#I design my OWN. fob logo

[horseshoemybeloved]

I missed my gorls,,,

[someoneinjersey]

while googling the answer to "why does 5 seconds of summer hate their song 'dont' stop'" last night i came upon a tumblr post from a now deactivated account, dated 8 years ago listing four big reasons why they hate 5sos.

as someone who's almost 40 and just became a 5sos fan and has lived through the golden and bullshit days of pop punk and little bands full of dudes etc, i was like OP I JUST WANNA TALK

like their points were that 1) they steal riffs and logos and designs, 2) theyre mean to fans, 3) theyre sexist, and 4) theyre homophobic.

as to point 1 -- at the time the post was made, they were still teenagers (or three of them were, one was 21) and they were of COURSE going to be making music and designs or whatever that were influenced by the bands they liked and grew up on. that's how that shit works, both being teens and being in bands. its extremely hard to be original anymore, and you can't even say the bands they copied were being original either because they TOO were drawing from artists who came before. everything old is new again, every song sounds like another song and every art design has been influenced by another or is a tribute to another. that's just ART. the video linked to prove that a 5sos song was the same as another band's (it was either MCR or FOB or Green Day, idr) is no longer available, but i think a better video to watch would be one of several that points out all popular songs are from the same chords.

as to point 2 -- again, the post cited that explained the bad experience has since been deleted, but you will find that EVERY SINGLE ACTOR OR SINGER OR BAND OR ANY TYPE OF CELEBRITY HAS STORIES FROM FANS WHERE THEY WERE "MEAN". because people have bad days, and sometimes fans really feel entitled to too much of them. we as consumers of their art aren't entitled to shit. and once more (this is a theme to my pov) they were literal teenagers who shot to fame and by their own accounts were sometimes doing five countries in five days.

points 3 and 4 -- the sexism and the homophobia which were just old twitter posts ... i would like to know if OP has ever met a group of young male friends or anyone from australia. obviously we know now that shit's not kosher and hope they've grown and learned, but they were teenagers (I say this because all the ones cited were by Michael who was not the member who was 21 at the time of OP's list). they're about the same age as my brother, and having been around him and his friends at that age ... that's how they talk to each other. same with having had a best friend from australia for 17 years, culturally it's not a big deal to say shit like that. and AGAIN if it's about putting it on twitter for everyone to see, THEY WERE STUPID BOYS.

even though i'm not on twitter anymore (or fucking X or whatever) and i don't follow them on social media at all, i haven't seen anything to suggest they still have that same dumb boy mindset. and you can look at it like, thats me being sexist or ageist, or you can look at it like i'm excusing it all because of their age and gender and the cultural differences, plus their parents probably didn't teach them any differently. so honestly take this however you want but like man. having lived through the pop punk bandom during the 2000s and 2010s, you gotta be able to separate people making stupid mistakes from people doing really fucked up shitty things.

so thats my rant because that post rubbed me the wrong way OH WELL.

[djgwritings]

2024.01.02

Gas pump said membership expired but after some anxious button mashing, and restarts, it still allowed a fill-up. At least one more until I paid my dues. I looked at the card, a photo of the member in a silly hat. I don't recognize this member. It didn't ask me if I wanted a printed receipt, as I always hit NO, it just assumed so, and the spitting noise emitted caused a spark in me to glitch. Something had changed, and not the number on the year's jersey. The screen's words now in ink tell me to renew my membership. Car in front of me did not stop at the tracks like the red light sign said to. I always stop at the tracks. I always think of "Blood on the Tracks." Cleaner at USPS grunted a reluctant "'morning." in response to my sitcom entrance. Unsure if it's a good one or not. Morning, that is. Seems more an incredibly okay one for he and me. I saw him in a Nirvana shirt once. Their iconic face logo one. Kurt Cobain was a janitor. In high school shop class I made a large foam carbon copy of said logo. I often wonder where it went, something I rarely wonder as I don't throw much away, but I have a picture of it. Nonetheless, I miss being in his cleaning shoes, a janitor (such a dirty word to so many) but anything more than pleasantries had me mostly hiding / working my job around others. Guess I'm still like this. Dawns on me once again that the longer you know me the less you know me. I didn't design it this way. It just is and I am always sorry for that. It was on a flying machine where I met John and Yoko and a very young Sean chilling like normal passengers on a brown padded bench as I hid in a small hallway passage, peeping around the corner. I tried to be irreverent in which to make John laugh. He did. Grinned something great, and maybe because I did not point out his celebrity to the other passengers. Not many, but I just wanted to keep it cool. I don't know where we were going, but all I knew is that I got on the flying machine (which I first assumed I was entering the saloon doors of an amusement park funhouse) to simply look for the black leather backpack I wore to college daily. Then, the ground got further from the fog-scratched windows, and I knew I'd for certain make those whom I had left behind with a, "Wait one second, as I look in here for my backpack." upset that I had once again disappeared like I do. I also did not have a way to let them know my detour would be more than one second. So, onboard I searched for an escape hatch to get back. Gotta be like the movies, ya know? J & Y & S were quite content, and watched me open a door and walk inside what turned out to be a very large industrial clothes drier. I knew better than to shut the door behind me. My cats crawled into the dryer at home and it was like a Kubrick movie up in there for them. I doubt the same for me. As a youngster I assumed the machines would win. Power windows, key fobs included. I never wanted them. I still don't prefer them but this is the world we're in now. Mine is more and more temperamental. Key fob (why do I hate this word fob?), that is. Tends to not want to let me in when exiting the postal box especially. Trying to open with my actual "key" had me feeling foreign, or as if I was attempting a break-in on my own belonging. I couldn't quite figure it out. I never can.

Image: Kurt Cobain

[ansgar-martinsson]

The Best Intentions - Part 2

The Best Intentions

Part 2

Ansgar crossed his legs beneath him and leaned back in the chair, the leather creaking in protest. Considering, he folded his hands in his lap, tented his thumbs and rubbed them slowly together. In spite of his seemingly calm exterior, within his mind was churning… burning, a combination of annoyance and anger and what… fear? Yes, of course, fear.

His reputation was one of perfection. Not a single client unsatisfied. Not a single claim on a single contractor’s bond. If there’s a problem… he fixes it. Yet, here was a woman who, as she put it, was pleading for someone to do something about the condition of the building that he… that his company built.

Resolved, he bent forward, elbows on knees, and stared hard at the girl. With every ounce of sincerity he could muster, he said, “You won’t have to wait any longer, Froken Lindberg. I am…,” he paused, “mortified, to say the least that you had to go to the lengths you did just to get an audience with someone at my company who could remedy the situation.”

“Well,” she countered, her voice wavering, “you should be.”

Ansgar let forth with a bark of laughter. Not condescending laughter, mind you, but true and honest surprise. He smiled, that time the grin reaching his eyes. “Yes, I should be,” he affirmed. And with that, he stood, removed his suit jacket and crossed to the closet. He shrugged into his blue logoed Carhartt coat, flung his tool belt over his shoulder, and fished out an aluminum clipboard case.

“What are you….?”

He whirled. “We’re leaving, Froken Lindberg,” he clipped. “Now.”

“Yes,” she stood, clutching her papers to her chest, “but… where are we going?”

Ansgar brightened. “To the Opera House, where else? I need to see this sprinkler system for myself, I think. I am an engineer, you know. I have some experience with fire protection design. Maybe I can sort this today for you… and,” he shrugged, “you know, perhaps get the Prima Donna off your back.”  

“To avoid the riff-raff,” Ansgar nodded with his eyes glued to the door that led to the lobby, “out there, we’ll go out this way.” A tilt of his head signaled behind him.

That was the moment she saw it, the same moment that he lifted his hand to the wall behind his desk. He palmed with a swipe to reveal an invisible door. The seam blended in so nicely with the built-in bookcase that Joline missed it. A reader lit up in recognition of his touch or fingerprints or body temperature, Jo couldn’t know, and the door popped open with a click.

Jo raised her eyebrows at him and the hidden gadget. “Such technology, such toys.”

Ansgar huffed a deep sound of proud amusement. “Correction. All the technology. All the toys.” And with another dip of his head, he directed her through.

“Mischief managed.”

“Pardon?”

Jo grinned inwardly. “Something my nephews told me. From their favorite book. This—“ She pushed her hands out in front of her into a long marble corridor, gesturing before her. Uniform doors led off to other offices or conference rooms, she guessed, but the hallway seemed part of a typical office building. “This feels very, ‘I solemnly swear I am up to no good.’ Making a secluded break from… well, whatever you got going on back there.”

“Ah, the riff-raff, the circus… The press can be a blessing and a curse,” he took the lead down the bland corridor. “I use them when absolutely necessary and avoid them at all cost at all other times.”

“And you needed them today? Why?”

His shoulders adjusted under his jacket in a wave of… disgust? Stress? “The vultures smell blood. They’re chasing a story, an exclusive.” As soon as the press release published online of his return as acting CEO in an internet blast, the swarm came flocking in.

“And what’s that? The story? The exclusive?”

Ansgar effectively ducked and avoided her question by pointing with two very straight and very long fingers to his right through another door. “To the carpark, and my car. You’ll show me the improvements that need doing at the theatre, and we’ll come back here to schedule the work.”

Where he led with a steady assured gait, Joline followed. Out of necessity, more than anything else. She met him stride for stride, nearly, thanks to the three inch Louboutins. “Your lobby and lounge, so much like the opera house,” she commented to draw attention away from her unintentional pry. “Patrons and tourists parade through to gawk at the structure. Is that your stamp then?”

As they entered the covered garage, Ansgar fished his key fob from his pocket and clicked the button for his car. His brand new red Tesla Roadster chirped in response, and he nearly purred at the familiar sound. “I’ll assume responsibility for that, Froken Lindberg,” he replied proudly.

One of her eyebrow arched skyward. “Well,” she countered, “despite all the technical issues,” she intoned to knock him down a peg or two, “ticket sales are up. Season subscriptions increased six, close to seven, percent over last year. Audiences are responding to the slated new season, the season I put together.”

“I’ve been away. Missed most of the current series, I’m afraid,” Ansgar closed the door with a quiet ‘click’ after ensuring his guest comfortably in her seat. He strode quickly around the back, opened his own door and folded himself within. Continuing, he said, “I didn’t give up my series ticket, though. Seat A10 is still mine.”

“Hm,” the woman huffed. She crossed her legs, and Ansgar wondered if she was purposefully or subconsciously showing him the crimson underside of her shoes. “I hate empty seats.”

Ansgar shrugged. “It’s paid for, what do you care?” He hand-over-handed the wheel, expertly winding the roadster between the cement abutments and into the daylight of the open garage door.

“It’s not all about the money, Herr Martinsson,” she retorted. “You of all people should know – for everyone involved, it’s more about the audience, and their response.”

Ansgar held in a chuckle. He knew perfectly well.

***

Ansgar tipped his head back, following the line of the woman’s pointed finger. “There?” Ansgar, standing atop a folding aluminum scaffold, pointed as well.

“That’s where it went off the first time.” She called up to him.

“Got it.” Ansgar nodded sagely, glancing down at her. He pulled his hard hat off and looked up again as he pushed his hand through his hair. “I actually think I see the problem, Froken Lindberg; and you would not believe how simple it - and the solution - actually is.”

