#why does the twitter link automatically turn into a picture | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

illuminatedquill · 3 years

Text

Nevertheless, Finale (Preview)

This is going to be my final post until after the last episode airs.

Let’s get right into it. Remember that feeling of happiness we all had after episode 9 aired? Bit Na x Gyu Hyun, Soljiwan had their happy endings; Na Bi finally kicked Jae Eon to the curb; Do Hyeok x Na Bi seem to be full steam ahead towards their happy ending.

That’s gone now. Episode 10, the finale, looms ahead like the iceberg to the Titanic and, if you’ve been poking around on Twitter this morning, you might have spotted a HUGE SPOILER that got leaked somehow. If you’re reading this, you know what’s coming. I have to talk and try to make sense of it for anyone who is cheering for Do Hyeok x Na Bi about what it all could mean.

So, again, BEWARE. It’s going to get messy. SPOILERS AHEAD, DO NOT CONTINUE READING IF YOU WANT TO GO IN CLEAN AND ANXIETY FREE.

What. The hell. Is this scene.

As of this writing, there are now three more pictures that seem to point in one terrible, terrible direction: that, against all reason, all sanity, all sense, Jae Eon x Na Bi are going to be endgame. I’m not going to post the other ones, but I’ll link it here: https://twitter.com/apinya96335760/status/1428390704699506689?s=20.

How did we get here? Where did this come from? What are the writers thinking?

Let’s rewind and do a little recap: yes, Jae Eon has made progress with his character but, as I’ve stated in a previous post, just because he’s aware of his feelings for Na Bi doesn’t make him automatically entitled to be with her. In fact, his character has only gotten worse, making him a meaner, more possessive version of himself. He hit rock bottom in episode 9 after he used Na Bi in an attempt to hurt her friendship with Do Hyeok. As we saw, Na Bi didn’t take kindly to that; she burned him, and their whole rotten relationship to the ground in reply. Jae Eon, somehow shocked at this turn of events, realizes that he has lost Na Bi for good.

The preview for episode 10 seems to hint at a potential reconciliation for the two and, honestly, I am hoping for that; it needs to happen so that they both can move on to the next chapter of their lives. Despite Na Bi’s wish to never see Jae Eon again, she does need his help on her art project which is in dire need of rescue after it gets mysteriously destroyed. The art project, to me, is the one remaining way they can reconnect and be honest with each other, along with their feelings; putting it into the sculpture is the way of letting each other go and coming to terms with all that happened between them, good and bad.

But I do NOT see them getting back together. There is no way in hell that Na Bi would consider such a thing, especially after the events of the last episode. And her feelings for Do Hyeok are emerging stronger than ever, as suggested in some cute scenes from the preview as well:

In a nice callback to his original confession in episode 8, Do Hyeok once again offers Na Bi flowers (although I don’t know if he is confessing again). This time we see Na Bi accept them, so it does seem like she is ready to reciprocate his feelings with her own. Makes sense.

So what is with those spoiler pics?

Here is the current main theory I’m seeing: it’s a dream.

Yeah. I know how that sounds. We know that Jae Eon returns to see Na Bi’s art piece at the gallery and, judging from the photo, that’s where he makes his last, desperate plea to see if he has a chance with her. The timeline of this photo is odd; we KNOW that Na Bi accepts Do Hyeok’s flowers in the preview. If she really is accepting his feelings and committing to a future with him, why would she turn around and kiss Jae Eon all of a sudden?

There is no way they can suddenly turn his character around - or have Na Bi grant him forgiveness to the point where she makes this decision - in the span of one hour. The sheer amount of writing, logic, and character bending gymnastics to arrive to that conclusion is insane. I can’t wrap my head around it. Jae Eon x Na Bi are DONE. He said it himself.

So this is where the dream theory comes in. Jae Eon sees Do Hyeok x Na Bi, acting lovey dovey now that they’re committed to one another, and has his whole narrative finally revealed (whatever that means; to explain, a few weeks ago, it was spoiled that “Jae Eon’s narrative” will be finally revealed in this episode and now I think I means this); heart broken at his lost opportunity, he imagines what life would be like if he hadn’t messed up and he and Na Bi were reunited. Hence the spoiler pics.

I mean, look at those photos. It seems too good to be true. And those sure as hell aren’t Na Bi’s dreams and wishes; she hates Jae Eon and never wants to see him again. Her and Do Hyeok are as solid a couple can be and they’re not even dating (yet). I cannot imagine for the life of me what Jae Eon could do in the final episode that makes her give him a second chance. And I’m being objective as possible, despite my bias for Do Hyeok. Yes, he helps her with the art project. Great. But that should lead to reconciliation and letting go. Not getting back together.

(There is literally no time left. One hour, folks. That’s all they have. If they really wanted this to be endgame, they should have been putting in the work WEEKS ago. Yet, here we are.)

I’ve said this before, but I’ll repeat it here: nothing is guaranteed with this show. Every time I think it’s going to go one way, it goes another.

But, to me, this potential ending doesn’t make sense. Not in any way. Communication, respect, putting your partner’s feelings first, making sure that you are healed and whole and have no baggage when you enter a relationship - these are all lessons that the show has imparted to us, the audience, and ones that I have talked about in my posts.

If they do go with this ending, it will be a betrayal of all that. It will be another classic ‘the good girl changes the bad guy so he can be with her’ ending, and Nevertheless, despite its problems, can’t be faulted for being just another kdrama. This ending doesn’t exist in real life; the Jae Eons of our world rarely change, and if they do, not enough to warrant a second chance like this. This ending route is a fantasy and Nevertheless exalts itself for being hyper realistic.

But. I don’t know. It all comes down to Na Bi and what her heart is saying. And despite my previous posts pointing out time and again that her feelings for Do Hyeok are growing stronger with each passing episode, unfortunately, we still don’t know how she feels about him. The preview is promising but the spoiler photos are damning.

If you’ve read to this point and are still feeling unsure, I’m sorry. This was as much a post for me as it was for you to sort this all out and try to make sense of it all. I tried my best.

(Feel free to scream about with me through a message or reply.)

Last episode, everyone. Let’s hope the drama sticks the landing, doesn’t let us down again, and we finally see Do Hyeok x Na Bi get their happy ending. They’ve been through enough. And so have we.

See you all at the finish line. As they say, it’s all over but the crying . . .

#jtbc nevertheless #nevertheless #kdrama #han so hee #chae jong hyeop #song kang #yoo na bi #yang do hyeok #park jae eon

3 notes · View notes

heyyyharry · 5 years

Text

Chapter 15 - Before The Storm

(from the My Girl Trilogy: Be My Only)

…in which “a heart is not a home without the one who gets you through the storm.” {end of book 2}

Warning: smut, angst, fluff, and a WTF ending 🙃

Word count: 5.7k

AU: actor!Harry, older!Harry, younger!Y/N, (4-year age gap).

Chapter 14: I’ll Be There - Y/N shouldn’t have trusted her car, and Harry should’ve come home sooner.

Wattpad link

A/N: This is the last chapter of book 2! Read it now and don't forget to tell me what you think about the ending! Thank you sooooo much for your support! 😍

The cameras flashed and the intrusive questions hurled at Ruby as soon as she stepped out of her car. Turning a blind eye to the paparazzi, she hung her head and quickened her pace while navigating herself toward the hospital entrance. It wasn't until the automatic sliding door shut behind her, and all the screaming was muffled that she took off her sunglasses and heaved a sigh of relief. All eyes were on her as she walked up to the front desk. She supposed some people knew who she was, but thank God, no one came up to ask for a picture.

"I'm here to see a patient named Y/N Y/L/N," Ruby said to the nurse who wasn't even looking at her as she held up a finger, telling the actress to wait.

"Good morning, Patricia!" A man walked past the front desk and waved at the nurse. Ruby didn't pay attention to him until Patricia called out his name.

"Yo, Bradford!" The dark-skinned lady snapped her fingers as he turned around. "This rich white girl is here to see your daughter."

Daughter?! Ruby was startled, her mouth was agape, but the man had already walked over to shake her hand.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Y/N's dad," he said, pointing to the nurse. "Don't mind Patricia. She's always kidding."

"No, it's fine, I—"

"Next time don't show up at a hospital in an Audi. This ain't your runway," Patricia said as she eyed Ruby up and down.

Fortunately, Bradford changed the subject, "are you a friend of Y/N's?"

"Uh...yeah." She nodded. "Nice to meet you, sir. My name is Ruby."

"Call me Bradford," he said and jerked his head toward the double door to the corridor. "Follow me. I'll walk you to her room."

Ruby thanked Bradford and Patricia as well, but the nurse didn't seem very impressed as she gave the actress the side-eye until she was gone. Seeing worry etched on her face, Bradford had to reassure her, "Patricia says things like that all the time but she's actually very nice."

"Do you know all the nurses here?"

"Only some." He shrugged. "I've been here with Y/N for a week. There's nothing to do but talk to the nurses."

"Wow...Y/N is um...she's very lucky to have a loving father like you."

The corners of his mouth turned up as he thanked her and they kept on walking. "Her boyfriend is very helpful too," he added. "He's spent every night here since he got back from France."

"Her boyfriend is...an actor, right?"

"Yeah," Bradford said, but then doubt overtook his face. "Did you get that on the news or—"

"No, no, I...um...I know both of them," she admitted while twisting the ring on her middle finger.

"Aaaah, I see." He nodded. "I don't keep up with the news, but my wife does. She's told me about what the people online are saying about Y/N and it just breaks my heart. I can never read those things, you know? It'll only drive me crazy knowing I can't protect my little girl."

Ruby only gave a quivery smile yet her silence urged Bradford to continue.

"What model is your car?"

His unexpected question caught her by surprise. "Uh...it's an Audi R8 Spyder."

"Oh my." His eyes went round. "Are you famous like Harry?"

"Sadly no," she lied, chuckling a bit.

"Well, that's a really nice car you got there."

"Thank you."

"I'm saving up to get Y/N a new car, but I think Harry is planning on giving her one of his. But she'll probably be so mad because she hates getting things for free. That kid could be so stubborn sometimes."

Listening to this man talk about his daughter with so much love made Ruby happy and sad at the same time. She was happy to know a father like him still existed. But she was sad because she had never been in Y/N's shoes.

Her father had been a nightmare. Her mother had died when she was very young and she'd had to live with a cold-hearted man who had beaten her up and called her insulting names like ‘whore’ or ‘slut’ or ‘a worthless piece of shit’. And she'd grown up thinking she was exactly what those words told her to be.

She had left home at eighteen and struggled to make it on her own until her ex discovered her and helped her build her career. But as it turned out, he just wanted her to be in his life as a piece of decoration which he could easily toss away when he was finally bored.

Even though she hated to admit it, she envied Y/N for everything she'd got. A loving father. A normal life. And a lover who would treat her with respect and choose her over the world. She would kill to have all that even for just one day.

Harry had been the only man who'd loved and accepted her for who she'd been. And the thing that she regretted the most up till now was letting him go. They said, 'never say never'. But in this case, 'never' was the only answer.

"We're here."

Bradford's voice pulled her back to reality as they turned right at the end of the corridor.

