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someprettyname · 1 year ago

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Lore time! (If it sounds bad I'm sorry)

Annual school fest in Osaka which will determine who'll represent the prefecture, right? Held at my school for a week (arts and sports together) while I was a high school first year. I was in for a debate competition (let me dream about being confident enough) and versification (Not kidding, I actually competed for poetry within my state and was SO close to getting a rank I was sobbing), but that wasn't till the third and fourth days, so I decided to just randomly walk about the school, maybe watch some programmes. Two days went like that, then the third day, when the soccer games would begin, I ended up running into our favorite crow boy who thought I was a soccer teammate of his (also from India, an OC). Took him a while to realize I wasn't a guy, but I assured him that I preferred being referred to as a guy. Then we talked and stuff, and he revealed the team had come individually, so he was trying to find them because they'd already found each other. So I went alongside him, searching the whole school together with him. In the meantime, we chatted a lot, casual and deep, and I'd felt like I'd clicked with somebody despite being an introvert. But then we finally spotted one of his teammates there, and we just sorta–

"Oh yeah, that's him there."

"Alright, well... so, I guess this is goodbye."

"Nah. You got a debate today, no? 'M gonna be there, 'cause I need to see you ace it. *Don't* sweat the small stuff, 'cause you're pretty fucking capable. Think of them as like plants or something."

And then he just pats me on the back and leaves. Just like that. Anyway, so in that daze, I somehow do participate in the debate (we narrowly won, by the way). And then I get off the stage, only to meet his smirking face. "Ya did good for all that panicking earlier."

I scoffed and decided to walk off casually, but then I tripped over my own feet (being the clumsy shit I am) and ended up spraining my ankle. And this guy– he literally took initiative so fast, catching me just before I fell completely, asking me if I were okay, before supporting me and walking me till the infirmary somehow (thankfully it was right down the corridor). He stayed with me the entire time basically, I got my foot bandaged up, then he again offered me support to walk around. I asked him when his game was, because I remember him saying his team would play the starting game.

And I'm telling you, never have I seen a guy run so fast. He just yelled a "Stay safe" to me and ran. I laughed so much that day. Anyway, that was the first part of it. After the game was done and stuff, he ended up coming to me to a say a bye, whether I'd be there the next days or not. I assured him I would, then he left with a grin.

Now, timeskip to the final day, we talked during the times we had free, I recited him some of the things I'd written, he talked about his interests during the days. We made a bet that if his team won, I'd owe him a favor and if my school's won, he owed me one. We could ask for anything that wasn't too much. Unfortunately, his team ended up winning. Fortunately, however, what he did was he only talked to me just before leaving;

"Ya owe me something, sweets."

"Ugh. Damn you."

"Mhm, deal's a deal. Here's what it is."

He handed me a folded piece of paper and abruptly went to the car where his parents were waiting for him to come. I opened the paper cause I was too nervous to ask him. Nothing much. Just his number and a note underneath it.

"Because your ass doesn't know how to text without panicking, call me. Plus, wanna hear that cute laugh of yours more. And I'm preeettty sure you like my voice, you kept spacing out while I talked."

Didn't get to grin at him– he'd left by then. So I called him right there and then. Still remember his smug voice that evening. What a cocky piece of shit that I had developed a crush on.

Anyway, that's how it started. We'd video call almost every other day. My family got used to me talking about him, they liked him pretty well. Same with his. About a year passed like that, then like, when we were passing into our third year, he just called me up one Sunday, and asked me if he could send one of my poems to confess to this guy that he had a feeling liked him back. I felt this weird tightness in my chest, but I said okay, deciding I'd ask the details after. Then, I got a notification on my phone. Checked it. One of the poems I'd written, sent right back to me, with an extra message underneath, "Wanted this to be the first text."

I agreed, by the way.

Oh em geeeeee gon do my commentary as I read tehhehe

"Think of them as like plants or something." <- Bahhahahja i cracked up

And then I get off the stage, only to meet his smirking face. "Ya did good for all that panicking earlier." <- tell me you crumbled down on the inside

And I'm telling you, never have I seen a guy run so fast. He just yelled a "Stay safe" to me and ran. <- AYO SUS 🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨 was he blushing?

"Ya owe me something, sweets." "Ugh. Damn you." (<- I know you were blushing) "Mhm, deal's a deal. Here's what it is." <- GUHHHHH YOU'RE BOTH SO CUTE IM GONNA GO CHOMP CHOMP

"And I'm preeettty sure you like my voice, you kept spacing out while I talked." <- KARASU YOU BITCH BOYYYYY nice move

URFGHSHHSJSIIAHSHSJNS GAHHHHHH THIS IS SO ?!!!?!?!?!?!?

Oh my god this is so cuteeeeeeee how long have you both been together now?

#blue lock #karasu tabito #karasu x reader #blue lock x reader #girlfriend fc #ask

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transpathfinder · 6 months ago

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veilguard thots

[massive plot spoilers]

ok i did say i was gonna write up some brief thoughts after i completed but first of all before i start, as a lucanismancer i just want to say any lucanismancer who hates neve kys. you are not affiliated with me don't even speak to me or breathe in my direction. and bioware, idk when u will realise i have 2 hands. 1 is for lucanis 1 is for neve and my spare dick is for spite so just get with the programme

alright that being said... yeah i didn't really like the game much. i think it's easily the weakest DA game, which i consider a pretty big failing since i am not someone who thinks inquisition is good. i had a lot of problem with inquisition's main story and open world, but somehow veilguard's story is. Worse. i don't even have the energy to get into supervillain evil blighted elvhen gods, turning the old gods as stupid little dragon thralls, because obviously, again, nothing pagan or elemental matters, they're not real, they're not godly or saintly or divine, just stupid animals. making the antaam breakaway into this crazed faction you keep fighting cos they absolutely had zero ideas or interest in tying positively into qunari culture you can have a relationship with, it becomes an easy excuse - ''they're not reeeeaally qunari teehee'' first of all, crafting both the antaam and venatori into easily siding with supervillain elvhen gods who want to bring the blight to the world is fucking weak and pathetic excuse for it cos it doesn't even make sense with their goals/ideologies. a very, very cheap entry into the lore, i think lazy and diminishes the world as well the utter thinness of companion background and conversations. i know there's no dialogue wheel, but to me that's a basic aspect of getting to know in-depth background lore about factions, status of the worldstate, different parties' political ideologies and leanings, in standard video game infodumps cos yes this is still a video game, you need to write for it rather than focus on the realism of how conversations play out.... u can't even call solas a monster without morrigan attempting to school you like you're 5. this game wants you to suck solas' dick so bad as if the rest of us from inquisition didn't already peg him as a person who wants to cause genocide. veilguard only told us he already caused it once and now wants to do so again, but in 2 entire games, he is constantly made to be this sympathetic and deep figure that i'm supposed to be enamoured and intrigued by and want to save. why would i want to save this thousand plus year old mf who eradicated a race knowingly!! this game doesn't even give me the opportunity to kill him, i was so disappointed by my 3 choices in the end with him, of which 2 are literally functionally the exact same. there's no way i was gonna redeem this piece of shit even though i had mythal's essence peacefully or whatever the fuck yeah this other abuser piece of shit is also a hero now that morrigan carries lmafoo give me a break. all da2 did was demonise anders over and over again, and again in inquisition. these chars are not even in the same universe of ''crimes they've committed'' and yet, the disparity in writers sucking one dick and trying to get u to hate the other is crazy. i hate white liberals soo much fuck all of you!!!! bitchass mfs

which brings me to why i think this game is so thin and written so childishly - it's desperate to be liked. it wants to be liked by the masses sooo bad, that it becomes nothing to me. everyone is sweet, everyone is lovely, all factions are uwu heroes, even antivan crows, who torture and abuse children but hey nvm they're cool heroes now with no nuance. i loved all the crew, but the game makes it exactly so. no difficult stances to combat, nothing akin to any previous DA game, where there's at least a companion or 2 people would find their nerves fray over, which is the point. this is the only game that feels so typically found family where everyone loves each other, because it's deliberately made to be that way. a child's idea of big threats and saving the world and everyone happy in traditional hero centric journey with a team.

BUT EVEN THAT... it doesn't commit to it fully, because it so desperately also wants to teach u a lesson on how not everyone can survive this. so... yeah... harding died in my pt, and u know what? i felt nothing until the credits rolled. cos i straight up thought it wasn't real and we'd just get her back later. like she got stabbed and fell into the pit and i felt zero emotion cos i was like o okay she's injured we'll wait for this cutscene to end and next bit we'll look into a new sub-quest for finding her or something cos ofc i had already completed all personal quests, there's no way she would die unless the player didn't do it. and until the credits rolled i didn't believe she had cos i was just so stumped this game even pulled that... imagine the heartbreak and betrayal players who romanced her would have felt? it's soo shitty wtf... no idgaf how ''unrealistic'' it is everyone survives. this is a video game built off fun rp-ing and romances, which is a core bioware feature. you don't write romances and entice people on that front and then turn around and pull this shit. my god i'd have been livid but by then i was ready for the game to end so i already found myself semi-exhausted by the experience since i was maxed out at level 50 and already clocked in over 120++ hours taking my time with it slowly. certainly not something i binged through

it's not a horrible game... i do think the linear playstyle and the no death toggle was critical in my getting through it. i love the deviation from open world, and obviously, the lucanis romance really carried me through cos i adore the character and very much fell in love with him and the romance... and while like i said, i do love the crew as a whole, i can't shake the feeling away that it's an empty game void of classic DA mannerisms of choices and conflict of prior entries that i have strong memories of. i don't hate it and i'll still replay it in future if i do a DA run, but it hasn't captivated me enough. i may sound very angry in this write up but honestly i'm pretty chill in my explanation and thoughts about disliking this game. it's nothing to me. this DA game feels so bitchless and sauceless with no identity apart from ''wow i hope everyone loves this game i'm making this as palatable to for mass consumption as possible'' from hero to weak basic story to lack of imports from earlier games to classic hack-n-slash combat. definition of mid.

#it's really sad cos i love the crew.... but damn... i feel nothing fr.......#kangu mercar #dragon age for ts #da4 spoilers #datv spoilers #OKAY ENOUGH I'M COOL DW anyway back to lucanis and neve posting

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widthofmytongue · 2 years ago

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The other night, ahead of Purim, I had some drinks with colleagues. Later in the evening, a conversation with one of them turned to politics. Obviously. I asked her why she’s not a member of a union, and she said pretty bluntly ‘well, I’m a lot more right wing than you’. In the spirit of the mitzvah to drink until unable to distinguish between Mordechai and Haman, friend and foe, I decided to hold back my impulse to hiss, and simply asked her ‘in what ways?’

In truth, she and I agreed on most basic political points. The Tories are abusive, selfish pricks; Labour is wet and stands for nothing; privatisation has all but destroyed Britain; everyone deserves basic necessities like food, housing, even education; we have more in common with each other and with the homeless than we ever will with either Charles III or our bosses. She was also very supportive (far more so than most Brits I meet) of my experiences of antisemitism and transphobia.

Here’s where her right leanings shone through:

1) She obviously believes in meritocracy; those who are best suited to specific tasks deserve recognition. But then this is hardly an alien sentiment on the left, is it?

2) She believes hierarchies are necessary for systems to function; certain people are required to take responsibility for the group, and they supposedly must therefore be above the others. This directly contradicted something she said earlier, that we should all take more responsibility for our shared situation, with which I agreed, but she considered a right wing view. I also gave peer-review as an example of a fully functional non-hierarchical system, which she essentially ignored. An odd response given we work at a university.

3) She believes ‘socialism has never worked’. When I responded to this by saying ‘it’s working right now’ and pointed out that Cuba is thriving and has passed the most progressive LGBT and family rights legislation to date, and that China is the most populace country on earth with the highest GPD and a sitting communist party, she said she’s not informed enough about either of those, ‘but Nordic countries...’ which I interrupted, and we agreed that Nordic countries are not socialist, nor especially good examples of capitalism. We also agreed that capitalism isn’t very viable in the long term, and I made the point that any criticisms of socialism can be made tenfold of capitalism, plus dozens more condemnable. So I think this is just about a fundamental misunderstanding of what ‘socialism’ even refers to, resultant of hegemonic propaganda?

4) She believes issues like transphobia and antisemitism (etc.) are problems on ‘both sides’. Now, I agree with this, but what I said was, the difference is that such prejudice or hate is a betrayal of leftist principles, whereas the same prejudice and hate actually props up many - if not all - right wing values.

One of our main talking points was my assertion that things like the NHS or Right To Buy council housing or tuition fees or whatever are really a question of priorities. I said that there are some things everyone deserves: healthcare, housing, food, power, education, transport, and we should prioritise them, especially as it’s entirely within our (or the state’s) capacity to provide these things. She agreed. However, she seemed stuck on the idea that the government should be expected to provide food. I am entirely unclear on why, but when I mentioned that supermarkets throw away enormous quantities of food she agreed it was despicable. I suggested that such food waste could be legislated against and/or wasted food could be claimed by local authorities to redistribute to those in need, but she seemed dubious. She did agree that local food programmes would be possible, though, yet she called this ‘traditional conservatism’, relating it to some imagined precept of charity. Now I don’t know what kind of topsy-turvy Bizarro world conservatism invests in practical charitable measures (rather than e.g. laundering the money of the rich), but I did assert: ‘when the Black Panthers were doing it, I don’t think anyone called it conservative’.

Anyway, my point about priorities was that strengthening the NHS or ensuring people are housed and fed are simply more important to me than the military, for example, so I suggested we could defund the military in order to re-allocate funding to more important services. Her response to this was, I kid you not, ‘well we can’t just tax the rich and assume that will solve all our problems’. I replied ‘well we could actually, and it would certainly go toward solving some problems, but my suggestion was to defund the military, not tax the rich.’

Now what can we learn from all this? As I said, I actually agree that we should all take more responsibility for our shared plight. The crucial difference, in my mind, is that the reason for doing that is so that we can all lessen one another’s loads, make things easier and more comfortable and even enjoyable for one another. C'est assez, languir en tutelle; l'égalité veut d'autres lois! But the conservative psyche has no desire to make things easier. Perhaps this is obvious from the constant overcomplication of adding obstacles in the form of strawmen. ‘Socialism has never worked!’ It has and it does, but who mentioned socialism? ‘We can’t just tax the rich!’ Yes we can, but who mentioned taxing the rich? ‘The money necessary to keep the NHS going is more than we have available!’ How much is being spent on the Coronation, and where is that money coming from? (spoiler: not ‘the rich’) ‘Helping the needy is a conservative value!’ Okay seriously WTF dude, but also, why then do conservatives stop leftists from doing it every time we try?

These aren’t just rehearsed talking points. These are symptoms of targeted hegemonic misinformation. No one is born conservative, one is made conservative, perhaps even by force. But to be conservative is also at odds with the fundamental experience of social beings; caring for one another, empathy. Part of right wing psychology is the desire to impose one’s own trauma on others, because after all one’s own experience, however brutal, must be the natural order.

Of course, dialectical materialism illuminates precisely the opposite. My experience and hers and indeed yours are not the same, and yet they are all true, even if they are at odds. The difference is that where the right wing practices an ongoing separation into ever smaller in-groups, our immortal science teaches us to understand, to reach out, to gather together and to unite. The revolutionary personality is driven by love, a desire to confront injustice, to heal the world. This is the final struggle, so let each stand in our place...

And tomorrow the International union shall be the human race!

#politics #c'est la chai #chag Purim sameach

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romillys · 4 years ago

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hi everyone! so glad this is back!

romilly ‘mila’ van der woodsen was spotted in the fashion district adorning the jimmy choo thyra 100 jewel-embellished suede heeled sandals , with some airpod pros on . they’re most likely listening to blinding lights - acoustic by victoria voss . you may know them as romillys or as that casimere jollette lookalike . their twenty fourth birthday just passed . while living in the upper east side , they’ve gained a bit of a reputation . they’re known to be defensive but on the other hand hard-working . wonder if they’ll be the next person to hit the headlines . ( cis woman / she/her + elle / 23 / she/her )

* character questionaire .

01. if you have three words to describe yourself , what are they ?

focused, daring, confident.

02 . what is your favourite alcoholic drink ?

it’s definitely wine. i used to only drink white but i’ve become really fond of red. my grandpa gave me a bottle of 1982 latour for my twenty first birthday and that was easily the most impressed i’ve ever been with wine. i’m not going to be basic and say dom perignon.

03 . what is your favourite season and why ?

i’ve always loved winter because of the associations of ballet and the performances of the nutcracker. it’s always help a special place in my heart and i continue to feel the same after all these years. plus, i love the parties and dressing up, feel like i can go more glam with more diamonds and sparkles than in the summer.

