#would love to record a track with IO

[siyzuii]

⨳ 　 ʾ apps/sites 4 shifting 　 . 　 ♡

hi! this will be long but i made a list of apps/sites that might be helpful for your shifting journey. reminder that you don't need these to shift but they can be helpful with manifesting, keeping track of stuff, etc.

enjoy! divider cr

NOT SPONSORED BTW LMAO

﹒ 　 ⊹ 　 🝮 　 OO1: NOTION 　 ✩

description:

basically notion is an app for documents and stuff. i have to say this one's relatively known and it's such a huge life saver and i know that probably everyone knows about it already (as they should) but i'm gonna recommend it once again.

useful for:

scripting

dashboards you can add life goals & stuff here you can look up some templates/ideas and see what i mean LOL

cons:

i personally can not think of any major ones because this app is just that good

you do have to make new accounts for the text ai generating feature but i don't know if anyone would use that

additional notes:

i personally love how customizable it is! like you can make each page have a custom icon & header, add widgets, images, and so much more. it is so so so insanely helpful for scripting i'm telling you. or you can just be basic, that works too. there's also a bunch of script templates online including specific ones (like a better cr, fame dr, fantasy dr, fandom-specific drs, bla bla bla) and it's literally the only thing shifttok is good for imo. i'm a big fan of shifterium's templates but there's other people who make them as well and i'm sure you can find some recommendations!

★ 　 ₊ 　 ➲ 　OO2: CANVA

description:

a website + app where you can design stuff from headers down to presentations, posters, covers, etc..

useful for:

album covers for singer/idol drs

book covers for writer drs or something

fake social media posts but there's better apps out there and i'll list them here as well

and much more!

cons:

a lot of things (most of which i think are the good stuff) are paid but you can find similar replicas if you scroll long enough i guess..?? and there's a free trial but i don't know if that helps

additional notes:

definitely my favorite place to go when i need to design something tbh. there's a bunch of templates you can use and the layout is very easy to navigate through! and it's pretty easy to find free alternatives for the paid stuff you do have in there

₍ⁿ⑅..ⁿ₎ 　 ˇ 　 ⩩ 　 OO3: PARROT 　 ❀ 　

description:

parrot is an app where you can record yourself saying literally anything and play it on a continuous loop

useful for:

affirmations (manifesting??)

cons:

i'm pretty sure it's iOS only

additional notes:

personally i haven't used this app (i don't like my voice so i will not be recording myself saying affirmations thank yew) so i can't give it a rating but from the looks of it and based off of recommendations i've seen it's pretty useful. should be a white icon with a pink circle that has a white parrot in it!

≥≤ 　 ﹕ 　 ⤷ 　 OO4: BEHINDTHENAME 　 ◍

description:

a site where you can generate names & even life stories if you choose it (including height, weight, blood type, birthday, nationality and more i think?? at least it gives those for me). you can choose from different cultures and stuff like fantasy & mythology.

useful for:

finding a name & info for your dr self (which is literally you by the way don't forget that!) and potentially other people you'd like to script in

cons:

it really just helps to make a basic profile of a person so the things you can do with it can be a little limited

additional notes:

i prefer using this site for ocs instead but i think it can definitely help with shifting! oddly enough it also shows like a lifespan & cause of death so.. cool i guess!!!!

✦ 　 ﹕ 　 OO5: SOCIAL MAKER/dummy

description:

social maker & social dummy are both apps where you can replicate almost basically anything from the internet from twitter posts to facebook posts, youtube posts, and more!

useful for:

social media stuff especially useful for fame drs, streamer drs, idol/singer drs and so much more

cons:

both apps were deleted so you have to have had installed them before if you want to get them back

social maker is ios only i think?

additional notes:

yeah both apps are deleted but there's alternatives out there like twinote (for twitter) photonote (for instagram) canva (has fake social media templates as i said lol) and others that you can look for (because i personally only use twinote)

⋆ 　 ᶻᶻ 　 　 OO6: HELLOFACE 　 ﹒ 　 ★

description:

basically an app for ai face swapping

useful for:

seeing what your face claim (if you have one) would look like on for example dances, fancams, interviews definitely useful for idol/singer/maybe fame drs

cons:

uses ai (i'm personally not a big fan of ai)

pretty underground so the chances that you might not like it are not low

✭ 　 　 ❒︎ 　 OO7: ROOM PLANNER 　 . 　 ♡

description:

basically what the name says. it's a 3d home designer

useful for:

making your dr room/house

visualizing your dr room/house

cons:

has paid stuff

┊ 　 ‧ 　⬭ 　 OO8: COMBYNE

description:

an app where you can combine items you like from a wide selection of stuff to make outfits!

useful for:

making outfits for your dr

visualizing said outfits

additional notes:

there's other things you can do on the app like challenges where you can compete to make the best outfit i think?? looks pretty fun i might try it HAHAHA

yuh so i got a little lazy here at the end & i know this is prolly not very helpful because most of these apps/sites are pretty well known but maybe just maybe.. i helped someone out...

HAPPY SHIFTING!!!!!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

How Apple could open its App Store without really opening its App Store

Last week, Mark Gurman published a blockbuster story in Bloomberg, revealing Apple’s plan to allow third-party Ios App Stores to comply with the EU’s Digital Markets Act. Apple didn’t confirm it, but I believe it. Gurman’s sourcing was impeccable:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-13/will-apple-allow-users-to-install-third-party-app-stores-sideload-in-europe

This is a huge deal. While Apple’s “curated” approach to software delivers benefits to users, those benefits are unreliable. As I explain in a new post for EFF’s Deeplinks blog, Apple only fights for its users when doing so is good for its shareholders. But when something is good for Apple shareholders and bad for its customers, the shareholders win, every time:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/12/heres-how-apple-could-open-its-app-store-without-really-opening-its-app-store

To see how this works, just consider Apple’s record in China. First, Apple removed all working VPN apps from its Chinese App Store, to facilitate state spying on its Chinese customers:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-apple-vpn/apple-says-it-is-removing-vpn-services-from-china-app-store-idUSKBN1AE0BQ

Then Apple backdoored its Chinese cloud servers, to further facilitate state surveillance of Chinese Iphone owners:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/technology/apple-china-censorship-data.html

Then, just last month, Apple neutered Airdrop’s P2P file-sharing in order to help the Chinese state in its campaign to stamp out protests:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/11/apple-limits-iphone-filesharing-feature-used-by-protesters-in-china

Apple claims that its App Store is a fortress that protects its users against external threats. But the Iphone is designed to block its owners from choosing rival app stores, which means that when Apple betrays its customers, the fortress walls become prison walls. Governments know this, and they rely on it when they demand that Apple compromise its customers to totalitarian surveillance:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/11/foreseeable-consequences/#airdropped

Now, there’s an interesting contrast here. When the DFBI demanded that Apple backdoor its devices to aid in the prosecution of the San Bernardino shooters, Apple took its customers’ side, bravely refusing to compromise its devices:

https://www.eff.org/cases/apple-challenges-fbi-all-writs-act-order

That was the right call to make. Does it mean that Apple doesn’t value privacy for its Chinese customers’ privacy as much as it values it for American customers? Does it mean that Apple respects the CCP more than it respects the FBI?

Not at all. It just means that China was able to threaten Apple’s shareholders in ways that the DoJ couldn’t. Standing up to the Chinese government would threaten Apple’s access to 350 million middle-class Chinese potential customers, and an equal number of Chinese low-waged workers who could be tapped to manufacture Apple devices under brutal labor conditions at rock-bottom prices.

Standing up to the FBI didn’t threaten Apple’s shareholders the way that standing up to the CCP would, so Apple stood up for its American users and sold out its Chinese users.

But that doesn’t mean that US Apple customers are safe. In the US, Apple defends its customers from rival commercial threats, but actively prevents those customers from defending themselves against Apple’s own commercial threats.

Famously, Apple took its customers side over Facebook’s, adding an amazing, best-in-class, one-click opt-out to tracking, which is costing Facebook $10 billion per year. You love to see it:

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/02/facebook-says-apple-ios-privacy-change-will-cost-10-billion-this-year.html

On the other hand…Apple secretly continued to its customers’ clicks, taps, gestures, apps and keystrokes, even after those customers explicitly opted out of tracking, and used that data to build nonconsensual dossiers on every Ios owner for use in its own ad-targeting business:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/14/luxury-surveillance/#liar-liar

Apple defended its customers against Facebook’s predation, but not its own. When Apple’s shareholder interests are on the line, Apple’s App Store becomes a prison, not a fortress: because Apple controls which software you can install, it can (and does) block you from installing apps that extend its block on commercial surveillance to Apple itself.

Then there’s the app tax. Apple charges app makers a 30% commission on all their sales, which means that certain businesses literally can’t exist. Take audiobooks: audiobook sellers have 20% gross margins on their wares. If they sell their audiobooks through apps and pay a 30% vig to Apple, they lose money on every sale. Thus, the only Ios app that will sell you an audiobook is Apple’s own Apple Books.

Apple Books requires authors and publishers to wrap their books in Apple’s DRM, and the DMCA makes it a felony to supply your own readers with a tool to convert the books you published to a rival’s format. That means that readers have to surrender every book they’ve bought on Apple Books if you switch platforms and ask them to follow you. It’s not just social media that turns creators into digital sharecroppers.

It’s not any better when it comes to the businesses that can eke out an existence under the app tax’s yoke. These businesses pass their extra costs on to Apple’s customers, who ultimately bear the app tax burden. Because every app maker has to pay the app tax, they all tacitly collude to hike their prices. And because mobile is a duopoly, the app tax is also buried in every Android app, because Google has exactly the same app tax as Apple (Google will also be forced to remove barriers to third-party app stores under the DMA).

All this to say that it is a terrible error to impute morals or values to giant corporations. Apple and Google are both immortal colony organisms that view human beings as inconvenient gut flora. They are remorseless paperclip-maximizing artificial life forms. They are, in other words, limited liability corporations.

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/paperclip-maximizer

“If you’re not paying for the product, you’re the product” sounds good, but it’s absolutely wrong. You can’t bribe a paperclip-maximizing colony organism into treating you with dignity by spending money with it. Companies’ treatment of you depends on what they can get away with — not their “personalities.” Apple doesn’t respect privacy — it thinks it can make more paperclips by giving some of its customers some privacy. As soon as Apple finds a way to make more paperclips by spying on those you (say, by starting its own internal adtech business), it will spy on you, and the $1000 you spent on your Iphone will not save you.

Once you understand that corporate conduct is a matter of power, not personality, then you understand that the way to prevent companies from harming you is to meet their power with countervailing power. This is why tech worker unions matter: organized labor has historically been the most important check on corporate power, which is why tech companies are so vicious in the face of union drives:

https://www.epi.org/publication/unions-decline-inequality-rises/

Beyond labor, two other forces can discipline corporate conduct: regulation and competition. The biggest threat to a business’s customers is that business’s own shareholders. A company might defend its customers against a rival, but they will never defend its customers against its own shareholders.

