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silentfcknhill · 4 years ago

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FAVORITE SHOWS IN POSTERS

Well, we’re back for another installment of this tagged meme, this time for TV shows! I also stole this from/was indirectly tagged by @jcmorrigan. My taste in shows also differs a bit from my taste in movies, as I tend to like a lot of comedy shows with not as many horror ones. I’m not into shows as much as movies overall, but there are some that I am very passionate about so I picked twenty again. So, here we go for part 2, in order:

1. Avatar: The Last Airbender/The Legend Of Korra (2005-2014)

I'm including these as one show since they take place in the same universe and tell a continuation of the same overall plot. Altogether this is probably the best piece of media to ever exist, including movies. It has so many great characters and villains especially and some of the most epic sequences, charming humor and heartwarming moments ever. I've never met a person who didn't like these shows, even people who normally don't like cartoons. My dad, who is biased against animation? He loved it. My mother? She loved it, watched it with her multiple times. My grandmother? Loved it. My ex-boyfriend? Loved it. My best friend? Loved it. I dare anyone not to, and I'm so glad it's making a resurgence since it's on Netflix for a new generation to enjoy.

2. Black Butler (2008-2014)

I never was big into anime growing up and only really started watching anime when I was like 16 and above, but this is one of the exceptions because holy shit is it ever dark and epic. I'm not sure I'd really recommend it for kids, it's more of a teens and young adults kind of anime and that's probably why it's so good, because it isn't afraid to explore dark and mature topics and do it with all of the intensity and gravitas required to do said topics justice. It has lots of great characters, and the story of demons who make deals with children who have a dark side is fun to watch play out.

3. Seinfeld (1989-1998)

My dad was a huge fan of this show so I watched it growing up since I was a toddler and it became a classic for me. I've watched thw hole show through at least 8 times, and I'll never stop because it never gets old or boring. It's also my only comfort show when I'm having a panic attack because of one time a few years ago when I was having a drug-induced psychosis episode and watching it calmed me down, so now it's like the opposite of a trigger and whenever I'm having an episode or something I watch it to bring me back to reality. For that reason it's more than a show to me, it's a medical treatment and I'm forever grateful to it.

4. The Good Place (2016-2020)

The big four shows made my Michael Schur all made it on this post (The Good Place, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Office and Parks And Recreation), either in the main list of the honorable mentions, but this is my personal favorite of the four. It's so funny, quirky, relatable and basically tailor-made to suit my interests. Not only is it an entertaining and wholesome show, but I think watching it helped me come to terms with a lot of things like mortality, ethics, philosophy, religion and my relationships with other people. It gets alot of different viewpoints across and if you're a very analytical and philosophical person like me you'll probably enjoy seeing it all play out. Not to mention, every single character is 'favorite character' material. It's rare you find a show with no filler characters in the main cast, but I genuinely can't choose who is best.

5. Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013-?)

Another of Michael Schur's shows, this one is just barely under The Good Place and to be honest it was tough to pick my favorite between the two because they're both equally funny. I know it's kind of controversial right now because of the whole law enforcement thing, but I actually think they do a good job of handling social issues in the show and remaining respectful of real-life systemic problems. As for the characters, this is another one of those shows where every single character is gold and I think that tends to be a trend among Schur's shows in general. He produces damn good comedy, and damn good characters. I can't wait to see what they bring next.

6. Rick And Morty (2013-?)

This is unfortunately one of those cases of 'great show, horrible fandom' and for that reason I don't get involved in the fandom even though I love the show. It's a shame because it really is a great show, so funny and, again, such good characters. I think it's a lot more accessible than the fandom likes to claim, so I'm hoping more people will give it a chance and not get put off by the intellectual elitism of the fandom because it does have some of the most entertaining and batshit crazy episodes ever, poking fun of some of the staples of science fiction in media while also poking fun of itself the whole time. Unlike the fandom, the show doesn't take itself seriously and that's enjoyable nowadays.

7. Orange Is The New Black (2013-2019)

While this show is a comedy, it is also a lot of other things and it's probably made me ugly-cry just as many times as it's made me laugh. Well, maybe not as often, but those few scenes (if you've watched the show then you know the ones I'm talking about) made me hysterically sob hard enough to be worth like fifty minor sads. But I didn't even mind because the show is just that good, and it makes you /feel/ something in a real way. Probably because of just how real it gets in terms of telling stories that happen all the time in the real world, sometimes with inevitably tragic endings. But these things do happen every day, and it's important to shine a light on that. It's not just representation for LGBTQ+ but also for POC, the neurodiverse, the poor, and many more. Give it a watch to broaden your perspective!

8. Big Mouth (2017-?)

This is probably the grossest show I've ever seen but by god is it ever funny. Maybe it's because I have an immature sense of humor or something, but I love this show. It definitely won't be everyone's cup of tea and I don't recommend you watch this show with anyone else around because it will get awkward. I think part of its appeal to me is that everyone I talk to who likes it considers it so relatable to their lives growing up but for someone like me who grew up on the autism and asexual spectrum and who was physically an early-bloomer by years, nothing about this show is relatable to me in any way so it makes it all the more crazy and bizarre watching how the people around me must have experienced things. Did y'all really have these experiences with puberty in middle school???

9. Dexter (2006-2013)

I recently heard that this show is coming back for a reboot soon and I'm so excited because this is my absolute favorite drama/thriller show, as evidenced by the fact that it's the highest one on the list so far that isn't a comedy. I love the idea of having a protagonist who is sort of a villain (or at least morally dubious), and the idea of a serial killer who only kills bad people is particularly satisfying for some reason. Maybe because he's the vigilante we all deserve and want in this unjust and evil world of modern times? Idk but the very premise of this show set it up for big things and aside from the ending I think it delivered consistently.

10. Once Upon A Time (2011-2018)

This show took us on some journeys, and you can't deny that. Sure, maybe it didn't always finish what it started and didn't always end in the most satisfying way, but part of its charm is that you didn't care because the experience was just so much fun. They took characters and stories that have been told to death and somehow managed to put a unique and unexpected twist on them, and that alone is admirable. Good twists, good villains, and pretty much every cliffhanger known to man will keep you hooked on binge-watching every episode.

11. RuPaul's Drag Race (2009-?)

A bit different than the other entries on my list in that it's not fiction but a reality competition show, but I couldn't leave Drag Race out because it's just so fucking iconic and perfect. Even when you disagree with the judges or can't stand a certain contestant you'll still be having a good time. It's got the personalities you love to love, the ones you love to hate, and the comedy that's completely meme-able. I mean just how much has this show contributed to pop culture and the internet? More than most of us, henny. I've watched every single season, even the international ones and all of the spinoffs. This show will probably be on for another thirty years when Ru is throwing shade from a hospital bed and I'll still be watching.

12. House (2004-2012)

Some people hate on this show, and I don't get it. I love House. Yes, he's an ass. That's the point. He's supposed to be unlikeable, and that's why I like him. Maybe because I always love the rude, sarcastic, misanthropic jerkass-genius characters for some reason. And I also love procedural shows, so it's a win-win. I also work in the healthcare field so it appeals to me for that reason too, because obviously the whole premise is outlandish which is what makes it funny. Of course it's not realistic for a hospital, so just enjoy the absurdity and don't get too hung up on the details of medical accuracy and professional ethics and you'll be fine.

13. The Office (2005-2013)

The third of Michael Schur's show and the last one that made the main list (sorry Parks And Rec, I love you too but there was just so many good shows to choose from and I saw you last so the nostalgia isn't as strong!) I don't think I need to hype this show up any, it's already a classic and you can't even turn around online without getting hit in the face by a dozen Office memes. You'll have to pry this show and it's relatable characters (especially Michael Scott) from my cold, dead hands.

14. All Hail King Julien/The Penguins Of Madagascar (2008-2017)

Like Avatar/Korra, I also consider this as one show for the sake of this list because it also takes place in the same universe (Madagascar, specifically) and I just couldn't choose one over the other because they're both so perfect. They're funny and I love all the characters (it cut out the weaker links of the Madagascar film series and just focuses on expanding the standout side-characters like King Julien and the penguins). It also delved into some lore, particularly the first show, and even though I didn't also agree with the directions it took (you may have seen me get salty about the ending because I cared too much), I can't deny how much I love it.

15. Bones (2005-2017)

One of the other scarce non-comedy shows on this list, it still has it's funny moments. It's also, like House, another procedural show that involves some medical stuff, but this time on a more scientific and forensic level which is even more interesting. It's nice to see a lead female with Asperger's, too. There's a lot of cop/law enforcement shows where they try to solve crimes, but this one is the best, and I'm saying that as a fan of CSI as well. Don't fight me on this, I'm right. Oh yes, it's corny, it's campy, it's cheesy, but I love every minute of it. Don't watch if you have a weak stomach though.

16. The Simpsons (1989-?)

We all grew up with this show, don't lie. It's been around longer than most people on tumblr have even been alive. Should it have ended seasons ago? Hell yes. But that doesn't take away what the first like 20 or so seasons gave us (there's a lot of argument about when the show jumped the shark, for me it wasn't until much later than the popular consensus). The characters are amazing, but the secret to the show's longevity is that they always return to status quo and there's comfort and nostalgia in that. Bart will still be in 4th grade when you're out there pushing 90. This show is persistent. This show is eternal. This show will outlive us all.

17. Ash Vs. Evil Dead (2015-2018)

Sorely underrated. This show is hilarious, gruesome and campy as hell and I love it. I don't think you necessarily have to watch the Evil Dead movies beforehand in order to get the plot of the show, although it would probably help. In my opinion this show ended way too soon and I'm hoping someday we'll get a comeback because Ash is the reluctant, self-absorbed hero we all need and it's 2020 so at this point there really might actually be a demon-zombie apocalypse and who's gonna save us then if not for the impulsive womanizer with a chainsaw for a hand?

18. Malcolm In The Middle (2000-2006)

Another show I grew up with, I don't think it gets as much credit as it deserves. It has some damn funny episodes and great characters, and it did a lot of the popular sitcom tropes before they were 'cool'. Some other great sitcoms, The Middle in particular, took a lot of influence from this show and it helped pave the way for the future of sitcoms at a time when they were about to make a comeback. If you want a good show about the real experiences of growing up, this is a much more accurate representation of the highs and lows of being an awkward tween from a dysfunctional home.

19. A Series Of Unfortunate Events (2017-2019)

Unlike most people I actually liked the movie version from the early 2000's, and I read the books growing up so I was excited when I saw there was a live action television adaptation of it on Netflix because I felt like they cancelled the movie franchise too soon. I was interested to see how new actors would handle the roles, and I was not disappointed. I wouldn't say I liked either portrayal of the characters better or worse, they both added their own twist to it and this show is a great and loyal adaptation to the books, probably because the author was so heavily involved. He knew just when to stick to the books and when to improve upon what he had done with the benefit of hindsight. This show is basically the books, but remastered.

20. Winx Club (2004-?)

Sort of an odd one out on this list, but I really love this show even as an adult and it may surprise you to learn it is still going on and the most recent season came out last year. They take big breaks sometimes in between seasons, but it's still going strong and in multiple countries. The only thing I don't like about watching this show is all the different and inconsistent dubs since the original show is Italian and each dub only goes for a couple seasons so by the time you get used to one set of voices/names for the characters oyu have to abruptly switch to another, but it's still worth it for the beautiful animation and cool characters (especially the villains!)

Honorable Mentions:

13 Reasons Why, America's Next Top Model, American Horror Story, Arrested Development, Bates Motel, Battlestar Galactica, Black Mirror, Care Bears, Chernobyl, Courage The Cowardly Dog, Criminal, CSI, Duck Dodgers, Goosebumps, Kenny Vs. Spenny, Kim Possible, Kingdom Hospital, Lazytown, Lost, Making A Murderer, Mayday, Mindhunter, Modern Family, Monster High, Obsession: Dark Desires, Parks And Recreation, Prison Break, Project Runway, Queer As Folk, Queer Eye, Salem, Schitt's Creek, SCTV, Spongebob Squarepants, The Emperor's New School, The Good Doctor, The Haunting Of Hill House/Bly Manor, The Middle, The Pretender, The Walking Dead, The X-Files, Through The Wormhole, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Unsolved Mysteries, Yugioh

Tagging: @bullet-farmer and anyone else who wants to!

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whentherewerebicycles · 4 years ago

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i have to wonder if there's an implication that can be drawn the other way around wrt playfulness and stress - not that un-playful individuals experience stress more acutely, but that people who experience stress more acutely become less and less playful. i have intense, disproportionate shame/fear reactions due to Childhood Trauma(tm) and it's inhibiting as fuck - my work with my singing teacher to relax and (though i've never framed it this way) play(!) w/out embarrassment has been (1/3)

one of the most healing things for me... so i think there's this nexus of inhibition & confidence/security & perspective/scale & playfulness & resilience. to be playful you have to be a bit silly and vulnerable and willing to take a risk on doing something "wrong" i.e. not take yourself too seriously, but if you feel chronically unsafe you'll take yourself & everything else too seriously and want to do it "right" so you minimize the perceived risk of harm. going back to my singing teacher (2/3)

the most important thing she did for me was create an explicitly safe, non-judgmental environment where it's not only ok but even desirable to "fuck up" and "look/sound stupid" and to reinforce that message multiple times. so anyway that quote just made me think that "don't take things/yourself too seriously" sits at this interesting intersection between increasing playfulness & coping strategies for emotional damage. sorry to ramble about it in your ask box lol! (3/3)

yes I think this is so so true!! all of this, lol, but especially the part about how acute stress can make it increasingly difficult to be playful. i have written a lot about working through internalized shame here in the past, and especially about the ways that shame causes you to both physically and emotionally shut down parts of yourself. (i actually gave a talk about this subject recently! it was like, a layman’s intro to the neuroscience of shame, with a specific focus on how shame responses affect people’s ability to learn & to connect socially with others in learning spaces.)

i do just want to clarify that the excerpt i posted was from a study that was very narrowly focused on answering the question: “is there a link between playfulness levels and positive/adaptive coping mechanisms in responding to stress?” the study wasn’t designed to answer larger questions about what kinds of life experiences might produce higher levels of playfulness vs. make it difficult to be playful (such as past trauma, not having one’s basic needs for security met, etc.). in the conclusion the authors note that their findings (i.e., that playful people seem to be more able to readily access and use positive coping mechanisms) means that we should be doing more research on how to cultivate playfulness and how to help people unlearn maladaptive coping mechanisms like self-blame. so the point of the study was not to blame individuals or place the responsibility on individual people (“if you could just lighten up, you wouldn’t be so stressed / unhappy / bad at coping!”). it was more like, an attempt to establish that playfulness (as a way of engaging with the world) seems to be associated with all of these positive ways of coping and managing stress, and so we might want to research playfulness more deeply and/or focus on cultivating it in college students.

