#I would be considering wordpress but I have had some bad experiences with them in the past

[percivalias]

Good website builders/hosts?

Hey gang. Looking to switch my website from its current platform to a new one here in a couple months when the annual subscription runs out but I'm not entirely sure what all the options are beyond the really big companies that dominate the market. I'm looking for something that has a visual editor that is easy to work with & flexible, while still letting me dig into the code and write custom HTML/CSS when I need that. Anyone have any recs?

[blade-liger-4ever]

So, I've decided to start something.

Well, a series of somethings.

I've had some Star Wars AU ideas as of late, which I'm thinking of turning into little ficlets that will be posted on Tumblr. If I feel bold enough from my experiences here, I may transfer them over to my WordPress account, but time will tell on that front. In most of these fanfics (which hopefully won't be long - or not, we'll see), there are going to be featured a couple of OCs, as well as established character/OC relationship(s) over previously established pairings. Many of you will probably be discontent over this, however, I will do my best to explain these new pairings and why I was dissatisfied with the original love interest.

Before I get into that however, I will introduce one of these OCs, who was also inspired by the lost potential of one of Disney's most recent princesses.

Click below, and you shall see Starkiller/Galen Marek's AU love interest: Raya Karimi, descendant of the noble House of Zakuul.

Now, before we get going, let me say something: I do not hate Juno Eclipse. I did, however, find the connection between her and Galen...a little unsettling. I am not saying it was unhealthy or toxic, nor am I saying that Juno should have never been in the same room as Galen. That said, it seemed, at least in the second game for sure, that Galen was over-relying on her and putting too much of his needs/hopes on her for his own good. And no, I'm not agreeing with what the narrative said about Vader having control over Galen so long as she lived. I think what I'm trying to say is that, she ended up being a Living Emotional Crutch for him, and that trope - whether applied to a man or woman, in real life or in fiction - deeply unsettles me. The idea that someone needs another person in order to operate as a human being, or to be kept from totally falling apart...it doesn't sit well with me, and, I suppose, scares me. I don't want that for either of them, hence a new love interest for Galen.

Now, whether or not Juno lived after that final cutscene in Force Unleashed II, I confess, for the purposes of this AU...Juno does die. In the main Star Wars universe that I envision, she does live, but for the purposes of my story, it only makes sense that she is killed by either Darth Vader or Boba Fett. Galen can only do so much to protect her, and moreover, the likelihood of either of those villains killing her is extremely high. PROXY will, quite possibly, be at least salvageable here as well; I don't yet know if he will be a series of pieces that Galen and Raya and their other two crew members will have to put back together, or have his parts integrated into a separate unit. Considering I gave Raya a revamped HK-77 assassin/protocol droid as her muscle pre-meeting Galen (HK-77s are from Legends, by the way; look them up), PROXY's role may be redundant, in which case, some of his salvageable components would be used for HK.

She will also have a small, cat-dragon hybrid known as a felico. Her name is Tapi, and I'm trying to picture her as a traditional Asiatic/Japanese dragon, but one that is small enough that she can easily climb onto someone's shoulder. I picture the same body style, but with shorter whiskers, dexterous talon-like paws, feathered wings of proper proportion, and some fur that helps her with sneaking some items off bad guys, or just all the way around enhance her cuddliness. Color wise, she might be all black or shades of gray with bright green eyes.

Raya I envision as one of the few survivors of the noble family from Zakuul, with perhaps a smidgeon of Force-sensitivity. Her family had guarded artifacts from the Old Republic Era (the time of Revan in SW:KOTOR to SW:TOR, for reference), and so she was trained in the use of both melee and ranged weapons. She was an energetic child, and a prodigy when it came to most topics, although she worked exceptionally hard to get good at working with starship systems and repairs. The Empire eventually came to Zakuul for those same artifacts, around the time Raya was twelve or fourteen. The planet attempted to fight, and was soon overpowered; however, many managed to take off with the artifacts, hiding them away from Imperial eyes. Raya was captured after one battle, and after some time, forced to watch her father's public execution. This sent her into a blind rage, and before she knew it, the squadron that had been detaining her lay at her feet in pools of blood and missing limbs. Shaken by her own actions, she managed to escape, and spent the next six or eight years bouncing across the galaxy as a freelance agent for hire. However, Raya never worked with the Empire, and even though she made apparently shady deals, it was all in the effort to locate those missing artifacts, which she managed to hide with the aid of the hidden in plain sight Jedi Haja Estree.

Following one lead on the edge of the Outer Rim/Wild Space from their efforts on Tanalorr, Raya comes across the remains of the Rogue Shadow on an unnamed planet, the owner of whom, Galen Marek, has resided in for almost a month. He's full of anger, but her stubbornness, humor, and clear disdain for the Empire manages to convince him that she is an ally and not an enemy. Working together, they leave the planet and attempt to return while being side-tracked by HK-77 picking up old, disconnected transmissions from something ancient - so ancient, in fact, that it could be a cache of artifacts from the time of Revan....

I hope you find this interesting, and if you want more, please feel free to check in for updates on it!

[irarelypostanything]

I deactivated Facebook for three years. This was my experience:

The tl;dr

I basically just replaced social media with other social media. Now I'm back because I'm trying to figure out how to integrate with a wordpress page Motivation

It was late 2021. The pandemic seemed to be over, Facebook was really pushing its dystopian virtual reality ads, and the Netflix documentary "The Social Dilemma" was still fresh on our minds. Smack, a coworker at the time, was so affected (effected? pft I am far too busy for grammarly) by it that he and his girlfriend (at the time. Wife now) deleted Facebook and never looked back. I recall watching a video by someone who left Facebook. I'm probably misremembering, but it seemed genuine. She talked about a mother who proudly posted on Facebook about how proud she was of her daughter. "You're proud of her? TELL HER THAT." She said it with so much emotion. I was imagining a mother who would never tell her daughter that she loved her, that she was proud of her, proudly proclaiming in a very public way that her daughter mattered and had value. Most people I knew were a lot less active on Facebook. Political posts were raging, all kinds of weird things were rising, and I just thought...what if I could experience life and not feel the need to tell everyone about it? What if I could be happy, and just be happy, without feeling the need to get some sort of external validation? It's a great idea, for someone other than me. What Actually Happened - Medium

Unsolicited advice is annoying. I know. I get it. If you like Facebook, use Facebook. If you hate Facebook, don't use Facebook. Use it every ten minutes. Use it every ten months. The thing about Facebook is you get to choose when and if you use Facebook. It's not like Facebook is some corporate-sponsored platform that we have to use to inform the powers that be about our every thought and interest, guaranteeing that we are observed at all times.

Not anymore, at least. But if you do want to consider fully unplugging from social media, then maybe...do that? I didn't really do that. I mostly just replaced Facebook with other forms of social media.

The biggest thing was Medium. Medium is a social media site disguised as a writing site. I had an account called Curt Corginia, CEO of CORGICorporation, and I wanted to try my hand at paywalls. So I made a humor blog called Kurt Shiba Inu, and for a time it was good. It was a tech parody account. It would take clickbait articles that were trending like "JavaScript Is Dead" and make fun of them. I was getting positive comments, I was getting attention, and I was making a little money (though I think I calculated that I could have made three times as much with a minimum wage weekend job). The account was all humor, so I didn't feel bad about paywall-blocking it. Then something changed, the earnings fell off a cliff, and to top it all off the few comments I still got were mostly negative. I got lots of negative comments from people who confused my blog with the very thing it was trying to parody. I started little blurbs like "This is a parody" and "do not take this seriously," which completely ruined the joke and STILL prompted people to write angry comments because they didn't realize I was writing satire.

The coup de grace was when I tried to pivot to creative writing (cough cough fanfiction), so I wrote about a Minecraft video. Someone commented on it with...not a death threat...but a long statement about how my interest in a delusional world had singlehandedly made him lose faith in humanity and distracted him from meaningful issues, like climate change and the evils of corporations. Not only was he baffled that I existed, my existence made him lose faith in humanity.

The comment bothered me so much that I moved back to my main blog, which I continued to update every week from that point on.

Medium, in some ways, was actually worse for me than Facebook because content was open to the whole world, and not just a "walled garden."

Motivation For Returning

No one really noticed that I was gone for three years. I kept messenger active.

Now I want to add Facebook integration to a Kiwanis website, similar to what I did for another club, but my contact (COME ON, MAN) isn't comfortable assigning admin privileges to some dummy account I named Kiwanis WebAd Min (Facebook blocked Kiwanis WebAdmin because it detected nonreal names, but Kiwanis W. Min was fine). I suggested changing the name of that account to Evan Szeto, since Szeto and SooHoo are the same name, but nuuuuuuuuu

Thoughts on Social Media

In this weird way, I really miss Tumblr. It had this raw quality to it. You could just upload text and not feel the need to put this shitty Unsplash photo over it, or go IQ 2000 and use AI to generate a horrifying picture.

But no one uses it anymore. The same thing happened to a lot of my Facebook friends. Most of them still maintained accounts, but they quite simply stopped using the platform. Suddenly Facebook wasn't a place where I saw life updates, or funny comments about campus squirrels (as God intended), but a place where I saw the same inflammatory political posts re-shared over and over and over again.

But there was a time Facebook was really revolutionary. They made React, and React walked so Vue could run. They...um...got so popular that they basically ran out of humans left in the world, which ate into their profits. They started to become the target of government scrutiny, and it was a huge blow when Apple modified their privacy policy to eliminate some of the money they made selling user data to advertisers. Then...more things happened, but at that point my library subscription to the Scott Galloway book expired.

Something something something everyone switched to Instagram and TikTok.

TikTok is baffling. I don't understand it at all.

Moments

I guess maybe I see the world in this binary. Either we're connected, and we're out in nature having real conversations and attending ballroom dance lessons and finding love and such, or we're inside on social media living this kind of cheap replica of reality.

But dances can be streamed. Zoom was a good demonstration of connection in, um, an isolating age (that was a ripoff of Rent, or trying to be). People use resources like Facebook and Discord to coordinate in person events. I wrote on Meetup that Meetup is the best form of social media because it minimizes the amount of time we spend on the product while maximizing the amount of time we actually spend in person getting to know each other.

I wrote that Facebook is the worst social media for the exact opposite reason, but that would be overly cynical and hypocritical considering I'm back here.

I want to look for pictures of a wedding I just attended. It was nice, and it was recorded, and because it was recorded people can remember it. Before Facebook there were just photos, and before that maybe they had to write it all down. It's not inherently good or bad, it just is. We can live our lives with or without it, and maybe someday we'll be telling our grandkids about how WE LIVED before that ultra mega social media app so addicting it caused people to stop having jobs.

NOW ADD ME AS AN ADMIN, BRADLEY.

[talenlee]

Alt Text and Habituation

I’ve been trying to consistently put alt text on images here on my blog.

I don’t, if you’re curious. I mean I didn’t. I have, for basically two months now, been trying to comprehensively add alt text to things. If you go back to just November last year, I think you might find images just don’t have alt text.

A part of this was bad advice, from the actual system for adding alt text. If you check the media library for wordpress, it includes a note about alt text that says something to the effect of ‘if this image is not necessary for the article, don’t put alt text.’ And I thought that yeah, actually, largely, my images aren’t. That doesn’t excuse the times I show cards, or make the image the subject of the paragraph, and certainly not the times I just dump a graph in there, but the bad advice made me think by default I didn’t need to do it, so I wouldn’t do it.

The other thing was I just didn’t think of it. It was a habit I didn’t have. And honestly, there are a lot of habits that add a few seconds to things that you can think maybe are easy to do, but you had to build those habits. Using Mastodon regularly on kind.social and posting on cohost. My daily magic cards became part of it – I think it might have been a whole year of typing out alt text every day that got me in that habit. But I was only doing that because I had an image I wanted to post every day in the form of my custom magic posts, and those I could determine an alt text for them very easily.

That meant the habit got built a little at a time and a lot of the alt text I use now is stuff like ‘an icon of a thing.’ Sometimes I take to giving the vibe of an image. Sometimes I’ve tried making a joke.

Understand that with this habit came a lot of discouragement. The way people talk about alt text on mastodon makes me not post pictures there aside from the once-a-day custom magic card. The kind of people who get very mad about alt text and accessibility features enough to yell at me, a stranger, about it, are the kind of people I read once, then mute because I can’t address structural concerns while they yell at me about them and all I can do is my best. Haranguing strangers doesn’t help me build the habit. The environment is volatile, and honestly, kind of cruel about alt text. It’s not enough to post it, you have to do it right, and you can’t discuss its limitations or difficulties without being attacked.

