#the same in the background because detail there isn’t as important. But I did give the oven and stove a top for slightly more depth

[fever-project]

wip of The Chain’s Cafe AU ditys. Thought it would be neat to share what my first drafts of my drawings can look like

[distracted-and-diffused]

On streaming and cancellation

Wanted to get a bit off my chest about the Dead Boy Detectives cancellation and the state of television today, so this is going to be a bit of a ramble/rant.

I know that Dead Boy Detectives cannot have been the cheapest or least challenging show to film in the Netflix Originals lineup. I am very grateful that Netflix picked it up in the first place, because the alternative seems to have been that it would have quietly moldered after having been dropped by HBO.

And I know that the realities and financials of the business of television are very different now than they have been in the past. I’m pretty sure they’re a black box to most people now, because Netflix sure isn’t sharing the fine details of how they are making those financial decisions, and their only real important metric seems to be “subscription number goes up.”

But I’m so exhausted by this current model, which seems to launch fans into the “bargaining” mode of grieving by default, even before the show gets cancelled.

As a fan, I should not be worried about whether I found and started watching the show quickly enough, or whether I should have watched more of it sooner. (I think my first watch-through ended just within that first month).

As a fan, I should not be worried about whether I posted enough, or did enough to evangelize about the show. (I like talking about stuff that I like, but I am personally uncomfortable with evangelizing about anything.)

As a fan, it is not my job to be an influencer, or the unpaid wing of Netflix’s marketing department. (And if I was going to be, oh, I have so many ideas about improvements they could make… but those improvements would probably exceed their modest in-house marketing budget. And again, not my job.)

As a fan, my only job is to love the show, and I do, and I did. So, so much. (I made it through nearly six complete rewatches; I was halfway through episode six again when I heard the news — and that’s not me putting on the show in the background, that’s actively watching each time — and they should know that from the number of times I rewound certain scenes. I had to stop putting it on while I was cooking because I kept missing parts I wanted to see more closely.)

And I know that as much as I loved this show, there are so many other fans out there who loved it that much more.

---

So it’s disheartening to hear that the show supposedly didn’t have the numbers or the engagement, but it’s also disheartening to see fans feel like this is something we could have prevented. Because I’m pretty sure we couldn’t.

Netflix doesn’t want to see that the show is critically acclaimed (it is!), or that people who like it really like it (they do!). The fact that it’s really good is great, but at the end of the day they’re not that interested.

They want to know that it’s something that will gain them subscribers. They want to see that it’s a sure thing that will make them back their money. (And this sentiment is not exclusive to Netflix, of course; any streamer, any studio has the same concerns at this point.)

And Season Two would probably cost more than Season One. Honestly, if we had gotten a Season Two I would have wanted them to give a bit more time and money to Season Two than Season One, because as great as it was, I feel like I could see places where the show was held back from being even better.

---

There’s nothing that I can do, as a fan, to let Netflix know that Dead Boy Detectives Season Two would have been a sure thing that would absolutely make them back their money. All I could have done is to go on loving the show, and telling other people about how much I love the show, and I think in time it absolutely would have found a wider audience of people who loved it.

Netflix used to be one of those companies that thrived (or at least, claimed to thrive) on the long tail, on people discovering the things that they loved and spoke specifically to them (maybe long after they were made), over and over and over again. It’s not that anymore. And I’m not even sure that the execs have ever thought of the Netflix Originals in that context.

And that’s sad for us, but it’s also sad for them, because here’s the thing:

We’re now in a climate where all of the major streamers are raising rates while also trying to maintain their user base. And that makes sense, from a certain point of view — content, licensed or in-house — is ultimately expensive. At the same time, everyone wants subscriber counts to go up, even as they start to reach saturation.

So then we start hearing streamers bemoaning churn — people signing up for a few months and then cancelling, and then coming back months or a year later to sign up for a few months again. That’s not steady or reliable income. And every time you lose someone to a cancellation, there’s a chance that they might find something else to occupy their time (could be another streaming service, could be their DVD collection, or woodworking), and they might take longer the next time to come back. Or they might not come back at all.

---

And to me, if you want a steady user base, then you want people that want to rewatch your content. You want people to find their comfort shows. You want people to find things that they don’t just like, but love, and especially to have confidence that you can offer them those things, and that you will help them find them.

But that’s just me, and I’m feeling old and tired now. I’m one of those people who can’t afford to spend more on streaming and who doesn’t like ads, and is eyeing my subscription change at the end of the month now that Basic is going away.

[angelshadowsinger]

Hi, Angel!💗 I was wondering if you could please share where you learned how to create your masterlist, and profile layout, and how did you upload your dividers without it looking weird? I’m newish to Tumblr and I’m getting a little frustrated because I’m having trouble figuring it out.💗

hii sweetest! yes, of course I can give you some pointers. first of all, welcome to tumblr authorhood!! may you receive many comments and find infinite motivation~

for me, I suppose I’m “self-taught”? but isn’t everyone on this app? lol. actually, I’ve been sharing fic on tumblr for… idk, 8 years on and off ?? omg that’s wild. but yeah, I’ve definitely learned some stuff along the way., here are my key takeaways:

(general) promote interaction:

there’s a couple things I do to try to improve the number of notes I receive on my posts, but there’s also a few things I try my best to do in order to improve my readers’ experience. first, I use tags on every post I publish. I have a tag for asks, for my fics, for my fic recs, etc. This makes it easier for a potential follower to go through with following you even if they don’t like 100% of your content, bc they can always blacklist the tag and they won’t have to see any of those posts. second, use links so that your readers can easily look through your stuff. a masterlist is KEY here as it’s the gateway for all your fics, but also, general navigation, or even linking your masterlist at the end of your fics can be beneficial too. I find it’s also really important to have links in your bio. this makes it way more approachable for any followers and it’s honestly nice to have for your own purposes as well. the only thing about that is, you have to make the links for your bio on the computer version of tumblr when you’re editing your blog. it cannot be mobile, something about it just won’t work. i can go into further detail on how to get those bio links but tbh i just looked it up on google 5yrs ago and it’s stayed the same since then lol~

theme:

obviously my blog doesnt have a “theme” theme when you visit it on computer, but i mean theme as in, all your navigation/general/fic posts are cohesive and they look like they belong on the same blog. you can achieve this by using the same fonts, text symbols (or emojis…. i guess. personally, side eye…), or dividers.

fonts:

so beyond the 3 fonts tumblr has in its posting formatting, i personally like to use copy paste fonts. they still work with embedding links and stuff as well. i like to use a font generator, where you type in whatever you’d like and it converts it for you. then you can just copy & paste.

text symbols:

these are a good for borders and dividers, or just generally spicing up your bio/navigation. i usually google “text symbols copy paste”, and browse through the results.

dividers:

when you’d like to use a photo divider on your blog, make sure it is a very skinny PNG file. PNG means it has a transparent background, so it will be more cohesive for your readers on regular white posts and also dark mode posts. I actually designed my own PNG divider (Azriel’s siphon of course hehe) on my iPad on ProCreate, but I know there’s a lot of blogs that make them and share them, which you can use so long as you give proper credits. that’s another thing that’s important— always make sure to credit others if you’re using work that isn’t yours!

most importantly, I recommend always TESTING these methods!! make sure to double check that all your links work, that the symbol you choose doesn’t become an emoji when you paste, that the font is all set. there’s a lot of trial and error involved in making your blog just right :) hope this helps & good luck anon!!

[deusvervemakesgames]

Project RBH Devlog 0 – The Story So Far

I’ve wanted to make video games for approximately two-thirds of my life at this point. I hear a lot of indie developers who make devlogs and videos and posts talking about their Dream Game that they’ve always wanted to make.

I don’t have one of those.

I just really want to make games. Plural.

I do however happen to have a budget of zero dollars. Which is, I will admit, something of an issue when it comes to game development and design. Don’t get me wrong there are a lot of powerful free tools out there. Unity, Unreal, Blender, I’m not exactly short on options. Okay, so I was put off of Unity from their CEO calling people who don’t monetize their games ‘idiots,’ but the point stands.

