Trip Preparation

Obtaining a passport for your trip to Bangalore is not the ordeal it once was. Most passport services are readily available to United States citizens online. Services available include passport renewal, replacement and expedition. This makes it much easier to receive a passport in time for any trip you may be taking. In terms of planning for an overseas vacation, passport issues should no longer be the hassles they used to be.

Attractions

The famous Wonder La Amusement park in Bangalore has become one of its most sought out tourist attractions offered. The park offers many fun attractions and water rides. It offers entertainment for visitors of all ages. Compared to some other amusements parks it is known as one of the cleanest around. There are also a number of wonderful restaurants inside of the park patrons can enjoy dining at.

Culture

Bangalore, in addition to amusement parks, offers many unique religious and cultural destinations. Hinduism is the traditional religion of the country and there are many beautiful temples tourists can visit. Famous temples one can visiti include the spectacular Iskcon Sri Radha Krishna-Chandra temple. It is well-known for its tranquil and soothing environment. It features six different shrines set amongst very peaceful scenery. Some travelers plan their vacations to Bangalore around of the many festivals the city plays host to. These are great times to visit because of all the wonderful celebrations occurring.

Nature

Shivasamudram Falls is another destination to visit in Bangalore. It is a great place to visit for any nature lover. Take a picnic lunch and relax among the beautiful views that Shivasamudram Falls has to offer. The perfect location to relax and enjoy all that nature has to offer.

Gardens

Of course you have to visit one of the many gardens while in the Garden City. Lalbagh Botanical Garden is one such garden. This 240-acre garden features more than 1000 species of plants, as well as some trees that are over a century old. The Botanical Gardens are an excellent place to escape the hustle and bustle of the city. Bannerghatta National Park is another great place for nature lovers. You are able to take a “safari,” where a bus takes you around to see the variety of animals located in the park. Make sure you have kid passports so you can take your kids.

Sylwana Zybura is a very innovative fashion photographer and surrealist artist who have a master degree in Linguistics, lives in London and shows interest on film direction. Her very unique dramatic compositions is a mix of sculpture, costumes and interaction between body and space. For Sylwana Zybura everything seems possible to explore the boundaries between fashion and art, creating an eccentric escapade of color and texture. Her inspirations include surrealism, dadaism, the new wave era of the 80s, British post punk scene and the avant-garde theater of Robert Wilson. Very beautiful Behance.

Partfaliaz

Krocodil

Krocodil, also known as desomorphine, which belongs to the morphine family, gets its name due to the gangrene it causes at the injection point. It causes the flesh to rot, creating a scaly, green effect, similar to a crocodile, which is where it derives its name from. It is referred to as a poor man’s drug, due to the accessibility of the ingredients and the cheap price to produce it.

Poor Man’s Drug

The high created by Krocodil is similar to that of heroin, at a very small fraction of the price. Heroin on the European market is between fifty and eighty US dollars a does. Krocodil, which is made from a common over the counter headache medicine, codeine, is only about four dollars. The other ingredients associated with the production of Krocodil include, gasoline, paint thinner, hydrochloric acid, red phosphorus and iodine. Red phosphorus is gathered by scraping the scratch pad on a matchbox. It takes about an hour to cook Krocodil, and the high only lasts an hour. Due to its cheap production and easy high, Krocodil, is the leading drug of choice in Russia.

Effects

All drugs have negative side effects, but Krocodil’s really take the cake. Users rarely survive after just two years of use. The substance effects motor coordination as well as speech and other neurological functions. Blood poisoning is also very common among those who inject Krocodil. However, the most notable side effect is the phenomenon of rotting flesh. Those afflicted resemble the walking dead as flesh literally rots of their bones leaving gaping horror movie like wounds.

Russia

Drug use is rampant in Russia, just as it is in most countries. Northern Russia has winters that last sometimes up to eight months long; this has had an effect on the growing drug epidemic and especially the wide use of Krocodil. People are using drugs out of boredom and depression. Russia only has about 500 drug addiction rehabilitation facilities that cater to drug addicts, most are run by private religious organizations. This makes recovery from any drug addiction very difficult to achieve.

