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brossession-collection · 4 months

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Dad's Cam Show (Re-uploaded)

Note: This is a story I wrote in 2020 that was previously deleted by Tumblr. Couldn't find it until I stumbled upon am old hard drive. Hope you enjoy.

This social distancing shit is so boring. I get it. It’s needed. But god damn am I running out of things to do. Can’t even meet the guys I’ve been talking to on Grindr. Worse yet is that I’m stuck back at home. I was supposed to graduate college this year! Instead I was slumped over a computer screen in my PJs with my dad making his special pancakes. Ugh. Fuck this shit. I just wish I could go back to a better time.

Whatever. I’m done complaining. Dad’s getting groceries which means I can snoop around his shit. Yeah I’m that bored.

Dad’s a big burly guy. Heading into his mid-forties now and starting to gray up a little, but still keeping his body builder life style. He’s pretty open with me. He told me he used to do cam shows back before livestreams were even a thing. Made sense. Had to show off the bod somehow. Don’t know how mom thought about it but whatever. She’s out of the picture.

His room always had a musky woodsy cologne-y smell. His laundry hamper was even better. I always loved taking his briefs out of there and putting them on myself. I’ve been following his footsteps and bodybuilding myself, but I’m still a ways away before I have an ass and waist as large as his. So his 36in undies droop a bit. I grabbed his black cap too. Man. He loves this thing. Well, plus the 10 others caps he has. He always had it topping his head. Pretty sure he wears it to sleep too. I put it on and flexed like him. I got a bit of a boner but nothing crazy.

His dinosaur of a laptop was open, and logged in. I know I shouldn’t have, but I did it anyways. There were so many folders within folders. So much boring shit… and then I found “cam pics.”

The briefs I was wearing tented and wetted. Fuck I was so scared to open it. But I clicked it and… In there was only one image. I clicked on it to make it bigger and it was my dad. About 13 years ago. He was shirtless, and wearing the same cap that I have on my head right now. My eyes drifted from his hairy arms to his chest to eventually his bearded face. He looked so… tired? There was something about the softness in his expression that really got to me. And then…

“Hey son! I’m home! Could ya help me with the groceries?”

Shit. I got up and scrambled. The briefs were soaked and still being soaked. I had so many windows to close out of. Then I started hearing his footsteps come closer. I panicked and grabbed the top of the laptop to close it, but I couldn’t move. Suddenly, all the windows on the screen started to close. All except for the image of dad I had opened it. It enlarged by itself, and then the laptop started to fucking shake. I tried to get it to stop but it just kept rumbling. Fuck it. I wound up my fist and punched the screen. But there was no impact.

In less than a second my body followed my wrist into the screen. Everything went bright, and I was in a different room. I looked around. It looked like my parents’ room at our old house. The same laptop was in front of me showing the same image as before. Dad’s younger face looking back… And then I saw his eyes move. I froze. I looked at the time. 12:56 turned to 12:57. This wasn’t an image. It was a fucking livestream.

I slowly tilted my head. Dad did the same. I widened my eyes. So did dad. A smile crept over our faces. I just time travelled! And into dad’s body! Fuck there was so much I could do now!

“PING”

A old-school AIM notification popped up on screen. I maneuvered dad’s hand to the mouse and clicked on it. “Hey daddy. You gonna give us a show or what?”

“PING”

“Let’s see those hairy pits man!”

Fuck. I guess dad wasn’t kidding about these cam shows. Shit how do I reply? Do I just say something?

“Uh…” I gulped. Dad’s gruff voice was in my throat. “You guys mean… uh… this?” I lifted and flexed dad’s right arm. Immediately his armpit hair bursted out. Moist and smelly. My nose naturally turned towards the sweaty pit. Holy fuck was it musky. I took a deep whiff and groaned.

“PING. PING. PING. PING.”

“Fuck yeah daddy. Sniff that pit.”

“God damn you’re a big guy. How’s it feel huh?”

It felt amazing being so big. Watching everything I was doing be reflected by my dad on the recording was even better. The cockiness came in.

I wheeled the office chair back and did a double bicep pose. Sweat dripped off his hairy pits. I gave my face a rub and felt his beard scratch against his callused fingers. Then my hands felt the need to go down to his chest. I never felt so much pleasure from nipple rubbing in my life. The pings kept on coming. It was euphoric.

Dad’s cock was tenting the briefs I had put on earlier. I uncaged his 7 incher and let out a whiff of junk musk that filtered into my nose immediately. I started stroking and couldn’t stop. My other hand reached under dad’s taint, through the forest of pubes, and rammed a dildo into my dad’s ass crack.

“PING. PING. PING.”

“Holy fuck this is new! We gonna see a fingering show today!?”

“God damn man you enjoying yourself?”

I was. Everytime Dad’s moans left my throat I felt cock twitch a little bit harder. It just felt so amazing to feel his beefy arms rub against his beefy chest. His toes curling with every electric shock of pleasure moving through his beefy ass and legs.

I shot his load. Let out a gutteral yell. And it didn’t stop coming. My beard was soaked with three shots of cum. Chest was drenched with eight more. At this point, sweat was trickling down my temples. I relished in dad’s orgasm and then relaxed in the chair.

I watched as the notifications went crazy. Dad’s soft eyes housing my consciousness. Ugh. It felt incredible. I glanced over at his hat and felt the need to take it off. I did, and felt a wave of cool relief come off my head. Dad’s hair was cropped short, like a messy crew cut. And it was dripping with sweat. I felt the need to say something.“You like that, men?” Dad had so much suave in voice. The pings accelerated.I smiled and played with my cock. I could feel another round coming but felt a bigger presence unfold. Suddenly dad’s body started to shake. I tried controlling it, but I couldn’t weigh him down. My arms were flailing before my hands grabbed onto the edges of the desk. I whipped my head back, then head-butted the laptop screen. Light filtered through.

I was back at home, in my dad’s loose fitting briefs, his cap nestled on my head. Dad’s footsteps came by, then turned another direction. Guess he wasn’t coming by his room just yet. I looked down at his briefs, now soaked with my cum. Fuck. Was it just a dream?

It must’ve been. Just a fucking horny fever dream. What the fuck ever. Better than what I had been doing up until now. I leaned over to close the laptop but noticed something.

The image had turned into a recording.

#possession #hairy #bear #jock #ghost #male possession #male body swap #dad #beefy #stinky

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trollartistry · 6 months

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Hello, I'm Nemi and I'm trying to get me and my cat to the UK to be with the love of my life, Harry.

We first met when we were just pre-teens on the internet, obsessing over Sonic the Hedgehog. We became best friends, and then three years later we found out we both had feelings for eachother and became a couple! 10 years have flown by since, with us alternating who flies over and visits the other. Marriage and a life together had became our goal 5 years into the relationship, and it's still our goal today.

Originally, we were supposed to get things done in 2020. We all know why that didn't happen (thanks COVID) so we've begun to try and get things started back in January this year, when we got engaged.

And then.... we got hit with a curveball just 2 weeks before Christmas. The UK government is changing up visa requirements to an unreachable level for my fiance and I and it could mean the end of our relationship if we don't go through with this *NOW*.

We have less than 4 months to try and scrounge up +$3k to move my cat and I to the UK and unite with Harry for good. We both have jobs, but we barely started saving for this goal as we *thought* we had several years to go still.

Any donation made here is going straight to funding everything that is needed for this huge event in my life. The spouse visa fees, the biometric fees, the fees to get my cat prepared for the travel, and the flight itself. I have decided to abandon all personal items in my possession besides a suitcase of clothes and a laptop bag with my laptop in it, so I do not have to deal with moving my stuff on top of everything else.

Any sort of support, whether donation or boosting this, is really appreciated. Even just reading through this, I appreciate it!

Please help my fiance and I unite once and for all.

#nemi babbles #gofundme #donation #donate #help #financial help #gfm #donation post #mutual aid #donations needed #good cause #nonprofit #fundraising

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streetlites · 6 months

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Top 2023 2020-2023 highlights ✨

I was tagged by the amazing @budgie2budgie , thank you for the tag!

Unfortunately, I have really fallen off since 2020 and this year is the first year I have barely posted any of my own sims content. So I felt like I had to cast a wider net (otherwise it was going to be all gameplay content from January. Bleh.).

Enjoy the covid-era highlights in no particular oder:

Civagua neighborhood shot. I really like seeing the divide between it and "myshuno" proper towering over it.

Does it have pink, purple, and blue neon tones? I LOVE it. 🥴 Here's JJ walking in the citadel for the first time - even if it is "Crate Town".

Showing future Vera in her space apartment... that I completely lost when my old laptop bit the dust. The massive aquarium in her apartment is supposed to show how extravagant and well off she becomes in her own right.

This is my favorite because of what the attendant was watching. Also, the whole post was a kind of ridiculous introduction of an earther moving to one of the major space stations.

One off featuring Yahaira . I really like thinking about living concepts and what I can pull off with the cc I have.

Tag game where I chose to show the Lambermorts dancing under the Lambermort Tree.

A shot I didn't use for the D+D prologue, but IT'S SO SHINY!

