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bao3bei4 · 3 years

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fan language: the victorian imaginary and cnovel fandom

there’s this pinterest image i’ve seen circulating a lot in the past year i’ve been on fandom social media. it’s a drawn infographic of a, i guess, asian-looking woman holding a fan in different places relative to her face to show what the graphic helpfully calls “the language of the fan.”

people like sharing it. they like thinking about what nefarious ancient chinese hanky code shenanigans their favorite fan-toting character might get up to⁠—accidentally or on purpose. and what’s the problem with that?

the problem is that fan language isn’t chinese. it’s victorian. and even then, it’s not really quite victorian at all.

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fans served a primarily utilitarian purpose throughout chinese history. of course, most of the surviving fans we see⁠—and the types of fans we tend to care about⁠—are closer to art pieces. but realistically speaking, the majority of fans were made of cheaper material for more mundane purposes. in china, just like all around the world, people fanned themselves. it got hot!

so here’s a big tipoff. it would be very difficult to use a fan if you had an elaborate language centered around fanning yourself.

you might argue that fine, everyday working people didn’t have a fan language. but wealthy people might have had one. the problem we encounter here is that fans weren’t really gendered. (caveat here that certain types of fans were more popular with women. however, those tended to be the round silk fans, ones that bear no resemblance to the folding fans in the graphic). no disrespect to the gnc old man fuckers in the crowd, but this language isn’t quite masc enough for a tool that someone’s dad might regularly use.

folding fans, we know, reached europe in the 17th century and gained immense popularity in the 18th. it was there that fans began to take on a gendered quality. ariel beaujot describes in their 2012 victorian fashion accessories how middle class women, in the midst of a top shortage, found themselves clutching fans in hopes of securing a husband.

she quotes an article from the illustrated london news, suggesting “women ‘not only’ used fans to ‘move the air and cool themselves but also to express their sentiments.’” general wisdom was that the movement of the fan was sufficiently expressive that it augmented a woman’s displays of emotion. and of course, the more english audiences became aware that it might do so, the more they might use their fans purposefully in that way.

notice, however, that this is no more codified than body language in general is. it turns out that “the language of the fan” was actually created by fan manufacturers at the turn of the 20th century⁠—hundreds of years after their arrival⁠ in europe—to sell more fans. i’m not even kidding right now. the story goes that it was louis duvelleroy of the maison duvelleroy who decided to include pamphlets on the language with each fan sold.

interestingly enough, beaujot suggests that it didn’t really matter what each particular fan sign meant. gentlemen could tell when they were being flirted with. as it happens, meaningful eye contact and a light flutter near the face may be a lingua franca.

so it seems then, the language of the fan is merely part of this victorian imaginary we collectively have today, which in turn itself was itself captivated by china.

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victorian references come up perhaps unexpectedly often in cnovel fandom, most often with regards to modesty.

it’s a bit of an awkward reference considering that chinese traditional fashion⁠—and the ambiguous time periods in which these novels are set⁠—far predate victorian england. it is even more awkward considering that victoria and her covered ankles did um. imperialize china.

but nonetheless, it is common. and to make a point about how ubiquitous it is, here is a link to the twitter search for “sqq victorian.” sqq is the fandom abbreviation for shen qingqiu, the main character of the scum villain’s self-saving system, by the way.

this is an awful lot of results for a search involving a chinese man who spends the entire novel in either real modern-day china or fantasy ancient china. that’s all i’m going to say on the matter, without referencing any specific tweet.

i think people are aware of the anachronism. and i think they don’t mind. even the most cursory research reveals that fan language is european and a revisionist fantasy. wikipedia can tell us this⁠—i checked!

but it doesn’t matter to me whether people are trying to make an internally consistent canon compliant claim, or whether they’re just free associating between fan facts they know. it is, instead, more interesting to me that people consistently refer to this particular bit of history. and that’s what i want to talk about today⁠—the relationship of fandom today to this two hundred odd year span of time in england (roughly stuart to victorian times) and england in that time period to its contemporaneous china.

things will slip a little here. victorian has expanded in timeframe, if only because random guys posting online do not care overly much for respect for the intricacies of british history. china has expanded in geographic location, if only because the english of the time themselves conflated china with all of asia.

in addition, note that i am critiquing a certain perspective on the topic. this is why i write about fan as white here⁠—not because all fans are white⁠—but because the tendencies i’m examining have a clear historical antecedent in whiteness that shapes how white fans encounter these novels.

i’m sure some fans of color participate in these practices. however i don’t really care about that. they are not its main perpetrators nor its main beneficiaries. so personally i am minding my own business on that front.

it’s instead important to me to illuminate the linkage between white as subject and chinese as object in history and in the present that i do argue that fannish products today are built upon.

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it’s not radical, or even new at all, for white audiences to consume⁠—or create their own versions of⁠—chinese art en masse. in many ways the white creators who appear to owe their whole style and aesthetic to their asian peers in turn are just the new chinoiserie.

this is not to say that white people can’t create asian-inspired art. but rather, i am asking you to sit with the discomfort that you may not like the artistic company you keep in the broader view of history, and to consider together what is to be done about that.

now, when i say the new chinoiserie, i first want to establish what the original one is. chinoiserie was a european artistic movement that appeared coincident with the rise in popularity of folding fans that i described above. this is not by coincidence; the european demand for asian imports and the eventual production of lookalikes is the movement itself. so: when we talk about fans, when we talk about china (porcelain), when we talk about tea in england⁠—we are talking about the legacy of chinoiserie.

there are a couple things i want to note here. while english people as a whole had a very tenuous knowledge of what china might be, their appetites for chinoiserie were roughly coincident with national relations with china. as the relationship between england and china moved from trade to out-and-out wars, chinoiserie declined in popularity until china had been safely subjugated once more by the end of the 19th century.

the second thing i want to note on the subject that contrary to what one might think at first, the appeal of chinoiserie was not that it was foreign. eugenia zuroski’s 2013 taste for china examines 18th century english literature and its descriptions of the according material culture with the lens that chinese imports might be formative to english identity, rather than antithetical to it.

beyond that bare thesis, i think it’s also worthwhile to extend her insight that material objects become animated by the literary viewpoints on them. this is true, both in a limited general sense as well as in the sense that english thinkers of the time self-consciously articulated this viewpoint. consider the quote from the illustrated london news above⁠—your fan, that object, says something about you. and not only that, but the objects you surround yourself with ought to.

it’s a bit circular, the idea that written material says that you should allow written material to shape your understanding of physical objects. but it’s both 1) what happened, and 2) integral, i think, to integrating a fannish perspective into the topic.

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japanning is the name for the popular imitative lacquering that english craftspeople developed in domestic response to the demand for lacquerware imports. in the eighteenth century, japanning became an artform especially suited for young women. manuals were published on the subject, urging young women to learn how to paint furniture and other surfaces, encouraging them to rework the designs provided in the text.

it was considered a beneficial activity for them; zuroski describes how it was “associated with commerce and connoisseurship, practical skill and aesthetic judgment.” a skillful japanner, rather than simply obscuring what lay underneath the lacquer, displayed their superior judgment in how they chose to arrange these new canonical figures and effects in a tasteful way to bring out the best qualities of them.

zuroski quotes the first english-language manual on the subject, written in 1688, which explains how japanning allows one to:

alter and correct, take out a piece from one, add a fragment to the next, and make an entire garment compleat in all its parts, though tis wrought out of never so many disagreeing patterns.

this language evokes a very different, very modern practice. it is this english reworking of an asian artform that i think the parallels are most obvious.

white people, through their artistic investment in chinese material objects and aesthetics, integrated them into their own subjectivity. these practices came to say something about the people who participated in them, in a way that had little to do with the country itself. their relationship changed from being a “consumer” of chinese objects to becoming the proprietor of these new aesthetic signifiers.

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i want to talk about this through a few pairs of tensions on the subject that i think characterize common attitudes then and now.

first, consider the relationship between the self and the other: the chinese object as something that is very familiar to you, speaking to something about your own self vs. the chinese object as something that is fundamentally different from you and unknowable to you.

consider: [insert character name] is just like me. he would no doubt like the same things i like, consume the same cultural products. we are the same in some meaningful way vs. the fast standard fic disclaimer that “i tried my best when writing this fic, but i’m a english-speaking westerner, and i’m just writing this for fun so...... [excuses and alterations the person has chosen to make in this light],” going hand-in-hand with a preoccupation with authenticity or even overreliance on the unpaid labor of chinese friends and acquaintances.

consider: hugh honour when he quotes a man from the 1640s claiming “chinoiserie of this even more hybrid kind had become so far removed from genuine Chinese tradition that it was exported from India to China as a novelty to the Chinese themselves”

these tensions coexist, and look how they have been resolved.

second, consider what we vest in objects themselves: beaujot explains how the fan became a sexualized, coquettish object in the hands of a british woman, but was used to great effect in gilbert and sullivan’s 1885 mikado to demonstrate the docility of asian women.

consider: these characters became expressions of your sexual desires and fetishes, even as their 5’10 actors themselves are emasculated.

what is liberating for one necessitates the subjugation and fetishization of the other.

third, consider reactions to the practice: enjoyment of chinese objects as a sign of your cosmopolitan palate vs “so what’s the hype about those ancient chinese gays” pop culture explainers that addressed the unconvinced mainstream.

consider: zuroski describes how both english consumers purchased china in droves, and contemporary publications reported on them. how:

It was in the pages of these papers that the growing popularity of Chinese things in the early eighteenth century acquired the reputation of a “craze”; they portrayed china fanatics as flawed, fragile, and unreliable characters, and frequently cast chinoiserie itself in the same light.

referenda on fannish behavior serve as referenda on the objects of their devotion, and vice versa. as the difference between identity and fetish collapses, they come to be treated as one and the same by not just participants but their observers.

at what point does mxtx fic cease to be chinese?

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finally, it seems readily apparent that attitudes towards chinese objects may in fact have something to do with attitudes about china as a country. i do not want to suggest that these literary concerns are primarily motivated and begot by forces entirely divorced from the real mechanics of power.

here, i want to bring in edward said, and his 1993 culture and imperialism. there, he explains how power and legitimacy go hand in hand. one is direct, and one is purely cultural. he originally wrote this in response to the outsize impact that british novelists have had in the maintenance of empire and throughout decolonization. literature, he argues, gives rise to powerful narratives that constrain our ability to think outside of them.

there’s a little bit of an inversion at play here. these are chinese novels, actually. but they’re being transformed by white narratives and artists. and just as i think the form of the novel is important to said’s critique, i think there’s something to be said about the form that fic takes and how it legitimates itself.

bound up in fandom is the idea that you have a right to create and transform as you please. it is a nice idea, but it is one that is directed towards a certain kind of asymmetry. that is, one where the author has all the power. this is the narrative we hear a lot in the history of fandom⁠—litigious authors and plucky fans, fanspaces always under attack from corporate sanitization.

meanwhile, said builds upon raymond schwab’s narrative of cultural exchange between european writers and cultural products outside the imperial core. said explains that fundamental to these two great borrowings (from greek classics and, in the so-called “oriental renaissance” of the late 18th, early 19th centuries from “india, china, japan, persia, and islam”) is asymmetry.

he had argued prior, in orientalism, that any “cultural exchange” between “partners conscious of inequality” always results in the suffering of the people. and here, he describes how “texts by dead people were read, appreciated, and appropriated” without the presence of any actual living people in that tradition.

i will not understate that there is a certain economic dynamic complicating this particular fannish asymmetry. mxtx has profited materially from the success of her works, most fans will not. also secondly, mxtx is um. not dead. LMAO.

but first, the international dynamic of extraction that said described is still present. i do not want to get overly into white attitudes towards china in this post, because i am already thoroughly derailed, but i do believe that they structure how white cnovel fandom encounters this texts.

at any rate, any profit she receives is overwhelmingly due to her domestic popularity, not her international popularity. (i say this because many of her international fans have never given her a cent. in fact, most of them have no real way to.) and moreover, as we talk about the structure of english-language fandom, what does it mean to create chinese cultural products without chinese people?

as white people take ownership over their versions of stories, do we lose something? what narratives about engagement with cnovels might exist outside of the form of classic fandom?

i think a lot of people get the relationship between ideas (the superstructure) and production (the base) confused. oftentimes they will lob in response to criticism, that look! this fic, this fandom, these people are so niche, and so underrepresented in mainstream culture, that their effects are marginal. i am not arguing that anyone’s cql fic causes imperialism. (unless you’re really annoying. then it’s anyone’s game)

i’m instead arguing something a little bit different. i think, given similar inputs, you tend to get similar outputs. i think we live in the world that imperialism built, and we have clear historical predecessors in terms of white appetites for creating, consuming, and transforming chinese objects.

we have already seen, in the case of the fan language meme that began this post, that sometimes we even prefer this white chinoiserie. after all, isn’t it beautiful, too?

i want to bring discomfort to this topic. i want to reject the paradigm of white subject and chinese object; in fact, here in this essay, i have tried to reverse it.

if you are taken aback by the comparisons i make here, how can you make meaningful changes to your fannish practice to address it?

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some concluding thoughts on the matter, because i don’t like being misunderstood!

i am not claiming white fans cannot create fanworks of cnovels or be inspired by asian art or artists. this essay is meant to elaborate on the historical connection between victorian england and cnovel characters and fandom that others have already popularized.

i don’t think people who make victorian jokes are inherently bad or racist. i am encouraging people to think about why we might make them and/or share them

the connections here are meant to be more provocative than strictly literal. (e.g. i don’t literally think writing fanfic is a 1-1 descendant of japanning). these connections are instead meant to 1) make visible the baggage that fans of color often approach fandom with and 2) recontextualize and defamiliarize fannish practice for the purposes of honest critique

please don’t turn this post into being about other different kinds of discourse, or into something that only one “kind” of fan does. please take my words at face value and consider them in good faith. i would really appreciate that.

please feel free to ask me to clarify any statements or supply more in-depth sources :)

#x #-__- another fandom essay sorry

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olitech · 3 years

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Thoughts on the Z Fold 3

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 is an interesting device. While it is not the first foldable device made by Samsung, and not even the first foldable device on the market in general (though Samsung certainly was the first real company, I'm not really counting the horrible Royole Flexpai) for me personally, this is indeed my first foldable device.

So what is it like? For context, I am a long term Samsung user, having used the S2, S3, Note 4, S7 edge, S9+, and recently the S21 Ultra. Coming from the S21 Ultra the Z Fold 3 isn't that extreme in size, and folded it lies even better in my hand because it is less wide. Typing on the slimmer front screen is certainly something you have to get used to though.

The weight increase of 44 grams from the S21 Ultra's 227 grams to the Fold's 271 grams is noticeable. It isn't the end of the world or tipping the scale into "This is way to heavy" territory, but you will notice it when you handle them one after the other. The Z Fold 3 is, however you hold or handle it, definitely not a small or light device. Considering you have a foldable tablet in your hands, that fact isn't really surprising - it is kind of the point of this whole thing.

So If you want something small and light, you are definitely in the wrong market segment if you are looking at this phone.

The device can be unlocked with the fingerprint reader in the Power button on the right side, which I massively appreciate. I guess they can't yet fit an under display fingerprint reader into this kind of display due to size constraints and I am happy that's the case. I have an under display fingerprint reader on my S21 Ultra and my Galaxy Tab S6 and constantly have to retry with both of them to unlock these devices. These fingerprint readers have not yet gotten to the same level of performance the old ones are capable of, so I am really glad the "old" tech has made it into this device. If you want to unlock your phone with your face, that works perfectly fine, but in a world full of masks today the fingerprint reader is in my opinion the most versatile option, when done this way at least.

For my use cases, this thing is clearly overkill, I'll be really honest. Watching a Youtube video or TV Show is really nice on this device, especially if you want to watch classic shows like Star Trek The Original Series or Knight Rider, because the unfolded screens aspect ratio of 5:4 is really nice for those old 4:3 shows. 16:9 content is fine too, but there is of course quite a bit of screen real estate you are not using in those cases. But since this is more of a productivity device, 5:4 is the perfect aspect ratio in my opinion.

Typing on the unfolded screen is nice, but takes some getting used to. I have been using this phone since I have received it on Friday the 20th of August 2021, which has been 5 weeks now, and I still mistype quite a bit. I don't know why it takes me so long to get used to the split keyboard I use with Microsoft Swiftkey. When typing or swiping on the screen the crease of the folded display is very noticeable. When you watch or read something it quickly becomes absolutely not an issue, I couldn't care less. But you definitely will feel the crease with your fingers or even with the S-Pen.