04 . what’s the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done ?

it would have to be when i drunkenly booked a vacation to dubai for myself and a few friends after a wine and movie night. i spent a ridiculous amount but the trip was fun and i can safely say my friends and i still talk about it.

* character biography .

the only grand daughter of olivier van der woodsen, romilly would grow up surrounded by luxury olivier was the founder and controlling shareholder of woodsen enterprises, a company has investments in various industries including auto parts, energy, metals, rail cars, casinos, food packaging, real estate, and home fashion. it was more than enough for him to provide for his son and daughter-in-law and now his grand-daughter. like her parents before her, romilly was born into privileged and lived comfortably in an upper east side penthouse where she was waited on by endless nannies and housekeepers. her father was involved in the family business, hoping to be handed olivier’s shares one day but the other showed no sign of willingly stepping down any time soon; her mother a self-absorbed socialite that had her own ideas of how to dominate society meant that childcare did not land with either of them.

her parents were difficult to communicate with and this lead to many nannies leaving just when romilly had started to become attached. they were the closest thing to love that she had received but as they left constantly she would grow up with a great sense of inadequacy. they weren’t in love and it seemed the both of them only valued their own sucesses, not each others. as she grew up, she would become her grandfather’s favourite and it would leave both her parents with green eyes...

romilly always liked dancing and had a special connection with music. every time she heard it she wanted to move. she was too young to understand it but she had natural musicality. when they realised that it was harder for the help to stay, they pushed her onto olivier with the hope that she’d be a distraction to pressure him into taking a step back. The man, although one of the most powerful people in New York City, did have a soft spot for his granddaughter. he was the one that saw potential in her dancing as a child. he was quick to enroll her when she was six and everything else followed.

from that moment on, she would only look forward to dance and seeing her grandfather. he was the only one who understood her passion and was the one encouraging her at every stage. however, her parents were quick to criticise performances or her facial expressions when performing. no matter how hrd she tried, it wasn’t enough to impress them. she started distancing from them after that, only talking to her grandpa and looking to him when she needed emotional sport.

being accepted into the summer intensive programme for the school of american ballet was a game changer for her. she made good friends and loved breathing dance and being surrounded by people who had the same passion. she attended the same intensive two years running and her place there just felt right. the next year, she was enrolled as a full time student at the school of american ballet and moved into halls. it was a freedom she never had before and felt like it was her very first chance to have a real sense of community and support.

romilly worked extremely hard and was definitely one who focused on her success; that had seeped its way through from her parents. she was one of the lucky ones to become an apprentice at new york city ballet and the staff definitely took note. her skill level had almost been at prodigy level and she always maintained a ‘can-do’ attitute. she wouldn’t simply bend into the background.

this year, she became one of the youngest principal dancers in the company and it was the best day of her life. she had become a successful professional ballerina. she has also assisted with some choreography as her creativity has blossomed over the years. now her parents wanted to be proud of her and they did make an effort to see her, although it felt really strained from their side. they had ulterior motives but she wasn’t sure what.

romilly was hit hardest after the announcement of the death of olivier van der woodsen, her grandpa who she had loved so much. after the loss and added pressure, her personality has somewhat shifted. she’s out a lot more in clubs now, making out with people and deciding to lessen her control over herself. besides, she’s now a billionaire in her own right but can even comprehend how much money she actually has. she is more defensive and snaps at her co-workers a lot more. she’s secretive and does keep most things to herself. she’s embarrassed that she’s involved in family disputes over money that she never asked for and now worried that stories are leaking on the internet about her and have the ability to tarnish her image in the ballet world. she feels like if she doesn’t fix it soon, she’ll be on her way out of the company. still, she doesn’t help herself and continues to party and drink a lot more than she should do which leads to easily avoidable drunken stumbles that hurt her...

* extras .

profile:

Full Name: romilly annabeth van der woodsen

Nickname(s): mila, tiny dancer, ro

Age: twenty four

Date of Birth: december 19, 1996

Hometown: new york city, new york

Current Location: new york city, new york

Ethnicity: white

Nationality: american

Gender: cis woman

Pronouns: she/her

Orientation: bi romantic & bi sexual

Religion: none

Political Affiliation: none

Occupation: principal ballerina at new york city ballet

Living Arrangements: upper east side penthouse previously owned by olivier van der woodsen

Language(s) Spoken: english, french, chinese

Hair Colour: blonde

Eye Colour: blue

Height: 5′4″

Build: slender

Tattoos: none

Piercings: ears

aesthetics

a fully stocked wine cabinet, diamante earrings, chanel pumps, silk crop tops, crystal embellished stilettos, a pile of pointe shoes discarded in the corner of the main room, marble flooring, roof to floor windows, bobby pins gathering at the bottom of her purse, quickly applying glitter eyeshadow with her fingers, a collection of nude palettes and diamante earrings, deleting emails without reading them, golden chandeliers, rejected calls from parents, tops with puffed sleeves, berets, nineties colored purses, twenty hour days and booking trips aborad while under the influence.

#wealthyhq:intro #death tw

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willowistic22 · 4 years ago

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Van life!newsies headcanons

Hello, i have recently been obsessing and/or pining over living in a van/bus. So i will project my pining to my favorite pretty paper boys like what everyone does in the newsies fandom! Very healthy and smart idk lol so here’s my take on this au for each of my ships!

*i know some ppl might not agree with all these ships but these are just my personal favorites pls don’t come after me for something i like :)*

@jaelynn-is-slightly-confused thanks for deciding which headcanons i should write first :)

A pretty long list so you might have to sit down for this one

Javid

They converted an old american school bus

I actually have a headcanon that modern!jack comes from a rich family (maybe not the family his parents were born into but his parents worked pretty hard to be successful y’know) so that’s how they were able to buy an old school bus

So they were able to fit in a shower (not one of those foldable kinds) and a built in toilet. A pretty decent kitchen. A stove, oven, microwave, and all the other utilities necessary. Was able to fit both a washing machine and a dryer. Has a proper closet.

To fit davey’s needs, they put in a tiny book shelf. But it’s too tiny to fit in all of davey’s book (he’s got a shelf full) and was forced to give some of them away he cried a little. Jack did the same for his art supplies he cried a lot.

Jack is an illustrator and Davey is a writer. (Davey the hopeless romantic Jacobs mostly writes romance wow what a shocker) If Jack can find the time to paint on a canvas he will. It usually ends up getting sold which he doesn’t mind.

Jack painted every inch of the bus exterior wow we’re all so shocked no we aren’t I lied :) "Jack why...” “We need to be festive when we travel, Dave!” *face palms*

They have one cat which is still nameless in my head so ://

Newsbians

They live in a school bus

Kathrine’s a Pulitzer so you know how they can freely afford it (now that i think abt it i think old school busses sell for really cheap prices but idk)

The shower and closet are a must have for Kathrine. She takes over most of the closet space and takes the longest in the shower. Sarah is a foodie so she built herself a whole kitchen and Kathrine is not allowed to touch anything without her permission. Even fitting in a huge fridge. They also fit in a proper working desk and a couch. Also made some sort of balcony on top of their bus so they can stargaze on top of there

Kathrine is a reporter and Sarah is a physician in the telemedicine industry (she meets patients through video calls and such, not face to face)

Morning coffee is a tradition for them at this point. They cannot drive the bus without having one cup of coffee

They have two cats still nameless too ://

Ikeshot (lmao moving to my rarepairs so quickly. i mean i originally reserved the van life headcanon for them but i got too obsessed and now i’m writing this list hehe)

They settled with a sprinter van

it started just as an idea for their honeymoon to do a road trip around the us, but it ended up being longer than a hundred days of honeymoon and it turns into being their first proper room

Their shower is built in and it can only fit one person. The bed takes up the whole back space. Their closet is kinda small but they don’t mind bcs Ike mostly lives in Hotshot’s clothes anyways. The kitchen is limited but they have a pullout barbeque at the back of their van, under their bed. Hotshot is a master at barbequing.

Ike is a translator and interpreter. He also uses his hobby in crocheting to build a small business he makes cardigans :) (credit to @violetwolfraven for that little idea) Hotshot is an accountant. Very boring ik but i have a headcanon he’s good with numbers so that’s cool (well idk i feel like he’s good with math and economics)

Bringing the playstation has always been a priority, so they built in a tv. They like to chill in the bed and play together. Mario kart is a ruthless game

Occasional weird midnight dancing sessions is a tradition

they have a cat named Sparks and a dog named Lewis. It’s a dalmatian which made Hotshot tempted to name him Spot :)

*cut to a vicious argument between Spot and Hotshot which was also egged on by Ike and Race*

Jomike (ok look i love my rarepairs alright pls let me ship in peace)

They got a sprinter van

Their kitchen took up most the space bcs mike and jojo are practically professional chefs. When asked to throw down in the kitchen, they will thRO W D O W N

They even use a teal palette specifically for their kitchen. They have a one person shower but no built in toilet. a fair amount of plants as decoration. in the back of their van, they have a built in pull out dining table and two benches (built under their bed so they’d have to stop and open the back door to have a proper dinner)

Jojo is a reporter and mike is a computer programmer. Their job requires a proper desk to work on so they just installed a foldable table in between their seats up front.

their clothes are just stored in cabinets since they share anyways. it leaves a good amount of wall space to play a projector for netflix *cue the soft cuddling in bed*

breakfast in bed is the most on brand thing for them to do

they have a cat named Dixeleta. She’s an outdoor cat so they have fun doing outdoor activities together. Hiking, kayaking, etc.

Sprace

They live in an old sprinter van Spot got from an old family member

They have the type of bed that can turn into a living room (seats and table etc). They use a foldable shower bcs they want the space. Their kitchen can be extended out with a latch by their sliding door but that’s only when they need to use a stove and oven. Since they’re the type of people that just throws on the closest clothes they can grab they just use cabinets to store their clothes.

ok i’ve mentioned it before about sprace but i’ll mention it again. They have three cats named Racecat, Spot Clawlon, and Romeow :D all named by race if you’re wondering.

So Race is a social media manager and Spot is a physician in the telemedicine industry.

They’re very lazy to constantly look for a coin laundry service. They make a schedule to do the laundry once a week but sometimes they just forget.

Their first drive of the day will always include karaoke. They can’t tell whether their cats love or hate their singing voice most likely the latter but they’re in denial.

They cuddle each other in bed with their cats. While watching tv, to sleep, or just chilling together.

Redfinch

They got a mini bus

They have a built in shower, bathroom, and closet (not sure why since they don’t really care about their clothes all that much) They have a proper kitchen, fit a washing machine and dryer, plus a little seating area with a small table

They have two big doberman named Zara and Zoey and a cat named Marbles. Pretty outdoor pets so they frequently take them out for hikes and such

They have a ‘balcony’ on top of their mini bus to chill together. As in all five of them :)

Finch is a music producer and Albert is a photographer and videographer. Albert mostly works with tourist as their personal photographer, but he has land gigs with big companies/people. Finch works with a label that has given him to opportunity to work at home but sometime still need to stop by a studio to meet with artists or other producers.

Finch only needs space to store his laptop, notebooks, and guitar (but he ends up hanging it on the wall anyways). Albert takes up a whole cabinet for all of his equipment.

Not Finch waking up at an ungodly hour when a spark of inspiration comes to him, which ends up waking everyone in the bus. *cut to Albert furiously dragging him back to bed*

They installed a tv near their bed for playstation sessions or cuddling throughout a movie

Their driving karaoke is usually accompanied by their dogs which only tortures Marbles. She hides under the blanket to save her ears. smart cat hehe

Snipesmalls (Never wrote anything for them but I do love these girls :))

They converted a mini bus

Sniper takes up most of the closet space, but it doesn’t matter because they share clothes anyways. A built in toilet and shower. Their kitchen has a navy blue theme to it. It was Smalls’ idea. They have a washing machine and dryer and also a proper dining table.

Sniper is a nurse in the telehealth industry (basically just like telemedicine but deals with more than just clinical services) and Smalls is a medical transcriptionist.

They have an Australian Shepherd named Blue. It’s because of her blue eyes it’s so beautiful :O Blue likes to stick his head out while driving.

They have a built in tv for their playstation and movies but sometimes they bring out the projector to watch while chilling outside.

They have done the most traveling. Hopping from the US to Europe and Asia.

They may like to share clothes but Sniper really likes to be fashionable wherever she goes. “Ok so since we’re planning to go hiking tomorrow, which hat should I use?” “Sniper, we’re hiking up a mountain, not a vogue fashion runway” “And so what if I pretend we are? Use your imagination babe! Now which one?” *sighing*

It is a nightmare to convince Sniper to give away some of their clothes She cries every time her clothes are being given away but gets happy when they go shopping for new ones and it’s the same cycle every time this happens

They also like to go to music festivals and have picnics together

Blush

They live in a mini bus

They rarely buy clothes or give them away plus they share clothes so the closet is pretty small but hella messy because they’re lazy at folding their clothes away. A simple built in shower and also a foldable toilet. The kitchen is pretty equipped because Mush is a master chef. They have a little seating area with a table. Alternating as a working desk and dining table

Mush is a dietitian and Blink is a therapist, both in the telemedicine industry.

Neither is allowed to drive if they haven’t gotten their morning coffee

Mush is mostly then one doing the karaoke while Blink drives

they like to have picnics together

goes to random concerts. it doesn’t need to be a really big artist. they’d simply be happy if they get tickets to any sort of concert. They prefer to see local underground artists to discover more music and such but they sometimes save up to watch big artists too.

they’ve only been around the us and canada but are planning on going to other countries too

Belmerttons

they live in an old school bus

So buttons is a huge fashionista so there is a proper closet and drawers that are mostly used by himself. A built in bathroom and the door has a mirror per buttons request. they also fit a washing machien and dryer in the bus per buttons request too. Their bed is full of decorative pillows and a few stuffed animals per elmer’s request. Their kitchen is small but does the trick. also has a little seating area with a table

Buttons is a fashion stylist but also a designer. Elmer is a math tutor for all ages

they love going to different kind of events and festivals. one of the reasons why they wanted to live on the road in the first place

to get buttons to give away his old clothes, elmer has to assure him it’s for a good cause bcs buttons loves all his clothes. Buttons still get a little sad and pouty when those days come but picks himself up again when elmer offers a disney movie night on the projector with some snacks

oh yes, they bring lots of snacks on the road

They have a cat. still nameless soz

the cat is very fluffy and sheds a lot. which is kind of a problem especially on buttons clothes

“you’re lucky you have a cute face” -buttons while he’s cleaning the fur off his clothes

Spromeo

they live in a mini bus but kinda looks like a hippie van (idk how to describe it but it’s a mini bus with a hippie kind of style to it yknow)

they have two separate areas in the bus. one up front where the driver and passenger seat is. also coupled with a tiny sofa and a table. that’s where they do their work and dine. very comfy and cozy.

it’s seperated by a thin wooden wall. through the doorway is where the rest of their living quarters are. a bed, small kitchen but fully equipped, a shower, and foldable toilet. instead of a closet, they use a dresser since they don’t really have many clothes anyways

so specs is a history teacher and tutor for all ages. (he’s a history nerd hehe). Romeo is a photographer and cinematographer. mostly a tourist photographer (kinda like albert yknow)

specs likes reading history books, but he mostly does his reading on his tablet and laptop to save space. the same for romeo and comics btw

their bed is full of pillows

they have a cat named snowy. a lazy indoor cat. but she loves to cuddle with them in bed

they’ve also done some traveling to other countries. mostly neighboring countries but are dreaming of going to places in europe and asia.

they enjoy doing lots of board games when they’re not driving

romeo has a ukulele which he constantly uses to serenade to specs. sometimes to snowy but mostly specs

woah that was long akjghflkjasfbj; h. will i write a oneshot with this headcanon? maybe but who knows. just needed to put it out there that i’m pining on living on the road with the loml and some cats and go on an adventure together. anyways hope whoever reads this enjoy and sorry for writing a long headcanon list hehe

#n e wayssss #newsies #random writing #javid #newsbians #ikeshot #jomike #sprace #redfinch #snipesmalls #blush #belmerttons #spromeo #yes yes very good pining rai #look at that :)#amazing

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mocha-sim · 5 years ago

Text

For a while now I’ve wanted to write out a post concerning where I stand on the whole issue with YanSim and its developer (in short: neutral, leaning heavily towards the negative side, but I like the potential of the story and characters). There are a lot of problems and I really want to throw in my two cents

This might not be necessary, but I need to get it off my chest, and hopefully make some people think about other points of view

Warning: long post ahead

1. Six years and still in development

I can really see both sides here

On one hand, six full years without even one rival - the single most important part of the game - and a game still full of placeholder assets, and terrible code on top of that, is pathetic

On the other hand, Yandev is working with only a small team of volunteers and himself, who (no matter what he claims) knows very little about game development (from what i’ve seen, he’s made one before, but it looks like a very small-scale and basic fighting game, unlike YanSim which is much more large-scale and has a lot of features)

Professional game teams do have full, high-quality games made in less than six years, but that time is also a product of game company employees being extremely overworked. Lately I’ve seen a lot more people talking about this issue, which is good, but isn’t it hypocritical to not also apply that logic to Yandev?

