#I’m going to look into master programs first and then focus on publishing houses

[crybaby-bkg]

officially finished writing my novel and all my classes for undergrad today 🥲 and no I couldn’t stop crying LOL

[pnwriter]

Endemic Pandemic

Part 1:  Seattle as the Epicenter

How did it all start?  First, it was STEP A, everyone from China, talking about it and one student bemoaning the fact that some people in Wuhan, China will eat anything.  It seems eating a diseased bat started it, as contact with a monkey started AIDS.  That group made it back and we had a fun time.  The next two-week class was canceled because travel from China had been suspended.  I skipped the next group to go to Mexico with Rene and Anne, and started the fourth group with a reduced group.  After only one week, the UW decided to cancel in-person classes and that program ended.  Now, there is the worry that I may not even have enough work to retire as I had planned.  I started job hunting as soon as we heard the program will probably close the end of summer.  Now, it's the start of spring quarter, and we only have 20 new students (as opposed to a healthy 80).  Moreover, these classes may have to be on-line, so I'll have to learn a program called Zoom.  All the signs are pointing to me getting out of this career and Rene is talking about getting out of the country.  China and Iran took the biggest initial hits, then Italy closed down.  Just today, 3/11/2020, Dumptr canceled all flights to and from Europe, except for England, who Brexited earlier this year.  Also, today, the public schools followed the university's precedent, and closed down, as did the Burke Museum.  The governor has banned any meetings over 250 people.  Any meetings over 13 are discouraged and on my way back from the gym, which is still open, the train was mostly empty, with the buses being just a little fuller.   You see people in masks, bus drivers, students until the classes were cancelled, doctors and nurses, shoppers, passers by.  It's all disconcerting.  People are over reacting, in my opinion...the North Dakotan whose bus driver always made it through when all the others cancelled.  

Facebook and Instagram are double edged swords.  First, it is and always has been a community of contact at a time when face to face contact has decreased steadily over the years.  (Ironically, it's been decreasing directly because of the technology that gave us Facebook in the first place!)  I send a photo of a candle burning for all our brothers and sisters across the world to my Greek pagan witch friend Vas.   I am at home after going to our favorite neighborhood coffee shop this morning with the dog (hoping to see its friend Pinky there), only to find out that they are closing, due to the uncertainty.  There are those who say that what is happening now in Italy will happen here, too.  It's only a matter of time.  

Speaking of FB, I'm chatting on line now with Alban, my brother-from-another-life teacher friend in France, where everything is still normal.  We talked about how people are getting into being the characters in an epidemic horror film and acting accordingly.  We both acknowledge the advantages of learning in the flesh, but also know people are lazy and always take the easy way out.  Even as we communicated, President Macron issued the edict to close all schools and universities starting Monday.  I look outside to the sunny March day and think similar days greeted the Spanish Flu and the Black Death.  At least this one is not smelly.

Here's the resume I have sent:

CAREER SUMMARY

My international experience began after undergraduate school with the Peace Corps in Morocco.  My strengths of responsibility, patience and adaptability gained from being raised on a farm contributed to a successful and rewarding overseas experience. The professional aspect of my international experience began with teaching and studying in the Teaching English as a Second Language Program at CSU.  As the Graduate Student Representative, in addition to teaching, being the liaison between the faculty and the students honed my leadership, organizational and diplomatic skills.  From my first teaching job at Saint Martin’s College to my extensive career at the University of Washington, these skills developed greatly over the years.  

                Writing and editing, International relations, counseling, public relations, intercultural communication,  

EMPLOYMENT

      English Language Instructor, UW Campus and downtown ELP, material development, listening and speaking and grammar specialties 3/16/2005 to present

      Compliance Specialist, (change to Professional Staff status from Extension Lecturer) effective March 2004

     Admissions and Immigration Director, University of Washington International Outreach Programs, Seattle WA.  Admissions and Immigration for all UW Educational Outreach International Programs.  Primary Designated Student Official in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement SEVIS program. 1/2004 to present.

    Director of Student Services, University of Washington Educational Outreach, Seattle, WA.  Directing all international student services in the English Language program including acceptance, immigration advising, orientation (initial and on-going), information dissemination (weekly newsletter), sponsors, housing, language exchange and extracurricular activities.   Teaching an English Language class is part of the administration positions.   9/2000 to 1/2004.

   Acting Director, Downtown ESL Program, Directing ESL program with 80 students and nine faculty and staff.  Payroll and expenditure authorization, supervising office staff and providing support for teachers and students.  June 12-August 18, 2000.

    International Student Advisor, ESL Programs, University of Washington Educational Outreach (UWEO), Seattle, WA.  Immigration, academic and personal advising.  Activities supervisor, conversation exchange program coordinator, extended orientation class development and instruction, weekly newsletter publisher.  Taught extended orientation class in ESL Program, speaking and listening focus.  Liaison with UWEO Business Office, sponsoring agencies and embassies, UW housing office, and home stay agencies. 3/87 to 9/2000.

PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS AND SERVICES

Peace Corps Volunteer, Taza, Morocco.  High school instructor of English at Lycee Sidi Azzouz in Taza.  Outreach to disabled children in a special summer project at a special school in Martil, Morocco.  From 6/78-6/80.  

Member NAFSA: Association of International Educators and the Association of Washington International Student Affairs (AWISA).  Received Outstanding Service Award.  Reached out especially to the LGBT international community by producing a video and presenting workshops and sessions yearly at national and regional TESOL and NAFSA conferences.    

EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL TRAINING

Cetlalic Language Program, Cuernavaca, Mexico, Intensive Spanish study January 3-16, 2004.

International House, Madrid, Spain, Intensive Spanish Study and Study Abroad experience 99-00

NAFSA Professional Development Training May 1998

M.A.  TESL/Linguistics, Colorado State University 1982

B.S. Psychology, Minor in French, University of North Dakota, 1977

a week, we had done some bonding and I was remembering the difference between the two girls with similar, to me, names.

Like the 1918 Spanish Flu, which took my grandmother Voeller and Catherine Thomas' husband, starting the huge Voeller clan, the last dying before this next-100-year epidemic took hold.  It centered in a nursing home in Kirkland, and has taken mostly the elderly.  Some say it is cleaning out the dark, negative energy.  

Part 2:  Two Months in

It's now been over two months since people were sent to their rooms to thinking long and hard about what they have done...to the

Mother, to Gaia.  Yesterday was Mother's Day and I posted photos both of my mother and Gaia in celebration of the day.  I have picked up a variety pack of online friends...Roial Co (Philippine Reiki Master (I attuned him from 2 to 3 over the phone in an hour-long ceremony last weekend.  He could be part of the soul family...other members being Kim, Aric, Bob, Bachir, Robert, Vivian, Paki, Roy, Cynthia, Alban for sure), Mahamed, Eryk (also for sure), Samuel and the latest...Randy.  There could be up to 90 scattered across the planet at this time...like shatters of glass (Roi).  I'm almost to the point where I can start writing in my books again.

The state was supposed to go into what is called "Stage 2" on June 1, five days from now, but people are still dying (up to 100,000 in the states, 300,000 worldwide) so now it's mid-month.  More monetary help is on the way.  The veil is thinning.  Strange events are starting to become common.  I am meeting good people around the world on social media.  We send money to Samuel after vetting him, but Kelvin Moore turns out to be a Yemeni hack.  Oh well.  My gardens, on the other hand, are glorious and giving me much pleasure.  I have fresh flowers here at my little at home desk and downstairs on the kitchen counter.  The ones at my office desk are from the top deck and the ones on the counter are from the east English garden.  I am trying to attract elves and fairies to both gardens and have started playing my harp out there, with melodies that come to me from the plants' exhalations.  I installed a lady bug house at the base of the climbing vines and will sit out there when the weather gets better and it's supposed to reach record heat this summer.  Yikes.  Along with world pandemic, murder hornets, ravaging storms and the 17 year cadydid cycle falling on 2020, a record heat wave and resulting fires are just par for the course.  

Going out in public these days, at least here in the city, you would see that nearly everyone has a mask on.  It's a bit disconcerting looking at eyes above various colors of masks, the new item of outer wear.  The cute barista wore a black one, the owner a bandanna, his wife, the chef, a more medical-looking surgical mask, the lady in front of me, a homemade jobby.  Out in the boonies, there is a culture war between those who believe we need to wear masks to protect both ourselves and others and those who believe that it's all a hoax and it's a way for the government to muzzle us, limit our freedom.  Both sides see the other as sheeple.  

Part 3:  Month 6

It's now 70 days until November 3 and as Antonio from Spain said, "At the end of the day, it's up to a few Floridians, a bunch of Ohioans and a handful of Michiganians to decide the future of mankind..."  The DNC went better than anyone had expected, with great speeches from both Michelle and Barack Obama, the AOC, Kamala Harris and culminating with one by Biden, himself.  This week, the shit show in a burning dumpster called teh RNC has started with hysterical screaming and drug-induced ramblings laying all blame the the Dems and predicting a daily reality of lawlessness, rioting and burning cities if Biden gets elected.  Only 70 days until we decide whether to stay in this country, or like our ancestors, try our luck in a new one:  Mexico, Spain or Portugal are the top runners right now.  We plan to go south to check out Flagstaff and Sedona, Arizona this Christmas.  Last Christmas, it was El Paso, Alpine and Marfa, Texas and Los Crucas, New Mexico.  

I am on the break between summer and fall...noteably the longest one of the year, often five weeks.  I usually go back to North Dakota during this time, but that's not happening this year, probably never again.  The last time I was there, I was suffering from depression and I had a feeling I would not be seeing it again.  Best to leave it to my memories of happier days there when the people I grew up with were still alive.

This divide in the country, instigated by Russian bots and carried out by Puppet Dumpster, has been the last straw, the one to have broken the camel's back that was my family connection.  Foreseen by my late sister Lori, when she said (in response to whether it was now my job to keep the family together), "We are all adults now.  If anyone decides to never see the others again, then that's up to them, not you."  First, it was LaVonne who stopped texting or answering my texts.  Then, Dennis stopped answering my phone calls and stopped calling as well.  Rosie and Jamie are still cyber-stalking me on Facebook and Instagram (Rosie made an Instagram account as soon as I said I was leaving FB in disgust.  She has never posted anything and has no photos in her folder...she just checks to see what I'm up to.)  I stopped posting political craziness last week as it was becoming too much work to research what was fear-inducing truth and what was fear-inducing fiction.  The tainted GOP is all about striking fear into the hearts of anyone who will listen to their rabid rantings.

Another week, another innocent black man shot by racist white police.  Then, to add insult to injury, a trumped up 17 year old from Illinois goes across the border to shoot two protesters, walking by police to go home and then turn himself in the next day.  (It comes out later that he shot the first victim in the back, and that his mom drove him to the protest, as if it were a soccer practice!) I had to break my political silence on FB, which I have just decided I will have to leave.  I don't know if I can deal with Liker, the current alternative, either.  It's the brainchild of some guy who saw where FB was going in 2012 and decided people needed an option.  They need an option, all right.  The option to opt out of social media, the new Dolls of the 2010s and now 20s.  

I wake up early on 8/27/2020 and disable my Facebook account.  I can't quite go cold turkey and get rid of Messenger along with it, because there are some people on there I still want to support.  This is the second time I have tried to do this.  After 13 years (is that all?  It seems half my life!), it's a main social outlet that I am moving away from.  Especially now, in the time of pandemics, it will be more isolating, but the vitriol and Hate being spewed forth is out of balance with what's really out there...I hope.  There were those who had to spew the venom that the skateboarder that was killed, a gentle, long-haired hippy soul, deserved to die.  I can not relate nor be exposed to such unadulterated hate.  Their minds have been poisoned by no other than the POTUS, (and the institutionalized racism/hate behind him) as well as hate speech on line.  My family has succumbed to the Fear of the Other as well.  So be it.  It may mean leaving the country if this upcoming election is stolen like the last one was.  I refuse to believe that a majority of people in this country have drunk the Kool-aid.  

Reading "The Witches are Coming" by Lindy West is giving me more insight, a chance to laugh and even some hope.  

"Our propensity for always, always, always choosing what is comfortable over what is right helped pave the road to this low and surreal moment in US history."

Part 4:  Month 7

From September 8 to 18, Seattle was socked in under a cloud of ash from the fires down south.  I could feel the ashes of the bodies the those who died, as well as the chemicals of the burnt human structures.  Breitenbush Hot Springs lay in ashes with only the main buildings saved.  I could feel the heaviness in my lungs.  Mishka could sense it and acted out by peeing outside the box.  On the 14th, it finally rained some and we still have more days to endure.  I got up from epic dreams of lost family (my mom, That Bitch Denis, DJ, my nieces who my mom prepared us for so they could come in and check us out sleeping) and went out into the acid rain to witness it.  The craziness coming from the POTUS and media intensifies as it's now 50 days till the election.  

Then, when it seems to be darkest before the dawn, the triple threat of the GOPruients, COVID-19 and the death-ash from the west coast fires, we find on the evening of 9/18/20 that the Notorious RBG, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, justice of the SCOTUS, died at 87, after having fought numerous ailments, including cancer.  That bitch, Moscow Mitch immediately states the Senate will vote on a replacement even before the body is cold, even though in 2016 he said that the people of the US should have a say in the next SCOTUS, therefore, the appointment should wait until the election of the new president...blocking Obama in this last year, from appointing one.  This will enable the Dumpster in his last weeks to appoint another conservative, anti-abortionist.

It becomes harder to grasp what is actually going on..these times are so unprecedented in our life times, though to those of us for whom AIDS was an epidemic, this is our second time around fearing for our lives.  We know it's a long haul with many casualties before we come out on the other side, but whatever was normal no longer will be.  

We go out for healthy burgers at Little Big Burger, where you can get a lettuce wrap in the place of a bun.  We are both on edge and irritable and go to our separate corners after we eat in silence to grieve in our own way.  Me typing here with all my altar lights on and a candle burning by the RBG candle, as the first fall rains sound outside, clearing the air for the first time in 10 days.  The temptation to sell the house and leave the country is strong.  The need to stay and fight on will probably prevail, but may not take the re-election of the anti-Christ, the embodiment of the Seven Deadly sins:  pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth,

[creativity-is-rebellion]

Life on Intermission

So, for mental health reasons, I have decided to put my law studies on hold for six months while I gather myself. The thing I am supposed to be mostly doing is resting (which is the hardest thing in the world for me - I always need something to do). I think the main reason why it is difficult is because for the majority of my life I have had too much cortisol running through my body. When I was a kid (and teenager), I grew up in a tumultuous household with a narcissistic mother and an enabler for a father. I had to parent and counsel my mother day and night for her unresolved issues surrounding her own traumatic upbringing and stressful early life, which led to a transference of generational trauma from herself to me. I was both psychologically, (and one time) sexually abused by her. Adding to this, there was a constant money shortage, sometimes to the point of relying on food stamps, and I was bullied terribly at school. At 16 years of age, I was raped by a guy who had been my boyfriend of 3 months, and unceremoniously dumped shortly afterwards. I had to see him every day at school for the rest of my time there. The loneliness I felt, with both what was going on at home and what was going on at school, led me to try to take my own life with pills, but obviously, this was unsuccessful, because my parents came home early and I was rushed to the hospital unconscious and had my stomach pumped. My mother refused me a counselor and medication, so my depression (which was later diagnosed as Bipolar I) just got worse. and unceremoniously dumped shortly afterwards. I had to see him every day at school for the rest of my time there. The loneliness I felt, with both what was going on at home and what was going on at school, led me to try to take my own life with pills, but obviously, this was unsuccessful, because my parents came home early and I was rushed to the hospital unconscious and had my stomach pumped. My mother refused me a counselor and medication, so my depression (which was later diagnosed as Bipolar I) just got worse. and unceremoniously dumped shortly afterwards. I had to see him every day at school for the rest of my time there. The loneliness I felt, with both what was going on at home and what was going on at school, led me to try to take my own life with pills, but obviously, this was unsuccessful, because my parents came home early and I was rushed to the hospital unconscious and had my stomach pumped. My mother refused me a counselor and medication, so my depression (which was later diagnosed as Bipolar I) just got worse. because my parents came home early and I was rushed to the hospital unconscious and had my stomach pumped. My mother refused me a counselor and medication, so my depression (which was later diagnosed as Bipolar I) just got worse. because my parents came home early and I was rushed to the hospital unconscious and had my stomach pumped. My mother refused me a counselor and medication, so my depression (which was later diagnosed as Bipolar I) just got worse.

I graduated from school with a relatively good result, and thus was able to gain entry into the university program of my choice. Or rather, it was my parent's choice. I had won a few poetry competitions which had been published in some anthologies. I wanted to study creative writing, but my parents thought it would be better I learned something "more stable" (which is ironic), so I "decided" to study psychology, my third choice. Regardless, I thought this would be a way to start over, and leave the horrors of high school behind me. But because of my family's lack of money, it was impossible to move out on just the income I was getting from the casual job I had whilst supporting myself at university. And then, along came my first love, who I had a tumultuous relationship with. We were on again, off again for many months, in fact, many years. We first met in 2003, and parted ways for the last time at the beginning of 2006. In hindsight, I think he loved me, but just couldn't say it. At the time though, it was devastating. I moved states and universities to get away from the situation, first to Canberra (but I have followed me there), and then to Brisbane (but I have kind of followed me there too). 

I was able to make a life for myself in Brisbane for a time, despite still living with my parents (who had followed me up there), but then the loneliness I felt, mixed with being given the wrong meds, led to my first full -blown manic episode. I was spending money I didn't have, and wracking up a debt on 3 credit cards and 2 personal loans. In 2005, I tried to take my life again, which (again) was unsuccessful. Towards the tail end of this spending spree, I met my future husband. This was a brief reprieve. I decided to take a year off uni and work full-time to pay my debt back, and my future husband and I moved in together. Within 7 months, I was pregnant with our first son, and, even though I went back to university, I kept having to defer because of money issues. After giving birth, I went though a pretty bad bout of postpartum depression, 

In 2010, we got married, and things went well for a couple of months, until the financial situation became critical. We decided to move back to Norway, my husband's home country, despite me never even visiting, as he could get a better job there. I graduated with just one half of my double-degree, and off we went. Initially, things were good when we moved; I worked toward my master, learned the language, got a few jobs which allowed me to focus on practicing the language, and was of the impression that I would be able to study psychology in Bergen once I finished my language courses. But then, in 2012, I found out that I had been given the wrong information about this, and it was no longer an option. I wanted to leave, as there were no jobs available in my specialized area. I was hospitalized for suicidal thoughts for the first time ever in 2012, but there would be another 3 times after that over my time in Norway. In 2013, I gave birth to my second son, which was truly a joy, and for which I didn't get any postpartum depression, but, at that time, my actual Bipolar was bad enough. My husband's career was taking off, and I felt my problems were ignored, and that he was leaving me behind. We didn't move back to Australia (my home country) until 2017. Again, there was another promise of a fresh start.