Consider: If the only way to do alt text would be to go back through my blog of ten years and have to alt text everything as the first thing I did, it’d never happen. It just wouldn’t! There’s an enormous archive that doesn’t necessarily load reliably, it’s a huge pain in the ass and probably a full time job’s worth of work for some time to go do that, and with no practice at alt text, it’d probably look bad and be unhelpful. Taking the current (bad) situation and making it overwhelmingly hard to make it not much better is not helpful.

I want to build better habits, I want to do a better job of the things I do. I don’t avoid alt text because I want the internet to be a worse experience for people who use screen readers.

You build good habits a day at a time but part of that means that there’s got to be a version of the habit you can do every day.

It’s now been a month or two of dedicatedly doing it, and I’m writing about it now because one of the biggest hurdles in the whole process was alt-texting all 380+ cards for my daily Magic: The Gathering custom cards. This was a single huge task, but it was also a new task. It presented to me a puzzle, and I had to find a way to solve it that worked. I’m just going to list what I did, roughly, and show you what it took to get that project set up, and then what that led to.

That was not a small task! I’m glad I did it, I feel good about having done it, but wew lord it was not easy! And now, bonus, to complicate it further? If I want to edit a card – or worse a handful of cards – I have to delete that file, upload a new version, then go through and replace all the times that card gets referenced!

This is a big task, but doing it made all smaller permutations feel easier. Alt text feels easier to remember because hey: I don’t have to do that again.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[scripttorture]

I'm writing a fanfic and a charcter is a bumbling fool and gullible. He's performed stealth missions hilariously poorly giving him away, told bad guys stuff because he was taken in by a dumb ruse, his poor sense of security causing material/information leak, etc. However, there's one scene (among others though) that depicts him as being badass and earns him the respect of others when he gets captured by a bad guy and tortured but gives up nothing in contrary to his actions before. Obviously it i

Obviously it isn't written as 'torture does not work'. How should I deal with this? Such a character still shouldn't be expected to just give in to torture right? Yet it does help him earn respect. Can he still earn respect if I change it to the other characters not expecting torture to work instead? But still it's a scenario that something has gone right for him... for once!!

-

I might be misunderstanding the scenario you’re describing, so correct me if I’m wrong. But if this is what I think it is then I think you’re worrying too much. (Or misunderstanding what I mean when I say ‘torture doesn’t work’.)

 The scenario as I understand is that the character usually fails at things. He’s captured. He’s tortured. He does not give up information. And the people around him praise him for this, because the other characters expect torture to lead to accurate information.

 That’s a perfectly realistic situation.

 There are a lot of reasons why torture can’t lead to accurate information. I’ve covered them at length in my masterposts and for any readers interested in more information O’Mara’s Why Torture Doesn’t Work: The Neuroscience of Interrogation is an excellent book that makes the science more accessible.

 But people do still believe that torture can or ‘should’ lead to accurate information.

 Hell I get one of those questions about once a week and I get it. I do sometimes feel a little frustrated when people are rude, presumptuous or don’t read the masterposts but I understand where this belief comes from. Portrayals of violence and abuse in fiction are hugely at odds with reality. They are sanitised, glorified and justified in our fiction. For most types of violence this isn’t as much of a problem: audiences are generally aware of the differences between a fun fantasy and reality.

 When it comes to torture writers can’t make that assumption. The research we have on torture has never been popularised, but the writings of actual torturers have been. Not necessarily the works themselves but the tropes they invented and codified.

 Like the ‘ticking bomb’ scenario. Which was created by a French torturer after the Franco-Algerian war.

 Accurate information on torture is hard to find. Often you need to know the names of researchers or some of the inconsistent terminology researchers use to find articles and books. Those articles and books will then be mixed in with poorly researched, ill-informed books by other people.

 Because there’s little inter-disciplinary dialogue about torture you’ll also get books that contain a lot of useful information… but also assume torture can lead to accurate information or change someone’s core beliefs. A lot of the history books I have do that.

 This is all assuming that the person reading up on torture has the money to buy these books (which are sometimes print on demand) and pay for journal subscriptions in the first place. Also some of the core texts aren’t translated into more then one language.

 All of this means that having characters believe that torture ‘works’ is perfectly realistic. A lot of real people believe that and I see nothing wrong with showing that.

 I do see a problem with supporting that belief.

 But there’s a difference between having character believe something that’s provably wrong and having the narrative support the same conclusion. To make a comparison: you can write racist characters without writing a racist story. You can write a story where characters believe torture ‘will work’ while the narrative shows the opposite is true.

 If you want to include a character who knows that torture doesn’t work consider making them the medic.

 A doctor would be in charge of supporting the survivor afterwards and they’d do a much better job if they had an understanding of what torture actually does. The common symptoms torture survivors experience can be found here. I think memory problems would add a lot to this story (you can read about them here.)

 I’m suggesting memory problems because most people don’t realise they’re a symptom or how common they are. I also think they’d mesh well with the group perception that this survivor character was always ‘useless’. So if he starts forgetting things or remembers something incorrectly they’ll probably chuckle. Because hey look, he’s back to normal, isn’t that great?

 Memory problems are pretty scary for the person experiencing them. They could easily drive a survivor to seek medical help. And that creates a natural opportunity in the story for you to have a knowledgable character explain that torture doesn’t work as well as what’s going on with the survivor character.

 Having it happen while the character is talking privately to a doctor lets him keep the respect he gained in the eyes of his peers. It also lets you show ways that symptoms can be misunderstood.

 It’s good to check Anon. This is a complicated topic and it is hard to write.

 Try not to worry too much. It will get easier as you write more. The more stories you write with these kinds of complicated, dark themes the easier it will get to handle them. It is OK to struggle and make mistakes while you’re writing.

 But keep at it. Practice makes everything easier.

 I hope that helps :)

Available on Wordpress.

Disclaimer

[squarecarousel]

Challenge 144: 10 Years, Looking Forward: A-Frame Studio Life Buckle up-- this is a long one! Wow, ten years. It’s hard to believe a whole decade has passed since Square Carousel began, and since I graduated college. In some ways, it feels like another lifetime, and in others, it feels vastly shorter than the decade before that, from ages 12 to 22. Time is fascinating that way. College was such an incredibly impactful time period, but just a measly 4 years-- I could have done college 2.5 more times back-to-back in the years since I graduated, but somehow those four, from 2007-2011 were monumental.  It’s hard to believe I’ll be in a post-college world without Square Carousel, since the group has been a constant in my life these last ten years. I’m really proud that we made it this far and are able to choose to end the journey, rather than it fizzling out or dying from lack of interest. Sometimes it felt like that might happen, but other times it felt like we were blooming. There have been many ups and downs over the course of this journey. And damn, it was a lot of hard to work to keep running, but I am so grateful for the learning experience. I know so much more about leadership now than I ever would have before-- the delicate balance of having rules to keep the group running (deadlines, participation requirements, our dreaded “strike system”) and keeping up morale (knowing when to forgive slip-ups, keeping challenges sufficiently entertaining and well...challenging, making sure the group feels like it’s a community). Elizabeth and I were reluctant leaders, just naturally having to take those roles as other original members of the group left and were replaced by folks who needed guidance. We definitely didn’t seek it out, but we knew that if the group were to stay alive, we had to put some structure into the system. Pretty early on we made our rules and guidelines, extended the challenges to 3 weeks from just 2, and worked on our visual image online. Our awesome logo was made by former member Casey Crisenbery, and we switched from Wordpress to Tumblr, purchasing a URL, and Casey using special code for custom organization on the site. Sketch critiques were now a halfway point through our 3 weeks-long challenge, which helped a lot with the community aspect and engagement. We started doing interviews for each member, reaching out to other illustration groups, blogs and submission sites and had our work featured on a few of them. Some of us even got jobs from the connections made through Square Carousel!  There was a bad stretch several years ago when I wasn’t sure we’d make it through, with toxic behavior and a few folks petitioning for removing deadlines and structure, making everything optional. One thing I can tell you with certainty after ten years of working with artists is that 95% of us require deadlines to do anything, and incentives/obligations for meeting those deadlines, or it just isn’t going to happen! Elizabeth and I, along with a few other solid members, were able to keep the structure we’d worked hard to create, but the toxic culture had already killed group morale and we lost a lot of members simultaneously. That was a sad and scary time for Square Carousel, but I didn’t want to go out on a sour note. So the small group of us picked the pieces back up again, did a little refocus on our goals as a collective and created an “Admin” so Elizabeth and I didn’t have to carry the entire burden alone. I am forever grateful to Sayada and Jordan for stepping up into these roles to help us get the train back on track. Sayada especially picked up a lot of responsibilities that a newer member shouldn’t have to worry about, and was a total rockstar for Square Carousel. I wish we’d had her with us for the whole ride. I’m so happy that we’ve had a few really great years with some really loyal and talented artists to round out the experience at Year Ten.  There is nobody I’m more thankful for than my Good Cop, Elizabeth, though. She was so reliable, always able to provide balance in our leadership roles, and such a wonderful shoulder to cry on when things got too stressful. Elizabeth, thank you for this journey and for being my SC Wife all these years! It’s so funny because of all the original members, you were one of the only ones I hadn’t really known from SCAD classes, yet you’re the SCAD Illustration friend I have remained most connected to most consistently. Nothing bonds you quite like running an illustration collective does! It also cracks me up that in all these years, we hadn’t ever facetimed or talked on the phone until a few months ago--I didn’t even know your mannerisms or voice, but knew you so well anyway. My greatest internet friend! I love you dearly and it truly won’t feel right, the absence of our weekly SC conversations. Thank you for all of the memories! As just a member and artist, this group has helped me grow so much professionally. It was my client when I didn’t have clients. It was my motivation to paint when I didn’t feel creative. It was my source of portfolio-worthy work, but also my safe place to experiment and fail when I was trying something new. The girl who started as a Square Carousel member freshly graduated in 2011 was working part-time at Urban Outfitters, had basically no money, and no clue how to promote herself. The “studio” was a corner of the bedroom and nobody took her seriously. But a stubborn dedication and the security, purpose and structure of Square Carousel helped the slow change from that lost girl to a full-time freelancing woman. Now, in 2021, I have been doing freelance illustration fully for six years, through contract jobs, editorial, publishing, advertising, commission and local work, as well as selling prints and products online, in local shops and events. I am not making the big bucks, certainly, and I still have goals I’m working towards, but damn, if that isn’t a glow-up, I don’t know what is. Thank you for helping me achieve my impossible dream, Square Carousel, and always being a place with the right amount of advice, support and critique. Ten years, 34 artist interviews, 38 artists, and 144 challenges. I’m the only member to have completed every single one. 144 illustrations through the years. Some were game-changers for my style and my portfolio. Some were total stinkers and I hope you don’t go looking for them. But all were an important step in my career.   So, in ten more years? I’ll be 42 years old, which is very weird because I have never imagined myself that old before... it’s hard to honestly say what that would look like, especially considering the world we are currently living in and how the last 4/5 years have proven that anything (awful) can happen. Jordan and I have a goal to move to Colorado in the next 4 or 5 years, and I’d love to have a little A-Frame in the mountains with a loft studio, shown in my illustration here. Texas has become extremely problematic, especially after the winter storm in February of this year, and will be impacted greatly by climate change, both environmentally and economically. Right now, Austin is still booming, but at some point the lack of foresight in this state’s government is going to screw over the residents and it will be one of the places from which climate refugees run. Is that tomorrow? No, obviously not. But I want to already be settled someplace more stable, having grown some roots, before other folks start to roll in. But, to be able to do that, I need to rely less on my local jobs and connections and be able to have an “anywhere career.” So right now I am focusing on expanding in that way, particularly with book cover illustration and design. I’ve been doing a lot of portfolio work and self-publishing jobs, and hope to get an agent that can shop my work to big-time publishers sometime in the next year or two. Let’s say I succeed at all of those things in five years-- we’re in our Colorado A-Frame, I’m illustrating book covers (and I’ve also convinced my parents to come with me, and maybe a couple friends!). The next five years after that? I don’t know... hopefully a lot of adventures. Hopefully a lot of cool jobs, but also a lot of work/life balance. Right now, I don’t want kids, so the A-Frame will be filled with cats. Maybe we’ll have an old camper van for regular road trips around the western National Parks. I’d love for my work to reflect those passions-- more jobs with outdoor brands, parks, organizations. More book covers for stuff I’d personally love to read and keep on my overflowing shelf. That’s the vague goal for me in ten years, but I don’t want to plan any further than that, because life just also needs to happen the way it’s going to happen. There are parts of my current life I planned for in 2011... and there are parts I never, ever would have guessed. I hope there’s some fun surprises in 2031, too. Thanks for the decade, Square Carousel. Joining illustration collectives will always be the first bit of advice I give fresh graduates. Caitlin

[slashnatic]

NSFW ALPHABET [Vincent Sinclair]

a/n: soo...this is the first time i actually post what i wrote + english isn't my first language (and i feel like there’s still 1000 mistakes in this although i proof-read it like 10 times) so please don't be too hard on me, but feel free to give me constructive criticism :)

A = Aftercare (what they’re like after sex)

He definitely takes care of you after. He’ll clean you up, gets you a drink if you want...really anything. You need to go to the bathroom? Sure, he can carry you. You’d rather walk yourself? Well, you’re only allowed to go after he’s given you your goodbye-kiss-on-the-forehead. And no, this is not unnecessary because you'll be back in a few minutes, it’s a must.