Coming to the S-Pen, and the Note package available for this device. I like the S-Pen for the Fold 3. I have the smaller one of the two available since Samsung gave me the Galaxy Z Fold 3 Note package for free as a promotion for preordering the phone. The Note package contains a Super Fast Wall Charger supporting up to 25W, and this should have come with the phone itself in my opinion. I understand the environmental concerns these companies cite as the reason they don't put chargers into the box anymore, but for this price I simply cannot accept that this is the case. It just feels cheap when you open up such an expensive device and there is the phone and a cable in the box and nothing else.

I'm sorry but I have to start swearing for the next section of this article. You have been warned.

The Flip Cover that comes in the Note package is a horrible fucking mess and I don't want to meet whoever designed this thing because I would be scared of that person and the drugs they must have taken designing this thing. The cover doesn't stay closed, flops around like a flaccid dick and just feels like cheap crap. I cannot tell you how glad I am they gave that package to me as a free promotion for preordering, because if I bought this package and actually paid 89,90 Euros of my money for this cover I would have been fucking pissed.

Samsung, if anyone of you is reading this, you can do better than this. Much better. It feels like someone decided 5 minutes before production started "Hey we have this new folding phone, and we decided not to make a new Note, so why not combine the Pen with the Fold 3?" and wanked out a design on a napkin during dinner while the kids were screaming at them.

I am not a massive fan of the magnetically attached pens the Galaxy Tab Series and the iPad use, so I appreciate having a place to actually store the pen in, but the front opening part of that cover makes this thing completely useless in my eyes. And I think they kind of knew that, since you can take off the part of the cover the pen stores in - a fact I didn't see anywhere other then one single Youtube video made by the channel HighTechCheck in his video "Best And Worst Cases For Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3", here is the link, it's a great video in general if you're looking for cases for this phone:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2TBKlm-R2E&ab_channel=HighTechCheck

There might be other videos showing this feature of the Note Flip Cover of course, but this is the only one I came across while looking for accessory videos for this device.

Continuing on with the S-Pen, I understand that they had to make a new version because people would've poked holes into their screens with the old one - the new one is spring loaded to prevent you from pressing the pen to hard onto the screen - but what I do not like about the new S-Pen (at least the little one, I don't have the bigger one to test this with) is that you can only use it on the inner screen of the Z-Fold 3. That's right, the smaller of the S-Pens available for the Z Fold 3 does not work on the outer display of the phone when it is closed. I do not know why that is. It works perfectly fine on my S21 Ultra screen, but not on the outer screen of the Z Fold 3. I find that very bizarre. The outer screen has Gorilla Glass Victus on it, it certainly isn't a matter of screen protection. And it works on the S21 Ultra, so what the hell?

I'm a tech nerd, so I love the technology behind the foldable screen and the new form factor this results in. But I don't write 20 emails a day on my phone, or write a book on it, or anything like this. I use the big screen on the Z Fold 3 mainly for content consumption, Google Maps occasionally, web browsing, looking a photos, stuff like that. I am not a productivity monster that actually does multi tasking with a device like this. It is a great phone and the continuation of a new era in mobile technology and screen technology, and I'm glad I could be here to support that change because this means cool things might come out in the future with this technology. Could I still do everything I usually do on my S21 Ultra? Yes, yes I could, easily. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I bought this thing, but for someone like me this is massive overkill, as it probably will be for most people. Most people who buy this thing with their own money might not agree with that I guess. They have to justify the price of 1800 Euro for this thing after all. But I prefer to be honest with myself, and with you.

This is not a sensible device. It is absolutely a fun device and a great look into the future of what will one day be possible with this display tech, not just in the smartphone world but with screens in general. Just like that rollable LG TV this is technology that can be used for so much more than smartphones - it doesn't even have to be foldable. Just being able to put a display around a corner like it is a plastic sheet and having that in a fixed position opens up cool possibilities, once the tech is even better, and most of all, cheaper.

So no, it doesn't make my S21 Ultra look like unusable crap when compared to the Z Fold 3 just because of the foldable aspect. But in my opinion that's not the point of this device. It is to further push along the technology and establish it so it becomes more common place. So it gets better, can be made better, not just because the manufacturer Samsung is continuing to work on it, but because they get feedback from users about the device. The more established and researched a technology becomes, the cheaper it can become, meaning better and new usage forms for this technology in everyday life. Take a screen like that, make it see-through and put it into my car windscreen. It doesn't need to fold for that, but it does have to be durable, and depending on the windscreen, at least bent in some form. Give me overlay graphics on my car window for navigation. Give me glasses not like Google Glass with a small area of a screen but have the glasses BE the screen with this technology in a see through version. Give me a Cyberpunk 2077 style visor. That would really be exciting for me. What this phone and it's display technology represent is what is more interesting and exciting for me than the device itself. But the device itself is still great and I do not regret buying it. If you're into tech and have the necessary funds for it, I can recommend it. Maybe you are even a person that uses this device to its full multi-task capabilities, who knows?

Speaking of which, multi tasking is a breeze with this thing, it's perfectly fine running several apps at once, not just switching between apps but displaying several at the same time since you now have the screen real estate to actually use it. Since I just launched my homepage (this will be the first entry on it, actually) who knows, maybe I will use more multitasking myself in the future when writing stuff on the go, reading and researching in the browser and typing a note on the side perhaps. I doubt it, since for real writing I really don't like to use the touchscreen, but if I have a quick idea on the go and I have time, I could definitely see this being very useful.

Battery life is not an issue either for me, last week I had a day where I watched 6 hours of Star Trek The Original Series on it at around 80% brightness and was around 65% battery when I stopped, which is pretty impressive in my eyes. I have the episodes on my phone, so I wasn't streaming them over the network in case anyone is wondering.

The software has so far given me no troubles, not all apps scale to the screen but they still usually work without issues, and many apps like Youtube for example are adapted to use the foldable aspect of the Z Fold 3 in several ways, like when you half-fold the phone, set it on a table, and have the video on the top and scroll the comments on the bottom. Or multi task by having one app on the top and other on the bottom, stuff like that works really well in most apps I am using, I can't really recall any app right now that had huge issues with the aspect ratio or the foldable nature of this device. Good job Samsung!

The back cameras are on par with the S21 Ultra, so they're in my opinion top, but I'm no expert. What even I notice is the inner camera under the display. No longer is there a hole punch style camera, this one is actually under the display, which drastically decreases the performance of that inner camera. It's usage for video calls I guess, but for a device in that price range I think I would've been fine with a hole-punch style just to get the better image quality. I've made a comparison video on Youtube, comparing the front camera of the S21 Ultra and the Z Fold 3:

https://youtu.be/h5uQ1IQeIvE

The Z Fold 3 is a tech nerds dream come true, and really does whatever you need it to do. Whether you actually need all of that and if it is worth the money is for you to decide. If you already have a tablet you use for media consumption, and if you aren't a huge productivity fan or need one device that does it all and can carry nothing else, then I'd say no, you don't need it. But you might still want it just the same, like me.

Sunday, October 3rd, 2021.

Oliver Weber

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yourcreativehome · 4 years

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Best wall decor options

Best Wall Décor Options

Having a beautiful house is on everyone’s wish list but creating a beautiful home is only an artist can do that. Having a perfectly decorated home is pure bliss; playing with your creativity and reflecting one's individuality by expressing their personality by the way one lives is not an easy job. It takes immense efforts and wide imagination to portray the imaginary world into reality and when it happens nothing less than a dream comes true. Nowadays home is not just a place to eat drink and sleep, it’s a world full of imagination, desires, and a nutshell where we nurture ourselves; it reflects our thoughts, imagination, beliefs, and dreams to look upon. Sharing some of the best wall décor ideas that help to convert your basic home-styles into your own castle. Some of the easy to go on pockets and fewer maintenance options available to create a heaven for yourself to curl yourself up inside your cozy homes.

Wood wall decorating

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Mirror Wall Interior

A mirror can be used for wall decors too, yes the various designs and patterns available in the market to showcase the beauty of the mirror on your walls from bedrooms to living room and dining areas, mirrors can be used anywhere and at any corner of the house. As we know how compact the houses, flats and shops being constructed, so by installing a wall mirror décor at your rooms can you a brighter and larger feel to your home. Wall mirrors have the capacity to carry the depth and value to your room without much effort. The highly decorative items can all trigger the transform of the interior and certainly of a brighter touch and can easily become complimentary design for lighting and furnishing.

Mirrors are very versatile in decorating theme; you can use any shape and any size mirror from simple to elaborate on the wall. Normally in our living room is occupied by windows, doors, furniture’s, tables, and sofas but if you are emerging that on one of the walls the preferred one which is taller and wider also focused towards some windows or point of light is installed all full of mirrors instantly the feeling of space will multiply and things will look even brighter and wider even in the daylight with the natural sunlight and in nights as well with the help of house led lights. Decorating your wall with a vintage easy mirror is an interesting way to decor on your a focal point and keeping the charm of the place; something very different and vibrant work to give an aesthetic look and fell to your perfect home sweet home.

Modern Wallpaper Interior Wall

Wallpaper can make your walls look beautiful and very stylish with the varieties of arts and patterns available in the market; you can opt for any theme as reflecting your personality. Sometimes there are walls which are broken ones or uneven walls so you can easily hide the damage by covering the wall with beautiful wallpaper. Also the same goes for the bedrooms you can replace your common walls with beautiful romantic designs and patterns with soothing color by adding a soothing and calming ambiance to your space.

There are end numbers of varieties available in the market; Nature, Patterns, Textures, Flowers, photo prints, stone effects, dramatic lines, abstract types, country background, and the list goes on. Some wallpapers are easy to paste and remove but some designs are so fine and tick it is recommended to be done by the professionals only as you can damage the product while installing. Patterns to be matched and well-aligned together is the most important factor for installing wallpapers so some are quite easy to install and some need professional hands to do the job. To design the walls can be an expression of your individuality by choosing your favorite colors.

Brick Wall Work

Brick Wall designs are also trending and very innovative ideas to decorate your space. There are multiple options for choosing the Bricks with multiple color and size options to give the exact rustic look to your walls as per your preferences and give an added stare to your home. Brick walls are also available at reasonable rates and in multiple designs, colors, sizes, and textures as you need.

Decorating balconies, huge lawns, and a sitting area with brickwork can give you the most elegant and classy touch to your place. This can be quite expensive on your pocket but can also opt for cheaper ones available in the market. Also, it is the easiest to maintain and lasts long without any required maintenance.

3D Wall Décor

3D wall paneling décor is in trend these days, Paneling walls can make your residential apartments and Offices look brighter and spacious with the aura of elegance and sophistication. 3D wall décor has been enjoying a special place in the decoration regiment for a long time. 3D wall panels have in great demand in the market due to their excellent ability and add glamour to any place.

This is a very handy option for the beautification of the interior as well as exterior walls. You can enhance the charm of your private and business space with minimum effort. The three-dimensional panel is a recent decoration concept; these panels are manufactured in textured foam with repetitive designs for creating a definite pattern of light and shadow with the use of proper illumination. The textured 3D wall panels are meant for many uses other than improving walls, whether it’s for new construction or refurbishing walls most of the house owners or architects are opting for the 3D panel concept.

Traditional & Ethnic Wall

As traditional things are being preferred as an evergreen thing, and now it’s trending, there are multiple options to opt-in your home décor as per your preferences. There are basically Indian art forms that represent the Indian ancient culture, which is so rich and each art has a story to tell.

Old traditional arts and sculptures are the most elegant aesthetic options to go for. Traditional wall arts, Rajasthan work, Madhubani Traditional Arts, Tamatina Arts are some of the most picked ones and can make your whole space stand out from others. Traditional Arts has its own charm and never out of the league; have an antique touch and rustic look created incredible vibes to your space.

Mandala Mural Art

In a spiritual language Mandala is a secret in a circle or disc wide object in a dramatic design which holds a great deal of symbolizing Hindu & Buddhist cultures. Mandalas are believed to represent different aspects of cultures and are used as an instrument for meditation a symbol for prayer. Mandalas are typically created on paper, walls, cloth and the extraordinary is a stand-alone work of art made on walls.

Mandalas holes have meditative symbolic meaning beyond their vibrant appearance. This is the most unique form of art and is being used for decorating your space to create a spiritual vibe especially for peace lovers. Mandala creativity involves many definitions and concepts pertaining to a number of disciplines like psychology, cognitive, science, philosophy just like covering the relations between creativity and general intelligence. This creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and somehow valuable if formed.

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lilia92b1528604 · 4 years

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How To Quit Marijuana - Overcome Cannabis Addiction Permanent!

De-activate Messages. Us humans often do think we are awesome multi-taskers, Jocosa CBD Gummies CBD which can using a number of things without delay very perfectly. This could not be farther away from the reason.

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tobaccoblogger · 4 years

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What Make Game Leaf Cigarillos An American Top Pick In 2020

Let Your Smoke Twirl With A Game Leaf Cigar

From the oh-so-popular Garcia y Vega brand comes the next line of enticing and aromatic options: The Game Leaf Cigarillo. These quaint little stogies are the perfect option for smokers who want a flavorful and smooth mini-cigar with a natural wrapper featuring a carefully selected tobacco blend.

In this review, we’ll look at how you can get the best experience when lighting up one of these scrumptious little mini-cigars. We’ll also discuss the Garcia y Vega company, their fine products, and everything else you could possibly ever want to know about cigarillos and the Game Leaf min-cigar product line.

About the Garcia y Vega Brand

Garcia y Vega has been going strong for over 100 years! Therefore, their time-tested tobacco blends are cigar aficionado approved.

All of their premium quality cigars are balanced to perfection and burn slow and even from start to finish. With natural leaf wrappers, you taste only the finest tobacco and superior flavors with every pull. That’s right; these bad boys are perfectly wrapped and burn at an ideal rate, giving smokers an extremely relaxing way to kick back and indulge.

Originally based out of New York, the historical Garcia y Vega building still stands today as a reminder of their rich heritage and history in manufacturing premium, yet affordable cigars.

Over the decades, they've more than mastered their cigar craftsmanship and are known for detail, quality, and of course, flavor. With various product lines, tobacco blends, cigar sizes, and unique flavors, it isn't hard to find something you'll love from Garcia y Vega, especially when it comes to Game Leaf Cigarillos!

What exactly separates a cigarillo from a cigar?

To put it simply, cigarillos are shorter and narrower than cigars and often come in more flavor variants. Also known as mini-cigars, they smoke exactly the same and are made with the same quality ingredients.

Compact Size Options

The great thing about these mini-cigars actually comes in with their small size and compact packaging. Since they’re smaller, they easily stay lit for long periods, yet, they’re still perfect for a quick, relaxing smoke break.

Indeed, Game Leaf Cigarillos are a true idea cigar. With that being said, Garcia y Vega now utilizes Foil Fresh packaging, so you can easily reseal and save whatever you don't finish. Plus, these mini-cigars tend to come at a great price, so you can buy in bulk.

Better Value Than Cigarettes

Here's a fun fact: although cigars and mini-cigars are made with better ingredients and craftsmanship, they are a lot cheaper than cigarettes because they aren't as strictly regulated in the United States. This also means that you will get more flavor choices and can order them online. The reason for the loose regulations is because cigars and pipe tobacco are not loaded down with harmful chemicals.

The right way to smoke a cigarillo

While there's not really a wrong way to smoke these mini cigars, we thought it might be helpful to offer you some pointers for enhancing your smoking experience. After all, the more you know, the better, right? Well, that’s what we think anyway!

The Basics

Unlike cigars, cigarillos have a tapered end. This is the end that goes in your mouth, in case you weren't sure. You'll remove your cigarillo from the packaging and place the tapered end between your lips, then light it up. By the way, some Garcia y Vega mini-cigarillos have flavored tips, so holding them between your lips is extremely pleasant and tasty. Anyway, you place the tapered end between your lips and strike the match! Now, all you have to do is kick back and enjoy!

Slow Burning Relaxation

Natural leaf mini-cigars light easily and burn slowly. This is because they have a natural tobacco leaf wrapper that cradles a fine blend of Dominican tobacco. So as you can imagine, relaxation and calm should manifest naturally and fast. The goal is to unwind and take things slow while enjoying delicious flavors and aromas, which is what you deserve!

Maximizing Your Smoke Break

To enjoy your Game Leaf the most, we recommend gently pulling the smooth smoke into your mouth, savoring it, and then blowing it out slowly. If your mini cigar sits for too long and starts to lose its cherry, you can always just take a few puffs in rapid succession to help bring oxygen in. This should get the ball rolling and start it smoldering again. If it goes all the way out, no worries, just relight it. Remember, when re-lighting a cigar, you'll want to quickly exhale your first puff to avoid any burnt flavors on that initial drag.

Savor the Flavor and Relax, But Don't Inhale Like Clinton

Keep in mind that cigar smoke isn't meant to be fully inhaled. That's just not how it's done. Whether you're smoking a full-sized cigar or a mini-cigar, the goal is to savor the fine tobacco flavor..

