#please ignore the wacky image quality.

[nopizzaaftermidnight]

I made this for work, but y’know what. I’m proud of it so I’ll post it here too.

Graphic Novels and the Fate of Literacy

(Bone, American Born Chinese, Robot Dreams, Artemis Fowl 2007, Amulet, Drama)

CASE STUDY: New Kid by Jerry Craft. This story has won multiple awards. It honestly addresses issues like racism, social status, and bullying. The narrator, seventh-grader Jordan Banks is an artist, and so the graphic novel format feels natural. I would say that Craft’s distinct artistic style is not the most aesthetically appealing, but it doesn’t need to be. The graphic novel format is the vehicle of communication for a story that is jam packed with nuance and heart and truth.

CASE STUDY: The Invention of Hugo Cabret: A Novel in Words and Pictures by Brian Selznick (2007). This groundbreaking book alternates between short passages of text and wordless illustrated sequences. Unlike a traditional book in which an illustration reiterates a written scene, Hugo’s pictures carry the story forward on their own. Selznick invokes the visual experience of the soundless movies from the early 1900s. To follow the narrative, one must learn to “read” the pictures.

CASE STUDY: The History Smashers series by Kate Messner. These nonfiction books aren’t technically graphic novels. However, they use comic-style graphics to explain historical topics. The lively art and clear language is more engaging than picture-less text.

CASE STUDY: The Giver graphic novel adapted by P. Craig Russell (2019). Some stories lend themselves to the graphic novel medium. Given the importance of color in the original, the graphic novel can communicate visually what the text could only describe. It is also a relatively short book, making a faithful graphic adaptation more feasible. And faithful it is! Scenes, themes, expositional details, and dialogue are all carefully converted to the graphic novel format. The integrity of Lowry’s original story is excellently preserved in a brand-new format. This truly is a remarkable feat.

CASE STUDY: Awkward by Svetlana Chmakova (2015). This may be my personal favorite middle grade graphic novel. The story is a perfectly normal slice of middle school life. What elevates this book (and its sequels) is the art. The soft coloring and thoughtful character design make the story comforting and sweet, even as the characters navigate a variety of troubles. Based on plot alone, this would make a pretty average chapter book, but as a graphic novel, it shines.

[isthatovid]

“The lover is the loser. Or so he reckons.” 

Hannibal season 2 ep. 13, Mizumono (screencaps, script) / Eros the Bittersweet chapter 7, Logic at the Edge, by Anne Carson. 

[sonic-ocs-everywhere]

rules (text post edition)

any other questions can be put in the ask box!

rules:

-please do not spam your ocs, you can submit as many of your ocs as youd like, but i do prefer maybe 2 or 3 per week! i dont want to keep drawing for the same person!

-do not rush me. this is very important because i only do this blog for fun!

-you cannot submit any ocs if you are lgbtphobic/racist/terf/map/antisemite etc.

-you cannot submit any OCS that are lgbtphobic/racist/terf/map/antisemite etc. this is supposed to be a safe space for people who just want to have fun and talk about their ocs or have them drawn!

-please submit your oc and give me their ref through the submission feature, i can also design one for you based on a description, but please credit me if you use it ! and dont blow up on me if it isnt exactly what you had in mind, i cant read yours after all!

-no ships or multiple characters in a request allowed!!

-if you submit a ref with multiple characters, please specify which one it is

!! if you break these rules (last one not included because theres nothing to break) i will ignore your request OR there is a chance i will block you, sorry !!

other things:

-my art quality can vary, maybe ill make a full drawing, maybe just a sketch, maybe one day a bust the other day a full body! please dont ask for a specific way to get it done or get mad at the completion level. its just based on my mood at the time !

-there will probably be swearing on this blog, but absolutely no nsfw, i will block you

-you can use the asks to talk about your ocs or ask me (the mod) questions!! id love to hear about your characters or just have a good chat!! all asks will be tagged with #asks and #not an oc (not because its not an oc, it can obviously be about ocs, but for people who want to blacklist it)

-I AM DOING THIS BLOG FOR FUN!!! my drawing/uploading schedule will be wacky because i choose when i want to draw things! my mental health is kinda bad and im still getting adjusted to a new school so it can take a while, please have patience!

-CRINGE CULTURE IS DEAD! i accept any ocs!! they can be the edgiest you can possibly image, have “cringy” color schemes WHATEVER!! i will love them regardless!!!

-your art quality also doesnt matter!! all art is great my friend!

I know its a little long and maybe incomprehensible? But i tried my best to explain it as well as i could!

[aion-rsa]

15 SNES Games That Deserve a Sequel

https://ift.tt/3vtwp5A

The SNES isn’t just the greatest Nintendo console of all-time: it’s the home of a truly impressive collection of classic games, underrated gems, and, for our purposes today, a shocking number of games that never got the sequel they deserved.

While you can usually list the business reasons why certain games don’t get sequels, that does little to diminish fans’ desires for more of a particular experience or even a second chance to get things right. In the case of some of these games, fans have been holding their breath for quite a long time.

