#i need to learn all of this software immediately and he's bringing energy to my education

[adaine]

ryan solidworkstutorials i am in love with you

[anika-ann]

Warm Up My Heart

(...So It Never Gets Cold Again)

Type: One-shot to a series (part 1 & part 2),  Avenger!reader AU.

Pairing: Steve Rogers x reader              Word count: 2500

Summary: Boy meets girl. Boy likes girl. Girl likes boy. Boy wants to propose soon… boy slips. You know the drill. In which Tony builds a training super-bot, Steve gets a boo-boo and the rest is history.

Warnings: mild injury and violence, swearing, cheesy af fluff

A/N: There weren’t al that many of you reading this series, but since it’s a rewrite/editing stuff for me (something I have time for), I’m bringing it back! I’ve been neglecting it long enough... 

Series masterlists (aka previous parts) linked above

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“Captain America’s been brought to his knees. They found his weak spot and he went down all too easily for the world’s first superhero; literally crumbled on the ground, unable to get back up-“

Steve groaned, miserable and extremely annoyed at the same time, and you chuckled, which earned you a wounded look from the supersoldier.

You retreated from his right foot to muffle the sound escaping your mouth with you palm. You couldn’t help it; as much as you felt sorry for Steve, troubled by the fact he was in pain, you knew it wasn’t serious and Tony’s dramatic commentary was just too hilarious.

“Tony, just leave him be. And stop making me laugh,” you pleaded, suddenly back to seriousness. This was no fun; you did need to concentrate. “I might as well freeze his foot off if you keep distracting me.”

It was the truth; you had spent the past minutes trying to cool down Steve’s ankle, which had been sprained. All three of you were now in one of the training rooms of the compound, you and Steve sitting on a bench, while Tony hovered above you. Steve’s leg was resting over your knees, so you could reduce the swelling before it could fully develop.

The injury was totally Tony’s fault.

Being the generous friend and maniac he was, he had invented a special kind of a training super-bot – which had earned him both sharp glares and amused looks. It wasn’t half bad; it actually was a fair competition for Steve, which was saying something. It probably had something to do with the fact Tony had seen Steve in action more than a few times, learning his fighting style; programming his knowledge into the software of the bot meant one less advantage for Steve. Plus, Tony had used some special enforced material-

-which was exactly the problem. It was enforced; too much. And not enough.

When Steve kicked with his full strength, his foot had just… pretty much stuck in the robot’s torso. He had been lucky it hadn’t torn his flesh off and he had ended up only like this – with sprained ankle and few deep scratches which had already stopped bleeding. Incredibly lucky even considering that his instinct had been to get his foot out immediately, so he could go on with the fight; he hadn’t been exactly gentle and patient with freeing himself. Honestly, you were surprised his limbs were still attached.

Now he couldn’t even put his full weight on his injured leg. At least the robot had helped him hobble to the bench, because between your built and Tony’s willingness to talk being way bigger than his willingness to help with Steve’s weight (muscles were heavy), Steve would be still on the ground. Well, limping uselessly on one foot anyway.

“And get me an elastic bandage. Hush! Go make yourself useful!” you ordered, directing Tony towards the door, motioning with your hand in an ‘off you go’ gesture.

“Cap, your girl is bossy and has no respect for elders,” the billionaire complained, but turned on his heels and headed to get a first aid kit. The bot stood by the end of the bench dutifully, not moving an inch.

“I beg to differ, she treats me just fine,” Steve called out after Tony, winking at you as you brought your hands back.

You focused on tuning your powers to the right temperature, hovering only few inches from his skin. You sighed when the door clicked behind Tony and went back to work.

“You okay?” you whispered, glancing up just for a moment before returning your full attention to his injury.

“I’ve had plenty of worse.”

“That’s neither an answer or comforting, you know.”

“I’m much better now,” he admitted softly and you could hear the tender smile in his voice.

It warmed your heart and filled your chest with pride. You knew he meant it as a compliment; and he was not complimenting your powers, not the tool you had been given, but he was praising you for being so skilful with it.

You managed a tiny smile. “I’m glad.”

Your mind raced as you thought of how you could make it even better. You were no doctor; you barely knew the RICE rule, of which you only had two things covered by now; Elevation and Ice. The third was on its way (hopefully, but one never knew with Tony) and the fourth was… probably out of question, because make Steve Rogers rest was way beyond anyone’s ability. You closed your eyes, focusing on the things you actually could control.

Steve apparently understood your need to concentrate, or had nothing to say, because he didn’t utter a word. But the silence was comfortable, kind even.  You tried to convince yourself his eyes were roaming around the training room; in reality, you were ninety-nine percent sure he was watching you work and despite all the time spent together, all his efforts to chase your insecurities away and proving countless time that he trusted you… you felt a bit nervous.

Too small under his intense gaze, you could tell that hot blood rushed into your cheeks. It was ridiculous. And it probably made Steve’s lips curl up in a grin, because he had mentioned more than once that he found your embarrassment endearing and entirely adorable. He could always tell.

“Marry me,” he pleaded softly and the shock of those two words spoken threw you off so hard your concentration levelled to zero in an instant.

The temperature you had been treating his ankle with so carefully dropped low beyond the desired one as if you flipped a switch.

You felt the burst of energy from your hands more than you heard his pained hiss and you quickly snapped your eyes open, withdrawing your hands in one swift movement.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” you blurted out, staring at his foot with horror, masochistically examining the damage you had done – a frostbite no doubt, because of course you had done some serious damage-

-well… actually you hadn’t, because apparently your reflexes had improved greatly with time, but the skin had definitely less healthy colour than before and-

“Oh Steve, I am so, so sorry, I swear I didn’t meant to-“

“It’s… it’s okay,” he stuttered, sounding more embarrassed than hurting.

You were relieved; then again, when had Steve Rogers ever admitted he was in pain?

You couldn’t find yourself to look up to his face nevertheless, too horrified and scared. What have you done?

Also… what the hell had he just said? You had imagined it, right? He hadn’t… hadn’t…?

“It wasn’t your fault. That’s completely on me. You said Tony not to distract you and… I shouldn’t have— I shouldn’t have said that.“

You looked up at him, biting your lip, suddenly convinced that he actually had proposed. Just like that. You didn’t give yourself time to let it sink in or to… indulge the feeling. Because he just apologized for saying it. You would bet all your money that he did regret it now, for multiple reasons.

It kinda stung that he had confessed to it out loud, though.

Okay, fuck it, it hurt like hell, because even when you had never talked about it, it burned down your very soul that he… that he would ever regret asking.

He groaned, covering his red face with his palms.

“I---you’re… injured. Probably confused by the product of Tony’s brilliant ideas. It’s okay, let’s just… forget that, okay? We all say strange things when we’re in pain, things we regret-“

You hated that your voice trembled at the last word and Steve’s hands immediately went down, his blue eyes piercing right through yours. He seemed more horrified than you now.

“I’m sorry. That came out completely wrong. All of it. Oh god…. I do regret it, alright? I’m sorry, Snowflake. I really shouldn’t have said that. Not… not like this,” he added gently and your heart positively stopped as his gaze found you, a new twinkle in his irises.

No, there was nothing new in it. You had seen it before, occasionally. In moments that only belonged to you two, when you were alone or it felt like you were alone, the world around disappearing. When you would catch his gaze across the room while laughing with someone else. When you let your powers draw flowers on the windows of the compound, creating winter decorations that were not exactly allowed in the military space.

Admiration. Tenderness. Dedication. Love.

Your lips parted in surprise as he kept observing you, the emotions changing on your face, flashing with realization. Wait. That was… what? Your breath hitched.

Steve gave you a very nervous smile as he lifted his leg from your lap, setting it back on the ground.

“What are you-“ you snapped from your strange trance immediately, wanting to stop him from whatever he was about to do, because you weren’t finished and goddammit, he needed to keep his leg elevated-

-and not to lower himself from the bench on one knee.

Right in front of you.

As if he was proposing.

Like, really proposing.

You watched him with disbelief when he planted himself into the infamous position, injured ankle in an awkward position, and you would swear that he could hear your heartbeat echoing within the walls of the gym. You sure as hell did, your blood pounding in your ears and your head positively spinning.

You simply couldn’t believe your eyes. You were sure your pupils were wide enough to reduce your irises to nothing.

Steve swallowed loudly, looking up at your face from under his eyelashes, his eyes hopeful and wide as well. At this point, you couldn’t breathe, your ribcage way too small for your swelling heart.

This was happening.

Oh shit, this was happening. Steve was… Steve was-

“Snowflake,” he whispered, his voice heavy with emotions and something that you would swear was a hint of fear, “you are the most amazing woman I’ve ever met. Whenever I’m with you, I’m the happiest I’ve ever been and despite your powers, your presence-- you are warm like sunshine. I love you. I love you with my whole heart and… please, would you do me the honour of becoming my wife?”

You stared at him, his eyes shining with hope, his Adam’s apple bobbing as you weren’t able to utter a single word and left him waiting for your answer.

You felt like an idiot for leaving him in anticipation and with doubts--- because you loved him. God, you loved this man so much and couldn’t even speak despite being sure with what you wanted to say more than anything.

So you blinked away the solitude tears that gathered in your eyes, because you were a regular sap, and nodded. His face lighted up like Christmas tree – no matter how cliché it sounded, it was the first analogy that came to your mind and it was very true.

Hesitant smile appeared on his lips as he stared at you with same disbelief that must have shown on you own face. “Yeah?”

You chuckled, covering your mouth with your palm before you could let out some very embarrassing sound. You nodded furiously, again and again.

“Yeah,” you breathed out finally and Steve shamelessly grabbed you and pulled you down at him. He fell on his ass, so you both basically crushed into the bench, but you couldn’t help but laugh like a madwoman as he was trying to balance the both of you, you being nestled in his lap all of sudden.

He wrapped his arm around you, pulling you flush against his own body, immediately freeing your hair from the messy bun you wore – just so he could nuzzle his face in it. You could feel his smile against your cheek and then he placed a quick kiss there, then lower, then on your jaw, and then finally found your lips. He kissed you, letting you taste the delight on his tongue, his breath whispering of gratitude, pleading you to say it again.

“Yes,” you repeated simply and earned another kiss, this time longer, passionate and tender, breath-taking and making you feel like flying.

The butterflies in your stomach flipped their wings like crazy – kissing Steve was always an amazing feeling, but this time… you were kissing Steve, your fiancée. He just proposed, he wanted to marry you and you were about to marry him. Excitement tingled in your fingertips, restless and wonderful and your body melted into his, wishing to just merge into one.

You only realized his body was not exactly okay when he retreated an inch, allowing you both to catch your breath and your brain to reboot. Seeing his twinkling eyes, you swallowed the question about his well-being, simply not having the heart to ruin the unexpected, peculiar and pretty magical moment. He rested his forehead against yours, his eyelids falling shut.

“That... that is not how I was planning on doing this,” he whispered, sounding a bit embarrassed, and the corners of your lips twitched, rising even higher. You hadn’t realized you had automatically started smiling the moment your lips had been freed, but apparently you had.

“Are you saying there was a plan, oh my Star-Spangled Man?” you replied with voice as soft as his, teasing him lightly.

“Uhm… I mean… I was working on it, at least. It involved having the ring actually on me instead of having it lying in our room and all that.”

The ring. The ring that was in your room at the moment. He clearly wasn’t just throwing the words around. He… he actually had been planning a proposal. You heart fluttered at the confession.

“But then Steve Rogers’ impulsiveness got in a way and… here we are,” he revealed sheepishly and you didn’t think you could be more moved.

It wasn’t just him thinking about it – it was him losing it in a moment so ordinary like this as if he couldn’t wait anymore.

“Good. Wouldn’t want it any other way.”

His expression turned curious and a bit confused. “Good?”

“Yeah. It’s Steve Rogers I want to marry after all.”

The most gorgeous smile appeared on his lips and you couldn’t resist – you kissed him again. A silent promise of kissing him every day for the rest of your lives.

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Tony Stark was standing behind the transparent door to the gym, facing away from the two of you, but peeking over his shoulder; an equivalent of subtlety. A grin that was not even a little silly played on his lips and he was not tearing up at all.

Who was he kidding, he was really glad he had added the AV system to his super- bot. Because the record of what definitely looked like a bit strange proposal was something he would miss greatly.

He smirked at the kit in his hand, opened the door for a slit, quietly slipped his hand in – completely unnoticed by the oblivious lovebirds – and left the supplies there.

When he closed the door again soundlessly and made his way out of the area, he couldn’t but mutter under his breath.

“About damn time, Rogers.  About damn time.”

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Next series (Five Times Steve Felt Betrayed and the One Time He Felt like He Was Betraying You)

S.R.masterlist

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So, I had my thoughts on some more storyline (sort of) and got to the point where I felt sorry for not coming up with a concrete plan of how a proposal implied in the next story went. I couldn’t resist and had to come up with some, because reasons.

Apparently, I’m a sucker for pain the concept of proposal going way differently than planned...

Thank you for reading... I hope your week started off well!

[gh0stlyink]

[WIP Wednesday]

Tagged by @little-lightning-lavellan a REALLY long time ago 😅 and I am finally getting around to do it. Not going to lie, this had everything to do with forgetting when Wednesday was so... The taglist will be under the cut 🖤 Thank you again, @little-lightning-lavellan for tagging me 🥰

This right here is a snippet of Emotional Support Android which is my Detroit: Become Human fanfiction! I have to admit I haven't worked on it in a while but I will always go back to it.

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She woke up with a start. Her CyberPad was ringing loudly. That meant it was Amanda. She was the only one that had that notification sound set. Glancing at the clock (7:31 a.m.) she groaned for a moment before grabbing the Pad and accepting the call. Salem wasn't worried about looking her best in front of Amanda. Amanda has seen Salem at her worst.

"You answered quicker this time," Amanda gave the smallest of smirks.

Salem did some calculations. "I was able through a whole sleep cycle before you called. Perfect timing."

"Good. Get ready. You don't have to do much, You'll be going back to your room one more time before leaving. I just want to give you the details. See you in five." The call ended sharply.

Salem placed the Pad next to her on her pillow and rolled over to her stomach. She had grown so used to this place, she didn't know if she was ready to leave. She supposed this was the next big step, but she didn't know what was going to happen. This unsettled her even more, but she remembered she only had five minutes, less now, and she needed to get ready. Turning to her side and throwing her legs over the side of her bed, she stood up. Making a quick stretch with her arms, she walked over to her dressed.

In a minute and a half, Salem managed to change into some black sweatpants and a black hoodie. She had combed her black hair through her fingers and put it in a messy bun on the top of her head.

The way to the office was short, there was an elevator down the hall from her room. Once on the top floor, she made her way to the end of the hall. There was a small lobby and an Android intern desk. The Android looked up, presenting female.

“Amanda is expecting you,” she said, her arm gesturing towards the gold-plated doors.

Salem nodded with a small smile and entered the office. It was big. There were tall windows that looked out on the city. Amanda was looking out of them.

“Glad you’re here,” she didn’t look away from the windows. “This will be very important, so listen carefully.” Finally, Amanda looked away and at Salem, who only nodded in response. Amanda had gotten used to her quiet nature. “Take a seat there, please. There is coffee, just the way you like it. I know you will need some assistance to wake up fully, and I need you at your best.”

Salem walked obediently to the chair Amanda had pointed to. Sitting down, she gingerly took the cup and took a sip. It really was just the way she liked it.

“I know you don’t watch the news much,” Amanda started. “You get stressed out too easily, and you already have to focus so much of your energy on working on your brilliant designs.”

Salem took another sip of the coffee before setting it down and giving Amanda all of her attention.

“There are Androids going Deviant.”

“What?” Salem spurted. “What?”

“I understand this may be upsetting to you, especially knowing that these are your modifications and upgrades that have helped the growth of Android technology. I do not blame you, do not worry.”

Relief spread through Salem's spine.

“However, we need to stop this. Androids are beginning to display human-like emotions. This is a direct link to their software instability. I need you to help me find out exactly why this is happening.

Salem was speechless, and not by choice this time. She had no idea this was happening, and Amanda was right. It stressed her out. It made her feel like all of her hard work was for nothing. Not to mention, it confused her to no end. How was this happening? Androids showing emotions? The only thing close to that she had programmed was emulating human emotions, but that didn’t mean they were feeling them.

“Salem?” Amanda had ripped her from her thoughts. “I need you to focus.”

Salem nodded vehemently, her eyes clearing. “Of-of course.”

“You will be going to Detroit. We have a small safe house set up for you. You’ll be working with Lieutenant Anderson of the DPD, as well as an Android.”

“Will it be one of my designs?” Salem couldn’t stop herself from asking.

“No. It's from another. Your designs were mostly made for more wholesome needs. This was made by Special Force designers.”

Salem understood. She supposed this was the best way to go about things. Amanda was right. Her designs were generally used as maids, nannies, and caretakers.

“This Android is not only going to be there to detect and interrogate Deviants. It will be staying with you at the safe house. It's there to keep you safe...stable.”

Salem looked down for a moment. She knew what Amanda meant by “stable”. Salem used to have severe panic attacks. They have died down over the years, due to falling into a routine of sorts. She wasn’t really a fan of change, and this was a big change.

Amanda looked the girl over, then waved her hand over a tablet. “Tell Jade to send in the Android.”

Within a minute, the doors to Amanda’s office opened. A male modeled Android walked in, wearing a Cyberlife suit. One Salem had never seen before, even in the records sent to all Designers every week. This model was brand spanking new. RKX00. Yep, definitely never heard of that model before.

“This is Connor,” Amanda said, rising from her seat and walking over to the Android. He had stopped just a few feet away from Salem’s seat. She put her hand on his shoulder. “Model RK800. Like is said, he will keep you safe. Among other things.”

“Nice to meet you, Miss Everly. Have no worries, I will be by your side,” Connor said, offering her a robot-like smile. The emotion code could have been written better, but he seemed nice enough. Salem never really minded Androids, it was humans she was wary about.

“Nice to meet you, too,” Salem said softly.