After all, cigars aren't cigarettes. They're designed so that you can hold the flavorful smoke in your mouth, enjoy the enticing tastes and aromas, and then release a smooth and fragrant smoke cloud.

Mini-Cigar Etiquette

Mini-cigar etiquette isn't as strict as full-sized cigar etiquette. In fact, mini-cigars are the casual and informal little brothers to large cigars. Larger full-sized cigars tend to be an after-dinner indulgence, whereas cigarillos can be smoked anytime and anywhere. The only rule is to savor your smoke. The whole point is that you are taking a moment to relax and casually enjoy your smoke, on your time!

All About Game Leaf Mini-Cigars

Game Leaf machine-made mini-cigars are crafted using natural tobacco leaf wrappers. These primo wrappers are then filled with an excellent blend of all-natural, aged tobacco blends from 3 different regions around the world.

This unique and premium blend gives Game Leaf Cigarillos an amazing aroma and unparalleled taste. You'll also be able to choose from various flavors, so if pure natural tobacco taste isn't your thing, you've definitely got options.

Game Leaf Mini-Cigars are known for their premium tobacco filling, delicious natural flavors, and affordable pricing.

Their most popular flavor infusions include Wild Berry, Sweet Aromatic, Natural, Tropical, and Cognac. You can choose to smoke various blends as well; Game Leaf Mini-Cigars come in medium blends, full-bodied blends, and everything in between.

Finally, these mini-cigars are protected by sealed foil pouches. Each pouch will contain 2 mini-cigars. Since the pouches are resealable, everything stays perfectly fresh, just as you’d expect from Garcia y Vega.

Wrapping Things Up

Congratulations, now you're a mini-cigar expert! It doesn't matter who you are or where you’re from, when you light up a Garcia y Vega Game Leaf Cigarillo, you can't help but feel a little bit like Clint Eastwood.

These small stogies come in a vast array of flavors, so there's something for everyone to enjoy! To really see what smoking these cigars feels like, why not order a pack for yourself today? Then, you'll truly understand why these mini-cigars are an American top pick for 2020!

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lakewoodranchmovers · 4 years

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Lakewood Ranch Movers Secrets

Lakewood Ranch Movers Secrets January 22, 2020Category: Blog Wonderful relocating working experience.. the fellows ended up polite, punctually and speedy. I hugely propose Mover Bradenton Zech and his crew are definitely the best read more

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spellburstss4 · 4 years

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The Ultimate Straight Razor Shaving Guide

Applying one entails focusing to decrease the danger of cuts. Hydrate your face with warm water initially and employ shaving soap using a brush. You will want to pass over your face a couple of days and sharpen the blade prior to your brush. When you've mastered the razor, you will have the ability to provide yourself a much closer shave than you would ever get using a safety razor.

1. Have a hot shower and allow the water wash on your face for 5 minutes. You might also wrap a hot towel around your face such as barbers do to their clients. Wipe a little towel in warm water and then hold it firmly against your face before the towel dries.

2. Rub pre-shave oil on your face. Great pre-shave oil will make shaving easier. Search for products containing natural oils like jojoba, olive, coconut, or coconut. These oils help soften your own hair without quitting your razor.

3. Scrub your shaving brush in warm water. Fill out your shaving cup or bowl with warm water. Be certain that the water is warm so that it softens the bristles in your brush. Leave the brush to boil for a moment or 2. Then, pick the brush up and then flick your wrist to eliminate unneeded water.

The maximum quality shaving creams are made from badger hair. Boar bristle brushes are more economical, and artificial brushes have the lowest grade. You can work the soap or lotion into your whiskers together with your palms, but a brush makes it a ton simpler. Put shaving lotion or soap on the base of your shaving . Dump the water out on your bowl or mug. Replace it with nickel-sized dollop of shaving lotion or the whole soap cake. Soaps would be the less expensive choice and are made out of a high fat, vegetable oil glycerine mix. Creams are very similar to soaps and also you ought to look for ones using organic essential oils such as coconut or jojoba oil. [4] Prevent common shaving creams and foams. Even though you can use them, they will not give you as good of a shave as standard lotions and soaps. I believed my shaves could not get any better once I updated from my Mach5 into an older school safety razor. I was incorrect. My wife noticed that the gap without me telling her what I'd done and announced it was the funniest she had ever seen. Thus make the switch into a straight razor.

Decreased prices. The upfront costs to begin using straight razor shaving really are somewhat on the costly side. But once you buy all of the equipment, you are set for lifetime . You will not ever need to purchase razor cartridges or double edge blades again. Only give your right razor a wonderful stropping and you are all set. The only cost you will need from here on out is a intermittent tube of shaving lotion.

Now's modern shaving racket generates needless waste. When you are done using a cartridge, then you need to throw it out. When you purchase new cartridges, you are left with a whole lot of packaging stuff. The just waste you will produce is biodegradable shaving scum.

Meditative. It is a craft that needs you to slow down and actually concentrate on what you are doing. Following a couple of days of shaving with a straight razor, then you might begin to find yourself entering a remarkably manly zen-like state.

You will feel like more of a poor ass. You're going to be shaving using a tool which could double as a deadly weapon. Putting razor-sharp steel beside your own neck each single day reminds you that you are alive.

Your main tool is the own razor. Do not find skimpy along with your razor and get the least expensive one. You do not need the lowest priced; you desire the very best. Poor razors wind up being more trouble than they are worth. They'll irritate skin and cause nicks and cuts which will irritate you so long as you use it. If well maintained, a fantastic razor will last for ages. Your great-grandsons may even utilize it.

It is possible to buy directly razors either used or new. It is possible to discover used directly razors on ebay and antique shops. Employed razors will probably have imperfections inside the blade which will call for expert honing. A specialist blade recovery will put you back about 30 bones, but it is going to save you from cutting off the crap from your face.

If you would prefer a new razor, then have a look at You can buy pre-sharpened blades which are all set to utilize the very first time you shave for approximately $130.

When Searching for razors, think about these variables:

A razor with great temper sharpens greater than weaker quality steels. 1 method to test when you've got a nicely tempered blade would be to grab the tip of the blade below your thumbnail allow it to slide off fast. If the blade provides a fantastic clear ring, then it is probably well tempered. If it does not, the blade has been probably tempered unevenly.

Most contemporary straight razors are floor using a hollow. Hollowing puts a concave on all sides of the blade which produces the nut lighter, sharper, and simpler to deal with. You are able to buy blades with varying levels of hollowing. While complete concaves will provide you the sharpest edge, it is not advocate for beginners. When this advantage comes in touch with a rigid beard, if you don't hold the blade quite flat on the surface, it's fairly possible to flex and spring, leading to a cut.

Also think about the blade's thickness when choosing a razor. Do not pick one that is too broad. Start looking for a 5/8 dimensions. It's simple to command and follows the face's contours more tightly than other blades. Eventually, consider which sort of blade stage you desire. Blades come in rounded or sharp points. Sharp points have a propensity to cut and liquefy, so proceed with a round point. When you examine a razor's edge beneath a microscope, you will notice that it is composed of several factors that resemble watched teeth. Honing a sword restores these teeth to their initial condition.

The 10 whetstone you use to sharpen your pocketknife will not function as a hone for the razor blade. They are simply too rough for shaving blades. We are in need of a quality hone with finer grit to find that sharp clean edge that'll make shaving comfy. A woodworking whetsone using a 4,000/8,000 grit mix will operate, and you may readily locate them at most hardware stores or online.

Another hone alternative is really a "barber hone." All these are little more difficult to find. Most are classic, and you are going to need to scour eBay or antique shops to locate one. Since they are less coarse than conventional whetstones, ceramic hones need more strokes to sharpen your own wig.

If you would like to discover a ceramic barber hone, look at eBay.

A sword taken straight out of a hone is left demanding and unfit to place on the facearea. This provides your right razor which keen edge which makes shaving a breeze.

The most frequently encountered strop is that the hanging strop. Hanging strops include 2 components: a single canvas strip and a single leather strip. Again, do not find chintzy with your strop. Cheaper models use rough leather and canvas. If you don't would like to mess up your razor, you shouldn't ever place it into such a sub-par strop.

Fromm Leather Strop

Brush. A brush helps moisturize the shaving lotion so as to produce a thick and rich shaving lather. With a brush up helps get the shaving lotion up beneath every whisker which leads to smoother, better shaves. Additionally, it just feels nice in your own face to gobble up using a brush.

Brushes are manufactured from boar or badger hair. Boar hair brushes prices significantly less, however they hold less moisture and thus make a bad lather. You may grab a wonderful badger brush in any given Crabtree and Evelyn or Art of Shaving. If you do not have these in your region, try Amazon.

Suggested Brushes

Shaving Lotion or Soap. You dedicate shaving sacrilege once you use a straight razor using an mass-produced chemical goop which gets passed away as shaving lotion. Purchase some quality shaving lotions and soaps. They may be more expensive compared to the crap you purchase in a can, however, organic shaving lotions and soaps nourish your face and force you to feel totally manly. Additionally, I have discovered soaps and lotions last longer than shaving creams, so you wind up saving money in the long term.

Honing a wig intimidates many guys. But, honing is not that difficult as soon as you understand how to perform it correctly.

1. Wipe the rock clean

2. If you are using a whetstone, then you will want to bring a lubricant into the rock's surface. Oil, water, or possibly a little shaving lather can get the job done. The lubricant serves two functions. It prevents the blade from heating as you scratch it across the rock. If the blade becomes too hot, it is possible to really cause some warping from the alloy that will destroy the blade. Secondly, lubricant melts any steel and rock particles that are made during honing. You want a clean surface to find the work done correctly.

If you are using a ceramic rock, you do not need to include lubrication.

3. Lay the rock on a level surface with the coarser side upward.

4. Set the razor perfectly horizontal on the hone so the backbone and border touch the rock. When the border just rolls, you're going to get a brief bevel along with also a dull edge.

5. Hold the razor from the shank and begin sharpening. Since the blade is more than the rock's width, you will want to brush the blade as you work, so that you sharpen the whole advantage evenly. Draw the blade to tip forward against the border, and with mild strain. When bolstering, the blade edge LEADS the stroke. This usually means the blade edge should point from the way you stroke.

6. Without lifting the blade out of the rock, turn the border up, so the razor rests on the rear of the blade.

7. Again, use moderate pressure.

Diagram of appropriate honing

8. Continue honing before the blade is adequately sharp. A fast method to find out if it's the blade is sharp is to draw the border (from heel to tip ) very gently, across a moistened thumbnail. If the blade digs to your thumbnail, using a smooth, continuous grip, your blade is sharp and is prepared for stropping. A dull razor will pass across the nail easily. An over-honed razor will stick to a own nail and generate a harsh, unpleasant feeling.

The time necessary to hone your razor is dependent upon your razor's illness. When it's in great shape, 8 10 strokes in each management must do the trick. In case you've got many nicks from the pill, you will want to put in longer time. In case your razor is in very poor shape, then send it to an expert cutler to get it correctly ground.

Many men avoid direct razor shaving since they believe that they'll need to sharpen the blade whenever they shave. In fact, if you maintain your blade dry and correctly stropped, you won't need to hone it often. Most great blades may go 6 to 8 weeks involving honings. You will know you want to hone it since stropping will not sharpen it .

To find the most comfortable and effective shave, then strop your right razor each time you shave.

1. Hang your strop out of your toilet drawer together with the hook one end of the strop.

2. If you are stropping shortly after honing, simply use the strop's leather aspect. Between shaves, start off using all the canvas side before utilizing the leather.

3. Holding the grip in the strop's underside on your left handpull on the strop tight. When the strop is loose and you also simply take your blade over it, then you might get a curved, dull border, so you are going to need to hone it frequently.

4. Unlike bolstering, the razor's edge will TRAIL, rather than direct the strokes. When you are stroking the razor TOWARDS you, then the blade edge should confront AWAY from you.

5. Draw the blade towards you (again with border pointing away from you), constantly keeping the heels of the razor ahead of the tip of this razor.

6. When you get to the strop's finish, rotate the nut onto its rear before the un-stropped side comes directly in touch with the strop. The razor's edge should confront TOWARDS you currently.

7. 15-20 strokes in each way on the strop need to make your blade sharp and nice. If you are first starting out using straight razor shaving, then consider slow and even strokes. Develop speed slowly. As soon as you get the hang of it, then stropping a razor should not take over 30 minutes.

For first-time direct razor shavers, a significant question looming in their heads is:"How in the hell do I hold this item?" Ask five distinct right razor aficionados how to maintain a straight razor and you are going to get five distinct answers. Advanced right razor shavers change up grips based on if they are shaving across, or contrary to the grain or whenever they are shaving a particular portion of the face. For the novice, we propose that this Simple grasp:

Put your thumb over the face of the blade close to the center. This grip provides you nice charge of this razor. You might need to fix it once you shave various components of your face, such as your upper lip or your own jaw. For more examples of how you are able to hold a wig, have a look at the Straight Razor Palace Wiki.

Everybody has their own preference when it concerns the method they use using a straight razor. Here we provide a proposed approach to shave. As you get expertise wielding a straight razor, then you will end up shifting things up to match your taste. If a specific means to shave with a straight razor functions for you, then take action.

Soft whiskers cut easily than dry whiskers. The warmth and water mix softens your beard and leaves it ready for shaving. You may replicate the barbershop experience by soaking a towel in warm water, wringing it out, and putting it on your head for a couple of minutes.

If you do not have enough time for this luxury, simply brush once you escape from a hot shower. If you'd like a really soft beard, then rub a hair conditioner in your beard before you begin showering and wash it out once you are done.

Put a nickel-sized dollop of shaving cream in your mug. If you are using shaving soap, then set the soap at the base of the mug. Scrub your brush in warm water. Flick surplus water from the brush. Together with all the brush, combine the cream/soap completely, with a joint stirring and churning movement until a thick lather appears.

Put on the lather to a face with your brush from swirling motions. Make sure lather gets up beneath each and every whisker. When you have covered your face thoroughly, have a few strokes to even out everything.

Hold the blade in a 30-degree angle. Anything more and you risk cutting ; anything less and you also won't reduce the whiskers. Allow the razor perform the job! Pressing down on the razor is only going to trigger cuts.

Reach over your head with your left hand and then draw upward the skin with your palms, thus creating a smooth shaving surface. Shave down before you clear about half of the ideal cheek. Twist the left hand further until the palms rest in the center of the cheek. Pull the skin up. Keep on shaving until you shave the whole right side of their face.

After shaving the proper cheek, then proceed to the ideal jaw. Tilt your head back and forth to the left, exposing skin beneath your proper chin. With the fingers of your left hand, then draw skin tight beneath the jaw. Shave down if the blossom grows in this way.

As for me, I really don't expect the dexterity and signature in my hand to make the switch.

Put the fingers of the left hand facing and just above the ear. Pull up on the skin in order to draw skin tight. Together with the razor on your hand, toe pointing upwards, hit across the face, and shave down. Walk your hands down since you reach the lower portion of their chin and cheek. Keep pulling the skin tight.

Tilt your head back and forth to the right, exposing skin beneath your chin.

Shave the Top Lip Draw the top lip down as far as you possibly can tighten skin. Shave downwards.

Draw your lower lip as far as possible. This may pull the skin tight, which makes it much easier to shave the whiskers under your lip and onto your chin.

Throw back your head and lift the chin. Together with your left fingers, draw down skin. Take additional care as possible shave. The skin below the neck is significantly more sensitive and vulnerable to cutting.

Important Notice: Always put on a sweet vest when shaving with a razor.

Can I really do multiple passes? If you want to have that smooth as a baby's behind appearance, you are going to need to do several passes with the razor heading round and against the grain. For the novice, I recommend just going on your face again using a downward stroke.

When you get some experience with your right razor, then you can try adding a round the grain and from the grain . An across-the-grain pass is if you brush in the direction perpendicular to what the blossom grows. If your whiskers grow down in your cheek, you're shave round your cheek from right to left or left to right. It is essentially the opposite of shaving down.

If you Opt to do multiple moves, the arrangement goes thusly:

Shave upon the grain. Shave from the grain. Before every pass, clean your face away and re-lather.

Scrub off your face with cool water. Splash a manly smelling aftershave in your face. Aftershave helps reduce skin discomfort and leaves skin looking healthy.

Cuts and nicks occur for Many reasons, for example:

Employing a dull razor Holding the razor eyebrow with a razor that is overly hollow eyebrow in too great a rush Shaving against the grain When you initially begin using a straight razor, then you are certain to cut your self. Do not let this dissuade you. Cuts have been the top barbers.

You are able to prevent most small cuts and nicks simply by pressing on the cut together while incorporating pressure. If this does not work, have a syptic pen into the cut. Should you reduce your butt, well, you are kind of screwed. Therefore don't do this.