I really love doing the D+D prologue. I have a lot of fun with it and I think it shows. I also had to try to limit my choices for it, otherwise all my selections would come from it. Either that or all 10 should be Orinthal singing Don't Stop Believin' in a medieval tavern. Or Jack Brassrager grinding on a wooden pole 😭

This was from a song tag and I chose Miss World by Hole. The entire live through this album reminds me of high school so I made a teen self sim in her teen shithole room smoking and doing who knows what else while her parents are not around.

I needed a 10th and so ab.so.lutely had to include Jack Brassrager in his robes and wizard hat. 💖

And there we have it! I'm not sure who to tag because I sat on this for a while, but if you want to do it, I totally tagged you - it's just not showing up for some reason...

#ts4 #year(s) in review #tagged #self indulgent #😅

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quillbriar · 7 months

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I LOVED your grace and Steph head canons. do you have any more to share with the class?

hi! thank you so much! I don't have any more head canons at the moment, but I can share an excerpt from a draft of a Steph x Grace fic!

Stephanie Lauter huffs as she rummages through the “Hatchetfield Honey Festival 2015” tote bag. Ms. Tessburger tossed in the donation bin but Steph was running late and needed a vessel to put her laptop in after her Jansport broke. And, then, replacing it never seemed that big a priority. The design with the bee and the skyline of Main Street was just as cute as anything she could buy at Hot Topic. She made sure to send Ziggs a selfie with the bag, appreciating their artwork. Currently, however, she can only curse the bag. How big does a stupid promotional bag need to be? How many tubes of the same color lipstick can Steph have possibly thrown in there? Why does she have so many receipts—who even uses receipts now, it’s 2020! I thought we were trying to save the planet, people!

“Cherry on top of an already perfect day,” Steph grumbles, barely sparing a look at the barista waiting for her to pay, “look, man, I don’t have my card. I thought I fucking did, but I guess I fucking don’t. So, I’m sorry—I apologize and I’ll get out of your hair so you can help—”

“I can cover it for you,” a soft, unsure voice pipes up from behind Steph in line.

Steph’s heart melts and her shoulders collapse in relief. She turns around, the words halfway out her mouth, “that’s really nice, thank-” Seeing who offered to pay stops her words, an involuntary bodily reaction to coming face to face with Grace Chasity. Steph can’t move, she’s stuck, forever halfway turned around to face her enemy. Grace, for her part, just smiles like the angel she is and pushes past Steph to give Emma a $10 bill.

Emma smiles slightly at Grace before returning her face back to its slacker stasis. She hands Steph her caramel cold brew with sarcasm coloring her words as she parrots the parting Nora drilled into her on her first training shift so many months ago.

#quillbriar #steph x grace

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gwheelerinvestigation · 7 months

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Comprehensive Timeline of the Events So Far

it's come to my attention that my old timeline was probably very outdated.

1950s-1970s: MKUltra. Some crazy advancement is made that allows later events to take place.

1992-2001: The Living Brain Project. A multinational team made up of hundreds of researchers - many of them former war criminals from Nazi Germany, Japan, and Spain - is conscripted by the US government for a top-secret project. This project involved creating and then killing 999 Simulacra, and mixing their souls/code together to create an amalgamation called the Living Brain, which was portioned into exactly 14,985 flash drives.

3/30/2008: Years after the project was canned by the government, the Alaskan facility that housed the Living Brain Project is entered again for an unknown purpose.

2008-2009: "C.J.", last name unknown, somehow obtains parts of the Living Brain Project Material and begins using it to develop AI beings for a video game that became known as Urrezko Kaiola.

2009-2011: Urrezko Kaiola is beta tested. There are 28 people known to have been involved with the project, including C.J., Abigail and Caroline Wheeler, Jesus "Carmello" de la Rosa, Ross J. Blackwood, Ashton Alexander, Je-eun and Seo-hyun Park, Sarah Williams, Rose Bennett, Eric Ramirez, Kieran M. Jacobs, Kenneth G. Peterson, Maria and David Taylor, and Joshua Campbell.

Early 2012: Urrezko Kaiola is finished.

November 2012: Sarah Williams is found dead. Coroner's report indicates she was electrocuted, death ruled an accident.

May 2013: Abigail Wheeler goes missing.

1/31/2014: Abigail Wheeler is declared dead.

March 2014: Eric Ramirez is found dead in his house by a mailman with two gunshot wounds, one in his chest and one in his head. Death ruled suicide (how was it ruled a suicide?)

4/13/2014: my sister Caroline Wheeler attempts to murder a man, presumed to be C.J., with an illegally owned pistol, but he survives due to body armor. one onlooker is injured. Caroline is arrested.

June 2014: I inherit my sister Abigail's laptop. On it is a game that I played a lot as a bored young teenager. Only recently did I find out that it was apparently an earlier version of a game that would be released to the public much later (see 9/22/2017)

July 2014: Ross J. Blackwood goes missing. He was declared dead within two weeks of his disappearance (why so fast?)

7/31/2014: Caroline Wheeler is sentenced to 9-13 years in prison + 10 years of probation for attempted murder, aggravated assault, and other charges. She would much later make up a false story that I believed for years that she was falsely convicted for Abigail's disappearance instead.

Sometime in 2014: Ashton Alexander breaks into the complex that houses Urrezko Kaiola. He is caught and arrested, and imprisoned for five to six years for breaking and entering.

Summer 2015: Jesus "Carmello" de la Rosa goes missing. As of writing he has not been declared dead. The California property that houses Urrezko Kaiola's systems is allegedly still registered in his name.

December 2015: Kenneth G. Peterson dies in a shootout with the LAPD after a carjacking turned into a shootout.

May 2016: Rose Bennett goes missing.

July 2017: Maria and David Taylor are killed in a drive-by shooting. No suspects were ever arrested.

9/22/2017: Doki Doki Literature Club!!, a polished version of the horror game I played as a kid, is released. This might have Living Brain involvement as well. It was supposedly made by a guy named Dan Salvato.

Spring 2018: Je-eun and Seo-hyun Park are kidnapped at Jeju International Airport by undercover North Korean agents and smuggled across the border. (were they defectors?)

Summer 2018: An album called Urrezko kaiola is released by a Basque punk rock band. (is this even related? coincidence?) at this point, i'm pretty sure this is not related. but i'm keeping it on the timeline cause i like the song

2019: Kieran M. Jacobs goes missing.

January 2020: Ashton Alexander is released from prison.

3/30/2020: Urrezko Kaiola begins being released for consumption for free on the internet with Chapter Zero. Allegedly this version is "sanitized", lacking many of the more overtly dangerous/potentially supernatural elements of the original version. (similarity with DDLC?)

4/3/2020: Chapter One is released.

4/11/2020: Chapter Two is released.

4/13/2020: I get into contact with Ashton Alexander, the other only beta tester I've yet found besides my sisters.

Also 4/13/2020: Another entry into the former Living Brain Project facility is made.

9/5/2020: Chapter Three is released.

9/19/2020: Chapter Four is released.

September 2020: Ashton begins exhibiting strange behaviors and not answering calls. When he can be heard from, he is incoherent.

October 2020: K begins investigating both the events of Urrezko Kaiola and the Living Brain Project.

12/5/2020: Chapter Five is released.

3/8/2021: Chapter Six is released.

3/11/2021: Another entry to the Living Brain Project facility is made, that cannot be accounted for by K's entries.

9/16/2021: I get burgers with Ashton. He ominously states that he "has to do something" and "has to finish his work" before bolting into traffic. When I finally find him, he's leaning over the bridge. He says that this is the last step he needs to take to be "whole". He implores me to "take notes" and "watch what happens next", before jumping off of the 500' drop off the bridge. His body is never discovered.

Also 9/16/2021: Chapter Seven is released.

February 2022: I begin investigating the strange AI characters in earnest.

11/17/2022: Due to the degradation of the platform under Elon Musk, the Urrezko Kaiola characters stage a mass exodus of Twitter (now known as X).

12/4/2022: I create this Tumblr account.

8/21/2023: Chapter Eight is released.

#urrezko kaiola #investigation #timeline

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villainsandvictimsalliance · 10 months

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Where would say BNHA is placed on your scale of favourite manga?

I was just discussing that with my sister. I think it's on the top 10 and maybe on the top 5, tbh.

There are mangas like Katekyo Hitman Reborn, Naruto and Kaichou Wa Maid-Sama that are higher because they marked my childhood and the way I read manga, then there are newer mangas like Akane Banashi that I know I'll go back to constantly for comfort and for the quality of the story. **In fact, khr and kwms are the only two mangas I have completely download on my laptop lol.

The actual top 8 would look like this:

*Note: there most be others, but I can't remember them right now lol

Katekyo Hitman Reborn (re-read annually / since 2010's)

Naruto (I'm constantly re-reading passages / since 2000's)

Kaichou Wa Maid-Sama (re-read every few of years / since 2010's)

Pandora Hearts (never finished reading, still it lives in my mind rent free like a parasite / since 2010's)

Akane Banashi (I started reading it this month)

Boku No Hero Academia (up to date / since 2020's)

Ron Kamonohashi Deranged Detective (up to date / since the very beginning of the manga)

Vanitas No Carte (up to date / I've rewatch the anime like then times since it came out)

#shan's asks

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caltropspress · 1 year

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RAPS + CRAFTS #13: Algernon Cornelius

1. Introduce yourself. Past projects? Current projects?

I’m Algernon Cornelius, producer/rapper based in Manchester (UK). A lot of my early work consists of instrumental beat-tapes (which can be found on my bandcamp), along with collaborative works like Mortal Deck, as well as some side-projects like Philip K. Dickhead. I wrote my first rap in 1993 (co-written with my Dad tbf), but didn’t start writing properly until 2003. Around the same time I started producing by making pause tapes in a little cassette recorder and then by the same process but with cheap CD turntables into an Archos Gmini 402 mp4 player. I started using Cubase in 2005 and then moved on to Ableton in 2014.