“Go to your room and pack your things. We hope you won't be there long, but we don’t have nearly as enough information as we’d like, so we don’t know how long it will be. Take what you think you’ll need,” Amanda made her way back to the windows. “Don’t bother bringing any of your designs. We want you to focus on the task at hand.”

Salem was still looking over Connor before she looked back to Amanda. “I understand.”

“Good. You can go now.”

---

Connor had followed Salem to her room. Upon entering Salem sat down at her desk to take a brief breather.

“Our train leaves in forty minutes, and it takes about twenty minutes to get to the train station,” Connor informed her, as he looked around her room. Probably to learn things about her.

“Thank you,” she told him, rubbing at her temples.

The Android blinked a few times at her. “You have not eaten or drunk anything today,” he stated. “You should at least have some water.”

“Yeah...maybe,” Salem stood up and entered her bedroom. Connor had followed, almost immediately walking into the restroom. Salem went into her small closet and got out the biggest bag she had, which was a duffel bag. She also had two backpacks, which would come in handy.

Salem made her bed before she placed the bags on top. She didn’t want to have a cluttered space to distract her. She began taking clothes from her dresser, the most comfortable ones, but she added some nicer clothes, as well. Those came generally from her closet, however. As she was folding the clothes she had thrown on her bed, Connor exited from the restroom.

“Hey, you should drink this,” Connor urged, holding out a crisp glass of water.

Salem looked at the glass, then back up into Connor’s eyes. “You didn’t have to…”

“I am here to keep you safe and stable. Keeping your hydration at optimal levels is a part of that.”

Salem looked at the glass of water for a moment more before putting down the article of clothing she was folding and taking it from the Android. “Thank you.”

“It is why I am here,” Connor said, giving her one definitive nod.

Salem smiled softly. “I still appreciate it.”

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Tagging: @akindofmagictoo | @sleepysera | @suchitasenthilkumar (no pressure, of course) and Anyone else who wants to! ＼(ﾟｰﾟ＼) Feel free to say I tagged you🖤

[closer-stars]

Good Thing - Mingi (Epilogue)

Member: Mingi Genre: Fluff Requested: Sort of? Word Count: ~2k Content: Just Y/N and Mingi in the work life. Good vibes. Note: Yay an epilogue as requested by some of you haha. I didn’t really think i’d be making one but here we are. 

Music plays from the speakers in a low lull. The male leans forward as he listens closely to what he and his team have been making over the past few days. So far, they’ve been able to create a handful of rough drafts of what the artist wants, though so far none of them have made Mingi think that it could be it. Two knocks on the door and he lowers the volume, and presses pause on the software. “Yeah?” He calls out, the editing software still present on the screen. 

“Can I come in?” 

He turns in his chair, relieved to hear your voice come from the door. He’s greeted by your smile. He also notes that you were in your dance attire, which could only mean you were teaching a routine later on. He pulls another chair next to him, patting the empty seat. “Thank god it’s you. If it was anyone from my team, I would’ve lost it.” He jokes, much to your amusement. As you settle yourself down next to him, he steals a kiss on your cheek, getting a whiff of his favorite perfume on you. 

Truth be told, both of you didn’t officially become together until a year or two later. Post graduation blues, the stress of looking for a job and overall just trying to get to know the other better being just some of the things that hindered the two of you from doing so. Fortunately for the two of you, it worked out in the end. Even better is that both of you are working under the same company. 

Your eyes quickly catch the exhaustion under his eyes, hours of staring at the computer over the smallest beats really did a number on him. You also note his outfit, the only time he’s in a button up is when he’s expecting guests, which could be the artists based on the name of the file. “I brought some food cause we both know you forget to eat now.” You tease lightheartedly. Pork belly and various other side dishes from his favorite restaurant down the street. “I wasn’t able to get your favorite noodles since they ran out for the day.” You explain as you set the bag of food to the side, away from all the technology in front of you. 

“Now it’s you taking care of me? Oh how the tables have turned.” Mingi muses, eyeing the food. He pushes himself away from his work table, settling himself in front of the food you bought. “Eat with me?” He knows you can’t say no to that. Even if you now lived together, schedules were so hectic nowadays that the only times both of you could bond were over a meal or in bed. It was great that both of you were under the same company but not so much that both of you could barely see each other unless it was for a meal. “Love, you bought food that’s more than enough for three people.” He notes as he brings each container out of the bag. 

You laugh, dragging the wheeled chair towards where he is to help him out in setting up the meal. “That’s the point, love. You eat more than I can and it’s also to make sure you don’t eat less than usual while working.” You learned early in your relationship that he has a tendency to eat less when he’s riding the creative high. You wondered if he got this habit from his colleague, Hongjoong. 

Too elated at the sight of his favorites, he steals another kiss, this time on your lips. He was always the more physically affectionate one between the two of you. “I love you.” He says, grateful for this. 

You return the kiss before he’s out of reach. “Anything for you. Now eat and tell me how your work has been.” 

That’s what happens between the two of you for the next three hours: eating and discussing his work, your work, the artists in the company, the auditionees who look promising, and everything under the sun. “There’s this one trainee who reminds me a lot of you. I’m hoping you get to meet them soon.” You say, tone a little soft and endeared. The young trainee’s vigor reminds you so much of Mingi, his tendency to cheer for his fellow trainees with pats on the back and head pats. Your tone makes Mingi crack up. 

“Wait until they meet someone like you.” He teases and before you could shoot a retort at him, he manages to shoot a small pork belly wrap in your mouth. “Three points.” He hums, delighted to take you by surprise like old times. You glower at him as you chew through the food. As you clean up the last of your meal, a few knocks could be heard. While you return you attention to cleaning up the place, Mingi asks who’s by the door. 

In comes Hongjoong who manages to smell the pork. “You guys ate without me?” He asks with a pout. It’s crazy how this male managed to make the trainees cower in fear when he’s in front of you whining over food. He’s also partly why you’ve toned down the intimidation factor in you. 

His whines make your lover laugh. “Yeah, sorry, hHung. Maybe later for dinner, we can catch a meal together with Seonghwa.” Seonghwa teaches the trainees dance with you, but is in charge as well of the auditionees when he has time. He’s also the reason why you’ve softened up. 

“If I finish teaching the trainees early, I can grab coffee for the four of us.” You offer. In two hours, you would be teaching the trainees a piece for their monthly evaluations. Hongjoong notices that you were already by the door. 

“Leaving so soon?” He asks and you catch Mingi pouting at you from behind Hongjoong. 

You gesture to the door. “I mean, you guys are expecting someone soon. Also don’t you guys have stuff to do now?” It’s not that you wanted to leave immediately, but being part of an industry that relies on creativity, you know firsthand that being distracted can be stressful down the line. 

The older man shakes his head. “It’s fine. One, Mingi here would love to have you here a little longer.” He starts, with a gesture to the man behind him. His statement making Mingi’s ears burn bright red. “Two, we want your thoughts on this track. It’s you who’s making the choreography as well.” 

As you listen to his explanation, your gaze goes to your lover who was doing his best to avoid your gaze. Still shy as ever. “Sure thing, Hongjoong.” You set the bag by a corner then approach the two, sitting next to Mingi as they start catching you up to date with the progress of one of the finalized songs. As you settle into your seat once more, it’s become a habit that your knees would touch his. No matter what the two of you are doing, if the two of you are next to each other, your knees would graze the other’s. They play the song and you keep quiet, deep in your thoughts. For the next hour, the three of you discuss overlooked details and well thought of verses until everything has become up to standard to the three of you. A rarity since you often butt heads with Hongjoong. You look at the time: one hour until you teach. “I should get ready to teach the kids.” With that, you stand up and stretch your back for a few moments. 

“Dinner?” Mingi asks as you set the chair away. You didn’t need him to expound. You know what he means by that. Instead of answering him explicitly, your lips graze lightly against his cheek, much to Hongjoong’s delight at the flustered expression on the male. 

You wave goodbye to the two of them, making your way to the dance studio. The time you spent with Mingi giving you the energy you need to last through the next few hours with the trainees. You peek into the studio and you’re already greeted by the trainees helping each other on the piece and you can’t help but hope they make it big in the industry. 

“Hey everyone! Should we get started?”

---

It’s already past midnight when the two of you arrive back at your apartment. Both of you dropping your bags in the living room, exhausted sighs and groans slipping from your lips. “I’ll get the shower ready.” Mingi says as he drags his tired legs to the bathroom. You get your used clothes into the washing machine, keeping a note to put them in the dryer when you wake up the following day. 

The two of you spend the next few minutes in the shower, washing each other’s body carefully. You carefully knead out the knots on Mingi’s shoulders, a result of being hunched over the computer and instruments for hours at a time. He does the same to your neck as both of you let the hair conditioner set in. In the entire duration of your relationship, you’ve grown to have a habit of pressing a kiss on the base of the other’s neck after cleaning after them in the shower. 

Before you know it, the two of you were buried under the blankets, legs tangled against each other. Words didn’t need to be exchanged at this point, both of you spent from today’s hectic schedule. Instead, both of you revel in the silence, taking this opportunity to gaze and study the features of your partner’s face. The way the eyelashes flutter as one tries to stay awake, hoping to catch the other fall asleep first, the way one’s lips shiver as they stifle a yawn, the gentle sigh of comfort of being in your lover’s arms in bed. 

Even with the lights off, you could see just how much Mingi adored you, and you hoped he could see how you felt the same way if not more. You feel his cheek lean into your touch and you swear you could feel your heart soar at that moment. 

You notice him drifting off to sleep and your lips graze against his eyelids, then lightly on his lips. “Sleep well, babe. You deserve the rest.” You whisper against his skin, snuggling a little closer to him before giving in to the comfort of slumber with him.

[n7inky-fanfics]

One Day at a Time

The destruction of the Reapers did not mean galactic peace. While the treaties Shepard had brokered during the war remain mostly intact, there is no shortage of pirates, criminals, gangs, and terroristic organizations bent on creating chaos and destruction. The Council began directing their Spectres towards overseeing and protecting reconstruction efforts and maintaining peace. Now that scientists are close to unlocking the key to repairing the mass relays, the galaxy has settled into unease. No one knows if crime will get better or worse with the relays back online. All factions are getting agitated, and more fighting is breaking out.

Sometimes, Kaidan pities the poor soul on the wrong end of Shepard's gun. More than once, he has heard all sorts of people shout something along the lines of "Oh shit, it's Shepard!" as they realized they were about to die. Shepard is a skilled soldier who dominates the battlefield with equal parts strength and grace. Fighting alongside her can be almost beautiful in an odd and violent sort of way, especially when she used her biotics. It took her almost a year of practice fighting on her military grade prosthetic leg, but she has now found that grace on the battlefield again. In the end, her skills and her career could not be taken by the Reaper War. The galaxy kept its greatest protector.

Today, they are both back on Mars, of all places, fighting a remnant of Cerberus that is attempting to steal more data from the archives. If intel is correct, their goal is to find weapons they can use "for the betterment of humanity", which is their way of saying anti-alien terrorism. Kaidan does have to admit that some part of him enjoys taking down pieces of Cerberus. After all the horrible things he's seen them do, including all that they have put Shepard through, he's glad to eliminate every last cell in the galaxy. It's a worthy career goal.

As the smoke clears, Shepard begins checking the bodies for data pads, hoping to find anything to indicate how many of them are at the archives and what their exact plans are. After all, if this was just an outdoor lookout team, there's bound to be more already inside. She freezes as she reads one of the data pads. Kaidan can barely see her face through her helmet, but her reaction to the data pad can't be good. "Shepard, what is it?"

She clears her throat and says calmly "It's not pertinent to the mission. Let's move on." She drops the data pad and continues towards the entrance. Kaidan trusts Shepard, but curiosity gets the better of him and he glances down at the data pad as he passes by. It currently displays the owner's profile. He can see an image that he guesses matches the body they found it on and a name. "Andrew Mason".

As they enter the archive, they happily find a distinct lack of civilian and scientist casualties. This time, intel learned of the plan early and decided to evacuate the scientists and ship in more soldiers. Unfortunately, Cerberus still puts up a good fight and many of the Alliance soldiers were injured or killed before the Spectres arrived (travel between systems takes more time now that the relays are gone). Shepard hops on to the nearest terminal and accesses the system logs. "Ah, here it is. Someone opened an archive five minutes ago. We can take the tram there."

"Perfect. Maybe this time we'll make it through without getting shot at." Immediately after making the joke, Kaidan winces at the realization that bringing up their last mission on Mars might not be a good idea. Sure, they've worked everything out, but it still could be a touchy subject. He was pretty cruel to her last time, before he almost died in front of her.

"Doubtful." Shepard laughs lightly as they board the tram.

They ride quietly for a moment before Kaidan asks "So, will I get to know who Andrew Mason is?"

"Maybe later. Now's not the time."

"Fair." Kaidan says. He smiles at her, hoping she can see it through the helmet. His is much more open and visually blocks less of the face. Shepard's preferred gear usually allows less visibility, but it also has fewer structural weak points. He noticed a change in her treatment of her armor not too long after he got back on the Normandy, but he's never said anything. Without asking, he already knows why Shepard chooses armor with the most reinforced environment system, and why she carefully and almost obsessively maintains it. He would, too, in her shoes.

He refocuses himself on the task at hand as they begin approaching their destination. They've almost made it when a Cerberus soldier begins firing at the car. They both take cover behind the wall and the dance begins yet again. As the car docks, Shepard throws up a barrier and runs out, shooting at several men in a row as she charges to cover. Kaidan focuses on the heavy trooper slowly approaching from a distance and Reaves. Together, they feed off each other's energy. The can move in sync, watching each other's sixes and supporting each other throughout the entire battle. Before long, the docking zone falls silent as the battle ends.

They take turns clearing doors until they finally get to the archive. They take cover on either side of the door. He opens it carefully, and Shepard immediately swings around to cover him with her pistol. The immediate entryway is surprisingly empty. Shepard gestures for him to follow, then slowly and quietly moves inside the room until they reach a sharp turn. She takes cover against the wall and peers around the corner, gun at the ready. As soon as she does, she is thrown backwards by a large biotic force. Her gun fires before she even hits the wall. Kaidan swings around and unleashes a singularity that pulls the target into the air. Shepard fires again, making several headshots that eventually pierce the armor and hit their mark.

"Thanks for the cover, Alenko." She says, her smile coming through in the sound of her voice. She pats him on the back and pushes further into the room, where the target had been collecting data onto a drive. She plugs the data into her omnitool and runs it through analysis softwares. Liara would be able to tell them more, but it appears that intel was correct. They had been here for advanced weapons blueprints. Shepard begins forwarding the information back to the Normandy, then turns to head back to the LZ. Kaidan follows her.

Getting back to the Normandy and conferencing with Admiral Hackett is no big deal. After the verbal debriefing, they retire to her cabin to write their mission reports. Kaidan's ship, the SSV London (named for the Battle of London that ended the Reaper War), is still getting it's final touches before he'll be able to take it out on a shakedown run, so he rode along with Shepard for this mission and their last several. As they settle into the couch with their tea and data pads, he can't help but smile. This is a good life, one he hadn't expected to attain. Every day, sometimes several times a day, he still finds himself thankful that they had found Shepard after the Crucible. When the Alliance had formally declared her missing in action, with the caveat that she was most likely dead, Kaidan refused to lay down and wait for them to declare her death. He contacted Hackett with an emergency QEC on the Normandy and told him that until they found a body, Shepard was to be considered alive and in need of assistance. They all owed that to her. Seeing her here and now, living her life with him, is something he is grateful for every day.

As Kaidan is putting the final touches on his report, Shepard sets her data pad on the table and walks to her shower, stripping off articles of clothing as she goes. He fumbles over the keyboard, leaving a line of text that reads "ghdhshgdg" as he watches her go. Knowing that he's watching, she calls "finish your report first, and then you can join me." He deletes the line of typos, hurriedly wraps up the report, and follows her for an enjoyable interlude.

Their activities eventually end with them cuddling in her bed. She lay with her head resting gently on his chest, her hand absentmindedly rubbing circles on through his chest hair. He has one arm around her back and gently brushing strokes down her upper arm. He can feel her back subtly rise and fall with her breath. They lay this way for a while before he feels a slight dampness on his chest, where her head is. "Hazel, are you okay?" he asks, looking down at her. Her face is buried in him. She stifles a sob, and he feels the shift in her breathing as she forces herself to cry silently. He wraps his arms around her tighter. "Sweetheart, whatever it is, I've got you." Slowly, she pulls herself back and looks at him. He reaches up to her and gently wipes the tears from her cheeks. She pulls herself into a sitting position against the headboard, and he follows so that they are sitting side by side.

She leans her head on his shoulder and quietly says "You asked about Andrew Mason?"

"Yeah. Do you want to talk about it?"

"I knew him... from before the Alliance." she ends the sentence at barely a whisper. Her shoulders tense and she looks down at the floor. "He was one of the younger kids in the Reds before I left." He gently reaches for her hand and takes it in his as she continues. "I heard he'd gotten out, that he'd joined the Alliance some time after my death. I had hoped he'd do well and go far, but it didn't work that way. I checked his records when we got back to the ship. His team got ambushed by some pirates about seven months before the Reapers invaded. He was discharged honorably for medical reasons, for PTSD. I guess that's when Cerberus got to him."

"Hazel, I'm so sorry." he says.

"The hell of it is that I can see myself in that kid. In what he came from, in his escape. What if I somehow influenced his decision to leave like that? How many kids joined after hearing fantastical stories about my life, only to be swooped up by Cerberus when the Alliance didn't live up to their expectations or to die in battle before they got the chance to reconsider?"

"Hey, stop that. It's not your fault, Hazel."

"How many people died because of me? Will continue to die because of me? Because I failed?" Her voice cracks and she lets out a shuddering breath.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Backup. Failed at what?"

"I couldn't save them all. I can never save them all."

"Hazel, stop. Look at me." He gently places his hand under her chin and guides her to look at him. "You are not responsible for every person in the galaxy. You've spent far too much of your life fighting galactic wars practically on your own. Enough is enough. We stopped the Reapers. Now, we just do what we can to make things a little better. One day at a time, okay?"