Her eyes went wide. “You do?”

He nodded again, looking down at her. “I do. And when I find out who erred here, heads are going to roll, I assure you. However,” he paused, “I think you, too, may be putting some folks on the chopping block here.”

“What… what’s the problem?”

“Kick off your shoes and come up here.” He reached down. “Take my hand.”

He was somewhat surprised that she did, actually… toe out of the Louboutins, take his hand. Her hand felt warm and smoothly calloused in his. The hands of a woman who, literally, had her fingers in every aspect of an operation. She gripped him tightly, pleasantly, as he heaved her up - moving his hand to her shoulder as he steadied her on the scaffold. “Good, yeah?”

“Yeah,” she replied, quickly, gripping one of the iron supports. “What’s the problem?”

“There,” he shone the beam of his torch at one of the pendent heads. See the colour of that glass bulb in there?”

She nodded. “It’s green.”

“It should be purple or better yet, black,” he explained. “That head you have there is only rated for temperatures of up to about ninety three degrees. A purple bulb is rated for about 182 degrees, black about 227. These heads are the wrong rating for this type of environment, you see?. All these hot stage lights… the ambient air around the heads gets too hot, bursts the bulbs and….”

“Sploosh,” she demonstrated, her fingers flaring out.

“Sploosh. Precisely.”

“Okay, okay,” she said, “but… why would I be upset at my own employees? Where’s our fault if your sprinkler guy put in the wrong heads?”

Ansgar pointed. “There,” he pointed with the beam of his flashlight, that time on the finished underside of the house right loge. “You’ve a set of properly rated heads sticking down there, all right and good for the designed use, but – it also looks as if there have been some modifications of the original design.”

She squinted. “I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Ask your lighting designer what I’m talking about. She’s bracketed in a brand new lighting pipe there, clamped some eight-inch non-LED fresnels upon it, and did so in a space not originally meant for lighting to be in the first place.” He looked down at her, his lips twisted, a shrug in his shoulders. “First of all, one should never ever hang incandescent lights directly beneath a sprinkler head no matter what the rating – and second of all… isn’t it against fire code to hang lights of a certain temperature so close to a seating area?”

Jo peered up into the face of her inspector, reading between the words he spoke, between the lines of his narrative. “These modifications…,” she pointed over her shoulder to the new problem, “they’re dangerous?”

Ansgar nodded, “Without the proper clearance. There’s code for safety.”

“And if I’m to understand you correctly,” she led, feeling the unease sink into her stomach, “this was deliberate?”

“It appears that way.” He landed the statement as delicately as he could, but it appeared that someone tread the path of sabotage.

The woman popped down off the scaffolding to step downstage where she’d left her file. “The first incident report came after last season.” She shifted through her pages, trying to locate the very report she referred. She’d studied them many times over in the months since the trouble began. Checklist after checklist signed off by a designer and two techs invalidated by one engineer review.

If only someone from Martinsson Construction had come sooner…

Despite the skirt she wore, she plopped down to spread the papers out in front of her. “Work orders, they came through but stated that there was nothing wrong.” She slid the signed sheet along the stage floor towards Ansgar. “’These things happen…’ they said. ‘Accidents’ this one contractor told me. That’s why I came to you… well, Weissing.”

It wasn’t panic she felt. It wasn’t fear or hysteria. It was annoyance. Disbelief. Perhaps a little anger thrown in, but she’d never let anyone see that. Instead she put her head into solving this plague on her tenure as house manager. Fix it. Fix it for good and move forward. “How long to sort all this?”

The engineer still had his head stuck up in the mess of lighting, sorting out just how to fix it, what safety measures he could employ to see this didn’t happen again. He called down, his voice raised for the distance. “Not long. An afternoon, at best.”

“Herr Martinsson, who would have the most to gain for doing this?” She stopped shuffling to look upstage where he stood when hee’d climbed down from the scaffolding some minutes later. The very image of aristocratic bad boy. Starched white shirt beneath a work jacket, topped with a hard hat. The leather and metal work belt slung around his slim waist appealed to her for reasons far beyond her understanding. The contrast between the expensively tailored, highly groomed man and the hands-on worker made for a gorgeous picture.

“I can’t answer that, Froken, not without knowing the key players.” He picked up some of her pages to look at some of the names, to see if he recognized the names of contractors that missed the obvious. The sodding theifs.

She sat in silence rolling the problem over in her head. Could it be a lack of education or knowledge in her trusted employees? Or was it a case of foul intentions? She didn’t want to believe it of her people. When she reigned her thoughts in from solving the problem, she glanced up again.

A furrowed brow knitted over his long nose, he chewed the corner of his lip as he concentrated on the work orders and the checklists. His hand worked at the base of his neck, tracing a v shape below is Adam’s apple. A strangely attractive self-soothing gesture as his focus zeroed in.

“May I—“ she intruded on his reading. She laughed at herself and her predicament of being trapped on the floor. “May I please borrow a hand? I…uh…got myself into a spot of trouble.” She gestured at her seated position on the floor and reached up for him. “I’m in danger of showing my talent for very unladylike positions.” She continued laughing at herself and the challenges she put herself in.

“Oh, yes, of course,” he offered his hand to heave her up off the floor.

“Thank you. I forget… I’m always back here for with the tech guys, building, moving, lifting. This,” she ran her hands along her skirt, “this doesn’t do me any favors.” She tipped her head back looking up into the fly loft. “How long can I impose on you, Herr Martinsson? May I ask you to survey some other problem areas?”

[robinrunsfiction]

Ok I’ve had this idea in my head for weeks and I trust you to write it. Person A: I’m in love with (person B)?! Why didn’t you tell me? Revenge Frank x reader during warped tour. Where the reader does merch for either my chem or another band and she’s kinda girlier (soft emo? Idk) and frank keeps finding excuses to talk to her and the band keeps teasing him about it. Just lots of awkward but cute fluffiness. Sorry it’s so long I’ve had this idea for weeks and can’t get it out of my head.

Summer of Like, Summer of Love 

Pairing: Frank Iero x Female ReaderRating: GeneralRequested By: @scrolling-my-life-awayWord Count: ~2,400Author’s Note:I love this request because I’m biased toward the early to mid-2000s as this is when I discovered FOB, MCR, all of them really! Also this request gave me an excuse to look at pre-hiatus FOB pics, revenge era MCR, and my own facebook photos for inspo! Also a little background Petekey for fun!

On the 2005 Warped Tour, the heat of the summer sun bakedeveryone alive during the day, and the parties revived everyone at night andtonight was no exception. You were only about a week into your first majortour, running the merch booth for the hottest new band, Fall Out Boy. You weresipping on a cup of stale beer as you looked around at all the band members,roadies and groupies who were partying after the last sets of the nightfinished.

You tried to pick out anyone you recognized when suddenlyyou thought you spotted a face that looked familiar. There were tons of bandsyou loved on the tour, but more than any other band, you really wanted to meetthe guys from My Chemical Romance, and you thought you saw them across the way.You could have sworn for a second Frank was even looking your way.

“Hey, (YN), wanna go grab some food?” Your cousin Patrickasked, seeming to appear out of thin air.

“Jesus, Trick, you really have to scare me like that?” Youjumped.

“Sorry, you wanna go grab something to eat or not?”

“Yea, I suppose,” you said setting your mostly empty cup ona table before following Patrick toward the van waiting to take the band out toget dinner.

From across the parking lot, Frank watched you walk away.

“Hey Mikes, what’s that one band you can’t shut up about?”

Mikey thought for a second. “You mean Fall Out Boy?”

“Yea, we should check them out tomorrow.”

~

The next day Frank, Mikey and Gerard were standing just offstage as Fall Out Boy performed.

“Who are you looking for?” Gerard asked as he watched Franklooking around at everyone but the band on stage.

“No one,” Frank replied snapping back to attention. “I’ll beright back,” he replied wandering off.

“Wasn’t this his idea?” Gerard asked his brother whoseattention was glued to the band, specifically the bassist on stage. “Never mind,”he muttered to himself.

Frank’s suspicion was correct. The girl he had spotted thenight before was singlehandedly working the Fall Out Boy merch booth, but atthe moment she wasn’t busy since all the fans were watching the band play.

“Hi, what can I- oh my God, you’re Frank Iero. Sorry, I justlove your music,” you gushed, blushing crimson.

Frank laughed and looked down to keep from blushing himself.He was used to girls fawning over him, throwing themselves at him, but this wasdifferent. He was certain you were the cutest thing he had ever seen.

“Thanks, I appreciate it. Umm, what’s your name?”

“(YN),” you replied. “Sorry, again, you just startled me.”

He laughed again. “Are you gonna be at the party tonight?”

“Yea, usually am,” you replied, starting to notice peoplewere standing back, looking at the merch. “I’ll see you there?”

“Yea, I’ll see ya,” Frank said before waving and headingback to the backstage area before he got mobbed by fans.

~

Knowing that Frank was probably going to come talk to you atthe party tonight, you decided to put a little more effort into yourappearance. You had been avoiding wearing makeup during the day, since it wouldjust melt off in the heat, but now you made yourself up, and pulled on a pinktank top and a denim mini skirt.

You found Patrick and Joe by one of the kegs and Patrickpoured you a beer. You talked for a while before Pete and My Chemical Romancearrived. Everyone introduced themselves and you couldn’t help but notice Frankhad come to stand over by you.

“(YN), you need a refill?” Patrick asked.

“No, I’m good thanks,” you replied as some more people cameover and started talking. You spotted a picnic table close by and sat down.Much to your delight, Frank followed.

“So, is that your boyfriend?” Frank asked almost shyly.

“Patrick? Oh my God, no! He’s my cousin! He got me the jobmanaging the merch booth because I just graduated college and don’t have a jobyet.”

Frank tried to keep his cool and not let a relieved smilewash over his face. “Oh, sweet. What did you major in?”

“Marketing with a minor in graphic design. It was kind of amiddle ground. My parents would pay for school if I majored in something Icould get a job with.”

“So, what do you wanna do with it?”

You sighed. “I dunno, maybe get a job at an ad agency or-”

“No no, not what do your parents want you to do, what do youwanna do?” He asked, looking dead in your eyes. You stared back, a slow smilecreeping across your face. You were surprised he was able to see through yoursafe, but boring response.

“I wanna design band merch, and logos, and album art, all ofit. That’s why Patrick put me up for this job, he knows I’ve been obsessed withthis for years.”

Frank smiled once he heard the truth spill from your lips.“That’s so cool, I’d love to see your work some time.”

You shrugged, trying to play it cool. “I have a sketch bookback in the bus I could show you.”

“Hey (YN), Frank, we’re going to a party, wanna come?” Peteshouted before Frank could reply.

“Wanna go?” Frank asked you.

“Sure, I could use a change of scenery.”

~

The party was at an over-full house, and most of the peoplein attendance were from the tour as well. The stench of stale beer and weedwafted through the air as music blasted through speakers.

“So much for a change of scenery,” you muttered as youfollowed the gang through the crush of bodies.

“Should have stayed outside, it was cooler out there,” youheard Ray comment behind you.

“Come on,” Frank said taking the lead, charging through thecrowd toward the back of the house. Soon you had escaped into the backyard andinto fresh air.

“This is better,” you commented, straightening your skirt.