Somewhere along this path I briefly let go of rapping to focus more on beat-making, that is until about 2016 when I made the song “Zero Hour Contract” (the vocals were recorded on a dictaphone). That return to writing was most likely sparked by hearing ELUCID’s Valley Of Grace record. I followed that up with another single: “Witchita”.

There are multiple stories you can choose to follow when you explore my discography. Perhaps the easiest route is through the rap time-line, which is as follows…

Neither Gloaming Nor Argent: Both Before And After The Dark (2020)

The Miraculous Weapons of Clarkus_Dark (2021)

Me No Sen You No Come (2022)

SEGUNDO (2023) NGNA is a compilation of singles I recorded before, during and after the making of MWxxCD (think 13 Songs by Fugazi or The Sagas Of… by Klashnekoff). MWxxCD is my debut album. MNSYNC is an EP, and SEGUNDO is my 2nd album.

2. Where do you write? Do you have a routine time you write? Do you discipline yourself, or just let the words come when they will? Do you typically write on a daily basis?

I wish I did write on a daily basis, but most of the time I just ponder about living my life being busy or procrastinating, until something hits me. Usually it’s one line that sounds interesting or funny to me. There have been times when I’ve tried to be more disciplined and write something every day. These bursts typically happen in the new year and then eventually fade away, in that respect being undisciplined is my discipline. But when it comes to it I can be anywhere. For this album specifically I went back home to the house I grew up in while my parents were away and just wrote for 10 days straight (probably helped that I got covid and couldn’t leave). I set everything up in the dining room and had the mic in one hand to record demos as I wrote with the other. I’ve never really written in that way before, but it was definitely good for me. Being alone, and having a mission, and knowing exactly how my voice would sound as I was writing. I can’t do that in my current living situation because I live with other people and I’m very self-conscious. I think being in a space I knew well and felt comfortable in really helped too.

I don’t write everyday, but ideas are usually always kicking around. I like to leave room for experiences to write about.

3. What’s your medium—pen and paper, laptop, on your phone? Or do you compose a verse in your head and keep it there until it’s time to record?

It used to be a pen and sheets of A4 white paper. Then it became lined notebooks. Then it was my laptop. In the past five years or so it has been in the notes app on my phone, and then typed up in a Google doc where it can be edited and refined. I can’t keep new lyrics in my head for long because they tend to metamorphosise into something else very quickly, so they have to be preserved outside the brain. I’ll then rehearse over and over until I know it off-top and it becomes muscle memory, because I would rather not be reading off something in the booth (that isn’t always possible with last minute rewrites). The best way is if I can play it live a few times because then I really get a feel for it and know what the energy is like and I have more confidence behind the flow, I know what the pockets should feel like.

4. Do you write in bars, or is it more disorganized than that?

Oh it’s very disorganised. But then again that can depend on the beat. Some songs encourage more free-form structure.

5. How long into writing a verse or a song do you know it’s not working out the way you had in mind? Do you trash the material forever, or do you keep the discarded material to be reworked later?

I think when I feel uncomfortable or cringe is when I know it’s not working. I know you have to kill the part of you that cringes but that’s 100 gecs' job. You really have to feel genuine with what you’re saying, and that’s an integrity that keeps you grounded in who you are as an artist. That gets a lot easier as you get older and you don’t have to put on a voice or adopt certain language.

My line of thinking is that it begins with a jump-off, so the first line is the provocateur. The attention grabber. Often this may not have anything to do with the rest of the verse, but it’s integral to getting to the rest of it. The big bang. In this way my verses probably tend to make more sense towards the end.

I try to keep everything, and this is why I would like to move back to writing on paper. I kept everything on paper. In a Google Doc it’s very easy to erase history. With SEGUNDO I tried to not be scared of the rewrite. I can be very precious about my work, but I had to give the mic to the voice that says “you can do better”.

6. Have you engaged with any other type of writing, whether presently or in the past? Fiction? Poetry? Playwriting? If so, how has that mode influenced your songwriting?

I have loved writing since forever. I was always writing stories as a kid and got a lot of encouragement from my English teachers at school. I still somewhat regret not taking English Literature at 6th Form (age 16-18 in the UK). I’ve been writing a lot more poetry recently and have sketched out some ideas for short sci-fi stories, and at some point want to go into script writing and learn to make films. I used to write about music a lot, for a few blogs and some larger platforms that shall remain nameless. I don’t know if that’s influenced my songwriting because rap is what got me into playing with language, so that informs everything else.

7. How much editing do you do after initially writing a verse/song? Do you labor over verses, working on them over a long period of time, or do you start and finish a piece in a quick burst?

I am trying to edit more. That was a key thing in the making of these last two records. I take ages to start things but once I get going it’s very quick, so it’s more like a stream of consciousness ting. You can end up trying to cram in too many ideas that way, and with SEGUNDO specifically I wanted to introduce more space in my rhymes, so I would cut some things to make that happen. Songs like “...AND THE LIVING” happened very quickly, but with “WHERE WE ARE” and “PLAGUES” there were several different versions I made until it sounded right. When something happens quickly I often have no memory of how it happened, it feels like it comes from another place (manic brain memory loss).

8. Do you write to a beat, or do you adjust and tweak lyrics to fit a beat?

I go through different waves. When I’m not writing for a project I just stream a load of bars out and have them all in a document. Most of the time these can’t fit to any of the music that I write, but I can nick certain lines that fit. “I Am Not The Moon” from Miraculous Weapons used a lot of lyrics from a couple of verses I wrote over a loop of The Wanton Song by Led Zeppelin when I was 18. I carry several verses around in my head that can’t really squish into a typical song format. I keep them there in case there was ever a situation where I got into a cypher and needed to prove something. As yet this has never happened, and may never will, perhaps this only happens in movies. I will just keep reciting them in the shower until that day comes. But when it’s for a project the beats always come first, so I’m gonna sit down and go through in sequential order and write like that. Doing it that way you’re carving out a route so the listener can follow your path (that is of course if they listen to albums front to back in one sitting and not on shuffle).

9. What dictates the direction of your lyrics? Are you led by an idea or topic you have in mind beforehand? Is it stream-of-consciousness? Is what you come up with determined by the constraint of the rhymes?

The music, first and foremost. That’s always the mood setter. That’s why the stuff I write without music tends to be more random and glitchy. In fact I have a load of stuff like this which I’m planning to release as a poetry book later this year called The Glitch and the Goof. But when I’m working on a record I make all the beats first and then sequence the album because it has to make sense musically, the instrumentals dictate the journey you’re gonna go on. Also whatever I name the instrumental when I export it, that usually informs the direction. I should probably be more careful with that. Although “Stress” was originally called “Night Goat” (after the Melvins song) and there was no mention of goats in that. There aren’t many of my songs that stick to one subject (Kool Moe Dee definitely would’ve scored me low for sticking to themes). On “DUNKEL” I do and that’s because of the sample, which is literally saying “dark” so that was the direction I gave Val and myself. “DECEMBER 25” is obviously one of the most focused theme-wise because I’m trying to tell a very specific story and it’s perhaps the most clear and personal I’ve been on a track. Funnily enough that song came about because I was working a temp job at a University and my fellow temp comrade (the only other black guy who worked there, it’s actually incredible they allowed 2 of us to work on the front desk at the same time now that I think about it), anyway we were chatting about white English reactions to diaspora foods, like having rice with your Sunday roast and how kids in school thought that was weird, but it was normal for us. We laughed about it and then I thought about it for a minute and wrote down “rice in my roast, what the whites will never know”. That’s the jump-off line right there. And as I already had the loop I wanted to sample for it in my head on rotation (it had been stuck in my head for almost 2 years), by the time I was on the bus home I just continued writing on my phone. The mood was already set and I just started thinking about this story I wanted to tell. I got home and immediately looped that shit up and then worked more lyrics around it, following the bassline.

In terms of being constrained by the rhymes, I think yes this can happen, but then it’s all about vocab and finding ways back home if you go too far out. The patterns you weave doing that can be beautiful. That’s like looking at a brain-scan create an Etch-a-Sketch. Having that constraint can pull out some wild juxtapositions and create a really interesting image.

