Category: Blog

Humility, a writer’s most important quality, has a great circle to it. What about sincerity, an business manager’s important value? Or a doctor’s? Or a student’s? They all have fantastic sounds. When humility is our guiding light, the course is usually available for fulfillment, development, relation, and commitment. We’re going to discuss why in this book.

That said, this is a guide for developers, and to that conclusion, I’d like to begin with a story—well, a voyage, actually. Along the way, I’m going to render myself a little vulnerable. I call it:

The Ludicrous Pate of Justin: The Tale of Justin

When I was coming out of arts school, a long-haired, goateed novice, write was a known quantity to me, design on the web, however, was riddled with complexities to understand and learn, a problem to be solved. Although I had formal training in typography, layout, and creative design, what piqued my interest was how these traditional skills could be applied to a young online landscape. This theme may eventually form the rest of my job.

But I drained HTML and JavaScript publications until the early hours of the morning and self-taught myself how to code during my freshman year rather than student and go into write like many of my friends. I wanted—nay, needed—to better understand the underlying relevance of what my design decisions may think when rendered in a website.

The so-called” Wild West” of website architecture was the late 1990s and early 2000s. Manufacturers at the time were all figuring out how to use layout and visual connection to the online environment. What regulations were in place? How may we break them and also engage, entertain, and present information? How was my values, which include sincerity, respect, and connection, coincide with that on a more general level? I was eager to find out.

Those are amazing factors between non-career relationships and the world of design, even though I’m talking about a different time. What are your main passions, or ideals, that elevate medium? The main themes are the same, basically the same as what we previously discussed on the immediate parallels between what fulfills you, independent of the physical or digital realms.

First within tables, animated GIFs, Flash, then with Web Standards, divs, and CSS, there was personality, raw unbridled creativity, and unique means of presentment that often defied any semblance of a visible grid. Splash screens and “browser requirement” pages aplenty. Usability and accessibility were typically victims of such a creation, but such paramount facets of any digital design were largely (and, in hindsight, unfairly) disregarded at the expense of experimentation.

For instance, this iteration of my personal portfolio site (” the pseudoroom” ) from that time was experimental if not a little overt in terms of visualizing how the idea of a living sketchbook was conveyed. Quite skeuomorphic. On this one, we would first picture and then slip a Photoshop record back and forth to trap things up and play with various customer interactions. I co-founded the creative task organizing app Milanote and my dear friend, fellow designer Marc Clancy. Finally, I’d break it down and script it into a modern layout.

Along with pattern book pieces, the site even offered free downloads for Mac OS customizations: pc wallpapers that were successfully design experimentation, custom-designed typefaces, and desktop icons.

GUI Galaxy was a design, pixel art, and Mac-centric news portal that graphic designer friends and I developed from around the same time.

Design news portals were incredibly popular at the time, and they now accept tweet-sized, small-format excerpts from relevant news from the categories I previously covered. If you took Twitter, curated it to a few categories, and wrapped it in a custom-branded experience, you’d have a design news portal from the late 90s / early 2000s.

We had evolved into a bandwidth-sensitive, award-winning, much more accessibility-conscious website using web standards. Still ripe with experimentation, yet more mindful of equitable engagement. There are a few content panes here, with both Mac-focused news and general news (tech, design ) to be seen. We also offered many of the custom downloads I cited before as present on my folio site but branded and themed to GUI Galaxy.

The presentation layer of the website’s backbone was made up of global design + illustration + news author collaboration. The backbone was a homegrown CMS. And the collaboration effort here, in addition to experimentation on a’ brand’ and content delivery, was hitting my core. We were creating something bigger than just one of us and establishing a global audience.

Collaboration and connection transcend medium in their impact, immensely fulfilling me as a designer.

Now, why am I taking you on this trip through design memory lane? Two reasons.

First, there’s a reason for the nostalgia for that design era ( the” Wild West” era, as I put it ): the inherent exploration, personality, and creativity that dominated many design portals and personal portfolio websites. Ultra-finely detailed pixel art UI, custom illustration, bespoke vector graphics, all underpinned by a strong design community.

The web design industry has been in a state of stagnation right now. I suspect there’s a strong chance you’ve seen a site whose structure looks something like this: a hero image / banner with text overlaid, perhaps with a lovely rotating carousel of images ( laying the snark on heavy there ), a call to action, and three columns of sub-content directly beneath. Perhaps there are selections that vaguely relate to their respective content in an icon library.

Design, as it’s applied to the digital landscape, is in dire need of thoughtful layout, typography, and visual engagement that goes hand-in-hand with all the modern considerations we now know are paramount: usability. accessibility. Load times and bandwidth- sensitive content delivery. A user-friendly presentation that connects with people wherever they are. We must be mindful of, and respectful toward, those concerns—but not at the expense of creativity of visual communication or via replicating cookie-cutter layouts.

Pixel Issues

Websites during this period were often designed and built on Macs whose OS and desktops looked something like this. Although Mac OS 7.5 is available, 8 and 9 are not very different.

How could any single icon, at any given moment, stand out and grab my attention? That is a fascinating question. In this example, the user’s desktop is tidy, but think of a more realistic example with icon pandemonium. Or, let’s say an icon was a part of a larger system grouping ( fonts, extensions, control panels ): how did it maintain cohesion within a group as well?

These were 32 x 32 pixel creations, utilizing a 256-color palette, designed pixel-by-pixel as mini mosaics. Under such absurd constraints, this seemed to me to be the embodiment of digital visual communication. And often, ridiculous restrictions can yield the purification of concept and theme.

So I started doing my homework and conducting research. I was a student of this new medium, hungry to dissect, process, discover, and make it my own.

I wanted to see how I could use that 256-color palette to push the boundaries of a 32×32 pixel grid while expanding the concept of exploration. Those ridiculous constraints forced a clarity of concept and presentation that I found incredibly appealing. I was thrown the digital gauntlet, and that challenge fueled my determination. And so, in my dorm room into the wee hours of the morning, I toiled away, bringing conceptual sketches into mini mosaic fruition.

These are some of my creations that made use of ResEdit, the only program I had at the time, to create icons. ResEdit was a clunky, built-in Mac OS utility not really made for exactly what we were using it for. Research is at the center of all of this endeavor. Challenge. Problem-solving Again, these core connection-based values are agnostic of medium.

There’s one more design portal I want to talk about, which also serves as the second reason for my story to bring this all together.

This is the Kaliber 1000, or K10k, abbreviated. K10k was founded in 1998 by Michael Schmidt and Toke Nygaard, and was the design news portal on the web during this period. With its pixel art-fueled presentation, attention to detail paid to every aspect of every detail, and many of the more well-known designers of the time who were invited to be news authors on the site, well… it was the place to be, my friend. With respect where respect is due, GUI Galaxy’s concept was inspired by what these folks were doing.

For my part, the combination of my web design work and pixel art exploration began to get me some notoriety in the design scene. K10k eventually added me as one of their very select group of news writers to the website’s content.

Amongst my personal work and side projects —and now with this inclusion—in the design community, this put me on the map. My design work has also begun to appear on other design news portals, as well as in publications abroad and domestically as well as in various printed collections. With that degree of success while in my early twenties, something else happened:

I actually changed into a massive asshole in about a year of high school, not less. The press and the praise became what fulfilled me, and they went straight to my head. My ego was inflated by them. I actually felt somewhat superior to my fellow designers.

The victims? My design stagnated. My evolution has stagnated, as is its evolution.

I felt so supremely confident in my abilities that I effectively stopped researching and discovering. When my first instinct was to sketch concepts or iterate ideas in lead, I instead leaped right into Photoshop. I drew my inspiration from the smallest of sources ( and with blinders on ). Any criticism of my work from my fellow students was frequently vehemently dissented. The most tragic loss: I had lost touch with my values.

My ego almost destroyed some of my friendships and blossoming professional relationships. I was toxic in talking about design and in collaboration. But thankfully, candor was a gift from those same friends. They called me out on my unhealthy behavior.

Although it was something I initially rejected, I eventually had a chance to reflect on it in depth. I was soon able to accept, and process, and course correct. Although the realization made me feel uneasy, the re-awakening was necessary. I let go of the “reward” of adulation and re-centered upon what stoked the fire for me in art school. Most importantly, I returned to my fundamental values.

Always Students

Following that temporary regression, I was able to advance in both my personal and professional design. And I could self-reflect as I got older to facilitate further growth and course correction as needed.

Let’s take the Large Hadron Collider as an example. The LHC was designed” to help answer some of the fundamental open questions in physics, which concern the basic laws governing the interactions and forces among the elementary objects, the deep structure of space and time, and in particular the interrelation between quantum mechanics and general relativity”. Thank you, Wikipedia.

Around fifteen years ago, in one of my earlier professional roles, I designed the interface for the application that generated the LHC’s particle collision diagrams. These diagrams are the depiction of what is actually happening inside the Collider during any given particle collision event and are frequently regarded as works of art by themselves.

Designing the interface for this application was a fascinating process for me, in that I worked with Fermilab physicists to understand what the application was trying to achieve, but also how the physicists themselves would be using it. In order to accomplish this, in this role,

I cut my teeth on usability testing, working with the Fermilab team to iterate and improve the interface. To me, their language and the topics they discussed seemed to me to be foreign languages. And by making myself humble and working under the mindset that I was but a student, I made myself available to be a part of their world to generate that vital connection.

I also had my first ethnographic observational experience, where I observed how the physicists used the tool in their own environments, on their own terminals. For example, one takeaway was that due to the level of ambient light-driven contrast within the facility, the data columns ended up using white text on a dark gray background instead of black text-on-white. They were able to focus on their eyes while working during the day while poring over enormous amounts of data. And Fermilab and CERN are government entities with rigorous accessibility standards, so my knowledge in that realm also grew. Another crucial form of communication was the barrier-free design.

So to those core drivers of my visual problem-solving soul and ultimate fulfillment: discovery, exposure to new media, observation, human connection, and evolution. Before I entered those values, I had to check my ego before entering it, which opened the door to those values.

An evergreen willingness to listen, learn, understand, grow, evolve, and connect yields our best work. I want to pay attention to the words “grow” and “evolve” in that statement in particular. If we are always students of our craft, we are also continually making ourselves available to evolve. Yes, we have years of practical design experience behind us. Or the focused lab sessions from a UX bootcamp. Or the monogrammed portfolio of our work. Or, ultimately, decades of a career behind us.

However, remember that “experience” does not equate to “expert.”

As soon as we close our minds via an inner monologue of’ knowing it all’ or branding ourselves a” #thoughtleader” on social media, the designer we are is our final form. The artist we can be will never be there.

As a solution developer for too many years, I can’t recall how many times I’ve seen promising ideas go from being heroes in a few weeks to being useless within months.

Financial items, which is the industry in which I work, are no exception. It’s tempting to put as many features at the ceiling as possible and expect something sticks because people’s true, hard-earned money is on the line, user expectations are high, and crowded market. However, this strategy will lead to disaster. Why, please:

The drawbacks of feature-first creation

It’s simple to get swept up in the enthusiasm of developing innovative features when you start developing a financial product from scratch or are migrating existing client journeys from paper or phone channels to online bank or mobile apps. They may think,” If I may only add one more thing that solves this particular person problem, they’ll appreciate me”! But what happens if you eventually encounter a roadblock as a result of your security team’s negligence? don’t like it, right? When a battle-tested film isn’t as well-known as you anticipated, or when it fails due to unforeseen difficulty?

The concept of Minimum Viable Product ( MVP ) comes into play in this context. Even though Jason Fried doesn’t usually refer to it that way, his podcast Rework and his book Getting Real frequently address this concept. An MVP is a product that offers only sufficient value to your users to keep them interested, but not so much that it becomes difficult to keep up. Although the idea seems simple, it requires a razor-sharp eye, a ruthless edge, and the courage to stand up for your position because it is easy to fall for” the Columbo Effect” when there is always” just one more thing …” to add.

The issue with most fund apps is that they frequently turn out to be reflections of the company’s internal politics rather than an encounter created specifically for the customer. This implies that the priority is to provide as many features and functionalities as possible to satisfy the requirements and desires of competing inside sections as opposed to a distinct value statement that is focused on what people in the real world actually want. These products may therefore quickly become a muddled mess of confusing, related, and finally unlovable client experiences—a feature salad, you might say.

The significance of the foundation

What is a better strategy, then? How may we create products that are user-friendly, firm, and, most importantly, stick?

