#i’ve gone through like 5 different variations on basically this exact thing

[fagidarity]

this is still very very subject to change but i think i’ve finally got at least the base concept for what i wanted my hermitcraft joel design to be lol

[wadey-wilson]

CHARACTER CHEAT SHEET: PETER PARKER / SPIDER-MAN

Peter Parker’s abilities, traits, and history can be complicated, so I gathered up all I know from comics and all the website I’ve visited in my life, revisited them, and put them together. I hope that the Marvel fanfictions writers will find this useful, especially that more and more Spider-Man fanfics are written nowadays.

[fun fact about the hyphen between ‘Spider’ and ‘Man’ - the creators of the character used it to differ Spider-Man from Superman.]

Full name: Peter Benjamin Parker

Spider-Man aliases: Spidey, Webhead, Webs, Web-Slinger, Wallcrawler/ Wall-crawler

Date of birth: - comics: Peter is a Libra, making his birthday sometime between September 23rd and October 22nd. - MCU: August 10th, 2001

Characteristics: - gender: male - current height (age 28): 5' 10" / teenage years height: 5' 5" - current weight (age 28): 167 lbs (76 kg) / teenage years weight: 140 lbs (64 kg) - eyes: hazel - hair: brown

Family: - Richard Parker, Mary Parker (parents, killed in a plane crash, spies) - Benjamin Parker (uncle, killed by a thief) - May Parker (aunt); (- Teresa Parker (sister) ) (- William Fitzpatrick (maternal grandfather, killed) )

Address: - grew up on: 20 Ingram Street, Forest Hills, Queens - currently living in: Queens

Core personality traits: - loner - neurotic (anxiety, fear, jealously, loneliness, worry, envy, frustration) - funny and witty, yet respectful (uses humor as defense/coping mechanism and to distract an opponent) - strong willed, brave - nerdy/geeky - shy, socially awkward - caring, loyal, kind, trusting, considerate - always worried, cautious, hopeful

Intelligence: - he graduated Midtown high with the highest scholastic average in the school's history - Octavius stated that Peter's “smarter than all of them” - Peter’s more intelligent than anyone he knows and he doesn't understand why Peter doesn't use all of his intellect - Peter's IQ is 250, making his position in the Highest IQ Ranks of Marvel characters in the top 5 (it's a made up universe, ok)

Equipment:

Costume: - in the early days after the spider bite when peter was making money via wrestling, peter made a costume because a TV producer told him it would sell as an act along with the wrestling - he created a mask to avoid the embarrassment if he lost a match, later it served him to protect his identity and hide his fear during fights

Utility Belt: - a utility belt holding extra clips of webbing (later: Spider-Tracers, Spider-Signal), placed on his waist under the suit (- recently upgraded to hold cartridges of different types of webbing, freeze capsules, new Spider-Tracers as well as a newly upgraded Spider-Signal that has a UV light setting for forensic analysis.) (- in the MCU, the belt was changed into clips on the hip height of the suit)

Web-shooters: - he first created the web-shooters so they can give him the advantage over pro-wrestlers  - they're made of materials that don't trip metal detector alarms (the material changes as the comics go, it's plastic, carbon fiber, and so on) - they're pressure sensitive - work only when peter taps on them twice very quickly with his middle and ring finger. the pressure, though, is really big, given the super strength. in that way, the web-shooters don't go off in a fight or when he shakes someone's hand. it also means that an average human wouldn't be able to use them, given that they need a certain degree of pressure put on the trigger. - over the years Peter's learned to use the web-shooters in more ways than just shooting single strings - he can make a parachute, web up a cast for a broken arm, a shield, and more and more variations he needs at the moment - from marvel.com: “the webbing [is a shear-thinning liquid (virtually solid until a shearing force is applied to it, rendering it fluid) whose exact formula is as yet unknown, but is related to nylon. On contact with air, the long-chain polymer knits and forms an extremely tough, flexible fiber with extraordinary adhesive properties. The web fluid's adhesive quality diminishes rapidly with exposure to air. (Where it does not make contact with air, such as the attachment disk of the web-shooter, it remains very adhesive.) After about one to two hours, certain imbibed esters cause the solid form of the web fluid to dissolve into a powder. Because the fluid almost instantly sublimates from solid to liquid when under shear pressure, and is not adhesive in its anaerobic liquid/solid phase transition point, there is no clogging of the web-shooter's parts." 

Superpowers:

[fun fact no2: he's holding back in every fight and on daily basis - both in the intellect and physical departments.]

Mutations: - he's got harder bones and tougher skin, hard for a syringe to pin through - his organs' tissue is most probably stronger to not get squashed under the pressure of impact forces (such as g-forces while he's swinging)

Strength: - he can bench press up to 10 tons but it was stated that it’s the average strength he uses - he's holding back a lot (supporting the weight of the Daily Bugle building, landing a private jet with  a landing weight between 175,000-215,000 pounds, breaking through Iron Man's armor, even breaking through eight of Doctor Octopus' carbonadium tentacles, lifting a large pile of iron-debris equivalent to the weight of a locomotive approximately 130 tons) - he can jump to a height of several stories in a single bound - he’s strong enough to knock out people with normal durability with as little as a tap to the head - he can throw a human sized and weight object across, like, New York

Speed, agility, reflexes: - his perfect sense of balance is complemented by the generally elastic nature of his body - he can adjust his position by instinct, which enables him to balance himself on virtually any object - he can outrun moving cars - according to the comics, he can run 70-115mph - it was stated that he can go around 120 mph when swinging the fastest he can - he's agile and quick enough that in a combat fight the foe can only see a blur, dodging attacks and bullets the second they’re put in motion - according to the official bios, his heightened reflexes are about 40 times better than the ones of an average human  (with the help of spider-sense, he can dodge a bullet before it’s even shot)

Spider-sense: ( a form of unconscious precognition / extra-sensory perception tuned to danger or threats that might cause him physical or mental injury) - it can make Peter feel off when his loved ones are in danger - it can differ a loved one/a very close friend and a foe (best example: Aunt May once sneaked up on Spider-Man and smashed a vase on his head) - it can help Peter navigate in the dark - it’s a bit off and overwhelmed and Peter doesn’t react to it right when he’s very tired or distracted or when there's too much danger around (like in a big fights with many opponents and weapons) - when it goes off and “buzzes” without imminent and instant danger, Peter may think it’s just gone a bit bonkers, therefore he doesn’t react it much. - it helps with instinctive shooting webs at places that won’t crumble under Peter’s weight - it reduces stuff like the need to look sideways when crossing the street or the need to cover up 100% when Peter changes in an alleyway - Peter was banned from playing poker with F4 because the spider-sense helps him detect when someone is bluffing - sometimes it takes control over peter when there has to be less thinking and more reacting done in a fight - it can hurt peter when it's triggered hard enough

Healing factor: - he can heal from bullet wounds, concussions, broken or sprained bones, and third-degree burns in a matter of days - his body produces less fatigue toxins than ordinary humans which allows him to exert himself for days - he can go a couple of days with no sleep; - he's got a weirdly high tolerance to radiation - he can hold his breath for eight minutes or more

Metabolism: - he’s got a bottomless belly - high metabolism means he needs more food to function, but then again he can go without food because of the healing factor - he can even shrug off some toxins - the toxin resistance makes it harder for someone to knock him out with toxins (such as drugs, for example)

Enhanced senses: - he’s got enhanced sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste - they can be as much of help as of a nightmare. each of his senses was enhanced which means he can hear his neighbors as they roll over in their bed, but going to a concert isn't that fun

Wall-crawling: - according to Spider-Man Vol 1 #26 it’s a mutagenic, cerebellum-wide alteration of his engrams resulting in the ability to mentally control the flux of inter-atomic attraction (electrostatic force) between molecular boundary layers - which basically means electrostatic attraction between Peter’s skin and a solid surface - it’s mentally controlled

Quotes/mottos:

“That's not why you do it. You do it 'cause it's the right thing to do. [...] Now it's my turn. [...] I'm going to give it my all. [...] I'll never quit.”

“With great there must also come great responsibility.”

“Life sucks sometimes... but it's always worth living.“

“Everyone can be saved.”

Other:

- the Spider-Man mask supposedly muffles and changes Peter’s voice enough to be unrecognizable - Peter’s a NY Mets fan - Peter’s witty personality works on every hero’s nerve except for Deadpool (Wolverine one stated that being in company of one of these two is a nightmare, and being in company of both of them is one of the worst things he’s gone through) and Tony - the adhesive skin allows Peter’s mask to stick to his face in case someone tried to pull the mask off - he’s a skilled photographer.

[ciathyzareposts]

Gobliins 2 – Final Rating

By Ilmari

I am a bit torn about Gobliins 2. I began playing it with great expectations. The second game in the Gobliins-series showed clear improvements over its predecessor, being easier to play and fairer, while still retaining the wackiness of the first game. The more I played, the more irritated I became, when the game wouldn’t just stop. I felt that the producers had tried to cram a bit too much into the game, that there was too much of a repetition of similar themes and puzzles and that the whole would have just improved from cutting away some of the material. I feel the need to balance my rating carefully in order to accommodate both of these aspects.

