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thesunglassesgamer · 8 years

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The Talk, (Pt 4)

Part four of my current project. I’ve wanted to use the Future Kids AU after it came out, but I’d already started the story. I had debated between using it here or starting a new story with it, but that new story would’ve been too close to the current story. So, the future kids get dumped into this story in the fourth chapter. Whoops. Reviews, comments, and suggestions are welcome. Enjoy.

Marco stood, alone, in the forest of certain doom. He had been attempting to find Buff Frog to persuade him to help raid Ludo's hideout. At the very least, he was expecting Buff frog to give him some info on the where the hideout was. So far, however, Marco had yet to find Buff Frog. He'd met several different plants and animals that had tried to make him their supper, but no Buff Frog. Frustrated, he sat down on a rock and moped.

"How can I find Ludo's place without Buff Frog's help?" He muttered bitterly. "I've got no leads or anything. I can't go back and ask Star, obviously, but I don't know what the hell I'm supposed to do." He silently cursed himself for running off so abruptly. The smart and rational plan of action would have been to contact Buff Frog ahead of time and set up a plan with him. But Marco hadn't been thinking, and had just wanted to fix the problem as soon as possible. He usually wasn't one to run off without a plan, but it seemed like everyone was acting oddly that day. That didn't excuse him for being an idiot, though. It just explained why.

Marco sat on the rock, mulling over ways to find Ludo, when a large explosion of light and sound erupted fifteen feet behind him. He scrambled around, shocked. He ended up falling on his butt with his body facing the source of the din. A girl, riding a massive cog led by goat-sheep had come through a massive portal. She sat up straight, headstrong, and willful, ready to take on the world. When she saw Marco laying on the ground in front of her, she winced. Teenage awkwardness and guilt were added to her features. She quickly got off her giant cog and offered Marco a hand.

"Sorry, my bad," the girl said. Marco didn't take her hand. He just stared up at her. She was wearing a dark green dress that ended at her knees, pink stockings that went up through the dress, and boots that covered most of her legs. Her eyes were blue, her long hair brown, and her skin a fair tone of white. Overall, she looked like a nice fourteen-year-old. But there was something that caught Marco's eyes. On both of the girls cheeks were two, little, pink fleur-di-lis's. They looked remarkably like the signs of a Mewman Royal family member. She, in turn, looked a lot like his friend Star, except for the hair. And he hadn't seen the girl at the Royal Family get-together the month before.

"Uh, hello?" The girl asked, clearly weirded out by Marco's behavior.

Marco blinked rapidly, then shook his head. Distracted, he responded, "Sorry, I just- Your cheeks."

The girl inhaled deeply and blushed. "Oh shit! I mean, crap! Fsdfsdsdf…" She put her mouth over her hands and looked like she had done something horrible.

Marco's eyebrows rose. He'd met several strange creatures on his outings with Star. No matter how many trips he went on, however, no weird event ever prepared him for the next. "Who are you?" He interrogated, growing more suspicious then confused.

The girl closed her eyes. When she opened them, she looked composed and orderly. Almost queen-like. "Forgive me, d- sir. My name is Elizabeth Diaz Butterfly. I'm your daughter from the future, and I have terrible news."

Marco looked at the girl blankly, then amusedly. "Sounds like a ploy to get me killed," Marco said frankly.

The girls eyes opened wide, insulted. "Wha- What the hell? I'm not-"

Another large light show with spectacular sounds came out of the forest. Both Marco and Elizabeth looked up to see another teenager approaching them. He was dressed in cast-off clothes that looked mostly like a collection of old rags. His hair was brown, his cheeks covered in freckles and scars, his skin the same color as Elizabeth's, and his eyes- His eyes reminded Marco of Jackie.

"Oh, great," Marco muttered to himself. "Another one."

The boy nodded. "Sorry that I'm late, father. Time travel can be difficult to master."

Marco rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Of course you are," he replied dryly.

"Who the hell are you?" Elizabeth demanded, clear disgust on her face.

The boy looked equally as disgusted with her. "I'm Jam, the son of-" He was rudely interrupted by Marco, who'd given up on trying to take the world around him seriously.

"Wait, let me guess, you're the son of Jackie and myself, is that it?"

Jam blinked. "I, uh, yeah. Yes I am."

The girl narrowed her eyes at Jam while Marco simply nodded as though everything made perfect sense. "So you're the error in the timeline that Glossaryck was talking about," she stated, venom in her tone.

"Quite the contrary, Elizabeth," Jam replied, cool hatred on the tip of his tongue. "You are the mistake that needs to be fixed."

Elizabeth's eyes flared in outrage and she took out her wand. It was very similar to Star's wand, but Elizabeth's wand was complete and at full power. She aimed it at her counterpart, who'd already taken out his own weapon: a plasma rifle with the words "no magic" plastered on the side. Before any mayhem could happen, however, Marco put himself between the two of them.

"Hey hey hey," he said quickly, hoping to get their attention before they started shooting. "Let's be reasonable here. No one needs to die." He frowned for a second, then amended himself. "Yet."

"Get out of the way," the two teenagers responded. They responded at the same time, disturbing Marco and pissing off the other two.

Marco got out his pair of dimensional scissors and put them next to his pelvis. "If you two don't back down, I'll make sure neither of you exist!"

Both of his supposed kids went rigid.

"You wouldn't dare!" Jam said, incredulous.

"Dad, you can't!" Elizabeth complained.

Marco gave them both very hard looks. "You two are my kids from the future, huh? Prove it."

Both Jam and Elizabeth looked stunned. Jam finally said, "Well, when I turned twelve and puberty hit, you told me about how you had done your first-"

"That's enough, you pass," Marco interjected, blushing. He breathed in and out, then looked to Elizabeth knowingly. She gave him a silly smile.

"Glossaryck told me about when Star's wand got malfunctioned. You got hit by his book so hard it tore the clothes off of you."

Marco sighed, realizing that he had not been blessed with the troubles of nasty monsters or ludo's henchmen. The two teenagers were telling the truth. He had kids. From two different timelines.

He gave a wry smile. "Well, on the upside, you two prove something that I didn't think would happen."

They both looked at him, confused. "What?"

"I never thought I'd ever get laid."

Silence. Silence reigned for a solid ten seconds. The tension that had been rising since Elizabeth had revealed herself had been growing up to that point. And Marco had broken it with a stupid self-deprecating joke.

Jam giggled. Elizabeth snorted. "Wow, dad," they said in unison. "I knew mom said you were a dork, but-" They caught themselves and stared at each other.

"Yeah, creepy," Marco agreed. Now that they weren't trying to kill each other and he'd had time to look at them, he could believe that they were his kids. The brown hair was the biggest giveaway, but they both had his strong jaw and feminine body (although Jam had gotten more masculine, Marco noted dryly). The idea that they were actually his kids was starting to sink in. Panic overwhelmed his thoughts.

"HOLY SHIT! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TWO DOING HERE? HOW ARE YOU FROM DIFFERENT TIMELINES? WHY ARE YOU HERE? DID SOMETHING BAD HAPPEN? WHERE ARE FUTURE ME AND FUTURE EVERYONE ELSE? ARE THEY DEAD? DO I DIE EARLY ON? WHAT-"

Jam smacked him upside the head with the back of his hand, shutting Marco up. He backed up a bit, reeling mostly in surprise. His hand instantly went up to his face. "Ow," he whined.

Elizabeth looked at Jam with mock horror. "Really, Jam? Was that necessary?"

Jam shrugged. "You had the same dad as me. We don't have time for him to ramble on about what might go wrong or be wrong."

Elizabeth waved her hand around, dismissing Jam's argument. "Not that, I meant how you bitch-slapped him. You should have just done a normal slap, like this."

She then proceeded to slap Marco across the face with the palm of her hand. Marco was no less prepared for the second hit than he was the first. "Ow, ow, stop it!"

They both gave him wide grins. "I don't know about Elizabeth," Jam explained. "But I don't usually get a chance to smack you across the face."

