my take on a short program design for yuuri katsuki!!
over on twitter i organized a tweetstorm with the tag #IceAdolescence2022!! (my twt @ is thehuntersgold)
the goal is to promote yoi artists/writers/creators while showing the internet that yuri on ice still has an active audience. here's the piece i made in honor of the hashtag.
included below is the underpainting, sketch, and initial concept i made for the design allllll the way back in february. i had so much fun making this and maybe ill paint my other designs too :D
some unfinished fan art for ripvangabriel/koltirasrip's "next level: nights after dreams" AKA the longest yoi fic on the internet! yes i read the whole thing. yes i liked it. and yes im reading it again. also credit to ripvangabriel for the awesome skating costumes! great author AND artist? i could only imagine
2020 vs 2022 - i remade my first original song!! (spoiler alert: texture is everything)
use headphones, it'll sound cool ;)
i started to make my first original song back in the beginning of 2020 and finished it in the midst of quarantine. i really had no idea what i was doing in terms of music production. i'd been a instrumentalist for nearly five years and had arranging experience so i thought "hey, this could be fun!" and it was!
fast forward to today, i was going through my files and found the og export titled "whomp whomp" and my brain just. imploded. i haven't made a single completed original piece since then and i've only completed a few arrangements. so, i sat down, opened dusted off my copy of garageband, and got to work. and this is the result!
since 2020, i've dedicated time to studying music theory and learning more about the nitty gritty of music. the key things i've taken away from my studies, other composers, and listening back to my first song is that texture and color are EVERYTHING. if your piece doesn't have variety in sounds, textures, dynamics, that kinda stuff, it could use some more oomph.
but yeah, that's what i spent my monday doing! constructive feedback is appreciated for both the old and new snippets :D
come in close, but come in slowly now... if you love me, let me know~! 💛⛸💙
i was gonna hold off on posting this but i couldn't contain myself... this is the promo art for chapter three of my wip yuri on ice fic!!! costume designs are mine, and the lyrics in the desc (and the song their routine to) is if you love me by melody gardot :D
ill have more updates on my fic for now but i'm FINALLY drafting each chapter and maybe (just maybe) i'll have the first chapter out by june, just in time for pride!!!
How Yuuri Katsuki's Narration Keeps His Relationships from the Viewer's Prying Eyes
If you've watched Yuri!!! on ICE, you know that Yuuri Katsuki is the definition of an unreliable narrator. We view the events of the show through his eyes; his filtered eyes. He chooses what is important and what we, the viewer, get to experience. This ranges from character interactions, events, general information, and thoughts and feelings. Yuuri, like the introverted and private person he is, doesn't let the viewer into his mind often. Most of the information we learn is from other characters, like when Yuuko tells Victor (and subsequently the viewer) that Yuuri is an anxious guy, or when Victor is the one to let the viewer know that Yuuri Katsuki is perceived as a flirt on the ice through his internal dialogue. Though all of these things are inferable, it means much more when side characters need to tell the viewer things about the main protagonist rather than the protagonist themself.
Yuuri doesn't like to let us in, and that's okay! It fits with his character well and while I would KILL to get a glimpse into his mindset or true thoughts once in a while, I understand that the show would have settled differently in the viewer. But one can still think, and so I thought...
I was rewatching the show yesterday and I came across these two scenes: The podium at the Cup of China from episode 7 and Phichit's selfie with the podium gang from episode 10.
In episode 7, we only get a quick glimpse at the medaling ceremony, cut to an interview that is pretty much all Victor, switch over to Yurio, and then bam the episode's over. In episode 10, we only get to see this photo because Victor is discussing Phichit and his interests, which include photography.
Even the selfie with all of the Cup of China skaters and the coaches. We only see this because Victor felt this was important and wanted to show the viewer!
These three photos are intertwined and so very related, but the fact that we only got to see the selfies because Victor took the narrator role kills me.