Giant’s face says it all

Puzzles and Solvability

Puzzlewise, Gobliins 2 has quite a different feel from Gobliiins. The main reason for this is the move to a more traditional adventure game style, where the player has access to many different screens, instead of being forced to go through a series of discrete levels. Mind you, the game still consists of a linear series of areas, which could even be called levels, but at least these usually contain more than just one screen. This does get rid of the crudest problems of motivation in the first game, where the goal of one screen was not yet clear and became apparent only in light of a later screen.

I have to admit that especially with later parts of Gobliins 2, the goal was often a bit hazy; for instance, here I had no indication I should be creating this portal.

Another big difference lies in the way the goblins are used in the puzzle solving. In the first game, the goblins had clearly distinct roles, for instance, only one of them could pick up and use items. Here, the roles of the goblins are more similar, neither of them having any particular skills the other wouldn’t have. They still do interact with the environment in different manners, but these different manners seem often to be based just on the whim of the producers. They do try to justify these different actions by the different attitudes of the goblins, Winkle being more whimsical than Fingus, but this difference is not very strict – we do see, e.g. Fingus playing a trick on the cook of the castle.

Or trying to draw something on a picture

It’s difficult to say whether the essentially similar skill set of the two goblins is a positive or a negative thing. On the one hand, in the first game it was usually the inventory person who had the most interesting things to do, the actions of the wizard being way too random and the actions of the strong guy too simplistic and often just pushing switches. In the second game, none of the goblins had a more important role than the other. Indeed, even more so than in the first game, the puzzles often relied on cooperation, when one of the goblin did something and the other had to do something else in the small window of time when the first one was doing it.This was at times even frustrating, especially if the action of the second goblin required precise pixel hunting and/or missing the window meant beginning a long puzzle sequence from the very beginning.

I’ve already spoken of the repetition that hindered my enjoyment of the later parts of the game, and this repetition can be seen especially with puzzles. Many of the puzzles seem like Rube Goldberg machines with an Escherian twist, in that a series of complex and sometimes even geometrically absurd steps (e.g.put goblin’s hand here and see it come out in a completely different place) are required for some seemingly easy task, like getting a goblin on top of a shelf. The problem is that many of the steps used – like the just mentioned hand trick, or the one where a goblin is placed on something that is used to slingshot him – are introduced quite early in the game and then used over and over again.

Looking back at what I’ve written I might sound overtly negative in my opinion on the puzzles. Even with all their flaws, I do still prefer the idea of freer puzzle combinations in Gobliins 2 to the level-based style of Gobliiins. If only the puzzles would have been more varied and less in need of precise timing and positioning.

Score: 3.

Interface and Inventory

The producers have improved upon the first game and got rid of the ridiculous health bar that was nothing but painful. They even added hotspots, thus avoiding most of the pixel hunting (it still is a bit of a trouble in the timed sequences, where the hotspot exists for a fraction of a second).

Hotspots even tell you the name of the characters

If I do have to say something critical, the game mechanism of changing inventory objects between two goblins seems somewhat superfluous, since most of the time the two goblins have an identical inventory. And speaking of inventory, it is still very bland.

Score: 5

Story and Setting

The story of the game is less complex than in the first Gobliiins. For the most part, there’s basically only one motivation for PCs: rescue Prince and get him home. The final twist of the game, with the Prince being possessed by a demon, comes out of nowhere and feels like it was made just to lengthen the game. Setting, on the other hand, is rich and colourful. Sometimes many of the elements don’t make any sense – why is there a basketball player on a tree village? – but this just goes with the general silly tone of the game.

The dream sequences were especially delightful

Score: 5.

Sounds and Graphics

I am pretty sure the producers took the easy route and merely used all the same music as in the previous game – it still sounds good, but this is a bit lazy. Graphically the game is on par with its predecessor with images reflecting the wacky tone. All in all,since the game looks and sounds like the first one, a similar score is definitely in order.

Score: 6.

Environment and Atmosphere

I applauded the first game for its wealth of silly animated gags. The sequel also delivers on this front. Lot of the charm of the game is trying different variations in interacting with different objects and seeing if the outcome changes. Since the threat of death has been lifted, the players are free to tinker.

Score: 8.

 It was not at first apparent that goblins could be used like bowling pins.

No, let’s think about this again! The final stages of the game lost the momentum, and all the wackiness just couldn’t help with my growing irritation. Thus, I’ll deduct a few points from this category – but not too much, since I still adore the beginning.

Score: 6.

Dialogue and Acting

Based on the two games I’ve played, Goblins-series is so heavily focused on clever animations that the producers have mostly ignored text and dialogue. The second game was perhaps a bit more literate than the first, but this isn’t saying much.

The voices speaking the various lines sound more like overeager theater enthusiasts than true professionals. The actor in the role of Fingus is particularly lacking in talent, sounding like a second-rate imitation of Walt Disney voicing Mickey Mouse.

Score: 2.

(3 + 5 + 5 + 6 + 6 + 2)/0.6 = 27/0.6 = 45. If the game would have ended a lot earlier, this would have been a fine score, but since it now continued longer than was necessary and became more than a bit of a chore in its last moments, I’ll deduct one more point. 44 it is then, making the second game a bit less to my liking than the first game. Will Moczarski wins this round!

CAP Distribution

100 CAPs for Ilmari

Blogger Award – 100 CAPs – For moving from great enthusiasm to utter boredom in the process of playing and blogging through this game for our enjoyment

38 CAPs for MorpheusKitami

True Companion Award – 30 CAPs – For playing along Gobliins 2 almost to the end and proving ample commentary

The Cult of Teeth Award – 5 CAPs – For taking part in the teeth appreciation comments

Colonel Mustard – 3 CAPs – For research on the linguistics of mayonnaise

15 CAPs for Demon Throne

Teeth Award – 15 CAPs – For the best set of teeth in the game

10 CAPs for Will Moczarski

Psychic Prediction Award – 10 CAPs – For guessing the exact score of Gobliins 2

9 CAPs for ShaddamIVth

The Cult of Teeth Award – 5 CAPs – For taking part in the teeth appreciation comments

Where No Adventure Game Has Gone Before Award – 4 CAPs – For finding out the secret of the cosmic whereabouts of TAG headquarters

8 CAPs for MisterKerr

It’s a Good Game Award -8 CAPs – For sharing interesting analysis and memories on Gobliins 2

5 CAPs for Mayhaym

The Cult of Teeth Award – 5 CAPs – For taking part in the teeth appreciation comments

3 CAPs for Agrivar 

Mythology 101 Award – 3 CAPs – For a creative explanation of mermaid queen’s missing eyes

3 CAPs for Lisa H.

Cooking 101 Award – 3 CAPs – For explaining how to make mayonnaise

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/gobliins-2-final-rating/

[onisionisacanceronthisearth]

Greg vs Alleged Classmate Part 5: Skipping information and Relationship With Skye

So this one is hilariously suspicious, Greg totally skipped over the section about Skye, this was one of the biggest things in M’s posts and honestly one of the biggest parts of this interview. I’m not sure if Greg accidentally skipped too far or if this was deliberate but either way I’ll mention all that he skipped before going onto his rebuttals again. Also, this is two-thirds into the video. We’ve got half an hour left. FINALLY. Wow, I didn’t realise just how long this would take. And it isn’t just cause I’ve got one hand. This is a long one. Greg doesn’t actually counter anything but goes into detail of his relationship with Skye and reveals a lot about his personality. Spoiler alert: it’s disgusting!

What Greg skipped:

Skye was ignorant to Greg sleeping around and using girls

She also didn’t know about how he acted with other students

When they started dating, he suddenly changed as a person for a while. He was acting nice, no mood swings, and treated her as an equal

This apparently changed when he started doing things online but M doesn’t know much of that as he was busy doing other things in life. He just knew he went to his old manipulative ways (Greg listened to the tail end of this, just the superiority and manipulation part)

You know, one part of this is a bit suspicious, Greg said he met Skye in computer class the first time but didn’t really notice her because he was dating Shiree at the time. I wonder why Skye didn’t know anything about Greg if she did know him before dating (or at least of him). Too bad Greg totally skipped this cause he could have brought this point up himself

Greg is manipulative and his influence on Skye

Greg doesn’t counter him being manipulative, just asks for specifics. He then takes M saying he saw less and less of Skye to mean she didn’t ever go to school and went into a big thing debunking that thing instead of listening to the rest of this section where M explains it as Skye spending all of her time with Greg and none of her other friends anymore. We get it, Greg, you’re a moron. (oh my god he’s googling the number of days a person can miss per year wtf??)

OH MY GOD GREG YOU IDIOT, HE’S NOT SAYING SKYE DIDN’T GRADUATE OR THAT SHE MISSED CLASS. YOU ARE ACTUALLY THE DUMBEST PERSON ON YOUTUBE HOLY SHIT

Ok, now he’s talking about how terrible M is for just giving up and not reporting the abusive relationship to the authorities and how “isn’t M playing hero?”. M never said that, while yes I wish that if he is real that he had actually reported this issue, I can understand feeling defeated and not knowing the best course of action when you see someone in a relationship like that at that age. Or any age for that matter. I can say with certainty though is that if you see a friend in a situation like this, please talk with them about it. And if they’re too far gone that they even stop being friends with you over it, please talk to your, or their guidance counsellor. It’s hard, but it could save them.