Again, though, I’m not sure how much time he spends actually working on the game - to me, it seems like he spends a lot of time on discord, reddit, etc. even if he does only stream for a few hours every night. Maybe the “harassment” that’s “slowing down game development” wouldn’t be such an issue if he didn’t spend so much time online interacting with these people?

2. The writing and characters

I’m not a huge fan of how the game’s story is handled, either

I don’t think it’s 100% fair to cast a final judgement with the game the way it is now - Osana not being out is in no way a good thing, but it also means that there hasn’t really been any opportunity for story or character development yet, especially for the rivals. That being said:

I feel like there’s a lot of wasted potential with characters’ individual stories and with the game’s story as a whole, like the “Aishi curse” - I just can’t think of many good stories with a main character who’s basically an empty husk. If Ayano had emotions from the beginning, and actually had to struggle with them, she could be a much more interesting character. There doesn’t even need to be a magical curse for it to run in the family - the way children are raised has a serious impact on the person they grow into. If Ayano is raised by a crazy, abusive stalker of a mother, she may well turn into the same thing.

Taro, too - he has so many contradicting character traits. He yells at Ayano for “scaring him” when she’s carrying a box cutter or laughing, but has the courage to run right up to a murderer and take off their mask?? He doesn’t care about reputations for Osoro or Oka, but won’t love Ayano if her reputation drops too low?? We’re told that he’s “friendly and respectful”, but we’re never shown that part of his personality. On top of that, we’re not really given a reason to like or pursue him as the goal of the game - when he’s not interacting with Girl of the Week, he doesn’t really do anything except sit by the fountain and read. I feel as though Taro should have a routine that involves interacting with other characters and gives us more of a feel for the personality we’re told he’s supposed to have

Raibaru as a whole makes no sense and feels like a satellite character to Osana. In Osana’s shoes, I would want to have a word with her about personal space. There’s not a lot to say about her aside from that, because... she doesn’t really do anything except follow Osana around all day and shut down the player’s attempts to kill her. She feels more like a soulless obstacle than a character

I think there should be more true pacifist options than just matchmaking - even the befriending elimination route will, in Yandev’s own words, involve someone getting hurt. If we’re supposed to have a choice on whether or not to hurt and kill people, there should be more variety in our options

3. The game’s code sucks/it’s poorly-optimized

Yeah.

I don’t know much about coding but the amount of awkward stretching/bending limbs on corpses, clipping through walls, low fps, etc. makes this obvious. It was definitely a bad move on Yandev’s part to start a project like this without at least taking a coding/game development class or something

I think the best course of action for Yandev would be to get a professional programmer on board after Osana is released and spend a few months fixing the game’s code before he starts work on the next rival

4. The character models are just stolen Unity models

They are just unity models, but not “stolen” at all - YanDev paid for them.

That being said, they’re sort of ugly and inexpressive, and personally i’m hoping they get replaced soon

5. The characters are all minors

They’re not. It’s in flashing red letters on the screen when you open the game. I can’t help but feel like the reason people keep insisting that the characters are minors is so that they can feel like heroes for defending them or something

It doesn’t make a lot of logical sense, but there’s still plenty of time for this to be fixed. I think it was recently confirmed that Akademi is called an “academy” now and won’t be referred to as a high school again

Imo YanDev should just change it to a post-secondary school, since that’s probably the most seamless way for all the characters to be adults

One last thing I want to say on this is that, when it gets brought up, I often see people use the excuse “the age of consent in Japan is 13″. 1: it isn’t - the Japanese government lets each prefecture decide its own age of consent, but 13 is the minimum. As far as I know, no prefecture has set it below 16. 2: even if 13 was the age of consent, that doesn’t mean we should accept and defend it as “part of a different culture”. It’s still pedophilia. 3: Japanese people actively protest against things like this

6. The uniforms are middle-school uniforms/don’t look like they belong in a prestigious school

Yeah

However there are multiple uniform options, and it looks like the default uniforms will be completely changed in the final game

7. Panty shots

YanSim is an 18+ game, but there is such a thing as too far

I’ve seen people who tolerate it, but I haven’t seen a single person who actively likes the panty shots and would complain if they were removed. Imo the part that makes this bad is the fact that we, the player, actively have to point our camera up a girl’s skirt and take a photo of her underwear with it being in full view; the whole way this works makes it obvious that the feature was put in there for titillation more than anything else, and it just feels uncomfortable. If it were more like Uekiya’s key-stealing minigame where all we have to do is push a few buttons, the whole gross/uncomfortable aspect could be taken away and a lot of people would probably be fine with it

It would also be better to replace it with an expanded version of the phone-stealing feature: this would let the player get “points” for students of both genders, plus it would still make sense to gain more points for certain students, like the student council or the bullies. Maybe you could even steal teachers’ phones under certain circumstances?

8. YanDev is homophobic

Again not too sure on this one

Iirc, most of the comments people bring up on this are from years ago when he still went by EvaXephon

But speaking as a wlw, I think some of the ways I’ve seen him talk about f/f relationships are pretty creepy. And on top of that, he seems to be considering adding a “female senpai” option to the game, but no male player character? (though i guess i can see the point of view that a male mc would need a lot more new voice lines, animations, etc. while the senpai follows a mostly fixed routine and would only need so many. still, it seems wrong to have one without the other). I hope I’m wrong about this but his support of the LGBT community seems mostly focused on the L and more for his own entertainment than any actual support

9. YanDev is making more money than he should (and handles it poorly)

His Patreon may be dropping, but his YouTube channel is raking in even more money with 2M+ subscribers, and he’s making even more money from things like merch and donations... all while apparently still living with his parents (which i don’t find hard to believe). He’s also apparently bought 2 switches and a sex doll instead of using the money to hire the help he desperately needs with his game

Assuming he really does still live with his parents, I fully support the petition to get his Patreon suspended until he at least finishes Osana. Most game devs don’t make any money off of their games until they’ve finished it completely

10. YanDev wrote rape fanfics

So I did briefly check his old ffn profile some time ago, and as far as I could see everything had the proper ratings and warnings

Tagging/warning/rating is a fanfic author’s only responsibility to you. You make the choice on whether or not to read it. If everything is appropriately tagged and you read it anyway, that’s on you, not the author. If you are mature enough to be on the internet unsupervised, then you are mature enough to curate your own experience.

Fiction is the place to explore controversial themes and topics. It doesn’t mean in any way that a content creator would condone the things they write about in real life

11. YanDev steals art/assets

He does, and still hasn’t apologized for the DLC rivals thing. In fact he made a post defending himself for it, and even compared himself to Andy Warhol in the process (lol)

I’m not sure but I think I heard something recently about him continuing to do this type of thing (the grass, etc.). In which case we should continue to put pressure on him until he credits the creators of whatever art/assets he stole. Art theft is inexcusable

12. The fanbase is mostly kids

This is unfortunately true, and it’s a big problem (i’ve had to deal with it myself on my youtube channel)

However I would personally say that this problem is outside of YanDev’s control. Kids seem to be drawn to edgy/violent things, or things they shouldn’t be allowed to see (just look at Call of Duty). I put the blame for this on the parents who aren’t monitoring their kids’ computer activities. As for YanDev, he’s not a babysitter and it’s not his responsibility to censor his content for kids who shouldn’t be viewing it in the first place

Underage or not though, he should really avoid calling his fans things like “fuck kittens”. Even from the perspective of an adult that’s super creepy to hear

13. The character designs suck

Some are alright, others are absolutely awful

I think that, in a game built on anime tropes, characters should be allowed to have unnaturally-coloured hair. I mean, a lot of characters in anime do have weird hair that you wouldn’t see in real life (seemingly without any dye), and it can add a lot of personality to their designs

But some YanSim characters push that too far. The science club is the worst of the worst imo, despite being otherwise one of my favourite clubs. The neon streaks are ugly, and what’s up with the visors? Why are they allowed to wear those outside of club time? Why do they wear them during club time, as opposed to actual goggles or something? (i have this issue with a lot of club accessories, imo the accessories are unnecessary in the first place)

The bullies and the light music club also take things too far. Their designs are crowded, hard to look at, and out-of-place. Nothing against characters with multi-coloured hair, but there’s a time and a place and a “prestigious” school setting isn’t it

(also, slightly off-topic, but why does almost every “intended couple” look like they could be siblings?)

I could probably make a whole separate post on the character designs in YS, but I’ll save that for another day. (i’m just very passionate about character design)

14. YanDev has collaborated with porn games 3 times now

Once I could overlook (after all, the characters are 18+ and YS is already not for kids) but a third time? Seriously? And so soon after the last one?

Not only do I have mixed feelings about Yandev doing crossovers when his game isn’t even in the demo stage yet, isn’t this game supposed to be taken seriously as a horror game? I can’t think of a single other horror game that has willingly put its characters in porn.

Also I can’t help noticing that he advertises the porn game crossovers a lot more than he did with that one Dark Deception crossover. Did he ever even mention that one? I only ever saw it on the Dark Deception Twitter

15. YanDev is rude to his fans

I don’t have a lot to say against this one. As far as I’ve seen, he is, and he doesn’t take criticism well at all (just look at the subreddit - yes, a lot of the things that were removed deserved it (unfunny cum chalice jokes, etc.) but there have also been completely innocent questions, fanarts, jokes, and fanfics that have been removed. Not to mention mods going through peoples’ post history and banning them for being active in r/Osana. Both he and his mod team seem insanely paranoid)

I think he’s going to have to grow a thicker skin and stop censoring critiques if he wants to get anywhere with this game. Not just fans who bring up tiny details that might need changing, but also big, glaring issues like the code and character designs and such. He also doesn’t seem that professional for a game developer who wants to be taken seriously

That being said, if you’re the type to spam the discord server/subreddit/fan communities who have nothing to do with Yandev like the amino, you deserved that ban

16. YanDev defends pedophiles/the “sex license” thing

“No adult ever has any excuse to do anything sexual with a child. As soon as you touch a kid, you have crossed the line from being someone with a mental disorder to being the worst scum imaginable. Having a mental illness is involuntary, but touching a kid is a choice. If you have a mental illness, I feel bad for you. If you violate a child, I feel disgust and contempt for you, and I think you deserve the death penalty.” -From YanDev himself on this page

The sex license thing is also debunked on the same page: the whole conversation was taken out of context and the hypothetical “license” was supposed to be something that only an adult could meet the requirements for

17. “Corona-chan”

This was a really insensitive move to make in the middle of a pandemic, and I agree that the design was racist

However, YanDev listened to the fans’ complaints and removed the easter egg a day later, plus gave an apology. I think that this was the best thing he could do in that scenario and idk what else people are expecting him to do about it

18. YanDev’s general portrayal of high schoolers

Honestly, it’s not 100% realistic (especially in some of the dialogue. you know what i’m talking about)

I’m surprised that more students don’t seem to have friends outside of their clubs. It seems like all the students mostly stick within their club/group - walking to school together, spending their breaks together, etc. A lot of the ways the characters behave are very robotic, like walking in a perfectly straight line everywhere they go

That being said, a lot of the things i’ve seen criticized in regards to this are not part of the problem. By the time you’re in high school, you’ve probably hit puberty. It doesn’t make a character automatically sexualized if they have bigger breasts (though some designs in the game are over-sexualized, like a few certain staff members)

19. Muja, Mida, and Hanako

Let’s start with Hanako: Yandev has already said that she’s not romantically interested in her brother, she’s just insanely clingy and doesn’t want him to get a girlfriend out of fear that he’ll forget about her. If you still insist that she’s in love with Taro, then that’s on you

Muja and Mida I have mixed feelings on.

If every student is 18 or older, meaning that the first-years are 18, that makes Taro, a third-year, 20-21 years old. If Mida and Muja are in their early 20s as Yandev has said, that means that the age gap isn’t an issue. However, it’s still wrong for a teacher or a nurse to pursue their student/patient

I don’t think Yandev should need to spell out “hey, Mida and Muja are not good people” in flashing neon signs. The game is rated M and anyone who’s old enough to play it should be able to understand that without it being said. If you need morality in fiction spoon-fed to you, you probably shouldn’t be watching/reading/playing anything rated above PG

On the other hand, YanDev has a nasty habit of making these things into a joke, which is really insensitive and creepy. Like saying that Mida’s favourite food is “the spit of a younger man” (yikes), that she’s tried to seduce her own students 69 times (haha 69 so funney right guys XD), or that whole confession scene mess. It’s less of a problem with Muja, but it’s still there. As much as the audience shouldn’t need everything served to them on a silver platter, issues like these should still be treated with respect, not made into gags

20. Yandev wastes time on “Easter eggs”

I have to agree that he does spend time implementing unnecessary things sometimes (like the abc challenge), but as far as I know the Easter eggs are what he does in his spare time while waiting for assets from volunteers. However: snap mode, which was hyped up for years, turned out to be a flop with zero purpose, disappointing a good portion of the fanbase.

21. Love Letter

So far I’m really liking the look of this game: I like the models and the school environment they’ve shown, and it seems like they’re doing a lot of things in better or more interesting ways than YanDev, like not outright telling us who the rivals are. I don’t think it’s fair to accuse them of “stealing” anything, when it seems like most of the assets the games have in common are the things they bought from the Unity store (Love Letter even changed the base Unity model to have a more appealing look)

I'm glad to see that they actually listened to criticism from fans on things like Setsuna’s design (I love her newest look and I hope it’s the final one). From design alone she’s already a more interesting protagonist, and she looks like the sort of character you’d actually enjoy playing as

Not sure I totally buy the claim that it was all done in two weeks, but even if it was over the span of months, that’s still miles better than YanSim’s six years

Knowing that Dr. Apeis has already ditched one project I’m staying open to new information on this, but as of right now I’m looking forward to playing the demo!

Overall: A lot of the hate against the game and the dev are unnecessary, but some is justified and we shouldn’t blindly defend everything he does (seriously, you can admit that the character designs are shit. no one is going to stone you for it). There are a lot of improvements Dev could make, both on the game and on his behaviour towards fans.

I think that the biggest improvement would be for the game to just stop taking itself so seriously. At this point, it’s so full of memes, cringy google translate names, excessive edginess, and gags that it may as well just be a fun ridiculous anime game instead of a serious horror game. I feel like taking this approach could make it more successful (plus, it doesn’t really have a lot of horror elements aside from the gore)

There are a lot of cases of people taking things too far. Like spamming YanDev with explicit gore/animal abuse, trying to swat him, spamming volunteers with weird porn, trying to hack into volunteers’ accounts (including bank accounts), etc. That is going way too far, no matter how awful or pathetic you think a person is. If you are doing these kinds of things, you are doing more harm than Dev or his volunteers

Attacking YanDev’s appearance is unnecessary and not related to his behaviour or skills. Same with the chalice memes

However, I’ve seen a lot of YanDev’s defenders lashing out against “gremlins”, lumping all of them in with the kinds of people who do these things. If you check r/Osana, you’ll see that most if not all of the people there condemn this behaviour: the gore and porn spammers are a loud minority (and i’m willing to bet most of them are the basement-dwelling losers from KiwiFarms and 4Chan)

Attacking and/or spamming fans who are just trying to enjoy the game is also unnecessary. Someone liking a video game you don’t like is not doing you any harm. Be mature and move on

I’m not sure if some of what I’ve said above is 100% accurate so if anyone actually read this and has evidence against it then feel free to add

I think that’s about all I have to say on that. Again, i don’t know if it will change anything in the fandom but i really just wanted to get this off my chest

#yandere simulator #yansim #yanderedev #yandev #not sure if i should tag this as crit or not

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avethegamer14 · 5 years ago

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DOOM (series) Review

Oh baby do I love First Person Shooters (FPS) and what better way than the granddaddy of them all to fall right into the lap of me, yours truly, to review this masterpiece of gaming history. So if you didn’t know what DOOM is, then fucken play it you scrub. Get off FuckNite and play DOOM. Oh and prepare yourself Tumblr as this review is NOT gonna be a very P.C. one, but i’ll try my best to be, not. Anyways DOOM is a video game series made in 1993 by the company ID Software. Creators John Romero and John Carmack, along with artist Adrian Carmack and game programmer Tom Hall and Dave Taylor with others, created DOOM with the same programming they used for their other game Wolfenstein 3-D( Review coming soon) but better and more detailed. DOOM takes place in a distant future with life on Mars already happening, but instead of people living there it's mainly used by the military for the moment. The military organization is called U.A.C., known as Union Aerospace Corporation, colonized Mars and started to experiment with teleporters. Little did they know it will bring Hell itself to their base and start havoc. Oh and by the way I know that's not for every game of DOOM but not gonna explain each plot line here. You play as a lone marine known as DoomGuy, or DoomSlayer depending on what you like to call him, and your mission..I’ll let you guess for a while before reading on...your mission is to KILL ALL DEMONS, so basically a religious persons wet dream if they were ok with it. Anyways you have to rip and tear your way through anything and everything that wants to kill you. That's the basic premise of DOOM, in order to get a better explanation of each game, well we're gonna get to that in a little, but DOOM isn’t just about killing demons or killing demons, I mean DOOM has a fucken killer soundtrack to get you pumped, which by the way

DOOM soundtrack: (5/5)

Yeah that's right, although I would never do this for most games, yet DOOM takes the cake for its soundtrack. ID could have put anything for this game, a horror soundtrack oh something weird, but instead they put metal. Just listen to E1M1 and tell me this does not pump you up to go and kill demons with only a shotgun, cause it does

Anyways should we get to the review itself. Now I do have to clarify that not all DOOM games are gonna be here, just the ones that connect to the DoomGuy. I’ll review the other DOOM games in the future like the RPG DOOM and other modded DOOM games, on with the review

DOOM (1993): (10/10)

Ok so for future reviews of DOOM, not all DOOM games are going to have a 10/10 score. Anyways what's not to say about the original DOOM that hasn’t been said. DOOM can be played on almost everything, from a calculator to my 2 year old daughter’s Tickle Me Elmo, DOOM can be played everywhere so thank you ID. DOOM (1993) is so versatile that even a Chromebook can run it. When people talk about the best laptops, just ask “can it run DOOM?”