"She's awake and Harry is with her," he said, pointing to one door on the right. "You go in there. I'm gonna get some coffee or I might pass out."

"Oh...okay...Thank you," Ruby mumbled. Anxiety was burning in her chest as she stepped closer to the door and looked through the rectangular window. The couple was sitting on the bed, facing away from the entrance. She could hear their voices well because the door was slightly open. It seemed like Harry was braiding his girlfriend's hair and she was scolding at him for his terrible work.

"Okay, again, for the fifth time," Y/N breathed. "First, divide the hair into three even sections. Cross the left section over the middle one, and then cross the right section over the middle section. How hard can it be?!"

"All I can remember is the word 'section'," he said, making her cackle. "Hey, stop moving!"

"I've been sitting like this for half an hour already!"

"Fifteen minutes." Harry untangle her hair so he could try again and snorted when she released a long sigh. "If you want to be pretty, you must be a good girl and let me do my magic."

"Your magic takes forever. I want a refund."

"Here." He gave her bare shoulder a kiss, before readjusting her hospital gown to cover it up.

On the other side of the door, Ruby was plucking at the cuff of her jacket as her eyes stayed fixed on the happy couple. She was there to see Y/N, but after what had happened in Paris, she worried about how Harry might react when he saw her there. He wouldn't believe she'd come to apologize to his girlfriend. After everything that she'd done, she was lucky that he had forgiven her. So what should she do now? Was she just going to wait until he left?

"I feel like you're doing it wrong," said Y/N as she reached behind her, but Harry smacked her hand away before she could touch her hair. The girl grumbled something at him and picked up the handheld mirror to see what he was doing. But Ruby's startled face was the first thing she saw.

The blonde backed away from the door, hands clenched into a fist pressing against her chest. She expected Y/N to tell Harry, but then she heard, "baby, I'm thirsty."

"Drink your water," he said.

"No, I want a coke," she grumbled. "Can you go downstairs to buy me one?"

"Baby, I can't leave you here alone."

"It'll only take a minute. I'll be fine. Please?"

There was a moment of silence before Harry let go a heavy sigh.

"Okay, fine." He chuckled. Ruby heard him move a chair as he stood up and put on his shoes. "I'll be back in a minute to finish braiding your hair."

"Yes, sir!"

The door creaked open, and the actress was quick to run and hide behind a wall. She waited until the man was out of sight to return to Y/N's room and finally knock on the door, asking if she could enter. There was no point hiding now that she'd been caught.

"Come in," Y/N said.

Ruby slowly walked in, her lips pressed into an awkward smile.

"Hi."

"Hi," said the younger girl, who was now sitting with her back against the headboard as she pointed to the chair by her bed. "Would you like to sit down?"

"No, it's fine, I—" Ruby held her hands together and shifted from one foot to the other. "Um...I heard about your accident so...uh...I came to see how you're doing."

With a slight chuckle, Y/N rolled her eyes. "Let me guess, I was trending on Twitter and people wished I was dead?"

Ruby kept quiet for a few seconds and decided to not answer that question. She knew that most of Harry's fans disliked Y/N, but they had no reason to send the girl death threats. Ruby understood why they had been against her and Harry, but Y/N was just a normal college student. Her life wasn't exposed to the public like Ruby's was. How could people hate someone they'd never met before?

As soon as she asked herself that question, Ruby realized that she'd been one of those people too. She had hated Y/N simply because of Harry. It was shameful. But at least now she knew she was wrong.

"I'm actually here to apologize," Ruby said as she took a few steps closer to the bed. "I...um...I'm sorry for the things I've said and done. And I'm sorry for what you're going through right now. Harry clearly loves you, and you love him. Well, we both love him pretty much the same but...you're better at it, and...you're a better person, too."

Y/N scoffed. "I wouldn't say I'm a better person—"

"You are to me," Ruby cut her off, and with a smile, changed the subject, "so when are you leaving?"

"Tomorrow," Y/N said, smiling back. "I'm so glad I don't have to stay for another week. I think I've caused enough trouble for Harry and my dad already."

"Your dad really loves you."

"You've met him?"

"Yeah, I ran into him in the lobby and he took me here."

Y/N tossed her head back as she groaned into her palm, making the blonde giggle. "Did he say something embarrassing about me? I'm pretty sure he did."

"Don't worry. He said all the wonderful things," Ruby said as she tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "Um...I guess...I'm going now so you can rest."

"Wait, one more thing."

Ruby stopped at the door and looked back over her shoulder.

"Good luck," was all Y/N said, but she knew Ruby knew exactly what that meant.

Smiling, the actress thanked her and then walked out before Harry came back.

Harry thought this hallway had as much personality as the rest of the hospital. The walls simply grew from the floor and stretched upward to the matching slate grey ceiling. There were commercial prints everywhere on the walls, tasteful but dull. And the floor was so new and spotless it made Harry uncomfortable. He'd spent four nights here already, still, he couldn't get used to the place. So even though they were leaving tomorrow night, he thought he should get some flowers for Y/N's room as she might need some colour in there to cheer her up.

It was 7 PM on a Friday so Harry expected a line of at least four or five people waiting in front of the vending machine on the ground floor. However, there was just one other person. And it was the last person he wanted to run into right now.

"Hey," Isaac said as he grabbed his coke and stepped aside so Harry could use the machine.

"You just got here?" Harry asked and inserted a coin. He wasn't looking at Isaac, but he didn't have to do it to see that little smile on his face.

"Yeah," Isaac replied and popped the tab on the can. "Since when did you drink coke? Is that for Smiley?"

Bambi, the voice inside Harry's head auto-corrected the nickname, but he didn't say it aloud and nodded instead. "Yeah," was all he said before getting the can out of the machine and turned to Isaac. "Let's go. She'll be happy to see you."

"Actually..." Isaac stopped him before he could walk away. "I want to talk to you first. It's about...the other day."

"It's okay." Harry waved him off. "We were both exhausted that night. There's no need to mention it."

"I still think we need to talk," Isaac insisted, looking so serious that Harry was left with no other choice but to stay.

They found a row of chairs and sat down side by side. Isaac had finished his drink, but he kept the can to fidget with as he spoke, probably too nervous about the things he was going to say.

"I'm very sorry for what I said to you," he began. "I just want you to know that I don't want to come between you and Smiley. I made up my mind when we broke up and...and even if you two weren't together now, I still wouldn't try to win her back because she doesn't love me. No matter how many times I've been there for her, she could never love me the way she loves you and we all know that."

Harry massaged the back of his neck as he drew in a long breath, thinking for a moment before he spoke, "the truth is, sometimes I'm jealous of how calm and simple and good your relationship was. I wish I could give her the same thing, but now her name and photos are everywhere on the internet. And I keep thinking about what you said. You weren't completely wrong. She wouldn't have gone through so much if she was still with you."

"But she doesn't want to be with me. That's just how it is, mate," Isaac said as he chuckled and patted Harry on the back. "I was way too harsh on you. It wasn't your choice to not be there when she crashed her car. It wasn't your fault."

"That's the worst," Harry mumbled, breaking the short-lasting silence. "It's always the things that we can't control."

Isaac gave his best friend a quizzical look, but seeing how stressful he was, he had to get up and tell him, "let's go, Y/N is waiting."

Most people hated the storm. But it was that moment of absolute stillness before the sky darkened and the rain started to pour that Y/N feared the most. It was the anxiety when you didn't know how bad it was going to get, or the absolute ignorance delight which turned into distress in a matter of seconds. She would compare that stillness to wearing your favorite dress to the park on a beautiful sunny day, only to get drenched by a sudden rain because you didn't have an umbrella with you. But the thing was, you could always wash your pretty dress or get a new one and you'd be happy again. The same things didn't apply to people, feelings, or moments.

Today was the day Y/N finally got to leave the hospital. And it was a beautiful day.

Bradford had gone back to Holmes Chapel earlier that afternoon to take care of some business and he fully trusted Harry to take care of his daughter. However, when Harry and Y/N got to the main lobby to head out to his car, Patricia stopped the couple and warned them about the crowd waiting outside. Someone in the hospital had told the paparazzi Y/N was leaving today, so those people were there to get the latest photos of her and Harry together for the first time.

With a straight face, Harry asked Y/N if she'd like him to call his bodyguard, but she said no so he gave a nod and told Patricia that there was nothing to worry about, they could handle it. His voice was casual and light and he managed to fool the nurse with his nonchalant appearance. However, she could feel his discomposure as their fingers intertwined.

"Hold my hand tightly. Don't let go," he said.

Y/N gave a nod as she sucked in a deep breath and stayed close to her boyfriend's side. She squeezed his hand, feeling her pulse pounding in her temples and her legs shaking. She was afraid she would trip, but it became the last thing on her mind when they walked through the door.

The flashing lights blinded her, words were thrown at them like rocks, and the paparazzi were shouting out a bunch of questions but she couldn't understand a single one as her head was spinning and her vision went white. Lurching aimlessly ahead, she felt like she couldn't breathe. What if she ran out of oxygen? What if she fell and hit her head? What if—

Wait, Harry!

"Harry!" she screamed, grasping frantically onto nothing to search for his hand to hold but all that she saw around her were strange faces.

"Bambi!"

"Harry, I'm here!"

"Bambi!"

He kept calling out her name but she couldn't find him anywhere. The cameras kept on flashing and she couldn't see anything when someone shoved her forward. She lost her balance. Her body was pushed like a rag doll back and forth between warm bodies. She thought she might pass out when two strong arms secured around her torso and pulled her back up.

"Don't fucking touch her!" Harry barked at the rude strangers as he pressed her to his chest, quickly guiding her to his car.

She felt like she could cry. Even when there were just the two of them driving away in utter silence, she still felt tears sting her eyes but she didn't allow them to fall. Not here, not now, not in front of him.

Harry kept taking his eyes off the road to check on her, constantly asking if she was okay because he didn't believe her when she said she was. She was shaking like a leaf now. She just wanted to get home.

"Why are we at your house?" she asked when he drove through the gate.

Not looking at her, he said, "we're safer here."

"But you're with me now," she murmured, not sure if he'd hear it, but she assumed that he had and he just didn't want to respond. He didn't want to tell her that he couldn't protect her as he'd promised. He'd failed to protect her earlier, and it bothered him more than it should. Seeing him like this was killing her from within.

She'd been waiting for this day. The day he returned to London and they were alone in the bedroom at last, and they would climb in bed together and she would be home, in his arms. She was supposed to show him the new story she'd been working on and he was supposed to rant about Paris and get scolded for spoiling her with expensive presents he'd brought home. And she was supposed to feel nothing but bliss. Because with him by her side, she was supposed to feel safe.

But now she was watching in silence as he shrugged off his jacket and draped it on the chair by the window. He walked to his bed, his footsteps felt heavy, as if he was chained to a large rock that he had to drag everywhere he went. Watching him sit on the edge of the bed with his head in his hand, she was second-guessing his next move or the next thing he was about to say, if he was to say anything at all.

"What a crazy night," she spoke so he didn't have to. She knew she shouldn't have expected her nervous laughter to lighten up the mood, because nothing could. And she should've taken his grim silence as a sign to shut up already. But if anything, it only urged her to try again. "What do you want for dinner?" The question came out forcefully.

