were not because exclusivity made them feel special.

Examples:

Becoming a subscriber on Medium

Medium charges you if you want to be able to read all the stories on their platform. But once you do, you’ll be one of their privileged users.

Joining Tinder Select

Tinder uses the “Elo” ranking system to rate members based on desirability and invites the top ones to join the closed version called Tinder Select. Even though a bit cynical for the rest of the pack, it does what it’s supposed to do: reward popular users by making them feel unique.

It is controversial but it shouldn’t be

If suitable for the product we design for, scarcity can optimise user flows and impact business goals. It reframes information and alerts users when there is a need for urgency.

Some might argue that this forces them to make a decision, but as long as the numbers are real, what’s the alternative? Isn’t the sense of regret or frustration caused by us failing to tell them about the scarce product in time just as bad? Aren’t we offering an awful user experience if that happens? Rushing people into making a decision seems rather fair as long as we’re presenting them the facts.

Having said that, I agree that some businesses take advantage of this and use it unethically by inventing fake stocks and artificial memberships. But this is true for any other method used with questionable intentions and it always leads to loss of credibility in the long run.

It should follow a few rules

To avoid this, below are some suggestions for making the best out of scarcity and actually improve the UX:

Do

use scarcity to increase perceived value and expedite conversions

use time scarcity to promote products that are time sensitive

use quantity scarcity to make people aware of stock shortages

use access scarcity to highlight the advantages of the restricted features

use A/B testing to test what scarcity message works best for your audience

use usability testing to test the impact of messages on credibility and trust

use animated elements to emphasise urgency (e.g. showing a glowing red icon to highlight the real-time status)

Don’t

do not use scarcity without testing it first with users

do not use scarcity if stocks are not reliable

do not use scarcity if the messages are not bug free

do not use fake numbers to create artificially scarce products

Conclusion

Scarcity makes us place a higher value on things that are scarce and, over time, has become the go to method for increasing desirability. It is powerful because it combines multiple biases (Loss aversion, Social proof and Anticipated regret) and it comes in different forms (Time, Quantity and Access).

It is controversial but it shouldn’t be because hiding the information from people is not really an option. It can also improve UX if you follow a few simple rules.

The post Scarcity in UX: The psychological bias that became the norm appeared first on Design your way.

from Web Development & Designing https://www.designyourway.net/blog/user-experience/scarcity-in-ux/

[radstudio2020]

What is UX design?

To understand UX design process, we have to break down the phrase.

“UX”, or “user experience”, is how a user feels when they use a specific product or service. It encompasses a variety of feelings including emotion, senses, and physical interaction.

The term was coined by Donald Norman, Apple’s former vice president of the company’s Advanced Technology Group, who said:

“I invented the term because I thought human interface and usability were too narrow. I wanted to cover all aspects of the person’s experience with the system including industrial design, graphics, the interface, the physical interaction, and the manual.”

UX design, then, is the system designers create for that experience with the goal of having the user’s experience be satisfying and easy.

And while it is involved in a lot of different products and services, it typically refers to the digital design experience.

Why is UX design important?

Good UX design creates a positive experience for your user by anticipating—and fulfilling—their needs.

Any successful product or service, such as a website or app, needs good UX design. With it, customers will remain satisfied and (ideally) loyal to your business. Without it, your user can be left frustrated and bitter with your product…resulting in, ultimately, fewer users.

And what that UX design actually looks like is going to differ from product to product and brand to brand. That means Apple’s UX design is going to be much different than Google’s—so don’t worry about what the other team is doing.

With that, let’s take a look at the UX process itself.

The UX design process in 6 stages

Remember, your business’s UX design process is going to differ from other businesses.

That means you might stray from the stages we outline below and that’s okay! What’s important is that you find out exactly what works for your company.

That means researching, iterating, and testing (aka everything you need in a good design process).

Let’s jump in.

Stage 1: Understand

As the old saying goes: If you have four hours to chop down a tree, spend the first three hours sharpening your axe.

The same goes for design. Before you get started with any project, you need to get the basics down first. That means understanding two crucial elements:

1.    Your user

2.    Your brand

Since designing for the user experience is all about addressing your user’s pain points, you need to answer the question: What’s their problem?What issue are you trying to solve for your user? What problem are you trying to solve? And why are you the one with the answers?

When you understand what the problems facing your users are and you’re able to come up with the questions you need to answer, you’re able to create a strategy for design success (which will come in later).

How does this project align with your brand?

Secondly, you need to know how this project aligns with your brand’s mission and goals.

 What are your company’s values and mission? How does this project contribute to that goal? Is this the right time for your company to be pursuing this project?

Keeping in line with your brand’s core mission is crucial to the success of your project and business. In the book Made to Stick by business strategists Chip and Dan Heath there’s an entire chapter dedicated to the idea this idea using Southwest Airlines as an example.

“Herb Kelleher [the longest-serving CEO of Southwest] once told someone, ‘I can teach you the secret to running this airline in thirty seconds. This is it: We are THE low-fare airline. Once you understand that fact, you can make any decision about this company as well as I can.

‘Here’s an example,” he said. “Tracy from marketing comes into your office. She says her surveys indicate that the passengers might enjoy a light entre on the Houston to Las Vegas flight. All we offer is peanuts, and she thinks a nice chicken Caesar salad would be popular. What would you say?’

The person stammered for a moment, so Kelleher responded: ‘You say, will adding that chicken Caesar salad make us THE low-fare airline from Houston to Las Vegas? Because if it doesn’t help us become the unchallenged low-fare airline, we’re not serving any damn chicken salad.’”