so i think you are absolutely right that when we talk about playfulness it’s important not to think of it as something that something people just “have” or don’t have (detached from any consideration of people’s backgrounds, lived experiences, etc.). and we also want to avoid pathologizing its absence (“if you don’t have a playful attitude then there’s something wrong/flawed/messed up about you that needs to be fixed”). my research is focused on understanding how we can better create learning environments like the one your singing teacher has created for you -- i.e., spaces where people feel more secure and less vulnerable to scathing or hypercritical judgment; where failures and mistakes are encouraged & normalized as a natural, healthy part of the learning experience; where instructors are modeling self-compassion and deliberately not using shame-based methods; and just in general, where students are getting the kind of gentle, compassionate, consistent messaging you describe receiving from your teacher. basically I’m interested in creating classrooms that provide the stability and consistency people need in order to learn adaptive coping mechanisms that will serve them well outside of those learning spaces.

i think these questions are so important because most college instructors are VERY aware that our students come into our classrooms carrying many different kinds of trauma—whether it’s the more extreme forms that we tend to think of when we think about trauma (childhood abuse, sexual assault, trauma experienced by combat veterans or refugees from warzones), or the forms of pervasive lowgrade trauma associated with financial precarity, racialized stress, etc., or even just the “lighter” or harder-to-classify forms of trauma that rachel naomi remen calls “the cultural shadow” (i.e., the toxic dominant culture that many of us grow up immersed in). and anyone who has taught at the college level (or taught any age level) knows that as a teacher you often have to at least temporarily play aspects of counselor / social worker / person adept at navigating university bureaucracy to help keep students in crisis from slipping through the cracks. (that is obviously NOT ideal, as those roles should be filled by trained professionals! but we have all been in those situations, where you are the first line of support for a student in crisis, or sometimes the last line of support because they have slipped through the giant holes in our country’s social safety nets.)

i think there’s been a shift in recent years towards “trauma-informed pedagogy,” but the slightly watered-down version of this approach many instructors receive tends to be very focused on mitigating harm in the classroom (ie, avoiding certain things or framing material in certain ways so as to avoid re-traumatizing students). this work is obviously HUGELY important (and my own research project is v much informed by it!). but i sometimes feel like these approaches are very damage-centered, ie very focused on understanding how students are “damaged” by their experiences and how we can “prevent further damage” in the classroom space. again, wanting to adopt teaching practices that avoid retraumatizing students is a good thing!!! but i think what i am hoping my work can do is suggest that we can and should strive for more than just limiting damage. to put this another way: i’m looking for ways to go beyond asking “how can we avoid re-traumatizing students in our classrooms?” to thinking more broadly about how we (as teachers, mentors, etc) can design learning environments and learning experiences that help students grow into healthier, happier, more emotionally resilient versions of themselves—and hopefully help build a foundation of social-emotional skills that they will take with them into their adult lives.

play is not the sole "answer” or solution! but i think that for me, it’s been one useful way to think about things like trauma-informed teaching, restorative practices, and social-emotional mentoring strategies, in ways that center a more positive, joyful understanding of what happy and emotionally well-adjusted adulthood can look/feel like. does that make sense?? i think about cultivating playfulness as just one angle onto answering these questions, or as one approach or set of strategies that people could have in their toolkits as they think about how we design learning environments. it won’t work for all students or all teachers or all learning environments, and it won’t solve all of the problems in higher ed (or in a culture where traumatic experiences are so prevalent and yet are so often left unacknowledged and untreated). but i think for me at least it’s been one generative way to reimagine some of the common structures and norms that structure higher ed learning environments.

anyway sorry to use your ask as a springboard into a long “thinking aloud” post!! but i really enjoyed reading your thoughts and i feel like it’s prompted me to articulate some thoughts that have just been sort of murkily floating around in my mind for the last couple weeks. i am also so glad for you that you have a space in your own life (and a trusted teacher figure) where you feel secure & can practice and explore being vulnerable, making mistakes, being silly/playful, etc. it sounds like she is a really wonderful teacher, and it’s so cool too that you are able to describe the ways in which that learning space has felt healing or healthy for you.

#long post #to think further #!!#playfulness project #play project #mw #teaching #mentoring #edit to add: i know that trauma-informed pedagogy is also thinking about these things & i don't mean to suggest that this is #the first time anyone has ever thought of this lol #but i think a lot of young instructors especially (or older instructors who don't do a deep dive into trauma-informed practices)#do tend to get that watered-down version that focuses more on damage and less on restorative / reparative practices

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cherryfi · 5 years ago

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Don’t Run From Me

Chapter 1: The Interview (2684 words)

A/N: Hello, Hello! This isn’t my first time writing fanfics but, it’s the first time I’m writing for ATEEZ! Please be kind! I’m thinking of making this a chapter series but, I’m kind of stuck on which chapter I should do next. Should I do what happens after the end of this one or should I do the reverse order -(like the first time you met Hongjoong).

T/W: Some cursing and kidnapping.

Enjoy!

2 years.

It had been almost 2 years since you’d finally let yourself settle down.

In your heart it felt like the right time to stop running. For that amount of time no one had come looking for you and nothing bad had happened ( short of occasionally seeing almost familiar faces while out and about in town or across the aisle when you were shopping), you were finally in a place where you felt like you could comfortably let your head rest.

You’d hopped around from motels to hotels at first, terrified to call family and friends because of the chance that Hongjoong would find you. But, as more time passed, you grew comfortable in the idea that he’d leave you be.

You were tired of sleeping on uncomfortable beds that you could never call your own.

Months on the run had made you crave home and that’s exactly where you went.

After the best part of a year you showed up on your mother’s doorstep, halfway across the country with only a backpack and the clothes on your back to your name.

She didn’t ask any questions, just welcomed you back home and over time, once you’d settled, you told her everything.

After many tearful conversations, where your mother told you how worried she was; not knowing where you were or if you were even alive and you told her how much you regretted leaving without telling her; you were closer than ever.

After countless sleepless nights, where you woke up scared that he’d found you , she recommended that you go into therapy. She was terrified of the trauma that you’d been through and how much its impacted you and after her ultimatum ‘Go to therapy or I’m going to the police’ you made yourself go.

The stability of being back at home with your mum and having a permanent roof over your head, coupled with your therapist helping you get through the last 3 years of pain and fear; put you in a place where you were finally ready to take the last step in truly stabilising yourself: you were going to get a job.

You had spent the last 2 years working odd jobs, from run down diners to small hardware stores to gas stations – you were a ‘Jack of all trades.’

But, before all of that and before Hongjoong had come into your life, you’d been a full-time student who would do PA/ admin work part-time at a well-known company.

Even though you didn’t get to finish your degree, you still had the skills you’d learned in admin work behind you and you were going to sell yourself.

That’s what bought you here.

Sitting in the lobby of an upscale office building; resumé and paperwork in hand.

‘Breathe’

You sigh deeply, shaking out your hands to relieve some of your body’s tension and reassure yourself yet again that you’re making the right decision.

You’d sign with an agency (on your therapist’s recommendation) and they’d sent you an ad for Tongyong; a small start-up company that was looking to expand.

The current CEO was in the process of gaining some middle/ top league clients and was on the ‘up and up’ , he was looking for a savvy, conscientious and hardworking individual to help him organise his time and schedules.

That was where you came in! You were all these things and more.

Funnily enough, they didn’t really care about years of experience, they were happy to train you up, in order to make you the best fit for them.

It was perfect.

You took the job listing and booked yourself in for an interview, hoping that you’d finally be able to complete your fresh start.

“Ms Y/N Y/L/N? They’ll see you in the office now. Follow me.” You smiled at the pretty receptionist, thinking that you might have seen her somewhere before but, not being able to put a name to a face and quickly got up.

Standing in the elevator with this woman, you couldn’t shake the trepidation that swept over you, almost freezing you in place.

The higher the elevator rose, the more anxious you became, and your mind was suddenly screaming ‘run’.

The phrase, ‘Into the lion’s den’ popped into your mind.

“We’re here. I’m sure you’re going to do great and I wish you the best of luck.” She smiled at you and opened the door, telling you to sit down.

He came in shortly after.

“Ms Y/L/N, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” You nearly jumped out of your skin, nervously laughing as you got up to greet him.

“Yes, sorry. Hi Mr-“ You shook his gently as he apologised for frightening you, telling you his last name was Kim but, to call him Jiwon.

‘Who else do you know with the last name Kim, Y/N’ Panic flashes through you, white hot and you take another deep breath, quashing your anxiety.

‘Run Y/N’

The interview was going well.

You were sat opposite of each other, a spotless glass table separating you.

You chatted nonchalantly about your previous experiences and what the company was looking for as well as what their mission was.

Jiwon spoke passionately about how Tongyong’s aim was to change the tech market and make it more accessible to everyone and how they were going to create luxury products with affordable prices.

He also spoke to you about what your work with the CEO would be like.

He made it clear that the hours were going to be long and sometimes unsociable but, you would be paid well for your time and it would be worth it.

Quickly, you found yourself excited to work for Tongyong; thrilled at being able to say you were there when the company was still small and renting office space, instead of building international offices.

You looked forward to the work that you would do, and you weren’t at all deterred by the long hours but, there was still a niggling fear that kept eating away at the back of your mind.

‘If this isn’t the CEO then, where is he?’

The small thread of doubt began to grow like a migraine behind your eyes and you had to calm yourself down, yet again.

‘We spoke about this in therapy Y/N, these things happen with trauma, you’re just paranoid’ Either way, with the fear looming over your head and your anxiety building, you had to ask:

“Um, will I be meeting the CEO today or is that a separate interview?” He smiled, leaning back in his chair and stretching his legs.

“Yes of course, how silly of me! I should have said at the very beginning! You’ll be meeting him after this interview. Don’t look so alarmed, he just has a few questions that he wanted to ask you. He’s a great guy and you’re interviewing really well.” He smiled reassuringly, looking at the shock written across your face.

Meeting the CEO would be a huge deal and, so soon?

Pre-interview jitters took over you again.

“I’ve only got one question left and then if there isn’t anything you want to ask me, we can wrap up and I’ll bring the other Mr Kim in.”

‘The other Mr Kim?’

“So, your resume looks great but, why the jump back into PA work? There’s a 2 year break here where you were doing hospitality and retail stuff intermittently, is there any reason for that and how has your situation changed to allow you to do more consistent work?”

‘I was on the run from my crazy-ass, murderous ex’ You shook your head, physically shaking the thought away and gave a thoughtful answer.

“I had a personal issue that meant that I needed jobs that offered flexibility. So, I was working at different places for short periods of time because that was the best that I could do given the rigid schedule at home. My situation has changed now, and I no longer have the same commitments that I did before. This means that I’m now able to jump back into full time work.” He nodded to your answer, jotting down notes on his copy of your resume. You almost high-fived yourself on a job well done.

“Perfect. Have you got any questions for me?” You thought quickly, remembering that it’s always important to have questions ready for your interviewer and you wanted to see if he’d offer up any more info on the other Kim.

“What got you into Tongyong?”

He gave you a short answer about his love of tech (which you could tell from how passionate he was before and how he and Mr Kim were good friends so, he trusted in his vision.

He was about to continue when there was a knock at the door.

“I guess we’ve run out of time, it was a pleasure meeting you Y/N.” He shook your hand.

“It was nice meeting you too, Jiwon.” He stepped out of the room, closing the door behind him.

You could hear talking outside of the interview room but, with a frosted glass window and opaque, cherrywood door you couldn’t really hear what was being said or see who he was talking to.

As you heard the door being opened, you quickly stood up, ready to greet whoever came into the room.

As your eyes connected, you had to catch yourself to stop from fainting.

Your soul just about left your body.

“Ms Y/L/N, you look as if you’ve seen a ghost.” His smile was sly and spread across his face slowly as he took the seat across from you.

Hongjoong.

He doesn’t look any different to the way he did when you last saw him.

His hair, once red, was a light pink but, he still looked deceptively innocent.

He looked almost princely in his cut suit.

You were dumbfounded, frozen stiff and still standing in the position you were in before: hand out ready to greet someone who was already comfortably seated.

“Honey take a seat. Let me see that beautiful face. I haven’t seen it in, what was it, 2 years?” You could hear the smirk in his voice and the way he stressed that it had been 2 years. Your skin was crawling.

You couldn’t even get angry at being duped like this.

‘Run’

“Don’t even think about leaving. I have guards by the door, the elevator and in the lobby. Not even James Bond could get out of here.” He chuckles lightly at his joke and you think you might be sick.

Your stomach starts turning.

Your hands start to feel like spiders are crawling over them.

Your body goes cold and you start shaking.

Shakily, you sit back down; turning to face Hongjoong but, refusing to look at him.

He doesn’t like that.

“Look at me sweetheart, let me see those beautiful eyes.” You look at him. As sweet as his words are, his tone is sharp and commanding.

He’s daring you to disobey him, especially when he has you trapped like this.

“Why do you look so angry? Shouldn’t I be the angry one? After all, we spend an incredible and passionate night together and I wake up in the morning to find you gone. Poof, you disappear on me. You took all your shit and just left me.” He leans forward, his large eyes boring into yours.

Hongjoong isn’t going to let you get away , not this time.

You open your mouth, and nothing comes out. You’re beginning to hyperventilate.

“Oh, so you have nothing to say? Cute. I left you alone, thinking maybe you needed some time. Maybe the reason you were jumping all over the country was because you needed space to sort yourself out. I thought you’d come back and tell me what the hell you were thinking; running without so much as a goodbye.” His voice raises louder with sentence, until he’s red in the face and shouting at you.

He's demanding an answer from you.

“Hongjoong, I-“ He holds up his hand, leaning back in his chair.

The smile has returned but, this time he looks more crazed than happy.

“Don’t worry. We’ll have time to talk about all your little escapades while you were off galivanting and hiding from me. Just tell me one thing baby:” His voice is deathly quiet as he leans in close; he’s deceptively calm.

“Does it surprise you, that I always knew where you were?”

Your breathing picks up at that and you begin to panic.

Your body feels like you can’t enough air in and you begin to shake.

The fact that he always knew where you were and could have gotten to you at any time hits you like a truck.

“I set up this cute, little interview just to talk to you. Isn’t that sweet Y/N? Instead of tracking you down and ambushing and you possibly getting hurt in the process, I just thought why not have her come to me? I’m tired of waiting for you to come home. It’s time for you to come home.”

You shake your head, trying to think of a way to run and coming up short.

Hongjoong grabs your hand, making you stand up from your chair and leads you to the door.

Your mind is still reeling and you’re running on autopilot – you need to get away from him.

‘Come on Y/N! THINK! You’ve gotten away before, you can do it again.’