Regulation and competition both impose costs on shareholder who abuse their customers: regulation can punish bad conduct with fines that come out of shareholder profits, and competition can create a race to the top as businesses seek to poach each others’ customers by offering them progressively better deals.

Which brings me back to the DMA, the EU’s pending regulation forcing Apple to open its app store, and Apple’s leaked plans to comply with the regulation. This is (potentially) great news, because rival app stores can offer Apple customers an escape hatch from mandatory surveillance and price-gouging.

But the devil is in the details. There are so many ways that Apple can use malicious compliance to appear to offer a competitive app marketplace without actually doing so. In my article for EFF, I offer a checklist of fuckieries to watch for in Apple’s plans:

• Forcing software authors in Apple’s Developer Program. Not only does this force developers to pay Apple for the privilege of selling to Iphone owners, but it also forces them to sign onto a Bible-thick EULA that places all kinds of arbitrary limits on their software. It’s not enough for Apple to open up to rival app stores — it also must not sabotage rivals who produce competing SDKs for Ios.

• Forcing App Store criteria on rival app stores. Apple mustn’t be permitted to turn legitimate vetting for security or privacy risks into editorial control over which apps Ios users are allowed to use. Apple may not want to carry games that highlight labor conditions in high-tech manufacturing sweatshops:

https://venturebeat.com/games/apple-drops-uncomfortable-sweatshop-hd-game-from-app-store/

And it may object to apps that track US drone killings of civilians abroad:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/aug/30/apple-blocks-us-drone-strike-app

But those arbitrary editorial conditions shouldn’t be imposed on rival app stores.

• Taxing rival app stores for “security vetting.” Apple is not the only entity qualified to assess the security of apps:

https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2022/01/letter-to-the-us-senate-judiciary-committee-on-app-stores.html

and it’s just as capable as its rivals of making grave errors:

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/apple-fixes-exploited-iphone-zero/

It’s fine to say that app stores must submit to third-party security certification, but they should be free to choose Apple out of a field of qualified privacy certifiers.

• Requiring third-party app stores to process payments with Apple. The app tax should be disciplined by competition. Allowing Apple to extract 30% from transactions in its rivals’ app stores would defeat the whole purpose of the DMA.

• Arbitrarily revoking third party app stores. It’s foreseeable that some third-party app stores would be so incompetent or malicious that Apple could revoke their ability to operate on Ios devices. However, if Apple were to pretextually shut down third-party app stores, it could sour Iphone owners off the whole prospect of getting apps elsewhere.

Apple must not be permitted to use its power to shut down app stores in an anti-competitive way, but distinguishing pretextual shutdowns from bona fide ones is a time-consuming, fact-intensive process that could leave customers in limbo for years.

One way to manage this is for regulators to dangle massive fines for pretextual shutdowns. In addition to this, Apple must make some provision to continue its customers’ access to the apps, media and data from the app stores it shuts down.

All of this points to the role that regulators pay, even (especially) when it comes to disciplining companies through competition. The DMA is overseen by the EU Commission, which has the power to investigate, verify and approve (or reject) the standards that Apple sets for privacy, security, and app stores themselves. The Commission should anticipate and fund the regulators needed to manage these tasks quickly, thoroughly and efficiently.

Finally, Europeans shouldn’t have all the fun. If Apple can do this for Europeans, it can do it for every Apple device owner. If you bought an Ios device, it’s yours, not Apple’s, and you should have the right to technological self determination that Europeans get when it comes to deciding which software it runs.

Image: Electronic Frontier Foundation https://www.eff.org/files/banner_library/eu-flag-11.png

CC BY 3.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/

[Image ID: An EU flag. The blue background has a fine tracery of etched circuitry.]

[anosci]

selected albums ive listened to in 2024

this year I'm just posting the highlights so itll be shorter

[1] [2]

January

1/ VHS Head - Phasia (2023) first new album of '24 for me! "Strange Food" that zap pew beat is a delight! title track is p good, floaty. "Phocus" this is very vaguely leaning into…funk? i really like it. possible highlight? wondering why it shares the title of a different album.

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4/ VA - FM Synth 2 (2017) yeah i love fm "Mach 5 Fusion Force X" is a god damn tour de force. insane! "Work Without Rules" second fav of mine for its smoov smoov swingy wobs

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7/ Skee Mask - C (2024) first 2024 album in the list! dusty, crispy, chillout. analogue. deep bass when needed, never too thick of a presence. delightful chillout music. at worst, its a bit varied, as if it were an anthology. probably because it is. highlight: "Bassline Dub"

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12/ (all OCRemix posts from 2017) all over the place ofc some insano selections: "Multi-track Drifting" N R G!!! "Big Room Gobi" funny but in a goes hard way also: Star Salzman's Katamari mix!!! i keep coming back to that in particular

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15/ VA - Adventure Time, Vol. 1-5 (2019) they have extended versions of some sc cuts!! "Party With the Chief" esp(!) the biggest thing I noticed overall: this soundtrack is so…wack. meandering. ADHD in control of a quirky ensemble. continually amazed that this's from a hit show

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16/ Diverse System - JAPAN 2 (2023) a mostly rly good grab bag of bangers with a japan flavor! i adore the koto mixed in with tight electric beats. big big standouts with "灯火" !!! and the much more electric "Amatsu"

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17/ Patricia Taxxon - Bicycle (2024) laid back (mostly) textures n vibes. instant fav in "Frat Claws" and "I Do" specifically! i really like the FEEL within the sounds. i keep coming back to "Chipshop" and "Boys". visceral.

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23/ Aleksi Perälä - Starlight 1 (2018) surprisingly solid, albeit a bit all over the place much love for the smooth sounds of "UK74R1823040" much love for the stepfiltered "UK74R1823090" not as much a fan of the techno flavors this time but still!

it's hard to recommend this artist in general but ive been listening to a lot of AP music. just give those two highlights a try and see what you think.

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February

25/ BT - The Secret Language of Trees (2023) THE GOOD STUFF Producer's Cuts especially!!! "k-means clustering"……. the clicks in "Time Moves So Fast"…. if you ever wished ppl made more music from 2007, here it is. a return to the binary universe.

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40/ Tom Bragl - Regainable (2024) a few crunchy niceities, but just a few imo. "Klamra" f.ex. feels very 2007, which IS a delight. for anyone who wishes they made more music from 2007. here it is. funny it's marketed as "80s esque" lol. i hear it tho.

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43/ µ-ziq - 1977 (2023) mike has a very distinct style that stands out from a lot of his peers imo. i wasnt sure about this but the reverbed minimalist drum machine in tracks like "4am" and "Belt & Carpet" win me over. I think those two and the weirdly hazy house of "Houzz 13" are my favs. "4am" especially, with those ethereal (newage?) chopped vocals

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44/ Autechre - 2005-4-15 Glasgow (live set) apparently there are some old soundboard recordings laying around!!! this is super good. quaristice stuff. i love love love the multiple variations of chence9! the fast version of IO is rly good too. ez fav but still.

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March

47/ STAFFcirc vol. 9: MIDI MODULE FANATIX (2024) oh hell yes, midi AND rompler!!! "Thunder and Strawberry Wine" is otherworldly. i get how it was made but also. How? ooooghhh… "30 Domcaster St" delightful ooooghhh… "Cascade rev.2023" authentic zest "Yakumotatsu" god i love this trend of pushing msgs midi to the max "tunnel7_r35b" listen i love chimeratio and he brought his slapping

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57/ Fields Of Mist - Biospore Farmers (2024) try not to compare to boc challenge: impossible. it's lush damnit. but the perc is way way more analogue drummachine. its wall to wall good. that opening track would have blown my mind in 2007. they dont make it like that anymore, except i guess they do!

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60/ pilotredsun - Achievement (2016) an album misplaced in time. pristine early 00s bedroom musician vibes.

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[numetaljackdog]

what i'm listening to 4/5/2023 (song notes under cut!)

spot. link//yt link

Laura Les - Haunted: haunted. by laura les.

100 gecs - Dumbest Girl Alive: yeah there's gonna be a fair few new gecs tracks in here. dumbest girl alive is my favorite from 10k, i can't even express how much it just hits every time. i love the riff, i love the lyrics, i love the music video, i love the production, love it love it love it. i also included a minecraft parody i found when searching the video on youtube, you're welcome

Black Flag - Revenge: i've been trying to rediscover my love for some of my favorite hardcore genres, so i took it all the way back to the early days and reconnected with one of my favorite bands. i encountered this song in high school when trying to find clean black flag songs that i could put in a piece i was writing about the history of metal (which the band is not, but hardcore is significant in the history of the genre anyway). it's a great thrash-and-basher and apparently has not been in my playlist until now, which i was unaware of lol

The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever: once again i must admit to listening to the beetles.... alas. look it's a really good song, the lead-in to the chorus is fucking amazing, the instrumentation is really interesting and unique, it just washes over you like waves of sound. plus it's goofy as hell

Jaga Jazzist - I Could Have Killed Him In The Sauna: from the INSTANT i heard the intro of this track i was like ohhh that's going in the next WILT. i don't have a ton to say about it, just listen. it's good sounds to chew on. shoutout io

100 gecs - Billy Knows Jamie: i freaked the fuck out when i heard this track, no joke. which is funny, because i'm pretty certain they played this when i saw them last fall, but i didn't have any frame of reference at the time for whether it would sound the same on the record. i just kept thinking "they did this for ME. SPECIFICALLY" because like hello??? i'm the nu metal gecs fan!!! that's like my whole thing!!!! and this literally sounds like limp bizkit half the time!!!!! i honestly kind of wouldn't mind if the breakdown at the end had been a little more restrained, just to preserve the feeling that it's 1999 all over again, but whatever. it cums. it's also about violence and killing, so i even get a little bit of like juggalo vibes almost

Fiona Apple - To Your Love: this song sounds so sexyyyy like maybe this is out of pocket but when this came on shuffle on a singer-songwriter playlist i was browsing i literally stopped what i was doing and was just like 😳😳😳 it's insane. and like when her voice gets all growly at one point later in the track... anyway haha

Marnie Stern - Prime: found via that coolass video i reblogged a while back oh god let's see if i can find that. holy shit i can't believe that worked. i don't know anything about marnie stern but i should listen to more because prime knocked the wind out of me it's good

100 gecs - The Most Wanted Person In The United States: last gecs track... and it's more rap rock!!! kind of. did you guys catch that cypress hill sample? i sure did!!!! love itttt. plus there's more killing it's so awesome. i've already said most of this stuff to violet (hi violet) but for real i think "got anthony kiedis suckin on my penis" is one of the all-time greatest bars and i'm not joking

DJ Lycox - BILLIE JEAN (DIOR): a lot of music from people on here this month! one of my mutuals (who probably won't read this but if you do. hi :3) posted this track and i really love the original pop smoke song so i was like right what's all this then. it's good. that's what it is then

Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run: i was reading this article about bruce springsteen being a sort of icon for butch womanhood and that had me like wow i am feeling emotions right now. and so i went and listened to some springsteen and you know what he rocks. there's something so desperate and heartbreaking about his songwriting, it hits me in a real way. and i've never even been to new jersey