Firstly, The Mary Sue’s Becky Chambers discusses what she dubs the ‘Hey Sweetheart Scenario‘, using Dragon Age as an example of a game whose NPCs treat a female player character as something to be taken aback by. Says Chambers,

If you, as a game writer, are tasked with creating a story in which the player feels like a bonafide hero, then what purpose does it serve to point out that my heroine is going to have to work twice as hard to be taken seriously, purely because of her gender? That’s a feeling I already have in the real world, and it’s not one that I want to experience within a game. If you’ve actually got something to say about gender norms within the narrative of a game, then say it. Tacking it on just because it’s what you’re used to takes away from the integrity of the story and kicks female players right back to an uncomfortable reality.

In contrast to this, Ben Chapman at the Pixels or Death blog has some fascinating insight into gender in the world of Mass Effect in his piece ‘Dispatches From the Villain, Fem Shep‘. While he admits that he plays his male Shepard as a hero and his female Shepard as a borderline sociopath, he is amazed that his own “accidental misogyny” is not supported by the game world: “… scarcely anyone calls my Fem Shep ‘a bitch’. There are virtually no derogatory remarks belittling my capability to fight on account of my virtual boobs. No one makes a sarcastic remark about “my gender” and driving ability when I accidentally ramp the M35 Mako upside down into a crater.”

At Nightmare Mode, Mattie Brice frankly shares her experience of growing into a transgender identity through the lens of Katawa Shoujo’s Hanako. Brice says, “I saw her do something that triggered a muscle memory from my past: She covers her face.”

Paul Tassi, contributing to Forbes, has some things to say about piracy and the entertainment industry in his article ‘Lies, Damned Lies and Piracy‘:

I would argue that releasing crappy movies has a far greater effect on the film industry bottom line than piracy ever could. Similar things happen when a hyped TV show bombs or an anticipated game is a letdown. Companies don’t rise and fall due to piracy, but they do based on the quality of the products they release.

The point I’m trying to make is that piracy is not this mammoth specter killing the entire entertainment industry like they would have you believe. I am not saying that there has never been a dollar or job lost because of it, nor am I encouraging the illegal practice in the least, but the natural ebbs and flows of the industry with big hits and misses are far more significant than miniscule piracy loses among a specific, young, tech-savvy group who knows how to get their media for free.

Over at VG 24/7, Patrick Garratt tours Finland, with some excellent and quality reporting on what he learns of the Finnish development scene.

The Border House has picked up an intelligent analysis of ‘Analogue: A Hate Story’ by our own lead curator Kris Ligman, in which she touches upon topics such as games-as-fun, its modelling on Korean history, and its relation to the Star Trek series.

Additionally, Critical Distance contributor Eric Swain is at it again with an examination of Driver: San Francisco, this time looking at it alongside the movie Drive. Most memorable is his comparison of how the two works are firmly anchored in the act of driving:

Ryan Gosling’s character is solely defined as a person by his most potent ability: driving. He has no name, no past, and all the human contact that he has is filtered through driving. The dates that he goes out on? They’re night drives. The business ventures that serve as his main means of human contact? They are his job at a garage and stock car racing. He meets his “love interest” by helping her with her car. In an action video game, the protagonist is solely defined by the verb that the player uses to interact with the game. In the case of Driver: San Francisco and John Tanner, that verb is “drive.”

At Kotaku, Kate Cox looks at the David Jaffe’s blundering self-promotion of his newest game, Twisted Metal, asking us: ‘Does David Jaffe Really Recommend His New Game As A Sexual Aid?‘ Says Cox,

The part that Jaffe seems to misunderstand is that someone doesn’t need to be waxing a handlebar moustache and tying young ladies to railroad tracks to make a sexist or misogynist statement. Most trouble doesn’t actually come from villains and it doesn’t come from people who actively stand around shouting, “I hate women.” It comes from thoughtlessness.

By framing his statement as “let her win and she’ll give you a blowjob,” Jaffe’s said a few things he may or may not have meant to. The first is that only straight men could possibly develop an independent interest in playing his game. The second is that the best way for a man to get what he wants is to come up with some underhanded trickery to apply. The last is that a girl or woman couldn’t actually win a co-op match on her own.