The concept of “bedrock” comes into play here. Rock is the main feature of your solution that really matters to customers. The foundation of worth and relevance over time is built upon it.

The rock has got to be in and around the standard cleaning journeys in the world of retail bank, which is where I work. People only look at their existing account once every blue sky, but they do so daily. They purchase a credit card every year or two, but they at least once a month assess their stability and pay their bills.

The key is in identifying the main jobs that people want to complete and working relentlessly to render them simple, reliable, and trustworthy.

How can you reach the foundation, though? By focusing on the” MVP” strategy, giving clarity the top priority, and working toward a distinct value proposition. This means avoiding unnecessary characteristics and putting your customers first, and adding real value.

It even requires having some nerve, as your coworkers might not always agree with you immediately. And in some cases, it might even mean making it clear to consumers that you won’t be coming over to their home to prepare their meal. Sometimes you need to use “opinionated user interface design” ( i .e., clumsy workaround for edge cases ) to test a concept or to give yourself some more time to work on something else.

Functional methods for creating reliable economic items

What are the main learnings I’ve made from my own research and knowledge, then?

1. What trouble are you trying to solve first, and make a distinct “why”? For whom? Before beginning any project, make sure your goal is completely clear. Make certain it also complies with the goals of your business.
2. Avoid the temptation to put too many characteristics at once and focus on getting that right first. Choose one that actually adds benefit, and work from that.
3. When it comes to financial items, clarity is often more important than complexity. Eliminate unwanted details and concentrate solely on what matters most.
4. Accept constant iteration as Bedrock is a powerful process rather than a fixed destination. Continuously collect customer opinions, make product improvements, and advance in that direction.
5. Cease, look, and listen: You don’t just have to test your product during the delivery process; you must also test it consistently in the field. Use it for yourself. Move the A/B testing. User comments on Gatter. Speak to the users of it and make adjustments accordingly.

The “bedrock conundrum”

This is an intriguing conundrum: sacrificing some of the potential for short-term progress in favor of long-term stability. But the reward is worthwhile because products created with a concentrate on core will outlive and outperform their competitors and provide people with ongoing value over time.

How do you begin your quest to rock, then? Get it gradually. Start by identifying the underlying factors that your customers actually care about. Concentrate on developing and improving a second, potent function that delivers real value. And most importantly, make an obsessive effort because, whatever you think, Abraham Lincoln, Alan Kay, or Peter Drucker, you can’t deny it! The best way to foretell the future is to make it, he said.

Fans were enthralled by Dexter: Resurrection’s advertising campaign, which featured their favorite players and characters who were all returning to the company after so long. The spinoff’s ability to retain Michael C. Hall as Dexter, David Zayas as Angel Batista, and James Remar as Harry Morgan allows the continuity to flourish and ]… ]

On Den of Geek, the second article Carl: Resurrection Loses Debra Morgan appeared.

Starting with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania in cinemas and ending with Ironheart on Disney+, the previous two and a half decades have given us Stage Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Step Grant continued by bringing us to know about estimation risk while all the other soldiers gravitate into their own little groups, while Phase Four was about establishing the world and introducing the next generation of champions.

Unlike the other stages, this five batch of movies and shows have not fully fresh protagonists. Figures from earlier projects are used in their roles. That said, Marvel is constantly building to the next issue, and many new figures have shown up in Stage Five to make an impact. The best of them are shown in this image.

Of course, this does come with an apostrophe when it comes to varieties. Even though Hugh Jackman plays the Wolverine from Deadpool &amp, Wolverine is essentially a brand-new figure to us. That can be a slippery slope, because why not incorporate Red Guardian as” Bob Toledo” from What If …? or the most recent animated Peter Parker? Certain figures on the list may be a bit bpd, so it will be a case-by-case foundation on how suggestive they are to their multiversal rivals.

Also, honorable mention is given to Ruben Rabasa ( the” good steering wheel that doesn’t fly off when you’re driving” guy from I Think You Should Leave ) for his brief appearance in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. He just didn’t get much screentime to make the split. Since Prince Yan ( Park Seo-joon ) from The Marvels, in truth, the same goes.

High Evolutionary

Marvel criminals had been more unsuccessful than successful since Thanos ‘ dusty origin, but holy heaven did Chukwudi Iwuji remove it as the High Evolutionary. Somehow the villain from the worst Spider-Man cartoon series ever ( Spider-Man Unlimited, if you were wondering ) was reimagined as the most vile and sadistic antagonist we’ve seen in a while. You wanted to see him torn apart because of animal cruelty, system despair, excessive posturing, and a strong armor of smugness. And son, did he find his!

High Evolutionary even ties items up for the Guardians of the Galaxy series, which is excellent. Rocket’s story had only been hinted at in earlier movies with small explanations for his physical and mental bruising. High Evolutionary provides some closure to that and also relating it to the Royal and Adam Warlock, their most powerful weapon.

Ouroboros

The cast was perhaps too on the head. After Ke Huy Quan made a lot of headlines by leaving his job to work on All Everywhere All at once, he was cast in Loki’s next year to enjoy a figure with a lot of similarities. OB was likewise a charming guy with a strained relationship who was tangled up in a complicated sci-fi concept centered around a threat to the world as we know it.

Addition of a new title to the collection would be a difficult task because Loki had so many figures from the first time who needed further attention, like Casey and Brad. Fortunately, Ouroboros added the proper balance of cheerful and strange to mix with so much exposition and sci-fi nonsense giant to proceed the plot forward.

Cassandra Nova

Deadpool doesn’t really have some significant villains in the cartoons. Yet Ajax from the first film was only present for one story before being killed off. Considering Deadpool &amp, Wolverine was all about celebrating the Fox X-Men shows while exploring multiversal ideas, Cassandra Nova was a great choice for the two treatment Indians to fight. Cassandra, who was created by Grant Morrison ( who will be writing Deadpool for the first time afterwards this year ) is well-known enough for the X-Men film franchise as Charles Xavier’s twin sister, but distinct and crazy enough to fit in a Deadpool movie that weaves through TVA mythology. Hell, perhaps if they went with the cartoons nature that she was strangled in the pregnancy and also somehow survived, it still wouldn’t have been to out there for this film.

Emma Corrin does a good job of manic and psychotic acting for the character, who is a pure sadist who laughs about why she is the way she is without any further justification. She spent most of her existence as the victim of sci-fi bureaucrats who doomed her to a life as queen of a desolate death factory wasteland at the end of time. It’s no wonder she spent a lot of time wearing Doctor Strange’s skin.

Gambit

As Deadpool &amp, Wolverine became inundated with cameos, the special appearances of heroes from cinema past were starting to run the risk of wearing out their welcome. Where could you go after Blade stepped into the frame with the growl of his theme music? Elektra was a decent novelty. The answer was to bring in the hero who almost was. The typical viewer would not be aware of the rumors and behind-the-scenes fumbling that Channing Tatum did, and he appeared as Remy LeBeau, looking like one of those Photoshopped fan-made posters you’d see on Deviantart or social media.

Tatum had been waiting a long, long time to play this role and he made every second count. How Deadpool ended up being the straight man in their interactions while occasionally seeing eye-to-eye with him helped make his goofball, yet comic-accurate performance work. Had things gone different, Wade, Remy, and that foulmouthed Johnny Storm could have been best bros.

Rio Vidal

When they announced Aubrey Plaza was going to be on a show about witches, it felt too perfect. Then, when she appeared in the first episode completely unidentified, it became clear that she was someone comic fans would be aware of, to the point where she likely mentioned having a “black heart” in order to justify a red herring claim that she was Mephisto’s offspring. As things went on, it became a bit more obvious that she was literal Death, though with enough extra pieces of enigmatic context sprinkled in that made such a reveal more compelling. Then, when they pulled the trigger and revealed her true identity, something had to go wrong: Lilia turned her head in horror at the Ouija séance, from her spooky lower face to the cutaway of her cackling.

Rio being Death was neat enough, but it was the added details that really took it home. Her chemistry with Agatha. Her favor for Agatha, and the pain of knowing that it was the best she could do for her. She transformed from being perceived as a sinister threat to a benevolent force of nature with a duty and a soft side. Still, it is so weird that Starfox, Adam Warlock, and Death showed up in the MCU after Thanos was dead and gone.

Lilia Calderu

Agatha Harkness ‘ coven had some great characters on their faux quest for power, but none stood out nearly as much as Lilia Calderu ( Patti LuPone ). Lilia was generally helpful throughout the entire show, but she always appeared cynical and/or ooky in front of the other witches because she would frequently use tarot card names and make impromptu name-dropping tarot cards. We knew she was a mystery to solve, but in the first six episodes, her behavior came off as perhaps magic and old age affecting her brain.

Everything came back to life in the seventh episode of” Death’s Hand in Mine” and we finally realized how wrong Lilia was acting. Seeing all the puzzle pieces fall into place was badass, cathartic, and emotional. One of the true highlights of Marvel Phase Five is Agatha All Along, which has a strong climax to her role in the film.

Byrdie the Duck

Despite being based on tangent timelines, what if…? animated series would throw out an original character. Howard the Duck and his bride Darcy Lewis had an egg in this situation, which was a follow-up to a season 1 episode. Try &#8230, try not to think too hard about how that worked. This egg was believed to have great power because of this going down during Convergence, the big cosmic event from Thor: The Dark World. Eventually, Byrdie was hatched, and laid waste to the many who would have stolen and exploited her.

Byrdie the Duck has joined Uatu the Watcher’s dwindling Exiles for the first time in several decades. Voiced by Natasha Lyonne, Byrdie’s ‘ 80s rocker style seems based on Lea Thompson’s Beverly Switzler from the 1986 Howard the Duck movie. Byrdie’s bombastic personality kept things entertaining once the season dipped into its usual lore-accumulating finale episodes.

Curiously, Natasha Lyonne is supposed to have some kind of role in Fantastic Four: First Steps, and considering the whole multiverse connection, it’s very possible that we haven’t seen the last of Howard and Darcy’s cosmic daughter.

Muse

Daredevil: Born Again attempted to juggle the Netflix Marvel aesthetic with the overarching MCU aesthetic in a succinct mission statement. A lot of it was scattershot, what with the reshoots and attempts to polish the earlier footage of the show by streamlining it to the Daredevil seasons that came before. The key to bridging the two seems to be Hunter Doohan’s role in Born Again, which aids in its success. It’s a relief, since they were really running out of notable Daredevil villains.

Muse was the ideal mid-level threat for Daredevil to deal with among all the Mayor Kingpin snobs while only appearing for a short number of episodes. As a serial killer who could take a punch, Muse felt at home with the Netflix corner of Marvel. More than that, they were able to pull off his masked appearance and over-the-top goals, making them commit to the comics. The Netflix stuff liked to treat comic accuracy as a joke, throwing in the occasional costume reference here and there for the sake of an Easter egg, but seeing Muse in all his glory just felt right.

Yes, I still detest that Jessica Jones never had the American flag embroidered on his face. No, I don’t care if it would not have made sense.

Reynolds, Bob

First off, I don’t even understand why Sentry qualifies for this list. Even though I keep mentioning that he’s been around since the first Sentry movie that launched the MCU back in 2007, my editor kept insisting that we put him on here. Apparently, I’m the only one who remembers this! Ah, I guess so.

Bob/Sentry/Void was always going to be a hard concept to make work, especially as we’re in an era where” Superman but dark” has been run into the ground so hard that it’s right under the Vault. In Thunderbolts*, Lewis Pullman’s fidgety and awkward portrayal, where he comes off as likeable and kind, but also has an angry and suicidal persona bubbling from beneath, really made the character pop.

Seeing it through to the other side, Sentry is now a unique type of superhero powerhouse. He has the nuclear option in the New Avengers, but only in the most dire circumstances, where things could end in a famine. He’s their new Hulk, but more of a threat to everyone and everything.

Mephisto

Milhouse, here it is. We finally got to the fireworks factory.

Consider this a joint entry where the wardrobe, dealaker, and Hood ( Anthony Ramos ) serve as the dealmaker and the wardrobe are all connected. Parker Robbins is almost like the final form of Marvel’s villain criticism. We get the Hood after bad guys like Killmonger, Flagsmasher, and Leader are perceived as having a great point only to realize how cartoonishly evil they are. Yes, there’s an almost Robin Hood-like charm to how he takes down his corporate victims in the name of the little man, but in the end, he’s self-serving to the point that he’s literally selling his soul to the Devil.