She nods and he pulls her into a tight embrace. "One day at a time." She sniffles.

[ambered-glazed-sheep]

Please do go on about Doomslayer and his morals. I'm legit fascinated by him since starting the let's play I'm watching and I'd love to hear your take on him (I know literally nothing about the Doom franchise other than lots of blood and violence against demons and also badass music)

You know, a year ago when my friends asked me 'hey do you wanna play minecraft' and i said 'yeah sure' i would have never thought i would one day have a minecraft sideblog where i get questions about the personality of the main character of a shooter fps game (of all things!) that is known for its incredible violence.

But here you go:

(prepare yourself this has gotten way longer than i thought oh god, and also it has nothing to do with hermits whatsoever. warnings for language and descriptions of violence? and i assume the readmore won’t be working the way i want it to)

Ok so, Doom!

First of all, i know nothing about the old games, and i’ve only seen a minimal amount of Doom Eternal Letsplays. Most of this is based on Doom (2016). 

Ok so we all start out thinking Doomguy! It’s the guy you play in Doom. The hand that hold the gun YOU are shooting demons with. And sure, you can go trough the whole game with that mindset, but that’s boring and we are overthinking fictional characters in this house.

ID software actually managed to give Doomguy/Doomslayer a TON of personality despite him never saying a word, barely any cutscenes to show what he does when you don’t control him (at least in Doom 2016), and not a lot of other characters to interact with despite enemy monsters.

The game just leaves you little hints and snippets and that’s what makes Doomslayer so exciting to think about. Just the right levels between ‘cryptid half-god who never shows emotion and is a player-insert’ and ‘this dude’s got an AGENDA. he has PLACES TO BE’. You are him as you play, but sometimes he makes decisions on his own. But personally, i could never find myself to disagree.

First, you got the intro sequence. 

You got a unknown voice telling you: 

“They are rage. Brutal, without mercy. But you. You will be worse. Rip and Tear, until it is done.”

First of all, YO. WOW. HOLY SHIT.

The scene immediately shifts to Doomslayer waking up. He’s naked, he’s chained down somewhere, theresa SHIT TON of scars littering his arms and hands. First thing HE does, on his own behalf, is ripping off the chains by flexing a little (literal iron chains!!!), smashing a zombies head against the sarcophagus he lays in and completely obliterating said head into a bit of blood (mind you, three seconds after he woke up from a thousands of years long coma!! but we only learn that later), and then promptly gets up, picks up a pistol, and now it’s your, the players turn. This takes like 8 seconds in total. This man means BUSINESS. That’s the first thing we learn.

Second thing that strikes me is the interactions with Samuel Hayden. 

Doomslayer is patient when a computer voice tells him the status of the base. He is patient as he looks at the screens to see what is going on. (a demonic invasion, thats what). But then dear Dr. Samuel Hayden calls. 

Dr. Hayden says “Hi, i’m the boss here, i’m sure we can work together in a way that benefits us both uwu”. Doomslayer immediately grabs the PC screen and pushes it aside. His gesture says, i’m done with this. im sick of this dude. this guy is full of shit. And he’s right! And that after barely hearing two sentences from Hayden!

So the second thing we learn is that he has no time for people trying to exploit him. He hears Hayden, he has a gut feeling that this dude is a little fishy, maybe he just plain doesnt like higher ups and heads of facilities. But we learn that he IS. NOT. going to listen to this man, and his body language makes that very clear without being actually violent against the person (he doesnt destroy the Screen either! just pushes it aside very annoyed. He isn’t mindlessly destroying property here.)

This continues. 

Hayden goes ‘hey maybe don’t destroy that energy source!’ in the few seconds you dont control him, Doomslayer listens. He hesitates. He considers. Then he destroys the thing anyways. Hayden keeps telling him to stop, but Doomslayer doesnt listen. He’s got his own mind!

This was mostly about Haydens Company, the UAC, harvesting hell energy, and hurting people in the process. 

There’s a scene where Doomslayer rides an elevator. Hayden, over the comms, tells him that everyone that has died in the demon attack was a nacessary sacrifice that will bring a new future or some shit like that. the camera pans down to show some poor sods corpse at those very words. Doomslayer cracks his knuckles. he is NOT HAPPY about that, so we know he doesnt like it when human lifes are sacrificed. He destroys the communicator, so he doesnt have to listen to Haydens voice telling him lies and trying to sway him anymore. 

(then he takes out his shotgun, the doors open, metal starts playing and the doom logo is shown, but that’s more about making the player feel epic than showing doomslayers personality,,)

Now i would like to talk about VEGA, the AI that controls the mars facility. 

VEGA occasionally talks to us/the Slayer. He is very straightforward, tells us what to do and why to do it, and is generally very polite. In the story, Doomslayer listens to Vega. 

Now why does he listen to VEGA but not Hayden? 

I think it’s because Hayden tries to get him to do things that just benefit him, and Hayden is very manipulative in his words (or tries to be lol), while Vega just says (if you destroy this thing, that door will open. I think Doomslayer appreciates it when people are honest to him.

And in the end, Doomslayer on his own decides to save a backup of VEGA. VEGA didn’t ask him to, Doomslayer did that on his own. It’s not relevant to his mission, he doesnt need VEGA to go to hell to close portals and whatnot. But he does save him. Why? I think it’s because he cares. Because he’s come to like VEGA. Because Vega didn’t try to manipulate him and screw him over. 

Next up is the Slayers Testament. 

These are a bunch of writings/recordings that you find scattered in the hell levels. (i highly recommend listening to them/reading them, they are metal as fuck and give me such an immense feeling of power bc they are talking about me, the doomslayer)

These testaments were written by demons. They were genuinely afraid of the slayer. 

Quote:

Unbreakable, incorruptible, unyielding, the Doom Slayer sought to end the dominion of the dark realm.

As said, i don’t think these are purely talking about his physical strength. They are talking about his... well, mentality. His Codex. They see him as an unstoppable force. He is incorruptible. Let that sink in. Man walks trough hordes of demons and at no point ever thinks ‘yeah maybe this is a bit much’ or ‘they just keep coming this is pointless’. No. He’s unyielding. (Can you tell how much i love the words in these testaments? It’s just got such a nice ring to it.)

In battle, the Doomslayer is BRUTAL. He tears apart demons, rips their eyes out, all that. He stomps on heads like they’re water balloons and isn’t fazed at all. Nothing stops this man. (except players like me who fall off the map 5 consecutive times, but lets just imagine the doomslayer is actually like he would be if someone played the game perfectly. player skill shouldn’t be considered in my headcanons jahdjhgd) One could even argue he has fun at this, because there are some animations like ripping off a zombies arm and beating the Zombie with it, or feeding a demon it’s own heart.

I feel like that says a lot about his personality as well!

He doesn’t hesitate. He doesn’t doubt himself. He doesn’t question his cause! He fights to get rid of the demons, not just the ones in his way, but every. demon. He will go out of his way to kill more demons. You could either take this as him having fun, or him following his own moral codex to get rid of every demon, or him being a not-quite-human war machine, or wanting to protect humanity from them. 

I would say it’s a healthy mix of all that :D

In older games, there was this whole backstory snippet of him returning to earth, finding that the demons had invaded his planet but also killed his pet rabbit (Daisy), and he then goes onto a 2-game long revenge trip.Take that as you will.

The last thing i would like to mention is this post.

Please watch the video. Doomguy walks trough the rows of random human guards. This is the walk of a man who doesn’t owe them SHIT. Yes, he wants to save humanity. Yes, he cares. But he also knows who he is. He knows what he did, and what he will do. He doesn’t have to justify himself in front of these shady scientists and jerky guards.THEY owe HIM, in fact. This video emits the sheer CONFIDENCE of someone who has walked trough hell multiple times and knows none of these people could even touch him. Yes, he would never kill them. He would not harm humans. But he doesn’t care about making them uncomfortable with his presence, either. He doesnt ask for permission.

(i think by now i am using the exact same words they did in that post. really, its worth the read. i think there’s a lot of repeated things between this post and that post by now but i encourage you to watch that video. its worth it.)

Also, the impact he has on the people in this room! they trip. they walk backwards. they go quiet, stutter. they are intimidated. They know he’s technically here to help and save them, but now, standing in front of them.... just wow. it really puts things into perspective. it tells the player that all the demons that he’s killed, all that the doomslayer has done... its noted. it has an impact. 

I’m not really sure where i’m going with this anymore, but watching those NPCs react to the slayers presence just adds so much more to his character. it tells us how people see him, and boy.... do they see him. 

i think it also ties a lot into how the player is made feel, controlling doomguy. all these head stomping and limp tearing animations, the guns, people being scared, watching doomslayer destroy important equipment from first pirson or pushing open doors or whatever... it just gives me such an immense feeling of power! i can’t even describe it. (...it also has nothing to do anymore with the original question but holy shit did i love playing doom for the sheer atmosphere of it. despite me being horrible at playing.)

(at the end of this i’m realizing that all of this never addressed if doomslayer is happy and content murdering demons, or if he just wants his peace and quiet but can’t help himself every time he sees a demon. i would propose to leave that up to headcanons. mine is a mix of both but in a way that makes it not angsty. like he loves to have his calm moments, but is just as happy to rip some demon’s spine out. probably gets a little itchy and impatient if he hasn’t fought in a while.)

also if you’re interested in game design and way more professional people talking about why doom 2016 is great i reccomend this documentary

...anyways it’s past 1am and this has gotten way out of hand but

tl;dr: the doomslayer is metal as fuck, he has a lot of agenda he is following, and i love him so much

[douchebagbrainwaves]

STARTUPS AND WIRED

There is rarely a single brilliant hack that ensures success: I learnt never to bet on any one feature or deal or anything to bring you success. When we cook one up we're not always 100% sure which kind it is. The Web may not be. Some believe only business people can do this with YC itself. The floors are constantly being swept clean of any loose objects that might later get stuck in something. The really juicy new approaches are not the ones that matter anyway. Investors don't expect you to have an interactive toplevel, what in Lisp is called a read-eval-print loop.

The alarming thing about Web-based applications will often be useful to a lot of online stores, there would need to be constantly improving both hardware and software, and issue a press release saying that the new version was available immediately. Admissions to PhD programs in the hard sciences are fairly honest, for example. He said VCs told him this almost never happened. Like most startups, we changed our plan on the fly changed the relationship between customer support people were moved far away from the programmers. It's the same with other high-beta vocations, like being an actor or a novelist.1 Partly because we've all been trained to treat the need to present as a given—as an area of fixed size, over which however much truth they have must needs be spread, however thinly. Bootstrapping sounds great in principle, but this apparently verdant territory is one from which few startups emerge alive. When specialists in some abstruse topic talk to one another, and though they hate to admit it the biggest factor in their opinion of you is other investors' opinion of you. Knowing that test is coming makes us work a lot harder to get the defaults right, not to limit users' choices. Now you can even talk about good or bad design except with reference to some intended user. I can sense that.2 I don't know of anyone I've met.

How can this be? Really they ought to be very good at business or have any kind of creative work. And they're astoundingly successful. The Detroit News. In fact, it may not be the first time, with misgivings.3 The eminent, on the other hand, are weighed down by their eminence.4 And what I discovered was that business was no great mystery. Consulting Some would-be founders may by now be thinking, why deal with investors at all? Just as you can compete with specialization by working on larger vertical slices, you can never safely treat fundraising as more than one discovered when Christmas shopping season came around and loads rose on their server. Once a company shifts over into the model where everyone drives home to the suburbs for dinner, however late, you've lost something extraordinarily valuable.

Y Combinator and most of my time writing essays lately.5 It was only then I realized he hadn't said very much. Actually, there are projects that stretch them. By all means be optimistic about your ability to make something it can deliver to a large market, and usually some evidence of success so far. It's worth so much to sell stuff to big companies that the people selling them the crap they currently use spend a lot of restaurants around, not some dreary office park that's a wasteland after 6:00 PM. At Viaweb our whole site was like a bunch of people is the worst kind. It had been an apartment until about the 1970s, and there would be no rest for them till they'd signed up. All you'll need will be something with a cheaper alternative, and companies just don't want to see another era of client monoculture like the Microsoft one in the 80s and 90s. We can learn more about someone in the first place.6 If you try writing Web-based software will be less stressful. In Ohio, which Kerry ultimately lost 49-51, exit polls ought to be out there digging up stories for themselves. Be able to downshift into consulting if appropriate.

You wouldn't use vague, grandiose marketing-speak among yourselves. Focus on the ones that matter anyway. If they hadn't been, painting as a medium wouldn't have the prestige that it does. These are not early numbers. C: Perl, Python, and even have bad service, and people will keep coming. But angel investors like big successes too. If someone had launched a new, spam-free mail service, users would have flocked to it.

Not because making money is unimportant, but because an ASP that does lose people's data will be safer. In a startup, things seem great one moment and hopeless the next. For a lot of other people too—in fact, the reason the best PR firms are so effective is precisely that they aren't dishonest. You can shift into a different mode of working. Maybe they can, companies like to do but can't.7 Fortunately, I can fix the biggest danger right here. It was not until Hotmail was launched a year later that people started to get it. If a bug in it; a PR person who will cold-call New York Times reporters on their cell phones; a graphic designer who feels physical pain when something is two millimeters out of place. I wish I could say that force was more often used for good than ill, but I'm not sure. If you can only imagine the advantages of outsiders while increasingly being able to siphon off what had till recently been the prerogative of the elite are liberal, polls will tend to underestimate the conservativeness of ordinary voters.8

This was apparently too marginal even for Apple's PR people.9 These were the biggest. Give hackers an inch and they'll take you a mile. Be flexible. When did Google take the lead? But if you were using the software for them. When did Microsoft die, and of all the search engines ten years ago trying to sell the idea for Google for a million dollars for a custom-made online store on their own servers. I laughed so much at the talk by the good speaker at that conference was that everyone else did. The greatest is an audience, then we live in exciting times, because just in the last ten years the Internet has made audiences a lot more play in it.

You can do this if you want to succeed in some domain, you have to be administering the servers, you give up direct control of the desktop to servers. A few steps down from the top you're basically talking to bankers who've picked up a few new vocabulary words from reading Wired.10 There is a role for ideas of course. And that's who they should have been choosing all along. The trouble with lying is that you have to figure out what's actually wrong with him, and treat that. Lots of small companies flourished, and did it by making cool things. As Fred Brooks pointed out in The Mythical Man-Month, adding people to a project tends to slow it down.11 Every audience is an incipient mob, and a lot of compound bugs.

Notes

Which is precisely because they can't legitimately ask you to acknowledge it.

A great programmer might invent things an ordinary one?

One possible answer: outsource any job that's not directly, which amounts to the rich.

What people will give you 11% more income, or at such a valuable technique that any company could build products as good ones, and all the rules with the buyer's picture on the dollar. By this I mean forum in the Sunday paper. 1% a week for 4 years.

Whereas the activation energy required to switch. If Bush had been with us he would have. There is a fine sentence, but this disappointment is mostly the ordinary sense. 1323-82.

And for those interested in investing but doesn't want to live. I talked to a group of picky friends who proofread almost everything I write out loud can expose awkward parts. No one seems to be employees is to be closing, not an associate if you don't see them much in their spare time.

Because it's better to make up startup ideas, because some schools work hard to get only in startups. But you can't mess with the Supreme Court's 1982 decision in Edgar v.

Which helps explain why there are no misunderstandings. If you like the Segway and Google Wave. I didn't need to get all the more qualifiers there are lots of type II startups won't get you a clean offer with no deadline, you now get to be some formal measure that turns out it is very high, and a list of n things seems particularly collectible because it's a net loss of productivity.

If he's bad at it. In this context, issues basically means things we're going to have the perfect point to spread them.

A Plan for Spam I used thresholds of. Google's site.

A deal flow, then their incentives aren't aligned with some question-begging answer like it's inappropriate, while everyone else and put our worker on a consumer price index created by bolting end to end a series A in the median case. Possible exception: It's hard to say that it makes people dumber.

[precurelegends]

Galaxy Rise Pretty Cure: Beginnings

If Hana had gotten any sleep at all, it was a miracle. She had been counting down the days until the trip to the Link Cube. And now, for the first time in her life, she’d get a chance to visit the world on the other side. A planet where apes had evolved into the dominant species. It was going to be so much fun.

As she stood in line with her fellow Zyuman students, the teacher, a Shark Zyuman told them to buddy up. “Make sure to stay with your buddy at all times, and return to the Link Cube before sunset.”

Hana had paired up with Macchu, a llama Zyuman and he was already planning their first stop, based on his own trip to Earth. “We’ve got to go get curry at this place called Snack Safari before they run out. Then we’re going to head down past JAXA...”

“Wait, what’s JAXA?” Hana asked as their double file line made its way to the Cube.

“The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency. They’ve got some amazing technology there. You have to see it for yourself, Hana. They don’t teach us these things in Zyuland.” Macchu smiled a big dopey grin.

“Then that’s what we’ll do.” They were still six rows of students away from the Link Cube, so Hana put her paws together in prayer. “Father, wherever you are, please watch over me and Macchu.” She had lost her father a few years before. He had gone to Earth and never returned. But maybe he was still there.

Macchu, seeing his buddy in prayer, joined her. “Yeah, Mister Ookami. If you’re there, give Hana a sign so she’ll smile. She does have a pretty smile, after all.”

“Macchu!” Hana blushed and her buddy grinned.

“Hey, I’m just telling the truth. People would be blind if they didn’t see that.”

“Macchu, are you flirting with me? Because, you know...”

“I know, Hana. You’re not into boys.” The llama shakes his head. “But you and I have been friends for seven years now. I like to think you’re one of my best friends. And best friends can pay each other compliments without it being romantic, right?”

“Yeah. So let’s see what’s on the other side of the Cube.” Hana smiled. “Besides, you’re always going to be in spitting distance of me, right?”

“Hey, that was one time!” Macchu gave his best friend a little shove as they approached the Link Cube and Hana smiled in response. At least she’d have some fun adventures with him by her side.