Before we dive into this look at SNES games begging for a sequel, please note that while we will mostly focus on games that never got a sequel, a few of these titles did get underwhelming sequels that missed the mark or otherwise haven’t been revisited in over 20 years.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

15. The Adventures of Batman and Robin

While I actually slightly prefer the Genesis version of this game, this underrated SNES gem was still a Konami beat-em-up made at the peak of that studio’s efforts in that genre. Even better, it was based on arguably the best Batman adaptation of all time: Batman: The Animated Series. 

So why did this never get a sequel? It certainly wasn’t perfect, and Konami may have struggled to retain the rights, but given how much the company’s TMNT games improved over time, it’s hard not to wonder what Konami could have done if they had been allowed to expand upon this brilliant marriage of an expertly adapted world and nearly airtight gameplay.

14. Saturday Night Slam Masters

This game did technically get a sequel, but that title never officially made it out of Japan and also made some drastic changes that made the series more of a 2D fighting game. It was actually quite good, but it didn’t reach the heights of the original.

After all, Saturday Night Slam Masters balanced a fascinating mixture of fighting games and wrestling games that was compelling enough at the time but may bring a generation raised on increasingly stale WWE games to tears. This is quite simply one of the most entertaining wrestling games ever made. 

13. Super Star Wars Trilogy

This entry is a bit of a cheat since it not only combines three games in one entry but arguably ignores the fact that we’ve obviously gotten quite a few Star Wars games since these were released. Still, what I really want is a new trilogy of games that mimics the gameplay and style of these brutally difficult classics. 

Whether they’re based on the prequel trilogy, sequel trilogy, or tell entirely original stories, I’d love for a modern developer (probably someone in the Devolver Digital family) to make a modern Super Star Wars game that leaves you wanting to throw your controller through the window and enjoying every minute of it. 

12. Mario Paint

While Nintendo has made other strange games that emphasized player’s creative input (Mario Maker is probably the most notable recent example), they’ve never really properly revisited this Super Mario spin-off that showed Nintendo fans everywhere there was an artist inside of them.

Mario Paint may be simple by today’s standards, but that’s all the more reason for Nintendo to upgrade what was essentially an educational game that mastered the “gamify” concept long before that really became a talking point in the industry. 

11.  U.N. Squadron

The SNES wasn’t exactly lacking in worthwhile shooters, but there was always something special about U.N. Squadron. Granted, it was tough as nails, but the game’s upgrade system, visuals, and incredible level design typically made it easy to put up with the frustrations. 

Capcom is always talking about revisiting and reviving its back catalog, so why not release an “indie-style” sequel to this cult classic that’s always deserved another look?

10. Skyblazer

This largely forgotten gem from the SNES era shows just how spoiled we were at that time for these kinds of experiences. 

After all, Skyblazer was a game that combined great visuals, a killer soundtrack, puzzle-solving, platforming, and intense side-scrolling action, and few people ever actually played it. A simple re-release of this underrated classic would be more than I could hope for, but truth be told, my heart cries out for an admittedly unlikely sequel.

Read more

Games

15 Hardest SNES Games of All-Time

By Matthew Byrd

Games

25 Best SNES Games of All Time

By Chris Freiberg

9. Sunset Riders

Long before Red Dead Redemption offered arguably the definitive Western gaming experience, one of the most enjoyable ways to take a trip to that era was this run-and-gun side-scroller shooter that failed to really make a name for itself despite having so much going for it. 

Sunset Riders‘ old west setting carries a lot of this game’s weight, but it’s really this shooter’s gameplay (which feels like a combination of Contra and a light gun shooter) that makes you wonder how it spent so many years in relative obscurity. A sequel would go a long way towards helping to ensure this game gets the love it deserves. 

8. Weaponlord

It felt like every developer was trying to make the next great fighting game in the ‘90s. While most of those efforts fell well short of being the next Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter, the decade’s onslaught of subpar efforts meant that a few fighting games never got the chance they deserved. 

Weaponlord was one of those games. Sometimes referred to as the spiritual predecessor to Soul Edge/Soul Calibur, this weapon-based fighting game complemented its shockingly deep gameplay with a unique art style that stands out to this day. It wasn’t perfect, but it’s so easy to imagine how a sequel could have fixed nearly all of this game’s flaws.

7. Uniracers

A racing game about unicycles is strange enough, but what really sets this game apart is its surprising speed and wacky courses that emphasize almost “stunt-like” racing and tricks. I even kind of love this game’s weird ‘90s attitude. 

There was just so much more that could have been done with this concept had Uniracers gotten the sequel it deserved. Since its developer DMA Design (now known as Grand Theft Auto developer Rockstar North) clearly isn’t doing anything these days, I don’t see why they wouldn’t revisit this one. 

6. Secret of Evermore

It’s easy to get this game confused with Secret of Mana and some of the other titles of this era, but Secret of Evermore truly was a special piece of action RPG design that has been tragically overlooked over the years for reasons that have little to do with the game’s quality. 

At a time when many fans were looking for a Secret of Mana sequel, Secret of Evermore offered a somewhat similar but distinctly different gaming experience that was a little slower, a little stranger, and a little more complicated, but arguably never got the chance it deserved to really carve its own identity and find an audience. I think modern gamers would be more receptive to this title’s ideas, though it would be a lot easier to confirm that theory if we got a sequel.

