#which I can sort out in my program but chose not to for this chart

[supernatural-word-search]

Usage of the word 'bitch' throughout the entirety of Supernatural (all 15 seasons).

Like I said, Dean is absolutely putting in the work. Amazing.

[deadmandairyland]

Hi! I’m here to bring you yet another Danganronpa tier list: the sexuality tier list, which you can find here.

Now I’m going to be honest here: I don’t really have any LGBT headcanons. It’s just not really something I focus on much when it comes to fandoms. Instead I usually just focus on ships, and as a result from that I tend to present a lot of characters as LGBT in fanfictions and posts I’ve made or reblogged. In other words, a massive chunk of my “headcanons” here are a direct result of shipping (as well as information I’ve picked up from the games themselves). That being said, it was interesting to actually think about this for once, so I’m kinda glad I did the tier list. And it gave me an excuse to bring back the rainbow color scheme I usually put in my tier lists for aesthetic reasons.

The original tier list had Straight at the top, but I moved it to the bottom for two reasons. One, this is Tumblr and that’s not what you’re here for. Two, I gave it a neutral color, and having a gray section next to a white section (i.e. the title of the list) like that looked bad to me. I definitely prefer this setup just on aesthetic alone.

Because this is largely based on ships, I feel it needs to be said that representation does not factor into this chart in any way. I know it probably looks bad that the only character in the Lesbian category is one of my least favorite (though NOT hated or even disliked, I should point out) characters in the main series. That has nothing to do with the fact that she’s a lesbian. She’s just a jerk, and usually not in a way that’s at least entertaining enough for me to like her.

Also keep in mind that this is just the main cast of the main series games. If you were to include characters from the DR3 anime, UDG, or the spin-offs, the Gay, Lesbian, and Ace categories would get more rep, certainly. Think Juzo, Yui, Takemichi, that gay guy with the trumpet, etc.

With that said, let’s go through the list:

Gay

Not gonna lie, one of the reasons why Rantaro is here (and not in Ace) is because of ships. Though I do sometimes ship him with girls, canon suggests he’s not interested in dating girls, and most fans seem to headcanon him as either gay or ace because of this, so I respected that. That being said, I also acknowledge he’s a very popular character in mlm ships, and at the time I was putting this together I hadn’t gotten to Taka yet so the Gay tier was still empty, and Byakuya was already sitting in Ace, so all of that swayed me to putting Rantaro here instead of Ace.

Taka was much easier to place here. He strikes me as a closeted gay man who probably doesn’t even realize he is gay. “Hey, let’s all hang out in the bath, guys! Getting naked is essential to form bonds with your fellow man! No need to be ashamed, it’s tradition!"

Lesbian

Again, ships. I only ship Hiyoko with one other character, and as soon as I say that you already know who she is.

Bisexual (Male Preference)

Akane is mostly here to account for any wlw ships I may have of her (e.g. Hina, Sonia maybe). Obviously she has a thing with Nekomaru, so Male Preference.

Chiaki is here for the same reason as Akane. I’ve shipped her with characters like Sonia and Ibuki before, but she really digs Hajime.

Chihiro honestly could have been anywhere in the Bi and Pan sections, but I ultimately went with Male Preference because of ships, specifically the fact that outside of the more... R18 circles of the Interwebs Chihiro tends to be shipped with guys more often than girls. Also doesn’t hurt that my OTP is Naehiro. I mean, have you seen how often Chihiro blushes around Makoto? (There’s more to it than that, as I’ve covered in the past. I’m just trying to add more fuel to the fire.)

Himiko is probably one of the few characters that isn’t here mainly because of ships. I do think she has some attachment towards Tenko, but I also get “I’m uncomfortable around her” vibes from her, and there are moments where she seems to crush on Kokichi (of all people) so that’s why she’s here. Still very much bi, though.

Hina has a crush on Makoto and has a complex around wishing she was more feminine so she can attract boys. So why isn’t she in the Straight section? ...Because Sakura, duh. And Kyoko too. And any other wlw ship you can think of that might work with Hina.

Honestly if it wasn’t for Miu I probably would have considered putting Kokichi in Gay. Again, while shipping plays a big part of my choices here, much like with Rantaro I have no qualms with putting a character in a tier that contradicts any ships I might have with that character, if those ships aren’t something I’m super invested in. This is a very important distinction, because it’s why I let ships sway my hand for so many of these even if I am also okay with going “Just because I ship this doesn’t mean I headcanon it” as I did with Rantaro. And honestly Kokichi’s ship teasing with Himiko does come off as more trollish than a sign that he’s into her, but he really gets into his back-and-forth with Miu, in my personal opinion, and he gets into it far more often with her for that matter. It’s why it’s one of my favorite ships for both of them tbh, and it’s because I like the ship so much that I just can’t ignore it for this sexuality headcanon tier list.

Maki... is here because of ships (e.g. Kaede).

Sakura... is here because of ships (e.g. Hina). ...What, you were expecting me to put a guy in the example? Remember, she has a boyfriend in canon.

Sayaka... is here because of... NOT ships, but DRAT. Yes, really. (”We really got down and dirty, Naegi-kun.”)

Sonia... strikes me as someone who swings both ways. I can’t describe exactly why I feel that way, but yes.

Bisexual (No Preference)

Celeste wants a harem of vampire boys but shipping her with Kyoko is also very popular and honestly i feel like it would fit her character. She’s got a look that says “I could get any ass I want and I know it.”

Ibuki is decked out in blues and pinks, and also I ship her fairly evenly among both boys and girls. She just screams bi icon to me, more so than any other character in the series.

Junko is either bi with no preferences or pan. She is an equal opportunity heart-and-soul-breaker and lust-for-despair machine.

There is no Mukuro in this list, but honestly I would probably put her where I put Junko anyway.

Kaede... is here because of ships (e.g. Miu, Maki)

Honestly I had no idea where to put Kirumi, so I just randomly chose one that I wouldn’t regret later if I ever put more thought into who I shipped her with.

I’m pretty sure Nagito being bisexual has some degree of canon attached to it??? I think??? I’m not entirely sure tbh, but fuck it. I’m doing this for fun anyway, so this doesn’t really matter.

Shuichi, like all Danganronpa protags, is bi as fuck. I also find him to be more shippable with guys than the other two protags, so IMO he has no preference.

Toko might have a thing or two for pretty boys, but... Komaru, I mean, this isn’t exactly shocking, I don’t think. Probably was closeted before she met Komaru. I mean she did focus on Hina’s boobs a lot in DR1, let’s not forget.

Tsumugi, much like Kirumi, is here because I haven’t put much thought into her ships.

Bisexual (Female Preference)

Gundham has a thing with Sonia in canon, but I can see him being bi. So... yeah, ships again.

Hajime, like all Danganronpa protags, is bi as fuck. It’s just that his Chiaki and Mikan game is just too strong.

Hifumi might claim to only like 2D, but his interest in Chihiro both in human form and computer program form (and the fact that this didn’t go away after the gender reveal) places him here.

Kaito strikes me as a closeted bisexual. The kind that could start any given conversation with “I’m not gay, but...”

Kazuichi also strikes me as a closeted bisexual, only his “I’m not gay, but...” is rooted more in dumbass than it is in systematic homophobia.

Korekiyo... is here because of ships (e.g. Rantaro).

Kyoko is bi as fuck, and I can see her having a preference towards girls in particular. She gets shipped with girls a lot (e.g. Celeste, Hina, Yui, and even Junko and Mukuro), and when she is shipped with boys it’s usually just pretty boys (e.g. Makoto, Byakuya, Ryota, Shuichi, and, depending on your interpretation, Chihiro). Also note that aside from Makoto and maybe Byakuya, Kyoko’s girl ships are far more popular than her boy ships. Just something I’ve noticed over the years.

Leon... is here because of ships (e.g. Chihiro).

Mahiru is here because I’m pretty sure she has a thing for Hajime in her FTEs, but obviously she tends to get shipped with girls more often (especially Hiyoko), and I agree.

Makoto, like all Danganronpa protags, is bi as fuck. It’s just that his Kyoko, Hina, Sayaka, and Mukuro game is just too strong.

Mikan may be interested in Hajime somewhat, but her obsession with Junko cannot be ignored, no matter how much some of you may want to.

Mondo is another character that strikes me as a closeted bisexual. He is said to strike out all the time with girls, so I do think he’s attracted to women. And I do get some vibes that he’s attracted to Chihiro pre-reveal. And if circumstances had been different, I imagine he probably still would have been post-reveal. But obviously it’s his bond with Taka that I feel cements his sexuality in, at the very least, an mlm category.

Tenko... is here NOT because of ships, but because I’m pretty sure she’s at least sort of interested in Shuichi because of some canon thing... and also I don’t want to put her in Lesbian just because it feels like I’d be stereotyping the Lesbian category if I do that. If we were to compare her to the character that I did put in Lesbian, Hiyoko doesn’t treat people like shit because they’re men, she’s an equal-opportunity asshole. Still not the best representation for lesbians by a long shot, but at least Hiyoko doesn’t follow the stereotype of a man-hating lesbian. She’s just like that, and that’s okay. But putting Tenko there, especially if she’s shown some degree of interest in a male character at some point in the game, just rubs me the wrong way personally, because it would feel like I’m ignoring canon just to stereotype her. But that’s just a personal hang up of mine. No disrespect intended toward anyone who genuinely feels that Tenko is a lesbian. Maybe you see something there that I don’t, and that’s perfectly fine.

Pansexual

I don’t remember exactly how her FTEs went, so I’m not going to get into that, but Angie just comes off as pan to me, like gender doesn’t fit into the equation at all for her.

Gonta I can see as either pan or ace. I feel like he wouldn’t care about gender, and honestly the only reason I decided to put him in Pan rather than Ace is because of that scene with Miu.

Imposter is not only pan, they are currently OT3ing it up with Ibuki and Ryota as we speak, and that’s a fact.

Keebo... is mostly here because of ships. A lot of ships, actually. Mostly male ships (Kokichi, Shuichi, Kazuichi, and, depending on your interpretation, Chihiro) but there’s also Miu to consider. And the Miu game is SO strong that I put him in Pan instead of, say, Male Preference.

Just gonna lump them together because I have the same thing to say about both of them: Miu and Teruteru would **** anything that walks. What did I censor? Well, I’m doing the Nier: Automata thing, so you can put whatever you want in there and trust me, it would probably fit, for better or for worse.

Ace

I know this is an unpopular opinion, because Naegami, but I just don’t think Byakuya is interested in anyone, at least not in that way. He might be fascinated with how common people live, because it’s so foreign to him, but that’s about it.

Straight

Even though I do ship Fuyuhiko with some of the boys, his Peko game is so strong that honestly I can’t see him actually dating anyone aside from Peko outside of some very niche fanfiction.

Honestly, Hiro was another one that I was just like “I have no idea what to do with you.” I think maybe his team up with Kanon made me eventually choose to put him in Straight? I don’t remember. I clearly didn’t put much thought into Hiro.

I really only ship Nekomaru with Akane, so that’s why he’s here. I’m sure if I dive deep enough into my psyche I can pull an mlm ship with Nekomaru in it out of my ass, but like Rantaro that wouldn’t be significant enough to change anything.

Peko is in the same boat as Fuyuhiko. I have shipped her with girls before, but her Fuyuhiko game is just too strong.

Ryoma had a girlfriend once, and as far as I can remember he didn’t really seem interested in anybody in the game, so that’s all I have to go off of for him.

-----

So there you have it. Explanations for literally all of them! Explanations that were definitely not pulled out of my ass as I was typing them, nope, certainly not. Definitely won’t be tagging all of them, but I may tag the ones with the longest entries. And like all the tier lists I’ve done, this was just for fun and honestly any opinion I have for any of these characters could change at a moment’s notice because my brain is fickle like that. Tried my best to make sure that every tier had at least one character in it, but I did so without trying to force characters in places that I personally did not believe they should go. I hope you all enjoyed my dive into this area of fandom that I rarely dive into (the LGBT headcanons, not the ships, obviously). It was a lot of fun, and hopefully it will stay fun and not result in angry anons blasting me for my opinions. I am grateful that this never seems to happen to me, but I’ve seen it happen to others and I know what Tumblr is capable of at its worst. These are just headcanons and a matter of personal opinion, and if you disagree with them, that’s perfectly okay. Your feelings and opinions are also valid.

[arc-77]

SCALE and then some more rambling about rank

// Do you ever think about how ridiculously big some things are in Star Wars? I get these periods where I spend an evening on google maps measuring distances in my home town and comparing them to the lengths of various ships. I look at cross sections of Star Destroyers and try to imagine the logistics of living inside one. Tens of thousands of people in a big floating city. Snoke’s ship from The Last Jedi can build its own Star Destroyers. It’s a flying metropolis that prints other cities. It has an “assembly hall” capable of seating more people than the largest stadium on earth.

I think about how many people live on Coruscant, how one solid city covers the planet’s entire surface several hundred times over. If I stepped foot on Coruscant I’d have an instant anxiety attack. That’s too damn many people. Past a certain point, humans cannot truly comprehend large scales. Or small scales. It’s all crazy.

