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wayverse · 5 years

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Pink Pendant

genre: soulmate!au

pairing: ten x reader

word count: 1.9k

drabble | scenario | short story | series

A/N : Hello! I’m trying to make my posts look prettier; i saw this layout and thought it would be nice to try, so let me know if this is how I should format my works or not! Let me know what you think of this work as well -- my inbox is open to constructive criticism and suggestions for drabbles or pieces! -- admin m

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Everyone’s soulmate links develop the moment they’re born, and it’s different for every couple; your best friend, Hendery, for instance, has a timer on his wrist. Your other friend, Lucas, has everything that their soulmate loses turn up into his room.

You didn’t know what your link was, until you started middle school. You were in class one day, jotting down your notes, when something began to appear on your wrist. You didn’t notice at first; you didn’t feel it happening either, but soon, there were drawings of little puppies on your body, ones that you didn’t put there.

You never drew on yourself, afraid that you would get “ink poisoning” according to your mother, but your soulmate seemed to have no problem with drawing on themselves. You would get song lyrics, doodles, and the accessional shopping list popping up on your body, your soulmate acting as if their body was their own personal notebook. Once, you had woken up with what looked like marker on your face, and you guessed that your soulmate had lost a bet, or had been the first to fall asleep at a party. You had to stay in that day, as your soulmate couldn’t seem to get it off no matter how hard they tried.

You had always wanted to write back and forth with questions to your soulmate; where did they live? how old were they? What were their passions? you could tell that they were an incredible artist, as they constantly drew tiny sketches on their palms or wrists whenever they were bored.

One of them caught your eye not too long ago; it was bigger than most of the sketches he had done before, using up your entire forearm instead of just your wrist. It was a sketch of a small cat, jumping from planet to planet in a solar system. Your soulmate even colored it in, though the colors quickly rubbed away. That day, you had gotten bold; the colors were rubbing away, anyways, so you took your pink pen and drew a heart pendant on the kitty’s collar, before taking a picture of your soulmates work like you had always done.

Because of your soulmate, you began to look into art, and even went to art exhibits around your town, dragging Hendery along so you wouldn’t have to be alone. He always complained that the exhibits were too boring, and that he never understood why people would pay money to just look at a painting.

“I am NOT going to another one of those exhibits, (Y/N)” Hendery stated firmly one day, after your constant begging, “They’re so boring! I fall asleep every time I go to one.”

You and Hendery met up with Lucas and his friend Xiaojun at your favorite coffee place to talk about a project that you all would be working on together, which soon ending up being less about the project and more about plans that you all had that weekend. You had planned on going to another art exhibit, wanting to bring Hendery along, but he was currently denying your request.

“Please!” You beg, shaking Hendery’s arm softly as he attempts to bite the cookie he just bought, “Please!! There’s one I really want to go to, it’s themed ‘A Starry Night’ and I really want to see it! After this one you will never ever have to come to one ever again!”

“That’s what you said about the last one!” Hendery shook his arm away from yours, taking a bite of his cookie, “I reject your proposal, because you’re going to go back on your word again!”

“I didn’t know you liked art, (Y/N),” Lucas said, “I have plenty of fun art exhibits you could go to.”

You perked up a bit. “You do?”

“Our friend from another school is an art major,” Xiaojun began to explain, “He and his friends throw party-esque art exhibitions. Lots of food, fun music, if it’s themed then it’s usually done at a place that allows them to explore the theme.”

“We’re going to the one this weekend; the theme is a surprise, but Kun said it was a cute theme, so it should be fun.”

“Hendery,” you looked at him, batting your eyelashes as he rolled his eyes. “Please? I promise, this is the last one. If you really don’t like it when we get there, we can leave after a couple of minutes. I’ll even treat you to pizza after! Just come with me, please?”

Hendery groaned, rubbing his temples.

“Fine, but the pizza better come with garlic knots.”

—

The invitation Xiaojun had given you said that the attire was semi-formal, which made it easier for both you and Hendery to dress for it. You had followed the invitations directions, and were confused when they led you to what looked like a cat cafe.

“An art exhibit? Here?” you say softly, looking at the address on the invitation and back at the cafe, “But why?”

“Who knows,” Hendery mumbles, hand shoved in his pockets as he kicks a pebble along the sidewalk. “We should get inside so your fifteen minute timer can start.”

“You may have fun,” you hum, hooking your arm through his as you two begin to walk towards the entrance, “Never doubt what art can make you feel.”

“Yeah, Okay.” Hendery dismisses as he pushes the door open, the soft music of the exhibit suddenly filling your ears. You take a quick look around; everyone was dressed in semi-formal attire, putting your heart ate ease to know you didn’t over or under-dress — everyone was talking, which was a deep contrast to the more silent art exhibits you usually take Hendery to. There was a table filled with sweets in the shape of fish and other delicacies kittens would eat, while kittens were littered all all over the place. There were cats playing with toys, being pet by other attendees of the exhibition, and one even came up to you and Hendery the moment you entered.

“Hey, buddy,” Hendery immediately leaned down to scratch the kittens chin, “How are you?”

“See?” you taunted, “You already like it. Now, go pet cats while I try and find Xiaojun and Lucas.”

“Got it,” Hendery says, giving you a thumbs up as you walk away from him.

It didn’t take you too long to find Lucas and Xiaojun; both of them were adorned in kitty ears, standing in a circle of people while handing them drinks.

“Oh,” you chuckle, capturing Xiaojun’s attention as you stand behind them, “This is too precious. I have to take a pi—“

“No!” Xiaojun says, grabbing your hand as you begin to take out your phone, “No pictures. We lost a bet with Ten, so we’re servers for the exhibit.”

“This is our attire,” Lucas says, touching the ears on his head, before gesturing to the men he was talking to, “And these are the hosts of the exhibit.”

There were three of them; one of them was tall and lean, his body hugged by a white trench coat. His smile softened up his rough features, making his cheeks bunch up at the end. His name was winwin.

Another one’s name was Kun, who seemed to be the one running the exhibition; he was tall and quite friendly, even making Lucas run off to grab you a drink.

“And this is the star,” Xiaojun said, gesturing to the last man, “His name is ten. He only draws animals, so his pieces never end up in their exhibits. This whole theme was his idea.”

“It’s really cute,” you say, locking eyes with Ten. He was very pretty; his eye-shape resembled the cat that he was currently holding in his arms, and his smile was very warm and welcoming. It made your heart clench, in a way it had never done before.

“Thank you,” he said kindly, “I have a lot of pieces up today, so feel free to ask about them if you have any questions.”

“But first,” Kun said, grabbing a hold of tens arm, “We have to mingle with the other guests and try to find some buyers.”

“Right, right.” Ten nodded, smiling back at you, “It was nice to meet you, (Y/N).”

Xiaojun bumped your shoulder as the three walked away. “They’re not that scary. I think you’d like them. Here, i’ll show you some of my favorite pieces.”

As you walked around, you tried to catch a glimpse of the three artists; ten in specific. He caught your attention as soon as Xiaojun began to introduce you to them; though you weren’t very close in proximity, you could smell his sweet cologne, and it made your head spin.

“How old is ten?”

“A couple of years older than us,” Xiaojun said, taking a small platter of fish-shaped treats, “He’s really talented, in a lot of areas. Why?”

“No reason,” you dismissed his question, waving him off, “I’m going to go look at the pieces. Now go and do your job.”

Xiaojun smiled at you before leaving you to look at some of the works. It seemed that Winwin was a sculptor; His main pieces was a sculpture of a small kitten sitting inside a large cat bowl in the middle of the room. Kun’s work was hung up on almost every wall; his way of art was realistic backgrounds, with cartoon kittens doing activities within the scenery for a contrast. It was very eye catching; almost every piece of his already had a green “sold” sticker on its frame. You kept looking for tens, since he was supposed to be the star of his exhibit, but you couldn’t find any.

You circled around the exhibit once or twice, before you saw it; a large canvas that somehow blended into the feeling of the comforting cat cafe. It took up almost the entirety of one wall, which was why it blended in so perfectly. The painting on the canvas, though, had you staring utter disbelief.

Painted on the canvas was a large solar system; it was in black and white mostly, with few colors leaking out of stars or a planet, with a kitten jumping in between two planets. You felt a sense of nostalgia rush over you, your heart beginning to beat faster and faster as you came to a realization. When you looked at the kitty’s neck, you couldn’t help but gasp; there it was, the small pink pendant in the shape of a heart, made to look like it was swinging as the kitten was jumping from one planet to the next. You sat there, looking at it for what felt like minutes, when you felt a light tap on your shoulder.

“Do you like it?”

You turn around to find Ten, a small smile playing on his lips as he looks from you to his piece. “I drew it a few years ago. It started off as a small doodle, but I felt like I had to put it onto the canvas. I knew people needed to see it.”

“It means a lot to me, actually,” ten hums gently, his eyes focusing on the pendant. “It’s not totally my piece, in a sense.”

“I know.”

Tens head whipped towards you. “You know? What do you mean you know?”

You quickly take out your phone and begin searching through your photos, before handing him your phone. On the screen was the photo you had taken of your soulmates drawing on your wrist—the same drawing that is hanging on the wall as you stand next to him. Ten looks back at you, a soft smile on his face.

“It was you.”

#ten #ten scenairo #ten scenarios #ten lee scenario #ten lee scenarios #wayv #wayv scenario #wayv scenarios #weishenvv #ten nct #ten nct scenario #ten nct scenarios #ten wayv scenario #ten wayv scenarios

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edivupage · 3 years

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Open Educational Resources Apps, Tools, and Resources That We Love

Are you looking for open educational resources, apps, and tools that you can use with your students? If so, we have you covered. Check out our list below. Let us know if there are any that we missed.

Coursera– This app is designed to help college students make the right choices when it is time to decide what courses they want to take in college. It helps to prevent waste of money. It also helps with the elimination of the course they don’t have interest in by providing free online courses beforehand.

Gibbon – Gibbon is an open-source school management system that helps educators plan and share lessons, allocate resources, and manage students. This software collates student information, helping teachers to understand, contact, find, and improve their students. Teachers, students, parents, and administrators can access Gibbon from the same web-based platform.

Moodle – Module is a free, open-source learning platform designed for educators, administrators, and learners. The system uses a robust, integrated, and secure platform to helps its users create personalized learning environments. The software can be downloaded onto the user’s web server.

Quill– Quill is a writing tutorial app for teachers designed to help students become better writers. Quill is a nonprofit organization, and its goal is to provide tools such as Quill to help make students better writers. Quill uses web applications to create engaging content for students that helps them learn grammar, writing skills, and vocabulary. Using the teacher dashboard, you can monitor students’ progress according to the Common Core Standards; this feature also makes grading more intuitive and meaningful.

