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itsdappleagain · 11 months

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Get toasty for The African Ice Caper!

Late again. Whoops. I swear I have good reasons. Anyway, super excited for this!!!

Lets-a go! Notes under the cut as always :)

First off, since I forgot the title last week, let's take a stab at it! I super love this title. It's a play on words in some ways; it refers to the literal "ice" meaning the diamonds they find in Botswana. But using "ice" also refers to the aftermath of Stockholm and how Carmen is dealing with the consequences! Cool shit!

Overall beginning thoughts- I LOVE this caper. It extends that whump/angst from Stockholm ever so much and ACTUALLY DEALS WITH CONSEQUENCES!!! I love when shows carry over serious events!!! Even with S1 finale -> S2 opener there wasn't much aftermath of Carmen's fight against Brunt (two weeks? really? she healed from that in two weeks?) but they DELIVERED here

This caper is just all aftermath, consequence, and effect. Carmen makes the decisions she does in Botswana to call in ACME because of their rescue in Sweden. They've proven themselves to be trustworthy (for now) and as Chief said a valuable ally. However, without Carmen calling in the cops, Roundy would never have been alerted and the mines would never have been blown up. It's all so delicate and interesting, and opens, for the briefest of moments, so many pathways for options- good and bad. I'll get to more stuff later but let me actually start commenting on the episode now

it's a terrifying moment but I can't help but laugh about Zack and Ivy's cover story being that Carmen is a shitty driver and they are right

while I also understand that it's the fastest way to convey information why did the nurses just let them seize the gurney and start sprinting back into the hospital with her without even knowing what happened

but okay. man. carmen's eyes just barely being able to open and see what's happening before she slips into unconsciousness again is so damn good

why does she have an oxygen mask on btw she was freezing not suffocating can anyone inform me on that

he's family 😭 happy day after father's day yall he's dadowsan official now

AUGH. her face kills me every time she just looks so vulnerable. but like she's trying to tell him that she's okay

i love found family but the nurse must have been confused when this 20 year old argentinian lady's family turned out to be two white american teenagers and a forty year old japanese man

not to mention that 16 year old canadian kid on the phone

poor carmen has an iv and a heart monitor she was not doing so hot

actually cannot tell if they stole an ambulance or painted their van to look like one i think they painted the van??

wait no it has lights on top DID YOU STEAL AN AMBULANCE???

that quick shot of ivy ducking down and checking carmen kills me every time augh

i love this quick, rough but getting smoother dynamic player and shadow-san get with taking the capers while red is down. i also LOVE that they took this opportunity to move into and decorate the warehouse further. it becomes home while carmen recovers

also the way carmen is barely ever awake is just so. augh

OOOH CARMEN'S DREAM i love this scene. there are so many little tiny things to pick up on before the brunt reveal that it's not real: ivy's voice waking her but ivy being nowhere in sight, chief not having a pen to beam from, chief not being able to activate pens from her end, etc. the first time i saw this, though, I was totally fooled. i was like ohhhh shit chief??????

btw have i ever talked about the sound design on chief's voice? her real voice intertwined with mechanical/digital noises that sometimes even blot out parts of words that just sell the illusion that she's coming from a speaker

god the way carmen jumps as soon as she hears brunt's voice ugah

the dutch angle on brunt to sell the fact that this is WRONGWRONGWRONGWRONG MM its so good

and carmen's pupils contracting when she wakes up mm

LOOK HOW HARD DEVINEAUX HAS BEEN WORKING GO SIR DO THAT PAPERWORK

that little side glance devineaux gives to see if he sold it thats so funny

and the sad sick face dropping off his face for an evil little grin he's literally so funny

"roll of red yarn" has become another one of the phrases I just repeat over and over it lives rent free in my brain for some reason

he's crocheting a little carmen hat and coat for his pet cat

the music going really sinister and lowkey a little concerned as soon as it reveals that devineaux's got this crazy ass conspiracy board

the callback to the very first capers devineaux/julia reeled off in the pilot!!! (plus boston tea party of course)

the shot of devineaux tacking up papers on the "camera" is one of my favorites, so fun

carmen has so many kettlebells what the fuck

man i love how you can see the wave of exhaustion hit her like a truck. she's not even close to a hundred percent still, but she's "relaxing makes me fidgety" carmen sandiego so of course she's up using the punching bag

oh hey also one thing about this episode is i dont think i've ever realized but it spans over a TON of time. like, maybe a month?? more?? girlie doesn't trip and slam her face on death's door and then get up and go work out in a week

ALSO WAS THIS THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF CARMEN'S WORKOUT OUTFIT?? SO GAY ABOUT IT THANK GOD THEY BROUGHT IT BACK MORE TIMES

augh also you can hear the frustration in carmen's...not exactly voice because she's just kind of panting but she does this little scoff/growl/ugh that just shows how annoyed she is that she can't do this like she used to and that it still hurts

carmen say thank you challenge CARMEN SAY THANK YOU CHALLENGE CARMEN IM GOING TO MURDER YOU even when "chief" showed up the closest carmen got to "thanks for saving my life" was "you look better" "thanks to you" girl its okay you can say thank you

the way carmen bounces down on the couch itches my brain

also obsessed with how carmen's first workout session was pummeling that boxing bag because like if player was surprised she was up and still calling her the patient THAT WAS HER FIRST SESSION UP. CARMEN INSISTS ON GOING ON A CAPER THE INSTANT SHE CAN THROW A PUNCH AGAIN HJDSGJSD

the way ivy lays on that damn couch im in love with her

ZACK'S FACE

boys got trauma from last time and it shows hard this episode

i love how everyone is just like

because she is fighting tooth and claw to get out of that warehouse who's going to tell her no when dadowsan isn't around

guess you caught me lion

also. i guess carmen did have to watch out for tigers who slam her into chainlink fences

team red got the safari of all time damn they were just driving and they saw all that??

also HEY zack is driving on the correct side for their location that's really cool

ivy's trying to help you girl you do not need to make her feel bad about trying to give you water in the middle of a gigantic. well the kalahari isn't a desert but "semi-arid sandy savannah" doesn't quite roll off the tongue in the same way i guess

"he is a rockstar" i miss you elvis episode with shadowsan that could have been

everyone: gains complete trust in shadowsan brunt: im about to end this mans whole career

shadowsan just standing on the other side of the gondolas is so funny he must have gone the entire rode around up to the top of the mountain for that dramatic ass shot

he's so funny honestly

also the gondola shaking as they fight is a great detail

top ten anime moments before disaster. number 1: le chevre and fraulein blushcheeks

shadowsan just SNATCHES that case

also I love how fraulein (i know thats a term like miss but i dont have anything else to go on) is just sitting there mad about it

the friction burns on shadowsan's hand and that belt are going to be nasty

the sound design on le chevre going down the line on the belt sounds like a horse screaming in minecraft

HE'S SO EFFICENT ABOUT IT ITS HILARIOUS he's like alright damn if you say so

carmen making jokes about the situation she almost died in is a trait fanfiction writers have been gnawing on for years

player guilt tripping her is so funny like girl please don't die again

red drone <3

its roundedbitch hello sir

he pronounces the "r" in "le chevre"

carmen's decision to call in the police/ACME here directly results in roundabout becoming faculty which is cool

i remember when this season dropped and everyone was making theories about roundy. long live the "he's julia's dad theory" i loved ye while i knew ye

coach brunt is EN ROUTE? she got there FAST DAMN?? canary islands to botswana is like an 8 hour flight

the siblings being overprotective i love it so much

ungh you can see the fear at just SEEING brunt she's got so much trauma about it

player continuing to try to get carm out of there and her continuing to shut him down carmen please girl

add another fursona for carmen to have. panther sheep wolf

man you can just SEE how out of it carmen is. tigress takes her down EASY

also that slam into the fence and how she just. collapses. she can't get up from it for a solid few seconds it hurts that bad and player desperately trying to know what's happening because last time he didn't check in she ended up in a ravine

tigress just waits for her to come and then takes her out with one really really effective uppercut to the jaw

she really is off her game she didn't protect the face

i adore how expressive they let her be here. it DOES hurt. it hurts BAD. and she can't do anything to prevent what tigress is about to do

the way all three of them go "OUGH" when they hit the floor

zack just sitting on tigress

carmen looks really unimpressed about that cat in the bag pun

also idk if its just carmen never expressing anything in her life or if she's just processing what the fuck just happened (and how she couldn't really do anything without collapsing in pain from something she would have bounced back from in a second at any other time and how that almost lead to what she believes would be her death at the hands of brunt) but the way she just stares at them

they CHAINED her up

tigress has gotten a cat joke from every single person she's told her codename to

i also love how tigress always corrects people on tiger vs. tigress when she responds to them. big trans energy dont fucking misgender her fursona

LITERALLY CRYING LAUGHING ITS SO FUNNY SHE JUST DOES IT TO BE AN ASSHOLE JHFSGHFKSAD

dont you know im still standing better than i ever did lookin like a true survivor feelin like a little kid

but anyway another place cs suffers from its rating. chief is the reason she's not DEAD and the script having to skirt around that with flowery language lessens the impact

oh wait a minute my bad. i take it back. he does get to say that she nearly froze to death thank god yes player go off king

looking at lettuce? the ancient greek sex symbol? julia you are so scandalous devineaux's having a dream about conspiracy theories and he accidently walked into julia's wet dream about carmen

thats a joke sjhdgjs okay getting back to what the dream is actually about i love that devineaux's perception of julia in his head is that she just shushes him and reminds him about the rules all the time

"a hat? in a corner grocery?" sir you're buying YARN in a corner grocery

look at that gay little julia devineaux's subconscious knows julia as only rule following and down bad for carmen

yeah chase is actually kind of. breaking the fourth wall a little in this dream? he's calling back to the lucky cat caper, which he was there for. but he's referencing the cat with the stamp in it, which had a coin slot in its head while the others didnt. he never saw those cats- he's heralding back to something CARMEN did. this is for the audience to connect and emulate how chase's thought process is working!

arent the canary islands on...the other side of africa?

i love how red drone flinches at the same time player does she's like a little guy she's part of the team she's real to me

we both know thats not why player

isnt the pen supposed to be the most secure method of communication ever or something

also can you imagine being shadowsan right then and realizing that. fuck. the person who carmen now owes somewhat of a debt to for saving her life and who is now an ally is the person who MURDERED CARMEN'S FATHER

"i'll be the one wearing red" okay how about directions

roundy using the birtish government liking to have control in africa as an excuse is the most realistic thing in this show

HAHA I JUST REALIZED THE QUEEN IS DEAD S3 FINALE IS GOING TO BE SOOO AWKWARD

i love how his glasses reflect green to show the change of sides its top tier classic cs color theory

chase should be able to get some sick days he does like 10 times the work of the poor old farts in there

DID I JUST HEAR A SEAGULL

CHASE'S SEAGULL SNEEZE IS SO FUNNY

he's literally so funny he could have done this call from anywhere else but im willing to bet that he completely forgot about work until he'd already rented the thing and was in it (and also had flown?? from france to the coast of africa???)

loving the smooth transition from the boat motor to the car motor

maam we have a car door for a reason you dont need to vault over the windshield

HAHAHA THE BACKUP IS FOUR COPS

the zoom on the timer as it counts down is fantastic

thats the second time zack has been knocked off the bed dskjfshfdsw

autistic zack agenda

brunt doesn't fit in the car lmfaooo

OH FUCK I FORGOT brunt didn't fly from the canary islands that's why she could get there so fast. my bad

chase is doing SO well just. a lITTLE too late

studies show that carmen will be attacked on trains 100% of the time

autistic zack agenda

what is chief sitting on im curious does she have a chair in her. hologram room or whatever

chief how scandy (im aware thats not what is usually means i think its funny though)

yeah you could see jules evvvvery dayyyyyyy

au where she enlists in acme and then gets shunted onto a treasures of knowledge timeline

man i love this part. she gets JUMPED

also how her eyes snap open as soon as she realizes brunt is there with her. she's ready to fight her, but as soon as brunt gets anywhere near her she is TERRIFIED

she flinches back, she stops struggling, all she can probably think about is last time. she doesn't go back to angry once brunt backs off a little. she's still fucking terrified. she knows she's not in the right state to fight TIGRESS- much less brunt. and brunt nearly killed her easily last time. if she decided to hurt her now, tied up and with like ten broken ribs, she'd be done for.