As he plays Parker and Riri like they’re fiddles, Mephisto ( Sasha Baron Cohen ) and adds the perfect amount of charm and menace. So far, he’s fulfilling the potential of what Marvel Satan could be while they have been careful of having him show too much too soon. The heroes of the MCU may have to come to terms with the fact that waiting until the end of Phase 5 will work out well. With Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars looming in the distance, good intentions and a pure heart can’t always save the day. Like with the third eyeball on Dr. Strange’s forehead, you can’t pass damnation sometimes.

The post The 10 Best Marvel Characters Introduced in MCU Phase Five appeared first on Den of Geek.

Long-time Star Trek fans have reason to rejoice as Star Trek: Weird New Worlds wraps up its second season. It’s really been two centuries since Strange New Worlds debuted new incidents, and so the launch of a new year will be like much-needed foods for starving Trekkies. However, those same supporters hardly ever have any inquiries. ]… ]

The second article Star Trek: Odd New Worlds Showrunners Explain a Special Approach to Canon appeared initially on Den of Geek.

Starting with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania in theaters and ending with Ironheart on Disney+, the previous two and a half decades have given us Stage Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Phase Give continued to warn us about multiversal peril while all the rest of the champions gravitate into their own little cliques, while Phase Four was about establishing the universe and introducing the next generation of champions.

Unlike the other stages, this second batch of movies and shows have not entirely fresh protagonists. Figures from earlier initiatives are used in their roles. That said, Marvel is constantly building to the next issue, and many new figures have shown up in Stage Five to make an impact. Here is a look at the best of them.

Of course, this does come with an apostrophe when it comes to varieties. The Wolverine from Deadpool &amp, Wolverine is essentially a brand-new persona to us, yet if Hugh Jackman plays him. That can be a slippery slope, because why not incorporate Red Guardian as” Bob Toledo” from What If …? or the most recent animated Peter Parker? Certain figures on the list may be a little borderline, so it will be a case-by-case foundation on how suggestive they are to their multiversal rivals.

For his brief appearance in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, honorable mention is also made to Ruben Rabasa ( the” good steering wheel that doesn’t fly off when you’re driving” guy from I Think You Should Leave ). He simply didn’t find much screentime to make the cut. Since Prince Yan ( Park Seo-joon ) from The Marvels, in truth, the same goes.

High Evolutionary

Since Thanos turned into dust, Marvel criminals have been more unsuccessful than successful, but divine heaven did Chukwudi Iwuji remove it as the High Evolutionary. Somehow the villain from the worst Spider-Man cartoon series ever ( Spider-Man Unlimited, if you were wondering ) was reimagined as the most vile and sadistic antagonist we’ve seen in a while. You wanted to see him torn apart because of animal cruelty, system despair, excessive posturing, and a strong armor of smugness. And son, did he find his!

High Evolutionary even ties things up for the Guardians of the Galaxy series, which is excellent. Rocket’s story had only been hinted at in past movies with small explanations for his physical and mental bruising. High Evolutionary adds closing to that and also relating the Sovereign’s and Adam Warlock’s use as their best weapon.

Ouroboros

The cast was perhaps too on the head. After Ke Huy Quan’s pensions and portrayal of a figure with a lot of parallels, he was cast in Loki’s next year as a personality with a lot of similarities. OB was likewise a charming guy with a strained relationship who was tangled up in a complicated sci-fi concept centered around a threat to the world as we know it.

Addition of a new title to the roster would be a difficult task because Loki already had so many characters from the first time who needed more interest, like Casey and Brad. Fortunately, Ouroboros added the proper balance of cheerful and strange to mix with so much exposition and sci-fi nonsense giant to proceed the plot forward.

Cassandra Nova

Deadpool doesn’t really have some significant villains in the cartoons. Yet Ajax from the first film was only present for one story before being killed off. Considering Deadpool &amp, Wolverine was all about celebrating the Fox X-Men shows while exploring multiversal ideas, Cassandra Nova was a great choice for the two treatment Indians to fight. Cassandra, who was created by Grant Morrison ( who will be writing Deadpool for the first time after this season ) is both well-known and odd enough to fit the X-Men mold in a Deadpool film that weaves through TVA lore. Hell, yet if they went with the cartoons nature that she was strangled in the pregnancy and also somehow survived, it still wouldn’t have been to out there for this film.

Emma Corrin does a good job of manic and psychotic acting for the character, a pure sadist who laughs about why she is the way she is, but there isn’t need for more justification. She spent most of her existence as the victim of sci-fi bureaucrats who doomed her to a life as queen of a desolate death factory wasteland at the end of time. It’s no wonder she wore Doctor Strange’s skin for a while.

Gambit

As Deadpool &amp, Wolverine became inundated with cameos, the special appearances of heroes from cinema past were starting to run the risk of wearing out their welcome. Where could you go after Blade stepped into the frame with the growl of his theme music? Elektra was a decent novelty, but where could you go? The answer was to bring in the hero who almost was. Chanting Tatum appeared as Remy LeBeau, looking like one of those Photoshopped fan-made posters you’d see on social media or Deviantart, playing into rumors and behind-the-scenes fumbling that the average viewer wouldn’t be aware of.

Tatum had been waiting a long, long time to play this role and he made every second count. How Deadpool ended up being the straight man in their interactions while occasionally seeing eye-to-eye with him helped make his goofball, yet comic-accurate performance work. Had things gone different, Wade, Remy, and that foulmouthed Johnny Storm could have been best bros.

Rio Vidal

When they announced Aubrey Plaza was going to be on a show about witches, it felt too perfect. Then, when she appeared in the first episode completely unidentified, it became clear that she was someone comic fans would be aware of, to the point where she likely mentioned having a “black heart” in order to justify a red herring claim that she was Mephisto’s offspring. As things went on, it became a bit more obvious that she was literal Death, though with enough extra pieces of enigmatic context sprinkled in that made such a reveal more compelling. Then, when they pulled the trigger and revealed her true identity, it had a significant impact, ranging from her eerie skull lower face to the cutaway of her cackling during the Ouija séance as Lilia turned her head in agony.

Rio being Death was neat enough, but it was the added details that really took it home. Her association with Agatha. Her favor for Agatha, and the pain of knowing that it was the best she could do for her. She transformed from a person who perceived her as a sinister threat to a kind of natural force with a duty and a soft side. Still, it is so weird that Starfox, Adam Warlock, and Death showed up in the MCU after Thanos was dead and gone.

Lilia Calderu

Agatha Harkness ‘ coven had some great characters on their faux quest for power, but none stood out nearly as much as Lilia Calderu ( Patti LuPone ). Lilia was overall helpful throughout the show, but she constantly appeared shaky and/or kooky in front of the other witches because she was constantly using tarot card names and randomly dropping non-sequiturs. We knew she was a mystery to solve, but in the first six episodes, her behavior came off as perhaps magic and old age affecting her brain.

Everything came back to life in the seventh episode of” Death’s Hand in Mine,” when we finally learned the truth about Lilia’s behavior. Seeing all the puzzle pieces fall into place was badass, cathartic, and emotional. One of the true highlights of Marvel Phase Five is Agatha All Along, which has a strong climax to her role in the film.

Byrdie the Duck

Although based on tangent timelines, what if…? animated series would throw out an original character. In this situation, Howard the Duck and his bride Darcy Lewis had an egg in a sequel to an episode from season 1. Try &#8230, try not to think too hard about how that worked. This egg was believed to have great power because of this going down during Convergence, the big cosmic event from Thor: The Dark World. Eventually, Byrdie was hatched, and laid waste to the many who would have stolen and exploited her.

Byrdie the Duck has joined Uatu the Watcher’s dwindling Exiles for the first time in several decades. Voiced by Natasha Lyonne, Byrdie’s ‘ 80s rocker style seems based on Lea Thompson’s Beverly Switzler from the 1986 Howard the Duck movie. Byrdie’s bombastic personality kept things entertaining once the season dipped into its usual lore-accumulating finale episodes.

Curiously, Natasha Lyonne is supposed to have some kind of role in Fantastic Four: First Steps, and considering the whole multiverse connection, it’s very possible that we haven’t seen the last of Howard and Darcy’s cosmic daughter.

Muse

Daredevil: Born Again attempted to combine the overarching MCU approach and the Netflix Marvel style with a succinct mission statement. A lot of it was scattershot, what with the reshoots and attempts to polish the earlier footage of the show by streamlining it to the Daredevil seasons that came before. The key to bridging the two seems to be Hunter Doohan’s role in Born Again, which aids in its success. It’s a relief, since they were really running out of notable Daredevil villains.

Muse was the ideal mid-level threat for Daredevil to deal with among all the Mayor Kingpin snobs while only appearing for a short number of episodes. As a serial killer who could take a punch, Muse felt at home with the Netflix corner of Marvel. More than that, they were able to keep to the comics by putting on his over-the-top goals and masked look. The Netflix stuff liked to treat comic accuracy as a joke, throwing in the occasional costume reference here and there for the sake of an Easter egg, but seeing Muse in all his glory just felt right.

Yes, I still detest that Jessica Jones never had the American flag embroidered on his face. No, I don’t care if it would not have made sense.

Bob Reynolds

First off, I don’t even understand why Sentry qualifies for this list. Even though I keep explaining that he’s been around since the first Sentry movie that launched the MCU back in 2007, my editor kept insisting that we put him on here. Apparently, I’m the only one who remembers this! Ah, I guess so.

Bob/Sentry/Void was always going to be a hard concept to make work, especially as we’re in an era where” Superman but dark” has been run into the ground so hard that it’s right under the Vault. In Thunderbolts*, they really made the character stand out by incorporating him into the themes of the film as well as Lewis Pullman’s fidgety and awkward portrayal, where he comes off as likeable and kind but there is an angry and suicidal persona bubbling from beneath him.

Seeing it through to the other side, Sentry is now a unique type of superhero powerhouse. He has the nuclear option in the New Avengers, but only in the most dire circumstances, where things could end in a famine. He’s their new Hulk, but more of a threat to everyone and everything.

Mephisto

Milhouse, here it is. We finally got to the fireworks factory.

Consider this one a joint entry where the wardrobe, dealaker, and Hood ( Anthony Ramos ) serve as the dealmaker and the wardrobe are all tied together. Parker Robbins is almost like the final form of Marvel’s villain criticism. We get the Hood after bad guys like Killmonger, Flagsmasher, and Leader are perceived as having a great point only to realize how cartoonishly evil they are. Yes, there’s an almost Robin Hood-like charm to how he takes down his corporate victims in the name of the little man, but in the end, he’s self-serving to the point that he’s literally selling his soul to the Devil.

As he plays Parker and Riri like a fiddle, Mephisto ( Sasha Baron Cohen ) adds the perfect amount of charm and menace. So far, he’s fulfilling the potential of what Marvel Satan could be while they have been careful of having him show too much too soon. Waiting until the end of Phase 5 for this red shoe to drop works well, as the MCU’s heroes might have to come to terms with the realization that good intentions and a sincere heart can’t always save the day. With Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars looming in the distance, this red shoe may come in handy. Like with the third eyeball on Dr. Strange’s forehead, you can sometimes only get by using damnation.

The post The 10 Best Marvel Characters Introduced in MCU Phase Five appeared first on Den of Geek.

The last two and a half years have given us Stage Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, beginning with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantum in cinemas and ending with Ironheart on Disney+. While Phase Four was about setting up the world and introducing the next generation of soldiers, Step Grant continued by alerting us to]… ]

The second post was The 10 Best Marvel Characters Introduced in MCU Phase Five on Den of Geek.

Starting with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania in theaters and ending with Ironheart on Disney+, the previous two and a half decades have given us Stage Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Phase Give continued to warn us about multiversal peril while all the rest of the champions gravitate into their own little cliques, while Phase Four was about establishing the world and introducing the next generation of champions.

Unlike the other stages, this second batch of movies and shows have not entirely fresh protagonists. Figures from earlier tasks are used in their roles. That said, Marvel is constantly building to the next issue, and many new figures have shown up in Stage Five to make an impact. Here is a look at the best of them.

Of course, this does come with an apostrophe when it comes to varieties. Even though Hugh Jackman plays the Wolverine from Deadpool &amp, Wolverine is essentially a brand-new figure to us. That can be a slippery slope, because why not incorporate Red Guardian as” Bob Toledo” from What If …? or the most recent animated Peter Parker? Certain figures on the list may be a bit bpd, so it will be a case-by-case foundation on how suggestive they are to their multiversal rivals.