Ada Rook - 920LONDON: new rook album ooh yeah babey. not my fav record she's ever done but still really fucking good. this song kind of reminds me of everlong, which like. girl who's only ever listened to everlong by the foo fighters listening to her second song: getting a lot of everlong by the foo fighters vibes from this. but still it's about holding each other close and making the most of what we have in our rapidly passing time, plus the riffs are kind of similar in ways that i don't feel like fudging musical terminology to try and describe

Sarah Vaughan - Lullaby Of Birdland: cool jazz can be kind of whatever but y'know i'm a vocals girlie and sarah vaughan honestly probably deserves to be listed up there with the greats. her vocal control is insane, and the way she just drifts from her higher register to the lower and back again is hypnotic. good fucking song plus shows props to charlie parker

May Leitz - gODKILLER: another from tumblr, thanks to user bigbaywindow for directing me towards may leitz ^_^ i have been rocking with several of her songs but this was the first one i listened to and it's really good, the lyrics hit me in a certain way as well that some of you might guess. also while putting together the youtube playlist i discovered that may makes youtube videos including one that i've seen floating around my recommended page a couple of times?? so i guess i'll have to see what's goin on over there

The International Sweethearts Of Rhythm - Vi Vigor: am i like. crazy. i would have SWORN that i put this in a previous WILT but i can find no evidence of that being true. in any case this is a cool kinda bebop-inspired jazz piece by an all-woman jazz ensemble who i wanna listen to more of. there's some really great sax work on here especially, so if you're into that def check this one out

Girls Rituals - Hole/The Used: okay funny story on this one. this was the first song i ever heard from any of devi's projects, it was before i even really knew who black dresses was. this song appeared in my release radar and i was like "who the fuck is this" and i'm convinced it only happened because the title is the names of two bands which i WAS already listening to at the time. and i listened to the song and said "this is really bad, and i don't understand why anyone would listen to this." and then i mostly forgor about it. skip forward to recently - i am obviously a big fan of devi's work and plenty of other projects adjacent to this. i get a big new batch of songs in my playlist (hello again to violet shoutout violet) and this song is in here. i listen to it. it's good :) take that, me from two years ago

The Buggles - The Plastic Age: the mandatory Todd Find™ for this month. i was watching the one hit wonderland episode on these guys and honestly didn't pay attention too closely bc i was busy but this song stuck. you guys know i'm all about that campy futurey cyberpunk-adjacent shit. it would be a stretch to say this fully gets there but it's still a fun song either way

Cage The Elephant - Cigarette Daydreams: lame song honestly but the chorus is super catchy plus there's a story. when i was working my old job there was a supervisor i liked a lot who played a wide range of tunes on shift. sometimes it was chill instrumental stuff, sometimes it was metalcore, and sometimes it was like this sort of radio alternative shit. this song specifically would play a lot, as you can imagine, and at the time it annoyed me, especially because of how catchy it is, it would make me think of work. but now both that supervisor and i have left, and so now it just reminds me of vibing with them and making the most of being on the clock. a cigarette daydream indeed

Jason Segel & Walter - Man Or Muppet: i don't know, man. i've had this song stuck in my head since i was eight years old and one day i randomly thought "i wonder if that's on streaming" and it is

[laurapausinifinland]

Song review: Durare (2023)

Laura has released officially her first single Durare / Durar from her new album Anime Paralele / Almas Paralelas (coming out on Oct. 27)!

Promo (2023)

Of course we do have the two new songs Un Buon Inizio / Un Buen Inicio + Il Primo Passo Sulla Luna released previously which will also be part of the new upcoming album.

Laura's latest album Fatti Sentire / Hazte Sentir came out in 2018 so this means the longest time LP fans have been without any new material. However, during these years fans have been able to enjoy the success of Io Sí (Seen) and the docu-film on Amazon Prime featuring Scatola / Caja meanwhile. We've also seen Laura co-hosting Eurovision Song Contest and Latin Grammy's in 2022. She's made herself useful so to say.

Laura singing Io Sí (Seen) at the Oscars 2021 with Diane Warren.

Durare is the much needed ballad single from the new album. Music type that Laura is the best known. The song was written with Edwyn Roberts and Paolo Antonacci + produced by Michelangelo and Paolo Carta (Laura's husband). So there's something new but also something old.

I'm reviewing mostly the Italian version here. The song begins with beautiful melody with a piano playing, the first chorus is building up gently while we reach the 30s of the song. "Choose me", she is begging us. Lyrics are beautiful and there's an urge to make them heard. Somehow this breaks a little of the ballad pattern that Laura has usually had in her songs.

Official lyric video for Durare.

More quitars join in when we reach the second verse. The melody, the sounds remain calming though. "Call me" she begs us. The lyric video (and official video also I believe, still unreleased) has been made in Sweden (Laura's second Nordic videoclip, after Incancellabile / Inolvidable in 96). The northern summer lake sceneries match the tone and theme of this song perfectly. I can definitely imagine myself walking through the Finnish forests while playing this one.

Second chorus doesn't reach the powers that I'd wish for though even though the singing and the words remain still meaningful and full of soul. I have a feeling that a lot of Pausiniani will be missing more powerful arrangements. However, Laura has a habit of adding the extra spice during the her live performance so I'm not super worried. The song lasts roughly a bit over 3 minutes and it's a decent length.

Official lyric video for Durar (Spanish version).

The song feels and sounds like a poem. There's an arty feeling in here. You can recognize Laura but still the new songwriters bring their own sounds to it. Edwyn Roberts of course is well known LP author from Simili / Similares (2015) and Fatti Sentire / Hazte Sentir (2018) already.

Laura tells about the song that it was written / recorded already two years ago and she knew instantly that here would be her next first single.

"This song tells about how it's still possible believe in love stories that want to build a path for life. To know, to want, to create and and understand but also to lose one's mind - always together. To find out how it's beautiful to share the destiny and last."

Personally this didn't tick all the boxes for me. Or not in the same way that Non É Detto or Io Sí did. But I have felt this way before about a LP song when it's being released and then in time the track has grown on me as the time goes by. Anything can happen at this point.

Laura in Sweden (2023).

What are your thoughts about Laura's new single Durare / Durar?

[nomoneytoplay]

Pokemon Sleep

Bought for: Free

Played on: Pixel

Release date: July 17, 2023

Developer: Niantic, Inc., SELECT BUTTON

Publisher: The Pokémon Company

Game Type: Simulation

Platforms: Android, iOS

ESRB Rating: E for Everyone

Pros & Cons:

Gotta Sleep All!

Lovely cartoon look. 

Snorlax’s time in the spotlight. 

Create your own Pokemon Slumber Party.

Your team will gather berries to feed Snorlax while you also make meals for it.

Raise Snorlax’s sleeping power to attract new pokemon.

A different take on Pokemon Snap, instead of taking pictures of Pokemon interaction, take pictures of their sleeping poses.

Keeps track of your sleeping pattern by listening to your sleep noises ... .I know this sounds weird but that’s what it does!

Set a bedtime and also set an alarm.

The sleep music that it features isn't really smoothing at all.

Put your phone in “Do Not Disturb” otherwise the App will send you a few notifications before going to sleep. 

Wake up with groggy eyes, check your sleep records and then get blinded by a bright white screen. 

Like Pokemon Go, gather candy for specific Pokemon to raise level or evolve. 

I HAVEN”T FOUND A VOLTORB!!! 

My Experience 

……zzzzZZzzzzZZZzzzzZZZzzzzzzzz…..Hmm? OH YEAH THE REVIEW!

Sorry about that, I swear the most bizarre of ideas can actually help your life feel better huh? Is good to admit that one can still be a gamer even while you sleep! 

That’s just a thing, I don’t think I can call this a game, this is a sleeping tracker application with Pokemon on it. With some raising element and leveling up functions in it. Is a basic app that does require a lot of grinding when collecting candy, food ingredients and berries. You can go back to the app to either feed Snorlax breakfast, lunch and dinner or collect all the berries the other Pokemon have gathered. Other than that, unless you are going to take a nap or a goodnight sleep, there’s no point in using it. Wny you ask, because it’s main focus is for you to sleep. 

Trust me, you need it. I can hear you yawning from here. From a lack of sleep I hope and not because you are getting bored of reading this…….ANYWAY!

My biggest disappointment in this sleeping app, besides not having a Voltorb yet, is that there’s no additional music or effects to help you sleep. When I had problems sleeping, I would go on Youtube and search for calming music or rain sounds to help me relax. The Pokemon Company have released some ASMR videos that are the cutest thing ever and the games have some great soundtracks. Why aren’t they featured on this app yet, I don’t know but I hope it is something they can add to make sleeping more relaxing. 

I was debating whether or not I should give this a score because again this is not technically a game. But I did want to write about it and with this I can say that I won’t give it a score. However, I do recommend it if you are a Pokemon fan or you have problems sleeping. Nothing is better than knowing you have Ghost-Type Pokemons watching you as you sleep. 

I should know, I have a Ghastly!

GOOD NIGHT…..zzzzzzzzzz

[trustnerd]

Amarra luxe review

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If you have a warmer, thicker sounding system and want a little extra clarity and definition. Amarra for TIDAL Is The Complete TIDAL Music ExperienceSonic Studio is thrilled to anounce the release of Amarra for TIDAL Now, listen to your favorite musi. Sonic Studio is proud to announce that Amarra Luxe was just ranked 2 on the list of the 7 best Windows Music Players for Hi-Res Audio from. If you have a more analytical setup and want to inject some analogue goodness, opt for Amarra. July 23, 2019: Amarra Luxe Scores BIG on List of Best Windows Music Players for Hi-Res Audio. Amarra for TIDAL brings the award-winning Amarra sound to your TIDAL music experience Wider soundstage, experience better dynamics, and feel the silence of a. I won't say that one is better than the other, but I will say that I vastly prefer Amarra with my setup. With the use of this software, one can record audio streams directly to their MP3.

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The decay, dimensionality and "room" sound is greater. Verdict: Amarra Luxe is a powerful music creation tool for Mac OS X Tiger. I was surprised that my old mac that cannot even run the newest OSX handles amarra so well. All instruments share one space and "interact" with one another. The entire uninstaIl command line fór Amarra Luxe 4.3.476 is C:Program Files (x86)Sonic StudioAmarra Luxe 4.3.476s main file takes around 21.21 MB (22242304 bytes) and is called Amarra following executabIe files are incorporatéd in Amarra Luxé 4.3.476.They take 21.41 MB ( 22450633 bytes) on disk. This is much better that the old amarra symphony which, when running Dirac, was a CPU pig. It is more of a forward and energetic sound overall.Īmarra counters with better cohesiveness, tube-like organic sound. Each instrument or track within the recording has a space of its own where you as a listener can better focus in on. Has a flatter and better spaced out sound. I would describe Audirvana as being crisper cleaner and having more of a direct, digital transistor sound with better separation than Amarra. Then it becomes non-insignificant and appreciable. It is very subtle unless you know what to listen for. I have spent 1 hour going back and forth on many songs and I believe I finally understand how they differ. features: Use Amarra Play as your remote control for Amarra Luxe and Amarra sQ+ Relax on your. NOTE: Amarra Play must be running on same wireless network as computer.I didn't believe there would be a difference between bit perfect music player software, but there is. Reviews, ratings, screenshots, and more about Amarra Play.

