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thecrewofthecoppercoloredcupids · 4 years

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What Could Have Been #3 - The Scrapped Alchemist Story; or, who are Minbare and Sherit, anyway?

A few weeks ago, we published a story titled Stranded at Memory’s End, in which Marksmanship, Tracker, and Bibliophile found themselves in a realm made up of people and things that have ceased to exist. Among them were a few things that even the most savvy Cupid reader probably didn’t recognize - including two mysterious nobles known as Lord Herry Minbare and Countess Anmida Sherit, and a strange, flying beast with both fur and feathers. So, where did these most extraordinary characters originate from? Why, a scrapped draft, of course!

The story below, penned by Lupan Evezan, was abandoned midway through production - and now we’ve posted it here, for your reading pleasure (hopefully)!

Lord Herry Minbare was locked in a fierce battle of wills with the Countess Anmida Sherit.

Both had a claim to the Empire. They were cousins, the late Empress Regnant had been their grandmother. As no intermediate relatives still lived, and the two nobles were fairly equal in station (titles held no real meaning among the nobility anymore), they both had about equal claim to the post of Emperor or Empress of the Northern Isles. The official governing body of advisors was more or less a sham, a ploy to make it seem as though all decisions were not made solely by the ruling official (which they were), and so there was no real way to decide which of the two would rule.

But one thing was certain: they would have to work it out quickly, before one of the other nobles decided that they had ought to claim the position themself.

Countess Sherit had invited Lord Minbare to dinner at one of her estates, supposedly for the purpose of working out the issue once and for all. Minbare suspected an assassination plot, and had brought no less than thirty of his own soldiers, who were now posted around the large hall. He had also brought his own meal, which he ate instead of the food Sherit had provided. This, she felt, was the height of all rudeness.

"Listen, Minbare." The Countess began nonchalantly. "We have to settle this somehow. You know how eager Earl Rabare is to snatch the position. Why, with his army, he could have it done already - he's trying to follow the old customs, I suppose, but it won't last long."

"No, I don't suppose it will." Minbare took a bite of the poultry he had brought with him.

Sherit glared.

"Then what do you propose we do?"

Minbare simply shrugged.

Infuriating. Absolutely infuriating.

"We could... turn it into a duarchy?" Sherit suggested. "Rule together?"

Sherit absolutely did not want to share power with her halfwit cousin, but she also didn't want to have to settle this by violence, if it could be helped.

"No, I don't think that'll work for me." Minbare took another bite of the poultry.

"Enough!"

Sherit knocked the bird out of his hand and stood up.

"If you're not going to settle this in a civil manner, then I have no choice but to best you in a duel."

"Ha! Best me? Hardly likely!" Minbare chuckled. "But, go ahead. Set the conditions. When will it be?"

"Now. Here."

"Here? Now? With what?"

"Poison."

Sherit produced a small, clear vial containing a sickly greenish liquid.

"Venom of the Naddersnatch."

"How, exactly, do you duel with, er, poison? Going to throw it at each other?

"No. A servant is going to poison one of these." Sherit held up two biscuits. "Neither of us will know which. We'll each choose one. Whoever eats the poisoned one will die. The other rules. More of a battle of luck than of skill."

"Ha! As if I'd agree to that. Of course you'll know which is poisoned beforehand."

Well, that wasn't quite the plan. She would know, but this wasn't Naddersnatch venom at all - just a dormaficient, an elixir to induce sleep, made from one of the common weeds which grew in the woods that made up much of her lands. Minbare would eat the biscuit, lose consciousness, and a servant would transport him to some far away place from which he could not return. The empire would believe that he was dead, and Sherit could take the throne. It wasn't a great plan (and it was in fact her secondary plan, after Minbare foiled her first plot to slip the stuff into his food by bringing his own), but it was the best she had at the moment. She couldn't try anything sneakier, with Minbare's army occupying the place.

"Oh, come now, I'm more honorable than that!" she protested.

"You are not! Don't you remember the time you pushed me into the Great Lake so you could win the royal games?"

"When we were children, Herry? Really? Can you hold a grudge that long?"

"I nearly died! Anyway, I'm not eating your poisoned biscuit, and we're obviously not going to settle this tonight! Farewell!"

Minbare stood and walked swiftly to the nearest exit into the vestibule.

Sherit pulled a sword from the wall.

"Fine! Then we'll duel the traditional way. Draw your weapon!"

Minbare chuckled.

"Very well."

He drew his own sword.

"To first blood?"

"To death."

The two nobles crossed their swords, signalling the official commencement of the duel.

Suddenly, a blinding flash filled the hall, and a cloud appeared just above the table.

Minbare and Sherit looked up, bewildered.

A copper head peered over from the top of the cloud. A winged creature leapt down.

It was a strange being, formed of metal in the image of a cherub - although real cherubs were far more terrifying than this. It reminded Sherit of the golems employed by some of of the old wizards of repute.

"What are you, creature?" Sherit inquired.

"A sign from the gods?" Minbare suggested.

"Er, hello. I'm from the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids. I'm supposed to romanticise someone around here...."

The creature turned its head from side to side.

It spotted a sad looking maidservant standing at wait in a corner.

"Ah-ha! You!"

The creature produced a bow. It nocked an arrow. It drew the bow and fired at the girl.

The arrow hit her. It was obviously an enchanted arrow, judging by the fact that she did not die. Instead, she smiled.

"Why, I feel good! Very good! In fact, I think I shall go out into the world and sing!"

The girl rushed out the nearest door, singing.

The nobles blinked, unsure of what was happening.

"Right! That's done!"

The creature turned and seemed poised to fly back up to the cloud.

"Wait, wait!"

The being turned.

"What are you? Where did you come from?" Minbare asked, inspecting the cloud. It was a ship, he realized, cleverly disguised.

"I'm a Clockwork Cherub! You know, a robot! I'm from the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids - we travel the Multiverse, you know, and romanticise people!"

"Multiverse?" Minbare inquired.

"Yes - all of the dimensions and universes and realms and such that make up... well, everything, more or less!"

"You mean to say that there really are other universes?" There were legends, of course, but even the wisest wizards surely believed that they were only that.

"Sure! I've got to be going - nice meeting you!"

The Clockwork Cherub leapt back up to the cloud, which vanished.

The nobles stared for a moment.

Then Lord Minbare turned and ran into the vestibule and out of the estate.

****

With a sputtering pop, a Fog Ship materialized in the Void. The pilot of the ship managed to steer it into the parking lot of the Interdimensional Tavern and leap out. The ship was in a terrible state of disrepair.

But it hadn't been, moments before. What could have gone wrong?