Patricia Hernandez also made a splash at Kotaku this week with an epic-length piece called ‘The Rules of Religion, And Why The Next One Might Just Be A Game‘. She looks at a handful of games as well as the possible gamification of religion, but most striking to me, personally, was her retelling of his own family’s attitudes towards religion, as well as the sweetly self-aware acknowledgement of her Kotaku debut. It’s a long piece, but fully worth it when you reach the final few paragraphs.

Over at Gameranx, Brendan Keogh doesn’t believe that Skyrim is cold:

I was told that Skyrim was a harsh, desolate region, whose terrifying weather chiseled the toughest men and women in all of Tamriel. But then I walk its mountains and cities and I see adults and children alike strolling through a blizzard in sleeveless attire, not even flinching. My character swims in arctic conditions and doesn’t even gasp. I’ve come across bandit camps that are bedrolls completely exposed to the elements beside a campfire that couldn’t possibly be burning without an unhealthy dose of napalm. There is a whole heap of snow in Skyrim but there is no cold.

Also at Gameranx, John Vanderhoef looks at the trope of the male main character and his female companion in ‘The Princess and the Knight: Companion Games and Missed Opportunities‘.

There’s something about L.A. Noire that lends itself to incredibly intricate and pensive writing, and Daniel Golding’s post on it at his Crikey blog Game On is no exception. Though Golding calls it a “review” and admits that it’s only eight months late, to him, this “slowness” becomes an integral part of the game itself:

Reviewing a videogame within a week of its release can force you to overlook its subtleties and emphasise aspects that, with time, reveal themselves as far more important than apparent at first blush. Yet leave it too long and you risk falling into the cracks, the familiarity of a videogame massaging over the faults. Each game may have a rhythm, but so does every player, critics included. I am stuck in the spaces between L.A. Noire’s four-note musical motif.

But by now, I know L.A. Noire, and I know that it’s worth playing, worth watching, and worth spending time with. It’s worth thinking about. It’s worth contemplating.

And finally, the hot issue of the week was studio Double Fine’s Kickstarter venture to fund a new point-and-click adventure game, which at the time of writing has raised ,659,095 of its 0,000 goal. No, really.

Craig Wilson of Split Screen presents ‘A Double Fine Audit‘, speculating what say fans will have in the development of a game they funded. Wilson writes,

What alarmed me was how willingly people donated given how little details had been made available. Sure there’s the usual tiered list of donation gifts and a funny video but Double Fine promise involvement in the development process. But outside of the documentary what does that mean? What does my money actually buy me? To what extent, as a financial stakeholder, am I actively involved?

On the other hand, Seb Wuepper at Gameranx asks passionately, ‘Are You People Insane?‘ Addressing the controversy around Double Fine’s crowdfunding, he says,

This seems like another case of gamer entitlement. The reasons escape me, since the downsides of this approach to funding seem minimal at best. If the worst happens, gamers are out by a mere at the least. Which at this point seems highly unlikely since the project is already funded with more than a month to go. Make no mistake, this is not a risky investment. It’s a—for the lack of a better term—preorder for a highly passionate company producing what’s seen as a niche product.

Finally, Rowan Kaiser sits between the two as he writes ‘Double Fine’s Kickstarter Effect: What Happens Next?‘ Despite his expressing satisfaction that an older genre is given some attention, he outlines a number of reasons why he is “highly skeptical that this will create meaningful change within the industry”.

And that’s every last drop of the gaming goodness we have for you today. If you have any delicious recommendations for next week’s post, please do send them via email or Twitter.

Critical Distance

We start off the week with a soft focus lens on the past, when the men were men and the games were ineffable. First, Jack McNamee at The Machination turns the spotlight on indie title Yume Nikki, whose obtuse nature is both nostalgic and a major selling point:

The moment you fully understand a game is the moment it loses the magic. You should never be able to get your head around an ideal game. Nevertheless, you should explore it, and make discoveries. By experimenting with these discoveries, you can use them to make more discoveries – never finding everything, but slowly building small islands of knowledge.