10. Do you like to experiment with different forms and rhyme schemes, or do you keep your bars free and flexible?

Absolutely. I always think about Method Man, especially on his earlier records, where he basically switches up the flow almost every line. That’s the stuff that got me so excited as a kid. As a rapper you are just an instrument, so as you would with drums or a bassline or a keyboard, you can switch it up to take the song somewhere. It’s always about what’s best for the song for me. I don’t like to get too self-indulgent as an emcee. I am no better than the beat really, I’m part of an ensemble cast, and we’re all working for the song. I don’t tend to think about my rhyme schemes as methodically as I used to, perhaps because it comes more naturally to me now, but I remember for a while I was experimenting with reverse compound structures where the 2nd line would be close enough to a phonetic reverse of the previous line. I have a crude example from an unreleased song where I say: “High-hitting hats when I relapse into narcosis / Whenever I’m focused you can tell where I have been at with my hidden eye” Maybe I will go back to getting more scientific with ideas like this.

11. What’s a verse you’re particularly proud of, one where you met the vision for what you desire to do with your lyrics?

On SEGUNDO I think “DECEMBER 25” obviously because it took a lot for me to get there. I mean really that’s one of the reasons why it’s the last track on the album. I don’t think there’s been a time where I’ve listened back to that song and I haven’t cried, so it did what it was supposed to do. That was a similar case with “Adieu” from NGNA. “CLOY ROYSTER” because that’s probably the closest I’ll ever get to a true freestyle (I can’t freestyle for shit). The 2nd verse of “Tentative”, which originally I left open for a guest but then I ended up surpassing my own expectations (I originally gave the beat to R.A.P. Ferreira but then ended up using it on my album, then he came back with “No Word For Wack” which ended up on the Ruby Yacht album). ”Lightning Bolt” as well, that was a real one. I wrote the lyrics, made the beat, recorded it and then posted it on bandcamp maybe all within 2 hours. Extremely raw shit. (It’s called "Lightning Bolt" because that’s who I was going to see play a gig that night). That’s actually an example of where I wrote it all out on a piece of paper first and then made it fit to the beat, and I mean it helps that the beat doesn’t have any drums, it’s just six pads of noise. “Notes On A Native Sound” was written from a dream I had the same night I made the beat and I feel that’s maybe one of the most synergetic songs in terms of the music and lyrics. It all came out of two sides of the same trip.

12. Can you pick a favorite bar of yours and describe the genesis of it?

“Flexi disc under the x-ray / Mexican death day / Haters wanna flex I slip their disc and press play (…AND THE LIVING)

Like I don’t care if anyone rates that or not, for me it always makes me feel like this and that’s all I ever wanna do for myself. I had that line in my head for time, just a silly little boast innit? But with some very niche deep Wikipedia level references. Also me and my peers have very serious concerns about back pain. “Become a man before the onus is on the shoulders of the taurus / And the horns begin to grow again, blow through them / The tone of brass bones does not atone for intonation" (The Flood)

Men go a bit weird in their late 20’s, you ever notice that? This was sort of a way of saying check yourself before you wreck yourself. I used 3 zodiac signs for Miraculous Weapons; the Bull (Taurus), Snake and Crab (Cancer), and they all work as points of reference across the album. A lot of it is to do with ideas of fate, determinism and essentialism and trying to escape that (which actually I've just realised that’s at the core of most of my work). The titular Clarkus_Dark is basically the bad character (as Lord Quas might say). My dad used to have this Shofar in the house which I used to play with (he was a religious studies teacher) so that’s probably where I got that imagery. I also used to play trombone so there’s your brass bones, and you can hear some trombone at the end of “How Good’s The Funeral?”. It’s all tied together. Now that I think of it this was also one where I wrote the lyrics before the music and then made it fit afterwards too. Cat, who is the first person you hear whisper “SEGUNDO” at the start of the album, I wrote that in her living room in the middle of a crisis.

13. Do you feel strongly one way or another about punch-ins? Will you whittle a bar down in order to account for breath control, or are you comfortable punching-in so you don’t have to sacrifice any words?

Punching-in I have no qualms about. Like I said before it’s about what’s best for the song. There are cases when a punch-in can fuck up the flow, there are cases where cutting out a breath can make it sound too clinical. Just depends on what you want out of the recording. I’m getting better at editing stuff down in the writing so it’s about clarity and rhythm. I’ll preface this with the fact that I’m old enough where I’m going to use Big Daddy Kane as an example…but you know when you’re starting out you just wanna show off and fit as many syllables in a line as possible (yeah, like Big Daddy Kane)? Well when you play live you come to the compromise, because I have so much energy I need to get off I can’t be running about and do all that, especially as I get older. No matter how much I push I have to understand my body has limits, so then it becomes a choice of what you’re trying to give. Is it lyrical-miracle virtuosity? Or clarity? What is going to connect with your audience? Because at the end of the day that’s what you’re trying to do, you have to make a connection otherwise there’s no point.

14. What non-hiphop material do you turn to for inspiration? What non-music has influenced your work recently?

Definitely films. For SEGUNDO there were things about Spike Lee joints that informed the feeling in songs like “PLAGUES” and “CURRY MILE”, in particular his use of the double dolly technique. I wanted to do that with music. When I was writing I rinsed seasons 3 and 4 of Top Boy, the Andy Warhol documentary on Netflix, The Power of the Dog, Call My Agent! and Fast & the Furious 9. Obviously I’m not sure how that last one had any effect on me, but the hook in SEGUNDO was inspired by Basquiat in the Warhol doc.

I’d never really dipped that heavily into the work of David Lynch before, and I had wondered if it was just too late for me. Like is all the weirdo shit I already like just jacked from Uncle DL? But I saw Mulholland Drive for the first time and it shook me pretty deep, like really got right inside me in a very particular way that I don’t know how to put into words, and there’s not that many films that have done that. That kind of made me think differently about the structure of SEGUNDO and what it meant, because to be honest the meaning was missing for me for a long time and it felt like the process of making this album was almost in search of that, and then towards the end it started to make sense, but as if the answer had always been there. The lyrics to “SLOW WOUND” are mostly inspired by Mulholland Drive if you look closely enough.

I’m always inspired by food, I’m always thinking about that. It’s so tied to memory. Sometimes I can’t remember the details of a certain trip somewhere but I can tell you exactly what I ate and what it tasted like and how it made me feel.

A lot of SEGUNDO was inspired by nature. Again it’s about space but in many forms. The pandemic is what set that off, everything became still and empty, internally and externally. I was locked down in Manchester so I ended up taking huge walks out to anything that remotely resembled a bit of countryside, a park or a bit of woodland surrounded by a highway. I grew up right in the middle of the North Yorkshire Dales and Moors, there was so much expansive space there, your mind could just wander off into the distance. Can’t see shit for terrace houses here in Old Trafford, it’s like being trapped on the set of Coronation Street (I wrote this and then afterwards took a walk to the shop for some caraway seeds and the sun was beaming and the red bricks look so gorgeous in the light, so it’s not always so gloomy to be fair)

When some of the lockdown restrictions were lifted, me and my girlfriend’s first trip was to a remote converted farmhouse on the side of a mountain in North Wales. Some days you’d be trapped indoors because a huge rain cloud had engulfed everything, but on sunny days you could see as far as the Lake District and the Isle of Man. You’d set off on a walk and you’d maybe meet 1 or 2 people all day, unless you walked 5 miles to the nearest village pub. There were more wild ponies and sheep than people. That was a really important time for me where I could have the space to think while the music of SEGUNDO circled in my head.

Another trip like that was when we went up to the Scottish highlands (to stay with my girlfriend’s friend (Sarah Bernstein who is also a writer), again very remote. You’d wake up one morning and see a pod of dolphins making their way across the bay. It was in September so all the purple heather was in bloom. I was getting high just looking at all that purple, it looked like them Richard Mosse photographs of The Congo. That’s what inspired the autotuned part in CURRY MILE. It may have been born in south Manchester, and then settled in Snowdonia, but it grew wings in the highlands. I think there’s more of a nature sound on this record, it’s like halfway between the concrete streets and nature. Like there’s earth, air, ice, water, moss and a small fire trying to stay alight under it all.

15. Writers are often saddled with self-doubt. Do you struggle to like your own shit, or does it all sound dope to you?

I constantly have self-doubt. I’d argue that’s what keeps me in check, but if there’s too much of it it becomes a real hindrance. I love my own shit but I have had to work for it. I always think of myself as someone to whom rapping does not come naturally. First off I’m from this cursed island of britain, and not even the happening part. There was no culture where I grew up, you had to get it all from television and radio, or movies and magazines. I was the only person I knew who wrote raps or was even into Hip-Hop (apart from Joanne from school who also liked Dizzee Rascal). If I ever came across another rapper it’d be the white kids who were into spitting over Makina and New Monkey type beats. So what I'm saying is I’ve taken many years to find my voice, and being quite isolated from any sort of rap scene has been both a good thing and a bad thing. Maybe my sword would be sharper if I was dueling on the daily. Maybe it’s ok to be a quirked-up country boy curry goated with the sauce busting it down Supreme Clientele style (we’ll get to that later). Either way I've put myself out there on the line and learnt a lot.

When I was 15 I sent my first demo to DJ Excalibah who was doing the late night slot for underground and UK rap on BBC radio 1Xtra (he’s now an acclaimed theatre director), he gave me very honest constructive feedback. Something to the effect of the recording quality was bad (which it was) and I needed to work on my flow and my voice (tell me about it), but that my writing was up there with the best of them. That last part was enough for me to keep going. Meeting people like Moor Mother who was one of the first people to tell me she liked my voice really gave me encouragement to not doubt myself. I try to remember moments like this and do the same for others when they’re out here.