HERE WE GO SHITS GOING DOWN

who? its such a fucking. good question it takes her a second to realize. she's been told all her life by this woman that she's never had any family but vile, that she was abandoned. now brunt tells her that not only did she have a father but vile sent her new dad to kill him? and then he apparently stole her and brought her back and everyone lied to her for twenty years?? thats literally so fucked up she's so justified in going absolutely feral for the rest of the season

the anger in her voice as she starts to confront brunt about it and then the return of fear when brunt gets close to her again to gag her

"NO. DON'T LEAVE. NOT YET"

oh my god and then the episode closing on her writhing and screaming on the floor with her world turned upside down its so fucking good

the music btw also helps a TON its so sinister it gets your heart pumping ungh

okay i love this episode im so excited for the finale of the season!!!! how are we there already???

i cant believe zack and ivy didnt put carmen on lockdown after they checked on her and found her tied up and gagged screaming in the dark that had to suck

i wonder if there are any missing scene fics of that. them taking out the gag and the first words out of carmen's mouth are "shadowsan killed my father" can you fucking imagine what the fuck that sounds like a great read. give me fic recs if there are any like that out there

alright anyway what a top tier episode. in spirit stockholm, african ice, and deep dive are a three parter and the next episode is just the payoff to EVERYTHING im so excited. they seriously went so hard on s1 and s2 and by producing them basically together they are so fucking solid man i love it

alright- until (probably late) next week. bye yall!

#csweekly #cs weekly #carmen sandiego weekly #carmen sandiego #carmen sandiego 2019

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worldofgoo · 1 year

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yayayay yippee (≧◡≦) i love how vibrant & lively your art is, i think my fav pieces are Horse Surgery & hanyuu (even tho i have no idea who that is) but that one wip with the rainbow is also v ery special 2me because it reminds me of my fav kind of weather ^_^ generic Which Program Do You Use question & also which programs have you tried so far? which one would you recommend for someone whose only experience so far wiht digital art has been scribbling in ms paint -_-? on topic, what do you draw with (mouse, phone, drawing tablet, ??) & was it easy for you to get used to digital art? i always get overwhelmed by the amound of different functions available so im not sure where to even start, any advice? which physical art forms do you like / would you like to learn (anything at all, i personally have been getting into air dry clay... well actually ive been using my sisters playdoh but maybe ill purchase smthn fancier :3) & final question how do you come up with poses to draw? your characters (+creatures) seem very animated and i really like that :)

HI okay i guess ill answer these in a list. actually will put it under the cut since i ended up saying a lot (and dw i enjoy being able to talk a lot so thank you!)

-THANK YOU im glad some of my more recent works (in my more current style) are appealing 2 people! like i wanna draw my own way even though i think it gets less notes... the higurashi fanarts (hanyuu and shion) r very memorable pieces to me because its when i started doing the loose sketches with the thin lines and block colors and thats the direction i reallyreally wanted to take my style in. also the rainbow is rian my friend rian

-i draw in paint tool sai! the only program i used before that was sketchbook pro, which i didnt like because the brushes were kind of... blurry/smudgy? sai allows you to zoom in and draw pixel by pixel which is something i like, and i like the way it does its blending. its also just easier for me to understand. i didnt pay for it i think i found some deviantart page that had the link, id have to find it again

-i draw with a wacom intuos tablet! its lasted me... almost 10 years now. ive heard newer ones are poorer quality in terms of at least the nibs needing to be replaced constantly, so idk what the most recommended tablet these days is. ive drawn with my mouse and tbh it caused awful hand pain so i would not recommend this. i draw on my phone with my finger sometimes but i find doing it on my laptop easier, however it is doable once you get used to it

-the way i got into digital art... well. i still have an archive of my earliest art if you wanna see! i was 14 n just drew random shit, often lining over doodles i did on paper and coloring them in. i think esp if youre overwhelmed start with making like throwaway experimental pieces, scribble around, doodle stupid things and color them in with different brushes and see what you enjoy. and then you can just keep the files to yourself if they dont look too good or maybe itll look interesting, it depends i guess haha. the other thing that ive always found helped me was telling myself id draw every day even if it was a little scribble or the tiniest amount of work on a wip bc getting a habit going helped my art a Lot beause it helped me spend more time thinking n focusing on it

more specific advice for sai that i found useful- using clipping groups & the preserve opacity functions are both lifesavers in terms of not spending so much time trying to color in the lines. if you color in a base layer you can just put everything above it as a clipping group and just not worry about it anymore. i also really like using the filters (like multiply) to mess around with the colors a drawing has, though sometimes its more effective to just select a layer/individual color and fuck with the hue/saturation/etc until it looks good. when i color, esp when its not turning out how i wanted to, i rely on shifting colors A LOT. n also mixing colors together using a blending brush and then colorpicking the intermediate color. very useful

-for the most part i stick to uncolored pencil doodles on like, notebook paper (even though i have some fancy supplies X[ one day) but i LOVE making things with clay, wish it was more accessible to do at home. i have a handful of clay animal statues and stuff that i made in my ceramics class in high school. would looove to do more

-because my poses tend to be very pushed/cartoony using references of real people isnt always useful (though obv knowing the basics of anatomy always helps) so in those cases ill use other cartoony art i like as inspiration, i try to see what i like about their poses nd emulate that with my own. sometimes when im struggling ill just do a bunch of studies where i copy art i like to try to get a feel for what im missing. mostly ive realized i like when the pose conveys some level of like, volume and taking up a 3D space (which im still definitely not a master of but bullshitting it can be fun). and i also like to have a balance of curved and angular shapes. sometimes i try to just do a pose that conveys a specific emotion or i just make shit up lol

alsooooo i cant reccomend aimless doodling enough! just random shapes, turning the random shapes into creatures, trying and trying and trying different ways to draw something until you like it, i feel like the things my hand makes when i shut my brain off and just scribble can inspire me as well, and i try to emulate whatever i made by chance while doodling. and if your doodles turn out better in traditional i tend to consider using a photo of a drawing as a way to skip the "preliminary sketch" phase nd drawing a rough sketch over that which i then use for my drawing (or just directly color since i draw very fast/lazy...)

#long answer but i wanted to give good answers to everything!!!#thank you again!!!#and i hope i helped #yayyy talking about art #ask

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kat-hawke · 4 years

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Frozen Messages

(Following [Recuperation])

Kat's attention was fixated on the only window in the room as rain fell upon it, locked within her headspace she itched to be free of this glorified prison, to be away from the constant check-ins and needles, and dreary atmosphere. Thoughts floated between the past, present, and future, occasionally shifting to the various comatose visions. Only when the door opened did she stirred from her thoughts.

"You look like hell." The Quel'dorei smirked, slowly closing the door as she entered.

"Well, I feel like death. So I'll take it as a compliment all th' same." Looking away from the window, Kat addressed the familiar face of the agent. "Didn' think you'd come by, or expect it, rather."

"Not really my thing, it's true. But we go back a few years, and I owe you that much." Sarida inspected the drab hospital room as she moved closer to the bed, taking the single flower she brought and dropping into a glass of water.

A lone Snowdrop flower. A unique and interesting choice on its own, but a symbol to those who knew. A move from the playbooks of the Third War. For a long moment, Kat stared at the flower in silence as Sarida spoke again.

"Molly said you were conscious and safe to visit, but she always was the bleeding heart type. Likely why she's the corner and not an operative. I can see you've had a few visitors already." As she stated the obvious, the elf pointed to the bundle of poppies Molly had left and the rather large pile of pillows and blankets from Sarah.

With a quiet chuff, Kat wet her lips, pulling her eyes off the lone flower and looking down the bed towards Sarida. "Couldn't imagine Merton in the field. She'd be more of a liability than Goblin engineering."

Both women chuckled, and the elf nodded in agreement.

"A few familiar faces from around the workplace have stopped by. From what I hear, things got pretty ugly here too; I don't blame the ones afraid to visit."

Sarida's painted lips pressed into a fine line with a slow nod, glancing at the flower for only a second before looking to the widow. "I'd estimate about a fourth of the agency went mad when N'Zoth's assaults broke out. About half of that died, the rest are still scattered or recovering. A lot of broken trusts, a lot of secrets coming to light in the wake of it all."

"That wot yer fer?" A raven brow arched as Kat probed.

"Just here visiting an old friend and colleague." The agent evaded. "Fiske is still digging, finding little, for now. At the moment, the Marionette Butcher has her attention."

Both pieces of information were unsettling, and Kat chewed on her cheek as she attempted to process it. With a slow exhale, she dragged a hand down over her jaw, staring off at the wall as she considered what information her rival could locate.

"Thanks..." She muttered from behind the curled fingers resting at the chin.

"Don't mention it. We're even now." Sarida's tone was a touch more pointed that before, emphasizing the first of her two statements. "Not going to ask about Allerton?"

"Why?" Kat chuckled softly, shifting her weight as she sat up further. "I know damn well ya' can't discuss an open case, and askin' about it would only make it look worse for me."

The elf smiled, lifting a slender finger to tap against her temple with a wink. "Well, you better rest up and get back out there before Fiske tears your unit apart. Your two favorites are playing ball, but the newest addition, the Kul Tiran, is making waves. Pun unintentional. I feel bad for the Ren having to work with that one."

Rolling her eyes, Kat wasn't surprised. Her style of leadership differed from the current Director. "Get her to keep her head down and no' draw unwanted attention to 'erself."

"Uh, no." Sarida lifted a finger in protest. "Not my job. I was not paid to babysit or hand-hold. Not going to bring attention to me to control your loose cannons. You know how this works."

"Yeah. Yeah, I know..." Exasperated at the thought, she rubbed harshly at her eyes. "Anythin' else ya' care to enlighten on since m'absense?"

"War is over, and military funds are dryin' up. Same as always, you know. Budgets get smaller, and some groups get dismantled and reallocated elsewhere." The elf's fingers began to move subtly, the perceptible mist of frost magic wafting from the digits. "Not always a smooth transition, some people get iced out."

Faint creaks and cracks drew Kat's attention, the glass of water and the flower within were frozen over in less than a second. While a bit dramatic, the display made the covert message much more precise, and her tongue clicked in slight annoyance.

"Show off." Kat chided, not drawing attention to the flower or hidden message behind it.

"Pot meet kettle?" The elf quickly responded, sporting a sly grin as the magic evaporated from her fingers. "As fun as this has been, this place gives me creeps, and I have a job to do. Best to not draw unwanted attention to myself."

Wiggling her fingers in a short wave, Sarida made her way to the door and took her to leave, stopping halfway out to call out over her shoulder. "We'll need to discuss my contract once you're free!" She closed to the door before any response could be given.

Squinting towards the exit Kat pocketed her tongue in the corner of her cheek, silently questioning how much compensation the elf would try negotiating for this time. Leaving the thought for another day, she dragged her sights back to the frozen flower, reaching out with one hand to lift the glass and bring it closer.

In silence, she inspected the flower and water, studying how it was frozen and the pattern in the cracks. Nothing visible stood out, and she resigned to the fact it was strictly a metaphor.

[ Mentions/Alluding: @tirasiantrouper, @lovelydeadlysocialite, @nikkithorpe, @jocelyn-wellson, @myzariel ]

( [Chapter I] [Chapter II] [Chapter III] [Chapter IV] ) ( [pt.I] [pt.II] )

#ic #plotlines #redemption #pt.III

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artificialqueens · 4 years

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Heart of Glass, Mind of Stone, 1/? (Jiji, Methydoll) - Ella

summary - When Crystal envisioned her life as a law student, she daydreamed of topping her classes and the inevitable sleepless nights that it would come with. What she didn’t expect was to be so tied up to a high-profile murder case that it was next to impossible to get herself out of it.

a/n - welcome to my first ever multichap! ive been planning this for almost a month now, so glad that it’s finally out here! thank you so much to the amazing and talented @imalwaysaslutfordrag for beta-ing! thank you to v as well for helping me sort out some concerns, she’s really really cool :>

feel free to hmu here on tumblr @dawningofdrag or maybe, if you have the time, give this a read on ao3 as well! enjoy some lawyer gays, folks

There was a dead body lying on the floor and nobody. dared. to move.