"No, no, Jam, believe you me, I've had just as few chances."

Marco scowled at the two. "Well, as long as you aren't trying to kill each other…"

"Only because you'd doom us both," Elizabeth explained.

"Otherwise, we'd be trying our hardest," Jam finished.

"Wh-" Marco stopped himself. He thought over his situation. Then he nodded. "You know what? I don't care why you're here. Not right now I don't. Because it doesn't matter."

His children looked inquisitively at him. "How can it not matter right now?" Jam asked, scoffing.

"Because right now we aren't going to worry about it," Marco replied. His eyes had turned sinister with a wild plan in his brain. "I need both of you to help me. Glossaryck and the book have been stolen. I need to find Ludo and get it back. And," he included before they could interrupt, "that is an order from your father."

Elizabeth scowled. "You can't tell us what to do, you aren't even really our father yet!"

"And I might never be if you can't help me," Marco replied. His tone was smug and rich but his face showed sober fear. "I'd probably die without you two. So help me. Please. You two can discuss your problem later, but for now I just need help."

Jam and Elizabeth shared a short, silent discussion on the matter, then looked to their father. They nodded.

Someone asked for me to give my thoughts on the story and stuff so I'm going to do that now.

I'll be honest, I only had the first chapter in mind when I started. It was tempting to just keep it was a one-shot, but cliffhangers are bullshit. I'm updating every Sunday, if it hasn't been obvious. I wanted to make a story that didn't just end with Jackie being shallow or Marco randomly admitting his love. When I finally have everyone get back together, the idea is to have the reasons for what happens feel real. Please give as much constructive criticism as you can, and I hope you have enjoyed this mess so far!

#starco #jarco #star vs the forces of evil #the bolded stuff is what I added when I uploaded this last month

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shookethbrooketh · 5 years

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phil’s q&a: a summary!

i know it’s quite long so the major points are bolded!

tony is now in a massive tank phil bought with automatic feed because he refused to let him die while he was gone

someone wants phil to make amazingphil vases

he came out now because he thought his story would help other people :(

he’s been to EIGHT vidcons and his first was his favorite because he felt cared for and got to meet his idols i love him

phil talked about how he stans safiya

one of phil’s favorite videos to make was the tour of his brain and another was his coming out video, which was what he was the proudest of

he was worried about posting his coming out video but he got such a positive reaction from both us and other people that he’s really happy he did :’(

phil’s advising that rather than trying to copy other creators and focusing on views and numbers you should focus on what you want to make and the impact you can make on even one person

phil says that he doesn’t worry about people missing his channel because he trusts that we know that he’s always working on something even if he’s not putting out constant uploads

phil is working on a ~mystery project~ and he has written part of a script for something that he’s wanting to get made and has pitched to people..... hmm

they asked how much he keeps up with the phandom and everyone started worriedly mumbling sjfksdfsk

he said he wants to let us have our space because he knows we don’t want him looking over our shoulders and won’t see/check anything if we don’t @ him in it, although he does check his @’s and appreciates the phandom’s art greatly

his favorite meme is anything involving a dog

“i would love to get a dog” he’s not quite ready for the responsibility of a dog yet, but he wants to get one in the future and is considering graduating from tony to a slightly larger animal if tony is alive when he gets back

he literally told his concierge that he’s leaving tony and he should save tony in an emergency i love him so much

phil got his socks out for the lads.......they were waffles

awkward storytime: phil was on a train and sat beside a woman and she started rubbing phil’s leg and it turned out she had her eyes closed and thoughts he was her boyfriend who had gone to the bathroom...... press f for phil

phil’s midway through stranger things season 3

phil’s advice for writer’s/creative block: it happens sometimes, and it really depends on the person, but for him it helps to talk to someone, go out for a walk, or take a break.

phil wasn’t really scared of performing at ii because he knew everyone watching him already loved him and it just felt warm and fuzzy and he never wanted it to end :(

phil never had a “burnout” moment where he wanted to quit youtube, but he did want to disappear from the internet once when he was in a car insurance ad and people recognized him from the annoying commercial rather than youtube and he was afraid of fame (this was pre-dan)

someone on twitter said they loved him and he said “love you too” :(

phil’s advice on social anxiety: everyone else has their own anxieties and thoughts rather than focusing on you and your insecurities. “your brain is lying to you” and not everyone is staring at you. you should also push your comfort zone at times because maybe it’ll be easier than you think!

he is against the storming of area 51 and doesn’t want to get shot. he does, however, love the alien in the doorway meme

someone asked if the gaming channel was going to come back, and phil said they took a “hiatus” because dan didn’t want to to any youtube until he came out. he also said they just wanted to take a break and think about what to do next, which is something they haven’t done yet. they also have realized that we enjoy the bants more than the games, so they may bring it back as a gaming channel or as something completely different. they just want to try different things and move forward however they see fit, and they haven’t quite figured that out yet. so (my interpretation) it’s going to be a little while still, but they do have all the plans in the world to bring back the channel, even if it doesn’t come back as “gaming”.

there is apparently a tiny pig at vidcon and it is adorable--go on grace helbig’s instagram for a pic

phil’s advice to teenagers: don’t stress out about really small things that are in your head at any particular time. think of whether it’ll matter in a month or a year, and if it won’t try to realize that it’ll only matter for a little while longer and move on.

phil’s youtube “guilty pleasure” is cooking videos despite the fact that he cannot cook (another guilty pleasure is cat videos)

phil’s favorite piece of merch is the candle

favorite tour memories: new zealand in general and the tour bus; they’re also gonna hopefully meet up with their tour crew 1 year after the show awh

phil loved going to vegas and manila, and he still wishes they got to go to mexico

phil watches jenna marbles

phil’s advice for mental health and social media: consume the content that makes you happy and not the content that doesn’t! you don’t want to wake up and look at things that hurt your mental health; create your social media so that it’s as positive of a space as possible

if he could only have one social media other than youtube, he would have twitter so he could interact with us :( he generally sees the twitter phandom as a positive place within his @ replies

on the plane, before they took off, the pilot came on and said they were having an issue. in this pilot’s 20 years of flying, he’d never had this problem before. someone’s toiletries had just been yeeted onto the wing of this massive two story plane. they were delayed for TWO HOURS while they got a CRANE to get the bag off of the wing. others were panicking because they didn’t know what was in the bag, but dnp just seemed to find it funny.

phil’s proudest of their two tours, especially ii :(

according to phil, they’re not planning another tour right now, but “never say never.” he doesn’t want to jump into another tour, but he says that they may do another one when it feels right.

phil currently has $42 in his wallet. thank you alana and anush.

phil would be happy to collab with safiya, jenna, and anthony

he said he hasn’t filmed a video without uploading it except for a long, boring personality test

phil was asked what we’d be called if we weren’t the phandom and he just said he liked the phandom skdfljsdkf

phil’s senior quote: there is never too much candy.

phil’s advice on rejection (especially related to collabs): don’t take it to heart; people might not realize how important it is to you! rejection will lead to a better success.

phil submitted a pitch for a “show” he wanted to make last year and got rejected excuse me what??

he thanked everyone for coming to the q&a rather than the other exciting stuff at vidcon :(

#amazingphil #phil lester #dan and phil #dong and ping

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blazehedgehog · 4 years

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Sorry to ask this, but what are your thoughts on Dunky's "I'm Done Making Good Videos" with regards to content you aspire to author vs what the average joe actually searches for

I don’t know if I’m the best person to be asking this, really.

Let’s get fully inside baseball here. Let’s pull the curtain all the way back. Actually, let’s burn down the curtain. I’m going to overshare like hell right now. Get ready for the most stream-of-consciousness rambling ever, because a lot of this has been boiling in my head and dying to get out.

For the entirety of my Youtube channel, I’ve pretty much only ever done what I want to do. Very rarely do I chase trends, or do what’s hot, or even do what people want me to do. I do whatever I feel like doing.

