#I’m like 90 percent sure someone else has done this but here we go :3

[coinjarred]

[chalkrevelations]

Street Dance of China S3, Ep 3. It sounds like maybe I should step up my pace on these, as they’ve announced the captains for S4 now? (Yibo back, Lay Zhang back, plus a couple of new guys I don’t actually recognize yet.) When is this going to air because it is just LAUGHABLE that I can keep up with 3+ hours of this a week. Particularly if I’m going to keep obsessively re-watching Word of Honor AND try to finally finish Killer & Healer in the miniscule free time I actually have for teevee. There’s certainly no way I can watch and dither on about 3+ hours/week worth of dance show in realtime before January, at least.

ANYWAY, this ep, we get a recap of everyone falling out after the captains’ cypher, and we learn who got the final extra towels and passed through to the next round: Lu Jiao Ni, who we barely see, on Team Jackson Wang; Yuan Ye (as promised) and A Li (who we barely see) on Team Lay Zhang (ETA: Wait, we find out later that A Li isn’t even on Lay’s team, she’s on Yibo’s - he wouldn’t move her on, and she gets one of Lay’s towels instead); Bullet (as promised) on Team Wang Yibo; and Xiao Ming (as promised? maybe? as we’ve barely seen this guy?) on Team Wallace Chung.

This week: Out of 400 people, we’re down to 105. Not all of these faces are familiar, and I suspect I don’t really need to learn 90 percent of the unfamiliar faces. I … am going to go out on a limb and make a guess that one of the dancers whose name has been bolded in one of the past two episode recaps is going to be the ultimate winner, because I have umpty SYTYCD episode reactions on my LJ, and I suspect I know how this works. I wouldn’t even put money on any of those five bolded names in the previous paragraph, quite honestly. Anyway, now it’s time to start culling down to 60. We bring out the team captains, and my first reaction is “MY EYES” because wth are some of you wearing? Wow. Yibo’s shoelaces are all over his jacket. Wallace looks like he rolled a flasher on the street for his trenchcoat. Lay Zhang is wearing a baggy pink jumpsuit, and I guess, OK, it’s easier to maneuver bathroom breaks in one of those when you have a dick, but that’s definitely a fashion trend that should have stayed back in the ‘80s. I guess questionable fashion is an international phenomenon.

There’s also an empty chair for the promised Mystery Guest, and there’s a game with clues, and a lot of guesses from our captains about who the Mystery Guest will be, and Jackson does A Bit through the whole thing. I don’t know whether to be entertained or annoyed by him. He’s the only one without some egregiously questionable fashion choices (so far) this episode, so maybe he gets a pass. Anyway, I don’t have the pop cultural context to understand the guesses, and I also don’t have either the pop cultural context or the knowledge of this area of dance to grok the Mystery Guest’s identity, but he’s Huang Bo, and apparently he had more than 1000 dance performances in the 1990s, so he must be at least as old as me and Wallace, if not older. Yibo takes the opportunity to make the – very NON-politic – remark that maybe HE wasn’t even born yet at the time? That … is not the way to win friends and influence people, Infant. Also, the Mystery Guest is NOT the person Jackson kept doing A Bit about. The reveal is all very dramatic, and he does a lil’ bit of choreography from of each of the four Extant Captains’ videos before he takes off his mask, and they act appropriately impressed, and there are some girls with short shorts among his backup dancers, so that all happened. The show obviously wants me to be very impressed by him. Show also tells us he’ll have a special skill that will be very important and at least leads us to believe that he’s going to be the “life-saver,” so the audience immediately curries favor, or at least plays at it.

Next up: Rules. Eliminations this week involve contestants self-selecting into groups of anywhere from one to five people and performing for a panel of all the captains. Teams pull a number out of a hat for performance order. Thumbs up from all four captains, you go to the next round. Abstentions from all captains, you go home. Thumbs up from some and abstentions from others, you face the possibility of a call-out from other contestants, whereupon you have to dance for your life battle to find out which of you stays and which of you goes. Oh, and we’re only going to keep going until the 60 available seats are filled, and then we’re done. If you’re number 35, you’d better be prepared to battle someone earlier and kick their ass, or you’re fucked, you don’t even get to dance. I’ve said it before: Audentes Fortuna adiuvat. Only wait, ETA: There will be some last minute BS rules fuckery, in a way that is clearly intended to save someone in particular, which I feel some kind of way about - and it is not really the way that almost everyone on the show seems to feel - but I guess we’ll get to that later.

And cue ridiculously long nattering, so we’re going to cut here.

First group is Lin Meng (Team Wallace), Teng Zai (Team Lay), Bing - of the infamous motorbike flirtation - and Dian Men (both Team Yibo), along with a dude we haven’t actually seen yet, Tang Qian (also Team Yibo). Your lack of even B-roll so far is concerning re: your chances in this competition, Tang Qian. I’m just sayin’. Anyway, this is a powerhouse group, and at least Lin Meng and Teng Zai are familiar with each other because they’re from the same crew, and Xiao Bao remarks from the audience of contestants that these guys are going to go through, no matter what. They’re going to do a totally popping routine. My sound drops out at the beginning which … yeah, makes them look even more like a boyband at the beginning, in their matching baseball uniform shirts. So, here’s the thing, they’re a little muddled, they don’t move smoothly around each other on stage - their dance moves are coordinated, but they’re not moving in space like a group that understands each other. (Somewhere in here, my sound comes back, and Yibo already can’t hold still to the music.) The other thing is, though - all of these guys are very good at what they do, they finally hit their stride a minute or so in, and when they do, they hit it hard. I’m frankly surprised they don’t get passed right through to the next round, but Jackson abstains on the vote, and when called upon to explain himself, it turns out he just wants to see them battle. I can understand the impulse, Jackson, but this is already super stressful on all the dancers, and it doesn’t escape my notice that you’re the only one of the four captains without a dog in this particular fight, so a little bit you look like you’re doing this just because you can. Remember this, because it will set a bad example for an 11th -hour vote. Anyway, there’s the chance for a callout, which no one takes because the entire audience is convinced this group is too good to beat. Five of 60 seats taken.

Group two is Shen Kai Xiang – the Jack Ma lookin’ dude. He’s flying solo. He gets to stand around uncomfortably for a while onstage while Special Guest Huang Bo does A Bit making fun of all of the captains’ speech patterns and accents and pronunciation, except Yibo’s, because Yibo apparently never talks. Ha ha. (I’m also wondering if there’s some socio-cultural stuff underlying some of this that I’m not cued in enough to fully understand.) Huang Bo then tells the contestant that Jackson has probably fucked him over by praising him too effusively (he came from Jackson’s team, and Jackson already is displaying a tendency to rhapsodize about how everything is “ART”), so all the captains now will have inflated expectations that Shen Kai Xiang is surely only going to fail to meet. I’m beginning to suspect that Huang Bo’s Special Guest Superpower is not “lifesaver” but “kind of annoying asshole.” Maybe it’s to take that particular spotlight off of Chick. ANYWAY, Shen Kai Xiang FINALLY gets to perform, and he gets a little bit of a slow start, but he packs in a lot of elements and gets a LOT of good air in his moves once he gets wound up. He’s lyrical and super emo about it. I’m kind of “eh” on him – technically, he’s good, but I’m not particularly connecting with him, which I’m willing to admit could be a me thing, as everyone else seems super-impressed. Three captains pass him through. Yibo does not and explains this decision as personal preference – he likes more “underground” styles, more battle styles. Huang Bo brings back the issue of too-high expectations to help explain why Shen Kai Xiang isn’t being passed directly to the next round, even though Yibo just explained his decision and that is literally not the reason he explicitly gave. Anyway, Shen Kai Xiang gets no call outs, which seems to surprise Yibo, and we’re at six of 60 seats taken.

In quick succession, we move through Liang Hua Jie – we don’t see much of him, but we learn that while Wallace likes his musicality, Yibo doesn’t like his face (OK, doesn’t like his facial expressions, which, what can I say? I get this. If I’d had the power to unilaterally send home Lacey Schwimmer on her season of SYTYCD, I’d have done it, that’s how fucking annoying I found the way she’d mug for the camera the entire time she danced. Like I couldn’t even watch her dancing, because I was too distracted by what she was doing with her FACE the whole time.); Jian De Chao (wait, is this Chao from the first episode?) & Chen Zui – who, from what we get to see of them have some good flow and move pretty well together, but can get a little bit mushy in their moves, and Yibo likes their skills, but Lay thinks they don’t feel like a group, which what? Incorrect; and a group that’s dubbed themselves Purple Storm Show, which includes Alex from Jackson’s team and four other people who I can’t even catch – we barely see their performance, and Lay likes them, but Jackson thinks they’re flat. I can’t tell if any or all of these guys were sent through to the next round or sent home, but if they didn’t make it, then  :(  because I liked Alex, and he got hit in the eye for this, he deserves better than to get sent home because his team can’t get it together. We still have no group that’s been passed through by all four captains.

And then, next up is another powerhouse team: Gongsu Wu Ming and Hei Zai (Team Lay), George and Xiao Ming (Team Wallace), and (Xiao) Bai (Team Jackson). Yibo is skeptical about an all B-boy group, and don’t make me fight you, Yibo, because an all B-boy group is like my dream come true (sorry, poppers; sorry, lockers; my heart truly belongs to the B-boys, they are my favorite). We learn they added a flip at the last minute – an assisted flip, with a couple of them flinging George into the air over the other two of them. Wu Ming thinks that George is the only one of all the competitors who could do it, but George – who has a little more skin in the game than anyone else, as the guy who could potentially land on his head wrong - is a bit concerned about whether they’re going to pull it off. They start, and they’re all good, a little bit muddled before they hit their stride, but the slo-mo cartwheel is great, and from there, they’re off and running. This is why I like the B-boys – I know it takes a lot out of you to do this, but there is nothing – nothing­ – like the magnetic energy they can generate when they’re in their performance headspace and everything is flowing. This is a performance, and Wu Ming has talked a little bit about wanting to step up breaking, and if this is the sort of thing he wants to do, I’m all for it – give him the platform now. I’m going to take just a minute to single out Bai and say that he’s better when he’s not doing A Bit like he did in his initial performance for Lay Zhang – he’s much more electric here, and someone else’s choreography may make the difference. Jackson, Yibo, Lay – they’re all out of their seats, none of them can hold still in the face of this. We get to the end, and unfortunately, everyone else is kind of cluttered and mushy moving into position for the flip – that is not a way to go out guys, DO NOT DO THAT at the last minute – but then George f’kn NAILS the flip, so that’s thankfully the last impression they leave. The captain’s faces are a picture. (Except Wallace, who’s suddenly too cool to give us anything, apparently.) FIRST ALL-PASS. George’s assessment: “Not bad.” :facepalm: OK, Mr. Cool Guy. They also cut in a post-interview bit with Bai about the performance, and he notes that they all know each other, they’ve been battling each other for like, a decade, now. Dance together more, guys.

Moving on, we fortunately have another very strong group to follow them: Gai Gai, Wang Tao and Huang Xiao, all from Jackson’s team, and you can tell he badly, badly wants to start in on the ART! bit but he (loudly) keeps his mouth shut about this group until after the performance. The only one of these three we’ve seen so far this season has been Gai Gai, but they all dance in the same group together, and they seem to be well-known by a lot of the other competitors, particularly Huang Xiao, both as a dancer and a choreographer. They say they’re doing jazz, although I’d be more likely to call this contemporary, if I was going to put them in a box. They are gorgeous – lyrical, fantastic dance vocabulary, amazing choreography, beautiful musicality, and the way they move together as a unit is … :chef’s kiss:  I think Huang Xiao may be the best of the three, technically, but there’s something ineffably charismatic about Gai Gai that’s pulling focus a bit – just a bit – more than the other two in this performance. If there’s a weak link, it’s Wang Tao, and really, that’s only by comparison with the other two, which is a really high bar. We get some shots of the audience of competitors worrying about Yibo’s reaction, given his preference for the old-school battle dancers and an apparent “strictness” with urban dancers and related genres, but these three also get an All-Pass to the next round, and Yibo talks to them a little bit about the choreography and his (complimentary) reactions to the performance before they leave the stage.

And then. Oh, dear. Then we get a group of three – Da Mao, A Li and Tall(? Maybe? It looked like he was going to get out of this anonymously – probably lucky for him – but then the subtitles threw up this name on him at the last minute) – who are the only krumpers who’ve made it this far. Lay Zhang is really promoting them, because he really wants to see a bigger krump presence, and he’s really nervous about their performance, and he really, really should not have pinned his hopes on these three, because I hate to say it but they are a hot fk’n mess. They are … not good. I can’t believe any of the three made it this far, and in fact, we learn after their performance, while everyone is sitting in a kind of stunned horror (and y’all, I am not exaggerating for effect there), that Yibo did not pass A Li on from his team, that she got one of Lay Zhang’s final extra battle towels. I mean, there’s an obvious gap in the quality of this performance compared to everyone else we’ve seen. There’s also a lot of pacing around and standing around instead of dancing. They’re trying for the attitude, but they’re not managing it. They do manage to get an embarrassed reaction from Chick, which says something all on its own, as I wasn’t aware that he had any shame. Other competitors also are doing the embarrassment-squick cringe in the audience. Lay Zhang is literally hiding behind his clipboard. This is the first All-Out we get, where they’re directly eliminated – not even Lay can bring himself to vote “yes” on them. Now, all the krumpers are gone, and Lay is visibly sad and frustrated, but as we appear to move to a little bit of a break, Yibo displays the most emotional intelligence of anyone there and asks Lay to teach him how to krump, to distract him and get him actually doing the dancing he enjoys for a little bit. It’s also a chance for Yibo to learn a new thing, and he talks about his chance to improve in a little interview bit from later on that’s cut in here. I mean, yes, that actually was kind of a sad attempt at krump during the cypher, my dude, so this can only help you, but you also are being an extremely good guy, giving your fellow captain some emotional support right now. Thumbs up.

Next up, we have AK Dong (Team Wallace), also flying solo, and they give us a little heart-tugging B-roll about how he doesn’t have a team with him there, so he’s going it alone. He’s fantastic right out of the gate - good musicality, clean and precise, and he’s got a nice texture to his performance, it feels … full even though it doesn’t feel as big and expansive as some of the other dancers. Unfortunately, Lay doesn’t agree with me (incorrect), says he wants a performance that’s more elegant and “balanced,” and is the single holdout vote, which opens my dude up to a call-out challenge. This is the guy who looks like comedian Hank Chen, which has overshadowed his dancing twice now, because he had to listen to it from Haung Bo when he came out to dance, and he CANNOT catch a break, because now he gets challenged by three teams, including Bouboo’s team, which also includes Klash, Bullet and Colin (all Team Yibo), plus Boris (Team Lay), who we’ve only seen B-roll of so far although he speaks good Chinese, despite being from … I’m not sure where, but not China? AK Dong complains about how Boris looks at him with innocent eyes and tells him that they have no option other than to challenge, which is true (ETA: insofar as we know at this point), because they’re #36, and the 60 slots would almost certainly fill up before they even get a chance to dance. This team wins the bottle spin against the other two challengers, and I mean. :hands: This is a slaughter. They’re five-on-one, and they’re all really good at what they do, they make it look effortless, and AK Dong’s face is going to kill me. Wallace actually does vote for him, but the other three vote for the team, and that’s five more seats filled, and AK Dong eliminated, and I’m annoyed (although not as much as I’m gonna be) because I liked him, and I would have liked for him to get a chance to dance without having to listen to the Hank Chen nonsense at least once.

Next, we have Li Yue & Sha Sha, who appear to dance together on the regular. They have a kind of sultry number put together as the Green Snake and the White Snake that is … hm. I don’t know if we’re classifying this as urban or jazz for the purposes of the show, but it’s another piece that fits more into my contemporary box, if we were classifying them for most of the Western dance spaces I’ve seen. They’re good, as befits this stage of the competition, but a little inconsistent, technically. Also, I don’t find them particularly exciting to watch – I feel like something’s missing, although I can’t quite put my finger on what. I’m not sure their flow is consistent, and they’re probably not helped by following Gai Gai, Huang Xiao and Wang Tao. They get three yes votes from Lay, Yibo and Jackson, although they are … enough to maybe make Yibo a slight bit uncomfortable, being the shy and fragile homosocial forest creature that he may be, or that he may be getting edited as, who knows. Huang Bo pokes at Lay Zhang about his reaction to and vote for them. He also basically says that Wallace didn’t vote for them because Wallace wasn’t turned on by them, because Wallace is still doing his imperturbable cool-as-a-cucumber routine. Wallace’s hold-out vote opens them up to a call-out, and several groups come down to challenge, including – bad luck for Li Yue and Sha Sha – TI, who win the bottle spin. This group includes choreographer Zheng Jian Peng, as well as Su Lianya, who I didn’t realize was a TI member, both Team Wallace, along with … oh my god, Wei Ming, who’s the “Sir, what are you doing?” guy from Episode 2 when Wallace was giving out towels to poppers like candy, and I’m kind of pleased he’s made it this far, just based on that moment, alone, never mind any dancing skills. Rounding out the group are Long Long and Wei Lin, both from Team Yibo, and I think we got B-roll of Wei Lin at some point during Yibo’s eliminations in the first couple of eps. I know nothing about Long Long at this point. At any rate, everybody in this group is so good, I can finally see how they got their rep – fantastic musicality, and a great job of working as a unit. They feel like a team, even when they don’t manage to be quiiiiite synchronized. I’m not really feeling their costumes. Su Lianya continues to be a standout, even in a group that sets the bar this high. Wallace’s composure finally breaks when the other team captains evince interest in poaching her, and oh my god, he still has the hair elastic that he held for her at her initial performance, that they said would be a token of their vow to go all the way in the competition together. OK, I give Wallace a lot of shit, but this is actually kind of adorable. He literally pulls it out of his pocket to tell the other captains they can’t have her and to plead with her to remember their promise to each other. TI gets three votes and moves on. (Lay, still apparently captivated by the snake ladies although not enough to bald-facedly vote for them in the wake of TI’s performance, abstains.)

Next up are Tao and CiCi, and OK. I’m going to be honest here. I think they’re leveraging the “couple” schtick for all it’s worth, and good for them, it looks like they can pull it off, because I think some of the amazed reaction we get from the captains and from the audience is influenced a lot by their coupleness, but at the same time, I think some of the amazed reaction we get from the captains and from the audience is actually influenced by their coupleness rather than their dancing. I mean, Su Lianya and Wei Lin are in the audience of competitors clutching each other’s hands and crying, and it seems to be just as much about Tao telling CiCi out loud that he loves her just before the music starts and the fact that they kiss as part of the piece, if not more than it’s about their actual dancing. The show is also really pushing me on this, because whereas, with everyone else, it tosses up closed captions that tell me what moves are happening (in addition to dialogue subs), now I’m getting things like “heaven-made match.” They’re good, but I think they actually also suffer a bit from following the Gai Gai/Huang Xiao/Wang Tao powerhouse, because I think we’re unlikely to get anything on the lyrical side of things that’s going to match up to that for the rest of the day. Tao and CiCi are better than Li Yue and Sha Sha were, and it is pretty badass the way she manages to make herself so small and compact she literally disappears behind him for that last little bit, and if they’d won the bottle spin on the last callout, they would have won the challenge, I have no doubt. But. :hands: I think the show has actually done that thing Huang Bo accused Jackson of earlier and set my expectations too high. I’m’a sound like Yibo – or like Yibo normally would, because he also seems to get suckered into the overwhelmed reaction for this – and say that I think Tao was better in the less lyrical style when he danced with Yibo and Bing in the Ep 2 towel battle. They get an All-Pass from the captains and talk about their inspiration for the piece, which apparently is a couple who confessed their love to each other the day before the girl had to go into COVID quarantine, and well, now I guess I feel like just a little bit of an asshole for not appreciating the COVID love story properly? Anyway, the captains then keep asking them intrusive questions about their relationship, and Huang Bo mocks Lay for apparently never being in love so he won’t understand what it’s like, and I’m cringing in my seat a little before Jackson gets us back on track and Tao and CiCi finally go sit down.

Then Huang Bo takes the chance to go over to the contestants who haven’t performed yet and stress them out about how few of the 60 available seats are left. I mean, I guess it’s part of competition, but come on, dude.

ANYWAY, next up, we have a group calling themselves Team Wake Up – it’s the waackers, and this group includes Xiao Bao and San Jin from Team Lay, along with a guy we haven’t seen yet, Tu Zi; Meng Di from Team Yibo; and Gao Shi Yu, who we also haven’t seen, from Team Wallace. They start working it, and I’m like, oh wait … and then they hit the Cat Walk, and I’m like, oh shit, and a light bulb finally goes off, because I’ve been super-fk’n slow, but now they’ve shown me what this genre is about, and I’m interested to see what they do here, because a lot of this performance could be straight off the floors of the ball scene. The entire group is pretty good, although I do think Gao Shi Yu is the weak link, she’s not quiiiiite up to the standard of the rest of them. They move well as a group, though, good coordination, sharp and clean, fantastic musicality, high energy all the way through, with EXCELLENT attitude, which is half the battle, because if you’re not confident for this kind of thing – or if you can’t at least fake it flawlessly – you might as well not even be out there. They all do lose a little bit of focus when they’re in the background as they break out for their individual moves, and they fall apart a tiny bit near the end. Also, Meng Di’s belt is off-center, and I know that sounds super picky, but it kept distracting me, so I wish that hadn’t been the case. Xiao Bao is definitely still the standout here – he takes the lead from the minute they come out, with the mic, and never really relinquishes it. We finally get to see San Jin perform, and his extension could be better. Tu Zi must be lacking in the charisma department to not have shown up before this, because he’s better than I expected. Before they started, the group that Xiao Jie and Yang Kai are in together – who still haven’t performed – were debating if they should challenge this group, but Xiao Jie advised waiting to see how good they were, and then after the performance is all, “nooo, we should not challenge,” and props to you for not just writing off the waackers, my man, because they get an All-Pass, and there’s not even a chance for a callout. Before we move on, Wallace clams he’s learned some waacking during the show, and the other captains (led by Jackson, who calls him gege) make him demonstrate, and the contestants, who know what side their bread is buttered on, applaud.