Also Greg, please keep in mind that hearsay isn’t all the same. To say someone has sex with goats for no reason is different from saying that they heard (but cannot confirm) that Greg started controlling Skye because he was scared she might leave him. Sure it’s not as solid as if they witnessed it themselves, but that’s why they gave that disclaimer. Especially as they said everything after the first story is based more on hearsay than events witnessed

Greg is now acting like people talking about how they stopped seeing Skye after high school took place in high school and is saying “with what money” could he have taken Skye. But it’s well known she went to Korea with you so....? Also, his dispute that he was living with Skye doesn’t actually dispute him potentially stopping her from going out and seeing her friends. It doesn’t matter where you are as long as you have influence over her. And I’d say living with her gives you that influence, even in her own home. During high school you spent all your time with her, then afterwards you stole her away to Korea and she didn’t see her family for a while. Not all that wacky when you take Lainey in mind. She spent all her after school with you, then when she graduated you stole her away to Washington and got married while her parents thought she was in university. Is it true? No idea, but it isn’t outlandish for Greg. Especially when his defence is that he, Skye, and her sister constantly played games together which plays into the idea that when they started dating her whole world had to be him.

Now Greg is going into the old videos he made with Skye and her 14-year-old sister where they pretended to have sex. Lovely

Side note, Greg mentions he can’t remember exact details of a story involving Skye and the order or date things happened yet apparently M needs to remember everything. And if he doesn’t, he’s a liar based on that. Oh btw, I’m guessing Greg doesn’t like Skye’s dad cause he just called him a perv, how routine of you Greg. Can’t you come up with some better character slander than “he’s a pedo and a perv”?

Greg keeps up the narrative that M is saying he literally kidnapped Skye instead of her dropping contact with friends and arguing that that would be illegal. Good thing M didn’t claim that, cause that would be stupid

Greg dodges how he treated Skye

Greg is avoiding the point of how he treated Skye by still talking about kidnapping her despite it being clear we’ve moved onto M’s opinion of events he found out about later through people’s videos on Greg.

Greg is now victim-blaming by saying he told Skye he could never make her happy. True, but cheating on her and telling her you were in love with her younger sister is still out of left field and crazy to experience

Greg is also still showing that despite his experience with a chronically depressed Skye, he still thinks one just gets over depression by getting happy things. He even pointed out that buying her a house because she liked it wasn’t enough (no shit Sherlock, that’s why rich people can be depressed). This whole thing makes me feel so much worse for Skye, she was a person suffering from depression and she gets Greg of all fucking people. How fucking terrible

“We made love before I left [for the military], but we were still broken up”. You had just broken up with her to go to the military then still “made love” with her. Damn, that whiplash. You made loveless love. Something tells me that this wasn’t entirely loveless, at least on her part. Then you asked her to be at your graduation and made love in the hotel room. According to you it wasn't loving, but it was a relationship where you felt like “bros hanging out” and you made love. I’m sorry but the way you’re describing it doesn’t sound like a friends-with-benefits situation. Especially when you shit on Adrienne for having had casual encounters in the past. Also, I love how the picture during this section is a picture of Lainey and Greg together. Nice one to have while talking about your first wife. The one you took to Korea (for work, but still) and bought a house for and felt like “best bros” with. And the one you are currently describing your former sexcapades with.

Ok, so the reason it wasn’t true love to Greg was that he didn’t simply lust after her (complete with sound effects, thanks Greg). He’s literally throwing away how great of a person she was, how well they got along, the fact that he felt love towards her and love so many aspects of her because he didn’t feel, and I’m trying to quote here, “she’s so hot, ugh, oooogh”. And he didn’t feel like she was as hot as Thor, Andy Biersack, and Jensen Ackles is while saying that “it’s saying something” that he listed all dudes. Wow, I can’t tell if this is insulting Skye because he’s basically just saying she was perfect but it didn’t matter because she wasn’t hot, or insulting Lainey by him saying Lainey is only attractive to him because they look like a 30-40-year-old dude. Or he’s saying that Lainey just isn’t hot to him. Or maybe this was a mix of all of these, plus he had gone too long without a gay joke.

Ok, he’s saying a person isn’t a friend if he’s aroused by them and he married Skye as a friend because she didn’t arouse him but he loved doing “these things, making love things” to her. I just can’t. I’m so sorry I haven’t been able to offer much more than variations of “this makes no sense” on this, but I just can’t. What on earth is wrong with this guy, and why is his defence of treating Skye like shit just shitting on her more and saying that it’s fine because she was a friend he liked “making love” to but didn’t find arousing. Yet is now going into “[his] arousal, and her arousal and their mutual arousal”

New picture of him kissing Lainey in the background over: “what would be better than marrying this person who I had a friends-with-benefits relationship with, and living off [military] base with them, and watching anime with them, and playing video games with them, etc. So I proposed this to her, I said ‘hey, we should get married so we can hang out all the time’. And so we continued this friends-with-benefits relationship where we loved each other, and we made love, and we were exclusive”. But then goes onto how it wasn’t “typical” because it wasn’t (said in a monotone voice versus animated up until this point) “ever since I met you, my soul has been complete” but instead “ever since I met you I’ve felt content and complete, for the most part”. “We would make videos together like friends would” but it wasn’t passionate, and “by the end of the relationship we wouldn’t make love that often”. I had to write down the above because it needs to be heard/read. I have no idea what Greg thinks love is, but by the sound of his voice and what he’s describing here, this is it. I don’t know why making videos seems to only be a thing which friends do. I also don’t understand why he states he wasn’t aroused by her yet later says he was. It wasn't loving, but here’s why it is, oh wait but we made videos together like bros do.

Finally, Greg has come to his point which is that their relationship wasn’t the love M describes it as being. But this now contradicts the point he made at the beginning of this video to defend his remembering all his past girlfriends, even from grade 2. He said it was because he is a passionate person who falls in love fast and hard. So he told this whole story only to contradict himself and make himself look even worse with all this extra info on Skye. I can understand not being in total passionate love with a person but they’re comfortable, but what he describes is so weird it isn’t that. Especially with his weird reasoning that he ended up contradicting

“You know who I was really in love with? Shiree” Said over the Lainey picture. Lol. Also, he slips up then talks about his love in the first person. Anyways he goes onto talk about losing his virginity to her at age 14 and talked on the phone for 9 hours which was “real passion” vs Skye where when together you “simply played games together”. Cool bro, guess my marriage is passionless cause gaming is something only friends do

Sharnell confirmed?

Minor thing but Greg suddenly partially remembers the name of his long-distance ex as Shannon or Sharon or something. I suspected this ex was Sharnell and the name seems similar enough that this is likely it as there are no other girls listed which are similar enough in name, and no one matches the bacne story of him breaking up with a girl because of it.

Greg skips details again:

Greg finally realises this is all post-high school and skips forward because he decided against talking about the Shiloh situation, coward

He also accidentally skipped details on the girl he cheated on Skye with in high school. By the description, this sounds like either Tanisha or Shiree due to him calling them “a trashy whore who does drugs” one minute and their best friend the other which is kind of how he describes Shiree. Tanisha was another ex at that school who apparently did drugs though so I figured I’d add her here too. It’s a shame he skipped this part, I’d have loved to hear his response.

The contract

Oh boy! Greg’s talking about the stupid contract he tried to get Skye to sign! I’m sensing an alimony statement :D

For those who need a refresher:

Either live with him for two more years

Or get 1000$ a month from him for one year (using the youtube money he was raking it in the 6 figures that she helped him achieve while he prevented her from getting her own job)

Greg is now showing off his lack of humanity by getting mad at her and saying how he doesn’t understand why she didn’t want to live with her cheating ex-husband for two years while he made all the money on the channel she helped create. He’s now acting very confused and is trying to parse her words which were that “she still loved him and it was too painful to live with the person she loved but couldn’t be with”. But he still doesn’t get it because he was fine coexisting with her (right after explaining that he never loved her for about 20 minutes) and he was the one who broke it off and he wasn’t mad at her and is now talking about how he didn’t want to be married in a passionless relationship with his friend. This guy is legit really confused right now. He has his answer right there but he’s still confused and sounds like it. It actually sounds like he’s still trying to figure this out, what? 7 years later? Wow, that was an emotional ride. I almost feel bad for the guy, he actually doesn’t understand empathy, he doesn’t understand that just because feels one way, doesn’t mean the other party feels that way too.

And is now talking about his 6 years of alimony payments. I’m glad Skye got them. She made your channel Greg, you made millions, she got nothing while in the relationship but a partner who confesses to using her while she loved them, and who she worked as an employee for free. She was entitled to half this creative property and you basically gave her pennies compared to your wealth.

Now he’s saying the reason this happened was because she didn’t sign a prenup. Yeah, cause it’s a shitty thing to do, especially because it’s not like you had money then. Your prenup was “if we make any money together I keep all of it when I divorce you, which I expect to do”. Both of you made the channel, she did the editing and taught you how to do it while you stopped her from getting her own job and shut your depressed wife in (depressed people should not remain shut-ins, that’s the last thing they need). Prenups are for rich people so, in the case of a divorce, your former partner can’t take money made before they came in the picture. Yes, it’s used for other clauses too but those people are all assholes or are in a relationship just for the vanity of having a hot person as their partner for sex and will drop them when they get too old. The later one is basically sex work. “Marry me and for the time of your employment (our marriage), I’ll buy you expensive things and give you pocket money in exchange for sex and various other work”

“It’s pretty mean to cry so someone loses more money” (in reference to the prenup) Fuck you Greg

Next part is the final one until I make my condensed summary which I think would be useful for future use. It will include fixes and come out within a couple days. I need a break from this video after this so I’ll focus on the appeal instead

[zanyzensblog]

Catching Up, A Brucenat Fanfiction

Disclaimer: I don’t own the Avengers or anything associated with them. All I own are a lot of feels and a bit of a state of Marvel induced shock. Some Spoilers for Avengers Infinity War. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!! But as always, please read, review and enjoy!