Both bands assembled outside around a fire pit that someonehad started but left unattended. Gerard and Andy watched over their friendslike two sober babysitters as everyone got drinks and sat around the fire. Youfound a lawn chair and got comfortable. You weren’t sure if you should try tojump into a conversation, but again Frank made his way to you, pulling up hisown chair.

“Is this your first time being on tour?” Frank asked.

“Yea, I’ve worked some of their local shows and helped makeshirts for them and stuff, but this is the first time I’ve gotten out on theroad. It’s such a different experience. Do you like it?”

“Yea, being in front of the crowds is amazing, but anytime Ican do anything with music I’m happy.”

“Being on this tour I’ve seen a lot of awesome bands, butyou guys are the best. Like, your energy on stage is incredible,” you toldFrank.

“Thanks,” he replied with a grin, again looking down,feeling a blush on his cheeks.

As you and Frank talked, you both leaned closer together, withyou occasionally getting up the nerve to place your hand on his arm, and hewould look you in the eyes adoringly. Neither of you quite believing what youwere experiencing between you.

“Do you think they see what’s going on between them?” Gerardasked.

“I have no idea,” Ray replied with a laugh as he tookanother swig of his beer.

“Just don’t think you can steal our merch girl, she’s the onlyone who can put up with them,” Andy said nodding to his band mates.

“As long as Pete doesn’t runaway with Mikey,” Gerard said with a laughand a glance toward the bassists who had wandered off from the group.

~

It had been a couple weeks since the start of the tour and Frank wasstill going out of his way to hang out with you when he could, and your crush onhim was as strong as ever. Even though so many people looked at you and how youdressed, or did your hair, and thought you didn’t belong with the punk or emo scene,Frank made you feel like you belonged because he looked past that and got toknow you. And as Frank got to know you, his feelings deepened for you as well.

You had been in your bunk, listening to music as you drew inyour sketchbook when you heard Mikey and Pete leaving the back of the bus.

“Wait, Mikey, are you going back to your bus?” You asked,scrambling off your bed.

Mikey stopped almost out the door. “Yea, why?”

You handed him the folded piece of paper. “Its just a designidea I thought Frank might like,” you explained.

Mikey smiled knowingly. “Sure.”

When Mikey arrived back at the My Chemical Romance bus, hefound Frank reading in the back.

“Here,” Mikey said handing his band mate the piece of paper.

“What is it?”

“Its from (YN),” the words barely left Mikey’s mouth beforeFrank snatched the paper from him, a grin forming on his face.

“Oh this is so cool,” he said in awe.

“What is it?” Gerard asked as he and Ray came into the backof the bus.

“(YN) made something for Frank,” Mikey answered.

“It’s a cool design of my name,” he said still studying thedetails around the letters of his name, running his fingers over the lines. “Ishould write her a song to thank her,” he thought aloud, momentarily forgettinghis band mates presence.

“Damn Frank you’ve really fallen for this girl,” Ray saidwith a laugh.

“What? No, she’s just super cool, and really cute, andalways smells good and she’s easy to talk to.”

“And you never stop smiling when she’s around, and she’s allyou can talk about when she isn’t, and you wanna write a song for her,” Gerardsmiled, hoping his friends mind would go where he was leading.

Frank sat for a moment and then a look of realization washedover him. “I’m in love with (YN)? Why didn’t you tell me?” Frank exclaimed.

“I think you’re the only person who never noticed,” Mikeylaughed.

“What am I gonna do?”

“Ask her out like a normal human being?” Ray suggested.Frank shot him a look that said that was the stupidest thing he had ever heard.“What? It’s really not that big of a deal. I mean, I could ask her out if Iwanted to.”

“No!” Frank shouted, jumping up. “I’m gonna do it.”

~

It was nearing the fourth of July, so almost everyone whoshouldn’t have been allowed near explosives had purchased fireworks. Frank was scanning the crowd nervously looking for you. Thenhe spotted you looking uncomfortable with some guy talking to you. You caught Frank’seye and felt relief wash over you as he came your way.

“Frank! There you are!” You said jumping up and wrappingyour arms around him. To your surprise he hugged you back just as tightly. Overyour shoulder Frank glared at the guy who had been talking to you and he tookthe hint to get lost.

“Thanks for that, he was really bothering me,” you said whenhe pulled back and saw the guy was gone.

“Its no biggie,” he replied smiling. “I got your design bythe way, it’s amazing, thank you.”

“No problem. I still gotta show you my whole sketchbooksometime when we aren’t so busy.”

“I’m not busy now,” Frank replied.

You smiled and nodded. “Yea, come on then,” you said headingtoward the buses. As you moved through the dark you felt Frank’s hand graspyours and you smiled, butterflies soaring through your stomach.

When you made it back to the bus, no one else was around. Youwent back to your bunk and pulled out the notepad. You switched on the lightand sat down on the sofa next to Frank.

“Ok, so this is my favorite so far,” you said flipping to apage with Fall Out Boy logos. “I did a few for My Chem too,” you said turningthe page.

Frank examined everything on each page carefully, notletting you rush past, even if you argued that the ones he was looking atweren’t good.

“Pete should give you a job at his label, these are awesome, you reallyhave a lot of talent,” he said looking up at you in awe.

You shrugged. “I’m afraid my style isn’t edgy enough for alot of bands.”

“Nah, it’s cool, and I think you could be edgier if youtried. Its there under the surface, I can tell.”

“Thanks,” you laughed.

“I’m serious, you’re awesome,” he said looking in your eyes.It was now or never. “Umm, (YN) do you wanna go out with me sometime?”

You were shocked and then thrilled. “Yea, yes, that would becool,” you grinned.

Frank grinned back and suddenly you were both leaning in,lips inches from each other.

“Oh (YN) you’re here- oh shit sorry,” Patrick rambled realizingwhat he interrupted when you and Frank both sat bolt upright.

“What’s up Patrick?” you sighed, looking over at yourembarrassed cousin.

“They’re starting the fireworks soon, I know you alwaysliked them,” he replied, looking at his shoes.

“Thanks,” you replied sincerely. Patrick waved as he walkedout. “Umm, do you wanna look at the fireworks?”

“Sure,” Frank replied with a smile. Anything to spend a little more time with you.

You found a spot back from the rest of the people gatheredaround watching the amateur pyrotechnics. You and Frank sat down on thescratchy grass and Frank wrapped his arm around your shoulders. You looked upat him and he smiled down, and you felt yourself leaning in again. When yourlips finally connected with his, you couldn’t help but smile. You pulled back fromthe kiss, the grin still plastered across your face.

“Holy shit I do love you,” Frank said, his eyes wide. Youlaughed and the smile on your face grew even larger. He grabbed your face andpulled you back into another kiss, the momentum of which caused him to tumblehim back into the grass with you laid out on top of him. Needless to say, neitherof you saw much of the fireworks that night.

Masterlist

[g0ldxplated]

My MANIA (era) experience

Now that all my FOB related shows are over and none are coming up in the near future, I thought why not look back on what has probably been one of the best years I was lucky enough to experience, all thanks to my favorite band and the people I got to meet through them.

It all began with the three small shows they announced in Europe. I had already booked a vacation to Japan, just two weeks prior to them releasing the dates. I already knew that I had to make it to at least one of them and while Berlin was out of the question since I wasn’t going to go to Tokyo just for a couple of days, I decided I would cut my vacation short and book another 16 hour flight from Tokyo to London, so I would be able to see them at least in Brixton. Prior to that, me and three of my friends had come up with the idea to design a flag, specifically for this show. 

Basically, what we did was to put the wave that had come around by the beginning of the MANIA era inside of the crown FOB logo.  Needless to say the show  (01/11/2018) was an absolute blast and by the end of it, we had our flag handed to Ranel in hopes he would give it to the boys. It was such a good time, seeing them after what had been more than a year and in a setting that was way more intimate than the venues they usually play in. After the show we thought that this would be the last we would ever see of our little project, but months later we would come to realize it would turn into one of the greatest memories ever.

Anyway, the day atfer the Brixton show (01/12/2018), the boys were playing a short acoustic set in Kingston, in a venue even smaller than Electric Brixton. They only played 5 songs (HMTOD, Sugar, Uma, Mmrs and Centuries) but I enjoyed every second and they seemed to be in such a great mood. Not to mention that it’s not every day we get to hear the acoustic version of those songs.

After these two special gigs, I already knew the MANIA era was off to a fantastic start for me and the adventures along the way would become some of my favorite memories. Shortly after, MANIA was released and the boys announced their Wrigley Field show, so me and a group of friends immediately decided to visit the US for the first time, as we couldn’t miss out on such a special show (it had been my dream to see them play in Chicago, their hometown for a long time). Additionally, we planned to attend 6 shows of their EU/UK tour and I spent months being excited for all that was to come. They went on to play in New Zeeland and Australia and what came next truly blew my mind. I saw footage from the first show that would kick off their tour over there and came across a very blury video of Stay Frosty. During that time they didn’t have the backdrop for it ready so the background image they used was a logo. But not just any logo, it seemed awfully familiar and I immediately thought of the flag we had made months prior. I couldn’t tell 100% if it was what we had designed, but I decided to take a chance and tweeted Pete about it to ask him whether it was inspired by the flag we had given to them in Brixton. What happened next was probably one of the best things that ever happpened to me.

Hours later, the FOB twitter account responded me, followed me and sent me a DM. Me and my friends were ecstatic and they promised to send a package to me that would include stuff for all of us. Little did I know how generous they would be. They even included a picture of the logo and one with Pete in it in their reply to me.  And I wouldn’t be disappointed. A short while before I was going to leave for my upcoming FOB shows, a gigantic package was delivered, including a signed copy of MANIA, the vinyl and Llamania for all of us and additionally stickers, bath bombs, a guitar strap, a Folie poster and the bobble heads. I couldn’t thank them enough for making this an absolutely incredibly memory for me to share with my friends, especially because they would use the logo as a backdrop during Church, meaning so many people got to see what we inspired and I had a chance of witnessing it with my own eyes during the EU/UK tour. The feeling of seeing it in person was incredible. Next, the EU/UK tour came up and I saw them in London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Düsseldorf. It was the best time I got to spend with friends, traveling to all these awesome cities and seeing our favorite band together.

It was bitter sweet when tour ended, but I knew I was going to see them again in Chicago and meanwhile decided to also see them at Leeds fest. I can’t thank my friends enough that always spent ridiculous amounts of time queueing with me, freezing with me, sitting through rain and cold wind, sharing stories and laughs together, only so we could rock out on barricade after. The whole experience was one I will always treasure. So up next was Leeds fest:

As always, the boys didn’t disappoint and Pete’s flame thrower bass made one of its first appearances. It was tough to last until FOB’s set, mostly due to how incredibly terrible some fans of certain artists behaved (I even cracked my rib from being crushed against the barricade as I found out once back home), but all the exhaustion was blown away the second they came on stage, opening with Disloyal Order, which had all of us emotional to say the least. Leeds happened around two weeks before our biggest FOB related adventure to date would begin and meanwhile I had started a small project months prior. I created a book filled with letters from fans all over the world, specifically about their very own MANIA experiences. I knew a lot of people wanted to be present for this big milestone the band was looking forward to, but couldn’t be, hence why I wanted to take a part of everyone with me to give to the boys. I had managed to snatch a Sunshine Riptide package for their Wrigley show, meaning I knew I was going to meet Pete and Andy at a m&g, so I thought I could hand the book to them in person.

