abby82 | Reading

I'd walked down the block for a simple little Weezing raid (Level 2) before dinner, to wrap up my GoFest day. I'd done my bit to help during each global challenge window; I'd heard about the problems in Grant Park (poor connectivity, server overload, long lines, etc.); and I was wondering when the bonuses would turn on.

I bumped into a fellow trainer who lives across the street. We beat Weezing together, naturally, and discovered that we work for the same (very large) company. She started to add me to an internal company pokemon group that I hadn't known of... and we saw posts about a Lugia raid boss (Level 5) hatching within the past 15 minutes, 10 minutes drive away!

( Read more... )

(BTW, the bonuses have gone live and will stay so until 5:00 PM Pacific on Monday. Double stardust, XP, candy, spawns.)

Now, wasn't I going to do something about dinner...?

brightknightie

Fellow pokémon trainers! As you know, Saturday is GoFest. And GoFest is not only for the lucky few in Grant Park in Chicago. We around the world will also play our parts in releasing the legendaries!

Per Niantic, those in Grant Park can unlock rewards (like double stardust) for everyone globally, while we outside can extend the length of these rewards (like for more days). If we all — inside and outside — win our challenges, then the mystery challenge will unlock. Everyone believes that the mystery challenge is legendary raid bosses! The only question is which.

(Golem with 2 rock moves is the go-to counter for all the legendary birds, as Tyranitar with 2 dark moves is for Mew and MewTwo. If you don't have those, try Omastar and Houndoom, or Sudowoodo and Gengar.)

During the worldwide challenge windows, if you can, go out and catch! Every capture counts. Check your time zone on GoHub. In Pacific Time, the windows are:

Challenge #1 9:00 AM to 9:30 AM
Challenge #2 11:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Challenge #3 1:00 PM to 1:30 PM

Have fun!

(Sources: TrainerTips, Mystic7, Reversal, ProdigiesNation, GoHub, The Silph Road, GamePress, PokéAssistant, Niantic, Forbes...)

havocthecat

For anyone who might be interested, Pixar has Pixar in a Box on Khan Academy.

It's primarily directed at film writing, but I think it can be used for all types of narrative storytelling. I've been listening to The Art of Storytelling video series.

It starts out with "We are all storytellers," (I'm there still) which I think is an admirable point and has a number of their creators talking about their amateur efforts and how they got started, like Betty and Veronica fashion fanart. :)

It leads to characterization and story structure, and while I don't know that visual language is going to be terribly helpful to us print writers, it might give good ideas for descriptions of scenery to go around dialogue. There are also lessons and activities that you can do, should you choose.

(I can't find closed captions on Khan Academy, though. That's my one quibble thus far.)

One of my favorite pieces of writing advice is still this graphic: Pixar's 22 Rules of Storytelling.

No, I'm not saying they have to be YOUR rules too. I'm just saying I find the list as a useful set of way to help me go through one of my stories and figure out what's not working and what I need to do to make it work. Or sometimes, for me to just let go and stopy worrying at something, and maybe come back to it later.

Crossposts: http://havocthecat.insanejournal.com/382020.html

kuwdora posting in

vidding

Go
song/artist: "Go" by Indigo Girls
source: Stargate SG-1

can find streaming here

---

The Power
song/artist: “The Power” by Snap! remix I don't actually know.
source: Sense8

can find streaming here

Current Mood: awake

havocthecat

ETA: Logged out and gone to sleep. Good night, all!

I'm going to be trying to figure out what city I should be setting my urban fantasy in. (Or at least, what it should be an analogue to, geography-wise.)

I'll be on Discord for a couple of hours, if anyone wants to join me:

https://discord.gg/w9PK3Yg

(This time I'll remember to edit the post to say when I log off Discord!)

Crossposts: http://havocthecat.insanejournal.com/381894.html

havocthecat

The best part of the Doctor Who casting announcement is that it opens up EVEN MORE amazing possibilities for horrifyingly beautiful St. Trinian's crossovers.

"Oh, Beverly!" called Miss Fritton from her office, leaning over and waving one hand. Beverly could see one her out of the corner of one eye.

"Yeah, miss!"

"What's that little knobbly thingummy you're pointing at the door?"

"It's a sonic screwdriver, miss!"

"What's it for?"

"Nothing, miss!" There was Dalek invasion and the First Years were busy lobbing explosives from the tower while Beverly - the Doctor, really, but she'd been undercover for years and thought of herself as Beverly still - remodulated the alarm system to broadcast a frequency that would short-circuit their disruptor beams. The Daleks, not the First Years.

Though Beverly privately thought the First Years infinitely more dangerous to let loose upon the human race than the Daleks, but she did have standards after all, and centuries of enmity with the Daleks to uphold.

"So what you're saying," said Miss Fritton, appearing in her doorway with an empty bottle of vodka in one hand, "is that we're out of vodka and you forgot to stock up, is that it?"

"Get the gin, miss," said Beverly, holding back a sigh.

Crossposts: http://havocthecat.insanejournal.com/381360.html

switch842 posting in

vidding

Title: S.O.B.
Fandom: Supernatural
Music: S.O.B by Nathaniel Rateliffe and the Night Sweats
Summary: A celebration of Dean's four favorite words. And one of his favorite leisure activities...
Warnings: None
Notes: This has been a long time coming. Like, two years. And I finally decided to buckle down a couple months ago and do it! So, I did! And now it's here! This premiered this past weekend at the Supernatural Chicago Con and now it has been released into the world! Enjoy!!

Watch it here!