 Catching Up

 “Wakanda?” Bruce asked confused. “Why there?”

They all were walking through the halls of the Avengers compound at as brisk a pace as hauling a wounded Vision would allow. Bruce had to admit, he really liked the facility and would loved to have seen more of it. But making sure Ross didn’t know he was back had taken priority (he was going to have some serious words with Tony if he made it back about trusting that obsessive asshole with anything) and now reuniting with his old friends and…her, things certainly have been a bit frantic lately.

Truly in many ways Ultron was the beginning of one of the most eventful weekends of Bruce Banner’s life.

And definitely the longest the scientist thought ruefully, reflecting on how much things had changed since he had been gone.

Steve gave him a confused look before answering.

“It’s the most advanced country on Earth. Its been all over the news lately Doctor, where have you been?”

Wakanda? Most advanced country on Earth? What?

There seemed to be no end to the questions that kept popping up and no time for answers to any of them. Bruce was beginning to feel more and more grateful for all those years of calming exercises.

“Someplace without good TV reception,” Bruce replied deadpan. He saw Natasha raise an eyebrow at him with a little bit of concern. Bruce pretended not to notice, now was not the time.

And he didn’t want her to feel guilty…

He could tell Steve and the others didn’t quite buy it but Steve took it in stride . “Well apparently Wakanda has a literal mountain of Vibrainium under it that they mined it in secret for centuries. Its helped advance their technology by at least 50 years ahead of everyone else at the least.”

Bruce’s eyes went wide.

“You’re kidding me.”

“Nope,” Natasha cut in. “We’ve been dropping in and out of there since the whole Accords thing went down. It’s gonna be nirvana for you there doc, they’ve got toys I don’t think Stark has even dreamed of yet.”

Bruce felt a small lance of worry for Tony pass through him and tried to reassure himself. That suit was far more advanced than anything he had ever seen working with Tony, he would be alright. But if only he could have helped if only he had…

His eyes lit up as he got an idea just as the Quinjet came into view.

“You guys get the jet ready, I need to grab something from here.”

Bruce sped off down the hallway before anyone could ask him what he was doing. But as he rounded a corner he realized he really had no idea where anything was in this facility. Backpeddling, he leaned around the corner he just passed.

“Does anyone know where Tony keeps his suits around here?”

He could almost make out Steve’s confusion, Rhodey’s ‘you’ve gotta be kidding me’ and a small smile from Natasha.

She turned to Steve.

“Get us ready, we’ll be right back,” with that she jogged towards Bruce who had taken to trying to remember an old breathing exercise to calm his nerves.

“This way doc,” she directed him and he followed behind.

She directed them in silence for a few moments through the complex, the air tense between them.

“So what do you…”

“So I heard that…”

They began at the exact same time. They both chuckled a moment before Natasha nodded for him to go first.

“So I heard that Tony and Steve fell out. I don’t suppose it was just over creative differences?”

“What like a band?”

“Heh, that’s exactly what I asked Tony.”

She smirked but it was a bit sad. “In a way I guess you could say that. Rhodes fill you in on the Sokovia Accords?”

“Only a little bit. Basically the U.N. wanted more say in how we were deployed. Some rules and accountability for our actions. Makes sense.”

Natasha raised an eyebrow. “But?”

Bruce sighed. “But I could see how it could go wrong. Especially with Ross in charge of the thing. I’m pretty sure he’d have some sort of fine print that says he gets to dissect me personally when he catches me.”

Johanessburg still hung over him, both legally and personally.

“Nothing quite that extreme in the Accords but you’re not wrong. Half the team got thrown into a facility called the Raft for awhile. Specially designed to contain enhanced individuals.”

And probably a vibrainium cell with my name on it there too Bruce grimaced.

“So I guess Tony was feeling guilty and Cap didn’t trust the institutions and things spun out of control from there?”

She rounded another corner as she nodded. “That’s the gist of it. It only got worse when Bucky reappeared on the scene, framed for bombing the U.N. summit.” She shook her head. “It was a mess all around. We all played it completely wrong and ended up getting played by a man named Zemo.”

“Who’s he?”

“Sokovian intelligence officer. Blamed us for the death of his family. He couldn’t kill us so, he tried to get us to kill each other. Almost worked.”

He thought of the exoskeleton on Rhodey’s legs. How could they have let any of this happen?

She stopped in front of a very solid looking door.

“Here we are. You need his password?”

“Nah I got it.” A few seconds later the door opened and Bruce stepped inside the armory.

Numerous capsules containing armor or likely a variety of support equipment were lined out in the hall. Most of the armor’s were variations on the standard design but with Thanos coming standard wasn’t going to cut it they needed some more muscle…

“Your turn for some information doc. What do you need a set of armor for?”

Number, 6, number 7, number 8…

“Long story short? I can’t Hulk out.”

Number 9, number 10, number 11…

“Seriously?”

Number 12, number 13…

“Yeah, he and I are having a bit of a thing. And no Hulktile dysfunction jokes please, I think I could literally hear Tony coming up with at least 5 in his head”

Number 14.

“Well it does explain why you’re going for the hummer version of an Iron Man suit.”

Tony had certainly kept up with the upgrades to the Hulkbuster. It was almost unrecognizable from the last time he saw it. He quickly moved to a console and began to program a flight path.

“Compensating much?”

“For my lack of Hulk, oh yeah.”

He typed in some commands for a few moments.

           “There, I’ve programmed it to follow the jet for awhile. Should land not too far from us when we get there.”

           “Got everything?”

           “Yeah I think so.”

           “Good, let’s go.”

           They began to head out together. Nat still with a small smile on her face.

           “So how long have you been having this issue?” she asked in an oddly doctor like tone.

           He rolled his eyes. “Come on Nat.”

           She smirked again and he realized that despite all the unresolved…things between them, they were slowly falling back into the banter they used to have.

           There were still a lot of things to work out but this was…nice.

 On the jet

“You can’t get your hulk on?”

Bruce tried not to groan at, what was his name, Sam? As he explained to everyone his condition. It was more than a bit strange to be back in the Quinjet again, knowing it had nearly been 3 years but it still felt like Sokovia was barely even a few days ago. Particularly with some of the new faces.

“Yeah, tried to help Tony out back in New York but its just not happening no matter what I do.”

“Hence the Hulkbuster.” Steve nodded. “Stark let you use it?”

“It’s still coded to him but I can reprogram it to accept me too. It’ll just take a little time.”

“It’s a good call, we may need the firepower. But even if you crack it are you sure you can use it?”

Bruce nodded. “I can figure it out. Might not be able to use it quite as well as Tony but it’ll work.”

“Um…” the woman next to Vision piped up from their secluded corner.

Oh yeah, her. Bruce thought. He had been doing his best to ignore her.

“If worse comes to worse I probably could…”

Half remembered screams and frightened dust covered faces assailed Bruce as he shot her a glare of pure murder.

“You even think about getting into my head again and I’ll turn you into a scarlet smear on a wall.”

Everybody looked rather uncomfortable for a long moment.

Bruce closed his eyes and took a deep breath, years of guarding against rage had completely slipped for a moment. In some ways, it was a relief to actually be able to get spontaneously angry and not have to worry about waking up in the middle of nowhere and hear about billions in property damage and injured or dead people.

In other ways, well…that was whole other ballgame.

When he opened them they were all still looking at him cautiously, except Nat who seemed more concerned than anything.

“Sorry. Yeah see? Not even a bit of green. And even if I agreed, whatever the hell is going on between him and me, you’d probably make it worse. That’s the last thing we need.”

“I hope you can figure it out doctor,” Steve said as he settled back into his seat. “From the sounds of it, this is gonna get hairy.”

 The Quinjet was ridiculously fast, but it was still hours to go until Wakanda. Most of the group opted to take a quick nap. Steve, Sam and Rhodey, trained soldiers, managed to fall asleep almost instantly and in positions where that should have been almost impossible. Wanda had finally nodded off huddled next to Vision, who had told Bruce that while he didn’t sleep, he did like to conserve energy. Especially since he was still injured.

Soon enough, it was just Nat and Bruce again.

“You should get some sleep while you can Bruce.”

“Who sleeps these days?”

She quirked an eyebrow at everybody around them.

He smiled sheepishly. “You know what I mean. I’m fine though so if you want to…”

“What are you not telling us?”

Her voice wasn’t accusing, she was genuinely curious.

“If you really don’t want to tell me that’s alright. I know that I…” she closed her eyes for a moment. “I would understand if you’re still angry at me. I made your choice for you at Sokovia. I broke your trust. And, it was still the right call, the team needed us, they wouldn’t have been able to stop Ultron if we weren’t there. But I do know that I crossed a line and I’ve been wanting to say I’m sorry for a very long time now.”

Bruce had hardly even thought about the fact she kissed him and pushed him into a pit. Not even when he first woke up, he had been so worried about her after the initial shock of the transformation had worn off.

