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spn-safeandsound · 4 years ago

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15. Meg Complicates Things

Safe and Sound

Dean Winchester x Original Character

Episode: 1x21; Salvation

Word Count: 7,605

Warning(s): Mature language, canon violence + gore, demons, John Winchester

Author’s Note: Hope you enjoy! Please reblog and like!

Masterlink in Pinned Post!

Julia,

When you were born, I remember taking one look at you and knowing that our family was complete. You weren't an expected child but you weren't an unwelcome one, either. Your mother and I knew that you would be a blessing, just like each of your siblings. And we were right. Our lives would not have been the same without you.

You're special, kiddo.

You were young when your mom got her diagnosis but you still knew that something was wrong. You were scared but you still put a smile on your face for Naomi whenever you saw her. You were strong for her. You've always been so strong and I always thought that you got that from me but I know it's not. You got that from Naomi. All of you kids got her strength. You and your siblings have been there for each other through thick and thin, even when I wasn't there. Never let that go, Julia. You will always need your family.

I'm sorry that I left but I have something important to do. John knows that and he's accepted that I have done all I can to help him with the demon. This important task is big—bigger than just me—so I don't know if I will see you again for a while. It could be months but it could also be years.

I just want you to know that I'm proud of you, Jujube. I always have been and I always will be. I know your mother would be very happy to see the woman you have become. I know I am.

I love you, kiddo.

Lucas Alexander

Julia wiped the tears from her eyes and set the letter down on her lap. Her dad was gone again and she didn't know whether to be sad or angry. The sad part of her was winning, though. Luke was saying goodbye in the letter and even though he had never been good with words, she felt the love he had for her and her family. Even with that love, though, she didn't want to say goodbye. She had just lost Levi, she didn't want to lose her dad, too.

When she had woken up that morning, John was the first person she saw. He had pulled her aside to break the news that Luke had left for an important hunt and apologized before giving her the letter Luke wrote for her. At first, she was in shock but now she was confused.

What could her dad possibly be doing? What was oh-so important task that needed to be done? Why would it take so long?

Julia didn't just feel sad for herself, either. At least she got to see him. Abby and Beth hadn't and that was going to destroy them. Abby was the closest to their father but Beth had always been a daddy's girl, too. Julia only hoped that Luke sent them letters or called them to tell them what was going on. Otherwise, the three of them were pretty much left in the dark.

Julia grabbed her phone from the nightstand and opened it, sending Beth a text message.

Jules: Did Dad send you a letter?

It didn't take long for her oldest sister to reply.

Beth: Yeah. He sent one to Abs, too. Call me when you have the time

Julia sent a confirmation back and sighed in relief, glad that Luke had made contact with her sisters, too.

"So, this is it," John told Sam and Dean as the two of them looked over the various research that he had gathered on the demon that killed Mary and Jess; Julia snapped her phone shut and slid off the bed she was sharing with Sam, heading over to the table where the Winchester boys were huddled. "This is everything I know. Look, our whole lives we've been searching for this demon, right? Not a trace, just nothing...Until about a year ago. For the first time, Luke picked up a trail and called me."

"And that's when you took off," Dean finished, crossing his arms over his chest.

John nodded. "Yeah, that's right," he confirmed. "The demon must have come out of hiding or hibernation."

"What's the trail?" Julia asked, her eyes shifting from the information on the wall to John.

"It starts in Arizona, then New Jersey, California," John explained. "Houses burned down to the ground. It's going after families, just like it went after us."

"Families with infants?" Sam wondered.

"Yeah," John nodded. "The night of the kid's six-month birthday."

Sam stiffened, looking at his father in shock. "I was six months old that night?"

"Exactly six months."

"So, basically, this demon is going after these kids for some reason. The same way it came for me?" when John avoided his eyes, Sam scoffed. "So, Mom's death...Jessica. It's all because of me?"

"We don't know that, Sam," Dean stated.

"Oh, really?" Sam huffed. "Because I'd say we're pretty damn sure."

Dean gave him a frustrated look. "For the last time, what happened to them was not your fault."

"Right," Sam raised his voice. "It's not my fault but it's my problem!"

"No, it's not your problem, it's our problem!"

Julia sighed and walked over so she stood between the brothers, gently grabbing their arms. "That's enough," she said calmly. "Come on, settle down."

And, like magic, Sam and Dean took deep breaths and calmed down. Julia looked at them in surprise as they turned to John to focus back on the demon. Either they weren't really upset or she had forcefully calmed them down and she had no idea how she did it.

"So, why is he doing it?" Sam asked John. "What does he want?"

John's curious gaze went from Julia to Sam. "Look, I wish I had more answers, I do. Luke and I were always one step behind it," he sighed sadly. "We never got there in time to save..."

Everyone shifted uncomfortably as he trailed off, knowing exactly what he wasn't saying.

"All right, so, how do we find it before it hits again?" Dean spoke up, looking to John for answers.

"There's signs," John told him. "It took us a while to see the pattern but it's there in the days before these fires. Signs crop up in the area; cattle deaths, temperature fluctuations, electrical storms..."

"Demonic omens," Julia muttered thoughtfully, wrinkling her nose.

John nodded at her. "And then I went back and checked and..."

"These things happened in Lawrence," Dean realized.

"A week before your mother died," John confirmed before looking at Sam sadly. "And in Palo Alto, before Jessica."

Julia pursed her lips together, her eyes stinging, and grabbed Sam's hand. She squeezed it tightly, knowing that if she was having trouble, he was two times worse. He bowed his head, holding onto her tightly and drawing comfort from her.

"And these signs, they're starting again."

Sam looked up. "Where?"

"Salvation, Iowa."

It was a ten-hour drive from Manning, Colorado to Salvation, a little town an hour outside of Des Moines, Iowa. Sam and Dean took turns driving through boring Nebraska, taking their time off to sleep, while Julia switched between taking naps, reading, or talking to whoever was driving so they wouldn't fall asleep.

She was able to talk to Beth and Abby, both of whom were equally upset about the letters that they received from Luke. Julia was even informed that Taylor, Lizzie, and Maggie got their own letters, which somehow made Luke leaving all the more official. Beth was really torn up about her letter and Julia could tell that Abby was, too, but she wasn't one to share her emotional distress. Abigail Petersen was the closest you could get to a female Dean; always staying strong for others in their time of need while hurting on the inside.

After a long drive, they had just entered Salvation's town limits when John pulled his truck over to the side of the road. Dean followed his lead and all three of them got out of the car to see what was going on.

"God damn it!" John angrily slammed his hand against the bed of his truck. "Son of a bitch!"

Dean gave his dad a concerned look. "What is it?"

"I just got a call from Caleb."

"Is he okay?"

"He's fine," John confirmed for Dean. "Jim Murphy's dead."

Julia exhaled sharply at the news. "Pastor Jim?" her voice wavered. "How?"

Pastor Jim had been an uncle-figure to her and her siblings just like John was. He was a faithful man like her family and had trained in the hunting life with her dad, though he was a couple years older. Before he retired and went to preaching full time, the Petersen family used to see him every year around summertime.

He was also important to the Winchesters for the same reason. Sam and Dean had spent more time combined with Pastor Jim and Bobby Singer than their dad growing up. Sam had always told her that he liked staying at Pastor Jim's house because he'd make good spaghetti.

"His throat was slashed. He bled out," John sighed. "Caleb said they found traces of sulfur at Jim's place."

"A demon," Sam stated flatly. "The demon?"

"I don't know," John shook his head. "Could be he just got careless and he slipped up. Maybe the demon knows we're getting close."

"What do you wanna do?"

"Now we act like every second counts," John declared. "There's two hospitals and a health center in this county. We split up and cover more ground. I want records. I want a list of every infant that's going to be six months old in the next week."

"Dad, that could be dozens of kids," Sam pointed out. "How do we know which one is the right one?"

"We check them all, that's how," John said sternly. "You got any better ideas?"

Sam quickly shook his head. "No, sir."

John nodded and silently dismissed them; Julia paused as she turned back to the Impala, sensing his energy. He was angry and upset, a little guilty. Even if the man acted like a cold drill sergeant most of the time, it didn't mean that he didn't have feelings like everyone else.

"Uncle John, are you okay?" she asked tentatively.

Dean and Sam looked back at Julia before their eyes slid over to their father as they waited for him to answer her.

"Yeah," John's tone was exhausted; it was clear that he just wanted this all to be over with. "It's Jim, you know? I can't..." he paused for a second, his determination strengthening. "This ends, now. I'm ending it. I don't care what it takes."

They split up just like John said they would. John went to the women and children's hospital while Dean went to Salvation Memorial, and Julia and Sam went to the medical center.

Julia and Sam acted as police officers, asking the receptionist on the pediatric floor for all the records of the babies that would have turned six months old that day. It took a while for them to gather all the information but, in the end, there were only ten records they had to jot down.

It was when they were leaving the medical center that they had trouble. Julia was in the middle of reciting some of the records for Sam when he stopped in his tracks. He winced painfully and held the bridge of his nose, like he usually did when he was having one of his visions.

"Sam, are you all right?" Julia anxiously asked him, stashing the notebook under her arm so she could steady him. "Sam?"

"Yeah...yeah, I'm just..." he paused, grunting as another wave hit him. His energy was twisting just like the last time he had a vision and it worried her. "I'm getting something..."

He winced, unable to speak again while the rest of his vision passed. Julia just made sure that she was staying calm and steadied him, making soothing noises as he continued to see whatever was coming to him.

"A train," he whispered once his vision was finished.

"A train?" Julia stood on her tiptoes to put the back of her hand against his forehead to check for a fever; he felt normal. "Tell me what you saw, S."

"I saw and woman and her baby," Sam breathed, pulling his backpack around his body so he could pull a map of Salvation out of one of the pockets. "I kept hearing a train and the—the demon was there."

"Okay," Julia nodded, pulling the notebook out from underneath her arm. "Give me a location of the train. Maybe something will match."

Sam nodded and pointed at the map, his finger trailing the marked train tracks. "All right, there's a Violet Avenue."

Julia went through the list of names they wrote down, wrinkling her nose in concentration. "There's one on here," she told him. "Rosie Holden, born to Monica and Charlie Holden."

"Let's go."

The Holden household was only two blocks from the medical center. They had to cross through a park that was strangely full of kids for a rainy day but the neighborhood the new parents lived in was nice. If this had been another life, Julia could see herself living on a street like this.

Luckily, just as they crossed onto Violet Avenue, Sam pointed out a woman only a few years older than them, pushing a baby stroller on the sidewalk and holding an umbrella over her head. He whispered to Julia that it was the woman he saw in his vision.

"Hi," Sam greeted the woman when they approached her just as she was attempting to close her umbrella and keep a hold of her baby's stroller. "Here, let me hold that for you. You look like you don't need that anymore."

"Oh," the woman smiled kindly as Sam made sure the stroller kept still. "Thanks."

Julia grinned and looked under the hood of the stroller, taking a peek at the baby. She was the cutest little girl—but most babies were cute, it was just science—with long eyelashes and big brown eyes. "Wow, she's beautiful," she complimented the woman. "Look at those eyelashes. Is she yours?"

"Yeah," the woman nodded proudly.

"Oh, wow, hi," Sam cooed to the baby. "Sorry, we're being rude. I'm Sam and this is Julia. We just moved in up the block."

"Oh, hey, I'm Monica," Monica perked up in realization and introduced herself before looking down at her baby. "This is Rosie."

"Rosie," Sam confirmed while Julia smiled, glad that they found the woman that Sam had a vision of. "Hi, Rosie."

The baby just stared at him, quietly picked at the blanket that covered her.

"So, welcome to the neighborhood."

"Thank you," Julia silently awed as Rosie blinked up at her and Sam. "She such a good baby."

"I know," Monica nodded. "I mean, she never cries. She just stares at everybody. Sometimes she looks at you and I swear, it's—it's like she's reading your mind."

That made Julia pause but her smile didn't falter. If the demon was coming for Rosie and Monica tonight, just like it did for Sam and Mary, did that mean Rosie was like Sam? Did she have mental abilities like him already? Or was that why the demon was coming in the first place?

"What about you, Monica?" Sam wondered politely. "Have you lived here long?"

"My husband and I, we bought our place just before Rosie was born," Monica informed them, pointing to the house they had all stopped in front of.

"And how old is Rosie?"

They already knew how old the baby was from her records but they needed to make sure that they were the family the demon was coming after.

"She's six months today," Monica looked down at the stroller fondly. "She's big, right? Growing like a weed."

"Yeah," Sam laughed sadly, looking down at Rosie; Julia grabbed his free hand, squeezing it tightly. "Monica..."

"Yeah?"

"Just, uh, just take care of yourself, okay?"

"Yeah, you too," Monica smiled gratefully. "We'll see you both around."

Julia nodded and waved as she started walking again, up her driveway where an SUV had just pulled in. A man Monica's age got out of the vehicle and greeted his girls with fond kisses that brought a sad smile to Julia's face. They had to make sure the demon didn't ruin this family. They just had to.

"A vision," John's voice was flat as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

After speaking with Monica, Rosie's mother, Julia called Dean while Sam freaked out. He and John were already done with their recon missions and had rented a motel room for their use. She had explained to the oldest Winchester brother what had happened to Sam. Sam had then pried the phone from her hand to tell Dean that they needed to tell John what exactly was going on.

Telling John about Sam's visions didn't exactly go well.

"Yes," Sam answered, pressing his fingers against his pounding head. "I saw the demon burning a woman on the ceiling."

"And you think this is going to happen to this woman you met because...?"

"Because these things happen exactly the way I see them."

"It started out as nightmares," Dean stepped in, moving from his spot on the bed next to John and making his way over to the table where Julia and Sam were seated. "Then it started happening while he was awake."

"Yeah," Sam breathed, agreeing with his brother. "It's like—I dunno—it's like the closer I get to anything to do with the demon, the stronger the visions get."

John bristled and set his annoyed gaze on his sons. "All right, when were you going to tell me about this?"

"We didn't know what it meant," Dean offered tensely.

"Something like this starts happening to your brother, you pick up the phone and you call me," John glared at him.

Julia shook her head in disapproval; there had been zero times that John had picked up the phone, despite each of them calling many, many times over the last nine months. He had practically abandoned his sons and now he was getting onto Dean for not getting a hold of him? It was his fault that Dean—or Sam, for that matter—didn't inform him about what was going on.

Dean scoffed. "Call you? Are you kidding me?" he asked in disbelief. "Dad, I called you from Lawrence, all right? I called you when Julia was dying. I mean, getting you on the phone? I got a better chance of winning the fucking lottery."

Julia was surprised by Dean's words but proud, nevertheless. Dean had always followed orders and never argued with his dad; he had always taken John's crap without protest. It was nice to see him breaking out of his daddy's-little-soldier persona and coming into his own person.

Not to mention that she had a thing for angry Dean. He was gorgeous, what could she say?