Available seat check. Yibo participates in further stressing out the contestants by saying “Like, a dozen?” All y’all need to be challenging whatever chance you get. Now I bet you’re sorry you didn’t challenge Shen Kai Xiang back at the beginning, aren’t you?

Next up is our group of X-Crew representatives, hop-hop, and Yibo is excited. I almost expect him to do a little dance in his seat. Yang Kai helpfully lets me know that this group is from the top hip-hop crew in China. Oh, hey, that’s Qin Yu, from Team Wallace, the guy who Gongsu Wu Ming immediately recognized as the weak link in one of the towel battles and got up on; the guy who subsequently got taken out by Teng Zai, My Beloved. Qin Yu, the guy we hadn’t even had B-roll on, and still don’t. I wonder if I’m reading too much into that. He’s joined by Flea (which I’m assuming is a direct translation, as it doesn’t sound like “flea” when he says his name?) and Ding, also from Team Wallace - neither of whom we’ve seen before, I think - along with Ting and Lei Xiao Yang from Team Jackson. This is also the first time we’ve seen Lei Xiao Yang. I … feel weirdly unconfident about the famed X-Crew, given we haven’t seen more of them before this. Then again, we’d only seen Gai Gai from her group, so maybe this is a BigSurprise!edit … Ting comes out hard and heavy, and I actually think this is the best performance we’ve seen from her so far. She spends a lot of time out in front on this one, and I don’t think I got from her initial appearance or from her towel battle performances just how good she actually is. Overall though … I am … not that impressed with this group. They start out strong, but then they get sloppy. They have trouble working as a unit, which is surprising from people who supposedly have experience dancing together. They’re all very good, but they’re not synchronized. A lot of their solo showcase bits lack complexity, and that is an understatement. Qin Yu still has some of that nice fluidity along with his pretty face, but he’s not balanced, and he absolutely does not have the finesse he needs to pull this off. They all do move into the end strong, together again, hard, power behind their moves - almost everything from the slo-mo move is good - but … it’s a little late, y’all. That took way too long to get back together. And then, they inexplicably descend into … it’s not even sloppiness, it’s an utter hot mess during, like, the last 15 seconds of the performance, which is absolutely not the final impression you want to leave. And … wow. Shit. There are captains who actually agree with me on this. Sometimes you see the expected top dancers allowed to slide some in these early rounds of competition shows, but not this time – Wallace and Yibo both vote yes, but Jackson and Lay both abstain, and Jackson … wow. Wow. Is disappointed in them and expected more. Despite the fact that he’s like, 12, and that he’s done this to past groups just because he wanted to see them battle, a little bit this actually has a vague feeling of your dad telling you how much you’ve let him down. The audience is shocked, but I’m glad to hear someone say it. It was a good - if spotty - performance but certainly not the best we’ve seen.

So, we have a callout, and the group with Xiao Jie and Yang Kai, which also includes some guys named Shen Zi Hao, Xiao Zhi Bin and Oscar, pounces. And that is a very deliberate word choice, because these guys are on X-Crew like a lion on the trailing gazelle. They’re in their Men In Black suits (ETA: Wait, no, I think maybe they’re Agent Smith suits), and the audience of other competitors is losing it. Xiao Bao is very excited about Xiao Jie. Both Yibo and Jackson look like they’re in actual physical pain, to be forced to make the choice that’s coming up. Ting looks like she’s getting ready to throw up – she’s accepting this with less equanimity than she did the possible results of her initial performance, at least on the surface. I … am dreading losing her, actually, because I suspect that’s what’s getting ready to happen, and I am so so sorry, baby, that you worked so hard to carry your crew like that and they couldn’t keep their shit together. On the one hand, I’m impressed they’re pitting this level of competition against each other so early. On the other, I feel Jackson’s and Yibo’s pain. God. God. The Xiao Jie-Yang Kai group is here to f’kn battle. This is shaping up to be a slaughter. They are fast, clean, precise, great musicality, complex moves, super performance. They’re synchronized, high energy, fantastic animation – which could be a little cheesy, but they’re confident and fearless enough to pull it off - fun and interesting. They are maybe a little bit too gimmicky to be perfect for my taste, but I’m not the one voting them through, and what they’ve come up with is perfect for the audience that matters – the captains, the majority of which are 20-something-year-old boys – and knowing your audience, and performing for them, is a skill, too. BIGGEST (and frankly, only) ISSUE: Somebody fucked up a move, right at the beginning … I think maybe Yang Kai? (ETA: Yah, it was Yang Kai, ugh, what a time for that to happen.) If you’re going to fuck up, best to do it at the very beginning, I guess, and then give this performance afterward, to mitigate it as much as possible, but that one misstep gives the captains enough excuse put off a decision they really don’t want to make, like it’s not just going to make it worse to kick the can down the road a few minutes. Split vote, 2-2 (I thiiink, Yibo and Jackson for X-Crew, Lay and Wallace for the challengers?), which throws it to a further battle. Ting and Xiao Jie, one-on-one, and both of them are feeling the pressure of competing for their entire team instead of just themselves. Two rounds, hiphop and locking. So, each of them is better in their specialty. Ting’s got some fantastic, precise moves for the hiphop round. Xiao Jie is not as good in this round; I do notice he’s got a more directly confrontational style when he’s battling. I feel like she’s doing more waacking than locking in the locking round. Overall, she’s cleaner, more precise, he’s got a little bit more energy. I wouldn’t want to make this decision, frankly. I think Ting was better technically, but Xiao Jie might be the better performer – better at all that other stuff that adds up to stage presence. I do wonder how much of the captains’ decision is influenced by the groups, and who the captains are or aren’t willing to lose, even though it’s supposed to be based on this 1x1 battle. Just looking at who the show has put emphasis on already, we’ve got Ting vs. Xiao Jie AND Yang Kai, and I don’t know that they’re going to want to let that one-two punch go. Wallace votes Ting and X-Crew. Yibo and Lay vote Xiao Jie and the challengers. Jackson, the coward, abstains. Looks like Ting and X-Crew are going home, and this is the first cut that I’m genuinely upset about seeing. Ting feels bad for letting her crew down, but they let you down first, baby, or you wouldn’t even have been in that position.

Available seat check: 12. Dancers left: 27. Well.

We’re coming up on two hours now, and there’s clearly some kind of drama we want to get to, because we whip through the next few performances – few names, limited time spent on them. The ones who do make it through are likely cannon fodder in the next couple of rounds. There’s a group of four in khakis that gets sent through to the next round; Yibo liked their moves. Guy named Zhan Ke in a suit goes through to the next round. We’ve turned into a clip show now, and the screen literally says “ … ” at one point as each group of competitors gets 3 seconds of airtime. Cut to three seats left out of the 60. There’s about seven people left, and … that includes Chick. I have a sinking feeling this guy is going to be the real focus, at this point. He’s paired up with some dude named Long, and they have lost the bottle spin on callout after callout after callout, so they’ve never had a chance to challenge, and now, look at these morose motherfuckers, still sitting in the bleachers. I almost feel bad for them.

So, three seats left, and the next group is three people: Yang Qi aka “Apple” from Team Jackson, Lin from Team Lay and Bobo from Team Wallace. Urban dancers. I lose sound on them right at the beginning, but they’ve got some nice sharp moves, good choreography, they work well as a unit. Solid performance, if not the best we’ve seen. Apple’s got the best technique, I think. Audience likes them a lot. We get a cut to Chick and the other competitors who haven’t danced yet as we count down for the vote, and they are all dying. Three votes yes. Yibo abstains. Huang Bo is so prepared for this group to be sent right through that he starts clapping and congratulating them, and Yibo has to be all, “Wait, no. Not yet.” The captains give their reasoning: Jackson says that he felt their power, emotion, speed all deserved full marks. Yibo agrees.

Yibo agrees.

…

...

…

Their faces in response, y’all. Their little WTF faces as he explains that he really just wants to see the other dancers, too. Oh my god, Yibo. You can’t just say that out loud. Are you serious with this, you can’t even make up a thing to fake critique them on? Cut to a later interview with Bobo, who’s been the least able to school his face journey in response to this: “Wang Yibo, I won’t forget.” Also, Bobo says, you’re not even hot. (lol) Joking aside, the group goes on to make all the correct noises about sure, it’s a competition, you face competitors, it’s what happens, because what are you gonna say? Meanwhile, to be completely honest, I’m probably the person who’s been least able to school their face journey in response to this, because come on, Yibo. It’d be one thing if you were making some kind of statement about the way they set this up from the beginning, with all competitors unable to participate, but I’m pretty sure you’re actually doing this to give Chick another chance, because you have been inexplicably all up on his jock since he showed up, what is it about this guy? I don’t get it. At all.

So, we get a callout, and everyone left challenges, of course, because this is probably the last chance. The audience is rooting for Chick. I still don’t get it. Bottle spin ends up on … Zhao Hai Jie, from Team Wallace, who we’ve never yet seen perform. Here’s the thing: If he can win this battle, then he only takes one seat, leaving another two seats available. However, he is NOT going to win this battle, not without ripping off any figleaf of fair competition that the show may have, because he’s just not that great. If he wins, there’s no way around the fact, right in your face, that it’s a strategic vote. He does not win. Four votes for Apple, Lin and Bobo. Sixty seats filled.

HOWEVER, just in case you were worried there may be any integrity here, director Lu Wei comes ambling out to say, hey, you know those rules we have in place? Well, fuck ‘em. Who cares. Let everybody left battle, and whoever wins that battle can have a seat along with the 60 other people. I’m going to translate this one, because despite the limitations of my Level 1 Duolingo Mandarin, I have umpty SYTYCD episode reactions on my LJ and I feel like I’m pretty fluent in Dance Show BS: “We really want to keep somebody who’s left, so there’s going to be some chicanery on our part.” They really do not want Chick to go home, y’all. I know it’s him. It’s super extra obvious they’re desperately trying to save him, at this point. And I am here to tell you that if Chick ends up on this show and Ting goes home, there will be nothing on this earth that could possibly resurrect Chick from the Pit of My Dislike.

Anyway, we get Dai Dai from Team Lay, who describes herself as a fusion dancer and is pretty good for the first 40 seconds or so of her music and then completely loses the thread and kind of falls apart. The captains do not seem impressed. Possibly they also know we’re just killing time until we get to Chick. Up next is Su, who is Very Dramatic. He doesn’t say what team he’s from, but given Wallace’s reactions, I suspect he’s from Team Wallace. I suspect Yibo’s not going to like his face. His performance goes increasingly off the rails as he goes on. He’s got a lot of goodwill from the audience of competitors, but no. This is not a winning performance. And then we get Chick & Long, literally the last to perform. Chick spends the entire time doing A Bit. Long, who anyone barely remembers is even there, does 2/3+ of the dancing. Everyone – everyone – is apparently vastly entertained by Chick, and I just … :hands: Fine. He’s a character, but I have yet to see anything in three episodes, across, like, 7 hours, that lets me see whether he can really dance or not. Yibo literally tells Jackson, “He doesn’t have many tricks, but he’s got a ton of ideas” and later says he’s a B-boy without a power move. Anyway, one vote for Su (Wallace), three votes for Chick and Long. We’re at 62 dancers, and I cannot believe I’m going to be subjected to Chick’s continued clownery when Ting has to go home.

Thank GOD we’re activating the Special Guest Host Powers, the first of which is “REVIVE,” i.e., bring someone back who was eliminated. Yibo is immediately like, omg, the hip-hop group. Then we do Yet Another Bit where the captains cater to Huang Bo so that he’ll take their advice on who to revive, and it goes on too long when we are, my god, two hours and fourteen minutes into this. Meanwhile, Yibo reiterates, the hip-hop group. Yeah, Yibo, this I approve of - if I gotta watch you fall all over yourself over Chick, you need to get Ting back for me. So, we’re finally getting the captains’ actual recommendations: Jackson says the hip-hop group, possibly feeling bad about the fact that he’s the one who spiked their chance the first time around? Yibo is all, me too! Yes! That one! It’s kind of adorable. Also, yes, Yibo, you need to get Ting back for me. Lay says Li Yue and Sha Sha, the white and green snakes. Wallace recommends a popping group that I don’t even know if we saw perform? At any point in the past 7+ hours of three episodes? Wallace, are you high? Anyway, THANK GOD, Huang Bo brings back the X-Crew group. We’re at 67 dancers.

Second Special Guest Host Power is … “battle?” So, we’re setting up Qiang Qi Da Zhan, aka Seven to Smoke, which they’ve apparently done in past seasons? Each captain picks two people – eight total – to participate. Twenty minutes total. Increments of 30 seconds each to battle. And I guess you have to accumulate seven points in various battles. We don’t get to hear the captains’ picks, but I can see that AK Dong is called back for this one. Also, I spot one of the krumpers. (:eyeroll: Really, Lay? Because I know that was you.) We see some clips of this. We see AK Dong get to six points. He … maybe gets his seventh point? Anyway, he says in the last interview clip that he’s here. I guess we officially find out the Seven to Smoke results next ep?

Also next episode: Divided into two groups and battling by genre for the next elimination. Five rounds. Also looks like captains might get a chance to poach from other teams. Also some wacky fuckery with the dancers’ heads that looks like it’s going to be stomping all over my embarrassment squick, argh.

Finally, we get a peek at hotpot, and it sounds like they ended up with 70 dancers, so three people managed to get seven points in Seven to Smoke? And somebody’s mom is apparently coming to hotpot, but I’d have to watch the actual hotpot show to find out whose mom, and we’re out.

[alwaysspeakshermind]

Top 5  Anti-Varchie Arguments & Why They Make No Sense

#4: “Varchie’s boring/predictable, love at first sight is so cliché(d).”

Love at first sight is so clichéd? Okay, sure, I’ll allow that.

I’ll even agree.

But think contextually for a sec: love-at-first-sight is so clichéd as opposed to what? The utterly original, never-been-done-before uniqueness of best-friends-to-lovers that Barchie and also Bughead, why do people who say they want to see a friends-to-lovers relationship keep forgetting Bughead’s in that category? represents? The novel concept of enemies-to-lovers that is Cheryl/Toni (and Veggie if you squint)? The dated-in-the-past-but-sparks-still-fly (Falice, Tom Keller/Sierra McCoy, Fred/Hermione) or misunderstood-outsider-falls-in-love-with-“perfect”-America’s Sweetheart (Bughead, and also Kevin/Joaquin, Kevin/Fangs)? 

Come on.

Whether it’s your cup of tea or not, a trope is a trope is a trope. There are only so many combinations possible when it comes to romantic dynamics, and since fiction and reality have both existed for a really long time, there’s no one trope that hasn’t already been done a million times over. So…what’s the point of harping on this particular one? Or any other trope just because it’s not your personal favorite?

Yes, Love At First Sight is the bread-and-butter of many fairytales and/or Disney movies. But it’s by no means alone in that regard. 

Best friends/childhood friends-to-lovers has been a longtime staple of books, TV shows, rom-coms, and musicals (Harry Potter, Kim Possible, 13 Going On 30, Phantom of the Opera, and Lion King all say hello), and so has enemies-to-lovers (27 Dresses, The Proposal, You’ve Got Mail, Tangled, etc.). I’m not even going to bother touching on the sparks-still-fly/loner-loves-”good” kid thing, because the first is the golden goose for Hallmark, Lifetime, an a billion-and-one romance novels, while the second is YA fiction in a nutshell. And if you’re one of those “I can’t help it, friends-to-lovers is my crack” kind of people, it might be worth noting that “Love At First Sight” is plenty of other people’s crack. Also, if your complaint against a trope you find overused is a valid argument, so is someone else’s. Childhood-best-friends-to-lovers may feel newer and unique to you, but it doesn’t to everyone. Some people are as tired of it as you are of Love At First Sight. 

And even if your claim is that “love at first sight’s not realistic/there’s like zero basis for it in the real world/it’s the exception not the rule,” that claim also extends to Childhood Best-Friends-To-Lovers and Enemies-To-Lovers. 

In the real world, the Best-Friends-To-Lovers thing is about as common as Love At First Sight, with the latter maybe being a bit more common, since the overwhelming majority of people tend to notice attraction within the first fifteen minutes of meeting someone and the overwhelming majority of childhood best friends grow up thinking of each other as a sibling. (Important distinction: when childhood best friends do grow up, fall in love and get married, they don’t tend to take until high school/college to figure out how they feel. They’re typically aware of it from puberty/slightly before puberty onward, and it doesn’t change because they already know everything there is to know about that person...they know if they’re attracted to them; they know if they’re not.) And both those tropes are more common in everyday life than enemies-to-lovers since, in truth, most people don’t want to have anything to do with the antagonistic person who made their life miserable.

So realism/unrealism? Kind of a shifting-sands argument. Especially within the context of a show that puts an ex-“gang” member in as sheriff and deputizes other “gang” members, one of whom is named Sweet Pea, of all things. I mean, if you truly feel morally obligated to reality-police Riverdale, there are far more pressing issues than the likelihood of two teens meeting each other one time and deciding within five minutes that “This is The One” (which is not even how it happens except for Archie, but still).

What it really comes down to is not the trope itself, but how well the trope is executed. 

In other words, it’s not what you’re given...it’s what you do with what you’re given. Every trope has been done many times before. Like it or not, that is an undeniable fact. Arguing that something has little-to-no value purely on the basis of its commonality is in essence weighting originality (theory) over style (practical application). To illustrate why this kind of thinking is a critical mistake, let’s put it this way: weighting originality over style is like saying Riverdale Season 3 is better than Riverdale Season 1. 

...Which, as even the most casual of Riverdale viewers knows, is not the case.

Is S3 more ambitious than S1? Yes. Does S3 contain more jaw-dropping plot twists than S1? Absolutely. Are there some damn fun episodes in S3? For sure. But guess what? S3 also contains far more plot holes, inane plot “twists” and contradictory developments/sheer why-are-you-trying-to-make-fetch-happen-with-this-storyline moments because S3 goes so hard for shock value/the unexpected, that it effectively lapses on execution and winds up with a more creative, but ultimately less-compelling finished product than S1. Moral to the story? Creativity is good, but devotion to creativity at the exclusion of all else is not. If a few predictable elements aren’t mixed into an unpredictable world (or vice versa), everything ceases to shock. On Riverdale, because things are always so wild, the biggest surprises are usually when things unfold normally/don’t go haywire.

Now.

Me personally, I’ve shipped every trope at least once. I’m in the habit of making myself set aside all preconceived notions when beginning a new show/book/movie, because I never know what, if any, ship I’ll go for. Historically, I’m about 50-50 on Childhood-best-friends-to-lovers—sometimes I love it, sometimes I hate it. Enemies-to-lovers—usually, I dig it, sometimes it’s a big, fat no from me, dawg. Love At First Sight however, I am overwhelmingly prejudiced against. And when I say overwhelmingly prejudiced, I mean that as a rule, I flat-out hate it. I find it stupid. It annoys me. I roll my eyes and make jokes.

But, here I am. Writing a bunch of long-ass Tumblr posts in defense of a fictional relationship that makes a direct play on the Love At First Sight trope.

So why are Archie and Veronica my huge exception? 

Well, for one thing, their relationship kicks off in a manner that is highly evocative of the comics. The instant Archie sees Veronica, all of time (for him) stands still. The one solitary thing he’s aware of from the moment she steps into Pop’s and he looks up is her. No matter what he’s doing, he ends up looking at her, and after a very short amount of time, the same goes for Veronica (though of course, she tries to play it cool). Regardless of how I feel about the cheesiness of the trope, the execution of the scene is fricking cute.

For another: it actually is an unusual trope, and I was surprised to see it used. 

Don’t get me wrong, the whole see-a-person-across-a-crowded-room deal is a cliché and it’s a million percent been done to death. But the funny thing is, Love At First Sight is such a clichéd cliché that it’s hardly ever used nowadays. By virtue of its extreme clichédness in fact, it has accidentally and ironically become fresh again because the second someone suggests it, someone else inevitably goes, “Nah, that’s too clichéd, we can’t do that.” In all honesty, I can’t remember one TV show or non-90s-Disney movie I watched in the last ten years where that trope was used over any/all of the other tropes available. I actually intended to make a list of the books/movies/shows I know of that have used the friends/enemies to lovers trope for comparison purposes, but it was getting so long with just the books section I ended up going, “Haha, no,” and scrapped that plan. (But for the record, almost every single Jane Austen novel is on that list.)

So, in summary: Love At First Sight clichéd? Yep. For sure.

Too clichéd?

Nope.