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aurther76s-blog · 5 years

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harlanrwiley89 · 5 years

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Yes, the Open Office Is Terrible — But It Doesn’t Have to Be (Ep. 358 Rebroadcast)

Feeling stressed from working in a noisy open office? Tell your boss that working from home increases worker productivity by 13 percent! (Photo: MaxPixel)

It began as a post-war dream for a more collaborative and egalitarian workplace. It has evolved into a nightmare of noise and discomfort. Can the open office be saved, or should we all just be working from home?

Listen and subscribe to our podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or elsewhere. Below is a transcript of the episode, edited for readability. For more information on the people and ideas in the episode, see the links at the bottom of this post.

* * *

Hey, are you at work right now? And do you work in an office? Have you ever worked in an office? If you have, there’s a good chance it was an open office, at least to some degree. The open office design has been around for decades, in a variety of forms. If you’re a cynic, you might think an open office is all about cramming the maximum number of employees into the minimum amount of real estate. But you could also imagine that an open office produces better interaction and more collaboration. Wouldn’t it be nice to know if this were true? That’s what these people wanted to learn.

Ethan BERNSTEIN: I’m Ethan Bernstein, I’m an associate professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School.

Stephen TURBAN: My name is Stephen Turban. I am a recent graduate of Harvard College and I currently work for a global management consultancy.

Turban has since moved on from his consulting job. Anyway, he and Bernstein had just co-authored a paper called “The Impact of the Open Workspace on Human Collaboration.”

TURBAN: I don’t think I realized how much anger there was against open offices until the research was published and I was contacted by a number of friends and colleagues about their open offices and their deep, deep emotional scarring.

BERNSTEIN: There’s certainly a population of people out there who hate — I think that’s perhaps even not strong enough—

DUBNER: Not strong enough, agreed. But proceed please.

BERNSTEIN: People find it impossible to get work done. They find it demoralizing.

TURBAN: Also the lack of privacy, and the feeling that they’re being watched by others.

BERNSTEIN: Privacy tends to give us license to be more experimental, to potentially find opportunities for continuous improvement, to avoid distractions that might take us away from the focus we have on our work.

TURBAN: Ethan is really, I would say, the king of privacy.

BERNSTEIN: My research over time has been about the increasingly transparent workplace and its impact on human behavior and therefore performance. Over time, I’ve gotten asked the question, “What about the open office? How does it impact the way in which people work and collaborate?” I haven’t had an empirical answer.

In search of an empirical answer, Bernstein and Turban began a study of two Fortune 500 companies that were converting from cubicles to open offices. Sure, the downsides of an open office are obvious: the lack of privacy; having to overhear everything your coworkers say. But what if the downsides are offset by a grand flowering of collaboration and communication and idea-generation? What if the open office is in fact a brilliant concept that we’ve all been falsely maligning?

* * *

The office is such a quintessential emblem of modern society that it may seem it’s been around forever. But of course it hasn’t.

Nikil SAVAL: The economy of the United States was based on farming and it was based on manufacturing. The office was almost an afterthought.

That’s Nikil Saval, the author of a book called Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace.

SAVAL: People thought, “Well, offices are essentially paperwork factories. So we should just sort of array them in an assembly-line sort of formation.”

This meant a big room filled with long rows of desks and, scattered on the periphery, private offices for the managers. This factory model, which got its start in the late 19th century, came to be known as the American plan. And it was standard office form for decades, at least in the U.S. But then, in the middle of the twentieth century, in Germany:

SAVAL: There were two brothers, the Schnelle brothers, who began to wonder about the nature of the American plan. There was a sense that this was arbitrary, and there was no real reason to lay out an office in this way.

In 1958, Wolfgang and Eberhard Schnelle created the Quickborner consulting group with the idea of bringing some intentionality to modern office design.

SAVAL: And one of the ideas that came to them was that an office is not like a factory, it’s actually a different kind of workplace. And it requires its own sort of system. Maybe there isn’t a reason to have desks in rows. Maybe there isn’t a reason for people to have private offices at all, if essentially the office is not about producing things but it’s about producing ideas and about producing communication among different people. And so over time they pioneered a concept that they called the burolandschaft, or “office landscape.” And it was essentially the first truly open plan office.

The idea was to create an office that was more collaborative and more egalitarian.

SAVAL: It looks extremely chaotic. You’d just have desks in clusters and they just seem to be arranged in a pretty haphazard form. But, in fact, there was rigorous planning around it in a way that would facilitate communication and the flow of people and ideas. And it eventually made its way to England and the United States, and it was considered an incredible breakthrough.

A breakthrough perhaps — but the earliest open offices drew complaints similar to the ones we hear today. Lots of complaints.

SAVAL: By not instituting a barrier between people, by not having doors, by not having any way of controlling the way sound traveled in the office, it stopped facilitating the thing it was supposed to facilitate, which was communication, because it became harder to communicate in an office environment where phones were ringing off the hook, where you could hear typewriters across the room, and things like that. It wasn’t actually the utopian space that it promised to be. In fact, it was deeply debilitating in some ways for the kind of work that people wanted to do.

Meanwhile, there was an American named Robert Propst working for the Herman Miller furniture company, in Michigan.

SAVAL: He was not himself trained as a designer. He was sort of like a freelance thinker.

Propst was intrigued by the “office landscape” idea — its openness and egalitarian aspirations — but he also appreciated its practical shortcomings.

SAVAL: And he decided to turn to experts — to anthropologists, to social psychologists, to people of that nature.

After some research, Propst came to the conclusion that individuals are — well, they’re individuals. And they need more control over their workspace. He and the designer George Nelson came up with a new design in which each office worker would be surrounded by a suite of objects to help them work better. In 1964, Herman Miller debuted the “Action Office.”

SAVAL: There was a standing desk, a regular desk that you sat at, and a telephone booth.

Design critics loved the Action Office.

SAVAL: It looked incredible, but it was very expensive and very few managers wanted to spend this kind of money on their employees. So they went back to the drawing board and they tried to come up with something cheaper.

In 1968, Herman Miller released the Action Office 2.

SAVAL: And it was this three-walled space: these fabric-wrapped walls that were angled, and they were meant to enclose a suite of furniture. And it was meant to mitigate the kind of chaos that an open office plan might otherwise have.

You may know the Action Office 2 by its more generic name—

SAVAL: —which is the cubicle.

The cubicle promised a variety of advantages.

SAVAL: It’s meant to be very flexible, and it can form an impromptu conference room. And it was meant to divide up an open office plan in a way to mitigate the kind of chaos that an open office plan or an office landscape might otherwise have. And it was incredibly well-received. It was copied by a number of furniture companies. And soon it was spreading in offices everywhere.

But the cubicle could also be exploited.

SAVAL: It became a perfect tool for cramming more and more workers into less and less space very cheaply. The whole notion of what Propst was trying to do was to give a worker a space that they could control — was turned into the exact opposite. It was clear that his concept had become the most-loathed symbol of office life.

Indeed, the revolutionary, freedom-giving cubicle came to be seen as a sort of corporate version of solitary confinement. This left Robert Propst most unhappy.

SAVAL: And he blamed managers. He blamed people who were not enlightened, that created what he called barren, rat-hole-type environments.

Robert Propst, like the Schnelle brothers before him, had not quite succeeded in creating a vibrant and efficient open office. Their new environments introduced new problems: chaos in the first case, cubicles in the second. As with many problems that we humans try to correct — whether in office culture, or society at large — the correction turns out to be an overcorrection. Unintended consequences leap out, and humble us. And yet: in this case, the fact is that most offices today are still open offices. Why are we holding on to this concept if it makes so many people so unhappy?

TURBAN: If you’re looking purely at a cost per square foot, having an open office is cheaper.

BERNSTEIN: There are a lot of people, whether they’re managers or employees, who like the open office.

Bernstein admits that managers are primarily impressed by the cost savings of an open office. But some employees—

BERNSTEIN: Some employees like it because they have visions of it being more vibrant, more interactive. That fun, noisy, experiential place they’re hoping for once you take down the walls and make everyone able to see each other.

TURBAN: And there’s also been a big push around these collisions that have emerged in social sciences. How do you create these random interactions between people that spark creativity?

“Collision” is a term you hear a lot in office design and the design of public spaces generally. It’s the promise that unplanned encounters can lead to good things — between co-workers or neighbors, even strangers. Conversations that otherwise wouldn’t have happened; the exchange of ideas; unforeseen collaboration. Now, the office is plainly a different sort of space from the public square. The office is primarily concerned with productivity. We’d all like to be happy working in our offices, but is it maybe worth surrendering a bit of happiness — and privacy, and so on — for the sake of higher productivity? After all, that’s what we’re being paid for.

BERNSTEIN: If you want to have a certain kind of interaction that’s deep, productive in idea generation, or in something that requires us to have lots of “bandwidth” between each other, it’s nice to have that face-to-face interaction.

Ben WABER: Face-to-face conversations are so important.

That’s Ben Waber, he’s the C.E.O. of an organizational-analytics company called Humanyze.

WABER: What we do is use data about how people interact and collaborate at work. Think email, chat, meeting data, but now also sensor data about how people interact in the real world. And we use that to understand really what goes on inside companies.

Humanyze has developed sociometric I.D. badges, embedded with sensors, to capture these data.

WABER: We have by far the largest data set on workplace interaction in the world.

And what do the data say about face-to-face communication?

WABER: In all of our research, that has consistently been the most predictive factor of almost any organizational outcome you can think of: performance, job satisfaction, retention, you name it. People did evolve for millions of years to interact in a face-to-face way. We are very used to small changes in facial expression, small changes in tone of voice and that’s particularly important in work contexts where high levels of trust, especially as work gets more and more complex, and the things we build and make together are more and more complex. Really having that trust and being able to convey really rich information is critical.

Bernstein and Turban also believe in the value of face-to-face communication.

TURBAN: Nuanced communication around, “Here’s a proposal I have. Here is a thought I have about how this last meeting went.” That is a very rich and nuanced form of communication and most literature suggests that face-to-face communication is much better at that.

BERNSTEIN: Sociologists have suggested for a long time that propinquity breeds interaction — propinquity being co-location, being close to one another.

TURBAN: The closer two people are together, the more likely they are to interact, the more likely they are to get married, the more likely they are to work together.

BERNSTEIN: And interaction being, we will have a conversation, we will actually get some kind of collaboration done between the two of us.

TURBAN: You can look at slouching shoulders, you can see what is their facial expression, and that conveys a lot of information that is really hard to convey, no matter how good you are at emojis — and let me tell you, I am pretty good at emojis.

Okay, so face-to-face communication is important, at least for some purposes and on some dimensions. And an open office is designed to facilitate more face-to-face communication. So … does it work? That was the central question of Bernstein and Turban’s study.

DUBNER: In your study, there are two companies that were transitioning to open offices. First of all, can you reveal the identity of one or both of those companies?

BERNSTEIN: I can’t. In order to do this study, we had to agree to a level of confidentiality. I will say that we had a choice of sites to study and we chose the two that we thought would be most representative of the kind of work we were interested in, which is white-collar work in professional settings, Fortune 500 companies.

DUBNER: Can you give us some detail that helps us envision the kind of office and what the activities are?

BERNSTEIN: If you work in a global headquarters amongst a series of functions like H.R. or finance or legal or sales or marketing, this would describe your work setting.

DUBNER: And can you describe, for the two companies that you studied, they moved to open offices — what was their configuration beforehand?

BERNSTEIN: Everyone was in cubicles. And then they moved to an open space that basically mimicked that, but just without the cubicle walls.

TURBAN: Those barriers went down, so you could see if John was sitting next to Sally before, and there was a wall between them, that John could see Sally and Sally could see John, and that was the big difference between the original and the office afterwards.

DUBNER: So, tell us about the experiment. I want to know all kinds of things, like how many people were involved? Did they opt in or not? Was it randomized? How the data were gathered, and so on.

TURBAN: In the first study, we had 52 participants; in our second, we had 100 participants, and we wanted to measure communication before and after the move.

BERNSTEIN: We started with the most simple empirical puzzle we could start with, which was simply how much interaction takes place between the individuals before and after. We wanted to purely see if this hypothesis of a vibrant open office were true.

TURBAN: So before the move, we gave each of the participants sociometric badges.

These are the badges we mentioned earlier, from Humanyze.

BERNSTEIN: So they contain several sensors. One is a microphone. One is an I.R. sensor to show whether or not they’re facing another badge. They have an accelerometer to show movement and they have a Bluetooth sensor to show location.

TURBAN: So you can get a data point which looks like: “John spoke with Sally for 25 minutes at 2 p.m.” But you don’t know anything about what the content of the conversation is.

BERNSTEIN: A number of previous studies that have used the sociometric badges have shown that we are very aware of them for the first, say, few minutes that we have them on, and after that we sort of forget they’re there.

DUBNER: You write that the microphone is only registering that people talk and not recording or monitoring what they say. Do you think the employees who wore them believe that? I mean if I think there’s a one percent chance that my firm is monitoring or recording what I’m saying, I’m quite likely to say less, yes?

BERNSTEIN: Well, it’s actually kind of a funny question, because in this case we really weren’t. But look, we phrased the consent form as strongly as we could to ensure that they understood this was for research purposes, and if they hadn’t believed it, they probably would have opted out.

DUBNER: What are we to make of the fact that the data represents the people who opted in only? Because I’m just running through my head, if I were an employee and I’m told that there’s some kind of experiment going on with these smart people from Harvard Business School and, however much you tell me or don’t, I intuit some or I figure out some or I guess some. And we’re moving to an open office and I think, “Oh, man, I hate the open office, and therefore I definitely want to participate in this experiment so that I can sabotage it by behaving exactly the opposite of how I think they want me to behave.” Is that too skeptical or cynical?

BERNSTEIN: Boy, you sound like one of my reviewers in the peer review process.

DUBNER: Sorry.

BERNSTEIN: It is a valid concern. Let me tell you what we’ve tried to do to alleviate it. The first thing is we’ve compared the individuals who opted in to wearing the badge and those who did not to a series of demographics we got from the H.R. systems. And we don’t see systematic differences there.

TURBAN: It is always possible when you’re doing social science research that someone makes a guess, whether it’s accurate or not, about what this study is trying to understand, and then takes a personal stand and says, “I’m going to stand for what’s right, and what’s right is cubicles!” In that case, they would have to have done that for every day for two months. So it would have been a remarkable feat of endurance. We don’t think that that’s what happened, but the open office factions are real, so, definitely important to keep in mind.

In addition to all these data from the employees’ badges, the researchers could also measure each employee’s electronic communications — their emails and instant messages. Again, they were only measuring this communication, not examining the content.

BERNSTEIN: And so what we were able to do is compare individuals’ face-to-face and electronic communication before and after the move from cubicles to open spaces in these two environments.

Okay, so the Bernstein-Turban study looked at two Fortune 500 companies where employees had moved from cubicles to open offices. And they measured every input they could about how the employees’ communication changed — face-to-face and electronic communication. What do you think happened?

* * *

DUBNER: So, you’ve done the study, two firms over a period of time with a number of people to measure how their behavior changes, generally. Tell us what you found.

TURBAN: So, the study had two main conclusions.

BERNSTEIN: We found that when these individuals moved from closed cubicles into the open office, interaction decreased.

TURBAN: Face-to-face communication decreased by about 70 percent in both of our two studies. Conversely, that communication wasn’t entirely lost. Instead, the second result that we found was that communication actually increased virtually, so people emailed more, I.M.’ed more.

DUBNER: How much of that decrease was compensated by electronic?

TURBAN: We saw an increase of 20–50 percent of electronic communication. That means more emails, more I.M.’s. And depending on how you think about what an email is worth, maybe you could say that they made up for it. Is an email worth five minutes of conversation, is it two minutes?

BERNSTEIN: It’s a little bit hard to say, because an email and an interaction may not be comparable in item.

TURBAN: Even if we saw an increase in the amount of virtual communication, which totally made up for the face-to-face communication, what you probably saw was a loss in richness of communication — the net information that’s being conveyed was actually less.

DUBNER: What can you tell us about how the open space affected productivity and satisfaction?

BERNSTEIN: I’ll come out clean and say, we don’t have perfect data on performance, and we don’t have any data on satisfaction. We purposefully stayed away from satisfaction; we just wanted to look at the interaction of individuals. In one of our two studies, we have anecdotally some information where the organization felt that actually performance had declined as a result of this move.

I will say that, boy, if we think about this, there are probably lots of contexts that we can think of where more face-to-face interaction would be useful and lots of contexts in which we think more face-to-face interaction would not be useful. And that’s where I’d actually prefer to take the conversation about productivity. That, at the very least, to date managers of property, managers of organizations have not thought about this being a trade off. They’ve assumed cost and revenue go together. That may be true in some subset of environments, but in others that’s not going to be true.

