#Third-party payment reporting

[imyourbratzdoll]

𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒓𝒚 𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎𝒑𝒊𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆

🍓the strawberry shack masterlist🍓

summary - mark hasn't been having the best week and decides to take up a lead his boss gave him, only to wonder if he made the right choice.

warning - smut, oral sex, gloryhole, slight angst.

18+ only please, the gif and headers I use aren't mine.

Warnings and Reminders - Please do not plagiarise, copy, repost/republish, adapt, or translate any of my work on any social media platforms, apps, or third-party sites. The only platforms I post my work on are: Tumblr and Wattpad. I do not own any character of any franchise (Marvel etc.) All my works are fiction and may be dark or triggering content: READ ALL WARNINGS BEFORE PROCEEDING.

Mark sighed as he parked outside the building, he wasn’t having the best of weeks. Ever since they caught the copycat killer, he thought he had finally found some sort of happiness with Sidney but that all went down the drain when she dumped him out of the blue. Work had been keeping him away and he wasn’t seeing her as much, they both had planned on starting a family, but obviously that didn’t work out. 

He shakes his head, pulling himself out of his thoughts as he looks toward the bright building. His boss sent him here, telling him to investigate as there’s been word on some illegal things happening. Grabbing his badge, he exits the car and begins to make his way over. It felt like the sign was pulling him toward it even more, something inside him calling for something other than work. 

Mark enters the building and slowly walks up to the woman at the counter, her eyes watch him as she awaits his instructions. Mark clears his throat, looking around the room before settling on her. Before he can speak, she smiles and leans forward. “First time?” He nods, “I’d suggest the door on the left down the hall. But you gotta pay first.” Her hand goes out, awaiting payment.

Mark slowly puts some cash in her hand and walks in the direction she suggested. As he enters the room, he thinks. What the hell has he gotten himself into. He slowly makes his way around the room, knowing all he needs to do is head out and report back to his boss, but he stops at your hole. It feels like something is calling out to him, controlling him as he moves closer and reaches down to his tight slacks. “Fuck! What am I doing? I shouldn’t be doing this!” He whispers, feeling tingles shoot through his body as he palms himself. 

“Why shouldn’t you be doing this?” You lean forward, enough to peak through the hole and eye his bulge and hands. “Don’t you wanna feel good? Wouldn’t it be nice to treat yourself? Especially seeing as you’ve already paid.” You watch him grip himself a bit harder, knowing your words are getting to him when he finally unzips them and pulls out his throbbing cock. “That’s a good boy. Now let me have a taste.”

Mark groans as he directs his cock through the hole, your tongue immediately making contact with his thick tip. “Jesus…” He rests his hands on the wall, his head following as you slowly suck him deeper into your mouth, your tongue swirls around him. You begin to bob your head, your eyes closing as his tip hits the back of your throat and you moan, causing his head to fly back as it vibrates around his cock, pleasure shooting all the way up his spine and into his head. “Shit! Shit!” His hips jerk and he moans, his eyes screw shut as his balls tighten and cum spurts out of his mushroom tip. “Fuck… That’s embarressing…” He mutters, resting his forehead back against the wall. 

You continue to suck his softening cock, licking up all of his cum before you slowly pull back and give his tip a soft kiss, licking your lips, you speak. “Don’t be embarrassed, honey. It looks like you really needed that release.” You giggle, watching through the hole as he tucks himself back into his slacks. “Will I be seeing you again?” 

Mark shakes his head and clears his throat. “I uh don’t know…” You watch with a pout as he turns and leaves without a goodbye. Mark flies out of there and quickly gets into his car before he lets out a breath. “What the fuck did I just do?!” His hands grip his hair, shivering as he remembers your lips wrapped around his cock. His head turns and he stares at the building, maybe it wouldn’t be so wrong for him to tell his boss there is nothing there. Maybe it wouldn’t be so wrong to go back and see you again. 

thank you for reading!

feedback and reblogs are greatly appreciated.

[celticcrossanon]

Hello Celta, Long time no see. I hope all is well.

I’m writing to bring you some juicy gossip from 1. Bookworm2 on YouTube, 2. a jailing of a sugar, and 3. lady C will be unmasking ugly after all and 4. Meghan regrets telling kids she’s the most bullied.

Bookworm does have some far reaching long term contacts at the palace and elsewhere in the US., truly people in the know. When you publish my ask I will attach her latest video. Allegedly Archwell, is rumoured to be under investigation by the Feds and IRS. There’s the matter of the missing millions from Archwell, and failure to declare it. BUT BUT BUT there’s also the matter of the Harkles, Meghan in particular uttering death threats across state lines, as part of an FBI cyber bullying investigation. This latter charge relates to the extreme bullying and harassment Catherine underwent during her cancer diagnosis and treatment. Catherine allegedly received some really nasty death threats while she was secluded from the public, at the height of the ‘Wheres Kate’ psychodrama online. Remember William went to visit M15 and it was publicized everywhere?? Two card readers, Mad World Tarot included, did a reading that showed the 3 of pentacles card, involvement through a third party. I wonder if they were able to trace the financial angle ie payment from Archwell. Or one of the third party, ie the death threat poster, probably squealed about his motivation and bosses. MWT saw William’s energy behind this. They truly thought online threats were untraceable. Consequences people consequences.

Avid Gardener and Trevor Coult on YouTube has the woman accused of trying to bomb Buckingham Palace brought up on charges against them. She made the threat on Twitter brazenly and openly. She’s also issued death threats to Avid and her husband and had bullied Trevor out of his charity job and home. She’s been named in the press as Diane Durham, 62, and she’s an immense sugar. Stupid woman pleaded not guilty after first admitting everything. It moves on to the high court for sentencing. I think the police are concurrently investigating the YouTube harassment claims. She stands to lose her house to Trevor in damages. I have no sympathy. Consequences people consequences.

On a related topic Lady C will most likely take go fund me to court because of the illegal reopening of her money raising drive for Mr thomas Markle Snr. She alleges that someone with connections had go fund me reopen the fundraiser after it was closed as per her contract with them, and called the newspaper to accuse her of fraud, all within the space of a few days. First she threatened the newspaper with a lawsuit if they ran the story, and then she threatened go fund me after they tried to brush her off, by telling her they couldn’t identify the member of staff of go fund me due to privacy reasons. She’s not having it AT ALL. And will see them in court. She strongly hints that she suspects Meghan and Harry are behind it, again through third parties. They want to damage her reputation and get her off YouTube. I think they mistakenly identified Lady C as a pushover. Don’t they anything about her life? lol. Consequences people consequences.

There’s also a threat by the UK bullied staff to be released from their NDAs to speak on camera about Meghan’s Bullying Report buried by the Queen. This, after she went to some girls charity last week. and claimed to be the most bullied person in the world. I bet she’s regretting that now. Consequences people consequences.

They both must be sweating bullets. No wonder Harry is nowhere to be seen. I hear a rumour he’s either in Australia to harass his father, or he’s in the UK hoping to be named counsellor of State while dear old pop is away. Harry is so dumb, all he cares about are the perks of the BRF and never about the consequences of his actions. He’s thicker than a brick.

There you go. It’s quite a lot, and I hope sooner rather than later they face justice in some form or another.

Hi AnonymousRetired,

All is very well with me, thank you for asking.

Thank you as well for sending in such a lot of lovely gossip. It looks like things are starting to move against the Harkles. Like you, I hope that all the perpetrators face justice, and sooner rather than later.

Videos referred to in the gossip (I hope these are the right ones): Note: I still need the ones from Lady C

Bookworm 2

Avid Gardener

Trevor Coult MC

Mad World Tarot

[blackestnight]

1: road hazard

Prompt: Steer Word count: 1406 Honestly, Hanami probably needs to come with a permanent caution sign.

“Absolutely not,” Aymeric says, his scowl marred a bit by the fact that he’s obviously holding back a smile. The overall effect is that he’s very sternly sucking on one of those spiced chocolate candies she brought back from Tuliyollal and trying not to sneeze.

Hanami leans back against the Manufactory’s wall, insulated enough in her coat not to feel the chill of stone, and raises an eyebrow at him.

“I know,” he says, grave as any battlefield order, “how you drive that thing.”

“You have never seen my drive my motorbike,” she says immediately, and because she loves him with all the fury of a dying star she even withholds the you fucking liar she wants to tack onto the end.

“I have received numerous reports of your recklessness,” he says, crisp and clipped in a way that has a smile tugging at the corner of her own mouth. “And I have no desire to risk my own life by placing myself at the mercy of your driving.”

“Reports,” she scoffs, and twirls the little metal ring around her finger so the cermet keys clink against each other. Cid and Nero are still in the middle of their most recent engineering pissing contest, and apparently the only thing they can agree on about the bikes is that she’s their favorite test driver—you’re almost guaranteed to walk away from any catastrophic malfunction, Nero had sneered, which was a compliment coming from him. It cuts down on paperwork. Not that she actually needs all the motorbikes they’ve been giving her instead of actual payment, but it’s not like she’s going to turn them down since they are useful.

Which is why it’s especially offensive that Aymeric raises his hands, ticks off his first finger, and says, “Cid Garlond.”

“If he did not want me to wreck his bikes,” she says, “he should have built better fucking bikes.”

Aymeric raises an eyebrow at her—she wrinkles her nose—but he’s truly smiling now, even as he says, “You drove it directly into a cliff face. At speed.”

“He should have built a bike that could fucking turn,” she says, which is also more or less what she had told Cid at the time, and he’d thrown his hands up and stormed out of the Ironworks tent at Porta Praetoria to scream incoherently, but the next iteration of the G-bike could make hairpin turns at speeds that would make a chocobo jockey shit themselves, so she’d clearly been right.

Aymeric raises his eyes to the heavens, although she can’t imagine who exactly he’s praying to, and he ticks off a second finger and says, “Lucia Junius.”

“That was her idea,” Hanami says. To be fair, it was a good one. The Ilsabardian contingent had brought chocobos for transporting provisions, but they couldn’t actually take the birds out on long journeys unless the scouting parties wanted to haul around enough tents and fuel to close off and heat an area big enough to keep giant hulking horsebirds from dying of exposure. Hanami’s bike was smaller, and wouldn’t freeze to death on the icy wastes of Garlemald.

It also made Hanami essentially their only mounted cavalry until they could steal some Reapers, which was a little strange, but as it turned out if she could hook her scythe blade into…really any part of a hostile piece of magitek, the bike’s momentum would do the rest of the work of tearing it to shreds, even if she did a bit of an ungainly fishtail the first few times she tried that stunt.

“She asked if you would be willing to use the bike for scouting,” Aymeric says. “Not for combat.”

“She did not explain that to the colossi pointing cannons at my face,” Hanami points out. “And they were rude and would not wait for me to put down the kickstand.”

He’s absolutely laughing now, his shoulders visibly shaking even under the bulk of his coat, but he keeps his voice remarkably steady while he ticks off a third finger and says, “G’raha Tia.”