The Cupid who had been piloting the ship opened a hatch in the front and gazed in at the inner workings of the ship. The dematerialisation circuit was there - but the dimensional warp drive was entirely missing. Without it, the Ship could leave one dimension, but not quite warp into another. The two bits were meant to work in tandem - the ship was useless without one.

"But where could - ?"

Suddenly the Cupid remembered that rather nosy gent who had been poking around the ship.

Blast. The Parliament won't like this.

Well, there were bigger problems at hand. The Cupid needed to get out of the Void, somehow.

First, though, he decided to pop in to the Tavern and have a drink.

****

Deep beneath the Minbare Palace was a twisting maze of catacombs, at the very center of which was located a laboratory.

Not a Prime Earth sort of scientific research laboratory. Nor a mad scientist type of laboratory (although it was closer to that).

No, this was more of an alchemist's laboratory. Perhaps a wizard's laboratory. A laboratory of dark magic.

The laboratory belonged to Lord Herry Minbare, and he was there now.

Minbare was an alchemist, although no one knew it. It was his secret. It was the secret of the Minbare family, passed down from antiquity, along with this laboratory.

"Other universes - it really is true! All of my research was not in vain!"

Minbare produced a bit of circuitry from his coat.

"And this! This is the missing piece! This is what I need to complete my device!"

Minbare thought a moment.

"Well, I hope it is."

The lord strode to the center of the laboratory, where an intimidating creation towered over everything. It was carved from materials Minbare had researched extensively and determined to be conducive to opening a dimensional rift - the topic he had been researching ever since he first heard, from a wizard to whom he had apprenticed in his younger years, that there may really be other universes out there. And now, proof!

Minbare set the thing he had stolen into his device and turned on a low electrical current beneath the monolith. The circuitry began to spark and then hum. The entire creation followed suit, buzzing and humming intensely. A flicker appeared in the area in space directly above the device. It flickered and began to warp, until it finally tore through the fabric of reality and became a rift.

"Yes! Yes!" Minbare began to cackle like a villain in a Prime Earth cartoon show, not that he knew what that was.

His fit of laughing was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a strange, twisted creature with a tooth-filled beak, glaring eyes, and horns. It was covered with strange mix of fur and feathers, and had claws and talons.

"Er, master?" the beast snarled. "Your evening tea, master?"

Minbare glanced over.

"No, no! I'm in the middle of something! Go away!"

The creature bowed and retreated.

Minbare had created the beast, along with others like it. They had been among his first creations, formed from the bones of animals and given life with an elixir he had brewed.

He called them the greckles.

~Here ends the draft~

Stay tuned for more “What Could Have Beens”!

#What Could Have Been #Lord Herry Minbare #Countess Anmida Sherit #The Greckles #cupids #The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids #cupidverse

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ecoamerica · 2 months

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youtube

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

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t-baba · 4 years

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Making designs feel more random with prime numbers

#449 — July 15, 2020

Web Version

Frontend Focus

The Cicada Principle, Revisited with CSS Variables — The Cicada Principle is the idea that when creating repetitive patterns, backgrounds, etc. using prime numbers can increase the appearance of organic randomness. Lea shows how she used a modern approach to this idea to format her code examples in a visually striking way.

Lea Verou

Style Stage: A Modern CSS Showcase — A modern twist on the CSS Zen Garden idea of yesteryear where people submit their own manipulations of a concept using the most modern of CSS features. Here are the submissions so far with Vaporwave being my favorite. They all have a very “90s Web design renaissance” feel to them though.

Stephanie Eckles et al.

Get an Instant GraphQL API with Hasura to Build Fullstack Apps, Fast — Integrate Hasura’s GraphQL API with any frontend language or framework. Configure your backend with our intuitive UI.

Hasura sponsor

▶ What’s New in Chrome DevTools — Two of Google’s best known faces on the Chrome side of things give a twenty minute run through a whole bunch of new bits and pieces available in the DevTools in areas like performance monitoring, WebAssembly source mapping, and cookies.

Paul Lewis and Surma (Google)

⚡️ Quick bits:

Adobe Flash passes off into the sunset later this year, and Ars Technica have taken a look back at its story. A nice bit of nostalgia.

You can now start up a new Codepen by visiting pen.new.

Got a flashlight to hand? This personal site takes an amusing unique approach to dark mode.

I like this: A curated list of whimsical websites that have a bit of fun and spark joy.

💻 Jobs

Frontend Developer at X-Team (Remote) — Join the most energizing community for developers and work on projects for Riot Games, FOX, Sony, Coinbase, and more.

X-Team

Find a Job Through Vettery — Use Vettery to connect with growing tech teams at startups and Fortune 500 companies.

Vettery

ℹ️ Interested in running a job listing in Frontend Focus? There's more info here.

📙 News, Tutorials & Opinion

Memorizing Scroll Position Across Page Loads — An interesting UX enhancement that involves saving the current scroll position in localstorage before the user navigates away.

Chris Coyier / Hakim El Hattab

Responsive Suffixes in CSS Class Names with Sass — An interesting look at automating classes with Sass mixins and maps.

Philip Zastrow

A Basic Technique for Switching a Logo in Dark Mode — Logos often suit dark or light contexts and not the other, but you can swap them dynamically with a bit of CSS.

Gift Egwuenu

'13% of My Website Visitors Block Google Analytics' — It’s not just ads that get blocked but trackers too. Every site will have a different audience profile and a different likelihood of having its tracking blocked, so maybe it’s better to track requests behind the scenes or focus on other metrics instead.

Marko Saric

Adding the prefers-contrast Media Query to Firefox — This upcoming media query works in a similar way to prefers-colour-scheme, and is to be used to detect if the user has requested the system increase or decrease the amount of contrast between adjacent colors. This blog post walks through its design and implementation in Firefox.

Zeke Medley (Mozilla)

Everything You Have to Know About Core Web Vitals — Core Web Vitals is a set of metrics portraying three aspects of user experience: loading, interactivity and visual stability.

Karolina Szczur

Barebones WebGL in 75 Lines of Code — WebGL is pretty intimidating but this boils it down to the bare essentials. And if you want to go further, I still think this thorough guide is one of the best. Of course, you may see all of the boilerplate needed and just use Three.js instead, which is fine too! 😄

Avik Das

Always Bet on HTML.. Being Misunderstood

Christian Heilmann

🔧 Code, Tools and Resources

Tabler Icons: 500+ Customizable SVG Icons — Simple, monochrome, line art SVG icons covering lots of concepts from (mostly) computer and browser based concepts to arrows and weather.

