#I only ask that if you choose to repost the images anywhere you add the book’s title so people can find it.

[tazaryoot]

Star Trek Novel Review

Black Fire by Sonni Cooper (1983)

Hi there, this is my first review of a Star Trek novel! I’ve recently begun collecting them, and figured I’d share my thoughts and post excerpts which I find interesting. There’s not a whole lot of information on these novels online, so I hope my summaries are sufficient. Please forgive any poor description or bad photo. I don’t know how often or how many I’ll do of these reviews, but my local used book store has a pretty large collection which I occasionally buy from, so they’ll be as I read and collect more.

Summary :

After an explosion on the bridge that left the Enterprise crew in critical condition, Spock sets out to investigate what he thinks was a planned attack by an unknown enemy force. Spock pursuades Scotty to accompany him on a discreet mission to track down a lead they found while searching the crime scene- leading them to be captured by the tenacious Tomarii who had baited them and two other ships, one Romulan and one Klingon. Spock and Scotty are imprisoned and put through inhumane trials to further the Tomarii’s development and must make allies of their fellow prisoners. Spock befriends Romulan Commander Julina, who cares for Spock while he is still recovering from wounds inflicted by the explosion. Jealousy over Julina’s feelings for Spock causes their Tomarii capturor IIsa to kill Julina. Spock is then forced to endure the cruel punishment and enslavement from Begum IIsa until the Enterprise come to their rescue. Spock and Scotty are up for trial due to illegally seizing a starship for their discreet mission, and Spock for having notifying the Romulans of the Tomarii threat- a last wish of Julina’s he had promised to fulfill upon her death. Spock and Scotty face court martialling and are sentenced; Scotty to a year of service on a starbase and a loss of rank, and Spock to 5 years in prison for treason and theft and complete stripping of his recruitment at Starfleet. Spock then arrives in prison and makes fast friends with his Romulan cellmate Desus after an altercation with a violent prisoner. They both manage to escape prison, and Desus invites Spock to live among his band of pirates on a hidden planet. Spock is eventually forced to join up with Desus, and become notorious pirates, with Spock adopting the nickname “Black Fire”, for his attire of clothes made with a special translusive black fabric and jeweled earring. After saving two women from becoming victims of a rival pirate, Black Fire gains celebrity as a Casanova type criminal with fans and devoted poetry being written about him. (Yes, where are we going with all this?) A brief run in with the Enterprise occurs, where Kirk recognises Spock as the Black Fire, but Spock is quickly rescued by Desus, who then takes him to Romulus. Desus exposes himself as Supreme Commander of a ship under the Romulan Empire, and offers Spock a role as his first officer. Spock agrees, and finds himself becoming closer and closer to Desus, resembling a similar relationship to his and Kirk’s. Eventually things come to a head when the Tomarii threat returns and they run into the Enterprise. Spock then convinces Desus and Kirk to ally in order to defeat the Tomarii together- much to the discomfort and heartbreak of Kirk and the Enterprise crew, seeing Spock now on the enemy side. Together, the two ships take down the Tomarii and Spock attempts to instigate a peace agreement between the Federation and Romulan Empire. This proves to be a ruse and Spock returns in a shuttlecraft on his own, urging Kirk to take the Enterpise out of the current territory because he deciphered code that indicated a planned Romulan attack on them. Kirk hesitantly takes his warning, still distrusting of Spock’s alliegance to the Romulan Empire. Spock senses an issue with the Enterprise, which is quickly disregarded by Kirk, only for his intuition to be true. Kirk releases Spock to repair the issue, much to the dismay of the new replacement officers. Once all is settled, Spock reveals he had never intentionally been a traitor and that this whole escapade was a secret undercover mission assigned to him by Starfleet. Both him and Scotty were dropped of all charges and everything is back to normal. Yippie! The story ends with McCoy teasing Spock about a romantic poetry book written about the “Black Fire”, and Spock removing his earring to give it to McCoy as a memento.

Review :

(CW For mentions of Self Harm, Suicide)

This is the first Star Trek novel I have ever completed (I’m also reading Revenant by Alex White at the moment). I picked it up sometime last year purely based upon the pulp-y cover art, and ended up finishing it in about just two days. The plot was a bit of a head scratcher at times for how out of character a lot of it was and the reveal at the end (though expected), was kind of frustrating. A good majority of this book was rather unpleasant, drawn out Spock torture à la Tomarii capturors and inhumane prison conditions. Not fun, Spock nearly starves to death and attempts suicide via stabbing only 1/3 of the way in and routinely gets attacked and beaten. It gets pretty grim for a Star Trek book. There is some very nice comraderie between Scotty and Spock though, which is pretty cool to see since they are rarely given time together onscreen. The novel almost treads the line of a romance between Spock and the imprisoned Romulan Commander Julina, but its pretty one sided on her half and Spock seems to just respect and care for her well being. Julina dies pretty soon after anyways. The book also mentions a previous, perhaps romantic(?) run in between Spock and a different Romulan officer, but then she gets blown up and dies too. I’m sensing a pattern here…

Now, for the part more people probably care about,

The Spirk review :

At the beginning Kirk is lying unconsious after a major surgery and Spock angrily forces the nurses out of the room so he can mind meld with Kirk in private and ease his pain.

While Spock and Scotty are held captive, Starfleet assigns new officers to a very hesitant Kirk. Over the course of the novel Kirk struggles to befriend his new first officer, who at one point goes to McCoy for help. McCoy bluntly tells him its no use because he isn’t Spock.

Kirk spends most of the book worrying about Spock and feeling hurt. One particular moment while he’s lying in bed has him thinking deeply about their relationship:

And another where he’s reminded of Spock while speaking to his new first officer :

K/S’s last convo before Spock is sent to jail :

Kirk also visits Spock while he’s in jail…

The strange thing about this novel is Spock’s budding friendship with Desus, which he repeatedly relates to his feelings for Kirk. This seems like the most out of character aspect of Spock here, it’s hard to conceive of anything rivaling his feelings for Kirk. In the book it’s explained away by their Vulcan/Romulan similarities.

While meeting on opposing sides, Kirk is fraught with heart break, which McCoy acknowledges and even gets angry at Spock for.

Kirk has another moment to himself while hearing Spock speaking over intercoms.

A bit later Kirk and Spock get a moment to speak alone while still on opposite sides. Kirk speaks with the cattiness of someone who was cheated on.

I was expecting a much grander consolation at the end for Kirk, but it wrapped up too quickly for much exchange. He does make a comment about how Spock looks fit in a Romulan uniform though.

Conclusion:

Well, all in all I find the novel a bit hard to place on any scale or rating. It was entertaining despite some annoyances- like being Spock torture simulator and the undeserved ‘It was planned all along’ ending. In any case, Spock was wearing a dangly bejewelled earring for much of the book so I can’t complain…

[studyvibes]

Another new translation of Maneskin interview

I planned on translating the interview last week, but the day I was free the whole area where I lived had an issue with the WiFi, so through out the week, when I had a bit of free time I translated the interviewer piece by piece.

The translation is of this video: https://youtu.be/4Meslb_X9Fg

I thought it was best to include the video of the interview because there are videos and images relevant to their answers.

So this interview is by the VK which is basically like Russian Facebook.

In the original video the host speaks in Russian and Maneskin reply in Italian with Russian subtitles shown.

(Text which is bold and in brackets during the translation are some notes I added, to add come context)

Interviewer: For the first time, Maneskin is visiting Moscow, who are the winners of Eurovision. And today we are welcoming them in our studio. Guys, hello. (If you translate exact its: Guys, big hello to you)

Maneskin: Thank you very much

[0:17] Interviewer: The site Kontakte is one of the biggest sites in Russia and also one of the biggest music platforms in Russia, where people listen to your music. In our top charts of most listened songs you are one of the very few international musicians/bands that are included in the chart. In general the chart includes mostly songs in Russian language, so this shows how very popular you are in our country.

Maneskin: That’s very nice!

Interviewer: Please tell me - your international success just happened in 3 months: charts in Russia, charts in Billboard, I think this is the first time ever since ABBA that a musician/band became famous even in America after Eurovision. How did your life change in this span of 3 months?

Damiano: yeah there was a big difference/change.

Damiano: We could say that it was sudden and how we saw everything explode after Eurovision, but we are very happy

Damiano: Ofcourse this means a lot of work is expected because everything that we did before for Italy, we do now around the world. But we are very happy: this what we wanted and why we worked so hard -we are very, very happy/lucky.

[1:30]Interviewer: Going back to Eurovision, I was present at backstage and at the final, sharing happiness about your winning. I’d like to ask, did you know and how did you react to the fact that all artist for the past two weeks were saying that you were the obvious winners, even though the genre of your performance is a complete contrast to most competitor’s songs. How confident were you.

Interviewer: To solidify my words (about being at Eurovision) I have a photo *shows a photo on iPad of Interviewer and Maneskin on the night they won Eurovision*

Maneskin: oh it was you!

Victoria: We weren’t exactly confident. When we went to Eurovision, we thought only about being able to carry our music to a very wide auditorium, but we didn’t expect that we would be able to win - especially with the type of genre we play and sing in Italian - it is not something that appears often in this competition

Thomas: Yeah, that’s true, it was very unexpected and even the people - in Eurovision - were saying “You will win, you will win” - of course to us it was nice, but we completely didn’t expect it. And same with what happened after.

Ethan: (he said something, but they didn’t add a translation to what he said)

[2:45] Interviewer: I’d like to say a few words about our Manizha - Russian Woman (she represented Russia in Eurovision 2021) - were you able to meet her and chat with her? And are you planning to see her in Moscow

Victoria: yes yes, she even sang an Italian song

Damiano: it was something “Ti amo, ti amo”

Thomas: No, no, no, not that one!

Damiano: “Felicità”?

Thomas: No, no. I don’t remember.

Interviewer: (I didn’t hear him but I think he agreed with Damiano)

Maneskin: “Felicità”, yes, “Felicità”!

Damiano: They even sang in multiple voices! (Manizha had back singers with her, who joined her for Eurovision)

Interviewer: So after you won Eurovision, you were congratulated by Eros Ramazzotti, Royal Blood, and Franz Ferdinand. Which congratulation towards you was unusual and unexpected? And what did it mean to you

Victoria: Probably the big groups, which we always listen to, which always inspired us. It was also really nice, already the fact, that they talk about us - it was unbelievable. And because, of course, for us it was very important, that they liked us/valued us. And what most wild/unusual out of is that we got to collaborate with Iggy Pop.

Rest of Maneskin: *agreeing with Victoria’s answer*

Victoria: He is one of our main idols, he is one of the people who created/established punk-rock.

Thomas: Yes, of course, support from big musicians, from people who we listened to from the very start - it’s really wonderful and important/valuable recognition

Interviewer: tell us about your work with Iggy Pop. How did it happen, did he contact you or you were able to reach out to him?

Victoria: We were always huge fans of him. And when everything so well, he saw who we were and what type of music we have, and we asked him, if he would’ve want to produce something together. He said, that he really likes the song “I wanna be your slave.” and wanted to make a collaboration.

Interviewer: I saw that Miley Cyrus made a repost video of where you are performing a cover of her song and said you are her friends. Is there a possible collab with Miley?

Maneskin: Anything is possible.

Damiano: (in English) Who knows

Interviewer: with who would you want to collab?

Victoria: with many, with many! Arctic Monkeys, Foo Fighters, I don’t know.. with so many!

Interviewer: An interesting thing - the group BTS became the symbol of South Korea, making kpop genre popular. You are becoming...you became, the symbol of Italy. Do you feel any responsibility and are you planning on promoting Italian language/ making Italian language popular?

Damiano: We are thinking about making our music, and if our country will choose us to be their representatives, we would be happy. But no, we don’t feel this responsibility, we are thinking of own work/ business.

Interviewer: I can’t not ask very important question which is interesting for the fans - are you preparing an album, can you share some hints/ secrets? Because everyone is waiting for it. And the fact that in one of your songs which was released years back reached the top world wide charts, now we all can’t wait.

Victoria: Its all secret!

Damiano: We can say, that we are preparing new music - this is the secret which we can reveal.

Thomas: Yeah, and we are trying to find time, to write, to work on music. Certainly/undoubtedly, you can expect multiple surprises.

Interviewer: you are a unique group - from the point that your centre/focus is towards all of the members, which is different to other bands where bands are seen as the frontman and the rest of musicians. But each member of your group is seen a big celebrity. Did this happen accidentally or is this the concept you made, and how does your friendship help you with you work?

Damiano: We always tries to avoid the stereotypes of bands/groups, where only the vocalist is recognized/known. We always tried to push not only the group as whole, but also the 4 individuals of the group. And this is probably also happens because of our close friendship. Luckily, nobody feels like they are in the shadows pushed by others.

[7:38] Interviewer: It’s really cool that you change/ remove the stereotypes and create new trends.

Maneskin: We try, We try. We carry our little contribution.

Interviewer: Damiano, I would like to ask you personally a question - from what I am aware of, at the start, the band didn’t accept you into the band, something didn’t work out, could you please tell us in more detail?

*Maneskin laughing at Damiano*

Victoria: He became older, and his voice became magically/suddenly different!

Interviewer: what I understood was that it happened was because you originally sang more pop music, not rock with the band.

Damiano: In reality/to be honest, nothing changed, I stayed pop. Let’s say, I grew, and my voice changed, and I started to sound more earnest/persuasive.

[8:22] Interviewer: How did the band form? You first place of performance was at the street of Rome?

Maneskin: Yes, we started to play in school

Victoria: and since then everything went with the flow. We started to play on the streets, at small establishments, at school - anywhere where we could have an opportunity to perform

Interviewer: what was the hardest in those performances?

Thomas: To find a place where we can perform

Victoria: Yes, exactly, where to perform. And later, it was very small establishments and the audience at the start didn’t take us too seriously. But together as a band we supported each other - in the end, it was our dream, we even liked to perform in front of just a few people, which is why we continued.

Thomas: Exactly, yes. At the start we sometimes performed to an auditorium with a few people, but even then you had to stay convincing/conclusive. Over some period of time, in the crowd, people start to appear who valued our music, what we did. But for me, it was probably, the main challenge was to see, play, perform well and stay yourself in front of 2 or 3 people.