So, what does this tell us? That Yuuri didn't think these moments were important enough to tell the viewer about. He decided to filter these moments out because, why? We don't know.
This got me thinking: how many other things have we missed out on because Yuuri decided to filter them out? How many interactions or events have we missed because Yuuri prioritized them less than others? How much are we missing?
(In theory, this is probably just due to time constraints with the show and only including the most important moments, but I have some thoughts and I'm gonna run with this.)
To show just how much information was lost to the viewer, I'll be using the progression of Victor and Yuuri's relationship as my example.
As we all know, Yuuri was deathly afraid of Victor's touch or attention or any sort of presence at the very beginning of the show. Which is understandable! If my idol showed up at my house naked and insisted to coach me while I was recovering from my lowest I would freak the fuck out too.
But over the course of episodes 1 to 4, we get to see their relationship develop. Yuuri starts to relax, Victor starts to learn Yuuri's boundaries, the two learn how to act around each other and slowly, their relationship starts to grow into something more comfortable than it was before.
Episodes 1 to 4 are relatively close in date, probably over the course of... two months? So April to June, roughly. That's fine! We get to see the development progress as there aren't many jumps in time.
So, Yuuri seemed to value this time a lot. He felt the need to show the viewer these interactions with Victor, like the scene where he fakes a leg cramp or when Victor takes him to the beach, expecting a harsh scolding, but is met with support and love. These moments obviously meant a lot to Yuuri as it's the period when Victor goes from simply an idol and god that he worships to someone who is apart of his life, though no label for what role he plays yet aside from coach.
Then, episode five comes along and we see some physical touch and some more open body language from Yuuri. Assuming that this episode takes place in August/September, it's been a few months since we've last seen Yuuri and Victor. And you can tell.
Yuuri shows some more confidence, but it's not what Victor is used to (or the viewer, for that matter.) He's taken aback, has to learn this new persona Yuuri puts on for competition. Yuuri shows this to us because this is the first time since Victor's arrival that he needs to adjust to Yuuri's switch in personality.
But the real question is HOW in the name of fucking christ did we go from this:
to this:
in two fucking episodes?
There's only one explanation: Yuuri and Victor grew and we, the viewer, didn't get to see it. For the next four episodes (from the Cup of China through the Rostelecom Cup,) Yuuri was focused on skating rather than his interpersonal relationships that took the backseat during this period.
One thing that I've seen critics of the show complain about is the repetitive nature of skating competitions. Yes, that's true! The skating world can be repetitive to someone who doesn't have as much passion compared to someone who is looking to see how skater's grow. But this, this right here, is our number one piece of evidence. This is what completely supports the idea that Yuuri chose to prioritize other skater's and their routines over his own relationships.
Yuuri is hyperfocused on the competition. Who he needs to look out for, what skills these other skaters bring to the table, who's is a worthy challenge, what story each skater is telling, and it all ties back to how he needs to square up for his performances and what he needs to prove on the ice. In China, he feels he needs to prove his worth and growth. In Russia, it's his skill and fierceness in a rival country. In Barcelona, it's his dedication to skating and his love for Victor. He needed to analyze the competition to understand himself in the midst of the chaos. So, everything else takes the backseat in his narration.
In the first few minutes of episode 6, we see that Yuuri has become comfortable with Victor's touch. He doesn't shy away and seems to be at ease around Victor. Though he wasn't necessarily afraid of his touch in episode 5, there's a noticeable difference. There's no in-show mention of this. No acknowledgement. No direct hint to something happening between this episode and the last. All we know is that this is how they act now and Yuuri's head is focus on skating and only skating. What happened in between these episodes to allow for this growth? We have no idea. And that sucks major ass because I want to fucking know.
Even the kiss scene at the end of episode 7... What happened after that? How did Yuuri and Victor act after it happened? As I stated earlier, we see the brief medaling ceremony and interview, but that's IT. Yuuri decided to give us the big moment in his relationship that, at that moment, overshadowed the competition he was prioritizing. But after that? It's back to competition. Does he refuse to share the out of competition moments because it's not as important as skating in the moment or is he just genuinely a private person? Why, why does Yuuri choose not to show us his and Victor's growth?