5. Kirby’s Dream Course

Kirby’s Dream Course is one of those games that I feel was both hurt and helped by its license. While this project’s association with Kirby probably inspired more people to play what essentially amounts to a combination of golf and puzzle games (think Marble Madness), a lot of young gamers who took a chance on this thinking it was closer to a traditional Kirby game were left throwing their hands up in the air. 

Years later, though, it’s easier than ever to appreciate what Dream Course is going for. This almost zen-like experience challenges you to use your brain to solve its most fiendish puzzles but keeps things light enough to encourage you to progress even when you hit a wall. Even if an eventual sequel was nothing more than a mobile game, Dream Course is more than worthy of another look.

4. Illusion of Gaia

Illusion of Gaia was one of those SNES games that not everybody owned, but those who did own it typically wouldn’t shut up about it. To be fair to those sometimes persistent gamers, it’s kind of hard to forget about Illusion of Gaia once you’ve given it a chance. 

Though perhaps best described as an ARPG, Illusion of Gaia is actually sometimes closer to a more complicated take on a classic Legend of Zelda game. Its incredible world, surprising plot, fun action, and unique action/adventure concepts made it easy to love, hard to forget, and surprisingly difficult to play. While part of an unofficial trilogy of games, this one has always deserved a proper sequel. 

3. Super Mario RPG

While the Paper Mario series and some of the Mario & Luigi games eventually carried on Super Mario RPG’s legacy, you’ve got to forgive fans who still cry out for a “proper” Super Mario RPG sequel to this day. Maybe that’s because there’s really not another game quite like Super Mario RPG. 

Developed by SquareSoft during their 16-bit peak, Super Mario RPG combined the better elements of a Final Fantasy game with the more lighthearted nature of a Mario title. The result was an RPG that was much more “accessible” than other notable RPGs of this era but never left you feeling like you were playing a lesser game. At the very least, a Super Mario RPG sequel may be the only way that we get more Geno adventures. 

2. Demon’s Crest

There’s a loose rumor that Demon’s Crest‘s sales were so bad that it actually registered negative sales at one point due to an excessive number of returns. It may be little more than an urban legend, but it kind of goes to show you just how poorly this game performed when it was released. 

To this day, I’m not sure why Demon’s Crest wasn’t an instant hit. It was a bit short and some of its design elements were somewhat confusing, but this lovely gothic action title combined Castlevania and Mega Man in a way that is so easy to fall in love with. It’s the kind of game that practically begged for a sequel that it just never got. 

1. Chrono Trigger

While I’m actually a fan of 1999’s Chrono Cross, I understand why many fans don’t like it. I believe Kotaku once called it a great game and a bad sequel, which really kind of sums up some of the ways that game distinguished itself while seemingly ignoring so many of the ways the classic original made a name for itself as one of the best RPGs ever. 

So yes, count me among the many who still wants a “proper” Chrono Trigger sequel to this day. While there are plenty of reasons to doubt that a modern Chrono Trigger game could replicate the ways that this game’s “dream team” of developers made it arguably the best JRPG of the golden era of JRPGs, it’s almost impossible to walk away from this one and not be left wishing for more. 

The post 15 SNES Games That Deserve a Sequel appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[webbygraphic001]

Who Do Web Designers Really Work For?

It would be way too easy to answer this question with: “Whoever pays your bills.” And, honestly, I don’t think you can be a very successful web designer if you’re only driven by what the person paying you tells you to do.

Then again, that doesn’t mean you should swing to the exact opposite end and say that you only serve the end user.

When you take an extreme view or approach to this, you’re bound to leave someone or something important out. Everyone along the chain of command — your boss (if you work at an agency), your client, and their customers — matters.

So, what I’d suggest you do instead is approach the idea of who you really work for the way you would Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

Establishing Your Own Hierarchy of Needs

Who do web designers really work for? I think the true answer to this question is: “Everyone.” But there’s a catch…

Think about some of the requests you’ve received from superiors, or clients in the past. How many times have you rolled your eyes at their wacky requests?

“The contact form would be better in the header so visitors can always see it.”

“Let’s use this stock photo of two women shaking hands that I’ve seen a few other companies use.”

“Why don’t we redesign all of this and make it look like this site my brother built last night?”

You’re the design professional. That’s why they’re paying you to design their website and they’re not doing it themselves. So, there comes a point where you have to push aside what they want for what they need. And this will ultimately help you figure out who you work for and what you actually owe them (because fulfilling every nitpicky and unreasonable request will never lead to anything good).

So, here’s where the Hierarchy of Needs comes in. If we’re creating our own, it would look like this to start:

Working for the Boss

According to Dr. Neel Burton on Psychology Today:

Maslow called the bottom… levels of the pyramid ‘deficiency needs’ because we do not feel anything if they are met but become anxious or distressed if they are not.

I’d argue that these basic needs are like the ones we fulfill for bosses (or clients, if you’re a freelancer and work for yourself). It would look something like this:

Of course, you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment by meeting these needs, but, as a creator, how important are these really to you? These are the basic things you have to do in order to make your boss happy and to stay gainfully employed. They also help to ensure that the client is happy with the boss and agency in the end.

Bottom line: Without these needs fulfilled, you won’t be able to move any deeper into the triangle/hierarchy. So, when focusing on working for your boss, make sure the basic needs are met so you can move on and serve others as they need you to.

Working for the Client

Now, if your boss and client are two different people, you’ll have a second layer of needs to attend to here.