I have paid the price for that. My Youtube channel is 15 years old as of this year, and only now am I slowly inching towards 25,000 subscribers. I am incredibly inconsistent. What’s my channel post? Well, a couple times a year, maybe I put together an edited essay/review for a game. But I also sometimes post random, unedited, uncommentated gameplay footage. Maybe it’s a fan game, maybe it’s a gameplay demo, maybe it’s Fortnite. Sometimes, I also post remastered video game music. Every Halloween, I dump a bunch of one-off horror Let’s Plays on to my channel. And then, there’s the podcast.

I know exactly what my problems are. I don’t specialize enough, and I don’t put content out fast enough. Because most Youtube channels are, like, “shows”, right. The Did You Know Gaming show. The Markiplier show. The Angry Video Game Nerd show. And you can point at those and say exactly what they are in two sentences or less.

Did You Know Gaming specializes in informative videos uncovering obscure facts you might not know about popular video games.

Markiplier is a Youtuber that does Let’s Play videos for video games, primarily horror games, but he also focuses on general comedy skits and things of that nature.

The Angry Video Game Nerd is about one guy’s over the top reactions to bad video games.

What does BlazeHedgehog do? Well, he does a lot of Sonic fan content, but sometimes he does horror let’s plays, and sometimes he does multiplayer compilation videos sort of like Criken, but he also does music, and sometimes he makes video games and puts out videos of that, and in general he’s really low energy and sometimes there will be three or four weeks between uploads. Also he sounds like Booger from Revenge of the Nerds Snot from Family Guy (apparently).

If you come to my channel for something specific, you have to put up with everything else I upload. I could start separate channels for that content, but the barrier to entry on Youtube is so massive now that I would effectively sending those channels to their death. Videos that get 200-500 views on my main channel would get 10 views or less if they were on their own self-contained alt-channel.

So I languish. I struggle. I suffer. Youtube shows me red down arrows to tell me just how much worse I’m doing now than my last flash-in-the-pan success.

I’ve tried to chase success. It just makes me sad. I have a sense of humor, but I don’t think I can make “funny videos” like some people can. My Sonic 06 glitch video did gangbusters ten years ago, but I don’t often like kicking games when they’re down. It was a struggle to make that Sonic Boom glitch montage and that’s the reason I never followed through with Part 2 like I said I would.

My only wish is that people appreciate honesty. My Youtube channel might be a scattered mess, but that’s who I am. And more than anything, I think that’s what Dunkey’s video was about. His whole joke was about switching from thoughtful or funny videos to becoming a content farm for whatever is currently popular.

I’ve brought it up a few times here and there over the last few months, but I’ve had several brushes with the Fortnite side of Youtube recently. And there are so many dudes over there who are what I would generously call “grifters.” I follow Hypex on Twitter and routinely check Firemonkey and ShiinaBR because they datamine future Fortnite updates and often have the scoop days, weeks or sometimes months in advance.

Near the end of season 3, all three of them mentioned they had datamined “the next season” but wouldn’t say what it was because they didn’t want to spoil what was coming (the marvel season). They mentioned there were “others out there” that were spoiling things, but wouldn’t say who. I wanted to spoil myself, so I turned to Youtube.

And Youtube was a nightmare. Over and over and over, I would encounter tons of people downright thriving on the same grift. It’s an open secret that Youtube prioritizes longer videos, so if your video is under ten minutes (or I think now 8 minutes), the algorithm isn’t going to be as nice to you and won’t promote your video as well, and you aren’t going to get as much advertising money because fewer people are going to sit through a video advertisement that’s a quarter of your video’s entire length. Longer videos are more profitable for Youtube, and by extension, for the user uploading them.

So it was video after video of these guys making big bold claims about how they had all the answers on what the next season of Fortnite was, and you’re thinking, “oh wow, it’s a 17 minute video, they’re going to spoil everything!”

You load the video up and it’s some guy in his streamer man cave, he’s got his webcam on, and he loads in to a match of Fortnite with his squad. Keep in mind, this video was pitched as a news report of sorts, a big spoiling of future content... and it’s just a guy playing Fortnite with a crew. In the few seconds between matches as he queues for the next one, he stops to deliver a single shred of information, most of which start with “Hypex said...”

The one thing you came to this video for and it’s scattered like breadcrumbs across a 17 minute video of a guy just playing normal matches Fortnite to fill time. It’s not information they acquired for themselves, they all just regurgitate what Hypex said, or what other channels reported Hypex saying. 17 minutes of padding for scraps of second-hand leaks. And I found dozens of these channels, all repeating the same format, all repeating the same specks of leaked information, and all of them had 150,000 to 200,000 views on each of their videos in less than 24 hours. That’s hundreds of dollars per video on a format to scam the system.

But that’s a content farm. Those dudes are vultures. I have a hard time believing their hearts are really in it. I know it’s not a term that’s really in vogue anymore, but I see that as “selling out.” They know what they are doing and it’s to make money, not to make a community better. I mean, one of those videos was a guy who was reading Marvel comic hero profiles off of Wikipedia because it sounded like he literally did not know who guys like Iron Man, Thor and Wolverine even were. How are you in touch enough with pop culture that you’re cranking out factory-fresh Fortnite content for Youtube but you don’t know who Thor is? Answer: because you don’t really care and you’re in it for the money. Gotta hit that 15 minute threshold and put in six mid-roll ad breaks.

I could be that guy. That’s kind of what I was hoping “This Kinda Sucks” would turn in to, which would be sort of a rant video series like The Jimquisition or something. But I did not have the interest or energy to keep that up. So you get a playlist with two videos on it.

I’m sure Dunkey was just funnin’ around. Dude has 6 million subscribers. But for me, like... what he said in the video is mostly true. Following your heart and making thoughtful content you are personally interested in won’t pay the bills. I mean, as I predicted, that Jurassic Park video launched to the sound of crickets chirping. My most hardcore fans and a few curious onlookers checked it out but that was it. I’ve been working on that video since August, and it’s something my viewer base did not care about. But I cared about it, and that’s important for the long-run, I think.

The other problem, sort of a disconnect, is that I’m lucky to be in the position I’m in. I think guys like Dunkey probably make all of their money from places like Youtube and Twitch and Patreon and that’s their career. That work pays all of their bills.

My work does not pay my bills. Or it does, but it’s not enough to pay all of my bills. I am lucky enough right now that I am in a living situation where I can make fractions of money in intermittent spurts. That won’t always be the case. But for now, I get to be honest, and I get to follow my heart in whatever random, chaotic direction it feels like going that particular day. Dunkey faces a different sort of pressure than I do.

All of this is to say I have no idea what I’m doing, I guess. I make the content I want to see.

That being said, I increasingly think about something I heard Woolie say early on when he went solo for his WoolieVS channel, and that was the idea of “One for you, one for me, one for us.”

Because I’ve had more than one friend burn out doing, like, Twitch streams and stuff. You hear about Youtubers who get sick of being shackled to new releases or whatever’s popular. At some point these people wake up and realize they’ve had this struggle, maybe made some money in the process, but they’re miserable because they don’t get to do what they want to do. They’re always being pushed forward by the fans that are behind them.

The “One for you, one for me, one for us” mantra does at least keep you a little more sane. Balance in all things, right? So that Jurassic Park video, it can flop. It’d be nice if it didn’t flop, given what time of the year it is, but it’s a video for me. I have other video ideas in the chamber that I know will be for my audience, or “for us.”

I just have to stay true to myself, and to my messy brain.

#questions #dunkey #youtube #inside baseball #behind the curtain #long posts #spilling my guts #Anonymous

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Tokusatsu Streaming Guide: Where to Watch Kamen Rider, Ultraman, and More

https://ift.tt/2VR6eGr

Ten years ago a fan of Tokusatsu (Japanese special effects shows, mostly superheroes) could have never imagined the access we’d have to these programs today. Back then official releases of anything outside of the American adaptations, particularly Power Rangers, seemed like a far off dream. However in the past few years especially there’s been a slow trickle of Toku shows becoming available to stream in North America.

