quick bright things

foone:

Does anyone remember what happened to Radio Shack?
They started out selling niche electronics supplies. Capacitors and transformers and shit. This was never the most popular thing, but they had an audience, one that they had a real lock on. No one else was doing that, so all the electronics geeks had to go to them, back in the days before online ordering. They branched out into other electronics too, but kept doing the electronic components.
Eventually they realize that they are making more money selling cell phones and remote control cars than they were with those electronic components. After all, everyone needs a cellphone and some electronic toys, but how many people need a multimeter and some resistors?
So they pivoted, and started only selling that stuff. All cellphones, all remote control cars, stop wasting store space on this niche shit.
And then Walmart and Target and Circuit City and Best Buy ate their lunch. Those companies were already running big stores that sold cellphones and remote control cars, and they had more leverage to get lower prices and selling more stuff meant they had more reasons to go in there, and they couldn’t compete. Without the niche electronics stuff that had been their core brand, there was no reason to go to their stores. Everything they sold, you could get elsewhere, and almost always for cheaper, and probably you could buy 5 other things you needed while you were there, stuff Radio Shack didn’t sell.
And Radio Shack is gone now. They had a small but loyal customer base that they were never going to lose, but they decided to switch to a bigger but more fickle customer base, one that would go somewhere else for convenience or a bargain. Rather than stick with what they were great at (and only they could do), they switched to something they were only okay at… putting them in a bigger pond with a lot of bigger fish who promptly out-competed them.
If Radio Shack had stayed with their core audience, who knows what would have happened? Maybe they wouldn’t have made a billion dollars, but maybe they would still be around, still serving that community, still getting by. They may have had a small audience, but they had basically no competition for that audience. But yeah, we only know for sure what would happen if they decided to attempt to go more mainstream: They fail and die. We know for sure because that’s what they did.
I don’t know why I keep thinking about the story of what happened to Radio Shack. It just keeps feeling relevant for some reason.

@staff

(via jadefyre)

ahamkaracature:

Damn everyone I see on here is a lesbian. Interact with this post if you’re a true patriot (gender nonspecific boyliker)

(via broccoli-bitching)

trifoliate-undergrowth:

So I’m in a deeply red incredibly conservative state. I ran a pride month 5k awhile back. The usual group of 3 protestors with an incredibly loud bullhorn showed up to yell at us about how trans people are mutilating themselves and AIDS is God’s judgement and we’re a menace to children etc. etc. etc. But they were vastly outnumbered by runners and volunteers. One of the first race announcements was that they hadn’t ordered enough T-shirts for the amount of people who ended up running, and would have to reorder, so anyone who wanted another race T-shirt should sign up now.
We’re all used to the protestors by now, they show up everywhere. We just ignore them. Interacting with them just encourages them.
I hadn’t realized how early the race date was this year compared to previous years and hadn’t prepared as much, and there were a lot of hills; not to mention there was some confusion as to the race route which resulted in the announcer referring to it post-run as a “4-mile 5k” (they are supposed to be about 3.5 miles. One guy ended up in an entirely different district of the city from where the race route was and still finished first.) I ended up walking a lot of the race, but I finished it, and did do a fair bit of running.
I had top surgery a few years ago but I’ve only gotten comfortable running shirtless this year as body fat redistribution happened. I had been trying to decide if I wanted to run shirtless or not before the protestors showed up and started yelling, then I was like ah. I will run past the transphobes shirtless like a human middle finger. And that is what I did. was wearing delightfully garish rainbow shorts I found at a thrift store and my pink triangle necklace.
Some Americorps volunteers were directing runners at one of the more confusing junctions, I high fived one and panted that I had just joined Conservation Corps. The sound of angry bullhorn shouting faded almost immediately behind us, and there were rainbow flags hanging in several of the yards we ran past throughout the route.
As in previous years, a lot of tough incredibly fit beautiful older people, mostly women, breezed past me during the race. One jogged up even with me with an encouraging “what would you do for a klondike bar!” I wasn’t sure how to reply to this and didn’t have the breath to express that I did not want anything thick or creamy at that moment, but what did come out was “you did remind me that there’s beer at the finish line.” Another lady who walked and jogged near me for awhile near the middle-latter half of the race talked a bit and complained that one of the volunteers organizing the race hadn’t set up the “water” table with fireball shots that she did for some other races and we just got a regular water and gatorade station!
Coming back to the finish line I was handed a flag and ran past long rows of cheering people. Around the corner the protestors were still lurking, but were mostly silent now. Apparently they had gotten worn out by just standing there and not running. As I passed the bullhorn guy shook himself out of his torpor enough to give a halfhearted “is it a man? is it a woman? who knows anymore?” I passed him and the sound of cheering, and then the 80s music (I remember Blondie and ABBA) they were blasting closer to the finish line.
Once most of the runners were back there was a fun run for the kids. A couple of the older ones had also run the 5k (I just know the protestors were awful to the poor guys ughh) but all of them made a lap around the parking lot and got handed medals. All of the adult volunteers and participants spread out around the middle of the parking lot so that there was someone cheering and waving flags for the kids along every step of the route.
There were free snacks, water and beer courtesy of our sponsor [brand redacted]. There was also non-alcoholic “beer”, which I thought was nice to see, I’d been thinking there was a heavily alcoholic element to a lot of local queer events. I drank a lot of water and ate some food before getting a free beer, which still hit me pretty hard after the run. While I was hovering around the refreshment table a big handsome butch came up next to me and I noticed a faded tattoo on her arm of a chain, each link a different color of the rainbow.
I went to put something down in my car just as the protestors were starting to leave, and realized that they were moving on a course that overlapped with mine as I walked to my car. I decided I wasn’t going to stop or veer out of their way and just see what they did. As I got closer they seemed to be talking about how we had definitely totally noticed that they were leaving (no one had.) They noticed me coming towards them and suddenly got quiet, avoided eye contact and skittered out of my way. Ha.
I stumbled into the nearby fundraiser to cool down and sober up in the air conditioning before I left. They were playing girl in red, rupaul, that girls/girls/boys song by Panic! at the disco, and that Taylor Swift song “You need to calm down” that some people on this site complained was cringe. The lady next to me sang along to “shade never made anybody less gay.” I bought a baseball hat.
It’s easy, I think especially if you’re very online and not very active in your local community, to start feeling like there’s no queer community in your area and we’re outnumbered by people who hate us. Unless you live in the middle of Westoboro Baptist territory that’s generally not true. I cannot stress enough how incredibly conservative and red my area is. We’ve got like 3 very loud people with nothing better to do who bother us at every event, and large amounts of people across all demographics who show up in support. I’ve been thinking about this post by @headspace-hotel about not being able to find stuff online and this is a slightly different thing but yeah. If you don’t know what there is in your area, you don’t know what you’re looking for or where to find it when searching online. If you search “is there queer stuff happening near me” google is going to shrug and recommend you Products And Services that it can Sell You. When I moved back home after spending some time in a much more blue state (but which had much less of a sense of community–I think it’s the way we band together down here when we know just what the stakes are) I felt like I was going to be the only trans person in the state, then someone mentioned to me that there was a local private facebook group for trans people to share personal posts and resources with many hundreds of members. There are more of us that aren’t on facebook. The Facebook group, though, introduced me to many more resources I hadn’t known were in my area.
Get outside. Find some sort of local queer event and ask around. There will be other queer people. There is very likely something you’re interested in already happening or people who would love to work with you to start it if not. Even if you’re in a very red very rural state, you’re not alone, and chill or neutrally polite people vastly outnumber the few assholes, it’s just that the assholes are very loud and especially if you’ve been marinating in overwhelmingly toxic online environments it can feel like they’re everywhere. They’re not. Don’t give them that power.
The current legal landscape is terrifying and needs a lot of work but it doesn’t reflect lived experiences. Get outside, find your local community, show up to in-person events if at all possible, it’s so encouraging.

(via luny0)

chalice-light:

The difference between a strike and a boycott is the focus of what is being withheald
In a strike the supply is being withheald because the workers aren’t producing whatever it is. It works by having the masses demand what the companies cannot produce and therefore, if the company wants to continue providing whatever it is in order to continue making money, they have to listen to worker demands
In a boycott the demand is being withheald because the masses aren’t buying or engaging with whatever it is. It works because companies, obviously, need to actually sell things in order to function. The point is to make the company change something about a product in order to appeal to the masses again
That’s why you shouldn’t boycott when a strike is on (unless the union says so) because it kind of cancels out the strike. If there is no demand then witholding supply is meaningless - again, unless the union says so, since that means they factored it into their industrial action plan and believe it would be beneficial
I know people want to help but the reaction to call for a boycott whenever there’s a strike just kind of…… doesn’t

(via eldritchw1tch)

copperbadge:

NEW TUMBLR LAYOUT
DO NOT WANT
SO MANY COLUMNS
MAKE IT GO AWAY
Jesus I didn’t even notice the constantly flashing boxes just above the start of the dash.
HEY PRO TIP @staff I AM NEVER EVER EVER EVER GOING TO WANT TO READ YOUR PICKS, WHAT’S TRENDING, OR WHAT NONSENSE CHANGES YOU’VE PUT THROUGH NOW
PUT IT BACK

I’m genuinely kind of confused here, isn’t this just one extra column of text in the blank space on the left? wasn’t the radar and list of recommended blogs always over there on the right?

the wares thing is annoying for sure, that’s prime real estate and should be the start of your dash. I’m just wondering if I’ve horribly misremembered the usual desktop dashboard? to me it just looked mostly like they made the drop-down menu no longer a drop-down, presumably so new users would more easily realize that stuff existed

cherrypikkins:

@dazzlerazz my apologies for taking so long :3 as per request, here are my thoughts on posing!
For this tutorial, we will be learning how to draw and analyze standing poses! Poses that are related to movement and action will not be covered. I believe that these types of poses are more complex and require a comprehensive understanding of standing poses first.
So, let’s begin by analyzing some examples of standing poses! Whether you are drawing from imagination or from reference, it is very important to analyze a pose so that you understand two things:
How do I make a pose ‘work’? Does the pose look real? Could a person make this pose in real life? Does it look natural? Would a real person be able to hold this pose for a reasonable length a time?
How do I make a pose 'appealing’? Does the pose look interesting? Does it communicate the character’s personality and attitude? Does it properly express the feeling or emotion I am trying to aim for?
Let’s take a moment to examine the first question.
First, let’s assume that the character you are trying to draw is beholden to the laws of gravity.
When a character assumes a standing position without the help of props, all of their weight is supported by the feet.
Below, we can see that the weight of a character is evenly distributed between the left and right sides of an imaginary red line. This ensures that the pose is stable.