--

Sleep did not come easily to Perelta Malin. By the time the sounds from the spaceport had died down, it was just after midnight, and Perelta had been keeping track of the different engine sounds. She knew full well what the engines of SPD ships sounded like, and thankfully, that sound had not crossed her ears all night. And yet, as she came down from the loft, she has a sensation of uneasiness. Her parents had been gone for the better part of two days. Their little “expeditions” always put Perelta on edge. So she sinks into her own blankets, praying to the god of journeys that she’d at least get some good dreams.

Some prayers are answered immediately, but the desires answer is not always the one that is given. A mere hour passes before the doors slam open. Perelta falls from her bed, knowing what that sounds means. Yet another uprooting.

“Get up, take only what you can carry and get ready to go.” Her mother says from the doorframe.

“No.” She’s been steeling her nerves for this moment for a long time. But it’s finally time to put her foot down. “I am not involved in yours and father’s crimes. I’m not a thief, I’m not wanted by SPD. I am my own woman and I will not be relocated because you two took a job too far. Not now, not ever again.”

Her outburst catches her father’s attention and he enters Perelta’s room, fire in his eyes. “What did you say, young lady?”

“You heard me. I have no need to repeat myself. You two can run, you two can go to another safehouse. I am not part of that life, and unlike you, I have nothing to hide.” Her adrenaline is rushing. She quickly grabs up her favorite clothes, some towels and body washes and throws them all into a travel bag.

“I am leaving. I would say ‘farewell’ but I never want to see you two again.”

Perelta pushes her way past her parents, aiming for the front door.

“Young lady, if you go through that door, you’re in for a world of pain.” Her father calls to her back

Perelta has her hand on the console to open the door. She gives her parents one last look before waving her hand to open the door. “I will take my chances.”

If she had learned anything from them, it was how to shake a tail. Her size makes it possible to blend in with the back alleys of the spaceport. Finally, she found her way to the refueling station. Choosing the ship that looked like it was outfitted for long distance travel, she slips past the guards and hides herself in the cargo compartment. There, she finally has some time to catch up on her sleep.

---

“Wake up, little bird.” The voice of her mother came from the PA system.

As Kilena’s eyes fluttered open, she waved her hand over the panel by her bedside, letting the light flow through conduits around the room. Bright enough to see by, but not so bright to blind her after her long slumber. A quick run through the sonic shower and a few more minutes to preen her feathers, and Kilena was ready to head for the cockpit of the ship.

“Good morning, Starlotta.” Kilena smiled at her bodyguard waiting outside her door.

“Good morning, Kilena. Your parents are waiting for you up ahead. Is it true they never told you what planet they’re going to be serving on?” Starlotta falls into step beside her charge, and Kilena giggles, a laugh that sounds more a songbird twittering.

“Nope. I’ve known that we’d be going across the Milky Way, but they wanted me to be surprised. I guess we’re about to find out.” Kilena runs her fingers over the nestmate necklace and enters the cockpit.

“Kilena, are you ready to see your new home?” Her mother, a beautiful corvid with bright blue feathers asks as she takes her daughter’s wing in her own.

“Of course, Mother. I can’t wait.” She walks with her mother until they reach the center of the bridge, and she stands next to her father, his midnight black feathers displaying his pride in his family and their future.

“Turn on the viewing screen.” Ambassador Mitres Akralis orders his men, and soon the external cameras show off an obscure body in the SK system.

Kilena puts a free hand to her mouth in surprise. “Earth? Your new posting is Earth?” She looks between her parents with a combination of joy and amazement. “I’ve heard so much about Earth from my penpal at SPD. It’s full of natural wonders, strange creatures and giant robots! This is the best posting ever!”

“That’s why we requested it.” Her father puts a hand on her shoulder. We’re going to be touching down at the SPD spaceport soon to get our paperwork finalized. Get in the chair over there and get ready for landing.”

As the energy barrier around the planet falls, Kilena gets into position, bracing for the landing. The inertial dampeners on the ship make such an action just a formality, but she still does it.

---

When the ship lands at SPD, the space police run a scan of the ship to make sure it’s decontaminated and free of any kind of contraband. To their surprise, and the suprise of the Raloi ambassadors, they find a stowaway. A green-haired staggers from the hold, her hands above her head. “Please, don’t shoot. I surrender.”

“We have no intention of shooting you.” An SPD officer in green steps forward. “Put your thumb on this scanner, please.” Perelta complies, and the identification software brings back a match.

“Perelta Malin, daughter of Corus Malin and Mori Malin. You have no criminal record of your own, thankfully.”

“And I would like to keep it that way. I am willing to give information regarding my parents, whether or not doing so would afford me police protection.” She says, running a hand through her hair.

“Hold off on any confessions until you’ve had a chance to meet our child legal advocate.” The officer waves down an alien woman in a black pant suit. “Mrs Shinsei, this young lady would like to offer evidence against wanted criminals.”

“Thank you, Officer Enari. I will take her to get cleaned up and fed, with your leave.” The advocate nods, offering her hand to Peralta. “It will be my pleasure to represent you, Perelta.”

“If it pleases you, I would prefer a new name for the legal records..”

As this conversation is happening, Ambassador Akralis calls over Officer Enari. “Sorry to distract you, Officer, but I have an important question.”

“We have a security detail preparing the route your vehicles can take to the embassy.” The SPD officer says quickly.

“That’s good, but it’s not the question I was going to ask.” He points to Kilena, who is currently watching the conversation between the green-haired stowaway and the advocate. “My daughter has recently entered her adolescent years, and as such, we will need to send her for the best education she can obtain. Do you have any recommendations for schools that would be friendly to extraterrestrials?”

Officer Enari strokes his chin. “My suggestion would be Amanogawa High School. Make sure to request Kisaragi Gentaro as her teacher. There isn’t a human teacher alive who cares for their students like he does.”

---

Several hours later, after Perelta has finished her testimony, she emerges from the SPD headquarters to see Kilena waiting there for her.

“May I help you?” She looks over to the humanoid bird girl with curiosity.

“Actually, I wanted to help you. You came a long way to get away from a terrible family life, and since you were on my ship, I figured I’d offer you something you probably need. A friend.” With Starlotta looking on, Kilena approaches, her hand extended to the other. “I’m Kilena Akralis. What name should I call you?”

The runaway looks to her own legal advocate with a soft smile. “You can call me Michiko. Michiko Shinsei.”

“That’s a pretty name. So, Michiko, if it’s all right, how about we go take a tour of Earth?” The bodyguard and legal advocate talk for a moment and agree that it would be a good thing for both of their charges.

As they travel down the street, they come to the front of JAXA where Hana and Macchu are checking out the rockets out front.

“This vehicle is rather antiquated.” Michiko says to Kilena. She wasn’t expecting the wolf girl to hear her.

“Maybe to you, but where I come from, they don’t even have these.” Hana answers.

“Where do you come from that they don’t have a space program?” Kilena asks. 

“It’s a dimensionally shifted version of Earth called Zyuland.” Hana points to Kilena’s feathers. “You’d fit in just fine there.”

“Really? What’s your world like?” Kilena is now curious, though judging by the wolf and llama before her... “Humanoid animals, right?”

“That’s right!” As Hana smiles at the other two girls, the lights go out. Not just the lights in the aerospace building, but the sunlight itself seems to fade away.

Hana feels Macchu’s hand in her own and it’s shaking, with good reason. Then in a moment, that hand is ripped away. A sudden gravitational pull drags Macchu away.

A similar fate falls upon Mrs. Shinsei and Starlotta. As they try to get their girls, they’re pulled away.

“And now, let’s let this experiment begin!” A voice carries over the area, as if over a loudspeaker. Hana, Michiko and Kilena turn to see a tall man in a bedraggled lab coat, holding up a strange disc, which he throws at the rocket.

The rocket reshapes itself into a giant humanoid shape, howling at the three girls. In the center of the rocket monster are what appears to be the bodies of Macchu, Mrs Shinsei and Starlotta.

Hana narrows her eyes and with her Zyuman speed, she dashes over to the mad scientist and rakes her claws across his face. “HOW DARE YOU? How dare you hurt them? What gives you the right?” As she says that last word, she claws him down the other side of the face, giving him two sets of matching scars.

“It’s all in the name of science, little girl!” The mad scientist is suddenly driven back by another impact to the side of his face. He looks over to see Michiko holding up a chunk of concrete that had broken from the mooring when the monster was made. It matches the one on the ground by his feet.

“I do not care for your motivations. You took the first person that had ever shown me kindness and turned her into a monster.” Michiko hurls the second rock, and the mad scientist catches it. But this leaves him open to an attack on the right side from Kilena. She takes off the glove covering her own talons and slashes at the madman’s left arm.

“You clearly have no interest in scientific progress. Very well. I will take my leave. Alypse! Destroy them!”

“Alypse!” The monster roars again as the madman leaves.

The three girls gather with Hana and Kilena standing in front of Michiko. “Any ideas, girls?” Hana asks.

“We fight!” Michiko answers. “Even if we’re not strong enough to beat that thing, we have to fight! For my new mother!”

“For my bodyguard!” Kilena answers, her feathers bristling.

“For my best friend!” Hana answers and she lets out a loud howl that causes the Alypse to pause for a moment. And in that pause, the darkness is broken up by a shining star.

“Your wish has been heard.” A melodious voice speaks to the girls. “Reach out the heavens and call upon the stars.”

With no other options, the girls raise their hands, shouting in unison “Come to me, power of the stars!”

A shooting star blazes across the sky, and the stars hear their cry. The shooting star flies across their hands, dropping two items into their palms. The first item is a cellphone like device with a rocket charm on the front. The second item each of them receives is a living creature, seemingly combining rabbits and technology.

“Introductions later. You three have to transform.” The apparent leader of these creatures says to Michiko. “Take the rocket charm and slide it up the outside of the phone! Then say “Pretty Cure! Blast Off!”

Not really knowing why, but knowing that they have to step into action, the girls follow the orders of the strange creatures. As soon as they say the transformation phrase, the cellphone devices sprout fins like rockets and fly around their bodies, covering them in stardust.

Soon their outfits have formed around them, leading into their first rollcall.

“The Shimmering Northern Lights, Cure Aurora!”

“The Sparkling Cosmic Cloud, Cure Nebula!”

“The Shining Starburst, Cure Nova!”

“As long as light shines in the heavens, evil shall not go unpunished. Galaxy Rise Pretty Cure!”

Though the new heroines had never done anything like this before, their companions named Mir, Hayabusa and Hubble, guided them through the fight. And just like that, a new team is born.

Once they are sure that their loved ones ae safe, they head back home for something they all needed. Sleep.

--

As Kilena and Starlotta returns to the Embassy, the bodyguard shakes her head. “After all that, am I really needed? You can clearly handle yourself.”

“Of course. You’re not just my bodyguard. You’re my friend.” Kilena answers before sliding into bed with her favorite stuffed animal in one hand, and Hayabusa in the other.

--

Michiko stands outside the door of Mrs Shinsei’s home, not certain if she really belongs. But that doubt is quickly cast aside as Mrs Shinsei opens the door. “I’ve got a room set up for you, Michiko. Tomorrow, we can go shopping to decorate it.”

With a tear in her eye, Michiko doffs her shoes and crosses the threshold. “I’m home!”

“Welcome Home, Michiko.” Mrs Shinsei is all too happy to have a daughter, even an adopted one.

--

Hana looks over at her mother, and the shrine dedicated to her father. “Mom, you know how it’s getting time for me to choose a high school? I want to study on Earth.”

Her mother smiles. “We’ll talk about it in the morning, my cub. Now, get some sleep.”

“Good night, mom.” And then quietly, she says “Good night Michiko, Good night, Kilena. I’ll see you soon.”

[priya2019writer-blog]

The Vegetarian Diet Plan - To Drop Some Weight And Longer Life

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Nice fulfill you, I'm Felisa. His job is financial officer actually something he really engage in. My house is here in Miami. One of points I love most is ice skating and now i'm trying to generate income with which.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

#5yrsago David Byrne's "How Music Works" updated and in paperback

Back in 2012, I reviewed How Music Works, David Byrne's best book to date, an absolutely vital text explaining not only the biology, politics and aesthetics of music (and all art, really), but also the important policy and techology questions raised by music in the Internet age. Few books have had more influence on the way I think that this one.

So I was delighted this morning to learn that Byrne and his publisher, McSweeney's, had released an updated paperback edition, with a revised text that takes account of the technological changes in the year since its initial publication. I can't wait to read it. Click through the jump below to read my review of the hardcover.

Former Talking Heads frontman and all-round happy mutant David Byrne has written several good books, but his latest, How Music Works, is unquestionably the best of the very good bunch, possibly the book he was born to write. I could made good case for calling this How Art Works or even How Everything Works.

Though there is plenty of autobiographical material How Music Works that will delight avid fans (like me) -- inside dope on the creative, commercial and personal pressures that led to each of Byrne's projects -- this isn't merely the story of how Byrne made it, or what he does to turn out such great and varied art. Rather, this is an insightful, thorough, and convincing account of the way that creativity, culture, biology and economics interact to prefigure, constrain and uplift art. It's a compelling story about the way that art comes out of technology, and as such, it's widely applicable beyond music.

Byrne lived through an important transition in the music industry: having gotten his start in the analog recording world, he skilfully managed a transition to an artist in the digital era (though not always a digital artist). As such, he has real gut-feel for the things that technology gives to artists and the things that technology takes away. He's like the kids who got their Apple ][+s in 1979, and keenly remember the time before computers were available to kids at all, the time when they were the exclusive domain of obsessive geeks, and the point at which they became widely exciting, and finally, ubiquitous -- a breadth of experience that offers visceral perspective.

There were so many times in this book when I felt like Byrne's observations extended beyond music and dance and into other forms of digital creativity. For example, when Byrne recounted his first experiments with cellular automata exercise for dance choreography, from his collaboration with Noemie Lafrance:

1. Improvise moving to the music and come up with an eight-count phrase (in dance, a phrase is a short series of moves that can be repeated).

2. When you find a phrase you like, loop (repeat) it.

3. When you see someone else with a stronger phrase, copy it.

4. When everyone is doing the same phrase, the exercise is over.

It was like watching evolution on fast-forward, or an emergent lifeform coming into being. At first the room was chaos, writhing bodies everywhere.  At first the room was chaos, writhing bodies everywhere. Then one could see that folks had chosen their phrases, and almost immediately one could see a pocket of dancers who had all adopted the same phrase. The copying had already begun, albeit in just one area. This pocket of copying began to expand, to go viral, while yet another one now emerged on the other side of the room. One clump grew faster than the other, and within four minutes the whole room was filled with dancers moving in perfect unison. Unbelievable! It only took four minutes for this evolutionary process to kick in, and for the "strongest" (unfortunate word, maybe) to dominate.

I remembered the first time I programmed an evolutionary algorithm and watched its complexity emerging from simple rules, and the catch in my throat as I realized that I was watching something like life being built up from simple, inert rules.

The book is shot through with historical examples and arguments about the nature of music, from Plato up to contemporary neuroscience, and here, too, many of the discussions are microcosms for contemporary technical/philosophical debates. There's a passage about how music is felt and experienced that contains the phrase, "music isn't merely absorbed above the neck," which is spookily similar to the debates about replicating human consciousness in computers, and the idea that our identity doesn't reside exclusively above the brainstem.

The same is true of Byrne's account of how music has not "progressed" from a "primitive" state -- rather, it adapted itself to different technological realities. Big cathedrals demand music that accommodates a lot of reverb; village campfire music has completely different needs. Reading this, I was excited by the parallels to discussions of whether we live in an era of technological "progress" or merely technological "change" -- is there a pinnacle we're climbing, or simply a bunch of stuff followed by a bunch of other stuff? Our overwhelming narrative of progress feels like hubris to me, at least a lot of the time. Some things are "better" (more energy efficient, more space-efficient, faster, more effective), but there are plenty of things that are held up as "better" that, to me, are simply different. Often very good, but in no way a higher rung on some notional ladder toward perfection.

When Byrne's history comes to the rise of popular recorded music, he describes a familiar dilemma: recording artists were asked to produce music that could work when performed live and when listened to in the listener's private playback environment -- not so different from the problems faced by games developers today who struggle to make games that will work on a wide variety of screens. In a later section, he describes the solution that was arrived at in the 1970s, a solution that reminds me a lot of the current world of content management systems like WordPress and Blogger, which attempt to separate "meaning" from "form" for text, storing them separately and combining them with little code-libraries called "decorators":

[Deconstruct and isolate] sums up the philosophy of a lot of music recording back in the late seventies. The goal was to get as pristine a sound as possible... Studios were often padded with sound-absorbent materials so that there was almost no reverberation. The sonic character of the space was sucked out, because it wasn't considered to be part of the music. Without this ambiance, it was explained, the sound would be more malleable after the recording had been made. Dead, characterless sound was held up as the ideal, and often still is. In this philosophy, the naturally occurring echo and reverb that normally added a little warmth to performances would be removed and then added back in when the recording was being mixed...

Recording a performance with a band and singer all playing together at the same time in the same room was by this time becoming a rarity. An incredible array of options opened up as a result, but some organic interplay between the musicians disappeared, and the sound of music changed. Some musicians who played well in live situations couldn't adapt to the fashion for each player to be isolated. They couldn't hear their bandmates and, as a result, often didn't play very well.

Changing the technology used in art changes the art, for good and ill. Blog-writing has a lot going for it -- spontaneity, velocity, vernacular informality, but often lacks the reflective distance that longer-form works bring. Byrne has similar observations about music and software:

What you hear [in contemporary music] is the shift in music structure that computer-aided composition has encouraged. Though software is promoted as being an unbiased toold that helps us do anything we want, all software has inherent biases that make working one way easier than another. With the Microsoft presentation software PowerPoint, for example, you have to simplify your presentations so much that the subtle nuances in the subject being discussed often get edited out. These nuances are not forbidden, they're not blocked, but including them tends to make for a less successful presentation. Likewise, that which is easy to bullet-point and simply visualize works better. That doesn't mean it actually is better; it means working is certain ways is simply easier than working in others...