Flickr– Store, search, share, and sort pictures online through Flickr! Flickr helps you organize your large images and enables you, your friends, and family to tell stories about them. To learn more about Flickr, upload some photos, explore the site, make some friends, and join some groups. A free version of Flickr is available, but it is somewhat limited; however, you can still get more with a paid subscription.

iversity– iversity lets schools provide their students with course materials on the Internet. They do this by allowing faculties to set up a website for their courses and upload teaching materials, so their students to have access to it. It’s free and can be used to share observations, links, and references in research groups; and announce guest lectures, conferences, and calls for papers.

Pixton– Pixton allows people to communicate with media files using the Click-n-Drag Comics

system, which is a new patented technological innovation. Pixton allows almost anyone to create amazing comics on the web. Use your students’ interest in comics to gain and retain their attention and trigger their imagination. This app has over 4,000 backgrounds, 3,000 props, and 700 subject-specific comic templates. You can control every aspect of a comic using a perceptive click-n-drag motion. The format encourages kids to learn to communicate in a coherent and concise manner.

Udacity – Udacity is an online learning environment for university-level classes at a fraction of the cost of a traditional university. With a focus on Artificial Intelligence, technology, and business, all Udacity classes are hands-on and interactive. To help graduates succeed in their chosen careers, class projects are designed to mimic real-world activities and can be easily included in portfolios for future job searches. Udacity also provides career assistance to graduates, including resume reviews and interview prep.

Khan Academy– Khan Academy has more than 40,000 interactive Common Core-aligned practice questions and above 10,000 videos and explanations in economics, history, math, and more. This is the best study app and tutoring app for students of all ages who are struggling in science and other subjects. You can easily bookmark your best content to “Your List,” which can be used offline when you’re not connected to the Internet.

Lumen5– Lumen5 is designed for video-making beginners. Whether you need to make a commercial for brand promotion, a promotional video for your hot new business, or a video to promote your next hiking meetup or cooking class, you will surely have no problem learning how to use this software. Lots of copyright-free media material is built in for ease-of-use, and the app allows you to add clips you have recorded outside the app. Because the tool is easy to learn, you can focus on the quality of your video instead of the intricacies of the editing software.

CK-12– Helps students and teachers to improve elementary learning worldwide by making personal education tools available. Learn more than 5,000 math and science topics at a speed that suits you. Math topics include arithmetic, measurement, algebra, geometry, probability, statistics, trigonometry, analysis, and calculus. Science subjects include geography, life science, physical science, biology, chemistry, and physics. Other subjects include SAT exam prep, engineering, technology, astronomy, English, and history.

Science 360– Science 360 is a website that contains video collections from highly respected scientists, colleges, and universities in all fields of science and engineering explorations. Videos are hosted by the National Science Foundation.

Scratch– Scratch is a free open network made available by MIT to assist young folks in learning to think and reason systematically. Scratch makes room for students to design and share their coding work with others around the universe. It allows them to create stories, games, and animations to assist in sharing their vision with others on the platform. On this platform, you can program your own interactive stories, games, and animations and share your design with others in the online community.

The post Open Educational Resources Apps, Tools, and Resources That We Love appeared first on The Edvocate.

Open Educational Resources Apps, Tools, and Resources That We Love published first on https://sapsnkra.tumblr.com

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writerspink · 8 years

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Basic Topics

Food

cook bread cake pie noodles pasta eggs meat milk cheese oil chocolate chips cookies crackers treats snacks muffin rolls biscuit cupcake brownies bagel biscotti French fries sandwich hamburger salad meatloaf breakfast lunch super dinner snack fruit juice soda pop tea coffee wine beer

Outdoors

snow rain wind sunny cloudy tornado hurricane hail ice freeze thaw hot cold earthquake sand mud dirt dust mountain river lake sea ocean valley plain field park sidewalk fresh air camping campfire barbecue picnick

Animals

cow donkey horse rabbit dragonfly deer squid kangaroo bear wolf chipmunk squirrel dog fox cat pheasant brontosaurus mouse eagle clam parrot crow duck cricket swan housefly pterodactyl goose chicken oyster turkey sheep goat hummingbird raptor owl eel hornet zebra bird mosquito whale cougar shrimp elephant lion bee pigeon gazelle cheetah hippopotamus fish tiger gecko grasshopper rhinoceros walrus octopus otter spider jellyfish penguin falcon snake rat crab leopard T-Rex dolphin orca lizard shark hawk giraffe dinosaur starfish snail

Clothes

hat gloves scarf coat trench coat rain coat umbrella shirt pants shorts underwear vest sweater sweat shirt sweat pants sweat suit jogging suit boots shoes sandles slippers swimming suit suit dress skirt blouse hood hoodie fedora flat cap fedora polo shirt dress shirt T-shirt tank top muscle shirt blazer tuxedo cufflinks necklace bracelet earring

Home

house garage workshop window door screen wall floor ceiling kitchen bathroom living room bedroom window door garbage trash can clean wash rinse mob broom washcloth sink shower bath soap toilet toothbrush towel curtain bed blanket pillow bed sheets table chair bench knife fork spoon plate cup bowl water glass bottle cutting board rolling pin toaster blender stove oven fry pan wok pot kettle baking sheet crock pot coffee maker dish washer refrigerator freezer cellar pantry cupboard counter top cabinet closet toybox chest wardrobe vanity coat rack stand sofa couch love seat coffee table footstool ottoman recliner

Office & School

desk computer phone tablet printer clock watch memo note pencil pen ink eraser glue paper clip stapler rubber band sharpen dull shavings shred ruler protractor compass classroom pencil holder calendar pin board thumb tack desk lamp board room whiteboard blackboard conference table manager supervisor teacher principal team & teammates classmates employee student project assignment study work learn correct edit fix repair update upgrade install enroll graduate finish late on time communicate network energy electricity announcement speakers PA system (public announcement) public private corporation company school district industrial park factory building commerce money market

Roads

car truck motorcycle semi truck pickup truck sport car sedan coup scooter dirt bike bicycle BMX bike skates skateboard helmet seat belt air bag crash collision fender bender ticket parking lot speed limit lane highway onramp expressway freeway toll road bridge overpass underpass train tracks railroad train station bus stop yield distance limousine chauffeur driver taxi tour guide travel

Farm & Garden

barn tractor trailer crops harvest irrigation pesticide herbicide weed-killer fertilizer lawn mower bumper crop hay loft straw alfalfa pasture horse fence gate work gloves planting watering weeding trimming trowel plow hoe rake shovel pruning shears hedge trimmer watering can hose hose butler hose reel hose trolley spigot nozzle sprinkler turret sprinkler spray gun rain barrel rain gauge wood chips seeds blossom pollen silo grainery grain elevator cheesecloth cheese curd dairy butcher cellar canned vegetables frost dew perennial annual tulip bulb rose garden walled garden shrubbery

Sports

baseball basketball football soccer lacrosse golf tennis badminton swimming hockey bat glove mitt hoop basket net goal cleats shin guards pads jersey baseball cap court racket pool referee coach team manager stadium arena referee guard forward pitcher catcher offense defense goalie umpire puck penalty disc frisbee quarterback fowl pitch tee-off green rough course field flag boundary out of bounds clock period inning half quarter round match set play (a football play) line sponsor spectator stands bleachers nose-bleed section admission season playoffs tickets finals halftime

Music

piano clarinet oboe bassoon saxophone French horn trumpet trombone tuba flute percussion drum snare tympani bell chimes harp synthesizer instrument sampling director symphony orchestra band marching band parade color guard cadence harmony melody counter melody solo duet quartet march concerto composer tempo beat dynamics volume drum major field commander captain genre jazz blues pop rock n’ roll big band dixieland waltz tango alternative boogie woogie ragtime classical baroque romance medieval pentatonic scale Major minor harmonic

Cyberspace

computer monitor tablet stylus writing tablet touchscreen smartphone mouse keyboard battery power cord cable display desktop wallpaper firmware software application (app) app store runtime environment operating system kernel motherboard integrated circuit transistor processor processor core central processing unit (CPU) graphics processing unit (GPU) random access memory (RAM) read only memory (ROM) user account website profile page Internet web page homepage dependency software stack markup language scripting language cascading style sheet (CSS) hypertext markup language (HTML) database structured query language (SQL) universal resource identifier (URI) (https://write.pink/vocab) universal resource locator (URL) (https://write.pink) web address texting global positioning system (GPS) geolocation temp file directory structure file system email web application blog (weblog) content management system (CMS) human resource management (HRM) customer relations management (CRM) enterprise resource planning (ERP) personal information management (PIM) words per minute (WPM) social media multimedia terminal command line console client server client side language server side language legacy version version history product road map scope creep bug report feature request install update upgrade beta security malware virus spyware cookie meta data content menu navigation heading header footer article post tag search engine web crawler contacts share embed log error message runlevel priority foreground background radio select checkbox dropdown select text field encrypt certificate session web browser desktop application email client

Hospitality

reservation checkin checkout key deposit hotel motel hostel resort bead & breakfast cruise ship country club waiter waitress server maître d’hôtel concierge host butler bus boy bell hop kitchen crew dish crew chef assistant menu chef’s surprise soup of the day cup of joe appetizer soup & salad main course side dish dessert bread basket pitcher order make ticket make line make table make time delivery time serving tray goblet water glass pilsner glass martini glass shot glass wine glass soda fountain on tap deli deli cut tip / gratuity buffet all you can eat take out doggy bag delivery refill silverware napkin place setting cost per plate guest linens dining room floor bedding double bed queen size bed king size bed twin beds room service wake up call bar bar stool high boy bartender barista clerk open shop close shop “we’re all out” first in first out first in last out last in first out cost of sales five star three star

Travel

navigation driving directions baggage luggage carry-on hand-baggage check in checked baggage baggage claim ticket pass boarding pass departure arrival departure time travel time arrival time estimated time of departure (ETD) estimated time of arrival (ETA) delay on time commute journey embark boarding disembark boarding gate departure gate time table service counter first class business class economy class premium economy frequent flier membership card priority boarding priority seating lounge pass call button flotation device evacuation instructions bulkhead cabin wings air pressure altitude tunnel crash landing splash landing touchdown splashdown turbulence in-flight meal in-flight entertainment airplane mode stow dinner tray reading lamp climate control overhead compartment seat number isle seat window seat dining car sleeper car truck stop weigh station fuel station gas station petrol station passengers crew captain pilot copilot navigator conductor flight attendant helm deck terminal dock ferry plane ship airline cruise ship train bus subway space shuttle transporter beam flying saucer teleportation warp drive hyperdrive hyperspace supersonic lightspeed nautical mile time zone

