Ryan Mustard

Job Description:

The Night’s Watch is looking for a talented and highly motivated Social Media Intern to join our award-winning team at Castle Black. The ideal candidate will have a background in writing or marketing with a passion for serving the realm of men until the day they die. This position offers real world experience you can’t get anywhere else, from standing atop a very high wall made of ice, to fighting off crazy zombies that are also made of ice. The Summer Intern will be an integral part of our team, working closely with Rangers, Stewards, and even side by side with the Lord Commander. The right candidate will be a big idea thinker, meaning that they have the capacity to understand the huge idea that White Walkers are coming for us, all of us, and someone’s got to do some shit about it. If you love telling brand stories through digital mediums, can think very conceptually about social media, and love working alongside hardened criminals wearing identical black cloaks, then this might be the perfect step in beginning your career.

Main Responsibilities:

- Maintain our Twitter and Facebook pages, sending out topical, informative, and engaging posts that tell our brand story in a creative, conceptual way.

- Change the Lord Commander’s bed sheets and dump out his filth bucket.

- Work with our creative lead to establish and maintain a brand voice through all of our social channels, including Snapchat, Instagram, and ravens.

- Participate in content brainstorm sessions, to provide big, innovative storytelling solutions that drive business through the sales funnel.

- Bring rags to the Maester as he patches up festering sword wounds, and help him burn the bodies of your dead colleagues.

- Create persuasive messaging, targeting our consumers, reminding them that “Run! The White Walkers are coming!” and a secondary messaging strategy directly to the White Walkers, with the idea being “Please for the love of God stop attacking us!”

Skills and Requirements:

- 3+ years college education, preferably with a background in English or Marketing.

- Working knowledge of major social media outlets a must.

- Ability to never have sex again. Ever.

- Exceptional writing skills and the ability to communicate effectively in a digital world, and also in a fucking insane world where dragons literally exist.

- Ability to wield a heavy sword and not get your ass killed.

- A driving passion to tell brand stories and create award-winning campaigns across any number of digital platforms.

- Ability to save all seven kingdoms of Westeros from imminent demise a plus.

Serious inquiries only. Send resumes via raven or to castleblack@godaddy.com.

Former Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch on approaching problems head on:

This is the greatest video I have ever seen in my life pic.twitter.com/miB0ZF1Sdt

— Football Posts (@FballPosts) June 21, 2016

That might be the best answer to any interview question ever. (via digg)

Tags: football   Marshawn Lynch   sports   video

Disclaimer: Before you proceed, just remember that none of the links are vetted and you may be reading something written by a 13-year-old, a so-called sports journalist or Clay Travis (is there really any difference between those options?). Some stories are from those unreliable, pesky pay sites, too. Read at your own peril.

Shaka Smart and Charlie Strong met with the media yesterday: Both Strong and Smart met with the media in the same press conference. How often do you see that at the collegiate level?

Smart addresses his staff shake up: Jai Lucas was promoted to assistant coach so TCU wouldn't steal him away. It's as simple as that.

Strong needs to win eight games: Strong understands the need for urgency and he knows that he needs to to win.

Strong is approaching the Notre Dame game as if it was just any other game: Strong made too much of it too early and he doesn't want a repeat of last year's fiasco.

Read Option(al) or some other stuff.

Bob Stoops is leading the pack: When it comes to Big 12 coaches, Stoops is the outright leader.

The Big 12 is concerned: The conference finally came out with a statement about the Baylor mess. What the heck took so long?

Schools will be lining up to give Briles a second chance: Winning is everything in college football and some schools will risk the consequences of hiring Briles.

Early recruiting rankings are deceptive: Early rankings can be more about quantity than quality. Teams that amass large numbers of recruits early may drop in the rankings after other teams add more quality players to their commitment list.

And speaking or recruiting, how is that 2016 Baylor class shaping up? Not as good as BU would like, according to Our Daily Bears.

Sports media outlets are all about the media personality and less about the sport: Why are Skip Bayless and Paul Finebaum the story and the actual story about the sport takes a backseat?

Brenda Tracy was raped by Oregon State football players in 1998 and finally gets some closure: Nebraska coach Mike Riley invited Tracy to talk to his players at Nebraska.

The PAC 12 has a transfer rule that needs to be implemented in the Big 12: The PAC 12 bans any player with conduct issues from transferring into the conference. This certainly would have stopped some of the Waco crime spree we call the Baylor football program. Edited.

Too much sugar is bad for your program health: Cupcake games are good for college football. I guess Art Briles was on to something after all not.

NASA has launched its official app for the fourth-generation Apple TV, joining the app's popular iOS versions on iPhone and iPad, which have been downloaded over 17 million times.

The Apple TV app lets users watch high-definition live streams from NASA TV, and allows them to enjoy a real-time view of the Earth from the International Space Station.


