#the natural conclusion is to start a YouTube channel but I don’t like my voice and I don’t want to show my face sjsk | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

amazingphilza · 3 years

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maniac :: cc!tommy x reader

angst (?) , platonic (?) , gender neutral ! ib: conan gray’s maniac

this is satire & note that i write the reader to be a few months younger than tommy (besides that, i think it is fully inclusive !)

synopsis : you put all your hard work towards a useless crush. with no expectation for reciprocated feelings in the first place, it still all ends in a bittersweet slap to reality.

you grew up with minecraft and it was an understatement to say it was part of your childhood

even years later, you still maintained interested in the game

it wasn’t just a simple video game, the community inspired you to do many things

you aspired to be like the creators you watched at a young age like sky, dantdm, cupquake, stampy, and many more

making people happy and entertained was a dream

and when minecraft slowly began trending again in 2019, you started making your own content whenever you felt like it out of fun

you never got much views but it was an enjoyable experience nonetheless

but it wasn’t until the first minecraft monday you decided to push a bit more with your hobbies and worked hard to make it somewhere

however balancing your passions with school wasn’t the easiest

given, you were still only around 15 and your content wasn’t even that good

with not much of a goal or plan with your youtube channel, you fell out of interest eventually

you loved minecraft but you always a rocky relationship with it; getting back into it for a few months then pretending it never really existed for another few

besides the occasional videos you watched in your pass time, you didn’t stay that updated

then lockdown happened

it changed everything and even got you regressing back to old interests

soon enough you were back to minecraft

there was so much to catch up on

hermitcraft season 7 just started, there was minecraft championships, and smp earth and smp live, and so much more to look forward to watching

you were a bit late on both of the smps but your interest peaked specially towards smp earth and it didn’t stop you from watching the past videos

you first gravitated towards a certain youtuber’s videos first since you remember stumbling onto his videos before from your recommended page; wilbur soot

besides recognizing him from his you laugh you lose series and making parody-type of songs, you didn’t know much

however with a few clicks, you had binge watched his smp earth series effortlessly

you found yourself falling down the endless hole, finding more creators to watch through wilbur

one in particular caught your eye in an interesting way

tommyinnit

my god, how can someone be so annoying and pushy in these videos? like shut up already

and to find out he was barely months older than you frustrated you

you just wanted to be better in some way

if someone like him could be popular, why can’t you? yelling at others and causing problems didn’t seem that hard

and so you went back to working hard on your previously failed youtube channel but this time with a goal; be better than tommyinnit

it was a weird aspiration in your head but it worked

he was your age and successful, why need a better motivator?

tommy wasn’t the sole reason why you strive to make content since you truly did want to create videos to entertain people like the youtubers you originally grew up watching

and with the amount of free time you had, you thoroughly analyzed his content; what was the most popular, how he streamed, edited his videos, everything

you just completely studied the algorithm in general

along the way, tommy’s personality grew on you

tommy was undoubtedly a very loud and energetic person but you became fond of his ambitions

you understood why he was popular at such a young age; he was a natural entertainer

your spite towards the boy turned into a hope

a hope to be at par with him someday and even be mutuals

and it was like your dreams were suddenly manifested into existence

you gained a large following in the early months of lockdown and even was recognized to be apart of minecraft championships

it felt like yesterday that you were just watching your favorite youtubers livestream the same competition

and now you were situation in a team to play yourself for the first time instead of being a viewer for once

not to mention, with tommyinnit as a teammate

how did you manage to get so lucky?

under the excitement, you felt beyond never nervous waiting in the empty discord call for your team to join you to practice the mini-games

in the middle of gathering your thoughts together, you heard a sound from discord signaling someone joined the call

“uh, hello?”

you heard the familiar british accent you spent hours listening to from countless streams and videos

“h-hi! i’m y/n, how are you?”

you hoped tommy couldn’t hear the strain in your voice due to fighting your nerves, but you quietly celebrated that you didn’t freeze up altogether

“oh i’m good, thank you. and i’m tommy by the way, this is the first time we’re speaking, yeah?”

“yep! it’s nice to meet you”

“yeah, i’ve seen your name around the timeline a few times, you seem cool”

oh my god what?

“thanks! um i actually really enjoy your content not gonna lie”

“oh wow, good shit!”

and the conversation smoothly went on, bouncing back and forth between you two before your other two teammates joined the call

once everyone was situated, you decided to start streaming since it was your first mcc and you wanted a vod of you practicing to look at later on as a memory

your chat immediately noticed how much you were enjoying yourself, especially after all the short stories of talking about who inspired you in the past

the smile plastered on your face never left

after stream and your other teammates went offline, it was you and tommy left in the call once together again

“it was nice talking to you tommy! and the practice was really fun, i cant wait for the actual competition!”

“yeah definitely, we’ll for sure place high”

“hopefully. it’s my first time and i hope i don’t cost us the dub”

“nah, you think so? i mean rt and plumbella are also our team mates so you know, it’s all for fun in the end”

you knew tommy was implying the teamwork wasn’t going to be the best compared to the other teams but at least in the end you’ve both made a new friend

“yeah you’re right!”

“anyway it’s getting late imma hop off”

“okay tommy, talk to you soon?”

“yep!”

“alright byee”

“bye!”

the moment he left the call, you felt a sense of relief before a small wave of sadness took over

you wanted to continue talking to tommy but you knew you had other responsibilities to tend to

for the rest of the day, you couldn’t stop thinking of the call and mcc practice

the funny jokes, singing random songs, screaming for no reason, everything

it even kept you awake until the early morning

you buried your head in a pillow and screamed into it after realization hit

y/n no

no no no no no no no

you tried to recall anything that remotely related your other teammates which you remembered that didn’t include tommy

even if it was a few hours ago, you couldn’t pin point something specific

i must just be forgetful, right?

what the hell did rt and plumbella even say that whole call?

you vividly remembered everything with tommy and it was clear to you why

surely not

with putting a hand on your chest above your heart, you confirmed that you couldn’t lie to yourself based on the rapid speed

you liked tommy for a good while but it hadn’t clicked to you until now

eventually you fell asleep due to exhaustion but that’s to say you didn’t do so without imagining spending more time with tommy

ever since that day, time went by in a flash

your team didn’t do the best in mcc but it had been a while since then to have that as a concern

sadly you and tommy didn’t talk as often as you hoped but that didn’t make you have less feelings for him

on some days you felt bad since you thought you didn’t know enough about him to even be allowed to crush on him

it was a bit unprofessional but you were nearly 16, it’s normal to have these little crushes right?

eventually time came to rescue when tommy asked you if you wanted to accompany him in the dream smp

undoubtedly, you said yes

and for the few months during summer, it was where you two became even closer than before

however, once both of you two had to go back and attend school, it was harder to catch up with each other

even on calls together off stream, the occasional snapchat notification going off irked you in a way you couldn’t explain

only winter break was the small pause on your disappointment

but even then, it was a slow but steady hill of repressed sadness and frustration until early spring of the following year

you had hoped 2021 would be better than last year but after scrolling through twitter one day and seeing stans making rumors about how tommy had a crush on one of his classmates gave you the same pain you felt when school started last fall

you dreaded to look over at tommy’s most recent story time stream vod where all the gossip arose from; it was him stumbling over his words with the mention of a girl during a certain part

jealousy wasn’t the right word to describe the way you felt

you would never go out of your way to make tommy reciprocate the feelings you had for him

and if he liked someone else the way you saw him, you wouldn’t mind

having a crush is ecstatic, and if he has someone like that too, you should be happy

right?

you tried

what finally broke you was seeing a tiktok a few weeks later of tommy in college with eryn and another girl talking

you didn’t know how she looked like or anything but you wanted to sob

good for him

she didn’t even say much in the video and you dont know enough about tommy’s personal life to jump to conclusions like this

you knew you were acting irrational and you couldn’t be upset at tommy for something he couldn’t control

if anything, you never directly showed interest in him

you didn’t want to in the first place

it was a bad idea from the start

you looked back at the past year and all your intentions

what kind of sick fanfiction did you think you were living?

becoming a content creator, hoping to blow up, just to talk to a big youtuber you had a crush on?

oh my god

y/n what is wrong with you?

listen to yourself, y/n

you need to get some help

whether tommy was dating or even just had interest someone was none of your business

you had to move on no matter what it was and be good and supportive friend

it was dreadful to get over a stupid crush like this but after so much work you put in, you gave some sympathy for yourself

in a friend perspective, you were happy with whatever tommy did and was satisfied your friendship together, but you hadn’t realized how much you gambled from the beginning

and just for a crush?

you couldn’t comprehend how far you gone because you fancied someone

it wasn’t like anyone could get famous and become a popular content creator either

and now with you being on the dream smp along with a successful youtube channel at 16? you were grateful something pushed you enough to work this hard

but you’d never forget the fact everything that lead up to this point was a crush on no other than tommyinnit which first spurred from complete spite

“who’s the one better off now?” your thoughts mocked you from the complete irony

sigh

y/n, you maniac

#idk whether to actually call this platonic but it’s not exactly romance so #tommyinnit x reader #tommyinnit x y/n #tommyinnit x you #tommyinnit fanfic #tommyinnit imagine #mcyt x reader #mcyt x y/n #mcyt x you #mcyt fanfic #mcyt imagine

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amazon-me-bitches · 4 years

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Made a Logan Angst story if anyone is interested.

I'm a stitch away from making it, and a scar away from falling apart.

Pairing: Logan-centric

When Thomas decided to make YouTube videos his entire career, Roman and Patton couldn't have been happier. A job centered around creativity and passion? YES PLEASE! Logan was not so thrilled.

YouTube was no more a job to him than Vine was, it was a hobby and having hobbies was a good thing! sure absolutely…but. “Thomas what about your job applications, there’s internships pouring in.” he said holding up the papers. “sure right, I am going to get to them Logic I promise.” he said smiling and taking the paper from him. “Thomas you just got a million followers on vine! You are practically a celebrity now!” Roman gushed. Patton cheered and through confetti “Can you even imagine that many hugs?!” he gasped hugging himself in excitement. Thomas eyes lit up and he sat the paper back down running over and jumping up and down in excitement. “This is more than I ever dreamed of!” he shouted unable to keep the laugh out of his voice. Logan smiled softly and clapped his hands. He loved seeing Thomas so happy. If that many people followed him for his 6 second comedy videos just wait until they saw what he could really do. He smiled wider thinking about Thomas name at the top of news articles about how he found a way to get clean energy for the whole world. Thomas Sanders new botany technique leads to new drought resistant trees. Thomas Sanders responsible for single handedly ending global warming. Was it too early to start writing the Nobel Peace Prize speech?

“Thomas you graduated one year ago today, You said you wanted to take a year off and that year is up now, I think we should really look into a research lab in Boston because they have the best reputation and they are doing amazing things up there.” Logan informed having taken the liberty of finding the application online for him. Thomas bit his lip and rubbed the back of his head. “wow this year really flew by didn’t it? I mean thank you Logic but I have a lot going on right now, I’m writing my own musical, I have 2 million followers on Vine that are all wanting a bunch of collabs and new material heck I'm even thinking about starting a YouTube channel.” Logan cocked his head to the side utterly confused. “What does any of that have to do with your career Thomas?” “well plenty, for example I can’t just up and move to Boston that’s crazy far away and I already have so many friends here. They are in my videos and we are hanging out every week, I don’t know… I mean Chemical Engineering will always be there, but right now I just feel I need to stay around here.” he reasoned. Logan furrowed his brow, frowning. “Thomas I think you should look at this from a different angle, You could do great life changing things with-” “Hey Kiddo, what are you doing? didn’t you tell Terrence you would meet him for the video at 3 its almost 2:30 and its all the way across town. We need to head out of we are going to make it.” Thomas gasped face palming “Oh shoot, when did it get so late? where are my shoes?” he asked in a panic running off into the living room to look for them. “Thomas!…wait.” Logan tried to catch him but the host was up and out the door before he could even set the papers down.

Several months later brought about the changing of the leaves and semi cooler weather. Thomas was back home with family for the holidays and the sides LOVED it. Roman always a show man loved socializing and playing pranks with Thomas’ brothers again. Patton adored the nostalgia the house brought back and reminiscing with all the famILY as he liked to call them. Logan…liked the holidays but they were entirely too mushy for his taste, still as long as Thomas was happy he was happy, that was the goal right? He stepped away as the third song among them started up. They were indeed a very…musical bunch. This was more Roman’s scene.

He made his way down the hallway and into a room he knew all too well. He stepped in and his heart did a little leap as it did every time he came back here. So many nights in here. looking up at the glow in the dark stars on the ceiling. using the telescope and recording stars in a journal Thomas kept in his drawer. They would pretend they were scientists.

“It says that some stars are called red giants and some smaller ones are called dwarfs. the hottest ones burn white and the coolest ones burn yellow. huh Logic does that mean the sun isn’t the hottest star?”

“Correct Thomas, in fact the sun is one of the less hot stars, but it is the only one in our galaxy so I think we should still appreciate all it gives us.” He smiled. Thomas grinned.

“your right, I love the sunshine, I would be sad if it wasn’t here”

“actually you would be dea…you know what, I'm glad it's here too.” he smiled.

“Logic?”

“hmm?”

“do you know everything?”

Logan smiled and turned to him. “no Thomas but we can get close to it, as long as you never stop learning I won’t either. we will help each other, deal?” Thomas beamed and hugged him.

“deal.”

He walked around the desk and sat down in the seat. He wondered how much homework was done at this table alone? Thomas was not a big fan of homework and having to do it right when he came home was not his idea of fun, but Logan could always manage to bring his spirits up. He was an expert at making up memory games and finding new ways to help give Thomas visuals in math. One of his favorites was using candy for counting in math. The candy also ended up being an after homework treat the two would enjoy.

He frowned pulling himself out of the nostalgia and wrapping his arms around himself. Fat lotta good any of that homework did him.. nothing they worked on would make him a better Youtuber. Roman could handle that all by himself. Logan didn’t hate the videos, he just didn’t know where he fit in there.

He turned and shut off the light walking back out into the room sluggishly. They were all still laughing and carrying on just the same as before. He decided to watch from the kitchen instead, just not able to get into the spirit and not wanting to bring anyone down.

New year, new asperations. It had taken some work but he had found a smaller research lab two towns over and because he knew Thomas didn’t want to be cooped up in a dark lab all day, he had even better news. They had a team that went outside and collected samples and did most of their experiments outdoors! They even went on trips to other countries to study new flora and fauna. He would be just like the nature scientists in movies. going to the deepest parts of the jungle, maybe even the rainforest. Thomas had talked about wanting to go to a rainforest since he heard the song Rainforest Rap as a kid.

“What’s got you so happy today Logan?” Patton asked smiling and drinking his morning coffee. Logan straightened his tie. “Just going to talk to Thomas today about an amazing opportunity I found.” he grinned. “Good for you Kiddo! Is it a idea for another video?” “Nope!” he replied all too cheery sinking out and into Thomas bedroom. “Thomas I come barring wonderful news!” he paused when he saw Thomas and Roman looking sullen and down trodden. “Is…everything alright? are you hurt?” he asked walking over swiftly and bending down. “Vine is gone, the whole website is shut down.” Thomas sighed resting his head on his folded arms. “Oh…I’m so sorry Thomas I know you really liked that website. There will be others though, you still have your YouTube.” “Yeah, but…doing videos that are longer than 6 seconds long just seems so intimidating, especially without Vine to fall back on, what if I cant think of enough content?”