“Can fuck right off,” she snaps, and then hisses when her tail smacks against the Manufactory wall. “He has no room to talk.” Even ignoring the stunt with the light aether, which she was still mad about, or the nonsense with Elidibus, or the tower of Zot—by the time she’d found him and Alisaie on the Magna Glacies, he’d been halfway through calling down a fireball that would have made him black out after, and bleeding from half a dozen wounds besides. Whereas Hanami dumping her bike and letting it skid straight into the giant blasphemy’s legs had been quick and efficient, and immobilized the stupid oversized lizard, and a hastily-spun shield of shadow meant Hanami had rolled to her feet without so much as a bruise. “I notice you did not get a report from Alisaie.”

“Mistress Leveilleur was quite impressed by your driving,” Aymeric says, “which I feel only reinforces my point.”

Hanami snorts, and holds out the hand not occupied with her keyring, which Aymeric takes easily. “I would not let anything happen to you,” she says, and runs her thumb across his gloved knuckles. “I can be careful.”

Erenville would bitch about anything, but he’d only complained about the noise and the smell of the bike, not her driving. Lamat-chan had been delighted the first time Hanami had taken her on a ride through the streets of Tuliyollal, split between chattering about automated wheeled carts to ferry around citizens who couldn’t handle the endless stairs or hills and whooping in elation when Hanami kicked up the speed a little down the long straight of Talonmarch. Even Alphinaud was comfortable enough on the back of the bike, although he usually wound up with his face pressed between her shoulderblades when they bounced over rougher ground.

“I know,” Aymeric says, and lifted their twined hands to press a kiss to her fingers. “Though I do wish you would take more care with your own safety, and not only that of your passengers.”

She lets loose a tiny sigh through her nose, the showy irritation melting from her shoulders, and allows herself a real smile as she runs her fingertips down the line of Aymeric’s jaw. He has an adventurer’s spirit, even if his heart is sworn to Ishgard, but she doesn’t think he’s ever felt the same delight she gets from heart-pounding excitement, almost akin to terror, kicking her pulse into overdrive and dousing her nerve endings in adrenaline. He so rarely turns down little adventures with her, but she thinks, if she could peer into his mind, he would be the sort with a voice in his head telling him to step carefully when walking along a cliff’s edge.

Her impulses have always been the sort telling her to jump. The rotten ones, the loudest ones, to try and find silence at the bottom—but the rest, the ones she heeds most closely now, just to enjoy the wind whistling through her hair during the fall.

“I know,” she says. “But I would not get myself into any trouble I could not walk away from.” Not when she has a choice in the matter.

And even when the choice was taken away from her, at the edge of the universe, she got up and walked it off anyway, even if it took some kind of bullshit akasa resurrection and a lot of physical therapy, so it isn’t as though she’d let something as silly as a bike crash keep her away from him, not when the end of days couldn’t manage it.

He comes to her easily when she tugs on his hand, and presses a kiss to her temple, the heat of his breath settling into her hair.

“Setting aside the matter of your driving,” he murmurs, his voice gone velvety in a way that warms her from the inside out, “I rather enjoy the romance of long walks with you.”

When he straightens up his smile is easy, and his fingers are twined even more firmly in her own, so she pockets the keyring and says, “You could have just said you wanted to hold my hand, you sap.”

“I thought it rather apparent,” he tells her, with another squeeze to her fingers, and she scoffs and pushes off the wall. It’s a long, cold walk to Whitebrim, but she’s never minded taking the slow way.

[mariacallous]

Cornel West’s independent presidential campaign is broke. His former campaign manager says he knows nothing about ballot access. And he spent more on graphic design than petition-gathering in his most recent campaign finance report.

But tens of thousands of signatures have been gathered on behalf of the famed left-wing academic in key states thanks to self-organized grassroots volunteers — and some help from outside operatives tied to a Republican consulting firm.

Democrats fear West’s potential to siphon votes from President Joe Biden in places where he is on the ballot in a close election, and some Republicans are publicly discussing ways to boost West and other minor candidates like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Green Party’s Jill Stein in the hopes of splitting the anti-Donald Trump coalition.

In North Carolina, for example, a prominent Republican activist was spotted in April outside a Trump rally gathering signatures for West, telling rallygoers it "helps take away votes from Joe Biden."

Meanwhile, a new party formed in the state to get West on the ballot announced Monday that its “all-volunteer effort" had submitted more than 30,000 signatures, despite having virtually no oversight and receiving not “a cent” from West’s campaign.

“Without this grassroots effort, there’s no way we could have done it,” Drew Lischke, a co-chair of the Justice for All Party of North Carolina, said at a news conference. “This was a very low, low, low budget operation.”

But internal emails obtained by NBC News, social media posts and other evidence suggest someone from the outside — though it’s unclear who or how much, if anything, they spent — was trying to help West get on the ballot in North Carolina, even if his grassroots allies were not fully aware of it.

Emails from elections officials, obtained through a request under North Carolina's Public Records Law, show the pro-West Justice for All Party authorized three people to pick up and drop off signatures for them statewide — and all three are current or past employees of a Colorado-based Republican political firm called Blitz Canvassing.

Blitz Canvassing has worked for numerous Republican House and Senate candidates and took in more than $14.6 million in payments working for Never Back Down, the main super PAC that supported former GOP presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, according to campaign finance reports.

"In the same way that Republicans have quietly pushed ballot access for the Green Party across the country for years, there’s concrete evidence — not rumors, but evidence — in North Carolina and in other states of an organized Republican effort to get Cornel West on ballots, using Republican consultants and vendors that the West campaign is not paying for," said Pete Kavanaugh, who founded Clear Choice Action, a new Democratic super PAC working to combat third-party candidates.

West campaign spokesperson Edwin DeJesus said the campaign was “not aware of these particular individuals being involved with a Republican firm” and so it did “not have any specific comments since we are not familiar with them or their affiliations.”

“However, it’s important to note that our volunteer base encompasses a broad spectrum of political affiliations,” DeJesus added.

'We haven't paid them one cent'

On May 7, a top official at the North Carolina State Board of Elections emailed colleagues with some “important updates and reminders” about various upcoming deadlines and events, according to a redacted copy of the email, which was shared with NBC News after being obtained via a public records request by Clear Choice.

Included on the list was an update about the pro-West Justice For All Party's petition efforts. The email alerted other officials that the party’s "chairperson has authorized the following representatives to drop off and pick up petitions" throughout the state: Jacob Smith, David Mills and Charisma Harris.

Smith is listed as project manager on Blitz Canvassing's website, and the cellphone number listed in the email matches one given for Smith in a Michigan GOP fundraising email that pointed recipients to him if they had questions. Mills says on LinkedIn that he is employed full time as a project manager for Blitz. And Harris says on LinkedIn that she currently runs her own canvassing firm but served as regional political director for Blitz until January. Before that, she was a campaign manager for Blitz, where she started working in 2022.

Italo Medelius, a co-chair of the Justice for All Party and its official representative to election officials, acknowledged to NBC News that he authorized the three to work on behalf of the campaign, saying he did so because they were familiar with the intricacies of petitioning procedures.

But he had no idea they worked for Blitz and had never heard of the company, saying their names were included on a list of potential volunteers sent over by West’s campaign, with a notation that they had experience in petition gathering.

“I know Charisma, Jacob and David as volunteers,” Medelius said. “We haven’t paid them one cent.”

He said he had known Harris for years and worked with her on the 2020 Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, but said he only became aware of Smith and Mills after they appeared on the West campaign’s volunteer list.

“We did talk about, from the beginning of this operation, that there might be infiltrators trying to get into the campaign,” Medelius said. “If there are people that infiltrated or whatever, it could be true, I guess, but I never really had a hint from these folks.”

Smith, Mills and Harris did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Alyssa Zambrano, a manager at Blitz, told NBC News in a brief interview that she had “no idea” why the three were working on behalf of the Justice for All campaign and said her firm was not doing any work for West.

“We have nothing to do with that,” Zambrano said. “We’re not working for them.”

Follow-up emails and text messages asking for more clarification from Blitz went unanswered.

'Beyond fishy'

Before the consultants' roles were known, the geography of the Justice for All signatures raised alarm bells among local Democrats.

The pro-West party received large batches of signatures from Republican-leaning counties like Brunswick and New Hanover, while there were proportionally fewer than expected from more Democratic-leaning counties and ones with large university campuses, where West’s progressive and pro-Palestine messaging would be likely to resonate.

“It’s beyond fishy,” said Doug Heyl, a North Carolina-based Democratic strategist. “It seems very likely that a lot of these are Republican signatures that want Cornel West on the ballot to help Trump.”

Separately, a high-profile Republican activist who focuses on early voting was spotted gathering signatures for West outside a planned rally for former Trump in April in Wilmington, North Carolina.

“This helps take away votes from Joe Biden,” Scott Presler told a rallygoer, according to a video posted by a Washington Post reporter. “We’re helping the Trump team who’s trying to get him on there,” added a woman by his side. The rally was later canceled due to bad weather.

Documents obtained by NBC news suggest this was not just a stunt or idle talk.

Hundreds of pages of petition signatures submitted by the Justice for All Party, also obtained through a public records request, show dozens of registered Republicans signed petitions to get the pro-West party on the ballot on the same day as the Trump rally and in the same county.

On the social media platform X, where Presler has 1.5 million followers, he put out a call ahead North Carolina’s ballot deadline saying, “We are working on getting Dr. Cornel West on the ballot in North Carolina. If anyone is interested in helping, let me know.”

A week later, he posted again to say he had already “sent 40+ folks to our North Carolina organizer, but are still looking for more.”

Asked about Presler on CNN in April, West said he had never heard of the right-wing influencer and did not want his help.

“No, no, I don’t think so, if it’s just manipulative,” West said. “If people are just going to use this candidate for X and Y, no, not at all.”

West campaign struggles

These efforts are happening on the sidelines of a campaign that has struggled in its own efforts.

Getting on the ballot is the biggest challenge for any independent or third-party candidate — and also a place where outside forces have a history of meddling — but West’s campaign has stumbled trying to meet that challenge.

West’s most recent campaign finance report showed he entered May with just $18,000 in cash and more than that — $28,000 — in debt. Campaign finance expert Rob Pyers noted the report showed West’s campaign spent more on graphic design in April than it spent on petitioning services for ballot access.

By comparison, Kennedy spent more than $2 million on a single company specializing in ballot access for his own independent campaign, according to his own FEC report covering the same time period.

“There’s a Kennedy presence in North Carolina. There’s no West presence here,” said Heyl.

In late April and early May, West’s campaign listed 70 volunteer events across the country, but none were in North Carolina.

Before running as an independent, West was on track to claim the nomination of the Green Party, which has existing infrastructure and ballot lines he could have used. But West abruptly left the party last fall, stunning Green Party officials like Jill Stein, who was managing his campaign and is now expected to once again be the Greens' nominee in his absence.

“You can’t do ballot access on your first time out,” Stein told left-wing podcast host Briahna Joy Gray in a recent interview. “He’s talking about running as a write-in candidate in Texas, but he doesn’t know that Texas won’t count write-in votes! And that’s true in many states.”

West and Stein have been feuding after he accused her of being "addicted" to running for president and said he had lost "all respect" for her.

Stein said West has refused to discuss the issue with her and explain why he left the Green Party, adding that he's a "political novice" and that it was "hard to give him advice" about the mechanics of ballot access and running a campaign.

“There is absolutely no pathway forward for Dr. West," Stein said.