The app also informs users of their next opportunity to view the ISS and other NASA satellites as they pass overhead, based on user location.

The app has several other features, including a slideshow viewer with more than 15,000 images, on-demand NASA videos, 2D and 3D satellite tracking maps, NASA mission news, and the ability to listen to Third Rock internet streaming radio.

"The NASA app has been a fantastic way for the public to experience the excitement of space exploration from their mobile devices," said David Weaver, NASA associate administrator for Communications in a press release.

"Now, users with the latest Apple TV can explore and enjoy our remarkable images, videos, mission information, NASA Television and more on the big screen with the whole family."

The NASA app is available in the App Store on the fourth-gen Apple TV.


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Valve? More like VRlve. Hm, that doesn’t really work.

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Was the interview just a leverage play? The interview was probably a leverage play

Welp. In what has become par for the course as the Texas Longhorns pursue a new head baseball coach to replace legendary Augie Garrigo, the LSU Tigers reportedly offered Paul Mainieri a “significant boost in pay,” according to The Advocate.

Earlier on Thursday, news broke that the Longhorns recently interviewed Mainieri, but it appeared that budgetary shortfalls in Louisiana could keep the Tigers from offering Mainieri an increase to his $750,000 annual salary.

Apparently the Tigers found some money stashed under a matters somewhere — or just plan on worrying about where it comes from later — as the reported afternoon meeting between Mainieri and LSU athletic director Joe Alleva will likely result in the two sides at least verbally agreeing to terms.

Without the advantage of being able to offer Mainieri a raise, Texas baseball probably doesn't have enough allure to convince the 2009 national championship-winning coach to bolt from Baton Rouge.

It seems Charlie Strong is looking forward to getting his first win over Texas A&M with some progress reportedly in the works

In the words of Texas Longhorns head coach Charlie Strong, something is in the works which would pit bitter rivals Texas and Texas A&M against each other on the gridiron once again, per HookEm.com:

An audience member at the Touchdown Club of Houston asked Strong about renewing the rivalry, to which the coach said, "they're trying to work out something right now where we go play the Aggies."

Strong's comments are obviously something that will churn more speculation of when the two programs can renew one of the most stories rivalries in college football history. Unfortunately, this may just be a appetizer to satisfy the hunger for the two teams and fanbases alike to reclaim bragging rights in what's resorted to recruiting tiffs and nearly nothing more. College football as a whole deserves more, but that may not be something headed our way in the near future.

Pump the brakes. Texas spokesman says no specifics have been discussed between Texas and A&M regarding a football game.

— Ryan Autullo (@AutulloAAS) June 10, 2016

Texas AD Mike Perrin previously noted that the rivalry wasn't on his drawing board, but realistically, the chatter will never cease and we're all quite eager to see Perrin's artistic prowess, should he make the matter a priority.

The last time the Longhorns and Aggies squared off was in 2011 when Justin Tucker's game-winning field goal as time expired gave Texas the 27-25 victory in a classic Texas A&M sendoff. Overall, Texas leads the series 76-37-5.

The excellent turn-based strategy game XCOM 2 will be PC exclusive no more later this year. Publisher 2K announced this morning that the game will be coming to Xbox One and PS4 on September 6. Veteran studio The Workshop is handling the port of the Firaxis game.

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And there it is. Jarrett Allen, the proverbial last piece of the puzzle for the 2016-17 Texas Longhorns basketball program, signed financial aid / scholarship papers with Texas today. Allen, a McDonald's All-American ranked 17th nationally in the 247 Composite rankings, represents the highest-rated player Texas head coach Shaka Smart has ever signed. Allen played high school ball locally at St. Stephen's and AAU with Houston-based Texas Pro (which counts Isaiah Taylor as an alum). Allen picked Texas over the Houston Cougars.

For all the hand-wringing about Allen's indecision, he actually played the game perfectly, bypassing a chance to sign a one-way Letter of Intent (paging Baylor's 2016 football class...) and waiting out other commitments to find the best fit. He reportedly favored Kentucky in the fall, and also took visits to Notre Dame and Kansas. Ultimately, a strong season by Texas and its big men development of Cameron Ridley and Prince Ibeh had a huge impact on Allen's decision, and he will be donning the orange and white this fall.

Prior to his senior season, I thought of Allen as a multi-year developmental big man, but a strong final campaign and solid showing in post-season all-star games has me rethinking that analysis. For example, Draft Express' preliminary 2017 big board has Allen ranked 10th. At the Nike Hoop Summit, Allen measured 6' 10.5" and 227 pounds with a 7' 5.5" wingspan. His particular set of skills make him an ideal college 5 with stretch 4 potential as a pro.