As a result of their dedication to their core mission, Southwest is one of the most profitable airlines in the world. THAT’S the power of keeping in line with your company’s brand in mission.

Stage 2: Research

After you know that this project is in line with your core mission, and you know what questions you’re trying to solve, you need to conduct research.

Your user research is going to be the life blood of your project. The things you discover and unearth during this stage lays the foundation for how your entire project will turn out.

The most dangerous thing you can do as a designer is not challenge your assumptions. Good user research challenges all your assumptions.

Some good methods of user research:

1:1 interviews

This is when you sit down with someone from your target audience and ask them pointed questions about their issues. What are they struggling with? What are they looking for in your product? Face to face interviews are preferred since you can gauge their verbal and nonverbal reactions but video or phone call can work as well.

 Some good tools to use:

·       Zoom for video conference calls

·       Lookback to record interviews

·       Temi to transcribe calls

User/Focus groups

This is when you have a group of 3 – 5 target users and have them discuss their attitudes, emotions, and frustrations with an issue or product. Remember: It’s a discussion—not just an interview. Encourage a dialogue between the participants and yourself.

Some good tools to use:

·       FocusGroupIt for easy group moderation

·       Video camera for recording the the group

·       Voice recorder for recording the group

Surveys

These are questionnaires you send out to your target users. These are good for finding out your users’ attitudes towards a specific topic with the added benefit of receiving the data as soon as the users are done with the survey. However, you have to be careful not to use leading questions that could disproportionately impact the results.

Some good online survey tools to consider:

·       Wufoo

·       TypeForm

·       Google Surveys

Usability testing

This is the practice of observing your target audience using a program or product. For example, if you were a designer for the Uber app, you might ask your user to pull up the app and order a car. As they do so, you observe how the act and react to the app. When they’re done, you can ask them questions about their experience. This is a great opportunity to see how happy your user is with the app and if it adequately addresses their needs.

Some good tools to consider:

·       User Testing to run a user test on your website

·       Optimizely for good A/B testing

·       Click Heat for finding out what users are clicking on

For more on user research, be sure to read our article on the topic here.

Stage 3: Analyze

In this stage, you’ll be using all of the information you gathered in the previous two stages to analyze and distill the most important elements.

Here are two ways you can analyze your research:

User personas

User personas are profiles of your ideal customer

Here’s a good example of one:

 Source: Xtensio

Designers use them to help understand a number of things about their customers including their:

·       Goals

·       Background

·       Age

·       Gender

·       Behaviors

·       Spending habits

·       Pain points

·       Needs

Think of personas as your North Star when it comes to all your decisions. If you ever encounter a tough problem, you can always refer back to your persona and ask, “What design best services this person’s needs?”

And you don’t have to distill all of your target users into one persona. You can create multiple personas to represent the varied users you have.

For more on user personas, be sure to check out our article on user persona templates.

User journey maps

A user journey map is a representation of the user’s interactions with your product.

Here’s a good (and delicious) example of one:

 According to Jim Kalbach, author of Mapping Experiences, the user journey map is crucial for:

·       Building empathy

·       Providing a common “big picture”

·       Breaking down silos

·       Bringing focus

·       Revealing opportunities

Leveraging the things you learned in the research phase, create a user journey map to help you understand what your user will be going through when using your product or service. Only then can you build the best product for them.

For more on creating user journey maps be sure to check out our article on the topic.

Stage 4: Design

Now, it’s time to actually build out your design.

That means building things like:

·       Site map

·       User flow

·       Mockups

·       Images

·       Icons

·       Colors

One of the most important things you can create at this stage is the wireframe.

A wireframe is like the prototype of your product—a bare essentials representation of your product.

 It’s a low fidelity version of what your product will eventually look like. They’re typically notable for the block layouts and and “X” placeholders to represent future images, and help accomplish three things:

1.    Presents information that will be displayed on the page

2.    Gives an outline of the structure and layout of the page

3.    Conveys overall direction and description of the user interface

Like a user journey map, this will give you a comprehensive look at your users’ experience with your product.

For more on creating wireframes, be sure to check out our article on the topic.

This is an iterative process. That means you won’t get it all done in the first go. You’ll have to design, redesign, scrap it, and design it all again.

Hyperventilation and overconsumption of coffee is completely natural at this stage.

Stage 5: Launch

After designing and redesigning until you go cross eyed, you’re going to reach a point where all your assets are ready to ship.

TIPS

Transform your static designs into clickable prototypes.

 That means it’s time to implement; pass everything to the development team who will create a high fidelity version of the user interface.

This process will feel much like being in the waiting room while your significant other goes into labor. You’re nervous, stressed, and just hope the baby isn’t weird looking when it’s delivered.

Once it is delivered, there are several ways you can go about making sure that the product is perfect (or close to it):

·       User testing. Like the usability test, this involves you observing your target audience using the actual program.

·       Beta launch. This is a limited release of your product to a small amount of people with the goal of finding issues and cleaning them up before you launch it to the world.

·       Internal testing. When your own team uses the product and tests out each facet of it.

Feedback with the development team is crucial at this stage. You want to make sure that you clearly communicate any issues that arise and make sure that they are addressed before your product launches.

Stage 6: Analyze (again)

Once your product launches, it’s time for another round of analysis.

Instead of looking at the results of your research, though, you’ll be taking a look at your overall final product.