Once all of that is done he likes it when you lay your head down on his chest or the other way around and you just cuddle and enjoy each other’s company in a comfortable silence.

B = Body Part (their favourite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

Vincent has a very prominent v-line. He never paid attention to it until he realized how much you like it and with that it became also his favorite body part of himself.

He loves the curve of your hips and waist. (Whether you are slim or curvy, he absolutely loves it either way!) His favourite thing is when you’re lying naked on top of him, your head on his chest and one leg laying on top of his in an angled position. He won't stop caressing and squeezing your hips.

C = Cum (anything to do with cum basically)

He both loves and hates cuming inside of you. He loves the intimacy of it, the vulnerability you show each other, but he is also scared of the possible consequences, at least at the beginning of your relationship.

He also likes to cum on your chest and belly.

D = Dirty Secret (a dirty secret of theirs)

Vincent has watched you a lot. At first it was innocent glances he stole, later he would make time to watch you from afar going after your daily tasks and the more he started to obsess over you the less he cared about how wrong it was to basically stalk you. It went so far that he once stood before an barely-open door, watching your every move through the small gap while you showered.

It doesn‘t really matter how long you are together, he still does it sometimes. You’ve grown used to it and now even put on a show for him sometimes, pretending you don‘t know he’s right there.

Another secret of his is that he sculpted your orgasm-face. It‘s weird and creepy, but he doesn’t really care. (I’m referring to the faces he sculpted in the walls on the way down to the basement. You’ll find your face there too, just a bit a part from the others.)

E = Experience (how experienced they are)

Not at all. Vincent has been wearing his mask since he can remember. He didn't even consider pressing his wax mask in some girl’s face. Needless to say pressing your lips on wax isn’t really romantic and with that no teenage girl‘s dream. Aside from that he barely left the house. When he was older he had gotten too used to it. In conclusion: He never even kissed a woman and he didn't have sex either.

F = Favourite Position (their favourite position, could possibly include a visual)

I believe it is called the Sphinx Position.

https://littlepennyberry-files-wordpress-com.cdn.ampproject.org/i/s/littlepennyberry.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/IMG_3071.png?w=768&h=433

He likes how he towers over you. Not even in a dominant way, but more that his frame completely covers yours. Your body is practically buried by his, but in a good kind of way? It’s just whatever ground you‘re having sex on underneath you and him on top of you; you’re trapped in between, there‘s only him and it gives him a feeling of pride. He also loves kissing and softly biting your neck in that position.

G = Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous? etc.)

He is quite serious, probably even stiff the first few times you’re having sex. He will get comfortable though and then he‘s a total romantic.

H = Hair (how well groomed are they? does the carpet match the drapes? etc.)

Vincent is almost never completely shaved. He doesn’t have the time for it and even if he did he doesn't think of it as necessary. Nevertheless he’s still always clean down there, just a bit sweaty sometimes from the heat of the fire in the basement.

I = Intimacy (how are they during the moment? romantic aspect, etc.)

Uh, yes? Just yes. Yes, sex is an intimate thing to him. Yes, he is a romantic.

While he overall views sex as something very intimate, his mask also plays a big role. He’s scared shitless of taking the mask off, but he also doesn’t want to wear it while you‘re making love. Besides the fact that it‘s quite impractical, it also makes him feel worthless. He’ll overthink and then believes you’re only having sex with him and want to be close to him or even want him at all when you don‘t have to put up with his face, that you don’t actually care for him and that he isn't good enough. He knows himself well enough though, so he takes it off before he can lose himself in those thoughts (this doesn’t make taking the mask off easier though). In conclusion he rather has sex with you when he is (as a side affect, but that doesn’t really make a difference) vulnerable and therefore sex really is something intimate to him.

J = Jack Off (masturbation headcanon)

Well, first of all...he thinks about sex fairly often. There are also quite a few pieces of his art that have a sexual touch. (Have you seen the couple on the couch in the wax house? They’re going at it!)

He doesn‘t jerk off whenever he thinks about something sexual, but he does jerk off quite often. When he does it he‘s downright filthy. Lies in his bed or preferably sits at his work bench stroking his member at first slow and then faster and faster, throwing his head back, groaning and hissing and then finishing all over his work bench with his eyes closed, imagining it was your body.

He might as well has a few photos and videos of you. Wether he took them with or without your permission is up to your imagination.

K = Kink (one or more of their kinks)

Voyeurism. While he does enjoy watching you pleasure yourself, he prefers watching or rather observing you while he fingers you. He’ll spread your legs and position himself between them so that he lies on his elbows, fingering you with one hand and holding you in place (as much as possible from that angle) with the other, his face right in front of your heat. This also gives him the perfect opportunity to have a taste too.

He also has a praise kink. Telling him not to stop? Oof. Telling him how good he makes you feel? Bigger oof. Telling him how pretty he looks? Biggest oof.

L = Location (favourite places to have sex)

He preferably has sex in the basement with you. On his work bench or really wherever, just not directly where he works. You can be as loud as you want, there is a lot of space and lots of opportunities for whatever-you-wanna-try. Plus the house is quite dirty and so is his bedroom and he doesn't want to be that kind of filthy.

M = Motivation (what turns them on, gets them going)

Anything can be sexy to Vincent, it really just depends on his mood.

It might be simple, but seeing you naked is his biggest turn-on. I‘m talking completely bare and vulnerable. No towel because you just came out of the shower. No blanket because you’re in bed. No make-up. Nothing. Just you, you’re body being illuminated by the warm light of the candles in the basement. And don’t talk. For some reason it is incredibly sexy to him just taking you in, so pure and perfect. When he sees you like this he doesn't get horny, he just:

N = NO (something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

Anything verbal which is respectless and degrading. If you’re into humiliation, that‘s cool. He can spank you, whip you, do whatever you want, but he won’t call you names. Ever. If you call him names he’ll also probably cry.

O = Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.)

Vincent loves eating you out. Your taste, your soft moans, you telling him how good it feels... It makes him proud and when he hears those sweet sounds leaving your mouth he forgets all his insecurities for the moment.

It took him a while to discover this though, since he is so insecure. (‘You seriously want that face between your legs?’)

He hasn’t had any experience, but that doesn’t mean that he’s doing a bad job! He knows your body (or the human body in general) well enough to know what will make you feel good. On top of that he’s a quick learner. For everything else he makes up with his enthusiasm.

P = Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.)

He’s rather slow, but still quite rough. He’s a big, strong guy after all.

Also: When it comes to who’s more dominant it really changes with his mood and the atmosphere. He likes hovering over you and trapping you underneath him, fucking you hard but teasingly slow. He likes to hear you whining, whimpering and telling him how good he feels inside of you. You look so beautiful when you stare up at him with big glassy eyes and rosy cheeks. Nevertheless he likes being submissive too, you straddling him, pinning his arms down and telling him what to do and what not to do. He likes being soft to you and he likes being rough to you. He likes you being soft to him and he likes you being rough to him too. He really doesn‘t have a preference.

Q = Quickie (their opinions on quickies rather than proper sex, how often, etc.)

Vincent doesn’t like quickies, they are almost a no-go. He likes to take his time, since it's something where he feels very vulnerable. Rushing through it isn’t satisfying for either of you in his opinion. He also feels like quickies lack passion and isn’t that what sex is all about?

Foreplay is also important to him. You start kissing him? He will get lost and he won't let you go. Not even for sex. Your having your romantic kiss now and you will have it a while longer. It doesn't matter how horny you are, you’ll have to be patient.

R = Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.)

Absolutely! There’s basically nothing he wouldn't try, he just needs a bit of time “exploring“ whatever is new.

He also isn‘t actually disgusted by anything, whatever tools, body fluids or other things are involved. He might be a bit confused about some things you want to try out and isn't naturally turned on by it, but you can probably change his mind.

S = Stamina (how many rounds they can go for, how long they last…)

This totally depends on his mood, but even if it’s one round and no more he‘ll want to make sure you are satisfied. If you go for one round it‘s basically a lot of very intense foreplay, petting and all that, but less of penetration. More rounds means more penetrating sex, but will probably include some longer breaks in between.

T = Toy (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?)

Nope. He knows they exist, but doesn’t bother to get to know more about it. He has two perfectly fine hands and now you, he‘s good.

If you want to introduce some toys to him though he’ll be interested and willing to try it out.

For some reason he really likes buttplugs, no matter if you use them or if he does.

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

He doesn’t tease you, at least not intentionally. When he feels like it, he touches, strokes and gropes you, but never because he wants to tease you. It often has the same effect as if he did though.

If you tease him...oh boy. If he doesn’t realize right away that you‘re doing it intentionally he’ll probably react super affectionate, in the sweetest way possible. Once he does realize it he’s confused as to how he should react and he is?? sad?? Like...why are you messing with his emotions like that? You can explain it to him, but he’ll probably never hop on the train and tease back or whatever.

V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make)

Isn‘t much of a talker during sex, but he does make some noise. He grunts and groans a lot. Whatever you do you’ll probably get a verbal reaction out of him. He surprisingly isn’t even trying to be quiet and isn’t ashamed of it either. He usually doesn’t talk and it’s as if he‘s letting it all out (Charlie Hoyt voice) f o r b a l a n c e.

W = Wild Card (a random headcanon/imagine for the character of your choice)

He loved your taste on his lips, the sound of your soft moans and needy whimpers in his ears, the feeling of your soft skins underneath his fingertips, even your smell. Yes, he loved your smell. The smell of your hair, the particular smell of your body, oh and he loved how you smelled there. He often wondered if this, the way he felt about you, was love or obsession. Probably both, but he didn’t mind. He didn’t mind because he knew you loved him too. And in your own way you were obsessed with him too. Ever since he‘d let you in, you had given your all to show him. And it had only made the feelings stronger, for the both of you. He placed a last light kiss to your heat before hovering over you again to feel your lips on his. The kiss was lazy, almost innocent and to him it felt like he was drowning in euphoria. With your eyelids only half open and a tired, loving smile on your lips you pulled him down to you. And there you two laid, lovers worn out with no energy left from hour-long love making, you comfortable on your back and he on top of you, with his face buried in the crook of your neck, your hand on the back of his head, you placed a kiss to his forehead. It was the last thing he felt before he fell asleep, just this once the first of you two.

X = X-Ray (let’s see what’s going on under those clothes)

Let’s put it this way: It makes up for what god took away from him.

He’s above average length and very thick. Not big enough for an unrealistic way-over-the-top porno, but big enough to write a letter about it to your best friend if you know what I mean.

Y = Yearning (how high their sex drive is)

As mentioned earlier he thinks about sex a lot, so he’d always be down for it, but it isn’t a necessity. He’s horny quite often, but that doesn’t mean he needs to get off whenever he’s horny. He can ignore it or take care of it himself, no stress. Unless you want to have sex whenever he’s horny of course, then he‘d also be more than happy.

Z = ZZZ (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

He‘s relaxed but won’t fall asleep for a while, so if you do he probably just stares at you and admires you (he even draws you sometimes, but only if it doesn’t ruin the moment).