It’s also having good honest mates around you, like Claudia (featured on the final reprise of MAKE THE SUN tagged on the end of CLOY ROYSTER), she suffers from a rare disease where she cannot lie to people, so that’s helpful in knowing what’s good. When James from the band Yard Act started demoing stuff with me for Miraculous Weapons he made a few suggestions to change a couple of lyrics because they were too on the nose, and usually I’m really stubborn and defensive about stuff like that but I trusted his opinion and he was right to be fair. Trust the people that know you.

16. Who’s a rapper you listen to with such a distinguishable style that you need to resist the urge to imitate them?

Ghostface is my anchor. My all time favourite rapper. He gave me the blueprint for my style of free-association. I even did an art project in school based on his verse on "Daytona 500." Him and DOOM (and probably Pos from De La Soul) basically show up in my life when I’m 14/15 and show me how beautiful and fun language can be. So while I may not imitate them per se, they gave me a key to unlock something in myself to put my own spin on how I see the world. Another key rapper I would say is Danny Brown, and that’s mainly because he’s such an anglophile. He bridges the gap between Grime and American rap. He could do a whole album spitting over 140 bpm beats (I mean he does this so effortlessly over Benga’s "26 Basslines"). You can hear that influence on “WHERE WE ARE” for sure. I love Mos Def so much and that’s probably why I gravitated towards Mach-Hommy, it’s the tone and melody they bring. I’m one of those rappers who secretly wishes they were a singer. I’ve always been really big on Dancehall emcees with really gruff voices too. I started doing this growl which I mostly do live, which is partly inspired by more doomy sludgey bands, but you listen to BackRoad Gee and he’s doing something really interesting with it. I played with Sons of Kemet one time and while I was backstage I could hear Shabaka practicing his horn coming through the vent in the next room, and he was listening to drill music and playing along to it. That’s what it is, the voice is an instrument and he shows you that through his music, he’s playing certain lines and I’m immediately thrown back to my living room after school watching emcees on Channel U, he makes very specific references to certain grime flows.

I’d like to think that I have so many influences that they all get mangled together to form something different, or that my bad impressions become a new voice altogether, at least I hope.

17. Do you have an agenda as an artist? Are there overarching concerns you want to communicate to the listener?

At the most basic level I just need something to rap over. I feel something and I wanna say something, so I make something, and then I try to make you feel what I felt. Now with that comes connection, but also unintended misinterpretation. And really the latter is what keeps this whole ting spinning. Evolution is just endless mistakes. Failure upon failure until it works for the moment and then until it doesn’t again. Hip-Hop is all about the flip, not just in terms of flipping samples but shifting perspective, I hope I can do that in my own way to some degree. I also want to just show people how connected they are, bring people together that wouldn’t be able to otherwise. It’s mad when I think of all the people I know and how most of them don’t know each other. You just gotta be a node and keep vibrating higher innit.

RAPS + CRAFTS is a series of questions posed to rappers about their craft and process. It is designed to give respect and credit to their engagement with the art of songwriting. The format is inspired, in part, by Rob McLennan’s 12 or 20 interview series.

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pbandjesse · 1 year

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Today was such a great day. For real I just had such a good time. I wish I walked a little more. But I got a lot of steps in and I will try more every time.

I slept okay last night. Waking up was hard but James was there. They made the bed while I got dressed. And honestly my outfit wasn't my best choice. I would end up a little to cold. But that was okay.

I was still sure I needed to wash my hair tonight but a hat would make me feel better today. James left and I would follow soon after. They had put some dumplings in a container for me and made me a bagel. They take care of me so much.

I had a nice drive out. When I forst got outside I was shocked to see that the little maroon car that has been parked in the same spot since March 2020 is gone????? Where did it go??? A dirt patch was left in it's place.

I drove out to came and got there around 8. I was proud of myself for driving to the right buildings in the right order be susd I saved myself so much time.

I would walk around and make sure everything was where it was supposed to be. And then to the lodge to read over my papers to make sure I had some stuff to fill in the time of my intro. Which is getting better but could still improve.

Soon I would go and find some of my parents volunteers at the office. I was over there getting my knitting. But it was good timing. I brought those three over to the lodge. Gave them the map and walkie and sent them off. Because they would need to find their spaces and get set up and got real the parents today were so on top of it. They were some of the best chaperones I have had.

They brought so much stuff! 8 logs! 10 bags of popcorn! Wipes! String! Jerky! So excellent. And slowly all the other parents came and I would send them off.

And they would do so good. A little before 10 the buses came. And both drivers knew Walter and were happy to hear her retired and was enjoying his time. The teachers had all been here before too. And it was nice to not feel like everyone was confused.

And they were such good kids too. They came in and we got started so fast. So I did my whole intro and was basically done at 1005. When I should be done at 1020. Oops.

So I explained the schedule. And the map. I should have done rules right away but forgot. I would do it before they left but oops. We broke into our animal groups. And then a bathroom break. And then they were off!!

I had a great day. It was snowing just a little. It would eventually become rain. And my coat did pretty well. I am going to do another layer of waterproofing but I am very pleased so far.

I would spend some time wandering. Checking in on everyone. And just. Exploring a bit. I would read. And catch up on my knitting. And have a snack. I would give 5 minute warnings and make sure everyone has everything they needed. And it was just such a lovely day.

I would also go and talk to Elizabeth about being full time. She told me that they are offering this role and one more full time position because of a grant. So that's awesome. And she thinks what I'm going to ask for it reasonable. She put a meeting for me with Alexi to talk about it on the 21st. So fingers crossed that goes well??

I would also talk to Heather later. About how I would need a new laptop to do the job well. And she gave me the contact of someone who used to be at camp who runs a space and is looking for more artists to do workshops! So that's awesome.

And then!! I finally got an email back from the craft castle about workshops and he wants to meet up to chat this week! Ah! Things are going so well. I really feel like financially I am starting to get a handle on things.

My foot would hurt a bit. I split it open a bit and so I stopped walking as much. But I would still check on everyone.

At lunch I went to heat my dumplings up. I read for a little. And then went to tell them to all ehsd to their programs. But then a dad started a screaming competition??? I was baffled. Like we were going to be out of there a minute or so early. But because oft this weird game we were almost late. Thankfully we would remain on time for the last two and I didn't have to stress.

I would make sure everyone knew the best and most helpful way to clean up at the end of the day. And then everyone would head back to the lodge.

We did a debrief. And I asked them lots of questions. Tried to help them make connections. But they were already so smart they were just so lovely.

Once it was time to go I handed the "mic" over to the head teacher and she would get them all on the bus. And then we said goodbye. What a nice day.

It would take me a while to make my way around collecting all the objects. I tried to put everything outside so getting it on the gater would be quick. But it still took me a while. I would head to the office and get the keys and even though it was raining and cold I was having fun driving around. And continued to be very proud of myself for doing tight k turns .

Once everything was loaded up I went to talk to Heather for a while. Love her. She's always the best.

And then texted James to ask about doing chipotle for dinner. It would start to rain again and I made the call to go straight to the museum. We would go and get chipotle together.

The drive to the museum was good though. Some traffic. Saw an accident. But I just enjoyed the drive and would get to the museum by 4.

And James would come out to meet me and we drove over to get dinner.

We ate and talked and the food was good and I was happy. But I was getting really tired.

My evening plans were light. Take off my nail polish. Wash my hair. Draw some sticker ideas (we are thinking about making themed packs. Baltimore being the first theme obviously).

And when we got home I would plan on jumping right into washing up but James beat me to the bathroom. So I went to cast some bears in resin. But I accidently splashed all my resin everywhere and it was a huge mess and I was super upset. James helped me clean it and then I went and took my nail polish off and washed my hair.

And I felt a little better after that. My hair looks and feels a lot better. I would fix my resin bears. And then in bed to work on my stickers. I made a Poe and a John Waters. I am afraid the Poe looks like Vincent Price but I love how they both look. And then it would just be cuddling with Sweetp and watching videos.

Now it is late. James was doing their podcast and had now joined me in bed. I ams really tired. Mostly my body. I am looking forward to two days off.

Tomorrow I want to do some clothes sorting. And then some cleaning. And maybe some art but I don't have any for sure plans around that. I just want to have a chill and good day.

I also hope I can sleep great. I hope you all sleep great too!!! Good night!! Love you!!