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Spice it all up with a set of powerful EQ presets.

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Now providing access to your Qobuz account and soon your TIDAL account, Amarra Play is the app that brings you the tools to get the music you love right at your fingertips. Amarra Play brings the highest quality playback to your IOS device.

[mmorgessential]

Easy recording studio for mac

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So, if you want to produce professional-grade songs without leaving your house, this is the guide for you. Looks up track listings and album art from a variety of online databases. So it would be wise to consider the input sources you have before selecting a voice recorder.

EASY RECORDING STUDIO FOR MAC SOFTWARE

Records from any macOS-compatible audio device. Pro-Tip: The best recording software will allow you to capture voice or audio with multiple input sources other than the usual microphone.

EASY RECORDING STUDIO FOR MAC FULL

Includes a full set of sound cleaning filters. By putting these items together, you can build the ultimate combo pack for your needs. VinylStudio is the easiest way to convert your records and tapes to digital format and CD. We’ve also included some standalone gear that pros love. Virtual Studio Technology (VST) is the most commonly used plugin compatible with mac and PC. Screen recording has become an increasing common activity in business, not least. They can be of two types: native PC and native mac plugins.

EASY RECORDING STUDIO FOR MAC ANDROID

It’s great for beginners and offers an amazing bundle of hardware and software at a reasonable price. The best screen recorders make it simple and easy to record your screen content on Windows, Mac, Android and iOS. Our pick for the best home kit is the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 Studio pack. The right kit will give you everything you need to start producing and mastering songs: an interface, a microphone and a digital audio workstation ( DAW ). It has high performance in real-time video/audio capturing and mixing. If you want to follow in the footsteps of these successful artists, you’ll need the best home recording studio package you can find. OBS Studio is a popular open-source and free video recording software tool that works well for live streaming games on Twitch and recording other information. Audacity is the go-to open-source audio recording application, and as long as your goals aren’t overly ambitious, it puts an enormous amount of power in your hands. a basic but easy-to-use recording application with which you can create surprisingly polished music. Available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. For an affordable option in a Mac computer, beginning recording artists might consider the Mac Minia small, desktop box that connects to an external monitor and delivers all the features musicians love about Macs. Some of the world’s best musicians are spurning professional studios and equipment in favor of recording from the comfort of their own homes.įoo Fighters, Owl City, Daniel Bedingfield and Bon Iver have all created amazing albums and critically-acclaimed hits thanks to the more relaxed environment of a garage, a bedroom and even a hunting camp. Here are some of the very best, completely free recording tools that will help bring your sounds to life.

[bananastrategic]

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TableTool handles these issues automatically. CSV files use different record delimiters (comma or semicolon), character encodings, decimal separators or quoting styles. Unfortunately, not all CSV files are made equal. Almost all spreadsheet and database apps (e.g. The CSV format is a commonly used file format to store and exchange tabular data. If you work daily with MySQL or SQL databases and data export, you will love this software. CSVed is an easy and powerful CSV file editor, you can manipulate any CSV file, separated with any separator. By defining field and line separators, it is very easy to rebuild the original tabular structure before generating the CSV file. Such files are commonly exported from a database that needs special treatment on other programs, it is the preferred format to exchange data. ↓ 01 – CSVed | WindowsĬSVed is the most complete and fully fledged editor for CSV files (comma-separated values). Here are some free CSV editors that enable you to make modifications to your MySQL backups in CSV format, some do work with Centos and Ubuntu Linux. To read or edit these files you would need a CSV editor that is spreadsheet software. If you are a web programmer or web developer, you will encounter CSV files from time to time, these are files exported by SQL databases. 😭 😍 😂 6 Free WordPress MySQL Database And Jpeg Files Backup Storage Service Unless you are into accounting, your computer will not likely have a CSV editor, especially Microsoft Excel. The CSV format is very popular among accountants, it is a commonly used format that contains numbers and texts in a spreadsheet format. Updated: Janu/ Home » Freeware and Software Reviews

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[fahrni]

Saturday Morning Coffee

I got a nice little treat with my coffee this morning. Kim made some pumpkin spice cinnamon rolls. 🤤

Pastries and coffee are perfect together.

Robin Rendle, hat tip Om 🎩: ”There are no rules to blogging except this one: always self-host your website because your URL, your own private domain, is the most valuable thing you can own. Your career will thank you for it later and no-one can take it away. But don’t wait up for success to come, it’s going to be a slog—there will be years before you see any benefit.”

If you’re reading this you have to know by now I love blogging. I don’t see giving it up. Sure, I’ve gone through extremely dry spells over the years but I still enjoy it.

In the early 2000’s I’d do little one line posts and it was fine. When Twitter became a thing I felt like my blog posts needed a title for some strange reason. When I switched back to this domain for my blog I started posting stand-alone short posts without a title and pictures.

I like the way it’s going. I post more frequently.

The Daily Beast: ”Dearie, a semi-retired federal judge in Brooklyn who’s playing the role of temporary referee, wants to speed up the process and get federal agents back on track. And while Trump has been alleging on social media that he already declassified the records he swiped from the White House, Dearie is demanding that Trump put up or shut up.”

The judge that setup this whole mess by allowing for a Special Master was just passing the buck. It’s nice to see Judge Dearie call B.S.

It’s amazing how big a grifter, gangster, bully, TFG is. He really does deserve some jail time, of course he won’t get any, but he deserves some.

The Iconfactory : _”Introducing Wallaroo – the quickest and easiest way to browse and set wallpapers on your iOS devices. The Iconfactory has been crafting custom wallpapers for the Mac and iOS community for over 25 years, and now we’ve packaged them up in a fun, handy app that’s available today on the iOS App Store.”_

I’m a huge fan of The Iconfactory. I’ve been a Twitterrific user for years and years and years and I’m composing this post using Tot, their simple note taking app.

When I saw the post for Wallaroo I installed it straight away and subscribed. I love seeing a subscription that is going to provide me with high quality iPhone wallpapers for the length of my subscription, one year.

I’m currently rocking the Jack-O-Lantern from the Spectral Selfies collection. It’s a beautiful piece of work.

Highly recommended.

I’ve been surprised Apple is approving implementations like in Apollo (Reddit app) and that ping pong game that uses the Island. Completely different strategy to past rejections for misusing standard iPhone elements. Not a bad thing though as of now. https://t.co/fy3dyrYDtL

— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) September 22, 2022

I was also surprised to see Apple relax the rules around the Dynamic Island (Do you say Dynamic Island in a big booming voice in your head or is it just me?)

Regardless. It’s nice to see Apple allow for this whimsical treatment of the island.

Who know, next week they may reject it? 🤷🏻‍♂️

The Washington Post: ”The issue Wednesday went far beyond a single statue. Residents — neighbors, families — plunged into an emotional discussion about identity and who gets to define it, provoking a heated defense of local heritage. Much of it was couched in an unreconstructed view of history in which the Lost Cause is noble, the Confederacy was a bastion of states’ rights and Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman was an unprincipled butcher.”

This is something I really hate about the South. There is a reality distortion field around this so called heritage. Yeah, it’s a heritage of slavery. The imprisonment and mistreatment of human beings to serve your needs. It’s pathetic.

Every one of these Jim Crowe era statues and monuments need to be destroyed. Melt them down and make them something beautiful or put them in a museum to shame them. It would be a museum similar to the Holocaust Museum. We can’t forget the Civil War and we need to tell it for what it was. It was all about slavery.

The Confederacy was a disgusting attempt to overthrow the government. It’s a stain on our history.

Liberals: “The real fear on the right is that white people will become the minority, and the democratic process will remove them from power, so they want to end democracy to preserve white supremacy” Conservatives: “That’s paranoid crazy talk, you haters” Also conservatives: https://t.co/OQsp8bNFbv

— Chris Espinosa (@cdespinosa) September 23, 2022

Gotta give this asshole props for being honest enough to say what these right wing extremists believe. Most of the MAGA’s dance around the subject. Not this dude. He comes right out and says “I’m a racist bastard.”

Disgusting.

ESPN: ”CLEVELAND – Nobody, at least still living, knows for sure how Brownie the Elf came to be the first official mascot of the [Cleveland Browns](https://www.espn.com/nfl/team//name/cle/cleveland-browns) some 76 years ago.”_

Let’s end on a happy note, shall we?

I know Brownie the Elf is controversial in Cleveland and around the country but gosh darnit I’m here for it! Not every NFL team needs some macho mascot.

I hope the dress him up for the holidays. A Christmas elf would be nice.

Oh, I also really love that he covers a gigantor part of the field. Nicely done Cleveland.

Now, let’s get him on the helmets. 😁

[thewhumperinwhite]

WKW: The Voice That Shakes The Stones

i apologize for the very long unintentional hiatus. here is a Fairly Long Update as penance. Picks up immediately after The Wolf's Grace.

Also! I don't use iOS, so I don't really understand the new Tags Crisis? so I'm gonna tag this normally, so nobody sees stuff they have blocked, and if it gets flagged it gets flagged I guess. For the record, if you do see this: reblogs are really the only way content gets seen, now more than ever, so if you like this, a reblog will really help it get seen by other people and also earn you My Undying Devotion

WKW masterpost

(god going so long between updates is so dumb what even Was the taglist for this) @whumpitywhumpwhump @faewhump @much-ado-about-whumping @just-a-whumping-racoon-with-wifi @favwhumpstuff

TW for: captivity, manipulation, power imbalances; choking; caning; referenced child abuse; referenced minor character death; loss and grief; referenced noncon.

----

There is a cave under the mountain.

A full Age ago, the Four-Shield King, uniter of Craetalia, built this fortress—though it was no fortress then. The city snaked, at first, down around the mountain, and flowed freely into the fields in the valley below where the crops that fed it grew. Nothing separated farm from Capital, and little enough separated Capital from Four-Shield House, not yet a castle, then little more than a stone homestead, just slightly grander than those around it.

The Lady—Our Lady, Who Dances In The Dark—loved the Four-Shield King. They say she lived with him in body, danced around his stone house in dresses spun from sheep’s wool; left footprints in snow in the courtyard, tracked mud into his halls. It is rare indeed for a god to dwell with mortals so—in a form fanged and horned but also tangible, a form to be held and loved. The Lady could not bear him children, but loved the babies women bore him, pinched their cheeks with gentle clawed fingers, let them pull on her tangled tree-branch horns while they climbed onto her shoulders, carried them up and down the halls and laughed.

The Lady must have known the King would die, as humans do. The King was heavy with years when his time came, by looks many decades her senior; they say by then his old wounds troubled him so that she all but carried him from room to room in his last months. She must have known. Knowledge did nothing to temper her grief.

The King’s death smote the Lady’s heart; the Lady’s grief near smote the mountain.