“We killed her,” Crystal spoke, voice so hoarse from the screaming just moments ago that her throat ached.

Her eyes were blown wide- just like everyone else’s -as she stared at the corpse lying lifeless on the dark herringbone floorboards. The bright fluorescent light of the lamp posts that stood outside the property peeked through the sheer curtains of the living room they stood in, almost perfectly framing the bleak expression of the cadaver resting in the middle of the circle the Latina and the rest of the group had created.

A breathy scream broke the silence and Crystal traced the sound back to Gigi, who dropped to the floor in sheer terror. Her green eyes barely broke contact with the body, short erratic breaths escaping her bare pink lips through the pale hand that covered it. Crystal instinctively ran over to where the blonde now sat on the floor, wrapping her arms around her lean frame in an attempt to calm her down.

“She’s dead,” Gigi gasped out, bloodshot eyes still refusing to tear away from the body laid out in front of her. The Latina grasped the blonde’s hand, squeezing it to offer some sense of comfort despite the horrifying circumstances.

The room fell silent, a thick, heavy air resting on their shoulders as they all collectively just stood there, allowing their actions and its repercussions to settle into their conscience.

“We’re murderers,” Gigi whispered through her hiccups, and all Crystal could do was nod. They killed her. They committed murder, and all of a sudden it felt like it was much, much harder to breathe.

- three months before -

Crystal shot the rest of her now lukewarm coffee down her throat in a quick motion, slamming the warm thermos down on her incredibly small desk with a loud thud. She exhaled, setting her bag on the floor next to her chair before inserting herself in it. Her hands grazed the chipped wood that made up her armrests, a soft smile appearing on her painted lips.

First day of law school, totally not the scariest thing in the whole world. Not like she dreamt of this day since she was a little girl, you know?

Crystal could now proudly declare to the world (and her extremely judgemental tia’s and tio’s) that she was studying law at the best law school in the country, sitting in a lecture hall ready to attend a class spearheaded by the sole individual who made her realize she wanted to pursue a law career in the first place. How she wasn’t fully freaking out right now was just as much of a mystery to her as it was to everyone else.

She set her laptop on the desk attached to her assigned chair, flipping through the thin folder of her academic roster with curious eyes. She quickly glanced over her classes, the professors teaching them, taking into account the buildings they were held in and when they started.

The sound of a cough diverted the Latina’s attention, bright green eyes meeting hers.

The woman was clad in an olive green pantsuit and a plain black blouse that seemed to fit her like a glove. It seemed perfectly tailored, almost as if the suit was custom-made. Her short blonde hair was styled to be pin straight, meticulously tucked behind one ear to show off her strong jawline. Her green eyes were narrowed, staring into the Latina’s eyes as if she was guilty of a crime she didn’t commit.

Crystal almost laughed at how hard the woman tried her best to look intimidating.

“Can I help you?” She questioned in a sing-song tone, a perfectly shaped eyebrow raised in confusion. The blonde rolled her eyes.

Crystal narrowed her own. Okay, Elle Woods.

“You’re sitting in my seat.” The woman tapped the sole of her black Louboutin on the tiled floor repeatedly, impatiently waiting for a response.

“Pretty sure I sit here, Ms. Woods.”

“How original.” The blonde scoffed, pulling out a digital image of the assigned seating from her phone to show the Latina who still sat comfortably in her seat, showing no willingness to move whatsoever.

“I sit in the sixth chair from the right.” She stated matter-of-factly. Crystal didn’t even bother hiding her amusement.

She chuckled, turning her body to point at the vacant seat next to her. “I sit in the fifth seat from the right.” Crystal grinned a mischievous smile. “You’re one off, Woods.”

She watched as the blonde woman’s cheeks flared up in embarrassment, quickly taking a seat next to her while keeping her head hung low.

“You’re a law student and you can’t even like, count correctly?” The brunette mocked the woman next to her, nudging her side softly to lighten the mood.

“I’m smart in other ways.” The blonde rolled her eyes once more, but her cold facade faded away just moments after doing so, and a grin started to creep up on the edges of her glossed lips.

“Georgina Goode, Columbia.” She greeted Crystal’s lighthearted gaze with an extension of her arm, hand out for her to shake. “Guess I should master the art of counting before I try to act like I know my shit.”

“Well, you learn new things everyday.” The brunette grinned. Of course she was a Georgina. She reeked of water polo lessons and summers in a beach house in Miami. It further supported Crystal’s initial hypothesis that Ms. Goode, she was definitely an Elle Woods type. You know, the privileged but woke white kid who believed they deserved a medal for recognizing their privilege. She met a couple of them back in pre-law, and they were all so incredibly annoying.

Gigi seemed slightly less annoying though, so she’ll reserve the need to have an opinion until she actually got to know her.

“Just call me Gigi, though.”

Crystal nodded at the information, extending her arm out to receive the open hand.

“Crystal Harness, Yale.”

Their hands collided, a firm couple of shakes and soft smiles before they both pulled away, shifting away from each other to set up their table (seriously though, why were they so small? She wasn’t paying forty grand a semester for her lecture desk to support the weight of half her laptop).

“So, what brings you here?” Crystal couldn’t help but question, starting a conversation between the two and sparking the interest of the woman next to her. It never hurt to make friends in law school.

“I mean, if you were already in Columbia. Don’t they like, top the bars all the time?”

“Oh, easy.” Gigi scoffed at the question as if her answer was so painfully obvious, briefly pointing to the professor’s desk situated just a couple of rows in front of them. “Her.”

I mean, that reason was fair enough. Crystal would be lying if she told you she didn’t also take the attorney into mind when choosing a law school. If she really had to tell the truth, then yes, Attorney Jaida Essence Hall’s teaching position was the sole reason she chose Middleton for law.

Could you blame her though? She was Black, gay, female, and an absolute fucking legend. Harvard Law Valedictorian, record-breaking LSAT score, and built her whole reputation from the ground up. She was a whole ass celebrity in Crystal’s eyes, and hearing that Jaida had a teaching position in Middleton was all the information she needed to choose the university.

“I get it.” Crystal replied after a brief moment, finally relaxing against the back of her chair’s deflated cushions. “I kind of wanna be her.”

“You and every other woman in this class, Crystal.” The blonde mumbled, smirking at her snide remark. “You’re not special.”

Well, she wasn’t wrong.

The booming sound of high heels clicking against the tiled floor almost startled Crystal, immediately turning her attention towards the woman who just entered the room.

“Good morning class, my name is Jaida Essence Hall-”

She set her black Hermes bag on top of the wooden professor’s table with a loud thud, flipping her long dark hair past her shoulder so effortlessly that she had Crystal, Gigi, and the rest of the class absolutely mesmerized.

Professor Hall turned to face the class in one swift motion, sporting a welcoming grin before continuing her entrancing introduction.

“- and welcome to Criminal Law 100.”

Crystal swore under her breath, taking everything in. The reason she wanted to pursue law was standing twelve feet away from her, leaning against the table with her arms crossed around her chest.

The Latina couldn’t even force herself to focus on the rest of Jaida’s probably really inspiring opening monologue, mind still busy trying to wrap about the idea of breathing the same air as Jaida Essence Hall. Was she overreacting? Probably. Did she care? Absolutely the fuck not. Let her have this.

“If you have been keeping yourselves updated on local news, I’m certain that you have crossed the ongoing case regarding the murder of Brianna Heller.”

That sentence pulled Crystal out of the trance she found herself in, the wording of her statement incorrect in her honest opinion. You didn’t need to watch the local news to know about it. If you lived in Philadelphia for a solid five minutes you’d know about the case of Brianna Heller. She was a Middleton undergrad who went missing for a whole month before her body was found two days ago in the basement of an abandoned warehouse, a spot frequented by undergrads looking for their dose of illegal thrill. Each and every aspect of the case felt like it was pulled right out of a murder mystery book, down to the alleged suspects and their relationships with each other. The press was having a field day milking the case dry for any information they could publish.

Jaida went back and forth across the platform, one hand on her hip as she continued. “Just this morning, I was asked to represent one of the main suspects, Jamie McKenna.”

The woman clicked on her remote, displaying a photo of the woman on the projector screen.

I mean if you were gonna ask Crystal, she thought Jamie did it. After quickly scanning the case a couple of nights ago when she had absolutely nothing better to do, she had a gut feeling the blonde committed the murder. They both had rather large online followings due to their theater backgrounds, but Brianna had much bigger numbers in comparison to Jamie, even though in Crystal’s opinion, Jamie was a much better singer.

There was a very clear motive and intent. All they needed was to find the murder weapon and the case was closed.

The class erupted in loud whispers once the photo displayed itself on screen, Gigi visibly unfazed next to her. Everyone has had a conversation about the case with friends, family, strangers. Talking about it felt redundant and unnecessary, and if you were going to ask Crystal, the conversation was getting really boring.

Jaida paused for a brief moment, allowing the murmurs to die on their own before speaking further. “And although both my associates are very capable individuals, the publicity surrounding the case is unbearable, which means I cannot make one single mistake.”

Crystal narrowed her eyes, confused as to the relevancy of her announcement until it hit her.

Oh my fucking God.

Jaida’s gonna need a team.

“Which means I’m gonna need a team.”

Holy shit.

“For the next week, I will be paying close attention to how you all work during my lectures. My associates will be in attendance, watching from the sidelines, and observing each and every one of you. We need the best of the best so that those chosen will be more of an asset rather than a burden.”

Crystal’s eyes were blown wide at Jaida’s words, her head still spinning as she tried to grasp how big of a deal this actually was. Her eyes met Gigi’s, who was equally as taken back as the Latina, jaw slacked open in shock.

“You will be meeting my associates tomorrow, but make a lasting first impression on me and you might find yourself in the list of people I consider. Am I clear?”

Crystal nodded absent-mindedly, her mind sprinting a million miles a minute as she automatically started to come up with ways to stand out of a class of sixty people.

“Alright, now that that’s all cleared up,” Jaida turned on her heel to fiddle with her laptop, displaying the assigned reading on screen before turning to face the class once more.

“Does anyone want to summarize the case of Commonwealth v. Polachek for me?”

Crystal had never raised her hand quicker in her entire life. It was game on, I guess.

Crystal fumbled to pull out the keys of her front door from the pocket of her cross-body bag, feeling the contents with her fingers until she felt the metal touch her skin. She walked past her neighbor, flashing a nervous smile the woman’s way before she stopped just in front of her apartment.

“Weren’t you in Professor Hall’s class today?”

Crystal’s head whipped around to face the woman who stood a couple of feet away from where she stood, leaning against the doorway of the apartment just next to hers.

The Latina’s eyes met the other girl’s equally dark ones, wavy dark hair framing the woman’s face perfectly. She was clad in a tight-fitting black turtleneck tucked into a high waist black pant, dark plaid blazer and gold jewelry breaking the monochromatic fabrics and causing her jet-black hair to stand out against the blazer’s tweed fabric.

“Yeah. ” Crystal stumbled over her words, running her free hand through her thick curls. How was every single woman in her Criminal Law class so fucking pretty? “Middleton Law too?”

“Mhmm.” Her neighbor smiled, taking a couple of steps forward to close the rather large distance between them both.

She reached out her hand. “Jackie Cox. Harvard Medicine.”

Crystal has never shaken so many hands in such a small period of time. The second they all entered law school everyone became so pathetically professional that it almost humored her.

“Crystal! NYU.” She grinned, shaking her hand before catching onto the words that filled Jackie’s introduction.

“Wait, medicine?” Crystal questioned, pulling her arm back and tucking it into her jean pocket.

