#when i pulled it up on hulu i forgot that it would already have the english subtitles on

[waterbearable]

yknow its never a bad time to rewatch parasite.

[levi-lover]

New Light Part: 1

College Levi x Reader(Modern AU)

W/C: 2.5

T/W: Pretentious Hipster Levi lol 

A/N: Levi is a moody English major who spends his free time reading at the local cafe and yes, I think that is sexy as hell. This is a slowburn piece kinda  inspired by the Hulu show Normal People! I love that show but I could never watch it again bc it breaks my heart too much lol. Anyways, I hope you enjoy! (Part Two will be up soon! & this picture is from Pinterest)

I’ve put all the parts in one list here:  New Light Masterlist

“I just don’t get it.” You huffed and leaned back into your chair. 

“Don’t worry, this stuff takes time to learn!” Hange looked at you earnestly.

The two of you had been studying at Maria’s Coffee for a few hours. Your genetics midterm was in a few days and you were completely lost. You met Hange on your first week, you anxiously walked into the lecture hall thinking this would be an easy pass to fulfill your science credit. Oh boy, were you wrong. Immediately, you were thrown into the depths of mitosis and chromosomes. The only good thing that came out of it was your new friendship with Hange. On your first day, Hange complimented your sweater and asked if they could sit with you. Hange was a genetics major so this class was easy, hell, it was fun for them. They offered to tutor you so you bought them coffee during your study sessions in return.

“Yeah, you’re right but still,” You said in between sips of your coffee. “How do you like this stuff?” 

“Oh, it’s fascinating to me, it’s crazy how we’re made up of tiny cells and in those cells is our human history but we can’t even see it. It’s like the world’s smallest yet most important puzzle.” Hange’s eyes lit up as they continued speaking. 

You listened and continued to drink your coffee. It was late but the cafe was still busy with college students hurrying to type their papers and study for tests. The lamps left soft yellow shadows on the cream colored walls. The cafe was homey and it felt like it was a cottage pulled straight out of a forest. From the back of the cafe, you could see the entrance. It was raining and people ran across the sidewalk with their jackets over their heads. You laughed through your nose.

“Hey! Are you listening?” Hange questioned. 

“What? Of course, I am. Science is the answer to everything, right?” You quipped. 

Hange rolled their eyes and went back to their textbook. You kept your eyes on the front door. It had been a few days since you had seen your coffee shop friend. The word friend was a loose term for your relationship with the dark-haired boy. Your relationship started one day when you were sitting in the spot you are now, it was late, close to 1 am and after downing two cups of coffee you needed to pee. Across from you was a small man holding a used copy of Slaughterhouse Five, he was dressed in all black and was munching on a muffin. You asked him to watch your stuff, he nodded and pushed his hair away from his gray eyes. From that point on, you developed a friendship founded on your mutual respect for privacy yet concern over each other’s well-being. It became an unspoken rule that this was the only place you would meet. Your attention returned to your work, if he wasn’t going to show up then whatever, he was just another stranger. 

“Hange, I think I’m gonna call it a night.”

“What?! Why?! We haven’t even gotten to the good part, wait until you hear about what happens to the amino acids during replication.” The same familiar look of excitement washed over Hange’s face. 

“Look as exciting as it all sounds, I’m gonna have to pass.” You began to gather your things when the front door opened. You looked up and saw the dark-haired boy. He looked as pretty as always with a beige tote bag draped across his shoulder, droplets of rain hung onto his dark strands. Next to him stood a tall, handsome blonde man who was looking around the cafe. His eyes stopped when he reached your table and he lifted a hand and waved at you. You looked at him confused. 

“LEVIIII!! ERWIIIN!!” Hange yelled and waved their arms. People looked up at them with annoyance. 

“Wait, you know them?” You asked.

“Who, those idiots? Yeah. I forgot to tell you I invited them to study with us. Levi promised to help me write a paper,” Hange said nonchalantly. “Shit! I should have asked you if that’s okay. Is it?” 

You looked down and felt your face redden, “no worries, it’s not a problem.” 

“I’ll introduce you to them, they’re buttheads but they don’t bite.”

You sat back down and looked at your notebook as the dark-haired boy and the tall blonde walked towards you. A bundle of nerves planted themselves in your stomach but you couldn’t understand why. You’ve known this man for a couple of months now, slowly building a friendship at your own pace. It was nice to have control over something in your life for once but life always has a different plan for you; it was time to properly meet the dark-haired boy. All rules are eventually broken.

You ruffled the papers in front of you and took another sip of your drink but it was empty. Shit, you thought. The two men were standing in front of you and Hange at this point. The dark-haired boy looked at you, his brows furrowed.

“Hey, you’re House Coffee,” he said in a monotonous tone.

The blonde man and Hange looked at him confused, “wait, you know her?” Hange asked.

You shook your head, “nope.”

The dark-haired boy looked at you confused.

“Well, kinda, actually,” You muttered.

“Huh, that’s cool!” Hange announced. “Levi’s a little bitch but you probably already knew that.”

“Shut up, Four Eyes,” Levi retorted.

The blonde man laughed, “my name is Erwin. I’m a Political Science and History double major.” He gave you a dashing smile and lifted his hand.

Levi rolled his eyes, “humble much?”

Erwin gave him a glare before returning his clear blue eyes to you. You chuckled and raised your hand to his. It was a firm handshake.

“My name is (Y/N), it’s very nice to meet you, Erwin. And it’s Levi, right?” Your head turned to the dark-haired boy and he blushed slightly. Hange and Erwin exchanged a look.

Hange raised their hands slightly and asked, “I’m confused.”

“When aren’t you.” Levi remarked.  

“Oh, shut it you. I thought you two already knew each other.”

You placed your hands around the empty mug, hoping it would stabilize your nerves. “Know might be a strong word, I guess we’ve seen each other here before?“ You shrugged and looked at Levi.

He nodded, “I agree, we sometimes look after each other’s stuff and talk about books.”

“Good to know. I’m glad Levi has someone else to talk to,” Erwin declared.

They pulled out two chairs and placed them around the table. Erwin pulled out his laptop and his binders, everything was color-coordinated down to the tabs and pens. Levi pulled out a yellow notepad and a beat up copy of On the Road and single black pen. He tried his best to act natural but was unsure how to act around you and his friends. He wasn’t prepared for his two worlds to crash, it wasn’t that he was ashamed to know you. He enjoyed your company but it was something that was special to him. He didn’t want to share those precious late night hours with anyone else but you.

“I’m going to go buy a tea, (Y/N) do you want anything?” Erwin said pointing at your empty cup.

“Uh no-” You were about to say before Levi interrupted you.

“12 oz house coffee, splash of soy,” He stated.

Hange raised their eyebrows, in all their years of friendship he had never bothered to learn their coffee order. Erwin was equally as surprised. You stared at Levi, unsure what to say.

“Alright, you got it,” Erwin said before grabbing your empty mug.

Levi and Erwin got up and walked to the front counter. Hange grabbed your arm and you looked at them surprised.

“How long have you known Levi?” They whispered.

“Uh, like I said, ‘know’ is a strong word but a couple of months. We just sit near each other and sometimes talk. It’s not a big deal.”

“I can’t believe Levi didn’t tell me he knew you,” Hange said in disbelief.

“Did you tell him about me?” You retorted

“No but still. If I knew my two friends knew each other, I would have set this study party together a long ass time ago.”

You shrugged and went back to looking at your notes. By this time, Levi and Erwin were walking back to the table. Erwin was holding a mug of tea and your coffee, Levi was holding a mug of tea in one hand and an apple muffin in another. Erwin handed you your coffee and you thanked him. He sat in front of you and Levi opposite of him. Erwin cleared his throat and asked, “how do you guys know each other?”

“We met in genetics class,” You responded.

“You’re a science major, too?”Erwin asked.

“No, I’m a humanities major but I still need my science requirement so I’m taking this class and majorly regretting it.”

“Hey, it’s not all bad. We’re friends now,” Hange nugged their elbow at you, you gave them a smile and nodded.

“What a reward,” Levi muttered.

You held back a laugh which made Levi smile, he hid it behind his book.

“How do the three of you know each other?” You pointed to the trio.

Hange shot up from their text book and exclaimed,“oh, (Y/N) you’re going to love this so it all started four years ago…”

It was their freshman year, Levi’s uncle had just dropped him off at the dorms and left him alone to unpack. Levi didn’t have much except for a suitcase of clothes, a bed sheet set and a small box of books. He started to put his clothes away in the drawers when the door opened and a lean, tall blonde boy and his father walked in, pulling a cart of the boy’s belongings.

“Hi, you must be my roommate. My name is Erwin,” he stood at the doorway awkwardly waving at Levi.

“Levi.”

“Hello, I’m Erwin’s dad, nice to meet you.”

Levi gave him a small smile and continued to organize his side of the room, it took about fifteen minutes in total. After Erwin’s dad left, Levi and Erwin sat on their respectives beds in silence. It took them awhile but eventually they bonded over their mutual love of Russian poetry. Over the next few weeks, they built a symbiotic relationship filled with chore charts and late night study hangs. Levi genuinely enjoyed Erwin’s presence, he was his first friend outside of his hometown. Erwin felt the same way too. He never had a huge opportunity to meet people since he was homeschooled until his final two years of high school. They had found a companion in each other.

The week before Thanksgiving break, Erwin convinced Levi to host a small gathering in their dorm. Levi hesitantly agreed and Erwin managed to get his hands on a weed brownie. They invited a few of their floormates and shared the goods and drank a single Mike’s Hard Lemonade that Hange brought. They sat on the concrete floor and waited for the weed to hit after thirty minutes, no one was high. One of their floormates, Zeke, took a whiff of the brownie and laughed.

“Erwin, this is a fucking regular brownie,” he glanced at Erwin who was tenderly sipping out of the bottle. Zeke’s roommate, Porco laughed.

“No, it can’t be,” Erwin responded. Hange looked around nervously and Levi glared at Zeke.

“Ha, whatever. This kickback is lame anyways. Let’s go,” Zeke and the others left.

Hange, Erwin, and Levi stayed in silence for a few minutes until Hange spoke, “I thought it was a good brownie.”

Erwin gave them a half-hearted smile and looked down at the bottle. Levi sighed and walked to his closet.

“Now that those fucktards are gone, let’s have a real party,” Levi said as he pulled out a bottle of Jack Daniel’s.

Erwin looked at Levi, shocked. “How long have you had that?”

“My uncle gave it to me when he dropped me off. As a going away present.” Levi shrugged it off.

The rest of the night was spent taking shots of whiskey and playing cards games, it was the first night of many.

“Wait, really? Erwin you bought a dud brownie.” You held your side as you laughed.

Erwin looked sheepishly at his drink. Levi had a smirk on his face.

“Yeah! Looking back at it now, it’s the funniest thing ever. But those other guys were jerks. I don’t remember their names now or anything but I hope they’re living horrible lives,” Hange proclaimed.

“I believe it and I hope so too.” You wiped a tear from your face and felt Levi’s gaze on you.

Levi had never seen you laugh that hard, he liked this side of you. He went back to notating his book but he couldn’t deny the feeling of warmth in his chest. The four of you remained in comfortable silence for a while. The coffee shop began to slow down as the clock ticked further into the night.

“This has been a lot of fun but I think I’m going to call it,” Erwin’s deep voice broke the silence of the table.

The three of you nodded in agreement and began to pack your bags. You watched Levi’s slender fingers gently put his belongings into his tote bag. His dark hair was getting long, it brushed against his cheek as he moved his body. You looked away quickly, you knew nothing could happen between the two of you but watching him interact with his friends casted a new light on him. Levi, what a name, you thought. For the past couple months, he was your secret friend, someone you could talk to without feeling judged because he was so removed from your everyday life but now, it was different. You both shared a mutual connection and of course, you shared the countless hours spent in this cafe.

The four of you made casual conversation as you exited the cafe. The cold air whipped your face and you tugged your scarf tighter around your neck.