After working with my degree for a few months, I decided to do my PhD, which was awful (I covered that in a previous post). I loved teaching and participating in conducting research, though. With my income from these gigs, and my husband's income, we were living the high life. Until the teaching dried up and my husband's company folded at the beginning of 2019. The pressure of all of this led me to be hospitalized again in the psychiatric ward 2019 for 3 months. Afterwards, as soon as I came out, I had to look for work, due to our dire financial situation. We had been in the throes of building a new house when times were good, and now we were in more debt than we had ever been. My husband found work, but was now earning half of what he was earning before. I've applied for 600 jobs before I've got to his first job interview. I ended up getting casual work, but couldn't find anything permanent, and it didn't pay enough. I started my law degree, which got off to a prosperous start, but I was also diagnosed with Lupus, which would explain why I not only felt mentally shit, but also physically shit. And that takes my biography more or less up to the present (with some stuff most likely left out).

But now, I am taking a break. I am, for the first time, deciphering what happened to me, trying to process all of the trauma, in order to become a better version of myself. Here are just some of the things I am doing during this coronavirus lockdown to self-improve:

^ Here is book I need to read whilst in the throes of finally finishing my first novel. It's only taken me 13 years. Not biggie. I need to procrastinate less. But also be less harsh on myself. I've had some really dark periods in-between that have lasted years. Sometimes, I just feel like I lose so much time when the depression is particularly bad. It makes me overdo myself when I actually feel OK for once.

^ This is a picture of my jewelery projects and couch-side workroom for when I am on hiatus. I'm going to try to get my jewelry business in order during my time off, but it's all about moderation, as my jewelry-making sometimes becomes obsessive because I get a rush of ideas. For example, yesterday I made 3 necklaces and 4 bracelets in a trance-like state. It might be impending mania, and I have to try to keep track of it, and approach it in a healthy way.

^ My fitness and health has been a personal concern of mine for a while now. Due to being diagnosed with Lupus last year, the sedentary life of being a student, and having to take mood stabilizers and anti-psychotics for my Bipolar, I have put on a little bit of weight that I want to shed, but because of the physical pain I experience due to the flares, sometimes it's difficult to do anything but light exercise. It's all about baby steps. Daily walks are also good for boosting my mood.

There is also a number of boxes awaiting my attention in the garage, which I suppose could be seen as symbolic of me unloading both emotional and literal unwanted baggage / rubbish. Its a long road, but at least I am finally taking the necessary steps for dealing with unresolved trauma and ridding myself of painful secrets that have haunted me for the longest time. All I have to do now is to remind myself to breathe.

[gamersonthego]

Matt Giguere’s Top 10 Handheld Games of 2019

Handheld gaming is in a weird spot. Beyond the plethora of mobile devices running iOS or Android and the app store fronts they offer; the handheld market has now been distilled down to one major device in 2019. Lo and behold, Nintendo, once again sits alone on the hill. While the Switch has seen great gains in maintaining a constant flow of software on its platform, the vast majority of their releases are either mobile ports or older games from generations past. It is amazing on how much has been released so far, but what makes a handheld game a “handheld game” now anyway? When your choice can be a small bite sized game like BOXBOY! + BOXGIRL! or a massive single player game like Tales of Vesperia, there really isn’t much of a difference what a handheld platform can offer compared to the home consoles for the types of games that can be played. As the Nintendo 3DS and Sony PlayStation Vita sunset into their legacy years, there seems to be a wider line on what can be considered a handheld game.

Nintendo did release a portable only version of the Switch this year, dubbed the SwitchLite. Considering that most of my playtime has been in handheld mode, I picked one up shortly after release. After a few months of playtesting, I think this will be my go-to system for the foreseeable future. I adore the form factor size. The original Switch still works great for quick pick up and play in my home, but I find the new model easier to hold in my hands and store away when I’m travelling. The dedicated directional pad, as opposed to separate buttons because of the nature of the detachable joy-cons, is a big selling point for the myriad of 2D platformers now on the system. I sometimes miss the “HD Rumble” feedback that had to be cut, but that is a small gripe. If you don’t care for playing games on the big screen in a higher resolution and varying framerate, I highly recommend picking this dedicated handheld up.

Admittedly, a lot on my best of 2019 list are games that can be enjoyed on the big screen, especially with the convenience of the Switch’s hardware. Of the games I played this year, I think this smattering represents a healthy dose of what managed to present a case that gaming on the go is still well alive and ever changing.

Top 10 of 2019 or the Hollow Knight Memorial List*

*Sometimes when making a top list our favorite thing came out in a different year or is so clearly ahead it is a lock of number 1 across every critic. This year Hollow Knight from Team Cherry captivated me like nothing else that released this year. Alas, this game came out in 2017. So instead of placing it on my official list for 2019, it takes the honor of being my list’s name. This Metroidvania style exploration platformer is full of surprises, sometimes subverting my expectations when I thought there wasn’t anything left to uncover. If you have a Switch, I highly recommend checking out one of my favorite games in the genre since Metroid: Fusion.

10. My Friend Pedro (Switch, Xbox One, PC)

An action, score-based shooter that I’ve had my eye on for years since seeing the gif put out by publisher Devolver Digital and developer Dead Toast Entertainment. The nature of this very tricky to pull off and even harder to master game lies in its focus on style. Moving across short levels on a 2-D plane, you must, roll, spin, flip, kick, skate, and, of course, kill combo as many enemies to place a high score and a top rank. While there is a story to keep the drive of the game moving forward, I wouldn’t say that should be the guiding factor to check this out. Rather, I found the quick get up and quick play of a level or two perfect for on the go gaming. Once the controls click, this game really delivers on its promised “Bananas” style.

9. Untitled Goose Game (Switch, Xbox One, PS4, PC)

“What if Hitman, but a Goose?” is probably the most quoted pitch heard for this small, but very charming game by developer House House. In it you play as, well, a goose who terrorizes a small town from every front. From untying shoes so people trip to locking helpless victims in garages, no one is safe from this feathered menace! Okay, so the Hitman comparison is apt, minus the extreme brutality, for this sandbox-lite adventure. The best I can compare it to is an interactive toy; one that is unique in how the player can approach a situation and explore the possibilities of what can and will happen within the rules of the program. It might not have the deep experimentation of a larger game of its kind, but I found its calm and lighthearted nature makes this a very stress-free experience, especially when you are the one dealing out all the harassment.

8. SteamWorld Quest (Switch, PC)

I don’t normally go for card-based RPGs, but when Image & Form provide a new adventure in the SteamWorld universe, I had to check it out. This might be the one that changed my mind, because after several turns, I was hooked. The adventure itself keeps things relatively jovial with plenty of jokes and wit to keep the story moving forward. It can be easy to stick to one group of characters, a limit of three per battle, but I find more enjoyment in the battle system when different combinations are put into play. The battle system also provides linked combos that offer bonuses and stringing cards together in a row also adds more to the strategy. Building a potent strategy is where I found the most engagement in this RPG, and all the trappings around the edges made this one stand out in my mind. A good starting point in the genre for those curious.

7. Baba Is You (Switch, PC)

A tough logic puzzler I think goes the extra mile with its charm and style. You play as Baba. Or, rather, Baba is you, or a wall, or section of water, or a skull, or... well you get the point. The goal in each stage is to reach the “Win.” What is the “Win?” Most of the time it is a flag, but really it can be anything. Using a simple push function mechanic that many top-down puzzlers have used before, the twist comes in that you can have these sentence blocks to push around and affect the game’s logic. For example, if the winning object is out of reach by a wall that forces you stop (“Wall is Stop”) you can push one of the sentence blocks away so you can pass through the wall. Even making a sentence to “You is Win” will also result in a victory. The difficulty can be a bit stiff, but I would often find myself just thinking about a stuck puzzle while out and about and think of the solution as a sort of epiphany. Even when getting stuck on a tricky brain teaser, the game offers multiple paths so you can keep progressing through. Certainly, Baba Is You has been on my mind since first playing it.

6. What The Golf? (Apple Arcade, PC, Switch TBD)

If Desert Golf is the pinnacle zen of the golf sport genre, What The Golf? embodies its “party mindset.” Yes, it is golf, and yet, it becomes something more than just golf. Sometimes you will find yourself having to hop across a very familiar level. Other times you will have to coordinate trick shots while being an exploding barrel. And sometimes, there’s just good old-fashioned bowling. What The Golf? will keep you on your toes, especially if you are fond of video games released prior to this. I won’t spoil some of the surprises in store, but some of them had me in stitches from laughing so hard. It would be nice to fully outright buy this game on the iOS App Store, but for now, a subscription to Apple Arcade is the only way to play this on the go.

5. Sayonara Wild Hearts (Switch, Apple Arcade, PS4, PC)

Another Apple Arcade exclusive for mobile (you can also buy it on the Switch at this time), this one showcasing music and style. If there is one thing that counts in making an impression on me, it’s presentation. Sayonara Wild Hearts is described as a pop album video game; one you experience as much as you listen to. The format seems simple at first. Guide your character along the track and collect different items for points to rank a high score while also dodging obstacles. Soon though, things start to mix up as fast as the soundtrack’s BPMs start to pump up. While the touch controls are adequate, I think for certain spots, a physical controller would have been nice. However, there are movements that are far easier to pull off using a touch interface, such as time hits reminiscent of music games like Elite Beat Agents. This gem of a game needs to be experienced at least once, not only for the wonderful soundtrack, composed by Daniel Olsen and Jonathan Eng and featuring Linnea Olsson on vocals, but also to see the twists and turns the game takes. This little game surprised the hell out of me, and I think it will be one that I will revisit again based on its production.

4. Ape Out (Switch, PC)

Sometimes we all need to get out. Especially when you are an ape stuck in a cage. That’s the conceit of the top-down, twin stick, hyper violent, and super stylized game, Ape Out. There is one goal: Be the ape and get the hell out! The concept is very rudimentary which I feel allows the game to shine. You will have to run, dodge, grab and toss enemies to reach the exit while the only advantage is being able to take three hits before going down. Enemies have guns that the player can’t use in the typical way. Instead, grabbing a foe allows one immediate shot to be fired from the grappled target. Used strategically, it can get you out of a lot of close calls. Other enemies can have bombs or body armor to keep this from being too repetitive and thanks to the game’s art style, they all look distinct so there’s no confusion on who you are fighting. Levels are procedurally generated as well, so even thinking on memorizing enemy patterns doesn’t always work. The fluorescent color palette and very minimalist style, like that of a Saul Bass movie poster, highlights the chaos and violence without making it too gross or unappealing. Even the soundtrack is minimalistic, utilizing only jazz percussion that plays out dynamically as the action plays out in real time. A feast for the eyes and a challenge on the thumbs.

3. Katana Zero (Switch, PC)

Taking a page from one hit kill action games like Hotline Miami, Katana Zero plays out at first like a typical note from the genre, right down to its ‘80s aesthetic. You clear room after room of enemies, slashing with your katana, wall jumping to high points, and focusing time to slow down and either dodge or reflect projectiles. A lot of this game is a throwback thanks to its choice of graphics, 2D platforming and story points from movies like Drive and Leon: The Professional. It is thanks to the presentation that makes this game shine for me. The story, music, graphics and gameplay presentation are what makes Katana Zero so high on my list. Clearing rooms is fast paced and quick, with messing up only taking several seconds to get back into the fray. While the loop of the game can get a bit repetitive, there are plenty of surprises that change up the standard formula of the game as you progress. The story does a nice job of not only driving things forward, but also tying in gameplay concepts into the narrative. The music is a healthy blend of synthwave and some very heavy and experimental electronic tunes (one that I’ve had on repeat most of the year). The overall games is fairly short and ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, but there are speedrunning modes and secrets to uncover from replaying. Katana Zero stands as one of the best independent games this year.

2. Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Switch)

There was a time when Fire Emblem was on the ropes, becoming a lagging franchise that was not connecting with strategy enthusiasts on the home consoles. Then in 2013, things changed with the release of Fire Emblem: Awakening on the 3DS. Nintendo and Intelligent Systems had intended that game to be the last in the series. Instead, we got another 3 (and 1/2) games released on the 3DS this past decade. Now it’s time to pass the torch onto the Switch and boy did they deliver on a packed adventure! Instead of just following one or two paths like most FE campaigns, Three Houses offer up to four different story playthroughs that each roughly takes about 50 hours or more to complete. There is also a vast amount of customization thanks to the setting being centered around a military school and teaching classes. If you love watching meters and bars fill up, there are tons of those to be had in Three Houses. Even though not every aspect is well thought out (the amiibo gazebo comes to mind, even though it is the best named mechanic), the cast of characters and support conversations (all fully voice acted) provide some rich storytelling from a character development standpoint. Do check out this game as it is one of the best in the series.

1. Tetris 99 (Switch)

“Where are we dropping, Blocks?” In a personal first for me, a multiplayer game has taken my number one spot. Tetris 99 is just that. Tetris. However, it’s you versus 98 other players in a battle royal style completion. Released as a free download to Nintendo Switch Online subscribers, it now has multiple versions that can be bought as well. Thanks to constant updates and weekend tournaments, the online community is still strong, so finding matches is quick and painless. Playing against such a wide number of challengers turns the typical Tetris strategy on its head. Racking up combos instead of quickly clearing lines, for example, is one way to secure victory, but leaving too many gaps and holes can prove disastrous if you suddenly become the target of a handful of players. Even though I have yet to secure a 1st place finish, the nature of Tetris keeps me coming back for more. Whether it’s facing against bots, friends, marathoning solo or playing the featured battle royal, this is a fun version of Tetris to be had.

[veridium]

A Little Life Update: WOO, Plot Twists.

Hello, everyone. It’s me, your friendly neighborhood femme gremlin. I know I have been here with my wild self this whole time but I feel it only fair that I give a little update on life and why I am the way that I am at the moment. 

As a lot of you know, a week ago my ferret passed away (somewhat) unexpectedly. It was very upsetting to me and rocked everything off-kilter. That same day, as if that wasn’t enough, I was told that I had my first grad school acceptance to University of Chicago for a Masters program. Days prior to that my brother also underwent back surgery which had my entire family on edge for 24 hours. I was overwhelmed, scattered, and pretty emotionally exhausted. 

I spent this past week (spring break) finally allowing myself to take time off of work and re-center. I took time off of major responsibilities and instead let myself kind of meander and do what felt good to do. Admittedly, that involved a lot of reclusive behavior, depression napping, and lack of communication. I had a lot of people checking on me and asking things of me and it was easily overwhelming to pay attention to, so I do as I tend to when I am grieving/stressed out, and I become reticent. 

I have had a lot of decisions to make with regards to my future and the next year or so of my life. I finally had what I thought I always wanted: a chance to go to grad school, to move away to someplace new and exciting, and chase my long-held dreams. Sure, it would come with a $60,000+ price tag, put me in more debt, and come with a degree I hadn’t originally envisioned for myself, but hey! Life is like that, right?

Despite the downs and low points I have had time to contemplate my next steps with more clarity than I would have surrounded by voices and in the pit of work, school, etc. which I am thankful for. I got to breathe and ask myself what really felt right inside my heart, and what I need from this year in order to heal, improve, and be a better version of myself.

So, it is with a mindful and conscientious heart and mind, that I have decided I will remain here for another year to work, save money, and re-apply to graduate programs in the winter for 2020. I will be taking a higher-paying, full-time position on campus in the summer after my current position’s contract runs out in May -- one which will enable me to properly save, prepare, and choose my future rather than going with what I can conjure up as a lifeline. Indeed, living here is not my most fantastical option; Maker knows I have dreamed and dreamed of finally leaving this one-horse town behind. But, I have so much to be thankful for here in the stability I have cultivated: I have a roof over my head, bills paid, my animals are housed and fed, and I have a space of my own in this world where I belong. It’s not my happy ending place, but it’s a place, and that means a lot to me as someone who grew up experiencing housing, food, and familial insecurity.

In the fall, I will be applying to majority Masters programs (something I didn’t do this first round because I was feeling ambitious and ready to be a full-time scholar). At this moment, I am seriously contemplating getting my Masters in writing/editing/publishing, and seeing where my career prospects go from there. I have even thought about testing the waters of eventually becoming a writer for television, games, etc. but that is a far away (though happy) ambition. For now, my focus will be working my ass off, finding programs that will fit me, and getting my life together in a concise and healthy fashion. I’m tired of reeling/surviving, I’m ready to take back control and thrive for once. No more flying by the seat of my pants, or depending on people, romantic partners, etc. to be my safe harbors so that I don’t have to take on challenges head-on. I’m ready to take this bittersweet plot twist and turn it into radical change and growth.

Thank you to everyone who has hung on with me throughout this rollercoaster ride of a year. I know I’ve been quite open and vocal about my journey, but, it’s a whole different thing to be vocal and have vocal support in return. I am incredibly grateful for having such a widespread and feisty community here to share with me in these misadventures called adulthood. I will admit: I am scared, worried, intimidated, and anxious. But I am also relieved to know I can call my shots and make the tough decisions that must be made. It is an ironic empowerment to look your dreams you thought you needed dead in the eye, say no, actually, I know what is best for me right now and it’s not you, and forge a different path. But I’m doing it. So, love and light to all. Let’s do this thing. 

Also, thank you to all my commission clients for being patient this week with me. I have been working on my projects a little, but have been trying to take as much time for myself as possible. I will be returning to my works full-steam ahead next week, and hopefully finishing most if not all of them by the end of it/beginning of the following week. Much love! 

[patriotsnet]

Did Trump Say Republicans Are Stupid

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/did-trump-say-republicans-are-stupid/

Did Trump Say Republicans Are Stupid

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Jeff Danziger

Jeff Danziger lives in New York City. He is represented by CWS Syndicate and the Washington Post Writers Group. He is the recipient of the Herblock Prize and the Thomas Nast Prize. He served in the US Army in Vietnam and was awarded the Bronze Star and the Air Medal. He has published eleven books of cartoons and one novel. Visit him at

Reprinted with permission from

You know we’ve reached a low point as a country when even the loyal-to-a-deadly-and-illogical-fault supporters of former President Donald Trump boo him when he recommends vaccinations against COVID-19. “I believe totally in your freedoms, I do, you gotta do what you gotta do, but I recommend take the vaccines,” the former president said at a rally on Saturday in Cullman, Alabama. “I did it. It’s good.” The crowd responded with boos.

JUST IN: “Take the vaccine” shouts Trump

GOP Rep. Barry Moore went from calling House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a “tyrant” for enforcing a mask mandate to encouraging people to talk to their doctors about getting the vaccine. Catching COVID-19 apparently led to the difference in messaging for him. Moore posted on Facebook Friday:

Trump Is Right: Republicans Are Stupid

Donald Trump, master of the deal, is right. The Republicans are stupid, not only as politicians but also as political psychologists. He criticized Paul Ryan for bringing up the subject of Medicare reform that the Democrats could use to turn the elderly against the Republicans. Their video of grandma being shoved over the cliff by Republicans is a stark indication of how the Dems will fight to win four more years for Obama.