Nevertheless, some people are working to clear a path for him.

[beardedmrbean]

Gov. Gavin Newsom agreed to pay a $13,000 fine Friday for failing to report on time over a dozen charitable payments made at his request by notable foundations and businesses, including Microsoft, Amazon and T-Mobile, between 2018 and 2024.

California's political ethics law requires elected officials to report donations made on their behalf within 30 days. On 18 occasions, the Fair Political Practices Commission said, Newsom and his 2018 campaign committee failed to make those reports on time, often submitting them several months late.

The commission noted that Newsom, having served in public office for more than 25 years, should have known better than to lose track of what amounted to more than $14 million in payments. Newsom has filed more than 1,100 such reports since 2011, totaling over $300 million, and eventually filed all the reports before being confronted by enforcement officials.

Read more: Big companies donate millions on Newsom's behalf, raising concerns about corporate influence

One payment from T-Mobile was more than $12 million — others ranged from $5,000 up to almost $500,000 from Amazon. Newsom's campaign said some filings were late because it had to rely on third parties to track the necessary filing information.

"There is inherent public harm in non-disclosure of the payments because the public is deprived of important information and deprived of the timely opportunity to scrutinize the payments," the FPPC wrote in its settlement agreement with the governor.

The commission did not fine Newsom for missing deadlines on several payments he requested to help the state during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is common for elected officials to ask companies to make charitable donations to specific organizations, and such payments are not subject to the limits that apply to direct campaign donations. The reporting requirements are meant to allow timely public scrutiny over these "behested payments," which might be an attempt to curry favor with elected officials.

Read more: California sets new rules for mystery donations made on behalf of lawmakers

Concerns were raised when Newsom reported requested payments that were six times as much in 2020 as those reported by former Gov. Jerry Brown over his final eight years in office combined.

A Newsom spokesperson defended the governor’s record of soliciting charitable donations.

“This work, connecting private resources to public needs, is what we need more of across government,” Nathan Click said in a statement.

Click noted that Newsom has filed a thousand other reports on time, and said, “Many of these identified in the report were filed only a few weeks late and due to delayed notification of receipt of payment by the recipients.”

[interactyouth]

I haven't been able to go through many of your posts so apologies if you've already answered this but how would you know if you had "corrective" surgery? I have traits of being intersex. I just can't find any resources that talk about how to find out if it happened besides family members telling you or looking at medical records. I have brought it up with my OBGYN about being "different" aka intersex and there was some agreement there but I don't know if any surgery was done when I was a child.

If you have observable traits, but aren't aware of any surgical history, then the ways to find that out WOULD be through asking family members or seeking out your own medical records. If you're in the United States and over the age of 18, then you can legally request your own medical records. I'm most familiar with US protocol, though, so it potentially differs elsewhere.

But the process in the United States is typically "simple". 1. Figure out which hospital or clinic(s) you were a patient at. If being intersex is something that was potentially concealed from you by family members, then it might be difficult to acquire this primary information. However, intersex or not, EVERYONE deserves to have copies of their medical records for personal reference. It is YOUR health and well-being. If necessary, you may simply have to call multiple hospitals or clinics that may have potentially admitted you as a patient during your childhood based on where you lived. This process can sometimes require a lot of researching, unfortunately. 2. Upon knowing which hospital or clinic(s) you were a patient at, go to the respective website(s) and find their process for medical record requests. This is usually found by googling "<name of hospital/clinic> medical records". Some may require you to give your personal information over the phone, or fill out paperwork by email, a third party website, etc. They typically ask for the legal name at the time you were a patient, date of birth, the range of time you were a a patient (you're allowed to guess through suggesting the dates between your birth and adolescence) and potentially Social Security number. 3. Depending on the process, you could receive your records within a few days, weeks, or months. The duration is dependent on factors such as hospital size (other people are often requesting records daily), low or high budget/funding (this would affect how their patient records are organized), and how many records you're requesting. For example, when I recently requested MY medical records to get a copy of an MRI report (among other things), I followed the aforementioned process. I inputted my information on a third party website associated with the hospital, and after 5 days, I received log-in credentials for a way to download a private PDF of everything that I had requested. While I hadn't selected the "All Records" option, I still got 70 pages worth of reports and notes. So, if you're trying to get all of your records--which I encourage--it could take longer, especially if the hospital/clinic is old or has a large number of patients that it sees. If you're having to request records from multiple offices, that can also affect the speed of collecting all possible medical records. 4. I'm not sure how ubiquitous it is, but for me, I had to pay a fee for requesting my records. It was around $7 total, so something you should keep in mind when searching for your medical records is the payment cost that different hospitals/clinics may or may not require. I hope that explanation makes sense, and if you need more assistance, you're more than welcome to DM this blog or email info@interactadvocates.org

[jeraldnepoleon]

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In an era where patient care and experience are paramount, hospital management software optimizes workflows and ensures that healthcare providers can focus more on patients and less on administrative tasks. Here's where Grapes IDMR makes a remarkable difference.

Grapes IDMR Hospital Management Software: A Game-Changer

Grapes IDMR’s hospital management software is a complete, integrated solution tailored to meet the unique requirements of modern healthcare institutions. By bringing together various modules such as appointment scheduling, patient management, billing, reporting, and inventory control, Grapes IDMR offers a seamless and intuitive platform. Here are the key features that make it a preferred choice:

1. Patient Information Management

Managing patient records, histories, test results, and appointments can be challenging, especially for large hospitals. Grapes IDMR's hospital management software provides a central database for storing and retrieving patient data with ease. This ensures timely access to critical information, improving decision-making and patient care.

2. Appointment and Scheduling

With a highly intuitive scheduling system, Grapes IDMR helps hospitals reduce waiting times and optimize doctor appointments. The system allows real-time updates, ensuring that doctors, staff, and patients are aligned, reducing chances of overbooking or under booking.

3. Billing and Payment Integration

Hospitals deal with multiple payment methods and insurance claims on a daily basis. Grapes IDMR simplifies the entire billing process by providing automated invoicing, payment reminders, and integration with third-party insurance systems. This reduces billing errors and accelerates the payment cycle.

4. Inventory and Supply Chain Management

Efficient management of hospital inventory is vital for preventing shortages and ensuring that essential medicines and supplies are always available. Grapes IDMR’s hospital management software offers an automated system that tracks inventory levels, alerts on reorders, and ensures that the right supplies are always stocked.

5. Data Security and Compliance

One of the critical concerns in healthcare is data security. Grapes IDMR takes this seriously by offering state-of-the-art encryption and security measures that protect sensitive patient data. Additionally, the software is fully compliant with healthcare regulations, ensuring that hospitals adhere to industry standards and legal requirements.

6. Reporting and Analytics

Having access to real-time data and analytics is crucial for making informed decisions. Grapes IDMR offers a comprehensive reporting module that provides insights into hospital performance, patient outcomes, financial metrics, and more. This allows hospital administrators to track key metrics and identify areas for improvement.

Benefits of Implementing Grapes IDMR Hospital Management Software

Integrating hospital management software like Grapes IDMR into your healthcare facility comes with a wide array of benefits:

1. Improved Patient Care

By automating routine tasks, doctors and healthcare professionals can focus more on delivering high-quality care. Grapes IDMR ensures that patient data is accessible at the click of a button, allowing for quicker diagnoses and treatment plans.

2. Increased Efficiency

With automated scheduling, billing, and inventory management, hospitals can optimize their operations, reduce redundancy, and increase staff productivity. This not only saves time but also cuts operational costs.

3. Enhanced Communication

Grapes IDMR enhances communication between departments and medical staff, ensuring that everyone is on the same page. This is especially useful in critical situations where time-sensitive decisions are required.

4. Cost Savings

By automating various administrative tasks, hospitals can significantly reduce overhead costs. Billing errors, scheduling conflicts, and inventory issues are minimized, leading to overall cost savings.

5. Data-Driven Decisions

Grapes IDMR’s powerful reporting tools enable hospitals to make data-driven decisions, improving both patient outcomes and financial performance. The software provides valuable insights that can help in resource allocation, process improvement, and patient care management.

Why Choose Grapes IDMR?

When selecting hospital management software, it's essential to choose a system that is reliable, scalable, and adaptable to your facility's needs. Here’s why Grapes IDMR is the ideal solution for hospitals:

Customizable: Grapes IDMR can be tailored to suit the specific needs of any healthcare facility, whether it's a small clinic or a large multi-specialty hospital.

User-Friendly Interface: With an intuitive and easy-to-navigate interface, the software is designed for seamless adoption, even by staff with minimal technical expertise.

Comprehensive Support: Grapes IDMR offers 24/7 support and training for hospital staff, ensuring smooth implementation and continuous operation.

Future-Proof Technology: Grapes IDMR stays updated with the latest technological advancements, offering hospitals a future-proof solution that can scale as the facility grows.

Final Thoughts

In today’s healthcare environment, hospitals need to adopt digital solutions to stay competitive and deliver exceptional patient care. Grapes IDMR’s hospital management software provides the perfect blend of innovation, efficiency, and reliability. By automating administrative tasks, enhancing communication, and ensuring data security, Grapes IDMR empowers healthcare providers to focus on what truly matters: patient care.

If your hospital is looking to boost efficiency and improve patient outcomes, Grapes IDMR’s hospital management software is the solution you need.

"Watch This Video Now!"

[misfitwashere]

If You Don't Know Medicare Advantage Is a Scam, You're Not Paying Attention

We’re on the edge of the open enrollment period for Medicare, and the Advantage scammers will be carpet-bombing America with advertisements over the next few months. Don't be fooled about what it is—and who is profiting.

Thom Hartmann

Oct 07, 2023

Common Dreams

President George W. Bush and Republicans (and a handful of on-the-take Democrats) in Congress created the Medicare Advantage scam in 2003 as a way of routing hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars into the pockets of for-profit insurance companies.

Those companies, and their executives, then recycle some of that profit back into politicians’ pockets via the Citizens United legalized bribery loophole created by five corrupt Republicans on the Supreme Court.

Just the overcharges happening right now in that scam are costing Americans over $140 billion a year: more than the entire budget for the Medicare Part B or Part D programs. These ripoffs — that our federal government seems to have no interest in stopping — are draining the Medicare trust fund while ensnaring gullible seniors in private insurance programs where they’re often denied life-saving care.

Real Medicare pays bills when they’re presented. Medicare Advantage insurance companies, on the other hand, get a fixed dollar amount every year for each of the people enrolled in their programs, regardless of how much they spent on each customer.

As a result, Medicare Advantage programs make the greatest profits for their CEOs and shareholders when they actively refuse to pay for care, something that happens frequently. It’s a safe bet that nearly 100 percent of the people who sign up for Advantage programs don’t know this and don’t have any idea how badly screwed they could be if they get seriously ill.

Not only that, when people do figure out they’ve been duped and try to get back on real Medicare, the same insurance companies often punish them by refusing to write Medigap plans (that fill in the 20% hole in real Medicare). They can’t do that when you first sign up when you turn 65, but if you “leave” real Medicare for privatized Medicare Advantage, it can be damn hard to get back on it.

The doctors’ group Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) just published a shocking report on the extent of the Medicare Advantage ripoffs — both to individual customers and to Medicare itself — that every American should know about.

