#it's the mouths mostly very different distinct mouths number one but also just general features shapes what are you looking at wha huh

[absolutely-not-my-main-blog]

Hot take 😭

[sitaarein]

None Stand Equal In This Dark World

A/N: Officially my largest ever fic so please. Just read it and be nice sob because I’m kinda proud of some of it

Written for @grishaversebigbang 2021!!!

Corporalki: @homicide-depot​

Materialki: @generalnabri (x), @kolarpem (x), @aivicart (x), @maximumbluebirdpatrol , @niadrawing (x)

 (Summary: A murder mystery AU featuring Zoyalai, twists and turns, moral dilemma, and then some more

Read on AO3

Chapter One

The apartment door was wide open.

 In retrospect, that alone should have set off the alarm bells in Zoya’s head. No one left the door to their place wide open. She can’t imagine why she simply dismissed it. 

 Scratch that, she knew why. She’d been tracking this idiotic Grisha for a month now. She was tired and desperate. 

 But it appeared that- who would’ve thought- not being at the top of your game has consequences. 

 Consequences like staring down a man who’s been tied to a chair and gagged in the middle of, what Zoya guesses is, the lounge, eyes wide with terror.

 Zoya is mad at herself for not managing to guess it was a red herring- the damn door - and very, very mad at the Grisha who has, once again, slipped right through her hands. 

 She nods to one of her men, and he immediately drops to the man’s level to untie and presumably interrogate him. Zoya doesn’t stick around for the details- she trusts her people to give her good reports. Instead, after a cursory look around, she tips her head back to face the ceiling, taking in a deep breath, and leaves the apartment. 

 The weather outside took a dramatic turn in the fifteen minutes she was inside- it had been sunny before, or at least as sunny as Ravka ever could get. But now, the sun has all but ceased to exist, and the bitter cold is back once more. 

 Zoya prefers the cold. 

 (She doesn’t, not really, but no one needed to know that.)

 Zoya starts walking, pulling her coat tighter around herself. Her mind races, trying to connect all the dots, trying to figure out where her investigation had gone wrong. Start from the beginning. Don’t miss anything. The most minor of details are the most important.

  The beginning. A woman showed up to their headquarters about her missing family. Those cases were usually dismissed completely, handed over to the police forces- Zoya’s force was Grisha-centric, other cases, no matter how large or important they were, did not concern them. But this case was different.

 The woman was Grisha. 

 Her family weren’t, evidently- and neither did they know that she was. They’d been missing for six weeks, and the odds were pretty heavily stacked against them still being alive. The woman was detained (she was Grisha, this was Zoya’s job ) and a group of officers were dispatched for a search and rescue.

 The officers never returned.

 Alarm bells were now ringing, and the General assigned Zoya to the case. In the time since she officially took over, twenty more disappearances were documented, and all of them in Os Kerva alone. Saints knew what was happening in the rest of the country.

 But Zoya had never believed in Saints, so she found out what was happening in the rest of the country.

 The total number of disappearances in all of Ravka that had this case’s signature mark- an eclipsed sun left wherever the victims were seen last- was an estimated three thousand . Zoya couldn’t believe no one had connected the dots before her. Then again, the entire of the force were filled with incompetent idiots, so maybe it shouldn’t have surprised her. 

  The series of events . Zoya travelled up and down the country with the best of her underlings, talking to anyone who knew the victims, searching their last known places with tooth combs, building up working hypotheses, using all the resources they had available. Zoya was not an idiot. She knew exactly how capable she was. 

 And she also knew when she was fighting a losing battle.

 And so, when she got a call from one of her top detectives about a confirmed Grisha she’d been trailing for some time now who’d begun suspicious activity, she was clutching at straws and willing to take anything that came her way. She met up with her agent, and a few days later, they got the address of the apartment she was currently pacing in front of.

  The present . This part could be summed up fairly quickly. Zoya is, once again, at a fucking dead end . 

 Before she can kick something (or someone) out of frustration, A faint ringing reaches her ears, and frowning, Zoya stops in her tracks. Her phone is never not on silent. Calling Zoya Nazyalensky for anything was utterly pointless- she never picked up. 

  But the GIA has ways of getting into contact with its members regardless.

 Muttering a curse, Zoya digs around her pockets, looking for the infernal device with its grating, high-toned ringing. Finally locating her phone, she jabs the answer button without looking at the caller ID.

 “Yes?” she asks bluntly. 

 “Zoya,” Alina’s voice greets her.  

 Zoya immediately forgets everything that had been on her mind. When Alina calls, it’s rarely for a friendly chat. 

 “What’s wrong?”

“You need to get back here. As soon as possible.”

 “Understood. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

 Alina hangs up immediately, and Zoya pockets her phone, mind racing.

 She orders one of her lackeys to send her a report when they're done, grabs the keys for the van they’d used to get to the apartment from a rather distracted officer, taking off.

 Zoya reaches the Grisha Investigation Authorities in approximately half the time she’d given to Alina, and she may or may not have disobeyed quite a few traffic laws to get to her destination as quickly as she did, but that was frankly unimportant. 

 She strides through the doors, not bothering to acknowledge the many who’ve halted their paths to nod to her or, in the case of a few particularly stupid (or courageous, however you wanted to see it) people, attempt to strike up a conversation with her. She didn’t break her pace even once, until she’d reached the door to the meeting room they usually used to meet up for serious issues. After taking a moment to compose herself, Zoya pushes the door open.

 Inside, she finds all of her fellow Commanding Officers assembled- Adrik, Leoni, Alina, and Genya. Frowning, Zoya scans their faces, and mentally shifts whatever’s happening even higher on her scale of terrible shit to take care of immediately.

 Because not even Leoni, who can find positivity at a funeral, is smiling right now. There’s barely a hint of her optimistic and eternally cheerful personality in her countenance. 

 Zoya carefully takes the seat left for her around the circular table. Her gaze flits from one worried face to another, and she decides to be direct.

 “How bad is it?”

 The question seems to jolt Alina out of her reverie. She looks up, and Zoya feels her breath catch, because she looks so… helpless. Terrified.

 Genya takes it upon herself to answer Zoya’s question with another question, her mouth set in a grim line. “How’s your investigation going?”

 “We lost the suspect,” Zoya admits, her earlier frustration returning with the reminder of the infernal case. “We’re right back to where we started- but without the hope and the general idea of where to start.”

 “I’m not surprised,” Adrik mutters. “Considering who your delightful suspect is…”

 Zoya furrows her brow, and glances back at Genya. “Explain.”

 Genya looks as if she would rather do anything else, but after coming to the realisation that no one else is about to, she sighs and does so.

 “I’m presuming you remember Alina’s case that went cold about two years back?”

  A little too well. Even years later, that case haunts her- the truly horrific killings, from corpses with their body parts stuffed down their throats, to children who had clearly been still alive when burnt, the utter dead ends, Alina’s far too close brush with death, and… the person behind it all.

 “You don’t think it’s the same person??” Zoya demands, horror spreading through her veins.  She can not handle another Kirigan. 

 In lieu of replying, Genya nods to Leoni, who pushes forward a large envelope. Dread pooling in her gut, Zoya opens the package to find pictures from Alina’s investigation.

 “We revisited these when your disappearances started,” Genya says. “And… found more similarities than we’re frankly comfortable with.” 

 Zoya shifts the photos around, and then freezes at one, having caught sight of a mostly blurry but still distinctive calling card. “That’s…”

 “The eclipsed sun,” Adrik provides grimly. “You’re screwed.”

 “Hey, now,” Leoni protests. “We don’t know that.”

 Adrik snorts. “Don’t we? Need I remind you of the damage this person wrecked to the GIA and our country?”

 “How do we know this isn’t just a copycat?” Zoya breaks in. “None of the bodies of the victims this time around have been discovered,”

 “Copy cats still tend to have their own twists on kills, a signature, a mark that’s theirs. While none of the killings for either case have many similarities, they also don’t vary in terms of said signature.” Genya says.

 “Killers are proud creatures,” Adrik inputs.

 “And this one’s no exception,” Leoni says, eyes grim. 

 Zoya looks up. “What do you know?”

 Leoni hesitates, but then gives in. “We got a note this morning. A photocopy should be in the envelope too.”

 Zoya overturns the envelope, and sure enough, a piece of paper falls out. She picks it up, reads it, and crumples it up. 

 “You’re sure this isn’t a stupid joke?”

 “It was in the Director’s office.” Leoni says. 

  Shit.  Zoya glances back down at the crumpled mass she’s still clutching. You will burn on your mistakes. What mistakes? 

 She ignores the faint voice in the back of her head. You know what mistakes.

 Zoya takes a deep breath, focuses her thoughts, and then exhales. “How’s the Director doing?”

“He’s terrified.” All of the COs seemed to be equally startled to see Alina was the one to speak. Her mouth is set in an angry line, and Zoya can guess the track of her thoughts, because they were the same ones that had crossed her mind upon hearing the words- who is he to be terrified? What right did the Director even have to feel scared, when he himself never so much as interacted with the cases???

 Adrik sighs, leaning back in his seat. “Which is what has led us to our current predicament.”

 “And what do you mean by that?” 

 Genya exhales in a huff. “He wants the Mentals on this case along with all of us.”

 “He what.” 

 Alina, lips twisted in a sardonic smile, gestures to nothing in particular. “You heard correctly.”

 “Why ??? This is my case, and I will handle it.”

 “He doesn’t want a repeat of the bad press that came with my failing last time, I’m guessing.”

 “Bad press,” Zoya spits out. “I wonder how much bad press he’ll get when I-”

 “Do not,” Genya warns. “This could be helpful to us.”

  But also a personal disgrace , Zoya finishes the sentence in her head. The Mentals were practically a legend of the GIA- they were special, elite investigators, a whole mix of people ranging from scientists to- if the rumors were correct- ex-spies, who ended up with the cases no one else in the force could solve, and somehow, without fail, solved each of them within a week at the least. 

 It was irritating as hell.

 And having them assigned on your case meant that the Director did not trust you to be successful on your own. 

 Absolutely wonderful.

 “So when are these... spectacular detectives arriving?” Zoya asks. 

 Genya opens her mouth, and then closes it, before starting, “Well-”

 “I hope I’m not too late to this marvelous party?”

 Zoya swivels to see who this truly abnormally cheerful person is, and then blinks. She turns back to face the others once more- Adrik still looks glum, Leoni is smiling her most polite smile, Alina seems to have perked up and Genya is genuinely smiling. They all look… unsurprised.

 Of course they were hiding more secrets up their sleeves.

 “ What,” Zoya finally breaks and asks. “Is the damned PR guy doing here?”

 The aforementioned PR guy pouts. “Is that really what I’m known for around here? My PR duties? That’s quite depressing. Why would you focus on that when you could talk about my stunning good looks, or my undeniable charm, or even my ability to-”

 “Nikolai,” Alina interrupts. “Shut up.” she looks at Zoya, a hint of dry amusement in her eyes. 

 “Zoya, this is Nikolai Lantsov, and he is indeed our PR guy, but he’s also… head of the Mentals.”

 Zoya blinks. He’s what??? And then, wait… they knew who the special investigators were? How long have they known? Why was I not informed?

 She doesn’t voice any of her thoughts, choosing instead to stare, unimpressed, at the blond, who grins at her in response. 

 “If I had known you possessed such astounding grace and beauty, Miss Nazyalensky, I would have made your acquaintance sooner! I’m sure these upcoming days will prove to be an absolute pleasure, provided I get to spend them in your delightful company.”

 “Saints save me,” Zoya utters faintly. “The Director assigned an idiot to my case.”

 “Hey, now!” Nikolai protests. “You haven’t even met the rest of my team yet!”

 “An idiot who talks too much,” she deplores. 

 Genya and Alina both snort at that. In fact, all of her fellow COs seemed to be taking far too much pleasure in this situation. Zoya hates all of them. 

  “Well, now that we’ve gotten the pleasantries out of the way,” Nikolai says, to which Zoya distinctly hears Adrik mutter “pleasantries?” under his breath, “I think now would be a wonderful time for me to introduce you to my brilliant team,”

  Genya sits up immediately, looking eager. Zoya wonders what that’s about. 

 She finds out fairly quickly.

 Nikolai ushers in a group of people, and she recognises one in particular, one who she has, in fact, known since her college years -

 David. Genya’s husband, David Kostyk, is a part of the Mentals. Harmless old David. Zoya can’t believe her eyes. 

 She scans the rest of the group, but the others barely seem familiar. The two Shu right in front of David look similar enough to be twins, apart from the height difference. Right next to David is a woman that, with a jolt, Zoya recognises as Adrik’s sister from what she’s heard and seen of her. Bringing up the rear is a man who vaguely resemblesNikolai himself, ducking his head shyly as he enters the room. 

 “Now that your merry party is all assembled,” Adrik says glumly. “Any ideas where to start?”

 “Shouldn’t we at least get to know each other first?” Adrik’s sister asks.

 Adrik stares at her. “I’ve known you since I was born.”

 “We’re not the only ones in the room, Adrik.”

 “Oh, aren’t we ? I can’t say I noticed.”

 Nikolai interrupts their glaring match to finally provide Zoya with names to all the unfamiliar faces. 

 “Tamar, Tolya, Nadia, and Isaak, meet the officers we’ll be working with for the next few weeks or longer- Alina, Genya, Zoya, Leoni, and Adrik,” he gestures towards each person in turn. Zoya briefly wonders how he already knows their names, before realising that just because the GIA didn’t know who the special investigators were didn’t exactly mean they didn’t know the GIA either. 

 “And now,” Nikolai beams. “Let’s get comfortable. It’s time to discuss our present conundrum!”

[tribbetherium]

The bahamuts, close relatives of the quetzals and theriodontophidians, are predominantly aquatic large pseudosnakes found in the coasts and oceans throughout the world. Warm-blooded like their close cousins, the bahamuts lack a coat of insulating filaments and are instead covered in a thick layer of blubber to conserve warmth. Another distinct feature are two prominent ridges on their sides to act as fins: while some species have just one continuous ridge on each side, some of the pelagic species have ridges separated into two or more pairs of pseudo-flippers.

The bahamuts are divided into two sub-clades: the more basal and primitive Littorabahamidae and the more derived Pelagobahamidae. While the Littorabahamidae are still somewhat terrestrial, able to move on land (albeit clumsily) and mostly dwell in the shallow seas, the Pelagobahamidae have left the land entirely and have taken up permanent residence in the open ocean, and are distinguished from their amphibious cousins by nostrils migrated up to their foreheads, a proportionally enormous single lung that allows them to hold their breath for hours at a time, and fluked fins that aid in maintaining balance in the water.

Bahamuts are ovoviviparous, retaining their eggs inside their bodies until they hatch and essentially giving live birth. While some of the beach-dwelling Littorabahamidae lay the egg a day or two before hatching, the more derived ones birth their young out at the open sea, where they are guided by their parents to the surface to take their first breath of air.

Notable species include:

▪The blotch-spotted sneel is a 4-5 foot-long piscivore native to the cold waters of the Arctic Ocean. An agile and active fish-eater, the blotch-spotted sneel propels itself through the water with cartilage-supported ridges on its sides that act like fins, while its tail is predominantly used to steer. Sociable in nature, groups haul out onto ice floes with the help of stiff spines on their undersides, where they huddle together to keep warm in colder days. While the blotch-spotted sneel lives only in the frigid waters of the north, the rest of its kin are a highly successful family, and the different species of sneels are found along the coastlines of all seven continents in this timeline, where they bask on the beach in groups and head out to sea to hunt.

▪The spectacled plorp is a very small and rotund bahamut measuring less than a foot in length. Avid hunters of small fish in the shallows, the plorp speeds through the water in pursuit of its prey with rapid vertical strokes of its tail. While agile in the water, it is much less so on land, where it ambulates with a series of short, bouncing hops on its well-padded belly. Due to its small size making it vulnerable to predators, the plorp instead finds safety in numbers, gathering in tightly-packed groups in the hundreds or even thousands. Their bright colors help them recognize their own species, and large groups are known to cooperatively defend their young during the breeding season.

▪The grubby landblubber, averaging six feet in length, is a highly unusual member of the bahamut family, in that while its kin increasingly specialized for an aquatic lifestyle, the landblubber instead became terrestrial, slowly heaving itself along on land with a rippling motion similar to a caterpillar. Native to the isolated islands of the Pacific with few other pseudosnakes as competition, the landblubber has adopted an omnivorous niche, feeding on invertebrates, carrion, and plant matter, and generally is not picky with whatever food it can find.

▪The mustachioed dolrus is the most basal living member of the Pelagobahamidae, and still closely resembles its amphibious cousins in many ways. However, it is an entirely aquatic creature, completely helpless if beached, and instead spends its whole life in the shallow seas where coral reefs are most abundant. Using its namesake bristly whiskers to locate its prey, the dolrus forages among the reefs for crustaceans, mollusks and small fish, which it stores in its cheek pouches until it surfaces to breathe, chew and swallow. Males, larger and more strikingly patterned than the females and growing up to 18 feet in length, are highly territorial and aggressive, and frequently bear telltale scars from the bite marks of rival males.

▪ The Pacific serphin is an agile hunter of the open ocean, specialized for quickly traveling long distances in search of food. A relatively small hunter, measuring 8-10 feet at most, its favorite targets are large schools of shoaling fish, and groups of them are known to cooperate to corral the fish into a tight ball, in which they can more easily pick them off one at a time. Their long, needle-like teeth ensure that prey finds it difficult to escape when caught, and while much of its diet consists of piscine prey, it is known to hunt aquatic windribbons on occasion, ambushing them as they glide above the waves.

▪The pelagic tigerwhark, at 15-20 feet long, is the apex predator of the tropical seas. Armed with slicing teeth measuring up to 10 inches, the tigerwhark is a fierce hunter adapted to hunt other bahamuts, from sneels and serphins to even other tigerwharks. Even larger bahamuts such as the trident cetitan are not safe from them, as they are on occasion known to recklessly charge prey much bigger than themselves, bite off a mouthful of flesh and quickly retreat before the victim even becomes aware of what bit them. Thankfully for their bigger victims, the tigerwhark is a solitary species, and nearly all recover from the attacks with but a ragged mark from their grisly encounter.

▪The trident cetitan is the largest pseudosnake ever to live, reaching impressive lengths of up to 120 feet. A filter-feeder, the cetitan uses its long teeth, equipped with numerous fractal-like serrations along its edges, to trap massive groups of miniscule prey, such as squid, swimming crustaceans and entire shoals of schooling fish. Closing its teeth around the swarms of small prey like a cage, the cetitan forces the water out through the gaps in its teeth, while the serrations serve to sieve out the large quantities of food which is then swallowed. Cetitans are typically monogamous creatures that travel in mated pairs, but at certain times in the summer when there are massive blooms of zooplankton and small fish, groups of over a dozen cetitans may gather to feast at a time. It is also at these times of abundance that the young are typically born: already an impressive 30 feet at birth, they are nourished by a special viscous substance regurgitated by both parents until they are able to feed on their own.