[hostingdynamics]

How domain registration and website hosting Work

How domain registration and website hosting Work

Hstariq

Just now·9 min read

what’s up everyone

in the last 10 years I’ve built almost

70 websites and haven’t gone through the

analytics they’ve been seen by close to

1 million people which is pretty

mind-blowing all of those website

projects were unique however the core

elements of how to set up a website

remain the same every single time this

article is for the beginners out there

that want to build our first website and

are confused by all the tech jargon that

goes along with that process if that

sounds like you stick around because

we’re gonna go through the basics of how

domain registration and website hosting

work and then we’ll discuss what the

various web hosting package types mean

and the pros and cons of each and

hopefully by the end you’ll have a

better understanding of how to choose

the right one for your situation so

let’s start with how websites work and I

created a real simple graphic here to go

over the process of domain registration

and website hosting for this example I

picked some of the big companies out

there Bluehost.com godaddy.com and Hostgator calm I

use all of them personally and bluehost

is most popular for domains but all of

these companies generally offer all

services so bluehost has hosting domains

website builders and Hostgator does the

same exact thing I have had a good

experience with bluehost hosting which is

why I’ve stayed with them from

hosting perspective but I’ve had no

problems with them for a domain

registration so when you register your

domain with bluehost you’re gonna get

access to these DNS settings for each

domain that you register and then when

you sign up with a hosting company like

Bluehost or Hostgator they’re gonna send you their

DNS servers so you sign up with your

bluehost account and they’re gonna send

you likely to DNS servers all you have

to do is go into your bluehost settings

and plug in your bluehost dns servers

that’s literally all you need to get set

up with your website and the DNS server

its function is to translate your domain

into an IP address so all it does is

when you as the visitor go to a website

you know you open up your browser and

type in a domain name it’s going to send

that domain name.

to a DNS server where it maps it to the

IP address of your web host and that’s

where it gets all the files from so

that’s how the website is downloaded so

hopefully that wasn’t too confusing for

you and I hope that this graphic is

simple enough to understand but really

all you need to remember is that when

you register your domain wherever you

register the domain you should have

access to DNS settings and whatever you

put within those DNS settings that’s

going to define where your website is

hosted now before we go into the hosting

packages we have to figure out what your

goal is you might be one to do one of

many things so the first questions that

you’re gonna want to ask yourself are do

you want to create one website only or

if we project into the future

are you planning to build multiple

websites and as multiple websites mean

two or three or does it mean maybe 10 or

20 and then you have to think about the

software that you’re gonna use to build

the website are you building from

scratch with HTML do you want to use a

content management system like WordPress

are you just going to use templates or a

builder offered by the web hosting

company like bluehost or GoDaddy or are

you planning on doing custom development

and maybe even code with a higher-level

language like PHP or JavaScript and last

but not least consider the traffic of

the website so if you’re just starting

out a website it’s not gonna have high

traffic it’s gonna take a while to build

up the traffic and then even for

established websites they might be low

traffic if they’re local and then on the

other end of the spectrum you might have

a global oriented website based around a

hobby or a general interest that applies

to people worldwide and in those cases

once you get to a point of high traffic

your web hosting options are gonna

change and I have to point this out

you’ll see a lot of people that leave

bad reviews for cheaper web hosting

companies there are people that don’t

consider the beginners experience you

know you can always upgrade there’s

nothing wrong with starting with a

cheaper package and upgrading down the

road when you start getting more traffic

so let’s look at the options that are

going to be available to you on the

majority of web hosting companies across

the Internet

more than likely you’re gonna be

choosing from one of these types of

packages shared hosting reseller hosting

a virtual private server dedicated

hosting cloud hosting and managed

WordPress hosting the first one is

shared hosting and this is the cheapest

the quickest and the easiest to get

started you’re gonna see really great

deals for shared hosting packages and

this is really dominated by the big

companies I mean that’s really how all

markets are anything cheap is gonna be

dominated by big companies and anything

that’s really expensive is by small

companies that offer a high end customer

service experience with that said the

main Conda shared hosting is that as the

name suggests you’re gonna be sharing

your hosting package with a lot of other

websites depending on you know who your

neighbors are that might mean that your

website is gonna load slower now what

that said I think it’s the option that

you should start with if you’re a

beginner for the reason of it being

cheap and that you can always upgrade

the next one is reseller hosting and

this is what I started with

many years ago I had the vision that I

wanted to create websites for small

businesses and local businesses so from

the get-go I knew that I wanted a plan

where I can create multiple hosting

accounts and that’s really what it

resell roasting is it’s pretty much

shared hosting but where you can create

unlimited websites and as as this name

suggests you can actually sell hosting

plans you don’t need to create websites

specifically you could literally just

create hosting accounts and let the

people figure it out themselves a step

above that is VPS hosting and this is

virtual private server and with this

you’re getting resources that act like

your own so so it acts as though it’s

not being shared with other websites

even though from a physical perspective

it might literally be on the same server

but their software overtop of it they

give you dedicated resources to run your

website so you don’t have to worry about

other websites interfering with your

performance they also give you root

access so if you need to do any

technical stuff for IT level stuff

you’re gonna have

more options with a VPS server versus a

shared hosting server and the main

downside is that this is going to cost

more than shared hosting and it’s also

not as scalable as some of the other

options if you do start to get more

traffic one step above VPS is dedicated

hosting so this is where you actually

get physical resources you know you get

a physical web server that is all yours

and that’s where your website runs so

this is generally expensive I think I’ve

never looked into this for myself but

just having browsed around I’ve seen

prices anywhere from like seventy five

dollars to two hundred dollars per month

for dedicated hosting plans so this is

something that you’re really only gonna

need if you have a high traffic website

and you’re a technical kind of person

nowadays a popular option is cloud

hosting so instead of your hosts being

on a physical computer you know sitting

somewhere maybe in the United States or

internationally your website hosting is

on the cloud and the big advantage to

this is that you have redundancy so it’s

usually faster it’s more scalable

especially if the traffic surges start

to happen you know your site’s not gonna

crash as easily as it would if you were

on a shared server that only had a

specific amount of you know RAM or

memory so this is gonna cost you a

little bit more and the other downside

is that you might not get the same

access that you would if you had a

dedicated server and a similar version

of cloud hosting is managed WordPress

hosting so this is specifically

optimized for the WordPress content

management software and database

oriented websites they also do a lot of

updates for you so it’s gonna be more

secure you don’t have to worry about

doing that manually and similar to cloud

hosting the downsides to this or pricing

control so I had to do this from one of

my websites it started to get a lot of

traffic and the performance of all the

websites that were on that shared server

and that included both personal and

client websites the load speed of all of

them started to decline so I knew I had

to get my high traffic websites off of

that shared server and just keep the low

traffic websites on there and when I

switched over to managed

Press hosting and the company I chose

was Ken stay calm the performance of the

website just went through the roof the

page for the time before was something

between a second to two seconds when I

transferred over to Kinston it’s now

down to like 0.2 seconds so it improved

way more than what I could have done by

tweaking all the settings within

WordPress or anything like that if

you’re a beginner though don’t worry

about any of that stuff

start with the most basic shared hosting

package and get your website up and

running if you’re ready to do that right

now I highly recommend Hostgator I’ve

used them for almost a decade now so

they’ve been around a long time

they’re very reliable and I think

they’ve been one of the easiest to use

go to hostgator.com slash WPC — I’m

partnering with them to give you the

best offer for a one-year term you’ll

get 45% off and if you get to the

checkout page in another way you can

apply this discount using the coupon

code wpa2 and if you don’t have the time

right now to set up your website or

maybe you just want a little bit more

guidance go to website profit course

comm slash beginner I’m gonna put

together an email series where you’ll

get this video along with WordPress 101

tutorials so you can get accustomed to

how to edit and create a website with

WordPress and on top of that you’ll get

a full length tutorial step by step on

how to create a business website from

scratch that should be more than enough

to give you the confidence to create

your own website this year go ahead and

check out that beginner series and if

you found this video helpful make sure

you give it a thumbs up if you’re

interested at all in building websites

you’ll definitely want to subscribe to

my channel because I’m gonna be coming

out with a lot of videos a lot of short

tutorials along with other teaching

videos like this my goal this year is

really to help as many people create

their website I’ve learned so much

through all of my websites personal

websites client websites I like to say

that websites are the best vehicle to

learn about business because you could

touch every aspect of business with a

website so they’re the the perfect

launching pad that doesn’t take a

massive investment you know it doesn’t

cost that much you can get started for

a hundred dollars in almost every case

and if you have a little bit more to

work with then that’s where you want to

invest more in the strategy set of

things I don’t think you want to invest

right away and the best technology when

you have don’t have a web design you

don’t have any traffic all the links

that I mentioned here will be in the

description below that’s all that I got

for you today I want to really thank you

for taking the time to read this and I

hope to see you on the next article have a

great one everyone.

https://www.bluehost.com/track/hstariq/

[melhorsitedehospedagem2021]

Siteground Hosting - Full-Review

9 REASONS WHY I CHANGED MY BLOG HOSTING TO SITEGROUND

I switched to Siteground Hosting over 2 years ago and I absolutely love them. I have been with 7 other hosting companies, and I can categorically say that Siteground is much, much better. They are not just better, they are at a completely different level to everyone else.

I have 23 active websites in my online business. So my customers and partners always ask me about my hosting company, because I never have any issues and I never complain. So when they start going on about the issues they’re having, slow loading times, terrible support etc, I realize time and time again how lucky I am to be with Siteground.

So in this post I am going to explain why I love Siteground so much, and I hope this can help you decide which hosting is right for you.

REASON 1 – ASTONISHING CLIENT SUPPORT

There isn’t anything more irritating than having terrible client care at your hosting organization. I have been with Hostgator beforehand, and my involvement in them was horrendous (sorry HostGator, however it’s actual!). Damaging even. I used to submit uphold tickets and afterward not hear back for 2 days. At that point I needed to present another help pass to circle back to the current help ticket. Also, again no answer for 2 days. It was driving me extraordinarily crazy.

Also, when I attempted to utilize Hostgator visit uphold, I’d need to stand by a terribly prolonged stretch of time to get somebody to talk to me. Also, more often than not they requested to present the ticket at any rate so that “the specialists can investigate it”. It actually raises my heartbeat to consider that experience. At the point when your site is down or not working as expected, and you’re losing cash and deals, you need somebody who will help you in a flash.

This is the place where Siteground truly sparkle. I will discuss it in detail beneath, however they truly are the market chiefs in client care. All issues or questions that I’ve at any point had get managed essentially immediately. Their help tickets get tackled inside 30 minutes and their visit uphold is moment – you get somebody to talk with you inside a couple of moments.

REASON 2 – CHAT SUPPORT IS INSTANT

Alright so Chat Backing at Siteground truly is remarkable. At the point when you have such an issue, or even an inquiry, you can essentially tap on Live Chat, and you get somebody to converse with right away, there is no pausing.

What’s more, after you begin chatting to somebody, they don’t simply send you off to another region. They really figure out how to help you on that chat more often than not.

Here is some information which shows how Siteground looks at to 12 other hosting organizations and I have given that beneath. So from the second you begin chatting to give goal normal turnaround time is just 5 minutes. This information is given by Siteground, however I need to say that I would say it’s right on target.

Chat answer time: instantaneously

Chat goal time: 5 minutes

REASON 3 – PHONE SUPPORT IS INSTANTANEOUS

I don’t care to call my hosting supplier all the time. I have just done it a couple of times. However, there could be individuals out there who might want to call up rather than chat or tickets.

So I can’t completely say that phone support is Consistently instant, yet in the 3 or 4 multiple times that I needed to call, they did for sure get quickly. Details from Siteground’s survey:

REASON 4 – 30 MINUTES REPLY ON TICKETS

Here and there you can’t get your issue addressed over chat. For instance, you may have to give screen captures, or login subtleties, or a record of something. In those occurrence you need to send in a ticket.

With most other hosting organizations a ticket implies many long stretches of holding up prior to hearing anything back. Once more, my involvement in Siteground has been overwhelmingly certain, in light of the fact that each ticket I have sent in the course of recent years was settled in a flash.

REASON 5 – PROACTIVE SECURITY

I don’t have the foggiest idea how to state this appropriately, so the most ideal approach to portray it that I can consider is Proactive Security.

Twice in the previous year I have been attacked through a DDOS attack, where fundamentally programmers send a large number of bot clicks each moment to your site, making it load pages at an inconceivably quick rate, and in the end cutting the worker down, which brings about your site being disconnected for quite a long time or days all at once.

Siteground, shockingly, proactively distinguished that for me, and sent me a warning message by means of email to exhort me that was going on, and that they figured out how to obstruct the DDOS attack. So my attacked destinations copped a touch of harm and were down for 10-15 minutes, yet were back online after that. The entirety of that occurred while I was sleeping.

REASON 6 – EXTRAORDINARY LOADING TIMES

As I have referenced, I have been with 7 other hosting organizations, including HostGator, Bluehost, FatCow, Namecheap Hosting, GoDaddy Hosting a few more modest ones. Siteground load times have consistently been the quickest and I have never experience any uncommon gradualness of sites.

I haven’t actually done such a time loading comparison , I can simply say that my HostGator shared hosting sites now and then required 4-5 seconds to try and begin loading. With Siteground, it’s constantly been instant, super quick.

The outcome at the bottom is with the SuperCacher enabled, which is fundamentally a choice you can turn for in you to enable caching.

REASON 7 – BACKUPS ARE FREE OF CHARGE

I didn’t understand how significant backups are. I never truly had any issues as far as the info in my sites going bad or anything like that.

However, in April this year, for one of my product item launches, my developer committed an error and a ton of campaign information that I had put away on my site got lost. There were around 15 campaigns, with designs, banners, and loads of other info. It would have taken me days to re-make.

So I went to Siteground support and got some insight about backups. I didn’t know whether they had it or not. Fortunately, they give free every day backups for free, all included for all your hosting accounts (30 days backup for Shared and 7 days backup for VPS). I figured out how to get my info reestablished, and it was a monstrous help.