DUBNER: What did the companies in your study do after you’d presented them with your findings?

BERNSTEIN: One of them has actually taken a step back from the open office. The other has attempted to make the open office work by adding more closed spaces to it.

Okay, so an empirical study of open offices finds that the primary benefit they are meant to confer — more face-to-face communication and the good things such communication can lead to — that it actually moves in the opposite direction! At least in the aggregate. To be fair, an open office is bound to be much better for certain tasks than others. And, more important, better for some people than for others. We’re not all the same. And some of us, I’m told — not me, but some of us — thrive in a potentially chattier office. But on balance, it would appear that being put out in the open leads most people to close themselves off a bit. Why? You can probably answer that question for yourself. But Turban and Bernstein have some thoughts too. Here’s one: maybe you don’t want to disturb other people:

TURBAN: So, when you’re in an open office, your voice carries. And I think people decide very reasonably to say, “Well I could speak with Tammy, who’s three desks away. But if I talk to Tammy, I’m going to disrupt Larry and Katherine, and so I will send her a quick message instead.”

Or maybe you compensate for the openness of the open office with behavior that sends a do-not-disturb signal.

BERNSTEIN: If everyone can see you, you want to signal to everyone that you are a hard worker, so you look intensely at your screen. Maybe you put on headphones to block the noise. Guess what? When we signal that, we also tend to signal, “And please don’t interrupt me from my work.” Which may very well have been part of what happened in our studies here.

And then there’s what Ethan Bernstein calls “the transparency paradox.”

BERNSTEIN: Very simply, the transparency paradox is the idea that increasingly transparent, open, observable workplaces can create less transparent employees.

For instance: let’s say you’ve been really productive all morning; now you want to take a break. You want to check your fantasy-football lineup; you want to look up some recipes for dinner. But you don’t want everyone in the office, especially your boss, to see what you’re doing. So: you do it anyway but you’re constantly looking over your shoulder in case you need to shut down the fantasy-football or recipe tabs.

BERNSTEIN: That has implications for productivity, because we spend time on it. We spend energy on it. We spend effort on it. We tend to believe these days that we get our best work done when we can be our authentic selves. Very few of us get up on a stage in front of a large audience, which is somewhat of how some people encounter the open office, and feel we can be our authentic selves.

Nicholas BLOOM: So, if I have an idea—

That’s the Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom.

BLOOM: —if I go discuss with my colleague or my manager in an open office, I’m terrified that other people would hear. They may pass judgment or rumors can go around.

Bloom has studied this realm for years:

BLOOM: I work a lot on firms and productivity, so what makes some firms more productive, more successful. What makes other firms less successful.

DUBNER: So let me ask you this: a recent paper found that a couple of Fortune 500 companies who switched from cubicles to an open office plan with the hopes of increasing employee collaboration, that in fact the openness led to less collaboration. So, knowing what you know about offices and people, does that surprise you?

BLOOM: Not really. There’s a huge problem with open offices in terms of collaboration. You have no privacy. Whereas if it’s in a slightly more closed environment it’s easier to discuss ideas, to bounce things around.

Or consider the ultimate closed environment: your own home.

BLOOM: One piece of research I did that connected very much to the open office was the benefits of working from home. So working from home has a terrible reputation amongst many people. The nickname “shirking from home.” So I decided to do a scientific study. So we got a large online travel agency to ask a division who wanted to work from home. And we then had them randomize employees by even or odd birthdays into working at home versus working in the office.

DUBNER: Now, this was a travel agency in China, correct?

BLOOM: Yes, so it’s Ctrip, which is China’s largest travel agency. It’s very much like Expedia in the U.S. And stunningly what came out was, one of the biggest driving factors is, it’s just much quieter working from home. They complained so often about the amount of noise and disruption going on in the office. They’re all in an open office and they tell us about people having boyfriend problems, there’s a cake in the breakout room. The World Cup sweepstake. I mean, the most amazing was the woman that told us about her cubicle neighbor who’d have endless conversations with her mum about medical problems, including horrible things like ingrown toenails and some kind of wart issue. I mean what could be more distracting than that? Not surprisingly, in that case, the open office was devastating for her productivity.

DUBNER: So, you find that overall, working from home raises what exactly? Is it productivity? Is it happiness?

BLOOM: So we found working from home raises productivity by 13 percent. Which is massive. That’s almost an extra day a week. So a), much more productive, massively more productive, way more than anyone predicted. And b), they seemed a lot happier; their attrition rates, so how frequently they quit. Part of this was they didn’t have the commute and all the uncertainty. And they didn’t have to take sick days off. But the other big driver is it’s just so much quieter at home.

DUBNER: You also do write, though, that one of the downsides of working from home was promotion became less likely. Yes?

BLOOM: Yes. We don’t know why, but one argument is “out of sight, out of mind.” They just get forgotten about. And another story would be that actually they need to develop skills of human capital and relationship capital, therefore you need to be in the office to get that, to be promoted. And then the third reason I heard, we talked to people working at home and they’d say, “I don’t want to be promoted, because in order to be promoted, I need to come in the office more so.” I’m happy where I am. It’s not worth it.

DUBNER: “I just want them to leave me alone.”

BLOOM: I mean, the most surprising thing from the Ctrip working-from-home experiment was after the end of the nine months, Ctrip was so happy. They were saving about $2,000 per employee working from home because they are more productive and they saved in office space. So they said, “Okay, everyone can now work from home.” And we discovered of the people in the experiment, about 50 percent of them who had been at home decided to come back into the office. And that seemed like an amazing decision because they’re now choosing to commute for something like 40 minutes each way a day. And also since they are less productive in the office and about half their pay was bonus pay, they’re getting paid less. All in all we calculated, their time and pay was kind of falling by 10 to 15 percent. But they were still coming in. And the reason they told us is it was lonely at home.

So people always joke the three great enemies of working from home is the fridge, the bed, and the television. And some people can handle that and others can’t. And you don’t really know until you have tried it. So what happens is people try it and some people love it and are very productive. Great, they just stick with it, and others try and they loathe it and they come back into the office.

The more you learn about the productivity and happiness of office workers in different settings, the more obvious it is that one key ingredient is often overlooked: choice. Some employees really might be better off at home; others might prefer the cubicle; and some might thrive in an open office. You also have to acknowledge that no one environment will be ideal for every task.

Janet POGUE McLAURIN: So if you stop and think about: how do we spend our time? About half of our time is spent in focus mode, which means that we’re working alone; a little over a quarter of our time is working with others in person; and about 20 percent is working with others virtually.

That’s Janet Pogue McLaurin, from the global design-and-architecture firm Gensler.

POGUE McLAURIN: I’m one of our global workplace practice area leaders.

Given the diversity of tasks required of the modern office worker—

POGUE McLAURIN: —you need the best environment for the task at hand. So, if you’re getting ready to go onto a conference call, instead of taking it at your desk, you may go into a conference room. When you finish that, you may go back to your desk to catch up on email. You may socialize around the café area or even take a walking meeting outside. We need to have all these other work settings at our disposal to be able to create a wonderful work experience.

That doesn’t sound so hard, does it? So how do you create that? Let’s start with the basics. Pogue McLaurin acknowledges that many open offices don’t address their key shortcoming.

POGUE McLAURIN: The biggest complaint that we see in open offices that don’t work is the noise. And how do you mitigate noise interruptions and distractions? And that can be noise as well as visual. Being able to design a space that zones the floor in smaller neighborhoods, that tries to get buffers between noisy activities. There’s architectural interventions we can also do, with ceilings and materials and white noise, that may be added to the space. And it’s not about creating too quiet an environment — that can be just as ineffective as a noisy environment. You really want to have enough buzz and energy, but just not hear every word.

You also want to account for what economists call heterogeneous preferences, and what normal people call individual choice.

POGUE McLAURIN: Choice is one of the key drivers of effective workspace, and we have found that the most innovative firms actually offer twice as much choice and exercise on that choice than non-innovative firms do. And choice is really around autonomy, about when and where to work. It could be as simple as having a choice of being able to do focus work in the morning or being able to work at home a day, or in another work setting in the office.

To that end, no two employees are exactly alike — and, more important, no two companies are alike either.

POGUE McLAURIN: I think some common mistakes that organizations do is they try to copy someone else’s design. So if you think it’s a cool idea of something that you saw on the west coast, let’s say it’s a tech firm, and you’re not even a tech firm, and you’re sitting here on the east coast and you try to just copy it verbatim, it doesn’t work. It’s got to reflect how your organization works and the purpose and brand and community that you’re a part of.

So oftentimes, companies would start to adopt what other organizations are doing and say, “Yes, that will save us space, so let’s adopt it,” but they’re missing out by not providing all these other spaces to balance. So they want the efficiency without creating all the other work settings that people need in order to be truly productive.

It’s worth noting that Janet Pogue McLaurin, a principal with a design-and-architecture firm, is arguing that the key to a successful office is: design and architecture. But it’s also worth noting that her firm has done a great deal of research in all different kinds of offices, all different kinds of companies, all over the world.

POGUE McLAURIN: We’ve done several studies in the U.S. and the U.K. But we’ve also done Latin America, Asia, Middle East and we’re just completing a study in Germany.

So: what’s her prognosis for the long-maligned open office?

POGUE McLAURIN: The open office is not dead. Oftentimes people say,“Which is better: private office or open plan?” We measured all types of individual work environments, and what we’ve found is that if you solve for design, noise, and access to people and resources, they perform equally, and one is essentially not better than the other. And the best open plan can be as effective as a private one. And that was a surprise. I love data when it tells you something unexpected.

So do we, Janet Pogue McLaurin. So do we.

* * *

Freakonomics Radio is produced by Stitcher and Dubner Productions. This episode was produced by Rebecca Lee Douglas. Our staff also includes Alison Craiglow, Greg Rippin, Harry Huggins, Zack Lapinski, Matt Hickey, Corinne Wallace, and Daphne Chen. We had help this week from Nellie Osborne. Our theme song is “Mr. Fortune,” by the Hitchhikers; all the other music was composed by Luis Guerra. You can subscribe to Freakonomics Radio on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Here’s where you can learn more about the people and ideas in this episode:

SOURCES

Ethan Bernstein, Edward W. Conard Associate Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School.

Nicholas Bloom, economist at Stanford University.

Janet Pogue McLaurin, principal at Gensler.

Nikil Saval, author and journalist.

Stephen Turban, development & innovation at the Office of the President, Fulbright University Vietnam.

Ben Waber, president and C.E.O. of Humanyze.

RESOURCES

“Does Working from Home Work? Evidence from a Chinese Experiment,” Nicholas Bloom, James Liang, John Roberts, Zhichun Jenny Ying (2013).

“The Impact of the Open Workspace on Human Collaboration,” Ethan Bernstein, Stephen Turban (2018).

The Office: A Facility Based on Change by Robert Propst (Herman Miller 1968).

Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace by Nikil Saval (Anchor 2014).

EXTRA

“Are We in a Mattress-Store Bubble?” Freakonomics Radio (2016).

“Time to Take Back the Toilet,” Freakonomics Radio (2014).

The post Yes, the Open Office Is Terrible — But It Doesn’t Have to Be (Ep. 358 Rebroadcast) appeared first on Freakonomics.

from Dental Care Tips http://freakonomics.com/podcast/office-rebroadcast/

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fadedmixmagazine · 5 years

Text

What is Wrong with Fast Fashion

Most of us had done it before. We've seen a nice designer piece, or a trendy garment and we absolutely needed it. But usually, a person can't drop a couple thousand dollars on a pair of ripped jeans.

So what would the regular person do? They'd go to Zara, H&M, or Topman and find the next best thing. And usually, it can't be beat. Okay, quality garments for low prices and all a quick car ride or click away. But it's never really that simple, and fast fashion costs way more than what you may see on the rack.

The term “fast fashion” refers to a phenomenon in the fashion industry whereby production processes are expedited in order to get new trends to the market as quickly and cheaply as possible. As a result of this trend, the tradition of introducing new fashion lines on a seasonal basis is being challenged.

Today, it is not uncommon for fast-fashion retailers to introduce new products multiple times in a single week.” If you google the term “fast fashion,” then you’re likely to get a definition like the one posted above. Unfortunately, this doesn’t paint a clear picture of exactly what fast fashion entails, and it certainly doesn’t touch on why we at Socially Conscious Brands refuse to promote any product that was made this way.

https://youtu.be/tLfNUD0-8ts

In case you’re unfamiliar with this manufacturing process, here are a few key points:

Fashion Brands are part of a $3 Trillion dollar industries, but many of their products are made by workers who operate in dangerously unsafe conditions, making pennies a day.

Fast Fashion accounts for some of the highest levels of inequality and environmental destruction the world has ever seen.

There are over 40 million garment makers, and they are widely considered to be among the lowest paid workers in the world.

85% of those workers are women, many of whom have to abandon their families for long hours in the factory.

Because of the disposable nature of Fast Fashion garments, the world now consumes about 80 billion new pieces of clothing a year.

Creativity

https://straatosphere.com/zara-multi-piece-sneaker-copies-balenciaga/

Fast fashion isn’t known for its originality.

Up until the second half of the 20th century, the fashion cycle was structured around 2 collections per year, the Spring-Summer and the Fall-Winter collection. Each collection was conceived over a two-year period previous to its release during a fashion show.

In this time, any element connected to a garment’s style, quality, material and heritage was discussed and reviewed in depth to provide not only a piece of clothing but a true societal statement.

It’s during these decades that luxury brands were able to identify their recognisable stylistic identity and create those iconic pieces that to this day have never gone out of fashion.

OK, so we have made it pretty clear that the speed of fashion today is having a negative impact on the creative ebb and flow of major fashion houses, but how and why did this need for speed arise in the first place?

One only has to look so far as the fast fashion cycle to see the answer unfold. Responsible for producing as many as 52 micro-seasons per year, fast fashion conglomerates are major money machines.

International in scope and dubious in practice, they are able to cut corners faster and cheaper than anyone else in order to deliver products to the consumer first. And so, naturally, the consumer has come to expect this kind of speed from all their clothing purchases.

The entire industry, which also happens to be one the world’s most wasteful, is built around the idea that trendy clothes should be available to consumers at accessible price points.

Sometimes that means altering a trend to make it a little more wearable for the average consumer ― but often, fast fashion brands produce garments that look like they were ripped straight from the catwalk.

Well, as we already mentioned fast fashion is an adaption by the retailers to mimic what is strut down the ramps in the form of catwalks. Converting ‘trendy pieces’ to make it wearable, the retailers are toning it down and basically creating a Walmart version of the big luxury brands.

Even cheaper options are springing up eventually on Instagram stores which are an advocate to fake and pirated goods; thus creating a bigger notorious market or being the thrust to ‘bootleg brush’.

Retail giants like H&M and Forever 21 are best known for low prices and on trend designer inspired designs. While the masses seem to be obsessed with fast fashion retailers, some wonder if the fast fashion model is ruining the industry’s creativity. While we’ve seen high end designers meet these mass retailers have way by doing collaborations like the Balmain and Alexander Wang for H&M there have also been all all court wars over designer copyright infringement.

What do you think? Has the consumers appetite for fashion increased far beyond designers creative ability just to keep up with how quickly mass retailers are able to turn around new styles? Are we all addicted to what’s new? At what point do we invest in our wardrobe piece by piece and savor each style moment?

https://www.reddit.com/r/malefashion/comments/4ilh29/how_to_be_a_designer_at_zara_learn_photoshop/

Quality

The need for speed when acts as a compromise on creative integrity, it is also bound to have an impact on the quality offered. This means that the reputation of the brand is also sacrificed in the race to offer the latest trends to consumers first. In the clout of fashion brands, there are often instances when consumers end up looking like twins walking down streets because it is the same kind of clothes sported on the hangers of most retail shops.

It Ends Up Costing You More

Think about sale. Sales are happening much more often

When I walk around the city or go online-shopping, I can see offers, vouchers and sales being on all year round.

What that does is that we tend to see reduced prices and we think that we are making a bargain – when in fact, these pieces were already calculated with that margin but that’s another additional topic I just wanted to touch upon.

The thing is, because the goods being so cheap, we buy more than what we need. This turns out to cost more if you think about the times you end up wearing it. Let’s say you buy 10 pieces for one Euro each, from which you each piece wear once. That’s 10 times wearing clothes. Instead you could have bought one piece for 10 Euro and wear it 20 times.

Of course it is not said, that more expensive results in better quality, but generally speaking a piece produced at such low cost is most likely to have poor quality.

Your clothes won’t last. — Most of the clothes we buy from fast fashion brands are most likely to never be worn out, simply because they won’t be used that often or for that long. The whole concept behind fast fashion is to make you swap your clothes for new ones on a regular basis as you know from the above points already.