Logan gave him a small smile. “well I have good news Thomas and a way you can fill your content too.” Thomas cocked a brow. “what are you talking about?” “Ta Da!!!” he grinned pushing the job application, all filled out into his hosts hands. “They are close to prevent home sickness but travel and explore frequently so you don’t get bored. They pay well and the work they are doing to help the environment is phenomenal.” He grinned waiting for Thomas to share in his excitement. He really had outdid himself this time. “Oh, Logic I don’t want to think about that right now, I’m sorry its just not a good time. I have a lot on my mind.” he said sighing and handing Logan back the paper. “Wait! I didn’t tell you the best part, They go on trips to the rainforest, as in real rainforests in South America. You love rainforests.” Thomas expression didn’t change. “yeah, I guess I did want to go to a rainforest when I was younger. I-I don’t know Logic there is just a lot happening right now, can’t we give it some time and think about it?” Logan's smile slipped off his face and his brows furrowed. “I’m sorry Thomas, but its been two years since you got out of school I mean…I think we have taken enough time to think things out, don’t you? I must insist we take this opportunity before someone else does.” he urged. “I’m sorry I know it’s taking some time but I just have a lot to think about right now. Now that vines dead I will have to really adjust to YouTube and find new content to make but I have a loyal fan base who will hopefully follow me over there. I’m the Storytime guy after all.” He laughed. Logan didn’t

“Thomas this has gone on long enough. You’re the ‘Storytime Guy?’ Okay that doesn’t mean anything. You are also a chemical engineer and a very smart person. Now is the time we leave all this silly Vine business behind us and move on to better and more important things. Don’t you want to get started on finding new conclusions and testing new experiments?” “I don’t know what I want to do Logic! I don’t even know if I want to be a chemical Engineer anymore! Everything about it just seems boring now, I found something that makes me happy, why can’t you just let this go?!” Thomas snapped sitting up and glairing at him. Logan stared at him like he just witnessed a murder. He couldn’t be serious…this is all Logan had looked forward to for six years “Y-You don’t mean that. You went to college for this Thomas, I know your videos are important to you but so is your education right?” Thomas rolled his eyes. “look college was fun but its over now and I found a new way to support myself. I never expected to be doing a job like this but now that I am I want to give it a real shot.” “So school was a waste then? all for nothing?!“ ”No!, I really and truly did think at the time that I wanted to do that, but I don’t know, I just did some soul searching and found out I wanted something different.“ “So you are just giving up on science and trading it in for social media?!” “Logic that has already happened, you just haven’t been ready to see it. I’m sorry but I just don’t want to do that anymore. Next to acting and collabing and making music…that other stuff just seems…boring.”

Logan sat back rocking on his heels and becoming very interested in the ceiling and trying to make the stupid lump in his throat go away. “Logic I’m sorry I-” Logan snatched the paper back up and sunk out, not letting him finish and definitely not letting them get the satisfaction of seeing the tears steaming down his face. He gritted his teeth in frustration before he began ripping up the paper into a million shreds and throwing them all over his room. Raking notebooks off the desk and ripping down his posters and degrees. His chest was heaving and he couldn’t stop his body from shaking as he finally collapsed on the carpet sobbing.

“Oh god I hope I studied enough! that test is going to be super hard!” “not to worry Thomas we went over the material thoroughly and you are well prepared” “thanks Logic!” Thomas waved before running off to Physics.

“Good job Thomas, You did so great Honey!” “I can’t believe I won the whole science fair! Everyone in the grade entered!” He said excitedly from the back seat looking at his medal. Logan sat next to him grinning like crazy. He knew Thomas would win they had spent weeks working on it. “Congratulations Thomas I knew you could do it.” Thomas put his hand over Logans. “We did it.” he clarified. Logan smiled like a maniac the whole night. Proud as ever.

Logan couldn’t breath. The tears wouldn't stop flowing and his body wouldn’t stop shaking. He curled up on the carpet and just let it all wash over him. It was his fault for getting his hopes up really. This is what comes from getting emotionally invested in things…and people.

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“What is up everybody! wow another year come and gone, but I did so much this year it is crazy. I guest starred in a Disney show and went to Vidcon, won a Streamy award and tons of other cool activities. You might think I would be looking to take some time off after that but you would be wrong. I have so many cool things coming up, Logan do you want to tell them about a few of them?” Thomas asked pointing to him. Since they had been introduced as part of a series on Thomas channel called Sander Sides he had been a bit more involved with the videos. Not a huge part to play and more often than not he found himself used as more of a walking talking day planner than anything else.

He plastered on his fake smile and pulled out his notebook. “On the second of next month you are going to a convention and doing a meet and greet in New York. Every other week this month you have new collabs and you are scheduled to make more content for your second channel later this week.” He said putting away his book. “Thanks buddy!” Thomas said before his attention was once again pulled away to something Roman was saying to Virgil. The audience did so love their witty banter. He remained quiet until the video was over while Patton defended Virgil telling Roman not to be so mean to his ‘favorite precious sunshine’ Logan opened his mouth to say something to Roman about a fact he was just plain wrong about, but before he could utter a sound Thomas was wrapping up the video with his Hello Fresh sponsorship. Logan sighed and bit his lip, looking around before sinking out, back to his room. Quiet, alone and not in the way. Just how everyone wanted him to be.

#Logan Sanders #Logan sanders angst #thomas sanders #sander sides fanfiction #sandersides fanfiction

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wordsnstuff · 5 years

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Guide To Writing Found Family

This is also available on wordsnstuffblog.com!

– Found family is a very popular trope that I don’t often see explored in technical writing resources, and as a person who is currently in the middle of developing one for my own series, I decided to make a resource for those who were also confused when approaching this character dynamic. If you have anything to add to the topic, feel free to comment down below for the other writers out there. Hopefully this is helpful to those who need a place to start. Happy writing!

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Avoiding Romantic Subtext

This is one of the hardest obstacles to sidestep when writing an unusual dynamic, and for certain genres it can be ten times worse. For example, in fiction written specifically for young adults, there’s a baseline expectation for a hefty amount of romantic tension, and readers will often insert it no matter what the text and subtext suggests. In order to prevent this automatic insertion of romance in the reader’s interpretation, it’s wise to establish a clear and reasonable explanation for why the relationships are platonic and will never develop into something more.

It’s not a good idea to go for the “person a nor person b has ever considered this relationship blossoming romantically” because that’s often the basis for romantic stories, and will leave that wiggle room for the reader to run with. Show in the way they interact and perhaps in the narration/first person that each party has thought of that scenario and ultimately come to the conclusion that there’s just no romantic potential.

Showing Familial Relationships

Families rely on each other and in diverse ways. The way these individuals interact and build a familial bond is determined (often) by the way in which they form a dependence on the other, and this is more often than not in found family stories, a healthy dependence. It shows the other person’s reliability, care, and compassion, and the way this develops is different for family than it is for friends.

Certain family members also have specific types of humor when it comes to each other. A father and a daughter will have a different sense of humor or understanding with each other than maybe the daughter and her brother do, and this all adds to form a vivid dynamic in your reader’s head that will alter the way they perceive relationships. Found family will be exactly the same, but they’ll have different backstories and different reasons why that sense of humor or understanding has developed that way.

Friendship vs. Family

Found family is unique in the way that readers can very easily perceive a relationship as close friendship rather than a familial one. However, friendship lacks a certain vulnerability and dependence that found family can use to its advantage, because family sees each other at their highs and lows and conflict usually carries different implications.

Family also implies a different attitude and motivation behind the relationship. Conflicts between family members are less severe in the long-run because there’s a ground-level understanding that no matter what happens, arguments will end in forgiveness and closure, whereas that is not necessarily guaranteed with friendships or romances. The motivation, also, is different in the sense that found family is more often meant to last a lifetime, and therefore is less fragile and opens the door for more open communication and vulnerability.

Converting Tension to Intimacy

When you’re tasked with turning a tense, unfriendly relationship into a close and familial one, it’s daunting to even begin thinking about how to go about it. First, it’s important to understand the function of this stage of their relationship as a starting point for growth in both of the characters rather than merely a device to create drama for the reader to munch on. Intimacy of any kind develops out of mutual growth, vulnerability, and understanding, and in order to convey these things to the reader, you need to take your time letting this stage simmer. If you extinguish the tension too fast, it will read as shallow and futile, and it will throw a wrench in the natural pacing.

Now, the transition from tension to intimacy is a several step process and does not happen in one chapter. Mindsets, perceptions, and attitudes change over time as both the reader and the characters learn more information and experience more genuine interaction. The relationship, as I mentioned earlier, will change as the characters see each other in increasingly vulnerable situations and in periods of growth, and as they witness this their understanding of the other and ultimate acceptance will change the way they treat each other and their mutual perceptions of one another’s place in their lives. This usually happens in the subtextual area of the story, excluding events that are formulated specifically to depict this evolution.

Different Sizes of Families

The size of the invented family very much impacts the way that the group relationship develops. For example, two or three people who develop a family-like connection will be much more intimate and dependent than a created family that includes ten. Larger groups imply more diverse, but also more shallow representations of what relationships between family members can be, but they often leave more room for relatability and comedy. Smaller families work well for more serious struggles, and make more sense with characters that deal with serious issues that a real person wouldn’t be comfortable giving all the details about to ten other people.

There’s definitely a spectrum and it fluctuates wildly for different types of stories, genres, character archetypes, and themes. Deciding how large to make this found family really depends on the fine details and requires some time and thought.

Common Struggles

~ Bringing people together when there’s an age gap… Age gaps can serve really well in the area of establishing a familial relationship without suggesting romance because most readers will assume that a close relationship between a younger woman and an older (say, 65 year old) man is more of a father-daughter relationship than a romantic one. The way you an bring together two people with an age gap and establishing a familial relationship is by playing on the aspect of guidance and support that a parent or typically older figure would provide to a younger, more naive person. This can come off trope-y but, like any other aspect of a story, putting an original twist on it can make it more original and interesting to the reader.

~ Starting with tension… This is very common in the case of a sibling-type relationship or a guardianship situation. Usually, there’s some resistance from the party that does not hold the upper hand, and this can create tension in both of them. I suggest that if you’re going to develop a tense relationship into a close one that resembles family, then avoid tropes. There are so many ways that you can twist these ideas and situations based on your world and characters’ traits, so don’t go straight for the “I hate you because you’re trying to control me even though you’re not my real dad” thing.

Other Resources

Useful Writing Resources

Useful Writing Resources II

Resources For Describing Characters

Resources For Describing Emotions

Resources For Creating Characters

Resources For World Building

Resources For Plot Development

Resources For Writing Science Fiction

Resources For Writing Dystopian/Apocalypse

Resources For Fantasy & Mythology Writers

Giving Characters Bad Traits

Writing Children

Having Trouble Connecting To Your Characters?

On Making Scenes/Characters Unpredictable

Keeping Characters From Sounding Identical

Writing About Uncomfortable Topics

How To Foreshadow

Commentary On Social Issues In Writing

Tackling Subplots

How To Make A Scene More Heartfelt

How To Develop A Distinct Voice In Your Writing

How To Perfect The Tone In A Piece Of Writing

A Guide To Tension & Suspense In Your Writing

Writing Arguments Between Characters

Ways To Fit Character Development Into your Story

Tips On Writing Intense Scenes

Showing vs. Telling

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Creating Magic: Superpowers and Michael Jackson’s Music Videos

Introduction: It’s After Midnight (and Something Strange is Lurkin’ in the Dark)

It’s after midnight on the night of August 1st, 1981, and the world was introduced to a new television channel called MTV. The new independent channel, a platform dedicated to showcasing the still-new idea of “music videos”, began their first night with a confident and not-so-subtle video message: Playing the video for The Buggles’ hit single “Video Killed the Radio Star”.

In the first few years of MTV’s existence, the channel that was dedicated to rock n’ roll was just a fledgling entity, grabbing any video they could get their hands on and looking for the one big thing that would propel them into the big time.

Enter the King of Pop himself: Michael Jackson.

By the time MTV began life in ‘81, Jackson was already a superstar, both from his time with his brothers in The Jackson 5 (later The Jacksons in the mid-to-late ‘70s) as well as his successful 1979 album Off the Wall. But while the album was successful, Jackson had bigger plans for his 1982 follow-up, Thriller. He dreamed of an album where every song was a hit single and also had big ideas for the medium of music video, which was becoming the “new thing” in music at the time.

Though he made videos for Off the Wall songs “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough”, “Rock With You”, and “She’s Out of My Life”, they are more archaic and more simple than the more complex special effects, plotlines, and dance routines that would dominate his peak success throughout the 80s. The videos for Thriller songs “Billie Jean” and the title track would go on to revolutionize music video, turning it from a hip, new trend into a bonafide art form. Jackson’s videos for these songs also showed the possibilities for music videos as excellent tools for promotion. In addition, Jackson’s success also broke the color barrier that plagued MTV’s early years. Not bad for the guy who even today still holds the title of “Best Selling Album of All Time”.

Jackson approached his music videos with the exact same level of perfectionism, detail, and precision as he did with his music. Even when working with famous directors such as John Landis (“Thriller”, “Black or White”), Martin Scorsese (“Bad”) and David Fincher (“Who is It”), he’s still in full control of everything that happens and is seen. Across his entire career, Jackson treated the creation of a music video to that of a short film production. A visually fascinating body of work, but strangely revealing of hidden desires and a unique look into Jackson’s mind and his worldview when you marathon them in the age of Youtube and streaming platform binge-watching.

He created realistic-yet-fantastical worlds where he’s not only viewed as a mysterious and almost mythical figure, but also shown using what can be commonly conceived of as superpowers, used as a means to not only add a fantastical element to his videos, but to live out subconscious fantasies that only the realm of film and music video allow. Some of these powers seen in his videos most likely reflected his subconscious; things that perhaps he wished he could’ve actually been able to do in his real life, especially given the trajectory of his career after the first round of child sexual abuse allegations on him in late 1993, which proceeded to play out like one of the wildest music videos and stories ever imagined. For Michael Jackson, the world of his music videos was the only place he ever had complete control over his life and narrative.

Examined here are five superpowers that make several appearances across Jackson’s videography, from 1979’s “Don’t Stop Til’ You Get Enough” to the 1996 short film Michael Jackson’s Ghosts. These powers (along with a brief description) include:

1) Summoning -- Jackson either summons music to begin playing or can summon dancers, seemingly at will.

2) Possession -- Jackson’s dancers often perform the same moves exactly as he does once he starts dancing, almost as if their moves are controlled by him.

3) Transformation -- Jackson starts as his ordinary self and morphs into something else. Usually tends to change into animals.Super Spinning

4) Super Spinning -- Energy builds up when he spins, which in turn causes things to happen. Such as: vanishing (detailed below), causing things to blow up, illusion creation, and more.

5) Vanishing -- The ability to (naturally) vanish into thin air. Usually done in conjunction with spinning.

Each of these five main powers are seen within the following videos made between 1979 and 1996: “Don’t Stop Til’ You Get Enough”, “Thriller”, “Beat It”, “Billie Jean”, “Bad”, “The Way You Make Me Feel”, “Smooth Criminal”, Speed Demon, “Remember the Time”, and the short film Ghosts (which will be covered within its own section.) Without further ado, let’s get started.