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emergingtechnews · 1 year

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Dell Revamps XPS 15 And Brings Again XPS 17

The XPS lineup from Dell has been a resounding success and was the first laptop to feature the ultra-thin bezels that have defined the modern laptop. For 2020, Dell is refreshing the XPS 15 with an all-new design and bringing back the XPS 17 after almost ten years. Both look to set the bar that other manufacturers will try to attain. And thanks to the thin display bezels, both laptops are much smaller than their names would imply. Dell XPS Models Model XPS 15 XPS 17 CPU Intel Core i5-10300H 4C/8T 4.5 GHz Intel Core i7-10750H 6C/12T 5.0 GHz Intel Core i7-10875H 8C/16T 5.1 GHz Intel Core i9-10885H 8C/16T 5.3 GHz GPU NVIDIA GTX 1650 Ti 4GB NVIDIA GTX 1650Ti 4GB NVIDIA RTX 2060 6GB RAM 8-64 GB DDR4-2933 (2 SO-DIMM) Storage 256 GB to 2 TB PCIe SSD Display 15.6-inch 1920x1200 60 Hz 500 nits 1650:1 contrast sRGB 3840x2400 60 Hz Touch 500 nits 1600:1 contrast HDR 400 100% Adobe RBG 94% P3 17.3-inch 1920x1200 60 Hz 500 nits 1650:1 contrast sRGB 3840x2400 60 Hz Touch 500 nits 1600:1 contrast HDR 400 100% Adobe RBG 94% P3 Audio Waves Maxx Audio Waves Nx 3D Audio Quad-Speaker 1.5W x 2 Tweeter 2.5W x 2 Woofer Ports 2 x USB-C Thunderbolt 3 1 x USB Type-C 3.1 SD Card Reader 4 x Thunderbolt 3 SD Card Slot Networking Killer Wi-Fi 6 AX1650 Battery 56 Wh / 86 Wh USB Type-C 90W to 130W charger 56 Wh / 97 Wh USB Type-C 90W to 130W charger Dimensions 345 x 230 x 18 mm 13.57 x 9.06 x 0.71 inches 374 x 248 x 19.5 mm 14.74 x 9.76 x 0.77 inches Weight 1.83 to 2.05 kg 4 to 4.5 lbs 2.11 to 2.51 kg 4.65 to 5.53 lbs Starting Price USD $1,299.99 $1,499.99 XPS 15

Dell’s XPS 15 has been the workhorse of their lineup, offering significantly more CPU and GPU performance than the XPS 13 thanks to 45-Watt CPUs and powerful discrete GPUs. Dell’s redesign adds new options for the CPU and GPU, and updates the design to their new take on the XPS, featuring the same InfinityEdge display, but now in a taller 16:10 aspect ratio which matches the already updated XPS 13. Powering the new XPS is Intel’s new Comet Lake H-Series, with a 45 Watt TDP. Dell is offering Core i5, i7, and i9 models. On the GPU side, Dell is now offering the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti 4BG model, which is in-line with how NVIDIA has revamped their mobile GPU lineup for the year. Customers will be able to add up to 64 GB of DDR4-2933 RAM as well, thanks to the two SO-DIMM slots, and storage options are all PCIe SSDs from 256 GB to 2 TB. Dell is also adding a brand-new cooling system, with a vapor-chamber cooling system and increased airflow. Any additional cooling will be welcome in a system that is as thin and light as the XPS line is. One of the hallmarks of the XPS lineup is the InfinityEdge display, and for 2020’s redesign Dell has created a laptop with a 92.9% screen-to-body ratio, while still managing to fit a 720p webcam and dual microphones in the top bezel. Display options on the XPS 15 are familiar, but thanks to the 16:10 aspect ratio, should be more usable for creating and working. The base display option is a 1920x1200 100% sRGB IPS panel with a 1650:1 contrast ratio and 500 nits of brightness. If you need more, Dell also offers a 3840x2400 touch display with HDR 400, 100% Adobe RGB gamut coverage, and 94% P3 Gamut.

Battery life estimates from Dell are somewhat insane. The optional 86 Wh battery can provide up to 25 hours of battery life with the lower resolution display, which should mean even the UHD display option should offer all-day battery life. Dell has also added 3D sound with Waves Nx 3D Audio, with tuned speakers, or Waves NX headphone tracking to adjust the direction of sound to suit your head movement. Dell has moved entirely to USB-C for this generation, with two Thunderbolt 3 ports and one USB only, and Dell includes several USB-C adapters. The new XPS 15 starts at $1299.99 and availability will be this week. XPS 17

After almost ten years away, Dell is bringing back the XPS 17, thanks to customer demand for larger displays. But thanks to the InfinityEdge display, the new XPS 17 is very compact, with Dell stating it is smaller than 48% of the 15-inch notebooks on the market today. Thin bezel designs look amazing, but the ability to pack a large screen into a much smaller chassis is one of the best reasons to opt for a notebook like this. The new XPS 17 is also Dell’s most powerful XPS ever, with the same CPU choices as the XPS 15, being Intel Comet Lake H Core i5, i7, and i9 models, but with an even larger GPU option. The XPS 17 ships with the same NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti as the XPS 15 in its base trim, but customers can also opt for the much more powerful NVIDIA RTX 2060 if they need even more compute. There are two SO-DIMM slots for up to 64 GB of RAM, and customers can purchase up to 2 TB of PCIe storage when configuring the device. On the display side, the new XPS 17 features the same 16:10 aspect ratio as the rest of the XPS lineup, with base trim offering a 1920x1200 60 Hz display with 500 nits of brightness and 1650:1 contrast for it’s sRGB gamut. Or, like the XPS 15, you can opt for a high DPI panel, with a 3840x2400 resolution and touch. The higher pixel count also includes HDR 400 certification and wide-color gamut support with 100% Adobe RGB and 94% P3.

The larger laptop gets an even larger battery, with either 56 Wh or 97 Wh options. Dell has also added more Thunderbolt 3, with four Thunderbolt 3 ports. The new XPS 17 looks to be a worthy addition to the lineup. It will be available this summer, with prices starting at $1499.99. Source: Dell Tweet PRINT THIS ARTICLE Read the full article

#Dell #Laptops #Notebooks #XPS

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sophieinwonderland · 2 years

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"We’re on Windows 11 now... " What? Why? Did you get a new PC or did your PC do it on its own somehow? Is your host bullying you? Do you need a hug? (as an IT expert, I suggest going back to Windows 10 before it's too late, as Windows 11 is, so far, close to being the Windows 8 of the 2020s; lots of bugs, and less user friendly. On top of that, only Vista had anywhere near this many crashes. My god it was a nightmare the last time I tried working with Windows 11...)

LOL!

Full disclosure: We know next to nothing about computers.

Anyway, our laptop was on Windows 10 for years, then started having trouble it restarting randomly while it was shut. Since getting Window 11, we haven't had that issue anymore. These things might not be connected. Maybe getting Window 11 just updated something else on the computer that needed updated and if we switched back, the issue would still be fixed... but things are working properly for the moment so we're not interested in rocking the boat. 😛

#ask box

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frogprincessmack · 1 month

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So, I love learning about how teenagers lived in the past as a teen in the early 2020s myself. I thought it might be fun to try explore and "romanticize" what my public school life is like! Maybe one day this could be used as some historic document or something, lol.

Let me know if there's anything I should add, as I am one person who goes to a crappy school in Florida.

-Crocs. So so soooo many Crocs. -Upperclassmen tend to come into school in their pajamas. This is meant to be a show of disrespect, as we have spent 10-12 YEARS in schooling only to prepare us for a world that will likely drain all of our energy and soul out of us. It also shows how schooling these days is basically being thrown into a glorified daycare, as all the good teachers tend to quit due to lack of funding. (PAY OUR TEACHERS, PLEASE!!) If you are a younger grade that comes in pajamas though, it's seen as if you're trying too hard to be cool, which you aren't. -It's very rare you'll see assignments given on paper, unless it's group work or if you're teacher is very old. Everything is on a school issued laptop. In my school, you're not even allowed to leave the bathroom without making a DIGITAL HALLPASS!! -Many students care heavily about environmental issues. You are encouraged to VOTE VOTE VOTE as soon as you turn eighteen, as politics is WILD at the moment and the more people who can represent the voices of the younger generation the better. -I think this may just be a weird thing at my school...but athletic students in teams such as Football or Basketball will come to school bringing entire jugs of water. Not a bottle. a JUG. A gallon of water they carry around for the entire day. -I don't see this displayed much on tv, but we don't smoke (of course there's some of us that do, it just isn't as common). We vape. Electronic Cigarettes are the thing, it's rare you'll enter a bathroom without a group of four or more teens vaping together. -There was a trend on the platform Tiktok known as Devious Licks. The goal was to steal the weirdest things you could get your hands on, but it got crazy our of hand. Full sinks, toilets, toilet stalls, cafeteria tables, and MORE got stolen from public institutes. -Many people are reverting back to wearing 90s fashion. -Crop Tops and sweatpants are IN for those that are feminine presenting. It's much harder to come across someone wearing a regular t-shirt, unless a crop top doesn't fit their figure as well. -Social media is a huge part of daily life for everyone. Instagram, Tiktok, YouTube, and Twitter is what is most commonly used. Discord is used as well as a platform to chat with others. Every single one of the clubs in my school have their own Instagram pages to post updates on, I believe it is a requirement to make one if you want to have a club nowadays. -Movements such as ACAB, Black Lives Matter, Free Palestine, and more are running rampant. -Abortions got banned :( -Due to the pop culture phenomenon that was the Barbie Movie, many girls are reclaiming their femininity and connecting with each other!! Pink is IN, babes! -Personally my favorite artist right now is Laufey.

#aesthetic #2020s #decade: 2020s #romanticizing life #historical #public school #public school life

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1358456 · 2 months

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Favorite Games

I was talking with a friend of mine and this thought occurred. What are my top 10 favorite games? So these games are those I wouldn't mind introducing to others. Now, these are games, and not franchises. So multiple games of the same franchise can make it on here.