The report, titled Our Payments, Their Profits, opens with this shocking exposé:

“By our estimate, and based on 2022 spending, Medicare Advantage overcharges taxpayers by a minimum of 22% or $88 billion per year, and potentially by up to 35% or $140 billion. By comparison, Part B premiums in 2022 totaled approximately $131 billion, and overall federal spending on Part D drug benefits cost approximately $126 billion. Either of these — or other crucial aspects of Medicare and Medicaid — could be funded entirely by eliminating overcharges in the Medicare Advantage program. “Medicare Advantage, also known as MA or Medicare Part C, is a privately administered insurance program that uses a capitated payment structure, as opposed to the fee-for-service (FFS) structure of Traditional Medicare or TM. Instead of paying directly for the health care of beneficiaries, the federal government gives a lump sum of money to a third party (generally a commercial insurer) to ‘manage’ patient care.”

With real Medicare and a Medigap plan, you talk with your physician or hospital and decide on your treatment, they bill Medicare, and you never see or hear about the bill. There is nobody between you and your physician or hospital and Medicare only goes after the payment they’ve made if they sniff out a fraud.

With Medicare Advantage, on the other hand, your insurance company gets a lump-sum payment from Medicare every year and keeps the difference between what they get and what they pay out. They then insert themselves between you and your doctor or hospital to avoid paying for whatever they can.

Whatever you decide on regarding treatment, many Advantage insurance company will regularly second-guess and do everything they can to intimidate you into paying yourself out-of-pocket. Often, they simply refuse payment and wait for you to file a complaint against them; for people seriously ill the cumbersome “appeals” process is often more than they can handle.

As a result, hospitals and doctor groups across the nation are beginning to refuse to take Medicare Advantage patients. California-based Scripps Health, for example, cares for around 30,000 people on Medicare Advantage and recently notified all of them that Scripps will no longer offer medical services to them unless they pay out-of-pocket or revert back to real Medicare.

They made this decision because over $75 million worth of services and procedures their physicians had recommended to their patients were turned down by Medicare Advantage insurance companies. In many cases, Scripps had already provided the care and is now stuck with the bills that the Advantage companies refuse to pay.

Scripps CEO Chris Van Gorder told MedPage Today:

“We are a patient care organization and not a patient denial organization and, in many ways, the model of managed care has always been about denying or delaying care – at least economically. That is why denials, [prior] authorizations and administrative processes have become a very big issue for physicians and hospitals...”

Similarly, the Mayo Clinic has warned its customers in Florida and Arizona that they won’t accept Medicare Advantage any more, either. Increasing numbers of physician groups and hospitals are simply over being ripped off by Advantage insurance companies.

Not only is the Medicare Advantage scam a screw job for healthcare providers and people who are on the programs and are unfortunate enough to get sick, it’s also preventing Americans from getting expanded benefits from real Medicare.

As the PNHP report notes, for real Medicare to provide comprehensive vision, dental, and hearing benefits to all Medicare recipients would cost the system around $84 billion a year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Instead, though, the Medicare system is burdened with at least that amount of money in over-payments to Medicare Advantage providers — over-payments that have no health benefit whatsoever and merely inflate the companies’ profits.

A hundred billion dollars in excess profits can be put to a lot of uses, and the health insurance industry is quite good at it. The former CEO of UnitedHealth, “Dollar” Bill McGuire, for example, made off with over $1.5 billion dollars for his efforts.

And, because five corrupt Republicans on the Supreme Court legalized political bribery with their Citizens United decision, some of these companies allocate millions every year (a mere drop in the bucket) to pay off loyal members of Congress and to dangle high-paying future jobs to high-level employees of CMS who have the power to keep the gravy train going and thwart prosecutions.

As PNHP noted:

“Medicare Advantage is just another example of the endless greed of the insurance industry poisoning American health care, siphoning money from vulnerable patients while delaying and denying necessary and often life-saving treatment. While there is obvious reason to fix these issues in MA and to expand Traditional Medicare for the sake of all beneficiaries, the deep structural problems with our health care system will only be fixed when we achieve improved Medicare for All.”

We’re on the edge of the open enrollment period for Medicare, and the Advantage scammers will be carpet-bombing America with advertisements over the next few months. Representatives Pocan, Khanna, and Schakowsky have introduced the “Save Medicare Act” that would ban Advantage companies from using the word Medicare in their advertising.

They made a video about it that’s well worth sharing with friends and family:

As Schakowsky, Khanna, and Pocan note, “Only Medicare is Medicare.” Don’t be fooled by the Medicare Advantage scam.

And now that you know, pass it on and save somebody else’s health!

[archivalofsins]

In the same vein as those last tags. I've been going back and forth with myself on whether to share what was said on these diagnosis forms or not. However, I am just excited about having them and wish to talk about them. Mostly given how difficult it was to get some clarity on this due to life I guess (someone actively abusing their power).

So, I'm going to. Not putting this in the tag because it's somewhat personal but it does discuss Haruka and Mikoto. So there's that.

I already said it but this exam only occurred thanks to my therapist. I was willing to just go whelp getting tested for autism again is actually fiscally impossible within my state at least for me because most practices that do that don't take state insurance. I don't have thousands of dollars to drop on this.

So, my therapist went out of her way to look for places that do testing and taking my insurance. There were none. However, there was one place that would do it for significantly cheaper. That place would be the Michigan School Psychological Clinic for anyone interested in that. However in total that costs five hundred dollars out of pocket. Again much cheaper than other avenues but still a good amount to pay for something but there's a good period of time between doing the intake forms and payment.

Plus it can be split into two payments of two hundred and fifty dollars one given before testing and the other after before receiving the results. This place doesn't test for autism though it's focus is psychological evaluations and ADHD testing. Now for most people in the states the first thing would be okay why is it so cheap what's the catch.

The catch is this diagnostic testing is being done by students it's a part of training program. It's done under the oversight of a Clinical supervisor that does have a doctorate. This is why it's cheaper. It's something that both parties need but no one wants to do for free at the same time.

Which brings e to the first thing I want to highlight,

ASSESSMENT AND STANDARDIZATION

A battery of tests designed to assess multiple domains of cognitive and emotional-behavioral functioning was administered. Testing was administered by a trained clinician under standardized conditions, and under the direct supervision of a licensed psychologist. The results of this assessment are presented in conceptual groupings for easy interpretation and are meant only as a guide for interpretation.

TESTS ADMINISTERED

Conners Adult ADHD Rating Scales, Second Edition (CAARS-2) [self and observer-report] Conners Continuous Performance Test, Third Edition (CPT-3) Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, Third Edition (MMPI-3) Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Fifth Edition (WAIS-V) Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (BeeryTM VMI)

I'm more so adding the thing above to give a general idea of how these things are done. In case people want to create more fan works around the prisoners and diagnoses. Now I can get into the parts that were interesting to me. Either because I found it to be laid in an oh way, or it was just like got damn.

First is a got damn type of thing,

BEHAVIORAL OBSERVATIONS

[REDACTED] was on time and appropriately dressed for her appointment. She presented with a pleasant and friendly disposition throughout the testing process. She was eager to discuss her favorite anime series and showed the test examiner a new book she recently purchased to read during breaks. [REDACTED] exhibited a verbal tic in the form of an involuntary repetitive sound that was uttered infrequently and spontaneously during conversation. She occasionally asked about items placed in the room and inquired about “correct” responses to test items following her responses. [REDACTED] was observed to be wearing her headphones with music playing at the initial start point of test administration and reported that it aids with focus and concentration. [REDACTED] demonstrated excellent stamina during the lengthy test administration and often initiated breaks.

Did I show another psychiatrist Milgram yes. She said Mahiru seemed to have anxious attachment by the way. Also the note on stamina is in regard to how long the test took. It took five to seven consecutive hours. The tester administrator said we could do it over the course of days if necessary but since I was aware of this being a student thing I didn't really want to impede on their schedule too much. So, I opted to finish it in one go.

The verbal tic thing is something I've had since I was a child. I can't really hear it so I didn't know I was doing it in this instance. It existing isn't news to me. My godchild actually makes the noise when she mirrors me saying hi to her. Ha, ha.... echolalia has interesting benefits. My sweet god daughter be like, "Hi, (her name) *that fucking noise I make after a sentence*".

I know, I know it's there I went to speech therapy for it. Since that speech therapy involved being hit with a ruler repeatedly each time I made the noise and that went on twice a week for three weeks. I've been aware of that existing since third grade actually. Sometimes I hear it but normally I do not.

Second point- I shouldn't be proud of this but I am.

Verbal Comprehension

The VCI is a measure of crystallized intelligence learned through verbal means. The VCI also assesses oral expression and receptive language. It measures the ability to access and apply acquired knowledge. The application of this knowledge involves verbal concept formation, reasoning, and expression. [REDACTED] obtained superior VCI scores (VCI= 124, 95th percentile) reflecting a well-developed verbal reasoning system with strong word knowledge, acquisition, effective information retrieval, good ability to reason and solve verbal problems, and effective communication of knowledge. On Similarities, which is a task that taps the abstract reasoning or the ability to identify the conceptual relationships that exist between words, [REDACTED] scored in the High Average range (SIM= 14, 91st percentile) indicating that she can state common features between two words or concepts when asked. On Vocabulary, which is a task that assessed [REDACTED]’s ability to provide word definitions, she performed in the Very High range (VOC= 15, 95th percentile). When answering questions about a broad range of general-knowledge topics, [REDACTED] scored in the Average range (IN= 9, 37th percentile). Furthermore, [REDACTED] performed better with verbal expression of word definitions than the ability to retrieve general factual knowledge from the environment, or past formal instruction.

I enjoy talking a lot that much should be kind of clear.

When the diagnosis goes you suck at drawing. My friends irl, "You graduated from an arts school what the fuck? You were an art major?!"

My ass who has one train of thought always and forever,

Q.05 Do you like drawing?

Mikoto: I like it, but I’m not especially good at it- It was one of the main areas of study at the arts uni I went to so I could just do the bare minimum for that, I guess. Don’t expect all designers are gonna be good at drawing~

I was a graphic design major. During my admissions interview the this conversation happened,

"Are you sure you don't want to be in radio and television? This is a very well edited video." (Needed to bring proof of competency and a piece of art one has made could be fan works brought an amv I'd made.)

"I'm positive I want to go into graphic design if there's no writing department. My concern is am I going to have to draw???"

"Well... If you're sure a bit of a waste though. One sec, here draw a triangle, circle, and square." slides sheet of paper across table.

Does that, "So?"

"That's all the drawing you need to know."

"Really...?"

"Yes. You'll have one drawing related class which since there's overlap between traditional arts and graphic design. But what I need to see is that you have an understanding of shapes and an eye for design. Which you've proven through drawing that and the work provided. So, I'll see you in class."