Maybe he's deflecting. Maybe Yuuri is showing us the competition instead of letting us into his head because he's trying to avoid it. He doesn't want to let us in, see his weaknesses. He isn't willing to be vulnerable in such a high-stakes situation. If he let the viewer in, he would have to acknowledge his own anxiety, fear, feelings, emotions... So, he just doesn't. Yuuri's brain is a complicated, anxious mess of thoughts and he isn't ready to sort that out yet.
The only time we get any raw, honest, and completely unfiltered internal dialogue from Yuuri at this point in the show is while he's skating. Here, he can use his skating to sift through his head and digest his emotions with a proper outlet. This is when he lets us in. It's usually not much (expect when we get to episode 12) but it still shows us that off the ice, he's afraid of... himself.
So far, we have two reasons: he's focused on the competition more than his relationships and he doesn't want to confront his own thoughts in his head.
From a show-runner standpoint, you can argue that the staff left gaps in his narration because they wanted to keep Yuuri and Victor's relationship ambiguous. Or that Yuri!!! on ICE is a sports anime with a romantic subplot, not the other way around. But from the perspective of a writer, it's so incredibly deliberate. There are intentional gaps between episodes to leave us wondering what happened in between each. What were Yuuri and Victor up to? What territory has their relationship explored that we didn't have the opportunity of viewing?
Now, from episode 7 to 8, we get a little more growth. Though episode 8 is mostly focused on Yurio, we know that Yuuri is getting bolder with Victor, he's asserting himself on and off the ice. He's more comfortable, more secure with their dynamic. We can infer that their relationship maintains this level outside of competition, so what is it like? How do they act? Are they professional yet flirty? Or are they just straight up lovers and we the viewer just aren't aware of it? After episode 7, assuming that they never talked about the kiss would be foolish. Their relationship HAD to have changed because of it and they both had to acknowledged it. It's just so incredibly frustrating that we have no idea what's going on behind the scenes.
The two even act differently around Yurio, as if all three have had some sort of off-screen growth. Yuuri and Victor wouldn't be acting like proud parents if the last time they had spoken to him (or about him) was the Onsen on Ice event.
The event that really got me thinking about Yuuri's narration style is the airport scene at the end of episode 9. They run to each other, embrace each other, and proclaim their dedication to each other with such passion and vulnerability that it's practically like "lovers" are written on their foreheads.
This is one of the few scenes in this point of the show that's away from competition while Yuuri is in control of the narration. He felt this was an important enough moment that it equaled the amount of priority he put on competitions. To Yuuri, this reunion was critical to his relationship with Victor. This was a moment where things changed. This was the moment when he let himself accept that Victor cares about him and values him. When Victor said that his proclamation sounded like a marriage proposal, Yuuri didn't back away or retreat, he embraced the statement. And when Victor says he hopes he never retires, that's when it clicks. We don't hear it from Yuuri though; we see it through his body language and interactions. Yuuri doesn't once tell the viewer anything outside of this interaction about his true feelings or thoughts. It's almost as if he's presenting this to us saying "This is all I'm willing to share, so take it as you will."
Now, we get to episode 10. This is the only episode that Victor narrates almost completely by himself. This episode, in comparison to the ones Yuuri has narrated, is completely different. Victor's narration style consists of breaking down each character's personality, their interests, their lives... Yuuri's narration style is the complete opposite. We have to fish for those pieces of information from other characters.
Victor gives us what we've been craving for 10 episodes on a silver platter. We get information about side characters, a little about himself (though he tends to avoid getting too personal... I could talk about this in another post), but he gives us his thoughts and feelings about Yuuri without hesitation. What does this tell us? Yuuri is who he is prioritizing. It's not just because he's a coach and Yuuri is his student, oh no, it's more than that. Though, how much more is unknown. All we know is that Victor is choosing to show us this non-competitive time and it's worthy to show the viewer in his eyes. If Yuuri was the one narrating, I'm not totally confident that he would show us what Victor did. There have definitely been important moves in their relationship that he hasn't shown us (basically anything outside of competition), so why would this be an exception?