“Don’t Stop Til’ You Get Enough”: Setting the Stage and The First Appearance of Superpower Use

On October 10th, 1979, two months after Jackson released the Off the Wall album, he debuted his first music video as a solo artist for the single “Don’t Stop Til’ You Get Enough”. This first video’s premise is simple for it’s time, much simpler than the more grand concepts Jackson would imagine and bring to life as his solo career took off. In it, Jackson, dressed to the nines in a black and white tuxedo (that mimics the one worn on the album cover), sings and dances to the song while being chroma keyed over a background of abstract geometric figures. Again, nothing complicated, but after the 2:30 mark, something happens in the video that sets the stage for Jackson to push the envelope and the art of video creation for the rest of his career: He displays powers for the first time.

At the start of the video, only the bassline is heard while Jackson does a quick spoken word bit in the meek, high-pitched whimpering speaking voice he used for most of his public appearances. It is in this video that we see the first two instances of Jackson using superpowers of some kind: Summoning and Possession. For summoning, it comes in two flavors. The first has Jackson let out a now-classic “WOO!” after the beginning spoken-word bit and the music then begins in full swing (along with the background). This sets the stage for Jackson’s other videos that involve summoning music (which will be discussed in full shortly.) The other aspect of summoning comes into play around that 2:30 mark, where Jackson leans back and a clone of Jackson walks in from the left side. They fire off a few dance moves only to have a third Jackson walk in from the right. The three dance in sync before Jackson continues the video with just him. It’s the kind of shadow clone jutsu that would make Naruto proud.

The other power shown here for the first time is Possession. Not only does Jackson summon multiple versions of himself here, but he also seems to command them to dance exactly as he does. The clones can’t possibly predict the steps he’s going to do ahead of time (even if they are him), so the only conclusion must be that Jackson uses mind control and possession in order to make his dancers do the right steps. Even in this first video, we can see the beginnings of a strange being tapping into his powers and learning how to use them. It makes sense when you consider Jackson was only twenty-one when making this video, which is generally accepted to be when the human mind reaches maturity. This video lays the groundwork for the rest of Jackson’s videography and allows for him to experiment further and turn music video creation into a bonafide art form.

Now that we’ve laid a foundation, it’s time to begin discussing these powers in-depth.

Superpower #1: Summoning

After learning to summon clones of himself in the “Don’t Stop” video, Jackson takes this concept and applies it to his other videos, using the same two methods as previously detailed. In videos after, he occasionally summons music through some sort of action. “The Way You Make Me Feel” has him sing the first lines before letting out the same “WOO!” that brought the music to “Don’t Stop”. “Bad” has him shoot his hand up, snap, music starts. “Smooth Criminal” has him famously flip a quarter into the jukebox from across the speakeasy, causing the music to start.

Most music videos of the 1980s had the music begin right as the video began. I mean, why not? That’s what we’re here for, right? Sure. But Jackson was different. In the world of his videos, the music doesn’t start until he commands it to. These videos all have one other thing in common: Jackson makes you wait for the song to start. The scene before the music begins usually involves the specific video’s characters at a standoff, with mostly silence as the only accompaniment. With this, Jackson allows himself to gain full control of his surroundings and put himself at the center of it all. Again, the music doesn’t start until he commands it. It’s one reason why his music videos became such an event. It wasn’t just that they were short films, he was creating a story, a world, and a specific reason for the music to be there. He made you wait for it. For example, “Bad”’s music video is a whopping eighteen minutes total in length; the song itself doesn’t begin until around the 9:40 mark.

But what is a music video without a little choreography? The only thing Michael Jackson was known for more than music was his incredible dance ability (...and being the subject of many rumors we can neither confirm nor deny.) Every music video the man ever made had dancing in it to some degree, with longer videos like “Thriller”, “Bad”, and “Remember the Time” having a specific part dedicated to complex and dazzling choreography that would win any contest in the Step Up or Bring It On films. This is where the second part of that summoning power comes in.

In some of these dance sequences, Jackson often summons multiple dancers that will proceed to join him and repeat the same steps that he does (which we’ll talk a little more about during the “Possession” section.) In the video for “Thriller”, Jackson famously has zombies rise from their graves and join him while famed gothic horror actor Vincent Price scares you with a monologue. In “Bad”, as soon as Jackson dons the same black clothes and various chains and shiny buckles that grace the Bad album cover, he has dancers of the gang variety fall into the shot and join him. In “The Way You Make Me Feel”, his street friends that are watching the king work his charms on an attractive woman join him for a dance sequence near the end of the video.

Granted, the logic of music videos dictates that asking questions like “How is this all happening?” or “Where do all those dancers come from?” are immediately refuted by the Mystery Science Theater 3000 answer, “It’s just a show, I should really just relax.” But where’s the fun in that? Being in full control of the worlds these music videos inhabit, Jackson clearly wills these dancers into existence, because who really wants to dance alone? Now, summoning is one thing, but how do these dancers and extras know how to do all of the same steps Jackson is doing? There can only be one answer...

Superpower #2: Possession

In addition to that, a quick, non-music video example provides us with an instance of Possession at work. The 1990 Sega Genesis game Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker contains a special move where Jackson takes as many enemies that are on screen and controls them, causing them to dance quick routines (usually recreating the iconic moves from “Thriller”) and then disappear from the screen. This move also costs a chunk of your health bar in order to use, which indicates that Jackson must be exerting some strange part of himself in order to make this happen. However, surely not as strange as the next power on our list...

When Jackson has these extra dancers with him, once he enters “Dancing Machine” mode, the others join him, all while repeating the same steps he does. During these segments, Jackson is always in the center of the shot, naturally, as he’s always the one leading. In the world these videos inhabit, how does he get these extra dancers to join him and do these moves so flawlessly?

Simple. He’s possessing them and causing them to perform these moves, whether they’re fully conscious of it or not.

I mean, as we talked about with the video for “Don’t Stop Til’ You Get Enough”, there’s no way those clones could have possibly known what Jackson was going to do ahead of time... unless something or someone was guiding them. Perhaps a leader who already knows all the steps... once again, the artist retains full control of everything happening in these videos.

There are five videos where Jackson does dance routines with several other people: “Thriller”, “Beat It”, “Bad”, “Smooth Criminal”, and “Remember the Time”. Of these, three of them (“Beat It”, “Smooth Criminal”, and “Remember the Time”) involve Jackson doing dances with people who are either summoned or already on screen. There is no verbal communication or look exchanged at all. Jackson just starts moving and whoever is around joins in, whether they be gangsters in “Smooth Criminal” or the people of the Egyptian kingdom in “Remember the Time”.

But the video for “Beat It” perhaps provides the best example of Possession at work, especially since this example does not involve Jackson summoning anyone, he instead goes to others. In “Beat It”, Jackson makes his way from a small room, to a diner, and then finally to the scene of two rival gangs at a standoff, switchblades out. After this quick standoff, Jackson comes between the two gang leaders and proceeds to start bustin’ them sick moves. Both gang leaders quickly join him and then the rest of the gang members. The rest of the video is dedicated to all members dancing, proving that the answer to ending any conflict is by simply having Michael Jackson come in and command both sides to dance.

Superpower #3: Transformation

The first instance of Jackson transforming from human into something different was “Thriller”, which he does twice in the video. The first instance is during the movie that he and his girlfriend are watching before the song starts. He goes from normal human to werewolf. The second instance comes right after Vincent Price’s monologue in the song, when Jackson’s girlfriend turns around in horror to find that she’s surrounded by zombies... and Jackson is now one of them. Naturally, this terrifies her. She runs away, only for the zombies to follow her and eventually corner her. Just before they go in for the kill, she wakes up, alerting the viewer that everything that has just happened has been just a dream... or was it? “Thriller” famously ends with Jackson and his girlfriend walking out of her house, but not before he takes one more look at the camera, once again sporting the werewolf eyes.

Transformation appeared in no less than four of Jackson’s music videos: “Thriller”, “Bad”, “Speed Demon”, and “Black or White”. Most of these videos saw him transforming into some sort of animal, as evidenced by “Speed Demon” (a Claymation rabbit), and “Black or White” (a panther).

This is the first of the powers that Jackson uses that reflects his actual life outside of his videos. Transforming from human into something different in his videos can be connected to his dislike and insecurities with his own appearance and the numerous plastic surgeries he had over the years. That’s even before bringing up the obvious fact that Jackson went from a dark-skinned black man in the late seventies to whiter-than-Mount-Rushmore-covered-in-sour-cream complexion time the early nineties rolled around.

“Thriller” is the video where transformation shows up the most, next to “Black or White”, as Jackson shows he can change back and forth from human and zombie when needed. Once he turns into a zombie, he engages in the iconic dance sequence with his fellow zombies. Then, he’s suddenly human again in order to sing the chorus to the song, then turns back into a zombie to deliver more scares before the nightmare ends. This ends up proving one thing: The zombies aren’t the ones that change and zombify him. Jackson can shapeshift at will. I mean, he pretty much has to, otherwise he would look out of place dancing with them. In the creation of these music videos, every choice was a deliberate one and Jackson was smart enough to know that music videos, much like any type of film, doesn’t need to conform to reality.

Now, to add another example onto our pile, the video for “Speed Demon” begins with Jackson finding himself on a movie set (where everybody but him is played by Claymation figures for some reason) and running away from screaming fans who want a piece of the man (and perhaps an autograph.) You know, the usual stuff when you’re a huge mega-star. After a brief chase scene, Jackson finds himself inside a costume room and decides that a disguise is what he needs in order to slip out undetected. This of course is an obvious reference to Jackson’s own life: By the time the video was shot (1988) he often had to use disguises and masks in order to go anywhere without being mobbed by fans and admirers.

The disguise Jackson decides for “Speed Demon” is a motorcycle riding Claymation rabbit, the second time we’ve seen Jackson go from human to animal. It makes perfect sense for a song about riding fast and chasing the adrenaline rush that comes with riding at high speeds. After watching Jackson-as-rabbit ride through the mean streets of some unidentified city, he takes a rest at what looks like the same canyon area Wile-E-Coyote and Road Runner chase each other in. He spins around fast (a separate power we’ll discuss shortly) and becomes human again... then the rabbit returns and he has a dance off with it where we find the rabbit has his own playbook of sick moves, providing the world with the second greatest team-up between a man and a rabbit (Who Framed Roger Rabbit? still being number one, coming out a year before this video premiered as part of the film Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker.)

“Bad” is an interesting addition here, as it’s the only video that has a transformation of personality rather than an actual physical change. “Bad”’s music video tells the story of a young inner city youth named Darryl (played by Jackson himself) who is heading home after a term at a fictional prestigious high school (referred to as “Dustbury” and “Doomsbury” by Wesley Snipes’ character.) Once home, he begins clashing with his old friends after he shows discomfort with petty crime, with the friends believing that his going to school has turned him into a sissy who ain’t “bad” and “ain’t down with it”. All through the first half of the video, the cinematography is in black and white, with the transition to full color finally happening once Jackson appears in the same outfit he donned for the Bad album cover.

The entire song was meant to re-invent Jackson’s image from a meek little dancing machine with a high-pitched and soft voice, to an edgy, tough guy dressed in black, adorned with chains, and bad to the bone. All of this was meant to answer the big money question, “Who’s bad?” This was, of course, done in 1987, before Jackson had to spend most of the nineties and the aughts fighting heavy accusations of child sexual abuse and trying to convince people that he wasn’t bad at all.

Jackson showed the transformation power one more time in his music videos, which was 1991’s “Black or White”. In terms of the power being shown, Jackson doesn’t do it until close to the end. After the iconic sequence where other people sing the line “It’s black, it’s white” while seamlessly morphing/transitioning from one person to another person of a different race (an impressive visual effect for 1991.) The video “ends” with shots of the video set and everybody applauding and going for break. While this is happening, the camera cuts to a panther walking through the set undetected, heading for the downstairs area. Once downstairs, the panther morphs and reveals itself to be Michael himself. He then goes into a furious dance routine in a street setting and destroys a glass beer bottle, a building window, and a parked car labeled with incredibly racist words/phrases spray-painted on them. It’s worth noting that these messages are removed in most versions of the video widely available today, as the image below this paragraph will show. The video offered on Jackson’s official Youtube channel has the version with these racist phrases removed, meaning that the context for why he goes on this rampage and breaks stuff is also gone. Regardless, he tears off his shirt and screams with grand drama as the hotel neon sign falls. This is a very different kind of scene for Jackson, who rarely showed any kind of violence or anger in his videos. After his damage and rampage, he turns back into the panther, growls, and leaves the screen, bringing the video to a close.

These different transformations not only add a new and exciting element to Jackson’s videos, but also give us a fantastical look at his desire to be somebody (or in these cases, something,) that wasn’t him. A conflicting contradiction where he both wants to be the star and not be the star at the same time. These instances of changing into something else doesn’t seem odd in hindsight, given that Jackson was someone who went through an entire lifetime of literally changing the “Man in the Mirror”, to the point where it’s almost impossible to imagine what he could’ve seen when he looked at himself in the mirror. This superpower is a case of wondering and asking if it’s art imitating life or life imitating art. But we still have two more powers to cover...

Superpower #4: Super Spinning

If there’s one thing Michael Jackson was good at doing, it was being able to spin around fast and stop on a dime without any trouble. He did it all the time; on stage, on video, probably alone in his house too. Spinning isn’t a power that shows up a ton of times in his videography, but it’s still something that he does that causes odd things to happen.

The strangest example of him doing this comes in the “Smooth Criminal” video. There is a quick instance where Jackson jumps onto a table, spins around for a few seconds, and then snaps loudly. This then causes a skylight to blow up. I can only assume that energy builds up inside of Jackson when he spins around, which he can then use in order to strike things or cause things to happen. In “Speed Demon”, when doing the dance off with the Claymation rabbit, Jackson blows his mind and wins by spinning around so fast that he creates an aura of light as well as illusions of the other Claymation characters featured in the video before stopping on the tips of his toes.

The final time Jackson’s spinning does something in a music video is in “Remember the Time”. At the end of the video, Jackson is being chased by the king’s (played by Eddie Murphy) guards after serenading the queen and finds himself cornered. Left with no other options, Jackson spins himself into dust, causing him to disappear (which is the last power we’ll be talking about shortly.)

This is the most obvious use of superpowers since it was Jackson’s most well known move next to the moonwalk. It helped to add a special visual flair to videos and was a move that many young fans watching would probably want to try and imitate, especially if they found moonwalking too hard a task. (Personally I never wrapped my head, or feet, I guess, around how to do it...) It’s a cool move that made cool things happen. Sometimes, Jackson even used it in order to perform...

To return to the Moonwalker Genesis game again for a second, spinning is actually a special move Jackson can do in-game in order to defeat enemies. In fact, being able to spin around uninterrupted for a short period of time on-screen is what triggers Jackson to make enemies dance on screen (calling back to the power of Possession we discussed earlier.)

Superpower #5: Vanishing

Jackson has at least four videos where he performs the ability to vanish in thin air. The first video to showcase this ability was the video for “Billie Jean” in 1983. The video shows Jackson walking through a city street set. As he walks around he tosses a coin to a homeless person, takes a second to shine his shoes, and makes his way to an unnamed lover’s hotel room, with things lighting up and turning to gold while he does this. He is also being followed by a strange man in an overcoat in the video, obviously meant to represent a member of the paparazzi looking for an exclusive photo of Jackson that can be sold to tabloids. The vanishing act occurs when Jackson stops to shine his shoe and the paparazzo quickly flashes a photo. Hoping that he was successful and got a good shot of him, he looks at the photo to see that Jackson isn’t there. He has completely disappeared without a trace. This means either one of two things: 1) Jackson is a vampire (...could’ve been for all we know.) 2) He has the power to vanish before our very eyes.