In the last few months though that trickle became a waterfall as several new services have quickly become mainstays, finally allowing Toku fandom to finally enjoy their favorite shows legally. This also allows more casual fans a chance to experience these shows for the first time and that’s who this guide is mostly for. If you’re curious about the wider world of Tokusatsu and need a place to start, this guide should cover your bases for the many kinds of Toku series out there.

Just as a note, we are only discussing shows that are legally available. This also isn’t a comprehensive list. Many of the streaming services mentioned below have multiple Toku series available, we’re just picking a small sample. With that in mind, let’s dive into this ocean of Toku, shall we?

Kamen Rider (1971)

Available on TokuSHOUTsu (Shout Factory TV/tubi/Pluto)

The release that shocked and delighted Toku fans, the original series in the long running Kamen Rider franchise may be old but that doesn’t detract from its enjoyment. This is Toku in its purest form. Incredible fights, trippy special effects, bizarre monsters, and a strikingly bleak backstory for the main character.

Hongo Takeshi is kidnapped by the evil Shocker and transformed against his will into a cyborg. Worrying if his humanity is intact, Hongo still fights for justice as Kamen Rider. It may seem simplistic in our modern age of superheroes but there’s something enduringly appealing about Hongo’s quest to stop evil despite the wrongs that were inflicted on him.

Plus, come on, you can’t beat those trumpets that come in for damn near every music number. Highly recommend if you’re down for old school heroics or just want to enjoy some trippy 70’s TV.

Zyuranger (1992)

Available on TokuSHOUTsu (Shout Factory TV/tubi/Pluto)

Many people reading this are no doubt aware of Power Rangers, especially the original Mighty Morphin series. If you want to rock your world, you gotta check out the Super Sentai series Zyuranger. It’s as far from MMPR as you can imagine, with a team of dinosaur-evolved humans from 170 million years ago brought into the present day.

Power Rangers and How It Adapted From Super Sentai

By Shamus Kelley

TokuSHOUTsu: Kamen Rider, Ultraman, and Super Sentai Coming to Streaming

By Shamus Kelley

The differences between it and MMPR will be the main draw for most and as you watch the series you’ll be impressed just how much the producers of Power Rangers were able to take this footage and remold it for America.

Ultraman Mebius

Available on TOKU

You can’t do a list about Tokusatsu without giving love to one of the big three, Ultraman. While the franchise’s original series sadly isn’t streaming (but you’ll be able to soon), you can’t go wrong with the 40th anniversary season Ultraman Mebius. Following the adventures of the rookie Mebius, the Ultra comes to Earth and joins up with the attack team (hilariously out of context) named GUYS. Mebius, GUYS, and even a few characters from past Ultraman series, fight off giant monsters attacking Earth.

The Challenge of Bringing Ultraman to America

By Shamus Kelley

Comics

Marvel Reveals Ultraman Details

By Shamus Kelley

Both a great introduction for new fans and rewarding for long time Ultra fans, Mebius is a fantastic show to jump headfirst into the hero that’s larger than life.

Garo

Available on HiDive

If you want something off the beaten path of the big three Tokusatsu franchises, Garo might be right up your alley. Feeling a bit darker than other Toku (and not just because much of the action taking place at night or in darker spaces), the series follows Makai Knight Kouga Saezima attempting to protect humanity against the evil “Horrors.” Along the way though he encounters Kaoru, who is set to die in 100 days, and he sets out to try and save her.

Everything from the look of the series to the designs of the Garo suit feel different from Sentai, Kamen Rider, and Ultraman and if you aren’t feeling the more traditional vibe of those series Garo might be right up your alley. It’s also the first in a very long and surprising franchise so if you like it, there’s a lot more to get into.

Space Sheriff Gavan

Available on Toei Tokusatsu World Official

The first of the not as often remembered Metal Heroes franchise (although some of the series in it were adapted into VR Troopers and Beetleborgs), Gavan stands out for just how wild it is from the jump. Sure there’s the story about Don Horror (wonder if he’s a bad guy!) trying to destroy Earth and Retsu Ichijouji (Gavan) being sent out to stop him but that’s all icing on the cake.

American Tokusatsu Shows: VR Troopers

By Shamus Kelley

American Tokusatsu Shows: Big Bad Beetleborgs

By Shamus Kelley

Metal Heroes have a reputation for bonkers visuals along with great action and Gavan delivers in spades. From the opening seconds of the first episode we’re greeted with Gavan standing atop a robot dragon standing against a gloriously lush background of outer space. Lead actor Kenji Ohba is also stunning in his action scenes and he puts even the superheroes of today to shame with just how good he is in these hand-to-hand fights.

Love action? Love weirdness? Want to be cool and not go with the obvious choices? Gavan might be for you!

Android Kikaider

Available on Toei Tokusatsu World

An absolute smash hit in Hawaii that’s still talked about to this day, Kikaider is more classic ’70s Toku action if Kamen Rider wasn’t enough for you. Following the heroics of robot Jiro against the (obviously) evil DARK, the main draw of the series is not just the delightfully over the top action but also the compelling conflict between Kikaider and evil robot Hakaider.

We should also mention that while the first two episodes of all series on Toei Tokusatsu World are subtitled, further episodes that will be uploaded won’t have them and it’s being left up to fans to subtitle the rest. Even without subtitles though, Kikaider’s action should more than keep your attention.

Dynaman (Night Flight Dub)

Available on Night Flight Plus

Easily the strangest entry on this list, Night Flight’s Dynaman isn’t just the seventh entry in the Super Sentai series. Oh no, it’s a little known dub of the show that aired on USA Network’s Night Flight program in the ’80s. It’s a gag dub through and through and mostly relies on pop culture jokes and (and we’re being generous here) outdated humor.

Still, it’s a peek into one of the earliest examples of Toku being brought to America on a large scale. For that alone it’s worth checking out, especially for those interested in the history of Toku in America and exploring the “what if” of imagining this getting popular instead of Power Rangers.

Gridman The Hyper Agent

Available on TOKU

Bold proclamation to make, but Gridman has the absolute best design of any Tokusatsu hero ever. It takes what worked well enough for Ultraman but added extra detail in all the right places to create a truly iconic look for a hero.

Gridman follows three hip computer kids (Naoto, Ippei, and Yuka) whose videogame superhero is taken over by the interdimensional Gridman who then combines with Naoto. The computer hero fights against the digital monsters of the evil Kahn Digifer in some of the best looking fights of all the series we’ve mentioned. Some shows might have better action overall but the look of the computerized world of Gridman can’t be beat.

American Tokusatsu Shows: Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad

By Shamus Kelley

SSSS. GRIDMAN Episode 1 Review: Awakening

By Shamus Kelley

The show may look familiar to some American fans as its footage was used in Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad. Gridaman also experienced a revival in the form of the SSSS.GRIDMAN anime, which redid some of the concepts of the original series with a few easter eggs to Syber-Squad for very hardcore fans.

Special Rescue Exceedraft

Available on Toei Tokusatsu World Official

Look, I’m going to be real with you. I’ve only seen the first two episodes of Exceedraft. I have no idea if the whole series is good. What I can tell you though is that the first episode is straight up the most batshit wild episode of any Toku I’ve ever seen. It’s like if someone took the plot of Speed and said:

“Aha, let’s do this but condense it down to 20 minutes, add in some shiny superheroes, and make it way more intense.” Also, the title of the episode is “The Kindergarten Bus of Death.” Just watch it. If you watch nothing else on this list, watch this episode. It’s Toku on, well, speed and it’s fantastic.

Jetman

Available on TokuSHOUTsu (Shout Factory TV/tubi/Pluto)

What if Super Sentai, but a soap opera? It’s not that Tokusatsu had never had soap opera elements before or after this series, but Jetman took that idea to a level that’s still being talked about today. When Red Ranger Ryuu’s partner is killed in an attack by the (say it with us now) evil Vyram, the powerful “Birdonic Waves” are unleashed on four unsuspecting civilians. Ryuu recruits them and they become the Jetman team.