Ethan: Yes, there were times when we performed in front of an audience in which there were only parents. We gave out the same level and the same energy.

Interviewer: I think it is common thing to happen when a musician/ band performs at private party, where Russian musicians performed for one person in the hall.

Maneskin: oh this is something very very private

Interviewer: I think I’ll get in trouble for telling you this, but Little Big told me this story.

*Maneskin recognizing the bands name*

Maneskin: Aaa, Yes!

Interviewer: Ed Sheehan, in his time, took a challenge, he also started from street performing, to make 300 performance in a year. Are you ready to start your world tour and to perform nearly every day?

Thomas: Of course, definitely. The other way it won’t happen.

[10:25] Interviewer: I’d also like to know/ask, if you often spend your time together, as friends, if you have any common hobbies, and what do you do as a break/rest?

Victoria: We practically don’t have any life outside the frame of music, we spend all our time in work. But when we do find spare time, we just go somewhere to relax and have fun.

Interviewer: What simple tip/advise would you give to young musicians which at the moment are street performing but dream to perform in big stadiums?

Victoria: I think, you should continued with your journey and don’t change due to other people’s opinions.

Ethan: Yes, that right. Be always yourself.

Interviewer: your time of fame happened in Italy a few years ago from the show X Factor when you performed the cover from the band the Four seasons on their song “Beggin”. Did you expect that your cover would become a world hit in a few years? And a lot of people associate the song more with you (like more than the original band)

Ethan: Yeah. It’s.... weird!

[11:33] Interviewer: I’d like to show you an interesting photo. The photo illustrates when it was the last time Russia saw Italians. It’s a movie from the year 1974 which is called “the unbelievable journey of Italians in Russsia” do you see any similarity?

*at [11:48] you can see the image of four people: on the left two men happily hugging each other, in the centre a woman, and on the right a tired looking man*

Maneskin: Nooooo *laughing*

Ethan: Wow (the exact words that were written in subtitles were “Да ты что!” Which in Russian is used as an expression of surprise )

Ethan and Thomas point at which person they think they are in the left

Ethan: I am the one in the left

Interviewer: This is actually a very popular Soviet comedy and the movie is about Italians which travelled to Russia in search of treasure, which left was by one of the main character’s grandmother. I would like to know after which treasure did you go after in Russia?

Victoria: I think, our fans, possibly perform, and play in concerts. All the love and affection.

Interviewer: It would be nice if you could watch the movie, maybe during your flight, and share your opinion on social media.

Ethan: ok, will do.

Interviewer: I’d also like to show you a very popular video which was spreading in Russia. Where it was comparing your lyrics from “I WANNA BE YOUR SLAVE” and lyrics from a Russian musician Alla Pugacheva. Both songs have same repeating words: “master” and “gangster”

Maneskin: (idk who said it) I saw it in Tiktok

Interviewer: just in case, I’ll show you the video

*[11:58] shows the video which interviewer talked about*

Thomas: You already saw it.

Interviewer: Your Russian fans, went further, started to look for famous Russian performers who wore similar outfits that you wear. But it turned out that all the similar outfits were worn by on person, his name is Valery Leontiev. I’d like to show you the pictures to show you just how similar his outfits are.

*[13:35] you can see the image comparisons, in the background you can hear Damiano laughing and say “no no”*

Thomas or Ethan: Unbelievable! This is crazy, this isn’t possible.

Interviewer: Yes the similarities are on point/ are exact.

Interviewer: I’d like to conclude the interviewer with genuine admiration because for the past 3 months you exploded the whole music industry, which didn’t happen for ages. And to be honest, it is true what you said about saving your authenticity and believe in yourself. We are very proud of you, Russians love Italians (ik that a lot of old Italian movies and songs are very popular in Russia). Please continue to grow and make wonderful music.

Maneskin: Thank, thank you very much.

————————————-

Hopefully you enjoyed the interview and the translations made sense

[helgaw321]

Takeru’s 155 Q&A

To start off things, let me share (again) one of my most satisfying works from last year, that is Takeru’s Q&A section from his 30th birthday anniversary book. Looking back, I think I worked on this one for almost one week, and It felt really satisfying to finish it on Takeru’s 31th birthday ❤️

Once again, enjoy!

(Disclaimer: All translations are done by myself, pls don’t repost without permission, thank you!)

===========

These are the questions sent by fans through Takeru's official LINE account. Thank you for all of your participation!!

1. Is there anything you would like to do or achieve in 2019? I'd like to do anything good for my body

2. If there is one day you're not Satou Takeru anymore, what will you do? Go to sauna

3. If there is one day you become a girl, what will you do? Sing Sheena Ringo's songs in the original key

4. If you can travel back in time, when would you go? Middle high school

5. If you are being reborn, do you want to be yourself again? Not really

6. If there is an "Anywhere Door", where would you like to go? The world's best views

7. Do you think aliens exist? Not in this solar system I think

8. 10 years from now, what kind of father do you want to be? I want to avoid using weird emoji

9. If you move abroad, which country would you choose? Maybe America or Canada

10. If you got the chance to direct a film, what kind of film and who are the casts? Horror. Because it seems difficult to explain, I'll do it myself.

11. If you have to become one of the characters you've played before, who will you choose? Shishigami Hiro

12. Among of the movies created in the past, is there any movie you like to have acted in? (Anything from) Ghibli

13. Who would you like to meet the most right now? And what will you ask him/her? Hanyu (Yuzuru)-kun. "Do you want to join Amuse (Takeru's agency)?"

14. Anything you want to overcome in this year? Coughing out when sleeping

15. If you can go with your mom on a trip, where would you like to go? I don't know. I'll go where she would want to go

16. When you see food with the name you see for the first time, do you dare try? Or you tend to play safe? I tend to take the challenge.

17. If you can meet your 20-year-old self, what would you like to say? Nothing in particular

18. What kind of present you would like to receive in last year of Heisei-era? Speakers that can be used in bathroom

19. Where would you like to go on honeymoon? The world's best views

20. What would you like to do in your last day of your life? I don't want to know that day is the end of my life

21. If you can take a long holiday, what would you like to do? Watch movies. Escape room games.

22. I love Takeru-kun's singing voice. If someday you get to sing in your next project, do you want to do it? I don't mind

23. If you weren't in the entertainment world, what would you do? I imagined myself to study something related to science-field in university, but I don't know what to do next

24. What else you like in sushi other than Kohada (gizzard shad)? Between tuna and salmon, which one do you like? Tuna. I also like squid and uni (sea urchin). And also button shrimp

25. If you become an invisible person, what would you want to do? State secrets investigation

26. Favorite movie? Kimi no Na wa (Your name)

27. Do you like sweets? I like it but I rarely snacking

28. Favorite smell? Morning forest

29. What do you like in osechi (traditional Japanese new year food)? Kamaboko (fish cake)

30. Favorite manga? Tenshi na Konamaiki (Cheeky Angel) (note: he said in Yakai before that his first love is the heroine from this manga XD)

31. Do you like to go to onsen? Yes

32. If you have your own favorite/most disliked body parts, please tell us! I won't say because it's embarassing

33. Favorite color? Navy blue

34. Favorite kind of noodles? Cold soba

35. Favorite season? Winter

36. Do you like horumon (cuisine made from pork or beef offal)? I like it more than average people

37. You went to lots of places during filming or doing promotion for movies, do you have favorite region? Also please tell us if you have a must-eat food there! Hitsumabushi in Nagoya

38. If i remembered correctly, you've said that you like your home, is there any other place you like? I also like hotel

39. Any recommendation for foreign drama? Friends

40. Favorite novel? Shigatsu ni nareba Kanojo wa (also titled April Girlfriend - by Kawamura Genki)

41. What do you usually add when you eat medamayaki (fried egg)? Salt and pepper or Shoyu

42. What do you usually add when you eat freshly cooked white rice? Karashi (spicy) mentaiko

43. Please tell us your order of eating sushi! Omakase (literally meaning "I'll leave it up to you", a special course when the customer leaves it up to the chef to serve)

44. What are your memories of doing Kamen Rider? Commuting in a crowded train

45. Please tell us a happy episode from filming Den-O! We sometimes would go to Jojoen near Oizumi Studio

46. Who is your favorite Imajin from Den-O? Ura(taros)

47. If you act as (Nogami) Ryoutarou right now, what kind of person you think he will be? I think people will not change that much

48. If you have a child, what name will you give him/her? I think 2 letters would be nice

49. Among the actors-actresses you haven't co-starred with, who would you want to work together with? Fukatsu (Eri)-san

50. Among all of your projects, which role is the most fun/memorable? Rookies was fun

51. Do you still continue to learn English? Yes

52. Among all of roles you've played, was there a moment when you think it resembles yourself? Probably no

53. Is there any place inside Japan you want to go? Never-visited islands

54. Is there anything you want to learn right now? I want to learn to dance

55. When you first meet a person, what is the first thing you will look at? I got this question a lot and until now I don't know the answer. I wonder what I will look at first

56. What role you want to try this year? As a runaway child

57. Among all of your projects, is there anything you wouldn't want to watch? Basically I don't want to watch it. I don't watch most of it.

58. If you can do a sequel, is there a work you want to do? Rurouni, Kanouso, Gibomusu

59. Is there any villain role from movie/drama/manga/novel that you want to do? I'd like to if there's any (interesting roles)

60. Before you do a crying scene, how do you usually spend your time? Depends on the scene

61. What is your description of "Kakkoii"? Taking the initiative in what people hate, and don't show off your action

62. You said that you didn't like saba no misoni (mackerel with miso), was it because you didn't like mackerel itself? When I saw "saba no misoni" in school lunch menu, I would be very dissapointed. I like mackarel though.

63. If you got an offer for main cast in Taiga drama, will you take it? I like that kind of question where you don't think "If it's the main cast for Taiga I'll definitely do it"

64. Something to do to keep you healthy? Sleep 12 hours

65. Do you have any actor friends? Everyone that gave their comments in this book

66. How do you feel when you work in Rurouni Kenshin kiri (` ・ω・‘) (note: this is the actual answer (i only changed hiragana to romaji/alphabet), kiri/kiru is to cut/slash in japanese, so maybe he just felt like slashing ppl all the time XDD)

67. Something that makes you feel "I can die peacefully after doing this"? Become Ajin

68. What is the scariest thing in the world? Please see video original version of "Ju-on"

69. Have you seen Aurora? No

70. When you take a bath, what part of the body you washed first? Head

71. In what moment do you usually can be yourself the most? I am myself mostly everytime

72. If fans reach out to you in your private time, how far can we go e.g handshake/photograph? It'll be embarassing to take a photo, so only handshake is good

73. We always see Takeru-san in the acting side, do you ever think of creating a movie? If I create a movie, I also want to act in that movie

74. You showed us for a short moment in Horoyoi ads, but I want to hear more of your singing voice! Recently, is there any song that you will definitely sing in karaoke? Marigold, no I'm lying. I don't have such song.

75. You always give your best during promotions for dramas/movies, but was there any tough times? Ehh you're so kind.

76. You said that you want to take a break in this year because you've worked hard in last year, did that feeling change? It's not like I want to take break, but I think my exposure level is decreasing compared to last year

77. In Kanouso, during the moment when you weren't supposed to cry but tears suddenly fell down, how to control such emotion? I looked at her (Riko) face

78. Is there any actor/actress you admire? If I tell you, you will be more aware of that person, so because I don't want you to have such thought, I won't tell you.

79. How did you spend your time during 2019 new year? I watched Unnatural with my family at home

80. What is your special skill? Othello

81. Do you use perfume? I don't usually use it but because we're making it (as anniversary goods) this time so I'm using that.

82. When thinking about Takeru-kun, your image is strongly tied with solving riddles, how did you get into it? Also how much time did you spend in 1 day? My first time was when my friends invited me to play escape games. As long as time allows me to do it, I can do it all day.

83. Among all of Hanbun, Aoi cast, who is your best friend? Kan-chan (Suzume's daughter)

84. If you meet a person that you want to befriend, are you the type who reach out to him/her, or wait? Reach out

85. Regardless of gender, what kind of person you're not good at? People who makes mistakes

86. What is your decisive factor when choosing a project? Whether I want or I don't want to do it

87. By any chance, is Takeru-san the type of genius person with photographic memory? I'm not that kind of person

88. What do you sing when you go to karaoke? Radwimps

89. Do you do any muscle training? I do but depends on the timing

90. When you go out with somebody you like on a date, in what situation do you like? Autumn leaves

91. Has anybody said to you that you resemble someone (in entertainment world)? Shouhei's wife (Kiritani Mirei) (note: why he won't say her name directly XDD)

92. Do you have any age restriction for marriage? I'd like to do it in my 30s if I can

93. Why do you become "a man lost in love"? What a good word to express it. Love is not something you experience several times, isn't it?

94. What kind of hair type do you like for girl? I like natural, not shaped ones

95. In what moment do you think girls are cute? When you see they are excited when I choose her in SUGAR

96. When you found a girl you like, do you actively "attack" her? Of course if I like her

97. Do you like a woman who will casually do body touch, doing upward gaze, and sort of the aggresive type? I don't like it at all

98. In what moment you think you can't help but liking a girl? When she casually do body touch, do upward gaze (note: so which one do you actually like LOL -- refer to Q97)

99. Between older and younger woman, which one do you like? I like both

100. What kind of girl do you like? Girls with narrow "strike zone"

101. What is the minimum requirement for your partner to marry you? I no longer have such requirement

102. As a man, what do you think of a man who keeps looking at his phone, keeps looking at the clock when dating a woman? It's not a good thing to do, it's like he doesn't care about his partner.

103. What do you think about a fun and easygoing girl? Girls with good sense of humor are good

104. When you have a girlfriend, what kind of homemade food will you make for her? Miso soup

105. What kind of make up do you like for girls? As long as she doesn't overdo it

106. I have a person I can't forget even after so many years, Does Takeru-kun have that kind of experience? Yes for a few years, but I don't know what will happen for 10+ years

107. I called my nephews and nieces with nicknames. Does Takeru-kun have any nicknames you want to be called with? I like Takeru-san rather than Takeru-kun

108. What sound do you use as your alarm ringtone? Default settings

109. You have a really beautiful skin. Do you have any advice for it? Moisturizing

110. Any activities you've been into lately? Alternate baths (also called contrast bath therapy) (note: a kind of bath therapy where you alternate between hot and cold baths.)