Some questions you might ask yourself:

·       Where did our process go right? And why?

·       Where did we struggle? And why?

·       How are our users responding to the product?

·       Did it solve their issues and pain points?

·       Where can we improve the product?

·       What lessons can we take away from this process for future products?

By thoroughly analyzing the product and the UX process, you’ll be able to get more out of the experience than just a product—you also gain invaluable knowledge you can leverage for the future.

 What next?

Your UX process is going to be entirely unique to your business and product.

That means all the stages are going to look a lot different for you compared to another company and product. Hell, you might even deviate from the stages entirely and that’s okay!

The important thing is that you find a process that works for you, your team, and—most importantly—your users.

If you’re ready to begin your own UX process, sign up for a free InVision account and create your first prototype today.

[robertemeryofficial]

Ep.#9 Classical music is dead - long live the dead

THE Backstage with Robert Emery PODCAST

"For me, music is about moving other people. I don't just want to move myself; I want to pass on my emotion and my feelings to an audience."  -- Robert D.C. Emery

In this special episode of the 'Backstage with Robert Emery' podcast, RDCE discusses if the genre of classical music is alive and kicking, or if it's as dead as the press would like you to believe.  

What actually is classical music?  Has classical music ever been popular?  What can we do to change the image of the stuffy concert hall?  This episode is designed to be short and answer these long asked questions as best as any musician can.

Listen Now

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Overcast, or on your favourite podcast platform. 

SHOW NOTES

What is Classical music? [01.11]

Classical Rockstars [05.01]

Male dominated world [11:24]

Classical music on the radio [16.12]

Classic FM [17.08]

Scala Radio [18.20]

The concert hall pitfalls [20:14]

Classical Spectacular [21.25]

California Symphony experiment [22.55]

Chicago Sinfonietta [25.20]

Music education [29.03]

Classical:NEXT [31.34]

Classical Composers of tomorrow [35:19]

Selected links from the episode

thebackstageblog.com

Sheku Kanneh-Mason

Jess Gillam

Gustavo Dudamel

Classical Music

Raymond Gubbay

Chicago Sinfonietta

Eric Whitacre

John Williams

Game of Thrones theme

Ravel: Bolero

Chopin: Nocturnes

Beethoven: Moonlight Sonata

Classic FM

Scala Radio

Lat_56 

This episode is bought to you with the help of Lat56. Lat56 are a sharp, smart and efficient baggage company that help you take off relaxed, and arrive ready to take on the world. In 2011 I completed 122 flights, and without their NASA-spec materials making such a solid travel system, the hours spent with my luggage being thrown from one plane to another would have caused me a big headache.

With their bold and strong aesthetics, they make no compromises to achieve the balance between performance and style. With a lifetime guarantee, you'll be safe in the knowledge that their products will stand the test of time. When I bought my first travel bag from them, they only sold their flagship garment bag; an ingenious suit carrier that's stylish, compact and crucially for me going from gig to gig, didn't crease the suits. Since then, they have branched out to carry-on luggage, backpacks, duffel bags, laptop bags and even washbags!

I'd only mention the company if I used and approved of them, and I do both. And you know what, the thing I love about them the most, is that after seven years of wear and tear, my first bag still looks as new as the backpack I bought six months ago. So if you're a busy traveller and want something that is stylish and secure, click here to grab yourself something special.

Books that feature INFORMATION ABOUT CLASSICAL MUSIC

The 50 Greatest Pieces of Classical Music - Does what it says on the tin, and very well!

The Classical Music Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained - A new book going from Mozart to Mendelssohn, in a comprehensive guide to classical music history.

Music Lessons: The Collège de France Lectures - Boulez book publishing his extraordinary Collège de France lectures

THE Music Lesson - From Grammy-winning musical icon and legendary bassist Victor L. Wooten comes The Music Lesson, the story of a struggling young musician who wanted music to be his life, and who wanted his life to be great.

How to Play the Piano despite Years of Lessons: What Music is and How to Make it at Home - an adults guide to learning music

I Wish I Didn't Quit: Music Lessons - A great little book helping you to inspire your child with tips from world-class musicians

Help Your Kids With Music: A unique step-by-step visual guide - Are your children struggling with music theory? This book by Carol Vorderman might be just what the need. Newly released in 2019.

A Child's Introduction to the Orchestra (Revised): Listen While You Learn About the Instruments, the Music and the Composers Who Wrote the Music! - an interactive, bestselling introduction to the world of classical music.

Related & Recommended Posts

[santaprofit5-blog]

Our Favorite Feature Stories of 2018

[Photographs: Clay Williams, Vicky Wasik, Jennifer Burns Bright, Adam Kuban, Max Falkowitz]

For most of our readers, the feature stories on Serious Eats aren't the biggest draw—some who know us strictly for our recipes probably don't even realize we publish anything else. But when we looked back at all the features we produced this year, we were struck by both their number and their variety, and it was gratifying (especially for the feature editors among us!) to watch as the whole staff pored over the list and everyone rushed to call dibs on their favorites.

Granted, a "feature" on Serious Eats can mean a lot of very different things: a guide to a particular ingredient, or category of ingredient, or cuisine; an exploration of an odd American regional food or the history behind an iconic international one; an interview from our Obsessed series; a personal essay; a reported investigation of a segment of the food industry.

What we hope these all have in common is that readers will get from them not just what they were expecting when they clicked on the title, but more—we want our personal essays to be personal, but also teach something; we want our guides and other service-oriented pieces to be informative, but also buoyed by a strong voice and sense of humor.