With strong characterization from the start, Jetman stands out by jumping into the romance between team members as Ryuu struggles with his growing attraction to White Ranger Kaori. It’s standard soap opera stuff, with a love triangle thrown in for good measure (which would have been better if Kaori was given more agency), but if you love those tropes then Jetman might be the series for you.

As we said earlier, this is only a small sampling of some of the shows available on streaming sites in North America. What are some of your favorite Tokusatsu series that are available to watch and which ones do you hope are picked up in the future?

The post Tokusatsu Streaming Guide: Where to Watch Kamen Rider, Ultraman, and More appeared first on Den of Geek.

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shineyma · 8 years

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Amy’s note: I’ve chosen to respond to your comments in-text; my commentary is in bold. It’s just easier to keep track of that way. Plus I added a read more for obvious reasons! ;D

Alright. I’m going to start with your post regarding Daisy’s “you and Fitz belong together” to Jemma.

I honestly can’t even consider it a thing Daisy canonically told Jemma because her overall characterization is far too good for this sort of thing. I don’t think this is something S4 Daisy would tell Jemma. It’s just a joke, another instance of bad and inconsistent writing, right up there with Jemma’s “I can’t think without Fitz.” Three and a half seasons of Jemma finding herself in much direr, more desperate and far more apocalyptic situations – where she’s had her short break-downs/freak-outs to relieve some of the tension, then went right back to work using her genius brain to provide solutions – all of that cast aside so the writers can cater to their obsession with FS. Jemma’s break-down here wasn’t consistent with her previous characterization, and to try and pin it on the trauma of what had just happened with the Fitz-bot would be a form of retconning. *sigh*

I both agree and disagree, nonnie! I liked that Jemma had a mini-breakdown, because she has been through a lot over the last few years and that piles up. Plus, as dire as things have been for her...killing one’s own boyfriend (regardless of the fact that it’s a robot version) is pretty traumatic. So I don’t think we can really dismiss this situation as “she’s been through worse”, especially considering that it’s not just that she killed LMD Fitz, but also he attacked her. That’s gonna (or should, if not for the writers’ dislike of consequences in fs-land) leave some scars.

So I liked that she had a momentary breakdown and had trouble thinking and gave up hope. Hope hurts, Jemma knows that more than anyone, and while she’s chosen before to hold on to it and find it in bad places, well...things are looking really bad there.

That said, I would’ve liked it better if she’d just stuck to “I can’t think” and left Fitz out of it. If it’d been a breakdown about her and not a breakdown about fs, it would’ve been much better. And less jarring.

And this thing where we find two women amidst a crisis having an exchanging and most of it focusing on the one’s male love interest – all the while these women have so many traumatic and otherwise experiences in common that they could talk about – is The Flash’s Iris and Caitlin all over again. But it’s even more inexcusable and unforgivable here because it’s out of character for both Daisy and Jemma in this situation and they have they kind of long and rich and complex history together and Caitlin and Iris don’t. And on this note, nyxelestia reblogged your post and made a truly excellent and well-though addition about AOS and the treatment of Daisy/Jemma. (Oh, I’m getting angry.)

Actually, I think the saddest part is that the exchange didn’t mostly focus on Fitz. They made a plan and Jemma referenced Daisy’s need to atone and said she couldn’t lose her and they argued about what to do and so on and so forth, and then Daisy dropped that destiny crap in out of nowhere and that’s what we’re remembering. Without it, it was a really great scene. Minus the aforementioned “I can’t think without Fitz” stuff.

Anyway. Re: Brett and Ward’s return, Jed Whedon said that they wanted to bring Brett and Ward back without negating what they’ve already done with the character, and that sounds to me a lot like Brett/Ward is only going to be a temporary Framework thing – but hey, of course dream on! (Not going to lie here; this is me crushing your Ward hopes in a sort of, kind of, maybe revenge for making me do all those calculations and consider the dates and get my hopes crushed that November 8 isn’t related to F.Z.Z.T and FS. Although I’m honestly grounding my own excitement too because I also want Brett and Ward back so badly.) By the way, “I have MISSED HIS FACE and I want him to stay FOREVER” is precisely what I’m feeling about Brett and Ward’s absence. You’ve put it into words!

XD I admit that I am deserving of having my hopes crushed. But I will live in hope anyway because I like this show better when Brett’s on it. (Not to say I haven’t been enjoying s4 thus far!! I’ve actually really loved it! I just would’ve loved it even more with added Brett.)

About Framework!fic: it should definitely be the new rock!fic. That was my own immediate thought once the episode ended. The two cliffhangers are so much similar in nature, in all the possibilities they open up, that it only makes sense. So get on that! You only have, like, a month or so (…she says as if she wouldn’t read a Framework!fic a whole decade from now). Daaaazzle me as you always do! (Side note: this is just an expression of my pure and unbridled excitement over Framework!fic. No one is in no way ever to feel rushed or pressured to write anything.) Also, please never stop being a #terrible and predictable raccoon. Your #terrible and predictable raccoon…iness gives me life. This is the kind of #terrible-and-predictable-raccoon-produced content I signed up for. :3

<3 <3 <3 Thanks, nonnie!! That’s so lovely to hear! :D

And finally, onto the Framework theories!

I was personally never worried that Jemma would die because she appears to be dead in the Framework, and for a number of reasons. Firstly, there’s Elizabeth’s status as a core cast member and one half of FS. I think that if she were to be killed off, we’d strongly suspect it slash feel it coming, like with Brett. And we know how much the writers love FS. One of them dying is, I think, pretty much the only kind of drama they would not create with those two. Then there’s Jemma’s “but dying in there will definitely kill you” to Daisy. Maybe it was just me but the minute we saw Jemma’s grave in the Framework and we were thus “told” that Jemma is dead in the reality of the Framework, my brain immediately went down the path that said Jemma was dead in the Framework before her consciousness was uploaded to it, and that what she’d told Daisy about dying in the Framework resulting in death in the actual reality, only pertained to people who were uploaded in the Framework, no the made-up replicas that existed in it (e.g. Mack’s daughter, Coulson’s students, perhaps Ward etc.). So unless a time jump happened (highly unlikely considering how the Framework sequence was presented) where Jemma’s uploaded consciousness died inside the Framework, the supposedly dead Jemma is merely her replica.

See, I guess everyone else saw it coming, but Ward’s death came out of nowhere for me---and while I knew they’d kill off Hive (because aos has something against multi-season arcs, even when it means wasting amazing villains), I honestly thought they’d find some way of keeping Brett around. Maybe it was denial, I don’t know; point is, Brett being gone for good came TOTALLY out of left field for me. It left scars. So I was absolutely worried that they’d do the same with Liz. XD

Plus, I sadly don’t share your assurance that they wouldn’t kill one of fs for drama. They have a clear preference for Fitz and imagine how many episodes of him blaming himself and missing her and angsting and angsting and angsting they could squeeze out of Jemma’s death? Oh, not to mention everyone else’s lives revolving around him while never addressing that they might mourn Jemma in her own right. The writers love that stuff.

Now, re: a potential resurrection if she’s truly dead and buried there, I honestly can’t tell if the writers would go as far as to pull a Buffy or Dean with Jemma. Buffy is Joss Whedon’s show. And I think her middle name’s Anne, like Jemma’s? And her first name is Elizabeth? Also, Dean is named after his grandmother, Deanna. And he hooked up with that angle turned human turned angel again, Anna Milton, a few episodes into S4 i.e. his resurrection season, and all that about the first thing Anna heard on the “angel radio” was “Dean Winchester is saved.” (Maaaan, it’s truly dark down here in this hole. How do rabbits see? Do they have night vision? :3)

Re: the November 8 and deliberately hidden year of Jemma’s date of death, JD’s red herring theory is likely and it gives me hope and I love it. Again, I wouldn’t put it past the writers to have made the calculations necessary to connect it to F.Z.Z.T. and make it another FS-related thing instead of Let. Jemma. Have. Her. Own. Non. Fitz-related. Storyline. But there are other things to consider here before we talk about old episodes and how the date might connect to them.