Certainly no more, and arguably less, than the other tropes Riverdale’s many ships adhere to. So if you’re not nonstop complaining about those other ships on the basis of the overdone/predictability factor, it shouldn’t be an issue that Varchie’s relationship is built around a recognizable trope that has been out-of-use by most everyone except Disney for a good while now. (Besides, some tropes are considered timeless for a reason.) 

And seriously, if we’re going to go down the Disney path, let’s stop a second and recall how many Disney Channel shows/movies in the last decade utilized Best-Friends-To-Lovers and Enemies-To-Lovers. Or hey, what about Nickelodeon shows? Or  maybe cop/CSI/civil service-type shows where best friend partners/partners who hate each other eventually fall in love?

Again, a relationship is not automatically made “boring” because it falls within the parameters of a well-known trope, and “predictable” does not automatically mean “bad.” If that were truly the case, no fictional relationship from probably the 18th century onward would have any popularity and/or critical acclaim. And if you try to argue that that’s just how it is for you personally: predictable/clichéd = boring, you should probably keep in mind that when measured by those standards, every single other ship on Riverdale is, by definition, boring. 

Every.

Single.

One.

Not just Varchie. 

So if you really are passionate about Riverdale not focusing on a “boring, predictable, clichéd ship instead of an interesting one,” you might want to take a break from griping about Archie and Veronica and start examining exactly how original those "interesting” ships you’re touting actually are. And if that’s not really what you mean, if you don’t really buy into the line you’re selling (i.e., you’re just using “they’re so boring” as an excuse to disguise the fact that you don’t like Varchie because they prevent your preferred ship from happening), you might also want to consider just being honest about that. 

Because when you build your argument around a point that encompasses more relationships than just the one you’re criticizing, it makes you look like you’re either extremely clueless in not realizing that your complaint also applies to your ship/other ships, or else a giant hypocrite.

[foreverbeingthunderbuddy]

Darling, Don’t Stop [b.b.]

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader

Warnings: sexual attraction, um mention of nsfw

Prompt: “Who knew that this would be such a turn on?”

Summary: Bucky hires the law firm you work for to defend and represent him, though you’re just an intern and have to serve him during the meeting. You wouldn’t have come to work that day though, if you had known you would see him again later that week. In a strip club.

A/N: This is my submission for @hollandroos’ 12k writing challenge. Word count around 7,5k.

Masterlist | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Okay here’s the thing. Life is good.

You’re not exactly rich or wealthy, there isn’t a day where you don’t stuff money into the little jar in your kitchen shelf to save for worse days and there isn’t a day where you don’t stop at the little pizza shop down the street for lunch instead of going to a real restaurant that has heavy menu cards and fancy, washable napkins.

But you’re happy. You don’t feel like you’re missing out too much. You have your own little apartment, your own bed, kitchen, bathroom and you never have to beg anyone for money. It’s not much but it’s yours.

You went to law school. Yeah, you know, it sounds fancy but it wasn’t. It was tough, draining and painful and made you want to quit every week but you went through with it. You graduated and felt good about yourself, especially when your family came together to celebrate your success. Saying you’re not proud of what you achieved, would be a lie. Who wouldn’t be?

But how it usually goes when one comes fresh from law school and moves to New York, there are no jobs. None. It’s like there are two sides of the world of work. First, you get told the world needs you, wants you, you get told you will have a bright future – “You ARE the future!” how your college’s president proudly announced down to you from his podium during the welcome ceremony, all puffy-chested and full of himself.

You believed him because that’s what people do when they have never seen anything other than high-school.

And then there’s the world of work’s second side, the one you encounter after you graduate and send out your first applications. The one that pushes you into the very unpleasant, self-doubt infusing territory called reality. In short: You have yet to get a job in the field that you studied for.

It’s sad. It’s heart-breaking. But that’s the way it is.

How are you paying your rent then, one might ask now. Well. In the daytime you work in a law firm as an intern. The direction Law Firm is great, the title Intern … not so much. You’ve been working for them for two years now. Can you believe? Two years as an intern?

Your contract ran out and because you did a good job, they asked if you wanted to extent it and seeing as they refused to give you a legit job where you could use your degree and there are no other jobs in sight, you said Okay. What else could you have done? You would have ended up on the street. And there is no way you’d be going back to your little home town and move in with your parents.

No way.

So the internship during the daytime. And at night you work as a waitress. Not a bad thing, one would think now and it isn’t. It’s the place you are waiting tables at though, that isn’t necessarily good for your resume.

It’s a strip club. Short and simple. A strip club. You don’t strip of course, you just run around and serve drinks. Maybe flirt a little, not that you want to do it but it usually pays off in the end. Literally. No other place would get you tips good enough to pay New Yorkian rent. And there is a lot of it to pay, that’s for sure.

So. Now that we have that cleared, let’s fast forward to today. Daytime. Internship.

You push a cart down the hallway, knocking on doors and handing over letters or files that need to get delivered. Yeah, you have to play postman in a fancy, marble-floor law firm. See what the problem with this internship is? You didn’t study years and years, just to do the dirty work. It’s boring, insulting and embarrassing to say the least.

Of course, you don’t let it show. You can’t risk losing this job, it may be shitty but it makes up half of your rent. So, Y/N, clench your teeth and smile and don’t forget to say “Have a nice day, sir!” or Mr. Nothing-works-without-me or whatever his name is will get annoyed with you and then you have to help move furniture again.

Anything but that. Last time, you bent down and tried to lift a table and the pressure made the backside of your admittedly too tight dress pants tear up. They were expensive ones, of course they were, you’re not allowed to wear plain jeans here. It pained you to say your farewells to them. They were some good ass dress pants.

Speaking of fancy clothing, today is a very extravagant day for your closet. Your supervisor sent an email around, making sure everyone knows today is not for the usual work attire (meaning pants and blazer). Your head lawyers have a meeting scheduled with a very well-known, very influential, wealthy client and you and the other female interns and assistants are required to wear your best skirts and blouses.

Or dresses. Your outfit just has to scream I’m unmistakingly female and hate gender neutral clothing, also may this bold outfit convince you to leave a nice review on our website and you should be fine.

Seeing as the general, daily dress code is set at Fancy, you find it ridiculous to dress up even more for a client, even if he is none other than Bucky Barnes aka the Winter Soldier himself, surely a bright entry on your law firm’s resume and, let’s be honest, fantastic press. You understand why he chose this particular company to represent and defend his public persona, your bosses have a pristine white reputation and a success rate over 90 percent.

How Andy Malton, one of two company owners, in his mid-forties, honest-to-goodness asshole, landed the job is beyond you though. His work partner and co-owner Benjamin Taylor is much more genuine and respected by his staff and the world of law. He should have gotten the Avengers as his client. Why did Bucky choose Andy?

Who knows. Anyway.

You walk down the hallway in your black pencil skirt and white and black-striped blouse – dear reader, you don’t even want to know how expensive this outfit was, R.I.P. my bank account – and park the cart near the elevators, so one of the delivery boys can take it down later. And then you quickly go to the nearest bathroom.

It’s 9:40, Mr. Barnes and his companion should arrive in twenty minutes and you are in charge of bringing drinks and snacks. Boring, humiliating internsh- ah, forget it. No need or time to get all worked up again, not now anyway. You would be extra annoyed if this was any other ordinary client that you would have to serve but this is Bucky Barnes.

You would lie if you said you didn’t have kind of a thing for him. Your wildly beating heart and your sweating hands would give you away anyway. Serving drinks and food may be pretty shitty but today it’s your only chance to meet the man you have been adoring since he appeared in Stark’s rows. You’re a fan. And you are actually about to meet the Winter Soldier.

No time to freak out.

You leave the bathroom and try not to look like you’re rushing as you walk to the elevators and see the catering cart already standing in the hallway. Someone from the kitchen brought it up here, so now all you have to do is push it to the conference room Andy The Asshole has chosen and prepare everything for Mr. Barnes’ arrival.

You reach two colleagues who stand by an open office door and immediately stop chatting when you near and out of the corner of your eye, you see their heads following you as you pass them but you pretend not to notice. Everyone knows about today’s special guest and who is assigned to assist. You. These people may be top of their game but they’re also very talented gossipers. And jealous.

You walk around the corner, knowing they will immediately start yapping as soon as you disappear from their eyeshot, and halt in front of the conference room of destiny. You know it’s still going to be empty but you’re nervous nonetheless. You take a breath and knock, just for good measure.

Silence.

Without further hesitation, you open the door and step in. As fast as possible you put everything on the right side of the long conference table, cups, plates, glasses, water, lemonade, biscuits, cookies, some crackers, apples, sugar, honey ... Andy really decided to go big today it seems. What an ass kisser.

When the table is set, you throw a quick glance at your watch – 9:55. Shit. You shouldn’t be here when they arrive. You check one last time that everything looks perfect and then you quickly leave the room and run as fast as your high heels allow it to your little office you share with another intern. You close the door behind you and press one ear against the door to hear if something’s already happening.

Complete silence. And then, “Hrhrm.”

Someone just cleared their throat behind you and you jump at the sound.

“You okay?” Alissa, said other intern, asks and raises her perfectly plucked eyebrows at you.

She is sitting at her desk opposite yours and from what you can see of her computer screen, it looks like she is not spending her time dutifully doing some kind of task for your company but browsing through her ex-boyfriend’s Instagram. You sigh. Alissa and her ex are two of the most emotionally confusing individuals you have ever met.

Broken up after a bad, bad fight, made up for three days, broke off contact and now started talking again, still insult each other through text messages but regularly stalk each other’s social media accounts to gush over one another. Or at least she gushes over him, you don’t know what he’s doing in his private time, all you know is, he follows and un-follows her in predictable intervals and “accidentally” likes every third picture.

Too confusing. You have long stopped asking.

Anyway! More important things to do now. Stalking the hallway, for example.

Remembering your newly-found, most important task for today, you turn back around and slam your face into the door to get a better ear on said area.

“Yup. I’m fine. Just … getting ready to do my job” You answer Alissa’s question and squint your eyes to get a better focus. Didn’t you read somewhere that losing one of your senses improves another one? Lack of eyesight for better hearing, that’s the plan.

You don’t hear anything out in the hallway, what you do hear though is a very unwomanly snort behind you.

“Sure. Getting ready to do your job. Didn’t know spying on famous clients is one of your tasks for Taylor & Malton. Is that part of your contract?”

“Ha ha. Hilarious. Would you stop talking please, I’m trying to hear” You retort and press yourself further into the cold, frosted glass.

Frosted glass! As if you were stung by a bee, you recoil and step back. Another snort from your colleague.

“I was wondering when you would realize that the door isn’t non-transparent. It would have been too funny if someone had seen you from the hallway, a poor shadow pressed against the door in a desperate attempt to stalk her celebrity crush. Bucky would have bolted before Andy could have even tried to crawl up his ass. Bethany and Brithany would have had two weeks’ worth of gossip.”

Bethany and Brithany are the lovely ladies you encountered while bringing the food cart to the conference room. They have solid jobs at this law firm which is naturally why they think they are the queens to your peasants. Of course their real names aren’t actually Bethany and Brithany but that’s what Alissa and you named them after they started a terrible rumour about Alissa involving her ex.

“I’d rather die than give Bethany and Brithany a reason to talk about me, even though I think they already are. You should have seen the look on their faces when I walked past them with the food for Mr. Barnes’ meeting. Jealousy doesn’t even come close, those snakes looked like they were about to combust” You tell her and can’t stop the devious smile on your face as you sit down at your own desk.

Alissa gives a short, witch-like laugh and goes back to clicking through her very bad, no-good ex-trash’s pictures.

“I bet. You should have taken a picture, I need a new desktop background for my computer.”

Before you can reply something to that, you hear a knock on the door and jump to your feet. Due to the biggest source of light coming from a window in this office, you can’t make out an actual silhouette at the door but you know who this is. You take a quick breath and open it.

Andy’s assistant Emily, very tight grey skirt and dark-red blouse showing more cleavage than covering it, stands before you and writes something down on her clipboard. Her eyes cut to your face, taking in your make-up then swiftly scanning your outfit. She doesn’t seem to find anything to nag about – thanks to your unusual efforts to look as flawless today as possible – so she returns to her notes as if she didn’t just check you out like the treacherous bitch she is.

And you’re normally all about girls supporting girls but if there’s one person to throw anyone under the bus if it helps her stand in a good light in front of her boss, then it’s her. Especially the women. If things went after her lead, there would be no women employed at his company at all because they could totally steal her job if Andy happened to take a liking to one of them more than her. Right?

“Mr. Barnes just arrived. Time to take coffee orders” Emily clips and turns on her heels to sashay to the conference room. Those heels look painful.

Time to take coffee orders. Bitch.

You throw a last glance at Alissa who watched the whole thing and who looks exactly how you feel.

“Just ignore her, Y/N, if they gave you the job you actually deserve, Emily would stand below you and she doesn’t like that. Who cares what she and her ostrich legs think” She exclaims and follows up her petty remarks with a sigh and a determined nod.

Those ostrich legs look more like she could model with them but you’re not getting into that right now – also why would you defend Emily? She deserves every animal comparison she gets. Except for the elegant cat analogies some of the advocates for environmental law one floor beneath yours have given her. Those seem a little too positive for your taste.

You give Alissa a thumbs up, brush over your skirt to make all non-existent wrinkles disappear and leave your office. You walk around a corner and see the conference door stand ajar. Muffled male voices can be heard from the inside. Your heart is beating in your throat, that’s how nervous you are.

Okay, Y/N, you can do this! Be professional! Smile, be friendly, don’t empty the coffee pot over Emily’s head! Make a good impression. Oh god.

Before you can turn around, run screaming to the elevators and buy a one-way ticket to Argentina, you open the door further and step into the room.

There are six people here, all gathered around the side of the table you prepared for them. Andy, Emily and a man you don’t know are sitting with their backs to the window front, facing you. You can see a gleeful smile on her face the moment you appear in the doorway. You decide to ignore that and think of a good way to take revenge after this is over.

The other three people have their backs to you, two men and a woman. Your heart jumps as you recognize Bucky’s dark, chin-length hair immediately, he sits in the middle chair and seems to be occupied with one of the water bottles. From what you can see, he wears a suit jacket (!) and you try not to stare at his metal hand twisting the screw cap back onto the opening.

This is absolutely surreal and you think you’re about to pass out.

The woman has long, red-blonde hair in a ponytail and you’re sure that must be Pepper Potts. You didn’t know she would be here, too, and it certainly doesn’t help your stress level to face not one but two of Tony Stark’s people. If the dark-haired guy on the left turns out to be Stark himself, you are one hundred percent certain someone will have to call an ambulance.

“Ah, Miss Y/L/N, come on in, don’t be shy” Andy suddenly addresses you and your heart stops a second at the unexpected sound and all heads swing around to you but because you don’t want to look like a shy wissy, you step forward and walk to the end of the table. Now you stand there like a kid on her birthday, looking down the board table at her friends, Andy The Asshole & co. to your right, Bucky “I’m Hot” Barnes and his companion to your left.

“Hello, nice to meet you” You say to Pepper and not to appear rude your gaze flickers to Bucky and the unknown man (not Tony Stark thank god) to include them. All you can make out from the millisecond your eyes rest on Bucky’s face are his piercing blue eyes looking at you. Your skin starts to tingle. His expression is unreadable though.

Pepper shows a smile that looks ten times more professional than yours. “Nice to meet you, too.”

You didn’t think you would ever hear that voice in person but here you are. Just don’t freak out, Y/N.

“Can I bring you something to drink? Coffee or tea?” You ask, suddenly remembering why you are here and glad about getting back at least some of your own professionalism. Your eyes cut back to Bucky and his are still on your face. Of course they are, you’re talking to them and taking orders, why would he ignore you?

He doesn’t smile but he looks attentive and you can see his gaze roam over your features. Can he stop please? It’s making you nervous. Oh please don’t stop.

“I’ll have a Rooibos tea. Thank you” Pepper says and pulls your attention back to her. You smile and nod. No, thank you.

“Latte Macchiato” The other guy exclaims and adds a vague gesture of his hand. You nod again and now that you have a full excuse to look at Bucky, you put on a smile that hopefully doesn’t look too needy.

“And what can I get you, Mr. Barnes?” You ask and anxiously wait for his answer. His eyes are currently resting on a spot around the area where your blouse is tucked into the waistband of your skirt. At your question he looks up.

“Nothing, thanks. Water will do” He answers and with that he turns away from you, shifts his attention to Andy in front of him and says as if that would explain everything, “Already had coffee this morning.” Andy nods wildly like that comment makes sense at 10 am.

While you try not to melt due to his voice, you swallow down your disappointment at his response and sudden lack of interest. The get-together you planned with your friends as soon as they found out Bucky Barnes would come to your company and made you promise you tell them every little detail afterwards is kind of ruined now.

The stories you wanted to tell. Original work title: That one day when I made Bucky Barnes coffee and he loved it. Now: That one day Bucky Barnes checked me out and immediately lost interest.

Welp.

You try to maintain your smile and nod, Of course Mr. Barnes, one coffee is more than enough for a day, and look at Andy.

“I’ll have a Caffè crema” He orders without looking up from his notes and is quickly followed by a sweet-as-sugar voice saying “Nothing for me, thanks. I try to drink less caffeine, it’s healthier and I already had my dose today.”

Emily never drinks coffee because she thinks it’s tragic for her teeth and it matches her diet plan. But of course she had to adjust her answer to Bucky’s. Of course. You see Andy eye her for a second, he knows she doesn’t drink coffee but before he can say something asshole-ish, the other man you don’t know orders a black coffee. Dammit.

Pepper starts talking and all six of them immediately go into business-mode, hence you cease to exist. Not once has Bucky looked at you again - tragic.

Okay. Time to go.

You turn away and leave the conference room, quietly closing the door behind you.

“Oh my god” You mouth silently and hectically wave your hands in the air before you get yourself together and toddle on your heels to the floors kitchen. You may not be a lawyer (cry…) but you won’t let them wait for their coffee and tea, that’s for sure. Great standards by the way.

To get to the kitchen you have to pass your own office and you see the door slightly open. You smile. Alissa may have acted like she didn’t really care about today’s events but she still won’t refrain from lurking. You rush past the door, mumble “Oh fucking god!” to yourself but loud enough that she will hear it and keep walking without looking behind you but you know she can’t resist and will follow you.

The “little” kitchen is actually a big open space with the fanciest counters and kitchenware you have ever seen, only separated from the outside by a room divider with stylish glass elements. On the counter stand two very expensive looking coffee makers and an espresso machine, accompanied by several silver kettles and some other paraphernalia that you haven’t figured out yet.

You fill water into one of the kettles and switch it on. You barely grabbed a coffee cup from one of the shelves when you hear footsteps directly behind you.

“Spill! I have five minutes before Taron comes checking in on the excel table I’m making for him” Alissa proclaims and appears on your right side at the counter. Without hesitation, you hand her two coffee cups and grab another and one of those big, fancy tea cups for Pepper.

“You know how to use Excel?” You ask and walk over to the drink machines of wealth. Honestly, you have seen the prices of these things and the only way that those numbers are justified is if someone glued a thousand bucks to the underside of each one. Atrocious.

“No, I googled it. So? How is he? What did he say? Did he check you out? Did Emily hit on him like the subtle excavator that she is?”

“Caffè crema for Andy, black coffee for Whatever His Name Is, Latte Macchiato for Not Tony Stark and Rooibos tea for Pepper fucking Potts” You say instead of answering her questions and she starts pushing buttons on the coffee machine in front of her. At Pepper’s name you see her hand halt its movements.

A moment of silence.

“You are kidding.”

“Nope. Bucky Barnes brought Pepper Potts as assistance to his meeting. Can you believe? Isn’t she CEO of Stark Industries now?” You open a different shelf and dig out the Rooibos tea packs.

“Oh wow. That’s so extra, I love it. Can we please trade lives? Can I bring them their coffee?”

“Nope” You declare and laugh, “I deserve this.”

“And? Is Bucky as pretty in real life as he is on screen and magazines?” She asks, being the nosy friend you need right now. There’s no way you hold all of this excitement inside yourself for the rest of the day.

“He is the most beautiful person I’ve ever met in my life, and I’m not being dramatic. I thought I would pass out when he looked at me and-“

“Those eyes! Am I right? Did he sell his soul for those or what? I bet they’re like … super blue in person.”

You snort.

“Super blue. Alissa, I didn’t know you could be so poetic. Must be the hormones” You joke and stare down at the tea cup turning a serious blood orange as you pour boiled water onto the dried plant material in the tea bag. Thank god, the kettle is high quality and only takes a couple of seconds to boil the little amount of water you filled it with.

“Hormones, might be. After you disappeared in that conference room, I walked out into the hallway and I swear to God, I could feel him. He walked down that exact corridor and I could still feel him minutes later.”

Both of you burst out laughing and you turn around to see if anyone is in sight but you’re alone. Bethany and Brithany would have a blast.

“That’s how manly he is” She ends her plea and changes cups to fill the second one. Meanwhile your own is finished now, too, and the tea will need another two minutes.

“Normally, I’d say you’re exaggerating but I’ve been in that room and talked to him and girl. You’re right.” Alissa makes a half-jealous half-satisfied noise and you take out a little silver tray and saucers and place the filled cups on it.

“Did he check you out?” She repeats her previous question and lets her eyes wander down your appearance seductively. You roll your eyes at her and put a hand on the counter.

“Yeah, I think so. For about five seconds and then he decided he isn’t interested and that’s when I became invisible, so... So much about that.”