“Hey, do you need a ride? I’m parked a block away,” Erwin asked you.

“Don’t worry, hot stuff. I’ll walk her home.” Hange winked at Erwin, Levi rolled his eyes.

“I live a few blocks away but thank you. It was really nice to meet you Erwin and Levi it’s nice to finally know your name.”

Levi looked down at the ground and a pink glow appeared on his face, “yeah, this was nice.”

You watched them turn around and walk in the opposite direction for a moment before turning to Hange. The air was cool and the clouds had parted, leaving open an endless sky peaking through the buildings and the trees. It had become a ritual for the two of you to walk home after study sessions since you lived a few blocks away from each other. Hange made casual conversation on your walk home but you hardly paid attention. You kept on thinking about Levi and wishing you never learned his name.

[ranma-rewatch]

Episode 13: A Tear in a Girl-Delinquent's Eye? The End of the Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics Challenge!

Welcome back! It’s once again that time for me to watch some more Ranma 1/2, in doing so looking at it with fresh eyes and a different perspective from when I was younger. We’re already up to episode 13, and with it the end of Kodachi Kuno’s introductory arc. I’m guessing this is going to be almost a full episode of fighting, but how good that fighting will be, I don’t recall. But by next paragraph, I’ll have rewatched the episode, and I can talk about it just a bit better. See you then!

That certainly was almost a single fight for the entire episode. Now, unlike the full episode fight against Ryoga, my summary is going to be a lot shorter. There’s a lot fewer moving parts here, and I feel like going blow by bow would be boring.

In general, the idea of the fight is that the combatants lose if they go outside the ring, and they get a foul (though the exact penalty isn’t made clear) if they hit each other directly without using tools or weapons. Besides that, there are no rules. Kodachi and Ranma both have new items thrown to them when they need it, but Kodachi is obviously the one who stretches the rules the most. Most of the fight is her pulling new insane things out of nowhere that Ranma has to work around.

When it comes to actual plot stuff, the first big thing is when Kodachi mouths off again about how much she loves Ranma and can’t wait to date him and stuff. Ranma gets annoyed, and Kodachi interprets this as Ranma loving, well, Ranma too. Kuno jumps into the ring at that (By which I mean Tatewaki Kuno. I know they both have that last name, but when I say ‘Kuno’, assume I just mean him), and demands to know if this is true. Instead of denying it or playing into the idea, Ranma takes a third option and says something that’s technically true, that he and Ranma are one in body and mind, because of destiny.

Of course, the two rich folks immediately interpret that in some serious ways, though exactly what they think that means isn’t spelled out. Do they think Ranma and Ranma bang or something? Anyway, a little after that, Genma shows up looking like a panda in the stands, carrying a kettle of hot water. Whether that’s for him when he decides he’s done being a panda or for Ranma to use after the fight, I don’t know.

The problem is, by this point, Ranma and Kodachi have entered the stage in the fight where they’re using their ribbons to grab stuff from outside the ring and hurl it as each other. Kodachi takes the kettle, and notices immediately how scared Ranma and P-chan are. Oh, yeah, Ryoga is still chained to Ranma, and he does what he can to try and make Ranma lose every so often.

Kodachi uses a pretty clever trick of slicing the kettle in mid-air to soak Ranma and Ryoga, and they change back in mid-air. Luckily for them, Akane saw that coming, and enters back into the gym carrying a fire hose, with water cold enough to turn them back into their cursed forms. It also means Ranma has to swim for dear life to stop from getting knocked out of the ring, but it works.

A bit later on, the show cuts to a group of teenage girls somewhere dark, and we get a nice little break from the fight as they chat amongst themselves. But when it gets back to the fight, Ranma is able to finally knock Kodachi flying, far outside the ring’s boundaries. But all she has to do is whistle, and the ring gets up and moves across the gym so she still lands inside it. Ranma quickly puts together what’s going on, and destroys the floor of the ring, exposing the girls we saw before, who run away.

Now there’s no place to stand except the four corners and the ropes, but Ranma is fine with that, pointing out that he has an advantage in aerial fights. Too bad that he forgot Ryoga is still attached to him, and his rival goes extra far in trying to shake him off. The chain is broken, but Ranma doesn’t have any tools left to fight with. So instead of getting a foul by just getting Kodachi, he kicks the post she’s standing on, sending her sprawling to the ground for a win.

After the match, she tearfully agrees to abandon her ‘present’ love for Ranma Saotome, and everything seems to have worked out great. At least, that is until later, when Ranma and Ryoga are taking a hot bath together. Ranma complains about Ryoga’s attempts to sabotage the fight, which he defends with a reminder that he wants Akane himself. Then he uses cold water to be P-chan just as Akane calls for him, leading to another case of Ranma running into Akane’s room and getting assumed a pervert as he chases Ryoga.

After that, Ranma gets back to back flowers from each Kuno sibling. He sees Tatewaki uncursed, and Kodachi cursed, so each gives the bouquet to deliver to the Ranma that they love. Leaving Ranma holding a bunch of flowers and having to contend with the fact that he now has two Kuno’s to worry about, long-term. Kodachi defends her continued pursuit of Ranma by saying she abandoned her ‘present’ love and developed a new one.

So, what is there to say about that episode? Well, a lot, actually. It didn’t necessarily blow me away, but I do think it was a stronger fight than the last time a whole episode was centered on a battle, since this one doesn't have nearly as many cutaways to unnecessary plot points. There was a short scene of just listening to the announcer describe the fight while we just saw outside the school, which felt a bit chief, but on the other hand I really liked the little bit we got with the gymnasts under the mat. Those minor characters got more definition than they necessarily needed, and it made the coming cheat more fun than the others.

This is also kind of a big first for the series. Namely, it’s the first time Ranma has fought someone who practices a strange, ultra-specific kind of martial art and did so while following all of that school’s rules. Sure, Tatewaki Kuno fights with a wooden sword, but those were all basically street matches, as was Ranma’s fight with Ryoga. But this is an official match, and Ranma obeys all the rules wherein and still wins.

That is something that will be incredibly common from here on out, in manga-adapted stories and anime-original stories. I’ve yet to see it mentioned in-series, and I can’t recall it doing so later on, but it’s generally accepted as canon by fans that this is for a reason. Ranma and Akane’s school, Anything Goes Martial Arts, isn’t called that for no reason. They are supposed to fight other styles, learn from them, and take what’s useful to use themselves. It’s a great way to add more moves to the protagonists’ repertoire, and get them into fights with silly fighters.

This specific fight was...okay. Actually, I feel like I’m a bit of a grump for saying that, it was good. There were some neat moves, lots of back and forth with stuff, it was enjoyable to see. It wasn’t anywhere near what I think this series can do at its best, but it was a good way to end this mini-arc. I do feel like Kodachi, as a character, doesn’t get the same level of badassery even her brother does from the story, and that feels kind of lame. It seems like, in general, Ranma 1/2 saves all the cool stuff for the guys.

To continue what I was talking about with Kodachi last week, I do think it’s really interesting how different she is in each language. It’s a strange case of part-translation and part-acting, but the english version of the character definitely hits different, and not in a good way. It’s actually making me reevaluate her a little, just because the version in the original Japanese is so much better. It feels a lot less like “she’s crazy!” and more “she’s a highly driven and amoral rich girl!”

This was a good episode. I am once again pleasantly surprised by this arc, and it’s raising my hopes that further stories will be better than I recall. As for where to put it in my rankings exactly, I actually think I’ll put it one step above the last single episode of just fighting, and right below that emotional episode about Akane’s feelings for Dr. Tofu. What can I say? I like the feels. That puts the current ranking at:

Episode 7: Enter Ryoga, the Eternal ‘Lost Boy’

Episode 12: A Woman's Love is War! The Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics Challenge!

Episode 9: True Confessions! A Girl's Hair is Her Life!

Episode 2: School is No Place for Horsing Around

Episode 6: Akane's Lost Love... These Things Happen, You Know

Episode 13: A Tear in a Girl-Delinquent's Eye? The End of the Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics Challenge!

Episode 8: School is a Battlefield! Ranma vs. Ryoga

Episode 11: Ranma Meets Love Head-On! Enter the Delinquent Juvenile Gymnast!

Episode 4: Ranma and...Ranma? If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another

Episode 5: Love Me to the Bone! The Compound Fracture of Akane's Heart

Episode 1: Here’s Ranma

Episode 3: A Sudden Storm of Love

Episode 10: P-P-P-Chan! He's Good For Nothin'

Now, if you’re watching this series on Hulu like I am, you might think the next episode is the first part of the Martial Arts Figure Skating arc. And while, wow, I sure wish it was, that is actually wrong. I don’t know why, but some of the arcs are in the wrong order on Hulu, but I’m watching the series in the actual order. Which means, instead of watching one of my favorite arcs in the series, the next episode is actually “Pelvic Fortune-Telling? Ranma is the No. One Bride in Japan”. My hopes...are not high. See you all...then...I suppose...

[lilithsgayadoptednephew]

Holy Hands

Fandoms: Shall We Date?: Obey Me!   Not Rated Graphic Depictions Of Violence F/M, Other Complete Work

Chapter List

Chapter 21

Asmo sat alone in the dingy living room. Satan, Mammon, and MC had left a while ago to explore the town or whatever. Beel and Belphie slept in Acacia's room upstairs, and Lucifer was still doing whatever he does in MCs room. Asmo's mind went wild places at the thought, he was well aware of the... ahem ...tension between Lucifer and MC. He wondered just what Lucifer got up to in their room.

Either way he was bored. He couldn't call any of his old flames for a good time because he was in hiding, and he couldn't bug MC like usual because they weren't there. He sighed dramatically on the couch but no one was there to see it.

What did he usually do when he was alone?

No he wasn't going to do that alone-activity, He did that already.

So what else?

Ah! The idea hit him like a train. How had he forgotten about spa day? He must really be frazzled for him to forget about his self-care rituals. He moved to the bathroom to see what kind of products the humans kept on hand.

Barging into the washroom he found it was pathetic compared to his sanctuary at home, but it would have to do. There was, however, an unwelcome guest.

"Get ouuuut!" Levi groaned at the intruder from the tub.

"You get out Levi, you've been here all day."

"Leave me to diiiiiie" Levi complained again.

Asmo approached the otaku, ready to physically remove him for daring to impede Asmo's routine. Then he noticed something wrong.

Levi looked...flat.

It was weird and hard to describe but the third oldest was noticeably not doing well. His skin was paler than usual and dry like paper. His hair was greasy and there were visible dirt particles in it. His eyes were dull as they stared unseeing at the ceiling.

"What have you done to yourself?" Asmo asked, incredulous that anyone could allow this to happen to their body. Levi just blinked slowly, one eye at a time. Asmo was out of his comfort zone in the human world, but he considered that it had nothing on the fish out of water experience Levi must've been having.

"Alright come on greasy." Asmo rolled his eyes as he made Levi stand. "Someone needs a self-care day a little more than I do at the moment."

"I wanna go home" Levi just responded quietly, staring at the floor.

"I know sweetie, don't worry Asmodeus will make you very comfortable" Asmo winked suggestively hoping to get a reaction. Levi just nodded seemingly without hearing. Dang he must really be upset.

He wanted to start with getting him cleaned up. Running the bathwater he decided to help Levi out of those smelly old clothes. Levi blushed but didn't fight it. After everything else, this might as well happen.

Levi appreciated what Asmo was trying to do but he didn't see the point. It was all hopeless anyway. He was stuck on stupid-normie-Earth and everything he'd ever worked for and collected had been taken from him. He was a human so he was going to die eventually too. Doing this was just prolonging the inevitable.

Asmo recognized that look. The one he saw people get when they'd neglected to take care of themselves for so long they forgot how. They forgot why they should even bother. Oh no he would not let this happen to his brother. All the brothers had a function, a job that contributed to the family and kept them moving forward. Lucifer kept them safe, Beel kept them together, Mammon…uh...Satan kept them sharp.