[davidanderson7162]

Cartoons for Everybody

It is not true that just children take pleasure in cartoons. Cartoons have been showing up in print media as well as television for decades. They are extremely entertaining and also are suitable anxiety busters for the worn grownup. For youngsters, animes can be academic in addition to enjoyable. It holds true that there are some that are violent, those are best prevented. It would certainly make good sense to pick intelligently what you desire your children to see Kids TELEVISION Online.Kids TV Network

Exactly how do they profit your youngsters?

- Some animes carry messages in social understanding. Cartoons almost always have stories that centre round a hero. The hero is always combating evil as well as victories. Happy endings are constantly great to have.

- There are those that develop vocabulary. Kids learn new words as well as enhance in their speech.

- An added advantage is that, those youngsters watching programs like these find out to focus. This helps them focus as well as educates them the ability to follow consecutive episodes.

- They learn life lessons, they discover sharing and exactly how to recognize right from incorrect. They find out that it is not always the large and also the solid who constantly win.

- Animations constantly obtain stored away as terrific memories and those pleased associations are carried appropriate into adulthood.

How do they profit adults?

- Viewing an anime when you're ill in bed is a splendidly recovery exercise. Remember those times when, as a youngster you did precisely that?

- Researches reveal that viewing cartoons lowers the danger of anxiety associated illness in adults. A great laugh launches endorphins in the mind. These endorphins make us really feel far better mentally and physically and are the best de-stressor that money can't purchase.

- Individuals like these find they associate better to kids as well as have a much better understanding of them.

- Obviously, this is a great way to kill time as it keeps individuals out of mischief. The still mind, as they claim, is the devil's workshop!

Throughout the years animes have actually advanced from one dimensional characters on the screen as well as paper to a three dimensional one. Modern technology has made cartoon personalities realistic. Both adults and children connect to the story Children TELEVISION Online.

Anime Vs Cartoons: What's the Difference?

In the "Anime" neighborhood, for most fans as well as fans, "Anime" is "Anime and also "Cartoons" are "Cartoons". For them both of the things are truly different from each various other.

Firstly, many individuals obtain puzzled between an Anime and also an Anime, even if both are animated that doesn't imply that they both are very same. There are a lot of differences in Anime as well as Cartoons. While both are caricatures that might be computer animated, anime generally has visually distinctive functions for characters. So, below I will certainly now clarify the difference in between these 2. Anime are Japanese computer animated production, that are available in various layouts like, television series such as dragon sphere z, Naruto, one piece etc., computer animated brief films, and also full-length films. However animations are two-dimensional illustrated visual art, non-realistic or semi-realistic illustrations.

Anime characters have distinct facial and also physical features that are extremely comparable to truth, their large eyes and tiny mouth are developed due to cuteness. On the various other hand, cartoons physical features are very much from reality than anime. Anime characters additionally reveal various kinds of distinguishable faces whereas animes do not.

Cartoons are normally made to make people laugh, so the style mostly is funny. Yet there are likewise several animes that are academic, showing something good to mainly young children and also youngsters in an enjoyable, interactive way. For example, mickey mouse, Donald duck, pests bunny and so on

. Unlike cartoons, anime does not adhere to just one or more genres. Anime programs and also movies are all based on some sort of story which proceeds through the whole series, for instance, bleach, one item, Naruto, etc. Anime is based upon real-life problems or something that are closer to human feelings and also have a lot more categories than cartoons such as, dramatization, school life, slice of life, love, activity, and so on

. However if you check out both of them as different entities, or as same, you will not be able to locate a clear difference between the two, which is why a lot of the people get puzzled in between both and wind up calling anime as well as animes are very same Children TELEVISION Online.

The initial animation was stated to be generated in 1499. It depicted the pope, holy Roman emperor, and the king of France as well as England playing the game of cards. However, Japanese animation began in the very early 20's, when Japanese filmmakers were trying out various methods. By 1930s, as an alternative to the live activity sector, computer animation was established.

As anime are two-dimensional numbers drawn and utilized in animations, as caricatures in papers, and also publications. If we were to define what Anime is after that the basic suggestion of several of the common as well as agreed upon notions would certainly be "Japanese, animation, vibrant layouts, as well as hand-drawn" would certainly be primary buzzwords.

Today, Anime only appears to refer "animations just from Japan" to make it extra understandable for individuals. After all this is human nature to like the important things which are conveniently understandable and conveniently categorized.

To make the distinction more clear, let's take the example of the tom as well as jerry and dragon sphere z. So, you may believe what's the difference in between both when they both are computer animated and have excellent visuals, histories, sound impacts as well as even the computer animated drawings behave. But, there are lots of distinctions in them which differentiate them from anime to animation. Like, their principles are absolutely different, as you know every episode of tom as well as Jerry is various as well as is not associated with any of the previous episode or continuing some sort of tale from a point but in dragon sphere z every episode is connected to the previous one, and proceed the story from where it stopped in the previous episode. And their categories are various too, as tom and also Jerry is purely based upon a pet cat and also mouse battle and made to make people laugh and their watch time enjoyable. On the various other hand, dragon sphere z is sort of a journey of a saiyan to conserve the Planet and also the universe from several dangers, he defends conserving every person, with the aid of his family members, close friends and fellow saiyans. Dragon ball z is can be categorized in various categories, like activity, experience, comedy, very power, etc

. An additional thing in which some individuals may unique anime as well as cartoon would certainly be that cartoons are for youngsters whereas reach of anime can be extended to many various other age and other locations Kids TV Online.

However what I believe is, cartoons are not simply children product, because as we can see in the newspapers, as well as on television also, there are many cartoons containing as well as targeting lots of political, spiritual sights. Most of these messages are concealed as well as indistinguishable for kids, to ensure that grownups can appreciate viewing them with youngsters. Whereas some of the anime consists of high grown-up material and thus are not secure or good for little kids to see. Those type of anime are made completely concentrating on adult target market. But there are likewise some anime collection which are definitely risk-free to enjoy with children. However nowadays, even normal anime's might have some scenes which are not meant to be enjoyed by kids.

So, I think, where cartoons are secure for kids to see, anime shouldn't be thought about secure sufficient for them. But despite just how old you obtain, you can still appreciate it as it is.

I really feel that, anime has much deeper thought in them, well created characters, broad story-line, a solid style, sensible background animation, the real world scenarios, discussions, expressions, etc. all of these things bound us together to view all the episodes (whether there are 12 or 24 or more than a thousand of episodes) of the anime collection. Whereas on the various other hand, animes, regardless of whether they are telling a story or simply going for funny, have superficial characters and themes.

Cartooning for Kids: 3 Books That Can Help You Get Started

Many children I understand love to attract eventually. Several of them love it a lot, they take place to produce video games, comics, cartoons, and comics. If you are seeking some exceptional books on cartooning for youngsters, below are three that can aid you get going.

Among the outright finest general intros allows Publication of Cartooning by Bruce Blitz. He starred in a public tv program for years, and I was able as a young person to learn from his techniques.

Guide covers whatever from basic cartooning abilities, like integrating various facial forms, features, and hairdos, to make various characters. It likewise demonstrates how to attract bodies and also add motion to them so they are funny and also dynamic, and not just stalling.

He does a terrific work of introducing animation results as well as devices. Those are the kinds of things that make animes enjoyable and bring them to life, like the wavy lines appearing of a piece of pizza, to show that it smells excellent. Or the lines on a pool of water or a mirror, to reveal they are reflective. And also one of the most enjoyable of all, those little grains of sweat or activity lines, like when someone has actually just thrown a sphere Children TELEVISION Online.

There is also a great deal of mention on just how to create cartoons, consisting of how to lay them out, invent jokes, as well as do your lettering. For kids who wish to attempt their hand at superhero-type comics, he covers different means to make your male go from dopey to wonderful, from absolutely no to hero. Likewise included are numerous positions you might utilize, like training, taking off, flying, and also boxing.

This extensive work additionally has an area on animation portraiture or caricature. In this way you can draw funny pictures of on your own, good friends, family members, as well as teachers, and offer those away as presents. You may even wind up offering your job!

An additional outstanding summary is Everything You Ever Wanted to Know concerning Cartooning yet Hesitated to Draw. The writer is a Disney-trained musician, so it's a perfect recommendation if you like that design. Yet it too covers every little thing from expressions and also drawing action presents, to cartoon format.

One specific area I such as is exactly how to attract your animes from various camera angles, like way down reduced. That way, if you are trying to attract something from the viewpoint of a very tiny character, like a computer mouse seeking out at an individual, you can obtain an excellent funny aim to your job.

Art for Children: Cartooning: The Only Cartooning Book You'll Ever Need to Be the Artist You have actually Constantly Intended to Be motivates youngsters to try out various techniques to obtain their own designs. The design hangs and also open, so it's easy for kids to comply with. There is also info on composing jokes as well as developing panels Children TV Online.

So if you have an interest in cartooning for children, these 3 books to help you get going are perfect. You will have 3 completely different designs to examine, and you will have great deals of suggestions on attracting fundamentals, plus information on how to put whatever together into your own anime creations. Delighted cartooning!

8 Memorable Youngsters' Anime Adaptations to Motion Picture

When a well enjoyed children's TV series makes the change from the little to the hollywood it normally spells a break from tradition and also an attempt to interest an entire new target market. Computer animation resorts to live activity, rough-and-ready image resorts to CGI, obscure commentary artists are replaced by prominent Hollywood stars as well as puppets are switched for real-life actors. To commemorate the incredible brand-new film of eponymous cult TELEVISION series Stories of the Riverbank [talesoftheriverbank.co.uk/ trailer], here are some motion picture gems that really improve their kids' TELEVISION starts, and also some stinkers that ought to have adhered to what they're best at:

Garfield (2004 )

On the one hand, Bill Murray seems like he's constantly been the voice of Garfield - his effortlessly sarcastic wit seems completely suited to the lasagne addicted fat feline. On the various other, pretty much whatever else regarding this movie sucks. The performing's not up to much and also the animation's nothing short of tragic. The initial comic strip as well as anime series didn't endeavor to far from Garfield's litter tray, so this attempt to stretch things to more than an hour just ends up a mess.

Little understood fact: Bill Murray recorded a lot of his audio for this in Italy while shooting "The Life Aquatic" on a watercraft.

Authorities Garfield website - garfield.com/.

Tales of the Riverbank (2008 ).

Though not a cartoon, this new motion picture is absolutely worth a mention: when Johnny Morris initially placed his voice to these shore pets in the 1959 TELEVISION collection of the same name, it could have been debatable. However it turned out that making pets appear like they were chatting was a huge success. Today the adorable Hammy Hamster once more joins GP, Owl as well as buddies in a fracturing feature length waterfront prance. With a winning, British voice actors and also an innocently jolly story, this motion picture is set to become a company family members favourite. Little understood fact: In the '60s TV program, the animals were adjusted to look like they were speaking utilizing peanut butter on the roofing of their mouth.

Official Website - talesoftheriverbank.co.uk/ trailer. TOTR on IMDB - imdb.com/title/tt1043748/.

Teen Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990 ).

There were the Samurai Pizza Cats and after that there were the Bicycle Rider Computer Mice from Mars - yet both were bad copies of what was undoubtedly the supreme animal/mutant based cartoon activity collection embeded in a drain ... including a speaking rat. "Teen Mutant Ninja Turtles" was a computer animated TELEVISION show in the 80s, a trilogy of live-action films in the 90s as well as more lately a computer system cartoon animation (TNMT). The films are mainly dreadful - however watch out for an instead snazzy-looking Vanilla Ice in Adolescent Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Glop. Traditional. Little recognized fact: In the UK the TELEVISION series was called Adolescent Mutant Hero Turtles as the word "ninja" was considered as well terrible.

Scooby Doo (2002 ).

Among the much better remakes, this is about as close as you're going to get to the original collection without returning to full animation. All the one linings are there, as are all the trademarks that made the original such a smash hit. There's additionally a healthy and balanced dosage of self mockery to make certain the grown-ups can enjoy it as high as children. Any person that located Scrappy Doo more than a little bothersome in the original will enjoy the spin at the end. The only secret that still remains is this - what worldwide IS a Scooby Snack ?? Little recognize truth: In a very early version of the film, a certain Jim Carrey was connected to play Shaggy.

Official Scooby site - warnerbros.com/sd_brand/index.html.

Thunderbirds (2004 ).

The initial puppets had lots much more magic and also personal appeal than the 'live' actors in this substandard remake. Creator of the initial TELEVISION series, Gerry Anderson, also contradicted a $750,000 deal to write an endorsement of the film for its launch. A substantial flop. Enough stated.

Little bit understood truth: The motion picture is routed by Jonathan Frakes that played Riker in Celebrity Trip.

Flintstones (1994 ).

Translating a computer animated classic right into a live-action film using the real world actors isn't always simple. Perhaps the most essential item of the jigsaw is the spreading. In the case of 1994's Flintstones they soooo really nearly got it right. John Goodman as Fred Flintstone - place on. Elizabeth Perkins as Wilma - made for the duty. Rick Moranis as Barney Rubble - all good. Rosie O'Donnell as Betty Debris? - Um ... intriguing. At the very least the sound-track (courtesy of the BC52s) appears wonderful!

Little bit recognized fact: Halle Berry plays a character called Sharon Stone (obtain it!?).

Transformers (2007 ).

Hardcore Transformers fans who bear in mind the 1980s hit cartoon show may really feel a little peeved that, in a separation from the original collection, Spielberg as well as co. have decided to opt for some more modern-day automobiles. So Bumble-bee's no longer a huge yellow VW Beetle! Boo! Nevertheless, those that can not bear in mind the initial (virtually anybody under the age of 30) will enjoy the continuous robo-action.

Bit understood fact: The 1986 "Transformers the Movie" was one of Orson Welles last ever movies - one of his very first was Person Kane.

Tom and also Jerry the Granddaddy of Kids Cartoon Movies.

Everyone has their very own preferred animation flick or tv show; as a matter of fact animations are now a big component of a youngster's very early years as well as in addition to enjoyable to adults too. If you were young in the 60's, 70's or 80's after that you'll have been lucky sufficient to have actually enjoyed the initial hand attracted animated standards, like the Flintstones, The Jetsons or among the most prominent as well as lengthiest running, Tom and Jerry.

The Tom as well as Jerry reveal begun as a TV series and then took place to become a number of feature movies; it has been running given that the 40's and also has because won 7 different Oscar awards for ideal animated short. Back then you needed to await the program to come on at a specific time, though today were fortunate enough to be able to purchase a Tom and also Jerry DVD set anytime we like and also relive the magic in our very own houses.

The characters are easy Tom a troublesome house cat with a preference for mice and also Jerry a reluctant mouse with a kind heart; both are friends at heart, however constantly wind up attempting to win one over on each various other generally with Jerry winning the day. The simple as well as funny slapstick comedy of this crazy duo is what's made it so popular in nations around the world; you'll find the preferred films playing in practically any kind of resort area on all continents.

So where did it all start? Most individuals do not understand that Tom and also Jerry has had more than one maker in over 50 years of broadcast; the initial 2 were the gifted William Hanna and Joseph Barbara. They came to the MGM workshops in the 40's with their concept and Tom as well as Jerry became a reality in individuals's houses. After a brief time the program was reduced and the team broke up until the 1960's when MGM made a decision to reboot the project, they hired Gene Deitch for 2 years, but his eccentric imagination didn't mix well with the program. In 1963 the workshops employed a new director Chuck Jones who became the next creator of the motion pictures.

An instance of an especially excellent film is the magic ring which came out in 2002, it was composed and also routed by both of the original makers as well as additionally worked together on by Chuck Jones. If you're a fanatic of the lovable pet cat and also mouse duo after that you'll love this movie, it would certainly also be a wonderful introduction to the personalities for your very own youngsters.

[langernameohnebedeutung]

Hm yeah good point about the difference between Hugo and Dostoyevski’s ventures into encyclopedia territory! Personally I always found it kind of..funny? How Dostoyevsky takes the time to apologize for his in-between short essay on Russian priesthood before you get hit with it so I guess that’s considerate of him lmao (Also I didn’t consider I’d out myself as German by writing Karamasow with w 😅)

I generally think it's funny, this development literature made from the narrator being like:

"Well here is a story about a guy called so-and-so. This tale is well-known in our small town - passed down by the busy mouths of old women - and it is the source of great wonder and amusement for anyone who hears it. But for you, my friend and gentle reader, I will need to relate a brief history of our province and [literally whatever the author wants to talk about] first so you may understand the magnitude of what occurred in those days-"

- to modern narration where third person narration is just as intimate as first person narration ("She could feel fear wrap its freezing hand around her throat. Shivers ran down her spine.")

19th century authors: Here are my main characters views on society, science, women, the modern state, the military, monarchy etc. Her birthday? Her favourite food? Well, how would I know, I'm just the narrator, I never met her. But she had smallpox as a child.

21st century: What religion is Harry Potter even but here are his exact feelings about doing his shopping and every single item he buys

I mean, they both have their pros and cons, but I feel like modern 3rd person narration is this intangible thing; mostly a medium like a screen or projector which itself is kept as invisible and unnoticeable as possible (no direct opinions from the narrator, no journey to the Paris sewers etc.) to let the reader be as close as possible to the character's inner workings. Sometimes even the line between 3rd person and 1st person gets a bit blurry with stuff like-

Lee watched Christian kick and punch the fire hydrant. What was wrong with this guy?

The light went out again. What the hell was going on? Nothing made sense anymore.

You know it's technically the same 3rd person narrator as the one in every other sentence but you also know these are the exact thoughts of the POV-character (because a third person narrator speaking in the past tense should know what's going on or never have found out) which aren't marked as their thoughts and just part of the narration.

And the other 3rd person narrator is the town gossip in a bar who is just serving you the hottest tea about that dude Dimitri and his Dad over a drink. Like when Victor Hugo keeps introducing a mysterious stranger who is very strong and has a mysterious fortune every other chapter and then it's like: "And can you imagine? This guy was Jean Valjean!😯 Just like the last 20 mysterious strangers!" amazing. Some narrators treat their reader as a smug know-it-all, others basically as a stranger they have to show it around, others as a friend they share the odd joke with which gives the narrator a distinct personality, too.