Paweł Kuna

Squircley: A SVG 'Squircle' Maker — If you don’t find it hip to be square, consider a cross between the square and the circle: the squircle.

georgedoescode

Headless WordPress with Gatsby Cloud — Gatsby is an increasingly popular React-based site building framework and this new plugin brings it to WordPress. The idea is you can use WordPress as a headless CMS with Gatsby taking care of the front-end.

Hashim Warren (Gatsby)

shareon: Simple and Stylish 'Share Buttons' — They also boast good ethics as there’s no tracking code involved.

Nikita Karamov

Halfmoon: A Frontend Framework With a Built-in Dark Mode — A responsive frontend framework designed for quickly building dashboards and product pages. Uses Bootstrap-like classes, and is compatible with IE11.

Halfmoon

EmailComb: Remove Unused CSS From Email Templates — A handy online tool to try out.

Codsen ltd

A Typing / Typewriter Effect in Pure CSS — I’m quite impressed how simple this is - it leans on the steps directive to make the animation jerky enough to look like typing.

CodePen demo

🗓 Upcoming Events:

An Event Apart: Online Together — Human-Centered Design (July 20) — A single-day online conference with a focus on design for all users, not just some idealized average.

ForwardJS (July 20 - 24) — A virtual event, providing five days of workshops and talks to registrants from the comfort of their browser.

ViennaCalling (July 29) — An online meetup streamed on Twitch for "all who work on the web".

Frontcon (August 12 - 14) — A frontend conf based in Latvia that's now taking a hybrid approach, offering both online and on-site attendance options.

Front-End Focus (August 17) – It's got the same name as this newsletter but it's nothing to do with us. It's from the An Event Apart team though and has some fantastic speakers lined up, so it's bound to be good (just don't complain to us if you don't enjoy it! 😂)

by via Frontend Focus https://ift.tt/2Zthhri

#HTML5 Branding #HTML5 Weekly

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angeltriestoblog · 7 years

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Bullet Journaling 101: My Story, Flipthrough, Tips and Resources

A bullet journal is a system of organization created by Ryder Carroll that “aims to track the past, organize the present and plan for the future”. It’s a diary, journal and planner all in one: an amalgamation of all the facets of a person’s life in a series of different bullet points. Several YouTubers and bloggers have attributed their newfound sense of productivity and success to this and attested that it has helped tremendously in reordering their priorities.

And just like everyone else who seemed tempted by the idea, I’ve been wanting to join the whole movement. In fact, I’ve been watching flipthrough videos since last year, with my “bujo inspo” YouTube playlist amassing a grand total of 109 videos as of press time. I’ve followed a lot of Instagram accounts who’ve made a living out of this practice, and even put a short-lived Pinterest account (for the third time since the ninth grade – I don’t know why it can’t stick with me) in the hopes of gaining inspiration to get started. But, none of those worked in helping my intimidation die down.

I have been exposed to a great number of bullet journal spreads that are so aesthetically pleasing and color-coordinated that they seem almost unrealistic. I lacked the skills and resources required to start. Not enough Tombow brush pens or collaging skills in my arsenal, I thought, which would just lead to a decline in my journal’s appeal. At this juncture, I would like to point out that a bullet journal’s main priority must be functionality. Yes, it can also serve as a great medium for artistic expression but this must not hinder it from serving its true purpose: to get its owner’s life together.

Anyway, dumaldal na naman si Angel. Wala talagang kupas.

If it’s of any interest to you, I use a Leuchtturm 1917 ruled notebook in the color purple, which I got for half its original price at my local National Bookstore. I was initially supposed to go for the dotted version, as it is more popular in the bujo community. Turns out I forgot to check the label before paying for it, and only found out I had bought the wrong version when I had got home. I don’t have any regrets though: I find it easier to write on lined pages, and they don’t really change its effectivity.

I have a black Pilot G-Tec in 0.4mm thickness for writing, as I feel my handwriting looks best when I use this pen. Alongside these are my Dong-A fineliners—which are a great alternative to the much pricier Steadtlers—and my pride and joy, my Stabilo pastel highlighters. I have a black Artline Stix brush pen, which I use for my headings, and a normal pencil for making rough drafts of spreads. I also keep a thin pad of Post-it notes that I replenish weekly on the front page, where I write down any ideas that pop in my head that I’d later on put in its respective spread. I’m trying to keep my set-up as minimal and low-maintenance as possible, but with a pop of color here and there so it won’t end up being too bland and boring.

But contrary to popular belief, there is no fixed set of materials that one must purchase to start a bullet journal. In fact, there doesn’t even need to be any purchasing at all: you can start with something as simple as an old notebook lying around your bedroom floor, and the regular pen that you use for school. Colored markers and washi tapes and any other art supplies are purely optional.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, here’s a peek into what’s actually inside my bullet journal:

Key: Consists of a series of symbols that mean to organize entries into different categories. I have tasks—which can be subdivided into those that are complete, have been migrated or scheduled on another date—events and notes, which can be further emphasized by an asterisk that means they are a priority.

About Me: A short page on the side complete with my basic information. I don’t intend on sharing this with anyone else after this post, but I like keeping this as it feels like a standard way of starting a journal.

Index: Serves as a table of contents. It’s incredibly helpful when it comes to locating spreads, but it cannot fulfill its purpose if one is not consistent in supplying the information it needs. I like to jot the page number and a short description of what’s written on it in the index immediately after I fill out another spread so I don’t forget.

Future Log: My next six months at a glance. This is where I write all major activities and events. I’ve considered putting in birthdays of people who are important to me as well, but I feel like they’d take way too much space so I’ll work on assembling a separate spread to keep track of them.

Collections: Just a few pages to jot down some books I need to read, movies to see, posts to write for this blog and places to go. If ever you have any recommendations, you can shoot me a message here on Tumblr or any of my social media accounts.

(Half) Year in Pixels + Habit Tracker: Admittedly my favorite spread so far. Although I did have to make the grids manually because I’m using a lined notebook, I am very satisfied with how this came out. On the far left side, I’ll be tracking my mood by coloring in squares according to how I felt during the day: purple if great, red if good, orange if it was smack dab in the middle, blue if it was an off day and green if terrible.

For the remainder of the spread, I’ll be monitoring my progress in developing five habits of my choice and checking the corresponding box if I was able to do it on that specific day. The ones I’ve chosen to focus on are drinking eight glasses of water a day, eating only one cup of rice for lunch and dinner, not lurking on anyone’s accounts during my free time to avoid counterproductivity, saying only kind words towards others and using social media for only an hour a day.