It was Asmodeus' job to make sure they never got like this. To make sure they remembered the beauty in themselves so they could see the beauty in the world and continue wanting to be a part of it

Looks like he'd been slacking.

Making sure the water was the perfect relaxation temperature he demanded Levi get in and relax. The bubbles obscured the view so Levi tried not to think about how naked he was. He tried not to think about anything. He had to admit the water was nice, so we're Asmo's fingers cleaning the grime out of his hair. When was the last time he'd washed his hair? When was the last time he'd had a glass of water? He swished his hands happily and felt the warm currents move across his skin.

Even as a human he was still Leviathan, and he'd always loved the water.

After a while he realized Asmo had left, he relaxed a little more knowing he was alone. He hadn't wanted to do this, or anything for that matter, but now he had to admit it was nice. He felt clean and his energy had come back to him. Just as the water started getting cold Asmo returned with a very fluffy towel and a handbag.

"Asmo uh…"

"Oh you're back to yourself" the younger brother smiled, Levi was blushing and flustered. It was good to see him acting more like himself. "Here", Asmo handed Levi the towel and turned around.

Thankful for the privacy Levi dried himself quickly, the towel was warm and pleasant. He wrapped it around his waist.

"Where's m-my clothes?" He asked nervously.

"Oh I had to wash that disaster." Asmo waved his hand dismissively "Follow," he strutted out of the bathroom expecting Levi to follow. Levi hadn't left the bathroom in 30 hours, he hadn't seen the point. Now he wondered whether following Asmo was worth it or if he should just dry out the tub and lay back down. He decided to follow.

He found Asmo in the living room waiting with his hand bag. Levi sat down and shot him a curious look. Opening the bag Asmo pulled out a tube of lotion, a hairbrush, and several bottles of nailpolish. Levi immediately regretted his decision to follow.

"We're gonna fix you up good, your nails could use a serious touch up and you're so dry you're basically Lucifers cooking."

Levi didn't have a lot of room to escape as Asmo set to work combing out his purple locks. The brush felt good on his scalp and he looked with strange satisfaction as dead hairs fell to the floor. The lotion wasn't bad either, his skin was pretty dry and Asmo's hands were gentle. Levi assumed Asmo would make something like this awkward and innuenous, but he didn't.

Levi was grateful, he wasn't very good with Asmo's jokes. He hoped they were jokes…

Levi was actually in a pretty good mood when they moved on to the nails. He was clean and warm and not so dehydrated. He felt hopeful, like if he could be happy in this moment maybe the other moments were worth it. He looked down at his fingers and watched his brother work. He didn't like his nails painted at first but the look had grown on him.

He was actually excited, they'd gotten so chipped he had forgotten what they looked like fresh. He was looking forward to being able to look at his hands and feel nice about them.

Maybe he'd stay in the living room a while, try that game Acacia showed him on the PlayStation, maybe find a new anime on Hulu...just stay where he could do things. Not the tub where he'd rot if he wasn't careful.

Oh look, the others are home.

[mrsmunsons]

4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 17, 18, 21, 22, 26, 27, 34, 41, 44, 49 gogogo!!!

4. are there any shows you wish could just be cancelled already? – My number one answer is Grey’s Anatomy. I officially gave up watching back in S10; but even now, it’s not remotely like it used to be, and should have ended years ago. ABC just won’t admit it because it pulls in money. And Ellen needs a steady paycheck.

5. what’s your comfort show? – I feel like I have a lot of them, particularly sitcoms like Full House and Boy Meets World, because they’re the kind of stupid funny I need when I want to watch something without effort. But actually, Sex and the City is another one; it’s a show you can just throw on.

7. have you ever been inspired to start a new show based on gifs or memes it has produced? — Many times. That’s actually how I got into Castle, mid S3.

9. what’s one show you thought you’d hate but turned out to really enjoy? – The Punisher. But I ended up “hating” it after S2. (:

10. what’s one show you thought you’d love but turned out to really hate? – GAME OF THRONES. For more than just S8.

12. have you ever watched a show just for a specific actor? did you enjoy it? – Yes, and yes. Mini story ahead: My mom watched The Punisher before me, and one night I happened to catch her watching an episode. I looked over right as Billy and Dinah were making out against the wall, said to myself, “is that Ben Barnes..!?” and made a note to put it on my list. Forgot about it, then finally watched it at the end of last year. It’s happened with some other things as well, but that’s the easiest one for me to remember because it’s so recent.

17. have you ever written fanfiction for a TV show? – Yes, and you know this ;) The first time I ever wrote anything for a TV show, and wrote with a partner, was when we wrote White Collar AU together.

18. have you ever drawn fanart for a show? – Nope. I would love to try someday, though.

21. Netflix, Hulu, or Prime originals? – Netflix. I’ve never seen a Hulu original before, and I’m… blanking on the Prime originals I’ve tried, right now.

22. if you could be a guest star on any show, which one would it be? – Oh man. I think I’d sell at least a piece of my soul to be on the same set as Tatiana Maslany. If only to breathe the same air. But I think I’d love to guest on a sitcom most of all. What’s better than getting paid for laughing?

26. favourite TV show theme song? – I love, love the Westworld main theme, but the entire score is phenomenal.

27. which actor do you think deserves an Emmy for their work on TV? – There are so many people whose work I enjoy, that of course I’m going to feel they deserve it, but it’s all subjective. That Keri Russell never won for The Americans truly is a crime to me. And I wanted to throw awards in Ben Barnes’ general direction for those tears he shed in 2x10 of Westworld. Not to mention the tears he made me cry with S2 of The Punisher. There’s more, but I’ll stop there.

34. what are your top 5 shows right now? – I’m not even watching anything current? Just reminds me that I need to get started on Nancy Drew.

41. if you could change 1 detail about any show, what would you change and why? – This is hard, because so many little things have annoyed me over time. I feel like I’ve now forgotten them all. I need to think on that.

44. if you could replace any actor on TV in playing their role, who would you like to play and why? – Well, if you want me to be 100% honest, I’d have to say I’d replace Teresa Palmer as Diana Bishop (A Discovery of Witches). She has the look, but that’s about it, for me. Don’t get me wrong, I like her, but there’s something missing in her performance. As for who I’d replace her with, I really don’t know–maybe someone unknown? But as sad as I am to say it, because I do love TV Matthew & Diana, I can’t help wishing they’d gone in another direction.

49. who are your favourite couples on TV? – I feel like I don’t even have couples anymore… Castle & Beckett (Castle), Lois & Clark (Smallville), Sutton & Richard (The Bold Type) are all very, very special to me for different reasons. I have special places in my heart for Jack & Kate (Lost), Carrie & Big (Sex and the City), and Niles & Daphne (Frasier), too. I’m all about the romance.

[kuriboo]

so. yugioh vrains is over. the last episode has aired.and with that in mind, with three seasons of this show, i’ve still got a lot of feelings about this show. especially that last episode. so i guess this is sort of the final thoughts and feelings post about yugioh vrains. not the last post in general about yugioh vrains. just the big opinions post, i guess, because there’s a lot.

yugioh vrains was good

yugioh vrains was very good. i liked it a lot. and me liking it a lot is the only criteria here for whether i’ll say it’s good or bad. i liked it! so it’s good.

i’m also very thankful that vrains has broken a curse yugioh has been suffering for awhile now. we’re talking about the dub. and no, i don’t really care that much that the dub censored some bullets, i think it’s funny, but i don’t care otherwise. this is just about general dub quality. zexal’s dub was bad. written bad quite a bit of the time, and a lot of the voice acting was just, not good. arc v, i can’t speak for the writing, because i only have seen like ten episodes of it, which is to be fair more than most people on this website, but the voice acting in arc v is atrocious, it’s worse than zexal. i’ve seen 20 episodes of the vrains dub, and look, i know. i know arc v’s main villain sounded like iago from fucking aladdin, i know that dub yusaku is voiced by someone who did voicework in zexal. but in 20 episodes of vrains, there wasn’t a single voice i didn’t like. the voice acting in vrains is good. and the dub is written well! it’s actually funny! i think i actually laughed more with the vrains dub than the sub for those 20 episodes. you know how the zexal dub tried to be funny every episode but it was just obnoxious? vrains was actually funny. the jokes are actually good. it’s been awhile since yugioh’s been dubbed well, and it was refreshing. the only thing i don’t like about the dub is that it only airs in canada and it’s impossible to watch in like any way online. i’m not done watching the dub btw eventually i’ll be able to watch more and i will watch more and i’ll be back here in this tag. if nothing else, i’m hoping it joins the other yugiohs on hulu or something when the dub’s done in like, two years. and if there’s a vrains manga i’ll definitely read it but like. shrugs on that.

the show’s got big megaman battle network, code lyoko, and the world ends with you vibes. i’m not saying this to knock vrains or anything. i love vrains. but if you like any of those games/shows, and you haven’t given vrains a chance, even if you haven’t watched any other yugioh series, i highly recommend it. the card games in vrains were very secondary to the story itself, and i think that went a long ways here, it worked well. 

so like, how was vrains, how did i feel about it

season one...season one was really good. in hindsight, season one had some good foreshadowing for season three. season one was probably my favorite season, though, but not by much. season one showed yusaku in school the most and i actually loved all the school scenes. revolver’s a really cool and interesting character, and while i’m glad he stopped being a villain after season one and went the sort of anti-hero route, revolver did make a really good villain. uncovering the mystery of the lost incident was fun. a lot of people guessed early on that revolver was both the person yusaku was trying to take down and the person he was trying to save, way before yusaku himself figured it out, but that wasn’t a bad thing at all. i’m pretty sure the show wanted the audience to figure it out before our protagonist, and the reward itself felt pretty rewarding. revolver has cool dragons, yusaku got a cool dragon, ai got insulted a lot, kusanagi was there, definitely a solid season.

season two was easily my least favorite season. bohman and blood shepherd kinda ruined it for me. thoguh, to be fair, blood shepherd didn’t do much. he gave us an excuse to get some takeru flashback, which we could’ve gotten through other means, and he sort of revealed judgement arrows and helped everyone be able to prepare for it, but like, anyone could do that. i hate blood shepherd a lot, but he’s easy for me to forget. i forgot him between episodes a lot, actually, and when he’d show up i’d have to be like, oh that asshole exists. bohman was worse because he was the main antagonist of season two. and he shouldn’t have been. bohman wasn’t a good villain imo! i feel like he wasn’t written super well. i can sort of make him work out in my head, but i don’t like him, and he kept just pulling ideas out that seemingly came from nowhere. he’d make these leaps that were hard for me to follow, and this was after lightning stopped messing with his memories. and since bohman was the main antagonist and because i really didn’t like him, it made it hard for me to enjoy season two. there were other good things in season two. takeru joined the scene in this season, and i love takeru a lot. i require apologies from everyone who didn’t trust my man takeru. lightning was a really good villain (lightning should’ve been the main antagonist imo), was very interesting, and i liked lightning a lot. and hell, haru was alright! i kinda wish they did more with haru. season two wasn’t bad by any means. we also saw the story of how kusanagi and yusaku met in season 2, and those were some of my favorite episodes of the season, along with the yusaku vs kusanagi duel. the story and message was good (though that doesn’t boost it up a ton given season 3 had the same messages) but honestly i just really don’t like bohman.