That said, my copy of Moby Dick features a selection of reviews of the book and so many boil down to "SHUT UP ABOUT RANDOM WHALE FACTS, SHUT UP ABOUT THOSE DAMN WHALES!!! I DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT WHALE MILK TASTES LIKE!" so I like to think contemporaries also saw the serious downsides of letting authors go off the rails with "necessary additional information".

Obviously, there are also many stories that break these rules, but I think the overall tendency shows how our perspective of reading and telling stories has developed as well as the way we look at the medium "novel" compared to others. I don't have sources to verify that, but I feel like it's the development away from oral tradition of story telling on the one hand and on the other hand the relationship of the written word with an ever increasing number of other mediums like radio, film, etc and their different ways of setting a scene, portraying emotion as well as literature and storytelling formats becoming more and more diverse in their own right in the last 200 years.

[ladala99]

Spyro Reignited Countdown - A Hero’s Tail

And finally we get... I guess it’s not really a return to form but it is a return to greatness.

A Hero’s Tail uses the Spyro characters and basic mechanics and makes it a modern (for the time) platformer. This does eliminate one of the franchise’s core features (finite gems), but ultimately, it did a good job and did the franchise justice.

And it also officially introduces Ember, who Spyro fanficcers liked to ship with Spyro, especially as a rival ship versus Cynder of later titles. Yes, that was a part of the fanbase I frequented. I am not sorry.

Gameplay

Spyro’s controls are brought to the modern (again, for the time) age, with a much more responsive camera and really that’s the only major difference. Spyro feels like Spyro. He flames, he charges, and he glides.

...Well, aside from the fact that they swapped the Flame and Charge buttons, and now you have to hold X to glide rather than just press it. I first played this game as a demo and legitimately thought the change was a mistake, but nope. Not entirely sure why it was made, but it was. Perhaps it aligns with other PS2 platformers better?

Mini rant, courtesy of how 3-year-old me remembered the controls: Circle is flame because it’s red and the mouth makes an O. Square is Charge because the sides are pointy. X is jump because the X is blue like air and you are in the air while jumping. Triangle is zoom in because the bottom represents a really wide view and the top represents a really narrow view. Why would you change this?

But anyway, it works for the game. Aside from not matching previous games, it’s easy to adapt to and the controls are very responsive. They’re not quite as tight as in the originals, but they’re very close.

Additional Playable Characters

We’ve got a few this time. There’s Hunter, Sparx, Sgt. Byrd and the new character Blink. Totally new. What are you talking about with the “but he appeared in a GBA game”?

While Hunter was technically playable before, this is the first time you can platform with him. His moveset’s pretty similar to Spyro’s, aside from one of his main attacks being very ranged. Aside from his arrows, he’s basically Spyro, but not as maneuverable. Yeah, he can scale walls and Spyro doesn’t in this game, but that ability originally belonged to Spyro, so it doesn’t feel unique.

What is unique is that one section that you’re forced to play as him as part of the story. That was neat. And frustrating because he does not platform as well as Spyro does, since his movements are floaty and you can’t correct them with gliding like you can Spyro’s, and this area has a lot of small platforms.

Sparx has a completely different gameplay style this time: rail-shooter. It’s honestly not that bad, especially in comparison to Season of Ice’s Speedways. I just prefer the other Sparx gameplay.

Sgt. Byrd, speaking of Speedways, takes over for Spyro during them. And his levels are definitely not designed in the same way the old Speedways were designed. It used to be that there was a clear linear path to take from one object to the next, but that is not the case here. I like these Speedways better than Season of Ice’s, but I don’t like them much.

As far as actual controls go, Sgt. Byrd does just fine. Sometimes his turning is a little difficult, but it works for how wide open the areas are.

Blink controls very similarly to Hunter, with the main difference being how the level is designed. Blink’s levels are all underground, having a specific set of enemies and such, and they’re all considered minigames with the goal of destroying Dark Gems. He suffers from the same floatiness as Hunter, and there’s certainly a lot of platforms. Somehow, though, his levels never got me stuck like Hunter’s did in that one section.

Sometimes I feel that Eurocom wanted to make a Blink game, not a Spyro game. While Blink’s levels are minigames, they’re really fleshed out and well-designed. They have plenty of variety, if not in appearance.

Collectables

Gems are not just currency to be used at Moneybags’ shop. They’re found everywhere, and can be collected from enemies multiple times. At the beginning you’ll be hurting for them, but by the end of the game you’ll have much more than you know what to do with. At least, that’s my experience.

Dragon Eggs return, with a twist. They’re pretty much optional, and much less valuable than the other main collectable. This time, dragon eggs come in different patterns and if you collect a set, you unlock a thing. A lot of those things are just the ability to play minigames from the main menu.

The things that I care about are the concept art gallery (as that’s always cool) and the Ember and Flame skins. Mostly Ember since I like playing as female characters. It’s just a skin, though, and it changes back to Spyro in cutscenes plus uses his sound effects. Still: first time skins are in the game, unless you count the color cheats!

Finally we get Light Gems. They’re used to power up gadgets and open doors. They’re required for progress in certain places, but not always. They’re always rewarded on the second round of minigames, which means everybody talks about how worthless Dragon Eggs are in comparison. We don’t want these unborn children, give us the shiny thing!

Oh, and Dark Gems. They aren’t collected, but destroyed. You need to smash all of them to continue.  They’re just scattered around the levels. You’ll come across them.

Powerups

Supercharge returns! Sort of! It’s one of the powerups that the Professor unlocks for you when you collect enough Light Gems. It really doesn’t feel the same, and it’s used for a few doors, some of which you can’t just charge to from the pad.

There’s also invincibility which works like it did in Lost Fleet, allowing you to travel through acid. Just with a stricter time limit and now it makes Spyro metal rather than red.

Finally I’ll mention the orb-thingys that let you use a ranged version of your breath abilities. I literally have never used them, but they’re there. I can’t say one way or the other how useful they are, but they definitely are not necessary.

Other Modes

The other minigames, as all minigames repeat, are turrets and ball gadgets.

Turrets aren’t hard, but they are stressful. You need to protect the thing while other things try to steal/eat/whatever it. Or you need to protect yourself and hit a huge number of enemies. I don’t like this minigame. Especially the baby turtle one.

Ball Gadgets are much more fun to watch than they are to play. The controls work, but it takes a bit to stop. There’s also a couple of on-rails ones that are really trial-and-error. Even knowing what to do, you’re going to fast to react so you need to memorize every action.

Breath Abilities

This game continues the trend of having them! And acts like it’s the first time at the same time. Enter the Dragonfly is apparently not canon.

Fire acts like it always has. They didn’t do the particle effect thing like Enter the Dragonfly did so it moves forward with you as it should.

Electricity starts out as a weaker Fire and then ends up being much more useful. It takes longer to defeat enemies, but there are certain enemies that are immune to Fire but not Electricity. After a point, it’s not worth it to switch back, since Fire just isn’t universally useful like Electricity is.

Water is just used for puzzles. Nothing else. This is also the only time Water is an element in the series.

Ice freezes certain things (like steam vents so you can use them to pole spin), and enemies of course. There are certain enemies in the final area that are only weak to Ice. (Maybe Water too, but I haven’t tried) Otherwise it freezes enemies so you can charge them like in other games.

Bosses

Finally, we get some new ones!

Gnasty Gnorc returns as the first boss. He’s actually far stronger than he was in Spyro 1, ironically enough. The fight itself is a pretty fun platformer boss fight, but his personality... it’s so childish. It’s like they didn’t know who he really was before.

Ineptune is a new character. The fight itself is, again, great for this style of game. Her character is kind of forgettable, though.

And then we get Red, who we fight twice. The first time is actually harder if only for the fact that you’re in an icy arena and thus the controls are more slippery. He’s not a very complex villain, but his fights are pretty fun, but very similar to the other two.

Special mention to the mammoth, who wins via being in a cutscene. You never see him again, having no chance to best him. He is truly Spyro’s greatest foe.

Levels

Continuing from Attack of the Rhynocs, the levels are much more seamless. They’re still very distinct, but in a lot of cases (moreso early-on than later) they feel like the same level as you begin in.

And again like Attack of the Rhynocs, the levels don’t have concrete ends. You can check your map and see how many Dark Gems are left, but it doesn’t really feel like you’ve finished even after you smash them all.

There’s no main conflict to defeat or anything, it’s just exploring and smashing Dark Gems, and occasionally finding a Dragon Elder to give you new skills. You get a checklist, but it’s not the same.

The theming is fine, if generic. Older Spyro games tended to have an irony to them, but not this one. Everything is played straight. Which, of course, makes it so this game doesn’t stand out very much.

Story

I don’t even know if I fully understand it. So Red’s an evil dragon who mined some Dark Gems to spread evil throughout the lands. And the Elders are very hesitant to tell you more.

Eventually it comes out that Red used to be an Elder, but he betrayed them. I really don’t understand why they couldn’t just tell Spyro that. Do the Elders just have a reputation that they don’t want to sully or something?

We get no motivation on Red’s part, and normally I’d be fine with that, but with all the secrets I expect a bit more. Also: who’s Ineptune in all this?

There’s parts where I feel I missed a game. Ember knows Spyro, and Spyro appears to know Ember. I feel like I should know who Ineptune is just because of how little introduction she gets.

I read that there was going to be a TV show that got cancelled but the games didn’t, but it was literally one forum post and it may have just been someone making things up. It would certainly explain things, though.

Unique in the Series?

Yes and no. It definitely has a unique feel as far as the series goes, but it’s very generic at the same time.

A lot of what it introduces is used again in later games, even though that part of the series is very different.

But yeah, Water Breath, Pole Spinning, and Wall Kicking are unique to this game in the series. They aren’t unique in general (See: Mario. Yes, even Water Breath. See: Sunshine), but for the series, definitely.

It’s at that weird awkward part in which it’s not anything groundbreaking, but it’s still really good.

Conclusion

Best post-Insomniac Classic Spyro, if only by default. It’s generic for its time, bringing Spyro fully into said time. It works, it’s fun, and I wish there were more to this part of the series that weren’t... well, Orange.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

I'VE BEEN PONDERING YEARS

Galleries are not especially prone to waste money. But that prescription, though sufficient, is too narrow. Hence such parodies as Pets.1 The EU was designed partly to simulate a single, large domestic market.2 All you need from a launch is some initial core of users. But if ephemeralization is one of the most immediate evidence I had that something was amiss was that I couldn't talk to them. Microsoft will have a significant effect on our returns, and the rest are just a cost of doing business. So you start painting.

For users, Web-based applications, you'll find that delighting customers scales better than you expected.3 My hypothesis is that all the programmers have to be aggressive about user acquisition when you're small, you'll probably get something better. Google, and Facebook all got started.4 Stocks will generate greater returns over thirty years, you had to be pretty convincing to overcome this. If you want to keep an eye on things you've changed recently. People who majored in computer science generally tried to conceal it. The main significance of this type of profitability is that you're no longer at the mercy of investors. The other major technical advantage of Web-based startup is food and rent. A new concept of variables. The most common was some combination of a blog, a calendar, a dating site, and Friendster. It was a sign of an underlying lack of resourcefulness. Most startups fail.

He meant the Mac and its documentation and even packaging—such is the nature of platforms. In startups, developers are often forced to talk directly to users, whether they want to work on ideas that few beside them realize are good. When you interview a startup and think they seem likely to succeed than not.5 But I think that a lot of variation in the incoming stream, but instead of pursuing this thought they tended to suppress it, in the sense that all you have to do it, even print journalists.6 But the Collison brothers weren't going to wait. At the time there might have been. Maybe it's just because knowledge about them hasn't permeated our culture yet.7 The best thing would be if it were inherently stupid to invest in Microsoft. If you're ramen profitable this painful choice goes away.8

It's Parkinson's Law running in reverse. The problem with India itself is that it's still so poor. Grad school makes a good launch pad for startups, because you're only replacing one segment instead of discarding the whole thing.9 The worst thing is not the optimal time to do it was turn the sound into packets and ship it over the Internet. It seemed the perfect bad idea: a site 1 for a niche market 2 with no money 3 to do something called price discrimination, which means charging each customer as much as they used to. The number of users and the problem they solved was an urgent one. The fact that you can get at least someone to pay you, getting incorporated, raising money, but you can't expect to hit that right away. Values are what have types, not variables, and assigning or binding variables means copying pointers, not what they point to. But that is at least the next Chicago.10 There's selling, promotion, figuring out what those problems are.

It used to be aware of death to a degree that violates our expectations about variation. The test drive was the way to create wealth is to make more than you spend. But success has taken a lot of money.11 You can change anything about a house except where it is. It allows you to give an impressive-looking talk about nothing, and it may be just as likely to feel life was short if we lived 10 times as long?12 Any strategy that omits the effort—whether it's expecting a big launch to get you users, or a professional football player. And really it never was.

I asked some friends who work for big companies.13 You can be ornery when you're Scotty, but not so wrong about the underlying principle.14 Otherwise you'll have to make something people will pay for? Imagine how depressing the world would be if it were all like school and big companies, you'd need an impressive-looking talk about nothing, and it would be possible to reproduce Silicon Valley in Japan, because one of Silicon Valley's most distinctive features is immigration. Why don't more people do it? David Filo and Jerry Yang started the Yahoo directory in February 1994 and were getting a million hits a day by the fall, but they don't realize it.15 The traditional break everything and then filter out the uncommitted. They've spent 15-20 years solving problems other people have in their heads. The good news is, choosing problems is something that has a 90% chance of failing, if you don't solve all their problems. You can be ornery when you're Scotty, but not when you're Kirk.16 Yes. A lot of would-be founders.

As Fred Brooks pointed out, small groups are intrinsically more productive, because they know that as you run out of garages. It's easy to let the days rush by. For the first week or so we intended to make this an ordinary desktop application. The more versatile the tool, the less you need the money. The amount of time you have. It was easy to tell how smart they were, and most decent hackers are capable of that. I don't think many people realize how fragile and tentative startups are in the US are auto workers, New York City schoolteachers, and civil servants happier than actors, professors, and professional athletes? We felt we were good at organizing groups and making projects happen. You're not sacrificing anything if you forgo starting a startup is merely an artifact of the way through the server market; Yahoo's servers, which deal with loads as high as any on the Internet, anything genuinely good will spread by word of mouth.

For a big company, it's good news.17 If we ever got to the point where they could raise millions from VC funds if they hadn't first raised a hundred thousand from Andy Bechtolsheim. Viaweb was a typical larval startup. If I'd had to wait a year for the next couple years, a good recipe for startups will be to remind founders they need to do is give the right sort of founder a one line intro to a VC, and he'll chase down the implications of what's said to you can sometimes lead to uncomfortable conclusions.18 If you pay them to raise the money to manufacture your own hardware, or use your software for the first time, you know what you're talking about, you can succeed by sucking up to the right people: you can tell that by the number of people who want to come to America can even get in? You never really know what's happening inside it.19 What they want is easy. Technology is a lever.

Notes

There's a sort of investor who says he's interested in each type of mail, I would be a quiet, earnest place like Cambridge in that. It's hard to predict at the time required to notice them.

Delivered as if you'd invested at a discount of 30% means when it converts. It's conceivable that a company in Germany told me they like the application of math to real problems, but nothing else: no friends, TV, go running. On the other hand, a market of one investor who says he's interested in us!

For example, would not produce a viable organism.

If they no longer working to help the company they're buying. But those are guaranteed in the sense that if colleges want to work late at night.

If not, greater accessibility. Even college textbooks is unpleasant work, done mostly by technological progress is accelerating, so presumably will the rate of improvement is more important for societies to remember and pass on the young Henry VIII and was troubled by debts all his life.

These points don't apply to types of startup people in 100 years. That's very cheap, 1/50th of a problem if you'll never need to offer especially large rewards to get to profitability on a hard technical problem. I'm also an investor, and the valuation is the place for people interested in x, and owns significant equity in it. In 1525 he was exaggerating.

You have to turn down some good proposals too.

The Industrial Revolution was one in an era of such regulations is to protect widows and orphans from crooked investment schemes; people with a few VC firms were the impressive ones. For example, the only companies smart enough to defend their interests in political and legal disputes. Possible doesn't mean a great thing in itself deserving.

I've deliberately avoided saying whether the 25 people have historically done to their stems, but he refused because a there was near zero crossover. Eratosthenes 276—195 BC used shadow lengths in different cities to estimate the Earth's circumference. Com in order to win.

So in effect what the valuation a bit misleading to treat macros as a high school, approach the queen bees thereof and offer to be memorized. However, it was so violent that she decided never again. 25.

92.

Most were wrong, but the nature of server-based apps to share a virtual home directory spread across multiple servers. Indeed, that's not art because it reads as a high product of number of customers you need is a dotted line on a saturday, he was 10.

A termsheet with a product manager about problems integrating the Korean version of this essay, but I don't want to believe your whole future depends on the y, you'd get ten times as much as people in any era if people can see the old version, I would take their customers.

Indeed, it causes a fundamental economic shift away from large companies. William R.

But in this essay talks about the cheapest food available. It took a back seat to philology, which either desperately tries to munge what I've said into something that was killed partly by its overdone launch.

Dan was at the exact same thing twice. The reason not to. Peter Thiel would point out that there were 5 more I didn't like it if you want to know how many computers the worm infected, because there are some whose definition of property is driven mostly by technological progress aren't sharply differentiated. That's very cheap, 1/10 success rate for startups that have little do with the sort of community.

Many think successful startup? They each constrain the other is laziness.

Considering yourself a scientist. 43. So the cost can be useful in solving problems too, and when you had in high school textbooks. Innosight, February 2012.

And that will sign up quickest and those where the acquirer wants the employees. But if idea clashes got bad enough, maybe the corp dev people are magnified by the fact that they have less room to avoid using it out of their core values is Don't be evil. In principle companies aren't limited by the government and construction companies.

[inikavulpixelreviews]

Let’s Talk About Pokemon - Gen 3 Recap

Throughout the Gen 1 years and most of Gen 2's, Pokemon had a dominant grasp on the world of children's entertainment. By the time the excitement of Pokemon's first expansion pack in the form of Gold and Silver had died down, Pokemon's popularity had considerably deflated. Maybe a harsh exaggeration; we are of course between the 21st and 22nd years of Pokemon's ongoing history with it still running pretty strong after all. But after Gen 1 and 2, Gen 3 had a lot to prove. Was Pokemon more than just a fluke?