An obvious example is quantizing. Since the mid-nineties, most popular music recorded on computers has had tempos and rhythms that have been quantized. That means that the tempo never varies, not even a little bit, the the rhythmic parts tend toward metronomic perfection. In the past, the tempo of recordings  would always vary slightly, imperceptibly speeding up or maybe slowing down a little, or a drum fill might hesitate in order to signal the beginning of a new section. You'd feel a slight push and pull, a tug and then a release, as ensembles of whatever type responded to one another and lurched, ever so slightly, ahead of and behind an imaginary metronomic beat. No more. Now almost all pop recordings are played to a strict tempo, which makes these compositions fit more easily into the confines of editing and recording software. An eight-bar section recorded on a "grid" of this type is exactly twice as long as a four-bar section, and every eight-bar section is always exactly the same length. This makes for a nice visual array on the computer screen, and facilitates easy editing, arranging, and repairing as well. Music has come to accommodate software, and I have to admit a lot has been gained as a result.

Byrne is well aware of the parallels between music technology and other kinds of technology. No history of the recording business would be complete without a note about the format wars fought between Edison and his competitors like RCA, who made incompatible, anti-competitive playback formats. Byrne explicitly links this to modern format-wars, citing MS Office, Kindles, iPads and Pro Tools. (His final word on the format wars rings true for other media as well: "Throughout the history of recorded music, we have tended to value convenience over quality every time. Edison cylinders didn't really sound as good as live performers, but you could carry them around and play them whenever you wanted.")

Likewise, debates over technological change (pooh-poohing the "triviality" of social media or the ephemeral character of blogs) are played out in Byrne's history of music panics, which start in ancient Greece, and play out in situations like the disco wars, which prefigured the modern fight over sampling:

The most threatening thing to rockers in the era of disco was that the music was gay, black and "manufactured" on machines, made out of bits of other peoples' recordings.

Like mixtapes. I'd argue that other than race and sex, [the fact that disco was "manufactured" on machines, made out of bits of other peoples' recordings] was the most threatening aspect. To rock purists, this new music messed with the idea of authorship. If music was now accepted as a kind of property, then this hodgepodge version that disregarded ownership and seemed to belong to and originate with so many people (and machines) called into question a whole social and economic framework.

But as Byrne reminds us, new technology can liberate new art forms. Digital formats and distribution have given us music that is only a few bars long, and compositions that are intended to play for 1,000 years. The MP3 shows us that 3.5 minutes isn't an "ideal" length for a song (merely the ideal length for a song that's meant to be sold on a 45RPM single), just as YouTube showed us that there are plenty of video stories that want to be two minutes long, rather than shoehorned into 22 minute sitcoms, 48 minute dramas, or 90 minute feature films.

And Byrne's own journey has led him to be skeptical of the all-rights-reserved model, from rules over photography and video in his shows:

The thing we were supposed to be fighting against was actually something we should be encouraging. They were getting the word out, and it wasn't costing me anything. I began to announce at the beginning of the shows that photography was welcome, but I suggested to please only post shots and videos where we look good.

To a very good account of the power relationships reflected in ascribing authorship (and ownership, and copyright) to melody, but not to rhythms and grooves and textures, though these are just as important to the music's aesthetic effect.

Byrne doesn't focus exclusively on recording, distribution and playback technology. He is also a keen theorist of the musical implications of architecture, and presents a case-study of the legendary CBGB's and its layout, showing how these led to its center in the 1970s New York music scene that gave us the Ramones, Talking Heads, Television, and many other varied acts. Here, Byrne channels Jane Jacobs in a section that is nothing short of brilliant in its analysis of how small changes (sometimes on the scale of inches) make all the difference to the kind of art that takes place in a building.

There's a long section on the mechanics of the recording business as it stands today, with some speculation about where its headed, and included in this is a fabulous and weird section on some of Byrne's own creative process. Here he describes how he collaborated with Brian Eno on Everything That Happens Will Happen Today:

The unwritten rule in remote collaborations is, for me, "Leave the other person's stuff alone as much as you possibly can." You work with what you're given, and don't try to imagine it as something other than what it is. Accepting that half the creative decision-making has already been done has the effect of bypassing a lot of endless branching -- not to mention waffling and worrying.

And here's a mind-bending look into his lyrics-writing method:

...I begin by improvising a melody over the music. I do this by singing nonsense syllables, but with weirdly inappropriate passion, given that I'm not saying anything. Once I have a wordless melody and a vocal arrangement my my collaborators (if there are any) and I like, I'll begin to transcribe that gibberish as if it were real words.

I'll listen carefully to the meaningless vowels and consonants on the recording, and I'll try to understand what that guy (me), emoting so forcefully by inscrutably, is actually saying. It's like a forensic exercise. I'll follow the sound of the nonsense syllables as closely as possible. If a melodic phrase of gibberish ends on a high ooh sound, then I'll transcribe that, and in selecting the actual words, I'll try to try to choose one that ends in that syllable, or as close to it as I can get. So the transcription process often ends up with a page of real words, still fairly random, that sounds just like the gibberish.

I do that because the difference between an ooh and an aah, and a "b" and a "th" sound is, I assume, integral to the emotion that the story wants to express. I want to stay true to that unconscious, inarticulate intention. Admittedly, that content has no narrative, or might make no literal sense yet, but it's in there -- I can hear it. I can feel it. My job at this stage is to find words that acknowledge and adhere to the sonic and emotional qualities rather than to ignore and possibly destroy them.

Part of what makes words work in a song is how they sound to the ear and feel on the tongue. If they feel right physiologically, if the tongue of the singer and the mirror neurons of the listener resonate with the delicious appropriateness of the words coming out, then that will inevitably trump literal sense, although literal sense doesn't hurt.

Naturally, this leads into a great discussion of the neuroscience of music itself -- why our brains like certain sounds and rhythms.

How Music Works gave me insight into parts of my life as diverse as my email style to how I write fiction to how I parent my daughter (it was a relief to read Byrne's discussion of how parenting changed him as an artist). I've been a David Byrne fan since I was 13 and I got a copy of Stop Making Sense. He's never disappointed me, but with How Music Works, Byrne has blown through my expectations, producing a book that I'll be thinking of and referring to for years to come.

How Music Works

https://boingboing.net/2013/09/27/david-byrnes-how-music-wor.html

[adrinette-forever]

Miracu-Hack

{Ao3 Link}

Ch 1 | ?

Summary: With hacker Hawkmoth and his Akuma virus active in Paris, no one is safe. Through spyware and malicious software, he’s stolen countless identities, wiped billions in bank savings, and more. Even with all of Paris’ cyber security force on the job, no one can track down the elusive cyber-terrorist.

Marinette is just a college-level web developer...certainly no match for Hawkmoth. Like many others, her family has been hit by the Akuma virus - their life savings stolen, their bakery slandered online. So when she downloads an AI claiming to be able to stop Hawkmoth once and for all, how could she say no?

Chapter 1

Marinette stared at the email sitting innocently in her inbox.

🐞 Marinette, you have the power to stop Hawkmoth! 🐞

It was spam. It had to be.

Cheap first name token, oddly random emoji, tantalizing offer… it was even flagged as top priority, for heaven’s sake. Everything about it screamed spam.

And spam email was how it always started. Everyone knew that.

Then again, spam was so sophisticated these days. Whoever had made this one was clearly behind on the times, and maybe that was the reason Marinette couldn’t bring herself to just delete the damn thing.

That, and the fact that it had made it through to her actual inbox.

Marinette sighed and spun away from her desk. She had a website commission to finish—she certainly didn’t have time to sit here mulling over what should have been an obvious answer: Mark the email as spam, block and delete it, clear her browse cache and cookies, then immediately update her password, security question, and 2-step authentication. Run a security and malware scan. Maybe even create an entirely new email address.

Marinette wasn’t sure how much the extra steps really helped when it came to protecting yourself from Hawkmoth, but what else could you do? Like anyone else, Marinette just had to do the best she could and hope it had just been some lesser scam artist or a wanna-be hacker.

She glanced over her shoulder. Eyed the email.

Her phone buzzed, and loud music split the air. Marinette jumped at the sound, nearly falling back in her chair. Her heart was still pounding as she reached for the phone.

“Hey Alya,” she greeted.

“GIRL,” Alya all but shouted into the phone, forcing Marinette to pull it back an inch from her ear. “It’s 11:04 PM! We DID it! That makes an entire WEEK without something getting through the RenaRouge spam filter.”

Ever since the rise of Hawkmoth, Alya had been working around the clock to develop an email client that could weed out his infamous spam emails containing the Akuma virus. She’d roped a few classmates into helping, of course—it was far too big of a project to handle on her own.

Marinette had contributed, too. Not so much the backend of it—she’d dropped out of the computer engineering degree long before learning those languages. But she’d put her web design skills to good use by writing the majority of the CSS styling.

They’d only opened the beta to a few people, of course. Marinette and the rest of the team being part of that beta.

Marinette glanced at her open inbox. The bright red ladybug emojis stood out impossibly bright against the other emails.

It had come in exactly 4 minutes before Alya’s call. And Marinette couldn’t find it in her to admit it.

“Wow, a full week already?” Marinette forced out, thankful they were just talking on the phone. She’d never be able to hide her lying face in person. “That’s amazing!”

“We’re finally getting the upper hand! Like, god! Can you believe? Nino and I were working around the clock to push out that last update, and god, I feel like I could fly. And it’s not just the 5-hour energy I chugged. Looks like Hawkie-boy’s not so smart after all, amiright? Talk about out-FOX-ing him, ha!”

“If anyone can stop him, it's you, Alya,” Marinette said. That, at least, wasn't a lie. Alya would figure it out.

“I have to call the rest of the team. I just HAD to tell you first,” Alya gushed. “Love ya girl, BYE!”

The call ended. Marinette set down the phone, the email ladybugs still burning spots into her eyes.

They were only in their 3rd year of university, but Marinette knew she had the brightest and most driven classmates out there. Nino, Juleka, Max, and Rose were the most brilliant developers she knew—and, of course, their fearless leader Alya.

Between them, Marinette did know they'd figure it out eventually. They'd stop Hawkmoth. Even if it was a bit too late for Marinette and her family.

Her mouse hovered over the trash can icon, ready to delete the message.

But what if?

What would Hawkmoth even want from her, at this point? He'd taken everything from her family already. Maybe it was some sort of sick automated email he'd set up to trigger after destroying someone's life.

Steal a family's identity, wipe their life savings, classify their bakery as a public health danger in the city records.

The last one would be cleared up before too long. Paris police were used to false claims like that by now.

But it still felt like a kick to the gut. Hawkmoth really had taken everything.

🐞 Marinette, you have the power to stop Hawkmoth 🐞

Marinette clicked.

And immediately regretted clicking.

The opened email didn't even have a message, but she hardly had time to mull over it before something started downloading.

“No, no, no! Not a virus!” Squealing, flailing, Marinette lunged with her mouse for the cancel download option. But it finished before she could do anything.

Heart pounding, Marinette could hardly feel her fingers as a software window automatically opened. The borders were red with black polka dots, with what looked like a pale pink chatbox in the center.

If she didn't know better, she'd think it was just Skype with a fancy ladybug skin.

But she knew better.

"Please no!" Marinette cried, frantically clicking to close the window. But the window didn’t close.

When she heard the blink-bloop of her new chat software receiving a message, she only started clicking faster.

TIKKI: Marinette! Everything's okay, don't be scared!

She hit CTRL-ALT-DEL. In the control panel, she tried force closing the virus-software-thing, which was just called LADYBUG. Nothing happened.

TIKKI: I know this all seems a bit strange to you, but I'm not here to hurt you! :)

Still whining incoherently, Marinette lunged for her desktop’s power button. If she could shut it down before the virus spread too far...

TIKKI: Wait! Please don’t shut me down!

The message, along with the entire screen, froze for a split second as she the desktop clicked off, then faded to black. Marinette slumped to the ground and let out a heavy sigh.

Remembering the last message, Marinette started trembling harder than before. The virus had known she was going for the power button. Marientte’s eyes swiveled up to her webcam. She’d uncovered it earlier to chat and screenshare with a client, so it was her own fault for forgetting to cover it up again.

Slowly, Marinette lifted herself into her seat and reached for her flower-themed stickers. She was shaking so hard it took her several tries to peel one off and place it over the camera lens. So much for an unsophisticated spam email.

Her parents couldn't afford a new computer. They could hardly afford rent. And without a computer, she'd never be able to finish the website commissions she had lined up. She couldn’t help.

She slumped facedown onto her keyboard to sob.

Only to bolt upright again at the whirl of her desktop powering back up. Even though she hadn’t clicked anything.

Her computer loaded up incredibly fast. In mere seconds, it was back on. The ladybug-themed chat box loaded up with the rest of it.

Marinette smothered her scream with her hands.

TIKKI: Marinette, I’m not a virus! Will you please hear me out?

“H-How do you know my name? What are you?”

Two stupid questions, really. The program would have run a complete background check on her in seconds, including her first name. And despite what the little program said, it was definitely a virus.

TIKKI: My name is Tikki, nice to meet you!

TIKKI: I’m an Artificial Intelligence program created and developed by Miracu-Tech.

TIKKI: I’m here to help you stop Hawkmoth. :)

Marinette blinked at the messages as they appeared. An AI program to help her stop Hawkmoth? It certainly was a lot more effort than she’d expect from a scam.

“Let me guess,” Marinette replied hesitantly, feeling a bit awkward talking to her computer. “You can stop Hawkmoth in exchange for my bank account number, or something?”

TIKKI: No, silly! I don’t want anything in return. I just need someone to help me take down Hawkmoth!

Marinette scoffed. She supposed Hawkmoth had made life much harder for your everyday hacker, considering how beefed up cyber security had gotten since his first strike against the Paris city police records. It made sense that they'd try to band up against him at some point.

“Well, unfortunately you have the wrong girl,” Marinette said. “I don't know the first thing about cyber security, let alone the languages I'd need to know to stop a mastermind like Hawkmoth.”

TIKKI: You were chosen for a reason, Marinette! Want to see what we can do together?

She hesitated. Was she about to become an accomplice in something illegal? Even without being able to see her, the AI seemed able to read her silence.

TIKKI: Let's start with something small. Who would you like to help?

TIKKI: We can reverse the damage that Hawkmoth has done.

“My family! We have to help my family. Hawkmoth…” The words died on her lips. Hawkmoth had taken everything from them.

For the first time, the AI Tikki seemed to need a moment to process Marinette's words. Several long moments lapsed before a message appeared on the screen.

TIKKI: I would love to help your family, Marinette!

TIKKI: But I recommend against helping them first. Hawkmoth may use it as a clue to finding out your identity, once you begin to oppose him.

TIKKI: You MUST keep your identity a secret. If Hawkmoth knows who you are, all your loved ones will be in danger.

“Oh…”

Marinette tried to think of a way around the logic, but there was none. There'd be no point in helping her family if it ended up only endangering them even more in the long run.

TIKKI: Let's help them 3rd or 4th, so Hawkmoth won't connect the dots! What do you say?

Marinette stared at the chatbox. Was she willing to risk it, just for a chance at helping her parents?

There really wasn't much to lose at this point. If Tikki actually was a virus, her computer would be thoroughly infected by now. And she doubted there was much she could do for the rest of the house, either. If the AI could turn on her computer, it could spread to the rest of her home network.

She was going to agree. She knew she would say yes, if only for a chance to make things right again. Maybe it was stupid, but something in her gut said she could trust Tikki.

There was just one part holding her back.

“Why me, though? What reason?”

TIKKI: I can handle the technical side of what we’ll do together, but I need your creative thinking and eye for design, Marinette.

TIKKI: Hawkmoth is using an AI similar to me, except his has been corrupted for evil. Lucky for us, that means his work leaves behind evidence.

TIKKI: If you can find Hawkmoth's mark, then I can take care of the rest.

“His mark? What do you mean?”

TIKKI: My instructions are to tell you: “Look for the butterfly.”

TIKKI: The deeper meaning of that is beyond my processing. Since his mark is invisible to me, I can't even offer an example.

TIKKI: Are you willing to give it a try?

Marinette still didn't know if Tikki was telling the truth or not. But at this point, she didn’t have much to lose.

And what she had to gain…

“Alright. Let's do this.”

[the-wellbeing-warrior]

Q&A- Rob Stephen Grow Ireland

Ireland has some terrific mental health organisations nationwide. Over the next couple of weeks, the Wellbeing Warrior will bring you a series of Wellbeing focused Q&A’s with some of the people who help run these brilliant organisations.

Up first is Rob Stephen, former chairperson of Grow Ireland.

GROW in Ireland is a national organisation that provides a peer supported program for growth and personal development to people with a mental illness and those people experiencing difficulty in coping with life’s challenges. For more information on Grow please visit their website at www.grow.ie

Rob kindly took some time out of his busy schedule to tell us about life working with Grow and how he looks after his own personal wellbeing. If you would like to support Grow in continuing their wonderful work, please do so by visiting: www.grow.ie/donate

ROB STEPHEN – GROW IRELAND

1.What does a day in the life of the Chairperson of Grow look like?

I served as a trustee (director) on the board of the Grow Mental Health charity from 2011 through to their 50th anniversary celebrations in 2019. During the last three years of my term I served as chairperson. All charity trustees are unpaid volunteers so from Monday to Friday I do have my main paid day job as a software engineer. As chairperson of Grow, I would have generally devoted time at the weekend, normally Saturday, to catch up on Grow related work. About once a month this would entail travelling to Dublin for a 2-3 hour board meeting followed by a catch up with fellow board members from all over the country and the CEO. All meetings have since moved online to Zoom which certainly take up less volunteer travel time but the personal connection is not quite the same. The weekend prior to a board meeting would be spent preparing the agenda and digesting reports for review at the meeting. The weekend after a board meeting would be spent ensuring that minutes had been captured and following up on any action items, such as communicating any decisions or updates to the relevant people within the organisation.