For his brief appearance in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, honorable mention is also made to Ruben Rabasa ( the” good steering wheel that doesn’t fly off when you’re driving” guy from I Think You Should Leave ). He simply didn’t find much screentime to make the cut. Since Prince Yan from The Marvels is a character, Park Seo-joon ( from The Marvels ) is similar.

High Evolutionary

Since Thanos turned into a dust, Marvel criminals have been more unsuccessful than successful, but divine heaven did Chukwudi Iwuji remove it as the High Evolutionary. Somehow the villain from the worst Spider-Man cartoon series ever ( Spider-Man Unlimited, if you were wondering ) was reimagined as the most vile and sadistic antagonist we’ve seen in a while. You wanted to see him torn off, but animal cruelty, system horror, excessive grandstanding, and a strong armor of smugness made him somebody you wanted to see him torn asunder. And son, did he find his!

High Evolutionary even ties items up for the Guardians of the Galaxy series, which is excellent. Rocket’s story had only been hinted at in earlier movies with small explanations for his physical and mental bruising. High Evolutionary adds closing to that and even relating the existence of the Sovereign and Adam Warlock as their most powerful weapon.

Ouroboros

The cast was perhaps too on the head. After Ke Huy Quan made a lot of headlines by leaving his job to work on All Everywhere All at once, he was cast in Loki’s next year to enjoy a figure with a lot of similarities. OB was likewise a charming guy with a strained relationship who was tangled up in a complicated sci-fi concept centered around a threat to the world as we know it.

Addition of a new title to the roster would be a difficult task because Loki already had so many characters from the first time who needed more attention, like Casey and Brad. Fortunately, Ouroboros added the proper balance of cheerful and strange to mix with so much exposition and sci-fi nonsense giant to proceed the plot forward.

Cassandra Nova

Deadpool doesn’t really have some distinctive villains in the cartoons. Before being killed off, yet Ajax from the first film had a plot that was unique. Considering Deadpool &amp, Wolverine was all about celebrating the Fox X-Men shows while exploring multiversal ideas, Cassandra Nova was a great choice for the two treatment Indians to fight. Cassandra, who was created by Grant Morrison ( who will be writing Deadpool for the first time later this year ) is well-known enough for the X-Men brand as Charles Xavier’s twin girl, but distinct and crazy enough to feel right at home in a Deadpool drama that swims through TVA legend. Hell, even if they went with the comics origin that she was strangled in the womb and still somehow survived, it still wouldn’t have been too out there for this movie.

Emma Corrin does a good job of manic and psychotic acting for the character, a pure sadist who laughs about why she is the way she is, but there isn’t need for more justification. She spent most of her existence as the victim of sci-fi bureaucrats who doomed her to a life as queen of a desolate death factory wasteland at the end of time. It’s no wonder she wore Doctor Strange’s skin for a while.

Gambit

As Deadpool &amp, Wolverine became inundated with cameos, the special appearances of heroes from cinema past were starting to run the risk of wearing out their welcome. Where could you go after Blade stepped into the frame with the growl of his theme music, though? The answer was to bring in the hero who almost was. The typical viewer would not be aware of the rumors and behind-the-scenes fumbling that Channing Tatum did, and he appeared as Remy LeBeau, looking like one of those Photoshopped fan-made posters you’d see on Deviantart or social media.

Tatum had been waiting a long, long time to play this role and he made every second count. How Deadpool ended up being the straight man in their interactions while occasionally seeing eye-to-eye with him helped make his goofball, yet comic-accurate performance work. Had things gone different, Wade, Remy, and that foulmouthed Johnny Storm could have been best bros.

Rio Vidal

When they announced Aubrey Plaza was going to be on a show about witches, it felt too perfect. Then, when she appeared in the first episode completely unidentified, it became clear that she was someone comic fans would be aware of, to the point where she likely mentioned having a “black heart” in order to justify a red herring claim that she was Mephisto’s offspring. As things went on, it became a bit more obvious that she was literal Death, though with enough extra pieces of enigmatic context sprinkled in that made such a reveal more compelling. Then, when they pulled the trigger and revealed her true identity, something had to go wrong: Lilia turned her head in horror at the Ouija séance, from her spooky lower face to the cutaway of her cackling.

Rio being Death was neat enough, but it was the added details that really took it home. Her association with Agatha. Her favor for Agatha, and the pain of knowing that it was the best she could do for her. She transformed from being perceived as a sinister threat to a benevolent force of nature with a duty and a soft side. Still, it is so weird that Starfox, Adam Warlock, and Death showed up in the MCU after Thanos was dead and gone.

Lilia Calderu

Agatha Harkness ‘ coven had some great characters on their faux quest for power, but none stood out nearly as much as Lilia Calderu ( Patti LuPone ). Lilia was overall helpful throughout the show, but she always appeared sarcastic and/or kooky in front of the other witches because she was constantly using tarot card names and saying non-sequitures. We knew she was a mystery to solve, but in the first six episodes, her behavior came off as perhaps magic and old age affecting her brain.

Everything came back to life in the seventh episode of” Death’s Hand in Mine” and we finally realized how wrong Lilia was acting. Seeing all the puzzle pieces fall into place was badass, cathartic, and emotional. The entire Agatha All Along climax is powerful and is one of the true highlights of Marvel Phase Five.

Byrdie the Duck

Despite being based on tangent timelines, what if…? animated series would throw out an original character. In this situation, Howard the Duck and his bride Darcy Lewis had an egg in a sequel to an episode from season 1. Try &#8230, try not to think too hard about how that worked. This egg was believed to have great power because of this occurring during Convergence, the main cosmic event from Thor: The Dark World. Eventually, Byrdie was hatched, and laid waste to the many who would have stolen and exploited her.

Byrdie the Duck is now a member of Uatu the Watcher’s ever-dwindling Exiles, after a few decades. Voiced by Natasha Lyonne, Byrdie’s ‘ 80s rocker style seems based on Lea Thompson’s Beverly Switzler from the 1986 Howard the Duck movie. Byrdie’s bombastic personality kept things entertaining once the season dipped into its usual lore-accumulating finale episodes.

Curiously, Natasha Lyonne is supposed to have some kind of role in Fantastic Four: First Steps, and considering the whole multiverse connection, it’s very possible that we haven’t seen the last of Howard and Darcy’s cosmic daughter.

Muse

Daredevil: Born Again attempted to juggle the Netflix Marvel aesthetic with the overarching MCU aesthetic in a succinct mission statement. A lot of it was scattershot, what with the reshoots and attempts to polish the earlier footage of the show by streamlining it to the Daredevil seasons that came before. Hunter Doohan’s ( Hunter Doohan ) seems to be the component that truly bridges the two and makes Born Again work. It’s a relief, since they were really running out of notable Daredevil villains.

Muse was the ideal mid-level threat for Daredevil to deal with among all the Mayor Kingpin snobs while only appearing for a short number of episodes. As a serial killer who could take a punch, Muse felt at home with the Netflix corner of Marvel. More than that, they were able to pull off his masked appearance and over-the-top goals, making them commit to the comics. The Netflix stuff liked to treat comic accuracy as a joke, throwing in the occasional costume reference here and there for the sake of an Easter egg, but seeing Muse in all his glory just felt right.

Yes, I still detest that Jessica Jones never embroidered the American flag on Nuke’s face. No, I don’t care if it would not have made sense.

Reynolds, Bob

First off, I don’t even understand why Sentry qualifies for this list. Even though I keep explaining that he’s been around since the first Sentry movie that launched the MCU back in 2007, my editor kept insisting that we put him on here. Apparently, I’m the only one who remembers this! Ah, I guess so.

Bob/Sentry/Void was always going to be a hard concept to make work, especially as we’re in an era where” Superman but dark” has been run into the ground so hard that it’s right under the Vault. In Thunderbolts*, Lewis Pullman’s fidgety and awkward portrayal, where he comes off as likeable and kind, but also has an angry and suicidal persona bubbling from beneath, really made the character pop.

Seeing it through to the other side, Sentry is now a unique type of superhero powerhouse. He’s the nuclear option for the New Avengers, but only in the most dire circumstances, because otherwise things could go wrong. He’s their new Hulk, but more of a threat to everyone and everything.

Mephisto

Milhouse, here it is. We finally got to the fireworks factory.

Consider this a joint entry where the wardrobe, dealaker, and Hood ( Anthony Ramos ) serve as the dealmaker and the wardrobe are all connected. Parker Robbins is almost like the final form of Marvel’s villain criticism. The Hood is revealed after bad guys like Killmonger, Flagsmasher, and Leader are perceived as having a point but later turn out to be cartoonishly evil. Yes, there’s an almost Robin Hood-like charm to how he takes down his corporate victims in the name of the little man, but in the end, he’s self-serving to the point that he’s literally selling his soul to the Devil.

As he plays Parker and Riri like they’re fiddles, Mephisto ( Sasha Baron Cohen ) and adds the perfect amount of charm and menace. So far, he’s fulfilling the potential of what Marvel Satan could be while they have been careful of having him show too much too soon. The heroes of the MCU may have to come to terms with the fact that waiting until the end of Phase 5 will work out well. With Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars looming in the distance, good intentions and a pure heart can’t always save the day. Like with the third eyeball on Dr. Strange’s forehead, you can’t pass damnation sometimes.

The second post was The 10 Best Marvel Characters Introduced in MCU Phase Five on Den of Geek.

This article was produced in collaboration with Nickelodeon and appears in the Den of Geek x Avatar: The Last Airbender particular version, which is scheduled for mid-July. As Avatar: The Last Airbender’s next year kicked off, followers were excited to see the more experiences of Aang, Sokka, and Katara. The wise decision would have been to continue that key group at [ …]]…]]…]] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ]

The article Image and an Oral History of the Blind Bandit appeared initially on Den of Geek.

The next two and a half years have provided Stage Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, starting with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantum in theaters and ending with Ironheart on Disney+. While Phase Four was about setting up the world and introducing the next generation of soldiers, Step Grant continued by alerting us to multiversal risk while all the remaining champions gravitate into their own small cliques.

This five batch of movies and shows has no entirely new protagonists, unlike the other phases. They are all led by personalities introduced in previous jobs. Despite that, Marvel is constantly moving forward, and some new heroes have appeared in Phase Five to make an impact. Here is a look at the best of them.

Naturally, there is an apostrophe when it comes to varieties. Essentially, the Wolverine from Deadpool &amp, Wolverine is a brand-new figure to us, yet if he is played by Hugh Jackman. Why not incorporate Red Guardian as” Bob Toledo” from What If…? That can be a slippery slope. or the latest active Peter Parker? Some of the characters on the list may be a little moderate, so it will be decided on a case-by-case foundation based on how suggestive they are of their multiversal counterparts.

Also, honorable mention to Ruben Rabasa ( the” a good steering wheel that doesn’t fly off when you’re driving” guy from I Think You Should Leave ) for his brief appearance in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Simply put, he wasn’t given sufficient screen time to make it. Honestly, the same goes for Prince Yan ( Park Seo-joon ) from The Marvels.

High Evolutionary

Marvel criminals had been more lady than strike since Thanos turned to dust, but divine heaven did Chukwudi Iwuji remove it as the High Evolutionary. The villain from the worst Spider-Man cartoon series ever ( Spider-Man Unlimited, if you’re wondering ) was reimagined as the most hateful and sadistic antagonist we’ve seen in a while. Pet violence, body despair, over-the-top politicking, and a strong shield of pompous made him someone you wanted to see torn off. And son, did he receive it!

Not only is the performance fantastic, but High Evolutionary even ties items together for the Guardians of the Galaxy series. Rocket’s history was only briefly explained in earlier movies, leaving only his physical and mental swelling as a hindrance. High Evolutionary gives closing to that, and even tying it into the life of the Republic and their greatest weapon Adam Warlock.

Ouroboros

Maybe the cast was too on the head. After Ke Huy Quan turned a lot of mind by coming out of retirement to do Everything Outside All at Once, he was cast in the next season of Loki to enjoy a character with a lot of similarities. OB was likewise a charming nerd with a strained relationship who was caught up in a perplexing sci-fi premise that concerned a danger to the world as we know it.

Loki had so many heroes from the first time who needed more attention, such as Casey and Brad, thus adding another label to the mound was going to get no easy feat. To advance the plot, Ouroboros fortunately found the right combination of optimistic and strange to balance out with the amount of exposition and sci-fi lingo.