This stability ensures that a character can hold a pose for a reasonable length of time without falling.
Of course, external forces may cause a character’s center of gravity to shift, redistributing their weight to favor one side of the center line.
When this occurs, the pose is no longer stable, and the character looks like they are about to fall.
Luckily, we can remedy this by shifting the feet further apart.
Now that the character’s weight is once again distributed equally between both feet, stability is restored. The character is no longer falling - and we have created a new pose in the process!
Theoretically, we can create stable standing poses simply by making sure that a character’s body weight is equally distributed between the left and right feet at all times. Although the end result is a little boring looking, at least we now understand the importance of foot placement when building a pose.
So how do we create poses that are a little more interesting?
One way is to adjust the pose so that the character’s weight rests primarily on one foot, rather than both feet equally. The result is a pose that is stable, yet more interesting. The foot bearing less weight is free to do other things. As such you can get a little more creative with positioning the legs and feet without putting the character in danger of falling.
Be warned that if you draw the feet without considering which foot is supporting the character’s weight, then you may end up with a floating character.
Even when all of a character’s weight is supported by a single foot, you can create poses that are stable and resemble something that might feasibly be seen in real life.
However, with these kinds of poses, it is especially important that the character’s weight is evenly distributed over both sides of the load-bearing foot, otherwise we will run into the same risk of falling.
Now that we understand how stability makes a pose 'work’, lets ask the next question.
What makes a pose appealing?
Let’s analyze some examples!
Here we have some nice, stable, standing poses! Feet placement looks pretty good. Nobody is in danger of falling. But what is it that makes these poses so different from each other?
To help analyze each pose, lets add some red lines.
While the blue lines show us the silhouette of the body, the red lines show us how certain parts are aligned. The crosshairs on the face show which way the character is looking. We also placed red lines on the shoulders, hips, spine, arms, and legs.
Lets go through each of the poses one by one.
In Pose A, the lines we placed on the head, shoulders and hips are horizontally aligned and perfectly parallel with one another. Likewise, the limbs are mostly straight. The feet are facing the same direction, and the weight of the character is evenly split between both the left and right sides.
Overall, the pose is stable. It is also very neutral and symmetrical. The character doesn’t seem to be doing or expressing very much. The hands are kind of floating in space. You might see this pose more often on a character design sheet. But when used in a scene, it is difficult to know what this pose is communicating without additional context. It is also challenging to draw because of the amount of symmetry it demands.
Pose B has some minor adjustments compared to Pose A, yet the difference is immense. The horizontal lines that we placed on the head, shoulders and hips are no longer parallel. Instead, they are tilted towards alternating directions. The spine also leans such that the hips swoop up slightly the right. While the feet continue to support the character’s weight evenly, their direction has been adjusted.
Notably, the hands are now deliberately positioned on the leg and hip. When planning a pose, don’t neglect the positioning and placement of the hands! It is fine if the hands are not drawn in full detail in the early sketch - just make sure you know where the hands will be located and have some idea of what they are doing. Otherwise, the pose will look woefully incomplete.
Overall, Pose B is a bit more natural-looking and relaxed than Pose A. They still aren’t doing much, but this looks more like a pose you would see in real life. Even when standing at rest, people tend to let the hands and feet do their own thing, and rarely stand in a way that is perfectly straight - hence, the tilting of the head, shoulders and hips.
With Pose C, we see some adjustments that are a lot more dramatic. The head and torso are now facing opposite directions. The right shoulder is tilted further downwards. The spine is now visibly curved such that the hips are swung back and the chest puffs outward slightly. The body is now leaning most of its weight on the left leg, freeing up the right foot such that it can assume a slightly lifted position.
This pose is showy and expressive. It looks as though the character is actively posing for someone, rather than merely standing at rest. While this pose is stable, it doesn’t look like a pose someone would assume naturally, or hold for a very long time. It does however, look unique, and shows off some personality.
Between Poses A, B, and C, which one is the most appealing? I would say that it really depends on personal preference, and also the context in which these poses are being used. Each pose can be used for different purposes! But I think it is helpful to understand what makes each pose unique and that every artist should keep the following in mind when sketching a pose:
Alignment of head, shoulders and hips
Curvature of spine
Direction of head and torso
Placement of hands and feet
As a personal recommendation, I would suggest paying special attention to the torso when sketching poses. Why? Because the torso is the largest juncture by which the head and all limbs are connected. It also contains the shoulders and the hips and the spine.
The torso has a limited range of mobility compared to the legs and arms. However, as we’ve seen in the above examples, even slight changes in the shoulders, hips, and spine can pave the way towards a greater variety of different poses.
Drawing the torso in the early stages of the sketch will can help inform what the head, arms, and legs are doing in the pose.
So, now that we’ve learned to look a bit more closely at some different poses, what is the recommended process for drawing them? Here is the approach I usually use.
Draw the head. This will help determine the character’s proportions. Establish the character’s height by drawing a flat line to mark where the ground is located and a vertical line leading up to the head. The midpoint is also marked.
2. Draw the torso. Here, I decide on the shoulder, spine, and hip alignment. Depending on the artist’s personal preference, the torso ends more or less at the midpoint.
3. Draw the legs and feet. Because we’ve marked the ground, we know exactly where to place the feet such that the pose is stable. The center vertical line we drew at the beginning (omitted below) helps find the balance in the pose.
It is worth noting that now that we have finalized the placement of the feet below the head and torso, we have achieved a stable pose. At this point, it is much easier to consider how the arms and hands should be drawn.
4. So, lets go ahead and draw the arms and hands. As mentioned before, it is important to consider what the hands are doing in this pose.
5. Finally, lets decide which direction the head should be facing, and what the facial expression should be!
A lot of artists do prefer to draw the head and face first, and that’s totally fine! However, I think it is worth nothing that once you have a pose established, you can still make adjustments to the head fairly easily.
Likewise, you can adjust the arms if needed without worrying about the stability of the pose, since this has already been established.
Give it a try, and see what works for you!
Finally, I will show you how to analyze a pose using a reference photo
Photo Credit: https://unsplash.com/@binthieu
Here is the example photo we will be using.
To analyze the pose, use red lines to mark what we have discussed before:
Alignment of head, shoulders and hips
Curvature of spine
Direction of head and torso
Placement of hands and feet
If it helps, use blue lines to outline things like the joints, limbs, the silhouette of the body, whatever aspects you would like to bring to your drawing.
With these relatively quick and simple steps, we have finished analyzing the pose!
At this point, you can adapt the pose to your desired proportions and make adjustments where desired.
Feel free to practice with some different references and see what the results are like! From simple to complex, there are a huge range of different poses you can find on the internet. It is definitely worth taking the time to analyze each pose to see what ideas you can bring to your own art.
That concludes this somewhat lengthy tutorial on posing! I hope I have managed to answer some of the questions you’ve had about creating standing poses that are stable and appealing! Please let me know if there are any details you would like me to clarify. :3
In the meantime, I hope you have fun building some cool and unique poses!