However, even washing some of the clothes for one time, may result that you won’t be wearing them anymore. For example, how many times have you washed a T-shirt from H&M and the side stitches got all messed up?

In terms of durability most fast fashion items won’t either have a timeless design that you can wear in five years from now or they won’t even have the quality to stay in shape for many years to come.

Return of investment is low

Last but not least, the reason why you should seriously consider not buying your clothes from Fast Fashion retailers is the ROI. ROI is an acronym for Return on Investment.

Consider this: buying high quality products that will last you many years, will result in a higher ROI for you than buying cheap made fashion that will only last you one season. You are more likely to achieve a lower ROI with fast fashion items because their concept is to not last.

Therefore, increase the ROI for your clothes by buying sustainable brands, buying second-hand, buying more basics, or simply keep on wearing what your wardrobe has to give you.

https://www.thredup.com/resale

Overall, fast fashion brands know exactly their impact on our consumption and the environment, which is why they are greenwashing their brands with ‘recyclable’ clothing, shoes and jeans made out of ocean plastic or offering you to give your old clothes to them to recycle.

https://youtu.be/StQ-cvnYLlg

#fast fashion #ethicalproduction #mensfashion #ethical fashion #climate crisis #climate change #clothing #clothing industry #fashion industry

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a-wandering-fool · 6 years

Link

I just saw a post go by arguing that the German NAZI party was somehow not “socialist.” That while they did have the “socialist” name in the party name–that was done to attract voters, and had no real impact on German’s economic policies. No; instead, we’re told that the NAZIs weren’t socialist because, well, they were racist and their political policies were terrible and they had all these concentration camps–and “real socialists” care about all people and are fuzzy and adorable and just want to help.

I’ve heard similar arguments elsewhere.

The Soviet Union was not socialist, despite calling themselves the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, because they weren’t caring enough and discriminated against certain types of people and the called themselves “Communists” and engaged in wars. Venezuela was not socialist because despite passing policies which controlled corporations and set price targets and nationalized various industries left and right–well, they clearly don’t care enough because their President is an asshole or something, and people are starving.

And besides, many of these places did not practice “true Socialism” (whatever that is), they practiced cartelism or fascism or crony corporatism or a thousand other terms which describe the government or collective ownership or control of the means of production–but isn’t really the collective ownership or control of the means of production in the way “true Socialism” requires.

And if you dig into some of the more esoteric discussions in Socialist circles, the amount of meaningless gobbledygook piles up miles high. Buried in there somewhere you find discussions of artisan guilds and collective oversight of workers and occupational autonomy. You’ll find a whole host of obscure philosopher’s names from the 18th through the 20th century and you even find idealists who think increasing computational power will lead us to better real-time management of peer-to-peer relations. And you’ll find tons of anarcho-whatevers floating around, like anarcho-syndicalism, or the idea that society is best organized by worker self-management without hierarchical control.

Look. All this gobbledygook gives me a splitting headache. It feels like an avalanche of bullshit being piled on to confuse the reader. And as I observed the other day, if you don’t have a philosophical compass, it’s easy to be taken by profound-sounding bullshit. (I mean, there’s research and everything which shows this result.)

So let’s find ourselves a philosophical loadstone to get us out of the weeds, shall we?

In this case, let’s simply characterize economic decision making broadly into two categories. I know that most modern economies (including the United States) have a mix of both–and often you see features of both types of decision making across the economic spectrum. But these two broad categories will help us categorize our thinking and, hopefully, cut through the fog of bullshit.

There is “top-down” decision making–where decision making is concentrated at “the top” for some definition of “top”. And there is “bottom-up” decision making, where decisions are distributed to “the bottom” rather than concentrated upwards.

A concrete example is in order to show what I mean.

Suppose I want to buy bread, because I’m hungry. So I go to a store which sells bread.

In a top-down decision making system, the type of bread that is available and its price has been determined in advance by a central decision making entity. (What that entity is is immaterial to this discussion.) There perhaps are only three types of bread–perhaps they’re made by a single company, perhaps they’re made by three cooperating companies. But the price is set–and I buy my bread.

In a bottom-up decision making system, the type of bread that is available and its price has also been set by the time I arrive at the store–but what type of bread and its price has been determined by multiple, competing entities. Those entities are not cooperating but in competition with each other–each vying for my money. But again, the price is set, and I buy my bread.

Cooperation verses competition.

Top-down verses bottom-up.

Now here’s the interesting part. When decisions are made top-down–inevitably politics will get involved. It doesn’t matter if the decision of what sort of bread we have available to us was made by a Venezuelan strong-man dictator, or an anarcho-syndicalist worker’s cooperative. A decision as to what sort of bread to produce must be made, out of thousands of possible breads that can be produced.

And that requires politics.

Why?

Well, fundamentally, if all decisions as to the type of bread to be sold is driven from the top-down, and if there is no competition, there can be no price discovery. Multiple competing products (using different manufacturing techniques and different ingredients, slowly improved over time by workers interested in getting a bigger share of the market) can’t exist, since by definition in a top-down system, the companies are cooperating and collectively have all the market share.

And without price discovery, driven by price signaling (since any entity with 100% of the market inevitably destroys price signals, which require competition to develop), there is no other means to determine product manufacturing and pricing other than political considerations.

By contrast, in a bottom-up system where companies must compete for the consumer’s dollar–price signals abound. Perhaps your marketplace competitor discovered that they can make more money by selling specialized whole grain breads. Or perhaps your competitor discovered a way to redesign their bread-baking ovens so as to reduce the cost of a loaf of bread. Or perhaps your competitor has discovered that they can make more money by using all non-GMO ingredients.

How will you discover this? Through price signaling–which is a polite way of saying suddenly your bread isn’t selling at the store, and you’re losing money. “Price signaling” is the economic term for “someone is swinging a clue stick at your head, saying DO SOMETHING!”

And it’s stressful for you. Now you have to figure out how to outwit your competitors. Perhaps you need to switch to non-GMO ingredients yourself. Perhaps you need to find a cheaper way to make your bread. Perhaps you position yourself in the market as being the ‘cheap’ option for consumers as your competitor takes the ‘luxury bread’ market.

Or perhaps you can’t figure it out–your competitor has you dead to rights. And so you run out of money, go bankrupt: your workers quit and work for your competitor, your factory sold off at auction to pay your outstanding debts.

But in a bottom-up system, it’s economics, not politics, which drives your decision making processes.

So: top-down systems are cooperative systems where decisions are made by politics.

And bottom-up systems are competitive systems where decisions are made through economics.

Now one of the major criticisms of bottom-up systems driven by economic decision-making processes is that they are motivated by “greed.” Our movies and TV shows are full of paeans against “greed”; the most well known being from the movie “Wall Street” from 1987 where a smarmy bastard Gordon Gekko (played by Michael Douglas) lectures a room full of regulators that “greed is good”, reflecting many of the arguments that have been made by supporters of free-market capitalism, just before he goes off and breaks the law.

We’re taught not to be greedy, an idea that is as old as the Bible, and reflected in more modern tracts on morality.

And having concluded that capitalism is motivated by greed: “a selfish and excessive desire for more of something (such as money) than is needed”–we’ve concluded that capitalism itself is broken, and there must be a better way.

The problem is this: who doesn’t act in our own self-interest?

Milton Friedman said it best in his interview with Phil Donahue:

youtube

What is greed?

Of course none of us are greedy; it’s always the other fellow who is greedy. (audience laughter)

The world runs on individuals pursuing their separate interests.

This is important to remember. As Adam Smith put it in “The Theory of Moral Sentiments:”

The administration of the great system of the universe … the care of the universal happiness of all rational and sensible beings, is the business of God and not of man. To man is allotted a much humbler department, but one much more suitable to the weakness of his powers, and to the narrowness of his comprehension: the care of his own happiness, of that of his family, his friends, his country…. But though we are … endowed with a very strong desire of those ends, it has been entrusted to the slow and uncertain determinations of our reason to find out the proper means of bringing them about. Nature has directed us to the greater part of these by original and immediate instincts. Hunger, thirst, the passion which unites the two sexes, and the dread of pain, prompt us to apply those means for their own sakes, and without any consideration of their tendency to those beneficent ends which the great Director of nature intended to produce by them.

In other words, we are incapable of seeing beyond our own self-interests–but the world has been arranged so that as long as we can all pursue our own self-interests, the world will act as if lead by an “invisible hand”–which is Adam Smith’s allusion to the hand of God.

So let’s dispense with this idea of “greed,” as it requires me, acting in my own self-interest, to judge you, as you act in your own self-interest, and question your consumption habits.

It’s not to say we cannot diagnose right from wrong: clearly it’s wrong to take something that belongs to someone else. It’s wrong to cheat. It’s wrong to treat people unfairly. It’s wrong to abuse other people.

But to tell someone what they have, assuming it was gained through their own efforts (and not through lying, cheating or stealing) is to judge them for their efforts. It’s to tell them their efforts is wrong. It’s to tell the painter he shouldn’t paint beautiful paintings or the writer to stop writing such excellent poetry. It’s to hobble the world because you don’t like the fact that someone else has a talent they have expressed in the world.

It’s to make life a little meaner, because you don’t like that someone else has talents you do not share.

So let’s review.

Top-down systems are cooperative systems are politically motivated systems.

Bottom-up systems are competitive systems are economically motivated systems.

And throughout the world we see top-down, cooperative and politically motivated systems fail left and right. Why?

Because of something I observed earlier about the nature of cooperative systems. They destroy price signaling and price discovery.

Instead, top-down systems impose political pressure to establish pricing and product manufacturing techniques.

And these will inevitably fail for the simple reason that, by destroying price signaling, you will inevitably have storages and economic collapse because the world is an unpredictable place and one which, fundamentally, cannot be controlled by political pressure.

And because cooperative systems destroy the multiple redundancies that inevitably evolve as multiple companies seek to compete against each other, there is no margin for error.

Price signals help smooth the ride when there are economic shocks, in the same way shock absorbers in your car smooth the ride when you hit a patch of bumpy roads. By allowing prices to swing upwards when there is a shortage, there is both a clear signal to consumers that they may wish to rethink their purchases (either by buying less, substitution with a good the consumer thinks is equivalent, or by rethinking other purchases so they can spend more).

For example, you love apples, and you eat an apple a day. But one day you go to the grocery store and, unbeknownst to you, there was a horrible apple worm infestation which destroyed half the apple crops. If prices then go up to reflect this fact, you can decide “sure, I’ll pay twice as much for apples.” Or “gosh, perhaps peaches will work equally well.” Or even “you know, I really don’t need to buy frozen TV dinners; I’ll buy the raw ingredients and save some money for my apples.”

But without price signals, what happens? Well, what we’ve seen in general (and what we saw in Venezuela) is political pressure to keep prices low. (Remember: today we may bad-mouth Venezeulan President Maduro as a strongman dictator–but he was swept into power on promises to keep the price food low so the poor could eat well. A promise, by the way, he actually kept until the economy collapsed.)

And when prices are low–what happens? Well, as a consumer you just bop on down to the store, unaware of the apple shortage. So you buy your apples–but there aren’t as many available. Or perhaps the store runs out.

In essence, without a signal to indicate a shortage, consumers keep on consuming right up until we run out of stuff.

Then comes rationing, long lines, the hope against hope that there will be any apples.

And look at this on the producer side. Without price signals–without apple growers suddenly getting more for their failed crops–apple growers wind up being paid less for their overall crops. Meaning if you only produce a thousand bushels of apples instead of two thousand–but you’re paid the same price per bushel, you get half the money you were expecting.

Money that you would use to spray pesticides to get rid of the infection. Money you would use to maintain your trees. Money you would use to get ready for next year’s crops. Money you would use to pay next year’s apple pickers.

And without higher prices there is no signal to other farmers that perhaps they may want to think about planting more apple trees. There is no way producers know, in other words, how to adjust their outputs–and no way for them to have the money necessary to continue to produce their outputs.

Eventually, without money, total apple supplies dwindle. There are no new competitors to replace them–remember: top-down systems are cooperative, not competitive. And while governments can help subsidize apple growers in the face of economic disaster–governments themselves only have so much resources at their disposal. Enough economic disasters without any margins of error built into the economy (thanks to a lack of competition), and eventually the lights go out, people starve, and sometimes even resort to cannibalism.

And while I’m picking on Venezuela here, we also saw this towards the end of the USSR, and we’ve seen echos of this in places like Cuba and Cambodia and Ethiopia.

Further, notice what I did not say. I did not say that socialism fails, though I’ve used socialism as an example. I did not say that communism fails, though other examples in the prior sentence described themselves as communist.

I said top-down systems fail, because economic cooperation destroys price signaling. And this leads to economic failure as economic decisions are replaced by political decision making.

Go back to Milton Friedman’s video above. People pursue our individual separate interests, because that is all we know how to do. If that self-interest is arranged through a system of competition so that people are forced to cater to consumers, then we see redundant and parallel products that buffer us from failure: all the non-GMO bread ingredients are wiped out by some strange disease, yet all the consumer sees is that his favorite brand of bread is no longer available, and he has the hard decisions of eating bread with GMO-based ingredients or buying something else entirely. Meanwhile, non-GMO ingredients go up in price–signaling entrepreneurial farmers to figure out a way to plant and deliver non-GMO ingredients in the future.

And all without top-down cooperation by politically motivated groups.

So tl;dr: top-down systems are cooperative systems and politically motivated. Cooperative systems lack the competition that leads to people making better products and to having a multitude of products to choose from. This creates thinner margins, which have the potential to lead to economic failure.

And make no mistake: crop failures happen all the time in the United States. We’ve seen oranges fail in Florida and corn yields drop in the midwest and shortages of beef and chicken going back decades.

But did people starve in the United States? No; we just paid more for certain things, and changed our eating habits to accommodate those higher prices. Meanwhile competing farmers worked harder to produce the products we wanted–so the following year, the lack of oranges or chicken became a distant memory of a minor inconvenience.

This is why the discussion to if the NAZI party was socialist or “corporate cartelists” is an entirely moot discussion.

Both systems involve top-down organization of the economy at the hands of a central decision-making body. And it’s why both systems are similar to anarcho-syndicalism and Italy’s dabbling with fascism: decision making in all of these systems are pushed to the top, where they are divorced from price signals. Cooperation amongst organizations (either because they’re controlled by the government, by a workers’ committee or by a cartel or a fascist cooperative) means less effort to improve products to cater to the consumer–since there are no pesky competitive organizations to second-guess.

Margins of error are lost, and eventually systems fail–and lack the ability to recover.

It’s also, if you’ve been following along, the problem with monopolies and large corporations–which also suffer from top-down management.

But unlike government-run top-down systems, in a properly functioning bottom-up economic system with competition, large corporations can fail without destroying the entire house of cards.

So long as there is competition, in other words, it doesn’t matter if the CEO of an AT&T or a General Motors or a General Electric screws the pooch. There will always be a competitor ready to eat their lunch when these large corporations–some dating back a century or more–collapse in failure and ruin.

But cooperative systems–when they fail, there is no-one waiting in the wings to take over.

Governments cannot be easily replaced with competitive governments. (Well, they can, but this is called “invasion” and “overthrow”–and generally they create worse problems than the bankruptcy of a Sears.)

And this distinction: that top-down systems involve cooperation and use politically motivated decision making, while bottom-up systems involve competition and use economically motivated decision making, that should be at the bottom of our philosophical stack.

So when someone starts babbling away about the writings of Grün and Püttmann, and how “you don’t understand what Democratic Socialism involves”–all you have to do is wade through the bullshit and ask yourself the following questions:

Are the people who control the means of production competing or cooperating? And can a new person or group easily enter the market as a competitor?

And:

When companies compete under this hypothetical system, do they compete for consumer dollars? Or political favoratism?

======================

I recently saw that claim also.... That the Nazi Party wasn’t “Socialist” so I thought this was an interesting post on the topic.

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wolfliving · 5 years

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The Maker Movement and its discontents

*Via nettime mailing list

James Wallbank:

Fascinating to hear about personal engagement in Making, Graham!

I, too, have been personally, hands-on involved in Making since Access Space's turn towards digital manufacture, and the interface of the physical and the digital, since around 2010.

(For those of you who aren't aware of Access Space, it started as a "DIY Media Lab" which I and various friends who had accreted around "Redundant Technology Initiative" (lowtech.org) in 2000. It re-interpreted donated digital debris as resource, rebuilding computers, installing free operating systems, making them available to participants, and encouraging and supporting creative, self-directed projects.)

Part of the motivation behind Access Space was our hope that digital engagement and skills had the potential to empower. This proved to be the case in the early 2000s, and numerous time-rich participants engaged with Access Space, taught themselves and each other technological skills, and became web designers, graphic designers, technicians or even better-known artists. (Though whether "art" is, in the context of networked global capital, a viable or empowering career for a statistically significant proportion of its participants is, I suggest, in question.)