Dinning Out

Dress

“dressy” festive casual jeans and tie dress pants and tie suit and tie three piece suit dress shirt nice shirt nice T shirt old shirt old T shirt jeans nice jeans rockstar jeans stone washed jeans blazer vest dress short nice shorts jean shorts skirt blouse dress high heels dress shoes slippers loafers sandals sneakers casual shoes [sport] shoes wingtip shoes

orange soda grape soda red soda cola Dr. Pepper lemon lime root beer ginger ale cream soda bread basket sub sandwich fruit platter cole slaw burrito taco nachos melon lemonade snacks popcorn hot dog chips

Camping

camper trailer mobile home campfire fire pit firewood kindling starter fluid charcoal coals ashes marshmallow s’mores graham crackers hot dog roast hot dog bun condiments relish ketchup mustard paper plate disposable silverware tin foil dinner wrap foil wrapped dinner grill barbecue cookout roasting stick campground toiletries bath house dump station park service park ranger national park state park county park city park recreation off road vehicle recreational vehicle speed boat water skiing wake boarding beach sand dune mountain climbing hiking walking stick mosquito net insect repellent tent tarp AstroTurf picnic table lawn chairs lantern kerosene sing-along

Construction

scaffold nails hammer sledgehammer jackhammer allen wrench screws screwdriver torques head Phillips head straight edge concrete flexcrete cement mortar bricks foundation chimbney threshold partition fire escape story loft lean-to foundation basement construction crew construction site building code building permit detour road construction earth moving equipment shovel rake bulldozer backhoe dumptruck studds drywall log cabin blueprints I-beam welding molding trim work framing carpeting tiling tile floor grout trowel hardhat work gloves safety glasses safety goggles face mask plaster paintbrush pain roller paint can paint can opener paint thinner wallpaper window frame door frame hinge deadbolt lock electric outlet breaker switch breaker box fuse box pluming faucet pipe drain septic tank septic system drain field landscaping survey crew land surveying acre shelf awning tarp fence rebar power grid power lines power transformer electrical pole wiring linoleum formica veneer lumber particle board plywood sandpaper palm sander belt sander saw horse table saw band saw jig saw radial arm saw drill press lathe C-clamp wood glue wood putty wood stain varnish lacquer

Basic Topics was originally published on PinkWrite

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battlegeekplus · 7 years

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Battle Geek Plus: 6 Years Later

Hey guys, Ryan here.

It’s been 6 years since we’ve launched Battle Geek Plus into the wild. On October 1, 2011, we launched the official BGP website with 10 videos on our old YouTube Channel and now defunct blip account. Around March of 2012, we lost our adsense account and decided to move to our current channel in August of 2012. Alot of people think we started in 2012 due to our channel stating that in our about page, but we really started in 2011 and I wanted to clear up that confusion.

After six years, we have over 5000 subscribers and over 700 videos, so where do we stand now?

Battle Geek Plus is not my first foray as an internet content producer. I’ve been through the ups and downs of internet success and failures, but I have entertained millions of people worldwide in various different ways.

I want to talk about not only the origins of Battle Geek Plus, but a bit into my background and to do that, we at least need to go all the way back to my childhood and teen years, most specifically 1997-1999. This is reflection on my nearly 2 decades of content creation.

As a kid, I always loved being creative. I did everything from write stories, draw pictures, make comic books about video game characters, etc. None of these things I was particularly good at, but I had so much fun doing them anyways. From an early age, I always *had* to be making stuff and being creative.

In 1997 as a teenager in high school, I got into making webpages about various subjects like video games and Sailor Moon. In 1999. had achieved my first *real* success, a Dragon Ball Z website called “Vegeta Insane” dedicated to the character of Vegeta under my old nickname “Castor Troy” from the Nicolas Cage movie, Face/Off. You can still find remnants of my DBZ work by looking up “Castor Troy DBZ” on google.

Since Dragon Ball Z was exploding through Cartoon Network and even topped the search engines over Britney Spears in 1999, I garnered a massive audience of fans and it was the first time I felt I received real recognition for the silly ideas in my head. Later in 1999, I made my first AMV (Anime Music Video) and that literally skyrocketed my traffic to the point where I had to leave free website hosting services like Geocities and accepted a hosting deal with the prestigious planetnamek.com, which was the biggest Dragon Ball Z site on the web at the time.

In 2000, I rebranded Vegeta Insane as “Ginga GIRI GIRI” in order to cover all of Dragon Ball other than just Vegeta. Sadly the Internet Advertising Crash of 2000 happened which forced me to move Ginga GIRI GIRI off planetnamek. The early 2000′s was a pretty horrible time to have a website. Many of the free providers like Geocities were enforcing a 1GB bandwidth limit for their webpages per day. Homestead, Angelfire, Tripod, and Fortune City would literally plaster your pages with ads, and many people we knew who had hosting and servers didn’t wanna touch us. Those who hosted us would literally kick us off within a few months so our site URL was always changing.

In 2001, my site partner Mike aka Dr. Bond decided to finally get us a dedicated server that he was paying out of his own pocket and by 2002 they gave us our final bandwidth warning and shut us down. We finally decided to close the doors on the DBZ web as I moved onto AMVs.

Working on Vegeta Insane and Ginga GIRI GIRI not only let me express my creativity and love for Dragon Ball, the skills I learned making those sites landed me jobs in both the web and graphic design fields, allowed me to have a casual business relationship with FUNimation that we still maintain to this day (They put me on the DBZ Resurrection F Blu Ray Extras!), and helped me develop a large audience and make more friends than I could ever dream of.

In the early 2000′s, AMVs were starting the take off, especially digitally edited ones on computers as opposed to 2 VCRs. I wasn’t an early generation AMV editor like Bobby “C-Ko” Beaver, Maboroshi Studios, Kusoyaro Productions, Kevin Caldwell, etc, but I was lucky enough to catch the AMV ride on the advent of the digital age and the massive influx of AMV contests at conventions. A friend of mine convinced me to enter AMV contests at conventions and over the years AMVs provided me a ton of great opportunities that I would have never dreamed of. I’ve won over 2 dozen awards, coordinated several Multi-Editor Projects, was a guest at conventions, spoke on panels, had an AMV play in the Nokia Theater (now the Microsoft Theater) where the winners of American Idol were announced, ended up working in the film industry as a paid professional editor, entertained packed rooms of 6000+ people, and made tons of fans and close friends that I still remain in contact with to this day.

In 2005, the AMV community wasn’t prepared for the advent of a new and upcoming website:

YouTube.

Now AMVs existed in a legal gray area where we were protected by fair use as our AMV work was transformative in nature, so the anime companies would usually turn a blind eye to them. However, the music industry was not so forgiving as we usually used full, unedited songs as we mashed up anime footage to the rhythm of the songs. Anime Music Videos.org, one of the biggest resources for AMVs on the web was hit by a cease and desist letter by the record label of Creed, Seether, and Evanescence forcing the .org to remove all videos containing songs with those bands, regardless of the lead singer of Evanescence being a huge fan of AMVs to her work.

People were also uploading our AMVs to YouTube without our permission, usually gaining thousands upon million of views, so we had to begrudgingly join YouTube in order to combat these unauthorized uploads. I started my first YouTube account in 2005 and gained millions of views for my AMV uploads.

After google purchased YouTube in 2006, things began to change as YouTube began rolling out “Copyright Violations” which was what Content ID was called back in the day. I remember getting my first copyright violation in 2007 and was forced to delete one of my AMVs from my channel. A year later in 2008, I got my first copyright strike from TOEI animation. Throughout the years, my videos would constantly get both copyright violations and strikes, but never hitting the 3 strikes needed to terminate my account. Sadly, in 2011, my first YouTube account finally bit the dust as TOEI finally gave me my third strike. I’ve tried to appeal various times, but to no avail.

Also in 2011, my interest and passion towards AMVs was dwindling down because I had wanted to finally start moving onto filmmaking and directing. I tried to convince myself to pursue filmmaking and do AMVs on the side, but I realized I couldn’t do both, so I had made the decision to finally retire from AMVs in 2012 and go out with my final video “Naruto Ball Z Shippuden: Heroes Come Back” which was a crossover between Dragon Ball Z and Naruto Shippuden. It went on to win over a dozen awards, including Best of Show at Sakura Con in Washington and my home con of Anime Expo. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to go out with a bang.

Even though I’ve been on YouTube since 2005, I was still very unaware of how the algorithm worked and what audiences liked, I was a huge fan of the Angry Video Game Nerd, The Nostalgia Critic (who was on blip at the time), Angry Joe, Mega64, etc. Back then, YouTube was just a dumping ground for my AMVs and never thought it was something people could make a living off of.

In early 2011, Josh had created the original Battle Geek Plus as “Wild Project Battle Geek Plus” which was a parody of Japanese sounding titles. He only recorded 5 episodes and asked me for feedback on them. He also said he was going to be moving to California from Indiana and asked if I wanted to be involved with BGP. My initial reaction was we were going to continue the current “Wild Project Battle Geek Plus” show and I would be a supporting character.

When Josh and his girlfriend (now wife) Heather came to California to do apartment hunting, we had dinner and Josh explained he wanted to do a reboot of the Battle Geek Plus brand from scratch, so I proposed that we follow the structure of The Nostalgia Critic’s site: thatguywiththeglasses.com where we would have a site featuring videos.

When Josh and Heather finally made the move to California in Summer of 2011, I had just won a $1500 prize from the Anime Expo 2011 AMV Contest and used that to buy our first DSLR camera, the Canon T2i which was highly recommended by our friends. We filmed several videos over the summer and finally launched the BGP site on October 1, 2011.

Our initial audience was just our family and friends at first, but we had our first semi-viral hit in Nov 2011 with our “Batman Arkham City Addiction” skit which got over 10,000 views overnight. I was still very unaware of how successful content creators released videos on YouTube since the only thing I knew from The Nostalgia Critic was to release a video weekly.

As the weeks went by into 2012, our videos were only averaging 60-100 views even after the success of Batman Arkham City Addiction. By 2011, the YouTube Algorithm had changed to cater to longer videos and the majority of our skits were on the short side. Sometimes we would get 500-1000 views if we got lucky, but the traffic was never consistent.

In early 2012, we got an email from former MMA fighter Bas Rutten who saw our “Boss Booten” parody videos and complimented us. Bas was awesome enough to send us free shirts and even invited us to hang out at the beach with him. This was our first real celebrity encounter from doing Battle Geek Plus.

In March of 2012, there was an exploit going around YouTube called “clickbombing” where people would use programs to massively click ads on videos to raise the revenue and would end up getting your adsense account shut down. This happened to quite a few YouTubers, most famously Markiplier’s first channel. I remember checking our adsense account and noticed we had earned several thousand dollars from a Skyrim parody video. Hours later, when I tried to log into our adsense account again, I got the dreaded “Your adsense account has been suspended” message. I’ve tried to appeal several times, but was denied each time. We stayed on the old channel to at least try to get more of an audience until August of 2012.