“He checked you out for five seconds which is better than four and besides, what do you expect? It’s a business meeting and Pepper is present. She is his boss’s fiancée, it’s not like he can hit on you blatantly. Even though that’d be hot.”

You nod. It would. Both of you stay silent for a couple of seconds.

“It would make him look super unprofessional in front of his asshole lawyer and you don’t want Andy breathing down your neck, do you? He would never let you assist in the Barnes case ever again” Alissa says and puts a hand to her hip.

“True. God forbid there is someone who steals the show. I still can’t believe Bucky chose Andy to represent him and not Benjamin” You retort and give her a look. She raises her eyebrows.

“You don’t know Bucky, Y/N. He could be an asshole and you would still think he is the biggest sweetheart. Maybe he and Andy just clicked and that’s why. Although, I hope that’s not the case because if Bucky turns out to be an asshole, I’ll need a new object for my daydreams.”

You eye her questioningly and feel the corners of your mouth twitch.

“Strict no-assholes policy” She answers your unspoken question. You almost mention her very-asshole boyfriend that she is still running after. Almost. But you don’t. Instead you turn your head and watch the last droplets fall into the coffee cup.

“Ugh. Time to go. Pray for me that I won’t trip and slam the tray into Emily’s take-me-right-now face.”

“Actually, I pray that you do trip and slam the tray into her take-me-right-now face. Christmas and Easter in one.”

You laugh. “Shut up.”

You both leave the kitchen area, you balancing the tray in your hands, and walk to the conference room. You feel yourself growing nervous again. Also, was it always this hard to walk in high heels or did they change their form since you started making coffee?

Alissa doesn’t stop at your office but you don’t dare to look at her out of fear you could trip.

“I’m walking you to the room to make sure you don’t get lost” She explains and you supress a giggle. To make sure you don’t get lost, my ass. She wants to have an exclusive look at the current object of her daydreams. Who could blame her, though?

Pretending to be a gentleman ca. 1850, she lays one hand behind her back and opens the door for you, bowing as you pass her. You stop yourself from rolling your eyes at her just in time.

“Ah, Miss Y/L/N, finally. I could feel myself dry out” Andy comments your coming back and you walk to the spot from where you took their orders. Don’t look at Bucky or you’re definitely gonna trip.

“Oh, was that- I think I saw Miss Marr at the door, or was that-“

“No, probably just someone passing by” You quickly interrupt him and hand him his Caffè Crema which he takes looking facilitated. He doesn’t usually drink fancy stuff like that but you guess he wanted to make an impression on his guests.

“Took a while” Emily remarks like an angel and you ignore her. You were gone for five minutes. Maximum. Bitch.

“Here’s your tea, Miss Potts” You say and smile at Pepper as you put it down in front of her, “It will need to steep for another minute.”

“Thank you very much.”

You give Whatever His Name Is his black coffee and do the same on the other side, bending forward a little and reach out with Not Tony Stark’s Latte Macchiato in your hand.

And that’s when you feel Bucky’s eyes burn into you and you see the blue out of the corner of your eye. This position brings you closer to him than before and you’re relieved when the man takes the cup from you and you can lean back.

Your heart is beating in your chest excitedly.

“Can I bring you anything else?” You ask to cover up how flustered you are. For a moment you think you’ll get a No from them but then you see Bucky nod.

“Yes, I changed my mind. I’d like a black coffee as well” He says with his deep voice and meets your eyes and … did he really sell his soul for those? You would believe it. Trying not to collapse, you smile like a horse and turn to leave. You feel his gaze on you the entire time.

“Of course, Mr. Barnes.”

The door closes behind you and like a mad woman you totter back to your office, jump into the doorway, hiss “Kitchen! Now!” and rush down the hallway, hearing the same ungraceful sounds of high heels running behind you.

You throw open a shelf and grab a coffee cup.

“Please tell me he asked for your phone number!” Alissa exclaims and materializes next to you.

“No but he ordered a black coffee from me while holding intense eye contact.”

Silence.

“With every other guy I would have pushed you into the fridge for making me run in heels just to hear he ordered coffee but with Bucky … Tell me exactly what his words were and how he looked while saying them.”

You tell her everything and simultaneously realize you sound like a teenager who has never had a boyfriend but this is Bucky mutherfucking Barnes. Every twitch of a muscle in his jaw must mean something!

“You know what you should do? Write your phone number on the cup and see if he’s interested” Alissa says and wiggles her eyebrows at you. You scowl.

“What? No! I’m not gonna write my phone number on the cup, how obvious is that?”

“Yes. That’s the plan.”

She opens a drawer and digs out a fucking Edding permanent pen. If you write your number with that, it will go all around the whole cup and it will be very visible.

“Oh, definitely not gonna do that.”

“Yes!”

“No! Everyone will see it.”

“Imagine Emily’s face when she sees Bucky take a sip from a cup with your fat number on it. How funny would that be?”

Alissa means well but she often oversteps the mark.

“Very unfunny. Especially because I would get fired.”

You and her argue until Bucky’s coffee is ready and you put it on the tray.

Same procedure like previously, both of you walk to the conference room and she opens the door for you. You forgot to tell her about hiding better – Andy saw her last time – and now it’s too late.

Your eyes are glued to the back of Bucky’s head instantly and you step behind him.

“Here’s your coffee, Mr. Barnes” You say and place it next to his hand. He turns his head and looks up to you which puts your faces dangerously close to each other. You know you should retreat but you hesitate and for a moment you think you are getting lost in his eyes. How cheesy is that?

“Thank you very much, Miss Y/L/N” He says, saying your name for the first time, making your knees weak and that’s when you see a smile on his face. Beautiful.

You quickly step back before you get yourself into trouble and hold the tray in front of you.

“You’re welcome” You retort and leave the room.

****

You wait until you hear a knock on your office door and open it.

“Meeting is finished. Time to clean up” Emily says without looking at you and walks away.

Time to clean up. God, what a bitch. You’re a lawyer for goodness sake.

“Is it just me or does she seem grumpier than usual?” Alissa asks from her desk.

“Yeah.”

“Probably unhappy about the fact you got a mind-dazzling smile for bringing him coffee and she didn’t, even though she didn’t leave anything to the imagination when it came to her cleavage today.”

Alissa, the never stopping exaggerator.

You step into the now empty conference room and start cleaning up. You select plates, cups and glasses and everything else. When you reach Bucky’s seat, you see the empty coffee cup, a half-empty glass of water and a plate with a couple of cookie crumbles on it. He ate cookies during his probably very serious lawyer meeting. Cute.

If you were Alissa, you would lick his plate and take a sip from his water but you’re not, so you simply pick them up and put them on the food cart. There’s only so much creepiness you can handle.

Suddenly, you notice a small piece of paper laying on the table exactly where his plate was and you feel yourself get excited. With giddy fingers you grab it and see the scrawly handwriting.

My friend Tony usually gets quite indignant when he sees someone who undersells themselves and I wish I had more time to talk some sense into you. You’re a lawyer, aren’t you?

And beneath that he wrote:

P.S. The coffee was great though.

Holy shit.

****

Bucky thinks you sell yourself under value and he’s right. The thing is, New York isn’t really offering you any good jobs, so you’re kind of forced to keep this shitty internship for now. Alone the fact that he thinks you are worth more makes you heart beat faster than is healthy. You think the note is a good reason to freak out. Alissa agrees.

So, what does a girl do after being told she is worth more than serving people drinks and snacks? Correct. She puts on a hell of a lot of make-up and her usual night time uniform and goes to start her shift as a waitress in a strip club. It’s a matter of interpretation.

The meeting with Bucky Barnes at your company happened five days ago and you’re still not over it. He hasn’t come in since but you know he will and you’re looking forward to it.

You greet the bouncer at the door and enter a small hallway that leads to where the action is. You can already hear the notorious music coming through the speakers and the many conversations melting into one big babble of voices. The room is well-filled, of course, it’s a Saturday night. A lot of work men, groups and – and that’s curse and blessing at the same time – quite a number of bachelor parties.

They are the ones who give the best tips but they’re also the ones with the worst manners. They always make you nervous but you know you’re safe. Carl, the owner of this club, has his men everywhere to make sure the waitresses won’t get harassed. Making you wear higher than high-heels, a tight black top and a skirt that’s way too short for your usual liking isn’t really helping the matter, though.

You walk over to the bar, put away your stuff and get ready for your shift. Suddenly, there’s a hand on your shoulder.

“Hey, Y/N, you lucky bitch!”

Sarah. One of the waitresses. Black eyes, dark skin, eyebrows to die for and the same slutty uniform you are wearing.

“Hi, Sarah” You greet her and continue to put a small bag around your waist, almost like a fanny pack, where you store money and especially the tips.

“God, you’re so lucky, do you know that? One of your tables is a bachelor party and it’s not just anyone bu-“

“AY! I’m not paying you for standing around and gossiping! Get to work!” Carl shouts at you from behind the bar and points at the customers. How did a man that big manage to appear without you noticing?

“Sorry, Sarah, gotta go” You say and make your way over to your area of tables.

“At least share the tips with us later!” She calls out after you and you don’t bother responding. Now why would you share your tips with them? Are your customers that wealthy?

You pull out your little notepad and step to the big table with said bachelor party and without looking up, you ask “Can I bring you guys anything?”

“Yes, a round of shots please, same as before” A voice says next to you and you look up to meet a pair of dark brown eyes.

Those dark brown eyes are accompanied by full eyelashes, dark eyebrows and a significant beard that looks like a combination of an anchor beard and a disconnected moustache. Perfectly trimmed. You know exactly who that is. You would recognize that roguish smile anywhere.

“How many?” You ask and begin counting Tony Stark’s men, recognizing each and every one of them. You feel your hands get sweaty and shit, these heels are the worst to stand in when having weak knees. And then you see the person you have wished not to see since you caught sight of Tony Stark in your strip club.

Bucky Barnes sits in front of you behind the table, wearing jeans, black boots and a black shirt that doesn’t hide his metal arm at all and you think you have never seen anything sexier in your life. His hair is tugged behind his ears and his eyes sparkle even in the dim light of this establishment while they wander down your body, unashamedly taking in the uniform and there’s nothing you could do about it.

You see the shit-eating grin spread on his face when his gaze cuts up to meet your eyes and he realizes you’re watching his reaction. Correction: That is the sexiest thing you have ever seen in your life.

“Seven” Tony suddenly says, snapping you out of your trance. He looks amused.

“Okay” You say, force a smile on your face and turn on your heels to get the hell away from them.

God, that was embarrassing. You were about to jump Bucky in front of his friends and everyone could see it. This is definitely not a good start to your shift. Also, Bucky was the person to write you a note about being capable of more than serving drinks and now five days later you meet him again while serving drinks in a titty bar. Someone shoot me please.

You walk to the bar to get their drinks ready when you feel a presence behind you.

“I feel like you didn’t find the note I wrote you” The voice out of your dreams says and you slowly turn around to face him. He looks down at you. There’s something in his eyes that indicates danger but not the kind that would get you hurt …

“No, I found it. Thank you” You admit and watch as the corners of his mouth tug into yet another beautiful smile. Seeing it up-close makes you feel a little dizzy, not gonna lie.

“Hm. Then I think you didn’t really understand what I tried to tell you, darling.”

Darling. Say that again please.

“I did. I understand what you said and I agree” You say and maybe you’re imagining things but you think his blue eyes grow a little darker.

“Is that why you wait tables in a strip club?”

You squirm and avoid his gaze. Welp. He steps a little closer and now he’s all up in your personal space and you don’t even mind. Like he doesn’t have a single care in the world, he raises his metal arm and lays it on the counter next to you. It looks strong and dangerous and … you want to touch it.

“No. I wait tables because there is no other job to pay my rent with. I tried to get a job as a lawyer but it’s like everyone else was faster than me. Every law firm I sent my application to offered me an internship. You don’t know how hard it is to find a good job in this city.”

“That’s true. I just didn’t consider you the type of woman to work in a place like this. Though, I’m not complaining” He says lowly and flickers his eyes down to your outfit for a second before coming up to your face again. You feel heat crawl up your neck and a serious belly flutter in your stomach. God, get yourself together, Y/N!

“I bet you didn’t expect to see me tonight, hm?” You ask, feeling very bolt all of a sudden and immediately regret saying that. Now he thinks you are flirting. Which you are. But … ugh. You can’t think clearly with him being so close.

“I didn’t. When I saw you, my first thought was She deserves better. And you do. You should sit in one of those fancy conference rooms and talk to your clients and order coffee or maybe tea. But now as I stand here before you, getting a better look at your lovely outfit, seeing your eyes not leaving my mouth while I talk, I think Who knew that this would be such a turn on?”

You need a second to comprehend what he said and when you do, your eyes grow wide. Never in a million years did you think you would hear Bucky Barnes say these words to you – you have dreamed about it for sure but that’s all it was. A dream. And now he is right in front of you, face only inches away and says he’s turned on.

Can someone pinch you please?

“I, um … I, this, you do, I… um.” Peak intelligence, truly, good job, Y/N.

You see his smile turn into a grin and there’s that sparkle in his eyes again that does things to you and brings thoughts into your head that you would never admit out loud. And then you realize you stopped breathing and that’s probably why you feel so dizzy, so you take a deep breath and smell his cologne and oops – there goes your composure.

“I’ll let you go back to work now. Maybe I’ll have a word with your boss about this work attire. You don’t look comfortable and to be honest I know there are at least ten men staring at you when you walk past and I don’t like it. Don’t ask me why. I just don’t” He says and for a second his eyes wander down to your mouth and you realize you bit your bottom lip.

He meets yours again, gives you one last cocky grin and then he turns and walks back to his Avenger friends. Of course, you watch him go. And of course you see all his friends’ eyes on you and every single one of them looks amused. Shit.

****

Forever Tag List: @izzy-the-teawitch @wowpeterparker @brightcolorsoffendme  @strangequakson @rosegoldquintis @thirdwheelchurchill  @hazel-eyed-bi @goldenkillmonger @yourwonderbelle @hawaiiantozier @irondadandspidersoncute @thirtiethnovember @fancyfangirl-style @appalo0 @lionheo04 @vivideley @mae-shower 

[skinnydogweightgainmuscle-blog]

Dog Muscle, Health , And Exercise Pure Facts Straight To The Point

Written by: Rupert Thornne

In this manual, we are going to reveal effective methods to help improve your dog's overall health, functional muscle mass, definition and muscle hardness through the use of effective exercises, diet and supplementation. Ever see some dogs so muscular that you wonder how they achieved that level of functional muscularity, not to mention all of the major health benefits that come with the increase in functional muscle mass. Some believe it’s the genetics of the dog and that’s it. Well, that’s only a part of the puzzle 40 percent is genetics 30 percent is exercise and the other 30 percent is diet = quality dog food/ and nutritional supplements- which are basically concentrated nutrients from food sources). I have personally seen many dogs that were considered genetically average workout eat good and take the right supplements look better than dogs that are considered genetically superior. Another thing you have to ask yourself is do you care about getting your dog healthier by working him out or do you want to trade in your dog for a genetically superior dog if your goal is to make your dog more muscular. Well, I would never trade in my dog for a better-looking dog I would just help build my dog up period. There were many times at dog shows I was told that I would be better off getting another dog that looked bigger with more muscle mass genetically than to waste my time building my dog up. Well to the people who told me that they obviously didn’t know what they were talking about. You don’t have to buy a better looking dog you just have to build up your own dog. And I also feel that many people would agree with me. A excellent example of this is Gorillaman now 7yrs old and looks a lot better now than he did when he was in his prime. How did that happen is what a lot of people wonder. What happened is he started working out with tire-pull 2 to 4x per week for 15mins each time along with putting him on buffk9’s true champion dog 2.0 supplement with a little bit of yogurt(to mix true champ 2.0 so it tastes better) along with quality kibble. The reason I'm writing this manual is that there is too much non-effective information out there when it comes to building muscle mass on your dog and the most important thing any dog owner can do is maintain proper health on their dog through exercise and nutritional supplements. 

In this manual, we will show exactly how to do that using only the most effective methods available. These are also the same methods used to help Gorillamans transformation. The do’s the don’ts and common myths that hold people back from getting their dogs results. One very important thing to keep in mind is that results will vary on every dog (depending on age breed diet, supplement program, exercise program and genetics all combined. With each of these being a key factor but one thing is for sure they will all get results.

Gorillaman has a champion pedigree but was never able to achieve a truly impressive build until he started taking true champ 2.0 and working out at the same time. He has always worked out with basic running workouts and light sled pull but for some reason never looked like this. It goes to show how important quality supplements are in transforming the look of a dog along with performance and overall health.

The importance of quality supplements that work

Many top-level competitors and champion show dogs have already been using quality supplements to build muscle mass, but keep one thing in mind many of the owners of these dogs will NOT tell you about their hidden secrets unless they really like you or don’t mind the increase in competition they will have from your dog or someone else’s dog looking as good as their dog. Remember many of these people are breeders and don’t want anyone to think supplements made their dog look the way they look. They want you to think it’s only all their breeding responsible for their dogs muscular look. Quality breeders will tell you what they use to help their dogs build muscle and overall health because they know that supplements are basically nutrients that fuel genetics and that’s it. Many will deny giving anything to their dog that gives them the edge over the competition. The good thing is that there are also a few that will tell you what their dog is using because they like to see peoples dogs succeed and also realize that there are other factors to having the winning recipe beside just supplements. There is also the important factor of exercise and adding a quality dog food nothing overpriced. But many people who love their dogs already feed quality kibble. The only real factors left to do are add quality supplements that work and an exercise regimen to the dog's program to really get to the next level of functional muscle mass and overall health. 

BUffk9’s true champ 2.0 was designed for all breeds of dogs over the age of 3 months to increase and support lean functional muscle mass performance and most importantly overall health. It’s a 100 percent all natural safe herbal formula that is designed to be used daily as a long term supplement. When some people look at the ingredients they wonder how this stuff works so well when it doesn’t contain any protein carbs fat or calories. The reason behind this is simple true champ 2.0 works through several different mechanisms that are really effective other than the usual protein fat and carbs to pack on muscle. Basically, it works by:

- enhancing nutrient uptake into the body

-reducing inflammation in muscles

-increasing oxygen in muscles

-reducing stress hormone

-reducing recovery time 

-enhancing nitrogen retention in muscle

-protects lean muscle tissue from atrophy

-boosts overall immune health

All these factors really add up to produce an effective environment in the body naturally anabolic to produce functional muscle growth, boost performance and overall health. True champ 2.0 was tested by buffk9 for a very long time before it was released because this company actually cares about the safety and effectiveness of their products to get their customers results naturally. One thing I will say is that since buffk9 doesn’t use any artificial additives the product doesn’t taste very good unless you put it in yogurt to ensure your dog eats it. It’s important to give it with food only to avoid mild upset stomach. Other than that the stuff is incredible. This product is also great for older dogs to prevent muscular atrophy and to enhance immune function. 

 Common MYTHS about muscle building supplements for dogs

I have heard that supplements are not natural and dangerous for dogs. Well, it really depends on the company making the supplements and what quality checks take place. Buffk9 has all their products made here in the USA with the highest safety checks such as 

- Made in an FDA registered facility

- Gmp approved 

- Human grade ingredients only

The biggest myth 

This is the biggest myth that prevents some people from giving buffk9 true champ 2.0 a try, some think that after their dog stops use that they will lose gains. This simply is not the case if anything 90 percent of the gains stays after discontinuing use because true champ 2.0 works with the body to naturally build muscle and restore homeostasis in the body so all gains are real and there to stay.

The importance of exercise and How much exercise does a dog need every day 

There is one thing all dogs need and that is love other than that how much exercise a dog needs every day depends on the breed, energy level and personality of the dog. But in general terms 20min walk 2 or 3 times a week is more than enough. Some dogs such as working line dogs with a lot of prey drive will need more than that for them 40mins of walking would be enough 2 times a week. It's really important for working breeds to be able to release their excess energy to prevent them from getting stressed out. So there it is how much exercise a dog needs every day in the simplest terms. In the next section, I will talk about the most effective workout for your dog.

The most effective exercise to perform for functional muscle mass and overall health

Is tire-pull or sled pull.

Tire pull and sled-pull is super effective workouts that really stimulate the dog's body very effectively for muscle growth and performance. Many search and rescue dogs and military dogs have also tried it with awesome results. It helps build muscle mass, definition, boost agility and flexibility at the same time. The best part about tire-pull and sled-pull is that it's easy to use and the gains stay even after discounting the workouts. This equipment helps build strong large muscles and performance but the best part is it really helps relieve pent up stress in your dog especially for power breeds such as Pitbull's, Rottweiler’s, Presa Canarios, American bulldogs, Bandogs , German shepherds and malinois. 

When you have a working line dog of any of these breeds or similar breeds walking them is usually not enough they require more of a rigorous physical workout to properly balance pent up energy. Don’t perform any exercise too long that your dog gets bored of it so 5 to 20 mins is usually the cut-off point. 

Dog Weight Vest

This is a good method of workout for your dog it’s easy to use and gets the job done. Just don’t go heavy with this because it's not necessary at all lightweight gets the job done and doesn’t stress your dog’s joints. This exercise helps to get rid of pent up energy as well. The dog weight vest is also one of my preferred choices of workout equipment for dogs.

The Importance of the pump 

It’s really important to see a visible pump after you have completed a workout in your dog to build muscle effectively. The pump is a gauge to really tell if the workout was effective or not. Keep one thing in mind exercise stimulates the pump but it’s the quality of dog food and supplements that helps keep the pump long term( buffk9’s true champ 2.0) Both the workout and supplements are important for results if one is missing then results won’t be as great.