She couldn't cook and she wasn't even hungry. She just wanted this to feel like a normal couple's conversation. She just wanted them to be a normal couple. But now it was clear that they would never be normal.

"Can you sit down with me for a moment?" he asked, his voice was hoarse. Worried he might have scared her by sounding too serious, he gave her a reassuring smile which didn't make her feel any better. Still, she didn't object and came to sit down by his side.

Shaking his head, Harry pulled her to his lap. His arms came circled around her waist, holding her tightly as he laid his head on her shoulder and let her comb her fingers through his hair. No word was exchanged for the next two minutes.

Y/N couldn't tell what was going on in Harry's mind, but she was no stranger to this — the moment between everything and nothing at all. The moment when you were alone with your lover and both of you realized the secret world you'd created was already gone. It made you think that maybe you'd been in denial this entire time, because you had wanted it to work, but then it didn't, and you had no one to blame.

Thunder boomed outside, violent to the ears as lighting cracked the blackened sky in half. Then came the first drops of rain drumming against his bedroom window, but neither one of them seemed to be bothered. They clung to each other like it was their last chance to do so. A storm and an accident had brought him back to her, and now she feared they would take him away.

When he started to cry, she did too. He repeated the same two words "I'm sorry" into her neck, as if it was going to change anything if he said it enough.

That wasn't the 'I'm sorry I hurt you' type of apology, because he didn't hurt her. He could never do that. What made those words hit so hard was the fact that it sounded like an unspoken goodbye which could be translated to, 'I'm sorry because I can't do anything to change this', or 'I'm sorry because you deserve better.'

But there was no better. There was just him. He was everything she'd ever wanted and she wouldn't mind taking a bullet for him, so tonight hadn't changed anything. And given time, she might get used to dealing with the paparazzi and his crazy 'fans'. She believed that. The problem was, he didn't. He might have wanted to, but he loved and cared about her too much to even risk it now. He would never be at peace if he stayed with her. He wouldn't have endured all this anxiety if it hadn't been for her.

"This is over, isn't it?" she asked tearfully as he pulled away and touched her cheek.

His voice broke as he looked deep into her eyes and whispered, "I can never love anyone the way I love you."

Funny how those were the words that made her laugh. "If that's how you break up with someone, you're doing it wrong." He watched with his brows furrowed as she wiped away her tears. "It's okay. We can...we can pretend like this never happened. Us. We never happened. We can...um...we can still be friends. Yeah? We can do that..."

Who was she fooling? Not herself. Definitely not him. He could see right through her.

When he wrapped his strong arms around her shoulders and pulled her head back to his chest, she let herself fall apart. She gripped his shirt and cried her heart out, at the same time, not wanting him to touch her body just to leave her again. But then she looked up and their eyes met, and her heart told her to kiss him. So that was what she did. She captured his mouth with her own, tasting their salty tears as she panted and begged, "just this once, please. Just this one, and then...and then I'll go."

She felt his heart against her palm as their bodies glued to one another like two broken puzzle pieces lost in translation. His hands held tightly to her hips as he twisted his forehead against hers and closed his eyes. Her body shuddered as his hands moved under her shirt and up her back, warming up her cool skin.

"I'm so sorry," she choked out, but he shushed her immediately, shaking his head.

"No, baby, don't say that," he exhaled against her neck, kissing the skin before sinking his teeth in. Her fingertips dug into his back before she pulled his shirt over his head and then her own came off as well. She hugged herself to him, feeling her muscles vibrating, sore from the tension.

They had never properly said goodbye since their first kiss in the treehouse. She had been fourteen, innocent and hopeful. And goodbye hadn't felt so hard as her stealing the first kiss from him had made up for the sadness she'd felt inside. Now she was twenty-one, and he was twenty-five, and they knew exactly what was going to happen after goodbye. Both were scared to even think about it now.

"I love you so much," he told her before flipping her to her back and pulled her jeans from her legs, wrapping his fingers behind her neck to crash her lips to his. Both of them reached down to undo his belt and fly, pulling him free without taking his jeans off. They had never felt this desperate. They needed to remind themselves that they were real, at least at this moment. And as he sank into her, she knew that nothing would ever feel like him again.

He thrust hard and deep as her palms braced against his shoulders, holding him so close she could feel him everywhere while he cupped her neck and kissed her throat. Their hips were moving in sync as her eyes squeezed closed. He pulled back despite her resistance and held the back of her knee to lift her leg up and push in deep, making her cry out and grip his hair. He dipped slow and deep, ruining her for everyone else after him. But would there be anyone after him? How could she move on when she was more than certain he was the only one she would ever love? She didn't want this. She couldn't let him go. She wanted to change her mind. She needed to tell him now, but the words got stuck in her throat only to come out as breathy sounds of his name.

"God, I'm gonna miss you," he groaned against her as she held onto his back. She wished she'd misheard it and he'd only said 'I missed you', but she knew those were the actual words that had come out of his mouth. This was happening. They were going to end tonight.

She didn't recognize her own voice as she cried out under him, her walls clenching around him, pulsing, causing him to spill over, giving her his warmth for one last time.

There it was.

That stillness again.

He laid his head against her chest and let her play with his hair. In those frozen seconds, it felt like the end of the world. Everything was dead, even them, except for the rain, which was the only excuse for them to lie there for over an hour. Neither was ready to make this ending official.

Y/N was the first to move. She knew if she hadn't, they would have stayed there forever. She got up and put on her clothes in silence. Harry watched from the bed as the hazy pink light cast her shadow on the wall. She looked so fragile. This moment took him back to a year ago on the night she told him she loved him and walked out of the door. He was about to relive that night again. This time, there would be no treehouse to bring her back.

"Don't worry about me." She smiled as he sat up. "I'll call a taxi."

In a flash, she was out of the door. 'Saying goodbye is like removing a bandage', she had once told him, 'the faster you do it, the less it hurt.' So now that the rain outside had lessened, she knew she had to leave even if it killed her knowing she was leaving behind half of her heart in that room.

The stillness made him shiver.

"Wait, Bambi, wait!" he shouted and bolted to the door. She was injured so when he got downstairs she hadn't made it to the porch yet. Her teary eyes were wide with shock when she saw him. She expected him to say something, but he marched straight towards her and his arms tightened around her waist, pulling her in.

"Stay with me." He breathed, clutching onto her as tightly as he had on the night of his motorbike accident.

Her hands squeezed into fists as they pressed against his back. She was sobbing, choking on the words that struggled to escape her lips, "we can't do this...I-I just...I just want you to be happy."

"I'm only happy when I'm with you. I'm only myself when I'm with you." His breathing hitched as his knees grew weak and he thought he might slump to the cold tiles on the floor if she let him go. "Please stay with me and we'll get through this together. I'm not giving up on us, not again. I need you. I need you..."

She pulled back, holding his flushed cheeks. Tears were running down her face and there was rawness in it, like her pain was caused by an open wound. The voice in his head was telling him to get ready to watch her walk out. He knew his Bambi. Once she'd made up her mind, she wouldn't give in. She would leave him tonight, and he would never get to see her again.

But then she looked him in the eyes and a smile tugged at her chapped lips. "The heart is a little fireplace..." she said.

Harry's chest nearly burst open at the sound of those words. He felt as if invisible holes were poked into his skin so the light from within could shine right through. Taking her back into his strong arms, he kissed her with everything he'd got, telling her he loved her more than anything in this world and would never give up on her.

"I love you, too," she mumbled into his chest. "Only you."

They hugged each other as the rain outside finally quieted down and the sky cleared to prepare for dawn. They knew when the daylight came, everything would go back to the way it was before the storm, except for the ones who'd had gone through it. They wouldn't be the same. Happiness came when a battle was over.

"You've got to see people's reactions. It's absolutely fucking priceless, man!"

Isaac chuckled as he scrolled through Instagram on his iPad. "I'm reading the comments right now," he told Niall, who was on the phone and couldn't stop squealing for he was too elated. It was only nine in the morning and their best friend had broken the internet.

The people of London had woken up to a new Instagram post by Harry Styles. It was a photo of a girl standing by the window as sunlight ignited the room to vivid golden hues. The caption contained only two words: My girl. There was no explanation. No nothing. Just, 'My girl'. And people were free to come up with stories of their own and discuss what they assumed was 'the truth'. After all, there were only two people who knew what it was.

Isaac couldn't describe the feeling he'd got when he saw the post. That was his two best friends finally showing the world that they were stronger than the ones who wanted to break them. And so after he'd said goodbye to Niall and ended the phone call, he tapped like on Harry's photo and left a comment to congratulate them. Then a text popped up on the top of his screen.

⌲ Smiley: Hey, wanna read my new story?

He combed his fingers through his hair, chuckling at her straightforwardness as he typed down a message.

⌲ Well, good morning to you too!

⌲ Btw, I just saw the photo. Congratulations!

⌲ Smiley: It was you who introduced me to modeling. I won't forget about you when I become the next Kendall Jenner.

Her reply made him laugh.

⌲ Smiley: Well? Wanna read my new story?

⌲ Smiley: I showed it to Harry last night and he loved it!

⌲ Sure. Email me.

⌲ Smiley: Yay! Let me know what you think!

It only took a second for her email to arrive as if she'd had that draft ready and only waited for him to say yes to press send right away. The thought of that made Isaac chuckle. It didn't matter if he wasn't the one she chose in the end. Being someone she trusted to share her writing with was more than enough for him.

Besides, smiley Y/N was always the best Y/N.

Checking his watch, Isaac got up and walked to the counter. It was early and the machines were yet to warm, but he wasn't in a rush. He took this chance to drink in the aroma of the place. He came to this coffee shop every morning and only ordered a black coffee and a danish for breakfast. But there was a new barista today, so he couldn't just walk in and have everything ready for him to take, pay and leave as usual.

The new barista was a girl who seemed to be older than Y/N but younger than him. She looked tired although it was only the morning of her first day, but who was he to judge a complete stranger? He asked for his danish to be warmed and saw a spark in her eyes as she looked up, her face relaxed with a sweet smile.

"I'm sorry it's taking forever. This is my first day here so please forgive me if I make any mistake," she told him.

He was about to tell her to take her time, but he didn't even get a chance to speak as the shop owner poked her head through the door behind the girl and shouted at her, "Styles, you forgot your name tag!"

"Styles?"

"That's my name," she told Isaac who raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Your...first name?"

His question made her chuckle. "No, silly." She looked at him funny. "My first name is Emilia. Emilia Styles."

(End of book 2)

NEW FICS COMING OUT IN DECEMBER!

❤︎ STAY MINE - the last book in the 'My Girl' Trilogy. (For those who don't understand the ending, Emilia is a new character which will be introduced in this final book.)

and a new series called...