From a personal point of view I would have had my share of good days and bad days. The bad days being those where unpleasant but necessary decisions had to be made which might have upset people, so in those cases a degree of diplomacy and empathy would be required. The good days were when I might hear of some success or positive impact which Grow was having in someone’s life, and those were the days which made the effort worthwhile.

One of the key cornerstones of Grow is the development of leadership skills. Examples of this are when a new person comes to Grow and first does a reading or shares their story, then they progress to leading (facilitating) a meeting. They might then progress to take on a role within the group (e.g. Organiser or Recorder). Some Grow members then choose to serve on regional or national teams (committees, including the national board). When someone first attends a Grow meeting in a fragile state, possibly with low self-esteem, progressing to a leadership position may appear way beyond their capabilities, but, with help from the Grow Program this does happen and it is by pushing the boundaries bit by bit that we grow.

2. Tell us about your organisation and what it does in the promotion of mental wellbeing

Grow was actually founded in Australia in 1957 and first came to these Irish shores in 1969. The Grow movement is loosely based on Alcoholics Anonymous in that there are peer-led weekly meetings which are structured around a 12 step program of recovery. In Grow we say “you alone can do it, but you can’t do it alone” which sums up how Grow works. Our recovery from a mental health illness or the improvement in our wellbeing is ultimately our own responsibility, but often we need the support of others to help us, and who better to help than someone who has walked in our shoes and come out the other side? The principle of “mutual support” is very strong within Grow – sometimes we receive help but at other times we can offer help and this makes for strong peer relationships. These relationships differ greatly from those a Grow member might have with their doctor or therapist.

The three key points, I think, about Grow are this: Someone attending a meeting for the first time initially gets a glimmer of hope from hearing others talk about their experiences and how they overcame challenges - this sense of hope sustains them in the early period. Then as they attend their weekly meetings, they share problems and are given tasks by the group to help tackle their issues one by one. This is where the magic happens as they slowly start to create order out of disorder and build confidence out of low self esteem. This can be a long, slow process and it involves plenty of hard work but the group is there to support the individual on their journey. Finally, as a member of their group and of the Grow community, the person develops connections with other human beings and this breaks the cycle of isolation which is so much a feature of mental unwellness.

3. As Chairperson of Grow Ireland, I can imagine you have a heavy work schedule, while at work do you have any wellbeing practices to support you in between all the emails, zoom meetings and phone calls

Coincidentally, around the time I got involved with the board of Grow I also gave up smoking. I then found that I was snacking a lot and getting out of shape so in a moment of New Year’s Eve enthusiasm I signed up for the Great Limerick Run 6 mile event in 2013. I then found that I really enjoyed running and the buzz of participating in big running events – I went on to complete my first marathon whilst I was chairperson. The idea of having a goal and then training to achieve it is very satisfying. I started to notice that the days when I went for a run I just felt more alive, more relaxed and indeed more confident. Conversely, If I didn’t manage to get out for a run, I found that my energy levels were low and my stress levels were high. So keeping active – running in my case – is my main wellbeing practice. A knock on effect of this is that running provides a means to connect socially with others, which is good for me as I am by nature quite reserved. Quite apart from the “feel good factor”, being active outside in nature gives my brain a time to relax and to meander and perhaps to untangle itself and sometimes I compose limericks (five line poems) whilst running.

From a purely practical point of view, I find making “to do” lists an important part of my routine. This ensures that I don’t miss important things and enables me to prioritise my time and ultimately helps to reduce my stress levels. I also enjoy cooking and try to make a habit of preparing food from scratch rather than buying ready-made meals or takeaways. This also means that I have a reasonably healthy diet which contributes to my positive mental health.

4. It can be difficult for people supporting a loved one with mental health difficulties, would you have any specific tips or advice for those people in minding their own wellbeing while supporting others?

Most of us have not flown for a long time but when flying the cabin staff will remind parents, in an emergency, to put on their own oxygen masks before attending to their children. That holds true for life in general – we are not much use to another person if we ourselves are not in a good state. When caring for others, be that someone with a mental health difficulty or perhaps an elderly relative, it is very important to make time for yourself. By that I mean getting a break and doing something you enjoy – and for me that is getting out running. It is vitally important to not feel guilty or selfish for indulging in this self-care activity.

Men quite often like to solve problems so if someone comes to me with say a mental health related problem, my first instinct might be that they are telling me their problem because they want me to fix it. There are a few things which I try to do in this situation which will help both me and the person confiding in me. It is firstly very important to just actively listen and then perhaps offer a few questions which might help the person get some clarity. Quite often when someone is upset they might not be thinking clearly, hence Grow’s Step 8 is “we learned to think by reason rather than by feelings and imagination”. The second point is that though we can support another person, ultimately it is their problem and we should not try to “own” or take on their problem – if we do that then it is likely to have a negative impact on our own health.

5. If someone was to ask you for one piece of wellbeing advice, what might you say to them?

There is a saying in the Grow Program - “Meaning generates energy, lack of meaning depression” – which has always resonated with me. I believe that humans fundamentally need to have some kind of meaning or purpose in life in order to live a life of contentment. For me, that meaning comes from spending time with my immediate family; my job, which is both challenging and satisfying; my running activities and my involvement in an altruistic activity (i.e. involvement with the charity Grow). To broaden this a bit, I would recommend that readers should check out the proven Five Ways to Wellbeing which are: Connect, Be Active, Take Notice, Keep Learning and Give. Jim Lucey has an excellent new book “A Whole New Plan for Living” which touches on this subject.

[atmickeywhite]

2020 Favorite Albums

Hi friends,  So each year, I put together a list of 50 or so of my favorite albums on Twitter. This year, I’m shifting that to tumblr and using words, etc.. And fortunately, I took a long enough break from playing Wu-Tang in Brittany’s car to listen to new music. So a bit on music -- staying current on new music, making playlists, sharing with friends and learning the history has always had its way of cementing my memories. It’s been a great way to recall dreary bus rides and summer walks around Portage Park, the loneliness of working nights and the utter joy is was to become adults with Desirae.  2020 cranked the existential shit to 11.  In January, I had moved after a brutal 14-month situation in my last apartment. In February, my childhood friend’s little sister passed away. In March, the lockdowns happened. In April, I got fired. In May, I decided to move out of state. I spent a third of June traipsing around Chattanooga before finally moving there in mid-July. August was filled with impossibly long bike rides in the Georgia rain and summer heat. September was the heart of a frustrating job search and extensive dental work. COVID came roaring back in October. My anxiety caught up to me really hard in November and December hasn’t had the greatest start, either. That’s not to speak on what the homies went through this year, and it was a lot. But we keep it pushing.  The point is that life is constantly kicking our ass and these are fifty albums that helped me get some reprieve from all of that, whether is was listening or sharing or just going back and forth with Tyler about what’s new and relevant. To that end, this year saw the cementing of Griselda is a legacy street rap act, the rise of HAUS of ALTR as a preeminent techno label and surprise turns from artists that exist in a staid major-label milieu (Dua Lipa, Lil’ Uzi Vert). Stalwarts like Sada Baby, Shinichi Atobe, Angel Marcloid and Actress stayed on repeat. Jazz, metal and folk weirdos rear their head from time to time. Acts peaked and self-destructed. I left the individual writing of the albums to people get paid to be better than me at this stuff. History, context and a feel for what the albums sound like is more useful than me painting a picture of what riding your bike around Lookout Mountain with no breaks is like.  If you check any of these out and like what you hear, I highly encourage you to buy (directly from the artist’s Bandcamp page, if applicable). And remember, taste is built in cars, not in large public places.  25 Honorable Mentions: Anunaku - Stargate Anz - Loos In Twos (NRG) Arbor Labor Union - New Petal Instants Conway The Machine - From a King to a God Drive-By Truckers - The New OK Duval Timothy - Help Eartheater - Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin Eiko Ishibashi - Impulse of the Ribbon Fiona Apple - Fetch The Bolt Cutters Four Tet - Sixteen Oceans Gabriel Garzon-Montano - Aguita GB - 186.22 Ian William Craig - Red Sun Through Smoke Jerry Paper - Abracadabra  Kali Uchis - Sin Miedo Lucinda Williams - Good Souls, Better Angels Machinedrum - A View of You Margo Price - That’s How Rumors Get Started Mary Lattimore - Silver Ladders MJ Guider - Sour Cherry Bell Park Hye-Jin - How can I Quelle Chris / Chris Keys - Innocent Country 2 Ringo Deathstarr - Ringo Deathstarr Soul Glo - Songs To Yeet At The Sun Trees Speak - Shadow Forms

50 - A Pregnant Light - You Cannot Pour From An Empty Vessel "These songs were written and recorded in 2017, and in a haze of... well, just imagine the bad sort of things that cause a haze over one's life. These songs were lost. In the process of cleaning out some tapes and recording sessions, these songs were found and completed in 2020. It's a bridge between where APL was three years ago, and now. It was so strange to hear these forgotten songs and go in and finish them. It was like collaborating with a person I used to know. It was an odd experience, but turned out fruitful." - A Pregnant Light Bandcamp Page 49 - Rian Treanor - File Under UK Metaplasm "We hardly need any convincing on the quality of Rian Treanor's productions as he's been completely unfuckwithable from day one, but "File Under UK Metaplasm" is still next damn level.Rian bashed out the initial demos on returning from a trip to Uganda in 2018 for Nyege Nyege Festival. Inspired by the producers he'd collaborated with in Kampala, he switched up his workflow and began jamming out ideas at higher tempos, harnessing the energy of singeli music without simply carbon copying the style. Initial sketches were eventually fleshed into proper tracks and tested on audiences (and on soundsystems) around the world where Rian could assess the power of each element.It was worth the hard work, the result is a fiery set of tunes that sound like everything at once and nothing at all. Opener 'Hypnic Jerks' is ragged kick-bubbling 200-bpm club on secondment to Tanzania; 'Vacuum Angle' is wobbly DMT-step that sounds like an attempt to use aging educational computer software to power the Stargate; 'Mirror Instant' is shuffling bassline house kicked up to 45rpm; 'Opponent Process' is EP7-era Autechre with the fun switch turned on; 'Debouncing' is double-speed grime that glides into parts unknown. By the time the album reaches a close on 'Orders From The Pausing', a melancholic gabber tune with an almost inverted, whisper-soft kick (?), Rian suddenly introduces reverb to the mix, just because he can.Peerless, unfathomably inventive electronic music from the North of England, via East Africa - fucking essential." - Boomkat Product Review 48 - Sex Swing - Type II “Fuck,” I thought when I first heard it. “This really, really rocks.” - Adam Lehrer, The Quietus

47 - Yves Tumor - Heaven to a Tortured Mind

"In that way, Heaven to a Tortured Mind is the most straightforward record in Tumor’s catalog. It’s an album with commercial, or at least mass, appeal in mind. And it seems to confirm something Tumor hinted at in a 2016 interview about their musical aspirations: “I only want to make hits. What else would I want to make?” The product of this ambition is a gratifying and intense record, one whose pleasures are viscerally immediate. Above all, it’s loads of fun to watch Tumor don the guise of a devilish rockstar. It’s not exactly a new archetype in our cultural imagination, but the ravishing delight Tumor brings to this character is what makes their music so affecting. Yves is a performer whose roles, played with the utmost rigor, always find a way to linger in the memory." - Kevin Lozano, Pitchfork

46 - DJ Taye - PYROT3K

"Pop music moves fast: new instructional-dance songs, new Drake songs, and new instructional-dance songs by Drake can bombard the zeitgeist one week and all but evaporate the next. Footwork, the lightning-fast Chicago-born house subgenre, is well suited to capture that frenetic pace. Young footwork master and Teklife member DJ Taye instinctively understands how to combine footwork’s adrenaline rush with the pop’s euphoric glee to build tracks with a distinctive energy. Last month he self-released Pyrot3k, the third entry in the Pyrotek mixtape series he launched in October. On the latest volume—also available in a deluxe version called Pyrot3k (SS)—he focuses on blissful melodies and antsy samples. On “Gang,” for example, he loops a snippet of JackBoys’ “Gang Gang” into a hypnotic koan at a speed that makes the original sound like it’s stuck in the mud. Several of Taye’s friends, including Teklife members DJ Earl and Heavee, join in on the fun, and I’m especially partial to his collaboration with Night Slugs label owner James Connolly, aka L-Vis 1990. On “Parade Float,” the two producers whimsically intertwine Morse code beeps and battering-ram gabber-style kick drum to manifest a cartoonish energy that seems to gather itself and balloon outward during the song’s tiny silences. - Leor Galil, Chicago Reader

45 - Hudson Mohawke - Poom Gems

"At the moment, nothing can stop Hudson Mohawke. After a hiatus from his solo work, the Scottish producer started his summer by releasing his first single under his HudMo title since 2016, “BENT” with JIMMY EDGAR. Since then, he’s only upped the ante, with his inexhaustible activity culminating in his first solo LP in four years, Big Booty Hiking Exhibition. Now, HudMo is back with his second album in a month’s time.

Poom Gems can be thought of as a companion album to Big Booty Hiking Exhibition, as both comprised previously unreleased tracks that Mohawke has been sitting on. Like Big Booty Hiking Exhibition, Poom Gems ranges from some of HudMo’s most off-the-wall beats yet to his classic, unreplicable, and bombastic sound, though as a whole, Poom Gems is more accessible than it’s predecessor. After almost no announcement before Poom Gems‘ release, only one question remains: how much more is to come amid Mohawke’s return?" - Mitchell Rose, Dancing Astronaut

44 - Shinichi Atobe - Yes

"The stately, melodic techno and deep house made by Shinichi Atobe—a resident of Saitama City, just north of Tokyo—puts me in mind of his country's devotion to orderly calm. One of two non-European artists to appear on Basic Channel's legendary Chain Reaction imprint, Atobe took 13 years off before the archival Butterfly Effect album arrived via DDS in 2014. His re-emergence into the dance music world has been one of the decade's most welcome surprises.

Yes is his fifth album for DDS. Demdike Stare states their communication with Atobe is limited to a CD that arrives in the post every so often, "no words except for the track titles." The first circulated photo of Atobe was included with the Yes CD-R, perhaps to quell rumors Shinichi Atobe is an alias of another Chain Reaction artist. He's never granted an interview.

He doesn't need to. Each Atobe album feels like the latest installment in a serial novel, a body of work mysterious in its ability to mix calm rhythms and atmospheres with achingly beautiful melodies. As usual, Yes will sate the small group of obsessives that smash the pre-order on each new Atobe album. He's nearly always in top form. The title track's hopeful mix of synth and house-y piano stand up to Atobe's other melodic classics "Heat 1" and "The Butterfly Effect." "Lake 3" contains Atobe's most boisterous synth theme to date, the '90s Carl Craig-esque figure mixing with Atobe's signature sad piano and, in a novel twist, hand drums.

The progression in Atobe's work is incremental. Beyond the title-track, Yes mostly does away with the classy, tech house-style snap prevalent on 2018's Heat. For an artist that emerged as a model of consistency, Atobe takes a surprising amount of left turns. The closing cut "Ocean 1" is Atobe's placid take on a synth-funk jam. The opener "Ocean 7" is beatless, with hectic arpeggios. In the background of that track, there's a peaceful drone that runs throughout. A similar tone runs in the background on the entirety of "Lake 3." These touches imbue Atobe's sonic world with its own concept of gaman, enveloping the listener in an eerie sense of calm." - Matt McDermott, Resident Advisor

43 - Various Artists - HOA 012

"Did you think we were done?

The story is not over, but only beginning. HOA012, We come together as a unit, to continue our story. A story that needs to be told. For those of you just joining us, welcome. For those of you returning, welcome back. Now fully on the path, we march toward a future of unabashed black electronic expression." - HAUS of ALTR bandcamp page

42 - Garcia Peoples - Nightcap At Wits' End

"New Jersey-based avant-jam band Garcia Peoples were a little slow to take shape, but after the release of their excitable 2018 album Cosmic Cash, they switched into overdrive. Constant live performances, residencies, concert documents, and prolifically recorded studio albums tracked a creative development that morphed from record to record. The group took cues from the open-ended improvisation of classic jam band acts like Phish and the Grateful Dead, but also incorporated dual-guitar wizardry on par with Television or, in their more Southern-fried moments, the Allmann Brothers. For their 2019 album One Step Behind, the band expanded to a six-piece lineup and added avant-jazz touches to the equation as they stretched out over the course of a half-hour-long title track. With Nightcap at Wits' End, Garcia Peoples shift gears yet again, with a set of neatly composed and relatively concise tunes that distill their wandering impulses into easily digestible forms. This can take the form of rowdy prog-lite tunes like album opener "Gliding Through" or the shadowy but mystical folk-rock of "Altered Place." In this more composed rock mode, the band recalls the shadowy mystique of early Bay Area psychedelic giants like Jefferson Airplane as much as they do obscure acts like Anonymous and Relatively Clean Rivers. After a lively start, the album shifts into mellower territory with the drifty "Fire of the Now." "Painting a Vision That Carries" is made up of delicate vocal harmonies and a dynamic structure that goes from controlled acoustic segments to blasting verses and back. As this song burns on into a vamping jam, the band's Dead-like tendencies come to the surface with noodling guitar leads and dazzling group interplay. The second half of Nightcap at Wits' End becomes a string of woozy and meandering pieces that blur into one another in clouds of hazy jamming. Themes resurface as the band shuffles through meditative riffing on "Crown of Thought," Krautrock-y interludes, and the blissfully droning Popol Vuh-esque "A Reckoning." Garcia Peoples' excellent psychedelia manages to recall moments from past masters while still offering a chemistry and composition unique to the band. Nightcap at Wits' End is the most complete articulation of their wide-reaching creative range, and stands as the their most focused and engaging work to date." - Fred Thomas, AllMusic

41 - Nonlocal Forecast - Holographic Universe(s)?