Had she been thinking he was mad at her for all this time? That was just…that was all wrong.

I leave for two years and everything goes sideways.

Quietly, he got up and stepped around the prone figures of his teammates and sat across from her, like she did for him just before Ultron and tentatively reached out for her hand. Their fingers wrapped around each other’s gently.

“You have nothing to be sorry for. Its just…the reason I didn’t want to tell you is, well one its such an insane story I barely even believe it and I didn’t want you to feel guilty.”

He took a breath.

“From what I gather, after Hulk took the jet he pulled up to go to space,” he turned away for a moment. “I’m not really sure why. But when he got there, he must have gone through some sort of wormhole and ended up on a planet called Sakaar. While he was there, he became some kind of gladiator and that’s just what he did. For two years.”

Natasha eyes widened with shock as the meaning hit her.

“You were Hulked out for two years?”

Bruce sighed. The enormity of it all finally starting to hit him.

“Yeah.”

“I’m…I’m so sorry Bruce I didn’t mean to...”

“It’s not your fault.”

“How the hell is it not my fault that you were robbed of two years of your life?”

Bruce quickly tried to grasp for an answer.

“Think about it scientifically. We don’t really have enough to form a real hypothesis yet, all we have are some observations. For all we know, maybe the wormhole did something to me. Or maybe it was a residual effect from getting my mind played with. We can’t really say for certain that it had anything to do with…”

He was cut off when she all but engulfed him into a bear hug that nearly took his breath away.

“Stop,” she said. “Just stop, its ok to be angry Bruce.”

Almost dazed he wrapped his own arms around Natasha and they stayed like that for a few moments.

“I am angry,” he said at last. “But not at you. I’m mad at the other guy, I’m mad at Wanda, I’m mad at myself, hell I’m even mad at Tony and Steve for letting the team fall apart.  And honestly I’m scared too. Thanos beat the Hulk without breaking a sweat. Thor is gone and I just…”

His arms began to tremble and he took a few more deep breaths, just trying to ground himself in the moment, focusing just on the warm embrace he found himself in. It helped a lot.

“I just haven’t had a moment to just think, to just process all of this, everything that happened. Sokovia was just a few days ago for me and hell I should still be reeling from that but there’s just so much else and if I stop to think about it I…”

Natasha pulled back a bit.

“Hey, easy now, look at me Bruce.”

He stared into her emerald eyes.

“We have a job to do. We have to focus on that for now. And afterwards? I swear, everything that’s happened? I’ll be there to help you process it. I promise.”

He nodded and she leaned her forehead against his.

“Hell after everything I think we’ll both have earned at least a month off. I’ll bring movies and enough vodka to kill the average Russian.”

They both got a chuckle out of that.

“That doesn’t sound half bad.”

“It really doesn’t,” she leaned back and Bruce could feel exhaustion finally catch up to him from the emotional roller coaster he had been on.

“Get some rest Bruce, I’ll be here when you wake up, I promise.”

He nodded already mostly asleep and once again he felt her hand wrap around his own and he squeezed back.

“I missed you,” she said quietly.

“I missed you too,” he said as he finally drifted off.

She stayed holding his hand for a long time, as if making sure he was really here to stay. With her other hand she gently moved a stray strand of hair away from his eyes before moving away from him back to her own seat to get some rest. She had a feeling she was going to need it.

And for the first time in 2 years, her nap felt truly restful.

[the-real-xmonster]

Jump Scoring, How Does It Work?

Gang, I hope you guys are still interested in tech talks because I’ve gone and made another one here. This one will focus on jump scoring and (hopefully) help you tell the good jumps from the not-so-good ones and understand why this one jump for example is worth a full +3.00 in GOE:

As I’ve mentioned a couple of times in the previous posts, there are three parts to the score of any technical element in figure skating: the base value (BV), the grade of execution (GOE) and the scale of value (SOV). BV is about how difficult the element is, GOE is about how well it’s done, and SOV brings BV and GOE together to make sure GOE is somewhat proportionate to BV (I say somewhat because I still can’t for the life of me figure out the exact math behind how the ISU defines SOV). So that is also how I will approach this explanation: by discussing how a jump gets its base value and how it gets awarded GOE.

First up, let’s talk base value. A jump’s BV is defined by, one, what type of jump it is, and two, how many rotations it has. The hierarchy of jump type goes like this, from lowest to highest BV: toe loop - Salchow - loop - flip - Lutz - Axel, and of course, the more rotations a jump has, the higher its BV is. 

It follows that the first part of determining a jump’s base value is making sure it is exactly what it’s intended to be. The 2 jumps that get mixed up the most are, as you might already know, flip and Lutz. They are both jumps in which the skater takes off with a toe-pick assist and rotates in the opposite direction of the toe pick. The key distinction between these two jumps is that flip must be taken off from an inside edge and Lutz, an outside edge. The ISU will knock off 30% of a flip or Lutz’s base value if it’s taken off from the wrong edge. 

Here’s what a flip taken off from an outside edge, commonly known as a lip, looks like:

Notice how Yuzuru was going through the motion of setting up a flip (short entry, jump done immediately following a turn), but at the last moment before the takeoff, his left foot switched to an outside edge? Now you can compare that against this correct flip from Patrick and check out the difference in their takeoff edges:

By the way, before you fret, there’s no need to worry for Yuzu. He managed to fix his lip problem and edge calls all but disappeared from his score sheets from the 2014-2015 season onward.

Here’s what a Lutz taken off from an inside edge, or a flutz, looks like:

You see Javier’s flutz is almost a mirror image of Yuzu’s lip up there: he was going through the motion of a Lutz (longer entry, left shoulder leaning outward), but at the last moment his edge switched to inside. This time I will call on Boyang to demonstrate a technically perfect Lutz as benchmark:

The Lutz, by virtue of its outside takeoff edge, is a counter-rotated jump, since its takeoff edge pushes the skater’s shoulder and upper body in the direction opposite to the jump’s rotation. Therefore, most skaters’ natural instinct is to, at the last moment, get out of that counter-rotation spot by switching back to an inside edge or flat edge, just like what Javi did. However, notice how Boyang actually deepened his outside edge right before the takeoff? That is a sign of strong Lutz jumpers.

The next step in determining a jump’s base value is counting its number of rotations. There are 2 cases which can happen that would make a jump end up with fewer rotations than what it’s intended to be.

Case number one is under-rotation. It’s what happens when a skater lands on the ice in the middle of their jump’s last rotation (mostly due to lack of height and/or distance). In practice, it means you’ll see the skater lands slightly forward (reminder: all jumps are supposed to be landed backward). Serious under-rotation (in which a jump lacks more than ½ revolution) most likely will result in the skater losing their balance and end in a fall or a hand down. Less severe cases (jumps missing ¼ to ½ revolution), usually lead to the skater’s landing blade drawing a hook shape on the ice instead of a smooth curve. ISU rule is to deduct 30% off a jump’s BV if it’s under-rotated by less than ½ revolution and to downgrade a jump if the under-rotation is of more than ½ revolution. A downgraded jump will be assigned the BV of the same jump type but with one fewer rotation, e.g. a downgraded quad toe will have the BV of a triple toe.

See below a comparison between 2 quad Salchows by Kevin and Patrick, one under-rotated and the other fully rotated. Can you tell the difference?

Here’s a close up of their landings:

Case number two is pre-rotation, aka cheated takeoff. This one is what happens when a skater does part of their jump’s first rotation on the ice instead of in the air. In practice, it means you’ll see the skater takes off facing forward (or backward if they pre-rotate an Axel). The official ruling is that pre-rotated jumps with a visibly wrong takeoff direction must be downgraded. 

Below is a side by side of Shoma’s quad flip and Nathan’s quad flip. Spot the difference?

And a close up, in which you can see crystal clear that one of them left the ice when his body was almost entirely facing forward:

Once we’ve managed to establish a jump’s base value, the next step is to determine Grade of Execution. According to latest ISU communication, here are the bullets a jump can hit for GOE:

1. Unexpected / creative / difficult entry 2. Clear recognizable (creative, interesting, original for jump preceded by steps/movements of the Short Program) steps/free skating movements immediately preceding element 3. Varied position in the air / delay in rotation 4. Good height and distance 5. Good extension on landing / creative exit 6. Good flow from entry to exit including jump combinations / sequences 7. Effortless throughout 8. Element matched to the musical structure

A jump checking 2 out of these 8 bullets will be awarded a +1 GOE, 4 bullets will give it a +2, and 6 bullets up is a +3.

For bullet 1 and 2, let’s compare the entries of these 2 triple Axels by Yuzu and Boyang:

Boyang’s triple Axel was not at all a bad attempt: he did have steps and skating movements linking into the takeoff and he didn’t take too much time to set it up either. However Yuzu’s entry was just in a different class. First, he did the jump off a counter turn, which by itself is already a difficult element. Second, the entry curve of that turn was done clockwise, which was opposite the direction of the jump’s rotation and added another layer of difficulty. Finally, notice how Yuzu did the turn and took off for the jump on the same left foot, while Boyang had a foot switch before his takeoff? It means that Yuzu’s Axel takeoff did not have any assist from his free foot, which, again, made it exponentially more difficult.