He does it one more time in “Billie Jean”, near the end of the video. As he makes his way up the stairs of a motel, the paparazzo is slowly tailing him, still hoping to get a photo of the elusive artist. Jackson makes his way to a bed with an unknown woman sleeping in it. As the paparazzo gets ready to snap his photo, Jackson enters the bed (which proceeds to light up, same as everything else he’s touched.) However, as soon as Jackson is in the bed, he vanishes again, leaving an empty bed and a paparazzo who has just taken a photo of an unknown woman sleeping. He is taken away by police officers as the video plays back in reverse, with everything Jackson lit up previously disappearing.

We’ve already seen Michael spin himself into dust and vanishing in “Remember the Time”, so the only other example to name is in the video for “The Way You Make Me Feel”. The video takes place on a city street at night. Jackson is hanging out with some of his homies (as one does) while they ogle at an attractive woman in a little black dress walking by. Jackson calls out to her, she stops, and Jackson slowly makes his way over to her. His friends wait in anticipation to see if the king’s charms will get the woman on his side. He proceeds to start singing the line, “You knock me off of my feet now, baby” and summons the music, busting out a few moves in the process.

The vanishing act appears close to the end of the video. Jackson and his friends are seen doing a silhouetted synchronized dance in the street, you know, as we all do with our homies. The camera goes from the dancing set to showing the woman again, then pans back to reveal that Jackson has disappeared. His friends can be seen leaving the screen to the left and are hanging out on the edges of an alley, but Jackson is gone without a trace. He reappears at the very end and hugs the woman, ending the video.

Honestly, why he disappears only to reappear again is anybody’s guess. To give the end of the video an extra punch maybe? I don’t have a real answer for that one. But what I can say is that wanting the power to vanish whenever you want and be seen as an almost mythical creature is definitely a power Jackson would’ve found useful and probably wanted for most of his life. When you’re the biggest celebrity on the planet and everybody worships you and wants a piece of you, being able to simply vanish on the fly seems like a pretty attractive thing. Not to mention Jackson’s numerous controversies and bizarre behavior throughout the late eighties, the nineties, and even the aughts. A list that includes owning numerous odd animals (a monkey named Bubbles and a llama, in particular), building an entire small amusement park in his backyard, accusations of child molestation, and, lest we forget, dangling his infant son over a hotel balcony. Couple that with a dozen other rumors that tabloids may have made up and anybody in that position would want to be able to vanish without a trace.

So, we’ve covered all five of the man’s superpowers. That must mean we’re done, right? Not quite. There’s one more thing we have to cover...

Is It Scary?: Superpowers and Michael Jackson’s Ghosts

It’s October 1996, three years after Michael Jackson underwent his first round of child sexual abuse allegations as dentist Dr. Evan Chandler accused Jackson of “repeatedly committ[ing] sexual battery” against his then thirteen year old son, Jordan.

In case a recap is needed, here it is: On August 24th, 1993, as the third leg of Jackson's Dangerous World Tour was getting started, news of these allegations broke to the public and in turn received worldwide media attention and coverage. As a result, Jackson canceled the remainder of the tour, citing health problems arising from the scandal. In January 1994, Jackson reached a financial settlement for $23 million with the Chandlers. In September of that year, the criminal investigation was closed after the Chandlers declined to cooperate, leaving the case without its main witness...

But the damage to Jackson’s reputation had already been done. It didn’t help that this wasn’t the first time the public had to be told about Jackson’s weird behavior, which, by 1993, had become excessively strange for reasons that have been mentioned previously. Several endorsements were lost and plans scrapped, such as PepsiCo dropping him after a nine year partnership, a recording of an HBO concert special, and is supposedly the reason why Jackson left during the making of the music for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (though there are conflicting sources citing different reasons as to why he left that project.) Regardless, the damage was done and as the nineties went on, Jackson only became more of a social pariah, with the 1995 album HIStory: Past, Present, and Future, Book I, having several songs related to and directly reference his battles with these allegations.

Which brings us to Michael Jackson’s Ghosts. A 1996 short film with a story written by Jackson, Stephen King, and Mick Garris. The film’s storyline is simple. It opens in the town of Normal Valley, where the mayor (played by Jackson himself) is leading a mob of local parents to the mansion of a man known only as The Maestro (also played by Jackson), who has been entertaining local children with magic tricks and ghost stories. The children assure the parents of the mob that the Maestro has done nothing wrong, but the mayor intends to banish him, believing him to be nothing more than a "freak".

Once inside the mansion, the maestro appears and challenges the mayor to a "scaring contest": the first one to become scared must leave and never return. He proceeds to perform magic tricks, does dance routines with a ghostly horde, and possesses the mayor, forcing him to dance. After the extravagant performance doesn't win him the contest, the maestro agrees to leave and crumbles to dust, only to return as an enormous demon when the mayor and the mob proceed to leave. The mayor, who is now terrified, leaps through the window, supposedly running away. The families all agree that they had fun and they allow the maestro to stay.

None of this is even remotely subtle and having even the most basic background knowledge of what was going on in Jackson’s life around this time would tell you which parts of the film are meant to represent things in real life. Despite all of this, the film does something that none of Jackson’s videos have ever done: make the use of superpowers look horrifying.

Before this film, Jackson’s use of superpowers in his videos were usually nothing more than light-hearted parlor tricks; feats meant to entertain and captivate an audience watching him on television. But here, every single power that’s been discussed previously is represented, but instead used to scare the audience. This is obviously intentional, as it plays up the public perception that Jackson was a freak of nature to a fantastical degree. It’s also the only way in 1996 that Jackson could have really said anything (besides the music found on HIStory) that gave any real insight into how he viewed the allegations that caused irreparable damage to his career. Ghosts basically has Jackson saying, “They want to see a freak? Fine. I’ll show them a freak.” Besides, in a music video, you can’t be interrupted by interviewers looking for a sensational headline or quote.

Two powers appear in this film that don’t deviate too much from what we’ve already seen. He still vanishes and he still summons the music and his crew of dancers (this time of the ghost variety.) The other three powers shown here, all with Jackson performing them with creepier connotations.

For starters, he transforms several times in this film. The first instance is when he stretches his skin and then removes it to fully reveal his own skull. He takes this a step further by later shedding his skin completely to dance as a (CGI) skeleton. The other instance of Transformation that’s shown is when he decides to honor the rules of the contest and leave the mansion. How does he do this? He turns himself into stone and smashes himself into dust. He’s turned into creepy things before, like a zombie and a werewolf in “Thriller”, but those were meant to be more Hammer horror fun ones. This time the maestro wants to actually scare you. It makes sense, given that Jackson’s career by this time was the lowest it had ever been. This wasn’t a superstar utilizing wild effects to astound you, this was an angry, disgraced man trying to freak you out and turn himself into exactly what the public and media saw him as.

The idea of Possession, as we’ve discussed previously, usually involves Jackson telepathically getting dancers and other people involved in whatever dance routine is on his mind. That trick is still here in the form of Jackson’s ghost dancers doing what he does, but this power also takes on a more grim use here. In an attempt to scare the mayor of Normal Valley, Jackson literally possesses the mayor by flying into his mouth, making him dance in front of his mob. There are a few shots where you can see an outline of him crawling around in his stomach. This is the only time Jackson has ever presented this power in a literal sense and it’s creepy and weird as hell. Every other time it was simply implied and just used as a fun way to get background characters like gangsters, street guys, and Egyptian guards to dance with him. This instance in Ghosts just removes all the light-hearted fun and makes it deadly.

The final power that has a different interpretation is Jackson’s super spinning. Normally, Jackson uses it in order to build up energy or create some kind of illusion. Here, it’s combined with Transformation in order to make him into something deadlier than how he usually appears. Here, Jackson spins in order to reform his skin when he’s done being a skeleton, but instead of turning back into his usual self, he returns as a giant with a grotesque face that looks only slightly less horrifying than the zombie face from “Thriller”, which may or may not have been a way of representing the media and public’s prattling and prodding of Jackson’s history with cosmetic surgery.

Overall, Ghosts isn’t just turning light-hearted fun into something macabre just for the sake of making an elaborate Halloween-themed music video, it’s an artist attempting to change a narrative that’s been placed on him... and it doesn’t work. As said previously, the damage was already done and making a video with an unbelievable story like this wasn’t really going to change the minds of people who already came to their conclusions. Jackson using horrifying powers to mess with a town mayor and get the townspeople on his side could only ever exist in a video like this; it can only exist in a world where the creator and storyteller remains in control of the narrative.

Conclusion: Creating Magic

For Michael Jackson, the bigger and crazier that things got in his life, the more difficult it was to keep control. When you reach the top, there’s only one way to go: down. The use of superpowers shown in his music videos start out as harmless fun, but eventually reveal themselves to be magical ways of escaping the real world and giving one the chance to live out fantasies that can only be dreamed about. We all sometimes wish we could just disappear on a whim. We all sometimes wish we could morph into something or someone different. We all sometimes wish we could be the center of attention. These wishes aren’t harmful, they’re normal fantasies. One of the reasons many fans constantly return to these music videos and remain such cultural touchstones---even in a present time where Jackson is more controversial than ever before---is because they inhabit a magical world where suspension of disbelief takes over and for just a few minutes you’re in a world where anything could happen. You can clone yourself, you can get others to dance with you without fear of embarrassment, you can spin yourself into dust, you can vanish, you can become a zombie or a werewolf or a panther or whatever you’d like. The possibilities remain endless.

But perhaps it’s worth it to let the man himself explain it. In an unauthorized interview done at Jackson’s home in the winter of 1983, he says, “I like creating magic”. He then gets asked what his idea of “magic” is. His response:

“When I explain ‘magic’ I mean wonderment, excitement, the unexpected, escapism, creating something that is so incredible. An illusion. To put people in a situation, no matter what it may be and give them totally the opposite or the unexpected, so much more than what they thought would happen. I mean, just blow their minds. I like creating magic, excellence. I love doing that. There’s nothing like it. I try to do it in everything I do.”

He succeeded. Much of the man’s life story remains shrouded in speculation, but the body of work that still stands is not. The intentions couldn’t be any clearer. The man set out to make something that nobody had ever seen; that nobody thought was possible before with music video. The darkest parts of his story will always be discussed, debated, and dissected. The lightest parts will always be these videos, these moments in time that defined a culture and not only helped turn MTV into an empire but also turned music video into a legitimate art form. For Michael Jackson, his creative use of on-screen abilities, visuals, and everything else in between, all came together harmoniously in order to shape the world he brought to life through his work. It was always meant to serve one purpose: To create magic.

#original content #michael jackson #music video #mtv #1980s #off the wall #thriller #bad #music essay #music criticism

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nctdaoying · 5 years

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190819 GRAZIA Magazine September Issue - Interview with Doyoung

Translation by @nctdaoying (Twitter) / take out with credit.

Editor’s note: “I sat face-to-face with NCT’s Doyoung, a person who wants to sing for a long time, and during the time (I sat facing him), I saw a new face which I have never seen before.”

ISAC

Q: I heard that you took part in the recording for Idol Sports Athletic Championships (ISAC) yesterday?

A: Yes, I competed in the archery competition.

Q: Actually, aren’t you the member who doesn’t like to move the most? You made a huge decision (to participate in ISAC).

A: At least I was in a sport that required me to move the least, hahaha.

Q: Can we look forward to an outstanding performance then?

A: Previously, we won the silver medal for archery in the ISAC New Year Special. This time round, I practiced a lot for archery whenever I had the time, so I think it’s worth looking forward to.

Q: So you actually practiced.

A: All of the idol group members who participated in ISAC practiced. Personally, I really looked forward to it as we specially practiced a lot this time round. And the archery teacher felt that it was a pity that we got silver the last time round so she/he put in even more effort to teach us this time round.

NEOCITY Tour - learning point, memorable moment, time spent on flights, favourite shows

Q: Since January this year, you have been touring round the world, from Seoul to North America, then to South America, Asia, and even Europe. Since you have been touring for over 6 months, did you learn a lot?

A: Personally, I think that our team has grown a lot. I have been busy for more than half of the year. Especially for our U.S. tour, I performed once every two days so it was physically demanding for me. However, I believe that this sort of difficulty is a process for growth. Also, thanks to the support of the fans, I was able to overcome this period of difficulty, both mentally and physically. Through this world tour, I felt just how precious the fans are once again. I really thought of them as great comfort which helped me to endure.

Q: Please share with us if there was an especially memorable moment during the tour.

A: The Atlanta stop was especially memorable. The venue where we had our concert was the venue where many pop artistes, whom we recognise just by hearing their names, have held their concerts, and their photos were hanging on the wall of the corridor (where the waiting rooms were located). Among them, they only give the “SOLD OUT” sign to the artistes who have sold out their concerts. So thankfully, we sold out our concert as well and had the sign on our photo too, and because of that it felt really strange (to me).

Q: While you were on tour, the distance you travelled must have been really long and you must have spent a lot of time on the plane. What do you do during the flights?

A: I love watching dramas so I downloaded a lot of movies and dramas. But because we didn’t have a lot of time to rest while on tour, I spent most of my time on the plane sleeping.

Q: Are there any necessities that you’d bring along?

A: (My) iPad and airpods to watch dramas. Other than those, nothing else (laughs)

Q: What are the works (movies/dramas) that you like watching recently?

A: Not too long ago, I really enjoyed watching <Search: WWW>. And also even though I might sound like I am promoting my brother (actor Gongmyung), he’s appearing on a new drama recently. I wouldn’t have mentioned it if I thought that it’s not interesting, but I think <Melo is My Nature> is really interesting (laughs).

King of Masked Singer (KOMS), thoughts on his own voice/singing, and cover videos

Q: We can’t go without talking about how you recently became a hot topic after appearing on KOMS and winning 3 rounds with over 70 votes, to go straight to the final deciding round against the Masked King.

A: While on tour, I was preparing for (my performance) even though I was really busy and often lacked the energy as well, but I felt that it was a special experience. Because I love singing originally, so I felt really happy throughout this whole process. To be truthful, KOMS is a programme which I have always wanted to appear on since I was a trainee. Since that was the case, I also had the desire of getting good results. However, as the filming date neared, I started thinking that it was more important for me to truly enjoy the process. So mainly with the songs I love and sing well, I appeared on the show.

Q: Usually, before you appear on KOMS, you will have to keep it a secret, so how was it? Did you keep this a secret from the NCT members?

A: Because I had to prepare, there were members who saw me going out in the wee hours to practice, and asked about it. There were times I replied them truthfully, but there were also members who didn’t ask about it till the end. So those friends will find out for the first time when the show broadcasts, hahaha.

Q: How did the members react after watching the broadcast?

A: To be honest, as compared to my singing, the members paid more attention to the sexy dance I did as my personal talent. Maybe because it had already become a hot topic, so they were busy teasing me about it (laughs).

Q: From the recent interviews I saw, I can tell that you really love your own voice.

A: When I was young, I always wanted my voice to sound unique. I felt that it wasn’t that special and wished that I had my own (vocal) colour. So I’d imitate those singers whom people could recognise after just hearing a small verse - those people their own unique vocal colour. But as time passed, I came to think that the voice should be something like mine, one that people wouldn’t hate or love at first listen, but rather a voice that people can listen to comfortably. Now, I like my voice (smiles).

Q: Your singing ability is one that has been recognised by all. After looking through the NCT Music YouTube Channel, it seems to me that you mainly cover female singers’ songs? Is there a special reason for that?