John was silent for a few seconds before he answered. "You're right," he admitted; Dean relaxed, having tensed when he realized what he had told his father. "Although I'm not too crazy about this new tone of yours—"

Of course, Julia mentally scoffed.

"—you're right. I'm sorry."

"Look guys, visions or no visions, the fact is that we know the demon is coming tonight," Sam spoke up. "And this family's gonna go through the same hell we went through."

"No, they're not," John declared firmly. "No one is, ever again."

Sam's phone rang at that moment; he flipped it open and looked at the caller ID—which declared it was an unknown number—and answered the call, putting it on speakerphone.

"Hello?"

"Sam?" a woman spoke.

"Who is this?"

"Think real hard, it will come to you."

Sam's face hardened. "Meg."

Julia stiffened at the mention of the woman who had killed her brother. She had heard from Dean that she fell out of the building when Sam trashed the altar she was using to control the Daeva. If she was still alive—because Julia doubted that she'd just survive a seven-story drop like that—it meant that Meg was probably possessing the poor girl's dead body.

Dean took the place behind Julia, putting his large hands on her shoulders comfortingly. Absentmindedly, forgetting that John nor Sam knew about them, she reached up and held the hand on her left shoulder.

"Last time I saw you, you fell out of a window," Sam said, his voice low and tense.

"Yeah, no thanks to you," Meg said sourly. "That really hurt my feelings, by the way."

Sam raised his eyebrows. "Just your feelings? That was a seven-story drop."

"Let me speak to your dad."

Sam nervously looked over at John, who was slowly making his way over to the table where the rest of them were gathered. "My dad?" he faked confusion. "I don't know where my dad is."

Meg clicked her tongue. "It's time for the grown-ups to talk, Sam. Let me speak to him now."

John held out his hand to Sam and the youngest Winchester reluctantly handed the phone over.

"This is John."

"Howdy, John," Meg chirped. "I'm Meg. I'm a friend of your boys. I'm also the one who watched Jim Murphy choke on his own blood."

Julia inhaled sharply, squeezing Dean's hand at the mention of Pastor Jim. Dean returned the gesture and rubbed her palm with his thumb.

"Still there, John-boy?"

"I'm here," John confirmed shakily.

"Well, that was yesterday," Meg boasted. "Today, I'm in Lincoln, Ohio, visiting another old friend of yours. He wants to say hi."

A man spoke now, his voice shaky and frantic. "John, whatever you do, don't give—"

Meg shushed him, cutting him off.

"Caleb?" John stiffened; Julia and Sam exchanged concerned looks while Dean tightened his grip on her. "You listen to me. He's got nothing to do with anything. You let him go."

"We know you have the Colt, John."

John paused for a second. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, okay," Meg scoffed. "Well, listen to this—"

They could all hear the quick slash of a knife and then there was choked gasping. They assumed the worst; Meg had just slashed Caleb's throat and there was nothing they could do to save him.

"Caleb?" John called, paling considerably, his eyes sparkling with tears.

"You hear that?" Meg taunted him. "That's the sound of your friend dying...Now, let's try this again. We know you have the gun, John. Word travels fast. So, as far as we're concerned, you just declared war—and this is what war looks like. It has causalities."

John angrily clenched his jaw. "I'm gonna kill you, you know that?"

"Oh, John, please. Mind your blood pressure," Meg scolded him mockingly. "So, this is the thing. We're going to keep doing what we're doing. And your friends, anyone who has ever helped you, gave you shelter, anyone you've ever loved? They'll all die unless you give us that gun. Next on the list is Luke Alexander, so I'd think hard."

Julia gasped softly at the mention of her father. She had no idea where he was and now demons were going to be on his ass unless John gave them the Colt. While Dean clenched her hand tightly, John gave her an assuring look. She relaxed as much as she could; John wouldn't let her dad get killed.

"I'm waiting, Johnny. You better answer before the buzzer."

"Okay," John agreed quietly.

"Sorry? I didn't quite get that."

"I said okay," his voice hardened, a murderous glint in his brown eyes. "I'll bring you the Colt."

"There's a warehouse in Lincoln on the corner of Wabash and Lake," Meg informed him. "You're gonna meet me there."

"It's gonna take me about a day's drive to get there."

"Meet me there at midnight tonight."

"That's impossible," John scoffed. "I can't get there in time and I can't just carry a gun on a plane."

"Oh," Meg clicked her tongue. "Well, I guess your friends die, don't they? If you do decide to make it, come alone."

She ended the call, then. John flipped the phone shut and tossed it back to Sam. Julia sighed and let of Dean's hand, though he still hovered behind her worriedly.

"I'm just gonna say it," she spoke up, her eyes nervously flickering over John. "I think Meg's a demon."

"Really?" Sam gave her a surprised look.

John agreed with her. "Either that or she's possessed by one—"

Julia mentally disagreed. Every demon had to possess a body. Otherwise they wouldn't be anything other than a cloud of black smoke. She certainly wasn't going to correct John, though; she was way smarter than that.

"—it doesn't really matter."

"So, what do we do?" Dean wondered.

A determined expression fell over John's face. "I'm going to Lincoln."

"What?" Sam, Dean, and Julia spoke in unison.

"It doesn't look like we have a choice," John stated firmly. "If I don't go, a lot of people die. Luke will die and so many of our other friends."

"Dad, the demon is coming tonight. For Monica and her family," Sam reminded him, a conflicted look on his face. "That gun is all we have. You can't just hand it over."

"Who said anything about handing it over?" Dean, Julia, and Sam gave John confused looks. "Look, besides us, Luke, and a couple of vampires, no one's really seen the gun. No one knows what it looks like."

"So what, you're just going to pick up a ringer at a pawn shop?" Dean raised his eyebrows.

"An antique store," John corrected him.

"You're going to hand Meg a fake gun and hope she doesn't notice?"

"Look," John sighed. "as long as it's close, she shouldn't be able to tell the difference."

"But for how long?" Julia spoke up. "What happens when she does figure it out?"

"I just—" John paused before continuing. "I just need to buy a few hours, that's all."

Sam gave him a knowing look. "You mean for us," he stated. "You want us to stay here and kill this demon by ourselves?"

"No, Sam, I want to stop losing the people we love," John declared. "I want you to go to school. I want Dean to have a home. I want...I want Mary alive. It's just—I just want this to be over."

Julia tightened her grip on her rosary, blessing the jug of water for John. He had confessed that Luke was usually the one that made holy water, so she had volunteered to bless the water for his trip to Lincoln. She had also written the blessing down for him, so he could make more for himself if he needed it.

Sam and John stood in front of the mechanical weapon stash, making sure everything was prepped and waiting to go. They were talking about something but it was too quiet and she was too concentrated to eavesdrop on their conversation. The three of them were waiting for Dean to come back from an antique store from the next town over with a gun that resembled the Colt.

She finished blessing the water, finishing her prayer, and brought the jug back over to John. He gave her a thankful smile and wordlessly put it in the stash after filling up his flask.

"Sam, do you mind if I speak to Julia alone?"

Shit, Julia panicked to herself, did I do something wrong?

Sam simply nodded; John led Julia around a hundred feet away from his youngest son so he couldn't overhear what they were going to talk about.

"Did I do something wrong?" she blurted out nervously.

John had always made her nervous. She didn't know why, though; he had never been rude to her or did anything to hurt her. In fact, he was nicer to her than he was his sons, but she chalked that up to the fact that she wasn't a Winchester and he didn't have to father her like he did Sam and Dean.

"No, of course not," John shook his head. "I just wanted to tell you that you can back out of this, if you want to. This isn't your fight."

Julia's mind raced. She wasn't going to walk away from Sam and Dean; they were her best friend and lover, respectively, and she loved them to death. They had been part of her family since before she was even born. You can't walk away from family and she wanted to help the Winchester finish what that demon started twenty-two years before when it killed Mary.

And, this was a little selfish, but she wanted Meg to die, too. She could hardly stomach the fact that Meg was still around but Levi wasn't. Abby and Beth weren't there so they couldn't do anything about it, but Julia was. She owed it to herself, her family, and—most importantly—Levi to make sure that Meg was sent straight back to Hell.

"I'm not walking away," she told John firmly. "You guys are my family, too, and Meg killed my brother. This isn't something that I can just ignore while leaving you guys in danger. If I can help, then I will. I'm not leaving."

John sighed and clapped a hand on her shoulder. "You're a good person, Julia," he smiled softly; Julia turned away, embarrassed. "And you're good for my boys. Especially Dean..."

Julia quickly looked back at him, shocked. "How do you—how do you...?"

"How do I know that you and Dean are together?" John supplied when she trailed off. "It's hard to miss it. You two are like magnets or something. Either way, it's good. You guys have always been close. Do you love him?"

"I don't—I don't know," Julia stammered, flushing. "I'm certainly heading that way, though."

"Be patient with him," he advised.

"I will," she promised him and then joked, "This is one of the things I can be patient about."

John shook his head with a small grin. "Just make sure to look after my boys, all right?"

"Of course."

"Let's get back over to Sam. I'm sure Dean will be back any minute now."

John was right; only a minute after they rejoined Sam, Dean showed up. He parked the Impala only a few feet away from the truck and got out, carrying a wrinkled paper bag that was conformed into an outline of a gun.

"Did you get it?" John asked him.

Dean gave him the bag without a word; John pulled the gun out. It was nearly identical to the Colt but it was easy to tell the difference since they knew what the actual Colt looked like.

"You know this is a trap, don't you?" Dean told him. "That's why Meg wants you to come alone."

"I can handle her," John assured him. "I got a whole arsenal loaded; holy water, Mandaic, amulets—"

"Dad."

"What?"

"Promise me something."

"What's that?" John blinked at him.

"If this thing goes South, just...get the hell out," Dean shoved his hands into his jacket, voice shaking slightly. "Don't get yourself killed, all right? You're no good to us dead."

Julia grabbed Sam's hand and they both squeezed each other tightly. If things went wrong, and Meg found out that the gun wasn't the Colt, this might be the last time they see John. It was nerve-wracking and John wasn't even her dad; she couldn't imagine how Sam and Dean felt.

"Same goes for you," John turned so he could see Sam, Dean, and Julia all at once and pulled the Colt from his jacket. "All right, listen to me. They made the bullets special for this Colt. There's only four of them left. Without them, this gun is useless. You make every shot count."

"Yes, sir," Julia and Sam spoke in unison while Dean nodded.

"I've been waiting a long time for this fight," John sighed. "Now it's here and I'm not gonna be in it. It's up to you three now. It's your fight, you finish this. You finish what I started. Understand?"

Sam, Dean, and Julia all nodded at once; John handed the Colt over to Dean, who took it without a word.

"We'll see you soon, Dad," Sam promised his father, trying to stay optimistic.

"Be careful," Julia added, glancing at Dean worriedly. He hadn't spoken much since he got back and she could tell that he was having a hard time with what was going on. He had already lost his mother to this demon and now he may lose his father, too.

John nodded at them. "I'll see you later."

He clapped Sam on the shoulder and gave Dean a serious but fond look before closing the back of his truck and getting in. The truck rumbled as he drove away, mud squelching each time the tires rotated.

Julia sighed sadly and reaching over with her free hand, taking Dean's. She held onto her boys as the truck disappeared down the road, leaving them to finish the fight by themselves.

It was past nine o'clock and they were still watching Monica Holden's house, waiting for the demon to show up. Throughout the three hours they had been parked on the other side of the street, they tossed around ideas that could work in getting the young family out of their house. So far, they had come up with nothing.

Halfway through their stakeout, Julia was antsy and—admittedly—a little bored. Ignoring Dean's protests, she had climbed into the front seat and settled herself in the middle of Sam and Dean. It wasn't anymore exciting in the front but this way, she was able to carry on conversation better than when she had to lean forward to get a hint of what the brothers spoke about.

"Maybe we could tell them that there's a gas leak," Sam suggested after a silent five minutes. "It might get them out of the house for a few hours."

Dean scoffed and looked over Julia's head at him. "Yeah and how many times has that actually worked for us?"

"And we already spoke to Monica outside of her house," Julia added. "It'll be suspicious if we randomly show up at night to tell her to get out of her house."

"Yeah, you're right," he gave in and paused for a few seconds. "We could always tell them the truth."

Julia turned to Sam this time, an eyebrow raised; it amused Sam to see Dean pulling the same face at him.

"Nah," the three of them chorused.

"I know, I know," Sam sighed. "I just—with what's coming for these folks..."

"Sam, we only got one move and you know it, all right?" Dean stated. "We gotta wait for that demon to show itself and then we get to it before it gets them."

Sam nodded in agreement and looked back at the Holden's house.

"I wonder how Dad's doing."

"I'd feel a lot better if we were there backing him up," Dean muttered.

"I'd feel a lot better if he was here, backing us up."

The three of them continued watching the house for another half-hour when Sam spoke up again. "This is weird."

Julia gave him a curious look. "What?"

"After all these years, we're finally here," Sam told her and Dean. "It doesn't seem real."

"We just gotta keep our heads and do our job like always," Dean advised his little brother.

"Yeah, but this isn't like always."

Dean cocked his head and agreed. "True."

"...Dean, Julia," Sam said hesitantly. "Uh, I just wanna thank you guys."

Julia's eyes darted back to her best friend. "For what?"

"For everything. You've always had my back, you know? Even when I couldn't count on anyone, I could always count on you guys. And, uh, I don't know...I just wanted to let you know. Just in case."

Julia's eyes stung and she bowed her head. She was grateful for what Sam said but they weren't needed. She didn't love Sam because it felt like she owed him or that she had to be by his side all these years. She loved Sam because he was her brother and best friend rolled into one. She looked after him for the same reason as Dean—even though she was two-and-a-half years younger than him.

And she didn't like the way he was talking. It was like he didn't expect to make it out of the fight and was already saying his goodbyes.

"Woah, woah, woah," Dean objected, looking at his brother in disbelief. "Are you kidding me?"

"What?"

"Don't say just in case something happens to you," Dean shook his head firmly, irritated. "I don't wanna hear that fucking speech, man. Nobody's dying tonight. Not us, not that family, nobody. Except that demon—that evil son of a bitch ain't getting any older than tonight, you understand me?"

Sam reluctantly nodded; satisfied, Dean turned to Julia.

"Julia?"

"I know, Dean," she whispered, wiping her wet eyes.

An hour later, Dean started calling John. He called three times, each time getting John's voicemail.

Frustrated, Dean harshly closed his phone. "Dad's not answering."

"Meg might be late," Julia offered, trying to stay positive. "Maybe he doesn't have cell reception."

"Yeah, well—"

Out of nowhere, cutting Dean off, the radio started making noise. It was staticky, like they weren't tuned into the nearest radio tower. Julia reached in front of her, turning the knob so the volume was higher.

Around them, the wind started blowing harder, jostling some of the thinner trees. The lights in the Holden's house flickered on and off. The staticky radio, the wind, the flickering lights...they were all omens.

"It's coming," Sam breathed in realization.