On the post-season circuit, Allen proved to be the best help defender and rim protector of all the All-Americans, swatting multiple shots and controlling the paint unlike any other big man. With Texas returning only non-shot blocker Shaquille Cleare in the paint, that alone will be a huge asset. Allen doesn't have an advanced post game or a mature enough body to score at will down low, but he can serve as a rim runner and tried his hand at a few post moves. The baby hook is likely his best weapon. Most importantly for his NBA stock, Allen has the potential to develop a nice midrange game (LaMarcus Aldridge flashbacks, anyone?).

Allen has an inside track to a starting gig next year, preferably at the 5 but also as a twin tower 4 alongside returnee Cleare. Texas also adds fellow freshman James Banks, who looks like a more developmental prospect, and graduate transfer Mareik Isom, a pure stretch 4. Wing sophomore Tevin Mack got some playing time at the 4 last year and may see time in 4-out lineups as well.

The addition of Allen to the 2016 class, now ranked 6th nationally by the 247 Sports Composite, is simply huge for Shaka Smart. Smart has already proven to be a great coach and plus recruiter, and the 2016-17 season just got a huge jolt of excitement with Allen's commitment. Welcome to the Forty, Jarrett.

Modder Valplushka gave a thorough overhaul to a quadcopter and brought to life the single most annoying enemy in Half-Life 2. All this time, the dystopian haunts of City 17 were just a town in modern day Russia.

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Very fun Instagram account.

Popular image editing app Pixelmator was today updated to version 3.5, adding two impressive new tools to improve selections and a new Pixelmator Retouch extension for the Photos app.

Pixelmator's new Quick Selection Tool, which is smarter than the existing tool, makes it much easier to select large areas of an image with a single brushstroke. The tool is designed to analyze color, texture, contrast, shadows, and highlights in an image to automatically detect an object that's being selected.

"With the Quick Selection Tool, we wanted to create a totally unique experience for selecting objects," said Simonas Bastys, lead developer of the Pixelmator Team. "For more than 6 months, our team worked on developing a unique and incredibly smart algorithm, which used advanced machine-learning techniques to figure out for itself the best possible way to select objects. The results are stunning, and we're really happy to introduce this next-generation selection tool to all of our users."

Alongside the Quick Selection Tool, a new Magnetic Selection Tool is designed to automatically snap to the edges of an object being traced, so a detailed selection can be made much more quickly. According to Pixelmator's developers, the algorithm behind Magnetic Selection is based on A* Pathfinding and ensures a perfect outline around nearly any object.


For the built-in Photos app on the Mac, there's a Pixelmator Retouch extension that adds a number of retouching tools that can be used directly in Photos. With the extension, it's possible to remove objects, clone areas, adjust lightness and saturation, sharpen details, and more. Pixelmator Retouch was built to take advantage of Metal, Apple's graphics processing technology, so edits can be done speedily.


Other improvements in the new Pixelmator update include a new Stroke effect that's 15 times faster, improved Refine Selection performance, auto-adjusting brush size for the Distort extension, and content-aware outline smoothing for selections made via Color Selection, Paint Bucket, and Magic Eraser. A long list of bug fixes is also bundled into the release.

Pixelmator for Mac can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for $29.99, and today's update is free for existing users. [Direct Link]


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Track: Take Five (Live) | Artist: The Dave Brubeck Quartet | Album: Time Out

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The ambitious space game No Man’s Sky has been delayed, two sources tell Kotaku. We don’t know exactly what the new release date is—and it may not be finalized yet—but we’re hearing it’s been bumped until at least July or August.

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The explosiveness is back for Johnnie Johnson's son.

Texas Longhorns fans haven't gotten to see much from sophomore running back Kirk Johnson after the Longhorns legacy after carrying the ball only eight times as a freshman, but after missing spring practice with an injury, Johnson looks healthy and ready to contribute this fall.

Getting back to 110% #Hookem GtM pic.twitter.com/tmauNKnNvL

— Captin'Kirk (@KirkoGrinds) May 11, 2016

As the likely third-string running back this fall behind junior D'Onta Foreman and sophomore Chris Warren, Johnson will have the opportunity to serve as the team's change-of-pace back and showcase the athleticism that made him the SPARQ MVP at the San Francisco NFTC two years ago.

And considering that he's been injured basically since Thanksgiving, it's good to see him cutting and flashing that athleticism in workouts once again.

In this video, Vox's Estelle Caswell and Martin Conner break down how rappers construct their rhymes and how it's changed and evolved since rap's early days. As someone who doesn't know a whole lot about music and even less about rapping but appreciates both, this was super entertaining and informative.

Tags: Estelle Caswell   Martin Conner   music   video

McSweeney’s Internet Tendency’s 3rd Most-Read Article of 2016
Originally published May 16, 2016

“I don’t have a TV!”