You remember that Hongjoong said he had men in the elevator, outside the door and in the lobby but, he said nothing about the stairwell.

Hongjoong leads you out, holding onto you loosely and you begin to think that he’s sure that he’s got you trapped.

As the elevator doors ding and open, you see Mingi inside it.

He’s tall and imposing, his face cold and stern. He barely spares you a glance as Hongjoong steps in the elevator before you. Now’s your chance.

Everything seemed to go in slow motion.

You pull your hand from his as the doors begin to close and bolt for the stairwell; ready to run all the way down.

“Shit.” Hongjoong immediately presses the button to open the door and charges after you.

You know you’ve only got a little advantage over him and you’re not going to let it go to waste. You kick of your shoes and rush down the stairs, hearing Hongjoong behind you.

You’ve made it down 2 floors when you run right into Jongho’s arms.

“Please let me go, I need to get out of here, please!” With panic rising fast, you do everything you can to get out of his hold; kicking, screaming and begging.

Pretty soon tears are running down your face as the terror really starts to set in.

“I can’t do that Y/N, you know that.” Jongho says without much emotion in his voice. He barely looks at you and doesn’t even seem to break a sweat as you struggle against his hold.

Hongjoong shows up soon after.

Once he’d heard you being caught by one of his men he slowed down, taking his time to get to you.

He was stalking towards you.

“Thanks, Jongho. It looks like our little escape artist isn’t done adventuring yet.” He’s furious.

Despite how calm he looks his eyes are blazing as he looks at you coldly.

“Please Hongjoong, Jongho. Please! Just let me leave! I haven’t told anyone anything. You know that, right? I’ve been quiet the whole time. I won’t say anything. Please just let me go. I just want a normal life.” He shakes his head, taking a bottle out of his pocket and a handkerchief. He doesn’t even hear your pleas. Jongho’s hold on you only tightens.

He grabs your arms to stop you from lashing out at Hongjoong.

“Let’s make sure, she can’t get away again.” Your struggling and begging is useless, As the chemical soaked ‘kerchief is placed over your nose and mouth, the only thought that runs through your mind is that you should have followed your gut instinct.

Let me know what you think and let me know if you want to be tagged for the next chapter! <3

REQUESTS ARE OPEN!

#ateez #ateez imagine #ateez reactions #hongjoong #ateez hongjoong #hongjoong imagines #hongjoong imagine #jongho #Mingi #kpop #kpop imagines #ateez mafia au #kpop mafia au #dont run from me

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 4 years ago

Link

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

December 4, 2020

Heather Cox Richardson

While coronavirus continues to burn across the country, Trump is focusing instead on continuing to contest the election results and on the Pentagon.

The main story in the country continues to be the coronavirus. As of tonight, according to the New York Times, more than 14,441,700 people in the U.S. have been infected with the virus and at least 278,900 have died. Official daily death counts are well over 2000.

As several states continue to count votes from the November election, President-Elect Joe Biden’s popular vote margin over Trump is now more than 7 million. Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada, Georgia, Arizona, and Michigan, all states in which Trump contested the vote, have already certified their election results for Biden. In all six of those states, judges have ruled that Trump’s lawyers have provided no evidence of fraud. They have used words like “baseless,” “flimsy,” “obviously lacking,” “dangerous,” and “not credible.”

Trump’s obsession with winning an election he has clearly lost has brought into relief the struggle for control over the Republican Party. Trump is clearly trying to turn the party into a vehicle for loyalty to him and him alone. He has always turned on those who no longer serve his interests: Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions was one of the first elected Republicans to support Trump’s 2016 presidential candidacy, giving it an air of legitimacy. He left the Senate to become Trump’s first Attorney General, only to have Trump turn against him when he recused himself from the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, because he had lied about his own contacts with Russians. Trump forced Sessions to resign, and when Sessions ran again for the Senate, endorsed his rival and attacked Sessions on Twitter. Sessions lost his primary.

Now Trump has turned on men who similarly sacrificed their careers for his. Three days ago, Trump’s loyalist Attorney General, William Barr, undercut Trump’s election fraud arguments when he said that he had not seen such fraud. This apparently so infuriated Trump that he is considering firing Barr. Then, this morning, Trump turned on loyalist Louis DeJoy at the head of the United States Postal Service, who removed mail sorting machines and changed USPS rules to slow mail-in ballots expected to be for Biden. Trump tweeted that the USPS “is responsible for tampering with hundreds of thousands of ballots” and thus stole the election from him. He called the USPS a “long time Democrat stronghold,” although DeJoy is a major Trump supporter and donor.

While Trump is talking about running again in 2024, his turning against his most loyal supporters in the Republican Party will not inspire others to rally to his banner. Instead, it may simply be that he’s keeping the idea of his candidacy alive because it keeps money flowing in. Since the election, he has raised more than $200 million in donations.

While he is fighting over the election results, Trump has done very little else except to replace civilian employees at the Pentagon with his own hand-picked loyalists. This is unusual in a lame duck period, when presidents usually try to smooth the transition to the next administration.

Far from trying to smooth that transition, Trump is making it as bumpy as possible. His appointee at the General Services Administration delayed the start of the transition for weeks. Now that Biden’s team finally has access to Trump’s people to learn about their planning for the rollout of the coronavirus vaccine, it turns out there hasn’t been much planning. Biden today noted that “There is no detailed plan that we’ve seen, anyway, as to how you get the vaccine out of a container, into an injection syringe, into somebody’s arm…. It's going to be very difficult for that to be done and it’s a very expensive proposition…. There’s a lot more that has to be done.”

Also disturbing is that the Trump administration has denied the Biden team access to U.S. intelligence agencies that are controlled by the Defense Department, including the National Security Agency (which is the nation’s largest U.S. intelligence service), the Defense Intelligence Agency, and other intelligence services with a global reach. The Biden folks have, though, been able to meet with their counterparts at the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The refusal of the Pentagon to meet with Biden’s people comes at a time when Trump has been shaking up personnel there. Immediately after the election, Trump fired his fourth Defense Secretary, Mark T. Esper, and replaced him with an acting secretary of defense, Christopher C. Miller. Miller, in turn, has presided over the installation of a number of Trump loyalists both in the Pentagon leadership and on the Defense Policy Board, a group of advisors who consult with the Defense Secretary on specific issues when asked. Pushed out were about a dozen advisers, including former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Henry Kissinger, as well as former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.

Today, there was another major purge at Defense, this time from the Defense Business Board, a nonpartisan group of about 20 volunteers from the business sector who are appointed to give business advice to Pentagon leaders. The White House threw nine people off the board—informing them with a terse email—including its chair, Michael Bayer. Trump replaced them with his former 2016 campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, and that year’s deputy campaign manager, David Bossie, among other loyalists. Both Lewandowski and Bossie are outspoken Trump supporters who have led the fight to contest the election.

So has another Trump nominee for a Pentagon post, Scott O’Grady, who has endorsed the idea that Trump won by a landslide and that Trump should declare martial law. Trump has nominated him to become an assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, overseeing operations in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Exactly what Trump is doing with this packing of the Defense Department is unclear. There are, though, three major issues on the table right now that may or may not be involved, but are worth keeping in mind.

The first is that Trump is trying to remove many U.S. troops from around the world before he leaves office, and had gotten serious pushback on that from the people he has now purged from the Defense Department. Today, he ordered nearly all of about 700 U.S. troops out of Somalia, where they have been training local soldiers to hold ground against terrorists. They will not come home, though; they are being sent elsewhere in Africa.

There is also still hanging out there the administration’s sudden announcement of a $23 billion sale of arms to the United Arab Emirates, including a number of advanced F-35 fighter jets and Reaper drones. Lawmakers of both parties object to this sale, concerned about risks to Israel and that the UAE could transfer the technology to China and Russia. The Senate will vote next week on banning the sale.

There is also the effort by the White House to force the Pentagon to lease its airwave spectrum to a private company, Rivada Networks, to create a nationwide 5G network. Rivada is backed by major Republican figures, including operative Karl Rove, but established Pentagon officials have little interest in the project, pointing out that there is no proof that Rivada knows what it’s doing or that the plan would be legal. It’s also not clear that the use of this spectrum for private carriers wouldn’t impact its use for national security. The Defense Department spectrum the White House would like to lease to private investors is worth between $50 and $75 billion.

I always believe in following the money, and that’s especially true now as Trump’s years in the White House, which have given him access to huge sums, are drawing to a close.

—-

[FROM COMMENTS]

Scott M. Krasner

I waver between bewilderment and rage when reading these daily summaries. I can almost "understand" his more political moves - installing loyalists, withdrawing troops, even trying to sell access to the Defense Department's wavebands. I don't agree or condone these actions, but they're consistent with his approach to governance to date.

What's comprehensible is ignoring - in any and every way - the coronavirus and its impact. Unconscionable doesn't begin to describe his failure to acknowledge the deaths of 280,000 Americans, or to endorse any means of protecting each other as best possible. It's inhumane. It's devoid of empathy, morally vacuous, and ethically deplorable. It is unequivocally and unalterably wrong.

And yet 74,000,000 thought it acceptable to return him to office. McConnell has personally obstructed any efforts to extend relief for 8 months and counting. It's Hobbseian in its social brutishness. Even Hobbes might be appalled. And Republican leadership is mute.

I'm almost beyond shock. Since the beginning, many thought each of Trump's transgressions would be the last straw, yet nothing happened. The only apparent imposition of accountability is his having lost the election. Court losses haven't swayed him. Our perverse campaign finance laws have given him license to steal despite the misleading fine print. His Cabinet, always incompetent for the task, is asleep, silent, or in on the game. Each day goes by with no visible effort to limit his efforts to salt the earth in advance of his successor. And Republican leadership ignores or enables him to proceed unhindered.

He's unmoored. He's looking to preemptively pardon family and loyalists who are most likely would be criminally liable but haven't yet been charged. His most ardent supporters are almost insane (read Giuliani and Powell) or seditious (read Flynn and Lin Wood). And still the Republican party watches with bloodless faces and dead eyed stares, saying not a word.

What is one to think? How does one explain this to children? How can one reason with any family, friends, or acquaintances who somehow believe Trump is in the right, brought low only by a grand, silent conspiracy of wrong minded citizens and foreign actors?

Perhaps history can look upon Trump's reign of terror more dispassionately. Today, however, I and many others feel like we're helpless, our minds and sensibilities best represented by the visage of horror in Edvard Munch's The Scream.

Linda Mitchell

Hannah Arendt's book (based on her reporting for The New Yorker), "Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil" encapsulates the issues TCinLA and the people who posted replies to it raise. I have read only bits of it but what she presents is a picture of evil that is stripped of glamour and that indicts everyone. As she says about Eichmann, "Except for an extraordinary diligence in looking out for his personal advancement, he had no motives at all." If you have access to JSTOR (you can read online for free but not download if you don't have access through a library) there is a great short article in The History Teacher (1981) that discusses Arendt and her book in clear and concise terms. https://www.jstor.org/stable/493684

Miller and most everyone else surrounding the Deranged Cheeto--including the criminal enablers in Congress--fit Arendt's description perfectly. They are not monsters. They are not (most of them) pathological narcissists. They are sterile, unoriginal, uncreative people who have decided that personal advancement through doing terrible things is fine with them. It is actually harder, in our modern world, to be a good person than to be an awful one. Empathy, emotional maturity, awareness, and wisdom all require effort on the part of the individual. One has to engage, one has to become self-aware, one has to be brutally honest with oneself. Evil simply requires reaching down to that lowest common denominator of the id: a desire for self-advancement by any means necessary.

This is why they all seem so petty, so puerile, so childish, so joyless. This is why their tantrums are so infantile. And this is why Biden and Harris seem, by contrast, so refreshingly mature, so willing to allow joy. Both have been radically affected by what Hegel referred to as the "slaughter-bench" of history. The subhumans surrounding the Unelected Ex-President have not got enough imagination to be affected by anything except their own hunger.

[LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN]

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#Letters From An American #Heather Cox Richardson #political #election 2020 #corrupt GOP #criminal GOP

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footyguru365 · 4 years ago

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A beginner’s guide to making a bet on football

All you want to recognise about soccer having a bet, the various soccer markets and the often confusing variety of odds and bets on offer

Football has been the most famous form of sports activities betting in current years inside the UK. The enterprise has grown to permit players to area a bet on a whole host of markets, with many bookmakers presenting special deals and aggressive odds.

The large quantity of matches way thousands of gamers bet on a huge range of different outcomes to attempt to beat the bookies.

Here, we run you thru what you want to realize approximately soccer betting so that you can cut through the confusion surrounding the markets.

A short creation to how betting works

Odds assist the bettor determine how probable an occasion is going to occur and what their capacity winnings could be. Bookmakers offer the percentages and you decide whether you need to guess on that marketplace. They are commonly proven as fractions (e.G. 2/1), but can now and again be shown as decimals (2.00) and you can decide that you favor to use. If the final results of an event is 2/1 and it wins you will win £2 for each £1 guess.

How football betting works

Thousands of soccer suits and markets are available to bet on each week. Bookmakers will provide odds at the chance of the outcome of a suit, consisting of the end result, the variety of corners and cards, person goalscorers and more.

There a number of vendors who could have unique gives and aggressive odds to try to provide you with the exceptional value wager.

Once the outcome of the event is showed and your wager is a winner, you'll be paid out your original stake plus the winnings from the chances.

Below we will run you via the most famous forms of bets on soccer.

Match Bet

The Match Bet is the handiest form of soccer making a bet wherein you will pick the end result of the soccer healthy. You can bet at the Home Team, Away Team or Draw. Remember, the wager is positioned for the 90- minute in shape. If they game ends in a draw after 90 minutes then Draw is the triumphing wager. Match Bets do no longer remember in extra -time or penalties.

Asian Handicap bet

An Asian Handicap guess is in which your bet has a “handicap” to overcome.

Each group is given both a + or a - on their scoreline. There are handiest consequences and if the sport ends in a draw the bettor gets returned their stake.

This is popular as the threat of a draw is probable, and so bettors have the hazard of triumphing their stake lower back. Here is an example:

If you wager on Arsenal at +1, you win in the event that they win by desires. You lose if they draw or lose. If Arsenal win with the aid of one intention then you definitely get your stake again.

If you guess on Standard Liege at +2, you may lose your guess if Liege lose via three or extra desires. If they lose through desires you’ll get your money returned and in the event that they lose via one aim, you will additionally win.

European Handicap bet

European Handicap is different from an Asian Handicap. For example, you could wager on one crew to win but deliver the opposite group a one aim benefit to increase the percentages.

You must get rid of or add a intention to whichever Handicap Bet you placed. Here is an example:

Arsenal (-1)

Handicap Draw (-1)

Standard Liege (+1)

You must remove one intention from something Arsenal score. If you guess on Arsenal and the result is 2-0 then your wager is a winner.