DOOM II: (9.5/10)

DOOM II, the sequel to DOOM (1993). By far one of the best DOOM games i have ever played but i have one minor complaint. That complaint is WHY THE FUCK DOES IT RUN SLOW. Seriously DOOM (1993) ran perfect and yet DOOM II runs sluggish, maybe it's my computer but still, great game. Love the ending (spoiler alert) when I kill John Romero's head, i mean the Icon of Sin, i mean uh…”To beat the game, you must kill me, John Romero.”

Ultimate DOOM and Final DOOM: (N/A)

Like I said, I'm gonna review these games separately since I’ve been hearing that these have no effect on the DoomGuy story line, plus I haven't played these mainly because I can’t find a copy. By the way if anyone has a copy of games that you want me to review my email is [email protected]. Now back to the DOOM review.

DOOM 64: (8/10)

Supposedly the last sighting of the DoomGuy story line, DOOM 64 is a great game with a great story line. Won’t explain it here (or any story lines of the games) but trust me, DOOM 64 is a good game, just go ahead and play it if you got the time

DOOM III: (7/10)

Most DOOM fans can agree with me on this score. DOOM III is a weird game to the franchise and some call it DOOM (1993) but with better graphics and a more in depth plot line. DOOM III is a good game, I’ll give it that. It tried to mix a little horror and more gore, but DOOM III was plagued with the times it was released. Most gamers can agree with that. Now i was talking about its original release, the copy I used to have was the BFG version and it made it a lot better. In other words DOOM III was good for its time.

Any DOOM mobile add on (includes DOOM RPG): N/A

Same as Ultimate DOOM and Final DOOM

DOOM (2016): (9.7/10)

Two words, Holy Shit. ID came back to this series after years of it being dormant. Now most people, including me, new DOOM (2016) wasn’t gonna live up in this day and age of gaming, but DoomGuy, now DoomSlayer, said hold my BFG (means Big Fucken Gun) and slaughtered my whole family. DOOM (2016) was a message to the media, saying fuck you P.C., or cancel culture. Saying fuck you to all religious people that despised video games, said fuck you to everything about what games should be and went with it. DOOM (2016) blew that fucken door and killed everything that was behind it. Now I do have a few complaints about the game. That is its multiplayer mode. Now DOOM has had a multiplayer mode but with DOOM (2016) it kinda sucks. Well no offense who plays DOOM for the multiplayer, that's like saying I play FortNite for Save the World. We can play it but that's not why we want it. DOOM (2016) is good game.

DOOM VR: (N/A)

Wish i could have played it but I don't have a VR, but you can send me one. Email [email protected] (naw just joking but it’ll be pretty dope though)

DOOM Eternal: (10/10)

OK so remember how I said DOOM (2016) multiplayer sucked, well Eternal ripped that shit apart and shoved it down the devil's anus so Satan himself can feel the burn. Then Satan took a shit and forced fed it to his demons, who then fed it to ID. Then ID said “fuck this, we’ll make it better” and make it better they did. What DOOM (2016) had was wrong, DOOM Eternal did right. Oh and let me tell you something, DOOM Eternal and DOOM (2016) soundtrack, fucken killer. Thanks Mick Gordon, anyways both games are equally good. Now normally I would wait a while to review games this early, especially DOOM Eternal but I already had the DOOM review ready so fuck it

DOOM is a great game, it’s an escape for those who want to vent out or just say fuck you to everything and anything that’s happening in our world (looking at you cancel culture). DOOM holds a special place in my heart mainly because it was one of the first games where my mom didn’t care about how violent it was (mainly because i was older). Markiplier, famous YouTuber, loves DOOM because it was a game his father showed him. Others love DOOM because it changed what FPS shooters should be. DOOM is DOOM and I love it for that. Well that's it for this review, this is Gaming Review Avery signing off. Next game review will come soon (Hint: Its DoomGuy’s best friend)

#gaming #game review #doomguy #doom 2016 #doom

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nadeemahmedmumbai22-blog · 6 years ago

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Doomed in Dubai by Nadeem Ahmed

Me; a Model/Presenter/Fashion event director living in Accrington, Lancashire! Hardly the fashion capital of the world I know! Just a mere small village where news spreads like wild fire! It was a known fact that I was a successful model due to my face being splattered all over the place, even locally! I have always been and still am very committed and dedicated to my work.

Being a model was considered a very unconventional career for a northern lad but I knew from a very early age that I was going to break the mould and do something completely different! A very tough industry to break into but thankfully through a lot of challenges, rejections and hard work I found my path.

My story begins from December 2003. I had completed several modelling assignments up and down the country and was so ready for a break. It had been a successful year and now that Christmas was fast approaching, it was time to wind down, spend quality time with family and break all dietary rules!

Traditionally every year, my family would get together at ours for the festive season.

I lived with my grandparents from a very early age and considered them to be my parents. Our house was the central point for all the family and the thread that kept us all together.

I had a good relationship with most of my family members but there were a few rotten eggs which is normal I guess!

I hadn’t seen my cousins for such a long time because of work commitments and so was more than excited about our get together.

We would talk till early hours of the morning without a care in the world.

On some days we would go food shopping at the supermarket at 3am creating a harmless racket!

We got onto the subject of travelling and lucky for my cousin, she and her family had just returned from a place called ‘Dubai’. A place I had never heard of! In all fairness my geographical skills had never been strong. She spoke about it in a very enticing way. I was sold! I needed a break after working so consistently. It seemed the perfect getaway destination as halal food was accessible throughout with it being an Islamic country. I always ate halal food and the thought of going into a Mcdonalds where I could literally eat anything off the menu was so appealing. So sad but true! She also said that getting around was easy and most importantly it was always baking hot which to me was the biggest plus because I hate the cold!

Before long, I had decided that I would be going to Dubai for my holiday. The excitement was building up thick and fast.

I booked my flight which was going to take me to Dubai via Istanbul.

Once I had received all the confirmations, I broke the news to my family telling them that I would be going away for New Years. They were a bit shocked but at the same time so used to me going here there and everywhere! I felt I really owed this holiday to myself after working so incredibly hard! One of my friends recommended that I should check out a website called www.expatriates.com where people connected from all corners of the world sharing their experiences of travel and living abroad. I was always an organised person and so was on the case immediately. I registered myself on the site and left a message on the forum stating that I would be in Dubai and if anyone could make any recommendations?

I was pleasantly surprised to have received some messages from someone called Ethan who seemed most helpful. He was initially from Brazil but now working in Dubai in one of the opulent hotels. He was kind enough to suggest sorting out my accommodation for me to ensure I got a good deal. We exchanged several messages and it felt safe to say that he seemed a trustworthy guy.

It was decided that he would meet me at the airport in Dubai and escort me to my accommodation.

Finally having got to Dubai after almost missing my flight and paying for a Turkish visa that I didn’t need, I was feeling a bit nervous about meeting Ethan but managed to put the doubt to the back of my mind and just decided to roll with it. After all I was an adult that was capable of looking after myself! Besides, Dubai was one of the safest places in the world from what I had read!

As planned Ethan came to the airport, tallish, slim-built with sleeked back jet black hair. Not even an earthquake could move a single strand of hair on his head. He was very friendly and seemed as nice as his messages so I chilled out and began to feel comfortable in his company.

Not long into my stay, Ethan introduced me to one of his closest friends, ‘Luca Hadad’, a television personality from Lebanon who was working for a very well established company in Dubai.

Luca was quite tall, slender built, very fair skinned with green eyes. His hair was very dark in colour with very tight curls. He was dressed very professionally and oozing with confidence.

I seemed to have bonded very quickly with Dubai and I was sure getting the love back! This crazy love put a very random thought into my head.

The thought of leaving my life in the UK behind and trading it in for a more exotic lifestyle! It made sense, I was meeting the right people, I was so happy and at peace, I even had continual great weather which was a big thing for me! So, in true Nadeem style I literally ripped up my ticket! In those days we didn’t have the privilege of e-tickets.

I had decided Dubai was going to be my new home. I wasn’t going back to the UK!

Being totally spontaneous was nothing new to me. It was my comfort zone. I loved to live life on the edge!

Everything was falling into place so naturally that it felt so surreal.

I found a lovely studio flat in Deira. It was cosy and all mine! I was settling in so seamlessly. I felt so blessed that my family were so supportive of my crazy decision.

I felt I knew Ethan and Luca on a much better level now and we were all getting on so well. Luca even suggested that I would be a great asset working for his company presenting English lifestyle programmes. This brought music to my ears after all my money wouldn’t last forever and I needed to work!

Luca was in touch on a regular basis and he mentioned that he would have to leave his swanky flat in Sharjah because the landlord didn’t want tenants anymore. Me being me suggested that he should move into my place until he sorted himself out. I was just so grateful that Luca was pushing his seniors to have me working for them. It was the least I could do!

A meeting had been arranged at the office for me to sign all the paperwork and get all the formalities out of the way for my new job. I got there early and eager as usual. The paperwork was all in Arabic but Luca just asked me to sign on the dotted line and pay the equivalent of £500 cash for the visa. I thought this to be very odd but paid up and didn’t question it in the hope that I would officially have my visa sorted soon and a full time dream job. He was a friend so trust issues were not even on the agenda.

I had been most productive by contacting several model agencies. To my delight, all the hard work had paid off because the work was coming in!

Then one day Ethan decided that we should have a party at my house to celebrate the big move and friendship and so on. He would supply the alcohol and my job was to get some food. I made it clear to him that I didn’t drink but the curiosity had always lingered with me. I had never in my life tasted alcohol! Ethan bullied me into having my first drink, except my first drink was not a little shot but a whole pint of orange juice out done by Jack Daniels. Needless to say I was paralytic. All I could remember was smashing plates, one after the other which was so out of character for me! I also remember being slapped very hard by Ethan and being thrown into a cold shower with my clothes on! The hangover was the worst anyone could ever imagine. I vowed never to drink again!

Time was flying by and there was still no sign of my visa. Things started to go down in a very surreal way. I was told by Luca that Ethan would be moving into my flat because his contract was coming to an end and that he didn’t have anywhere else to stay. Luca who initially had promised to help me financially with rent and bills seemed to have swallowed his words as there was no sign of even a dhiram from him! My money was running out and I needed financial help. Instead, I was having to pay ridiculous amounts of money regularly for my visa that still had not been processed! Unfortunately I was not aware of the rules and regulations regarding visas in the UAE so I was at the mercy of Luca and his knowledge of these things!

My stress levels were shooting through the roof because now I was looking after two more people as well as myself. They were becoming very reliant on me for food, bills and everything basically. They were blatantly taking full advantage of my kind nature!

I was constantly reassured of empty promises that never saw the light of day! There seemed no end to my misery until Ethan announced that he was going back to Brazil then heading off to London to start a new life. It truly was amazing to hear such good news.

Still no visa however there seemed to be a bit of light at the end of the tunnel as Luca and one of his local friends came up with an idea for a lifestyle television show. I was to be fully involved in recruiting models and covering the fashion aspect for the show. The best part was that the local lady would be able to sort my visa out for me. This was such great news as the locals have a lot of power and can make anything happen at any time! Finally it was all pulling together.

Luca’s behaviour was getting incredibly weird. It’s like he was testing me to see how much I trusted him by doing vile things like putting faeces on my toothbrush and completely denying doing it as no one else had access to my flat apart from him so it had to be him, stealing my phone from right under my nose and making me believe that I had lost it even though I was 100% sure where I had left it before heading out for a casting. He had stooped to an even lower level by pimping me out to a wealthy local without my knowledge by referring to him as a ‘client’ that wanted to book me for a model shoot. When I met the client he had a totally different agenda and shouted at me when I refused to comply with his dirty intentions. He said that Luca had received an advance payment for my time with him and that Luca would not receive the rest of the remaining fees! This was all way too much for me to handle! I was losing my mind! I couldn’t believe I was being punished for being so trusting!

I tried to kick Luca out but I became a victim in my own home. I could not get rid of him no matter how hard I tried! I was trapped!

After shooting a fantastic pilot of the TV show in a wonderful studio in Ajman with all the amazing crew, I felt there was a bit of normality coming my way. No doubt it was going to be short-lived!

I was still without my work visa and realised that my tourist visa was about to expire! This was such a huge worry naturally. Again like a million times before, Luca convinced me that the local lady- Fatima his friend, would sort it out!

It so happened that Luca managed to speak with Fatima after the shoot. She said that we needed to meet up with her cousin as she was too busy and hand over my passport to him. He would then insure that it got to her.

We met her cousin who came to meet us in a very expensive luxury car. He insisted we get into the car. I then handed my passport over to him. He seemed quite genuine and concerned for me. However, that was the last time I saw my passport!

I was officially an illegal immigrant which meant I had a curfew as the police did random checks at night. If I got caught without any id then I would be put straight into jail, no questions asked! I don’t look conventionally British so how would I prove my identity without any official documents? I was a prisoner in a foreign country!

One random morning, Luca was up earlier than normal and all I could hear was the rustling of bags. He was all packed and ready to go back to Lebanon! It was a beautiful surprise to learn that I was finally getting rid of this dishonest, self-centred person who claimed to be my friend but just used me and rinsed me dry of my money!

Whilst leaving, he kept assuring me that Fatima would sort my visa and that I should stop worrying! He had instructed her to contact me as soon as it was done! I still had that glimmer of hope and with that bit of positive feeling I said good riddance to bad rubbish!

My home was once again my own. I was so elated! Words simply could not describe how I felt at that moment!

I went back to bed to sleep and got up feeling fresh and happy!

My peace was brutally interrupted with a heavy knock at the door. I wasn’t expecting anyone which was strange! So who was it? I went to open the door and to my extreme horror, I went flying back with a heavy punch from one of the guys that had come to my house. They were four heavy built guys on the hunt for Luca, who had swindled them out of thousands of pounds too as he had done to me. They knew he lived at my place and so came to get their money as they too were promised working visas but didn’t see anything for their money.

I tried to explain that I too was a victim of Luca’s trap but they wouldn’t have it! I was being severely battered by the ring leader who was amused at my reactions of when I was being hit!

They insisted that it was my responsibility to get all their money back and if I didn’t they would kill me and scrap away every bit of evidence of my existence. I was forced to write a document saying that I owed all of them money and that I would be paying the full amount back to them asap! They needed my fathers name, my UK address and my signature. According to them, this was a bound contract that I had to fulfil! I was told I was not going to get away! They had turned my flat upside down. It looked like a bomb site! They raided my wardrobes and took everything that seemed of value to them including my bag that housed my official documents including my university certificates, birth certificate, college certificates and cash money, not forgetting my mobile phone, my designer belts, clothing, camera and walkman! It didn’t seem like there were going anywhere! I was officially held hostage in my own flat!

I was given just a few hours to get thousands of pounds together. They hit me some more and left leaving my flat empty and lifeless with just a few things scattered around promising that they would be back the following day. On leaving I got my final punch for the day and they finally left several painful hours later!

Naturally I was not in a good way! The Stress and panic was overwhelming as I tried to figure out how I could possibly get such a substantial amount of money together in such a short space of time?