111. Where do you usually go? Most recent is gym

112. Do you still hate caterpillars? Sorry, but yes

113. Do you cook? Do you have any specialities? Nope

114. Where and how you usually memorize your script? I usually memorize it with my costars moments before shooting in the set

115. For Takeru-san who loves reading, how do you usually choose books to read? I'd usually pick friends' recommendation

116. When you sleep do you prefer to turn on or off the lights? Turn off. I can't stand even the lights from humidifier

117. In what moment do you think it's nice being an actor? When people are being nice to you

118. Things like clothes, bags, shoes, is there anything that you have to make sure it's in good quality before you buy? Towel

119. If you have one full day with your beloved cats, what will you do? Cuddling its cheek

120. If you are being reborn as a cat, who do you want to take care of you? Do you want to play together with Kochirou and Puchirou in Satou's family house? Yes. (note: Kochirou and Puchirou are his beloved cats currently living in his parents' house)

121. If you can have one more cat, what name will you give? At least not names in katakana

122. Are you a dog person? Cat person? Cat

123. As a cat-lover, which part of a cat do you like? Face

124. What is your favorite Kochirou and Puchirou's pose? When they become rounded like a ball

125. If you can have a dog, what kind of dog do you like? Shiba-inu

126. Beside cat, do you have any other animals you'd like to have? Dolphin

127. Where do you want to live? Shiodome maybe

128. Have you give your mom presents from home bakery? Yes. I think you can also make mochi with those

129. If you're doing a solo trip, where will you go? Canada

130. How do you get along with Nobu-san (from Chidori)? We were working together in a variety show and I ask for his phone number

131. You were famous among the older people from long ago, what do you think about that? I don't really care about the age as long as I still got the "waa" and "kyaa"

132. In what moment do you feel happy? When I solved a riddle

133. What is your favorite song from Takahashi Yuu-kun? Hachigatsu Muika (August 6) (note: he sang this song in his 30th birthday event)

134. If you have to give a score for your acting career up until now, how many points out of 100? 60

135. In the future, can you create an event where fans can meet you directly? Yes

136. You've said before that because you can't tidy your room up so your mom had to visit your house to tidy things up, is it still the same now? I've become independent now

137. I'm still a kid, an elementary school student. When I talk about Kamen Rider, there are some kids who get along with me, but there also kids who call me weird. Is it alright that I still love Kamen Rider? Please tell me. I was also called weird by my friends in my school days so it will be alright

138. Do you plan to go to Kyoto in this year? I already go there few times

139. In what moment do you feel the happiest? I can't decide between the moment when I saw at Ruroken's (sales) performance or when I managed to clear an escape game challenge, or when I was in elementary school when I got into Yu-Gi-Oh, I got Summoned Skull from a booster pack.

140. Was there a moment when you cried while watching a movie? Usually I cried watching touching movies

141. Between the roles you've played almost simultaneously, such as Ritsu in Hanbun, Aoi, Mugita in Gibomusu, and Kazuo in Oku Otoko, which one is the most difficult to play? Kazuo

142. Recently, is there a moment when you laughed so hard? I was hitting my knees laughing while watching Aiseki Shokudou (Chidori's show) at home

143. Please tell us an episode from Kouhaku! When I hesitated to wave my penlight, but then I saw Nomura Mansai-san was waving his so I decided to follow

144. Please tell us your recommended places to visit from "Rurouni-hon Kumamoto e". Nature is always recommended. Negative ions are good for the body. (note: "Rurouni-hon Kumamoto e" was a book about Takeru doing a trip in Kumamoto, promoting places especially those which were affected by Kumamoto earthquake. A portion of the sales were donated to support Kumamoto recovery)

145. You said in the past that you couldn't sleep for a long time, how is it now? Hm it's complex but I think my internal body clock feels off

146. When telling our thoughts about your movies/dramas, do you have any preferred ways that makes you happy? When you shared it in the internet

147. My son is telling me that he wants to be a voice actor and wants to go to a vocational school. As a parent, should I support him? Did Takeru-kun get your parents' support when you want to be an actor? My parents had no objection at that time. It didn't cost me any money. By the way, do professional voice actors learn in vocational schools? I support him to become a voice actor, but I'm not sure if it's the right decision to enroll in a vocational school to become a voice actor.

148. Among all the places you've visited during your work or private trips, do you have any recommendation for us? Salar de Uyuni (note: he went to this place for X photobook)

149. When you watch a movie, do you prefer to read the original story first or straight to the movie? If I want to enjoy the movie, I'd watch the movie first. If I want to enjoy the book, I'd read the book first.

150. Can I hug you when I meet you? Maybe no

151. Do you use washing machine for drying your clothes? What will happen to your clothes after that? Wrinkled

152. What is the most important thing or person to you? People who put their faith in me

153. Are you looking forward to expand your career overseas? Rather than wanting to work in a Hollywood movie, I prefer to think more on how to make Japanese movies more visible to the world.

154. Is there anything you'd like to do in your 30s, any target or resolution? I have a few in mind, but I'll tell you when I manage to accomplish them

155. Please tell us about your vision of living your life from now on! I hope I can do more of what I want to do.

(pic: https://satohtakeru.amuseblog.jp/blog/2019/03/30th-anniversar-1c47.html)

[ausp-ice]

Commissions are open!

See [here] for commission status and slots.

You can claim a slot by contacting me or commenting on the sheet. If you claim a slot, you commit to commissioning me.

Slots are shared across all platforms. Complex is pretty much anything $30 or over.

General Notes:

DM me if interested! I may not respond for a while if I’m on break, but you can also try contacting me via another blog/platform if I don’t respond in a week. Please do not spam.

I will state a price (in USD), and if you agree, you must pay via Venmo (preferred, but U.S. only) or Paypal before I begin.

You can request certain details/composition, or leave it all to me.

Please provide visual references if possible. I will increase the price significantly if they are not available or difficult to find.

Designs (i.e. from written descriptions and details) will have a ~1.5-2x multiplier on the price.

If there’s anything you’re interested in that’s not explicitly offered, talk to me and we can negotiate!

For additional details and offerings, continue reading:

Speedpaints

High res infographic [here].

Base Prices for Simple / Regular / Complex Characters: Bust: $7 / 12 / 15+ Partial: $14 / 25 / 30+ Fullbody: $20 / 35 / 40+

Additional Characters: 90% of individual price. (The more complex characters are counted first.) Complexity can be lower for less of a character, i.e. if they have a simple head design but a complex body. For extremely simple characters, price may be further lowered. I will adjust the price as I see fit.

Background Add-on Prices: +0%: None or simple (such as a gradient), may be partially shaded +30%: Abstract/atmospheric, has proper lighting +40%: Simple scene +50%+: Complex scene

Discounts Monochrome/Mostly Monochrome: 10% discount Rough: 10-20% discount

Logo Design

$30-50, depending on complexity and how much control you want to have over the process. The more details you give me at the start, the better - what kind of vibe you're going for, colors, specific elements. I will provide 3-5 sketches, and you will choose which of them you like best for me fully render. Animated Logos are $50-100 and up, depending on the complexity of the design. The non-animated version is included in this cost.

Live2D Speedpaint Animation

Price: Painting (can use previous) + 1-3x character price + .5x add-ons.

The cost multiplier depends on the complexity of the animation.

10% discount if you tell me you want to animate a painting from the start, as opposed to me using a previous painting. (You cannot ask me to do this for a regular painting commission if you are unsure, i.e. asking a painting to be made for animation “in case” you want it to be animated. You can say that you’ll ask for the animated part at a later date, but you must give me a time frame. If, at that time, you go back on your word, you may be blacklisted from future commissions and giveaways.)

A still image of the painting can be provided.

Examples: Medusa: Raffle Prize for 3ghosts (Example Price: ~$60) Fusion: Helkki (Example Price: ~$53)

Special Offerings

Young Vessel 3D Model

High res infographic [here].

$20-40, depending on complexity.

I can try to do simple cracks, but I can’t promise they’ll look perfect.

You must provide fullbody colored reference(s). One front-facing and one side-facing is preferred, of the same image dimensions. If you provide those and add your character to the HK OC Height Chart for size comparison, I’ll give a 10% discount.

With a completed model:

Simple Pose with Basic Scene: First Included, additional $5 each. From the second onward, you can request the addition of any previous models I’ve made.

$10: for a 3D-printable STL file. (I need to add a base and make a couple of changes so it doesn’t fall apart.  You can come back to me for tips/modifications) $5: 3D Turnaround $10-30+: Full scene. I’m still learning Blender, so there’s a lot that’s out of my skill range.

Footnotes

I will most likely post on Tumblr, Deviantart, and Instagram. Please do not repost anywhere, unless I have given explicit permission.

You can use your commission work for profile pictures, banners, backgrounds, etc. If you use it publicly, please credit me, but you don’t have to tell me.

My speed will vary depending on the request, but I will try to finish in a timely manner. However, it may not be my first priority - work comes first, and I might work on my own things.

If you want a breakdown of how I priced your request, I can provide it, but if you have no concerns with it I shall not.

You can make a request for minor changes after I finish, but nothing big.

My commissions are on a first-come, first-serve basis. If you make a request after all slots are filled (even if I haven’t updated the slots number), I will inform you that I’ve reached my maximum, and you must make the request once commissions are open again. That is to say, I won’t hold a spot.

I will draw most things, including humans, animals, dragons, fantasy creatures, mecha, fan characters, etc. All that matters is complexity.

I will NOT draw most gore (blood is ok), NSFW, fetishes, or offensive content.

Deliberate misconduct and neglect of terms may result in blacklisting from future commissions and giveaways. You can make an appeal after three months. If you are blacklisted again, then that’s that.

I may change prices with or without announcement.

I reserve the right to refuse service for any reason.

[echonidae]

edit nov. 23rd: alrighty, break is over !! the seven main slots are back c: for now commissions will be done in a slower pace while i sort out schoolwork (but i only have classes for two more weeks !!) so there's that c: ,,,,i ended up not having much time to revise the whole commission page ;o; but i'll also eventually make a separated page for the older completed slots, just so the page doesn't get progressively longer asdfghjfghj

——— COMMISSION STATUS - OPEN please read all the info + rules carefully before requesting a commission!! by placing an order, you're agreeing to all the rules!!

4000x4000px .png images (icons are 800x800px !) at 600-700ppi by default, digital medium only; one file watermarked for reposting purposes, another with a tiny signature off to the side; payment is done half upfront, half right before i send you the finished drawing (two invoices) after i accept your order, you must pay the first half in 72h to occupy a slot or your request will be considered null and void! waiting period for the finished drawing is 1 to 3 weeks (due to classes — i tend to work fast tho) — i'll keep you updated!

7 slots per batch — icons have dedicated slots!! once i get this batch done, i'll open more slots  —  for icons, i'll create a new batch and reopen slots as they get done instead :)   max of 2 slots per person (icons don't count for Main slots so if you want two commissions + up to two icons, that's fine !!) , only one character per slot.

more info under the cut!! please read all the info + rules carefully before requesting a commission!! by placing an order, you're agreeing to all the rules!!

this price sheet is on dA too, in case the readmore link can’t be opened on mobile!

- first batch slot 1 - completed !!  slot 2 - completed !! slot 3 - completed !! slot 4 - completed !! slot 5 - completed !! slot 6 - completed !! slot 7 - completed !!

- second batch slot 1 -  completed !! slot 2 -  completed !! slot 3 -  completed !! slot 4 -  completed !! slot 5 -  completed !! slot 6 -  completed !! slot 7 -  completed !! -------------------- icon slot 1 - completed !! icon slot 2 - completed !! icon slot 3 - completed !! icon slot 4 - completed !! icon slot 5 - completed !! icon slot 6 - completed !!

- third batch // opened on nov. 23rd slot 1 -  OPEN slot 2 -  OPEN slot 3 -  OPEN slot 4 -  OPEN slot 5 -  OPEN slot 6 -  OPEN slot 7 -  OPEN -------------------- icon slot 7 - OPEN icon slot 8 - OPEN icon slot 9 - OPEN icon slot 10 - OPEN icon slot 11 - OPEN

— USD (paypal invoice) only

> ICONS  - 800x800px - digital painting style - full color + shading/lighting - colored lineart - optional white outline, chromatic aberration, etc. - simple backgrounds (mandalas, patterns, geometric, texture, transparent, etc.) — ICONS:        $ 11 USD

> SHADED LINEART - cellshading in 1 to 2 colors - clean lineart in 1 to 2 colors - solid color bakcground with/without texture - chromatic aberration in the lineart is optional — BUST:          $ 12 USD — KNEE-UP:    $ 14 USD

> OVERLAYED GRAYSCALE (as in, the drawing is done in grayscale and then i overlay a ton of diffrent colors on top of it) - cellshaded - clean lineart - minimal lighting - simple background with/without texture or simple shapes - chromatic aberration in the lineart is optional — BUST:          $ 15 USD — KNEE-UP:    $ 18 USD

> BASE COLORS - cellshaded + lighting and lighting effects - base colors - clean, colored lineart - chromatic aberration in the lineart is optional - simple background with/without texture or simple shapes — BUST:          $ 22 USD — KNEE-UP:    $ 26 USD

> FULL COLOR - full color digital painting - full shading/lighting - colored lineart - simple background — BUST:          $ 38 USD — KNEE-UP:    $ 55 USD

—  each major change (as in: something significantly big and/or detailed, or a portion that is more than 45% of the piece, must be redone partially or completely) to the order after the lineart is done increases the price by $2 to $5 USD!

- will draw furries/anthro animals plants humanoids monsters humans body horror some gore your ocs - will not draw fanart (sorry!) nsfw/fetish/sexualized nudity hyper realistic gore mecha/vehicles/intricate armor (this sort of armor is fine! in doubt, feel free to ask!) text-only references (please send images instead!) someone else's oc (unless you have written permission!) hate speech/racism/lgbtphobia character sheets custom oc design custom clothing design (please send references!!) drawn backgrounds (as in, actual full scenes — abstract or simple shapes like mandalas or the ones in the previous commissions are fine)

feel free to ask if you're not sure whether your order would be ok or not !!

here are the full example images: - icons 1 // icons 2 - shaded lineart - overlayed grayscale (a more colorful one in this style would be [this] one!!) - base colors - full color (this was an ab extra for an auction so i can only link the preview, sorry!! most of my art is in this fullcolor style tho so here are some substitutes [1] [2] [3] [4]) feel free to check out previous commissions here!!