The shopping trip, the lost bag of nuts, the walk through the Christmas market, the ring exchange, the dinner later that night, even the end credits with Yuuri's banquet shenanigans... These things are close to Victor's heart. These are some of the only times we see Yuuri in such a vulnerable state. Yuuri guards himself by limiting our experience to competition, while Victor wants us to see the Yuuri he knows and loves outside of competition stress.
After this episode, we're back to competition. And we're thrown into it really fucking fast. Why? Maybe Yuuri is caught up in the pressure of being at another Final, hoping not to screw it up. Or maybe he's trying not to think about how he proposed to Victor (who proposed back) and tried to cover it up with a big no homo by claiming that a golden ring is a "good luck charm" to "help him do well in the final." Uh. I'm leaning towards the latter. All he talks about during his short program monologue in episode 11 is his technical abilities rather than his feelings. It shows just how caught up in the competition he is and it reflects in his short program score.
BUT! One flashback we get while Yuuri is out skating Eros is the scene where he convinced Victor to swap in a quad flip in his short program. This scene gives us insight into his current internal dialogue, but this is also just another prime example of how Yuuri and Victor's relationship has progressed. As coach and student, Yuuri's learned how to defend his decisions and Victor has trust in his student. As friends (or potential lovers), they're physical with each other now. It's comfortable, natural, welcomed. Yuuri isn't afraid anymore and he's welcoming Victor in without hesitation. They're practically one step away from a kiss with how close they are, literally.
This is what we've been starved of. This is the kind of development we know is there, just haven't been given the privilege to witness. There's more going on than what's on the surface. The viewer isn't allowed to know what their relationships means to them personally. We only get the outsider's perspective.
After this brief flashback, we're back to skating. Back to Yuuri worrying only about scores and points and losing himself in the pressure of performing. The lackluster score gets to Yuuri's head. At this point, he's not letting the viewer into his thoughts, but we see his reactions to his surroundings. He's fearing the worst, he's overanalyzing those around him. He's sitting in the stands watching the other skaters thinking about not himself, but Victor. How he's holding Victor back, how he's not worth Victor's time... Victor belongs on the ice and Yuuri assumes that he took that away from him. So, like he alluded to in episode 9, he feels he needs to give him back to the sport. But yet again, we don't hear this from him just yet! His body languages does all of the talking. We have to sit through the competition that's at the top of his priority list while his anxiety about Victor creeps up to the top too.
Back in their hotel room, he drops the bomb and says that they should end "this" after the GPF ("this" being their coaching relationship but it could probably be taken as romantic as well (another reason why I think there's more going on!!)). This is the first time Yuuri's vocalized these feelings or thoughts out loud, let alone internally to the audience. He expresses his feelings as if he's freeing Victor from some sort of chain, that chain being Yuuri himself. Yuuri's willing to retire and give up his career to let Victor have his back, complying with his wish for Victor to stay with him until he retires. If he retires, he's free. Yuuri's walking a narrow bridge between selfishness and martyrdom. We the viewer understand both sides, but Victor only sees the selfishness.
Cue episode 12, a fight begins, Victor pushes back, aaaaaand that's all we get. Yuuri shuts it down as soon as it gets painful, emotional, too much to handle. He lets the viewer in as if to say "Right now, my priority is not the competition but Victor. I'm going to make a move and let you watch." but when it goes south, "This is not how this was supposed to go. I'm in over my head. I don't want to think about it. I'm too vulnerable like this." And so, we don't get to see the rest of the fight and Yuuri gives us the gist in a short internal monologue. He takes a gamble by letting the viewer into this moment; he's secure in decision and thinks that this could be a turning point. And when it backfires, he retreats back to his regular narration style of all competition and nothing else.