As the discussions over increasing the debt limit go on, the Democrats are portraying themselves as the more flexible party in the negotiations. They are willing to cut “cherished programs” such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, provided Republicans agree to some increases in revenue. They want the Republicans to agree to raise taxes and cut spending on programs that the elderly hold sacred. A perfect recipe for Republican defeat in November 2012. Thursday’s meeting was supposed to focus on spending cuts in the two health care programs and on new revenue. And only stupid Republicans would attend such a meeting.

From the very beginning, by focusing on cutting Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, the Republicans have trapped themselves into a no-win situation. Why haven’t they offered a list of real cuts in federal spending? Who told them that cutting programs that the elderly are dependent on is the way to win votes in 2012?

Fact Check: Trump Did Not Call Republicans The Dumbest Group Of Voters

5 Min Read

An old quote falsely attributed to Donald Trump has recently resurfaced online. The viral meme alleges Trump told People magazine in 1998 that Republicans are “the dumbest group of voters in the country”. This is false.

While the quote has been debunked several times since it apparently surfaced in 2015, users have recently been resharing it on social media. Examples can be seen , , ,

The meme reads: “If I were to run, I’d run as a Republican. They’re the dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe anything on Fox News. I could lie and they’d still eat it up. I bet my numbers would be terrific. – Donald Trump, People Magazine, 1998”

Snopes first wrote about the false quote in October 2015 . Since then, the quote has been debunked multiple times .

People magazine has confirmed in the past that its archive has no register of this alleged exchange.

“People looked into this exhaustively when it first surfaced back in Oct. . We combed through every Trump story in our archive. We couldn’t find anything remotely like this quote–and no interview at all in 1998.”, a magazine spokesperson told Factcheck.org that year .

In December 1987, People published a profile on Donald Trump titled “Too Darn Rich”. The article quoted him saying he was too busy to run for president .

Most iterations of the meme feature a photo of Trump during an interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1988, when he said he would probably not run for president but wouldn’t rule it out .

Trump Told A Reporter His Biggest Secret: That He Is A Danger To The American People

Richard Wolffe

Trump is a particularly stupid man who thinks he is very smart. Perhaps this lies at the root of his monumentally dumb decision to grant Bob Woodward 18 interviews

The Inuit are supposed to have dozens of words to describe snow. The Brits have endless ways to talk about rain. Now it’s time for Americans to delineate all the many ways that Donald Trump is dumb.

If Bob Woodward’s new blockbuster teaches us anything new about the character of the 45th president, it’s that we don’t yet have the words to describe the multiple variants of the vacuum inside his head.

Read more

There’s the stupidity of arrogance, the stupidity of ignorance and his old friend: the stupidity of blatant duplicity. There’s his homicidal stupidity, his traitorous stupidity, his criminally corrupt stupidity and his plain old infantile stupidity.

Let’s start with the top of this taxonomy: the domain of Donald’s dumbness. At his core, the former reality TV star is a particularly stupid man who thinks he is very smart. Or as he prefers to call his own , “a very stable genius”.

Perhaps, just maybe, this lies at the root of his monumentally dumb decision to grant Woodward 18 interviews, on the record and on tape.

Instead, our very stupid genius vomited up all manner of secrets that collectively prove beyond all reasonable doubt that he represents the greatest single danger to the fate of both the American people and to himself.

Trump Gets Slap On The Wrist For Rant On ‘stupid’ Iowa Voters

‘Not good to insult Iowa voters,’ one Iowa Republican says, but the fallout is far from dramatic.

Donald Trump’s slam of Iowans as “stupid” would usually be a breathtaking gaffe for a presidential candidate, but the billionaire businessman has proved time and again that this isn’t any normal presidential race and that he isn’t any normal candidate.

Top Republicans and Republican operatives in the state on Friday disparaged Trump’s comments from his Thursday evening rally at Iowa Central Community College in which he questioned the intelligence of voters who believe rival Ben Carson’s claims of a violent past and subsequent redemption. “How stupid are the people of Iowa? How stupid are the people of the country to believe this crap?” Trump yelled.

“Not good to insult Iowa voters,” Doug Gross, the former chief of staff to Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, told POLITICO on Friday.

Steve Grubbs, the chief Iowa strategist for rival Rand Paul, was happy to pounce on the comment. “Trump’s meltdown last night makes me worry what would happen in a stressful situation in the White House,” Grubbs said.

But many Iowa Republicans also don’t see lasting damage. They see the comments as unfortunate but not nearly enough to send Trump packing.

“I heard audible gasps from those I was sitting by, yet that had no effect in his standing in the caucuses. And I’m not trying to dodge or be cute, but we don’t know. We don’t know what impact this will have,”Strawn said.

So If None Of This Counts What’s The Point

According to those conducting the recount, the purpose of this project is to address a prevailing concern among some voters that the 2020 election was illegitimate. And if the final result is that there was no fraud? That’s fine, too.

“This is not about calling into question the results of the November election,” Ken Bennett, spokesman for the audit, told the Washington Post. “This is about identifying if there are any areas of our elections that need to be improved going forward.”

Few Democrats believe this, of course. They fear that the point of the audit is to simply sow further doubt about Biden’s victory – and pave the way for Republican state-level efforts to enact new voting restrictions that disadvantage their candidates and voters in the name of “ballot security”.

This Is What Trump Told Supporters Before Many Stormed Capitol Hill

The president incited those who attended his rally to march to the Capitol.

President Trump speaks at Save America Rally in Washington

Many who participated in the chaos at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday came straight from an event held by President Donald Trump.

Trump’s “Save America Rally” included the president telling supporters to “stop the steal” of the , urging them to head to the Capitol to demonstrate against Congress certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. Among the crowd’s battle cries was, “Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump!”

MORE: 4 dead after US Capitol breached by pro-Trump mob during ‘failed insurrection’

Trump spoke at the event for nearly an hour at the Ellipse, a park near the White House. After he spoke, thousands of attendees, many of them without masks, marched toward Capitol Hill as federal law enforcement vehicles raced to beat them there.

Here’s what Trump said at his rally:

Media will not show the magnitude of this crowd even I when I turned on today, I looked, and I saw thousands of people here, but you don’t see hundreds of thousands of people behind you because they don’t want to show that. We have hundreds of thousands of people here, and I just want them to be recognized by the fake news media. Turn your cameras, please, and show what is really happening out here because these people are not going to take it any longer, they’re not going to take it any longer.

Not going to let it happen.

TRUMP:Thank you.

No Donald Trump Did Not Call Republican Voters Dumb In The 1990s

Donald Trump has made plenty of questionable claims over the years, but calling Republican voters dumb isn’t one of them.

Still, one political meme continues to spread across social media sites and claims he said just that.

The story goes that in a 1998 interview with People Magazine, Donald Trump said he was considering a run for president and would do so as a Republican because “They’re the dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe anything on Fox News. I could lie and they’d still eat it up. I bet my numbers would be terrific.”

The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed.

The meme features a repurposed image of a younger Trump, with the quote billed as a statement he delivered in an interview with the magazine.

So did Donald Trump actually say that – or anything like it?

No, the quote is bogus.

The fabricated quote appeared on social media sites October 2015, when Trump’s campaign started to gain steam. The meme has continually resurfaced over the years, though it has .

We searched People’s , which date back to the 1970s, and found no Trump interviews in 1998 – or any other time – that feature that quote or anything resembling it.

Most of the magazine’s articles at the time that involved Trump discussed his celebrity and high-profile divorce from Marla Maples.

Featured Fact-check

People also issued a statement rebuking the quote’s authenticity.

We rate this claim Pants on Fire!

Donald Trump: I Love The Poorly Educated

Dylan Stableford

Donald Trump easily won the Nevada Republican caucuses on Tuesday, finishing more than 20 points ahead of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and cementing his status as the frontrunner for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination.

In his victory speech, the billionaire real estate mogul thanked his family, his friends and his wide swath of supporters.

“We won the evangelicals,” Trump said. “We won with young. We won with old. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated.”

That last line was, as you might expect, the sound bite of the night. Indeed, “I love the poorly educated” was trending on Twitter early Wednesday morning, with users expressing a mix of bewilderment, consternation and other big words such supporters might not understand.

“I love the poorly educated” is the 2016 Election in a nutshell.

— Christine Rousselle

“I love the poorly educated”Donald J. Trump

All I’ll say is the moment in the speech I heard Trump say, “I love the poorly educated,” I knew I was hearing history.

— Nick Rizzo

“I love the poorly educated!” – Trump“He loves us!” – Trump supporters

— Quinn Sutherland

Donald Trump in his Nevada victory speech: “I love the poorly educated.” Way to go America…

— Rob Tornoe

“We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated.” The Republican front runner for POTUS.

— Stress? Me?! Nah.

“I love the poorly educated.” Put that on a bumper sticker.

— Alex Burns

– “I love the poorly educated”

— Mr S.Bart

How Is Any Of This Legal

The Arizona audit was authorised by the Arizona Senate, which issued a subpoena for the ballots under its investigatory powers.

This isn’t a legally binding recount that could reverse the 2020 result, so the courts have given the auditors more leeway in how they conduct their operations.

A court did prevent the auditors from attempting to match the signatures on mail-in ballots with voter files out of concern over infringing on voter privacy, however.

Cyber Ninja contractors also abandoned plans to contact voters in-person to verify their ballots after the US Justice Department threatened to sue over concerns of voter intimidation.

Donald Trump Loves The ‘poorly Educated’ And They Love Him

Donald Trump speaks what’s on his mind, often as soon as it appears there. And after winning his third-straight contest in Nevada Tuesday, Trump credited his “poorly educated” supporters, in part, for the win.

“We won the evangelicals. We won with young. We won with old. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated,” he said during his victory speech.

Let’s set aside the fact that “poorly educated” is not the same as “less educated” and look at the numbers:

Trump did well across the board in Nevada, garnering 45.9% of the vote, but he did even better among voters with a high school education or less. Fifty-seven percent of those voters supported him, according to entrance polls, courtesy of CNN.

The next closest candidate among high-school-or-less voters was Ted Cruz, who had 20%.

That’s a sizable gap of 37 percentage points.

Trump didn’t just win with less educated voters, or “poorly educated,” as he called them, he crushed it.

It’s true Trump did perform the best of any candidate among highly educated voters, too, but not nearly so well.

He gained 37% of the votes from those with postgraduate education, with Marco Rubio earning 29%

As much as Trump loves the “poorly educated,” he didn’t want to join them: The Ivy League grad got his degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1968.

Trump’s “poorly educated” line sparked much reaction, including and .

About UsNewsroom StaffEthical PrinciplesPress ReleasesTerms of Service

Marjorie Taylor Greene Says Republicans ‘stupid’ To Not Invite Trump To Gop Retreat

Marjorie Taylor GreeneDonald TrumpLiz Cheney

Republican Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has said that it was “stupid” for Republican leaders not to invite former President Donald Trump to a GOP congressional retreat.

Republicans met in central Florida this week for the retreat, during which attendees will discuss strategizing the party’s policies leading into the 2022 midterm elections. Topics include jobs, domestic security, how to deal with media, “big tech censorship”, China, the “future of America freedoms” and vulnerable to target in the midterms, according to Politico.

“Remember when lost the House in 2018 because a bunch of them distanced themselves from President Trump?” Greene wrote in a tweet published Monday afternoon. “Not inviting President Trump to the GOP retreat is the same stupid behavior. Funny how they don’t understand a record # of votes and support of any R President.”

Remember when Republicans lost the House in 2018 because a bunch of them distanced themselves from President Trump?Not inviting President Trump to the GOP retreat is the same stupid behavior.Funny how they don’t understand a record # of votes and support of any R President.

— Marjorie Taylor Greene ?? April 26, 2021

Regardless, Trump seems likely to remain active in Republican politics.

However, Trump’s continued presence could also turn some voters off to the Republican national brand.

Trump Jr. Thinks Lincoln Project Planning Liz Cheney 2024 Run as Democrat

Wait A Minute Bamboo Fibre

Yes. According to one volunteer, John Brakey, they’re investigating whether fake ballots may have been snuck in from overseas.

“They use bamboo in their paper processing, people in southeast Asia,” he told a local CBS television station.

Brakey is quick to say he doubts such fraud is real, but the investigators apparently want to leave no stone unturned, untested and unsubjected to ultraviolet light.

As mail-in Arizona ballots are matched against registered voters, multiple votes cast by the same individual would have been flagged.

This Meme About How Donald Trump Called Republicans The Dumbest Group Of Voters In The Country Is Fake

The fake quote has been floating around the internet since about the time Trump announced his presidential bid in 2015. It has been widely shared on Twitter and Facebook by people eager to expose the businessman-turned-politician as a hypocrite for leading a party he once, allegedly, mocked.

“If I were to run, I’d run as a Republican,” the fake quote reads. “They’re the dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe anything on Fox News. I could lie and they’d still eat it up. I bet my numbers would be terrific.”

Trumps 10 Most Hilariously Stupid Things He Said In 2019

Sarah K. Burris – Raw Story

President Donald Trump has a long history of saying some of the most bizarre things in politics. This year was one for the books as the president flailed, searching for excuses for his July 25 phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Here are some of the most hilariously stupid things the president has said this year:

1. Windmills cause ear cancer

“If you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations, your house just went down 75 percent in value,” Trump told Republicans in April. “And they say the noise causes cancer. You tell me that one.” He then made a whirring noise mimicking a turbine.

2. He wants to buy Greenland

“In meetings, at dinners and in passing conversations, Mr. Trump has asked advisers whether the U.S. can acquire Greenland, listened with interest when they discuss its abundant resources and geopolitical importance and, according to two of the people, has asked his White House counsel to look into the idea,” the Wall Street Journal reported in August.

“Denmark essentially owns it,” Trump told reporters in the days that followed. “We’re very good allies with Denmark. We protect Denmark like we protect large portions of the world. … Strategically it’s interesting.”

Trump then got into a fight with Danish leaders and had to cancel a trip he’d planned to the country.

3. Trump is the “chosen one.”

4. “Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came.”

What Do Other Republican Politicians Think

The ones who want to stay in Trump’s good graces are welcoming the audit.

“We want transparency and answers for the American people,” Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, who is poised to replace Cheney in the Republican leadership, said last week. “What are the Democrats so afraid of?”

Given that polls show a majority of Republicans think Democrats stole the election, members of the party who are in favour of the audit are on solid political ground.

Some Republicans, including in Arizona, may be having doubts, however.

“It makes us look like idiots,” Phoenix-area state senator Paul Boyer told the New York Times. “Looking back, I didn’t think it would be this ridiculous.”

The Memo: What Now For Anti

Niall Stanage

Cheney and others of her ilk are not giving up. The question is what kind of impact they can have in their rhetorical guerrilla war against the former president and the GOP leaders whom they brand as his enablers.

For now, many are dispirited by Cheney’s fall and what it says about the party writ large.

“The outlook is grim,” said Olivia Troye, who broke with Trumpism after having served as a staffer to then-Vice President Mike PenceMichael Richard PenceMcCarthy, Ducey speak at Pence fundraiser: reportButtigieg, Harris sort out their roles for BidenTim Scott’s inside track. Troye is now the director of the Republican Accountability Project. 

Referring to pro-Trump elected officials, Troye added: “What we are seeing is, there is nothing they won’t do to remain in power, even if it brings danger to this country.”

Cheney is not going to slink away. In an interview with Savannah Guthrie of NBC’s “Today” broadcast on Thursday morning, she promised to fight vigorously to retain her congressional seat and held the door open for a 2024 presidential campaign.

Cheney also reiterated her criticisms of Trump and his supporters within the GOP, saying the former president has established “a cult of personality” over the party.

“People realize this is getting ridiculous,” Comstock said. “How much do you want to really associate yourself with fools like Marjorie Greene

Even some Trump opponents are less than bullish about a Cheney 2024 bid. 

What Does Donald Trump Think About All This

He loves it, of course. He’s been cheering the auditors in press releases.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if they found thousands and thousands and thousands of votes,” he told a group of guests two weeks ago at his Mar-a-Lago club. “This was a rigged election, everybody knows it, and we’re going to be watching it very closely.”

Trump has also been demanding that the state’s Republican governor, Doug Ducey, provide “large-scale security”, such as the police or national guard, for the auditors.

Trump ‘knows Republicans Are Stupid’ Jared Kushner Allegedly Said To Former Editor

Greg Price Jared KushnerDonald Trump

One of the strategies Donald Trump employed as he began putting his name on the U.S. political map years ago was championing “birtherism,” the long-held conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama was born outside of the U.S. and hence should never have been elected. He often chastised Obama and demanded the president produce his birth certificate, revving up an anti-Obama base that eventually helped put Trump in the White House.

Evidently, Trump may have been using the so-called birthers only as a means to an end.

His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who is also a senior adviser to the president, allegedly told a former editor of the newspaper he once owned that the billionaire real-estate mogul didn’t believe his own “birtherism” claims, and only made them to charge up Republicans because they are “stupid,” GQ reported.

During a discussion on how to cover Trump, the former New York Observereditor, Elizabeth Spiers, claimed she told Kushner that she had serious problems with Trump’s repeated claims that Obama was not born in the U.S., to which Kushner allegedly told her: “He doesn’t really believe it, Elizabeth. He just knows Republicans are stupid and they’ll buy it.”

Spiers told her Kushner anecdote in response to a question from a conservative blogger on Facebook, and then screenshotted the response and put it up on Twitter.

Trump Did Not Disparage Gop In 1998 People Magazine Interview

CLAIM: “If I were to run, I’d run as a Republican. They’re the dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe anything on Fox News. I could lie and they’d still eat it up. I bet my numbers would be terrific.” — Donald Trump in 1998 People magazine interview.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The president did not make such a comment to People magazine. 

THE FACTS: Singer and actress Bette Midler, who often speaks out against Trump, shared the false quote attributed to Trump on her Twitter account Sunday, with the comment that Trump “certainly knew his crowd.” Julie Farin, a People magazine spokeswoman, told The Associated Press that the magazine looked into the claim exhaustively when it first surfaced years ago but did not find anything remotely like it made by the president. 

The image used with the false quote shows Trump during a 1988 appearance on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” where he discussed running for president, but made no reference to Republicans being “the dumbest group of voters.” The quote first began circulating in 2015 and has been widely shared across social media platforms, including Facebook. It has been widely debunked since that time.

Here’s more information on Facebook’s fact-checking program: https://www.facebook.com/help/1952307158131536

___

This is part of The Associated Press’ ongoing effort to fact-check misinformation that is shared widely online, including work with Facebook to identify and reduce the circulation of false stories on the platform.

[firmanep]

28/28 Vision: Retrace

28/28 vision, life’s been hit me with precision. I’ve seen both ways, mourn and defeat at the bottom in one side, glory and prosper in the other. I choose to live on and keep 27 years back on my head. At 28 I begin to realize that everyone walk their own path, with their own pace. All of sudden, the meaning of success, settle, stand-on-your-feet, etc dissolve into thin air.