It was really difficult having to start again from scratch because out of our 2000+ subscribers we earned from the old channel, only about 200 of them followed us to the new one and less than 50 watched our reuploaded videos.

In 2013, I tried to apply to attend E3 with the Battle Geek Plus website and YouTube channel, but was denied. A friend of mine from the AMV community put us in touch with Team Kaizen Games who were able to get us into our first E3 and we’ve been great friends with them ever since. At E3, we were able to meet alot of developers and even had dinner with developers and executives from Eidos Montreal and Square-Enix.

Later in 2013, Screwattack used to feature user content on their front page and advertised several of our videos which brought us some good traffic. I had also decided to send some of our videos to the newly developed Smosh Gaming Alliance and they praised and awarded several of our videos on their channel.

The biggest prize of all in 2013 would be when Capcom was hosting a Ducktales Sing-Along contest for their Ducktales Remastered release, so I went to Disneyland and filmed a video there dressed as Scrooge McDuck. Not only did I win the contest, I was featured on the Ducktales Remastered Homepage and I was given one of the rare Ducktales Remastered Press Kits. Thanks to the Screwattack, Smosh, and Capcom promotions, we earned about 1500 subscribers about a year into our new channel.

However, because I didn’t have an adsense account anymore and I couldn’t monetize any of these new opportunities. I got a partnership with Maker for a 50/50 split which was a big mistake. Luckily I was able to break away from Maker in 2015 and joined the much better Screenwave Media MCN.

2014 was one of the toughest years of my life as I was fired from my previous full time job in 2013 and after getting nothing from applying to every job I could, I went with a temp agency that placed me at jobs only lasting from one week to one month. It was stressful for me that year because I never knew how long my jobs would last and if I would be able to pay the rent.

However, 2014 was also probably the most important year for BGP for the following reasons:

- We made our first business deal with PDP and Nintendo at E3 2014 to promote their Wired Fight Pads for the Wii U.

- We applied for the thatguywiththeglasses.com (Now Channel Awesome) talent pickup and were accepted out of 1200+ applicants.

We were still a small channel at 1500 subscribers and only getting 10-60 views a day regardless of the Screwattack, Smosh, and Capcom promotions from the previous year, but we were able to make our first real business deal and get a chance to work with one of my idols, The Nostalgia Critic months within each other.

However, all of this was short lived as 5 days later after our acceptance into Channel Awesome, I was let go from my current job which added alot of stress to my life. Unfortunately, we were still months away from our debut on the site, so my main goal was to not starve/be homeless/etc. to finally see our videos get posted on Channel Awesome.

Throughout most of 2014, I started to feel tightness in my chest and muscles throughout my body, regardless of keeping up my workout regime consistently. In October of 2014, I had finally felt my first full on panic attack which literally felt like I was having a heart attack. I called 911 and was immediately rushed into the ER. I was informed by the doctors that it was a panic attack and not a heart attack and there hasn’t been a day since October of 2014 where I haven’t felt tightness and numbness in my body due to stress. I’m taking medications now, but the main culprit of all of this was the stress I was feeling not being able to keep a job and wondering if I was going to still keep a roof over my head.

In 2015, I wanted to finally do a big crossover with all of the other Channel Awesome Producers which was the Capcom Bidding War. While the video didn’t get the reception I expected, it was hands down, the most beneficial video I ever did for the channel as it helped me get in contact with the rest of my Channel Awesome producers, it helped land us cameos in the TMNT 2014 and Hocus Pocus Nostalgia Critic reviews, and tons of other cameos with the other producers. I still remember how excited I was when I got my first email response from Doug Walker himself only a few hours after I emailed him saying that he was totally cool with cameo-ing in the Capcom Bidding War and getting his footage days later.

Shortly after E3 2015, Josh sat us all down and tried to explain why our channel wasn’t growing as fast as we wanted it to. It was mostly because we weren’t focused and were trying to release a different video every week. I always thought just as long as you had a consistent schedule, that’s all what mattered, but our schedule would be a different type of video each week and audiences weren’t always into different videos. Josh also explained we were a small 4 person team trying to make enough shows to become our own network.

For example, one week would be a sketch, the next week would be a Kung Kwon Todd video, then the week after that would be a Jimmy Buckrider video, etc. Even though we were posting consistently week after week, our content wasn’t one consistent show that our audience was expecting every week.

Josh saw that one of our old Let’s Play videos got a decent response, so he suggested we stick to doing a Let’s Play video every week and we called the show just plain “Battle Geek Plus” which was eventually re-branded to “Battle Geek Plus: We Play Games”.

The reception to “Battle Geek Plus: We Play Games” was modest, but nothing spectacular. I had alot of difficulty editing the show mostly because we agreed to keep episodes 15 minutes or shorter, but we had over 30+ of footage each time and it was *very* difficult to cut that all down to 15 minutes. Also, “Battle Geek Plus: We Play Games” was on a much tighter deadline since we could barely have episodes done ahead of time due to our different schedules.

In 2016, our main gaming review show, “Awesome Video Game Memories” was beginning to pick up some steam and Josh was also pushing us to have a podcast for many years. Seeing the feedback eventually made us decide to focus on “Awesome Video Game Memories” as our flagship weekly show and we also released our first “Waxing Pixels” podcast episode that year as well.

Josh also recommended that we start playing games live on twitch and I started streaming daily, but burned out heavily midway into 2017 trying to balance streaming and producing edited content.

After the reception to the Capcom Bidding War, I was pretty discouraged from doing another big crossover with my fellow Channel Awesome producers which is why we didn’t do one in 2016. I decided to bite the bullet and wanted to create a documentary based on our own experiences with the Nintendo vs. Sega war. I came up with an outline, a script, and asked Doug Walker if he wanted to be part of it and he immediately agreed.

I was incredibly afraid to release a big video on this scale due to the reception of the Capcom Bidding War, but to my surprise, the Nintendo vs. Sega video with the Nostalgia Critic not only received a massively overwhelming positive response, which was a complete 180 from the Capcom Bidding War. It became our most successful video to date which still gets us views to this day.

Now that it’s been 6 years since we began Battle Geek Plus and 20+ years since I started doing internet content in general, where do I stand now and what are my reflections of all of this?

I would have to say my internet content “career” in general has been alot like Kevin Smith’s (my favorite director).

DBZ Websites: Clerks AMVs: Chasing Amy Battle Geek Plus: Tusk

DBZ websites were my first initial claim to fame which got me millions of views throughout the years, AMVs while a much smaller community, was my most well received work critically, and Battle Geek Plus was my more experimental phase with mixed results, but nowhere near as well received as the previous 2 efforts.

I left the DBZ web site community mostly because of bandwidth problems in the early 2000′s, but I brought back my DBZ site in 2010 as an archive of all my work at http://www.3gkai.com

Alot of people have criticised me personally on why I left AMVs when I was at the top of my game and the main reason was to pursue filmmaking. Like “Why did you give up all that fame and fortune to do YouTube videos in an already saturated market?”. My declining interest in anime and amvs was already beginning to become apparent as far back as 2006 after the big YouTube boom with members of the AMV community quitting altogether to pursue other things and it was hard to stay motivated without the community I was used to. I was also going through that phase in 2006 where I was entering my last 2 years of college and had to wonder “What am I gonna do with my life?”. When I was managing the 4th Video Game AMV Project in 2007, I *really* felt the massive dissonance of working on that as opposed to the 3rd Video Game AMV Project in 2005 where we had a more dedicated and motivated group. An archive of the 5 Video Game AMV Projects I helped coordinate is at: http://www.vg-projects.com

2005 was the year I felt was the last really big year in AMVs in terms of community, innovation, and general camaraderie before the YouTube boom and every one I knew moving onto different things. After seeing AVGN, The Nostalgia Critic, and many other webshows, that was the path I wanted to start moving towards.

I still put every bit of energy into all of the AMVs I did from 2006-2012 and announced my retirement when my Naruto Ball Z: Shippuden video won the Best of Show at Sakura Con 2012.

When doing Battle Geek Plus, my absolute favorite part of any AVGN, Nostalgia Critic, or Angry Joe video were the sketch parts, so I wanted to mostly focus on different types of sketches with wacky characters based on video games.

Unfortunately, when we entered the webshow scene in 2011, the YouTube algorithm had already changed to cater to longer videos and reviews were still king, so we were kind of doomed from the very start in a way.

Shows like Battle Geek Plus Adventures, Kung Kwon Todd, Jimmy Buckrider, Boss Booten, Totally Tubular Tim and many other of the wacky characters we made are shows I could *never* pitch to anyone convincingly, so I always made those shows for myself because *I* wanted to see how they would turn out. I do admit that I cringe watching alot of my older videos, but I actually started rewatching alot of the older videos while vodcasting them on our twitch channel and had a good time watching them again because I remember I loved the “new-ness”, the excitement, and remembering the happy person I was years ago working on them.

There are many times I felt that I wanted to turn back the clock and just begin with reviews right off the bat instead of sketches, but now I wouldn’t trade those memories for anything in the world because of the great memories and excitement I had coming up with and working on them to see the finished products.

Every time I feel sad and frustrated due to the lack of views and growth, I always have to remind myself: I chose this path. I could have easily stayed on the top in the AMV community, but I would see AVGN, Nostalgia Critic, and many other webshows through the looking glass and say “I wish I could be like them.”. Now, my group and I are part of that.

Without the sketches and wacky characters me and the crew have created, Battle Geek Plus would not be where it is today. We certainly would have not been praised by Bas Rutten himself, get our first business deal with PDP and Nintendo, and get on Channel Awesome. Even though we were a much smaller channel back in the day, they all saw a potential in us through our work itself rather than the views and subscribers.

This is why my stance on views, subscribers, and especially *the numbers* have changed and they don’t mean to me as much as before.

Let’s be honest here. It’s not difficult to get views.

We can simply start making drama videos, calling out other youtubers, capitalizing on controversial topics, etc to easily get the clicks.

Or we can simply ride on the latest fads like Spider-Man vs. Elsa, and many of the other ones throughout the years like reply girls, Gangam Style, etc.

In all honesty, the content we make would have been far more relevant in 2007-2008. Who wants to see another “Mega Man 2 review” in 2017? Why not focus on all the newer games?

Because I wanna make the content that *I* want to make without trying to cater to the YouTube algorithm or trying to get those clicks. Yeah, people have done tons of Mega Man 2 and Super Mario Bros reviews before, but I wanted to explain my personal memories with them because they are my own and nobody else’s.

It’s *very* easy to manipulate the system in order to just get views, but I don’t want to do that. I tried reviewing newer games while they were still relevant in the past, but would always get far more traffic for videos covering older games.

I want to make content that I’m passionate about and want to be proud of. Audiences can EASILY see when you’re being dishonest and desperate for attention and relevance. I never want Battle Geek Plus to be the center of any drama or anything controversial. I simply came into this just wanting to express the weird ideas in my head rather than trying to be the next *big youtuber*.