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10) Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

I absolutely love this game. But... it's from 2005, and the series has been dead for like 10 years. The last game was Blacklist that came out for the Xbox 360. Not even Xbox One. Such a shame. In order for me to play this game again, I have to run it on my old 360 that barely works, or buy it again on the Xbox marketplace. That's probably still worth it given how good this is and how cheap it is now. Super serious story of course, but there are still comic relief here and there, usually in interrogations.

Guard: "I knew it! I knew there were ninjas here!" Fisher: "What?" Guard: "You must be a ninja! How else could you sneak up and grab me like that?" Fisher: "Look, I don't know what you're-" Guard: "Wow! I can't believe it! A real, live ninja!" Fisher: "Listen, I'm going to kill you if you-" Guard: "Wow! Killed by a ninja! Cool!"

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9) <Redacted> 10

... At this point, it's going to be the Redacted series. ... Sure. The 10th entry of my second favorite franchise. This came out in... 2005 as well. Wow.

As much as I like the game, it's not easy for anyone new to pick up, because... story and the characters, I guess. Unless you already know the story, it's not going to be clear what's happening, why, and what comes next. And as a single player game, the AI is pretty important, and... it's very frustrating in a wide variety of ways. They spam an action that mildly annoys you, but they do it like 30 times a minute. And the AI doesn't do sh*t in combat, whether it's working for you or against you.

Unfortunately, this can no longer run on latest Windows. So I have my laptop permanently on "Test Mode" just so I can run the thing. Which means when I eventually get a desktop PC, this game will not be copied onto there.

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8) Hitman: World of Assassination

This game provides a lot of entertainment in very... unique ways. Sometimes, pulling off the perfect assassination is very cool and sneaky. Sabotage a heart surgery (...), make two targets kill each other, sabotage an explosive device that the target is testing out so he blows himself up, etc. Sometimes, the assassination is rather... goofy. Swap a golf ball with an explosive golf ball and watch the target blow himself up in an accident (???). Put a car battery in the washroom and overflow the sink so the target gets electrocuted in an unfortunate accident that no one could've seen coming (????). Punch the target right in the face so they fall over while strolling on extremely shallow waters so they accidentally drown. And on and on.

And of course, the classic Hitman "disguises" that... just... heh. Nothing is quite as amusing as running around in a bank, dressed as Santa Claus, carrying a big ass magnum pistol and blasting people into oblivion. Santa wants his paycheque cashed in now, damn it. Hehehe.

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7) Yakuza Kiwami

The first Yakuza game to make it in here, out of 13 that I've played since 2020. Damn.

The game's great. Combat is amazing, plot is great but not as great as in 0. And Majima Everywhere does get annoying in NG+. But the start of Yakuza Kiwami is like the only time Kiryu is perfectly happy, so... ohhh... And... Haruka...

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6) <Redacted> 11

Much of the same for 10. AI is very annoying, spams same dumb moves over and over because if it did literally nothing the first 15 times, surely the 16th time would...

But 11, which is from... 2006, is the game I've played the most out of every other game, including Starcraft II and Yakuza 0, and even Pokemon Gold version, whose game time maxed out.

I would very much love to start modding this, except I don't know how. Hehe... This game also only runs on my laptop thanks to the Test Mode, so... that sucks.

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5) Lost Judgment: Unjudged Memories

This game's so good. Judgment too. The only downside is how long the games are. And since Judgment series only mention the mainline Yakuza games stuff in passing reference, the mainline Yakuza games are not required!

These are like the first notable cases for me where the bad guys are definitely in the bad but I understand why they're doing it. Like... in Judgment, the bad guys are covering up and continuing with lethal human experimentations to get the cure for dementia to work on humans. The serial killer himself says that at this point, they need to get this drug to work, else nothing could possibly save them. And in Lost Judgment, your ally says that there is no clear right answer here. Though that's because they don't have a correct starting point of morality, but hey. It's a crappy situation where no outcome can be a happy one.

... Though Lost Judgment does have a DLC story, and for the first time ever, that has a happy ending.

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4) Starcraft: Brood War

Ah... the game that I would love to play a lot of... if I wasn't so scared. Hehehe. Not only do you have to fight the game, you also have to fight the other guy who's in the game playing against you. And anyone who's still playing on the ladder probably has been playing the game for like 15 years at this point. If I play on the ladder, I'll just end up getting annihilated nonstop. Someone much better than I am at RTS described it as "getting cyber bullied by Koreans on the ladder".

You need like 300 APM just to manage your economy and macro properly. And with the other guy who's in the game, you now have to scout and see what they're up to and actually know what to do next. So for now, I'll just be satisfied with watching ASL, Ultimate Battles, and Major Pro Team Leagues.

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3) Yakuza 8

... Ow, my heart. The game is so fun. And long. Very long. And unlike 7 where the past games were not strictly required, in 8, all the past games are required for full comprehension. Since half of the main cast is from Yakuza 7, 7 is absolutely required. And since the other half of the game focuses on Kiryu, 0 ~ 7G are all required. So I guess this game can't really be recommended to anyone. It's a super long game that requires the player to have played all the other games in the series so far.

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2) Yakuza 0: Place of Oath

This game was so fun. I kind of wish I could go back to before I played this for the first time, just so I can enjoy it all over again. And since this game is (chronologically) the start of the series, I can actually recommend it to others and drag them into this rabbit hole too.

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1) Starcraft II

... I guess this isn't surprising at all.

The campaigns are fun to play (the story might suck but the gameplay is awesome), and with a huge influx of mods nowadays, it gets even better. Real Scale, where you either get smashed by the Protoss fleet or use the Protoss fleet to smash the enemies, Mass Recall, where you play Starcraft I campaign on the SCII engine, Randomizer, which can comically screw you over at times, Reversed Campaigns where you play the campaign missions but from the enemy's side, etc. The SCII editor is so big that you can do almost anything in it, including making a whole new game using the engine, like Heroes of the Storm.

There's also co-op, which is just a ton of fun. I don't know why people get salty on co-op missions, but some do. And of course, the multiplayer. Ladder is actually very fun. Of course there are the standard multiplayer issues, such as salty players whining about balance and spamming insults, but that doesn't say anything about the game itself, and only how sh*tty people are.

That said, I don't think I can easily recommend this game. SCII may be a lot more beginner friendly, but it's too fast for beginners.

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Whew. So, there were 2 Starcraft games, 4 Yakuza games, 2 games from my second favorite franchise, and 2 miscellaneous.

Why didn't any Pokemon games make it in? Because of course they didn't. I don't like any aspect of those games. Look at what I've been doing lately in Generation I and II. Either glitch heavy runs or challenge runs only. And I highly doubt that Yellow version was made intentionally to allow players to create various Pikachu-shaped abominations before settling them loose in the wild. The only fun I had in playing Pokemon games were when I broke the game with glitches, and RNG manipulations, neither of which are intended.

Why didn't any Halo games make it in? Because I'm not that much of a fan of FPS multiplayer games. And Halo Wars are console RTS, so they suck horribly in comparison with either Starcraft games. Which is sad, since Starcraft 1 was from 1998, and its crappy ass N64 version had more available commands for units than Halo Wars 2.

Why didn't the other Yakuza games make it in? For 2, I didn't feel anything for the personal story and the yakuza story was only decent. For 3, the combat kind of sucks, and it's now the oldest game with 1 and 2 being remade as Kiwami and Kiwami 2. Though after 7 Gaiden and 8, there's a lot of desire to go back to 3 and hang out with the kids in Morning Glory. ... Kiwami 3 when? For 4, the plot kind of... meh. 5 was far too long and the yakuza story did not make a lick of sense, seeing as how the final boss doesn't even know why he's the final boss. 6 has gameplay issues and the yakuza story kind of sucks. 7 is fine and just narrowly didn't make it in. 7 Gaiden is way too short and doesn't have NG+. Ishin is a rather strange spinoff. And Judgment can get a bit frustrating with the combat and the Keihin Gang.

And my second favorite franchise... heh. I'll keep it redacted for as long as no one recognizes it. "Heh. It's all right. Everyone has secrets." ... Even though I don't particularly have a reason to keep it secret.

#preference

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missspringthyme · 3 months

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March 4th, 2024

I did genuinely attempt to be ready to get to Maastricht early in the day to spend more time with former Italian roommate (FIR) but that obviously didn't happen. I am kinda glad though, because it takes 30 minutes to get to my faculty from her apartment and that would have been a pain to do multiple times in one day.

I met with my supervisor where we decided to do a fresh install of MATLAB because he said he remembers there being a checkbox I might need to tick. My laptop was still working on uninstalling when it was time for the lab meeting to start. He had another meeting at the same time, but walked me to mine because the room was different. I'm very grateful for that because I have no sense of direction and I find the building very confusing. It still takes me about 10 minutes to find my supervisor's office.

There were some familiar faces in the meeting, which I was happy about. Having to fiddle with my laptop every few minutes also gave me an outlet during the presentation. The PhD student presenting is also doing something with rhythms but her focus seems to be more on the default mode network. She's also using fMRI and eeg. Afterwards some of the other masters students were talking about how they think she and one of the other PhD students are hardcore flirting. This is at odds with the fact that one of the guys thinks he heard her say she has a boyfriend. Faulty information, a misreading of the situation, or a blossoming forbidden romance? Who's to say? I was able to contribute that I heard them talking about getting drinks later today. Suspicious, no?