A: There is no special reason. I just wanted to showcase something that is different from the original singers - I think the beauty of a cover is that I get to add my own colour (to the song). When I cover female singers, I can choose to lower my range or add my own colour (to the song) freely, so that’s why I choose to cover them frequently. And also because they simply are my favourite artistes.

Q: When I watched your cover videos, I discovered that you have a lot of different concepts for them, and it seems like you put a lot of thought into them.

A: I am the type of person who will prepare a lot if I have something that I want to do. For example, I will contemplate a lot over things like whether or not to use a mic when I’m singing, or what type of mic I should use, and whether I need to film the video after recording my singing. Although the song is very important as well, I’d also actively express my opinion on what sort of video would suit me best.

Travelling with Gongmyung

Q: Not too long ago, your brother Gongmyung mentioned that travelling with you is something that is on his bucket list. Did you know about this plan of his?

A: Even though my brother always talks about travelling together, it is really hard to find a day where the both of us are on break. But regardless of when the time comes, I definitely want to go someday. I also think it’d be interesting to show our trip through a reality show.

Q: If the two of you can travel together, where would you like to go to?

A: Actually, it doesn’t matter where we go. Although my hyung and I don’t particularly like to drink, we’re the type who would still drink a little (laughs). So I think travelling together to find the specialty liquors unique to different areas will be fun.

Life Motto & photoshoot

Q: I heard that your motto is “let’s live like myself”. So how is it like to be living like Doyoung?

A: I’m the type who firmly believes that I can do well and lives while thinking positively. For example, I would think of things like “I am doing great now” or “I am cool” when I have a photoshoot. I strive to do my best in believing in myself.

Q: So what sort of thoughts did you have when you had your photoshoot just now?

A: Hahaha, to be honest, I was a little embarrassed just now. The staff’s cheers were amazing… (laughs)

Something special to Doyoung

Q: What is something that is special only to Doyoung?

A: It may be the same for other singers, but I really love singing. I have come to the conclusion that when I am going through a hard time or feel tired, I am only able to overcome them simply because of my love for singing, and because of the fans’ support for me.

Ultimate goal in life & artiste he envisions himself to be

Q: This may be a big question, but what is Doyoung’s ultimate goal in life?

A: There are people who I have acknowledged as the artistes of my life since I was young. I have been listening to the songs of Park Hyoshin, Adam Levine, Oasis, and Taeyeon sunbae-nim since young, so if I become a great vocal in the future, a great deal of credit has to go to them. Even though I may add more people in the future, I think to sing like them is my iron rule and goal in life.

Q: What kind of artiste do you envision yourself to be?

A: Rather than doing music that (only) I like, my dream is to do music that people who listen to it also like. I wish to perform in many more places, with many more songs, and have an enjoyable time with many more people.

Next dream?

Q: The person whose dream since young is to become a singer has already realised his dream. What is your next dream?

A: Maybe not to the extent of directing, but I would like to challenge planning a concert. Even though I am still lacking now and I am still not at the level of being able to lay out something concrete, I hope that one day I can be someone who can express and share my own opinions when I am preparing for my own concert.

(END.)

#nct #doyoung #dongyoung #nct doyoung #kim doyoung #kim dongyoung #nct u #nct 127 #nct127 #grazia #interview #translations

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burningyetbeautifuldaydreams · 5 years

Text

Host of The Toast

Episode Uno

Warnings- Cursing/Swearing, Deceit warning

Summary- Because the Crofter’s musical was such a huge hit, The sides decided it would be fun if Logan Sanders, The man who truly loves Crofters to run a talk show, but this isn’t any normal talk show.

Words- 2001

haha sorry, Logan but you're toast.

Welcome! To Host of the Toast! A loud voice boomed from a speaker as suddenly the black setting lightened up and a man with dyed purple hair, glasses, and a blue tie sat on a black office chair with a comforting focused smile as his chair turned to face the viewers and a black desk sat in front of him with a red pencil holder, few pencils, and paper that had Game! Wrote on it. He had deep brown eyes that showed his excellence of being incredibly wise. He had a smile on his face that turned into a smirk every once In a while but it definitely wasn't a real smile.

Featuring your host Logan! And special guest Patton, Roman, Virgil, and Thomas! The speaker yelled as the glasses man stood up from his chair and watch his foes slowly walk in as their name was called. First, Patton ran into the room flustered at the slight applause from the audience and went right next to Logan so he could see his friend again, Then roman walked in with confidence as he blew kisses at the crowd and bowed every once in a while like he was at the end of a play. When Virgil came into view he had his hoodie covering his flustered nervous face, his hands stuffed in his pockets as he quickly paced to stand next to one of the sides, desperately wanting to be out of the attention. Lastly, Thomas came in with the confidence of Roman, the cuteness of Patton, and walked calmly to stand next to one of his buddies as his huge grin almost killed a bunch of fans. He was already adored, just like all the rest. They all had brown dyed purple hair and the sane brown eyes, but two of them had glasses, one was wearing gold eyeshadow, one has dark eyeshadow and dark eyeliner, and the other one had a completely natural face. They waited for the crowd to come to silence as Logan walked to the front of the stage where there was a long line of crofter's jams placed all different flavors.

"Salutations," Logan began saying his casual line as he grabbed one of the crofter's jams. "I am Logan Sanders and I'm here with my comrades today because we have an important announcement." His smile begins to become real as he takes in a spoon full of Crofters. Roman is if on cue walks to be near Logan, with the royal confidence he wears. "We have officially became sponsored by Crofters! Check Thomas' channel for a video we made about it," he excitedly yells slightly promoting Thomas' channel as the youtuber smiled and look flustered for a moment. Logan, who has gulped down the entire jar, smiles for a slight moment before saying his next line. "And we have gained our own jam" Logan excitedly exclaims, practically the first time he ever looked really excited or showed any emotion at all. "So to honor this achievement, were playing a game." he unsurely adds, slowly waiting for the mysterious voice to start talking but instead he could feel someone scooching next to him, he had quite the bright comforting energy. It was Patton.

"Its gonna be so fun kiddos!" he exclaims as his bubbly energetic personality shines through, which the logical character admires. A soft smile is placed as he sees Patton grab a jam and smile, "now let's get started I bet everybody is berry excited" he chuckles brightly making the rest of the group smile except for a certain emo who just smirked. Yes, it will be Patton because today we're- Logan rolled his eyes, he ever liked the weird voice that has not been revealed to be yet- starting the first challenge of today! Who can steal the most bites out of logan's crofters toast? The mere sentence confused Logan, and he went right to stare at Roman, whos the creativity side. Roman stared back and shrugged and looked at Thomas who was also as confused as both of them. He mouthed the words I swear I didn't do this. Patton looked excited either way, even if he was as confused as the others, and Virgil just slowly baked into away and disappeared. Now at the control room, not wanting to participate. "Wait, no I do not think it necessary to do that-" the poor shocked bookworm got interrupted by the totally not suspicious voice. Haha, it laughed and Logan can tell by the tone the voice was now smiling Let's Get started!

The basics of the rules are, no cheating, no sabotage, and the objective is to steal as many bites out of Logan's toast after he makes it. Good luck! Now the three other had stayed at the front as the nervous logical side walked to his desk that now had a toaster, two slices of bread, and a jar of Loganberries Crofters jam. He followed the basic routine of making toast he does every morning, slide the two bread slice onto the toaster, let it toast for exactly sixty seconds, giving the bread a light golden texture that smelled satisfactory to the bookworm. Lastly, he spread the jam onto the crispy golden toast, making the smell now quite fruity with the smell of hot baked bread. Logan thought it looked quite satisfactory, and that he probably could eat it now- Start the game!! but right now he could see a determined prince charging towards him with eyes, blazing of determined passion. Quickly, Logan observed the way Roman charged at him and understood was happening. The game had begun and now they were daring to get close to his precious toast. Logan realized quickly, that the determined prince would only charge at him for an about a minute because Roman had quite a great running pace. He could run the other direction, to stall for time but he had a feeling another of his comrades was waiting for him to do so. He came to the conclusion, that he can just stand there, wait for roman to try to grab his beloved toast and quickly protect it from the prince.

Roman ran right in front of the Microsoft nerd as he went to grab the toast, Logan slowly yet carefully spun in the opposite direction, leading the toast away from the other's hand and as he spun he could see another one of his comrades who wore the exact same glasses he wore. The man was running towards him as he giggled like a child, he most likely was skipping but Logan didn't have enough time to make sure of. Roman, now out of balance, shocked at logan's quick reflexes, has fallen, face flat, on the floor and is just laying there in pure shock. Such a huge fall given by Roman as Logan dances his way out of that attempt The voice echoed, as Logan practically grew gradually annoyed with the mysterious voice but he knew it was only because this whole thing has turned into pure nonsense where he's afraid has no logical reason to it at all. Patton was nearly close to him as Logan was deep in thought, furious of the randomness currently happening, and before he could notice the bright sunshine aura there was already a bitten mark on his beloved toast. He was about to scream.

Patton had skipped past logan and was now near where Roman lied, refusing to get up as he groaned dramatically. One point to the man in love with cats but is allergic to them! Patton being the cute man-child he is giggles at the remark of the voice and starts swaying back and forth staring at Logan as he stares at Patton with the most unreadable expression. Logan really wanted to kill him, his beloved crofters' jam toast was stolen of its first bite and it was the happy character's fault. He's so dead. Logan, out of his wanting to murder him thoughts slowly came out of the space near his desk and quietly walked to the front of the stage were currently nobody was as he prepared himself to get attacked even more. What he hadn't realized before is that there was soft footsteps following his own as he walked, soft hums, and maybe even a slight chuckle. "Hey, Logan" A familiar voiced hummed as he chuckled a little, now in front of the logical side. Even if Logan wants to kill him for eating some of his toast, he needed to face the facts; this was probably a distraction and he's too adorable to kill.

"i don't see the point of saying hello when we already said that before," Logan noted to Patton as he quickly backed away, even though a small part of him wanted to continue seeing the contagious smile plastered on Patton's face but he gets this feeling that it's a fake one based on his eyes squinting which usually didn't happen when he smiled. "I know but still" he sang scooting closer to logan, and once his eyes stared at something behind logan but it was a quick glance. Them suddenly he could feel the weight of the toast disappear in his hand as a certain youtuber chuckled and ran the direction behind Logan. OoooooooOOOooooh Thomas has stolen the toast, What would the bookworm do nooooOOOOOoooooow? The voice as annoying as always sang as Logan prepared to make a plan to get the toast back, he could act immature and chase after Thomas or could act devious and trick Thomas to stop so it'll be easier. Before he can make that decision, from the corner of his eye, he could see that Roman after his quite dramatic fall is now at his feet, catching up quite quickly to Thomas as Patton lagged behind chuckling like this was a game. Princey in one quick movement snatched the Toast, took a bite quite quickly as he ran almost near Logan. This seems quite the right moment to snatch the toast, so he did but ended up tripping the prince.

And the prince is down yet again! He is berry clumsy

Logan as of on cue groaned at the pun and went to grab the toast that has now three bite marks on it. One point to Gay and Princey this is getting real jam-packed of tension! As now Logan, knew that Thomas was out of breath and that Patton was checking on Thomas since he really cares about everybody. Roman was on the ground, slowly getting up as Logan walked away from the only man right now that is actually a threat right now. He was barely out of breath and was getting quite tired of these shenanigans but he had no idea how it will end and he isn't gonna give up this.

-----------------------------------------------

After MANY many attempts from the three and Virgil enjoying this endlessly watching from behind the scenes, Countless jam puns, one Disney song sang, kittens charging at Patton, Thomas eventually joining Virgil on the sidelines as Patton hopelessly enjoyed his time and got a lot of bites while Roman kissed the floor quite a few times, a lemonade break given by yours truly, Logan obtaining countless Crofters jar in his very tiring run from the cheerful and determined sides, and now a popcorn machine existed in this hell of a mindscape.

Thomas- Three toast bites

Patton- Six berry good attacks

Roman- Four jarring attempts

Virgil- ..Wait.. he was there?

Patton had won, and he just giggled shyly as he was given a GOLDEN Crofters trophy that had a soft teddy bear inside it and it held three small teddy bears that looked identical to the other sides. It was now Patton's as for how now Logan might've been done with crofters jam and toast for a while after this episode. Yet, the logical side believed that the show couldn't get worse. Oh you’ll be surprised

#thomas sanders #Crofters #deceit warning #host of the toast #ts logan #logan sanders #virgil sanders #ts virgil #roman sanders #ts roman #ts patton #patton sanders #sanders sides

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sarcastic-pasta-games · 6 years

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Posting my extremely long youtube comment here. :)

Hey guys, lead dev Katie typing this up ! And this will be LONG but I'm going to tell you the story of this game's creation!!

Wow. WOW. What an amazing conclusion to this series and, in a way, to this whole journey we've been on since we started making the game. I actually teared up when it ended. Seeing how much this game meant to people is astounding. I'm so glad you liked it. I had so many doubts, was so worried people would hate it or think the end was too personal or something. But I'm glad that wasn't the case.

First off, round of applause for our amazing VAs:

CelestialSushi: GLaDOS, Billy, Undyne, Napstablook Citrus/David Z: Narrator/Employee #207, Papyrus Emmykat Voices: Jenny, Mei Jay Ikalima: Newscaster Steve, Bigby Wolf, Officer, Potato Man, Rhys Amy: Bea Amanda: Fran Bow Cat: Alex Melodiva: Baby CasualSoul: Cliff mr.blueandwhite: Phone Guy KatieMarie999 (me): Newscaster Betty, the turrets, Alphys, Mae

By the way, the PAX group was Jessica, Oonagh, Cat, and me. :)

Now that there's enough in this comment to really go into detail, I can post spoilers. Well now, what did you guys think of it NOT being Anti? What's so funny is that I came up with the idea 6 days into the first Antipocalypse, so when I announced I was making a game in November of 2016, I'm sure a lot of people thought Anti would be a contributing factor. Don't worry, Sarcastic Pasta Games WILL cover his story. ;)

It all actually started with a bit of advice from my mom. She basically told me not to kick myself while I was down. See, I believed (and, in a lot of ways, still believe) that I was a failure with useless skills and talents that would never amount to anything. I thought I could never make a difference in the world. I have ADHD, so I was never a good student and had already dropped out of college once, constantly working dead end jobs that I hated and making pennies. I'm not especially organized and I struggled with the most basic tasks. The only thing I ever had going for me was creativity, which I'd always been told was pointless by general society. But I always wanted to use it to help people. To enrich their lives.

So it was that day, the day my mom gave me that advice, that I made a decision. Inspired by Toby Fox and Scott Cawthon, I wanted to make a game. And I made a promise to myself right then and there, standing in front of the house I was living in at the time, that I would make a game with a message about how everyone is valuable and not to bully yourself. Because we don't see that message enough. It's something we all need to hear. Of course, I had a grand total of zero ideas other than this vague image of someone fighting against their alternate self as the final boss.

About 2 weeks later, Jack posted his Fear of Failure One Year Later video. I'd been in the community since that January, so I hadn't seen the first video, but of course I watched it because by that point, I had come to love the channel silently (I wasn't active in the community at the time). And it hit me. Right then and there. It was perfect; Jack had self doubts about himself and I knew that, on some level, there are 2 sides to him: the one on the channel and the one in his personal life. So immediately, this game's ending sprang into my head. Jack vs. Sean.

Bear in mind, the community was on FIRE during this time. It was October 2016. Anti was making his first appearances on the channel. But while you were all freaking out, I was telling myself "well, this idea is nice and all but I'd never be able to actually do it. What do I know about game making? I could never make this game." I bombarded my sister and Jessica (assistant everything) with new ideas for it. Until finally, probably tired of me talking about it, they told me that if this game idea was really that stuck in my mind, I should actually DO it. I should take that first step and find some people willing to help.