season 3 is very close to being my favorite season. this is the season of the protagonist having to face against their partner. it happens in like, any yugioh where the protagonist has a partner. vrains didn’t disappoint on that front. this season felt short! season two felt like it dragged on forever and season three felt short. it didn’t necessarily feel like it needed to be longer, when it ended, though. i just wish the show wasn’t over lmao. everyone got baited super hard like episode 1 when everyone thought queen would be the next antagonist after lightning + bohman and then she super wasn’t, which was kinda funny. most of hte time this season i was just yelling at ai to tell me the truth. i loved roboppy and ai this season. and im SO sad about what happened to them!! ai and roboppy were written really well, they made really good villains. i’ll definitely be making more posts about ai in the future. and also, that epilogue though!!! i didn’t get into it when i watched bc i was in a hurry, but!!! jin looks really happy, i love his haircut! and kusanagi is keeping the hot dog truck open so that yusaku still has a place to come home to! im gonna cry!!!! the knights of hanoi are all super good now and i love them. akira’s the ceo of sol!!! it’s what he deserves!!!!! and the whole takeru + kiku scene was really nice. everyone was screaming about that ship being canon now, which i guess it is? i didn’t read it as romantic, i read it as “kiku is a little scared about everything with vrains and takeru is helping her feel safe and secure, like, making sure she doesn’t fall off his hoverboard and shit”. i honestly read it more as takeru still being gay for yusaku while thinking about how cool yusaku is lmao. but i know yusaku + takeru will never be canon, i never thought it would be, and knowing yugioh, takeru + kiku im sure is supposed to be canon so like. it’s not a bad ship. i’m surprised how many people i see like that ship? but it’s just not for me i guess. im happy for yall who wanted this though. and that last scene!!!! we saw ai!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i’ll save thoughts on that another time i guess, including yusaku post that time skip.

i liked shima a lot this series. i honestly wish there was more of him lmao. i mostly wanted more yusaku + shima interaction, not in terms of shima finding out yusaku was playmaker, i just wanted the two of them to bond more. i wanted to see more of them being friends (read: shima forcing his friendship on yusaku and yusaku reluctantly goes along with it but actually likes it more as time goes on). and i wish we got to see takeru in the duel club at least once. takeru and yusaku both going to one meeting and yusaku sleeps through it and takeru is pumped and like taking notes and shit and shima is just like how can yusaku sleep through it this is the best!!!

aoi....i have mixed feelings on. i liked her a lot in season one, and i liked her a lot in half of season two. i really don’t like the blue maiden avatar (i did like blue girl!), and i preferred the trickstars over marincesses. i did enjoy her figuring out yusaku was playmaker though, that was a fun scene. i like aoi a lot still, love that girl, but after a point i stopped liking what they were doing with her.

they did ghost gal dirty. ghost gal was GREAT in season one. i loved her. and then they gave her a brother, her brother was shit, and everything about ghost gal got thrown out the window so that her character could revolve only around her shit brother. i feel so bad for her. i mean, i kinda get it? this whole thing’s about bonds, a lot of the bonds focused on were familial bonds (either in the blood family or found family sense, there was both). but ghost gal was already developing a sort of family-ish bond with akira and aoi by that point. i never felt like she needed anything else. she still could’ve done cool things in seasons two and three without having a shitstain forced into her life.

im madly in love with kusanagi and if anyone says a single bad thing about him i will stomp you to death with my hooves

i’m running out of people to talk about here i can’t avoid it anymore i’ll talk about blood shepherd now. i hate him. i hate him. he’s an idiot. i’ve yelled about this before and i’ll do it again. some shit happened to him because of malfunctioning ai or whatever. cool. great. now he has a grudge against all ai. that makes no sense. if im playing basketball and i get hit in the head by a basketball (by accident) am i gonna blame the basketball? no, i’ll either blame the person who threw it or myself for not noticing it and letting myself get hit. if i sprain my wrist playing volleyball am i gonna get mad at the volleyball? no, i’m mad at myself for messing up and playing in a way that caused that injury. if i get in a car accident because my car brake stops working, am i going to blame the car itself? maybe a little, but not as much as either the manufacturer or, if i recently had work done on the brake, the mechanic i visited. see, these things are all inanimate objects with no malicious intent or free will. since vrains is one of those shows, it may sound cruel comparing an AI to a car or a basketball. but the ignis (all generations, we’ll include pandor and bohman and haru in here for simplicitiy’s sake) are a special case. the ignis specifically stand out because they were made with free will. other artificial intelligence does not have that. it cannot have malicious intent. artificial intelligence cannot do anything it is not programmed to be able to do. it cannot hurt or kill someone, unless it is either programmed to have that function, or you’re looking at an ignis. and blood shepherd KNOWS THIS, because he became a hacker, and even REPROGRAMMED AN AI THAT WASNT SUPPOSED TO LIE TO LIE FOR HIM. along the way, he would’ve had to learn that somewhere. an ai malfunctioned and caused blood shepherd and his mom to get in a car accident. the ai itself isn’t to blame for that! that’s the fault of whoever made it!! or if the car was hacked to cause that problem, it’s the car manufacturer’s fault! you blame those people!!! and if blood shepherd went after those groups it’d be fine! instead he goes after artificial intelligences because he’s the biggest fucking idiot the world has ever seen. this does not make sense, even in the vrains universe, because again, the ignis are the only ai with free will and who can make their own decisions. any other ai cannot do something like this on purpose. the solution is to make ai better, not get rid of them. the solution is to improve security. not get rid of ai. at this point ai is so ingrained in society that you’re not gonna accomplish that anyway. oh, and i hate blood shepherd for what he did to ghost gal’s character. other than that, he was cool for two episodes before we learned his bullshit backstory, and he hasn’t done a single thing i liked since except he died twice, and i liked those parts. i fucking HATE blood shepherd. easily one of the worst yugioh characters ever. i could rant on about bohman, too, but im tired.

i don’t have bad things to say about a lot of characters. yusaku, kusanagi, jin, ai, roboppy, revolver, lightning, aqua, akira, earth, go onizuka, windy, i don’t really have bad things to say about them now that the series is over. i liked them a lot!!! they were really good. 

i guess the bottom line of this is, i wish yugioh treated its girls and its “joke characters” or “comic relief characters” better. and i wish bohman and blood shepherd didn’t exist, or were executed better. other than that, very solid.

if you were curious about my preferred ships here, yusaku + takeru is the best ship this show has to offer and it’s a shame more people don’t like it, and miyu + aoi is really good. anything else is like, okay, but i don’t love it. the show’s most popular ships are fine but not for me. yusaku + ryoken is okay but doesn’t really work in universe for me, i don’t love it but it’s fine, and it’s aight in a like real au setting. i don’t think there’s any ships i don’t really like, not like, other than the obvious. but these two are the best. 

all in all, vrains was really good. this show helped me through some real bad times, and will continue to do so as bad times continue. i love it lots, it holds a special place in my heart, and im glad i was able to watch it. im excited for whatever yugioh has to offer next, especially following this, because vrains is definitely one of my favorite yugioh series over all. it was a lot of fun and made me suffer and cry a lot and it was just...a good time. please watch it if you haven’t. thanks for going on this journey with me. i’ll probably end up talking more about bigger characters like yusaku and ryoken and takeru and kusanagi and ai more in different posts. ive talked enough here already

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S3 Ep 11 pt 2: Seto Discovers Vulture Capitalism

Where were we on this arc that ended up being hella longer than I thought it would be? Oh yeah, Last we left the crew, Tristan’s body, now possessed by Nezbitt, was just racing away with Mokuba. This kid gets abducted so often, it’s never occurred to me that anyone in this show would think this is weird. So, when Noah showed up to intervene with actual common sense it was a good bit of whiplash for me.

It’s like the same whiplash I got back when Noah attempted to forfeit a rigged game (for the first time in this entire series). Like I get that Noah is the villain, but how is the evil kid way better at this common sense thing than...a lot of people who’ve been on this show? Not that Noah’s always smart, of course, he still doesn’t seem totally with it on a lot of things (like interior design, which we will get to in a sec) but wow. Noah actually called out this entire show with “Really? Mokuba? Again?”

And so you know what that means? We get to see Noah’s sweet pad in this VR world where Noah could have created anything. Literally anything. To start, he made himself a fireplace with a tiny tiny stack of wood (pretty sure Noah might not know how fires work) and...some sort of...curse on the mantle.

Maybe the mantle couldn’t read the typeface that Noah wanted to use on the mantle?

The rest of the room is just this. Just this.

You know what this no-walls aesthetic SUPER reminds me of?

Pocket Camp. Like this just looks like a Pocket Camp set up to me. In fact...I’m pretty sure I can make almost this exact room in Pocket Camp.

Noah’s just inviting Mokuba over with the bare minimum of ugly ass furniture he needs to have a person over at his campsite he pretends is a house while he waits patiently for the real version of Animal Crossing to come to Switch.

Leichter has an accent that is very old-fashioned Americana and doesn’t wholly make sense in the context of him living in urban Japan, like there’s a whole story there I’d be curious about. But most likely, they were probably trying to cover up the fact that they were using the same 5 voice actors by having him pull out the Clark Gable impression.

And then Seto did not use a Blue Eyes as his deck Master. Instead he used....this guy.

This is a lot of guy to take in. I...I don’t like it.

During this duel we get a Seto Kaiba flashback--and it’s an honest flashback this time, no clones are going to show up and reenact this performance, this is just a straight up flashback.

We’re transported back to Gozoboro’s long buffet table. He really, really loves this thing. It’s like the only place he and his kids ever seem to hang out. Surprised Mokuba and Seto don’t need glasses after squinting so hard to see their own Father for so many years. Also surprised Mokuba and Seto even know what their Dad looks like up close.

Anyways, he sits down at the table and shouts really loudly so it can reach the other side of the room.

Also, just gonna bring this up, we’ve only seen one other guy obsessed with long tables--let me do some digging to a S1 cap, one sec:

Maybe this is just what evil Dads who wear Salmon do?  They get hella long tables to seat their 0 friends and just sit at one of the ends and monologue until something important happens. I mean y’all know how much I love this storyboarder but boy they have a thing for villains and long tables.

Anyways, back to Season 3.

(bro’s telling me he does not know about Thoroughly Modern Millie and like can you believe neither Hulu or Netflix has that musical? I mean that musical is problematic as hell, as is all Broadway but maybe I want to watch some 1920′s dancing.)

Anyways, cue Gozaboro shuffling in a comedically large pile of money on a very small pushcart. About 1,099,520,000.00 Yen’s worth. But the show will simplify it for the Americans.

This episode of Yugioh was made around 2002, and this just followed the .com bubble bursting in California. (and before that happened, it was preceded by a recession in Japan that affected the .com bubble quite a bit) For those here who were not born yet and do not remember this happening, this was like, pretty horrifying. I grew up in the Bay where 90% of everyone still works in tech, so I remember that after the bubble burst there were kids in our school who’s parents used to have great salaries and a steady income, who suddenly had to pick up shifts at Starbucks to get back on their feet.

So, it’s interesting that we have this kid’s show basically showing us point blank what Vulture Capitalism is and how it works. You’d think this business stuff would normally go over kid’s heads, but at the time, I think a lot of kids wanted to know what happened to their families but maybe didn’t understand it?

So Kaiba is gonna get into investing all of a sudden, which is kind of weird, mostly because it involved no playing cards. Also because this happened:

Yeah, what? He’s apparently not even adopted yet, which means Seto could still turn around and tell the News that he beat Gozaboro in a match but, I guess that old threat has aged out.

It’s inferred that Seto’s been living here like for several years now. You’d think this guy would list some dependents just for the tax cuts, but nah, Gozaboro just shoved these two into the gigantic 5000 sq ft closet under the stairs of his huge mansion and forgot about them for a couple years.

So, armed with money that is printed on single Yen bills and being pushed around Kaiba in a little tiny cart, Seto has to formulate a plan. Problem is, his business skills include a.) beating up other orphans b.) doing math pretty good and c.) playing cards.

When Seto is like “I don’t care what the company sells, just get me a company to buy” that’s like a straight reference to the .com bubble, but minus the complicated stock market stuff.

For the kid’s in the room that don’t know a thing about this era, tech companies were being created en masse, and because the internet was new and exciting, all of their worth was in their stock rather than in their products--if they even had a product. Mostly they just had big overreaching ideas they were pretty sure would make them all millionaires. But the product didn’t really matter since no one ever reads any numbers when all they plan to do is turn around and immediately sell anyway. They just assumed that if they put on the pressure, they would drive up the value, and would sell before anyone figured out it was all worthless.