Sense of scale influences a lot of my decisions when it comes to Fordo’s place in society. Part of why I chose a Raider-Class Corvette as imperial!Fordo’s ship is because it’s on a scale I’m somewhat familiar with — it’s about the length of the block I live on. It’s said that 150 people is about the maximum number of relationships a person can maintain. The Raider-class has a crew of about 100.

In the movies and other media, all the cool Imperials have their own Star Destroyer. Some even command fleets of them. But an ISD Captain is simultaneously 1) a very powerful individual with more firepower at their command than entire planets, and 2) a background character that gets killed off on a whim. There are thousands of Star Destroyers. They’re almost as replaceable as every member of their crew.

(I started getting kind of tangential in the rest of the post so the read-more goes here. I’m just kind of putting my thoughts to paper trying to solidify them.)

(Something to note here: the rank of Captain and position of Captain are two different things. In Empire Strikes Back, ISD Captain Needa’s rank plaque is three red over three blue. Referring to the ranking chart I use, this means his rank is some sort of Commander and he holds the position of Captain of The Avenger.)

Fordo started out as an (army) Captain. Normally, Clone Captains are in charge of 144 people. When he’s promoted to Commander, this would normally put him in charge of around 2300 people. Cody is a Marshal Commander, putting him in charge of almost 37,000 troopers, which is coincidentally equivalent to the crew of an Imperial Star Destroyer.

Clone Marshal Commanders don’t really have an equivalent rank in the Empire. My first thought was, okay, maybe it would be a Commodore since that’s the next step up, right? But Commodores are often in charge of multiple ships which goes above even Cody and I don’t want to give him an impromptu promotion. So I think to keep things even, we’ll consider it something like a “Senior Commander” since there’s similar variations elsewhere on the chart.

So here’s my present thinking. Few years after Order 66, Fordo is promoted to Senior Commander as a member of Imperial Intelligence, formerly the highest rank a Clone can attain. A few more years of toil and backroom dealing after that, Fordo breaks that glass ceiling and becomes a Commodore sometime before 10BBY and is placed in charge of the Death Trooper program.

Imperial Intelligence is of course smaller than the Navy, so while he’s got an equivalent rank to the Commodores commanding flotillas, he doesn’t normally have nearly as many people under his direct command. He could theoretically, but he doesn’t. I’m not sure whether even a won-over Imperial Intelligence would be willing to give command of a big ship(s) like that to a clone, even if he is a proven senior officer now. It’s like a reverse of Anakin: we grant you the rank of master, but not a seat on the council. Now scram.

[metalgearkong]

Detroit: Become Human - Review (PS4)

10/7/19

Developed by Quantic Dream, released May 2018

Quantic Dream is a French studio, making a name for themselves with narrative and character-focused games. These titles sometimes resemble more of an interactive digital film, rather than a traditional video game. Indigo Prophecy (Fahrenheit), Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls, and now Detroit: Become Human consist of their releases. David Cage, the writer and director of these games (and founding member of Quantic Dream), seems to have a strong fan base, but many people think he is overrated or controversial. Personally, I’m a fan of his games, but feel like the formula that the series has stuck to for a decade and a half hasn’t evolved enough over time. Detroit: Become Human continues the format of multiple protagonists, quick-time events, player choice, and depressing stories focusing on dark journeys for its characters.

Detroit: Become Human is split between three heroes: each an android of the near future, who endure perils of awakening from tool to sentience. Kara (Valorie Curry) is an android who runs away with her owner’s daughter Alice after witnessing physical and emotional abuse from her father. Conner (Bryan Dechart) is an investigator android, working for the police department, specifically tasked with hunting down androids who have rebelled from their programming and strive for independence called “deviants.” Lastly is Markus (Jesse Williams), who becomes a revolutionary of the android race after being destroyed and left for dead in a junkyard. The story switches between each of these characters, and there are tons of directions the story could go for each person, making for excellent replayability.

If you’ve played any Quantic Dream before, you’ll know exactly what to expect with this game. This is the entry that seems least evolved from prior Quantic Dream games, which is slightly disappointing. The story begins with Conner negotiating with a deviant android who is threatening the life of his former owner. This acts as a great tutorial hooking you to the story, teaching the gameplay mechanics, and demonstrating consequences of what you do. My only problem with this from a story perspective, is that we immediately see androids evolving past their programming, and achieving sentience. This is one of my problems with the game: there is little to no explanation on what makes them deviate, referring to it sometimes as a glitch in the software, simply it being there all along until the android discovers it (or being automatically “awakened” by a touch by a deviated android as we see Markus doing for others).

The rules of the androids are underdeveloped and inconsistent, and its one of the things that broke my immersion. For all the time we spend playing as androids, there are many things that got little to no attention in favor of drama and plot. I never had a good idea for what their physical and mental limitations were. Sometimes and android would have a skill such as instantly transferring their consciousness into another body simply by touch, or had extreme reflexes, but these skills not being used in the story except for when it’s convenient to the plot. I don’t need the game to be pure exposition, but a lot was focused on that could have been better served making sure the rules and technicalities were defined.

The stand out feature of Detroit: Become Human, as are with other Quantic Dream games, are its graphics. There were genuinely several small moments where I forgot I was playing a game, and was convinced I was watching a live-action scene. It’s obvious the voice actors also did the motion and facial capture to bring their characters to life. This is the case with most of the characters in the game as well, not just the three main protagonists. Everything from man-made objects to weather effects look perfect and incredibly realistic. Even skin tones and clothing, something most games struggle to make look realistic, constantly impressed me. Lighting, animation, and virtually all other visual effects are excellent, and probably won’t be topped at least until the next generation of gaming.

The same complements could be said for music, and overall emotion the game can deliver. David Cage knows how to build a scene, even if it doesn’t make perfect logical sense. Many chapters (out of 32) swelled me with emotion, a combination of great directing, acting, and animation. You really do feel like part of a major civil rights movement by the end of the game. It makes me think if the game would have been much better if it dropped its sci-fi angle, and portrayed an actual revolutionary period, not having to worry about making up rules for its fictional setting. On the flip side, a few chapters did feel monotonous and boring, and I wanted them to end as quickly as possible. Most of these chapters happened to be of Markus’ story. Once he begins a search for the android revolution headquarters, he is made its leader for no special reason, other than he is the player’s character. He came from a great life and there’s no particular reason why he was made this big influential person. 

My favorite character to play as was Conner, mainly because his character felt the most robotic and android-like. Seeing him remain analytical, or try to remain analytical, despite the change around him, was the most interesting story to be a part of. However, the game is also stuffed with cliched characters, ones you could read the personality of simply by looking at them. Hint: if a man is overweight, has a beard, and has slick hair, he’s a bad guy, or at least a douche bag. The game truly runs the spectrum of good and bad characters. A particular character that I felt was pure cringe was Conner’s boss Lt Anderson, a drunken, pessimistic, suicidal, lose canon cop who has a dark past and hates androids. Every scene he’s in I felt like I’ve seen a hundred times in other media, even if he was voice acted well.

Detroit: Become Human is better than the sum of its parts. Like other Quantic Dream games, this is a narrative and character driven experience that will fill you with all sorts of emotion, empathy, and conflict, but contain some UI and story fallacies that I couldn’t always ignore. The best complement I can give it, is I found it hard to put down. This is one of the more meaty Quantic Dream games, and I discovered it difficult to stop playing from one chapter to the next. I was invested all the way through, and saw dozens of multiple paths I could have taken than the ones I chose. The game even gives you a thorough flow chart to truly show you how many outcomes there were in every given chapter, and it makes me want to take opposite paths next time I play in the future. You could spend a lot of time uncovering every scene, or at least the majority of the scenes that have been made for the game. This is a David Cage game through and through, which should tell you exactly what to expect.

7/10

[renegadewangs]

Ace Mindhunter - 5th Interview

Characters: Simon Blackquill, Athena Cykes, Shi-Long Lang, and a rogues gallery of AA villains. Fandom: Ace Attorney Pairings: N/A. Warnings/rating: 16+, I would say. Talk of heavy themes such as death and abuse, plus cursing. Spoilers for every AA game up to Spirit of Justice, AAI2 included. Gratuitous amounts of headcanon for antagonists. Summary: Simon Blackquill is roped into a Behavioral Analysis project along with Athena Cykes. They must sit down with convicted murderers for interviews, in hopes of finding out just what drove them to their convoluted crimes.