The scrambled out of the Impala at once, drawing their guns—and in Sam's case, the Colt—and entering the house after Julia picked the lock. It was quiet on the first level but suddenly, there was chaos.

A man—Julia assumed it was Charlie Holden—popped up out of nowhere and swung a bat at Dean. Dean quickly ducked, missing the blow, but a lamp was trashed in the process.

"Get out of my house!" Charlie roared at them; Dean quickly grabbed the man and pressed him against the wall, hardly effected by his struggles.

"Please, Mr. Holden, please," Julia pleaded. "Please be quiet."

Charlie continued to struggle but Dean locked him up. "Be quiet and listen to me. Be quiet and listen," Dean said sharply. "We're trying to help you."

"Charlie, is everything okay down there?" they heard Monica call from upstairs.

"Monica, get the baby!".

"No, don't go into the nursery!" Sam shouted at the same time as Charlie called, "You stay away from her!"

He was struggling against Dean's grip again but the oldest Winchester had no more patience. He backhanded Charlie so hard that he fell unconscious, slumping to the ground. Dean quickly picked him up, heaving him over his shoulder.

"You guys go," he told Julia and Sam. "Get Monica and Rosie."

Julia and Sam took off, up the stairs. It was easy to find Rosie's nursery, considering that Monica was crying and screaming desperately for help. When they entered the room, she was pinned against the top half of the wall by the door and there was a dark figure with yellow eyes standing next to Rosie's crib.

"ROSIE!"

Sam quickly held up the Colt and aimed it at the demon. He pulled the trigger but it disappeared in a cloud of black smoke. Monica fell to the floor now that the demon was gone.

"Where the hell did it go?" Sam asked frantically.

Monica didn't care; all she could focus on was Rosie.

"My baby!" she exclaimed, lunging forward; Sam quickly caught her, helping her stand up. "My baby!"

"Get her out of here," Julia told Sam, hurrying over to Rosie's crib. "I got her."

"Rosie!"

Sam tried to pull Monica out of the room but she was fighting him. "My baby!"

"Julia's got her."

Julia quickly picked up Rosie, including her warm blanket, and flinched away as the crib shot up in flames. Making sure that she held Rosie properly, she raced out of the nursery and down the stairs, following Sam and Monica out of the house.

"You get away from my family!" Charlie shouted at Julia and Sam as he was held back by Dean.

"No, Charlie, don't. They saved us," Monica cried, turning to take Rosie out of Julia's arms; she wordlessly passed the baby, giving Monica a sad smile. "They saved us."

Dean let go of Charlie and he immediately went to Monica and Rosie, wrapping his arms around them.

"Thank you," Monica looked at Julia, Sam, and Dean gratefully.

Julia nodded and smiled softly. She was so glad that the Holdens were safe from whatever the demon had wanted to do to them. It was nice to see the love that the three of them shared. She envied that.

"It's still in there!" Sam shouted, his gaze locked on the nursery window where the same figure they had seen earlier was standing.

Dean immediately grabbed Sam before he could run back into the house; Julia joined him in holding the youngest Winchester, who was fighting hysterically.

"Sam, Sam, no," Dean grunted.

"Let me go! It's still in there!"

"No!" Dean raised his voice. "It's burning to the ground. It's suicide."

"I don't care!"

"Well, we do," Julia helped Dean continue to pull Sam away from the house.

The three of them looked back at the nursery window; the demon was gone.

Dean paced back and forth in their motel room, his phone up to his ear as he tried calling John again. He had already tried four times and his dad had yet to answer. "Come on, Dad. Answer your phone, dammit," there was still no answer; Dean shut his phone and tossed it on his bed before turning to Sam and Julia, who were sitting side-by-side. "Something's wrong."

Julia nodded in agreement while Sam stared blankly at the wall behind the television.

"You hear me?" Dean asked his brother, frustrated. "Something's happened."

Sam didn't react the way that Dean wanted him to. "If you guys had just let me go in there, I could have ended all of this."

Julia sighed in frustration, tired of his pity party. She and Dean saved his life; he was willing to kill himself because of his rage but he didn't even care. "Sam, you would have died," she said firmly. "All you would have ended was your life."

"You don't know that," Sam protested feebly.

Dean walked over to their bed, standing in front of Sam with his arms crossed over his chest. "So, what, you're just willing to sacrifice yourself, is that it?"

Sam abruptly stood up, towering over Dean. Julie got to her feet, too, ready to intervene if things got more heated between the bothers.

"Yeah, you're damn right I am."

"Well, that's not going to happen," Dean raised his voice. "Not as long as me and Julia are around."

"What the fuck are you talking about, Dean?" Sam matched his volume. "We've been searching for this demon our whole lives. It's the only thing we've ever cared about."

"Sam, I wanna waste it. I do, okay?" Dean tried to placate him. "But it's not worth dying over."

Sam reared back like he had been struck. "What?"

"I mean it," Dean insisted while Julia nervously shifted from foot to foot. "If hunting this demon means getting yourself killed then I hope we never find the damn thing."

"That thing killed Jess," Sam reminded him lowly. "That thing killed Mom."

"You said it yourself once," Dean stated. "That no matter what we do, they're gone and they're never coming back."

Sam clenched his jaw and grabbed Dean's shoulders, roughly pushing him against the wall. "Don't you say that, not you!" his eyes glistened with tears. "Not after all this. Don't you say that."

"Sam!" Julia rushed toward the brothers, tightly grabbing Sam's arm to pull him away from Dean. "Get off of him!"

Surprisingly—because Sam was much stronger than her—she managed to pull Sam away from Dean. It must have been because he was more sad than angry and he truly didn't want to hurt his brother.

Once Sam released him, Dean said softly, "Sam, look," he gave Sam a pleading look. "The four of us, that's all we have. It's all I have. Sometimes I feel like I'm barely holding it together, man. Without you and Jules or Dad..."

He trailed off, not wanting to finish his sentence. Sam exhaled shakily and walked back to the bed he shared with Julia while Julia gave Dean a small smile and reached for his hand.

"Dad," Sam said quietly, tears still in his eyes. "He should have called by now."

"You should try him again," Julia suggested.

Dean nodded and grabbed his cellphone, calling his dad once again. Dean looked surprised when John took his call, but it wasn't the eldest Winchester who was answering.

"You three really screwed up this time," Julia, Sam, and Dean heard Meg's angry voice.

While Julia and Sam stiffened, Dean angrily clenched his jaw. "Where is he?"

When Meg spoke again, they could practically hear her devious smirk. "You're never going to see your father again."

(Gif is not mine)

#supernatural rewrite #dean winchester x oc #dean winchester x reader #supernatural #dean winchester #Sam Winchester #supernatural fanfiction #dean winchester fanfiction #dean winchester x original character

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zoequeenz · 5 years ago

Text

Compulsion (Part 4)

MASTERLIST

PREVIOUS CHAPTER

(TRIGGER WARNING: sexual assault mentioned)

“There’s a form of OCD called scrupulosity.” Spencer says.

“Religious obsession and compulsion.” Hotch adds.

“An obsessive fear of committing sin, which creates so much anxiety that he’s compelled to do something to ease that anxiety.” Spencer explains making me smile.

“Like setting fires.” Hotch interjects.

“Where’s the behavioral evidence?” asks Gideon messaging his temple.

“Right here. All right, remember the night of the three fires? We saw the doorknob turning against the lock.” Spencer explains showing the video.

“But he’s not trying to get in, he’s compelled to turn the doorknob three times.”

“Well, what about the fires? The first ones were single fires. If the unsub has OCD, shouldn’t they all been in threes?” I ask.

“They were in threes.” Spencer answers.

“A trinity of threes. The first fire occured on March 3rd.”

“Three pm. Third day, third month.” Gideon says.

“It’s that convergence of threes that causes overwhelming anxiety. Obsessive compulsives ease the anxiety by performing the compulsion.” Spencer explains.

“What about the other fires? Professor Wallace?” Hotch asks.

“Office number three.” Spencer answers.

“I checked for more patterns of threes. His class was on Tuesdays.”

“Third day of the week.” I add.

“Matthew Rowland was in that class. It was his third class of the day. If we looked into each of the fires we’d find a lot of patterns having to do with threes because our minds are incredibly adept at seeking out patterns but to the unsub, once that pattern hits, Bam---he sets a fire.” Spencer tells us.

“But if the target was always people, why did no one die in the first few fires?” Gideon questions.

“They were failures.” I conclude.

“Up until Matthew Rowland.”

We sit in silence for a few seconds processing this.

“What is it?” Gideon asks Hotch.

“ I think I know who it might be.” answers Hotch.

“And it’s not a he. It’s a she.”

We freeze looking around at each other. Then Gideon calls the Dean to let her know that we have found out who the unsub is.

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“Clara Haynes” says the Dean.

“A chemistry student. I’ll get you her records now.”

“First get campus security out and find her. She could set her next fire within hours.” Gideon tells her.

After she hung up we called Derek. He and Elle would be able to get to her apartment faster because they were out. We explain to Derek everything we know.

“Okay, got it.” Derek says.

“Her apartment’s off campus.”

He then hung up.

“I noticed something--a ring on her finger, and she kept turning it.” Hotch says.

“At intervals?” Spencer asks.

“Of three.” Hotch answers.

“And she counted off the ingredients of a light bulb bomb.”

“And the word''sugar ``.'' I said.

‘Yeah. And she kept repeating it.” Hotch says.

“Once she started she couldn’t stop.”

“Yeah, it’s palilia. It’s the involuntary repetition of words. Howard Hughes had it when his OCD worsened.” Spencer explained.

“Clara and her classmates were working on a project about gravitational pull.” Hotch adds.

“The three body problem.” Gideon says.

While we were discussing we got a call from Derek. He and Elle were in Clara’s apartment. It was covered in holy texts about fire and doing it for Charon. Derek then asked Spencer to explain Moloch.

“Moloch was the demon sun god of the canaanites. In order to keep from incurring his wrath, the people would sacrifice their children to them by burning them alive.”

We then get a fax.

“Sixteen year old survives inferno. The mother Ellen Haynes called it a miracle. “My daughter was tested by God. He tested my child and she came through blessed.”.” I read.

“Look at the house number.” I gave the paper to Gideon and Hotch.

“Three Three Three.” Gideon read.

Elle then brought up magical thinking or as Morgan called it obsessive thoughts. Like “step on a crack break your mother’s back” and that Clara actually believed it. And that when three threes show up she thinks God is telling her to test that person.The Dean then showed up and brought us everything she had on Clara.

“Security’s checking the science building.” she says.

“Well, where else would she be?” asks Gideon.

“We need to find the next pattern of threes.” Spencer says.

“Hey, Hotch.” Morgan says on the phone.

“We’re lookin’ man. I don’t think she would have left behind a day planner that says “set next fire here” written in it.”

Hotch then tries to get Morgan to understand the severity of the situation and Morgan says he gets it but her place is seriously messed up. He then hangs up. It seems like not even a minute later he is calling us again. He and Elle found a ton of homemade bombs in her apartment. Hotch tells him to seal off the building.

“We need to send our people into every building. And have them start pulling fire alarms. Please, GO.” Gideon pushes.

“Mead, a map of the campus.” he asks.

“We need to find anything and everything having to do with the number three. Where’s the blueprint?”

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3rd Person POV

Meanwhile, Cocky boy is reluctant to leave the science building. He is there with two other students. He says he has too much to do. He and the other two are heading into an elevator. He so stupidly believes his mini fire extinguisher will help him. He and the two girls then step onto the elevator. Clara was ready though. She had a key and stopped the elevator on the third floor with the three people stuck inside. Cocky boy keeps trying to press buttons. He knows the elevator won’t start. One girl asks him about the key. Cocky boy had left in on the hook in the office. The other girl stated that you could hear the emergency call button.

“Maybe it’s broken.” says the girl with pigtails.

Cocky boy presses floor one.

“Or turned off.” He says.

“ I say we pry open the doors.” pigtails says.

“You can’t pry ‘em all the way open.” he says.

“It’s a safety precaution.”

“Maybe we can try yelling for help.” suggests the other girl.

An alarm goes off.

“That’s the fire alarm.” states pigtails.

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Here in the office Gideon is running around like crazy as I look at stuff with Spencer. Being this close to him makes me all fuzzy inside. He’s so cute. Focus Percy, it is literally life or death here.

“Jason,wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait.” Hotch says.

“Clara Hayes is very likely a good person. Someone who never wanted to do anyone any harm, like any other rational person. But there’s nothing rational about obsessive compulsive disorder.”

“Research suggests OCD involves: problems in communication between the frontal part of the brain and the orbital cortex. Plus deeper structures. The basal ganglia.” Spencer adds.

“You can’t reason with her because you can’t reason with a physiological problem.” I say.

“She’s not setting these fires because she wants to, but because she has to.” Hotch finishes.

“What are you trying to say?” Gideon asks him.

“Don’t try to convince her to stop.” Hotch tells him.

“Because you won’t be able to.”

Gideon nods.

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3rd Person POV

Back in the elevator Cocky Boy is attempting to pry the doors open. He got it as far as they could go.

“That’s it? It won’t go any further?” asks pigtails.

“I told you, it’s a built in safety precaution.” he says.

The other girl shakes her head.

“Help! Somebody help us! Hello? Somebody help us!” she calls out.

“Please, somebody, we’re trapped down here.”

Pigtails is being lifted by Cocky boy to see if she can see anyone.

The doors then open. A sigh of relief when they see Clara.

“Clara!”

“Clara, thank God.”

“It’s all right.” says Clara.

“Clara, go back to the office and get the elevator key.” says Cocky Boy.

“It’s okay. I’m here to save you.” Clara says.

“Go get the key Clara. The elevator key.” he tries again.

She disappears. This brings panic to the three students. One asks if the building is on fire. Clara responds.

“Not yet.”

Morgan and Elle are running wild through the building but are having no luck finding Clara. While the students in the elevator are wondering where their “rescuer” is. They ask for help again.

“I’m here to help.” answers Clara.

“I’m here to save you. God chose you. Chose you....Chose you…”

“Clara?” says Cocky Boy while Clara reveals three bottles.

“Father, son...holy ghost.”

The three begin to panic when they realize what the liquid is. They try to reason but Clara just begins to cover them in gasoline. She then lights a match.

“God chose you.” Clara says.

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Persephone Chase’s POV

It was vital we find her now. Spencer and I were combing through everything we had on her. She was failing out of college this was her last semester. This was her stressor. Gideon is on the phone with us and asked us about anything else.

“She was a researcher in the science building.”

“We know that. They’ve already cleared the science building.” Gideon says.

“The third floor of the science building is under construction.” Spencer says standing.

“I’m on my way.” Gideon says.

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3rd Person POV

Hotch runs to the science building.

“Clara.”

The students in the elevator plead with her. Telling her she doesn’t have to do this.

“I have to do this.” Clara says holding the match.

“You know it’s not rational, Clara.” Hotch says.

“You were trying to tell me.”

“God chose me to be tested, and now he’s chosen them.” she says.