I’ve been through the highs and lows of internet fame multiple times before and it’s *NEVER* easy to be in a big position no matter how much views, subs, and money you get. Everything on YouTube is dictated by advertisers and constantly changing algorithms. YouTube is honestly in a weird place right now where it doesn’t know what it wants to be. Back then, YouTube was a place where you could put your cat and family videos, hence why their old motto was “Broadcast Yourself”. But with the TV and Movie Studios constantly imposing their copyright rules, people abusing the system for clicks and views, YouTube is trying to move into being more of a corporate TV station rather than a place where people used to post videos for fun, so I’m very uncertain about the future of the platform.

I feel that I’m very fortunate to have gotten into content creation far before we were ever able to get paid for it. I never earned a dime for any of my DBZ websites or AMVs (except the $1500 prize money from Anime Expo 2011′s AMV Contest), but working on those led me to actual paid jobs and careers over the years. DBZ websites and AMVs were never about the money. It was always about just having fun and expressing myself.

When it came to YouTube and the promise of a monetary reward, I do admit I used to be really obsessed trying to make YouTube my living for a long time and even tried to make content catering to *their* rules with mixed results. I would feel discouraged and jealous at times saying “Why did that guy who filmed himself falling off a bike get far more traffic and a sponsor deal than the videos I spent hours on?”.

I’ve seen a ton of people trying to get into the YouTube game feeling all gung-ho at first and after the first few months or years without any progress, they immediately quit. It pains me to see people not live up to their potential because of the prospect of being able to become famous and make money was their major goal and not doing it for the fun. I had a friend who made really good comedy videos, but he quit due to the lack of views.

Personally, I’m just “wired” to make content and be creative. Playing games is fun and all, but I’ll go absolutely *nuts* if I don’t create something. I absolutely love the entire process of making content from the initial thought process to the finished product.

Do I still want to do videos for a living? Absolutely, but I’m not as concerned or obsessed as I was about it before. If it’s gonna happen, I’ll get there *my* way without catering to short lived trends, advertisers, and algorithms. I want to create a body of work that can still be evergreen no matter when you watch it. I want an archive and a library of work rather than quick videos nobody will watch in the future.

I’d rather do a review of Bubble Bobble than Destiny 2 any day of the week.

I got into DBZ Websites and AMVs just at the right time, but I entered the realm of webshows in 2011 which was already far past the prime date to grow. But, I don’t let that discourage me.

Battle Geek Plus is in a weird position on YouTube where we don’t get that many views on the initial releases of our videos, but over time, people begin finding alot of our older stuff. While the view count still isn’t huge for our archive, it shows that people are still finding our work regardless of it being years old.

I know we’ve slowed down alot in the variety of shows we do mostly for time reasons and my personal health. I really want to approach things from a more relaxed and chill perspective rather than trying to chase the shiny object that will get us the most views. I’m at the age where I really need to be more concerned about my health and don’t want to stress out over things like subscribers, views, and numbers that take away from me creating videos.

As we move into the final months of 2017 and the beginning of 2018, here are few things I have planned that I can disclose right now:

- There’s going to be a major step up in quality for the “Awesome Video Game Memories” series as we’re planning to make bigger, better, and more in-depth episodes. We’re also going to slowly incorporate alot of the classic Battle Geek Plus humor like we did in our Nintendo vs. Sega video in a way where it won’t disrupt the video. I know alot of people have been asking “When’s Kung Kwon Todd or *insert character here* coming back?” and even though our original characters haven’t been a main priority for a while, you’ll see them come back in many ways as we really step up the quality of the Awesome Video Game Memories series.

- We’re going to focus alot more on twitch streaming and also doing alot of special stuff to make our streams more fun and interactive. I burned out on streaming a few months ago, but now I feel that I’ve found a good pace for myself without feeling forced or mentally exhausted. The other BGP crew members are also planning on streaming on days that I won’t be streaming.

- We’ve moved our Waxing Pixels Podcast to a live broadcast on Twitch with audio only versions being released on YouTube and itunes. We also plan to have special events and guests in future episodes.

- Since the Battle Geek Plus Universe is so huge and expansive, there will be a huge emphasis on our “Universe” with our new channel trailer and special videos and events that will reference that.

- I’ve already spoken with Doug Walker and there’s going to be *several* collaboration videos with the Nostalgia Critic next year as opposed to only one per year. I also plan to do more collaborations with my fellow Channel Awesome producers and other producers.

As they say, the journey is always far more important than the destination and doing webshows felt like the fresh start from the bottom I needed after being on the top in the DBZ and AMV communities for several years. I do admit there were times I felt discouraged about my lack of growth, but nowadays, I’m grateful for every little victory and opportunity I’ve had with Battle Geek Plus. Starting from the bottom again has really made me appreciate the hard work that me and the rest of the BGP crew puts into every aspect of our production and now it’s time for us to scale things up to *our* liking and not for any trends, advertisers, or algorithms.

I’m still excited for the show more than ever. Not in the “OMG new-ness” way back in 2011, but from a more refreshed and relaxed perspective. I want to work smarter and not harder. I still want to do this as my living, but I realize even if it never happens, I still have a massive body of work for over 2 decades or more that I’m going to be really proud of.

As for wondering if Battle Geek Plus has been successful or not? Well, I work with some of *the* greatest content producers on the internet, work with various gaming/tech/anime companies, and got the attention of a celebrity like Bas Rutten. We get to go to tons conventions and events, meet new people, and BARELY any of this has to do with views and subscribers as our work speaks for itself. Even though we have small fanbase, I’m always happy to chat with them on twitter, our comments, and twitch. Whether we have 10 or 10000 subscribers, I’m always willing to take time out of my day to tell them how I’m doing and ask about how they’re doing as well.

Right now, I work a really stable day job that I enjoy, doesn’t stress me out, and pays me well to still invest in the show. I live in a nice apartment that’s a short commute from my job, and I exercise regularly to keep my stress levels down. All of this is a major positive change from 2014.

Battle Geek Plus sits at over 5000 subscribers and while that’s still considered small, it’s far leap from when we struggled to even get our first 50. I’m here to continue the journey to grow as both a producer and person with the simple mission of expressing the wacky ideas I have in my head.

Here’s the links again to all of my old and current work:

3G Kai - Ginga Giri Giri Kai: My DBZ and AMV archive: http://www.3gkai.com/

Video Game AMV Projects: http://vg-projects.com/

Battle Geek Plus YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/bgpawesome

Battle Geek Plus Website http://www.battlegeekplus.com/

Battle Geek Plus Twitch: http://www.twitch.com/battlegeekplus

My Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThatRyanMolina

BGP Twitter: https://twitter.com/BattleGeekPlus

Thanks for reading and stay awesome!

- Ryan

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faizrashis1995 · 6 years

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The Good and the Bad of Java Programming

There are not many technologies that can brag about staying relevant for more than 20 years. But this year, Java was voted the 5th most popular technology, eclipsed only by undisputed leaders JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and SQL. While it’s 18th on the list of most loved in the same StackOverflow survey, it’s also down the list in its most-dreaded ranking. Today, we unravel the many successes and challenges of Java — the time-honored technology with the iconic steaming cup-of-coffee logo, a language near and dear to many programmers' hearts.

What Is Java Programming: History and Impact

Java is a general-purpose programming language that follows the object-oriented programming paradigm and the "Write Once, Run Anywhere" approach. Java is used for desktop, web, mobile, and enterprise applications. You can out find out more about it here:

Java downloads

Java documentation

Oracle Java community

JavaWorld — popular portal for all things Java

JavaRanch — forums for Java developers

Java is not only a language but an ecosystem of tools covering almost everything you may need for Java development. This includes:

Java Development Kit (JDK) – with that and a standard Notebook app, you can write and run/compile Java code.

Java Runtime Environment (JRE) — this is a software distribution tool containing a stand-alone Java Virtual Machine, the Java standard library (Java Class Library), and a configuration tool.

Integrated Development Environment (IDE) — this is a set of tools that help you run, edit, and compile your code. IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse, and NetBeans are the most popular amongst them.

Java can be found anywhere you look. It’s the primary language for Android development. You will find it in web applications, governmental websites, and big data technologies, such as Hadoop and Apache Storm. And, it’s also a classic choice for scientific projects, especially natural language processing. Java was dominating mobile even in pre-smartphone days. The first mobile games in the early 2000s were mostly made in Java. So, it’s fair to say that Java, thanks to its long history, has earned its place in the Programming Hall of Fame. TIOBE index, one of the most reputable programming rankings in the world, uses search engine results for calculation. Despite the growing popularity of Go and Python, Java has remained at the top of the list for more than a decade.

TIOBE Index data as of August, 2018

It all started in the early 1990s, when the Sun Microsystems team began developing a better version of C++ that was easily portable, novice-friendly, and enabled with automated memory management. The research resulted in the creation of an altogether new language, and the name was picked from dozens of others yelled out in the meeting room. Today, the logo of a steaming coffee cup is the silent, universally recognizable symbol of programming. And, it’s no longer clear what came first — the programmers’ obsession with caffeine or associations with Java, which are now synonymous with coffee.

the evolution of java logosThese are just some of the changes Java introduced to the programming world:

Flexibility. Java proved that C’s procedural, manually-allocated, and platform-dependent code wasn’t the be-all and end-all. Thanks to Java, more people started adopting object-oriented programming, a commonly-accepted method today.

Applets. In the years before JavaScript, Java introduced applets, small web programs that provided interactive elements, especially useful for visualization and teaching. Although they were never used for anything more than simple animations, it’s what captured the attention of many programmers and paved the road for the development of HTML5, Flash, and, of course, JavaScript.

Test-driven development. With Java, TDD was no longer an experimental practice, but the standard way to develop software. The introduction of JUnit in 2000 is considered one of Java’s biggest contributions.

Benefits of Programming in Java

Though no longer the only officially supported language for Android development and, of course, far from the only choice for web programming, Java keeps pace with the alternatives. And, since that’s not only thanks to its respectable age, let’s explore some of the advantages Java has to offer.

Object-Oriented Programming

Java embraces object-oriented programming (OOP), a coding concept in which you not only define the type of data and its structure, but also the set of functions applied to it. This way, your data structure becomes an object that can now be manipulated to create relationships between different objects.

In contrast to another approach — procedural programming — where you have to follow a sequence of instructions using variables and functions, OOP allows you to group these variables and functions by context, thus, labeling them and referring to functions in the context of each specific object.

Comparing procedural programming and object-oriented programming

Why Is OOP an Advantage?