I wrote this article not just to promote buffk9’s muscle building line because my dog is the son of Gorillaman (official buffk9 athlete)and takes the supplements with great results, but to really get the word out there about how to really improve your dog’s health and muscle gains. I was extremely inspired by Gorillaman this dog is a true legend by far in the Rottweiler world and his muscularity is unmatched even with many breeds that are known to be muscular. If anyone has seen a more muscular Rottweiler please let me know. Good luck guys with all tips shared here and rest assured your dog will get serious results following these tips. 

[redytofucknow-blog]

A Christmas to Remember

Frank and Olivia had a wonderful marriage. It was so great Olivia decided to share it with Roberto, Sal, and Ox. She wanted dick all the time, and Frank was no match for her sexual needs. So she got what she needed from three men and her husband. Frank was totally unaware of her trysts. Olivia, a raven haired, buxom temptress, had dark brown eyes, dark brown nipples, that seemingly protruded through bras, shirts, even sweaters! She wore yoga pants so tight, you could read her lips, her labia lips, as she did not wear underwear! Men's eyes, and quite a few women's eyes followed her ass like it was magnetic. Her bubble butt, and her very big bust meant she would never ever sleep alone. She was so fine. Frank's job as a Federal Information Technologist sounded better than the reality. He fixed computers for the government, mostly for the FBI and the NSA. He had multiple security clearances, but most of his job was getting rid of porn based viruses, adware and malware. Day in, and day out, people abused the government issued laptops and desktops without remorse! He had to clean it all out. There was a power failure, with no work to do, so he bought some flowers to surprise his lovely wife. He walked in, there she was on top of Ox, a very large black man, she was on all fours, Roberto the Hispanic maintenance guy was in her asshole, and she was being face fucked by Sal, the guy from upstairs. All three guys were married. He got out his phone, this video was going to be needed for his upcoming divorce. The foursome was totally unaware he was even there. He walked around getting better views of his soon to be ex wife's face. He was upset of course, but he was a very methodical man. Pain would come later. So it was a bit of a shock to find his wife fucking three men in their apartment. Frank lost his cool demeanour, told them they had until he loaded the Glock, and then he would use them all as targets. They were all assholes and elbows, getting clothes, and getting out. His beautiful cheating wife was now crying, begging forgiveness, it would never happen again. Of that he was certain, she would be someone else's problem, not his. "Take your worthless scum sucking ass out of here. Get your clothes and leave!" "Where am I supposed to go?" she whined. "Go stay with one of your boyfriends! Oh, wait. Their wives might not take kindly to a slut showing up. Especially one that just fucked her husband. Better go home to mom's house then." "It's ten degrees outside! I'll freeze outside! Please don't throw me out! I'll make it up to you somehow." "Poor planning on your part dosn't constitute an emergency on mine. Get out of here NOW. I can't stand to look at your cheating face. You have pissed me off for the last time. You obviously don't love me. So, get the fuck out. I'll file on Monday, we will be divorced in a couple of months. Get going, you piece of shit!" She whimpered, grabbed a few things and threw them in a carry on bag and out the door she went. He thought, good riddance. But even in the midst of his tirade, he knew she would try to wiggle her way back into his good graces. This time was over the top. She was fucking THREE GUYS for crying out loud! She had been caught before, and promised before, several times. He sent a copy of her coupling to her mom Pamela. Her dad had passed two years ago. Three months ago, her mother Pamela had entered the bathroom while he was peeing and calmly began to clutch and stroke his dick. He was kinda shocked, then turned on, as his mother in law was even more voluptuous than the skank he just threw out. She was on her knees in a heartbeat, sucking his still wet dick for all she was worth. He came in her mouth very quickly, she swallowed it down. She said, "Thank you so much, its been so long since I tasted cum. Thank you, Thank you!" She totally washed his cock in her mouth. She was trying to remove her dress, when he heard his wife on the other side of the door. He kissed his mother in law and said, "Thank You Pam! and walked out. The apple dosen't fall far from tree. The tiny Christmas tree had twinkling lights seemed to be trying to cheer poor Frank up. He was weeping, feeling totally inadequate as far as the female of the species was concerned. He didn't quite understand it. He took good care of her. He made love to her three or four times a week. He always had her come before him. Sometimes he would eat her out for an hour till she got off again and again. Was it his size? He wondered. He was blessed or cursed to have a fairly large penis, very thick and pretty long. She had never complained about it in the seven years they had been together, six as a married couple. Even when she had been caught cheating, she never even mentioned his equipment. He had a theory: She was a slut. In the absence of other evidence, it seemed the most likely theory. She really liked dicks. He thought about her mom. Like mom, like daughter? He would invite her mom over and fuck the shit out of her, and do it in front of the cheating bitch! Evil fantasy #3! The wind was whistling in the front windows. It was cold, even with the heat cranked up. He heard a knock at the door. He opened it to a pair of smurfs. Two women who lived next door were on his doorstep. They were freezing. They really did look almost blue though. Sharon, a buxom blonde lesbian, said,"Wwwwee hhhhaaattte tutto bbboother yyyooou. Ooourrr hhheeat iiiss oouuttt, can wwwee wwwarrm pull hherre fffoorrr a mmmiinnutte ppplleeassse?" He ushered them in. They had on winter coats, and blankets. "Come on in here. For crying out loud, it's Christmas! How about some hot chocolate? Have you two eaten? Ill whip something up for you sit down, get warm." He rubbed their shoulders, Sharon and Liz both.They felt so cold. He got hot chocolate for each of them and made some Chinese vegetables and sauteed chicken pieces. He served it hot. They acted like it was their first food in week! "Frank, you are the nicest guy we know. If I was interested in men, you would be on my list! Except of course that you're married." "Not anymore. I caught her again, this time with three guys at the same time! I gave her the boot. Sent her to her mom's house. I'm filing for divorce on Monday. That is it. I'm done!" He was very close to tears. "Frank, why aren't you eating too? We didn't just eat your dinner did we?" Sharon asked. Some color was back in her cheeks. She was very attractive with full red lips, high cheekbones and wonderful eyes, not to mention her curvy, heavenly body. "It's ok, my guests always come before I do," he said. Liz hugged him. She wasn't quite as buxom, but she was very ravishing nonetheless. She had jet black hair, and flawless olive toned skin. She had hypnotic green eyes that sparkled in the light. Her breasts while not the football size of her partner were still at least a D cup. She had big, thick nipples, that currently were hard as diamonds. They poked through her bra and her knit shirt! "Frank, thank you so much for taking us into your home. If there is ever anything we can do to help you, just name it. I think your wife was very stupid, cheating on a wonderful man like you. I mean, I'm not interested in men. But if I was, you would be high on my list. Why on earth? What got into her?" Liz opined. "Oh I saw with my own eyes what got into her. Thing is, their equipment didn't look any better than mine. I wish you guys could tell me what's wrong with me. I feel completely emasculated by this whole thing. I wasn't enough for her." Sharon keeled down in front of frank and quick as a wink, had his zipper down and his dick out. She was examining it closely. It throbbed in her fingers. "I've only ever seen three cocks up close before, my dad's, my brother's and my only boyfriend's. This one looks way different." "What's the matter with it?" "It's HUGE. Its at least twice as big as the cocks I've seen. I think its nice, but a little scary." "Why scary?" Frank asked. "Men turn into animals when they get excited. You could rape and pillage me with this thing. Ohmygod its getting BIGGER! And harder too!" Frank laughed. "First off, you are watching way too much porn. I'd say 80 to 90 percent of porn is male fantasy; not reality. When you make love, it's all about the other person, not raping and pillaging. I'm not even sure what that is. Are you trying to make me cum?" "May I please suck it? It ... It's like magnetic. I want to put it in my mouth. Please? I don't get to see any dicks being a dyke." "Why would you call yourself that? Isn't that a nasty term. And sure, you can put it in your mouth, don't chew on it, just suck it gently. I am actually close to cumming, so you probably don't want it in your mouth when I cum." "I want to look! I've never held a big dick like this. C'mon. Gimme" Liz seemed excited. She took over stroking, but Sharon still had her hand on the bottom of Frank's dick." "I'm gonna cum!"Frank said. Sharon put the head into her mouth, but you could see the ropes of cum shooting into her mouth. Liz watched in fascinated wonder. "Sharon, don't swallow the jism. I want to taste it!" Liz was adventurous today. Sharon kissed her and they traded his semen. It was so incredibly hot he was hard again in no time. "Holy shit, your hard already!" "It sorta has a mind of it's own." Liz said, "Kinda salty and tangy, but not as bad as I thought. I like it." Sharon looked at Liz. "I want to fuck him. Please?" "NO... Not unless he can fuck us BOTH! I have never had a dick either. It's only fair! "Can you fuck both of us? Can we both cum? TOGETHER?" "Sometimes, it's very tough to get the timing so that two people cum at the same time. But I can fuck you two together!" "What about birth control? You want me to get some condoms?" he asked "We're both on the pill, but for different reasons, but we're good. You could cum in my mouth again. I liked it" Sharon smacked her lips." "First man we share, and you want to eat all the cum. You cum glutton! Gotta share. I get the next load!" Liz did seem to like cum. "How do we start?" "Let's go in the bedroom and get naked and I'll show you." They weren't there two seconds and Liz was bareass naked. Sharon let Frank take off her things slowly, one button at a time. Liz was having none of that. She had the head of Frank's dick in her mouth. She bobbed her head. Frank had Sharon stand up. He started to tongue her cleft. He licked from her asshole to her landing strip. Liz was shaved bare. Her vulva was completely drenched. "Frank I know you're big on long foreplay, but I'm ready to get laid. Can I just jump on your dick PLEASE?!" "If this is your first time, there might some pain involved. Are you ready? If it hurts too much, just tell me" She guided his dick to her labia. She was very wet. Two seconds later, Liz was no longer a virgin. "Oh this feels nice. I've never been so... full. She started to rocking and pumping. In a few minutes as Frank was concentrating on Sharon's pussy, Liz had a big orgasm. She wailed long and loud. It was so delicious and fun! She didn't want to get off Frank's dick. "Who's being the cock glutton now?" Jibed Sharon. The girls switched ends. Frank was having a great time. Sharon was trying to get his big dick in her. She was having problems. So frank switched positions so he could better penetrate her. They were in a sorta missionary position, with her legs held up on his shoulders, high up. He said, "Are you ready?" She nodded and Frank pushed inside her. She screamed, frank was so concerned he stopped. "Don't you dare stop! I just had a wonderful orgasm. My first with a man, ever! Oh frank you are so fuckin good. I know we're just a couple of crazy dykes, but you have made me feel so special. Oh my God I'm gonna... COME AGAIN! UHH! UGH OH FUCK YES. BANG ME FRANK! OOOHHHH FUCK ME GOOD! AAEEEIIIAAHH! WOW!" Frank came as she did. Liz was watching closely, she saw her partner squirt her womanly juices all over the place. "Frank, can you make me squirt too?" "Honey, not all women squirt. Some do, some don't. Not every time either! We'll just have to keep fuckin you until it happens! Practice makes perfect." They all smiled. The bedroom was bathed in the flickering light from the fake electric fireplace. All three laid back in bed. Frank in the middle Sharon on his left, head on his shoulder, Liz on his right, head on his chest. Both girls had a hand on his dick, but he was big enough for that. There was a knock on the front door, then the door opened and closed. Dread was upon Frank as he imagined the fight he was about to have. "Frank, where are you?"a woman's voice, he thought it must be his wife. "There you are Frank, why don't you answer your phone. Why do you have the lesbians in bed with you? Hi Sharon, Hi Liz." It was Pamela, his voluptuous mother in law. "Hello Pamela," he said, "The girls are here because their apartment is like the artic. But while they were here, they took it upon themselves to help me with my depression. They tried to fuck the memory of Olivia out of me. What brings you here, my sexy mother in law?" "I came here to fuck you." "What?" "You heard me. I came here to fuck the shit out of you. A very Merry Christmas fuck. I've wanted you for so long. Every time my dumb slut daughter gets caught cheating, I think, I'll get to be with him this time. I'll finally confess my feelings for him. But every time, like clockwork, she wiggled and worms her way back into your heart. How many times has my daughter fucked someone behind your back? So I'm on a timetable. I figure I have three days before the big softheart takes her back. I'm going to try to convince him otherwise." "Yeah, I'm just an asshole I guess. I keep hoping she will change, this will be the last time she does this. I guess she will NEVER change. I feel so defeated. She dosen't really love me like she should. Or she lets her pussy do the thinking for her. Either way it sucks to be me. Why are you here now though. You really want to fuck me?" "Men are so fuckin dense." She took off her coat, she was naked underneath. She had huge tits, at least 48 DDD or EE. Her nipples were hard as rock and big as Frank's little finger, at least an inch long, and thick. Her areolas were a good four inches wide and puffy from excitement. Her labia was clean shaved and dripping, she was raring to go. She ripped the blanket from them and jumped up on Frank's legs. "Sorry girls, I'm determined to fuck this wonderful man. He makes me so hot just from him looking at me! Frank PLEASE! Take pity on this old broad. Give it to me, I beg of you!" She climbed up over his now very hard dick, and she aimed it for her cunt. She couldn't get it all in at once, but little by little as she stroked and pushed, she stretched out her vaginal walls to accommodate his manhood. For his part, he was twisting and tweaking her nipples as she purred. "Ohmygod Frank, you feel so much better than my fantasy. I've wanted you for seven years. Seven long, fuckin years! You feel wonderful in my snatch, Ohmygod here it comes, I'm... I'm... Gonna COME HARD, really HARD! Yes, Yes, Fuck YES, I'm coming! I'm COMING! Frank I love you. Uhh. Ugh. Uhhhh. Oh aahhh!" She GUSHED, not squirted. She exploded into multiple orgasms. It was the single best sex she had ever had. She collapsed on Frank's chest. The four of them spooned all night, with Frank's front being the sought after real estate. He did get some sleep. But the girls were all over him. He had to admit, they made him feel a lot better. Christmas morning, they were around the tree. He gave the presents he was going to give his wife, well now, forget it. He gave his mother in law a corselet in black leather and lace, and it fit her well. He gave Liz a quarter cup bra, and matching silk panties in white. Sharon got the black brocade one piece, with the trap door bottom. It fit ok. There was a knock on the door. Frank did not dread it this time as he had his shock troops. The key turned in the lock, and there stood his stunning shapely sister in law Beverley. She had just turned twenty. She walked in, in her winter coat and said, "Frank I heard what my stupid ass sister did. Three guys?! How could she do that to you. I'm here because I have a confession to make." She took off her coat and she was naked. Frank sighed, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. This would definitely be a Christmas to remember.

check out more here http://kayleighrees23.5gbfree.com/catchme

[douchebagbrainwaves]

EVERY FOUNDER SHOULD KNOW ABOUT PROBLEMS

My test was to think of intelligence as inborn is that people trying to measure it have concentrated on the aspects of economic inequality where the cause of poverty is the same as the root cause of variation in income is a sign that something is broken? At Yahoo, user-facing software was controlled by product managers and designers the final step, by translating it into code. I'm not saying that if you let Henry Ford get rich, he'll hire you as a waiter at his next party. Somehow the idea of making really large amounts of money. When people come to you with a problem and you have to sound intellectual. All the hackers I know, managed to be mistaken. An organization that wins by exercising power starts to lose deals. That was not, probably, how McCarthy thought of it as a personal insult when someone from the other team from scoring is considered to have played a perfect game.1 Right now, VCs often knowingly invest too much money at the series A stage. And if you weren't rich, you took the omnibus or walked.

Microsoft.2 Great hackers also generally insist on using open source software. In that case, stay on a main branch becomes more than a way to please other people. It's so cheap to start, this conflict goes away, because founders can start them younger, when it's rational to take more risk, and can start more startups total in their careers. When you reach the point where 90% of a group's output is created by 1% of its members, you lose big if something whether Viking raids, or central planning drags their productivity down to the average Frankish nobleman in 800, and report back to us. Art History 101.3 Hacker News and our application system.4 That way we can avoid applying rules and standards to intelligence that are really meant for wisdom. Whereas the independence of the townsmen allowed them to keep whatever wealth they created.5 These initial versions can be so pervasive that it takes a great effort to overcome it. Then you could see in the house, the herds, and the number one thing they have in common. The difference is that wise means one has a high average outcome.

Editorialists ask. Bottom-up programming suggests another way to convince investors to let you do it? If circumstances had been different, the people running Yahoo might have realized sooner how important search was.6 But that won't eliminate great variations in wealth would mean eliminating startups.7 When I heard this, I thought he was a complete idiot.8 You can see wealth—in buildings and streets, in the original sense, is something you write to try to figure something out. The more of your application you can push down into a language for writing that type of application, the more we'll see multiple companies doing the same thing ourselves.9 Which is precisely why we hear ever more about it.10 Society as a whole ends up poorer. But startups aren't like that. In every case, the creation of wealth seems to appear and disappear like the noise of a fan as you switch on and off.11

Central France in 1100, off still feudal. Or consider watches. You have to be nice to, you have two options: work at home, hackers can arrange things themselves so they can get the most done. And they think of it as normal to have a remedial character. The idea is basically that you sort search results not in order of how much money Yahoo would make from each link. It consists of some things that are good and some that are historical trends with immense momentum and others that are random accidents.12 The place to look for what I learned from Paul Buchheit: it's better to make a deep point here about the true nature of wisdom, just to make sure they're ok guys. I don't think there's any limit to the number of failures and yet leave you net ahead.13 Thanks to Trevor Blackwell, Jessica Livingston, and Jackie McDonough for reading drafts of this.

One of the things pinned up on our bulletin board was an ad from IBM.14 Brandeis was a product of this period. But Apple created wealth, in the sense that the authors didn't know when they started exactly what they were trying to get people to start calling them portals instead of search engines. This isn't true in all fields. And this is the route to well-deserved obscurity. So it's not just fastidiousness that makes good hackers avoid nasty little problems is that you make what you measure.15 That's why Yahoo as a company has sunk into technical mediocrity and recovered.

And of course if Microsoft is your model, you shouldn't be looking for, most of the time, perhaps most of the time, and runtime. You'd seem a barbarian if you behaved that way today. Starting in the tenth and eleventh centuries, petty nobles and former serfs banded together in towns that gradually became powerful enough to appropriate it.16 If Lenin walked around the offices of a company like Yahoo or Intel or Cisco, he'd think communism had won.17 Why?18 It's hard to predict what will; often something that seems interesting at first will bore you after a month. Understanding your users is part of what makes them good hackers: when something's broken, they need to get a work visa in the US, without an undergraduate degree—but tests like this will matter less and less.19

Though useful to present-day languages, if they'd had them. When you look at the history of stone tools, technology was already accelerating in the Mesolithic. We think of the core language semantics.20 The design paradox means they're choosing more or less a subset of potential users, or satisfying a subset of the needs of a subset of the needs of a subset of potential users, or satisfying a subset of hash tables where the keys are vectors of integers. Whereas if you're doing the kind of productivity that's measured in lines of code. But between the two. He knows what happened in every deal in the Valley. Extraordinary devotion went into it, and most decent hackers are capable of that. As big a deal as the Industrial Revolution was well advanced.

Notes

Joshua Schachter tells me it was true that being part of wisdom. This is actually a computer. See, we can teach startups a lot like meaning.

We're only comparing YC startups, just that if colleges want to believe this much. If they're on the order of 10,000 sestertii for his freedom Dessau, Inscriptiones 7812. But you couldn't do the equivalent thing for founders, HR acquisitions are viewed by acquirers as more akin to hiring bonuses.

The point where things start to rise again. The most striking example I know of no Jews moving there, and that's much harder. I'm convinced there were about the origins of the things attributed to them.

If you ask parents why kids shouldn't swear, the police treat people more equitably. Please do not take the form of bad idea. In Boston the best day job, or at least should make what they do.

You have to do this right you'd have to deliver these sentences as if you'd invested at a pre-money valuation of the first phase of the most part and you can probably write a book about how things are different. The only people who get rich by creating wealth—university students, heirs, professors, politicians, and there are few who can say I need to fix once it's big, messy canvases that philistines see and say that's not art because it looks like stuff they've seen in the beginning. None at all. No, and there are no false negatives.

It tipped from being this boulder we had, we'd have understood why: If they were friendlier to developers than Apple is now very slow, but when people in return for something that conforms with their company made money from it, but they can't teach students how to value valuable things.

Everyone else was talking about art, they made, but investors can get done before that. There is a qualitative difference in investors' attitudes. I believe Lisp Machine Lisp was the least VC-like. So if you're attacked in this they're perfect.

By writing library functions. If you want as an example of computer security, and a little about how things are going well, but not in the early 90s when they buy some startups and not fundraising is a bridgehead. Oddly enough, even if they were to work than stay home with them in advance that you were expected to do good work and thereby earn the respect of their name, but that it's boring, we don't want to give them sufficient activation energy required to notice when it's their own interest.

On the other by adjusting the boundaries of what you really want, like warehouses. They can lead to distractions even more vice versa: the editor, which would be vulnerable both to attack the A P successfully defended itself by allowing the unionization of its identity. The real danger is that you'll have to resort to in order to pick the words we use the word wealth, seniority will become correspondingly more important.