We know that Yuuri is still thinking about he night before as the memory of the airport reunion makes it to the viewer. He's thinking about the gold medal he has the possibility of getting, but he's also thinking about the relationship he kinda just ended. But he knows enough to suppress that for the sake of his skating right now.
When Yuuri gets on the ice for his free skate, despite everything that's happened, Victor gives him love. He wants Yuuri to succeed and he wants him to know that no, he's not a burden and he didn't take him from the ice. Like the moment in the airport, this is when it clicks. Yuuri realizes that Victor doesn't see him as a burden or just a student. He's an equal. He recognizes Yuuri's potential and wants to draw it out of him. And he also realizes that he doesn't just care about him; he loves him. And yet again, Yuuri doesn't need to say it. We see it on his face and in his actions. All he gives us is, "Right. I know what my goal is." To get that gold or to prove your love back? It's up to our interpretation.
While skating, Yuuri just fucking lets it all out. He admits to himself and the audience what Victor really means to him and what he really wants. He wants Victor. He wants to keep skating. But he's cornered himself by deciding that he can't have both. He still feels guilty for keeping him from competitive skating and is putting every thought, emotion, feeling, and ounce of determination into his performance to prove himself worthy of Victor's time. And that's what he does. He skates his appreciation, his dedication, his passion, and his love for the man who brought out the best in him.
Yuuri tells us he doesn't want to go to the kiss and cry, he doesn't want this to end. And when we learn that he's broken the WR, silence. Nothing. Why? It's not his priority. Victor is. When he learns that Victor's returning, he's elated! He's happy that Victor is returning to what he loves. He feels like he's done his part. Now, he can sit back and relax, but not until Victor disappears and Yuuri is left to digest the situation on his own during Otabek's skate.
After this, he's almost completely silent except for a few moments during Yurio's skate. He's still processing the situation but also watching his gold medal slip out from under his fingers. Yuuri more fixated on Yurio than himself right now, diverting us to the skater who's fueling his thoughts rather than the thoughts themselves. And through his stake and the medaling ceremony, we're shut out. Who knows what he's thinking then? About how he couldn't win a gold medal for Victor? How he put out his very best only for it to not be enough? How he wasn't able to prove he's worth Victor's time in the end?
After the ceremony when Yuuri presents his silver to Victor, he chose to show us this moment. He could have skipped over it like the majority of the medaling ceremony but this, this, THIS.... This is when it all changes. This is the turning point. This is when Yuuri realizes and vocalizes what both he and Victor want. To skate together. They know it, both individually and now together. We the viewer only get to learn that now. Yuuri has kept us at arms length for so long and now we're being let in, slowly but surely. In this moment he's vulnerable, arguably the most vulnerable we've seen him yet, and he lets us in even if it's just for a little while. Out of the select moments he let us view, this was one of them. It was the end of the beginning. The start to his future.
And then there's the exhibition. Call this fan service all you want but when I tell you, when I tell you, this is what makes up for all the gaps in narration from previous episodes. We missed months of interactions, development, growth... We could only wonder what had happened during that time and what would show for it. Well, here you go. Every ounce of love either of them can offer is poured into their exhibition skate. We get to see the product of the missed content. And what is the product? A pair skate that cries raw, pure love. We know it's been in the works, away from our prying eyes. This routine is the personification of their relationship. We don't get to see the inside details, the cute interactions, the milestones they achieve outside of competitions, but we get to see Yuuri and Victor skate their routine together. This routine that was designed to be seen. This is the clearest view we get into their relationship from the outsider's perspective. Yuuri maintains the privacy of his narration style by showing us that in that moment, skating with Victor was his priority. He only cares about being on the ice. Nothing else matters. After giving us crumbs for so long, he gave the viewer (and the rest of the world inside the show), a loaf.