I literally could do the bare minimum to pass the one mandatory drawing class I had and while I like some aspects of it. Boy does it tire me out. So about that apparently physically writing isn't supposed to be immensely tiring. Who knew-

Visual Spatial

The VSI assesses a person’s ability to evaluate visual details and understand visual-spatial relationships. The ability to construct designs requires visual-spatial reasoning, integration and synthesis of part-whole relations, attentiveness to visual detail, and visual-motor integration. [REDACTED] scored in the Average range (VSI= 93, 32nd percentile) in comparison to her peers suggesting an adequate ability to apply spatial reasoning and analyzing visual details. For Block Design, [REDACTED] was asked to physically piece together a puzzle with a specified time limit to which she performed in the Low Average range (BD= 6, 9th percentile). She may have scored additional points if there were no time constraints. Moreover, when asked to reconstruct a puzzle from a selection of individual pieces, [REDACTED] scored in the Average range (Visual Puzzles= 11, 63rd percentile) indicating that her skills were stronger when a fine-motor component was not involved.

Now onto my beloathed,

The Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (BeeryTM VMI)

The Beery VMI (BEERY-BUKTENCIA DEVELOPMENTAL TEST OF VISUAL-MOTOR INTEGRATION (BEERY-VMI), 6TH Edition, 2010) was administered and measures the extent to which an individual can integrate their visual and motor abilities. It involves a developmental sequence of geometric forms to be copied with paper and pencil. Because children with different backgrounds often have widely varying degrees of experience with alphabets and numbers, geometric forms are used in the VMI rather than latter or numeric forms. The visual motor impairment, such as problems with fine motors skills of the hand and hand-eye coordination.

I fucking hate this test screw the Beery. This shit sucks.

On the VMI, [REDACTED] performed in the very low range, and her standard score of 66 corresponded to the 1st percentile relative to her peers. [REDACTED]’s performance in this area suggests that visual motor coordination is an area of weakness for her.

Did you catch that? When your score is low on a psychological test they refer to the thing you're low in as a Weakness.

MILGRAM / Haruka - Weakness

"If I tried and couldn’t say it, you would get angry at me and say “You’re hopeless.”."

"The VCI is a measure of crystallized intelligence learned through verbal means. The VCI also assesses oral expression and receptive language. It measures the ability to access and apply acquired knowledge. The application of this knowledge involves verbal concept formation, reasoning, and expression."

20/06/05

"If only I could do what anyone else could do."

Haruka: Ah…… ah, u-um, Mikoto-san. The c-communication……? thing, that you were saying was important. I-I thought, I’d give it my best…… Um, so, Mikoto-san, what’s your favourite food……?

Mikoto: Ooh? Nice going, Haru-kun~ Yeah, we still have no idea how long this lifestyle will go on for, so it’s best if we all get along together here. My favourite food…… I like pasta and horse-meat sashimi. Also bubble tea, and recently I’ve been big on custard puddings. What about you?

Haruka: ……ah, I, I wonder…… H-hamburg steak, and omurice, a-and also…… what else? Ah. Cotton candy……

Mikoto: C-cotton candy!? That’s the first time I’ve met someone who has that in their top three favourites!? ……man, Haru-kun, you really are hilarious.

Kazui: Do you think you can teach her?

Mikoto: Well… The only thing I can teach with confidence are tips for debates and discussions.

The VCI also assesses oral expression and receptive language.

Amane: Right now- English? No, I need to learn about math.

Oops got sidetracked. This was actually meant to be about me for once. Well I guess that can sit there what's the harm. Yeah so my coordination is a weakness apparently. So that's how I got diagnosed bad at art or in general physical coordination something needed to draw in any capacity down to even holding a pencil.

Oh that bring us to dysgraphia,

What is dysgraphia? In short, it’s a learning disability that affects fine motor skills like writing, buttoning a shirt, or tying a shoelace — as well as the mental processes associated with writing, like picking a topic, organizing ideas, and making a coherent point. - ADDitude (What Does Dysgraphia Look Like in Adults?)

Tying shoelaces-

Damn I could just end it there but let's keep going.

Dysgraphia is a neurological condition and learning difference in which someone has difficulty with writing for their age level. This can range from issues with the physical act of writing to issues with translating thoughts into written words. Dysgraphia is manageable with interventions that can help you learn new writing strategies.

Is dysgraphia a form of dyslexia?

Dyslexia and dysgraphia are two distinct neurological conditions, though they’re easy to confuse because they share symptoms and often occur together. Dyslexia is a learning difference that makes it harder for people to learn to read. If you have dyslexia, you may read more slowly or have trouble recognizing words. Often, people with dyslexia read at a lower level than expected. People with dyslexia may struggle to break words into sounds or relate letters to sounds when reading. Dysgraphia involves difficulty with the act of writing. Difficulties can range from issues with physically writing words to issues with organizing and expressing thoughts in written form.

Is dysgraphia a form of autism?

Dysgraphia isn’t a form of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Though dysgraphia commonly occurs in people with autism, you can have dysgraphia without having autism.

Source: Cleveland Clinic

Does dysgraphia occur alone or with other specific learning disabilities?

Children with impaired handwriting may also have attention-deficit disorder (ADHD)–inattentive, hyperactive, or combined inattentive and hyperactive subtypes. Children with this kind of dysgraphia may respond to a combination of explicit handwriting instruction plus stimulant medication, but appropriate diagnosis of ADHD by a qualified professional and monitoring of response to both instruction and medication are needed. Dysgraphia may occur alone or with dyslexia (impaired reading disability) or with oral and written language learning disability (OWL LD, also referred to as selective language impairment, SLI). Dyslexia is a disorder that includes poor word reading, word decoding, oral reading fluency, and spelling. Children with dyslexia may have impaired orthographic and phonological coding, rapid automatic naming and focused, switching, and/or sustained attention. OWL LD (SLI) is impaired language (morphology–word parts that mark meaning and grammar; syntax–structures for ordering words and understanding word functions; finding words in memory, and/or making inferences that go beyond what is stated in text). These disorders affect spoken as well as written language. Children with these language disorders may also exhibit the same writing and reading and related disorders as children with dysgraphia or dyslexia.

Here's some information on it from another source as well,

Understood

Many experts view dysgraphia as challenges with a set of skills known as transcription. These skills — handwriting, typing, and spelling — allow us to produce writing.

Here are ways it can present and signs of dysgraphia from both of the links provides.

Specific ways dysgraphia can present include:

Difficulties writing in a straight line. Difficulties with holding and controlling a writing tool. Writing letters in reverse. Having trouble recalling how letters are formed. Having trouble knowing when to use lower or upper case letters. Struggling to form written sentences with correct grammar and punctuation. Omitting words from sentences. Incorrectly ordering words in sentences. Using verbs and pronouns incorrectly.

Signs of Dysgraphia

One of the main signs of dysgraphia is messy handwriting. Here are some of the key handwriting skills people with dysgraphia may struggle with: Forming letters Writing grammatically correct sentences  Spacing letters correctly  Writing in a straight line Holding and controlling a writing tool  Writing clearly enough to read back later Writing complete words without skipping letters

Dysgraphia Symptoms at Home

Highly illegible handwriting, often to the point that even you can’t read what you wrote Struggles with cutting food, doing puzzles, or manipulating small objects by hand Uses a pen grip that is “strange” or “awkward” Slow to understand the rules of games or follow sequential directions Trouble reading maps Difficulty drawing, tracing, or painting Avoids writing whenever possible; prefers a digital grocery list to a written one, for instance Makes spelling errors in simple notes May also dislike texting

Sorry not to make this about me but- Literally in my discord bio "I like writing but I'm not the best texter since it makes me anxious." Absolutely hate that shit it's so energy draining.

Back on topic since this is just about Mikoto now,

Dysgraphia Symptoms at Work

When using spell-check on a computer, often has difficulty picking out the correct word from a list of similar words. Trouble filling in routine forms by hand, particularly if they require fitting words into set boxes. Illegible handwriting; can’t read own meeting notes or coworkers complain that memos are indecipherable. Mixes lowercase and uppercase letters, or print and cursive letters, seemingly randomly. Often leaves out individual letters or the ends of words, particularly when writing quickly. In some cases, may have trouble with typing as well. Experiences hand cramps or pain when writing. Has trouble telling when words are misspelled. Often uses grammatically incorrect sentences in emails or reports. May be overly reliant on simple sentence structures. Prefers to give or get directions orally, instead of in writing. Has trouble “getting to the point” in written communication; emails may be rambling, or reports may repeat the same ideas several times. Able to explain self clearly when speaking, but not when writing.

Please stop calling me out this isn't about me- "Has trouble “getting to the point” in written communication; emails may be rambling, or reports may repeat the same ideas several times."

Writing in a straight line. - Trouble filling in routine forms by hand, particularly if they require fitting words into set boxes.

Difficulties with holding and controlling a writing tool. - Uses a pen grip that is “strange” or “awkward”

Mikoto from the beginning has failed to use a consistent amount of pressure with his writing utensils when answering his interrogation questions. Making it appear as though his pen is running out of ink in a matter that is inconsistent with what that would generally look like. Considering this issue is present even prior to trial two he seems to have a habit of deviating between apply too much pressure and too little when writing.

Omitting words from sentences.

They're asked the exact same question and Yuno actually writes out an answer in contrast to Mikoto who just gives a list.

Difficulty drawing, tracing, or painting

Q.05   Do you like drawing?

Mikoto: I like it, but I’m not especially good at it.

I can't take much more of this... damn I feel like I'm dragging myself right now. Oh good I think that's everything I think that is sufficient enough. So yeah got fucking dysgraphia that dude probably does too or I'm projecting to spread the suffering. Who says it can't be both wouldn't that sort of overlap be perfection-

Yeah so the second test I received was even more thorough. the third one the government is having me take is probably gonna find more fucking issues at this rate.

[keganexe]

D&D, The OGL, and a Better Future for Actual Play Content

So this is spinning out of a post I made on twitter about how I legitimately believe the future of Actual Play (or AP for short) is in working alongside indie rpg folks

You can see that thread here, but I'm gonna recap anyway

Lets talk about the OGL and D&D first

Thanks to some great reporting from journalist Linda Codega (@lincodega), we know the general shape of the new Open Gaming License (or OGL) that WotC is running for Dungeons & Dragons moving forward. In short it sucks, I am not super interested in getting into it here, especially because Linda (once again) did really solid reporting here. Generally this spells a very bad time for a number of bigger third party creators (Green Ronin, Paizo, Kobold Press, probably Critical Role if we assume they aren't in on it which I would not assume tbh), and it also spells out specifically that Hasbro's desire to monetize even harder is in full swing.

One of the more interesting bits to this whole thing to me though, is how Wizards is looking at Fan Content, and I think its very likely this is going to be a major rub for AP Producers in the future. The OGL is now much clearer that AP work needs to fall under the Fan Content Policy, which means in broad strokes there is to be no monetization of your content. This is an old policy, but one I think a lot of folks are blithely unaware of. Specifically

You can't require payments, downloads, subscriptions, or email registration to access your content

You can't sell or license this content to a third party

Your content must be free for others to view, access, share, and use without paying you anything, obtaining approval, or giving credit.

You specifically can run things like a Ko-Fi or a Patreon, but you can't hide content behind a paywall. It also is... unclear on the ability to do things like live shows for money? I'm not a lawyer.

Regardless I think its high time people left, and that brings me to part 2 here

D&D and APs

Fundamentally D&D has always been bad for Actual Play. It's a quagmire of conflicting rules and bubblegum fixes, it crunches in weird spots, it doesn't do half the things people play it for, and its expensive to get into. Furthermore, it requires a lot of prep, it doesn't adapt well, and fundamentally it makes bad radio.