If you wager on Arsenal and it's miles 1-zero then your wager is a loser as as soon as the -1 handicap is taken into consideration the result is zero-zero.

You must dispose of one aim from whatever the draw end result is. If you guess on Draw and the result is 1-1 or higher then you will win your bet. If you guess on Draw and the result is 0-zero then your guess is a loser because of the handicap.

You need to add one purpose to something Standard Liege score. If the game ends 2-2 you then still win as Liege had a one aim benefit. If the result is 1-zero to Arsenal your bet is a loser as the end result could simplest be 1-1 with the +1 handicap.

Half Time/Full Time

You can guess on the result of the first half of and/or the second half of. You can bet on the Home Team, Away Team or Draw for one or both halves.

This means you could reduce the time had to win your guess to 45 minutes.

This bet is for the extra superior football fan who has prior expertise to indicate the groups who begin robust or weak or end a game strong or susceptible.

Knowing the beginning line-ups and whether or not key players are rested or out injured also can assist with determining this wager.

Double Chance

You can wager on two of the three outcomes of the healthy to boom your threat of prevailing. The combinations are:

Home Team or Draw

Away Team or Draw

Home Team or Away Team

If both of your mixtures wins you will be paid out. The odds are regularly decrease than making a bet on simply a healthy outcome as there's extra risk of prevailing but are precise for bettors who may want a higher hazard of winning.

Accumulators

Accumulators are amongsome of the most famous varieties of betting on soccer as you can win big pay-outs for small stakes.

An accumulator is extra than 4 selections, even as two choices is a -fold and 3 selections is a three-fold.

When you bet on an accumulator, you are betting at the outcome of multiple occasion.

So, for example, you may be having a bet on multiple football suit and this will be as many video games as you need, with the chances growing the greater groups and better odds you upload.

The stake multiplies for distinctive accumulators. An instance of this is picking five football suits for an accumulator and choosing singles might imply your stake might boom x5.

Goalscorer betting

You can bet on loads of consequences to do with goalscorers. You can bet on a player to be the primary and remaining scorer or to score anytime.

The odds for betting on first and remaining are extra than scoring any time as it's far less possibly to happen.

These bets may be proper for if a specific participant is on accurate shape or if a crew is a good deal higher than the opposite and it becomes in all likelihood a participant will score.

Scorecast/Score/Wincasts

A Scorecast is in which you are able to wager a goalscorer and the end result. For example, you can guess on Mohamed Salah to score and Liverpool to win, or guess the ideal rating Liverpool will win by.

This increases your odds as there's no multiple outcome to be determined. Some bookmakers will allow you to select the goalscorer in a Scorecast being first, ultimate or any time.

You can also simply guess on the rating of a in shape. You will choose the result you believe you studied will show up and if correct you may win your wager.

Over and Under making a bet

Bookmakers will deliver the bettor more than a few and they are able to expect the result to be both over that number or beneath it.

Most providers will use 2.5 as a base, because of this you are basically betting on whether there will be over three dreams or much less than 3 goals.

The purpose why there's a .five is that there may be no way for a team to score .five of a aim. This means that there will always be both one in all two outcomes on the bet.

The results can include dreams, cards, corners and more on some carriers.

Draw No Bet

This is where you wager at the final results of a in shape, however if it leads to a draw then you will get your stake again. However, this method the percentages will usually be decrease than other markets.

Next Manager and Player odds markets

Many bookies will offer unique odds on sure events that don't take area at the pitch.

The most famous is typically the first manager to be sacked, in which you guess on which coach can have their contract terminated at some point of the path of the season.

There is then Next Manager Odds, where you wager which manager will take over a membership.

There are also player markets which include subsequent membership for a participant or top goalscorer where you pick out a player to deliver on an final results.

You can maintain an eye out on exceptional bookmakers’ websites to peer what they must provide.

How to find cost when having a bet on football/In-Play making a bet

The first issue to do not forget is that there's no positive bet in football. You can do as a lot research and feature as a whole lot information on a recreation but there is nonetheless room for shock outcomes.

This is why you need to use your know-how to bet on soccer to decide which game and which bet you would love to make.

It is also why In-Play markets are considered one of the first-class approaches to peer price in a bet. An instance is that a crew had been attacking for the past five minutes of a game and look near scoring, so you can guess on Next Team To Score. There are similar markets for subsequent goalscorer, card, corner and throw-ins.

The simplest bets which include Match Bet and goalscorer markets will suit much less skilled bettors as will the usage of the bets with less chance along with Draw No Bet.

You need to best ever guess at the markets and at the leagues and groups you recognize or you danger wasting cash as you do now not know if the guess has price.

For example, a soccer fan who watches the Premier League every week would be more suited to having a bet on the league he knows rather than taking a punt on a random league somewhere else inside the global that they do no longer know.

Summary

Football Betting Tips has large accessibility and the variety of markets on provide mean that it is simple to get started out.

The market can appear daunting to start with however once began you may see there isn't always as a lot confusion as first thought.

There is a lot of fun available having a bet on the heaps of soccer video games played around the international – so long as you stick to betting on what you understand.

Picking out excellent value bets is the fine manner to win cash and keep away from the frustration of losing.

Now you may upload to the exhilaration of football by way of betting on it, however don't forget to gamble responsibly.

#Football Betting Tips #Bet of the Day #Correct Score Betting Tips

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security · 5 years ago

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Tumblr’s Bug Bounty Program, 6 years later...

Around this time back in 2013, we celebrated the launch of our self-hosted Security Bug Bounty program, which was directly accessible on tumblr.com. Though we’ve always meant to, we just never got around to sharing many details about the program with you. Now that you’re here, join us for a stroll down memory lane.

Self-Hosted Bug Bounty

When we first launched, the submission form wasn’t the prettiest. It looked like something you’d expect a backend-engineer writing HTML and CSS for the first time to generate, but it got the job done!

Submissions would come through an internal ticketing system that would send us an email. We’d reply, triage if valid, but generally have a pretty stressful time internally, because we considered even the smallest report to be a critical vulnerability.

Our definition of what was in scope was quite narrow and rigid, and our payout scale was very low in comparison to some of the other public programs that were coming out at the time ($1000 for critical!). But, our lower payout was a conscious choice: Our program explicitly stated that we wanted people to participate if they wanted to help improve security, not just because they wanted to make a living.

We caught on, possibly years too late, that higher payouts were better. When a researcher has spent their time looking into the security of Tumblr, helped discover a vulnerability, and then responsibly disclosed it to us, we should be paying them fairly for helping to protect Tumblr! It was laughable to reward $100 and a "Thank You"—for protecting all of our users against a potentially wormable XSS vulnerability.

We shifted our payouts up a bit; they still weren’t very high for the industry, but we were happier knowing that we were doing what we could to help support the community of researchers. We also realized that our self-hosted approach wasn’t going to scale well. If we wanted to keep improving, we would need to change things up a bit.

Private Bug Bounty

And so, in early 2018, we launched a private program on the HackerOne platform. It was initially limited to 100 invited hackers while we got our bearings within the system. We learned pretty quickly that this shiny new tool was amazingly more advanced than what we were used to—it alone had us responding faster.

We grew to just over 1,000 invited hackers within a few months. We were receiving at least double the number of reports we had been getting from our self-hosted program, which was also still active. In short, things were looking very promising for our public launch in September 2018.

We also bumped up our payout scale for our private program. It was like money was raining from the sky for anyone who wanted to explore the depths of Tumblr! On our end, the learning continued, as we found that canned, email-style responses weren’t the norm. Some researchers are extremely knowledgeable, while others blatantly ignore program policies, and no matter how much we expanded the scope of our program, we were told it was still too limited!

Then, in September 2018, we held a Live Hacking Event that was hugely successful (A++, would do again). The goal was to launch our program to the public immediately after.

There and back again

Tumblr’s bug bounty program did go public shortly after our Live Hacking Event, but in a different way than anticipated: We merged our HackerOne program with that of our parent company at the time, Verizon Media (VZM). While the program itself was a success, and we still received reports, we ended up losing some of the progress and growth we had achieved in our own program.

For one, we lost the ability to manage our own tickets at Tumblr and had to rely on the triage teams at HackerOne and VZM. These interactions were often great, but our efforts to shorten response times were being throttled by third parties. Additionally, the huge scope that was available under the VZM program meant that researchers' visibility into Tumblr’s assets was restricted, which in turn reduced our ticket volume substantially.

That said, the perks of having a merged program were pretty great. Communication was consistent between tickets because there was a defined runbook for everything. The payout scale, yet again, was increased from what we previously offered. We had visibility into the inner workings of a much larger bug bounty program. We were invited to other Live Hacking Events and talked to a lot of awesome folks who dealt with bug bounties at a much, much larger scale than what we were used to.

When Automattic bought Tumblr, our bug bounty program was destined to separate from VZM’s. Even without access to managing our own tickets, the number of processes and capabilities we learned from the VZM team was enormous, and we’ll always be thankful.

Public Launch!

In October 2019, we finally launched our public program on HackerOne! Our ticket volume suddenly quadrupled from what it had been when we were private, and we've already received hundreds of reports in such a short time.

Using what we learned under VZM’s program, we’ve expanded our program policy. Now, everything that's public at Tumblr is in scope. We’ve set up a custom SSRF server for researchers to target during testing, and we’re going to expand tools just like that in the future, too. We also try to be as open and communicative to reporters as possible, as hurting Reputation or Signal is one of the last things we want to do.

Since the first few months have passed, the initial waves of reports have slowed down a bit, but we’re still very enthusiastic at being autonomous and interacting with the community in an efficient and successful program.

Operational efficiency

Our response statistics have continued to improve over the years. It used to take us days to respond to researchers, whereas our average response time is now within an hour of receiving a report. Remediation has always been a priority for us. Even as response times decrease, the time-to-remediation has remained low, with incidents usually being completed on the day we receive and triage the report.

It has taken many iterations of our program—both internally and externally—to achieve our current efficiency stats. We used to copy and paste common responses from a central repository, but are now able to rely on HackerOne’s inline tooling. And don’t get us started on how helpful triggers are! Also, by leveraging their Slack integration, we can receive report notifications in real-time, as opposed to relying on email and hoping no one else is already replying to the same report.

We still use the HackerOne platform directly instead of their API, but even so, our process is very efficient. At the end of the day, it’s the community that’s helping Tumblr, so we want to make sure it’s a great experience for researchers, too. We may not be able to reduce our response times further, but we’re certainly going to try!

What’s next?

Going into 2020 with a new parent company, we’re planning to merge our program into Automattic’s. Both programs have proven successful, and we’re looking forward to learning from one another and making both as great as possible!

We’ll be launching more helpful tools and information for reporters to use, which will help make successes more noticeable. We’ll also continue to highlight new Tumblr features and services as they become available throughout the year, so that researchers have an idea of good places to target.

We’re excited for what's to come and look forward to working with everyone in the future!

Submit a report!

#tumblr #security #bug bounty

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abthepoet · 5 years ago

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"Despite the current skirmish, in the long run, the job crisis and economy will favor big monopolistic companies, such as Amazon. The company will exert more power and control over its workers. As more people become unemployed, there will be an overflow of applicants for jobs at the giant online retailer. With a vast amount of potential job applicants, the existing and newly hired workers will have much less bargaining leverage. "

We👏🏻Can👏🏻Not👏🏻Allow👏🏻This👏🏻Bullshit👏🏻

So please, allow me to summarize. This article by Forbes is basically stating we can all kiss the leverage had by the common worker goodbye once Covid19 subsides since Companies will have hundreds of thousands of the unemployed all scrambling for the same job. This article goes on to cite the gentleman who organized the Amazon Walk Out in Staten Island, Chris Smalls, has since been fired by Amazon and Amazon's PR group is intending to portray him to the media as a stupid, inarticulate, moron to be the face of all union organizers during this crisis. Effectively mocking and threatening all other workers who dare share this sentiment. The corporations keep saying they want to protect you when they only thing they're interested in protecting is a profit margin.

Corporations and monopolies are BANKING on all of us unemployed by this crisis to become groveling wage slaves just grateful to have a job, their jobs. They expect us to have no bargaining power for Basic Human Rights. They expect all the power to favor large monopolies.

In no way, shape, or form can we allow this to happen. We can not watch our economy collapse as billionaires try to harass us back into their brick and mortar so we can keep churning out profits to power their summer vacations. and of those profits we see pennies. we work sick, injured, during times of grief and loss, All Just to provide Basic Human Needs each and every one of us was born needing. Let us not forget the entire reason this economy is so frail in the first place is because of the gross inequalities that deny you a living wage and health care, but keep billionaires bailed out.

We can never allow the model of Capitalism to tear our species apart again. It makes us compete with each other for access to basic resources like food, clothing, and shelther. Capitalism legit has people out here doing Shipt and Instacart, spreading the virus and exposing themselves to it for simple food money. The people with paid leave and work from home jobs arent the ones out there delivering groceries right now, its the already vulnerable, no health care having, paycheck to paycheck living poor bastards out there in a pandemic.

but history teaches us they've always let the poor make up the front lines. You're not essential, you're disposable. They know you can't afford to stay home. They know you're too scared to stay home because your government has conveniently given no moratorium on rent.

The fear they instill in you by threatening the security of your family and shelther is intentional. It ensures you stay stuck in survival mode and look out for yourself alone. You can't contemplate the situation and its inequality if you can't even feed yourself enough food to think straight. You can't risk helping someone else if you're afraid you'll lose too.

and I must address the poor, disenfranchised people who defend billionaires. I keep hearing people put themselves down while gassing up billionaires. For example, "I can't hate on a billionaire who just worked harder than me." First of all, I find this internalized poverty mentality to be similar to the concept of internalized homophobia. . . Our culture teaches us to look at poor people like dirt: like failures of their own merit. They tell us the capitalist American dream can be met by anyone, unfettered by circumstance. But this is simply not the case.

For example, Jeff Bezos was able to attend Princeton University: an Ivy League school with a rich history of elitism. Lets just consider the financial status his family had to have just to send him there for four full years. Which means his adolescence and childhood were most likely not characterized by poverty, a huge determining factor in childhood development and success. Which means he may have had access to tutors, better schools, early technology, clean clothes, and consistent hot meals. Even with a scholarship, it's Princeton University, it's not a cheap school to attend. Consider the benefits of being an Alumni of Princeton. Think of all the powerful people in business that are now part of your network, all just for being a Princeton Alum. These Ivy League connections no doubt proved useful throughout Bezos' career.