So I did. November 11th, 2016. I posted a call for help in the Jacksepticeye tag. And Novmeber 12th, 2016 was the day we officially began development. It's worth noting that Jessica, Alina, and I are the only people who were there for the entire development process. But it was such an amazing process! I want to point out that it was Amy's polishing of my original idea that turned the whole Sean section into what it was. She helped me write it; we spent 4 or 5 hours one evening just coming up with every single aspect of the battle and writing the dialogue. I'm sorry if some of it wasn't accurate, but we didn't know exactly what you were going through, Sean, so we couldn't say for sure. I'm glad a lot of it was accurate though.

In one of the areas of the gallery, there's a place you can find all our production flubs. Some bugs we ran into while testing and goofy things we did to amuse ourselves. It's a shame Jack didn't see it because that was a lot of fun! We kept such a good sense of humor while making the game. 2017 turned into one of the most emotionally taxing years of my life. The community, and the team, was there for me. They kept me from going to a dark place. I always had this game, this beautiful project I had started and had come to love so much (Jack is right, this game absolutely was my baby; I've even said that a few times) to keep me going even as I was facing a lot of real life adversity. The first person ever to play the demo and eventually the real game was KittyCatThang, who volunteered and became one of my best friends. Her let's play is on theawkwardandthegraceful and it's a LOT of fun to watch because she actually knew a bunch of the people on the team but we wouldn't tell her any secrets so we got some awesome, very genuine reactions. She yells at me a few times, it's hilarious. Love you, Cat!

Jessica had been one of my best friends since March of 2016, when we met on an Undyrus DeviantArt group (we met Lundy Lawrence there too, she did some Cliff fan art at the end). Told you the Undyrus community was amazing. They all found out what we were doing and supported us, even though most of them had no idea who the heck Jacksepticeye was. And Lundy, the aforementioned Undyrus fan, actually started watching your videos as a result! Anyway, onto Jessica, she was so reluctant to help but once production had gone through, she had come to love this game. Jessica, I love you and words cannot express how thankful I am that you helped me so much with this game.

Honestly, the whole team is just... they are some of the best people you'll ever meet. They made my dream game come true. And the fact that you all love it is a testament to how encouraging this community really is. I never would have found them without it. And those words at the end, with Jack talking right to the player, it's your name in that section. If you play the game, Jack is saying all that to you. And I genuinely believe every word of it. You are amazing and you are capable of incredible things.

I'm not some professional writer or voice actor or game developer. I'm someone with a passion and a drive to make a game. I poured a lot of my personality into this project and it's better than I ever dreamed it'd be. I'm just a straight C student from Maryland with horrible ADHD who got inspired to make a game. And if I could do this, you can do anything. It just takes a really strong passion. Really, I'm not special at all. I just found the right group of people through the channel of an Irish dork. I'd never made a game before. And yes, I'd been writing stories since I could write, so naturally the writing aspect came a lot easier to me (as I'd been writing stories for 18 or 19 years by that point) but we all have gifts and talents.

I leave you all with this, a quote from The Lego Movie, which was a contributing factor in the inspiration for this game and one of my favorite movies of all time: "You are the most talented, most interesting, and most extraordinary person in the universe. And you are capable of amazing things. Because you are the Special. And so am I. And so is everyone."

That's what this game is about. No go and find your special gift, no matter what it is. I can't wait to see the incredible things you all do. Thank you for joining us on this journey and we hope to see you (Jack, that mean you too) in Glitch in the System and our other future games.

Our Twitter is @Sarcastic_Pasta and we're on Patreon. Our fan games will always be free to play and we're so excited for the next one. And subscribe to this youtube channel if you want to see our trailers, as we'll be posting them here (in addition to a pretty sweet Undertale musical). And keep an eye out for the demo for Glitch in the System!

Again, thank you so much. We really appreciate every single one of you.

~Katie

#jacksepticeye #long novel comment

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mikamaiblog · 4 years

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Why we went from Slack to Discord

The beginning of 2020 was one of the most difficult moments of the last decade. The rapid spread of SARS-COVID-2 and the consequent quarantine imposed by the various countries of the world has led many companies to discover and approach remote work for the first time, in order to protect their employees while still being able to work without attending the office. However, choosing the right tools to support remote collaboration is almost as difficult a challenge as adopting "smart" working methodologies that allow you to keep productivity high. The panorama of available choices is vast, from open-source tools such as Jitsi and Nextcloud to commercial services such as Slack and Google GSuite, each with its own strengths and peculiarities.

At Mikamai we have always been used to working in a "smart" way, preferring asynchronous and written collaboration wherever possible to make our business more streamlined and agile. This allows us to expand our operational area to the entire world, both in terms of customers and collaborators. In fact, many colleagues do not work from our main office in Milan, Italy, but from more comfortable places for them, such as other Italian or European cities, even other continents. We have long been GSuite users for shared documents, GitHub for hosting our projects, Trello for managing activities and Slack for internal communication.

However, we recently started to feel the limitations of Slack’s free plan. Mikamai has grown, the number of people and messages written every day has grown significantly with it, and we have found ourselves to frequently exceed the limit of 10,000 messages, thus losing potentially important conversations and messages. The lack of group video calls forces us to use Google Meet, an excellent video conferencing solution but which lacks the immediacy of starting a call directly from the text chat. However, paid plans, the price of which increases for each employee present in the workspace, are not very appealing to us. So we started scouting for a tool that would better meet our needs.

In the past few months we have tried several online communication tools, in particular Mattermost, an open source alternative to Slack, JetBrains Space, a collaboration and management service that includes a chat very similar to Slack, and Discord, a communication platform designed for gamers and online communities, but with very interesting features also for companies that work in a distributed way.

The latter has caught our attention, and here are the reasons that led us to adopt it as our corporate communication tool.

Voice chat is only one click away

Despite working mainly in an asynchronous way through email, Trello cards and comments on the code repositories, direct conversation is a very important tool especially for creative activities that benefit from a rapid and continuous exchange of ideas between the participants. The ability of immediately entering a group voice chat, with excellent audio quality and with the support of text chat and screen sharing is perhaps Discord's main strength, and what really convinced us in attempting the transition.

Brainstorming and planning sessions can be started quickly without the overhead that changing tools entails when using services outside the chat, as was our case with Google Meet. Everything is much more natural and immediate, promoting communication and the exchange of ideas rather than discouraging them.

It is also very convenient for organizing virtual coffee breaks, allowing you to maintain human contact with colleagues that you risk losing by working remotely.

Granular control over roles and permissions

Discord was created to host online communities, mainly in the gaming world but extending over time to all those groups of users who need a safe digital space in which to meet and chat. For this reason, the platform provides a wide range of permissions, which can be grouped into roles to be assigned to users, allowing you to granularly control which actions are granted to which users, and in which channels. In our particular case we do not manage a public space but a private server, however it is not used solely for business purposes. We have dedicated some channels to external activities, like video games or role-playing games, which involve the presence of users who are not part of the company staff, such as family members and playmates, former colleagues and partners of other companies. Thanks to Discord's powerful permission system, these users have access only to the channels for which they were authorized, while the company's internal chats are hidden and inaccessible.

This also allows us to invite our customers to join the server to facilitate the exchange of information with them. For each project, a text channel and a corresponding voice room is created, along with a role that allows access to them. When the customer enters the server and is assigned the role, he can then access these channels and actively collaborate with us, without being able to see reserved areas and spaces dedicated to other active projects.

We have also created a dedicated announcement channel, in which only Mikamai's administrative staff can write, to support the internal mailing list in quickly sharing official news and communications with colleagues.

External integrations

Slack boasts a multitude of integrations with third-party systems, from ticketing and project management platforms to infrastructure alarms and monitoring systems. Discord does not have the same spread in the business and development world, but provides the possibility to configure the integrations in a Slack compatible mode, basically allowing to integrate any system that can interact with Slack. Discord also has a robust and diverse chatbot ecosystem, small applications that act like automatic users and increase native chat features. For example, a very successful bot in Mikamai’s server is Groovy, a bot that allows you to play music to all users connected to a voice channel as a kind of virtual jukebox. Thanks to it, we can share our music with colleagues, allowing everyone to add songs to the playlist being played.

Cost

Obviously one aspect that we have not underestimated during our evaluation is the monetary cost compared to the competition. All of Discord’s core features are completely free, providing paid additions mainly aimed at the gaming world, especially streamers and youtubers, such as the ability to add custom emojis, customize the profile and improve audio and video quality. This, added to the points previously discussed, was one of the key points for Mikamai in making the decision to migrate to Discord.

Testimonials

Given that I’m not a very techy person, which often limits me in discovering the full potential of this type of tool, I must say that I find Discord very versatile. I really appreciate the possibility of enabling audio channels that allow an immediate switch between text communication and voice communication (especially group chats). Having an unlimited number of messages always available free of charge is, of course, another nice advantage.

Debora, Office Manager.

Discord adds syntax highlighting for code snippets, unlimited message history, integrated calls, screenshare with up to 50 people (during the COVID-19 period), a really advanced role and permission system, and is very easy to integrate with external tools. I don't know what more you could ask for.

Nicola, Tech Lead.

I have been using Discord for more than a year mainly for gaming but also to talk or see my friends. I immediately found it intuitive and with a youthful graphic feeling. Its strength is absolutely being free, I still remember when I had to communicate with other players simultaneously, we used TeamSpeak and it required us to spend a lot of money every month for a dedicated server, with an increasing cost based on the amount of users who could connect at once, a real nightmare. With Slack, I suffered (and still suffer) because of the limited chat history, 10,000 messages or a month of history and then that’s it. How many lost links, how many chats that have fallen by the wayside ("I wrote it to you on Slack", "When ???")... Discord is, in my opinion, the tool par excellence of remote communication both for gaming, chatting and companies.

Daniela, Frontend Developer

Conclusions

Discord has proved to be an excellent corporate communication platform despite being mainly geared towards the world of gaming and digital communities. The speed with which it is possible to start talking with colleagues and organize virtual meetings has allowed us to facilitate the transition even for those who were not previously used to working completely remotely, and has given us back a part of the warmth that sharing the day with our coworkers transmit, reducing the alienation due to the emergency situation in which we find ourselves. We will have the opportunity to test it thoroughly in the coming months, but we are sure that it will prove itself to be a valid and central tool for our daily work.

#Discord #Slack #Smart working #chat #digital transformation #chat aziendale #coronavirus #remote working #covid #covid2019 #covid19 #mikamai

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elibasila · 4 years

Text

4: communication between things that are different simply because they are different

analyzing sensationalism in new video platforms,

Background -

When I first heard this prompt I immediately knew what I was going to do, and what I was going to talk about. Now ever since I was 9 or 10 I was watching Youtube and primarily got most of my information through the internet. Youtube however was not really the place (at least ten years ago) where I got most/or any sort of factual information as (for me and many other people) it was mainly a platform for entertainment. However, as the years went on and as the internet evolved and information adapted to these new ways of existing, new methods were used in order to get people to watch more. This would take the form of click-baiting, which is really just drawing an audience in with the promise of something while delivering another. This practice is heavily tied to concepts like sensationalism, yellow journalism, scandal mongering, advertising, etc. Things that basically try to get attention by appealing to the masses’ preference towards easily digestible media/entertainment.

More specifically this prompt got me thinking of a certain phenomenon that’s been happening recently (I’d say about past 6 years give or take) mostly on video platforms like Youtube. You could say that this content falls into the category of ‘social experiments’, as they clickbait the audience into a video about two things that are so radically different from one another into interacting (especially if there’s high stakes/tension). Some examples of very prominent Youtube channels are Jubilee, Cut, SoulPancake all who produce content mainly relating to these concepts of sensationalism on video platforms that seek to gain more viewers for the purpose of making profit, as it’s also good to know that these channels have high production value to them. The most popular channels, especially ones that dominate concepts like these, bring in a lot of numbers and regularly push out a lot of content in order to keep their revenue steady and going, and if an opportunity arises in the form of a controversial recent event they are one of the first platforms to hop on it, in hopes of staying relevant/profitable.

My intention is not to label these channels/videos or this type of content as inherently ‘bad’ nor am I telling anyone not to watch certain things because I said so. I would just like to analyze this type of content as a person who’s identity/experience is used as a source for profit/controversy, basically analyzing it as a minority who’s identity/experience is used as a debate topic (sometimes not all the time). While also keeping in mind of identities that I’m not a part of/experiences that don’t affect me as they are also used for these tactics just as much, if not more.

Practice through Research -

Can Trump Supporters And Immigrants See Eye To Eye? Rich And Poor People Seek To Understand Each Other. Cops And Ex-Felons Seek To Find Common Ground. Pro-Choice And Pro-Life Supporters Search For Common Ground. Atheists and Christians Debate Truth And Belief. Should You Watch Porn? Can Sex Workers and Pastors Find Middle Ground? Can Black Lives Matter & Law Enforcement See Eye To Eye? Traditional vs Trans: Are There More Than 2 Genders? Men and Women Seek to Understand Each Other. Can Scientists and Religious Leaders See Eye to Eye? Can Voters and Non-Voters See Eye to Eye? Millionaires vs Minimum Wage: Did You Earn Your Money? Can Socialists and Capitalists Find Middle Ground? Should We Cancel Celebrities for Their Crimes?

In order to show the patterns of how these channels (these examples are taken from Jubilee from their popular series Middle Ground) title their videos or really how they advertise them, as you can argue that the title of a video/piece of media is technically the advertisement for it as well. As you can see why I clearly thought of these types of videos when the prompt was brought up, as the premise of these videos are quite literately; communication between things that are different simply because they’re different. Although that’s the premise behind their concept, what actually happens within the video follows a pattern similar to this: The two opposing groups of people start out civil or mildly defensive, there are two sides and one is usually the privileged while the other is usually drastically underprivileged. It usually ends civil and with plastered on smiles/hugs and ‘thank you’s’ as these videos try to keep an air of well-mannered behavior on both sides. The two groups are given prompted questions and are able to decide if they want to speak on them, first with addressing their similar views and then introduce the others that disagree. Again most of these videos/discussions/debates remain pretty civil and level-headed as they do a great job of that, but a lot of the conversation is fraught with micro-aggression and jabs at the other side, similar to passive aggressiveness, which reads like a watered-down debate/discussion. These videos are usually around 10ish min, which to me is pretty short for the topics that they discuss/debate.

Notes On Watching -

I was thinking about was how much they probably cut out of those 10-20 min long videos, as most of those topics definitely deserve a lot more time to be properly discussed/analyzed (as I’ll go into later).

In the same vein, when they talk about these very difficult and complex subjects they almost try to minimize the actual scale/affect these issues/relationships really have, which is in part I think due to the length of these videos, and the nature of their ‘brand’

These videos definitely aren’t for the people who’re the least privileged in these ‘discussion videos’, they feel like they’re for people who either don’t know anything about the situation or for the oppressor/privileged (when watching the videos that would discuss/use the identity/experience I am associated with)

This feels really forced, and very ingenuine at times, the people definitely dont want to be there

Sometimes definitely falls into the type of interaction that goes like: well I don’t agree with you/the way you live (read:I don’t agree with your existence) but I still love and respect you! - colorblindness - faith in humanity restored - wow I wish people (read: the oppressed) could be this civil ALL the time - tone deaf -

A sense of false progress, something labelled as progressive and active in the discussion when it’s really just the same things being said just packaged differently, and way more subtly

Somewhat Conclusions -

I feel that this type of media content isn’t as helpful/ insightful as it’s trying to be, and for the sake of being authentic their intentionally clickbaity advertisements make their attempts at genuine connection between people arbitrary. This especially comes into conflict when they talk about real people/minorities who have suffered through historic/contemporary discrimination and tends to water down these concepts in ways that only help the privileged/oppressors be able to ‘safely’ digest them. It airs on the side of the brand of corporate political/social justice that just .