Nor, this doesn’t mean those words and its meaning is nothing but perception. Yet it’s a word of progress, everything in life is on process not an unchanged or fix terms. To make it clearer, I simply put it on my case. I wouldn’t say that I’m a success or failure person if I see this on my own perspective not others. What I trying to do is put those terms not in binary opposition. But in a life line terms. Life line is a sum of all variable in life. They are time, space, body, mind, money, social, career, relationship, sex, etc. So let’s put it in practice, I using “age” as metric. In example, at 27 YO I get a job promotion, start a mortgage, not in a relationship, feeling numb, stretching my financial belt, 58.000 hours listening music, etc.

Looking back farther than a year, I see myself rolling in a rollercoaster adventurous life. At 5 my parents enroll me to primary school in assume I “a slight smarter” than my counterparts. So I’m 1-2 year younger than my primary school friend age average. Yet instead accelerated in academics, my passion in football is stronger. So, it swiped the whole 6 years in primary. I won several trophy, even my profile been written on local newspaper as “bintang cilik”.

My career in football stop when I get into junior HS. Some shit happened at that time, my sister passed, family breakup, I move to my granny house, join a motorcycle gang, and drunk for the first time. That’s all more than enough to put a stamp in my face as “a broken home little shit”. But fortunately I found another passion, music. I start collecting cassette since at class 5 primary school. For local act i listened to Sheila on 7 generation band. Then I start a band, which then I ditched by because my “musical taste”.

Fuck, thanks to MTV After School Rock, so I bit move from locals and see global. At JHS I listened to hipmetal acts like Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park for a brief of time. Till I really struck on Warped Tour bands like Blink 182, Sum 41, New Found Glory, etc. Because of the rarity of the cassette, I start digging music at 2nd hand cassette dweller. From which I got more recommendation, so I begin listen to more “edgy” bands like MXPX, NOFX, No Use For a Name, and local indie bands like Nudist Island and Buckskin Bugle. So almost all my “pocket money” at JHS went off to buy cassette. Oh wait! I get my first and second girlfriends on JHS. LMAO.

So, half of my JHS I spent as a member of “packed gang” (in motorcycle gang and in a band), and the last half I spent by myself, walking around finding cassette. My last year in JHS been so frustrating, I don’t have much friends because they left me/or in opposite, so i don’t see any reason to took a same school with them. Then I get into HS, speaking spatially, it’s really far from my JHS. But it’s a “throwing stone” away from my granny house. Surprisingly it’s really easy to make friends then.

Though, talking about “cultural taste”, they’re a level under my JHS friends. But I see a genuine quality in them. Like most of HS kiddos allover Bandung, we’re maniacally love occupy a Warung and make it our base camp. I can say that “nongkrong” is in par with curriculum. Everyday, after school we ambush that Warung, then we called “TeronX”(wtf!). Playing cards, or in my case I watching people playing cards then getting drunk. While in the other time I still digging music, it’s easier then because the CD & MP3 era came. And I start come to indie gigs twice a week, and I make friends from a fuckin pit! there. Local bands growth fast then, gigs and indie music start to intervere the mainstream. Their music starts play at MTV and Radio.

In HS, i live in 2 social spheres, at school and at gigs. They feed my certain personal dimension. School friends give me a kind of family-ish feeling, we eat together, we talking about life and girl together, we’re wasted together (6 hours before final exam we’re still wasted as fuck!). While gigs friends gave me a cultural experience and influence. It constructs my cultural taste, ie: I decide to being an Emo Kid as fuck. I listened to Emo bands, I dress like Emo bands, I scream at every Alone At Last shows, heartbreak like Emo kid, I writing devastated poems like Emo kid, and I start an Emo band. Yet, the most important is the 2 social spheres successfully distracting me from home, which I no longer knew with.

After finish HS I decided to take a moment to think about my future, so I not in hurry get into college. Like most of school-bonded HS alumni I pretty often still come to school. Thanks to our occupied Warung, so I always know where I should take shelter. 2 life changing things happened then. First, I met my first long last girlfriend. Second, I join a look-kinda-gonnabe-rockstar band. Not at once the two different interest got head-to-head!. Yet they’re still got along hand by hand. The girl is a freshman in my HS. So we’re separated generation. I met her at the first time when I have a meeting with my band near school. It’s a cliché that I have bigger guts as fuckin alumni to come to her, greeting and ask her phone number. Since then, a full week I spend my time with her and ask her to be my GF, and voila she accepted me. Soon I knew the reason she want to be my GF is because of the spreading news about me and my band. Our band is like HS hero then. Again, it’s a fuckin cliché. But, in fact even a cheesy reason could lead into a 7 years relationship. Strange huh!.

The band is another story. Lovely Lolita, we’re named it after a single of local shoegaze band The Milo, although our music is not a dot like them. So it all starts when I invited to featuring with one of my HS band at one single, which then listed into an indie compilation. Me and one of its guitar player thought we’re should making Emo project together. So we’re looking for another player, then we’re met a drummer who still a HS kiddos in my HS then. Then our band started with only 3 players. I took a role as Vocal and Bass then. We’re recorded a single demo and spread it on MySpace. Surprisingly, the acceptance is huge. So we’re playing from gigs to gigs. Our music evolving as our influences richen. So we’re thinking to have a bass player and I just focus on vocal. Then we’re being 4 player Metalcore/Post-Hardcore band. We’re record 3 more songs plus 1 song at the brink of our breakup. Our fans base growing bigger, we’re lined up in a big league gigs, and one of major Radio enlisted us as one of must watch indie band. So, it was a really fuckin 4 years of awesome time.

I took on college a year after I graduate from HS. I get a diploma program in state university in Bandung. I took Broadcasting major. It’s clear then I get on that major because of my “serious passion” in music industry. I thought, if I work in broadcasting company it’ll easier to “spot lighting” my band. But it’s not going well academically. My grade is average. It’s because soon I realize that I actually not into Broadcasting. At 20 I started to blown by books and thoughts. So that’s when the pseudo-criticize dimension of me started. One of my lecturer said that I suppose to took Political Science major. That’s be my battery to get off. Luckily my mom accepted it and get me into PolSci related Bachelor program in one of mediocre university. Although then financially we’re kind of broke. But that’s my mom, she push herself and eagerly sacrifice her life just to ensure her son not fail.

I start my second Uni almost 21. In contrary with what happened in primary, there my age are 2-3 years above average. So I always think it’s a setback. I try not to waste it since this is my second chance. Then I accelerating everything, my time overly consumed by reading books, writing paper, seminars, and other academic things. It’s obvious I left almost other thing behind. That’s moment I no longer dealt with music and band stuff. The path that seems like been written, the other player focus chasing their own project. So that left me with 1 thing, my girlfriend whom struggling enter a new life phase, college. At that point of life we’re destined to get along, our life line walk side by side. Struggling to graduate from school and find a decent job. We’re also financially not sufficient, so we take any after school job. I work for my Uncle as tour guide to pay my semester. From 21 to 24 my old social life melt into thin air, instead I make new friends with people in academic and activism circle. Which then I realize has huge contribution to shape my thought and mental.

Entering new social sphere shocked me mentally that time. I really change into someone I don’t even know. A skeptical and over-thought pseudo-academic person. You know, that asshole kind of person who ultra assuming their thought being original and super right. At that time I don’t feel comfortable hanging out with my music circle friends. So I totally left them. As a replacement, I’m diving deep into books and activism. Which I believe they are my “true” passion and moronically my life path. I really mean it that time, my writing published at prominent activism web site, presenting my thought at seminars and discussion, being part of mass demonstration, etc. With that load of activity I still finish college just in 3,5 years. And rightaway I don’t thinking about get a “formal” job anymore, so I decide to get a Master degree at the best state Uni in Indonesia. With my saving from part time job as tour guide I pay the administration. My mom doesn’t know that I already accepted at Master degree. Till when the school calendar is coming I tell mom that I going to Jogja for 2 years. My mom shocked. Not only by the fact that I choose to extend my school year, but also by the fact that I’m going to live away from home for a quite long time. So I say sayonara. I leave mom in confusion.

The Master year been super well for me, I got almost Suma Cumlaude at my first semester. My paper presented at Bangkok and Rangoon. Though, unfortunately I don’t get there to present them by myself. The problem is classic. I broke. My saving run out fast. Thanks to unplanned budgeting and excessive drunk habit. Plus I only got a little amount of money from writing project. So in the brink of the second semester I don’t have any money on my pocket. So that was my first experience being financially broke.

Somehow although with my academic achievements I don’t get any of scholarship. Even I mail my Rector then to ask tuition fee postponed, and no answer. So with that condition, at that time I don’t see any reason to stay in Jogja. So I back to Bandung with head facing down like the losing army march back from devastating battlefield. I already knew what I’m going to face, thousand mock. And that come from my own family. But I knew, I was wrong been took some huge decision spontaneously without any plan ahead. So I swallow the pills.

It’s been quite a time to stand on my feet once more. This is the second time I fail at college, the different is this time I fail not by my academic issue, but a god damn run out of cash. My heart break and I fall so deep haunted by my failure. But whatever it takes I should rerun my life. Fortunately one of my friend recommend me to his boss. He just built a research institution, so he hire people to work with him. And I got the job which is suits me. Not only the job, but also the office location, it’s in Bandung. So I work like a year there, until some shit happened again. The company declare bankruptcy!. For brief of time I still can live by some cash I save. But it doesn’t take long till I got broke, once more. So in such devastated time I randomly throw my CV to any open vacancy. I visit every job fair, I sent bunch of mail. What I get is nothing. It’s understandable now why it is happened. I am 26 then. While I wait for job interview, I took any work that I able to do. In example, I’ve been working as part time primary school teacher in my mom office. I teach Social. Then I begin to accept my condition. Yet I know I can do better. So I still connected with activist and academic circle. From the same circle, I met with the second girl I declare as a “serious” relationship. Actually she is not from that circle, but more like friend of my friend. We’re accidentally met at one café when I have a meeting about an event we’re going to run.

Friend of mine greets me with her, who eventually is one of that café share holder. I don’t know, but somehow we’re so easily connected. Our conversation last till the café close. And that is the start. From then we’re regularly meet and somehow our relationship up a level to “a relationship”. We’re thru a great days together. It is possible that our life line slightly different. She just graduate from college that time and I am a jobseeker cum part timer guy. That’s preconditioned us to can spend a lot of time together. But then I got the job in Jakarta and she work in Bandung. Even though we’re still regularly meet when she back her home in Jakarta, but our relationship start to tumble. It’s partly because I’m in adaptation phase with Jakarta and she just starting work in Jakarta. So our communication start dismissed. We’re lost in translation. And at 6 month of our relationship we’re decide to breaking up.

I get a quite decent and suit job in media industry. Since the break up I decide to focus on how to struggling in Jakarta, build my career Monday to Friday and have some reboot in Saturday and Sunday. At the same time I begin to fix my relationship with my family, one of the reason I start a worker life. But it’s not until the 6th month I work then I rethink about what am I wanted to achieve in Jakarta. So I start to redirect my life. And I thought I should save some cash to prepare my future. Yet I still don’t know what am I going to do with that cash. Then I remember one of line in an Indian clan movie, if I not mistaken it is Appache. At the closing, the main actor had a convo with his counterparts. They’re talking about land property ownership.

The whole movie highlighted the conflict between Indians and the invader to claim a land. One of the line got stuck in my head ever since, the chief Appache tell a young brave warrior that “ain’t a men without a land”. Thus when it comes to saving, I always thought that I should save my cash in property not a mere virtual digit in Bank Account. So I tell my mom and she support my idea. Then I went to developer and bank, they accepted my mortgage proposal. At 27 I mark a monumental decision to pay credit to bank for long years. So I start my 28 with years of credit on my back but property on my feet.

Now I’m 28. What does it means by being a 28?. That question keep buzzing me days before I turn a year older till now when I officially 28. Honestly I still don’t know the answer. But I just knew that it is the time that I should continue step my feet to the next phase of life. I should be more stabile, mentally and materially. So when the time to settle comes, I’ll be ready or at least prepared. How to do that?. Simply by fix a once broken thing back then and set timeline goals. So I set it up. Now I got my 2 year plan. If that realize, and it should, it would be another monumental life decision. I wish. May the lord open.*** Bandung 26 January 2018 Ps: Sorry if my grammar sucks. It’s unedited and I don’t give a fuck, tho!

[naturalhairjunkies]

New Post has been published on http://www.naturalhairjunkies.com/moving-into-2018/

Moving into 2018

Moving into 2018; I am prepping myself for new adventures and new challenges. There are many changes I am striving for in 2018; and it starts now.

Moving into 2018

As time shifts forward, I have been taking time to reflect on my major pitfalls and accomplishments. I have realized a few things that I have learned this year, and in retrospect, These are the attitudes I want to take into the New Year, as well as a few goals I have set for myself. And for the first time in years, I’m looking forward to moving and shaking in 2018.

Walking in peace & positivity.

This year, I plan on walking in peace and positivity. Like most years, this was another rough year in the books; but I made it, Like a BAWSE!! And I can’t be anything less than proud. I have weathered many storms this year, while somehow finding ways to maintain a level head and some form of peace. Even though, there were times when I literally felt like I was losing it; I managed. And I made it.

My biggest goal for this year, is to create and maintain a higher level of peace and positivity. I’ve been pushed to my limits, but still, I’ve found ways to rise from the ashes like a phoenix. And this has been my greatest year to date, And it’s not because something magnificent happened, I just learned what I was capable of and everything I could achieve if I applied myself.

Making more time for me

I have a terrible habit of not making enough time for myself and definitely putting the needs and desires of others before my own. This year, I want to strive for more me time. I need to give myself the downtime I deserve to not have to focus on any responsibilities or any work.  Just take the time to give myself a chance to kick back and do the things that I love. That means more hiking, more meditating in the sun, and more time to do the things that I love. This year, I have to do better for myself, I deserve that.

The one thing that I did this year, in order to not make myself look or feel guilty, was mask my “me time” with Tyler Fun Day. Anyone that knows me, knows how much I enjoy Tyler Fun Day’s and that they’re even added to my planner so that I won’t forget. Genuinely, I love spending that one on one time with my baby, and doing all of the things that he enjoys (that I secretly enjoy, too). It’s just easier to not feel bad when I am giving him a day full of all of my love, attention and all of his favorite things.

Knocking these goals out, no problem

This year, I stepped in the ring, and knocked my goals out like Rocky. Honestly, I would have been proud of myself if I accomplished about half of my goals. But somehow, someway, I knocked every single thing off of my list before the end of the year. Which means, going into 2018, I already have a few goals lined up; that I WILL accomplish. My top 4 goals for 2018, include 1. Moving,  Graduating from undergrad in December 0f 2018; Getting accepting into my Master’s program for Clinical Psychology and finding a way better job.  I learned that by using my planner to keep track of every little thing I had to do, including staying on top of my school work, has helped. Keep a written list of my goals helped manifest them. And every few weeks I would add short term goals to the list as well, just to keep up with myself. In 2018, my intent is to keep making black girl magic, and to keep moving forward.  I am the only person in the world that could stop me, and why would I do such a thing?

No more time wasted

I will be choosing to not waste my valuable time in 2018; and it simply means the following. I have taken too much of my time into sleepless nights, overthinking, and trying to convince myself that some of the goals I have set were unachievable. I’ve wasted time, allowing others to make me feel less than or incapable. I’ve given more time and energy to things that were not beneficial to my life and decreasing the time for things that were. I am my own worst critic. I give myself a hard time, I sometimes tend to beat myself up for my shortcomings. Because I forget, and I think others also forget. that I am human too. I make mistakes. I have valid feelings. Even if the world doesn’t see it that way.

This year, I plan on meditating myself to sleep on those nights where I’m overthinking my entire life. I plan on stopping negative thoughts of myself before they have a chance to implant them selves into my memories as truths. I will be letting go of those that do not value me as a person or my feelings. I will be leaving behind those that do not respect or regard me. I would rather be left with nothing; than left with something that makes me feel worse than I deserve to feel. It is time to clean house. **Which I have already started over the last few weeks, blocking numbers and ending communications.

  There is no “new year, new me.”

“New Year, Who’s this?” I don’t believe in this. I don’t have any New Year’s resolutions, because those aren’t goals that last. They’re rarely ever accomplished and that’s a waste of time! Moving into this new year, think of it as a new chapter, where you are the writer and you create your own story. You decide what happens this year and what doesn’t. You have the power to create your own destiny, and make life whatever you desire it to be. Live for yourself. Create a life that you would be proud of. It doesn’t matter HOW your journey starts, it’s how you finish it. And when I tell YOU that you are more than capable. You are brilliant, you are worthy and valued. Stop convincing yourself that it’s “too late”; it’s never too late. Trust me, my plate is always full. I work full time, I go to school full time and I have a first grader; who’s school I volunteer at often. For 2017, I decided that just making it, wasn’t good enough for me. You, also, deserve better.

As this New Year comes in, I hope you set goals for yourself. Choose to be great this year, and be awesome. You deserve greatness, peace and happiness.

  Peace, love & Light,

Sierra Michelle

[patriotsnet]

Did Trump Say Republicans Are Stupid

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/did-trump-say-republicans-are-stupid/

Did Trump Say Republicans Are Stupid

Start Your Day With National Memo Newsletter

Know first.

The opinions that matter. Delivered to your inbox every morning

Jeff Danziger

Jeff Danziger lives in New York City. He is represented by CWS Syndicate and the Washington Post Writers Group. He is the recipient of the Herblock Prize and the Thomas Nast Prize. He served in the US Army in Vietnam and was awarded the Bronze Star and the Air Medal. He has published eleven books of cartoons and one novel. Visit him at

Reprinted with permission from

You know we’ve reached a low point as a country when even the loyal-to-a-deadly-and-illogical-fault supporters of former President Donald Trump boo him when he recommends vaccinations against COVID-19. “I believe totally in your freedoms, I do, you gotta do what you gotta do, but I recommend take the vaccines,” the former president said at a rally on Saturday in Cullman, Alabama. “I did it. It’s good.” The crowd responded with boos.

JUST IN: “Take the vaccine” shouts Trump

GOP Rep. Barry Moore went from calling House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a “tyrant” for enforcing a mask mandate to encouraging people to talk to their doctors about getting the vaccine. Catching COVID-19 apparently led to the difference in messaging for him. Moore posted on Facebook Friday:

Trump Is Right: Republicans Are Stupid

Donald Trump, master of the deal, is right. The Republicans are stupid, not only as politicians but also as political psychologists. He criticized Paul Ryan for bringing up the subject of Medicare reform that the Democrats could use to turn the elderly against the Republicans. Their video of grandma being shoved over the cliff by Republicans is a stark indication of how the Dems will fight to win four more years for Obama.

As the discussions over increasing the debt limit go on, the Democrats are portraying themselves as the more flexible party in the negotiations. They are willing to cut “cherished programs” such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, provided Republicans agree to some increases in revenue. They want the Republicans to agree to raise taxes and cut spending on programs that the elderly hold sacred. A perfect recipe for Republican defeat in November 2012. Thursday’s meeting was supposed to focus on spending cuts in the two health care programs and on new revenue. And only stupid Republicans would attend such a meeting.