“If I don’t do this, something terrible will happen.”

“What’s gonna happen, Clara? A flood? An earthquake? You know this isn’t rational.” Hotch argues.

“I know. I know. I know.” Clara says pulling back slightly.

“Then resist.” Hotch says.

“I can’t.” she explains.

The students try yet again to reason with her.

“They must be tested.” Clara declares.

“God’s Wrath…”

“Clara you told me it was a chemistry student. You left the message about Charown.” Hotch tells her.

She begins to chant.

“You want to stop.” Hotch points out.

Hotch watches in fear. That fire is getting too close to the gasoline covered students.

“Clara…” says Hotch.

“Clara...stop.”

Just as Clara is about to throw the fire into the elevator Hotch shoots her leg. She drops the fire and it slowly begins to roll towards the elevator, ensuing more panic into the students. Gideon luckily stomps it out in time.

“I thought you said not to reason with her.” Gideon told Hotch.

Hotch just looks down in confusion and sadness.

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Persephone Chase’s POV

It was over. We could finally get away from this college and back home. I was so unbelievably happy to board the jet. I knew I could just nap the whole way home next to Spencer. Plane rides with the pretty genius boy was one of my very favorite things.

“You know, I figured it out.” Elle said boarding.

“The stutter.”

“You know why the Footpath Killer stuttered?” asked Gideon.

“When you and Hotch were talking earlier, that’s when I got it.” she said proud.

“He said he was just trying to stall Clara.”

“Right” Gideon says.

“Well, that’s it, itsn’t it?” Elle asks.

“The Footpath Killer. You were just trying to stall him. You said “I know why you stutter” because you were buying time. You were stalling. But you don’t really know why he stuttered.”

“I don’t?” questions Gideon.

“ I looked it up. No one does.” she smiles.

Gideon then goes on to explain some of the theories for stuttering. Then she asked what really happened but at this point my head was on Spencer’s shoulder and I was on the brink of sleep when Hotch walked over.

“Chase, I still want an explanation as to why you were reluctant to get out of the car or go around campus.”

I looked down for a second, collecting myself. I knew I could trust Hotch, Spencer too. Derek is the only one who knows. The only one I want to know. But maybe it is safe to come clean. Tell the truth. Have more protectors. I open my mouth and just as I’m about to speak I feel a hand slip into mine and give it a tight squeeze. I smile, more comfortable.

“Back in college, I dated the wrong guy. Never cared for me, always pressured me. It was horrible. One night, I went to a party with him. He drugged me and he and his frat brothers took advantage of me. Colleges rattle me. I just couldn’t do it. Sorry I kept this hidden.”

There was this look of sadness in Hotch’s eyes. I couldn’t even look at Spencer.

“Persephone, we will always protect you. We are a team. Thank you for telling me.” Hotch then walked off. This was new, he’d never called Persephone before.

“Hey.” Spencer said.

“Yeah.” I whisper.

“I’ll always protect you.”

“I know.”

He kisses my forehead. I blush. Thank goodness the plane is dark. Then I put my head back on his shoulder and fall asleep. Content with my team, who will always have my back.

NEXT CHAPTER

#criminal minds #criminal minds series rewrite #spencer reid #spencer reid imagine #spencer reid x OC #criminal minds imagine #spencer reid series #best friends with a genius profiler

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taurusmanlove · 6 years ago

Text

The Truth About Taurus Man - He Doesn't Want Perfect

New Post has been published on https://taurusmen.net/what-taurus-man-wants/

The Truth About Taurus Man - He Doesn't Want Perfect

Do you spend hours thinking about what a Taurus man likes in a woman? Are you constantly doing things to try and impress or get his attention?

You are not alone! Most women in your position are doing exactly the same thing. Constantly thinking of new ways to make themselves look sexier or more desirable.

Following the widely held belief that you must present yourself as interesting, worldly and fun, and not in the slightest needy and wanting.

All this time you spend thinking how perfect you would be for him… ‘How proud he will feel in the future if he chose you as the woman of his dreams’.

Why a Taurus man doesn’t want a perfect woman

But unfortunately, it is not working. This approach will never work! You may have convinced yourself that he is interested in you, but why is he taking you so much for granted?

If you are short on time and want to get answers without reading the rest of this post listen to this short video by relationship expert James Bauer.

Maybe, you may have made excuses for him? He is not ready to settle down or a steady relationship. You hope he will change and all of a sudden declare his undying love for you?

Or maybe…. The reason is, you have taken over the courting process leaving him nothing to do!!

Related article: How to attract a Shy Taurus man

Taurus man compatibility

Facts that are disregarded by most women:-

A Taurus man will not value a relationship unless he has to work for it.

A Taurus man will only really value something that he has worked hard to obtain.

For instance, he will feel cheated inside if he had not achieved a diploma or certificate if he had not worked for it.

Similarly, present the Taurus guy with the perfect girlfriend and he will feel that he did not deserve her as he has not been forced to chase her for weeks to get a date.

Playing hard to get makes the heart beat faster

However, the big problem for anyone playing the hard card is that the magic stops working once he knows he’s got you.

Something happens in a Taurus guys mind when they think they have won you. It’s as though they say to themselves ‘Game over, I have achieved that, what’s next?’

So how do you make sure your relationship with a Taurus man lasts the course and you keep him interested in you? This is the question that has been confounding women, until now!

You are not alone – most women encounter this situation. (That’s why they ask for help)

Many women never allow themselves to get close to a Taurus guy for fear of scaring him away. They sometimes suffer in silence and give up on a love that could have been perfect.

Getting help from an expert

However, other women are not afraid of asking advice and getting some help, especially from an expert. One of the people they turn to is relationship coach James Bauer who explains Taurus man’s Secret Obsession.

James picked up on a thread that was apparent from most women coming to him worried about guys who were blowing hot then becoming distant. The relationship would be going well then suddenly things seemed to change overnight.

A Taurus guy who was originally interested and romantic would change and become distant. He would gradually become focused on everything apart from her.

Women noticed that their crushes no longer made eye contact and were brusque in their attitude. Seeing a pattern, James realized to be able to help these women he needed to investigate.

See also: How to attract a Taurus man with your conversation

Everything starts to make sense

Everything started to make sense as he discovered what was making these men back away. He realized what was lacking, and after much research discovered what these guys were not getting.

James research proved that the problem was not related to anything wrong with these women, but something that was lacking which he calls ‘The Hero Instinct’

Without being aware, most women are unconsciously driving their Taurus man away.

James has discovered that the cause was the naturally caring instinct of most women is what is driving a man away from them.

Listen to this video in which James personally explains his research.

Take a look at yourself and prove it. Are you always available and looking your best? Do you always drop what you are doing to be with him? Would you do anything for him?

This is natural for most women but you haven’t realized while doing this you are depriving your Taurus man of a purpose. How he sees himself and what he has attained in his life.

All men love heroes and a Taurus man is no exception. How many grown men do you know that are still captivated and fascinated by movies where the superhero always wins out.

From the time of early boyhood, men have a built-in dream of developing into a hero that would save the world – and get the girl to carry her away to safety.

Most men are trapped in their mundane jobs and don’t get the opportunity of being a hero. No chance of ripping off their corporate suits, and springing into action, to save the world. This just does not happen.

But it is still possible to get the girl

Being an ordinary guy with the heart of a hero wanting to win the girl takes a lot of confidence. A superhuman charm, with immunity to pain. All he really wants and needs to find is a woman who is looking for a hero.

A woman who needs a hero! Are you that girl that needs a hero? I would hazard a guess… That’s not you, is it?

You are probably independent and can take care of yourself. You are probably industrious and a conscientious worker. Maybe you are also the type of girl who doesn’t need a man to make you complete.

You are I would guess the type of girl who has a lot to offer a Taurus guy. Probably very kind and loving with a generosity that is overflowing towards a man who will make the perfect partner and your life complete.

This is the reason heroes are in short supply in your life. You have probably ended up with takers rather than the person who would be ideal for you.

These guys, who leave you high and dry, after taking everything from you. You need to give your crush the hero instinct. Here’s how.

3 ways to bring out the hero in your Taurus man, Starting Today

Ask him for his help

Seek his help with advice on buying a new computer. Ask him if he could identify the strange rattle that has suddenly sprung up in your car. Even something as simple as asking him to retrieve something from the top shelf that you cannot reach yourself.

Make sure you thank him and give him a big smile. These simple tips do not make you a needy person. Tasks like this bring out the need in him to be useful and focus his attention on you. This also brings out the latent Taurus man hero in him.

Enjoy male company

Taurus guys love women who appreciate men for being men. Does it matter if his living quarters are decked with sports trophies and paraphernalia?

So what if he is dedicated to his favorite football team? What difference does it make that his dress code is not color coordinated?

He’s a man. These things in his world are okay. The last thing you need is for him to be like you, you have the female side of things covered.

Allow him to earn your respect

The hero in a Taurus guy loves a challenge. They don’t want to be praised just for being on time.

The Taurus guy does not want your affection passed to him on a plate. They want to be allowed to earn it.

The one thing a Taurus guy craves more than enduring love from a woman is a challenge.

All you need to do is give him opportunities that will allow the hero in him to emerge. Ease back and relax, and let him show you what he is made of by winning your admiration.

An important part of starting or keeping a relationship exciting is to do things that make him think of you as much as possible. One thing that has been achieving great results for many women is text messages.

Now care must be taken with this as texting too often or with the wrong words could have a detrimental effect. However, sending messages with the correct sentences can have a positive impact on your guy’s subconscious mind.

This is an exciting subject so I wrote a separate article ‘How to flirt with a Taurus guy over text’. Check it out and discover an effective way to have your crush thinking of you, and only you.

Keep Learning

Keep learning about how you can easily use this relationship enhancement tool to make your Taurus crush have a burning desire for you and only you.

Listen to this short recording in which James explains more about a Taurus man’s secret obsession. His Secret Obsession.

James also tells you how you can make him want you even if you have broken up and you think he has lost interest in you.

I hope this article has opened your mind to the simple steps you need to take in getting Taurus man compatibility.

If you put into practice what relationship expert James suggests, I am sure you will discover the secret of keeping your Taurus crush obsessed with you.

There are many more articles on relationship situations with a Taurus guy on my website http://taurusmen.net. Why not bookmark my site for future reference? I wish you well.

My joy is in giving

Charlene

#distant #Taurus man compatibility #Truth about taurus man

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cpatonki · 2 years ago

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Subliminal music

SUBLIMINAL MUSIC FULL

SUBLIMINAL MUSIC SOFTWARE

SUBLIMINAL MUSIC SERIES

On an Experiment done by Radboud University's Department of Social Psychology (Netherlands), subjects where exposed to subliminal messages of a specific brand of beverage (Lipton Ice Tea) for 1/45 of a second during a series of tests on a computer. you name it!ĭo you want to stop smoking? Do you want to learn faster? or maybe always be motivated with an excellent mood every day! You can do it today, fast and easy and I'll show you how. What if I told you there is a simple and automatic way to open your mind, let it learn, let it bond to your body and improve your performance, on virtually anything you try, call it business, social life, health, sports, learning.

SUBLIMINAL MUSIC FULL

and YES you are right! Let me tell you it's true! Our own brain is limiting us to achieve the full extent of our capabilities! Sometimes it seems that our own mind works against us. I'm sure many times you wondered how do successful people get their motivation, confidence, personality and skills to accomplish almost anything they intend to do. Have you ever thought "I would like to achieve my goal, but it's just too hard!". Have you ever wondered "How can I be successful at all the things I do?". If you are like me you are always striving to achieve the best things in life. Reprogram Your Mind Fast NOWĭisclosure: The links on this page may be affiliate links and may give us a commission to run the site with no extra cost to you.Used in more than 120 countries Put your music in the background and take control of your thoughts and actions with the proper training. In order to influence your brain in a positive way, you must deliver the right messages in an unnoticeable and repetitive way.ĭo you want to stop smoking? Do you want to learn faster? Do you want to get better at sports? Do you want to improve your social skills? Do you want to be successful? Do you want to be happy? There have been research done that shows the brain registers subliminal messages even if a person is unaware they have seen them. Why? Because the subconscious mind accepts commands easily. Subliminal messages have been used by governments and companies to influence individuals for decades. In order to change your mindset and get the fast result you want, you must target your subconscious mind by sending the right subliminal messages and using the music to enhance the messages. You can change your life just by training your mind on the subconscious level with positive affirmations and subliminal music. When these affirmations are repeated over and over again, they begin to take charge of your thoughts, slowly changing your pattern of thinking and ultimately changes your behavior and actions. Positive affirmations are very powerful because they release you from negativity, fear, worry, and anxiety. It’s important to understand positive affirmations along with the positive effects of subliminal music to reprogram your subconscious mind fast and accomplish your goal.Īffirmations are statements that can help you to challenge and overcome self-sabotaging and negative thoughts. Click HERE to Use Subliminal Music to Program Your Mind You can save and listen to the music anywhere, on your phone, home or car stereo and really focus on your goal. There’s also a cool feature that will translate your affirmations from Text to Speech and deliver them through a subliminal frequency sound wave. You can use MindZoom to get text or audio affirmations (you can record your own affirmations or use pre-recorded ones) and mix them with music that’s perfect for subliminal messages or your own favorite music files.

SUBLIMINAL MUSIC SOFTWARE

If you want to experience the full power of subliminal music, then try using a good subliminal software like MindZoom. Subliminal music can work and have an effect on a subconscious level if you are truly serious about your goal. When you combine that with subliminal messages, then it can be pretty effective in achieving a goal. Music has been shown to raise someone’s mood, get them excited, or make them calm and relaxed.

#Subliminal music

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successsingle457 · 3 years ago

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On Time Dating Service

Why online dating is good. It’s interesting how, with certain patterns, you can make a great online dating profile.I spoke with Whitney Perry, the founder of the Single Online Dating Guide, who shared a great analogy.If you are wearing a dress that has zippers up the side, you can show what the dress looks like in a different way to different people by zipping it up a bit. When I first started Dating, it was fun to feel desired, to be the subject of someone's desire. I remember the first time I went on it, going to a bar and meeting a few couples; I remember the excitement that I felt as the man was waiting for his date to meet me at a busy train station at 6pm and be worried that she hadn't got on or wouldn't be. Login to OurTime.com. Discover how online dating sites make finding singles in the United States, Canada, and all over the world simple, safe and fun! Once you browse profiles and pictures start flirting, messaging and connecting with other members of the OurTime.com community. Email: Same as the system you use at home or in the office, your online dating account provides you with the ability to write directly, privately and securely with other individuals within the community. Instant Messages: Allows real time communication through text messages in a one-on-one environment. A perfect opportunity for quick exchanges.

Average Time Dating Before Marriage

To prevent interruption in communication with other members, all memberships paid by credit card automatically renew until cancelled. This also protects you from future price increases, and service fees on new purchases.

When you cancel, your account will remain active with full member benefits until your current subscription expires. Follow these steps to cancel your account at any time:

Click your Settings in the upper-right corner.