I was also fortunate enough to be gifted Game Maker Studio 2 right before they updated their Terms of Service to a subscription system or whatever nonsense YoYo did. What matters is that I own the engine and don’t have to pay subscription because they were nice enough to not try and retroactively alter legal user agreements, unlike some game companies I could name did recently.

But enough digs at the evils of capitalism, let’s talk about Project RBH.

Project RBH is a placeholder name I’m giving this game while we’re in development until I can come up with a better one. It stands for Reverse Bullet Hell, which is a decent summary of the main goal. Project RBH is a top-down twin-stick roguelike. The Reverse Bullet Hell comes from the main mechanical twist I’m putting on similar roguelikes, like Enter the Gungeon. The upgrades and pick-ups found during your run aren’t better weapons or equipment, but upgrades to the behavior of your primary attack. Most of them will do basic things like increasing the speed of the projectile or making it bigger, but there are other things that can be done to really make your attacks crazy.

The goal is to have a game where it is possible, over the course of a run, to build a gun that shoots a gun that shoots chainsaw bullets.

So Where To Start?

Like I mentioned earlier, I’ve watched multiple devlogs on YouTube, read Devlog posts, etc. And I see many of them running into what seems to be the same or similar problems: a lack of focus.

I also happen to have a degree in game design. And fortunately we had industry veterans in the course, so one of the things they taught us was the importance of a Game Design Document, or GDD.

Warren Spector, one of the leads on the classic Deus Ex, talks a lot about having a GDD during the development of that project. It’s an incredibly useful tool for pre-production, as well as for ensuring that people from across the project all have the same understanding of the creative vision. Obviously, I am a solo developer because I am broke and insane, so that last one won’t be much of an issue. But that first one is extremely important to combating many issues that crop up during game design and development, like feature creep and decision paralysis.

Which is why I haven’t made one.

Okay, no, that’s not the reason, and I will, but it was too good a transition to pass up.

The real reason I haven’t made a GDD yet is because there is another way that one can start a project. I would not recommend you do this, the GDD is a really good idea and I’ll go into more detail about it in a future Devlog, probably the next one. The reason I have chosen to do things this way is because I wasn’t confidant about the planned gameplay, so I wanted to quickly prototype it and experiment with it to see if it was actually, you know, fun. It’s nothing fancy, I have no background and the character sprites are squares, but it gives me something I can mess with.

This prototype is where I’m at right now. There isn’t even Procedural Generation, just a giant room with some walls and a whole lot of enemies.

You know what, I didn’t even realize the player and enemies are both green.

So that’s where Project RBH stands right now, a single prototype that I’ve been toying with so I can decide where and how I want to focus this game. From my experiments so far, I’ve noticed a few different directions I can take the project.

A game with a wide variety of weapons which the player can loot during runs. The player’s collected weapon improvements carry over between weapons. This has the pro of providing things for the player to unlock from runs without affecting game balance, but comes with the con that certain upgrades will make weapons feel too similar.

The original plan, in which the player has a single weapon which is reset after each run. The pro of this is that the random weapon upgrades can do some crazy stuff to this weapon, but comes at the con of being very same-y at the start of each run.

Additionally, my experiments have lead me to the realization that having a lot of powerups that drastically alter your weapon leads to a chaotic mess as you rain doom and destruction upon your pathetic enemies. This leads to the third direction I’m considering.

Much like the first one, there are a variety of weapons, however these weapons are far more powerful and do not upgrade. The player mows down hordes and hordes of foes and has a power fantasy. This has the con of being basically an entirely different game.

Here is me with no upgrades versus me with many upgrades.

As we are so early in preproduction, I don’t feel like showing off video is strictly necessary yet, but yes, it’s more obvious what’s happening in motion.

Which is where we will end this Devlog. I’ll run some more tests, maybe ask some people I know to try my experiments to get some more opinions, decide on a direction for the project, and make a GDD.

Until next Devlog!

-DeusVerve

Support me on Patreon

[adamwatchesmovies]

Last Night in Soho (2021)

Last Night in Soho is a stylish, original story from the perpetually reliable Edgar Wright. It’s got memorable scenes and production design-wise, it’s superb. Even with a slightly predictable turn towards the end, the film offers a lot of big surprises and as it closes, it’ll give you much to think about. This is one you’ll want to revisit.

Eloise “Ellie" Turner (Thomasin McKenzie) moves to a bedsit in London to study at the London College of Fashion. At night, she has vivid dreams where she is transported back to the 1960s and relives the life of Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy), an aspiring singer. When the events inside her dreams carry over into the real world, she begins investigating what happened to Sandie and discovers the woman she idolized did not live the life she was hoping for.

An important detail is that when the film begins, we learn that Ellie is following in her late mother’s footsteps… perhaps in more ways than one. Ellie’s mom was also a fashion designer and killed herself while her daughter was only a child. Ellie still sees her in mirrors, which makes you wonder what’s really going on here. It could be that Sandie's story is all in her head. It could also be that Ellie has some sort of sixth sense. Either way, there’s something not quite right about the young fashion designer, and it isn’t helping her fit in at the college. It’s pushing her to retreat into this other life more and more. She starts listening to the same music, changing her hair to look like, and dressing as Sandie. Based on the silver-haired gentleman who frequently appears in the background (Terence Stamp), someone has noticed.

Part of what makes Last Night in Soho so compelling is that it’s difficult to pinpoint what sort of story this is. There’s a little bit of horror and some psychological thriller elements present but some of it looks like it could be a nostalgic, aspirational coming-of-age story. Ellie grows in confidence while walking through Sandie’s shoes - it certainly does wonders for her as a designer - and she even starts what could be a romance with John (Michael Ajao). You have a feeling this is not going to end well for Ellie but there’s just enough sweetness here to make you think maybe you’re just reading the signs wrong.

You can tell Edgar Wright and Krysty Wilson-Cairns (who co-wrote the screenplay) were enthusiastic about this project and that passion is contagious. There’s a particular dance sequence where Sandie is dancing with her boyfriend, Jack (Matt Smith). Anya Taylor-Joy and Thomasin McKenzie keep switching places to show that Ellie is living through Sandie’s experience. It's inspired and expertly coordinated. It’s so well put together the movie is kind of worth seeing just for that.

One last aspect I want to talk about is the ending. I won’t give away anything, just that it packs one heck of a punch. This whole movie, you feel one way about a character and then, suddenly, you’re confronted by the truth about them. Now… you’re not so sure how you should feel about them or this whole situation. Are they more sympathetic than before? Less? You don't know how to feel. I mean that in a good way.

Last Night in Soho feels like something special. It’s refreshingly original. Some of it isn’t explained and that might be because if we went into the details it wouldn’t quite make sense but in the moment, everything feels right. Yes, there’s a twist you can probably see coming but there’s no way you’ll see where the movie is ultimately ended. Even if you were able to, this is just so well put together. All of the actors, costumes, locations, musical choices, the way the whole thing is shot and the editing is just fun to see because there's so much talent on-screen. I kind of hope I forget some of the details of this movie so I can experience Last Night in Soho all over again. (November 11, 2022)

[ghost-proofbaby]

and therein lies the issue, friends don't try to trick you, get you in the phone and mind twist youuuu!! These two are such reputation vibes and I love it so much 😍 I actually love that song as well, but I don't think many other people do.

Full disclosure, I would have put money on Eddie bringing in the big guns and asking Nancy to bring her back. But its Steve! And he didn't even ask! And it needed to be Steve. This was a great choice. He started the whole thing, it's right that he came full circle with them as well. And then him straight away offering himself as the bad guy and telling her to just fix it, he's so precious.

I like that she doesn't immediately spill every detail to Steve, and even when she does say something, it's not the ins and outs, she keeps their time mostly between them and it's so important. because their entire time knowing eachother has had their group in the background and they need some time of their own that's private. Just like their (hopefully) eventual relationship will be 😊

Him explaining that he had no expectations with his confession, starts getting a bit dramatic in his own head again, and then she's so blunt just shutting him up 🤣 it's gonna be their whole dynamic. And again with the chapstick comment, she's a menace just as much as him. Love it.