Where we see the most successes in the niche of D&D APs is hyper edited, super slick, and wildly unachievable setups; with major changes in rules, players who can make a living doing it, and entire production studios working on them (looking at you Critical Role, Dimension 20, etc). Within these (and within a ton of other APs) we also see a wild amount of homebrew to bend an inflexible and inelegant system into something that tells the stories we're interested in telling in games. Be this the wild changes to death in Dimension 20's Neverafter, full new classes and mechanics across Critical Role, magic items and homebrew in every AP I can think of, etc.

Generally also D&D is bad radio. The exacting measurements on battle maps don't make great Theatre of the Mind (certainly not as well as games designed for it), the rolls + stat modifiers + misc. shit on your sheet requires a lot of boring and frequently had to follow math*, etc.

Point here being, when we see it done well** it's less on the hands of D&D being good at these things, and more because production is changing major aspects of gameplay to make a game make good radio.

We should also talk about the messy legacy of D&D, but honestly that would be a few thousand extra words from me, and I don't have it in me. If the OGL doesn't scare you, it's worth thinking about what you're cosigning by staying around. Here's some extra articles if this is the first you're hearing about Wizards having major problems tho

Why Race is Still a Problem by Linda Codega gets into a lot of it

Wizards is still making money off of Oriental Adventures (and an article on that)

Mike Mearls still works there, this was weirdly hard to find a good article on, but here's a reddit post where its discussed

A Better Future for Actual Plays

This brings me to the point of this thread, which is that I don't think the future of Actual Plays has ever... actually been in making 5e content. This is a thing I feel pretty strongly about as a person who makes non-5e ap content (and this is a bias, sure). To me a better future has always been in indie rpgs, and in making content hand in hand with designers and producers working together.

What does this look like though? In short it rocks, and it's a thing bigger folks in the AP sphere are clearly already looking it. I'll list some examples below, and then I'll talk more about what it looks like on smaller scale, and what my experience with that has been like

So first off here's a few examples of what this looks like on the higher production end of the scale. I'm specifically looking at examples of campaign APs, working with the designer of the system, and not one shots which are doing this a bunch already.

Dimension 20's Shriek Week with Gabe Hick's Mythic System

Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast Podcast getting made alongside Possum Creek (it is a series of one shots, but also a shared universe, so I'm counting it here)

Into the Motherlands moving to their own system eventually

Iron Edda: Puppet Strings with Tracy Hicks on the One Shot Podcasting Network (edited to add this example)

On the smaller end this is something I legitimately have some experience with, and this is where the thread was always heading. Let's talk about Renegade Racers, the game I made specifically for one person, what that has looked like for me, and why I think it's the future of APs to make content this way.

So a while ago I got on a Fast & Furious bend and watched all the movies. Not content to just watch movies though, I talked to some folks about if they had seen games based on it, and got linked to a video of @0sarahxfrank0 running a F&F inspired honey heist hack (I'm not gonna link it because the community it spun out of has had a lot happen and I don't wanna give them clicks tbh).

The short version of this is that I watched the game, built a system to better handle what folks were trying to do, and then sent it back to Sarah. She loved it. We made some changes, we rebuilt around the players and stories people wanted to tell, we released the game and the first AP together afterwards. Now Sarah and I do a lot of work together, we're planning bigger things like this for the future, and it's so far been a lot of fun and super rewarding for everyone involved.

We've seen some other stuff like this as well, even if not in campaign play. Offhand, Plus One Exp's home Down We Go system is a great example of working with a designer to stamp a system as the home system, and find community within it. We've been able to watch sorta in slow motion as DWG moved from a little one page OSR hack that potentially gets lost in the shuffle, to something big and exciting that both parties are happy to put a stamp on.

This is the exact future I see for AP campaign play, and not a wild dream I don't think.

What does Actual Play look like when it's tied to designers who want to help you tell your stories in the ways you want to tell them? What would it look like for a community to say "actually we've had enough"? What happens when we work with people who give a shit instead of faceless megacorps? What does it look like when we invest in people willing to invest in us?

I've seen the future and it's golden, we just have to reach for it.

*hard to follow in that if the players aren't saying out loud what exactly they're adding the numbers are nonsense **by well here I do mean "expensive and award winning" I do not mean I think they're particularly master classes in game running or production, but that's a whole separate topic

[vavuska]

Seems that EA is now allegedly accused of a mayor privacy violation, having used tracking tools on The Sims FreePlay app to secretly gather and transmit players’ personal information to Facebook for advertising purposes. This data potentially includes unique Facebook IDs, which can be used to match players’ in-game activities to their individual Facebook profiles. Attorneys suspect that these potential data-sharing practices may violate a federal privacy law and are now gathering players to take action.

So, there are at least two class action against EA, because it seems to collect data from players using the Meta Pixel software to harness data from players and sell it to the Meta company, who owns Instagram, Facebook and other social networks.

It would be interesting to learn if this allegations are true and how this would be seen in the eyes of GDPR, European Regulation 679/2016, which allows the processing of personal data only with consent given by the data subjects and also in the context of (online) games.

Consent in the context of the GDPR must be understood as an unambiguous indication of an informed and freely given choice by the data subject, relating to specific processing activities. The burden of proof that these criteria are fulfilled falls upon the controller (i.e., the game developer).

Google Play list the privacy condition of EA for its games, including The Sims Freeplay. Basically EA claims to use players data only to give them "better game experience", which seems vague but not less legit. The only less transparent thing I noticed is that the instructions to opt out of targeted marketing of in-game ads are in English and not in Italian: downloading the game, players allows EA to share their account information with third-party partners to customize advertising experience, which is basically all app developers do, but it's weird that the instruction to opt out doesn't have been translated at all!

This is not the first time EA is accused of, well, unethical commercial practice, since EA has been sentenced to pay fines by Austrian (2023) and Belgian (2018) civil court, because their FIFA loot boxes violated local gambling laws.

Moreover, it's important to notice that in January 2023, the European Parliament adopted a report calling for harmonized EU rules to achieve better player protection in the online video game sector.

The Parliament called for greater transparency from developers about in-game purchases: player should be aware of the type of content before starting to play and during the game. Also, players should be informed on the probabilities in loot box mechanisms, including information in plain language about what algorithms are devised to achieve.

The Parliament further stressed that the proposed legislation should assess whether an obligation to disable in-game payments and loot boxes mechanisms by default or a ban on paid loot boxes should be proposed to protect minors, avoid the fragmentation of the single market and ensure that consumers benefit from the same level of protection, no matter of their place of residence.

The Parliament highlighted problematic practices, including exploiting cognitive biases and vulnerabilities of consumers through deceptive design and marketing, using layers of virtual currencies to mask/distort real-world monetary costs, and targeting loot boxes and manipulative practices towards minors.

[happykjd]

Chen, Baekhyun and Xiumin’s full statement through their legal representative. (230602)

This is lawyer Lee Jae Hak of the law firm LIN, representing EXO members Baekhyun, Xiumin, and Chen (Byun Baek Hyun, Kim Min Seok, Kim Jong Dae, hereafter “artists”). Below, I will share the artists’ position regarding the claims made by SM Entertainment (hereafter “SM”) on June 1.

1. SM’s claim of an external influence’s intervention evades the essence which is the artists’ just exercising of rights and is additionally false information merely aiming to mislead public opinion.

The artists feel very distressed after seeing SM’s official statement that keeps talking about an external third party. They feel especially distressed as it seems to clearly show the perspective that SM views the artists with.

Is it a third party influence again?

Our artists are definitely adults who can think for themselves and take responsibility for their own decisions, and they are individuals with independent thoughts and judgments. They have felt some doubts for a decade, and they mustered up fearful and difficult courage with the thought that the questions they couldn’t dare bring up as rookies should at least be brought up now.

Our artists are clearly human beings who can make decisions for themselves and take action for themselves.

The decision to find their rights such as requesting settlement data was made by themselves after long deliberation and deep thought, and it is definitely not due to the intervention of an external influence.

Additionally, SM is claiming that our artists have signed or attempted to sign dual contracts, but the three individuals Baekhyun, Chen, and Xiumin have not signed or attempted to sign other exclusive contracts besides their current exclusive contracts signed with SM. SM must refrain from making false claims.

SM said they would only allow the “viewing” of settlement data and not allow “provision” because of the concern that it would be shared with external parties. However, even if the artists are given the settlement data and receive consultation from not only their legal representative but also accountants around them or anyone else, this would be just exercising of the artists’ rights. Even in their exclusive contracts, there are no regulations that state that the artists cannot show the reports provided to them with anyone else and have to only review them alone. The contracts actually include a clause that the artists can review the data provided to them by SM for 30 days and should make appeals when necessary.

SM not even providing settlement data, and their legal representative and other celebrities advising them about the injustice of this situation. This inevitably raises the question of who should be criticizing the wrongdoing of who in this situation.

We would like to state again that the essence and truth of this case is that the artists and their legal representative have consistently requested the provision of settlement data, but SM eventually refused, which has led to contract termination.

2. According to their exclusive contracts, their settlement reports should be “provided,” so only allowing them to be “viewed” cannot be seen as the obligation being fulfilled.

The premise of SM’s claim is that allowing the “viewing” of the settlement reports is fulfilling SM’s obligation. However, according to their exclusive contracts, it is contracted that their settlement reports should be “provided.” Therefore, only allowing the reports to be “viewed” cannot be seen as the obligation being fulfilled.

Article 14 Paragraph 5 of the exclusive contracts signed between SM and the artists regulates, “Along with each settlement payment, A (SM) must provide the settlement report to B (artist). B can file appeals for 30 days since the date that the settlement report is received for reasons such as if the deducted costs have been overcalculated or if B’s income has been undercalculated, and A must faithfully provide the basis for settlement.” Therefore, the data must be “provided” and not just available for “viewing,” and the 30-day appeal period is also measured from the day that the report is “received.” It is not measured from the day that the report is “viewed.”

In addition, SM and the artists signed an additional “agreement” around 2014, and Article 4 regulates, “A provides the basis for settlement noted in Article 2 and Article 4 along with each payment (Paragraph 1),” and “According to the exclusive contract, A must provide a detailed settlement report once every year in June, and B can request an explanation about this from A (Paragraph 2).” This also regulates that the detailed settlement reports must be “provided.”

When it comes to the artists’ right to know and protection of their property rights, there is a major difference between “providing” data and allowing data to be “viewed” to the point that it is difficult to compare them. Especially as settlement reports are data within SM-owned territory, we want to ask in return if the accuracy of the data can be confirmed by simply telling the artists to come view them. Also, Article 14 Paragraph 5 of their exclusive contracts grants a 30-day review period from the day that the reports are received, and the exclusive contracts state that the artists should review the data sufficiently for 30 days and file appeals if necessary.

It is contracted that the settlement reports can be reviewed thoroughly for 30 days, but telling the artists to just come and see them and go is merely building justification for SM’s claim, “Anyway we did show you the data, so haven’t we done our duty?” And because we were able to speculate this kind of intention from SM, we especially couldn’t give up on being “provided” the reports and compromise by agreeing with just “viewing” them.