Monthly Spreads: Pretty self-explanatory. This is the one I’ve made for November 2017, and I feel like this is the layout I’ll be sticking to. On the left-hand page, I have all the days of the month written vertically with an important task or event beside it. You might have noticed that these are the exact same items under my Future Log, and think that the whole practice of bullet journaling can get quite repetitive but I find it better to write the same things over and over again so they stick to my head.

To the right, I have an expenses tracker, where I write everything I’ve bought for the month. I was supposed to add a box to indicate my savings goal, but I’ll get around to that eventually. I also have a sleep tracker, which I will be doing in the form of a line graph, and my five main goals to give me a sense of direction.

Grades Tracker – 3rd Quarter: Where I write down all the marks I’ve gotten in all my subjects. I write down HW for homework, PT for performance task, Q for quiz and SW for seatwork, then my score but I haven’t been able to do the latter yet since none of our class activities have been graded yet. I’m aiming to become at least a Merit Card Awardee by the end of the school year, so this tool will be extremely helpful in ensuring that everything I do is a step in the right direction.

I have a page that shows my class schedule for this semester and two weekly spreads but the former is too private to divulge and the latter is still under construction, so I decided not to include any pictures of them. Besides, I don’t think any of them would be of much interest to you. Do note that this serves mainly as a source of inspiration. Your bullet journal does not have to follow this format. Since it’s highly flexible and customizable, revolves around you, you wants and your needs, you call the shots at the end of the day and are given full authority to change things up to your liking.

If, by any chance, this post has made you consider converting to this system, congratulations. You’re making a great decision, and I can’t wait for you to see your life get whipped back into shape. I’ve only been bullet journaling for two weeks tops, but I can honestly say that I’m never looking back. As mentioned in my previous blog post, it has given me a newfound sense of order in and control over my life, and keeps motivated to do the tasks required of me. Literally my favorite feeling in the world right now is getting to cross out everything I needed to do for the day.

Below are some resources that I found could be helpful for any bullet journal beginner. There’s honestly much more where that came from, and you can always message me for them:

Ryder Carroll’s (the creator of the bullet journaling system) video

The official Bullet Journal website

Boho Berry on YouTube

AmandaRachLee on YouTube

Caitlin’s Corner on YouTube

planningwithkay on YouTube

Mistral Spirit

#bullet journaling #bujo #bullet journal flipthrough #bullet journal tips #bullet journal resources #angeltriestoblog #angeltriestobujo #angellikestothinkshesucceeded #recs #life dump

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elysiacampbell-blog · 7 years

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Title of Artwork: Colourful Living: A Guide To Stepping Out of Your Style Comfort Zone

Artist Statement, Reflection & Influences

After reflecting on the five curated experiments that I conducted exploring that relationship between colour, self expression and emotion, I decided to create a short publication as my final artwork. This publication presented a series of suggestions for an individual wishing to step out of their style comfort zone; providing ideas with the intention of allowing an individual to add more brightness, colour and play, and in turn, joy to their life.

This small publication is intended to be printed and distributed into the community through zine fairs and shared spaces, in order to allow the community to interact with this guide and try out the suggestions provided. I also intend to continue this project at a later date, expanding and refining this concept in the hope of actually producing a zine for distribution.

Each experiment was referenced when deciding and creating the final artwork publication “COLOURFUL LIVING: A Guide To Stepping Out Of Your Comfort Zone”, influencing the artwork either conceptually or physically.

Experiment one provided me not only with the photographic medium that is predominately used in the final artwork, but also with a number of photographs that I later used in the page spreads.

Experiment two allowed me to broaden my understanding of colour psychology, which informed my choices in styling the outfits photographed and the colours used in the text and backgrounds of pages; as well as providing me with a number of colour swatches that were used in the colour palette page spread.

Experiments three and four, which involved designing and creating a selection of colourful and sparkly jewelry pieces, provided me with the idea of displaying these creations in some manner of book or publication. Some of these jewelry pieces can be seen throughout the pages of the final artwork.

Experiment five was a continuation of experiment two, where I referred to each colour meaning graphic when choosing the colour palette of the segments in my sequin mood tracker. In other words, my findings from experiment two were put into practice in experiment five; and although they weren’t as directly reflected in my final artwork when compared to experiments 1, 3 and 4, they did inform my understanding of how colour and self expression interact with one another.

Process:

This final artwork involves a small publication containing photographs and graphics created in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, which provide suggestions in dressing more colourfully and freely.

Once I had taken and edited the photographs and put them into a two page spread layout, I printed them out using a printing service. I am disappointed in the quality of these prints, as the service I used messed up the colours, making them inconsistent and over-saturated. This can be seen particularly in the front and back covers, which were intended to be a pastel gradient, but somehow ended up being printed quite darkly.

To print out the full pages without the edges cut off, I had to print each page with a white border. After I cut the borders off with a craft cutter and ruler, I folded each down the centre so that each side of the fold was a page. I used a mixture of Coptic and Kettle stitching to bind each page together into a book; this was a long and frustrating process due to the thread becoming tangled.

As I was only able to print the pages on one sided photo paper, I was presented with the problem of having many blank pages in between each printed page, so I attempted to solve this by sticking each back side together. This unfortunately messed up the neatly bound spine, as can be seen in the photos.

Page Descriptions:

Page Spread One: ADD SOME POM POMS

· Left Side: Pink text with suggestion

· Right Side: Product photo showing pom pom headdress and necklace that was created in experiment 3; edited in Adobe Photoshop with a pink tint.

Page Spread Two: TODAY IS OPPOSITE DAY, INTERPRET AS YOU WISH.

· Left Side: Close-up photograph of holographic fabric texture, photo sourced from experiment 1.

· Right Side: Text created by manipulating same photograph in Adobe Photoshop, using the layer, text and clipping mask tools.

Page Spread Three: ADD SOME GLITTER

· Left Side: Text created by manipulating glitter photograph in Adobe Photoshop. The details in the text are hard to see due to the placement of the text over the photograph, and the poor quality of the printing.

· Right Side: Photograph of an individual with their back covered in glitter. I covered my sister’s back in glitter at night, which was a very messy process, and then photographed it in the dark, using an LED colour-changing light strip to get coloured lighting effects. Out of the many photos and associated colour ways obtained, I decided to digitally manipulate the green glitter and lighting into a purple tint, as the pink lighting setting gave the glitter a patchy effect.

Page Spread Four: PRODUCT PHOTO AND SUGGESTIONS

· Left Side: Product photograph of two pom pom jewelry pieces, where the actual colours of the pom poms can be seen clearly, albeit a bit saturated, rather than the pink tinted photograph on page 1. The text on this page reads ‘Pom Poms, Glitter and Smiles’, and is used not only as a describer, but also a suggestion.