Click My Account from the drop-down menu.

Locate Account Status, and then click the View Account Status link.

Click the More Account Status Changes link.

Click Remove Automatic Renewal. Upon downgrading your account, your credit card will no longer be charged for future membership.

Our Time Dating Sites

Need more help? If you're choosing to cancel for any reason other than having met someone, let us help. Feel free to call us at 833-223-8873, 7:00am - 7:00pm CT, Monday - Saturday or take at look at our most common questions:

According to the latest headlines, boomers are hitting dating sites in record numbers looking for love. I didn't need a newspaper article to figure this out because my 62 year old father is living proof of the trend.

Time Dating Site

While my Dad is quite adept at checking his stocks or uncovering research about his latest ailment, he seems to have a mental block when it comes to online dating. He can't quite ever remember how to locate his favorite matchmaking site, add changes to his personal profile or make adjustments to his preference settings. And when instant messages from saucy fifty plus women pop up on his screen, Dad is convinced he is being set up in some kind of law enforcement scheme.

This is where my Internet skills and years of being single come into the picture. You see I have become a personal help desk to support to my Dad and all his cronies in their quest for love online.

When the volume of calls became too overwhelming, I put together this manual to help individuals avoid and troubleshoot some of the technical challenges they face when they venture into online dating sites. So it is without further ado, and here's to hoping there tips help you and the sons and daughters of single boomers everywhere!

On Time Dating Service Review

Save Your Favorites: If you have a hard time remembering the name of a site or cannot figure out how to type a url into the address bar of your search browser, simply bookmark the page so it's not forgotten. To do this just right click on your mouse each time you are visiting a website you want to return to and follow the prompt that lets you store it into your 'favorites' folder. Accessing your favorite matchmaking site then becomes easy – all you have to do it find and click on it in your 'favorites' folder.

Save Your Work: Filling out that personal profile sure takes a lot of time and effort, plus there is always the chance that your information will get misplaced. To avoid re-work and mitigate all other risks, try saving your personal essays in a separate word document onto your computer. Now instead of re-typing your information into every essay form, you can just copy and paste it!

Pictures: A picture paints a thousand words, so it's important that yours be included in your profile. If uploading images is a hassle that is too hard too handle, don't fret. Just have a photo savvy friend or relative take the shots and have them sent to you via email. Next, download those images into a single easy to find location on your computer, making sure to give them friendly titles, so that they are easily identified and retrievable.

Understand the Different Functions: While every dating site is different, most share some basic features. Here is a description of some of the functions you will come across and how you can best use them:

Chat rooms: A virtual meeting room where multiple users come together and communicate by sending up to the instant text messages. It's like going to a social gathering and a great way to connect with groups of people in real time.

Message boards: Similar to chat rooms, the only difference is that the information is not in real time. Message boards offer a great way to post and answer questions, and find general and specific information about people within the community.

Email: Same as the system you use at home or in the office, your online dating account provides you with the ability to write directly, privately and securely with other individuals within the community.

Instant Messages: Allows real time communication through text messages in a one-on-one environment. A perfect opportunity for quick exchanges when you are getting to know someone new or want to communicate with them directly without any time delays.

Flirts: An alert message that is sent to a person which notifies them that someone is interested. Flirts are ideal if you want to reach out to someone but are at a loss for words!

On Time Dating Service Free

By B. Katz of SingleEdition.com for OurTime.com

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expatimes · 4 years ago

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Robots rising: Firms debut fuzzy pets, household helpers at CES

Exhausted from the isolation, extra chores and sleepless nights of the coronavirus pandemic? Get a robot to help.

Firms debuted artificial intelligence-enabled gadgets aimed at making staying home during the COVID-19 crisis easier, safer and less frustrating at this year’s first fully virtual Consumer Electronics Show.

Plenty of people adopted pets during the pandemic to ease their isolation. In fact, so many animals were adopted from shelters that a shortage developed in some places. But if you missed out on adopting a real pet for snuggles, not to worry.

Japanese firm Vanguard Industries is offering a furry robot named MOFLIN that coos affectionately, nuzzles your hand and clearly likes to be petted.

Looking a lot like a tribble from the TV show Star Trek, the fuzzy love bug has sensors and an algorithm that enable it to learn from its surroundings and human interactions.

AI enables the MOFLIN robot to develop its own unique personality as you interact with it

Over time, the MOFLIN develops its own unique personality to make it even more like a real pet. The furry robot, which took home the CES award for best innovation in robotics, will be available this spring. No word yet on what it costs — but at least it’s housebroken.

High-tech baby cot Cradlewise aims to help parents through those initial sleepless nights by using AI to learn an infant’s waking patterns and then rocking him or her back to sleep.

Cradlewise uses a regular RGB (red, green and blue) camera as well as a 3D camera to detect motion and an array of microphones to detect sound, including a baby’s cries. The microphones are arranged to cancel out background noise, so a crying baby on Netflix won’t confuse its system.

The sensors and AI software can then determine when the baby is close to waking up. At that point, if it’s still time to sleep, the crib moves gently up and down while it plays soothing music to keep the baby in dreamland while alerting parents via their smartphones that precious nap time is almost up.

Sensors enable Cradlewise to start soothing your baby back to sleep at just the right time

Cradlewise is the brainchild of company founder and CEO Radhika Patil, developed after she and her husband struggled to find a sleep solution for their own baby.

“She was an extremely light sleeper,” Patil told Al Jazeera of her daughter.

So far, the smart cradle is only available in California’s San Francisco Bay area, where Patil said it is saving parents more than two hours of extra sleep per day. But if you want a robot to rock your baby, it will cost you — Cradlewise will be available online for a cool $1,499 beginning in March 2021.

Helping out around the house

If you want a robot that’s a bit more mobile, there’s Scout — a sleek, high-tech contraption that can fit into the palm of your hand and zip around your house on highly ribbed wheels. Scout has sensors that enable it to avoid obstacles and scoot sideways around objects if needed.

It’s also happy to do guard dog duty. Scout has a camera behind its front panel, and AI enables it to determine whether it’s seeing a human or animal. Scout can send a 13-second message to a mobile phone instantly via the cloud and internally record up to two hours of activity.

But for privacy reasons, there is no facial recognition software on Scout and the surveillance function can be turned off, said Jun Ye, cofounder of Pilot Laboratories in San Diego, which worked with subsidiary Moorebot on Scout.

Ye also emphasises that Scout is about more than surveillance.

“This robot is actually pretty fun,” Ye told Al Jazeera. “It supports something called scratch — scratch language programming.”

Scratch is a graphical programming language that kids can use to teach the robot to do more things, Ye explained. Moreover, Scout comes with a port on top so people can customise it — by attaching a 3D-printed robotic arm, for example.

Pets and kids are fun, of course, but also messy. If you want a robot to help you around the house, Samsung is working on Bot Handy — a creation that will be able to load the dishwasher, pick up after the kids and pour you a refreshing beverage at the end of the day.

Bot Handy has an extension arm with a gripper and can stretch its height to reach shelves. Its AI capability enables it to recognise the shape and material of the object it grabs, so it will pick up a glass with just the right amount of pressure.

The Bot Handy home-help robot, on the right, is in development by Samsung

“Bot Handy can move around and do things like set the table or put away groceries,” explained Samsung Research head Sebastian Seung in a video at this year’s CES.

Unfortunately, for those hoping for help now with the dishes, Bot Handy is still in development.

But if Bot Handy isn’t available yet to pour you a glass of Pinot Grigio at the end of a long Zoom call, you could always brew your own beer.

INTHEKEG — which is being developed by a South Korean company of the same name — is about the size of a dishwasher and can make up to four varieties of beer per week.

The device uses prepackaged ingredients but lets users develop their own flavour of craft beer, the company said in an email. The firm is also working on expanding the types of beverages the machine can produce to perhaps include kombucha, wine and sake.

Of course, a big part of craft beer brewing is bragging about it. But if you’re having trouble texting after a few refreshing beverages, then you might want to download a new keyboard to your phone that has 70 percent more space per key.

Conventional keyboards come from the age of the typewriter and, as they were squeezed down to fit mobile phones, the keys became especially narrow — a problem for typing with our round fingertips, according to David Eberle, CEO and cofounder of the Swiss firm Typewise.

“Most of the mistakes are made in the horizontal dimension — so on the left or the right of a specific key,” Eberle told Al Jazeera.

Typewise uses hexagons instead, allowing it to increase the key size by 70 percent — so your thumbs are less likely to make mistakes.

“By having larger key sizes, obviously, you’re more likely to hit the actual key that you intended to hit,” Eberle explained.

The app also has privacy perks: Typewise’s advance autocorrect is entirely contained within a user’s device itself, so no data is being sent to a server in the cloud.

“Nothing that the user types ever leaves his device on a keyboard level,” Eberle added.

The newest iteration of Typewise, which will have a no-cost version, will be available for download in February.

#technology Read full article: https://expatimes.com/?p=16833&feed_id=28733 #asiapacific #businessandeconomy #coronaviruspandemic #economy #japan #news #scienceandtechnology #southkorea #unitedstates #usampcanada

#AsiaPacific #BusinessandEconomy #Coronaviruspandemic #Economy #Japan #News #ScienceandTechnology #SouthKorea #UnitedStates #USampCanada

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holytheoristtastemaker · 5 years ago