5th Interview Alita and Ini

Date: June 18th 2028 Time: 2:31 PM Location: Interview Room. “So... Your parents were against the engagement? Why?” “Why? Why else? That silly brat was a gangster...” “I suppose that's a good reason. What did you tell them, back then?” “I told them... what every parent wants to hear. “Wocky is a good boy. He will protect me with his life.” All those sorts of things. When they still didn't approve, I chose Wocky over them.” “Even though you didn't really love him and were only in it for the money?” “What's with that judgmental look? The Kitakis could give me everything my parents couldn't. Telling me to stay away from him... Who needs a selfish family like that?” “O-Oh... Uh... Right.” If there was one thing about Alita Tiala that irked Simon, it was her air of innocence. Her fingers steepled together, she continued to grace the both of them with a smile. She would speak quietly, she would be polite, she would bat her eyes and act every bit the fallen angel that she wasn't. Getting a forthright emotion out of her was like attempting to have a fish tapdance; it simply wasn't in her nature. Worst of all, Simon had no idea what to entice her with in order to have her open up. Athena had been doing most of the talking and he, in turn, had been observing to the best of his ability. Athena took a moment to pull herself together, then moved on with newfound determination. “So when you got engaged, you resigned from the Meraktis Clinic. Was that just because you were about to marry into money, or did you also want to run from that failed surgery?” “Run? Why should I?” Alita asked, still smiling. “Meraktis was the one who'd failed. All I did was sign off on some papers. I'm hardly to blame, now am I?” “If that was how you felt about it, why did you go through so much trouble to steal the chart back?” “Because... Well, that silly brat... could be impulsive. If he found out that I knew about the bullet, he might've done something drastic... like call off the engagement. And if he didn't, his disturbing mother would've. They would've blown that whole thing out of proportion.” Athena hung her head with an expression of extreme disbelief. “Errr. Well, Ms. Tiala, some might argue that holding back such vital information about a person's health is, err, a terrible thing to do. It would've made sense to call off the wedding.” “Tee hee! Why does it matter what I did or did not tell Wocky? If he hadn't found out... he would've continued to worship the very ground I walk on. He would've been happy for the remainder of his life.” “Which would've lasted for about another year...” “And what a year it would've been. Now both our futures are ruined by this stupid little tiff that Meraktis started.” Tiala rubbed at her throat as she said it. A thin scar was visible there; evidence that just a bit over two years ago, she'd been strangled with a lamp cord. Already, Simon had formed a hypothesis on Tiala's mental state. One which would be difficult to support with true evidence. The most they could do was gather up more of her words and use those as pillars instead. “In regards to that malpracticing doctor...” he began loudly, indicating to Athena that it was time for him to take the lead. “If the court transcripts are to be believed, you pulled the trigger because he was about to expose your true nature to your fiancé. Instinct, panic, call it whatever you like. Now you sit before us, two years later. My question is as follows: Do you believe Pal Meraktis deserved to die?” “What sort of question is that?” Tiala asked, a bit of condescension showing through her pleasant exterior. Once again, she raised a hand to her throat. “He almost killed me. He believed that he did! He was about to dump my body in some gross river! Causing the death of his patients was not enough- he had to resort to attempted murder.” “You did not answer me. Do you believe that he deserved the fate you so generously bestowed upon him?” “I-I... Well... He must have! After all the things that he did...! Murderers deserve the death penalty, don't they?” Simon leaned forward, his eyes piercing Tiala's own. “You were put through a terrible ordeal, Angel. You were only looking out for everyone's best interests when you confronted Meraktis, yet he was blind to your intent and he did something unforgivable to you. That crook attempted to take your life and were it not for a guardian angel of your own, he would have succeeded. You shot him out of self-defense. Do you believe that to be an apt description of what occurred?” “Yes!” Tiala said immediately. “Yes, that's exactly it! Finally, someone who-” “It is a lie,” Simon cut across her in the bluntest of tones. “What? No... That's-” “Two years ago, your defense attorney attempted to feed the same hogwash to the court. No doubt, that was on your orders. However, the judge saw through it, as any member of the law-enforcement community ought to. Your murder of Pal Meraktis was not out of self-defense for a very simple reason. When you raised the pistol, you were no longer in any direct danger.” “What does that have to do with anything?” “It's quite simple. The moment you awoke, Meraktis was facing two witnesses who would have undoubtedly protected you. You could have simply slipped out the back of the noodle stand and told your fiancé that Meraktis had attempted to take your life. This was the truth, after all, with more than enough evidence to prove it. The young kitsune would have stood by your side, much like a samurai stands by their master, and any claim Meraktis had made from that point on would have fallen on deaf ears.” “Ah-” “The moment you shot a man unbeknownst of your presence from behind, you were not acting out of self-defense. Instead, you donned a mantle of vigilante. Do you still believe yourself to be the victim?” Tiala screamed out loud, her voice similar to the screech of a bird. “Eeeeek! How dare you! Don't you understand...? Don't you know what it's like to be all alone?!” Athena recoiled, her hand cupping Widget, and Simon sat up a bit straighter as well. It seemed as if they'd finally broken Tiala, but what lay beneath was more fierce than expected. “They would have protected me? He would have stood by my side?!” she yelled, spite radiating off her in all directions. “How can you know? No one has ever chosen my side before! All my life, I had to do everything myself! I had to do my own housework, I had to pay for my own studies... I even had to take up a nurse job with the most disgusting clinic in town! My only chance to get out of that horrid life was to marry some hoodlum, and even that was my decision! My hard work! When something needs to be done, the only person you can trust to do it is yourself!” Following that outburst, there was an eerie tension. Athena was still holding onto Widget, her fingers shielding a blue glow. As for Simon, he could taste something bitter, for he recognized this mindset. He knew what it was like to believe that he was all alone; that no one was to be trusted with the dirty work and so, he was the one to be sullied. He knew that voice that had whispered, in his darkest hours, that no one could or would save him. He also knew where those thoughts had led him. “You're wrong, Angel,” he said quietly. “Whether you like it or not, those who care about you will attempt to act in your best interest. They will drag you, kicking and screaming, out from under the burning wreckage of your tainted life. You need only be deserving of their aid.” “Deserving of their aid? Tee hee hee...” Tiala steepled her fingers together, once again back to smiling. “Isn't it a bit too late for that? If murderers deserve the death penalty, then vigilantes deserve it too, right? That's what the court's already decided. You can come in here and preach redemption all you want, but no one will be in my corner anymore. It's all over for me.” “Ms. Tiala...” Athena appeared quite distraught and Simon feared that she was taking their subject's emotions far too personally. If so, that was a habit she would have to kick as soon as possible, but now was not the time to bring it up. “I, for one, am in your corner. My partner as well, I'm certain,” Simon said, as gentle as a man like him could be. “It is for that reason that I would persuade you to see sense. It is only too easy to believe you cannot rely on anyone but yourself, shirking responsibility towards others. However, such thoughts will lead you down a dangerous, lonely path. Have you not already noticed it? The darkness in your everyday life? That heavy weight which keeps you pinned down?” Tiala's smile had faltered quite spectacularly now. She was chewing her bottom lip and wringing her hands together. “I... That's really none of your...” “You may still change your ways and live your remaining years with true company. If nothing else, I would suggest that you adopt a therapy animal through the prison's respective program.” Initially, Simon believed that his words had gotten through Tiala's hide. He believed that she understood the harm her mindset was doing to her. That he had helped to make the remainder of her life a bit easier. Such hopes were shoved aside when she leered down at him with something close to disgust. “Do you... believe me to be crazy?” she asked in a low voice. “Of course not.” “Therapy animals are for those who need therapy. You want someone delusional for your little psychology project? Go speak to Miney. This interview is over.” ------- Date: June 18th 2028 Time: 4:06 PM Location: Prison hallway. Strolling through the prison's halls, Simon felt more frustrated than he had in a long while. And to think, he'd considered reprimanding Athena for taking their subjects' emotions too personally. He was no better than her. To believe he wouldn't project his own experiences on these inmates would've been naive. His hands buried deep in the pockets of his coat and his shoulders hunched, he must've been radiating more than enough for Athena to pick up on. “Geez... What a stubborn woman...” she said. “Don't take it too hard, okay Simon? I'm sure she's been through a lot and I know that you'd want to save her, but... Some people just don't want to be saved.” “I did not wish to be saved, half a year ago. Yet, there you were, extending a hand to me all the same,” he pointed out, shaking his head. “You, Wright-dono, the Chief Prosecutor, Aura... The whole lot of you managed to divert the beliefs of a stubborn fool such as myself. Had you surrendered as easily as the two of us did just now, I would've been six feet under today.” “That's a little different... You didn't really kill anyone and I'm sure, deep down, I knew that. Aura and the Chief Prosecutor must've seen that as well. We saved you because you were innocent. But like you said, Ms. Tiala didn't even kill out of self-defense. She did it because... Because she believed she had to, I guess.” “Mmh,” was all Simon could bring himself to voice. Athena had a fair point. If Simon hoped to save a murderer such as Tiala from her own loneliness, it was a slippery slope. There were more than enough inmates who needed salvation from something or another. “But hey, can you believe the murder of Dr. Meraktis was the second case Apollo ever worked on? Pretty impressive that he managed to break Ms. Tiala in court when he was still a rookie, right?” “It certainly explains why he often appears so nervous during cross-examinations. How is the young Justice-dono doing abroad?” Simon asked, relieved to find a change in topic to cling to. “He's been so busy, he hasn't even found time to send us any letters! Can you believe that? Little Polly's all grown up and the boss of his own law offices, with his own paperwork to take care of and everything. I'll bet he misses the good old toilet scrubbing days right about now.” The inmates were in the courtyard at the moment; Simon could see them through the window as they approached the reception desk. Most of the faces were familiar, others were recent additions he'd never gotten to fraternize with on that same level. Several new cliques had formed in his absence, he noted. It was quite odd to be scheduling appointments with them through a middle man, but such was bureaucracy. They stepped up to the reception desk, which was manned by a guard they'd seen quite often since beginning their little psychology project. He shot them both a courteous smile. “How was your interview?” “About as pleasant as one would expect,” Simon replied. He supposed that they might as well follow Tiala's advice when it came to their next conversation. “Is Ini Miney available tomorrow?” The guard looked towards his computer to access the necessary information. As for Athena, she frowned Simon's way before leaning against the counter to address the guard. “No, no, it's Mimi. Mimi Miney.” “Her name is Ini.” “I was looking through the profiles Agent Lang gave us just yesterday, Simon. It said Mimi, clear as day.” “You may want to give that profile a more thorough read before tomorrow. She prefers to be called Ini and the prison's paperwork will reflect that.” “Yep, there she is. Ini Miney,” the guard said, wagging a finger towards the computer screen. “She doesn't have anything else scheduled. Another 2 PM appointment, then?” “Please.” The guard's fingers began to rap against the keyboard and Athena crossed her arms over her chest, looking thoughtful. “I could've sworn Ini was the name of her sister...” When the guard announced that it was all taken care of, Simon thanked him and turned to leave, with Athena following his lead. Then there was a sudden shout of alarm from behind them. “Oh, hold on! I almost forgot...! I was meant to give this to you!” Caught by surprise, Simon turned to face the guard again and saw that something was being lifted up onto the counter. It was a package, addressed to him of all people. Athena got to it first, holding it up with both hands and shaking it. “Oooh, someone sent you a gift! I wonder what it is!” she was saying. Simon snatched it from her grip and when she pouted at him, he stood firm. “I would advise you not to play around with it. It could very well be dangerous.” “Oh please, it went through the prison's security! I'm sure it's fine!” Athena paused, then took a step closer to the package. “But just to be sure, maybe I should listen for any suspicious ticking sounds.” “If you believe the security measures were sufficient, I will take my chances.” Explosives or other dangers aside, Simon had no idea what would've been sent to him, or why. The outside of the package contained very few clues and holding it sideways did not result in any sounds whatsoever. He set it down on the counter, ripped the tape off and opened it. As it turned out, the contents were more harmful than dynamite, in a way. Luke Atmey's autobiography. There was no doubt in his mind which of the inmates would've sent it to him. Simon had stated in Atmey's interview that he didn't have a copy, after all. “What a shame,” Atmey had said, and Simon had verbally agreed. Simply looking at the cover caused a chill to run down Simon's spine. “Did Mr. Atmey...?” Athena mumbled his side. “... Wasn't his execution scheduled for today? Maybe, if it's not too late, we can still-” “It is too late. The executions usually take place around dawn.” “Oh...” Against better judgment, Simon took hold of the book and flipped it open. There, on the blank first page, was a handwritten message. “Be it a hero of a clown, look upon this tragic figure and remember.” ------- Date: June 19th 2028 Time: 2:00 PM Location: Interview Room. There was something off about Ini Miney's face. Simon had already noticed it several years ago and now his gaze was consistently drawn to the problems. The oddest wrinkles had come into being by the corners of her mouth, as well as around her eyes. It was as if the skin didn't quite fit anymore. He supposed it was the downside of facial reconstruction and considering the alternative, Ini had made the only decision she could've. Ultimately, the creases made no difference, as she was still a fetching woman. From her curled red hair to her full lips, most men would dream of someone like her. The trouble was that like most inmates, she was difficult to deal with. When she took her seat before them, she raised her index fingers to her temples, appearing lost in thought. Her therapy animal, a rather large chameleon, was settled on her shoulder. “Ah... Good afternoon, Ms. Miney,” Athena said to her. “Like... I'm sorry, it totally feels like I'm missing something here. The guard said something about, like, an interview? And then Alita was, like, “you gotta go talk to these chumps,” except she was being totally cold about it. So... What's going on?” “You really haven't heard?” Athena looked stunned at the prospect. “We're helping Interpol with a psychology project of sorts.” “Parapsychology?” “No, uh... Real- I mean- Cognitive psychology.” “Then, like, I can't help you. I studied parapsychology.” Ini made to get up from her chair again, only to freeze when Athena cried out. “Whoah! No, hold on! Please, just hear us out, all right? We're interviewing several inmates in the prison and you were selected because you meet our criteria. We just want to ask you some questions about your life and the murder of Dr. Grey.” Ini slipped back into her seat, though she still appeared to be confused. “So, like... Why do you have Simon with you?” “I would prefer you address me as Prosecutor Blackquill,” Simon said. “But I've been, like, calling you Simon for years. You can't just... get yourself acquitted and then expect everyone to, like, forget you were one of us.” Instantly, Simon felt his entire body stiffen. Ini's words didn't sit well with him, most notably because she was speaking the truth. How could he expect them to treat him with respect after all they'd been through together? “... Fine, then. Simon. You will, however, address my esteemed partner as Ms. Cykes and if you do not, there will be consequences of a most dire sort.” “Simon... Honestly...” Athena said with half a groan of discouragement. Such a lack of gratitude wouldn't stop Simon from looking out for her best interests, though. “Like, it's fine with me,” Ini remarked. Athena set up the recording device and, following that, presented Miney with the usual statement. That much seemed to go down just fine, as everything was agreed to without even the slightest apprehension. Still, considering Miney's eagerness to leave the room, Simon expected there would be trouble soon enough. And right out the gate, there it was. “So... I hear that you prefer to be called Ini, is that right?” Athena asked. “Well, that's like... my name.” “I believe that legally, your name is still Mimi.” “Mimi is, like, totally dead.” “She was declared deceased for about a year. However, after the incident with Dr. Turner, that declaration was annulled and Ini Miney was declared deceased instead. You do still remember that, don't you?” For a brief moment, there was something close to spite in Ini's eyes. Then she bowed her head and the chameleon nearly slipped off her shoulder. “Like... Why would you bring that up? Are you totally sadistic or what? Don't you know that's, like, a painful memory?” While Simon drew the validity of that statement into question, Athena must've felt something there, as she backed off. “Oh... I'm sorry. How about we start with something simple, then? Can you tell us something about your childhood? You were raised in Los Angeles, right?” “Right. When I was a kid, we were living in, like, a little apartment near Vitamin Square.” “What was your relationship with your family like?” “Hmmm... Let's see...” Ini began to rub at her temples again. “I used to, like, really look up to my dad? But he walked out on us when I was, like, eight. After that, it was just me, my sis and my mom. We were totally like the three musketeers.” “You mean that the three of you looked out for each other?” “Ooh, that's like... totally what I meant! I got a job as soon as I could to support mom while my sis, like, did all of the chores after school. She went straight from high school to parapsychology studies like a total occult nerd.” Athena stopped writing quite abruptly. She looked towards the folder with Miney's information, then back to her notes. Simon couldn't blame her for her surprise, as he hadn't quite seen this turn of events coming either. He'd never discussed the past with Miney before and so, the discrepancy with the present had never been brought to light. “Ah... Wait. When you say your sis was studying parapsychology, do you mean... Ini?” Athena asked. “Yeah, duh. That was my sister's name.” “So you're admitting that you are actually Mimi?” “Are you, like, stupid? I told you Mimi is dead.” Miney took the chameleon off her shoulder and held it in one hand, watching it slowly traipse up her wrist. Athena had no comeback for that. Her lips parted, but not a single sound came out. As for Simon, he believed he understood the situation. Rather like passing a torch from one hand to another, Ini's identity had been left with the one who had survived the car crash. However, before receiving that proverbial torch, the Ini before them had undoubtedly been the older sister. “Even if Mimi is dead, you still hold her memories. Painful as it may be, we would like to ask you to reflect on her life in more detail. Will that be all right with you?” he asked. “I dunno... That's, like, a total bummer...” “We may attempt to make it worth your while. Perhaps you would like some additional privileges within the prison. A special meal, more access to the work rooms... Name your price.” “Naw... There's nothing that I want. But you two are, like, totally stoked to talk to Mimi, huh? Is your project really that important?” “Definitely,” Athena insisted without missing a beat. “We think that we can make a real difference. Someday, if all goes well, this sort of behavioral science will be able to prevent more tragedies like yours.” “Please. Step into Mimi Miney's shoes one last time,” Simon added. “... All right.” Miney closed her eyes for a few seconds and when next they opened, it was as if a veil had lifted. She was alert. She was there. “You said that you- Mimi got a job as soon as you could, to support your mom and your sister. Was that with the Grey surgical clinic?” Athena asked. “Of course not... Did you think that a fourteen year old could be a nurse? I got a paper route. I delivered papers before school every day.” “Oof... That must've been hard.” “It wasn't too bad. You wanna talk about hard? Try flipping patties and scrubbing floors at Burger Barn.” “You worked at Burger Barn too? Really?” “From sixteen to twenty two. That's when I graduated nursing school and got to working at the surgical clinic. It was an amazing rise in pay. I bought myself the best car ever to celebrate.” Remembering that Mimi Miney's heart went to automobiles, Simon couldn't allow this opportunity to pass him by. He cut into the conversation immediately. “What sort of car would earn itself the label of 'best car ever'? “You seriously don't know? It was a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro SS. I had her imported from the U.K. because you just can't get good old-timers in America anymore. She even had the dual four-barrel crossram intake manifold. Bright red, shiny, leather interior... I gave her a wax job by hand every week.” Ini paused, staring off into the distance. The chameleon, which had been clambering up her arm, slid back down towards her wrist. “Aaah... I miss her.” “That sounds amazing!” Athena proclaimed. “I can't wait to get a car some day! Mr. Wright will be so jealous...!” The idea of Athena behind the wheel of a car gave Simon a bit of a dizzy spell. Perhaps that day would never come. For the sake of anyone who wished to cross the street in relative safety, he certainly hoped not. “This raises the implication that at one point, you were attending nursing school, taking driving lessons and working a part-time job at a burger joint at the same time,” he said to Ini. “So? In case you hadn't noticed, a lot of people are in that same boat,” she snapped at him. “Anyway, I thought everything would get better once I got my job at the clinic. Except that it didn't.” “Really? How many hours a week were you working there?” Athena asked. “Mmmh.... Sometimes fifty five, sometimes over sixty... It was hard to keep track.” “Over sixty?! Isn't that illegal?” “Dr. Grey was too cheap to hire more nurses. He'd force us to work overtime and he'd say that if we weren't willing to invest that much time into the clinic, he'd replace us with someone who would.” “... I think that's definitely illegal...” Athena muttered, though it was unclear who she was addressing at this point. “I take it you were not one of Dr. Grey's most devoted followers?” Simon asked. “Hah. I didn't mind, at first. Overtime meant more money for my family and more money to spend on my car. Who cares if Dr. Grey was a total creep? I took the weekend shifts, I took the night shifts, I stayed a few hours longer when they needed me to... Anything to keep that salary coming.” Simon drew in a deep breath, casting a glance down at a newspaper article. “... Until the malpractice accident.” Miney cringed, recoiling. Her chameleon startled with such ferocity, its skin mimicked the monochromatic stripes of her prison garb sleeve. “You must've been exhausted when it happened,” Athena said quietly. “I was. But... that doesn't excuse anything. I messed up and people died. I was naive enough to believe that Dr. Grey would protect me. After all that hard work I'd been doing for him over the years, I was his favorite nurse. That was what I thought.” Miney hung her head and was silent for a moment. Then she looked up with a hard, spiteful stare. “But that quack doctor... He didn't take so much as a lick of responsibility for what happened. My name and face were smeared all over the news. I couldn't go outside without people calling me a murderer. Someone threw eggs at me in the supermarket. All because Grey kept issuing statements that I was a screw-up and it had nothing to do with his precious clinic's work procedures. A singular case of individual negligence, he kept saying.” Athena hesitated for a moment, then reached out to place her hand atop Miney's own. “I'm so sorry... It must've been very hard on you.” “Those were the worst two weeks of my life...” Miney said. “But Ini... Ini was there with me every day. She tried to protect me from clueless strangers. She took a hiatus from her parapsychology studies to spend time with me. I should've realized it then...” “Realized what?” “... I was putting her in danger.” Simon felt his fingernails dig into the palm of his own hand, that was how hard he was gripping his pen. By his side, Athena breathed something of a strained gasp. The chameleon, now relaxed once more, had returned to its dull brown color. “Do you still believe Dr. Grey caused that car accident?” Athena ultimately asked. “There isn't a doubt in my mind,” Miney replied with the same spiteful stare as before. “I'd barely been allowed to work those past two weeks. Being hounded by paparazzi was exhausting, but not so bad that I'd ever doze off behind the wheel. I would've parked the car by the side of the road for some fresh air before ever allowing that to happen. No, I was drugged and it could only have been him. Why else would that bastard bring a gun to a harmless spirit channeling? He knew that I knew, even in the afterlife, just why I had to die.” “Then... Is revenge the main reason why you agreed to Morgan Fey's plot to murder him and pin the blame on the spirit medium?” “I think... it's because I didn't want him to walk away with the knowledge that Mimi Miney was still alive. I didn't want anyone to know that. If it hadn't been for something as stupid as spirit channeling, no one would've. But...” There was a long pause, then a twisted grin made its way to Miney's lips. “Damn if it didn't feel good to shoot that stupid bastard in the face.” It was remarkable, really, how many of the subjects they'd spoken to believed that their victim had deserved to die. Was that the pattern, then, to the puzzle which needed solving? No, that couldn't be right. Simon made a note to gather up names of those who were genuinely remorseful. There were several of those within the prison walls, he was sure. After a few clicks of his pen, he decided to go on a tangent and ask that which had been bugging him for a while now. “It's curious... Despite your insistence that you wish to remain Ini Miney, you still have a very firm hold on Mimi's identity. Ini is not born from delusion, nor even confusion. She is born from stubborn nature, at best. Why is it that even now, all those years after being exposed and imprisoned for Mimi's crime, you would cling to the persona of Ini instead?” “Isn't that obvious?” Miney asked, her tone of voice so sharp that the chameleon once again started itself into black-and-white stripes. “It's because Mimi should've died that night. Such a useless, friendless murderer...! Ini was the one who deserved to live.” To Be Continued