Whatever category they fall into, the features described below are the ones that most resonated with the Serious Eats staff in 2018. We were fascinated by, among other things, the winding and sometimes bizarre history of soy milk in the US, the care and labor that go into making a traditional Japanese breakfast, the baking ingredients we absolutely needed to add to our (apparently understocked) pantries, and a glimpse into the mind of a veteran brewmaster. After you've read this list, we hope you'll find yourself similarly hooked.

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

If you know me, you know that I consider BraveTart to be nothing less than a bible. It's the first baking cookbook I've ever made multiple recipes from, and the only baking cookbook I've ever given as a gift. Every anecdote, brownie, cake, and homemade Oreo provides insight into Stella's soul and genius. And the more I learn, the more I want to learn, which is why I love this post about the pantry items Stella considers essential for baking. Knowing the exact ingredients she uses has definitely given my baking an edge, and when I combine those ingredients with her can't-fail recipes, I know I can achieve the very best version of everything I make. In Stella we trust! —Ariel Kanter, director of commerce strategy and editorial

The Baker's Pantry: All the Staples You Need to Make Amazing Desserts »

[Photograph: Clay Williams]

In the early years of Serious Eats' existence, pizza was a large part of the site's bread and butter, except that instead of bread and butter, it was bread and tomato sauce and cheese. The editors and writers of old SE covered 'za so exhaustively for so many years that, at a certain point, it felt like there wasn't much left to say. After you've written nearly every conceivable recipe, explored every significant pizza joint nationwide (plus thousands of pretty insignificant ones) in more passionate depth than any other publication could ever hope to, and basically written the book on the subject, what else is there?

That's largely why there's been so much less pizza coverage on SE in recent years—the archives speak for themselves. But that's also why it thrilled me to see pizza come roaring back in this great two-part series about pizza in one of its meccas, New York City. Written by Ed, with major assists from pizza experts Adam Kuban and Scott Wiener, the first part (linked below) catches us up to 2018 after several years of Serious Silence on pizza, while the second is a perfectly curated list of some of the very best places to grab a slice citywide. —Daniel Gritzer, managing culinary director

State of the Slice, Part 1 »

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

This isn't exactly a typical feature story, but by the time I'd finished reading, I'd gained much more of an understanding of how to assemble a Japanese breakfast. Sho takes readers to his grandmother's breakfast table in Japan before breaking down the significance of the meal, one component at a time. His writing is funny and warm, and it makes you feel as if a close friend is standing by to assist when this breakfast turns out to be much more complicated than you'd anticipated. —Elazar Sontag, editorial assistant

How to Make a Japanese Breakfast »

[Photograph: Max Falkowitz]

Mezcal is hands down my favorite liquor—I just love the smoky layer it adds to any cocktail. Reading about how painstakingly difficult it is to produce and distill mezcal made me fall that much more in love with the spirit itself. Max takes us through the entire journey, from the agave plant to how mezcaleros capture the smokiness that I adore so much. This very thorough and admirable mezcal bible makes me want to hop on the next flight to Oaxaca. —Grace Chen, office manager and associate podcast producer

The Spirit of Mexico: A Guide to Mezcal »

[Photograph: Jennifer Burns Bright]

As much as I love oysters, my previous knowledge of them sadly didn't extend much beyond "they taste good and sometimes make pearls." Jennifer's article has changed that for me (or brought me out of my shell?). After reading the story of the Olympia oyster and the immense effort it takes to get them on your plate, I'm now deep-diving into the world of bivalves. Their history is fascinating, but I'm mostly grateful for their comeback, because it's now the oyster I look for on any raw-bar menu. —Joel Russo, video producer

This Small West Coast Oyster Is Making a Big Comeback »

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

There is no argument that New York has one of the richest and most ethnically diverse food scenes in the world. This practical list makes global fare (hello, Cuban-Chinese!) accessible on a budget. I keep it bookmarked on my phone as a cheat sheet for casual nights out, when the answer to “Where do you want to eat?” is “I don’t know, but it’s gotta be good and cheap.” —Maggie Lee, UX designer

15 Under $15: Great Bites in NYC That Won't Break the Bank »

[Photograph: Chris Low]

The idea for Becky Selengut's entertaining and informative guide to the Pacific razor clam was originally hatched by Sho, who never met a mollusk he didn't like. But when I took editing responsibilities on it, it became my baby, and though it required a fair amount of coaxing into being—including coordinating a West Coast–based clamming/photography excursion, carried out at twilight, and waiting months on a shipment of live Pacific razor clams to our New York office so Daniel could test out Becky's shucking directions—it felt like a huge triumph when it was finally finished and published.

Okay, maybe my toil isn't enough of a reason for you to read this article, so here are a few real ones: To me, it represents a combination of practical guidance and instruction, "I didn't know that!" fun facts, and personal investment by the author that's ideal in a feature story. Reading it, you understand not only that Becky is an expert at gathering and cooking with these clams, but also that she loves this subject matter. Even if you'll never eat a Pacific razor in your life, it's a joy to read, especially when paired with Chris Low's lovely, moody photos of that evening clamming expedition in the PNW. —Miranda Kaplan, senior editor

Fat, Ugly, and Delicious: A Guide to the Pacific Razor Clam »

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

In a totally different vein from the Pacific razor clam guide, Nadia Berenstein's story on soy milk's journey from a symbol of technological progress, to a health food for religious zealots and hippie environmentalists, to international success and semi-acceptance by the American mainstream, is a great, quirky ride. It's hard not to love a serious food history in which farting emerges as a major theme. —Miranda Kaplan, senior editor

A Brief History of Soy Milk, the Future Food of Yesterday »

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

When Tabitha Blankenbiller pitched us a story about cooking from the American Girl doll cookbooks, I was immediately sold. One of my male counterparts, however, who grew up so far removed from the exorbitant price and captivating realism of the American Girl doll "experience" that he wasn't even sure what American Girl dolls were, was skeptical, to say the least.