And then, yea it's great they're being all smart and sensible and mature and taking some time apart and yepyepyep but the hopeless romantic in me did wonder if she'd go back in, even just for a minute. but then the image of them both batterd and sat staring at the open door, like the end of an action film at the edge of the blast zone or something, that was epic. Scene of the crime. Yellow tape. Do not cross. The works. He's either gonna want to move like yesterday or stay there forever and I can't decide which. Amazing 🖤

Can't wait for Steve's interaction with them face to face, can just see him coming in all Captain America thinking he fully saved the day from his phone call convincing her to go back, and them both just chasing him down the stairs 🤣

p.s. I'm so satisfied finally hearing the other side of Eddie's call with Nancy. I mean, we all had an idea, but still so satisfying 🖤🖤

i am so glad someone else thought of that song!!! when i wrote that line i took a quick break just to sigh deeply because i really can’t escape her 😭 and they are very reputation coded!! since starting i’ve always firmly believed they were very speak now coded in the beginning, and slowly became more reputation coded as their story continued lol (can you imagine a non swiftie reading this like ???? what???) i also very much love that song. it’s so fun and the lines about toasting her friends, baby, and mama are so satisfying to me.

i definitely almost had eddie call nancy first to be completely be honest. but, just between you and me, i think eddie reached out the way he did very strategically. he knew she was upset, dealing with a lot, and he also knew she’s in the groupchat. calling nancy risks jonathan finding out, which risks everyone finding out. he knows that reader is closest with steve, that steve was always going to be the one coming to pick her up at the end, so he called him for her benefit.

and also between you and me, eddie is feeling the same way as reader. he doesn’t want to give up that privacy quite yet. if he called nancy, she’d complete her best friend duties of asking for details, making sure he was okay, etc. and he isn’t okay but he doesn’t want to explain why.

and oh gosh, i’m really glad someone else saw the cinematic vibes of that moment because i was worried people would be like “why are those idiots not going back in” 😭 they’re on neutral ground there, and yes, that apartment is definitely tainted to eddie now, but he’s definitely leaning more towards never moving. especially when it’s not all quite ruined yet. if reader had left and it had all been on bad terms? oh yeah he would have wrecked that place.

and… yeah, steve better watch his back. he gets his karma next hour. (already wrote the scene. poor dude learned his lesson.)

i figured we all knew what went down but.. just for good measure <3 and because it was too cute to have a parallel of the way nancy forced that admission out of eddie in the beginning, and then steve did the same to reader. ultimate wing (wo)men truly

[khaoscontrol]

*glowing eyes meme*

Could you give us all a reminder about your general headcanons for Metal Maria's backstory? because last time we all checked, Maria is supposed to be, uh. . .

Basically her backstory is the idea that Gerald knew Project Shadow might not succeed in curing Maria and came up with a more “last resort plan” of a device that could record human consciousness. During the raid on the ARK, he managed to evade capture long enough to find Maria and hook her up to his invention. Maria ends up dying in the traditional sense and Gerald believes that plan failed. Everything up to ShtH goes the same as normal because as far as everyone is concerned, Maria’s gone.

So fast forward to after the events of ShtH, Eggman’s cooking up his next scheme to take down Sonic and decides to look through his grandfather’s research on the ARK for inspiration. He comes across what he assumes to be some kind of artificial intelligence that has been half-dormant for the past 50 years and decides to take it with him to try and piece it back together. After a while he manages to get it working and surprise surprise, it has almost all of the memories of his late cousin stored in it, but not so much the same personality. Eggman fills in the gaps until she seems to be more conscious and starts figuring out what her whole deal is.

The primary difference in Maria’s personality is she’s just.. angry. She’s still inherently a kind person and she holds true to most of her beliefs she wants what’s best for humanity and she wants to protect it. But because of how involved Eggman was in restoring her she’s pretty aligned with the idea that he’s one of the good guys here. Her main goal is taking down GUN and finding Shadow. She has no interest in beating Sonic though since he doesn’t get in the way of her motives, but she’s protective of Eggman seeing as he’s family and all.

Another thing I’ve thought long and hard about with her characterization and how she differs from canon Maria is I wanted her to be more mature. She spent a lot of time in and out of consciousness in the 50 years between her “death” and Eggman finding her. Maria’s age isn’t ever confirmed in the games but I never saw her as older than 14 maybe, but in this AU I try to play her as more of an older teen because it makes more sense I guess? Idk I could just never see her as acting quite the same as she did in the games so that’s one thing that’s important to how she functions as a character.

Anyways, hope that explanation makes enough sense! I was trying not to go into toooo much detail because trust me I could go on for a longg time about the background of this AU.

[spryfoxglove]

Why I hate “Just Do Some Witchcraft” as an answer to the “How Do I Become a Witch?” question:

I get the theory behind answering the question like this. It’s so that baby witches (like myself) don’t feel intimidated by the work it takes or effort to put into becoming a witch. It’s to say there is no “one true way” to practice and become a witch. But it is SO LACKING in context that this answer really does a disservice to those wanting to stick a toe in the magick water so to speak.

“Okay well how do I do witchcraft then?”

Well, first you have to take a history lesson. You can’t just jump in and start doing things right away. Comb through dozens of books, books that have been discredited, books that have outdated or flat out incorrect information, books by problematic authors, etc etc. until you… I don’t know…feel knowledgeable enough on the history? What does that mean? When does the time come that you FEEL you know enough when you are a solitary practitioner with only yourself to guide you? I understand why having some background context and historical significance is important to practicing. Mostly, I just feel that it’s to make sure when we (eventually) start reading through witchcraft books with practical application, that we are not appropriating other cultures or in some way making ourselves look like racist fools because we followed 100% of what some bigot 50 years ago told us to do.

What they don’t say is that reading and weeding through piles of muck is fucking tiring and time consuming and mentally draining. You have to read everything critically. And while there is nothing wrong with that as a practice, wouldn’t it just be nice if someone could write up an updated book explaining all the incorrect information and getting to the golden nugget at the center? That just seems like so much less work for folks to do when the idea of “becoming a witch” is already feeling like such a monumental task.

“Okay fine, I read history, I took notes, I got the gist, now what?”

Well now…and I hate to break it to you…it’s MORE CRITICAL READING. Beginner witchcraft books, words easily digestible, practices simplified, often seem to be riddled with problematic and/or outdated authors. Works are either too sexist, material is outdated or again, flat out incorrect, the author is a shady person that did shady things and we shouldn’t associate with them, too much religious connotation (like how Wicca and Witchcraft were often used synonymously), etc. This makes finding a place to start FUCKING HARD! I absolutely cannot sugar coat that. Who do you start with? How do you find an author that has a practice that feels similar to yours or where you want to go/how you want to shape your practice? How do you know that their information is credible over another author? Things like cited sources obviously exists, but lots of books have cited sources, and that doesn’t mean the info between them all reads the same.

When we look to knowledgeable folks in the community who try to teach and share, I feel as though these are always the first two big hits that get played. Stop telling people “just do some witchcraft” if they want to be a witch when you provide further information that proves (in your eyes) that it is SO MUCH MORE than that. You owe people an upfront and honest answer when they ask this question. And here’s the thing - there’s nothing wrong with the answer being more involved! If you as a “source” in the community truly believe in this method, then you need to lay it out in a way that isn’t misleading. Tell folks it’s work. Give them realistic expectations. Give them RESOURCES. Explain, step by step, in excruciating detail what you did and how you did it and what books you read and what facts you checked, etc etc etc! While everyone’s craft is their own, I wouldn’t expect any two teachers(?) to have the same exact path they followed to get here. But y’all need to show your work!

[may-nr1rooftoptriodefender]

Since the The Last of Us HBO show is over for some time now,

I wanted to give a quick rundown of things I liked and didn’t liked. As well, talking about references to the games (so spoiler for tlou 1 & 2) and also what I’d like to see in the next seasons…

first the things I enjoyed:

First Episode

The first episode was a masterpiece. I watched it three times, I cried three times and it set my hopes for the show really high. I think it’s my favorite episode of the series.

it was a lot more personal because you spend the whole day with Sarah, when everything was normal just to watch it burn

Broke me all over again

The original dialogues from the game and the scenery made it so perfect

Special mentions for the car ride since it was shot to shot the exact same

Sooo many little details (Sarah’s Band T-Shirt, Joel’s guitar in the background,..)