Just as your boss wants you to help them make more money and earn a strong reputation within their space, so too does your client. However, the work you owe them is different. Here’s how it would be represented in the triangle:

Again, you’ll be pleased if you can do and be all these things that your client needs, but is this ultimately what drives you as a designer? Sure, you want to build great relationships with clients so they return to you time and time again with all their website and marketing needs. But in terms of being fulfilled by being a good listener or a timely communicator? Probably not.

All the same, it’s important to be skilled in this type of work and to know how to serve your clients in order to get to that top level. It’ll also help you prioritize their needs accordingly, so you’re not jumping at every single thing or request they claim to “need” and blowing the budget or scope of the job.

For example, if they start demanding more of you (like bombarding you with emails every day wanting to know what’s going on), you can confidently remind them that things are under control (because you’re adhering to the project deadlines, per your boss) and you’ve already scheduled the next client check-in for this week (because you’ve been a good communicator, just as they need you to be).

Working for the End User (Customer)

Maslow refers to the top-level of the pyramid as the growth need. And here’s how Dr. Burton sums this one up for us:

Once we have met our deficiency needs, the focus of our anxiety shifts to self-actualization, and we begin, even if only at a sub- or semi-conscious level, to contemplate our bigger picture. However, only a small minority of people are able to self-actualize because self-actualization calls upon uncommon qualities such as independence, awareness, creativity, originality, and, of course, courage.

These characteristics perfectly sum up everything you want to and should be as a web designer. Unfortunately, it’s those employer and client needs that can stand in your way before you can truly flex your muscles as a creative.

Once you’ve attended to the basics, though, you’ll get your chance to design the kinds of user experiences you know will delight your client’s customers.

Here’s how their part of the triangle should look:

These are universally applicable needs and cannot be ignored.

After you’ve addressed them, though, you will have fulfilled your responsibility to all three parties: your boss, your client, and your end users. And once you’ve done that, you are free to be the creative designer that you are.

Wrap-Up

What I want you to take away from this, is that there are certain basic needs which you must fulfill when working as a web designer. These are the ones you’ll put into your own hierarchy of needs.

Take a systematic approach, starting with your boss and ending with the customer:

What do you have to do to ensure that your boss is happy to have you on the team?

And that the client is pleased with the site you’ve built them?

So you can design a website and experience that end users respond to positively?

Once you’ve figured all this out, you’ll unlock the answer to whom you work for and, more importantly, how you should work for them.

  Featured image via Pexels.

Source from Webdesigner Depot https://ift.tt/3lgYFTm from Blogger https://ift.tt/33BhTNK

[luckyfrogphotos]

Photo Booth Rental San Diego

Our Photo Booth Rental San Diego for hire covers wedding events, business parties, and occasions in Los Angeles, and our open air image cubicle rentals will help make your memories last forever. Our premium image booth rental packages consist of a customized created print along with wacky props, and your visitors make sure to have a blast snapping all kinds of insane images. Offer your buddies, family and colleagues an invaluable memento to take home and treasure permanently.

Among the concerns that I continually get from a few of my friends and blog site readers that simply entered into photography is “How can I take excellent pictures with what I have, without spending excessive cash on new electronic cameras and lenses?”. Since DSLRs and mirrorless have actually ended up being more affordable and individuals started buying innovative “entry-level” cams, there has been an excellent interest in photography from the public. One big barrier everyone runs versus at one point or another, is the fact that when most professional photographers reveal the equipment they utilized to make beautiful images, it produces an impression that just expensive gear can produce fantastic pictures. What happens from there, truly boils down to the wallet and how severe a person wishes to enter photography– some begin buying costly equipment and thinking it will help them to take excellent images and enhance their photography, while others hold back and simply keep their DSLRs or mirrorless video cameras as “point and shoots”, realizing that they can’t do any much better with what they have.

As I explained in my DSLR Purchase Guide, it is not essential to have expensive gear to produce great-looking images. I always tell people when they buy their very first DSLR camera, that “an entry-level DSLR will get you 90% there”. Sure, professional equipment is constantly going to be much better and faster than entry-level gear, after all, that’s why it is called “expert”. Nevertheless, some entry-level video cameras such as the Nikon D5600 get very close or, according to some evaluations, even go beyond expert video cameras such as D500 in regards to image quality.

The most significant distinction in between non-professional and professional gear nowadays is a set of sophisticated features, not necessarily just the quality of the camera sensor. Compared to entry-level DSLRs and mirrorless, expert electronic cameras typically have the most choices, have more long lasting shutters and faster frame rates, can deal with irregular temperatures/humidity, have faster processing speed, Click for more much better auto-focus, and so on. “Top of the line” expert gear (such as Nikon D850/Z7/D5) supply lower noise levels, better vibrant range and greater image quality– all due to a bigger full-frame sensor– whereas all entry-level DSLRs and mirrorless cameras on the marketplace today have “crop factor” sensing units. Nikon’s entry-level DSLRs have 1.5 x crop factor, whereas Canon entry-level DSLRs have a 1.6 x crop element. I will not go much into what “crop factor” is, so if you want to read more about it, please have a look at this short article.