First of all, we have no idea if Jemma really is dead. (Side note: we’re always talking about the Framework replica of Jemma. We’re assuming the gravestone is there at least a whole moment before our Jemma is successfully uploaded or whatever else on Earth happens.) Jemma could have faked her death for one reason or another. Or some people have theorized that the gravestone is actually the rendezvous point for Daisy and Jemma i.e. the backdoor that Jemma programmed in the Framework so she and Daisy can get out of there once their mission is complete.

Ooooooooooo, I hadn’t heard the theory that the gravestone was the backdoor! I like that one. Faking one’s death is always a classic, so I’ve loved that one since I heard it, too. (Spoiler alert: I actually have a little gifset re: that possibility scheduled for tomorrow.)

Another theory I read is that Framework Jemma is indeed dead, and that the real Jemma will simply not be uploaded and wake up to coordinate the rescue of the others with Elena from wherever Radcliffe and Aida are keeping them. I find this one highly unlikely if I’ve being honest – not dramatic enough, especially considering all the other far more spectacularly dramatic possibilities.

But in the end, before we can really work on any of the individual characters inside the Framework, we have to figure out the overall reality of the Framework. Coulson being a teacher and teaching children to fear Inhumans, May ascending in the elevator at a Triskelion with the HYDRA logo plastered on its side, Fitz as a – theorized – Tony-Stark-esque version of himself… None of that means anything unless we know the details – indeed, the World History of Framework!Earth. Is HYDRA the same evil organization that they are in reality? Certainly, the logo remains the same stupid, menacing, evil-looking octopus. But that could be for the viewers’ benefit or some other practical reason. And then, building on that, did S.H.I.E.L.D. fall? When did it fall? When did the uprising happen? Did S.H.I.E.L.D. ever exist at all? Did Captain America? Were there any World Wars at all? Is it a Nazi dystopia? The Inhumans clearly happened. But how did they happen? And is Daisy even one of them in the Framework? And so on and so forth.

My own personal theory for why May’s HYDRA: she saved that little girl in Bahrain, which we saw. So say the little girl then used her power to get May under her control....and then Hive came back and swayed the little girl, thereby getting indirect control of May. Now Hive is ruling HYDRA, Coulson fears Inhumans because they’re all swayed and doing Hive’s dirty work, and so on.

(I will freely admit that 50-60% of this theory is just grounded in me wanting Hive back. Getting Ward is amazing enough, but I’m greedy.)

Anyway, really there are way too many possibilities. We can’t even begin to guess what happened and what didn’t.

Except kind of we can, because the idea was each person plugged into the framework had a single regret changed. So anything that happened before the oldest of them (Coulson or May?) was born in the real world probably happened there too. There would need to be some kind of consistency between the worlds, otherwise the circumstances that created their regrets might never have happened, thereby denying Aida the chance to fix them, right?

So probably the World Wars happened, probably Cap existed, probably HYDRA was evil. Whether Cap’s still around, HYDRA’s still evil, etc....that’s harder to say.

Assuming we answer the above, we can work on individuals. “We are being called in,” as seen on Daisy’s phone, is a pretty good indicator of what she and Ward might be doing for a living. Could be misdirection. If it’s not, do they work for HYDRA? And again, if we don’t know what kind of organization HYDRA is and what the form of government is in general, we can’t speculate on May and her working at HYDRA – maybe even heading it.

And then we also have to decide whether Aida was immediately alerted when Daisy and Jemma uploaded themselves into the Framework, and if she made any adjustments – and to what ends. Did Aida kill Framework Jemma on purpose, to stop the real Jemma? Did she put Ward in there instead of Lincoln to do the same to Daisy? Because I could buy that some part of Daisy might have thought about Ward might have turned out like if he hadn’t been found by Garrett – if he had been found by Coulson or some other good, loyal S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Or if his family had never been abusive. So, a good Ward could have been her boyfriend of choice in the Framework, but only if Lincoln had never existed in reality. I sincerely think Daisy’s true desire is Lincoln, not Ward. And not just because she called his name and thought she would find him in her and Ward’s bed. Lincoln just makes sense, emotionally and mentally.

Re: Daisy’s boyfriend of choice, it’s been pointed out that Ward makes sense as her boyfriend in the framework because of the lack of choice. Aida mentioned in the episode that she had to keep resetting the framework when they added someone new; if Daisy had been caught and plugged in the way the others were, Aida would have adjusted things to address what ever Great Regret she thought Daisy needed fixed. But because Daisy wasn’t planned for, she just got slotted into the life her double was living as a consequence of all those other large changes. Whatever rippled out from the others’ regrets being fixed led to Daisy being with Ward; her own choice had nothing to do with it.

Because I agree, she absolutely would’ve chosen Lincoln.

So, to circle back to an earlier point, making a connection between Jemma’s date of death as seen on her gravestone and one of the old episodes is a very messy, all-over-the-place thing, because it would require this and that and the other for the circumstances that led to F.Z.Z.T. to have happened in the reality of the Framework as well.

See, as much as I like all the theories that have Jemma not dying in FZZT...I think you’re giving the writers a liiiiiiiiiittle too much credit there. I don’t know that they’d actually consider all the possible ripple effect and technicalities, not when they have the opportunity to turn it into a “I’d be dead without you!!” shipper moment.

Alright, I’m done. That’s about all I can remember that I wanted to say. Thanks, again, terribly, for letting me send this to you this way. It made the text much easier and less stressful to produce and handle (I absolutely cannot guarantee the absence of all sorts of mistakes). You’re an angel. And you can also edit it however you want, you know. Go wild! Write comments in between if you want. Delete stuff. Add jokes.

You’re welcome, nonnie! <3

P.S. Yes, I have indeed made the submission essentially anonymous. In the words of Steve Rogers: “Internet. So helpful.” Especially when you suffer from crippling shyness. Which I hate. Because it makes my life unnecessarily difficult and impossible.

I totally feel you, nonnie. I have horrible social anxiety and 99% of the messages I send to non-mutual blogs (and, honestly, even them sometimes) are sent on anon. I don’t blame you at all!

Thanks again so much. ❤ ❤ ❤

And also, yay for the Framework!fic you’re making progress on!

My excuse for posting this at 1AM: I finished and posted the fic! Yay?

#amy communicates #anonymous #my nonnies are the best nonnies #i'm way too tired to reread everything i've written here so fingers crossed that it's coherent!#and also friendly because i disagreed with a couple of your points #i hope i don't sound rude and/or condescending #if i do it was NOT my intention #just my exhaustion getting the better of me #aos spoilers #submission

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gomangodigitalblog · 4 years

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How to start Android app development for beginners?

Android app development

Learning to code is difficult enough on its own but with Android development, it can be more complicated. You need to understand Java, you also need to install all the Android-specific software and learn all of the unique quirks of Android app development. Let’s check out how to start Android app development for beginners?

Creating an Android app requires the SDK (Software Development Kit), an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) like Android Studio or Eclipse, the Java Software Development Kit (JDK) and a virtual device to test on. All this takes work to set up, and that’s before you’ve even started looking into things like Google Play Services, screen sizes, API levels…It’s just such a dense amount of information and it’s enough to put an awful lot of people off before they even begin. Through this article, you will learn an approachable guide to try and make the whole prospect of creating an app a little less daunting… let’s explain the bits you need to know and gloss over the rest and by the end, you should have a basic app that you can start iterating on and experimenting with.

Step 1: Get Android Studio

To program in most languages, you need a piece of software called an IDE or ‘Integrated Development Environment’. The most common IDE for Android development is Android Studio, which comes directly from Google itself. You can get it here.

An IDE is what gives you the main UI where you’ll enter your code (you can’t just start typing into notepad). It also highlights things you get wrong, offers suggestions and lets you run and test your creations conveniently. It creates the files you need, it provides basic layouts and generally it saves you a lot of time and effort.