I think it speaks volumes that we both wound up enthusiastic about the finished piece, which captures the peculiar zeitgeist of the American Girl doll generation with remarkable accuracy and a cutting humor. It's an irreverent bit of writing that will nonetheless resonate with anyone who has something to feel nostalgic and complicated about. I'll admit that the opportunity to spend a full day of my job building a teeny-tiny kitchen and grooming American Girl dolls for our epic photo shoot was something of a bonus. —Niki Achitoff-Gray, executive managing editor

The Great American Girl Doll Cook-Off »

[Photograph: Adam Kuban]

I really enjoyed Sho's Obsessed interview with Slice founder Adam Kuban. As a pizza-loving Serious Eater, I'm certainly the target audience for this interview, but beyond that, I find Adam's story admirable: He's turned his obsession into businesses, twice (and he's still working at it). —Paul Cline, VP of product

Obsessed: Slicemeister Adam Kuban Deep-Dishes on His Pizza Dreams »

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

I am so happy that amaro has gone mainstream. It used to be really hard to find here in the States, but not anymore. This piece is a great introduction to the perfect digestif, and gives a good rundown of the big-name amari on the market. —Sasha Marx, senior culinary editor

Amari 101: Your Guide to Italy’s Essential Bittersweet Liqueurs »

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

Sherry is one of those things folks are always trying to pair with dessert, but despite my background as a pastry chef, I don't know my way around sherry well enough to offer up any meaningful suggestions. Getting to know the various styles and sweetness levels was tremendously helpful in bettering my understanding of how to pair sherries with dessert in a way that will offer the best complement or contrast, rather than hitting all the sugar-sweet notes. —Stella Parks, pastry wizard

Sherry 101: An Introduction to the Hippest Old-Person Drink Around »

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

My path to the discovery of good beer was similar to Garrett Oliver's, in that I drank swill all through college before a revelatory experience opened my eyes shortly thereafter. I became acquainted with the wider world of interesting beer while working as a server at Teresa's Next Door in Wayne, Pennsylvania (a 2018 James Beard Award semifinalist for Outstanding Bar Program). The restaurant had an exhaustive beer list, and I was forced (*ahem*) to taste every beer that rotated through the taps, discovering the complexities and nuance that defined the brewing world beyond Budweiser. Everyone at the restaurant, including me, owned a copy of Oliver's canonical The Brewmaster's Table to learn about styles of beer and how they pair with food.

So I was very excited when Sho's Obsessed interview with this great brewmaster popped up, and the read did not disappoint. The dude is smart as hell and really knows his craft. He speaks so well about the past, present, and future of brewing and his own personal experience, but you can tell he's also brimming with insightful commentary on much more. Oliver's keen mind makes for a fascinating profile—my favorite Obsessed interview of the year. Now, off to find the cut material... —Tim Aikens, front-end developer

Obsessed: Garrett Oliver on Brewing Better Beer »

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

A pretty well-known fact about me around the Serious Eats office is that I love pasta. It's even my spirit food in my masthead photo. Every single Italian recipe that Daniel has made has been photographed (and, most likely, devoured) by yours truly. This comprehensive list not only reminds me of all the tasty bowls of pasta I've eaten, but actually gives me the confidence that I can cook a lot of them on my own! —Vicky Wasik, visual director

The Essential Steps to Mastering Italian Cuisine »

[Illustration: Misha Zadeh]

I admire this piece by Porochista Khakpour immensely, and I feel very lucky for having had the opportunity to work with her. Khakpour is an accomplished novelist and memoirist—her most recent book, Sick, was published this year—and I could read her writing on any subject. While her Nowruz piece is nominally concerned with how meaningful the Persian New Year is for her, what I find so appealing about it is that it is ultimately about how being Iranian is an essential part of her American identity, which I believe is a particularly valuable bit of insight in light of the conversations taking place across the country about immigration. —Sho Spaeth, features editor

A Time of Plenty: Celebrating Nowruz in America »

[Illustration: Tram Nguyen]

I really love the way Mithila Phadke writes, not just about the food in this piece but in general. I think this piece illustrates the range of her voice, and how it can be used to talk about both weighty and light things. What I most like about this piece, though, is that while much of the focus is on her grandmother's cooking and, of course, on her loss, it also manages to deftly underscore how little is understood of the vast and varied cuisine of the Indian subcontinent, even (and especially!) by those who grew up there. I grew up in New Delhi, and I found it incredibly edifying; I hope you all do, too. —Sho Spaeth, features editor

Ajji's Cooking: Preserving an Unsung Cuisine »

[Video: Serious Eats Video]

D. Gritzer's guide to mortars and pestles has everything I like about our service-oriented features. First of all, it goes deep—way deep. Who knew how many kinds of mortars and pestles there were, from every corner of the world: Japanese, Mexican, Thai, and Mediterranean ones, just for starters? Plus, there's plenty of history in the post, all of it engagingly presented to the reader. Finally, Daniel explains in one word what a mortar and pestle does better than more modern inventions: it crushes. Just like Daniel's story does. —Ed Levine, founder