For reasons like this, the Fair Trade Commission’s Standard Exclusive Contract Form for Entertainers also states, “When requested by B, A should provide B with the settlement report along with the payment,” regulating that it should be “provided.”

Fundamentally, continuously bringing up the encroachment of confidential business information and refusing to provide data when artists ask to receive reports about the results of their activities does not justify the act of breaching exclusive contracts.

3. The artists and their legal representative have consistently requested the provision of settlement reports. The fact that SM eventually refused [to do so] and led us to notify the termination of the exclusive contracts is the key point of this case.

As mentioned earlier, under the premise that it is sufficient to enable [the artists] to “view” the settlement data, SM claims that the artists who had not raised any issues with the data before suddenly requested the provision of settlement data and notified them about the contract termination after appointing their new legal representatives.

It is the legitimate right of the artists to request settlement reports according to their exclusive contracts. And the artists took action after the legal representative provided legal consultation on their legitimate rights. For SM to claim that “the artists suddenly started making claims as soon as their legal representative changed” upon the artists’ action is no different from telling them to never exercise their legitimate rights.

Above all, claiming that the artists are being swayed by someone to demand the provision of settlement reports is an act of ignoring the artists’ high level of awareness of rights and insights. In the negotiation process, we confirmed the artists’ high level of awareness of rights and insights on the realization of their right to know.

And just as the records of our requests through certifications of contents remain objectively, the artists and their legal representative consistently requested the “provision” of the settlement reports from the beginning. Then, SM maintained their position that only “viewing” the settlement data should be enough. However, as you saw earlier, SM’s claim is not in line with the exclusive contracts which is why we could not accept [their claim], and since the gap between the parties’ positions could not be reduced in the end, the artists and their legal representative decided to terminate the exclusive contracts according to the precedent.

To restate the precedent, an exclusive contract is based on a high degree of trust. Thus, if the agency does not fulfill its obligation to provide settlement reports, the artists’ rights to review the settlement of profits and file an objection against the agency are not properly guaranteed, resulting in failure to provide settlement reports to be a reason for terminating the exclusive contract (refer to Seoul High Court order from 2019Na2034976 on January 31, 2020. In short, settlement reports must be “provided”).

This is [how the situation] progressed between SM and the artists related to the settlement data so far. However, claiming as if the artists or their legal representative changed their position again and again is far from the truth, and it is an act of distorting and misleading the key point of this incident.

This is [how the situation] progressed between SM and the artists related to the settlement data so far. However, claiming as if the artists or their legal representative changed their position again and again is far from the truth, and it is an act of distorting and misleading the key point of this incident.

4. The problem with the excessively long-term exclusive contract period, which is unilaterally unfavorable to artists beyond the minimum reasonable extent.

As already addressed in the first press release, the artists previously signed exclusive contracts with SM for over 12 to 13 years. This is far beyond the seven-year contract period determined by the Fair Trade Commission’s Standard Exclusive Contract Form for Entertainers and is unilaterally unfavorable to the artists to the degree that exceeds the minimum reasonable extent.

SM is trying to claim a contract period of at least 17 to 18 years to the artists, respectively, by having them sign the subsequent exclusive contracts again, as if the 12 to 13 years of contract period is not enough for them.

We would like to point out again that the act of signing a subsequent exclusive contract falls under Article 45, Paragraph 1 (6) of the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act, “the act of implementing the transactions by unduly taking advantage of his/her position.” In other words, we regard that forcing a long-term contract period using a subsequent exclusive contract falls separately under “Compelled Provision of Economic Benefits” or “Imposing Disadvantages” in the attached Table 2 of the act’s decree.

With regard to this, SM argues that it is unreasonable for the artists, who had an attorney from a large law firm as their legal representative at the time of signing the subsequent exclusive contracts, to suddenly start claiming that the subsequent exclusive contracts are unfair as soon as their legal representative changed.

However, claiming that there is a problem with the act of claiming the objectively unfair contracts to be unjust because they appointed a new legal representative is only obscuring the essence of this issue.

According to Article 5, Paragraph 1 of the subsequent exclusive contract, “This contract is valid for 5 years from…However, in case the minimum number of albums stipulated in Article 4, Paragraph 4 is not released within the same period, the contract period will be automatically extended until the condition is fulfilled.” There is not even a maximum limit to the length of this automatically extended period.

As such, the article stating that the contract period will be automatically extended until [the artists fulfill the condition] to release a certain number of albums, without even maximum limit, is clearly a slave contract. The legal representative is pointing out that this falls under “the act of implementing the transactions by unduly taking advantage of his/her position,” and the artists are also in agreement.

Moreover, it is unjustifiable to try binding the artists by signing subsequent exclusive contracts that state a long-term contract period with no maximum limit when about a year still remains on the existing exclusive contracts. SM also did not pay the artists any down payment for the subsequent exclusive contracts.

Baekhyun, Xiumin, and Chen are seriously considering filing a complaint to the Fair Trade Commission regarding [SM’s] act of signing the existing exclusive contracts with such long-term contract periods as well as the unfair subsequent exclusive contracts.

5. Regarding future activities with EXO

Our artists are seeking ways to faithfully continue EXO activities together with the other EXO members even if they terminate their exclusive contracts with SM. In fact, during the process of negotiation with SM prior to this termination of their exclusive contracts, the artists preemptively proposed ideas to continue EXO activities even if Baekhyun, Chen, and Xiumin leave SM.

Aside from the issue of resolving the legal relationship with SM, the artists are sincerely and deeply grateful for the great love and support that fans showed to EXO for a long time. No matter how the legal issue gets resolved in the future, they will continue their activities as EXO diligently and whole-heartedly.

[gonzalez756]

Starting an e-commerce business can be an exciting venture with immense potential. However, with the opportunities come challenges and uncertainties. Before diving into the world of online retail, it’s crucial to plan carefully and set a solid foundation. Here are some essential tips to consider before launching your e-commerce business:

1. Conduct Market Research

Understanding the market is fundamental to any successful business. Start by identifying your target audience and analyzing competitors. Research trends, customer preferences, and potential gaps in the market. Tools like Google Trends, social media analytics, and industry reports can provide valuable insights. This research will help you tailor your products or services to meet market demands and differentiate yourself from competitors.

2. Define Your Business Model

E-commerce offers various business models, such as B2C (Business to Consumer), B2B (Business to Business), C2C (Consumer to Consumer), and subscription-based models. Determine which model aligns with your goals and resources. Each model has its own set of challenges and requirements, so choose one that best fits your product or service and target market.

3. Create a Solid Business Plan

A comprehensive business plan serves as a roadmap for your e-commerce venture. Outline your business goals, strategies, target audience, marketing plan, financial projections, and operational plan. This document will not only guide your efforts but also help secure funding if needed. A clear plan can keep you focused and organized as you navigate the complexities of launching and running an e-commerce business.

4. Choose the Right E-Commerce Platform

Selecting the right e-commerce platform is crucial for the success of your online store. Popular platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, and BigCommerce each offer unique features and capabilities. Consider factors such as ease of use, scalability, customization options, payment gateways, and integration with other tools. The platform should align with your business needs and provide a user-friendly experience for both you and your customers.

5. Develop a User-Friendly Website

Your website is the face of your e-commerce business. Ensure it’s designed to be user-friendly, visually appealing, and optimized for mobile devices. A clean, intuitive layout with easy navigation will enhance the shopping experience and reduce cart abandonment rates. Focus on high-quality images, detailed product descriptions, and a seamless checkout process. Additionally, implement search engine optimization (SEO) strategies to improve your site’s visibility in search engines.

6. Implement Secure Payment Processing

Security is a top priority in e-commerce. Customers need to trust that their payment information is safe. Choose a reputable payment gateway and ensure your website uses SSL certificates to encrypt data. Additionally, offer multiple payment options, including credit/debit cards, digital wallets, and other payment methods that are popular with your target audience.

7. Plan Your Logistics and Supply Chain

Efficient logistics and supply chain management are vital for e-commerce success. Develop a strategy for inventory management, warehousing, and shipping. Decide whether you’ll handle fulfillment in-house or partner with third-party logistics providers. Consider shipping options, delivery times, and costs. A smooth and reliable fulfillment process can significantly impact customer satisfaction and repeat business.

8. Craft a Marketing Strategy

Effective marketing is essential to drive traffic and sales to your e-commerce store. Develop a multi-channel marketing strategy that includes social media, email marketing, content marketing, and paid advertising. Create engaging content, run promotions, and leverage social media platforms to build brand awareness and attract customers. Monitor and analyze the performance of your marketing efforts to refine your strategies over time.

9. Focus on Customer Service

Exceptional customer service can set your e-commerce business apart from competitors. Provide multiple channels for customer support, such as live chat, email, and phone. Ensure timely responses to inquiries and resolve issues promptly. Building strong customer relationships and encouraging feedback can enhance customer loyalty and drive positive reviews.

10. Monitor and Adapt

The e-commerce landscape is constantly evolving. Regularly review your business performance, track key metrics, and gather customer feedback. Stay informed about industry trends and technological advancements. Be prepared to adapt your strategies and operations based on insights and changes in the market.

[sweaterkittensahoy]

The copyright rant; re: crochet patterns

A reminder that taking an out of print pattern and scanning it or re-typing it and making it available for money or not does NOT give you any copyright over the pattern.

I see this a lot when I'm digging up vintage patterns on etsy and other sites. People who say, "I scanned it/retyped it, so I own the copyright."

First of all, no, you don't. That's not how that works. I pay for the patterns you offer because 1) I want them and 2) I think it's fair to pay you for digitizing the pattern.

In the US, crochet patterns are copyrighted by whoever first wrote them. I assume that if one writes a pattern for a company (Patons, Red Heart, etc.), then it's a work for hire situation much like comics. The pattern writer gets a one-time payment, and the company gets the profits from the pattern itself. That's just a guess to explain how it works. I assume that if there is copyright fuckery, the yarn company takes care of the legal shit, not the pattern writer that was hired by the yarn company.

This is important because a LOT of vintage patterns you can find for sale on etsy and ebay and other places aren't actually out of copyright (something around 70 years minimum in US law). They're out of print. So, technically, the yarn company could spend time tracking down the illegal reproduction and sale of their copyrighted material if they really wanted to make a fuss about things.

They don't do that because it's a waste of their time. Those of us tracking down vintage patterns and buying them from third-party sellers aren't hitting their bottom line. Because those patterns are no longer part of their bottom line. They're out of print.

But they ARE still under copyright for the most part in the US because they haven't met the age requirement to not be. And here's the thing: even if they ARE out of copyright in the US, that doesn't mean someone digitizing them puts them back into any sort of copyright.

It's like Pride & Prejudice, okay? You know why there are so many ebooks of P&P? Because it's in public domain and everyone wants to make a buck off of it. But none of them OWN P&P. No one owns P&P. That's what public domain means.

All of that being said, you know what is definitely still under copyright and reported by my ass when I find it on etsy? Patterns from books that are still in print. Not the books themselves, mind. Used book market is used book market. But people who have scanned individual patterns to sell even though the book is still in print.

I also get real fucking salty about people selling patterns that can be bought directly from the company or person who wrote them in the first fucking place.

THAT'S a copyright violation. Not sharing a vintage pattern you paid for because someone digitized it. Not digitizing the pattern itself.