——— RULES / MORE INFO  

-  i reserve the right to refuse a commission request without needing to provide a reason — please don't take it personally!! -  once i've accepted your order, i'll send you an invoice asking for the first half of the payment, which you must pay in 72h. after i receive that, you’ll occupy a slot and i’ll start working on your piece! -  i'll send you some rough colored sketches for you to choose which one you like better; please make sure to think carefully and say if you'd like to change something before greenlighting one of the sketches! we can stay at this stage for as long as it is needed, no rush c: but please keep in mind that once you greenlight it, i'm not going to start over! -  i'll update you again once the lineart is done (wip screenshot including the previously agreed color scheme, if applicable) — at this point, only color palette and minor changes to the lineart (small changes in the expression, moving a hand a bit to the side, more or less texture detail on faces and hair, etc.) are allowed free of charge —   each major change after the lineart is done will increase the price by $2 to 5$ USD!   - * i'll send another update right before finishing the piece so as to work out last minute details and small changes. * once your commission is done, i'll send a second invoice asking for the rest of the payment — after i receive that, i'll send you the full-res images! i'll also post the commissioned drawing here, on tumblr and on ig — if you don't want to be linked to the drawing once it's posted, please do say so ahead of time! -  i won't accept private commissions (as in, the drawing isn't posted anywhere).  i also will not do any edits after the commission is done (as in, after the second invoice has been sent) — again please make sure to voice your thoughts in the sketch phase!   -  please understand that, although i'll follow references as closely as i can * (and you can feel free to tell me if i missed a detail any time) * , i'll make stylistic choices due to my artstyle and i will not try to replicate someone else's style. -  i keep all the copyrights to use, post and showcase the commissioned drawing in any and all websites, portfolios, announcements, etc. i won't sell or make prints/etc. of the drawing, and i'll make sure to add info on who the commission was for. -   the commissioned drawing is for personal and non-commercial use only; you may not claim my art as your own nor profit in any way from the drawing. the resolution should be good for printing and you may do so for personal use but please don't sell prints of the drawing. * the commissioned drawing is a digital file, and i won't send any physical items to you. *  -   you keep all the rights to your own ocs, designs, concepts, and stories. -   do not trace, copy, or edit the drawing in any way. and please do not erase my signature in the unwatermarked image, it won't be obstructing anything. -   i'll send you a watermarked and an unwatermarked version of the drawing — only the watermarked version may be reposted (with credit) to prevent misuse/theft! the icon's file i'll send you does not have a watermark — still, credit is appreciated! i'll post icons together in a single post, and those do have watermarks for the same reason as mentioned previously ;v; -   please don't commission me with a deadline in mind — your piece may take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks to finish, though i'm aiming for the former. i'm currently in classes right now and they, of course, have a greater priority over commissions — if something comes up that results in a significant delay on your piece, i'll notify you of it! -    i'll refund your payment if i wasn't able to finish or start your order. if you must cancel your order for any reason, please contact me asap so we can discuss it! if you give up on the commission mid-way or after it is done, i will not refund you and won't take commissions from/sell adopts to you in the future. -     that being said, please do not commission me if you're unsure you can pay or unsure you actually want it!

by placing an order, you are agreeing to the terms and i assume you have read all the info i've written down! i'm not going to negotiate the terms! feel free to ask any questions!!!

——— IF YOU'RE INTERESTED        

send me a note/PM with the following information:

subject: commission request paypal email: (so i can send you an invoice) type of commission: (icon, lineart, grayscale, base colors or full color?) type of composition: (knee-up or bust?) description/ideas: (please write a detailed description of what you want from this piece! what sort of mood/expression/pose/color palette/etc. do you have in mind? do send any ideas for composition and other elements even if they feel vague, we will work together on shaping your order c:) reference image links: (other than character sheets, these can be palettes, pictures of outfits, pose references,  etc.! please keep in mind i won't do text-only descriptions/references, nor will i design characters/clothing/etc.!! also please make sure that the character sheet is colored or send a specific palette! if you have a quick sketch or doodle of what you have in mind [even if it's just stick figures!], it would be greatly appreciated if you linked it too!!!)

anyway yeah thank you for reading this far!! i realize this is very very long, still haven’t quite set up a dedicated page for commission info orz if you have any questions feel free to leave a comment or send a note, i'll get back to you asap!! c: ♥

[migleefulmoments]

"Because accusing a gay man of hitting on all the straight men is homophobic. Because Abby insinuated that the video is problematic" Did the anons say Ryan has hit on all the straight men? This is getting weird. I am sorry to see you keep misrepresenting what the original anon said - who mentioned only a "crush". I don't remember anyone here accusing Ryan of hitting on Darren. The anons weren't talking about Abby either, you brought her up regardless. But she uses everything to tinhat.

I’m done talking about this- if you want to say more then come off anon and have a conversation.  But they DID imply that Ryan was being predatory and inappropriate- I don’t remember what the first anon said but I have been responding to the tinhatters comments. 

Abby: Yes Anon, That was my take as well.

This got long so it’s under a cut

 followed immediately by:

justcantgetenoughcc

I have seen the recording of Ry/M touching Da/rren’s cheek before, and still find it creepy. It looks as if D turns his head to kiss R’s hand. What do you think?

Abby: I noticed that too. That Darren turned his head and blew him a kiss / or kissed his hand… to appease him, as he was interrupting the conversation with their guest of honor - Mayor Bloomberg. Possessive much? I found Harry Shum’s expression even more interesting as he notices what RM is doing.

There’s another picture that goes with this set… Where Heather is unceremoniously yanked out of the way, so that RM could stand next to Darren.

Look at Jane’s reaction to HOW RM is describing Chris here…

Chrisdare actually comes in with a reality check and pushes back against their nonsense.  Notice that she points out that they need to watch the entire video to see the truth.  

chrisdarebashfulsmiles No it’s not the right take and it’s easy too see if you see the entire clip: tightening the lips is not the same as kissing hands.

Now, i know i’m gonna sound rude but i’m mad and pissed off AF in D’s behalf (and as a person who try always to check before speaking) and it’s not something that happens a lot. I usually stay silent too but today this is too much for me. I don’t understand this need of spreading “lies” about him of on this kind of things. To prove that is ok to be mad at him for the bearding and thinking he’s always been disrespectful to C?? That maybe he did casting couch?

We have enough haters… he has more haters than we have… why there’s the need to invent stuff about him it’s beyond me. And now you all block me or whatever, i don’t care. I swear after 6 years here and all that this means… I DON’T CARE.

But for the love of God he has enough on his plate without this kind of stuff. Said that, i agree on RM being the creepiest and i hate him for how he treated C.

Abby comes back with a toned attitude and agrees with Chrisdare. She wasn’t reflagging this earlier in the week? No idea what that means but she can’t help but stir the shit. 

ajw720

I was actively not reblogging this gifs earlier in the week because it’s a reminder I don’t think d needs.

But he’s literally pushing his hand away with his face. As @chrisdarebashfulsmiles said, d as enough on his plate. Can we not add to it with falsehoods?

No one is arguing about RM. but for some reason d has decided to dance with the devil he knows. It must be his best option. And c is still there and supporting him so he’s clearly ok with the choice. Let’s not add to the substantial weight on their shoulders.

Rouged has the most outrageous comments-as usual- and Abby reblogged them without pushing back and in fact said “some good points”. Since she didn’t call out those she felt were untrue-I must assume she was fully supportive of the suggestions of impropriety on behalf of Ryan. This isn’t the only time Abby has sullied Ryan’s name. Rouged is only upset that Darren’s name is dragged through the mud.  

rougedraconteur

This has been around forever, and will never go away, will it?  I had asked that this not be reposted, for what I thought were obvious reasons, but people just can’t help dragging him through the mud.  So, let’s talk about this little piece of hell.  This was when they were filming the competition in New York.  D’s bit was supposed to be over, and he was only in that episode at the very end, which could have been filmed anywhere.  BUT, he had broken so big that he, and the Warblers, were given an album release and were also in NYC and on Today show premiering it. D was privately discussing with the producers where his character Blaine would go next.  Would he have his own show with the Warblers, a spinoff, or would he stay with Glee?  It was a huge decision, and very high-pressure.  C had already returned to Glee and New Directions, this was the big show.  But, starring in his own show, and giving all the other Warblers a bigger career, that was also tempting. I am sure he felt the pressure of that decision, and how his choice impacted others, he had formed a bond with the Warbler actors.  But being on the big show, a sure thing, and with C as his co-star, seeing him and working with him every day, well…

This was a “Welcome to NYC” photo op and news article by Mayor Bloomberg with some of the cast, and this was the moment D was shaking hands with Mayor Bloomberg, and speaking to him.  I happen to think D has some political aspirations as well, so he may have mentioned something when he met Bloomberg.  RM was probably high, he acts so erratically here, but he reaches out, with a camera and tons of photographers there, and pats him on the cheek, cups his cheek, actually, and pats it way too fondly, extremely inappropriate but what RM does a lot, and not just with D. (more about that later.). I don’t know why Br/ad Fal/chuk does not control him better, but they are both horrible people, as is Dan/te Di/Lor/eto, standing right behind RM, who no longer works with RM, Br/ad, and I/an. (Thank all the gods.  That’s one creep out of the way, two to go.)  D, in mid-speech with the mayor, and still shaking his hand, is shocked, and reaches up to angrily swat RM’s hand away.  Remember that D did not know all the other guys that much, he had mostly hung out with C and the Warblers, who would probably have been more protective of him, (I am sure C would have tried), and more interactive, but this is the rest of the world, including Bloomberg, the NYC press, AND New Directions seeing this predatory behavior roll out up close and personal, for the first time, out in the open, and blatant.  I mean, he just did not care what people thought at that point, he thought he was king of the world.

I don’t know why C and the rest of the girls besides Hea/ther were not here, but I know L and C had that big filming singing on the Wicked stage, and the scenes at Tiffany’s.  D supposedly was present in the audience at that filming.  Since he is not dressed in Warbler costume, for Today show, this may have been that day, I assume C and L filming in those outfits took most of one day.  The entire Glee production team, including Warblers and THEIR album rollout, were all there for a week of filming, and, at the height of their fame, had all practically shut NYC down with their various filming locations.  Fans were everywhere, and the city made a big deal of it.

Heather tries to stand in front of D, in the group photo, and is roughly jerked out of the way, (also caught on film, the guy must have been unable to stop rolling, it was just too bizarre), so that RM can cosy in to that tight space next to D and hold on.  In virtually every photo made with the two of them in a group, D ALWAYS is made to be very near RM, UNLESS RM is sober, has just been called out for being a creep, or is otherwise trying to behave and scrub his image, in which case D is not attached to him at the hip, but these are rare indeed.  Again, this was NYC, the height of Glee’s popularity, RM was drunk with power and fame, and probably also literally drunk, thinking he ruled the world and everyone in his domain, and D was making the second-most important decision of his life, behind the scenes. I don’t think many people ever consider the extreme pressure he was under, this was a career making moment, and RM and the other producers were all giving him the hard press.  At 23 years old.

The first important decision, knowing how RM was, was going all in to be on Glee.  And don’t tell me he didn’t know.  Every person in Hollywood knows the predators, and the pluses and perils of working with them.  If they are mature adults, and are not trapped or coerced or blackmailed or assaulted, (and they usually are, the power exchange is very imbalanced), what they do is their business, and I don’t judge.  If they gain something, that is an exchange, that is their power, their erotic capital, and they are allowed to own that and exchange it as a strength, if they choose.  The actors have assets, that propel their careers, and they are allowed to use them, as they see fit, if they give that consent in that moment, and get something they value in return.  That is an exchange of power, and happens so frequently in Hollywood (and Washington, and corporate America, and The entertainment and fashion industries as a whole), that most in those industries don’t think twice about it.  

So, Hollywood is one of those towns where lots of sex happens, because there are lots of beautiful people interacting with very rich and powerful people, and they all interact with each other.  Get real, and get over that part. D is not a saint, nor does he have to be for me to be his fan, I am not blind or stupid or naive, I get it. They are not like us, okay?  This is not our day to day lives.

 The bad part is when people are faced with almost constant sexual and physical and emotional harassment because of it.  And D is.  From many power sources. The same as many beautiful women  are, with all the talk about fleshlights and being rapey, which is the latest.  It is all lewd and suggestive, we have all sexualized D and C, and need to accept that complicated history we all have with them.  But especially it is true for D with RM, and Br/ad Fal/chuk, (and Da/nte Di/loreto, but I hope that one is over.) Theirs is oppressive, and manipulative, and controlling and threatening. And that is abuse.  

And if anyone has the film from C’s first Single Ladies dance rehearsal, in costume, for the Glee tour, you would see more blatant RM abuse.

 In fact,I would venture to say almost every member of that key cast was abused beyond their consent by the showrunner, other producers, writers, and directors. (Not all of them, but some of them, for sure.) It was only because that show made billions, with a B,  for F/ox, and even War/ren Buf/fet visited that set (weird, he sat by Ch/ord), that Fox execs looked the other way.  The fact that Da/na Wal/den, RM’s main enabler, is now at The Mouse House, just tells you how pervasive this culture truly is.  It’s hard to fight everyone, when all your heroes have feet of clay.  RM IS the devil he knows.  And he has a contract.  And he DID negotiate Executive Producer status.  But I think it is ironic, and more than a little sad and sick, that RM also gave it to the two new prettyboys on set, who have earned NOTHING like the shit D went through, after we all mentioned that it gave D power and control  that he had more than earned.  Can’t let D get too big for his britches, and think he is getting somewhere without us now, can we, RM and BF?  He OWES you.  Apparently, forever.