By 2010 we'd seen far less business incubation, and proportionately fewer participants able to self-teach to a level that it made a real difference to their life prospects or creative leverage. We saw that hardware and software skills devalued as pre-installed devices became cheaper, and that the digital realm was becoming dominated by global digital services, including social media, that, while they didn't do a great job, diverted the vast majority of potential digital design clients away from bespoke, local service providers.

In short, the window of opportunity suggested by the first phase of the graphical internet was closing. While, in 2000, speed-reading an HTML primer, combined with a little design flair, a few copywriting skills, and some sales confidence could make you a web designer in a month, in 2010 this was no longer the case.

We concluded that when any new technology is introduced, there's a period of opportunity, before that technology has become fully adopted or systematised, in which the individual can get involved, and (in a short time, with a level of skill only one page ahead of their clients) can empower themselves, converting an interest into saleable skills, products or resources.

We've seen the same window open and close with blockchain (which I believe to be illusory, unproductive, and, in the end, simply gambling). A vanishingly few people made money though cryptocurrency trading, but now it's dominated by grinding Ponzi schemes, viral mining fiddles, or blockchain is being repurposed by multinationals. The moment of opportunity for the individual has passed.

At Access Space we saw Fab Lab or "Maker Technologies" as a more genuinely productive line of approach, and, even though many of the technologies had been around for a decade or more, saw that the window of opportunity had not yet closed. As technology requiring significant physical engagement and investment (you need to buy real-world machines and materials!) the timescale of its adoption and exploitation by capital would be far slower.

So at Access Space we raised money (thanks EU structural funds!) and bought a CNC, a Lasercutter, a 3D Printer, Arduinos, Raspberry Pis, a digital embroidery machine... and set about a research partnership to explore the potentials of these technologies for creating local jobs and enterprises.

In the end, for those not in the highfalutin' and disconnected academic realm (sorry, researchers - you're my friends really!) a key element of whether a technology is empowering or not is "Can you get paid for using it?"

And "using it to engage and educate" doesn't count - actually using it to create product or paid-for service is key. In Access Space's particular case, we took the position that we didn't care about "industrial transformation", nor "increasing supply-chain efficiencies". We cared most about actual, tangible jobs in Sheffield, not abstract (however numerically significant) jobs in San Fransisco or Shenzen.

The research engaged with local makers, both individuals and startup enterprises, and concluded that the technology we looked at with most potential to generate local jobs and enterprise was lasercutting, and the one with the least potential was 3D Print. Even seven years later, we still agree.

This failure, it seems to me, to engage with the economics of making is exactly what's thus far marginalised the "Maker Movement". It's also true of the Fab Lab - while it's a powerful context for education, the economics of fabbing just don't work.

To give a simple example: one of the Fab Lab founding principals its to engage with a wide range of materials and processes, on a wide range of scales. For a business to become profitable, the imperative is EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE. To optimise manufacture, it's necessary to reduce the number of processes, and minimise the variety of materials. In terms of marketing, the key is to focus on a particular product and market. It is supremely irrelevant to a person who wants to buy a new pair of shoes to know that you can also make customised wifi amplifiers, repair bicycles, design lamps or sell toy robots.

Shoe advertisers (physical or digital) sell shoes, not "Anything... uhh... including shoes".

The Maker Movement comes out of academia, where the core product is learning. To the business world, high skill is the enemy. Skilled processes are expensive - you want your highly skilled people to be doing as much as possible, over as wide an area as possible, so you can employ as few of them as possible.

So, with this context, my wife Lisa and I opened "Makers". It's a shop, where we make things. You can commission us to make things, or come and make things with us. We run educational workshops, too - but it's not the mainstay of our business. We did this with the intention of further exploring the opportunities afforded by digital manufacture, with a view to uncovering the sustainable business models that might emerge from it. Having just done two and a half years of research into the employment potentials of digital manufacture, I thought we might have a head-start.

Makers is now coming up to its fourth birthday, and we haven't gone bankrupt yet. (Not to show off, but that fact alone apparently puts us into the top 5% of UK retail!) We've discovered a whole load of stuff about digital and analogue making, the economics and sustainability of local manufacture, that we just didn't know, and we've not seen the wider Maker Movement really touch upon.

We've rejected whole categories of product lines, and focussed on particular processes and products to make our living. We still make a wide range of things, and we're constantly experimenting with new ideas, but bearing in mind that we need to create things that aren't characteristic of the typical maker-space product ("really fascinating, but I have no use for it!"). The objects we make must have the key characteristic that people are prepared to put their hands in their pockets and buy them - for a sensible price - and that means that they must be appealing.

We have a range of clients for our making services, including individuals and businesses. For individual clients, we're typically making home decor, but for micro-businesses we're at the cutting edge of business incubation - people come in with an idea (often its something crafty, with a very specialist market) and we help them design and produce their products.

But... get this... around 80% of clients who commission us to make things, or make things with us, are women. It's a completely different demographic from the typical "maker dude" who inhabits our friendly neighbourhood makerspace. Our repeat making clients are often making money out of making - we're helping to design and manufacture stuff that they sell. There's also an interesting line of products that helps people to sell - signage, packaging, point-of-sale displays.

We're also thinking about how making impacts on our locality. Traditional retail is in freefall - but we're finding that shops are being replaced by "makey" and "crafty" services. Our shop was (twenty five years ago) a greengrocer. Now it's "Makers". On our little block of 16 shops we see computer and phone repairs, a dressmaker, bicycle repairs, baking, and of course, a barber and takeaway food shops. Very nearby we find micro-brewers, woodworkers, picture framers, upholsterers, photographers...

These sorts of services seem, over time, to be replacing the once ubiquitous mini-marts and retail outlets that have been displaced by online shopping.

Recently, we've been a research partner in research into making (MakEY - Making in Early Years) which has been very interesting, but again does what academia is wont to do - assume that the product is learning. In my view, far from being over the hill, making may now be transforming from academic and hobbyist interest to actual economic models. I think it has huge potential to revitalise localities and communities, and I urge researchers to get involved. (Will lecture for food!)

But let's lose the glamour - and start thinking about real products, real places, and real business models. Want an example of "sustainable superlocal digital manufacture"? How about key cutting? Yeah, it's not so cool now, is it?

All the best,

James =====

On 11/06/2019 18:43, Graham Harwood wrote: I just want to interject a little into the Post-Maker universe.

I work a lot these days with the maritime, a technical culture of wooden boat repair that in Essex, I also worked a lot with people who restore old telephone exchanges and people who build steam engines - through having run a free media space in 00 ties were we hacked, pirated recycled at will. Among the many things that are interesting about these technical cultures is that they produce value for those engaged in the process - but this value has only a limited relation to the accumulation of capital. The maker phenomena could be seen in this context as a way to monetise the non-discursive technical cultures - a tinkering world that has an unbroken line back to at least the enlightenment but probably before. In 1799 the Royal Institution of Great Britain was established to put science to work for particular class and keep the theoretical away from a populace that presented a threat (the demon of the French revolution) - The Royal Institution was a place where an artisan class built technicals object but where not allowed in, or allowed to lecture.

Faraday had to have elocution lessons, learn how to eat properly before being allowed to lecture and even then had to be deemed a genius to escape the his class background and address gentleman. What Im trying to suggest is that non-discursive technical tinkering exist within many technical cultures and long may it remain so.

I'll tag on a little introduction this I wrote.

“The science which compels the inanimate limbs of the machinery, by their construction, to act purposefully, as an automaton, does not exist in the worker’s consciousness, but rather acts upon him through the machine as an alien power.” Karl Marx(1858)

In 1958 the French philosopher Gilbert Simondon published On the Mode of Technical Objects to address just this form of cultural alienation implicit in the quote above. He writes, among other things, about two ways in which people come to know technical objects. He says technology viewed from a child's eye, which I imagine he is seeing as, naive and innocent we gain an implicit, non-reflective, habitual tendency.

A baby strapped into a buggy, is given a parent's mobile phone and is happily learning to play a game but cannot yet utter the words to express these interactions. Simondon then imagines an inverse, a trained adult engineer, reflective, self-aware using rational knowledge that is elaborated through science. Something like an Apple engineer who creates closed technologies imagining its users still strapped in that buggy unable to articulate their critical needs.

Simondon seeks out another form of relationship with technical objects which he finds in the Enlightened Encyclopaedism of Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert (Encyclopédie (1751–1777)) in which concrete knowhow is abstracted and assembled into a technical orchestra. Contemporarily, is it worth considering our networked technologies in this mode of encyclopaedism? An evolving off-grid, red-neck, student, coder, geek pedagogy producing technical information, hacks, howto’s, shakedowns, and open source code repositories, that respond to an evolving technical culture. This technical republic is nothing new, it’s genealogies can be traced to and beyond the amateur experimentalistsof the London Electrical Society and William Sturgeon (1783 - 1850) and the artisanal formation that knowledge can be contained in the object built and it’s functioning is its explanation.

Is a tinkering internet a critical technical republic? A social space that potentially can break down the state actors with encryption, corporations by opening up software and proprietary technics by hacking them open, making things public? Is the marginal technics on a teenagers dirty bedroom, the dank basement of a bored salaryman, the ham radio garden shed a strategy to unfold the clean room and its magic men in white coats? Or is this largely a white male space that has eradicated other forms of objectivity and subjectivity from view? How can we attempt to instate a devolved technics that refuses misogyny, racialisation and yet envisages technology outside of the paradigm of human slave or potential human enslaver.

Harwood

From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of John Preston <[email protected]> Sent: 11 June 2019 17:39:00 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: <nettime> The Maker Movement is abandoned by its corporate sponsors; throws in the towel On the mention of recycling I just wanted to mention the Precious Plastic (https://preciousplastic.com/) project, which is very much in this vein and currently active. Looks good, I'd like to build a recycling machine and melt down some plastic at some point.

On a more local and mainstream level, my town has a show that sells 'upcycled' furniture which has been done up (new handles, repainted with flower motifs etc). Recycling and maker culture is great but I'd like to see more projects which are local or community oriented: this is essential to truly address the problem of waste. We separate glass in my borough, maybe we could feed that into local double glazing firms, or something else.

*stopping here before I ramble on for 10KB*

John

On 2019-06-11 16:27, Jaromil wrote: > dear Bruce and nettimers, > > On Sat, 08 Jun 2019, Bruce Sterling wrote: > >> *Well, so much for the O’Reilly Web 2.0 version of popular >> mechanics. Fifteen years is not too bad a run by the standards of >> an increasingly jittery California Ideology. Now what? — Bruce S > > Felipe Fonseca has seen it coming years before and express it well: > https://medium.com/@felipefonseca/repair-culture-65133fdd37ef > > he wasn't alone: for those of us who were into the "recycling" and DIY > scene in the late nineties, the Make magazine circus was the sort of > poison to kill a movement by sugar coating and extraction aka > franchising. While doing that for 15 years, there are a three points > it missed to address IMHO: > > 1. the right to mod your hardware, esp. video-games which represent > the vast majority of new hardware sold and thrown away around the > globe > > 2. the "peripheries of the empire" aka South of the World (remember > Bricolabs?) where DIY is *amazingly* developed in various forms. > As usual, we have learned nothing from that, just advertised us > westeners doing it better and with more bling. > > 3. the "shamanic" value that can be embedded in uses of technologies, > as opposed to the sanitized and rational interpretation given by > designers in the west. Techno-shamanism is something Fabi Borges, > Vicky Sinclair and other good folks in Bricolabs have been busy for > ages! > > so then, what now? I believe the functional need of aggregating places > for "hacker culture" is lowering: everything can exist virtually as > software, more or less. Machinery + franchising have a too high > production cost compared to their output, not sustainable at all. Also > moving hardware around is a *big* effort and the only ones lowering > overhead costs for new players are in China (...Aliexpress). > > Plus the acceleration of hardware production resulted in way less > sustainability especially in relation to obsolescence: buy a part now > then ask if it will be still available in 20 years! you'll be > presented an NDA to sign and then discover there is just a 3-4 years > plan behind it. Spare parts anyone? Meanwhile is almost 2020 and there > is no service to print and sell-on-demand USB sticks with stuff on: > what a contrast if you think of the CD/DVD on-demand industry of 15 > years ago! which partially resists only on garage music productions. > > So, software still offers possibilities, but will it produce a > cultural shift? I doubt it will do more than what it did already in > crypto, which is already highly controversial and poisoned of a sort > of unstable sugar coating mixed with toxic financial capitals. > > At last, looking at the new generations, the bling is what really > counts: I guess most "fablabs" could be converted to > "fashionlabs". Personally I'm planning to revamp dyne:bolic which > besides running on old computers and modded game consoles did one > thing which is still actual: it was a media production studio. The > best part of "maker culture" was its cultural expression, mined for > its value until exhaustion; but isn't it harder to express cultural > values using hardware? Much easier with music and videos etc. they > also travel easier. > > For more *practical examples* of projects who may inspire new > horizons: you are all invited to an event we (Dyne.org) are setting up > in Amsterdam on the 5th July. We will fill the stage with many new > faces: 16 projects we awarded with EU funding for their pro/vision of > "human-centric" solutions, purpose driven and socially useful. Hope to > see some of you, we will also have a new call end of year, its about > 200k EUR equity free so lets engage in new sustainable challenges > https://tazebao.dyne.org/venture-builder-eu.html > > ciao

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glassfaulkner7-blog · 6 years

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a-mad-scientist-approaches · 7 years

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The Cipher Conspiracy (1)

Another fic! What is this!

I had a massive brainwave some time ago, and this is what happened. A Gravity Falls Spy AU.

I don’t know if the Spy AU in general belongs to anyone, let me know if it does, but this was kickstarted by @hntrgurl13‘s version (with a few changes, sorry, sorry) and that one story anon. My imagination was CAPTURED, I tell you.

Adeline Marks is @hntrgurl13‘s marvellous OC, and the Addiford ship belongs to @scipunk63.

AO3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Chapter 1: Numero Uno

Sacramento, California (USA) ∆

Stanley Pines knocked briefly on the office door before making his way inside and sitting familiarly in a chair. Not the comfy swivel chair behind the desk. That hadn’t been appreciated when he’d tried it.

“I’m finished for the day,” he said, stretching his arms out behind his head.

“Must be nice,” huffed Senior Special Agent Carla McCorkle of the FBI from over at her filing cabinet.

Oh. One of those days.

“Case not going well?”

“It would be, if one of these idiots could get me the right information, and not lead me on a wild goose chase TO THE PIZZA PARLOUR!” she finished in a shout, turning to direct it across the hall at the office opposite hers. A muffled (and maybe English-accented?) yell answered her, but the words couldn’t be discerned. Although Stan was pretty sure they weren’t polite.

He frowned. “You need me to teach that guy a lesson?”

“Believe me, I already did,” Carla flashed a malevolent grin and walked past him back to her desk.

“That’s my girl!” He took the opportunity to pat her butt. Instantly, she whipped around and gave him a death glare that made him quail. “Okay! Okay! Sorry!”

Not the time. Got it.

A tower of files was dumped on the desk, enough to obscure Carla when she sat down in the coveted swivel chair. Not for the first time, Stan was immensely glad that he had never completed the FBI training course. Best to leave the paperwork to people who actually had the patience to get through it, like Carla, or Fo-

“Y’know, we were getting so close. What the hell happened? Suddenly we can’t gain an inch on these guys!”

“These guys being the-” Stan stood up and looked at the name on the topmost file – “Cipher Wheel?”

“Yep. Whoever’s running the show goes by Bill Cipher, according to rumour. We don’t have anything concrete to back that up, though,”

“Well, I’m sure you’ll figure it out,” Stan said easily. Carla grunted unhappily.

Time to break out the big guns, he decided.

He stepped between Carla and the desk, the chair rolling backwards. She didn’t look happy to have her work interrupted, but Stan was confident that that would change soon.

“I have a present for you,” he told her, putting his hands on the chair’s armrests.

“Pines,” she warned.

“You’ll enjoy it, I promise,”

“We’re at the FBI!”

He leaned closer. Before she could threaten to eject him from the building, he shoved a hand in his jacket pocket and brought out a white-petalled flower. While she stared at it, he tried to keep the smugness off his face.

“You lost your other one,” he shrugged, by way of explanation.

For the first time since she’d gotten to work, Carla laughed slightly.

Mission accomplished.

She took the flower and kissed him gently. “See you back home?”

“You know it, babe,”

As he was leaving, Stan gave a mock salute and said, “Until tomorrow, Special Agent McCorkle,”

“That’s Senior Special Agent McCorkle, Mr Pines,”

When Carla made it back to their apartment (a full three hours later than himself), she had the flower tucked behind her ear.

Manhattan, New York (USA) ∆

“Fidds, what the hell happened?” Agent Adeline Marks stared in shock at her partner, who was covered from head to toe in muck. His normally green suit was completely brown and black.