Cassandra Nova

In the manga, there aren’t very many notable criminals in Deadpool. Yet Ajax from the first film was only around for one story before being killed off. Cassandra Nova was a great choice for the two healing Indians to struggle because Deadpool &amp, Wolverine was all about celebrating the Fox X-Men shows while exploring multiversal ideas. Created by Grant Morrison ( who will be writing Deadpool for the first time later this year ), Cassandra is familiar enough to the X-Men franchise as Charles Xavier’s twin sister, but unique and weird enough to feel right at home in a Deadpool movie that swims through TVA lore. Hell, even if they had followed the comic book’s theory that she was strangled in the womb and still managed to survive, it still wouldn’t have been too well-known for this film.

Emma Corrin plays manic and psychotic well for the character, a pure sadist who laughs about how she doesn’t know why she is the way she is, but there’s no more explanation needed. She lived the majority of her life as a victim of sci-fi bureaucrats, which ultimately led to her becoming the queen of a desolate death factory wasteland. No wonder she wore Doctor Strange’s skin for several days.

Gambit

The special appearances of heroes from films past were starting to run the risk of losing out on their welcome as Deadpool &amp, Wolverine became rife with cameos. Elektra was a decent novelty, but where could you go after Blade stepped into frame with the growl of his theme music? The solution was to bring in the almost-heroic character. Channing Tatum, playing into rumors and behind-the-scenes fumbling that the average viewer would not be aware of, showed up as Remy LeBeau, looking like one of those Photoshopped fan-made posters you’d see on social media or Deviantart.

Tatum made every second count by playing this role despite his long, long wait. What helped make his goofball, yet comic-accurate performance work was how Deadpool ended up the straight man in their interactions while at times seeing eye-to-eye with him. Had Wade, Remy, and that foul-mouthed Johnny Storm been the better bros, had things changed?

Rio Vidal

It sounded too appropriate when they revealed Aubrey Plaza would be starring in a witch-themed show. Then when she showed up all mysteriously in the first episode, it was apparent that she was someone comic fans would know, to the point that she likely mentioned having a “black heart” for the sake of a red herring suggestion that she was Mephisto’s offspring. With enough additional pieces of enigmatic context thrown in to make such a reveal more compelling, it became more obvious as time went on. Then when they pulled the trigger and revealed her true identity, it had some serious impact, from her creepy skull lower face to the cutaway of her cackling during the Ouija séance while Lilia turned her head in horrified realization.

Rio being Death was neat enough, but the added details were what really brought it home. Her relationship with Agatha. Her admiration for Agatha, and the relief of knowing that it was the best thing she could possibly do for her. She went from being perceived as a sinister threat to a neutral force of nature with a sense of duty and a soft side. Even so, it’s odd that Starfox, Adam Warlock, and Death appeared in the MCU after Thanos passed away.

Lilia Calderu

Lilia Calderu ( Patti LuPone ) was one of Agatha Harkness ‘ coven’s great characters on their faux quest for power, but none stood out much. Throughout the show, Lilia was overall helpful but constantly came off as wispy and/or kooky in the presence of the other witches as she was constantly saying non sequiturs and randomly name-dropping tarot card names. Although we knew she was a mystery to solve, the first six episodes showed her behavior as perhaps magic and old age having an impact on her brain.

It wasn’t until the seventh episode,” Death’s Hand in Mine”, that everything came full circle and we realized the truth of Lilia’s behavior. It was fierce, cathartic, and emotionally wrenching to watch all the pieces fall into place. The whole climax to her role in Agatha All Along hits hard and it alone is one of the true highlights of Marvel Phase Five.

Byrdie the Duck

Despite being based on tangent timelines, every now and then, the What If…? An original character would be cast in an animated series. In this case, in a sequel to an episode from season 1, Howard the Duck and his bride Darcy Lewis had an egg. Try not to think too much about how that worked. Due to this going down during this reality’s Convergence ( the big cosmic event from Thor: The Dark World ), this egg was prophesied to house great power. Byrdie was eventually hatched, and she was a waste to those who had taken and abused her.

Fast-forward several decades, and Byrdie the Duck is now part of Uatu the Watcher’s ever-dwindling Exiles. Byrdie’s rocker style, which is voiced by Natasha Lyonne, is based on Beverly Switzler from the 1986 Howard the Duck film Beverly Switzler. Once the season got into its usual lore-accumulated finale episodes, it was Byrdie’s bombastic personality that kept things fun.

Given that Natasha Lyonne is supposed to play some sort of role in Fantastic Four: First Steps, it’s very possible that we haven’t seen Howard and Darcy’s cosmic daughter.

Muse

Daredevil: Born Again had a rough mission statement of trying to merge the Netflix Marvel style with the overarching MCU approach. Due to the reshoots and attempts to improve the earlier Daredevil seasons ‘ footage, a lot of it was scattershot. Muse ( Hunter Doohan ) seems to be the ingredient that really bridges the two and helps make Born Again work. It’s a relief since they were running out of well-known Daredevil villains quickly.

While only around for a few episodes, Muse was the perfect mid-level threat for Daredevil to be dealing with amongst all the Mayor Kingpin hoopla. Muse felt at home with Marvel’s Netflix corner as a serial killer who could punch. But more than that, they were able to commit to the comics by pulling off his masked look and over-the-top goals. Although the Netflix stuff liked to treat comic accuracy as a joke, occasionally making costume references just for the sake of an Easter egg, it just felt right to see Muse in all his splendor.

Yes, I’m still bitter that Nuke never had the American flag tattooed over his face on Jessica Jones. No, I don’t care if it wasn’t made sense.

Bob Reynolds

First off, I have no idea why Sentry is on this list. My editor kept insisting to put him on here even though I keep explaining that he’s been around since the first Sentry movie that started the MCU back in 2007. I’m reportedly the only person who can recall this! Ah, well.

Being in a time when” Superman but dark” has been slammed into the ground so forcefully that it is right under the Vault, Bob/Sentry/Void was always going to be a difficult idea to make work. In Thunderbolts*, they really made the character pop by not only integrating him into the movie’s themes, but also through Lewis Pullman’s fidgety and awkward depiction, where he comes off as likeable and kind, but there’s an angry and suicidal persona bubbling from underneath.

Sentry is now a special kind of superhero powerhouse by seeing it through the other side. He’s the New Avengers ‘ nuclear option, but only in the biggest emergency, or else things might go wrong on an apocalyptic level. He’s their new Hulk, but he poses a greater threat to everyone and everything.

Mephisto

Here it is, Milhouse. We finally arrived at the factory for fireworks.

Consider this one a joint entry with the Hood ( Anthony Ramos ) as the dealmaker, the dealtaker, and the wardrobe are all tied together. Parker Robbins almost resembles the final form of Marvel’s villain critique. After bad guys like Killmonger, Flagsmasher, and Leader being seen as having a great point, only to become cartoonishly evil to make up for it, we get the Hood. Yes, the way he addresses his corporate victims in the name of the young man has a Robin Hood-like charm, but in the end, he’s being self-serving to the point where he’s literally selling his soul to the Devil.

Mephisto ( Sasha Baron Cohen ) adds the right combination of charm and menace as he plays Parker – and later Riri – like a fiddle. Although they have been careful not to have him show too much too soon, he is still fulfilling the potential of what Marvel Satan could be. Waiting until the end of Phase 5 for this red shoe to drop works out well, as with Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars looming in the distance, the heroes of the MCU may have to realize that good intentions and a pure heart aren’t always enough to save the day. like on Dr. third eyeball. Strange’s forehead, sometimes you can only get by via damnation.

The first post was The 10 Best Marvel Characters Introduced in MCU Phase Five on Den of Geek.

The plot of Ari Aster’s Eddington is a key spoiler in this article. People are suddenly treating Joaquin Phoenix’s Deputy Joe Cross with the generosity, and more importantly the respect, he thinks he deserves. He originally pleaded in that Facebook film, which later became a shock news for his gubernatorial election, that” we need to consider each other’s hearts.” Well, a]… ]

The article Den of Geek‘s Eddington Ending Explained second appeared.

Starting with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania in theaters and ending with Ironheart on Disney+, the next two and a half decades have given us Stage Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Step Grant continued by bringing awareness to multiversal risk while Phase Four was about establishing the world and introducing the next generation of soldiers while all the rest soldiers gravitate into their own small groups.

Unlike the other stages, this second batch of movies and shows have not totally fresh protagonists. They are all led by figures from earlier projects. That said, Marvel is constantly building to the next issue, and many new figures have shown up in Stage Five to make an impact. The best of them are shown in this image.

Of course, this does come with an apostrophe when it comes to variations. Even though Hugh Jackman plays the Wolverine from Deadpool &amp, Wolverine is essentially a brand-new persona to us. That can be a slippery slope, because why not incorporate Red Guardian as” Bob Toledo” from What If …? or the most recent animated Peter Parker? Certain figures on the list may be a little bpd, so it will be a case-by-case foundation on how suggestive they are to their multiversal rivals.

Also, honorable mention is given to Ruben Rabasa ( the” good steering wheel that doesn’t fly off when you’re driving” guy from I Think You Should Leave ) for his brief appearance in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. He just didn’t get much screentime to make the split. Since Prince Yan from The Marvels is a character, Prince Yan ( Park Seo-joon ) does the same.

High Evolutionary

Since Thanos turned into dust, Marvel criminals have been more unsuccessful than successful, but divine heaven did Chukwudi Iwuji remove it as the High Evolutionary. Somehow the villain from the worst Spider-Man cartoon series ever ( Spider-Man Unlimited, if you were wondering ) was reimagined as the most vile and sadistic antagonist we’ve seen in a while. You wanted to see him torn apart because of animal cruelty, system despair, excessive posturing, and a strong armor of smugness. And son, did he find his!

High Evolutionary even ties issues all together for the Guardians of the Galaxy series, which is excellent. Rocket’s story had only been hinted at in past movies with minimal explanations for his physical and mental bruising. High Evolutionary provides some closure to that and also relating it to the Royal and Adam Warlock, their most powerful weapon.

Ouroboros

The cast was perhaps too on the head. After Ke Huy Quan made a lot of headlines by leaving his job to work on All Everywhere All at once, he was cast in Loki’s next year to enjoy a figure with a lot of similarities. OB was likewise a charming guy with a strained relationship who was tangled up in a complicated sci-fi concept centered around a threat to the world as we know it.

Addition of a new title to the roster would be a difficult task because Loki already had so many characters from the first winter who needed more attention, like Casey and Brad. Fortunately, Ouroboros added the proper balance of cheerful and strange to mix with so much exposition and sci-fi nonsense giant to move the plot forward.

Cassandra Nova

Deadpool doesn’t really have many notable villains in the comics. Even Ajax from the first film was only present for one storyline before being killed off. Considering Deadpool &amp, Wolverine was all about celebrating the Fox X-Men movies while exploring multiversal concepts, Cassandra Nova was a perfect choice for the two healing Canadians to fight. Cassandra, who was created by Grant Morrison ( who will be writing Deadpool for the first time later this year ) is well-known enough for the X-Men franchise as Charles Xavier’s twin sister, but unique and weird enough to feel right at home in a Deadpool movie that swims through TVA lore. Hell, even if they went with the comics origin that she was strangled in the womb and still somehow survived, it still wouldn’t have been too out there for this movie.

Emma Corrin does a good job of manic and psychotic acting for the character, who is a pure sadist who laughs about why she is the way she is without any further justification. She spent most of her existence as the victim of sci-fi bureaucrats who doomed her to a life as queen of a desolate death factory wasteland at the end of time. It’s no wonder she spent a lot of time wearing Doctor Strange’s skin.

Gambit

As Deadpool &amp, Wolverine became inundated with cameos, the special appearances of heroes from cinema past were starting to run the risk of wearing out their welcome. Where could you go after Blade stepped into the frame with the growl of his theme music? Elektra was a decent novelty. The answer was to bring in the hero who almost was. Chanting Tatum appeared as Remy LeBeau, looking like one of those Photoshopped fan-made posters you’d see on social media or Deviantart, playing into rumors and behind-the-scenes fumbling that the average viewer wouldn’t be aware of.

Tatum had been waiting a long, long time to play this role and he made every second count. How Deadpool ended up being the straight man in their interactions while occasionally seeing eye-to-eye with him helped make his goofball, yet comic-accurate performance work. Had things gone different, Wade, Remy, and that foulmouthed Johnny Storm could have been best bros.