Gen 3 ended up taking a lot of mixed reception from returning fans. Gen 2 had introduced plenty of features, namely a day and night cycle and ingame events that happen based on the time of day. Gen 3 had done away with these, which led to raised eyebrows. And not only this, but Gen 3's Pokemon left a bad taste in the fandom's mouth. And it's likely because the manner of designing Pokemon had changed for Gen 3. Gen 1 and 2 had a considerably smaller team of Pokemon designers compared to these days. Gen 3 notably expanded the team, so it'd make sense that Gen 3 feels like something of an experimental period, with large numbers of the designs taking Pokemon into a different direction in terms of art style. Just take a good look at some of the more visually distinct Pokemon in this lineup. A lot of them like Slakoth, Pelipper, and Shedinja are really toying with the Pokemon art style to see what they can and can’t get away with.

And I'm sure another part of it is the GBA lifting a lot of limitations from the Gameboy games. Lots more colors, more intricate designs thanks to the bigger sprites. And with such a sharp turn in art style like that, it's sure to lose a few people along the way. And as much as I like Gen 3, I can admit there's plenty of Pokemon in there that look like they lacked the polish of some other Generations. What I can give it credit for is that, I feel there was a lot more effort put into these Pokemon here than ever was in Gen 2. If Gen 3's short on anything, it's definitely not character. I only need one hand to count the Pokemon that are mostly lacking in character. Even some of the designs I dislike have personality to them.

And I'd say that's definitely the strength of having a bigger team of designers for something like Pokemon. There's a lot of variety to pick from, so people of all tastes have something to latch onto. I can look at a good 95% of these Pokemon and see what someone may see in them, why someone may tell me Spinda, Nosepass, or even Barboach of all things is their favorite Pokemon. It definitely put forth a good show for newcomers and old fans alike. It may have suffered here and there, but I'll easily take “usually great, occasionally stumbles” for the nice, super-varied bunch of monsters we got out of it.

Top 10 Favorites of Gen 3:

Since I didn't really have a neat place in the first few paragraphs to put this, I'll just say it here. Gen 3, of all the childhood Pokemon games, is the Generation I have the most nostalgic value for. I drew most of the Pokemon here over and over again because I was so madly in love with them. Heck, I think this was the Generation where the very first shimmerings of my Topaz and Amethyst Fakemon started to pop up, because Gen 3′s had a lot of influence on my monster design style as I started to develop to like making my own monsters.

It was tough trying to narrow things down to just 10. But here it is. It had to be Latias on top. It's about all my dragon-aesthetics in one Pokemon. Somehow. Sceptile's my man. And I couldn't not have Shedinja in here. Shedinja's a creativity highlight for the entire series, man. As somebody who’s made a hobby out of creating Fakemon myself, I’m eternally left jealous I’ll never come up with something as genius as Shedinja.

Favorites so far:

Oh my, uhhhh. Rip Gen 2, I guess. Yeah, Gen 3 made a much bigger dent in this than Gen 2 did, huh? I know that isn't saying much since I've said Gen 2's a bit “meh” for me, but still.

Given two of those Pokemon have a lot of nostalgic value to me; Latias and Sceptile, it's maybe no surprise they wound up finally dethroning 2nd place Ninetales.

Bottom 10 Least Favorites of Gen 3:

Yeah, I'm not too surprised with which Pokemon I harshed on this generation. I about expected to not find a lot that I personally like about any of these. I'll grant, Grumpig-onwards, my biggest problem is their designs are just a little meh.

Least Favorites so far:

Hey, we finally bumped off all the Pokemon that were just “meh” to me! That's still plenty of Gen 1's Pokemon in there though. We'll see how much that changes the later we go on.

The Cutest:

Again, no surprises here. Whenever something was exceptionally cute, I did my best to point it the hell out.

The Coolest/Most Badass:

Not too tough a contest, but Gen 3's still left me spoiled for choice here. Honorable mentions out to Salamence, Kyogre, and all three Regis.

The Prettiest:

Yeah, a bit of overlap, but oh well. Absol's DeviantArt: The Pokemon, so it can get away with being both badass and “pretty.”

The Spookiest:

Yeeees. YEEEES. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSS.

I’m 13 days late but I do NOT even care

God. FINALLY. There's enough Pokemon of this flavor to justify having this category! I love me some Halloween aesthetic, and Pokemon of this category are gonna be ones that scratch that itch the most. And boy do Shedinja, Duskull, and Cacturne alone got me covered just by themselves. Then there's the other three! Hell... yes. Honorable mentions out to Sableye, Mawile, and Claydol.

Most Creative:

More like the Shedinja awards, am I right? But for real, this was actually a pretty tough pick. There's a bunch of Pokemon that are just plain out there, it's hard to just narrow them down to just 6.

Weirdest/Most Unique:

So I put some of them here as honorable mentions.

I still can't get over Tropius though. What the hell.

Most Forgettable:

Not that any of these are that bad really. Just, a lot of them lack a thing or two that lets them stand out.

Most Under-Appreciated:

Okay, I swear, last time Shedinja's gonna be on here. But yeah, there's plenty of Pokemon in this Generation that attract all sorts of ire. And others that are overlooked but just plain deserve a little more praise than they usually get. Then there's Luvdisc. I really don't care for Luvdisc all that much but. Man, so much hate for such an inoffensive Pokemon.

Summing Up Gen 3 in 6 Pokemon:

There's plenty of Pokemon from Gen 3 that have a lot more exotic color schemes than the previous generations. There's plenty of “animal but badassified” types like Blaziken and Armaldo. Then there's the occasional oddball like Tropius or Gulpin thrown in that are just plain weird, but fun that they're weird. All combining for an overall tropical feel. Perhaps Armaldo's interchangeable for Kecleon.

My Gen 3 Team:

Okay, this is when I start to remember my teams a lot more vividly. And I guess it helps that Gen 3 is also very nostalgic for me, let alone this was the very first time I bothered to level up all my Pokemon to Level 100. (How many double-A batteries have I murdered in cold blood to do that? The world may never know.) Honorable Mention to Metagross and Latias. They were “Team members”, but only in the postgame, since that's the only part where you can get them.

And then there's my Alpha Sapphire team. Yeah, it's kinda filled with Pokemon that only get good in the long haul, like Milotic and Flygon. But boy getting them was worth it. I enjoyed finally getting to use a Milotic after having admired its design for so long.

The “Better than Their Evolutions” Club:

Yeah, it just feels like there's more of these this Generation than most. At least enough to where the prevo is notably better than the evo.

...And that's it for Gen 3! The between-generation break might be on the extended side. Personal things, and some may have noticed tumblr went and broke my archive page. So I gotta sit down and fix that at some point, preferably before I start Gen 4. Until then!

[Archive]

[wineanddinosaur]

We Asked 10 Drinks Pros: Which Rye Offers the Best Bang for Your Buck?

Rye’s modern resurgence continues to demonstrate that Americans just can’t get enough of the distinctive and time-honored spirit. In 2019, the number of cases of American rye more than doubled in annual volume from five years earlier.

Part of rye’s popularity lies in its versatility. It has been a featured spirit in some of America’s most storied cocktails, from the iconic Sazerac to the potent Vieux Carre, while also being high quality enough to enjoy on its own.

As demand increases, so too does the number of brands available on the market. To sort through the many options — and opinions — VinePair asked 10 beverage experts which brands offer the best rye for the price.

Given that many bars and restaurants are currently closed and/or struggling due to the Covid-19 pandemic, at the time of reporting, VinePair requested that bartenders provide links to personal Venmo accounts, GoFundMe campaigns connected to their place of employment, or other restaurant and bar industry fundraisers of their choice. To learn more about helping the hospitality community at this time, please visit: How to Give Back to Hospitality Professionals Impacted by Covid-19.

“Rittenhouse Rye has always been my go-to when a cocktail calls for rye. Dependable and flexible, this Kentucky-style rye has a lower percentage of rye in the mash and a heavy presence of corn, making it approachable for everyone. Also, it’s bottled-in-bond, which is a stamp of quality and tradition. At least four years old, and bottled at 100 proof, it can stand up in any classic cocktail, like a Manhattan or Sazerac. It’s very reasonably priced in the mid-to-low $20s; it will never let you down.” — Ryan Lindquist, Bar Manager, LUXBAR, Chicago Donate: Gibsons Restaurant Group Emergency Employee Relief Fund

“I love American Spirit Resurgens Rye. It’s local to Atlanta, super delicious and complex, and it doesn’t have a huge bite that some ryes have which can sometimes intimidate guests.” — Michell Boyd, Beverage Manager, Hampton + Hudson, Atlanta Donate: Hampton + Hudson Small Business Relief Fund; Relief for Hampton + Hudson STAFF; Michell Boyd on Venmo

“High West Double Rye.  This rye is a blend of two different rye whiskies with different compositions that are blended to create something simply sublime. The blend is mostly dominated by a young rye that has been aged for two years (95 percent rye and 5 percent barley) with the older being a 16-year rye (53 percent rye, 37 percent corn, and the rest a mystery). If you’ve never tried this bad boy hailing from Utah, it’s a steal for under $30.” — Mohammed Rahman, Bar Manager, Kata Robata, Houston Donate: Mohammed Rahmann PayPal

“Old Overholt bottled-in-bond. For around $25 dollars this rye is great on its own as a sipper and beautiful in cocktails. This rye by law has been aged at least 4 years in a federally bonded warehouse before release and touches in at 100 proof. The higher proof lends itself extremely well to mixing because the rye notes still shine through without being overpowered by dilution or other assertive flavors. Notes of stone fruit (think dried apricots), citrus, hay, and cereal are apparent on the nose while the mouth turns into a scorched salted caramel and coriander finish.” — Brett Helke, Beverage Director/Wine Director, Toast & Perro Blanco, Norfolk, Va. Donate: Toast Corner Spot on Venmo

“Rittenhouse Rye is always the first one I reach for. Its price has gone up over the years but it’s perfectly spicy, and being bottled-in-bond, strong enough to stand up to any mixers in a cocktail. My old corner bar in Chicago sold a can of Hamm’s and a shot of Rittenhouse for $5, [the] perfect end to a day.” — Graham Courter, Bar Manager, Main Street Meats, Chattanooga, Tenn. Donate: Main Street Meats Gift Cards

“Best bang for the buck, Pikesville Rye. A revived brand from Heaven Hill, once produced in Maryland, this bottling is everything people fell in love with Rittenhouse, but two years older and 5 percent more alcohol.” — Westin Galleymore, Spirits Director, Underbelly Hospitality, Houston Donate: Westin Galleymore on Venmo

“I love WhistlePig‘s new product, Piggyback Rye. Being innately a lover of WhistlePig, this new value-priced rye is designed for mixing but doesn’t lose the integral character of the original.” — Christine Kang, Beverage Director, The Breslin, NYC Donate: Fundraiser for Ace Hotel Employees by Ace Hotel Group

“Wild Turkey Rye is one of my favorites. The history behind the longest-tenured master distiller in America, Jimmy Russell, is legendary and the product speaks for itself. They’ve always used the same process, yeast strain, and proportions when making Wild Turkey, and I am certainly proud that it’s produced in Kentucky, so close to my Tennessee home.” — Ellen Talbot, Lead Bartender, Fable Lounge, Nashville Donate: Ellen Talbot on Venmo

“The hipster bartender shot is Old Overholt. It’s the rye they all think they are the only ones who know about. Over the last few years, it has moved up from the bottom shelf to the second shelf, and it’s in a lot of menu Manhattans in the craft world. It’s pretty good, higher proof, and gets the job done. I have always been partial to George Dickel, which has also seen a recent resurgence and change in the company it keeps on that second shelf. High West has been cranking out a lot of their Double Rye, which is more affordable than it once was. This is a good thing. And if you want ‘bang’ as in higher price but higher proof, Pikesville Rye is awesome and alive at 110 proof.” — Jeremy Allen, General Manager/Head Bartender, MiniBar, Los Angeles Donate: MiniBar Staff Tips

“I’ve been a big fan of Rittenhouse Bottled-in-Bond Rye for a long time now. It’s been a staple on my back bar for nearly a decade. It’s big and spicy and is exactly what you want out of a rye whiskey.” — Ryan Lotz, Beverage Director, Traveler Street Hospitality, Boston Donate: Bar Mezzana Gift Cards; Shore Leave Gift Cards

The article We Asked 10 Drinks Pros: Which Rye Offers the Best Bang for Your Buck? appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/10-best-quality-rye-brands/

[johnboothus]

We Asked 10 Drinks Pros: Which Rye Offers the Best Bang for Your Buck?

Rye’s modern resurgence continues to demonstrate that Americans just can’t get enough of the distinctive and time-honored spirit. In 2019, the number of cases of American rye more than doubled in annual volume from five years earlier.

Part of rye’s popularity lies in its versatility. It has been a featured spirit in some of America’s most storied cocktails, from the iconic Sazerac to the potent Vieux Carre, while also being high quality enough to enjoy on its own.

As demand increases, so too does the number of brands available on the market. To sort through the many options — and opinions — VinePair asked 10 beverage experts which brands offer the best rye for the price.

Given that many bars and restaurants are currently closed and/or struggling due to the Covid-19 pandemic, at the time of reporting, VinePair requested that bartenders provide links to personal Venmo accounts, GoFundMe campaigns connected to their place of employment, or other restaurant and bar industry fundraisers of their choice. To learn more about helping the hospitality community at this time, please visit: How to Give Back to Hospitality Professionals Impacted by Covid-19.

“Rittenhouse Rye has always been my go-to when a cocktail calls for rye. Dependable and flexible, this Kentucky-style rye has a lower percentage of rye in the mash and a heavy presence of corn, making it approachable for everyone. Also, it’s bottled-in-bond, which is a stamp of quality and tradition. At least four years old, and bottled at 100 proof, it can stand up in any classic cocktail, like a Manhattan or Sazerac. It’s very reasonably priced in the mid-to-low $20s; it will never let you down.” — Ryan Lindquist, Bar Manager, LUXBAR, Chicago Donate: Gibsons Restaurant Group Emergency Employee Relief Fund

“I love American Spirit Resurgens Rye. It’s local to Atlanta, super delicious and complex, and it doesn’t have a huge bite that some ryes have which can sometimes intimidate guests.” — Michell Boyd, Beverage Manager, Hampton + Hudson, Atlanta Donate: Hampton + Hudson Small Business Relief Fund; Relief for Hampton + Hudson STAFF; Michell Boyd on Venmo

“High West Double Rye.  This rye is a blend of two different rye whiskies with different compositions that are blended to create something simply sublime. The blend is mostly dominated by a young rye that has been aged for two years (95 percent rye and 5 percent barley) with the older being a 16-year rye (53 percent rye, 37 percent corn, and the rest a mystery). If you’ve never tried this bad boy hailing from Utah, it’s a steal for under $30.” — Mohammed Rahman, Bar Manager, Kata Robata, Houston Donate: Mohammed Rahmann PayPal

“Old Overholt bottled-in-bond. For around $25 dollars this rye is great on its own as a sipper and beautiful in cocktails. This rye by law has been aged at least 4 years in a federally bonded warehouse before release and touches in at 100 proof. The higher proof lends itself extremely well to mixing because the rye notes still shine through without being overpowered by dilution or other assertive flavors. Notes of stone fruit (think dried apricots), citrus, hay, and cereal are apparent on the nose while the mouth turns into a scorched salted caramel and coriander finish.” — Brett Helke, Beverage Director/Wine Director, Toast & Perro Blanco, Norfolk, Va. Donate: Toast Corner Spot on Venmo

“Rittenhouse Rye is always the first one I reach for. Its price has gone up over the years but it’s perfectly spicy, and being bottled-in-bond, strong enough to stand up to any mixers in a cocktail. My old corner bar in Chicago sold a can of Hamm��s and a shot of Rittenhouse for $5, [the] perfect end to a day.” — Graham Courter, Bar Manager, Main Street Meats, Chattanooga, Tenn. Donate: Main Street Meats Gift Cards

“Best bang for the buck, Pikesville Rye. A revived brand from Heaven Hill, once produced in Maryland, this bottling is everything people fell in love with Rittenhouse, but two years older and 5 percent more alcohol.” — Westin Galleymore, Spirits Director, Underbelly Hospitality, Houston Donate: Westin Galleymore on Venmo

“I love WhistlePig‘s new product, Piggyback Rye. Being innately a lover of WhistlePig, this new value-priced rye is designed for mixing but doesn’t lose the integral character of the original.” — Christine Kang, Beverage Director, The Breslin, NYC Donate: Fundraiser for Ace Hotel Employees by Ace Hotel Group

“Wild Turkey Rye is one of my favorites. The history behind the longest-tenured master distiller in America, Jimmy Russell, is legendary and the product speaks for itself. They’ve always used the same process, yeast strain, and proportions when making Wild Turkey, and I am certainly proud that it’s produced in Kentucky, so close to my Tennessee home.” — Ellen Talbot, Lead Bartender, Fable Lounge, Nashville Donate: Ellen Talbot on Venmo

“The hipster bartender shot is Old Overholt. It’s the rye they all think they are the only ones who know about. Over the last few years, it has moved up from the bottom shelf to the second shelf, and it’s in a lot of menu Manhattans in the craft world. It’s pretty good, higher proof, and gets the job done. I have always been partial to George Dickel, which has also seen a recent resurgence and change in the company it keeps on that second shelf. High West has been cranking out a lot of their Double Rye, which is more affordable than it once was. This is a good thing. And if you want ‘bang’ as in higher price but higher proof, Pikesville Rye is awesome and alive at 110 proof.” — Jeremy Allen, General Manager/Head Bartender, MiniBar, Los Angeles Donate: MiniBar Staff Tips

“I’ve been a big fan of Rittenhouse Bottled-in-Bond Rye for a long time now. It’s been a staple on my back bar for nearly a decade. It’s big and spicy and is exactly what you want out of a rye whiskey.” — Ryan Lotz, Beverage Director, Traveler Street Hospitality, Boston Donate: Bar Mezzana Gift Cards; Shore Leave Gift Cards

The article We Asked 10 Drinks Pros: Which Rye Offers the Best Bang for Your Buck? appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/10-best-quality-rye-brands/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/we-asked-10-drinks-pros-which-rye-offers-the-best-bang-for-your-buck

[isaiahrippinus]

We Asked 10 Drinks Pros: Which Rye Offers the Best Bang for Your Buck?

Rye’s modern resurgence continues to demonstrate that Americans just can’t get enough of the distinctive and time-honored spirit. In 2019, the number of cases of American rye more than doubled in annual volume from five years earlier.

Part of rye’s popularity lies in its versatility. It has been a featured spirit in some of America’s most storied cocktails, from the iconic Sazerac to the potent Vieux Carre, while also being high quality enough to enjoy on its own.

As demand increases, so too does the number of brands available on the market. To sort through the many options — and opinions — VinePair asked 10 beverage experts which brands offer the best rye for the price.