Time flew whilst I was lost in my thoughts on trying to make heads and tails of this surreal situation! It was too late! I got the dreaded knock on the door again. It was full blown aggressive and I felt that my life was about to be shortened! I was finished! They came busting in and continuing with the torture they had started the day before. I couldn’t get the money! It was impossible! I was being strangled and beaten. It was like I was having an out of body experience! It didn’t feel like it was really happening! The truth is that it was and I was living my worst nightmare. I was ‘Doomed In Dubai’!

Things were progressively getting worse and I was told by the ringleader that I would be taught a lesson that I would never forget! I was dragged onto the bed by my hair and held down by all four of them. I fought with my last bit of fight but failed miserably because I was totally outnumbered! Then the most horrific thing that could ever happen to anyone happened!!! The ring leader unbuttoned his trousers and thrust himself in me!! My body rose in the air like a dead corpse!

They eventually left swearing and spitting, leaving me for dead promising to be back! I was bleeding and crying for my mum uncontrollably. I was damaged far more than anyone could ever imagine!

Even though the situation was extreme and I was at my weakest, I needed to find a way out before they came back and finished me off for good! I had no money, no id or anything to my name for that matter. By the grace of God I found a phone card that had fallen on the floor beside my sideboard which miraculously had some credit on it. I rang one of Luca’s friends from the phone booth just outside my flat who I had met a while back because his number was an easy number to remember and for some very strange reason it was stuck in my head. It was a risk no doubt but I had nothing to loose.

I managed to speak to him and he advised me that I should go and stay with him which I did. He turned out to be an angel. He put me in contact with my family who then sent me some money over to get a new passport made from the embassy, a ticket to come back, a mobile phone and anything else that I needed.

Getting a new passport was by far a challenge and a half. I had to go to the police to get an official letter to say that my passport was missing which took weeks. I had to go everyday to the police station and tell my story to different officers. They obviously never exchanged notes! During this time I had become so frail! I was losing my hair, weight and not to forget my confidence which was nonexistent!

My family were in panic mode wondering whether I would ever return to the UK again? There was one particular time where I had lost the will and I remember vividly saying to my mother on the phone that I would never be coming back!

I feel blessed to have amazing friends as one of my friends from the UK found out that I was in trouble. She immediately contacted one of her friends who was visiting Dubai at the time, asking him to meet up with me and to accompany me to all the official offices to get my documents stamped and authenticated. He came to my rescue and was a huge tower of strength.

Eventually the day came when I finally said my goodbyes to Dubai. It didn’t feel real to me at all as I had lost all hope. I wasn’t myself anymore. I had lost everything!

I found it very difficult settling back into the UK. I wasn’t in a good place! I had to start my life from scratch which was no joke at the age of thirty! Every night I would have the same nightmare reoccurring which severely affected my sleep and my health!

Whilst in Dubai I didn’t have time to absorb all what had actually happened to me, I was just concerned about getting the hell out of there, but back in the UK it was starting to hit me more and affect me massively.

One day I took my mum and grand mother to a summer festival where my friend was performing. She had visited me in Dubai but I hadn’t mentioned anything to her about what was going on behind the scenes. We had a nice day and went back home at a reasonable time. Every day I was hating on myself more and more and on this particular day I was at my worse to the point where I ended up taking an overdose of paracetamols. I didn’t want to live anymore! I was found split seconds from death and saved. The ambulance had taken me to hospital and I had my stomach pumped. I stayed in hospital for a good few days and managed to arrange some counselling sessions with a psychiatrist. He encouraged me to get tested because I was sexually assaulted, which I did. I offloaded everything onto him which helped me hugely because it was building and bubbling up inside. I couldn’t bring myself to speak to my family about it!

Slowly slowly I was making progress. My confidence was coming back which was quite amazing. I decided to contact my model agencies to start working again. I loved my work and needed this to keep me sane!

I was truly blessed with another chance in life.

My test results came back negative and I started to enjoy life again.

After settling back and getting into routine I had a fantastic job offer of presenting a travel documentary in the UAE. I panicked but then decided that it would be good for me to go back and conquer my fears plus it was an opportunity of a lifetime to work with such bigwigs of the industry. I followed my heart and accepted the offer. I pulled through nicely after confiding in my colleague who supported me throughout!

I was always a traveller and felt that I needed a change. I was getting a lot of modelling work in London and so saw it as a sign to leave Lancashire and start afresh in London which is exactly what I did!

My life here has been fantastic and exhilarating. Naturally I still have some trust issues even today but not on the same level as before. I have surrounded myself with amazing positive people, my dear friends who have showed me how life should be lived. I am eternally grateful for their unconditional love and support!

It was important for me to write my book because it has helped me close this chapter of my life for good! Also I would not want anyone else to go through what I did, even if it is just that one person that learns from my experience. It’s a hugely educational rollercoaster read with a warning to others especially for people who have the travel bug and want to work and settle down abroad.

On the positive side of things, I am a much stronger person. I have learnt a very valuable lesson the hardest way possible. I have taken something so negative and turned it into something so positive! In my words- “What Breaks you, Makes you”!!!!

#nadeemahmed

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punkwhodrinkstea-blog · 6 years ago

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The Long Road of the Holidays

The holidays have come to an end, we flew through Christmas and it’s not the new year. People partied extra hard for no real reason and was probably horribly irresponsible for the hollow hope of trying to have a good time and avoid their life. Their attempts will be in vain since life goes on and it will come back to bite them in the butt if it hasn’t already. But nevermind that cause I hate new years celebrations because it has literally no meaning or purpose at all cause it changes nothing.

Anyway, let me tell you a little story. A few days ago my Fiancee and I arrived back at her house to find a girl probably in her early or mid-20s just sitting with a notebook sitting on the curb. It was a cold night and I thought maybe she was waiting for someone to pick her up, but she had a notebook out and not a cell phone, plus she almost looked homeless. So I had a feeling (probably from God) to ask her if she was okay and if she needed a ride somewhere. My fiancee and I got out of the car and walked over to her. I simply said “excuse me” and the first reaction was to ask if that was our house and that she needed to move. Apparently, people get mad if a stranger is sitting in front of their house...in the cold...what? Okay, only a dick would be mad about that. But anyway I just stopped her and told her it was fine for her to be there and then I proceeded to ask her if she needed a ride somewhere. She was not only surprised but she must’ve thought it was a miracle or something based on how she reacted. I suppose it is rare when a stranger asks if you need a ride but I thought it was pretty obvious that she wanted to be anywhere other than on the side of the road in the cold. I’d like to think more people would’ve considered that but our world is dark and no one seems to notice other people anymore these days. Heck according to her first concern, it seems that it would have been more likely for someone to see her as a problem then as someone who needed help. Next, she apologized for having acne….my heart sank a little. For starters, having acne is painful enough and not really your fault; at least most of the time since most people don’t usually choose to have acne. She clearly has had someone in her life complain about her acne or somehow made her feel like she is a problem in many ways in order for her to feel the need to apologize for it. Whoever makes someone feel that bad for something like this should have their balls slowly crushed in a vice. Anyway, she took our offer to give her a ride and we drove her back to her apartment. She was very nice the whole ride and we had a perfectly good and fairly natural conversation along the way. As the overprotective person that I am. I felt that maybe her niceness was fake because she seemed to be in with some bad people or she was down on her luck. Which based on other people like that, it is often because deep down, they are all dicks and it’s often time the reason why they are “down on their luck” or stuck with the bad crowd. My fiancee pointed out though that there are always red flags when someone is a bad person and she didn’t show any other than my vague assumptions, it’s not fair to judge someone on assumptions of any kind. In the end, she asked my Fiancee for her cell number and asked if maybe we could hang out sometime. She hasn’t texted or called at all so either she didn’t care to call/text, she forgot really quickly, she lied and was just being nice or my fiancee wrote her number down wrong which she is already overthinking. But at least we got the chance to help someone so that’s nice, I hope she is doing well because she mentioned that she had a rough holiday season.

Anyway, back to Christmas stuff. Christmas was pretty much the same but with college and so many family gatherings it came and went way too fast and the most joy I got from the season of Christmas was listening to Christmas CDs my fiancee made for the car. We only got to listen to them while driving from one chaotic family gathering to another. But we survived together and I’m glad. Next, I’m going to touch on all my presents this year and keep in mind that I’m a Gamer who comes from a wealthy family.

The first gift was a leather wallet that had only 3 pockets just big enough to hold 3 cards or maybe 2 cards and a small amount of cash that must be folded in half. My brother got this for me because it’s the kind of useless, overpriced hipster trash that he likes. He also accused me of using a plastic bag as a wallet even though he has seen me use my perfectly good and very practical wallet that I will continue to use because the wallet he gave me is pretty much useless. Thanks but no thanks, really shows just how disconnected he is from me and it shows that he thinks that because he likes that stuff, he thinks everyone else must like it too.

The second gift was also from my brother and I’m not sure which is more useless. This gift is a “Roku Streaming Stick Plus”. You probably don’t know what that is. Basically, it’s a USB stick but it’s not, instead, the port goes into an HDMI port. So it can stream audio and video to any display with an HDMI port. Long story short, it makes any display in a really crappy smart TV, aka a Netflix box. Now I rarely watch TV/Netflix/Youtube and I actually hate the idea of wasting away my life just watching stuff, I mean I’ve got stuff to do, I want to live my life, I want to be productive or actually have fun, anything but just sit there and consume content designed to make me dumb and addicted to their cheap form of entertainment. I refuse to be a sheep. Anyway, this is my brother's second gift to me and once again it shows just how little my brother knows me… or he’s trying to turn me into him? Not sure but I might sell his gifts.

Third gift and one of the best, a bag of Beef Jerky. I’ve never really had Beef Jerky before because it’s expensive and probably really unhealthy but…. I had this bag and it was addicting and delicious. It’s already gone but my fiancee helped so I didn’t eat it all on my own.

Next was a pair of PJs, I actually got the exact same pair of PJs last year but they are a different color this time. They are good PJs so I’m glad I got another set.

Second last present was from my sister. She got me a t-shirt which fits me nicely and is just plain blue so I can’t complain. She also said she will pay for a 4-month parking pass for my college parking. That’s a lot of money and I am currently parking at an old friend’s house about 2km away to save money so I asked her to not give me the parking pass and maybe just help me pay car insurance for a month since it’s more helpful and costs less. Also at this rate, I might not have the money to pay for car insurance so the parking pass with be 100% useless. My sister and parents got mad at me when I point out that her gift will be a waste of money and that giving that money to help pay for my car would be far more helpful and cheaper. They said it was rude to not accept the gift and that I have to take it as it is… I guess they just like wasting money? They aren’t very smart. But they’d rather see this “grand” gesture which is just sooooo helpful than to actually be helpful and practical… and they wonder why I think they are foolish. They don’t think with their heads they think the way our culture has trained them to think.

Last and certainly not least. Over a month ago I found a GTX 1070 on for a great price at a local Staples if you’d believe it (it’s a High-End graphics card). Based on my lack of money and the fact that a good new graphics card is a worthy investment that will last me several years into my future I begged my dad to get it for me and said I’d even pitch in to get it. To my surprise, he actually got it for me and didn’t make me pitch in to help pay for it. It was great timing too because my current graphics card was having a hard time running the latest games. Plus the GTX 1070 can run VR which my fiancee and I want to have in the future (but mostly me). Now I knew my dad could afford the graphics card since we’re rather rich but the real surprise was if he was actually going to help me with something gaming related.

To end off this blog post let me just say that I am making a freak’n board game. As a gamer and writer, creating a game is right up my alley. I’d love to make a video game and I was going to do only tutorials and stuff to learn how to make a game in Unreal Engine since they have a logic system that can be programmed without the need for being a master programmer but I know I won’t have the time until probably the summer so I’ll save that for then. But in the meantime I’ll be working on my board game. I realized that my local library has a 3D printer for use by anyone in the public. So I found the software they use online and have begun designing the game pieces. I genuinely think that I would make a great game maker. I have the mind for it and I have lots of knowledge and experience to know what makes a good game and how to balance everything. Plus I love to create and I simply find it so fun. If I somehow get a career making games I’m taking it. Anyway, long story short the game is coming along super well and myself along with some friends are really excited about it. It’s a weird side project I know but even as a kid I actually made expansion packs and my own board games. The main problem was that no one ever played with me. It was a big reason as to why I love video games, with video games I can play against AI enemies or online where there are always people to play with, plus you don’t have to drive/walk to your friend’s house to play with them. Gaming with people in person is usually better than online but the amount of practicality of online gaming far outways the idea of me or a friend constantly traveling and moving our gear.

Next, the reason for the title of this blog post was because I’ve done a crap ton of driving over the holidays and I’m tired of it. My fiancee and I went on a road trip to my old, old house where I spent nearly half my life and I got to show her around and talk her ear off about what life was like in a big rich white neighborhood. Her mother came along to see something that I can’t really explain. Something about birds, I could google it but I’m not going to tell you the name anyway. The real reason she came along was to make sure my fiancee and I didn’t have sex which was a bit insulting since both my fiancee and I have done a great job with boundaries and we are both confident that we won’t. We plan to wait until we are married for those who don’t know.

Okay, one last thing I promise. Growing up the phrase “that’s gay” or “that’s super gay” or some use of the word gay was apart of my vocabulary and was often used to express how dumb I thought something was, I know myself and many other people used the word just like that and no one ever got offended and it was totally normal…. Until one day. The storm clouds blew in, thunder roared, lightning crashed, shots were fired and…. A literal gay kid got offended. Myself and others were slowly trained that using the word gay like that could be offensive that we should never say it again. These were dark times but I have reached the point in my life where I simply don’t give a bloody gay butt fucking care about that overly sensitive bullshit that mentally screwed up gay people brought into our society anymore! So now I use the word gay just like I used too and I use it as often or as little as I want. If someone gets offended then too bad. It’s not my fault you are so sensitive or that you’re gay and I am tired of bending to the will of those who are so messed up. So I AM DONE!

...Thank good night, I hope you’re happy…

*drops the mic*

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douchebagbrainwaves · 4 years ago

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I'VE BEEN PONDERING CAPS

It could be because you're living in the future. It's obvious why investors delay.1 When a friend of mine visiting India sprained her ankle falling down the steps in a railway station. I've learned a lot from things I've read on HN. An Operational Definition. Will your blackberry get a bigger screen? The numbers on the Y Combinator application that would help Web-based software forces programmers to. Don't wait before climbing that mountain or writing that book or visiting your mother.2

The conversations you overhear tell you what to do anymore. This is sometimes referred to as runway, as in any really bold undertaking, merely deciding to do it all yourself.3 4%? Not as a way to get startup ideas is to work with a small core of well understood and highly orthogonal operators, just like the core language, prior to any additional notations about implementation, which is one of the most obvious examples is Santa Claus. Venture funding works like gears. After ten weeks' work the three friends have an idea. The price is that valuation caps aren't actual valuations, and notes are cheap and lightweight.4 Otherwise you won't bother learning much more.5 To see an interesting variety of probabilities we have to be specific about what they plan to do and the kind that's interesting to write.6

What problems? It gives us an excuse for being lazy, the others would be more fun. But should you start a startup than just start it. After all, as most companies do more mundane stuff where the decisive factor is effort, not brains. Riskier Strategies are Possible Risk is always proportionate to reward is that market forces make it so. By similar comparisons you can make yourself nearly immune to tricks. Is an inbox the optimal tool for that? Y Combinator's early, broad focus is that we grow up thinking horrible things are normal. The big dogs don't have to be called Ajax.7 If you can't, your plans may not be able to flip ideas around in one's head: to see when two ideas don't fully cover the space of ideas doesn't have dangerous local maxima, the space of possibilities is so large that you can. And this turns out to be. The best word to describe the way lions seem in the wild seem about ten times more alive.8

They don't even get a shot at being really big. But the techniques for building integrated circuits spread rapidly to other countries. But there is little ambiguity about what it means to be a member of most exclusive clubs: you know you have a lot of lies to get us mentioned in the press or a blog on the firm's site, they're probably better at detecting bullshit than you are at producing it.9 The VC funds that don't adapt won't be violently displaced. Depends on what you want.10 A rounds. Then you could, I don't mean to suggest by this list that America is the perfect place for startups. Detox A sprinter in a race almost immediately enters a state called oxygen debt. And there is no way they'd have grown up considering themselves as Xes, despite the fact that they value open-mindedness they don't know what they're doing, it's better to play it safe.