With as much dignity as he could muster, Agent Fiddleford McGucket took off his glasses and wiped them clean, then placed them back on his long nose. “I’ve just crawled through five hundred heckin’ metres of basement to fix our gosh-darn processin’ system, and I don’t think it was worth it,”

Addi stared at him pityingly for a moment. “You could have waited for the clean-up crew to get rid of the mess down there,”

“I was getting frustrated, and I wasn’t sure they weren’t goin’ to reschedule again.” He sighed. “They wouldn’t keep doin’ that if they knew what our building was a cover for.”

Addi nodded, and Fiddleford knew she was wistfully reminiscing of the prioritisation they had had before their branch was supposedly shut down.

“Well anyway, you know we’ve got a meeting now? I think it’s a new assignment,” she said.

Fiddleford groaned as he looked down at himself, and then back at the mud trail he had left coming through the elevator doors. It had definitely not been worth it. A passing agent slipped in the tracks, papers flying everywhere.

“Alrighty, let’s get this over with,” Quickly, so I can have a shower.

They headed up to their boss’s floor.

Sacramento, California (USA) ∆

“Hope you like fish! It’s all we had,” called Stan from the stove as Carla dumped her bag on the couch.

“Smells great,” she said in relief, wrapping her arms around him from behind and burying her head in the crook of his neck.

“Geez, you really need a holiday,” said Stan, knowing what the answer would be.

“Not until the case is done,” she mumbled.

“And then you gotta promise you’ll give it a rest for a while,”

“You betcha. I am so sick of these hours,”

They stayed like that for a little while, until Stan noticed the fish was burning. As he hurriedly took it off the heat and waved away the smoke, Carla sat down at the kitchen table and examined their mail.

“Bills, neighbours having a party tomorrow, more bills – huh. A postcard,”

“Well, I don’t have any friends – any who want to contact me anyway – and all yours live around here. So who’s it from?” Stan set a plate down in front of her.

“Doesn’t say, exactly.” She looked up at him curiously. “Take a look.” She passed it over as he sat down on the opposite side of the table.

The postcard showed a forest and a cliff-face with a waterfall running down it. In big orange and green block letters, the words ‘Gravity Falls’ were emblazoned across it.

“Never heard of it,” said Stan, and turned it over. He almost dropped it in shock. As Carla had said, there was no address, no message, not even a name. There was a drawing. A hand. A six-fingered hand.

He looked up at Carla. “Ford?”

“It looks like it,” she nodded, clasping her hands in front of her face. “It’s been, what, five years?”

Stan took a deep breath. “I – I’ve gotta-” He stood up and ran his hands through his hair, staring between her and the postcard helplessly.

“Yeah I know! Go!” Carla said, smiling widely and standing up as well. “Come on, you have to pack!”

Stan laughed incredulously as they raced to the bedroom. He was feeling simultaneously scared and overjoyed. Before Carla could extract his suitcase, he pulled her in for a hard kiss and hugged her tightly.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can,”

“No, it’s okay, take your time. I think you’ll need to. He wouldn’t have contacted you unless he needed something,”

Well, that hurt. But she was right. It wasn’t Ford’s fault, not really, and truth be told they hadn’t exactly parted on the best of terms. He should be glad he was getting to see his brother at all.

“I should probably bring some cereal,”

“Good idea,”

Manhattan, New York (USA) ∆

The Oracle Division had been created for the sole purpose of finding and eliminating the worldwide threat posed by an organisation known as the Cipher Wheel. The only problem was, as they soon found, no one had ever knowingly encountered an agent of this organisation. No one had ever admitted to having dealings with the organisation, even through a middle-man. There wasn’t even any evidence to back up the rumour that the head of the organisation’s name was Bill Cipher. So far, the only thing that the agency had managed to collect was a wide variety of symbols that the criminal underground had used in connection with the Cipher Wheel. Of course, they had so far led nowhere. Still, the government maintained that it existed.

So, due to the extreme lack of work available for the Oracle Division, it was a very small agency, and until anything to do with the Cipher Wheel was brought to their attention it was assigned other cases for efficiency purposes. Furthermore, as the Oracle Division was classified in an ultra-top-secret manner, it had to be hidden. Thus, why it had recently been relocated to a tiny five-storey building in Manhattan.

Adeline reflected on this as Fiddleford knocked on their director’s door. It was still surreal knowing they were the only field operatives in the whole agency.

“Come in,”

They entered.

“Well, agents, I’m sure you know – Fiddleford, are you okay?”

Fiddleford dripped onto the carpet. “Sorry ma’am, I was seein’ to the processing system,”

“Well, you have my thanks. It really did need something done for it. You’ll be hailed as a hero tomorrow.” The director smiled. “I’ll make this quick so you can go clean yourself up.”

“Thank you,” Fiddleford sighed.

“As I was saying, I’m sure you’ve guessed why you’re here,”

“You have a mission for us,” Addi said.

“Correct.” The tall, dark-skinned woman stood up from behind her desk and turned on a projector. An image of a bemused-looking woman appeared on the blank stretch of wall.

“This is Dr Jane Hansen. She is a chemist who has developed a new material with extraordinary refractive, reflective, and focal properties, called shimmern. This could be used to revolutionise the technological industry, for instance providing greater laser capabilities, enhancing computer operations, and creating a far cheaper way to manufacture stealth products.” The director nodded approvingly at Addi and Fiddleford’s raised eyebrows.

“Dr Hansen, however, is a very gentle soul who has insisted on using the only existing sample to create a fabulous piece of jewellery for her wife, which made our superiors rather frustrated,” the director said with a small smile.

The image changed to show a photo of Dr Hansen in her house, presenting a glittery, tear-shaped pendant on a silver chain to another woman. The picture was taken through the leaves of a bush.

“Aww,” said Addi. It was a very sweet scene, captured forever in an ethically questionable manner. “So, you want us to obtain that necklace?” she asked, switching back to professionalism.

“Of course. As well as the method she used to create it. We’ve been asked to hold onto it until our superiors have had a chance to study, and presumably replicate, it – as Dr Hansen has made it clear she has no interest allowing it to be used for weapons or stealth technology,” the director said with only the vaguest hint of approval.

“I assume the plans’re all stored electronically?” asked Fiddleford.

“Yes, Agent McGucket,”

“Then it’ll be an easy workday, ma’am,”

“Good to hear. Dr Hansen is planning on unveiling her creation at the Centro Congressi Giovanni XXIII Convention Centre in Italy five days from now. It will be a very classy event, so, Agent Marks, I assume you have some very classy clothes?”

Addi grinned at the director. She was looking forward to this assignment. “Of course, Jheselbraum,”

Gravity Falls, Oregon (USA) ∆

Stan walked cautiously up the stairs to the porch of 618 Gopher Road. It was a very isolated house, nestled in a forest, and yet Stan couldn’t help but feel watched. Like there were eyes pointed at him from all directions. Considering this was apparently where Ford lived, though, that wasn’t exactly surprising. He’d probably been scanned no less than eighteen times since stepping out of the car.

Trying to convince himself that everything was fine, is fine, would be fine, he knocked on the door. It was flung open instantly, and he looked down the barrel of a gun.

His hand was coming up almost as soon as the door started opening. Stan slapped it away from his face and into his other hand where he flipped it around and caught it in a two-handed grip pointing at his opponent.

Ford beamed and said, “Well done, Stanley. It’s good to see you haven’t lost your skills.” Then he stood aside as though it was perfectly normal to brandish weapons at your family members.

“I’m fine, by the way.” Stan muttered as he stepped inside. “Might’ve pissed myself, but I’m fine.”

“I assume you found my message?” asked Ford, holding out his hand for the gun, which Stan wasn’t exactly eager to return.

“You mean the one written in invisible ink on the mysterious postcard with a cryptic drawing?”

“Yes, that one,”

“Yeah Ford, I found it. Been doing that since we were kids.” Stan rolled his eyes. “But an address and ‘Please come’? You had me worried, bro.”

“I’m sorry, but there wasn’t much else I could say. I didn’t want to risk it falling into the wrong hands. By the way, you burnt that, didn’t you?”

Stan nodded. As they spoke, his eyes roamed around, taking in everything they could. Ford didn’t look like he was in any trouble. He seemed completely normal, if a bit manic, but he had been that way forever. At least he wasn’t in some deep danger like Stan had been had been fearing. Five years of silence, and then ‘Please come’? Worried was an understatement: he had almost had a heart failure.

The large room they were standing in was absolutely covered in things with Ford written all over them. Maybe even literally, if he had been indulging in the invisible ink. Technology, gadgets, weird substances in science beakers, it was all there.

Ford was looking at him oddly, with an awkward half-grin on his face like he wasn’t sure what else to say. Guess it was up to Stan to make the next move.

Crap.

He didn’t know what to do either. It was getting weird now. Should he try for a hug? No, that would make it even worse. Ford was still standing there, and now they were staring at each other. Just when Stan was on the verge of yelling “NON-SPECIFIC EXCUSE!” and making a break for it, his brother spoke up.

“So . . . you’re working for the FBI now?”

“Oh, er, you know about that?” Of course he does, it’s Ford. “And it’s more like with, not for. I’ve got connections and such, I know people. Useful for them, and I get paid when they need me, so I’m not complaining,”

Ford nodded, like this was exactly what he had wanted to hear. This is getting stranger by the minute.

“How did that happen?” This time, the question was genuinely curious, not prying for information, or confirmation, or whatever.

“Heh, well, remember Carla, from back in Glass Shard Beach? She works for ‘em now. Found me in California about four years ago, arrested me on a case, I put the moves on her,” he waggled his eyebrows and Ford snorted disbelievingly, “she couldn’t resist, and the rest is history.” Not exactly true. He’d completely fallen for her all over again as soon as she had laughed in recognition while handcuffing him. Then he’d bargained for a job and sold out his co-conspirators.

“It was surprising to learn you went back into law enforcement, or some semblance of it,” said Ford.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I just never would have expected it of you, especially after the way you gave up your training when we were both at the FBI,”

Stan frowned. “The way I gave it up?”

Ford tilted his head. “Well you didn’t exactly quit in a regular fashion,”

“I didn’t quit, they ran me off the property!”

“Yes, because you were idiot enough to accept a drunken bet and try to steal secure files! That practically sealed your life as a criminal!”

“Well let me remind you why I was off getting drunk that night. A certain high-paying job offer from a shady government agency ring a bell?”

“Stanley, we have had this conversation before. They offered you the exact same deal!”

“Which you were all too eager to accept! A deal, by the way, which included completely cutting off all ties with family and friends,”

They were glaring at each other now, and were unconsciously tensing for a fight. Things had gotten heated even more rapidly than Stan had expected.

“That was not a permanent arrangement, Stanley, as is clear from your presence here right now,”

“It’s the principle of the thing that matters, Ford! You just upped and ditched me, like you couldn’t wait to get rid of me!”

“You’re talking to me about principles and ditching? The last time I saw you was five years ago, when you led the FBI to my apartment after attempting to steal from them, broke in, yelled at me while grabbing all my cereal, and then climbed out the window! I am assuming that was all deliberate, as when the FBI kicked down my door they thought I was you and arrested me!”

“Well, in your words, that wasn’t a ‘permanent arrangement’ and they sorted it out eventually,”

They lapsed into silence, the air between them practically sizzling. Stan had said enough, had had enough. He’d come here to help Ford if he could, and he’d hoped to maybe patch things up, but it didn’t look as though Ford was all that inclined t-

“I didn’t mean to abandon you, Stan,” Ford admitted, frowning angrily at him. Stan blinked. Carla’s words immediately came to him: he wouldn’t have contacted you unless he needed something. However, if this was a ploy to get his help, it was pretty sincere.

“Although your actions didn’t make it easy to apologise. Furthermore, taking my cereal was incredibly petty.” Ford waited, looking closely at him, seeing how he would respond. Stan was tempted to start up another argument over Ford’s hypocrisy in calling him petty – he wasn’t the one still sore about cereal. Instead, he was reminded forcefully of his brother as a kid, and what one of his first thoughts had been to do when he thought he’d gotten a chance to see Ford again. He’d been half-convinced he never would, what with the super-secret job Ford had taken.

Stan pulled a box of cereal out of his bag and handed it mutely to his brother, who stared.

And stared some more.

And laughed. And pulled him into a hug.

“It’s good to see you again,”

“Yeah, you too bro,”

Well that was easy.

Ford gave him a tour of the house. As he memorised the layout of it, Stan noticed that Ford didn’t seem able to confine his inventions to the main workroom – and they were Ford’s inventions. Stan guessed his brother’s brain was the main reason he had attracted attention from the government.

“Ford, not that I’m complaining, but why am I really here?”

Ford grinned and stepped back into the workroom. He picked a thick, red-bound book off a bench. “For this,”

Stan took the book. It had a gold, six-fingered hand emblazoned on it, similar to the one on the post-card. He opened it to where it was bookmarked.

All the words were in code, but it was a code he and Ford had used since they were kids. It was like a second language to Stan, and he read it easily.

“What’s shimmern?” he asked, looking at a hand-drawn picture of a pendant on a chain.

“A new kind of material.” Ford had an excited look in his eyes. “There’s only one sample in existence, in fact. My assignment is to appropriate, and eventually replicate, it. You’re here because I want your help,”

Stan noticed with some elation that Ford had specifically said “want” not “need”.

“This would be much easier with you, Stan. Like you already said, you have contacts. You’re good with people, not to mention you haven’t lost the skills you had five years ago,”

“I’m in,” said Stan without hesitation. “but don’t you have a partner to help you out? Pretty sure that’s what’s supposed to happen when you work for the government.”

Ford cleared his throat. “That’s not how we do things. Our missions are carried out entirely without assistance from other agents. There’s less chance of a leak that way,”

No matter what his brother’s test scores said, to Stan, Ford was as easy to read as a child’s book.

“Ford . . . you do work for the government, don’t you?”

His brother shifted now, not even attempting to lie under Stan’s scrutiny. “You don’t have to worry, we aren’t working against anyone. We’re primarily research-based,”

“What kind of research needs highly-trained field agents with no connections?”

“I’ve told you all I can,” Ford said firmly, with a hint of apology.

Ever since he and Ford had both been made an offer during the training course for the FBI, Stan had assumed it had been some sort of government branch, the CIA or something. However, the more he thought about, there was absolutely nothing to support this assumption. In short, Ford had him worried. Again.

Even more reason to stick close to him then.

“Okay, I’m still on board. How do we get this thing?”

“Italy, five days from now. We have a party to attend,” Ford said mischievously, and again Stan was reminded of the plans they’d come up with as kids, specifically the more notorious ones.

“I’m gonna need my fake IDs again,”

∆

“Hey Fordsy, how’d it go?” Bill Cipher said, sitting ramrod straight in Ford’s desk chair and swivelling around in it as the elevator doors opened to the basement.

“Good,” Ford replied. “We’re ready for the assignment. Or we will be soon. Stan has to sort a few things out first,”

When he’d first met his employer, Ford had been slightly disturbed by his too-wide smile, eyes that blinked less than a person’s normally would, and far more familiar demeanour than befitted the director of a shadow organisation. Now, he knew it was just one of Bill’s quirks.

“I hope you understand how lenient I’m being, letting your brother in on this. Not that I have anything against him, swell guy I’m sure, but of all the people to choose . . . I mean, really? Didn’t he used to be a bit – what’s the word? Oh yeah. Impulsive. Reckless. Untrustworthy. Take your pick. From what I’ve seen, smart guy, you are far more capable on your own. I don’t want him dragging you down or anything, numero uno,”

“Stan was just angry before. I promise that he will be more focused on this, and he will be a valuable asset,” Ford assured him quickly. It had taken over a year for Bill to come around to the idea of letting Stan meet up with him, and Ford was sure he had only agreed because he knew how ridiculously stubborn Ford could be.

Or because it was affecting your work.

The thought was immediately brushed away. Bill was right to be concerned about Stan. The organisation he had built was founded on levels of secrecy unlike any Ford had previously encountered. Any breach of that could bring it all crashing down. So yes, allowing Ford to bring someone in was a risk, he understood that. And so what if Bill had only agreed because their argument five years ago was eating away at Ford enough to disturb his performance in the field and the lab? That just proved how much Bill trusted, valued,and even cared, about him.

“Alright Sixer, we’ll try this your way. Just keep the objective in sight, you know what I mean?”

If there was one thing Ford was certain about in his line of work, it was that Bill Cipher was a good guy.

“Yes sir,”

#gravity falls #fanfiction #spy au #stanley pines #carla mccorkle #adeline marks #fiddleford mcgucket #stanford pines #jheselbraum #bill cipher #lets get this thing rolling #the cipher conspiracy #double o sixer au #my writing

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