REASON 8 – MIGRATION SERVICE

If you ever need a migration service Siteground offers that as well. Once you have selected a domain, you can easily migrate an existing site to SiteGround on step 2 of the Website Setup Wizard. To initiate a site transfer, click Select under Migrate Website.

Then, you have the option to choose between an automatic migration available for WordPress sites via our Migrator plugin.  For detailed instructions, check out the WordPress Automatic Migrator tutorial.

REASON 9 – COST

I put this at the extremely base, on the grounds that genuinely cost isn’t the greatest factor while picking your hosting supplier. The main things are client service and website loading speed.

In any case, Siteground additionally follows through on cost. Their common hosting begins at simply 3.95/month which is just about as modest as some other modest organization out there. Hostgator plans are about a similar cost.

What’s more, regardless of whether you could save $0.50 or $1 every month somewhere else, I truly don’t suggest picking the least expensive hosting. You may save $6 or $10 per year by picking the least expensive host, however you are probably going to think twice about it when you run over ghastly customer service.

Also, Siteground are not costly using any and all means – they are incredibly reasonable, and still exceptionally near being perhaps the least expensive organization.

GATHERING…

All things considered, there you go. As should be obvious, I truly love Siteground. Furthermore, I have no hesitation in prescribing them to anybody. They have a choice of plans which can grow with you… I began with a modest common hosting plan and now I’m running a VPS (Cloud) account since I have such countless sites. In any case, it’s absolutely adaptable and you can begin with a standard shared account and afterward go up when you need to.

Click here to begin with Siteground

[funkymbtifiction]

which are the behaviour patterns and cognitive processes you observe on yourself particularly that you associate with being an ENFP?

That’s easy. Not. Ha, ha.

The most prominent behavior patterns I notice are typical for ENPs -- in that I become obsessed with something for a short amount of time, exhaust every possible resource I can find on it, and then promptly drop that interest in pursuit of something else. These things can be longer-term interests (I took up hoop dancing for two years, mastered a lot of the tricks, and lost interest) or shorter (various and sundry fandoms I was hot and heavy with for a few months or weeks and then walked away from). As a result of reading up on whatever happens to catch my interest (which is a lot of things), I am something of a “know-er of many things” -- and often people, particularly ISFJs and INFPs, tend to notice that I can hold a competent discussion about anything and contribute to it in some way. I remember random things relating to it and it always comes up in conversation -- someone will mention in an e-mail they watched Vertigo last night and I’ll tell them something I know about the filming / Hitchcock / the symbolism / that happened on set, or what psychological disorder it is about. Then I’ll turn around and talk about cat behavior patterns or that Tolkien based his most memorable myth-romance in his creation story on his own marriage. Basically, I’m a walking storehouse of random information on a bunch of topics, but specialize only in a few things -- and I can never predict what will be a lifetime fascination or a momentary one.

Secondly, is both a plus and a negative -- my idealism. The nice thing about being an ENFP is that they tend to bounce back from things, through a dogged determination to believe the best of other people, the potential the world holds in general, and their desire to change things through ideas. But with this also comes a tendency toward naivety. So on the one hand, it’s nice being able to go through bad things and come out like Anne Frank, still believing that someone somewhere is good and that good things will eventually happen -- and another to be blithely unaware of how being “advanced” and idealistic yourself does not mean the world has suddenly changed. I still remember (and cringe over) an essay I wrote about five years ago talking about the end of racism; in an idealistic way, I had assumed everyone had moved beyond it -- but obviously, that is not the case and race still continues to be a huge global / social issue. That was nothing more than my Ne envisioning a reality that didn’t exist -- and a nice, pleasant, and positive one of optimism and joy, to boot.

Inferior Si’s main problem for me isn’t necessarily neglecting details, though I do have trouble keeping track of them, but more a case of -- not learning from my own encounters with people. SJs have healthy Si usage, which means they learn from their experiences -- and treat them as learning experiences. Inferior Si means weak Si, which translates to “Charity approaches people with hope and optimism rather than realism and has to get kicked 47 times before she realizes who this person truly is.” It’s only after I’ve been hurt or let down or disappointed that I remember this person ALWAYS does this to me, and it hasn’t been until recently that I’ve been able to start recognizing when I’m just using my Ne default to believe the best in other people. It’s this weird dynamic, between Ne “I know what you are doing, you’re trying to manipulate me” intuition, and naive Ne going “... sure, you let me down 46 times, but this time you COULD be different! I’m gonna give you that chance, because I KNOW you can be a better person... I see it in you.” IDK if this is also my 1 fix, but I look at people and just know who they COULD be with some encouragement and support. And it’s hard for me to accept that most of them have no interest in changing. (Because my actual default is: who wouldn’t want to evolve / change / be getting better??)

Fi is hard to put into words. It’s feeling three things at once, and not knowing how to talk about any of them. I more often default into Te -- and I’ll give you an example of how all my functions have been working against me this week.

I have had a lot going on the last few weeks. Whenever my environment is chaotic, so is my mind. My Ne is going in all directions at once, and doesn’t know where to look. It has multiple things going on and projects in mind and can’t focus on any of them -- and half the time, I will pile on MORE ideas or projects as an escape. Case in point: Black History Month typings. Now, a sensible person, a judging type, would have been probably thinking about a month of themed postings for weeks, if not months, gradually storing them up over time so as not to frantically be watching / typing things at the last minute. But not me. Oh, no. I decided the week after I had company, when my house was a mess from painting my office, on the cusp of a massive deadline at work, and while I have a book in-progress... that I would do this. 10 days before I would need to start posting typings. 29 days of them.

My Ne thought it was a great idea. What a way to celebrate the month! What an awesome way to get more POC typings on the blog, and be representative of a huge part of the population! But once the reality of it settled into me, I freaked out. How on earth could I pull this off in time? Would I have enough typings? How many things can I get watched in the next two weeks? How many back-up typings do I have, to help flesh them out?

So, I kicked into Te. I printed out a Month of Feb calendar page. I divided it up into the typings I wanted / intended to contribute, scattering “historical-based” characters to weekends and the middle of each week. Then I found all the archived / in the drafts characters on the wordpress blog, and counted those up. I started filling in the blank squares. My anxiety depleted as the squares filled. I’ll still have to watch films and type new characters, but not nearly as many as I feared, and I’ll probably have enough altogether between new / old / updated with Enneagram typings to fill all 29 days with at least 2 per day. I scheduled everything I have, made a list of the ones I need, and will work at it. Now under control. While at it, I made a list of to-do things for this weekend, itemized it according to importance and need, and am working my way down it. I did the same for my work week, which meant working off it, I got half of it done in advance and won’t have to feel “last minute pressured” next week.

This sort of thing is... somewhat typical with me. I get a great idea, it turns out to be more work than I thought -- I consider quitting, but then break it down into sizable chunks / a work list and make my way through it. The less interest others show, also, in the result, the less likely I am to keep doing it, because my ultimate goal is to impact others through everything I do (typical extrovert).

- ENFP Mod

[scripttorture]

Would you say it’s realistic for a character who witnesses someone else being tortured to be effected psychologically as severely as if they were the one being tortured (or at least close to that)?

Generally? No. However if there are other things going on in the story it could be within the realm of reality.

 Trauma is a complex process and I think it’s fair to say that we don’t fully understand how it works yet. For instance we know the possible symptoms someone can manifest but we don’t really know why different survivors get different symptoms.

 It’s also… very difficult to study which particular symptoms manifest in individual trauma survivors and how ‘severe’ they are in an ethical way. (Ie how do you account for your sample size of traumatised people having different traumatic experiences, being from different backgrounds, having different support networks etc.)

 Based on what we know about PTSD in particular: lasting, severe symptoms are more likely if a person is physically hurt/otherwise physically effected by a traumatic incident.

 A person who sees a nasty car crash might still develop PTSD, but they are less likely to then the person in the passenger seat who was hurt during the crash.

 However PTSD also becomes more likely if the person in question has survived a traumatic event before.

 Essentially if you take two ‘random’ people and put them in this situation where one is the witness and the other is physically hurt, the person who was tortured will have more severe symptoms then the witness. But we know there are factors that feed in to how severe symptoms are for both survivors and witnesses. Which means that witnesses with specific backgrounds, experiences or social status might be effected more severely then ‘normal’.

 If the witness in question has pre-existing mental health problems, has survived multiple traumatic events and is socially isolated then they would probably have more severe symptoms then normal. Recovery would also take longer. They might have symptoms of similar severity to some survivors. Especially if the particular survivor they’re compared to has a lot of protective factors; ie a good support network, access to medical help, they’re only attacked once, they’ve not experienced a traumatic event before etc.

 It’s a guess, but I think you could, possibly see similar severity if you compare the worst case scenario for a witness with the best case scenario for a survivor. As I said, I can’t be sure because this isn’t something that’s easy to study.

 From a writing perspective I think it’s easier to stick to a general pattern of witness characters having less symptoms and less severe symptoms then survivors.

 But if the character you’re thinking of as the witness survived war, torture, genocide, etc and if they’re isolated then it would make sense for them to be more severely effected then a witness who’d never experienced trauma. It’s also worth remembering that some people just have severe mental health problems without having a traumatic event that ‘made’ them that way. In the same way that some people are born with fewer limbs and didn’t need an accident to ‘lose’ a limb.

 I think that in a story if you don’t provide a reason for a witness to be unusually effected you could risk making the survivor’s symptoms seem less important or ‘better’. It might also run the risk of implying the survivor is somehow ‘stronger’ or ‘tougher’ or morally superior instead of just… lucky.

 Overall I think it’s a better idea to stick to writing witnesses as less severely effected then survivors. Writing this stuff is hard. There’s a lot of elements to consider and balance when we write about torture and trauma. Adding in more complexity often makes it easier to fall into some form of torture apologia, whether we intend to or not.

 I can’t tell you what your skill level and comfort level is when it comes to writing this stuff. You are the person who knows best in that regard.

 I would say that if this is your first time writing torture or trauma and you don’t feel confident this probably isn’t a good idea for your first attempt. Balancing all these elements, doing a good job with dark themes, takes practice. And giving yourself too complex a scenario as your first try can sometimes mean you’re setting yourself up for failure.

 If you’ve written a few different stories with dark themes and torture specifically before then you’ll have more practice. And you’ll be better equipped to make a more unusual scenario work well.

 There are still a lot of potential pitfalls when we make these things more complex. It’s really easy to end up with unfortunate implications. Which is why I tend to advise keeping things simple.

 I’d strongly advise you to consider what this adds to your story. Why is it important that the witness is effected as severely as the victim?

 Does this risk taking away from the victim’s experience? Does it imply the witness is ‘better’? Does it imply the victim’s experience ‘wasn’t that bad’? Does it shift the focus away from the victim and on to a witness instead?

 You can still tell a story where a witness is deeply moved and effected by seeing torture, without giving them symptoms as severe as the victim.

 I do this by showing the witness choosing to change after this traumatic experience. I often have them becoming involved in politics, changing their views and acting where before they would have refused.

 I’ve written characters who upend their entire lives because they witnessed torture. And many of those characters don’t actually develop trauma symptoms.

 I’ve had two characters who throw away a decent military career, social security and financial security in order to help someone at risk of torture. Both characters witnessed torture and this led to them breaking someone out of a military prison. Which destroys their careers, leaves them without a source of income and makes them wanted criminals overnight.

 Consequences are possible without symptoms.

 I’d encourage you to think about some of those consequences. Because you might find that things like that, active decisions which effect the characters and plot, have a bigger impact then mental health problems do. They might even help you achieve what you want from this plot more effectively then symptoms would.

 I hope that helps :)

Available on Wordpress.

Disclaimer

[omfgtrump]

The Tale of Two Viruses: Part 32, The Virus Strikes Back

So much has been written about the travesty of the debate, but I wouldn’t call it a debate. I would call it more an American Carnage. Carnage in the sense that there was one man literally trying to eat the other, the way a lion tears at its captured prey.

Can’t you just see Chris Christie and Rudy G in the debate prep telling The Don: “Don’t worry about facts, just eat his lunch! Better yet, skip the lunch and just eat him!”

I found it mind-boggling that anyone was surprised by The Don’s behavior. When are people really going to understand how disturbed and evil this man is?

This is what despairing bullies do. They rage. To be losing to a man he considers weak and impotent is humiliating. When The Don feels humiliated, he goes low, lower and lower. 

I searched for takeaways. Initially, I settled on three things:

Cows.

When responding to the “Green New Deal” (which Biden unfortunately doesn’t support), The Don snipped “They want to take out cows, too.”

No more hamburgers. No more ice cream. And most importantly, no more Yoo-hoo.  Those scoundrels, those heartless Democrats! So bad, so bad. And they got upset at us for taking babies away from their parents or taking uterus’s out of women’s bodies without them knowing.