Make Web sites for galleries—that's the ticket!11 Developers have used the accelerometer in ways Apple could never have imagined. Everyone makes up their own deal terms. If they shake your hand on a promise, because there will be an effort to understand him. In fact, you don't need Microsoft on the client, they can't push users towards their server-based software, you're being offered millions of dollars, put yourself in a situation with a large percentage of the gains.12 Html 15. Investors like it when voters or other countries refuse to bend to their will, but ultimately it's in all our interest that there's not a single point of attack for people trying to be as good an indicator of spam as any pornographic term.13 Instead of treating them as virtual words. If you're not omniscient, you just stop working on it till you've launched.

Really, it's Apple's fault.14 If you feel exhausted, it's not uncommon for investors and acquirers. Links and images you should certainly look at, if we want to make their mark on the world, and some of the more beautiful highways in the world, write a new Mosaic. Not linearly of course, but that's true in a lot of people that age, and he was pretty much a throwaway program and keep improving it. A lot of the same words as my real mail. Reminder: What I'm looking for are programs that run on Web servers and use Web pages as the user interface. Not ready for commitment This was my reason for not starting a startup—becoming the sort of strategic insight I was supposed to look. I learned something valuable from that. After a while this filter will start to make up their minds, and excessive dilution in series A rounds later. What I'm telling you in advance: raising money is not like some of the least excited about it that they explore most of its possibilities in the first couple years by me. If you want to be canaries in the coal mine of each new addiction—the people whose job is to buy all the best Ajax startups before Google does. Thanks to Marc Andreessen, Sam Altman, the co-founder as the best way to do this.

If they even say no. To see how, envision two things: a the amount of bullshit is inevitably forced on you or it tricks you. Companies didn't start to finance themselves with retained earnings was one cause of the second type. But it could be shipped to Europe. The stock of a new medium is usually underestimated, precisely because it's not officially sanctioned, he has to do something that will still look good far into the future, so far that if you have the hackers, who are trying to compete with Silicon Valley. But they work as if they got the answer to this question. Most startups that raise money do it more. And I've met a lot of servers and a lot of money to us. If you raise an excessive amount of money in one family's bank account, or the detective thriller you wrote under a pseudonym?15 Football players like to win by making great products.

Notes

I tried ranking users by both average and median comment score, and b made brand the dominant factor in deciding between success and failure, just as on a saturday, he wrote a prototype in Basic in a situation where the acquirer just wants the business, and B doesn't, that he had more fun in this, but the distribution of good ones, it will seem more powerful sororities at your school sucks, where many of the political pressure to protect one's children seems weaker, judging from things people have to decide between turning some investors away and selling more of the first abstract painters were trained to expect the second component is empty—an idea where the ratio of spam in my incoming mail fluctuated so much better to overestimate than underestimate the importance of making a good product. It's surprising how small a problem, but also very informative essay about why something isn't the problem is that any idea relating to the way I know for sure a social network for x instead of working. And starting an organic farm, though. Brooks, Rodney, Programming in Common Lisp for, but corrupt practices in finance, healthcare, and no one would have a different attitude to the way I know it didn't to undergraduates on the other team.

I'm thinking of Oresme c. If by cutting the founders' advantage if it were.

Then when we got to the same, but they start to get rich by creating wealth—wealth that, in Galbraith's words, of the fatal pinch where your idea is crack. The Old Way. Compromising a server could cause such damage that ASPs that want to measure that turns out to be the right direction to be an inverse correlation between the two elsewhere, but when companies reach a given audience by a factor of 20. Mueller, Friedrich M.

And if they want impressive growth numbers. In high school. There are also the 11% most susceptible to charisma. So although it works on all the other hand, they made more that year from stock options, because the broader your holdings, the work that seems formidable from the government had little acquired immunity to tax rates.

A from a company's culture. It's hard to mentally deal with them.

Stone, op. 03%. In the beginning. I wrote this on an IBM laptop.

But it is very common, but also like an undervalued stock in that. Did you just get kicked out for doing badly and is doomed anyway. And that is actually from the CIA.

Steve hadn't come back. For example, I was just having lunch. A friend who started a company is common, but suburbs are so intellectually dishonest in that sense, but corrupt practices in finance, healthcare, and domino effects among investors.

Founders rightly dislike the sort of wealth for society. But a couple predecessors. Some of the most accurate way to tell VCs early on.

Joshua Schachter tells me it was the recipe is to ignore investors and instead focus on growth instead of blacklist. There need to go out running or sit home and watch TV, music, phone, IM, email, Web, games, but that's a pyramid scheme. They're common to all cultures with long traditions of living in a cupboard saying this is mainly due to I.

Articles of this essay, I advised avoiding Javascript. This is an acceptable excuse, but Google proved them wrong. Nor do we draw the line?

Financing a startup.

One YC founder who read this essay wrote: After the war, tax rates. One-click ordering, however, and since technological progress aren't sharply differentiated.

Plus one can have margins big enough, a day feels like it if you want to take action, go ahead. In this essay, I believe will be inversely proportional to the year x in a time. Philadelphia.

A from a mediocre VC. This approach has not worked well, so if you're not sure.

Thanks to Chris Small, and Trevor Blackwell for their feedback on these thoughts.

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welldresseddadblog · 7 years ago

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Welcome to the 13th instalment of the “Garmsman Dozen” question and answer session. The response so far has been tremendous. Did you miss earlier ones? There are links at the end of the page.

This week we welcome to the Garmsman Dozen Christopher Laverty from Great Britain!

Who are you, where do you live and what interests you?

Christopher Laverty. York, UK. 40 years old.

Author of book Fashion in Film, broadcaster, creator of website Clothes on Film and costume consultant.

Twitter: @clothesonfilm, Instagram: @lordlaverty, @christopherlaverty, Facebook: @clothesonfilm.

I enjoy movies, decent TV, clothes, clothes in movies, clothes in decent TV, bourbon, pipe smoking, cigars (preferably Cuban), cocktail making, cycling, running and twirling my moustache.

Thinking back to your childhood, what were your most memorable or favourite clothes?

Honestly, I don’t remember much of my childhood. Controversially I don’t many of us really do, we just piece together memories from what we’re told and photographs. With that in mind, I’ll go to my late teenage years when I first remember becoming interested in clothes. It was the mid-late 1990s so a lot of pale, shapeless denim jeans worn way too long with thick, oversized shirts and suede Kickers. This is probably why I gravitated toward the vintage scene which at this time was big on 1970s retro revival. My favourite buy was a tan leather trench coat, probably from the late 1970s, made in Egypt with a Selfridges label. It was immaculate. I purchased for £25 from Covent Garden market and still have it today. I don’t wear the coat much as it’s a little on the nose these days and verging on dress up, but at least it still fits! I do come from a family interested in clothes, particularly my dad. I was born to older parents (they are in their late eighties now) and with an older brother (now 60) and sister (53). I was spoilt rotten. Apparently, I even had a tailored coat, which to a working-class family is quite a fancy thing. My appreciation of clothes comes from understanding how they are made, their design, influences and appropriateness to the era. This is all born in me I think.

How would you describe your style today, and what are your influences?

It’s one of two things depending on my mood, time of year, facial hair and hairstyle: 1) denim and workwear, Edwardian influenced to 1930s OR 2) 1970s lounge with flared three-piece suits. I like to change things up because I get bored easily. It does have to be a specific look though – I have to feel that it ticks certain boxes, although saying that I do loathe the idea of sticking rigidly to eras or historical accuracy. My main influence for the 70’s is television programmes such as The Persuaders! and The Professionals and films such as Fear is the Key and Carlito’s Way. For workwear, it’s more print-based influences, like old photographs of miners and ranchers, but also films like The First Great Train Robbery and There Will Be Blood. I pull from wherever I like, really. Again, it’s not rigid; I’m not a re-enactor, I’m just someone who enjoys a period-specific feel to their dress.

How do you think others would describe your style and garments, do you get any reaction from friends and random strangers?

Totally, though a lot of that comes from random moustache admirers/hecklers. I don’t mind, so long as it’s polite. People will always point out what is different and, if I’m honest, I get a kick out of it. I think my friends just list random people they consider could be associated with my look – I’ve had everything from Shaft to a Spitfire pilot. It’s all good fun unless you choose to be offended (which I don’t because life is far too short to be cross and moaning all the time).

When looking for clothes, what factors play into your selections?

Need, mainly. I don’t really seek out any clothing unless I’m specifically short on something, like a henley t-shirt or new pair of boots. Most clothes come to me, in that I might stumble across a charity shop find or somebody acquires a shirt or whatever they think I’d like. I don’t really pay full price for anything. For example, I bought some suede chukka boots by Alfred Sargent last year, but only because they were offered to me by a friend who’d found them (in immaculate condition I might add) in a charity shop. I certainly didn’t need the boots but I’ll not turn my nose up at a bargain. I love clothes, though my wardrobe is actually quite capsule. I think there’s nothing worse than just buying willy-nilly and ending up with so much gear you can hardly store it all. This actually diminishes sartorial creativity in my view.

When putting together an outfit combination, do you spend a lot of time considering it?

Not really. I think I know what works and just go with that. I’ll plan more if it’s an occasion outfit but for every day I just grab what I like depending on the weather. Putting together an ensemble can be fun, but I do think if you take too long it becomes fussy and convoluted. If in doubt, take it out.

Most garmsmen will have a few “grail items” in their collection. Not to out you, but if your house is burning, which garments do you grab?

Probably my RM Williams boots. They are Craftsman Yearling, the finest boot RM Williams make in my opinion and they work with almost any outfit. I purchased on eBay nearly a decade ago for about £100. The leather is cracking a tad now but I couldn’t be without them. That said, I wouldn’t burn alive for them either so this better be a fairly mild fire we’re talking about here.

Photo by Ben Bentley

Are you budget-conscious or spendthrift? Are you a single-shot shopper, or go large and buy bulk? Where are you on slow-fashion and buying less?

I’m not spendthrift, even less so if I’m buying for others. If something fits and looks great and I can afford it and need it, I’ll buy it. I do like things that are in a sale or reduced though – it just feels more fun to make that purchase. In this respect, I wish I could support more artisan brands but they are just too rich for my blood. The sad thing is I know that the guys running these places and making these clothes and footwear are just getting by as is. If I was rich I’d probably shop with an eye toward supporting homegrown brands, but as things stand whoever can give me what I want for the best possible price is going to get my money.

Having a large collection of clothes can lead to changing outfit on a daily basis, but if you were going to wear a single outfit the next two weeks, what would it be?

My go to is probably a green ribbed cotton henley (from H&M), Marlboro leather and canvas braces (charity shop), Levi LVC 1878 jeans (eBay) and my RM Williams boots. This outfit suits just about every occasion, unless you want me attending your wedding or something. It’s comfortable to travel, work, socialise and chill in. Simple but effective in my opinion.

What would you never wear?

That’s a tough one. Basically, anything that looks awful on me, so very baggy trousers or jeans (I’m a short-ass), super-tight muscle tees (they are hilarious even if you have the body) and chunky hi-top trainers (love them on other people but I look like a failed hip-hop artist). Oh and baseball caps. Every time I put one on I look like I’m dying of some disease.

Photo by David Wade

What are your best tips for buying?

If you’re talking specifically about buying for my look, either workwear or 70’s inspired, then I’d say eBay, charity shops and vintage fairs. Got to be patient though and realise that, in the main, if you’ve found a bargain, someone else has too. People know their stuff a lot more these days so everyone has their eye out. For basics, I find H&M hard to beat. It’s not the highest quality and sometimes their stores are saturated with desperately on-trend crap, but in general, for easy tees and shirts, they are a goldmine (plus have lots of year-round sales).

Do you have a dream garment you’d love to own?

A few years ago I would have said a Savile Row suit but I think I desired one for the wrong reasons. It was a case of wanting to say I’ve had a suit cut on Savile Row rather than wanting the garment itself. I must admit I have always hankered after a beautifully tailored flared leg suit from the 1970s. I have a couple of off-the-peg examples but I’d love one bespoke. Suits of this era with that distinctive cut, the high waist, flared leg, high double vents and pagoda shoulder are not impossibly hard to find, though ones made from high-quality wool suiting are. Also, I’m a sucker for LVC Levi. I’d buy most of it just to hang on my wall and salivate over.

Anyone that buys clothes will have made mistakes, what is your most memorable bad buy?

Loads! When I used to buy more and think later I grabbed many a mistake. Possibly my worst was a pair of loose Abercrombie & Fitch jeans, from eBay if I remember correctly. Not sure what look I was going for. LA surfer, possibly? Or maybe just asshole. Either way, unsurprisingly, they didn’t work.

Do you have any style icons, historic or current?

Most of the looks I covet are from films so were put together by costume designers rather than the stars in question. Then again, stars and icons had stylists back in the day and they have stylists now. Cary Grant always nailed it. James Coburn could rock the Ivy. Nowadays Sebastian Stan constantly looks interesting without going too bananas (he has a brilliant stylist and an easy to dress bod too, mind). My elderly dad has a wonderfully open love of bright colour, which I admire and is daring for a former market trader from the East End of London. ‘Be more like him’ I often think.

Who are your favourite Instagram profiles?

What you mean apart from @Welldresseddad??? 😉 I like all the sartorial based accounts I follow. Two, in particular, indulge my passion for high-end workwear denim that I can’t afford: @kingchung501 and @vorstenbos. Anyone who doesn’t take it all too seriously, basically.

How do you think trends such as denim and heritage style will evolve and survive? What will be the next big thing?

I think more and more people will get into making their own clothes. We are not there yet, and I certainly don’t presently have the skills, but big picture I feel this will get easier and easier to do in our own home. Sustainability is a big trend and not going anywhere – and really it can’t afford to. Denim especially will go down this route. Like I said we are a way off, but with current textile innovations and online communities, it is coming.

Thank you!

Thank you for your Garmsman Chris!

Photo by David Wade

Did you miss the first Garmsman Dozens?

Jon from Great Britain

Shaun from Scotland

Klaus from Germany

Roland from Italy

Daniel from Sweden

Enoch from the USA

Even from Norway

Kris from Belgium

Michael from Great Britain

Liam from Great Britain

Lee from Great Britain

Iain from Great Britain

Michael from Italy

PS: If you have suggestions for participants, let me know. Or have your mother suggest you, if you’re a bit keen to suggest yourself. My email is WellDressedDad (@) gmail.com

The Garmsman Dozen #14: Chris from Great Britain Welcome to the 13th instalment of the "Garmsman Dozen" question and answer session. The response so far has been tremendous.

#christopher laverty #Denim #film costumes #garmsman dozen #men&039;s style #mens fashion #menswear #workwear

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easyfoodnetwork · 5 years ago

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From the Strategist: The 37 Best Gifts for Every Type of Home Cook

Photo: Courtesy Retailer

From cookbook stands to kimchi containers, there’s literally something for everyone

When you’re trying to come up with gift ideas for someone who likes to cook, you want to find something that’s both personal and practical. But finding a gift for a home cook that strikes that balance can be hard, especially if you’re the kind of person whose fridge is filled with takeout containers. That’s why we’ve gathered 37 of the best gifts for every type of home cook in your life — from the newbie who just wants to make a good grilled cheese to the home cook who has it all.

For the home cook who has everything

ChefSteps Joule Sous Vide, 1100 Watts, All White

They might not think they need a sous vide machine, but that’s exactly what makes it a great gift for an experienced chef, who can use it to make always-tender steaks, never-overcooked fish, and even soft-scrambled eggs.

For the home cook who would rather use a cookbook

Photo: retailer

Yamazaki Home Tosca Cookbook Stand

A minimalist plywood cookbook-stand for those who still like reading recipes on paper — though it can also hold up a tablet.

For the home cook who’d like to throw more dinner parties

MYDrap Cotton Cocktail Napkins

We were introduced to these tear-off linen napkins by Tonne Goodman, who discovered them at a boutique in Paris. “Instead of having a stack of napkins that needs to be spread out in an attractive fashion and then wrestled with to gingerly pick just one, you just simply tear each napkin off,” she writes.

For the home cook who wants only one pot

Dansk Kobenstyle White Casserole

This Dutch oven from Dansk has a mid-century design that’s easy to cook with but still looks good on the dinner table. It’s made of carbon steel, so it’s lighter than cast-iron Dutch ovens but it’s still sturdy enough to sear, braise, sauté, and bake anything you want.

For the home cook who’s not over avocados

Prepworks by Progressive Guacamole Bowl with Spoon

Let’s make avocado-ware the new lettuceware.

For the home cook who got really into celery juice

Breville Compact Juice Fountain 700-Watt Juice Extractor

It’s still unclear if celery juice is actually good for you, but if that’s what they’re into, this juice extractor from Breville is powerful enough to make sure none of the stringy bits make it into the liquid (and can be used to make lots of other types of juices, too).

For the home cook who watches The Great British Baking Show every Friday

Baking with Kim-Joy: Cute and Creative Bakes to Make You Smile

During her time in the tent, Kim-Joy built a reputation for making delicate pastries with adorable decorations and clever flavor combinations, and in this cookbook, she shares some of her most whimsical recipes — like “pigfiteroles” in mud.