You can easily reuse objects in other programs

It prevents errors by having objects hide some information that shouldn’t be easily accessed

It makes programs more organized and pre-planned, even the bigger ones

It offers simple maintenance and legacy code modernization

High-Level Language With Simple Syntax and a Mild Learning Curve

Java is a high-level language, meaning that it closely resembles the human language. In contrast to low-level languages that resemble machine code, high-level languages have to be converted using compilers or interpreters. This simplifies development, making the language easier to write, read, and maintain.

Writing Hello World in Java

Java derived its syntax (set of rules and structure used by programmers) from C++, which is why you will notice that it closely resembles C code. However, it’s much simpler, allowing beginners to learn the technology faster and code more effectively to achieve specific results.

Java may not be as beginner-friendly as Python, but any developer with a basic understanding of frameworks, packages, classes, and objects can grasp it pretty soon. It’s straightforward, strongly-typed, and has very strict expectations that soon help guide your thinking in the right direction. Besides, tons of free online tutorials and courses won’t keep a novice helpless.

Standard for Enterprise Computing

Enterprise applications are Java’s greatest asset. It started back in the 90s when organizations began looking for robust programming tools that weren’t C. Java supports a plethora of libraries, which are the building blocks of any enterprise system, that help developers create any function a company may need. The vast talent pool also helps. Java is a language used as an introduction to computer programming in most schools and universities. Besides, its integration capabilities are impressive, as most of the hosting providers support Java. Last but not least, Java is comparatively cheap to maintain, since you don’t have to depend on a specific hardware infrastructure and can run your servers on any type of machine you may have.

Shortage of Security Risks

You may encounter the notion that Java is a secure language, but that’s not entirely true. The language itself doesn’t protect you from vulnerabilities, but some of its features can save you from common security flaws. First, compared to C, Java doesn’t have pointers. A pointer is an object that stores the memory address of another value that can cause unauthorized access to memory. Second, it has a Security Manager, a security policy created for each application where you can specify access rules. This allows you to run Java applications in a “sandbox,” eliminating risks of harm.

Platform-Independency (Write Once, Run Anywhere)

Write Once Run Anywhere (WORA) is a popular programming catchphrase introduced by Sun Microsystems to describe Java’s cross-platform capabilities. It meant you could create a Java program on, let’s say, Windows, compile it to bytecode, and run the application on any other platform that supports a Java Virtual Machine (JVM). In this case, a JVM serves as an abstraction level between the code and the hardware.

How WORA approach works in Java

All major operating systems, including Windows, Mac OS, and Linux, support the JVM. And, unless you’re writing a program that relies mostly on platform-specific features and UI, you can share — maybe not all — a big chunk of bytecode.

Distributed Language for Easy Remote Collaboration

Java was designed as a distributed language meaning that it has an integrated mechanism for sharing data and programs among multiple computers for improved performance and efficiency.

Distributed computing vs parallel computing

Unlike other languages, where you have to use external APIs for distribution, Java offers this technology at its core. Java-specific methodology for distributed computing is called Remote Method Invocation (RMI). Using RMI allows you to bring all Java benefits, such as security, platform-independence, and object-oriented programming, to distributed computing. Apart from that, it also supports Socket Programming and the distribution methodology of CORBA for sharing objects between programs written in different languages.

Automatic Memory Management

Java developers don’t have to worry about manually writing code for memory management tasks, thanks to automatic memory management (AMM), also used in the Swift programming language, and garbage collection, an application that automatically handles allocation and deallocation of memory. What exactly does it mean?

A program’s effectiveness is directly linked to memory. And, memory is limited. By using languages with manual management, developers risk forgetting to allocate memory, resulting in increased memory footprint and lagging. A garbage collector can locate objects that are no longer referenced by your program and remove them. Despite the fact that it affects your program’s CPU, you can reduce or prevent it with smart optimization and tuning.

Multithreading

In programming, a thread is the smallest unit of processing. To maximize utilization of CPU time, Java allows you to run these threads simultaneously — in a process called multithreading.

Threads share the same memory area, so switching between them takes little time. They are also independent, so if one thread faces exception, it doesn’t affect other threads. This is especially useful for gaming and animation-heavy programs.

multithreading

Stability and Massive Community

Java has survived to a respectable age, thanks to the community, Oracle’s support, and the cornucopia of applications and languages that keep running on JVM. Besides, new versions of Java are regularly released with new, interesting features.

Java’s developer community is also unmatched. About 45 percent of StackOverflow 2018 survey respondents use Java. It has an extremely large ecosystem of well-tested libraries and frameworks for any use case. Java is most likely to be one of the first languages beginning developers encounter in their studies, as there are 1000+ Java-related courses on Udemy and 300+ on Coursera.

Drawbacks of Programming in Java

Here are the cons you want to know before writing your next project in Java.

Paid Commercial LicenseOracle recently announced that they will start charging Java SE 8 for “business, commercial, or production” use starting in 2019. To get all new updates and bug fixes, you’ll need to pay by the number of users or per processor.

Today, the current version of Java is free and available for redistribution for general purpose computing. To prepare for the change, each company has to evaluate how much of Java they use and seek an alternative technology if the price upgrade promises to be too painful.

Poor Performance

Any high-level language has to deal with poor performance due to the compilation and abstraction level of a virtual machine. However, it’s not the only reason for Java’s often criticized speed. Take garbage collector, a useful feature that unfortunately can lead to significant performance problems if it takes more than 20 percent of CPU time. Bad caching configuration can also cause excessive memory and garbage collection usage. There are also thread deadlocks that happen when several threads are trying to access the same resource, and — every Java developer’s nightmare — out-of-memory errors. Although each of these problems can be prevented with skillful planning, they do add up and can cause different volumes of damage.

Far From a Native Look and Feel on the Desktop

To create a program’s graphical user interface (GUI), developers use different language-specific tools. Thus, for Android apps, there’s Android Studio that helps create apps that look and feel native. However, when it comes to desktop UI, Java noticeably lacks.

There are a few GUI builders Java programmers can choose from: Swing, SWT, JavaFX, JSF being the most popular. Swing is an old-but-reliable, cross-platform, and already-integrated GUI builder with various Java IDEs, including Eclipse and NetBeans. But, unless you’re using templates, you’ll notice interface inconsistencies. SWT uses native components, but it’s not suitable for complicated UI. JavaFX is clean and modern-looking, but it’s not very mature. Overall, choosing a good fit for your GUI building on Java requires additional research.

Verbose and Complex Code

When the code is verbose, it means it uses too many words. While it may seem an advantage when you’re trying to understand the language, long, over-complicated sentences make code less readable and scannable. By trying to emulate English, many high-level languages tend to make too much noise. Java, created to tone down the unapproachable C++, forces programmers to type exactly what they mean, which makes the language more transparent to non-experts but, unfortunately, less compact.

If we compare Java to its rival Python, we can see how clear Python code appears — it doesn’t require semicolons and uses “and,” “or,” and “not” as operators instead of Java’s “&&,” “||,” and “!” Generally, Python has fewer bells and whistles, such as parentheses or curly braces.

Conclusion: Where Is Java Used?

Most organizations use Java in one way or another. A wide range of use cases makes these applications almost invisible, which is why the question “where to use Java” is often raised. To finish our overview, let’s see which domains can be covered by Java:

Android apps. Despite Kotlin’s invasive growth, Java is still the de facto language for Android apps, which automatically turns a big pool of Java developers into Android programmers. While Android uses Android SDK instead of JDK, the code is still written in Java.

Software products. Apart from already-mentioned Hadoop and Apache Storm, Java was used to create Eclipse, OpenOffice, Gmail, Atlassian, and more.

Finance programs. Being one of the most demanded language skills in the financial industry, Java is used both on the server- and client-side to build reliable, fast, and simple websites. It’s also a preferred language for data simulations and modeling.

Point of sale systems. Many businesses use Java to create PoS systems, as they usually require platform-independency and a vast talent pool.

Trading applications. Murex, a popular bank management program for front and back connectivity, is written in Java.

Big data programs. Hadoop is written in Java. Scala, Kafka, and Spark use JVM. Also, Java gives you access to tons of tried-and-tested libraries, debuggers, and monitoring tools.[Source]-https://dzone.com/articles/the-good-and-the-bad-of-java-programming

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ramialkarmi · 7 years

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How the scrappy TED conference became a juggernaut worth millions — and where it wants to go next

TED, the media organization behind the popular ideas conference and video talks, is expanding.

The 33-year-old company has stayed out of politics for most of its existence, but as political tensions create a crisis of ideas, TED now has to figure out where it's going next.

The first stop, beginning this month, is a new TV show in India.

"So, uh, politics," Chris Anderson said as he paced across the stage in the Vancouver Convention Center. "Politics. Politics ... How do I say this?"

It was a Monday evening this past April, and Anderson was standing in front of a sea of attendees at the 2017 TED Conference, where nearly 2,000 executives, entrepreneurs, celebrities, artists, and scientists had descended for five days of thought-provoking talks. Anderson, TED's director, was doing his best to address the elephant in the room.

In the three months since Donald Trump had been sworn in as president of the United States, nearly every news story and water-cooler chat had been tinged with political rhetoric. TED, an organization that says it's set on remaining apolitical, was now thrust into the mix.

Anderson said he was sick of politics, to which he received raucous cheers. Then he said what could become a guiding philosophy for TED: "This week, we're not going to escape it entirely," he said. "But we are going to do our best to put it in its rightful place."

A company on the rise faces a new reality

TED started 33 years ago as a low-budget, in-person series of 18-minute talks. In the past decade, it's grown into a $65 million juggernaut. All around the world, TED produces talks (available to watch online), podcasts, and books, offers fellowships and grants, and gives little-known speakers the chance to become industry leaders just by taking the TED stage.

This month it's launching its most ambitious project yet, "TED Talks India: Nayi Soch," an eight-part TV series that will be broadcast in Hindi. It's TED's first non-English TV program, and it's expected to reach millions of people.

TED has hit an inflection point. The company was founded on the premise that fresh, innovative ideas can shape the future. But as social-media bubbles have made it easier to ignore ideas that don't appeal to us, an increasing number of people seem uninterested in stepping out of their comfort zone. Whether it's Trump's election win or the UK's Brexit, the world has shown signs of turning inward. TED's success hinges on that not happening.

Politics and TED can still be compatible

In the wake of October's Las Vegas Mandalay Bay massacre — the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history — political debates about gun control reopened and closed in a matter of weeks. But Anderson, seated in a quiet space at TED's New York City headquarters a few weeks later, maintained that no topic, not even gun control, was too sensitive for the politically neutral TED stage.

He recalled a recent trip to Vermont during which someone informed him that the state had one of the lowest murder rates in the US despite a high rate of gun ownership.

"Maybe having the argument [on the TED stage] given by someone who loves guns, has hunted, and gets the pleasure and the appeal of them" would work better, Anderson said, "rather than the nanny wagging their finger at you and saying 'No, you mustn't.'"