She screamed when the old King’s last breath left him, and her scream was so loud that it burst a hole through stone and mortar and nearly brought the whole East Tower down on their heads. She sheltered his body with her own—though falling stone can hardly trouble a god—and stayed there, curled around him in the rubble, for many days. When the seneschal—troubled by the thought of his Lord remaining unburied, against custom, and worried, also, that the corpse would begin to smell, approached the ruin, the Lady and the dead King were just visible within it; when the old man cleared his throat, to ask after burial rites, the Lady looked up at him with her eyes so bright with grief and fury that the old man stumbled backward down the stairs and died, from the fall and fright together.

Then the Lady gathered the King’s corpse in her arms, and leapt easily from the tower and—they say it is so, at least—tore open the bedrock of the mountain. She raised her slippered foot and brought it down on the mountain stone of the castle courtyard, and—with a sound that shook the castle down to its foundations—opened a dark crack in the earth, snaking all the way down into the mountain’s dark heart.

She carried her lover down the tunnel she had made, and there she curled around him, and went to sleep. They say her body sleeps there still; she rises, now, only in spirit, to guard the dead King’s children against all ills.

It is hard to say how much of this is true, of course. But there is a cave entrance in the courtyard of the Castle at Colomur, which snakes far back and down into the mountain on which the castle is built, into silence and darkness which no man has been foolish enough to traverse in many, many years.

The Winter King is standing in the entrance to the cave, now, eyeing the darkness beyond with hungry curiosity.

Morden has interviewed many members of the castle staff, some who served the Lion’s father, all of whom grew up within the castle walls. The consensus seems to be this: no one enters the cave in the courtyard, known by the rather amusing title of The Lady’s Mouth. The Lion and his father, both of Fourshield House, direct descendants of the long-ago king who won the Lady’s favor, stood inside the cave itself—just a few feet ahead of where he is standing now—only once, on their coronation day.

The official records Morden has dug up in the castle library, unfortunately, are as backward and credulous as the eyewitness reports he has heard: the King, newly crowned, entered the Mouth, where he was out of sight of the watching dignitaries; they cave was suddenly lit from within, and the King emerged minutes later, holding the Sword of his Fathers, which had gone dark and rusted the moment the previous king had died or ceded his thrown, and now glowed anew. The new King held the glowing sword aloft, and spoke to the crowd in a woman’s voice, loud enough to echo back and forth across the court, vowing to safeguard the people in exchange for their fealty, etc. etc.

The best Morden can extrapolate, from servants’ murmured awe and historians’ insufferable prose, is that the High Fae they call their Lady briefly possesses each new ruler, and then shares her power with them—voluntarily—for the duration of their reign. This official transfer seems to have been the pattern for many (far too many, in Morden’s humble opinion) generations of Fourshield Kings.

The Lady has, of course, broken that pattern, in passing her power to Andry early. Morden still isn’t entirely sure what to make of that—other than that evidently even their Lady, a Fae and thus generally unconcerned with human politics, considered the Lion unfit to rule.

Morden feels he has rather handily proved that the Lion’s son is little better. He steps into the mouth of the cave.

Morden has met few full-blood Fae, and fewer still healthy and at the height of their power; he is not ashamed to admit that he practiced this speech in front of the mirror a few times over the last week. He licks his lips, and bows his head, since the Lady is one of the only creatures in this backwater land truly worthy of his respect.

The little prince—Asher of Fourshield, of the Lady’s preferred line, but a more malleable age than his brother—is standing behind Morden, a respectful twenty feet away from the cave, with Raptor’s head on his shoulders. Close enough, Morden hopes, for the Lady to register his presence, but not close enough to hear what Morden is about to say.

“My Lady,” Morden says, in the clearest Craetalian he can manage, “Karya, Who Dances In The Dark. I come to you with a humble offer.”

There is a faint breeze coming from the depths of the cave, now. It smells very slightly of sulfur. Morden swallows his excitement, and tries to keep his voice steady.

“The line of Fourshield has proven itself unworthy of you, my Lady. Your champion has fallen to me, even with your support. They are not the hosts your patronage deserves.”

Morden bows delicately. The breeze is strong enough to lift the ends of his hair, now, and Morden’s heart is pounding: she is listening.

“You deserve more and better, my Lady. Hear my offer, and consider my plea, for the honor of your great name. I am Morden Crane, the Winter King, Lady Karya. I have come to seek your power, that it may be turned to better purpose than of late.”

Morden does not gesture at the boy standing behind him, as that would rather give the game away; he can only hope that she can see beyond the mouth of the cave, or is willing to take his word. “Behind me stands a son of the House you have long supported, my Lady. Your vessels have grown weak and tainted by luxury, and have come to take your Patronage for granted; but this boy is yet young, and I am here to steer him. Take him as your vessel, and I will see him spread your name beyond this single kingdom—I will see that you are spoken of with awe, beyond the corners of any map yet made, my Lady.” He bows his head again, and puts a gloved hand over his heart. “I ask only that you accept my fealty, and allow him to wield your sword in my name.”

Morden waits, his head bowed, holding himself incredibly still. The cave is as silent as a tomb. The gentle wind has stopped blowing.

The voice, when it comes, shakes the stones under Morden’s feet, and it comes on a burst of wind so strong that it hits him in the chest like a blow, and sends him tumbling back, hitting the stone of the courtyard path with his ass and then the full length of his back.

“FUCK OFF,” says Karya, The Lady Who Dances.

Raven, slouched against a flowering tree in the courtyard, laughs first, throwing her pretty head back. Harpy screeches like a true bird and slaps her knee, leaning against Raven as if for support. Morden does not enjoy this, but it is not a surprise.

He lifts his head, swiping his hair furiously out of his face, and meets Prince Asher’s eyes exactly at the moment the boy’s mouth wobbles into a smile and he lets out a single huff of laughter.

The amusement is gone from Asher’s face immediately, as he has never seen Morden angry before, and stumbles backward into Raptor in immediate terror, but the damage is done.

Morden throws himself to his feet, and does not stop to brush the dirt from his cloak on his way back into the castle.

----

Andry—finally unobserved for what feels like the first time in days—curls up as tightly as he can, wrapped thoroughly in the blanket Thorne tugged from his own bed. That was Andry’s father’s bed, once, but if he starts to think of these as his father’s sheets he will feel them wrap too tight around his still-sore throat, and have to kick them off onto the floor.

They are warm and safe as Thorne’s sheets, at least for now. In the morning, Andry tells himself, he will see Thorne once more for what he is: dangerous, regardless of intent; the lover of my enemy cannot be my friend. But Andry is too tired to be surrounded by enemies now.

Thorne, when he opened the door to Andry’s closet and found him as he had, on his knees surrounded by guards, had looked—more than horrified; he had looked surprised. As if—this is a thought Andry is barely willing to entertain—as if Thorne had literally never thought of using Andry thus. Thorne’s response to the idea—“but you don’t like me"—is almost childlike in its total guilelessness. For now, exhausted, Andry closes his eyes, pulls the covers tight around his shoulders, and lets himself sleep, wrapped tightly in the thought that someone, at least one soul never thought of him as—

And then he is pulled awake, out of sleep he has not even felt until it is shaken out of him by the fist suddenly tangled in his hair. Andry hits the ground blind with horror, aware only of a shouting voice and that violent hand—his hair is just long enough, now, for guards and Wolves and whoever wants to to twist their fingers in, to hold him in place or drag him, now, across the carpet, throw him down at the foot of the bed—

His vision—half-white and spotted with panic—clears just enough that he can see black hair, not silver, and Andry goes weak with relief—at least he can keep Thorne’s kindness a little longer—for one moment before the Winter King finishes tying the thick silk sash from his robe to the top of the bedrail and loops the other end around Andry’s neck.

Morden yanks on the end of the sash, and it goes tight around Andry’s throat, pulls him up onto his knees to keep from choking. Andry scrabbles at the silk around his throat, feeling his eyes fly painfully wide.

“You should be very pleased,” the Winter King says, his voice devoid of all its usual artifice, flat with undisguised rage. “It seems she will not be turned from you. I know not what it is she sees in you. Perhaps she will see it less when I am through.”

The Winter King carries a cane he does not need—polished black wood, with an ivory handle in the shape of his namesake bird, a white crane. Andry’s father carried a cane as well, though less out of vanity, and Andry is intimately familiar with its sting, and raises his hand to guard his belly—except that the sash is pulled so tight around his throat, his fingers twisted under it are all that keeps it from cutting off all air, and he only has one hand.

Morden watches him realize this, his lips pulled back into a not-quite-smile. Then he raises the cane and sweeps it sideways, into Andry’s ribs.

Morden does not wait for Andry to recover from the first blow before he deals the second. The cane cracks against Andry’s ribcage, and then his shoulder; he can feel it bruise the flesh of his upper arm, while he tries to use his handless right arm to guard his belly, to no avail at all.

Morden moves, still holding the sash taut with his other hand, to bring the cane fully sideways into Andry’s stomach, and Andry cannot even curl around the blow, can only gag as all the air whistles out of him, stretched as tall as he can get while still on his knees. He feels his eyes tear up, and cannot even hide his face.

In response, Morden pulls hard on the sash, lifting Andry briefly from his knees, until all his weight is borne by the sash around his neck, and his grasping fingers around the sash are not enough to keep him breathing—

Morden lets go of the sash with no warning, and Andry collapses, gasping gratefully; his vision is white at the center and black at the edges, now, so he does not see that Morden is now holding the cane with two hands.

Andry’s hand is free to guard his face, now, but it is far too late for that to do him any good.

The crack of his ribs is audible. Morden is standing over him, putting every ounce of power he has into each blow, too angry to even think of magic or of anything other than bringing the cane down onto the sprawled body in front of him—slamming it into Andry’s hip, thigh, ribs—already cracked; Andry’s throat is too ruined for a proper scream but he gives it his best try—belly; the cane cracks once against Andry’s temple and his head flops limply onto the floor—

“My lord,” a voice says from the doorway, perhaps not for the first time, raising into an alarmed cry of “Morden!”

Morden stops mid swing, with a bit of effort, and swings to face the doorway, the cane half-raised in a white-knuckle grip.

There is a crack in the center of the polished black wood. Crow, from the doorway, eyes it with mild alarm.

“You’ve got another letter from your one true love,” Crow says, one eyebrow raised ironically. “Your desk may be permanently rose-scented, by now.”

“I—am—busy,” Morden half-snarls, evidently out of breath.

“I can see that,” Crow says. “You may want to read the letter before you—finish with that,” he says, with a significant look over Morden’s shoulder. The bloody heap at the end of the canopied bed does not move.

Morden glares at Crow, rage making his aura simmer purple around his temples. Crow, who has known the Winter King for far too many years, does not move back; and after a moment Morden jerks upright, pulling the collar of his cloak straight with jerky, irritated movements.

“Clean that up,” he snaps at Crow on his way past. Crow rolls his eyes.

Crow watches Morden stomp down the hallway, his heeled boots clicking furiously; when the Winter King is out of sight, he takes a cautious step into the Thorne’s bedroom, peering down at whatever is left of the Summer Prince.