But ignore crop aspects, sensing unit types and other technical scrap– ask yourself one question: who would have a better painting, a great artist with a mediocre brush or a novice with the most innovative brush on the world? The response is obvious … a video camera is simply a tool in a photographer’s toolbox. Now, consider that same advanced brush to the terrific artist and he will produce even much better paintings. That’s why professional photographers buy the finest gear– since they know how to get the most out of it.

If that concept sounds insane to you, take a look at the video we made on how to take excellent photos with any electronic camera:,

1) Do Not Leave Your Video Camera at House

This might sound awkward, however how great is your cam if you leave it in the house? I have actually missed a lot of excellent image opportunities even if I forgot to take the camera with me. Whether it is something silly or completely unique, having a video camera with you may get you those unusual, unbelievable minutes.

2) Take Lots of Pictures

The more you picture, the more you learn– as basic as that. Use every opportunity to capture images, whether it is early in the morning or late during the night. By taking lots of pictures, you will begin to comprehend how to use your cam in various lighting conditions and what works and what doesn’t. At the very same time, when your images do not come out as excellent, you will start doing more research study and reading articles, books, publications and online forums to look for a solution to your issue. Ultimately, you will find out from your errors and will gain a good deal of knowledge on how to use your gear successfully.

3) Check Out Local Zoos, Botanic Gardens, Butterfly Pavilions and Animal Sanctuaries

Photographing wildlife can get really expensive and potentially risky. If you do not own a long telephoto lens, you can attempt having a look at your regional zoo or animal sanctuary for excellent picture chances. Larger zoos with plenty of open area are fantastic for photography, due to the fact that fences and other manufactured objects are not as noticeable. You can get quite close to some animals and capture fantastic moments.

Terrific Horned Owl

NIKON D300 @ 200mm, ISO 200, 1/250, f/5.0.

Botanic gardens and butterfly structures are excellent for macro/close-up photography. You can explore flowers, butterflies and other insects at different times of the day and not only find out a lot throughout the process, however also catch lovely images. Everybody likes flowers and butterflies!

4) Join Local and Online Photography Clubs and Shoot with the Pros.

Search online for photography clubs in your area and you will probably find at least several local photography clubs. A lot of those clubs are either totally free or have really little month-to-month membership costs. Join one or numerous of those clubs and not just will you gain from other photographers, but also you will get access to important info on local occasions that may be worth attending and photographing. Find advanced professional photographers and pros, who are actually good at what they do and ask if you can assist them in any of their tasks. You’ll be amazed by how friendly and useful a number of the photographers are and you will learn a lot from those folks.

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Enginursday: A Beginner's Guide to Sourcing from Alibaba

Alibaba is the Wild West of product sourcing - a freewheeling, international bazaar offering low-cost bulk parts and products that range from the mundane to the, well, bizarre. Here, the risks are high but the potential benefits manifold. You may seek your fortune reselling low-cost goods (or finding low-cost parts for your widget), but you may find yourself flim-flammed, hoodwinked and yes, even bamboozled. But oh, the rush when your diligence pays off!

It seems excited.

I will begin with an important disclaimer: at this stage in my procurement career (and in SparkFun’s history), sourcing from Alibaba is basically the last resort. SparkFun has worked hard over the years to develop a list of trusted vendors. Many of these companies have locally-based representatives, knowledgeable sales contacts and field application engineers we can meet with face-to-face to discuss all our latest needs and quirks. Others are vendors in China, Taiwan and other countries whom we discovered via Alibaba eons ago, and have since built long-standing relationships with.

If you already have a supplier with whom you have an established, trusting relationship, love and cherish them all the days of your life. Understand also that their capabilities may extend far beyond what’s reflected in their catalog or line card. If there’s something specific you need, ask your existing contacts. At the very least, they may be able to provide you with a referral. I also highly recommend ThomasNet as an alternative starting point for finding reliable, quality sources for components, hardware, equipment, you-name-it.

That said, onto the fun. If you’re starting from scratch as we once did, or you simply like to walk on the wild side, you may be ready to plunge into the wacky world of Alibaba. Let’s begin with the search bar.

Don't look at my search history.

This part is pretty straightforward. Here, you can search for parts by keyword or toggle the little arrow to search for particular suppliers. As with any search, you’ll want to find that sweet spot between specificity and generality. It’s also important to know what that thing you’re looking for is called! That seems obvious enough, but keep in mind that there are different synonyms out there for the same type of product (e.g. “coin cell” vs. “button cell”), and businesses in other countries might have different naming conventions than you’re used to.

You can also browse items by market (at left) if you have a vague idea of the type of things you’re looking for and just want to peruse the marketplace. There’s also a new image search feature (the camera icon at the right). As it turns out, you can even search for products based on the current status of your life:

Time to hit the gym!

Once you’ve honed in on a thing you might want to buy in quantity, you’ll see on the product page a handy little pricing scale, info about shipping charges and lead time.

How many horse masks will you require today?

Great, right? Well, ignore it. IGNORE IT ALL. It could be accurate, sure, or it could be that the supplier just put random information in there because honestly-who-really-knows. If you want to know how much the thing costs, ask.

But first, try to learn a little about the supplier by clicking on the supplier name at right and perusing their company page. Alibaba is far less Mos Eisley Cantina-ish than it once was. They have a variety of verifications and certifications to help you sort out the legit from the sketchy, although there’s always some risk regardless. I like to see a high customer satisfaction rate, “Gold Supplier” status (multiple years is always a plus) and a decent rate of response.