How to Pick the Best Mortar and Pestle »

[Photograph: Jai Williams]

Interest in Lao cuisine appears to be quietly but steadily building across the United States. If, like me, you're naturally curious about it, or if you suddenly find yourself seated before a Lao menu, whip out this fun primer so you can discern muu haeng from siin haeng and learn what goes best with jaew bong. —John Mattia, video editor

A Guide to the Essential Dishes of Laos »

[Illustration: Annelise Capossela]

As a reformed picky eater, I identified so strongly with Irina's story. There's a lot of flexing in food media about the babies of chefs and writers who will eat anything put in front of them because they're the kids of good eaters. But I find the image of Irina's son eating two mac and cheese sandwiches a lot more compelling than those overdone flexes: It speaks to discernment, judgment, and developing your tastes on your own time. —Kristina Bornholtz, social media editor

The Kid Is All Right: In Defense of Picky Eating »

This post may contain links to Amazon or other partners; your purchases via these links can benefit Serious Eats. Read more about our affiliate linking policy.

Source: https://www.seriouseats.com/roundups/favorite-features-2018

[theinvinciblenoob]

For three years, the MacBook Air was conspicuously absent. The ultraportable never left Apple’s site, of course, but we finished keynote after keynote wondering why Apple continued to neglect one of its most popular products, all while overhauling the rest of the MacBook line.

At an event last month in Brooklyn, however, Apple finally acquiesced, delivering the largest single update since the product was introduced ten and a half years prior. In an event stuffed to the gills with an enthusiastic audience, the Air got what was easily the biggest applause break — more than the iPad Pro and certainly more than the Mac Mini.

The fan base was clearly ready for a new Air.

Getting the Air right is a tricky proposition. Not only is it the slimmest model in the line, it’s also the cheapest, a combination that’s made it a popular selection for frequent travelers and those just looking for the least expensive route into the MacOS ecosystem. Every hardware addition to the line comes with a potential price increase — something we saw play out with the evolution of the Mini, which jumped from $499 to $799, removing some of the device’s entry-level appeal.

The Air has also seen a price increase, though Apple was able to rein things in a bit more here, in terms of both overall and relative price. At $1,199, the low-end version of the laptop remains the least pricey entry point into the Mac ecosystem (excluding the older Air, which is still available for $999).

This latest update finds the Air finally assuming its place in the current MacBook line, whose current iteration began life with a major overhaul in 2015. Becoming part of the club means an aesthetic upgrade, a move to USB-C, souped up internals and, of course, the long-awaited addition of a Retina Display.

The device arrives amid a shift for the company, as it once again embraces creative professionals with both MacOS devices and iOS through the addition of the iPad Pro. The latter continues to blur the line between Apple’s operating systems, with computation power rivaling — and in some cases outperforming — some of its MacOS models.

Currently, the Air sits between the iPad Pro and low-end MacBook — though given the $100 price difference between it and the former, I don’t know that anyone would be entirely shocked to see Apple quietly sunset the baseline product in favor of the reborn Air. There simply aren’t enough compelling reasons to keep that model around in its current configuration, especially given the Air’s enduring popularity.

Certain sacrifices were made in favor of keeping the Air’s price down — most notably the Touch Bar. There was some speculation that Apple’s decision to drop the technology on this device was some clear sign that the company was moving away from the touchscreen-adjacent tech, but the reason is likely far more simple: Adding it would have further driven up the entry-level price — and eclipsed the MacBook in the process.

Instead, the company did something even better, breaking out Touch ID from the bar. After a couple of years with a Touch Bar on both my work and personal machines, the fingerprint scanner remains the one feature (outside of the standard function keys like volume) that I use on a daily basis. In the long run, the company may have done the Touch Bar a bit of a disservice by consciously uncoupling Touch ID, but for the Air, it was the ideal decision, bringing its most useful feature without driving up the price in the process.

The keyboard is the same found on the most recent MacBook Pros, as well. That, along with other shifts, is bound to be polarizing among longtime Air users. I will say this, however, if you haven’t tried a MacBook keyboard since the infamous butterfly switch overhaul of 2015, visit your local Apple store to give them another shot. It’s true that they’re still a fair bit shallower than the previous model, but things have been improved in the past three years, courtesy of two major updates.

This latest generation is quieter, has a better feel and has the added benefit of a new rubberized bladder, which should protect from spills, along with particulate matter, which has become a bane of everyone with an earlier model’s existence. Seriously, I once found myself roaming around Seattle desperately trying to find a can of compressed air before an Amazon event.

Those who’ve been holding out to upgrade from an earlier Air model will likely have a bit of an adjustment period, but it’s a much easier transition that it was on those initial 2015 MacBooks. The track pad, too, is now in line with its MacBook brethren. It’s 20 percent larger than the previous Air and utilizes Force Touch for a more uniform response across the surface, welcome changes the both of them.

The new Air’s internals are, naturally, an upgrade across the board over the 2015 model, but it’s more of a mixed bag when compared to the MacBook. In fact, the concurrent existence of the two products is likely to cause confusion among buyers — and understandably so. If you’ve been having trouble deciding between MacBooks, Apple’s made that task even more complex.