❤︎ THE CONMAN AND THE MAID

~~~

I will post the official announcements for these fics in mid-November. Stay tuned!

Love, Allie.

#my girl series #harry styles angst #harry styles smut #harry styles fluff #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles fanfic #harry styles fanfics #harry styles fanfictions #harry styles imagine #harry styles imagines #harry styles series #harry styles writing #older!harry #younger!y/n #actor!harry

280 notes · View notes

brieannakeogh · 5 years

Text

Dog Days of Summer- Ch 14

Dog Days of Summer- Chris Evans X plus sized reader. Dog days of summer are usually defined as the hottest of the year, some define it as lazy days. This year ‘hottest�� has nothing to do with the outside temp. You meet Chris and Dodger Evans while taking your own dog to the park.

Previous Chapter / Master List

Warnings: No warnings

Chapter 14

It had been a week since Chris left Boston. You had gotten the job you interviewed for and were supposed to start the following week. Life had gone back to what it was before, except for the fact that he did end up video calling you a lot. Always in the morning and at night, sometimes on set when he was bored between scenes. Introduced you to the other actors he was working with, when they inevitably asked him who he called all the time. Your heart still beat wildly when you would hear him say his girlfriend.

Week two you had started work so he couldn’t call you in the middle of the day. He still texted random thoughts to you, which you responded to on your breaks and at lunch. You thought it would be really hard, but it wasn’t bad. You did your thing, he did his and you met in the middle through smart phone or the computer. Still, you missed his physical presence, but then he would text you a snarky remark to something you sent him or a funny meme and it would be ok again.

Week three the tabloid hit the shelf. It was quickly picked up by Buzzfeed and forwarded to you by a well meaning coworker, asking if that was you kissing Chris Evans. Quickly going on break, you run to the bathroom and pull out your phone, where you see he had already messaged you about it. A picture of the original tabloid with the caption: “I’m so sorry.”, came in forty-five minutes before. Clicking on the little picture by his name, you wait for the ringing to be answered on the other end.

“Chris?” You ask when the line was picked up but no one said anything.

“I...I…” Right away you knew his anxiety was getting to him.

“Chris, it’s ok. Just take a deep breath.” You take a couple of breaths with him. “Are you ok?”

“Shouldn’t I be asking that of you?”

“I’m fine. We’ve already talked about this, although I hadn’t seen the response online. I just saw it a few minutes ago and called you.”

“It’s not bad right now, mostly supportive. I was really worried about how you would react.” He confesses.

“Don’t worry about me. You’ll still be coming home this weekend won’t you?”

“Yeah that hasn’t changed.”

“Good. Just do what you have to to finish up and then you can take a break and we’ll come up with a game plan. I’m sure twitter has been bugging you for a response.”

He chuckles. “I don’t dare get on twitter right now.”

“We will see each other in a few days and we’ll just play dumb until then, that work?”

“Ok.”

“You sound like you feel better.”

“I do. When you didn’t text me back for almost an hour I just knew it wasn’t going to be good. I really thought you would be freaking out more about this.”

“Oh I probably will, but being able to focus on you and getting you to calm down helped me to calm down.” You laugh. “I’ll keep my phone turned on vibrate and on my desk so I can see it. That way I won’t miss it if you need me for something.”

“Sweetheart, you’re just as busy as I am, I don’t want to get you in trouble. Now that I know you’re not freaking out, I’m good.”

“Still gonna do it. You’re too far away to stop me.” The smirk in your voice coming through.

“Not for long. I’ll be home soon.”

“Can’t wait.”

You say your goodbyes and go back to your desk, ignoring the coworker that sent you the link. Tentatively you type in ‘Chris Evan’s girlfriend’. Images of you and he kissing in front of the car and holding hands assault you. It was more than just the one photo that was linked on Buzzfeed and he had sent you. Different angles, none of them flattering, showing you and he being close and coupley. Clicking on the first link, an online version of the tabloid, you read the short caption. “Chris Evans spotted kissing unknown woman outside of his apartment the morning he left for LA. Couple looked close and more than just a hook-up. Sources say they’ve been seen around the Boston area for weeks, holding hands and looking lovey-dovey. Does Cap have a new girl in his life?”

That particular site didn’t have a comment section, so you moved on. Hesitating over the Twitter link, you knew it was the best place to look, but also was going to be the most toxic. Steeling yourself you make the most dramatic click of your life and see a few different hashtags trending. Luckily, the most popular hashtag, that was about you, still wasn’t first on the list and it was just a basic #chrisevansgirlfriend. That was fine, that was normal. A few rows down you see one that turns your stomach, #chrischubbychaserevans. You have the perverse urge to click it and spiral into the toxic waste dump that is Twitter on a bad day, but you hold off when you see not far below it, #sizedontmatter. That one you do click.

It brings up threads full of people, strangers, defending you, defending his choice. Congratulating him since he looks so happy. It’s full of support and love. You tell yourself that you won’t cry, set it as a mantra in your head, but it doesn’t work the more you scroll through. Closing the page out so you don’t break down in the middle of the office, you try your best to continue on like any other normal day. By the time you get home, you are mentally exhausted. Not only did you have to dodge coworkers questions but at some point someone got a hold of your phone number. You had several reporters call to see if you would like to comment and if it was really you in the picture. Hanging up on the people didn’t deter them.

You made a high pitched growling, squealing noise when the phone rang again, effectively scaring Popcorn from the room. Your thumb automatically going to the cancel swipe before you noticed it was Chris.

“Thank god it’s you! I was about to chuck the phone out the window!” You told him dramatically, a large sigh escaping you.

“Don’t tell me they got your phone number?”

“Yep. Just the reporters at least. No threatening fan calls or anything.”

“I’m sorry baby. I’ll call my manager and have him set up a new private phone number for you as soon as he can.”

“That would be very much appreciated. It’s not so bad though. I got on Twitter today.”

“Braver than I am. Been avoiding it all day. How bad was it?”

“It was definitely a mixed bag of reactions. There were a number of supporters, but also your haters just labeled you as a chubby chaser, and you became the posterboy for plus sized acceptance.” You laughed.

“They’re just jealous. How could I get a girl as hot as you?”

“Pfft yeah ok. I’m totally the hot one in the relationship.” Sarcasm dripping from your voice.

“Seriously, it will blow over soon.”

“I know, some other scandal will hit the interwebs and soon I’ll be a distant memory.”

“You might pop back up in the news when I drag you to award shows this season.” You sit on your couch gaping like a fish. “Hello? Still there? Did you die?”

“But you never take anyone to those things, except family.”

“Maybe it’s time to change that.” He said quietly. “We don’t have to worry about that now. I just can’t wait to see you for a couple of days this weekend!” He talked excitedly about what he wanted to do and seamlessly shifted the conversation in that direction.

You both stopped talking about the public pictures of the two of you and went back to normal conversations. Deciding that the most important part of your relationship was seeing each other in just a few days. The weekend seemed to be coming quickly and after only a couple more days of work, you left a little early so you could go to his place.

He luckily had given you the arrival time that morning and your boss was fine with you taking an hour off early. The fact you were fake coughing had nothing to do with your time off, or at least you didn’t particularly say you were sick at the time. The public bus stop wasn’t far from your place when you went to work, but his area was more converted to not having a bus stop near it, since it was even more expensive than your area. Granted it wasn’t an issue, only being a few blocks that you had to walk. Picking up Popcorn from the house first, since you knew he would love to see Dodger. It took you a little off the time frame you were needing, so you assumed he was in the apartment, putting his items away and getting settled. The fact that your phone started ringing, with his dogs name coming up, worried you a bit since you were now behind the time he was supposed to get back.

“Hey.” Trying the hardest to answer him in a neutral voice.

“Where are you? I came to your office but your boss said that you went home sick. I didn’t know you didn’t feel good. Then I came down here and you’re not at home.” You can’t help but laugh at the fact that he went to your job and your home, trying to surprise you, just like you had him. “Why are you laughing?”

He actually sounded worried so you wanted to calm him down. “Because I’m right in front of your own apartment. I had asked for a little time off early, while having a cough that may have been acting I committed, so I could come on down to you. The bus just took forever to drop me off is all. I’m surprised you came down to the office.”

“Well I did come in a little early and got unpacked and tired of sitting around. Thought you would enjoy me picking you up.”

“That would have been very pleasurable. How about we walk to each other and meet in the middle? What about the dog park?”

“Dodger would love that...you got Popcorn with you?”

“I do in fact.”

“See you in a few minutes.”

You quickly hang up the phone and grab the dog so that you are power walking down the sidewalk instead of going slow. “What do you think Popcorn? Should I tell him I love him, even with the tabloid notice coming out about us or wait? Should I also quit now and go with him to the set?” Popcorn starts to shake because of how quickly you are walking. “Yeah I’m not sure either.” You kiss the dog on the top of his head and speed up even more.

Next Chapter

I did it! I finished this chapter! I know it’s been a while and thank ya’ll so much for understanding. It’ll still be a while on the next chapter too but maybe I’ll be able to get to it lol. Let me know what you think of the last 500 words b/c I wrote that while still healing and probably a little mental off with a brain tumor, but oh well. That should be away soon until it gets bad.

@spidey-babe-parker, @stevieang, @albinotigerpython, @paintballkid711, @katykyll, @avengersrulez1536, @ultrafreespirit, @wantingtobekorra, @i-had-a-life-once, @ghostssss, @babybeluuga, @bodhi-black, @kanupps06, @hatterripper31, @grandloser, @reniescarlett, @kjidhzyx, @normanreedus5150, @ilovethings-somuch, @spiderman-2013, @bloodyvalentine93, @xx-raven, @passionghost, @prettybubblesintheair, @averyrogers83, @ria132love, @patzammit, @whom-the-fack, @pooslie, @3dsaunt, @kristiedwyer, @janeyboo, @theonelittleone, @aslandia726, @itsmysticalmystery, @stanclub, @geminimoonbeamx, @lookwhatyoumademequeue, @eyesfixedonthesun22, @mrsalh32611, @whatmakesmebeme-tblr, @isaxhorror, @kateelyse96, @hidden-treasures21, @aubreystilinski, @tnupsweetpie, @mikaelasingswritesloves, @webcraft4eveh, @fanfictionandjunk, @elizabeth-marie-moon, @linesal, @cjmyerhaan, @cevansgirl, @collinsstanharbour, @i-was-petmanger, @bononoh, @justlistenlovelife

#chris evans x plus size reader #Chris Evans #chris evans x reader #dog days of summer

137 notes · View notes

crookedbasementfury · 4 years

Text

Collage Photo Software For Mac

Who doesn’t like to click pictures?

Collage Photo Software For Mac Desktop

Best Photo Collage For Mac

Best Photo Collage Maker For Mac

Wherever we go, whomsoever we’re with; we want to preserve the memories of those moments.

Picture Collage Maker 4 Make collages in minutes with just a few mouse clicks. Picture Collage Maker is a powerful and easy-to-use program for creating photo collages and digital scrapbooks from your digital photos to share with friends and family. 150+ gorgeous templates for many occasions help you create photo collages, scrapbooks, posters, invitations, calendars, and greeting cards, etc. Apple's Photos for Mac is great, but it can be limiting. Looking for an alternative photo editor for the Mac? Here's our pick of the best free or low-cost photo editing software for macOS. An easy-to-use and automatic collage maker that helps you create eye-catching photo collages on Mac OS X with just a few clicks. Learn more $29.90; Publisher Plus for Mac. An easy-to-use page layout and desktop publishing software on Mac OS X, perfect for designing anything you want to layout and print. Learn more $39.90.

Today, when Selfies are a hit among people, no matter of what generation does they belong; photos play a vital role in their lives.

If you’re like me, I’m sure you Love to create your pictures in fun ways and then display them.

To make unique and fun photos, there are many apps present.

If you wish to collate your photos, then you can DIY with the help of Photo collages.

No...

...you don’t need to know Photoshop for that.

A little effort on the Collage maker applications can turn out to be a great result.

You can then share your creativity with your friends.

But...

... what if you don’t know what collage makers to use and how to make a collage?

That’s why we’re here.

We have listed some free apps for the Mac users.

You can find the list below.