Yet the average, paycheck to paycheck worker has this belief that they too can be a billionaire if they had just worked like Jeff Bezos. If they would've had his motivation. Or his drive. If they could just be more like Jeff that would solve everything. But it won't. Because this is a rigged game of Monopoly where you start out with far less and are expected to play the exact same game. How are you going to win a game that favors property owners when you can't even pay the Utilities you just landed on? That $200 you got for passing Go, the same $200 everyone gets, doesn't feel very equal when the other players started out with a few grand, and you are forced to spend the only $200 you have to pay rent to the property you just landed on. Which means by your next roll, you'll be mortgaging yourself into debt with whatever crappy properties you were able to buy.

We are at a crossroads in human history. If we don't figure out how to unite instead of constantly competing with one another and judging then the corporations and the politicians will continue to run this country into the ground for the sake of greed.

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firstpuffin · 5 years ago

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Dealing with overpowered antagonists:

-Note: haha- whoops. I meant to add an image but forgot, leaving only the note reminding me to do so.

Always triple proof-read your stuff to save yourself from embarrassment!

If you enjoy any kind of fantastic action story, whether it be peacekeepers in space, superheroes in New York or Vampires on a flat-earth atop the backs of four elephants, it is likely that at some point you will come across an overpowered antagonist. This enemy may be the man in the high tower pulling all of the strings or just a henchman too dumb to make plans; he can’t be hurt and he has greater raw power than the hero, but somehow he needs to be defeated (by the way, I’m using the old fashioned “he” rather than mess around with confusing specific gender-neutral pronouns; it’s just practical).

An example of this and the one that inspired this piece is Doomsday from the recent “Death of Superman” cartoon movie and is my bad example of how to write an overpowered villain. A reasonably comparable- erm, comparison in world, power levels and characters is from Japan; the recently finished (or on hiatus) series Dragon Ball Super did an overpowered antagonist reasonably well. Keep in mind I’m not saying Japan does this better, it’s just a coincidence.

I’m sure everybody knows Superman but I’ll briefly cover Dragon Ball to give non-nerds context. Like Superman, Dragon Ball started off as a comic book series (manga to those who get pissy about terminology) that has also been animated; the latest series is called Dragon Ball Super. The hero, Son Goku, is an alien sent from a dying planet and who gains godlike powers. I’ll point out that while Goku’s powers are innate, unlike Superman he has accessed them through rigorous training rather than convenient exposure to the sun and he is in no way a hero of justice. He’s already very strong but he transforms his body to get stronger and, through what’s become a gag in the fandom, he has about six transformations; he actually has more depending on what you count but six is the minimum. You may have seen the meme “this isn’t even my final form”: you can thank Dragon Ball for that.

Goku and Supes have been compared again and again and fans frequently (and kind of pathetically) fight over which is stronger; I’m not going to get involved in that as I know Goku really well, but Superman barely at all. I bring all of this up because the similarities and comparisons allow for a really interesting analysis of their antagonists.

First of all, let’s look at Doomsday. I mean, I’d rather not as he’s ugly as sin. Now that the bad joke’s over let’s actually say something of value: Doomsday is this huge grey-skinned, red-eyed (real original guys) and white-boned monstrosity. I say white boned because he has what appear to be pointed bones sticking out from all over him. From what I can grasp he is some sort of mutant Kryptonian without a mind or intelligence and that just destroys. There’s not much else to say besides that he appears to be a stronger version of Superman, minus intelligence.

The antagonist in Dragon Ball Super is called Jiren the Grey and he is- well he’s grey-skinned. Don’t ask me, naming-schemes might be different in Japan. Anyway, Jiren is an alien with grey-skin, big black-eyes and no hair. It’s never stated what species he is or how innately strong they are, but the dude is huge, like absolute unit huge. He is intelligent but appears lacking in the personality department, generally being quiet. Like Goku, his strength has been achieved through training although he doesn’t transform.

Let’s return to Doomsday and the subject at hand. Doomsday wanders around destroying everything until he meets Supes who is almost his match. The two fight for a long time with Superman losing ground until it is clear that he is being overwhelmed. Superman’s punches don’t do enough while Doomsday’s punches hurt. Supes tries everything he can, flight, heat vision, punching harder. But it reaches the point where the Hall of Justice is ruined and a broken Superman is being thrashed; Lois decides to yeet a stone at Doomsday who seems as fresh as a wild daisy and if I know the character well enough then it’s probably stronger than when the fight started. Seeing Lois in danger, Superman- kills Doomsday. Just like that. He fly-punches Doomsday’s head in a 180.

It comes out of nowhere and there is no reason for it. Yes, watching a man who can fly and shoot lasers requires the suspension of disbelief, but that only goes so far. Supes being able to outrun the sound of a speeding bullet is internally consistent within the world and we begin by accepting that. We know he is weak to kryptonite and being punched really, really hard, and that he gathers strength from the sun. And, in the name of being internally consistent, we see him being punched really, really hard at night when the sun is out and being unable to reciprocate. Even suspending our disbelief, just going by what we’ve seen in the movie so far, Superman should not have been able to beat Doomsday by just punching harder.

So what about Dragon Ball? Some more background, there are twelve universes that exist and ten fighters from eight of these universes are having a battle royale in the “Tournament of Power” and it has been established that there is a character who even the gods can’t match: Jiren the Grey. From the moment we see him he is calm and strong. Throughout the tournament he rarely acts and when he does he pulls off amazing feats: he tosses a berserk character who Goku was struggling with off of the stage, he deflects attacks with a look and blows a fighter out of the ring with the air pressure from a punch.

When he eventually fights Goku, who is the only person strong enough to actually put up a struggle, he overwhelms him. I’ll admit, the execution is trite and uninteresting (it’s boring and silly seeing someone block an attack with a finger; don’t do that), but it’s shown that Goku doesn’t stand a chance. Now Goku has been training under an angel in order to fight the gods (I know, sounds weird, right?) and he’s been training to do some martial arts thing where the body acts before the mind can think, and during the fight this training begins to manifest. This is shown before the tournament, as is the fact Goku’s species, known as Saiyans, are born fighters and will become more skilled as they do so; this is all internally consistent and matches what the viewers have already accepted.

Goku and Jiren fight three times and the only reason that Goku doesn’t lose the first time is because of Jiren’s arrogance. He gives Goku time to rest (twice) and to get a hang on the skills that had started to manifest during their fight, skills which he perfects during the final fight. Now I’ll admit that things don’t totally make sense: Goku learns to let his body react intuitively, speeding up his movement, and yet this causes him to transform again? This seems a bit contrived, and yet it uses what we already know: the Saiyan race can transform.

I can justify this by saying that it’s more than him reacting to attacks, his body as a whole is acting according to decades of training and transforming, and this manifests through the perfect transformation. I came up with this because it matches what the story has told us. Goku wins because of what they have told us for a long, long time. But you know what? Goku doesn’t win with this new power.

Goku has worn down Jiren when the new transformation’s side effects kick in and he loses the power as the muscle strain nearly cripples him. He then has to fight alongside two of his teammates to defeat this weakened Jiren.

The reason why Jiren’s defeat is so good is that it relies on things that we have known and has been established within the story; it’s internally consistent. Now I have to admit, Dragon Ball Super is a series that lasted a few years and is tagged on the end of another decades long series, and The Death of Superman is a couple hour long movie. This certainly gives Dragon Ball the advantage of time, but that doesn’t hugely matter.

It’s more than possible to set up a weakness in the early minutes of a movie, or better yet throughout the movie. Show that Doomsday has a weak neck; maybe see his bone-protrusions pierce Superman’s skin but are fragile and break off. Supes can yank out a shard from his own stomach and stab Doomsday. Maybe being a Kryptonian monster he also has a weakness to Kryptonite. Maybe… anything. It doesn’t have to be hours of our hero training to get stronger, just don’t pull a stronger punch out of your arse.

#first puffin #fiction #fantasy #science fiction #superman #superhero #antagonist #comics #DC comics #son goku #saiyan #dragon ball super #dragon ball #dragon ball z #doomsday #jiren the gray #storytelling #thosetagswilldofornow

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realtrafficsource · 6 years ago

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The Best SEO Tips For Quick And Fast Results

If you’re looking for the best SEO tips to get you started down the path towards quick results and efficient website strategy then here’s what you need! I’ve put together the best information, gathered from years of hands-on experience, testing different tactics and trying various strategies. These are the best practices that will enable you and your website to reach a new level, or to get off the ground running right away.

Our best SEO tips

1. Keyword Basics: The most important thing with keywords for your website is that you have to begin the process with proper research. Take advantage of free tools and services at your disposal such as the Google Adwords tool, and consider paying for more advanced and detailed programs.

Remember that keyword density is a thing of the past, there is no density you should be opting for. Instead, focus on natural inclusion of your targeted keywords, working them in where possible without doing it excessively.

Note: The fastest results are seen in targeting a larger number of lower level competitive terms.

2. Create Great URLS: There are many steps that go into creating great URLs. Starting from the beginning, you should pick a domain name that is short, memorable and includes your most important keyword phrase. While hyphens are acceptable, more than two begins to get excessive and spam-like.

For your individual page names, also include a relevant keyword, so that each URL looks something like www.your-main-keyword.com/targeted-page-keyword.html. When possible, avoid using session IDs and other dynamic page variables that add a lot of unnecessary junk to your page URLs.

Note: If you already have a site that you cannot adjust the page structure to accommodate keywords in your URLs, then consider buying additional domains (building mini sites) to support various segments within your niche. These additional mini sites will drive traffic to your main domain.

3. Find Long Tail Keywords: Long tail keywords often are the secret to great search engine rankings. Long tail keywords include at least three words, and when you find ones related to your niche you will be facing much less competition. Additionally, the traffic you see as a result will be much more effectively targeted, ensuring you see better results.

Note: Add longer tail keywords into your URL will help as well (see #2). Do a quick search and you will see most “experts” agree that the buyers are found with the Long Tail Terms. Boost your earnings through driving more of the right type of traffic….buyers!

4. Use Latent Semantic Indexing: Latent semantic indexing, or LSI, is the process of including related keywords and phrases to your main phrases in order to boost your site’s value in the search engines. So if your site was about coffeemakers, you can include other related words, ranging from coffee makers to iced coffee and organic coffee and on down the list to help boost your rankings. This will also keep your site from appearing as spam, as you won’t just be reusing the same keywords over and over again.

Secrte best SEO tips: The more content you have on your site about the general topic, the better your site will do for the specifics within that niche. That’s how a site becomes an authority on a topic.

5. Get Smart with Internal Links: Many websites don’t properly use their internal links to their own advantage. However, it’s an easy way to help each of your pages gain a higher and more targeted ranking in the search engines. Be sure to include each page’s main targeted keyword or phrase in internal links pointing to it, and always be sure to reference your other pages with links within your site’s content when appropriate.

Example: You sell a type of Coffee maker. Make sure that anyplace that keyword is found on your site that it is linked to the specific product profile page. This helps the individual profile page rank higher in the search engines.

6. Dive into PPC: Whereas other SEO strategies take time to work, pay-per-click advertising is a great way to see instantaneous results. Start running a campaign for your website, backed up with all of the keyword research you have already done. Begin small, as costs can quickly get out of hand if you don’t know what you’re doing. Experiment with different ads, different bidding strategies and different targeted keywords until you start to see consistent results, then pick up the pace and run larger campaigns.

Note: One sure way to confirm that the keywords you’re targeting with your SEO efforts will drive the right type of traffic is to pay to get them their 1st. If they don’t buy then target a different keyword phrase.

7. Optimize your Images: Always include an ALT tag for your images that describes what the image is – with targeted keywords and phrases. This ensures that people who can’t see images see something in their spots, but this also helps you get found in image based searches. Additionally, try naming your images with a keyword in the filename, as in, targetedkeyphrase1.jpg.

Note: Don’t overdo it. Some people will read that and then force a bunch of keywords in every image on their site. The idea is to do what you would typically do but this time do it “right”. If the image is relevant – name it something relevant. Oh, and also, if it is a button or something else that isn’t relevant to your niche, name it something with numbers, as in, 1010101.jpg.

8. Optimize your Title Tag: Many people think that anything they put in their title tag will be sufficient but this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Your page title provides an excellent opportunity to boost your rankings, as well as draw people into your site to see more visitors.

To begin with, your title should be kept short, no more than 60 or 70 characters in length. Also, ensure that every page has its own unique title, instead of merely listing your site’s name on all of them. Work your targeted keywords into the title and be sure to be more descriptive and exciting than just labeling a page as “Home” or “About Us”.

Secret best SEO tips: When giving each page its own title, try and include product model or product names to help drive targeted traffic..

9. META Tag Notes: The META Keywords tag is no longer used by Google for ranking, although other search engines may still make use of it. More important are the META Title and META description tags. Keep your title to 70 characters or less, and keep your META description to 160 characters or less, anything more will just get cut off by the search engines. Of course, remember to include your targeted keywords in these META tags.

Secret best SEO tips: The META description is what the searcher will read in the organic listing so try and make it sound compelling and give the searcher a reason to click on your site.

10. Link Building, What Not to Do: Many people go in the entirely wrong direction when it comes to link building. For example, buying links or participating in a link farm is a strategy that’s doomed from the get-go. You should also avoid low quality, spammy directories and you must understand that tactics like link exchanges, blog commenting and forum posting have all been devalued as compared to how they used to be viewed. Also remember that when you build thousands of links in a few days, you will stand out as unnatural.

Note: It’s best to build links over time from high value sites. Think of sites that are in your niche that you consider the highest value and work directly with them to get a link to your site (can link out to them – see below).

11. Link Building, What you Should Do: Submitting to high quality, respected directories such as DMOZ (it’s very hard to get accepted), Best of the Web and others can pay huge dividends. You should link out to your niche authorities to help boost your own reputation, and you should focus on providing catchy, unique and engaging content that serves as “link bait” for your site. Social networks can be beneficial when used in the right fashion.

Secret best SEO tips: Link Bait is content that is so good that people want to talk about it. One way to do this is provide content that is controversial.

12. Don’t Forget Canonicalization: If you want to maximize your search engine results while also improving your ability to track your site’s traffic, then you need to ensure that your pages aren’t being counted more than once. Your home page may be coming up in different ways as http://yourdomain.com, http://www.yourname.com and http://www.yourdomain.com/index.html. This can confuse the search engines and impact your tracking stats. Use 301 redirects to move your pages to one home page, and fix any issues with other pages on your site as well.

Secret best SEO tips: Talk to your techie about implementing this strategy. WordPress has a great plug-in for this that makes it really easy….yet another reason why I LOVE WordPress.

13. Stick with HTML: The benefits of JavaScript and other program languages are lost when they aren’t searchable in the search engines. Everything you do you want to be helping your cause of ranking highly, which means sticking to easily accessed HTML for your website. Avoid overcomplicating your site with excess forms, frames of any kind, or any code that isn’t searchable.