When watching these I try to remember what their intention is behind these videos as the only hint we get is their statement in their about section: “We believe in the power of empathy for human good”. Now this is a very noble statement, and a very idealized one at best, but these videos don’t invoke a sense of empathy in me, but rather a half-assed attempt at trying to show false progress between marginalized communities and oppressors to make the privileged feel better. And watching their videos that have to specifically deal with experiences/identities that I occupy doesn’t benefit me directly, it gives me the sense that nothing has changed except people are more polite now with their hate and/ ignorance, which is still as harmful as outright hatred/violence.

I propose that maybe this isn’t the best way to approach subjects like these, at least subjects that are extremely complex and ones that deserve careful, lengthy and well thought-out execution that I feel these types of shows lack. I can feel that these shows’ primary objectives aren’t to provide information/education to people, but that they’re mainly doing this for profit and banking on trendy/controversial/cancel culture (that’s not to say that maybe the creators/employees believe they’re doing this with pure intentions). I feel that if these types of discussions were to take place that the leading voices shouldn’t be from both sides of the issue, it should lead from the groups of people who’re historically/contemporarily under-privileged and marginalized, and mindfully include the opposing side’s views in carefully researched relation to the affected. I feel strongly that conversations about complex subjects should take place, but not necessarily in a place meant for monetization where these nuances are abused and minimized for profits’ sake.

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rkhyungwon · 7 years

Photo

{ ;; YOUTUBE -- chae.one has uploaded a new video! }

1+1=0 by suran (ft. dean) cover by @yutark and hyungwon key: normal (yuta), italics (hyungwon), bold (both)

8th of september, 2017

it had been hyungwon’s idea, originally. the need to branch out and experiment, try new things, was what led him to arrive to the conclusion that trying to cover a song with an RnB vibe would be a good idea - the fact that he got to spend some time with yuta was just an extra. the atmosphere between them still held some awkwardness from their previous encounter and visit to the zoo, but yuta had agreed to help him and after pondering the song for a while, practicing by himself repeatedly until he would hit every note perfectly, they were standing in a practice room, in front of the camera. the video would only be uploaded to his personal youtube channel, but some degree of nervousness still remained as hyungwon stood there, microphone in hand.

the music starts and hyungwon takes a deep breath, glancing towards yuta for a second before he brings the microphone closer to his lips and starts singing.

what’s wrong with everyone? why are you doing this? relax, hey hey, my baby

all week long you are tangled up in work and struggle, hey hey, why baby

i look at facebook i look at instagram you are no longer interested

i get that you’re young but you seem to be burdened will you be all right like this?

he made sure to keep his voice sweet, light, almost teasingly so. it wasn’t the singing he had a problem with, although, that in itself was quite different to what he was used to, it was the attitude and the comfort of performing something so out of his comfort zone.

1+1 = 0 and i’m still young if you don’t do anything does it become nothing?

so how bout you so how bout u

work or work will get to me everyday, same day (same day)

you want to have fun but you don’t know how am i crazy? whoo

yuta had such an easy time and hyungwon envied him for it, tried to relax his shoulders and hands, tried to appear more at ease as he watched the other male’s smooth movements and natural stage presence. he beat was alluring enough, only that the allure, in his face, didn’t show as more than a soft swaying of his body, his eyes closing and head moving along with the melody. he didn’t want to admit it, but yuta’s soft tugging and gentle urging helped to focus less on the camera and more on the other male in the room, more so on the music. his movements grow bigger, slightly more confident and a small smile appears on his lips as soon as he finished his lines, eyes focused on yuta, watching the other male.

woo, let’s look into this why do you only put efforts to working? the sun and the moon, day and night balance exists in the world you must rest, yeah you take aspirin every day no pain, no gain it’s all bullshit, yeah just take a little time relax ur mind yeah

yuta’s delivery was as perfect as expected and hyungwon tries not to think too much about how stiff he might seem or how obvious his discomfort was and focused only on the other male, his face and expression starting to reflect the words he was singing.

1+1 = 0 and i’m still young if you don’t do anything does it become nothing?

1+1 = 0 and i’m still young just stay still, stay still just chill, just chill just chill just chill

if time is the medicine tell me what that is

lost in work i want to find my true self now, hey

yuta’s voice fit along his well, though hyungwon could see he was having an easier time with the rapping, rather than with the singing. by then, the camera was forgotten and hyungwon had started to move his body along to the music, turned towards yuta and singing it mostly at him; for him.

1+1 = 0 and i’m still young if you don’t do anything does it become nothing?

1+1 = 0 and i’m still young just stay still, stay still just chill, just chill just chill just chill

yuta’s fingers against his are warm, soothing; as calming as his voice and as tempting as his smile and hyungwon easily went along with each and every movement, pliant to the other male’s whims and jests. the song comes to an end and hyungwon’s focus is slightly more on the lyrics and the melody, trying to nail the rather high pitch of the notes. his attention returns to yuta once the song ends and the smile on his lips is returned with a second of hesitation, his last line earning him a brief chuckle from hyungwon as he lowers the microphone, again. “i certainly feel more chill now than i did before.”

#journal #rkcollabsolo #solo para #youtube.

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winnwinn-moved · 7 years

Text

love line

ten - angstish turned fluff - 2435

“what do you mean you can read palms!?”

ten is a man of many talents. from singing, to dancing, to making anyone and everyone fall for him with just a simple smile, ten can boast of many natural talents. but palm reading- now that’s something you haven’t heard of before. not like you don’t believe that ten can-okay, let’s face it, there’s no way in the world you believe that ten can actually see your future by inspecting the intricate lines on your palm. you would think that ten would have mentioned his special gift up earlier, yet here he here sits beside you on the sole couch in the apartment he shares with his friend johnny, trying to convince you that he can read palms. thank god johnny isn’t here to witness the scene; you would probably die of embarrassment if he saw the way ten is hounding you about his “talent”.

“look, give me your palm and i can tell you about your life, your career, and even your future love.” ten wiggles his eyebrows at the last possibility.

“you have to be kidding me.” you roll your eyes, your cheeks dark red. “where’d you learn this anyway, huh? youtube?”

“no, it’s a gift, i swear! just give me your hand and let me show you…”

slowly, cautiously, and a bit sheepishly, you stick out your hand, holding it up high so ten is able to clearly examine your hand. with a dramatic cough, ten grabs your hand in his, carefully pulling it closer towards himself so he can see the tiny little lines. gently, he thumbs over the thumb lowest on your thumb, mumbling nonsense to himself before grinning. you watch him curiously: the way his eyes light up, the way a pleasant smile pulls at his lips, the way he repeats his conclusion over and over under his breath. you sit on the edge of the couch patiently, trying your hardest not to burst into a fit of giggles, which you are convinced stem from the way his thumb tickles your skin. but it could also be the confused pout now apparent on ten’s face is way too much for you to handle, and he looks far too cute for his own good, that you can’t help but laugh- you bite the inside of your cheek. now is not the time to confess your undying love to ten.

with an exasperated sigh, ten gives the life line one final look before making up his mind on what in the world it all means. you’re beginning to wonder if ten really knows anything about palm reading- or if he’s just trying to tease you. he seems convinced of himself though, and so you decide that for now at least, you’ll trust what he says.

“well.” he begins, and you start to remember why you didn’t believe him in the first place. “your life line is extremely long. so you’re going to love for a long time. congrats!”

your smile falters. “so that’s it?”

you can’t hide the annoyance in your voice, or the childish whine that escapes your lips soon after. when ten said “palm reading”, you pictured your future career, the type of person people perceived you to be, heck, maybe even the initials of your soulmate. you did not expect ten to stammer out something completely random out. still, it’s your own fault for thinking he was a professional, and for thinking you would actually get something out of the experience.

ten notices your obvious disappointment. he frowns, and picks your hand up again, thumbing at the topmost line of your palm now. immediately, your complaints come to a halt and you sit in rapt attention as ten explains to you that he is a master at analyzing people’s love lines. your heart rate picks up at that, easily flustered by the way he so casually says love. as if it were no big deal. as if it didn’t matter. as if you weren’t in love with ten.

a startled laugh pierces the silence and you glance up at ten only to find him in near hysterics. panic fills your heart, and even though, seconds ago you were doubting his ability, his giggles begin to worry you. does he foresee an old cat keeper in your future? a broken widower who spends their days keeping up a lighthouse? an abandoned spouse who’s hero never returns from the war? you scold yourself for getting so absorbed in something so frivolous, but ten keeps laughing, and so you keep panicking, until finally, he manages to stop himself.

although, he’s wheezing, gasping for air, and his face is red, and his eyes teary. you decide it isn’t the most attractive look, but you also decide that it makes you love him more, and suddenly you’re wondering if maybe, somehow, miraculously, your love line leads to him.

ten holds your hand up to your face so he can accurately describe your future love life. he scoots close to you, too close for comfort maybe, because now your shoulders bump against each others and your thighs touch just a little, and you can feel his breath on the back of your neck as he turns his head in the slightest. it tickles. it tickles a lot.

you sit stiff, embarrassed at how close you are, and embarrassed at how casual and calm ten remains when you might as well be standing in front of an olympic stadium, preparing to perform the national anthem. ten gives your hand a tiny pinch and you swat at him, which means soon he’s cackling again and the talk of your love life is now forgotten. you bite your lip and nudge him in the hope he’ll get on with his vision of your future, but ten just shoves you back playfully.

“oh come on, i wanna know now!” you can’t help but smile. “aren’t you supposed to be the expert?”

“so now you believe me?” ten laughs, eyebrows quirking in the slightest. “no wonder your love line is tiny.”

“what’s that supposed to mean!?”

ten pinches the spot below where your pointer and middle finger meet. you stare down, obviously confused. your love line doesn’t seem so short to you. it runs from that point all the way down to the end of your palm, below your pinky. what’s so wrong about that? you’re pretty sure you’ve seen people with lines that measure less than three inches.

“look how late it starts.” ten explains, suddenly rather serious. “it means you’re gonna find your true love late in life. i don’t know how late, but i know it’s late. i don’t think i’ve seen many like this.”

he holds up his own right hand, using his left to point out his own love line. his starts at the edge of his pointer finger, and continues all the way to his pinky, arching in a nice little smiley face. “see how long mine is? it means i’ve already met my soulmate.”

your heart sinks in your chest. as long as you’ve known, never once has he mentioned a soulmate. and you consider yourself close to ten, on a best friend level if you want to add a label. you would think that he would bring something this important up with you.

ten has met his soulmate. you’re going to need to wait seventy-two years to meet yours. you know better than to believe in the old superstition, especially when ten is your psychic, but the revelation stings your heart. with love lines like this, it’s obvious ten and you are never meant to be. he’s probably going to be raising tiny justin bieber fanatics by the time you get your first date with your one true love. he’ll be holding someone in his arms who isn’t you. he’ll be kissing someone to sleep every night who isn’t you. he’ll be walking down the aisle, beaming and smiling brighter than the sun to meet someone who isn’t you. you’ve invested over a year now into loving ten behind a pretense of “just friends”, and now, a simple groove of skin has sent you spiraling into self-pity and disappointment.

ten doesn’t understand why you’re so upset. he doesn’t get why you look on the verge of tears. he didn’t think you believed in this kind of thing!! he was just playing around, repeating the little legends the aunties had revealed to him back when he was young. he never meant to upset you by his analysis, and now he feels absolutely guilty.

“oh come on!” ten nudges you again. “jaehyun has a late start too. maybe you guys are soulmates! wouldn’t that be cute?”

“i mean, i guess…”

you want to scream ‘no, no we would not be cute soulmates, me and you would be the perfect couple you dense idiot’ but you only smile instead. how in the world could ten think that you liked jaehyun of all people? sure he’s a sweetheart and all, but he isn’t ten. nobody can occupy the space in your heart that you’ve saved for ten and ten alone. yet now, it’s obvious to you that ten doesn’t think of you in that way and he never has, and never will.

it’s getting late. or, at least, that’s what you tell yourself anyway. despite the sun peeking in through the window to your back, you persuade yourself that you must be getting back to your own home soon. god only knows why; you’ll come up with a believable excuse soon enough. homework? yah, homework, is always a valuable reason to leave. and so you casually decide to mention that oh so easily forgotten essay you have due.

ten stops you though, frowning. “oh come on, don’t you want to stay a while? look, i’ll hold a seance on behalf of your love life.”

with that he smirks and inhales sharply, channeling his inner psychic abilities. he takes your hands in his own, giving them a tight squeeze before closing his eyes. for what seems like an eternity, everything is freakishly silent. too silent. if it gets any quieter, ten would be able to hear your heart slamming against your chest. ten’s hands are always how you imagined them to be while holding them: warm, but not clammy, soft, but not delicate. they cover your own completely, giving you a sense of protection and peace. it feels so right, but then you remember that the story is so wrong, and you’re not going to get your happy ending. not when ten claims to have already discovered his soulmate, when you still have yet to meet yours.

screw superstitions.

ten gives your hands another squeeze, and you swear that your heart is going to burst. you’re glad that you both have your eyes closed; otherwise, ten would see how scarlet your face must be, and immediately conclude that you’re smitten with him. wouldn’t that be a way to end the day? you shake your head in attempt to focus on your spiritual journey, but you continue to be distracted by ten. who wouldn’t be though? he’s the most perfect human you’ve ever met in your life. you’ve never met someone so selfless, so compassionate, so pure. ten has never ever treated you with contempt or looked down at you for anything you’ve ever done, whether it be crying over a quiz that really didn’t matter, to ranting and raving about your trashy coworkers after each and every shift. ten has always been there for you, even sacrificing his precious sleep if needed. no matter what wild things afflict your life, you can always count on ten to be there with you every step of the way, never leaving your side, even when things start to fall apart. you could never find the words to thank him, to express your eternal gratitude, to admit how greatly he’s impacted your life. all you want is to make ten as happy as he’s made you…

“i’m seeing it now…” ten murmurs, opening one eye to take a peek at you. he smiles softly, taking a deep breath. “there’s a tall man… okay, scratch that, he’s more of a medium height… but it’s good! he’s a very handsome man…”

he licks his lips nervously, continuing on with his spiel. “the spirits are telling me has a great smile, probably the best in the world. he’s really handsome, with a great body, nice hair, a strong jawline, cute nose…”

ten dares to glance at you again, and upon seeing the tiny smile on your face, adds, “he’s really talented too. he can sing, he’s basically a model, and boy, don’t even get me started on his dancing. out of this world.”

your smile falters. “oh… so it really is jaehyun, isn’t it?”

“you get jaehyun from all of that information?!” ten wails. “jaehyun, dancer? jaehyun, an amazing smile? jaehyun, handsome?”

he laughs a bit. “come on, i was describing myself… i thought that was obvious.”

“but, but-” you stammer. “you said you already met your soulmate! our lines don’t match!”