“Yeah.” Jackie shrugged the question off with a rather confused tone, acting as if her circumstances were a normal occurrence. “Medicine got really boring, so did Harvard, so I thought I’d give law a shot.”

The Latina didn’t know how to respond. “Woah that’s uh, really cool.”

Crystal wanted to wince at herself for sounding like a fucking four-year-old. She stepped back, shifted her body away, and lifted her key to the lock. Her mind ran in circles, deciding whether or not to invite Jackie to the dinner she and her roommate planned to have later that night. Making friends in law school had many more benefits than it had consequences, and having an incredibly smart medical student-turned-law student on your side sounded like an incredible asset to have in future study groups. Plus, Jackie just seemed really fucking cool.

“Well, uh, my roommate Heidi is coming tonight and we were planning to get to know each other over dinner at 8 o’clock.” The Latina smiled, meeting Jackie’s eyes once more. “Do you maybe wanna join?”

As if on cue, Crystal’s front door burst open to reveal her roommate, who greeted her and Jackie’s startled dispositions with a toothy grin and bare arms spread wide, ready to envelop the Latina in a warm hug.

“Oh my god, Crystal it’s so nice to finally meet you!” Heidi ran a couple of steps to tackle the smaller woman into a tight hug, rocking from side to side as if they were long lost sisters who had finally been reunited. “I can’t believe we’re here!”

A laugh escaped from deep in Crystal’s chest after her new roommate knocked the wind out of her with an overexcited hug. She paused for a quick moment, still taken back by the sudden action, before wrapping her arms around the shorter woman. “Hi!”

“It’s so nice to finally meet you!” Crystal pulled back a couple of inches, reciprocating the infectious energy her new roommate put out for her to receive.

Crystal had never met Heidi before, they’ve only been exchanging a handful of texts and semi-professional emails just to get their living situation all sorted out before they moved in. The brunette never would have thought that the woman behind the meticulously worded emails she was receiving over the week was an extrovert who would rather give out hugs over a professional handshake. The duality of man, I guess.

She and Heidi exchange introductions, Jackie joining in on the conversation after a while as they talk about their dinner plans together.

“That sounds great!” Jackie grinned at the invitation, beamed almost, unlocking her door with a twist of a key, pushing it open with force. “I’ll bring some baklava for dessert.”

“I have never heard of baklava! Is it like a Middle Eastern thing or sum’n?” Heidi questioned, her fingernails mindlessly picking on the lint of her wool sweater.

Jackie nodded, a soft laugh coming out of her mouth as she did so. “Yes it is, you hit the nail on the head.”

“Well, it sounds delightful.” The Black woman smiled, arm wrapped around Crystal’s waist like they were all of a sudden the bestest of friends. She honestly didn’t mind having someone like Heidi as a roommate, the loving and positive energy just radiating off of her warm skin was a great juxtaposition from the cold and professional people she was probably going to encounter throughout her law student experience.

They bid their goodbye’s, setting up their final dinner plans before they entered their respective apartments, Heidi already chatting up a storm as they turned to leave.

Crystal waved as Jackie disappeared into her apartment, a small grin resting on her painted lips as she turned to swing her front door open. “See ya, Doc.”

“Gigi, if you fucking scream one more time I swear to god-” Jackie spoke through gritted teeth, knuckles turning white at how tight she gripped the metal bat in her hand.

Her dark eyes scanned the room, pausing at the surrounding windows to check if anyone was peeking through them. Jackie dropped the bat with caution, afraid that the collision of metal on wood would startle anyone that was currently inside the house. She crouched down to inspect the lifeless corpse that separated her from the rest of the group, delicately grazing the pale skin and dead blue eyes with her trembling fingers. She closed the body’s eyes before meeting Crystal’s brown, much more alive ones.

“We have to get rid of the body.”

“Are you fucking insane?” Crystal scoffed, guiding a very distraught Gigi to sit against the armrest of a lounge chair not far by. She made sure the blonde was much calmer than she was just moments ago before shifting her gaze to the Persian across the room.

“You want us to go out on a Friday night? after finals week?” The brunette spat out, her uncontrollable fear turning itself into annoyance and frustration at the sound of her friend’s suggestion.

“Are you dumb?” Jackie hissed, the heels of her boots clicking against the wood as she looked around for a way to clean up the blood slowly pooling around the corpse’s body. “Our DNA is on her skin, Crystal. Under her nails, on her clothes, on the fucking gun.”

“We go to an incinerator and burn the body.” Jackie reasoned, pulling a handkerchief from her bag and getting on her knees as she soaked up the blood from the floor like it was nothing serious. “We’ll classify the remains as animal carcass.”

Crystal stood in place, jaw slacked open in awe of Jackie’s lack of disgust towards the corpse as she dragged the previously clean fabric across the wooden floorboards. “Get rid of any evidence. We can say she ran away. They’ll believe it, her case was a clear loss anyway.”

The Latina groaned in defeat, pulling a handkerchief from her winter coat as she crouched down to join Jackie in cleaning up the mess they had made together. “Fuck you, Doc.”

“Can’t help that I know my shit, Mistress.”

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robin-blogs · 3 years

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-17.11.2020- Tuesday Lecture – Painting is dead painting is alive painting is dead painting is alive.

This week's Tuesday lecture was about painting and how its importance within the arts has changed over the years as referenced by the name “painting is dead, painting is alive, painting is dead, painting is alive etc.” And how painting has come over threat and how it’s no longer relevant. Adam then went on to talk about how painting is always under threat and how the medium and idea of painting is forever changing as different art movements and eras get involved. Ever since photography was discovered, painting has been consistently been challenged as many people would rather take a picture of a landscape rather than see a painting of it.

One artist Adam mentioned was Gerhard Richter and how he wants to keep preserving the vitality of painting. As an artist he is very self-reflective about painting to a point where he makes panting a painting about painting. He went through a variety of styles such as pop art which became a turning point for him. He adapted his work to each art style and movement// location such as eastern Europe and the West. When Adam was talking about his work I found it very interesting that he changed his art style a range of times just based on the places he was visiting and the art movements that were around him. I felt like, in a rather abstract way, I do the same and relate my practice to him in how I do the same. Throughout the years I have changed my art style a wide range of times and I change it for a wide range of reasons. I change it because I see another art style or art movement that inspires me such as Renaissance art and artists like Bwusagi who replicated this art movement through one of their favorite pieces of mine:

RIKA (2020) Bwusagi [Instagram] Available at: https://www.instagram.com/bwusagi/ [Accessed: 19th October,2020]

Rika (2020) “Have Mercy” [Digital Art] Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/B-pQPNVjTPT/ [Accessed: 19th October, 2020]

This then changed my art style to drawing more classical things such as going to the Walker art Gallery and drawing the marble statues there, and finding inspiration in old Greek statues and mythology as a subject for drawing. Here is an example of a sketch I did of Michelangelo’s David:

Robin (2018) “INKTOBER - DAY #8 // SKETCH #11 Michelangelo's "David" 29.10.18”

I also did these sketches above last year when visiting the Walker Art Gallery.

I still find a lot of inspiration from art movements like this even now. I also find inspiration from other Contemporary Artists and movements who have a completely different style and source of inspiration such as Junji Ito. I have collected some of his Manga Horror collections as I’m a massive fan of his tyle of not only drawing but also writing. As a result, I have also drawn things in my own style based on one of his stories “Red Turtleneck” which can be seen below.

Robin (2020) “Day One: Stained” [Digital Art] Available at: https://www.instagram.com/robin_damien_tinman/ [Accessed: 24th November, 2020]

Going back to Richters work and process, an artist// art movement he was inspired by was Roy Lichtenstein and his work on Pop Art. He was attracted to Roy Lichtenstein’s work as it was anti-artistic as it was opposed to “peinture” the culture of painting. He enjoyed his work going against the norms of art and this was certainly reflected in how he consistently changes his art style with different art movements he finds and enjoys; personally, I think this makes his work feel very organic and even alive in a sense. To me it makes it feels as if his art has a kind of heartbeat and living timeline as just with people, we change with time and different eras such as with the 1900’s and changes in political stances such as Womens Suffrage and recently in 1969 with the change of LGBTQ+ rights with Stonewall. Although it isn't explicitly said, it feels like his work incorporates changing societal norms in art. He doesn’t want to stick to one movement or style, which I feel not only relates to my art style but also my personal life and how I never want to be stuck in one place. This goes the same for my gender identity. I know I will always identify as a man and nothing will change that; but I don’t want to be pinned down by that either. For example, Ive recently been experimenting with making myself a skirt to wear to go against the societal norms of skirts being for women only and break down that barrier. Although Richters work isn't about politics in this sense, I still feel his work relates to politics and society in how he chooses to show and express his way of working.

This is why I found myself really connecting with Richters work; even though I don’t relate to it visually. When seeing his work, I don’t feel it connecting to my own; but when going deeper into how and why he creates the work he makes, I found myself finding more and more reasons to love his artwork and his process. So, overall, I really enjoyed learning more about Richters work and I find him inspiring as an artist myself.

When film and camera was invented and created, a lot of artists and critics saw this as the end of painting. Such as Paul Delaroche who said “From today painting is dead”. It is clear to see that Photography as an art form was seen as an attack on painting by many artists such as Delaroche as it was seen as the end of painting. This was because many artists began to replace the form of painting with the form of photography for their use of capturing subject such as landscapes and portraits which before the development of cameras; could only be captured by a painter's eye through their paintings.

One artist who transforms the art of Photography and Painting into one is Louisa Gagliardi. She uses an I pad to create a digital initial sketch, and then goes into more detail with colour and shading once she's happy with her idea. After completing a sketch// digital painting, Gagliardi will then transform the painting by printing it onto PVC material to look paint like. The texture of the PVC looks similar to that of a canvas and as a result changes her piece from a flat digital painting to a tangible large-scale painting transferred to canvas. Her pieces feel like a relation to digital art while having a commentary on ‘physical’ painting by how she presents it. She also brings in the aspect of traditional painting by sometimes adding gloss or varnishes over certain parts of the canvas; such as with the highlights; to show some kind of ‘3D’ aspect and physical texture. She is additionally forced to draw when she's in transit such as in a plane without any internet as it feels more fulfilling to her to have an image come from her rather than an amalgamation of too many images she saw online. She would sketch her drawings and take a picture of it and transfer it to her laptop in order to draw and trace them digitally in order to go into more detail before printing.

Louisiana Channel (2017) Louisa Gagliardi Interview: Longing for Something Else [online video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWXW4sPhRPc [Accessed: 24th November, 2020]

I feel this relates a lot to my practice as when I create images and drawings without using any reference or without looking at any images it feels this different kind of satisfying to me. As much as I love using references and how I don’t see any issue in artists using them, it feels so much more gratifying to me as an artist when I create a piece I genuinely enjoy just from my head// memory as it feels like I've learnt something from years of drawing. An example of this is when I draw dragons or wolves or portraits. Especially when it comes to portraits with their proportions, I will always use a reference to solidify the base rules of a face's proportions in my head; so, when I create a sketch of a portrait from memory it feels so fulfilling to see how Ive retained the information I've taught myself and applied it on my own. An example of this is this sketch I did from memory using my Switch:

Twitter (2020) Shaded Man [digital art] Available at: https://twitter.com/AmyTinman/status/1324134821866532864 [Accessed: 24th November, 2020]

Along with these sketches of a snake-dragon I did from memory:

Twitter (2020) Dragon Snake [digital art] Available at: https://twitter.com/AmyTinman/status/1331266365437579264 [Accessed: 24th November, 2020]

Overall, I feel as if I really gained a lot from this lecture such as discovering new artists who relate to my work along with learning more about how they fit into different art movements and how they break social norms of art.

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masterdipster · 6 years

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anon date ask meme pt.1

I’ll be answering all the asks about the date ask meme! I wanted to answer to each and every one without flooding your feeds - if you sent in an ask, check here! So many lovely people sent asks that I’m kinda shy aaaaa >///< but thank you to everyone who sent one! This is about 29 asks, so I cut them into two parts; I’ll have part two up tomorrow!! I love all of you guys!