What’s great about Android Studio is that it is designed specifically for Android development (unlike the second most popular option, Eclipse). This means that when you download the software, you’ll also get a lot of the other bits you need including the Android SDK (a selection of tools including the Android platform itself) and the Android Virtual Device, which is an emulator you can test your apps on. When you go through the installation, make sure you leave the boxes ticked to confirm that you want these additional components. You could manually add them later, but this will just complicate matters.

As mentioned, there are some alternatives to Android Studio. Eclipse is an older IDE that can be used for developing other things too (such as iOS apps) and that is a bit more flexible overall. It’s also a much more fiddly to get started with though and not nearly as beginner-friendly.

we now have Android Studio downloaded and installed. But, don’t run it until you read step two! So far so good…

Step 2: Setting Up Android Studio

Now you have Android Studio installed you’ve taken your first, bold step toward becoming a developer! A lot of people only manage it this far and then leave the software installed on their computer for months on end, feeling guilty every time they see it in the Start Menu. Eventually, they end deleting it to make space for the next AAA title on Steam and so ends the whole sorry affair… Don’t end up like them – it’s time for some more affirmative action!

Before you can get started, you also need to install Java on your machine to use Android Studio. Specifically, you’re going to need to install the Java Development Kit (JDK). Java is the programming language you’re going to be using to build your apps in this instance and you need to install the JDK in order for Android Studio to be able to interpret and compile your code (compiling means turning the source into something that is understood by the CPU – machine code). You’ll find the Java Development Kit here. Just download and follow the instructions to install.

Now you can click on Android Studio to launch it. Once it opens up, you’ll be presented with a menu where you’ll be able to get started or configure some options. The great thing is that everything is handled for you at this point, though you may want to familiarize yourself with the SDK Manager (Configure > SDK Manager) which is where you’ll update your Android SDK to support newer versions, as well as download things like code samples or support for Google Glass. But don’t worry about that now but if Android Studio says you’re missing something, this is where you’ll probably need to go to find it.

So really there are three main things interacting when you use Android Studio to create your apps.

Android Studio itself, which is an IDE that provides you with a nice interface for coding.

The code you write in Java, which you installed a moment ago…

And the Android SDK which you’ll access through your Java code in order to do Android-type things

If you find this all a bit complicated and daunting then… well, you will be familiar with this awesome opportunity.

Step 3: Starting a New Project

Once you’ve installed your samples, you can go back to the first page you saw when you loaded up Android Studio. Now you want to choose to Start a new Android Studio Project – it’s finally happening!

Enter the name you want for your application and your ‘company domain’. Together these elements will be used to create your package name with the following format:

com.companyname.appname

The package will be the compiled file or APK (‘Android Package File’) that you’ll eventually upload to the Google Play Store. There are ways that people can see this.

The last field to enter is the directory where you want to save all the files pertaining to your app. always have a backup of code. Click Next again.

Next you need to decide what type of device you’re going to be developing for and in this case, we’ll start with the Phone and Tablet option. Other options are TV, Wear and Glass. It’s fine if you want to develop for a myriad of platforms in the future – that’s one of the wonders of Android –

The other choice you have to make at this stage is the ‘Minimum SDK’. This is the lowest version of Android you want to support. Why not just enter the latest version of Android in here? Well, because relatively few people actually have the latest version of Android installed on their device at any given time. You want to support phones that are still running older versions in order to reach the largest possible audience – especially overseas.

The best bet at this stage is to go with the default option, so just leave this field as it is. On the next page, you’ll be given the option to pick the way you want your app to look at the start. This will be the look of your main ‘Activity Module’ which is basically the main page of your app. Think of these like templates; do you want to have the title of your app along with the top of the screen, or do you want your UI to fill the whole display? Do you want to start off with some elements ready-designed for you? Is your app primarily going to use Google Maps (don’t go here for a bit, things get more complicated with Google Play Services)?

The Layout

Android Studio is not showing the XML code itself here but rather a rendering of how the layout will appear on the screen. This is a visual editor a bit like Dreamweaver for web design and it makes life a little easier for us developers.

You also have a bunch of options called ‘widgets’ down the left that you can add to your app. This is your basic app stuff; so for instance, if you want to add a button saying ‘OK’ to your activity, you can simply drag it over to the screen and drop it anywhere you like. Go ahead and dump an ‘OK’ button right underneath the ‘Hello World’.

Something else you’ll find is that you can click on either of these elements in order to change the text and the ‘ID’. The ID is how you’re referring to each element (called a ‘view’) in your Java code, while the text is of course what you display to the user.

Delete the ‘Hello World’ widget (or view) and change the text on the button to ‘Hello?’. Likewise, change the ‘id’ on the button to ‘button1’.

I am now stealthily getting you to write a little program… Notice as well that when you select a view, you get options in the bottom right to change the text colour and size etc. You can play around with these variables if you like to change the look of your button. We’re coming back here in a minute though so make a mental note!

Now open up your MainActivity.java. The tab will be along the top but in case it isn’t, find it under App > Java.

This is the code that defines the behaviour of your app. At this stage, you’re going to add in a little passage of code:

Now all that’s left to do is run the app you just made. Simple go to ‘run’ along the top and then select ‘run app’ from the drop-down menu. You should already have your AVD (Android Virtual Device) installed but if not, you can go to tools > Android > AVD Manager > + Create Virtual Device. Don’t forget you also need to install an Android version onto the device.

Follow the steps to launch the emulator running your app. Be patient, it can sometimes take an age to load up… If it never loads up, you can consider ‘packaging’ the app in order to create an APK. Drag this onto your Android device and double click on it to install and run it.

How to get better app development with Mango Digital?

If you want the absolute easiest way to start, then just find some sample code that’s close to what you make and change. Try changing the layout of the text and try adding in more buttons and more rules to make your app actually useful.

#android app development #android app development course #android app development for beginers #android app development kit #android app development tutorial

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tuan8packs · 5 years

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Powerhouse Affiliate Review from Real User-Best CPA Marketing Course Ever

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CPA Marketing is profitable,we all know that. But ask yourself,have you ever made money with CPA Marketing the correct way. I see that a lot people are joining both CPA + Affiliate Marketing but just a small amount success. It’s easy to understand,most people enter but as a wrong methods and that’s why they don’t have results. So,the key is to have the right approach and Powerhouse Affiliate will be your great solutions. Let’s read my entire Powerhouse Affiliate review post so that you understand what you are getting and is it for you.

What is Powerhouse Affiliate?

Who is Powerhouse Affiliate For?

Any marketer at any experience

Mostly for those who want fast results

Affiliate Marketers,Google Adsense Earners and CPA Marketers

Those who are ready for Paid Traffic

You get stuck having approval on CPA Networks

And many more,..

Main Features and Demo of Powerhouse Affiliate

Now,i will show you exactly what inside the course. This is the member’s area once you login.

These are all the course inside that you will learn from the product creator. For those who are new,it’s recommended to watch the action plan video training.

1.Bootcamp Course

Inside this training,there will be 5 main course you need to jump in.

Most of the course are text-based version. After the certification course,you can learn the email list building course.

After learning Affiliate Marketing and Email Marketing,you will now learn about CPA Marketing.

The next course will be about Traffic Generation. As you know,to success online,you need traffic and Powerhouse Affiliate will cover about paid traffic mostly.

And the last one is CPA Display Academy and this is an advaned Native Ads Training from Joey.

At this membership,i strongly recommend you to watch all the webinar from the product creator. The topics are about CPA Marketing + Landing Page + Native Ads + Google Adsense.

Besides,he also shows you his real life case studies. As you know,when you learn,case studies will help you a lot because it’s realistic.

And that’s you access as a training program. The next part is some DFY Affiliate Resource Vault.

2.DFY Template

Trust me,these templates worth gold and they are what marketers like us very need. First off,he has pre-done Landing Page that you can 1 click upload to your hosting server.

These landing page work really well with Native Ads traffic. As you can see,he mainly utilize the powerness of Survey Funnel and Viral Article.