RAM is the same on both systems at either 8 or 16GB. No surprise there — that’s pretty consistent across the entire MacBook line. The base-level storage configuration, on the other hand, starts lower but goes higher than the MacBook, with an entry of 128GB (to the MacBook’s 256), all the way up to 1.5TB. Of course, storage upgrades are always costly, and if you max this one out, it’s going to run you another $1,000.

Given that it’s a newer model, the processor is an upgrade over the pricier MacBook on the baseline, from a 1.2GHz dual-core Intel Core i3 to a 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor. That said, there’s only one configuration here, at present, so if you want more power, seriously consider upgrading to the Pro. Our model, the Core i5 coupled with 8GB (standard on everything but storage) scored a 4,297 and 7,723 on Geekbench’s single and multi-core tests, respectively.

A quick glance at the above graphic really highlights the gulf between the Air and Pro, though the new chips do mark an upgrade over the 2017 MacBook’s single- and multi-core scores of 3,527 and 6,654. The new silicon is plenty zippy for most users’ daily tasks, but if you need more out of your system — be it for gaming or resource-intensive tasks like video edit — it’s worth the jump to the Pro.

Battery, meanwhile, is a pretty sizable bump over the MacBook, owing to the larger footprint on the Air’s 13.3-inch frame (versus the 12-inch MacBook), with a stated “up to 12 hours” on a charge to the MacBook’s 10. I found that to be pretty on the money, in my own testing. I was able to stream video for just a hair under 12 hours — plenty enough to get you through most flights.

Of course, the larger screen and battery also mean a heftier laptop. The Air’s 2.75 pounds is around 3/4 of a pound more than the MacBook. In spite of retaining the iconic beveled design, it’s also a bit thicker than the 12-inch model. That said, the company’s managed to both shrink the footprint and reduce the weight from the older Air, which weighed in at 2.96 pounds.

The display is, as advertised, a massive upgrade over the last model. If you’ve spent any time with a Retina display, you know the deal. It’s big and bright, with a nice color balance. In terms of sheer numbers, we’re talking about a bump from 1440 x 900 to 2560 x 1600 pixels. That amounts to 227 PPI, compared to the old model’s 128. It’s an immediately apparent upgrade — there’s a reason so many Air owners have been holding out for the addition. The multimedia experience is rounded out by upgraded speakers that are capable of getting LOUD, in spite of taking up very little real estate on either side of the keyboard.

The design language was overdue for an update, and now the system looks nearly identical to the 13-inch Pro at first glance, aside from the familiar tapered design. And, of course, you can pick it up in Gold, keeping with Apple’s theme of more colorful options on lower-cost devices like the iPhone XR.

The most polarizing aspect on the frame is no doubt the continued shift to all Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C). No surprise there, of course. Get ready to lead the #donglelife until time comes to upgrade all of your accessories. The two USB-C ports are located on the same side, which means a bit more maneuvering when charging — though the new ports are much more diverse than the old power model. It’s the same set up you’ll find on the MacBook. Upgrade to the Pro, meanwhile, and you’ll get twice the number.

There’s no doubt the new Air marks a sizable update. It’s pricier, too, though Apple’s kept things more in check here than with the Mac Mini. With all of its upgrades and lower price point to boot, the Air is the clear pick over the 12-inch MacBook in practically every way.

As a matter of fact, barring some major future upgrade, the 12-inch likely isn’t long for this world. And that’s perfectly fine. The new Air is very clearly the better buy.

via TechCrunch

[fmservers]

MacBook Air review

For three years, the MacBook Air was conspicuously absent. The ultraportable never left Apple’s site, of course, but we finished keynote after keynote wondering why Apple continued to neglect one of its most popular products, all while overhauling the rest of the MacBook line.

At an event last month in Brooklyn, however, Apple finally acquiesced, delivering the largest single update since the product was introduced ten and a half years prior. In an event stuffed to the gills with an enthusiastic audience, the Air got what was easily the biggest applause break — more than the iPad Pro and certainly more than the Mac Mini.

The fan base was clearly ready for a new Air.

Getting the Air right is a tricky proposition. Not only is it the slimmest model in the line, it’s also the cheapest, a combination that’s made it a popular selection for frequent travelers and those just looking for the least expensive route into the MacOS ecosystem. Every hardware addition to the line comes with a potential price increase — something we saw play out with the evolution of the Mini, which jumped from $499 to $799, removing some of the device’s entry-level appeal.

The Air has also seen a price increase, though Apple was able to rein things in a bit more here, in terms of both overall and relative price. At $1,199, the low-end version of the laptop remains the least pricey entry point into the Mac ecosystem (excluding the older Air, which is still available for $999).

This latest update finds the Air finally assuming its place in the current MacBook line, whose current iteration began life with a major overhaul in 2015. Becoming part of the club means an aesthetic upgrade, a move to USB-C, souped up internals and, of course, the long-awaited addition of a Retina Display.

The device arrives amid a shift for the company, as it once again embraces creative professionals with both MacOS devices and iOS through the addition of the iPad Pro. The latter continues to blur the line between Apple’s operating systems, with computation power rivaling — and in some cases outperforming — some of its MacOS models.

Currently, the Air sits between the iPad Pro and low-end MacBook — though given the $100 price difference between it and the former, I don’t know that anyone would be entirely shocked to see Apple quietly sunset the baseline product in favor of the reborn Air. There simply aren’t enough compelling reasons to keep that model around in its current configuration, especially given the Air’s enduring popularity.