Note: As I stated in #12, I love WordPress. Why, well one of the main engineers at Google said it best, “WordPress does 80-90% Google loves without changing a setting”. If you haven’t already I would look for ways to use WordPress in your business.

Like I said at the start of this list. Go through each item and check it off. If you are doing each of these then you’re doing most of what’s required to get good SEO scores. Stay tuned for our next email with more tips and strategies on what you can do to boost your SEO rankings!

View best SEO tips article here:

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#IFTTT #WordPress #realtrafficsource

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beardyallen · 6 years ago

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Well, that went quickly...

What day is it? I’m starting to lose track of how long I’ve been here...

Well, it’s been a week since my last post, and it seems that a lot must have happened, but honestly I feel like I’ve just been cranking through a bunch of comic books.

But I do know that Friday and Saturday involved a good deal excitement, so I guess we had might as well pick up pretty much where we left off!

Last Friday was Orientation for ICB, which meant getting all of the 35-40 instructors, 10 staff members, and the 6-8 people in charge of this program together in a room to introduce us to...basically what we’d been doing all that week. Also, aside from a couple study-abroad-undergrads and my officemate and me, everyone there had probably already heard the spiel.

It was scheduled from 5p-6p with a buffett afterwards, but a bunch of the Communications people from my floor were going out to eat (again?) afterwards, so I made plans with NR. She wanted to try this Mexican restaurant in what I’ll describe as the “international district” of Beijing. Most everything around us when we got there looked like it belonged in literally every metropolitan area in the world. Every major brand you can imagine had a store. Multiple. Too many...

But the Mexican restaurant we visited is owned and managed by a Mexican expat, apparently. He even stopped by our table to ask how the food was, and let me tell you: that quesadilla was the BOMB!!! And the margarita was pretty good (not as good as MHO’C’s, though!). By the time we finished up dinner, it was kind of late, so we wondered around the shopping center, found a bookstore. You know: the usual.

Fun fact: when a store or restaurant wants to indicate to their patrons that they are getting ready to close, they play smooth jazz and turn the lights down. Like for real. Had their not been windows open to the pavilion outside with it’s hundreds of light displays, I would have been seriously concerned when the lights in the place just went out and Kenny G popped up on the speakers.

We entertained the idea of finding the cinema nearby to see Alita Battle Angel, but during the 15 minutes that we spent wondering around in search of the complex, it seemed to elude us. Plus it was getting close to that time when the subway shuts down, and I wasn’t exactly hankering for a taxi ride this early in my stay....if at all.

The next morning, I got up early to meet back up with NR at the National Museum near the Forbidden City. Now, for the most part, the stairs I get don’t bother me. But I will say, if you’re going to stair at the pasty white guy with a hard-to-describe-its-color-accurately-beard, maybe don’t do it when you’re going 15 mph on a bike, facing in the wrong direction! *sigh.....Some people’s kids...

But what really bothered me, especially at the time, was the father-of-three who straight-up filmed me on his phone from 5 feet away for a solid 6 minutes, three hallways, and two escalators! I get it, I’m funny looking. But I really think I a picture would have done just fine...

One of the things that bothered me the most about that experience was that (a) he had a shit-eating grin plastered on his face, (b) his daughters seemed rather embarrassed, (c) he filmed me with the screen aimed at me so I could watch myself on his phone, (d) there was text on the screen, and (e) it went on for a solid 6 minutes.

In hindsight, I was wearing sunglasses and a hat, in a subway system, in the morning, heading to the center of Beijing. Maybe he thought I was a celebrity? I had spoken to a Communications graduate student the other day who happens to be black, and he told me the story of how a citizen here pull out their phone with a picture of Samuel L. Jackson on it, and gestured to him as it to ask if it were him...even though SLJ is for sure at 70 years old and this kid is no more than 35. And he looks 25. #smh

Anyway, after dealing with whatever the hell that was, I got to visit the museum! They, for whatever reason, were not allowing people to bring their charging blocks into the museum (external battery that you can use to charge your cell phone and other devices on-the-go), but more surprising to me was just how many people carried one with them! At least, it was surprising until I took a moment to think about it. As I’ve mentioned before, basically every payment made in Beijing is through WeChat, which needs internet access, so I guess it shouldn’t be too surprising. You also really can’t navigate through the city with some sort of Maps app; there are just too many bus routes, train routes, terminals and stops to keep logged in your head.

As far as the museum itself goes, the gifts to China from foreign governments exhibit and the Ancient China exhibit themselves took most of the day. Also, no surprise: the gift that took up the most floor space was given by a U.S. President. I also got a refresher in 8th Grade Social Studies. Too many small countries to remember all of them, and that space made me feel somewhat moronic.

The Ancient China exhibit was exceptional, though. They broke up the last, oh...750,000 years of human-ish life in China into 8-10 separate eras, the first few cataloguing the life and evolution of Homo erectus pekinensis into Homo sapien, while the latter eras were segregated dynastically. I��ve never seen the progression of human evolution laid out in such detail! The rock tools became better rock tools, then pottery and paper, stamps, buildings and so much more! There were even ceremonial helmets that would put the Juggernaut to shame!

It was strange, though, to have all of this knowledge just beyond my fingertips both literally and figuratively. The literal sense isn’t too shocking, as I’ve been to a museum before and know not to touch the pieces, but to have placards written in a language that would take years to learn was frustrating. Fortunately, NR has a never-ending supply of patience, and she translated much of the text. She even quizzed me on several of the characters. I’ve worked out how to write “rock” for sure.

After the museum, we wondered over to a nearby mall that, honestly, puts the Mall of America to shame. No joke. This place was huge! It just kept going and going and going! There was a particular alley that has all of the “exotic foods” that you might see on The Amazing Race, which I haven’t tried yet but intend to, but the rest is mostly-outdoor shopping center. Our reason for being there was to find food (we had been in the museum for a bit over 7 hours), and then sit our fine asses down in a movie theater to watch Alita.

We found a restaurant that served food traditionally found where NR grew up. It was exceptional. And the beer just made it better. :P

The movie experience was something else entirely. I’ve gotten used to watching television and movies with subtitles so that, when people decide to talk to me, I can follow along with both bits. Or if people are just talking near me while I’m watching television, I don’t have to rewind the show. That helped a lot; the movie was still spoken in English, but there were Chinese subtitles. I recognized the Chinese character for “1″ frequently enough, but that was about it.

The movie itself was way more than I expected. I shouldn’t be surprised, given that one of the primary characters is played by Christoph Waltz. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should definitely consider it.

Also, additional fun fact: I’m thinking that most (if not all) showings of major motion pictures here are in 3D. *shrug* Side note: we’re going to see Captain Marvel tomorrow and I’M SO FREAKIN’ EXCITED!!!!

After the movie, we wandered back to the subway station and parted ways mid-subway-ride to head home. The next day I spent playing Kingdom Hearts 3 and sipping some beer in the 3rd Floor Lounge. All day. It was blissful.

This workweek has consisted of four main things: teaching responsibilities, a bit of dissertation work, trying out another one of the cafeterias on campus, and reading comic books. Oh, and beer. But that kind of goes without saying, doesn’t it? There’s a convenience store on the other side of the building in front of the Guest House that has cans of beer. You can buy them individual for 3 yuan, or roughly 45 cents. I won’t lie to you: I bought 12 of them and it didn’t cost me more than 6 bucks. And it’s really not bad, and even more convenient than the liquor store I lived by in Denver.

Anyway, as I said, I’m going to see Captain Marvel tomorrow, then to “W-Town” (originally Watertown...so glad they shortened it...) in northern Beijing, which sits at the base of part of the Great Wall. More than 20 people from ICB will be heading up to their on Saturday, so I imagine one of them will take pictures. Probably ML or S. So you’ll have those to look forward to since you know I won’t be taking any!

Oh!!! I almost forgot the biggest thing that happened this week! Actually, it might be the biggest news of my entire stay!!!

I did laundry.

And I washed my slippers. I’m not convinced that they’ve stopped smelling, but I’m holding out hope that I’ve finally figured out how to resolve an issue that I know humanity has been seriously struggling with for decades. I’m on the verge of a breakthrough, people, I swear!

Anyway, time to finish this beer, read a bit more of Scott Lynch’s Republic of Thieves (WE FINALLY FIND OUT ABOUT SABETHA!!!!), and head to bed. Big couple of days ahead...

Sláinte,

BeardyAllen

P.S. I bet you thought I was gonna forget! After class on Wednesday, I worked out how to make a phone call from here to the States to wish my Mom a Happy BIrthday. Caught her at work, and we got to chat for a good long while. It really put a nice cap on my evening, and it seemed it gave her a good start to her day. Anyway, I hope you had a great evening, found something nice at C&B and enjoyed that glass of wine you mentioned! Love you!!

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glitterarygetsit · 6 years ago

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Hi! I hope you are doing well. I have been following you a long time and I remember you saying awhile ago that you have seasonal depression. I have depression in general but I definitely feel the change of seasons especially when the days are shorter. Do you have any tips for getting through the winter and dealing with seasonal symptoms? I am taking vitamin D but I don't really notice a difference. I have thought of trying one of those therapy lights but am skeptical. Thanks for your time!

Hi! There are definitely things I do, but it’s a constant maintenance process, so I do have a tendency to sulk and not follow my own advice. I’m fortunate that my housemate/best friend/platonic life partner gets on my case when I start doing that, though, so if you have someone you trust to check in with you it really helps. (Some of the things, like meditation and journalling, might be something you can coordinate with a friend to check in with each other about). I’ve ended up with a bundle of tools which I use to varying degrees, and winter is still rubbish, but it feels a lot more survivable than it used to.

Here are my tips, in order of cost:

1. Have a regular bedtime at a sensible time. Mine is 22:30, although I don’t stick to it perfectly. A really good routine is turning off all screens at 10, getting ready for bed, and reading in bed until no later than 11. I often end up watching TV until 10:30 and then going straight to bed, but I think that’s better than working or messing about online. I think that dark, short days messing with your internal clock is a big part of seasonal depression, so imposing some structure helps.

2. Start and maintain a gratitude or positivity journal. All you need to do every day is make a quick note of things that were positive. (“I went for coffee with Hannah” “My new trousers are super comfy” “I saw a cute bird!”) It takes about five minutes and it really cuts through the bland “everything is awful” mindset that depression tricks you into. Some days it’s harder than others, but I try to write at least three things every day. I currently have this one, but I’ll probably just get a generic mini notebook when I run out of pages.

3. Practice mindfulness meditation. I started this for anxiety, but if you consistently practice (that’s really important) meditating gives you a lot more control over any kind of overwhelming feeling or emotion. Again, this is something I am bad at doing myself, but if you can manage to set aside ten minutes three times a week or so, it makes it a lot easier to say “okay, time to move on and think about something else” when you’re really low. I started off using the free trial of the Headspace app (which is a good introduction, but I don’t like the guy’s voice and the subscription is SUPER expensive) and now use the Buddhify app (one-off purchase of about $5). I’ve also heard that Insight Timer (free) is good.

4. Using a daylight lamp consistently is helpful, but it can be a pain in the butt if you don’t already have a morning routine which involves sitting in a specific place (e.g. for breakfast or work) where you can set up the lamp. You have to commit to using it daily, for a decent chunk of time (for me 40 minutes was best). I’m not using mine (FYI: this reasonably inexpensive one) at the moment because I’m responding well to my current medication. If I weren’t so lazy and used the damn thing, I’d probably feel even better. It’s hard to tell the difference from day to day when you’re starting out, but after I’d been using mine regularly I could REALLY tell when I hadn’t used it, so I’ll probably go back to using it for a while when it gets really dark.

4a. Daylight bulbs are a related option which mainly help with motivation and energy levels. I put daylight bulbs in my ceiling light year-round, which makes it feel like it’s brighter outsideand tricks me into thinking the days are a bit longer in winter. Make sure you’ve also got regular bulbs in side lamps in the evening, though, or you won’t feel able to get to sleep.

4b. I have never regretted buying my dawn simulator alarm clock, which I got after two years of wanting one but refusing to spend the money. If you have to get out of bed at a set time every morning they’re fantastic–they’re more a “functioning adult” tool than a mood one, in my experience. But I went from having to use half my day’s spoons to pry myself out of bed whilst wailing to just being a regular grump who hit the snooze button once or twice. I kind of wish I’d shelled out for a slightly fancier one so I could use my own music as a wake-up tone, but it’s fine.

5. Medication and supplements can really help. I know that especially for US peeps this can be a ridiculously expensive proposition, but if your objections are based on the idea that medication will make you numb or dull your creative edge or amounts to some kind of failure, and you haven’t tried antidepressants before, please try to put them aside. [EDIT: For the most part, this attitude is perpetuated by people who have never experienced ongoing mental health issues. A friend pointed out to me that some people DO have bad experiences with antidepressants, and in fairness, my own first experience with citalopram made me feel pretty numb! Those are real experiences. But popular culture seems to run with the “pills turn you into a zombie” narrative when other medications have been hugely helpful to me. I’m really glad I didn’t write off medication as a whole based on that first antidepressant. Based on my own experience, I’d say it’s worth experimenting a little if you have a supportive doctor.]

If you cannot access prescribed medication, or the idea of “chemicals” is too intimidating, consider taking St John’s Wort (I am not a doctor, please do your own research! It did, however, work well for me). It’s a herbal remedy which is the first port of call for patients with depression here in Germany, and it has very few side effects (basically: you absolutely MUST NOT take it alongside other SSRIs, it interferes with hormonal birth control, and can make you more prone to sunburn. Always let a doctor know if they prescribe you medications on top of anything you’re already taking).

I took about 1350mg of the over-the-counter stuff for about five years and while it wasn’t a silver bullet, it REALLY took the edge off of my depression when the health service was failing to give me the support I needed. Here is a Cochrane review of 29 studies of St John’s Wort’s effectiveness. Lack of regulation is a bit of a problem in terms of not knowing the strength of what you’re taking, which is why I ended up taking three of the Boots One-a-Day extra strength tablets daily before it made much of a difference. When I got to Germany, my GP here prescribed me 900mg which was just as effective. But as I said, there are barely any side-effects and you’d have to be taking a lot more than that to overdose.

I also find vitamin D helpful, and while I’m taking vitamin B12 because I think I just have low levels of it it does boost energy levels a lot.

6. I’m aware that this one is very privilege-dependent, but if you can–take a holiday somewhere warmer and sunnier. It might be worth bearing this in mind when planning your annual holidays, if your days off/finances are limited. Don’t feel like you need to hold the trip to “awesome holiday” standards–it’s just about getting some sun on your face. Last year my partner and I picked a location based entirely on the weather report and prices not being insane (we had a holiday booked which was cancelled because the airline went under and had to rebook with three days notice) and had a super chill time in Valencia.