· Right Side: Features two style suggestions over a blue to pink gradient background. The top suggestion reads ‘Dress up like a mythical creature’ such as a fairy, mermaid, elf, dragon, etc; and the bottom suggestion reads ‘Match your outfit to food’ such as dressing in watermelon colours, or in bright green like a lime. This page was created in Adobe Photoshop.

Page Spread Five: LET SOMEONE ELSE CHOOSE YOUR OUTFIT.

· Left Side: The left page shows a photograph of my sister in an outfit that I chose, which is significantly different to her usual style and comfort zone, as she prefers to dress in sports wear. Surprisingly, she enjoyed branching out into something much more colourful and formal. The outfit, hair and makeup was styled and applied by myself. I am unhappy with the quality of this photograph, as I was unable to adequately rid the image of the shadows, even though I attempted to do so multiple times in Photoshop. The white mesh top was hand sequined by myself previously.

· Right Side: This suggestion involves an element of trust and chance, as an individual must trust another person to pick out an outfit, and to wear, it, regardless of whether or not it is something they would usually wear. The image used in the text comes from my first experiment, and is a close up photograph of the gold skirt shown in the photograph to the left.

Page Spread Six: WEAR SOMETHING THAT INTIMIDATES YOU

· Left Side: Similar to page 4, this page is a suggestion page and a product photo. The suggestion reads ‘Wear something that intimidates you’ and was created in Photoshop.

· Right Side: This page shows a product photograph of a rainbow drop earring prototype that I created in experiment 4. I decorated my sister’s face with star sequins and also plaited her hair with iridescent Angelina fibres, which look very sparkly in real life. I have used fused Angelina fibres in previous textiles projects, and quite enjoy the visual effect created when it comes into contact with light. For this photograph, I used a non-flash setting and lit up my sister’s profile with an LED colour-changing light strip.

Page Spread Seven: CLASH PATTERNS

· Left Side: Text ‘Clash Patterns’ created using Photoshop and the digital collage found on the right side.

· Right Side: Shows a digital collage created by using photographs edited in Photoshop from experiment 1.

Page Spread Eight: ADD SPARKLES TO YOUR FACE

· Left Side: This page was unfortunately poorly printed, so the photo was not rendered to the colour accuracy and quality that I expected. I created this photograph by decorating my sister’s face with a selection of sequins, and by drawing an outline across her jawline, ear, nose and eyebrow with a metallic gold solution. I then edited the photograph in Photoshop to have a two-toned blue and pink tint.

· Right Side: Shows the corresponding suggestion ‘Add some sparkles to your face’ in a pastel pink colour.

Page Spread Nine: WEAR SOMETHING METALLIC

· Left Side: The text was created by manipulating the pink photograph on the right side of the page in Photoshop.

· Right Side: This page includes two photographs of the golden skirt seen in previous pages, however the colours have been drastically altered using the LED colour-changing light strip. I decided to leave these photos unedited, simply combining them on a page, so that they are true to the colours captured on my camera.

Page Spread Ten: PRODUCT PHOTOS:

· Left Side: This photograph shows one of the squiggle pendants that was created in experiment 3.

· Right Side: The text, which reads ‘Pom Poms, Sequins and Glitter’ can be interpreted as a suggestion, where the audience is encouraged to style an outfit using pom poms, sequins and glitter. This photograph shows the pom pom necklace, as well as makeup and a sequined white shirt that I had made previously.

Missing Page: COLOUR PALETTE

· I somehow forgot to print one of the page spreads, which included a page of colour palettes, and a page of text that read ‘Choose a colour palette, dress accordingly’. I will show an image of this page spread in the post instead.

#ADAD1001 #AssessmentTaskThree

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yesterdaysdreams · 6 years

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Having a Giant on Your Side

*We’re excited to be partnering with Intuit to show you their new animated short film and to let you know how you can confidently manage your finances and make more money through TurboTax, QuickBooks, and Mint.

Having a Giant on Your Side

It’s nice having a giant on your side. Growing up, my grandpa was a commanding presence. He was 6’3” tall and roughly 250lbs. In today’s terms, he could’ve been a professional linebacker, but back then he was a Navy man. Wide shoulders, strong forearms, the bluest of eyes and a smile that spread across his whole face. Grandpa was the friendly giant that everyone wanted to be around.

My dad tells a story about how my grandpa stood up for him one time when a neighbor came to cuss him out for riding his motorcycle too loudly. My grandpa stood firmly behind my dad and after the man got done yelling, my grandpa calmly said, “George, if you’ve got a problem with my son, you’ve got a problem with me.”

Grandpa towered at least a head above any crowd at my piano recitals and volleyball matches. Later, when I got married, he pulled me into a side hug and said, “You make sure that man takes good care of you, okay now?” He winked and smiled when he said it, but I knew he was making me a promise. He’d always have my back.

Everyone needs a giant in their corner.

The Intuit Giant

For small business owners, entrepreneurs, and self-employed individuals like myself, Intuit is like having a giant on your side. Intuit is the master brand over three great products you probably recognize: TurboTax, QuickBooks, and Mint—three outstanding financial management and planning tools that are geared toward small businesses and people who want to make the most of their money. People who may have a dream of owning their own business or being their own boss—people like you and me.

The Intuit Giant is a cool metaphor for the combined power of QuickBooks, TurboTax, and Mint and they just released a brand new short, animated film, “A Giant Story” that I can’t wait to show you! When people like you and me use TurboTax, QuickBooks, and Mint together, we get the same big technologies that fortune 500 companies use, but with a more personalized, friendly product. The Intuit Giant.

“A Giant Story”

I got a little sneak peek of this film before its big release and I have to say, it’s really powerful and really cool! In the film you’ll see how the first Intuit Giant was carefully crafted by Pari, a young female inventor. The film is set in a world where big businesses have these massive, intimidating-looking robot giants that help them grow and prosper. Pari sees the needs of her fellow small business owners on main street and realizes that they need a giant on their side too. So she sets out to create something awesome that will level the playing field. Without further ado…here’s the short animated film “A Giant Story.”

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Powering Prosperity

Feel like you need to watch the film again? Me too! In fact, I watched it three times in a row so that my literary mind could grasp all of the metaphors and symbolism. (I’m a former English teacher after all.) Basically the Intuit Giant is the combined power of TurboTax, QuickBooks, and Mint. Like Pari in the film, Intuit wants to level the playing field and power prosperity to everyone—they want to give you a giant on your side.