Crow can hear the boy’s breath whistling in past his shattered ribs, so evidently he is alive. His head is limp against the carpet, with his eyes rolled up to show the whites. His temple is bleeding really quite badly.

“Ugh,” Crow says delicately, and leaves to fetch the Healer.

[ms-demeanor]

You know what’s funny is whenever I make a tech post I get people going “this is blatantly untrue” and I get people going “this is really good information and everyone needs to know it” and the dividing line is how much time you spend with people who are tech literate.

Yep, I would tell my computer savvy friends where they could get keycaps and fix their keyboards; I don’t even have to bother telling my computer savvy friends how to run a fifteen year old laptop because we’re all pretty good at it.

But GODDAMN I just read a response to my “cheap computer season” post that claimed that it was totally reasonable to run a macbook from 2010 and

Look.

That’s not a reasonable thing to tell a student who needs a functional computer to do research and write papers. (have fun trying to find installation discs from when the OS was still named after cats and have fun trying to get a browser to get along with that OS)

You know why most people bring me laptops with missing keys? Because the key got ripped off by their two-year-old and damaged the soldering in the keyboard and I have no idea it’s going to be “oh, yeah, that’s a ten dollar fix” or “sorry, that’s going to be an hour and a half to disassemble and reassemble and we’ll have to order you a new keyboard specific to that model out of new old stock” and the thing is the second one is much, much, much more common in my experience than the first.

Do I think you need to replace a laptop when the bezel is cracked? No. I also don’t carry my laptop powered on in the bag with a flashdrive sticking out of the USB port. Customers do weird things that I don’t understand and when a customer tells me they want me to fix the bezel they think it’s a twenty-dollar snap-on repair because they have no idea how this works and then they get mad at me when I explain “no, you’ve gotta have this specific piece of plastic, these haven’t been made in five years, and you might be better off buying a used model online than trying to track down a new bezel.”

So here’s the thing: Can Macs get viruses?

There are three answers here.

“No, of course not, Macs are made to be virus-proof”

“Macs need antivirus protection because, while it is less common than infections for PCs, there are types of malware that can infect macs and it’s worthwhile to guard against that”

“tEcHnIcAlLy a virus has to be self-replicating and IOS’s file management system [or some other bullshit] prevents that so TECHNICALLY Macs can’t get viruses and what you need is anti-malware software if you need anything because you’re fairly likely to have security through obscurity”

I’m aware of the third position and voicing the second position to people who believe the first position.

YES TECHNICALLY YOU CAN KEEP A COMPUTER RUNNING INDEFINITELY AND YES IT’S TOTALLY POSSIBLE YOUR LAPTOP WILL LAST TEN YEARS.

“Well if you treat it right and run it well it’ll be in great shape for a long time”

YES THAT IS CORRECT DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MANY PEOPLE WHO DON’T WORK ON THEIR OWN CARS DRIVE AROUND WITH THE OIL CHANGE LIGHT ON FOR MONTHS?!?

Tons of people in the world today use computers. They use computers every day, they use computers at home and at school and at work.

Tons of people drive every day. They use cars for fun and for commuting and for their jobs.

That doesn’t mean that all (or even most, or even half) of the people using these things is any good at keeping them running, or even has the barest idea of how to start tracking down a problem.

Someone in the notes of that post described a green line on their screen and thought that was a symptom of hard drive problems. I don’t have the hours in the day to catch this person up to speed on why a display issue on a laptop isn’t indicative of hard drive issues.

Do you know how much people think it’s going to cost to get data off of a broken drive? Not “won’t power up” not “won’t spin” but “I dropped this and part fell off and now it won’t power up or spin and also the platter is chipped”? I’m going to have to send that shit to a clean room and the customer is *staggered* that it might cost more than a hundred dollars to get their data. “Outrageous, what kind of blackmail operation are you trying to run here, just plug it in and get my pictures.”

A year or so ago I was at Jiffy Lube (ew). I’d been shooting the shit with the mechanic when a parent and child rolled in in a panic. And they should have been panicking! They’d thrown a fucking rod because they’d been driving with no oil in the car for god knows how long because neither of them had had the oil changed in the two years they’d owned the vehicle.

*I* can keep a 30-year-old car running. I can put a belt back on an engine in a dark parking lot with a wrench and a headlamp. I can drop a gas tank and replace my fuel filter and thumb my nose at the mechanics who tried to upsell me on “replacing your old, worn-out air filter” the day after I’d popped a new one into my truck.

These folks couldn’t keep a new car running with three alarms telling them what was wrong.

*I* can power up my 2005 macbook running Leopard and use garage band to record a song or do some design work on my copy of Adobe CS3; I can kludge its FF3.5 browser into playing nice with the internet and accept that it’s going to be a slow piece of shit.

The lady who called me confused by the fact that the password to her email was different than the login information for her grocery store rewards account will not be able to function if she gets a pop-up that says she’s using an outdated browser and will think it’s a virus if her bank won’t let her log in on that browser.

And you know what, I’m kind of sick of this attitude.

I would *fucking adore it* if computers were actually easy to repair; I’d love it if you could run new OSs on old hardware (especially on macs because I think apple are kind of shitheads about planned obsolescence).

But you know what, no, most people *CAN’T* reasonably expect to use a ten-year-old computer and have pleasant experience of it. It’s going to run slow. It’s going to shut down when they don’t want it to. The battery is going to swell slightly with the heat and your touchpad is going to go nuts. Your USB ports will stop working. Standard wear and tear that most people don’t know how to protect against and don’t know how to repair is going to make it harder to use AND software requirements will outstrip the hardware capabilities of the computer.

If your old computer sucks it’s not your fault. If you can’t happily use a 10-year-old laptop to do your homework that’s okay, it wasn’t designed for you to use it that way and YOU SHOULDN’T FEEL GUILTY ABOUT IT.

Because that’s kind of what a lot of these “well anybody should realistically be able to run a laptop from 2010″ responses comes down to: if you need new hardware you’re just not doing it right. If you have to replace your computer you didn’t make good choices when you bought it. If your battery dies it’s because you didn’t take care of it.

No. No. No. No.

This shit is A) designed to fail and B) actually really hard to keep running (hey how many blown capacitors do you think someone has to have on their motherboard before you say it’s not their fault for wanting to replace the laptop)

ALSO SOMEONE IN THE RESPONSES OF THAT POST LITERALLY SAID THAT IF YOUR BATTERY DIED AT THREE YEARS IT WAS BECAUSE YOU WEREN’T DOING THE DRAIN CHARGE CYCLE RIGHT AND FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU. It’s discharge cycles and heat, motherfucker; they are going to fail at some point and people shouldn’t feel bad if their batteries stop working after a couple years.

UGH.

You shouldn’t have to be a mechanic. You shouldn’t have to be a computer technician. Yeah, your shit will last longer if you know how to take care of it but, fuck. Imagine you were still using internet speeds from 2010. Imagine all your devices still had USB 2.0. Imagine you couldn’t log onto your online bank because your hardware won’t run he software that your bank recognizes because the hardware manufacturer decided it won’t support the older hardware.

What I was trying to get across in that initial post was “computers fail, and they fail pretty frequently; your life will be better and you will save money if you plan on replacing them at a regular interval and have reasonable expectations in terms of cost and failure. So buy a cheap computer now because you’re probably going to need one at some point”

And now I’ve got to Do A Yell about how there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism and it’s unreasonable to expect tired, overworked, broke people to become experts in computer repair in order to do their homework or play the goose game.

FUCK THAT.

IT’S CHEAP COMPUTER SEASON MOTHERFUCKERS. LAPTOP FAILURE RATES INCREASE AT THREE TO FIVE YEARS AND DESKTOP FAILURE RATES INCREASE AT FIVE TO SEVEN YEARS. RIGHT NOW THERE ARE DISCOUNTS ON NEW COMPUTERS AND IT’S CHEAP TO GET AN EXTENDED WARRANTY.

LIVE LONG AND PROSPER AND WORK ON COMPUTERS IF YOU WANNA AND PLAN TO REPLACE REGULARLY IF YOU DON’T WANT TO WORK ON COMPUTERS.

ALSO CHANGE YOUR FUCKING OIL YOU’RE PROBABLY DUE.

[luniellar]

The Union: Chapter One - Sebastian Stan X Chris Evans X Reader

Summary: This fictional story takes place between the three kingdoms that hold great power in the untouchable lands located in Europe. Despite the modern developments in the other countries, these three kingdoms, Callisto, Europa and Io, exist hidden from the rest of the world and embrace the cultural customs shared for centuries from the early human civilizations.

You are the daughter of the Europa Kingdom led by your father, King Jovian. This year you reached the fruitful age of 21, meaning that it’s finally time to fulfill your duty as the princess of Kingdom Europa. The arranged marriage between Kingdom Europa and Kingdom Callisto has been something that your father planned for a long time to finally bring peace between the three kingdoms. Whether you like it or not, you are the key piece to it all. King Stan of Callisto is who you will be sharing the honor of the arranged marriage. He is known by all as a man of savage fighting nature and very few words. You know there is no hope wishing for the passionate love your father and mother shared, but will you be able to bring peace to this land to fulfill your father’s last wishes?  

Link: Prologue | 1 | 

Warnings: Inappropriate languages & minor heated scenes 

Word Count: 2.6K

The dining table was filled to the brim with the fancy reception feast. High level nobles and knights sat around the table as they dug into the feast as if they had been starving for weeks. You and King Stan sat at the head of the table and your father sat by your right hand talking to the other noble men. When you glanced over by the King’s side, there was a handsome male with golden brown hair that reminded you of the warm autumn’s sun. He looked much too young to be the King’s father.

The Callisto’s family tree has been hidden under the table for a while after King Stan took over the land. One rumor said that his father died during one of the many battles, but no one ever heard about his mother. Some said that she passed away when he was young and others spoke of an illegitimate birth. You glanced over at the brown hair smiling lad by the King again. 

Hm…

“How bold,” the King’s velvet voice spoke calmly, startling you. “The queen dares to look at other mates in front of her king already.”

Your face turned red as you quickly darted your eyes from the blonde male and back to your plate. The food was untouched and starting to get cold.

He chuckled, sending shivers down your cold skin. “I can introduce you. He’s a close friend and my right-hand man, Duke Christopher Evans.”

You glanced up and made eye contact with the clear, crystal blue orbs that belonged to Duke Evans. He made a pleasant, genuine smile that lit up his entire face and tipped his head towards your direction.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Princess Euro- I mean Queen Callisto.”

You smiled back despite the awkwardness you felt when he spoke your new name. Any small amount of appetite you had left over was lost.

“The pleasure is mine, Duke Evans.”

“Please, call me Chris.”

You were taken back from the friendly nature of the Duke and didn’t know what to reply.

“Oh, uh-”

Before you could finish your sentence the king interrupted. “Aren’t you going to eat at all, my queen?”

You reached out for the brass fork beside the porcelain plate and stabbed a piece of salad through it. You felt the King and the Dukes’ eyes on you as you quietly chewed and placed the fork back down.