In a similar vein, Tevin Thompson challenges us to “Save Zelda“, saying the franchise’s “spirit of wonder, of potential secrets on every screen” has been diminishing with every sequel. Michael Abbott at The Brainy Gamer concurs, saying games as a whole have simultaneously grown easier to beat and harder to control. In doing so, Abbott brings up an argument left unaddressed by either McNamee or Thompson:

What role do accessibility and complexity play in these numbers? Are we making traditional games easier in hopes of attracting players that will never come? When we make these games more welcoming to newcomers by decreasing difficulty, adding help systems, etc., are we focusing on the wrong things?

From gameplay to story, several authors this week brought us narratologist realness.

Rich Stanton thinks sexual relationships in games need a facelift. And Tyler Jinks provides a clear and useful breakdown on the difference between a player-character and a player-avatar.

Meanwhile, Robert Walker proves that bigger is not always better with “The World is a Character Too!“: “Creating a world that is large is not the same as creating a world that feels large, and yet, one of these takes much more effort on the part of your artists and other talent.”

Nightmare Mode’s Tom Auxier, looking to harmonize structure and content, says that the boss fight can be saved– by using the device intelligently in the context of your game’s story. Using Fable II’s final boss as an example, Auxier writes:

Were he a long, classical boss fight we would have triumphed: we would have won. Winning makes us feel good; it validates our revenge. Instead, Lucien takes one measly button press to go down. He dies before we can even process that we’ve killed him, before we can savor proving our mastery in the way of the classical boss fight, and that creates a very different reaction in the player. The revenge you pursued, that cost the lives of thousands of people and, more importantly, your beloved dog has consumed you utterly. In that one moment you can see plainly your failures over the past dozen hours of game.

And it’s brilliant. It’s a very modern boss fight, not challenge of mastery but instead punctuation.

Speaking of narratology and the recent lumps it’s taken from bloggers who don’t quite believe the Narratology-Ludology War is dead, Tadhg Kelly provides us with useful roundup of the recent discussion and adds his own commentary:

“What Is A Game Mechanic? Nobody knows. Or rather, everybody knows what they mean when they use the term, but nobody agrees.”

But two divas stole the stage by lending a musical flare to the debate. Gus Mastrapa thinks we should treat story in games as the score of a film. Kirk Hamilton goes one further and says that all games are music– and story are the lyrics.

Speaking of an awesome set of tunes, the International House of Mojo has a six-part retrospective on Grim Fandango, ending with an interview with Tim Schafer. The feature goes into some detail about the design of the game and the trajectory of its designer.

On the subject of design, Philtron Rejmer argues that games don’t involve choice at all: “Video games are like a series of multiple choice questions where every choice either lets you go to the next question, or forces you to repeat the current question until you figure out the correct choice. Actual multiple choice tests have more agency than this.”

As gamers we all have a choice, including the kind of culture we build for ourselves. That is the subject of the most recent Border House podcast, in which Mattie Brice sits down with guests Anna and Kim about the creation of safe spaces and community moderation. This comes at an apt time, as Anna Anthropy posts a strongly-worded critique of transphobic language in a recent Kotaku feature on Dani Bunten:

transphobia is rampant in games culture: it’s dangerous to all transgendered people and all women. it’s dangerous to everyone who participates in this culture. [...] to perpetuate incorrect myths about trans people and our identities is grossly irresponsible for a site like kotaku.

A couple articles this week sought to find the science in science fiction, a genre near and dear to the game world. Sebastian Alvarado kicks things off with the first part in a series analyzing the treatment of nanotechnology in Metal Gear Solid. Kyle Munkittrick, meanwhile, addressed a nongamer audience in effusively praising Mass Effect’s rich SF setting, which not only measures up to the likes of Star Trek and Star Wars but introduces players to a cosmicist philosophy:

Mass Effect is the first blockbuster franchise in the postmodern era to directly confront a godless, meaningless universe indifferent to humanity. Amid the entertaining game play, the interspecies romance, and entertaining characters, cosmological questions about the value of existence influence every decision.