The beginning was a bit boring I must admit, but overall it was perfect

The explaining about the real life fungi in the very beginning was also important and very good made

Bella and Pedro matched the first of cold impression towards each other perfect

Joel & Ellie

They had everything. The most important scenes for character building, the dialogue. I really liked how they acted that out.

The Car scene, the first meeting, the talk about Sarah, the scene at David’s, the giraffe scene and the end sequence- everything was included. and even more

It was so important for me to see how these two will interact with each other and it was just like I wanted it

Their relationship makes TLoU so special

Henry & Sam

I really enjoyed Henry & Sam in the game so I also had high hopes for them. The serie didn’t do it as I expected but it was still good.

Henry cares so much for Sam and HBO showed that even more

They made huge changes for Sam like his age and the fact that he’s deaf -> yes, it makes the show more dramatic and their trust with each other is even more important so that was a good thing

But, I wanted to see two teenagers that have an understanding and are trying to survive together. Don’t get me wrong, I still love the relationship between Ellie and Sam in the show and it made it even more emotional for me it was just very unexpected and a bit more complicated because of the age difference

I cried when they died because,

The fact that he told Ellie because he’s just a little child (here the age difference again makes it more emotional since he’s just 8 :( ) and she even tried to help him and

Because it made Henry even more helpless because a teenager kind of knows what he’s doing but a deaf little child can only rely on him and he failed

It was also bad because Ellie wrote ‘Im sorry’ on his board cause she knew and also failed to protect him

speaking of, even though it was dumb to not tell Joel and Henry, it was such an Ellie like thing to do. She saw how Riley died because of the infection, and Tess… She wants to be the cure and she hoped so desperately that she could help Sam with her blood because she doesn’t want another one to die

really shattered my heart but they did a good job on that

Jackson

Jackson was truly something. So much foreshadowing for TLoU part II… I’m a big jackson fan anyway and to see the town like this really brought me joy.

not only the reunion with Tommy that was so beautiful, but also to see how the residents could live peacefully

THE EASTER EGGS BABYYY

-> I think everyone saw atleast one “I’ve got my eye on you” edit about Ellie and this girl watching her, right? So it isn’t really confirmed but everyone assumes it’s Dina! Ellie’s girlfriend in Part II.

-> Shimmer. You know, the horse. It was only a baby there, but we know that in the second part, Ellie and Dina have a horse named Shimmer on their way to Seattle

-> The tipsy bison. Joel and Tommy were talking in there. It’s a bar in part II and I think Sev (yk, the dude who makes ‘bigot sandwiches’) owns it

I really love all those little details

David & his people

We all know David, yk the pedo? Even though I don’t like him, I really like his part of the game. HBO made his character even more disgusting and better.

Even though the chase wasn’t as frequent as in the game, and I really missed the teamwork with David where Ellie has no idea what’s coming… It was still one of the best episodes

Idk if it sounds weird, but I like how they made David even more evil and all. It shows what a true monster he is and all

What really freaks me out though, is that he used to be a teacher to students in Ellies age. And also, STOP WITH THE IM YOUR DADDY SHIT

But one thing about his people, yeah? This woman with short hair which name wasn’t revealed? Don’t tell me that isn’t Mel form TLoU part II <- Owens pregnant girlfriend. She looked so much like her. It doesn’t even make that much sense considering she was a firefly in the original but HBO did already a few changes so why not more?

Ashley & Troy

I’m so happy that the original Ellie and Joel could make an appearance in the show. It’s just the right way to honor them.

Ashley Johnson (Ellie in the games) was featured as Ellie’s mother, which is honestly just fitting, because she likes gives the role away to her child yk?

Troy Baker (Joel in the games) as James from David’s people. He looked very fitting for it and also did a good job

It’s nice to have the original featured, even if they can’t play their actual roles

I think it’s a nice way to honor them

Now to things I didn’t like:

Tess’ Death

I just think it’s not the right way for her to go. Even though the fungus made a connection throughout the kiss, it’s not really respectful for her character I think.

Tess was a really strong character who never showed fear and would do a lot of things for her survival. I loved her until the very end. I had the feeling we didn’t see that much of it in the show

Even though the understanding between Tess and Joel was more clearly

How they portrayed Tess in her last minutes was very weak and painful to watch. In the game, she stood until the very end while in the show, she’s shaking and not functioning properly and overall a lot weaker than the original.

I think it was disrespectful to let her go like this, I mean especially the kiss. She’s fighting against the virus all the time only to give up?

Idk if I’m the only one who thinks it should’ve been like the show but let me know what you think of this. I can’t really explain why I don’t like this…

Bill

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not mad because they gave Bill a happy ending with Frank but because I wanted to see more action from Bill.

Bills Town was one of my favorite parts of the game. Not only the location, also Bill himself and the shotgun he gave us. I was really excited for this in the show and was really disappointed when I didn’t get to see that. I also missed the bickering between Ellie and Bill and I missed how Bill was killing infected with his machete

We already kind of knew about Bill and Frank because of the ‘nice’ letter Frank left Bill but it was really something to see their story. Although, I would’ve liked if it was like in the game. Yes, Bill does deserves a happy ending but it triggered me that he died before Ellie could meet him.

The world of TLoU is a cruel one and such things like love aren’t very common for it. So I actually would’ve preferred if Frank really would’ve died because it just sets a better example for the setting. It also just fits better for Bills character. It’s not very like him to just be all lovely with another person because we all know he’s an asshole. (we still love him)

Episode 3 was just an filler and it really disappointed me because if you wanna add backstory to it, do it. But I also wanna see some action and especially Bill action.

Sadly, it was really disappointing to see

(and with this, I’m not saying I want certain characters to kill themselves or that they don’t deserve an happy ending with each other, I just preferred the original < and that’s not because of Bill and Franks relationship… Frank could’ve tagged along but the death triggered me)

Catherine (was this her name?)

I hate this woman. I hate her so much she didn’t deserve to be there. She was so unnecessary and did also foreshadowing for a certain character in part II. Why would you make her the leader??

First thing, it’s just a little game reference so it isn’t that bad but still a :| moment. Pittsburgh was a men only town. And then she gets to be leader. If you want a female leader, choose anyone BUT her. Worst leader fr

Her backstory. They tried that we sympathize with her because her brother died. Yes, a lost family member is really serious. But, they tried to explain her actions with it so we understand why she wants Henry and Sam. Does this remind you of something? Exactly, Abby.

If you like her, that’s to you I can understand. But the exact same reasoning why she killed Joel? They tried to say with Abby and Catherine that: “Oh, I lost someone very important to me and I’m gonna get revenge on the one who killed my important person. And oh, I’m crying so please try to reason with me why I’m doing horrible things that could harm others. “

(I’m honest, I don’t like Abby but this is more towards Catherine because even though it’s pretty much the same, Abby wasn’t as annoying as Catherine)

They have to learn that we won’t start liking a character just because you put them in the good light. Catherine was harming her and as well others just because of revenge. And even though it’s double moral because Abby and Ellie did this, they still trying to make it seem okay 😐

And when the infected came, she still tried to kill them instead of working together. Woman’s trying to win our hearts by showing her childhood room

She was just annoying >:(

So that’s all I have to say. Do you agree or disagree? Very hopeful for the next season 🤞

[je-suis-tombee-sur]

Rockyrama and the rock’n Roll typographer

Take Rockyrama issue No. 26, published in March 2020. Open it.

  Just here, on the page 5, tell me what you see? I know, there are a lot of things to analyse but try to sum it up. I see old school Japanese advertisements stuck over a yellow pattern of Japanese calligraphy. It’s simple but original. Have you ever seen it inside a magazine published in 2020s ? Rockyrama is punk. I mean it looks like a fanzine from the 70s, without rules, very expressive and popular. A fanzine is a magazine designed by fans. They create a handmade layout which is dynamic and personal. Rockyrama is edited by cinema fans to be read by other fans but it is not a fanzine. It’s a real professional magazine published each trimester for 12 euros 50 and edited by Romain Fravalo. We may wonder why this magazine seems to be both a professional magazine and a fanzine ? 