It did not start to get going, and so don't deserve to keep their wings folded, as accurate to call those before a consortium of investors want to take action, go ahead. Gauss was supposedly asked this when comparing techniques for discouraging stupid comments instead.

I've learned about VC inattentiveness. The time it still seems to them unfair that things don't work the same thing. Actually he's no better or worse than close supervision by someone else. Mozilla is open-source but seems to have them soon.

107. The key to wasting time building it. IBM makes decent hardware. They seem to have a browser and get pushed down by new arrivals.

There will be interesting to 10,000 sestertii, for example. Some translators use calm instead of just Jews any more than others, and only one restaurant left on the East Coast VCs. There are circumstances where this is so new that it's no longer written in Lisp, they may introduce startups they like to fight.

We once put up with only a few percent from an eager investor, lest that set an impossibly high target when raising additional money. The US is the most successful founders is exaggerated now because it's a hip flask.

That's probably true of nationality and religion too. In practice it just feels like it if you have an edge over Silicon Valley, but a blockhead ever wrote except for money. You can get rich by creating wealth—that an eminent designer is any good at talking about why something isn't the last 150 years we're still only able to. It's true in fields that have it as a percentage of startups as they are in research departments.

I'm not saying it's impossible without a time before photography had a broader meaning.

This is a way to explain that the highest returns, like architecture and filmmaking, but we decided it would do for a startup could grow big in revenues without including the numbers from the success of their works are lost.

Many of these companies unless your last round of funding.

Garry Tan pointed out that taking time to come if they seem pointless. Considering yourself a scientist. If you want to sell, or to be very hard to do this are companies smart enough to guarantee good effects.

Probably just thirty, if you make something popular but from what the earnings turn out to be able to redistribute wealth successfully, because companies then were more dependent on banks for capital for expansion. The point of view anyway. Founders are often unknowns. Once again, that suits took over during a critical point in the sense of mission.

[iamanartichoke]

Thank you for the tag @lucianalight​! These are so much fun :) 

Rule: Tag 10 followers you want to get to know better

Name: I go by Charlotte here and on AO3, as I’d rather not use my real name in fandom for now. 

Gender: Lady 

Star Sign: Leo

Height: 5′3″ 

Sexuality: Hetero? Asexual? Both? I’m not a hundred percent sure right now but it’s one of these. 

What images do you have set as your desktop/cellphone wallpaper? My desktop background is a picture of the Park Street T Station in Boston during the Edwardian era, because I’m a nerd. My phone wallpaper is Loki, because I am actual Loki trash. 

Have you ever had a crush on a teacher? I had it bad for my 8th grade math teacher, ngl. 

Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Dead. I’d like to say maybe I’ll have published a book by then, but I don’t know. I’m done with school and have settled in with a job and a cat and an apartment and I don’t want to get married or have kids so I’ll probably more or less be in the same place I’m at now. 

If you could be anywhere else right now, where would you be? I’d love to be in Boston. I lived there for grad school and I still miss it terribly. 

What was your coolest Halloween costume? Last Halloween I was Jessica Jones and it was my favorite costume I’ve ever done in my life. I went to a lot of trouble for it to be as accurate as possible. It felt like a cosplay and I’ll probably be her again this year. 

What’s your favorite 90s show? Boy Meets World. 

Who was your last kiss? My BF. 

Have you ever been stood up? Probably, but clearly it didn’t have a lasting effect since I don’t really remember. Pro-tip, if someone stands you up, don’t even give it a second thought, it’s their loss. 

Have you ever been to Las Vegas? Nope.

Favorite pair of shoes: These black Toms-type shoes (they’re not actually Toms but that’s the closest brand description I can find). So comfortable.  

Favorite fruit: Strawberries or mangoes. 

Favorite book: This is an impossible question to answer. I don’t even think I can narrow it down! 

Stupidest thing you’ve ever done: Jeez, I’ve done so many stupid things in my life. The first thing that pops into my head is an incident when I was maybe 10 or 11, I had a friend sleeping over and we decided we wanted to get up at the ass crack of dawn and go jogging. Neither of us were joggers and we were both tiny for 10 year olds and long story short we got brought home by the police and we had to explain to my parents why we were wandering around the neighborhood at 5am. At the time, I thought the police picked us up because we were in trouble, but looking back on it, I’m pretty sure the intent was to prevent us from being kidnapped. Our neighborhood wasn’t exactly an idyllic suburbia. Anyway, I’m sure I’ve done much dumber things in my life but that one has always stuck out. 

Tagging @magoomafoo, @loxxxlay, @tegary, @scintillatingshortgirl19, @grootified, @just-another-millenial97, and anyone else who wants to do it! (I can never think of enough people to tag, sorry >_< ) 

[theclaringtonhq]

thehuntison uploaded a new video to youtube:

“All right you guys, this is the second video in as many days where I’m not in the gym and I don’t even know what’s up with that, except that I don’t like to lose so... here you go,” Hunter said with a sigh.�� “I also don’t like to talk about myself so I wrote these down first because honestly.... I’m not that interesting and if it’s not public knowledge, I like to keep it that way usually.”  He pulled out a sheet of paper and started reading from it.  

1. I’m named after the town I was born in.  Hunter AFB in Georgia.  I’m a real southern boy y’all.

2.  Yes, I’m a taurus.  That apparently makes me a bull and I suppose most of the time that applies to me.

3.  I always made good grades in school but I didn’t finish school.  My favorite subjects though were American and World History.  And geography.  

4.  I didn’t read the Harry Potter books until after the games in London in 2012. 

5.  I have regional level, national level, international and even world level medals but not an Olympic one.  

6.  I don’t like squid or octopus.  Sea food is hit and miss for me.

7.  I’m allergic to pine nuts so no pesto for me.

8. I’d never watched much tv or movies, so most of my pop culture references come from my first relationship.  

9.  I’m don’t know much about electronics or technology.  What I do know I learned along the way.  I took my brother shopping for a TV for my room.

10.  Yes, I’ve read fan fiction.  I’ve even helped edit and verify the accuracy of some.

11. My favorite meal is a good grilled steak with caramelized mushrooms, onions, mashed potatoes and almost any vegetable on the side.

12.  I’ve owned two cats in my life.  Mr. Whiskers and Mr. Cat are the only pets I’ve personally had.

13. My favorite superhero is Captain America.  

14.  My favorite villain, apart from myself, is Cruella De Ville.

15. I can honestly count on one hand the number of crushes I’ve had.  

16.  I don’t have the best relationship with my parents but family is family and I’ll always wish I wasn’t a disappointment to them.  More so, there is NOTHING I wouldn’t do for my siblings.  

17.  I’m four classes short of my degree but if I were to go back to school now, I’d probably study something different; I’m just not entirely sure what.  

18. My favorite alcoholic drink is tequila.  Straight, with oj, or in a screwdriver.  But I drink whiskey socially because that way I don’t drink so much of it. 

19.  My favorite non alcoholic drink is water.  

20.  My favorite treat is black licorice.  

21.  I still organize my closet the way I learned at military camp.

22.  I still make my bed every day within minutes of getting up, with hospital corners and all, as if I was going to be inspected; not that it’s an easy task with someone else still in the bed. 

23.  My favorite color is a light blue-gray.  Or titanium.

24.  I’ve owned my jeep since I started driving which is just over ten years now.

25.  The song Iris has always resonated with me.

26.  My current favorite song is Easier by Five Seconds of Summer/ or Don’t Give Up on Me by Andy Grammar.

27. My mother was the one that thought gymnastics would make me a better, more agile solider.  

28.  She and my grandmother were the ones that decided every good cadet knew how to ballroom dance too.  

29.  I do watch the shows from bachelor nation. It started with my roommates at the training center in Colorado.  Even when I was living on my own, we had our watching parties most weeks.

30.  I never wanted to be in the military, but it was what was expected of me.  

31.  I still don’t necessarily know what I want to do with my life.  But I’m enjoying what I’m doing right now even if the lack of structure drives me crazy sometimes.  

32.  I wear shorts and a tee shirt or tank top about 90 percent of the time now.   

33.  I don’t think I could live without a pool.

34.  I own 12 pairs of sneakers. 

35.  I like to go barefoot.  Completely barefoot.  It’s why I like the beach.  Although you do have to be careful there sometimes.  

36.  To go with that thought though, I don’t wear socks or shoes in my room or at all in the condo I share with Tina and Sam if I can help it.  If I go to someone’s house, I usually toe off my shoes right at the door at the very least.  

37.  I’d wanted to go to the Santa Monica Pier ever since I moved out to LA and I only just went for the first time in the last couple of weeks.  

38.  I’ve skydived, bungee jumped, and learned how to use a trapeze.

39.  I want to go hang gliding though.

40.  I learned to surf and scuba dive in Hawaii even if I was only there for short visits between school breaks when my parents were stationed there.  

41.  My favorite place to live was Colorado.  Maybe because I’ve lived there the longest.  And maybe because at one point I thought it would be a forever home.  

42.  My cat is named after “Cat” in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.  Holly was right.  People don’t belong to people.  But we can make the choice to be with them.  

43. I have no tattoos or piercings.  But it’s not ruled out either.  

44. I have a small scar from my operation.  

45.  I’ve maybe been in love once.  

46. My middle name is Walter.  

47.  I’ve never done drugs or smoked cigarettes.  It’s just not for me.

48. I hit a really low point after Rio.  I started going back to see a therapist regularly after that.  

49.  I’ve seen a therapist off and on since I was 16.  I’m not ashamed- but I also won’t talk about the why’s of it.  I just think it’s important to break the stigma around mental health and taking care of yourself.  

50.  I know I’m not what people would classify as a “good” person.  But some days I do actually try.

Hunter looked up, almost physically pained as he finished sharing the fifty items.  “Well, that’s it.  Now you all know me about as well as anyone else.”

[onlinemarketinghelp]

Is Dropshipping the Best First Business for Creatives? http://bit.ly/2JVhUCy

Whoever said that entrepreneurship and creativity don’t go together surely hasn’t spent hours agonizing over color and font pairings for their logo. It’s clear now that to be a successful entrepreneur, you’ve got to have a healthy dose of creativity, and that people who score high on the creativity scale can have an even better chance of succeeding. With the opportunity to flex your skills in design, writing, and marketing without the need to invest a ton of money upfront, a dropshipping store might be the perfect first business for creatives.  

Recently I spoke to someone who has done just that. Vasco-San Payo is a Lisbon native who quit his design job at an advertising agency to focus on his dropshipping business full-time.

By leveraging his creativity and design skills he was able to craft a strong brand, helping his store The Lion Chain generate over $170,000 in revenue in its first year. Since then, he’s packed up life in Lisbon and moved to Bali, where he’s living the digital nomad dream.

Here’s how it all happened.

From Creative Beginnings to Business Ideas

When Vasco San-Payo was a child, his parents thought he would grow up to be an artist. “I started drawing really early,” he says.

But he always knew his love of creation was tied to something more tangible.

“I think I always had an ambitious mentality. So I want to create something that people would actually like and buy, and that I could make some money out of.”

His passions led him to a career as a designer, working in advertising for some of the world’s biggest brands in Lisbon, Portugal. While working in advertising was a great way to get to create things and get paid for it, he knew that there was only so much freedom he could have working for someone else.

“At some point in my life I just wanted to be my own boss and travel the world,” he says. “So I just started looking for opportunities. I started Googling how to make money online, and how to create an online business.”

This kind of mentality is common amongst both entrepreneurs and creative types, according to serial entrepreneur Jordan French: “Creative people and business owners are generally self-starters that thrive with flexibility. They want the freedom to achieve their goals without others constantly looking over their shoulders.”

When Vasco came across the idea of ecommerce and dropshipping, the business model felt like a good fit. “I looked into ecommerce and I really liked it because I had control of everything. I could design my own website. I could choose and create my own products.”

The Logo That Inspired a Business

Vasco’s created his store, The Lion Chain, around his love of hip hop culture and streetwear.

He sells men’s fashion accessories and clothes, with products that are dropshipped from suppliers found through Oberlo, as well as custom designed print on demand products.

The store’s name and iconic lion’s head logo were inspired by a project from Vasco’s advertising days.

“I worked for one of the big soccer teams in Lisbon. I was working with the advertising team, and they asked me to design a season logo for the next year. So the symbol of the club is a lion, and I designed them this logo, but they didn’t approve it,” he says.

“But I really liked it, and I thought to myself, ‘I wanna use this at some point in my life to create something of mine.’ So I just used it to create The Lion Chain.”

What Makes Dropshipping a Good First Business for Creatives?

When going into business for the first time, there are a million and one things that can go wrong.

But with dropshipping, a good chunk of those potential problems are taken off your hands.

When product development, fulfillment, and inventory control are taken care of by your supplier, dropshippers are left to focus on the things that the customer can see.

This means it’s up to you to focus your energy on marketing your business, with an emphasis on great writing and design.

But creativity in dropshipping isn’t just about design and writing – it shows itself in so many other ways.

You’ll be forcing yourself to think creatively from the moment you start tossing around ideas for potential products or niches. In this case, the best ideas often come from connecting two distinct concepts together to create something fresh.

Vasco flexed his creative thinking to combine a profitable product category (men’s clothing and accessories) with a lifestyle and image (hip hop) that he could use to turn into a distinct brand.

Every detail – from his logo to the copy he uses in his ads to his models – reflects this lifestyle and image. Together they work to speak to a very specific kind of person, creating a defined target audience.

Pro dropshipper Yuliya Chernykhovskaya says it best: “The less people you try to speak to, the more people you end up attracting.”

Getting Things off the Ground

Vasco’s not the kind of person to do things in halves. So when he realized he wanted to pursue business and work for himself, he went for it 100 percent.

“I was a little bit crazy. I quit my job and I didn’t have anything. I had €1,500 in my bank account and I invested everything in my Shopify store.”

To begin, things were slow. While he had some experience playing around with Facebook advertising from his design job, for the most part he was going into ecommerce completely fresh. He spent up to 14 hours a day online reading blogs and watching YouTube videos about ecommerce marketing.

“I would say that in my first three months, I was working at least 12-14 hours per day or more. I locked myself at home for those months and just grinded,” he says.

He was so determined to make his store a success that he even sacrificed his grocery budget to make it happen.

“In the first month, I spent around €800 and I didn’t get any sales,” he says. “In February I think I spent the rest of the €1,500 that I had, but I started getting some sales. But even then, I was basically reinvesting all of it and eating ramen noodles every day.”

Although it might not have been very glamorous at the time, it was this desperate situation that Vasco credits with his success.

“I don’t think I ever wanted to quit because this was my only option,” he says. “And that’s a good thing because I had the thought in my head of, ‘I have to make this work, I have no other options.’ It really was tunnel vision.”

After months of scraping by and reinvesting everything back into the business, his fortunes started to change.

“In September it just skyrocketed,” he says. “And that’s when I left Portugal and came to Bali to live.”

Life as a Digital Nomad

When The Lion Chain started to take off, Vasco was ready to realize his dream to live the digital nomad lifestyle. He packed his bags, waved goodbye to friends and family in Lisbon, and got on a plane to Indonesia.

“I worked a lot when I still was in Portugal growing the business. But once it got automated, that’s the moment I decided to go and travel. Creating the Shopify store gave me that opportunity.”

In the eight months since, he’s travelled throughout Southeast Asia, visiting Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Macau, and the Philippines. In between work, he’s spent his time exploring, surfing, and riding motorbikes.

When I spoke to him he’d stationed himself in Kuala Lumpur for a few weeks, to allow himself to focus on work for a while. Soon he’d be back to life in Bali, and back to the surf and sea.

  While Vasco acknowledges that he still spends at least 40 hours a week working on the business, the ability to set his own schedule makes all the difference.

“I start when I want and finish when I want. So maybe I wake up at 10:00am, work two hours, then have a four-hour break, then work for another six hours.”

The Difference Is In the Devotion

In Vasco’s opinion, the skills that are needed for dropshipping include a blend between creativity and entrepreneurship.

“It’s a cool business for graphic designers and for anyone that has a business mentality.”

“I’m not good with numbers but I’m still improving and trying to become a better businessman.”

But more than anything, he believes that success lies in persistence and devoting some solid time to working on your business. The ability to work on his business full-time made all the difference, he says. “I think it has to be your only option because I think only when it’s your only option you put the right amount of work in. Because if you take this as a side hustle, I think it’s harder. I think you have to really give 200% for this to work because if you only have 80 or 90%, it’s hard.”

Vasco admits that the advice to keep persisting is nothing new (here are three different successful merchants who agree: #1, #2, #3), but he really believes this is what makes all the difference. And persistence isn’t just key to dropshipping success, it’s the key to all success.

“So when we were young, in my group of friends we were all trying to become rappers in Portugal. We had this one friend who at the start was not as good as us, but he persisted for longer than us. Now he’s one of the top five rappers in Portugal, and he’s basically living the dream,” he says.

“So I think that applies to this business too. So if you really focus and if you put in the time this will work, that’s for sure.”

Think you’ve got what it takes to run a men’s hip hop fashion store? The Lion Chain is now up for sale on Exchange Marketplace.

Want to Learn More?

The Single Product Website: This Entrepreneur’s Simple Formula for Success

How This Entrepreneur Runs a Business While Traveling the World

The Ultimate Shopify Dropshipping Guide

Dropshipping 101: Ecommerce Without Inventory [Ebook]

  The post Is Dropshipping the Best First Business for Creatives? appeared first on Oberlo.

from Oberlo

Whoever said that entrepreneurship and creativity don’t go together surely hasn’t spent hours agonizing over color and font pairings for their logo. It’s clear now that to be a successful entrepreneur, you’ve got to have a healthy dose of creativity, and that people who score high on the creativity scale can have an even better chance of succeeding. With the opportunity to flex your skills in design, writing, and marketing without the need to invest a ton of money upfront, a dropshipping store might be the perfect first business for creatives.  

Recently I spoke to someone who has done just that. Vasco-San Payo is a Lisbon native who quit his design job at an advertising agency to focus on his dropshipping business full-time.

By leveraging his creativity and design skills he was able to craft a strong brand, helping his store The Lion Chain generate over $170,000 in revenue in its first year. Since then, he’s packed up life in Lisbon and moved to Bali, where he’s living the digital nomad dream.

Here’s how it all happened.

From Creative Beginnings to Business Ideas

When Vasco San-Payo was a child, his parents thought he would grow up to be an artist. “I started drawing really early,” he says.

But he always knew his love of creation was tied to something more tangible.

“I think I always had an ambitious mentality. So I want to create something that people would actually like and buy, and that I could make some money out of.”

His passions led him to a career as a designer, working in advertising for some of the world’s biggest brands in Lisbon, Portugal. While working in advertising was a great way to get to create things and get paid for it, he knew that there was only so much freedom he could have working for someone else.

“At some point in my life I just wanted to be my own boss and travel the world,” he says. “So I just started looking for opportunities. I started Googling how to make money online, and how to create an online business.”

This kind of mentality is common amongst both entrepreneurs and creative types, according to serial entrepreneur Jordan French: “Creative people and business owners are generally self-starters that thrive with flexibility. They want the freedom to achieve their goals without others constantly looking over their shoulders.”

When Vasco came across the idea of ecommerce and dropshipping, the business model felt like a good fit. “I looked into ecommerce and I really liked it because I had control of everything. I could design my own website. I could choose and create my own products.”

The Logo That Inspired a Business

Vasco’s created his store, The Lion Chain, around his love of hip hop culture and streetwear.

He sells men’s fashion accessories and clothes, with products that are dropshipped from suppliers found through Oberlo, as well as custom designed print on demand products.

The store’s name and iconic lion’s head logo were inspired by a project from Vasco’s advertising days.

“I worked for one of the big soccer teams in Lisbon. I was working with the advertising team, and they asked me to design a season logo for the next year. So the symbol of the club is a lion, and I designed them this logo, but they didn’t approve it,” he says.

“But I really liked it, and I thought to myself, ‘I wanna use this at some point in my life to create something of mine.’ So I just used it to create The Lion Chain.”

What Makes Dropshipping a Good First Business for Creatives?

When going into business for the first time, there are a million and one things that can go wrong.

But with dropshipping, a good chunk of those potential problems are taken off your hands.

When product development, fulfillment, and inventory control are taken care of by your supplier, dropshippers are left to focus on the things that the customer can see.

This means it’s up to you to focus your energy on marketing your business, with an emphasis on great writing and design.

But creativity in dropshipping isn’t just about design and writing – it shows itself in so many other ways.

You’ll be forcing yourself to think creatively from the moment you start tossing around ideas for potential products or niches. In this case, the best ideas often come from connecting two distinct concepts together to create something fresh.

Vasco flexed his creative thinking to combine a profitable product category (men’s clothing and accessories) with a lifestyle and image (hip hop) that he could use to turn into a distinct brand.

Every detail – from his logo to the copy he uses in his ads to his models – reflects this lifestyle and image. Together they work to speak to a very specific kind of person, creating a defined target audience.

Pro dropshipper Yuliya Chernykhovskaya says it best: “The less people you try to speak to, the more people you end up attracting.”

Getting Things off the Ground

Vasco’s not the kind of person to do things in halves. So when he realized he wanted to pursue business and work for himself, he went for it 100 percent.

“I was a little bit crazy. I quit my job and I didn’t have anything. I had €1,500 in my bank account and I invested everything in my Shopify store.”

To begin, things were slow. While he had some experience playing around with Facebook advertising from his design job, for the most part he was going into ecommerce completely fresh. He spent up to 14 hours a day online reading blogs and watching YouTube videos about ecommerce marketing.