There’s also a bonus video tutorial of how to make a basic photo collage using our favorite app from the list.

4 Best Collage Maker Apps for Mac

1. CollageIt:

Developed by PearlMountain, CollageIt is a great offering for the beginners.

You have the freedom to choose from various templates to suit several page sizes.

Its real-time preview lets you have an easy view of all the things you do.

It is a free app, but its Pro version is for $19.90.

Following is the text tutorial of how to use CollageIt:-

Launch CollageIt in your Mac.

Add photos by clicking “+” present on the left side of the page.

A window will open, asking you to import/select photos.

Select and click on “Choose.”

Selected photos will come on the Body area.

You can choose various templates like Mosaic, Grid, Pile, Random, etc. from the right side of the page.

Text and/or Stickers can be added to the collage by selecting from the left side of the page.

Click Export toolbar button to export your collage as picture/PDF, set as desktop wallpaper or send as E-mail.

PS: - Here’s the bonus video tutorial of our favorite app from the list, i.e., CollageIt, that we promised you in the beginning.

2. Photo Collage Maker:

This Collage maker for Mac is worthy of your attention.

With this, you’re able to design a beautiful collage of your memories in a matter of few seconds.

Collage Photo Software For Mac Desktop

Be it a greeting card or posters, you can make a collage on anything.

It also comes with the option of sharing your creativity directly on various Social Networking Sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Flickr, etc.

3. Picasa for Mac:

Google’s famous image organizer and photo editor Picasa also has an inbuilt collage creator.

It has around 24 new special effects created exclusively for the Mac users.

It allows you to upload and share your photos on Google+.

4. Shape collage:

It is an automatic photo collage maker that lets you create collages in different shapes like Heart, Logo, Rectangle, etc. just in the snap of seconds.

It is aptly said that a picture speaks a thousand words.

With the unique templates and features in the various Collage making applications mentioned above you can show the world your memories in a digital way.

Best Photo Collage For Mac

How to make a collage of photos

Best Photo Collage Maker For Mac

Get Inspired with Templates

Templates help you set a theme for your photo collage with minimal effort on your part. With Adobe Spark Post, you can browse through templates of all different shapes, styles, and formats. On your desktop, you can get started by clicking the links provided in this article. Or, get creative and build your own template from scratch.

Feature Your Favorite Photos

Upload photos to your collage from almost any library. With Spark Post, you can upload from your personal library, social platforms, Dropbox, Google Drive, or your Adobe Creative Cloud library. Place, rearrange, and crop your photos as desired to get the collage just right. If you need additional photos to fill a void, you can browse Adobe’s stock photo library for gorgeous images that will enhance your spread.

Standout with Colors, Graphics, and Text

This is the part where you let your creativity shine. Play with color-blocking by using colors in certain frames instead of all photos. Drop in text to fill frames, add captions, or create a header across the entire collage. On your Spark Post app, you can even sprinkle in icons and stickers for something especially eye-catching to share on your social channels.

Save and Share Your Photo Collage

Adobe Spark saves all your designs for you in your Adobe Spark Projects folder so you can pause at any point and return back to your collage when you’re ready. Download the finished collage from your workspace. From there, you can print out your collage into postcards, flyers, invitations, whatever suits you. You can also share your collage online with friends, family, or the whole world.

1 note · View note

afanoftheglassscientists · 5 years

Text

The Glass Scientists Art-Style Changes

Hey yeah sorry but I saw someone complain about how the webcomic’s art style is jarring in the later chapters and that the noses are bad because they’re big and I’m back in full salt mode WHO WANTS SOME TEA!?

@glass-scientists your art-style has only gotten more beautiful as the webcomic continues and you work extremely hard on the comic by yourself and I am amazed you kept working on this for more than four years now while in a career and I hope you’ll be able to do so for the foreseeable future. When I comment on how your art changed please know that I’m not doing it to critique you. Okay you don’t have to read more of this I just wanted to be the 156th person to let you know you’re doing great.

ONE - The noses have always been prominent on the characters’ art design and having a big noses does not automatically make it look ugly. Admittedly there are artists out there who draw very ugly noses for very ugly reasons, but Sabrina Cotugno is not and never has been one of those types of artists. Yes, Jekyll’s nose is bigger, but is not the end-all, be-all take from his design changes.

Here’s him from Ch.1 Pg. 15.

And here’s him from Ch.7 Pg. 22

(And no, I do not know why the latter two picture are bigger.)

As you can see, the nose in the earlier chapters looks smaller, but Jekyll’s face is also a lot more...soft? Like think of ceramic pieces. You start out with soft clay and you mold it into the shape you want (but don’t forget to wedge don’t want it to explode in the oven) but then after the clay firms up a little you’re ready to carve it and give it a more pronounced form. That’s what happened in the later chapters: Jekyll’s nose, the shape of his jawline, his sideburns, hair and even his eyebrows has become sharper and more distinct. His nose isn’t just an attachment like a Mister Potato Head, its a part of him. To give him a smaller nose would mean changing his whole character profile.

TWO - Like Clay, Art Changes. Admittedly I was taken aback by the change in the comic’s art-style as well, but that will happen to literally any long-form manga or comic. Unless you’ve been doing comics for literal decades your art is going to change, because you’re going to change, and what you want from your art and the characters you create are going to change. Look at Bluechair by Shen on WEBTOON: while his artstyle has solidified these past few years his earlier comics are unrecognizable, because he’s been working on his Bluechairs comic for five years, often updating two or three times a week, and is currently on Episode 536 of Bluechairs, but technically he currently has 706 of them under the Bluechairs page. His comics are like the Sunday Newspaper kind of comics, so I’m not asking you to read his stuff starting from the beginning (in fact please don’t try to read it all at once: his early stuff is pretty good but let me remind you he has SEVEN HUNDRED AND SIX COMICS OF STUFF) but maybe read a couple of them from the beginning and then read some of his latest ones.

So yeah, its not unexpected from comics to change in style, either slowly due to how the artists gains a more experienced hand or by an intentional shift in art direction. Sabrina was in the latter camp, due to the fact that she felt the earlier character designs was too much like a Disney Princess Line-Up, which she mentioned in a page description that I cannot find but I know was real.

Honestly I really do like the more recent pages. I disagree that they’re less vibrant, because I think removing the high glossy sheen made the characters even more distinct from each other. Before the shift in artstyle I felt like everyone was getting the same brand of hair gel. Hot take coming, but the character who most benefits from this shift is Rachel, who’s been looking gorgeous these last few chapters.

THREE - Sabrina Cotugno has been working this story, these characters and the art of this webcomic mainly by herself, while still working a job as a cartoon director for multiple shows and is currently working on a project for Disney. She does not have a lot of time on her hands to fix mistakes and asking her to change things or give her “Advice” on her art is...I won’t say unwanted because that’s up to her as to whether or not she’d use that language, but I will say she probably doesn’t need your advice on how to draw art when she has already worked in professional spaces as a storyboard artist AND as a director.

Plus I’m going to be upfront here, and this is going to sound harsh: Do not fucking nitpick and tear apart content made independently unless warranted by offensive language or imagery, because not only is it unhelpful it is just plain mean. Yes, Sabrina has worked on shows before, but The Glass Scientists is not made by a group of people working together, with producers and press and editors to back them up. This is entirely her work. She is spending her own free time making this. This webcomic is hours, days, weeks, years in the making, in the wake of hot days, sickness, travelling, other deadlines and dying plants.

And to turn around and say “Oh the way you do the art now isn’t as good?” Fuck off with that. I’m not Sabrina, so I get to be mean here - You are allowed to admit you dislike these changes, but sending the artist messages directly telling them of your dislikes is an absolute garbage thing to do. Especially when you yourself are not an artist.

Like Sergeant Brokenshire has a beard in one panel but loses it in the next few pages. Cue the Cinema Sins ding noise I guess. Okay, that happens sometimes, she doesn’t have an editor to correct. Am I going to directly send her messages letting her know she did her webcomic wrong? Fuck no. She probably has been sent hundreds of “helpful” messages about it already, and guess what? She doesn’t have the time to correct every mistake because she has a job.

Of course if Sabrina or any independent artist does something horrifically offensive or even just something that makes you uncomfortable you are absolutely allowed to air your grievances. But so far Sabrina has been good so I’ve got nothing to complain about, and the asks she gets that do have issues with the webcomic she answers with grace.

So basically this wandered completely off from the nose discussion and into the ethics of fandoms for independently made webcomics, but anyway long story short.

The Glass Scientists is not yours and its not mine. It belongs to Sabrina Cotugno, and its hers to change how she sees fit. Get over that and enjoy the webcomic as it is and you’ll have a much better experience.

Sorry to sound preachy there. I’m not trying to act like the Fandom Police and I’m not trying to fight Sabrina’s battles for her. I just see a lot of bad fucking behavior toward other independent artists and I don’t want to see it here. I have been that anon who “critiques” or gives “helpful” advice to artists who had far more experience than me, so its not like I’m pretending to be above it all here. I’ve buried many a blogs because of my shameful past.

Most of this Fandom has been wonderful. Let’s keep it that way while it lasts.

Anyway that espresso really did a number on me. I’m about to crash and I’m getting the awful sense of deja-vu here. Sorry for being so salty on Fandom lately, I won’t do it again unless I see some real trouble. This has accidentally become a Midnight Post, so go to bed!

...Oh wait one more thing: PLEASE DON’T REPOST FULL PAGES OF THE WEBCOMIC!!! Access to the official page is not hard and despite a few hiccups (which is not Sabrina’s fault but the webpage itself) we have been able to see all of the webcomic. There is no need to repost the whole page and on Sabrina’s FAQ she specifically asked people not do this. If you want to read each new page and don’t want to refresh the website twenty time on Monday morning you can always follow her twitter or her blog “arythusa” where she posts a link to each new page after it uploads. In fact starting tomorrow I’ll be sure to reblog these posts to make sure you have a link available to click.

Okay now good night.

#tgs #the glass scientists

38 notes · View notes

bernadetterobancho · 5 years

Text

Bad/Challenging Site: Tumblr

I know it’s pretty ironic to use Tumblr as a platform to criticize Tumblr, but as a longtime Tumblr user (since 2009), I think I’ve earned the right.

I’ve watched Tumblr’s interface evolve from an unfamiliar wasteland of a website with a very small, well-built community to a confusing dashboard with numerous questionable communities.

What is the experience, and who is the audience?

According to Unwrapping Tumblr, the predominant age range are users aged 18-34. The post states, “over half of [the] audience is solidly in the 13-to-34 demographic.”

Although Tumblr advertises itself as a blogging site, the website’s UX focuses more on the following/follower aspect, similar to Twitter. The only difference between Twitter and Tumblr is that Tumblr gives users a more visual outlet outside of just 140 characters, including photos, videos, audio, and links.

Considering that there aren’t any post limitations, this gives users more creative freedom. Users have a lot of control over the type of content they want to post as well as complete customization over their blog’s appearance.

However, once you get past the confusing dashboard, it really does get easier to use. The bad UX is mostly experienced by new users, which can be deterring to potential users. It takes a lot of dedication to get used to Tumblr, but a good website shouldn’t require that much patience and frustration.

What about this example is provocative/interesting? (Why did you pick it?)

Tumblr makes for an interesting bad UX choice because of the lengthy amount of time it takes to understand how to use it and what it’s for. Like I stated earlier, I have used Tumblr for over a decade, and I think it took me over a year to truly understand it and to get my blog exactly how I wanted it to.