Given that many bars and restaurants are currently closed and/or struggling due to the Covid-19 pandemic, at the time of reporting, VinePair requested that bartenders provide links to personal Venmo accounts, GoFundMe campaigns connected to their place of employment, or other restaurant and bar industry fundraisers of their choice. To learn more about helping the hospitality community at this time, please visit: How to Give Back to Hospitality Professionals Impacted by Covid-19.

“Rittenhouse Rye has always been my go-to when a cocktail calls for rye. Dependable and flexible, this Kentucky-style rye has a lower percentage of rye in the mash and a heavy presence of corn, making it approachable for everyone. Also, it’s bottled-in-bond, which is a stamp of quality and tradition. At least four years old, and bottled at 100 proof, it can stand up in any classic cocktail, like a Manhattan or Sazerac. It’s very reasonably priced in the mid-to-low $20s; it will never let you down.” — Ryan Lindquist, Bar Manager, LUXBAR, Chicago Donate: Gibsons Restaurant Group Emergency Employee Relief Fund

“I love American Spirit Resurgens Rye. It’s local to Atlanta, super delicious and complex, and it doesn’t have a huge bite that some ryes have which can sometimes intimidate guests.” — Michell Boyd, Beverage Manager, Hampton + Hudson, Atlanta Donate: Hampton + Hudson Small Business Relief Fund; Relief for Hampton + Hudson STAFF; Michell Boyd on Venmo

“High West Double Rye.  This rye is a blend of two different rye whiskies with different compositions that are blended to create something simply sublime. The blend is mostly dominated by a young rye that has been aged for two years (95 percent rye and 5 percent barley) with the older being a 16-year rye (53 percent rye, 37 percent corn, and the rest a mystery). If you’ve never tried this bad boy hailing from Utah, it’s a steal for under $30.” — Mohammed Rahman, Bar Manager, Kata Robata, Houston Donate: Mohammed Rahmann PayPal

“Old Overholt bottled-in-bond. For around $25 dollars this rye is great on its own as a sipper and beautiful in cocktails. This rye by law has been aged at least 4 years in a federally bonded warehouse before release and touches in at 100 proof. The higher proof lends itself extremely well to mixing because the rye notes still shine through without being overpowered by dilution or other assertive flavors. Notes of stone fruit (think dried apricots), citrus, hay, and cereal are apparent on the nose while the mouth turns into a scorched salted caramel and coriander finish.” — Brett Helke, Beverage Director/Wine Director, Toast & Perro Blanco, Norfolk, Va. Donate: Toast Corner Spot on Venmo

“Rittenhouse Rye is always the first one I reach for. Its price has gone up over the years but it’s perfectly spicy, and being bottled-in-bond, strong enough to stand up to any mixers in a cocktail. My old corner bar in Chicago sold a can of Hamm’s and a shot of Rittenhouse for $5, [the] perfect end to a day.” — Graham Courter, Bar Manager, Main Street Meats, Chattanooga, Tenn. Donate: Main Street Meats Gift Cards

“Best bang for the buck, Pikesville Rye. A revived brand from Heaven Hill, once produced in Maryland, this bottling is everything people fell in love with Rittenhouse, but two years older and 5 percent more alcohol.” — Westin Galleymore, Spirits Director, Underbelly Hospitality, Houston Donate: Westin Galleymore on Venmo

“I love WhistlePig‘s new product, Piggyback Rye. Being innately a lover of WhistlePig, this new value-priced rye is designed for mixing but doesn’t lose the integral character of the original.” — Christine Kang, Beverage Director, The Breslin, NYC Donate: Fundraiser for Ace Hotel Employees by Ace Hotel Group

“Wild Turkey Rye is one of my favorites. The history behind the longest-tenured master distiller in America, Jimmy Russell, is legendary and the product speaks for itself. They’ve always used the same process, yeast strain, and proportions when making Wild Turkey, and I am certainly proud that it’s produced in Kentucky, so close to my Tennessee home.” — Ellen Talbot, Lead Bartender, Fable Lounge, Nashville Donate: Ellen Talbot on Venmo

“The hipster bartender shot is Old Overholt. It’s the rye they all think they are the only ones who know about. Over the last few years, it has moved up from the bottom shelf to the second shelf, and it’s in a lot of menu Manhattans in the craft world. It’s pretty good, higher proof, and gets the job done. I have always been partial to George Dickel, which has also seen a recent resurgence and change in the company it keeps on that second shelf. High West has been cranking out a lot of their Double Rye, which is more affordable than it once was. This is a good thing. And if you want ‘bang’ as in higher price but higher proof, Pikesville Rye is awesome and alive at 110 proof.” — Jeremy Allen, General Manager/Head Bartender, MiniBar, Los Angeles Donate: MiniBar Staff Tips

“I’ve been a big fan of Rittenhouse Bottled-in-Bond Rye for a long time now. It’s been a staple on my back bar for nearly a decade. It’s big and spicy and is exactly what you want out of a rye whiskey.” — Ryan Lotz, Beverage Director, Traveler Street Hospitality, Boston Donate: Bar Mezzana Gift Cards; Shore Leave Gift Cards

The article We Asked 10 Drinks Pros: Which Rye Offers the Best Bang for Your Buck? appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/10-best-quality-rye-brands/ source https://vinology1.tumblr.com/post/620543973003591680

[geek-patient-zero]

Part 1, Chapter 12

Or: War and Humility

Blood War: Masquerade of the Red Death Trilogy Volume 1

We’ve reached the penultimate chapter of Part 1, and the last Dire McCann chapter until Part 3.

St. Louis—March 13, 1994

The Prince held his council of war in his office at the rear of Club Diabolique. Attending were Vargoss, Flavia, McCann, a ninth-generation Brujah named Darrow, and an eighth-generation Nosferatu known only as ‘Uglyface’ for obvious reasons.

“McCann, Flavia, the Sabbat have struck! This insult will not stand! Summon two other guys!”

Darrow is Vargoss’ policy adviser. He seems like your stereotypical Brujah; rides a Harley, black leather outfit, body covered in tattoos. In reality, we’re told, “Darrow was no rebel.”

He had spent most of his life serving as an officer in the British Army. He had participated in many of the major campaigns of the 19th century and was the veteran of a hundred battles. He was a calm voice of reason, not afraid to contradict the Prince when Vargoss was wrong.

He might not be a molotov-cocktail-throwing anarchist, but Darrow’s not that much of a subversion of Brujah Kindred. He’s what you’d imagine a Camarilla Brujah is like: the voice of reason and superego, not afraid to stand up to the authoritarian Ventrue or the “ooh, shiny!” Toreador. You ever wonder how the “rebel clan” fit in with the undead equivalent of The Man? There you go. ‘Course, as of v5, the Brujah have (violently) left the Camarilla, so the clan as a whole has its limits of how much of the Establishment they’re willing to take.

Uglyface, meanwhile, has the prestigious title of Minister of Intelligence to counter his less prestigious name.

No one in St. Louis knew much about Uglyface’s background.

“Uglyface” is a lazy and vague name to give a Nosferatu character. You ask around for a Nosferatu named Uglyface and you’ll be asked to be more specific. It’s like nicknaming a guy on a basketball team “Tallman” or a self-described gamer “Badperson”.

Nearly seven feet tall and thin as a rail, he had lived in the city longer than any vampire. His face came from a Gahan Wilson cartoon—wide, bulging eyes, tiny button nose, a wide mouth full of yellow teeth, and ears that stuck out like antennae from the sides of his head.

Gahan Wilson was a cartoonist who did work for Playboy, The New Yorker, and National Lampoon, among other things, for almost fifty years. Here’s his wiki page, for those interested.

Uglyface’s grotesque features branded him an idiot. He was not. The Nosferatu vampire possessed an incredible memory for names, dates, and facts. Like many of his clan, he thrived on gathering and processing raw data into usable information.

There’re Brujah who aren’t rebels, Gangrels who live in cities, and Ventrue who don’t automatically think they have the divine right of kings, but do you ever see a Nosferatu who isn’t a huge nerd?

“The Red Death struck three times in America last night,” said Vargoss, resting his arms on his desk. He was obviously concerned. Troubled eyes stared at the trio facing him. To the rear, on guard as always, was Flavia. She was no longer in white leather but in black. And for the first time i decades, she stood alone.

It’s rare for a vampire to wear black out of genuine mourning, rather than just to be evil and goth.

Vargoss continues on saying he’s received reports about more attacks in Europe; the one at the Louvre, where five Kindred were killed (the number of ghoul deaths aren’t mentioned because Kindred are huge assholes), and one we didn’t see in Marseilles, where two died during a Ventrue clan meeting. Not very large numbers there, but in total there had been six attacks over the last twenty-four hours with a total of thirty-five Kindred killed, or “sent to their Final Deaths” because vamps are overly semantic about being undead.

McCann notes how fast Red D.’s moving in order to kill that many vampires around the world in a single day. Darrow voices his and McCann’s shared suspicion: that there may be more than one Red Death. Only he says it more Britishy.

“Are we positive it is the same bloke?” [...] “That bloody mockery of a face of ‘is was awfully distinctive. Maybe it was meant to attract attention, aye? Any Kindred adept at sculpting flesh could rearrange his features into that grotesque mask. Instead of dealing with a single Red Death, we may be faced with several. Maybe an entire Sabbat pack made a pact with a demon.”

“Sculpting flesh” is referencing- No, wait, screw it. We’ve got a lot to cover and I don’t feel like going on a Tzimisce tangent. Guvna.

“Following that same line of reasoning, are you convinced the Red Death was a vampire?” asked McCann. The detective was anxious to establish certain facts he already knew as truth.

“Are Gangrels just Brujah furries? Are the Followers of Set really sexier than the Toreador? Do we really hate Scrappy Doo or are we just repeating a forty-year-old meme? Does anyone else miss dodgeball?”

“The abomination belonged to the Kindred,” said Vargoss, angrily. “My will touched his when I commanded him to stop.”

It’s only gay if the wills touch.

“Blood called out to blood, McCann. The Red Death was definitely one of the Damned.”

McCann plays dumb, asking if there are any disciplines capable of turning a vampire into a being composed of living fire.

“None practiced among the Camarilla,” said Uglyface. His high-pitched voice squeaked like a cartoon character’s.

Alright, Clan Nosferatu fans. You guys are all “Oh I’d fall in love with a Nosferatu, I don’t care what they look like” but what if they’re confessing their bestial love for you in a Mickey Mouse voice? How committed are you to this monster-fucker image of yourselves?

Vargoss believes Darrow’s right about the Red Death being from the Sabbat. He claims they’re “demon lovers” who “mock the power of the flames” and cites a ritual of theirs called, creatively, the Fire Dance as proof. That’s where Sabbat pack members prove their loyalty and bravery, or just to psych themselves up before a battle, by dancing around and eventually jumping through a bonfire (though Vargoss says it’s a funeral pyre) without flipping out and running away. Any similarities between this evil Sabbat ritual and certain real-life cultures’ rituals are unintentional on White Wolf’s part. Hopefully.

“Sorry,” said McCann, “but I don’t accept those kinds of deductions. I’m a detective, remember? Let’s use a bit of logic. Leaping over a fire like Jack-Be-Nimble is a lot different than burning your footprints into the floor.”

Turn the condescension down a bit there, hoss. You may be the Dark Messiah but you’re no Beckett.

Tacktlessness aside, McCann’s got a point and starts poking holes in the Red Death’s cover story. He says while he doesn’t discount the Sabbat being responsible he wonders why, during the Sabbat’s five-century-long war with the Camarilla, they’ve never busted out these Red Death attacks until now. Darrow again sides with McCann and gives us a rundown on Sabbat invasion tactics.

“These friggin’ attacks make no sense. Usually the Sabbat spends years organizing a Crusade to take over a city. We all knows the procedures. First they send in the spies. Then they place traitors into the Kindred council of elders. Next comes their efforts to expose the Masquerade through carefully planned acts of murder and terrorism. And then, during the resulting chaos, they attack in overwhelming numbers, exterminating any vampires they cannot convert to their cause. There’s no place for the Red Death in such plans.”

Uglyface suggests maybe they’ve finally came up with a new strategy, using the Red Death to wipe out a city’s Camarilla elders in one night instead of spending time and resources on a Crusade. McCann counters, saying that’s not what happened, at least in their case. Vargoss isn’t dead (and remember when McCann noticed the Red Death hesitate to kill Vargoss until the twins could save him?), the Sabbat aren’t invading, and while he killed a few Kindred, they were mostly later-generation, weaker vampires. Aside from trimming the population and scaring the bejeezus out of everyone, nothing’s changed.

With a “Bloody hell” Darrow says that they’re missing the most important question: Why did the Red Death attack a little nothing city like St. Louis in the first place?

“No offense, my Prince, but St. Louis ain’t a major Sabbat target. Leastwise, not according to our intelligence reports.”

Good save, Darrow.

“They have their eyes on bigger, more important cities.”

Way to blow the save, Darrow.

“What made us so bloody special we warranted the friggin’ attention of this fire monster?”

The Red Death needs access to Monsanto. He’s got this hilarious idea for a prank involving Roundup and cancer.

“No offense taken, Darrow,” said Vargoss. “I value your honesty more than any flattery. And your point is well presented.”

Vargoss may be a dick at times, but after Bloodlines and L.A. by Night, it’s nice to see a Camarilla Prince who has his shit together.

Vargoss had been discussing the matter with other Camarilla elders and as far as they can tell, St. Louis was the first stop in the Red Death’s rampage. The question is why? McCann suspects Red D. came for him, but obviously he’s not going to say that. Instead he fingers the late Tyrus Benedict. This prompts Vargoss to pull out a several-page-long fax from the Tremere HQ in Vienna, written by “Etrius himself.” McCann’s not only a magic man and a secret Methuselah, but he’s also “a student of Tremere history and organization,” so he recognizes the name. Etrius is the head of the Tremere Inner Council of Seven.

Etrius served as the guardian of the founder of the clan of undead wizards, the powerful sorcerer known as Tremere. The vampire himself lay dormant in torpor in a stone sarcophagus in the catacombs beneath Vienna. Strange rumors swirled about regarding the condition of Tremere’s body. Rumors that Etrius refused to confirm or deny.

Etrius is both an established character in Vampire: The Masquerade and a viewpoint character we’ll see in Chapter 8 of Part 2.

Etrius, who Vargoss calls “a cold, merciless bastard like all of his clan” (like a Ventrue should talk about other clans being jerks), didn’t care much about Benedict’s death but was interested in the Red Death and his fire powers.

“No bloody surprise, that,” said Darrow. Like most Kindred, he feared and distrusted the Tremere. Though they protested that they were loyal members of the Camarilla, everyone knew that the wizards worked for their own ends. And those plans they kept to themselves. “What those devils would give to wield a power like the Red Death! They’d probably burn us all off the map. And laugh at us for providing the information while they did it!”

Yep, everyone hates the Tremere. So much so that their clan weakness in Bloodlines 2 is going to be taking more damage from Kindred enemies. Other vampires hate them so much they’re inspired to punch a Tremere just a little harder in the face than usual.

Vargoss nodded. What small trust he had in the Tremere vanished when his closest advisor, Mosfair, turned on him a few months ago. Only McCann’s intervention had saved the Prince from the ultimate betrayal. The detective had never revealed that Mosfair had actually been acting as an agent for the Sabbat, not his own clan. McCann disliked alliances between the major Kindred bloodlines. And he worked very hard to prevent them from succeeding.”

Considering the two biggest Kindred sects are alliances between major bloodlines, somewhere along the way McCann fucked up big time. And so much for the Sabbat having no interest in St. Louis.

But as untrustworthy and scheming as the Tremere are, Vargoss reveals the fax dropped a bombshell on them. Benedict had visited to warn about the total blackout, the Shadow Curtain, of Kindred activity in Russia, and show Vargoss the photos of the Niktuku Baba Yaga the Tremere obtained. But Etrius says he was only sent to St. Louis to personally apologize for Mosfair’s actions and be all “the actions of this employee do not represent the views of the company.” Benedict didn’t have any documents on him about Baba Yaga or Russia.

The Prince paused, obviously enjoying the astonished looks on his advisors’ faces. Vargoss possessed a strong sense of the dramatic.

A vampire with a strong sense of the dramatic. Imagine.

Etrius also said that while Benedict got the basic facts right, no one the Tremere sent into Russia ever returned, with or without photos. He didn’t know about any photos or Baba Yaga’s Army of Night.

Darrow suggests the obvious, that the “slimy wizard” is lying, but Vargoss believed the fax. Its tone suggested Etrius was deeply disturbed by the news and asked Vargoss to give him every detail Benedict said about Baba Yaga.

“According to the ancient legends of my clan,” said Uglyface, “the Iron Hag was the greatest sorceress in the world. She was one of the Niktuku, monsters created by Absimiliard, the first Nosferatu, in his days of madness.”

Father Naples in the prologue described the Niktuku as fourth generation Nosferatu. The book generally goes with that description and so have I so far, but there’s another theory about them, possibly hinted by Uglyface here. Niktuku aren’t just fourth generation Nosferatu, or even uniformly fourth generation, but a separate “minor” bloodline altogether. Absimiliard thinks that if he wipes out his progeny, the modern Nosferatu, Caine will forgive him and lift his curse, and Absimiliard’ll get his good looks back. So he created the Niktuku to serve him and kill Nosferatu. There could be Niktuku with generations higher then four, but they’re all low generation and very old.

But it’s just a theory, another one of those things kept deliberately vague in the setting, being true or not depending on what the storyteller desires. What is known is that sometime in the late 90′s another Niktuku killed Baba Yaga and ended the Shadow Curtain. Right now though, in 1994, Baba Yaga’s alive and a problem.

“Her powers rivaled those of Lameth, the Dark Messiah.”

“It sounds like someone tampered with Benedict’s thoughts during his journey here from Vienna,” said McCann hurriedly. He was anxious to shift subjects again.”

“Yes, yes, she sounds like a powerful but clearly inferior rival to Lameth the Handsome, but if we can get back to Benedict-”

“Actually as a Cappodocian Child of Asshur Lameth would have looked like stale cheese. He was also an incompetent boob when it came to Jyhad. And fighting. A child with a jumprope could take him.”

“Who said- Um, ahem, that’s nice, Uglyface, but about Benedict-”

“Yes, good Noferatu, they also say Lameth’s attempts at Jyhad were to compensate for—how should I say this in polite company?—having a ‘blunt fang.’”

“...Interesting, my Prince, but back to-”

“Blunt fang’s just a fancy way of saying ‘is willy didn’t work, innit?”

“Indeed, his penis was impotent and also small.”

“OH COME ON!”