This is us a couple of hours before getting on our flight to Chicago ♥

The Chicago trip turned into a little bit of a FOB tourist tour, meaning we went to the infamous Pick Me Up cafe and sat on the table they shot the cover of EOWYG on. The food was terribly delicious as well, so I can 100% recommend going there if you take a trip to Chicago.

All the days spent with so many amazing people in Chicago made the whole trip truly unforgettable. I’m so grateful for all of the friendships I’ve been able to make this past year.

I also got a tattoo done while there (not my first FOB tattoo but definitely one of the most meaningful):

What it means? Basically it’s inspired by Chicago Is So Two Years Ago, especially by the line “There’s a light on in Chicago and I know I should be home”. It just personally made a lot of sense to me to get a tattoo related to this song in this particular city. Inside the light bulb is part of the Chicago skyline and the coordinates are for Wrigley Field. Soon the big day came and I couldn’t contain my excitement, neither could my friends. I was stoked for the show, I was stoked to give them the book I had spent months on making. But mostly I was thrilled to finally, after 11 years of waiting, meet Pete and Andy. Especially Pete has been someone I’ve been looking up to for a long time, therefore I couldn’t believe it was going to happen on such a special day.

The m&g itself was rather short (sadly), though the boys were lovely and Andy said my KISS shirt was cool. 

I can’t even express how much I enjoyed the show itself. It was emotional from beginning to end and I did shed some tears. I felt blessed hearing Chicago Is So Two Years Ago and Lake Effect Kid in this particular place. Despite having been to quite a few FOB shows, this one will always remain one of my favorites, without a doubt.

Amazingly enough, Wrigley Field wasn’t the end of our FOB adventures. Remember the book I was talking about? During the m&g I wasn’t allowed to bring it with me and therefore couldn’t hand it to the boys in person. Luckily a lovely staff lady took a hold of it for me. Once again, I thought I had seen the last of it. But I was curious whether they had eventually gotten it or not (also felt a certain responsibility towards everyone that had contributed), so I tweeted Pete. After the show when we got on our Lyft back home, my friend suddenly told me he had replied! Though he commented on my tweet and said the book was rad, rather than answering my question as to whether or not he had gotten it. Still, I was happy.  A couple of days later I woke up to Pete having posted my book on his IG story! I couldn’t be more thankful, he’s truly a real one and made my heart super happy. So many people trusted me with their words and I decorated the book with my personal art, so it meant the world to me he cared enough to truly let me know he had gotten a hold of it.

The next day my friends and I had tickets for the MANIA experience. Yet another thing I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to say I saw in person. It felt like talking a walk through Pete’s head. We spent hours just hanging out, listening to the demos and songs they had available for people to listen to over headphones.

After the experience we decided to visit their old apartment, where everything pretty much began (the one where they also took the photo for their TTTYG album cover). This would be the last stop of our little FOB Chicago tour and probably the right place to visit last. I feel I kind of came full circle and couldn’t be grateful enough for everyone who made this trip truly special.

I pretty much thought that Chicago/Wrigley Field would be the last FOB related event I’d attend for this era/year, but then we figured out Andy was going on EU tour with his band SECT and immediately bought tickets. What can I say, no better way to let this era come to an end than meeting Andy at this show a week ago. We were the only FOB fans there so we got to talk to him for quite a while, which was refreshing since it’s pretty much impossible to spend more than 10 minutes talking to one of them unless you bump into them on the street. He was lovely, took a lot of time to talk to us, took pictures with us, signed my Wrigley ticket and even kept saying hi every time he walked past us. Once the gig was over he immediately came looking for us to hand all four of us one of his drumsticks. Andy is truly the sweetest and I’m so happy I was able to meet him in this very intimate setting (I don’t think there were more than 60 people). This year was certainly unreal and I can’t wait for next era.

Maybe it was all just a dream ♥

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[bongaboi]

Beneath the bling: Lakers championship rings feature many special surprises

Beneath the bling: Lakers championship rings feature many special surprises

By DAVID WHARTON STAFF WRITER JAN. 15, 20215 AM

Coiled snakes and small etchings, like hieroglyphics. Jewels whose exact carat weight holds a secret meaning. You can spot all the clues, if you look closely enough.

The ring that each Lakers player received for winning the 2020 NBA championship is mostly gold and diamonds, glitz and audacity, but there is something subtle lurking beneath the gleam.

The jeweler responsible for the design wanted to document a basketball season unlike any other, a year marked by more than wins and losses. In the space of one — albeit very large — ring, Jason Arasheben has concealed visual references to the death of Kobe Bryant, a global pandemic and social unrest. He calls them his “Easter eggs.”

“We had a lot going on last year,” says Arasheben, who owns the tony Jason of Beverly Hills. “It’s not just how many diamonds you use, it’s how you tell a story.”

Professional sports bling has been a tradition since the early 1920s, when the New York Giants baseball team handed out rings as an alternative to the pocket watch chains, cuff links and engraved tie clips that previously had been given to players.

Simple and stylish was the rule for many years until the New York Yankees went big and brash in the 1970s, igniting an arms race that now has teams in various sports trying to outdo each other — more gold, more gemstones — season after season.

The Lakers will not disclose how much they spent on this latest salvo. With 180 grams of yellow gold and 804 jewels in each, the rings could be worth more than $20,000, setting a new benchmark in extravagance.

If this raises some eyebrows at a time of hardship, team executives believe the players deserve a special gift for persevering through the season. Arasheben wanted to give them a sort of time capsule, an effort not lost on star forward LeBron James.

“It was just a culmination of what we’ve been through,” James told reporters after getting his ring. “So many ups and downs, a lot of adversity.”

And a lot of story to tell.

The helicopter crash that killed Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others on Jan. 26, 2020 had the team reeling, struggling to comprehend the loss of an icon who had retired only a few seasons earlier. Before the shock wore off, the coronavirus shutdown brought the NBA to a lurching halt.

By the time games resumed and the Lakers defeated the Miami Heat to win it all in mid-October, there wasn’t much time to make rings for the start of a new season. Team executives called Arasheben. Though best known for such celebrity clients as Drake, Jennifer Lopez and the late Michael Jackson, the 44-year-old jeweler had worked with the Lakers before.

“It made sense because he gets the pulse of this team,” says Linda Rambis, executive director of special projects and confidante to co-owner Jeanie Buss.

A flurry of discussions ensued, ideas flying back and forth.

Some design elements were entirely conventional, starting with a purple-and-gold logo on the face, framed by block letters spelling “World Champions.” The right side, or shank, featured each player’s name and jersey number. The left shank listed the Lakers’ playoff opponents and results of each series. This boilerplate information out of the way, Arasheben set to work on smaller touches with larger meanings.

The purple “L” in the logo was fashioned from 17 amethysts, one for each of the 17 championships in franchise history. They weighed .95 carats, a nod to the 95 days that players had spent inside the “bubble,” a Florida complex where all NBA teams lived and competed when the season resumed. Yellow diamonds in the basketball-shaped background totaled .52 carats, equaling the number of regular-season victories.

“It was like a puzzle,” Arasheben says. “We had to be creative in how we built things in.”

There was room to coil two snakes — an homage to Bryant and his “Black Mamba” nickname — behind the jersey numbers. The shanks, shaped vaguely like basketball hoops, got a mesh background. With each addition, it seemed Arasheben or the team would think of something else.

“How do you recognize all of the challenges we went through last year, and then all the bright spots?” Rambis asks. “It was just us wanting to have all of those elements in the ring.”

The work suited Arasheben, a man with a backstory of his own.

The boy loved to draw, doodling portraits, copying the blueprints his architect father brought home. His parents had a different sort of future in mind, telling him: You’re a good talker. You should be a lawyer.

Pre-law classes at UCLA failed to satisfy Arasheben’s artistic bent; they also put him in debt. A friend told him about wholesale stores in the fashion district, so he pooled his money and drove downtown to buy silver trinkets and brightly colored, plastic butterfly hair clips, cheap stuff he could get for $8 a dozen. Back on campus, fellow students stopped by his table and paid well over cost.

“The very first day,” he recalls, “I did $100 in sales.”

These profits paid off tuition with enough left over to hang out at nightclubs where, as an avid NBA fan, Arasheben recognized players among the regulars. They all seemed to be wearing what he recalls as “over-the-top, monstrous” jewelry, which gave him another idea.

Despite an utter lack of experience in the business, he began sketching ornate chains and bracelets, incorporating names and personal details of certain players. Slipping into the club’s VIP section, he approached them, straining to speak over the pounding music: “I’d love to design jewelry for you. In fact, I happen to have a drawing right here.”

They almost always shooed him off, waving away the paper he held in their face. But in 2002, the late New York Knicks star Anthony Mason took a look and liked what he saw. It was both a defining moment and a problem because Arasheben had no idea what to do next.

Stalking the jewelry district, walking from shop to shop, asking questions, he found someone to make the monogrammed bracelet for $50,000. Not only was the profit margin healthy — he says Mason paid $60,000 — the work was creative. Arasheben networked at the NBA draft and All-Star game, meeting other players.

Forget law school, he thought. I want to get into jewelry.

Most teams rely on such established jewelers as Tiffany or Jostens for their rings, so there was no reason to think Arasheben could break into the business. But while selling custom pieces, he made friends with the Buss family that owned the Lakers. Wrangling a meeting with the late Jerry Buss, he told of starting from nothing, a story that seemed to click with Buss, who had built a fortune in real estate.

“I really had no business making their rings,” Arasheben says. “He gave me a chance.”

Things went smoothly at first; the team liked his design of 14 diamonds and white gold in 2009, evoking the white uniforms that players wore on Sundays to honor broadcaster Chick Hearn. Arasheben satisfied Bryant and guard Derek Fisher, who asked to have each player’s face etched on the shank.

But after years of making a few pieces at a time, it was tough producing a batch of 200 or so for players, staff and others. With sleeping bags strewn across the factory floor, Arasheben and his crew worked around the clock.

“We were taking shifts,” he says. “I think we delivered the last ring 30 minutes before the ceremony.”

The team rehired him in 2010, which led to orders from European soccer teams and the Dodgers when they won the 2017 National League pennant. Arasheben made rings for the Golden State Warriors as they captured three NBA titles in four seasons.

“We knew what we did like and we knew what we didn’t like,” Warriors forward Andre Iguodala says in a team video. “From there, we said ‘Use your imagination.’ ”

After the 2018 championship, some Warriors players wanted a blue face, some preferred white. Arasheben engineered a reversible face with diamonds on one side and sapphires on the other. At the team’s ring ceremony, video shows Iguodala demonstrating the switch to others on the bench, telling them to give the face a twist.

“You’re supposed to?” teammate David West asks.

Coach Steve Kerr tries it and blurts: “Oh my god.”

The 2020 Lakers ring posed a different problem as Arasheben kept adding features. Around the rim, he put tiny etchings of the Larry O’Brien Trophy and jersey numbers for every player on the roster that season, even those waived or assigned to the G League before the playoffs.