At this point, Yuuri has gone from fearing Victor to craving him. And while it took him a while for him to admit it to us and himself, it's out in the open now. From the start to the end, Yuuri maintained a strict boundary that kept his relationship with Victor away from the audience. Skating took top priority; analyzing his competitors, working through his programs, learning how to improve and how to prove himself. Sometimes he let it peak through and we got a glimpse of something that was reserved for him and Victor only. But generally, Yuuri's narration kept us at an arms length. And while that frustrates me that their relationship is left with so many gaps and missing pieces, it doesn't hurt their relationships's integrity. It strengthens it. We get to see the result of all of that work and growth and while sometimes context is nice, we get to interpret how we got there. It's up to the viewer to decide what steps were taken to end in an engagement, a silver medal, and a romantic pair skate, not to mention Yuuri's move to Russia.
If and when Ice Adolescence decides to grace us with its presence, I hope they touch on the current state of Victor and Yuuri. I don't need all the details (as Yuuri would most definitely prefer to keep most private) but if Victor is narrating, give us some of that episode 10 juiciness. Gimme some growth, development, interactions, I literally don't care. Just something that can satisfy this craving I have for the experiences we missed out on. Yuuri's unreliable narration left us with gaps, and it would be only fitting for Victor's to fill the holes.
But to wrap up this hell of a rant/essay/whatever the fuck this is: Yuuri Katsuki is private. He doesn't like show admit things to us or himself and he's selective when it comes to his priorities. Over the course of the show, we see his priorities shifting from primarily skating to skating and his relationship with Victor becoming equal.
He leaves so much up for interpretation and has a tendency to suppress himself in competitive environments, leaving the viewer with all skating and little to no, well, Yuuri. The growth his relationship with Victor undergoes is significant, yet Yuuri keeps us at arms length and doesn't let us see it up close. It takes until his relationship is practically falling apart for him to let his walls down and give us a little sliver of their real dynamic. Their real feelings, emotions, actions, personalities...
Even then, it still isn't much. But it's there, it's real, it's unfiltered, it's raw, it's pure, and i'll be damned if it isn't love.
There are still misunderstandings to get through, but I want to be the unpopular opinion of Victuuri here for a second. I don’t think Victor was in love with Yuuri when he got on that plane to Japan. I might even go so far as to say that his choice was selfishly motivated. He was feeling stagnant, bored, listless. He’d lost his motivation to fight (something he tells us in Barcelona).
Personally, I think this makes this story even more beautiful. Because it means that being around Yuuri is what made Victor fall head over heels. He showed up, knowing this cute Japanese skater idolized him. Drew up a short program for his own enjoyment (watching Yuuri seduce him on the ice), and basically threw on the charm that always worked before.
But… it didn’t work this time. Victor could tell that Yuuri worshiped the ground he walked on. He could tell that Yuuri was over the moon and would bend over backwards to do what Victor asked.
Yet he wouldn’t sleep with him. Not because he didn’t want to, but because Yuuri subconsciously knew that Victor viewed himself as the debonair man of the On Love: Eros program, seducing the most beautiful woman then moving on. Victor was going to cure his boredom by sweeping into Japan, taking Yuuri under his wing and causing him to win because of the way he idolized Victor. Then he was going to return to skating with a smile on his face that he turned the piggy into a prince.
But somewhere along the way, this plan changed. Yuuri’s earnestness changed it. Yes! He will work his ass off killing himself to land the jumps and do the spins and fight the ice. Yes! When he looks at Victor he gets a moony look on his face.
When Victor puts no limits on what Yuuri or Yurio can ask him for if they win the face-off, Yuuri wants to eat katsu-don. When Victor directly asks Yuuri if he wants him to be his boyfriend? Yuuri runs away (and tells the tale of a woman who was too pushy with her affections). Even as Victor is certain that Yuuri has a crush (the banquet helped with that), there’s no way for him to access it in real life, because Yuuri is not ready for that. Yuuri puts his true feelings on the ice before he acts in real life too.