  One layer of paper, and another and another. Did you count the layers of paper on the page 8 ? There are 3. One green background, the Japanese pattern and finally, a picture of the director Bong Joon-ho. This collage reminds me of the scrapbooks I did when I was a child. The use of a pattern or a background which is never white is a way to say « I’m not conventional ». But it’s also under control. There are a lot of elements superimposed on page 8, whereas page 9 is more spacious with a one text column and big margins. This typographic choice harmonises the double page. The only problem is the legibility of the folio due to this collage. Over the pattern, numbers are difficult to read because the black of the type isn’t contrasted enough with the thickness of the Japanese calligraphy. 

  I’m talking about typefaces. Did you see the contrast between them ? The typeface used for standfirsts and subheadings is geometric, sans serif and the type size is quite big. The tone of this type is friendly and represents the style of a fanzine. This style is simple and naive due to the size. The other typeface, used for the main text, is contrasted with serif and the type size is very little. The tone is more quiet here. There’s a big contrast between the two typefaces, as two voices inside one article. It illustrates well the idea of a mix between a fanzine and a serious magazine. 

  The final point I want to highlight is about spaces. Look at the variation of marges and leading. All the informations written near the margins (folios, the title of the magazine, the title of the article) are close to the margins. This detail is important because it’s clumsy. It gives the impression of an error as if they didn’t cut the paper correctly. However the leading is spaced too much. Lines float because they keep the same leading for the both typefaces. The leading of the smaller one seems very big due to this choice. I admire this kind of harmony in the page because some elements balance others. That looks uncontrolled but it is, there is a serious typographic choice. The only thing that shocks me is the line length. The space between each word is changing. The wide spaces in the same line are incompatible with the narrower ones. This detail slows the reading that’s why this typographic and aesthetic choice isn’t professional. A layout can be original but respect for the reader is essential. 

  We can now close Rockyrama, issue No. 26, to conclude what we see. The identity of the magazine is based on the duality in the graphic choices. Comparing Rockyrama with a fanzine is a kind of trap because this awkward layout is the work of a typographer. Whether if you like it or not, rationally it’s readable. But this original layout is complex. The typographer has to be attentive to all the details that can slow or stop our reading. You are now see and judge this kind of layout for yourself  and I hope you will open again a Rockyrama. 

3000 types 22/12/04

[mrbensonmum]

TV Show - The Fall of the House of Usher VI

In this episode, it finally happens—we get a bit more insight into Tamerlane’s life, and Juno gets a bit more screen time. However, the most interesting part for me is Pym, Arthur Gordon Pym (and that’s important, remember it!).

Just a heads-up: Juno sticks to her role as a side or outsider character, even though she gets a bit more screen time. We only learn that she might not be as happy with her life as she initially appeared to be. On top of that, she wants to get off the extremely high dose of Ligodone, though everyone around her tells her that it’s not a great idea.

I’m curious to see if we’ll find out how that turns out. I’m also wondering if Juno is even really married to Roderick. There’s been a lot of talk about a wedding, but did they actually go through with it?

Tamerlane is completely stressed out because of an upcoming presentation and suffering from a lack of sleep, making her an easy target for Verna’s visions. At first, Tamerlane experiences brief moments of sleep and minor blackouts. The presentation is a disaster, and back at home, Verna plays her usual tricks, leading Tamerlane to smash the ceiling mirror above her bed, falling onto the shards, which pierce her back.

Now, only Frederick is left, and the family is also starting to have problems with the company since he’s the only child, and therefore the only remaining board member.

Roderick and Madeline have a deeper conversation about Verna and are no longer sure she couldn’t possibly be the same woman from New Year’s Eve 1979. When Pym digs deeper, he finds photos of her that trace back to the 19th century. Roderick doubts it, but Madeline is convinced that something isn’t right. Through the flashbacks and Verna’s interactions with the children, it becomes clearer that there must have been a pact or something similar in the past.

We then shift back to Roderick and Auguste, and it’s at this point that Roderick gives a more detailed description of Pym. He tells Auguste about a journey to the North Pole, the northernmost island called Ultima Thule, and an underground world inside the hollow Earth. At least, that’s how Pym described it to him.

Ultima Thule stuck with me, and after a quick search, I found that it directly references a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, along with many other references. The short story is called The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, and this rang a big bell for me. That story is also about the Earth’s interior, another clue that I need to dive deeper into these connections, especially when they’re presented so clearly. I already knew the series was inspired by Poe, and that the episodes were named after his short stories, but now we’re also seeing the character names and their backgrounds, which is fascinating!

One thing that really stood out to me, and deserves some applause, was the different photos of Verna that Pym shows. Usually, when present-day people are inserted into old photos, it looks like terrible Photoshop. Not here! They did a great job, placing the actress in the images so well that you only notice on a second or third look.

Funny detail: When Lenore is looking after her mom, and they’re watching old films and TV shows together, you see her scrolling through a Netflix-like menu at the end of the movie. She lands on Gerald’s Game. As mentioned earlier, Bruce Greenwood (Roderick Usher) and Carla Gugino (Verna) star in that film.

For the first time in this episode, I’m starting to feel like Verna and her visions might not even be visions. I mean, sure, the show heavily implies and shows them as such. But what if all this stems from what happened on New Year’s Eve? Years of mistrust, always looking over their shoulders, wondering if someone is coming after them.

If I say this is the “most boring” episode, I don’t mean it negatively at all. Sure, more things are being explained, and the info we get is becoming more significant, but my initial thought is coming true: each child gets their own episode, but the others are still dealt with along the way. It’s still enjoyable—don’t get me wrong—but the balance from the earlier episodes feels a bit off. Maybe it’s because there aren’t as many children left, so there’s less variety. They tried to offset this with Juno and Lenore, but it only worked to a limited extent.

That said, the show is still running on a high note and is excellent. What I’m doing here is nitpicking at a very high level. I’m just glad that shows like this still exist and that not everything is becoming uniform!

[aelianaluan]

AEYA’S BOOK REVIEW #1

LIP READING by Harry Lee Kraus

Genre: Medical Fiction, Romance, Christian Fiction, Thriller, Mystery

RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♡ ♡

This book was very, very, VERY close to being the first book in my did-not-finish-probably-never-will list. Just one more button and I would’ve dropped this. The only saving grace is that I don’t want to leave a book unfinished, and even though I’m afraid of anything blood-related, I still love science!

OKAYYYY so, there are 4 reasons why I almost dropped this book. The main reason was that the Male Lead was confused about his feelings for the 2 bachelorettes and I really didn’t like it because he was kinda giving false hope to the 2 women. It gave me the BIG ICK.

The second reason is about the “kidnapping” scene, when 2 legally aged men trapped or baited 2 minor girls :3. It didn’t really sit well with me especially when one of the girls met one of the boys again and HE TOLD HER TO MEET HIM AFTER 5 YEARS???!!! def deserves a bombastic, criminal offensive side eye

The third reason is the conflict that was presented in the first chapter of the story, in my opinion, was not really resolved properly *sigh* and author presented the resolution of that conflict in JUST ONE PARAGRAPH. For me, that conflict was impactful and is very relevant to the story as it serves the catalyst for the development of the MC and the plot itself but then it was very disappointing that it wasn’t really given an importance :(( tbh the first 2 chapters was the reason that got me hooked so I was really disappointed :(( still a solid story tho!!! :>

I CAN GIVE A PASS for the last reason but it also gave me the Ick. I totally understand why the MC was soooo conscious about her appearance specifically her lips, but I feel like sometimes it was kinda too much but not to the point that she’s a narcissist. There are scenarios where it was unnecessary for her to be conscious of her appearance or that the author shouldn’t have kept on mentioning it because, imo, the author already established the reason why she was self-conscious and I think it was enough :) and for me, the MC is perfect the way she is ♥♥♥ but at the same time, I would like to thank the Mr. Harry Kraus for always mentioning the brands and shades of lipstick the Female MC is using hehe it also helped with the immersion ♥♥♥

Isn’t is surprising that I gave this book 3 hearts?! Even though it got me on my nerves, the book is still pretty solid. This is the first medical fiction book I’ve read and I’m glad it was written by a real medical doctor. No offense to those authors who write medical fiction without any medical background (I know for sure that authors research stuff for the stories they are writing) it’s just that a real medical doctor can write medical fiction better ‘cause they have an on-hand experience with anything medical, y’know what I mean? hehe. THE SAVING GRACE of the book is the main plot or the main topic of the story *SPOILERS* Artificial Blood. The 2 main characters were trying to create artificial blood to lessen or PREVENT the spread of HIV thru blood transfusion. I can feel the motivation, frustration, and the passion of the main character to finish their research so that they can release the artificial blood to the market. The author did very well on showing that guilt is a powerful motivator and in the story, can possibly lead to sacrificing oneself. This is a Christian Fiction but in my opinion, this story also relates with other religion as it shows how one person struggles with their own faith.