What makes Tumblr’s UX interesting is also how the culture has changed. Tumblr was renowned for being an uncensored platform with the freedom to share, post, and view whatever users wanted. However, after Yahoo purchased the platform in 2013, restrictions were made and rules were stricter, turning Tumblr into a lackluster platform (this was also around the time I stopped using the website). These restrictions, I believe, were mostly based on an algorithm. This caused blogs to be completely invisible by users, even to the user that owns said blog.

In what ways is this example successful?

The log-in screen (above) makes Tumblr feel mysterious on the surface. It definitely prioritizes aesthetic, and admittedly, seeing this homepage is what made me want to sign up.

Another success is that in Tumblr’s “prime” (2010-2012), this was the platform I used to connect with communities with similar interests. The website provided several communication options, making it simple to connect with people.

How might you make it even better?

As I stated earlier, the website’s log-in screen has some issues. Tumblr needs a straightforward description or display of what it is, especially on the sign-up page. It makes the user go through a lengthy process in order to set up an account before truly knowing what Tumblr is.

Additionally, one of Tumblr’s worst and most frustrating problems has to be its confusing blog customization interface.

For instance, on the sidebar (pictured above), Tumblr gives you the option to “Edit appearance.” However, it fails to differentiate a “theme” and an “appearance.”

Pictured above is the option to edit your appearance. This feature became more important as mobile apps became more prominent. Introducing this feature changed the entire tone of Tumblr, disregarding its unique blogging aspect by simplifying it to the basics.

Above is an example of editing your theme. Separating customization options and using terms like “theme” and “appearance” is confusing for the user. It would be preferable if only one term was used, and any changes made on the desktop theme would be automatically compatible with the mobile app.

One of the most confusing aspects is on the settings page. In the top right corner (pictured above), there is a button that reads “Edit appearance.” At the bottom, there is a button that reads “Edit theme.” A new user would not know the differences between these two buttons or where to start.

Conclusively, Tumblr is renowned for being confusing but only very few users choose to stay. There are definite inconsistencies between their mobile and desktop displays. It’s definitely not the worst website in the world, but it still has so many imperfections.

#03 #ui #ux #design

2 notes · View notes

lordessa · 6 years

Text

Digital Discourse Analysis Essay

Sarah Rogers

In a world dominated by images, our social media has become less of a text based platform, but a society of visuals. Pinterest is the most dominate image-only social media website that specifically creates a board of ideas that inspire people to create and achieve. Pinterest demographics are interesting as they are diverse, mostly women users, between the ages of 18-49, Pinterest is able to cater to many age types due to its easy availability and plethora of categories to cater to any type of interest. The animal community across all social media platforms is huge, especially on Pinterest, but there are few actual Pinterest accounts solely dedicated to animals alone. Because of this, I decided to create a Pinterest account of my dog, a cavapoo spaniel, and see what the outcome would be, and the kind of audience I attract.

It is common to see on Instagram and Twitter dog accounts with millions of followers, but since Pinterest has few original content users, I wanted to create something uncommon and see where it took me with the communities response. I found that original content creators must produce extremely edited, visually appealing, unique images in order to be seen, and that Pinterest, even with its laid-back features, requires original content posters to compete heavily within an app that has millions of appealing images. The more edited my posts became, the more unique I made my captions, the more followers and attention my page received.

Pinterest is a community that values visuals, new trends, and anything that inspires the user to go out and obtain whatever they are seeing, whether it be a hiking destination, an article of clothing, or, like my account tried to accomplish, the perfect dog. There is a huge expectation for Pinterest that I never realized as a user before. The images are so fluent and forever coming, your feed is constantly being refreshed with visuals, and unlike instagram and twitter, the captions are not visible until investing into clicking onto an image if you really like it that much to see it up close. The value Pinterest holds is high quality, aesthetically pleasing or hyper-visuals that elicit an emotional response of therefore need or desire. I found that I needed to make my images highly edited and “trendy” in order to appeal to users and get a following.

A very fluent fact about Pinterest is that it draws in a lot of income for a small scale, simple social media platform. Pinterest has a value of $5 billion, and the average user, according to the Sprout Social article “15 Pinterest Statistics Every Marketer Must Know in 2018”, has a household income of $100,000. Thus, Pinterest has a huge ability to draw in money for its users, a lot of images when clicked on will redirect you to the website in which it is sold at. With more spending power from its users, Pinterest is able to help brands get recognized, and make a huge amount in income. If you find a cute top, the perfect decor item for your house, or even a car that interests you, there is a link to the website that is selling that item. In my case, I found that many of the animal pictures found on Pinterest will either direct you to the official instagram account of that animal, it’s business website to be used in forms of media (movies, commercials, photoshoots), and most interestingly, breeding websites that sell the animal. For owners that are looking to sell their animal in some way, Pinterest is an ideal social media marketing tool. For instance, I found my dog breeder on Pinterest, as I was looking up pictures of Cavapoos. The group of Pinterest functions more as a mass visual marketing tool more than it may appear. When closely examining my life, I have bought many of my clothes, homewear, and other items after seeing them first on Pinterest.

Pinterest has a heavy mode of persuasion. With its carefully edited pictures usually pinned at the very top of your page, your standards while using the app are incredibly high. Their pictures create an emotional response of want and desire, just like instagram, we are seeing images of perfect lives and sparkly objects, just this time, it's more focused on the product rather than the people. The article, “Why Pinterest makes no money but is now worth 3.8 billion”, makes the point, “Pinterest is perfectly positioned for high value, targeted online and mobile advertising. After all, it's a site where people go to pin pictures of what they want to buy, wear, decorate, visit, eat. That can be served up on a platter to advertisers -- they can market straight to the consumers they know want them. Furthermore, they'll be doing the marketing while the consumers are imagining life with similar products.” The ecommerce aspect of Pinterest is what attracts these big brands to produce and therefore take over with miteciosuly edited pictures of items that everyone will want. In the animal world, its deception of being a harmless pleasure of looking at cute cats and dogs works perfectly. Interest inspired me to get my dog and if I were not to have been scrolling through pictures of highly edited cavapoos last year, I wouldnt have a pet. Pinterest is a purchasing planning app in every single way, all of my Pinterest saves are of items, getaway’s, and even food I wish to obtain at some point in my life.

There is no way to really interact on Pinterest, so some users feel as if it solely for marketing, and that they are breaking the bank while using it. There is no direct messaging, however there is commenting featured, it's hard to see and only available when you solely want to see the comments, is such a process that the whole entire app is simply used mainly to see and repin. Pinterest is very much so a personal social media, it is not interactive like other platforms are based largely on, therefore that can cause good and bad responses. A lot of users feel almost bored scrolling endlessly through a feed of products/ things to buy, it's like an extensive online shopping experience, which can become draining. The reason that Pinterest remains so small and a “background” app, is because of its solitary confinement, its non interactive approach. Humans crave affection and interaction with other humans, seeing what your friends are up to on instagram or reading what your family members have to say about the world on Facebook is much more appealing to social media members, thus Pinterest remains an app that struggles with growth, with 250 million active members, compared to twitters 320 million, instagrams 1 billion, and facebook’s 1.7 billion user leading record.

The goals of Pinterest remain fair and realistic, CEO Ben Silbermann does not charge brands to market their goods on Pinterest, but they do for promoted pins. Promoted Pins will be featured on feeds that are frequently interested in whatever specific brand that might be, it will be featured on their feed even if they don't follow the brand. Pinterest has therefore created revenue mainly from brands that use the app as a marketing tool, thus Pinterest will grow into basically a huge online shopping platform, with more interactions for buying and selling than ever before. Most recently, Pinterest has launched a “shop the look” tool that enables users to see different versions of the item they want to buy, from different sellers, “A Pinterest user can tap a blue circle on an element within a Shop the Look pin to pull up recommendations for similar items she can buy from a brand. For instance, if a pin features a model wearing blue jeans and a T-shirt, she can click on the jeans or the T-shirt.” states Digital Commerce 360 article, “Pinterest Dives Deeper into E commerce”. Pinterests goal for expansion incorporates all elements of modern online shopping. Customers do not want to go on a particular website and try to navigate through what they want, in this consumer America, with short attention spans and large spending habits, many do not know what they want to shop for, they just know they want to shop. Pinterest allows users to feel as if they NEED something they didn't know they needed all along, with its feeds that consist of different items, styles, and vibes. The overall goal of Pinterest is to become the most sought after app for brands to sell their products, thus making revenue by charging for featured pins that are spotlighted on every feed across its user base.

I found that my comments on my posts were very buyer-based. With comments such as “where can I buy this dog?” or “what breed is this dog? I have to have it!”, if I were actually using my page to promote my cavapoo in some way, whether it be stardom for movie appearances, sponsorship for pet gear/ clothing, or breeding, I would be drawing in revenue. I had the opportunity to generate an income through simply posting pictures of my dog, which automatically turned him into a product. My pet became a point of interest, he became something sellable. This theme of consumerism within social media reveals a lot about our society and its values. No matter how wholesome we make our accounts, no matter our intent, we will be marketed to or have the opportunity to market. Social media is the future of marketing, it is what will be the main source of sales for companies. Originally, social media was created to connect with friends and family, now, we see adds everytime we scroll through our feeds. Pinterest capitalized on that theme of social media, and made a business from it. Pinterest is just one giant platform of ads, and it is interesting to see how much time, money, and thought we contribute to it. I evaluated my time on Pinterest through the settings app on my iphone, and I found that I spend roughly an hour and thirty everyday scrolling through Pinterest.

It is uncanny how our society is so drawn to marketing and easily influenced by things, the trends in our time are constant, fast paced, and ever changing. Pinterest is so attractive and still standing because it underlyingly mimics societies values. I found through doing research for this paper that everything that I did on Pinterest was to inspire other people to have what I have (my cavapoo). I was unknowingly selling my dog, inspiring people to become pet owners, much like what happened in my case.

After learning about Pinterest's goals, everything made sense, the comments, the followings from dog clothing companies, and the following from other pet pages. Pinterest is a brand based social media, and its values heavily highlight what our society values, too. I felt as if I had to appeal more to my followers with every post, I started caring about they way I edited and talked in my captions. I unknowingly turned my account into a more marketable page for my dog, without even realizing that Pinterest is essentially used for marketing. This explains a lot on how we use any other form of social media, are you posting for yourself, or to get recognition from others for some sort of gain?

Bibliography:

Chen, Jenn. “15 Pinterest Statistics Every Marketer Should Know in 2018.” Sprout Social, Sprout Social, 29 Aug. 2018, sproutsocial.com/insights/pinterest-statistics/.