Rio Vidal

When they announced Aubrey Plaza was going to be on a show about witches, it felt too perfect. Then, when she appeared in the first episode completely unidentified, it became clear that she was someone comic fans would be aware of, to the point where she likely mentioned having a “black heart” in order to justify a red herring claim that she was Mephisto’s offspring. As things went on, it became a bit more obvious that she was literal Death, though with enough extra pieces of enigmatic context sprinkled in that made such a reveal more compelling. Then, when they pulled the trigger and revealed her true identity, something had to go wrong, from Lilia’s spooky skull lower face to the cutaway from her cackling during the Ouija session as she turned her head in shock.

Rio being Death was neat enough, but it was the added details that really took it home. Her chemistry with Agatha. Her favor for Agatha, and the pain of knowing that it was the best she could do for her. She transformed from a conceited threat to a virtuous, upbeat force of nature with a duty-seeking side. Still, it is so weird that Starfox, Adam Warlock, and Death showed up in the MCU after Thanos was dead and gone.

Lilia Calderu

Agatha Harkness ‘ coven had some great characters on their faux quest for power, but none stood out nearly as much as Lilia Calderu ( Patti LuPone ). Lilia was overall helpful throughout the show, but she constantly appeared shaky and/or kooky in front of the other witches because she was constantly using tarot card names and randomly dropping non-sequiturs. We knew she was a mystery to solve, but in the first six episodes, her behavior came off as perhaps magic and old age affecting her brain.

Everything came back to life in the seventh episode of” Death’s Hand in Mine” and we finally realized how wrong Lilia was acting. Seeing all the puzzle pieces fall into place was badass, cathartic, and emotional. One of Marvel Phase Five’s true highlights is Agatha All Along, which has a strong climax for her role.

Byrdie the Duck

Despite being based on tangent timelines, what if…? animated series would throw out an original character. Howard the Duck and his bride Darcy Lewis had an egg in this situation, which was a follow-up to a season 1 episode. Try &#8230, try not to think too hard about how that worked. This egg was believed to have great power because of this going down during Convergence, the big cosmic event from Thor: The Dark World. Eventually, Byrdie was hatched, and laid waste to the many who would have stolen and exploited her.

Byrdie the Duck has been a part of Uatu the Watcher’s ever-dwindling Exiles for several decades. Voiced by Natasha Lyonne, Byrdie’s ‘ 80s rocker style seems based on Lea Thompson’s Beverly Switzler from the 1986 Howard the Duck movie. Byrdie’s bombastic personality kept things entertaining once the season dipped into its usual lore-accumulating finale episodes.

Curiously, Natasha Lyonne is supposed to have some kind of role in Fantastic Four: First Steps, and considering the whole multiverse connection, it’s very possible that we haven’t seen the last of Howard and Darcy’s cosmic daughter.

Muse

Daredevil: Born Again attempted to juggle the Netflix Marvel aesthetic with the overarching MCU aesthetic in a succinct mission statement. A lot of it was scattershot, what with the reshoots and attempts to polish the earlier footage of the show by streamlining it to the Daredevil seasons that came before. Hunter Doohan’s role seems to be the one that truly bridges the two and makes Born Again work. It’s a relief, since they were really running out of notable Daredevil villains.

Muse was the ideal mid-level threat for Daredevil to deal with among all the Mayor Kingpin racial tension, despite only appearing for a short number of episodes. As a serial killer who could take a punch, Muse felt at home with the Netflix corner of Marvel. More than that, they were able to pull off his masked appearance and over-the-top goals, making them commit to the comics. The Netflix stuff liked to treat comic accuracy as a joke, throwing in the occasional costume reference here and there for the sake of an Easter egg, but seeing Muse in all his glory just felt right.

Yes, I still detest that Jessica Jones never had the American flag embroidered on his face. No, I don’t care if it would not have made sense.

Reynolds, Bob

First off, I don’t even understand why Sentry qualifies for this list. Even though I keep mentioning that he’s been around since the first Sentry movie that launched the MCU back in 2007, my editor kept insisting that we put him on here. Apparently, I’m the only one who remembers this! Well, I guess.

Bob/Sentry/Void was always going to be a hard concept to make work, especially as we’re in an era where” Superman but dark” has been run into the ground so hard that it’s right under the Vault. In Thunderbolts*, they really made the character stand out by incorporating him into the themes of the film as well as Lewis Pullman’s fidgety and awkward portrayal, where he comes off as likeable and kind but there is an angry and suicidal persona bubbling from beneath him.

Seeing it through to the other side, Sentry is now a unique type of superhero powerhouse. He’s the nuclear option for the New Avengers, but only in the most dire circumstances, because otherwise things could go wrong. He’s their new Hulk, but more of a threat to everyone and everything.

Mephisto

Milhouse, here it is. We finally got to the fireworks factory.

Consider this a joint entry with the wardrobe, dealmaker, and dealaker all woven together in the Hood ( Anthony Ramos ). Parker Robbins is almost like the final form of Marvel’s villain criticism. The Hood is revealed after bad guys like Killmonger, Flagsmasher, and Leader are perceived as having a point but later turn out to be cartoonishly evil. Yes, there’s an almost Robin Hood-like charm to how he takes down his corporate victims in the name of the little man, but in the end, he’s self-serving to the point that he’s literally selling his soul to the Devil.

As he plays Parker and Riri like a fiddle, Mephisto ( Sasha Baron Cohen ) adds the right amount of charm and menace. So far, he’s fulfilling the potential of what Marvel Satan could be while they have been careful of having him show too much too soon. Waiting until the end of Phase 5 for this red shoe to drop works well, as the MCU’s heroes might have to come to terms with the realization that good intentions and a sincere heart can’t always save the day. With Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars looming in the distance, this red shoe may come in handy. Like with the third eyeball on Dr. Strange’s forehead, you can sometimes only get by using damnation.

The post The 10 Best Marvel Characters Introduced in MCU Phase Five appeared first on Den of Geek.

Are you starting a company that could use some financial space, but you can’t possibly support renting a shop? Get a small room that could serve as your incubator inside another company. Who was display This can be done for all different physical-display businesses: artists, crafts, photographers, photographers, retailers, suppliers of shelf-stable foods, little producers of agricultural goods, like […]

Are you starting a company that could use some financial place but can’t possibly support renting a shop? Get a small room that could serve as your embryo inside another company.

Who could make a screen?

This is applicable to all different physical-display firms:

• Artists
• Crafts
• Authors
• Resellers
• Photographers
• Shelf-stable foods and beverages
• Little producers
• Agri-products like goat cheese skin care products like wax lights

Who might be the number?

And any other type of bricks and mortar business was number:

• Wholesale establishments
• Lodging
• franchises and coffee stores
• services like legal or coverage
• Cultural areas like exhibitions

The pop-up company doesn’t need to be related to the network business either. In truth, both sides gain exposure to both pieces of users when they &#8217, are not related.

Some small-town stores struggle to keep up the display volume needed to make the store feel stocked and attractive. Pop-up businesses can enhance the decor by adding them.

Up, you &#8217 are creating a customer experience that they can&#8217,t find anywhere else.

See also: How can you persuade retailers to sponsor pop-ups inside their businesses?

Start with a single walls, one table, and one square feet of retail place. To persuade your imagination, here are some images.

Photographing in a clothes shop

Retail stores fill the space close to the ceiling with ease, and any vacant space makes a small town business seem limited. Local picture screen as a solution. Deb Brown’s picture

One square foot of commerce

Beauty salons act as natural startups for company. Because of their high foot traffic, Salons usually have other small companies growing inside of them. This is a chance to use the same amount of space for more purposes.

This bundle of hats, created by a local high school older to raise money for her vision journey, is arguably the smallest pop-up I’ve ever seen. Its size is one square feet above the financial shop.

You don’t need much to start smaller, in fact. One flat feet might be sufficient. Becky McCray’s image is in the gallery.

The One Wall Bookstore

I adore the concept of a one-wall store! How many times have people complained that your community is very little for a store? You ’re no very small for anything if you only need one roof!

A versatile pop-up place was created inside The Village stores in Washington, Iowa, using a single wall of racks. Cathy Lloyd picture

a collection of little shops

This structure is divided into many different small financial spaces, aside from the one-wall children &#8217 shop.

Another one-wall store, this day for children’s books. Photo courtesy of Woodward, Oklahoma’s Walker Mercantile

photos and local artwork

Every neighborhood business ( retail, office, and service ) needs art on its walls. Every regional designer needs to stand out to new clients. When all of those are combined, the result is a surprisingly simple native craft project.

Native art is displayed on the walls of the coffee store Gathering Grounds in Avon, Minnesota. Deb Brown’s image

Fill one table with only one item.

For their sheep dairy products, a local hobby farm doesn’t require a whole retail space. In your neighborhood store, there might be just the right endcap show section.

Evidently, this store is home to a number of different types of businesses. Deb Brown’s image.

Start &#8217, em fresh

Someone can show on a table with just a few items. This high school student displayed inside a nearby shop.

Elizabeth, a student in a neighborhood shop, has her own shelf full of skin care products. Deb Brown’s image.

Change the number business’s appearance

Use a unique kind of floor, and you’ll have a store-within-a-store appearance. Don’t miss the native author’s book collection.

In Webster City, Iowa, this shop has a pop-up design store tucked into a part and a nearby author’s book rack. Becky McCray’s image is in the gallery.

Offer materials that are difficult to locate directly

Consider items that aren’t offered anywhere else in your area, such as components items, for resellers.

Small towns single away: a small hardware store is located in this hallway of the grocery store. Deb Brown’s image.

Fill every single nook

Yet shelter and B&amp, Bs may sponsor pop-ups.

I discovered this minuscule keep inside a B&B where I was staying. There are a variety of classic goods, paper products, and more. Becky McCray’s image is in the gallery.

Add one more shelf system.

Can you buy and sell bottled and packaged foods at one shelving system inside the Chickasaw Cultural Center? Becky McCray’s image is in the gallery.

Break a building into two parts and divide them

Additionally, this merchant has a large caffeine bar. Becky McCray’s image is in the gallery.

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One of the most successful soft skills we have at our disposal is feedback, in whatever form it takes, and whatever it may be called. It helps us collaborate to improve our designs while developing our own abilities and perspectives.

Feedback is also one of the most underestimated equipment, and generally by assuming that we’re already good at it, we settle, forgetting that it’s a talent that can be trained, grown, and improved. Bad feedback can lead to conflict on projects, lower confidence, and long-term, undermine trust and teamwork. Quality opinions can be a revolutionary force.

Practicing our knowledge is absolutely a good way to enhance, but the learning gets yet faster when it’s paired with a good base that programs and focuses the exercise. What are some fundamental components of providing effective opinions? And how can comments be adjusted for rural and distributed job settings?

We can find a long history of sequential comments on the web: code was written and discussed on mailing lists since the beginning of open source. Currently, engineers engage on pull calls, developers post in their favourite design tools, project managers and sprint masters exchange ideas on tickets, and so on.

Design analysis is often the label used for a type of input that’s provided to make our job better, jointly. So it generally adheres to many of the principles with comments, but it also has some differences.

The information

The content of the feedback is the bedrock of every effective analysis, so where do we need to begin? There are many designs that you can use to form your content. The one that I personally like best—because it’s obvious and actionable—is this one from Lara Hogan.

Although this formula is typically used to provide feedback to individuals, it likewise fits really well in a style criticism because it finally addresses some of the main inquiries that we work on: What? Where? Why? How? Imagine that you’re giving some comments about some pattern function that spans several screens, like an onboard movement: there are some pages shown, a stream blueprint, and an outline of the decisions made. You notice anything that needs to be improved. If you keep the three components of the equation in mind, you’ll have a mental unit that can help you become more precise and effective.

A comment that appears to be fair at first glance could be included in some feedback, as it only appears to partially fulfill the requirements. But does it?

Not confident about the keys ‘ patterns and hierarchy—it feels off. Can they be altered?

Observation for style feedback doesn’t really mean pointing out which part of the software your input refers to, but it also refers to offering a viewpoint that’s as specific as possible. Do you offer the user’s viewpoint? Your expert perspective? A business perspective? From the perspective of the project manager? A first-time user’s perspective?

I anticipate that one of these two buttons will go forward and the other will go back when I see them.

Impact is about the why. Just pointing out a UI element might sometimes be enough if the issue may be obvious, but more often than not, you should add an explanation of what you’re pointing out.

I anticipate that one of these two buttons will go forward and the other will go back when I see them. But this is the only screen where this happens, as before we just used a single button and an “×” to close. This seems to be breaking the consistency in the flow.