Even if I almost dropped this book, I’m still gonna recommend this book. The story and the plot is still pretty solid to me (that’s why I gave it 3 hearts). There are lots of realization in the story that will also make you think about your life choices. You can see the thought process of the characters in this book and it helped me understand why that character made that decision. Sometimes, it might be too detailed but it kinda helps you to relate and to know more about the character and because of this, it helped me to keep reading this book ♥

If you want to grab a copy of this book, here’s the amazon link: https://amzn.to/3nLzwam

[aisha-ot]

*airport jingle* Attention, please may all passengers traveling to the End of Fieldwork proceed to boarding gate 6 for flight OT3.

I’m sorry that was so cheesy but I had to add some spice to the last blog of Block 1 for my fieldwork pracs. What a journey it’s been … I’ll admit there were moments where I was ready for an emergency landing because I was ready to give up but I am so proud of myself to pushing through and I know I’ve improved so much since when I first started. I feel like I came into fieldwork completely blind and anxious about failing but here we are all ready to end of fieldwork on a good note.

Let’s get into the last topic for my fieldwork blogs which is all about cultural humility. Which is pretty ironic seeing as I was just exposed to a perfect client to be able to showcase and explain what cultural humility is and why it’s needed in OT. Let’s get the boring stuff out of the way and start by giving you guys a factual definition. The first one is pretty straightforward in explaining that “cultural humility is a practice of self-reflection on how one’s own background and the background of others, impact teaching, learning, research, creative activity, engagement, leadership, etc.” If you’re interested in a more detailed explanation I’ll add the link to guide you guys to learn more about it. Taking a look at my client that I spoke about in last weeks blog, I had an opportunity to practice cultural humility and understand just how important it is to learn from others.

My client is a 33 year old male who practices the Islamic religion. Initially, upon first meeting my client I was not focusing on his religion or culture, I was mainly focused on getting formal assessments done and out of the way. This is where the first mistake I made comes in. Looking back at the way I approached the session I know that I need to improve my cultural awareness of all my clients. In my head I just assumed that he’s Muslim and then pushed those thoughts aside to make space for all the information I needed to gather. I also assumed that, since the client struggled with communication, I was going to have a hard time getting information from him so I didn’t focus too much on his religion and culture. Now if only I could go back in time and shake some sense into myself I would’ve made my life so much easier. If only I went into my initial session with the cultural humility I initially explained to you guys. I know that yes I am a Muslim and you guys are probably like “Aisha why wouldn’t you focus on his religion when you believe the same thing” and yes I completely agree with you. But at the same time cultural humility isn’t just understanding the clients culture, religion and background. It’s understanding how one’s culture can impact a therapy session and how it can impact the clients behavior, learning and participation in the sessions and I did not understand that by me speaking more about and learning more about my clients view of his culture and religion I would be helping to build good rapport and making my sessions much easier regarding his participation.

I first used a grooming session for my clients treatment. Which yes it did have some aspects of meaning to it but nowhere near as much meaning as the next session where I actually took the clients culture and religion into mind and practiced cultural humility by analyzing the meaning it has in his life. After the first treatment session I became more aware of the effect that the clients religion has on his life which then got the ball rolling in my head asking a million and one questions that peaked my interest and got me wanting to know more because I could see the success of my next session improving the more I learned about my clients culture and religion. I didn’t even have to ask about his religion because he would say little prayers in Arabic before every action which showed me how strong his beliefs are. On one hand it made my heart swell because I realized we believe in the same things but on the other hand I felt so guilty that I didn’t even think about his culture before. Not just thinking about cultural humility, I’m talking about being an OT in general. I should have taken the initiative to somehow find out more about his culture instead of ignoring it. This made me begin to reflect on how it affects his recovery and his cognitive abilities which helped me to create and plan my next intervention session which was religious observance.

The first thing I immediately noticed was that my clients participation in the treatment session of religious observance improved drastically. I remember being so surprised when my client was able to upgrade effectively and participate on his own volition which was a huge improvement from his initial assessment. This is evidence enough for you to learn the importance of cultural humility. I barely did anything. Yes ok I did plan my session with a lot of detail by making him take part in the prewashing routine and prayer but I swear as soon as my client stood in the correct way and heard the words of the Quran playing it looked like he was transported to his safe haven. There are no words to explain just how at peace my client seemed. In that initial moment of hearing the words of the Quran “All praise is to God, Lord of the Worlds” I could see my clients body and face calm down and become less tense for the first time since I had met him. From being so tense and tired and looking like he just wanted to give up he now looked more like he was in control again. I feel like him doing something that came so naturally to him and hearing the words that he usually goes to for comfort gave him that sense of normality that he needed once again. In that moment I knew I had a new tool to use as an OT in order to create and carry out successful sessions. He did still have difficulties and struggled with some aspects of the prayer but overall I could see and understand just how important it was for me to take that step towards learning cultural humility. Just a side note that if any of you guys want to listen to the recitation of the Quran that I played for my client I’ll add the link below. There’s a Spotify link and I’ll add a YouTube link in case. You don’t have to be Muslim to be able to feel that sense of serenity. Give it a listen and let me know your thoughts.

Another aspect of cultural humility that I’d like to touch on is the fact that it’s not just the ability to understand someone else’s culture and the impact on their lives. Cultural humility is a commitment from the therapist to be able to evaluate and critique ones self regarding not just the clients culture and religion but their own as well. This is so that the therapist is not disrespectful and disregarding of the something that means so much to the client. As spoken about above I needed a bit of a wake up call in order to allow myself to reflect on my own beliefs and culture. Yes, I am a Muslim but the effect that Islam has in my life versus the effect it has on my clients life are two very different things. “Cultural humility involves understanding the complexity of identities — that even in sameness there is difference.” That last part really speaks to me. “Even in sameness there is difference”. My client and I may both be Muslim but our journey to finding our faith and the meaning it has in both our lives may be completely different and that is what cultural humility is meant to make you think about. I’m also much younger than my client and we both have been through different things in life. He has just suffered a TBI due to a traumatic accident and I’m a student learning how to treat him. My faith helps me through tough times in my degree when I can feel myself slipping under and not being able to cope with the stress that comes with all my work. But my client on the other hand uses his faith and religion to give him a sense of peace in his world that was just turned upside down. It reminds me of a quote I read that states that “two people can look at the exact same thing and see something totally different” and it’s so true. We can even take a random example to show you guys what this quote means. For example, I can look forward to my birthday because I’m still young and I see my birthday as an exciting milestone in my life but someone else could view their birthday as a burden or as something they aren’t looking forward to because it just means they’re getting older. It’s the same when it comes to cultural humility. Yes I understand my clients culture but do I really understand what it means for my client or am I making assumptions based on one basic idea ?This is why I needed to take a step back and focus on reflecting on my own beliefs whilst I was creating my treatment session. I needed to be able to differentiate between my own faith and my clients faith because I didn’t want to force my way of thinking on him and just assume that he thought and felt the same way I did because I could say something that may make my struggles appear the same as his which will show such entitlement on my part. I knew that I valued my prayers and reading the Quran and that it gave my heart a sense of peace and serenity but I did not know how my client felt about this and how he views these aspects of his religion. So I used this as a learning opportunity and a teaching opportunity to be able to learn about different views on Islam and the different impacts it has on others lives and to teach myself how to implement cultural humility into my every life but also into my service and therapy with my patients. I then also realized that cultural humility is not something that can just appear out of nowhere. Instead it is a form of lifelong learning that requires constant reflection and awareness of others.