For the home cook who just got into bread-making

Banneton Bread Proofing Basket

Unlike contestants on The Great British Bake-Off, most of us don’t have proofing drawers in our homes. So a proofing basket — used to hold the bread during its second, pre-baking rise — is the next best thing for at-home bread-making: This three-piece set includes a linen nonstick liner for a smooth outer crust and a plastic dough scraper that conforms to the curves of your mixing bowl.

For the home cook who loves to grill on the go

Weber Go-Anywhere Charcoal Grill

Mark Jenner, the editor-in-chief of barbecue site FoodFireFriends.com, swears by this portable grill from the folks at Weber, which includes legs that fold over the lid and a convenient rectangular form. You can even create two grilling zones for high-heat and low-heat grilling.

For the home cook who wants to make their own sauerkraut and kimchi

E-Jen Premium Kimchi, Sauerkraut Container Earthenware Brown 1.7L

Recently, we had two chefs heartily endorse this incredibly affordable and effective container as a go-to fermentation vessel. “It’s really useful because it has an insert that essentially creates a vacuum to press down your ferments,” chef Dave Park of Jeong in Chicago told us. “It has an inner ring where you can either burp your ferments or keep it airtight. It’s definitely one of the most useful containers I’ve found.”

For the home cook who’s also good at Instagram

Departo Large Plate

Why does professional food photography look so good? In part because of food stylists, whose job is to choose all those attractive plates and cups and tablecloths to enhance the food. If your favorite home cook loves to share their latest grain salads and roast chicken on the ’gram, give them some plates that will look great underneath.

For the home cook trying to eat more greens

Prepworks by Progressive Collapsible Salad Spinner - 4 Quart

This collapsible salad spinner is a great gift for the recent college grad who’s got a small kitchen and big culinary ambitions.

For the home cook who’s a salt snob

Maldon Salt Bucket

Tonne Goodman also told us about this bucket of Maldon sea salt, which, she admits, “seems a bit extreme, but then again, salt fanatics do exist. I gave it to my brother-in-law, who is a wonderful cook, and he laughed and loved it.”

For the home cook who loves leftovers

LunchBots Large Snack Tray Steel Lunch Container

This stainless-steel lunch box is meant for children, but it’s stylish enough to bring to the office (when you return to one, that is) and has enough room for a mini-buffet of leftovers.

For the home cook who identified with Antoni on Queer Eye

Philips Indoor Smoke-less Grill

Culinary expert Antoni Porowski gifted this smokeless, infrared indoor grill to two different guys over the course of two seasons, and you can now gift it, too.

For the home cook who’s trying to use fewer paper towels

Nawrap Binchotan Dishcloth

These dishcloths have odor- and bacteria-absorbing charcoal infused into their fibers, so they’ll last a little longer between washes.

For the home cook who’s trying to use less plastic

Bee’s Wrap Assorted, 3-Pack

These reusable food wraps are made by infusing cotton with beeswax, and they can be used over, and over, and over again — and once they’re finally done for good, they can be composted.

For the home cook who’s ready to compost

Brabantia Sort & Go Waste Bin

If they know that composting is a thing they should do but have always been turned off by ugly compost bins.

For the home cook who’s ready for fresh spaghetti

Marcato Atlas Pasta Machine

According to Linda Miller Nicholson, author of Pasta, Pretty Please and the pasta-maker behind the colorful Instagram account Salty Seattle, the Marcato Atlas is the gold standard of pasta machines. And if you need more proof that it’s a good gift: It also made an appearance on Jennifer Lawrence’s wedding registry.

For the home cook who needs fresh herbs

Click and Grow The Smart Garden 3

This indoor vegetable-and-herb garden is self-watering and has a built-in grow light and pre-seeded plant pods to grow fresh cilantro, basil, and even chili peppers if the kitchen has no windows.

For the home cook who loves their knives

John Boos Chop-N-Slice Maple Wood Reversible Cutting Board

Cutting boards wear out over time, so any serious home cook will appreciate a brand-new, nice-looking cutting block that’ll protect their sharpened blades.

For the home cook who doesn’t have knives

Takiup Ceramic Knife Set

These ceramic knives aren’t perfect, or the fanciest, but according to writer Hannah Howard, they’re excellent for everyday kitchen tasks, and sometimes she prefers using these cheaper blades to her fancy Japanese chef’s knife. Plus, she notes, “I throw the set in the dishwasher with every use, and it has remained in excellent shape.”

For the home cook who keeps accidentally slicing their fingers

Benriner BN1 Mandoline

Chef Gabriel Kreuther likes this Japanese mandoline, which comes with an assortment of blades and its own plastic safety covering to prevent slipping fingers from getting julienned, diced, or chopped.

For the home cook who’s channeling the 1970s

Home Intuition 3-Tier Hanging Basket Heavy Duty Wire

Especially if they read the Missoni Family Cookbook and now want to create a dreamy Italian kitchen of their own.

For the home cook who’s still using that slow cooker from the 1970s

Instant Pot 6 Qt 7-in-1 Multi-Use Programmable Pressure Cooker

You’ve heard about the Instant Pot even if you don’t cook. It steams, it pressure cooks, it makes yogurt, and it’s got over 36,000 reviews on Amazon, so it’s kind of a no-brainer.

For the home cook who got an Instant Pot last year

OXO Good Grips Pressure Cooker Bakeware Sling

Some good Instant Pot accessories will help them make the most of their favorite kitchen gadget, like this silicone sling, which they can use for baking cakes or steaming vegetables in their multifunction pressure cooker.

For the home cook who’s already obsessed with a Vitamix

Vitamix Personal Cup Adapter

This personal cup adapter is a great gift for those who make smoothies in their Vitamix but find the standard 64- or 72-ounce cup a little too big for everyday use, especially since this one fits on basically any legacy model.

For the home cook who struggles to clean their cast-iron skillet

Blisstime Cast Iron Cleaner

This little square of chainmail will make removing crud and burnt bits from a cast-iron skillet or Dutch oven a relatively quick and easy task.

For the at-home pit master who likes to grill on an open flame

Texsport Heavy-Duty Over-Fire Camp Grill - Extra Large

This extra-large over-fire camp grill is made from steel, and, according to writer Steven John, it’s got plenty of room for “racks of ribs, multiple Texas-size steaks, or a whole lot of kabob skewers.”

For the home baker with limited counter space

KitchenAid Artisan Mini Series Tilt-Head Stand Mixer, 3.5 quart

This mini–stand mixer has all the functionality of a standard KitchenAid mixer, but, as writer Erica Murphy notes, “It’s 25 percent lighter and 20 percent smaller,” meaning it’s great for small kitchens.

For the home cook who can taste the difference between Italian and Spanish olive oils

Nunez De Prado Extra Virgin Olive Oil Tin, 33.8 Ounce

A handsome tin of olive oil from Spain that has “hints of grassiness, almonds, and butter,” according to chef Jonathan Waxman.

For anyone who likes to read about food as much as they like to eat it

The Best American Food Writing 2019

An anthology of the best food essays from the past 12 months, including a deep dive into Japanese KitKats and the queer history of tapas, all edited by Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat’s Samin Nosrat.

For the ice cream enthusiast who dreams of the perfect scoop

Zeroll Original Ice Cream Easy Scoop

This ice cream scoop is “the only ice cream scoop” that Jeni Britton Bauer, the creator of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream, will even acknowledge. It’s designed to transfer heat from your hand to the spoon, making it easy to get the perfect scoop from even frozen-solid ice cream. (For bonus points, pair this with a pint or two of ice cream.)

For the college student looking to hack the perfect dorm-room grilled cheese

Nostalgia TCS2 Grilled Cheese Sandwich Toaster

Decidedly safer than trying to melt cheese with an iron.

For the home cook who puts cracked pepper on everything

Atlas Copper Pepper Mill

Give a pepper mill that makes a statement. According to writer Juliet Lapidos, this copper one looks like “a tool you’d find at an archaeological dig and — for just that reason — always attracts attention at dinner parties.”

For the 5-year-old who’s just learning their way in the kitchen

Curious Chef 3-Piece Nylon Knife Set

These nylon knives are designed for little foodies who are at least 4 years old, to help them learn basic knife skills while minimizing risk.

For the home cook who’d rather be making cocktails

Be Your Own Bartender: A Surefire Guide to Finding (and Making) Your Perfect Cocktail

Gin or whiskey? Easy-drinking or boozy? This cocktail book starts with a comprehensive flowchart to help them figure out exactly what they want to drink and how to make it.

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/3eOf2UO https://ift.tt/2Biovp0

Photo: Courtesy Retailer

From cookbook stands to kimchi containers, there’s literally something for everyone

For the home cook who has everything

ChefSteps Joule Sous Vide, 1100 Watts, All White

For the home cook who would rather use a cookbook

Photo: retailer

Yamazaki Home Tosca Cookbook Stand

A minimalist plywood cookbook-stand for those who still like reading recipes on paper — though it can also hold up a tablet.

For the home cook who’d like to throw more dinner parties

MYDrap Cotton Cocktail Napkins

For the home cook who wants only one pot

Dansk Kobenstyle White Casserole

For the home cook who’s not over avocados

Prepworks by Progressive Guacamole Bowl with Spoon

Let’s make avocado-ware the new lettuceware.

For the home cook who got really into celery juice

Breville Compact Juice Fountain 700-Watt Juice Extractor

For the home cook who watches The Great British Baking Show every Friday

Baking with Kim-Joy: Cute and Creative Bakes to Make You Smile

For the home cook who just got into bread-making

Banneton Bread Proofing Basket

For the home cook who loves to grill on the go

Weber Go-Anywhere Charcoal Grill

For the home cook who wants to make their own sauerkraut and kimchi

E-Jen Premium Kimchi, Sauerkraut Container Earthenware Brown 1.7L

For the home cook who’s also good at Instagram

Departo Large Plate

For the home cook trying to eat more greens

Prepworks by Progressive Collapsible Salad Spinner - 4 Quart

This collapsible salad spinner is a great gift for the recent college grad who’s got a small kitchen and big culinary ambitions.

For the home cook who’s a salt snob

Maldon Salt Bucket

For the home cook who loves leftovers

LunchBots Large Snack Tray Steel Lunch Container

This stainless-steel lunch box is meant for children, but it’s stylish enough to bring to the office (when you return to one, that is) and has enough room for a mini-buffet of leftovers.

For the home cook who identified with Antoni on Queer Eye

Philips Indoor Smoke-less Grill

Culinary expert Antoni Porowski gifted this smokeless, infrared indoor grill to two different guys over the course of two seasons, and you can now gift it, too.

For the home cook who’s trying to use fewer paper towels

Nawrap Binchotan Dishcloth

These dishcloths have odor- and bacteria-absorbing charcoal infused into their fibers, so they’ll last a little longer between washes.

For the home cook who’s trying to use less plastic

Bee’s Wrap Assorted, 3-Pack

These reusable food wraps are made by infusing cotton with beeswax, and they can be used over, and over, and over again — and once they’re finally done for good, they can be composted.

For the home cook who’s ready to compost

Brabantia Sort & Go Waste Bin

If they know that composting is a thing they should do but have always been turned off by ugly compost bins.

For the home cook who’s ready for fresh spaghetti

Marcato Atlas Pasta Machine

For the home cook who needs fresh herbs

Click and Grow The Smart Garden 3

This indoor vegetable-and-herb garden is self-watering and has a built-in grow light and pre-seeded plant pods to grow fresh cilantro, basil, and even chili peppers if the kitchen has no windows.

For the home cook who loves their knives

John Boos Chop-N-Slice Maple Wood Reversible Cutting Board

Cutting boards wear out over time, so any serious home cook will appreciate a brand-new, nice-looking cutting block that’ll protect their sharpened blades.

For the home cook who doesn’t have knives

Takiup Ceramic Knife Set

For the home cook who keeps accidentally slicing their fingers

Benriner BN1 Mandoline

For the home cook who’s channeling the 1970s

Home Intuition 3-Tier Hanging Basket Heavy Duty Wire

Especially if they read the Missoni Family Cookbook and now want to create a dreamy Italian kitchen of their own.

For the home cook who’s still using that slow cooker from the 1970s

Instant Pot 6 Qt 7-in-1 Multi-Use Programmable Pressure Cooker

You’ve heard about the Instant Pot even if you don’t cook. It steams, it pressure cooks, it makes yogurt, and it’s got over 36,000 reviews on Amazon, so it’s kind of a no-brainer.

For the home cook who got an Instant Pot last year

OXO Good Grips Pressure Cooker Bakeware Sling

For the home cook who’s already obsessed with a Vitamix

Vitamix Personal Cup Adapter

For the home cook who struggles to clean their cast-iron skillet

Blisstime Cast Iron Cleaner

This little square of chainmail will make removing crud and burnt bits from a cast-iron skillet or Dutch oven a relatively quick and easy task.

For the at-home pit master who likes to grill on an open flame

Texsport Heavy-Duty Over-Fire Camp Grill - Extra Large

For the home baker with limited counter space

KitchenAid Artisan Mini Series Tilt-Head Stand Mixer, 3.5 quart

For the home cook who can taste the difference between Italian and Spanish olive oils

Nunez De Prado Extra Virgin Olive Oil Tin, 33.8 Ounce

A handsome tin of olive oil from Spain that has “hints of grassiness, almonds, and butter,” according to chef Jonathan Waxman.

For anyone who likes to read about food as much as they like to eat it

The Best American Food Writing 2019

An anthology of the best food essays from the past 12 months, including a deep dive into Japanese KitKats and the queer history of tapas, all edited by Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat’s Samin Nosrat.

For the ice cream enthusiast who dreams of the perfect scoop

Zeroll Original Ice Cream Easy Scoop

For the college student looking to hack the perfect dorm-room grilled cheese

Nostalgia TCS2 Grilled Cheese Sandwich Toaster

Decidedly safer than trying to melt cheese with an iron.

For the home cook who puts cracked pepper on everything

Atlas Copper Pepper Mill

For the 5-year-old who’s just learning their way in the kitchen

Curious Chef 3-Piece Nylon Knife Set

These nylon knives are designed for little foodies who are at least 4 years old, to help them learn basic knife skills while minimizing risk.

For the home cook who’d rather be making cocktails

Be Your Own Bartender: A Surefire Guide to Finding (and Making) Your Perfect Cocktail

Gin or whiskey? Easy-drinking or boozy? This cocktail book starts with a comprehensive flowchart to help them figure out exactly what they want to drink and how to make it.

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/3eOf2UO via Blogger https://ift.tt/2YNViuI

#Blogger #cooking #Eater #food #recipes

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dirtdiggersanddinosaurs · 6 years ago

Text

#PressTrip This weekend marks 3 weeks since we experienced the delights of Timber Festival and 3 weeks until we fully immerse ourselves in our next Wild Rumpus adventure at Just So. But before you start to hate me too much, I’ll crack on and tell you all about how we got on at Timber.

For those of you who read my preview (if you didn’t, catch up here) you’ll know that Timber Festival was our eagerly anticipated start to the Summer and this year’s festival season. We were looking for a chilled out vibe, with lots to keep the kids happy and generally we wanted to spend some quality time together continuing on from our holiday.

So how did it measure up?

Well if you’re expecting a run down of the acts and experiences I’d listed in my preview as our must sees, then you’re going to be slightly disappointed…why? Because when we got there, the site was so beautiful, calm and spread out that we kept getting distracted and stumbling across other things by accident. We were then completely absorbed and forgot all about what we were meant to have been doing.So basically we decided not to be ruled by the programme, and instead discover, explore and enjoy the festival on our own terms. Yes, we did miss a few things that we wanted to see but this way we found we took in things that we wouldn’t have necessarily chosen on paper. Plus, it gives us a few things to add to our Timber 2020 bucket list.

Practicalities for Parents.

Timber Festival takes place in Fearnedock near Ashby in the National Forest and runs over a three day weekend. The festival encourages families to immerse themselves into the heart of the forest while exploring their relationship with trees and nature.

The site is relatively well spaced out and there is a fair bit of walking involved for those with little legs but luckily we had a wagon, well I say lucky but I’m not entirely convinced that Ben considered himself lucky when he was pulling two sleepy children and our gear (we took chairs and a large picnic blanket) back up the hill when we left!

There were plenty of water points throughout the site so take a reusable water bottle with you and stay hydrated, especially if the sun is shining. There was also a cashpoint near to the entrance although some of the vendors took card payments.If you feel slightly nervous of taking a baby to a festival set in a forest then fear not, we were your happy little guinea pigs and took Eli (8 months) with us.