From the very beginning, by focusing on cutting Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, the Republicans have trapped themselves into a no-win situation. Why haven’t they offered a list of real cuts in federal spending? Who told them that cutting programs that the elderly are dependent on is the way to win votes in 2012?

Fact Check: Trump Did Not Call Republicans The Dumbest Group Of Voters

5 Min Read

An old quote falsely attributed to Donald Trump has recently resurfaced online. The viral meme alleges Trump told People magazine in 1998 that Republicans are “the dumbest group of voters in the country”. This is false.

While the quote has been debunked several times since it apparently surfaced in 2015, users have recently been resharing it on social media. Examples can be seen , , ,

The meme reads: “If I were to run, I’d run as a Republican. They’re the dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe anything on Fox News. I could lie and they’d still eat it up. I bet my numbers would be terrific. – Donald Trump, People Magazine, 1998”

Snopes first wrote about the false quote in October 2015 . Since then, the quote has been debunked multiple times .

People magazine has confirmed in the past that its archive has no register of this alleged exchange.

“People looked into this exhaustively when it first surfaced back in Oct. . We combed through every Trump story in our archive. We couldn’t find anything remotely like this quote–and no interview at all in 1998.”, a magazine spokesperson told Factcheck.org that year .

In December 1987, People published a profile on Donald Trump titled “Too Darn Rich”. The article quoted him saying he was too busy to run for president .

Most iterations of the meme feature a photo of Trump during an interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1988, when he said he would probably not run for president but wouldn’t rule it out .

Trump Told A Reporter His Biggest Secret: That He Is A Danger To The American People

Richard Wolffe

Trump is a particularly stupid man who thinks he is very smart. Perhaps this lies at the root of his monumentally dumb decision to grant Bob Woodward 18 interviews

The Inuit are supposed to have dozens of words to describe snow. The Brits have endless ways to talk about rain. Now it’s time for Americans to delineate all the many ways that Donald Trump is dumb.

If Bob Woodward’s new blockbuster teaches us anything new about the character of the 45th president, it’s that we don’t yet have the words to describe the multiple variants of the vacuum inside his head.

Read more

There’s the stupidity of arrogance, the stupidity of ignorance and his old friend: the stupidity of blatant duplicity. There’s his homicidal stupidity, his traitorous stupidity, his criminally corrupt stupidity and his plain old infantile stupidity.

Let’s start with the top of this taxonomy: the domain of Donald’s dumbness. At his core, the former reality TV star is a particularly stupid man who thinks he is very smart. Or as he prefers to call his own , “a very stable genius”.

Perhaps, just maybe, this lies at the root of his monumentally dumb decision to grant Woodward 18 interviews, on the record and on tape.

Instead, our very stupid genius vomited up all manner of secrets that collectively prove beyond all reasonable doubt that he represents the greatest single danger to the fate of both the American people and to himself.

Trump Gets Slap On The Wrist For Rant On ‘stupid’ Iowa Voters

‘Not good to insult Iowa voters,’ one Iowa Republican says, but the fallout is far from dramatic.

Donald Trump’s slam of Iowans as “stupid” would usually be a breathtaking gaffe for a presidential candidate, but the billionaire businessman has proved time and again that this isn’t any normal presidential race and that he isn’t any normal candidate.

Top Republicans and Republican operatives in the state on Friday disparaged Trump’s comments from his Thursday evening rally at Iowa Central Community College in which he questioned the intelligence of voters who believe rival Ben Carson’s claims of a violent past and subsequent redemption. “How stupid are the people of Iowa? How stupid are the people of the country to believe this crap?” Trump yelled.

“Not good to insult Iowa voters,” Doug Gross, the former chief of staff to Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, told POLITICO on Friday.

Steve Grubbs, the chief Iowa strategist for rival Rand Paul, was happy to pounce on the comment. “Trump’s meltdown last night makes me worry what would happen in a stressful situation in the White House,” Grubbs said.

But many Iowa Republicans also don’t see lasting damage. They see the comments as unfortunate but not nearly enough to send Trump packing.

“I heard audible gasps from those I was sitting by, yet that had no effect in his standing in the caucuses. And I’m not trying to dodge or be cute, but we don’t know. We don’t know what impact this will have,”Strawn said.

So If None Of This Counts What’s The Point

According to those conducting the recount, the purpose of this project is to address a prevailing concern among some voters that the 2020 election was illegitimate. And if the final result is that there was no fraud? That’s fine, too.

“This is not about calling into question the results of the November election,” Ken Bennett, spokesman for the audit, told the Washington Post. “This is about identifying if there are any areas of our elections that need to be improved going forward.”

Few Democrats believe this, of course. They fear that the point of the audit is to simply sow further doubt about Biden’s victory – and pave the way for Republican state-level efforts to enact new voting restrictions that disadvantage their candidates and voters in the name of “ballot security”.

This Is What Trump Told Supporters Before Many Stormed Capitol Hill

The president incited those who attended his rally to march to the Capitol.

President Trump speaks at Save America Rally in Washington

Many who participated in the chaos at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday came straight from an event held by President Donald Trump.

Trump’s “Save America Rally” included the president telling supporters to “stop the steal” of the , urging them to head to the Capitol to demonstrate against Congress certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. Among the crowd’s battle cries was, “Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump!”

MORE: 4 dead after US Capitol breached by pro-Trump mob during ‘failed insurrection’

Trump spoke at the event for nearly an hour at the Ellipse, a park near the White House. After he spoke, thousands of attendees, many of them without masks, marched toward Capitol Hill as federal law enforcement vehicles raced to beat them there.

Here’s what Trump said at his rally:

Media will not show the magnitude of this crowd even I when I turned on today, I looked, and I saw thousands of people here, but you don’t see hundreds of thousands of people behind you because they don’t want to show that. We have hundreds of thousands of people here, and I just want them to be recognized by the fake news media. Turn your cameras, please, and show what is really happening out here because these people are not going to take it any longer, they’re not going to take it any longer.

Not going to let it happen.

TRUMP:Thank you.

No Donald Trump Did Not Call Republican Voters Dumb In The 1990s

Donald Trump has made plenty of questionable claims over the years, but calling Republican voters dumb isn’t one of them.

Still, one political meme continues to spread across social media sites and claims he said just that.

The story goes that in a 1998 interview with People Magazine, Donald Trump said he was considering a run for president and would do so as a Republican because “They’re the dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe anything on Fox News. I could lie and they’d still eat it up. I bet my numbers would be terrific.”

The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed.

The meme features a repurposed image of a younger Trump, with the quote billed as a statement he delivered in an interview with the magazine.

So did Donald Trump actually say that – or anything like it?

No, the quote is bogus.

The fabricated quote appeared on social media sites October 2015, when Trump’s campaign started to gain steam. The meme has continually resurfaced over the years, though it has .

We searched People’s , which date back to the 1970s, and found no Trump interviews in 1998 – or any other time – that feature that quote or anything resembling it.

Most of the magazine’s articles at the time that involved Trump discussed his celebrity and high-profile divorce from Marla Maples.

Featured Fact-check

People also issued a statement rebuking the quote’s authenticity.

We rate this claim Pants on Fire!

Donald Trump: I Love The Poorly Educated

Dylan Stableford

Donald Trump easily won the Nevada Republican caucuses on Tuesday, finishing more than 20 points ahead of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and cementing his status as the frontrunner for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination.

In his victory speech, the billionaire real estate mogul thanked his family, his friends and his wide swath of supporters.

“We won the evangelicals,” Trump said. “We won with young. We won with old. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated.”

That last line was, as you might expect, the sound bite of the night. Indeed, “I love the poorly educated” was trending on Twitter early Wednesday morning, with users expressing a mix of bewilderment, consternation and other big words such supporters might not understand.

“I love the poorly educated” is the 2016 Election in a nutshell.

— Christine Rousselle

“I love the poorly educated”Donald J. Trump

All I’ll say is the moment in the speech I heard Trump say, “I love the poorly educated,” I knew I was hearing history.

— Nick Rizzo

“I love the poorly educated!” – Trump“He loves us!” – Trump supporters

— Quinn Sutherland

Donald Trump in his Nevada victory speech: “I love the poorly educated.” Way to go America…

— Rob Tornoe

“We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated.” The Republican front runner for POTUS.

— Stress? Me?! Nah.

“I love the poorly educated.” Put that on a bumper sticker.

— Alex Burns

– “I love the poorly educated”

— Mr S.Bart

How Is Any Of This Legal

The Arizona audit was authorised by the Arizona Senate, which issued a subpoena for the ballots under its investigatory powers.

This isn’t a legally binding recount that could reverse the 2020 result, so the courts have given the auditors more leeway in how they conduct their operations.

A court did prevent the auditors from attempting to match the signatures on mail-in ballots with voter files out of concern over infringing on voter privacy, however.

Cyber Ninja contractors also abandoned plans to contact voters in-person to verify their ballots after the US Justice Department threatened to sue over concerns of voter intimidation.

Donald Trump Loves The ‘poorly Educated’ And They Love Him

Donald Trump speaks what’s on his mind, often as soon as it appears there. And after winning his third-straight contest in Nevada Tuesday, Trump credited his “poorly educated” supporters, in part, for the win.

“We won the evangelicals. We won with young. We won with old. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated,” he said during his victory speech.

Let’s set aside the fact that “poorly educated” is not the same as “less educated” and look at the numbers:

Trump did well across the board in Nevada, garnering 45.9% of the vote, but he did even better among voters with a high school education or less. Fifty-seven percent of those voters supported him, according to entrance polls, courtesy of CNN.

The next closest candidate among high-school-or-less voters was Ted Cruz, who had 20%.

That’s a sizable gap of 37 percentage points.

Trump didn’t just win with less educated voters, or “poorly educated,” as he called them, he crushed it.

It’s true Trump did perform the best of any candidate among highly educated voters, too, but not nearly so well.

He gained 37% of the votes from those with postgraduate education, with Marco Rubio earning 29%

As much as Trump loves the “poorly educated,” he didn’t want to join them: The Ivy League grad got his degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1968.

Trump’s “poorly educated” line sparked much reaction, including and .

About UsNewsroom StaffEthical PrinciplesPress ReleasesTerms of Service

Marjorie Taylor Greene Says Republicans ‘stupid’ To Not Invite Trump To Gop Retreat

Marjorie Taylor GreeneDonald TrumpLiz Cheney

Republican Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has said that it was “stupid” for Republican leaders not to invite former President Donald Trump to a GOP congressional retreat.

Republicans met in central Florida this week for the retreat, during which attendees will discuss strategizing the party’s policies leading into the 2022 midterm elections. Topics include jobs, domestic security, how to deal with media, “big tech censorship”, China, the “future of America freedoms” and vulnerable to target in the midterms, according to Politico.

“Remember when lost the House in 2018 because a bunch of them distanced themselves from President Trump?” Greene wrote in a tweet published Monday afternoon. “Not inviting President Trump to the GOP retreat is the same stupid behavior. Funny how they don’t understand a record # of votes and support of any R President.”

Remember when Republicans lost the House in 2018 because a bunch of them distanced themselves from President Trump?Not inviting President Trump to the GOP retreat is the same stupid behavior.Funny how they don’t understand a record # of votes and support of any R President.

— Marjorie Taylor Greene ?? April 26, 2021

Regardless, Trump seems likely to remain active in Republican politics.

However, Trump’s continued presence could also turn some voters off to the Republican national brand.

Trump Jr. Thinks Lincoln Project Planning Liz Cheney 2024 Run as Democrat

Wait A Minute Bamboo Fibre

Yes. According to one volunteer, John Brakey, they’re investigating whether fake ballots may have been snuck in from overseas.

“They use bamboo in their paper processing, people in southeast Asia,” he told a local CBS television station.

Brakey is quick to say he doubts such fraud is real, but the investigators apparently want to leave no stone unturned, untested and unsubjected to ultraviolet light.

As mail-in Arizona ballots are matched against registered voters, multiple votes cast by the same individual would have been flagged.

This Meme About How Donald Trump Called Republicans The Dumbest Group Of Voters In The Country Is Fake

The fake quote has been floating around the internet since about the time Trump announced his presidential bid in 2015. It has been widely shared on Twitter and Facebook by people eager to expose the businessman-turned-politician as a hypocrite for leading a party he once, allegedly, mocked.

“If I were to run, I’d run as a Republican,” the fake quote reads. “They’re the dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe anything on Fox News. I could lie and they’d still eat it up. I bet my numbers would be terrific.”

Trumps 10 Most Hilariously Stupid Things He Said In 2019

Sarah K. Burris – Raw Story

President Donald Trump has a long history of saying some of the most bizarre things in politics. This year was one for the books as the president flailed, searching for excuses for his July 25 phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Here are some of the most hilariously stupid things the president has said this year:

1. Windmills cause ear cancer

“If you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations, your house just went down 75 percent in value,” Trump told Republicans in April. “And they say the noise causes cancer. You tell me that one.” He then made a whirring noise mimicking a turbine.

2. He wants to buy Greenland

“In meetings, at dinners and in passing conversations, Mr. Trump has asked advisers whether the U.S. can acquire Greenland, listened with interest when they discuss its abundant resources and geopolitical importance and, according to two of the people, has asked his White House counsel to look into the idea,” the Wall Street Journal reported in August.

“Denmark essentially owns it,” Trump told reporters in the days that followed. “We’re very good allies with Denmark. We protect Denmark like we protect large portions of the world. … Strategically it’s interesting.”

Trump then got into a fight with Danish leaders and had to cancel a trip he’d planned to the country.

3. Trump is the “chosen one.”

4. “Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came.”

What Do Other Republican Politicians Think

The ones who want to stay in Trump’s good graces are welcoming the audit.

“We want transparency and answers for the American people,” Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, who is poised to replace Cheney in the Republican leadership, said last week. “What are the Democrats so afraid of?”

Given that polls show a majority of Republicans think Democrats stole the election, members of the party who are in favour of the audit are on solid political ground.

Some Republicans, including in Arizona, may be having doubts, however.

“It makes us look like idiots,” Phoenix-area state senator Paul Boyer told the New York Times. “Looking back, I didn’t think it would be this ridiculous.”

The Memo: What Now For Anti

Niall Stanage

Cheney and others of her ilk are not giving up. The question is what kind of impact they can have in their rhetorical guerrilla war against the former president and the GOP leaders whom they brand as his enablers.

For now, many are dispirited by Cheney’s fall and what it says about the party writ large.

“The outlook is grim,” said Olivia Troye, who broke with Trumpism after having served as a staffer to then-Vice President Mike PenceMichael Richard PenceMcCarthy, Ducey speak at Pence fundraiser: reportButtigieg, Harris sort out their roles for BidenTim Scott’s inside track. Troye is now the director of the Republican Accountability Project. 

Referring to pro-Trump elected officials, Troye added: “What we are seeing is, there is nothing they won’t do to remain in power, even if it brings danger to this country.”

Cheney is not going to slink away. In an interview with Savannah Guthrie of NBC’s “Today” broadcast on Thursday morning, she promised to fight vigorously to retain her congressional seat and held the door open for a 2024 presidential campaign.

Cheney also reiterated her criticisms of Trump and his supporters within the GOP, saying the former president has established “a cult of personality” over the party.

“People realize this is getting ridiculous,” Comstock said. “How much do you want to really associate yourself with fools like Marjorie Greene

Even some Trump opponents are less than bullish about a Cheney 2024 bid. 

What Does Donald Trump Think About All This

He loves it, of course. He’s been cheering the auditors in press releases.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if they found thousands and thousands and thousands of votes,” he told a group of guests two weeks ago at his Mar-a-Lago club. “This was a rigged election, everybody knows it, and we’re going to be watching it very closely.”

Trump has also been demanding that the state’s Republican governor, Doug Ducey, provide “large-scale security”, such as the police or national guard, for the auditors.

Trump ‘knows Republicans Are Stupid’ Jared Kushner Allegedly Said To Former Editor

Greg Price Jared KushnerDonald Trump

One of the strategies Donald Trump employed as he began putting his name on the U.S. political map years ago was championing “birtherism,” the long-held conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama was born outside of the U.S. and hence should never have been elected. He often chastised Obama and demanded the president produce his birth certificate, revving up an anti-Obama base that eventually helped put Trump in the White House.

Evidently, Trump may have been using the so-called birthers only as a means to an end.

His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who is also a senior adviser to the president, allegedly told a former editor of the newspaper he once owned that the billionaire real-estate mogul didn’t believe his own “birtherism” claims, and only made them to charge up Republicans because they are “stupid,” GQ reported.

During a discussion on how to cover Trump, the former New York Observereditor, Elizabeth Spiers, claimed she told Kushner that she had serious problems with Trump’s repeated claims that Obama was not born in the U.S., to which Kushner allegedly told her: “He doesn’t really believe it, Elizabeth. He just knows Republicans are stupid and they’ll buy it.”

Spiers told her Kushner anecdote in response to a question from a conservative blogger on Facebook, and then screenshotted the response and put it up on Twitter.

Trump Did Not Disparage Gop In 1998 People Magazine Interview

CLAIM: “If I were to run, I’d run as a Republican. They’re the dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe anything on Fox News. I could lie and they’d still eat it up. I bet my numbers would be terrific.” — Donald Trump in 1998 People magazine interview.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The president did not make such a comment to People magazine. 

THE FACTS: Singer and actress Bette Midler, who often speaks out against Trump, shared the false quote attributed to Trump on her Twitter account Sunday, with the comment that Trump “certainly knew his crowd.” Julie Farin, a People magazine spokeswoman, told The Associated Press that the magazine looked into the claim exhaustively when it first surfaced years ago but did not find anything remotely like it made by the president. 

The image used with the false quote shows Trump during a 1988 appearance on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” where he discussed running for president, but made no reference to Republicans being “the dumbest group of voters.” The quote first began circulating in 2015 and has been widely shared across social media platforms, including Facebook. It has been widely debunked since that time.

Here’s more information on Facebook’s fact-checking program: https://www.facebook.com/help/1952307158131536

___

This is part of The Associated Press’ ongoing effort to fact-check misinformation that is shared widely online, including work with Facebook to identify and reduce the circulation of false stories on the platform.

[submeowchinegun]

I’m over here wondering why I only post writing at like 3 am

Maul isn’t happy about his role in the Sith’s plans.

Maul stood, staring out the window with a stormy expression. He was not sulking; sulking was something a petulant child did when they didn't get their way. Maul was a Sith Lord, and a grown adult to boot. He thought for moment, his eyes losing focus briefly as his attention turned inward.

Seething. Now, there was an appropriate term, befitting his status. So Maul stood, arms crossed, very specifically seething as he examined the nightlife of Coruscant. It was actually quite nice, the vantage point of the apartment providing a sea of lights that stretched into the horizon. An ever-moving stream of airspeeders created a series of winding lines, like some kind of bio-luminescent creature. Maul found himself slipping out of his refined seething, lulled into a more relaxed state by the view, and forced a scowl in an attempt to throw himself back into it.