17, female, 5'4, my eye color is blue green and my hair is currently dirty blond soon to be red-orange. My favorite color is blue lavender and my favorite class is choir. I would have to go cliche and take you to a cat cafe, if you aren't allergic, so we could relax have some hot drinks and get to k ow each other while playing with cats. ^u^

- I LOVE BLUE GREEN EYES THEY’RE SO SOFT TO LOOK AT IMO??? dirty blonde is amaze but wow red orange is bold!!! cliches are cliches for reasons girl and if you take me to a cat cafe i swear you own me <3 1000/10 would date!!

174cm, 24yo, Female, little thicc. Favourite ice cream is vanilla bean, specifically. My favourite date would probably be a walk in the snow in winter, sit down somewhere with a cup of hot coffee/tea/chocolate and just talk about our interests. And cuddles.

thicc is beautiful :’))) also I’ve experienced snow exactly one week in my life in Japan and it fuccin killed me, I would love to snuggle with warm drinks <3 1000/10 would date!!! aaa

21, m, darkblond hair, 1m82. Brown eyes with a smidge of green in them. I'm a trained chocolatier, I play the bagpipes and i like writing (even though i never get around to actually doing it). As for a date, I can't decide between a movie, or walk through a nice forest. But afterwards a homecooked meal. I like vanila, not crazy about it but surtain brands are irresistable to me. My fav ice cream to buy is a scoop of chocolate and a scoop of banana together.

did you,,, mention that you’re a chocolatier bc you know my weakness for chocolate???? bc it worked. absolutely. wow. you had me there (and with the brown eyes aaa) yes to movie and/or forest stroll, and YES TO THE HOMECOOKED MEAL, did someone give you a cheat sheet to my heart??? 1000/10 would date wow r u real <3

I'm 16, a female and 160cm. I have dark brown almost black eyes with dark brown hair. I love reading, writing, drawing and learning new things. Since I also love food, maybe the date can be lunch or dinner in a restaurant with us talking about our interests, just to get to know each other. Then we can have desert :D Which is ice cream ofc. I quite like vanilla ice cream, but my favourite is probably Mint Choc Chip :)

your hair and eye color slay me :’)))) FOOD DATES ARE AMAZING AND I LOVE THEM PEOPLE SHOULD ALWAYS DO THEM!!! there is something so sweet and intimate about eating good food and talking with each other, i love it. I love mint choc chip too so we can absolutely share!!!! 1000/10 would date!

24, Non-binary, 166.6 tall, fave ice cream is salty licorice or licorice, good old true creamy vanilla with real vanilla is so good holy shit. I don't do dates, I'm very bad at that. So series/movie marathons with themes, like VERY bad horror movies or low budget movies with bad acting etc. and good food is a go. i have short brownish red hair and green eyes, my hobbies include searching information of anything i ever get interested in and starting tons of projects i never get to finish

TALL! i’ve never had salty licorice, pls introduceee :DD TRUE VANILLA ICE CREAM IS THE BOMB OKAY when it has real vanilla beans, it’s amazing,,,, I’M EXTREMELY EASY TO SCARE SO MAYBE WE’LL STICK TO THE LOW BUDGET ONES YEA XD any date with good food and i’m sold, good food makes me happy and kind and loving <3 1000/10 would date

15, girl, 5’2. Heterocromic one blue eye one green and Strawberry blond hair. I love reading, drawing, gardening and baking. I take kung fu so I can protect u lol. I would take u on one of those berry picking farms where you buy what you pick, and then we’d go home and try to make a pie of some fruit, and make homemade vanilla ice cream! (I rly like vanilla ice cream lol)

I loved reading this one because with every new sentence my attraction to you just kinda skyrocketed. eye color and hair color?? queen. ur hobbies? amazing. kung fu??? yes pls my god. BERRY FARM? HELL YES. ICE CREAM WITH PIE? dead. just. dead. 1000/10 would date i love you very much

Date Challenge: 5’9”, 18, male, turquoise eyes, loves reading MHA on ao3 (or just watching it lol) and listening to movie scores. Favorite Ice Cream: Cotton Candy. Date would probably be lunch at a cafe, talking about interests and just heading home to watch cartoons all night

TURQUOISE EYES??? BEAUTIFUL. MAGNIFICENT. LEGENDARY. YOU OWN ME. Movie scores are shizz, you gotta introduce me to those!!!! and hell to the yes to that date - let’s cap it all off with a Gravity Falls marathon!!!! 1000/10 would date <3

I'm nb, 1.59m, 23 with blue eyes and short hair whose colour varies depending on what I want. Now it's red but I wanna dye it pastel pink next. I love video games and reading (so much books to read... SO MUCH.) I like coffee dates (or tea or chocolate depending on your favourite taste!), but also going out to a restaurant (crêperies are my favourite!) or chilling with each other (kinda like cats, simply being in the same room is enough for me haha). I love vanilla ice cream but my fave is mint!

I WANT PASTEL PINK HAIR AND HAVE WANTED IT FOR SO LONG!!! i plan on getting pink hair once we figure out the logistics of getting my hair bleached :’( PLEASE BRING ME TO A CREPERIE I BEG OF YOU I NEED IT DIRELY!!!! same, being peaceful in the same room is so nice and comforting?? simply being quiet with each other is a date in its own way <3 1000/10 would date!!!

I'm 17 (18 this November) l, I'm male (trans). I'm 1.70 m (5' 7 ) tall. I have brown eyes and dark brown hair (but I'm planning of painting it lilac). I love to draw and I'm actually going to study digital animation. My favourite ice-cream is chocolate with mint probably. And for a date I'll probably take you to a cafe or a chill restaurant and later to the movies.

lovely lovely lovely brown eyes <3 ANIMATION!! amazing aaaaa!!! mint chocolate is amazing, isn’t it??? lmao i love how everyone here seems to know that the way to my heart is food xD but yes, pls, do so, 1000/10 would date!!!

female, 15, hazel eyes and brown hair, 151 cm, my ideal date would just be talking while at a restaurant. ive never had any ice cream, but i would love to try it one day!

HONEY!!! MY SWEET SUMMER CHILD!! WE NEED TO GET YOU TO ICE CREAM ASAP!!!!! let that be our date; let me show you the WORLD!! 1000/10 would take on a magical adventure to discover ice cream

16, trans guy, like 155cm or something, blue eyes n ginger hair, BNHA and figure skating are my special interests rn, and my fave ice cream flavour is chocolate with brownies in it. um,, date,,, is pokemon go in the woods a date?

back the fuck up, you have blue eyes and ginger hair? AMAZING. ICONIC. LEGENDARY, I LOVE YOU!!!!!! OMG we can talk about figure skating all day and have chocolate brownie ice cream, which is amazing!!!!! i deleted my pokemon go app but that’s ok, let me be ur misty and go with you as we find pokemon in the woods!!! 1000/10 would date <3

24, Male leaning genderfluid, 193cm (and also a paunch belly, I'm built like a brick house), blueish grey eyes and long brown hair that I dyed the back third green so that when I tie it back in a braid one of the strands is green. I like speculative world building and roleplaying games like DnD, and I like vanilla and all its variations and everything you can combine with it to make something delicious. For a date, I'd take you out to icecream and invite you to play DnD probably.

A BRAID WITH A GREEN STRAND!! THAT’S AMAZING HOLY SHIT!! AND YOU’RE SO BIG!! bet it would be so easy for you to carry me around xD please please please take me out for ice cream and teach me DnD, i’ve always wanted to play!!! 1000/10 would date!

For the date meme: I'm 16, female, 1.67 cm tall, blue-green-gray eyes with a little bit of amber and brown, brown-ish hair, I love reading, drawing and writing(even though I'm bad in the last two), try to teach myself dancing and piano and I love vanille ice-cream, even though I prefer cookie or stracciatella as flavours^^

oh were you the one who sent me an ask about stracciatella before?? YOU SOUND SO BEAUTIFUL OMGG <3 god i wanna learn how to dance too, we can learn together!!!!! <3 <3 <3 1000/10 would date!!

22, female, 155cm green eye, green curly hair. I love baking and making the others happy. I will take you to city u don't know, we will get lost there and explore and then eat in small cozy restaurant.

GREEN HAIR AND GREEN EYES!! ICONIC!! I accept only under the terms that we eat at more than one cozy restaurant!!!!!! i can already imagine us holding hands while misreading street signs xD and maybe you could give me something you baked?? <3 1000/10 would date!

For the date me challenge thingie!!! I’m 18, female, uhhhhh 150cm I think, short black hair (like a fluffy undercut kind), dark brown eyes, hhnnnnngggggg I love reading, movies, songs, drawing, autumn, nature, animals, tea, chocolate ice cream and a lot of other things. As for the date, I’ve never been on one, but a walk in the park or going to a carnival sounds fun!

omg undercuts are so amazing i love them <3 <3 <3 I LOVE ALL THE THINGS YOU LOVE except nature isn’t always so kind to me so I love it from afar (war flashbacks to Girl Scouts camp,,,,,) please take me to a carnival!!! PLEASE PLEASE!! I want to try this funnel cake that I keep hearing about!!!! But anyway you sound beautiful and amazing, 1000/10 would date!!!

#master speaks #master replies #personal #ask meme: date #THIS GOT VERY LONG #SO I'M SPLITTING IT INTO TWO #I'LL POST THE REST TOMORROW #I LOVE YOU GUYS THANK YOU FOR SENDING ALL THESE ASKS!!!

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ada-open-in-reality · 5 years

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exhibition | intervention | activism

Museum of Applied Art - 39th Salon of Architecture, Belgrade, Serbia

March 29 - April 30 2017

EXPERIMENT AND RESEARCH

"...In terms of representing Serbian architecture, the experiences of the Salon of Architecture in the framework of the Museum of Applied Art in Belgrade are the most referential and in that sense its importance is growing so that participation in the Salon is participation in further building Serbian architectural culture. The Salon is a manifestation which has long since gone beyond the borders of its parent space, but it also records events surrounding it so that I cannot finish this short text without mentioning an architectural disappearance:

"The Jugopetrol Gas Station", a small but important sign in drawing of the square in front of the Museum of Applied Art which has for decades been there with the Salon of Architecture as an "exhibit" of its time, always exposed to our view through the large windows of the gallery of the Museum. The dissappearance of this very small edifice of considerable architectural strenght in composition with its miniscule dimensions is very visible today. The empty space in our memory, the empty space at the corner of the park - the Jugopetrol gas station made of red brick with a markedly protruding white roof with a rounded edge, which was supported by a white column rising from a white base, as the materialized strong element of an energetic form which hid within itslf a tiny cabin only several square meters large, over the decades entered not only the landscpe of the square but also the "landscape" of the Salon with which this small edifice courageusly conducted a successful dialogue for years! Could this architecture have had a different purpose? Did it have to be torn down? Can we or do we have to adopt a different attitude towards heritage and the protection of small great works of our more recent past?" *

* Slobodan Danko Selinkić, Communicating architecture 40 years/36 times, Catalogue of 36th Salon of Architecture, Museum of Applied Art, 2014 (Translation from Serbian: Biljana Valašević)

...Returning from the "asteroid" B-612, encouraged by the realization of projects, in the form of two workshops, through the initiative of the O:TVORENO concept and participation in solo and group public representations of AΔA group activities, Stefan and Luka decide that their alternative contribution to architectural culture and the scene should be present at the 39th Salon of Architecture at the Museum of Applied Art in Belgrade, in the category "Experiment and Research"...

"This year's 39th Salon of Architecture is thematized by issue of the spatial relationship between the architect, the creator, and the phenomenon of reality, as the actual impossibility in relation to the current situation in the World - here and now. In other words, the reality is a certain kind of basis for the possibility of architecture, and at the same time it stands as its impossibility. " **

** Council of Salon of Architecture

...In preparation for the exhibition of the O:TVORENO (PLAYGROUND, WATCHTOWER) project, the duo of the AΔA group explores the theme of the Salon of Architecture - "in reality" and its immediate physical environment, guided by the idea of expanding and affirming the theme of its own action, as well as the theme of Salon, in the actual reality outside the walls of the Museum's institution and the relative passivity of the exhibition space through interactive spatial intervention...