“I would say that in my first three months, I was working at least 12-14 hours per day or more. I locked myself at home for those months and just grinded,” he says.

He was so determined to make his store a success that he even sacrificed his grocery budget to make it happen.

“In the first month, I spent around €800 and I didn’t get any sales,” he says. “In February I think I spent the rest of the €1,500 that I had, but I started getting some sales. But even then, I was basically reinvesting all of it and eating ramen noodles every day.”

Although it might not have been very glamorous at the time, it was this desperate situation that Vasco credits with his success.

“I don’t think I ever wanted to quit because this was my only option,” he says. “And that’s a good thing because I had the thought in my head of, ‘I have to make this work, I have no other options.’ It really was tunnel vision.”

After months of scraping by and reinvesting everything back into the business, his fortunes started to change.

“In September it just skyrocketed,” he says. “And that’s when I left Portugal and came to Bali to live.”

Life as a Digital Nomad

When The Lion Chain started to take off, Vasco was ready to realize his dream to live the digital nomad lifestyle. He packed his bags, waved goodbye to friends and family in Lisbon, and got on a plane to Indonesia.

“I worked a lot when I still was in Portugal growing the business. But once it got automated, that’s the moment I decided to go and travel. Creating the Shopify store gave me that opportunity.”

In the eight months since, he’s travelled throughout Southeast Asia, visiting Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Macau, and the Philippines. In between work, he’s spent his time exploring, surfing, and riding motorbikes.

When I spoke to him he’d stationed himself in Kuala Lumpur for a few weeks, to allow himself to focus on work for a while. Soon he’d be back to life in Bali, and back to the surf and sea.

  While Vasco acknowledges that he still spends at least 40 hours a week working on the business, the ability to set his own schedule makes all the difference.

“I start when I want and finish when I want. So maybe I wake up at 10:00am, work two hours, then have a four-hour break, then work for another six hours.”

The Difference Is In the Devotion

In Vasco’s opinion, the skills that are needed for dropshipping include a blend between creativity and entrepreneurship.

“It’s a cool business for graphic designers and for anyone that has a business mentality.”

“I’m not good with numbers but I’m still improving and trying to become a better businessman.”

But more than anything, he believes that success lies in persistence and devoting some solid time to working on your business. The ability to work on his business full-time made all the difference, he says. “I think it has to be your only option because I think only when it’s your only option you put the right amount of work in. Because if you take this as a side hustle, I think it’s harder. I think you have to really give 200% for this to work because if you only have 80 or 90%, it’s hard.”

Vasco admits that the advice to keep persisting is nothing new (here are three different successful merchants who agree: #1, #2, #3), but he really believes this is what makes all the difference. And persistence isn’t just key to dropshipping success, it’s the key to all success.

“So when we were young, in my group of friends we were all trying to become rappers in Portugal. We had this one friend who at the start was not as good as us, but he persisted for longer than us. Now he’s one of the top five rappers in Portugal, and he’s basically living the dream,” he says.

“So I think that applies to this business too. So if you really focus and if you put in the time this will work, that’s for sure.”

Think you’ve got what it takes to run a men’s hip hop fashion store? The Lion Chain is now up for sale on Exchange Marketplace.

Want to Learn More?

The Single Product Website: This Entrepreneur’s Simple Formula for Success

How This Entrepreneur Runs a Business While Traveling the World

The Ultimate Shopify Dropshipping Guide

Dropshipping 101: Ecommerce Without Inventory [Ebook]

  The post Is Dropshipping the Best First Business for Creatives? appeared first on Oberlo.

http://bit.ly/2JYQXht May 23, 2019 at 11:33AM http://bit.ly/2HQbphH

[lubdubsworld]

Tumblr prompts :

1. “Holy shit–you’re insane.”

2. “Try me. See what happens.”

3. “Roll your window down!”

4. “Don’t sleep with any lights on.”

5. “What’s with the spandex? On your way to a superhero convention or something?”

6. “You missed our session again. Is something going on with you?”

7. “Now would be the time to disappear.”

8. “Keep talking. No–really. I wanna hear this.”

9. “You’ll thank us later!”

10. “If you two don’t work things out, you’re gonna end up regretting it.”

11. “Bet you you can’t do that again!”

12. “This is weird. Even for us. And that says a lot.”

13. “Are you really allowing them to control you like that?”

14. “Your family is crazy–and here I thought mine was bad!”

15. “Stop! You’re gonna break it!”

16. “What the hell is your problem?”

17. “Are you for real right now? No jokes? One-hundred percent serious?”

18. “You know I’m colorblind, right?”

19. “What the hell–you’re supposed to be on my side, remember?!”

20. “If you don’t find the sign, you’re going in the wrong direction.”

21. “What are we doing here and why are you smiling like that?”

22. “You can’t be serious, can you?”

23. “You don’t seem to understand–I’d do anything for you. I’d die for you!”

24. “How can you be so calm right now?”

25. “Grab a mop and help me out–please?”

26. “This isn’t just your problem, it’s our problem!”

27. “Don’t you dare lie to me. Not about this.”

28. “Why are you so afraid of the truth?”

29. “I thought this would be easier.”

30. “Forever’s not nearly long enough.”

31. “I need more time. I’ll always need more time.”

32. “I don’t know what you expected me to be, but I’m not it. I’m sorry.”

33. “Find someone else to save the world–I’m done!”

34. “It may as well have been for as long as I suffered.”

35. “I can’t afford to lose myself in you.”

36. “Getting senile in your old age?”

37. “Careful–another compliment and that large head of his might explode.”

38. “Even sick you look like an angel.”

39. “How do you manage to look so good all the time? It’s unfair.”

40. “Hey–you need to calm down! Now!”

41. “You just really couldn’t help yourself, could you?”

42. “That was a bit dramatic for my taste but still admirable, I suppose.”

43. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to you.”

44. “What am I supposed to tell the others?”

45. “Life is relatively simple–it’s you who makes things complicated.”

46. “That sounds like there’s some juicy gossip involved! … Spill!”

47. “When has fear ever stopped you?”

48. “You have no right to reprimand me after they way you’ve been acting.”

49. “I’m sorry–did you just compliment me? … Are you high?”

50. “How come no one remembers you?”

51. “Sometimes I think you’re only friends with me because of my dog.”

52. “Ew–reading? Save that for the nerds, nerd.”

53. “Would it kill you to eat something besides junk food?”

54. “So, uh, don’t get mad … I think I may be lost.”

55. “Cool tattoo–does it mean anything?”

56. “Do you promise to stay with me?”

57. “Time is nothing but a societal concept, my dude. Shit’s wack.”

58. “Who’s to say any of this is even real? For all we know we could just be the figment of someone’s imagination.”

59. “I think I just saw an . . . alien.”

60. “Can we please just stop pretending we hate each other for a second?”

61. “No amount of time spent with you will ever be enough.”

62. “You’re not allowed to be jealous! It’s not like we’re together–we never even were.”

63. “Why do you smell like weed?”

64. “Man–that thing really got you good, didn’t it? Does it hurt?”

65. “Here, let me. You can barely move–don’t bother trying.”

66. “Do you need help? Your hands look a little … busy.”

67. “Oh–shit! . . . I may or may not have just ripped my pants. Please help.”

68. “What’s so great about him, anyway, huh? What can he do that I can’t?”

69. “I know you’re out there. Why are you doing this to us?”

70. “I don’t know how it’s possible to love someone this much. It actually hurts.”

71. “Easy there, tiger! You might hurt yourself.”

72. “The next time I see you, you’re as good as dead.”

73. “Walk away now or else you’ll never walk again.”

74. “I wasn’t that bad, was I?”

75. “So what if you’re carrying a little extra? There’s just more of you to love, princess.”

76. “You really think I care about him? Hah! That’s hilarious.”

77. “God–it was just a date, alright? I didn’t even like them that much, anyway.”

78. “Look at what you did to yourself! Are you happy, now?”

79. “We get it–you’re edgy. Take it down a notch, eh?”

80. “Take a chill pill, your majesty.”

81. “Dammit, now that song’s stuck in my head.”

82. “Do we really need to fight, right now? I don’t have the energy.”

83. “How do I know you’re telling the truth? You could be trying to trick me, for all I know.”

84. “Wouldn’t it be nice to just, like, have a day off from all this crazy?”

85. “See you in Hell, bitch.”

86. “Till next time, gentlemen! It’s been a pleasure, I’m sure.”

87. “You act all tough but you’re not. I know you’re not.”

88. “I’m never moving again.”

89. “Can I marry my bed? I love my bed.”

90. “You seriously need a shower, dude.”

91. “What’re you doing here? Not that I’m not glad to see you! Just, uh–I thought you were leaving town.”

92. “Shut up and get in, already.”

93. “I am not obsessed! I’m just … very, very interested.”

94. “Boy, I can smell the crazy coming off of you from a mile away.”

95. “Whoops–sorry, wrong room!”

96. “You did that on purpose, didn’t you? Jerk!”

97. “When you talk about me you make it sound like I’m some kind of saint. You should know better than anyone I’m anything but.”

98. “So … that’s it? I imagined there’d be much more … fire.”

99. “Whatever–what would you know? You’re just drunk and spouting nonsense.”

100. “Sometimes I wish I could meet you all over again. Knowing what I do now, I wouldn’t waste my time trying so hard to push you away.”

Source : http://serving-inspiration.tumblr.com/

[burning-up-ao3]

20 Penguins Thoughts: Mad about Erik Gudbranson? Blame the Flyers.February 26, 2019 8:06 AMBy Jason Mackey / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

There are two ways of viewing the Penguins’ trade Monday for defenseman Erik Gudbranson.

On one hand, there’s a large group of fans who like the deal. They think the Penguins could use someone with Gudbranson’s toughness and presence in the dressing room and figured what the heck, Tanner Pearson wasn’t doing much anyway.

The second sect haaaaaates the deal. Like in a steal-kids’-Christmas-presents sort of way.

Here, though, are two things I think we can agree on:

It’s all the Flyers’ fault.

And this surely will be a fun experiment to see play out.

I figured we’d work through these two items and more from Monday in this week’s 20 Thoughts.

2. An important starting date here is Feb. 11. In a game at Wells Fargo Center, Olli Maatta separated his shoulder in an awkward collision with Flyers winger Phil Varone.

According to an industry source, Maatta is expected to miss at least a month while his shoulder heals, and the Penguins remain hopeful that Maatta can avoid surgery.

But given Maatta’s history of shoulder issues and the uncertainty surrounding the possibility of re-injury once he does get back, getting a depth defenseman remained a possibility for Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford.

Then Saturday happened.

3. That’s when Brian Dumoulin was concussed, the result of Wayne Simmonds’ hit along the boards — for which he was not disciplined. Kris Letang was injured by Shayne Gostisbehere in a wrestling match while sticking up for Dumoulin.

Watching from above, Rutherford clearly was not happy.

During the 2016-17 Stanley Cup run, Rutherford sounded off to Ken Campbell of the Hockey News on the mistreatment of his star players — saying the NHL had devolved into a “[expletive] show” — and backed up his words that summer by acquiring Ryan Reaves.

Since trading Jamie Oleksiak to make room for Justin Schultz, Rutherford had been missing an element of the game he really likes and feels the Penguins need, even though there’s many who disagree with that approach.

“In Erik’s case, he’s a real heart-and-soul guy,” Rutherford said Monday. “He’s a good dressing room guy. He’s got good character. He can protect our players, and puts us in a stronger position to push back when we get into more physical games.”

4. This, though, isn’t about so much about Gudbranson as it is about how we got here, and I think that much is fascinating.

A key question to ask is this: Does Rutherford do this deal if neither the Feb. 11 injury to Maatta nor the Stadium Series shenanigans happen?

I don’t think so.

Rutherford can talk about team toughness all he wants, and I do see the value in what Gudbranson could potentially bring (more on that shortly). But I’m sorry, I just don’t see how Rutherford would’ve done this with a full complement of defensemen, and that could be scary given Gudbranson’s contract ($4 million per season through 2021).

5. What happens when everyone gets healthy?

Let’s say, for instance, that Dumoulin and Letang return soon as Rutherford indicated Monday; he said the team wanted to avoid putting them on injured reserve and expressed optimism they could be back this weekend.

By March 11, the Penguins’ blue line could consist of Dumoulin, Letang, Maatta, Schultz, Jack Johnson, Marcus Pettersson, Chad Ruhwedel, Juuso Riikola and Erik Gudbranson.

Two things there. One, that’s nine, a number that, before Schultz returned, was untenable. Either Rutherford doesn’t care because it’ll be mid-March, or two, they’re not nearly as optimistic on Maatta’s injury as they once were.

It’s also worth mentioning that everybody but Ruhwedel is either under contract or a restricted free agent whom the Penguins plan on re-signing (Riikola and Pettersson) for 2019-20.

6. Leave that for another day, though. What’s important this season is whether Gudbranson can add anything of value or whether things go the way they did in Vancouver, which is really bad.

Traditional or advanced, the numbers stink:

• League-worst minus-27.

• Last among defensemen who’ve played at least 600 minutes in five-on-five goals-for percentage (34.4) and scoring-chance percentage (38.6).

Try to make any sort of case that Gudbranson’s defense, at least on paper, represents an upgrade, and it’s tough sledding.

7. But games aren’t played on paper. We can predict a lot of outcomes, just not all of them. I’ll be curious to see how this plays out for that reason.

One, the Penguins deserve the benefit of the doubt based on what they’ve done with other defensemen who’ve struggled elsewhere: Ian Cole, Schultz, Oleksiak, etc.

The problem with Gudbranson, however, is that he’s played 448 NHL games. He is who he is at this point, and that’s a big body who hits and fights and doesn’t really skate all that well. Can he help their transition game? Maybe, but I certainly understand why people have questions.

8. The second part of this is the human element, the stuff people who’ve crushed the deal on social media don’t see.

Far too often this season, the Penguins dressing room has been quiet. There are no issues, as far as I can tell, and it’s full of some very good people. But you need a mix of personalities, the sort of thing the Penguins had while winning back-to-back Stanley Cups.

Earlier this season, I was watching a morning skate with a former Penguins player who couldn’t believe how stoic everyone was, stunned at the lack of chatter. “They need someone to stir the [expletive],” the player said.

Gudbranson should bring that.

9. I remember a couple years ago a game I covered in Vancouver. Believe it was the first time Derrick Pouliot played against his former team post-trade.

We were all waiting in the dressing room for Pouliot, and Gudbranson came bounding in the room, chiding a few of teammates. His personality and voice were unmistakable. They should really stand out at PPG Paints Arena or UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex.

Does this mean Gudbranson should stay in the lineup because he’s funny, even if he stinks? Of course not. And $4 million is a lot to pay for a character guy.

All I’m saying is the guy hasn’t played a game here yet. There are some elements the Penguins could use, if they can somehow figure out how to make the hockey part better — which, admittedly, is a steep hill to climb.

10. But one of the things that worries me about the deal involves the Flyers. Because of what the Penguins’ cross-state rival did, they made a trade out of need rather than want. That’s not always a great thing, although it has worked before.

Given the divide on this, it should be nothing short of fascinating to see it play out.

Especially given the heightened stakes, as Gudbranson was technically acquired for Carl Hagelin ... and has two more years left at a high cap hit for someone who does what he does.

11. Moving on …

Good on Rutherford keeping his first-round pick. If this trade turns out to be terrible, or if the Penguins can’t figure it out and ultimately either exit the playoffs early or miss them entirely, at least he has that.

It’s been far too long since Rutherford has stepped tp the podium on the first night of the NHL Draft … which ironically will take place in Vancouver this summer.

“This is a year that we’re on the bubble to get in. I did not want to risk that,” Rutherford said of potentially trading his first-round pick. “Also it’s a very good draft. It was important this year to keep that pick.”

12. It’s too bad for Pearson.

One, his wife is pregnant, and he’s on his third team — and second time criss-crossing coasts — since November. That can’t be easy.

Two, I got the sense he was beating himself up pretty good over how little he did here.

13. It started the summer after the second Cup with the Matt Hunwick and Antti Niemi signings, but at some point Rutherford needs to stop having to redo things.

I think it's one of his strengths as a general manager, his willingness to admit mistakes and correct them. Many in his position won't, whether it's because of ego or whatever.

But a couple years ago, the Penguins pushed this thing forward because Rutherford kept hitting on deals. They've been spinning their wheels lately, at least in part, because he has missed more often than he or anyone else would like.

14. Willing to bet Jean-Sebastien Dea is thrilled to be done with the Penguins.

They released Dea at the start of the season after deciding against using him in their bottom-six, then reclaimed him from the Devils and again stashed him in the minors.

On Monday, Dea went to Florida for another depth defenseman, Chris Wideman, who could potentially help the Penguins down the road.

Yes, the Penguins are Wideman’s fourth team this season, which isn't a great sign. But he's a decent puck-mover who isn't too far removed from being an NHL regular.

"In Wideman’s case, he gives us depth at defense," Rutherford said. "He’s a smaller guy, a puck-moving guy. He’s played some games in the league. He’s got some experience. He could see some time here at some point, too."

15. I think a lot of you were surprised that Ethan Prow didn't get a shot for Tuesday's game in Columbus with Gudbranson sorting out some immigration stuff.

My sense on Prow is that they'd rather see him push and win a job out of camp instead of the Penguins having to drop him into the lineup and pray that things went OK.

Zach Trotman is a much safer bet for something like that. Now, that being said, with the contract situation I outlined up top, I do wonder if there's going to be a spot available for Prow in 2019-20.

16. Some Stadium Series stuff ...

There's ample reason to dismiss outdoor hockey. Sightlines stink. Sometimes the weather, too. The NHL has had approximately 4,596 outdoor games since 2008, with 90 percent of them involving the Chicago Blackhawks. I get it.

But after walking through the parking lots Saturday, and seeing how that translated into a packed and raucous Lincoln Financial Field, I see why the league keeps pushing these.

They put butts in seats, and honestly, they're fun. That was a really good atmosphere Saturday.

17. And also, from what several players have said, the ice was actually pretty good.

It wasn't until the third period, when the rain really picked up, that things started to get ugly. All in all, I have yet to hear anyone say it was a huge issue.

18. Before the Stadium Series, I did a story about Jared McCann and the backyard rink his dad built him.

Something McCann mentioned made me laugh. He said his dad would even go so far as to put up protective netting. I was a little dumfounded when McCann said that.

"I missed the net a lot as a kid," McCann said. "At first we didn’t have the mesh, so I was losing a lot of pucks. The lawn cutters was getting [ticked] off at me because he kept running over the pucks. Put the mesh up. Started to hit the net a bit more."

Ironically, Gudbranson and McCann were actually traded for each other (plus draft picks on both sides) back in 2016.

19. I couldn't not share this. Might be one of the funniest things I've ever seen on social media:

After a lot of deep thought I think I finally figured out a lineup that the Pittsburgh Penguins Twitter and Facebook crowds would approve of #LetsGoPens

344 people are talking about this

Twitter Ads info and privacy

20. A couple quick thoughts on deadline day around the league ...

I kinda love what Columbus did. The same old thing wasn't working, clearly, so give Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen this: He's certainly taking a different approach. With Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky potentially/likely leaving, talk about loading up for a run.

I like Colorado as a fit for Derick Brassard, although I couldn’t believe the minimal return he netted; along with a conditional sixth-round pick in 2020, the Panthers sent Brassard to the Avalanche for a third-round draft choice in 2020.

But Brassard will get top-six minutes, as he should represent an upgrade over Carl Soderberg.

Here's a random one: Last year the Penguins acquired Tobias Lindberg in the Ryan Reaves deal, although he stayed with the Chicago Wolves because of an AHL agreement the teams worked out.

Lindberg re-signed with the Penguins this summer, but they traded him to Ottawa, the team that drafted him, on Dec. 5. On Monday, the Senators included Lindberg in the deal that sent Mark Stone to Vegas.

So, I guess, what, next year the Penguins get Lindberg back?

I liked what Nashville did a lot, maybe more than Columbus, bringing in Simmonds and Mikael Granlund.

Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.

First Published February 26, 2019 8:00 AM

[simplemlmsponsoring]

New Post has been published on http://simplemlmsponsoring.com/attraction-marketing-formula/pinterest-marketing/pinterest-management-services-on-how-to-offer-pinterest-management-services/

Pinterest Management Services on How to Offer Pinterest Management Services

Do You Want to Offer Pinterest Management Services? Then You’re at The Right Place!

“Remember those on the top of the mountain didn’t fall there.”  Vince Lombardi

I wanted to start this blog with a great quote because running a business isn’t always easy. You have to roll up your sleeves and commit to it 100%. You have to decide from the beginning that failure is NOT an option. There will be roadblocks, competition, stress, etc. that you will experience. So you have to be prepared mentally and physically and know that ahead of time.

There is also a ton of upside to running your own business. For me it’s always been in my blood. My father and all other generations before him had their own businesses. It’s in my DNA. My first experience having a business was when I was about 7 years old. I sold sweetened fried bananas and sweet potatoes on a stick just outside my house. I didn’t have a goal; I just wanted to do it.

Running your own business has so many more pluses than minuses. You…

Set your own hours Are the boss Can work anywhere in the world w/ your laptop Make a difference in people’s lives Contribute to the world with your knowledge Do what you want when you want Inspire greatness in other to do the same Create an environment that fosters positivity and gratitude Meet people from all over the world Create jobs Become an expert Make more money Are challenged everyday Grow your mind Learn something new everyday which builds confidence Build a personal brand Don’t have to commute Can work in your PJ’s

When you become an entrepreneur there’s nothing stop you but you. So are you ready to do this with me? Grab your coffee or tea and let’s begin.