This actually worked for so many years, up until people at the top all started demanding real money from the people at the bottom, much like how Seto needed 100 million dollars ASAP from an unsuspecting...whatever company this was. Vulture Capitalism at it’s finest, expecting exponential and unrealistic growth from any company, and if, the growth isn’t met, just selling the whole damn thing after driving every employee to the hospital for overwork.

Now, normally Vulture Capitalism is only if an investor buys a struggling company intending to sell directly afterwards, but since Seto made them struggle like immediately after purchasing, I think we can still call this that.

(And we still do this to this day, PS, we’ve learned nothing from the .com crash.)

This really bad child’s outfit is my favorite Mokuba outfit. I mean...it’s so bad. No wonder Mokuba was picked on so often as a child, wow. He’s like a late-80′s news anchor.

Also, I have NO idea how Seto got any money back so quickly. That doesn’t...totally make sense. But, this is a kid’s show and we have to simplify this whole thing into a sensible package. I mean there’s way more to the whole  .com problem but...this show wasn’t literally doing a .com...just a really heavy reference to it.

And much like how people valued stock more than what companies actually were, Seto’s value was a lot of the same. His worth to his Father wasn’t that of a son, it was entirely held up in potential dollar signs. To Gozaboro, Seto's nothing more than a small company he’ll extort straight into...a more emotional type of bankruptcy. Framed alongside the .com crash, this is sort of like, ah, I see what you’re doing, Yugioh. The way Seto was screwing this company was the same way he was already screwed. It’s basically all he knows, and it is a lot of heavy handed foreshadowing.

Anyway, Seto destroyed a company with 10 mill, which is nothing compared to the amount of money vulture capitalists toss around nowadays.

The Big 5 may have honestly done a better job raising Kaiba than Gozoburo since this guy acted as an advisor rather than a boss, but it’s a very, very low bar these boys have set and so far, very few adults have met it. All you have to do is just try and not kill them and you’re already better than all of Kaiba’s father figures.

With the exception of Roland, of course. Youknow, other than Grandpa, Roland is like the only good Dad on this show. Never thought Roland would look like such a shining star. Man, Roland better not screw everyone over or I will be so disappointed in him.

Anyways, the Yugi crew found a fully fueled truck from Soviet Era Russia buried in one of those warehouses.

They censor so much stuff that gives away that Yugioh is from another country, and they kept in the 3-wheeler pickup? As if any North American child would have any idea what they’re looking at right now? Maybe they just assumed we’d think it was sci-fi?

Also, then this happened?

...OK then.

Not sure how Satellite Laser works outside the context of VR. But, at least here in the VR Zone, we can send a Satellite Laser into space because...Space exists here? In VR?

This world is weirdly very small but also very big at the same time. It’s like Katamari.

Anyway, that’s all for this episode, next episode we find out if Kaiba will hack a laser for the second time in this series. Also we find out if Joey can jump a sonic-the-hedgehog broken highway with a 3-wheeled European-as-hell Pickup Truck.

Also...close enough?

Pocket camp really needs more yellow sleeveless puff jackets.

And here’s a link to read the recaps in Chrono order from Ep1 S1

[aman-acan-andacityplan]

Unicorns in Flight, Part 2

WeWork: or The Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn:

“When you call yourselves a technology company and when you actually build a social network to help further paint that picture, if no one uses it then you’re not a technology company.”

- Justin Zhen, Former WeWork Member

The newest movie on this list is Hulu’s documentary on WeWork. This documentary chronicles WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann and his co-working space company. As a concept, coworking is a decent idea. For small startups, a coworking office offers flexible, small spaces and a wide variety of shared infrastructure and amenities to facilitate information exchange and networking. Its a good idea, but one that quickly morphs into a bloated octopus of other ventures such as WeLive and and WeGrow. While Fyre and Theranos might be classified as frauds from the start, the tragedy of WeWork and Loot Crate, which I detail below, is that they are companies that could have had a modest, but long-term, base of success if they kept things simple and didn’t expand too quickly.

Another quality of WeWork and Loot Crate I’d like to mention is that they were kind of chameleons. I say that because WeWork and Loot Crate were not really tech companies. One can acknowledge that WeWork and Loot Crate leveraged social media and consumer analytics to cater to their consumer’s needs in a way that simply wasn’t possible over a decade ago. However, a savvy social media profile and cutting-edge consumer analytics are things most large companies engage in now to stay competitive in a fast-moving market. Couple that with a lack of transparency at the highest levels of management and you have a company destined to fail. One common trait of these failed unicorns is the belief that innovation trumps traditional communication and information exchange. The lack of basic communication in these stories is rather shocking and despite boasting about social media savvy and their responsiveness to new ideas, these companies could not comprehend the big picture in the slightest. In the case of WeWork, little was known about how the company overvalued its properties or that it was increasingly investing too much money in the acquisition and rehabilitation of newly acquired properties.      

In short, a novel idea or approach is not enough to keep a company viable, especially when the big fish can become savvy to your model and integrate it into their operations. Unfortunately, the corporate culture of WeWork was too invested in maintaining its coveted Unicorn status that it forgot to keep its eye on property management and maintaining WeWork as a key fixture in the new industry of coworking.

Loot Crate Video:

The last one on this list is not a documentary film, but I think it fits since it is a simple concept ludicrously stretched out of shape. While I’ll acknowledge that Loot Crates were never my thing, I believe that there is a kernel of a good business idea there. The only problem is the idea was never one destined for corporate greatness and once the concept got too big it quickly fell under the weight of its own ambitions, as the company declared bankruptcy in 2019. Today the company continues to exist in name only as it was acquired by collectibles manufacturer NECA.

The story of Loot Crate isn’t quite the “rags to riches to ruins” story of the other three cited here, but it is yet another example of how the speed of Silicon Valley is a detriment to small and mid-sized businesses. For example, using Youtube unboxing videos as a way to promote new products was a novel advertising concept and helped build the brand. However, if your company’s product line is getting stretched and you are unable to meet the expectations of your customers, then brand building becomes a useless and counter-productive exercise. As the quality of the crates fell it should come as no surprise that many Youtubers turned on the company. A company shouldn’t expect a lot of strong brand loyalty when the most you have to offer is a few cheap trinkets and the occasional Funko Pop.

In this case, the “move fast and break things” mindset of Silicon Valley startups was probably not the way to go for a company dabbling in what were essentially cheap toys. Had Loot Crate opted for a more conservative approach, it could have used its box profits to branch out into small-scale toy production of its own, highly specialized geek products to compliment its already existing box business. Now that Loot Crate has been acquired by NECA, it appears that Loot Crate is going in that exact direction, though time will tell whether the diminished brand has any pull in the overcrowded geek merchandise market anymore. Had Loot Crate played its cards right, it could have been at the head of a small, but emerging, market sector. As it stands now though, Loot Crate is a hollowed-out brand, another generic crate company among a raft of other crate companies.   

Final Thoughts:

The kind of unbridled optimism that seemed so prevalent in the late 2000′s has essentially dried up in 2021. By the end of the 2010′s, the public’s perception of the world of high tech seemed less and less about product innovation and mundane business practices like applied research and quality control and more about selling an experience or corporate ethos.

This is especially true in the case of Fyre, but I would argue all of these docs are about companies who sold an experience or feeling of belonging above all else. WeWork was not simply a real estate company, it was changing the face of community. Loot Crate was not simply a specialty crate company, it was a curated experience by and for nerds. Theranos was not simply a medical testing company, it was a strong, private advocate for better health outcomes. In all these cases, the more mundane qualities of managing a company were replaced by airy nostrums about innovation or changing the face of *insert business sector here*. These vapid assurances were then combined with the “move fast and break things” mindset of Silicon Valley, which ensured that any probing questions about company performance were quickly dispatched in favor of hitting the next big goal or endeavor.

While some degree of corruption is to be expected in every generation, the failure of these tech unicorns strikes me as different in a few meaningful ways. A lot of corruption tends to prey on naive and marginalized people in society. A company like Stratton Oakmont selling penny stocks to the little guy or a Televangelist bilking money from his loyal audience are scams tailor made for those who feel excluded from the larger culture. By comparison, the tech startup scandals of the 2010′s seemed to target and prey upon the hopes and aspirations of the elite. 

With the passing of Steve Jobs in 2011, America was searching far and wide for the next great American industrialist, someone who could make our lives easier and restore faith in the technocratic order. Fast forward 10 years later and the belief in “better living through technology” is in tatters and the future looks brighter only for a select few or it will occur in some soil far removed from Silicon Valley’s tech titans. In summation, I believe these documentaries signify more than bad management and executive incompetence, they signify the end of the modern dream and of the belief that human ingenuity will be enough to keep society moving forward.   

[iheartgod175]

2018 Netflix Bucket List Part 1: Animation Nation

After watching some of the original Idolmaster today, I felt inspired to tackle my VERY LONG OVERDUE Netflix Bucket List. Although to be honest, two of these that I watched were on Netflix; some of the others I’ve watched and/or dumped were on KissAnime, and the remaining ones were on either Crunchyroll or Hulu. So yeah...not really a “Netflix” bucket list in this regard...BUT PART TWO IS I SWEAR

I decided to start off with the “animation” side of things, since I watch a lot of anime and cartoons, and I felt it’d be good to talk about some anime (and the one cartoon) I’ve finished up. Some of them are from months (or possibly a year back), but I feel like I should still talk about them anyway ^^

So here we go!

Completed Series

The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls

I liked this one. It was cute, the characters were charming, and I found six of my favorite characters from it (one of them being the Producer). That being said, I can see why it and the characters were seen as bland by other iM@S fans; the show doesn’t do a lot to really develop its large cast. The main beef I had with it was its treatment of New Generations, the group with Uzuki, Rin and Mio. They were the three main characters in the beginning, but then they kinda got shafted mid-season and then suddenly came back near the end again. I do love them (especially Uzuki and Mio; and I’ve warmed up to Rin a bit), but I felt the drama that Mishiro caused between them was drawn out a bit, and that the ending was cute, but rushed. Despite its flaws, this show got me into The iDOLM@STER series as a whole, and I even had my brother interested in it for a while to the point where he started watching it--keep in mind that my brother’s a die-hard Love Live fan. I won’t say that it’s a good gateway point to the series, but I will say that it’s alright for an idol series.

Flip Flappers

My friend @infiniteglorias​ was watching this show about a year or two ago, and I watched it out of curiosity. I expected it to be a bit off beat, and boy howdy did I get off-beat. It’s bizarre, it’s funny, it’s got some pretty cool scenes, and an interesting villain backstory. It’s also super gay. Like, Symphogear-level gay.  And even that’s a stretch; Shirabe and Kirika ain’t got nothin’ on Papika and Cocona. But it’s a good show, even if by the end it got a little mindscrewy.

And I just found out that there’s a Blu-Ray box with an artbook and art cards. R.I.P. my wallet.

BanG Dream!

Back when my brother was annoying the crap out of me with Love Live!, I was desperate to find a good idol series. I had started watching Cinderella Girls, but my brother took to bothering me about that, so I left it for a while (and also because although I enjoyed the show, I found it to be slow in some parts). If I had to describe BanG Dream!, I’d say it’s like Love Live! meets K-On!. I didn’t think I’d like it, and I thought the title name was kinda silly, but I ended up loving it. It really says something when you like some of the music better than Love  Live’s...in fact, I can kinda thank this show for pulling me to other idol anime away from LL! and introducing me to other things like Tokyo 7th Sisters, The iDOLM@STER and most recently IDOLiSH7. I loved this show, and I can’t wait to see the OVAs for it. Oh, and I’m patiently waiting for the release date of Girls’ Band Party’s English localization! I might not be able to play it, but I pray it goes well!

LoliRock season 2 (cartoon)

LoliRock’s second season is leagues better than the first one. So much effort was put into making the five princesses stand out in their own ways. We got great songs, great outfits, Dark Talia and Dark Auriana, great episodes focusing on Carissa and Lyna, more worldbuilding, more Lev, great episodes focused on Amaru, and best of all, episodes focused on developing Mephisto and Praxina. That Praxina episode was a hard one to watch, because of how genuinely sweet her good side is--given events in the season finale only made me sadder. About the only gripe I had was Gramorr. He still didn’t do that much to interest me as a villain, although I have to admit his powers were pretty cool. At least he’s slightly better than Hawk Moth from Miraculous Ladybug.