Proud, as in Proud Boys.

When asked to condemn White Supremacy, The Don told the White Supremacist group The Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.” ​Taking a page out of James Brown’s songbook he might have as well said: “I’m White and I’m Proud.

Forest cities.

Name your top five forest cities. You can’t? Don’t worry because they don’t exist. But The Don, who couldn’t be bothered to have a national plan to get PPE to all who needed it, is ready to sign a new bill in to law. It’s called The Sweep Act. The Sweep Act has two components: A broom for every American, and a national commitment to sweep the pandemic under the rug.

Here’s The Don on our raging forest fires.

 “In Europe, they live—they’re forest cities, they’re called forest cities. They maintain their forest. They manage their forest. I was with the head of a major country—it’s a forest city.”

Name of head of country please?

But after the news broke that The Don tested positive for Covid, I decided to abandon those takeaways and go with mask.

 During the debate, The Don was derisive of Biden’s mask wearing.

“I don��t wear masks like him. “Every time you see him, he’s got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away and he shows up with the biggest mask I’ve ever seen.”

Too bad they couldn’t have created a mask big enough to surround the entire White House, as who knows how many people working there were infected by the Super-Spreader-in- Chief!

And all those well-wishers out there: I understand what you are doing. You are trying to take the high road, do the opposite of what he would do. Show compassion. Just like the compassion he showed during the debate when Biden spoke about his son, Beau, who died of cancer or his son Hunter, who overcame substance abuse. Just like the compassion he showed back in 2016 when Hillary nearly collapsed form pneumonia.

Just like the compassion he showed when he mocked a journalist with disabilities.

I have no compassion for this man. None. He is evil. If you let your guard down and find a soft spot for him, thinking: oh now he will finally become human, chastened by this existential experience, you are naïve and deluded as he is.

There is no one this man won’t abuse, hurt, and try to destroy if given the opportunity.

When the devil is weak, make sure he doesn’t get another shot at it.

Who here doesn’t wish someone didn’t kill Hitler before he wiped out 11 million people?

Oh, but he isn’t that bad you say. Hyperbolic, you declare? Bullshit! He is that bad.

He has separated babies from their families.

He has deregulated environmental policies that will result in illness and death for thousands of Americans, particularly poor people of color.

He has and will continue to foment and support violence by White Supremacists-the potential for violence around the election growing each day.

He wants to take away health care and wipe out coverage of pre-existing conditions for millions of people, which will eventuate in thousands of avoidable deaths. And he wants to do this during a pandemic, when millions will be dealing with the medical fallout of the pandemic for years to come.

And then there is his response to the pandemic.

He knew in late January that it was lethal and spread through the air and said nothing.

Despite information to the contrary, he has downplayed the virus and put the entire country at risk.

He told the American people to use bleach, ultraviolet inside the body. Some of his devotees went out and swallowed bleach and a few died.

He is creating false hope and a narrative that a vaccine is around the corner. Ironically, his pathological lying and his attempt to rush a vaccine through without the rigorous testing it needs, has made the American public very skeptical about getting the vaccine. In fact, in a survey about who to trust regarding the validity of a vaccine, only 19% trusted The Don. I think more would trust cows (sorry to drag you through the mud, cows). Cornell University researchers analyzing 38 million English-language articles about the pandemic found that President Trump was the single most promoter of disinformation regarding the virus than anyone else. His malicious misinformation campaign will cause the death of many more Americans and perpetuate the pandemic.

His anti-mask attitude, disregard of truth and science, dismissal of social distancing as a method of prevention, has led to tens of thousands of unnecessary and preventable deaths. His delusional belief in his own invincibility put him in harms way and now he too is positive for the virus.

Even when he knew he was exposed to the virus (Hope Hick’s positive diagnosis), he went to a fund raiser in New Jersey and exposed all his rich supporters.

Most recently, he defied medical advice and decided to surprise his supporters by taking a joy ride around Walter Reade Hospital putting all the secret service members at risk. Here’s what one doctor at Walter Reade had to say about The Don’s publicity stunt:

“Every single person in the vehicle during that completely unnecessary Presidential ‘drive-by’ just now has to be quarantined for 14 days,” Dr. James P. Phillips, an attending physician at Walter Reed, wrote on Twitter. “They might get sick. They may die. For political theater. Commanded by Trump to put their lives at risk for theater. This is insanity.”

He has no shame, and cares not one iota about the impact of this stunt. In fact, this action is a perfect reflection of who he is and how he has handled the pandemic. Isn’t there a crime called reckless endangerment? In some states, if you knowingly are H.I.V. positive and you infect someone else (without telling them you are positive) you can go to jail.

In addition to these most recent egregious acts, he has knowingly, willfully and amorally acted in a manner to foster a genocide of neglect.

I have said this many times: The Don’s and his Republican collaborators are making choices that lead to people dying.

Let’s call it what it is. Evil. No act is heinous enough when it comes to his (and their) desire to hold on to power.

Knowing The Don’s ability to overcome adversity, he, unlike 208,000 Americans, will most likely survive this. Trust me, there will be no transformation, no come to Jesus moment like Boris Johnson. His response will be more like President Bolsonaro of Brazil, who recovered from the virus and declared himself victorious, an Adonis in the face of death. He will return to the campaign trail and revert to his vulgar, vituperative self, denigrating others, destroying everything in his wake, including our democracy, if that’s what it takes to win.

Do you still want to know why I have no compassion and do not wish him well? All I can hope for, if he does get well, is that he is defeated in an historic landslide, takes down the Republican Senate with him and then he and his family will prosecuted and convicted for their many crimes, spending many years wearing an orange jumpsuit to match his absurd orange hair.

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[mellowdave]

Film, its imminent death and hopeful resurrection…

We watched “Ad Astra” last night.

Like pretty much everyone, we are

watching some missed pieces during this pandemic and associated quarantine. We worked through “Tales from the Loop” last week, and while I was perusing the watchlist Friday afternoon I realized there were a few movies on HBO that we had missed at the theatre for various reasons we could take in as well. I sat Saturday and watched “Ford v. Ferrari” and thoroughly enjoyed that, so yesterday I decided to watch “Ad Astra”. I am not always in the mood for the genre it represents, or that I thought it represented, science fiction is often a let down on film, when the studio doesn’t choose a visionary to manage their millions of dollars and instead drops it on someone who’s better off making a football film, but has been reliable for them. There have been thousands of words written and entire Youtube accounts dedicated to folks lamenting the current state of affairs in the film and hi end series business, and it’s pretty unlikely that I have anything particularly unique to add to the dialogue, but these are a few of my personal thoughts. I’ll post my opinions of the actual films on separate pages.

Film and “TV” in general are obviously blurred together these days. Since Netflix became the streaming juggernaut it is, and actual broadcast TV has declined to the point of needing life support, I think I should define the two. I say “TV” in reference to content created with the home viewer as the primary audience, and film as that created for the theatre and big screen experience. You can make a solid argument that they are the same, but even if it isn’t budget and production quality any more there is still usually a palpable difference. In a sense, the big shared universe franchises, and things like 3 “Hobbit” and three “Lord of the Rings” films are not so different from serialized “TV”. The market dictates that even films are made with an eye on the subsequent streaming market from the start. I suppose a more accurate term would be “serialized content” since it doesn’t really matter where we are viewing it anymore.

The whole business seems to be about 50% dedicated to cashing in on nostalgia, and I’m not totally against that. So many really solid stories were let down by abysmal budgets, or in the case of almost all sci fi, the pretty sad visual effects available in the 80s and 90s. They were at best less than stellar, or more likely, never made at all. Some original sci fi has real potential, consider Larry Niven’s “The Smoke Ring” series, which was talked about but never materialized, or, for contrast, the disappointing vision of “Dune” that did come to film. I’m all for some re imagining of a few of the real classics, as long as they respect the source in the process. I don’t need to see a CGI version of “The Last Starfighter”, it wouldn’t improve on the story, and the effects were part of the joy, but I am stoked to see Denis Villeneuve’s take on Dune, with a real budget, and (hopefully) less studio interference.

Who didn’t love the new “Battlestar Galactica Series”? The original was a weekly appointment view for me when I was a kid even though it was the campiest thing ever made after the Gil Gerrard “Buck Rogers”. The reboot came at a time when these things were just getting off the ground, and it was made for a modest budget, making the most of every penny they spent to create a gritty take on the original, without completely disregarding it’s lore and texture. Sci Fi made it as a two hour movie first to test the waters, and found such an enthusiastic audience that it ran for seven seasons. On that note, serializing a few classic movies isn’t the worst idea either. We’re all waiting to see what Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series looks like, and I am really enthused with what I’ve seen of the upcoming “Foundation” series. The story telling options a season of 40 minute serials gives writers opens up whole new depths to character development and deeper plots.

Some recent classics like “Firefly” are probably not firing up anytime soon, but just imagine if that franchise had found the type of rebirth that “The Expanse” did with its switch to Amazon Prime and it’s dramatic budget increase. The world of “Firefly” is rich and well developed, and perfect for a spin off shot.

We’ve generally been let down by serial adaptations of films, but when the writers use a well known and popular universe of an original film or franchise as the starting point rather than the characters and plots themselves, we’ve gotten some really good work. I submit the first season of “The Mandalorian” as the obvious candidate. It’s a familiar universe, the writers don’t have to spend three episodes world building, and we get to scratch the nostalgia itch in the process. A similar series based on material not so well known to the general viewing audience requires a good bit more in the way of exposition dumps to get us involved. Instead, “Mando” hit the ground running.

Original series that don’t dig into a known universe, but rather a general since of nostalgia for a period, like “Stranger Things” are new and popular also for very solid reasons. An engaging cast paired with stellar writing from the Duffer brothers made the most surprising and entertaining non franchise series I’ve seen in twenty years. We completely stumbled onto that gem by sitting around in the house alone the year it was released just surfing the Netflix recommended list. We even started it reluctantly, saying “well, we can always turn it off” and ended up watching all night. Having grown up a child of the 80s, the universe it is set in was instantly familiar to me, and different enough from our current that it gives the writers some license to not be 100% gritty and realistic. The obvious nods to classic horror and sci fi films just iced that cake.

I think (and I say this all the time) that were in a golden age of serialized content, and even though the film industry is on life support as far as creativity goes, she’s still hanging in there, releasing the occasional gem for us to dig into. I have high hopes that we’ll get some greatness in between the industry bean counters stepping in and wrecking things. Those giant blockbusters that everyone rushes out and drops 25.00 a ticket on creates profit that pays for riskier but quality work like “Knives Out” and “Ex Machina”. Maybe I’m painting with too optimistic a brush, its a weakness of mine for sure, but things don’t seem to be so bad right now.

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[awesomelephuoclocblog-blog]

The Three Officially Recommended WordPress Hosting Companies – A Video Introduction

https://lephuocloc.com/three-for-one-hosting-review/

Picking a web encouraging organization is one of indisputably the main troubles you'll stand up to when setting up your own website. The authority WordPress.org site is there to help regardless, by proposing three WordPress encouraging associations, to be explicit: Bluehost, DreamHost, and SiteGround. In this video we'll explore each of these: to help you with understanding their characteristics and inadequacies — with a mind to helping you pick the right host for your own site.

We should research:

The Three Officially-Recommended WordPress Web Hosting Companies – An Introduction to Each:

Direct associate with watch the video over on YouTube.

– (note: video credits to Topher DeRosia – creator of HeroPress)

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

Howdy, this is Topher with WinningWP! In this video I'm going to give you an introduction to each of the officially proposed WordPress web encouraging associations. Regardless, what does that genuinely mean, definitively recommended? By whom? All around let me show you. We're here on WordPress.org, and right here in the major menu is an encouraging join. Moreover, if we click it we bring about these current conditions page which has three officially recommended WordPress has. We have Bluehost, DreamHost, and SiteGround. I will go over each and every one of them with you, and around the end you should have an extremely nice handle on what all of them is satisfactory at and which one might be useful for you. We should start with Bluehost. Bluehost is asserted by the Endurance International Group, which is an especially gigantic association. They actually own few encouraging associations. Bluehost was set up in and is correct now one of the greatest web has. 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There will be a gigantic proportion of consistency, support is reliably there, and it for the most part has a comparative level of significant worth. Bluehost has contributed an enormous proportion of vitality gathering resources and building a streamlined system for customers to get onboarded and get set up. This is probably the host that you have to use in the event that you're very, actually essentially starting. It's fantastically modest and has smooth onboarding. So on the off chance that you're not content with getting set up, it'll be additional basic for you. We should examine the accompanying host. DreamHost is unreservedly had. It was set up in and is arranged in Los Angeles, California, and they use over people. Of the three that we're examining, this host is the most prepared. It's been around a long time, and they have a monstrous proportion of comprehension. Being in California they even have contribution in losing by far most of their help of a tremor and recovering. We should research their site. Their esteeming starts at $ . a month and has a combination of plans. Again, the central plan isn't WordPress unequivocal. It's standard encouraging and WordPress works remarkable there. Be that as it may, it's not supervised WordPress encouraging. While these other three blue ones are on DreamPress, which is their regulated encouraging structure. As the expenses go up, the benefits go up in addition. So we should explore our next host. SiteGround is in like manner openly asserted. It was set up in and is arranged in Sofia, Bulgaria. They use over people, and something that is exceptional about SiteGround is they have server ranches in five unmistakable territories. Chicago, London, Amsterdam, Milan, and Singapore. This infers your site gets reflected wherever all through the world, which can make it extra snappy. We ought to research their site. 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[insomniac-dot-ink]

The Breakdown Ch2

genre: supernatural gay ghost story

rated: M

words: 4.2K

summary: What do you get when you combine an urban legend turned real, a psychic hick, and bunch of ghost hunting Yankees? A bad time.