Although I’ve been speaking about religion and relating it to cultural humility, I think it’s vital that you understand that cultural humility does not only look at religion and culture. It looks at the clients socioeconomic status, his gender, race, social needs and many other factors. This is something I also had to learn recently. In my head whenever someone mentions culture I always jump to religion which is something that caused my mind to be restricted. After researching cultural humility I felt I needed to open my mind to be able to acknowledge and understand a wide variety of a clients personal life and the impact it has on therapy. I know that as OT’s we need to have a holistic understanding of the client which yes definitely that’s a no brainer. But sometimes we forget to empathize with our clients seeing as we are only focused on creating a treatment session. After realizing my mistake of not having cultural humility I made sure I took moments to myself in the treatment sessions to gather my thoughts and to refer back to the meaning of cultural humility.

Initially I have to admit I was quite upset with myself for making an assumption about my client and sticking with it. If I had just opened my mind and realized the importance of cultural humility I would have had much more success in my treatment sessions from the start because it was so clear that once I became aware of my clients culture and implemented open discussions and added it into my session my clients participation improved ten fold. So here’s my last tip for you guys to take with you on your journey in reaching your destination. Practice cultural humility. Don’t just sit and think “oh it’s fine I already know this client” and then worry about all the facts. Yes, of course the theory is important but once you reach that level of critical thinking and being able to self reflect and analyze your clients lives as well as your own you will unlock unlimited potential and see so much success. This journey has been absolutely amazing and I’m so glad you guys were with me every step of the way. We’ve finally reached our destination. Sala kahle, hamba kahle, totsiens.

[cams-shwcase-blog]

This is my piece that I did based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article number twenty-five section two. This part of the declaration states “Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.”

I believe that my poster successfully supports my article. I believe that it is a very easy illustration to read. The illustration takes up a large portion of the poster, it catches the eye. It is also very understandable and simple. The text is a decent enough size, and the important part of the text is in a larger font size and color to make it more appealing to read first. I believe that the specific colors visually go together, especially with the layering to create shadows on the skin areas. It is quite unified as well. We can see that the text that isn’t as important is also the color of the baby’s clothes.

I believe it is unified enough for a non-English speaker to be able to comprehend. As I have stated before the image is quite readable. My creative process for this piece was quite interesting.

I enjoyed creating this piece a lot. I first started by looking through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and I selected this one, because especially for the times right now it is a relevant topic. Woman and their bodies have a lot of controversy at this point in time. What is right for a woman and what is not. But for this specific piece I wanted to give the idea as natural. Breastfeeding is a natural biological process. So I wanted to illustrate that, and I created this piece. I then started working on the mother figure first, then moved to the child, added the background, and finally added the text. I went through a lot of revisions during this whole process. I got feedback from my professor to somehow incorporate shadows to maybe make it look more realistic and less flat. So, with that feedback I added shading to the hand, chest, clothing, and on the baby figure.

When we had our first critique, I was indecisive of what I wanted to do. I had two good sketches, this idea being one of them, and another sketch of a pregnant woman figure. I got feedback that maybe the figure would be too simple, so I could either think of a way to add more detail or chose this idea instead. I chose this one because I almost liked it more, and I knew it would be a challenge.

At our second critique, I got feedback stating that I could play with my text font more, and the arrangement of my text. So, I did, and I like the result, it's an elegant and simple look. I feel as though it goes along with my illustration. I wanted the text to take care of the negative space, and I think it worked out quite well.  

I felt as though when we were given past student examples, it was very helpful. I liked to see the different rendering styles. I also enjoyed seeing the way that other people had arranged their text/image together. I believe that it gave me inspiration and more creative ways to look at placement, colors, and overall aesthetic with different articles and their meanings.  

all text- "font squirrel": Architects Daughter https://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/architects-daughter

[redshoes-blues]

El and Mike, Bedroom Analysis

I’ve started a rewatch of ST4 vol. 1 to see if I notice any background details or subtext that I didn’t pick up on during my first watch. I took a closer look at El and Mike’s bedrooms to look for visual cues into their relationship dynamics.

The bedroom of a character is important because it’s a space that reflects their innermost self. It’s their most intimate space which typically details aspects of their personality, inner world, and life. If there’s any place a character may display hidden parts of themselves via visuals, it’ll be here (see: Will’s “Boys Don’t Cry” poster as a clue into his sexuality, for example).

El’s Bedroom

In El’s bedroom, she has several visual cues that represent her love for Mike: a collage of floral hearts and an M+E heart on her wall, a photo of Mike on her desk, and most importantly the infamous Mike shrine. One thing that jumped out to me was a small detail in El’s Mike shrine.

The detail is a valentine, presumably from Mike, which reads “I Like You! Let’s Be Valentines.”

ST4 begins in March, a bit over a month past Valentine’s Day. I’m assuming the card is from V-Day 1986 given that El and Mike were separated the previous holiday [edit: the card features in El’s room during the summer of 1985]. With that in mind, the “Like” on the card from Mike really stands out next to all of El’s self-created hearts on the Mike shrine and in her room (which is adorable, btw, El is the sweetest kid!).

We know El is upset because Mike hadn’t told her he loves her in any of his letters. The card just adds further visual detail to the difference between how Mike and El view their relationship. El loves Mike, Mike likes El.

Mike’s Bedroom

While El holds onto anything Mike gives her and seems to pin a lot of hope and feeling onto their relationship, El is notably absent from Mike’s room. This is furthered when Mike throws away El’s letter when he’s in Will’s bedroom. We know Mike keeps all of Will’s drawings in a binder in his basement, and has a drawing of Will’s on his cork board.

Why wouldn’t Mike venerate El’s letters the same way he does Will’s drawings? The same way El does for the letters from him? Even if he did love El and was having a hard time expressing that love because of the behaviour shown by his parents: why throw away her letter?

It’s such an odd discrepancy between the way Mike receives items of affection from Will vs. El that it has to be purposeful. The two scenarios are clearly mirrored. This is especially the case because the camera pans over El’s Mike shrine at the very start of the season. El’s love for Mike displayed through physical objects isn’t just put in the background, but in the forefront. The same can’t be said for Mike, who shows no visual cues of love for El at any point in ST4.

Visual cues for unreciprocated love

For me, all of this is a visual cue to viewers that Mike and El aren’t on the same page with their relationship and what it means to each of them. In fact, while El loves Mike and proudly displays her love in her bedroom (a space reflecting her innermost self, where she is free to express herself): Mike doesn’t do the same. Instead, he displays drawings from his best friend.

Why is this important? Well, if Mike’s feelings for Will are romantic, then the letters and visual cues can provide insight into how Mike feels vs. the other characters.

El loves Mike. She proudly displays her love in her private space and writes him letters where she declares her love.

Will loves Mike and is growing to accept himself. He displays the poster of a queer-coded song on his wall and keeps a painting for Mike in his room.

Mike likes El, but he doesn’t love her. At least not romantically. His room displays drawings of Will’s, with no visual cues of a possible love for El. He doesn’t tell El he loves her in person when she confronts him, and afterwards, he throws away the letter from her. Even when confronted, he doesn’t hold onto the physical representation of El, despite holding onto drawings from Will.

Put together, I think the props within Mike and El’s bedrooms serve as visual representations of their inner selves. In both cases, they reveal that the characters aren’t aligned in their relationship. And they both deserve better than to be unhappy in a relationship that doesn’t reciprocate their true desires.

[hellofeanor]

Fëanorian Quenya

Hey friends! Do you like elves? Do you like the Silmarillion? Do you like Fëanor and co? And most of all, do you like spending hours thinking about minor details pertaining to made-up languages??? If so, boy do I have a treat for you! Let’s delve into the weird world of Fëanorian Quenya and explore some history and mechanics of why they talk Like That.

I’ve seen a lot of posts joking about the Fëanorian lisp, which is about as funny as a joke about a speech impediment can be. 👍 It’s important to understand, though, that this IS a joke. No, they didn’t really speak with a lisp. Yes, they did pronounce some S sounds as TH. That’s the critical disclaimer here: SOME. It’s not a blanket pronunciation. There’s a lot of background research that goes into determining which words would be pronounced with S and which would be TH, and that’s what we’re going to look at.

So if this is something you’ve come across in fandom and you’re not totally sure on the details, or if you ARE sure and just want some more in-depth info, read on.