“The food must not be to your liking.” The King said out loud causing your father, who was engaged in another heated discussion with one of the nobles, to turn his head.

“My daughter loves all the food prepared at our castle, King Stan.” He replied disapprovingly. Your father took pride in the exceptional quality of food prepared in the Castle Europa kitchen. He even made sure to hand pick each and every staff member who was assigned to the kitchen.

“My apologies, King Jovian. I didn’t mean any harm in my comment. My queen looked like she was having a hard time finishing her meal.” King Stan replied with respect.

Your father cleared his throat which he did often when he disapproved of something. Ignoring the King’s comment, he turned to you. “Daughter, are you alright? Should I ask them to bring you something you would like to eat instead? What would you like?”

You smiled politely and shook your head. “No father, I appreciate your thoughts. My body is just exhausted from the long day, I’m looking forward to resting soon.”

King Stan’s smiling face and amused tone attracted the attention of the few sitting near us. ���My queen, I didn’t know you were so eager to share beds.”

You glared up at him and saw a few unfamiliar eyes in your direction who caught his words. Your father’s pale fist around his steak knife caught your eyes. At this rate, there was only going to be one King standing after this dinner and King Stan was the one with a perfect track record. You looked over at Duke Evans who hung his head in shame at his friend’s embarrassing behavior. This dinner was already over.

You stood up from your seat and every pair of eyes around the room looked up including King Stan’s. “Please excuse me while I check on the preparations for my leave. Enjoy your dinner and thank you for coming.”

Whispers drowned behind you as you navigated yourself out of the dining hall. You walked over to the grand lobby and saw the helpers organize the boxes of your belongings for the move to Castle Callisto. You stood in the lobby and your chest felt heavy again.

“It looks like they are almost finished,” the velvet voice echoed behind her.

The tears teased around your eyes and you bit down on your lips hard to the point the taste of iron lingered around your mouth. You were going to make sure the King never saw your tears today. You were the Queen now. The last thing you needed him to think was that you were just another female body he could push around like a lifeless puppet.

He stopped next to you and your shoulder was touching his hard biceps through his commander uniform. You nodded in response without turning to look at him. “I am excited to see the beautiful Castle Callisto, King Stan. I should head back to say farewell to my Father.”

As you were about to head back, his strong grip grabbed your left wrist. His warm touch felt like needles against your cold skin.

“I’ll be waiting outside in the jet. Don’t make me wait too long.”

You wanted to rip your wrists out of his grip and shout profanities for asking you to cut your farewell to your own father short. You let out a soft exhale as you moved your free hand to move his warm hand. Despite the grip, it was fairly easy to move. Your hand felt tiny holding his large, masculine hand.

“Yes, I’ll be quick, my King.”

✧✧✧

You begged your father to continue the dinner instead of coming to say farewell. You knew that your goal of staying tear free this wedding was going to be ruined if you had to formally say goodbye. He then went on cursing about how he was going to kill that boy, but you had to quickly talk him out of that idea.

You looked at the massive Callisto Kingdom private jet that lit up the dark forest surroundings. A loud sigh escaped your lips as you looked behind the great Castle Europa. So many memories that made you into the woman you are today existed in this land. Biting your lips again, you closed your eyes to remember the air, soul, and people this land meant to you.

It was time to say goodbye.

“Goodbye Europa.”

✧✧✧

The jet trip was a little over two hours. Despite the empty seat next to the King, you sat in the row behind him. Surprisingly, he didn’t request you to sit next to him. Across from you was Duke Evans who fell asleep in the plush seat the moment the jet took off.

You stared out at the window the entire ride without a word. You couldn’t tell if the King also fell asleep, but you assumed he did since he also didn’t move a bit for the entire span of the ride like Duke Evans.

When the flight attendants came out from their space at the front of the jet, they announced that we landed in Callisto. You felt anxiety in your heart increase as you got up from your seat. As you were making your way to the aisle, a hot hand gently touched your arm. Unlike the prickly needle sensation from before, the touch was different, it was soft and caring.

The King quickly took off his jacket. In one motion, he wrapped your tiny frame inside the velvet material. You were still wearing your reception gown that was a toned down version of your white crystal wedding gown. It was sleeveless and made out of thin material. You didn’t realize how cold you were until the warmth encompassed your shoulders, arms, and bare back.

“It’s much colder in Callisto,” he said as continued down the aisle towards the exit.

“Thank you,” you managed to get out as you felt his warmth soothe your anxious feelings.

You followed the King and the Duke out of the jet. Like Europa, the landing field was located in the forest for privacy. When you got out, you couldn’t see anything but a large black SUV vehicle that was parked further out.

“Queen Callisto,” Duke Evans said as your feet touched the Callisto land. “Welcome to Callisto. I’ll be driving you and Sebastian back to the Castle.”

✧✧✧

Everything was a blur from the car ride to Castle. King Stan didn’t speak a word. You only captured a quick dark view of the castle as the car circled around through a private entrance and went underground. After what felt like five minutes in the tunnel, the car reached an empty parking garage.

Once the car parked, King Stan got out first and came over to your side to open the door. Half surprised that he still had manners after today, you hesitantly stepped out and looked around the space in curiosity.

“This is the private parking garage that gives you direct access to the King’s Suite.” Duke Evans spoke as if he could read your mind.

You knew that Castle Europa had similar security systems in place, but you never witnessed one in person.

Duke Evans led the way and you followed him and King Stan towards a glass door that led to the elevator. There was only one button that Duke Evans pressed and the elevator doors opened wide.

King Stan stepped inside and you followed. Duke Evans smiled as he waved back to us. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Queen Callisto and Seb. Have a good night.” Then the elevator doors closed.

✧✧✧

Each of the three kingdom’s castles had their own special charm. Castle Europa was unique from the others because it maintained the tradition and legacy of the old castle. They did make modern upgrades like jet landing sites and other security features, but the castle still maintained most of the original state. On the contrary, Castle Io was redesigned from the ground up with the latest security and highest quality materials. You never visited, but your father always made disappointed remarks about how the Io King was eager to tear down centuries of history for an iron fortress full of “useless” technological updates.

When the elevator dinged, the doors opened to a contemporary designed hallway. Black granite floors and gold accents in the wallpaper reminded you of what the penthouse floor of the royal hotel suite would look like. Dim circle warm lights lit the hallway as you quietly followed the King. As you shared the car and elevator ride before and now this hallway, you noticed a unique scent that lingered from him. He had a warm and spicy scent that was a mixture of rum, tobacco, and vanilla.

After a short walk down the hallway, the King stopped at the grandiose tar black wooden doors. There were elegant brass knobs as the handle. He biometrically scanned his hand on a glass panel next to the doors and there was a soft click signaling the doors were unlocked.

“We will make sure to add your biometrics tomorrow for access to my chambers.”

His intoxicating and addicting scent rushed towards you as he opened the doors. Unlike the modern and contemporary design of the hallway outside, most of his room still resembled the King’s chambers that was passed on for centuries. The dark stained wooden floors were covered in ornate deep purple carpets. The same deep purple color saturated the walls and the gold accents looked as if it was etched into the damask pattern like it was some precious fabric. The room was dimly lit with crystal chandeliers around the room.

His overly large four poster bed was stretched out in the middle of the room against the back wall. The rich gold and purple fabric hung from the bed frames.

His velvety whisper from the wedding ceremony played in your mind.

“I will be looking forward to tonight, my queen.”

You glanced around to the king who was starting to remove his formal wedding attire. He expertly removed his commander uniform and dropped it on the purple velvet couch. The numerous amount of medals on his uniform made a soft thud as it landed.

“Aren’t you going to undress?” He asked nonchalantly as he walked to the bathroom.

You froze in place not sure of what to do. You wanted to wash up and go to sleep after a long day like today, but you had no idea where your change of clothes were. Most importantly, the wedding night tradition was just as important as the wedding.

You were going to lose your virginity tonight.

You took off the king’s velvet jacket and placed it on the same couch he dropped his uniform. Unsure of what to do next, you started to make your way to the bathroom. Your heart was racing in your chest as you got closer.

At the same time, the King stepped out of the bathroom and your eyes widened in embarrassment. He was shirtless and was only wearing his black suit pants hanging from his hips. You had never seen a shirtless man before. Well, that wasn’t completely true, you studied Greek and Rome art enough to know what it looked like, but you never saw a live one in person. The only references you had was the Statue of David, but his body was so much more than that. His entire body was covered in muscle and each muscle was tight and hard. There were some faint scars around his body that you could catch in the dim light, but it was still a chiseled, marble perfection.

“Are you done staring?” He asked with an amused voice and you felt your face heat up.

“Oh- um-” You quickly diverted your glance to the carpet as you brought up your hands to the side of your face in embarrassment. “I’m sorry- I- I- didn’t mean to stare.”

You heard his footsteps move closer to you until you saw his shoes across from your feet. His hands moved over yours as he brought your face up to meet his. Your eyes searched for his familiar jade orbs and your heart was beating louder against your chest.

His rough lips collided with yours as he kissed you softly, biting at lips. The feeling caused little butterflies in your stomach as you reciprocated the kiss back tasting his lips with your tongue. His warm aroma saturated the air around you. When he felt your tongue, he immediately responded by erasing the space between your bodies and pushing his tongue into your needy mouth. His warm body felt comfortable against your body. He explored your mouth like he did at the wedding, but this time taking the measures to feel and learn every inch. You kissed him back, entering a piece of you into his unfamiliar and enticing territory.

By the time you both pulled away, you were both gasping for air. His forehead gently touched yours as your hands fell from your face. His right hand grabbed your left hand as he brought it up to his lips. He gently kissed your hand and held it in his. The warmth quickly traveled around your body like an infection.

“Damn it,” he cursed under his breath. “You have no idea how long I waited for you.”

---

Note: This chapter was getting too long and I had to cut it here. Next up is their first bed night, I promise. Thank you for the likes and comments on the prologue. Please share any feedback with me! Thank you for reading!

[berrysbaby]

The Next Big Thing in OnCarrot Review

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In this article are certainly one of the best leasing house controlling application obtainable for both equally tiny property owners and enormous property managing corporations.

Property owner application for smaller traders 1. StessaStessa aims to make hire property budget clear-cut by supporting The 2 beginner and complicated brokers optimize earnings by way of wise funds administration, computerized cash flow and price checking, and customized-manufactured confirming.

Costs are fully totally free of charge and is made of traits as an example limitless home tracking, profile and home-levels dashboards, computerized revenue and price monitoring, genuine-estate record organization and storing, endless month to month experiments, and export of taxation-entirely All set monetary data. Stessa does supply optionally available premium quality products and services to traders for a value, to aid with hire evaluation, home loan loans, and buyer investigation.

2. AvailAvail presents application packages precisely made for the do-it-yourself landlord. The Company provides a total group of instruments and educational content articles that may help you the small investor become a assured and competent home owner.

There are actually 2 premiums alternate options for landlord software package plan from Take advantage. A free of charge Endless Strategy features a limitless variety of lease products with Expert providers for on-line hire every month payments, routine servicing trying to keep keep track of of, tenant screening and background checks, position-particular leases, and syndicate listings for vacancies.