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A (mild) defense of Zoom Inc.'s troubles Let me start by quoting Citizenlab's report: For those using Zoom to keep in touch with friends, hold social events, or organize courses or lectures that they might otherwise hold in a public or semi-public venue, our findings should not necessarily be concerning. For those who have no choice but to use Zoom, including in contexts where secrets may be shared, we speculate that the browser plugin may have some marginally better security properties, as data transmission occurs over TLS. Unfortunately a few hours later, on the same day, the web client was put under maintenance and thus disabled for the time being, hopefully not for long. update: the web client has been restored, multiple sources confirmed. Please enable join from your browser as a default setting. Zoom probably didn't anticipate going from 0 to 100 (actually + 1126% of increased usage according to some estimates) in the span of a few weeks and the fact that their network hasn't melted down and rendered all calls impossible to make is a testament to the quality of the underlying technology. As we all can imagine there are challenges in scaling that big that fast, but most of the problems that have been identified up until now don't really have much to do with scalability or reliability per se, but with questionable software design choices and bad privacy or marketing decisions made by the company. To be fair, sometimes shortcuts seem a great idea when you're in the heat of the moment and have a booming product, but the more people use it, the higher the likelihood that these shortcuts will come back to haunt it. Also, Zoom devs are humans and like all humans, sometimes they just make bad decisions without malice. What worries me is how the company management, also entirely human AFAIK 😃, decided to handle the response, more on that later. Last but not least: the media piled up on them quite extensively and some security flaws (except maybe "zoombombing") aren't an inherent problem for those meetings that would otherwise be held in public if we weren't quarantined even though the extent of the problem with user generated content is that its severity differs case by case and here there would be millions of cases (each Zoom call) to analyze. Zoom is used by everyone: individuals, institutions, therapists, teachers, doctors, religious and secular organizations, goverment officials and even heads of state. Zoom, as of April 1st 2020, halted all feature development and vowed to fix privacy and security issues over the following 90 days. What went wrong is also a cautionary tale about the importance of implementing secure practices and caring about users privacy from day one because at the scale they are now it's quite understandable they are trying to put out fires left and right. What is or was wrong it with TLDR; Zoom has numerous known security holes. Some of those have since been fixed, some haven't. The company also made (and in some cases, still makes) questionable decisions related to privacy. (I'm going to use the past tense where I reasonably verified the issue has been fixed) Zoom has a security issue in its "waiting room" feature. The issue is currently unknown as the security researchers correctly disclosed it only to Zoom Inc. granting them time to get it fixed lest it gets in the hands of malicious actors. Security researchers are advising people to use passwords and not the waiting room feature. Recordings are easily findable on the web: Zoom saves recordings with a guessable name pattern, thus it's quite trivial to find them if they are uploaded to the open web. Search engines are literally built to find public data on the web. Again, "security through obscurity" is not a good practice if the content is sensible, and it was: the Washington Post was able to watch other people's therapy sessions and elementary school online classes by scanning the web (!!!!!). The ID of a meeting room is numeric, which means that people can guess it (manually or with scripts) and thus, being openness the default, people can hijack meetings, thus "zoombombing". The meeting ID has 9 to 11 digits, not even "obscured". Security researchers did actually find meetings and with scripts had up to 14% of a success rate guessing correct meetings URLs. Recurring Zoom meetings links can be found: they also contain info of the meeting organizer and whatever info the organizers disclosed as topic or description. Security researchers found meetings of large banks, government contractors and other companies. Screensharing by any participant is on by default, which means that people can stream whatever they want without oversight. Very handy for private and regulated meetings, not great if meetings rooms are open by default. File transfer is on by default: don't think this needs explaining in an app where a meeting is public. You can literally send to dozens or hundreds of people malware hoping at least one of them will click on it. The app has too many settings: I went through the configuration panel on both the app and the web version (before it was disabled) and I didn't understand half of the options and got bored after a few minutes (minutes!!!). As we all know as creators of sofware the default matters (most users don't even look at apps settings), and by default you should respect the user's privacy and be secure, otherwise hell can break loose when enough people come knocking with the receipts. The company lied about being end to end encrypted, that's it. They said they use end to end encryption (e2e) but they don't. They also own decryption keys for what is encrypted on the wire, which is definitely not *end to end encryption. *FYI: true end to end encryption means that only the participants in a communication exchange can actually see the data in the clear. Not the company providing the service, not any goverment, not anyone except who's invited. Zoom uses weakish encryption: even though the service is not e2e encrypted, calls don't travel in the clear on the transport network. They are encrypted using a central encrypting server which holds the keys. The issue is that they use a single AES 128 bit key in ECB mode which is definitely deprecated and has security holes. Security researchers were able to decrypt video and audio frames from "encrypted" calls. Zoom encryption and security protocols are not independently audited, which means that they most certainly contain flaws. We all know how hard is to pull off encryption done correctly, I can't imagine how hard it is to do it with video, audio, text and generic media. "Roll your own encryption" is 99.99% of the time a bad idea, it's monumentally bad in this instance. As Bruce Scheiner wrote: I'm okay with AES-128, but using ECB (electronic codebook) mode indicates that there is no one at the company who knows anything about cryptography. Zoom encryption keys are occasionally on servers under the jurisdiction of the Chinese goverment: under Chinese law the goverment of China can require companies to disclose their encryption keys and tools for oversight. This has happened also if all participants were outside the country. Likely a data routing problem (Zoom tries to keep calls local to the participants) but not reassuring nonetheless. Also makes me thing of sci fi scenario in which governments or attackers decrypt all of these calls and use facial recognition to create mass surveillance tools. 👀 The company sent data to Facebook unbeknownst to users: this is probably quite common in apps that embed the Facebook SDK without tweaking it (and it only applied to the iOS app which might mean it was truly unintentional), but it's not great anyway. Facebook already knows a lot about users (both those using it and those who don't). It has been fixed since discovery. Zoom's privacy policy was all encompassing. Basically it stated that all personal data (including recordings, chats and uploaded files) could be shared with third parties. It has been since amended. Zoom allowed hosts to monitor participant's attention. This is 1984-the-book kind of stuff 😱. It was removed since discovery, on April 1st. The app bypassed the usual installation process. This was probably done to be friendler to the user in the very common scenario in which a user gets a link, doesn't have the app on their computer and wants to be in the videocall as fast as possible. It's exactly what malware does. It has been fixed since the discovery. Zoom shares your contact info to everyone within certain email domains. What happened was that thousands of users whose emails belonged to a Dutch email provider where pooled together and their personal info shared with each other. The app let Windows users click on anything resembling a link. Basically you could automatically open a file on a shared drive sending your network credentials to an attacker. It has been fixed. Zoom sent your contact data to Linkedin. In some situations, if they could match you to a Linkedin Profile somehow, they did, without telling you and sharing your Linkedin data to other people. This feature has since been removed on April 1st. 0 day vulnerabilities leading to hardware take over were discovered. The likelihood of those happening was very low (the vulnerability window span the length of the installation process and just that). Fixed as well on April 1st. Records of private messages with the host are available in the export. This is not a huge problem in theory as the export doesn't contain private messages between other participants than those with the host. Zoom tracks lots of data about its users and has many third party trackers on its website. This to me feels like a very intentional choice. Part of those were amended when the new privacy policy was published the other day. What has happened in the "aftermath" So far: Privacy and advocacy groups started to notice Class actions are starting to mount The US government and the FBI have started to notice 👀 NASA, SpaceX and other companies moved away from Zoom New York City has banned Zoom from its schools Conclusions I'm sure you've noticed how this article doesn't talk at all about alternatives. The question of alternatives really depends on what the users requirements are and if the entire globe is your users, then it's hard to evaluate on the spot. It also takes a lot of time to evaluate all options and I think it'll take a few days before deeply researched articles about pros and cons of the alternatives start to appear. You also need a group of people distributed all over the world for thorough testing of each app. Let's also not forget that we mostly felt okay with Zoom until tens of millions of people started using it overnight and it got on experts's radars. Alternatives might be just as flawed, simply less popular right now. Trust in the company is important so I do understand why regular people are rushing to find alternatives. I'm also not a tech columnist nor a security expert, so I can't claim "X is better than Zoom for everything and for everyone". I'll see if I can find a reasonably well done comparison of alternatives in the next few days with what I think should be generic requirements: great video and audio call performance, secure by default with indipendently reviewed encryption and protocols, and absolutely no adtech on all of this sensible data (which wouldn't be possible anyway if they had e2e, though technically you can still sell metadata about users...). Echoing other people's sentiments I read online: Apple is sitting on a gold mine if they open Facetime, get it audited and make sure their e2e encryption has no "backdoors". I'm leaving last a long list of links, with some excerpts, which is what I've read to write this summary. Media (and other sources) coverage (in chronological order) Although there are past issues (like the "open web server" debacle from 2019), I've focused only on recent media coverage from March-April 2020. 20200317 - (Techcrunch) - Beware of ‘ZoomBombing’: screensharing filth to video calls 20200326 - (Motherboard, Vice) - Zoom iOS App Sends Data to Facebook Even if You Don’t Have a Facebook Account 20200330 - (Doc Searls, digital privacy expert) - Zoom’s new privacy policy: There will be no need for Zoom to disambiguate services and websites if neither is involved with adtech at all. And Zoom will be in a much better position to trumpet their commitment to privacy. That said, this privacy policy rewrite is a big help. So thank you, Zoom, for listening. 20200331 - (Motherboard, Vice) - Zoom Faces Class Action Lawsuit for Sharing Data with Facebook 20200401 - (Motherboard, Vice) - Zoom is Leaking Peoples' Email Addresses and Photos to Strangers: "I was shocked by this! I subscribed (with an alias, fortunately) and I saw 995 people unknown to me with their names, images and mail addresses." "I just had a look at the free for private use version of Zoom and registered with my private email. I now got 1000 names, email addresses and even pictures of people in the company Directory. Is this intentional?" 20200401 - (webrtcH4cKS, WebRTC technologists) - Does your video call have End-to-End Encryption? Probably not...: So yes, Zoom does not have end-to-end encryption. Quite often, WebRTC doesn’t either – not yet at least. If you are using a WebRTC service check their terms of service and privacy policy and make sure that you understand what they are saying about this. Hopefully we will see this change soon as WebRTC Insertable Streams matures. 20200402 - (Fight for the future, digital rights group) - New campaign calls for Zoom to (actually) implement end to end encryption to keep people safe: Digital rights group Fight for the Future, known for organizing massive online protests for net neutrality and Internet privacy, has launched a new campaign calling for video conferencing service Zoom to implement default end-to-end encryption on all video, audio, and chat content. 20200402 - (Steven Bellovin, security researcher and professor) - Zoom Security: The Good, the Bad, and the Business Model: There is, though, a class of problems that worries me: security shortcuts in the name of convenience or usability. Consider the first widely known flaw in Zoom: a design decision that allowed “any website to forcibly join a user to a Zoom call, with their video camera activated, without the user's permission.” Why did it work that way? It was intended as a feature I'm optimistic that things are heading in the right direction. Still, it's the shortcuts that worry me the most. Those aren't just problems that they can fix, they make me fear for the attitudes of the development team towards security. I'm not convinced that they get it—and that's bad. Fixing that is going to require a CISO office with real power, as well as enough education to make sure that the CISO doesn't have to exercise that power very often. They also need a privacy officer, again with real power; many of their older design decisions seriously impact privacy. 20200402 - (Krebs on Security, security expert) - ‘War Dialing’ Tool Exposes Zoom’s Password Problems: according to data gathered by a new automated Zoom meeting discovery tool dubbed “zWarDial,” a crazy number of meetings at major corporations are not being protected by a password. Lo said zWarDial evades Zoom’s attempts to block automated meeting scans by routing the searches through multiple proxies in Tor, a free and open-source software that lets users browse the Web anonymously. “Having a password enabled on the meeting is the only thing that defeats it,” he said. Lo shared the output of one day’s worth of zWarDial scanning, which revealed information about nearly 2,400 upcoming or recurring Zoom meetings. That information included the link needed to join each meeting; the date and time of the meeting; the name of the meeting organizer; and any information supplied by the meeting organizer about the topic of the meeting. 20200402 - (Reuters) - Elon Musk's SpaceX bans Zoom over privacy concerns -memo: In an email dated March 28, SpaceX told employees that all access to Zoom had been disabled with immediate effect. 20200403 - (NYTimes) - ‘Zoombombing’ Becomes a Dangerous Organized Effort: Zoom raiders often employ shocking imagery, racial epithets and profanity to derail video conferences. Harassers have begun to leverage every feature of Zoom’s platform for abuse. They have used the app’s custom background feature to project a GIF of a person drinking to participants in an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, and its annotation feature to write racist messages in a meeting of the American Jewish Committee in Paris. The frequency and reach of the incidents on Zoom prompted the F.B.I. to issue a warning on Tuesday, singling out the app 20200403 - (TidBITS) - Every Zoom Security and Privacy Flaw So Far, and What You Can Do to Protect Yourself: As detailed as this article is, I fear that this list of problems and choices will be far from the last we hear about Zoom’s security and privacy troubles. In fact, while writing and editing this article over the last 48 hours, we had to add six additional exploits, design-choice errors, and privacy concerns. Zoom has gone into what’s known as “technical debt.” The company’s developers made a lot of poor decisions in the past, which are likely difficult and costly to fix. The longer it takes Zoom to address the core problems, the harder and more costly future fixes will be, as additional code is built upon that weak foundation. 20200403 - (Washington Post) - Thousands of Zoom video calls left exposed on open Web: Videos viewed by The Washington Post included one-on-one therapy sessions; a training orientation for workers doing telehealth calls that included people’s names and phone numbers; small-business meetings that included private company financial statements; and elementary school classes, in which children’s faces, voices and personal details were exposed. 20200403 - (Citizenlab) - Move Fast & Roll Your Own Crypto: A Quick Look at the Confidentiality of Zoom Meetings: Until a few weeks ago, it would have been uncommon for high stakes business negotiations, high level diplomacy, political strategy conferences, and cabinet meetings to be conducted over platforms whose security properties are unknown. Zoom has not publicly disclosed information such as statistics of requests for data by governments, and what Zoom has done in response to these requests. Zoom’s policies concerning notifications to users over breaches or the handing-over of data to governments are also unknown During our analysis, we also identified a security issue with Zoom’s Waiting Room feature. Assessing that the issue presented a risk to users, we have initiated a responsible vulnerability disclosure process with Zoom. We are not currently providing public information about the issue to prevent it from being abused. As a result of these troubling security issues, we discourage the use of Zoom at this time for use cases that require strong privacy and confidentiality For those who have no choice but to use Zoom, including in contexts where secrets may be shared, we speculate that the browser plugin may have some marginally better security properties, as data transmission occurs over TLS. In the meantime, we advise Zoom users who desire confidentiality to not use Zoom Waiting Rooms. Instead, we encourage users to use Zoom’s password feature, which appears to offer a higher level of confidentiality than waiting rooms 20200403 - (Politico) - Multiple state AGs looking into Zoom’s privacy practices 20200403 - (Bruce Scheiner, legendary security researcher) - Security and Privacy Implications of Zoom: Privacy first: Zoom spies on its users for personal profit. It seems to have cleaned this up somewhat since everyone started paying attention, but it still does it. I'm sure lots more of these bad security decisions, sloppy coding mistakes, and random software vulnerabilities are coming. But it gets worse. Zoom's encryption is awful. First, the company claims that it offers end-to-end encryption, but it doesn't. It only provides link encryption, which means everything is unencrypted on the company's servers. 20200404 - (Steven Bellovin, security researcher and professor) - Zoom Cryptography and Authentication Problems: When companies roll their own crypto, I expect it to have flaws. I don't expect those flaws to be errors I'd find unacceptable in an introductory undergraduate class, but that's what happened here. 20200404 - (Chalkbeat, organization related to American schools) - NYC forbids schools from using Zoom for remote learning due to privacy and security concerns: Instead, the guidance says, schools should switch to Microsoft Teams “as soon as possible,” which the education department suggests has similar functionality and is more secure. 20200404 - (Techcrunch) - Zoom admits some calls were routed through China by mistake: Zoom said in February that “rapidly added capacity” to its Chinese regions to handle demand was also put on an international whitelist of backup data centers, which meant non-Chinese users were in some cases connected to Chinese servers when data centers in other regions were unavailable

http://damianfallon.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-semi-technical-explainer-of-all-known.html

#SEO #Local SEO training

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unixcommerce · 5 years ago

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How to Use Voice Assistants For Your Business

With the advent of technology, more business processes are getting automated, easily streamlined and getting efficient. Key to these rapid changes is artificial intelligence or machine learning where bots in programs now allows us to delegate manually redundant tasks to machines. Not only these but machines can now process complicated data and make intuitive projections and forecasts. Voice assistants are becoming commonplace in business environments. Voice enabled assistants can help set appointments, read books, make reminders and much more.

This technology uses voice queries and a natural-language user interface to answer questions, make recommendations, and perform actions by delegating requests to a set of Internet services. Depending on what your business is or your devices, voice assistant trends indicate there is a solution for you.

Growth of Voice Assistants

As far as favorites go Apple’s Siri seems to be the most used voice assistant in the market accounting for 48% of all Voice assistant users. Google Assistant (29%) and Amazon’s Alexa (10%) follow as the favorite voice assistants in today’s market.

Spurned by the relative ease to communicate using voice, voice assistants are making the experience of making the simple task of querying more personal. In fact, 84% of users use voice assistants to make queries. This is followed by taking traffic directions or reports (71%) and calling someone. In terms of business 56% use voice assistant to find places to eat while 42% use it to research a product before buying it.

A monthly breakdown of voice assistants by user all shows seeking answers to general questions is ranked at the topmost use of voice assistants. This is followed by traffic directions (47%) and calling (44%).

Like any machine learning process, voice assistants become better the more you use them. Through recording your voice trends and learning from their mistakes, they can create intuitive predictions based on the patterns of requests they get. Even though there are improvements consumers still feel voice assistants can do better, with 44% wanting to see better speech recognition. Others would like to see improvement in natural language understanding and search accuracy.

Voice assistants are intuitive. They do this by understanding human speech and responding in a way that makes users feel like they’re having a conversation with another person.

Benefits of Voice Assistants

Voice assistants are Artificial Intelligence based digital tools that listen for commands, interpret them, and take action. Their applications in the workplace can provide businesses with various ways to improve efficiency and productivity.

In an exclusive interview with Piyush Goel, CEO of BeyondKey, Small Business Trends asked, “How are businesses using voice and how is it helping them?”

Goel says, “The answer varies widely based on companies’ specific needs. Some companies integrate voice assistants like Alexa and Google Home answering capabilities with business data to trigger core business activities; while other businesses find value in using voice to initiate a call, email, or text faster than it would take to type.”

Adding, “Every business will have specific needs for using voice technology. Our job is to integrate those needs to help them achieve their objectives.”

Internal Productivity

Voice assistants like Cortana and Siri can be very helpful in analyzing data. Businesses can use voice assistants for task tracking, as well as time management. You can use voice commands to build analytical queries over large data stores helping you to easily crunch data thus saving you valuable time.

For example, Siri can help you analyze data by using voice commands. You can help build analytical queries over large data trove, dividing data by date ranges or functions by simply using your voice. Voice assistants also help you not only interpret the data but also provide visualization as well.

“One way we use Voice AI specifically at Beyond Key is through automatically recorded Zoom meetings. These recordings are then transcribed, speakers identified, minutes tagged, and keywords flagged. The entire transcription becomes searchable, so you can find any action items”, added Goel on the tasks voice assistants are already making.

Advanced voice assistants are also changing the way we do business. They can now help employees use voice commands to make service requests. They are then transformed into service tickets that are addressed by support staff. This helps expedites the processing of requests and putting job orders in the system with little effort. It can be handy for businesses working in food and beverages, supplies, cleaning or maintenance.

Customer Service

Voice assistants are now a viable tool for supporting customer service. They can help optimize your customer experience by responding to queries, following up on orders or processing payments. This is especially useful for small businesses with few employees.

Another benefit of using a voice assistant is they don’t need to take breaks. This means you can make your business available 24/7 to answer customer queries, set appointments and other tasks specific to your business.

Beyond helping your customers, a voice assistant can also be your personal assistant. Don’t have a secretary, don’t worry you can program your assistant to answer calls, make appointments, take messages and more.

Marketing to Reach New Customers

Voice searches often lead to more calls to follow through on queries. These calls to businesses can convert to ten or fifteen times more revenues than web leads. Call converts also afford speed in the processing stages with calls converting 30% faster than web leads. Compared to web leads call retention rates are 28% higher as well.