FIR tried to meet me at the bus stop near her house, but my bus arrived sooner than she thought so I ended up wandering around with offline google maps while she stood at the bus stop. Eventually she spotted me and we headed inside. The first thing I did was set up my laptop to start downloading MATLAB and chatted a little. She made dinner, a spinach dish that I had loved before. She complained about her roommates a lot which I thought was pretty bold considering they were all in the house. They're all Italian, so it was like I stepped into a little Italian outpost in the middle of the Netherlands. I haven't met that many Italians at uni, but as soon as you know one person of a specific nationality you generally find out that people with similar backgrounds tend to flock to eachother. FIR didn't start out intending for a 100% italian household, but these things happen.

There were (of course) several bottles of wine in the kitchen. One immediately caught my eye due to the label's incredible graphic design. It has, what I presume to be, a drawing of Zeus/Jupiter staring angrily ahead with the words "ROMAGNA DOP SANGIOVESE SUPERIORE RISERVA 2020" on it in what i can only describe as a microsoft word style font. I made FIR take a photo of me with the bottle.

After dinner, we went into town to get some dessert. She suggested an Irish pub nearby that had some sticky toffee she wanted to try. They didn't have any when we got there, but they did have some sort of creme brulee dish. I paid as a thank you for hosting me, and got myself a ginger beer. She decided to try ginger ale because she's not the biggest fan of ginger but was curious, and ended up not minding it.

The dessert was interesting. It came in a bowl with the sugar topping snapped and crumbled on top. There was also fruits mixed it, I think maybe oranges and something else? Not sure. Everytime I felt I had decided if I liked it or not I would take another bite that would change my opinion.

Afterward, we went to this jazz club to hear live music. The band was incredible, and it was packed. We leaned against the windows in the back in front of a table with chairs that had long since been squeezed around other tables. While we listened, we spotted cards that had been left on every table that were "never have I ever." Armed with Google translate, we played, and I very quickly lost. This was just in time for the band to start playing Freedom '90, and everyone started going insane. We danced and sang along, and I tried to get at least one video of FIR dancing because she always takes photos of other people.

As we were leaving, FIR spotted her roommate walking with a girl she very excitedly told me was also American. The girl was from New York, buti could've guessed that without being told. Truly she emobided every single negative stereotype about New Yorkers, but I tried my best to be nice. I think FIR was expecting us to be instant besties, and seemed a little taken aback when that did not happen. Ah well.

As we walked back, we talked about school systems and how the only reason I am a grade ahead of FIR is because I did the America system. She doesn't like it when I talk about being older because we were born in the same year. We are only the same age for 2 and a half months out of the year. I did tell her, though, that the reason my parents decided not to put me in Japanese school was because they would have sorted me in the year below. I guess being a spring baby just means that everybody wants you in their class.

#march #matlab #thesis #friend

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pikevin · 5 months

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On the nature of me and creativity

I would like to start this out by saying that I have unfollowed nearly everyone who I followed on Tumblr. I don't think I followed anyone new since 2015, so it was interesting to see who had posted since then, or rather, who had stopped. many went on to post into this most recent year, but several stopped. Many stopped in 2019-2020. A few stopped even earlier.

I hadn't made a post here since 2015 since I was devastated with issues of the heart. I find myself drawn back here, and here is how. On nights such as these, when I am stressed and cannot seem to do anything productive, I go down the usual rabbit holes. Twitter was boring, and Reddit got repetitive, so I went into the cesspool that is 4chan's /lit/erature board. Please don't think that I align myself with them, but they often have good book recommendations. I learned of the novel Death Comes for the Archbishop. I did not have the novel, nor did I know someone who did, and since I am financially tight right now, I added it to my "Want to read" list on Goodreads. What makes the big difference here is that I was using my laptop and not my phone for all this, so I had the particular displeasure of clearly seeing my profile picture at the top of the screen. I was 18 when I took that. It was over 10 years ago, and I am now nearly 30.

---

To put it wildly, I fell back in time. I thought about where I was then, I had just started college. I had a new computer, new iPad, but I wasn't ready for anything. I definitely wasn't ready with any remote sense of self-control. I somehow managed to make it through that first semester. In fact, that's misleading. I sailed through the first semester, fueled by brilliance, over-confidence, and a competitive spirit, I absolutely soared, making A's and high B's. I thought I was ready.

It was the next semester that killed me. It was that semester where I had to put in actual work or else, I would not learn what I needed to know. I am still bad at putting in hard work; I am better, but still bad. This was the semester where I managed to scrape by. I was in differential equations, got a D, I didn't do the homework. I was in modern physics, got a C or a B-. One of my computer classes had me crying, not because of the difficulty of the material, just because it required work and I had waited until the last minute, and I was panicking.

My friend Michael went to Texas A&M. They didn't have a full physics program, so I didn't go there; being an asshole I told him I wasn't going to A&M because he was going there. There is some truth in that as well. Part of why I didn't go to Texas A&M is because he was going there, I had followed him for a long time. A problem I have is that I cling onto people.

I met Michael in the 3rd grade. He wasn't my best friend then and we had separate classes. He was in the smarter classes, and I was in the regular ones. An Issue that kept me in the regular classes was that I developed a deep anxiety tied with writing stemming from my bad handwriting. I can't say I had friends early on in third grade, I just played whatever was being played. I did have a best friend soon and his name was Pearce, and I did everything he did. He would come over to my house every day and we would play GTA or whatever I had. He kept his PS2 in his backpack. Pearce left pretty quickly at the end of 4th grade, but I was able to transition pretty easily then.

In 4th grade we played together at recess and that is when I really grew to know Michael, we had a Kirby club and would meet under one of the forts. When 5th grade started it was just the two of us. In middle school we were still friends and we had lunch together, but I started making what could be friends in my other classes, again we didn't have the same classes.

Middle school went pretty well, band kept me busy, but I never got far because I never practiced, I wouldn't continue band in high school. One could say that I didn't really socialize at all. I remember an incident in 6th grade where I was bullied. I don't think it was targeted at me, but this kid was slapping kid using the air dryer, and I was a week kid and I cried, and I told a teacher, and he was punished. I was not an angel either then. I wanted to be cool for some other kids, so I tripped a kid with a walking condition, I felt awful then and I feel awful now. I didn't own up to it and said it was an accident. I like to think that I haven't done anything so purposelessly cruel since then.

In 7th and 8th grade, my best friend was Paulo. He liked anime and manga just like I did. That friendship evaporated in high school, as I didn't keep in touch.

In high school, I started having lunch with Michael again not immediately, but I found him, it was then when I went into a real follower. Michael convinced me to join computer science, which I had no interest in until he had taught me to program my calculator and that sparked my interest. That spark turned into a fire and for several years, I would identify with programming as a great love. I would say it has waned in recent years, but I did get my master's in it.

I also joined the social studies club because Jason asked me to. I think, most of what I did was because other people wanted me there.

We had a club in high school called the Japanese Art Club, that was probably the only club that I joined because I wanted to join. It faded away my senior year. Call it poor management.

I didn't want to continue following Michael, and I already was in on the research happening at UH. So that is where I studied physics. In that first semester I had a job as research technician, but I was fired because I wasn't doing the work fast enough. I was barely doing it at all, I had to be self-motivated, still have trouble with that. The person keeping me motivated in my classwork was Jacky. I glommed onto her pretty quickly as and she was my motivation to work hard in my classes that first semester. Then she left.

That second semester I didn't have anyone, and I couldn't connect with the sibling of mine who was going there. I nearly flunked out in the next two semesters.

I went to Wharton County Junior College later to get my core courses done. And since it was all online, I got a job. I started tutoring and that is when I met Diana. I don't think I ever got attached to someone so fast. So, she was my rock for the next year and a half and then she left to get a better job elsewhere.

Long started at the same tutoring center right after her and he and I were fast friends, that was until COVID, and everything went online, and I went stir crazy. I accepted a job from a previous employer and started tutoring somewhat in person again, and worked with an old colleague and my brother, but then my brother started public school teaching in November, and I followed him and started teaching that next August.

There I attached myself to Jessica, and while I admit that I did have a crush early on, it went away quickly. She and I still work together.

---

I think I am a pretty self-aware person. I have attachment issues and issues with putting in effort. Things I struggle with are cleaning, dishes, laundry, reading, sticking to a television show, getting my students work graded in a timely manner.

Most of all I struggle to write. In one of my blind spots of self-awareness I cannot determine whether the want of perfection in writing stems from my earlier anxiety, or if it is an excuse for me to avoid putting in real effort.

I think to the authors George R. R. Martin and John McCrae. George R.R. Martin has been working on the Winds of Winter since 2011, and John McCrae writes nearly 7,000 words a week.

I feel I can land somewhere between that and yet, here I am.

Nothing I write is perfect and nothing I write do I ever want anybody to read.

When I have written, and written well, was when I was writing for someone, someone who wanted to hear the stories I wanted to tell.

#michael #jacky #diana #jessica

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