And can we stop reblogging that series of images now?  I think RM gets a sick satisfaction out of them even now, as all the shot starts yet again, tangling them together in intimate ways RM does not deserve, and I despise giving him anything.  What was done, is done.  What happened, happened.  What is happening, has its reasons.  It does not change that D is a huge talent, and deserving of his fans, nor that RM and BF are likely to bring him success.  They are still creeps, and horribly so, ones that deserve to be brought down, in my opinion.  i  And apparently would rather deal with, at this point, since everyone is watching, due to all the issues in the past, than ones he doesn’t, which no one expects.  The current movie is a perfect example.  This career is exactly like walking through a field of land mines for a living.  You never know when you are going to step on the next one.

ajw720. Will no reblog again, but some really good points.  

[thehawaiianqueen-art]

Commissions are OPEN!!! (Mobile)

To inquire about commissions, message me on Tumblr or email me at TheHawaiianQueenArt@gmail.com

For full color commissions, you’ll get the PSD file for free if you want it. I WILL post files to my Patreon.

Example of colored sketches

EXTRAS:

Characters with extra details and/or props will have an extra charge of $5-$10 (on your total order) depending on complexity. examples: heavily detailed cloths, patterns, tattoos, weapons, etc. (we can chat about it.)

You get $5 off your total order if you get something with the any of the following list of characters! - Aizawa Shouta (MHA), Tsuyu Asui (MHA), Keith (VLD), Lance (VLD), Shiro (VLD), Any of my OC’s (if you want them),  Yato (Noragami), Chiaki (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time), Loki (MCU and/or Comics), Thor (MCU and/or Comics). Will add more when/if the time comes.

((Tips for the tip jar are appreciated!!! ))

Side note:

Please be available to look at the WIP shots I send you, I do tend to send a lot in general and have no problem changing something. However, until I get approval from what I’ve sent you I’m not going to move on.

Images are created around 8.5" x 11" at 300 dpi.

If you would like a specific document size please let me know.

IMPORTANT STUFF!!

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Payments are made in advance. I will make your a quick sketch usually the same day the payment is possessed. You’ll be added to my list of commissions that are in the works, contact information, as well as Tumblr tag HERE.

I reserve the right to refuse or drop your commission for any reason. (You get your money back, don’t worry)

It can take anywhere from a week to a couple months to complete your commission.(I can only get so many done at once). If you would like a specific completion date, let me know!

I reserve the right to post anything I draw; I won’t refrain from posting your commission, sorry. I might also put it in my shop on Redbubble. Meaning you can buy something if you want. (If you do not want me to post it until after a date for some reason, just tell me and it’s cool. If you ask for an OC and don’t want it in my shop, please tell me (preferably right off the bat) I can take it off public and you just have to message me if you want to buy something with it on there and I’ll make it public until after you buy it.

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DO NOT repost your commission to any other site without permission. The image will be posted on my account (unless specified otherwise), so please reblog if you so choose. If given permission to repost, please credit and tag me. I have almost everything there is no excuse for it.

If you have any questions, don’t be shy, ask me! I know it can get a little confusing, so I’m more than willing to help. Just ask, please!

[dindadeel]

Character / Storyline / Whatever-you-called-it Analysis: Mystic Messenger

I really want to credit the artist, but unfortunately I, too, stumbled across this image on the web. If any of you know the owner of this picture, please let me know. Oh, and if the artist does not allow me to repost this picture, please let me know to as I’d be more than willing to take this image down if the owner does not allow me.

Oh my darling,

If only I dare to publish my (twitter) second account here, (will not happen, since I want to say things under privacy, too) you guys would’ve known my obsession over this Korean game called Mystic Messenger.

It is a female-oriented otome (dating) game. You’ll play as this Main Character (MC), so far Cheritz (the developer) has released 6 routes, which you can play depending on which character you want to choose.

So after playing each route and finishing the secret ending, here’s my thought overall.

(lol I actually already wrote a review on my 2nd account, but I’ll write a repetitive thing here lol don’t mind me).

This is a long ass post btw, if you’re not up to that, then you’re free to browse anything else. But if you do want to stick around, feel free to grab some ice tea (I’m recently into honey lemons) and some pockys.

When starting Mystic Messenger, there’s 3 options to choose; Casual Route (free), Deep Route (80 Hourglasses), Another Story (300 Hourglasses). Hourglasses is basically like coins that you can exchange to unlock features throughout the game. You can still proceed with the game without it, but you’ll definitely get more benefits with these hourglasses (e.g.; unlocking new routes like Deep Route, making phone calls, participate in chats that you missed, etc).

You can find more about Mystic Messenger here if you’re a beginner to the game.

Now on to the analysis!

(WARNING: SPOILER ALERT)

If you’re hoping for your-typical-shoujo-storyline-i-met-a-prince-of-my-dream, well you’re wrong because Mystic Messenger is here to fuck you up and make you emotionally attached to fucking fictional characters.

I’d like to think each and every route is a different universe every time I chose a new route (believe me, you’ll have hard time restarting your day after the 11th day). But I cannot help to feel that every route is actually linked to one another and the final ending is Seven’s route. (Yes you can fight me but thats the fact because Seven’s always have this additional thing in his route and he even owns the secret ending, technically).

However, another story (aka V route) is another different universe, because the storyline is a little bit distorted than the original 5 stories (well, it is an additional story).

The reason why I wrote a Tumblr post is because I got a bunch of bullcrap I need to write after finishing V route and Secret Ending.

First of all,

What the actual fuck?

Okay, everything was all good and jolly when you start playing Casual Route. I guess they called it Casual Route because it literally give you the tiniest bit of the secret of RFA. It literally means nothing if you compare it to Deep Route, Another Story, and Secret Endings. In actual fact, even in Jumin’s route, it don’t give as much information.

On casual route, it is very fitting to the name; very casual. It just gives you all these simkung moments with your character of selection. Sure, every route all-in-all asking the MC to ‘help’ the character from their wounds.

(list is based on my recommendations on taking which route first)

Jaehee - To choose her dreams or live on social prejudice

Yoosung - Dealing with his depressions and confusion after Rika’s passing

Zen - Overcoming his insecurities and his past

Jumin - Expressing his emotions when the world seems like tangled threads

Seven - Making sure he is belonged in this world and to be a place where he can call it home

V - Letting him know that he should love and put himself first

Tbh after finishing all routes, I cannot help to think that this whole mysme universe is started as a couple quarrel. But it is a twisted and complex couple quarrel. Basically it all turned murky when  — turned out both the couple did not realized that they’re in a toxic relationship.

 I’m gonna talk not only about any specific route, but the universe as a whole. Mainly towards Secret Endings in which branched from Seven’s, but the inputs came from every route regardless.

Rika had an illness to begin with. She struggles with depression, anxiety, paranoia, and (paranoia induced) delusions. Now this woman (haha please note on how I address her because I put my whole feeling on it) tried to hide it (and she succeeded) from the rest of the member, except V, who’s her fiancee and the one she trusted wholeheartedly. I guess her intentions are good, because she don’t want the rest of the member to worry about her. All she ever wanted to do was to create RFA in hope she could help people with her charity parties and where people with different background and social status could mingle. But again, she’s dealing with a mental illness and I guess she needs someone to know her as a whole, which is V.

This is where everything went wrong, I guess.

Rika does not represent people with mental illness. Cheritz just need a character as an antagonist, or there won’t be any storyline, hahaha.

Don’t get me wrong. V is a loving man. His intentions are also come from a good heart. V loves Rika wholeheartedly. He loves Rika with her flaws, too.

But their actions were like a ripple in a calm water. A single drop could disturb the whole surface.

V comes from a wealthy family, alongside Jumin. He was brought up to act like one. His father brought him up so that he could continue the family business, like Jumin. However, V’s mother was a musician. In fact, his family business related a lot in art & creative industry. So he have this ‘artist blood / tendency’ within him. I think his father opposed him on being an actual artist, so instead he became a photographer. This is where he encountered Rika.

Rika, on the other hand, did not came from a good childhood memory. She was adopted. However, turned out the adoptive parents regretted adopting Rika (that’s a fucked up parents to begin with. I mean, you HAD a choice to PICK your child for God’s sake. You’re not stuck with whatever-God-gave-you on your womb but you GET to choose, either the gender nationality race whatever suits you best and you STILL regret it?). She always felt that she does not belong anywhere and don’t have any place to harbor. She always feel empty.

Now when Rika met V, it felt like a faith to both of them. Rika was the empty canvas. She never knew how it felt to be loved. V, on the other hand, does not know how to give love, as he was always brought up in prince-like manner, and his mother was not able to be there to teach him how to love. So when he encountered Rika, I guess in his artistic mind, his love was like this massive artwork, ready to be painted on Rika’s blank canvas.

Both of them thought that their love was like the sun in the sky.

Why the sun?

Well, the sun is the source of living being. No matter where you are, it will shine. Even when the clouds are there to cover it, the sun is still there, giving you all the warmth. But the thing with the sun, in my opinion, yes it is warm, but there are times where you can get burn to crisp if you stand too long below it. You can get blind if you stare too much. Why, you can even get skin cancer if you’re not well protected.

Both of them could not express their love... as a couple. One wants to accept everything and one is willing to give everything. But the thing is... everything has its own limit. Sure, it feels like they’re meant for each other, however I think it is a toxic relationship as no one in that relationship know how to say no and to stop. V being too philosophical attracted to Rika’s innocence. Back to my canvas-paint theory, it is like Rika is the blank canvas, and V is willing to paint every single space within Rika. So much it turned into obsession. So much that Rika’s actually suffocated from it. Rika’s running out of space.

Sally’s death was the trigger. Rika was in the verge of breaking down. She said it was her fault. Said nobody would love her if they know how dark she is. She is actually ashamed of her illness and struggles, and she wants people to see her as a savior instead. V, who love her so dearly, instead of stopping her, said;

“Even if you strangle my neck, blind my eyes and break my limbs... I will still love you.”

THAT IS FUCKED UP OKAY. Now, if you have a loved one that’s struggling with these conditions, you do not add fuel to the fire. Don’t encourage them to hurt people! What V did was to turn the switch in Rika. In her innocent thought (at first I could not believe Rika was this stupid, but then again, she had her condition), it is okay to be abusive, as V said, he will still love him regardless. THIS. WAS. THE. FUCKING. TRIGGER.

Rika hurt V on purpose due to him trying to stop Rika on creating this cult where she force happiness onto people, drug them so that they would not know any pain. I know V had a good intention trying to stop Rika but I cannot stop thinking that he’s the one who made Rika to had this thought. It was the seed he planted on Rika. He was expecting a beautiful flower to bloom from it, but a monster sprouted instead because of the way he tended the seed.

Due to that, Rika left V for three main reason;

V opposed her idea on creating this everlasting paradise

She thought that V did not love her anymore because she thought V is disgusted with her monster side and the last thing she wanted was for V to leave her side

She knows what she did was wrong. She might be distorted, but she is good by nature. So when she realized she injured V severly, she is actually scared of herself. What if she hurt V even more in future?

And this is where everything went from what the fuck to what in the actual motherfucking fuck?

So instead of spilling the truth, V, being a chivalrous man he is, decided to keep it as a secret. He stated that the reason he kept it as a secret because he did not wish to put Rika under a dark impression. He wants Rika to be seen in her glorious days, as a brilliant young lady which everybody love and adore.

He decided to make Rika’s departure from RFA as her passing. He made up this story that Rika decided to take her own life. Jumped out the cliff, he said, so none of her remains were to be found.

I know RFA trusted this man 100%. But there’s a reason why Yoosung always doubt him, because I will certainly do, too.

First, do you think it is fair for the rest of RFA to be treated that way? To live their life in lies? I mean, come on, she’s basically everyone’s center. If someone that was that close to me, suddenly her fiancee come to us and said she took her own life but her body was never to be found, I would use every measure to fins her (I believe Jumin was loaded enough to do so). 

That aside, does V never consider the rest of RFA’s feeling in the first place? Does he think it was okay for him to lie to them? If only they did not discover the truth in Seven’s route, he will even keep it to himself. I could not help to feel that V is selfish, in a way he wants to keep Rika to herself. He is the one who Rika trust as a whole, and he’d like to keep it that way.

In Casual route, there’s no sign that Rika’s still alive. At the end of each casual route, V is always nowhere to be found. He is either not attending the party, announcing that he’s about to be blind, or just ‘let’s not discuss it now” / “I cannot tell you now”.

IMAGINE how betrayed everyone was when they found out that Rika was still alive and V decided to keep it as a secret. To make things worse, Rika even created this illegal cult. If they truly cared for Rika, I bet they would even love her and help her from her darkness. Hell, Rika was their savior in some way. I just don’t get the logic behind V keeping it from the rest.

For Zen and Jaehee, it might not be a significant lost, just a sense of disappointment. They’re not directly involved in Rika, emotion wise. Jaehee was merely Jumin’s assistant and she respected Rika. Zen was a bit closer to her, as Rika was his fan and the who ‘discovered’ Zen and help him with his career. But other than that, they did not share any emotion bond with Rika.

Yoosung though, he saw Rika as his own big sister. He saw her as his role model. He looked up to Rika a lot. So it is understandable that he was struggling after Rika’s passing, in the most unreasonable reason ever. Especially when Rika only showed her good personality. Who could accept that reason?

Sometimes, people said ignorance is a bliss and that is exactly what happened to each of their routes. They NEVER know. But that is the sad thing. They WILL never know. But if they WERE know the thing that happened behind their back, imagine how hurt they will be? Especially in Yoosung case, where he even get depressed over Rika.

Anyway, it gets even more disappointing for me for the deep route guys. If I were to talk in detail, it will take another dedicated post because it is a deep route hahaha I guess I was deeply attached to them (lol).

By know I guess everyone can grasp on how hurt Seven would feel. His brother was taken by someone that he trusted could take care of him. HIS FUCKING FAMILY. The only person in this universe that he share his blood with and his very existence is the most precious thing. Due to this stupid lover quarrel, Rika just fucking took him and drugged him so that he could work for her and made him hate his own brother. 

WHAT THE FUCK. This is a one sick lady. But whats even sicker is the fact that even knowing this, V did not give Seven any information. He just stick with “I can do this myself, so that none of the member will get hurt”. ITS HIS FUCKING TWIN BROTHER FOR ALL THE GOD’S SAKE. How stupid you could be?! He is more than entitled to know anything about Saeran. Even if love my s/o to death, if he done anything as outrageous as this, I would definitely call for help. This even involved other person’s closest relative!