The Unrestricted In addition Strategy is $5 for each device every month and involves extra services such as next-working day employ payments, personalized designed tenant software program and leases, as well as development of a home Internet site.

three. CozyCozy has joined along with Flats.com to provide the small traders with house owner program that features situation-of-the-artwork online rental Regulate products and renter verification studies. The business's objective is often to help leasing dwelling owners be a lot better home house owners, and give equally landlords and renters reassurance.

Pricing for landlord program software from Cozy is furnished free of charge for assets homeowners, While renters buy such things as tenant screening testimonials and financial institution card obligations. Renters insurance policies plan for tenants can be accessible through Comfortable having an common insurance policy policy cost of about $20 each and every month.

Inviting house proprietor software provides a big selection of remedies which incorporates on the net lease application, tenant assessing, seek the services of assortment, checking of home costs, and document uploading and storage.

4. Rentec DirectRentec Straight focuses on supplying landlord software answers for landlords and home executives with small rental house portfolios. Landlords with 10 features or a good deal fewer have the selection of selecting a free of charge Personal computer computer software product, and the corporation can provide home taking care of software and tenant screening providers for homeowners with as numerous as five,000 merchandise.

The 2 principal compensated for landlord application approaches from Rentec Immediate. Rentec Pro for landlords is valued at $35 per month, when Rentec PM is perfect for residence executives and outlined at $40 each month, Each individual and each having an endless level of tenants and Houses.

Both of those plans consist of on-line rent choice, repairs requests, and bookkeeping. Tenant verification bundles include something from $seven to $15 for each package deal, which incorporates nationwide felony and sexual intercourse offender research queries, eviction queries, plus a TransUnion credit history report.

5. TenantCloudTenantCloud is a superb match for new residence entrepreneurs, supervisors and residence directors with any wherever from 1 product to five hundred devices less than controlling. The small business also offers a free of charge quit-to-finish home handling process with all-in-just one functions inside of a value-free of charge Basic Program that includes checking of rental particulars, offering and acquiring seek the services of obligations, and program maintenance managing.

Selling prices selections for TenantCloud residence proprietor application contain a free of charge Typical method for as much as 75 products, a typical $9 monthly method for as many as one hundred fifty units, and an Modern system costed at $35 monthly. Landlords and administrators also can select products and services choices for example renter verification, rental data, coverage protection, and QuickBooks On the web at additional costs.

House proprietor program method for expert Handle companies 1. AppFolioAppFolio is mostly a effective software technique for Expert dwelling directors, supplying many types of capabilities and the potential to handle different Resource sorts which incorporates solitary-household and multifamily characteristics, condo properties and pupil housings, property owner companies (HOA), and in some cases merged-use and professional characteristics.

The business expenses a begin-up demand, in addition to a least month to month cost of $250. AppFolio software package qualities require bookkeeping computer software software, rent payments sequence approaches, servicing calls for, promotion and marketing and advertising equipment to current market unfilled styles, tenant tests Specialist providers, and customizable over the internet tenant software and leases, applicant credit score score and lease historical past checks, and renter and proprietor portals.

two. BuildiumBuildium offers Similarly home household management Laptop software package and homeowner link Management software and is greatest for landlords or executives with fifty or maybe more models. The company is a professional in many different asset kinds for example household house, pupil assets, and inexpensive residence residential spots.

Pricing starts at $50 a month for about 20 units and is particularly split up into two divisions, Crucial and Progress. Buildium has added costs for things such as on the net obligations and Digital lease signing.

Software attributes integrate hire administration, on-line hire payments obligations, servicing requests, comprising income and payments, and property dialogue boards.

three. MRI SoftwareMRI Real estate property Application concentrates on big specialist property executives and Qualified landlords and supervisors, with the objective of raising occupancy and minimizing working expenses. The organization is a professional in a lot of kinds of asset forms like sizeable house portfolios, business traits, facilities administration, and open up community and inexpensive home.

Pricing is personalized to the private necessities of every client. MIR assets proprietor software features choices for on the web employ selection, tenant verification and lease templates, regimen maintenance requests, built-in details processing, resident interaction and supervisor agreement, and credit score record Threat controlling.

4. PropertywarePropertyware provides program solutions to person-relatives property house owners and residential professionals with portfolios of 250 houses or maybe more. Although the service is for large portfolios, the program is considerably less intricate Considering that the focus is on solitary-close relatives Attributes.

Rates divisions range from $250 to $450 on the month to month foundation or bigger based upon the number of devices and treatments, including a 1-time execution fee. Propertyware landlord Pc program includes alternatives for renter advertising and screening, on-line repayments, inspections, vendor portals, and maintenance task management.

five. Yardi BreezeYardi Breeze roles alone currently being a refreshingly straightforward software package response for modest, and midsize landlords and residence directors who have to have assist streamlining treatments. The business is a professional in compact and midsize portfolios of dwelling gadgets, commercial styles, and merged-use Qualities.

Wind price ranges commences at $1 for every model per month, using a minimum amount regular cost of $100 for property portfolios. Wind Leading prices commences at $two for each unit each month, having a bare bare minimum regular monthly charge of $200 for business and blended-use portfolios.

Yardi Breeze property proprietor application is made up of methods for advertising and promotion and leasing, lease assortment, regimen servicing needs, home administration, bookkeeping, and profiles payable.

Wrapping UpRental household building an expense may be lively, passive, or often many different both. Energetic real-estate buyers who might have sufficient time and comprehensive knowledge needed to handle each day facts of each home may possibly find landlord application supposed for qualified property supervisors.

Then again, unaggressive traders may well opt for a extra economical landlord software method, even though they make use of the local residence manager to deal with the leasing residence in Every sector area They are investing in.

Employing Laptop computer software aids the lesser, unaggressive home entrepreneur Mix data for every single property and path the performance of the whole use home profile.

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Apowersoft Free Screen Recorder For Ubuntu

Apart from Windows and iOS, Ubuntu is another leading operating system for PC. Its extraordinary features like easy using operation and smart searching engine attract a large number of users. When using an Ubuntu PC, some people may need to capture screen as a video to express operating or software problems. Absolutely, Ubuntu gamers also want to record their excellent skills and amazing score in games as videos. Though the needs vary from person to person, users share the same setback that is they have no idea to choose an efficient Ubuntu screen recorder. Therefore, five tools would be recommended with pros and cons for you to choose.

Top 5 Ubuntu screen recorders

I. Simple Screen Recorder

Simple screen recorder is a Linux program could be run on Ubuntu OS. Just as its name indicates, Simple Screen Recorder has a straightforward user interface. Upon its interface, you can customize recording settings based on your preference. In the aspect of functionality, this tool runs smoothly and allows you to record audio along with video when making Ubuntu screen recording videos. In the meanwhile, you can define any size on your screen for recording. Even the track of your cursor can also be recorded if you want.

Screen Recorder is an essential productivity tool to record your screen. There are several screen recorder apps for Linux that work really well. But, at present, Green Recorder will provide you some great features which will blow your mind. It is a simple screen recorder app that supports Xorg as well as Wayland – Gnome Session. Apowersoft Free Screen Recorder has the following features: It records the activity of your screen with audio included. It captures video with the webcam too and with high quality. It also records external devices. It can capture videogames in the screen of your PC (perfect for the video for gameplay). It can record directly from any browser. AlternativeTo is a free service that helps you find better alternatives to the products you love and hate. The site is made by Ola and Markus in Sweden, with a lot of help from our friends and colleagues in Italy, Finland, USA, Colombia, Philippines, France and contributors from all over the world.

Ubuntu comes with a native screen recorder which is triggered when you hit Ctrl+Shift+Alt+R. It automatically starts recording the entire screen. When you hit the same hotkey again, the screencasting is ended and saved. When you hit the record hotkey, you should see a recording icon at the top-right of the toolbar. Ultra Screen Recorder - Your perfect screen and webcam recorder for making video tutorials, product demos, sharing gaming experience & more. Even better, it's a free and open source software. Note: this app does not support Windows 10 in S mode and you need to switch out of S mode in order to use it.

Pros: Easy operating. Shows statistics (file size, recording duration and actual frame rate) when recording.

Cons: No built-in webcam recording function.

II. Kazam Screencaster

Kazam is another screen recorder for Ubuntu which provides a nice-designed interface and easy operations as well. Nevertheless, it’s competent in recording Ubuntu screen perfectly. In the meanwhile, Kazam allows you to record desktop video and multiple audio sources simultaneously. The built-in countdown timer for recording allows you to do some preparation in case something unwanted being captured. Besides, this application supports taking screenshot. It is a very handy tool indeed.

Pros: Easy to use. Multiple output formats. Screenshot utility is available.

Cons: Shortcut keys not working in Gnome 3.

III. Vokoscreen

Vokoscreen is a powerful screencasting tool for Linux, which provides multiple recording modes (full screen, Windows, certain area and webcam) and audio source inputs. Meanwhile, the hotkeys can perform recording commands to record screen in Ubuntu, which makes recording easier and more convenient. You can also choose AVI or MKV file as default format for recorded video. Plus, 25 languages are available in this tool, from which we can infer its ambition to conquest the global market. And that is also their best eloquent declaration for ever-increasing progress.

Pros: Multilingual versions are available. Capable of recording webcam. Provides controllable hotkeys.

Apowersoft Free Screen Recorder Crack

Cons: Could only be installed via PPA currently. Audio may go out of sync sometimes.

IV. VLC Media player

Free Apowersoft Screen Recorder Pro

Famous as VLC is, this media player enjoys a large number of users all over the world. It features playing video and audio in most of formats. Besides, it can also help you to play and download videos from YouTube, which only requires the URL being pasted on its address bar. However, a considerable part of users only take this application as movie or music player. Actually, it can also serve as an Ubuntu screen recorder. It contains a Capture Device in Advanced Controls, this tool enables you to record desktop as a video. Note that, VLC cannot record your voice when recording the screen. You have to record your voice then merge the audio file along with the video if you need to add voice annotations.

Pros: Supports various formats video and audio files.

Cons: Cannot record audio and video simultaneously.

V. Krut Computer Recorder

Krut Computer Recorder is a simple screencast tool which is compatible with multiple platforms like Windows, iOS and Linux. Upon its intuitive interface, you will learn how to use this handy tool at first sight. Since Krut is capable of recording video and audio simultaneously, it’s often been used to record tutorial video and gameplay video. Therefore, you can make use of this tool to do Ubuntu screen recording. The video would be saved in your local drive as MOV file. Furthermore, the audio file would be saved separately as WAV file which could be encoded to any movie format with an external encoding application.

Pros: Record at 2 different frame rates. Moveable recording region during recording.

Cons: Single format is available, MOV for video and WAV for audio.

Conclusion:

Each of the screen recorders suggested above features amazing functionality and performs great on Ubuntu OS. You can compare the features and pros to choose an ideal screen recorder for Ubuntu based on your needs.

Apowersoft Screen Recorder Review

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