Okay, that got super long–I hope it was helpful! Good luck dealing with winter. I’ve had years where I really wondered how I was going to cope with the misery year on year for the rest of my life, but as my coping tools have fallen into place, it’s become easier and easier.

#thoughtbloom #depression #seasonal affective disorder #glitterary

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slaterslater6-blog · 6 years ago

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Fallout 76 - a Short Overview

What You Should Do About Fallout 76 Beginning in the Next 3 Minutes The truly sad part about it's that story is the main thing Bethesda is notorious for executing successfully on. It's very clear that Bethesda has taken a good deal of respect in making a sympathetic portrayal of the Mountain State, and thank goodness for it. It was facing a crucial moment. There were still several things that Bethesda had promised that it wasn't likely to deliver. Too often at work, employees feel as they haven't any idea where they stand. You will need assistance from dads who have done what it is you are attempting to do. Naturally, there's a process involved with getting past the velvet beta rope. Each time you receive prepared to race you're able to race or chill. Again, you are able to also go right by bringing in new alterations. So it actually helped me relax by channeling my need to be productive into controlling settlements filled with feral ghouls and the like. Whatever keeps players from feeling strong has to be minimized. There is going to be a rare area where the players may discover the rare weapons, gare and some items which will be of aid to the players to attack the enemies and additionally for the survival of the life.

It's possible for you to improve or enhance just about any part of the game it is possible to consider, and fixing bugs, improving the graphics and sounds and adding new content. A whole lot of the time in Fallout 76, you're target the very first section of an enemy that you are able to for the aims of weakening them long enough for you to select a better shot. Alternatively If you aren't to irradiated you can explore a little more and you might not not need to return in any way. You know there's going to be some fantastic loot back there, which usually means you are going to want to work out a means to open them. By watching the prior records only the solo player will have the ability to survive in their very own way buy not based on others. You may also find an in-game character what is apparently wearing a vault jumpsuit. What You Don't Know About Fallout 76 Some individuals have tweeted that you have to order the particular edition of Fallout 76 to find access to the beta, but this doesn't seem to be the circumstance. The exact same thing goes for each enemy in the game. No matter in which you stand with Fallout 76, you must admit that it appears like Bethesda is attempting to do the perfect thing with the game. To figure out where else it's possible to pre-order Fallout 76, Bethesda have produced a web page listing participating retailers where you are able to pre-order the game. It is one of the biggest AAA studios in the world. It introduces a whole range of interesting options for weapon upgrades. As a consequence, it sacrifices its very own internal consistency for the interest of ensuring you never skip a beat on the Whirlwind Wasteland Tour. The video game market is currently a huge aspect in the American economy. Despite the fact that managing the Vault is an important part of the game, the actual challenges arrive in the shape of raiders and creatures from the wasteland that try to infiltrate the Vault. Howard noted that you're going to be in a position to swap out any facet of your character during the course of the game. Movies are special and this is a unique movie. Although your character will get a recipe, you won't actually learn to make the a variety of drinks and meals if you don't go into your menu and read it manually. Since you may see, the game is not actually well-defined. It is completely based on the online. Overall it is pretty easy to get started in, even if you are new to the Fallout series. The developer's room is supposed to be a place beyond the true game that basically has each of the key usable weapons, some NPCs, plenty of gadgets and items you're able to acquire or use, all of the power armor you'll be able to acquire, and more. As usual, in this moment, Fallout 76 gamers will be not able to log into or play the game until server maintenance was completed. The organization states it is going to notify any customers whose messages and photos might have been inadvertently shared. What Is So Fascinating About Fallout 76? The NPC will request money. Fallouts famous Brotherhood of Steel Faction is among the very best, and if you would like to join them, you should finish the Fallout 76 Coming to Fruition quest. Fallout 4 had 5 unique endings. Walker doesn't appear to have any limitations. Repair costs are lowered throughout the board for weapons and armor. In addition, there are 7 limited edition Mojave Landmark Snow Globes hidden in the Earth, with an extra 4 in the event you have all of the add-ons. fallout 76 music

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kraveller · 4 years ago

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Kraveller’s Review: Figure Skating Short Program

Another wonderful women who shows their wonderful skill in the figure skating, they have awed me in their unique performances. To have the access to the clip that I am about the review, the click is this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEtYYtwX1sM

Disclaimer: Please note I intend no copyright infringement to the pictures in this blog. The author does not own or claim the pictures found in this blog.

Rink Dimension

The court-like in figure skating is the rectangular rink that has no sharp edges. The measurements in terms of length are usually 60 meters. It must not be less than 56 meters. While thirty meters in width, which should not be less than 26 meters. The edges have 8.5 meters radius. And the total area of the rink is 1738 meters squared. For more understanding of the rink dimension, the picture is below.

Equipment

A skater can use much equipment in this sport, but the following are the needed equipment that a skater should have to execute this sport.

Ice skates

The first thing you should have is the ice skates for you to go to the rink. Choosing the best ice skate is relevant for the performer's comfort to have no problem executing the performance.

Costume

This can be unique I every competitor, they may connect it their music or emotions on the song, and can even use it for their presentation just like what Alina Zagitova did, if you didn’t notice in the video, try to watch it again. The only thing that a skater should remember in choosing a costume, it should be something that doesn’t fall to the ground because it can cost a 0.5 deduction in the score.

Socks

Socks, which can’t be really be seen in the video since they are underneath the ice skates. The skaters use it to avoid having a cold feet, but it can affect their presentation since socks causes friction. It’s advisable to use thin socks to still have a control on their presentation and in the same time don’t have a cold feet.

Skate guards

In the video, if you have noticed, after they present and go outside the rink they directly grab the skate guards. It is important because once you use it outside the rink, you will not be able to use it anymore. The skate is only exclusive within the ice.

Basic Skills

Unlike most sports, these basic skills can be used in other sports such as hockey and speedskating. The following basic skills are from the Go Figure Skating website.

Steps

The figure skating steps should be executed based on the music's message or what the performer wants the audience and judges to understand the music. The only need on the step is for the performer to use the entire rink.

Spins

The spin is one of the sensational thing that a skater can do, especially if well executed and is connected with the song. There is one of the skaters in the performance wherein she used a very sad song and as she did the spin, she made it look like she is deeply saddened which makes it very wonderful. Not only well executed and connected to the song, but if it is done fast because of how clean and graceful the performer is in the audience’s eyes. There are three spins that are needed to be executed, the camel, sit and upright.

Jumps

This is similar to the spin but is executed in the air, a lot of skaters find this hard to do or earn a deduction on the score after doing this. Maintaining balance and using strength in landing is important in executing this, which makes it different to women who petite or small. This is very hard that’s why the International Judging System made this contain a big score in the criteria, especially in the triple and quadrupole jumps. There are skaters who have good tactics, they have failed some of the elements in the criteria, so they execute these jumps perfectly that makes them still attain a good score. The jump sequences required in this are two, first can be any type of jump after that is an axel jump.

Turns

When you read it, you find it easy but it is not that easy. There are many types of turns that can help a player a lot in his/her performance, it actually helps in the advance part of the figure skating. There may be basic turns, there are also difficult turns. What turn is really essential in this sport is that it aids in jumping, like it gives time for the skater to regain more strength such as in the three turn or mohawk.

Spirals

These are the ones that can usually be seen in the last part of the performance, it is the one wherein the one leg glides up in the air. Before executing this, the skater is thought a ballet position which is the arabesque, the leg is able to reach the waist height afterwards the catch foot wherein the leg goes above the head height. If one does changes in the edges, it will receive more points which only some of the participants have done, can be seen in the next part of this blog.

Technical and Tactical Skills

1. Bradie Tennell (USA)

In the first part, it immensely scared me that she might have a low score since she used a fast song. Once a person uses a quick piece, the person will feel pressure because of the beat, but she proved me wrong in my thoughts. Her basic skill is level 4. For someone who ages 20 years old, this one is pretty huge given the age. Speaking about her basic skills, her turns were executed neatly. It felt like she was like a wind, that flawless. The steps, spins, jumps, and her movement as well. But she had a problem doing a spiral, and she fell because of the footwork.

The movements she has shown on her performance have shown how she is knowledgeable in the basic skills, knowing what they are, and how they are executed. The performance she showed was not perfect, but she gave her best. She is a performer that really used her height to her advantage; since her jumps were good and the landing, there was a mistake because she made a mistake on her footwork that made her lose balance in making the triple toe. But everything else were perfectly executed. The triple toe is understandable since this basic skill that needs to be executed is difficult to execute, executing this requires great strength and body control. According to my research, only 11 women have successfully executed this in competitions, and in the same time this affects a lot on one’s score.

2. Isadora Williams (Brazil)

The choice of the song is matched with the emotion of the performer and costume. From the first until the end of her performance, she has not made my eyes look away from her marvelous performance. If you have noticed on the way she performed, she poured her emotions into the song that it made her connect to the audience. In the same time, even she has poured her emotions into the song, she did not forget to make a wonderful execution of the things. The transition was neat, it seemed like a storybook, the audience throughout were captivated. She did make a mistake such as the lay back spin, she needs to be more flexible. The emcees stated that the height does help a person to execute this, but in my perspective, it is not the height alone but also the flexibility of the person. There were even some competitors in the competition which were small yet their spin was wonderfully executed.

As you look into her performance, she had problems on her turns and spins. Even the emcees have saw her tactical, for her to be safe was to make it slow, especially after her mistake in the lay back spin.

3. Anna Khnychenkova (Ukraine)

This one has a performance which the performer was not able to give her best. The emcees had said her performances in the previous competitions, which were all impressive. The author of this blog alone, looking at them and I can say that it is indeed spectacular to even be able to join a lot of competitions alone, how much win. Rudeness is what I refuse to be seen in the manner I will be writing my thoughts about her performance since I know that this sport is difficult to do in the first place. She knows how to execute the basic skills but was not able to have the consistency of it. The choice she had in her music had affected her entire performance, since her song is fast it pressured her throughout her performance. With her basic skills, it has affected her planning of her tactical skills because her mistakes were like the domino effect, they were happening after another. She has a lot to improve, especially her confidence in what she is doing. There were a lot of times in her performance that she didn’t trust the things she was doing in the rink.

4. Diana Nikitina (Latin)

Before anything else, it amazes me that there are a lot of young people in this event. I have personally expected people who are older to join this kind of competition. Back to Nikitina, her performance was not that clean, well she has a lot of room for improvement. Her choreography was nice, but the execution of it was not the judges were looking for in the criteria. The basic skills such as turns, steps, spins, jumps, spirals and moves were executed, but there was no consistency of the proper execution of these basic skills. Such as the spin, she didn’t trip but her spin was under rotated which also mean that her spin was not properly executed. And her tactic was to dance with the beat as she performs, and every time she is thinking about her next move she jumps. In her performance, there was a frequent jumping happening.

5. Kim Hanul (South Korea)

This is the participant who have shown the audience that height is never a hindrance for one to give a lovely performance, she has showed her flexibility throughout her performance. Regarding her basic skills, she was also to execute everything but she also had problem regarding the consistency. Actually, the only basic skill that she was not able to do that well was the spin. Just like Isadora Williams, she was enjoying herself perform in the rink and vibe with the song to make the audience connect into her performance. Which can affect the score of the person since the jumps should be based off on the rhythm, the take-offs and landing do matter in this. Her footwork has also influenced her performance, she might not have fell down but the judges have looked into her footwork before doing the given actions that are included in the criteria. One of the favorite tactical skill that she has shown was her using the area in the rink, she made a good use for her to wonderfully express her emotions into her performance.

6. Anita Oestlund (Sweden)

The song she chose fits her costume, she looked daring which I really thought that she will beat Bradie Tennel, the first one in the chart as she performed. Before her downfall and the tactic, she had that I loved the most, let’s go through the basic skills that she has shown to the audience. She actually did the turns, steps, spins, jumps, spirals and moves but are not able to give the proper justification of theses steps or like give emphasis to it. In watching the video, you get to be like having the eyes of the judges as well, this sport is not only looking at if the person have done the basic skills but also if it looks so clean like it’s pleasing to the eye. This sport is like an art, which the basic skills are part of the canvas that should be given emphasis.

Proceeding to what really caused a downfall on her performance was her missing the triple toe which is the one that can affect the score that much. She did made a mistake in doing the triple toe without getting herself be confident in the rink. If you look into the video closely, when she first entered, she looked confident but her breathing says otherwise. She had missed the triple toe because she did not trust herself to be able to do it, she had second thoughts. But what I loved about her tactic was she became more confident and daring like after the mistake she had made. She made a mistake and directly made a mental note in mind to not do it again and made her performance much better. Certainly missing one has affected her score that much, but her coping mechanism is very much commendable.

7. Li Xiangning (China)

Before commenting about her great tactics, the author of the blog is astonished that despite their young age (we have the same age), they have done something so wonderful in life like joining this kind of competition. Going to the basic skills, she actually have done everything but the execution was not perfectly made such as the spin, there was a slight of awkwardness as she executed it. There were parts that the execution were not perfectly made but the choreography was actually wonderful. The tactics that I recommend on this wonderful woman was to think carefully on her next moves, especially the one that a lot have a problem to execute like the triple toe, since this is the most difficult. She carefully considered the footwork too since it affects the other movement she will execute in her performance, intelligent woman indeed.

8. Alexia Paganini (Switzerland)

The starting of her performance, the vibes it gets to the audience is impactful, especially the song with her outfit that is similar with Juliet. An astonishing performance made by the youngest competitor of this program. Speaking about her basic skills, it was very fantastic in the first part of the presentation, but just like the other performers they also lacked the consistency. As she did the spins, she tripped which did made the judges give her minus points. But on her technical, she actually did think thoroughly about the next actions that she will do next which is remarkable. Carefully thinking about the next movement is essential because slight error of this can place big change on one’s score.

9. Aiza Mambekova (Kazakhstan)

Her confidence as she entered the rink is visible, but her confidence did outshine her memory on the next moves. She was able to do the basic skills in the first part of the performance, but after she made a mistake, just like the domino effect, everything fell. After the mistake, she made low jumps and under rotated spins. The energy she had in the first part of the presentation was wasted if you ask me, because everything fell apart just because of one mistake.

Her tactical skills is personally not that commendable because once she made one mistake, she did get it into her head until she was not able to execute the other movements properly.

10. Emmi Peltonen (Finland)

Another confident and classy woman who had made a high quality of triple toe, which is difficult to attain by many in this competition. Before criticizing her technical and tactical skills, I would like to commend her song choice it helped her a lot in thinking on the next move, the transition was smooth despite the fact that she made a mistake. Going to her technical skills, the first part which is the triple toe is remarkable. She had a good tactical on doing this because she made sure to do it slowly to have it done marvelously. The other basic skills, she was able to execute but not perfectly. Usually, the women in this competition actually has made a mistake in their footwork, but with her it’s more on the strength. Probably because of the chills she earned because of this competition, she was not able to eat well. My commendable tactic she should have next time is to eat well, it really provide a suffice energy.