Seb Wuepper, writing for Gameranx, voices his dissenting opinion of the franchise, wondering aloud if we’ve all simply forgotten the “total thematic collapse of the franchise” present in the second game.

Wuepper might be throwin’ shade, but Patrick Stafford is serving up nothing but the T, criticizing game journalists who contributed to the Double Fine Kickstarter campaign in an essay in no small way reminiscent of AJ Glasser’s “No Cheering in the Press Box”: “There is a distinct difference between advocacy and participation.”

But we are all fans, or we wouldn’t be game bloggers, would we? If you can’t love yourself, how in the hell are you gonna love somebody else? That’s the argument Rob of Mersey Remakes puts forward when he takes a more positive view of fandom, in particular calling out a rather critical Eurogamer article for its accusations of “fan entitlement”:

This isn’t the entitled generation. This is the generation where more people are more supportive of more things and they’re more supportive in the most wonderful of ways. There is no X-Factor generation, there’s just people and people are, mainly, pretty damn fucking good and do amazing things at the drop of a hat. [...] Being a fan is not just a case of sitting in a chair as the Eurogamer piece would have you believe, it’s a case of going out there and earning the money to buy the product, to support the developers, the publishers and whoever else has their skin in the game. It is the decision to choose us, to choose what we make, over something else.

Got a nightcap ready? If you don’t, you should really be reading Kate Cox’s trip through the feathery world of Hatoful Boyfriend. I’m not saying anything else. Just read it, honey.

(This week’s theme owes itself largely to RuPaul’s Drag Race, but also the always-fierce Denis Farr’s Pokedrag series. If you aren’t reading it already, you should definitely see about fixing that!)

Now, before you sashay away, remember to tweet and email us your hottest blog posts, reviews, critiques, commentaries, podcasts and smackdowns. We want it all, darlin’.

Critical Distance

Application

The form you need is the application. The applications are different for each type, whether it is a renewal, first or replacement passport, or a name change. Once you have that form filled out, you’ll be able to bring it in person or mail it.

Identification

One requirement is that you have two pieces of ID. The first verifies your identity and it can be your driver’s license or old passport, a certificate of naturalization, or government identification. The second type of ID is proof of U. S. Citizenship, which can be your birth certificate, government or military ID. You’ll also need a copy of each type of identification that you mail or bring in.

Photos

You’ll also need color photos of yourself. Two identical copies are required and you must be facing forward with your full face showing. Once you have these and all the required documents, you’ll have to pay a fee. Adults are charged $110 to $140 and it is less for children.

Passport Cards

Another option is to buy a passport card. It has a size and appearance similar to that of a driver’s license and can be used for travel to Canada, the Caribbean, Bermuda, and Mexico. It is smaller and easier to carry and it costs less but it cannot be used for international air travel. The fees vary based on whether it is for adults or children but the range is only $30 to $55.

Expediting

If an urgent need for international travel has arisen, it is possible to renew quickly. There will be an extra fee of $60 and you will also be charged for two-day shipping. It’s a good idea to bring your application in person but if mailing is the method you must use, two-day service is recommended. If you do mail it, write “expedite” on the envelope and sign up for a way to track the mail.

Online Help

There are answers on the Net about what to do if you are traveling officially, how to get proof of citizenship and any other questions you may have. It could be that you want to know about how many visa pages you need or how to get a lost US passport replacement. All the instructions for how to fill out the applications are also provided online.

Italian

The Italian language is the native tongue of over 65 million people worldwide. It is the national language for many countries, including Italy and it is one of the four national languages of Switzerland. It has a long history. The predecessor of the Italian language was Latin; Italian grew into a more poetic romantic language in comparison.

The Renaissance

The Renaissance was a turning point for many of the humanities. Art, philosophy, and linguistics. During the Renaissance Italian was being used in every state throughout the country in the courts. At this time there was a rediscovery of Dante’s De vulgari eloquentia. This reclaiming instilled a debate among scholars as to what the best version of Italian would be like.