The stuff probably everybody knows already

For anyone who’s been hanging around the Fëanorian corner of the Silm fandom for more than three minutes, there’s about a 100% chance you’ve heard of Fëanor’s penchant for retaining an archaic TH pronunciation after the majority of the Noldor went ahead and started pronouncing this sound as S instead. You may also know that this sound is represented by the letter thorn (Þ) in HoME, but since thorn doesn’t exist in modern English orthography and it’s a pain to keep typing the ALT code, I’m sticking to TH here. Anyway, all this was due to the fact that Fëanor was a huge mama’s boy, and his mom Míriel Therindë (later called Serindë, which made Fëanor want to punch walls and possibly also fellow elves) was an outlier who retained the TH after it fell out of use. Her son Fëanor, in turn, kept this up to honor her. Now, whether or not he would have bothered if this sound hadn’t literally been a critical part of her name is debatable, but that debate is outside the scope of this essay.

Fëanor continued to use the TH pronunciation until his death, and required his sons to use it as well. Finwë, however, switched over to S after the death of Míriel and before his marriage to Indis. Fëanor, reasonable and level-headed as he was, took this as a personal insult and decided that anybody who rejected TH likewise rejected him. So presumably, his loyal followers would have obeyed his totally reasonable demands not to give in to the seductive S-shift.

Why tho

Why did the Noldor decide to alter their pronunciation from TH to S? Great question. Nobody really knows. For the hell of it? IDK. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ But the important thing to understand is that elves, and especially Noldor, were really committed to making sure their language sounds cool. This is why it changed so much and so comparatively quickly for an immortal population: they were actively invested in changing it. They liked inventing new words and exploring new sounds and messing around with grammar.

So at some point some influential Noldo might have been like, hey y’all, let’s stop saying TH and say S instead! And everyone (except Míriel I guess, who was known for her elegant manner of speech and didn’t want to muck that up by changing pronunciation of a whole letter) was like, whoa, capital idea my good egg. And they went with it. Previous ideas along these lines included ‘hey y’all, let’s stop saying KH and say H instead’ and ‘hey y’all, let’s stop saying Z and say R instead’, and those went over swimmingly. Nobody could have foreseen the problem this TH to S business would cause.

Now here’s a fun fact. There was another change to Noldorin pronunciation that happened AFTER Fëanor’s birth, that he himself was involved in. This one was all about bilabial to labiodental F. And those sure are some words, so if you don’t know what I’m talking about (I don’t blame you), BILABIAL is a more whispery sound that happens when you say F using only air passing through your pursed lips, and LABIODENTAL is when you say F with your top teeth touching your bottom lip. Going forward I’m going to use PH to represent the bilabial sound, and F for the labiodental.

So F got on the radar of the Noldor via the Teleri, who used this sound in their language. And ol’ Fëanor figured it would be awesome to incorporate it into Quenya because he thought the PH sounded too close to HW, and the two were getting confused by lazy speakers. Why did he care? Because of his dad’s name and his own, of course. If people started to get lazy in their pronunciation, we’d end up with Hwinwë and Hwëanáro, which would be terrible and stupid and unacceptable. He accused the Vanyar of leaning down that road, and he wanted to stop that kind of shift before it happened to the Noldor. How to do that? Why, by instigating a different shift from traditional Noldorin PH to Telerin F!

“Hey y’all, let’s stop saying PH and say F instead!”

“Whoa, capital idea my good egg.”

Moral of the story: Fëanor is only concerned with Quenya pronunciation insofar as it affects his own name and the names of family members he likes. He does not care whether it’s staying the same or moving to a new sound so long as it personally makes him feel good and his name sound cool. Therefore the true way to piss him off would be to call him Curuhwinwë Hwëanáro, son of Serindë.

Okay so here’s how it works

Now that history is out of the way, let’s get back to how TH was used by the Fëanorians. As I mentioned earlier, TH wasn’t a blanket pronunciation. It all depended on the original form of the word, and whether the root had a TH or an S. And some very similar-sounding words come from different roots, so this can get tricky. A great resource that’ll give you this information is Eldamo: Quenya words where the S was originally TH are marked out with the Þ (thorn) symbol in the wordlist.

Some examples:

Súlë (spirit, breath) comes from the root THŪ, which means it would be pronounced with a TH. Silma (white crystal) comes from the root SIL, so it and related words like Silmaril would be pronounced with an S. No Fëanorian would say Thilmaril. Isil (moon), however, is a similar-sounding word that comes from a different root: THIL. Olos (mass of flowers) comes from the word LOTH, but: Olos (dream) comes from the root LOS. Fëanorian pronunciation would immediately differentiate between these two words.

While Fëanorians may have retained the distinct pronunciation of TH vs S, other Noldor can still differentiate between original S and S-that-used-to-be-TH in their writing. There are specific tengwar to use depending on the word’s original form. Silmë (the one that looks like a 6) is used for original S, while súlë (or thúlë, the one that looks like an h) is used for original TH.

Which other elves used this sound in their speech?

Fandom has really latched on to this TH as a Fëanorian thing, but it wasn’t that exclusively. The TH sound was actually ubiquitous in other elven languages, and in Valinor, only the Noldor dropped it. It was still used in Telerin and in Vanyarin Quendya. The Vanyar retained the TH not because of anything to do with Míriel, but just because they were a little more conservative and their language didn’t pick up on all the changes that the Noldor made. They also noped out of the Z to R shift the Noldor initiated, opting to keep the Z around.

When Indis married Finwë, she stopped using the normal Vanyarin TH and switched over to S as a gesture of loyalty to him and his people. Finarfin, however, out of love for the Vanyar and Teleri, switched BACK to TH. I like to think about how much it would have annoyed Fëanor that his snot-nosed kid brother was speaking correctly, but for the wrong reason. Go down one more generation, and Galadriel very specifically did not use TH. But this time it was absolutely a choice made as a glaring middle finger to Fëanor.

What this means for your fanfic or whatever

The big takeaway here: you can’t just have Fëanorians replace every S with TH and call it a day.

If you’re inventing names for your Fëanorian OCs or coming up with phrases for them to say, it’s important to look into the history of all Quenya S-words you end up using to determine if they should be S or TH. If Fëanor got mad about somebody saying Serindë instead of Therindë, he’d get equally mad about somebody saying Thilmaril instead of Silmaril and assume they were mocking him. Remember: this is a dude with no chill. (On the other hand, if you WANT somebody to be mocking Fëanor, Galadriel would 100% do this because she has an equally negligible amount of chill.)

It’s also important to note that the TH isn’t a true shibboleth, since pretty much all elves EXCEPT the non-Fëanorian Noldor use it. And even the S-preferring Noldor would still be able to pronounce the TH. Those who went into exile would go on to use it commonly in Sindarin, and those who remained in Valinor would still encounter it among the Vanyar and Teleri. So if you’re writing a scene where somebody has to pronounce a TH word to prove their loyalty… yeah, everyone can pass this test. And in the opposite direction, you can’t use TH to prove somebody’s an evil Fëanorian, either. They might just be Vanyarin or something. Or, like. Really Old.

Would the sons (and followers) of Fëanor keep using TH after his death? Oh hell yeah. This is an entire family unfamiliar with the concept of not dying on hills. They will keep using it unto the ending of the world. Actually, with Sindarin becoming the common language of Middle-earth from the First Age, probably not a lot of change happened in exilic Quenya. It became a lore language: a piece of living history. It would have been preserved as it was when the original speakers left Valinor.

(And then, thousands of years later, Galadriel finally returns home to Tirion like, Long have mine eyes awaited this most blissful of sights, and ne’er hath my sprit soared with such grace, for I am returned! And all the Amanyar Noldor stare at her like, whatchu bangin on bout, eh? Because they had nothing better to do in the peace of Valinor than push Quenya to brave and frankly questionable new horizons.)

Anyway, there you go: a somewhat brief history of Fëanorian Quenya. I hope you found this informative and useful, or at the very least not boring. Obvs this is super condensed and, uh, not particularly scholarly, but I promise I know what I’m talking about. I have a university degree! (Not in anything even remotely related to what’s written above, but I hardly see how that’s relevant. It’s still a DEGREE.)

Questions? Need clarification or want more info? My asks are always open!