It means that Victor needs to coach, not play at being a coach. It means watching Yuuri fight on the ice slowly melts Yuuri’s reservations in real life too. It means that Yuuri builds his trust in Victor as his coach, until he’s ready to test the waters of his first relationship off the ice. His declaration of love during the presser about the Grand Prix (that Victor is the first person that he wanted to hold on to) was that moment. When Yuuri said “I’m ready.”
It means that when Victor holds him, Yuuri is ready to be held.
It means that when Victor kisses him, Yuuri is ready to be kissed.
It means that when Victor shares a bed with him, Yuuri was ready for that too.
It means that… Victor fell for him. Hard. He was no longer the man in On Love: Eros. He was not there to seduce the most beautiful woman and move on. Yuuri believed in him as a coach, when it seemed like no one else on the planet took him seriously. And Yuuri forced him to take off the mask and open up, because Yuuri shut down any shallow overtures Victor made. The message? Yes, be my coach! It’s a dream come true and I will work myself to the bone to be worthy of you choosing me. But if you want me off the ice too, I only want the real you.
It was Victor’s revelation. Yuuri wanted no more and no less than the real Victor. I can only imagine, after a life of playing a part, how wonderful it felt to meet someone who loved you for who you were and side-eyed you when you played fake. For Yuuri, the real Victor was enough. Yuuri loved him when he stumbled, hell, Victor’s stumbles and vulnerability were often where Victuuri grew as a couple.
That to me is what made it special. That we got to see Victor’s demeanor change, from the playboy who stands naked in a hot spring and declares himself Yuuri’s coach (and is not taking himself as seriously as he should), to a man full of so much uncontained love that he can’t resist holding him, touching him, (basically getting engaged to him).
Yuuri forced Victor to take off the mask. More… Yuuri made it safe for Victor to take off the mask.
No wonder they were so deeply in love. Because… they got to be their real selves with one another, and those real selves were ultimately what made them both fall so hard.
Yurio: *not looking up from his phone* is the sky blue?
Yuuri: Am I ugly?
Victor: *aggressively grabs his face* You are the most beautiful, impressive, graceful, gorgeous, celestial being in the solar system, and anybody who doesn't see that is an ignorant swine that deserves to be burnt at the sta-
we’ve been clowning on adolescence for six years asking when it’s coming out but one day that movie will drop and the skating animation will be so painstakingly precise, so breathtakingly beautiful, so wonderfully composed frame by flawless frame that we will sit back with tears in our eyes and say, “I understand.”
Years ago back when I worked in cubicle land, we were hiring junior software developers. They didn’t have to have a ton of experience, just a willingness to learn, and some demonstration of their software skills. Like: show me a program you wrote (any language) or a web site you designed. Anything.
And there was this one guy I talked with who seemed super sharp, but had virtually zero experience writing software. When it came time to do the show-n-tell part of the interview he whips out his laptop, brings up a website, and spins it around to show me what he made.
A website of tiny ceramic frogs.
Not for sale. Just… all these ceramic frogs, organized into categories. Frogs on bicycles, frogs with hats, frogs sitting on lily pads. It was a virtual museum of ceramic frogs in web form.
I scrolled through his online collection of frogs, slightly baffled.
“This is your website?” I asked finally.
“Yep!”
“You coded this yourself?” I popped into view-source mode and poked around some incredibly well-formatted, well-commented html. I nodded slowly. This guy was meticulous.
“Yep!”
“So… where’d all the frogs come from?”
“I made those too,” he says, beaming.
And while I’m processing this he rummages in his bag and pulls out a little ceramic frog working at a computer terminal. He places it on the table before us, next to the laptop.
“And THIS one,” he says, “I made for you! As a thank you for the interview.”
It was adorable. I hired him on the spot. I mean, why not? Worst case he’d wash out in 90 days and we’d hire somebody else. He turned out to be one of the best developers on our team.
And yes, his cubicle was loaded with ceramic frogs.
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