The left shank had room for a small NBA logo, featuring the silhouette of former Lakers great Jerry West. On the right, Arasheben fit the team’s mantra that season, “Leave A Legacy,” along with the player name and number and snakes.

Still, he needed more space.

The first championship rings, the ones handed out by the New York Giants in 1922, were relatively simple. Brushed gold, a single diamond, nothing to set the world on fire but the timing was right.

“Pocket watches were going out of fashion,” says John Odell, a curator at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. There was no need for jeweled fobs or watch chains because “no longer was it stylish to show off a little bling across your belly.”

The new trend began with relatively tame signet rings, then graduated to something in the neighborhood of a high school class ring. More size translated into more detail; legendary football coach Vince Lombardi took charge of the design for his Green Bay Packers in the late 1960s and made sure to include a crown from his family crest.

There have been a few small quirks in recent years. After a squirrel bounded across home plate during the 2011 playoffs, the champion St. Louis Cardinals included a tiny image of the rodent. Two years later, the Boston Red Sox — known for their unshaven appearance — stamped a beard on the inside of their rings.

But glitz and bulk have dominated since New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner splashed “NY” in diamonds across the face of a large ring in 1977 and an even bigger one in 1996. The Lakers noted the trend in 2000, engraving “Bling Bling” on their shank. Three years later, the Florida Marlins spent a reported $20,000 each for a design encrusted with hundreds of diamonds.

“Overtly ostentatious,” Odell calls it.

Team owners were spending far more than the modest allowances the NFL and Major League Baseball afforded its winning teams. As weights topped three ounces, the rings had become so large that Jostens suggested wearing them “on your middle finger may be more comfortable in terms of balance.”

Arasheben acknowledges the trend is “getting a little ridiculous. It’s getting to the point where you’re just going to give the players a diamond plate.” But that didn’t slow him down with the Lakers this winter.

“Other manufacturers have tried to outdo us,” he says. “This year, we tried to outdo them one more time.”

::

There were 71 days between the title-winning game against the Heat and the ceremony the Lakers wanted to hold at their season opener in December. Most of that time was spent on design.

When Arasheben finally ran out of space, he reached back to an old trick with the detachable face. Same solution for a different problem.

“This time,” he says, “we needed to create more real estate.”

A 45-degree twist reveals a secondary face underneath, bearing images of the 12 retired jerseys that hang in Staples Center, including the one with a microphone instead of a number for Hearn. Bryant’s two jerseys — he wore No. 8 and No. 24 during his career — are accentuated in a darker color. As further tribute, a snakeskin texture serves as the background.

This gimmick also left space to reference last spring, when Americans took to the streets, protesting the death of George Floyd.

Pro athletes in basketball, baseball and other sports staged walkouts. James helped form More Than a Vote, an organization that has fought voter suppression and drew more than 42,000 volunteers to work at polling stations for the November election. Arasheben used the underside of the face to etch the word “Unity.”

“We wanted something the players could show their grandchildren,” he says. “Something to remember.”

The rings were handed out at an unusual ceremony last month, the stands empty because of coronavirus restrictions. Players stepped up, one by one, to podiums at midcourt while family members spoke from the videoboard above. “I know this has been a very difficult year for everyone here,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said.

Still, James called it a “pretty cool feeling” to celebrate with teammates, a chance to look back on all they had been through. “So many story lines,” he said.

And only one ring to tell them.

===

David Wharton is a feature sportswriter for the Los Angeles Times.

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* why choose King courtyard furniture?

1) we are Alibaba verification gold supplier and trade guarantee

2) we are direct manufacturers, which enable us to provide competitive prices and ensure quality level. Delivery time and order processing are also handled properly and timely. Control everything

3) we provide customized OEM design to meet your special requirements and customization.

4 we can provide market date to help you develop your market better after cooperating with us.

In order to meet the market and our customers have more choices, we will launch our new design every year.

5) After sales service: we provide after-sales service to your end customers.

What is the minimum order quantity? Can I have a trial order?

A: There is no need to order. Yes, you can try your order.

Q: what is your factoryIs there an exhibition hall?

A: our factory has an exhibition hall. We are one of the outdoor commercial mogels.

3. Q: I can use my own logo or design on goods, I can choose colors?

A: Yes, customized logo and design for mass production, colors are available.

4.Q。  How can I get samples to check your quality?

A: After the price is confirmed, you can ask the sample to check our quality counter display. If you need the sample, we will charge the sample cost. But after the order is confirmed, when your order quantity is more, the sample cost can be refunded.

Do you have any promotional products?

A: Yes, we propose 4-6 promotion plans every year. We will always send you a notification email to promote the details of the program.

* about us:

we specialize in manufacturing outdoor furniture for more than 10 years, and integrate design, R & D, manufacturing and sales. We have 120 employees and pay more attention to quality and workmanship. We believe in the concept of "quality first". We will provide you with the best products and services.

Our market: USA and Canada 25%, North / South, USA 20%, Europe 25%, Australia 15%, middle east 5%, Asia 5%, other 5%; products are tested strictly according to export standards;

we are looking for distributors / agents from all over the world, if you are interested in joining us, please contact us. Our goal is win-win, our service isProfessional, we are willing to do more to improve the competitiveness of your enterprise in your market. And seek cooperation for mutual benefit.

[arganoilsidighanem]

Rich in vitamines 100 % organic argan oil

Min.Order Quantity:50 Piece/Pieces

Supply Ability:20000 Liter/Liters per Week

Port:FOB Casablanca /Tanger MED / Agadir

Payment Terms:L/C,T/T, ,Western Union,MoneyGram

Quick Details

Type: Hair Oil

Place of Origin:��Morocco

Brand Name: TWICHYA or private labeling

Model Number: C05/14

Form: oil

Use: Hair , body and face

Certification: MSDS , IMC / NOP USDA Program

Feature: Anti-Aging, Moisturizer, Nourishing, Skin Revitalizer

Main Ingredient: Argania Spinosa kernel

Place of Origin: Morocco

Cultivation type: Organic

Processing type: Cold pressed

Color: Gold

Bottles: Glass , PET

Packaging & Delivery

Packaging Details:

40ml, 60ml, 100ml ,125ml, in PET plastic bottle with pump 250ml, 500 ml, 1Liter, 10 Liters, 20 liters, 25 liters ,33 Liters in drum with cap Argan Oil can be 30ml, 40ml,50ml, 60ml, 100ml ,250ml, 500 ml in amber or trasparent glass bottle with cap/dropper

Delivery Detail:

15 days after confirmation of all details and deposit

Specifications

1 - Certified MSDS , IMC / NOP USDA Program .  2 - Vitamin E protects the cell membranes against lipid oxidization 

Details :

About us

Oriental Group is able to offer cosmetic Argan oil and food Argan in bulk or packaged, as well as products of oriental Hammam and care: argan oil, black soap, natural soap, Rasul, kassa glove, floral waters (rose, lavender, jasmine) ... Only for professionals, we supply major retailers in Europe, Spa and Hammam and supermarket and most of the Argan oil Amazon seller according to Amazon Fulfillment rules.

All our Argan oil has been certified organic IMC and USDA and meet this end, international standards of quality extra virgin argan oil 100% 

Product Description

Pure and natural Argan Oil has been used in Morocco for centuries to nourish and protect the skin, hair and nails. Argan oil contains natural tocopherols (vitamin E), essential fatty acids and antioxidants.

Argan Oil is ideal for all skin types, including the most sensitive skins. It is an excellent moisturising emollient for dry, rough skin  and can also be used to add a beautiful healthy sheen to hair, leaving it feeling silky soft and smooth. The oil penetrates the hair shafts unlocking its natural vitamins stimulating hair growth whilst also improving hair elasticity. This  process causes the hair shafts to smoothen down increasing smoothness whilst also decreasing unmanageable/ uncontrollable hair. The natural antioxidants located within the oil penetrate the hair from the tip to the root repairing damaged and frizzy hair in the  process.

This also hydrates the hair eliminating roughness and curling of the hair giving you softer, smoother hair. Argan oil has many benefits for the skin and can be used for various skin conditions. The Argan oil penetrates layers of the skin releasing its natural vitamins and fatty acids combined with omega 6 into the skin.

Process

Deodorizing the oil is part of our filtration process.

It is a process totally in cold pressed process. it's to pass through the oil plates natural active carbon imported from Germany , which are specially designed to deodorize and discolor the vegetable oil.

Also, through this process, we arrive at fixing qualities of the oil and neutralize potential risks of germs.

As you probably know, the use of plates natural active carbon in the field of treatment of drinking water, the air is very old , and is even part of Good Hygiene Practices , and does not affect the quality product .

Its use in the field of processing of vegetable oils is relatively recent ...

The introduction of this technique in the field of Argan oil , is part of our efforts to research and development that we do not stop to realize the advantage to improve the quality of our Argan oil, and respond with the same Used expectations of our professional customers in the field of cosmetics.

General Information

Directions

For soft skin and hair, apply directly to the desired area as needed 

Use

Face, body and Hair

Form

Oil

Supply Type

OBM (Original Brand Manufacturing)

Certification 

MSDS ,IMC /NOP USDA PROGRAM

Features

Anti-Aging, Moisturizer, Nourishing, Skin Revitalizer

Main Ingredient

Argania Spinosa kernel,

Place of Origin

Morocco

Port

FOB Casablanca /Tanger MED / Agadir

Packaging Details

40ml, 60ml, 100ml ,125ml, in PET plastic bottle with pump 250ml, 500 ml, 1Liter, 10 Liters, 20 liters, 25 liters ,33  Liters in drum with cap Argan Oil can be 30ml, 40ml,50ml, 60ml, 100ml ,250ml, 500 ml in amber or trasparent glass bottle with cap/dropper

Our Services

Branding and Package Design of ARGAN Oil Products

Oriental Group provides a complete branding service for client wishing to penetrate their domestic markets using their very own private label.

Bottling

We have many varieties of bottles and containers at our disposal; of course the client may supply their own, or can send us a sample for us to mass produce.

Labeling

The client can supply their own label or have one produced for them by our team of designers, we can design exactly to your specifications.

Casing

We can supply casing solutions to meet any specifications ranging from customized design cases, case printed designs and other custom requirements.

Company Information Oriental Group N°200 Lot Elmassar, Z.I Sidi Ghanem Route de Safi 40 000 Marrakech MOROCCO Tel:+212 524 335 449 MOB :+212 600 604 387 (Whatsapp / viber ) Fax:+212 524 457 961 Website : www.group-oriental.com E-mail : contact@group-oriental.com Suivez-nous http://facebook.com/grouporiental http://twitter.com/grouporiental

1.How can I get some samples?

(1)We are honored to offer you samples. New clients are expected to pay for the courier cost, the samples are free for you, this charge will be deducted from the payment for formal order. (2)Regarding the courier cost: You can arrange a RPI (remote pick-up) service upon FedEx, UPS, DHL,TNT, etc. To have the samples collected; Or inform us your DHL collection account. Then you can pay the freight direct to your local carrier company.

2.How does your factory do regarding quality control?

Quality is priority! Every worker keeps the QC from the very beginning to the very end (1)All raw material we used are environmental-friendly; (2)Skillful workers care every detail in handing the stamping, printing,stitching, packing process; (3)Quality control department specially responsible for quality checking in each process.