Debate

The Renaissance thinking of the 16th century sparked huge debates among scholarly factions as to which form of Italian should become contemporary. These different schools of thought included the Purists, the Florentines, and the courtiers. There was a fourth faction that didn’t hold much weight. They believed that the best form of Italian was that which was used by the papal courts.

The Classics

Pietro Bembo who was a Venetian heading the purist school of though. He believed the language should be based solely on the great literary classics like Petrarch and parts of Boccaccio. Although the Divine Comedy is considered a great classic, the purists did not believe it was good enough; it did not contain lyrical Italian and had elementary elements.

Other factions

The Florentines which included Niccolo Machiavelli believed that the Italian spoken by the ordinary people in their own time was the best version of Italian. The courtiers felt that each local vernacular should contribute to the new standard. Eventually the purists won.

The Italian Language Institution

Once the purist’s ideas triumphed over the other schools of thought the Accademia Della Crusca was formed in Florence. It was ascertained in 1582-1583. It is known as the official legislative body for the Italian language. This institution published the Latin Tome of Agnolo Monosini in 1604, Floris italicae linguae libri novem. After this publication the world’s first Italian dictionary was published in 1612.

The Italian language has gone through many transformations to become the language it is today. The 16th century controversy is widely responsible for the lyrical romantic Italian language. There weren’t language software programs back then like Rocket German reviews or Rocket Italian to help. This is why a consensus had to be reached as to what form of Italian would become the country’s language. No matter the reason, learning Italian is sure to broaden your linguistic and cultural horizons.

Jeff Simpson is a concept artist and colourist from Quebec, French Canada who currently works at Ubisoft Montreal (after having practised in different Studios)… His paintings are just… digital, that may be difficult to believe. Jeff Simpson shows a wide range of work, take your time it’s worth it.

Partfaliaz

Andrew Archer lives in Auckland, New Zealand where he is working as an illustrator since 2006. He uses a healthy mix of both traditional and digital techniques. Andrew Archer is greatly inspired by surrealism, juxtapositions and sublime narratives but more specifically wood block prints, edo period art, cartoons, ideograms, characterization, travel and Asia. He has worked for WIRED, Runners World, ESPN, MOJO, Q Magazine, Saatchi & Saatchi, BBC, Red Bull, BBDO, OUT, Faber & Faber, Popsci, Spin, EMI Music, NZ Music Commision, NY Observer, San Francisco Magazine, Audi EU, Vogue FR, Penguin Books, 2Brothers Films, New Scientist, Dutch Masters, Elle, NZ Herald, NG Traveller etc.

Partfaliaz

Recovered Documents

If a passport is found it should immediately be taken to the Department of State, however this rarely happens. If a passport is lost while traveling it is essential to report it lost and then get the process underway to obtain a new one. There are expediting services out there that replace them quickly, sometimes in 24 hours.

Replacement

There are different avenues for replacing a lost passport. If the document is not needed in a short period of time then it can a replacement can be applied for. This can take about 8 weeks. If it is needed in a short period of time then expediting services must be used, this guarantees the documents arrival in the necessary time period.

Expediting

However, for people in need of the document urgently, services are available to help them get the document within a shorter period than mentioned above. Contacting a private service provider is the best way in which one can approach this. The provider will help you get the document in 1-2 business days.

Paperwork

This will require doing the same paperwork although there might be an additional form, which is sometimes required by the company to use for indemnification functions. It should be noted that these providers charge an additional fee over the charges by the government. This fee however, is worth it because you get a good service for it.

Documentation

All the identification documents required for the replacement are clearly stated in the provider’s website. You should ensure that all the required documents are available. The new pages for U.S. passport application form for the passport is also on these sites and should be completed as required.

Acceptable Forms

Besides the birth certificate that will be needed to prove your citizenship, details on your age, your social security number and where you were born will also be required. At this juncture, it will be imperative to note that your documents are prone to rejection if they are not original. For this reason, you will have to ensure that an official seal appears on the certified copies you have used.

Assistance In A Foreign Land

In cases where the document gets lost during a trip, you will be required to show the plane ticket or travel itinerary. Two color photographs are also required and they should meet the required specifications failure to which they are rejected. You can ensure that you have the required size by having them taken by a professional photographer.