O:TVORENO U REALNOSTI (O:PEN IN REALITY) is the research of the relationship between the AΔA group's concept-project and the current theme of the 39th Salon of Architecture, ie, the relation and interaction between the conventional (institutional) exhibition of work (showpiece) as a relatively passive act of action, chosen by the competition selection, and (unconventional) active spatial intervention. In this way, the project presented by the "experiment and research in architecture" category, instead of just representing a picture (poster) of action in reality, gets out of the exhibition space of the museum - outside, into the current, present reality, where it acts in the public space.

The Salon of Architecture in the Museum of Applied Art, its historical, thematic and catalog material, as well as its immediate physical environment for last four years, represent the conceptual and contextual framework of the research of the subject of the current theme - "in reality", in relation to the actions of the O:TVORENO (O:PEN) initiative:

2014 - 36th Salon of Architecture, 40 years since the founding of the Salon of Architecture 2015 - 37th Salon of Architecture, AFFIRMATION 2016 - 38th Salon of Architecture, OPEN 2017 - 39th Salon of Architecture, IN REALITY

Now, in reality, the project O:TVORENO (O:PEN), formed in February 2016 when it coincidentally, simultaneously (parallely) shares the title with the current theme of the Salon of that year, shows its affirmation in its active one-year continuity, supplementing the text of Slobodan Danko Selinkić "Communicating architecture 40 years/36 times" through its characteristic spatial intervention. Instead of the usual presentation of an architectural project or work as a product, the authors try to show the whole act and mode of action as part of a process that is still in progress in reality.

...After opening and visiting the exhibition, Stefan and Luka come out to the Vojvoda Vuk Park, the so-called "Palas (Palace)" and through the "guerrilla" act of street art, they create spatial intervention as a public provocation - a homage to work of Ignjat Popović...

Spatial intervention O:TVORENO U REALNOSTI (O:PEN IN REALITY) as a spatial counterpoint to the material exposed in the form of poster within Salon, as well as its programmatic continuation, represents a reminiscence of the "Jugopetrol" Gas Station, a demolished work of the architect Ignjat Popović, by integrating and adapting Station's ground plan to the situation on the site. Beside the dialogue between the "two realities", between the project presented at the exhibition and the spatial intervention in the outer space, as a relationship between the "inside" and "outside" of the Museum's institution, the intervention itself, at the corner of the Vojvoda Vuk Park, is conceived in the context of the relationship between the "three realities":

1) memory of the place occupied by the unique architectural work of the demolished gas station at the corner of the park;

2) the digital (virtual) reality of the current "google street view" that shows an empty space at the corner of the park as a "current" reality;

3) the real situation at the corner of the park at the time of the exhibition, where the place of the former Gas Station is occupied by the recycling glass container;

from which spatial intervention is conceived.

In spatial-programmatic terms, intervention in public space is conceived as a logical morphological ending of the corner of the park in the form of a micro plateau, mapped in white as a homage of the gas station layout, integrating the existing container within its geometry. By adding the swing as the characteristic leitmotif in the central area, a connection between the elements of the park - the tree, the plateau and the recycling mobilier is established, and a micro-ecological "urban stop" is formed ad hoc.

************************************* AΔA *********************************

youtube

************************************* FILM ********************************

...An actively spent night in front of the museum is completed with the action of asphalt painting at the place of the former "Jugopetrol" Gas Station and by hanging the swing to the tree at the corner of the park. In the light of tomorrow's day, the return to the site follows, along with the observation of the positive effect of the last night's experiment through the windows of the neighboring cafe "Spring". While Luka and Stefan are having a drink for a successful intervention, interested in watching events in the museum and at the corner of "Palas", they realize that they are not "accidentally" in a catering facility of that exact name...

...In the meantime, while new idea about the o:pening of a well-known space emerges, the Little Prince, on his interstellar journey, encounters a mysterious black monolith. Instead of the B-612 coordinates, a space odyssey brings him in front of THE BLACK BOX at coordinates 1:6:12...

***

contact & connection

AΔA

I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X

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therealestatesparkblog · 5 years

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Are You Ready for the Next Big Disruption in Real Estate Investing?

When you hear the word millennial, whats the first thought that pops into your head? Id wager a guess its not savvy real estate investor. Millennials have earned something of a bad rap when it comes to moneyand pretty much everything else, for that matter. But as a millennial and a real estate investor, Ive often found myself wondering, Am I an exception to the rule, or is everyone seriously misguided about my generations priorities? My company, Clever Real Estate, recently conducted a survey of 1,000 Americans who were planning to buy a home in the next year. Approximately 52 percent of respondents were classified as millennials (between the ages of 18 and 34). What we learned was surprisingand ran contrary to prevailing narratives about millennials within the real estate community. Our team compiled a number of key insights from our report, along with emerging data from leading industry analysts, to paint a comprehensive picture of the blossoming millennial real estate investoraka the industrys next major disruption. Heres what you need to know. Related:5 Ways the Real Estate Industry Will Completely Transform Over the Next Decade

The Next Wave of Investors Has Arrived Millennials are about to become Americas largest living generation. And did you knowmy peers and I are already the largest generation in the U.S. workforce?Were earning more than previous generations did at our age and, despite what you may have heard, we might actually be better at saving, too. In fact, a 2018 Bank of America study found that approximately 46percentof millennials have managed to accumulate more than $15,000 in savings, while 16 percent have saved over $100,000. In other words, were a whole lot more adept at managing our money (and debt) than some would have you believe. Related:Millennials Are Poised to Be the Wealthiest Generation Yet: Heres Why As the job market continues to improve, millennials buying power is increasing in kind, and were looking for smart ways to invest our newfound wealth. Americans under the age of 37 already represent the largest share of home buyers, at 36 percent. While most of those buyers are looking for residential properties, we all know that real estate investing is only a small step from therea step that many millennials, specifically, seem very interested in taking. Clevers study found that millennials are a full 52 percent more likely to invest in multifamily properties than Generation Xers or Baby Boomers. In addition, 9 percent of millennials (also called Gen Y) respondents said they were buying properties specifically to generate passive incomemore than Generation X (6 percent) or Baby Boomers (5 percent). Why Real Estate? Millennials came of age during the 2008 housing crash. We began entering the workforce in the middle of the Great Recession. So, its no surprise that a lot of us are suspicious about the stock market, financial institutions, and the economy in general. We prioritize financial stability, autonomy, and ultimately, independence. Despite the stock markets recovery (and then some) over the past decade, Gen Y is increasingly giving it the cold shoulder and gravitating instead toward more tangible asset classes.And whats more tangible than physical property? In Clevers study, 43 percent of respondents ages 34 and under said they were interested in purchasing property because they felt it was a good investment. But its important to point out that were not just following our collective gut here. Were doing our homework. Over the past two decades, the real estate market has outperformed the stock market by a factor of nearly 2 to 1. (Since 2000, the S&P 500 yielded an average 5.43percentannual returnversus the real estate markets 10.71 percent.) Whats more, arecent survey conducted by RealtyShares found that more millennials were aware of this fact than any other generation polled. Part of this awareness may actually come from our typically maligned internet obsession. Many online financial experts popular among Gen Y are increasingly recommending investing in real estate over the stock market. So much for the theory that millennials have no attention span!

Barriers to Entry Millennials may be eager to dive into the real estate investment market, but we have some unique challenges well need to overcome first. According to recent data released by credit rating agency Experian, millennials have an average credit score of 652. These lower credit scorescan significantly hike up our mortgage rates or, in some cases, prevent us from getting loans altogether. Related:5 Tried-And-True Ways to Improve Your Credit Score This is likely due to our generations massive collective debt load. The average millennial carries a burden of approximately $36,000, mostly from student loans and credit card bills. Of course, this isnt just making it difficult for us to get loansits making it difficult for us to save, as well. In fact, nearly 39 percent of the millennials polled in our study listed down payments as the number one barrier preventing them from buying property. Thinking Outside the Box That said, Gen Y is nothing if not scrappy, and many of us are finding creative financing workarounds through technology and other emerging investment tactics. For example, as the popularity of vacation rental sites like Airbnb, HomeAway, and VRBO continues to grow, expect millennials to lead the pack in terms of adoption. Just like we would with a multifamily residence, were using these emerging opportunities for supplemental income to pay off mortgages and taxes, build equity, and invest in new properties. While this practice still hasnt been fully accepted by the REI community at large, it should be. The official numbers for last year havent come out yet, but industry analysts projected that the private accommodation market would top $36 billion in 2018. Plus, its allowing many millennials to break into the REI industry when they otherwise wouldnt have considered it as an option (i.e., instead of having to buy an additional investment property, single-family homeowners can now simply rent out individual rooms to generate supplemental income). Technology Will Level the Playing Field Millennials have hurdles to overcome in entering the real estate market, but were also going to have the upper hand in an increasingly digitized real estate landscape. As the first true digital natives, millennial investors have all of the skills and resources to not only identify emerging markets and investment opportunities, but also to pounce on them quickly. Our study found that, more than any other generation, millennials are utilizing smartphone-centric platforms like Zillow and Trulia to obtain up-to-the-minute data and make informed decisions. Apps like these allow young investors to search for properties and handle transactions from hundredsor even thousandsof miles away, if they so choose. In other words, millennial habits and preferences are creating an increasingly delocalized real estate landscape, where investors can tap into hot markets all across the countrynot just those in their immediate vicinity. Millennials are just now entering into our peak spending years. At the same time, the real estate industry is quickly moving in a direction that plays to the strengths of our generation. For those reasons, were perfectly poised to be the next major force in real estate investmentand were going to take the reins sooner than you think.

How do you think millennials will fare in the market? Id love to know your thoughts. Comment below! https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/next-big-disruption-in-real-estate-investing-millennials

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seanmeverett · 7 years

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Review of KPCB’s 2017 Internet & Tech Trends

Learnings from a product person’s perspective of a 350-page deck

I. Setting the Stage

At the pace the tech news goes these days, you’ve probably already forgotten all about Mary Meeker’s latest gem of a trends report. This year was a doozy. Over 350 pages. Analysts, get you some sleep.

The slides are embedded below to make this easier and so you can follow along with our comments of how to interpret these findings. Use this to build your own startup, innovate at the company you work at, or just to learn something new.

Knowledge is a tool that must continue to be sharpened.

http://ift.tt/2tQfhrR

II. Advertising & Retailing

p5: global internet users and smart phone growth has essentially stopped. We’ve reached the fat middle of the market in terms of spreading and have plugged in half the human species. The only thing that’s spread further is life support (oxygen, water, food) and electricity. New enablement technology diffused? Check.

p9: adults now spend nearly a full working day interacting with tech and digital media in the US. So, you’ve got your work job and now you’ve got your fun job. The convergence has already begun. Social media marketers isn’t just some joke job. It’s a skill of the new economy.

p13: this “time spent vs ad dollars spent” chart has been out of whack for years. It’s finally getting in sync. Which means its time for a new medium to get released. Only this time, it’s going to be so personalized, it’s basically a reflection of you.

p14: the internet is our new television, is our new radio, is our new book.

p15: if you’re buying ads, trying to target a certain demo to create a conversion into a sale, you basically only have one choice: Google or Facebook.