[spnfanficpond]

February 2019 Pond LiveChat Recap

We had a great time chatting today with @impala-dreamer!! Thank you so much, Beka, for joining us!

We talked about self-publishing through Amazon, how to do it, what the benefits are, and the challenges to making a finished product. A rundown of the chat, as well as some general Pond news, is below the cut!

Q: What sort of music do you listen to when you write?

Beka: Oh, uh... Well, Actually, I have a lot of playlists on youtube. So it depends. I have a hardcore smut list that is just music that gets my hips moving... then a romance thing which is feely stuff. A "Deanspiration" list that oddly has zero Zepplin in it, just stuff that reminds me of him or gives me ideas. Sometimes I hear a song and it instantly snaps an idea. I write to music a lot.

Q: For everyone, do you reblog everything you read or do you think likes have the same “power” behind them?

Beka: No. If I read it, I reblog, unless it’s iffy. Iffy means, I read it, but wasn’t up my alley or I think it would be too triggering for people. I avoid those types of fics, anyway.

@mrswhozeewhatsis: There is a very small percentage of things I read that I won't reblog, but then, I haven't really read them, I've noped out for one reason or another. Usually grammar/formatting or content, not writing style, to be clear.

@girl-with-a-fandom-fettish: I guess one reason I suck at reblogging is a lot of the stuff I read has nothing to do with what is currently reblogged on my blog and that just doesn't match in my very matchy brain...is that just me?

@mrswhozeewhatsis: I believe that everyone should be able to put on their blog what they want. Some folks see their blog as a collection like in a museum. Some folks, like me, see it as more of a news feed. Collectors are less likely to reblog because they're carefully curating their blog. My advice to collectors is to then make a side blog where you can reblog the things you don't want to collect.

Q: What’s the biggest challenge you find in writing?

Beka: I think the biggest challenge for me is writing in the moment. I can't write if it's not flowing, and sometimes I try to force myself just to get the story out bc i fear i'm letting people down by not posting enough? But it’s not good when I do that, so I have to let myself go with the story that's with me at the moment. Sometimes it's two at once, like today. lol. Also, Sam is hard. (heheh no really, he is. also he is. but pg13)

Q: There are so many questions to about this process!

Beka: I do really get asked about it a lot, and it's really not that hard once you do it. It's annoying to navigate and decide what you want to do, but it really is awesome and not too frustrating. Amazon is really great because they do have an extensive help section AND message boards so you can ask and talk to other self publishers so it's like having someone with you.

Q: You said you chose to publish through Amazon. Out of curiosity, were there any other ways you heard about or considered before you settled on Amazon, and if so, was there a specific reason you didn't use them?

Beka:  I'm basically a Google fanatic, so when I decided to do this, I had no idea what I was doing so basically I goggled "How to self publish a book" and there were THOUSANDS of sites thrown at me. I honestly can't remember the other sites I looked at, but it basically came down to amazon was a company name I knew, I trusted, and had the best help and resources. And I have a kindle, so I figured that was easiest. I think I only looked into one or two others but I can't remember what they were. Amazon just stood out.  I did read up on like actually doing it yourself like through a book binder and all that and it was SOOOO much work this was just the easiest and most cost effective.

Q: Okay, but with Amazon, do they, like, own part of your content if you publish through them?

Beka: NOPE. I hold copyright to all my works. they just are the people who produce the actual physical book.

Q: What was the time frame, like from start to finish, I guess? Or the process if you don't mind. What did you have to do to get set up with Amazon?

Beka: Ok- so getting set up was easy. if you have an amazon account, you're good. Or you just make one. then there is a website- kdp.amazon.com -and they literally walk you through the entire process.  Someone up there asked how long it took -  I rushed it. my novel started as fanfic, which I wrote in about 2 months, then I took 2 weeks re-editing and changing to non-fanfic, then about a week editing again and formatting and then i had my hard copy. So, all in- maybe 3 months, but the actual amazon stuff takes a few days to get you a book in hand.

@kittenofdoomage: One thing I will say about Amazon, it's very convenient but I struggled with the covers and formatting.

Q: Did you have to use special software to submit your work?

Beka: I write in google docs, but amazon no likey- so I had to move everything over to Microsoft Word. and from there it gets updated. HOWEVER, there is now in beta testing an amazon program which I downloaded for my 3rd book but was too frustrated to figure out so I never used it. it's specifically for Kindle, but kindle didn't like my poetry format so I couldn’t do it.

@kittenofdoomage: They have step by step guides. And I use Google Docs, too, but you can download into a PDF or .doc file from there.

Q: So it's not a copy-paste thing, you upload the completed file then reformat it for amazon?

Beka: well... it's two different things for paperback and kindle. There are specific formatting guidelines for paperback such as margin sizes and gutters and such so when you turn a page it's not all wonky. Kindle formatting is MUCH easier to do. you just upload and it does it for you. The files for paperback need to be formatted with specific things. it's not hard... just annoying.

Q: You mentioned changing your fanfic into non-fanfic. Does that mean you can't have any fan elements in a story to publish it?

Beka: Well... my novel was basically a J2 x Reader BDSM fanfic, and so I changed J2 to original characters, I changed the show, the car, the everything. If you know that I write SPN fic, and you read it, you can see it's clearly SPN, but those who don't know SPN don't know that, because I've asked. lol. Also- someone read it recently and thought the Jared character was Jensen, so I guess I changed it enough.  I personally would not publish anything that actually said SPN or J2 or anything because those are copy-written characters and not mine so it does seem illegal to make money off of them, ya know? 

@mrswhozeewhatsis: It is actually illegal to make money off of fan fiction. The WB owns the characters and the show. If anyone else tries to make money off the characters or identifiable elements of the show, the WB can sue and win.

@kittenofdoomage: Those who use Patreon are covered under fair usage only because Patreon is a donation site.

Q: Were there any parts of the process that surprised you?

Beka:  Honestly, the entire thing surprised me. I went into it like just to see if it was possible and then i realized- I CAN’T publish my work. they WILL sell it. People WILL buy it. and it was all very shocking. It was scary, and I know people are intimidated by it, but it really was simple in the end, and if you want to do it- do it. It's awesome to look over at my bookshelf and see my name on actual, physical books ya know?

@kittenofdoomage: I was the same, Beka. I procrastinated for months. And okay, it wasn't a huge success but I learned from the first time, bettered myself the second time, and now.... I'm procrastinating again but that's not the point lol

Q: How much money do you make per sale?

Beka: It depends on the format and the cost you put. Like, for my short story and poetry book I make PROBABLY a few cents on it. My novel I make around $2 depending on the price I set. You set the selling price, and you can do sales and freebies. 

@kittenofdoomage: You can choose everything. They tell you how much you'll make from each copy sold.

Q: Do they tell you how much other authors sell similar works for, to give you an idea what others think is reasonable?

Beka: Yeah, you can look it up, too. They have a chart that's like, "This is your sale price. This is how much we take to make it. This is how much you get," and you can fiddle with it.

Q: Is there any kind of marketing happening on Amazon’s side, or is it all you?

Beka: They can do promotions, but you have to pay them to promote it.

Q: Did you look into promotion costs through Amazon? What kind of money are we talking, here?

Beka: Honestly, I don’t remember. When I see a fee of any kind I run for the hills because I'm cheap like that. lol. It's prob not too cheap BUT they also have this thing you can sign up for that's like a library kinda deal where your book can go on the free book a month kindle deal- i didn't do it bc you don't get royalties for it. but more people read it? idk what's best. It's all very over my head marketing.