All Kevin Lampton wants to do with his summer is stop The Lady in White from killing anymore road trippers in the middle of nowhere Kentucky. Unfortunately, a group of ghost hunters looking for answers makes his job a lot more complicated.

Chapters: One, Two

Website⭐Ko-Fi ⭐Patreon ⭐ WordPress⭐Twitter

89 More Days

The sun was slowly leaking in through plastic blinds and striping the thin motel carpet with light and half the single bed in the center of the room. It was bare and rustic and cleaned with something quietly made of bleach and something more than bleach. Kevin flopped down on the bed without looking and reminded himself he had homework, milk to throw out, nails to cut, and a haircut to get.

It was sometime in the morning, a summer morning that didn’t need any definition or permission to exist. A time undomesticated by human concepts of time, it was just early and would be early for a while.

Kevin had homework to do.

He fell dreamlessly into deep musty sleep and didn’t wake again for 8 hours.

It was evening again when he blinked into consciousness, groaning and reaching for a half-filled water bottle and his laptop. He rolled onto his back and traced the ‘K’ on the ceiling with his eyes, written in cracks and imagination. He did the math in his head: he’d have approximately five hours of “Kevin-Time” now.

He indulged in several more moments of moping before stacking himself upright like a new game of jenga and unfolding. He forced himself to the shower, letting the lukewarm water work its way into his clenched muscles.

He closed his eyes, but not for long. There were hands in there, hands and eyes and a pale bruised gaze.

He sighed from deep inside himself and staggered to wipe the sleep out of his eyes and stand in front of the mirror. Kevin Lampton was lean, not tall, but the leanness gave the impression of at least a couple more inches of height.

He was springy in the way of wound-up corkscrews, sunburnt in an offhand way and long in a compact sort of way. He had a long face, almond-shaped, and a sloping jawline that was the opposite of the Hollywood box; those were his father’s features: soft and bordering on strange.

His nose was his own but only by way of being small and aligned with his ears.

His eyes were not his own, suspicious things with long dusty eyelashes and shifty movements, always breaking and starting and breaking again.

His teeth belonged to no one and he was lucky they weren’t more crooked, but they still overlapped here and there enough to dispel any wide smiles on his part in school pictures. His hair was the color of damp sand, not yellow, but a grainy brown that was lost to him in the way sand was. It was too long right now. It crept down his neck and hung over his eyes in wavy stiff tufts.

He’d have to get that taken care of, especially before class started again at the end of August. He sighed, August.

He was ready for August.

He gave himself another push and dug out his busted Lenovo computer and a Snickers bar from the back pocket of his other pair of pants. Four and a half hours.

He got to work and munched quietly.

89 more days on Sumpter Road, six more semesters of school, five if he got his shit together, one year at an internship, two years as any sort of underling and then… time spread out before him in a red jagged roadmap and he traced it with his eyes unblinkingly.

He looked back down at his online econ homework and typed as quickly as he could without his laptop limply falling backward in it’s continual over dramatic death throes. Bastard.

Four more hours.

A family pulled into the motel parking lot and he heard a shower turn on from somewhere beside him and rancorous yelling from somewhere above him. He imagined himself in a woody green forest, throwing up thick bark and leafy branches so the tiny waves didn’t hit from either location.

Someone was angry. Someone was having a very successful journey of self-exploration in a grungy motel shower. Kevin wasn’t really interested in either and frowned until the forest grew roots and blocked everything out.

The sun sank down in a bloody red bath outside and Kevin stuffed his pockets with more purified rock salt and packets of lamb's blood. He slipped his expression into something more than “tired and constantly terrified” for his cars sake and went out the door.

89 more monotonous days of trying to not let strangers die on a haunted road.

------------------

Kevin expected three things: that the elastic of his lucky boxers was probably going to snap soon. He was going to graduate college with full marks or die trying. He was going to meet a lot of strangers on Sumpter Road and then never see them again.

Some of the strangers may or may not piss themselves and it was his job to both stop them from being murdered and graciously look away from the aforementioned soiled pants.

He drove fifteen minutes from the highway motel back toward his night watch. His phone buzzed five times before he flipped it open.

“Hello?” He answered flatly, he was good at flat, he had a lot of practice.

“Kevin, me boy,” A smiling voice addressed him, Kevin glanced at the car visor and back down. “What do you want me to do with your shit?” Kevin twisted his mouth to the side, “Can I get someone to pick it up? I can get someone.” He lied easily and panicked quietly.

“Sure, sure,” Stevie said carelessly, “but you sure you don’t want us to keep it here? It’s only 3 months dude, don’t make us get a new roommate for next semester, I can already tell the Freshman are gonna fucking suck.” Kevin breathed out easily, “I’ll figure something out.” He said, which wasn’t really an answer. “Can’t do the summer though, I’ll get someone to get my things soon.” The ‘someone’ was whoever he could bribe to drive his few personal items from Lexington to his dad’s place in Frankfort.

“God, dude, please tell me you’re at least on some sort of vacation. Like, with a mimosa, a beach, and a girlfriend that isn’t your damn right hand.” Stevie tossed something across the room with a tin sound and gentle crash. Kevin rolled his eyes, “Yeah, she’s a real livewire, way more hands than me.” He said dryly. In fact, she had three more hands than him, five, six, seven sometimes.

“Whatever man, I’m telling you one of these days you’re gonna pop with that stick shoved so far up your stress hole that not eve-” Kevin paused, his eyes went wide, he approached the part of Sumpter road just outside of Reginald. “I have to call you back Stevie.” He cut off whatever new romantic metaphor his roommate was going to plunge into. “Somethings come up.”

“Fine, fine, avoid my damn point. But yeah, come get your shit.” “See you.” Stevie Johnson was a “friend,” but Kevin did not have friends that he couldn’t immediately hang up on. He hung up.

Kevin’s knuckles bleached on the steering wheel; the crickets chorused mockingly around him as he slowed down. The last bits of sun reflected, shiny and angry against the side of something very big and very black. A sore thumb in the dust, the type that wasn’t so much a bruise itself in this place but something about to bruise everything else.

Kevin’s nostrils flared; he wasn’t the type of psychic that could predict the future. He couldn’t pick out numbers from thin air or tell you the description of your true love. He couldn’t sell you your destiny or the identity of your true love for $4.99 a minute. 

He considered himself a pretty shitty psychic, but even he could tell this didn’t mean anything good. There was a big black van.

A big black van sat in the middle of the road, not off to the side, not in the grass, but on the very center ridge. Kevin narrowed his eyes so hard at it that he expected they might just become slitted peak holes. Officially, Sumpter didn’t have two lanes, but that didn’t mean sitting in the very center of it was not an absolute asshole move.

Kevin slowed to a stop in front of it to point out just how much of an asshole move it was. The windows were tinted completely black, the sides faceless, body high off the ground, and something was blinking green on the dashboard.

No, he swallowed thickly and wished he go back to dealing with that hippy couple who were convinced the ghost was an angel trying to contact them. They were babbling about that right up until the Lady on the Road started strangling them.

He would take the car of flower children smelling of skunk and rosemary over this any day.

He had a stare-off with the big black van and didn’t seem to be winning.

He glanced back at the blinking green light on the dashboard and Kevin parked close enough to recognize it as a black box and he had a feeling a little red arrow was on the other side. 

Both the driver and passenger seats were empty, but he could see the occasional movements behind the seats in the back. He knew what this was.

No, Kevin had a sudden sneaking suspicion this was retribution for his last job. He had watched, just watched, in his little visor and bright red shirt as a teenage girl had put ketchup in her milkshake. She put it directly in her milkshake without an ounce of shame. He just stood there and did nothing.

This was what happened to people who didn’t stop crimes, even after saving a considerable number of other drivers from a supernatural death.

He put his forehead on the center of his wheel and sighed, big and gusty and quite frankly one of his more impressive ones.

Maybe he should have expected this. People talked, online forums talked. The devil lived on the “Supernatural and Alien Experiences” reddit boards. Kevin watched the van until the sun succumb to a soft and hematic death on the horizon, and the black box blinked green.

He had found a new least favorite part his self-assigned job.

Kevin finished a burger he bought from a corner shop near his motel and his big gulp filled with shitty coffee he made himself. It tasted like dirt and grit, and he probably deserved that too.

The van looked new.

Kevin took his time checking his pockets, thinking about his homework, his hair, and then getting out of the car. The moon was a low half-coin in the sky, and he couldn’t put this off for any longer.

The night cast long shadows over everything like a paint brush that only knew two colors: silver and grey. Silver light licked up across the grass to the point you forgot they were ever yellow, and Kevin swore he saw more imaginary lightning bugs again.

A rusted white shack sat in the difference with small bent trees dotting the area around them; Kevin put his hands in his back-pockets and approached the big black van. His stomach sank as he saw his own reflection in the shiny surface.

His tank top was now upgraded to grey one instead of white, but his skin was still ruddy with summer heat and expression less than authoritative, mouth pinched and jawline obstinately soft. Throwing lambs blood was easier than this.

He trained his expression into something unflinching and private. He knocked on the side of the slide door with his knuckles and roved his brain for appropriate accompanying sentences. A stillness followed and he knocked again.

“Jesus,” a breathy voice said from within, “is that her?” The van shifted slightly, the sound of footsteps on metal, “Ghosts don’t knock.” Answered a much less breathy voice.

Kevin inhaled deeply, “Can I have a talk with you folks?” His voice sounded small and flat against the flat landscape.

Another thoughtful pause followed.

“Do ghosts usually ask to be let in?” “Smart ones do.” Kevin blew air out of his nose, “I’m not a ghost.” “That’s exactly what a ghost wo-” “Shut up Collie.” The door slid open and a blast of cool air rolled out and Kevin blinked into it for a moment. He looked up from two brown men’s oxford’s and confirmed his own worst fears.

There was a whole slew of wires and blinking lights and screens on the inside of the van. Electronics were stacked and piled and obviously not part of an FBI headquarters- or if it was FBI then the government was in far more trouble than anyone suspected.

Three people were inside. A girl was cross legged, another was stooped over a monitor, and one young man hung over Kevin like a loose bent tree. The whole group was dressed in black t-shirts and black pants, leather belts and heavy boots, a match set. Some sort of massive green goggles held one of the girl’s curly hair back and the young man had thick sunglasses with a similar green sheen to them. At night.

Kevin ran a hand through his hair and tried not to yank it, “Don’t mean to intrude.” He began, just as his grandma would have liked. “But I thought I should pay you a visit.” The three ghost-hunters exchanged a long look between them. The two young women had strikingly similar features, tan skin and darker brown hair tied up in wavy buns. They were both on the short side and had mouse-like noses in Kevin’s opinion.

Their eyes were similarly bright and curious, sisters? He didn’t have time to place it. 

Kevin was trying not to look directly at the young man in his terrible oxfords above him. 

“Well,” the man, boy? spoke first, breaking the silence, “We were just debating on the same thing when we saw you.” Kevin raised his eyebrows, “Oh?”

“That’s you, right man?” The guy pointed to his tiny hatchback and it somehow felt like a slight.

Kevin forced himself to look up, “Yeah.” The young man was broad-shouldered and annoyingly upright, the type of upright money could buy. He had a stretching expanse of neck, square jaw, and his face was easy in all regards. Roman straight nose, mouth that was far too satisfied with itself, and diamond shaped features. 

His hair was carefully curled at the top, a whip cream swirl on a professionally made cafe drink, brown and thick and very obviously never exposed to shampoo that stripped the roots.

Kevin employed a very small and very squiggly frown. The young man smiled, his teeth were straight, boxy, and streak-less, also the type money could buy. “Yeah, you should be careful,” he spoke with a flattened accentless-accent, not from here but from anywhere at all. “This road is haunted.” Kevin refused the temptation to roll his eyes. He cleared his throat instead and began carefully, briefly debating if he should shave off his local accent or soak his vowels in it like making backwoods rum pudding.