He also provides some landing page for email marketing purpose. Another cool stuff is that he provides some Marketing Graphics.

Therefore,don’t waste a lot time and money on building pages,just use from him.

Bonus From Me

In order to help your life much easier,i will add some extra bonuses if you get Powerhouse Affiliate through my link. Just simply buy and then simply mail me at [email protected] with your name and your receipt.

source https://dailyjobkiller.com/powerhouse-affiliate-review/

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porchenclose10019 · 7 years

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Does corporate storytelling work? Some mega-brands say no.

By Mark Schaefer

With much flourish, Coca-Cola announced in 2011 that it would be moving from “creative excellence to content excellence.” It made an epic, two-part animated video on their strategy, explaining that they would be creating such amazing content that it could not be contained.

Shortly after this announcement, the company launched a magazine-style site called Coca-Cola Journey. This is what it looked like:

This thing has spirit, it has soul, it has lots and lots of stories. Check out that navigation bar folks: SPORTS, FOOD, ENTERTAINMENT, HEALTH.

Does that sound like a soft drink company website? This content site was populated by professional journalists and Coca-Cola Journey represented bold and unconventional corporate storytelling at its best.

I’d also like to direct your attention to the item in the upper right corner of the screenshot. This was a post by blogger and entrepreneur Adam Kleinberg disagreeing with Coke’s marketing strategy. Kleinberg told me that he blogged about this topic on his own and then Coke invited him to post the dissenting opinion on the front page of their corporate site.

Huh? A negative post about the company on their own site? Unheard of! Clearly Coke was investing heavily in “the story.”

This is what the Coca-Cola Journey looks like today:

Well darn.

This looks like a regular old corporate website. The sports section is gone … in fact all those cool sections are gone — and the guys in suits are back. This site is so … boring. Where is the storytelling? What happened?

In a Digiday post, associate editor Shareen Pathak reported that the big factor in Journey’s storytelling failure was Facebook. First, organic traffic to the Journey site declined precipitously because more people were viewing content on Facebook instead of clicking to websites (I reported on this rise of the newsfeed in an earlier post). The other factor is that with Coke’s buying power, it could create promoted content on social sites more cost-effectively then feeding their own publishing beast with original content.

So, they stopped. Is Coca-Cola still a brand publisher? Well, unless you count press releases, not so much.

The end of a corporate storytelling era

“Journey” is just one in a long line of ambitious corporate storytelling ventures that did not pan out.

Another example is Newell Brands‘ Sharpie pen division. Beginning in 2009, Sharpie hosted one of the most beloved and creative content sites in the world. They pioneered user-generated content, featuring entertaining customer stories that ranged from home decorating to high fashion … all with Sharpie pens. Yes, this company found a way to create an excited and engaged community dedicated to pens!

The Sharpie blog has not been updated since 2013. The amazing content team was disbanded and the social media accounts were mothballed about the same time.

I reached out to the company for comment but they would not respond to my request. One former team member told me “I weep when I think about the lost Sharpie opportunity. I weep when I think about the fans — we were so connected to them.”

Sharpie had done everything right with an epic content marketing program … and then abruptly ended years of value they had built in storytelling and passionate fans. What’s going on here?

The best content marketing case study … is over

And then there was the biggest blow of all.

One of the most celebrated content marketing case studies in history starred Fiskars scissors. The awesome Brains On Fire Agency created a global community scrapbookers for the Fiskars brand, driven by a user-generated blog, case studies, and craft projects.

The company was able to cite a dramatic increase in awareness, audience, brand loyalty, and sales due to the energetic content site. If there was ever an iconic content marketing case study, this was it … and yet, remarkably the whole thing has been dismantled, piece by piece.

Spike Jones, who was part of the original team, blogged about the effort’s demise in 2014:

The beginning of the end goes something like this: the internal champion of the program left the company to pursue other opportunities. And when that happened, things began to change. The program began to be dismantled. The structure of the program – especially the role of the lead ambassadors, devolved from four, to one, who is now more of a community manager instead of a true lead ambassador. Originally, the leads were encouraged to talk about anything that was going on in their lives. Now? It’s all about crafting and products, causing it to blend in to the noise.

The biggest blow to the program came last year, when the decision was made to move away from the dedicated online community platform to just a blog (with no comments) and a Facebook page. So gone are the threaded forums with members issuing fun challenges to one another or doing random acts of crafting. Gone are the thousands of uploaded images of beautiful crafts that capture amazing memories of the members lives. Gone is the assigning of your unique Fiskateer number or the special one-of-a-kind pair of scissors that you receive in the mail and cherish as a member.

To be honest, everything that made the program special is no more.

Sad … but not unusual. Another example of culture killing a great content program occurred a few years ago at a giant telecom I was assisting. This company was a perfect case study for content marketing done right. They built an internal content program patiently and organically. They had state of the art technology, the understanding and support of marketing leadership, an expanding audience, and “hockey stick” metrics.

After a corporate reorganization, the department was re-assigned to a new VP and within six weeks the entire program was killed. The new leader grew up in the era of ads and couldn’t understand what was even happening in the program. One of the biggest companies on earth turned its back on content marketing.

The lessons going forward

There’s a tendency in our field to market to marketers. We gush enthusiastically for content, for social media, for brand publishing, for community, for squishy stuff like “engagement.” Maybe we’re even afraid not to play along and gush.

But as you’ve seen today, sometimes even the biggest and most successful brands who are throwing everything at their “story” can’t make it work. Is it any wonder you’re having trouble doing this for your company, non-profit, or university?

Is brand storytelling just a bad idea?

No.

Marketing has always been about storytelling to some degree. But I think there are some themes from these examples that can be instructive moving forward:

1. Don’t think like a publisher

How many times have you heard a marketing guru say that every company has to think like a publisher today? Here is the definition of publisher: “a person or company whose business is the publishing of books, periodicals, engravings, computer software, etc.”

Unless you really are a publisher, your business isn’t about publishing content. It’s about your business.

We see how Coke drank the Kool-Aid (actually that’s a funny image) and they really did try to be a publisher. But in this case, it didn’t work because who wants to come to Coke for the latest news on sports, entertainment, or fashion? Leave that to ESPN and Vogue. Coke needs to be about Coke, which is more than enough.

My advice is, don’t think like a publisher. Think like a marketer.

2. Don’t get stuck

Nobody really wants to come to your website any more unless you’re an eCommerce titan … and even then, people are probably flicking around on their smart devices getting the best deal with only a dim recognition of the site they’re on, let alone your “story.”

The world has changed a lot in the past two years. If you’re still doing the same content marketing you did 24 months ago, you need to look up and see the new world.

People want content in a newsfeed. The inbound marketing model where scintillating content attracts customers to your site like a magnet is becoming increasingly mythical.

3. Corporate culture is a bitch

Most people don’t know this but I have a graduate degree in organizational development. So I look at consulting assignments from a holistic perspective. When I work on a marketing strategy, I consider the company’s history, politics, and bureaucracy as well as the competitive environment.

But even I was surprised when the new telecomm VP destroyed years of content success in a matter of days. Just goes to show that if the leader doesn’t get it, it doesn’t get done. There is no such thing as a grassroots cultural change. Embracing a content strategy has to come from the top, every time.

Changing a corporate culture is no less daunting than walking into France and saying “Hey France, we want you to be Russia now and drink vodka.” Tough to do.

Now please folks, don’t go tweet the world that Schaefer said content marketing is dead. I’m not saying anything is dead. I’m simply encouraging you to rationally consider why some iconic programs are failing, why the new realities of content distribution mean a lot to your business, and why this whole idea of “thinking like a publisher” without considering the end goal is a little crazy.

And that’s the end of the story.

Mark Schaefer is the chief blogger for this site, executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions, and the author of several best-selling digital marketing books. He is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant. The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak to your company event or conference soon.

Illustration marked safe for re-use by Unsplash.

The post Does corporate storytelling work? Some mega-brands say no. appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

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