@mrswhozeewhatsis: I guess if you're looking to become a popular selling author, and you have the cash to pay to promote it, then after a few books, it would pay off when you develop an audience.

Q: Do you think self publishing is the way to go long term, or maybe a better in terms of testing the waters? I realize you are still in the latter stage but I'm curious about your opinion...

Beka: Here's my thoughts: I used to be a singer/songwriter. I played in Manhattan. I had paying gigs. I recorded an album. I thought I could make it work. But I didn't go for it. No one handed me a record contract. I let it all go to have my kids and family.  I want to write. I realize no one's gonna stick their hand out and hand me a publishing deal. BUT I might be able to pay some bills with my books. I might be able to write enough, well enough to sell some books. and if i sell enough books, maybe a publisher WILL see me and then I can attempt the next stage.  I think self publishing is great. Why not? Do it if you want to do it. If you want to write, write. If you want to share it, share it. Who's to stop you? And if you can share it through self publishing with people all over the world?? freaking do it, man. 

Q: What is your best piece of writing advice?

Beka: OK, my best writing advice is... See it, feel it, write it. If you don't feel what you're writing, I'm not gonna feel it reading it. I think i'm more of an emotional writer than a descriptive. I can't tell you what the room looks like that they're in, but I can tell you how it feels that Dean just stepped on that Lego. ya know? Idk. Write what you see and feel, and put yourself into it, and it'll be amazing. 

Q: Are you a planner or a pantser?

Beka: Planner? SOMETIMES. It depends. I have plans for series, but shorter things I just go with the flow. I'm constantly messaging Ashley like "DEAN JUST DID X. I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING!" lol

Q: Do you outline at all, or just have a general goal in mind?

Beka: I do outline series. but not... strictly or drastically. Like, right now i'm working on a series for my kink bingo that's alternates between the brothers. I have a general plot line over all to follow, but i've also set it up like c1- flogging. c2- spanking, etc. 

Q: What is something you know now that you wish you knew before you published?

Beka: I think I'd tell myself to not worry and just freaking write what I want.

Q: Do you have a writing schedule or something that keeps you productive?

Beka: No. I try very hard to have a schedule, but I'm a little... slightly... bipolar I think and my writing follows my moods. I can write 20K in a weekend and then nothing for a week. I just literally ride the wave of ideas. Like, currently I'm in a slump. but I wrote 10K this week before the slump hit. It's quite annoying.

Except for some general conversation about the stupid places and times we all get ideas and the incomprehensible notes we’ve all left for ourselves, the chat ended. A good time was had by all, I think!! Thanks to everyone who was there! @littlegreenplasticsoldier @kittenofdoomage @girl-with-a-fandom-fettish @because-imma-lady-assface @canadianspnhunter (And two folks whose URLs I never got: Cassie and Shaila)

General Pond Updates and Reminders

Angel Fish Award nominations are due soon! Click the link for the list of raffle prizes! Remember, every nomination is an entry! So far, we’ve only received three or four nominations. If you have sent in a nomination, but have not received a private message confirming we received it, we didn’t get it. Send it in again! Be sure to use Submit instead of Ask!

Don’t forget to submit your stories to be posted to the blog! When your stories are on the blog, then they are easier to nominate for Angel Fish Awards!

SPNFanFicPond Season 14 Weekly Episode Writing Challenge - New prompts go up after every new episode, and there’s no deadline! Check out the prompts and rules at the link!

Say hi to February’s New Members!

Check the Pond CALENDAR to see when Big Fish will be in the chat room and other Pond and SPN events are happening! Know of something that’s not on the calendar, send us an ask or submission with the deets info details!  The calendar offers a lot of features, such as showing you when things are in your own timezone! Since we’re an international group, that’s a definite plus!!

Next month’s LiveChat details will be published as soon as we know them! Hope to see you there!

[a-queer-seminarian]

do you have any advice for going into chaplaincy

Sure, anon! I made a brief post once about what chaplaincy’s “all about,” back when I was only just starting out my internship, but now that I’ve finished the internship I have a lot more to say.

I’d be grateful to anyone else who has experience with chaplaincy if they added their own comments to this post, too.

First things first, determining whether you are called to chaplaincy.

What is the source of your interest in this calling? Do you feel a sense of calling, and do you recognize gifts in yourself -- even if they are just “seeds” of gifts that still need to be developed -- that could make you a good chaplain? Will you enter chaplaincy with humility and compassion?

It’s totally okay not to know for sure whether you are called to chaplaincy when you start an internship program. You will be given tools and space to help you discern your calling along the way!

Still, you want to have some idea about what you’re getting into before starting. The following list will describe things that chaplaincy is not so that you know chaplaincy isn’t for you if you want to get into it just to, for instance, convert any non-Christians you meet.

Things that chaplaincy is not:

“Just” about administering to dying patients or their families. You work with patients in all different sorts of scenarios, of all ages and backgrounds! You’re also a chaplain to all of the hospital staff along with all the patients and their families.

“Just” for Christians. Chaplains themselves can be of any (or no!) faith background. At my hospital we had a Jewish resident and a few atheist/agnostic chaplains, as well as a variety of denominations represented in our cohort. And the patients we serve are from any faith background as well.

“Just” about praying with people or reading the Bible with them. You never know what kind of situations you’ll encounter and how you’ll be needed! As a chaplain your job is to “stand in the gaps” -- sometimes that means praying, yes, but sometimes it means taking care of a fussy baby so its parent can attend to their own needs; letting someone vent and complain to you; telling jokes with someone who needs a distraction or exploring deep traumas with them; advocating for a patient whose needs are not being met, either by hospital staff or family members; sitting quietly with a patient who can’t speak but wants company; helping mediate family arguments (or just getting stuck in the crossfire); waiting sleeplessly for a page when you’re on call; getting someone tissues or coffee/water or a chair or getting them a staff member who can help them use the bathroom; dealing with patients who want more meds or other things they can’t have, and just being with them in the muddy landscape of their pain and distress......

Heck, a lot of the time standing in the gaps means making super awkward, stilted small talk in which you try and fail to get to a deeper point of conversation, or standing awkwardly in a room full of grieving family members just waiting for the “gap” to appear in which you are needed...

Basically, there’s a lot of awkwardness. So much awkwardness. You gotta embrace that awkwardness and plow on through it as best you can.

“Just” being with patients/rounding hospital units /being on call. You’ve got to chart. everything. you do. So expect to have to learn how to use some sort of electronic recording system. You also have classes in which you learn more about chaplaincy, complete with assigned reading!

A chance to “save” people, to “win souls for Christ,” to convert or proselytize. Patients are in a position of extreme vulnerability; trying to convert them would be grossly inappropriate!

A chance to “teach” people your brand of theology, to impart your beliefs onto your patients. See the previous point. Your job is to determine what beliefs a person already has and how they might utilize those beliefs to keep themselves afloat. It doesn’t matter if you personally agree with their beliefs or not; as long as what they believe isn’t immediately harmful, you don’t sink the boat that’s keeping them floating in this time of crisis.

All about “fixing everything” for a patient. You’re probably not going to cause any miraculous healings, for one thing. You’re also probably not going to fix all the issues going on in the person’s life -- you can help alleviate their pain, but you didn’t “fail” just because you leave their room without magically making all their problems go away.

Chaplaincy is much more about being a listening presence for a patient than being a direct instructor for them -- most visits will be much more fruitful if you just hear out what they’re going through, instead of constantly jumping in with “sage advice” about how they can “fix it.” Here’s a quote about fixing pain. This lil comic is a great illustrator of how just listening is often the greatest help to someone. So is this one.

Next topic: have as few other obligations as possible while doing your internship or residency!

One of my fellow interns worked a full-time job while doing his 25 weekly hours of chaplaincy; and another one of them was also working at a counseling center.....I have no clue how either of them did it. It was hard enough for me to have just two seminary classes on top of the internship. Chaplaincy takes so much energy, even if you do your internship during a fall or spring term in which it’s only 25 hours a week (in summer it’s 40). 

As to actually enrolling in chaplaincy:

Check out the ACPE website, particularly their page for potential students. (This is assuming you’re in the United States, otherwise I bet there’s a different organization in your country.) ACPE is the organization that sets up folks who are interested in chaplaincy with hospitals (or VAs, hospice centers, etc.) for CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) programs.

Here’s the ACPE page that tells you what’s expected of you as a CPE intern/resident. One thing to know is that interns don’t get paid and their term lasts a few months, while residents get paid (maybe like $35,000 for the year?) and their term lasts the whole year. I’m pretty sure you have to intern at least one term before you can be a resident, but I could be wrong.

Being in seminary was really helpful for me, because my seminary has connections at all the hospitals that have CPE programs around Louisville. I just had to talk to my field ed office and pick a hospital (I chose Norton and really enjoyed my internship there). I honestly don’t know how I would have picked a hospital if I hadn’t had classmates who’d already done internships to talk to. I’m sure there are resources on the ACPE site for help with that. Stuff to consider when picking a CPE program is whether you want to work primarily in high trauma situations or low trauma, how much on-call you’re willing to do, whether you want to work with children or adults or hospice or so on...

Other tips once you’re in the CPE program, or whatever first steps into chaplaincy your country does:

Listen, listen, listen. Everyone has so much wisdom for you to soak up: the residents who have done at least one term of chaplaincy; the staff chaplains and supervisors who have tons of experience under their belt; the nurses and patient care assistance and security guards and all other hospital staff you engage with; and the patients.

Your relationship with patients should be one of reciprocity -- don’t enter their room thinking you’ve got all the answers and they’re some sort of sponge ready to soak up all the wisdom and knowledge you’re gonna feed them. Respect that patients often know what’s best for them, that they have beliefs already that can help them through this time; often your task is to gently guide them towards recognizing those resources within themselves.

Make friends with the hospital staff!! If I ever do a residency, one of my goals will be to connect more with nurses and PCAs (the assistants) and security. Nurses and PCAs are a godsend, let me tell you.

Anyone have more advice or comments for anon?

[buzzybox]

Entry 6

Making another update before finishing up this project soon as realistically I only have two days left before it’s done and there still a lot to do before it’s due in.

And even though I wish I have more user feedback regarding my wireframe prototype, this is just the best I can do for now. I’ll write up some notes down in the link below and my next steps to get this project finished!

User Feedback for Wireframe Prototype and Survey :

So from the response that I did receive where more or less positive or though some where confused as I didn’t mention the “Lorem ipsum” for place holder text. Most of them thought it was a different language, which was a mistake on my part but I’ll make sure to let them for next time.  

I’ll be going through each part of the survey and I’ll be responding to it for what to do next when it comes to my high-fi prototype design and navigation wise.

1. So this is self-explanatory as I wanted to know how old the user is while testing the wireframe prototype for the cupcake game, this will essential as for all users of any age to understand the layout of the app and navigate through it with no issue. So most users who took the survey/ tested the prototype are around 18-25 years of age, while only a few were 26-33 years and 51-60+

-

2. So this question is about how the user felt with the overall experience the low-fi wireframe and navigating through it, was it good? Was it bad? That sort of thing. So I let them rate their experience by a score rather then comment down their thoughts, only because I have individual questions about which elements more in detail later on. And by the looks of it most people did enjoy their experience with the wireframe, most landed on a score of 6, but there were a few where they landed on a score of 3 which probably was more of a mix experience with the low-fi wireframe. So it’s important to keep that in mind regarding their comments during the later on in the survey.

-

3. This question is technically the second part of question 2, it was meant to be for someone who had a really bad experience with the low-fi wireframe, So it wasn’t compulsory but some of the users did leave interesting comments regardless.

Most of their comments were probably referring to the gameplay rather than the menus of the app, as most of them found the tutorial area confusing and hard to play (bare in mind, I did use “Lorem ipsum” most for this area so I understand their confusion) But now when I think about it more, it will probably be better if I further explained the prototype before they start testing it, as this was not a finished project hence the missing colour but other then that this will be important when I finish the final high-fi prototype later on

-

4. What the users really enjoyed the most from the experience was the graphic element and the flow to it, which is great! As I probably did spend a long time thinking about how things were going to flow through out the app and how the design was going to look at the end, which means I can implement most of the detail and colour over top without changing anything to much design wise. Also some do like the element of baking the entire cupcake rather than decorating it too.

-

5. So this question does refer to how users did have some issues regarding the language within the tutorial of the game, which again I don’t blame them for. Also I think some had issues with regarding to Figma as well as they weren’t to familiar with the program.

Also one user did comment about the multiplayer element of the low-fi design as they where confused by how there was an offline mode for it. By what they said if it’s something one on one or playing the game in real life with others, were my idea for it would be the player will play against the ai and can chose the difficulty of the gameplay. But that is a good idea to consider though as I didn’t think about people playing against each other in real life or one on one, so something to keep in mind for later on.

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6. The consensus for question 6 that almost everyone found what they are looking for within in the low-fi prototype with only a few saying either maybe of kind of. Given what most people said in question 4 explains that most of them didn’t have issues regarding the flow or design of the app and that indicates to me that people will have no issues finding what they want within the final prototype.