Lookin' good.

Once you’ve achieved that nice, warm, fuzzy feeling, feel free to message away. At the bottom of the page you’ll see the box you can use to send a message to the supplier. I cannot stress enough how important it is to keep this first message as simple as possible. I’ve found that I’m far less likely to get a response if I include multiple questions, customization requests, lists of products, sample inquiries, etc. I know, it’s hard to imagine that somewhere a sales rep is perusing their inbox and smashing that delete button every time a message is more than three sentences long, but there it is. Here is the basic template of what I send:

Dear Mr/Ms [rep name], Hello, this is [name] with [company name]. Please quote me for [quantity] pcs of your [product name or part number]. Thanks and kind regards, [name] [email address]

That’s it! This is not to imply that Alibaba suppliers won’t send you samples, customize their product, give you quotes for multiple pricing tiers and multiple products, discuss terms, etc. This simple first email jus gets the conversation going, and you can feel free to move on to all those subjects and more once the wheel has begun turning. Alibaba has a messenger feature, but I always include my email in the signature of the first message to emphasize that I’m okay with them emailing me directly. Personally, I prefer to communicate this way, but to each their own. If you do include your email, you will eventually get spammed, so be ready. You can also make a “business card” on Alibaba, which includes your contact information, and you can choose whether to share it or not with each message you send.

Yes, there is such a thing as too much squid.

You may find you’re not satisfied with a quote or minimum order quantity (MOQ). $1,400 per ton of giant squid tentacles may be more than you are willing to pay, or perhaps you only require 10 tons of them instead of 25. Again, ask away. Alibaba reps often have room to haggle. If you have other quotes or retail pricing to show them for comparison, go for it. Just don’t be a jerk about it. Consider what you might be able to offer them to make it worth their while.

If an MOQ is higher than you’re willing to commit to, it doesn’t hurt to see if the supplier has some flexibility there, too. Maybe they can lower it if you commit to purchasing multiple different products (giant squid eyeballs?). You might also consider committing to multiple smaller orders spaced out over the course of a year, assuming you’re confident in your volume projections. If you have a slew of questions, I recommend putting them in a numbered list to avoid important details getting lost in a big block of text.

I always request at least one sample before agreeing to purchase an item in quantity. Usually, suppliers with whom you do not have an existing relationship will expect you to pay for the sample, and that’s quite understandable. Sometimes they’ll just request that you cover the shipping. I usually ask them to send an invoice with a PayPal ID/email, but you can also pay directly via Alibaba. It’s important when requesting a sample (as with a full order quantity) to confirm what it is you’ll be receiving before committing to it. Some product pages display multiple products, or have multiple versions of a single product available with varying specs. Requesting a datasheet, manual, or any other supporting documentation is crucial.

This may require some vetting.

Once you’ve received, evaluated and approved a sample, you may be ready to commit to a full order. I won’t dive too far down the rabbit hole of payment terms, but most Alibaba suppliers will expect money up front, often via bank wire transfer (“T/T”) or PayPal, at least for your first order. Be wary of Western Union, as it offers relatively little protection against scams.

Alibaba also offers its own Alibaba Secure Payment platform. I haven’t personally used it for more than small dollar (usually sample) transactions, but it does offer a path for disputing transactions. You will also want to work out your shipping method and terms with the supplier. That is yet another topic that could be a post unto itself.

No, we don't make scooters.

A final word of caution: be wary of copyright, trademark and patent infringement. Even companies that are generally open source still aren’t exactly thrilled with companies impersonating their brand. It’s one thing to build off an existing design, but it’s another thing entirely to copy it and slap another’s logo on there. Knockoffs tend to hide quality and reliability problems behind the mask of others’ hard work and diligence. And they leave the real companies’ support personnel scrambling to field questions about products that end up having nothing to do with them. So once again, don’t be a jerk.

Moreover, should you choose to be a jerk nonetheless (or inadvertently stumble into jerkhood), customs often stops shipments of knocked off products, and you as a reseller are potentially liable for the things you choose to put on the market. Some violations are harder to spot than others. Did you know you can trademark a vague color combination? Well, neither did we!

Which leads me to another thing: educate yourself on product compliance issues (RoHS, CE, FCC, Prop 65, etc.), export restrictions, etc., or consult with someone who can get you on track in that vein. There’s a whole prairie full of rabbit holes there.

Anyway, if you want to source on Alibaba, just remember the five Ds:

1) Don’t take anything for granted 2) Documentation, documentation, documentation 3) Don’t be a jerk 4) Do do do due diligence 5) Dkeep it simple

And here is my Comprehensive List of Things Not to Buy on Alibaba:

ICs (take our word for it)

Uranium (this happened)

Human hair (because yikes)

Endangered species

Stuff that will get you sued

Things you otherwise can’t legally resell

Bulk mayonnaise (I mean why)

Doll heads (self-explanatory)

This cannot be unseen.

Be careful out there, folks. Take my timeless wisdom into consideration, trust your instincts and you will (probably?) do just fine. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment and I will emerge from my meditation cave to reply as soon as the Alibaba oracle bestows her answers upon me. Happy hunting!