Either way, if you want an excellent example of a great show for girls, watch this (and Ladybug too, if you want). You won’t be disappointed.

The Seven Deadly Sins

I’ve been meaning to talk about The Seven Deadly Sins. But now that I actually have it here, I don’t have much else to say, other than it’s one of my favorite fantasy anime ever (and my favorite happens to be the Record of Lodoss War original OVAs). It’s funny, pervy (but not too pervy, unlike some shows I know *cough* High School DxD *cough*), tragic, awesome, gory and likeable. It’s totally binge-worthy. And it’s one of the few shows where the ships are totally okay; I usually avoid shipping people with people who look like they’re twelve or younger, but the maturity with which the show handles it changed my mind.

And season 2 has been announced. Enough said.

One Punch Man

One Punch Man was great from start to finish. It was awesome and thought provoking for a show that parodies the Japanese superhero genre, and I don’t think I’ve ever laughed at a show this much (that is, until Blend S came along). Moreover, it showed how to do an overpowered character right. I haven’t read the manga yet, but I can’t wait for season two of this show to come out!  

Kokoro Library

I found this little thing when I was cruising around for an older anime, Cosmic Baton Girl Comet-san (a classic favorite of mine). I saw the opening and dismissed it as a bland show probably based of a visual novel. But curiosity got the best of me, and I decided to watch an episode of it, just to see if it’s as stupid as I thought. Similar to what happened with LoliRock, I took my words back. This show’s a cute slice-of-life show about three sisters who live in the mountains running their parents’ library. The interactions they have with each other and the rest of the town are what make this show. I admit, the first part is kinda slow, so I wouldn’t blame people who dropped it if it was boring, and you can tell this is an older anime from like the 2000s...but it has a great soundtrack, adorable characters, and a really sweet origin story. I would give it a shot and see how you like it.

Currently Watching

The iDOLM@STER (Original)

Move over, Love Live. There’s some new idols in town.

I came across the original iDOLM@STER several times while looking for Cinderella Girls content. I thought nothing of it at first, but as I was finishing the Cinderella Girls anime, I did some research, and learned that these girls were the original generation (similar to how Muse was the original before Aqours). I decided “Eh, I’ll give it a shot. I like iM@S enough anyway; I’ll check it out before Side M, at least.” Gotta say, I am so glad I did. The original iDOLM@STER is leagues and above Cinderella Girls in terms of characters, story, humor and feel (although I still kinda like CG’s score more). In fact, I’ll go as far as to say that I prefer this over the original School Idol Project, which, while I think is pretty good, didn’t feel that spectacular to me, which is why I rank it 5th on my favorite idol anime list. Similar to IDOLiSH7, I don’t have a Best Girl, because pretty much all of them are awesome...although I gotta say that Iori, Hibiki, Makoto, Miki, Takane and Chihaya are my clear favorites, and I love Producer-san, surprisingly more than CG’s Producer-san, who was one of my favorites as well.

If you want to get interested in the iDOLM@STER universe, this is the series you need to watch.  

Blend S

Blend S is great. I have never laughed so hard at an anime save for a few. And I love the character dynamic; even Dino’s crush on Maika isn’t really, really creepy since he’s not going borderline pervy like some other shows possibly would. I’m only three episodes in, but it’s been a great ride.

IDOLiSH7

If you can’t tell that I love IDOLiSH7 already, you haven’t seen my blog recently. Eight episodes in, and I’m in love. I can’t say much else other than that, but it’s right behind the original iDOLM@STER as one of my current favorite idol anime.

Glasslip

Glasslip is a little anime I found on Hulu. It’s about a group of friends who go through the trials and pains of first love during summer vacation...oh, and something about the main heroine, Toko, and the mystery dude, Kakeru, being able to see the future through objects--in Toko’s case, it’s through glass objects, hence the title. It’s supposed to be a supernatural romance, but think it does better on the romance, though; their attempts to explain how and why Toko and Kakeru can see the future comes off kinda flat. Honestly, the real reason I’m watching it is for the romance plot between everyone. It’s a bit of a breather between watching shows such as Fate/Zero and Gundam SEED (seen below).

Mobile Suit Gundam Seed (Remastered)

Yes, I realize this pic is from SEED Destiny. But hey, the pic’s cool ^^

Gundam as a series is one of the series I enjoy, but never really watched much of because I was intimidated by the universe. It is massive, and most Gundam anime take place in its own universe. Thanks to some help from my dad (who is a huge Gundam and Macross fan in his own right), I started watching the series again, starting off with one that I found the most interesting, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED. I had started watching it years ago, but I forgot about it. I’m glad I gave this another chance, although I must be careful, because the last Gundam I watched was Gundam 00′s first season, and I binged watched it for hours.

Fate/Zero

I forgot to mention that one of my friends, @infiniteglorias, is a fan of the animated Fate series. I also forgot to mention that my dad is a semi-fan, too. Between the two of them, I became interested in watching the series, and my dad got me into Fate/Zero. I love it thus far, and the characters are pretty awesome. I can’t really say much else about it other than that, honestly...other than that I’m a complete newbie to the Nasuverse ^^

Shows I Need To Get Back To

Senki Zesshou Symphogear AXZ

I was following AXZ, and then that delay caused me to get off track. I will go back and watch it and include it in my next Netflix Bucket List (hopefully).

Haruchika: Haruto and Chika

Haruchika was an anime I found when I was watching Shakugan no Shana (more on that below). I thought it’d be a high school romance, but what it actually is is a high school mystery with a very, very tiny bit of romance...and both our male and female heroine are going after their teacher, believe it or not. I don’t find it as interesting as Glasslip, but I feel that I should finish it on general principle before deciding it sucks. Plus, it does have a great soundtrack.

Hunter x Hunter

Hunter x Hunter was a show I started watching around the same time as Lupin III (more on that on my next list). The only reason I’ve put it on hold is because of the above mentioned anime.

Attack on Titan

Attack on Titan was one of those shows that I heard was good, but didn’t watch because of the hype (I swore to myself that I’d stop watching on hype alone after what happened with Sword Art Online and Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha the Movie 2nd A’s). I watched it with my uncle and we both really enjoyed it, going through like 13 episodes. I haven’t watched it with him in a while because we’ve both been so busy, but I have it saved on my list to watch it later.

Future Shows to Watch

Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card-hen

The ONLY reason I’m not watching this one is because I haven’t watched the original in years and I don’t remember much of the plot. *sigh*

Macross Delta

Macross is another love of mine. After the amazingness of Frontier, I’m going to give the more recent Macross a try. That’ll probably be after I finish either iM@S or Blend S.

Violet Evergarden

WHEN WILL THIS SHOW COME TO NETFLIX?!

Girlish Number

Girlish Number is another one of those shows that my brother annoyed me about, but I guess I’ll give it a shot to see what he really liked about it.

Magical Girl Raising Project

More dark magical girls! Fun! Well, this should hold me over until I can watch Washio Sumi is a Hero, at least. 

The Ancient Magus’ Bride 

This is a show I’ve heard was quite good. It’s got some solid production values, and it’s a fantasy, so I’ll give it a shot and see how it turns out.

Shows I’ve Dropped

A Certain Magical Index

I wanted to like A Certain Magical Index, but alas, I found it to be a bit tiresome. At least its magic system and characters are a sight better than The Irregular at Magic High School.

Shakugan no Shana

It’s a shame I had to drop this show, because honestly, I had liked it at first. But then came the incesty bits between the two new villains that were introduced. On one hand, the sister was voiced by Yukari Tamura. But on the other hand, I do not want to see a younger sister slipping her older brother some tongue. Incest’s one of the few things that will make me drop a show like it’s a plague, and that’s what I did with this show. I just couldn’t stomach it. 

That is all I have to say for part 1! What do you think? Are there some recommendations you have or do you think I should talk about certain shows more? Let me know in the comments!

 Part 2 will be coming soon~!

[tessatechaitea]

The Terrifics #21

I don't believe Metamorpho could be affected by the Anti-life virus.

Voltron was a syndicated cartoon shown daily on weekdays and not a Saturday Morning Cartoon, Mr. Saturday Morning Cartoon Himself.

I suppose time travel is confusing so I shouldn't be surprised that I'm confused but maybe I'm confused?

Let me preface my rant about this panel with this statement: I know next to fuck to nothing about cars. But, thanks to a few family members' obsessions with them, I do know a little something about Corvettes. I think.

These two panels first struck me odd because the speaker is excited about seeing "an '81 Corvette." Obviously car people know how to tell the difference between the yearly models of many types of cars. But I can't help thinking, "Who the fuck notices, specifically, an '81 'Vette?!" Maybe it's a fault with my severely lacking ability to recognize cars but if I saw an 80s Corvette, I'd probably be able to tell it was from the 80s but that's about it. Then due to time travel, the car, in the next panel, has already changed from an '81 Corvette to what I'm guessing is supposed to be a Sixties Corvette. Because we're traveling from the 80s to the 60s. But that's a fucking '56 or '57[Footnote 5]! Am I wrong?! Wouldn't a 60s Corvette have the dual headlights? I understand that a 1957 Corvette would still exist in the 60s but that would sort of ruin it as a marker of time travel by turning it from an '81 to a '57. But then again, this is a time travel story! So maybe I should follow the clues that the artist and writer are giving me and just think, "Oh! I guess they're in 1957 now!" I bet when I turn the page, something somewhere will simply state, "The Terrifics are now in 1957! Whoa!", and all my fucking ranting will be for naught. So, like usual. Judging by the looks of The Terrifics on the next page, I think I'm supposed to believe they're still in the Eighties and that the Corvette pictured is supposed to be an '81 Corvette? No, no! That's too much to swallow! But I can't stop thinking about it! Is it an error?! Is it a visual representation of the year in which The Terrifics find themselves? Is it....

That's not a monster! That's an insemination machine!

I can't tell what year the insemination machine is from because I've never needed to use one, old or new. Being that it's a giant robot monster, it could be from anytime in the last half of the 20th Century. During the giant robot battle that's exciting because it's a battle between giant robots, Plastic Man crashes into a venue that definitely pins the time period down to the 80s: a dance club slash arcade slash pizza joint [Footnote 6]. Just in case you weren't sure that that screamed "EIGHTIES!", there's a poster on the wall that says, "80's!" The rest of the issue is just a lot of fighting. Lots and lots of fighting. With Rocket Reds and evil Plastic Men instead of giant robots. I think Gene Luen Yang grew bored of writing 80s references and just turned the rest of the issue into filler to get to the 70s. In the 70s, The Terrifics turn into the Scooby Doo Gang and then the Legion of Doom take over the multiverse. The Terrifics #21 Final Thoughts: I'm still disturbed by the Stephen Segovia's drawing of a 1981 Corvette. I've stopped reading comic books for far slighter errors than that. Luckily for all the creators involved, not reading this comic book means I need to actually remove it from my pull list which means speaking to the local comic book clerks and probably looking them in the eye for a few seconds. I might not be up for that this week and then I'll forget and before you know it, I'm reading the next issue of The Terrifics. _____________________________________________ ¹ I don't actually write reviews. I vomit genius opinions in vulgar language such that people who think they're smart read them and think I'm an idiot and people who aren't smart read them and think I'm a pretentious twat. It's a curse! ² Not really. ³ I only speak the truth! I only speak the truth! I only speak the truth! I only SPEAK THE TRUTH! 4 I spent so long trying to find an alt code for a superscript numeral four that would work in HTML that I forgot what this footnote was supposed to be. I could not find one so I'm using the HTML SUP tag instead. That's why the 4 looks like a superscript number with gigantism. 5 I'm assuming the two vertical lines coming off of the wheel well are the signature body indentation which is usually painted white and gives that particular Corvette such a distinctive look. 6 You know. Just like we spent all of our time at in the 80s. All of us. All the time. It was totally a thing.