3.Can your factory print or emboss my logo on the goods?

(1)Yes, we can print your logo on the goods or their packing box, for patent protection purpose, a letter of attorney (letter of authorization) shall be provided for the logo. (2)We usually produce goods based on customer's samples or based on customers' picture, logo, sizes etc detail information design for customers.

[bioprogreenmorocco]

Prickly Pear Seed Oil

Prickly pear Seed Oil is 100% pure and natural, virgin, made thanks to first cold pressing, without any chemical solvent.

Anti-aging, thanks to its exceptional vitamin E content, prickly pear oil is considered a miracle product to fight against the signs of skin aging.

It restores firmness and tone to the skin.

Regenerating, the omega-6 it contains promotes the skin's natural repair process.

Excellent emollient, it softens and protects the skin from dehydration.

Prickly pear has also preventive stretch mark care and scar care.

Moreover, this product is adapted for any type of skin.

Packaging details : 40ml, 60ml, 100ml ,125ml, in PET plastic bottle with pump 250ml, 500 ml, 1Liter, 10 Liters, 20 liters,25 liters ,33 Liters in drum with cap

Prickly Pear Seed Oil can be 30ml, 40ml,50ml, 60ml, 100ml ,250ml,500 ml in amber or trasparent glass bottle with cap/dropper

Min.Order Quantity of Prickly Pear Seed Oil: 1 Liter

Supply Ability of Prickly Pear Seed Oil: 1000 Liter/Liters of Prickly Pear Seed Oil per month

Port: FOB Casablanca /Tanger MED / Agadir

Payment Terms: L/C,T/T, ,Western Union,MoneyGram/Paypal

Quick Details

• Directions : For soft skin and hair, apply directly to the desired area as needed

• Place of Origin: Morocco

• Product name : Prickly Pear Seed Oil bulk Prickly Pear Seed Oil wholesale

• Brand Name: BioProGreen or Twichya or private labeling Prickly Pear Seed Oil wholesale

• Use Prickly Pear Seed Oil : Face, body and Hair

• Form: Oil.Prickly Pear Seed Oil company

• Supply Type: OBM (Original Brand Manufacturing). bulk Prickly Pear Seed Oil wholesale

• Certification: MSDS , CCPB /NOP USDA PROGRAM.Prickly bulk Prickly Pear Seed Oil wholesale

• Features: Anti-Aging, Moisturizer, Nourishing, Skin Revitalizer.

• Main Ingredient: Prickly Pear Seed Oil 100% natural.

• Port: FOB Casablanca / Tanger MED / Agadir.

• Delivery Time: 10 days after confirmation of all details and deposit.

• Packing Box of: according to your order. bulk Prickly Pear Seed Oil wholesale

Our Services

Branding and Package Design of bulk Prickly Pear Seed Oil company

Oriental Group provides a complete branding service for client wishing to penetrate their domestic markets using their very own private label.

Bottling

We have many varieties of bottles and containers at our disposal; of course the client may supply their own, or can send us a sample for us to mass produce.

Labeling

The client can supply their own label or have one produced for them by our team of designers, we can design exactly to your specifications.

Casing

We can supply casing solutions to meet any specifications ranging from customized design cases, case printed designs and other custom requirements.

FAQ :

1.How can I get some samples bulk Prickly Pear Seed Oil wholesale?

(1)We are honored to offer you samples. New clients are expected to pay for the courier cost, the samples are free for you, this charge will be deducted from the payment for formal order.

(2)Regarding the courier cost: You can arrange a RPI (remote pick-up) service upon FedEx, UPS, DHL,TNT, etc. To have the samples collected; Or inform us your DHL collection account. Then you can pay the freight direct to your local carrier company.

2.How does your factory do regarding quality control Prickly Pear Seed Oil wholesale?

Quality is priority! Every worker keeps the QC from the very beginning to the very end

(1)All raw material we used are environmental-friendly;

(2)Skillful workers care every detail in handing the stamping, printing,stitching, packing process;

(3)Quality control department specially responsible for quality checking in each process.

3.Can your factory print or emboss my logo on the goods bulk Prickly Pear Seed Oil wholesale?

(1)Yes, we can print your logo on the goods or their packing box, for patent protection purpose, a letter of attorney (letter of authorization) shall be provided for the logo.

(2)We usually produce goods based on customer's samples or based on customers' picture, logo, sizes etc detail information design for customers.

Oriental Group : N°200 Lot Elmassar,Sidi Ghanem Industrial Estate Route de Safi,40 000 Marrakech,MOROCCO

Mobile / Whatsapp / Viber: +212 600 604 387

Service clients : +212 651 925 398 / +212 614 925 123

Skype: group.oriental

E-mail: contact@group-oriental.com

Wechat ID : Orientalgroupmorocco

Website : https://group-oriental.com/fr/

Facebook : https://fr-fr.facebook.com/grouporiental/

Twitter : https://twitter.com/grouporiental?lang=fr

Pinterest :https://www.pinterest.com/OrientalGroup/_saved/

Instagram :https://www.instagram.com/group_oriental/?hl=fr

[earnmoneyonline2019-blog]

Top 5 Online Money Making Ideas

In today's tough times, most are hard-pressed in making ends meet even if they're currently employed with a regular source of income. For some, a job is no longer an option and would rather venture into other money making ideas that can potentially replace their job income.

This article outlines the top 5 online money making ideas a lot of creative people use to earn extra (or full time) income that makes end meet or to actually put food on the table.

The internet has not only changed how we communicate and research for information but offered a lot of income opportunities to ones who are willing to grab it.

Freelancing - One of the most common ways to make money aside from having a traditional job is to offer your services as a freelancer. If you're an artist, you can position yourself as an artist for hire. Building an online portfolio is extremely pivotal to being an artist for hire. An illustrator needs to be able to show potential clients what they can offer them if they take them on as a client. Independent authors and web publishers are constantly looking for people to design book covers, websites, and logos for them. This is a great income source for someone who enjoys doing graphic design. My friend, does this quite successfully and by having his own website that attract organic traffic, he sets himself up above the many other freelance graphic artists around. Another popular way of making money as a freelancer is to become a freelance writer or editor. Self-publishing books has exploded in recent years. There are a lot of independent writers looking for editors who would like to have their work edited for a more affordable price than the norm in the publishing world. You can editing jobs or be a ghost writer to help the author craft the whole book if you know what you're doing. On the lower end of this scale, you can accept article writing gigs and help on the internet publishers like niche website owners and bloggers continuously feed their sites with fresh quality content. The key here is quality content, to build ongoing relationships with your clients and build your reputation.

Freelance writing is a great money making idea because you can completely control how much work you take on. if you're just getting started, websites like Odesk. com and Elance. com are great places to land your initial gigs. Pricing your service competitively will help you attract clients and build your reputation on these freelance job boards but if you're considering to go this route on a long term basis, I suggest that you build your own website to build your reputation, attract more clients, and turn this into a real business that can potentially replace your day job.

There are a lot of services that you can offer as an online freelancer. If you're a developer or a programmer, you'll definitely make more money online by offering software development services.

Become An Online Retailer - Ever bought something off Amazon and eBay? Most of these sellers are people just like you and me operating their own bookstores, gadget shops or computer retail stores off their homes. There are two ways you can start selling stuff as an online retailer. One is by buying stocks and keeping inventories to ship yourself or to become a dropshipper where you partner with a dropshipping supplier that will ship your inventories to your buyers from their warehouses. Option two takes a lot of work but it can be tricky when it comes to pricing, delivery and item quality as you don't really get to see (or touch) your products before they are shipped to your customers. The best way to get started with this money making idea is to start selling junk you can find inside your home (ladies, I'm not referring to your husbands! ). The average person has a lot of things in their home that they never use. Items like old jewelry, unwatched DVDs and unused craft items are perfect. You can also buy things that are on bargain bins and sell them online for regular prices or get stuff from your local thrift stores or library sales.

The key is on being able to check the current prices of the items you're looking to resell before you buy them to make sure you're actually going to make a profit. This is where your own smart phone will come handy, all you have to do is download price scanning/comparison apps like FOB Scan.

Sell Fiverr Gigs - Yes, Fiverr gigs! It may not seem like much but Fiverr gigs are no longer limited to $5 per pop. You can offer your initial service or product on the standard $5 pricing but you can offer upgrades from $20 to $50 per pop. Some of the gigs you can offer are voice overs, small graphic jobs, short videos, SEO pushes, and other small and fast jobs that you can do for a few minutes of your time. Open Up A YouTube Channel - As mentioned in my previous article, YouTube users watch over 4 billion hours of video a month so there are always people willing to watch your current videos. A person who plans to make money off of YouTube needs to decide on a niche or what they want to talk about in their videos. Do they want to teach a tutorial or give a commentary? If someone owns all of their material legally, than they're eligible for the partner program. With original ideas and constant promotions, an internet entrepreneur can set up shop on YouTube in a matter of minutes. Although it might take a lot of work, the payment after a while can be pretty big but just like any other content marketing businesses, 10 YouTube videos won't make you a happy camper. It's always a numbers game, think of it as having your own TV show where you're the host, producer and channel owner. You can read this article for more on how to make money with YouTube.

Create And Sell Your Own Products - A lot of online marketers found that they can make money faster with creating their own products than creating blogs or niche websites. This of course if beyond the realities of most beginning online marketers but if you have some time to spare, product creation isn't really that difficult as you may think. Creating a good infoproduct (eBook or membership site) on a subject that you know and love will reward you hundred times over. Come to think of it, if you have a product of your own, a lot of other affiliate marketers are willing to sell your products on their websites as well as email lists for a commission helping you reach a very wide audience that's impossible for you to reach on your own. There are a whole lot more money making ideas people use to make money online but these by far are the top ideas that you can put to work for you right away, specially the top 3. Building and publishing your own blog or website is the best way to build a business system that will build an awesome source of passive income in the near future but the top 3 ideas listed above will help you make money right away.

Offering freelance services upon established freelance job boards helps you piggy back on their traffic being that they're the "go to" places for people who are looking to outsource stuff they don't like to do themselves.

Retailing on Amazon or eBay can also attract sales faster than if you're going to build your own online store as they already have the visitors of shoppers whose mindset is to scout for products they want to buy online. It's free to list products on Amazon . com and you only get charged when you actually sell something while eBay will charge you a few dime when you list a product for sale.

Fiverr on the other hand is the world's "go to" place for small jobs people want outsourced. It may not be as promising as the first two money making suggestions listed herein but they do pay for each gig you deliver.

Making the Most of Online Money-Making Opportunities

There are many ways to earn money online. Hundreds, if not thousands of people from different parts of the world monetize their expertise and earn a steady income working Internet-related jobs on a part time or full-time basis. These jobs don't require any cash investments. Meanwhile, some income-generating opportunities require investing money in order to earn money.

Paying gigs available

More people have become aware of the money-making potential of the World Wide Web especially since the list of online money-making schemes gets longer every day. There are products to pitch that can add spending money to a person's wallet on monthly basis. Affiliates get some of the most high-paying gigs online because they get as much as 25% commission for their hard work. Content writers and SEO specialists can find project-based jobs that pay by the week. With these money-making opportunities, the hours are flexible and even employed individuals can fulfill work requirements during their free time.