TED relies on a three-pronged test to determine if a talk is worth including in a conference lineup.

The first is whether the talk gives people a fresh way of seeing the world. Anderson's quintessential example is Barry Schwartz's 2005 talk, "The Paradox of Choice," in which Schwartz, a psychologist, suggested that people can be paralyzed by how much choice they have, not liberated by it.

The second is whether the talk offers the audience a clever solution to a given problem, or the promise of a better future.

The third is inspiration. The talk should express an idea in a way that compels people to act.

The test has come to be even more crucial over the past few years. In a press call ahead of this year's TED Conference, Anderson said that "ideas have never mattered more."

"We have this tool for bridging that allows any two humans to see the world a bit differently. Call the tool what you want: reason, discussion, sharing of ideas. It's actually an amazing thing that it can happen at all," Anderson told Business Insider. "The single most terrifying thing about the current moment is that we are throwing away that superpower and descending into more animal-like behavior."

A dinner party goes viral

When designer and architect Richard Saul Wurman launched TED in 1984, he called it the dinner party he always wanted to have but couldn't. Wurman united technology, entertainment, and design into one multiday event. He called it "TED." (Wurman is a fan of cheeky acronyms. Recently, the 82-year-old hosted a dinner party called EAT, wherein conversation had to center on envy, admiration, and terror.)

Wurman and his assistant organized the first TED conference for 300 of Wurman's closest friends and colleagues. If someone flubbed a line or lost their way entirely, Wurman, who sat onstage for every talk, would sometimes leave his chair and stand directly behind the speaker. It was his quiet way of saying, "Time to wrap things up."

Despite TED's unveiling of the world's first compact disc — quite the feat at the time — it wasn't until 1990 that Wurman held his second conference. Gradually, the event began to attract bigger names and bigger audiences.

"Steve [Jobs] would call me up at home and say, 'What stuff do you want at the conference this year as far as equipment?'" Wurman recalled.

Wurman sold the enterprise, in 2000, to Future PLC, a publishing company that Anderson had built into a media giant in the 1990s. Through his personal nonprofit, the Sapling Foundation, Anderson bought TED from Future PLC in 2001 for $6 million. The company has stayed under Anderson's watch since.

Under Anderson's stewardship, TED has grown into a bona-fide kingmaker.

"It's not an exaggeration to say my life very much divides itself into pre-TED and post-TED," Sarah Kay, a spoken-word poet, told Business Insider. Kay's 2011 talk, "If I Should Have a Daughter," has amassed 10.5 million views since it hit the TED site. "I'm very much aware that my career would not be what it is had that video not gone online."

Leadership expert and author Simon Sinek said TED has given a similar golden touch for his career. When Sinek's 2009 TEDx talk, "How Great Leaders Inspire Action," was uploaded to the TED site, it coincided with his first book, "Start With Why," which has gone on to sell nearly a million copies and has seen rising sales every year since the talk was uploaded. At 34 million views, "How Great Leaders Inspire Action" is the third-most-viewed TED talk of all time.

"All of our careers have been catalyzed thanks to TED," Sinek told Business Insider, referring to the site's top-viewed speakers. "When you hang out backstage at TED now, the anxiety is palpable. People truly believe it's this make-or-break thing for their careers."

Even people who are already famous when they hit the TED stage feel this pressure. Author and journalist Malcolm Gladwell gave his first TED talk in 2004. He chose as his topic the mystery of creating the perfect spaghetti sauce.

"I was very nervous, and in fact I never liked that talk because I lose my way halfway through," Gladwell told Business Insider. "It's kind of obvious if you watch it. To me, it's painfully obvious."

TED-driven fame doesn't always lead to positive outcomes.

In 2012, Harvard psychologist Amy Cuddy gave a talk called "Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are." It hinged on a 2010 study in which she found standing like Wonder Woman boosted testosterone and lowered stress.

Almost overnight, "power posing" became a life hack for millions. But as Susan Dominus recently reported for The New York Times Magazine, a movement among psychologists looking to highlight flaws in research has since discredited Cuddy's 2010 study.

The prominence Cuddy gained from TED made her an easy scapegoat, Dominus wrote. In the spring Cuddy left her tenure-track job at Harvard.

Getting bigger has brought new challenges

Anderson saw the TED acquisition as his big second chance to deliver these kinds of inventive ideas to millions, if not billions, of people. By 2006, he had broadened its scope so that religious leaders, artists, life coaches, poets, and other bright minds could join original stars like Jane Goodall and Stewart Brand on the TED stage. The son of two missionaries, Anderson also bestowed upon TED a subtitle: "ideas worth spreading."

TED is now a household name in educated, urban pockets of the US and beyond. At TED's home office, a counter projected on to the server-room door shows a live feed of the day's video views. Shortly after lunch on a recent October visit, the counter had already reached 1.3 million. The most popular talk — Sir Ken Robinson's "Do Schools Kill Creativity?" — has been viewed more than 61 million times.

But as it's gotten bigger TED has seemed to at times struggle to maintain oversight at its conferences and offices. Several attendees of the 2017 TED Conference said they'd been sexually harassed or groped, according to The Washington Post.

Casting a broader net has also invited critics who take issue with what TED has become. In 2013, Benjamin H. Bratton, an associate professor of visual arts at the University of California at San Diego, gave a TEDx talk in which he argued that TED doesn't actually inspire people to think or behave differently.

He called the platform "middlebrow megachurch infotainment" and suggested TED is complicit in "dumbing down the future." In a 2014 New York Times profile of Anderson, David Hochman called TED "the Starbucks of intellectual conglomerates."

Sinek defended TED's emphasis on simplifying complex topics as one of the reasons TED exists in the first place.

"That's the idea," he said. "If ideas are so complex that nobody can ever hear them, then what's the value to the general population? But if we can learn to communicate our ideas in ways that people can understand them, isn't that a good thing? Many academics hate TED because they're the ones who didn't get TED famous."

Giving videos away for free isn't cheap

The company's main TED Conference is held every year in Vancouver and remains its flagship moneymaker. Capped at 1,800 attendees — or "TEDsters" if they are regulars — the event features five days of nonstop activity.

Many academics hate TED because they're the ones who didn't get TED famous.

Titans of the tech, science, art, design, and entertainment world attend TED for the chance to adjourn, however briefly, to a brighter future. Access to this future isn't cheap. Tickets cost $8,500 and up, and the high price has rankled some who say TED is hypocritical for spreading ideas only to those wealthy enough to hear them. At the 2017 event, branded partner BMW let people test-drive new high-end models. Lululemon provided an indoor pod for meditation and yoga.

Anderson said he's trying to structure the 2018 conference so that more of a general audience can attend, perhaps through a lottery system. And he defended the cost of admission as a way to bring TED talks to a broad audience. "They're the people who are actually paying for us to spend literally tens of millions of dollars every year on a website that distributes these talks to the world," he said.

An evolving company figures out what’s next

Anderson's goal is to allow the 3 to 5 billion people expected to come online by 2020 to draw inspiration from TED. He called this digital migration "the most extraordinary social experiment we've seen in history."

"There just hasn't been a time when a girl in a remote village or a boy in a slum who is unemployed and angry and trying to figure out what to do with his life, can actually have, 18 inches from their eyeballs and plugged into their ears, some of the most inspiring speakers and mentors," he said.

Attracting that new audience comes with a new set of quandaries. It means thinking about how to bring TED's ideas to people who don't speak English, can't access technology, or may want to hear certain ideas at critical moments.

"There were a number of talks we shared in the wake of the events in Charlottesville," said Colin Helms, TED's head of media, referring to the August riots that took place in Virginia between white-supremacist groups and counterprotesters. "We're always sensitive to not taking a political stance, but we also have an obligation to share ideas that we think will empower and help people, particularly in times of need or the world is in a sense of disarray, wherever that may be."

Expanding TED also means considering future speakers even more carefully.

There will always be the marquee stars Anderson wants to get, like astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson (who has yet to accept an invite). But for the young person living in a slum, Anderson said, "How do we find the person who will speak to them and will give them what they need?"

The clearest sign TED is making good on its global mission is the December launch of "TED Talks India: Nayi Soch," its first foreign TV series. Broadcast in Hindi with Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan as its host, the series will air on India's largest TV network, Star Plus. The network reaches 650 million people.

Juliet Blake, the executive producer of the series, said the program would consist of eight one-hour shows, each with a different theme. The talks were developed with the TED team in English and then translated to Hindi for the stage.

Khan, one of India's icons, said the global crisis of ideas has reached India.

"This kind of show, at this time in the world, is an encouragement to people," Khan told Business Insider. "If you've got a simple idea, let's exchange it. Let's not get chained to the thoughts that are pervading or being talked about around us."

According to Blake, TED wanted to make a focused effort to emphasize equality in the Indian series, so the company appointed women to roughly half the lineup spots. Many of the talks become quite intense, Blake said.

During a talk on violence against women, "I looked at the audience, and so many of the women in the audience were crying," Blake said. When the woman finished her talk, Blake said, she rushed out of the control room and down four flights of stairs to meet her as she got offstage. The audience was on its feet. Khan was in tears.

"It started off as a brilliant talk," Blake said. "But it became something more than a TED talk. I think it will be life-changing for many women in India."

Future unknown, but exciting

As TED has grown into a public-facing behemoth over the past three decades, it's been forced to reevaluate what kinds of responsibilities it has to the people who catch wind of its ideas.

TED's role as global ideas curator comes with an open-ended future, and it's a matter of ongoing discussion inside the company, Helms said.

Even though the world is engulfed in a crisis of ideas, Anderson said people still crave rational, lucid insight into issues related to their basic livelihoods and ongoing challenges. He brought up the rise of artificial intelligence and wealth inequality as two examples.

"When you can have 2 billion customers two years after starting up a business, that's a recipe for a few people getting extraordinarily wealthy — and then what?" Anderson said. "What happens next? We don't have answers to that yet, so I'm definitely interested in that."

SEE ALSO: 32-year-old investor with ties to Elon Musk wants to upend America with a crazy utopian plan for the future

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nofomoartworld · 8 years

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Hyperallergic: Bagels, Burgers, and the Branding of Bushwick

Screenshot of a new Dutch campaign for McDonald’s, from TBWA\Neboko (all images by the author for Hyperallergic)

Yes, graffiti and hip-hop and bagels are authentic New York. And sure, McDonald’s is also a part of New York … though no more or less than it’s part of every other big city. If McDonald’s wants to sell bagels in the Netherlands as if McDonald’s bagels are a New York thing — uh, fine. America’s with you. But for McDonald’s to sell bagel–burgers in the Netherlands by tossing old-school graffiti and hip-hop and gentrified Bushwick and bagel-burgers into a blender, hoping to churn out the next baseball, apple pie and Chevrolet — uhhhh … we … uh … no. We have to take a stand. It’s 2017, so chew on this while you’re brunching, Bushwick: it’s the Bushwick Collective who’s bottled up your Bushwick vibe, added a soundtrack, and shipped it off to the Netherlands, all for the New York Bagel Supreme.