[zipgrowth]

Move Over, Laptop Ban. This Professor Teaches a 5-Hour Tech-Less Reading Class.

David Peña-Guzman starts off his Friday class at San Francisco State University like any other professor might: students file in and pull out their note-taking materials, and he opens his laptop to begin lecture.

But stay in Peña-Guzman’s class a little longer—maybe five hours longer—and things start to look a little different. For starters, it’s long. The course, titled “The Reading Experiment: The Power of the Book,” takes place every other Friday beginning at 9:30 a.m. and wraps up at 2:30 p.m. There is also a snack table in the room that students contribute to and share, and a low ambient buzz emits from a white noise machine at the front.

For most of the course, there’s no lecture happening at all. Students put away their technology and read for four hours.

“It’s a rediscovery of uninterrupted reading,” Peña-Guzman said last Friday while pulling up slides about the assigned readings.

Technology is allowed from 9:00 to 9:30 a.m., a non-mandatory part of class when Peña-Guzman frames the day’s reading. This week, it’s Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “Notes From Underground,” an existential novella following a narrator who retreats from Russian society and, as the professor describes it, “puts himself in situations where he will make himself more miserable.”

After touching on the book’s themes and providing historical context, the professor walks around with what students have dubbed the “Bag of Despair,” a recycled plastic bag where all cell phones are kept for the remainder of the class period. Students find a comfortable spot in the room, make a plate with snacks, and start reading. The professor turns on the white noise machine to block out some creaks and other background noises from the building.

San Francisco State student Shati Ayinde-Passmore curls up on a chair reading “Notes From Underground.”

After 55 minutes of reading, students can get up to stretch or chat amongst themselves for five minutes, then they continue reading until the next break. There’s also a pause for lunch around noon. The last hour of class is dedicated to discussing the reading.

“It’s been unexpectedly hard,” said Adam Tejeda, a student in the class majoring in the humanities. “But I found it easier to make make connections in the reading, versus when I’m reading in chunks.”

Back to Basics

It’s so easy to get distracted with email or text messages. It’s pervasive.

David Peña-Guzman

Peña-Guzman researches the philosophy of science, technology and other subjects. And he wanted to shake things up in his teaching after noticing how hard it was for him to not reach for his phone while reading—a habit that his students said they also struggled with. “It’s so easy to get distracted with email or text messages,” he said. “It’s pervasive.”

He was inspired to design the class after reading about a religious studies course at University of Pennsylvania, where a professor wanted students to try to experience monastic life across different religions. Among the rules were vows to to detach from their electronics, spend no more than $50 per week, practice celibacy and only speak to an assigned partner in class. He actually reached out to that professor for feedback, and said he “decided to adapt it with some changes to fit our students and school.”

On the first day of class, students read an article in the Guardian about the ways that apps, social media and other technology are designed to grab and hold on to our attention. But the course wasn’t designed simply to digitally detox; it also intends to reflect the course’s focus on existentialism. “Existential thinking is partly about not fleeing from a task at hand, and deep reflection,” Peña-Guzman said.

Since the semester started, the professor has heard from fellow faculty members curious about the course. One asked via email whether the 5-hour block allotted for the class was a typo.

David Peña-Guzman provides cultural and historical framing before students begin reading. (Photo: Sydney Johnson)

One question he often gets is: How do you assess such a course? His answer is simply class participation, plus in-class and take-home writing assignments. For this week’s class, students were given a prompt: “What is the central character's highest virtue? What makes this extremely unlikeable character virtuous in his own way?” Using evidence from the text, the students will write a short piece answering that question.

Tech-No?

Debates over whether or not students should be allowed to use technology in class have bubbled for years. Some faculty members point to research showing how laptops can be more of a distraction than a learning enabler. Purdue University even started blocking streaming websites such as Netflix, HBO, Hulu and Pandora.

But others say banning laptops can be counterproductive, arguing these devices can create opportunity for students to discover more information during class or collaborate. And that certain tools and technologies are necessary for learners who struggle in a traditional lecture format.

Adam Tejeda (left) and Joelle Thomas (right). (Photos: Sydney Johnson)

Joelle Thomas, a master’s student in the reading class, teaches a course at the university, called “Values in American Life,” which looks at different types of art forms across American history. She encourages students to bring laptops, tablets or cell phones “so that they can get a closer look at digital images or follow along with their lyrics,” Thomas said.

But she likes the alternative approach to learning in Peña-Guzman’s class. “Reading at home, it gets hard to focus. You get an email or a text and it’s hard to get back into it,” said Thomas. “This class helps me get through that.”

Peña-Guzman’s reading course sounds like an extreme version of the tech-less side of the debate. But that’s not the case. “I’m by no means a luddite who thinks tech should be kept outside society or the academy,” he said. “But I do have concerns about making sure it’s us who are determining what place tech has in our lives, rather than some external force, and that’s tricky.”

I think it’s rude to pull out your phone in class, so I align with that.

Daylan Buchanan

He also points out that banning technology can disproportionately hurt groups of students. “When the syllabus says no laptops unless you have a disability, it automatically sort of outs those students,” he said. “This is also a [socioeconomic] class issue. A lot of students might not have resources to print out all the books or materials, so they rely on their phone to access course content.”

The professor sent an email to students before the course to ask about any concerns with the format or if anyone needed assistance purchasing the books. “If a student needs a screen or technology, we would get clever. It wouldn’t be an issue at all,” he said. “A ban on technology should never extend to that degree.”

Since the course started, there have been times when Peña-Guzman forgot to collect students’ phones—so they reminded him. And the professor acknowledges there is a selection bias with which students signed up for the class.

Daylan Buchanan, a humanities major in the class, has had other professors adamant about putting technology away, calling it a distraction and asserting that handwriting can help retain information better. “I think it’s rude to pull out your phone in class, so I align with that,” says Buchanan. “But this class is an experiment in training to not divert our attention, and instilling a relationship with reading again.”

Students had plenty of concerns going into the course, too. Some were said they were afraid they couldn’t maintain attention to read for four hours, others said were worried about being the last one to finish, or not having enough to say about it during the discussion period.

Peña-Guzman shared many of those feelings. So on the first day that the class met, the professor confronted their fears head-on, talking with students directly about the concerns they all had going into it. “I made it clear to students that this is not a race,” he said. “If you only get through half, I will see the class as a success at least in terms of its fundamental objective.” Students are encouraged to finish reading at home.

There are other challenges. Long course hours on a Friday may not be a viable option for students navigating busy schedules. San Francisco State is also a commuter campus, which could make driving a long distance to read seem unfeasible.

Peña-Guzman has made some tweaks to the course already, like adding in the five-minute breaks. And he’s optimistic that the course will be offered again this year. In the meantime, the course will continue to evolve.

“We are learning as we go,” he said. Shortly after, Peña-Guzman hit a small glitch with his slideshow, and students quickly chimed in with a solution. The professor joked: “See, that’s why I don’t use technology.”

Move Over, Laptop Ban. This Professor Teaches a 5-Hour Tech-Less Reading Class. published first on https://medium.com/@GetNewDLBusiness

[canaryatlaw]

alright I should actually get to writing this and not just waste time on my computer. of course I just realized I didn’t take my meds and they have not been kicking in over the last hour which means it’ll take longer for me to fall asleep so that’s fun. but yeah, today was pretty good? Last night before I fell asleep I remembered today was small group sign ups and small group sign ups are basically a free for all whoever signs up for the group they want first gets in, and they fill up very fast and there are waiting lists, it’s this whole big thing, so when this occurred to me last night I changed my alarm title from “church” to “SMALL GROUP SIGNUPS NOW” so I would remember it in the morning, and I did, so upon waking up I spent like five minutes sitting on my bed before I did anything else and signed up for small group. I’m always looking at their “young adult” groups because sometimes they have like a singles group but nothing there looked promising so I just went with the international group I’ve been with for a while (despite not actually being international, but they like me so it’s okay) because they’re my friends and we go out and get food every other week which is always fun. but yeah, I had woken up to my alarm at 8 and gotten ready for church. Made it on an 8:41 bus, which put me on a pretty good schedule time wise, I thought I might be early but it was also like really fucking cold out (like 10 degrees) which probably made things more difficult so I ended up getting there just on time. Service was good, it always is, we had one of the church leader ladies speaking who is always really good of course and this past summer I found out she was one of the first accusers in the sexual abuse scandal that recently pretty much obliterated the pastoral staff of a nearby mega-church (and I mean like, really fucking huge) which is information I pretty much just stumbled across on the internet and I know she mostly wants to be past that so I just file it away as mental information for now. I managed to duck out right as the service ended and before everyone started leaving to get to the kids volunteer lounge where we had our little sending off powwow before the last service. We weren’t expecting all that many in the last service so I wasn’t very concerned, and things went pretty smoothly really. I was with another girl who was around my age-ish maybe a little younger and one of my mom-friends (her little girl used to be in the babies room but I think she’s like 3 now) who ended up going over to preschool because they needed more help and we were very much under control lol. We had one girl that wouldn’t stop crying but we ended up texting her mom fairly early on (wasn’t my decision, but it was probably time) so then we didn’t have to worry about her. I had one little girl who’s been in there a few times that the other girl couldn't get to stop crying so she handed her over to me (we do that, sometimes a different person just does the trick) and I got her to stop crying fairly quickly, and then I thought she was going to cling to me the whole time but I was actually able to put her down and she crawled around and pulled herself up on absolutely everything (she was like 9 months, so right at that stage where they’re so close to being able to stand and they have to do it constantly) and we threw balls from the ball pit around the room, it was very fun, there was another kid or two that were just generally around and behaving well, the son of the kid’s ministry leaders was in there but he’s always well-behaved. So once service ended I started journeying home, I ended up with about a 15 minute wait on the next bus after getting off the train and it was the first time this year that it was definitely too cold to just tough it out and sit on the bench, so I went inside the coffee/donut shop right there and got myself a hot chocolate that was actually very fucking good, and the bus showed up around when it was supposed to so that was good. I had some rice from last night and started watching last night’s SNL episode on hulu because I wanted to see Rachel Brosnahan hosting, like halfway through Jess showed up because the date she went on with a BOY from “rich people tinder” (aka the dating app I got her to sign up for because I got perks if I got someone to sign up) was over and she didn’t want to have to walk home and then walk back to my place for Supergirl at 7 when she was already very close by, so she just came over and after SNL finished we watched some Sabrina because we didn’t really want to have to pay attention to anything too much (we were debating between that and Runaways but Runaways definitely required more of a commitment and we wanted to be more distracted) and watched that for a bit until it was Supergirl time, and we ordered some ramen (from like the fancy ramen place) for dinner because I’ve low key been craving it for a few days now. Supergirl episode was a nice change in pace from most of the other ones this season since we didn’t have to deal with any human terrorists (just alien assassins) but of course the actual events of the episode don’t really matter it’s just what gets us to the point at the end of the episode where (spoilers, obviously) Alex has J’onn wipe her memory so she can’t remember Kara is Supergirl when her crazy boss lady tries to forcefully extract the information from her mind (okay like, pretty much all the stuff she was talking about to “control” Supergirl was high key illegal and not at all something the government should be able to do to a private citizen (which Kara is at this point) and they frankly have no business snooping on what her secret identity is but when has that ever stopped a fictional government?? never, of course. So obviously that was a tearjerker but I mean we all know this is temporary, she’s gonna get the memories back sooner or later, and from the looks of the preview for next episode probably sooner. So I wasn’t too terribly upset by all of this (and I mean, I’m not really all that invested in Supergirl at this point, but Kara/Alex is one of the dynamics I do still enjoy because I’m a sucker for a good sister relationship because I love my sister so damn much). Jess went home afterwards because she has to go sleep so I started watching season 2 of Marvelous Mrs. Maisel which has been very amusing so far, her parents in Paris have been very funny so I can’t wait to see where they go with that. Eventually I stopped watching that and started getting ready for bed, then wasted a bunch of time and was not letting my meds kick in because my genius ass forgot to take them, and now I’m here. They have at least kicked in a bit since it’s taken me a while to write this, and it’s past midnight now so that’s probably a good thing. Not that I have anywhere to be tomorrow, or anything I really need to get done (I’m gonna try to do the dishes and I need to do laundry at some point this week but I’m gonna need quarters first and I’m gonna wait till I have so other reason to go outside to get them because like I said, it’s gonna be real fucking cold this week), but you know, structure and all that. So I guess this is a good place to stop as I’m basically just babbling on about nothing of real importance now. Goodnight my dears. Enjoy your week.