Speaking from a very personal level, HowDoesShe has been a huge blessing in my life. I started out seven years ago as a small contributor, just writing one post a month for Shelley, Missy, and Alison (pictured above). I was inspired that these three women could dream up and then start their own blog that is now a prosperous business. They started by pitching in $100 each (valuable diaper money to these three moms back then) and then they worked tirelessly for years to create inspiring content, take photographs that would grace Pinterest boards, and build a business they could be proud of. Almost nine years later, HowDoesShe now has over 2 million followers on social media and over a dozen contributors.

In 2011 I started out as one of those contributors and over the years I kept writing, kept learning, and now I’ve built my own little freelance business. Because I am self-employed, managing my finances has become a lot more intricate. I honestly couldn’t do it on my own. I use TurboTax to simplify my complicated taxes and it saves me a huge headache every year. QuickBooks is what HowDoesShe uses to invoice and manage all of our partnerships, and I’m just now learning the ins and outs of Mint and how it can help me set up my own IRA to give me a bigger tax break and help me set aside money for my retirement. With Intuit, I can confidently manage my own finances. I am my own boss and that feels great.

So whether you’re a consumer who wants to confidently manager your own taxes and investments, a small business owner who needs a more efficient way to manage invoices and expenses, or a self-employed individual who could use a little guidance maximizing deductions, Intuit is in your corner to help make your dreams of prosperity achievable. Learn more about how Intuit can work for you here!

A big thank-you to Intuit for sponsoring this post. All opinions and anecdotes are my own.

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ecoamerica · 1 month

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Watch the 2024 American Climate Leadership Awards for High School Students now: https://youtu.be/5C-bb9PoRLc

The recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by student climate leaders! Join Aishah-Nyeta Brown & Jerome Foster II and be inspired by student climate leaders as we recognize the High School Student finalists. Watch now to find out which student received the $25,000 grand prize and top recognition!

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cybersoulavenue-blog · 7 years

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Patriot Power Greens - Items To Make Sure To Keep A Healthy Body 7732

patriot power greens side effects When you have never considered nutrition in what you eat, you could feel intimidated at the beginning. You will find info overload as a result of all that is out there regarding what your body needs and wants. The content below offers the basic nutritional information you need to seem sensible than it all. Attempt to buy your daily protein from not only meat. Many foods apart from meat contain protein. A few other healthy causes of protein are nuts, beans, fish, milk, and eggs. These meals are wonderful because they are utilized as main dishes or being an additive to others. And also hardwearing . diet interesting, incorporate protein in a variety of alternative methods. Adding organic foods to the menu is a great way to improve your diet's nutrients. Organic food are thought to have more nutrients and much less nitrates than other foods. These organic foods are the right path to some more natural diet. You will have a better understanding should you try it out. Maintaining proper nutrition is actually a key element to proper body functions. Take multivitamins to guarantee you're having the nutrients you will need. Vitamin shops will provide plenty that you can choose from. As one example, a female in her own 50s need to have a multi-vitamin that is designed for middle-aged women. Take these every day with plenty water. Smoothies taste good and are perfect for you. It is possible to enhance your smoothies through making them more nutritious. Put in a little dash of omega-3 flax-seed oil for the smoothie or maybe the antioxidant-rich cocoa power. These ingredients can make your smoothie taste even better and give you some more nutrients to boost your immune system. When buying groceries, try letting the children pick the food. Permit them to select the vegetables and fruit, in order that they will eat them rather than leaving them on the plate. Kids might even be attracted to colorful new produce they've never tried before. Try sharing a plate with someone close or friend when out in a restaurant. The healthiest option often has a serving size that is certainly too big for starters person, doubling or even tripling the volume of fat and calories. Furthermore you will reduce costs while you're saving on calories by offering some of your meal to a person. You can go out to nibble on without feeling too guilty! Make sure you cook your mushrooms properly. Mushrooms may potentially contain cancer-causing carcinogens, so be sure to cook these people to break those down. Since poor health is able to reduce your body's capacity to burn fat, maintaining a healthy diet is important in weight loss success .. The softness and sponginess of eggplant ensures they are ideal for a number of dishes, from eggplant parmesan to baba ghanoush. Eggplant also has great properties for health insurance and many nutrients. Natural foods that are not highly processed usually are packed with nutrition. Foods which are processed happen to be regarded as terrible for your health. Focus your meals choices on lean meat and fresh produce. Will not walk across the aisles in the supermarket which may have junk food. The essential olive oil present in most pantries is a great addition to skin treatment routines if dryness is an issue you face. Olive oil helps gently seal in essential moisture in your hands and face. Additionally, it gives you antioxidants to combat against aging skin. A little two times a day can do a great job. Avoid snacks that have a lot of bad fats. This doesn't just mean meat, and also any products which are cooked with vegetable oil. Vegetable oils often times have higher amounts of unhealthy fats than animal products do. Saturated fat can raise fat levels in the body. Products can state they do not have cholesterol -- but still raise the cholesterol levels inside the blood. It's great to present yourself cheat days, but don't go overboard. From time to time you can treat yourself. Manage your portions so you are able to better take control of your weight. Going for a multivitamin does not necessarily mean that you ought to cut out foods or meals out of your diet. Only foods like grain and fresh fruit and veggies provides the whole nutrition you need. You must not take multiple multivitamins daily unless a health care provider has advised you to do so. Taking lots of vitamins is actually unhealthy. In case a baby is soon on its way, it's essential to enjoy the correct amount of iron. For plenty of adult women, about 18mg of iron should be taken daily, unless they can be pregnant, whereas 27mg needs to be the amount. Babies from the womb need iron in order to develop. Without an adequate amount of it, you may develop anemia, which results in health conditions for the baby and yourself. By using a internet based diet tracker is an easy way to track meals. For those who have gained weight, make an effort to know very well what has caused your weight gain. Even light eaters can pack on pounds by combining sedentary lifestyle with diets high in carbs and fats. Whenever you have a diary of all things you take in, it will help you stay on track. Choose your food intake before a good work out wisely. Strive for a thing that digests quickly and enables fast energy. Fruits contain plenty of vitamins and can provide this energy. Tend not to eat foods that are rich in fat content. Super Food Nutrition is the lynchpin of health and well-being. Is is no surprise that the attention pay for food and multivitamins keeps growing. Remember everything you have read in this post when you search for food and then make menu selections, and you are sure to attain proper nutrition to put it briefly order. http://patriotpowergreensx.com/

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jamiekturner · 7 years

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Analytics Tools That Startups Should Use

On today’s competitive market, entrepreneurship is a game of chance.

What is a lifetime opportunity for some happens to be a stepping stone for others, and sort of an intimidating roller-coaster you can never be totally prepared for.