By 2023 voice commerce is projected to grow to $80 billion, which is up by $78 billion from 2018’s $2 billion. This is due to the growing demand and interest in voice deals and sales and promotion (52%) and the proliferation of smart speaker purchases (11.5%).

Amazon’s Alexa and OK Google provide interaction with additional third-party content and services. Such as help in ordering takeout food, request an Uber ride or even play a song from a streaming service.

How Do You Take advantage of Google, Alexa, Siri?

“Voice technology is disrupting businesses because of their ability to help companies accomplish more. For example, e-commerce companies receive more voice orders, bloggers are dictating more content, and languages are easier than ever to translate”, said Goel.

Voice assistants can also be your very own personal assistant. They can help you manage your calendar, place phone calls, send follow up messages, and automate other tasks. These not only help boost productivity but also frees you to commit to high-level tasks that require your attention.

How to Use Voice Assistants?

In the coming years voice assistants will continue to bring enterprise solutions tackling a myriad of problems. The latest voice assistant trends show they can handle your social media profiles, create interactive experiences, boost search statistics, and more.

“Basic IT support will move from IT experts to voice assistants. Companies will save time that humans spend on small items like when an employee forgets to plug in a device or doesn’t know how to print”, said Goel.

HR Support

Voice assistance is great for planning. With them, your HR operations will see more ease in doing business as they can help you check on vacation policies, track attendance, and order supplies.

With voice assistants HR departments no longer need to take all phone calls from job-seekers and manually create profiles of candidates. Voice assistants can now help fill in the necessary information with ease. They allow you to easily juggle multiple tasks and provide quick answers to common problems. Depending on your particular needs, voice assistants can provide your business with personalized solutions.

Streamlining Operations

Another business benefit is voice assistants can help streamline operations. They achieve this by using AI and deep learning to access reports, analyzing data and keeping crucial systems updated.

This helps in integrating your operations thus avoiding the headaches of trying to integrate across platforms.

Planning and Communicating

Voice assistants can take on the responsibility of remembering important dates, deadlines, and scheduling. These will help you in your planning and execution of tasks. With voice assistants taking care of the mundane tasks of reminding and tracking projects you drive innovation and decrease your costs.

The key to any success in business besides have a great product or service lies in your competitive edge. Incorporating technology into your operation will help you improve your process, cut costs, save time and get a leg up against the competition.

Voice assistants are easy to incorporate into your business process irrespective of the size and type of business. There are multiple solutions to any business problem. Like any tool, you will need to understand the needs of your organization. This includes how to incorporate it and how to seamlessly integrate it into your organization.

Improving your knowledge of trends may help a business understand the potential of new technology to help it in executing its strategies and identify opportunities.

Image: BeyondKey.com

This article, “How to Use Voice Assistants For Your Business” was first published on Small Business Trends

https://smallbiztrends.com/

The post How to Use Voice Assistants For Your Business appeared first on Unix Commerce.

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businessreviewguidenow · 5 years ago

Text

How to Use Voice Assistants For Your Business

Growth of Voice Assistants

Voice assistants are intuitive. They do this by understanding human speech and responding in a way that makes users feel like they’re having a conversation with another person.

Benefits of Voice Assistants

In an exclusive interview with Piyush Goel, CEO of BeyondKey, Small Business Trends asked, “How are businesses using voice and how is it helping them?”

Adding, “Every business will have specific needs for using voice technology. Our job is to integrate those needs to help them achieve their objectives.”

Internal Productivity

Customer Service

Marketing to Reach New Customers

How Do You Take advantage of Google, Alexa, Siri?

How to Use Voice Assistants?

HR Support

Voice assistance is great for planning. With them, your HR operations will see more ease in doing business as they can help you check on vacation policies, track attendance, and order supplies.

Streamlining Operations

Another business benefit is voice assistants can help streamline operations. They achieve this by using AI and deep learning to access reports, analyzing data and keeping crucial systems updated.

This helps in integrating your operations thus avoiding the headaches of trying to integrate across platforms.

Planning and Communicating

Improving your knowledge of trends may help a business understand the potential of new technology to help it in executing its strategies and identify opportunities.

Image: BeyondKey.com

This article, “How to Use Voice Assistants For Your Business” was first published on Small Business Trends

source https://smallbiztrends.com/2020/03/voice-assistant-trends.html

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#shoplocal #businessreview

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thecoroutfitters · 6 years ago

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Seeking out How one can Do Guide Survey

It’s just way too straight forward to your article content zero in to be forfeited. The initial phrase must be a quick reaction to the problem that’s introduced or what you’re planning to dispute. You will find topics you possibly will not be comfortable with.

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Applying Simple tips to Do E-book Survey

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Opting for How to Do Guide Claim Is Easy

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The Controversy About The way you can Do Reserve Article

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pets60trowel-blog · 6 years ago

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Can be your Articles Method Heading within the Suitable Direction? Some-Actions to be certain It Will.

Let?s imagine your Marketing Company Miami group survived an aircraft collision additionally laundered ashore over the warm excellent beach sand of your Pacific isle. You might have simply just no road map, compass, or Gps navigation. You happen to be not certain where to find freshwater, kindling, or simply shelter. While you trudge uphill to your jungle inside, each of your buddies needs, ?Are you sure we?re heading the appropriate way? ?

Just how would you know?! What?s the ?right? path when you?re missing on an exotic isle?

The situation tells any person of the articles your staff has actually been cranking out well before your fateful visit. This content study perfectly. This looked sharp. It sometimes racked upward LinkedIn likes?

Unfortunately he this content steering in the right path? How would you know?

My staff at Enlarge not too long ago looked into our jungle area connected with information data? securely from Madison, Wisconsin? to choose a perfect track. Any time site visitors enter an e-mail address as a way to download and install content material from your site, that may measures kicks away from a multiweek e-send take care of promotion with just one e-send each week. But , like lots of B2B tech entrepreneurs, we assist an extended sales cycle, and knew we?re capable of greater with our foster advertising campaign. For that reason my teammates Nina Brakel-Schutt additionally Nate Holmes led a written content review.

Originally, we wanted to discover what our data says? almost like 0s and 1s would reveal where to go. But there?s way too much details to review! As well as its explanation is just as our queries.

We all devised a fresh written content auditing method making use of info from CRM, marketing strategies automation, and electronic digital investment management (DAM) resources. Other piles will work very. That content review preserved our content and e-mail marketing procedure from perishing at a wilderness island? and it may possibly help save your own, likewise.

1 . Type your problem

Variety a subject that problems your most entrenched assumptions. For example , B2B internet marketers are proud of knowing additionally serving their purchasers. No internet marketer brags, ?We do not know who?s buying our things and why! in . Direct by using a concern just like, ?Who are our consumers and what articles or blog posts would remedy their problems throughout the acquiring encounter? ?

Start off the inquiry just by mapping the journey of the closing 10 shoppers you finalized. Which our maps looked like:

Let?s take note numerous things:

very first, the acquiring pattern was longer plus much more unknown than we possessed presumed. We possessed material queued up for a dozen weeks, even so the experience lasted 9 months.

Second, several customers jumped in at four weeks, six months time, and eight months, and we also couldn?t have delivered the ideal written content on the proper time. The picture getting company can have received written content across the concepts of DAM ahead of applying your trademark over the arrangement.

third, for the reason that written content was static additionally directed in the direction of online marketers, the customers that are IT persons simply had to research or demand specialized material if they wanted it.

Around potential prospective buyers, the specific available prices about this mail marketing strategy decreased by a single-3rd amongst the primary and twelfth full week. That preserved correct even with we improved functionality with new inventive and announcements (resembled from the azure trendline):

Regressing available price tags definitely weren?t the correct direction. There were to re-examine the things we supplied, who we sent it to, and also why.

2 . Reveal your content

The next task is to find out what exactly content material you have and how it operates. For the presented advertising campaign, paste exactly what they are classified as of the section of material (with hyperlinks) inside of a spreadsheet in chronological obtain. Then, categorize every piece of written content by its point inside the client trip: attention, consideration, or choice.

Let?s unpack the 3 product labels. At the understanding point, consumers try to define their own personal task or chance. Within the imagined point, purchasers have distinctive concentrates on and investigate how you can accomplish these. Via the choice level, the purchaser gives picked out a class of solutions furthermore evaluates them to find the best match. The actual driving a vehicle problem passes from why in an effort to tips on how to what .

Right after categorizing the content by path phase, include your engagement facts. That could include downloading, perspectives, organically grown search queries, private (y/n), community shares? all depends by yourself advertising and marketing pile. A web template could seem like this:

Immediately after prepping the spreadsheet, that you just ready to take a look at if your posts fulfilled buyers? wants.

3. Consider abilities and failings

In the aged B2B martech bunch, you usually analyze engagement metrics including views, public offers, organic search queries, in addition downloads. The metrics may possibly find an audience?s response to articles, nonetheless they neglect other features.

Everybody in our e mail advertising campaign received a similar articles for the exact pace. Thus, the winners within the spreadsheet experienced attraction all over personas (much more on people soon). Having said that , it might extremely hard to pin down lead to and results in material information and facts. The best-executing parts did actually own self-explanatory benefit, but could be that encountered practically nothing related to their being successful.

When evaluating written content, try and grab qualitative capabilities inside of volumes. While using the proposal metrics and also your personal looking at of the content material, you can actually position the following over a 1-5 measurements or use letter levels. Contain those to the spreadsheet:

Brand name. Study the composing design with regards to sound, develop, and text messaging. Investigate the graphic concept for picture taking layout, shades, and fonts. How correctly can they reflect your brand name?

Lucidity. Perform the creating and structure current the info evidently and concisely?

Precision. Does your posts reveal the present condition of your market and organization? Is definitely the data precise and up dated?

Online business worth. How closely truly does the content refer to your enterprise goals?

Application. The amount value does it present towards viewer?

Look for patterns. Maybe your very best self written content ranks at the top of electricity however seems away-brand. Potentially clarity separates your personal most effective-executing portions from your most awful. These styles explain to this content tactic you can produce within the next step.

4. Upgrade given that required

The material that excelled should always get to each and every persona. Improve this when necessary and make it throughout perform. Nevertheless , it?s enough time to substitute this content that conducted negatively.

Personas will help you locate a proper direction to the new articles you?ll use. Personas are caricatures of the excellent buyers or give attention to audiences. They are like charts for the reason that they?re not ?reality. ? By utilizing personas we attempt to predict who also shoppers are as well as how they take part in the shopping process and we can items information to the needs.

My organization applied to pay attention to several personas? Very creative, THIS, and yet they were definitely too vast. We extrapolated 8-10 gentes from these several, but producing personalized articles for seven gentes was far too burdensome for the company our measurements. So we began the ?persona-off? using this records (gathered through marketing and advertising automation, CRM, and DAM applications):

Existing personas traveling to our website

Career titles involving those going through our buying process

Our primary reason for speak to at each client firm (title in addition label)

Typical client close time

Content fed by Sales vs posts shoppers take themselves

From that information, we diagnosed the 4 most effective personas. Then we interviewed people today on the buying process concerning their own personal roles, objectives, and discomfort things. We possessed two goals: evaluate actuality to our personas, and recognize specifically what material every persona would like. Most of us requested questions on these:

Operate goals

Every day responsibilities and obligations

Problems at the office

Preferred data places

Character traits in connection with the products or services

The interviews brought us all the material to generate empathetic information as well as articles tips for every single persona. Every persona report includes half a dozen factors and replies each individual level in addition to two to six bullets:

Who happen to be they?

Just how do they locate we all?

Exactly what do they want to fully understand?

What don?t they demand?

Exactly what are their pain things?

Why conduct they buy from us?

From that facts, we launched a content strategy for just about every persona. The template is divided by step on the shopping for getaway and looks like this:

* * *

Our information overview has clarified who the buyers are and what questions content need to response throughout the obtaining practical experience.

Is our content articles steering within the right motion? We have now an effective way to take a look at well before we make investment strategies serious amounts of assets in creation.

The evaluation prepared us to (re)generate e-mail taking care of plans per persona and commence them where ever the customer holders inside the experience.

Recovery yourself

When your articles method would seem missing, employ a identical material critique to locate a perfect track (there?s not really merely one).

?Is our information heading around the right path? ? will end up simpler to reply to with time. On the very first circular, you could possibly upgrade personas or cause them to be from the beginning. In future designs, when you know this tropical isle ground, search for new shortcuts and concealed jewels. Attempt to get lost again (safely and securely, inside of your place of work).

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fashiontrendin-blog · 7 years ago

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How I Learned to Make Friends With My Anxiety

https://fashion-trendin.com/how-i-learned-to-make-friends-with-my-anxiety/

How I Learned to Make Friends With My Anxiety

he first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is check my email. I sleep with my phone under my pillow, and every morning, I hold my breath and scroll for anything important. It’s almost always your standard deluge of morning messages, but sometimes there are emails about exciting project opportunities like writing jobs or speaking gigs — the kinds of things I should be thrilled about given they’re how I earn an income. But in reality, they’re yet another entry on the list of things that make me anxious.

When you’re an anxious person, even something good can fill you with dread and panic: How will I deal with this important thing?

I work for myself, which means I’m in a perpetual state of semi-panic. My mind is filled with constant nagging worries that any self-employed person will easily recognize: What if my tax bill is huge? What if I fall and break my arm on the Metro? Should I have never quit my 9 to 5? Throw my anxiety into the mix, and most of my days are spent with a low-level fear that something bad will happen and that once I go through the internal whodunit in my mind, I’ll realize that I was to blame the entire time. The call was coming from inside the house; I am ruining my own life with my own behavior.

As a full-time creative professional who writes, hosts a podcast and designs social media content, a lot of my daily work involves staying on top of the kinds of tasks that get more difficult to deal with the longer I put them off. And they’re the kinds of tasks that feel so good to put off: answering that email, tracking down those forms, scheduling that appointment, booking that flight. I tell myself I deserve to put them off for a day, so I do. And then I do it again and again and again. Then it becomes habit. But in my line of work, putting off an email could mean missing out on a big gig or a deadline and rent money.

I was recently offered a dream opportunity: to produce a live episode of my podcast at South by Southwest in front of a sizeable audience. It was the perfect launchpad for a budding creative like myself, but it was also a perfect storm of things that make me anxious.

As soon as the opportunity landed in my inbox, a familiar a chorus line of anxiety was set in motion. Would I overthink the confirmation email reply and never send it? Would I be too nervous to cold email people? Would I stress about booking the last-minute flight and put it off until it was financially prohibitive? How would I ruin this golden opportunity? How much would I hate myself for it if I did?

While I voiced all these anxieties aloud to a close friend, I realized I sounded like a pessimistic broken record and that I wasn’t even giving myself the chance to imagine it would be a success; I had already decided the outcome would be a negative one. It was a moment of clarity.