As Adweek’s Gabriel Beltrone recently reported, “the fast-food giant flew in a half-dozen street artists from the Brooklyn-based mural project Bushwick Collective, and is paying them to paint stylized versions of the sandwich on a series of billboards. McDonald’s is filming all this, and will turn it into TV ads.”

A billboard posted over a mural by the Bushwick Collective (2015)

It’s clear that marketers were hoping to capture some of that sweet, sweet graffiti flavor to spread on their bagels. People I spoke to were unimpressed with the four-minute documentary-style video (which was removed, possibly over rights issues —more on that below). Bucky Turco, who founded long-running (but now dormant) arts and culture site ANIMAL, has been a collector and followed graffiti for years; he even hosted a GHOST show in 2003. Turco told Hyperallergic: “The art is good; the campaign is horrible and an abomination. It also sucks that we live in a time where graffiti artists as good as GHOST and GIZ even have to consider doing commissioned work for the nation’s top cheeseburger maker. Maybe this will inspire their fans to buy more work; Instagram love doesn’t pay rent.”

People may buy more bagels in the Netherlands after the campaign, but graffiti and street-art fans are rolling their eyes, not seeing McDonald’s as edgy for the spots. A jingle about flavor is still advertorial at three minutes long, and a faux-vandalized billboard presents graffiti’s style but not its context. McDonald’s is consistent, corporate, and cheap, and so far, even with graffiti and hip-hop, the brand remains well within the margins of this well-defined space. As Beltrone points out, McDonald’s even adds cringey disclaimers to its own video: “All Bushwick murals are painted with permission of the owners. McDonald’s loves street art when done legally.”

The mini-doc introduces the six (male!) artists — Strider, Poem One, Sipros, Such, Ghost, Giz — as they open their sketchbooks, or draw, or paint a wall. (Note: on March 12, the music video and short film were removed from the Internet. Vandalog reported that several artists had not granted the Collective permission to use their work for an ad campaign and were upset to hear about that happening. Vandalog notes that some of the work featured was not even “Bushwick Collective” work. The Collective’s founder, Joseph Ficalora may now be facing angry artists and an angry client, if he represented the work as okay to film. Some definitely wouldn’t have given consent, in particular to McDonald’s, Vandalog wrote. I sent several questions about the project to Ficalora last weekend, and as of press time, he has not replied.)

Biiboards over Tina’s Restaurant in Bushwick

In the video, Poem One shows framed pictures of trains painted more than 30 years before the Bushwick Collective was founded. These remembrances — one artist mentions Bushwick “before gentrification” — are interspersed with beauty shots of murals, as Joe Ficalora, describes his five-year-old mural project. The narration reprises a role he’s played for press before: the project is about the neighborhood; Bushwick is where he is from; this is about love of the art. Really? Then, why all the promotion? Bushwick Collective leans heavily on its claims of authenticity. It even declares its legal status as a 501(c)(3) organization on its social media pages, as if this confers certifiable purity.

Oh, please.

Purity? In street art? Okay, sure, let’s talk about authenticity, Bushwick Collective, since you brought it up. It is true that Bushwick Collective is registered with the state of New York as a not-for-profit corporation. However, Bushwick Collective Studios is also registered as a corporation. This entity was registered first, as Bushwick Collective Corp., in April 2014. It filed for non-profit status sixteen months later — possibly after some criticism? “I thought that Bushwick Collective isn’t in the ad business,” Turco said when I asked him about the McDonald’s gig. “I also never trust the motives of an entity with the word ‘collective’ in its name. It usually never is,” he explained.

What makes it collective, exactly, has always been hard to understand, because Ficarola, a non-artist, is the guy in charge and artists involved in his collective don’t seem to vote as a group, elect members, or have much say over what happens to their work — how it’s filmed or used, and when it’s destroyed.

A wall piece by Anthony Lister

It’s not just ownership of the artwork that’s confusing, it’s how the Collective fits into the neighborhood that even locals don’t understand. From the beginning, many assumed Bushwick Collective was affiliated with Arts in Bushwick, because it produced events during that group’s weekend-long festival, Bushwick Open Studios. Bushwick Collective brought in food trucks and sold T-shirts and beer to another entity’s crowds. A small, self-funded, entirely separate organization did much of the work creating free events to bring the community together, while the annual block party attracted tourists, leaned on corporate sponsors, and grew into a professionally produced nightmare for many artists. Eventually Arts in Bushwick gave up the weekend entirely, in part to separate itself from the frat-party atmosphere cultivated by the Collective.

Just before 2015’s Bushwick Open Studios, billboards began to be installed around the neighborhood, which comprises adjacent residential and industrial areas. One was even nailed right on top of a mural. Suddenly, there were billboards everywhere, and to many, this was curious and surprising. I know a guy in advertising who called it out to me right away: “Of course you need murals,” he said. “They help the advertising blend in. Otherwise — just ugly billboards!”

Bushwick Daily took up the issue at the time and interviewed Ficalora, who, like many others, was unhappy with the billboards. Why was he unhappy? As Bushwick Daily noted, 16,000 people came to the Bushwick Collective Block Party that June. (Um … well … it was also Bushwick Open Studios, but ….) Did crowds come “for billboards or for street art?” Ficalora asked, adding, “their Instagram photos included these billboards as well even though the building owners didn’t want to participate or support The Collective.”

The billboards didn’t support … What!?

A random advertising sticker in the neighborhood

In the project’s early years, most artists weren’t paid anything for their work. They donated their time and supplied their own paint. The walls belonged to someone else, and the block-party was piggy-backing on, while not supporting another organization’s event. But according to Ficalora, it’s billboard companies who should support the Collective, because the murals boosted the exposure that the ads received? It’s tough to follow the logic.

For all my critique — and I have never been a fan of the way the project is run —Bushwick Collective offered some artists free walls, a luxury when legal walls are hard to come by. It’s true: exposure can sometimes lead to other work, can help build a reputation. The attention economy exists. For an artist, building a following and spending time in New York around other artists can be important. But the capitalist economy still sits there on top of the attention economy, and this is the system many street artists overlook in their gratitude for walls. Wherever artists are invited to paint “for exposure” only, there is usually some suggestions that they are giving a gift to the community, doing a good deed. But is that true? If rents are going up and businesses are opening wherever murals appear, an artist should ask: Why am I working for attention, while everyone around me is working for money?

The tour groups and hotel rooms and new restaurants and even the server gigs — an entire economy is springing to life in Bushwick, in part because Ficalora and his sponsors have used murals to birth a tourist destination. The art makes this hub appear that it’s growing out of what was already there, but really, this new ecosystem is being retrofitted into the old — the same way billboard companies buy space around murals. That’s how real estate-driven gentrification works. So why not get paid?

If we all, artists, critics and cultural producers, started treating work as work, it would become obvious to artists whether they are helping communities, or are instead in the real-estate business.

If it’s not cool to the Collective that billboard companies leverage artwork for exposure, it would be equally uncool for artwork to leverage authenticity to attract a whole new residential demographic — but that’s what’s happened in Bushwick. If we think of the Collective as a neighborhood developer, then taking cash from McDonald’s to send artists to Europe to paint billboards, then leveraging those billboards to market the brand seems like a win — to a businessman, perhaps less so to the artists. So we can close the book now? Bushwick Collective is a brand; it develops neighborhoods using art. It gets paid. So artists, get paid.

A mural on a business available for lease in Bushwick

Is that too blunt? In this year of obfuscation, propaganda, and lies from our leaders, let’s try not to lie to each other. Life is too short. I believe Bushwick Collective exists not to improve its community but to commodify it. Bushwick is becoming Brooklyn’s Times Square for the Tinder-date crowd.

I’m not the only one who credits Joe Ficalora and his artists with commodifying Bushwick; he does it himself. Complaining about the billboards in 2015, Ficalora told Bushwick Daily, “I made this part of the neighborhood desirable and now they are cashing in on it while doing nothing for the community.”

Here let me briefly digress on the weirdness of gentrifying a neighborhood while cashing in with McDonald’s. Photographer and writer Chris Arnade has invested substantial time engaging with people at McDonald’s restaurants around the country and writing about McDonald’s-as-signifier for The Guardian. Yes, the food is cheap in cost and quality, so even with free Wifi, people who have other options aren’t hanging around Mickey D’s. Who does that leave? Arnade says McDonald’s attracts — and, significantly, does not kick out — people who are homeless, people looking for a place to get high or to be high, myriad groups who arrange social meetups there. They spend long hours in McDonald’s because they have nowhere else to be, and because they like it there.

Arnade feels strongly that McDonald’s knows who its customers are and is cool with being what he describes as “de-facto community centers and reflections of the surrounding neighborhood.” His work suggests there are interesting discussions we could have about how we find meaning and community in spaces that are both public and private, and how McDonald’s functions as a community amenity somewhere between the two. Through this lens, McDonald’s appears to offer a real value to low-income communities — accessibility — that the constructed fabric of a neighborhood like Bushwick, focused on trendy restaurants and bars, does not.

I thought about Bushwick when I recently read about Delmira Gonzalez and her efforts with neighbors in Los Angeles’ Boyle Heights to resist gentrification-by-artwashing. Boyle Heights used to be similar to Bushwick — a large immigrant population of working-class families, close enough to a city center to be a target for developers who want the land. Neighbors there are fighting the changes that Bushwick has mostly halfheartedly fought. Small art spaces are opening, along with big-money galleries, as if all cities read from one script.

Boyle Heights, like Bushwick, suffered the same scourges of crime, drugs, gang violence. How did it come to attract big money from Beverly Hills? Ms. Gonzalez described for Link TV how “women organized to create safe passages to escort children to school … occupied known drug-dealing spots by setting up impromptu barbeque grills and serving free food,” and that “dealers, when interrupted, accepted plates of hot food before scurrying away.”

Neighbors persisted through bold, hard work for years. This sustained effort has built up a reservoir of resilience the community can tap as it fights gentrification. Under a coalition called Boyle Heights Alliance Against Artwashing and Displacement (BHAAAD), activists from groups like Defend Boyle Heights and Union de Vecinos confront what they call “the current crisis of evictions and abusive real estate practices in L.A.”

The Alliance points out that it’s not art, per se, that Boyle Heights is rejecting, noting on its website that “many artists and cultural workers in Los Angeles are sick and tired of being used in the process of gentrification and are seeking meaningful ways to refuse their participation in the cultural economy of displacement.” In other words, not every community aspires to a “Bushwick Vibe.” In fact, an art gallery recently closed in Boyle Heights, and locals consider this a win.

I wonder if Boyle Heights has a McDonald’s.

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