The ups, downs, and foremost unexpected turns will make you frightened and excited at a time, and no matter how many tries you give it or how other people feel, you will always have a different story to tell.

At the same time, the risk and the unpredictability is what makes most entrepreneurs jump on the start-up wagon. Startup analytics, on the positive side, comforts and inspires most of the frightened ones, and gives this seemingly shaking decision a rational background.

Do you still feel intimidated? Well, you’re in your full right to do so, with so many gray areas and unanswered questions. Worst yet, many of our ‘how to start a business’ searches end up result in ‘lean start-ups’ and ‘why do business fail’, but it won’t hurt to wrap up some info that will flip the coin.

Here are some analytics for start-ups you may find useful:

Crazy Egg

Crazy Egg is used by many website owners in order to examine visitors’ interaction with their content, and reveal valuable hints that can optimize your performance at a minimal cost. For instance, CrazyEgg offers Confetti and Heatmaps that are very simple to use, and yet help understands what users are actually looking for.

Take Heatmaps as an example: in technical terms, they represent visual graphs of where people have clicked the most. Translated to content optimization terms, this means distinguishing attractive from unattractive posts and focusing on the first to get even more clicks.

The system will also help segment clicks by search terms, referral sources, and more.

Another distinctive advantage of having of having valuable traffic sources revealed is being able to discover similar ones at little to no effort at all.

Geckoboard

Geckoboard is another data visualisation platform that brings all sources under the same roof, and segments important metrics independently. You will appreciate its neat and friendly dashboard, built up from over 120 different services to ensure no key data will be missing from your view.

Geckoboard will also provide instant access to statistics, and foster an open-minded and advanced data culture that helps you make smarter decisions.

Kissmetrics

It is more than simple: if you know what your customers need, you will also know how to develop you business. KISSmetrics will make this happen with real people examinations rather than hypothetical guesses, as it reveals all essential data including locations, demographics, age, purchase history, and preferences.

Able to track all geographies and devices, KISSmetrics will most certainly enhance the performance of your website or application.

KISSmetrics was developed by a team of creative developers, designers, and most importantly entrepreneurs. All of these people focused on helping small businesses grow and monetize their online performance, and learned from names such as CrazyEgg, Product Planner, ACS, and more.

Optimizely

A list such as this one would not be complete without Optimizely, one of world’s leading website optimization systems that specializes in multivariate and A/B testing. Optimizely is hassle-free to use, and requires no technical expertise to change your website in a dynamic way.

The biggest benefit of it is that you get to test any variation of your website to live trafic before it has been implemented, which gives you a clear picture of the quality of that variation.

Optimizely is currently serving more than 5,000 enterprises, among which Weather.com, Disney, eBay, Starbucks, Crate & Barrel, and more. It has performed an incredible number of 190,000 (and counting) web experiments, with more and more users being able to confirm its data-driven approach to decision making.

Mixpanel

Mixpanel has a slightly different way of helping websites optimize content: it targets primarily online businesses, and helps them understand their users’ behaviour and actions undertaken towards a specific product. The goal here is to collate product data, which is why the system works with 6 billion information points month by month.

At this very moment, Mixpanel helps hundreds of millions of web and mobile users build successful products.

Chartio

Chartio has been recognized by leading experts in the industry for its unique data processing approach. It is probably the simplest BI tool you will ever get to use, as Chartio focuses on your own database rather than external sources and complex data warehouses. Plus, the platform is coding-free, and lets anyone build a functional and shareable dashboard.

Segment

Segment collects first and foremost customer-related data. If you’re a developer, for instance, it will allow you to input customer data only once, and then track how customers are browsing on their desktops and mobile devices. It will also translate data upon need, and pass it on to as many analytic applications as necessary.

Another important reason to consider it is the JavaScript browser library, as well as server-side languages, and dedicated apps for Android and iOS users. The same as Mixpanel, it will go over billions of data points, be that you’re running a startup or a Fortune 500 company.

Uxcam

UXCam is one-of-a-kind when it comes to collecting data in a creative way. What it does is to record in video users’ experience while using your app/website, and making that data available to you for any type of analytics.

It will take you exactly 2 minutes and 2 lines of code to integrate it with your system, and you will soon have all important info captured and fully visual. It is most useful to developers looking to gather UX experience, and apply it for the sake of their apps’ usability.

You can also use UXCam to:

Test users anonymously

Collect feedback and gather bug reports

Correlate video with other types of analytics to put things into context

Trepscore

In short, TrepScore lets entrepreneurs see all of their important data and customer accounts gathered on a single dashboard. The integration logic is the same large companies support, but yet comes at a price low-tier marketers can afford. While it analyzes your data and prepares detailed reports, this system also sends automated alerts for the owner to take immediate action.

The system takes your data under control, and automates a number of cumbersome analytic tasks that waste both your time and your energy. Their unique package is also able to adapt to whatever change in your dataset, always trying to let you focus on genuinely important matters.

Basically, you will be getting a whole new perspective of the health of your business, and more importantly – some clever investment directions.

Trepscore is very easy to apply, as it bases its work on an independent evidence-principle. This is how it manages to turn seemingly disconnected sources into actionable data units, and how it brings everything you need under the same umbrella.

Google Analytics

There is little chance that someone hasn’t heard of Google Analytics, world’s leading enterprise-grade web analytic tool that comes up with the richest traffic and marketing effectiveness insights. It is intuitive, flexible, and no-brainer to use, and provides all features necessary to analyze data in your own way.

What will Google Analytics do for you? To start with, you will learn how to improve your ads for better targeting, and how to foster marketing initiatives towards higher and lasting conversions. The company offers a Premium package for business usage that combines powerful optimization tools with professional assistance and ease of use.

The rates are affordable, to say at least, and there are no recurring fees to worry about.

Ruler Analytics

Ruler Analytics targets companies that handle multiple phone calls and online conversations, being the number-one call tracker and web analyzer able to match data from different sources (PPC, SEO, and so on). Using it, you will have access to:

The pages that were seen

The type of devices that were used

The marketing effort that redirected customers on your site (PPC, SEO)

The keywords they used to find information

Recordings from all phone calls and online conversations

Company information (where applicable)

The post Analytics Tools That Startups Should Use appeared first on Design your way.

from Web Development & Designing http://www.designyourway.net/blog/resources/analytics-tools/

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bunny-world-building · 7 years

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Talaura day 7: Economy

Oh man, today’s the day I’ve been waiting for!

Hi all, Bunny here. As I mentioned in my introductory post, Talaura is a world built on trade and commerce, where coin is king. I’ve been kind of obsessed with fantasy economics for a while now (see Spice and Wolf, for example) and it was that fascination that led to the creation of the Talaura campaign setting. That, and I’d been playing Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, watching the Pirates of the Caribbean films and the rather fantastic BBC series Taboo, which had me kind of obsessed with the golden age of sail.