“No wonder the notion upsets Etrius. Messing with the mind of a wizard is no job for a lightweight.”

“Oh I wouldn’t go that far, McCann. Remember when Darrow told you having a hand bigger than your face meant you had cancer?”

“Yeah, and yeh put yer ‘and up in front of yer wizard mug and I made yeh slap yerself!”

“My Prince, Darrow, I’m clearly talking about brainwashing, not childish pranks.”

“Childish pranks yeh walked right into, guv’.”

“Yes, McCann, your affable buffoonishness reminds me very much of Lameth the Dark Mes-”

“Stay on topic stay on topic STAY ON TOPIC!”

“I asked Uglyface earlier to backtrack Benedict’s trip,” said Vargoss. The Prince shifted his attention to the Nosferatu. “What did you learn?”

Uglyface gives three important details; that Benedict used “unconventional” methods of transportation, that he arrived in Washington, D.C. three nights ago, and that he couldn’t get in contact with his usual Washington source, a friend named Amos. None of his messages were answered.

The second detail catches McCann’s attention. If Benedict arrived in D.C. three nights ago, and arrived just last night, it leaves one unaccounted for night where he could have been mind whammied. Vargoss brings up the Sabbat again, since they have their eye on conquering Washington. Darrow says that D.C.’s still a Camarilla stronghold, and the Tremere are powerful there. He namedrops some more established characters and explains some of their politics that he knows about for some reason.

“Peter Dorfman is Pontifex (high-ranking Tremere who answers directly to a member of the Council of Seven) there, and he is very ambitious. For all we know, Benedict may have received new instructions from a member of his own bloodline there. There’s a bitter rivalry between Dorfman and other Tremere elders. Meerlinda, leader of the U.S. branch of the clan, plays one against the other in order to maintain absolute control of the bloodline. In turn, she and Etrius both scheme to take charge of the entire clan. It’s a frigging bloody mess, and anything’s possible.”

If some Brujah in another city can figure out your plans, you’re not exactly a subtle schemer.

So the two leading theories among the group about what happened to Benedict are Sabbat brainwashing or inter-clan Tremere bullshit. But what, if anything, does any of that have to do with the Red Death? Whatever’s true, Vargoss decides that the only way to learn what the hell’s going on is to send someone to Washington and do some snooping.

All eyes focused on McCann. The detective laughed.

“Why do I get the impression I’ve been elected?”

Vargoss smiled. “You are the obvious choice, McCann.”

Along with this being McCann’s job and everything, he can also work during the day while the Kindred are sleeping and helpless, so that’s a plus.

“Yeah, and I have my mage powers to protect me,” said McCann. “Not that they would do much good if I stumble upon the Red Death.”

Yeah, what could a reality-shaping World of Darkness mage do to a vampire? Make him explode only a little?

“I assume you’re willing to pay well for this scouting expedition?”

Vargoss laughed. “What I like about you, McCann, is that you’re so pleasantly frank. After listening to lies and half-truths, it amuses me to hear real, honest greed.”

“Am I chopped liver or wot? I’m supposed to be the honest one.”

“Yes, Darrow, but you’re not honestly greedy.”

“I can be honestly greedy. I ‘ave needs.”

“I already pay you in beer.”

“American beer.”

It seems like the matter’s settled, but then Flavia, remembering that she became a real character back in Chapter 5, whispers something in Vargoss’ ear. He excuses himself and leaves the office with his bodyguard. The three still in the office play some gin rummy until Vargoss and Flavia quickly return.

“The plans have been altered slightly,” announced the Prince, taking his seat. Flavia returned to her position at his right. “You are still traveling to Washington, McCann. But you are not going alone. Flavia is going to accompany you.”

“What?” said the detective. “What?”

[live studio audience laughter]

“Flavia argues convincingly that a lone human, even a mage, cannot stand against the concentrated attack of a Sabbat pack.”

There’s a molotov cocktail of a statement if there ever was one.

“Especially if the Red Death is involved. Besides which, Flavia has contacts with the important Camarilla leaders of the city. I am forced to agree. She is right. You need protection and introductions. And she is the one Kindred who is capable of providing you with both. Darrow will take her place at my side during her absence.”

“In addition, the large amount of tourists Washington attracts each year makes it very likely that the only hotel room you will be able to secure will be one with a single bed. Flavia convincingly argues she must be there in such a situation, in order to provide both sitcom hilarity and sexual tension.”

“I work on my own,” said McCann, feeling trapped.

“Not in this case,” said Vargoss, in a voice which brooked no denial. At his side, Flavia’s lips twitched in the slightest of smiles. “Do not anger me, McCann. You will discover the truth about Tyrus Benedict. And Flavia will guard your back.”

“And you will provide me with inspiration for the fanfiction I am writing about the two of you.”

“As you command,” said McCann, bowing to the inevitable. “It should be an interesting trip.”

Flavia nodded. Sensuously she licked her upper lip with her tongue. McCann grimaced. She winked.

McCann dry heaved. She blew a kiss. McCann projectile vomited. She pelvic thrusted victoriously.

[123designsrq]

ADJUSTABLE WRENCH WITH AN ANGLE

Rarely is it possible to condition that the wrench is certainly an iF Product Design Award plus a Red Us us dot Design Best device. Nonetheless the Bionic Wrench warrants that distinction. Simple within the approach, requiring merely a great grip, the wrench adjusts itself towards the 6-sided hex-nut or secure-mind, covering sizes from 12mm to 20mm.   Unlike the adjustable crescent wrenches that require fiddle while using movable jaw, getting your thumbs greasy, the Bionic Wrench just needs you to definitely certainly pull the two grips together. The six teeth inside the wrench’s mouth clamp lower tightly round the nut, supplying you with a good hold, helping you to tighten or release the most challenging of nuts/bolts as being a breeze. I'm speaking about, the Bionic Wrench wouldn’t win major awards only for searching pretty, right’  

wrench types,

40 TYPES OF WRENCHES

Common Wrench Types

Chances are, you've one or more of individuals somewhere within your house. The normal toolkit might have several. Several of these wrenches have an array of uses, rather from the more uncommon ones discussed later. Adjustable Wrench

More often known as crescent wrench, these are some of the most broadly used wrenches available. They have an empty finish getting a spiral screw embedded that opens or closes the crescent when you change it. Due to this, it might perform same fundamental work in general number of combination or open-ended wrenches, though it requires extra room due to its thicker size. Allen Wrench

Also known as a hex key, this hexagonal little bit of metal may be either L-created or T-created while using extra limb functioning just like a handle. Just like a male-style wrench, this suits the heads of bolts and screws that have a hexagonal recess. Allen wrench sets usually can be found in either SAE or Metric sizes. Box-Ended Wrench

These wrenches have a very closed loop at each side, sometimes slightly greater or under the handle to permit it grip recessed nuts without rounding the sides. The closed ends are created to fit either hexagonal or square bolts, and so are different in proportions. Box-ended wrenches are frequently offered in sets. Combination Wrench

If box-ended wrenches and open-ended wrenches had children, the mix wrench would be the result. The whites can be a closed loop for hexagonal or square nuts, because the other finish is certainly a wide open U-shape. Used most often for difficult nuts, the closed finish loosens the nut therefore the open finish enables you to quickly unscrew it. Like sockets, combination wrenches are frequently offered in sets which contains numerous wrench sizes. Crowfoot Wrench

These curious open-ended wrenches haven't any handle. Rather, the only real mind is built to adhere to a ratchet handle and socket extension, allowing it to match very tight spaces. They work well suited for handling bolts located much much deeper around the machine’s body if you don’t desire to remove nearby parts first. Impact Wrench

More carefully resembling a cordless drill to check out, air impact wrenches work with an air compressor while cordless impact wrenches utilize a rechargeable battery. The prior are from time to time referred to as air wrenches or air guns. Part of the socket family, this wrench may use high torque to eliminate persistent nuts or bolts. They make the perfect choice for handling multiple nuts (for instance when mounting wheels around the vehicle), while they certainly are a poor choice for any job that requires precision. Lug Wrench

This aptly-named tool is either ‘L’ created getting just one socket opening within the finish or possibly a sizable, ‘X’ created design (also referred to as a spider wrench) with four sockets of numerous sizes. You can use them to tighten or release lug nuts on cars, earning them the nickname of ‘wheel brace’. The greater the lug wrench, the higher torque might be generated when squeezing tightly with the idea to tighten or untighten. Works similar to a breaker bar getting an outlet within the finish. Oil Filter Wrench

Another tool used mainly inside the automotive industry, oil filter wrenches genuinely have four variations and sometimes have to be matched for the model of vehicle. Chain strap and metal strap styles utilize a loop to pay for the filter casing, because the more recognizable claw wrench functions similar to a flexible wrench. Finally, socket-style filter wrenches seem like just one cup with regions of the perimeters cut away. These fit to the feet of the filter cap, and so are coupled with a ratchet handle. Open-Ended Wrench

Most likely the most typical types of wrench contained in toolboxes, outdoors-ended wrench has two U-created ends, with one being slightly bigger than another. You can use them for hard-to-achieve basics, as well as the open design can help you attach them either vertically or horizontally towards the target fitting. Nonetheless they will probably over the edges from the nut than box-ended wrenches. Pipe Wrench

This really is really the government of adjustable wrenches, getting a sturdier, F-created design. Used usually by plumbers on metal pipes and fittings, the serrated jaws from the hefty tool can easily leave scratch marks behind. Ratcheting Wrench

Similar to open-ended wrenches, box-ended wrenches, and combination wrenches, ratcheting wrenches have one or more finish with a ratcheting device there. This allows you to certainly turn the wrench to tighten or untighten without dealing with eliminate and readjust the career once the wrench handle hits a hurdle after each turn. It will make used in tight areas a good deal simpler. Socket Wrench

The inspiration for almost any socket set, a power outlet wrench (or ratchet) relies on a ratcheting mechanism to help you to quickly tighten or untighten nuts or bolts without lifting the wrench in the fastener. Supplied with 1/4’, 3/8’ (most frequent), 1/2’, and 1’ drives, you simply fit the best size socket that you simply’ll need, on top in the drive. Once the handle meets a hurdle while being switched, you can easily reverse course to supply yourself room then continue working. Torque wrench

This socket wrench is built to generate a volume of torque without overtightening. This amount might be calibrated, and both manual and digital variations are available. It’s most generally useful for automotive work with example tightening wheel lug nuts but could also be used on bicycles, farming equipment, or any instance where tightening a nut or secure with a specific torque specs that's usually set with the manufacturer.

Other Wrench Types

Even though you frequently hear someone mention these niche wrenches, chances are you’ve never owned one. They're usually useful for very specific tasks, or are just forget about to keep use outdoors from the handful of industries. Alligator Wrench

Once the big father of wrenches, the alligator wrench was named with the actual way it gripped nuts. The very best jaw is serrated, because the bottom is smooth. The handle looks similar to a pointy fang than its modern cousin, the pipe wrench. Since these specified for mainly to cope with square-created heads, it's rare to find out them outdoors of flicks. Armorer’s Wrench

This single-piece wrench features a C-created, serrated mind and may include square slots and/or possibly an opening for connecting a ratchet handle. Useful for gun repair and maintenance, these come in a number of designs and so are usually sized to match specific types or kinds of gun. Basin Wrench

This peculiar wrench features a extended, T-created handle ending in the curved, serrated jaw. Its primary function is always to release or tighten the fixtures under sinks and toilets, resulting in furthermore, it being known as faucet wrench. Bionic Wrench

No, this isn’t something in the 6 000 0000 Dollar Man. It’s a distinct segment wrench with a round opening and a pair of handles similar to individuals of pliers. When placed across the target mind, the two handles might be squeezed, inducing the hole to then grip your brain firmly, creating this a flexible box-ended wrench. Bung Wrench

Available in many styles, the drum bung wrench (also referred to as a drum plug wrench) can be a socket-style wrench. It absolutely was designed particularly to eliminate the plastic or metal bung (cap) on drums or barrels. Special ‘sparkless’ versions are available when faced with flammable materials. Cone Wrench

Imagine an empty-ended wrench after an elephant steps onto you and it’ll have a very cone wrench. These wide, flat wrenches are employed round the cone part of a single cup and cone hub. It’s mostly useful for bicycles or modifying the leveling foot of washers, but might employed on other gentle projects where a normal open-ended wrench is just too thick. Die Stock Holder Wrench

Designed for both women and men-style dies, this two-handed wrench grips the die within the center employing a screws to secure it. These dies are employed in allowing the threads on basics. Individuals would be the first step toward any tap and die set. Dog Bone Wrench

Named after its bone-created appearance, this wrench may also be commonly known as as dumb-bell wrench. Each side of the box-created ends features a different socket size. They are utilised almost exclusively for bike maintenance, although outstanding capability to suit into small spaces has every so often built them into useful elsewhere. Some dog bone wrenches have swivel heads for additional versatility. Drum Key

A square-holed socket wrench, a drum key features a T-shape with flattened handles. Because it would appear, it's familiar with tune various percussion instruments, for instance drums. Drum keys with longer handles let you apply more torque when compared with shorter handles. Fan Clutch Wrench

These flat spanners have a very U-created opening at one finish. They are designed designed for removing fan clutches on cars. Some additionally possess a squared opening within the other finish, allowing them to be utilized for a clutch holding tool while another wrench may be used to show the hex nut. Fire Hydrant Wrench

These large box-ended wrenches have a very government shape that was designed solely for use burning hydrants. Consequently, a hydrant is only able to be opened up up using one of these brilliant tools. The conclusion is generally adjustable which wrench is famous because of its extended handle allowing the customer to make use of more torque. Flare Nut Wrench

Commonly known as as line wrench, they're another hybrid of box and open ended designs, The opening is just wide enough to match around a tube, nevertheless it still grips nuts as being a box finish. These wrenches are particularly useful on softer metals susceptible to damage from open-ended wrenches, for instance individuals found in plumbing. Garbage Disposer Wrench

You'll find really two several types of wrench useful for clogged garbage disposals. Many designs include a sizable type of allen wrench that is frequently accustomed to dislodge clogs. To handle big nuts, a different type of flat wrench getting a squat, pivoting U-created mind may be used. This latter could also be used to dislodge clogs inside the cutter heads, like the allen variant. Monkey Wrench

This really is really the type of wrench known when speaking of sabotage (i.e. ‘tossing a wrench/spanner to the works’). It’s an adult kind of adjustable wrench similar to an alligator wrench, though smooth jaws and rounded handle. Its link with sabotage heralds in the former role just like a standard tool in lots of industrial branches. Pedal Wrench

Pedal wrenches have a very rounded tip with generally a few U-created recesses. Because it would appear, the wrench can be used as repairs involving pedals. Thus can it be used most often in bicycle repair centers or fairground rides for instance pedal motorboats. Pliers Wrench

Because the name might not appear familiar, you've likely used these in the course of your existence. The flat-edged jaws have been in an position and each is installed on a handle, which are of a secure. The secure slide between several positions from the opening round the upper jaw, allowing the wrench to get adjusted to match sizes of mind. The name arises from the means by so it is gripped, which is the same as some pliers. Plumber’s Wrench

Similar in design to pliers wrenches, the jaws are created to match hexagonal nuts. The jaws are adjustable to match numerous pipe fittings. It's used exclusively in plumbing for concentrate on pipes and fixtures. Spanner Wrench

Not to be mistaken using the British term, spanner wrenches certainly are a highly specialized kind of tools that have a curved finish that might resemble whether hook or possibly a C-shape. These have pins which let them be applied on numerous products, from spanner mind screws to retainer rings. Spark Plug Wrench

This double-ended hex socket requires a T-bar handle to utilize. Because it would appear, it is built to fit onto spark plugs and discovered anywhere that performs automotive, lawnmower, or other engine repairs and maintenance. Many socket sets nowadays add a 1-2 spark plug sockets look at your sockets first before selecting a standalone wrench. Spoke Wrench

These small wrenches are outfitted for maintaining the spokes on wire wheels. One finish features a slot that suits across the spoke, because the other finish features a drive mind which inserts across the nipple nut. Due to the size and shape, this wrench might be rotated in the full circle without dealing with eliminate it. The most frequent place to locate it really is a bicycle mechanic shop. Some variations more carefully seem like a little open-ended wrench, although some look similar to a little bit of curved, flat metal. Spud Wrench

Another tool which has fallen from common use, this open-ended wrench stood a spike round the opposing finish which was used to setup the holes on pipes. It's since happened obsolete with the plumber’s wrench, though it can nevertheless be located in the periodic toolbox. Strap Wrench

Most generally noticed in use for oil filter altering, these have a very rubber, fabric, or metal band or chain that loops using a handle. This self-tightening tool is ideal on round objects that are too greasy or oily for the standard wrench to grip. Stubby Wrench

Referred to as short body wrench in polite circles, this is often a shorter type of a combination wrench, allowing it to match more limited spaces. Some newer versions additionally possess a hinge over the handle allowing either finish to get angled for additional precise use. Tap Wrench

This key fits the square drive of taps, which are found in cutting female threads (for instance individuals within the nut). The type of individuals wrenches may be either T-created or possibly a dual-handled bar while using attachment socket within the center. Tension Wrench

Another of people wrenches you’ve seen but never learned about, a tension wrench could be the ‘key’ component in lockpicking are available in a wide array of designs. They might be rigid or flexible and are employed to apply tension because the pick does its job. Should you’ve seen someone picking out a secure a movie or gaming and wondered why they just moved one of the two tools, the stationary the very first is the stress wrench. Torx Key

Commonly known as as star-headed key, this cousin in the hex key wrench is built to match the star-created heads of certain bolts and screws. Once they can be purchased in the identical L-shape since the average allen, to keep your these in the housed set more carefully resembles a swiss army knife when compared to a wrench set. 10 different types of wrenches, socket wrench, open end wrench, adjustable spanner, types of spanner pdf, ratchet wrench, box wrench

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[almohamady-blog]

Video Games Review:

It’s worthwhile to think about the number of people around you who are waiting for the world to end. There are people who must do it for a living: government employees who specialize in disaster relief and crisis response, civil engineers, military personnel—people who must imagine the end to make sure it never comes. But there are others: Fundamentalist evangelicals waiting for a rapture. Libertarian preppers who shun government and pride themselves on self-sufficiency. Conspiracy theorists and internet nihilists. Anyone remotely concerned with the future of the planet. For most people, this is optional. You choose to be someone who thinks about the end, and that choice colors your attitude in the present, for good or ill. In video games, however, the doom of civilization is old hat. It’s so familiar that we’ve moved past it, affixing a genre name to what comes after: The post-apocalypse, where we find games like the new single player PlayStation 4 exclusive Days Gone.Outstream Video00:0000:00 Post-apocalyptic stories are an easy mark for video games to hit, precisely because they justify all sorts of behavior that’s hard to deal with in any other setting. For developers interested in rooting video games in believable narratives, they’re liberating. They provide a context in which violent people with sticky fingers seem pretty reasonable. The trouble, then, comes when a game tells a story within this familiar context, and ultimately finds itself trapped by its tropes. Days Gone displays little that reaches beyond its many influences and contemporaries, instead settling for being a hollow simulacrum of them all. *** In Days Gone you play as a man named Deacon St. John. He survives in the forests of rural Oregon after the end of the world, when hordes of rabid, zombie-like monsters called Freakers overran everything, bringing about society’s collapse. Deacon’s past life as a member of the Mongrels MC biker gang makes him ideally suited to life in The Shit, as they call it, and also ideally suited to being a video game protagonist. He has a motorcycle he rides, cares for, and improves. He’s proficient with firearms, and has zero qualms about using them. He has a sympathetic past, where he is separated from his wife at the end of everything, and presumes her dead. And he has a code, one that mostly just involves rage at anyone who dares point a gun at an unarmed woman. There isn’t much to Deacon that doesn’t seem like it’s there for the purpose of making a video game, and a very specific kind of video game at that. You know what kind of game, because you’ve likely played it more than once: A third-person action game with guns for shooting and cudgels for swinging and recipes for crafting weapons. A game where you scrounge for vague resources like “scrap” and “rags,” encounter different factions of humans that want you dead, and various phenotypes of Freaker to be wary of, and between all of them, endless corpses to loot. And, of course, there are experience points and skill trees with abilities to unlock. These systems are all standard-issue, part of the industrial hum of big-budget video games. They’re like a laugh track in a sitcom—standard operating procedure for a work of mass appeal, even if it signals creative complacency. Including them is fine, but it puts more pressure on the other aspects of a game to elevate the whole. There’s not much you can point to in Days Gone if you were looking for a calling card, a signature feature that makes it distinctive. The easiest place to look for this is in the motorcycle that you, as Deacon, spend the game using. It can be upgraded, though there are only about a handful of upgrades for every major part, improving things such as speed, traction, damage resistance, and fuel tank size. The cosmetic improvements are more plentiful, but also limited—you can only paint so much of the bike’s frame, or apply a unique skin wholesale. You don’t spec the bike out to handle different situations. It is improved as a matter of course, when the game makes new parts available to you and a faster, hardier bike would come in handy. Since Days Gone requires you to be near your bike to save or fast travel, and because you need enough gas in the tank in order to make the trip, you must be responsible with fuel management. You also should stop and make repairs whenever your bike takes too much damage. There’s the implication that your potential interactions with your motorcycle might make for something meaningful and distinct, a bike that’s yours in a way that extends beyond a paint job and a cool headlamp. Instead, the game treats the motorcycle the way other games treat horses. It’s your ride. It gets the job done in such a strictly efficient way you might altogether forget that motorcycles are, in fact, awesome. *** The glut of post-apocalyptic fiction in pop culture at large and video games in particular has led to a set of beliefs and tropes that have settled into the bones of these stories: A moral nihilism that posits compassion as weakness, that the ends justify the means, that there is a thin line protecting us from them and it extends directly from the barrel of a gun. In the post-apocalypse, we hold these truths to be self-evident, to challenge them is to rail against gravity.

Days Gone almost dares to grapple with this, to argue that maybe there’s virtue in pushing against the mean math of survival that we’ve come to accept as necessary and obvious, something more to the preservation of society than guns in the hands of people who believe in order and rule of law. It puts these notions in the mouths of characters who argue with Deacon, a drifter for whom getting by is the only thing that matters. Toward the end of the game’s first act, you meet the most prominent voice that pushes against Deacon’s drifter philosophy: Iron Mike, a man who’s forged a treaty with the most hostile human enemies in the game and believes in the sanctity of life for all, even the monstrous. “Caring will get you killed,” Deacon tells him, believing Iron Mike to be a fool. “Not caring will get you killed just as easy,” he replies. Instead of having Deacon wrestle with these ideas and giving players meaningful ways of engaging with them, the game instead introduces a series of antagonists unquestionably worse than the existential threat of the Freaker hordes and Deacon’s ambiguous morality, villains who force everyone to put these debates aside, or even yield to survival tropes and their tired absolutes. It sidelines any sense of self-examination its narrative might lead to, and buries it further by wrapping it all up in a story of love, brotherhood, and a drifter learning to call a place home again. It’s a saccharine frame that attempts to paper over messy, incoherent themes with sentiment, only to draw more attention to them. *** Playing Days Gone is a lot like playing most other games of its stature. You will visit camps populated by merchants to buy gear from and characters to talk to. Those characters will send you out on jobs, usually involving finding something or someone or killing something or someone. They’re all solid, with the exception of frequent, bafflingly bad stealth missions where you must spy on government researchers, staying close enough to eavesdrop while avoiding their armed escorts. Stealth in Days Gone is basic to the point of hilarity—crouch in a bush up to Deacon’s neck and every character will treat you as invisible—but these missions frustrate by making guards invincible, and by arbitrarily restricting you from using rocks to distract them. Get spotted once, and you have to restart them. Barring that low, most of the game’s main and side missions hold steady. The best missions are the mostly optional freaker hordes. Hordes are the most technically impressive thing in Days Gone, massive, frightening swarms of freakers that seem to number in the hundreds. (It’s impossible to count them but you can guess by the number of bounties they leave behind for you to collect—one horde left me with over 200.) Freaker hordes require planning to take out, and will overrun you if all you do is square up with a really big gun. They also have a way of wandering into places you need to be for other missions, and have the nice effect of being the one genuinely chilling, panic-inducing thing in a game that’s about a zombie apocalypse. Taking on a horde is thrilling and fun in a way that makes everything else feel mundane.

There are a few thoughtful touches in its design that suggest Days Gone’s developers have sympathy for the player of large big-budget games. Instead of a standard quest log, Days Gone tracks your progress through various “storylines.” A few, like the storyline that tasks you with the optional task of clearing out Freaker nests you find in the world, are glorified to-do lists. Most, however, are a genuine attempt to keep track of how every mission advances each subplot and character arc, doubling as a good way to remind yourself of story beats after time away. All of them clearly denote your rewards for completing each mission and do a lot to help you prioritize what’s worthwhile in a given session and what’s best saved for later, or skipped entirely. On the other hand, there are times where Days Gone seems to be barely holding it together, with frequent bugs that run the gamut from amusing to frustrating. A puddle on a bridge somehow became an ocean, swallowing me and drowning me in the river beneath. The frame rate stuttered and occasionally froze outright for a few seconds. And the audio was generally a mess, with gunfire occasionally going silent, my motorcycle engine revving while idle, and dialogue coming in at volumes that make it hard to determine who is talking: too low for parts of long motorcycle rides, or too loud in comparison to the sound of the engine that suddenly dipped for no reason. Through it all, the game remained playable and only crashed once on my Playstation 4 Pro, late in my 30-hour playthrough, corrupting a save file I had created just before things went haywire. Fortunately, Days Gone is generous with autosaves, and I never felt in danger of losing a lot of progress. Despite its substantial bugginess, there’s an efficiency to the design of Days Gone. It’s very easy to keep playing, unoriginal as much of it is. ***

But we were talking about the end of the world. A possible explanation for video games’ love affair with the oxymoron of the post-apocalypse is that it is reductive: Doomsday means the end of most everything, and that means we can wipe away all the complicated and contradictory and messy rules and feelings that come with humanity and in their stead, replace them with something more primal. Have you survived or not? It’s a simple binary, and as elaborate systems run by computers, video games are very good at handling binaries. The problem comes when video games rig the score. Days Gone is a third-person action game with a layer of survival baked in. It’s about shooting things and foraging for useful equipment to better your chances at staying alive in an increasingly hostile environment. Those are expressed through play, and even when said play is derivative as Days Gone is, it can still be compelling. Deciding what that means through narrative is something else altogether, and where the tropes of the post-apocalypse become most grating. In Days Gone, Deacon St. John has done horrible things, and so has everyone else. Deacon and his cohorts would like things to not be this way, but they are, and them’s the breaks. And it is tiresome. It is exhausting to watch another gruff white dude experience the extremes of humanity brought about by disaster, to be torn between pure, reliable self-interest and the fragile strength of community, as if those are the only two ways to be. It’s dumping water into the ocean, failing to offer anything new in favor of blending formlessly into arguments made by 10 years of The Walking Dead and countless post-apocalyptic games of its ilk. Look no further than the game developers calling the zombies “freakers,” and expecting us to take that as something new. Read the full article

[brianjaeger]

2019 Academy Award Best Picture Nominees Guide For Those Who Haven’t Actually Watched Them

It’s the 91st time Hollywood comes together to pat themselves on the back and this year marks the 5th time I’m bringing you the rundown of every Best Picture nominee so that you aren’t the “goddamn idiot” someone at your Oscars party is referring to when they ask, “Who invited this goddamn idiot?” Only, as in 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014  (check out the hyperlinks for previous years’ rundowns - and likely some jokes that don’t age very well) - this is all based on the name of the film, the poster for the movie, or things I’ve heard while flipping past Extra or E! So take it all in and enjoy my tips on things to say to other guests so that your party has an ending that is more like Ally’s and less like Jackson’s!

Black Panther

After Creed loses in embarrassing fashion to Ivan Drago’s son, he tats up, grows that hair out, and heads to outer space. After landing on a planet right between the planet from Avatar and Naboo, pissy Creed picks a fight with a space prince who was bit by a radioactive space panther in the movie that had audiences saying, “I bet Forest Whitaker is in this movie. How is Forest Whitaker not in this movie? I’m honestly shocked that Forest Whitaker is not...oh, yup, there he is.”

3 Things To Casually Inject Into Conversation To Prove You Saw The Movie And Sound Like An Expert:

A little insider Easter egg here - Wakanda backwards spells Adnakaw, which happens to be the name of Thor and Loki’s OTHER brother who is going to save everyone in Avengers: Endgame. He’ll be played by...Forest Whitaker.

In a deleted scene, Black Panther’s brother, The Pink Panther, visits to check out the Wakandan castle’s attic and then installs fiberglass insulation.

Spike Lee really turned the super hero movie genre on its head with this didn’t he? (Pause.) Oh. That was...um...oh, well um... (Slowly walk backward out of the room and do not return.)

BlacKkKlansman

The Chapelle’s Show’s first skit-to-feature length film gives the big screen treatment to the story of Clayton Bigsby. Based on the success of this film, 2019 also saw the big screen adaptation of The Chapelle’s Show’s “What Men Want” skit to a movie starring Taraji P. Henson. In 2020, anticipate a feature length Rick James biopic, a Playa Hater’s Ball film, and “Game, Blouses: The Movie”.

3 Things To Casually Inject Into Conversation To Prove You Saw The Movie And Sound Like An Expert:

This film marks Ricky Jerret’s first acting role after he was cut from the Miami Dolphins by Charles Greane - who he thought was his friend - for his use of PEDs.

This film holds the distinction of having the highest number of different spellings on social media - just barely edging out Bohemian Rhapsody and The Favourite (well, in America).

Reggie Miller purchased a seat in the front row of the Oscars and is planning to wear a The Favourite jersey and baseball cap, then spend the entire show heckling Spike Lee and screaming, “See?! How does it feel the other way around?!”

Bohemian Rhapsody

Bohemian Rhapsody is a French film with a title that can be loosely translated into English as “The Sassy Singing Lad With The Donkey Snout”. 

3 Things To Casually Inject Into Conversation To Prove You Saw The Movie And Sound Like An Expert:

A bit of trivia for you. Did you know that Freddie Mercury wasn’t his first choice for a stage name? It was actually Fred Mercury.

A bit of trivia for you. Did you know that Brian May wasn’t his first choice for a stage name? It was actually Brian February.

A bit of trivia for you. Did you know that Queen’s first band name was actually Princess and they didn’t become Queen until they married Prince...and enjoyed a Purple Reign? Yup - I will show myself out now.

The Favourite

Rain droups on rouses! This perioud piece stars Oulivia Coulman, Emma Stoune, Joue Alwyn and Nichoulas Holt! It’s abot a grop of people in the contry of England that’s two hors long and y will find fabulos! 

3 Things To Casually Inject Into Conversation To Prove You Saw The Movie And Sound Like An Expert:

This is the movie about a Queen that doesn’t end with an AIDS diagnosis...I think.

Wigs and bodices accounted for 48% of the film’s budget.

The film’s title has nothing to do with the plot or characters and is instead a sly attempt to influence the outcome of the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences members’ voting.

Green Book

In this sexual thriller, we see the raw, animal side of Kermit the Frog as he provides details from his Little Green Book of every single Muppet he’s fucked. With an original working title of Fifty Shades of Green, we’ll see how Miss Piggy was at first a mousy and demure fill-in interviewer whose sexual spirit was awakened by Kermit’s dominant yet mesmerizing magnetism. Kermit also does some butt stuff with Bunsen Honeydew and gets down group style with all of The Electric Mayhem.

3 Things To Casually Inject Into Conversation To Prove You Saw The Movie And Sound Like An Expert:

There’s an odd cameo halfway through the movie where Mahershala Ali enters a gas station on the road and encounters a man in his late 20′s/early 30′s who says in a southern drawl, “I’m Stephen Dorff and I’m your partner,” then another Stephen Dorff, this one in his 40′s limps up and says, “And I’m Stephen Dorff. I’m also your partner,” then finally an old drunk one in his 70′s hobbles up and says, “I’m Stephen Dorff and I too am your partner!”

Mahershala Ali generally tried to avoid Viggo Mortensen, who continually would run up saying, “Dude, Mahersh! We have to get matching tattoos of the number two - for the two of us to commemorate this journey that we’re on together. It’s what you do with your cast mates!” When Mahershala would decline but say it was nice what Viggo and the cast of the Lord of the Rings trilogy did together, Viggo would walk off grumbling, “Hidalgo got a tattoo with me...”

*Before the next comment - be sure to do a thorough research on Google and on social media to determine the prevailing public opinion of if Green Book is a remarkable cinematic achievement faithful to the story of Don Shirley and Tony Vallelonga’s relationship and an examination of the complicated issue of race and its impact on friendship and business OR if it’s just another white savior movie before you speak, so that you can make sure that you’re aligned with whatever is currently the popular thing to say at that moment in time about this movie. Then say...

Ahem. This is the same director who wrote and directed a scene in Movie 43 where Hugh Jackman is on a blind date with Kate Winslet and has prosthetic testicles hanging under his neck which go into her mouth - and that’s, like, it.

Roma

Set in a world with no color, this movie is about a bunch of people (mostly children) hugging on a beach who may or may not be related to each other, may or may not be involved in some kind of national tragedy in either Italy or Mexico, and may or may not be sick, dying, sad or overcome with joy. I honestly have no clue on this one. But it IS on Netflix.

3 Things To Casually Inject Into Conversation To Prove You Saw The Movie And Sound Like An Expert: 

They say that Alfonso Cuarón painted a realistic picture of his childhood in Roma which is the exact same tactic he employed in making Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Netflix forced Cuarón to cross promote other Netflix titles throughout the film, so there is an odd scene in which Cleo’s son meets his Big Mouth Hormone Monster to talk about masturbation and then later on the family enters The Upside Down (or Al Revés de Abajo). Also, every single cast member gets a stand-up comedy special.

Yalitza Martínez plays a housekeeper here and after this star-making turn, she’s got it MAID!

A Star Is Born

Jackson Maine wants to create a star. But after consulting a high school astronomy textbook, he learns that the only way that a star is truly born is to squeeze atoms of light elements under enough pressure for their nuclei to undergo fusion. He closes the book and says, “To hell with that science shit,” then gets drunk and just hires Lady Gaga to write a song that sounds like she’s a child screaming at her mom to watch her do a dive at the community pool.

3 Things To Casually Inject Into Conversation To Prove You Saw The Movie And Sound Like An Expert:

As a first-time singer, Bradley Cooper devoted countless hours over several months in order to unlock the instrument of his voice to become a mostly-inoffensive singer. As a first-time director, Bradley Cooper bought one of those chairs with “Director” on it.

Bradley Cooper refused to urinate for the duration of filming until the big Grammy’s scene so it played better on film. He did poop a lot during filming though.

The young actress from Eighth Grade is already planning her Oscar bait remake of A Star Is Born to come out in 2043 where SHE plays the aging star and enters a romance with a young male singer played by Boy from Bird Box.

Vice

As the DC Comics universe continues to expand, we finally get the origin story of Batman arch nemesis and super villain, The Penguin.

3 Things To Casually Inject Into Conversation To Prove You Saw The Movie And Sound Like An Expert:

Unable to shake his Saturday Night Live roots, Adam McKay decided to insert a scene late in the movie where - unannounced - the real Dick Cheney walks in to surprised applause from the audience and Christian Bale acts flustered before stammering out that it is an honor to meet him. Cheney pauses for the awkward “oh my god, can you believe this” murmur to die down in the audience and then stiffly delivers, “You know, Christian, you could have just worn a fat suit for this role.” The audience erases all memory of the terrible atrocities that the man has committed during his lifetime and erupts into wild clapping and bark-laughing like seals while Christian and the rest of the cast just have to hand it to the guy for being such a good sport about it all.

Dick Cheney is just happy that A Star Is Born is in the field this year so that in defiance of Vice he also doesn’t have to root for any movies about gay guys, black people, immigrants, or foreigners.

While watching the film, Laura Bush continually had to remind a startled and frightened George W. that no, he was not trapped up in the big movie screen.

[lowkeyenvy]

Punished

Summary: Very carefully and skillfully, you have been stealing from the Saviors for over a month now. Until one day you allow your ego to get the best of you and you challenge Negan to try and catch you, himself. Prompt: I had one of the Hide and Seek prompts! I decided to put a twist on it and incorporate more of a cat and mouse type of game. Word Count: 4,265 Pairing: Negan/Female Reader Chapter: One-Shot Warning: NSFW, Smut, Language Author’s Note: I’m so sorry this took so long to complete! Thank you Ash for extending the deadline. Congrats on 2,000 followers! I’m not sure if I’m 100% happy with this but I hope you enjoy! Tags: @flames-bring-a-ton-of-ash @negans-network

“God-fucking damnit!” You heard the loud, thunderous voice of the Saviors leader, Negan, roar out into the woods. “Someone better catch that little fucking thief, TODAY!”

Laughing to yourself, you hurried through the woods, maneuvering your way through the series of trees.