P16–25: ads is where almost all of the money is flowing in tech. You may find it boring, but don’t forget, boring = cash flow.

p27: I’ve never been a fan of interactive or dynamic ads. It makes the user do two things they hate: 1) sit through another damn ad, and 2) you’re not going to make me interact with it?! Oy, the best ad doesn’t look, feel, taste, or sound like an ad. It’s compelling content.

p32: Google is basically the digital world’s most pervasive and compelling product. Because it makes people pay to be next to the stuff you’re looking for. In the real world, that would be like some dude following you around a museum asking if you want to go buy this paint brush or eat at Denny’s next to a picture of food. Not knocking it, it’s an incredible business, but there’s a lesson here in that the digital world has different rules than the real one. Expect that lesson to keep playing itself out over the coming decades.

p35: future ads are going to be pics instead of text. Humans process pics way faster. Pinterest and Snap might have an opportunity against the Googs here, but the search habit is so embedded in the human populace that now it’s part of the web browser URL bar. Snap nor Pinterest has that level of OS access.

p39: retail and brands. It’s not about just showing your product in context anymore. We believe it’s about creating an experience around your product that customers want to come for. An example is throwing a music festival in the summer if you’re a bottled water company. You create the context and leave your product as the only option. That’s how you reach Millennials and Gen Z. And Amazon.com is how you reach adults with kids and no free time. It ain’t rocket science, it’s just execution.

p40: Will Smith saved us from aggressive aliens. We appreciate him. And he was a former math guy so, street credibility.

p44: AR is going to be interesting. Yet to be seen how pervasive it will become from a visual perspective until we have the glasses that don’t look like cell phones strapped to our heads. Or as I call them, “Noggin Boxes”.

p45: AI Assistants, to me, are the promise of truly invisible software. Many have talked about it, but you can’t just say what you want and have it work right all the time, as well people are very uncomfortable talking to a machine in public. It just feels weird. No amount of NLP or AI is going to change human behavior. It’s going to have to jump the shark in favor of neural laces where I think it and it happens.

p53: customer support survey where people tell you what they want. I’ve got a better solution. Make your product and service so great that it makes support obsolete. I know, easier said than done, but it’s a goal that means your business is around forever. Look at Vaynerchuck. He didn’t sell wine. He sold “I’ll drive to you in a blizzard with a power generator to keep your business open and house warm”. Then you never buy from another wine seller again. That’s extreme support.

P55: that little intercom chat window is freaking everywhere.

more retail stuff with a bunch of metrics and pipelines and yaddy yaddy

P66: apartment lobbies become storage facilities for packages. Boy can I attest to this in Cali as well as NYC. It’s a really smart notice by the folks who put this together. What it means is again: Amazon is your retail strategy. Forget store fronts, websites, apps, etc. Just drive traffic to Amazon pages. Get Affiliate commissions on top of it. Reduce friction, just get the damn sale. Your brand is in front of people when they get the product home. You don’t need to own the web experience.

p68: food delivery is a huge deal. We’re tired, we’re sick of cooking, and entire startup businesses have been created on the back of a grubhub page. It’s like amazon for real-time, hot food. It’s a big deal and will only get bigger. Cheap + Healthy + Filling. That’s your magic formula.

p71: AI for clothing design of the future. Don’t count it out.

p73: people don’t want to just try stuff on. They want to get it now to wear now. Real-time is the key to in-person experience. That’s the excitement, not to wait for it to be shipped. Not a fan of the “waiting” model.

p74: Wal-Mart’s in real trouble.

p75: meanwhile, Amazon Basics is a gold mine.

III. Interactive Gaming

p81: if you’re on the internet, it’s highly likely that you game. Play is built into human nature because it’s escapism.

p82: I used to watch a room full of developers talk about and watch online gaming while they coded. This was back in 2013. Cooperative esports is not a fad, but something that’s going to be around for some time. The new sports agent will be after these huge sponsorship dollars.

p84: people in Asia like video games. No secret here.

p85: pretty even split amongst all age groups on who games.

p88–97: there’s a reason gamification works. The problem is always around defining and designing a concept called “fun”. Just because you slap points on something doesn’t automatically make taking out the trash fun.

p99: Twitch ain’t goin nowhere. Level that up with Minecraft and then add in some cryptocurrency where it becomes your job and watch a new economy blossom in a digital universe completely outside the confines of governmental taxation, which means you get to keep 33% more of that money you spent time making.

p101: I’ve never played fantasy sports but all my friends have been playing since we were kids. Weird that it took until only recently for the likes of Fan Duel to show up.

p103: more game machanics. Understanding that they exist is the first step, the next step is applying them correctly. Easier said than done. Trust me from experience running a gamification product for brands to increase engagement via social media.

p114: gaming beats social in engagement. The problem is that you eventually master the game but not your social network. So more value is continually added to Facebook, Insta and Snap while the creators of FarmVille, Clash of Clans, and Angry Birds have to keep creating hits. And content is hard.

p120: tech and sports has been talked about for decades but there hasn’t really been a breakthrough killer product that everyone swears by. Maybe the bracelet / watch that tracks steps but that’s pretty low-grade in terms of information density.

p123: state of the art for sports platforms is just analytics dashboards with some gamification added on top. But does that really increase your performance? Sure it helps to know you did a few more steps than yesterday and that you’re on a streak for working out 3 days in a row, but you kind of already knew that intuitively didn’t you? Where’s the leverage? Much like the iPhone made computing pervasive, did the Apple Watch really make sports pervasive and higher performance? It seems there’s a big hole that still exists in this area until we start tracking automatically what food goes into our body, the digestion that takes place, how exercise and sitting affects that, alcohol, work and environmental factors, and then gives you suggestions for improving your health.

p129: gamification in industrial settings is highly important. It gets talked about too much in consumer and not enough in aerospace, automotive, surgery, military, industrial manufacturing, robotics, etc.

p132: the volume of digital information created is on a power law curve, we’re still just at the very beginning.

p133: Moore’s Law still isn’t coming to a close, regardless of how many people talk about it. Because there is always room to pay more for faster compute.

p138–145: esports is a big deal. It’s growing 40% every year now reaching half the population of the United States.

p150: do trends in gaming predict future product around all of tech, much like porn used to in the video production space?

IV. Media

Editor’s note: after years of experience building online video/audio platforms, media businesses, and social apps, we are undoubtedly going to have a biased view about this section so you can either take it as we know some inside baseball or we’re bat shit crazy. So all I can promise is the unvarnished truth from my perspective.

p153: music streaming is pretty simple — make sure you have the song I want to listen to, give me some new songs I’d like but haven’t found on my own, and then charge me a flat monthly fee like $10 for it. Execute on those 3 things and you’ve got yourself some good bacon. Of course, Amazon is the real wild card here because as a Prime member, you get music plus a whole host of other things.

p154: online video vs cable tv is also very simple — give me the channels I want to watch, new movies the moment they hit the theaters, and charge me a low monthly fee. High quality is the name of the game here. Hollywood blockbusters and some personal favorites (HGTV, ESPN, HBO, Science Channel, etc). That’s it. Everything else is window dressing and noise. Apple Music is getting into Hollywood with original content. Netflix is killing the game but their library aside from originals is waning. Amazon Prime is coming in hot, and watch out for Facebook’s wildcard of a movie in a text message.

p158: streaming music subs are growing because nobody needs to buy albums anymore. Truthfully it’s Apple Music (install base of devices) vs Spotify (the O-G-riginal).

p161: Netflix subs are also growing rapidly as they expand their service globally. But the only thing that matters is getting the latest Hollywood blockbusters on their service. If they can’t continue to do that, it’s going to be a long painful death. I’m talking Avengers, Star Wars, etc. Basically, Disney. Which isn’t going to happen because they have their own streaming service.

p163: recommendation engines. Oy, have I heard the pitch for this a million and one times. Again, we’re back to “Ok this title I’ve never heard of is interesting, but what’s the new Hollywood flick I can watch?”. That has nothing to do with recommendation engines and everything to do with high quality content licensing deals with the studios.

p165: it’s YouTube vs Facebook. The former gets longer form, the latter shorter form. They’ll both battle for movie/TV-grade content but that’s Netflix, Amazon, iTunes. So there’s your split. Facebook is quick-hit social, YouTube is UGC around 15 mins, Netflix is originals and TV shows with some movies, iTunes is your Hollywood rentals and purchases, and Amazon is just the everything all the time so maybe one day.

p167: interesting that every one of the social networks is growing at the exact same MAU rate.

p171: the older you are, the more you watch. Less of a social / eventful life?

p173: pay TV will never go away because it’s more economical to pay the $100 to $200 per month for the cable, internet, TV bundle and get all the channels than trying to buy only internet service and then pay for one off channels and then movies on top of it. The reality is a mixed bag approach. Some internet, some cable, some OTT.

p176: the goal is a personalized linear channel. You tune into one TV station, let it play all day every day, and it’s filled with everything you want when you want it. Social videos, educational stuff, movies, TV, etc. Disclosure: I’ve got a patent for inventing this and for mobile live streaming.

V. The Cloud

p181: might surprise you to see the public cloud really hasn’t taken much of the spend away from a traditional data center / private data center.

p182: but AWS is kicking everyone else’s ass, which is no big surprise.

p182: security is a big deal, and as cyber becomes ever more important in the global economy (i.e., digital transformation), expect some big exits in this space due to the sheer need to protect not just information, but money.

p184: at this point, most people are familiar with APIs where as recently as 5 years ago I did some research and could find only about 10,000 public APIs in existence. Today, containerization is in a similar space. One way to think of it is like a computer dedicated to one API. Also, edge computing could be the biggest boon to digitizing our world, but the problem is fitting something powerful enough in a small space that doesn’t suck in a lot of electricity. You need efficient chips and efficient AI (i.e., connectomics).

p187: boy have I spent a lot of time on enterprise software. SAAS-based cloud products. It’s the playbook played out across Silicon Valley and internal digital transformation teams everywhere, now.

p188: at this point it seems laughable to say Design Is Important for digital products. Though the requirements for usability is much less, considering the Snapchat generation grew up with this stuff and can reverse engineer a UI just by tapping it.

p190: we don’t hear enough about cybersecurity, mostly because it’s a tight-knit group of folks who prefer to remain anonymous and protected. But it’s a big deal, especially in closed door conversations. Interpolate this to our infrastructure systems like power, water, etc and you start to realize how incredibly important this becomes.

p191: spam’s up? I would call many ecommerce shopping emails spam but that’s not what we’re talking about here. Where’s the startups that lets you unsubscribe from everything with a push of a single button?

VI. China

p195: China has nearly 4x the number of people of America with an economy and excess cash flow growing at staggering rates. Personally, I feel they’re iterating faster than the US and Rest of World in key innovation areas like AI, Space, Manufacturing and a single mobile app for the entire country. Watch out when they launch their own cryptocurrency that lets them optimize their monetary policy in real-time. I’ll invest in that ICO.

p196: service output is going up and to the right.

p197: it’s no secret that private enterprise fuels growth. China just proved it in a huge way over the last decade.

p198: focusing on health care (large population) and IT (the future). Smart.

p200–203: almost everyone in the country is connected to the internet via mobile and they spend almost all their time on it. Hello WeChat.

p204: No surprise on WeChat, but look at Tencent’s share of time. Crazy. More than half of China’s internet time is spent on a Tencent property, with a bit more on Alibaba to buy stuff. That’s like Facebook + Amazon in the US.

p209: live is a big deal over there, and has become an economy in and of itself. People are supplementing their work income with 24x7 livestreaming of their lives and getting paid by viewers with stickers and weird emojis. It’s also the place where many big companies are investing their R&D dollars because gaming and live are providing higher returns than investing in their own businesses. Isn’t that crazy? I take the money I make from my business and invest in this app over here because I’m going to get more money back. At what point does it suck up a lion’s share of the entire economy?

p210: Live is money.

p213: bikes are big in China because they’re cheap, don’t take up space, and they can fit in small spaces.

p216: bikes as the last mile of the commute. Interesting that people take a portfolio approach to traveling from A to B.

p219: expect this to explode when China releases their cryptocurrency.

p223: this is a great roundup chart to see which monetary services are getting the most users across China. Payments and Wealth Management, of course.

p229: China’s ad market doesn’t seem as fervorous as America’s. I have a feeling because the economy is more about direct payments.

VII. India

p233: it’s as big of a population as China, but a much smaller economy as their main export is software engineers instead of manufactured goods. Be careful though, it could be a sleeping giant as the GDP growth rate is the same as China. The US, while big, is only growing about 1/4th as quickly.

p234: far fewer of India’s population is connected to the internet. Only about 1/3rd compared to about 3/4th in China and almost everyone in the US. Internet penetration is highly correlated to the wealth of a nation.

p235: Android’s big there.