We can then follow these 2 jumps to their exits to check for bullet 5:

Boyang’s exit is a decent one with good extension (for extension, check if the skater maintains their balance, how fast they get into the check position, and how far off the ice their free leg is) and good flow back into the program. However, again you can see quite a clear difference: Yuzu’s landing was on a much deeper outside edge, which resulted in better speed and better flow, and his high kick right after very much satisfied that “creative exit” criterion. Overall on entry and on exit, what you just saw is the gap between a jump with +3.00 GOE and one with +1.57.

Bullet 3 is an easy one to spot. The two most common variations in air position are Rippon (two arms over head) and Tano (one arm over head), as demonstrated below by Adam Rippon himself and our lady of perpetual Tano, Janny Medvedeva:

The other option for Bullet 3, delayed rotation, is very hard to find these days in either Men or Ladies’ event, mostly because it’s an incredibly tough thing to pull off. Delayed rotation is when a skater starts their jump’s rotation only when they’ve reached a certain altitude in the air, as opposed to immediately getting into rotation as soon as they leave the ice. An extreme application, of course, is this delayed single Axel we’ve been treated to all last season:

Delayed rotation basically goes against almost everything a skater usually trains for in order to perform jumps. You normally want to get into as tight an air position and to start rotating as soon as possible (without pre-rotation that is). That’s why it is nowhere near half as popular as varied air position as a mean to hit Bullet 3.  

Bullet 4, 6, and 7 usually go together. Out of the examples I’ve used so far, Boyang’s quad Lutz and Yuzu’s quad toe (which you saw at the very beginning) are both top-notch examples of bullet 4. Yuzu’s triple Axel also easily checks off all of them. 

Bullet 8 is something I can’t show in gifs so you’ve gotta go check out some videos, my friends :) Just like, I don’t know, watch Yuzu's Hope and Legacy at Worlds 2017 or something.

You’d also want to keep in mind that all the things we discussed thus far is concerning a jump or jump combination in isolation. When a program is considered as a whole, there are cases in which a jump won’t get full BV and positive GOE even if it’s technically perfect: for example, an extra jump performed outside of technical requirements or a repeated jump (say you’ve done one solo quad toe in a free skate, if you want to do another one it’s got to be in combination, otherwise it counts as a REP and will only get 70% of its BV). 

Now to wrap this up, let me just point you to this one jump combination that hits about every single bullet it can conceivably hit:

(+3.00 GOE both times)

[seotipsandtricks-me]

When I first joined Found and was performing some basic keyword research, I simply threw a few keywords into AdWords and, hey presto, out popped 800 keywords. As a beginner in the SEO world, I thought that this would suffice. Gosh, how naïve I was! Ten months later, I am pleased to say that my technique for keyword research has improved dramatically. I use a range of tools and my process is far more efficient. Here, I’ve collated a load of great tools, as well as some outside of the box techniques, to help you find some keyword diamonds in the rough. Why carry out keyword research? Keyword research allows a brand to better understand what people are searching for in their niche, as well as how to optimise their website to better deliver results relevant to those keywords. Conducting keyword research allows you to optimise a website which attracts more visitors, as well as conveying better understanding and more relevancy to search engines. It also helps you improve the user experience and understand your target audience to better serve them relevant content. Keyword research can also help you find new business opportunities, by discovering terms and phrases that may not be an exact match but are somewhat related to the services or goods you offer. You can also find out where your site lies in relation to your competitors, and understand where a competitor is strong, as well as where there are opportunities to own a keyword. My approach Whenever carrying out keyword research I always find it useful to take a step back and to look at why you are doing it. Are you looking for informational or commercial keywords? What and who are you trying to target with the research? What is the end goal you want to achieve with your research? Are you trying to increase sales? Build awareness? By taking just 5 minutes to really understand the task ahead you can save hours in the long run. Have a rough idea of what you want to achieve, and then use this guide to help your research. Keyword Research Tools – Order of usefulness 1. Google This probably seems so incredibly obvious but it’s a stage lots of us forget about. Simply give your research topic a bit of a Google. This gives you some top-level ideas of where to begin your brainstorming and what Google recommends as relevant searches. This straight away gives me some potential avenues for research – ‘raw honey’, ‘honey for sale’ etc. Again, depending on the purpose of the research, I would make a note of a few useful topics for more in-depth research later. By Googling the keyword, you can also check in the SERP whether the top performing pages are commercial or informational. This proves useful when choosing what keywords to target on specific pages. Have a look at some of the top sites for these keywords. Make a note of the sites that seem to reoccur for further investigation. Cost – Free 2. AdWords In my opinion, this is the best keyword tool you can use. I use Google AdWords whenever I conduct keyword research. Pros AdWords allows you to enter multiple keywords in at once. I do, however, keep the words I enter into the tool very similar as I think it keeps the output a little easier to manage and speeds up the filtering process later on down the line. Most keyword tools pull their search volume from AdWords, so it helps with keeping your data consistent. Whenever I use another tool for KWR I always run the keywords through AdWords to ensure that the search volume is consistent. You can add your competitor’s URL into the search bar and see what related keywords appear for their pages. Cons Most people use this tool so your competitors will also be looking at the exact same keywords you are. AdWords is also starting to bundle together similar keywords which can be annoying and can distort overall search volume. I would suggest reading through the search data afterwards to double check there aren’t any noticeable keywords affected by this. Cost – Adwords is free but only to a certain extent. You get more granular information if you have an account that is actively running ads. 3. Moz I really like the Moz Keywords Explorer tool. You do have to pay for the premium version ($99 +per month) but can sign up for a 1-month free trial. It gives you an option whether or not to group keywords which AdWords doesn’t Pros One of the main reasons I like the Moz tool is that it gives you the option to group or ungroup similar keywords. Obviously, I want them ungrouped! This tool also has a nice SERP feature that shows you the top pages for that keyword. This is nicely laid out and shows you the page authority, domain authority, linking root domains to the page, linking root domains to root domain, and volume of Facebook shares for the top 10 organic results, very handy indeed. Cons The main disadvantage to the Moz pro tool is that it gives you the search volume in a range. This is a right nuisance. It just means you need to throw the keywords into Keyword Planner to keep things consistent. Cost – Free but limited to 10 queries a month. Subscriptions start from $99 per month. 4. Sistrix I always use Sistrix for analysing competitors pages to see what keywords they are ranking for. This technique helps to identify some keywords that you might previously not have been targeting. Simply paste the competitor URL into the search box and away you go. Sistrix also enables you to group the keywords, this can really help when you’re manually grouping keywords later in the process. Cost – Pay for what you need. Prices start at $100 a month 5. Answer the public Answer the Public is a great tool for finding informational keywords and potential titles for blogs. Simply throw in your keyword and it spits out questions, prepositions, and comparisons. Again, I’d throw these phrases through AdWords to check the search volume quite a few will have zero search volume. Have a quick look through and see if there are many that could be shortened or adjusted slightly for your purpose. I love the way Answer the public displays the results if you’re a visual person I’m sure you’d appreciate it. Cost – Free 6. Keywords Everywhere This is a must have Google Chrome Extension for any SEO professional. If you haven’t already got this bad boy installed, do it now. Here are a few of my top features of this tool: It shows you instantly when you search in Google the search volume of a keyword Keywords Everywhere also have a related keywords box that gives some suggestions for keywords. If you click the little star to the left it adds it to a list that you can access via the tool. Really useful for collating a long list of keywords. The search volume is pulled from AdWords so the search volume is consistent. Another great feature is you are able to analyse a page. Simply click on a competitor’s page and click analyse. It shows you the top keywords, density search volume and competition. All really useful. Cost – Free Outside the box methods So, I’ve gone through my stable of techniques for KWR, there are other methods out there and I’m sure you’ll have your favourites. On the rare occasion I’m struggling with KWR for a client I find myself using some slightly more outside the box techniques. 7. Wikipedia This is a quick technique for finding some potential avenues for research. Type a top-level keyword or two into Google followed by Wiki and check out the Wikipedia page. Have a brief look at the contents section. There are always some useful topics for further research. These topics can then be thrown into the AdWords tool to get more ideas. 8. Forums Industry forums can be a Godsend when it comes to tricky B2B clients. Pop the name of the industry into Google, add the word ‘forum’ – ‘beekeeping forum’ – and trust me, there will be a forum. These are the natural habitats of the experts in the field. Spend half an hour or so looking through some relevant content, maybe even search within that forum for a keyword or two. More often than not the users of these forums will be the type of customers you are trying to attract so look at the language they’re using and see if you can uncover some potential gems. 9. Udemy This is quite far outside the box but stay with me. This site offers courses in a wide range of things from music production to marketing. Search for a few top-level keywords and see what course come up. Look through the courses and course content and see if there are any keywords that you could use later on in your research. 10. Concatenate This handy tool not only works for PPC campaigns but is useful for finding keywords for SEO. Our concatenation tool designed by the data Wizards at Found makes creating a list of keyword variations dead easy. Simply enter the words you want to concatenate into the boxes and let the tool do its stuff. In seconds you’ll have a lovely list of keyword variations. Just pop these into AdWords to get the search volume and away you go. Check out our concatenate tool here. 11. VidIQ I came across VidIQ when doing some work for one of our clients surrounding YouTube. It’s a plugin that shows video and channel tags. These tags are basically keywords. When working on slightly harder B2B clients where you might not be a complete expert on the topic search a few top-level keywords. You can then sift through a few top results and see what topics come up. If you really want to immerse yourself watch a few… Process Filter Group So, there you have it. All the tools you could possibly use to help you gather a vast amount of keywords short-tail, long-tail and all the tails in between. The best ways to go about it are freemium or paid methods – applications such as Adwords and Moz – but the free methods offer ways of gaining insight too. The main difference between paid and free is the amount of information you receive. While you won’t have as much detailed information using the free methods, they still give you a general idea of the keywords in your niche. It all depends on what your budget can afford. For my money, the best combination is Adwords/Moz, complemented by Answer The Public. But now you have all your keywords, what do you do with them? Find out in the part of our keyword series. But if you can’t wait and need SEO expertise, contact us here. The post A beginners guide to keyword research appeared first on FOUND.