“Maul, stop that ridiculous sulking and come here.” Maul's scowl solidified, and despite the fact that he was definitely not sulking, turned away from the window. The apartment, in addition to an excellent view, boasted a comfortably lavish and spacious interior as well. In the dining and kitchen area, which was raised a step up from the living room where Maul was, sat his Master. Sidious was watching him from his seat at the dining table, his expression supremely unimpressed. He was still wearing his Senator's robes, though this would probably be the last time he wore them, now that he'd been elected Chancellor. Sidious raised a graying eyebrow at him, and with a small huff Maul strode over, taking a seat at the only other place setting on the table.

“I was not sulking,” Maul insisted lowly. Sidious gave him a skeptical look, employed by every parent in the galaxy at one point or another, but didn't press the issue. Now that Maul was seated, a serving droid placed a plate of food in front of each of them. When Maul only halfheartedly pushed his food around with a sulky expression, Sidious took a deep breath, setting his fork down.

“Maul,” Sidious started, “I know that you are –,��� he paused a moment, “– less than comfortable being in the public eye. However, while I am the face of the Sith as a whole, you are the face of the Sith as a new generation.” Sidious paused to let this sink in. “Your presence is essential to completely cementing the Sith in a way that benefits us. Keeping public favor will give us power against the Jedi, and eventually the Order will tear itself apart. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Master,” Maul said, still looking displeased, but nodding.

“And that's another thing,” Sidious added as he speared a bit of food, “As far as the public is concerned, you're my adopted son, so remember to refer to me as 'father'.”

“Hmmmmmmrg.”

It wasn't until later, a few days after the article had been published, that Maul fully comprehended what it would actually mean to be the “face” of the Sith.

He'd always, to some degree, had free reign to wander through whatever city he and his Master were in, provided he didn't draw undue attention to himself. Granted, most of his childhood had been spent at the secluded Palpatine estate back on Naboo, only accompanying Sidious to Coruscant occasionally. Still, Maul had always had a knack for moving around unnoticed. As he'd gotten older, and began to spend more time on Coruscant than on Naboo, he'd very quickly fallen into the habit of exploring the immediate sectors as often as he could. The crowded streets presented a different challenge than the nearly untouched wilderness surrounding the house on Naboo, and when he'd first started, Maul had relished it.

Now, his wandering was less that, and more a series of familiar circuits. The one he was was on currently led him through a shopping district not too far from Sidious' Senatorial apartments, where the variety of both locals and tourists allowed him to easily blend with the crowd. There'd been reports that the weather generator in the sector was on the fritz, creating an unseasonable cold snap, and while Maul would usually avoid the cold when he could, with the knowledge of his master's new orders he couldn't stand being cooped up any longer. Usually, he'd be wearing his full cloak, but now he only pulled snug the scarf wrapped around his neck and lower face; in the lower levels, the cloak was perfect for going unnoticed, but up here this close to the surface, it would only make him stand out even more.

A stiff breeze slapped him in the face, and Maul felt an involuntary shiver go up his spine. Ugh. Though Zabrak were generally regarded as a hardy species, which was mostly true, they weren't naturally built for cold weather. Maul could certainly endure a harsher range of temperatures than a human, but he had a special hatred in his heart for cold weather. A glance through the crowd found him a cafe, and the idea of something warm to drink made Maul change direction towards it. He gave a wide berth to a parent and their five very excited, very loud children, cringing internally at the noise. The cafe was a welcome change, because it may have been crowded, and loud with the chatter of it's occupants, most importantly it was warm. The actual line to order wasn't very long, and with his warm drink in hand, Maul left to continue his walk.

Even just holding the steaming cup while he walked was improving Maul's mood. He tugged his scarf down just enough to take a sip, and let out a contented sigh as it's warmth radiated through him. A second later, his shoulders tensed. Maul forced them to relax, disguising his scanning of the crowd by taking another drink. His focus landed on a Rodian, who was holding a camera while looking pointedly away from him, in a manner they seemed to think was inconspicuous. Senses now on high alert, Maul felt a twitch in the force, turning around just in time to be accosted by a Twi'lek shoving something into his face.

“Mr. Palpatine, Chir'da Kreen from the Coruscanti Sun, a moment of your time?” she asked with a blindingly white smile, holding up what Maul now realized was some kind of recording device. He'd instinctively made an aborted grab for his saberstaff, and it was lucky that he hadn't brought it; he didn't want to think about what his master would do if he killed some kind of reporter in a crowded shopping center. Instead of answering, Maul turned on his heel and started walking. She hurried after him, undeterred.

“Mr. Palpatine, what exactly was your role in ending the Naboo occupation?” He again didn't answer, and from the crowd at least five more reporters seemed to materialize, following him alongside the Twi'lek.

“Mr. Palpatine, now that your father has been elected Chancellor, do you intend to run for Naboo's open senate seat?” Maul walked faster, but the group only sped up to match, and he gained no ground at all.

“Mr. Palpatine, can you tell us more about the relationship between the Sith and Jedi?” By this point, the rest of the crowd had started to take notice. Around him, people stopped and stared as Maul sped by, just shy of jogging, to reach the edge of the shopping district.

“Mr. Palpatine, what's that you're drinking?” Finally, he reached the lifts, but at this location and time of day, they were already at capacity. Maul scowled at the crowd of shoppers standing between him and possible escape. He threw the dregs of his drink into a convenient trashcan after he nearly crushed it in frustration.

“Mr. Palpatine –,” Whatever the question was going to be, Maul never heard it. The reporter cut themselves off with a gasp as Maul briefly eyed the distance, then with a running start, planted a foot on the railing and jumped up to the next level. He easily cleared the upper railing, landing with a small bounce. When he looked back, the reporters were all gaping, dumbfounded. Maul allowed a himself a brief smirk, then took the head start he'd just gained, hopefully to get back to his apartment before anyone else started trying to bother him.

Maul thankfully made it back without any further incidents. He let out a huff of annoyance as he unwound his scarf, hanging it from a coat hook. The apartment itself was bigger than what Maul felt he had any use for, much like the Palpatine manor. That was what happened when you lived so close to Sidious' old Senatorial apartments, with the level of security he and his master required. The thing that Maul really liked about it was the private terrace. It was really less of a terrace and more of a greenhouse, placed on the roof of the building and accessible only by private lift in Maul's apartment. He'd programmed the droids that tended it to make it as close to the woods by the manor as was possible, and preferred training and meditating there, rather than in his apartment.

As he was kicking off his boots, his comm started to ring, and he immediately felt his stomach sink. There were only two people who had this number, and he couldn't think of a reason it would be his Grandmaster; usually if Plagueis needed to contact him, he'd write rather than call. He checked the screen, and after taking a steadying breath, answered.

“Yes, Master?” He heard datapads being shuffled around as Sidious clicked his tongue.

“Maul, what did I tell you?” he said, and Maul held the comm at arms length in the hopes it wouldn't pick up his frustrated growl.

“Yes, father?” he ground out. Sidious hummed in satisfaction as he audibly set down a datapad.

“Well, son, I see you've had your first encounter with the media today,” he began – Here it comes, Maul thought, wincing preemptively – “And I must say, you've done an excellent job.” What? Maul blinked at his comm in surprise.

“The young people are all talking about it on Chitter. Oh, look, someone chirped a video,” there were a few moments of silence, punctuated by the muted sounds of a crowd, before Sidious continued, “Hmm, good form, but you need to practice your landings Maul.” Maul nodded numbly, before he remembered this was an audio only call.

“Yes – father,” he managed to correct at the last second. Sidious gave a small chuckle, the sound distorted by a waver in the connection.

“Well, be careful, those reporters are relentless. You'll have to be a bit more vigilant to see them coming, they've even managed to sneak up on me a few times.”

“Yes, father.” The new title was getting a little easier to insert smoothly each time he did it, though it still felt odd to Maul.

“The Republic won't run itself,” Sidious sighed, “So I must be going. Goodbye, Maul.”

“Goodbye,” Maul replied, but before he could hang up, Sidious spoke again.”

“Oh, and you might want to reevaluate the privacy of your terrace,” he said offhand, ending the call right after.

WHAT.

[sfpcschool]

Meet the students of Code Narratives

Today we’re excited to announce the new students for Code Narratives. This session will be taught by Allison Parrish, Ross Goodwin, Hannah Davis, Alexander Provan, and Taeyoon Choi. Todd Anderson will be organizing this session with Melanie Hoff joining as a Teaching Assistant. We’re so happy to welcome these people to our community.

Angeline Meitzler is a coder and artist based in Brooklyn who works with digital media and traditional drawing/painting materials. Her work is often influenced by quantum mechanics and linguistics. She is interested in visual computation and in exploring methods of communication and relationships.

Nabil Hassein is a longtime programmer currently working as a web developer at Khan Academy, with a strong interest in software's personally expressive and socially liberatory potential. He is one of the organizers of !!con and an alum of NYU and the Recurse Center, with past projects including several translators for simple programming languages and an interactive map of NYPD data on criminal court summonses.

Rachel Haberstroh is an artist, writer, and researcher based in NYC. She enjoys playing with light, building games, directing faux exercise videos and developing interdisciplinary anti-oppressive curricula. She is one half of Wavy Dash, a loving administrator to Millennial Focus Group, and an education programmer at Pioneer Works. Recent exhibitions at Flux Factory and the Wassaic Project.

Hannah Celli is a visual artist with a practice that is fueled by collaboration and play. Recently, her work has been influenced by spaces that evoke feelings of meditation and collective consciousness including clubs, temples, bonfires, and certain Korean spas. Hannah’s work uses programming to transform traditional materials like wax and facilitate stimulating social experiences.

Cara Warner:

["Cara is an #adjective# #calling# who #verb# #noun#."] Cara is an urban fantasy engineer who debugs fiction. Cara is an infrastructure author who dreams of deploy scripts.Cara is a red-headed South African Software Engineer and fiction writer interested in narrative structure, the story-writing process, and fiction ‘formulas’. She’s looking forward to being both her selves simultaneously while at SFPC.

Jay Weeks: I studied architectural design as an undergraduate and have been a practicing web programmer for several years. I am interested in pursuing future works that provoke novel experience through interactive media and sculpture, which challenge traditional expectations about space. I feel there is much opportunity to merge computation with physical experience, and hope to realize future work outside the screen.

Chuck Driesler is an architecture student actively working to automate himself out of a future in architecture. His two main goals are to make a moving building and to go to space. One of his favorite professors once said this outlook is "missing the point," and last semester he was asked if he "was even interested in architecture." He believes that no industry is safe from automation, but he also understands that architects don't like to say they aren't important. As a solution, he does what he can to live and work outside of the architecture school bubble often. Cross-pollination is key.

Caroline Hadilaksono: Born in Indonesia, I moved to Los Angeles to live on my own when I was 12. I currently live in New York, but always consider myself a California gal. As a designer & illustrator, I spend my time making pictures, books, and educational science apps. I dream of traveling around the world and to one day live in a tree house.

Mikey Badr is web developer based in Brooklyn, though he had previous lives in education and science. He's interested in the intersection of technology and relationships and using data and code to explore uniquely human experiences. 

Stefan Pelikan is a rising senior at the Pennsylvania State University. His programs of study are Graphic Design, Art History, and German Language. Stefan currently works as an intern for the singularly awesome Kelli Anderson, with whom he spends lots of time cutting paper and discussing the value of clarity and fun in the task of communicating knowledge. After graduation he would like to dive into the choppy-waters of design entrepreneurship, graphic narratives, self publishing, experimental video and the web, art criticism and/or starting a band. His primary interests are reading, coffee, being alone in nature and amusing semiotic play.

John Balestrieri is a software developer with a background in art and design. His Brooklyn-based company, Tinrocket, produces engaging iOS apps based around his computer graphics research. His software includes several popular photo transformation apps where images are "artistically" analyze and then turned into beautiful images: Waterlogue creates watercolor paintings; Percolator creates mosaics using circle packing. Prior to developing apps, John worked as a newsroom developer at the Associated Press, where he created software to visualize large data sets, such as real-time, national poll results for the US Presidential elections. John has also taught undergraduate visual communications at Pratt Institute.

Matt Wysocki is a kid that likes connecting things, ideas, and people. In making connections Matt hopes to help many people and have fun while doing it, solemnly smiling in the face of unbearable suffering while seeking to offer support in whatever way possible, and there is always a way.

Seori Sachs comes from the realm of game audio, inspired by her studies at NYU's Music Technology program. In her spare time, she plays around with creating generative images, plays games, and reads. She always wants to learn something new.

I'm Stephen Thomas, a UX designer based in New York. I've surrounded myself with technology, design, and art since I was a kid (I count video games), and continue to be interested in exploring how the three can intersect with each other to improve peoples' lives at different levels and scales–from personal to shared experiences, on-screen to off, tools to systems.

Sekyeong Kwon (Laura) is a borderless visual communicator born in South Korea, now living in the UK, working over multiple disciplines. She loves to think about how the world could be in the future and her recent practices are driven by questioning ‘What if’. She is interested in finding ways to apply emerging technologies to encourage our humanness, and ultimately to design a better world.  Currently, she is completing her Master’s Degree in Communication Design at Falmouth University focusing on the future of communication through the lens of speculative design.

Ernesto Espinoza (ERES) is a poet and interaction designer looking for innovative ways to write and read poetry. His background is in engineering and literature. His first book was published on 2011. He is interested to turn poems into reading experiences through computers. Ernesto is originally from Puebla, Mexico

[toldnews-blog]

New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/united-states-of-america/denver-is-so-expensive-that-teachers-have-to-get-creative-to-make-ends-meet/

Denver is so expensive that teachers have to get creative to make ends meet

Yes, it’s about money, many have told CNN. But it’s also about the uncertainty of living paycheck to paycheck. It’s about the necessity of taking on a second or third job. It’s about the untenability of carrying on this way much longer.

Katie McOwen has had to make some tough decisions when it comes to money.

At the end of this month, she’s giving up her one-bedroom apartment and will move into a friend’s basement. The move sacrifices some of her independence, but it affords her some wiggle room with her finances.

The sixth-grade math teacher at Place Bridge Academy in Denver said she makes about $50,000 per year. After paying $1,050 in rent, plus student loan payments, bills and other expenses, there’s not much left over. She also nannies during the summers to supplement income.

“I really am living paycheck to paycheck right now,” McOwen said. “If my car broke down or anything, I would be really hurting.”

McOwen is lucky that she doesn’t have to make car payments. She drives a 2000 Honda Accord, which just hit 310,000 miles. It works now, but she worries about the future.

“I know if something really happens, I will be in big, big trouble,” she said.

Why? Because she wouldn’t be able to go to work.

The 35-year-old is originally from West Virginia, the state that launched a teacher strike and inspired similar movements across the United States last year. Her mother and sisters, who also live in Denver, have talked about moving back east, or somewhere near there, to find a more affordable life.

“My option was to either move there or I’ve been contemplating moving into a camper van,” she said with a laugh. “I knew something was going to have to change. It was either to move completely out of Denver or to bunk with my friend.”

He drives Lyft after school and has multiple roommates

Sean Bowers shares a place with three people.

They split the $2,500 rent. He lives in the smallest room and pays $600.

Change is coming, though. Two of Bowers’ roommates are dating and they’ll be moving out in May.

That fact of life has Bowers trying to figure out what he’ll do. Splitting that much rent between two people is more than he can afford.

“We’re just at that time of our life and it’s getting harder and harder to find roommates,” said the high school physical education teacher. “All my friends are either married and don’t want to live with another random person, or I’m looking out for random people on Craigslist.”

If he opts to get a new place, he will have to pay yet another security deposit and the first month’s rent.

“I’ve had to take out loans before for just the security deposit and the first month’s rent because I don’t have that extra $800 to $1200 to throw down,” the 30-year-old said.

Bowers’ base salary is $42,000, but he does a lot outside of daytime hours to make extra money. He writes curriculum over the summer, runs a ninth-grade academy and he is the head track and field coach at North High School in Denver.

School and coaching duties mean that he’s in school from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the winter and spring. After all that, Bowers rolls into his other job as a Lyft driver.

He typically drives five to 10 hours a week with the goal of making an extra $100, he said.

“When you are teaching the lesson, when you are with the kids and when you see the change, you forget about all the financials,” Bowers said.

Yet he wishes he had a little time to “go home, rest, relax and work on other skills as a person,” he said.

“We’re not asking for a million dollars,” Bowers said. “We’re asking for an extra $200 to $300 per paycheck so that I can save up so that I can buy a house and live in my community and not jump from house to house.”

She hasn’t had a savings account in 9 years of teaching

When Kelsey Brown left her teaching job in North Carolina, she hoped things would be better.

She moved to Denver in 2014 and started making well over the $28,000 she had before. One day she realized the extra money wasn’t adding up as much as she had hoped.

“As the years went on, I still have no savings account. I still don’t know where my money is going,” the 31-year-old said.

The Spanish teacher, now teaching her ninth year, made $56,000 before taxes last year. Yet, the rising costs of rent in Denver have been tough to stay ahead of.

The one-time incentives schools get when they reach certain levels of achievement also makes it hard to know how much she’ll make.

“You can’t bank anything on what you’re going to make each year because they have these little bonuses that come and go,” Brown said. “Two years ago, I made more than I’m making now.”

The newlywed works three jobs beyond her day job at North High School. Brown coaches the women’s varsity lacrosse team after school, coordinates an exchange program to Madrid and participates in a Spanish-language summer camp.

All of that brings in extra income, but it comes at a personal cost.

“I am burned out. There are days that I am walking in the building knowing I’ll be there until 8 p.m. that night,” she said. “There are just days that I, I don’t know how much longer I can do it.”

Brown got married in November and she gets to spend only about 30 minutes a night with her husband.

She gets up at 4 a.m. on school days, goes for a run and does not get home until after 5 p.m. “We live for the weekends,” she said.

She’s thinking of taking on a second job as a server

Sophia Leung is a first-year teacher who’s had to get creative with keeping down her expenses.

“Little products at home, like cleaning supplies, we’ll go to the dollar store instead of Target or even Walmart,” the third-grade math teacher from Ashley Elementary School told CNN.

Leung is 26 and lives with her sister and sister’s boyfriend in Westminster, just outside Denver. The three share a two-bedroom apartment that’s 700 square feet.

Leung does not plan to strike Monday because she cannot afford to.

“I really, really want to because I do support the mission … but I literally financially cannot afford to,” Leung said. “For me to lose out on $200 of pay a day, it does impact my bills for the month.”

She’s not a part of the union, the Denver Classroom Teachers Association. She currently can’t afford the $70 monthly fee, especially as she’s in only her first year teaching, she said.

While doing her taxes, Leung discovered that her sister made slightly more money by working full time as a server. Leung said she made just under $43,000 as a teacher.

“I’ve worked in the service industry before, and I know how much money I can make being a server,” she said. “Seeing that my sister made more than me as a server with no college degree and here I am working full time … it was a big shocker.”

Leung’s sister works flexible hours, gets free health care and a 401(k) benefit offered through her employer.

“If I can get benefits elsewhere and have a more flexible schedule, why wouldn’t I do that?” Leung said.