The question approach is meant to provide open guidance by eliciting the critical thinking in the designer receiving the feedback. Notably, in Lara’s equation she provides a second approach: request, which instead provides guidance toward a specific solution. While that’s a viable option for feedback in general, in my experience, going back to the question approach typically leads to the best solutions because designers are generally more at ease in being given an open space to explore.

The difference between the two can be exemplified with, for the question approach:

I anticipate that one of these two buttons will go forward and the other will go back when I see them. But this is the only screen where this happens, as before we just used a single button and an “×” to close. This seems to be breaking the consistency in the flow. Would it make sense to unify them?

Or, for the request approach:

I anticipate that one of these two buttons will go forward and the other will go back when I see them. But this is the only screen where this happens, as before we just used a single button and an “×” to close. This seems to be breaking the consistency in the flow. Let’s make sure that all screens have the same pair of forward and back buttons.

At this point in some situations, it might be useful to integrate with an extra why: why you consider the given suggestion to be better.

I anticipate that one of these two buttons will go forward and the other will go back when I see them. But this is the only screen where this happens, as before we just used a single button and an “×” to close. This seems to be breaking the consistency in the flow. Let’s make sure that all screens have the same two forward and back buttons so that users don’t get confused.

Choosing the question approach or the request approach can also at times be a matter of personal preference. I spent a while working on improving my feedback, conducting anonymous feedback reviews and sharing feedback with others. After a few rounds of this work and a year later, I got a positive response: my feedback came across as effective and grounded. Until I changed teams. Surprise surprise, one particular person gave me a lot of negative feedback. The reason is that I had previously tried not to be prescriptive in my advice—because the people who I was previously working with preferred the open-ended question format over the request style of suggestions. However, there was a member of this other team who preferred specific guidance. So I adapted my feedback for them to include requests.

One comment that I heard come up a few times is that this kind of feedback is quite long, and it doesn’t seem very efficient. No, but also yes. Let’s explore both sides.

No, this kind of feedback is actually effective because the length is a byproduct of clarity, and giving this kind of feedback can provide precisely enough information for a sound fix. Also if we zoom out, it can reduce future back-and-forth conversations and misunderstandings, improving the overall efficiency and effectiveness of collaboration beyond the single comment. Imagine that in the example above the feedback were instead just,” Let’s make sure that all screens have the same two forward and back buttons”. The designer receiving this feedback wouldn’t have much to go by, so they might just implement the change. In later iterations, the interface might change or they might introduce new features—and maybe that change might not make sense anymore. Without explaining the why, the designer might assume that the change is one of consistency, but what if it wasn’t? So there could now be an underlying concern that changing the buttons would be perceived as a regression.

Yes, this style of feedback is not always efficient because the points in some comments don’t always need to be exhaustive, sometimes because certain changes may be obvious (” The font used doesn’t follow our guidelines” ) and sometimes because the team may have a lot of internal knowledge such that some of the whys may be implied.

Therefore, the equation above is intended to serve as a mnemonic to reflect and enhance the practice rather than a strict template for feedback. Even after years of active work on my critiques, I still from time to time go back to this formula and reflect on whether what I just wrote is effective.

The atmosphere

Well-grounded content is the foundation of feedback, but that’s not really enough. The soft skills of the person who’s providing the critique can multiply the likelihood that the feedback will be well received and understood. It has been demonstrated that only positive feedback can lead to sustained change in people, and tone alone can determine whether content is rejected or welcomed.

Since our goal is to be understood and to have a positive working environment, tone is essential to work on. I’ve tried to summarize the necessary soft skills over the years using a formula that resembles the one for content: the receptivity equation.

Respectful feedback comes across as grounded, solid, and constructive. It’s the kind of feedback that, whether it’s positive or negative, is perceived as useful and fair.

The time when feedback occurs is known as timing. To-the-point feedback doesn’t have much hope of being well received if it’s given at the wrong time. If a new feature’s entire high-level information architecture is about to go live when it’s about to be released, it might still be relevant if that questioning raises a significant blocker that no one saw, but those concerns are much more likely to have to wait for a later revision. So in general, attune your feedback to the stage of the project. Early iteration? Iteration later? Polishing work in progress? Each of these needs varies. The right timing will make it more likely that your feedback will be well received.

Attitude is the equivalent of intent, and in the context of person-to-person feedback, it can be referred to as radical candor. That entails checking whether what we have in mind will actually help the person and improve the overall project before writing. This might be a hard reflection at times because maybe we don’t want to admit that we don’t really appreciate that person. Hopefully that’s not the case, but it can happen, and that’s okay. Acknowledging and owning that can help you make up for that: how would I write if I really cared about them? How can I avoid being passive aggressive? What can I do to encourage constructive behavior?

Form is relevant especially in a diverse and cross-cultural work environments because having great content, perfect timing, and the right attitude might not come across if the way that we write creates misunderstandings. There could be many reasons for this, including the fact that occasionally certain words may cause specific reactions, that non-native speakers may not be able to comprehend all thenuances of some sentences, that our brains may be different, and that we may perceive the world differently. Neurodiversity is a requirement. Whatever the reason, it’s important to review not just what we write but how.

A few years back, I was asking for some feedback on how I give feedback. I was given some sound advice, but I also got a surprise comment. They pointed out that when I wrote” Oh, ]… ]”, I made them feel stupid. That wasn’t my intention at all! I felt really bad, and I just realized that I provided feedback to them for months, and every time I might have made them feel stupid. I was horrified … but also thankful. I quickly changed my spelling mistake by adding “oh” to my list of replaced words (your choice between aText, TextExpander, or others ) so that when I typed “oh,” it was immediately deleted.

Something to highlight because it’s quite frequent—especially in teams that have a strong group spirit—is that people tend to beat around the bush. It’s important to keep in mind that having a positive attitude doesn’t necessarily mean passing judgment on the feedback; rather, it simply means that you give it constructive and respectful feedback, whether it be difficult or positive. The nicest thing that you can do for someone is to help them grow.

We have a great advantage in giving feedback in written form: it can be reviewed by another person who isn’t directly involved, which can help to reduce or remove any bias that might be there. When I shared a comment with someone I knew,” How does this sound,”” How can I do it better,” or even” How would you have written it,” I discovered that the two versions had different meanings.

The format

Asynchronous feedback also has a significant inherent benefit: it allows us to spend more time making sure that the suggestions ‘ clarity and actionability meet two main objectives.

Let’s imagine that someone shared a design iteration for a project. You are reviewing it and leaving a comment. Let’s try to think about some factors that might be helpful to consider, as there are many ways to accomplish this, and context is of course a factor.

In terms of clarity, start by grounding the critique that you’re about to give by providing context. This includes specifically describing where you’re coming from: do you know the project well, or do you just see it for the first time? Are you coming from a high-level perspective, or are you figuring out the details? Are there regressions? Which user’s point of view do you consider when providing feedback? Is the design iteration at a point where it would be okay to ship this, or are there major things that need to be addressed first?

Even if you’re giving feedback to a team that already has some background information on the project, providing context is helpful. And context is absolutely essential when giving cross-team feedback. If I were to review a design that might be indirectly related to my work, and if I had no knowledge about how the project arrived at that point, I would say so, highlighting my take as external.

We frequently concentrate on the negatives and attempt to list every improvement that could be made. That’s of course important, but it’s just as important—if not more—to focus on the positives, especially if you saw progress from the previous iteration. Although this may seem superfluous, it’s important to keep in mind that design is a field with hundreds of possible solutions for each problem. So pointing out that the design solution that was chosen is good and explaining why it’s good has two major benefits: it confirms that the approach taken was solid, and it helps to ground your negative feedback. In the longer term, sharing positive feedback can help prevent regressions on things that are going well because those things will have been highlighted as important. Positive feedback can also help, as an added bonus, prevent impostor syndrome.

There’s one powerful approach that combines both context and a focus on the positives: frame how the design is better than the status quo ( compared to a previous iteration, competitors, or benchmarks ) and why, and then on that foundation, you can add what could be improved. This is powerful because there is a big difference between a critique of a design that is already in good shape and one that is critiqued for a design that isn’t quite there yet.

Another way that you can improve your feedback is to depersonalize the feedback: the comments should always be about the work, never about the person who made it. It’s” This button isn’t well aligned” versus” You haven’t aligned this button well”. This can be changed in your writing very quickly by reviewing it just before sending.

In terms of actionability, one of the best approaches to help the designer who’s reading through your feedback is to split it into bullet points or paragraphs, which are easier to review and analyze one by one. You might also think about breaking up the feedback into sections or even across multiple comments if it is longer. Of course, adding screenshots or signifying markers of the specific part of the interface you’re referring to can also be especially useful.

One approach that I’ve personally used effectively in some contexts is to enhance the bullet points with four markers using emojis. A red square indicates that it is something I consider blocking, a yellow diamond indicates that it should be changed, and a green circle indicates that it is fully confirmed. I also use a blue spiral � � for either something that I’m not sure about, an exploration, an open alternative, or just a note. However, I’d only use this strategy on teams where I’ve already established a high level of trust because it might turn out to be quite demoralizing if I deliver a lot of red squares, and I’d have to reframe how I’d communicate that.

Let’s see how this would work by reusing the example that we used earlier as the first bullet point in this list:

• 🔶 Navigation—I anticipate that one of these two buttons will go forward and the other will go back when I see them. But this is the only screen where this happens, as before we just used a single button and an “×” to close. This seems to be breaking the consistency in the flow. Let’s make sure that all screens have the same two forward and back buttons so that users don’t get confused.
• � � Overall— I think the page is solid, and this is good enough to be our release candidate for a version 1.0.
• � � Metrics—Good improvement in the buttons on the metrics area, the improved contrast and new focus style make them more accessible.
• Button Style: Using the green accent in this context, which conveys a positive action because green is typically seen as a confirmation color. Do we need to explore a different color?
• Considering the number of items on the page and the overall page hierarchy, it seems to me that the tiles should use Subtitle 2 instead of Subtitle 1. This will keep the visual hierarchy more consistent.
• � � Background—Using a light texture works well, but I wonder whether it adds too much noise in this kind of page. What is the purpose of using that?

What about giving feedback directly in Figma or another design tool that allows in-place feedback? These are generally difficult to use because they conceal discussions and are harder to follow, but in the right setting, they can be very effective. Just make sure that each of the comments is separate so that it’s easier to match each discussion to a single task, similar to the idea of splitting mentioned above.

One final note: say the obvious. We don’t say something because we sometimes think it’s obvious that something is either good or wrong. Or sometimes we might have a doubt that we don’t express because the question might sound stupid. Say it, that’s fine. You might have to reword it a little bit to make the reader feel more comfortable, but don’t hold it back. Good feedback is transparent, even when it may be obvious.

Asynchronous feedback also has the benefit of automatically guiding decisions, according to writing. Especially in large projects,” Why did we do this”? there’s nothing better than open, transparent discussions that can be reviewed at any time, and this could be a question that arises from time to time. For this reason, I recommend using software that saves these discussions, without hiding them once they are resolved.

Content, tone, and format. Although each of these subjects offers a useful model, focusing on improving eight of the subjects ‘ focus points, including observation, impact, question, timing, attitude, form, clarity, and actionability, is a lot of work to complete at once. One effective approach is to take them one by one: first identify the area that you lack the most (either from your perspective or from feedback from others ) and start there. Then the second, followed by the third, and so on. At first you’ll have to put in extra time for every piece of feedback that you give, but after a while, it’ll become second nature, and your impact on the work will multiply.

Thanks to Brie Anne Demkiw and Mike Shelton for reviewing the first draft of this article.

But what on earth is a zealous stress?

Envision a person determined to do it all. She is homeschooling two wonderful children while her husband, who is also working mildly, is likewise homeschooling. She has a demanding customer weight at work—all of whom she loves. She wakes up early to get some movement in ( or frequently catch up on work ), prepares dinner while the kids are having breakfast, and works while positioning herself near the end of her “fourth grade” to watch as she balances clients, tasks, and budgets. Sound like a bit? Yet with a supportive group both at home and at work, it is.

Sounds like this person needs self-care because she has too much on her disk. But no, she doesn’t have occasion for that. She begins to feel as though she’s dropping pellets. No accomplishing much. There’s not enough of her to be here and that, she is trying to divide her head in two all the time, all day, every day. She begins to question herself. And as those thoughts creep in more and more, her domestic tale becomes more and more important.