“I never eat meat!”

“I walk ten miles a day!”

“My diet is making me lose a lot of weight!”

“I use my own waste to grow food!”

“My children aren’t vaccinated!”

“I have a very small carbon footprint!”

“I don’t vote — the system is too corrupt!”

Dark Souls: The Board Game was a smashing success on Kickstarter, raising a whopping $5.4 million over the last month. It’s not due to arrive until April 2017, but clearly, there’s a market for more Dark Souls material.

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For the past ten years, I’ve been editing professionally. Yet one question always stumps me: “How do you know when to cut?” And I can only answer that it’s very instinctual. On some level, I’m just thinking & feeling my way through the edit. So today, I’d like to describe that process: how does an editor think & feel?

Written & edited by Taylor Ramos & Tony Zhou. Follow us through
Taylor’s Instagram: https://instagram.com/taylor.ramos/
Taylor’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/glassesattached
Tony’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/tonyszhou
Tony’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/everyframeapainting

AMC:

The Night Manager, a six-part miniseries premiering on Tuesday, April 19, is a contemporary interpretation of John le Carré’s best-selling spy novel, which follows hotel manager Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston) in his quest to bring down international arms dealer Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie).

I’m four episodes in, and really enjoying it. The first episode was a little “meh”, but I’m glad I stuck with it. Laurie, in particular, is phenomenal — a villain who conveys intelligence, charisma, and genuine menace.

One tiny change in Fallout 4's Automatron DLC and its robot building process can make a lot of difference.

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Hot Wheels released a die-cast version of The Homer, the "everyman" car designed by Homer Simpson in season two episode of The Simpsons. Designed for his half-brother's car company, the car was so bad and expensive that it drove (ha!) the company out of business. And now it can be yours!

Tags: cars   Hot Wheels   The Simpsons   TV

Well, this is just ridiculous.

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Another way for regional Longhorns fans to watch the school's flagship network.

On Wednesday, ESPN announced the launch of the Longhorn Network on cloud-based live television service Playstation Vue in Texas and Oklahoma. The official network of the Texas Longhorns will be available in select cities as part of the Core slim package that features more than 70 channels and costs $34.99 per month. Playstation Vue also offers two other packages and a variety of stand-alone channels.

"ESPN is committed to Longhorn Network and serving Texas sports fans wherever they consume content," said Stacie McCollum, ESPN senior director, Longhorn Network Programming & Acquisitions. "The network's launch on PlayStation Vue further expands LHN's availability to fans within Texas and Oklahoma. It is a prime example of consistent distribution growth year over year for the network since launching in 2011."

"The University of Texas is delighted that the Longhorn Network is making this launch," said Texas athletic director Mike Perrin. "We have a great relationship with the network, and additional distribution of content remains a hallmark of success."

At a later date, Playstation Vue subscribers will be able to access Longhorn Network through WatchESPN. For now, it's available to those customers via PlayStation4, PlayStation3, Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, as well as iPad and iPhone through the PlayStation Vue mobile app, as well as Google Chromecast on compatible iOS devices.

This is what the hype is about.

Among Texas Longhorns fans and writers, the buzz about early enrollee quarterback Shane Buechele's impressive debut performance last Saturday during the first and only half of the Orange and White game hasn't yet died down. Nor does it seem likely to any time soon.

But since not everyone had a chance to watch the scrimmage or even gets the Longhorn Network, the highlights of Buechele's 22-of-41 performance that went for 299 yards and two touchdowns are available above.

"The thing that Buechele did is he made some really good throws, and he was able to manage the offense," said head coach Charlie Strong.

Indeed, Buechele never came close to throwing an interception, threw the ball away when he needed to, and make quick decisions. He also got each play off nearly two seconds faster on average than senior Tyrone Swoopes.

BON commenter THGTex watched every throw that Buechele attempted in the game and came away impressed, too:

Buechele had 7 excellent plays, 25 good plays, 6 bad plays and 0 terrible plays. I did not see a single pass that should have been intercepted and only one that could have been intercepted. The two batted passes showed how the height will be an issue at times (as a side note, kudos to Vasser for the two batted passes showing good ability to read eyes and time his jump both times). This type of performance will always give us a chance to win and can be the difference in close games.

The Arlington Lamar product is not yet the starter heading into summer workouts, but he certainly looks like the leader. And Strong is on record saying that he's willing to start Buechele as a true freshman.

Whatever happens, it looks like the Longhorns should be able to expect competent play at quarterback this fall from Buechele, at the least.

The next creation from the makers of Bastion and Transistor is Pyre, a party-based role-playing game where roving bands of exiles battle each other.It’s due out in 2017 but Supergiant’s bringing it to PAX East so attendees can play this weekend. You can find out more at their website.

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