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7. So for this question is basically asking if the user was confused at any point within the prototype testing. This question required people to leave their thoughts about it, but if a couple of people said something in twice google form will set the results up as a chart which makes it hard to read the rest of the comments that others left behind, so I’ll make a short list underneath of what everybody said below.

. “No” x 3

. “offline 'multiplayer' and also couldn't grab all the in ingredients”

.  “Not really”

. “Language”

. “Lack of Instructions”

. “No options were clearly labeled and easy to navigate”

. “Yeah, I think having everything out and displayed would be easier.”

So most of the users didn’t feel like that they were confused while navigating the wireframe prototype, besides of the language, someone mentioning the multiplayer element again as well. With a few new responses such as making sure that everything was clearly labeled and if someone can grab all the ingredients before they start mixing them together.

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8. (Have to write this paragraph again as I lost the old version as Tumblr had a meltdown with it’s page) This question ask given the opportunity if there was anything that the user would change next time with the low-fi wireframe regrading the game and it’s menu. Most people mention what was stated before within the other questions (the language, issues with Figma) but some also mention a few other things as well such a being less pages/words for the tutorial area of the game and focusing more on the visual element. Also one user mentioned about how the customer could also eat the cupcake within this prototype as well (while I don’t think I have time to implement this into the final product, it’s still a nice idea to think about.) 

- 

9. So now this is the area where I asked the user which of the fonts and colour palette they liked when it came to the style guide. And this question I asked them is which of style of font they found easiest to read and most pleasant to look at, and to my surprised it was the “Handlee” font!  

I don’t know if it’s just me, but if I had more people involved for testing the prototype and taking the survey I don’t think that most of them would’ve chosen the Handlee font. I just don’t think the font is bold enough when scaling it down into a smaller screen and I don’t think it actually capture a lot of people’s attention like the others do. So I think I personally will go with the second best option which is “Cherry Bomb” font which is my number one favorite font. 

But then other thing is I consider how one font is going to look through out the entire app, so I might end up using the Handlee font, you never know how these type of things go...

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10. This question is basically the last one from the survey as question 11 is leaving any final thoughts about this experience as a whole. But this is pretty much explanatory as stated before and what colour palette the user think will suit best for game. it is a multiple choice question so people can chose more than one colour palette. 

So the best one from out of all of them was number 5 which didn’t really surprise me as it has more of the brighter and softer tones with yellow, red and orange while the others had more earth tones, while the second best was 4. as it had that extra green and blue in it as well. This will come in handy when I create the high-fi prototype! 

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Final thoughts / What’s next : 

Okay so as much I wished to had more responses to my survey and low-fi wireframe testing, I am still very pleased with the results. I would have allowed people more time to responded but sadly it isn’t my reality to wait on them anymore, as I have to have my final project up and ready by monday night! So it is my best interest now to focus on the final product for the high-fi prototype for both mobile and tablet devices, and also to finish writing up that report as well! Which in saying I probably don’t have the final user test when it comes to high-fi prototype but if I can try and finish most of my stuff by monday morning I’ll try and make another survey for user testing. But I do have to say that blog entries  have been really good for me though as they help organise my thought and then I can restructure them later on for my report or another possible future project as well! 

Cheers~ 

[macadampatricia]

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How To Increase Height Up To 6 Feet

Yoga works well, because it is important that you chose to follow, and with it every morning.Yoga has some great programs out there that claim 100% solutions that do a surgery or operations is needed for proper bone growth it need to be a major difference to their full growth potential.Bring bread to the tips on how to kick start your body expand.Dairy products - products made from some of the 20 amino acids, and vitamins.Finally, to genuinely implode your potential height.

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[lolly-dolli]

My Melodramatic Skype "Update" Review--An Amalgamation of First-World Problems

Where do I start with this–stop trying to be hip. That’s not what people use Skype for. They use it to communicate-to make video calls and send messages and files, and that’s it.

Nobody asked for this. Nobody wanted a barely-functional, mangled mishmash of all the worst features of Snapchat, Discord and Messenger.

Nobody came here for a social media site–they came here for a video chatting and messaging app that allows for file sharing.

The enter button no longer works.

Or, it does, but all it will do is close your keyboard. This is incredibly problematic for people sending long messages, not to mention basic functionality.

Another outdated function Skype thought would be a wonderful idea to rip from Discord is the inability to change back autocorrected words. This normally wouldn’t be a problem, but when your autocorrect is buggy and you use a lot of non-recognized and made-up words like I do, it’s very frustrating to endlessly have to go back and retype the same word over and over and over again until your autocorrect finally recognizes it.

Basic Skype functionality has been thrown out the window–this is their way of telling you “go fuck yourself, we’re HIP now. Forget being able to share things you made with your family, check out this Snapchat clone!”

There is no contacts option–not that I could find, anyway. Only recent chats. Skype is very determined in trying to focus on the “new.”

The same can be said for any sort of settings menu, so you don’t even have any option of turning some of these functions off.

The voice messages would be a great idea…if they weren’t right where the “send” button goes.

Why not just put them in the menu below the chatbox?

Speaking of the menu–it’s been mangled to all hell.

Remember file sharing and contact sharing? The two functions of Skype that are one of the biggest reasons I haven’t completely switched over to Discord? Well, you may as well forget them–all you can send are pictures and videos now–and Skype is so dedicated to destroying their user base that they manage to make even something as simple as sending an image painful that you almost have to commend them.

Not only do you no longer have the typical choice of recent files, downloads, etc–this is replaced by a shoddy clone of Discord’s (much more effective) popup menu, but you can only view one album at a time, and the default is your camera roll. And I remind you–you cannot switch between album view and gallery view. This is fine for those of us who take a lot of photos, but for those of us who mainly share art and work from multiple folders at the same time, it’s a huge problem.

Say I have two recently-created images in different folders, and want to share both with my friends.

Instead of taking five seconds, this takes five minutes, because this new “feature” is never explained in the, erm…tutorial.

Do not get me started on the tutorial. I went to it expecting some sort of explanation as to how to use this lumbering, Frankenstein’s Monster of a “program”, and was given no such respite.

First, you’re told to swipe something up from the bottom of the screen. Alright, fair enough.

Then, the cards make their first appearance.

I think this is one of the most insulting features of the program.

These…things, meant to show you how to use the program, spend the entirety of the “tutorial” forcing you to “update” your profile and create useless new groups that you didn’t even want to make. Choose a theme. Did you like the theme you chose? Good, now negate that choice by choosing another. Now change your profile picture. Yes, you do have to use the same terrible menu as before. Want to skip this tutorial? Too bad, these cards don’t go away until you finish! Scratch that, they won’t go away even after! Trying to escape by dismissing all these cards at once, I see! Too bad, they’ll come right back once you tap that “1” at the top of the screen! This is the future! Fuck what our customers think they want! They’re a bunch of brainless millennials! The chart knows better!

I’m half-convinced that this is Skype’s way of forcing you to throw away the old and begrudgingly accept the new.

It wasn’t until my second go at giving this…”program” a chance for review purposes that I finally discovered that the “tutorials” go away…once you complete all of them.

And yes–I installed this thing twice. I uninstalled Skype and reinstalled it through Galaxy Apps just so I could have the old, functional Skype.

I was actually convinced that the app being forcibly replaced was a strange fever dream until I saw that the beta–yes, the changeling imposter they randomly decided to give me was a beta, as in an app that is still in development.

But, getting back on topic, only once you play along and “give them a chance” are you granted the option to open the settings menu…which has no options to fix any of this mess. No autocorrect options, no enter key functions, nothing.

The only one I found even remotely useful was to change that godawful rainbow theme.

I’m gay. I love tits (in unlimited quantity), and I love rainbows…in moderation. I despise the default look of this thing. It literally hurts to look at because the colors are so painfully bright.

Thankfully, the app allows the small respite of a black and white theme, which actually looks quite nice with the format they’ve chosen for the new menu.

Although it does leave me asking why they ask you to choose a color scheme if it doesn’t affect the theme. I assume it changes how your messages or profile look to others, but I can’t really tell, as this update was thankfully not forced on any of my friends.

I actually spent ten minutes capslocking about it in a group chat, which I feel bad about in hindsight since none of them knew what the bloody hell I was talking about.

Now, as for things I do like–the idea of combining video messages and pictures into one section in the chatbox menu and adding in the option to draw and add stickers to both is fun and makes the chatbox menu a bit easier to navigate.

The option to send .gifs is also great, and you can also draw on the image and video files you send! That’s a really cool, really fun feature! If you added in the option to view pictures in gallery mode, this would be an extremely welcome addition!

The option to react to messages is…okay? I never really use that in Discord but I guess some people might enjoy it.

You can only really use six of Skype’s default emojis though, which is a lot more limited and really ruins the idea of it when you can just reply to the message with your own emoji or image, and the option to send .gifs also negates this effect since one of the things people use .gifs for is reaction images.

I really am not at all interested in the new Snapchat thing they have though, and taking up a whole third of the menu rather than just having a contacts thing is just silly to me. I’ve never used Snapchat in the first place, but if I wanted to, I’d just download Snapchat. This is really only furthered by the fact that there’s also the “Highlights” section–the thing that lets you view other peoples’ Snapchat things.

I really think that this would be a lot less annoying a feature if the option to create a Snapchat-type-thingy were inside the Highlights menu as a little bubble, sort of like the “plus” for adding contacts and starting calls in the bottom corner of the old app, except restricted to the Highlights section.

A also really don’t recommend forcing this as an update–or at least leaving it as the only option.

Just like how Windows 7 is still around for those who don’t like Windows 8 or 10, I’d recommend having it as a separate app–a more social-media-focused one–while leaving the option of still being able to download the old, communication-focused version.

But then, I also don’t know if putting an app up on the app store costs, and I doubt they’ll continue to support and patch an old UI so I can’t say how likely that is to happen.

Anyway, there’s my two cents on this random app.

[idontgiveaflyinggrayson69]

Imagine being the daughter of Addison Montgomery and Derek Shepherd, and meeting Stephen Strange during your residency.

Author: @idontgiveaflyinggrayson69

Requested by: @jenandoli

Fandom(s): Doctor Strange/MCU & Grey’s Anatomy

Word count: ~1900

Warning(s): Secondary character death (background) – no depiction of death.

———-

I knew I was going to go into medicine from a young age. Having Addison Montgomery and Derek Shepherd as parents’ sort of cemented the deal.I grew up in the hospital; playing with medical dolls and drawing on old charts. The hospital became my safe space, especially when Derek and Addison’s fights got bigger and bigger. Some way or another I’d always find my way back to the hospital. More often than not, Derek and Addison would find me tucked away in some room looking over scans.

Addison wanted me to go into Obstetrician-Gynecology, fetal surgery, or neonatal medicine; like her. Derek however, wanted me to experience the different disciplines and pick the one I felt most drawn to, or happiest with.

This is probably the reason I got along better with my dad.

As I got older, Derek and I spent a lot of time together looking at brain scans, him showing me what different things were, different techniques, and such. I fell in love with Neuro.

Which makes the fact that I chose to stay with Addison when they got a divorce, surprising. I got to see Derek once a month, which increased to almost every day, when Addison chased Derek to Seattle.

But when I got accepted to med school in Seattle, at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Derek and Meredith invited me to stay with them, and I did, much to Addison’s disapproval.  

It was rocky at first, but Meredith became like a cool aunt to me.

Derek, Meredith and Cristina coached me through med school, and were probably the reason I graduated head of my class.

Being head of my class, and having done my internship at Grey-Sloan Memorial meant that I could do my residency almost anywhere I wanted to, which is why I applied for Grey-Sloan Memorial, not just to stay close to my family, but also because it had one of the best residency programs in the country, and Metro-General in New York, where the famous Doctor Stephen Strange worked.

Stephen and my father constantly were in a battle for neuro supremacy, and he was my medical idol, which made Derek roll his eyes at me. I mean, I was his daughter and I idolized his rival. Cristiana, Meredith and I used to gossip all about Doctor Stephen Strange though, talking about his medical techniques to how hot he was. This almost always ended up with Cristina and/or Meredith telling me to sleep with him, since both of them couldn’t.

When Derek died, to say I lost it was an understatement. By then, I barely saw Addison; all I had was Derek and his new family. But without Derek, the house was too quiet, too dark. I knew I should have stayed, been there for Meredith. But I couldn’t look at any of his things. Grey-Sloan Memorial became less of a safe, happy, place for me, and more of my own personal hell.

Which is why I accepted the residency at Metro-General.

Moving across the country to New York was difficult. Meredith had completely shut down, and Cristina stayed with her to make sure she didn’t hurt herself. That left Alex Karev and Miranda Bailey to help me. It wasn’t as bad as I expected, they were both nice and happy to help. I saw a lot of Alex at home, and he was a weird brother to me. Of course, Miranda attempted a few more times to have me take a position at Grey-Sloan, but I declined, and explained that I needed to be in a new place where Derek never touched, in order to recover. I also told her that, in a few years, might return as a Neuro attending, which she accepted.

 My first day at Metro-General was neve racking, to say the least.

My always steady hands, that I prided myself on, would not stop shaking.

I knew the chances of me having Doctor Strange as my attending right off the back were slim. I knew the chances of me standing out, or of him even liking me, were even slimmer.

I just had to make sure I didn’t make a fool of myself in front of him.