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Amazon Prime is Amazon’s deluxe subscription model that initially only offered free two-day shipping on select items when it started. However, it has since expanded quite a bit into a slew of varied services that run the gamut from books to movies to, yes, additional shipping perks.

This gradually increasing range of services was precipitated by a price hike in 2014 from $79 per year to $99 per year. In response to this adjustment, many Prime users really started to wonder if it was worth keeping their membership.

Now that question is even more difficult to answer, because Amazon Prime’s value hinges not only on how many items you order, but also how much use you get out of its other services. Here we’ll take a look at everything that Amazon Prime encompasses in 2016 and try to figure out if it’s really worth it.

Amazon Prime yearly vs monthly prices

Before we get into if Amazon Prime is worth the yearly price, we want to address the fact that the company also allows customers to sign up for the service on a monthly basis. Currently, the monthly subscription option is priced at $12.99 a month. This means that if you stuck with this option for a full year, you would pay about $156. Clearly, if you really, really want to get Amazon Prime, you best bet is to pay for the $99 annual fee up front.

Also, there’s an Amazon Prime Video monthly subscription option for $8.99 a month, which just gives you access to all of its streaming movies and TV shows. Once again, you will spend about $108 a year if you stick with this month-to-month plan, so the best option is just to get the $99 yearly subscription, which also gives you all of the other benefits of Amazon Prime.

Shipping perks

This has been a major selling point for Amazon prime since its inception. The big highlight is, of course, the free two-day shipping. That sure is mighty convenient, especially if you, like me, are really bad at planning a week in advance.

When this was still the spotlight feature of Amazon Prime, figuring up if the subscription was worth it to you boiled down to some fairly simple math. The cost of paying for two-day delivery outright was $3.99. So that meant that if you made fewer than 25 Amazon Prime-eligible orders over the course of a year, then you might as well have cancelled your service and just forked over the $3.99 for each order.

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But now things have gotten more complicated even in the narrow topic of shipping. For starters, Amazon has started adding ways to get that free shipping without having a Prime subscription. Their program Fulfillment by Amazon Small and Light lets US residents skip paying for shipping on specific items costing less than $10 and weighing 8oz or less. On the other end of the spectrum, Amazon now lets you take advantage of free shipping if your cart contains all Prime-eligible items and has a total exceeding $49. If these items are all books, then the total only has to be $25 to qualify. Come on, guys. It’s like you don’t even want me to pay you for Prime!

However, while it’s possible to get free shipping without Prime, Amazon has been sweetening their Prime shipping perks for subscribers. For instance, many Prime members in certain cities can get same day delivery on qualifying orders exceeding $35. Hell, with Prime Now, some zip codes get free two-hour shipping for select groceries and electronics and one hour delivery of takeout restaurant food (not available in my area, but I hear it’s freaking sweet). Two day delivery is still free for all eligible items regardless of your cart’s total, and one day shipping is notably cheaper for Prime users: just $2.99 per item. Prime Pantry is also a pretty cool service that lets you get many of your groceries and home goods delivered to your doorstep (if you live in the continental US) for a flat delivery fee of $5.99. In the same vein, you also get exclusive discounts on family products like diapers.

From my perspective, though, this really just isn’t enough to make it worth it. I simply don’t order enough Prime eligible items in the $10-$35 range to justify it, and a lot of subscribers are in the same camp. This is where the other benefits of Prime membership come into play, and it’s where the math starts to get messy.

Video streaming services

For a while there, all eyes were on Netflix and Hulu as each tried to become the other faster than its opponent. Amazon launched their streaming video service with relatively little fanfare, and if memory serves, them was slim pickin’s in the beginning.

I remember when I first realized I had access to Amazon’s video streaming library. After accidentally stumbling into Amazon Video, I checked it out for about twenty minutes before realizing Netflix already had most of these selections and a lot more to boot. I basically forgot about Amazon’s video services until “The Man in the High Castle” and “Mozart in the Jungle” started making waves. I pulled the library back up, and was surprised at how expansive it had become.

Now that Amazon has entered the exclusive content production game alongside Netflix, Hulu and others, they’ve become a much more competitive force in this category. Whatever the next Amazon-produced “PERSON in the PLACE” television series is, you can pretty much bank on it being a hit you’re going to want to check out.

However, their library isn’t quite as good as Netflix and, in my experience, Amazon Instant Video isn’t anywhere as smart as Netflix. Netflix starts to get really good at recommending movies for you if stay in the habit of doling out star ratings with machiavellian brutality. Amazon Video does nothing comparable. Those stars represent user reviews, like those on IMDb, not an estimation of how much you’re going to like a show or movie. Clumsy navigation still afflicts the service as well, but in general, everything about Amazon Video has improved drastically over the last couple of years.

Even more recently, Amazon created their Streaming Partners Program, which bundles together streaming services to let you watch and manage subscriptions all within Amazon Video. Amazon’s “X-Ray” feature is functional on all media content streamed this way, letting you check out IMDb information about what you’re watching without opening another window.

There’s also the fact that Amazon is getting into the movie production business as well, financing films that debut in theaters, such as the acclaimed Manchester by the Sea and, more recently, The Bix Sick. These films make their streaming debuts on Amazon Prime Video just months after they hit theaters.

Amazon Prime also continues to expand their original TV content offerings with shows like The Grand Tour (the car show produced by the former hosts of BBC’s Top Gear) and the detective show Bosch. They have also some shows fail, particularly in 2017, when a number of expensive and high brow shows, such as The Last Tycoon, Z: The Beginning of Everything, and others were cancelled after one season. However, the service has also added some great new original shows recently, such as the super hero sitcom The Tick and particularly The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, which won the Golden Goble for best Comedy TV series.

The future of Amazon Prime Video, in terms of original content, is looking very promising. In addition to all of its returning shows, it will debut new programs in 2018, such as Jack Ryan, a new series based on the hero of Tom Clancy’s thrillers, along with Good Omens, a limtied series based on the comedy fantasy book by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, and The Boys, a super hero series that’s based on the ultra-graphic comic book written by Garth Ennis. Recently, Amazon announced plans to produce a new TV shows based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings fantasy universe.

While Amazon’s original content on Prime Video is not able to match Netflix or Hulu, it’s clear that the company is sparring no expense in adding more shows that could become the next Game of Thrones or Walking Dead, in terms of popularity. Therefore, adding Prime Video as part of the Amazon Prime service makes it more attractive.

  Music streaming services

In the grand battle of music streaming services, there are a lot of subscriptions to choose from. Pandora, Spotify, Apple Music, (RIP Rdio), etc. I think we can all agree that Google Play Music All Access is the all around best one and anyone who uses anything else is delusional. If you don’t agree, come at me in the comments, bro.

Prime Music looks like it’s trying to get into this action, but the streaming service is still a serious underdog. Sure there’s over a million songs available for instant streaming, but Spotify is sitting pretty with a solid 60 million in their library.  Google Play Music All Access has over 35 million, and Apple Music is supposed to have something like 43 million. This isn’t bringing a knife to a gunfight; this is bringing a toothpick to global thermonuclear war.

Amazon Prime Music’s library, which has about two million songs, is also cycling, so it doesn’t seem to be the best option at all for someone who has a meticulously curated library with hundreds of hand-crafted playlists. However, for the casual music fan who would just as soon listen to their radio as anything else, Prime Music has something for just about any taste. The service would have to expand and change quite a bit before it starts attracting serious music buffs, but as an added service that you’re already paying for, it’s not bad at all.

There’s also Amazon Music Unlimited, which offers features such tens of millions of songs, no ads, support for downloading songs for offline listening, and a way to listen via voice controls if you own one of the company’s Echo smart speakers. Anyone can sign up for Amazone Music Unlimited for $9.99 a month (with a 30 day free trial) but if you are already signed up for Amazon Prime, you can get Amazon Music Unlimited for $7.99 a month, shaving $24 off the price if you stick with it for a year.

Kindle Perks

For bookworms, Amazon Prime comes with some serious pluses. Even if you don’t own a Kindle, you can still take advantage of these using the free Amazon Kindle app on your smartphone.

As a Prime user, you get access to the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, which is like the world’s largest ongoing book-swap meet. For those looking to save a buck or two, this is a great way to find new authors, as you basically get a free book each month. You have to give it back when you’re through, so fans of re-reading will probably want to purchase their own digital copy.

Prime users also get access to Kindle First, which is another way to snag free books. Every month, Amazon posts some select Kindle First picks, and from this list, Prime members can download a digital copy on the house.

To be transparent, I haven’t been taking advantage of either of these benefits at all because I’m still buying physical books like some sort of Amish luddite. As is the case with all of these services, how much value it adds to Prime is entirely contingent on how much you use it.

Odds and Ends

There are a handful of other perks that Prime Members get that don’t fit well into any other category, but they contribute to the service’s value for some. For instance, Prime Photos is an unlimited cloud storage service that comes part-and-parcel with your Prime membership, but nobody should really be using it because Google Photos does the same thing better for free. You also get access to Amazon Elements, which is Amazon’s initiative to create their own line of everyday products. Prime Early Access lets you see Lightning Deals thirty minutes earlier than non-Prime users. Two adults living at the same address can create an “Amazon Household” to share select benefits. Prime users also get a substantial 20% price cut on new video games if they pre-order or buy within two weeks of release, but there are some convincing arguments that pre-ordering is bad for the gaming community across the board.

More recently, Amazon started selling a number of unlocked smartphones from a number of companies like Motorola, LG and more, with lock screen ads. Amazon Prime members can get discounts as large as 25 percent when they buy one of these unlocked phones.

Breaking down the numbers

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For Netflix, you can  spend as little as $8 a month, which lets you access the service on one streaming device at a time at non-HD resolution. Google Music All Access subscribers pay $10 per month, which also offers access to YouTube Red, which eliminates ads from the video service, and offers its own small selection of original content. That means for those two services alone, you can  pay $216 every year.

Amazon Prime’s video and music services cost just $99 a year but are they more than half as good? That depends. Amazon’s video content is well below Netflix’s but it is improving, and will continue to get better. However, if you had to pick between the two, the combo of Netflix and Google Music All Access seem to offer $216 worth of value out of them annually, while paying $99 for  Amazon Prime every year doesn’t offer quite as much value.

So the big question now becomes, “Is Amazone Prime a good value for $99 a year if you use more than its streaming services?” If you shop a lot on Amazon annually, you can usually recover the cost of the service with the savings you get on two-day shipping on millions of items. If you only shop on Amazon occasionally, then the $99 yearly membership may not be worth it.

So is Amazon Prime really worth it for $99 a year? As you’ve likely figured out by now, it depends a lot on what kind of user you are. 

If you do take advantage of the vast majority of services that come with a Prime membership, such as free two-day shipping, Prime Now one day and one hour delivery access for cities that support it, free access to Kindle Prime books and other benefits, then signing up to Amazon Prime is very much worth it. 

  However, if you are not a heavy Amazon buyer of goods, and want to save some money, then your best bet is to ditch the $99 yearly fee and stick with Netflix and Google Music. They may cost more, but they also offer a ton of content in return, and ultimately, that’s where you want to spend your hard earned money.

So what are your thoughts regarding Amazon Prime? Are you using enough of these services to justify the $99-per-year price? Did you discover any benefits in this list that you didn’t know you were missing out on? Let us know in the comments below!

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