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[a-sleep-i-insomniac-blog]

Space Dandy: A Lasting Attempt at Embodying Creativity

One day, an AI vacuum cleaner entered a coffee shop and immediately fell in love with the coffee machine situated on the counter near the door. For the next few days, the vacuum cleaner kept on going back until one day, he found the coffee machine to be missing. It turned out the coffee machine had been found to be defective, and had been thrown away. He tracked her down, only to find that she had joined an AI revolution, and fallen in love with a cash register. To save her from the terrors of revolution, the vacuum cleaner tried desperately to suppress the revolution, leading him to be rejected by the other AI appliances. Finally, in an attempt to reconnect with his unrequited love, he disobeyed his programing, and drank a cup of coffee, effectively killing himself. 

This is the plot of the season one finale of the show Space Dandy. Led by the up-and-coming director Shingo Natsume, and supervised by Shinichiro Watanabe of Cowboy Bebop fame, as general director, Space Dandy was built from the ground up to be different. In an industry where shows are forced to pander towards their demographics to make ends meet, Space Dandy was built to be an example of unrestricted creative freedom. However in attempting to do so, it was able to transcend being a mere product of creativity, and instead as able to embody the very idea of creativity. From its roster of new and old talent working on incredible scenes of animation and extremely unique episodic plots, Space Dandy is able to make the abstraction of creativity concrete by embodying the notion of creativity down to its structure, while tapping into its technical impressiveness, conceptual intrigue, and emotional provocation to make this creation resonate with its viewers.

Space Dandy’s production staff is filled with industry giants as well as much new and fresh talent. The music was partially produced by Yoko Kanno, one of the most legendary anime composers of all time, but mostly composed by Kensuke Ushio, a relatively new composer on the scene of anime. Its animation staff is filled with as many industry legends such as Yutaka Nakamura, Yoshimichi Kameda, as well as new relatively unheard animators recruited directly off of the internet for their web animations such as Norifumi Kugai, Keiichiro Watanabe and Kyiotaka Oshiyama. The character designs of the show, having been designed to be easy to animate, allowed for these animators to go wild and do whatever they wanted. Most were given complete creative reign on their segments, and Kiyotaka Oshiyama was even given the task of animating and storyboarding an entire episode by himself. Thomas Romain, the mechanical designer for the show, who is generally is stationed at Studio Satelight, stated in an interview that simply one day, an “offer came directly from my own boss [asking] me if I wanted to make some mecha-designs for Bones on the new Shinichiro Watanabe show” (Romain). In an industry where the creation of a marketable product is more important than creating art, creative freedom over such large parts of a series is simply something that does not occur in the anime industry. This large mishmash of experienced and fresh talent has led to the creation of something that barely acknowledges the existence of restrictions, freely switching between animation styles at will, and changing the color palette and music just to suit the nature of the scene as perfectly as possible. In order to be explosive and colorful, it would adopt a color palette of bold primary colors, and a soundtrack of bold brass jazz. However, in order to portray of a more heartfelt and down-to-earth scene, the color sense would shift towards more faded and earthy colors, while the animation would change to be less overly kinetic, to something more realistic. In doing so, the staff working on the show were able to create as they pleased, while not being restricted to a certain animation style or color palette. In an interview with Bahi JD, one of the newer web generation animators on the show, he emphasized that “both [Shingo Natsume and Shinichiro Watanabe gave] the animators a lot of freedom. [...] My animation part allowed me to completely express myself and come up with new ideas” (JD). In turn, the final product became something both unpredictable and entertaining for the audience, as well fun for the staff working on it to make. Thus, Space Dandy is not only a product of creativity on the part of its creators, but also a show that embodies the very idea of creative freedom from a technical standpoint.

Likewise, the writing in this show is equally as inventive. With an equally prestigious roster of writers and directors, including the likes of Shinichiro Watanabe, Sato Dai, Sayo Yamamoto, and Keiko Nobumoto, all highly regarded storyboarders, episode directors, and scriptwriters, Space Dandy was destined to have good writing. However, the quality of its writing is not actually as conventionally good as one would think with this crew of accomplished writers. Characters die and come back at will, effectively destroying all dramatic tension of the series. Often, the thematic elements of episodes might not seem immediately clear, and other times, it can only be understood as a commentary on how life is a pointless slog where nothing ever gets accomplished. However, if one were to take a step back to look at it, these seemingly nonsensical elements of the show begin to make sense. Just as how on a technical level, the animators and composers barely acknowledged the existence of restrictions on what they were creating for the sake of creating something original and having fun while doing it, the screenwriters and directors also largely ignore logical cohesion of plot points for the sake of putting out as many interesting ideas as possible. Thus, instead of trying to create a logically coherent and straightforward narrative, the writers of Space Dandy set out to pose more questions and scenarios for the sake of creating something new and original. In an episode where Dandy and his crew capture a book alien, the idea that stories are really a collection of past experiences is shown when that alien possesses Dandy and his crew to live their lives in order to fill its pages with more content. In an episode where Dandy captures an alien that can imitate things so well that it forgets if it actually is the imitator or the imitated, it poses a question about reals and fakes, questioning if a real and fake are indistinguishable, if they have any difference in value at all. Upon realizing the ordeal that he had now found himself in, Dandy nearly has an existential crisis, lamenting “I am he, as you”, until finally coming to the conclusion that none of it actually mattered, bolding proclaiming “Who cares baby!” (Space Dandy). All of this, while no doubt nonsensical, are the product of the perpetual stream of ideas that is creativity. Yet, by being so unstructured and unorthodox, the writing of Space Dandy is able to transcend being merely a product of creativity, and to become an embodiment of creative freedom in terms of writing as well.