Leung said she loves being in the classroom with her students and she’s getting her master’s degree. Yet, the financial burden of being a teacher has her wondering whether she can afford it without getting a second job.

“I see a lot of friends who are now my age settled in their careers not having to have second jobs,” she said. “It makes me really wonder if this is the right field for me. “

She was the state’s top rookie art teacher but she’s thinking of leaving

Kevlyn Walsh is 30 and lives with her parents. It gives her a chance to save about $1,000 a month and focus on paying down bills.

“I can see that my bank account has more money in it,” Walsh told CNN.

The digital art teacher is already working three other jobs. When she’s not in the classroom, Walsh works as a restaurant hostess, runs an Etsy business and does freelance graphic design work. Walsh makes just under $47,000 before taxes each year.

Working multiple jobs in a day means Walsh has to carry a change of clothes and meals with her so she’s ready to transition from teacher to hostess. School gets out at 3:15 p.m. and she has to be at the restaurant by 4 p.m.

“I drive to my restaurant, I change my clothes in the bathroom … then I work another 4 to 5 hours at my restaurant and then I get to go home around 9,” Walsh explained.

Walsh loves teaching photography and graphic design to upperclassmen at East High School. In her first year of teaching, she won the Colorado Art Educator Rookie of the Year in 2017.

Despite the accolade and her passion, Walsh is considering moving to another district or leaving the teaching profession if the teachers aren’t able to get a raise during the strike.

“I’ve been really involved with the union since last year because I started to feel and realize how bad my salary was and I wanted to do something about it,” she said. “We have to get paid more or I’m going to leave.”

“I truly don’t know if I’m going to keep teaching,” she said.

[scifrey]

Improbable Press put out a call asking fan fiction authors how they went from Free to Fee. Here’s my response. Happy reading!

The Story of How I Started Selling Stories

My parents, teachers, and acting/singing coaches will all tell you that I've always been a story teller. For the first twenty four years of my life, I was determined to do so through musical theatre, though I had always secretly harbored the desire to write a hit stage play. My early writing consisted of plays for my friends and I to put on, interspersed with prose that I supposed would one day become a novel, but which wasn't my passion.

I was a big reader, but where this habit came from, I'm not certain. While my mother always had a book on the go - whatever crumbling paperback law thriller or murder mystery she'd been handed by the woman down the street when she was done it, which was then passed on to the next neighbor - my father and brothers preferred sports (either on TV or outside in the yard) over reading. I stumbled into fantasy and science fiction because Wil Wheaton was hot, and his show was on every Friday night, and from there I consumed every Star Trek tie-in novel my tiny rural library carried, then started following the authors of the novels into their other worlds and series.

So you won't be surprised to learn that this was how I found fan fiction for the first time. My "I love this, gee, I wonder what else there is?" muscle was well developed by junior high, and before the internet had come to The Middle Of Nowhere Rural Ontario, I had already gotten quite adept at search keywords and codexes to track down more books to consume.  Imagine my shock and joy when, in the middle of my Phantom of the Opera phase (come on, fess up, you had one too), the internet in my school library told me about not only Fredrick Forsyth and Susan Kay's stunning re-tellings, but of something called fan fiction.

I wasted a lot of the librarian's ink and paper printing out these books and secreting them into binders and pretending to do school work at my desk or backstage between scenes. A lot. And yes, I still have most of them.

And as we all well know, the jump between reading and writing is a short when one is submerged so fully in communities of creators. Everyone else's "What If" rubs off on you, and it's just a matter of time before you find yourself playing with the idea of coaxing a few plot bunnies over to spend some time with you. Not everyone loves to write, but gosh darn it, if you want to give it a try, then you couldn't ask for a better, more supportive community. It doesn't matter how new you are to it, everyone reads, everyone comments, everyone makes suggestions. People beta read. People edit. People co-write. People cheer, and support, and recommend, and enthuse. Yeah, there are the occasional jerks, flammers, and wank-mongers, but on the whole? There's literally no better place to learn how to be a writer than in fandom, I firmly believe this.

So, of course, born storyteller that I am, I had to give it a try.

I started writing fan fiction in 1991 for a small, relatively obscure Canadian/Luxembourg co-pro children’s show called Dracula: the Series.  I used to get up and watch it on Saturday mornings, in my PJs, before heading off to whichever rehearsal or read through or practice I had that year.

1995 brought the English dub of Sailor Moon to my life, (and put me on the path to voice acting), and along with a high-school friend, I wrote, printed out, illustrated, and bound my first “book” – a self-insert story that was just over eleven pages long, which introduced new Scouts based on us.  From there, I didn’t really stop.

1996 led me to Forever Knight and Dragon Ball Z, and from there to my friend’s basement where they’d just installed the internet. We chatted with strangers on ICQ, joined Yahoo!Groups and Bravenet Chat Boards. (Incidentally, a friend from my DBZ chat group turned out to be a huge DtS fan, too. We wrote a big crossover together which is probably only accessible on the Wayback Machine now. We stayed friends, helped each other through this writing thing, and now she’s Ruthanne Reid, author of the popular Among the Mythos series.)  In 2000 I got a fanfiction.net account and never looked back.

In 2001, while in my first year of university for Dramatic Arts, I made my first Real Live fandom friends. We wrote epic-length self-insert fics in Harry Potter and Fushigi Yuugi, cosplayed at conventions (sometimes using the on-campus wardrobe department’s terrifyingly ancient serger), and made fan art and comics in our sketchbooks around studying for our finals and writing essays on critical theory or classical Latin.  I was explaining the plot of the next big fic I was going to write to one of them, an older girl who had been my T.A. but loved Interview with the Vampire just as dearly as I, when she said, “You know, this sounds really interesting. Why don’t you strip all the fandom stuff out of the story and just write it as a novel?”

You can do that? was my first thought.

No! I don’t want to! Writing is my fun hobby. What will happen if I try to be a writer and get rejected by everyone and I end up hating it? was my second.

But the seed was planted.  Slowly at first, and then at increasingly obsessive pace, I began writing my first novel around an undergrad thesis,  fourth-year  essays,  several other big fanfics that popped me into the cusp of BNF status but never quite over the tine, and then a move to Japan to teach English. From 2002-2007 I wrote about 300 000 words on the novel that I would eventually shut away in my desk drawer and ignore until I published on Wattpad under my pseudonym on a lark. It was messy. It was long. It was self-indulgent and blatantly inspired by Master of Mosquiton, Interview with the Vampire, Forever Knight, and anything written by Tanya Huff, Laurell K. Hamilton, and Charlaine Harris. This was fine for fanfic, but in terms of being comfortable with presenting it to agents and publishing houses, I felt that it wasn’t original enough.

By this time I was teaching overseas, and in my spare time (and boy, was there a lot of spare time while sitting in a Japanese teacher’s office for 40 hours per week when one only actually teaches for 11 of them) I started applying to MA programs (where I eventually wrote my thesis on Mary Sue Fan Fiction). I also spent it researching “How to Get Published”, mostly by Googling it and/or buy/reading the few books on the topic in English I could find at the local book store or order from the just-then-gaining-international traction online bookstore Amazon.

What that research mostly told me was “Write and sell a bunch of short fiction first, so you have proof that a) you can do the work and b) you can finish what you promise you’ll finish and c) you have proof that other people think you’re worth spending money on.”

Short fiction. Huh. Of course we’d studied short stories in school, and I’d even taken a short story writing class in university, though nothing I’d written for the class was indicative of the kinds of stories I preferred to tell. But I felt pretty confident about this whole writing short stories thing… after all, I’d been doing weekly challenges for years. Drabbles. Flashfic. Stories and chapters that were limited to the word count cap that LiveJournal put on its posts. I’d written novellas without knowing that’s what they were called; I’d written whole novels about other people’s characters. All I needed was an idea. Short fiction I could do.

Unfortunately, everything that came to me was fanfic inspired. It frustrated me, because I didn’t want to write a serial-numbers-filed-off story. I wanted to write something original and epic and inspiring. Something just mine. I started and stopped a lot of stories in 2006-2007. I’d been doing NaNoWriMo for years by then, having been introduced to it in undergrad, and I was determined that this would be the year that I wrote something I could shop. Something just mine. Something unique.

While I adored fanfiction, I was convinced that I couldn't make a career on it.  What had once been a fun hobby soon because a source of torment. Why could I think of a hundred ways to write a meet-cute between my favorite ships, but come up utterly blank when it came to something new and original and just mine?

It took me a while to realize that my playwriting and short story teachers had been correct when they said that there are no original stories in the world, no way you can tell a tale that someone else hasn’t already tried. The "Man vs." list exists for a reason.

The unique part isn’t your story, it’s your voice. Your lived life, your experiences, your way of forming images and structuring sentences. Your choices about who the narrator character is, and what the POV will be, and how the characters handle the conflict. In that way, every piece of writing ever done is individual and unique, even the fanfic. Because nobody is going to portray that character’s quirk or speech pattern quite like you do, nobody is going to structure your plot or your imagery like you. Because there is only one of you. Only one of me. Even if we're all writing fanfiction, no one's story sounds like anyone else's,  or is told like anyone else's.

That is the reality of being a storyteller.

And strangely enough, the woman who opened my eyes to this was a psychic from a psychic fair I attended, who told me that Mark Twain was standing over her shoulder admonishing me to stop fretting and just get something on the page – but to never forget character. My strength, she said that he said, was in creating memorable, well written, well rounded characters. And that my book should focus on that above concerns of plot or pacing.

Well, okay. If Mark Twain says that’s what my strength is, then that’s what my strength is, right? Who am I to argue with the ghost of Mark Freaking Twain?

An accident with a bike and a car on a rice patty left me immobile for six weeks in 2006, and I decided that if I was finally going to write this original short story to sell – especially since I would need income, as the accident made it obvious that I would never be able to dance professionally, and probably would never be able to tread the boards in musicals – now was the perfect time. I was going to stop fighting my fannish training and write.

I cherry picked and combined my favorite aspects of Doctor Who, Stargate: Atlantis, Torchwood, The Farm Show/The Drawer Boy, and my own melancholy experiences with culture shock and liminal-living in a foreign culture, and wrote a novella titled (Back). It was a character study of a woman named Evvie who, through an accident of time travel, meets the future version of her infant daughter Gwen. And realizes she doesn’t like the woman her daughter will become. It was a story about accepting people for who they are, instead of who you wish they would be, and had a strong undercurrent of the turbulence I was going through in trying to figure out my own sexuality and that I wouldn't have the future in performance that I had been working toward since I was four.

Deciding that I would worry about where I would try to publish the story after it had been written, I sat down and wrote what ended up being (at least for me) a pretty standard-length fanfic: 18,762 words. It was only after I had finished the story that I looked up what category that put it in – Novella. Using paying  reputable markets, like Duotrope, the Writer’s Digest, MSFV, Absolute Write, SFWA, my local Writer’s Union, Writer Beware, I realized that I had shot myself in the foot.

It seems like nearly nobody publishes novellas anymore. SF/F and Literary Fiction seem to be the last two bastions of the novella, and the competition to get one published is fierce.  The markets that accepted SF/F novellas was vanishingly thin I had to do a lot of Googling and digging to figure out who I could submit to with an unagented/unsolicited SF/F novella. If I recall correctly, it was only about ten publications. I built an excel database and filled it with all the info I found.

I put together a query letter and sent it off using my database to guide me. Most of the rejections were kind, and said that the story was good, just too long/too short/ too sci-fi-y/not sci-fi-y enough. Only one market offered on it – for $10 USD. Beggers couldn’t be choosers, even if I had hoped to make a little more than ten bucks, and I accepted.

It was a paid professional publication, and that’s what mattered to me. I had the first entry on my bibliography, and something to point to in my query letters to prove that I was a worthy investment for a publisher/agent.

And energized by this, and now aware that length really does matter, even in online-only publications, I started writing other shorts to pad out my bibliography more.

I tried to tailor these ones to what my research told me the "mainstream industry" and "mainstream audiences" wanted, and those stories? Those were shot down one after the other. I was still writing fanfiction at the time, too, and those stories were doing well, getting lots of positive feedback, so why weren’t my stories?

In 2007 I returned to Canada and Academia, frustrated by my lack of sales, desperate to kick off my publishing career, and feeling a creative void left by having to depart theatre because of my new difficulties walking. I wrote my MA, and decided that if (Back) was the only original story that people liked, then I’d try to expand it into a novel.

Over the course of two years I did my coursework, and  read everything there was to read about how to get a book deal, started hanging out in writer’s/author’s groups in Toronto and met some great people who were willing to guide me, and expanded (Back) into the novel Triptych. I kept reminding myself what Mark Twain said – character was my strength, the ability to make the kind of people that other writers wanted to write stories about, a skill I’d honed while writing fanfic. Because that's what we do, isn't it? Sure, we write fix-its and AUs and fusions and finish cancelled shows, and fill in missing scenes, but what we're all really doing is playing with characters, isn't it? Characters draw us to fanfic, and characters keep us there. Characters is what we specialize in.

Fanfic had taught me to work with a beta reader, so I started asking my fic betas if they'd like a go at my original novel. Fellow fanfic writers, can I just say how valuable editors and beta readers in the community are? These are people who do something that I've paid a professional editor thousands of dollars to do for free out of sheer love. Treasure your beta readers, folks. Really.

“It reminds me a lot of fan fiction,” one reader said. “The intense attention to character and their inner life, and the way that the worldbuilding isn’t dumped but sprinkled in an instance at a time, like, you know, a really good AU. I love it.”

Dear Lord. I couldn’t have written a better recommendation or a more flattering description if I’d tried. Mark Twain was right, it seems. And fanfic was the training ground, for me – my apprenticeship in storytelling.

Of course... what Mr. Twain hadn't explained is that character-study novels just don't sell in SF/F. They say Harry Potter was rejected twelve times? HA. I shopped Triptych to both agents and small presses who didn't require you to have an agent to publish with them, and I got 64 rejections. Take that, J.K.

At first the rejection letters were forms and photocopied "no thanks" slips. But every time I got feedback from a publisher or agent, I took it to heart, adjusted the manuscript, edited, tweaked, tweaked, tweaked. Eventually, the rejections started to get more personal. "I loved this character, but I don't know how to sell this book." And "I really enjoyed the read, but it doesn't really fit the rest of our catalogue." And "What if you rewrote the novel to be about the action event that happens before the book even starts, instead of focusing solely on the emotional aftermath?"

In other words - "Stop writing fanfiction." There seemed to be a huge disconnect between what the readership wanted and what the publishing world thought they wanted.

Disheartened, frustrated, and wondering if I was going to have to give up on my dreams of being a professional creative, I attended Ad Astra, a convention in Toronto, in 2009. At a room party, complaining to my author friends that "nobody wanted my gay alien threesome book!" a woman I didn't know asked me about the novel. We chatted, and it turned out she was the acquisitions editor for Dragon Moon Press, and incidentally, also a fan of fan fiction.

I sent her Triptych. She rejected it. I asked why. She gave me a laundry list of reasons. I said, "If I can address these issues and rewrite it, would you be willing to look at it again?" She said yes. She was certain, however, that I wouldn't be able to fix it. I spent the summer rewriting - while making sure to stay true to my original tone of the novel, and writing a character-study fanfiction. I sent it in the fall. I do believe it was Christmas eve when I received the offer of publication.

From there, my little fic-inspired novel was nominated for two Lambda Literary Awards and a CBC Bookie, was named one of the best books of 2011 by the Advocate, and garnered a starred review and a place on the Best Books Of The Year at Publishers Weekly.

The award nominations led me to an agent, and further contracts, and even conversations with studio execs. It also made me the target of Requires Only That You Hate, and other cranky, horrible reviewers. But you know what? I've had worse on a forum, and on ff.n, and LJ. It sucked, and it hurt, but if there's one thing fandom has taught me, it's that not everyone is going to love what you do, and not everyone interprets things the same way you do. The only thing we can do is learn from the critique if it's valid and thoughtful, and ignore the screaming hate and bullying. Then you pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and go write something else.

 Because a screaming hater? Is not going to ruin my love of storytelling.

But for all that... the day someone made me fan art based on Triptych is one etched in my memory. It means far more to me than any of the emails I ever received inquiring about representation or film rights, or wanting meetings to discuss series.

The lesson I learned from publishing Triptych  - now sadly out of print, but we're looking for a new home for it - is that if I chase what the "mainstream" and the "industry" want, I'll never write anything that sells because my heart won't be in it. I have to keep writing like a fanficcer, even if I'm not writing fanfic, if I want to create something that resonates with people. And if it takes time for the publishers and acquiring editors to figure out what I'm doing, and how to sell it, then fine - I have an agent on my side now, and a small growing number of supporters, readers, and editors who love what I do.

Do I still write fanfic? Very, very rarely. I’ve had some pretty demanding contracts and deadlines in the last two years, so I’ve had to pare down my writing to only what’s needed to fulfill my obligations. Doesn’t mean I don’t have ideas for fics constantly.

Sometimes the urge is powerful enough that I do give into it – I wrote To A Stranger, based on Mad Lori’s Performance in a Leading Role Sherlock AU recently, when I should have been writing the second and third novels of The Accidental Turn Series. And even more recently, I cleaned up To A Stranger  into something resembling a real screenplay and started shopping it around to film festivals and producers because I love this story, I love what I did with it, and I’m proud of the work. If To A Stranger is only ever a fanfic, that’s fine with me. I poured my heart into it and am so proud of it. But I figure that if there’s one more project I could possibly get into the real world, then why not go for it?

The worst thing the festival heads and producers can say about the work is: “No, thank you.” And being an online writer has taught me not to take the “no, thank you”s personally. Applying the values of Don’t Like Don’t Read or Not My Kink to your publication/agent search makes it much easier to handle the rejections – not every story is for every person.

Maybe once every producer in North America has rejected it, I might think about working with someone to adapt the screenplay into an illustrated comic fanbook? Who knows?

That’s the joy of starting out as a writer in fandom – felixibility, adaptability, creative problem-solving and cross-platform storytelling comes as naturally as breathing to us fan writers. It’s what we do.

You may not think that this is a strength, but trust me, it is. I was never so shocked at an author’s meetup as when I suggested to someone that their “writer’s block” sounded to me like they were telling the story in the wrong format. “I think this is a comic, not a novel,” I’d said. “It sounds so visual. That's why the story is resisting you.” And they stared at me like I suddenly had an extra head and said, “But I’m a novelist.” I said, “No, you’re a writer. Try it.” They never did, as far as I know, and they never finished that book, either.

As fans, our strength isn't just in what we write, or how we come to our stories. It’s also about the physical practice of writing, too. We’re a group of people who have learned to carry notebooks, squeeze in a few hundred words between classes, or when the baby is napping, or during our lunch breaks, or on commute home. This is our hobby, we fit it in around our lives and jobs, and that has taught us the importance of just making time.

We are, on average, more dedicated and constant writers than some of the “novelists” that I’ve met: the folks who wait for inspiration to strike, who quit their day jobs in pursuit of some lofty ideal of having an office and drinking whiskey and walking the quay and waiting for madam muse to grace them, who throw themselves at MFAs and writing retreats, as if it's the attendance that makes them writers and not the work of it.