Wendy Wood, a social psychologist who studies the neurology of habits and how to break them, writes that a key component of breaking habitual behavior is giving yourself space to do things differently. “First you must derail existing habits and create a window of opportunity to act on new intentions,” she says. The way someone who’s trying to quit soda might have to train themselves to stop wandering down the soda aisle when grocery shopping, Wood says that disrupting your old cues is one of the keys to breaking bad habits. In other words, if anxiety has me feeling like a broken record, I need to actually do something — anything! — to break the repetition. Stop sleeping with my phone under my phone under my pillow. Delete the Instagram app. Have a friend change my Facebook password. Work from anywhere other than my apartment and vow to not return until I’ve finished. (If you already have a great tactic, add it in the comments.)

Wendy Wood’s words really spoke to me. I don’t have to play this the way I always do, I thought to myself. I may have anxiety, but that doesn’t mean anxiety has me.

Bolstered by the notion that I could break the pattern, that I was in control, I took a deep breath and began. I listed out the steps I needed to take in descending order and gave myself an hour to complete them. I emailed the important people. I booked the guests. I bought the last-minute flights. Instead of dwelling on the dread these kinds of tasks often elicit in me, I rolled up my sleeves and did them before I had the chance to procrastinate. And you know what? My last-minute flight to Austin didn’t bankrupt me or crash into the ocean. The important guests confirmed their attendance and then showed up. People came and enjoyed themselves. The live show went mostly as planned, and I was elated. And even though there were some tiny snags (like when a guest showed up so close to showtime I could only assume I’d given her the wrong address), it was okay. Nobody got fired. Nobody died. Nobody got screamed at. Even if things don’t go 100 percent smoothly, they went, which is better than not going at all.

This whole experience showed me is that I am not my anxiety and that I can break out of the cycle of feeling unable to tackle things that I’ve deemed “hard.” If any of this sounds familiar to you and your creative process, here are some tactics I’ve found helpful while tackling the biggest anxious hitch in my own.

Spend Some Time Thinking About Why Things That “Should Be Exciting” Feel Stressful to You

In an interview with the Creative Independent, sociologist Eve Ewing explains how she handles that all-too familiar feeling of really, really not wanting to do something.

She says: “I’m a big believer that when you don’t want to do something, there’s a deeper reason. When I find myself dragging or having a hard time, I step back and ask, ‘Why aren’t you doing this? Is it ‘cause the project isn’t important? Why’d you do it then? Is it just for money? Like you agreed to do this just for money or you said yes because the person seemed important?’ And I’m like, ‘Maybe you shouldn’t do that again.’”

I first read that when I was in a tailspin of writer’s-block-induced self-loathing, and it sparked another moment of clarity. If I don’t actually want to do something I agreed to do, acknowledging my reluctance can help me decide next steps.

I know it’s easy to ignore those feelings and struggle through the associated tasks instead, but next time you find yourself filled with dread and anxiety about a project, ask yourself: Is it early enough in the project that you can responsibly pull the plug? If you can’t bow out, who can you ask for help? Can you ask for a deadline extension? Even if none of that is possible, spend a little time ruminating on the why of this anxiety and remember its source; this can give you clarity when faced with a similar decision next time. It will give you a lot of insight into how you work.

Be Like Nike and Just Do It

According to a Lifehacker piece about procrastination, we start feeling anxious about tasks the moment they plop onto our plates (no sh*t), and that anxiety worsens the longer we put tasks off. If you’re not actually making progress, then nothing happens during this phase other than the accumulation of bad feelings. So, if you want to save yourself weeks of feeling like an unproductive piece of crap, the only logical thing to do is just start.

Easier said than done, I know. Here are some tips I use: Try setting a timer and writing nonstop for five minutes. Or break your project down into small, easier-to-manage tasks. If writing and sending a two-minute email will get the ball rolling on a project, start there and use the momentum it creates to fuel your next steps.

At Harvard Business Review, economist and executive coach Caroline Webb writes that zeroing in on the smallest step is a good way to dive into a daunting project. You know how procrastinating feels so good? That’s because research shows your brain is pretty much always biased toward feeling good now over feeling good later. To combat that, Webb says you should identify that easy-to-accomplish first step, “something that’s so easy that even your present-biased brain can see that the benefits outweigh the costs of effort.”

Make an Accountability Pact

I’m lucky to have friends in my life who hold me accountable; they recognize my patterns (when I go MIA, it means I’m stressing) and they help get me back on track. Having an easier time staying on track when friends are involved isn’t unusual: A study from the Institute of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Aberdeen asked a group of participants to find a new “gym buddy” while a different group worked out solo. In the end, the group who leaned on supportive workout pals worked out more.

Asking a friend or roommate to keep you on track requires vulnerability and clear communication. This can feel scary, so offer to make it a two-way street. Maybe your friend helps you beat procrastination while you help her get to the gym more. Maybe you both text one another when you want to stray from your paths. This way, you’re both sharing in the vulnerability while offering mutual support.

Treat Yourself

Once you’ve completed the project that caused you anxiety, reward yourself! Getting a handle on anxiety isn’t easy. Celebrate small victories. You train a puppy by giving her a treat when she exhibits behavior you want her to repeat, right? Think of yourself as a more complex version of a puppy and reward yourself for completing tasks.

When I finally tackle a handful of things I’ve been putting off, I celebrate by watching “bad TV.” And while I’m still in the middle of the work, knowing that I get to watch whatever I want (for as long as I want) once I finish keeps me going. It’s a literal light at the end of the tunnel.

Webb says treating yourself is effective because it helps take the edge off having to do things we don’t want to do. “We can make the cost of effort feel even smaller if we link that small step to something we’re actually looking forward to doing. In other words, tie the task that we’re avoiding to something that we’re not avoiding,” she writes.

For me, anxiety is like that mean girl from junior high who was always there to point out my flaws, only she lives inside my head. While I may never fully silence the inner monologue that drives me to obsess on the scary “what ifs” of any given situation, I’ve learned that I don’t have to let it stop me from doing the things I want to do in life — starting with my to-do list.

Bridget Todd is writer and digital strategist who lives out of a suitcase. She is the cohost of the podcast Stuff Mom Never Told You. Her Twitter is @BridgetMarie and her IG is @BridgetMarieinDC

lllustrations by Gabrielle Lamontagne.

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limitless-life-club · 7 years ago

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Case Study: My First Online Business

New Post has been published on http://www.limitless-life.club/case-study-my-first-online-business/

Case Study: My First Online Business

Let me tell you how I got involved in my First Online Business.

Back in early 2008, I was a call center agent, working regular hours in a job that paid just a tad less than $6 per hour – you do the math on that.

Now, to be fair, I live in a third world country where $6 an hour was then about twice what the entry level job would pay (minimum wage has increased since then to about $5 an hour now). Therefore, while it wasn’t a lot of money, it was quite comfortable.

On the other hand, I’d been at that job with no pay increase for over two years and while I really hated the job, and the commute (which nowadays is so much worse), it was really comfortable, so I did it, and I did it well.

Unexpected News

Then my girlfriend announced that we would be getting a new member in our unofficial family, and my world turned upside down. Not just because suddenly my salary was not going to be as comfortable as it had been for a while, but because at age 37 I wasn’t expecting kids. I just wasn’t ready.

Growing up, my mother was effectively a single mother who worked very long hours. As a child I resented it because I could not understand that work was how she kept me educated, fed, and comfortable. I took a look at my life and I realized my kid would suffer the same fate, and just the thought of that broke my heart.

Plus, either my girlfriend would have to quit her job in order to take care of our child, or we would have to hire a nanny. Both propositions were very expensive to us at the time.

The Search Begins

That was the first time I went on google to search for “Jobs from Home”.

Every day, I would sift through articles, ads and websites. My biggest hurdle was that I live in a third-world country, overseas, and no company was going to dial long distance. Eventually I learned about Voice-Over-Ip, a way to get a US-based phone number that worked through the internet and would ring at my house.

I ordered one “Vonage” device, tested it to my satisfaction, and began the search for a home-based job doing the same thing I was doing now. Eventually, I found one such company, who actually had two vacancies. So I spoke it over with my now-business partner and he wanted in. We ordered another vonage for him, and within a week, we had both quit and setup a small company whose employees were just him and I.

At the time, the business model sounded a bit risky, but there was one thing we knew for sure. If you continue doing the same thing you’ve been doing, then you will continue getting the same results you’ve been getting.

The First Business Model

My partner and I were both used to getting a fixed hourly wage, and in our initial negotiations, that’s what we tried to negotiate. In other words, we wanted the company to pay us for the time we were connected into their system. The company, however, had a different policy. They would only pay us a per-minute fee for the time we were actually engaging with a client.

– C O N T I N U E D –

So, the rate being offered meant that if we were on the phone an entire hour, we would be getting about $15.00 per hour. However, you rarely spend an entire hour on the phone. In fact, in the company we were at before, the concurrency and length of calls varied wildly. However, the way we saw it, even if we were on the phone for 30 minutes out of an hour, that would be $7.50 an hour, so in effect, we would be giving ourselves a $3.5K per year raise.

Or so we hoped, at any rate.

Better than Expected

My initial intent had been simply to have a stay-at-home job so that once my child was born, we would not have to hire a nanny, or have one of us quit.

What we hadn’t counted on, was just how well we would end up doing. In this company, the frequency and length of calls were much higher, and we were spending about 45 minutes or more, average, on the phone. That meant that we were making pretty close to $12.00 an hour. Within just two months of having quit our jobs, we had doubled our income, and we were saving money and time by having eliminated our commute. Life just couldn’t get better.

Or Could it?

An Epiphany

One day, my partner and I were discussing our newfound good fortune, and he suggested to me:

What if we bring more people into our workgroup? We pay them the same salary we used to get, and split the profit!

Quite frankly, it was pure genius. We pitched the idea to a couple of friends from our old company. We would pay the exact same rate they were getting there, but they could now work from home and we supplied the necessary equipment. Everyone we mentioned it to was eaget to get involved, so we put in an order for four (4) vonage devices, and put the plan into motion.

Our First Hurdle

When our devices arrived we added one person into our work group. Initially we were afraid that by adding a person into the mix, our call volume would remain the same, except it would now be spread between three phones. To our surprise, call frequency and concurrency remained fairly constant. However, our new employee had underperformed my partner and I.

At the time, the company we were working for did not have collaborative workgroup software in place. All we had was the ACD (Automatic Call Distribution) system to keep track of logins, logouts and calls.

When we inspected his call log, we noticed that he took a lot of breaks, and they happenned to be at the busiest times fo the day.

I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but by trade, I am a computer programmer.

So I wrote myself a script that every minute would log into my account, tally my status, then my partner’s, then our employee, and then show me on my screen who was logged in, who was on call and who was on idle. Every time this guy would exceed his break, or try to shake off what we call “peak time”, I’d send him a text message.

The results: my partner and I had given ourselves a $500 per month raise, and we now had a rudimentary piece of software that would enable us to ‘control’ or at least monitor our queue.

– C O N T I N U E D –

Rapid Expansion

Now that we had a way to monitor the employees we proceeded to add more people into our workgroup. The results were amazing. By splitting the profits down the middle, my partner and I were making a little more money from the production of the others than we were making from our own. It only made sense to add more people into the workgroup, so this time, we invested in 6 more units.

It took almost two months to staff them, but once all units were deployed, the majority of our income actually came from the efforts of others.

In addition to that, we started getting occasional complaints by our workgroup manager about some of our employee’s behavior on their calls. Because of Privacy Laws, they were unable to supply me with the recordings. So it was time for another change.

Achievement Unlocked: Time Freedom

My partner stopped being on the phone altogether in almost no time. He was using his newfound windfall and free time to cultivate friendships in the political sector. Me, I was also rarely on the phone, but I was stuck in front of my computer almost all the time.

It was time for us to get more Vonage devices, so we could add more people into our workgroup, but the monitoring script was slow and would sometimes get stuck. Also, we had no way of centrally recording calls in order for us to identify negative patterns and coaching opportunities. And I was stuck in front of my computer. ALL THE TIME.

Our Business, as an Online Business

I spent a few days researching call centers theory. The equipment and software that real call centers use is phenomenally expensive, and while we had no shortage of money, we weren’t in a position to spend 50K on Cisco Equipment, Software and Licenses. So I went with what to me, was the next best thing.

The Elastix Communications Server

Elastix has since been bought by a competitor called 3CX, and quite frankly it works so well, that I simply haven’t felt the need to upgrade or change anything.

The Elastix Communication Server brought my business into the online world. I built the server, got rid of all the Vonages, and instead, got IP Phones for each agent. The phones connect to the communications server and now magically, all the phones are under my control. I can instantly see who’s logged in, who’s out, who’s on call and who is idle using a visual tool called FOP, that I can access from my phone. All calls are recorded and I can access them from my phone. I can split teams up for different clients or set up floating agents that service multiple clients.

I can use a chat application to communicate directly with my agents without having to actually speak to anyone, and the system can easily and automatically produce invoices for our clients.

So, without setting out to do so, my first business ended up being an online business. Candidates apply through website, and if they pass the admission test, we send them a phone that connects to our server, and we monitor everything via smartphones.

Conclusion

This is just one example of how to make money online by selling an internet driven service across borders. I have been able to operate my business while on a family vacation and during an 8 month hospital stay, seamlessly, without anyone knowing I wasn’t at my office during that time, because my job is essentially Time and Location independent.

This is the power of running an online business. By leveraging the internet, and the time of others, I have essentially broken the limits of time and space in my life. And this is something that anybody can do, IF they can find the right business model.

#Business

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unixcommerce · 5 years ago

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How to Use Voice Assistants For Your Business

Growth of Voice Assistants

Voice assistants are intuitive. They do this by understanding human speech and responding in a way that makes users feel like they’re having a conversation with another person.

Benefits of Voice Assistants

In an exclusive interview with Piyush Goel, CEO of BeyondKey, Small Business Trends asked, “How are businesses using voice and how is it helping them?”

Adding, “Every business will have specific needs for using voice technology. Our job is to integrate those needs to help them achieve their objectives.”

Internal Productivity

Customer Service

Marketing to Reach New Customers

How Do You Take advantage of Google, Alexa, Siri?

How to Use Voice Assistants?

HR Support

Voice assistance is great for planning. With them, your HR operations will see more ease in doing business as they can help you check on vacation policies, track attendance, and order supplies.

Streamlining Operations

Another business benefit is voice assistants can help streamline operations. They achieve this by using AI and deep learning to access reports, analyzing data and keeping crucial systems updated.

This helps in integrating your operations thus avoiding the headaches of trying to integrate across platforms.

Planning and Communicating

Improving your knowledge of trends may help a business understand the potential of new technology to help it in executing its strategies and identify opportunities.

Image: BeyondKey.com

This article, “How to Use Voice Assistants For Your Business” was first published on Small Business Trends

https://smallbiztrends.com/

The post How to Use Voice Assistants For Your Business appeared first on Unix Commerce.

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#IFTTT #WordPress

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