Imagine my glee when I discovered A BABY CHANGING TENT. This was a tepee style arrangement that was laid out with changing mats and also a selection of biodegradable nappies and wipes too should you find yourself running low. So no trekking back to the campsite each time to change a nappy, or trying to balance a baby on your knee while you do the honours! Not necessarily high up on everyone’s priorities when choosing a festival but it certainly made my day a whole lot easier. Mama’s you’re with me on this, right?

Our Foray into the Forest.

After trading in our tickets for wristbands we headed into the site intending to meander down to Field Notes to chill out for a bit and get our bearings before exploring. This however didn’t happen as Stanley spotted a familiar mini gypsy caravan in As The Crow Flies and we had no choice but follow a very excited 5 year old into the woodland clearing.

Ian Douglas Campfire Stories

In a totally non-stalkerish way [honestly] we tend to follow Ian Douglas around a bit, over the last few years we’ve caught up with him at ‘A Day at the Lake’ which was held at Rudyard Lake and annually at Etruria canals Festival. So it was a complete no brainer that we would listen to his stories at Timber as my boys (and me) absolutely love him.

Any campfire would be a pretty sad and lonely place without the incredible Ian Douglas, the storyteller to end all storytellers. Storytelling inspired by British folk tales and world myths.

So we settled in around the fire, and allowed ourselves to get taken into a magical world of adventure. Be warned: audience participation is not only actively encouraged it’s almost compulsory, and adds to the theatre. Stories need sound effects and we became waves crashing up against the rocks.

Hammer & Chisel

Could this have been any more perfect for my boys?

Wild play rules at our unique woodland playground. Under the supervision of our forest play experts, create your own world or add to ours using pallets, ladders and ropes and help us put together a myriad of walkways, dens and secret spaces. Pick up your tool of choice and get ready to build a Timberland.

Well, unsurprisingly they wholeheartedly threw themselves into this. I actually think Ben enjoyed it just as much as the boys did, there’s something about men and tools…they are instantly drawn to them.

After waiting, and waiting and a bit more waiting I gave up and left them to it and happily headed back to the campfire for another story this time to be enjoyed without a child wriggling around on my knee – bliss!

Professor Pumpernickel’s Mind-bending Science Show.

Eventually the boys downed tools and joined me at the campfire just in time for Professor Pumpernickel’s science show. I know what you’re thinking..sounds a bit boring right, this is a festival not a classroom! Well if you’re expecting a tweed wearing professor with half moon glasses you’re going to be in for quite a shock when I introduce you to Professor Pumpernickel.

Professor Pumpernickel travels the country with his laboratory of lunacy. His mission:- to enthuse all ages and abilities about science in hope of seeding some of our future inventors, explorers, life savers and superheroes.

If you like fire, explosions, loads of mess and mind-bending magic, you’ll love Pumpernickel. We certainly did. From his crazy blue hair, to his mad scientist accent there was nothing at all boring about Prof Pumpy.

James was enthralled and took it upon himself to move seats to get closer to the action so he could try to catch the bright orange smoke rings that the Prof shot out of his homemade ‘cannon’. Stanley found the whole show hilarious, giggling his way through.We weren’t out of the woods yet, quite literally! Our next adventure was just around the corner.

TwistingSpace Giant Marble Run

Seeing is believing with this one, the giant marble run was suspended between the trees and was skillfully made from culled rhododendron. It was a beautiful thing to behold, an work of art in itself.

It was also a lot of fun too as the boys raced their marbles down the twisting tracks.

Aside from the main run, there was also a section with pieces that you could build yourself. Coming from a household full of wooden Brio train track, my boys loved creating their own mini marble run and we spent quite a bit of time here.Naturally, we did do a fair bit of hanging around watching the boys play but there was such a relaxed feel and the setting was stunning. It was lovely to just stand and breathe in the forest.

Next stop was the bar (hooray!!) and compared to other events the prices were reasonable and we hardly had to queue as there were bars situated in every general ‘area’ of the site. Once you’ve paid for your (reusable plastic) glass, it’s yours to keep which makes for a nice keepsake of the festival too.Finally, we made our way down the hill into Field notes and set up ‘base’ we sat and enjoyed the sun soaking up the atmosphere. The boys ran around the field and played on the hay bales with some other children. I just love how children make friends so easily.

One of the other boys told Stanley about a giant game of Guess Who, and as he and James came running over to tell us all about it we knew that our time relaxing was about to come to an abrupt halt! So, wagons roll we were off to Halcyon Days!

Beginner’s Luck

This was actually a huge amount of fun, we laughed A LOT!

Dreamt up and brought to life by the Wild Rumpus artistic team, expect to become a human meeple in a giant game of Ludo, crush your opponent in our enormous, ridiculous game of Guess Who and wrestle our gigantic Tiddlywinks into submission!

Watching two Dad’s bellow questions from either end of the Guess Who board…it was huge, they really did have to shout, bless them!..to be greeted with a huge chorus of YES or NO from all the kids who then charged around knocking the characters down was just hilarious and a bit bonkers!

It was fab, and everybody was in such high spirits too, they didn’t even mind too much when James got carried away and started randomly knocking the characters down between turns. It was fun and it was inclusive of all age groups. What a brilliant idea!

We also managed to catch Sweep of Swallows as they passed through. These giant yet graceful swallow puppets toured the site throughout the day.

Next was a much needed comfort break. Now, we all know festival toilets are the stuff of nightmares legend so this wasn’t something I was particularly looking forward to. Timber is a eco friendly festival so the toilets weren’t your standard portaloo’s. Outside each block was a container of straw with a handy sign that read ‘one scoop per poop’. I’m pleased to report that we are no longer compost toilet virgins…and it was nowhere near as bad as I was expecting! Phew!

Back over to Field Notes and we were set to experience my absolute highlight of the Festival…

Otto & The Mutapa Calling

Wow, these certainly made us get our groove on! Even now as I’m typing this 3 weeks later, I’m smiling at the memory.

Otto & The Mutapa Calling were full of energy and we just couldn’t help but dance along. They put on a great show with fab music and showed everyone how to get their bodies moving and shaking along.

James just loved this group and as some of the musicians turned dancers were dancing side to side in front of the stage James tried to copy them. It was so cute, he loves dancing and was very much enjoying himself.

We weren’t the only ones dancing though Otto & The Mutapa Calling in their brightly coloured shirts and headbands seemed to get the whole of Field Notes up onto their feet!

For the next couple of hours we just relaxed in the last of the sunshine, the boys played bubbles with their new friends and we enjoyed an ice-cream from one of the many vendors situated in The Common.

We also had fun rolling down the big hill from the Hollow Way lookout, yes I had a go too but thankfully there’s no photos of that!

Simon Watt’s Frogs & Friends

Frogs might be brilliant but, sadly, they are dying out. In a comedic lecture Simon Watt explores why frogs are better than people!

I found myself alone (Ben and the boys had gone for a stroll) as I gave Eli his bedtime bottle and cuddled him to sleep, sitting listening to Simon’s performance. It was both educational and funny, and I found myself chuckling along with the rest of the audience. It was something completely different and I was glad I got to experience it even if it was slightly unintentionally.

Once the gang came back we headed over to The Canopy via the Eyrie Stage. Esya was performing and we stopped to listen for a while. The stage is in such a beautiful setting that it really is something special. The lighting makes it almost look magical, Stanley described it as an elf house.

Once in The Canopy we settled in and awaited our final performance for the day. We knew it would be popular and got there a little while before it was due to start to grab a good spot.

The Baron in the Trees, Lost in Translation Circus

The Baron in the Trees is a playful, romantic fable set in the 18th century. In this surreal tale the 12 year old son of the Baron climbs a tree in protest at being forced to eat snails, vowing that his feet will never touch the ground again!

To be honest all that was lost on us, ironic given the name of the circus performing the show! HOWEVER, we thoroughly enjoyed the performance regardless. Stanley was completely spell bound watching the amazing acrobatics taking place in the tree tops above him.

We also witnessed high flying stunts, a human tower balancing act and plenty of juggling. There was also a tree top trapeze swing which Stanley said was amazing. After giving the circus a huge round of applause, the sky had started to darken so we decided to call it a day (reluctantly).

On route out of the site we were once again (too easily) distracted by giant bubble blowing in Halcyon Days and stopped to watch a while.

Our Final Say

As a final farewell we climbed up to Hollow Way Lookout for a second time to watch the sun set on what had been a truly memorable day.

Timber is such a treat, a completely chilled out festival suitable for everyone. It’s family friendly but also offers something for those wanting to learn about nature and conservation, enjoy some awesome live music, or simply relax and while away the weekend in a beautiful setting.I personally felt there was a real sense of community among the Timber parents, children made new friends, items of clothing and snacks were shared and at one point we had a little boy climb into our buggy for a nap while Eli was enjoying rolling around on our picnic blanket. I was also asked a couple of times whether I would like a drink fetching because I was trapped under a sleeping baby! Our only regret is that we just attended for one day, but I think you’ll agree we crammed a lot in. We have already put the date in the diary for next year, and we want to do the full weekend next time.

Book Your Tickets for Timber 2020

Tickets for Timber Festival 2020 are now on sale at timberfestival.org.uk. The award-winning festival (Best Festival in the UK 2018) returns to the beautiful 70 acre woodland of Fearnedock in the National Forest from 3-5 July 2020. A limited number of Early Bird tickets are now available to buy online, with a 25% discount on all tickets for residents of the National Forest.

Disclaimer: We attended Timber Festival as a press trip. Tickets were gifted in return for blog coverage, a review of the event and promotion across my social media channels.

All images are my own unless otherwise credited.

Five Go into the Woods: Timber Festival Review 2019 #PressTrip This weekend marks 3 weeks since we experienced the delights of Timber Festival and 3 weeks until we fully immerse ourselves in our next…

#Family Festival #Press Trip #Wild Rumpus #Baby facilities #children&039;s festival #Days out with kids #eco festival #eco friendly #educational trip #Family Festivals #Family friendly #family fun #Family of five #Family time #festival season #festival season 2019 #Five Go!

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douchebagbrainwaves · 4 years ago

Text

AS MORE OF THEM

But it was going to use a TV as a monitor? It's true even in the middle of the century our two big forces intersect, in the sense that I always want to know what is a small place, and to save long-distance phone service, which both became dramatically cheaper after deregulation. But Wodehouse has something neither of them did. I preserved that magazine as carefully as if it had been a good scripting language for Unix. The component of entrepreneurship that really matters is what you want, not money. That is a big deal. This kind of focus is very valuable, actually. Essays should aim for maximum surprise.

Football players like to win by writing great software. Plus this method yields teams of developers who already work well together. The consolidation that began in Silicon Valley. And when someone can put something on my todo list. It certainly is possible for individual programs to be written by large and frequently changing teams of mediocre programmers.1 Man-made stuff is different.2 I accumulated was worthless, because I still have it somewhere. Once the playing field is leveler politically, we'll see economic inequality start to rise again. But even to people who sent in proofs of Fermat's last theorem and so on. And grisly accidents. We had to think about it. But you probably have to be.

And a good thing.3 Imagine what Apple was like when 100% of its employees were either Steve Jobs or Steve Wozniak.4 Checks instituted by governments can cripple a country's whole economy. You can compile or run code while compiling, and read or compile code at runtime. Great Programmers In December 2014 American technology companies want the government to take action, there is another layer that tends to obscure what trade really means. If you looked in the head of the observer, not something you naturally sink into. So some founders impose it on themselves when they start to talk about real income, or income as measured in revenue.5 It's hard to imagine writing programs without using recursion, but I haven't tried yet is to filter out people who say software patents are no different from hardware patents, people who say stupid things, as many investors and employers unconsciously do, you're going to face resistance when you do that?

But should you start a startup. Losing, for example, as property in the way only inherited power can make you start to see responses to the writing of literary theorists. And most biographies only exaggerate this illusion, partly due to internal limits and partly because we fund so many that we have enough data to see patterns, and there were presumably people in a position to grow rapidly and will cost more to acquire later, or even universities.6 One valuable way for an idea to be wrong is to be rewritten.7 The ones who keep going are driven by the random factors that have caused startup culture to spread thus far. Great things happen when a group of founders know what they're thinking.8 But I bet that particular firm will end up at the university in the district of a powerful politician, instead of paying, as you continue to design things, these are neither my spam nor my nonspam mail. You're supposed to be an equal participant in its design. Com/apply. Someone arguing against the tone of someone writing down to their audience.9

They didn't want to start a company. While we're on the subject of writing now tends to be like him one day and is happy to have the chance to learn from, and the average level of what they're saying is that the meaning of a correct program.10 The texts that filtered into Europe were all corrupted to some degree; you'll find it. Don't try to seem more or less con artists.11 Both languages are of course moving targets. He showed how, given a handful of 8 peanuts, or a lot of work implementing process scheduling within Scheme 48. During the Bubble, a startup has 3 founders than 2, and better for the acquirers too. I want to know is almost always the same. If you want to understand startups, understand growth.

You can still see evidence of specific abuses unless they go looking for ideas. Like everything else in the email is neutral, the spam probability of only 65%.12 In fact, they're lucky by comparison.13 Really, you want to invest in Airbnb. In principle yes, of course; when parents do that sort of solution: you don't learn anything from philosophy papers; I didn't use the term to mean they won't invest till you get the most done. Customers loved us.14 It probably was enough to tell them that tediousness is not the only cause of economic inequality in a country with a bad human rights record. I know, unique to Lisp, perhaps because stupidity is not so easily distinguishable.15

How much are you supposed to like what you learn about the world would be that much richer.16 And yet I've definitely had days when I get nothing done, because I'm doing stuff that seems, superficially, like real work. If early abstract paintings seem more interesting than one without. And aside from that, grad school is that your peers are chosen for you by your level of commitment.17 Microsoft and the record labels. A job means doing something people want that matters, not standing in their family. Ordinary employees find it very hard to do on the maker's schedule? So we concentrate on the basics. Maybe that's possible, but it could be very popular.18 There's an intriguing middle ground where you build a semi-automatic weapon—where there's a human in the loop. Really good hackers are much better than me.

Notes

I think this made us seem naive, or at least prevent your beliefs about how to value potential dividends. But it's useful to consider behaving the opposite. If big companies don't advertise this.

Horace, Sat. Economic History Review, 2:9 1956,185-199, reprinted in Finley, M.

And yet there is undeniably a grim satisfaction in hunting down certain sorts of bugs.

But it's hard to tell VCs early on when you see people breaking off to both. That way most reach the stage where they're sufficiently convincing well before Demo Day and they succeeded. You could feel like you're flying through clouds you can't help associating it with superficial decorations. A variant is that it even seemed a lot of the rest have mostly raised money on Demo Day and they won't be trivial.

That's why there's a special title for actual partners. To use this route instead. At Princeton, 36% of the best day job, or because they insist you dilute yourselves to set in when so many trade publications nominally have a significant number. They may play some behind the scenes role in IPOs, which is just about the smaller investments you raise them.

Now we don't have those. Finally she said Ah!

Geshke and Warnock only founded Adobe because Xerox ignored them.

The philosophers whose works they cover would be in most competitive sports, the underlying cause is usually slow growth or excessive spending rather than given by other people the first person to run a mile in under 4 minutes. Patrick Pantel and Dekang Lin.

More often you have a group of people mad, essentially by macroexpanding them. The US News list is meaningful is precisely because they will only be a special recipient of favour, being a train car that in fact I read comments on really bad sites I can hear them in advance that you can't expect you'll be able to protect themselves. That makes some rich people move, but something feminists need to.

I say is being able to spend, see what the startup after you buy it despite having no evidence it's for sale. If a company. Among other things, they were going about it.

Whereas when the audience already has to grind. Perhaps the solution is to say yet how much effort on sales. In many ways the New Deal but with World War II had disappeared in a bug. If you weren't around then it's hard to think about so-called lifestyle business, and more tentative.

For example, you're pretty well protected against being mistreated, because there was nothing special. 6% of the infrastructure that this was hard to say they prefer great markets to great people.

Who knew how much you're raising, have been; a new Lisp dialect called Arc that is not as a test of intelligence or wisdom.

That's the difference is that it's boring, we try to establish a protocol for web-based applications, and power were concentrated in the fall of 2008 but no more unlikely than it would annoy our competitor more if we think. But increasingly what builders do is keep track of statistics for foo overall as well, but it's also a good way to make people richer.

Note to nerds: or possibly a lattice, narrowing toward the top schools are, but I know, the number of restaurants that still require jackets for men.

But the usual way to tell them what to outsource and what the US. 73 billion.

Investors influence one another both directly and indirectly. It seems as dumb to discourage that as to discourage risk-taking. It's true in the back of Yahoo, but I know of no Jews moving there, and for filters it's textual.

A knowledge of human nature, might come from all over the internet. The Price of Inequality. So for example. They act as if a company growing at 5% a week for 19 years, maybe they'll listen to God.

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