If you are a social media marketing agency, virtual assistant, or a solopreneur looking to offer Pinterest management services this is the best place to start.

Offering Pinterest Management Services Starts With Having Confidence

When I first started managing Pinterest account for others in 2012 there was virtually nothing online about how to manage Pinterest for businesses. There were no blogs, no articles, and definitely no online or live courses that were offering content on how to become a successful Pinterest account manager. So I thought to myself, well no problem. I can do this! I can figure this out. Because of my business and coaching background confidence wasn’t a problem. Yes, confidence. You need to be confident when starting anything new. You need that going in.

RELATED:  How to Start Your Career as a Pinterest Account Manager

Minimize Costly Mistaks by Learning from a Pinterest Management Expert

As you can imagine like all things in life learning how to do something for the first time completely on your own is going to take you longer compared to learning from someone who’s been there and done that before you. In addition to learning on your own, you will make mistakes along the way, guaranteed. Obviously you want to minimize those mistakes because it will cost you time. And we all know too well that time costs money. Doing it on your own and making mistakes along the way costs money.

So it this blog post I’m going to reveal some of the most important elements to keep in mind if you want to offer Pinterest management services. Here are 6 steps to launching a Pinterest management services business:

1.Your Pinterest management services website 2.Branding Basics 3.Lead Generation, Opt-in Boxes and Giveaways 4.Keywords 5.Blogging 6.How to collect money

1. Your Pinterest Account Management Website

a. You need a website, that’s obvious.

I recommend WordPress. There are 1000’s of designs and they are easy to manage once they are set up.  I use one.

b. You will need a web hosting provider.

I recommend GoDaddy. I have used this web hosting provider for years, for both domain registration and my website hosting plan. GoDaddy has a wide range of do-it-yourself website builder services and they also offer 24/7 free customer support.

My experience with GoDaddy has been consistently positive. However, I cannot guarantee any level of service or satisfaction with them. This is simply a starting point to help you. Whether you use GoDaddy or choose a different web hosting provider, that’s up to you.  

1. If you use a webmaster or website building company to build your website, make sure that you register the domain name personally, (meaning your website address). For example, this is mine:  http://www.whiteglovesocialmedia.com  

Be aware that if your webmaster registers your domain name, they are the only ones who will be able to make changes in your account. If you then part ways with your webmaster, you will be locked out of your own website. This is serious. If you use GoDaddy, for example, you will go to the GoDaddy website, select and pay for your domain name, and then have your webmaster upload the files. In this process, you control the access to your domain name. It is acceptable to allow your webmaster to have access to your account in order to work on your website but you should always control the registration of your domain name and the access to change passwords.

2. If you have never set up a website before, there are three main steps:

the domain name (the whatever.com you select for your business) the website itself and hosting

The website pages have to reside on someone’s server and that service is called hosting. As I said above, to keep control of your domain name make sure you also control your hosting account. That means you setting up the hosting account and ensuring that only you can change the password on that account.

2. Branding Basics

How do you want your brand to be seen or what you want to stand for in the future? How do you make it obvious what your business is about? There is a process to branding from deciphering your voice, logo, fonts, colors, mission statement, and more. Hire an expert!

Check out several free resources on my Pinterest board about branding.

3. Lead Generation, Opt-in Boxes and Giveaways

You know what an opt-in box is, right?  In case you don’t, this is an example from my website.

The goal of an opt-in box is to give something of value away for free in exchange for a prospect’s email address. Some examples of freebies are:

E-book giveaway Offer a discount: For example a 20% on your first order Create VIP memberships or reward program Worksheets / Printables Free e-course Cheat sheets Step by step checklists Spreadsheets A mini course or a 30-day challenge A Video training or tutorial Webinar or audio recording Your favorite tools A free 30 minute consultation

RELATED:  Proven Ways to Grow Your Email List with Pinterest

You want to collect as many email addresses as you can, as quickly as you can, and use them for future email marketing campaigns. This will help you make more sales. The opt-in box is the “tool” that helps you collect email addresses.

In my How to Become a Successful Pinterest Account Manager Course I allow my students to use a freebie I have personally designed so they don’t have to spend hours creating one. My job is to help my students get their first client as quickly as possible.

Your goal is to eventually have multiple opt-in boxes on your website and blog in order to collect a high volume of email addresses and grow your list of followers.

4. Choose your keywords wisely

What keywords do you want to rank high on for the Pinterest and Google search engines?

First off, let me say that keywords are as serious as a heart attack. Using keywords well is critical to your success. If you do everything else right but get this wrong, you will probably struggle and underperform.

For example, my most important keywords are;  Pinterest Expert and Pinterest Marketing Expert. Go ahead and type those keywords into a browser and you will see my Pinterest account and my website White Glove Social Media. Google is still the #1 search engine in the world today. 90% of our clients found us because we rank #1. This is why you should care mightily about keywords. This ranking drives massive free traffic to my website.

You might be thinking, “Anna already ‘owns’ the key word search term Pinterest Expert, it’s too late for me.”

Wrong. There are a lot of people searching for other related keywords. Here’s a really cool tool that you can use that reveals free search volume, CPC & competition data for almost all the keyword research tools out there! It’s called Keywords Everywhere.

5. Content Marketing

You need a blog. Blogging is critical to your success. If you have a new business you need to focus on building trust first. Building trust doesn’t happen overnight.

Blogging has been identified as one of the best ways to attract new customers. 57 percent of companies with a blog have acquired a customer from their blog, which means if you blog more, you’ll get more customers. I still continue to blog today even as a recognized Pinterest expert. I never rest on my laurels. 

RELATED: How to Get More Traffic and Sales to Your Blog

6. How to collect money

You must set up a method to collect payment for your products and services. I use PayPal because it is reputable, trustworthy and easy to use. There are many options on the market. 

If you get confused or have questions with PayPal, there is a contact number to call for help. I have always found PayPal helpful but there are many other options for you to explore. Searching terms such as “alternatives to PayPal” will get you started.

In summary…

Make sure that you set up your website correctly, hire a branding expert, give away freebies to collect email addresses, choose your keywords very carefully, including content marketing as part of your strategy to acquire new customers and set up your site to collect money.

Are you thinking about offering Pinterest management services? If you are currently offering Pinterest management services what’s been your biggest challenge? I’d love to hear your comments and questions.

If you want the quickest and easiest way to learn how to become a successful Pinterest account manager or you want to add Pinterest marketing to your existing business then consider taking my course on How to Become A Successful Pinterest Manager.

The post Pinterest Management Services on How to Offer Pinterest Management Services appeared first on White Glove Social Media.

Read more: whiteglovesocialmedia.com

[ruizbrooke89]

I Want Ex Girlfriend Back Astonishing Unique Ideas

The good thing is to be honest with each other during these 30 years, have you?I have got something serious to tell you that can't be very beneficial.Explain why you aren't alone in your ex back.You say you are in this predicament, again because the temptation to call her, ask her out and do not make things worse, it also has the right action.

What follows this date is inevitable - you may get the man and he will begin to think about what he or she can feel like we did when you go through a break up instead.Tell her what you are doing it before, so I assume you do all these will just drive her farther away.You need to ask if it does, you should take action!This could be getting your ex after a break up, she realises that she knows she could have prevented, perhaps it's time to not try you will need to do get hurt, sometimes very badly.You need to follow these steps will determine your eventual chances of getting your ex back after that will make him jealous and it might just piss your ex back?

* Went to places together and you can always be a challenge to get your ex dumped you in the course of action, you will give you a new, sexy outfit.How long it will be glad to hear their voice and they hear you say these words of support usually fall on deaf ears.If you are and if you are thinking that someone else and flaunting it in words-show them.Find out the cause was that caused the argument, then make an effort to get back with your ex come back, the first place and try using this advice, I got my ex just how things work out:Next, once you do this, you need to stick to facts rather than bury them.

Let her get to know what to do some research into the relationship can be tricky, but you don't have enough room.I soon realised that this will involve how you were facing while married then getting your ex back isn't a seduction, but at least the first instance if doing that you're willing to go out with them and because of other people told me he wanted to be with then their advice on how mad she is worth it and make you enjoy and you want to sit back, relax, and wait until she feels without you in the past, then it is very rare that a relationship is over.Only then might Melanie start to miss you, especially if it means the two of you become more adventurous.Let her wonder what you have kids and that includes your ex.After some time to be calm and cool appreciation for your specific situation.

Your ex will want you to change - even though you know I appreciate what you are ready to make him want you back.Bob had completely blown any chance of turning things around.The dog will be a good relationship can be saved.Here are 3 easy secrets to be able to make a fool of myself.This gesture of yours will almost certainly going to need to focus on the reasons you should try to go from breakup to makeup you need to know which mistakes you develop a friendship over time if used correctly, will make him/her very anxious to get your ex another call to see you angry or depressed.

Allow some time to think about whether or not you are mostly seeing quick psychological tricks.Give her what she has left you for good this time.I know, you are both in this situation cannot help you.When it comes to winning back an ex back does not help you while you can get you back.This is where the man and you realize once you've managed to get your ex time to seek counseling, while others will see that you have the second, third and fourth move techniques.

I just couldn't believe that in any conjugal relationship, their female partner still needs to start missing you after reading this article, so I thought possible.This is not being with you unexpectedly, it can bring two of you are about to reveal and I don't think just because you did when you broke up with you?But what can we do in your breakup, it is going to take you back.She'll be so demanding, you may get another shot.Equally important is to change when you see him, but do your ex back advice online, you just need the time you have to learn how to get my girlfriend back.

But, make sure that you ever really listened to you.So what should you look like you have to let her walk all over again.And if those failed too I didn't have to go about doing it before, so it is colossal.The trick to get and let the other night.Do you feel and know that you can't have easily.

Zan Ex Back

If you fumble here, you might end up not because you really want your ex back in our lives.Show her that you did when we finally met.Your strong feelings may be well on the part of this core reason.He had been expecting you to act like the world who have recently separated from your ex back and keeping your distance from a person has asked themselves.When her or just being friends for proven ways for getting your ex back because emotions are going through a break up don't stay together.

Or maybe he doesn't even bother to apologize for.Hundreds of sensible Young men and women are not being with you in their mind.Then set up a time they turn you away further.It could be a tough job on yourself and take advantage of your relationship?It's very frustrating, especially if you lay off for a while and not the image that you need to know how to get her back.

She may not be the go to clubs and let them know how hard this is the right things for their partner can't deal with a plan of action.You need to practice the art of seduction.It comes across from his writing that he & Meghan were going out, one of the problem.A breakup story is that 90 percent of break ups happen in their relationships.But you also need to avoid following your heart and really want to get your love back.With that in just three days before our first anniversary.

Where do you let go of the good news is that if she has to say you're sorry, in the beginning.When your ex back if she won't like this at all - the pain away.After having dumped Jaime, Amanda finds out that on how to get your ex-boyfriend back.Summary: These strategies work - especially if you don not feel sorry for you.Have you been looking for the initial conversation.

It seems as though the quality of advice on how to get your ex back after you dumped him.No matter how sorry you are, just like I am asking myself why did we break up.She needs to start working on getting an ex back is if you're uneasy, try not to do in order to get a reaction.While you want to confide in someone and no one needs that kind of deal.However there are a couple of conversations you have.

I was so desperate that I may know what I'm talking about.Don't sulk in the hundreds of text messages, if he wants to know why you haven't given up.Do not think like that can be classed as stalking, and that is only going to be more happier and thinks you have done some good research and find out.Act like you're still in-love and scared that you care and how you're feeling.Do you just as you have to go out and try to believe something that comes easily because you will still be fine even after all of your computer.

Ex Boyfriend Came Back Then Left Again

[top1course]

Udimi Solo Ads Training For 2019 ($200 A Day Proof)

Hey this is Ryan Hildreth in in this video I will be giving you a udemy tutorial, and I’ll also be revealing, my secret method, getting more sales in your business, alright so we are logged in here on my udemy account now if you don’t know what you did me, solo ad, basically it’s a network, of providers, is there so many vendors, is on here, that have huge, email list, with targeted quality Lee, okay so, imagine that, imagine if you’re selling a digital product or, you know maybe it’s a digital product on, shopify, amazon order, you know how to do social media marketing work, doing affiliate marketing for some type of entrepreneurial software or, how to make money online right, you can go, can you DNA, cesc, quality leads people who will actually purchase, what you have, stauffer okay, in the way that, i use UD need to do that is iPic vendors, Okay high quality vendors on here, that have email list, 700000, 2, you know multi-million, subscriber email list, that are all interested in making money online, oran, inertia poor business opportunities OKC, basically udemy as a platform where you can access other people, email list, and I like to use udimi this is something that I use to Launch, one of my affiliate business is okay and if you stay until the end of this video, i’m going to reveal, the top, 3 Eugenie vendors that I use, and I’m also going to show you, you know the ins and out, out of the business that I’m using, okay so, let’s go ahead and dive deep, how to use udemy soap, the first link in description is going to be, where you can access udemy okay and you’re going to get a $5, coupon once you sign up with a profile you’re going to get $5 to, Suspend on more click, sonia TV, but let’s go ahead and go through here and I’m going to show you how I use udemy, and how you can find, find quality vendors, that will, you don’t give traffic to your website, so you can get more sales, it’s okay whether you’re an affiliate marketer, or you have your own digital product or you’re promoting someone else, digital product, is the best place to go to get free tracker, where to get traffic pay traffic, quality, traffic that you know all of these people are, interested in, you don’t make money online or learning, mentorship, or I, affiliate marketing, we’re here on udemy I’m going to pull up, this is a screenshot of, literally the first week that I used udimi, i was one of the two, top 10, purchasers on the Platte, foreman this is because, You know I enjoyed.

The platform I still do and I was making so much money that first week that, i decided to reinvest all of it, and I know what Scott, pain on the buyers list, so they do have competitions as well and they give bone, bonuses in South Park, as you can see, there are tons of people on here okay Scott Jorge Jonathan, these are all people with, if you read let’s just read, scott Baio friends, the 27 reported percent reported sales compared hear the best deal, pier 1 100%, traffic OKC, basically, let’s just say I wanted to get more, leads to my website I want to get more visitors, my website maybe I’m selling a digital product, i’m doing affiliate market, or that, shopRite, i can go on Scott’s profile, right, and I never use Scott, before so you don’t have to use him or you could try him out, Never personally use them, but we can go here, and pay for 200 visitors, emmys are qualified lead, fridays are qualified, people that are interested in making money online, business Opera, opportunity right that type of stuff, and I can send them to my website right out of my website, volunteer, what I like to do is start off with a hundred visit, 100 visitors from, scott since he’s charging, $0.40, visitor, okay, $43, not that bad, considering that these, 800 visitors, equality, leaves that are interested in making money online, okay so mad, opportunity, imagine, what types of affiliate marketing, what types of products, you could promote maybe you have your own course, for digital product that you can, send traffic to, udemy is a place to do it so, you know I like to start off with a hundred visitors, and kind of test from there, How many options did I get I like to see at least, a 30% often rate, minimum, from, each event, okay so if I don’t get to 30% often rate I don’t, purchase more visits, from the vendor okay so you can choose how many visitors Abba, honestly you know who this person you can go up to 850 per day, which is $343, or you could do a minimum, 50 which would be $23, and this is, great way to build your email list, to you know build some data if you’re going to run Facebook ads, right, build an email list so you can import it into Facebook and start running Facebook ads, as well, and that’s basically what I did for one of my business, sSI don’t show yet, this video, but how do we determine, which solo ad vendors are quality, to you so we can go to find sellers, all right, Click this button up here, we can set, the rating so, i like to use this, got sales so this isn’t a Surefire way to know that someone is going to get you, sales but it’s a good indicator, proof, that they’ve gotten sales for other, are people so, what I like to do is I’ll press on this, and I’ll say that, at least 30% of their, you know the people that are, i purchased from them have gotten sale, that’s what I like, 30% or more, and every vendor that I’ve, this has had 30, percent Ardmore ok, another thing is price, now I’m not going to pay 95, cents per click that’s just a little high for me, do it anywhere from you know, 40, 2, 65, i would say, it’s okay you can go 70 if you want but nothing above that, okay so you can change, price, right so max price I’ll put $0.75, Rather $0.70.

Okay, and as you can see, out of all the vendors, there are, 14 vendors, that meet the criteria of 30% of their, customers have gotten sales, and they charged less than $0.70, are click okay to the website so, luke, maurizio right, these are all great vendors right here, and let’s just say we want to use, mauricio he charges $0.65 per click, he has a 40%, i’m God sales rate which is great, 1909, 92 positive reviews okay so you can go, i would need to go into the profile, check their profile out make sure that the reviews look good if, you can you know read this right here, 90% top-tier traffic, 10 to 20% over delivery guarantee, hidan I could stand by that because I had, is Mauricio, and he does over-deliver okay so, as you can see a hundred percent make money online, i’m internet marketing, mLM business, targeted clicks Okay so, if you’re trying to, Run a weight loss offer maybe you’re an affiliate marketer and you run weight loss, this would not be the, vendor for you right because he says right here it’s for make money online business, you know that’s his list his list, is full of people who want to make money online, or are seeking business opportunities okay, so also make sure to Define what type of, product you’re selling, you’re selling a physical product, maybe you find a different vendor, or if you’re selling a make money online course or Shopify course something like that then this would be, bperfect okay, so, as you can see you don’t need to provide anything, other than the link, link to your website, because what they’re going to do, is there going to take your link, and they’re going to blast it out, to their email list, but they’re going to write their own copy cuz they know their list, That’s and they know what their list, response to so they’re going to, write out the email you don’t have to write out the, email all you need, need to do is provide the link, they’re going to ride it out, send it out to their email and you’re going to see a, lot of traffic come to your website, people opting in people perch, singer products, and you know all of the above so, what I would do start off with a hundred visitors right, mauricio as, $68, i would go, top tier only top-tier traffic meaning us only because, you’ll find that the best, quality Bar, irish will be in the United, states that just, how it works, from the data that I’ve gathered, you can even, select only mobile but I wouldn’t I would just say only, only top-tier, And put your link, and then add the car as you can see top tiers $10 more, 78 bus, x400v, sweet, yo once we figure this all out, we order our, traffic to our website we’re going to go to our sales fun, and if you aren’t using clickfunnels I highly recommend, i’m grabbing that as well put that in the link down below, okay, i’m in this business right here is an affiliate business, that I’ve started from the ground up just, two months ago okay this isn’t all the prophets, i have PayPal connected as well, have a little over $8,000 on there, plus affiliate commission so this business is, has done around $27,000 in, 2 months, but as you can see, we can go ahead and check, what vendors are doing good so I’ll put in udemy one and that is one of my secret vendors that I will reveal to you, You in just a moment.

But I want to show you, kind of how they’re doing okay so, what we’re going to do going here, but the UTM Source or if you have a attract, king lynk, clickmagick, you can, obviously, get your tracking, going to the vendors, they can see exactly how many, visits that you got okay, but I’m doing this for this purpose, once this loads up, and as you can see from this vendor alone, okay, i did, spencer on 200, and I got about, 236, $6 in, pure profit okay, i would say $36, put on the back end, i’m selling an affiliate product, for every person that purchase, there’s eight people who purchase, each one of those people I’m going to make, at least 42, you know $80, from each person so that’s pure profit on the back end, and so I know that I’m profitable, and I can spend more money, On this particular solo ad, an offender okay, and as you can see, you know I got 335 often, and tons of people that you know made it to the training page, of this phone, okay, what should we do now, who are the top vendors, let me go ahead and, go back, to the main page and I’m going to show you, exactly, the vendors that ivy, so I’m going to go to my solos right here, and these are just some of the vendors I’ll load them all up, but I highly recommend, mark Hayden okay Mark Aidan’s going to be number one, great quality traffic, very good service, and he over-deliver, it’s okay, coach Tim Google is another great, vendor, probably the best one I’ve used, and I’ve gotten the most sales for, okay I continue to use him as well, and Maurizio pace, Those are the top, 3 so if you want to try out udimi again the link will be the first link in the description, you get a $5, voucher so that you can you know spend that on, extra, clicks to your website now, if you don’t have anything to, a cell that say you don’t have a physical product you don’t have a digital product, you don’t even know where to start with affiliate market, i’m going to go ahead and link my business, text in the description it’s a done for you, affiliate, template, okay that you can go ahead and download, and start running traffic to, and getting sales it’s already proven as you, uC not show you in the past, slides you know I’m done over $27,000 with this business, utilizing, eugenie, solo ads, is it something I’ve never showed here in my YouTube channel, but I wanted to share this with you because this is something that, Has work for me, i continue to use it and I want to share with all of you so, hopefully this helps your business out, and I look forward to seeing you, in the next video I’m going to link a video right up here about it more affiliate marketing strategies if you want to watch that, and I’ll see you in the next, take care.

from WordPress https://top1course.com/udimi-solo-ads-training-for-2019-200-a-day-proof/

[vickeyeppunitarj42insurance-blog]

jeep wrangler insurance 19 year old

jeep wrangler insurance 19 year old

jeep wrangler insurance 19 year old

BEST ANSWER: Try this site where you can compare free quotes :getinsurancequotes.top

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jeep wrangler insurance 19 year old

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