Another thing to point out is why can’t Seven left any note to Saeran? I know it took awhile for Rika to take Saeran out of Seven and Saeran’s mother. But afterwards, when Saeran was under Rika and V’s care, he could leave a note to him. A simple post-it will do, if he was that scared to be traced. Let Saeran know that the reason he left first is to protect him. Why can’t he do this? I mean, its not like Seven never met V, if in this sense we put Rika under bad light.

Why does V think he is entitled to keep this as a secret? I could see why Seven was in rage when he found out about the whole truth when he about to rescue MC at Rika’s apartment. His reunion with his long lost brother was suppose to be sweet, but no, he was brainwashed and hate him to the core. And even when Seven asking for the truth, V still dare to lie.

But what is even more saddening is Jumin position. Surprised? Well, I guess it is unexpected as he is not a part of Secret Endings. He is constantly suppressing his emotions too. But that is even worse.

The fact that Jumin is V’s closest friend. In his route, Jumin even told MC that the only people that he could trust was V and Rika. I get that couple only share some things among themselves, but imagine how Jumin would feel when he knows two people he trusted the most turned out hiding such big secret? 

He trust V decision, always. When everybody seems to doubt V, he will be that very last person to agree with V. He will never hide anything from V, and even when V hides something from him, he will always said that “V’s always like that. I will trust his decision nevertheless”. The only thing that he didn’t tell V was probably he had feelings for Rika, too (fuck this thing. Jumin’s my man don’t you lay your hand on her Rika (lol)).

Speaking of that, Jumin was in fact treasure Rika, too. He claimed that Rika was that very few people that was able to make him open up and let him expressing his emotion.

He had feelings for Rika, but knowing that Rika never saw him that way and only love V, he suppressed his feelings and decided to just watch from far.

He even treasures Elizabeth the 3rd. Elizabeth the 3rd was so dear to him because it was from Rika, and V named her. The Jumin that we know now is head-over-heel over cat, but in his conversation with Rika on his route, he was not particularly interested in cats to begin with. Jumin’s fucking loaded, if he really likes cat, he could’ve bought the rarest breed of all and enjoy its beauty. But everything changed after Rika gave him Elizabeth the 3rd. He treasured every fragments Rika left him with. He didn’t even finish the book that Rika gave him.

So imagine, imagine it, my dear friend, how unfair his situation is. He already decided to be a bigger man and root for his best friend’s relationship. But turned out his most treasured people are keeping this huge secret. Imagine how disappointed he would feel when he knows Rika was brainwashing Saeran. Imagine how he would’ve felt when V decided to quit RFA on Seven’s route. Imagine how confused he would feel when V is always out of reach on everyone’s after ending. Imagine how painful it is for him to see Rika was beyond repair on V route, the two people he wished for happiness, turned out to be destroying each other?

Imagine how broken he would’ve felt when he attended V’s funeral at Secret End, knowing that his best friend’s own fiancee was the one who lead him to death, and the fact that he has to stay composed in this situation?

There’s a reason why I like Jumin so much. Not only his capability on stay logical (though sometimes can be interpreted as emotionless), but the fact that he never beats around the bush. He never sugar-coat his words (except during his route when he acts like a stupid love bird—no complain about this tho). 

Yes, he is not perfect, even on his route he could be irrational sometimes with his obsessiveness. But knowing his upbringing and his background, its understandable he’s acting this way. But in the end he even tried to overcome it and when V came, he believed in V almost immediately. Even when MC’s life was somewhat along the line.

That is how much he trusted V and how deeply he cared for him.

V, on the other hand, was so drowned on his own ideology of protecting everyone to even notice this. Do you think its fair? Does he thinks its right for him to keep the truth from everyone, when Jumin’s always there for him?

Jumin is even willing to go extra mile for V. I guess sadly V doesn’t see Jumin in the same light.

I know this post somewhat treating V as the main villain. I swear, on V route I tried to save him like everyone else. Rika was truly a sick woman on his route. I really loathe her. As Seven said, she was beyond repair. But again, I couldn’t help to feel sick over the fact that both Rika and V are still hiding Saeran/Ray’s existence, even when Saeran blow himself, ON SEVEN’S AWARENESS.

Even under this fiasco, V never tell anything to anyone. He didn’t even tell MC as far as I know.

Ray... he was the main victim. He was tossed here and there without him able to control his own consciousness due to the drug.

I don’t want to blame V. I really want to hate Rika because Cheritz created this character for us to hate to begin with. But then again, I can’t help to think that the root of this problem is both of them. Both of them acted like they want to save people, how they don’t want to bring pain to innocent souls, but in the end, with their lies and their acting like a goody two shoes,

how many souls did they hurt?

[mindsharemena]

IG Stories: Best Practices

When Instagram first launched Stories, they probably did not imagine how it will change the way people use social media. This new platform within a platform took the internet by storm with over 500 million users per day, as per this Hootsuite Blog. Stories promise an immersive experience that prioritizes user experience thanks to its vertical orientation and easy gestures to skip, pause, go back, exit, or just keep viewing. In other words, it is a mobile-first trend.

To further empower and keep stories trendy and appealing, Instagram is constantly working on new features with lots of fun and engaging stickers – with the latest ones being the Join Chat sticker and the Stop-Motion camera effect. Business-wise, ads within stories later became a crucial placement for almost all online marketing campaigns for the below reasons:

-          High reach potential

-          Immersive and native look

-          Specific appeal to millennials

-          Ability to include various call-to-action buttons and redirect users to specific pages

-          Wide range of available stickers, GIFs, camera filters & effects, and customizable text

-          Promotion under different ad objectives

Now that we’ve given you a refresher as to why stories have become wide-spread and popular, we will move on to share some of our experience for best practices to using stories.

1-      Always add a CTA button:

Organically, this feature is limited to business accounts with at least 10K followers or have the verification sign. However, such a button can be always included while promoting a story. This is an especially important feature that brands can make use of to redirect users to the destination of their choice based on their business objectives.

Brands can choose from a list of CTA options including send message, apply now, download, learn more, shop now, see menu, and listen now – among others. The advertiser would then specify the link they want users to redirect to, be it their website, Instagram profile, WhatsApp for business account, or roughly anywhere.

By leveraging this interactive swipe-up link, brands can increase traffic, engagement, and awareness for any part of their business.

Tip: to ensure a seamless experience, try choosing a mobile-first link

2-      Keep your message as concise and clear as possible

People nowadays have a short attention span; this is a well-known fact. Unless they’re hooked from the first couple of seconds (in case of a video), they won’t watch it till the end. Therefore, it is crucial to make sure you deliver your primary message in the first couple of seconds and include a branding element so the user can easily recognize your brand.

In case of an image, the story must be visually appealing with an eye-friendly combination of colors, text and elements, because the user should be able to efficiently grasp the message, relate to it, and take the needed action.

Tip: When you’re done creating your story, sleep on it, then ask yourself: Do I clearly understand the message? Is my brand clearly incorporated? As a user, would I swipe up? Would I pause to look at it while checking my friends’ stories? If you answer with a no to any of those questions, you may want to rethink the final preview.  

 3-      Limit your elements

Too much accessories in a story can be distracting. There’s absolutely no need to add a GIF, poll, glowing text and a hashtag in one story, for example. Think of your message, which one of the available stickers primarily helps get your point across? Sometimes, just a hashtag smartly embedded into your visual will suffice.

If you want your followers to engage, consider including a chat, poll, question, quiz, or an emoji meter. If you feel like the location in which story was taken in is important, feel free to include a geolocation tag. While hashtags can be your go-to option to add branding to your story or make users more aware of a certain campaign.

Tip: leverage the ruler guidelines to align and center your elements  

 4-      To carousel or not to carousel?

As previously noted, users are not always inclined to fully watch a story. Unless you have an awesome story-telling carousel that is guaranteed to hook users from start to finish, we advise against using a carousel, as odds are users won’t tap forward and will directly swipe left instead.

Click here to learn more about carousel IG Story ads on Instagram

Tip: if you are going for a carousel, add “tap forward” text to encourage users to see the next story card.

 5-      Reposts

This is the brands’ opportunity to encourage and utilize user generated content. Not only are reposts valuable content that fill empty slots in calendars with no great effort from the social media marketer, they also make the brand closer and more relatable to users. When fans tag the brand in their stories, you will automatically have the option to add it in stories and add whatever accessory you deem necessary to your brand’s image or aesthetic appeal.    

Reposts also help keep the account active I the time period between feed posts.

Tip: keep a balance between reposts and native content to avoid having one type overshadow the other

 6-      Posting frequency

It is always advisable that feed posts do not exceed the limit of 10 per month or an average of 2-3 per week, that’s because we don’t want users to be bombarded with so much content that they just lose interest in the brand altogether. However, this is does not particularly apply to stories.  As discussed in the previous points, stories have a more native feel and the wide array of accessories makes them more interactive, and consequently more fun to encounter. With that said, our recommended minimum number for stories (regular visuals, not reposts) is 8 per month or around 2 per week. In cases of new launches, events, or campaigns, we can go as higher as needed.

Tip: There’s no size fits all. It all depends on your brand’s size, reach, field, audience, and themes direction.

Nour El Hoss,

Social Media Executive,

Mindshare MENA.

[kingotabek]

In The Blood (I See You) ...[Mafia!AU Part Two]

SO. First thing I’ve written in  month and I already banged out part two wOW. I hope you like the direction this is going. I may complete it somehow before I add it to my ao3..so I ask you to pls not repost anywhere only reblog! 

Otayuri | Mafia!AU | Some Violence (but not really in this part tehe) 

[Part One]

Yuri scrubs his hands off in the bathroom sink, soapy red hitting the porcelain base like a morose Jackson Pollock. He stares at it while he waits. It takes five solid rings before Victor’s voice chirps through the phone pressed between between his ear and shoulder. “I thought I told you to call me as soon as my man arrived, Yura. Am I to suspect something went awry?” “It’s barely been an hour, Victor.” Yuri snorts, shaking the last of the water from his fingers and turning the sink off. “And I wasn’t really in a position to call when he showed up.” "Yurio." Victor tuts through the line. It sounds like an auditory representation of his unbearable personality. "If I'm being honest I'm surprised you called at all." "Why wouldn't I?" Yuri decides to play coy. Victor may be unbearable, but he isn't stupid. "You never do." Victor says crisply, with just a bit too much coyness himself. "I can only assume you either have something urgent to tell me, or you want something and you're going to try to get it without asking directly." Definitely not stupid, Yuri thinks as he flicks the light off and finally grips the phone in his fingers. "Your man doesn't know I was expecting him." He chooses his words carefully, reluctantly. "Next time, I don't want to have to expect him." "You want him assigned to you?" Victor accompanies his question with a light laugh. "I'm sorry, but Otabek is a free agent." "Bullshit. No one in this lifestyle is a free agent." "I admire your outlook on life, truly, but he actually is." The amusement is draining from Victor's voice finally, and Yuri knows a deal is about to be brokered just by the way his tone hardens.  "But perhaps there is a way I could convince him to work for you. I would just require one-- "Small favor." Yuri cuts him off and finishes the statement for him. It's too familiar at this point, so... redundant. Victor always deals in 'small favors' that are never truly small. More complicated; messy, but never small. He takes a moment to consider the worth of what he's doing-- the worth of being even further under Nikiforov’s thumb-- and almost decides to hang up the phone. Fresh thoughts of smooth honey-tan skin, dark under-cut hair, and brown eyes that were able to hold Yuri's own without the hint of fear or faltering, are the only things that stop him. Add all the leather Otabek had been sporting to the equation, and the image built is of a man Yuri finds too intriguing to let go of so easily. Even if Victor can't help, plans are already forming. One way or another, Yuri will see Otabek again, if only to find out his secrets. No one with a gaze that steady is just a cleanup man. A sigh from Victor breaks Yuri out of his thoughts, and his mouth is moving before he can think any further. "Give me a name Victor, and I'll lend you my claws."

[Part One] | [Part Three]

[simplemlmsponsoring]

New Post has been published on http://simplemlmsponsoring.com/attraction-marketing-formula/internet-marketing/the-ridiculously-useful-guide-to-snapchat-ads/

The Ridiculously Useful Guide to Snapchat Ads

Advertising on Snapchat has proven to be highly lucrative and, honestly, a lot of fun. Our team of paid acquisition specialists are particularly well versed in the importance of locking down a swipe up in six seconds or less. Though we may have originally underestimated the value of Snapchat, as the fast-moving social media introduced advertising for SMBs through a self-serve platform, we got back onboard the Snap bandwagon.

The 18- to 24-year-old age group continues to be drawn to Snapchat, despite rumors that the platform was being vacated by influencers. In fact, 186 million people use Snapchat every day, creating 3 billion snaps per day.  If you are trying to advertise to this younger demographic, start with Snapchat.

In this guide, you’ll learn everything you need to know about Snapchat ads, including how to:

Define your campaign goals Choose a Snapchat ad format Target your audience on Snapchat Measure your success

Define Your Snapchat Campaign Goals

Like other social platforms, Snap has a few different advertising offerings to choose from. Depending on your goals and budget, Snapchat advertising provides different attachment types to effectively increase your ROI. Here’s a breakdown of each campaign goal that Snapchat can help you accomplish.

Brand Awareness and Video Views

This is the simplest way to advertise on Snapchat, because you’re only asking users to watch a video – an action they are already in the app to do. Keep it short and sweet! Insider tip: Snapchat advertisers report that ad fatigue is far higher on Snapchat than other social advertising platforms. To avoid this, make a few different versions of your video ads.

Web Views and Conversions

Pushing prospects to your website and down the sales funnel to a conversion through Snapchat advertising is probably the most popular way to advertising goal for this platform. If you are a Snapchat user, you’ve absolutely been served ads that encourage you to swipe up, read more, or check out the site.

Lead Generation

For those trying to expand the top of your marketing funnel, Snapchat advertising has you covered. You can create ads within Ad Manager to drive users to download, form fill, or register.

App Installs and Engagement

Snapchat advertising is uniquely targeted to mobile users in ways that Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and others can relate to but never quite imitate. Use this to your advantage when building out a Snap advertising campaign! You know that if a user is opening, viewing, or swiping up on a snap, they are on their phone. Your prospects are inches of touchscreen away from the app store – or a tap away from a deep link placing them right where you want them in-app, but more on that in a minute.