Stambor, Zak, and Stephanie Crets. “Pinterest Dives Deeper into Ecommerce.” Digital Commerce 360, Digital Commerce 360 | Internet Retailer, 8 Feb. 2019, www.digitalcommerce360.com/2019/02/08/pinterest-dives-deeper-into-ecommerce/.

DeAmicis, Carmel. “Why Pinterest Makes No Money but Is Now Worth $3.8 Billion.” Pando, Pando Media, 23 Oct. 2013, pando.com/2013/10/23/why-pinterest-makes-no-money-but-its-now-worth-3-8-billion/.

42 notes · View notes

whyareyoulikethis1d · 5 years

Note

What do you think about Zigi situation and the talks going on about it from the media as well as online?

Oh anon why are you making me do this… Well I have time today.

When it comes to online/ fandom let me go by categories.

1- The Ziams & anti-zigis:

These people from the start have been atrocious. Not only have they harassed Gigi & her family but same with Zayn & his family. They have been intrusive and have spread lies online (those so called “exposing accounts”) Whether it’s on IG or Twitter. In my opinion they are tinthats and just mad weird. They keep on saying everything is fake, is a stunt, TPTB, etc…

It’s repetitive, predictable, pathetic & boring.

Guess what tinhats ZAYN & LIAM WILL NEVER BE TOGETHER ROMANTICALLY!!!

For someone that they claim to love & stan they sure have a low opinion of Zayn and what he is willing to do for his status. Not only that but their false rumors and stuff is at times picked up by tabloids. So kudos to you for helping your fave dummies…

So when it comes to them I am just like:

2- Zigis:

I never really liked real couple shipping or should I say being a “stan” of a couple. I find it cringy and they also do go overboard and cross boundaries. Just because one is supportive doesn’t mean that they are not just as invasive or annoying as tinhats. (You can check my blog and how I was annoyed with the “Freddies”).

So when it come to Zigis they were to me just like that. Anything that either Zayn and or Gigi did they were linking it together. Any like, comment, follow is or was being reported online. They even had/have update accounts.

The ugly side of it is when the couple breaks up and they can’t let go or accept it. Think the Jelena (Justin & Selena), the Robsten (Rob & Kristen Stewart) or even the Zerrie (Zayn & Perrie) shippers/stan. Look at how ugly they got towards one or the other person especially when one of their OTP has moved on to a new partner (ex: Justin with Hailey, Rob with FKA Twigs & Zayn with Gigi). They actually become conspiracy theorists because they cannot accept that their OTP is over.

Now when it comes to Zigis, they have actually turned into the Zerries that they were complaining and making fun of back in the day. LET IT GO!! Stop making connections and thinking that any follow, like or comment means something more. Don’t go harassing their possible new partners. Stop sending family DMs to find out the status of Zayn & Gigi’s relationship because you want some type of reassurance that your OTP are still together. BUTT OUT…. Last year during their first break up, the Zigis went on to attack Sofia & Iskra Lawrence because they thought something was maybe going on between them and Zayn. They said some pretty misogynistic things (feminist/girl power 101 my ass). They also went after (although to a lesser degree) they were being nasty and shady towards Lewis Hamilton when rumors were going around that him & Gigi were maybe going out. They are cringy…….

So when it comes to them, I am like:

3- Zstans & Gigi stans:

Both side have shown their true colors or their true feelings once it has been said that they are no longer together.

On the Zstans side, some were sad others were happy (that is excluding the ziams & antis), others were relieved but for the most part at least from what I saw they were chill up until the first US weekly article. Then the ugliness started. Some even sided with conspiracy theorists out of all people.. Like eww… I get wanting to defend your fave (and at times you were damn right to defend him) but come on now do better….

You gleefully were rejoicing when you assumed that Zayn was shading Gigi with his tweets and thought that he was proving you right when you were calling her manipulative, disgusting and all that jazz. Nevertheless, Zayn himself went off on all of you and set you guys straight pretty quickly.

You doing all of that, made things worst for the person that you claim to stan & love because guess what tabloids picked up on it and it created negative press towards Zayn. So kudos to you for helping your fave dummies…

As for the Gigi stans I don’t follow many of them to be quite honest but the impression that I always got is that while Zayn & Gigi were together they kept quiet but there were some indirects here and there and then they just let loose when the break up happened. They 100% believed what tabloids were saying and were now overtly being nasty towards Zayn online. I get wanting to defend your fave (and at times you were damn right to defend her against the nastiness said about her) but come on now do better….

They always seemed to think that Zayn was the one preventing Gigi from going out, partying and being seen or being super active & interactive on social media like back in the day when she was besties with Kendall. They don’t think big bad Zayn is good enough for their queen Gigi.. Well guess what Gigi stans to my knowledge she’s still not yet doing the stuff you expected her to do. So sucks to be you….

You don’t know Zayn or Gigi personnaly. You are not part of their inner circle. You don’t know what their relationship is or was like except from what they have chosen to share or from what the media/tabloids have decided to spin for clicks. It’s their life, their relationship and their choices. PERIOD!!!!!!!

So when it comes to them, I am like:

4- The media/tabloids + Zayn + Gigi

The media has been atrocious but more so towards Zayn than Gigi. Not surprised. Tabloids have rarely ever been on Zayn’s side. Most likely because he doesn’t curate his image as much as Gigi does. Zayn definitely hasn’t helped himself with some of the things he has said, done or tweeted online. I have said so in my tags. I don’t know what has prompted him to remember Twitter but it wasn’t a good idea at all. As a celebrity, social media is not a place to vent especially the cesspool that is Twitter. Also the vague tweets are open to interpretation and people will run with it and assume the worst automatically. I get it Zayn is still a human being like any of us but still…Be smart about how you use your platform you are not just anybody.

The media, loves to kick someone when they are down or bring up stuff. That’s what they do. They gossip, they speculate, they look for drama, they make up stuff. Anything to drive traffic on their site. Most of the articles have been basically about how Zayn is a deeply troubled young man (his anxiety issues, he is seen as a recluse, his tweets or some of his IG posts that would be 2018, his weed smoking..) who is at an all time low (his management has allegedly dumped him, his second album did not do well commercially, still not touring, his gf has left him..) and was holding the super successful supermodel Gigi back from her full potential because she was always trying to help him. Basically that Zayn was dead weight. Then they brought in what Louis said about Zayn… You know all around just gross stuff.

It’s an easy narrative to paint for tabloids and quickly believed based on the bias people already have of Zayn that has been solidified by his reputation and the years of bad press that he hasn’t deemed worthy enough to respond to.

That to me has always been a mistake but then again even when he does try to correct stuff or tell his side of the story, his words are ignored or not believed. He’s fucked either way. Even when he’s silent minding his own business there are still articles popping up. If my memory is correct, Zayn was pretty much silent online other than selfies up until March when he tweeted the Love You Gigi and yet since January Zayn was being mentioned in articles that were either about Gigi or about the status of their relationship (ex: the first US Weekly article).

Nonetheless, I do think he needs an image overall and should hire a publicist to change that narrative. Zayn call Scooter Braun and ask him to give you the name of the pr people that were involved in cleaning up JB’s image just before his Purpose album…

I don’t know Zayn nor do I know what is going on in his personal life. I hope that he is doing well. If he is going through something, I hope that whatever is going on bts that he is dealing with it properly, that he has a strong & supportive system and will come on top of it. Whenever he is ready, if he wants to, he can open up about that time period in his life. (LOL who am I kidding my noisy self would love for him to write another book or do an in depth filmed interview where he talks about the Z2 era and what has been going on up until now.)

As for Gigi, she cares about her image and reputation. Gigi is smart and savvy. She’s very mindful of how she is seen and perceived in the media. She knows the game and plays along. That’s smart because she is in an industry where it does matter. Zayn should have learned that from her. Her IG is curated to showcase happiness & serenity as well as her achievements & projects. She’s photographed/papped with her friends or family, attending events, on a photoshoot or going to the gym. Break up, what break up? what heartbreak? She doesn’t need a man. She’s a strong independent woman. Girl power! Her career is going extremely well and keeps on going stronger and stronger. Kudos to her. You can’t hate her or criticize her for that. She has every right to do so.

However, what I will say is at times there are things that she has done that I was like girl wtf are you doing. For example responding to things that are not even necessary to respond to which then creates press that puts her in a good light and by default directly or indirectly throws Zayn under the bus. That tweet calling out the media about linking her to a guy..Sweetie there were no articles. Nothing had been written. No outlets had picked up the pap pics of her and her friends. It was her own fans at first that had shared the pictures on their update accounts. Or that time she responded/clapped back at a Zayn stan that hadn’t mentioned her name or tagged her but shared what was deemed an unflattering picture of her and people in the comments were making fun of her… I was like girl how did you even find this???? Are you lurking???? Anyway both times, it made the press and Zayn was dragged into it.

Or back in January when she was papped 2 days in a row at Zayn’s apartment. For that though, I won’t blame her in the sense of she called the paps on herself like tinhats or antis would. Being seen at his apartment, led to articles..

Gigi is still a human being like any of us and has her moments but still…

I would also like to remind people that Gigi is not in any way obligated to come to Zayn’s defense when it comes to what has been said about him by the media or online from her stans or anyone else. However, in my opinion, I do think if she has the time to tweet/call out the media about articles that hadn’t yet been written, she could tweet about some disturbing articles that have been written about someone with whom she had an on/off relationship for 3 years or so. Same thing for Zayn. Zayn has come to her defense when he tweeted for people to leave her alone. Just saying….

Finally, as for the 2 US Weekly articles, in light to what Zayn has tweeted recently, I choose to think that Gigi and her camp had no part in it.

I know that many including mutuals of mine have entertained the theory that these articles were Gigi’s doing because of Yolanda’s connection to US Weekly.

So for arguments sake:

As I’ve said in previous conversations, prior to even Zayn tweeting, I hope that she had no part in it. If she did, then yep I would side-eye her and call this tactic sneaky & cowardly. Why go that route? Own up to it. Why use a tabloid with “sources” instead of making a proper statement via your social media or at least via your “rep” so that it’s clear that it comes from you?

That first US Weekly article was written after she was papped at his appartement twice. Zayn had not been seen out, he hadn’t tweeted or done anything. That article went up and was picked up by many outlets. In it, they said Zayn had issues that Gigi couldn’t help him with. She tried everything, she was no longer hanging out with her friends, etc.. etc…

The timing of the 2nd US Weekly article was mid-March two weeks or more after Zayn tweeted the “Love you” tweet to which Gigi had not responded to (she wasn’t obligated to do it either). In that article, it mainly said that Gigi has love for Zayn but he has MAJOR ISSUES (yep this time around they added major. last time it was just issues) and it’s over for good because they are not compatible. Again it was “sources”.. I was like why wait two weeks or more to write this? Why not write that article immediately after Zayn had tweeted it. The story had died down. That article was again picked up by many other news outlet.

But like I said anon, I choose to believe or at least hope that Gigi & her camp had no part in it. I would think she’s better than that to go that low and from my knowledge, it wasn’t/ or isn’t her MO. If she doesn’t address things directly usually it’s via a rep.

So when it comes to the media, I am like:

As for my thoughts on the status of Zayn & Gigi’s relationship:

Zayn and Gigi are two young good looking rich adults. Aesthetically/visually, Zigi was a stunning couple. Bottom line, It’s their lives, their choices. Whatever happens, happens. They are two celebrities that I don’t know personally. At the end of the day it doesn’t affect my life or livelihood.

So those are all my thoughts. Have fun reading anon!!!