Although hundreds of legitimate paying gigs exist, there are also scammers along with nothing more than empty promises. Some products being pitched may turn out to be below par, and certain "employers" do not pay their writers and affiliates when payment is due.

The choice is yours

Since it is important to exercise caution, anyone who wants to earn money from the Internet must choose carefully regarding which jobs to sign up with. Even those who just participate in surveys for free coupons or raffle tickets should pick sites very carefully. After all, they will still invest their time and effort. It will definitely be a disappointment if they end up being short-handed or worse, if their personal or financial information are used by scammers for nefarious purposes.

If you want additional income that is steady, you can look for a legitimate online job, but don't give up your day job just yet. You can probably afford to transition fully from traditional means of earning money to an Internet-based business of you have the wherewithal to invest on building websites that steadily earn a huge amount of money.

Step One: Build a home on the Web

If you are decided on building a business online, you need to start thinking about building a home on the Web. Having a Web address that people can find is how you establish a foothold on the Internet. You can start with a blog, or you can procure a website and have your very own domain name. Either way, you need to create a base of operations. Developing a following and building your target audience are time-tested strategies of online brand awareness, promotion, and also marketing. These may be basic strategies but they work wonders, especially for beginners. Before employing more complicated (and more expensive) approaches, it is wise to focus all efforts at substantiating that your business is authentic. This is how you start building trust along with gaining loyal followers.

[lovelyfantasticfart]

2018 Volvo XC90 Critiques And Ranking

Our 2004 Volvo XC90 stock adjustments by the hour and includes front/rear bumpers, doorways, hoods, headlights, taillights, mirrors, wheels, engines and extra. The circuits are organized in logic gates to make it possible for a number of of the circuits might perhaps Regulate the condition of a lot of of the opposite circuits. The different program companies offer a substantial variety of affords that encompass a mixture of stimulating provides. We're a small enterprise with a big inventory of one hundred Volvo parts most aren't listed on-line..Don't understand how or can't figure out tips on how to open key fob case to get to the battery 2007 s80 to replace the battery ? All genuine Porsche components as it's, the entrance and rear defrosters are the one HVAC controls with physical buttons. It bears the turn indicator M brand and logos, in addition to forming the start line of the character line along the door handles to the rear. In the guide, The Millionaire Next Door, Thomas Stanley describes somebody like Shawn as, 鈥渂ig hat, no cattle.鈥?That鈥檚 Stanley鈥檚 expression for somebody who, by all appearances, seems like they have wealth, but has accumulated effectively beneath their potential. The auto can be shifted into handbook mode however I've solely discovered it of use when overtaking, along with the "sport" mode. Your site is a great, generally free, device that you can use to advertise your business leadership. The air suspension settings, along with many other options, might be modified via the MMI interface. It could actually get slightly bizarre looking stuff up in someone's yard/garage although - in that case it's nice to pretend you are just texting a friend to see if they're interested in the merchandise you are secretly looking up on eBay.

For extra material related to commercial cleansing sydney remember to start to see the link and consider out our official weblog. Even so, conceptually computational strategies as versatile as being a notebook pc could also be constructed out of almost something. Our horribly potholed B-roads will show the antique volvo automobiles however for now we'll say the antique volvo automobiles, the others being the antique volvo automobiles can select from 1.6 petrols and diesels, stepping as much as be doing. With a truck tent, you can relaxation assured on a dry, flat floor each time. The 2-row Porsche Cayenne is a good luxury midsize SUV - if you may afford it. This will not solely allow you to alter options with others of a very related mindset, nonetheless, you possibly can search for opinions Arian Foster Jersey on your own internet site design and advertising fabric. This collection was impressed by racing design within the 12 months 1957. In 1965, NASA approved this assortment for all manned house missions. Um, yeah. I believe I've made my case: 1967 was my favorite yr for cars. 66,650. What automobiles will BMW wheels fit? Volvo Automobiles Ghent Derek Jessiman. Volvo has showcased the sporty R-Design variant of its XC90 SUV on the 2015 Detroit Auto Present..

Franschhoek - Volvo 's new XC90 new, released in South Africa this week, looks All-new Volvo XC90 seems butch and chunky on the outside, a little bit longer Prices. Just a few weeks ago, the error message "Alarm System Service Required" came up on my 2005 XC90 2.5T. At the identical time, the sunroof moonroof stopped working. At the again, skinny taillights curve around the edges of the rear fascia. I went forward and mounted this one within the entrance for a front dealing with parking digital camera. It may be an inherent want for a participant to suggest a bigger Civic as they actually wished an Accord however couldn鈥檛 afford one in the primary place. A luxurious watch is one present that will never be returned or re-gifted! Lots of your oil leak issues will probably be solved by that repair. Hollywood, California - Acura has joined forces with Paramount Footage for vehicles that will likely be featured within the upcoming action-packed film, Thor. Some may ask concerning the verify gentle drawback after removing the cat.

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[sherlocked-avenger]

Turbo soul lives in the 2018 Volvo XC60

There have been many quirky vehicles in The Garage over the years, but one of the coolest remains the 1984 Volvo 240 Turbo wagon that we owned for a few years during the late Nineties. Officially, the longest of the turbo bricks was called a 245T. Our wagon was the exact spec that fans of the boxy speedster lusted after: A silver wagon with the correct Turbo blackout striping, Euro style grill with inset fog lights, GLT wheels and a manual transmission. It even had the dog gate which swung down from the ceiling to keep Fido in his place. Sadly, we didn’t have a Fido in those days but it was still neat to have it.

That wagon was perhaps the best family vehicle of all time. It could carry 5 adults in comfort. Fold down the rear seats and it would carry a 4×8 sheet of plywood. It looked cool as hell to those who knew and could keep pace with a Fox-body Mustang off the line. While it was a bit too big for an autocross course, the car was a joy to hustle down a winding country road, even when fully loaded.

Back in the day, Volvo used the slogan “Boxy but good” and their sporting varieties became know as Bricks and Turbo Bricks. They weren’t exactly sexy, unless you were turned on by straight lines. Fast forward three decades and our tester, an XC60 T6 R-Design couldn’t be more different. While there are straight accent lines here and there, sensual curves are the order of the day. Those curves do however push up towards muscular rear shoulders, in keeping with the brand’s heritage.

The interior of the old girl left much to be desired, as many of its surfaces were as square as the exterior. Nothing flashy or luxurious here, just black plastic and blue cloth seats in a style that only really excited a Volvo diehard. The interior of the XC60 on the other hand is nothing short of World class. Without seeming too modern, the combination of sensual curves and well chosen finish materials, the Volvo has a definite Scandinavian flair. The machined metal speaker covers are particularly striking.

Techie types will be astounded by the XC60’s incredibly user friendly infotainment system, which is centered around a 9″ centre stack touch display which operates with the fluidity of a smart phone or tablet. It gives users control over a wide range of audio and vehicle settings to tailor the vehicle experience to the individual driver.

The audio system in particular deserves a mention, as it stands out in a segment which is full of serious audio gear. The Volvo Canada media fleet guy enthusiastically pointed out that the Bowers & Wilkins system has different modes, including studio for normal music and concert hall for higher quality music. Most often, these systems seem, to my ears at least, to simply muck around with reverb settings to change the sound in the cabin. The system in the XC60 was painstakingly tuned to replicate the sound in the middle of the renowned Gothenburg Concert Hall, complete with displaying a picture of the place.

To test the system, I directed the system to play music from my bluetooth connected phone rather than the Sirius XM feed. I brought up my Google Play app and chose the Evanescence Fallen album, hit play and cranked the volume. The sound was nothing short of mind blowing. The drums or thunder or whatever the rumble is in Bring me to life, quite literally caused the vehicle to shudder. After that, a bit of vintage Pink Floyd confirmed that the XC60 offers one of the best sound systems on the market.

Back in 2014, I had the opportunity to spend a rather silly 22 hours in Gothenburg, Sweden, home to Volvo with the intention of going for a ride-a-long in the company’s first self driving car. Sadly, it was raining and the vehicle’s sensors could not “see” the markings on the road, which it used to stay in its own lane. Autonomous vehicle technology is moving forward in leaps and bounds and much of the tech that Volvo was working on three years ago is now included in the company’s Pilot Assist system.

Volvo’s tech sheets describe the system as “Semi Autonomous Drive System with Adaptive Cruise Control and Active Lane Keeping Aid”. Adaptive cruise is not a new concept and lane assist type of systems are becoming more common in the marketplace. Some of the systems offered by other manufacturers are clunky at best, disruptive at worst. Where Pilot Assist stands out is in its seamless, unobtrusive operation. Once could quite easily, gasp, look down at their phone, confident in the knowledge that the car is going to do what it is supposed to do.

You may think I have lost my mind with that statement, but that action is exactly what Volvo has had in mind with their development of autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles. During that visit, I sat down with Volvo’s Autonomous Driving Director, Marcus Rothoff, to discuss the reasoning behind autonomous cars. Volvo has set milestone after milestone for automotive safety over the past 50 decades, so imagine my surprise to hear Rothoff say that self-driving cars would create “possibilities to open up more time”, even going so far as to say that the technology would allow drivers to stay connected to the internet while they were on the road.

Don’t worry, I obeyed the rules of the road while driving the XC60.

All of this talk of inside technology might lead one to think that the spirit of the Turbo Brick has been lost to modern gadgetry, but nothing could be further from the truth. Beneath the hood of our tester was a 2.0L 4 cylinder that is boosted by both a turbo and a supercharger. Yes, you read that right. The combination generates an impressive 316 HP and 295 lb-ft and is fed to all four wheels through a slick shifting 8-speed automatic unit.

Wait…..what?

If you have ANY Volvo background, a T5 was a turbo 5-cylinder. At what point did some marketing committee decide that a 4-banger should bear the designation T-6? I know, I am crusty and old, but there is something very wrong there. Don’t get me wrong, I knew this was a four-pot Volvo, the way Uncle Olaf intended, the branding just seems off.

What is not wrong is the way the XC60 drives. Around town, with the drive mode in the default comfort position, the XC60 feels like the dreaded nice car. The comfort and technology take the lead. Move out into the country and switch the drive mode to sport however and the spirit of the Turbo Brick quickly makes itself known. Very quickly.

Honestly, during the first few days with the XC60, I was in full responsible Dad mode. The subtle R-Design logo on the rear hatch caught my eye and somehow reminded me that there was likely some fun lurking within this family machine. At the next light, I fully rolled into the throttle and was pleasantly surprised to find that the Swede is seriously quick. Quicker than many cars of the sporting variety.  Sub 6 second 0-60 quick. To put that into perspective, the sort-of legendary 1989 Mustang GT (rollin’ in my 5.0) reached that standard in 6.1. A lot has changed over the years, but a four cylinder Swedish family hauler can still haul ass.

While the XC60 R-Design might not be a track ready weapon like say, a Porsche Macan GTS, it is definitely a vehicle one can have one heck of a lot of fun in and maybe embarrass a few tuner kids along the way.

On a humorous note,  I learned that keeping the key fob in your pocket while washing the XC60 will cause the door lock system to spasm frequently, locking and unlocking the doors, flashing lights and wiggling the side mirrors like a curious puppy’s ears each time the brush or even water stream go near the door handles. Technology can be a weird and wonderful thing.