“Reckon everyone should stay away from it then,” he said pointedly, “must be dangerous.” He decided on rum pudding. The young man regarded Kevin through green-tinted glasses, unpolite and clearly not playing this game. He smiled with wicked delight, “Who are you?” It was asked in the way someone confirms a surprise purchase or family secret from a gossipy aunt. Unsurprised and yet ever so pleased about it.

Kevin took a deep breath and refused to duck down or look away, “Nobody. Just thought I should warn you as out-of-towners.” 

The young man took the time to squat, a quick and accusatory movement. “And what are you doing here, Nobody Man?” He was poking at something and Kevin thought a bit of lamb’s blood on his cheeks might improve his very smug appearance.

“Woah, woah, have you seen anything?” One of the girls asked, but the young man was still leering over him in a way that made him much more of a priority.

“Trying to stop anyone from getting hurt,” he said truthfully, “You should get out of here before,” he coughed into his hand, “Anything.” He didn’t need to give them any hints. The young man’s smile widened like a length of rope a magician kept pulling out of his sleeve. There just seemed to be more and more. “My name is Nathan Calvin,” he put his hand out to shake, “Those are the Alvarez sisters.” One of the sisters gave in a slight salute and the other one turned to him with an unhappy eyebrow twitch.

“How would you like to come up here, Nobody Man?” Nathan Calvin’s hand was still dangling in front of him, “You’re letting the cold air out here man and you came over to talk, right?”

The snake was wiggling its way in front of him in a very slick dance that meant very little to him.

Kevin hunched slightly, “I think it would be better if you considered hurrying on,” he gestured up the road, “this isn’t really a populated area. The highway is that way. And the nearest hospital is even further.” He stated without inflection. Nathan Calvin retracted his hand, but he didn’t seem any less pleased. “Come on up, come chat with us.” He boomed, “I’ll make it worth your while.” Kevin shoved his hand through his hair again, tired of this. “This isn’t the type of ghost you want to hunt.” You’re making my job harder.

Nathan cheered, “Somebody knows things!” He sang with a laugh, “what about some beer for your troubles? Money? Heck, Diana might give you kiss.” “That would take more beer than even you can afford Nathan.” Diana, the sharp-looking sister, said without looking up.

“Alright,” he chuckled, “no kisses, but I don’t think that’s what you’re here for anyway.” Kevin elegantly rolled his eyes this time, “If I talk to you will you leave?” Nathan Calvin just kept smiling. Kevin closed his eyes for a moment and then slipped his phone out to look at the time, 10:10.

“You have thirty minutes.” He climbed into the stupid shiny black van, “And then I’m escorting you out of here.”

Idiots.

They move aside and close the door behind him.

-------------

Belly of the Beast

Kevin was regularly uncomfortable- it was more of the jacket he wore for the possibility of rain and forgot to take off. His discomfort spiked as the light of the summer moon cut off as they shut the door, a pulled plug plunging him into a cavern of beeps and blinking things.

The sisters were curious, the boy was anticipatory, none of them were afraid in the slightest. Idiots.

Nathan Calvin took a seat cross-legged next to one of the sisters and patted the floor of the van in invitation. “Tell me your thoughts!” He yelled far too loudly in the echoey dark van.

Kevin narrowed his eyes at him, “Ghosts. Danger. Dying.” The boy laughed in answer. “Somebody take notes ladies.” One of the sisters, the one with the goggles looked up. “Have you seen her kill anyone?” Kevin’s frown became a tightening black hole on his face. Nathan put a hand up, “Hey now Collie,” he stopped her, “Let’s start with the small stuff.” He tilted his chin up, “Has she ever tried to kill you?” Collie, the goggles sister, was taking notes now. “No.” Kevin said truthfully, “But she will go after you,” he looked up at the ceiling, “It’s harder the more people there are.” Idiots.

Kevin discerned the groups feelings, not the fresh ones, but the dangling roots that burrowed deep and colored their every movement. There was a shimmering veil of glittering silver and gold guarding them. It was thick and glorious, their mothers had no doubt swaddled them in it from birth and let them walk out into the world armored, invincible, and foolish. It was the type money could buy. Nathan Calvin threw his arms in the arm, “Elaborate!” He was enjoying himself like a polo-shirted boy at a private swimming pool that was already two margarita's in.

“You’re making my job harder.” Kevin only had so much room in himself for elusiveness, “I’m trying to help, what will it take to leave this road, money? Beer?” He turned Nathan’s words on him brashly, “I’m sure we could find someone to kiss you.” Nathan Calvin became somehow more delighted.

The other sister, goggle-less, tilted her chin up proudly, “We’re prepared,” she said simply, “Though this is a nice confirmation that she’s really here.” Alright, well maybe it’s time to leave them to their fate, he could use some more sleep and less animal blood on his hands. Haircut, milk, homework.

He closed his eyes for a moment and let the fantasy wash over him- the one where he left here and sank into a nice long nap. Then he opened his eyes again, “Tell you what,” he spread out his own smile, more brittle, less careless, but fireproof all the same. “I’ll tell you everything I know, we could do it over a burger, there’s a 24-hour diner at least fifteen minutes away.” It was more like thirty, but they didn’t need to know that.

Nathan Calvin drenched his smile in lighter fluid, “When does she usually show up?” 

Kevin clenched his hands by his side and narrowed his eyes, “When your guard is down.” “Our guard won’t be down,” said the stony-faced sister.

“We could let it down,” Nathan Calvin contributed and for all of his easy smiles he was very difficult.

Kevin blew air out of his nose, “Fine.” He sat down heavily on the floor, “Damn yankees.” He muttered that last part to himself. Nathan leaned back, “you’re local then, right?” “Do you like, protect this road?” Collie asked quickly. “You’re not dead, right?” “We’d know if he was dead.” “Speak for yourself,” Collie waved a hand dismissively at her sister.

“How’d you find her?” Nathan asked next.

“And what should we expect?” The other Alvarez sister wasn’t looking directly at him, but she was looking all around the van anyway, alert. Alert was something at least.

Kevin waved a hand in front of his face; they were lucky Kevin didn’t only save people that he liked. Kevin growled, “I’m sure she’ll be here and answer your questions.” “Does she talk?” The goggles sister, Collie, buzzed. She had a heart-shaped face, soft round cheeks, and an exceptionally soft mouth; Kevin looked away. “That would be perfect.”

“No, no talking. And I’m Kevin,” he finally said. “Who are you?”

“She doesn’t talk?” The alert sister noted.

“What else does she do?” “Tries to murder you,” Kevin responded tartly.

Nathan shifted, putting his arms on his cross knees and leaning forward, “but not you.” Kevin looked up at the ceiling, “look, I don’t know what y’all are doing here but-” “Isn’t that obvious?” The alert sister said, who he was also now classifying as the ‘Mean Sister.’ “-but this isn’t a joyride,” he finished bitterly, “I don’t want anyone getting hurt on my watch.” He looked down at his phone clock, 10:31. It’s still early, he reminded himself with even breaths. “On your watch?” Nathan repeated his words with relish, “God, look at this Diana,” he looked back to Alert Mean sister, Diana. “And Misty said this would be a bust.” He laughed.

Collie crawled closer to Kevin, “What’s up then? Are you not a ghost hunter too? You’re just like, a grumpy guy on this road?” Kevin pinched his brow together, “No.” He said ruefully, “I’m not a ghost hunter.” Nathan stretched his long neck back, “This is going to be fucking amazing. Anything on the instruments, Di?” Diana checked the instruments, she rose one eyebrow and shook her head curtly.

“Do you want to die?” Kevin burst out, sitting up straight and trying to hold their leader’s gaze through his tinted sunglasses.

Nathan chuckled, “Tell me,” he clucked, “What do you do with this ghost then, Nobody Man?” Kevin groaned, he felt like he was having several conversations at once and no conversations at all. “Kevin.” Was all he said, a stony tone that hung in the air long enough to settle into burnt quiet.

“Well, I’m Colleen Alvarez. You can call me Collie,” Collie broke the silence, “That’s my sister Diana.” “Older,” Diana added as if to explain something. “Right, I’m Nathan and you can call me Nathan.”

“I know. You said,” Kevin glared at all of them, “and have you all ever met a ghost before, ghost hunters?” Nathan and the Alvarez sisters all exchanged a poignant look. And then something started beeping.

Diana turned on her heel, “The EMF is picking up on something.”

“Woah!” Collie chirped as well. “The digital thermometer is shitting itself.” The temperature in the van rapidly sank.

Kevin ignored them and checked his clock, 10:37, she was early, but ghosts were rarely reliable. “Shit.”

The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and a growl rumbled through the small space like a rolling thunder storm.

Here she came.

<===== Previous Chapter                                                   Next Chapter =====>

————–

Hey! Being a writer is a tough business and I could use some help so if you enjoyed the story please consider donating to my ko-fi or subscribing to my website or patreon

[musicrunsthroughmysoul]

Yesterday was one of the best days I’ve had in what feels like a really long time (although is probably true up until when I got to meet Thunderpussy, so you know, since like the new year). I’m considering writing a legit review of the show on my Wordpress blog but I don’t even know if I can write anything that seems structured about how actually-fucking-incredible last night was. It was mind-blowing, and probably something along the lines of life changing? I mean, one of the performers - she was a guest who (apparently played an Alice in Chains cover with Whitney Mongé) played a few songs of her own after Whitney Mongé’s main set - had one of The Most Incredible Voices I Have Ever Heard that I literally felt breathless listening to her. Her name was Maya Marie, by the way, if you consider finding her on Instagram or Youtube.

Of course, Whitney was fantastic, too, and early on she played this acoustic and slowed down/soft version (although the entire show was acoustic and that was the point...) of my FAVORITE song of hers, “Good Things,” and it made me fucking cry and apparently it made my friend who was there with me cry, too, and he told me after the show “I’ve literally never cried because of a song before but I cried during that song.” The rest of her set was some of just the most beautiful energy, and there were only 15 people there, too, so she worked HARD to make it a great show and I think she totally, 110% succeeded in doing so. (Immediately after I got home I shared her next show’s event on Facebook and was like ‘ALL OF YOU WA PEEPS, YOU HAVE TO COME AND SEE THIS NEXT SHOW FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING GOOD AND YOU WILL SOOOOOOOOO NOT REGRET IT!’) Before the show my friend and I were talking, though, about the fact that people maybe weren’t there last night because of the coronavirus hysteria goin’ on and I’m afraid she won’t have much of an audience in two weeks, either, considering that I also saw that Pearl Jam are postponing their tour...

Nicolle Swims who fronts the band Black Ends was also a really lovely opener, although the first couple of songs she played I couldn’t really tell what she was singing (and lyrics are so important to my experience of music so it was kinda a sad thing that I couldn’t understand her sometimes!) but that might’ve been because she was nervous doing a solo acoustic performance, and luckily after she played her third song or so I started to be able to understand her better and I REALLY liked the rest of her set.

BUT THEN, AT THE VERY END OF THE SHOW NICOLLE AND WHITNEY PLAYED AN ENTIRELY ACOUSTIC COVER OF “SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT” AND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOLY SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At that point I was like ‘Okay, so Whitney Mongé is the only person who should be SINGING “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and everyone else can only hope to perform it as well as she and Nicolle did.’ AND THIS WAS A MOTHERFUCKING ACOUSTIC COVER, Y’ALL. After the show when my friend and I were [both quite speechless and could pretty much only repeat to each other, “That was wow, that was so amazing...”] talking, he said “I’m gonna need that cover to have, like, I need them to record that so that I can buy it and just have it forever and listen to it all the time.” It was literally so fucking amazing, and I AM SO PLEASED that Whitney introduced their rendition of that song by saying, “Seattle musicians are so afraid of grunge. Like, I like grunge! But everyone’s so afraid to play it, and I don’t get that. So we’re gonna play a song, and it’s like the only Nirvana song I know.” And Nicolle said “I’m gonna mess this up so bad,” and then they both proceeded to FUCKING! KILL! IT!!!!!!!!!! OH MY GOD IT WAS SO GOOD.

Anyway, so yeah. I should probably write a legit review of this but so much of it would just be me screaming about what a phenomenal night it was and I think all the performers there deserve something better than just me screaming, LMAO...or in Maya’s case that I hardly know what to say because I was so literally blown away that I just felt breathless listening to her. I hardly wanted to breathe during her three- or four-song performance, and the last song she played was SO emotional AND I COULDN’T EVEN CRY - EVEN THOUGH I WANTED TO - THAT’S HOW ARRESTING HER PERFORMANCE WAS. I MEAN, GOD DAMN.

Best night since New Year’s Eve, oh fucking yes.