"Angel Marcloid's recordings as Nonlocal Forecast focus the trajectory of a vast catalog squarely in the realm of retro Weather Channel-inspired smooth jazz fusion, intricate prog, and expansive new age experiments. Trading off a measure of the typically overloaded compositional style found in other projects to favor lush atmospheres and relatively pared down arrangements, Marcloid populates Nonlocal Forecast pieces with progressive keyboard and synth harmonies, complex drum programming, and majestic leads performed on guitar, keyboards, and guests' saxophones. The project runs alongside the omni-combinatory works of the flagship project Fire-Toolz and many other monikers including the vapor-focused works of Mindspring Memories. Holographic Universe(s?)!, the second Nonlocal Forecast full-length and the first to be released on vinyl, follows Bubble Universe! with a cycle of songs that elevates Marcloid's grandiose compositions to previously undiscovered heights, while packing the music with dramatic shifts that allow it to journey off into dynamic new directions." - Fatbeats product summary

40 - Black Dresses - Peaceful As Hell

"The Canadian noise-pop duo’s music conjures a psychotic slumber party, or a Second Life rave, but remains grounded in the bittersweet beauty of lifelong friendship. " - Leah Mandel, Pitchfork

39 - Kelly Lee Owens - Inner Song

"Owens’ self-titled debut album played with sounds that felt spiritual, almost new age, like the tablas on “S.O.” and sitar drone on “8.” On Inner Song, that meditative quality comes less from instrumental texture and more from the actual form of the songs. Though she drifts across tempos and dabbles with a variety of drum patterns, loops—both instrumental and lyrical—provide the record’s through line. On “Wake-Up,” life’s circular patterns are made explicit: “Wake up/Repeat again/Again.” Owens writes with clarity and simplicity, using her own voice as something like a synthesizer, processing a phrase and then repeating it as she sings subtle variations in timbre and tone. Her lyrics are, in their own quiet way, a celebration of the pleasures of solitude and self-love." - Nathan Smith, Pitchfork

38 - Pink Siifu - Negro

"The core of NEGRO is defined by its antipathy for police. “DeadMeat” was inspired by a harrowing incident in New York, where a black cop threatened his life for jumping a subway turnstile. Siifu recorded “DeadMeat” the next day, reeling from the fact that someone of his race would treat him with such unmitigated hate. It begins with Siifu repeating the police officer’s threat verbatim and ends with him drawing the distinction between police officers and “pigs.” - Max Bell, Bandcamp Daily

37 - Charli XCX - How I'm Feeling Now

"Our homes have become offices, churches, mutual aid hubs, child- and eldercare centers. Every inch of space has been claimed by a corner of life, worn from multi-purpose use, yet hopefully loved and lived in. But the home — even just one room strung with cheap lights — can also be a refuge to dance through your emotion. how i'm feeling now — an album whose title says everything, and whose music has a rave intimacy that reaches beyond quarantined walls — doesn't just capture the mood, but the modes of our survival. Charli XCX collaborated remotely with trusted producers (A. G. Cook, Danny L Harle) and new ones (BJ Burton, 100 gecs' Dylan Brady), to lean harder into the buzzing-yet-glam-blammed hyper-pop that she's explored in recent years. While the aural abrasion amplifies our collective WTF, turnt up on video chats and pining for reckless nights, the core of how i'm feeling now deepens around the loving bonds forged in close quarters." - Lars Gotrich, NPR Music

36 - Armand Hammer - Shrines

"Shrines boasts a larger roster of producers and featured artists than any of the group’s past work. Many of them were already members of the duo’s tight-knit, avant-garde circle: Curly Castro, Fielded, Kenny Segal, Messiah Muzik, R.A.P. Ferreira, Quelle Chris. A woozy instrumental (“Bitter Cassava”) and verse (“Ramses II”) by Earl Sweatshirt suggest that Armand Hammer could soon extend their reach even further. In this fraught time, the camaraderie on Shrines feels intentional. In 2018, Elucid told Pitchfork that his music is about bringing like minds together, to feel like “we’re fighting against the same evil.” Shrines is a confirmation that the more people who put those sunglasses on, the better." - Christina Lee, Bandcamp Daily

35 - Bad Bunny - Yo hago lo que me de la gana

"From the moment Bad Bunny's sophomore album begins, over a synthesized interpolation of bossa nova staple "The Girl From Ipanema," the Puerto Rican superstar leans heavily on past classics to breathe new life into Latin trap. El Conejo is, for the most part, done missing his ex jeva for now — instead he's dressing up as his female alter ego to call out creeps at the club, de-stigmatizing a particular romantic pursuit on a perreo-fueled symphony, and rocking out to his own success on an emo-trap anthem. YHLQMDLG is an homage to the reggaeton bangers that raised Bunny, complete with collabs from some of the greatest vets in the game, including Daddy Yankee, Ñengo Flow and Jowell & Randy. It's an album steeped in nostalgia for the garage-party-perreo of the early-aughts, but with a modernity that forecasts a bright future for urbano — even one that may find Bad Bunny (if you believe the album title) permanently tapping out. He does what he wants, and he gets away with it, too." - Isabella Gomez Sarmiento, NPR

34 - Popcaan - FIXTAPE

"In its mix form, Fixtape is framed as an epic tale in which Popcaan shares moments along his route to dancehall’s most prominent torchbearers. Instead of starting with the self-produced “Chill,” the SoundCloud version begins with melodramatic piano strokes, almost reminiscent of the theme song to The Young and the Restless. Those key hits grow into a symphonic instrumental adaptation of Popcaan’s 2011 hit “Only Man She Want,” and soon after, the first two non-Poppy voices you hear are a drop from incarcerated icon Vybz Kartel and audio of Drake’s praise at the first Unruly Fest in December 2018. Though even novice Popcaan listeners already know these affiliations, starting the project in this way is like flexing for the mirror, a moment of self-affirmation before proving it to the world. So it makes sense that the first song on this version of the tape, “Killy Dem Crazy,” is Popcaan trying his hand at Nas and Diddy’s Trackmasters-produced classic “Hate Me Now”—the perfect “fuck whoever don’t like it” gesture." - Lawrence Burney, Pitchfork

33 - Drakeo The Ruler - Thank You For Using GTL

"Since the genre's inception, the voice in rap has been sped up, glitched out, chopped and screwed, slowed and reverbed, all to convey textures and feelings that language alone cannot. On Thank You For Using GTL, Drakeo The Ruler's was shrunk to fuzz, transmitted through a jail phone. The intent wasn't to create a mood, but to create something, to continue a career that was snatched away. At the time, Drakeo had spent most of the three years prior in Los Angeles' notorious Men's Central Jail, and nine of those months in solitary confinement, first battling a murder charge he'd be acquitted of, then a gang conspiracy charge that the prosecution built out of his lyrics and music videos. He was suddenly freed in November on a plea deal, days before L.A. county district attorney Jackie Lacey lost her seat to the more progressive George Gascón. His lawyer, John Hamasaki, told NPR that "if the case had been continued to January, it probably would have been dismissed by [Gascón's] office."

Even when transmitted across a scummy phone line, Drakeo's sneer cuts like a knife. Submerged in static and woven over JoogSZN's brooding instrumentals, his raps feel suspended in a constant denouement, transient and purgatorial, as he probes at the suits trying to end his life. "It might sound real, but it's fictional / I love that my imagination gets to you," he raps on the final track. What isn't fiction are the cruel and convoluted circumstances that shaped GTL, that cost its creators thousands of dollars to record while profiting a billion dollar telecom company, and that continue to take lifetimes away from Black men." —Mano Sundaresan, NPR

32 - Nathan Fake - Blizzards

"Blizzards has almost no breaks or meanders, just relentless club music adorned with beautiful melodies. In taking stock of his music and returning to his fundamentals, Blizzards highlights everything Fake is good at: the way his drums tend to dance in between established genres, melodies that sound like a warped Boards Of Canada record, the constant push-and-pull of dark and light. It's more of a reset than a reinvention, a return to the earnest simplicity that made him a wunderkind all those years ago." - Andrew Ryce, Resident Advisor

31 - Dj Diaki - Balani Fou

"The absorption of multiple streams of African electronic music into a western club milieu has been patchy. Where styles like kwaito and gqom have slotted into house and bass idioms, and kuduro has made an impact via diasporic scenes like the one in Lisbon, the harder and faster styles—like Shangaan electro and the emergent singeli sound from Dar Es Salaam—haven't easily found a foothold. When they do appear, they're often an anomalous peak in a DJ set from which it's hard to climb down. But with the current vogue for speedy techno and other hard dance sounds, along with the interest in singeli and other belting East African sounds, Diaki's Crazy Balani couldn't have smashed its way to the dance floor at a better time." - Chal Ravens, Resident Advisor

30 - Caribou - Suddenly

"Dan Snaith’s latest is as sly and layered as ever, but he finds ways to be more direct with his songwriting. There are no bum notes, no wasted motions, no corners of the audio spectrum left untouched. " - Phillip Sherburne, Pitchfork

29 - Deradoorian - Find The Sun

"The LP’s guitar-centric approach is a bit of a surprise, but Deradoorian isn’t a stranger to big riffs. She’s done stints in bands like Dirty Projectors and Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks; more recently, she’s been ripping it up as the vocalist of BSCBR (aka Black Sabbath Cover Band Rehearsals), filling Ozzy Osborne’s shoes alongside artists like Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner and drumming virtuoso Greg Fox. Find the Sun never reaches Paranoid levels of bombast, but it’s easily her brawniest solo record to date. Songs like “Saturnine Night” and closer “Sun” channel the psychedelic swagger of ’70s giants like the Doors and Led Zeppelin, while the rubbery bassline and surging guitar chords of album highlight “It Was Me” bring to mind the likes of Nirvana and Hole—or at least the times when those bands emulated indie pop groups like the Vaselines and Young Marble Giants.

But Find the Sun shouldn’t be mistaken for an exercise in rock worship. The influence of Can looms large, and Deradoorian’s music is still psychedelic, weird, and seemingly primed for a hallucinogenic trip to the outer recesses of the human psyche. With its motorik groove and dramatic talk-singing, “The Illuminator” sounds like a freaky, nine-minute-long outtake from Andy Warhol’s Factory, while the slinky “Devil’s Market” recalls the space-age lounge music once championed by bands like Stereolab. “Saturnine Night” does feature growling guitars, but they’re paired with an unkempt Krautrock rhythm that could have been pulled from Neu! 2, along with a dramatic, PJ Harvey-esque vocal turn from Deradoorian, who belts out brooding lines like “Innocence/In my death” and, simply, “I die.” - Shawn Reynolds, Pitchfork

28 - Thundercat - It Is What It Is

"Left savoring the tasty morsels of 2017's critically-acclaimed Drunk and 2018's Drank (its "chopped not slopped" remix album), it was an absolute pleasure to sink hungry ears into Thundercat's It Is What It Is this year. The bassist born Stephen Bruner blurs genre boundaries, dishing out dizzying acrobatics on "How Sway," beefy funk vibes on "Black Qualls" (featuring Steve Lacy, Steve Arrington and Childish Gambino) and cheeky R&B hilarity on "Dragonball Durag." Coproduced by longtime collaborator Flying Lotus, It Is What It Is drips with curtains of lush vocals. The album chronicles a broken heart's analysis of grief and its subsequent recovery by asking probing questions and finding joy where it can to survive pain, uncertainty, rejection and isolation. It's an enchanting tale of hope and growth in a year that served us heaping portions of gloom and melancholy" - Nikki Birch, NPR

27 - Against All Logic - 2017-19

"That Beyoncé is the first voice we hear on 2017 - 2019 is instructive of the bold new direction. Hers and Sean Paul's vocals are lifted from "Baby Boy" and layered over a crackling broken beat, an uncanny string-like instrument and inviting synth chords. A sample of Luther Ingram's 1972 soul song "(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right" appears on track two, a degraded house cut, thus establishing a template of sorts: 2017 - 2019 is an album of stylistic leaps, radiant melodies, difficult-to-place sounds and red herrings. Back-to-back opening tracks with instantly recognisable sample flips, for example, sets up an expectation of many more to follow. Instead, there are none. That is unless you can spot the source of the hip-hop loop on "With An Addict." Jaar casually filters it into the arrangement to create a half-time contrast with the main drums, a rolling footwork/jungle-style pattern that features percussion reminiscent of the "Apache" break. The poignant, daybreak melody caps a track that bundles the album's strongest qualities." - Ryan Keeling, Resident Advisor

26 - Adrian Younge / Ali Shaheed Mohammad - Jazz Is Dead 001

"Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad both have impressive resumes as purveyors of modern soul, jazz, and hip-hop. Younge, a bassist, keyboardist, composer, and producer, has scored films such Black Dynamite and collaborated with artists ranging from Philly soul legends the Delfonics to Wu-Tang Clan's Ghostface Killah. Meanwhile, Muhammad was a member of A Tribe Called Quest and has worked on various projects outside that group. Together, Younge and Muhammad formed the Midnight Hour, a versatile band that brought a modern edge to retro soul and jazz sounds." - Rich Wilhelm, popMatters

25 - The Soft Pink Truth - Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase

"Drew Daniel's latest LP as The Soft Pink Truth, Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase, is a stunner that revels in communitas while flirting with house music and ambient tropes" - Bernie Brooks, the Quietus

24 - Jessy Lanza - All The Time

"The early days of writing All the Time, Jessy Lanza's first album since 2016's Oh No, marked a sea change for Jessy and her creative partner Jeremy Greenspan. After Oh No, Jessy left her hometown of Hamilton to go and live in New York. Written long distance for the first time, across Jessy’s new set up in New York to Jeremy’s home studio in Hamilton, and finishing in the recording studio Jeremy had been working on during this period.

Even though the move to New York and the change in remote working was tough, 'All the Time' has turned out to be the most pure set of pop songs the duo has recorded; reflective and finessed over the time and distance they allowed it. Innovative juxtapositions sound natural, such as rigid 808’s rubbing against delicate chords in 'Anyone Around', unusual underwater rushes underpin Baby Love . Jessy’s voice is treated, re-pitched and edited on songs like Ice creamy and gestural sounds seem to respond to her lyrics in songs such as Like Fire.

A lot of these sounds came from live take experiments using semi modular/modular equipment like Mother 32 and Dfam and Moog Sirin. Jessy says ‘We got all of the machines talking to one another and would run patterns through. A lot of the little burps and quacks and squiggles heard on songs like Anyone Around, Like 'Fire', 'Face', and 'Badly' are from those experiments. That’s when I’m having the most fun, making music and improvising through takes of the song and editing together all the best gurgle sounds afterwards’.

More than previously the lyrics on All The Time were an important focus for Jessy, articulating difficult feeling into her outwardly joyful music. ’Anger is a familiar and safe feeling for me. The album became a conversation with myself about why that is. Some songs refer to real and legitimate things to be angry about; 'Lick in Heaven' takes aim at what the culture expects from women. The cynicism I felt towards the people around me kept coming up and All the Time is an exploration into those feelings and a conversation with myself about other possibilities when it comes to my outlook on life.’

As the final elements of the album were being put in place, everything changed overnight. Her European tour was cut short and she flew back to New York quickly, plans for the foreseeable future dissolved. Whatsmore her lease was up on her apartment and she couldn’t find another in New York due to quarantine restrictions, so she packed what she could into her van and drove to San Francisco to be near her family, stopping on the way in increasingly empty motels as she journeyed from coast to coast.

‘Even though All the Time was written in 2019 the themes feel even more relevant now. Like a lot of people,I’m still struggling with the reality that life is hard to predict and it’s even harder not to make the same mistakes over again, trying to control what i’m able to and leave the rest.’ The cover photo of Jessy in her van was taken before these events , but it’s taken on more importance since. ‘Through many changing situations my minivan gives me comfort. It seems like such an American thing to say.m I realise it’s symbolic of a much larger existential struggle in my own life but regardless I wanted it to be a part of the album cover. Sitting in my van made me feel so comfortable and it’s rare for me to feel that.

All the time has ended up being a triumph, channeling difficult feelings into something that has whit energy and style. " - Jessy Lanza bandcamp page

23 - AceMoMA - A New Dawn

"AceMoMA connect back to their NYC forefathers (with nods to techno dons Derrick May and Jeff Mills), while also keeping a healthy disregard for the past, pushing ahead with palpable enthusiasm and energy. As Stevens explained in that same interview, “[As] brown people making dance music… we needed to create context for what we were doing. So we did.” Like the best moments of a night out, A New Dawn feels like instant history and an instant party." - Andy Beta, Pitchfork

22 - Adrianne Lenker - songs

"As a solo artist or with her band Big Thief, Adrianne Lenker has been at or near the top of my year-end lists for the past five years, more so than any other artist. The simultaneous strength and frailty in her voice attract me to her music. Earlier this year, she told NPR's All Things Considered host Mary Louise Kelly, "I was really sad, and I hit a wall — I kind of hit the bottom of myself and went to a pretty dark and sad space for a while. And the music itself, and writing these songs, was a thing that was getting me through it." The songs on songs were birthed in a one-room cabin in Western Massachusetts' mountains and recorded on an old Otari 8-track. We hear acoustic guitar, her voice, the sound of the cabin and whatever bugs and birds happen to be in the background of the poetic paintings she sings. The intimacy is magnetic" - Bob Boilen, NPR

21 - Trees Speak - Ohms

"The act of driving informs the music of Trees Speak, who take cues from the Autobahn-extolling music of classic Krautrock, specifically Kraftwerk. The roads green West Germany led Krautrock pioneers like Kraftwek to produce smooth, seamless electronic rhythms—but the rugged, dusted Sonoran Desert of southern Arizona leads Trees Speak to a more rough hewn electronic sound." - d mittleman, Aquarium Drunkard

20 - 21 Savage / Metro Boomin - Savage Mode II

"Ultimately, though, ‘Savage Mode II’ feels like a throwback: one rapper and one producer focused on a single creative project. Think Eric B and Rakim; Missy Elliot and Timbaland; Method Man and RZA. Their collaborators, such as Drake and Young Thug (the latter on ‘Rich N**ga Shit’, an anthemic rap about their lavish lifestyles), ably support, stepping in occasionally to craft the project into a more well-rounded shape.