There was a time when Volvos were driven by science teachers, accountants and rally enthusiasts. In other words, Volvo was the car for the intelligent, the conservative and throw all caution to the wind performance fans. Today’s Volvo is a different animal. The XC60 T6 R-Design is one which still appeals to all three.

  from garage2 http://ift.tt/2oijbKH via great info

[sherlocklexa]

Turbo soul lives in the 2018 Volvo XC60

There have been many quirky vehicles in The Garage over the years, but one of the coolest remains the 1984 Volvo 240 Turbo wagon that we owned for a few years during the late Nineties. Officially, the longest of the turbo bricks was called a 245T. Our wagon was the exact spec that fans of the boxy speedster lusted after: A silver wagon with the correct Turbo blackout striping, Euro style grill with inset fog lights, GLT wheels and a manual transmission. It even had the dog gate which swung down from the ceiling to keep Fido in his place. Sadly, we didn’t have a Fido in those days but it was still neat to have it.

That wagon was perhaps the best family vehicle of all time. It could carry 5 adults in comfort. Fold down the rear seats and it would carry a 4×8 sheet of plywood. It looked cool as hell to those who knew and could keep pace with a Fox-body Mustang off the line. While it was a bit too big for an autocross course, the car was a joy to hustle down a winding country road, even when fully loaded.

Back in the day, Volvo used the slogan “Boxy but good” and their sporting varieties became know as Bricks and Turbo Bricks. They weren’t exactly sexy, unless you were turned on by straight lines. Fast forward three decades and our tester, an XC60 T6 R-Design couldn’t be more different. While there are straight accent lines here and there, sensual curves are the order of the day. Those curves do however push up towards muscular rear shoulders, in keeping with the brand’s heritage.

The interior of the old girl left much to be desired, as many of its surfaces were as square as the exterior. Nothing flashy or luxurious here, just black plastic and blue cloth seats in a style that only really excited a Volvo diehard. The interior of the XC60 on the other hand is nothing short of World class. Without seeming too modern, the combination of sensual curves and well chosen finish materials, the Volvo has a definite Scandinavian flair. The machined metal speaker covers are particularly striking.

Techie types will be astounded by the XC60’s incredibly user friendly infotainment system, which is centered around a 9″ centre stack touch display which operates with the fluidity of a smart phone or tablet. It gives users control over a wide range of audio and vehicle settings to tailor the vehicle experience to the individual driver.

The audio system in particular deserves a mention, as it stands out in a segment which is full of serious audio gear. The Volvo Canada media fleet guy enthusiastically pointed out that the Bowers & Wilkins system has different modes, including studio for normal music and concert hall for higher quality music. Most often, these systems seem, to my ears at least, to simply muck around with reverb settings to change the sound in the cabin. The system in the XC60 was painstakingly tuned to replicate the sound in the middle of the renowned Gothenburg Concert Hall, complete with displaying a picture of the place.

To test the system, I directed the system to play music from my bluetooth connected phone rather than the Sirius XM feed. I brought up my Google Play app and chose the Evanescence Fallen album, hit play and cranked the volume. The sound was nothing short of mind blowing. The drums or thunder or whatever the rumble is in Bring me to life, quite literally caused the vehicle to shudder. After that, a bit of vintage Pink Floyd confirmed that the XC60 offers one of the best sound systems on the market.

Back in 2014, I had the opportunity to spend a rather silly 22 hours in Gothenburg, Sweden, home to Volvo with the intention of going for a ride-a-long in the company’s first self driving car. Sadly, it was raining and the vehicle’s sensors could not “see” the markings on the road, which it used to stay in its own lane. Autonomous vehicle technology is moving forward in leaps and bounds and much of the tech that Volvo was working on three years ago is now included in the company’s Pilot Assist system.

Volvo’s tech sheets describe the system as “Semi Autonomous Drive System with Adaptive Cruise Control and Active Lane Keeping Aid”. Adaptive cruise is not a new concept and lane assist type of systems are becoming more common in the marketplace. Some of the systems offered by other manufacturers are clunky at best, disruptive at worst. Where Pilot Assist stands out is in its seamless, unobtrusive operation. Once could quite easily, gasp, look down at their phone, confident in the knowledge that the car is going to do what it is supposed to do.

You may think I have lost my mind with that statement, but that action is exactly what Volvo has had in mind with their development of autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles. During that visit, I sat down with Volvo’s Autonomous Driving Director, Marcus Rothoff, to discuss the reasoning behind autonomous cars. Volvo has set milestone after milestone for automotive safety over the past 50 decades, so imagine my surprise to hear Rothoff say that self-driving cars would create “possibilities to open up more time”, even going so far as to say that the technology would allow drivers to stay connected to the internet while they were on the road.

Don’t worry, I obeyed the rules of the road while driving the XC60.

All of this talk of inside technology might lead one to think that the spirit of the Turbo Brick has been lost to modern gadgetry, but nothing could be further from the truth. Beneath the hood of our tester was a 2.0L 4 cylinder that is boosted by both a turbo and a supercharger. Yes, you read that right. The combination generates an impressive 316 HP and 295 lb-ft and is fed to all four wheels through a slick shifting 8-speed automatic unit.

Wait…..what?

If you have ANY Volvo background, a T5 was a turbo 5-cylinder. At what point did some marketing committee decide that a 4-banger should bear the designation T-6? I know, I am crusty and old, but there is something very wrong there. Don’t get me wrong, I knew this was a four-pot Volvo, the way Uncle Olaf intended, the branding just seems off.

What is not wrong is the way the XC60 drives. Around town, with the drive mode in the default comfort position, the XC60 feels like the dreaded nice car. The comfort and technology take the lead. Move out into the country and switch the drive mode to sport however and the spirit of the Turbo Brick quickly makes itself known. Very quickly.

Honestly, during the first few days with the XC60, I was in full responsible Dad mode. The subtle R-Design logo on the rear hatch caught my eye and somehow reminded me that there was likely some fun lurking within this family machine. At the next light, I fully rolled into the throttle and was pleasantly surprised to find that the Swede is seriously quick. Quicker than many cars of the sporting variety.  Sub 6 second 0-60 quick. To put that into perspective, the sort-of legendary 1989 Mustang GT (rollin’ in my 5.0) reached that standard in 6.1. A lot has changed over the years, but a four cylinder Swedish family hauler can still haul ass.

While the XC60 R-Design might not be a track ready weapon like say, a Porsche Macan GTS, it is definitely a vehicle one can have one heck of a lot of fun in and maybe embarrass a few tuner kids along the way.

On a humorous note,  I learned that keeping the key fob in your pocket while washing the XC60 will cause the door lock system to spasm frequently, locking and unlocking the doors, flashing lights and wiggling the side mirrors like a curious puppy’s ears each time the brush or even water stream go near the door handles. Technology can be a weird and wonderful thing.

There was a time when Volvos were driven by science teachers, accountants and rally enthusiasts. In other words, Volvo was the car for the intelligent, the conservative and throw all caution to the wind performance fans. Today’s Volvo is a different animal. The XC60 T6 R-Design is one which still appeals to all three.

  from car2 http://ift.tt/2oijbKH via as shown a lot

[orientalgroupposts]

Bulk Ghassoul

Rhassoul or Ghassoul is a cosmetic made of natural mineral clay mined from the Atlas Mountains of Morocco. It is combined with water to clean the body and has been used by North African women for centuries to care for their skin and hair. bulk Ghassoul contains silica, magnesium, potassium, sodium, lithium, and trace elements.

bulk Ghassoul has many benefits for health, we can mention the following:

It exfoliates dead cells

It purifies and deeply cleanses pores

It reduces excess oily skin

It softens rough and tough skin

It tightens large pores

It fights dandruff

It acts as a natural shampoo

It conditions and detangles hair

It detoxifies skin

It soothes skin irritations

At Oriental Group, we specialize in making the best bulk Ghassoul clay Morocco has ever seen. We make it in different sizes in powder, or paste (honey, rose, orange colors):

100g

1kg

5kg

>5 kg

Order now and get the quantity you want! At oriental group, we also offer, for the delight of our clients the private labeling service and the logo and content design service. For the design fees, we only charge them once, and it is free for the rest of your orders.

•         Supply Ability of Ghassoul:           2000 Kg of bulk Ghassoul per Week

•         Port  :             FOB Casablanca /Tanger MED / Agadir

•         Payment Terms :                 L/C, T/T, Western Union,MoneyGram/Paypal

  Directions:     For soft skin and hair, apply directly to the desired area as needed

  Product name:        bulk Ghassoul

  Use:            body, face, and Hair.

  Brand Name :      bioProgreen

  Form:     Powder or clay

Supply Type:           OBM (Original Brand Manufacturing), bulk Ghassoul

Certification:           MSDS, CCPB / USDA PROGRAM.

Features:  Anti-Aging, Moisturizer, Nourishing, Skin Revitalizer.

Place of Origin:       Morocco

Packing :      Box of 60 // 40 // 30

Port :            FOB Casablanca /Tanger MED / Agadir

Delivery Time:        15 days after confirmation of all details and deposit

Branding and Package Design of bulk Ghassoul

Oriental Group provides a complete branding service for client wishing to penetrate their domestic markets using their very own private label.

Bottling

We have many varieties of bottles and containers at our disposal; of course the client may supply their own, or can send us a sample for us to mass produce.

Labeling

The client can supply their own label or have one produced for them by our team of designers, we can design exactly to your specifications.

Casing

We can supply casing solutions to meet any specifications ranging from customized design cases, case-printed designs, and other custom requirements.

FAQ :

How can I get some samples of bulk Ghassoul?

(1)We are honored to offer you samples. New clients are expected to pay for the courier cost, the samples are free for you, this charge will be deducted from the payment for formal order.

(2)Regarding the courier cost: You can arrange an RPI (remote pick-up) service upon FedEx, UPS, DHL, TNT, etc. To have the samples collected; Or inform us of your DHL collection account. Then you can pay the freight direct to your local carrier company.

2. How does your factory do regarding quality control bulk Ghassoul?

Quality is priority! Every worker keeps the QC from the very beginning to the very end:

(1)All raw material we used are environmental-friendly.

(2)Skillful workers care every detail in handing the stamping, printing,stitching, packing process.

(3)Quality control department specially responsible for quality checking in each process.

3. Can your factory print or emboss my logo on the goods bulk Ghassoul?

(1)Yes, we can print your logo on the goods or their packing box, for patent protection purpose, a letter of attorney (letter of authorization) shall be provided for the logo.

(2)We usually produce goods based on customers' samples or based on customers' pictures, logos, sizes, etc detailed information design for customers.

Company Information

Oriental Group

N°200 Lot Elmassar,Sidi Ghanem Industrial Estate

Route de Safi,

40 000 Marrakech,

MOROCCO

Mobile / Whatsapp / Viber: +212 601 238 887

Service clients : +212 651 925 398 / +212 614 925 123

Skype: group.oriental

E-mail: orientalpricklypear@gmail.com

WeChat ID: Orientalgroupmorocco

Website : https://group-oriental.com/fr/

Facebook : https://fr-fr.facebook.com/grouporiental/

Twitter : https://twitter.com/OPricklypear

Pinterest : https://www.pinterest.com/opricklypear/_saved/

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/group_oriental/?hl=fr