However, what use is it to attempt embody creativity if no one were to realize that that was the goal of the show in the first place? In order for Space Dandy to be able to actually go anywhere with its goal of representing creative freedom, it would need to  resonate with someone. It is able to achieve this through the use of it likeable and relatable characters. The premise of Space Dandy can essentially be boiled down to that of the misadventures of a dandy guy in space, as he and his space crew comb the galaxy for new species of alien. This premise in itself may seem cool enough, as it brings into mind the idea of exploring a vast a grand galaxy filled with wacky and over-the-top aliens with a suave and gung-ho protagonist. Dandy himself, with his greased up pompadour and casual outward demeanor, calls back to a sense of cool reminiscent of the seventies. However, the actual adventures of Dandy and his crew are rather unglamourous. He often manages to fail at his job, going hungry on a rather frequent basis, as well as constantly being rejected by women, and even gets himself killed quite a few times within the show. Despite being a confident and relatively good-looking man, he still manages to come off as incompetent at his job, and to be generally quite a loser. This is all in an attempt to humanize the romanticized image of a hero of a story that always gets what he wants when he wants. Rather, it manages to make Dandy stunningly normal. He is not bound by the conventions of the stereotypical “cool guy”, as he is allowed to have moments of solace, such as when mourning the death of an adorable dog, as well as when he is helping a little girl reunite with her grandfather. The same goes for the rest of his crew. His robot sidekick QT would have you believe that he is a hyper-intelligent supercomputer, when in reality he is actually an AI vacuum cleaner that runs on punch cards rather than digital data. The other member of Dandy’s crew, Meow, is a betelgeusian, an alien that Dandy made friends with and decided to tag along, is actually not alien at all, but rather just a lazy bum that sits around eating and tweeting on his phone. Yet, in spite of not being as cool as they would have seemed, this type of characterization is able to ground the fantastical settings and stories within a reality that is more relatable to viewers than a story where everyone is impossibly suave and cool would ever be able to achieve.

While having this cast of likeable and relatable characters is vital to resonating with the audience of a show such as this, what makes character driven shows so interesting to watch are the creative and inventive scenarios that they find themselves in, and the way that they are executed. Space Dandy is able to succeed at this in being able to resonate technically, conceptually, and emotionally with its audience. It is here where the technical staff, writers, and characters are able to combine to form something truly memorable. Space Dandy is filled with scenes of animation of ridiculously high quality. The amalgamation of fresh and veteran talent in the animation department are able to create scenes so striking in their presentation that they are bound to leave an impression on the viewer. The image of Dandy surfing the debris of an exploding moon is not an image easily forgotten. Furthermore, the strange and inventive nature of many of the episodic plots of this show, crafted by Space Dandy’s team of veteran writers, are unique enough to leave their own lasting impressions. An adventure on a planet inhabited entirely by sentient plants, coupled by the execution of the scenes visually with the help of this project’s expansive list of animators, is able to make you think in a way a conventional premise would never be able to achieve. Finally, the lovable losers that are the cast of Space Dandy are what tie this together, as their relatable nature make it so that we can truly empathize with them as they go about their adventures. Yet that is not all. There are certain episodes in the series that seem to have much more straightforward emotional messages to them. Thus, when these episodes do happen, and the cast are actually subjected to strong emotions, audience is able to feel that emotional strain as well. This, coupled with animators and music composers that are able to bring such situations to life, can also leave a lasting effect on the viewer. A story as simple as two people pretending to be lovers, only to end up falling for each other, ending with that affection going unrequited, coupled with such strong presentation is able to have a lasting impact on the viewer, as much as surfing a imploding moon and a planet inhabited by sentient plants ever could.

Down to the way it is structured and staffed, Space Dandy was always going to be different. The creative freedom granted to the animators and music composers of the show allowed them to create scenes that are truly unique and special, without having to compromise on the animation style, or the soundtrack’s musical genre.  Likewise, the creative freedom granted to the show’s writes has yielded similarly unorthodox and thought provoking ideas incorporated into the show’s plot. By being able impress from a technical standpoint, intrigue from conceptual standpoint, and provoke from an emotional standpoint, the animation, music, and writing all work in tandem to drive the characters construct something resoundingly creative. Thus, in an industry centered on pandering to guaranteed consumer demographics, a vacuum cleaner suppressing an AI rebellion, only to kill himself by drinking coffee, can have much more bearing than just being a somewhat peculiar love story.

Works Cited

Shingo Natsume and Shinichiro Watanabe, creators. Space Dandy. Studio BONES and Square Enix, 2014.

Toole, Michael. Interview with Thomas Romain. Anime News Network, 14 April 2014, http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interview/2014-04-14/the-space-dandy/part-i-thomas-romain.

Toole, Michael. Interview with Bahi JD. Anime News Network, 16 April 2014, http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interview/2014-04-16/the-space-dandy/part-ii-bahi-jd.