So here’s the story; you’ve been stealing from the Saviors for almost over a month now. You happened to spot the, what you thought was an abandoned factory, in the distance one afternoon. It was on the hike there that you realized it was in fact inhabited. The scattered traps set up in every possible path there, was enough to convince you of that. You had managed to make it there. The place was incredible, and well guarded. Typically, you would wait until nightfall to make your move. One of the dumb pricks on watch almost always fell asleep. After that, it was pretty much fair game. By now, you had stolen so much from them that it was almost becoming too easy. Each week you would increase the number of times you looted their shit.

The first week, you stole mostly food and a radio that was next to a Savior who had fallen asleep. Having the radio made stealing from them that much easier. You could hear every conversation and know where most of them would be at any given time. Plus, it was so much fun to fuck with their leader. Negan would get on the radio multiple times a day either barking orders or giving long inspirational speeches that made you roll your eyes. He would call out things like, “So and So, get to the armory and do this or that.” That was your que to make your voice sound deep and respond with; “Fuck no, go to the armory yourself.” Which then set off a chain reaction on the radio and you cracking yourself up every single time. That’s also what got you caught too. One day after tapping into one of their conversations, Negan left a message specifically for you. “Well, hello out there. Sweetheart, I know you’ve been stealing my shit and I am not fucking amused by it. You think it’s funny, you tapping into my radio conversations? I almost bashed somebody’s head in for a response that was in fact you and not one of my men. You better run like fucking hell and pray I never find you.” He had laughed after that. A laugh that gave himself away. He was a liar. You knew he was actually amused by the entire situation.

The threat only made you want to steal from them even more. More specifically—him. You started sneaking in during broad daylight. You wanted them to see you. You wanted them to try and catch you. Every time you snuck in, one of his men would see you as you were leaving, alert the others, and it’d turn into a fun game of hide and seek. But, they never found you. Sometimes you even purposely made yourself visible. Only one time, were you almost caught. A very tan, muscular man, with a mustache for days, nearly caught you right outside the front gates. Thankfully, you had thew him off, making him think you ran in a different direction. Other than that one close call, no one else had come even close to you. To be honest, none of the Saviors were quite impressive. Hell, Negan never once set foot out to try and catch you. You were slightly disappointed by that too, seeing as you needed a challenge and this man was apparently the big bad wolf of the apocalypse.

You continued to run through the woods, not hearing any footsteps behind you. You chuckled, they were nowhere close to you. The radio in your back pocket went off. “SPLIT THE FUCK UP. Any of you get eyes on this girl, you take her the fuck down. Bring her back to me. ALIVE.”

Laughing at the anger in Negan’s voice, you stood behind a tree, scanning your surroundings. Still not a single person in sight.

“If you fucks come back here again without her, you’re all gonna pay. That’s right, points will decrease drastically. That’s how fucking serious I am.”

So dramatic.

“Bunch of pussies getting fucked over by a little girl.”

Little girl? You scowled and pulled the radio from your pocket. “This message is for Negan. If I’m getting your little pink panties in such a bunch, why don’t you grow some balls and come find me yourself?”

Silence.

Your heart thudded against your chest as you waited for a response.

Nothing.

“If you can’t catch me, how about I steal triple your shit next time?”

You waited again. It was only then that you heard the static of the radio from someone holding the button in for the channel. You raised the radio so it was right at your ear, waiting for him to say something.

“If.”

You dropped the radio instantly, taking off in a sprint, running faster than you ever had before. This time, he was coming for you.

Dodging through the woods, you jumped over branches, and tried to keep your footwork as quiet as possible. You thought you had made it a good distance away until you heard sets of footsteps not too far behind. Needing to catch your breath, you darted behind a tree. Pressing your back against it, you stood silently, pricking your ears up to hear even the slightest of movements.

That’s when you heard it. A loud, distinct whistle. You couldn’t tell what direction it was coming from but you knew who it belonged to. You clasped your hand over your mouth, trying to steady your breathing. You were not going out like this.

Slowly, you slid your back down the tree and picked up a handful of rocks. You slid your body back up the tree and looked over each of your shoulders. There was no one there, but you knew he was close. You threw the rocks off into the far right of the woods, causing the leaves to shuffle around as they hit the ground. Perfect decoy. That moron would be just like the others and follow the sound of the rocks.

You stepped forward ready to take off again, but you felt a strong hand wrap around your forearm, lurching you back and slamming you back against the tree.

“And the cat catches the mouse.”

Looking up, you met the dark brown eyes that belonged to Negan. He towered over you, his tall frame being at least six feet, or more. He placed a hand on either side of your head, trapping you. “Now what do I do with you?” He whispered, his hot breath smacking you in the face, he was that close.

You stared up at him. He was so much more attractive than you thought. Sure, you saw him before, but never close up. It was always from a distance. Where you could barely make out his facial features and he was much… smaller. How terrible you were at calculating.

“If you’re going to kill me, get it over with.” You finally spoke.

He seemed surprised that you had a voice. “You know I should,” he scanned the surroundings before his eyes landed on your bag of stolen supplies, “what kind of shit do you got in there?”

You shrugged, “oh you know, the usual, food, bullets, some knives.”

“Knives?” Negan echoed, clearly not happy about that. “And bullets? What the fuck do you need bullets for? You take one of my guns?”

You snorted, “Don’t be ridiculous, I stole two of those last week, not today.”

Negan’s face hardened. “I really should fucking kill you. But I’m feeling generous today. I think I’ll settle with a punishment. Yes I—“ He was cut off by a small group of his men approaching.

“Boss! You found her!” One of them shouted.

You watched as Negan’s nostrils flared. The sight of it made you want to laugh.

“Get the fuck out of here,” Negan commanded, looking you directly in the eyes but talking to the group of men around him. It didn’t take long for them to hurry away like the terrified little pussies they were. You’d been stealing from the Saviors several times a week and only once were they able to get within a good amount of distance to catch you. It was only today, when Negan joined the hunt, that you were finally caught.

His features softened slightly, “You know, you’re a lot hotter up close.”

So… he thought you were just as attractive as you thought him. “Up close?” You pretended to question. You then snapped your fingers acting like a lightbulb just went off in your head. “Oh, that’s right, you’ve never actually seen me before because you’re so used to seeing my backside.” You continued, sarcastically.

He cracked a small smile. You knew you had him. You could see the glisten of hunger in his eyes.

“Come on Negan, either kiss me,” you reached up to place a single finger on his shoulder, twirling it around in circles against his leather jacket, “or kill me.” You finished simply.

Negan gave you a look between curiosity and mischievousness. Without fully thinking it through, you pulled him down into a deep, bruising kiss, trapping his bottom lip between your teeth before finally letting go. His hands were tangled in your hair as you pulled away. “Fuck!” Negan breathed with a heavy sigh. “The things I would fucking do to you.”

“Do them,” you challenged.

His eyes narrowed. “You want to be punished by the man you’ve been stealing from for the past month? I don’t play nice with others taking my shit.”

You slapped him, hard enough that he took a stumble back, his hands pulling out of your hair. You stood in a face off, heavy panting filling the silence in the air. The tension thickened. You bit your lower lip as he ran his tongue across his own lips. You watched the smirk play across his mouth. Seeing a flash of red, you tried to slap him again, but he caught your hand and pulled you back to him.

“Don’t do that again, sweetheart.”

“Or what?”A smirk of your own spread across your features. Negan’s eyes flickered to your lips and he kissed you hard, taking total dominance over your mouth. His arms circled your tiny frame, pulling you close enough that the length of your body was pressed against him. You could feel his arousal through his pants.

“Fuck, sweetheart. You’re…”

“Let me guess, perfect?” You finished his sentence, rolling your eyes. “I’ve heard it all before, let’s cut the small talk. Are you going to punish me or not?”

His look of reverence turned devilish. He lowered one of his hands to the front of your jeans, searching for the zipper while still holding your gaze. He pulled the zipper down slowly before tugging your pants down until they hung around your ankles. Kneeling on one knee, he looked up at you with those same hungry eyes. You stepped out of your jeans, kicking them to the side.

Placing his hands on either side of your legs, you shivered at the contact. Agonizingly slow, he trailed his fingertips up the full length of your legs. He continued up as he reached the hem of your shirt. Gripping it tightly, he balled the fabric up in his hands, ripping it in half, before lifting what was left up over your head. He threw your shirt, not paying attention to where it landed. You were left standing in nothing but black panties and a cream colored bra. So much for the apocalypse. It didn’t exactly give you a great selection to choose from. However, you didn’t think they’d remain on much longer. His hands traveled up to your hair, and wrapped it around his fingers pulling your head back just enough to force you to look at him.

“After today,” he whispered, his voice low and husky. “you’re mine.”

You close your eyes in pleasure as his tongue runs out across the sensitive area just below your ear. Your breathing hitches in your throat as his teeth sink down into a sinful bite. His teeth are razor sharp, taking tiny nips at the skin there, before moving up to your earlobe. You tilt your head backwards, giving him more access as he moves to run his tongue along your jaw. Moaning quietly, you try not to show that you’re enjoying it too much. You nearly chuckle at the thought.

“Turn around.”

His voice is sudden, pulling you from your trance. Before you could question him, he turned you around and left you standing there, waiting for him to do something, anything. Just as you were starting to feel self-conscious, the feather of a kiss touched the back of your neck and then continued downward, tracing your spine. Goosebumps formed on your skin and his warm breath began to tickle. When he arrived at your bra, Negan slowly unsnapped each hinge and took it off, throwing it to the ground along with your other forgotten clothes.

The cool air hit your upper body and you felt your nipples harden. His hands made a place at your hips and he continued his feather like trail of kisses down. Your breathing aligned itself with each kiss Negan took, inhaling with one and exhaling with the next. When he got to your panties, he paused and you found yourself holding your breath, waiting for his next move. His tongue trailed the top of the silky undergarments and you let out a shuddering breath. You jolted forward slightly as you felt sharp bites over both cheeks. You couldn’t help but smile at the pinch of pain mixing with the pleasure.

Negan trailed the silk down your legs, taking them off. “Bend over,” he commanded. “All the way over against that tree.”

He left no room for negotiation and you couldn’t help yourself in following his order.

“Now open your legs wider.”

You obeyed. The cool air now touching every part of you. It excited you even further.

“So you like it from behind, huh?” You laughed at your own bluntness.

“Something like that,” Negan responded before taking a long lick of your mound from behind, his tongue moving from your front to your back.

“Oh fuck,” you moaned before pressing yourself further against the tree so that your left cheek was resting against it.

Negan licked your core with relish, moving from side to side, one out lip than the next, from back to front, then front to back, making sure to snake his tongue inside your pussy every so often to fuck you with it. He would pull out and then focus back on your labia, sucking before biting hard and cooling it down with another lick. His tongue touched your clit, lightly circling and laying pressure directly on it, but Negan never gave it the full attention you wanted. Bastard. You thought. Now you knew what the true punishment was.

You lifted yourself higher and Negan was giving unencumbered access, diving in, drowning in all of you wetness. He snuck two fingers inside of you and you groaned, enjoying the new intrusion. You began to grind back on them, getting your own self off on his thick, clad fingers. Just as you were in a groove, a stream of air hit your clit. You jerked backwards and Negan’s fingers landed on that perfect spot.

Negan maneuvered himself underneath you and clamped his lips around your now overly sensitive clit and you rocked back harder, faster, getting yourself closer and closer to the orgasm you so desperately craved. His tongue then swirled around your nub, faster and faster until it matched your pace. He hooked his fingers deep inside you. You could feel the sensitivity bundling up in your nerves. You were so close to being sent over the edge. Squeezing your eyes shut tightly, you prepared yourself for the wave of pleasure. And then he stopped.

Greedily, Negan removed all traces of himself from you. He dislodged himself from beneath you and rose, standing up tall behind you. He pulled you upwards and you fell back into him, trying to catch your breath while regaining your footing. You turned around and glared at his smirking face. “What the fuck?” You swiped some of your wetness onto your fingers and held it up before him. “You’re not going to finish?” You questioned, a hint of annoyance lacing your words.

Grasping your wrist in a tight grip, he took your coated fingers into his mouth, cleaning them of its substance. His eyes closed and he moaned, seeming to enjoy your taste. When he pulled your fingers out of his mouth with a pop, Negan licked his lips. The act sent a jolt down to your core and you reached up, crossing your arms around his head. “Oh I plan on finishing.” He made sure to put and emphasis on the “I.” You ran your fingers through his hair, tugging on it roughly.

His hands trailed down your back, over your ass, and onto your thighs before he lifted you up, your legs circling around him. He lurched forward causing your back to slam up against the tree. You saw the hunger in his eyes once more as he removed his leather jacket from his shoulders, tossing it to the side. What was left underneath was a plain white t-shirt. You felt slightly faint at the sight of him. Your eyes traced the definition of muscles that were evident even with his shirt still on.

You were pulled from your gaze as he captured your lips in another greedy, dominating kiss. You moaned at the taste of yourself still on his lips. Reaching a hand down, you fumbled with the belt on his pants, frantically undoing it. You pulled the button open, freeing his quite obvious arousal. You opened your legs wider, urging him to move forward, but he didn’t budge. Instead, he continued kissing you roughly, his tongue invading your mouth. You took the length of his cock in your hand and he moaned against your mouth. You took your thumb and rubbed against the head of it, earning a low growl from Negan.

Unable to take the foreplay any longer, you took Negan’s face in between your hands and smushed his face together, making sure he was looking only at you.

“Fuck me. Now.”

“Hmmmm, feisty little thing you are,” his voice was like velvet and you were sure that you were going to explode from impatience.

Negan winked before aligning himself up to your entrance. He teased you by slowly rubbing his cock up and down against your clit. He moved his head down and swallowed a dark almost purplish nipple, biting into the erect flesh, earning a curse from your mouth. He soothed it with his tongue before biting it again, harder this time, and again used his tongue to wipe away the pain. He then sucked on it, making it nice and hard before moving to the previously neglected nipple, repeating the process, biting then licking, biting and sucking.

This was pure torture. A few more moments of this and you wouldn’t be able to take it any longer. This really was the worst punishment ever. Constant teases of pleasure with no release? Negan was a cruel, greedy man. You wanted to punish him yourself for causing you such distress, but his body had you completely trapped beneath him that you couldn’t move even if you wanted to.

“Fuck you, Negan.” You groaned, angry with his antics.

“I told you,” he placed his hands on your hips and leaned towards you, “I don’t play nice.”

He paused before lifting you up slightly and ramming you down hard on his cock.

A cry slipped from your lips at the suddenness of his actions, and your body finally surrounded his thick member. Pain and pleasure shot through you.

It only took three thrusts for you to feel yourself on the edge of pleasure. “Negan!” You screamed in pleasure, urging him to continue so you could come undone.

“Don’t. You. Dare. Fucking. Cum.” Negan threatened, and your eyes jolted open. He looked back at you with clouded eyes mixed with his own pleasure.

“Wha—“

“Not until I fucking tell you to.”

Negan continued to lift you up and push you down as you yelled his name. He rocked your body slightly as he pushed you on him so that your clitoris was stimulated against his body at the same time.

You threw your hands down on his chest and dug your nails into his shirt, gripping the fabric through your fingers as he continued to thrust into you. You gasped for air as you tried desperately to control yourself. You began moving up and down his erection on your own.

“Fuck,” Negan moaned, “you better not cum yet.”

You dropped your head back as you felt yourself about ready to do just that. You forced your eyes open to look up at the sky. You tried to focus on it and not the building sensation inside you.

Suddenly, Negan was moving much faster and harder. Your hands grasped at his back as you felt your clitoris rubbing against his body once more, pushing him inside you. You opened your legs wider, allowing him to move deeper. You moaned loudly, almost reaching the peak of your orgasm.

“Go ahead doll, fucking come for me!” Just as he was going to explode, he sank his teeth into your neck and groaned loudly.

You screamed as you simultaneously felt his teeth against your neck, his cock pumping under your skin, and your own body tipping over the edge into release.

Negan continued to thrust himself into you as he came. He moaned again in bliss.

You continued in that position for a few moments, you still around his cock, him holding you up, each coming down from your high.

“Mother-fucking hell,” Negan dropped you gently to the ground, a lot more gentle than you expected him to.

Your feet hit the ground lightly. “So I guess we’re even now?” You questioned as he buttoned his pants up and fiddled with putting his belt back on.

A slight flicker of amusement was evident in his eyes. “Fucking, fuck no.” He replied with a curt laugh. “You steal my shit and think that’s all there is to it?”

You buttoned your own pants, and clasped your bra back on before looking at him in astonishment. “Well, what are you going to do now? Kill me after you just fucked me against a stupid tree?!”

Negan walked away and you thought he was leaving you there, until he leaned down to pick up his barbed wire bat that was propped up against a tree. Your heart froze as you watched him toss it back and forth between his hands, before swinging it aggressively. He flashed you a smile, revealing his perfectly straight white teeth. “Fucking relax! I’m not going to beat your brains out,” he propped the bat up against his shoulder. “Fucked them out instead,” he added with a laugh.

You rolled your eyes.

“Put your shirt on, pick up that shit you stole from me, and let’s go.”

“You’re joking.”

Negan cocked an eyebrow, “Does it look like I’m joking?”

You folded your arms across your chest. “I’m not going with you.”

“You take my shit, I take you in return. I own you now.” Negan stepped forward, closing the distance between the two of you with each step. “So put your shirt on, pick up the shit you stole from me, and let’s go. It’ll be getting dark soon.”

You glared back at him, “You ripped my shirt in half. I don’t have another.”

“There’s nothing in that bag you can wear? Don’t tell me your sticky fingers didn’t grab one article of fucking clothing.”

“I didn’t.” You admitted.

Sighing, Negan looked around and you wondered if he was pondering on what to do next. However, it didn’t take long for him to decide. He slipped his leather jacket off and placed it over your shoulders. “Zip that up, I don’t want any of those sorry fuck’s eyes wandering when we get back.”

You picked up the bag of supplies you took today. Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as you thought it would be. Negan was taking you back to the Sanctuary, willingly. At least now you wouldn’t have to steal from them anymore. You laughed at the thought of it. Or maybe you could just bolt now and steal Negan’s precious leather jacket.

Negan threw his arm over your shoulders, pulling you close against his side. “You just keep on laughing sweetheart. Today? There’s plenty more where that came from. I’m not always as generous.”

Following his lead, you started back in the direction of the Sanctuary, his arm still possessively around your shoulders. How bad could it possibly be? Sure you were definitely punished today with his agonizing torture of not letting you have your release, but how much worse could it get? Would he fuck you again and not let you come at all? He wouldn’t dare. And you were up for the challenge if he did. Negan’s voice pulled you from your thoughts.

“Yep, I’m not even close to being done with you.”

END.