[cutiecrates]

Cutie Reviews: Kawaii Box Oct 19

I have complex feelings today, on one hand I’m excited because the brand new Cooking Mama will be arriving. On the other, my mom had to go to the hospital again and I’m worried about her.

So basically... you could say I chose to do this now to bide time. Besides playing Animal Crossing and some heavy duty Spring cleaning.

Word of the month: Majyo/Majo- Witch

Event of the Month (besides Halloween): Taiku no Hi/Health and Sports Day. Which takes place October 14, the day before my birthday x3

“Everything you need to be a kawaii standout at a spooky party!“

Unicorn Cosmetics Bag

Our first item is this exclusive to Kawaii Box (or you can check their online shop Blippo.com) cosmetic bag, featuring the pastel color variant of the Kawaii Box print and a big, cute unicorn! It has a nice pink zipper on top and leather strap for easier carrying, and the inside has bright pink crinkly fabric lining; it feels like the fabric you use to avoid water damage.

The bag is of a decent size, so it would be perfect for carrying around some necessities to the store, in another bag or pack, or even if you just want to use it to help organize something in the home.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I’m always looking for these in the boxes, because I tend to accumulate stuff from all of them and rather than keep every box I get, I can use these for the similar or smaller items I don’t have another place to put. Overall it’s very nicely made, and I really like it, I’m glad to see a variety of brand exclusive items in the box.

Koala’s March & Umaibo (not pictured)

I think we’ve all seen Koala’s March by now, right? I won’t be getting too into topic about these, but basically if you’re unfamiliar with them, they are little koala-shaped biscuits/cookies with Koala drawn on them and a thick, chocolate filling. They’re very yummy, and over the years there has even been a few different flavors, like strawberry. They each also come with a little Koala drawing you can collect on the top and bottom flaps. Koala’s March is also known for its benefits to the real Koala of the world :3 and it’s one of those few Japanese snacks you can easily find outside of Asian territories.

For Halloween, we have the basic chocolate. But these ones feature adorable Halloween-themed designs. You can also cut around the bottom to use it as a cup for holding things.

I had every intention of taking pictures of the various biscuits/cookies, but they were kind of smashed up and broken apart. Sometimes snacks just can’t handle travel very well, but I would highly recommend trying these if you never did. They’re very yummy.

- - - -

I’m sorry guys, but the umaibo that came with this months box was annihilated when I got to it. It would have been a messy picture and I didn’t think it was worth including. I don’t have much to say on it because I’ve reviewed several of the same Umaibo and this one was no different, because... it was...

CORN POTTAGE

If you’ve been reading my blog, you’ll know that its my MOST FAVORITE UMAIBO EVER. If you haven’t then now you do :P it’s so delicious~

Hattifattener Plushie

This silly looking creature is from the series Moomin, and it has come to celebrate Halloween with you. This is a 100% polyester made plush thickly filled with cotton. The hands are made from very soft fabric, and it has a long silver ball-chain.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

As simple as this is, I couldn’t think of something more ideal for Halloween than a ghost-like being such as this. I don’t really know anything about the Hattifattener, but it’s pretty cute looking. It’s very soft and plush, and while it has little detail, they are very clean and neat.

Halloween Party Stickers

Whether you’re attending or throwing a Halloween Party, journaling, drawing a picture for the month, or just collecting stickers. These ones are the perfect little touch of spooky cute ♥

For this box, we could get a couple variations of sticker sheets; like cute animals dressed up, ghosts, or this mix of Halloween spirits and icons like I got; such as Jack-o-Lanterns, bats, and some Japanese spirits like the Kappa, the umbrella ghost or long necked lady; there’s even a few Non-Halloween creatures, like a mermaid and genie. The stickers are also puffy, giving them that 3D-ish look.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

I love holiday-themed stickers x3 they’re always really fun to look back. As much as I don’t like repetitive designs on sticker sheets though, I’m not that bothered by it on this one because the repetitive ones are recolored or a bit different in style, rather than being the exact same printing repeat.

Ghost Heart Pin

Kawaii Box not only gave us one exclusive item, but two this month :D This is a cute accessory you could wear on person or attach it to a purse or something else if you really wanted to. I’m not sure if you can tell in this pic, but the pin is actually pretty big, about the size of my fist. It also seems to be of really good quality, and has a nice, solid response when you tap or hit it.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

I really got into collecting pins the past few years, so I’m excited to add another one to my collection.

Cat Teru Teru Bozu Pen

Teru Teru Bozu are ghostly looking objects one can make in order to keep away bad, rainy weather. So for this month, we have a kitty one who has come to make sure Halloween is at its best this year; unless you’re like me and keep it in the box, because it was pretty chilly and rainy this year.

The pen is an extremely basic clear tube with a black ink fine-tip. The kitty TTB can be sat aside, or you can put it on the pen butt so that it can keep you company while you write.

♥ ♥ ♥ 

As cute as the kitty is, I find the rest of the pen to be extremely repressed/plain/boring. But it works perfectly well, so it’s not like I wont use it, it’s just not in my top 10 list.

Shine Rainbow Bookmark

Our next item is this really pretty bookmark ♥ by Tree In Art, these came in various designs and colors and feature shiny, colorful flakes in various shapes; such as a star-themed one shown in the booklet, or this one that I got, featuring unicorns, sakura flower, flowers/snowflakes, and dots. There is also a small silk ribbon tied through the top for an additional touch.

I never heard of the brand TIA until I started seeing it in this box, and since then I have come to really like it! They have a variety of items as I’m learning, in all sorts of designs, such as casual fat kitties and narwhals, floral, and magical elements like mermaids and unicorns. 

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I also really like reading, and for the past few years I’ve been obsessed with this yarn bookworm I got from a craft store, but its eyes have gone missing and I’m kinda tired of it, so this will be a lovely change of pace~

Glitter Star Hair Clip

I was the most excited about this item, so I’m very happy I can finally begin wearing it! These came in a few variations, each consisting of a clip covered in shiny deco flakes, and adorned by a large clear star filled with shiny star flakes and some others; such as the metallic shells mine has ♥

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I’m completely in love with this~ It’s so pretty, and it’s not too decorative that it might look strange to wear, it’s just enough. The quality of the clip is also really good, and I love hearing the flakes inside shake around as I move my head or tap it.

It also really goes with my nails right now :3 its a win-win.

Colorful Scratch Notepad

This is our last item of the month, a fun little scratchpad. If you never seen these before, they are basically colorful, smooth pieces of paper or card stock covered in black material that you “scratch“ off to reveal your image in the color of the sheet.

This specific set comes with multiple pieces of rainbow, along with one gold sheet, and one silver.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

These are a really fun way to pass time if you like to draw or doodle. It’s also very relaxing, and this specific set is a dream because of how soft and easy it is to draw on the black stuff- the only downside is that because it’s not the usual smooth, gummy-ish paint-like substance that is really easy to remove, this one kinda smears like pencil would, so you might need to clean your hands after using it. I also wish we got an even amount of each color sheet.

♥ Cutie Ranking ♥

Content - 5 out of 5. I love everything, it’s so much fun! A couple of them might have been basic or plain looking, but they work fine/have good quality.

Theme - 4.5 out of 5. They were really close to getting a perfect score this time, but I felt like a couple of items didn’t really fit the spirit of the Halloween theme.

Total Rank: 9 out of 10 Cuties. I really liked this box, it especially excelled in comparison to the past few boxes this month and I enjoyed it. I’m in love with quite a few of the items, and I can’t wait to use them in full now!

♥Cutie Scale ♥

1. Star Clip - I’m going to wear this a lot :D I love it love it love it!

2. Bookmark - It’s so shiny and pretty to look at~ I adore it~

3. Unicorn Cosmetics Bag - I probably would have picked this as my top favorite item, if not for the fact I liked 2 more way more.

4. Ghost Pin - It’s pastel color scheme and heart shape are kawaii x3

5. Scratch Notepad - It’s very fun, I really like these. I actually own a couple of them, but none with pretty metallic sheets.

6. Halloween Stickers - They’re cute, even moreso than the ghost stickers we got last year~

7. Cat Teru Teru Bozu Pen - it’s cute, but also on the plain side. I really like the super-decorative pens more. 

8. Hattifattener Plush - It’s plain looking but still kinda cute.

9. Umaibo - This almost felt painful to do because its so delicious, but with how messed up it was out of the package -edible or not- I didn’t feel like it earned a goo score.

10. Koala’s March - As yummy and cute as they are, once they’re gone they are gone you know?

[onlineuni-blog]

Ultrabook: Intel's $300 million arrangement to beat Apple unexpectedly With an end goal to limit the (ARM-based) tablet risk, Intel needs PC creators to …

My desktop isn't the main PC I plan to supplant in the following couple of months. I require another portable PC as well, and my objective is straightforward: to discover a 13" MacBook Air that isn't made by Apple.