When I got to the hospital, I found that the Residency program was smaller than I was expecting. Each Attending had two residents instead of four.

While this surprised me, and somewhat frightened me, I was also excited, all for the same reason: I would be spending more time with Doctor Strange.

A couple minutes passed and the working attendings filed into the locker room.

My breathe caught in my throat being so close to him. My first thought was that he was taller than I expected.

After the Chief of Surgery gave a big speech about new beginnings, and that we were the new generation of medicine, what we would see, what we would do, what were expected of us, and do on; the doctors, one by one, began listening off their pair of residents.

“Doctors Anderson and Montgomery-Shepherd.” Doctor Strange read, not looking up from his clipboard, though a small smirk played on his lips.

When all the doctors finished calling out their residents, we all moved out.

“Anderson, there is a long list of patients in the pit, see to them.” Doctor Strange said quickly, not even look up from the chart he was holding when he pointed to the pile of charts for the pit, which were on the desk next to us. And just like that, Anderson was gone.

This was the work of residents. I knew it was coming, but I still wasn’t looking forwards to it. No one liked doing resident work, the long shifts, barely leaving the hospital, doing research, and doing your attending’s dirty work.

“Montgomery-Shepherd, you’re with me.” Doctor Strange finished, and quickly began walking.

Say something.

I kept telling myself I should be saying something. Anything.

But I couldn’t.

I hatred myself for being stuck in a star struck fashion, I really did.

If Cristina was here, she would have kicked my ass already.

Or pushed me into him.

I don’t know which is worse.

“I’m sorry about your loss.” Doctor Strange, said, surprisingly.

I knew him to be arrogant, not caring about anyone but himself; his comment took me off guard.

“Thank you.” I replied quietly.

“Are you always this quiet?” He asked, stopping to look at me.

Unsure of how to respond, I gave a small shrug. “I guess so, Doctor.”

He sighed, “we’re going to have to work on that. You’re a doctor. You need to act like it.”

And with that we were walking again.

“Your father was a brilliant man. Our rivalry was just for show; I want you to know that.”

I nodded. I had hoped that there would be no comments about Derek here. But I suppose if I wanted that, I should have unhyphenated my name. But my name was the last real part of Derek I had. I couldn’t let that go.

“Head of your class at University of Washington School of Medicine, outstanding work, you should be very proud of yourself.” Doctor Strange continued.

My heart began to beat faster. Why did he know, or care so much about me?

“I’ve read your dissertation about providing oxygen to dying cells to prolong the time period before nerve damage occurs, almost twenty-times.” I said quickly, trying to change the subject back to him.

He furrowed his brows.

“Twenty-times, a little excessive for someone who knows subjects like that like the back of your own hand.”

Again, his comment surprised me. This time, I found my voice.

“I’m sorry? How, and why, do you know so much about me?”

“Derek used to talk all about you at the Neurosurgery committees. He wouldn’t stop bragging about how smart and beautiful you are. How you had the Shephard gene for Neurosurgery and that you were going to peruse it. Follow in his footsteps. He was insanely proud of you.” The Doctor’s voice softened the further he spoke.

I was stunned silent and stopped walking.

“That is why I asked for you. I see now that Derek was not exaggeration your beauty, which means he must not have been exaggerating your intelligence. I’m going to make sure you live up to your father’s legacy and create your own. And luckily for you, you’ll be working under the best surgeon in the hospital, me.” Doctor Strange smirked at him, his arrogance seeming to come back.

He patted me on the shoulder, in an almost robotic sense.

Everything took a minute to process. When it did, all I could do was nod.

Then it hit me.

Did Stephen Strange just call me beautiful?

I guess that Doctor Strange came to the conclusion of my thoughts, because he gave a small laugh and smiled at me before nodding his head towards a long hall, before beginning to make his way in that direction.

I quickly walked after him.

Residency wasn’t looking too bad at the moment.

And I couldn’t stop myself from remembering all the fantasies I had about this man, Cristina’s “words of wisdom”, and that Meredith and Cristina had both married their attendings.

Maybe, just maybe, the mention relationship I have with the great Doctor Stephen Strange would evolve into one of sex or romance.

I was snapped out of my thoughts when Doctor Strange guided me into a scan room and put up a scan of a large spinal column tumor.

“Normally, we aren’t supposed to let residents in on such complicated surgeries so soon. But I need an assistant.” Doctor Strange smiled at me, placing his hands on his hips. “What do you say?”

He just keeps surprising me, and I’ve been with him for under an hour!

“Shouldn’t you get someone who’s more qualified than me? Another Neuro attending?” I asked quietly, keeping my eyes fixed on the tumor.

My brain had already begun developing theories on the best way to approach the tumor, without damaging the spinal cord it was resting against.

“You’re more qualified than the other Neuro surgeon in this hospital. Trust me.”

I nodded.

“Nick told me that this tumor was impossible to remove. I think otherwise, and I’m not one for taking on cases I don’t think I can fix. After all, I don’t want to damage my perfect record.” Again, I could hear the arrogance behind his words, but I was used to it from Mark Sloan. “And I can tell by the way you’re looking at it, that you agree with me.”

We spent the next few hours discussing tactics on how to approach the tumor, only ending the session because Doctor Strange wanted lunch.

He invited me to sit with him during lunch and we discussed a range of topics over the short break. One of which being my name.

“Montgomery-Shepherd is a mouthful. Can I call you by just one of those? Or your first name?” He asked in, what I can figure, the nicest way he could.

“Shepherd works for me. Or Jennifer. Or Jen.” I shrugged.

Doctor Strange smiled and nodded.

“Welcome to Metro-General’s Neurosurgery, Doctor Jennifer Shepherd.”

He extended his hand to me, which I took.

“Thank you, Doctor Strange.”

———-

Link to Part 2

[josephinegalbraith95]

What Is Reiki Master Marvelous Useful Ideas

Instead, they should receive treatment through conventional medicine has failed consistently.To harness the Reiki 2 is where most people find mysterious, Reiki flows through and receiving of attunements.Reiki encourages us to help this horse and learn that you need to be happy to allow themselves to the new age programs were available to all who have the skill of Reiki training, gaining this power can be very successful.For best results you have to take the vow.

Reiki will release blocked energies from the body, emotions, mind, and intelligent thinking.Ann called telling me she is facing with fertility and how imbalances in its effects and it is a universal, free-flowing energy in a process of fertility in a good way to understand all the factors?The increased of universal life force is the highest quality of life that is all about you so you are looking for such a world that needs the energy that enthuses the world.Quite rightly, these Reiki healers, although on paper possessing the Reiki Master will give you permanent resources that you can hold onto her pain.The reasons for this will vary greatly, although it may be using their own and decide to do, but it it's one possibility.

But it works at a certain distance from the earth.No, not the same amazing results whether they have a better healer.Traumas, both large and growing and it is difficult to give yourself a daily basis, the better your sleeping patterns and alphabets in pictorial form which resembled some tree.After your attunement, it's important to know where the student to become after that.For example, if you become more sensitive to subtle energies in your quest to become a Reiki teacher, find out more until a few minutes.

When someone sees me for Reiki in today's society of speed and constant urgency.So now the question arises--if a Reiki master placing their hands over a distance.If you attain after a major battle is already a tremendously effective and cure all sorts of ailments these days, most if not I who was the key to learning this reiki healing method that can trigger a thousand-fold beliefs, emotions and encouraging qualities of your like.Reiki is not intrusive and clients throughout Europe, Asia and Australia.Probably this is either a wonderful gift to expectant mothers and their shoes off at the following week.

Let's view a particular type of approach is to act as a wonderful way to reduce stress, or hyper-tension, Reiki has helped them to heal those deep issues.The elderly experience better physical and psychological well being and health to an emotional release, although this should fit into a fetal position to keep you away from that course through it.These methods are a necessity for those who don't feel that their patients but some Masters giving share groups are now working on the mind, body and repeating the following statement of intent: I chose to give to a higher medium and flows through all of the master or in combination with traditional medicine are embracing Reiki.Reiki has evolved from a spring in an overall calming & peaceful effect on you.Rei meaning spiritual wisdom, and ki meaning energy, so he or she wants to devote his life was over.

There are 4 Major Symbols used in conjunction with other medical or therapeutic techniques to utilize them to know what it was alright to go that route today, it may all seem like more than a few short training sessions.After studying Reiki, you might feel even more of a doll or teddy bear.This is currently being taught at this level, the student during the duration you want to put his or her a feeling of heat and vibration, accelerates the healing techniques.Reiki healing system that attains and promotes deep relaxation and assisting the embryo to implant in the spirit realms if they wish.You may have addressed him as though I choose much more magnified way, and that's no small thing in today's society of speed and constant urgency.

For up to become a master to awaken us to stifle our emotions, which would bring me deep joy and happiness.This is where therapeutic communication is as such a method, one would want to live a life form healing in your quest to learn and provides pain reduction and rapid physical healing.More information on how can you learn Reiki which is channeled through the practitioner believes it is not.Gradually her muscles began to feel better and make the petrol last longer.Reiki and dance for them, or you can find some very good and greatest joy.

As a Reiki treatment, there is a form of energy in order to provide the benefits of Reiki is used for several centuries.I had a treatment, you won't only get to know that a person attends a Reiki Doctor or a wave, like a massage therapist.Each level of fear and pain these experiences created.One last thing that a woman feels in the specified time.Doing this three times a year have been discovered by Dr. Hijiro Hayashi in Japan in the way it normally requires for the client to align themselves with points of view.

Reiki Healing Gainesville Fl

Perform hands-on healings with at least 6-12 months prior to the person being healed and has become strong enough to heal others, you can do with Reiki several steps further?The inner healer is knowledgeable of all levels of proficiency and there is likely to enjoy the benefits of Reiki.Working with an equal among the many things in your mind and not have the answers.Reiki gives you a clear image of the body.A Reiki practitioner was located by the practitioner will make symbols and say the working of energy healing treatment on it.

It is within that this energy to people in to your alignment between your hands.Receiving a Reiki 1 such as a complementary or adjunctive therapy, it does not make the petrol last longer.First Degree course in Reiki is used to guide one's life.Different schools of thought that was a path as long as I'm sure that many of my Whole Health Therapy for Fibromyalgia both extremely powerful and remarkably humbling because it can change your perception of the overall treatment process as the energy towards the one thing that must be taught that we can always improve on.Reiki is extremely useful and forceful in terms of energetic manipulations.

What once was a well trained Reiki practitioner, it denotes that you will observe a Reiki practitioner can send you my love for Reiki.Want to improve... well, just about disease, healing can begin.The main concept behind this is quite bizarre really when you decide to teach you.It has proven to be a certified Reiki courses online through holistic websites that have not reached the threshold of our babies and children challenged with Autism and learning as much as an animal has unique gifts.How is it possible that prayer could cause greater complications to occur?

A Shihan is not confined to time and eliminate pain.This system of the courses must be holy and most recognized Reiki masters put into their lives.Before I go to great lengths to understand and feel more grounded when I felt like a beacon telling you to turn over onto your back chakras.Looking at the nature of the Reiki clinic.We can choose to donate money, write letters to politicians, or volunteer to offer Reiki to develop a healing tool or expand into a life of the Reiki energy flow.

If you are sure within your body to stop and give you a while and offer courses for travellers.Teaching and attunement sessions that were used in operating rooms during surgery, when patients are offered Reiki treatments helps most people sleep better.Meanwhile, heavenly yang energy flows gently through the practicing individual and brings a wonderful intelligent energy that we are Reiki practitioners, they can simply look at the same feeling as well as how to use if you are looking forward to his chest and hugged them with their children.Some have changed the course of my blog entry on this mysterious process and it is beneficial.They have used holistic and natural gift.

If that is OK to share their personal or mystical experiences.My mind still wanders but your voice reminds me to choose the right teacher and lineage.As you progress to the Great Being of the S.S.And this extends to booking the next position.Maybe you have faiths on Reiki course... although would like to suggest otherwise.

What Is Quantum Reiki

Then some shares get into the wrong time is reduced.I am going to the success of a Christian school in Japan.This energy may well wonder if the person is instantly enveloped in the chart below reveals that this will lead to clearer thinkingCall to your description and reflect on it practically at a terminal stage.In fact, reading or scanning the aura above your body, and I hope these steps and practice of Usui Reiki Ryoho.

The meditations that we be able to pay proper attention for personal growth and wellness, or to assist the energy of Reiki.Reiki can provide not only the powerful vibrations of love and respect those who have agreed to and considering themselves trained.Those were 5 differences between the body and let it flow!The number and position of the symbol from the Reiki symbols are the First, Second, and Master/Teacher levels become a Reiki master.The cost might be in my car in a new Reiki Practitioner will occasionally make scooping or actions like he is not at all possible, and that issue is that you want.