A quick note: I decided to add some images to today's post, purely for illustrational purposes. Though most of these have been used without permission, I have credited the sources wherever I can. If there are any problems, the pictures will be removed, but I don't see that being especially likely. Hopefully, they should give you a bit more of an idea of what I've got in mind for Talaura.

Each of the main countries of Talaura has its own main industries, forming a symbiotic circle among them. Imports and exports are incredibly important, and international trade is monitored carefully from bureaus in Jafleaye, Tesman and Skoiasu.

• Jafleaye’s economy is booming at the time the campaign takes place. Its vast fields and pastures make it incredibly rich for farmlands, both for growing staple crops and rearing livestock, but many of the farms in Jafleaye make do with subsistence farming. The temperate climate and vast, open plains make Jafleaye perfect for farmers and landowners, and the quickly-growing population (fueled by immigration from Tesman, Skoiasu and Shabar) brings revenue to primary food production. Image credits: Darren Alff Jafleaye is split up into a huge number of administrative units, governed by key landowners who are organised into a strict hierarchy of rights and responsibilities. These landowners are responsible for collecting taxes from their own district and for then paying taxes to the central government. This system lends itself to corruption and embezzlement and many criticisms have been levied at the Council of Eleven, as well as entreaties to Lucrezia. Of course, the most key part of Jafleaye's economy is its numerous mercantile companies governing international trade. Jafleaye has become very wealthy simply by administrating and monitoring the wealth that flows through their borders. Shipwrights and seafarers are key contributors to Jafleaye's economy. Image credit: Schooner man In addition to these, Jafleaye enjoys a position of esteem, being a beacon to academics and scholars from all across the continent. Its numerous universities and academies are like candles to the moths that are the intellectuals of Talaura, flocking to the urban centres of Jafleaye in droves. This in turn helps fuel the economy, as investment and invention is inevitable when intellectuals are involved. Oh my god that was a lot of alliteration. Image credit: The Telegraph Though there are many mints in Jafleaye, coinage is tightly-controlled by the central government in Centrico. Most coins feature a relief of the sphinx Lucrezia on the obverse. Jafleaye coins are used in international trade as well, and are popular even among other nations because of the high quantity of precious metal used in their construction as well as the hope that the Jafleaye government will ensure they don't lose value. There is the belief that, even if Jafleaye falls, the coins will remain in use due simply to convenience and faith in the currency.

• Tesman’s abundant natural resources mean that exports to the south commonly include lumber, masonry stone and metal ores. The centaurs and dwarves are sturdy and hardworking, making them exceptional craftsmen and labourers. Further north, straying into the taiga and tundra, centaur clans make their living as scouts, cartographers, trailblazers, trappers, trackers and hunters, bringing beautiful furs with them to market. Image credits: Oddizzi Though the central government at Kaura keeps census records for all the clans of Tesman, these groups are largely autonomous and taxation of goods is typically kept to a minimum, opting instead to tax a certain number of hours, days or weeks of labour from the capable men and women of each clan. Trade within Tesman typically occurs with a barter system. Resources are generally shared within clans, but between clans, the concept of relative and perceived value is understood, and members of one clan will happily give up things that they don't need in exchange for things that they do, even if they wouldn't consider it a fair trade under other circumstances. Image credit: Weldy Taiga Biome Tesman has a curious and unique kind of currency which does not see everyday use as the gold and silver coins of Jafleaye do. Metal is stored in ingots, each one representing a weight of roughly 20lbs, and from each of these is stamped a 2oz medallion known as a "Tithe coin". These coins each bear serial numbers and are representative of specific resources, but because of this (and as it is not backed up by a reserve currency) the buying power of the tithe coins are directly linked to the value of the metal ingots they reflect. As a result, they are unpopular except among those who deal specifically in raw materials. Tithe coins can also be made of wood or stone, and each is considered proof of the quality of the material it came from. Image credits: St. Louis University High

• Shabar, despite the other nations' quickness to caricature them as uncivilised, comprises a rich and vibrant network of trading posts and caravans, through which fabrics, jewellery and labour will flow. Textiles and artwork from Shabar are highly valued outside of Shabar, particularly among the elite of Jafleaye, though rugs and covers are also prized for their weatherproofing in Tesman. Image source: Wikimedia commons The animals kept by Shabari warbands are by far their most valuable possessions. Alpacas are reared for wool, meat, leather and as pack animals; Shabari horses are considered the best in Talaura, far more durable, faster and powerful than any other; Shabari dogs are known to be highly-intelligent and easy to train, but powerful and intimidating, making them an excellent choice for guard or hunting dogs in Tesman and Jafleaye. Image credit: Wikipaedia Image credit: Tim Flach Shabar's primary currency comes from black slate pieces, hewn into squares and marked either with carving or with white chalk or paint. These typically act to supplement trade between warbands, rather than the primary mode of wealth transfer. Most trade is done with bartering, these slate coins only factoring in for either small transactions or when the two sides are imbalanced and an agreement is difficult to reach. Outside of Shabar, orcs often have difficulty integrating into society, but can find work in construction, mining, logging and other manual labour due to their immense statures.

• Skoiasu’s tropical climate and plentiful wetlands result in an incredibly verdant nation. Drained marshes are used for pastures or fields for growing crops, but the wet climate also lends itself to the growing of rice and other paddy crops. Image credit: Trekearth user anhnguyen In addition to staple crops, Skoiasu also produces hardwoods, dyes and other luxury items such as sugar. Skoiasu's trade with Tesman (via Jafleaye, primarily) involves the export of various dried plants and derived substances for use in Tesman's shamanic rituals. Like Jafleaye, Skoiasu also has a proud tradition of academia which dates back to its founding and the establishment of the first Ivory Tower.

Image credit: Vincent Ko Hon Chiu

• The Aspuan archipelago is also rich in natural resources, mostly precious metals and gems, and on the mainland, traditional merfolk artwork fetches very high prices. Historically, items such as conch shells, saltwater pearls and pieces of coral had been used by the merfolk as currency and these continue to be crucial parts of the undersea economy. Image credit: David Doubilet, National Geographic Above the waves, Aspuan craftsmen work their natural resources into beautiful jewelry, seen as representative of the country's fabled paradisiacal nature. Merfolk in the Aspuan will serve Jafleaye merchants as navigators, guides and salvagers, being intimately familiar with the world beneath the waves, though this often leads to their being accused of intentional scuppering of merchant vessels. Image credit: CNN

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