We fans are career writers. We don’t wait for inspiration to come to us, we chase it down with a butterfly net. We write when and where we can. More than that, we finish things. (Or we have the good sense to know when to abandon something that isn’t working.) We write to deadlines. Self-imposed ones, even.

We write 5k on a weekend for fun, and think NaNoWriMo’s 50k goal and 1667 words per day are a walk in the park. (When I know it terrifies some of the best-selling published authors I hang out with.) Or if we fans don’t write fast, then we know that slow and steady works too, and we’re willing to stick it out until our story is finished, even if it takes years of weekly updates to do so. We have patience, and perseverance, and passion.

This is what being a fanfiction writer has given me. Not only a career as a writer, but tools and a skill-set to write work that other people think is work awarding, adapting, and promoting. And the courage to stick to my guns when it comes to telling the kinds of stories that I want to tell.

This is what being a fanfiction writer gives us.

Aren’t we lucky, fellow fans? Hasn’t our training been spectacular?

*

J.M. (@scifrey) is a SF/F author, and professional smartypants on AMI Audio’s Live From Studio 5. She’s appeared in podcasts, documentaries, and on television to discuss all things geeky through the lens of academia. Her debut novel TRIPTYCH was nominated for two Lambda Literary Awards,  nominated for a 2011 CBC Bookie, was named one of The Advocate’s Best Overlooked Books of 2011, and garnered both a starred review and a place among the Best Books of 2011 from Publishers Weekly. Her sophomore novel, an epic-length feminist meta-fantasy THE UNTOLD TALE (Accidental Turn Series #1), debuted to acclaim in 2015 and was followed by THE FORGOTTEN TALE (Accidental Turn Series #2) this past December. FF.N | LJ |AO3| Books | Tumblr

[amazonauthorinsights-live]

Making a (modest) living as a writer

By Elizabeth S. Craig

"I make a good deal more from my self-published books."

I used to feel like the sole, income-focused writer in any group I was in. I was the one on any panel hesitantly bringing up ways that writers could make money with their writing.

I’ve noticed now that there are more writers like me out there and I’m more relaxed about being a commercial fiction writer.

I’ve been asked by parents, college students, and high school students about what degree is needed for becoming a writer.

But that’s one of the wonderful things about being a writer. You don’t have to have a degree in anything.  I was an English major, but that’s as far as I went with it.  When asked for my advice, I ask what type of writing they’re wanting to do and what their end-goal/their child’s end-goal is.  If the goal is “a career in writing,” then I’ll go as far as to suggest that they don’t go the MFA (Master in Fine Arts) route. They should instead read as much and as widely as they can and start writing.

One common complaint about MFA programs is that writers aren’t trained in the business of writing or on writing for a market (as explained by writer Yi Shun Lai in “We Need to Talk About Money: Practicality’s Place in a Writing Education“.)

Writers at the start of their careers should ask themselves: am I writing to please myself or am I writing to appeal to a broader market? My kids are older and if I didn’t make a living at this, I’d be getting a day-job.  Writing is my full-time job.  I’m not making a ton, but I’m making more than if I taught school and more than I’d make at any other job; I’ve been out of the traditional workforce since my first child was born in 1997.

I do have 22 books on the market.  This obviously helps.

Tips for making a (modest) living writing

It’s better, in the current environment, to self-pub instead of trad-pub (most of the time).  I experienced first-hand cutbacks that publishers are employing to save costs.  When I started out, 3-book deals were the norm at Penguin.  That unfortunately changed.  The merger between Penguin and Random House meant a layoff for my editor. Now there are many stories about how difficult it is getting to break into the industry and the market. It’s obviously still possible to do so…but at what cost?  I made and make a good deal more from my self-published books than my traditionally published books.

Write for the market–modified. I got lucky in this sense because cozy mysteries became popular with the public around the time that I became interested in writing them.  I love cozy mysteries and I love the books that I write.  What’s selling well in a genre that you enjoy reading?  I can’t recommend that you write in a genre you’re not very familiar with or that you wouldn’t enjoy writing. There are standards/norms/tropes in genres that readers expect and are looking for.  They provide a blueprint for your book and for a better chance at success.  Writers should read as much as possible in their chosen genre and absorb as much as they can to learn about pacing, character development, action, dialogue, and story arc.

Write series.  Series are currently more popular with readers.  I’m wondering if it’s because readers, once they’ve spent the time investing in the story world and characters, want to read more in that same story world.  Lucky for us–because series are easier and quicker to write for the same reasons: the story world is established, as well as the story’s recurring characters (descriptions, traits).  Most of the work is already done.

Write more than one book a year, if possible. Work smarter, not harder when it comes to the writing process.  If you’re not an outliner, see if you can at least come up with one sentence at the end of your writing day to give you a plan for the next morning.  What, basically, do you want to accomplish in the next session?  One sentence can give you much-needed focus the following day and help you write faster.

Again, work smarter, not harder when it comes to marketing.  Instead of knocking yourself out with marketing, focus instead on increasing visibility through tweaks of keywords and other metadata. Include links to your other books in your back matter.  Have a newsletter signup link in your email tagline, your website sidebar, and in the backs of your books (MailChimp is free for up to 2,000 subscribers). Whenever you have a new release, send out a newsletter to inform your readers.

Make sure your books are available to people in a variety of formats including online retailers, audio, and print (CreateSpace and Ingram - for international audiences and bookstores).

Consider other ways to generate income from your writing.  Create a Patreon page for tips from readers (read this excellent article from author John G. Hartness).  Consider public speaking and publish a page on your website indicating that you do speak to groups (for a fee). Author Joanna Penn outlines other ideas for multiple income streams in her post “Write Books You Love. Think Global. Consider Multiple Streams of Income.”

This approach isn’t for every writer and shouldn’t be for every writer. Some writers write purely for the love of writing and write to please themselves and those closest to them. Some write only for the love of producing art.  Sometimes those writers still have an amazing career that supports them financially.

This post originally appeared on ElizabethSpannCraig.com

Elizabeth S. Craig

Elizabeth is the best-selling author of the Southern Quilting and Memphis Barbeque mysteries. She blogs at elizabethspanncraig.com/blog and can be found on Twitter at @elizabethscraig.

[kookie-vith-suga]

Adventure trip

Summary: Spending your free time in the woods wasn’t really how you have planned your holidays. But since you were a good friend you agreed. Maybe it wouldn’t be that bad…

Word count: 1624

Warnings: A little hint of smut ;) Don’t know if I’m good at this…

Author’s note: I tried something  new and kinda recycled one of my old stories I hadn’t published. I hope you like it and please sent me some feedback ♥♥♥

Check out my masterlist ;)

Most recent release: Forever

“I signed us up for this adventure program”, Yuri told me overly excited.

“You did what?!”, I questioned.

“2 weeks surrounded by nature. Doesn’t that sound awesome?”, she emphazised.

“No! How come you thought I would like that?”, I scolded her.

“Because you said you wanted to try something new these holidays”, she gave me a knowing look.

“Yeah I meant something like another hotel then usual and not to be abandoned in the wild”, I grunted.

“You must be kidding, Y/N! The program has some considerable advantages. You can do really cool stuff like canoeing and hiking”, her eyes sparkled.

“Did you just use the words “cool” and “hiking” in one sentence?”, I snorted.

“Come on, Y/N! Don’t be so negative all the time!”,she nudged me with her elbow.

“I’m gonna be as grumpy as I want considering you just wasted my money on this nonsense holiday package!”, I huffed.

“Oh that is another advantage! It costs less than a third from what you would spent for your lazy sea trips!”, she annouced. “And Hobi signed up too”, she mumbled quietly.

Maybe she hoped I wouldn’t hear that but I did.

“You hypocrite! Talking about all this bullshit like you are actually interested in it but in the end you only did it to finally seduce Hobi!”, I accused her.

“That is not true!”,she protested, “Well not totally! I always wanted to do something like this since I never went camping with my parents.”

“There is really nothing good about sleeping in the dirt and eating canned food”, I argued.

“I don’t care. it is booked already and non-refundable”, she grinned.

“You little bitch!”, I sighed resigning.

“Okay since you are right that I kinda followed my on intentions let’s make a deal. If we come back and you hated the trip I’m paying it for you but when you liked it you’ll pay yours.” She stretched her hand out for a handshake.

“Easy”, I commented and took her hand to seal our deal. I will hate it anyway.

Our trip was set for tomorrow. What Yuri didn’t knew that for this evening I was invited to a friend’s birthday. I had accepted the invitation long before even knew we would go on this trip. I even already bought a present.

“Shit what should I do now?”, I cursed out.

“Just go! You can stay for two hours and come back then”, Yuri advised me.

“You are right. I don’t need to drink. I will manage it one time without drinking”, I annouced confidently.

I had really intented to stick to my resolution when I entered Mika’s house. They played a mix of dancehall and hip hop. So my feet were already itching to dance. But first I wanted to greet Mika. I took me a bit till I spotted her in a pile of people.

“Mika! Happy birthday!”, I hugged her.

“Thank you Y/N.” I could smell the alcohol.

“The party is pretty booming.”

“Yeah I know”, she giggled.

I handed her my present which was a selfmade photobook.

“Oh my god thank you”; she pressed me against her chest.

“No problem.” I smiled.

“I got something for you too”, she stated and looked at me daring.

I raised an eyebrow. She reached behind the bar and pulled out a bottle of my favourite whiskey.

“I know how much you like it!” she grinned and fetched two glasses and filled them.

“Wait..wati Mika! Actually I didn’t wanted to drink today”, I explained.

“Whaat?! Why?!”, she whined. 

“You know I’m going on a trip tomorrow morning so I should be fit.”

“But you can take one drink!” She tossed me the glass. I stared at the glass and inhaled the sweet scent of it.

“I really shouldn’t…”, I began but she interrupted me: “Bullshit! You’ll drink that! To me!” She let her glass cling against mine and then lifted it to her mouth. Second later she put it back down. It was empty. I looked to the glass and then to hers. Then I took mine and took a small sip. What can one glass possibly do right?!

Immediately she started to cheer and refilled hers.

As the evning went by I was still clinging to my one glass. I was enjoying the evening but seeing everyone drink around you made me question if I could not drink a little more.

“Y/N come over here”, someone called me.

I searched for the source of the voice till I saw Mika on the couch waving like crazy. I approached her.

“Play with us!” She pulled me down next to her.

“Hmm.. I don’t know.”

“Come on! You are the master in this game”, she praised me.

I did felt a little flattered because I really were good at this game.

“Okay but only one round.”

Out of one round became two and so on. After ten rounds I was defeated. Totally drunk.

“Ah that was so funny”, I pressed a sloppy kiss to Mika’s cheek, “But I will go dancing now.”

I got up and stumbled towards the dance floor. It was totally dark there. Only a few flashlights flickering over the crowd. I had a hard time walking a straight line which caused me to bump into a lot of people. It is not like I would care anymore at this state. I found myself a good spot and began to sway my hips to the beat of the music. It didn’t took long since I found some people to dance with. We had formed a circle. I felt the music vibriting in my whole body. Just when I completed some very sinful body rolls I felt two hands grabbing my waist.

“Hey baby”, a deep voice growled into my ear, “I like the way you move. It is so hot.”

A smile flashed over my face. I would love to play a bit. I bended forward and pressed my ass into the  oboy’s crotch. As I stood straight again I earned a rough groan and felt him pulling me closer.

“Just like that. You are so sexy.”

My arm reached behind me and grabbed his neck. He knew instantly what I wanted. His lips ghosted over my neck to my shoulder. I pulled him a little closer to hint him I wanted more. On his way back from my shoulder to my neck he let his teeth sink down into my skin. I shivered from the sensation. His hot breath was back on my earlobe.

“I would love to take you with me”, he purred.

I giggled like a small girl. “I can’t.” And with that I freed myself from his touch and turned around. I couldn’t see his face. Only figure out his silhouette.

“I gotta go. But it was funny.” I wandered away. Every game has to end eventually.

It was 6:30 in the morning and I could barely manage to keep my eyes open. My head was roaring. We waited for Hobi to pick us up. Since we booked the same trip we decided to share a car to save money.

“How do I look?”, Yuri asked  while walking up and down the pavement.

“For the dozenth time: You look great! But you do know that he will see you without make up anyway. So why making such a fuss about it?”, I tried to sound a little less annoyed then I actually was.

She looked at me like I were an alien. “Because first impression counts”, she said confidently and arched her back to set her boobs into focus.

I rolled my eyes. “For how long do you know each other now?”

“1 year and 2 months”, she answered clearly confused by my question. I guess she couldn’t connect my question to her previous statement.

“Forget it!”, I sighed.

She eyed me shortly. “Oh look they are coming!”, she screamed out and smoothed her clothes.

“Yippie”, I responded sarcastically.

The car stopped in front of us. The first one to exited the car was a tall black haired boy. After that Hobi. My eyes clinged to the stranger. He seems familiar.

“Good morning ladies”, Hobi greeted us.

“Hobi!” Yuri slung her arms around him. It was a little embarassing to see her throwing herself at him like this. He hugged her back with a smile on his face. Then he took a step back and pointed towards the boy.

“This is Jungkook. He is a good friend of mine”, he presented him.

Jungkook stretched his hand out to Yuri but she totally ignored it.

“I’m not the handshake person”, she told him while pulling him into a friendly hug. He hugged her back.

“I’m okay with that”, a deep voice ascended from his throat. My eyes widen.I  Oh no, I know that voice!

He came over to me and got ready to hug me too. He is that guy from yesterday! Shit, shit, shit! I panicked for a second before I grabbed his hand and shook it. He scanned me but didn’t said anything.

Unfortunately Yuri felt the need to comment it: “Well that was really weird, Y/N! Why are you like this?”

I shoot her a death glare while walking towards to the trunk. I placed my backpack in there and let myself fall on the backseat of the car. Eventually all of them entered the car.

“Okay, let’s go”, Hobi annouced happily. I took a glance at the stranger alias Jungkook.

I may as well except the worst.

Lol did you liked it? Do you want me to continue it? :D

The responses for my latest stories weren't that good so please give me some feedback so I can improve 😅 Otherwise stay tuned for more ;)

[naturalhairjunkies]

New Post has been published on http://www.naturalhairjunkies.com/moving-into-2018/

Moving into 2018

Moving into 2018; I am prepping myself for new adventures and new challenges. There are many changes I am striving for in 2018; and it starts now.

Moving into 2018

As time shifts forward, I have been taking time to reflect on my major pitfalls and accomplishments. I have realized a few things that I have learned this year, and in retrospect, These are the attitudes I want to take into the New Year, as well as a few goals I have set for myself. And for the first time in years, I’m looking forward to moving and shaking in 2018.

Walking in peace & positivity.

This year, I plan on walking in peace and positivity. Like most years, this was another rough year in the books; but I made it, Like a BAWSE!! And I can’t be anything less than proud. I have weathered many storms this year, while somehow finding ways to maintain a level head and some form of peace. Even though, there were times when I literally felt like I was losing it; I managed. And I made it.

My biggest goal for this year, is to create and maintain a higher level of peace and positivity. I’ve been pushed to my limits, but still, I’ve found ways to rise from the ashes like a phoenix. And this has been my greatest year to date, And it’s not because something magnificent happened, I just learned what I was capable of and everything I could achieve if I applied myself.

Making more time for me

I have a terrible habit of not making enough time for myself and definitely putting the needs and desires of others before my own. This year, I want to strive for more me time. I need to give myself the downtime I deserve to not have to focus on any responsibilities or any work.  Just take the time to give myself a chance to kick back and do the things that I love. That means more hiking, more meditating in the sun, and more time to do the things that I love. This year, I have to do better for myself, I deserve that.

The one thing that I did this year, in order to not make myself look or feel guilty, was mask my “me time” with Tyler Fun Day. Anyone that knows me, knows how much I enjoy Tyler Fun Day’s and that they’re even added to my planner so that I won’t forget. Genuinely, I love spending that one on one time with my baby, and doing all of the things that he enjoys (that I secretly enjoy, too). It’s just easier to not feel bad when I am giving him a day full of all of my love, attention and all of his favorite things.

Knocking these goals out, no problem

This year, I stepped in the ring, and knocked my goals out like Rocky. Honestly, I would have been proud of myself if I accomplished about half of my goals. But somehow, someway, I knocked every single thing off of my list before the end of the year. Which means, going into 2018, I already have a few goals lined up; that I WILL accomplish. My top 4 goals for 2018, include 1. Moving,  Graduating from undergrad in December 0f 2018; Getting accepting into my Master’s program for Clinical Psychology and finding a way better job.  I learned that by using my planner to keep track of every little thing I had to do, including staying on top of my school work, has helped. Keep a written list of my goals helped manifest them. And every few weeks I would add short term goals to the list as well, just to keep up with myself. In 2018, my intent is to keep making black girl magic, and to keep moving forward.  I am the only person in the world that could stop me, and why would I do such a thing?

No more time wasted

I will be choosing to not waste my valuable time in 2018; and it simply means the following. I have taken too much of my time into sleepless nights, overthinking, and trying to convince myself that some of the goals I have set were unachievable. I’ve wasted time, allowing others to make me feel less than or incapable. I’ve given more time and energy to things that were not beneficial to my life and decreasing the time for things that were. I am my own worst critic. I give myself a hard time, I sometimes tend to beat myself up for my shortcomings. Because I forget, and I think others also forget. that I am human too. I make mistakes. I have valid feelings. Even if the world doesn’t see it that way.

This year, I plan on meditating myself to sleep on those nights where I’m overthinking my entire life. I plan on stopping negative thoughts of myself before they have a chance to implant them selves into my memories as truths. I will be letting go of those that do not value me as a person or my feelings. I will be leaving behind those that do not respect or regard me. I would rather be left with nothing; than left with something that makes me feel worse than I deserve to feel. It is time to clean house. **Which I have already started over the last few weeks, blocking numbers and ending communications.

  There is no “new year, new me.”

“New Year, Who’s this?” I don’t believe in this. I don’t have any New Year’s resolutions, because those aren’t goals that last. They’re rarely ever accomplished and that’s a waste of time! Moving into this new year, think of it as a new chapter, where you are the writer and you create your own story. You decide what happens this year and what doesn’t. You have the power to create your own destiny, and make life whatever you desire it to be. Live for yourself. Create a life that you would be proud of. It doesn’t matter HOW your journey starts, it’s how you finish it. And when I tell YOU that you are more than capable. You are brilliant, you are worthy and valued. Stop convincing yourself that it’s “too late”; it’s never too late. Trust me, my plate is always full. I work full time, I go to school full time and I have a first grader; who’s school I volunteer at often. For 2017, I decided that just making it, wasn’t good enough for me. You, also, deserve better.

As this New Year comes in, I hope you set goals for yourself. Choose to be great this year, and be awesome. You deserve greatness, peace and happiness.

  Peace, love & Light,

Sierra Michelle