P236: smartphone shipments have basically flatlined.

p237: getting access to the internet is expensive for the majority of the population, hence the drag on the economy.

p242: China is selling India their phones.

p246: China is also India’s most-used web browser.

p247: US, China, India dominate the Android app store.

p251: expect internet usage to continue to increase based on bringing costs down which will have a positive impact on India’s future economic prospects. Internet > Education > Skills > Compensation > Productivity > GDP

p252: we’re all just humans regardless of the (country’s) name on the door. So yah, streaming music and video is big in India too.

p254: India’s leadership is focused on the right thing, see p251 above.

p260: a singular digital ID is smart. What is it in the US? Driver’s license and Facebook. In China? WeChat profile.

p262: payments and infrastructure are being built now. What happens when it’s fully built out?

p266–267: mobile is where all the time spent and no surprise that half is on entertainment with 1/3rd on social. Regardless of nationality, we’re all still humans.

p270: a massive portion of India’s compensation is spent on health care. Decreasing this cost + increasing access to the internet are the main two levers to increasing economic well being.

p274: VCs are investing in startups, helping to drive growth, though it has flatlined in recent quarters.

p278–279: I know that India’s young population presents a large opportunity and know some big transportation companies looking to capture that market.

p281: oh god, are you still with me? If you’ve happened across this chart, I think we’ve lost you. My fingers just got tired looking at this one.

p284: the US leads in number of years of schooling, and India trails far behind. Internet = education because it shows what’s possible and gives you the resources for free to get started.

p286: females in India aren’t working.

VIII. Healthcare

p289: have a digital helper analyze, diagnose, and prevent issues with your health is the holy grail. We’re close to that future, but knowing how lagging the healthcare industry is with tech overall, it’s going to be an uphill battle unless individuals take matters into their own hands. For examples, CIOs at hospital systems are focused on reducing sepsis which directly saves lives, but moving medical records and software to the cloud is a painful, decades-long process.

p292: health IoT including wearables are likely to expand in the coming years. Eventually the whole nanobots in your blood helping cells fix themselves in real-time is a nice thought but we’re a long, long way off from that.

p293: more blood and health tests are now available through labs, which means diagnosis is cheaper, faster, and more accurate.

p294: pay attention to sensors that are included in wearables. Without a sensor, there’s no data to analyze. So, the most pervasive (an accelerometer) will only give you number of steps. Not very helpful in helping you manage your health but I suppose it’s something. Once we get into heart rate, blood sugar, metabolism, etc we will start to unlock some pretty cool stuff. Then it requires a highly efficient, but low-powered AI like Biologic Intelligence to understand it all and detect anomalies in real-time.

p295: I’d say Google through Verily and Apple with their Watch wearable are best positioned from the big tech companies. Interesting that Amazon doesn’t really have a health-centric product yet. Now that they own Whole Foods and are pushing into groceries and food, expect that trend to continue into personalized health as part of a Prime subscription.

p299: patient data is necessary for understanding someone’s health but the flip side is pre-existing conditions and the impact it might have on you getting health insurance coverage, the price of your premium, and getting services paid for. Double-edged sword, this.

p302: look at this crazy exponential curve in medical knowledge. And there’s not much out there on the impact food we ingest has on our health. Expect this trend to continue into the future as our population gets bigger and older.

p304: personalization isn’t just for targeted advertising campaigns, biomarkers from DNA sequencing can be used to target clinical trials to get you the help you need from new procedures, drugs, etc.

p305: data, it works.

p306: the young are paying attention earlier in life. They’re listening to their parents and grandparents ailments and stories.

p309: a friend founded a telepharm startup called, well, Telepharm. He was early on the trend, but when you can’t get all the way to the doctor in person, live streaming is a great second best alternative.

p311: back to the tech adoption curve that I linked to at the very top of this analysis, of course we expect health to be adopted quickly. As we like to say in tech circles, find a problem and offer a solution. Health, when it’s a problem, is all you care about and are price inelastic.

p313: costs are decreasing.

p314–318: number of genomes sequenced are increasing. Just wait until we start capturing people’s connectomes.

IX. Innovation

p320: I take issue with this statement. It assumes that innovation is all it takes to raise capital, get big, and sell product. It doesn’t. Even scientific invention isn’t enough. You need to have relationships. Lots and lots of relationships to get capital from investors, corporate coffers, and customers. Then and only then does a product matter that someone can buy.

p322–325: US and China are dominating tech. The question is who’s iterating faster. Because that’s the slope of the line. And whichever line is steeper, predicts the winner. I have a gut feeling I know who it is.

p329–331: IPO & VC, a confusing chart with way too much going on but I think the story is it’s been more or less steady for about a decade. M&A is about the same, even though it cuts the timeline in the chart in half. Be careful, your graph axes.

X. Macro

p336: in the US we pay about 1/3rd of our income to the government. The question is what is it spent on. Unsurprisingly, health care for older people, defense so nobody hurts us, and interest on all that debt because taxes don’t cover the spending.

p337: the USA is not a healthy business if you look at it like a startup. Look at all that red.

p338: debt is highest during war. But that money gets spent somewhere.

p340: the US has the highest debt level in the world. China doesn’t even make the list because they’re printing money doing all the world’s manufacturing.

p341: giving people money and services for doing nothing is a great way to get an entitlement mentality. That’s why they’re called Entitlements and that’s where a lot of America’s income is going. It does help people who want to do something for that income, but are physically or mentally unable. That’s part of what a government is for. To help those citizens who can’t help themselves. But the fact that it’s increasing so rapidly is troubling.

p344: debt is debt. Most Americans have a bunch of debt in houses. Second is student loans. So living and educating. Not a great sign if you want to grow.

p347–348: immigrants account for a lot of value creation.

p350: as a world, we’re better off than we were. That’s progress as a species and something to be positive about.

— Sean Everett

Read more than 750 current and emerging tech analyses on The Mission’s other publication, Humanizing Tech.

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itsworn · 7 years

Text

Top 10 Rides from Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale

Seeing Barrett-Jackson auctions on television is really no way to imagine what it is like in person. The screen acts like a filter; you simply have to be there. The truth is that you can find just about anything at Barrett-Jackson, including vehicles that cross the block for less than the cost of a house. For every 1970 Hemi ’Cuda convertible––and there was one–– you’ll find a hundred Impalas. Don’t like Chevys? Then perhaps a Goggomobil would do. Not interested in two-stroke German cars? Then a 1-of-2 1967 Mercury Monterey convertible with a 428/4-speed should satisfy your American-sized appetite for cruising.

Among the extremes of the vehicles on display, here are ten that piqued our interest for one reason or another:

1926 Ford T-bucket “Moonshiner”

Auction price: $35,200

This replica of the long-lost “Moonshiner” hot rod from the 1950s (both replica and original built by the acclaimed Mickey Himsl), cost appears to be surprisingly low. Painted Skymist Blue with pinstriping from Mickey’s renowned brother, Artie. The Moonshiner is powered by a 239ci flathead featuring a Tattersfield-Baron 4×2 aluminum intake manifold, Edelbrock heads, and four chromed 97 carburetors.

1953 Chevrolet 210 Custom Coupe

Auction price: $77,000

Style didn’t fully join the Chevrolet ranks until 1955, but a bit of creativity made this mid-line ’53 as stylish as any Tri-Five. Chopped four inches in front and six inches out back, this 210 features a turbocharged LS1 backed by a T56 6-speed manual. The tasteful mods continue inside with red diamond-tuck leather covering four buckets, custom console, plus Dakota digital gauges complementing the factory look.

1953 Kurtis Open-Wheeler

Auction price: $44,000

There wasn’t much information on this particular racer, but Kurtis Kraft is a hallowed name in midget and Indy 500 racing. This one features an ever-popular Offenhauser engine but otherwise its pedigree is unknown – perhaps the reason why the auction price was more affordable than others in past Barrett-Jackson auctions. With a presence in the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, National Sprint Car Hall of Fame, Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, and the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame, anything Kurtis-related has some pedigree on its side.

1957 Chevrolet Suburban Roadster Shop Custom

Auction price: $170,500

Okay, so we might be knee-deep in rich-guy territory, but dare we ignore fabulousness? Claimed to have 3,000 hours invested, this Suburban features a Roadster Shop chassis and is powered by a Wegner Motorsports supercharged LS7 putting out over 800 horses. Those horses were recently put to good use for a thousand miles in the HOT ROD Power Tour, so it doesn’t just sit there lookin’ pretty.

1957 Continental Mark II Custom

Auction Price: $101,200

In 1956-’57, Ford Motor Company created a companion luxury division to Lincoln – Continental – and produced the hand-built Mark II, a $10,000 coupe that was around four times as expensive as a Ford Sunliner convertible. To witness a customized version of this $250,000 build is worthy of note. We need to shake the hand of the builder of this Mark II because it was done as tastefully as the original.

1960 Chevrolet Engineering Research Vehicle 1

Auction price: $1,320,000

Developed by Zora Arkus-Duntov, the legendary Chevrolet engineer who put the Corvette on the map, the “CERV 1” was a functional prototype open-wheel race car that served as his personal engineering test bed. It gets even better: both Larry Shinoda and Tony Lapine designed the CERV 1. Its vital stats: 283/350 small-block with heavy use of aluminum and magnesium, four-wheel independent suspension, and 13.5:1 steering ratio. Duntov later installed a 377ci aluminum small-block with Rochester fuel injection to achieve a top speed of over 200 mph. This historic racer was purchased by the GM Heritage Center, so it will return home once again.

1964 Cheetah

Auction price: Did not meet reserve

Bill Thomas Race Cars’ Cheetah was a shoot-from-the-hip Cobra-beater that has been somewhat surrounded by an enigma ever since, but this competition version has clear lineage dating back to its first owner. Originally built with the Corvette’s 327/375 Fuelie, it was then upgraded by Bill Thomas the following year with the all-new 396/425 big-block and M22 “Rock Crusher” 4-speed. In 1967, this Cheetah received the mighty L88 427, becoming a Southern Pacific region SCCA A/SR Champion in 1968. Now restored, it still retains its original 4130 chrome-moly chassis and suspension, fiberglass body, and fiberglass and aluminum interior.

1964 Ford Galaxie 500/XL SOHC

Auction price: $104,500

The price may be misleading since this car was donated to benefit the Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis, but there ain’t anything misleading about the SOHC, 657 horsepower engine under hood. Ford developed the SOHC in response to the 426 Hemi, but NASCAR barred it from competition and it never saw the light of day in a production car. Still, Ford offered the SOHC over the parts counter (including a seven-foot timing chain), and it found success in drag racing through the late 1960s.

1969 GTO Judge

Auction prices: $93,500 (red) & $143,000 (yellow)

The Judge package was originally offered only in Carousel Red, but soon enough all regular GTO colors were available. When a Judge pops up in a non-signature color, it’s easy to take notice because it looks so different. The Matador Red Ram Air III Judge featured a matching interior and 4-speed, while the Goldenrod Yellow Judge – a special-order color normally available only for the Firebird – was powered by the top dog Ram Air IV.

1969 Torino GT “Petty Edition”

Auction price: $53,900

The 1969 Torino GT was Ford’s mid-size sporty car, starting with a mild 302 but available with the 428 Cobra Jet. This was the year Richard Petty defected from Plymouth, so Southern Ford dealerships ran a promotion with 111 Petty Blue GTs; of those, five were equipped with the Q-code 428, which is the CJ without ram air.

1970 Ford Mustang “GT” Fastback

Auction price: $104,500

Builder Bobby Johnson was at the 2015 HOT ROD Power Tour in Alabama, so this car may be familiar. He answered the question, “What happens when you combine a 1970 Mustang Mach I with a Ford GT from several years ago?” A mid-engined, Grabber Orange SportsRoof powered by a supercharged 5.4L V-8 with a 6-speed transaxle in the rear! Bobby built a custom chassis, moving the rear wheels three inches back to make everything fit.

The post Top 10 Rides from Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

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