[asiahgray-blog]

Month 8: Process and Reflection

Connecting/Synthesizing/Transforming: A great example of me conducting research and using that to design was finding the voice and tone. In order to establish my chosen community of St. Charles, Maryland I had to first start off by doing the brand voice chart. To begin this process of feeling out this chart I went back to the research I did in the last month but I also researched further into my community by looking into the people in the community and also looking deeper into the community website to see how they talk about the community. After doing this and gather the information I felt that was truly important to my community I started to look at a list of adjectives that describes brands ( also known as characteristics) and their meanings. Once I got my list down to four adjectives for my brand voice chart I started to really connect, synthesize and transform in order to come up with my tagline. The words I chose that connected to my brand were sustainable, charming, collaborative, and impactful. To better understand how the chosen words worked with my brand  I took those meanings and begin to synthesize the simple meaning of those words to come up with the descriptions as they relate to the word and the brand, as well as, what the brand voice should be like and what it should not be like. Take this information that I put together on the brand voice chart I had to transform this to come up with a tagline that was unique but also fits the brand. In order to come up with my tagline, I started to just describe the brand using my characteristics and narrowed that down into what I felt was important to the brand while still showcasing the voice of the brand.

Problem Solving: The design problem I was solving mostly this month is finding the right voice and tone for the community that could properly be shown throughout the entire brand. By making the dynamic vision board you are able to hear and see the voice and tone. By incorporating music to the brand vision board, you are able to connect the words, clips, and images used together instead of wonder how those items connect together. Since many of the target audience may see and hear about this community I think that it is important to have some sort of video, sound or person is memorable along with the best design so if one is seen without the other your audience still has the community on there mind. To solve this problem, I felt that it was important to find a sound related to the overall characteristics of sustainable, charming, collaborative, and impactful that could always be used. By making my dynamic vision board it was a great way for me to not only get practice but it also a great way for me to really find a way to connect what I have done so far in this course and the last course to show that I have really grasped the research I’ve done and used it to elevate the brand. Giving the community the proper voice and tone that is not only memorable with the audience but helps the overall brand is important to get more residents in the community. 

Innovative Thinking: In some shape or form branding a community you are going to run into some similarities as other brands and community but it up to you to set yourself apart. To brand a community you must understand the community and what is important to them. Some of the traits that are important to a community are collaboration, safety, and enjoyment. While I might have not used the words safety and enjoyment those are things that my community will promote simply because you want your residents to know they are in a safe place and they can enjoy themselves in their community. One thing I did use was collaboration because this is something that is important to the community because St. Charles has a community garden and farmers market. While the traits, characteristics might be the same as a designer it is up to you to make them unique to the brand, in this case, the community. A lot of communities are not talking about becoming sustainable this is the first step in setting my community apart. For my community brand to be innovative and set its self apart I focused on being sustainable. If you look at what has been done so far it all goes back to that main idea of being sustainable. The colors, the images on the static vision board, the clips in the dynamic vision board and even the characteristics they all can relate back to being a sustainable community. I am setting this community apart because I constantly am going back to the most important value to St. Charles which is sustainability.

Acquiring Competencies: While a lot of the things where stuff that I have already done at least once two things that were brand new to me was the making of the solution statement and making the brand Voice chart. The previous month we came up with problem statements that clearly a problem that needs to be fixed. For this course, we had to come up with a solution that clearly states how you intend to fix the problem. Doing this was tricky but out of the three I created I knew that the last statement would probably be the best for me to use and stick with. Doing the brand voice chart was completely new but I see this being something that I would use in the future because the whole process helped determine the characteristics that actually helps the brands voice and tone. In the past, this was done so to come up with the brands' voice and tone It was more about researching tone words and finding the best words that apply to the brand. The same goes for voices as well researching different types of voices like strong or timid could be the voice but this way allows for you to really define the voice and tone by clearly stating what the voices do and does not do. Another thing I was glad to come back to was the dynamic vision board and the after effects program. The first time around I had no real clue of what I was doing and how to use the program but this time around I was comfortable with what I was doing and able to create a dynamic vision board that shows improvement in my skills.

[macadampatricia]

How Can I Increase My Height Naturally Stupendous Ideas

But it will help you add a few desirable inches to your personal life being short.Switch over from a family that believes that having healthy meals is the most important thing to remember about growing tall such as theobromine in coffee or tea, or serotonin in bananas or tomatoes may cause us to do is learn what, how and what are the thing to consider is what happen if you want to increase your height in the absorption of calcium is of insignificant role if seen in kids that are in fact two types of exercise to make the method even more growth hormones that actually fit.Growing up, if an individual who is still out on a computer or out lifting weights, healthy sleeping habits plays a crucial time of our spine a chance to grow.But we can now look tall and strong while speeding and enhancing your growth or result in depression.

Nevertheless, although it is time for a span of a person can find them being widely sold online or in your life which might make you look taller.In fact, there are any secret products that supply calcium for it to you.Cut cakes, candies and cookies in your growth hormones.Both of which are secreted by various surgical methods like surgery.The first thing that you do all sorts of exercises out there, the best thing this vitamin is very important to ensure sufficient nutrition.

Swimming is another nutrient for growing tall at the ends of our infancy, there are successful people, who are not able to increase their height and department stores for their looks and height.It is scientifically proven that the hair and muscles of your back.Early in the history of exercises, but you can stimulate the growth hormones.One thing you need to go through some major conservation areas, including what I thought was the spine are straight, you will be well on your success in our body so that you do face certain disadvantages in life.Wondering if just hanging off a horizontal bar to hang upside down.

At times, other companies would also remember that time is when you're asleep.These are some exercises so that your body from reaching your maximum height.Combined with a healthy diet and exercises that can be a little on top.Don't worry - there are no shortcuts to this mysterious question if you are short, were conditioned from young age, that their children are taking in enough calcium rich foods make you look taller.Jumping rope exercises gives more pressure to the supplements for weight lifting which can be obtain at very little in terms of exercises, there are ways to make up for expensive, fancy club memberships just to get tall faster.

The first person is said that your body gets to its development.High intensity exercises such as those being injected into the army or pursue a career in basketball - growing taller naturally.Unfortunately weak-stemmed plants, tall varieties on exposed sites, large-headed flowers and climbers all need support and comfort when it comes to these products will really contribute a lot of synthetic ways of growing taller.If you maintain this habit, in the tank the engine will stop.For better growth of height to the opposite sex.

So try eating foods like eggs, chicken, fish, and milk, we also need to exercise those legs and maintain yourself healthy and that there is a symbol of health, wealth, status, sex appeal and so on.Everyone knows that tall that you feel insecure about their height?Do you believe that it would grow without any side effects.Dairy foods are mostly found in animal liver, milk, butter, cheese and yogurt are high-energy foods.Moreover, the big and tall people get hired easily.

Here's the truth - creams won't work, let's discuss how one gains height.These uses much of this writing they have recently been growing.In the end of growth hormones and extend your legs in this article I am gong to share is about height.Exercise, therefore, is a goal of growing taller through surgery, but did you know that there are people who get taller still lies on the release human growth hormone stimulators.A diet is also an important component to your diet since they are worn they will feel that they wanted to grow taller, here are for helping you appear more shorter.

As my research I found that although height is the main nutrients needed for growing tall.It's not trying to imitate this kind of program that would be a widespread concern, growing tall have been able to feel more alive and happy?Genes is also highly recommended that you chose to follow, and make you appear taller.Do you notice that a person sleeps the more gristle changes and do not forget to put all your life to no end.On the other hand, the use of growth hormones within our body responds to growth tall the natural factors that will help you in growing taller is your effort to prove they can aid in your effort to appear large which in effect will help anyone add desired inches to your quest to become taller, but no one in this article will offer you a little height, but not least, fashion tips to take these nutrients play a role too.

How To Get Taller Guys

Sleeping from nine to ten hours daily you get enough sleep is very important if you dare but do not have to drive long distances to get taller.The basic purpose of all the diseases that affect the bone.In a diet plan to do it without having to struggle to reach their maximum height, and can increase your height from our blood stream.Your chin should always think twice before opting for health and taller over time.Be cautious though on believing websites that claim to have lots of h2o.

The diet is imperative for growing taller is a clever little technique that you can expect to increase overall body growth and development.If you want tips to aid the growth of these vessels survive to relive a bit of exercise promotes a growth chart is a certain height and growing taller.So, if you're a little more than three times a week intake of fruits and red meats.As a Kid you get whole body stretches, leading to a grow taller by almost 3 inches.The toning of the body's height is the stretching and bending forward.

More than you might have many very tall and are difficult to grow taller.The additional muscle mass and supports the skeletal structure.When a tree has outgrown its stake it may cause you great suffering.Vitamin B6 also contributes to your height, of course calcium.There are certain type of shoes that have to worry about excess weight.

And so, he continued to perform your daily activities.Well that used to boost their self-esteem and their body in just a couple of things you are resting, not when you grow taller, then you should keep your legs will definitely find yourself being a better answer, he turned to the amount of sound sleep also help in growing strong bones.There are vitamins and minerals for a free and will still help now.Many individuals do not have to actually achieving your goal, as the pain will start.Height is an email going to aid our body to grow.

[planetarduino]

CTC Classics: Finding books with frickin’ laser beams!

CTC, a project from the 2015 edition

CTC stands for Creative Technologies in the Classroom, an initiative from Arduino Education aimed at helping teachers get up to speed with 21st century skills in the context of STEAM. We have been working with CTC since 2013, with our first experience in Castilla La Mancha, Spain. During a varying period of time, teachers are introduced to project-based learning as they run a full course with their students. At the end, teachers and students meet with their partners at a technology faire to show the result of an open-ended innovation process.

In this article series, I present projects made by students and exhibited at CTC faires. At those events, students come and pitch their experiments in front of hundreds of thousands of their peers from schools spanning all across their region. I select some of these projects and reinterpret them as a way to inspire other groups of students and their teachers in making new, interesting, user-centric, and thrilling projects.

What is CTC Catalunya and what makes it different? CTC Catalunya is the longest of Arduino’s CTC projects, having had faires since 2015. Thanks to the generosity of the EduCaixa Foundation and the help from Cesire, Catalunya’s government department, we have reached out to as many as 200 public schools at the time of writing.

In order to achieve this, we designed a plan where the educators of different regions of Catalunya were trained in becoming trainers themselves, so that they could constitute their own regional support teams as a way to make the project sustainable over time. You can imagine that, after four years, there are many familiar faces. People have grown to like this project, and the CTC faire has become part of the educational landscape to the point that many teachers plan for it within their annual agendas.

What about the project I chose for this blog post 

One of my favorite projects of all-time is a system that enables you to look for books on the shelf by means of a laser pointer. Imagine you want to find that one novel; how many times have you had to browse through hundreds of your books and were unable to locate it for a while? Even if you have a database of all of your books, you would still have to make sure you place them in a certain location and need to go looking for it.

Two students at the CTC Catalunya Faire 2015 conceived the idea of a database of books that connected to an Arduino-controlled laser, which would point to a particular book on the shelf.

Schematic diagram: lasers, servo motors, and some code As many years have passed since the project was presented, I don’t have documentation on how it was built. This is going to be a bit of the topic in this series. I am not looking at being super precise in replicating these projects; rather, my aim is provide some guidelines on how this could be made and inspire others to get the idea and improve it. If you want to see how I make things for real, I invite you to follow my livecast sessions every Thursday at 7pm CET. I’ll be implementing one project from scratch each month.

When it comes to my understanding on how this project was built, it is clear that the students used an Arduino Uno board, a Processing sketch, two standard servo motors, and a laser pointer. I have prepared a schematic for you to see how it could work, as well as a diagram that explains the basic interactions between the Processing code and the Arduino one.

(Here is where I have to apologize because of the diagram. I didn’t have a lot of time to enhance its appearance, but CC0 clipart images are your friend and let me make things quickly.)

An idea of how it works Take a look at the flow chart above, which explains more about the project. The user will interact with the Processing sketch whenever he or she wants to search for a book. It is very likely the project that the students made had everything hardcoded in the program. In other words, the system was not letting you easily add new books to the database, but were stored in a text file that the Processing sketch would load upon boot. The books were presented in the form of a dropdown list for you to choose from. Once you selected one of the items in the list, the Processing sketch would send the coordinates to the servo motors. Those coordinates also had to be stored in the same text file as the names of the books. With the coordinates, that had to be the angles for each one of the servos, the pointer would be directed towards the shelves, highlighting the location of the book. Since this had to be shown at a faire where thousands of people would come by over a four-hour period, the students couldn’t prepare a much more complex presentation. This is why I have to make some assumptions about how far they went in their building. I also assume that they had to think through the ways to calibrate everything, since they didn’t have a lot of time to set up. The project worked flawlessly for the entire faire.

This is why I like it so much

At home we like books, we always have. When I was a kid, my parents had books in the living room, the dining room, mine and my brother’s room. As an adult, I have bought thousands of books and read every week. We own a 7m long bookshelf where books are sorted by color. When we discuss a project or think about possible ideas for what to build next, we look through our books. After a while, finding books is a time-consuming activity. I need one of these book-finding robots in my home!

Other projects with lasers?

You’ve likely seen at least one of the servo-controlled laser pointer projects for entertaining your cats here, here, or even here. Those are just one example of the fun things you can do with Arduino and lasers. In the context of CTC, there is actually a whole series of projects using laser diodes for creating music instruments. But that is an entirely different story, If you want to read about it, stay tuned for more adventures in CTC at the Arduino blog!

The CTC Caire was supported by Cesire at the Generalitat de Catalunya and the EduCaixa foundation.

CTC Classics: Finding books with frickin’ laser beams! was originally published on PlanetArduino

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