“maybe because i knew i loved you for like, seven years now, and it’s taken you this long to figure it all out…” he whispers.

he leans in, thumbing circles on the back of your hands. you close your eyes and wait- like you have been for so long now. but ten has been waiting longer, for too long now, and when he kisses you, it’s not timid and shy like you would have expected. it’s needy and sloppy but nothing seems more right in the moment, and soon your fingers are no longer intertwined with ten’s, but rather tangled in his hair. ten nips at your bottom lip, playfully, teasingly, and you’re about to fall back on the couch, but-

“oh my god. oh god have mercy ten, man, if you wanted to get it on, you could’ve told me to stay out a little bit longer.”

you and ten quickly pull away and fix yourselves up best you can, unsure of how to handle johnny’s sudden intrusion. awkwardly, he waves and then slips back out the door, mumbling profanities under his breath. as soon as the door slams shut, you and ten burst into a fit of giggles, your embarrassment soon replaced with amusement.

“seriously though… i can’t believe you got jaehyun from all of that.” ten says slowly.

“and i can’t believe you waited this long to admit your feelings to me.” you breathe, leaning back in for another kiss.

#ten scenarios #ten #ten chittaphon #nct chittaphon #i hate tagging him like that but #oh well #crappy ending but im exhausted #lol yikes #nct scenarios #nct fanfic #nct ten #NCT #nct fluff #ten fluff #ten imagines

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sandboxstrat · 7 years

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Some Terribly Boring Thoughts on Responsibility & Crisis PR

A few things have been on my mind about the nature of accountability in PR crises lately, in no small part thanks to Uber’s growing troubles and YouTube’s biggest personality losing deals with major partners. None of this is meant to fully address any one story specifically, but they may come up as examples.

Some PR crises explode not from a single event, but from an accumulation or pattern of unresolved events. Bad PR doesn’t always cause a crisis - perhaps the story only gets a little attention, the news cycle moves on, the situation blows over, etc. But even when bad PR doesn’t result in disaster, that doesn’t erase the slate. That event gets tucked away into the memory banks of the public and media, ready to be pre-loaded into the next news beat. That makes the work that comes after an instance of bad PR (listening earnestly to criticism, being transparent, following through on promises made, etc.) important in how the next potential crisis <knock on wood> unfolds.

Uber didn’t stumble into PR trouble at the start of 2017; it had years of bad PR here and there, quietly accumulating until the right story opened the floodgates and unleashed a torrent of repressed public sentiment. Patterns of behavior with their own snowballing narratives could be drawn together, and those can be especially challenging to rewrite.

Some will enjoy seeing you fail, and how you react to that matters. During a PR crisis, it can be easy to arrive at the conclusion that, because your supporters appear to be with you, the opinions of critics (a group containing outsiders who don’t get what you’re trying to achieve and often seem to celebrate your misfortune) shouldn’t be entertained.

But that can be a dangerous position to do business from - it assumes your supporters are looking out for your best interests; or are doing so for the right intentions; or are rational adults (and not literally children, which is especially relevant when influencer PR on Twitch or YouTube is involved). Being able to divorce criticism from the potential sentiment or tone of those providing it can be valuable in determining which voices to listen to during a PR disaster.

You can be held accountable for the messages you give a platform to, regardless of intent. A sentiment I routinely see is the idea that individual influencers, companies, etc. can’t be held accountable for the toxic and hateful atmosphere of Twitch chat, YouTube comments, Discord channels, tweets, etc. This has always struck me as naive because the very act of those names appearing next to words like toxicity and hate in headlines, news stories, tweets, and public discussion is, by itself, a form of responsibility. Do I think that means every last YouTuber is to blame for YouTube comments being awful? Of course not. Do I think any individual has the power to fully fix that problem? Again, no.

But having a platform imparts some degree of responsibility for what that platform puts out into the world. Even taking PewDiePie at his word that his broadcasting of an anti-Semitic message was a joke meant to highlight a problematic paid service available online, we still arrive at the fact that a direct message of hate was spread far more than an implied message of... whatever the message was intended to be. As a result, his name appeared at length across public discourse next to words like hate and racism. It’s almost irrelevant whether you thought the controversy was fair or not; he could be held responsible for it regardless.

Three years ago, many gaming companies had little idea what to make of gaming’s growing influencer community - those days are fast becoming history. More and more, we’re watching them shift their questions from “who’s the biggest influencer we can get?” to “who can be trusted not to damage our brand with problematic content?” They’re paying more attention to the messages that people with platforms give voice to (intended or not) and making decisions about who to work with accordingly.

-T

#PR

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fattybefit · 7 years

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Oh boy

Hello all

So, as I said, I didn’t get to make a new post until 2017. And I just want to point out that it is REALLY hard to have any semblance of a healthy diet when your birthday is the day after New Years. And your birthday dinner is the traditional lasagna and chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting. And for once no one forgot about it. *insert sigh emoji here*

But on a positive note, for my birthday I did get a punching bag! It even comes with hand wraps and gloves. I’m excited like no man’s business to get it set up somewhere. I want to teach myself kickboxing (and by teach myself I mean watch videos on YouTube) so I have a sport that I can get into that lets me channel my aggressions into something healthy.

Because it’s hard to look badass while running when you can’t even keep going on the treadmill for long periods at a time and you basically only shuffle there anyways. #still can’t run to save my life

Speaking of running, I saw that there is a color run in March relatively close to where I live. Am I going to be ready in time? HELL NO. But it lets me know there are 5ks close to where I live at other parts of the year. I regret not being able to run the Reindeer Romp in town but if they have another 5k (which I believe they do) I want to be able to do it. Or to be able to do treadmill races. Ultimately I’d like to be able to run modest distances for charities.

I also cannot wait to get my license so I can drive myself up to my gym before the buttcrack of dawn so I can go to the gym. Now, that realistically means leaving my house by about 5:30 AM. If I do that then I get there at 6, get my hour in and have enough time to rinse off and get to class. Some days I have more leeway as I have a 9 AM or 9:30 AM class as opposed to an 8 AM class. And Wednesday I have a day I can have a lot of wiggle room as I don’t have class until 1:00 PM. Oh yes. That means I can go for long runs, group classes and maybe even yoga.

I hate yoga.

I don’t think it’s the stretching part that bothers me as I absolutely love stretching and usually can be found in some weird sitting or lying position anyways... I think it’s the slow hippie attitude. And I know that’s for my spirit or whatever. Still, I think I need to get into that part because it will help my anxiety and stress. I just wish it wasn’t so freaking mellow all the time. I mean, don’t tell me to envision gentle streams or something in that weird voice. Tell me to think about some cute motherfucking duckies. In a Samuel L. Jackson voice. And tell me to think they are like Rambo. This would please me as I make myself a human pretzel.

Also, I’m looking forward to having my license as it gives me a sense of independence. God knows I need it. I won’t be forced to be around the toxicity at home as much and I think it will be good for me. I don’t know if I bring it out in them or if I just react to it and further it, but I truly believe that having to spend less time at home with my grandparents will mean that I am going to start having a lot less stress. And I don’t have to worry about classes running over because the only person who has to wait on me is my own bitch-ass self. It’s extremely liberating. I can go to the library and study or I can go work-out or I can simply go drive myself over to the park and go for a nature run. Realistically, it will most likely be me studying... you know, because I have a fuckton of classes.

I’m also looking forward to getting to pack all that I need into my bag and taking it with me in my car and leaving what I don’t need at that exact moment in the car. That’s right! If I want to take textbooks with me to study, I will not have to carry around their bulk and then some all day! I can leave them and go get them at a later time! Gone are the days of cramming everything into my backpack and then stuffing my work out clothes in it as well! I can literally have a gym bag set aside so that when it’s time to get in, I’m only carrying what I need. My hype for this shit is unreal, you guys.

After I finish with this post I’ll be writing all my goals and my shopping list down in the planner @shyvalentines gave me for my birthday. Holy crap, y’all! I literally could not have picked out anything better- A schedule portion, a fitness portion, a meal planning portion, an inspiration/diary portion, important info, you name it! AND IT’S SO UNBELIEVABLY CUTE!!!! Like bless me! I’m slightly a bit afraid of writing in it because it’s seriously adorable and my handwriting is literal trash.

Another shoutout to my friends @brynnabeth and @13friends4ever for being so supportive and sweet. I literally could not ask for better friends than the three people mentioned in my post. All three are some of my closest friends and they all support me and help me in so many ways that just astound me and make me feel so very grateful for them. I go to bed knowing I am blessed because of them, even when my day feels like it is only been filled with pain and anger.

In conclusion, this is the first post of 2017 and these are my thoughts as I sit shivering on my couch.

TLDR; I am a huge sap with fitness goals and a strange reason to like having a car.

Sincerely,

#fattybefit #fat girl gets fit #fat girl running #running #kickboxing #ramboduckies #pewpew #mothafucka #carfreesme #workout #notjust #anewyear'sresolution #beendoingthis #for a while now

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buzrushcommunity · 4 years

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theblog888 · 6 years

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Passion and profit are at odds with each other.

At least this is how I see it in my own life, and I feel absolutely justified in maintaining this stance. This isn't necessarily the case for everybody, but I am all too familiar with my own tendencies to dawdle and procrastinate while I figure out how to work through technical details and business skills required for making a profit off of my creative expressions. This hampers creativity and initiative, because I feel I would be concerning myself more with wanting to make money and keep up an image than to be passionately writing, singing, vlogging or whatever else. Also taking into account that I myself am a freeloader, I never disable adblock unless forced to, I never buy things from or give donations to content creators, and begging or soliciting donations in general is not something I would want to do.

If I don't concern myself with monetizing or marketing my creations at all, then I can focus solely on the works themselves. I do believe I am exceptionally talented in many ways, and many which are not even yet known to me, but feel as if there is no clear cut path to both actualize and capitalize on any of my talents- unless I happen to meet the right people, but that is super unlikely as an avoidant, emotionally inverted NEET INTP. I have read about actors and musicians who are extremely talented, yet they need other people to help them with anything technical, anything outside purely being the artist. This is exactly how I see my own potential.

In my jobs as a grocery clerk, it was all simple and straightforward: basically put products on the shelf, move oldest to the front and remove expired product, clean up after yourself, store excess product in the backstock area, show people where things are, take special requests and call other stores whenever asked. It seems I lack the specific type of intelligence and/or concentration ability to succeed at anything more technically advanced than that.

Everything is all so complicated, layers upon layers of complexity beyond simply performing a service and receiving commensurate compensation. I simply cannot navigate this confusing system, this present day economy, unless everything is spelled out for me in clear step by step processes that can be acted upon instantly, or all that stuff is just taken care of for me. Certainly I will acknowledge the possibility that I can be able to learn any such skills, but my reluctance and resistance to is well founded, since all the hours I would have to spend of researching and applying everything I need to business savvy and technically skilled would change my brain in ways that would negatively impact the very passions I want to tap into.

And it is a moot point anyway, since I am sure I lack the attention span, types of intelligence and other personality traits to actually learn such skills, and it is doubtful any of my creative projects would be profitable at all. Not to mention that some ideas which seem so brilliant at one time may seem trivial or even ridiculous a month later. A good example of this was my "comfort products" review channel idea, where I would begin by reviewing things I already have like my bed, mattress topper, pillow, body pillow, blanket, chair and computer keyboard. I don't reasonably expect to make much money off of running YouTube ads (which most people including myself block anyway) and posting affiliate links with my videos when available. It seemed like such a grand idea and a true passion project less than a month ago, but now it just seems like it would just be "talking for the sake of talking" rather than giving people useful information, reviews would be redundant, mostly just stating the obvious, and I also would quickly run out of things to review.

Labeling such sentiments as a "limiting beliefs" won't change a thing. Accusing others of holding a limiting belief is what new age yuppie types born into material privilege, or those who just got lucky, tend to do instead of admitting that life is not fair, that other people have internal and external limitations that cannot be overcome by thinking your way around them. I am a master of subjective framing, but that only works to control how your perceive yourself and the world around, It does not change the material world. My own mechanisms of molding reality to my will are passive and effortless, they are all about being, not doing.

When it comes down to it though, I must admit that I really don't want to concern myself with things like making websites, fine-tuning audio/video content, marketing myself, and running a business. I just want to live passionately, and having to master those types of skills is antithetical to my resolve to just be present and live passionately. This was always the case, and I don't think it could ever change. The most clear example is school, where I would often enjoy learning things from the teacher/professor, presentations in class, and the reading material, but having to wake up to an alarm to sit in a classroom much of the day 5 days a week, leaving school only to have complete assignments many be miserable, dispassionate, drained, apathetic, jaded, depressed. This really feels like the embodiment of my "lazy but talented" syndrome. I can only be my best self, and create my best art, give my best performance, when I am free to go to sleep and wake up whenever my body (and the sleeping environment) will let me, and I work on my own schedule, free to take it super slow with frequent breaks, or stay up all night passionately creating things because I am so engrossed in the activity I don't want to go to bed.

These are all just reflective self-analyses I reached without any emotional value attached, I am only looking at what is. I often suspect that when neurotypicals read my writing, which is devoid of emotional meaning unless specified, they misunderstand my objective, matter-of-fact analytical style as being depressed, self-deprecating, neurotic or whatever else they imagine. It is one of those things that I might want to put as a disclaimer with everything I ever write, just in case someone misinterprets it form a frame of reacting emotionally rather than thinking critically. With this case-in-point, I also must accept that I may not be as talented at a thing, or anything at all, as I might imagine. I wouldn't really be surprised if that was the case, since I have never really found anything outside myself that I've felt passionate about, or derived meaning or purpose from. In this perspective it makes sense how other people would get little to no value from my writing, since it is writing my myself for myself, as a useful tool of pondering, reflecting and exploring the internal world, and external world through my own filters. Likewise, I often wonder if when I talk to other people, even those I'd consider close friends, I'm merely using them as a sounding board for my own ideas about things, not providing any direct value to them. Then again, I should not assume that other look at relationships as transactional, and they actually enjoy my interactions and companionship even if my being self-absorbed is readily apparent.

Perhaps no one will ever read this blog except me, and it will be just my own personal journal. Which is perfectly fine, and the main reason I began writing here. I have no fantasies, illusions or delusions that I can expect to ever make money as a writer. Or singer, or actor, or voice artist, or ergonomist, philosopher.

The silver lining Is that keeping up with the writing is helping me grow by leaps and bunds, both because it helps me clear out things that have been accumulating in my mind for a long time, sometimes over a decade, so that space is freed up for new developments in my mental studio, and that writing things out as opposed to just thinking about them in my head lays it all out in front of me, so it is much easier to explore things further, and maybe actually reach conclusions and solve problems during the writing process.

And I do imagine that there are many unexpected ways in which following my passions and creating what I envision will lead to many unforeseen opportunities for improving my life on a material/financial level as well. The most obvious being that I am making things I can showcase, and if the right people encounter them, perhaps some will recognize my talent, even feel deeply touched by my very essence, they could lead me to opportunities to actualize what I envision- given free reign to live passionately and create my heart's desires, while also making money, while all the technical and business details are taken care of for me. But this is not something I will even consider, for now it is just a fantasy, perhaps one I will look back upon as being as delusional as going back in time or starting my own country. Meanwhile, I intend to just focus on being my best self, living passionately, self-actualizing, understanding the world within and the nature of humanity even more. I will not worry, things will be all right, it will all work out. This is my reality, this is what I am attracting and embodying. There is nothing to fear but fear itself. Generally the worst that can happen is death, and so no matter what, my experience will always be that of living the life I want, because I believe that I already am.

#writing #passion #laziness #self reflection #self-reflection #blogging #smart but #lazy #smart but lazy #talented but lazy #NEET

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