Current Mood: happy

kuwdora posting in

vidding

Firework (Star Trek: Voyager, The Doctor)
for

littleheaven70

Northern Cross (Stargate SG-1, Jack/Daniel)
for

trelkez

Me, Me, Me (Star Wars Rebels, Chopper)
for

colls

Pundits & Poets (Star Trek: Deep Space 9, ensemble)
for

starlady

Current Mood: bouncy

havocthecat

https://www.propublica.org/article/google-has-quietly-dropped-ban-on-personally-identifiable-web-tracking

At the bottom of the article, there are instructions on how to opt out.

Crossposts: http://havocthecat.insanejournal.com/381094.html

nicholas_lucien

So for those following the progress of the movie, they have been lately working on what the vampire characters will look like once they are vamped out. They are still tweaking the details, but the new pictures of what they have so far for Nick have been posted on their site.

Looks like there will be physical changes, the most obvious being upper fangs and colored eyes (red). The skin area around the eyes becomes darker, which enhances the eyes and makes them more noticeable. There will also be, how shall I say it, alterations to the nose, brow, and eye area. If you are familiar with the facial changes to the vampires from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, picture that, but some more.

For more info and to see the pictures, check out the FK Movie Facebook page.

Current Mood: scared

brainwane posting in

vidding

Ashley Blewer, an archivist specializing in moving images and a software developer, created a website, "ffmprovisr", to make it easier for you to use the program ffmpeg.

FFmpeg is a powerful tool for manipulating audiovisual files. Unfortunately, it also has a steep learning curve, especially for users unfamiliar with a command line interface. This app helps users through the command generation process so that more people can reap the benefits of FFmpeg.

Each button displays helpful information about how to perform a wide variety of tasks using FFmpeg. To use this site, click on the task you would like to perform. A new window will open up with a sample command and a description of how that command works. You can copy this command and understand how the command works with a breakdown of each of the flags.

FFmpeg is a free, open source tool that works on the command line and lets you do stuff like:

Change codecs (transcode)
Change formats
Filter stuff
Create GIFs and thumbnails
Normalize/equalize audio
Read/extract captions
Make test patterns
Fix audio that's fallen out of sync
Join or split files
Play an image sequence

I have used FFmpeg recipes in the past and it's great how much it can do, especially in combination with youtube-dl which makes it easy to download video from a ton of sites -- YouTube, SoundCloud, Vimeo, and many others. I hope other vidders find ffmprovisr helpful in their work!

yunitsa posting in

vidding

Title: I'll Fight
Fandom: Black Sails
Music: Wilco
Pairing: James Flint/Thomas Hamilton/Miranda Hamilton
Summary: A love song for three voices.

Warnings for: spoilers through the ending, character death, some brief and joyless sex, blood, executions, sadness.

AO3 | Tumblr

cosmic_llin posting in

festivids

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

equinox_vids posting in

equinox_exchange

Sign ups for the Fall Equinox 2017 vid exchange, "Based on Books," are now open! Sign ups close at 11:59PM UTC on Sunday, July 23rd.

Sign Up Page On AO3

The full list of approved fandoms for Based on Books are viewable on the tag set pages:

Safety Fandoms

Non-Safety Fandoms

The full rules and guidelines for Fall 2017, including screenshot guides to signing up on AO3, can be read here.

If you have any questions, run into any technical problems, or just need to contact us, please email equinoxvids@gmail.com!

trelkez posting in

equinox_exchange

Reminder: Fall Equinox - Based on Books sign ups open tomorrow, July 15th!

The complete tag sets for the Fall 2017 exchange can be viewed here:

Safety Fandoms (240 minutes or fewer, max. 2 episodes/films/parts)
Non-Safety Fandoms (241+ minutes, 3 or more parts)

The complete rules and guidelines for Fall 2017 are here.

aurumcalendula posting in

vidding

Title: Morningside
Fandom: Adventures of Superman
Music: Morningside by John Gorka
Summary: 'don't want to waste what I have to give'
Notes: I know it was due in part to budget reasons, but I love the show's emphasis on Clark's work as a reporter. I was also amused that it seemed like Jimmy ended up being the damsel in distress as often as Lois did.

AO3 | DW | tumblr | youtube

havocthecat

The thing I like about this is Lifehacker article is that it explains the various problems with gluten that people have, and also it lies heavily on the "don't be a jerk if you think someone is a 'faker' with their gluten sensitivity" principle. Which. DON'T BE A JERK ABOUT PEOPLE'S FOOD ISSUES. Whether you think they're faking it or not isn't really the important thing.

Also it's just a really good article that's in the Celiac 101/Gluten 101 vein.

Here's the Deal with Gluten

Crossposts: http://havocthecat.insanejournal.com/380910.html

havocthecat

Glow is getting less attention than Wonder Woman, but this article is reminding me a lot of the articles about the Amazons working in the background of Wonder Woman - or what would have happened if they'd hired non-athletes and trained them to be athletes for Wonder Woman.

'Glow' Star Betty Gilpin: What It's Like to Have Pea-Sized Confidence With Watermelon-Sized Boobs

Anyone seen it? What do you think? Alison Brie is in it, and I loved her in Community.

Crossposts: http://havocthecat.insanejournal.com/380646.html

havocthecat

Wonder Woman Wrap by Carissa Browning

The pattern is free (and color-coded for each section, which is awfully nice), so even if you don't make it, you should either save it to your Ravelry library (if you have one) or download it for future planning purposes JUST IN CASE. It's pretty simple, and should you be looking to learn short rows, this is a good one for that.

It was also translated into French, should you be a native French speaker or wish to practice your French or French-based knitting skills. (I don't believe Ravelry pattern writers turn down translations of their patterns, should you wish to donate your time to spreading the fandom love, but if you are interested, the comments section on the pattern post is here, and my experience on Ravelry's comments has been generally pleasant.)