Importantly, Snapchat advertising recently introduced down-funnel event tracking, from app installs to opens and conversions in-app. Use this with your third-party tracking platform to accurately measure the success of your campaigns.

Deep Linking in Snapchat Ads

Deep linking! A phenomenon that swept the mobile advertising world a few years ago, deep linking allows a user to land in a section of a mobile application. Snapchat advertising allows marketers to deep link from their ad into their app, bringing users exactly where you would want them. Be sure to test deep links against your run-of-the-mill links; you might be surprised at the results.

Brand Engagement

Almost half of college students on Snapchat would open a snap from a brand they didn’t know; almost three-quarters would open a snap from a brand they did know. Most of them are looking for discounts or promotions and are open to purchasing after viewing a product via Snapchat. The door to brand engagement is already wide open, your social media acquisition specialists just need to walk through it.

Catalog Sales

I’m not talking about your mother’s Land’s End in the mailbox – Snapchat advertising is bringing catalogs into a whole new age. With the release of Collection Ads, Snapchat now allows advertisers to drive catalog sales through a phone screen. Shoppers officially spend more time on their mobile devices than a desktop. Don’t fall behind the times!

Snapchat Ad Formats

When Snapchatters see advertising within the app, it feels seamless, which is a nod to their brand designers. Once you’ve determined your goals for Snapchat campaigns, you should consider which types of ads would work best to reach and engage your audience. The good news? Each of these formats is versatile! Pick your poison.

Snap Ads: The Basics

Snap Ads come in a variety of flavors, but what you should be thinking when you hear “Snap Ad” or “Top Snap” is your typical advertisement that prompts you to swipe up. Whether it is in a snap story or in the discover tab, the main point of action that snapchat advertising drives is a swipe. These live within stories and can drive users to a website, an app, a video, AR lens, or the app store.

These ads are 3-10 seconds in length, and make sure to follow Snapchat advertising restrictions when you set them up:

Upload a 1080 x 1920 px JPEG or PNG image, that will be converted into a 5 second video for a photo to video conversion Remember that if you add an attachment to your Snap Ad, Snapchat will apply a call to action and caret at the bottom of the advertisement Always include a brand name that matches the paying advertiser and a headline Format for full screen and vertical Make sure your ad is appropriate for viewers 13 years old and up

Story Ads

Snapchat Story Ads allow advertisers to place a branded tile in the Discover section of the Snapchat application. When users tap the tile, it opens into a collection of ads, anywhere between three and twenty placements. For this type of ad, Snapchat lays out the design for you, based on assets you deliver. You’ll need:

A headline, up to 34 characters A brand name, up to 25 characters Attachments, if you’re optimizing for a swipe up And individual files for each Snap Ad within the story

Snapchat Story Ads are a branded content experience, not unlike playable or rewarded ads. Creating a narrative that will quickly engage users is your highest priority; don’t bother with an introduction! Dive right into it!

Snapchat Filters

I would bet that every Snapchat advertiser wishes that they could have designed the dog-face filter; imagine the reposts that drive monumental brand awareness. Though native to Snapchat, that filter is a fitting example of what advertisers should emulate when creating their own. These filters should represent your brand in a fun, relevant way. When designing and purchasing Snapchat filters, keep your customers in mind: Where will they will be using these? Why should they?

And remember these specs:

1080 by 2340-pixel image 300 KB or less PNG with transparent background 210-pixel buffer zone at the top and bottom of the screen for larger phones 74 pixels for the send arrow 32 pixels for the “sponsored” designation Portrait orientation Should occupy less than 25% of the screen

Finally, KISS (keep it simple, stupid). Try not to fill the Snapchat filter with dense, deep graphics. Give the people what they want!

AR Lenses

Lenses are monetizing a classic Snapchat interaction. Users were first drawn to Snapchat because of the amusing (and flattering) filters at their disposal – who doesn’t want everyone to see them in perfect lighting?! This ad type allows brands to create interactive moments through augmented reality. Snapchatters can flip up sunglasses, stick out their dog tongue, shake their head to reveal a robot underneath, all with a brand logo stuck in the corner.

There are two types of lenses, the Face Lens and World Lens. Face Lenses feature innovative technology to recognize a user’s eyes, mouth, and head to transform into the characters your brand creates. A World Lens detects your location to map the environment around you. Users can use the rear-facing camera (aka the normal camera) to view their world through a different light. 

While there are some logical restrictions on the content of your lens (don’t use profanity or change the user’s race or skin color, etc.), the world is your oyster when it comes to these Snapchat ads. Some best practices to keep in mind:

Lenses must feature your brand logo or name, but make sure not to obscure the face of the user. Snapchat recommends placing it in the top right or left corner. Snapchat will add a “SPONSORED” tag to the ad, which will appear for two seconds before disappearing.

Collection Ads

In Snapchat’s most recent development of their programmatic offering, they rolled out Collection Ads! These ads allow advertisers to showcase a series of products. This ad type also gives users a fun, seamless way to shop and buy. If you haven’t seen a Collection Ad in real life yet, it is a basic Snapchat video ad with a ribbon of thumbnail-sized products at the bottom.

Collection Ads can be created based on a product catalog, allowing the products featured to be dynamic, or they can be created manually with uploaded tile images. Because this ad type has more pieces than just a simple Snap Ad, there are more requirements to fill out within Ads Manager. They’ll ask for unique links, calls to action, and swipe up URLs, and then Snap will apply the “AD” denotation.

Targeting through Snapchat Advertising

Now that you’ve defined your campaign goals and started to create your ads, you’ll want to set up audience targeting so that these ads appear for your ideal prospects. Like Facebook, you can reach Snapchat users based on a crazy number of categories. Unlike Facebook, Snapchat will tell you exactly where this data is coming from – whether it is Comscore, Nielsen, Placed, Datalogix, or any other data provider. This means that you can get super specific: you can target Fox News viewers, moms with kids in high school, recent visitors of an autobody shop, people with an interest in craft beer – there are countless possibilities.

For Filter and Lens ads, you’ll be prompted to select a location, but you can layer location onto other Snapchat ads, as well. Snapchat Ads Manager allows you to select a state, city, or zip code, or you can set a radius around a certain location.

Finally, like their social advertising counterparts, Snapchat allows marketers to create custom audiences and lookalikes. Lookalikes can be based on a file from your own CRM of prospects or website visitors. Custom audiences can target the same people – visitors or prospects – and retarget Snapchatters that have already engaged with your ads.

Measuring Success through Snapchat Advertising

While every platform advertises a suite of analytics, Snapchat’s might be my favorite. While staying on brand – everything is yellow! – they highlight segments that interact with your ads, even if you did not include those specific segments in the campaign. By increasing the relevance of your campaigns, you are improving the user experience and saving money. Basically, the platform helps you improve your campaign targeting and cut down costs. It’s a win-win-win for advertisers, Snapchat, and Snapchatters.

Pay attention to these stats! In the campaign highlighted above, Snapchat let us know that Shoppers, Liquor & Spirits Drinkers, and Shopping Mall Shoppers (how specific is that?!) were most likely to swipe up on the advertisement. By narrowing our scope to those specific segments – and cutting down on females and android users – we were able to decrease the cost-pe-swipe up by a couple of cents. Two pennies don’t seem like that big of a deal, but two pennies 600,000 times? That makes a dent.

Now, Go and Get Snapping!

All in all, Snapchat has a robust advertising platform, through which you can control your own destiny using their Ads Manager. If you’re a direct-to-consumer brands, give it a try. It’s cheap, fun, and maybe you’ll see success!

Read more: wordstream.com

[marcellemus015-blog]

I would like You To do this

To create a Showcase Web page, go to your company Page and click on "Handle web page." Then, at the highest, click on "Admin Instruments," and choose "Create a Showcase Web page." Find extra information about Showcase Pages here. Also, when people advocate you, repost their feedback as a company update. In case you are actively job hunting or promoting yourself or your product (Or firm) then an update day by day or two isn't a nasty thought. Any firm who wants to get into this phase ought to make its mantra to get a job for each individual. Suggestions Acquired - Who wrote the recommendations? And, if that is the case, than you can use LinkedIn's networking idea to realize attain of anyone on this planet who can also be taking part, simply via the regulation of six degrees of separation. Fb and Twitter are far too informative, nevertheless LinkedIn is the very best crucial position towards be for small enterprise networking. To the left of every person’s profile image, there is a small field you can choose.

There are so many things that you can do along with your LinkedIn profile and you can actually leverage LinkedIn's many helpful options to advance your business and to grow what you are promoting connections. Add your LinkedIn electronic mail handle to your profile to make it easier for individuals to ask you. It not solely makes things a lot easier for you but in addition helps you scale back total advertising costs which would have been far more should you have been to decide on above the road media. Social media contributors look for helpful, relevant and entertaining data. And if you need further help on what to write down and the way to distribute it, I can help with that too both by way of our month-to-month Social Blast membership program or individual enterprise and advertising mentoring. You might also consider including it to personal web sites, blogs and other acceptable social media. Many bloggers and information media web sites monetize by means of banner promoting.

This means that your dialogue or content material isn’t appropriate for work, i.e. your boss would discover it inappropriate. All of this just implies that as the buying journey begins on-line, your probabilities of getting found and having a shot at a good dialog are minimal at finest. You need to use LinkedIn to get new shoppers and to appropriate the organization's scheme, and to see what your opponents are doing. A part of serving to others will be helping them use LinkedIn. Listed here are ten methods in which we are able to use LinkedIn in our pursuit for the suitable career. The foundations aren't black and white, however if you want to develop your LinkedIn database make sure that to decide on the proper shade of gray. With over 10,000 connections, my standing updates receive legendary buy linkedin accounts with connections publish engagement. The most tough part of this was getting the knowledge into the put up! Basically, it’s giving folks the knowledge that they need, when they want it, and doing it persistently at scale.

In your search bar at the highest of the LinkedIn page, click on the drop-down next to the search bar and choose people. Some of the highest businesses equivalent to ABC or Dell can offer you nice perception on what it takes to achieve success and what you should be doing. Right here is what you need to be doing first. This you'll find anywhere on the earth. You will discover the exact individuals you might be searching for. With that in mind, there are three types of posts that work best in carrying out this objective. A device like Fanpage Karma can allow you to establish the most well-liked posts in your area of interest. Private biased aside, that's loads you are able to do with only a tiny bit extra effort that will be lots simpler than paying for numbers. Spending lot of time with none guarantee is a tedious process. You possibly can go back to it you probably have something to add at a later time or anything that's not related that you simply want to delete. Except that people choose to add you to their lists, in the event that they feel you share quality and value, so their people see your tweets.

[mariemary1]

How to Advertise on Craigslist Effectively

I hear it all the time.

“How can I spread the word about my business if I don’t have a budget?”

One way, is to leverage your ability to advertise on Craigslist.

I’m sure you are asking yourself, “Is this guy nuts? Can I get any real business from Craigslist?”.

The answer is almost always YES!

Understanding the Marketing Potential on Craigslist

Ok, you’re right. Every business isn’t going to kill it with some craigslist posts.

You would be surprised how many will though.

If you are an attorney that deals with business litigation, yeah this isn’t for you.

A painter or a plumber however, get ready for lots of free business leads if you advertise on craigslist.

Of course every lead isn’t going to be a homerun either, although some niches deliver solid gold.

How to Advertise on Craigslist

Craigslist marketing might seem hard, but is a fairly simple and straightforward process that anyone can do. The key is in the posting regimen.

If you have a quick peruse through your local services section on craigslist, you will quickly see how many businesses are using this tactic.

When posting, the thing to remember is that you can only post 2 new ads, every other day. Additionally, you can repost one old post, and renew every post.

Ready to learn how?

Get Your Own Account

In order to start posting ads on craigslist, you need to get a phone verified account. Head on over and sign up.

Once you have signed up, go ahead and click your location. You should have a screen similar to this, but with your area listed.

Before we actually post, I want to go over a couple details to keep your account safe and your ads live.

You can only post to the cities listed from within your account. (seen in orange in image above – yours will be different)

Only 2 new ads can be placed every other day

Repost 1 expired post every other day

Renew all eligible posts every other day

It is important that you follow the posting maximums in order to effectively advertise on craigslist. They will let you believe you are getting 5 or more posts out per day. And they will show you the live posts.

It happens through the use of a technique called ghosting. Essentially, they show you the live ad. Only you though. It’s junk, spammed, blocked, outskie! But they let you think it’s all good.

Eventually, they will block every post from you and possibly ban your account.

Follow the directions for posting laid forth here and you will have a whole page of live ads within 2 months.

Admittedly, this account shows some slacking. Normally, it would be a full green page and yours can be too.

Where to Advertise on Craigslist

As in the first note above, you can only post to the cities that are located in your area. Your area, is the area you were in when you signed up.

You can get away with posting to any city listed, but I like to keep it to a few. Generally the largest cities in your area will be the best option.

A decent sized city with no competition can also be a gold mine. Essentially, every area can generate leads.

Bigger cities equal bigger numbers of course though.

Making Your First Post

An easy way to make a post is to simply click “post to classifieds”. I want to get you used to using the “my account” button instead, since we will always have renewals anyway.

Go ahead and click my account now.

This takes you to the main area of your account. To create our first post, we need to choose our city from the dropdown (#2 in figure).

The dropdown is every city, not just your region. Be sure that you do not choose a city outside your area mentioned earlier.

Once you have your city selected, click the “go” button.

Choose a Post Type

On this screen, you choose the post type. In most cases, you will choose “service offered” or maybe “gig offered” depending on what you will advertise on craigslist.

One thing to keep in mind. You can post an ad anywhere. The more “out of place” viewers find it though, the more likely it gets flagged.

Flagging happens, but our goal is live ads. The more we do to slide by those that like to flag people, the better so let’s play nice.

Once you choose your post type, click “continue”. The next step is choosing a post category for your craigslist ad.

Choose a Post Category

The selection shown is the result of choosing services offered, as mentioned earlier. As you can see, the selection is large to accommodate many types of services.

Go ahead and choose one that makes sense to you. For instance, if you are an HVAC contractor, it wouldn’t make much sense to post in the “writing/editing/translation section”.