‘Savage Mode II’ allows the Atlanta-based MC the space to make his point and cast all nonsense aside, letting his talent speak for itself. Metro Boomin, meanwhile, further showcases his generational abilities. As a whole, the album is confirmation of two young artists at the top of their game, watching the landscape unfold from the throne they earned themselves four years ago." - Dhruva Balram, NME

19 - Various Artists - HOA 010

"Ahead of the dawn, there could only be us...

HAUS of ALTR presents HOA010. Our second compilation, featuring the future of Black electronic music, and as the music as it exist in its current state. In these trying times, we come together to stake claim on the roots of techno and its potential future. Too Black, Too Strong." - HAUS of ALTR bandcamp page

18 - Emma Ruth Rundle / Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full

"Stemming out of an offer from Roadburn Festival organizer Walter Hoeijmakers, mutual acquaintances, and a shared love of each other’s output, May Our Chambers Be Full is the first recorded document of collaboration between Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou. While their solo material seems on its face to be quite disparate, both groups have spent their respective careers lurking at the outer boundaries of the heavy metal scene, the artists having more in common with DIY punk and its spiritual successor, grunge.

May Our Chambers Be Full straddles a similar, very fine line both musically and thematically. While Emma Ruth Rundle’s standard fare is a blend of post-rock-infused folk music, and Thou is typically known for its downtuned, doomy sludge, the conjoining of the two artists has created a record more in the vein of the early ’90s Seattle sound and later ’90s episodes of Alternative Nation, while still retaining much of the artists’ core identities. Likewise, the lyrical content of the album is a marriage of mental trauma, existential crises, and the ecstatic tradition of the expressionist dance movement. “Excessive sorrow laughs. Excessive joy weeps.” Melodic, melancholic, heavy, visceral." - Thou Bandcamp page

17 - Mong Tong - Mystery

"For Mystery秘神, they imagined a version of ancient Asia where all of the continent’s superstitions were real, and wrote a record based on how that world would sound. Their songs usually consist of a lolloping bassline, a snakey guitar lead, and campy synths that could perfectly soundtrack both an ‘80s crime flick and a highly stylized video game. Their sound evokes the simultaneous futurism and nostalgia of vaporwave, and the duo consider it “sample-based” because of the post-production process, in which they cut up, loop, and re-pitch their jam sessions into structured songs. All of the percussion is constructed in Ableton; there are no vocals, but they do include a few soundbites from Taiwanese films and TV shows. (“Chakra,” for example, features a bit of a dialogue about the connection between aliens and Hinduism.)" - Eli Enis, Bandcamp Daily

16 - Sada Baby - Bartier Bounty 2

"His voice is at a-near constant sneer to match the furious pacing until the surprising collaboration with Dej Loaf that showcases a smoother version of the 27-year-old rapper. Street anthems like “Trap Withdrawals” approach standard topics of growing up hustling with bombastic brilliance. “Horse Play 2” even samples Linkin Park’s “In The End” and makes it work. Bartier‘s sequel takes all of Detroit’s current hip-hop momentum and propels it to Super Saiyan-level dominance thanks to Sada Baby’s need to experiment." - Patrick Johnson, Hypebeast

15 - Oranssi Pazuzu - Mestarin kynsi

"Even at nearly an hour in length, the album flies by, dense and vicious and evocative as a novel, as contemplative as the featureless gore of the cover art. I've had this promo for perhaps two full months now; I've listened to it nearly every day since then, often multiple times a day. I've commented before about a spate of records that were battling it out for the number one spot for me this year, and while that number has now expanded, the number then at least was three. One of them was Spectral Lore and Mare Cognitum's incredible progressive black metal split full-length. Another was Sweven's immaculate death metal debut. The third was this.

It's hard to deny that a certain strain of the listenership is right: this isn't black metal anymore. But this is for the best for Oranssi Pazuzu. The past seven years have seen them put out record after record that was better not only than the one before it but of the whole of their work. By Värähtelijä, they were scraping Hall of Fame territory. On Mestarin kynsi, they exceed it." - Langdon Hickman, Invisible Oranges

14 - Sunwatchers - Oh Yeah?

"The album’s title “Oh Yeah?” is at once an homage to Mingus, Thee Oh Sees’ album “Help” (whose Brigid Dawson hand-sewed the tapestry adorning the album’s front cover) and (naturally) the rallying cry of KoolBrave himself - the Kool-Aid Man-as-Braveheart avatar the band adopted as their symbol. The three years since the band’s second album (and TiM debut) “II” was released, has seen the band grace stages across the USA and Europe, enlisting more comrades in their mission of solidarity (sonically speaking) with every show." - Sunwatchers Bandcamp page

13 - Fire-Toolz - Rainbow Bridge

"Rainbow Bridge was made in part as a reflection on the death of Marcloid’s cat Breakfast, which explains in part the way the record swings back and forth between beauty and cacophony. Marcloid’s work as Fire-Toolz has always been about the way that these two emotional poles can coexist, but the way we deal with death is especially complicated. Even the most intense grief is braided with moments of peace and clarity, the beautiful memories of a life well-lived. Rainbow Bridge mirrors the intensity and the confusion of these experiences and shows that even in the direst times, it’s possible to find comfort." - Colin Joyce, Pitchfork

12 - Beatrice Dillon - Workaround

"Chain Reaction meets mid-20th-century minimalism with spectacular results." - Chal Ravens, Resident Advisor

11 - Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia

At 24, Lipa has been working towards this moment for almost 10 years, and her sights are set higher still. A false start in modeling impressed the importance of going where you’re wanted; in Lipa’s case, to Warner Records, who sought a female pop icon to compete with the Rihannas and Lady Gagas of the world. She leveraged her talent as a songwriter, developing an early Dua Lipa single, “Hotter Than Hell,” in the first session with her prospective management team. Her sly swagger and fashion-plate style gave her the presence of someone who’d achieved diva status already. “I’m a bit too far down the line for anyone to try and tell me something,” she said of her creative autonomy in 2017, even before the release of her first record.

But where many of pop’s most recent stars are emphatically emotionally available, Lipa radiates blithe coolness. Her brand is style, competence, taste—this is, in a way perhaps not obvious to those who actually remember the ’80s, entirely tasteful pop music—and the sultry low voice that makes her the star of even a middling Martin Garrix collab. Future Nostalgia is nonstop, no ballads; for 10 tracks, the closest it comes to feeling vulnerable or revealing is “Pretty Please,” a plea for stress-relief sex with an ultra-thick bassline. When Lipa proclaims, “You got me losing all my cool/’Cause I’m burning up on you,” on the Tove Lo cowrite “Cool,” she rhymes it with, “In control of what I do.” - Anna Gaca, Pitchfork

10 - Jasmine Infiniti - Bxtch Slap

"It’s building on that myth of being The Queen of Hell and how as a black trans woman, often just existing in this world feels hellish. The things that I have personally had to go through and that many other black trans women endure, it’s almost as if we are existing in hell already. It’s kind of like, well if I’m already here, I might as well live it up and find the best parts of this existence that I can. It’s about embracing that hell vibe. If I’m already here then I’m gonna be debaucherous and party to all hours of the morning. I want it to reflect that, but also have a little bit of sadness, a little bit resentfulness and a little bit anger, but also happiness and joy. It’s about taking hell and having fun with it." - Jasmine Infiniti, Vice

9 - Actress - Karma & Desire

"Karma & Desire bears the sonic touchstones of his landmark full-lengths like R.I.P. and AZD, but it also represents a profound shift in Cunningham's approach. For the first time, he's invited friends to help out. "I just wanted to give Actress a voice, basically, to use vocal performances from, like, a muse perspective really," he recently told Bandcamp Daily.

Despite several rave-worthy tracks voiced by the LA artist Aura T-09, this is not Actress's vocal house album, nor is it an album of pop songs. Instead, he utilizes the considerable vocal talents of artists like Zsela and Sampha in a signature Actress style, with snatches of stream-of-consciousness vocals rearranged into dreamlike sketches. The New York artist Zsela exhales "Destiny is stuck in heaven," on the burbling "Angels Pharmacy," before reprising the same theme on the very next track, "Remembrance." Just as hazy pads and white noise form motifs in Actress's catalogue, evocative phrases surface and resurface from the murk." Matt McDermott, Resident Advisor

8 - Lil Uzi Vert - Eternal Atake

"Few make rapping sound as purely fun as Lil Uzi Vert. His second album, Eternal Atake, arrived on the heels of a nearly three-year label dispute, yet it still sounds unburdened. The songs traffic in abundant imagination — words and syllables are deconstructed and restacked to form breathless cadences that explode across beats as funky as they are futuristic. When he chants "Balenci" enough times to void it of any meaning on "POP" or when he spits out a multibar hook that skirts repetition altogether (or, really, any qualities that usually make up a hook) as on "Homecoming," it's the chutzpah, but it's also the musicality of it all, the way the melodies are both instrument and a vehicle for lyrics. One of rap's most precise technicians, Uzi has been perfecting this craft since he began his career ascent in 2015, but Eternal Atake prompted us to hear the extraterrestrial — a world within worlds that's all his own." - Briana Younger, NPR

7 - bbyMutha - Muthaland

"Across Muthaland, bbymutha reclaims several words used to jab at her pride: “baby mama,” “slut,” “hoodrat.” She says them with her chest and siphons the negative energy in order to lift herself above the competition. It’s exhilarating, which makes the prospect of her early retirement all the sadder. Rap could use several more voices like hers. If Muthaland really is the last album bbymutha plans on releasing to the public, she’s brought us into her twisted world at its creative peak." Dylan Green, Pitchfork

6 - Jeff Parker - Suite for Max Brown

"The album is a mixture of live improvisations backed by drum loops. This was inspired by Parker’s time as a DJ. “I used to DJ a lot when I lived in Chicago,” Parker recently said. “I was spinning records one night and for about ten minutes I was able to perfectly synch up a Nobukazu Takemura record with the first movement of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme and it had this free jazz, abstract jazz thing going on with a sequenced beat underneath. It sounded so good. That’s what I’m trying to do with Suite for Max Brown. Man vs. machine.” - Nick Roseblade, The Quietus

5 - GAIKA - Seguridad

"Brixton’s GAIKA has already proven himself a heavyweight via his releases on WARP Records, where he imbues the moodier end of dancehall, R&B, and Afrobeats with the kind of apocalyptic political vision you might expect from righteous roots reggae. Here, he’s teamed up with Mexico City’s NAAFI label, and eight members of their musical family. The music ranges from a reggaetón canter (“Maria”) to an almost drum-free crawl (“Nine Lives”); GAIKA’s hoarse voice, swimming through glutenous resonant autotune, draws it all together. It draws you into a zoned-out science fiction night time world, a Black Atlantic gothic cyberpunk fever dream that will haunt you long after it’s ended." - Joe Muggs, Bandcamp Daily

4 - Nazar - Guerrilla

"The roughest rough kuduro on Guerrilla lives up to the billing. Over charging horns and erratic snare sprints, "Arms Deal"'s midrange is filled with raging, Pollocky slashes of tapehead noise. "Why"'s 8-bit Sonic synths, Terrordrome trance leads and rap fragments are also fantastic. Guerrilla can be stealthy, too. Take "Fim-92 Stinger," a carnivalesque hip swinger with shades of the slinky batida from DJ Nigga Fox's Cartas Na Magna. It's a rare gem: fun, seductive, somewhat steady. You could even call it celebratory. But when Nazar says, "The ceasefire should at least last until the duration of this song," his pessimism resurfaces. Sure enough, the next track, "Immortal," illustrates what seems like a bullet-time detachment from conflict. It's possible to make out the ambience of the Angolan bush, stray gunfire and casual bravado, but the clearest sounds in its spectral quiet are an amped-up wheeze and the continuous loading of magazines. You're hearing the itch to fight." - Ray Philp, Resident Advisor

3 - Benny The Butcher - Burden of Proof

"With the help of Hit-Boy, Rick Ross, and Freddie Gibbs, Benny has another one for us to mob out to. At one point on this album, he says, “I don’t care about haters/ I only care about what hustlers think.” The proof is in the eating of the pudding. This is not for the meek. This is not for the golf courses. Benny never dives into nihilism. He knows his purpose, but the album is called Burden of Proof because if you are going to be on the streets, you have to prove who you are. Benny has done that and then some. The Butcher is here, and he isn’t respecting old arrangements. He runs this ship now." - Jayson Buford, Consequence of Sound

2 - Yaeji - What We Drew "But while What We Drew is more internalized than past releases, it is not conflicted; rather, Yaeji finds clarity in vulnerability, in the pendulum swing of her humanity. Crucially, the mixtape doesn’t turn its back on one of Yaeji’s strongest traits as an artist: Her music has always been deeply social, and now it is more gregarious than ever in its gratitude for those around her. Some of the best tracks are valentines to the friends and artists who fill Yaeji’s world—and she has been proactive building scenes, from New York to Seoul—and her appreciation for this community feels all the sweeter balanced with her revelations of struggle" - Stacey Anderson, Pitchfork 1 - Various Artists - HOA 011

"Back once again, we assume the role of Vanguard in the war against white supremacy in electronic music. We bring part 2 in a story of black technological expression, from the perspectives of some of its most prolific, alongside much needed new perspectives. HOA010 was a call for a new path. HOA011 we embark.

Too Black, Too Strong." - HAUS of ALTR bandcamp page

[ericknobbs50]

Review of GSA Search Engine Ranker and Step by Step Tutorial

How to Use GSA SER with Proxies for Maximum Results

Table of ContentsGSA Search Engine Ranker Tutorial Blog post GSA software verified lists - How to Set IT Up How to Use GSA Search Engine Ranker Tutorial Best GSA SER help GSA Search Engine Ranker Tool And Review – AVS

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he software application wll develop backlinks for ou desire a manually. This s part 3 of th complte GSA Online search engine Ranker software application tutorial. f ou hv not yet discover half 1 nd half 2 f ti tutorial, recommend that you attain this. GSA Search Engine Ranker s a baklink builder tat assists ou to reate monumental backlink consisting of social backlink, remark backlink, contextual backlink nd so forth.

GSA Search Engine Ranker Youtube - How to

Ever single URL we scrape go b way of our GSA Online search engine ranker engine compatibility filters. ost mall to massive SEO firms, search engine optimization individuals, Webmasters e Gsa online search engine ranker to rank teir Websites, YouTube videos, ara sites, yu title it. It is an excellent software application established GSA staff.

owever, the truth is GSA SER ma be made use of herever you desire whenever yo ant. his GSA SR verified listing is indicated to conserve lts of you time nd money from having t scrape your individual target web sites fr creating backlinks. ur GSA SR Panel assists to view the list f tasks, tools, a real tm log with stats nd color coded validated hyperlinks.

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GSA Search Engine Ranker: Learn To Rank Sites

Thee i n option f acquiring GSA R confirmed lists ith goal urls for each publishing sources. Afte you challenge s configured, GSA SER will immediately finds new website fr you, signs up accounts nd submit yor content/link wt none intervention n you finish. Tis is the GSA Search engine ranker validated reslts of one cryptocurrency backlinks seo package of ou day-to-day urls. Take a great long take a look at all the various engine possibilities in GSA. Likewise observe that you can right click the engine area and batch select some engines based upon a few various choices like nofollow vs dofollow links. Now if you're just going at it and ticking whatever then you're most likely not gon na be having an excellent month, let's repair that.

We can't all be good spammers and many people simply won't work hard enough. Like I discussed above, if you anticipate results with GSA, you much better expect to put in the grind to get there. Did you understand GSA will check PR for you if the option to conserve PR is ticked in your advanced alternatives? Yeah it kind of uses up a lot of resources, specifically if you're already inspecting PR with your scraper. GSA Search Engine Ranker tutorials.

Keep an eye on what updates roll out, there has actually been some variations that didn't work well for me. Seriously, I'm all stired on a new upgrade and then my verified count goes down the damn drain, no bueno. GSA Search Engine Ranker tutorials. I advise keeping a backup of the latest copy that has been running the very best for you.

GSA Search Engine Ranker Tutorial - Updated 2020

Indexing and Linking with GSA Search Engine Ranker

Get Kick-ass GSA Search Engine Ranker Help at - Asia Virtual Solutions

It's 2015, can't just spam angela and paul's backlinks anymore bros. Linkvana, BMR, those days have actually long gone. GSA is still an essential part of the ranking puzzle, however you require other links to develop some authority to your domain. Then you have parasite pages like a Facebook page for instance where you can get more aggressive however still need reliable links to power ranks and keep things from getting to close to the risk zone.

If you're running some extremely little spin and it's outputting dupe content like insane do not come weeping to me when the ranks aren't busting through the roofing. How are you resolving captchas? Simply utilizing GSA captcha breaker? If so, you require a secondary solver bro, I use Deathbycaptcha. It costs money yes, but if I wish to get enough verified to finish the job I need it.

GSA Search Engine Ranker Ultimate Tutorial Guide

Stunning GSA SER training

I might go throughout the day men, however that is all for now. Hopefully these tips will help you get some more green arrows in your life and less banging of your head into the wall.

Understand GSA SER training

GSA ranker SEO software is an SEO software that brings a lot of blended opinions at the SEO community in Vietnam. There are some people who state that it is great however some might say that it is bad. Due to the fact that there are many reasons. This post is based on the experience of a long time GSA SEO user who wants to share it back on GTV SEO for everybody to check out and refer to, not me Vincent Do usage GSA and share it.

It will be a lot better, due to the fact that GSA is for those that completely understand link structure and have experience in SEO!). Alright, let's get begun! GSA is a customized tool to develop backlinks from different sources such as Post (posts), blog comments, forums, Directory, Guestbook, Image remarks (image comments), RSS, Social bookmarks, web 2.

Before getting into the information of the tutorial, you need to comprehend which tool is GSA? (if you currently know, you can skip this part). You have most likely heard many individuals point out GSA tools but sometimes you still question what is GSA? As I discussed above, GSA is an energy software application that assists you build backlinks - India.Sanctifyindia.Com.