For reasons unknown I'm by all account not the only one needing this legendary non-Apple MacBook Air. Intel needs them as well—it calls them Ultrabooks. The chip organization has been kicking the Ultrabook thought around for a couple of months now, and it has fantastic desire: before one year from now's over, it needs 40 percent of PC portable workstations to be Ultrabooks.

Ultrabooks are ultralight PCs, similar to the MacBook Air, close to 0.8" thick, similar to the MacBook Air, with Intel processors, similar to the MacBook Air, metal cases for unrivaled warmth dissemination, similar to the MacBook Air, SSD capacity, similar to the MacBook Air, long battery life and significantly longer standby time, similar to the MacBook Air, and reasonable, similar to the MacBook Air. Gracious, and they ought to boot in 7 seconds or less (which after all other options have been exhausted, the MacBook Air can most likely draw off, as well). Is the MacBook Air really a Ultrabook? Intel revealed to us that that is dependent upon Apple—the MacBook Air is a Ultrabook in everything except name.

Intel, quick to fortify interest for PCs (as opposed to for ARM-controlled tablets) is unmistakably so irritated by the powerlessness for PC OEMs to meet this determination that it as of late reported the making of a $300m "Ultrabook Fund" to put resources into organizations that are attempting to construct this sort of equipment. That is a dooming arraignment of the PC business.

What Intel is requesting is promptly achievable. We realize that since Apple's offering a great many Airs. But then the world's five greatest PC makers—HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, and Asustek—have so far been not able thought of something proportional. What's more, evidently they're not near overseeing it, either, on the grounds that Intel supposes it must contribute pots of money to close the hole.

This isn't a perfect approach; it would be better if the OEMs could deliver these machines all alone. Still, the catalyst is currently there. Issue illuminated? Most likely not.

My mission

I'm not being troublesome only for it.

The most recent MacBook Air is an attractive machine from various perspectives. The size, weight, screen determination, and battery life are all phenomenal, and the evaluating is mind boggling. Truly, did Apple neglect to put a 1 preceding the 999? Tragically, Apple's equipment drives me up the divider in various ways that may appear to be irrelevant to you, however which together essentially wear me out. I've had a go at living with an Apple tablet all the live long day, and I just can't.

As a matter of first importance, we have the console. Of course, Apple consoles have a not too bad feel, and that backdrop illumination, which many people appear to go insane for, is somewhat favor. It's quite recently too awful that Cupertino can't get the damn console format right.I'm English—a mobile, talking Brit. I place "u"s in words like "top choice" and "shading," I see plays at the "theater," and I stroll on the "asphalt." This has repercussions. The first is that I've been writing on a British console format for a long time, and, guess what? I'm cursed in case will stop now.

Lamentably, Apple doesn't offer a console with a standard UK design (BS 4822, for gauges wonks out there). Apple has a console format it calls "UK"; I even get a £ image from squeezing shift-3, much the same as on a genuine UK console. In any case, I hope to discover #, the image that on American consoles possesses a similar move 3 spot, on its very own devoted key, found on most consoles the world over however not in the US. A few different keys have additionally been moved around. Also, it's for reasons unknown, to the extent I can discern.I can settle this blemish in programming. I have a custom console format that makes the correct characters show up when I press the keys, so it's not deadly. It's quite recently revolting; the keycaps at no time in the future match the letters that show up on-screen.

What I can't settle in programming is Apple's doltish limited return key. On non-US consoles, the arrival key is twofold stature, more extensive at the top than the base. The top part is not exactly as wide as delete above it, but rather even the base half is more extensive than an ordinary keycap. Not so on Apple's consoles. The top part is quite recently under the width of a standard key. The base part is, hopefully, a large portion of the width of a standard key. The outcome? I miss the arrival key constantly. Indeed, even following six months in a row on a MacBook Pro, I miss. Other portable workstation consoles don't do this. IBM didn't. Lenovo doesn't. Dell doesn't. HP doesn't. It's simply Cupertino being troublesome.

I likewise utilize the page route keys—the home/end, page up/page down square of six—around a million times each day. All things considered, aside from when I'm utilizing a Mac, since (ha-ha) Apple does exclude them. This isn't another thing, mind you; the organization has recently never watched over them. The keys can be found on the full-estimate "expanded" consoles, however not on any convenient. There are workarounds—key blends that I can easily forget—however I need genuine equipment keys. Unfixable.

I'm likewise an aggregate sucker for TrackPoints ("areolas"). Apple's trackpads are the best in the business, and signals are awesome. In any case, I simply couldn't care less. I'm speedier and more exact with a TrackPoint. Shockingly better, give me both. A TrackPoint for indicating; a touchpad for motioning.

On top of all that, I need to utilize Windows on my tablet. I'll likewise need to utilize the Windows 8 beta on it. That implies I can't bear to be held prisoner by Apple's lethargic Bootcamp driver bolster. Regardless of the possibility that the various imperfections are settled, this current one's a dealbreaker.

These might appear like minor issues. Maybe they are; other individuals may not give a tinker's cuss about any of them. Be that as it may, a PC is basic to my occupation and my life. I put a huge number of words into the console each day and effectively pile on 80 hours seven days of PC utilize. New PCs cost hundreds or thousands of dollars, and I shouldn't need to make due with something that doesn't really fit my needs.Welcome to struggleville

How about we begin with Dell; I go to dell.com and look for a portable workstation. I need something like a 13" MacBook Air, so I tick "11 to 14 inches" and "< 5 lbs," Dell's ultralight classification. I get back three to a great extent undefined machines, running from $999 to $1359. What's the distinction between them all? I don't have the foggiest idea, they all look like variations of the "Alienware M11x." It's befuddling and overpowering, not accommodating.

It's far and away more terrible on the off chance that I simply peruse without looking. The alternatives I get are simply... useless. Yes, I need "Ordinary Computing," so I need an Inspiron. Yet, hold tight, I likewise need "Plan and Performance," so I need a XPS. Hold up a moment, I need "Thin and Powerful," as well. So perhaps I need a Z Series? Be that as it may, the main line that clearly coordinates my expansive pursuit criteria—lightweight, 11-14"— I wouldn't much consider in light of the fact that I don't need a "gaming" portable workstation, as I'm never going to click Alienware!

Is this the most ideal approach to offer portable PCs? Make a pack of classifications with subjective, covering marks, and simply trust that purchasers figure out how to battle through the framework to discover something that isn't pathetic?

Perhaps HP will be better... actually no, not so much. Their site has some by and large weirdnesses (yes, I'm in the UK, and yes, we're metric, however no, I don't need my screen measured askew in centimeters; we don't do that). The same odd marks cover everything—I know I don't need "Little/Netbook," however I need both "Ordinary Computing" (that term once more) and "Elite" (since I don't need it to be moderate, isn't that right?). What's more, who knows what "Begrudge" implies? When I tick my screen size and weight boxes, I get back a product of lousy netbooks that are practically the direct inverse of what I want.Lenovo does things a little in an unexpected way. It begins off with a similar moronic arrangements that must sound good to some person in advertising—"Controlled for efficiency" and "Improved for stimulation" and "Straightforward components worked for flexibility"— however underneath, at any rate, it has a decent, perfect table that rundowns every one of the variations and their real elements or configuration focuses. It's a bit Excel as methodologies go, however in any event it's reasonable and compact.

What's more, Lenovo needs the table, since amazing—are there a great deal of models to look over. Seven distinctive ThinkPad arrangement—T, X, X Tablet, Edge, L, SL, and W—four IdeaPad arrangement—V, U, S, Z—and the Essential G and B arrangement. Inside every arrangement you normally have a scope of screen sizes. 13" screens are lamentably uncommon, yet the X arrangement looks encouraging. Lightweight, 12.5" screens, in length battery life, and, being ThinkPads, a brilliant TrackPoint. This could be my new machine!Weirdly, when navigating to X arrangement, a 13.3" screen is currently a choice all things considered; The table on Lenovo's UK site is quite recently off-base. I inspect the X220, the variation with the 12.5" screen, and it looks exceptionally decent, as well. So I gone through the configurator. I get that the "12.5" Premium HD (1366×768) LED Backlit Display, Mobile Broadband Ready, 2x2 Antenna" screen is superior to the "12.5" HD (1366×768) LED Backlit Display, Mobile Broadband Ready, 2x2 Antenna." Fifty dollars gets me "Premium"— however what else? I click "Help me to choose" and get nothing even remotely accommodating. Furthermore, once I include Bluetooth, a coordinated webcam, a 128GB SSD, and 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, the framework cost comes to $1999. The 13" MacBook Air costs $1299! With a superior screen, better Bluetooth, and better WiFi!

The Lenovo has a substantially speedier processor, yet that is a considerable measure of additional cash for something with just a minimal advantage. The MacBook Air's better screen is a great deal more profitable to me.

Perhaps the X1 can charge better. At any rate it at no time in the future has any unexplained screen alternatives; 13.3" 1366×768 "Premium HD" is the main decision here. This is a trick the configurator pulls various circumstances, requesting that I arrange things that have no alternatives and where everything I can do is press "next." once more, everything turns out badly once I include a 128GB.