11. Larkyn Austman (Canada)

Being nervous in the Olympics is normal since you are fighting over the top with different marvelous ladies who are also good in that sport in different parts of the world, but playing everything easily so that there will be no deductions is sometimes dangerous. In her performance, she can execute the basic skills but she has the hesitation in what she is doing in the rink. With this hesitation that she has, it is stopping her from executing the movements perfectly, it’s like an acid damaging her performance slowly. The main cause of her performance to downfall is her no confidence on herself, which made her lose her balance and forget the proper footwork that a skater should do before executing something like the triple toe and others. She needs work on her confidence in the rink and feel like she owns it since the rink is hers alone to enjoy.

12. Mae Berenice Meite (France)

Height is an advantage in this kind of sport since it helps one for jumping because of the enormous strength stored in the legs. The execution of the basic skills was actually marvelous, but she needs to choose a song next time that she can express herself more than just turning around which is in her freestyle. If you have noticed in her board, almost everything were green, but in terms of freestyle it seems like the skater was just vibing with the song. Well, it’s good that one is enjoying the song but the choreography should also be considered. Overall, she enjoyed her performance but the choreography is not commendable. But it’s good that she is very good in the doing the basic skills, she has a lot of opportunities for her to become more better in this sport.

13. Kailani Crane (Australia)

The performance was like a musical, but there is only one performer. She actually has chosen a good song for her, but the audience were not captivated enough on the song because not a lot of people watched Mary Poppins nor their songs are that known by a lot of people. Personally if you ask me, that’s the only thing she is missing that made her score not that big which I thought it will be since the execution of the basic skills as well as her tactics such as the foot working plan before doing an element is very commendable. What also is a wonderful in her performance was her expression, she really expressed what the song wants to express. Sadly, not much people got connected with the song since it is not that known.

14. Ivett Toth (Hungary)

This contestant is really shocking, usually the skaters use soothing songs, but she used a rock song. Her costume did suit the song, it’s like she’s having her own rock concert in the rink. Now, let’s proceed to the basic skills, she actually have done everything but consistency is also not present. Just like the other performers, she also was not able to balance herself from the triple loots and other jump. Since her song is rock, she finds it difficult to show her expression on the song. A bit more of practicing her footwork after jumping and a song where she can express herself a bit more.

15. Giada Russo (Italy)

Another marvelous woman who wants to make the games turn round and be considered unique from the other participants which I greatly am in awe with her presentation, especially in the first part. Her tactic is to become unique, the last part of her presentation is very wonderful that it made my eyes stick into the screen. Let’s admit that her tactical skills are good, but the elements required were not executed since she forgot to execute it. She forgot to execute the combination of the triple toe, and missed another element. It was maybe because of her past mistake which was the triple toe, but after a while she didn’t let it faze her anymore and enjoyed her performance.

16. Loena Hendrickx (Belgium)

Just like Giada earlier, she also wanted to be unique, but she forgot to remember that the footwork and other basics are given importance in this sport or perfection on those, and confidence on oneself to be able to execute is important. It’s great to focus into perfection, but one should also look into the fundamentals. During her execution in the triple toe, she only earned the yellow mark because she almost fell since the footwork that she decided to use is risky for one to fall. After that she failed to execute the double spin because she hesitated, the cause of this can be her almost fall in the first part of her performance. She can be a very good skater in the future once she gets to have the feeling like she owns the rink to gain confidence and be able to connect with the audience, and her footwork should be focused.

17. Nicole Schott (Germany)

Honestly, I love her music choice and her performance overall. There might be problems regarding her footwork because she almost fell in executing the jump. After all, she did it near the wall, so she limited her movement. Her mistakes were covered by her giving details or emphasis on the dance using her hands and expression, and it made the audience be somewhat connected to her. Her tactic is to give meaning to the song or give emphasis on it, which makes her remarkable. After her performance, she became the 2nd in the chart after America, in her time of execution. Overall, she just needs more work on the footwork and planning on when to execute the following elements needed to be executed in this sport.

18. Nicole Rajicova (Slovakia)

Before anything else, the more and more skaters that have performed the more my expectations with them. The longer I watched, the more wonderful the skaters are in this show, and it has indeed making me love this clip. Let’s proceed to Nicole, she has impressed me because of the wonderful execution since she used her music as a guide for her performance. The transition of her performance is clean, her jumps were big. Well, just like the other performers she has also a problem in the triple toe. She executed it near the boundery of the rink which made her limit her movement just like the other skater earlier. Her basic skills were lovely, but her freestyle was not much an enjoyment of the audience. She has gotten knowledge of the elements, she just needs more movement to emphasize her movements and connect to the audience. Connecting to the audience is also important in this sport, she may use hand movements or face expression, it’s not only focus on the enjoyment of the performer of the song or the performance itself.

19. Kaori Sakamoto (Japan)

This one has almost reached the level of perfection and during the duration of her performance I was in awe. The jumps, triple axel, camel, and other elements were well executed, she made it seems so effortless. She chose a wonderful song which people has different ways of expressing and she has shown her interpretation of the song just from her costume, expression and dance itself. The others doesn’t really correlate the dance to the song, but she has done it wonderfully. The only thing that she needs to work into is the audience impact, maybe because of the different interpretation of the song, but her performance overall is wonderful. Shocking from a 17 years old, she has made a wonderful road of her career in skating and I am sure that I can see more of her in the future.

20. Mirai Nagasu (USA)

When she entered the rink, we can see the muscle tapes In her back and thighs, she may have an injury that made her muscles not be able to balance her for a jump in this performance. Throughout her performance, despite her muscle problems she made sure to make it sensational. There is a time that she fell in the triple toe, since she made a mistake in her footwork so totally missed the triple axel. But what I love about her is that after she made a mistake, it didn’t faze her. She smiled even with it, she made her mistake a ground for her to make her performance better which did improve. Her transition and flow looked like effortless after that, and she regained her body control.

21. Gabrielle Daleman (Canada)

Another wonderful performance especially in the freestyle, she had used her music effectively for the steps in her dance. A very good tactic that she has used is that she made her music connect to her emotions as well that made her performance wonderful. Just like the other performers, she also has problem regarding her footwork, she fell but stands up again and make her performance better again. In her landing from doing the triple toe, the one which a lot of the women make a mistake of, she fell that greatly affected her score but because she poured her heart into her performance not only did the audience appreciated a lot from her but also the judges did. Her performance has showed that the interpretation or the emotions of the skater does affect the score. The one that she needs to work on is her balance and footwork, these are the common problems that almost all of the performers have.

22. Karen Chen (USA)

Just like Gabriella, she has connected her dance to the song which makes it magnificent. Her choreography is very good but the execution is not that good. She doesn’t have a really balance and the speed has slowed down which needs to have a consistency. As she did the camel, her speed has slowed down that much. What I actually love about her tactic was to do a double jump and other plus points movements for her to gain more points despite her errors, she really is a wise woman. Not only that, she also performed sparrow that gives goosebumps to the crowd since she did it with the song’s beat, wonderful indeed. Overall, she needs to work on the consistency of her movement such as the speed and her balance should be coordinated on her body like what Kaori has shown.

23. Elizabet Tursynbaeva (Kazakhstan)

There are few women in this competition who have used a fast-paced song that did affect their performance either good or bad, but a lot has contributed them badly. The pressure being under the watch of a humongous crowd then the pressurized song can really affect the performance and one of which is Tursynbaeva. In the start of her performance, she missed the triple toe which has the highest score in the technical score. Since her song is fast-paced, her thoughts on her footwork was lost because of the other thoughts. Not only that, but it has also affected her strength. The tactic she should have next time is to deal with her performance despite the pressure and the song choice not only because it’s famous and the crowd loves it, but she should also look into her comfort.

24. Dabin Choi (South Korea)

This one from her outfit to the song, it looks like she is fragile because of it. Looking at her, it seems scary if she falls or fails to do something because she looks like a jar or someone who should be looked after. All through her performance as I carefully watch it, she made it look like the flow of water, transition is neat and effortless movements. There is a bit of a problem regarding the footwork, and in the emotions because there were parts she was smiling then sad. She was able to express her interpretation in the dance, but she was not able to show it in terms of her expression in her face that broke me out from feeling her performance. Honestly, it was wonderful just the emotions needed.

25. Evgenia Medvedeva (Russia)

During her performance, the audience neither did the emcees had any comment nor talked. She did the elements so clean and natural; the balance and speed were present. The longer the time in this competition, the more wonderful the skaters are in the rink. The choreography is connected to herself, it’s like she’s expressing herself. In the rink she looked like a mature woman, her choreography to expression to costume were wonderfully planned to form a whole level of performance. The timing of the beat of the song, fits on her choreography. The interpretation she has of the song did not show that clearly but her presentation is wonderful. These women in the rink are wonderful, and I have lost my words with these amazing performances.

26. Satoko Miyahara (Japan)

Since the previous skaters have done a splendid performance, the bars set are that high. And Satoko did not disappoint, she did execute short jump which is the only mistake that she have done in the duration of her performance, but she did a wonderful presentation because she made the flow like a story. The seven elements that are needed to be performed was connected for a wonderful delivery of a story. Her balance and speed are very good, she just lacks more strength for her delivery on her presentation. Not only in the jumping, but also for the other elements.

27. Kaetlyn Osmond (Canada)

Just like the other ones, she also had the perfected balance and speed throughout her performance. What amazes me is that the last performers, the ones in the group 5 really did a good job in doing the triple axel which a lot of woman failed to do. They made it look so smooth or easy to do even it really isn’t, well if you are a beginner. Her performance is extraordinary, she did really show her personality for people to be connected to her performance. It gave the feeling of Europe restaurant, it’s like the language was shown in her dance which makes it marvelous. The jumps were wonderful also since they were big, there were parts she needs to look into her footwork, but overall I loved it.

28. Alina Zagitova (Russia)

Russia are filled with wonderful skaters, and this one is their best as they have said in the comment section of the video in Youtube. Before watching the video, I have read the comment section to know who to anticipate and she did not disappoint me. First off is the costume, if you haven’t noticed she rolled her sleeves to transform the white swan into a black swan as her song changed transition, the song she has used is a mix of two wonderful famous songs. Second is how daring her movements are, usually the presenters are playing the safe game, but she did not follow that. She did not do the elements directly, she made sure that she tells a story. Not only that, when she did the third to the last element, she did it after one another which is difficult but she did it, looking so effortless. She even executed the ones that can add up to her score, her movement made the story she want to express to other people go to them. Third, the emotions, it was all there, from the face, hand movements to the choreography. And lastly, all the basic skills of the skate have moved in harmony which makes her performance deserving to earn the gold medal.

29. Carolina Kostner (Italy)

Just like the other performers, she also had problems in doing the triple loop. Despite her mistake, she still continued to show her emotions as she presented, the interpretation of the song is really shown in the choreography and in the facial expression of the presenter. Also similar to the other skaters, she also needs work on her balance and strength, in landing she really needs this since she has problems regarding it. The thing in this sport, perfection is needed, but even her elements were not perfectly in green, she did her best to give emphasis on her emotions to the song which is very good.

30. Maria Sotskova (Russia)

The last performer wherein the expectation are placed into, not because she is the last one to present but also she is a Russian. A lot of Russians in this event have marvelously performed with their best such as Alina Zagitova, this is why the presentation of Maria had a lot of mistakes. She might have been buried with thoughts about it, and additionally her song is fast that makes it not help her calm down as she perform. In the start of her performance, she did the triple loop which was a fail because of her hand which cause her lose balance. There were a lot of factors that made her make mistakes during her performance, but the important thing is that she is one of the skaters that can make it to the full program. The speed is also a problem of hers, since when she did the camel, it was very slow which didn’t go with the beat of the song. We really couldn’t blame her because of a lot of pressure, but I know for sure she performed very well if without the pressure.

These women have done a job well done, even the mistakes one should always rise up again and make the performance better than the past. Hands up with these wonderful women.

Rules of the Game

There are different rules in figure skating, since this is for singles, there is a different rule for this game. Let’s talk about the Level 1 Freeskate program which is used in this game, the rules are from the Olympics.

1. The skater can start his or her performance in any part of the rink.

2. The judging and timing of the performance starts as the songs starts. The song chosen by the skater can be music, instrumental or vocal.

3. If a required element is not done by the performer and does additional elements or other elements that are not intended to be included, the box of the required element is still blocked or the skater will not receive points on the required element.

4. If the presenter does an unlisted element and makes a mistake, it does not affect his/her score in the overall presentation.

5. The following should be seen in the performance: double axel Paulsen, double or triple loop jump, jump combination that may consist of two double jumps or one double and one triple jump or two triple jumps, flying sit spin, lay back or sideways leaning spin or camel spin without change of foot, spin combination with one change foot and step sequence wherein the performer uses the rink effectively.

6. Every fall of the presenter, costume and music failure has 0.5 deduction.

How to officiate the sport

Referee

The referee is the one who makes sure that the rules are applied throughout the performance. The referee is also the one who approves the medical things with the medical advisor in case of emergency in the competition. The referee also makes sure that the judges are not talking with each other, bring notes together with them, look at the scores of the other judges and like since he is the spokesperson of the Officials. Reminds the judges regarding the rules before the event starts. Has the power to stop the performance or to delay or to restart, and to rule over the decision if the ice is eligible to be performed on. There are a lot of responsibilities that a referee has, he or she can interfere on the decision and actions of the other officiates of the sport and the whole event.

Judges

The judges are not allowed to talk to each other regarding the performance of a competitor nor show expression because of an error that a performer has made. There should be no communications within them. Also, there should be no prepared marks. Deductions are made when the judges as well as the referee has made a meeting, there will be no deductions made if there is split vote.

Technical Controller

The technical controller is the one who has the power and authority to correct the illegal elements or movements or the deletion of elements. The one that supervises the Technical specialists and Data Operator on their works and decisions. Attends the practice session before the competition for the preparations and assists the referee in the Round Table Discussion where the judges are present.

Technical Specialist

The technical specialist is the one who looks into the performed elements, illegal elements, falls, level of difficulty of the elements and deletes the additional elements.

Assistant Technical Specialist

Same responsibilities with the technical specialist since she or her makes decisions with the technical specialist.

Data Operator

The data operator is the one who inputs the elements seen the performance, levels of difficulty of them and the one that corrects it in the direction of the technical controller. The data operator is the one that sends the additional elements to the technical specialist and technical controller through the computer.

Replay Operator

The one that makes a record of each element that the presenter has performed for the reference of the Technical Panel, Referee and Judges.

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