She immediately KNOWS what she must do! She really DO MORE.

This is a painful and dangerous period. Know the reasons. Because when she doesn’t end that new purpose, that storyline will get worse. She immediately starts failing. She isn’t doing much. SHE is not enough. She’ll discover more she may do because she might neglect, or perhaps her home. She doesn’t nap as much, proceed because much, all in the attempts to do more. Trying to prove herself to herself, but not succeeding in any endeavor. Always feeling “enough”.

But, yeah, that’s what zealous burnout looks like for me. It doesn’t develop overnight in some grand gesture, but it does rather develop gradually over the course of several weeks and months. My burning out process looks like speeding up, hardly a man losing focus. I move up and up and up, and therefore I simply quit.

I am the one who was

It’s interesting the things that shape us. Through the camera of my youth, I witnessed the battles, sacrifices, and fears of a person who had to make it all work without having much. I was happy that my mom was so competent and my dad sympathetic, I never went without and also got an extra here or there.

Growing up, I didn’t feel shame when my mom gave me food postcards; in fact, I would have likely sparked debates about the subject, orally eviscerating anyone who dared to criticize the disabled person who was attempting to ensure all of our needs were met with so little. As a child, I watched the way the worry of not making those begins meet impacted people I love. As the non-disabled people in my home, I did take on many of the real things because I was” the one who was” make our lives a little easier. I soon realized that putting more of myself into it was linked to fears or doubt; I am the one who does. I learned first that when something frightens me, I may double down and work harder to make it better. I am in charge of the problem. When individuals have seen this in me as an adult, I’ve been told I seem courageous, but make no mistake, I’m not. If I seem courageous, it’s because this conduct was forged from other people’s worries.

And here I am, surrounded by enormous tasks ahead of me, assuming that I am the one who is and therefore should, more than 30 years later, also feeling the urge to aimlessly drive myself forward. I find myself driven to prove that I can make things happen if I work longer hours, take on more responsibility, and do more.

I don’t see people who struggle financially as failures because I have seen how strong that tide can be; it pulls you along the way. I truly get that I have been privileged to be able to avoid many of the challenges that were present in my youth. That said, I am still” the one who can” who feels she should, so if I were faced with not having enough to make ends meet for my own family, I would see myself as having failed. Despite my best efforts and education, the majority of this is due to chance. I will, however, allow myself the arrogance of saying I have been careful with my choices to have encouraged that luck. My sense of self is the result of the notion that I am” the one who can” and feel compelled to accomplish the most. I can choose to stop, and with some quite literal cold water splashed in my face, I’ve made the choice to before. But that choosing to stop is not my go-to, I move forward, driven by a fear that is so a part of me that I barely notice it’s there until I’m feeling utterly worn away.

Why the long history, then? You see, burnout is a fickle thing. Over the years, I’ve read and heard a lot about burnout. Burnout is real. Especially now, with COVID, many of us are balancing more than we ever have before—all at once! It’s challenging, and so many amazing professionals are affected by the avoidance, the shutting down, and the procrastination. There are important articles that relate to what I imagine must be the majority of people out there, but not me. That’s not how my burnout appears.

The dangerous invisibility of zealous burnout

A lot of work environments see the extra hours, extra effort, and overall focused commitment as an asset ( and sometimes that’s all it is ). They see someone attempting to overcome obstacles, not a person who is ensnared in fear. Many well-meaning organizations have safeguards in place to protect their teams from burnout. However, in situations like this, alarms don’t always ring, and some organization members are surprised and depressed when the inevitable stop occurs. And sometimes maybe even betrayed.

Parents—more so mothers, statistically speaking—are praised as being so on top of it all when they can work, be involved in the after-school activities, practice self-care in the form of diet and exercise, and still meet friends for coffee or wine. Many of us have watched countless streaming COVID episodes to see how challenging it is for the female protagonist, but she is strong and funny and can do it. It’s a “very special episode” when she breaks down, cries in the bathroom, woefully admits she needs help, and just stops for a bit. Truth be told, countless people are hidden in tears or doom-scrolling to escape. We know that the media is a lie to amuse us, but often the perception that it’s what we should strive for has penetrated much of society.

Women and burnout

I cherish men. And though I don’t love every man ( heads up, I don’t love every woman or nonbinary person either ), I think there is a beautiful spectrum of individuals who represent that particular binary gender.

Despite this, especially in these COVID stressed out times, women are still more likely than their male counterparts to be burnout vulnerable. Mothers in the workplace feel the pressure to do all the “mom” things while giving 110 %. Mothers not in the workplace feel they need to do more to” justify” their lack of traditional employment. Women who are not mothers frequently feel the need to work even more at home because of the pressure. It’s vicious and systemic and so a part of our culture that we’re often not even aware of the enormity of the pressures we put on ourselves and each other.

Beyond happiness, there are costs. Harvard Health Publishing released a study a decade ago that “uncovered strong links between women’s job stress and cardiovascular disease”. The CDC noted,” Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women in the United States, killing 299, 578 women in 2017—or about 1 in every 5 female deaths”.

According to what I’ve read, this connection between work stress and health is more dangerous for women than it is for their non-female counterparts.

But what if your burnout isn’t like that either?

That might not be you either. After all, each of us is so different and how we respond to stressors is too. It’s part of what makes us human. Don’t put too much emphasis on how burnout manifests; rather, learn to recognize it in yourself. Here are a few questions I sometimes ask friends if I am concerned about them.

How are you feeling? This simple question should be the first thing you ask yourself. Chances are, even if you’re burning out doing all the things you love, as you approach burnout you’ll just stop taking as much joy from it all.

Do you feel like you have the authority to refuse? I have observed in myself and others that when someone is burning out, they no longer feel they can say no to things. Even those who don’t” speed up” feel pressured to say “yes” to avoid apprehension.

What are three things you’ve done for yourself? Another observance is that we all tend to stop doing things for ourselves. anything from avoiding conversations with friends to skipping showers and eating poorly. These can be red flags.

Are you using justifications? Many of us try to disregard feelings of burnout. Over and over I have heard,” It’s just crunch time”,” As soon as I do this one thing, it will all be better”, and” Well I should be able to handle this, so I’ll figure it out”. And it might actually be crunch time, a single objective, and/or a set of skills you need to master. That happens—life happens. BUT if all of this doesn’t stop, be open to yourself. If you’ve worked more 50-hour weeks since January than not, maybe it’s not crunch time—maybe it’s a bad situation that you’re burning out from.

Do you have a plan to stop feeling this way? If something has an exit route with a pause button if it is only temporary and you have to push through it.
defined end.

Take the time to listen to yourself like you would a friend. Be honest, allow yourself to be uncomfortable, and break the thought cycles that prevent you from healing.

So now what?

What I just described is a different path to burnout, but it’s still burnout. There are well-established approaches to working through burnout:

• Get enough sleep.
• Eat healthy.
• Work out.
• Go outside.
• Take a break.
• Practice self-care in general.

Those are hard for me because they feel like more tasks. If I’m in the burnout cycle, doing any of the above for me feels like a waste. Why would I take care of myself when I’m dropping all those other balls, according to the narrative? People need me, right?

Your inner voice might be pretty bad by now if you’re deeply in the cycle. If you need to, tell yourself you need to take care of the person your people depend on. If your roles are pushing you toward burnout, use them to help make healing easier by justifying the time spent working on you.

I have come up with a few things that I do when I start to feel like I’m going into a zealous burnout to help remind myself of the airline attendant advice to put the mask on yourself first.

Cook an elaborate meal for someone!

Okay, since I’m a “food-focused” person, I’ve always been a fan of cooking for people. There are countless tales in my home of someone walking into the kitchen and turning right around and walking out when they noticed I was” chopping angrily”. But it’s more than that, and you should give it a try. Seriously. It’s the perfect go-to if you don’t feel worthy of taking time for yourself—do it for someone else. Because the majority of us work in a digital world, cooking can pique all of your senses and make you immerse in the moment in all your ways of seeing the world. It can break you out of your head and help you gain a better perspective. In my house, I’ve been known to pick a place on the map and cook food that comes from wherever that is ( thank you, Pinterest ). I enjoy making Indian food because it’s warm and the bread needs just enough kneading to keep my hands busy, and the process requires real attention because it’s not what I was raised to do. And in the end, we all win!

Vent like a sniveling jerk.

Be careful with this one!

I have been making an effort to practice more gratitude over the past few years, and I recognize the true benefits of that. Having said that, sometimes you just need to let it all out, even the ugly ones. Hell, I’m a big fan of not sugarcoating our lives, and that sometimes means that to get past the big pile of poop, you’re gonna wanna complain about it a bit.

When that is required, turn to a trusted friend and give yourself some pure verbal diarrhea by expressing all your concerns. You need to trust this friend not to judge, to see your pain, and, most importantly, to tell you to remove your cranium from your own rectal cavity. Seriously, it’s about getting a reality check here! One of the things I admire most about my husband is how he can simplify things down to their simplest bits, despite often after the fact. ” We’re spending our lives together, of course you’re going to disappoint me from time to time, so get over it” has been his way of speaking his dedication, love, and acceptance of me—and I could not be more grateful. Of course, it required that I remove my head from that rectal cavity. So, again, usually those moments are appreciated in hindsight.

Pick up a book!

There are many books out there that are more like you sharing their stories and how they’ve come to find greater balance than they are self-help. Maybe you’ll find something that speaks to you. Among the titles that have stood out to me are:

• Thrive by Arianna Huffington
• Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss
• Girl, Stop Apologizing by Rachel Hollis
• Dare to Lead by Brené Brown

Or, a tactic I enjoy using is to read or listen to a book that is NOT related to my work-life balance. I’ve read the following books and found they helped balance me out because my mind was pondering their interesting topics instead of running in circles:

• The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart
• Darin Olien’s Superlife
• A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived by Adam Rutherford
• Toby Hemenway’s Gaia’s Garden is available.

If you’re not into reading, pick up a topic on YouTube or choose a podcast to subscribe to. I’ve watched countless permaculture and gardening topics in addition to how to raise chickens and ducks. For the record, I don’t currently have a particularly large food garden or raise any kind of livestock. I just find the topic interesting, and it has nothing to do with any aspect of my life that needs anything from me.

Give yourself a break.

You are never going to be perfect—hell, it would be boring if you were. It’s OK to be broken and flawed. Being tired, depressed, and worried is human nature. It’s OK to not do it all. You can’t be brave without being imperfect, which is terrifying.

This last one is the most important: allow yourself permission to NOT do it all. You never promised to be everything to everyone at all times. Our fears determine our strength, not ours.

This is hard. It is challenging for me. It’s what’s driven me to write this—that it’s OK to stop. It’s OK that your unhealthy habit that might even benefit those around you needs to end. You can continue to succeed in life.

I recently read that we are all writing our eulogy in how we live. What will your professional accomplishments say, knowing that yours won’t be mentioned in that speech? What do you want it to say?

Look, I get that none of these ideas will “fix it”, and that’s not their purpose. None of us has complete control over what happens in our environment, but only how we react to it. These suggestions are to help stop the spiral effect so that you are empowered to address the underlying issues and choose your response. They are the things that largely work for me. Maybe they’ll work for you.

Does this sound familiar?

If something resounds familiar to you, it’s not just you. Don’t let your negative self-talk tell you that you “even burn out wrong”. It is not improper. Even if rooted in fear like my own drivers, I believe that this need to do more comes from a place of love, determination, motivation, and other wonderful attributes that make you the amazing person you are. We’re going to be OK, ya know. The lives that come before us might never appear to be the same as the one we’re picturing, or that we’re looking for, but that’s okay because the only way to judge us is in the mirror when we stop and look around.

Do you remember that Winnie the Pooh sketch that had Pooh eat so much at Rabbit’s house that his buttocks couldn’t fit through the door? Well, I already have a strong connection to Rabbit, so it was surprising when he unexpectedly declared that this was unacceptable. But do you recall what happened next? He put a shelf across poor Pooh’s ankles and decorations on his back, and made the best of the big butt in his kitchen.

We are resourceful and aware that we can push ourselves when we are needed, even when we are exhausted to the core or have a ton of clutter in our room. None of us has to be afraid, as we can manage any obstacle put in front of us. And maybe that means we will need to redefine success to make room for comfortable human space, but that doesn’t really sound that bad either.

So, wherever you are right now, please breathe. Do what you need to do to get out of your head. Give thanks and be considerate.