#anon #zayn malik #zigi #ziams #anti-zigi #zigis #Zstans #my complete thoughts #i hope that answers everything and that i will not get more asks on the matter. I pretty much said all I have to say on the matter

4 notes · View notes

kcourtney01-blog · 6 years

Text

Social Media and Literacy Learning

Author: Kali Courtney

Date: 02/26/19

Literacy is the quality or state of being literate which means having the ability to read or write. Having that ability is important within this day in age due to that a lot of information we receive as people is put into forms where knowing how to read and write may be beneficial. Different sources such as books, newspapers, magazines, scholarly journals and much more have given people access to an abundance of knowledge. Since the peak of the 21st century there has been rise to a new source of information which is social media. Social media has various forms of digital platforms where individuals can express themselves and stay connected with people across the globe from them. Just like there are multiple different versions of newspapers such as, The New York Times, StarTribune etc. There are different social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Blogs, and so many more. Within each of those social media sites they each present their own forms of communication and information outsourcing. People who use Instagram make personal profiles and share their world through the use of pictures and filters. Twitter is more of a platform where individuals really can be personal as a online diary of sorts. As times have changed and continue to change, the way we collect our information is as well, so the question is “How does social media help with literacy learning?”

I want to showcase within this passage some of the ways that literacy learning can be aided through the use of social media. Within this article I will be addressing how social media has helped me within my literacy learning. I also will be pulling from great writing scholars such as Deborah Brandt and speaking on behalf of literacy sponsors within social media and how those sponsors are linked to literacy success. Lastly, I will be speaking on behalf of Malcolm X pulling from snippets of his autobiography; I will be showing that if Malcolm had access to social media his literacy journey would have been much different. To start off I have been lucky enough to see the evolution of social media and the internet being that I was born at the beginning of the 2000’s. When social media first arose it was used as more of a source for people to stay interconnected with one another. Facebook was used so every once in a while I could see what my cousins in Puerto Rico were up to and stalk their daily hilarious posts. Instagram was used just primarily by younger people where I could post a picture of my daily outfit or a cool scenic picture. In terms of actual information such as news and things of that nature I would get from watching Fox News or reading the latest newspaper. Now in terms of literacy, anything that involves reading or writing is engaging in the act of being literate. By me engaging in Facebook or Instagram, in writing captions under my pictures or writing daily post on Facebook I was sharing a form of my own literacy work. I will say that now since social media platforms have changed drastically they offer much more sources of information. I have learned new literacies just from scrolling through my explore page or recommended on Instagram. Due to instagram I was able to learn how to take care of my naturally curly hair by reading about what products helped certain women and men and which products worked on my curl pattern. I also follow many blogs that speak on women empowerment and self-growth which have given me the tools to be more self sufficient and boost my confidence by seeing what these other women post and talk about. By seeing their literary works I was able to learn many things (new literacies) for my own personal use that I don’t think books or newspapers or your daily magazine would have been able to show me.

As I mentioned in speaking on behalf of my personal connections and experiences with social media, I spoke about blogs or pages that helped me in learning new information; sources that aided me along my literacy learning and are still helping me to this day. Those pages and blogs are what you would call “Literacy Sponsors”. Deborah Brandt, whom is a Professor emerita in the Department of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, thoroughly explains what literacy sponsors are and their importance in writing. Deborah states “sponsors seemed a fitting term for the figures who turned up most typically in people’s memories of literacy learning: older relatives , teachers , priest , supervisors , military officers , editors , influential authors.”(Brandt, 2017, p.73) As Brandt stated sponsors are people or things that have helped shape your literacy outcomes and in my case and, I’m sure in the case of many others, social media has played a crucial sponsor in literacy learning and outcomes. Further into the chapter, Brandt touches on some key concepts in relation to sponsors and sponsorship . Brandt states “people throughout history have acquired literacy pragmatically under the banner of others’ causes.”(Brandt, 2017, p.74) I really appreciated what Brandt spoke about in terms of sponsors spreading their messages to others without even the slightest idea that their doing so and same goes for the individual taking in the sponsor's information. Social media sites are so big and vast and there is an abundance of different sponsors that people come across on a daily basis. Just from scrolling through my feed on Instagram or twitter I come across thousands of posts from people I know to people I’ve never seen before. Then next thing I know I’m reading about a strangers opinion on if cats are better than dogs; or on someone's political views. Social Media is a new wave of how people are accessing different information and learning constantly. Since the uprise of social media, I’ve seen an increasing number of individuals becoming more vocal in social and political issues and it’s because they see others posting about those things and others are sharing their knowledge about those topics and the learning just continues. One thing will pass from one platform to another and eventually it becomes accessible to many around the globe! Just as I can testify to social media being a avid sponsor for me in my literacy journey it is one for many others and they don’t even realize the power in what it’s doing for them.

Although social media is this great source of information some may argue that it isn’t that great. For as long as I can remember I’d always hear my Dad say or my Grandmother “all that facebooking is frying your brain!” They would say that because sometimes I would find myself not knowing how to spell words properly because I relied so much on automatic spell check from using digital platforms so much that I began to use less of my natural brain power. So in certain aspects I could see as to why some would think social media doesn’t help in literacy learning. I also think that a part in those opposing views in generational changes and shifts. Many whom I’ve asked this question to who opposed it were older (30 or older). I know many times my father has voiced to me that all this technology is making this new generation lazy and when he was younger they didn’t have all these fancy machines to do a lot of work for us. I think that like with anything being used for learning whether it be books, textbooks, teachers learning style, social media etc. Everything will have it’s pros and cons but I believe that because we are in an ever evolving technological time social media is very useful in helping with literacy learning.

Now lastly, Malcolm X whom in many eyes was one of the greatest figures within Black History, was influential beyond all means and many saw him as very intelligent. He was an individual who spoke with elegance and poise and who knew how to strategically convey his message and voice to millions upon thousands. The snippet of Malcolm's autobiography shows his struggles of not be able to know how to read and write when entering into prison; Malcolm had stated “I became increasingly frustrated at not being able to express what I wanted to convey in letters that I wrote, especially those to Mr.Elijah Muhammad.”(X, 2017, p.107) He expressed much in the beginning of the passage how being illiterate was very frustrating for him and how in the streets he was able to gain and earn respect by words but now his vocal articulation doesn’t do much for him as being literate in reading and writing would more. In another passage, Malcolm X expressed “I saw that the best thing I could do was get a hold of a dictionary -- to study to learn some words. I was lucky enough to reason also that I should try and improve my penmanship.”(X, 2017, p.208) Within that, Malcolm X pointed out something important and that was a literacy sponsor. Going back to what Brandt was speaking on behalf of in the earlier paragraphs, Malcolm himself, Mr. Muhummed, his yearning to become literate and more importantly the dictionary were avid sponsors within his literacy journey. Without those resources Malcolm probably wouldn’t have converted to Islam, nor led great social political movements across the nation/world. Although I do believe and feel that if Malcolm would have had access to the resources of social media his literacy journey would have been easier but also I think the basis of his message of Black empowerment would have reached the hearts of many more. Malcolm himself would have been a great literary sponsor to many if Malcolm would have had access to let's say Instagram, he would have been able to post his flyers and messages for many to see! Beyond even him being a literacy sponsor he would have gained quick access to different resources providing him aid and information of literacy. He would have been able to get practice writing through social media platforms and I think and believe his literacy journey would have been much faster if he would have had those technological resources at hand. Although I am making assumptions, I think some can start to come to the conclusion that social media is a very useful tool in many individuals literacy journeys and those platforms have helped many start affluent careers and make marks on the world in numerous of ways. Malcolm was able to leave a mark in spite of not having those sources but imagine if those tools were at his disposal what he’s mark would have looked like.

In conclusion, between my personal experiences with social media, Brandt’s literacy sponsors, and through the story of Malcolm X’s literacy journey, we are able to see how social media can make a positive impact on literacy learning. Although many people (typically older generations) might see social media as a negative platform for communication because of how lazy it can make some people, social media gives people a place to share and read new information in which they may have not known or heard of before. Social media will continue to grow and I think it is important for people to continue to use it as a place where people can exchange new information to spread across the globe. Having this at your fingertips ensures that you won’t have to just go to the library all the time just to get some information about something so little. All of this is positive for the community despite social media’s negative connotations.

1 note · View note

leadload284 · 3 years

Text

Google Chrome For Mac Big Sur

With the latest update to Chrome, Google has launched a new rounded square icon for the browser on macOS. However, it seems another icon redesign is on the way with Google teasing some potential icons for Chrome to better match the design language of macOS Big Sur.

Google Chrome version 87 launched today on Windows and macOS, bringing a host of new features, but the most immediately noticeable change was a new icon for macOS, partially themed to the style of Big Sur. Matching the style of the icon of Chrome for iOS, the new icon simply places the standard Google Chrome icon into a rounded square with a white background.

After upgrading to Big Sur, my Mac kept hanging and self-rebooting. I isolated the issue to Chrome and uninstalled Chrome. Safari browser works fine, but all of my bookmarks are in Chrome (frustrated).

Chrome is known to being a memory hog on Mac and Windows computers, an issue Google has recently attempted to solve. With ‌macOS Big Sur‌, Safari received significant updates that saw it.

Download latest Google Chrome browser on apple M1 macbookHey, guys in this video I'm going to show you how you can download and install latest version of goo.

To make Chrome look and feel more at home on macOS Big Sur, Google seems to be working on a more significant redesign of the browser’s icon. Install visual studio code brew. On Twitter this evening, Elvin Hu, a member of Google Chrome’s design team, shared three potential designs to add a flair of Big Sur’s “neumorphism.”

The first design is exactly what you can see as of today’s Chrome 87 release on macOS, while the latter two use light and shadow in different ways to create a sense of depth. The tweet is intended as a way to open the floor to community feedback on which direction makes the most sense.

Elsewhere on Twitter, Alex Ainslie, head of design for Google Chrome, briefly shared about the delicate balance of keeping each of Chrome’s logos across various platforms feeling consistently “Chrome-y,” “Google-y,” and “OS-y” — meaning it matches the design language of a particular operating system.

One of my favorite things about making @googlechrome for ChromeOS, Mac, Windows, Linux, Android, and iOS is that we get to negotiate how to be 1) Chrome-y and 2) Google-y and 3) OS-y all at the same time.

So, in your opinion, which of these three potential icons for Google Chrome best suits the design language of macOS Big Sur? Let us know in the comments.