Honestly, I get so tempted to take patterns from people who yell "I have copyright!!!" the most and just roll them out for free because 1) no you don't and 2) fuck you. Yeah, you digitized it. Thank you. But to act like you get the rights to any of it because you did that is bullshit.

Anyway, that's the copyright rant. Tip your servers.

[aoiyuu]

CBX vs SM for dummies

This is a simple breakdown of the events that unfolded between CBX and SM. I will break it down as best as I can with links. This is solely for educational purposes only, and everything said in this post is alleged.

Ctto

Lawsuit 1.0.

[29.04.2023] The three members of CBX launch a lawsuit against SM Entertainment at the Seoul Central District Court to terminate their contracts, which were originally set to expire in 2025. [01.06.2023.] The press is notified about the lawsuit

[31.05.2023] One Signature is registered. The company was founded by Baekhyun, Cha Daeyoung (Cha Gawon's dad) and another person named Kang Chanhee. (This is also the company that have a debt amout of 13 billion won, and the UN village condo that was put on collateral for it is also the company's address and where baekhyun's living right now. INB100 was founded by Baekhyun on june 23th 2023, way after the first "lawsuit" started but the CEO/Representative is Kang Dongjun, SM C&C ex CEO.) Thank you to anon for this information <3

[01.06.2023] SM responds by saying that the lawsuit is disappointing and accuses an external party of poaching the 3 CBX members. SM accuses BPM of being the external party, BPM denies this claims

[July 2023] The show must go on. Exo proceed with their comeback plans regardless of the conflict

[01.06.2023.] SM refutes the claims raised by CBX in their statement, most notably their "slave contracts"

[02.06.2023] CBX lawyer keeps denying involvement of a third party. MC Mong also denies involvement [Translated article]

[05.06.2023] CBX files a complaint against SM with the Fair Trade Commission regarding SM's "abuse of market dominance" (antitrust).

CBX's lawyer urges the FTC to investigate the exclusive contracts of SM-affiliated artists

[05.06.2023] SM releases a statement saying they will provide copies of settlement documents for CBX. SM says: “We would like to inform you of the decision we have made after careful consideration of the request for copies of settlement documents from the 3 artists. In the case of a group, the information of other members is also included, requiring special caution." [Translated article]

SM wanted CBX to sign an NDA in order to review the payment details of their members, but CBX denied this. The only reason they were granted access to the private docs were due to ot5 consenting to it. In their statement, SM says: “Payment data contains sensitive information about each artist's activity details, payment rates, methods, and contract down payments, which is confidential information that cannot be disclosed to third parties such as our competitors. Further, in the case of a group, the information of other members may also be exposed, which requires added scrutiny of confidentiality.”

[05.06.2023] SM releases a response to being reported to the FTC. [Translated article]

[05.06.2023] CBX responds to SM's response to being reported to the FTC (omg yawn. It's getting repetitive). [Translated article]

[08.06.2023] Airport-gate.... awkward video from the airport shows that there's trouble in paradise. Exo members seem to be split into cliques.

[08.06.2023] SM starts being investigated by the FTC [Translated article]

[19.06.2023] WAR IS OVER. Both parties have resolved their issue and the members will remain under SM. Most notably, SM said in their statement: “Initially, our company received reports that a third-party external force was approaching the three artists with unjust intentions, which we mentioned as the main cause of this controversy. However, through the discussions, we have come to realize that our company had misunderstandings regarding the involvement of a third-party external force. We would like to apologize to those concerned for causing concerns with our announcement.” (keep this in mind for later) [Translated article]

Miscellaneous

[19.07.2023] MC Mong is suspected to have approached Baekhyun and Kai in a leaked transcript, in an attempt to coax them. MC Mong denies allegations

[08.08.2023] Baekhyun talks about setting his own (dance) company with a 13 billion won (approximately $9.9 million) loan. He put down Chairwoman Cha Gawon's penthouse in Hannam-dong for collateral. He also lives in said penthouse. On the nature of their relationship and the loans, Baekhyun says: “I haven’t received this house. I am paying all the loans. I am not in an inappropriate relationship with Chairman ‘C.' [Translated article]

[14.04.2024] Suho alludes to a winter comeback at Exo's anniversary fancon.

[30.05.2024] Baekhyun also alludes to a winter comeback

[12.08.2024] SM among several K-Pop companies fined by the FTC for strict purchase policies

Pre-lawsuit 2.0.

[08.01.2024] CBX comes to an agreement with SM to start their own company, where SM gets 10% of all revenue. So INB is funded by Baekhyun.

[22.03.2024] Baekhyun cancels his Japan concert date. SM pays his penalty fee. [Translated article]

[05.09.2024] CBX sends a formal letter of complaint to SM Entertainment denying the 10% fee should be paid.

[16.05.2024] INB100 becomes a subsidiary of One Hundred Group, home to Million Market and Big Planet Made Entertainment (BPM). The major investors in this company are Cha Gawon and MC Ming. Refer back to SM's claim that an external force, namely Cha Gawon and MC Mong, were involved in coaxing CBX.

Lawsuit 2.0.

[10.06.2024] CBX announces emergency press conference, but fail to show up. During the presscon, their team claim that they did exo activities without pay, SM did not keep their words on distribution fees, they didn't get renewal bonuses and are prepared to take legal actions against SM if they do not abide by their terms. Attorney Lee Jaehak: “The three artists are working as an EXO team to protect the group and their fans, without receiving any contract renewal payments.” Reporters and netizens alike call the presscon a waste of their time and claim it overshadowed both Cignature and Everglow's comebacks. During the presscon, Cha Gawon refers to her relationship with Baekhyun and MC Mong as "closer than family." She also declares a full-on war against SM

[10-11.06.2024] SM claims CBX were stolen from them by CGW and MC Mong, like they had suspected last year. “MC Mong and Cha Ga-won have been approaching many of our artists from long ago." + “CBX started finding fault with all sorts of things in order to nullify the exclusive contract. Nevertheless, we heeded their call with patience and agreed to CBX’s demand to start their solo careers on their own. So a deal was signed where our contract with CBX was still valid but we allowed them to pursue their solo careers through their own agencies.”

[11.06.2024] SM seemingly cancels Exo's winter comeback. [Translated article]

[13.06.2024] SM sues CBX for unpaid fees, demand 10% royalty. According to SM Entertainment, the trio has been evading the 10 percent royalty fee that was agreed to in a contract signed in June.

[14.06.2024] CBX countersues SM. In a statement, the trio states: "We proposed a compromise to pay for the use of SM's music and EXO's brand name, instead of 10 percent of our revenue, during the press conference, but the company ignored this." + "Since SM was the first to file a lawsuit, we will disclose everything, including last year's negotiation process and engage actively. ... We'll file a lawsuit against the company for a settlement of accounts, which we have always been suspicious of." The trio also expresses their dissatisfaction with SM for not allowing them to have physical copies of the exo members' financial breakdown, only allowing them to see the contracts

[18.06.2024] In an interview, Suho is asked about the CBX situation. Suho reveals that he and other members were not informed and found out about the presscon through the news. He also mentions his doubts for the winter comeback. When the non-CBX members asked CBX what happened, they told them to refer back to the article.

Nothing has come out of the situation since...

TLDR

In 2023, CBX randomly decided to sue SM for coercing them to sign their new contract in promise of the group getting a financial bonus, stating their contract was a slave contract. SM fired back saying that the trio was being coaxed by an external party, but they denied this. CBX also reported SM to the FTC for breaching antitrust laws. CBX managed to reach an agreement with SM for them to set up their own company, having to pay 10% of their earnings to SM. Baekhyun then set INB100 up. SM apologized for accusing them of being poached and they apologized to the parties they accused.

In 2024, INB is acquired by One Hundred Group, ran by Cha Gawon and MC Mong. CBX announces an emergency presscon where they don't show up. Here it's announce they no longer want to pay SM their 10% fee, since SM failed to provide them with a 5.5% distribution fee with Kakao. SM says that this was only a verbal agreement and out of their hands since they don't own Kakao. SM sues the trio, the trio sue back. They also requested in 2023 to get copies of the other members' financial information, but SM only allowed them to see the contracts, not get any copies.

There hasn't been any outcome of the lawsuit 2.0. yet.

My take

No matter how I look at this, CBX are completely in the wrong. Not only did they lie about the (non-)involvement of a third party, they put their members' personal information on the line as well. Their actions, blinded by greed and hunger for money, hurt their members first and foremost. I don't know how anyone can believe that they're not motivated by money when all of the claims they bring up against SM has to do with money. They're not martyrs. If they truly felt like SM was treating them unfairly, they should've sued them alongside Luhan.... The first round of lawsuits were solved rather quickly, but round two has been dragged out for entirely too long and non-involved members have sadly been implicated. I hate how much damage these petty lawsuits have done to the group, the group's image and the members of the group.

SM did promise them verbally that they would only have to pay 5.5% of the distribution fee with Kakao if they chose to distribute their music through them, but clearly, SM is not Kakao. The fact that they're now acting surprised that this part of the agreement wasn't fulfilled just shows their lack of intelligence.

But regardless, everything CBX have raised as a concern in their lawsuits has been about money. Money, money, money. Idk why money is such a concern for them, especially since Baekhyun took out a $10 million dollar loan and lives in his sugar mommy's Cha Gawon's Hannam-dong penthouse, driving luxury cars and being decked out in name brands.

Here's my opinion on CBX: It's Baekhyun and Co. I truly believe that Baekhyun convinced the other two to join him. He was the one in cahoots with CGW and MC Mong from the very beginning, being closer than family with them. I think he realized that he couldn't go through with leaving SM alone without being labeled as a traitor, so he convinced the other two to join him. I'm not saying this to alleviate them of any wrongdoings, but it's only getting more apparent that Baekhyun is using them as pawns as time goes on. It feels like XC have been cut off from the rest of the group, whereas Baekhyun positions himself as the bridge between Exo and CBX.

On their relationship: I don't think any of the non-CBX exo members like Baekhyun. I wouldn't blame them either, after CBX ruined I can't even speak about their relationship with XC, because we haven't seen them with the other exo members since lawsuit 2.0. The common consensus on twitter is that Baekhyun is beefing with Suho, but I think that's an oversimplification of the matter. It's Baekhyun vs exo. Even if Baekhyun and Suho beefing were the case, Chanyeol, Kai and Sehun are bound to take Suho's side. They have shown were their alliance stands countless of times, so for Baekhyun fans to try and spin a narrative that Suho is this evil and jealous member that's after Baekhyun is beyond ridiculous to me. Not to mention, Chanyeol literally wiped his Instagram feed clean off Baekhyun, but let pictures of Kai and Sehun from the same day stay up...... And only Suho, Kyungsoo, Kai and Sehun went to his concert, and he made sure to shout them out later about it. Guys, please wake tf up. These men are not all friends. I think it's better if you guys just focus your energies on the members that are trying to keep Exo alive, instead of acting like Baekhyun is the savior of Exo.

Sources

My main sources for this has been the brilliant timeline by Jazmine Media. And a special thank you to the aoiyuhive on retrospring for always keeping me informed <333

Please do let me know if I missed something or if anything is amiss!!