Certain sacrifices were made in favor of keeping the Air’s price down — most notably the Touch Bar. There was some speculation that Apple’s decision to drop the technology on this device was some clear sign that the company was moving away from the touchscreen-adjacent tech, but the reason is likely far more simple: Adding it would have further driven up the entry-level price — and eclipsed the MacBook in the process.

Instead, the company did something even better, breaking out Touch ID from the bar. After a couple of years with a Touch Bar on both my work and personal machines, the fingerprint scanner remains the one feature (outside of the standard function keys like volume) that I use on a daily basis. In the long run, the company may have done the Touch Bar a bit of a disservice by consciously uncoupling Touch ID, but for the Air, it was the ideal decision, bringing its most useful feature without driving up the price in the process.

The keyboard is the same found on the most recent MacBook Pros, as well. That, along with other shifts, is bound to be polarizing among longtime Air users. I will say this, however, if you haven’t tried a MacBook keyboard since the infamous butterfly switch overhaul of 2015, visit your local Apple store to give them another shot. It’s true that they’re still a fair bit shallower than the previous model, but things have been improved in the past three years, courtesy of two major updates.

This latest generation is quieter, has a better feel and has the added benefit of a new rubberized bladder, which should protect from spills, along with particulate matter, which has become a bane of everyone with an earlier model’s existence. Seriously, I once found myself roaming around Seattle desperately trying to find a can of compressed air before an Amazon event.

Those who’ve been holding out to upgrade from an earlier Air model will likely have a bit of an adjustment period, but it’s a much easier transition that it was on those initial 2015 MacBooks. The track pad, too, is now in line with its MacBook brethren. It’s 20 percent larger than the previous Air and utilizes Force Touch for a more uniform response across the surface, welcome changes the both of them.

The new Air’s internals are, naturally, an upgrade across the board over the 2015 model, but it’s more of a mixed bag when compared to the MacBook. In fact, the concurrent existence of the two products is likely to cause confusion among buyers — and understandably so. If you’ve been having trouble deciding between MacBooks, Apple’s made that task even more complex.

RAM is the same on both systems at either 8 or 16GB. No surprise there — that’s pretty consistent across the entire MacBook line. The base-level storage configuration, on the other hand, starts lower but goes higher than the MacBook, with an entry of 128GB (to the MacBook’s 256), all the way up to 1.5TB. Of course, storage upgrades are always costly, and if you max this one out, it’s going to run you another $1,000.

Given that it’s a newer model, the process is an upgrade over the pricier MacBook on the baseline, from a 1.2GHz dual-core Intel Core i3 to a 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor. That said, there’s only one configuration here, at present, so if you want more power, seriously consider upgrading to the Pro. Our model, the Core i5 coupled with 8GB (standard on everything but storage) scored a 4,297 and 7,723 on Geekbench’s single and multi-core tests, respectively.

A quick glance at the above graphic really highlights the gulf between the Air and Pro, though the new chips do mark an upgrade over the 2017 MacBook’s single- and multi-core scores of 3,527 and 6,654. The new silicon is plenty zippy for most users’ daily tasks, but if you need more out of your system — be it for gaming or resource-intensive tasks like video edit — it’s worth the jump to the Pro.

Battery, meanwhile, is a pretty sizable bump over the MacBook, owing to the larger footprint on the Air’s 13.3-inch frame (versus the 12-inch MacBook), with a stated “up to 12 hours” on a charge to the MacBook’s 10. I found that to be pretty on the money, in my own testing. I was able to stream video for just a hair under 12 hours — plenty enough to get you through most flights.

Of course, the larger screen and battery also mean a heftier laptop. The Air’s 2.75 pounds is around 3/4 of a pound more than the MacBook. In spite of retaining the iconic beveled design, it’s also a bit thicker than the 12-inch model. That said, the company’s managed to both shrink the footprint and reduce the weight from the older Air, which weighed in at 2.96 pounds.

The display is, as advertised, a massive upgrade over the last model. If you’ve spent any time with a Retina display, you know the deal. It’s big and bright, with a nice color balance. In terms of sheer numbers, we’re talking about a bump from 1440 x 900 to 2560 x 1600 pixels. That amounts to 227 PPI, compared to the old model’s 128. It’s an immediately apparent upgrade — there’s a reason so many Air owners have been holding out for the addition. The multimedia experience is rounded out by upgraded speakers that are capable of getting LOUD, in spite of taking up very little real estate on either side of the keyboard.

The design language was overdue for an update, and now the system looks nearly identical to the 13-inch Pro at first glance, aside from the familiar tapered design. And, of course, you can pick it up in Gold, keeping with Apple’s theme of more colorful options on lower-cost devices like the iPhone XR.

The most polarizing aspect on the frame is no doubt the continued shift to all Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C). No surprise there, of course. Get ready to lead the #donglelife until time comes to upgrade all of your accessories. The two USB-C ports are located on the same side, which means a bit more maneuvering when charging — though the new ports are much more diverse than the old power model. It’s the same set up you’ll find on the MacBook. Upgrade to the Pro, meanwhile, and you’ll get twice the number.

There’s no doubt the new Air marks a sizable update. It’s pricier, too, though Apple’s kept things more in check here than with the Mac Mini. With all of its upgrades and lower price point to boot, the Air is the clear pick over the 12-inch MacBook in practically every way.

As a matter of fact, barring some major future upgrade, the 12-inch likely isn’t long for this world. And that’s perfectly fine. The new Air is very clearly the better buy.

Via Brian Heater https://techcrunch.com