Real estate services would be a great spot though. You could also use just about any other section in this list. The reason, any business posting in those sections also has a home or business location that needs heat!

This wouldn’t be the same for many other business types though.

Now, it’s time to actually build our ad.

The Anatomy of a Craigslist Ad

A craigslist ad has 3 entries that must be made in order to complete a listing.

The posting title

The postal code

The posting body

Choosing the Title to Advertise on Craigslist

The title is the most important part of any craigslist ad (#1). It is the clickable link in the sea of other mundane ads.

You have to make it stand out. I don’t mean pasting a bunch of bull shit peace signs either.

Is it ok to drop 1 entity, sure. The ace of spades always draws a look. But don’t over do it.

Add the Zip Code

One thing to note here, this isn’t your personal zip code (#2). This should go without saying, but I will make light of it anyway.

If you are posting to another city in your region, make sure you use an appropriate zip code.

Yes, that may mean searching for the zip code of a city if you don’t know it. Remember, it’s free marketing, not effortless marketing.

Make Your Posting Body SEO Friendly

The same could be said of the title as both are searchable. The posting body (#3) can only be seen once a user clicks through to the ad though.

Make a body with a lot of content. Use terms relevant to your trade and your area.

Perhaps the most important part of the title and description is focus. Your ads needs a reason.

If you want to generate leads from your ads, SOLVE PROBLEMS!

Yeah, it isn’t about you. Put your name out there, but do so in a smart way.

People are searching for service providers on craigslist because they want someone local to them. And they likely don’t want a giant chain company.

They want the little guy. They need you!

Additional Craigslist Ad Details

As mentioned, there are 3 must fill fields on the craigslist ad.

There are several others though, that you may fill out if you like.

The “specific location” field allows you to enter a city, town, or actually anything. You can use a keyword, although I don’t think it will have any benefit aside from being visible on the listing.

Next is the license section, a radio checkbox. This makes sense for some fields such as various home contractors.

After that, you can enter contact information that is only visible when the viewer clicks the “reply” button.

You can see a screenshot of the information as it lives on an ad. The personal contact information on this ad has been blurred for privacy purposes.

The reason this method of entering contact information is simple. It can’t get scraped.

If you click “reply”, you will be forced to enter a captcha and prove you are not a bot. That’s great since you don’t want your info everywhere to post these ads.

After all, you do get enough spam already right?

The final section is the “show on maps” area. You may enter a location if it makes sense. Brick and mortar locations would surely want to take advantage. If not, unselect the box.

Add Your Images

The images are sometimes the most important piece of the ad. Depending on what you advertise, you could earn their trust right now.

Key takeaways for images are simple. If it doesn’t add to the overall trust of your brand, don’t show it. You can enter up to 24 images.

That being said, some people will not click an ad with no thumbnail, so consider adding a square high resolution logo for your brand.

When complete, click “done with images”.

Preview Your Craigslist Ad

This is the preview screen, which allows you to take a look at what the live ad will display like.

Make sure that you read through the title and description to check for errors.

For this post, I quickly put up a post. Your screenshot should have a solid title of more length.

And your posting body should look like an article! No kidding, don’t be afraid to drop a text bomb in here.

The key is to make the very beginning to the point so a reader can get “the jist” right away.

Once you are done, go ahead and click “publish”.

Go Rinse and Repeat

You did it! Your first free advertisement of craigslist is officially live on the internet. Now go do it again!

After all, I said you could do it 2 times right? You get those two chances today, and many more free chances in the future so take advantage.

Let’s Repost an Expired Listing

Craigslist posts only have a lifetime of 45 days. Once they expire, they are listed below your live ads in your account. They aren’t dead though.

Click “repost” next to your chosen ad. On the next screen, scroll down and click continue. Finally, click the publish button to repost the ad to live status.

You can repost (#3) 1 ad every other day. There is an exception though, it can’t be a duplicate.

For instance, you have 2 expired ads from your first day. You can repost one of them each time when they become eligible. You can not repost any more than one time though.

Be careful too, you will get away with it. Eventually, maybe even immediately the ad will get ghosted. A mistake is reasonable, but a habit is bad.

What I mean, you may get lucky once but I would just be careful to avoid this. It can happen since reposting an expired ad does not remove it from the expired list.

Don’t Forget to Renew Your Old Posts

We touched on this before. It’s listed as #4 above, the renewal process.

An ad on craigslist has a “new shelf life” of 48 hours. After that, you can renew the listing and get it lifted to the top of the pile.

When I say 48 hours, I mean that many. Good practices is to do this first thing when you wake up on day 1. Every other day, start a minute or more later than last time to ensure you can post new ads and renew old ones in the same visit.

The renewal process is simple, just click the link. That brings up a screen such as the one below.

You simply need to click your username in the upper right corner to get back out to the dashboard. Renew every post in your list.

Use Craigslist to Make it Rain

When you start to advertise on craigslist, you will quickly start to make short work of the task. In just a couple minutes while your coffee cools, you can have the job done.

Keeping a spreadsheet of ads and ideas can help speed up the process. Better yet, you could get someone else doing this for you! Let us know if you need help with this or any other local digital marketing services.

I apologize for not having the time to open comments on these posts. Feel free to hit me up on social media if you have any questions. Maybe you could help out and share this post as well.

The post How to Advertise on Craigslist Effectively appeared first on Cloud Inspector Web Design.

How to Advertise on Craigslist Effectively published first on http://www.cloudinspectorwd.com/

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How to Advertise on Craigslist Effectively

I hear it all the time.

“How can I spread the word about my business if I don’t have a budget?”

One way, is to leverage your ability to advertise on Craigslist.

I’m sure you are asking yourself, “Is this guy nuts? Can I get any real business from Craigslist?”.

The answer is almost always YES!

Understanding the Marketing Potential on Craigslist

Ok, you’re right. Every business isn’t going to kill it with some craigslist posts.

You would be surprised how many will though.

If you are an attorney that deals with business litigation, yeah this isn’t for you.

A painter or a plumber however, get ready for lots of free business leads if you advertise on craigslist.

Of course every lead isn’t going to be a homerun either, although some niches deliver solid gold.

How to Advertise on Craigslist

Craigslist marketing might seem hard, but is a fairly simple and straightforward process that anyone can do. The key is in the posting regimen.

If you have a quick peruse through your local services section on craigslist, you will quickly see how many businesses are using this tactic.

When posting, the thing to remember is that you can only post 2 new ads, every other day. Additionally, you can repost one old post, and renew every post.

Ready to learn how?

Get Your Own Account

In order to start posting ads on craigslist, you need to get a phone verified account. Head on over and sign up.

Once you have signed up, go ahead and click your location. You should have a screen similar to this, but with your area listed.

Before we actually post, I want to go over a couple details to keep your account safe and your ads live.

You can only post to the cities listed from within your account. (seen in orange in image above – yours will be different)

Only 2 new ads can be placed every other day

Repost 1 expired post every other day

Renew all eligible posts every other day

It is important that you follow the posting maximums in order to effectively advertise on craigslist. They will let you believe you are getting 5 or more posts out per day. And they will show you the live posts.

It happens through the use of a technique called ghosting. Essentially, they show you the live ad. Only you though. It’s junk, spammed, blocked, outskie! But they let you think it’s all good.

Eventually, they will block every post from you and possibly ban your account.

Follow the directions for posting laid forth here and you will have a whole page of live ads within 2 months.

Admittedly, this account shows some slacking. Normally, it would be a full green page and yours can be too.

Where to Advertise on Craigslist

As in the first note above, you can only post to the cities that are located in your area. Your area, is the area you were in when you signed up.

You can get away with posting to any city listed, but I like to keep it to a few. Generally the largest cities in your area will be the best option.

A decent sized city with no competition can also be a gold mine. Essentially, every area can generate leads.

Bigger cities equal bigger numbers of course though.

Making Your First Post

An easy way to make a post is to simply click “post to classifieds”. I want to get you used to using the “my account” button instead, since we will always have renewals anyway.

Go ahead and click my account now.

This takes you to the main area of your account. To create our first post, we need to choose our city from the dropdown (#2 in figure).

The dropdown is every city, not just your region. Be sure that you do not choose a city outside your area mentioned earlier.

Once you have your city selected, click the “go” button.

Choose a Post Type

On this screen, you choose the post type. In most cases, you will choose “service offered” or maybe “gig offered” depending on what you will advertise on craigslist.

One thing to keep in mind. You can post an ad anywhere. The more “out of place” viewers find it though, the more likely it gets flagged.

Flagging happens, but our goal is live ads. The more we do to slide by those that like to flag people, the better so let’s play nice.

Once you choose your post type, click “continue”. The next step is choosing a post category for your craigslist ad.

Choose a Post Category

The selection shown is the result of choosing services offered, as mentioned earlier. As you can see, the selection is large to accommodate many types of services.

Go ahead and choose one that makes sense to you. For instance, if you are an HVAC contractor, it wouldn’t make much sense to post in the “writing/editing/translation section”.

Real estate services would be a great spot though. You could also use just about any other section in this list. The reason, any business posting in those sections also has a home or business location that needs heat!

This wouldn’t be the same for many other business types though.

Now, it’s time to actually build our ad.

The Anatomy of a Craigslist Ad

A craigslist ad has 3 entries that must be made in order to complete a listing.

The posting title

The postal code

The posting body

Choosing the Title to Advertise on Craigslist

The title is the most important part of any craigslist ad (#1). It is the clickable link in the sea of other mundane ads.

You have to make it stand out. I don’t mean pasting a bunch of bull shit peace signs either.

Is it ok to drop 1 entity, sure. The ace of spades always draws a look. But don’t over do it.

Add the Zip Code

One thing to note here, this isn’t your personal zip code (#2). This should go without saying, but I will make light of it anyway.

If you are posting to another city in your region, make sure you use an appropriate zip code.

Yes, that may mean searching for the zip code of a city if you don’t know it. Remember, it’s free marketing, not effortless marketing.

Make Your Posting Body SEO Friendly

The same could be said of the title as both are searchable. The posting body (#3) can only be seen once a user clicks through to the ad though.

Make a body with a lot of content. Use terms relevant to your trade and your area.

Perhaps the most important part of the title and description is focus. Your ads needs a reason.

If you want to generate leads from your ads, SOLVE PROBLEMS!

Yeah, it isn’t about you. Put your name out there, but do so in a smart way.

People are searching for service providers on craigslist because they want someone local to them. And they likely don’t want a giant chain company.

They want the little guy. They need you!

Additional Craigslist Ad Details

As mentioned, there are 3 must fill fields on the craigslist ad.

There are several others though, that you may fill out if you like.

The “specific location” field allows you to enter a city, town, or actually anything. You can use a keyword, although I don’t think it will have any benefit aside from being visible on the listing.

Next is the license section, a radio checkbox. This makes sense for some fields such as various home contractors.

After that, you can enter contact information that is only visible when the viewer clicks the “reply” button.

You can see a screenshot of the information as it lives on an ad. The personal contact information on this ad has been blurred for privacy purposes.

The reason this method of entering contact information is simple. It can’t get scraped.

If you click “reply”, you will be forced to enter a captcha and prove you are not a bot. That’s great since you don’t want your info everywhere to post these ads.

After all, you do get enough spam already right?

The final section is the “show on maps” area. You may enter a location if it makes sense. Brick and mortar locations would surely want to take advantage. If not, unselect the box.

Add Your Images

The images are sometimes the most important piece of the ad. Depending on what you advertise, you could earn their trust right now.

Key takeaways for images are simple. If it doesn’t add to the overall trust of your brand, don’t show it. You can enter up to 24 images.

That being said, some people will not click an ad with no thumbnail, so consider adding a square high resolution logo for your brand.

When complete, click “done with images”.

Preview Your Craigslist Ad

This is the preview screen, which allows you to take a look at what the live ad will display like.

Make sure that you read through the title and description to check for errors.

For this post, I quickly put up a post. Your screenshot should have a solid title of more length.

And your posting body should look like an article! No kidding, don’t be afraid to drop a text bomb in here.

The key is to make the very beginning to the point so a reader can get “the jist” right away.

Once you are done, go ahead and click “publish”.

Go Rinse and Repeat

You did it! Your first free advertisement of craigslist is officially live on the internet. Now go do it again!

After all, I said you could do it 2 times right? You get those two chances today, and many more free chances in the future so take advantage.

Let’s Repost an Expired Listing

Craigslist posts only have a lifetime of 45 days. Once they expire, they are listed below your live ads in your account. They aren’t dead though.

Click “repost” next to your chosen ad. On the next screen, scroll down and click continue. Finally, click the publish button to repost the ad to live status.

You can repost (#3) 1 ad every other day. There is an exception though, it can’t be a duplicate.

For instance, you have 2 expired ads from your first day. You can repost one of them each time when they become eligible. You can not repost any more than one time though.

Be careful too, you will get away with it. Eventually, maybe even immediately the ad will get ghosted. A mistake is reasonable, but a habit is bad.

What I mean, you may get lucky once but I would just be careful to avoid this. It can happen since reposting an expired ad does not remove it from the expired list.

Don’t Forget to Renew Your Old Posts

We touched on this before. It’s listed as #4 above, the renewal process.

An ad on craigslist has a “new shelf life” of 48 hours. After that, you can renew the listing and get it lifted to the top of the pile.

When I say 48 hours, I mean that many. Good practices is to do this first thing when you wake up on day 1. Every other day, start a minute or more later than last time to ensure you can post new ads and renew old ones in the same visit.

The renewal process is simple, just click the link. That brings up a screen such as the one below.

You simply need to click your username in the upper right corner to get back out to the dashboard. Renew every post in your list.

Use Craigslist to Make it Rain

When you start to advertise on craigslist, you will quickly start to make short work of the task. In just a couple minutes while your coffee cools, you can have the job done.

Keeping a spreadsheet of ads and ideas can help speed up the process. Better yet, you could get someone else doing this for you! Let us know if you need help with this or any other local digital marketing services.

I apologize for not having the time to open comments on these posts. Feel free to hit me up on social media if you have any questions. Maybe you could help out and share this post as well.

The post How to Advertise on Craigslist Effectively appeared first on Cloud Inspector Web Design.